0:00:00 - 0:00:39 So I wanted to tell the, the story of the first time I heard the Lord's voice. Um, probably around 18 years ago. I, uh, my brother, my little brother was deployed to Iraq. I guess this was around 2003. Um, he was deployed to Iraq fresh out of marine boot camp and I was minding my own business and all 0:00:39 - 0:01:04 of a sudden, um, I just felt this constant sinking feeling that he was gonna die and I've never been the kind of person who gets preoccupied about things that are, uh, they don't really matter. I don't really make up things to get worried about. But, um, it was this sort of, uh, just a heavy impression 0:01:04 - 0:01:31 and, um, I was worried enough about this that I felt compelled to pray about it and I had a pretty busy life at the time, I guess, uh, for a single person without kids, it was about as busy as you could be because I had a lot of important things to do. But, uh, every night before I went to bed, I'd pray 0:01:31 - 0:01:58 and I'd kneel down and I'd pray until I absolutely couldn't stay awake anymore. And so I pray for an hour or two hours or three hours. And I did this every single night and this went on for about 30 days because I just couldn't shake this feeling. And every night I prayed and I, I'd say things like God 0:01:58 - 0:02:39 . Um, you've given me the gift of knowing you, but my brother hasn't had that, that opportunity. And, uh, if there's anything we can do to change places, I, I wanna do that because he hasn't felt this, this relationship with you that I have, he hasn't had the chance. And so I plead with God for hours 0:02:39 - 0:03:20 every night until I just, I just didn't have any capability to stay awake. And then I'd, I'd, uh, I'd go to bed. So one night that's praying and I heard a voice, it was a very familiar voice, but, um, I'd never heard it before and the voice said, stop praying. Everything's gonna be ok. And in that moment 0:03:19 - 0:03:51 , all the, the, uh, concern that I had for my brother, it just evaporated and I felt absolute peace about it and I didn't know I had no idea what was gonna happen to my brother. I mean, for all I knew he's, he's gonna still die. But I knew that whatever happened, I knew that it was God's will and it 0:03:51 - 0:04:16 filled me with peace and that's two separate things. Um, so a couple of weeks later, uh, I got a chance to talk to my brother. Uh cause obviously, you know, that wasn't an easy thing to do around 2003 in Iraq. And uh this is the first time I heard anything from him. We didn't have letters, we didn't 0:04:16 - 0:04:46 have uh any contact, at least I didn't. And he said, Rob, so my brother um did not believe in God the time he said, uh he said I needed to tell you a story. So we were clearing this building and he said he was the first one out. And uh he was, he was, you know, jogging towards a place where he had cover 0:04:46 - 0:05:06 because he had, well, anyway, the details aside, he had a uh a saw. Um so he could lay down more suppressive fire. He was the first one out and he was, he was kind of jogging to where he needed to go to be able to protect everyone else as they were coming out of the building. And as he was coming out 0:05:06 - 0:05:35 , he felt this hand on him that uh just shoved him down hard, it shoved him down so hard that he broke his foot. And uh as he was going down, a shot fired off and, and after all this, he saw it was right where his head was and uh a firefight erupted and it lasted a long time and some people died, but 0:05:34 - 0:06:26 he didn't, he said, Rob, I don't believe in all this stuff, but I know that there is an angel there and I know that this happened because you were praying for me. And I said, yeah, you're right. You're right. Yeah. Yesterday that brother, uh, had his, well, his wife had his first child and, uh, I guess 0:06:26 - 0:06:53 why I'm, why I'm telling you all of this, there are a couple of reasons first off, if you want more of God's power in your life and you want to see miracles, you have to go to the place that they're found and God is impartial. He operates on the same with the same rules for all people. So no one ever 0:06:53 - 0:07:14 had a miracle laying on their couch. No one ever had a miracle when they were just kind of iffy on God. And then all of a sudden when they really need him, they reach out to him. Everything you do matters. If you wanna find God's power, you have to live in God's character all the time. And the more you 0:07:14 - 0:07:47 do that, the more these things are gonna happen, that was a long time ago. And I have seen a lot of God's hand in people's lives. I've seen, I've seen a lot of things I don't want to get into them right now, but each of us has the capacity to be used by God to make a huge difference in this world. The 0:07:47 - 0:08:14 fingerprints of those that love God can't be found out. What I mean by that is the way that the ways that God wants to use you in this world are so numerous that you couldn't count them. If you lived up to that, if you went to where he wants you to be and you did what he wants you to do, those things 0:08:14 - 0:08:37 would be so numerous. They'd spark off all these chains, these chains of light that would, would ripple through the rest of the world and through time so that you couldn't even trace them, only God could trace them back. So everything in my brother's life could have ended right then if I hadn't done 0:08:37 - 0:09:04 what God wanted me to do so that he could do what he wanted to do. So I encourage you to live according to the best that you know, because that's the path where these things happen. That's the path where these things spark off and ripple out and you can be and God wants you to be an instrument in his 0:09:03 - 0:09:26 hands to work miracles. And sometimes they're big deal miracles. And sometimes they don't seem like a big deal, but they are because everything matters, everything feeds into everything else in this world. Everything is touching something else and you can't do anything without affecting everything. And 0:09:25 - 0:09:52 that's true. So I encourage you to think about that and, and go to the place where miracles are found because because the world needs it. And it's the only way that, that God, it's the only way that, that things can be here as they are in heaven is through the instrumentality of his Children here. So 0:00:00 - 0:00:39 So I wanted to tell the, the story of