Intimacy with God & Worship (11 of 16)

Just loving in your presence, Father. Worship.

We thank you for the deep cleansing work you've done over yesterday, the washing of your word and our hearts. Now we hunger for you. To know you, it's the cry of our heart. You say, "Calm spirit of God." That was wonderful. Thank you. Let's give the team a great clap and appreciate them. I love your passion. I love the sound of it. Whoa.

Okay, so it's been just amazing how God has done so much. And it's often after you've had the word or the revelation, you suddenly see what was obvious. It's just, you wonder, "How could I never have seen that? How could I not have seen that?" Because it's spiritual, and our eyes have to be open to things. And, uh, and so many will have experienced a deep change.

I want to share this morning on cultivating intimacy with God. Cultivating intimacy with our Father. Cultivating intimacy with our Father. And so, just, I'm going to pick it up and I'm going to use as the, uh, the framework for how I, how I share with you. It's going to be very practical, but I want to always give everything in a framework. So the framework I use is either the kingdom of God or sonship. I do by either one because God starts with a son. When he messes up, he brings forth a son. And at the end, he will reveal his sons, and the sons will be manifested. That's what creation's hope is. So we need to have revelation on sonship.

So in John chapter 17, and, uh, verse 3, and verse 4, and verse 6, Jesus gives some very clear key things on sonship, which I'll, I'll touch on in the next session a bit more. But in verse 3, he, he outlines the primary function of sonship is intimacy with God. Intimacy with God. Then he goes on to give us the second function or outflow of intimacy is an assignment to fulfill as a son. "I have finished the work you gave me to do."

Isaiah, in Isaiah 6, has an encounter with God as his Father. And when he is cleansed, and when he's, uh, encountered the Father, then he is commissioned because he carries now the Father's heart. And so he's given an assignment. This is all the way through the Bible. You'll see this interaction of sonship. And then, uh, for, uh, in verse 6, he says, "I have manifested your name." In other words, I have, by my life and teaching and way of relating, revealed what my Father is like. So if you've seen me, you've seen the Father.

So all of us as sons are called into each of those three interlocking functions. If you have only one of those functions, you become distorted, a little weird. And some like to choose one and focus on it. So some will choose intimacy. And those tend to be in the prophetic movement. And they will often, if it's not balanced with assignment, something we're called to accomplish in the kingdom, and personal transformation, it can end up very weird, very self-focused, and indulgent in personal experiences rather than what is required. Intimacy leads to transformation, and it leads to us being empowered to expand the kingdom of God. That's what sonship will always involve. So if you pick one bit, you'll be in a distorted view of God's purpose.

So the same thing, some people focus on the assignment. And they become highly tasked, goal-oriented, and, and everything becomes, everyone becomes crushed because there's the lack of intimacy, lack of presence of God, lack of flow of love. And it's just actually all an assignment. You work hard, everyone works hard, and it's all about works, and people get consumed and burned in that. But it looks very impressive, all the same. And they can build big churches like that. But if you are a heart person to get in among the people, you'll find they're being burned up.

And then the third area is the area of personal transformation. And so we're called to be transformed or conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And so that is an ongoing transformation made up of the, the freedom journey where we engage with God, and there's deliverance and freedom from restrictions and bondages. And also the heart journey where we let God bring healing to our heart and transform, transform our heart. So our heart becomes changed, and we begin to develop the heart of Christ. And the Bible tells us over and over and over again about the importance of the heart. But many churches don't even teach about the heart, what it is, how to engage your heart, why the heart is so important, and what qualities God is looking for in your heart. God doesn't look on the outside. That's where man looks. God looks on the heart.

So in all of these three things, and I'll touch on this in the next session, the Holy Spirit is the catalyst for everything to happen. But they all interlock with one another. So if all you do is focus on healing, deliverance, all that kind of stuff, you'll end up in a rabbit hole where you just consume with all the problems you have. Makes sense? So the purpose of that transformation is to engage you in assignment and connect you deeper to God. You connect to God intimately so you can change. And out of the change, your love for people grows. And you begin to fulfill your assignment. As you fulfill your assignment, you find the, the lacks of love in your character in life, and you force back into transformation. So everything fuels and works with the other. All are essential.

Okay, so we're going to pick up intimacy. So in John chapter 17, in verse 3, Jesus said, "This is eternal life." This is what eternal life is. Eternal life is a relationship. This is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. And the word "know" is the word *gōnoskō*, used to describe a sexual relationship between a husband and wife. It's about a deep intimacy. So it's not just a casual relationship. The knowing there is an experiential knowledge of someone, knowing them and becoming known by them. And so those of you last night who, uh, entered into an, and encountered the Lord in terms of freedom from, uh, sexual defilement, would suddenly find your intimacy level changes in your marriage, and also changes with God. That's why that area is under such attack, anyway.

So, so intimacy. So what is intimacy? Intimacy is an experience of deep heart connection. Intimacy is an experience of deep heart connection. It is an awareness, "I am deeply loved." And it's an awareness of the other person and their desires and needs. So intimacy is described by the word "knowing." So in the Bible, if it was a husband and wife had a sexual relationship, they use the word "know." If someone just had sex with someone, they call the word "he lay with her," they use a different term. So "knowing" has to do with a covenantal commitment to love and give your very best to the other. So it's a, a, it's an experience of deep personal oneness with God. You are aware of Him. That's it. Intimacy. Intimacy.

