Okay, now how many of you found that you were listening to what you were saying, just kind of like, I know I'm talking but I'm actually listening to what I'm saying as well? How many had that happen to you? That's quite interesting. How many of you found that you were quite interested to hear what God had to say to the person? [Laughter] That's awesome. Okay, alright then. Now Sargin, have we got a morning tea break sometime around about now?
[Sargin] Yeah.
[Pastor Mike] Alright then, I wonder if we could just fit in one more of those in, just before we go for a break aye, if I keep squeezing it in? Alright then, so I'll get one more volunteer, just one more to come up. No one's pointing at any more. Hands coming up [Laughter] After a while you learn it's quite a good move to volunteer. [Laughter] Okay, we'll try it again. This time I won't look for a Bible passage, let's look for something else and just let God speak in any way He wants to. Can I practice on you?
[Person Pastor Mike's praying for] Yeah.
[Pastor Mike] Okay, great opportunity to practice, this is fantastic. Of course every day's a chance to practice. Okay, now let's take your hand. Thank You Lord. Now just again breaking it down into steps, in reality you've just got to flow into that quite quickly but we'll just break it into steps. The first part is just energising the spirit. Thank You Lord. [Prays in tongues] Thank You Lord - again just worship the Lord and set your mind and heart on Him, so begin to set your attention on Him. If I focus on myself I shut down. If I focus on Him I shut down. If I focus on the source, I'm connecting what I need - so thank You Lord that You know him, and You care about him. Father, I'm just asking if You would give something that would be encouragement and a blessing. Thank You Lord. Alright then, now I just got something just dropped in like that. Okay, now I've got to focus on it, and then I'll have to at some point begin to start to share it. Thank You Lord. So go back there. If the thoughts come from the Lord, the moment you just drop back into focussing on the Lord, or into the spirit again, what'll happen is you'll start to pick it up again, so you don't have to worry about trying to remember it all.
If God gave you lots, you get to the end of it and say, now how did that start again? So if He only gives you a couple of lines or a little bit of a picture - okay, so here we go, that'll be it. So now this is what I sensed as I was just reaching out the Lord for you. I saw a picture of a man running a race, and the way he's running it's like a sprint, and I could see him run and he would run and then he would lose breath, stop for a little while, then he'd run again, lose breath, stop for a little while because he's running the race like a sprint. I felt the impression I had was that the race you're running is a marathon, not a sprint, and the temptation or the tendency that you seem to have is that you will run at things for a while, and then you lose energy and motivation and have to take a break. Then a new thing will inspire you, you'll run at that for a little while, and then you've run out of steam, and then you'll run at the next thing again. The Lord wants you to know it's a marathon, and you need to learn how to pace yourself, and just keep a steady journey, progressing through this walk with Him. It's more about the marathon, setting the long term in sight, and starting to work your way, and just steadily move towards it, rather than short bursts of energy, followed by sort of quietness and not doing anything. So how does that relate to you?
[Person Pastor Mike's praying for] Yeah. There's some personal experience there, with the aspects of running...
[Pastor Mike] Yes - oh, so you've done both? You've done a marathon and you've done sprinting?
[Person Pastor Mike's praying for] Yeah.
[Pastor Mike] Oh wow, so this is a very good picture. [Laughter] I'd never have known you'd done both of those. [Laughs] So you'd understand with a sprint you've got to put in high energy but if you run out of puff...