How to Become Hungry for God - 124

Taylor Welch (0:00)

I had never actually needed God. I just was trained intellectually on how you should need God. I learned how to fit into a system where everybody talked about needing God. I was not stupid, so I could tell that they didn't really need God. It's like, oh, God, we need God so much to pay off this building campaign. It's like, you don't need the building. So I know you don't really need that as a 14, 15 year old. The best gift God can give you sometimes is not the elimination of the bottom. It's to just be with you in the bottom. A dangerous place to be is when you become so good at out running the things that you should have healed from. And then you may never get it. What is that system? That's what I'm curious on, because that will get us to fasting. That will get us to prayer. This is not just your prayer life. It's not just your fasting life. It's actually a deeper issue for why people do not pray. And it is actually your.

Everyone wants to get to the high places. But if you want to go high, you first have to go deep. So welcome back to The Deep End. How are you? I'm doing great. You're you're changing everything. What am I changing everything about the show? You're changing the technology, the equipment. We have what did I do? I found and stuck them in a closet. Poor guy. I'm testing things, man. That's all I'm doing. You're making everything so much better. People don't understand. There's a lot of production that goes into this show on the back end. There's a lot. Yeah. If there were no Jake, there probably no deep end. We would just have to. It would be me with an iPhone as there would be no Taylor. There'd be no deep end. But you'd have to probably change your first name to Deep End Welch. The Deep Welch. We're going to be talking today about prayer and fasting, which is awesome. Yeah. I think what we'll do today is we'll unpack kind of how prayer is designed to work and how fasting sharpens you. And there are things that I've seen that we are going to have to learn how to do, that the only way we're going to survive is if we pray.

And I don't pray enough. I don't think any one of us really pray enough. But here's a good prayer. I wrote this down. This was like last year, because some of the most powerful prayer moments with God have started like this. I'm pissed. Mm-hmm. I don't even like you. And those have turned into some of my most powerful prayer sessions. And if you can get there, then you can sort of open... Because God doesn't... God's not like, well, I knew this was in your heart, but now that it's come out of your mouth, it's lightning. I'm going to kill you. That's not the relationship that God has. He actually takes it quite as a really sign, a signal of trust when you're honest with him with the things that you're frustrated with him about. That raises your currency in heaven.

Like how much... You define currency in heaven as actually like trust. Yeah, how much would you trust somebody that had a pathological addiction to lying? Zero. Okay, well, then you don't trust Christians because they are not honest with God. Right, but you want to trust them. We're back to broad brushing Christians. No. But you know, like if no one ever told you the truth and you only found out how they felt because they told one of your friends, would you trust that person? No. Well, how are you going to be a friend of God when the only way that this pleasure is communicated back to God is through you talking to a pastor about it or your friends about it? Right. That's not a good relationship. So sometimes we don't realize that if we would just open up and be honest with God about how we actually feel about him and us and this is not what you told me and your stake in heaven goes up. Because he's like, okay, now we can, I'm going to wait with you. I'm going to, I'm curious. And I'll tell a story maybe later today where it's like, even the moments when I told God that I'm like, this is so bad that I'm quitting. I'm done. I'm done being your worker bee. You know, I'm done doing this. It's interesting how the Holy Spirit has been deeply curious about that. He hasn't been like, well, you don't understand things and you don't know enough. He's been like, what caused this? Why? Talk to me about it. This is a very different paradigm than what is taught from most people. Yeah, imagine what Jesus would have done if Judas had said like, this is what's going on in my mind. He would have helped him. I think he waited until the very last moment. But this is a good prayer for you to pray. I'm gonna pray real fast. I titled this in my notebook, pray to pray when you're not okay. Where did it come from? It came from me telling God that I wasn't okay, and I thought it was his fault. And there were, I think that this was last, towards the end of last year. And what do they say in the movies? It started like just a normal Thursday. Another Monday afternoon. Then by the end of the day, I was like, we're done with this. I don't trust you, and I don't, this is me, like I'm, this is me. Like you run the Deep End, and you're like the person that teaches people about God. And I'm like, I don't even trust God. And so I had to get it out so that it didn't start to control my world view. And it turned into this prayer that the Holy Spirit was like, here's, that's OK, let's talk about it, but here's how we pray. And I wrote this down. Forgive me. This is where it starts. Forgive me, God, for not seeing things the way you see them. Show me mercy for the things I could have done better. Remind me that you're good even when I do not feel good. Show me a sign that I can remember that you have never failed before and that you never will. Forgive me for making my pain an idol and for giving too much power to the things I want to change. I do not want to focus on it anymore. I will focus instead on the one who makes all changes possible. Whether we end this season here or now or whether you want me to stay a while, I submit to your process. Let your will be done. Give yourself glory in my life. Honor your name above everything and everyone. I will not doubt any longer. Give me the strength, the wisdom, and the perspective to see my world the way you see it and to see myself the way you see me. Tell me what to say and I will say it. Tell me what to think and I will think it. And in the end, you will have your victory and you will have your glory. There is no replacement for you. Not my intellect, not my strategy. I will submit myself to you. Use me how you want to. Please and thank you. Amen.