Dear Lord,
Today…….I am asking all my prayer warriors to say a prayer that may help others. So many people are hurting right now. Many are struggling with finances and need jobs. Some are facing foreclosure and don’t even know how they are going to make it from week to week..

Many are lonely. . Many are heartbroken. . Many are facing sickness and health is fading. . Some are dealing with difficult family members. Many have lost HOPE.. Tonight, let us put our prayers and faith together decree and declare breakthrough over our families. Financial miracles WILL take place. Jobs WILL be found. Our Bodies WILL be made whole & sickness WILL flee. Marriages and relationships WILL be restored. Family members WILL find Jesus. Heartbreaks WILL be healed. JOY WILL be restored and HOPE WILL be found. In Jesus Name. Amen!!!!!! Keep God First…….

I think we’re listening to everybody and everything else hoping to find the voice of God elsewhere when we are um really turning our, our noses up at and ignoring the main means of communication that we have access to straight from the hand of God himself.
And that’s the, the Bible. If you want to hear from God and you don’t never read the Bible, then you don’t really wanna hear from God because that’s the primary way.
So you started speaking back when you were like 19 years old. Yes. What? OK. Your parents are amazing first.
So let’s start with you. Where, where you came from? Your mom and dad? Uh Bishop Tony. Yes. Right there.
Such a great, such a great man and your mother. See your mother did such a good job.
They are beautiful people. And let me tell you it, it, it, it, it just put joy in my heart to even discuss them.
And the reason is because I know a lot of preachers, kids who do not have my story.
Their parents were one way at church and they were a different way at home and the, the relationship with Jesus Christ was so segmented because it was like church life over there and then regular life and regular life look different.
And that is not my testimony. My parents are people of integrity and character.
They’re like for real, like all that stuff.
My dad preaches about family and, and um just the the unit of, of God being passed from one generation to the next in the unit of the family.
Um The message of Christ being passed along, you know, he, he believed that we had devotions together as a family.
We, we weren’t a perfect family, you know, but um my dad was intentional, my mother, they were intentional about making sure that they passed on what ministry really is.
It’s an overflow of your relationship with Jesus Christ. That’s right.
You know, I, I thank God, I got the same story. Yeah. Amazing parents.
And my dad always said, man, your ministry is your, is your family in, in miniature that and your family is, is, if it doesn’t happen at home, it’s not gonna happen anywhere else.
And um so it’s such an amazing heritage that we have. What’s your story, girl?
Well, actually the, the same, you know, my parents uh loved each other and loved me.
And I was told every day that um by my dad that I could be anything and do anything and believed in me.
And I’m very aware that our stories is not the, sadly, not as common you know, that there are so many women in particular who, you know, have, deal with abuse and betrayal and abandonment and then they grow up and, and look for love and security in all sorts of other places.
So we’re, but, you know, you’re just grateful. Yeah. Yeah. I’m grateful too.
But I think about that and realize that when I just go back one generation beyond my parents, my grandparents, the choices that they made literally changed the trajectory of our entire family line.
So at some point, somebody had to decide enough is enough.
And I’m gonna actually be a man or a woman of God.
And I’m gonna follow the Laurels of scripture and I’m gonna pass this down to my Children.
Somebody in some family line has to make that choice.
That’s exactly so it might as well be us right now.
It might as well be that you said that because my dad um again, loved me very well, but he had never heard I love you from his parents.
So he made the decision that he was not gonna be that.
So just to your point, somebody has to at some point make up of the change and go, we’re gonna do it differently.
And what I love about God is that even if we, if, if maybe you don’t have that heritage, God can take one moment of time.
There’s nothing wasted in the kingdom of God. And I love that.
But you minister so many people um around this world, women from every tribe and tongue and uh where, where OK, tell us about you if we were to just squeeze you, what do you think your life’s message?
Is, is it one particular thing or is it just, I mean, you talk about everything but it really is that the scriptures that from beginning to end, they really are a meeting with a person and that if I can encourage people to see that the Bible itself is not just a book that we’re not just supposed to know it here, but that it literally by the Holy Spirit’s power is translated into an experience with a person in our regular everyday rhythms of life where you experience his passion, his peace, you actually sense the joy, the comfort, the, the nearness of God through the scriptures.
That’s what I wanna be able to communicate. I want the scriptures to come alive as it did for me.
