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so on those in those moments
in which we say you know i just don’t
feel god i don’t feel god my response is
some days i don’t either
you know that’s okay it doesn’t make you
a pagan or doesn’t make you any less
spiritual or any less loved uh on those
days you just stand on the covenant
jesus said i’m with you always to the
very end of the age with you always to
the end of the age never will i leave
you never will i forsake you and so what
what we begin to do is we begin to live
in communion with god how does somebody
start
recovering from loneliness
i would start
by opening your mind to the possibility
of a supernatural presence of god with
you
would you would you open your mind just
to the possibility
that the one who made this
knows your name
and is closer to you than your next
breath
just open your mind to the possibility
of that
the challenge of the society in which
we’ve been
raised
in western civilization is that it is so
secularized that we’ve we’ve kind of
sucked the supernatural out of it you
know
if you can’t explain it if you can’t
touch it
if you can’t describe it if you can’t
prescribe it can’t fix it you can’t
tweak it then it’s not real wow you know
that’s that’s the world which we live in
we were not intended to live in that
world you know we were intended to live
in a world in which there are
supernatural realities
there are angels all around us right now
there are
they are well think about uh adam and
eve they walked with god he walked with
god
that’s how we were supposed to live and
that’s how we imagine
just walked with him yeah
that’s the way it was supposed to be
yeah not lonely no
not embarrassed wow
they just knew the presence of god
how do you know
how do you how do you get to know
the presence of god
there are occasions in our life when we
can truly sense the presence of god
there are occasions in our life in which
we believe in the presence of god
because he has promised to be with us
you know my lovely wife
denali uh we are a few months away from
our 40th anniversary
we’ve been married a long time that’s a
long time
uh is it you know what to be married to
me and moses in the wilderness 40 years
that’s about the same yeah not the same
yeah
now
some
some days and many days i really feel
married
i just feel her presence i feel the
romance even all these years later she
probably doesn’t
but i do but even with someone as
beautiful as my wife there are days that
i
i don’t feel married i mean i don’t you
know have my heart moving at a fast rate
i don’t get speechless when i see her
you know some days we’re just living
life together right now
are we more married on the days i feel
her presence
no
no
we’re just as married on the days the
feeling is there as on the days it’s not
i love the feeling
i love romantic evenings
i love
everything that comes with being married
to a wonderful woman but the reason
that feelings do not dictate
the reality of her presence in my life
is because a covenant has been made
a covenant has been made and she said i
do i said i do and from that moment on
from that moment on
uh we’ve been a married couple now
take that and multiply that by several
billion
because when god makes a covenant he’s
never going to break it right
so on those in those moments
in which we say you know i just don’t
feel god i don’t feel god my response is
some days i don’t either
you know that’s okay it doesn’t make you
a pagan or doesn’t make you any less
spiritual or any less loved
on those days you just stand on the
covenant jesus said i’m with you always
to the very end of the age with you
always to the end of the age never will
i leave you never will i forsake you and
so what what we begin to do is we begin
to live in communion with god you know
we we begin to live in communion with
god the big word for that in the bible
is sanctification he he changes us uh
from people of the
of of selfishness to be people of who
are saintly sanctified we’re becoming
more and more holy and and we learn to
hear from him we learn to sense him it’s
kind of like learning uh to be married
you know her first
day after the wedding uh you had to
start learning new habits
you know used to having somebody around
you’re not used to you know having to
you know clean up or i wasn’t
so you know it’s all that yeah so for
that person who says i just don’t feel
the presence of god i say okay that’s
fine take your feelings outside and give
them a kick in the rear because they
they are not to be trusted what’s to be
trusted is the promise of god
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 yes 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 want to 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 board pieces as she would you
know put them there on the little you
know the little felt oh yeah
sunday school kids
[Laughter]
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
right 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 yeah right it
is the living word of god yeah 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 days and i’m telling
you um hearing the voice of god you know
and discerning
um the voice of god it 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 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 bible if you want to hear
from god and you don’t ever read the
bible then you don’t really want to hear
from god exactly 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 the bible 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
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 the stuff and we’re
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 if
he chooses to but the reason they needed
those things is because they did not
have the gift that we have yeah and that
is the holy spirit holy spirit living
every single one of us that’s exactly
right yeah 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 paraclete is the
word that would be used to translate
them and that’s actually a battle term
which you’re probably aware of and
you’re so deep holly that’s so deep
you’re so so deeply spiritual
and 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 paraclete
so the holy spirit hey girl that’ll
preach right there right yes it does and
it so did yes it did
he’s your battle partner yeah 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 just housewives and people trying
to pull the laundry and cook for their
kids and figure out new ways to cook
chicken for dinner it’s for us you know
what 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 here because i think i’d
be gooned that’s right that wasn’t if
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
wilderness experiences are going to are
either going to kill you or they’re
going to make you better right okay let
me just say something you look sharp
today amazing so if you had to go
through this pandemic and come out
looking sharp i look you took advantage
of whatever situation was you were dealt
and
really that’s what we’re talking about
you can go into a wilderness and die
or you can go to a wilderness and meet
god okay so i feel like that’s what i
