Tonight, I'd like to focus again on how
we talk with God, because the theme is,
get connected.
And tomorrow night, we'll talk about how we
hear the voice of God, and how we
differentiate different voices that we can hear.
But, you see, as we talk about cross,
resurrection, the life of Christ, and the relationship,
we must also talk about, how can we
live it out?
How is the life of a Christian experienced
in our everyday life?
You see, I can make a statement, for
example, which is true, when I tell you,
I love my wife, Hannah-Lauren.
It's a true statement.
But, you see, if I don't exercise that
statement in everyday life, it is a useless
statement.
And we, as Christians, sometimes, I believe, run
in danger that we sing, or we pray,
we love you, Lord, but if we don't
live it out in everyday life, it's a
totally meaningless statement.
So, how do we live it out?
How do I love the Lord, and how
do I receive His love?
It is an interesting observation that God, from
the beginning, used words in order to reveal
Himself to mankind.
In John chapter 1, verse 1, we read,
the well-known verse, John 1, 1, in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word
was with God, and the Word was God.
Of course, pointing to the living Word, Jesus
Christ.
In Genesis chapter 1, verse 1, we read,
in the beginning God created, and then it
says, And God said, He spoke, let there
be light, and there was light.
From the beginning, God spoke, He used words
to fling the stars into space and to
create.
This is why it's my strong conviction that
language, communication, is a spiritual gift from God,
and we should use it as such.
I wasn't aware of that, really.
Actually, speaking is something very sacred, because this
is the way how God communicates with us,
and how we communicate with each other.
In fact, without words, it's impossible to fully
express our lives, even our deepest emotions that
we have long to be expressed with words.
It is my privilege, sometimes it's not great
fun, but to sit around airports and train
stations, traveling, but I'm sure because people don't
know me, and so you sit there, and
behind you, somebody, you know, picks up his
cell phone, and you know after 30 seconds
what's going on there, because the way he
acts, the way he speaks, you know he's
in love, and you know that because they
talk a lot about nothing.
It's the thing, there is not really a
content.
It's not even funny, I think, but he
always laughs, but you know what, this talk
with his beloved one is incredibly important, because
they share their lives.
They don't inform each other, they just share
their lives.
That's what they do, if you're in love.
Now, my question is this, we profess that
Jesus Christ is number one in our life,
don't we?
That we love Him, we're just saying it.
Well, how are we doing?
Are we sharing just our lives with Him,
like we do with a beloved one?
If He is the beloved one, how come
it is so hard to just talk with
Him like we talk with a beloved person?
One thing, one question, the most, the question
I get most often of Christians all around
the world is this, what does God want
to do with my life?
And the second question that people ask me
all the time, not just me, any pastor,
preacher that deals with people is, they say,
Hans-Peter, I have tried everything, but I
cannot feel and I cannot experience God.
My prayer only goes to the ceiling and
then it comes back.
And in this resignation, Christians gradually stop talking
to God altogether.
I wonder if in this room, there is
a number of Christians and you've just given
up on prayer, because it just doesn't work.
There's nothing you feel, there's nothing you experience,
and some even turn their back to God
because they think, this is not for me.
There's a country song, by the way, if
you didn't know country, music is the best,
apart from you, of course.
I like country song, you know, you don't
need to think much, just enjoy it.
But there is one song which goes, how
can it be wrong if it feels so
right?
I don't know if you know that song,
it's a good one.
But you know, in regards to prayer, I
would say, how can it be right if
it feels so wrong?
Now, every Christian, without exception, knows that it's
right to pray.
The Bible is full of that.
Well, if it is right, why does it
feel so wrong?
Why do we experience so little?
Now, if Christians came up to me and
said this, one quick answer that I gave
them is, you know what, it doesn't matter
whether you feel anything, important is what you
know.
I myself have given that answer quite often.
Telling people, it doesn't matter whether you feel,
whether you have any emotions, you know God
is listening and that is enough.
You know, Paul always said, for we know,
he knew everything.
And he always said, don't you know?
