What Causes God to Listen

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This is the Truth Network. The heart of every man craves a great adventure, but life doesn't usually feel that way. Jesus speaks of narrow gates and wide roads, but the masculine journey is filled with many twists and turns.

So how do we keep from losing heart while trying to find the good way when life feels more like a losing battle than something worth dying for? Grab your gear and come on a quest with your band of brothers who will serve as the guides in what we call the masculine journey. The masculine journey starts here now. And here and now is the last Saturday in September, which makes this not an evergreen podcast anymore, by the way. It's the last Saturday of September 2021. We have a boot camp, Andy. Like, wow, you got October and then boom, it's there.

November 18th through the 21st. And so, you know, we're looking at you with those dates. You know, a lot of new people that we want to come, like, who's this guy beside me? I haven't seen him in months.

Who is? Sir, would you like to come to a boot camp? I think I need one. You know, why so long they wouldn't even let me have a microphone? Yeah, we don't like strangers by calling in. Yeah, yeah.

There you go. We got another one calling in with Wayne. And so it's good to have Jim back.

It really is. We've missed him. He's been gone.

And then, interestingly, Sam bailed on us this week. But fortunately, it was my topic. So the topic's a little bit different in it, Andy, in that you can't – don't just jump all over me as soon as you hear it, because it's not exactly right.

But you can't say it exactly right, I don't think. But we had gone from, you know, what makes God listen to this week, okay. Or I guess last week we talked about, you know, which makes us listen. What gets our attention.

What gets our attention. So today's topic is, you know, what makes God listen. Not that God doesn't listen all the time, so don't jump on me. But the idea is that I'm sure – well, I know that for me personally, I've experienced many times where I felt like my prayers were hitting the ceiling, and I didn't feel like I really was in the relationship that I knew that I had been in previously or that I'd hoped to be in in this situation. And so, Ryan, you're laughing, Jim. I'm thinking what makes God – what was the last one?

I just lost it. What makes us listen. What gets his attention. Oh, yeah, what gets God's attention. But I'm not sure that's not worse than what makes him listen.

Sometimes I don't want his attention. That's right. So anyway, along those lines, we're going to do a little transitioning here. So Andy, you're last week's topic to this week's topic. Yeah, so last week I submitted a clip from the burning bush from the Ten Commandments. And the idea was, you know, it's a dialogue between Moses and God. And, you know, it's Moses listening, you know, to God, but there was also God speaking about how he had heard the cries of the children of Israel and the place that they were in.

And so, you know, it just seemed to fit better for this week than, you know, actually it did last week. But, you know, I think the thing is, I think we'll talk a lot about how God listens to us as individuals. And he likes to listen to us that way.

I mean, it is a father-son-daughter relationship. But he also listens to nations, you know, groups of people together. And, you know, when he's talking there with Moses, the burning bush, he said, I've heard the cries of my children. Well, you know, we're a nation founded under God. We're his people here.

And we've kind of gotten off of following him. So, you know, the point is, you know, a nation broken, a needing God can get his attention. The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Lord, Lord, why do you not hear the cries of their children in the bondage of Egypt? I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt. And I have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. Therefore, I will send thee, Moses, unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring my people out of Egypt. Who am I, Lord, that you should send me?

How can I lead this people out of bondage? What words can I speak that they will heed? I will teach thee what thou wilt say. Yeah, so, I mean, I just, you know, listening to that again, you just pick up on, you know, God said, I've seen the sorrows of my people, you know. And I think, you know, God moves the nations.

I think the founding of our country and a people who didn't really have a place to worship God freely. That's why our country, I believe, was founded, is the heart's desire of that. So that's, you know, he did that with the children of Israel, his people, that nation. He did it with our nation and I believe he's listening again. He's seen the sorrows of those that are truly his people. But it just, a lot of times God doesn't hear or doesn't necessarily take action until we humble ourselves and get our, you know, get the priorities straight in our lives.

And, you know, sometimes it takes those things to get our attention. I think God's got America's attention greater than it ever has. But God, I think like we've said or we will say, he's always listening, but there's certain things that really get his attention.

