Open Waters Podcast
This podcast is all about what God is doing in Utah through the church, and through the ministry of Open Waters Worship. If you don't know who we are, we are a worship ministry in the heart of Salt Lake City, Utah who's reason for being is JESUS. We want all people to have GROWTH, not only in relationship with our King, but with the people around us as well. We also want people to cultivate a deep and pure INTIMACY with God, and from that intimacy a FREEDOM to be who we are called to be; and to top it off we want the body of Christ to radiate UNITY. The body as a whole can accomplish so much more than one person alone. So we want to ask you, are you ready to join us in an effort to unify the body, and grow in relationship? Are you ready for what true intimacy with the King looks like? If so, come give us a listen! We'd love to hear your feedback as well. Tell us your thoughts and if you have a question feel free to reach out to us! We love you and pray for an overflowing in all avenues of your life <3
Open Waters Podcast
42: Diving Deeper Into Intimacy with Our Creator
As we reach the landmark 42nd episode of Open Water, we find ourselves immersed in a conversation that goes beyond mere belief, delving into the sacred realm of true worship. Imagine standing in a space so raw and real, like 'the barn' we visited, where the essence of worship transforms into an intimate dance with the divine. This episode is not just a recount of that transformative experience, but a shared journey into the heart of worship where the spiritual meets the tangible, influencing not just our faith but the very fabric of our relationships and our sense of home.
Have you ever considered the difference between knowing of someone and deeply knowing them? This distinction is the crux of our discussion, as we attempt to strip away the layers of routine to reveal a personal, familial bond with God. It's an invitation to set aside our 'super spiritual projects' and self-importance, to embrace obedience and understanding of God's character. Here we explore the power of genuine intimacy with the Lord, illuminating how it not only enriches our spiritual lives but seamlessly weaves its way into our daily interactions and the connections we foster within our community.
In the rhythm of our hectic lives, it's tempting to let our time with God slip through our fingers, often in favor of fleeting pleasures or distractions. Yet, this episode is a gentle nudge to re-prioritize, to see the beauty in choosing to spend moments with God. We reveal how this choice, though at times sacrificial, unlocks a freedom that breathes life into our otherwise chaotic existence. With every step toward intentional worship and every effort to incorporate His teachings into our lives, we're on a journey to not just know about God, but to truly know Him—and through that, to discover ourselves. Join us as we share stories, laughter, and insights on creating that sacred space for intimacy with the Almighty.
Open Waters Family,
Just wanted to say welcome, and thank you for joining us! We love you and hope you know that God loves you so so so much!
Here at Open Waters Worship ( OWW ) we long for an intimacy, and hunger for God. Where a people are hungry and fully in love with God, that is where revival happens. REVIVAL IS COMING!!!
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Like I feel like that's most of the church today is like we're so, we're so, like we're napping right now. It's just like oh, I know, I know when we're in worship it's like, ok, we're worshiping, I know how to worship, but what is this type of worship? You know, there's not a level of intimacy within worship, because we're just. We're just there to sing a song. We don't actually get in and we don't jump into worship To make ourselves feel good.
Speaker 1:Yes, exactly, and intimacy is not about making ourselves feel good, but connecting with the Lord.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And so welcome, hello. What is our more about us section? Oh, oh, sorry, that was my bad, that was before we started recording.
Speaker 2:Wow, you jumped ahead there big time. Hello, how are you guys doing Welcome to? I believe, the head there big time? Um, how you guys doing welcome to I believe, the 42nd episode of the open water. Is it 42nd? Do you want to check?
Speaker 1:it I guess. Yeah, I can do that because I I check on. I believe it's the 42nd, but I'm trying to remember uh, if that's correct, on spotify like 98, sure, but anyway 98. Let's see how right you are, jos, josiah 42, you're right. W.
Speaker 2:Boom knuckles.
Speaker 1:W so 42 episodes not bad. Not bad at all, that means we've been doing this for over 42 weeks.
Speaker 2:That's nutty when you think of it that way.
Speaker 1:Truly truly Wow, so hope you guys are liking it. Let us know in the comments if you guys have any suggestions. Topics yeah.
Speaker 2:We had a really good experience with the last open waters. I thoroughly enjoyed. We got to go up to the church, the barn right, the barn and canvas and it was so amazing. We got to hear some incredible testimonies and they just did church, like in the, the church of acts, where they had food together and just. It was very authentic and organic and genuine and we had the opportunity to lead worship and it was. They were so grateful and so I don't know so warm, so it was just a beautiful experience.
Speaker 2:And it is on Instagram at open waters.
Speaker 1:Yep, If you follow us on open waters at worship you can totally go and check out the past live stream and it will be there for you and it's awesome because you know it. The the portion that's there includes worship, obviously, but also with the testimony. It might be a little hard to understand cause they're they're from a different country, but their testimony came through and it's and it's awesome.
Speaker 2:So phenomenal. Their testimony came through and it's awesome. Phenomenal.
