You're listening to kf I am sixty on demand. Michelle, Welcome to the
Jesus Christ Show. Did you say, Michelle? I sure did? How
can I help you? Michelle? Okay, I'm really nervous and I don't
know why. Oh no, that's okay. I'm afraid I'm not going to
get my question across right. And I've been trying to get the my thoughts
in order well enough to call for a month. And what's going on.
I have absolutely no doubt, no reservation, no no issue with my unending,
unquestionable love for you or you for me. Good start, But I'm
confused about prayer. I've heard a hundred things. I really try hard to
live with compassion, empathy, acceptance, service, really trying to live the
word, and I think I'm doing a pretty good job with it. My
confusion comes in about I heard thy will be done and not to pray for
yourself unless others will be health. No, well, it so you never
pray for anything for yourself? For strength? Oh yeah, well yeah,
well if you? If if strength is okay, then what about health?
And if health is okay, what about wealth? And if wealth is okay?
I don't understand and I've heard people teach that, so I don't put
that on you. But it's okay to pray for things. The Prayer of
Jabez was a book that came out years ago that was quite popular and really
had its roots in in scripture, of course, about a prayer where Jabez
just asked for more, give me more land, give me more things.
You know the way it was perceived. But trust me that I'm going to
do good things with it. But I need it, you know. So
there's nothing wrong with making prayer requests for yourself. But go ahead, okay.
Well that takes a tremendous load off of my mind. I just you
know, you hear that I will be done. How do I know that
when I'm asking for things and truly with a good intent, with a complete
intent. It's a huge thing that I'm asking for, um, but it
is a thing that would give me gratisfaction in helping other people. But it's
enormous and I have no idea how it can happen. But I have faith
that you do. But how do I know if you will? Okay?
So this is the fun part. And by the way, First Chronicles,
chapter four is where you can read about Jabez, and I encourage you to
do that to see it gives you the example there. But this is where
people get confused big time about prayer, because you're right. The people assume
prayer is man's way of telling God what man wants and needs, and it's
not. Prayer is God's way of teaching man what God wants. So this
is how it works. And the analogy that we give on the show and
we talk about is a child in the grocery cart in every single grocery store
on the planet, that is pointing out want that. I want that,
I want that, I want that, I want that. So you'd think
that that scenario is about the child telling the parent what they want. Put
that in the grocery cart, put I want that for cereal, I want
that for dinner. And that's the appearance of it. The reality is it's
a way for the parent to teach the child what they should be wanting.
No, honey, this cereal is better for you, No honey, this
dinner is better for you. So although it's engaged or initiated by the child,
the actual function, when done properly, is the opportunity for the parent,
the older, smarter, wiser, hopefully one in the equation to look
towards the child and say, no, honey, this is what you need,
not what you want. So prayer. Similarly, you, as the
child of God, reaches out and say, Abba, Father, I want
X, Y and Z, and your Father in heaven says, I think
this is better for you, or I think this is best or you're right
on. But it's about God's will, not your will. And everybody assumes
like if I pray hard enough, or I do it on one foot,
or I put my hands really tight together so it makes an antenna that's going
to reach God. Or I do it in a prayer closet, or I
do it at the end of the bed, or I do it with tears,
or I use big words, or I say things that sound really biblical
like, or I do it with a group of people, or I do
it doing the you know, the old English from the King James version.
Then it's then God's gonna hear and go, oh my gosh, how could
I say no to that. That's not how it works. It's not what
it's about. It's about you. Learning's familiar. These things have actually gone
through my hands. Of course, they go through everyone's head. It's like,
are you doing it wrong? Is I do any to put rabbity ears
on the house or get a new antenna or what is it now? Having
said that, there, if there's a lot of sin in someone's life in
the sense that they're in a state of rebellion and really rebelling against God,
then for lack of a better term, it's hard to get a good signal.
And that's not because you know, God is you know, sticking his
fingers in his ears, going la la, la, la la, I'm
not listening when when somebody's sinning. It's that people have a harder time connecting
with the Father when they're so disconnected. It's almost like, um, when
you know, you loan money to a friend and they haven't paid you back,
and now the time has kind of gone on a little too long,
and when they come across the opportunity to see you, they just kind of
want to get out of the room because now they just are embarrassed to by
the whole thing. And that's how people get with God. They sin,
and then they kind of don't want to be around God anymore, and they're
constantly looking for excuses not to be around God. But God is different the
friend who loans you money and just wants to be with you. So people
get different, and so those things do modify how people pray or the intent
of their heart and things like that. But otherwise God is listening at all
times to connect with you and to impart and show and make obvious his will,
because his will is the proper path. And the more the closer your
life has lived towards God's will, the more productive it is towards God's goal.
