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About the episode:

Jaime Luce’ testimony has daunting personal mountains and treacherous financial valleys. She was trapped in day-to-day stress and couldn’t see a way forward. But how she started is not how she finished! And she wants you to know God has a plan for your life too, no matter how tough it seems. Today, Jaime has been married to the love of her life for almost three decades, owns two companies, and has become an author and podcaster. God’s way is always the blessed way!  Learn more.

Related reading:

• How To Heal Through Responsibility and Faith
• How To Use Your Kingdom Authority In Prayer
• Plug Into A Warfare Prayer Source
• Have a Different Spirit
• Be A Good Gardner

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Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

0:00:03 – Speaker 1

Welcome to the Jamie Luce Podcast. I’m your host, Jamie Luce. Thank you for listening today. All of my blogs, social and YouTube links can be found on my website, jamieluce.com. If you enjoy this podcast, you can support it by liking, subscribing, getting notified and sharing this broadcast. Another way you can help is by rating and reviewing on Apple podcast. My hope and goal in every episode is to give you tools found in Scripture, either by teaching, discussions, testimonies or interviews that encourage and equip you as you navigate living a real Christian walk in a difficult world. I would love to hear from you Whether you have a comment, question or prayer request. You can email me at mail at jamieluce.com. If you’re watching on YouTube, drop me a comment. I’d love to partner with you on your journey of faith. If you’re listening today on any podcast platform, take a screenshot and tag me and I’ll post it to my Instagram story. And now join me for today’s episode. Welcome to the Jamie Luce podcast. Thanks for joining me today.

I have what I think is going to be a very relevant and helpful message for you today. It’s four questions we’re going to talk about four questions that were asked of Scripture in Scripture, of us people, humans asked of us that are going to be the kind of answers we need to be able to answer, the kind of questions we need to be able to answer in order to live a fruitful Christian life. These are very poignant questions. These are not questions that you can brush over and answer lightly. These are self-introspective questions. One of them God asked, two of them Jesus asked, one of them an angel asked, and so I think, if he asked them of people who are recorded for us to learn from, that, they are pertinent to us today, and so I want you to get out your Bibles You’re something to write with and get in a comfortable place where you can actually really listen in and take some personal notes. These aren’t going to be. I don’t want you to take notes just about what I’m saying. I want you to write the Scripture references and I want you to write the questions down, but I want you to record what the Holy Spirit is saying to you when you think about these questions. I want you to be able to answer these questions because they will. They will shed light on where you are in your circumstance today and how to be fruitful, how to grow, how to move in a positive upward trajectory. So I came across one of the well, one of them, one of the Scripture references we’re going to use today.

My daughter-in-law had posted this the other day and it just sat on my heart, just sat in my spirit, because I have pondered this question a lot, many, many times and it’s such a great question and I want to give it to you. I’m going to hold off and I’ll let you know which one it was, but it’s, it’s a question that these questions I know I’m making a big to do this these are great questions. I wish I could say that I came up with them myself. I can’t. These are biblical questions. These are questions that were literally asked.

So get your Bibles out, let’s go to Genesis, chapter three, and I don’t think this is going to take a lot of time today. I think where the time will come in is where you allow the Holy Spirit to really speak to you personally. But let’s start in Genesis and we’ll go to chapter three and we’ll read verse nine. And the reason I think that these questions are going to bring fruitfulness to your life is because, if you can recognize the answers, you get answers to these questions. It lets you know where you are in your circumstance. And once you know where you are in your circumstance, then you know how to either evaluate or evaluate and then make a new decision, or make decisions that help you move forward, that help you change the dynamic of where you’re at currently. So if you’re in a position today that you want to change, or if there’s something that you need to know how to grow in, this is a great, great message for you today. So you want to write these downs.

Before I say anything, I’m going to say the first question, number one. This is your first question when are you? Okay, where are you? And so we’re going to look at Genesis three, verse nine, and this is in the garden. This is right after Adam and Eve have sinned. Okay, so they are in the perfect environment, they had the perfect father, they had everything they could ever need, and yet they were still tempted and they were still able to choose, and in that they chose wrong. They sinned, they fell into temptation and they are now living in the aftermath. Okay, they’re living in the aftermath and that may or may not look like you right now. You may or may not have brought on by sin the circumstance that you’re in currently, but you may have. You may have in part and not in whole, it doesn’t matter, it really doesn’t matter. The question doesn’t change and the truth that it brings does not change and therefore the result can matter for you, no matter where you find yourself in this situation. So you’re not in the situation you know, no matter where you find yourself in this situation. But this is God coming to Adam, and I’ll start in verse eight. I want to concentrate on verse nine, but we’ll start in verse eight.

