Be encouraged and inspired as Priscilla Shirer gives practical tips on how to dive deep into God’s Word and hear His voice in your life! This video was brought to you by TBN Networks®. SUBSCRIBE here and never miss an upload! https://www.youtube.com/c/PraiseTBN/?… WATCH full Praise episodes for free on the TBN app: https://watch.tbn.org/praise

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I know you’ve got a tangled mess all

around you and your family and in the

culture and in your marriage with your

children and on your job and in your

finances and your health and your aging

parents or whatever it is that you’ve

got going on I know it’s a whole big

Tangled mess but if you will just get

back to the one thing you’ll find that

focusing on that one thing

tangles

I want to share with you

what I call

the five P’s of Bible study like the

letter P so you know if you like to take

notes I want you to get the notes out

app on your phone or get a pen or a

pencil I want you to write these five

P’s down these P’s have changed the way

that I relate to God through his word

and I say the word relate specifically

because it’s not just about reading a

book y’all this this just ain’t no book

it’s not just a regular

book filled with pages and papers and

bound by leather it’s so much more than

that this book is alive the holy spirit

makes it so that he shines a spotlight

in the place where we most need to be

fed where we need guidance and Direction

so that God’s present word leaps up off

the page and gives us exactly what we

need for the circumstances that we are

facing right now don’t know regular book

do that this book is alive

and so as we engage in it we can relate

to God through it because he speaks to

us through his word

so

these five peace have transformed my

relationship with the Bible and with the

with God himself and I want to share

them with you because what this means is

that after today on a regular Monday

regular Tuesday

on a regular old Wednesday or Thursday

or Friday or Saturday you’re not sitting

around twiddling your thumbs waiting

until the next time a pastor preaches to

you or a spiritual Mentor helps to give

you opportunity to rightly divide the

word of Truth you thank God for those

Shepherds but you’re not twiddling your

thumbs waiting on them you know that you

can have the privilege to go to God in

his word and hear him for yourself

the first P of Bible study is to

position yourself to hear from God real

simple in fact all five P’s are

position yourself to hear from God

I’m going to say it again

position yourself

to hear from God

there is power

in your positioning in your posture

okay I mean this in a spiritual sense

but I also mean it in a physical sense I

want to tell you about both

when you come to God through his word

that you’re going to meet with him

through the pages of scripture so this

is your own personal quiet time you know

you maybe have just sat up in bed and

you’re going to have 10 or 15 minutes

that you’re spending with the Lord or

you’re going to come out of your room

into the kitchen table maybe in the

quietness of the morning or in the

quietness of the evening when all the

activity in your house has died down

just a little bit you’re going to

position yourself over a portion of

scripture and I’ll tell you in just a

few moments how you can choose a portion

of scripture to dive into but when you

make that commitment to posture yourself

to position yourself I mean that in a

spiritual way meaning the position of

your heart has to be in a perspective

and a frame of reference that is eager

to hear and expects to hear the voice of

God speaking to you it’s A.W tozier a

great Theologian that put it this way

the person that does not expect to hear

God won’t

because every single time God speaks

they’ll just discount it as their own

idea they’ll think that it was just a

coincidence they will attribute it to

anything and anybody else except what it

is God’s breathed word coming to life

through the power of the Holy Spirit to

speak to you to give you guidance and

direction in your own personal life and

so you have to have a heart I have to

have a heart that is filled with

expectation that I am one of the sheep

of God’s fold and I can hear the voice

of God

John chapter 10 Jesus said

my sheep hear my voice listen to that

again he basically says the default

position for anybody who’s a part of the

fold the flock the family of God what my

sheep do

is hear my voice

it’s one of the schemes of the enemy to

get you to think that you need to be

something more be something else have a

different perspective or a different

personality or be someone other than you

are to have excelled in some way to not

have made the mistakes that you’ve made

it’s the scheme of the enemy to get us

to think that we have to be anything

other than a son or daughter to have

this right this privilege to hear God

speaking to us through the word so we

have to pray and say Lord would you

carve away anything in my heart that is

a roadblock that’s keeping me from

having an expectation that in my own

regular quiet time while I’m in my

pajamas or in my jogging suit while I’m

in my house shoes whatever I’m doing and

no matter what I look like I have the

privilege to keep company with you that

you want to cultivate Lord Jesus thank

you a friendship with me that you want

to speak with me that you gave me a love

letter so that I can hear your voice and

