One on One with God

One on One Time with God

Recalibrate

Just Leave Me Alone! 😊

To show the Biblical principle of quieting our souls before God and move the people to employ it

Just Leave Me Alone! 😊

Right before I promoted to sergeant, I had to go through a 4-week school called PLDC – Primary Leadership Development Course. It taught leadership skills and soldier skills. For 4 weeks I lived in the barracks with other soldiers, ate in the same mess hall, sat in the same classes, and exercised in the same formations.

In the last days of the training we were in the field doing land navigation. We were given maps, compasses, and points on the maps to find. I quickly set out to find my points to check this task off the list. I was pretty easy, and I was one of the first to return to the instructor with my points found. He didn’t have anything for me and didn’t really want me to hang around, so, I told him I would find a place to be out of the way.

Afterall, this is what I had wanted for 3 weeks – alone time! I found a place in the scrub oaks of Ft. Hood and made my paradise comfortable for the next couple hours. Sweet alone time!

Being alone with God is a discipline that each of us as Christians should develop.

Psalm 131:2 NIV

But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.

Psalm 46:10 NIV

He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”

Even Jesus Needed Alone Time

I will be exalted among the nations,

Mark 3:13–16 NIV

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter),

I will be exalted in the earth.”

Matthew 3:13–16 NIV

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?” Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.

Even Jesus Needed Alone Time

Matt

Matthew 4:1–11 NIV

Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.” Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’” Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’” Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.” Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

Matthew

What an amazing baptism! Then, He goes into the wilderness. Jesus frequently left the crowds to be alone:

Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness

15 Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented.

16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”

Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness

4 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted v by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,

and they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

What an amazing baptism! Then, He goes into the wilderness. Jesus frequently left the crowds to be alone:

1. Jesus inaugurated his ministry by spending 40 days alone in the desert ().

2. Before he chose the twelve, he spent the entire night alone in the desert hills ().

3. When he received the news of John the Baptist’s death, he “withdrew from there in a boat to a lonely place apart” ().

4. After the miraculous feeding of the 5,000 Jesus “went up into the hills be himself…” ().

5. Following a long night of work, “in the morning, a great while before day, he rose and went out to a lonely place…” ().

6. When the twelve returned from a preaching and healing mission, Jesus instructed them, “Come away by yourselves to a lonely place” ().

7. Following the healing of a leper Jesus “withdrew to the wilderness and prayed” ().

8. With 3 disciples he sought out the silence of a lonely mountain as the stage for the transfiguration ().

9. As he prepared for this highest and most holy work, Jesus sought the solitude of the garden of Gethsemane (). – Richard Foster, Spiritual Disciplines.

Alone Time is NOT Lonely

Loneliness is that aching, depressing emotion of isolation, but aloneness is a positive experience. Loneliness is depressing, demotivational, self-centered, spiritually debilitating, and takes no emotional energy to create. Aloneness is peaceful, motivational, other-centered, spiritually positive, and takes a choice of my will to create. The two most important words to turn loneliness into aloneness are, "I choose."

Loneliness becomes my friend when it forces me to draw companionship from the living God that I would otherwise like to draw from another human being. - Unk

Meditation is About Quality Time with God

Let’s talk for a moment about meditation. Even the word meditation makes some of us wince. Somehow the Buddhists, Hindus, Yogis, and Transcendentalists have hijacked a Bible concept. The Bible uses two different Hebrew words to convey the idea of meditation, and together they are used around 58 times. They connote various meanings:

- Listening to God’s Word

- Reflecting on the works of God

- Rehearsing God’s deeds

- Reflecting on God’s law, and more…

In each case there is stress on a change of behavior as a result of spending time with God.

Joshua 1:8 NIV

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

Psalm 1:2 NIV

but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind with Christ. For the Christian, meditation is about hearing God’s voice and obeying his word.

Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful.

but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.

Eastern meditation is an attempt to empty the mind; Christian meditation is an attempt to fill the mind with Christ. For the Christian, meditation is about hearing God’s voice and obeying his word.

Reminder – the spiritual disciples are not about having to do this or that, they are about opportunities to spend time with God!

Solitude Builds Your Strength

-Levi Lusko sermon “Morning, noon, and evening”. The wilderness experience wasn’t about exhaustion, it was about empowerment.

