103 – An Intro to Reconstructing Prayer

Cody Johnston 1:23
Hey, everyone, welcome to the reckless pursuit. My name is Cody, and my name is Elaine and this is episode 103. What are we talking about? Today

Elaine Johnston 1:32
we are talking about prayer, what it is, what it isn’t and what it looks like

Cody Johnston 1:37
and how to do it yet or not do it? Or if you should do it,

Elaine Johnston 1:42
or how much you should do.

Cody Johnston 1:43
We’re talking about prayer because prayer being one of the most central things to Christian faith in many people’s eyes and yet so many of us have different ideas of what that is what that looks like, how it works, how God’s supposed to respond is God even there does it work? How New Age is prayer? How How traditional is prayer? Should it be structured? Should it not? There’s a million questions when it comes to prayer. And we’re actually starting a whole series on prayer. If you caught last week’s episode, we were talking with Kyle Butler. And we kind of our conversation kind of morphed and molded a little bit into talking about prayer. And so we actually did a whole other episode with Kyle part two, that’s gonna be coming out in three episodes, I guess to a few more after this one. And we’re going to just talk for a few weeks about prayer because Dang, I think we could all use a little refresher course

Elaine Johnston 2:33
we haven’t addressed yet.

Cody Johnston 2:35
I know. We’ve we’ve talked about it a little bit in passing, of course, how can you go 100 plus episodes without talking about it a little bit. But we’ve never done anything real in depth on it. So we’re talking about prayer. So if you have any church hurt with prayer, any wounds with prayer, any questions about prayer, we’re really hoping this speaks to you on some kind of level and maybe gives you a foundation to be off of because that’s what we’re really pushing into this new I guess leaf with the podcast is next hundred episodes, the future of the show, whatever you want to call it is just trying to give more answers and not just focusing on the negative but actually focusing on the positive because the more you focus on the positive, the more you focus on what you are about, then the more healing that comes from that, and the more growth that comes from that and

Elaine Johnston 3:26
that we’re not just stuck in. Okay, this is a problem. It’s okay, so this is a problem, we’ve addressed it. Now what do we do with that? How do we not make it a problem anymore?

Cody Johnston 3:35
Correct. But before we get into today’s episode, I want to take a minute to do something new on the show, something we haven’t done before I asked you guys almost every single week if you would ever be so kind to go to there and click that review box and write a quick honest review to help people passing by and I just want to take a minute to highlight some of the amazing words you are taking the time to write in and say so I’m just gonna try to be like one of the you know, one of these every week. So and this one is written in by username, the grief bully, and it’s titled brave to the bones I admire the courage of both Cody any lane to take on such controversial topics for the good of us all. I especially love that they do this as a couple. I like the openness and honesty and willingness to learn what they are curious about, but unsure keep it up, guys, you’re truly making an impact. Thank you so much. Those words mean a ton to us. And I know that they help people passing by get a better feel for what the show is about. All right. Let’s get right into today’s topic talking about prayer. Prayer, some people look at it as a direct line to heaven to the throne room. Some people look at it as a way of venting. Some people feel like they’re the closest to God by talking to him while others feel like it’s completely a one sided conversation. Many people use prayer as a way of expression. Some people view daily tasks as prayer. Some people use certain words, some people get really intricate and have specific prayers they recite, while others completely free flow. And yet here we are trying to figure out what is this thing it’s talked about so much. It’s such a central part of our religious experience yet. I mean, honestly, what even is prayer? So let’s just kind of open it up with this. We’re going to do two solo episodes on prayer. And then like we said in the intro, we’re coming back on at the end with Kyle Butler’s kind of take on prayer as well. But I want to focus on four types of prayer. And what those are just to try to give a brief overview of what prayer looks like for you, because I’m gonna be really honest prayer specific to the prayer. I think that there’s the prayer or not the prayer, but it’s prayer is specific to the prayer whoever is praying. Sorry, that’s a weird way of saying that. But there’s, you know, there’s a lot of different ways to pray a lot of different types of prayer, and we’re going to just kind of discuss a little bit about that. But specifically on this episode, I want to talk about what is prayer or prayer specifically like talking to God or what that looks like. I want to talk about Thanksgiving, and kind of start getting into a little bit of the mindset behind prayer. Because next episode, and so if you haven’t done so, so far, go click that subscribe button. Because next episode, we’re getting into the heavy topics of where we miss it so often, in using prayer to rebuke things versus blessings and what all that looks like. And I think that you might be a little surprised to hear some of what we’re going to talk about in that because I think a lot of the times, we actually invite problems in based on how we’re praying. And that’s going to be an interesting conversation, but for sake of laying the groundwork for this topic, because let’s be honest, prayer is a can of worms. Once you open it, it goes into faith. It goes into power of the tongue, it goes into mindset. It goes into all these things, because it is truly a catalyst in the Christian faith. So let’s Start a you know head first, like, what is prayer?