Not only in church, as my dad preached faithfully every Sunday as he still does to this day.
Um And not only sitting at the knees of my mom with her little flannel ward pieces as she would, you know, put them there on the little, you know, the little felt we all Sunday school kids.
So, you know, not, not just in those instances, but when we’re just quietly at our kitchen table, just reading whatever our quiet time is for the day that that’s not supposed to be a duty just to check off that we did our quiet time.
This is his love letter to you.
And if we open our hearts up to the reality that that’s his intention is to speak to us, then we meet the author of the letter, not just the letter itself and it is the living word of God.
If, if, if you don’t have some of these books, you better get some.
I’ve been listening to the audio version of this for the last couple of days.
And I’m telling you, um hearing the voice of God, you know, and discerning um the voice of God and starts first with listening.
It does, it starts with listening and to be listening to the scriptures, I think we’re listening to everybody and everything else hoping to find the voice of God elsewhere when we are um really turning our, our noses up at and ignoring the main means of communication that we have access to straight from the hand of God himself.
And that’s the, the Bible. If you want to hear from God and you don’t never read the Bible, then you don’t really want to hear from God because that’s the primary way He speaks.
People want it, you know, sky writing and you know, smoke signals, it’s like no open the Bible.
God will speak to you. That’s exactly right.
And think about this, you know, we look at the people in the Old Testament who had some of those things that we desire, you know, the, the, the fiery pillar by night and the cloud, you know, in the day and, and all of these different things and we look at the dreams and the visions and donkey speaking and all this stuff.
We were like, Lord, if you could just do that, we’d appreciate that.
You know, if lightning would flash at noon tomorrow, if you want me to take the job or not, we want that.
But think about the fact that the psalmist prayed and said, Lord, please do not take your spirit from me.
They want it in the Old Testament, what we have access to. That’s right.
The reason they needed all of that and not that God can’t still do that because he can’t be chooses to.
But the reason they needed those things is because they didn’t not have the gift that we have.
And that is the Holy Spirit Spirit living every single, that’s exactly right.
You know, we were just actually um at church recently talking about the Holy Spirit and who he is.
And, and it um one of the, you know, the is the word that would be used to translate him.
And that’s actually a battle term which you’re probably aware of and you’re so deep, Holly and so deep, you’re so, so deeply spiritual.
Um And it’s so it’s an ancient battle term.
And so the Greeks when they would go out to battle, you know, they would go in pairs and you would fight back to back, protecting each other’s back.
Well, your battle partner was called your, so the Holy Spirit. Hey, girl, that’ll preach right there. Right.
Yes, it does. And it so did. He’s your battle partner.
And, but if you don’t, if you actually don’t connect and build this relationship with him, right, then how, how are you going to hear?
And you’re right. So many times we spend so much time flipping through social media and getting on Facebook and we spend all that time looking for information to make decisions and he is our guide.
That’s right. Right. It’s his voice. He’s, he wants to guide and direct us. Yeah.
And I think there’s a misconception that the enemy sort of pushes on individual believers that there is some special hotline connection that God has with some of us that He does not also offer to everyone that if you haven’t been to seminary that if you’re not in ministry that if you don’t have this religious devoted elevated life of spirituality that you don’t also have the opportunity to hear from God.
But I’m so grateful that it’s just that hearing God is for regular women. You know what I mean?
Housewives and people trying to fold the laundry and cook with their kids and figure out new ways to cook chicken for dinner is for us.
You know, I’m so, I’m so grateful um, that it’s not just reserved for certain people at certain times, but by God’s spirit we all have access to hear them because I think I’d be goon.
That’s right. That wasn’t, that wasn’t the case. I think that’s probably one of my most.
Um, if anybody, if I could open my mouth and say anything is that God loves you and that God is there and that God is with you and the Holy Spirit never leaves you never.
You know, that’s my passion. If I, if I ever tell anybody that is that, it’s not just for the guy that’s up on the pulpit or preaching or that it’s just for us no matter where we are, no matter for all, no matter what.
But OK, how did you start doing the kids stuff? When did that take place?
You know what it started about six years ago.
Now, I was making scrambled eggs in the morning as you do as you do. That’s right.
Um My four year old at the time was already sitting down eating his plate.
I was finishing up another plate and my four year old said, while my back was turned to him, he said, mom, will I ever be in a battle?