I’m proud to say that I’m a Rocky fan. I know that his movies get a lot of bad reviews but there is something that connects in each of them. In Rocky IV (1985) The movie begins with footage from Rocky's big fight with Mr. T. Then we meet Drago, a 6-foot-4, 261-pound Russian fighting machine. He seems to be invincible. Rocky is surrounded by success and pampering. Everything in his life has become lush and comfortable but he realizes that high performance and technical training wasn’t going to prepare him for the storm he was about to enter. He had to go to the wilderness of the cold, snowy, rough landscape of Russia. It was in the solitude of that wilderness that he would become strong enough to beat Drago.

If Levi Lusko is right, the wilderness experience wasn’t a time of testing until the Devil showed up but Jesus had strengthened Himself in solitude to the point that every jab of the Devil was countered with a “it is written”

The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written:

“ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,

and they will lift you up in their hands,

so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’”

Simplicity

It is true that our ancestors had problems. Their problems were painful just as ours. However, there has been an unprecedented complexity added to our world. As a child growing up in the 70’s and early 80’s, life seemed much simpler. In Richard Swenson’s 2004 book, Margin, he points our the unprecedented change in our lives:

- Speed of travel

- Power of computers

- Information acceleration

- Technological advances

- Shrinking world

- Speed of communication

- Media pervasiveness and power

- Electronic money

- National and personal indebtedness

- Destructive power of weaponry

- Terrorism

- Divorce

- Disappearance of traditions

“We live in a cacophonous age, swarming insects of noise and interruption buzzing about – texts, emails, cable news, advertisements, cell phones, meetings, wireless web connections, social media posts. We run the risk of waking up at the end of the year having accomplished little of significance, each year slipping by in a flurry of activity pointing nowhere. Leaders can – indeed must – be disciplined people who create the quiet space for disciplined thought and summon the strength for disciplined action.” – Jim Collins

Jesus is the master leader. There is no better people person than Jesus and He withdrew into the quiet places to be refreshed!

Did you know that the iPhone came out in 2007? At that time, Steve Jobs said that we now had infinity in our pockets. What do we do with infinity in our pockets? Ceaseless communication and inputs. Even the positive things that come from the internet. We can be surrounded by Bluetooth and connectivity. But, even if it all is good – it is too much if you have no quiet. (Also Twitter and Facebook).

1 Timothy 2:2 NIV

for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.

Going One on One with God

Going One on One with God

Going One on One with God

Technological Detox

Cal Newport is a pastor and author of Digital Minimalism

- Our phones and apps are, by design, addictive attention-suckers.

- Anxiety and social media use go hand-in-hand.

- By filling our in-between time, like commutes or in conversation pauses, or while waiting in line at the store, with burying our faces in our phones, we lose the ability to be alone with our thoughts.

- No mental space = limited creativity and minimal deep thinking.

- A lack of deep thinking = limited personal growth

- Which means, you end up with a fragmented, unsatisfied life.

Embrace the Wilderness (It’s Really Not THAT Wild!)

Romans 5:4 NIV

perseverance, character; and character, hope.

In John Bevere’s book, Victory in the Wilderness, he writes, "The Wilderness is not a negative time for those obey God. Its purpose is very positive: to train and prepare us for a new move of the Holy Spirit”.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

In John Bevere’s book, Victory in the Wilderness, he writes, "The Wilderness is not a negative time for those obey God. Its purpose is very positive: to train and prepare us for a new move of the Holy Spirit”.

Carter Conlon suggests the same thing, “Many of us do not want to embrace what Jesus is clearly showing us-that the wilderness is not to be avoided, but rather should be accepted and understood. As a believer, ask yourself the question: Why did Jesus keep going back to such a harsh and uninviting place? Could it be that God was revealing something of His strength there? Was Jesus receiving a hidden treasure from God which the natural mind could not comprehend?”

Establish Wise Guardrails

Daniel teaches us that we need to control our hungers and desires. Draw the lines for your appetites. We spend all day staring at screens, read books on Kindles or iPads, and come home to relax by watching a movie or TV. In fact, if you’re anything like most people you:

- Spend 5+ hours a day on your computer (including using it after 10pm on 40% of days)

- Use 56+ apps and websites a day and switch between them more than 300 times

- Pick up your phone at least 58 times and spend close to 4.5 hours using it

Step into Solitude

Take advantage of the little solitudes of the day.

- Take time to yourself before the family awakens

- Use bumper to bumper traffic to your advantage

- Choose to walk

- Take control of your calendar!

Recalibrate!

Conclusion

Challenge the church to Recalibrate

- Spiritual maturity

- Prayer

- Study the Word of God; Worship the Lord with your mind

- Fasting

- Solitude and meditation; Go one on one with God

Over the next week I challenge you to implement these spiritual disciplines into your devotional week and see what God will do.