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November 21, 2022 · 25 min · Faith Adventures
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Beth Jones is a Bible teacher and founder of The Basics With Beth, a non-profit Christian teaching ministry dedicated to helping people learn the Bible basics.
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0:00 Hey, guys. This is Beth Jones, I am so glad you have tuned into the basics with Beth podcast. And I'm so pumped up about helping you get the basics of the Bible, or as we like0:12 to say around here, get the basics, live the life and do the stuff. I know you are going to be so encouraged by today's podcast, and I really pray you enjoy0:23 every minute. If you'd like to know more about the basics and what we're doing, just head on over to the basics with beth dot com to get all the deets. And in the meantime, enjoy today's0:35 podcast. Okay. So the land of God's thumbprint, x marks the spot. This is where you are now. And the land of God's thumbprint is where you are going and the route to get there as we mentioned is this0:47 faith adventure. And we're gonna travel through some vills and we'll get into that here in just a bit. I'll tell you about the vills that we're gonna go through because sometimes I think people think that the Christian0:57 life is a magic wand kind of life. They think sometimes it's a Tinker Bell dust kind of life. Like, well, know, you just believe God in that faith stuff and you just believe the Bible, God will just1:09 supernaturally part the Red Sea for you in every situation. Well, we're gonna find out, he does part the Red Sea. No doubt about it. He does still does miracles but he also calls us just to live a faith life. In1:20 everyday life exercising wisdom, exercising our faith in his word and he takes us on this journey and and as it turns out the journey is as much a part of the adventure as the1:32 destination. This idea of x marks the spot. The question is where are we now? What's your current latin life? What season are you in?1:44 What circumstances are you in? Did you just go through a bankruptcy? Did you just get a report from the doctor? Did you just face some unexpected bills, some things happening? What is your1:56 ex marks the spot? And again, we'll we'll look at that more detail in a minute because the bills we're gonna go through and we'll cover in these next few weeks are these. Today we're gonna start in prayer ville. You'll2:07 find out, of course this is basic because that's what we do around here, that's what I do, teach the basics. But it's basic and yet so many times we forget the basics. And we jump to step 3, 4 and 5 often and we've2:17 forgotten the basic things and prayer, prayer ville is where this whole thing starts. You have the best chance of success if you start in prayer ville. So we will start today in prayer ville2:29 and then we'll talk about promise ville. We'll see that prayer ville and promise ville are sort of like twin cities. They're very close and a lot of similar things happen. From prayer ville, God reveals promise ville.2:41 And so we'll get into that next week. But promise ville is huge because that's what you bank everything on. That's what you base things on that anchors you to what is true. Then we're gonna go from promiseville and we're2:52 gonna have to navigate and escape from and get around doubtville. Mount doubt. What do you do when doubts come? What does Doubtville look like? Then we keep3:04 the travel going and we get to Actionville. What kind of action steps? You know, what is it God wants us to do? Now, on 1 hand we know we're saved by grace through faith, it's not of3:16 works. So on 1 hand we know our salvation and our walk with God is not based on works. And then yet right on the other hand, he left us on planet earth to do some works, to3:28 put some action to our faith. The bible says, faith without actions are dead. You show me your faith, I'll show you my actions. I'll show you my faith, you show me your actions. The Bible talks about, right? So what3:40 is it what is it that God wants to have accomplished in Actionville? What does that look like? And then we'll leave Actionville and we'll get to Patienceville. Okay? Patienceville is the 1 city that3:52 all of us want to blot out of our Bibles. And I think it's kind of funny actually because Patienceville by definition, the word Patience, by definition of Patienceville, that's the4:03 ville we're in the longest. And it's the 1 you don't wanna be in the most. It's the 1 you want to avoid usually. But the thing is, and we'll get into it when we get to Patienceville, the thing4:15 is so many cool things happen in Patienceville that you need to be there. You want to be there. In fact, James says, let patience have its perfect work.4:27 What? I want patience to not exist. But there's a perfect work, it's a required work, it's something that has to happen because if it doesn't happen, you won't be able to enjoy and4:39 experience everything God has for you