Speaker 1:Totally Wow.
Speaker 2:Is it on YouTube too?
Speaker 1:It's just on Instagram, but I can probably get it there.
Speaker 2:Okay, we'll see.
Speaker 1:Yes, anyway.
Speaker 2:So now Josiah it's our more about us. Truly Is it me.
Speaker 1:Go for it.
Speaker 2:It's me Okay. So I was thinking what is your favorite style of house? Like they have English Tudors, they have mid-century modern, they have farmhouse, they have colonial, they have modern. I mean there's more, but I don't know if and maybe you don't. Hopefully you know different types of houses and maybe you know how to describe it. What's your favorite kind? Do you know? Do you have a faith?
Speaker 1:uh, you know, I would say, if I had to choose one right now, it'd probably be mostly a modern house, but if it's not, like you know, a modern house.
Speaker 2:Modern is like really sleek, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:They're like pretty square corners yeah yeah, yeah, you like that. White, black. But if I really had to choose them, it'd be like there's just really nice house, it looks like a castle, it's it's really too, really expensive, but it's like I would probably I don't know colonial maybe it might be english tutor style it might be I don't know how to look it up, because I don't know what that means so anyway, what about you?
Speaker 2:homework for you? So for me, I think I'm liking these. Okay, I don't really know what it is, but I think it's like a kind of like a barn kind of house, but it's so updated. Now, what I do know I like is it's the style of different textures on the outside Some wood, some stone stone and some natural color wood and I like that anyway, I'll have to look up the exact name, but yeah I'm not a modern person.
Speaker 1:I don't like the sleek houses. You don't like the square lines, the the straight lines, no I like a lot of dimension she likes it to have a little bit more color to it, I guess I don't like mid-century modern.
Speaker 2:So anyway, I thought that was an interesting question. There you go More about us. Totally.
Speaker 1:Alright, Leave it down in the comments what you think Anyway what are we talking about today, josiah?
Speaker 2:No, I'm just kidding, this is me, all you bro, all me Bruh Bruh.
Speaker 1:So today we're going to be talking about intimacy. There's been a very we just went to a conference. It was led by the Worshiping Musician School, school of Worshiping Musician, and Manuel is pretty much the overseer of that school.
Speaker 2:And the focus of this last intensive was intimacy, yes, intimacy.
Speaker 1:worship, yeah, intimacy and worship right up our alley totally, and how intimacy carries authority with it, and so I just want to dive deeper into what a intimacy looks like. But b? Um, what bible says about intimacy? Yeah, kind of like some general examples of like you know how intimacy, you know how it is important, and so, kind of like to start us off, we can just kind of read I can read it if you want me to yeah, sure, matthew, 7.
Speaker 2:Oh, you need to read it on 7, 13. Yes, ma'am, I do get the right version that you wanted because y'all stealing my phone I know, okay, so you like, you're reading it in the message, all right.
Speaker 1:Yes, ma'am, I do, here we go Appreciate it. Thank you, Okay, thanks bro.
Speaker 2:Being and doing is the subtitle.
Speaker 1:It is the little header of the section being and doing so. Matthew 7, 13 on Don't look for shortcuts to God. The market is flooded with surefire, easygoing formulas for a successful life that can be practiced in your spare time. Don Don't fall for that stuff, even though the crowds of people do the way that life is. God is vigorous requires total attention. Be wary of false preachers who smile a lot, dripping with practice and sincerity. Chances are that they are there to rip you off some way or another. Do not be impressed with their charisma. Look for character. Who preachers are is the main thing, not what they say. A genuine leader will never exploit your emotions or your pocketbook.
Speaker 1:These diseased trees with their bad apples are going to be chopped down and burned. Knowing the correct password, saying master, master, for instance, isn't going to get you anywhere with me. What is required is serious obedience, doing what my father wills. I can see it now At the final judgments, thousands sitting up to me saying Master, we preached the message, we bashed the demons, our super spiritual projects had everyone talking. And do you know that I am going to say what I'm going to say? You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here.
Speaker 1:These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, but homeowner improvements to your standard of living. There are foundational words, words to build your life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on a solid rock. Rain poured down, the river flooded, a tornado hit, but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock. But if you use my words in Bible studies and do not work them into your life, you're like a stupid carpenter who builds his house on a sandy beach where a storm rolled in and the waves came up, collapsed like a house of cards.
Speaker 1:So wow a lot of there, lots of.
Speaker 2:There is a lot but pretty whoa rich. But okay, so what was? What were you wanting to?
Speaker 1:There's quite a few things that I wanted to talk about, but the first thing that I wanted to talk about is I sent it to you, I'll find it Okay.
Speaker 2:I shall find it.
Speaker 1:I sent her points because there's a lot of stuff in my mind.
Speaker 2:You're up here, just so you know. You're one of my favorites Gotcha Right here. There it is.
Speaker 1:Gotcha. She's trying to teach me a lesson right now w I'm letting him know how much I love him. Oh, gotcha, our favorite.