know you and know who you are thank you

Lord for that privilege and if my heart

doesn’t expect it would you begin to

mold in me a holy expectation that

desires and anticipates that I have the

privilege to hear the voice of God

posture your heart with expectation

the psalmist put it this way in psalm

27. it’s one of my favorite verses verse

13 and 14. he says I would have

despaired

unless I believed that I would see the

hand of the Lord in the land of the

living did you see that expectation

there he says I would have despaired I

would have been hopeless I would have

been down my countenance would have been

downcast man accept that

I expect that I’m going to see God I

expect that I’m going to hear God so I

can wait patiently on him because I have

an anticipation an expectation that God

is going to come through on my behalf

the prophet habakkuk spoke to this as

well if you look at his little book that

is named after him in the Old Testament

you’ll see that the entire first chapter

of habakkuk is habakkuk calling out to

God mostly him calling out to God and

saying Lord how long are you going to

let this go on he’s looking around him

at the destruction that he is seeing

happening in his culture in his Nation

man if that don’t speak to us right now

I don’t know what is you and I can’t

flip past all that’s happening on our

Twitter feeds our Instagram feeds the

news channels that we’re watching and

not see the vortex of chaos that is

swirling all around us habakkuk knows

exactly how you feel and he calls out to

God and says how long Lord it seems like

you’re just sitting back idly letting

all this go on and so Lord I’m going to

vocalize my concerns to you my cares to

you I’m going to be authentic I’m not

going to hold back and that’s the

privilege we have in relationship with

God he lets us ask our questions voice

our CERN he knows that in our Humanity

we have some worries and some issues and

some fears and he lets us come to hear

him and bear it all

but after habakkuk Bears it all chapter

2. he says now I’m going to climb up on

the Watchtower and I’m going to wait to

see what it is that my king is going to

say to me how God is going to respond to

me do you see that he positions himself

to hear from God

he says I’m going to climb up on a

watchtower back in biblical days there

was a stronghold or a citadel that would

sit at the front of a of a city and it

was designed so that a soldier or a

Watchman could climb up to the top of

this Watchtower position himself above

ground level circumstances in other

words he was saying there’s too much

chaos swirling around down here I’m

going to be distracted if I keep myself

positioned here so I’m going to climb up

on the Watchtower where I’m up above

ground level distractions and I’m going

to position myself here because from

this vantage point I’ll have a clear

view to the Horizon and I expect that

God is coming I have expectation that

there is someone coming who’s going to

deliver an answer for me and so because

of that expectation I’m gonna position

myself in a place and in a posture where

I can hear God where I can see his hand

where I have clear view and there’s

nothing to distract me

position yourself

spiritual expectation and anticipation

but not just spiritually like habakkuk

position yourself physically

do you see that he climbed up somewhere

he went to a place where there was some

silence and some solitude

there’s a whole lot of noise in life

isn’t it

you’ve got your to-do list and I’ve got

mine we’re trying to check the things

off that we got to do on our list when

it comes to our kids and our marriage

and what we’re cooking for dinner

tonight and the demands of the job that

we have and the ministry assignments

that are before us and all of the things

that we have to do that go into the

regular rhythms of a 24-hour day there

are so many ground level circumstances

that aren’t unnecessary they’re critical

we’ve got to keep going from day to day

but there’s got to be a moment of time

where you decide I’m gonna climb up on

the Watchtower and have some space where

there’s silence

and Solitude so that for just a few

moments there is nothing standing in the

way of me seeing the king who is coming

to respond to me of me hearing clearly

what it is that God has to say to me now

this can be difficult I know it because

your house is probably busy like mine is

many of you or you’ve got you know your

phone buzzing and ringing and beeping

and all the things that all of our

devices do so this is going to take some

intentionality on your part it’s going

to take you being proactive it’s going

to take you you know setting your alarm

to get up a little bit early or when

you’re in your car deciding that at this

particular hour because I’m running

errands all the time then I’m going to

turn off talk radio or I’m going to turn

down the music just a little while and

I’m going to use that opportunity while

I’m sitting outside of my kids soccer

practice I’m going to use that as the 10

or 15 minutes or half hour that I’m

going to devote to having some silence

and Solitude pushing aside in my mind’s

eye all of the demands that I have so

that I can have an opportunity to have a

clear perspective on what it is that God

wants to say to me so we position

ourselves not just spiritually in

expectation but we position ourselves by

prioritizing some space

in our life where we can actually have a