Well, can I ask you one more thing? Of course I have
heard it said in church a month ago or so that sometimes you have to
do the ridiculous for God to do the miraculous. Now I understand a leap
of faith, I understand, but one is a ridiculous just a ridiculous or
is that something I will won't know until until I know? Well? God,
God bless church and the people in it. But sometimes I think they're
worried about something rhyming more than they are being biblically sound. Yes, Scripture
is very clear that you have to be willing to die to self to get
things done. It has to not be about you, And in that sense
that statement is absolutely correct. There are things that you have that will make
you feel uncomfortable. But I guarantee you that if you walked in with a
funny hat, barefoot in a weird coat and said I'm ready for the miracle,
that pastor or whoever said it so well, what I meant was,
so it's not just about that, but it's dying to oneself or being a
living sacrifice. I says, it says in scripture is something that is day
to day, and I think you know. We talked to a young man
one time who was talking about his relationship with his parents, and I asked
him, I said, you feel passionate about your parents and you love them
and he said, of course I do. And I said you would even
Heaven forbid, but you would even die for them to protect them? And
he said, of course I would. I said, would you do the
dishes every day and rake the leaves? And people don't understand that it's really
the mundane that gets it done, not the extravagant. So yes, maybe
there are times where you have to be ridiculous or whatever, but really what
it's about is being consistent and the way you would show your love towards a
parent is not well, a gosh, Heaven forbid, if someone comes in
here, I'm going to die for you. It's you know what, I'm
going to live for you. I'm going to do things daily to glorify you
and to show you my love for you. And that means rip the leaves
and do the dishes, and clean my room and you know, speak to
you properly and things like that. And I think that is more glorious to
God than the Gosh. You see these people around Easter time that are nailing
themselves to cross as physically and and God is shaking his head, going,
how does that help anyone? You know? So, so I think there's
balancing. It's acute statement. I get the spirit in which it's intended is
probably the thing to focus on. But really it's about not being so worried
about yourself and letting God do what He's going to do. Absolutely and you
can get there by the day to day and not just doing some weird things
standing on your foot. But you should be ready and willing and able to
do that if God said to do it, because unfortunately, humility comes from
humiliation. Well I'm okay with that. Yeah, then I think you're in
a good place, my friend. I think you are going to be just
fine. Thank you so much. I'm so glad I got the courage up
to call. That wasn't that at all. I had a good time.
No, I appreciate it as well. Thank you for taking the time and
thank you for listening. Prayer is one of those things that it's easy to
get caught up in and wondering what's going on. And I love prayer questions
because they're when you don't take the whole process for granted. It shows that
you're thinking through it, that your faith is something that's growing and not just
well, I was told that this is what you do, and I'm going
to do it. No one has prayer classes or anything like that. I
mean maybe there's a church somewhere that tries to, but it's it's communication the
whole thing. If you're new to any of this, it's about relationships,
it really is. The entirety of scripture is about relationships. So if you
go throughout scriptures from the beginning in Genesis all the way to the end,
it's about relationships. And the ten Commandments themselves, you can almost split them
in half. Are going to be half dealing with man's relationship with mankind.
So humans interacting with each other, and the other half is mankind's relationship with
God. Because that's the focus. It's being able to get these relationships down.
And prayer is although unique, is the way you communicate with God.
It's that time of focus because God's not sitting in front of you like someone
else in your locking eyes and connecting in a way that you are used to
and designed to in a day to day setting is something different. Now now
you're you're you're connecting with God in a totally different way. And yeah,
it takes time. It takes time to understand, to feel comfortable and to
feel that it is something that is valuable and that you can actually learn from.
Gary, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Yes, did you hear
me? I sure can, Garry? How can I help you? Yeah?
I had a question. I had a family member that you gotta get
up on that phone. Gary, you got to get up on that phone
because I'm starting to lose you. Okay, is that better much? Okay?