Speaker 1:So the first one I want to talk about is don't just know about god, but who he truly is, don't so a lot of the time, kind of just to preface this, I think a lot of people not, I think I know a lot of people choose to learn about god, and you know people who learn about God. Anybody can do that right. You can be a practicing Buddhist and learn about Jesus and know who. God is, but like getting to know who he truly is and actually hanging out with Him is a whole different story.
Speaker 2:Totally, that's so true.
Speaker 1:And so the kind of the verse that reflects that is Matthewthew 7, 21 to 23, which I can read that real quick 21 and 23 and that is going to be this pretty large section. Knowing the correct password, saying master, master, for instance, isn't going to get you anywhere with me what is required is serious obedience, doing what my father wills.
Speaker 1:I can see it now at the final judgment, thousands strutting up and saying to me master, we preached your message, we bashed demons, our super spiritual projects had everyone talking. And do you know what I'm going to say? You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You did not impress me one bit. You're out of here, and so do we really know who god is?
Speaker 1:um, on like a you know personal level, because a lot of people we talk about all the time on this podcast is we don't want to just be sunday christians yeah, we just want to be, you know, everyday christians yeah um, because it's not. It's not a, I don't want to say it's not a religion, it's.
Speaker 1:It's a friendship, and a friendship is one where you put effort in one where you spend time together and might I say that you think about each other most of the time like a lot of the time, yeah, and so jesus is called to be our best friend, uh, even beyond our wives and our husbands or whatever you have, and most of the time, if you're truly in love with somebody, you're thinking about them all the time, and so it's like we don't want to just know about god, where we're, like we go to sunday, you know sunday service, or?
Speaker 1:saturday service or worship my every so often, and we get to the gates of heaven, say master, look at us, look what we've done for you, and think that we've truly gone to know him yeah, he is yeah we've encountered him truly, but do we really know who he is, who the creator of the universe?
Speaker 1:is and it's important for us to truly not just. There's a lot of guessing in the church of who God is and a lot of filler words or words to describe what people say, and we recycle it a lot Like, I would say, the one word. That has been not like one word, but it's kind of unrelated this word, but, for an example, um, the ecclesia. Yeah, a lot of people say that word. They have no clue what they're talking about yeah, it's powerful and it's like what is the ecclesia?
Speaker 1:do you know what it is? You know what it is? I know you do. Yeah, go for it.
Speaker 2:I mean it's the church, but it's, it's. It's a, it's a wharf, it's a warrior statement, it's the warrior part of the church, it's like the Judas of the church.
Speaker 1:A lot of people call it just worshipers.
Speaker 2:They'll put that as an umbrella over everything and that's not what it's supposed to be used for.
Speaker 1:When people say God is Yeshua, what does that mean? You know what I'm saying?
Speaker 2:It's like Messiah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and so it's like I myself am not super familiar with the names of Jesus, I mean the names of God and I need to get familiarized with them. Yeah, because I need to have that and I want to be that intimate with God where I know he's El Roy Right.
Speaker 2:You know El Shaddai, you know all of his attributes.
Speaker 1:He's all who he is and those names are all a part of who he is. They're the names of God but they're attributes, like you said. But a lot of people have those different things. They'll know about them, you know they'll do studies on them, but they will never truly know God in that sense, you know, I'm saying I hope that make. That's kind of making sense. Yeah, I don't want to say God's my Elroy and then you know pretty much. Yeah, I kind of left it down, but like I think um for me do you have anything to say on that?
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, like I. I think that part of the vert chapter would probably made me a little bit nervous initially, because I'm like, oh my goodness, I could be doing all these things, god, and not really know you. And I don't think I don't think the intention is to cause fear, I think it's just. I think it's like this what I was thinking when you were talking is, in a king's court or house or whatever he'll have his, you have his people that work for him, that know him in a sense, but the way his wife knows him or his children. Now we're talking, let's think, of a healthy family, not the king who's never there and the king who has concubines, but let's just say the king who has a really healthy one wife, loves his children, is there for his children.
Speaker 2:The king that they know is going to be so different than the king that just mere workers know, just people who are doing things that look like what he's saying. It's not that we don't do things, it's not that we don't. He says, do this and we do it. It's just that there's a difference when there's that interaction, that intimacy and the God that you know. And so, and because I do feel like now do I have seasons of more intimacy and seasons of less intimacy? Yes, but that verse doesn't scare me anymore because I know I'm not a mere worker.
Speaker 2:I know I'm not a mere worker, I know I'm not building my kingdom and I know that I'm not just um kind of putting on the airs of being intimate with him. I am intimate with him, and so that doesn't scare me anymore. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:And this first kind of also just kind of like going after. Like you know, I just don't want to be a person that it talks about how we have these spirit-filled projects or not even spirit-filled projects. Let me read what it actually says Our super spiritual projects.
Speaker 2:Super spiritual. That sounds funny and the.