Elaine Johnston 7:03
So prayer to me is a conversation with God to God at God. And outside of that it’s really whatever you are praying for or against like you said, so prayer can be Thank you God for allowing this to happen. Or God Hey, like I’m really struggling in this area like I give myself to you. I speak and pray blessing over this situation, or Hey, God, you’re pretty cool. Like, you know you. For me, I pray throughout the day. And sometimes it looks different specifically, depending on what is going on at the time.

Cody Johnston 7:42
So I know prayer specifically. I mean, that’s like, that’s a general overview there. But like prayer specifically for people who have went through questions, doubts, this is a big area that a lot of times we can get hung up on because we feel as if God isn’t there, God’s not answering and I know everyone gets these feelings. But I feel especially for those of us who question those of us who have these questions, is God actually hearing that? Can he do anything with that? Like, what does that even look like? And this reminds me something. We were just taking a walk a few nights ago, actually about a couple weeks ago, to be honest. And you had said, like God has laid something on your heart to pray for someone. And I thought that was interesting, because I’ve heard this a lot. You know, in church, churchy isms growing up in church, like, Oh, yeah, God just laid on my heart to pray for someone. And what does that even mean? What does it mean for God to lay it on your heart to pray for someone? Why does God lay something like why is God asking us to ask him to do something for someone else? Like, that’s just it’s such a weird analogy. And we talked about a little bit about that in episode coming up with Kyle but like, say like, I know that my friend needs help. So why would I ask you Elaine to ask me to ask him like, hey, like, you should ask me to go do something for that person. That’s You’re such a weird way. And then We have like prayer of like, you reach out to God, you’re crying out to God. And does he hear you? Does he answer prayer? What does all that look like? So what is prayer? What are like kind of the caveats to prayer, going through questions, doubts and deconstruction.

Elaine Johnston 9:14
So just like you said, the biggest thing is just feeling as if God isn’t there, because I know whenever you start talking about prayer, then you start getting into what what, what is God’s voice sound like? And sometimes we think God isn’t speaking back to us because all we hear is our thoughts. But if if God is within us, maybe that’s how God speaking to us. And I feel like that’s the biggest thing that a lot of people get hung up on, is that they feel like prayer isn’t important because they aren’t receiving feedback. If I’m talking to you, you know, just in in human terms, if I’m talking to you, and I hear nothing like you have no response, I don’t feel validated or affirmed or heard, if you just don’t ever say anything.

Cody Johnston 9:54
That’s a huge caveat with prayer because God reveals things to us. But what is That look like and is it actually like you were saying that actually God is at us. I kind of want to preface this, if you hear something, and it is good. And this is something that you and I had talked about a little bit earlier this week as well, you’ve heard the phrase before and I’m sure if you’ve grown up in church Guys, let us know have you heard this phrase? I’m about to say before, not every good thing is from God is that kind of like, just because it’s good doesn’t mean it’s of God. That’s not true. A everything that is truly holy good is indeed from God.

Elaine Johnston 10:30
I was gonna say the way I kind of view that is testing it from the fruits of the Spirit. Good is kind of subjective to who is defining what good is, but God is pure. God is holy God is, you know, brings a life and speaks life and all those things. So I feel like what that specifically is not all good things come from God. I think maybe what they’re trying to say is that some things may look like they’re good, but there’s actually stuff to it. And that’s not of God or it’s just a blanket statement. But when it comes down to it, the goodness of God is good. It’s pure. It’s holy. It’s right. It feels right in your spirit, it gives you life. And that’s just kind of how I see that is everything good does come from God.