And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Now, before I move on to verse nine, if you missed last week’s episode, you need to go back and listen to that, because we really talked about the presence of the Lord and how vastly important and and unreplaceable and unmatchable the presence of the Lord is. And here we see that their circumstance caused them, their decisions, their sin caused them to hide, to hide from the presence of God. That in itself leads into question into this next question in verse nine. But the Lord God called them to the man. So it doesn’t matter that they sinned, god still called to them. You are not disqualified because you sinned. We’re all disqualified because of sin. But Jesus already paid the price. So you can’t use sin any longer, nor can, nor do you want to allow the enemy to make you think that this is an issue.

Sin did not stop God from approaching man, nor did it stop him from talking to man and man being able to hear and converse with God. They were able to hear what God said to them, even though they were now in a sinful state. They were able to hear what God said to them even though they were now in a sinful state. Okay, so many times, if you heard people talk about in their testimony that in the midst of their deepest sin and problem, they said God, if you’re real, and cried out to God. And God answered that’s because this is true of God. This is true of God. So the let’s read it in verse nine again.

But the Lord, God, called to the man and said to him where are you? Where are you? Okay? Now he goes on to say I heard you and I was afraid I’m naked. I hid myself. He explains why he’s hidden.

He doesn’t actually answer the question. He says why he’s hidden. He doesn’t say where he is. This is an important question when are you? This is not a geographical question. I mean technically, it is technically, but we’re talking spiritually.

Okay, spiritually, god was asking Adam where are you? And he’s asking where are you? Because Adam knew every day, in the cool of the day, they were out walking with God, talking with God, spending time in God’s presence. Why is this different today? Why aren’t you doing this with me today? Where are you? We have an appointment. Have you ever heard a minister say that? Have you ever heard him say put it on the calendar. If you have to make an appointment, you can do it. Have you ever heard a minister say that? Have you ever heard him say put it on the calendar. If you have to make an appointment with God every day, make sure you’re in your word, make sure you’re praying, make the appointment right. Well, it’s true, make the appointment.

God had a standing appointment with Adam. He’s saying where are you? I expected you to be here. Where are you? Where are you? And knowing what their general every day plan was, god had a right not only to ask where are you just in a oh gosh what would the word be? Not just in a casual hey, where are you? I can’t find you, I don’t see you since. But he had a right to say where are you? I expected you to be here. So there was an expectation for asking Adam, for Adam to be in a particular place at this time and he wasn’t there. Where are you? And have you ever been in a conversation and you can tell when you’re talking to somebody and they’re not listening and you say, hey, where are you? Hello, where are you? Where’s your head at? Where are you at? What’s going on with you? Where are you?

This question goes deep into our hearts. It goes deep into the fabric of our relationship with the Lord. Where are you with me? Why aren’t you wanting to be in my presence? Why aren’t you where you were supposed to be? I thought we had this relationship. I thought we had this agreement. I thought you’d be here. We’re going to see this again in another question. You’re not going to want to miss next week, because I’m going to take the last question and I’m going to answer that question today, but we’re going to take that and go in a much fuller, deep dive in next week’s episode, so you don’t want to miss that, because these really are part one and part two.

But where are you?

Where are you? We need to be asking that question when am I? Where am I with the Lord? Where am I with my relationship with Him? Where am I hiding? Am I actually hiding from His presence? Am I in sin? Am I doing something that is causing me to not want to be in His presence? Have I grown cold in an area and now that coldness means I’m not hungry for His presence anymore? Where am I? This might be quite a literal question for you.

Are you somewhere you are not supposed to be? I mean right now, are you somewhere you are not supposed to be? Are you somewhere where you know God doesn’t want you? Did you run off and go somewhere? He told you not to go? Are you in a dangerous place of temptation and you shouldn’t be there and you need to be like Joseph and run for your life? Where are you? Where are you? We need to understand God. The Father asked this question. This is not a lighthearted question.

This is a very heavy, serious question. Where are you? Where are you with your walk with the Lord? Where are you on the timeline of the purpose that God has for your life? Are you doing what he asked you to do? Are you fulfilling what he asked you to do and fulfill? Are you busy about your Father’s business? Where are you? Where are you? Are you someone who’s made it a priority to be in the house of God? Where are you? Do you consider what he says and the time that you spend with Him and His presence valuable, or is that dispensable to you and other things are more valuable? Where are you? Where are you? Very serious question that needs to be answered.

