Okay, so number one, God wants you both to experience the supernatural, and to be able to bring the life of God to others. That's the first thing to see. Second thing is, if you're going to move in this way, you have to look beyond your own needs to the needs of others. You notice that Jesus saw the disciples were incredibly tired. He Himself was very tired. In fact they were so tired, that they were on vacation; except the crowd followed them. Now the normal thing would be to say: listen, I'm tired, I've had a hard time, send them all away. Listen, I can't do this - but the Bible says that Jesus was moved with compassion. The disciples just wanted to get rid of the crowd, they were so tired; well we've done our bit for God. We've done our bit for God, that's enough. Some people, they come to church on Sunday - I've done my bit for God, that's enough.
How far that falls short! You've got to get your eyes past yourself, and begin to see people in need. You've got to lift your eyes beyond yourself. There are some people here have never been on the platform, and yet they touch people in need. They touch people in need. The supernatural's not always spectacular. It's often in the acts of kindness, and the small things, reaching out, extending out, but always you've got to look past yourself; and one of the ways of doing that, quite a simple way you can do that - I did this when I first came into the city, and I'm about to do it again, because I felt this thing burning in my heart again; one of the first things I did when I come in the city was say: oh dear God, what do I do, you know? This is a strange place and I didn't really like even being here, pretty miserable, it was sort of cold and wet about then. I wasn't very happy about being here at all, but I felt the Lord tell me to do this. He said: I want you to rise, and I want you to walk around the centre of the city, and I want you to pray in tongues, and I want you to look into the faces of people, and I want you to see the need of the city.
And I've done that on more than one occasion. I remember doing it with Ian - remember we did that one time? We went around, and we walked around the city centre, I don't know, maybe a week or something? Every night we walked around, Ian walked with me in those early days, so when I first arrived here I did it; and when I did it, then God was birthing compassion; and I remember walking around the streets, and looking at the faces of people; the far end of Hastings was very, very dark in those days. Gangs gathered down there. It was a shocking place. You wouldn't walk there at night, so I walked right around, and you would look at people, and I'd drive around some nights and I'd just pray, but most of the time I'd walk around and look in the faces of people, and just look to see what God showed me. I found that if you will ask God to open your eyes, and you start to pray, and just: look and listen, look, listen, ask questions; you will begin to see how desperate the needs our people have. They're everywhere - abused people, hurt people, people who are angry, people who are broken, people who are furious with how life has treated them so unjustly. But if you don't see them, you'll never reach them. You have to see them, and let it move your heart.
I found one of the reasons that we don't move is, we're so caught up with ourself; and when you're caught up with yourself, you've got nothing left over for anyone else, so get your eyes off yourself. Set yourself for - maybe for three weeks, that every day for three weeks, wherever you live or work, or wherever you're in a school or something, you begin to pray and ask God to open your eyes, to see the condition of people. Ask Him to show you what is really there, what He sees, and you'll be quite surprised what you see. Start to ask people questions. Just be determined to listen to people, and find out what is going on in their world. You'll be amazed how people will open up their heart and tell you. They will just tell you what's going on. You'll be quite surprised at the pain, and the distress stories, that are everywhere. It's almost overwhelming, it gets so big; but the first step is, you've got to get out of your own zone. You've got to look past your own need, so one of the things that Jesus modelled, and this is always so when miracles take place, is you look beyond yourself, to the needs of others.