Cody Johnston 11:16
Yeah, I mean, it literally says, you know, in James 117, every good thing given in every perfect gift is from God, the Father of lights, like, I mean, we’ve heard that Bible verse, but we have this mentality of like, Oh, well, not every good thing is, you know, sometimes like, good things are disguised. And if you truly look at it to its core, everything good is from God. Why are we even talking about this? Because we’re talking about prayer. If you have that function in you, and it is a good function, if you feel it, even if it sounds like you if it sounds like your mama is, I don’t know, it sounds like your dog. I don’t know. As long as it is good and hold that is God. Because I think we take a god and there’s two sides to this. Some of us take God and we personify him too much. As in like, Oh, God, you know, has to answer me because we really humanize it. Right? And there’s the flip side of that, so hold on, but for those of us who do that side of it, like we look at God as if like, Hey, you know, if I asked my wife, you know, sitting next to me, hey, Elaine, what do you say? We go to the park later? And you just don’t answer me. That’s like a really like pissy thing to do as a human right? Like you shouldn’t like I would expect it just blatantly ignoring me and go on doing whatever you’re doing. Like, that’s rude. It’s not like we have the repertoire. We have a relationship where if I ask you something mutually, or even something more, so it’s like, Hey, I’m really struggling right now. Can we talk and you’re just like, chart, or you know, cricket, not even I’m gonna feel really frickin rejected because I’m gonna be like, dang. Like, she doesn’t even care to have a conversation with me and I’m just gonna leave you gone that way. I mean, a lot of times, like it’s hard because you’re like, hey, God, I’m really struggling with this and you get nothing. Nothing back. Because we personify God a bit too much. On the flip side of that we don’t personify God. Enough, because we look at that those crickets as if like, oh, that he’s just not saying anything. Well, the other side of that is Oh, well, God just doesn’t talk. God isn’t capable of speaking outside of what’s already written and the Word of God is the law. And there’s nothing else above that. If you want to hear God speak open the Bible. Okay? Yeah, like, I guess there’s good in

Elaine Johnston 13:28
the Bible. Also, that’s not the only way to hear God.

Cody Johnston 13:31
Right? Like you can open up if you ever play the open the Bible game, like, Oh, I mean, how many have done this right? I’ve done this before. I’ve done a humorously and it was like some really wicked stuff. Let’s play it right now. Hold on. I feel like we may have done this once. But

Elaine Johnston 13:43
it was what we were talking about tear at cards.

Unknown Speaker 13:46
Yeah.

Elaine Johnston 13:47
Like flip the tear card. They’re like, this is my reading. But a lot of people do that. Same thing with the Bible, right?

Cody Johnston 13:51
So I’m just gonna flip open the Bible. I’m just gonna read a random Bible verse right now because how many times we do this like God give me a word. A man named Benjamin ransom. The battle line and came to shield the same day with his clothes torn and dirt on his head when he arrived he was sitting the seat by the road watching for his heart trembled for the ark of God that doesn’t speak to me at all know

Elaine Johnston 14:11
what?