Let’s look at question number two. This question is not God asking. This is Jesus asking, and I actually did an episode oh gosh, it’s probably been over a year ago now and the question is where is your faith? So I want us to turn to Luke, chapter eight. Luke, chapter eight. I’m going there with you, so give you a minute, luke, chapter eight, and we’re going to be looking at verse 25. Luke eight, 25.

And this is a situation where the disciples have Jesus in their boat. I mean, they’re in the presence of Jesus. So this isn’t a where are you question. Okay, we’re moving from. Where are you? Jesus is actually in the boat with them. He’s in the boat with them, so they’re in His presence, okay. But a storm has come up, even though they’re in the Lord’s presence. And I think many of us find ourselves with this question, because we are actively serving the Lord, we’re in His presence, and yet a storm comes up, and that really will rattle us. We just seem to think that, because we’ve got Jesus in our boat, that nothing’s going to happen, that somehow the elements of the world are not going to touch us. It doesn’t mean that we can’t rise above it and we’re going to see that there is a way to handle this situation, but it doesn’t mean that this question doesn’t get asked. I think this is where we find ourselves. So let’s go ahead and start. We’ll go ahead and read verse 22 and make our way down to verse 25. But 25 is the key verse. Let’s begin 22.

One day he got into a boat with his disciples and he said to them let us go across to the other side of the lake. So they set out and as they sailed he fell asleep and a windstorm came down on the lake and they were filled with water and were in danger. And they went and woke him, saying master, master, we are perishing. And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased and there was a calm. He said to them where is your faith? And they were afraid and they marveled, saying to one another who, then, is this that he commands even winds and water and they obey him. So again, they didn’t answer his question. This is a common theme. They didn’t answer the question.

Jesus is asking them a very important, introspective question about their relationship with him, about their walk with him, and he’s made it clear he’s in the boat with them. He is so at peace in who he is, in the plan of God for his life and his assignment, that he gets into the boat. He gives a direction to his disciples. He says we’re going to the other side, let’s go. He’s in the boat, he’s resting, nothing to be worried about.

A storm comes up and the scripture tells us they were actually in danger, that water was filling the boat. So it’s not as Christians, it’s not our job to deny that something is happening. We don’t deny that the boat is filling with water and my feet are wet and I’m scared because this is truly happening. It really is happening. But we are supposed to have a certain mindset and Jesus was trying to correct their thoughts and trying to correct how, what they really think by asking them this very important question when is your faith? What is he implying? He’s not saying they don’t have faith. He didn’t say why don’t you have faith? That’s not the question. The question wasn’t if they had faith or not. The question was where is your faith? Remember that, where are you?

Okay, now that you have me and you’re with me, where did you put your faith? Did you put your faith in the fact that we’re in a solid vessel with no holes? Did you put your faith in the fact that you’re sailing with other good sailors? They’re all fishermen, they know what they’re doing. Did you put your faith in the fact that you had a word from God and he said we’re going to the other side, or is your faith in the fact that you’re saved? You know Jesus. Jesus told you to go here. Jesus is in the boat. Is your faith in the fact that it’s a sunny day when you set out and now there’s a problem because now there’s a storm? I have Jesus, but because he’s not acting quickly, he’s asleep on the job. He’s in the boat but he’s sleeping. Where is your faith?

Is your faith in the fact that you knew you were a good fisherman? I mean, you don’t realize, but you got a little pride, like I know how to handle this. Things are okay, I’m good. Where is your faith? Jesus is saying you have faith. I recognize you have faith, but you’ve placed your faith somewhere else and now your faith is faltering because whatever you put it in isn’t big enough for this.

It doesn’t matter that you have a boat full of good fishermen. It doesn’t matter that the weather was fine when you set out. It doesn’t matter that you’re already saved. It doesn’t matter that you’re good at what you do None of those things. It doesn’t matter that your equipment is good equipment. It doesn’t matter.

I mean I could get on here on this podcast and I could think well, I’ve got a computer, it’s working, I have electricity, I have a microphone, I’ve done it before, I’ve spoke in front of people before I’ve studied before. I mean I could think of all those things and just get on and say something and just expect that it’s going to go great, just because that’s the way it’s supposed to go. I have all the elements, I have all the boxes checked, but the truth is, folks, that’s not what matters. What matters is Am I being obedient to what God said? Yes, but am I relying on the Holy Spirit and His anointing? Am I relying on Him to speak a word to my Spirit? And then I, in obedience, do that? And I have faith, not that I will do it.