And so in intimacy, I will be sharing parts of me I won't share with anyone else. My feelings, my needs, my longings, my fears, my pain, the things I struggle with. All of that comes into intimacy. So if you can't share those deep parts of your heart with anyone, then you are isolated, disconnected, and you're not functioning as God intended you to. The relationship with God is a two-way where I open up and honor Him and learn how to approach Him. And then in that intimacy, I begin to exchange my life for His life. I'll put it down, make some very practical things to show you how to do it. But it helps if you understand what you're looking at, or you get into kind of a church thing, and it can be a lot of stuff, but no intimacy.

So intimacy is, uh, what the goal is. "I and my Father are one." That's what Jesus said. Intimacy has to do with your heart. Mark 11:12-30, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart." And then it says, "start up with all your money." Starts off with what's important. Starts off with your heart. So you will love the Lord your God with all your heart. Now, interesting, "all your heart," not just little bits of it. So if your heart is damaged and wounded, you've got intimacy troubles. And the result of intimacy troubles is loneliness, isolation, and a feeling of being all alone in your world. And a lot of people are like that in church. They're lonely. They're like that in the world. They're lonely. And social media won't solve it because it produces an illusion, not real intimacy, not real connection. Just creates the illusion of it. And you can be deceived by the illusion and be very lonely.

So, so intimacy is what God is looking for. "Love the Lord with all your heart." So, so intimacy requires I open my heart to be vulnerable at the deepest level. Some people think intimacy in a marriage, they're only thinking about sex. But actually, it's the opening of your heart to the person. And the opening of your heart results in a physical union. But it's the heart. If the heart's not in it, you can't say this was real intimacy. So the heart is extremely important. So living a life from the heart is part of the development of intimacy. Living a life from that. In other words, learning to engage your heart. And in the journey with God, you'll start to find as intimacy deepens, you'll discover more and more about yourself and about your need for Him. And fresh encounters with His love will open up the places where you're very broken or hurt or wounded or longing or empty. So unresolved heart wounds affect our capacity for intimacy. This is why healing and deliverance is so important. Unresolved heart wounds hinder intimacy because they are the places you built a wall because you're wounded. Those are the places you won't share because you're afraid. So therefore, if you can imagine your heart being many rooms, what's that? Was a hundred-room mansion for some people. They've only allowed Jesus in the front door. And all the rooms are sharp experiences of their life that they have shut the door because they're in pain and they're trying to control the memory and all the thing. Now this, "want Jesus, but don't go there. Don't go there. I don't want you to go there." To those places. And healing is important. Healing of the heart was one of the primary functions of Jesus' ministry and should be a major ministry. It should be a significant ministry in the church.

So Jesus, if you think of Jesus' ministry assignment in Luke 4:18, he says this. He says, "The Spirit of the Lord has anointed me." In other words, I have a task or assignment from my Father. Can't be done without the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. All assignments have anointings. Anointings are for assignments. "The Spirit lays upon me." And of course, you know the verse very well. But if I just reframe it a little bit, then you catch a bit of a different perspective. So it says, "The Spirit lays upon me. He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, heal the brokenhearted, proclaim deliverance to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, healing, setting at liberty those who are oppressed, proclaiming the acceptable year of the Lord." You know the verse. What say? Have I reframed it like this? "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed or empowered me because I have an assignment from my Father, which is really important to Him." The first part of that assignment, I want to show you how you can be reconnected back to your Father and restored to sonship and a relationship with Him. The second part is because Father wants deep intimacy, He needs to heal your heart, which has been damaged in your relationships, and by personal sin, and by things you walk through. He wants to heal you so your relationship with Him can be deepened. And because of the sin that disconnected you, and because of the brokenness, He wants to set you free of every place demons have imprisoned parts of your soul. He wants to open your eyes and give you revelation of who He is and who you are. He wants to remove the things that have hindered you and held you back. And then bless you and empower you into a whole new life of freedom and destiny. See, it just puts it, makes it personal. Our danger in the church is we hear verses and never make them personal.