Cody Johnston 14:12
I don’t know it was in the Old Testament, there flipped to a new testament verse. He was the fifth the proper what he was the pro councils sergius Palace, a man of intelligence who summoned Brabus and saw and sought to hear the Word of God, how does it speak to you? I have no idea I’m gonna try one more time. One more time. Colossians Colossians one of my to 13 and you who were dead in your trespasses the insert decision of your flesh. God made a live together with him. Oh, yeah, we can take that one kind of good. So like you said to me, like you’re it’s a crapshoot, like trying to do that. And while Yes, there is there’s truth to like finding God and the Bible. A lot of times we just we want to hear from God. We want to understand like what does it mean to hear from God and we did an episode on hearing God Voice A while back. And I would encourage you to go back and listen to that a little bit because that kind of ties into this. So if you’re looking for more on this topic, like go back and you know, take a listen to that, I’ll try to remember to link it up in the show notes because we reference it here. But that being said, we humanize God. But then we also don’t humanize God enough. And I think that a lot of the time, if you get honest with yourself, you can look and see what the good is. And when you take the good and realize that the good is God. In essence, those good things are God, you begin to air quotes here HEAR His VOICE more. And I think this is interesting, too, because there’s a big thing like kind of viral right now going around. It’s like, oh, some people have an internal monologue and some people don’t. And me being someone who has an internal monologue. I feel like it’s easier for me to hear the air quotes voice of God, because I’m used to having internal monologue. But someone who doesn’t have that internal monologue they may be better to hear the voice of God by, you know, experiencing him in nature or experiencing a specific Vic attribute that reminds them of God. That being said, prayer is different for different people. There isn’t this right and wrong way to pray. Whenever Jesus said and you know Matthew six nine through 13 whatever you know pray like this our Father in heaven hallowed be your name Your kingdom come you know that etc thing. He’s not telling you this is how to pray. He said pray like this. Here’s an example for you to understand what prayer looks like I said the only way to prayer at pray Absolutely not. There’s like a million instances of prayer in the Bible, not a million. That’s an exaggeration, but there’s a ton of instances of prayer in the Bible. But I think we get hung up on how to pray. We get hung up on what prayer looks like. And in some instances, some you know, growing up in some, I guess, denominations or upbringings, prayer looks a whole lot like chanting specific prayers, you know, Mary full of grace type prayers. In other instances, it’s watered down to the point it’s like yay, oh, God was was cracking, you know, just talking to God. And there’s In both of those, there’s beauty in both of those, all of that kind of boils down to prayer to me, and I think in general, is less about trying to hear from God. And it’s more about connecting to God and acknowledging him in the moment

Elaine Johnston 17:17
that but also may be God hearing from you.

Cody Johnston 17:20
And I think that God is in me, like God is literally woven throughout our daily life, in everything. And those still moments, you know, the still small voice, however you want to look at it. If you want to do traditional prayer, where you bow your head and close your eyes, that’s, that’s fine. That’s beautiful corporate prayer. That’s fine. There’s weird stuff in all of it. You know what I mean? But like, whenever you get right down to it, a lot of times, our prayer that goes up is less about trying to get some audible voice from God and more about saying, God, I acknowledge you in this moment. To me, that’s what prayer is. Now there’s different types of prayer we’re about to get into. There’s different things in prayer. Prayer looks different in different moments and all that. But overall the gist of prayer saying, God, I understand I receive you in this moment. I am noticing you in this moment I am seeing what you are doing in this moment. I am thankful for what you’re doing in this moment. And I think that we overcomplicate prayer,

Elaine Johnston 18:20
I definitely can speak to the over complication of prayer, because whenever and this is just something recently that I’ve come out of, but specifically, whenever I was growing up in church, in high school, and then throughout college, and even whenever we got together and you were still a pastor, I felt very inadequate with my prayer because my internal prayer with God was excellent. Like, I never had questions, my conversations with God, I never shouldn’t be constructed that prayer. I never thought it was a bad thing on how I pray this specific day. But whenever somebody had asked me to pray out loud for the group that I was in or for a specific person, I always felt inadequate because I always felt that my prayers weren’t beautiful enough or eloquently spoken or specific enough or any of that. And I just kind of felt like, Oh, well, these other people pray better than me, because of how they spoke. And I never wanted to pray out loud because I thought people would judge me which this so, you know, stupid to think because it doesn’t matter. People judge you based on the way your prayer because you’re not praying to them, you’re praying to God, but that’s just the perspective that I had of like, oh, people are gonna think I’m not strong enough in my faith or that I don’t have a good relationship with God because my prayers are eloquently spoken, or that I don’t care or that I’m not taking her seriously because I don’t use big words and big verbiage and everything. And I just really felt like an adequate in my prayer life, specifically outwardly. One because I am an introverted person. I’m not shy or nervous, but I am called Why I am more internal on a lot of things. That’s how I worship for the most part. That’s how I pray. And so anytime in church in a church setting, somebody would say, Hey, can you pray for everyone? Or can you even pray over Thanksgiving dinner? Sometimes I’m like, ooh, like, I have to fight off like, people aren’t going to take me serious because they think I’m not taking my prayer serious.