the first time I heard the Lord's voice. Um, probably around 18 years ago. I, uh, my brother, my little brother was deployed to Iraq. I guess this was around 2003. Um, he was deployed to Iraq fresh out of marine boot camp and I was minding my own business and all 0:00:39 - 0:01:04 of a sudden, um, I just felt this constant sinking feeling that he was gonna die and I've never been the kind of person who gets preoccupied about things that are, uh, they don't really matter. I don't really make up things to get worried about. But, um, it was this sort of, uh, just a heavy impression 0:01:04 - 0:01:31 and, um, I was worried enough about this that I felt compelled to pray about it and I had a pretty busy life at the time, I guess, uh, for a single person without kids, it was about as busy as you could be because I had a lot of important things to do. But, uh, every night before I went to bed, I'd pray 0:01:31 - 0:01:58 and I'd kneel down and I'd pray until I absolutely couldn't stay awake anymore. And so I pray for an hour or two hours or three hours. And I did this every single night and this went on for about 30 days because I just couldn't shake this feeling. And every night I prayed and I, I'd say things like God 0:01:58 - 0:02:39 . Um, you've given me the gift of knowing you, but my brother hasn't had that, that opportunity. And, uh, if there's anything we can do to change places, I, I wanna do that because he hasn't felt this, this relationship with you that I have, he hasn't had the chance. And so I plead with God for hours 0:02:39 - 0:03:20 every night until I just, I just didn't have any capability to stay awake. And then I'd, I'd, uh, I'd go to bed. So one night that's praying and I heard a voice, it was a very familiar voice, but, um, I'd never heard it before and the voice said, stop praying. Everything's gonna be ok. And in that moment 0:03:19 - 0:03:51 , all the, the, uh, concern that I had for my brother, it just evaporated and I felt absolute peace about it and I didn't know I had no idea what was gonna happen to my brother. I mean, for all I knew he's, he's gonna still die. But I knew that whatever happened, I knew that it was God's will and it 0:03:51 - 0:04:16 filled me with peace and that's two separate things. Um, so a couple of weeks later, uh, I got a chance to talk to my brother. Uh cause obviously, you know, that wasn't an easy thing to do around 2003 in Iraq. And uh this is the first time I heard anything from him. We didn't have letters, we didn't 0:04:16 - 0:04:46 have uh any contact, at least I didn't. And he said, Rob, so my brother um did not believe in God the time he said, uh he said I needed to tell you a story. So we were clearing this building and he said he was the first one out. And uh he was, he was, you know, jogging towards a place where he had cover 0:04:46 - 0:05:06 because he had, well, anyway, the details aside, he had a uh a saw. Um so he could lay down more suppressive fire. He was the first one out and he was, he was kind of jogging to where he needed to go to be able to protect everyone else as they were coming out of the building. And as he was coming out 0:05:06 - 0:05:35 , he felt this hand on him that uh just shoved him down hard, it shoved him down so hard that he broke his foot. And uh as he was going down, a shot fired off and, and after all this, he saw it was right where his head was and uh a firefight erupted and it lasted a long time and some people died, but 0:05:34 - 0:06:26 he didn't, he said, Rob, I don't believe in all this stuff, but I know that there is an angel there and I know that this happened because you were praying for me. And I said, yeah, you're right. You're right. Yeah. Yesterday that brother, uh, had his, well, his wife had his first child and, uh, I guess 0:06:26 - 0:06:53 why I'm, why I'm telling you all of this, there are a couple of reasons first off, if you want more of God's power in your life and you want to see miracles, you have to go to the place that they're found and God is impartial. He operates on the same with the same rules for all people. So no one ever 0:06:53 - 0:07:14 had a miracle laying on their couch. No one ever had a miracle when they were just kind of iffy on God. And then all of a sudden when they really need him, they reach out to him. Everything you do matters. If you wanna find God's power, you have to live in God's character all the time. And the more you 0:07:14 - 0:07:47 do that, the more these things are gonna happen, that was a long time ago. And I have seen a lot of God's hand in people's lives. I've seen, I've seen a lot of things I don't want to get into them right now, but each of us has the capacity to be used by God to make a huge difference in this world. The 0:07:47 - 0:08:14 fingerprints of those that love God can't be found out. What I mean by that is the way that the ways that God wants to use you in this world are so numerous that you couldn't count them. If you lived up to that, if you went to where he wants you to be and you did what he wants you to do, those things 0:08:14 - 0:08:37 would be so numerous. They'd spark off all these chains, these chains of light that would, would ripple through the rest of the world and through time so that you couldn't even trace them, only God could trace them back. So everything in my brother's life could have ended right then if I hadn't done 0:08:37 - 0:09:04 what God wanted me to do so that he could do what he wanted to do. So I encourage you to live according to the best that you know, because that's the path where these things happen. That's the path where these things spark off and ripple out and you can be and God wants you to be an instrument in his 0:09:03 - 0:09:26 hands to work miracles. And sometimes they're big deal miracles. And sometimes they don't seem like a big deal, but they are because everything matters, everything feeds into everything else in this world. Everything is touching something else and you can't do anything without affecting everything. And 0:09:25 - 0:09:52 that's true. So I encourage you to think about that and, and go to the place where miracles are found because because the world needs it. And it's the only way that, that God, it's the only way that, that things can be here as they are in heaven is through the instrumentality of his Children here. So 0:09:52 - 0:09:57 I encourage you to figure those things out and do more of it in your life more consistently.