Okay, so, uh, I won't go into the responses when people are wounded. That's a whole other thing. I want to just look at the practical steps to intimacy. So I'm going to talk a little bit about that and make it quite practical. So when we talk about intimacy with God, a Bible picture to describe this or to, uh, give you something to lock onto is it means building an altar. Building a personal altar. Now, you'll find when you read the Bible that an altar, we don't see altars or hear about them much. You should go to a Catholic church or something like that. But, uh, but if you go to the Middle East or Asia, you see altars everywhere. You go to some of the Asian, they've got them in their houses, and they've got them in their businesses. Every altars are everywhere because they understand altars. We think altars, "Oh, it's just religion." No, no, no. Altars in the Bible, from Genesis all the way through to Revelation, if you look into heaven, there are altars in heaven. So the altar must be really important. So I, I'd love to teach on that. I'll only give you a little bit. I want to get down to the practicals of building intimacy. But, um, so the first thing then is, what is an altar? Well, an altar, through the Bible, was used for a number of things. The first thing, it was a place of sacrifice where something was surrendered. It was always a place of sacrifice. So whenever you see the word "altar," then there's a sacrifice that is made. Don't matter how fancy the altar or simple it is, it was always a place where there was a sacrifice offered. And if you, if you look at idolatry throughout the world, it's just a copy of God's spiritual way of making connection with Him. Just a copy. It's a, it's a counterfeit. It's a substitute. But if you look what happens, you understand things a bit, bit about altars. When a person comes and bows to an altar, or they come and they offer an offering on an altar, or whatever they do at the altar, incense or animals or whatever it is, the basic understanding is really simple. I'm making an exchange. I'm bowing or surrendering to some spirit being that's greater, and I'm providing an offering to honor them. And in return, I'm looking for protection and for provision and for power to do life. That's what altars are for. So that's how they work. And so the greater the sacrifice, then the greater the power of the altar. That's how it works. So altars, then, always a place of sacrifice. Something was given up. Now, whenever you go into the Middle East and Asian countries, you come before someone important. You know what you always do? Bring a gift. You always bring a gift. And often, if it's someone important, they may bow down to them as well. But it essentially, you understand, you come with an approach that they are a great person, and you are taking a rightful place of humility. And often a gift is the way you, you make access to them. Not important what the gift is. The gift symbolizes honor. Right? Now, so this is the framework or thinking behind altars. And, uh, so we need to build our own personal altar. And an altar is a place of exchange where I surrender something, and it is consumed and lost, and it costs me something. But there is an exchange. I receive something in return. That's how it works. It's giving, and then receiving. Giving, then receiving. And so in the Bible, uh, the, the, the altars were places where people met with God. They were places of encounter with God, or an encounter with God happened. And they built an altar as a memorial and offered an offering on it to thank God. So always it's to do with meetings with God. And, uh, so whenever there was backsliding, what went first was the altar. And whenever there was revival, what came back first was the altar. So all revivals began with repairing the altar. So I mean, if you, this, I could share probably about four different messages on altars. If you think about Elijah, what do you, when you think of Elijah, what do you mostly associate with him? We'll probably think, "When a fire from heaven or Jezebel or something like that." But actually, the most significant thing he did was he repaired the altar of the Lord. That's the key part of, he repaired the altar of the Lord. There's a whole chapter on him repairing the altar of the Lord. And when he repaired the altar of the Lord, fire fell from heaven. And in fact, another thing, if you look for fire from heaven, you'll find fire from heaven always was connected to an altar. David, an altar. Gideon, an altar. Fire from heaven. Solomon, an altar. Fire from heaven. Pentecost, 10 days building an altar, a spiritual altar of the heart. Fire from heaven. So you understand then that altars are a key part of our engaging the realm of the spirit, the realm of God. And altars have to do with sacrifice. Something is given and surrendered. And then it's an exchange. There is fire from heaven. There's an impartation, a response from God to us. We have now come to a place of honor, of surrender, of yielding, of waiting. And there's a return. That's altars. And so you read through the book of, uh, Revelation, you find altars are mentioned a number of times. Angels come on altars or out of altars, meaning that when the altar is built and established, the angel is released. So anyway, I won't go too much on altars. I want to get to the practical sides of it. So I want to make it incredibly practical.

