Encouraging the Pursuit of the Kingdom

This is Andy Thomas from the Masculine Journey Podcast where we discover what it means to be a wholehearted man. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds. Enjoy it, share it, but most of all thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. This is the Truth Network. The Truth Network is an extraordinary people instilled with an extraordinary passion.

Together we explore the stories of men and women who take what they love and let God turn their passion into Kingdom Pursuits. Now live from the Truth Booth, your host, Robbie Dilmore. Oh, what a great show we've got lined up for you today on Kingdom Pursuits. I'm actually so excited because I have my good friend James Banks with us here today on Encouraging Prayer.

Usually you would hear him, but you hear him at the end of the show, but today we get to hear him for the whole show. So welcome, James. Thank you, Robbie. It is so good to be with you today. Yeah, isn't it? What a beautiful day out here as well in North Carolina. My goodness.

Yeah, it really is. And for those who don't know, James is a pastor of Peace Church in Durham amongst his many things, wrote many, many, many books. And actually when we record, he usually is in Durham. I'm usually in Winston-Salem, and so you're hearing him this morning live. Are you from Durham or are you in Wilmington?

I'm in Durham right now. All right. And so you've got a sermon coming up tomorrow. I do.

I do. And so, you know, interestingly, what have you been working on this week for your sermon? Well, you know, that's a good question.

I'm going to have to check that, Robbie. Oh, okay. No, I've been working on the Gospel of John, chapter six, and it's basically about asking for getting gold. It has to do where there are these people who are following Jesus just for what he can give them. And they ask him for bread.

And he says, you know, this is, again, all in the sixth chapter of John where he begins to make a little more clear what it means to follow him. And these people, he already, this is right after the feeding of the 5,000, and now he's in Capernaum. And what happens is they followed him there, and they want more of the bread that he gave them before. And he's saying, I'm the bread. I'm the bread of heaven.

And it's a hard teaching for them to accept. And a little while after that, people stop following him. It's in that very chapter where he turns to the disciples and says, you know, you don't want to leave too. And Peter says, Lord, to whom do we go?

You have the words of eternal life. And so this is all about kind of how we deal with God, you know. Do we love God just for what he can do for us?

Or are we loving God for God? Because if we go that route, there is so much more. Really, which is exactly what encouraging prayer, right?

It's the heart of that whole idea. And encouraging prayer has been what we've been doing. How many years have we been doing encouraging prayer, James?

Oh my goodness. You know, I think at least seven. I mean, we've got, what, over 300 episodes? So there are quite a few.

I mean, total number if I'm not mistaken. But anyhow, you know, this is the truth, that God wants us to just love him. And prayer is one of the main ways that we do that. Because when we draw near to him that way, then he comes closer to us. We get more of him. We get more of his presence.

We get to see the things that he does. And that's why we want to talk about prayer. Because so often people talk about prayer as this thing that, Oh, you know, I feel guilty about it. I know I need to do it more. But I just can't.

I can't discipline myself to do it. And I think that's the mistake we make. We see it continually as a discipline. And don't get me wrong, there are times where we have to say, Yeah, I'm going to will to pray. And that's what we're going to be talking about later on on encouraging prayer. But, you know, if I tell my wife, I'm going to discipline myself to spend some time with you.

Yeah, that does not fly. But you know, we've got to do this part because it is Kingdom Pursuits, James. So, you know, speaking of encouraging, you know, I got a little something for you. So, yes, it is time to play shenanigans with my good friend James, who enjoys a good pun maybe better than I do.

And he quite often hits me with them. So here's your chance to actually play, James. I know you've been wanting to do this, especially with the idea of encouraging. So here you go. What did the Hawaiian jihadist say to encourage himself? What did the Hawaiian jihadist say to encourage?

I have no idea. You're going to like this, James. Aloha Akbar. Yeah, there you go. And what do you say to a koala, you know, to try to encourage him to beat his personal best in bench pressing? You want to try that one, Carmen?

I'm sorry, I don't have any idea. There we go. I'm back.

You haven't figured it out. OK, here you go. It's bro. You can lip this. Oh, my goodness. There you see.

Are you hearing that, Carmen? You can lip this. You can lip this. OK. You can lip this. All right.