So he expected we don't know anything.
But the answer is not completely wrong, but
it's certainly one-sided.
Because you see, I do have feelings.
Even though I'm an Austrian and they're pretty
stiff, but I do have them.
And if we claim that Christian life is
a love relationship, don't we?
Christian life is a love relationship, right?
Isn't it strange if in a love relationship
there are no feelings involved at all?
I would say that's a strange love affair.
I don't know, I know one couple, by
the way, they got married, they couldn't stand
each other, but they thought it's right, so
they did.
But I'm glad I didn't.
I think for a love affair that is
real, there should be at least some feelings
involved for the other person.
See, today we talk a lot about the
IQ, that's a big issue, how smart we
are or how smart we are not.
But we do hear relatively little about the
EQ, the emotional quotient.
But actually, the emotional quotient can be a
better indicator about a man's wisdom than his
IQ.
Because a highly intelligent man or woman who
has a very poor emotional life may not
be very wise in his whole being.
You see, our emotions are real and God
is interested in them because he has given
them to us.
And we are shocked if a person loses
its emotions for whatever reason.
I often quote the story about the 18
-year-old Melissa Drexler.
Melissa Drexler, sorry.
But she was at a party and she
was dancing on the party and then she
excused herself and she left the dance floor
and nobody knew where she was going.
And she came back about half an hour
later, went to the music group and asked
for her favorite song and then she kept
on dancing.
And nobody in the room was aware that
in this time she went to the bathroom,
she delivered her baby, she put it in
a plastic bag and threw it in the
garbage can where it of course suffocated.
And then she went back and asked for
her favorite song.
Psychiatrists describe such a woman as someone who
has amputated her feelings from reality and society
is shocked.
But do you know what?
In Austria at least, I can't speak for
here, this is how some Christians seem to
live.
They have amputated their feelings from reality.
It's just knowing.
We call it beatismus.
Now, what a wonderful thing God has given
us the capacity to feel, to have pain,
joy, sorrow and fun.
You see, purely intellectually, of course, computers nowadays
are far smarter than the most clever man.
And yet, if you lose a chess game
with a computer, you don't invite him for
coffee.
And if you do, he won't appreciate it
unless you told him to tell you, I
appreciate it.
But you don't fall in love with him
because you don't do that with a computer.
Having said this, I want to point out
one thing.
In today's Christianity, and I have a privilege
to see a wide spectrum of churches, in
some circles the pendulum has swung from knowledge
only over to feeling, experience only.
The knowledge of the truth of the scripture
has become irrelevant.
Important is only what you feel and what
you experience.
Well, let me tell you something, that will
leave you even more frustrated than only knowledge.
And we see it, how it's going.
Just one example, so that you know, it's
two years ago now, I spoke in England,
in a church up north in Carlisle.
Peter Maiden, actually, he will come here.
He's a friend of Charles as well, the
next month sometime.
He's in that church.
And after the church service, a guy came
up to me, his name is Daniel, and
he said he would like to talk with
me.
So I said, a little later, then I
had to do something, so I went to
him.
And I went to Daniel and said, so
how can I help you?
And he looked at me and said, just
be yourself.
So I thought, well, that's what I usually
am.
So I sat down and I said, do
you want to talk?
And he said, after a while, he said,
yes, I want to tell you, I met
an angel.
I said, well, why not?
You know, that's great.
Then he said, then I got married to
that angel.
And now the angel is pregnant.
I said, well, probably it's a woman.
And I asked him then, I said, Daniel,
how long have you been married to this
woman?
And he said, well, we never got married,
but we are married in spirit.
And she's living now in Pennsylvania.
And I said, well, Daniel, why don't you
go to Pennsylvania?
I mean, she's pregnant.
You're the father of this child.
Perhaps she needs your help and support.
Wouldn't that be a good idea?
And he said, well, I want to do
that.
But before I do so, I need to
get rid of garbage.
And I need to get rid of knowledge.
I have too much knowledge.
And I said, well, what do you mean
by that?