Well, I don’t have faith that I’ll get it all right, that I’ll remember everything I need to say. I won’t have faith that my delivery will be what it needs to be, that you’ll be able to hear the message. My faith is in the fact that God said Jamie, I want you to do this, and so my faith is in God. You will carry your word. You will accomplish what you said you would accomplish. You will make sure that whoever needs to hear this, your voice, father, will go over the airwaves and will make it self-heard.

My faith isn’t in my equipment, what I bring to the table, what I can do. My faith is in the one who can do anything. My faith is in the one that, even in the midst of trouble, even in the middle of trouble, his anointing still has power. His anointing will still do what only the anointing can do, his will will still get accomplished. God’s work will still get done. So this will kind of dip into what I’m going to talk about next week. So here’s a little teaser about that. But if I am confident that what God is going to do is what gets done, then I’m not worried about what. I’m not worried about my will in it, I’m not worried about my circumstance in it. I’m saying, like Jesus, not my will. Your will be done, lord, you have your way.

So what should the disciples have had their faith in? Well, first of all, they should have had their faith in the fact that Jesus did say. I mean, he did have the word of God. They did have His presence. They didn’t have His peace. What did Jesus speak to the circumstance? What did he speak to the circumstance? He spoke peace to the circumstance there.

If you don’t have peace, you either don’t believe that God is acting or moving, you think he’s sleeping, or you think he can’t and you don’t really have faith at all. I mean, you either do believe that he can and will according to his word. Right? We get tripped up with this a lot. We get a word from the Lord, we believe it in the moment. We heard it so much so that we get in the boat with them and we start to cross over. We believed it that far, but the minute a storm comes up, we don’t believe it anymore. We take our faith out of the word and we put it into the elements around us. We put it into the things that we can control, not the things that are without our control. That’s how we know where they were marveling at. They marveled that he could control the things that are uncontrollable. God could control the wind and the water. So they were amazed, because this person who is saying I should obviously have faith in what he said, because he can control what’s not controllable.

This is why we need to ask this question when is our faith? Because if you know where your faith is, you have a chance to make sure it’s in the right place. Think about it. I want you to write these things down when have you been putting your faith? Where have you been putting your faith? Where are you? Where are you in your head? Where are you in your emotions? Where are you in your relationship with the Lord? Where are you with desiring His presence? Where are you? Where are you on God’s time clock when are you? And ask the question and write this stuff down. Be honest with yourself, because only if you’re honest with yourself will you be able to make progress, will you be able to make the course corrections. Aha Moments can happen right now. The light bulb can go off right now and you can understand and know where you are, so you can navigate out of where you are into where you should be, which is the fruitfulness and the blessing of the Lord, the calling and the purpose of God. That’s where you should be.

So, where are you and where is your faith? What have you put your faith in? Should it really be there? Where should your faith be? Okay, now let’s go to question number three. This question is the question that caused me to dig into this because, like I said, my daughter-in-law had posted this scripture and I love this scripture so much and it is such a truth. Oh, it’s such a powerful truth. Just the question by itself is a powerful, powerful truth and if you answer this question, it will help you. In fact, this question might help you answer question number one of where are you, where are you? This question might help you. They go together. Three and one really do go together. Okay, so let’s look at this.

We’re going to be looking at Luke, chapter 24, verse 5. Luke 24, verse 5, and this is right after Jesus’ death, and this is an angel speaking, and I’m going to go ahead and start. I’ll read it from verse 1 and we’ll read all the way down to verse through verse. I might read six, let’s see. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb taking the spices they had prepared. So these are the women who went to the tomb and they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. I love that. I wish I could have seen what God considers dazzling apparel. And as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them can you imagine hearing this in stereo concert?

This is a serious, serious question right here, you ready? Why do you seek the living among the dead? Why do you seek the living among the dead? Let’s read verse 6 anyway. He is not here, but he has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified on the third day rise. It’s like didn’t you have the Word of God? Didn’t you know the truth already? If you knew what he said? Why? Why do you seek the living among the dead? That question, boy. I just like to let that one sit because, boy, we need to answer that. Why do you seek living things? Why do you seek living emotions? Why do you seek a living future? Why do you seek life Among deadness, dead things, buried things, old things? Why do you seek life there? He’s not here, life is not eat. You won’t find life in a graveyard. A birthing room in a hospital is completely different than a graveyard Life. Why do you seek the living, something to live? Why are you looking among dead things to find it? And we need to answer this question.

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Why do you seek the living among the dead Folks?

