Joel Osteen Podcast - Make Time Alone With God

Episode Date: March 14, 2018

The way to develop an intimate relationship with God, a relationship where you hear His voice and let Him mold and make you into the person He wants you to be, is when you push away the distractions and simply sit at His feet. Perhaps you take a Scripture and just ponder over it and listen to what He is saying. Perhaps you sit quietly in His presence and say, “God, I love You today. Thank You for this day. Father, I want You to reveal more of Yourself to me.” Whatever that intimacy looks like for you, the only thing that will satisfy the needs of your soul and give vision for your life is to set yourself apart and sit at the feet of Jesus. Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of the Joel Osteen Podcast ad-free and a whole week early. Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

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Amen. You may be seated. You know, we have such a privilege in prayer. You know, sometimes we take prayer for granted, but prayer is a privilege. It's talking to God, communicating with God. You see, the Bible says that when our spirit connects with God's spirit, something incredible happens. We are ignited with the power of Almighty God. See, the strongest part of you is not your physical body. It's not your emotional or your soulless realm. The strongest part of you, the eternal part of you, is your spirit man. And when you connect the strongest part of you with the strongest force in the universe,

there's an exchange that takes place. There's a powerful transformation that takes place. See, God is a big God. He flung the stars into space. He's in full control, just like we sang about God is unshakable. He's huge. And we have the privilege to commune with this huge God. We cannot take for granted that we can speak to God and that God hears us.

It says in Romans 8, God's spirit testifies with our spirit. You see, God's spirit is constantly telling our spirit when we get into communion with him, who we are, what we can do. Our spirit is picking up the signals of God. It's changing. It's growing. It's taking on a new dimension, a heavenly dimension, a dimension that you can't get on this earth. You can only get it when you ignite and connect your spirit with God's spirit.

Now, that sounds far out, doesn't it? But it's the truth. It's the truth. You are a spiritual being and you were designed to connect with your spiritual father. In fact, when Jesus left this earth, you know what he said? He said, I'm leaving the Holy Spirit here with you, the person of the Holy Spirit. That's who we get to talk to every single day. Paul told us and encouraged us all through the New Testament to pray continuously, to pray without ceasing, to pray all kinds of prayers, all kinds of requests, all kinds of petitions to God. He was saying, go for it. Talk to God. Wow, isn't that incredible? But God doesn't judge us when we talk to him. He communes with us. Think about when your child

comes up to you, you don't judge them. Your heart goes out to them. You want to help them. first thing that you want to do is fix them, encourage them, strengthen them. You're looking at what they're doing right, not what they're doing wrong. Well, when you come to God, he is looking at what you're doing right. He sees that recreated spirit within you. And he is connecting his spirit. The very lifeline of heaven is being connected to you. You know, Jesus gave us an example of a habit that he had. And it says that Jesus would often withdraw

to lonely places leaving the crowd to connect with his father in heaven. He also told us this in Matthew 6. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door. He says, when you pray to your father

who is unseen in secret, he will reward you. you openly? You see, Jesus was saying, not only do I need to get away from the crowds, my crowded life, the needs of the world to get with my father, but you should too. We must withdraw from this busy schedule, from this crazy hectic world, and get alone with God. We need to meet with God every single day alone. In fact, Jesus said in Matthew 6, he says, when you go into your room and you shut the door, you pray in secret, and God will reward you in secret.

God will communicate and bear witness with your spirit that you are a child of the most high God. You are connecting the strongest part of yourself with the strongest force of the universe. You are transforming your interliving. life, your inner life. That's where the spirit dwells. The Bible says it's the spirit of the man that sustains the man. We want our spirits to be strong. And the only way we can do that is when we come into this personal relationship with God. You know, it's interesting because when Joel and I were dating, we would just get alone, looking to each other's eyes, sit over dinner. We really wouldn't even have to say much. Somehow, when we were together, we just had this connection. We fell in love that

way. Can you imagine if we dated and we never got alone? All we did was hang out with all of our friends. He was always with his buddies. His buddies were always around. My girlfriends were always there, always doing something, always distracted. Would we have fallen in love the way we fell in love when we just sat with each other, looked at each other, got to know one another? It's interesting. I know him quite well. In fact, we were married eight years before we had our son Jonathan. So we spent a lot of alone time together. I know what he likes to eat. I can pretty much tell you what he likes and doesn't like. In fact, if we're not together, somehow, if I'm by myself and a situation arises, I just know what he would tell me to do. Now, if I do it or not, that's another story. But just somehow from being with him and building this relationship, I know what he would want me to do. And you know, that's how it is with our relationship with God. We learn about God.

We develop this relationship, this intimacy with him when we're together, when we're away from the distractions, just when we're gazing into his eyes, simply sitting at his feet. You see, when we set ourselves apart, God sets us up to win. When we're willing to let go of the distractions, to push through getting along with him. And I can tell you that there is a push through that you have to do. Because sometimes you can sit there and you don't know what to do. Maybe you take a scripture and you just ponder it over and over. Maybe you sit there and you just say, God, I thank you.

I love you. Thank you for breath to breathe. Thank you for this day. Thank you for molding me and making me who I am. Father, I want to know you more. Reveal yourself to me, God. I don't know what that intimacy looks like for you, but I can tell you this, that you have a need. The only thing that's going to satisfy your soul, the only thing that's going to give you vision for your life, is to sit at the feet of Jesus, to set yourself apart, to say it's worth it. It's worth building a relationship. See, Jesus is waiting for you.

He's waiting to fill you with victory. He's waiting to fill you with joy. He's waiting to fill you with a new dimension in your thought life. He's waiting for you. Sometimes we think we're waiting for him. But you know what? He's waiting for us to separate ourselves out, to give him the time he deserves,

to set ourselves apart so that we can be holy and be sanctioned by him to do everything that he's called us to. do. I believe this year that we're going to develop this habit. We're going to make it a priority. It's not going to be a second thought. We're not going to try to make time. We are going to make time. See, time is so valuable. And when we realize time is valuable, you can make money. You can always make more money. You can get another job. But you can't make time. Time is precious. And if we don't carve it out, it'll get away from us. We need to spend our

time wisely, we need to spend it with God. Amen. Amen. Now available from New York Times best-selling author, Victoria Osteen, her brand new 30-day audio devotional. Embracing Every Day. In this uplifting 30-day audio devotional, you'll be challenged and inspired to start living with greater faith and favor every day. Request your copy of Embracing Every Day today at Joel Osteen.com or call 888-567 Joel. Be a barbecue hero with delicious ultra-low-net carb, Hero bread buns and tortillas. Soft and fluffy, high in fiber,

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