Speaker 1:Message Version says that, and I'm like how many times do we start something, or do we?
Speaker 2:These super spiritual projects.
Speaker 1:We take time off saying that we just need to get one-on-one with God and we're just you know, actually just you know, doing whatever we want with that time.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And it's like there's a lot of the times we're just like we're calling, we're adding these tags to it. Like I said, we're adding these tags that we're and not even truly. I don't want to say we're lying, but I think we're just adding them to make it seem like we're somebody else, or we're almost like trying to supplement our lack of knowledge of who God is with words or calling it spiritual when it's not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that was really cool, well, and then I don't know if this is part of what you're covering. I can't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 2:The part about all you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don't impress me one bit. You're out of here. Yeah, I mean, I just think I've been a part of a lot of churches and organizations and I myself have wrestled with, I'm sure we. We talked about this with the ego of, and I didn't even know at the time that I was really working to build a man's kingdom. I really thought it was. I'm doing this for the Lord, but actually what I was doing was trying to make myself important.
Speaker 2:I didn't even know it, or make others important instead of really making him important. Um, and I do think this is rampant in our society just because of I mean for many reasons, but we live in that influencer type of society and we want to be important yeah and everybody wants to everybody does want to be special but the cool thing is is when you are intimate with god. You feel so seen known love you don't need to yeah, exactly you don't need to feel important.
Speaker 2:It doesn't mean you're not human and have those emotions at times. You want to feel appreciated and you do want to feel known by others. But if you have that intimacy with god, there's not going to be this blaring, glaring need and striving for this.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100 percent, and just kind of make this and like kind of point this to intimacy. It's just like, like you were saying, it's like all you did this for Actually you kind of touched on what I was going to say too is just like when you're truly going after intimacy with God. In this sense, like you sense, it's like we're not doing it for ourselves. We're not going to build a ministry to show us who we are or to put ourselves on a pedestal Open waters. I don't care if we're seen, I don't care. This isn't patting myself on the back, but the whole goal is not to create a platform for anybody.
Speaker 2:Sure Josiah, Just kidding.
Speaker 1:Platform for anybody, sure, just saying, just kidding. But it's to create a platform for jesus to be glorified and to be worshiped and people to have a place to become intimate with him and to worship him to have that encounter with him. That changes them forever exactly, and so it's not about not about me, it's not about anybody on the team. Like, if god tells us not to play and just to just sit there, we're gonna do that yeah because it's not about the instruments either.
Speaker 1:And so I don't want to like. If you can see yourself doing these things, I would just take a second to just be like Lord. What do I need to do to get back to this place of intimacy? I don't want to just have another spiritual project, you know, or a super spiritual project as it says.
Speaker 1:And I think I do want to take a quick second this, uh, to mention this, because it says we preach the message meaning most likely people this is kind of just me reading into the verse and we preach the message meaning that some people did receive the message yeah and then it also goes on to say we bashed demons, meaning they casted out demons yep and so that means demons did leave because they know the name of Jesus regardless.
Speaker 2:That's crazy. That's how powerful Jesus' name is. It's amazing.
Speaker 1:And I want to say how much more so would we be able to preach the message and bash demons or cast out demons if we truly knew the name of Jesus? Because I forget which story it is, but there was, I believe. It's pretty, it's in Matthew. I know that, I believe um, but it talks about these people that were proclaiming the name of jesus and john yeah. And they and the demon inside said I know jesus, I know but who are you?
Speaker 2:who the heck are you?
Speaker 1:and who are you and? So it's like most of the time, like I feel like that's most of the church today is like we're so, we're so, like we're napping right now.
Speaker 2:It's just like oh, I know, I know the worship.
Speaker 1:It's like, ok, we're worshiping, I know how to worship, but what is this type of worship? You know, there's not a level of intimacy within worship, because we're just, we're just there to sing a song. We don't actually get in and we don't, we don't jump into worship, feel good? Yes, exactly, and intimacy is not about making ourselves feel good, but connecting with the lord right and so, um, it's kind of pretty much it for that section, but like, just don't don't let you know yourself, slip by on intimacy waters family.
Speaker 1:I just wanted to take one quick second away from the podcast. I'm sorry to ask you if you could please go ahead, like rate and subscribe to this podcast, because it does wonders for us reaching more people so that we can get the word of God out to people and what God is speaking to us. Open Waters is all about building up intimacy with God, building up the morale of Christianity in the body of Christ, as well as building fellowship. So if you have any friends, please send them our way so we can get to know them as well. Take care.
Speaker 2:Yeah, one of the things I did want to add. This is kind of a sidebar, so I hope it's okay. No, go for it. But when we're really truly intimate with God, we now have an ability to be intimate with the other believers in the church and without having that intimacy with God, it really is harder to have intimacy with the church.
