This podcast episode emphasizes the importance of relational prayer and the necessity of maintaining a deep connection with God. Brother Dre shares personal experiences that highlight how busy lives can lead to neglecting your relationship with God, urging listeners to prioritize what truly matters. He discusses how communication with God is not just about presenting requests but also about allowing time for God to respond. By spending quality time in prayer, believers can learn God's ways, desires, and deepen their understanding of His nature. Ultimately, the episode serves as a reminder that prayer should be a two-way conversation, fostering a meaningful relationship with the Creator.

Takeaways:

• Developing a relationship with God requires consistent communication and time spent in prayer.
• Prayer should be a two-way conversation, allowing God to respond and guide you.
• True worship comes from knowing God intimately, beyond just surface-level acknowledgment.
• Many Christians struggle with prayer due to busy lives and lack of prioritization.
• Building a strong prayer life is essential for understanding and knowing God's will.

Hey, what's going on?

This is brother Dre on the mic.

And welcome to Remnant Ministries, where the word is being taught.

I hope that you're having a good day on today.

Hope that you're ready to hear the word of God.

We're going to get into some things on today, but before we do, I just want to give you a thought.

I want to give you a thought.

Make sure you prioritize what's important in your life.

Make sure you prioritize what's important in your life.

Recently, the family has been experiencing or dealing with a death in the family, it was my uncle, and just dealing with his death has been time consuming and it's been hurtful and just what you normally deal with when you lose the loved one.

And, you know, but through this whole ordeal, it highlighted some things to me, and that was the fact that I gotta be real.

Our family isn't as close as it used to be.

It really isn't.

Our family isn't as close as it used to be.

And it's not because there's family beef and family drama.

You know, sometimes people don't speak to one another because there's family beef or family drama.

This person don't like that person.

That person was caught up, caught talking about this person and all this other stuff.

It really doesn't come down to that.

What it really comes down to is that all of us, all of us have been living a very busy life.

All of us have been chasing these goals that we have.

And there's nothing wrong with having goals, but it has consumed us to the point that maybe we have kind of missed the mark a little bit.

You know, I was talking to some family, some cousins, and, you know, we was just sitting down talking, and I asked the question, why isn't family as close as it used to be?

And all of us agreed.

It's the fact that we are so busy nowadays trying to take care of our own families and trying to reach our goals that we have no time for.

You know, the.

I'll say the outside family.

You know, we try to take care of our immediate family, but we don't have time for our outside family.

And it has caused many of us to not even know our family, like maybe the older folk used to know.

And I'm not saying that it's anyone's fault, because, again, what it comes down to is, you know, we're so busy trying to take care of home that we forget sometimes we don't have time to make time for our family, but I just want to say to those out there, make sure you take time for the things that are important.

And family is really important.

I believe family is very, very important.

It is.

It's what keeps people surviving.

A lot of times when you lose the job, when you're hurting, when you, God forbid you go through divorce or whatever your emergency may be, your storm may be, when you have that connection with family, you always have someone you can go to, someone you could talk to, someone that will hold you up when no one else will.

And so, you know, it's just important that we don't forget the ones that we say we love.

I guess it's my biggest picture.

We don't forget the ones that we say we love.

Amen.

Just a thought for the day right now, if you're going to go with me, let's get into it.

I just want you to repeat after me.

I believe that God's word is true.

It is the final authority, my life.

Therefore, everything that God has said concerning me shall come to pass.

I want to talk about prayer on today.

Let's talk about prayer.

And I know this is not a sexy subject because we like to talk about blessings and seven steps to being blessed and how God wants you to live prosperous and he does.

And all that is needed.

And we need to talk about what God wants to do for us.

And we need to talk about who we are and how blessed we can be and how he will give us the desires of our heart and how we don't have to settle for things that are beneath us and how he, if the enemy, the devil will bless his kids, will not God bless his own.

All that needs to be talked about.

But we also need to talk about things that are essential in the believer's life.

We need to talk about things that should be pillars in the life of the believer.

And one of those is prayer.

And so let's just talk about prayer.

Prayer for one is very, very, very important to the life of the believer.

And unfortunately, prayer has really left the lives of many christians.

It doesn't mean that you don't love the Lord.

It just means that you don't talk to him as much.

Oh, let me say that again.

It doesn't mean that you don't love the Lord, Orlando, but it just means that you haven't talked to him as much.