So and again, the easy one that I'm pretty sure you can get. Carmen or James, one, how do you how do trees encourage one another? I'm just I'm swing and a miss, swing and a miss, swing and a miss by standing for they don't bark at each other. Sorry, Carmen, go ahead. Close.

No, she said by marketing each other. But actually, it's very close. You're both very close. They say I'm rooting for you. Oh, gosh. And they really do.

It's very biblical. And if it's in the winter, they don't leave. Oh, that's true.

You know, they stay with each other. And of course, this one's just for you know, James was a philosophy major. And so he loves philosophy.

And so I know you're going to want to know about this. What did Jedi Knights say to encourage the use of analogies? Metaphors. Metaphors be with you.

There you go. So, you know, you knew at the end of those shenanigans, we'd actually have a Bible quiz that is all about encouraging today. So, you know, what was who was actually who was the great encourager in the Bible? He was a great encourager. And James would tell you that some people would think, you know, he hid buses in a barn.

And, you know, I have friends who have a dog named for him. Oh, there you go. Eight, six, six, three, four, eight, seven, eight, eight, four, eight, six, six, three, four truth. And usually I'd say, Carmen, tell them what they win. But after the music starts, James, you can tell them what they'll win. You are going to win, Nick. Not sure the right voice to use with that music.

You are doing perfect. We would love to give you a copy of Praying the Prayers of the Bible for Your Everyday Needs, a signed copy of that book, one of my own. Praying the Prayers of the Bible for Everyday Needs. It is one of his own as long as well as many others that we'll get to here in a minute. And interestingly, we already have an answer, James.

It was just rapid fire. And so let's see, we'll go to this caller in Winston-Salem. You're on, well, she's answering it.

The caller in Winston-Salem, you're on Kingdom Pursuits. Good morning. Good morning. How are you?

I am wonderful. So you have an answer to who was the great encourager in the Bible. Oh, it was Barnabas. Yeah. Yeah. Do you ever think about him hiding buses in the barn? No?

No, but yes, with Paul and Joe Mark. Yeah, you're exactly right. Yeah, he was an encourager. And so you're going to win Praying the Prayers of the Bible for Everyday Needs. Plus, we've got a whole lot more ideas along James' lines when we come back. We've got a great way for lots to call in and win today, but thank you so much for calling in and winning. We're going to put you on hold, and we'll get your information, and we'll be back with James Banks and your opportunity to call in. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the Kingdom.

So, very fun today. We're going to do something a little unusual, what James and I think is going to be really fun, is that for anybody that calls in today, we've got a book. He's got many that he can choose from to give you. But what we're hoping is maybe you've got a question about prayer or a testimony about prayer or something about prayer. Maybe you've been listening to James for years on Encouraging Prayer, and you've always wanted to talk to him. Here is your chance.

You call us 866-348-788-486634-TRUTH with your question about prayer, or maybe something that you've wondered about for years. And certainly you may know James wrote Prayers for Prodigals, one great big huge his all-time bestseller. Am I right, James? I guess we've got to punch him up somehow, Carmen?

There you go. We've got your back, James, I'm sorry. All right, no, yeah, that definitely is a book that God has used in some beautiful ways, way more than we ever anticipated. You know, the most difficult circumstance we've ever been through, and God turns it and uses it to help other people, and he does that, you know?

That's the amazing thing. So yeah, so we are really hoping that you will, and I can tell you that, you know, in so many ways, you know, one of the great joys of my life, actually, is producing Encouraging Prayer or being part of that show with James. It's almost every week I learn something in my own prayer life, and he always points me back to that idea of this, like, really? We can talk to the God of the universe at any point in time we want, all the way through the day, and then today's episode was—I've got to tell you, James, one of the most challenging— it has challenged me ever since we had that discussion, you know, that was recorded, you're going to hear at the end of the show today, but the idea being that, like, man, the more I think about it, if anybody messes with my quiet time in the morning, I'm totally out of sync with the rest of my day, and that's like a check engine light going on that says, Robbie, there's a problem, you should be able to connect with God at any moment, right? Right, yeah, that's so true, and just to lead up a little bit to that, coming up at the end of the show, yesterday was when we recorded it, and yesterday was just kind of a terrible, awful, rotten, good-for-nothing day, and so it occurred to me as, you know, we were getting ready for the show, well, why don't we talk about that, and how do we pray on a day like that, because, unlike you, sometimes, you know, I like to have things just so, so I can be quiet with God, and, you know, have a little praise music playing, and have the lights just so, and have the house quiet, and then I have to wonder, how much of my time with God, the sweetness, maybe, that I'm looking for, and that I encounter in that time, is just all of that superficial stuff, and not really Him, and so that's where we went, and, you know, I think that's such an important challenge, because in the end, let's face it, you know, it's hard, but it's harder without God, so what do you do when you get into those hard moments? Are you used to walking with Him through them?