Speaker 2:Because that intimacy with God fulfills so many needs for you and it reveals his heart. It just it opens doors. There's identity in that intimacy. There's so much that you get from that intimacy that when you don't have that you, when you're going through the emotions of trying to be important, your needs aren't getting met. It's just a very empty shallow. It's like always chasing after something that you can never attain, because not only do you not have that true need set inside of you of being fully known and fully seen by Him, but then you can't really connect with others because, again, it's like you're going through the motions and you're not really connected when you love him, you love his church, and so it just changes all of your interactions.
Speaker 2:It changes all of your motives, it changes how you do everything. It opens up avenues for you to really be real. It opens up for you to not be so selfish and to have your needs met from others in unhealthy ways. So that's just kind of a sidebar.
Speaker 1:And just another sidebar as well into intimacy is the closer you are to somebody, the more like them you are. And it's like when you, when you get married, you can see that you act like there's just some things on your partner that you'll, you'll start picking up on, you'll just you'll, I don't know, you'll take it on just subconsciously.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, it's like when you hang out with someone that talks with a Western accent.
Speaker 2:Yeah. You'll start having that little Western accent, a little bit of an accent going on, just because you're picking it up and I don't know why. Or if you're hanging out with a Brit, you can start talking like a Brit.
Speaker 1:Yeah a little bit Exactly there you go A country, it'll start picking up on their Spanish and start getting on their language, their style, their dialect, exactly.
Speaker 2:That's good.
Speaker 1:Just going to move on to this next point, which is I'm going to jump down to this one Know that implementation of intimacy with the Father does not cause limitation in our ability to be free. And that's going to be Matthew 7, 24 and 25.
Speaker 2:Say that one more time, Josiah. Oh man, Actually.
Speaker 1:Know that implementation of the intimacy with the Father does not cause limitation in our ability to be free.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 24 and 25. Wow, I think sometimes maybe we just have that just kind of uncovers like I would even encourage people to ask themselves do I believe a lie? Like subconsciously even that my yes to being intimate with God is going to relinquish freedoms for me, Like I'm going to have less freedom because of my yes to God.
Speaker 1:I would add one thing to that, and that's, as God says lay your life down and to die to self.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:To pick up the freedom that the Spirit, like what God, gives us.
Speaker 2:True freedom.
Speaker 1:The life, the true life God wants for us. True freedom, yeah, and the freedom that the spirit, like the, what god gives us, the life, the true life god wants for us. True freedom, yeah, and so it it's. Obviously it's going to look a lot like giving up freedom, but that's, that's where the world, you know, gets you. It's like, oh yeah, you're gonna lose freedom. It's like kind of like the snake in the garden where he was saying, oh, you don't know what good and evil is god wanted to keep this great thing from me because he's a bad god and deception.
Speaker 1:But no, he wanted you to stay away because that's not what he had for you.
Speaker 2:It's not what was best for you, because he loves you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, that's right. And so this verse is 24 and 25 of Matthew 7, matthew 7, 24, 25. These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, but homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words to build a life on. If you work these words into your life, you are like a smart carpenter who built his house on solid rock. Rain poured, the river flooded, a tornado hit, but nothing moved that house. It was fixed to the rock, and I want to focus on that part where it says these words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, so they're not an accident when you're intimate with God. It's an improvement to your standard of living.
Speaker 1:Meaning no matter where you are, your living standards are higher because you're becoming more intimate with God. Yeah, and it's causing you to have more freedom. You get to walk in more freedom you get to walk in more deliverance and I believe truly, when you walk in those things, you're influencing the people around you too.
Speaker 2:Yes, 100%.
Speaker 1:And so anything you want to speak on that, just like know that implementation of intimacy with the Father does not cause limitation in our ability to be free.
Speaker 2:I think you know I'm just bringing this down to a very practical base here to be free. I think you know I'm just bringing this down to a very practical base here. Um, I think sometimes there are times when I'm like I just want to watch the show. Yeah, I don't want to take the time to spend talking with God first. I know that sounds lame.
Speaker 1:No, a hundred percent. How many times do you know?
Speaker 2:sometimes, like I, either it's because I've been at church all day, you know, or church for part of the day, or I've just been. I've had a really rough day and I'm so exhausted I'm just like I don't want to just spend five minutes being quiet with the Lord or, you know, reading the Bible or whatever. I mean just being real. There are times when I feel that way, developing that intimacy with the Lord, because then I'm not going to be able to have the freedom to do this. But what? Every time, every time I step into choosing that first at least, or instead I walk away so fulfilled and so like it's what I needed, that was the refreshing thing I needed, that was. I feel so much I don't have the word, it's just I feel full, I feel clean, I feel satisfied, I feel I feel you know we're already justified, but I feel sanctified, feel, I feel at one like all is right in the world, even when everything can be crazy, not right, there's this centered place and so it's never.
Speaker 2:And and did I not? Sometimes I don't watch tv, but I never feel like I've lost my freedom. Actually, I feel freedom. Actually, I feel way freer than I do if I had not spent that time Every time, 10 times out of 10. And there's no place. I would rather be it's a song, but it's true. So I think, there's part of that, and I think I mean, if you get more intimate with the Lord, are there going to be some things that you have to give up.