He said, well, my knowledge hinders me to
experience the unconditional love of Yahweh.
And I need to get rid of that
in order to love everybody unconditionally.
So I said to Daniel, Daniel, I appreciate
that.
But let me tell you that knowledge is
not only bad.
I said, for example, I live in the
Alps.
And we have some cliffs that are very
high.
They're 3,000 feet high.
Now, when my children go to that cliff,
I know if my child goes one step
further, it might fall down and it'd certainly
be dead.
Now, my knowledge, because I have a knowledge
of that, I will scream and say, go
back!
Or I will jump there and pull it
back.
So my knowledge has actually saved the life
of my child.
Then he said, well, that's wrong.
Because if God is leading a child to
a cliff, God will take care of that
child.
And I robbed the child to have an
experience with God.
You see?
But this is how, this is, of course,
an extreme case.
But you know what I mean?
It's something, in some circles, it's, well, it's,
we need to experience.
And don't care about knowledge.
This is wrong.
It will leave us even more frustrated than
the other thing.
Now, how can we live a fulfilled prayer
life in Christ without amputating our feelings on
one side and not being hijacked on our
emotions on the other side?
For some, like in my country, prayer is
something very emotionless and very sterile.
You know, in the most churches I preach
in, I mean, you're great.
You respond.
I mean, you say something.
Or in Austria, I'll show you how it
works.
If somebody really agrees with what you say,
he will sit there and he will do
this.
This is already very great excitement.
Now, if he hears the best sermon of
his life ever, if he does this, that's
ecstasy.
Now, that's the churches that I live in.
I've been in other churches where I roll
around and bark, and I wasn't sure if
that's the alternative to my question.
Now, I believe that neither of those extremes
really have much to do with a loving,
intimate communication with God.
Why is it that we're either totally sterile
or we go crazy?
Why can't we have a healthy, intimate, loving
relationship with the one we appreciate the most?
I want to confront this problem by looking
at three languages that we humans speak.
A book of Eugene Peterson, whom I highly
appreciate, by the way, has helped me there.
He says this.
He says, one language, the first language that
any person speaks, like a little baby in
the cradle, it's called the language of relationship
and intimacy.
It's the first language a baby speaks.
It's not a written language, it's baby talk.
It's not an intelligent language.
It's the language between the father and the
baby.
It's very poor in content, but it is
very rich in meaning.
Now, I remember before I had children, I
looked at some guys who otherwise were totally
normal, but when they spoke with their babies,
they said, ah, ta-ta-ta-ta-ta,
you know, they do these things.
And I thought, why doesn't he just talk
normal?
But then I had my first child, and
I did it.
And it's very poor in content, but it's
the language that develops trust between the father
and the baby, the language of intimacy.
First, the second language that a baby learns,
rather quick, it doesn't take long, it's the
so-called language of information.
At the latest in the school, of course,
the baby learns that all these wonderful things
have a name.
It's not just meh, it's a sheep.
It's not just moo, it's a cow.
And the relationship between rain and grass and
cow and milk and so on, it learns
those things.
So, it learns how to describe things.
It's also called the language of the school.
Then there's a third language.
It's called the language of motivation.
A little child learns very quick that if
I scream loud enough, I can motivate two
adults doing things that they never planned doing,
because they motivate us.
And a child learns that very quick.
This is also the language of the politicians,
of course.
Of course, it is.
They try to motivate you to vote for
them.
It's the language of advertisement.
That's what they use to motivate us.
And we use it all the time.
The reason why you're here is because of
language number two and three.
You have been informed and somebody motivated you
to come.
We live by these two languages.
Our society is dominated by language number two
and three.
We are very well trained in those.
But here comes the problem.
We have less and less opportunity to speak
language number one in our society in particular.
The language of intimacy and relationship.
There are some short rediscoveries of language number
one.
It's when two teenagers fall in love.
They just talk and I don't know why
or what for, but they talk.
They share their lives.
It's when a man becomes a father, a
woman becomes a mother.
They talk with a baby, language number one.