Cody Johnston 20:21
That’s good because that that brings up a really valid point that I really think needs to be made here. And it does that kind of reflects to me Matthew six, seven. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases of the Gentiles do for the things that they will be heard for their many words. I’m really eloquent in prayer. Personally, like I’ve done church long enough, like being my pastoral background, all that like I can sit down and like, God, thank you so much for this group of people. We just asked your presence coming, like all the BS that we put into prayer, right, all the crap. But when you strip it all back, that’s not what prayer is. And I think that the valid point that you just kind of brought up to that is a lot of times we may Prayer much more selfish than it needs to be. And I don’t mean that is like, don’t ask God because God doesn’t want to hear. No, it’s not that it’s we make prayer about us. But how many people want to be in a conversation where it’s all about you like, I’m over here, like, listen to all the great things I’m doing. You listen to all the great stuff that’s going on in my life. And I never like even give you a chance. On the flip side of that, there’s a group of people who feel like they can’t make it about them at all. And so they go off to God and they’re just like, oh god, I’m just worthless. And I thank you for your grace and, oh humbly, I beseech the Lord and like, just this polar there. There’s a middle ground here, where when you realize prayer, there’s a reason that you know, we say like, pray without ceasing. You know the Bible verse, pray without ceasing. What it literally means is prayer is a heart centered focus, kind of like how sin is a mindset, the opposite of a sin my mindset is a prayer mindset. What does that mean? Instead of focusing on what you’ve missed, instead of positioning yourself to miss you are aiming true instead of cussin missing the mark right, instead of missing it, instead of aiming to the side, instead of being off center or off direction, you are centered on Christ. And that’s what prayer is, it is literally like checking your compass. And you’re making sure that your relationship with God is you are focusing on I guess, like making sure your compass is facing the direction that God has for your life. And I’m not saying I mean, you guys have heard the whole plan versus purpose. I don’t believe God has a plan. He has a purpose. I mean, you’re focused on that purpose. you’re focused on God’s purpose for you. And a lot of times hearing God’s voice, I think we have this false idea that we’re going to hear from God, God’s going to open up some epiphany to us. He’s gonna speak to us he’s going to answer every little thing. I don’t think that’s what prayer is. Because as we’re about to get into in this next Next episode you guys don’t have to wait till next week on this one but it’s gonna be really really rich. I really feel as if that God isn’t as anxious biting at the at the jowls I guess to answer your prayers as much as he’s already answered them, he’s waiting on us to loose that waiting on us to align ourselves with that. And we’ve done an episode with Thomas shitlord about sickness. There’s a whole lot of stuff that goes into the idea of prayer like well, why did God not heal? My mother? Why did this Why did that there’s a whole lot there that’s not we’re trying to get into in this episode, go check out those episodes if you want to kind of hear a little bit more on that. But ultimately, prayer is aligning ourselves with God and, and allowing God to align himself with us. Because there’s plenty of instances in the Bible, where people change God’s mind people change God’s heart, people petition God for things and so we are literally aligning ourselves. God this is my will. Now let your will be done. And then it’s Hey, the I am this. That back and forth. God aligning himself with you and you aligning yourself with God and getting in a mentality, not a sin mentality, but in a prayer mentality. And I think if we’re sitting around waiting on God to give us an epiphany or an answer, I know that we want that. I know churches hype that up. But a lot of times if we can look past those momentary things, because let’s be honest, if we heard an audible voice from God, how many of us would go was that you Lord? Or was that me? You know, like, how many of us would actually that’s a good one right there like Who was that? Was that you got? Or was that the devil? Like, how do I know the difference? every good thing comes from God that

Elaine Johnston 24:34
I know the difference. Yeah. If I almost feel like if you have to ask you already know the answer. If you have to ask Was that me? Or was that God or was that the devil? Or if you’re trying to figure out the source of the voice, if it gives you life, if it gives you joy, if it Yeah, all of those things, is it pure is a holy is it wholesome, and I I think that’s where the verse talks about in the Bible talking about like testing the spirits, testing that voice testing that inner monologue that you have with yourself. And just, I feel like if you have to ask you already know it is God.