Speaker 2:Oh sure, yes, but it's never from. God is such a gentleman. I was talking to somebody about this before Because she literally was talking about the Lord showing her. Like in the middle of the night there was a knock and then she heard a preacher say some of you are hearing Jesus knock on your door. He wants to spend time with you. Jesus is such a gentleman. He is not going to force anything on you when you spend that time in intimacy and you are so deeply in love with him. You just want to lay things down that are time wasters. Some of them may be sinful, some of them may not be sinful.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I just want to add on to that Maybe you don't feel like you're truly in love with God right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Or you don't feel like he's a huge priority. You don't A lot of the time. Most people I mean not even going to say most people I think a lot of people feel like he's just I mean not even going to say most people, I think a lot of people feel like he's just that it's just hard to feel that. You know what I'm saying. It's hard to feel in love with God because you can't. He's not here, he's not like, but she is here, like. He's hard to sense sometimes, he's hard to realize and to remind yourself that he's with you 24 seven.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and sometimes you don't feel truly in love with God.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:I think we know that we're in love with God, but we don't know most of the time that we're in love with God. You know what I'm saying, and we have to remind ourselves that we are, yeah, and when it comes to that, it's just pressing, because you know, I think God sees your pressing and he's going to meet you where you're at too, regardless Agreed. Like you said, he's a good gentleman. He's not going to force himself upon you, he's not going to, you know, creep on you or anything like that.
Speaker 2:He's just going to be there when you decide to love him back, he's going to be there. He's always there. Yeah, I think too. Just the question I have coming up is maybe some people are like I want to feel intimate with God. I want to be intimate with God, but I don't know how to get there. Do you have any suggestions?
Speaker 1:I have some suggestions, I do it first begins with a question what are you willing to lay down? Because a lot of the time we search before going to God, we go to the world for feelings.
Speaker 2:Yeah. And that's because we I don't know if we fully, or to the natural, even to the natural, yeah, maybe not the world, it may be the world. It may not be sinful, but it may not be the world, it may just be the natural thing, the natural thing, which I mean going to put it all into one umbrella of the world and then just call it what it is um and it might not be sinful.
Speaker 1:The world, you know there's, there's things in this world that are not sinful but are not necessarily holy, right and um, it's, we go. I don't know. It's just I guess, since we're, we're part of this world, our flesh and blood is a part of this world. We, we default to going to the things of this world. It's before going to the Lord.
Speaker 1:And I think that's a lot of times. When things go wrong, we search for answers ourselves, and then, when things truly get bad and we have no answers, we go to God, when our first response should probably be going to the Lord, right, and it's just like when we don't feel anything. What do we do? Most of the time, we do something to feel something Like, let's say, we're in a depression. What do we do? We try to do something to make us feel happy, whether that's going to pornography, going to drugs, going to hang out with a friend which is totally fine.
Speaker 1:Hanging out with a friend is not bad right, no, watch the show exactly we do something to feel something yeah and it's, I think you know at this point, when you're trying to feel something with the lord, something and it's, I think you know, at this point, when you're trying to feel something with the Lord, it a lot most sometimes you just won't, and I think it's teaching yourself that the Lord is with me, regardless how I feel. But, um, and so I guess my first tip would be practical tips to feel the Lord when you don't feel anything is just remind yourself that he's there regardless.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Um, I believe that you know, know, the disciples weren't feeling something at all times.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Especially when they were in prisons and being tortured and being martyred for the Lord. They probably weren't feeling the love of God.
Speaker 2:Or in the middle of the sea in a shipwreck, yeah.
Speaker 1:And when one of the disciples was hung upside down on a cross because he refused to be Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2:Oh yes, yes, thank you yes ma'am, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:They weren't feeling that.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And it's just like you know. They had to remind themselves that when they were getting hung upside down on the cross. You know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the Lord loves me. Oh, my goodness Right.
Speaker 1:And so it's like, amidst the times, that we I mean we don't have that kind of struggle but we do have different struggles, that we remind ourselves the Lord is with me, and whether it's saying one of the Psalms I believe it's Psalm 63, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want Psalm 23. Psalm 23.
Speaker 2:Sorry, hey, my bad, I'm going to learn how to do.
Speaker 1:I'm going to memorize these bad boys, but doing different things like that.
Speaker 2:So that would be my first one is reminding yourself. You know, with my bend towards inner healing and freedom, deliverance, I would ask the question God, is there something?
Speaker 1:A blocker?
Speaker 2:yeah, Blocking me from you? Is there a wall between us? Am I mad at you? Am I afraid that you won't come through for me? Is there some way that I am looking at you like other people who have hurt me in my life and so I'm not coming to you, just anything like that? But I think the biggest thing, is there a block between us? Is there a wall between us? And just see what the Lord says, because he will answer you. You have ears to hear, and so I would just take the time for that and clearly don't compare yourself to how your relationship looks with God than other people's relationship looks comparison is a killer man.