So Rodney, you had some scripture that looked like you were – Yeah, and there's a couple that I just love this whole idea, like you're saying, Andy, where he listens to individuals, he listens to groups of people, he listens to his church, he listens to nations, he listens. And I just love that fact because like there where he's basically talking early in Exodus about, hey, I've heard the cries of my people, right? And then later on when he's basically going through other commandments in the law of what they're supposed to be like, in Exodus 22, 23, if you afflict him at all and if he does cry out to me, God, I will hear his cry. And then affliction, when you're down, when you're out, when you're at the end of your rope, I've hit the bottom, whatever the phrase you want to use, when you're down, he's there for you. That's just a great comfort right there to know that – I know so many people and we talked with them at boot camps and I just feel like, well, God doesn't hear me or this or that and oh, man, that's when he's probably hearing you the most is when you actually just pour it out, when you just let it go and not just try to script it or be, well, this is what I have to do. No, just let your emotions and stuff flow out to him, good or bad. He hears you.

Yeah, kind of like David and Psalms, I mean, he poured it all out. Yeah, so have you got an experience like that in your life, Rodney? Oh, yeah. Well?

Oh, yeah. This would be a good time to share that. Well, that's where you've got to come down and think of the one, right, because there's like so many different ones that hit you.

I know that for me when coming to know God and you're like starting to – and you realize who he really is, so when you – I'm a baby Christian and I'm just starting to learn who he is and how much higher he is, so I'm on these drives back and forth to work where in those moments – and they've hit me much since then, too, but it's just like you're driving along and you get that sense. How long ago was that? You're talking about, gosh, now what's it been, seven years ago? Okay.

So – but you're driving and you get something that's just stuck in you. What you have just said to my, like, whether either I've done it to my wife or my kids, or a lot of them that were coming up because it was just like I realized how I was treating them. You know, I wasn't giving them the attention they deserve when the attention they got was negative. You know, it was how can I be more loving? Just when you start to figure out this is how sinful and how bad and how wretched I was in these situations, and you just want to pour it out and you just have that great cry, and it's a relief that once that's out and you've let it go to the Lord, the healing on the backside of that and how good he makes you feel, because he's like, I'm not going to leave you in that spot.

He works with you and then you can come through that and you can have – come back and have a much better relationship with him, and then you get to have a better relationship with your own family through that. And that's what some of my experience has been. Yeah, but you, Andy? Man, I thought it was Jim's time to talk. So this is one of the things I kind of wanted to share. This was not a – I mean, it's a part of my story, but it's not like – some part of it's kind of vague. Back in the day before I really gave my life to the Lord in, say, my 20s, I used to just struggle with repetitive sin. And I remember, you know, I knew who I was. I knew what I believed as a Christian, but I couldn't really get victory over some things. And I just remember praying what seemed to be a very vain and ridiculously stupid prayer, because I would pray. God, help me to be the best Christian I can be.

It sounds very vain, because I'd just go about doing whatever I wanted to do. And it was very – but there was a part of me that God heard that prayer. There was somewhat of a desire to do that, even though I didn't really know how to walk it out or do it. And I couldn't even quantify that if I had reached that destination when he did that. And then I did really get turned on for God, but I still had a lot of brokenness, a lot of things that we've talked about where you think you were walking with Christ, and you weren't necessarily – you didn't have the victory in areas and stuff. So to dig into that, which, you know, I'm writing this down, taking notes, help me be the best Christian I can possibly be. I don't know that that's all that vain of prayer. I actually kind of like it, because, you know, it's open-ended enough to where God can take that wherever he wants it to go.

Exactly. He knew that vision much more than I would. But when you say he answered that, specifically were there people he put in your life?

Was there a desire for Scripture? Well, there was a broken relationship in my 20s that got me on my first go-round. And then, you know, it's repetitive with me, another broken relationship took me to the next level. All right.

We got more brokenness coming. Stay tuned. But by all means, go to masculinejourney.org, register for the boot camp.