So if, if we're going to live out our destiny, we must make intimacy a personal goal. Intimacy with God needs to be a goal. Now, for men who love to be just involved in action, that sort of, "all that's girl stuff," you know. But no, intimacy was something that was deeply close to the heart of David, who was the greatest king in Israel's history. Here's what he had to say: "One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after and pursue with all my might." You think, "What was he after from God? Guns? More guns?" No, no. You know, you think that, what you know, that's what, that's the mentality people have is that they think, "I just want, I'm, one thing I want from God, I want an answer to my problem." But that wasn't how his heart went. Now, Gabe's the greatest king in Israel, and Jesus called the Son of David. So because he modeled on David's life, and, and that the revival kings followed David, their father, they called David their father or inspiration. So, so "one thing," Psalm 27, "well, one thing if I decided, Lord, that will I seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord." Inquire in his temple. Of course, you probably know the verse. But we need again, again, get it in context. Now, in that day, God, you met God in a temple. So that's why the language is temple language. But we've got to take it through the cross. We're the temple. Now, "one thing of my desire to the Lord, that will I seek after, that I might abide continually in the presence of God, experiencing His presence and glory, to behold and encounter Him, and to talk and hear His voice." That's, that's what he's saying. That kind of thing. "One thing." In other words, that was his highest priority. Highest priority of David the king. Be good if that was our high priority. It certainly was Jesus' high priority. He made it his highest priority, intimacy with His Father. Why? Because, and let me just say this to men: Man, if you want to lead and be the man God called you to be, you have to ascend in prayer into the presence of God and learn how to occupy the office He's given you of headship. Most men today don't know how to occupy that office and fulfill its responsibilities. And the first voice you must be listening to is the voice of God, not the voice of people. So that's a lifelong commitment to build an altar and come to know God. It's only out of there you can fulfill your assignment and bring governmental protection from the spirit realm to your household. It's easy for a wife to follow a man who is connected to God and listening to Him. Anyway, throw that one out. So, so build, build an altar to the Lord. So that starts with a lifelong commitment to get to know God. A lifelong commitment to get to know God. And Paul had that in Philippians 3:8. He said, "I count all things lost for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ, that I may know Him." Now, you think, "Wait a minute. He's an apostle, doing apostle stuff. How come he said that? 'That I may know Him.'" Now he's saying, "Listen, you know Him? You think you know Him? You don't even begin to know Him yet. You've just been introduced." He said, he talks about the unsearchable riches of Christ. In other words, God is so vast, you will spend eternity discovering what He is like. There are realms to know Him, and He will not reveal Himself in those realms unless there's commitment to an altar and pursuit of Him. Don't settle for what you have. Don't settle and talk about the old days and all revivals. I need God now. A fresh encounter. I want to see His glory. I want to engage Him. So when that's the hunger of your life, death isn't frightening. It's my goodness, that the veil will be removed. I'm starting to start to enter into something what I really want. So, so this is a pursuit. It's your pursuit. Get, get this. In eternity, you will still be growing and getting to know Him. I want to develop this too much, but most people have have little concepts of heaven. So this is earth, that's heaven, and there's hell. You go to hell, go to heaven, end of story. And I'm thinking, "Oh, maybe playing. I don't know what I'm doing there." But there it is. But they don't understand that there are realms and dimensions in heaven. And death won't change you. It won't make you a better person. You just enter in where you are. So make it your goal to pursue and know God now. So your starting point is a different place altogether. It's really different to being invited into the throne room and being in the very throne presence of God and part of His counsel and His plans. And being at the very far extent of heaven, away from the governmental activity. Very different. As it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 3, "of having all your work and life tested, and there's no value in any of it, and so it's burnt up." And it says, "you were saved because it's not on your works. You're saved. You're saved on the work of another." But there's no reward in the coming eternal kingdom because what you did never was birthed out of intimacy and obedience to Christ. Intimacy is so important. It's out of intimacy I get direction. It's out of intimacy I get focused. Out of intimacy I discover what my assignment is. And then I say no to all the other things and the other people because this is what God called me to do. You understand? It brings security to your life. Brings a focus to your life. Otherwise, you're caught in church stuff. It's not that it's bad stuff. It's just you can't say it's success if it's not what God called you to do. And the Bible's very clear, you have a unique assignment from God. Ephesians 2:10, "You are His workmanship, created in Christ for good works God prepared before you were born." It's your job to discover what you're called to do. And the church's role is to equip you and activate you and release you to do it and help mature your character so you can carry the ministry God has planned for you. Well, so I'm just suddenly off track. Stay back on track again. I'm throwing, I'm sort of branching all the time. Okay, so let me give you some few practical things there.

Number one, create, first of all, commit to a lifelong intimacy of knowing God. That'll be to study of the word of God, putting yourself under ministries that can teach you, and it's your pursuit of God personally. To create a daily habit of connecting. Luke 22:39, "Jesus came out and went, as was his habit, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him." So habit is something that's a recurring pattern. It's regular. It's predictable. You can be known by your habits. And, uh, and I'm a very spontaneous person. Forming habits is not the easiest thing for me to do. Some people, they're really so structured. Joy's father was highly structured in the creature of habit. He, uh, he could, the people called him the weatherman because they watched what he was wearing and they'd tell what the weather was coming by at the same time every day. So that's how that's that's habits. So, so habits, just a recurring pattern you set up, but it establishes a subconscious priority thing in your life. So you, you rise up and you're automatically into, you're engaging with God. It's just your first priority. So it, you create a rhythm or habit, and then it becomes part of, it's built into your life. So for many people, this, they try to build a prayer life, but it's not satisfying. They don't know what to do. No one's showing them how. And then it becomes very erratic, and there's no flow or river that comes from God. And through a commitment to intimacy with Him, uh, third, find a place alone. Mark 1:35, "In the morning, having risen a long time before daylight, He went out, departed to a solitary place, and there He prayed." So Jesus was constantly alone. Intimacy requires privacy. Parents usually don't leave the bedroom door open when they're being intimate, nor do they welcome intruders. And so intimacy with God, we should, we go into the closet, shut the bedroom, shut the door. But the closet, or it's called the secret place, because it's private. I, I, I want to be able to share things with God I may not want anyone to listen in on. So if you're going to pray, you need a secret place. A secret place is primarily, uh, the place you find where you can encounter God, and you just want to have a private place. And so sometimes you can't do that. Sometimes there's a, everyone in the house is unsaved. Well, then maybe he's going to find a cupboard somewhere or go for a walk. Something. You just gotta find the place where you meet God, and God will find a place for it. Jesus had a habit of a certain place. You go to the Mount of Olives, you go there into that garden. My goodness, this is the place. All right. It was a place. But it was nature. Nature's a great place to meet God. You find whatever it is, it's your place. So do you have a place of meeting God? Because as you form a place, and that becomes a habit pattern, then it begins to open a portal in the spirit realm. And then others coming and feel the presence of God in that place. A lot of people come and they say, "Well, feel the presence of God." Yeah, yeah. "We both pray there in that room. It's a lot of prayer goes on there." Uh, if, number four, eliminate distractions. You have to eliminate distractions. Distractions affect, take away your focus. Eliminate distractions. So, so distraction is something that takes your attention away from where you want it to be. And if you want to frustrate someone and cause them to fail, just distract their attention so they're not focused. All success in life requires focus. So distractions shift your face, they shift your attention from God. And there's different kinds of distractions. Some distractions are just physical. So solve the physical ones. The mobile phone has got to be off. Mobile phone, messy room, wandering thoughts. There's all kinds of things. So, so when you're trying to talk with someone, then there's a flow of communication that only comes if you're focused. The moment you're distracted, the flow breaks. So just as naturally, focus brings a connection and a flow, distractions break the flow. You have to see how important distractions are. They just take your attention away from where it's meant to be focused, and that stops the flow, and you're back again having to get refocused again. And so that is one of the biggest problems in prayer is dealing with distractions. So sometimes the distractions are practical. It's just your phone. I find for me, a messy room is a distraction. So if it's a messy room, I've either got to tidy it so it's no longer distracting me, or I close my eyes so I can't see it. That's why we close our eyes, so we just remove distractions, and our focus is now more internalized.