Because He shows up if we let Him in. Right, and it's almost as if you were speaking into a season that I have been in recently, because, you know, my wife had surgery on Wednesday, right, and she had knee replacement, and so lots of people have been praying for her, and we're really grateful for all that, but because of that, right, my normal schedule has been totally messed up, from my perspective, right? In fact, you know, obviously Wednesday night I spent the night in the hospital with her, right, and so didn't have my normal, you know, and, you know, when you were listing all that stuff out, you know, what I've gotten into lately is I love the idea of, I have a little incense burner, just from the standpoint of I like to watch the smoke go up, with the idea of my prayers going up, like incense, you know? Right, right, out of the revelation. Right, and so I got some frankincense, you know, and I put the little charcoal in it, and it makes this beautiful, oh, it's just, and it just brings me that whole idea, and I get everything, just like you say, it's all just right, and then I can really begin to understand and get into that connection point where I want to be. But man, you know, that's really just all the superficial stuff like you're talking about, although it's important, you know, I was just, I've been thinking about it ever since you talked about it, that it's so rich when we reach out to God in that moment when your wife is really, really hurting and she's in pain after surgery, and you're like, what do we do, God, what's our next, you know? And here's the biggest challenge of all for me, okay?

Really weird, but it's just me. So I've been asking for about two and a half years that in my dreams can I be aware of you? My God, I want to be able to pray in my dreams.

Yeah, that's a great part. And so I get these nightmares, right? And quite often, honestly, one of my struggles, and you can pray for me, is I'm always trying to sell one more car. Like, I can't get the car business out of my heart.

And so the idea is I'm going to lose the dealership if I don't sell one more car, which by the way, I don't own a dealership, haven't for almost 20 years, but it's a recurring nightmare. And if I don't, I'm going to, you know, and I'm just so panicked. And I'm always praying, like one of my things as I go to bed recently is like, God, can you just show, you know, can I just remember to reach out in prayer in my dreams? Right, you know, that dream sounds like one that I have often of being in school and there's a test and I'm not ready for it, you know, or I have this paper that I have to turn in. And, you know, I think sometimes we go back in our dreams to those to those stress points. And that's where it's so important for us to pray as you're praying, you know, Lord, help me to dream of you, but also to just receive his peace and rest in him before we, you know, before we go to sleep. And by the way, that brings me to a topic of a new book that's coming out.

We can now officially talk about it. And that is my book, Peace Through Prayer, that is going to come out in March of next year with our Daily Bread Publishing. And I'm really excited about that because this also ties in with some of the things that we're talking about. The whole notion of, well, the first chapter is entitled Heart First, you know, not Head First, but Heart First. Because so often, if you think about it, we tend to make prayer this head thing. You know, we tend to sort of get our requests all lined up and, you know, pray them out. And we look at it in this linear way. OK, you know, request A, answer B. Right, right, right.

It's an equation. And that's not what God wants. God is after this relationship. It goes back to that bread thing again, right, where we're going to God looking for what he can do for us when he himself is the best answer to prayer. And I think we need to keep coming back to that place and that God keeps bringing us back there.

And sometimes, you know, he does that through our challenges and our problems. Just this morning, I was reading an Isaiah and it caught me. Isaiah is talking about this invasion that's going to occur.

And he's just listen to this. Judah, Jerusalem is about to be invaded. So here we are in Isaiah chapter 22. And I'll start with verse seven. He writes, chariots fill your beautiful valleys and charioteers storm your gates.

Judah's defenses have been stripped away. And of course, it's the country of Judah, which Jerusalem is the capital. You run to the armory for your weapons. You inspect the breaks in the walls of Jerusalem. You store up water in the lower pool. You survey the houses and tear some down for stone to strengthen the walls.