Go to masculinejourney.org and register today. I know that I'm not just open. I'm not just wishing. I know I'm praying to a God who listens. I know he hears me.

I know he's living. I know I'm praying to a God who listens. So, yeah, I mean, we were looking for, I was looking for something today, and I'd heard that song recently, but I wouldn't have found it if I hadn't had Google to help me along, but it seemed to be perfect. And I think that's a lot of it is there are times then we do pray prayers, you know.

I mean, I wonder what I was even thinking. Because I really think God was going to hear me when I was praying that prayer, just make me this, you know, better Christian than what I actually am. But he truly is a God who listens to us. And I like a lot of that, you know, that for him to really hear us, we do have to humble ourselves a lot of times, or all the time. But, you know, through that, we truly find that he does listen to us. We don't always get the answer that we want or think we need, but God has an answer for us, and it's good for us. You know what I hear in that prayer, Andy, is hope, right? I mean, I don't know what I'm doing here, God, which is clearly where I'm at most of the time.

I don't know what I'm doing, but I think you got it together, so make it happen, you know, however that works. So, Wayne, you've hung on silent on silent. Well, one point about that, that's true real quick, is that I think there was this thought that God was just going to step down and do it all for me, and obviously, as you learn through, it's a partnership, God will do his part, but you're expected to do your part, and I found that, I finally found out what my part was, so. So, Wayne, how about you, buddy?

For me, I am sorry, I was waiting on someone to swing me the mic over. But for me, it was the obvious of love. If you want God to hear you, love those around you. You know, act in love, do the things that he's told us to do in Scripture.

He desires mercy, not sacrifice. Father took me to the Scripture where, you know, whenever Jesus comes with his angels and judges the nations, and he sits those to his right and to his left, and he says, well done, good and faithful servants. Those that he says that to, it's not because they didn't sin anymore, they never messed up again. No, he told them, well done, good and faithful, because of the way they loved others. You know, they fed those who didn't have food, they gave drink to those who didn't have drink, they took in strangers, they visited the sick, they visited those in prison. You know, we touch God's heart when we act and when we become like his son. That's the whole gist of this journey, I believe, is that we look more like Jesus.

And if you look at the life of Jesus, that's what he did. He loved the unlovable. So to put flesh on that, actually, Wayne, why don't you, you know, share with us where you've been for the last few days. Yeah, it's interesting timing for sure. I've got a real good friend.

I refer to him more like my dad, my other dad, one of my other dads. And I've been at the hospital for the last four days. I got a call that, and he had been in the hospital for about a week and a half already for COVID.

And no one else was visiting him. There was some things going on there. Again, with COVID, everyone's afraid. And there's a lot of fear with that, and I understand that.

I'm not taking that down or anything. But I really didn't want this man experiencing this on his own. And I got a call four days ago that he was about to pass. And I just, I went to Father and then I said, this man called me his other son, I'm going to go up there and I'm going to tell him I'm his son.

And they did let me in. And so I spent the last four days sitting with him. That day was a really good day. It was a great day. We had conversations like we always had about the Lord and just life in general.

And there he went downhill. And this morning I got to be with him when he went home to be with the Lord. And it was a great honor.

A lot of people can look at it and think that I'm crazy and I'm nuts. We had some interesting conversations and of course pointing it all back to God. But I loved him enough to do that. I loved him enough to put myself in that place where those things don't matter.

You see it with missionaries, you see it with anyone who truly dies a self and goes after it. And I think that's what we're going to have to learn to do in the days to come is to love one another. Yeah, that's beautiful, Wayne. How about you, Jim, since you finally joined us?

I did get a mic. I almost hate to follow Wayne because that was really serious. But sometimes we need a little comedy to relieve the tension. And that is a wonderful story, Wayne, and I appreciate hearing it. The first couple of things that came to mind were ones I've used fairly recently.

So I said, now I need something else. And it reminded me of the summer before I got married. I was going down to visit Carolyn. I don't remember why I was driving along the coast, but I was going from Georgetown to Charleston.