And I just said, what, babe, he said, will I ever be in a battle like with Satan?
And i it’s one of those questions where you kind of turn around and go now what, you know, what, what were you dreaming about last night?
You know what, where did that come from?
And so it startled me, but I just kind of turned around and he had this, this innocent, wide eyed um look that he was very serious.
He wanted to know the answer to that question.
So I took the opportunity after, after praying really quickly and saying, how do I answer this? Lord?
I just said, you know, actually, babe, you, you are in a battle with the enemy every single day.
You know that tug that you feel on the inside to engage in something.
Maybe you shouldn’t to say something to be mean to.
And then you feel that pull back and forth about whether or not to do it, that’s the the war.
And then by this time a six year old brother comes around the baby at the time was in the crib.
I mean, he’s like little teeny bit. And I said, guys, you do know you have invisible armor, right?
And to a four year old and a six year old boy hearing that they have, they’ve got a sword, what you know, there’s a helmet available.
So I just started and we started memorizing Ephesians chapter six.
And so as I was looking at how engaged they were in this idea that there’s a spiritual battle and that they’re engaged in it every single day as a mom who’s hoping her boys will love to read.
I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be great if there was an adventure series that really was all about fiction, all about some kids who discover that there is an invisible realm and that in this invisible realm, they meet a guide, this guide shows them and gives them access to the armor that they, they have available to them to defeat the enemy there.
And that the victories they experience there in a which is, which is a Greek word for invisible that the victory they experience there translates to their experiences on earth.
If they can just learn how to get victory there, they’ll experience victory here.
And so I just started crafting these chapters for my boys and I would read it to them before bed and, and craft these characters and I sort of base the characters off of my boys and nieces and nephews and I didn’t intend to write them for publishing.
I was just writing them to read to my boys so that we’d have something to read together.
And so here six years later, we have the Prince Warrior series and it’s for prince and princesses alike who just want to, to learn how to arm themselves to stand firm against the schemes of the enemy.
Wow. Oh, it’s so good. I, I um actually can’t wait to read those to Jordan.
No, 30 year old. Yeah, probably not. But I like them. You never know.
But I just have so many young people in my world and I, I just think it’s, well, personally I love, um, it’s like why I love CS Lewis because he could fiction that actually could make the point.
I just feel like I learned so much from that almost more than somebody teaches, you know, like he was telling the story and the goal was to give organic opportunity for there to be a conversation between a, you know, a 10 year old and their mom or a 10 year old and their dad about something they read and it just hinted at something that caused a spiritual interest to be peaked, that opens the door for this conversation about spiritual things.
By the way, Jesus told stories, stories. That’s right. That’s right.
So the, the theological principles are just all tucked in there somewhere.
We actually decided on um the Prince warriors dot com.
What we did is we have this little button called se secrets so that a parent or kid can click on secrets and actually see what the theological secrets are that are tucked in each chapter.
Wow. So if a parent hadn’t read the whole thing, but they just wanna go in there and they know their kids on chapter two, book two, they can go in there and see what the secrets are and then bring it up at dinner and say, hey, when you read this, what do you think that meant?
So, we just start trying to stir the conversation a little bit. That’s so cool. That’s awesome.
Ok, so um a few months ago we were at Bishop Jake’s church and you got the, the big beautiful award.
They are beautiful people. Are, aren’t they amazing? And my mother in law got the lifetime achievement. Yes, she did.
And um so you had your kids with you boys? Three beautiful boys, by the way, giant boys.
They are giant. I mean, I just remember them from being little every day.
But you um something that touched me so much during that is that you started uh telling the the audience what you speak over your kids.
And so just talk about that. Did you, did your parents do that to you?
Um Like that or was it just something um that you, I I’m trying to think of exactly why I started doing that.
What the specific reason was. I don’t know that I can remember.
I just thought this is my opportunity to get something stuck in their head.
Get a message stuck in time. Yeah, this is my opportunity.
You know, while I have an audience, while they’re here and nothing with me. That’s right.
I’m gonna get this, this soundtrack stuck in their head because I know the enemy is coming after them.
I know that he’s gonna try to make them feel insecure and discouraged and overwhelmed and frustrated and like they’re ill equipped to do whatever God has for them.
So I have literally said nearly the same thing to them for years and years.