Speaker 2:It will the spirit comparison will make you 100%.
Speaker 1:I think one more thing that I could say. I had it in my mind and I think it escaped me for a second, but being deliberate with your time with him is a very important thing.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And a lot of the time, like when you don't feel him, a lot of the time we search for him, but it's in the times that we, you know, we just need to make time for him.
Speaker 2:You know, a lot of the time we don't feel anything because we never make time for him, we never give him a space to encounter us, we don't create a space in place, yeah, to get quiet, and I think that's the other thing too is I love our American culture, but we were talking about this at the summit, like one of the pastor, the pastor, the music pastor from K2, diego Rodriguez, was like he's from Argentina and he said it's a lot easier to have intimacy with other people and other cultures. We are such an individualistic, self-sufficient, busy culture and I love some of the aspects of that, but there's always the other side of that too, which is we're busy and so we have to legit slow down and say okay.
Speaker 2:I've got time for this. This is a priority and, like I said, when you make that a priority you are never disappointed. And he's just waiting here. He wants it. Some people have the hurdle, the blockage that they have in being intimate is, I don't feel, worthy. They don't really know that god wants to be with them. He did it all and paid it all a great sacrifice to be, intimate with us. He wants nothing, nothing more than like.
Speaker 2:That's what he wants, that's everything yeah he is everything and so and he, he's always been here, he's always been knocking at the door. He's always been here, he's always been knocking at the door. He's always been saying come, sit with me, eat with me, talk with me, he wants that. And so so many times we inadvertently, through our inactivity, say nah and we just go through the motions.
Speaker 1:As Americans, we think we can do it ourselves.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So anyway, Anyway, I'm going gonna move on to our last our last point, and it's just don't. Don't just know about god, but no, but know who he truly is. Yeah and well, that's not it. Don't just study him, but implement him into your life.
Speaker 1:That's the one that we did the other one okay don't just study him, but implement him into your life Matthew 7, 26 and 27. So let's go there Matthew 26 and 27. But use my words in my Bible. But if you use my words in Bible studies and don't work them into your life, you are like a stupid carpenter who built his house on a sandy beach. When a storm rolled up and the waves came up, it collapsed like a house of cards. I'm going to read that first part again, because that's the main focus I want to use uh today, and that is. But if you use my words in bible studies and don't work them into your life, you're like a stupid carpenter who built his house on the sandy beach yikes.
Speaker 1:And so I think a lot of the time we study, like I said, with the example of the ecclesia. Lot of us use that word and we have no clue what it means, but we study it regardless. Or maybe we know what it means, but we never implement and work on becoming one of the people of the Ecclesia. We don't become that Judah that God's calling us to be, but we studied it, so I must be it right Now. Just because you study something doesn't mean you're it anymore.
Speaker 1:There is a work to become. You know that thing. You know what I'm saying. Like David did not, just as he was born, become the man after God's heart. It was a work throughout his entire life. Even through the sin. There was a repentance process. It was a work towards being that person that was after God's own heart.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean I'm thinking of an immediate analogy is if my spouse says he loves me and is committed to me, but he's going out and sleeping with other people or not even let's say he's not sitting. He loves me and is committed to me but the things that are super important to my heart he inadvertently just kind of doesn't really care about, or he doesn't spend time with me. Or I've said, hey, I need you, I need to hear I love you, and he never says I love you, then the intimacy is going to fade. It just is. It's not because I'm, you know, god is not. He has no sin or fallacy in him. He's perfect in every way.
Speaker 1:He only knows how to give good gifts.
Speaker 2:Yeah, he's already took all the punishment, so there's no more punishment to be had. So he's not punishing us by holding back his affection. No, there's just going to be a separation of the heart because of the you know, the intimacy. We can easily come back to him, but when we get more callous to this, to being sensitive and no longer sensitive to, you know, being committed to walking out the effects of what we experience in learning about him, it's going to the relationship is going to suffer.
Speaker 1:Totally.
Speaker 2:The intimacy is going to suffer and that has ripple effects across the board. Totally, the intimacy is going to suffer and that has ripple effects across the board.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I just want to like touch on it, like it's important for us to aid to study, but implementation and follow through is much more important than just learning. I would say they're pretty much 50-50.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:But I think a lot of us have the learning part down we go to church on sundays, yeah, the pastor teaches on loving your neighbor. But the person that just cut me off on the road today, actually this is legit. Actually today I was on the highway. Somebody there was, it was. It was pretty bad. There was like a few cars actually that cut me off and it was pretty close to going like 75, 80 miles an hour.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 1:And dude literally goes into my lane because he was tailgating this other guy and almost got four cars into a crash.
Speaker 2:It was nuts Yikes.
Speaker 1:And you know, when you're pumped full of adrenaline you're just like you're hyped the rest of the ride to where you're going, you're like, but Jesus loves you. But it's practicing the love of Jesus. The pastor just preached, you know Right, instead of cussing that guy out and driving past him to go see what he looks like Because I myself want to know what he looks like I want to see if it's an old guy, I know what is it.
