Let me just give you a couple of scriptures. In Luke 10, Verse 41, Jesus speaks to Martha, and says Martha, Martha, you're troubled and uptight and anxious about many things. And she got so uptight, her esteem went down, and when her esteem went down, she starts complaining; Lord, you don't care. My sister's left me. Now that's a bit of a whine isn't it aye? Put a bit of cheese with that one, see? It's really quite a grizzle, and a whine, and a negativity, and a complaint; left me to serve alone. Oh poor you! Why don't you tell her to come and help me? Why don't you go and talk with her, and ask her for help yourself? So notice what happened, that because she didn't prioritise her life right, and receive personal revelation from her own connection with Jesus, that's what she didn't do. That's the choice that Mary made. Now it's wonderful to come to meetings and receive inspired teaching, and prophetic teaching or whatever, but you need to get near God, and find from the word of God, words for yourself, personal words, God speaking directly into your heart.
Have a devotional diary, and write down the things that need to be written down. Write down the things God is saying, write down things God is talking to you. Why is that? Because the rhemas that God speaks to you, will give you faith, and change your whole life, so make God your friend. If you make God your friend, then you'll become more and more like Him, as you talk with Him and interact with Him, a most wonderful thing. What happens when you encounter God and have experiences with God is, the DNA of God gets downloaded into your spirit, and you change. Some areas that we struggle to change - now I'm all into process. I believe processes are important to grow, but encounters with God can download spiritual DNA and empowerment into you, that just shift you immediately. It just changes you immediately, and you become a different person.
Remember Jacob? Jacob wrestled and he fought. There was a whole struggling over issues in his life, and then out of that encounter, he was changed completely. They even changed his name. Encounters with God change you. Love yourself enough to make God your friend, and seek encounters with Him, and particularly that you hear His word for yourself. Got that? Then part of this whole dimension is that we learn to walk with the people of God as well. In Hebrews, Chapter 11, Verse 24 the Bible tells us - I think its 24 or something like that, near enough. Anyway Hebrews, Chapter 11, Moses, it says see he saw the Lord, he had an encounter with the Lord, and it changed a frightened man into a brave leader that touched and changed a nation. Then it says he identified with the people of God. He identified with the church, to walk with them and bring them out of bondage and into liberty. Why did he do that? It wasn't easy. They moaned and groaned and complained and rebelled and all kinds of things.
But listen, he did it, it said, because he saw Him who was invisible. His encounters with God kept an energy in his life that enabled him to influence a whole generation. What a tremendous thing, that you would love yourself enough to agree with what God says about you, who you are, and what you can do, and what the possibilities are for your life, that you would love yourself enough to put a boundary up and say no to people treating you badly, or to other things happening which are negative, that you'd love yourself enough that you'd say no more, to some of the things which are affecting your life, and you're beginning to deal with them; that you'd love yourself enough to say, I want to be friends with the most wonderful person, because I want to become like Him. As you do that, you begin to find your life changes, everything in you changes. You see yourself different, you see people differently. It all starts with a choice doesn't it, to love yourself.
Just close your eyes right now as we just finish. Father, I just thank You for Your wonderful presence here today. We just so love Your presence. It's just a great joy to sit in Your presence. As we just wait upon You and worship You, we can feel that You are here, angels are here.