at the land of his thumbprint. So we'll get to Patienceville and then and then finally, voila, long last, we'll get to the land of his thumbprint. So that's gonna be the journey4:49 we're on. We'll start today, like I said, in Prayerville and we're gonna look at a cool story. If you go over in your bibles to first Chronicles 4, there's a story here, just a couple of verses, but we can really learn a5:00 lot and be encouraged in our own prayer walk, in our own prayer life by looking at this guy named Jabez. First Chronicles chapter 4, Jabez. And so here's what he says, Jabez5:12 cried to the God of Israel saying. When it comes to prayer, know, that's that's where it starts. We cry out to God saying. We we have a an5:24 audience with the Lord. We we talk to the Lord. We cry out from our heart. Prayer we'll we'll take a couple of minutes here and just talk about prayer. Prayer is not a head event.5:35 Prayer is a heart event. You cry out from your heart to the Lord saying. Not just thinking, not just5:47 pondering, but actually saying something. We're talking about this place Prayerville where you get alone with the Lord. You get in your car, you kneel by your bed, you get in your prayer closet, whatever5:59 is for you, whatever works for you. You get in this place with the Lord and you pray and you cry out and say something. We're gonna look at it from 2 angles. There's a lot of types of prayer, a lot of things we could6:09 talk about but we're gonna look at it from 2 angles. The prayer of seeking and the prayer of asking because that's what we see here. In my experience in you know, living out the faith adventure so to speak, which we're6:21 always living. We're always on different tracks in the faith adventure. But my experience in the faith adventure is it always starts in prayer and it always starts with these 2 things, seeking6:33 first then asking. Seek then ask. Alright? So let's talk about seeking what what that even means. I remember 1 time I was seeking the Lord and I was just saying, Lord, you6:44 know the world just needs the gospel and I was seeking the Lord about rain. The rain of his word on the earth and it would sprout up and you know people get saved and stuff. I was praying about that and I was just6:55 seeking him about that and talking and do you know in that, it's so cool y'all, seek the Lord if you if you if this is new to you, seek the Lord because he shows you cool things. It'll make you wanna seek him more.7:07 So I'm seeking the Lord, I'm talking to him about the world. Hey Lord, how about that earth? So anyways, but the cool thing was he began to point out people to me. He said, this7:18 person over here, I take great delight in them. I was like, you do? I mean, I figured you did but why? And he let me know, they're a prayer. This is a person who seeks after me. This is a person you could trust7:30 because they know my voice. I mean, literally he was pointing people out to me that I could trust and that had a that he had a delight in because they were seekers. And I was like, and all it did is make me wanna be that7:41 too. Lord I wanna I wanna be 1 of those people that you would tell other people in their prayer closet. That that girl, she seeks me. Years ago when Jeff and I were first married, we were seeking the Lord7:53 about having kids. You know, we knew we were called to ministry, we were in bible school at the time and we were feeling the desire to start to have a family. But we didn't want to presume. We didn't want to not inquire8:04 of the Lord and so we know we're called to ministry, we know that's gonna be a busy life although at that time we didn't know it meant starting a church or anything. We just we didn't know what it meant. Just preached8:13 the gospel. We had friends in ministry who had decided not to have children because they wanted to focus 100 percent on ministry. And yet we had a desire to have kids and we're like, you know, do you want us to do? We8:23 just seek you and I remember kneeling by the couch in our house in Tulsa and just getting in my little place and seeking the Lord like Lord you know, we'll do whatever. You you know, you have to go into seeking the Lord8:33 with no agenda per se. You don't go in and go, oh God bless, I'm seeking you Lord bless my plans. Oh Lord, I'm seeking you, this is what I'm gonna do. Is that okay? Right? Good? Thumbs up?8:45 You have to go in seeking the Lord and being okay with whatever he tells you. Because you know his thumbprint will be on that. That'll be the blessed plan. So I'm seeking8:57 the Lord and as I'm talking to him about it, I'm like Lord you know, what what would you like us to do? I mean we wanna have kids and but yet you know we wanna do what you called us to do and as I was praying the Lord9:08 began to and here's the thing, okay when you seek the Lord he's gonna show you things you don't know. Jeremiah said call unto me and I will show you great and mighty things that you do not know. In seeking the Lord he9:20 shows you things about him and about