Every morning they know what’s coming.
I say boys look at Mama in the eyes and they all go uh and they love it.
They just don’t, you know, is that what’s happening? Oh, yeah. OK.
I hope they tell this story 40 years from now. They’ll sitting here on this, they’re talking about that.
They better rise up and call me the lesson. They better do.
And that part of it, you will, you will rise up and coming and I do, I just look at them and I say you are men of integrity and character and honesty.
You will be a blessing to your teacher today. You will be a blessing to your friends.
You will love the Lord, your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength, you will put on the full armor of God so that you can stand firm against the schemes of the devil.
You will have the praises of the Lord in your mouth all day long so that you can speak well over those who are near you.
You are the head, you are not the tail, you are above, you are not beneath, you are a leader, you are not a follower and you will love the Lord, your God all of your days.
And about halfway through that they start going, you will love the Lord, your God.
So they’re, they’re moaning about it, but the fact that they can repeat it back to me.
Yeah, that means that it’s getting in.
I remember one time when um just with Paris, what she would hear from me often in the phrase I would use is you’re the love beyond measure, daughter of the king.
That’s great. And so I talk about that and so, and you know, put that in the middle of sentences all the time.
And then one time I overheard her on the phone with a little friend and there was this emotional thing happening.
She goes, no, you, you’re, you are the love beyond measure, daughter of a king. Do you know that?
That’s awesome. So I was just like, yes, yes, that’s, those are small, little victories are, listen, because there’s a lot of stuff you go through and so we have to celebrate the victories.
That’s right. I know. So now that they’re, you know, they’re older now. And so I’ve just printed it up.
Actually, I printed up unique ones that I can start to see little ways that the enemy might wanna take advantage of a vulnerability here or fear here or an insecurity there.
So I just wrote up a little list for each one and I have them posted on the our our house is really tiny.
So they’re right there in the the hallway posted on the little closet door and every morning, I still say my part to them, but they have to go read their own out loud.
Um, so that I can hear it, but also so that they can hear it.
And so they read their own every single day.
I’m like, this is my, this is my chance to put as much in them as I can.
You have that post on your website or anything that people, you know what I wrote a blog post about it a while back, I’ll have to.
So it’s there, it is there, but I’ll repost it again. Jerry. Could you get on it?
What’s gonna happen? We, we post that so that people could that out.
That’s that and say that I love that and I love that actually that they, you have them say some things because, right, you know, faith comes by hearing.
That’s right. And you have to hear sometimes from your own.
I, I actually remember when I was um dealing with cancer that I could read the, the healing scriptures, but there’s something about saying them out loud and saying them louder than the fear in my own head, right?
Because the fear in my head was big and so saying it louder.
And so there’s just something about finding a promise.
Um And I know there are people watching and you’re in the middle of your own situation and so it’s worth it to do the work to find the promise that speaks to your situation and underline it certainly.
But take a moment and sho shout it, shout it, shout it loud because fear, fear can over, you can try to overtake it, but you just speak his truth louder.
So I love the fact that you have your voice and not to mention the fact Holly, that the enemy does not know what we are thinking, but he sure enough, we’ll hear what you’re saying, right?
So when we speak God’s word into the atmosphere, we are actually clothing ourselves in the promises of God.
Um It’s almost like it becomes a fortified shelter against the attacks of the enemy because God watches over his word to perform it.
So we can either give the enemy ammunition with negativity and complaining and speaking, um basically collaborating with his attempts to drag us down or we can go ahead and just speak the promises of God and let the enemy know.
We’re not just gonna let him just waltz in here and take advantage of us.
We’re gonna put up a fight because we’re gonna stand firm on what our God says.
But it’s so it’s good that you put it that way because to be honest, there are times when it’s so much easier to complain.
Oh I mean, come on, follow in it and I, I was, I have a pity party and invite friends and join you.
I’ll bring the coffee, you bring the chocolate. Um David said, you know, I complained and my spirit was overwhelmed.
Right. So, we get overwhelmed because we playing, but it’s complaining is so easy.
Oh, oh, it’s intrinsic. It’s easier just to focus on me and the bad and, and the more we do, the bigger the problems become whatever you give your attention to and then you try and other people, you want other people to join.
You’re complaining. Yeah, it doesn’t actually help anything.
So, and then we get mad at the friends who won’t join us really wanna be their friends. Exactly.