And when you start losing communication with God you start forgetting who God is.

You don't have a great understanding of who God is.

The only way you can really understand who God is and continuously learn who God is, is with a good prayer life.

You got to spend time with him.

You got to spend time with God.

In order for you to know about something, you have to spend time around it.

If you want to know about someone, the ins and outs about someone, you have to spend time with that person.

I've been married now for 15 years and guess what?

My wife is not the same person I met 15 years ago.

I can't go off the information that I had 15 years ago.

I have to get the information fresh every day because she changes every day.

Every day.

One day she likes this, the next day she don't like it.

One day she, you know, this is her favorite food, the next day it's not.

She changes every day.

There are things that I learned about her from her past that she hasn't changed, that I'm just coming into the knowledge of why?

Because I have to spend that time.

I have to spend that time and vice versa.

The person she married 15 years ago, I'm not that same person.

Some of it, I wish I was.

Some of it I'm glad I'm not.

But I'm not that same person.

And so in order for us to know God, like we need to know goddess, or like we should know God, we have to spend time with him.

Are you spending time with God?

How much time do you spend with God?

How much time do you spend in prayer talking to God?

Let's go ahead and define what prayer is.

Prayer in its simplest form, prayer is communication between you and Goddess.

That's what prayer is, communication between you and God.

Now let me tell you what prayer is not.

Prayer is not you doing all the talking and God not having the chance to say anything.

How many of us go into prayer and our prayer sounds like this?

Oh, God, I thank you right now that you for life, health and strength.

I thank you, Lord God, that you give me my bill money.

Lord, I thank you for watching over my kids.

I thank you, Lord God, that.

That you're going to make a way out of.

No way.

All the places that I'm lacking, God, I thank you that you're going to give me all my needs.

Every need is met right now.

In Jesus name, I thank you for divine protection.

In Jesus name, amen.

And then we get up and then we go to work, and then we speak to our spouse and then we go hang out.

And we said that prayer, but we didn't give God time to respond back.

See, for a lot of us, prayer is not, it's not communication between you know, me and God.

But for a lot of us, prayer is just me telling him what I want.

For a lot of us, prayers, just us venting about what's wrong in our lives.

How many of us deal with that?

You know, we got a friend that come to us when they got issues, and they just want to vent to you now, they don't listen to.

They're not trying to really figure out a.

A resolution or figure out how to get better, but they just want to vent to you.

And then after they finish venting, they get off the phone.

I gotta go.

I'll talk to you later.

Okay.

Well, you're welcome for the talk.

You didn't get three, four words in, but that's what they did.

That's what happens.

And so that's what we do with God.

A lot of times we talk to God, and we just talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk and talk, and we don't give God time to talk back to us.

When was the last time you just got quiet after you said, good morning and you said, lord, I love you, I appreciate you, and then you give him time to talk back.

When was the last time you came to God with a problem and you gave him time to answer?

When was the last time you didn't come to God with a problem, but you just came to God with thanksgiving?

When was the last time you came to God saying, Lord, how can I please you?

Lord, what makes you smile?

Lord, I sense that something's wrong.

What's going on?

See, prayer is more than just you talking.

It's allowing God to talk back to you.

We got to get better at that.

We live in a time where I.

People are selfish.

People are selfish.

Why do you think a lot of marriages don't work now?

Because communication has broke down.

Why has communication broke down?

Because most times you got one person doing all the talking and one person doing all the listening instead of being equal.

It's the truth.

Look up the statistics of why marriages don't work.

One of the greatest problems will be communication.

It's usually money, communication, and sex, which could be solved with communication.

A lot of times, praise God, but we have to give God time to talk back to us.

Are you really in prayer or are you just telling God what you want?

Hallelujah.

John 15 and seven says, if ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Let me read that scripture again.

John 15 and seven.

If you're taking notes.

If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Notice this.

It says, if ye abide in me, so I must abide in God.

But also notice the second part of that.

And my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will.

So guess what?

I just can't abide in him.

You know, spend time with him, be in his presence.

But I also have to allow his word to abide in me.

See, what's the definition for abide?

Do any of us know the definition of abide?

Because a lot of times we read words and we really don't have a good understanding of what that word is.

Listen to the definition of abide.

Abide means to accept without objection.

Glory to God.

To accept without rejection.