clear opportunity more clear opportunity

to hear the voice of God I want to

encourage you before we move on to the

next p of Bible study to know that this

does not mean that you have to have a

specific place in your home that you go

that is just devoted to prayer sometimes

you know we can look at people’s

Instagram feeds and man their quiet time

Looks So Perfect don’t it they’ve got

their little white couch and their

little white coffee cup and everything

is so beautiful and amazing and

immaculate it looks like the most

beautiful photo shoot you have ever seen

in your life that could be discouraging

to regular folk who have you know like

dinner dishes sitting over there from

last night that we didn’t get to or

we’ve got all the toys from all of our

toddlers sitting around it or all the

homework papers from our teenagers that

are still scattered across the kitchen

table from all the online schooling or

we got the laundry sitting over there

every single load that you know we

washed and dried but we dumped it out on

the floor hoping that somebody was going

don’t come folded at some point but

there it still sits still waiting on us

and we look at the chaos of our life and

we think

can I really have quiet time in here can

I really expect God to speak to me in a

space like this the answer is yes

the enemy always wants you to think and

me to think we’ve got to have something

different about our space or different

about our lives in order to actually

meet with God intimately and personally

ourselves but listen if the bathroom is

the only place where you can find some

silence and some Solitude I gotta be

honest with you and tell you that for

many years when my children were younger

I would sit on the edge of the bathtub I

would close the bathroom door I would

lock that door and I would sit there and

that’s where I would have time with the

Lord I have a friend when her children

were young she used to tell me that she

would go into her closet like she made

her actual closet her prayer closet and

she said listen I would sit right under

the blouses where the blouses were with

a flashlight that’s the only space that

I could find to have a little silence

and a little Solitude for many of you

it’s it’s in your car I mean you’re in

your car anyway why not make that car a

sanctuary a place where you can meet

with God because you’re in that car

anyway and you’re buy yourself there why

not make that an opportunity where you

can make that space a Sacred Space to

meet with God

you’ve seen people who are doing that

you know they’re driving down the

freeway and you just see them worshiping

God and you see their hands outstretched

and you see they’re having a whole

prayer meeting a whole church service by

themselves in the car they have made

their car a place that can be a

watchtower where they can meet with God

around his word

position yourself

oh more now than ever brothers and

sisters we’re gonna have to prioritize

positioning ourselves we’re getting a

word from everybody else from the

newscasters from the media from the

politicians from our friends from

opinion makers we’re getting news from

everybody else we’ve got to position

ourselves not just to hear them but

we’ve got to prioritize positioning

ourselves to hear a word from God

so once you position yourself and you’ve

got your Bible or you know you’ve got

your electronic Bible in front of you

and you’re looking at a particular

passage of scripture I want to encourage

you to choose a passage not just you

know one verse here one verse there here

a verse there verse everywhere verse

verse it taking little verses out of

context like that can be incredibly

dangerous but what you can do is take a

whole book of the Bible

started verse one and go all the way

through

took me about two years to go through

the Book of John like this I would take

one verse or two verses a day and I

would make sure that I read right

through so as to not take anything out

of the context not only of the chapter

that it’s in but the book that it is in

because the story that God is telling is

linear meaning not only is every word

and every verse God breathed but the way

it is located in the scriptures is also

God breathed so take a whole book of the

Bible maybe one that stood out to you

recently that your pastor preached from

and it was from the book of Ephesians or

the Book of John or the book of habakkuk

and just decide you’re going to start

right at the beginning

and the second P actually has two P’s in

it I want you to pour over the passage

and paraphrase the major principles

pour over the passage and paraphrase the

major principles when I say poor over

the passage I mean that real

specifically I mean that as in

opposition to scan the passage when I

say poor I mean to meditate on it to

read it not just once but to read it

twice to read it in two or three

different translations so that you can

see different nuances of words that

maybe need to stand out to you in a

different way I mean that you open up

opportunity for you to have space and

time to think through what it would be

like if you were the woman that was

caught in adultery in that passage that

you just read see how it would feel to

have God speak over you Jesus say to you

go and sin no more it means you mull

over it for just a little while

now what this means at least what it

means for me is that if I’m really going

to pour over a passage not just scan it