you that you didn't know. I did not know this the way he showed it to me in this moment. I didn't know it prior to him showing it to me. Seeking the Lord, Lord you want us to have9:31 kids, what would you like us to do? You called us to the ministry and here's what he began to minister to me. I have the heart of a father. At the core, I am a father. I am God the father. I have the heart9:42 of a father. I love children. I love my children. You can bring my heart great delight by giving me more children. In ministry, you can9:54 lead people to Christ. You can lead people to Jesus and just like John 1 12 it says to those, to as many as received him and believed on him, to them he gave the right to become children of God.10:07 He began to minister to me in ministry, you can lead people to Christ and as many as receive Jesus and believe on him, to them, they will become my children and oh, does that make my heart happy? You can bring my heart10:18 great joy by bringing children into my family through ministry. But you can also bring my heart great joy by having children. By having children and then from10:30 birth, you raise them up to know me. You raise them up to know my voice, to know my word, to be my children. They're gonna be your children but you're gonna be stewarding them for me. Man, I left that10:42 time of seeking like, woah. That was awesome. You might say, well you could have, would have known just have kids, the bible says be fruitful and multiply. Well I know it does say that but I wanted to10:53 inquire of the Lord for us in this season. And I got a whole lot more than I imagined. I learned so much about God the father and that revelation has helped me the whole rest of my life. At the11:05 core, he's a father. And obviously we had 4 kids and they all love God and all their spouses love God and they all feel called to the ministry and we've always seen it that there are children but we're stewarding them11:16 for him because he loves them. I can't imagine that he could love them any more than we do. I can't imagine that he could but he does. Just like he does your kids. He loves them more than you do and you're a steward for11:27 him. He's a father. All that came out of just seeking the Lord. Seeking the Lord. We were graduated from bible school. We're seeking the Lord. Lord, what do you want us to do? We graduated from bible school. We think you11:39 want us to pastor. Do you want us to start a church? Do you want us to take over a church? What state? What city? What country? If we got to pick, we'd like a place by the ocean. You11:50 know, if we got to pick. But we began to seek the Lord and it's a long story, won't go into all of it. You'll hear a little bit more of it in the weeks to come but we began to seek the Lord after some challenges, after12:00 some like, oh that didn't work, oh we're discouraged and we knelt by our couch. We remember it like it was yesterday and it was what 26, 28, 30 years ago, about 28 years ago. Kneeling by the couch and we just12:12 said Lord we're taking all the cards out of our heart. All the cards we thought we had in our hand. All these grandiose visions, all these ideas, all these things that we thought we were gonna do. We're just gonna take12:22 all the cards out of our heart, lay them on the couch. We don't have any cards in our heart anymore. We're just emptying it all out. We have no agenda. Lord, whatever you want,12:34 then in time put those cards back in our hand and we'll play with that hand. We thought we knew. We thought we had the right and left bower, the ace, the king, the queen. We thought, you know, whatever whatever12:45 the deck looked like. We thought we had an idea but it some things didn't work out for us. Certain things were discouraging in this season. This was an x marks the spot season of discouragement in ministry.12:59 What are you gonna do? Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord, kneel by the couch, kneel by the chair, put all the cards on the table and say, okay God, you put back in my heart the things you want me to play with and that's13:11 what we'll do. Would you know the Lord doesn't always answer the seeking in 10 minutes. Okay Lord, cards are on the table. Hey Lord, the cards have been on the couch now for a couple of13:23 months. Anytime Lord, we are seeking you. 18 months later, 18 months, God begins to put some new13:35 cards in the deck for us. Begins to put in Jeff's heart some things about starting this church. And at first of course, we're like, no Lord, no, please no. We've had some difficulties,13:47 we had some disappointments in starting a bible study we thought was gonna become a church. But sometimes that's that's the best place to be. When you're like, oh no Lord, no no no, not that.13:59 Sometimes that's the best place to be because you know for sure it's not your will. Right? You know for sure it's not your great idea. Well, long story short, over the next couple of months, the Lord14:11 then established within our hearts that he wanted us to start a church. Well, how'd that happen? Seeking God, seeking the Lord. So your ex marks the14:23 spot. I don't know what to do. I'm in the land of nowhereville. I'm in the land of it ain't fair. Perfect. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Wait on the Lord.14:34 Amen. Asking. Let's talk about asking. When it comes to asking, first you seek but then you can get specific and ask. We see Jabez did he operated both ways. He was a a God seeker and then14:46 he asked for 4 specific things. Let's talk about asking because what's cool and fun, think, this makes the faith adventure fun. There's something about asking God likes. Do you know over and over14:58 and over in the bible even though God knows what you and I need. In fact in Matthew 6 Jesus said, don't seek after all the things the Gentiles seek after, your heavenly father knows the things you have need of before15:10 you ask. Well if God already knows what I need, won't he just do it? Well apparently not. Apparently there's something about asking. He knows all the things you have need of before you15:21 ask. There's something about asking. James chapter 4 says, you have not because you ask not. How come these things aren't happening for me? Have you15:32 asked? Jesus said, I want your joy to be full. Up until now, you've not asked for anything in my name but I'm telling you, I'm going to the father and in that day you will ask the15:44 father in my name and he'll give it to you so that your joy may be full. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask15:57 whatever you will and it shall be done for you. Amen. Couple of verses here, Matthew 7. Ask and it shall be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and it will be opened16:09 to you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. What man is there among you if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for fish, will give him a16:19 serpent. If you then being evil know how to give good things to your children, how much more? How much more? How much more will your father your father who is in heaven16:31 give good things to those who ask him. Ask. First John 5. Now this is the confidence that we have in him16:43 that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, we know that we have the petitions we have asked.16:56 Something about asking, what have you asked God for lately? That's my question. What have you asked God for lately? What's your big ask been? Jabez had 4 big things he asked for. What's been17:07 yours? What are yours? Let me give you a couple of helpful hints. Now 1 thing that is cool, we have prayer groups around here just FYI. They ask God for big things and they're reporting in some of the things that God's17:19 doing. We we were just talking to Jen Palin. She leads up 1 of the prayer groups that prays for the TV program and she's been praying that the group, they've been praying, asking specifically asking God to get the TV17:31 program into places that it's not scheduled to go. Places we didn't even expect it for it to be. Networks were not even on. Do you know we've gotten 2 emails in this last week17:43 from people in Nigeria? We didn't even know the program was on in Nigeria. Seriously, but we're happy. Hi Nigeria. We are happy you are17:55 watching. Isn't it cool? Y'all say hi to Nigeria. Hi Nigeria. Isn't that the coolest? Well, did it happen? They asked. They specifically asked and God granted their18:06 request. So if you need some help in prayer, get into a prayer group. Now you might say, I just wanna get like real specific and systematic in my own life. I use this app. It's the reminders app, it comes on your phone,18:17 do you guys know which 1 it is? It's the reminders app on your phone and I have 1 of my categories is my asking categories, my prayer requests. And I just put them in there and then when they're answered, I'll put in18:28 there that it's answered. I put the date and the date answered. So I'm looking at 1 here, answer started October 2014. Lord, I pray for this, pray for that 1, those are still out, those are still open, open, open, still18:40 working. Answers started April 20 17, 20 14, answered 20 15, answered October 20 14.18:52 So I put in the answers and until it's answered, it's open. It's on it's on request and God's working His plan. You can use an app, you can use a journal, you can use some kind of a system to ask. Be19:04 specific. Be be specific. What else can you do? You can ask God for what he's already told you in his word belongs to you. All the prayers found in the bible.19:16 Ephesians 1, Ephesians 3, Philippians 1, Colossians 1. There's all kinds of bible God breathed prayers that God wants you to ask for those things to be done in your life and in your19:28 family's life. Ephesians 1, look it up. Ephesians 3, Colossians 1, Philippians 1. 