That's abide.

So verse seven, John 15 and seven says, if ye abide, or if ye.

If ye accept me without objection and my word, abide or my word, you accept without objection, you will ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

See, you can't separate God from his word.

They're one.

It's impossible to separate God and his word.

They're one.

How do we know this, John one?

And one says, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

Hallelujah.

You cannot separate God from his word, which means you cannot love God and don't.

You can't love God and not love his word.

You can't accept his word.

You can't accept God and not accept his word.

They're one.

But see, many of us, that's where we fall prey to the enemy.

That's why some of our prayers are not being answered.

Because we say we love God, but we don't love his word.

We love him, but we don't love what he has to say.

But if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

And notice this, and I love this about him.

He didn't put a restriction on what you could ask him.

He said, ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.

Now, of course, we know it has to line up with the word of God.

It has to line up with the will of God.

For example, he's not going to give you another man's wife, you know.

Oh, I'm praying that, you know, you give me Keisha, Lord, you know, because she's a good woman and she deserves better I know she's mad, but she deserves a man like me.

No, he's not going to do that.

Because again, that violates his word.

And God will not go against.

Oh, God.

God will not go against his word.

He said, but if you abide in me, you accept me without objection, and my words abide in you.

You accept my word without objection.

You shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.

God, I thank you.

Hallelujah.

Praise God.

So, like I said, we're talking about prayer.

Now, there are two categories where prayer, where every type of prayer will be covered.

There are two categories that will cover every type of prayer.

One is relational, and the second is the prayer of faith.

Let me say that again.

Number one is relational.

You're having relational prayer.

And then the second is prayer of faith.

Now, if you, if you're not doing the first one, if you're not having relational faith, relational prayer, then it is hard to maximize the prayer of faith.

Let me say that again.

If you are not having relational prayer, it is hard to maximize, key word, maximize the prayer of faith.

Why?

How can you have or pray the prayer of faith when you don't know who you're praying to?

Glory to God.

It's impossible to have to have the prayer of faith, to pray the prayer of faith when you don't know who you're praying to.

And so for some of us, we don't get the results that we want from the prayer of faith because we know God only in a certain way.

We only know God in the way that our mama knew it.

Oh, God.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but since I'm here, let's go there.

The reason why we don't get the results that we desire when we pray the prayer of faith is because we don't know God like we should know him.

We only know him in a small way.

We know him as you know.

We know what we know about God because we went to church when we were little kids, and so we never developed that relationship with God.

We only know him in this aspect.

And so when we try to pray the prayer of faith, you know, pray about certain things, we try to pray for healing, we try to pray for miracles.

We don't get the results that we want because we don't really know the God that we serve or we don't know the God that we are praying to, hallelujah.

So you cannot maximize the prayer faith if you are not having relational prayer.

So what do I mean by relational prayer?

Relational is when you are in prayer, developing a rapport, you are developing a relationship, you are discovering who God is.

You are taking time to please God.

You are wanting to know his mind.

The more you.

But the more time you spend with him, the more time he reveals himself.

Oh, glory to God.

You know, there's such a thing where, you know, you can be around someone and you can know them on the surface.

You might have known them because you saw them at work or you may have saw them at a get together or something like that.

And so you know them in that regard.

But when you begin to spend more time with them and then you begin to spend intimate time within.

And I'm not talking about in a sexual way, but I'm talking about an intimate, a close, a close, just you and them type of situation.

Situation, that type of atmosphere.

They begin to reveal certain things to you that they don't reveal to other people because you took the time to know them in an intimate way.

It's the same thing with God.

You know, there's a lot of people that know God on the surface.

We know him on Sunday morning because we go there and we say, we praise God on Sunday morning, but we don't talk to him any other time of the week.

But when you have that person that talks to him on Sunday and talks to him on Monday and got to be in his presence on Tuesday, and we trying to work it out on Wednesday and, Lord, how can I please you on Thursday?

And Lord, let's just go out on a date on and let's just have a praise time.

Let me just worship you on a Saturday so I can be prepared to really get in your presence again on Sunday.

It makes a difference.

God will reveal himself to those who seek him.

Glory to God.

He will reveal himself to those who seek him.

Hallelujah.

The problem is, many of us are not seeking God like we should.

You develop a relationship, and I hate to bust your bubble, but it cannot be done one day out of the week.