You feel bad for me? Right. Well, you know, I, it’s like a marriage.
I, uh, a marriage that was actually close to us for a while.
Um, one of one day the girl said to me she said, you know, it’s really hard being around other good marriages because ours is so bad.
And I was like, hello? You need to be around good marriages. Isn’t that interesting?
It was easier for her to be around bad marriages.
So we had to break a lot, just like a lot of judgment.
I, I think some of that was part of it but maybe a lot of jealousy, you know, because you had a good one and, and we don’t have so it’s really hard to be around the good ones.
You know? I don’t get, I don’t even get that. Yeah. Marriage takes work, doesn’t it?
And anybody here at this table have a perfect marriage. Anybody married to? Perfect man.
Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah.
Well, Priscilla and I are not, I’m pretty sure, but actually I know your husband is not perfect, not perfect for you.
You’re a hot mess. But it does take work. Right. It takes, speaking the truth.
It takes persevering through the talking over him every day.
You will and surrounding yourself, like you just said, surrounding yourself with people who are gonna hold you accountable to doing the work of marriage.
And we have this older, I say older couple, they’re really not. They’re 10 years down the road.
So they’re 10 years down the road and raising kids and marriage and ministry.
And that’s all you really do need someone where there’s a little bit of a gap that they can look back on the season you’re in and give wise input.
But we’ve really submitted ourselves to their authority in the sense that if they look at our schedule and they’re like, when is the last time y’all been on a date?
When’s the last time you guys have actually had a really good conversation?
That wasn’t about business or wasn’t about ministry. It’s just about the two of you.
And if we have not done that and they say get your butts on a plane and get to us right now, we have a commitment to them that if there’s something they see we need to realign, we will get on a plane and we will get there because they care more about the state of our souls than they do the state of our, our ministry.
They need people like that that are gonna just charge you up and keep everything in the.
Sometimes I think people, the people will say that, you know, like you need accountability, you need, but then to do the work of than actually being accountable, yielding yourself to somebody else’s voice, especially for a guy.
I feel like it’s easier for us as women because we’re relational beings.
We like that feeling of protectiveness and being covered. Um There’s safety and security.
So it’s at least easier for us for, for, for sometimes for our husbands.
They’re not, they’re like, I’m the leader in this house and I’m not trying to submit to anybody else.
The best husband in the world I think are those who are willing to submit to the authority of their pastor or spiritual leader in their life to humble themselves, to know that I need guidance and direction.
And so we got pray for our husbands in that regard because that’s a hard thing for that, that man part of man, you know that macho man part which we love, we love the macho man.
We do. No, but it’s, I actually remember um 1000 years ago, you might have just had the baby.
So we’re sitting at dinner with the four of us, Philip and me and you and Jerry and you pulled out this little pad of paper and go.
Ok. How do we do this?
I was like, well, why it wasn’t prepared but it was, how do you, how do we do you know marriage and raise kids and do the ministry?
Because at that time your kids would have been the ages. My kids are right now. Right. Right.
And I’m always very mindful of that when I’m around people that are just a step ahead.
I wanna just glean what I can from this moment because they’ve been there and done this already.
It’s no point in all of us making the same mistake.
We might as well just learn from each other because our to do that.
So I just actually, I appreciate that about you.
But then I feel like that’s I, I do that all the time. I’m calling people and go.
So how do you handle this situation when my kids were teenagers?
And I was, you know, trying to not kill them?
I go OK, help a sister out here because Right, having the real conversations humbling yourself, you know, acknowledging that they’re, your kids aren’t perfect but help, help me get them along the next step.
So I just, you know, appreciate that quality in you and raising kids.
You know, I know that um uh when we talk about, um you know, the truth sets us free and, and Jesus always, you know, when he was encountered by the devil, he said, get behind me, Satan, he spoke truth to alive and then said, get behind me.
I’ll no longer look at you. So we know that speaking the word.
That’s, that’s our battle, right? That’s right. That’s how we fight. That’s right.
It’s a sword of the spirit, the word of God, it’s a sword of the spirit.
And so that’s, that’s help us, help us to know when you talk about prayer and your, your fervent book.
This one right here. Um A woman’s battle plan for serious specific and strategic prayer.
Tell us a little bit about, about that. Yeah.
