Seasons Of Prayer

This is Hans Scheil from the Finishing Well Podcast. On Finishing Well, we help you make godly choices about Medicare, long-term care, and your money. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and choosing the Truth Podcast Network. And 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. Oh, yes it does.

And it does because you're joining us and we're so glad that you're here with us today on this particular adventure. And we need you listening very badly on this adventure because Andy, apparently, when we came out with this topic, it was like the Titanic. The Titanic. Abandon ship.

Abandon ship. No Sam. No Danny. No Jim.

Like, man, where are they? No Rodney. No Rodney. No David. No Wayne.

No Wayno. We're soulless in Seattle. I love, of all the topics I could ever imagine, I can't imagine a more wonderful topic, seasons of prayer. And for what I understand, this was your idea. So if you want to kind of give us a little backdrop, I'll share my ideas. I was thinking recently just about prayer and what it had become to me in my life and how it had changed over the years.

And a lot of stuff, like we'll talk quite a bit about this. A lot of prayer. I didn't take a lot of time to listen to God. I always thought that's pretty much how it worked. That was the only way I knew how to go about it. That's how it worked with baseball cards.

Yeah, right. So the story is, you have to dig into the story. I used to just be relentless. And I know that there's a story in the Bible about the servant or the lady that kept coming to the king and bugging the Lord for the answer to prayer.

And I think there's something to that, but there's also a part of us of a simple trust where we don't have to necessarily repeat things. So this is the example I gave them was I just remember Mom used to talk to me about this a lot. She always reminded me that she said, you were just very focused as a kid. You wanted your ball cards.

I loved collecting ball cards. And it was like, Mom, are we going to the store now? Are we going to go in the store to get the ball cards?

Mom, when are we going? And it was always, we'll see. We'll see. We'll see. And I got tired of we'll see.

We'll see just meant no to me until I got the stuff. And I think part of that is us. We come to God a lot of times. And rightfully so, there's things in our heart that we want to see change in our life or a particular outcome.

But a lot of times God wants to take the time to change us and to draw us in and to where we're seeking Him. And He's actually the ball cards. He's the real deal. We're not this thing. So there wasn't a big relation.

I love what you talked about how your mom, you know, there wasn't like, I'm not like trying to enter into a relationship with my mom. I just want the ball cards. I want the stuff, man. I want the goods. Yeah, I want to go.

I want to complete that set. You know, I want all the Cardinals I can because I was a Cardo fan. And she didn't have the same vision. Mom was great. Dad was great. Both of them were. And I can remember dad years later, he would bring me he was working away and he would bring me home whole boxes of cards.

I mean, like new in the pack boxes of cards and stuff. And I think that's funny because I finally got from dad, you know, but but really, it's just it's a thing of, you know, there's so much more to prayer. It's so much more multifaceted.

I mean, I'm just touching the surface on it. But I think of petition, thanksgiving, adoration, worship, and then listening prayer, the one we talk quite a bit about. And we sometimes as Christians just leave it as petition, or maybe a little bit more. And then also what I wanted to talk about, I'll talk about later is how God has kind of revived the Lord's Prayer in my heart. Maybe that more of a relation based prayer to where I'm not just checking off list, but I'm coming to him in that model and taking bringing these needs to him day by day and and listening back as well. Right. And so for me, you know, when I came to my first boot camp, I was like, oh, I have fellow nut case.

Because for a lot of guys, when they come to boot camp, we say, well, we're going to do a covenant of silence. Here's a deal. You're going to go out and spend an hour with God.

Like what? You're going to you want why? What do you want me to do? You want me to spend and do what? You want me to listen? Like he's going to talk? Are you nuts?

I mean, that's the idea is like, this can't be reality. Right. And so but I've been listening to God for years and years. And so when all of a sudden these guys start talking about and going out and listening to God, I was like, oh, I have fellow nut cases. Now I have disciples.