Speaker 1:Or a teenager, Some dumb guy you know, and it's just like no, I'm not going to go and speed up to go see what he looks like, flip him off or cuss him out. It's going to be like Lord.
Speaker 2:I bless him and I hope he has to get to say like drives home safely so real.
Speaker 1:And it's like practicing the love of Jesus, even if you can't like actually talk to him, or practicing the love If you do know him and they offend you. Yeah, it's important to do that stuff, and so I want to like.
Speaker 1:I also want to touch on the importance of studying and I think, this is where we're going to move on for the next couple times I've been learning. Manuel challenged me to learn the seven words of praise Hebrew words of praise and I think we'll kind of go over those for the next couple episodes and so I'll send those to you so you can get familiar with them but I'm not going to recite them over here because I'm still learning myself, but there are some pretty good ones.
Speaker 1:It's going to teach us on why we praise, the way we praise and what the definitions of them are, so we can implement them. And there's a power in knowing what you're doing. And that's why in here it's saying we study but we implement. We already have the implementation down of worship, because you do go to church and you do them on Sunday morning, but a lot of people don't know what worshiping or what the words of praise are and why? They do it. Why do you raise your hands? Why do you kneel down?
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And so I want us to go over those and kind of become more experienced with those and kind of know what those are. So we have the definitions to why and the why we do them and what they mean, because there's power in knowing what you're doing, but there's also real power and implementation, so you can purposefully do the things that you're doing so.
Speaker 1:It's really good so and that will grow our intimacy with the lord, because we're studying, but we're also now coming together with him to now make this beautiful, uh, intentional worship, intentional praise which is important because we are a worship focused ministry. Open waters worship is not just made to do podcasts and to teach you about the love of Jesus, but also to equip you guys with, um, real things, which is the seven Hebrew words of praise coming, coming soon so studying?
Speaker 2:when you love somebody, you don't just say you're going to do something you actually walk it out and it's actually protective for you exactly it actually keeps that relationship strong.
Speaker 1:It keeps you know and you build a firm foundation when you actually implement what you know what like if I learn pick up in intimacy, if I learn my girlfriend's like gum favorite gum is not mint gum, it's strawberry gum, I'm not going to go out and buy them mint gum anymore. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. So I'm going to go and buy them strawberry gum.
Speaker 2:Right. And so it's like the same thing and the relationship is going to last longer.
Speaker 1:It's going to go up.
Speaker 2:It's not going to fall down, you know, hypothetically, on very basic terms, because you bought her the mint.
Speaker 1:You will no longer break up because you didn't buy mint gum.
Speaker 2:That's right, strawberry gum saved it.
Speaker 1:All right you got any final thoughts before we cut out?
Speaker 2:No, I think this is a great topic, josiah. I'm glad you picked it.
Speaker 1:There's power in intimacy. So I hope you uh go on the journey with god to just grow your intimacy with him, because it's important not just to him but to the body of christ, because we don't want to be a surface level church anymore. There's going to be, and there has been and there's going to continue to be, a shaking of the, the weak fruit yeah and they're going to fall off yeah um, it's kind of weak in a weak analogy, but it's going to be kind of like a like.
Speaker 1:There's going to be a shaking and whoever's not truly held on, whoever's not built, on the firm foundation is going to be washed away on the sand exactly I know, and it really truly, intimacy is everything.
Speaker 2:Right now you have to stay so close to the heart of god. Yeah, because there's so much happening in the spiritual realm, in the physical realm, the spiritual realm, I mean it's exciting days to be alive, but there's so much going on too.
Speaker 2:And so um, I did want to just um say something about oh my goodness, it just left me after we were talking about that. Oh, yes, I would go back seriously and ask those questions of yourself. Do I believe that if I'm intimate, if I implement intimacy, that I'm going to limit my freedom?
Speaker 1:Ask the Lord.
Speaker 2:Have a conversation about that. Is there any part of me that believes that? And then, you know, just investigate with him. Why do I believe that? And, lord, what is the truth? Instead, I'm sorry for believing that. What is the truth? I renounce that and receive what he says, and it's going to be a blessing to your soul. The second one was you know, if you are intimate with God and you want more intimacy, or maybe you don't feel him close, or whatever the case may be, just ask yourself, hey, is there a blockage? Is there something blocking? Is there a wall between you and me that is keeping me from the level of intimacy that I really, deep down inside, desire?
Speaker 2:you know that kind of it just feels like you can never really push through. Just ask god. He wants to be close to you. Yep, totally so. Rate review, subscribe, share.
Speaker 1:Feel free to answer those questions in the comments, if you'd like as well and we can have a conversation about it yeah, totally yeah, we'd like to get to know you guys a little more, so feel free to chat us in the comments and love you guys peace out.
Speaker 2:We'll be back next week, see ya.