You cannot develop the relationship that you need and that God desires with one day out of the week.

He wants a relationship with you.

He wants you to know him.

He's not trying to see, here's what we do.

A lot of times we.

Oh, this is what we think.

A lot of times we think that God wants to be a mystery to us.

That's what we think.

A lot of us think that, you know, that he wants to be a mystery to us, but he doesn't.

He wants to commune with you.

He wants to commune with you.

He wants to show you every side of him.

He wants to give you all that you can handle.

Glory to God.

You know, there's a scripture.

I can't remember it at the moment, but it says, eyes have not seen, ears have not heard.

Neither has it entered the thought of man.

What God has for those who love him.

And are called according to his purpose.

Human eyes haven't seen, human ears have not heard.

What God has in store for those who love him.

But it is revealed by his spirit.

It's revealed by his spirit.

He wants you to know him.

Anybody that tells you that God just wants to be a mystery to you, they're lying.

He wants to know you.

Think about this for a minute.

When he created man, when he created Adam, he communed with Adam.

He spent time with Adam.

He would be in the garden with Adam.

Just.

They would be communing together.

Hallelujah.

That's how he wants to be with you.

How do we know that?

Because when Adam fell, in Genesis, chapter three, when Adam fell, the Lord called out to him.

When Adam sinned, the Lord called out to him and said, adam, where are you?

Where are you?

Why are you hiding from me?

So, now, why would the Bible say he was hiding.

If God just wanted to remain a mystery, if they had no relationship?

God wants a relationship with you.

The question is, do you want a relationship with him?

So we have to have relational prayer.

God's desire is to know you.

He knows you.

But God's desire is for you to know him as well.

I'll never forget the first song that I ever sang with my daddy.

Was a song called I miss my time with you.

I believe it's by Lornell Harris.

I miss my time with you.

And the lyrics said something like this.

And forgive me if I don't get it exactly right.

But it says something like.

I miss my time with you.

Those moments together I want to be with you each day but it hurts me when you say you're too busy busy trying to listen busy trying to serve me but how can you serve me when your spirits empty oh, there's a longing in my heart glory to God wanting more than just a part of you it's true I miss my time with you powerful words.

Because how many of us will.

Will admit that a lot of times we say, we're doing all these things for God.

We're singing for goddess.

We're ministering to people for God.

We're doing all these things for God.

And yet we don't even talk to God, the things that we do have taken the place completely of spending time with goddess.

It's kind of like in a marriage when, you know, the husband is saying, I'm trying everything I can to make sure my wife is happy.

And so he's working two and three jobs.

He's never at home.

He's never intimate with his wife, never talks to her.

And then she leaves and he's like, but I did my best.

When all she really wanted was some attention.

All she really wanted was for you to listen to her.

She understands and she appreciates that you're trying to provide.

But don't forget our relationship.

Oh, God.

And so I'm saying to some of you, we're constantly doing things for God, but God is saying, don't forget about me.

Don't forget to spend time with me.

I still want to see your face.

I still want to be.

I still want to be priority.

I still want that relationship.

I desire that relationship.

Hallelujah.

So we have to have.

We have to have relational prayer.

We got to understand who God is.

That's the only way we're going to discover who God is.

And we have to constantly, constantly be in his presence to know what he's saying, to learn his ways.

Hallelujah to God.

I want you to think about this.

Look in Hebrews, chapter eleven, verse five.

Hebrews, chapter eleven, verse five.

It says, by faith, Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death.

He could not be found, because God had taken him away.

For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.

Enoch walked so close to God that he just, he was just taken away.

He pleased God that much that he was just.

He became.

He walked so close that he just.

It's almost like he just vanished with him.

He was taken up, never saw death.

But now think about this.

Not one time it's Enoch spoken about as delivering a nation, not what time do you read about Enoch performing these miracles or anything like that?

Enoch just simply walked with God, was faithful to God.

He pleased God.

I think somebody needs to hear this, because many times if you allow certain people to talk to you, they will say, the only way you can please God is if you do these great things.

And it's just not true.

God will be pleased as long as you obey him.

God will be pleased as long as you do what he told you to do.

Yes, some people are called to do great things and perform miracles.

And some people may be called to the fivefold ministry.

And yes, the people in the Bible like Moses and David.

Yes, they stood for a nation, delivered a nation.

