About the Five Core Practices
TALK. LISTEN. ASK. TELL. REPRESENT.
Enjoying God all day can be distilled into Five Core Practices.
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TALK: Talking to God
Talking to God is telling Him the things that will honor Him and change us from the inside out. Our words to God lead our hearts. While there are endless ways of talking to God, the following are five easy words from scripture we can say to God to enjoy the best life possible:
Words of appreciation
Words of adoration
Words of apology
Words of asking for help
Words of acknowledgment
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LISTEN: Listening to God’s Voice
Listening requires a change of our will. It requires us to deny—or in other words, surrender—what we want to do. It shows us what attitude to have and instead of choosing what we want to do, we instead do what pleases Him, no matter the cost.
Listening starts with a surrender question and always leads to action of some kind. An overarching question that can be asked is: Lord, how shall I respond to you in this situation?
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ASK: Asking for His Help
You do not have because you do not ask. —James 4:2b
Our egos keep us from seeing how much we need God's love, help, and guidance. It propels us to commit the “self” sins of self-reliance, self-willed, and self-honoring. Humility is the currency of God’s Kingdom. It attracts God’s grace like nothing else. Asking God for help means coming into the throne room of God and boldly making our requests known, knowing how eager He is to give us His best. God will always give you what you want or something better according to His will.
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TELL: Telling God Stories
The practice of telling God stories to others forces us to be more aware of His hand and His heart. It is a barometer of your relationship with God. When your heart is pure, you will see God in all circumstances, and you will have a lot of God stories. When you finish a day with no God stories, stop and reflect on all He has done for you that day, and you will discover gold. Doing this over time, you will be less self-led, self-reliant, and self-honoring. Finally, telling a God story is humbling in a good way, as we tilt the credit for the good things He has done to Him and not to ourselves.
The question:
How did your day with Jesus go?
can be one of the most helpful questions we ask each other to prod us to experience more of God’s presence and power at work for us.
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REPRESENT: Representing Him
God places us in this world with the high calling of representing His love to others we live and work with, and those we meet.
We are here to grow in our love and enjoyment of God while caring for the people He loves with servant leadership. This servant leadership can be expressed by any personality, any level of Biblical training, and by anyone of any socioeconomic status. Whether it is those in your family, your inner circle of friends, coworkers, or people you meet, you are on assignment.
There are only three things you need: first, to genuinely care for others’ relationship with God, which is arguably the most important thing, second, to seek God for the best way HE wants you to help them, and third, to feel inadequate. As Paul stated in 2 Corinthians 3:5-6 “Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God…”
You have a unique personality and spiritual gifts. Everyone is called to join the fight to help others grow closer to Jesus.