took away from your book and i want to
hear what you want us to know about it
too i want to dig a little bit deeper
because there are a lot of people that
look sharp
that don’t feel sharp oh hey
it is much easier to go out and look
sharp
than it is to be sharp to feel sharp to
have emotional well-being to be
uh
intellectually sound
especially in the kind of wilderness
that we are in right now yeah this is
not a geographical wilderness where we
know
uh the linear footage of how far it is
before we get out of it
it is the uncertainty
and living with the ambiguity of an end
that leads us into a wilderness whether
you are living in a mansion or living in
a trailer on top of a hill we are all
experiencing the same trauma
the same way
what i want people to understand is that
when you cannot draw
strength
peace
uh well-being from around you
you must draw it from within you
and so as opposed to the water in the
rock
you have to have the water in your soul
woman if you believe on me as the
scriptures have said out of your belly
not your house not your job not your
country not your newspaper
not your community but out of your own
essence shall flow rivers of living
water so in essence
the human soul becomes the rock in the
wilderness
and the rock there was nothing special
about the rock
it was the
the god who is living water
flow through the rock and there’s
nothing special about me
but the god who is living water flows
through me if i allow him to if not i
allow my circumstances around me to
penetrate what’s within me until the
dryness around me becomes the dryness
within me
you know i i
i love you i know
i love these inner i love this time i
love you all
holy beautiful moment every time that we
sit down with you but that reminds me of
when and today
liz i was listening to this this morning
and you were talking about when when the
flood came well i’ve read that so many
times but you said that that it wasn’t
only the water coming down the rain
coming down
but it came out of the ground yes yes
that reminds me of what of what happened
in noah’s day it came up out of the
ground after his belly yes you know you
know what i love about that
is that when god told noah it was going
to rain he didn’t tell him the whole
plan
he didn’t tell him that he had water up
under the earth that he was going to
break up the sisters of the deep and i
think it’s important for us as believers
to know that god has resources in
unexpected places
and when he gets ready to flood you it’s
not just the flood that you anticipate
coming down from above he can break up
the cisterns of the deep yeah and in
order to submerge the earth beneath the
water there were hidden water hidden
wells of water that he tapped into and
that’s still true anybody who dug well
knows there’s water underground
for god to break up the water under the
ground uh is a very important thing i
was in africa and we dig wells uh for
indigenous people uh who have no water
i’ve done it for years and years and
years and years and it’s amazing how
many people
die
with water under their feet
never being able to tap into it
and if you take the horrific atrocity of
what it is like for a human soul
to die in the wilderness with the
parched mouth and dry lips and eyes roll
back in their head and give up the
ghosts for the lack of something that is
buried right up under their feet
god has blessings and provisions and
places that we never anticipated
and i think the whole concept of god’s
provision is that it comes from the
unexpected yeah what woman what is in
the house
ah nothing i got a pot of oil he says go
borrow a bunch of vessels
your nothing is something
empty then yeah yeah yeah bring your
emptiness bring your emptiness and and
i’m gonna fill it up with what you’ve
been calling nothing because i’m going
to cause something to come out of your
nothing
and and that’s the majesty
of the of god himself that he can take
the ordinary that which we have passed
over and bring something substantive out
of it so god’s provision is not always
about a rich uncle dying or about
somebody knocking on your door and
and you’re the lucky winner of whatever
it is
rethinking what you’ve been walking past
wow
and understand that that pot of war
could be more than what you thought it
was
if you would bring god into it
okay
do you agree with the statement that
you’re an esoteric thinker
yes pretty much okay
uh i had to look that word up earlier
today to make sure that i was yeah
and
i i consider myself more of a linear
thinker
and so when i read
this
book god’s provision
you know
i i’m wondering if the word wilderness
should have been in the title
okay just just for just for me
simplistic linear thinkers kind of want
to know because
god’s provision for your every need
okay is is almost like a hidden
title because
what you’re talking about is
where the provision is the provision
is sometimes in the place that you’re
cursing and wanting to get out of okay
so
if you want td jakes to walk you through
the problem that you’re facing or the
problem you think you’re facing or the
reality of the problem you’re facing
go to the number and get the book this
is
this is profound in a lot of ways and
the idea that
you’re te you’re telling me in this book
okay i’m just telling you what i got out
of it i got out of this
you’re in a test
you’re in a wilderness experience we’re
using that as an analogy right
and and god will meet you there to kill
the things that you need killed in your
life
provide for you the things that you need
in your life or you will really
basically
give up
wither
i think you said something to the effect
of it separates the
fakers from the something i don’t
remember exactly how you say in the book
but but some people give up
in the wilderness in the place where god
is trying to provide provision is that
roughly what we’re discussing yes the
let’s go back to this rewind all the way
back to why i didn’t put wilderness on
the cover
it’s the same reason that tylenol
doesn’t put a headache as its logo okay
you never put the problem on the cover
because nobody’s gonna wait
good point
you know give me five bottles of cancer
you know so who’s gonna go to the store
and say give me a lot of wilderness we
do not ask
for our wilderness oh
our wilderness asks for us
we do not get to choose the kinds of
wilderness that we face whether we’re a
single mother they’re going through a
divorce or whether we’ve lost a job or
house or whether we find ourselves with
some sort of disease we do not get to
pick the wilderness that we confront
that is the mystery of life
we do not know it until we’re in it
what we do know is that god will be in
it with us
and so when you start talking about
god’s promises
and god’s answers in our wilderness that
is sustainable known fact and it is the
commodity that you would reach for in
the store
we don’t reach for trouble
but trouble reaches for us
at tbn our mission is to use every
available means to reach as many
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with the life-changing gospel of jesus
christ thank you for helping make
the gospel of grace go around the world
without you we couldn’t do it god bless
you