but meditate on it and think about it

and wait for the Lord to speak to me

through it that means that I can’t do

that with a chapter or two at a time it

means I can’t be more interested in

quantity than I am with just quality

time with God remember it’s not about

finishing this is about you having a

friendship with God so that you can be

in sustained and encouraged and sense

the presence of God in a practical way

not in theory but no a friendship with

God where you feel and know that he is

speaking to you through his words so

most of the time that means one verse or

two verses and I read those two verses

and then I read them again and then I

might underline whatever words seem to

LEAP up off the page then I might look

those words up and I might think through

the scenario that is surrounding them

the context around them for example in

Joshua chapter 1. when Moses has just

died and the children of Israel are now

being led by Joshua into the promised

land God says to Joshua over and over

again be strong and courageous he says

be strong and courageous be strong and

courageous and then he says

be careful not to let the word leave

your mouth but keep it close to your

heart and close to your mind and

meditate on it day and night meditate

means to ponder it meditate actually

means to press your mind upon it to

think through it to evaluate it

do whatever you have to do to spend a

little time not just saying well I read

a verse a day and you know a verse a day

keeps the devil away this ain’t a

checklist

this is you developing a friendship with

God who is longing to speak to you

once I pour over a passage a verse or

two then I’ll paraphrase the major

principles I usually just have a

notebook that’s sitting nearby or I’ve

got the notes app on my phone or however

you want to do it and I just for each

verse write down a sentence or two that

paraphrases exactly what that verse said

now I want you to resist the urge to try

to be deeper to try to make it Rhyme or

sound clever you’re not trying to be

clever you are literally just taking the

words right out of the verse and writing

down a paraphrase of what that verse

says

usually when I get to this point in the

five PS I will close my Bible and I’ll

put it aside and now I’m just sitting

and I’m looking at the paraphrased

rendition of what the verse actually

says that takes me to the third p

pull out the spiritual principles

this is where I prayerfully look at

those paraphrases

and I look to see what spiritual

principles are hidden in the paraphrase

I asked God to show me

is there something he’s revealing about

his character

is there a promise here that I’m

supposed to heed is there a directive

I’m supposed to follow

is there Insight that I’m supposed to

uncover what is it that the verse says

that’s the paraphrase but now I’m asking

what does this verse mean

you will often find that there are

spiritual principles that are hidden you

would not have uncovered this is the way

God begins to speak you won’t uncover it

until you ask yourself what does this

mean

is there a direction that I’m being

given is there something about God’s

character that I’m supposed to believe

and that I’m supposed to trust in

prayerfully pray and ask the holy spirit

this is what the old preachers used to

call illumine the word ask the Holy

Spirit to illumine it and you will find

that there are spiritual principles

tucked there that begin to direct you

and I want to tell you really quickly

here on this third p

I want you to be encouraged to know that

every single time I sit down to have my

quiet time which by the way as much as I

want it to happen every single day

sometimes it doesn’t because you know

life happens

but every time I do sit down I want you

to know that each time it doesn’t mean

that I just find

um God’s word spoken over my life just

leaping up off the page every single

time and it feels vibrant and fresh and

on fire every time no sometimes I’m

reading along and it’s about the

jebusites who were fighting the

hebusites and the amorites and the

Canaanites and the otherites ate those

ice and it just seems like a waste of

time what in the world does this have to

do with my personal life right now the

crisis that I’m facing or God what you

want me to do with what I’m dealing with

my child or my financial situation or my

health or the grief or the longing in my

heart what does this have to do with

that but I find that even Those portions

of scripture

are vital to us because if nothing else

you’re still going to ask yourself

what does this teach me about the

character of God

what did he do what did he not do

what did he say what did he not say what

did he allow what did he not allow

it shows you who your God is and getting

to know his character is what this is

all about a friendship develops intimacy

develops the more we know think about

your regular friends the more you know

that person the more you know the

nuances of who they are and how they

think and what they say and what they

wouldn’t say

then remember in John chapter 10 when

Jesus said the Sheep know my voice he

says they do not respond to the voice of

a stranger the only way to be able to

detect the voice of a stranger is if you

know God well enough that when the enemy

chooses to speak fear over your life or

when your ego tries to get a word in

edgewise or when your pride is trying to

sneak in there or when the opinions of

the culture in the world sound true