But I know that for so many guys, this is such a strange and things to a spend an hour. Right. And actually have things you're taking to God and trying to get a sense of of where he's pointing you, what direction, whatever.

But where we see the most fruit. Yeah, quite often in guys. And so, you know, one of the questions is, do they take that home? They just have the experience at boot camp where they listen to God or they go home and their prayer life change. Right.

And is that a different season? But really cool from your point is that not only does it pick up the idea of of listening, but then starting to see God as you're like, oh, I'm talking to dad and like I get to spend time with dad and he is the ball cart. Yeah. And and it's not like I'm trying to extract something from that he doesn't really want to give. It's positioning myself to receive what he already wants to give me. It's a totally different mindset and really the masculine journey while our boot camps and that really helped me see that a little bit differently.

I've had a prayer life for a long time, but it hasn't always been the most fruitful prayer life. But I still believe it's how it would become part of me. And I don't discount it. There was a time and a place for that. You can't appreciate what you have now if you don't look back and see what you had. It was a season. It was a season. Right. There's a springtime where you're falling in love. And then there's, you know, obviously that summer where things begin to grow and, you know, the patrol was going on and then the marriage and all those things. So I chose a clip. It's called Back to the Future.

Right. And here's a scene that this is kind of like how my wacky world works, that, you know, when I get up every morning, it's a new season. Like every day he's starting a new, like I am excited. I'm going to learn something from God and I'm going to try to listen to God.

That's very one of the first things I'm going to do. I'm trying to get in God's presence. But as Israel would wrestle with God, that's usually my wrestling with reality. And I'm trying to convince myself that it's 1985. In this case, you'll hear Marty is trying to convince Doc of the reality that he is from the future. And this seems really just like crazy what goes on.

But when I really look at my prayer life in the morning, first thing, when I'm trying to get a grip on getting into God's presence, it feels just like this. And God often asked me, is Jack Benny the director of the treasury? So here we are. You got to help me. You were the only one who knows how your time machine works. Time machine. I haven't invented any time machine. Okay.

All right. I'll prove it to you. Look at my driver's license. Expires 1987. Look at my birthday, for crying out loud.

I haven't even been born yet. And look at this picture. My brother, my sister and me. Look at her sweatshirt, Doc. Class of 1984.

Pretty mediocre photographic fakery. They cut off your brother's hair. I'm telling the truth, Doc. You got to believe me. And tell me, future boy, who's president of the United States in 1985? Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan? The actor? Then who's vice president? Jerry Lewis? I suppose Jerry Wyman is a first lady. Whoa, wait, Doc. And Jack Benny is secretary of the treasury. You got to listen to me.

Good night, future boy. No, wait, Doc. The bruise.

The bruise in your head. I know how that happened. You told me the whole story.

You were standing on your toilet and you were hanging a clock and you fell and you hit your head on the sink. And that's when he came up with the idea for the flux capacitor, which is what makes time travel possible. Yeah, so you hear the struggle, right? And then the idea of Israel's struggle with God. Well, you know, I think anybody who's truly honest, it's a struggle to get there to like, OK, you know, can I get all these other things, all these ballcard, a ballcard thing off my head? You know, because all we're going to use at the whole show, all these things I want, man, I just want these things. And I but what I really want is you.

And I really want I mean, you know everything. So, you know, and but just getting to myself, to the place where here's what happens in this scene. I couldn't play enough because it just, you know, is that eventually Doc remembers the flux capacitor. And when it does, it was like, aha, this light comes on and he goes, he's telling the truth. This is real.

Well, I don't know. I'm hoping you experience this in prayer where God all of a sudden it was like he turned on the light and then all of a sudden he's there. And all of a sudden your heart is open to the fact that you're in the holy of holies. From my standpoint, you are there communing with God.