And by the way, there is one category
of people who speak this language exclusively.
It's mentally handicapped people.
They can only communicate in language number one.
And this is why friends, if we lose
these people, we are a very poor society.
Because they teach us that language.
Another word on that.
A good church is always a church who
has people in it that have not made
it in the world.
A good church is a people that has
simple people, that has people who struggle in
life, people who are handicapped.
Otherwise, I believe it's not a good church.
Because if they cannot come to us, where
should they go?
And we need them desperately.
And here comes the clue.
Prayer, talking to God, is language number one.
I have news.
But when you pray, you do not need
to inform God.
You know why?
He knows more than you.
And the second thing is this.
When you pray, you do not need to
motivate God.
And the reason is, He is a lot
better than you.
What's left?
Language number one.
Do you now understand why we have such
a hard time praying?
Because we have either never learned or we
have unlearned that language.
And it is my strong conviction that if
the task of preaching is to introduce people
to the Lord Jesus Christ, the task of
teaching is to show people how to pray.
We need to learn to talk to God
because this is what He created us for.
For communication, for communion, and for union, to
be one with Him.
That's the purpose why God put us into
this world.
I've learned a lot from my children.
And one time that was particularly interesting, we
had a missionary family coming through.
They stayed with us.
My kids, they speak German and English, but
they also had two kids.
They spoke neither German nor English.
They stayed with us three days.
They were the same age.
They played three days together.
They talked all the time.
They didn't understand a word.
And they left each other as best friends.
And there I thought, the Lord Jesus said,
if you do not become like children, you
will not understand me.
I want to say something personal, but I
hope it's a help.
Hannah-Laura, my wife and I, we didn't
go for holidays for 10 years together because
we had children, you know, three of them.
And ministry and many other things, of course.
And to go, you know, for holidays with
three little children, I mean, that's a mess,
you know.
I mean, if you go just with her,
you know, if you go for the children's
sake, it's great.
But Hannah-Laura and I, just the two
of us together, didn't go for 10 years.
Because, you know, I wouldn't have a problem.
I would have locked them in, but she
didn't want to do that.
So, I had to wait for 10 years.
And it was last fall, a year ago,
so almost two years ago, that for the
first time, just Hannah-Laura and I went
for holidays.
She was at the stage where she said,
okay, I'll do that.
10 days to Spain.
Wonderful.
And we were really looking forward to that.
So, we flew to Spain, and after the
first night, we sat out there in the
sun having breakfast.
Wonderful.
It was great.
And after breakfast, I looked at Hannah-Laura
and said, so, what are we doing now?
And she said, well, what do you want
to do?
We're on holidays.
I said, well, we need to do something.
I mean, I can't look at you the
whole day, not ugly, but that's not a
holiday.
We need to do something.
And you know what?
At home, we never struggled about talking, because
I live in the house where I was
born in.
I know the 2,000 people that live
in my village, all of them by name.
Hannah-Laura just lives about 5 miles.
She was born on a farm.
All our relatives are there.
We have 3 children.
We have a bed and breakfast, which is,
you know, usually busy.
We have a Bible school.
We have students.
We have 20 staff.
We have lots of things.
But you know what?
Now we were in Spain.
No relatives.
No kids.
No stuff.
No minutes.
Just her and me.
And we did not know what to talk.
It was a horrible holiday.
And we had to fight.
It was about 3 days.
It took us about 3 days, particularly me,
that I learned to talk again and to
ask Hannah-Laura, by the way, how are
you doing?
It's a dangerous question.
It takes some time.
If you don't have time, don't ask that.
But you see, and by the way, it
turned out to be our most wonderful holiday.
We had such a good time after that.
But we needed to relearn to talk with
each other.
And you know what?
I experienced exactly the same with the Lord
Jesus.
We need to learn how to talk with
each other.
And actually, the Lord Jesus Himself is the
greatest example, the example par excellence on how
to have an intimate, loving relationship with each
other, because He displayed it the way He
lived with His Father.
The Lord Jesus called His Father, Abba, Daddy,
my dear Daddy.