Cody Johnston 25:14
Yeah. And I feel like, or you already know it isn’t. But I feel like we get so hung up on hearing a voice hearing getting an answer, because we’re so answer driven. And there’s like, the opposite is true. Because prayer, there’s a lot of extremes in prayer. There’s the opposite of like, Oh, you have to wait till you hear the voice of the Lord to act. You have like these extremes in prayer. And so some people are just waiting on the audible voice of God and they never act. It’s kind of similar to the whole thing of like, the whole doors, when really prayer is just that it’s an alignment. And to kind of like segue from what we’re talking about this week to what we’re going to be talking about next week. We were having I kind of alluded to this just a minute ago, we’re having this walk is like Why does God lay people on your heart to pray for them? Like what does that even mean? What does it mean God laying something like oh, I just had This function to be praying for that. And there’s like this whole idea of like intercession behind that we can kind of touch on that a little bit. Now, what does it mean to intercede for someone in prayer? What does that mean? Well, why would God lay it on my heart to pray for someone else when God already was thinking about that person? I’ve heard two different thoughts on this. A good friend of ours presented this theory and the I really liked this idea. And it’s just that God is actually not laying on your heart to go and like pray for that person as much as like God’s like, Hey, I just want you to realize, like, I see that person, like, that person needs a loving hand right now that person needs that. Like, let’s just talk about them. Like let’s lift them up. Let’s support them. Instead of like, oh god, I beseech you to intercede on this person’s life and all that

Elaine Johnston 26:44
which I think that is like specific to community and why we need each other. God can do whatever he wants, he can bless all of those things. But God has Yeah, already has. God wants to commune with us and invite us into blessing others People, God wants to bring us into the equation because that’s who God is.

Cody Johnston 27:05
Well him without us there is no God. Like, let’s be really honest without us without this body, there’s no God on this earth like God does not exist here in this earth. Without people,

Elaine Johnston 27:14
he wants you to be a part of that blessing,

Cody Johnston 27:16
right? That’s the whole hands and feet of Christ fiasco, we always talk about like, God literally abides in us and outside of us. His presence isn’t known. That’s kind of the whole thing we were talking about a few weeks ago, like if you want to truly experience God, you have to look in the eyes of your fellow, you know, creation, your fellow mankind, in order to experience God you have to have others involved and you have to look at yourself as well. But kind of go into that as well to me when God when I when we were talking about this, and it’s like, why does God lay something on your heart? Why does Why do you feel that pricking to like, Oh, I need to go pray for this person to reach out to this person. It’s not God saying hey, like asked me to bless them. Because a lot of times I feel like in our minds, whether that’s set out loud or not Kind of what we view it as like, why would God do this? I think it’s more of like we have that authority, it goes back to the whole face of the mustard seed like you have the authority greater you know these things and greater will you do? God planted that authority in us. If we are God embodiment on Earth, then it’s really less like God do this, but it’s like, thank you for making me aware so that I can do this and like there’s a whole thing of like good vibes and stuff in that too. I know some people love those phrases. Some people hate them. But like prayer, vibration, energy, it’s literally all the same thing. It’s like I am sending energy out as someone who has the ability to as someone who can do greater things than raising people from the dead healing the sick, cleansing less leper casting out demons, you know, casting out afflictions, whatever that is, I can do the same thing through the authority of Christ who gives it to me Sure, because he’s so those abilities into the fabric of the world, but you’re literally losing those things from you from You’re godness from Christ in you through him. We channeled that. And we’re able to do that. So when God’s like, Hey, I’m laying this on your heart, or we’re interceding for someone, I feel like we need to look at it less is like, I’m interceding on this person’s behalf so God can magically heal them. And look, it is like I am partnering with God. You know, and this is going to sound a little crazy, but like, almost like you’re locking arms with God around a campfire, like a seance. Because I mean, let’s be honest, it’s all the same type of energy. It’s just what channel you’re flowing it through. We just happen to be channeling through the creator of all right, but it’s like you’re longing. I just say that to give you like a visual representation. You’re locking arms with God around this person going like I am believing together, unified together. We’re lifting this person up. Think of it like prayer circles. Think of all of that. It holds in authority because you’re linking up with someone else, and prayer. While Yes, it can link you to God. It also allows God to link Other people, it networks, it’s literally links in the chain. Whenever you do that you’re grabbing on with God and saying, You know what, I am going to stand fast in this, I’m releasing this energy, this gift, this good thing into that person. Now, I understand there’s a lot with healing. I know there’s a lot of hurt with all of that. I understand that. I’m not saying every single prayer you’re not. It doesn’t mean you don’t have enough faith. If prayers don’t get answered, I’m not saying that. What I am saying is you have the authority to loosen to bind. And we take on this negative mindset around prayer around loosing God around what that looks like. And it keeps us locked in this. This kind of like spiritual milk kind of mentality, just kind of playing off some other things we’ve been talking about lately of like, I’m asking God to do this because like, Oh, I can’t do anything, Lord, but we actually we have that authority. And it just kind of goes back to we’re aligning ourselves with God. We’re channeling ourselves through into God out from God. And it becomes this flow. If we look at it less of like, Hey, I’m giving God a phone call to chat with him and look at it more of like, this is life force. This is a river flowing back and forth this into existence, right? I mean, it really is channeling that idea you are drawing on God, and God is drawing on you to be able to understand one another. And it’s kind of like the idea of like, I can be in the room with you, Elaine and I can feel your presence. I know what like the energy you’re putting off. I can know your thoughts almost before you ever have to say them just because of the way the energy you put out. I mean, it’s just it’s a true fact