And now. He's going to take you where you know, I know I don't no longer have to lead this this parade into madness. I can say, OK. And if he takes me to the ball cards, that's good. You know, whatever that looks like. But I just know that that's you know, that's my own kind of interpretation of that.

But, you know, John John from Wild Heart talks about there's a way things work and a lot of it as part of. The talk for. What is it? The the second stage? What's the second stage?

The warrior cowboy warrior, cowboy ranger. I'm sorry. That's all right. But there's the things that you what you learn then there's a way things work. A lot of it's with working with your hands and that kind of stuff. But there's a way that prayer works.

And I'm not saying that, you know, I've progressed in that area, but I still feel like such a novice and such a poser at times. But there is a way. And most of that, the way it works is, first of all, to surrender. Robby and I were talking about that over at dinner is just you have to surrender yourself.

And that's very difficult to do. It's surrendering your will, your desires. I was hung up for a long time, even coming back and really seeking after God when we entered into this masculine journey. But I still was hung up on what I wanted. And I was just I wrestled with God for the longest time. I want it this way, God.

I want you to change their heart or their actions or whatever. I'm good. I've learned all this stuff. I'm good. I don't need any more.

I'm good. They're the one now. And, you know, that's just to back off of that and surrender and say, no, not my will, but yours. That is a big part of entering into this, you know, growth and prayer, I believe, at least for myself.

Oh, yeah, it completely is. And that idea of that is actually out of the Psalms. What Jesus said into your hands, I commit my spirit. That's what he said at the cross. Most people would know that that verse. Well, he was quoting a psalm and that word that he was doing was piqued. And that idea, that word would be translated, you know, precepts.

OK. And so to keep that where I commit myself, like I'm I'm trusting you on this. It's a beautiful idea. And something that we eventually get to is God is training us. We got so much more. We do have Kenny. We do have art. We expect we're experiencing a whole artfulness here that's coming on.

And we got Harold. It's all coming up. What we have at our boot camp is something that makes you stronger and gives you the strength to go on your regular walk with God. It's something that will make you be bigger than you were when you got there. I've been coming regularly and it's just such a blessing. When you guys invited me, I was at the worst time of my Christian walk. I was going through some things. The first time I came, I don't know if you remember, I was going to walk. I couldn't stand up straight. And I'm walking now.

I'm running around the lake yet. The greatest things is just being around a group of men that love the Lord and sharing His kindness and His love. All of you guys, I done sat and talked with all of you guys, different occasions, different conversations.

And it's all been unique and refreshing. You guys gave me a whole different perspective in life. And you can't hide the true, genuine love of God. You can't hide it.

Register today at masculinejourney.org. There you go, Andy. We're living on prayer, according to Bon Jovi here. Yep. You live in a fight because that's all that you got. What I was hoping for is, take me out to the ball game, right?

Buy me some ball cards and crack your jacket. Probably should have been, or, oh, we're halfway there, living on a ball card, right? But no, that actually came to me when I felt like God put this topic on my heart. I like to tie it to songs, popular songs, and that was just like, you know, that's a very soulful song. Probably not very spiritual, but there is, you know, we are living on a prayer. We are living with a dependence on prayer.

It's conversation with God, and that's what we're talking about here. There we are. And so we got, this is a father and son team, right? Chuck was one of those that bailed on us. Left his dad to try to patch things up.

He's living on prayer. Well, I seem to tie in, you know, with what you just brought up, because remember what he said, we're halfway there? Yeah, right. Patch gets asked that question. What are you looking at? Look beyond, just, you're stopping. Right, well, the listeners don't know what you're talking about, but that's okay.

You're talking about Patch Adams, it's a movie, right? Yeah, help me out now. We got to set up the clip, yeah.

Please do, yeah. I'm still a green horde, you know that. Yeah, well. And this clip was thrust on Kenny. It wasn't his choice. It was Chuck's son who's not able to make it with it.