One day, Jesus left the crowd and He
left His disciples in order to be alone
with His Abba, to talk with Him, to
listen to His Father, to be in His
presence.
By the way, especially for those who are
in ministry, you cannot give enough to people
if you're always surrounded by people.
You must get away.
Otherwise, you have nothing to give.
The Lord Jesus showed it to us.
And He was gone, and the disciples were
looking for Him.
We read that in Luke chapter 11.
And they found Him praying, and they were
astonished when they found Him.
They have never seen a man praying like
Jesus prayed.
We don't know what it was exactly, but
when they saw the way Jesus prayed, they
wanted to pray like He did.
And I went to Jesus and said, Jesus,
teach us to pray.
We want to pray like this.
And at that moment, Jesus revealed to them
the true face of God.
And He said, when you pray, you're supposed
to pray like this.
Our Father, Abba.
To us, these are very familiar words.
Maybe so familiar that they're no longer real.
For the 12 apostles, these words were not
only real, they were revolutionary.
Every prophet, every Old Testament saint were longing
to hear those words, but they did not.
Isaiah, the greatest of the prophets, when he
saw God, he cried out, Holy, Holy, Holy.
But Isaiah never heard what the apostles heard.
Every Old Testament saint, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, you
call them.
Yahweh, the Almighty God was the Holy, Strong,
the Immortal One.
Yes, it was the God of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob.
He was always personal, a kind God.
But no Jew ever dared to pray like
Jesus taught His disciples, My Daddy.
This was probably, Brendan Manning says that.
Brendan Manning says this was probably one of
the most revolutionary revelations that they have ever
heard from the lips of Jesus.
In Romans 8, chapter 15 and 16, Paul
says this.
In Romans chapter 8 and verse 15, we
read this.
For you did not receive a spirit that
makes you a slave again to fear, but
you received the spirit of sonship.
And by him we cry, Abba, Father, Daddy.
For the average Jew this was shocking because
the word Abba was the same Aramaic word
that their own children would use when they
approach their father, Abba.
And Jesus told us that we should approach
the eternal, immortal, almighty God, the King of
Kings, in baby talk.
And with the same intimacy, familiarity, like a
two-year-old baby comes to me.
We can approach God the Father.
Do you come to your Heavenly Father like
that?
You know what I enjoy?
Jesus once said to His disciples, I mean
they were fishermen, full beard.
He said, My dear children, when was the
last time that somebody has called you a
child?
Jesus does, but we want to be adults.
Do you really believe that you are safe
in His arms?
Jesus says that to approach the almighty God
in baby talk, Abba, is the hallmark of
a true believer.
In Isaiah 40, it says in verse 11,
I like this.
He says, He will feed the flock like
a shepherd.
He will gather the lambs with His arms
and carry them in His bosom.
Another man that helped me, now we become
very practical, how to pray, is a man
called Frank Klaubach.
He's not very well known.
He was a pastor and missionary.
He died in 1970.
If you ever get a book from him,
just, I want you to tell you, I
don't agree about with half things he says,
but that doesn't matter.
By the way, never make the mistake to
dismiss a theologian that you don't agree with.
The Lord Jesus says, the Bible says, test
everything and hold on to the good.
And we can learn from everybody.
And he had great insight in prayer.
And he wrote actually a diary in 1930,
because he was totally frustrated in his life
with God.
He didn't know how to pray.
And he wrote a diary, and I just
want to read to you a few portions,
and then we become very practical.
He said this, 20th of January, 1930.
A deep discontentment about two years ago brought
me to the point where I tried every
15 to 30 minutes to bring my will
into conformity with the will of God.
The people I shared this with all told
me that such a thing is impossible.
I conclude, therefore, that not many people have
tried it.
This year now, I will try to listen
to the tender voice of God every moment
and to ask without ceasing, Lord, what do
you want me to say?
Lord, what do you want me to do
this minute?
26th of January, 1930.
In these last days, I have tried to
surrender my life to God more than ever.