4 amazing prayers you could ask the Lord work into your life. Jabez, let's wrap up with what19:40 Jabez asked then. Jabez asked that the Lord would bless him, 1 version says bless him indeed. Oh Lord, that you would bless me indeed. The actual literal wording is Lord that you would bless me bless me.19:52 Barak Barak is the wording. The Hebrew wording. That you would bless me bless me. Bless me. The bless me club. It was started with Jabez. It's okay to ask the Lord to bless you.20:04 Because if you're blessed you can be a blessing and he wants you to be blessed to be a blessing. Amen? Oh Lord bless me. He prayed that and God heard his prayer. Well, in what20:16 areas you need God to bless you? You can ask him for it. It's his will that you ask. He said, Lord enlarge my borders. Many scholars believe in Jebus' case, literally20:28 his borders had to be enlarged because he was going into battle to take territory against some enemies. In your case, you may need some borders enlarged, maybe some challenges you have to overcome, maybe it's expansion20:39 of something in your life, your influence for Christ, maybe literally you need some land. I mean whatever it might be but you can say, God enlarge my borders for your glory, for your honor, for your20:50 purposes. Don't stay small, don't think small, think big, think bigger. Increase, enlarge, get a bigger world. Get a bigger world y'all, get a bigger world.21:03 God enlarge my capacity, enlarge my ability to think different, enlarge my ability to help people, enlarge, increase our borders, we could do more, we could influence more.21:15 How's it gonna happen? Ask. Number 3, he said, Lord that your hand would be with me. And I love that, that whole picture of course his hand is attached to his body so his presence. Let your21:27 hand, God you be with wherever I go you be with me. But specifically that phrase, the hand of the Lord is a phrase in the old testament we see quite a bit and I remember 1 summer I was in my devotions,21:39 I was sort of living in Ezra, Esther and Nehemiah, 3 books in the old testament. Just rereading those 3 books and I couldn't help but notice the phrase, the good hand of the lord was upon21:50 Esther. The good hand of the lord was on Ezra. Because of the good hand of the lord on Nehemiah, God's favor, God's power, God's blessing, open22:02 doors, supernatural adventures. We're taking them to the land of God's thumbprint. God's hand in your life, you can pray it, you can ask God that your hand would22:14 be upon me in a fresh way with favor, with power, with ability. Doors would be opened, your presence would go with me. Of22:26 course, he already lives within you, you understand it, we understand that but we're talking about just in the experience of your life, the recognition of him always being with you and upon you. Number 4, he22:38 prayed, Lord protect me, keep me from evil that it may not hurt me. He he didn't pray, oh Lord stop all evil because we're in a fallen world, you're not gonna pray a prayer to stop all evil. But you can pray a prayer22:50 that evil does not come nigh thee, you can pray a prayer that no plague comes near your dwelling. You can pray a prayer that you live and rise above it. The name of Jesus, the blood of23:01 Jesus, the angels of God surround you 24 7 front to back, side to side, top to bottom, north, south, east, west, spirit, soul and body. Amen. You can23:13 ask, you can pray, you can decree. Actually, some scholars believe okay, I'll throw this 1 out to you. Some scholars believe that when Jabez prayed this, made his request that it was a faith filled23:25 demand. Not in the sense of bossing God around but there was there was that kind of faith in it like God, I know how good you are. I know you God and I know you will do this. It wasn't begging.23:37 It wasn't the begging of unbelief. It was the asking of faith. What are we talking about? A faith adventure. A faith adventure to the land of God's23:49 thumbprint. Where does it start? Prayerville. Prayerville, seek the Lord. Ask of the Lord. And the coolest part of the whole thing is the last line.24:00 And God granted his request. Now we're gonna find out weeks to come, it was not a magic wand granting. It was not a poof. There you go.24:13 It was a process. And we're gonna find out in the vills. We're gonna travel to what the process looks like to get to the land of God's different. Amen?24:29 Hey, guys. Thank you so much for listening to today's podcast. I really hope you were encouraged. And if you were, I would love it if you would take a moment to subscribe and write us a review24:41 because really that'll help us reach even more people with the basics. And here's the other thing. If the podcast is helping you and if you're getting a grip on the basics, would you consider becoming a financial partner24:53 or what we call our basics ninja warriors and help us take these basics to even more people around the world. It's easy to do. Just sign up and become a25:05 ninja by going to thebasicswithbeth dot com. Thanks again, guys, for tuning in and joining us for today's podcast on The Basics with Beth. I cannot wait to see you next time.
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