It was a very good choice, but yeah, I tried to call Chuck, but he said I've been under the weather too, so I guess. His phone the friend didn't work. So we'll set up the clip a little bit for you. So essentially, Patch Adams is discovering his own identity of what God's called him to do, which patch things up. And so he goes to visit this old man in the hospital, and actually what you can't see in the clip is the man doesn't really want to talk to him at first. And he's kind of calling him a smart aleck until he takes a piece of tape and he patches his coffee cup. And at that point in time, the man becomes more interested in solving his problem, which he's trying to determine what the answer is to this question that the man had, which clearly the answer was not four.

But every time you focused on the four, you were focusing on the problem. And so we'll play that, and then we'll hear the father's interpretation of the son's clip. You got to help me. Oh, that would be, you still got to help me too.

Back to the future. It's interesting that this won't. May I come in?

If you bend your medial collateral ligaments, place one talus in front of another. I don't see where you'd have a problem. Of course, if there were a news story covering this event, the headline might read, small brain enters room. Fingers. What's the answer?

Oh, you're another one of those bright young fellows who always know the right answer, isn't it? Welcome to real life. How many do you see?

They're four fingers, Arthur. Look at me. You're focusing on the problem. If you focus on the problem, you can't see the solution.

Never focus on the problem. Look at me. How many do you see?

Look beyond the fingers. How many do you see? Eight. Eight. Eight.

Yes, yes. Eight's a good answer. See what no one else sees. See what everyone else chooses not to see.

Out of fear, conformity, laziness. See the whole world anew each day. The truth is, you're well on the way. You didn't see something here besides a crazy, bitter old man.

He wouldn't have come in the first place. Looking beyond yourself, looking beyond the four or what's right in front of you. Like you said, the problem. And that's where Satan wants to hang us, right in our problem instead of the solution. Because there's a problem we all have that we cannot. So what does that feel like in your own prayer life? In my own prayer life is I have a lot of people I love that don't really have that relationship with Christ. I see them in my heart because I see them self-destructing. I see the pain it inflicts on themselves and the family around them.

Because we're ripples in the water. All right, well let's go beyond that. I'm going to dig a little bit on you, Kenny.

Okay, dig. So I'm not talking about praying. I know where you're going with that. You're going to talk about how you pray for them.

I don't blame you. I pray for my family a lot too. But I'm just talking about you and like you give up like, God, where do you want to go? What does your prayer life, you and God's relationship with Kenny, where does he take you, not where do you take him? Oh, that's actually my prayer every morning as a disciple of Christ. How do God, I need your help to lay myself down, take up my cross, deny myself, not be captured by my feelings and follow you.

And I can't do that without praying, listening, reading, studying. So what does he tell you? What does he tell me? Well, one thing he told me a while back was, check this boot camp out. Because I kind of listened to you guys on the radio.

He said, check these guys out. I said, yeah, I know you can't because I knew Carolina Bible Camp. I've done a few seasons. And it took you a while before you kind of acted on that, right? Well, no, actually I've been a caretaker for my father.

And I was tied with that 24-7 because my sisters physically couldn't handle it. And so you came to the boot camp and you probably got sent out to Covenant of Silence. Yeah, and I liked that.

And what happened with that experience with God? I said, God, these guys are going after the wounded hearts. We all got wounded. We're all wounded.

And that's what this world needs. So what about your wounded heart? My wounded heart? Did he find that? Oh, he's been working on his wounded heart for decades and decades. Right, but I mean, was there a wound he uncovered? A wound he uncovered? Well, I always try to surrender all the wounds. But yeah, there's multiple layers of wounds for all of us. Into one.

Into one. Okay, well, you know, I had a near-death accident. And that started the wounding in the beginning of another wound, which was that role reversal between me and my wife.