So, um, so, so there it is. So I miss your wandering thought. What a bigger, big problem of thoughts. Thoughts that wander, condemning thoughts, "not good enough," "can't do it," this, that, all kinds of stuff. Your, if you have got demons, that's when they talk loudest in prayer. And when you're delivered, you think, "Where'd they go?" The voice is gone. So, so often there's condemning thoughts, "not good enough," you remember things you've got to do, the things kids want to break in, ah, someone said talk to you, all that kind of stuff, noise. So you have to find a way to minimize distractions so that sometimes means rising very early so no one else is around and the air is quiet and the atmosphere is quiet, and you can engage God. You say, "Well, I'm not an early person." We'll do it late at night. Just do it. Find a place where you can be alone, distractions are minimized. And so some of that means controlling your environment. "Kids, don't come in. I'm having a time with my, with God, unless someone's died or bleeding to death. There's no need to interrupt me." And then you hear the yelling. So sometimes if you're, if you're a couple, then you, you've got to work together so each one has the opportunity to have their private time with the Lord. Okay, so those are distractions.

I'll show you then how to deal with some of those. So the next thing then is, uh, you need to build a pattern or have a pattern of some kind. There needs to be a pattern. You'll find if you build a sort of a pattern for your prayer, it'll help your prayer grow and develop. If there's no pattern for your prayer, then you'll find you just, it'll get, it'll get lesser and lesser and lesser to not much happening. So try and form some kind of structure. Jesus gave a structure in the Lord's Prayer. It's not literally a prayer you pray out aloud. It's actually made up of a, of a sequence of thoughts or themes that you can build in prayer. Okay, so it's just, "Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Your name." And then, so the first part then, He says, is you must come honoring God. And you're coming to Him as your Father. And the word "Father" is not the word "Abba" there. The word "Father" is the word *pater*, meaning someone worthy of respect and reverence because He's the ruler of all. It doesn't mean you don't have times where it's intimate. But you've got to watch that intimacy and familiarity go to, they can, intimacy is eroded by familiarity. So always come to God with honor. Come. And so the Bible tells us how to come. How about that? Tells you how to come. You come into His presence very simply. In Psalm 95, "I will enter His gates with thanksgiving." He says, "Make a joyful noise to the Lord. Come before His presence with singing. Give thanks unto the Lord." Well, there it tells you what to do. So that, don't just do that. Come that way. That's why we have services that way. There's a reason for it because it's a biblical pattern of coming into the presence of God. Bringing something. We now bring a sacrifice. You're not bringing your lambs. You're bringing a sacrifice. A sacrifice of praise. A sacrifice of thanksgiving. Everyone knows it. You know, "I will enter His gates with thanksgiving. We sing a song." But you've got to actually catch the principle of it that it's an actual sacrifice. Coming before Him. And I will give Him something. Now, listen. In the Bible, in Malachi, the Lord had a bit of a problem with the priests. And it's what He said. He said, "You despise me. You dishonor me." He said, "Shouldn't the Father have honor?" But you preach, you despise Him. And say, "What do you mean? We just..." He said, "It's your offerings." He said, "What's the problem with the offerings we've given you?" "You wanted lambs, we've given you your lamb." He said, "Look at the lambs you're giving me. Old, blind things, and lame, and they're disfigured. They're your off-casts. They would, that last lamb was so shaky, it nearly died before it got to the out to the altar." Now, what He's saying is, there is dishonor in your heart, and it reflects in what you bring before the Lord. So, and you, this shows up in church often with people just walking in like brown cows. They just straggle in. It's because they're actually behaving in a religious manner. Religion is having the form, but there's no dynamic reality. They've forgotten it's not a service, it's a meeting with God. The moment it comes into your thinking as a service, then it changes your whole way of looking at it. But if you have to have an appointment with someone very important, suppose you're needing money for your house, and the bank manager says, "You'll have to meet me at this time." You're not going to turn up an hour later. You'll say, "I've got another appointment." Sorry, you had your chance. Now, God's not like a bank manager, but you know, you would be there on time, dressed up smart, ready to go, because there's an important outcome for you. Now, you see, you've got to think of God. When we come to a meeting, we're coming to engage and encounter God. We're coming to enter the presence, to have an experience with God. So for me, I don't know whether I'm preaching or not. I'm up the front, right up here. I want to be up the front, hands up, ready to go. If it's even half a minute over, what's wrong? I came for an appointment with God. Don't be starting late. Just start on time. Everyone who comes in, you're late. And often people do. Now, I know there's real reasons. But we had, we had to take six kids to church. Look, if any chaos can happen, it happens before church. I get it. I get that. I really get that. If you turned up with six kids, you've done well. Just getting there, you've done one. But a lot of people haven't got six kids. They just got themselves. They toddle in, and they don't even lift their hands, don't engage. So I like to go to a church, just get in the back and see how engaged people are. How real is God to you? Are you actually in the pursuit of God, or what are you doing? So we come to worship Him. Do you not see when I'm worshiping, you know, I'm carrying a phone with me thinking, "Oh, what's he looking at the phone? Why is he doing his FaceTime on?" And we're supposed to be worshiping. No, no, no, no. I got the phone there to take notes on what God tells me during the worship because I expect Him to speak to me. Put a date on it. I've got a heading there, "What the Holy Ghost prompted me." You get in a holy atmosphere, God will start talking to you. Write it down. You will never remember it, especially get older. That right, Ian? You just don't remember stuff. What's your name again? But so, yeah. So, so, so the Bible tells us how to come. Come with a heart that's really to engage with God wholeheartedly. "Love the Lord with all your heart." There's nothing that's half done that's pleasing to anyone. So come ready to give something to God. "I want to see what message there is today. I want to see what I want much today." You know, not like that. Now, listen, that's a totally wrong attitude. See, no matter who preaches or what their topic is, if you're listening for God, He'll speak to you through the message. I found the, the things that God gives, if I'm taking notes on someone's message, I'm writing notes because it's the only way to focus, and I want to remember, and I want to