Okay, go ahead. I had a family member that passed away and
he lived like the devil his whole life and hated the things of God and
religion and all that. But on his death bed he gave his heart to
the Lord and died maybe two hours later. And I'm just wondering, does
he go to the same place in heaven that somebody that served the Lord their
whole life and worked hard to crucify their flesh or you know, really do
the things that Jesus wants them to do. Is he going to go to
the same place as I'm going to go or somebody that serve the Lord his
whole life? Oh boy, and that they are Is that really fair?
It's not fair. Well, it depends on what you think is fair and
how you think somebody's being purified. If somebody looks for love for sixty years
and finally finds it and somebody finds love in three months, is their difference
in the love? Absolutely not. Love is love. Love is about connecting
and becoming one and all of those things. So you can make all the
rules you want down here, but you didn't write the Bible. The rules
of scripture are very simple. It's not about you. It's not about those
things. It's about whenever you whenever you come to the notion. Here's what
the entirety of it is about acceptance or rejection. That's how you're judged.
And if you accept it early the knowledge you have, any of that knowledge
you're accountable for and once you have that knowledge, you're accountable to accept it.
If you accept it, then there's rules that you want to live by
that are part of that acceptance. If you reject it, you're accountable for
the rejection. It's not a matter of time because God is not living in
this time continuum. There's no God's not tapping his finger waiting for somebody to
believe or not to believe. They either have or haven't to God. So
the time continuum is something you live in. So you're saying, Gosh,
you know I've been busting my hump for all this time because you're making it
about you, and God's saying no, it's about the acceptance and the purity
of the person's heart in the moment they accept. If it's just words,
no, that it didn't mean anything. You can just say words before you
die and it doesn't mean anything, but yes, in the eleventh hour,
somebody can find God. The problem with that is if people wait till the
eleventh hour, sometimes they die at ten thirty. And if you are,
if you have the knowledge, you're accountable to it, and you're accountable to
receive it. And that may have been how long it took, so you
can look at it as you were running the race and he wasn't, but
that's not true. Both were running the race. You just understand the power
of the finish line long before he did. But you're both running the race,
and you're both accountable. Now. Scripture is doesn't speak about different heavens
for people, and second Corinthians twelve two. A lot of people get that
confused because it talks about being caught up into the third heaven, and some
people go, well, there's a third heaven and there's going to be different
levels of where people go, and that's not the case. The third heaven
or any reference to multiple heavens like that, is referring to three different looks
at One is the sky that you see right now. You look out and
you see blue sky, that's one heaven. The second heaven is at night
when you see the stars, that's the second heaven. And the third heaven
is actually the dwelling place of God. So in scripture you'll hear these these
terms as as people hear them. Sometimes they go, ah, the three
heavens and you're going to get a different level depending on who you are.
That's not the case. It is talking about the different realms sky, space,
and then God's domicile. But some people confuse this because it Dante's The
Divine Comedy talks about all these different levels, and people get confused. Having
said that there are different rewards, they're not specified in scripture, but there
is reference that there will be different different works value differently in scripture, so
there is some sort of rewards system that is different in heaven, even though
the ultimate reward of being in the presence of God and spending eternity with God
is the same. That there are different references in scripture to certain rewards that
might be different, but it doesn't say how they're received, and it doesn't
say to whom receives them. So that may be the answer that you're looking
for there. But as far as the other thing, it's really not about.
It's in Christianity, wherever you start running, you have to be running.
So if you start running ten years ago, be running, if you
ten minutes ago, be running. It's it's not the same meritocracy that you
would look here on earth where you would judge someone different based on the length
of time they were doing something or those types of things. It's about doing
it. And the key is if you stop doing wrong ten minutes ago,
or you stopped doing wrong ten years ago, it's still stopping to do wrong,
and the important thing is to never start up again, not the length
of time that you've been doing it. Okay, well that makes a lot
of sense, I hope. So that's my job. I take that information
and sit on it a little bit. But you can read Second Corinthians twelve
two was the reference to the different levels of heaven, and that might help
you. And then two more verses First Corinthians three twelve and Hebrews eight twelve
might be of help as well. I know it's very easy to get caught
up in that concept of good, But when that concept of good becomes better
than, becomes that concept of I'm better than you because I do X,
Y and Z, that's not fair. You're judged by what you can't.
Two people can't be judged the same in the same way, in the same
sense. Their experience is different, their pressures are different, their insights are
different. Their life experience is different. The whole concept of you know,
being in someone someone else's shoes, that's different. You're going to that means
to experience their life experience. There is not a true equal comparison. Everybody
has their own luggage, luggage and their own weight, and they all carry
it. And I know that the way life is designed, you're always going
to see your weight as the heaviest weight there is and the most different goal
to carry. And that's normal but not necessarily true. And if you were
to experience somebody else's walk, even if it seemed like they were rejecting God
throughout the entirety of their life, then on their deathbed they received God.