Elijah, Elisha, great men and women of God.

But every last one of them saw death.

Well, all except Elijah, but they saw death.

Enoch is not.

You don't see anything about Enoch doing any of those things.

He didn't do any great miracle or anything like that.

It just simply say he pleased God and then he was no more.

Hallelujah.

God just wants you to please him.

Are you pleasing God?

Hallelujah.

I'll say this as well.

Notice that with the disciples.

Notice it was the disciple whom Jesus loved that didn't see death.

Or let me say like this, that died of natural causes.

Everybody else was killed, beheaded, crucified, upside down, boiled alive, skinned alive.

All of that beheaded.

John, the one whom Jesus loved, died of natural causes.

How many great exploits do you see?

If we were just going by things that, you know are put in the Bible, showing what the disciples did, you would think Peter would have been the one that died of natural causes, or maybe Paul.

But it wasn't either one of them.

It was John.

Why?

It was the one whom Jesus loved.

He had such a admiration for the Lord, such a love for Christ that he was just.

He just loved him.

And Jesus didn't have to wonder.

He loved him so much that he became the one whom Jesus loved.

They had relationship.

Hallelujah.

We got to develop that relationship with God.

Are you spending time with God?

We're talking about prayer, but we're talking about relational prayer.

Are you spending time with God?

What does your prayer life look like before you ask for anything, what does your prayer life look like?

If you didn't ask for anything, if you didn't cry to him about anything, what would your prayer life look like?

And if you can't answer that, then that means that there is something missing between the relationship with you and God.

God wants relationship.

He desires relationship.

Hallelujah.

Praise your holy name.

So now there are a couple things that happens when you have a relationship with God.

And I've already been kind of saying them, but I just give you these few keys in case you missed them.

Number one is you learn his ways, his desires.

When you have a relationship with God, when you have that relational prayer, that prayer time with God where you're not asking for anything, you just.

You're just communing with God.

You learn his ways, his desires.

Thank you, Lord God.

Number two is you learn to worship goddess.

Why?

Because you learn what he wants.

You learn how to stroke his ego, how to please him.

Glory to God.

Why?

Because you discover who he is.

So you learn to worship God.

You can't worship something you don't know.

The Bible talks about that in John, chapter four, verse 21.

You can't worship something that you don't know.

Remember where it talks about the woman at the well?

Jesus met the woman at the well and he said, you Samaritans, you do not know what you worship.

But we do, for salvation is from the Jews.

You can't worship what you don't know.

So when you have that relationship, you learn how to worship God.

You know what pleases God.

And yes, worship is a type of relational prayer.

How it is communication between you and goddess.

Thank you, Lord.

I think I'm gonna stop right here.

There's so much more I could go into.

Maybe we'll do a part, matter of fact, we're gonna do a part two.

And I'll go deeper into those things.

But develop a relationship with God.

Spend time with him.

Spend time with him.

And guess what?

Your relationship doesn't have to be like anybody else's relationship.

Don't try to be like anybody else.

However you develop your relationship with God.

As long as, first of all, you know, it has to be in his word.

You got to know his word.

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can't separate the two.

So it'll be in his word.

But, but don't try, you know, because sometimes we hear how other people get in God's face and pray, and we feel like we got to do it the same way, and it's just not true.

And sometimes it, it hinders us to a point where we say, well, I just don't have the wherewithal to develop like that.

Well, a couple things.

Number one, a lot of times when you hear how people pray to God and how much time they spend praying to God and everything else, a lot of times that's in their present state.

Usually, that's not how they started.

Secondly, that's for them, let them do how they want to do.

You do how you want to do.

That's good.

And I'm not hating on that.

But maybe you don't, you don't have the.

So start where you are.

Which do you think the Lord would prefer?

Spend time with him for 30 minutes versus nothing.

Let's not, let's not talk ourselves out of it because we don't sound like somebody else.

We can't do like somebody else.

God wants a relationship with you and then maybe it'll change later on.

You start off with 30 minutes then you become deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper.

Now it turns into an hour.

Now it turns into an hour and a half.

However it develops, let it develop between you and God.

I had so much more I want to say today and there's so much more I can say but we're going to stop right there because I don't want to, I don't want to give you too much at one time.

Not that I know so much but it's a lot that I could go on and on about prayer.

Amen.

But develop a relationship with God.

He would love to hear from.