go back if I've learned something. So I, and get it into my life. I go through and find it in my Bible, underline it in my Bible, explore it, so I build it into my life. Otherwise, you don't obtain anything. And then often, when people are preaching, God will say something about something that was unrelated to what they're speaking. I write it down. That's what God's trying to talk to me about. So you understand that worship then is about your engagement with God, not just about how we come and have a song service. No, it all starts with your attitude. I'm coming to encounter God. So, so, so anyway, so it tells us how to do it. And it tells us to move your body. So if you want to get going and get your prayer time going, move your body. Because your body doesn't want to do anything. Your spirit, which is how you communicate with God, requires activation, and it must express itself through your soul and your mind and your body. So, of course, the big blocks is first of all, your body. Ah, uh, feel like you have it died. Don't be bothered. Listen, you've got to take dominion over your body. Even if it's an old body, take dominion over it. You know, move your body because moving your body activates your spirit. Samson just shook himself, and that's what activated the anointing. I can do the same now because I saw it was in the Bible. I thought, "He didn't speak in tongues. He could activate the anointing. He just shook himself, and the anointing came on him." So I realized then, you've got to get your body to move. And that's why they tell us and tell us this: "Clap your hands, all you people! Shout unto God with the voice of triumph!" Well, it doesn't say, "When you feel like it," or if you're Pentecostals, and you, it doesn't say that. It just said, "All you people." This is what God loves. It's the shout of faith, the shout of victory. The shout unto God with the voice of triumph. Well, so many churches don't shout to God. They kind of gone off that. Want to be quiet and calm and nice. Well, I want it. I want the shouts of God. Go through the Bible and see when people shouted, what God did. That shout, see, faith is released through your voice. So, so get your voice going. Get you, get your body moving. Move your body. Say, "Move your body." Get your body moving. Move around. Move and start walking when you're praying. If I sit down and put my head down, I'll fall asleep. I'm busy and I'm tired all the time. So, you know, I sit down, I go to sleep. I want to move. And as I move and speak, then my spirit comes alive. So just even in the last two minutes, I've stirred and awoken my spirit. My energy level inside is incredibly high now because of just stirring up the, the life of God within. Come on, come on. Nudge someone. Wake up. Okay, so activate your spirit. Speak in tongues. Pray strongly in tongues because when you pray in tongues, your spirit is praying. You engage God with your spirit. So stir your spirit. When you pray in tongues, your spirit is praying as the Holy Ghost gives you the utterance. So now energy is flowing through you. Your spirit is expanding, preparing to engage and become aware of God. No. Okay. Oh, come on. Here we go. And use music. Use music. Use music. Play music. You've got all got a phone. You can record music, or you can download music and make up a music list. You can have your favorite Rob Packer for breakfast. When you can do it. See, because music is, music, here's why music is the language of the heart. The whole of creation is full of vibration. You, you rise, you, you vibrate at a certain frequency. Anything that's in tune with our frequency will resonate and respond. Very big. So music is a part of, of God's design and creation. In heaven, there's music all the time. Angels, there's a sound that comes out from them. The sound is a vibration. It's mute. It's a sound. It's music. It's music because it's in harmony with heaven. Come on. I need to understand this kind of stuff. So music is very powerful. Why? Because music touches your heart. That's why you, you want to create, listen, you want to have a romantic meal, man. Come on. Get the right music. Now, playing hard rock and heavy metal is not going to build romance. It's just not going to work for me. See, when I took Joy out for the beginning, I found a restaurant in Wellington. I couldn't afford it. It was just a student, could hardly afford to go to save up and get him at the main course and a bottle of wine. But that was good enough because the experience is what counted. They had this finest silver, and they had a trio playing there. They had a bass and an accordion and a violin that would come and play at your table. Lovely memories, 50 years ago, but lovely memories. Atmosphere of romance. So atmospheres are built. Atmospheres are built of something. So you can come into a hostile atmosphere and you feel it. You come into a peaceful atmosphere, you feel it. You come into an atmosphere of God. It was built by someone. It never just happened. It's built because you use music and worship as a way of doing it. So music's really important. And not all music is very good, though. So we need different kinds of music. And so you need to understand the power of music. She's watching a movie. If they have no soundtrack, you got no feelings at all. It's the music. It's the sound. If ever you've watched a horror movie, which I don't watch because I can feel the demons, that's the problem. No, I don't mind them. Which is, I can't stand the blood and I can't stand the demons. I just want to claw the demons. Anyway. So if he watches music, it's all, all the atmospheres built with the music. And, and if you think about it, that when you watch stories that touch the heart, there was music touching your heart. Begin to weep. You know, I love in the, in the, uh, TV series, "The Chosen." You know, when, uh, [Laughter] when Nicodemus is faced with a choice of whether he will respond to Jesus. Now, how do they build the tension up? They got Jesus over here waiting for him. Nicodemus over here wrestling. And they've got a cello playing. Oh, I cried and crushed it. Please, please say yes. Say yes. Say yes. It's the music that adds to it. So, so you use music to help you. It's a tool to help you. Now, it's not a thing for people to build their ego on. And that's where a lot of musicians get into trouble. It's all about a performance and how they look on the stage and who's up there, all the kind of blah blah blah. And they forget that the, the worship team is a service team whose primary function is to create an atmosphere that enables you to engage the presence and power of God. So if, if you engage the presence and power of God, you become worshipers, and God moves. They've done a great job. How they do? Well, there's a lot of variations and no one way, and there's creativity in it all. But one of the sort of general principles, number one, have music that stirs you. So I love, I love Rob today. I love this. I love the sound that they made. And I loved that it wasn't just music. It's coming from his heart. That's right. He got his eyes closed. I wonder about anyone. He just goes. And I thought, "Oh, I love that. I love that, man. That that inspires me to do stuff." Come on. It's nothing like a bit of passion. So you want some songs that'll move your body. So find songs to get you.