There might have been circumstances and pain and insight that they never shared. You
know, there's there are Christians that aren't before they die except Christ. But
their life was filled with frustration about about the church. There are people,
countless people that tell me of the way they were treated when they were younger
in a church environment. How are they gonna receive properly? How is somebody
who's been mistreated by the church, ostracized by the church, unloved by the
church. The trust being broken by the church. The Church didn't protect them
or whatever it might be, at any part of their life. But let's
say it started young, and then they rebel against not God but the Church,
thinking they're one and the same and don't have clarity until their death.
Better, don't have clarity until something changes in their life. And as the
veil between the physical and the spiritual get thinner, they maybe see clearer or
they're able to accept or to see it, or just the will to fight
against it, to rebel with hubris we've got breaks that down and makes a
pride simple pride, and then breaks down the pride and builds understanding. And
in those points and at that time the scales, as Scripture often refers to
them, the scales fall from the eyes and consequently the heart, and they're
open to receive. I must tell you it is. It should be a
point of rejoicing, no matter when somebody receives clarity enough to open up their
arms to Abba, the Father of all creation and say I receive you.
How could you not rejoice in that as a believer. Regardless of the time,
The important thing is that they received. The important thing is that it
is honest and that it comes from that place in the heart that only God
knows. So the cynical world can roll their eyes and say, sure,
you're on your deathbed, or you're in prison, or you're whatever wife left
you, husband left you, life fell apart, and now you find God.
But if it's real, if it comes from an honest place, God
will know, and in that place God will receive and God will reward it.
It's not about your qualifications, it's not about what you did. I
know. The world is very much about that right now, and it's a
super easy to get sucked into. There's a strange, strange Western vibe going
on where people are packing their artillery, whether it's an actual gun, whether
it's their fists and knife, their anger, vengeance, and they're looking around
the world and they feel like they are on their own and there's lawlessness and
disconnect from one another, and there's this attitude of me, me, me,
that it's all about that individual, and it can't be. The system
doesn't work that way until it becomes we we all of us, and you
start focusing on the units, it breaks down. There is no you in
the equation. It can't just be you. When it becomes that the equation
breaks down. It's no longer a community, it's no longer a society,
it's no longer humanity. It's you against the world, and that's not the
way it works. It's about incorporating. Work plays a part of that.
Getting along with others, seeing how people work, interacting with them, appreciating
them, and connecting with them is imperative. Having a partner in life outside
of work is important. Connecting with them, being selfless for them. All
these things are to teach you, to show you the power of community,
because that is what you are. That's what you're hoping for in heaven.
Everybody thinks heaven is going to be a one on one with God, and
that's that's all it is about, and it will be a powerful thing.
But it's about coming together as one again in the arms of the Almighty maker.
Frank, Welcome to the Jesus Christ Show. Yes, good morning,
Hi there, Can you speak up just a little bit? Yes? Does
Jesus week Yes. As a matter of fact, that's the the shortest verse
in the entire entirety of scripture is John eleven thirty five. That simply says,
Jesus wept. Oh. It's the shortest verse you'll find in scripture,
and you have to understand that, as one god, one hundred percent man,
that those feelings or certain emotions are going to be felt. That's how
I could be tempted, at least technically in the desert by the enemy,
and that the pain that I felt was real. A lot of people go,
well, what was taking place on the cross? And if if he
knew he wasn't going to die technically or he was going to resurrect. And
to my response as well, the reason I felt those things is because I
was a man, and taking on the sins of the world was different for
me than it was The pain was different from me than what another man or
what the thieves on either side of me were feeling. Because I was sinless,
there was no need imagine being in jail is horrible. Being incarcerated as
horrible for something that you did. Imagine being in jail for life for something
you didn't do. Now you compound that under the circumstance into an understanding that
surpasses anything you can imagine, and it shows that the pain was something unique,
something that only I could feel. And there were many situations. There
were times where I was lonely as well were times that I wanted those with
me to come and pray, and they did not could not. Their bodies
were exhausted, fatigued, and they just couldn't. But simply, the tiniest
verse there in jail on eleven thirty five is Jesus Wept k f I AM
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