that I don’t always have to hear your voice and some of the most memorable moments are our experiences, not our words. I honestly couldn’t tell you many of the conversations we’ve had, but I can tell you what I felt in that moment. And that’s prayer. It’s less about, I need to hear these words to keep to hold on to, which is kind of what Scripture is in the first place. Right? It says, Let it into your heart. It’s more of a feeling. And it’s something that sinks in it’s a vibration. It’s something you can hold on to on a, on a fundamental level, not fundamentalism, but on a fundamental level, outside of just words.

Elaine Johnston 32:21
I feel like you could take this quote, to a god perspective, but it’s where that quote it says people won’t remember what you say, or what you did, but people will remember how you how you made them feel. And if like, you could bring that to God, you may not always remember what God specifically told you. But you’ll remember the feelings you remember the emotions, you remember the thoughts behind that, and how in that moment, you felt about that. And I feel like in those moments, if it feels good, it’s it’s God.

Cody Johnston 32:48
Yes, as long as it is tested to bring like good fruit. And that’s kind of what all this goes back to is like, when you have this positive alignment with God. You’ll see things grow growing in your life, you’ll see the the works of God and we get we get that in, you know traditional church services, we see those positive things. But then when things fall apart, we start freaking out and taking it as like, oh, is God doing this? Is God mad at me for that? It’s not that it’s simply aligning yourself with God through our lives, we align ourselves with him, to be able to receive that peace in the storm, or be able to hear him despite everything going well, we can still feel him. And I think when we say here, I think a lot of times what we mean is feel, and I think that we’re so scared of feeling. A lot of times we take that out, we’re scared of missing it. We’re scared of like, missing the mark on that. But we can feel the spirit of God through prayer. And prayer doesn’t have to be words. Prayer can be actions. Prayer can be silent meditation. Prayer can be a lot of things. Prayer can be intimacy. Prayer can be

Elaine Johnston 33:55
sitting in silence.

Cody Johnston 33:56
Prayer can be anything right. It can be a lot of things. Prayer is a mindset. And it’s opposite of a sin mindset because you’re shifting your focus from this thing over here that’s off center back on to what is on center. So that’s my general thoughts on prayer. I know it’s kind of a scrambled bit. There’s a lot to prayer. But specifically this next week’s episode, we’re going to be talking about something very, very near and dear to our hearts lately. And that is just the difference in rebuking prayers and blessing prayers and really diving into the power of mindset behind prayer. So if you haven’t done so, so far, go click that subscribe button and go down to the bottom. Click that link and join up in our Facebook group. nomads a safe community for Christians to ask answer questions. We would love to have you there. And guys, that’s really where we’re just that is we’re going to be asking you guys questions or feature on the show. We want to be able to hear from you to feature your opinions, your thoughts. This show is really centered around the community. That is a group of people coming together and just saying, Hey, I don’t have it all together. I don’t know all the answers. But have you looked at it from this perspective? Have you seen it from this way? So we would love to have you a part. Guys, we thank you so much for spending your time with us today. And as always be brave, be bold and be reckless. We’ll talk soon.