And this was in 1973, so there isn't much there now except Francis Marion State Park, I think. But I was driving along, and I looked at my gas gauge, and it was on empty. And I was 20 or 30 miles past Georgetown. There was no way to get back.

I was further than that from Charleston. And I just threw up a little prayer. I said, God, I know a lot of trouble if I don't get a gas station here. And I'm driving, and I'm looking. Trees are down on either side of the road.

There's nowhere to even have built anything in the middle of a swamp. And I'm cruising along and thinking, okay, God. And I really didn't expect it. And I saw a light in the distance, and at first I thought it was an oncoming car. What it was was one bulb hanging from a door of a little redneck bar that had gas pumps. Now, I was still in my hair. My hair was short because I just got down to the Citadel, so I wasn't in trouble. But I was thinking in terms, I can't go in there. But you had to go in to pay for the gas. And I went in and expected to be in trouble, and I didn't realize I didn't have long hair anymore, so I was okay.

But I went in, I got the gas, got to Charleston, and I decided that I was afraid to go back the way I'd come because I was pretty sure that place really wasn't there. I mean, it was in the middle of absolute nowhere. But God answers prayers. One of the things you said earlier that hooked me, Andy, is it's a dialogue. And God's always listening to us, but He doesn't always speak to us. And that doesn't mean that we're not going to get an answer, and I got my answer very quickly. But quite often, my prayers, and I suspect a lot of people out there, it is a monologue. Speaking of that, you've got a clip. I do. The actual discussion between... And since I took so much time leading up to it, we'll jump right in because this is talking to God, so there's nothing to set up.

It's an interview with God. So we struggle here on earth to know you, but I assume you know all the questions and all the answers? Of course. Does that make you feel uncomfortable? But then you know the answer to that question, too, right?

Yes. But a divine perspective is not required. You try to see this from my point of view. This is not an easy process.

No, I get it. Knowing all the questions and all the answers must make human conversation kind of difficult. Well, no one likes to know it all. Right. You said, you of all people, a few moments ago, you said, you of all people should know why my answers might be a little confused.

What do you mean by that? Why me of all people? Well, you have a degree in religious studies and a degree in journalism from Loyola University where you graduated the top of the class. You started working at the Herald in their online division right out of college where you write about matters of faith and theology. So you memorized my online book. And I also know about your marriage. Excuse me? I know about your marriage. Oh.

You had me going for a second. I did. And you're waiting for me to ask. Ask what? For proof. Proof that you are who you say you are. Proof. Well, tell me, when you pray, do you ask for proof that God is listening?

No, of course not. And this is your lucky day. How's that? I'm here answering your question. And He is always there. And one of the things that appeals to me about this clip is that it is God has a divine sense of humor there. And that's frequently how He talks to me. And that may not be everybody. But He is always listening and He's not going to answer the questions we already know the answer to. But often that's what we ask that's in there.

I mean, Andy did a great job cutting this clip. But it sort of strung together so fast that you have to listen fast. And I know that's no problem from you Yankees. But I struggled with that a little bit. But it's a great representation of the dialogue that we should be having with God.

Because He's going to answer most of our questions with questions. Or at least that's my experience. Well, there you go. So, you know, there's the question that goes back to you, the listener, right? Like, when you think about your own prayers, your own testimonies, right? 119 Psalms, beautiful, looking at how important your testimonies are. Were you an eyewitness to something that God actually did? And you can hear how many times King David said he kept these testimonies. Or he thought about these testimonies. And you might remember, if you've read the book, Pilgrim's Progress, how close those testimonies were to his heart. Where he knew that these were times that God did come and God did answer.

And what that means as far as continuing to grow in our faith. So we've got a whole lot more of this conversation coming up in the After Hours, which is a podcast. If you go to Master Journey's podcast page, you can get all that. And that will be coming up right after the show. But in the meantime, right, we would love to make all kinds of testimonies happen at the next boot camp, which is coming up November 18th through the 21st. Go to Master Journey Radio. And we didn't punch on Sam just one time, but I will say, gee, we miss him, you know? Wish he had been here. So we'll catch you next week.