Consciously, I take out enough time every hour
to think of God.
Yesterday and today, I tried a new adventure,
which is hard to explain.
I feel God every moment by a conscious
act of my will.
I will that He guides my fingers when
I type on my typing machine.
I will that He directs my steps when
I walk.
I will that He guides my words when
I speak, my chin when I eat.
Probably you have your concerns about such introspection.
Well, don't try it as long as you're
not as frustrated as me in your relationship
with God.
29th of January, I feel like I'm carried
along every single hour.
That I play a role in a plan
that is so far greater than my own
perceptions.
It is a feeling to work together with
God in the smallest details, which overwhelms me.
It looks as if I only need to
do this one thing and God Himself takes
care of the rest.
It is my duty to abide in God
and to react immediately and without question to
God's will.
It seems like this is all I need
to do.
1st of March, 1930, from day to day
I feel like I'm led by an invisible
hand, while another hand reaches forward to prepare
the way.
I don't have to look for opportunities.
It is an act of will to be
led by God.
I force my mind to center on God
and to be open for Him.
I wait and listen to be available for
His move.
I give God my total attention and at
times it takes much willpower to do so.
How practical is this for a normal Christian?
He was a pastor.
They're not normal, apparently.
I think that even a farmer can do
that.
His eyes on the field, his hands on
the reins, and his thoughts with God.
Even the millions in factories could experience wonderful
hours fellowshipping with God.
15th of March, every conscious moment this past
week I looked at Him, with the exception
of maybe one or two hours.
How exceedingly more rich is this longing for
God compared with all the old methods that
I practiced myself and recommended to others, like
the endless reading of devotional books.
And the last one, 22nd of April.
Oh, how wonderful it is to be in
constant contact with God, to make Him the
substance of my thinking, the other person in
all of my talks.
It is the most astonishing thing I ever
experienced and it works.
I have not yet succeeded a half a
day, not yet, but I believe I may
one day.
The whole point is this, to renew our
mind, our thinking all together.
And I'm so excited about the presence of
God that I feel I've lost something very
precious if I don't think of Him for
half an hour or so.
If you are like me, I know exactly
what you think now.
You know what you probably think.
This is extreme, this is exaggerated, this is
unrealistic.
You know why we think that?
Because in our Western Christian world we have
moved so far from a total abandonment to
God that something like this we call immediately
legalistic and unrealistic.
We drift towards compromise and we call it
tolerance.
We drift towards disobedience and we call it
freedom.
And we slide towards prayerlessness and we think
we have escaped legalism.
I practice this since two years.
I have not succeeded one day and I
will do it again tomorrow.
And I enjoy it.
I have a question.
How many of you could run a marathon
right now?
Like 42Ks, you know, I mean it's cold
now, let's suppose it's normal, but we could
run.
How many in this room could run a
42K marathon right now?
Can I see a show of hands?
One back there.
What's your name?
You couldn't.
My wife runs marathons, I can't.
I always run behind her.
But you know what?
Let's assume Charles Price is training us now,
the next two years, to run a marathon.
And we start slowly.
We start with 10 minutes.
We train three times a week.
It's only three times.
We start with 10 minutes, then 20 minutes,
half an hour.
And so we build it up for two
years.
How many of us would run a marathon
if we do that in two years?
I believe it would be many.
Those who are physically healthy, who couldn't do
it, would run it in two years.
Do you know why?
We simply have trained ourselves.
You know what it says in 1 Timothy
4, 7?
Paul says to Timothy, train yourself to be
godly.
If I say to you and me now,
can we live such a, can we run
a marathon?
That's impossible.
That's, that's unrealistic.
That's nonsense.
Well, if we train ourselves, it's not.
How can I train a relationship, talking, learn
to talk with the living God?
It's a training.
We can learn it.
You see, some people say, well, but that's
legalistic, because if I don't talk with him
for three hours, I feel guilty.
That's nonsense.
I don't feel guilty.
But you know what?
I look at my watch and say, oh,
Jesus, we haven't talked for three hours.