Me moving because that starts the movement of your body, starts the activation, starts preparing you for the realm of engaging with God. So you want some praise songs, and you want songs with a bit of, you know, or songs with a great shout of victory in it. So the song starts with, "Get your body moving, and let's all move together." Because everyone comes in like you're all over the place, so we want to unite our thought. So we play songs, hit everyone, and they're all doing this. They're all clapping, or they're all moving their body like this. Well, in many churches, well, in my church, you know, you want the sound of joy and rejoicing and thanksgiving to God. And then sounds, songs which exalt the Lord, which make a great fuss about what He's done. And we have that today. He's the King, and we're singing about who He is. How great is Your name? Oh, that does you good because you're getting it's now moving. The music's moving from your body moving. It's now moving to get you focused on Jesus, how great, how big He is. And when we magnify, we magnify Him with thanksgiving. So, so certain songs will do it, others won't.

And then you get, you get to the stage where you've, you've praised and praised, and you're exalting Him, and then the atmosphere shifts because He's, He's manifesting His presence. Then change your songs. See, the song list is just a list to help you where to go. It bugs me when people follow the song list and God's on a song, and they should just keep singing the song because God's on that song. So just stay with it until actually people have started to experience God touching them. And then when that happens, then you change the flow because something is altered in the atmosphere. So now I want a tender song, and I want worship songs. Now, worship songs, the language of it's different, see. So the language is a language, you, O Lord, are great. Now, you understand it's one-on-one. I'm talking to someone. Intimacy is engagement. So songs that talk about me and my needs and stuff, it's never going to cut it. You've got to realize that a lot of music is written for people to make some money. And, and secondly, people generally write their music out of where they live. And if they live, "I'm just a bag of bones," well, that's what they'll play. And frankly, I won't go, and I don't want to sing that kind of song. I want to sing the songs that resonate with my heart and hunger for God. So I have songs I love. I make my own song list. I change them, but I'll have songs, get me moving. I'll go prayer walking and get moving. And you move fast because the music is stirring you. Oh, Rabbi, people look. So I've got to get up early so they don't see me, you know. And, and then, then when the music, when it changes, I feel the presence of God, then it'll become softer and gentler. And then I want songs that just touch my heart, songs that are about Jesus. And it's always about you. If you listen to someone pray, you can tell where they're positioned because if they pray intimately, it's, "You, O Lord, Father, I love You." There's a "You" language. There's a personal language. But if it's distant, it's "God in heaven," or we're singing about something else. So be very careful, pastors. You're responsible for the worship of your church. So you cannot withdraw from what's in the worship and the song list and everything like that. You actually have to learn how to engage God. What kind of music? You don't have to be a musician. You, I just, if you, what it does for you, it'll do for others. So, so that's one way to start. But you look for building a flow of songs that energizes your body, gets you joyful, gets you clapping, gets you appreciating God, build the atmosphere, then we flow into honoring Him and lifting His name, and then we flow into tender worship. And it's very intimate, sometimes very silent. You want different kinds of instruments playing there. There's a flow in it all. Okay, if you were to open the Bible and have a look, what songs do they sing in heaven? Well, they sing the song of the Lamb. Oh, Jesus got a song. I sing the song of Moses. Oh, really? Moses said a song. It's a song of victory, song of triumph. And then when you hear the angels singing, "Oh, holy, holy, holy are You, Lord God of hosts. The whole earth is filled with Your glory." Now, that's the language of someone connecting and honoring and admiring and reverence. So we're not saying it's all noisy all the time. It's just that movement and sound and rejoicing is part of how we enter. It's God's way. He wants us to enter. If that's what He wants, do all He wants. Don't come up with your new cart, just do it the way He wants. Read how it describes it in the Bible. He'll restore the Tabernacle of David, prophetic music and sounds of joy and something all that kind of stuff. So, so, so that helps. So get you, get your phone, form a song list. I've got a song list, and sometimes I'll change it. Sometimes I focus on one, not another. I don't follow, I don't follow it like a rigid routine. Use the songs to help you. And if one song starts to touch me, I'll just put it on repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat until the tears are flowing and whatever they've got to hold it. So, so then also then