Yeah, I know. I actually know this accident, but the listeners don't know, so let's tell them. What happened in your near-death accident? Okay, I was painting a building up about 10, 12 feet. I thought I was smart. I put a big box truck in there, and we was getting ready for lunch. So I told the guys, take off, I'll finish it up. And while they were gone, I took a step to look back, and I guess I stepped over to the side. And that's about the last thing I remember, waking up with. How far did you fall?

It was about 11 feet, concrete first, head first. And when you woke up, where were you? I was trying to get up, but six breaks in the left arm. My bones actually popped through. They had to reattach my left arm. My right arm was six breaks.

And how long was it before they found you? They got to missing me for lunch, so my wife actually came out and found me and called the ambulance and said, don't try to get up, because I was trying to get up and all. But by God's grace, he got me through that.

But that put a... So during that time, obviously, your life changed drastically. Oh, yes.

Oh, yes. Well, I knew I was at the doorstep. Either God, I'm busted up pretty bad, and you can call me home or you can leave me here. But I remember my simple prayer was, before I passed back out, was, God, I'd love to stay and raise grandkids.

That was before Chuck had had his first grandkid, or any of the grandkids. So God's blessed me with... And he said, all right. Yeah, he's blessed me with six now. So God answered that little prayer. And the thing that amazed me was the peace that I had. I'm glad I had a relationship with God, even as shallow as it was, because he would say, you've been stepping towards me.

I want you all in. So fast forward now to the boot camp, and he takes you back to that. And how did that relate to your wound? Well, I'll be honest, I was thankful that the healing and all the pain and brokenness he'd got me through through the years, because we ended up in a both divorce. And like I told people, that hurt worse than the accident itself. In other words, the divorce happened as a result of the fall? Yes.

This is new information for me, by the way. You've done well extracting it. Well, it was role reversal, because I was majorly hurt. And I couldn't, for a while, couldn't even use either hand. Right, so she was needing to take care of you. My wife and I went through the same thing on numerous occasions.

And then the business itself and all, there's a lot of pressure on her. And it was just not, we was about to get through it, and we had a setback. I got a major staph infection. So they had to come in and tear my arms apart and start again. Oh, went through that too.

Yeah. And the wife, that was hard on her. Yeah, it was very hard on her. And then she switched jobs.

I told her, you know, that company was just too heavy. How long had you been married? 20-some years, 20-some years, yeah. Wow. Yeah, it's... Yeah, there was a lot of wounds in there. Yes, there was, there was.

But God, the thing I knew to do is take it to Him. It didn't mean it wasn't a long process, but by His time... And so is this Chuck's mom? Yes, yes. Wow.

Yeah. And how long after the accident did she leave you? Yeah, it was about a year and a half, maybe a little bit longer. I'll be honest, that time's kind of cloudy because I was going through several surgeries and reconstructions and all, and they had to control the trauma. So one of the last things I had to deal with was when I finally got through all of it and got the reconstruction done, was dealing with the medications they had me on because they had to suppress the pain, they had to slice me back open again.

You can see the tracks on my arms. Yeah. So again, a big part of what we do at boot camp, right, is to set the captive free. Yeah.

Right? And these wounds that we've taken are howling us captive, and I bet you if you're listening, you might have something similar to this where you went through something dramatic and it had all kinds of consequences. And you think, well, I don't really ever need to go back into that, but God's got some interpretations for you in there that were really helpful in your restoration and the point of those listening prayer times for you was God is coming after something. Yeah. And you got to surrender to Him.

You got to let Him not only come after you but take you because in surrender is when you really find your victory because that's the only place you're going to find peace and how to deal with it. And so you too can come to a boot camp, but you got to be there. It's a weekend before Thanksgiving, and I think is it November 16th? 16th to the 19th, yep. And that's coming up like faster than you think.

It is. We would love to see you there and begin your new season of prayer. And yes, we're a little bit wacky, but we like that. Well, thanks for listening. We'll be back with you. And after our show, we got a lot more to cover. So go to every app that Sam talks about and be there. We'll be able to meet you there. This is the Truth Network.