Well, we better talk again.
So, and I talk with him already.
Frank Laubach said some interesting things.
He said, for example, try to think of
God one second every minute.
I can't do that, but it challenges me.
Charles Price and I, actually, two years ago,
we spoke in Brisbane at a conference in
Australia, and there's a psychologist who came up
with a new idea.
I heard it there in Brisbane.
Australians, I have the weirdest ideas that I
ever got in Australia.
But it was good.
He said this.
He said, every person thinks 7,000 thoughts
every day.
Now, I have no clue how he figures
that out.
But we think, I know we think many
thoughts every day.
For example, I look at Brian now, over
there.
When I look at Brian, I think something.
I think, oh, he wears glasses, has a
nice tie, and Brian thinks, sounds beautiful, God
is dying.
We always think something when we look at
each other.
You know what?
Why don't we pray when we think of
the other person?
And I enjoy what Frank Laubach said.
He said, I want that for me, looking
at a person is the same as praying
for that person.
Wouldn't it be a great thing?
Let's say the staff here at People's Church.
You walk across each other many times.
You look at the other person.
You think something anyways.
Why don't you just say, Lord, bless him.
You know what?
When you look at me now, you probably
think, I wonder when he stops.
But you know what you could do right
now?
You could pray for me.
Wouldn't be any effort.
And you know what happens when you pray
for somebody else?
It's very hard to think negative about that
person.
You see, this is what I mean living
in union with Christ.
This is what Paul says in 2 Corinthians
chapter 10 and verse 5.
Take every thought captive and bring it in
obedience to Jesus Christ.
I'm writing a book at the moment.
And the title I believe that I give
to this book is this.
When you said amen, keep on talking.
You know why?
We get up in the morning.
We have our quiet time, whatever that is.
We pray and then we say amen.
In other words, so that's it now.
Stop talking.
And then you just go in your life.
And in the evening, just before you go
to bed, you pick it up again and
you talk again.
You know what we need to learn?
After you said amen, just keep on talking
with him.
Amen doesn't mean period.
Amen simply means so it is.
We need to keep talking with our Lord
after the amen.
And so we learn how to live practically
with the Lord Jesus.
You know, what I often do is when
I step in my car, I say, Lord
Jesus, I actually want you to drive the
car.
Here are my hands.
Here are my feet, my eyes.
Go ahead.
Let's drive together to the testimony.
You know what I notice?
And this is really strange.
Whenever I do that, I never break a
speed limit.
It's really funny.
Sometimes I say, Lord Jesus, I need to
take over.
I'm in a hurry.
But otherwise, He doesn't do that.
And it's in those things when we let
Jesus do it, He does it right.
It's not legalism.
It's just His character.
When I say, Lord Jesus, let's talk together
to that person.
If I do that, I don't lie.
Not because I'm so good, because He's not
a liar.
And He lives within us.
We just need to be in communication with
our God.
By the way, do you know how often
Paul in the Bible, in the New Testament,
says that we should pray without ceasing?
20 times.
20 times we read in Paul's letters to
pray without ceasing.
I didn't understand these verses.
It says in 1 Thessalonians 2.13, I'll
just turn there briefly.
1 Thessalonians and chapter 2, I'll just read
a few, 5 or 6.
2.13, and we also thank God continually.
Continually.
It says in chapter 3, verse 10, night
and day we pray most earnestly.
In 1 Thessalonians 5, of course, the classic
passage, be joyful always, pray without ceasing or
pray continually.
2 Thessalonians 1.11, we constantly pray for
you.
Romans chapter 1, verse 10 says, in my
prayers at all times, we always remember you.
It says in Ephesians 6.18, pray in
the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds
of prayers and requests.
With this in mind, be alert and always
keep on praying for all the saints.
20 passages to pray day and night.
The Lord Jesus, by the way, said in
Luke 18, Luke 18, verses 1 to 7,
Jesus says, then Jesus told his disciples a
parable to show them that they should always
pray and not give up.
And in verse 7, and will not God
pray?