another key, then, and this, I'm running out, I've run out of time. Yeah, I've got to give you these other keys. The next, you need to focus your retention. I mentioned that before, focus your attention. Now, so the movement helps you, the songs help you, the words of the song help you. But one of the best ways to focus your attention so you can engage God is meditation. Now, I can't develop it in depth right now, but meditation, you use your imagination to picture the reality of God. I'll just give you what I did recently, which was just wonderful. I was reading in the book of Revelation, and then I saw also the same thing in the, uh, in Exodus 19, that when the throne, when you get near the throne of God, it's not all sort of nice and quiet. It says thunders, lightnings, voices. There's around the throne of God. I maybe thought it was a nice little quiet place, but it, it shudders and hums with power. It's the executive place, government of the universe, all creation. So therefore, it hums with power and life and vibrancy. Thousands upon thousands of innumerable angels. It's, and then when, when God's throne came down on the mount, it says there were thunders, and there were lightnings, and massive earthquakes. So I just, God went on YouTube, and I got something with thunders and lightnings, and I just memorized the scripture on the throne, and then I began to worship Him who sits on the throne, and played thunders and lightnings just to lift my awareness. That's what this realm is like. I could feel the reverence for God, just, whoa. Not initially, it's as you meditate, as you dwell, you start to engage. It's just a time. But meditation, using your mind or imagination to picture the reality of scripture, will help train your mind to remain focused. It'll help stop your mind being distracted. Your mind hates vacuums, so always something will fill it unless you fill it intentionally. And then what you'll find as you meditate, become a point where you just start to connect and engage, and the presence of God comes. I cannot overestimate how important fixing your mind and meditating as you worship helps you deeply engage God and releases presence. Amen. Well, I'll give you the last couple of keys. I won't explain them, I'll just give them to you. So, so flow with the Spirit. Flow with the Spirit. In other words, as the Holy Spirit moves, He'll move you into different flows, maybe intercession, maybe weeping, maybe healing, maybe repentance. Just flow with what He starts to show you. It's hearing His response and just flowing with Him. And sometimes I've just sat there weeping. And you say, "Well, I'm kind of not having much energy." Well, listen, I didn't have much energy when I had a heart operation, but I just sat there and got the word, and I read the word, and put the worship on, and then God came. Fixing my attention on Him. The last thing, I think, that will help you in that journey of intimacy is to practice journaling. Again, I can't develop it deeply, it's a whole session of its own. But journaling is writing from your heart the prayers that express what's going on in your heart. They're prayers of love and honor, prayers of concern. And in journaling, you just share honestly what you feel. Now, you can say things to the Lord, but there's sort of something about writing it that starts to open up your heart. And then as you journal and come to the end of saying what you want to say, stop and listen for His voice, gentle voice. And then begin to write what He's saying to you. And as you write, it gets a flow. It's like you're prophesying to yourself. And the Lord will speak to you, encourage you, direct you. You are developing intimacy. You talking to Him, and He's talking back to you. You're not in a place where you don't want to stop and you don't want to really do other stuff. And if you were to just do this, this would occupy you quite a bit of time before you even pray for anyone else or anything else. You, it's like, "I'm just in love with Him. I love being with You talking to me." That's why when I come into Him, into any meeting, I'll always have my phone ready because I do expect Him to talk to me. And He'll talk to me. And ideas will come. Just a thought will come like that. Just so I'm in the meeting today, a thought just suddenly came, "Well, why didn't I think of that?" Write it down. And then another thought yesterday, He spoke affirmation to me in the worship time. Day before, He gave me things I need to now do some teaching development on. That's how you do it. We walk with God. No, it's not rocket science, is it? So I encourage you, get this and go back over it. And then re-look at how you do your time with God. Remember, establish the commitment to be. Now, sometimes you don't get a lot out of what happens. Just, "I'm going to be there anyway." I've determined to build my life around my walk with God. Everything else can go. That one doesn't go. And set, turn up daily. Develop the place, develop the pattern, a rhythm of prayer. Develop the pattern of entering into His presence through praise, through worship, of resting and flowing with the Spirit, and of listening to Him. And you might be surprised. He will speak to you more clearly than almost any prophet I know. God bless.