You know, one of the things that I walked away with from the, from the film, from the recording of the film, we, we filmed for about um three months.
And after saying those lines over and over and really just being engrossed in this story line, it occurred to me that while I did value prayer, I had neglected intentionality with prayer.
Um Being strategic in prayer, actually trying to detect where you see the enemy’s fingerprints at um at kind of his handiwork, meddling in your life um where you anticipate he might want to take advantage of a weakness or a or a, a bit of divisiveness um and just being mindful of that so that when we pray, we’re not just randomly saying words that we’ve heard all along or words that we’ve kind of memorized along the way or words that are comfortable to us, but we’re actually um praying in a way that is targeted.
It’s kind of exactly what you described a few moments doing the work to find the promises of God that actually apply and everything that we intentional prayer.
Um And then writing it down, sometimes we need to write our prayers down only because it keeps us focused.
It reminds us what we’re praying about. You know.
So when it’s posted there in that war room and you come back in there day after day, you’re reminded, this is your prayer.
This is where you’re focusing your um your prayer life on it.
And, and until I see an answer, I’m gonna keep praying this prayer, it also gives you a great track record with God because then when God does answer, you can see that date at the top of that page of when you started praying that and then you’ll be able to put a date down of when God answered.
However, in his sovereignty, he chose to what a great track record, not just for you, but your grandchildren and your great grandchildren to see how grandmama or uh grandpa prayed and believed that God would answer.
I think the thing I loved about uh you know, even and the prayer because in Ephesians six, it talks about the armor, you know, which we’re familiar with.
But then prayer is, yeah, that’s right. Kicks into to that sword.
It, it’s right and it’s not the, the, the prayer that’s oh God, why you know the whining?
I mean, you can do that for a minute because we all need to whine for a minute.
The complaining side, you can complain to God because the psalms. David complained for a bit.
I mean, you know, he went, he went on a journey with God.
He, he was in and real with his pain and agony before God.
And so there’s gotta be a rising and there has to be a point where you, that’s the thing.
So at some point, yes, do the complaining.
But at some point, you have to begin speaking the truth of what God has to say about your marriage, about your health and about your family, about reconciliation.
And I just remember even that for me with um just some situations and you know, family and extended family that was hard.
It was so hard and, and I remember moments of, you know, the complaining before God because of course, I was perfect and they were the problem.
Well, everybody else needs to change. Yes, they would, it would really help out my life totally.
Um Then, but so I, you know, complained but then I started, you know, talking about pulling out the scriptures that talked about unity and reconciliation and, and together and faithfulness and just declaring that.
And I’ve seen God do what only He could do in the lives of people.
I mean, I saw it in my health. But I also have also seen it in relationships with people.
And so I just think that, that if, if people understood more about the power, you know, some people say, well, all I can do is pray.
No, no, that’s not all that’s the thing, the thing to do, right is, is 2nd 2nd 7, 14, if my people, right, who are called by my name, humble themselves and pray, right, then he’s gonna heal our land.
We’re too busy complaining about our land and our government and all that’s happening. It’s like, well, you can complain.
But if you prayed as much as you complained, maybe we would see something different.
And you know what if I were your enemy, what I’d want to do is devalue in your mind.
The potency of what I know to be the most powerful weapon you have against me.
So he’s made our churches focus on being a house of great programs or a house of great preaching and a house of great singing when they’re supposed to be a house of prayer because it’s the prayer that pushes back the kingdom of darkness.
So if I were the enemy, that’s exactly what I do.
I devalue what I knew was the most potent weapon that you had in your arsenal against me.
So we do everything first except pray, pray. And so for you uh personally.
So how do you, when do you, when do you pray. Are you the late at night person?
Are you the middle of the day person? Are you?
Well, I, first of all, lest anyone think that my life is, you know, I’m up on a mountain top praying and God all day.
Yeah. That’s right. Um, my life is very much like everybody else’s that.
It’s just laundries and laundering kids and it’s kind of that thing where, you know, once your feet hit the floor in the morning is over, it’s just full on for the rest of the day, right?
And so um I have this ongoing uh actually part of my prayer is Lord, would you continue to help me to prioritize this in my life?
Because it can kind of get pushed off of the, that, that position of priority.
So I just say, Lord, I need you to stir. I don’t wanna manufacture passion.