Between the city walls, you build a reservoir for water from the old pool. So in other words, they're doing all of this stuff to get ready for this invasion and this siege that's coming. But then here's the clincher. But you never ask for help from the one who did all this.

You never consider the one who planned this long ago. And as I read that, I thought, man, isn't that so much like life? I mean, we we get busy and we ask God to bless our plans, to bless our endeavors. But we need to take that, you know, we need to push pause and we need to be able to say, Father, oh, you know, help me, help me live for you, live for your kingdom.

What do you want me to to do today, to be today? Because it's really only on that road that that we find his peace. You know, it's fascinating that you talk about that because Hezekiah, right? He faced all that.

And, you know, he had, the way our pastor put it in a sermon he did not long ago was he talked about it. They they'd sold all the gold off the doors in order to appease the king of Assyria before they prayed. Right. And and finally, when they finally show up on the walls, then Hezekiah goes, well, I've tried everything else. I've sold all my gold.

I've done all this and none of that worked. I think I'll pray. Right. And then when he when he gets to Isaiah, right after with the prayer, Isaiah said, well, yeah, God's been waiting on you. Right.

When you follow that story, you know, after we've sold all the goals off our walls and everything else we do. You're right. I mean, Isaiah is the prophet at that time. And then, you know, Sennacherib, he lays the Assyrian king, lays siege, and then there's this letter that's that's read to them about all the things they're going to do to them.

And, you know, your God isn't going to be able to save you. And and so Hezekiah takes this letter and he goes into the temple before the Lord and he spreads it out before him. And I love that picture because it's like, here it is, Lord. Right. Right. And it was even though, you know, so we can all relate to him after he sold all the gold off his doors.

So beautiful. Right. Well, nobody's taken advantage yet of the phone call to get a free book from James. That's going to be an awesome opportunity.

So you call us 866-348-7884. We'll be right back with a lot more with James Banks encouraging prayer. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the kingdom. And certainly James Banks is our poster child for a passion for prayer. And, you know, the show Encouraging Prayer has come on every Saturday for years and years and years, right after Kingdom Pursuits.

And, you know, we it is such a blessing to be able to join with you in that those discussions every week as we talk about something that's really near and dear to our hearts. I mean, James just released the idea that he has this new book coming out in March. And the first chapter of that book is I got an advance copy. But actually, you know, I feel like we recorded it all along the way, because as you were working on those chapters, we were doing Encouraging Prayer. That's right. That's right. So, but nonetheless, that first chapter, it all has to do with your heart, and the book is going to be called, is called, Peace Through Prayer, right?

That's right. Rest and Restoration for Your Soul is the subtitle. And so the idea of the heart, which to me is just a spectacular idea of the place, right? It's the sanctuary. It's the Holy of Holies. It's where you meet with God, right? And just like that picture of the temple, but it's also got something else that's in there that's really been... And I know, James, this is near and dear to your heart, as I would say, is when you store up Scripture, you've got Scripture that's stored where?

It's in your heart. And it's also that place where you meet with God. And so while you're meeting with God, it seems to me the only person that, or the only way that I can interpret Scripture is through that same place of both prayer and meeting with God, right?

Yeah. As a matter of fact, we have a whole chapter on that in the book about praying God's Word, because it matters so much, you know? God's Spirit moves through his Word unlike any other place.

And as we learn to pray it, not from this standpoint of just sort of memorizing stuff, you know, but just praying his Word back to him. One of the things I talk about in the book is how when I was a kid, I was caught in a cave briefly, and I had kind of blocked it out years later. It started to come back to me in the form of these panic attacks.

And, you know, our adversary, the devil, would wake me up in the middle of the night with these panic attacks. And what happened was that God helped me through that by teaching me to pray the 23rd Psalm, teaching me to rest in Jesus. And, you know, that's the amazing thing, is as you pray God's Word, because his Spirit moves through it in such beautiful ways, he meets you.

