So the first thing I found it's helpful to do, is rather than trying to get the solution of make God speak to me; work on strengthening my inner life, getting the emotions out of the way; and starting to remind myself of the promises of God, and building the spirit man. I tell you one thing, if you're going to hear God, you will hear Him in your spirit; and if your spirit is being strengthened, and there's adversity: one, you'll come out the other side a better person; two, you're more likely to hear; so there's the first thing is - strengthen your spirit man. That involves praise and worship. Now a lot of people come into church on Sundays, and they've struggled through the week. They've struggled through the week for a whole range of reasons, and no one blames that people struggle. Struggle's a part of life. It's what you do in the struggles, and the tendency in the struggles, is instead of building and strengthening your inner life, and learning how to praise God and thank Him, and lift up the atmosphere around them; people tend to just go down, and withdraw, and shut down. I watch, I kind of see in church, and I watch the level of participation of people; and I can tell that many people are shut down, because when we are building an atmosphere, where we're actually giving something to God, that is a place you can break through; when everyone else is with you, and they're rising up, you begin to praise God - yeah, well I don't feel like it. This is not about feeling, it's actually about: this is what I choose to do, in my adversity.
You have a think about, for example, Paul and Silas, in Acts 16. In the middle of their adversity - they'd been beaten up, whipped and put into jail for doing good; and then they began to praise God, lift Him up, begin to exalt Him, sing songs, and actually just magnify God; and that is when they got an answer. They got an answer - then. You think they knew they were going to get an answer then? No, they did not. In fact actually, they could have remained in prison; but what they knew to do, was to magnify God in the midst of the difficulty, by thanking Him and praising Him. I've found a lot of people don't do that. When we come into a Sunday meeting, no matter what you feel like, no matter what you've been going through; make a decision you'll stand up and you'll begin to give praise, give something to God, give the honour to Him. Of course when you try to do it, if you're offended inside, it will surface quite quick; and you can then resolve it, and push it out of the way, because praise and gratitude will always surface this other stuff that's in your life. Getting the idea?
So I come to meet with God. I don't come to actually end up depressed at the end of the meeting. Now here's the thing. If we have say, 300 people come in, and 20 are excited and give themselves to God; then there's all these others, the 280, that are bringing a spirit of heaviness and depression; and 20 people have to shift that off everyone. That's not God. That's not the way to do it. The way to do it is, we come and we gather to give something to God, and we then give it to Him. I give Him the very best. I get into those songs, I come in, and I like to be the strongest, loudest, most vocal worshipper of God. Why? Because I have learned, no matter what I'm feeling, if I will do that, my spirit will energise and arise and lift; and other things take perspective. Getting the idea? But it's a choice, it's a choice to do it, and I've practised it enough now that I can arise in my spirit, quite quickly; so one thing, strengthen yourself in the Lord.