I want you to stir in me a passion to where I don’t wanna go a day without prioritizing prayer and then hearing back from you listening to you through the scriptures.
And so I try to do that in the morning because it seems like that’s the best time.
If I wait till the end of the day, I’m it, it ain’t gonna happen.
No, that’s the same with me. No.
If I don’t, if in the morning, if I, if it doesn’t happen, then yeah, then it just gets, it’s like if it doesn’t happen, just the very first time I know then once you get going, it’s, it’s true.
But I will say I learned a bit from Brother Lawrence that, you know, age old saint from that book practicing the presence of God.
Um That really just gives us freedom, lifts that burden off of us, of feeling like if we don’t have an hour to spend with the Lord at the beginning of the day, that it’s a waste of time to practice God’s presence all day long.
So my kids are a little bit older now, but I went through a season four or 56 years there where I would just write down scripture verse on a three by five card.
The same one on five different cards maybe.
And I’d put one on the bathroom mirror where be washing little hands all day.
One where I was gonna be doing the dishes, one where I was folding clothes, one near the sandbox outside.
And I just would have the same verse for like two weeks.
So everywhere I went, I was just running into this verse.
And by the time I got to the end of the day, not only had me and the Lord talked about this one verse a lot.
Not only was it inscribed on my heart, but it became God’s word to me.
It became um something that really there was life in it.
It wasn’t just a verse I’d learned there was life in it because me and God been talking all day long for a couple of weeks about the sentiments that he’d um inscribed in this, in this passage of scripture.
So I think that idea of practicing the presence of God.
Um It takes that guilt off of, I didn’t have my quiet time and it didn’t look like this and it didn’t fit in a comfortable little box.
Well, look, do it however you gotta do it. Practice his presence all day long. How do we do that?
Well, number one, by being creative with how you can feed yourself on his word.
So my sister, five kids, she’s got this little clip on our dashboard.
She’ll do the same thing, write a three by five card down with scripture and she puts it in that clip and so, you know, running errands for two hours every day, trying to get kids to soccer practice and everything.
She’s just running face to face um in face to face with this, with this verse over and over through out the scriptures.
When things come up in the middle of the day that are problems, you might call a girlfriend about, you might, you can still call her, but also call on God, just ask him about it.
Ask him about what scripture verse applies to this particular uh circumstance.
How would he want to lead and guide you?
And you’ll be amazed how you begin to see the encounters that you have the circumstances that align the little beckonings and convictions of God’s spirit, how they all begin to work together to help you to, to realize you actually are hearing God’s voice and seeing his providence as he steers you in the direction of his will for your life.
It doesn’t have to be so mystical. Yeah. It’s, it’s a, it’s a little more just what you’re saying.
It’s a practical thing. Just it is, it is like, it’s like, um, Philip, the reason I know his voice when he call, he doesn’t have to say a long sentence.
He goes, hey, babe, I recognize it because that’s with him all day. That’s right. Right.
If I only talked to him once every blue moon, that would be a little trickier. That’s right.
To me it’s the same with God.
It’s, if you just, you spend those moments, you know, talking, listening, talking, listening, reading the word.
It becomes, um, very familiar, like Anthony’s voice compared to your dad’s. Well, that’s right. I talked about that.
The voice that my brother and my dad, they have the same name. They walk alike, they talk alike.
I’ve seen my brother take advantage of the fact that he’s got my dad’s name, you know, to try to milk that as much as it’s like I wanna hear that story.
Oh, Anthony’s done that quite a few times. Throw my money in the bus. Right.
But even though he’s fooled a lot of people before, not you not me because I know the two way voice, right?
You know his voice. And so, you know, there are things, for example, that people could say to me that Jerry said my husband, Jerry said this.
But if it is totally out of the character that I know to be of my husband of 8, 18 years, then I would be able to confidently say to them.
I know my man didn’t say that because I know Him, you know.
And so that’s why we read God’s word because we get to know his personality, we get to know the character of God.
We get to see the kinds of things he says and doesn’t say.
And so it occurs to us when our ego is speaking or when fear is trying to get a word in because fear always has something to say and pride and insecurity is also speaking, the enemy is speaking, you’ll be able to detect.
Well, God didn’t say that because that’s totally out of a out of alignment with his character or out of alignment with his personality as it’s displayed in scripture.
And so the more you know, God, the more clearly you can hear Him at TBN.
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