And we don't want to be anywhere else. Oh yeah, because the whole idea of his Word is it's to you, right? I mean, he is expressing himself to you. And so as you get a chance to take that in in any way, shape, or form, actually in your heart, then he's in there kind of like pregnant spaghetti sauce, right? Like when you see him in his Word, as you're praying that, as you're talking to him about it, you actually get a sense of the faith or the idea of this is something I can really believe, right? And then the fact that it's also written down and you can see it is like, you know, it's got everything to do with as I'm going through my day, you know, what I really believe. And a big part of what I believe, and thanks to your help in a lot of ways and the Holy Spirit, is I believe that he's available to meet with me moment by moment. Let's go there a little more because that's one of the things that's so encouraging, Robbie. You think about those places where not only do you discover that he's available to meet with you, that he loves you, that he delights in that kind of fellowship. I mean, that's such a churchy sounding word, but, you know, that closeness with us.

He also shows us that he's better than we think. And what comes to mind is Paul's great prayer for the church in Ephesians, in Ephesians chapter 3 verses 14 through 21. And it ends with this praise, you know, to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine. And I want to go there for a minute because that was a discovery that I made in my life where I had been praying and praying and praying for my son.

And, you know, we write about this in the book that Jeff and I wrote together, Hope Lies Ahead. And what God did in his story was really immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine. He really did, didn't he? Yeah, yeah. And he did that with my brother and my sister as they had the same kind of thing like, oh my goodness, I never would have dreamed all that their life would become as he became a big part of it, right? Well, that's the thing. If you had told me, say 12 years ago, that my son was going to be who he is today, that he is going to be doing what he's doing today, I couldn't believe it. I mean, it just would have been like, get out, you know?

Are you sure? Because, and again, that goes back to what I think it was Spurgeon said that, you know, sometimes we ask for silver, but God gives in gold. And a little bit of the back story here.

Some may not know that my son was a heroin addict, and he was addicted for seven years, you know, sharing needles in and out of rehab and in and out of jail and the courtroom. And it was just a tough, tough time for our families. And that's a big part of our ministry today. And also the Ministry of Peace Church is to pray for prodigals and their families because, man, we've got to pray because there is hope that God alone can give when we do. But, you know, to really fast forward on this, Jeff is the high school pastor at Port City Church in Wilmington.

There's this large church with multi-campus. And the amazing thing is that is the same church where Jeff started to go after he got clean. And they have a rehab ministry there, and they loved him. They loved him right where he was and helped him work through his stuff. And isn't that a beautiful picture of what the church needs to be?

You know, not to hold people at arm's length. Well, it's such a story. And again, that is such a neat book.

It's called Hope Lies Ahead, by the way, and it is available right now, Hope Lies Ahead. If you've got someone that may be struggling with drug addiction or maybe a child in any situation that they're struggling because what really gave me that book really helped me. Because you could see that when—because it's really neat that Jeff wrote part of it and James wrote part of it. So here's the story from Jeff's point of view. Well, here was the story from James' point of view. Well, quite clearly, you see the disconnect as you read it, that James is thinking, oh, this is all my fault. It's something I did.

Da-da-da-da. Jeff's saying, man, I was wanting to try this, and I was trying— And it really didn't—you know, we think as parents that we're so responsible for everything that happened. Well, actually, our kids, you know, they're making all their own decisions based on things that are coming after their heart and the way that Satan's working. Yeah, we can pray.

Yeah, we can do a lot of stuff. But it was so encouraging to me, really was, James, Jeff's part of the story, because you could see the huge disconnect between what you were thinking was the problem and what was really going on in his life. Yeah, isn't that true? Isn't that true? I mean, and I think that's so often the case with parents of prodigals. You get this sort of, when they say hindsight's always 20-20, you know, and you think, oh, if only I had done this.

But that really is a non sequitur. We can't go there, because we make the decisions that we make, trying to stay close to God, you know, as we're going through them. And we have to trust Him to be faithful. Yeah, such an amazing story. That's why I really recommend that Hope Lies Ahead, if you've got those children's situations, because it shows that disconnect so well, and what Jeff was actually going through, what God was going to do. Amazing stuff. So we got one more segment with James.