the only way you’re gonna know if it

ain’t God is if you’ve come to know his

character so well that you can detect

the voice of a stranger a mile away you

know my God would never say or do that

my brother Anthony is named after my dad

so I got Anthony senior and Anthony Jr

and they walk alike they talk alike

there’s so much alike about the two

Anthonys and I’ve seen my brother use

this to his advantage and kind of fool

people I remember when we were growing

up people would call the house and so

he’d answer the phone people thought

they were talking to Pastor Evans and so

they’d give him the whole story of

whatever they were calling for he’d get

all the juicy details before saying dad

somebody’s on the phone for you

I remember one time he went up to the

ticket counter at American Airlines so

that he could get his ticket to get on

the airplane and he said well my name is

Anthony T Evans and he showed the

license it said that he was Anthony

Evans

so they pulled up my father’s profile

and my father had executive Platinum

Status because he flies so much so

immediately they upgraded Anthony gave

him first class treatment put him in

first class let him eat the meal that

first class gets he got all of that

because he was able to confuse people

because they are so similar to each

other but let me tell you who he can’t

confuse me and other members of the

family if the phone rings in the first

two minutes of the conversation or two

seconds rather of the conversation I’m

having with either Anthony I can tell

you exactly which Anthony I’m talking to

because no matter how similar they sound

I have known them for so many years and

been a part of their life and them a

part of my life in so many specific ways

that they cannot confuse me because I

know the two anthonies

do you see the more you know God

the more clearly and easily you’re going

to be able to put a finger on the voice

of the enemy when he comes by trying to

play you for the fool

so you pull out the spiritual principles

Once you pull out the spiritual

principles here’s the fourth p

ose the question

okay this is where you turn the

spiritual principle you just pulled out

you turn it into the form of a

personally directed question

man this is where the rubber meets the

road this is when the Holy Spirit starts

speaking because you say to yourself am

I living in a way that’s congruent with

that spiritual principle that I just

wrote down am I heeding that promise am

I behaving in that way is my attitude

adjusted to that have i forgiven that

person

have I been committed in my tithes

have I submitted to that Authority

maybe that verse said that I need to be

still and see the salvation of the Lord

have I been still or have I frantically

been trying to figure out everything on

my own Lord what is it that you’re

asking me to do ask yourself a

personally directed question and when

you start asking honest and authentic

questions of the text you will find that

the Holy Spirit starts giving you the

answers

start shining a spotlight on the areas

of your life and mine that I didn’t even

know existed that I need to get right

with God that I need to line up so that

I am in line for the favor and Promises

of God to be experienced in my life so

that I have fresh revelation of God’s

truth so that I can see clearly where in

the culture or in the opinion of my

friends actually that is antithetical to

what it is that God is saying in his

word and listen there are two answers to

every question God’s answer

and everybody else’s

and everybody else is wrong when they

are in contradiction to what it is that

God has said

so as the Holy Spirit starts answering

in your spiral notebook you write down

what it is that he’s been saying in your

notes write down the parts of your life

that are coming to life like the Salman

psalmist said search me o God and know

me

find out if there’s any way in me that

ain’t like you so that I can get back to

being in right relationship with you and

having the opportunity Lord to

experience everything you have for me

and after you pose the question

plan obedience

and pin down a date to obey

now the reason why that’s critical

is because we seem to plan for

everything else except

obeying God

we got a plan for our physical health

we’ve enlisted a trainer we’ve got our

meals planned out for the week

we’ve got a membership at a gym

we plan for our financial security we’ve

got a financial advisor to make sure

that we can retire at the age that we

want to so that we can save the way we

want to

we’ve planned for the project that’s due

at our job to make sure that we are

working incrementally and progressively

to make sure that the segments of the

project are each done well we plan for

everything

accept

honoring God

as God makes clearly what he’s asking

you to do forgive that person or write

that blog post that was on your heart to

write or move forward in starting that

business or stepping out in faith from

the place that you’ve been employed

whatever it is God’s asked you to do

make a plan

I mean on paper

be obedient to God intentionally and

deliberately and then enlist

accountability so that you can have some

people around you this is what church

and family the family of God is all

about put some people around you who

will challenge you and ask you and get

all up in your business and say did you

do what God has asked you to do

make a plan to be obedient to God