Stay tuned. Welcome back to Kingdom Pursuits, where we hear how God takes your passion and uses it to build the Kingdom. And today, so fun, we have my good friend and pastor of Peace Church in Durham. So if you're in that area, man, if you ever want to treat, I have had a chance to speak there many times, and they have a congregation that is so loving. I always feel like it's my home away from home when I get a chance to go to Peace Church. In Durham is James' church, and of course he's got a big sermon he talked about from John chapter 6 coming tomorrow. As well as if you go to jamesbanks.org, which we've got the link there at Kingdom Pursuits, you can get access to many, many books that James wrote, including Prayers for Prodigals, an amazing book, and Hope Lies Ahead with he and Jeff, and I love that story again, because to me it's so hopeful to see what Jeff was thinking while James and Kerry were thinking about this, and worried about that, and here's Jeff. You know, just like, man, and you know where it took me, James, was probably what my parents were thinking when I got into Scientology. Oh yeah.

Like, what have we done that we would end up with this kid that has gone off the rails completely, and he's completely a nut. And it's the first time, today is actually my mother's birthday. And so my mother went to be with the Lord in 2016, but you know, she was very patient with me, and prayed a lot, because she certainly had a prodigal. You know, think about how much we owe to the prayers of loving parents, or that Sunday school teacher, or that person who just wouldn't quit.

It's totally true. It just is, and like, I love what you said. It's so much more than we ever would have dreamed, right? And I have to say that like, man, yeah, I've got my challenges, but life, God has given me so much more than I would have ever hoped or dreamed. And especially at the point of relationship, you know, relationship with my family, relationship with my friends, but most of all my relationship with him, which comes through constant prayer, right? Well, and that's really where we have to go, because sometimes when we talk about prayer, I mean, often people look at it as we were saying, transactionally, you know, well, I prayed about this and it didn't happen, therefore prayer doesn't work.

And the problem with that is that we're placing ourselves at the center of our universe. You know, we're saying that, okay, I didn't get what I asked for, therefore, you know, God doesn't exist, or, you know, and it's hard, because sometimes those circumstances can be absolutely heart-rending. We're asking for something good, you know, we're asking for a breakthrough in the life of a child who's struggling with addiction or, you know, for healing for someone who is sick. And these are things that are close to our heart. And so I think it's important for us to emphasize that prayer isn't automatic, you know, that sometimes we will wrestle and go for years.

Without an answer. But we have to keep going, because it's actually in that place of not getting an answer that we meet God. I've got this little book that I love. It's actually an 1815 copy of a hymnal that was written by it by John Newton and the British poet William Cooper. And just this morning, I was reading this prayer, or, well, it's a hymn in it called Begone Unbelief. And Newton writes, Begone unbelief, my Savior is near, and for my relief will surely appear. By prayer let me wrestle, and he will perform. With Christ in the vessel, I smile at the storm.

And I love that because he's saying, yeah, okay, it's storming. I'm in the middle of it, you know, but I'm going to keep going. I'm going to keep praying because I'm in this boat with Jesus, and he's good, and he's faithful, and he will get me through. And that's the thing, you know, that's the thing that I discovered when working on prayers for prodigals, was that as we go through these heart rending seasons, you go into your room, you close the door, you pray, and you feel like, okay, I got nothing.

And then, I don't know, sometimes I'm kind of like that, you hear the story about the dinosaur that you hit on the tail, you know, and five minutes later it realizes it. So I leave the room after I'm praying, and I'm walking down the hall, and all of a sudden I realize, kind of like Jacob, the Lord was in this place, and I didn't know it. He was there. It just took me a moment to see it.

He was with me. And again, that's one of the things that we're going to be talking about on that upcoming issue, or edition of Encouraging Prayer, that, you know, God meets us where we don't expect. Right, and I love that idea of wrestling with God, which is what Israel is, is God wrestlers, where we kind of aller that. As we're in prayer, you know, anybody that has spent two or three hours there knows it's a wrestling match, with your own thoughts in so many ways. But thank you, my friend, and actually people are going to hear Encouraging Prayer in just a second, James, and we're so honored that you would be on with us today. Again, go to KingdomPursuits.com, and you can see JamesBanks.org, all these wonderful books he's authored, co-authored, etc. is that they're at JamesBanks.org, and now you've got so much truth coming at you. You've got Encouraging Prayer, the episode we've talked about, followed by The Masculine Journey, and then Nikita Koloff. It's time to man up at 1230. So much fun, so much truth coming at you on The Truth Network. Thanks for listening. Thanks, James.