This is a very introspective, like I said before, question, but this question is one that we need to see. We need to know why we’re looking there. If you’re looking among dead things trying to find life, you need to know why. It’s not that that there aren’t maybe some answers to being. I mean, there was a reason they were there, right? I mean they saw him crucified. They know he was buried in this tomb. They felt like they were accepting reality. They felt like they still had a job to do, but now it’s serving things that are dead and and the truth was no. I told you this would happen your morning, when you don’t have to mourn. He’s not here. You’re looking for someone who’s living I Mean.

So first you need to ask yourself Are you actually looking for life or are you looking for death? They came Actually looking for death. That’s, that’s the sad thing. That’s the question Are we looking for death or are we looking for life? The question is why? Why are you looking for death or are you looking for life? Why? Why are you? Why are you looking here? And if you can answer that, if you’re looking for life, then the answer is they gave the answer to the question.

Basically, you’re looking for the living among the dead. He’s not here. Why isn’t he here? He should have been here. No, he shouldn’t see. That’s what we get wrong. They thought he should have been there. That’s why they were looking there. They thought he was supposed to be there, but they didn’t listen to what he had said. He said I’m only gonna be there this amount of time and I’m not staying here. I’m not staying here. So we need to know the Lord is saying just because your circumstance says this is where things are, you need to know where Jesus is. Where is he right now? Where is he right now for you? Make sure that you go and you find where he’s at right now. He’s alive. He wants to bring life. He doesn’t want you living in death Excuse me, in the old things. He wants you living. He wants you living among the living, not living among the dead. This is not some gruesome episode of Zombies. This is not the living dead. We are the living. There should be no death in us folks.

We’ve got to answer this question why am I looking here? What am I looking for that I’m looking here, father, show me what I should be looking for. Show me that I should be seeking and looking after life and not death, because you’re in life, not death. You’re in what’s alive and not what’s in dead, and we need to make that our, our goal of finding, to go, seek him out, to find where he is. Then, if he’s not here, where is he go? Get where he is. Get among the living. Don’t hang out with all the old friends and all the old ways, doing all the old stuff where it was dead, where God delivered you from. Don’t go back to the dead. Where is he taking you get among the living. Make sure you’re surrounded by those who are choosing to live among the living. Make sure you’re making that distinction in your life and in your choices. This is so important to these questions. I’m telling you they will change the trajectory of your life.

Let’s look at question number four, because, well, question three when, why are you seeking the living among the dead? I guess I want to read this last. I have this last note. I want to make sure and give this to you before I move on. They weren’t in the right place and because they were not in the right place and they were not seeking the right thing, their perspective about their whole situation was wrong. They were coming to basically embalm Jesus’s body. They were coming to make sure that what died stayed dead, and they’re gonna try to sweeten it up, make it smell as nice as possible and and honor it in its death.

Folks, that’s not what we’re called to. We’re not called to honor the dead things. We’re called to live among the living. We’re called to Create more life. We’re called to go and rescue people out of darkness, out of death, and Bring them the hope of new life. Our perspective will be off if we’re looking amongst the dead to find the living, our, our perspective will be off. We’re looking in the wrong place and it changes everything. They didn’t know they were wrong. They didn’t know they didn’t, they didn’t realize they had let go of their hope. They didn’t realize that Jesus meant what he said.

These were moments of real Faith confrontation where you run smack right into the thing that you either have a real Encounter to believe and have true faith that what God said is real is going to come to pass, that his word is Infallible. You will run smack right dab into that at some point in your life, if not multiple times, and you have to know what do I really believe about the word? If I’m, if I’m, here to embalm the dead, then I don’t think it’s going to live again. That’s just. That’s just the truth of the matter. So we need to know what it is that we believe. We need to know what it is that we are seeking after, looking after.

So let’s go to question number four. I’m sorry, guys, my allergies have all of a sudden just popped up. You can probably hear it in my voice. I apologize. I can hear in the neighboring areas Gardening going on, so maybe there’s a window open or something over here. But anyway, let’s go to question number four.

Jesus asked the disciples this last question that we’re gonna talk about today why are you sleeping? Interesting question, right, why are you sleeping? So let’s look at Luke 22 46. Luke 22 46 it should just be maybe one page over in your Bible. This is before Jesus’s death and this is Right before he is betrayed. And They’ve had the last supper.

Jesus is giving them final instructions. This is very important. He’s getting ready to go Give his life. He’s getting ready to pay the ultimate price. He is getting ready to suffer, like, like he’s never, ever suffered. He’s getting ready to be Found guilty and pay the penalty for something he’s never done. The weight of what he’s carrying right now is incredible, and so I want us to read from oh, let’s see, I want to say Okay, so this, totally this question is the one we’re diving into in our next episode, so I don’t want to go too much into this yet.

So let’s just start at verse 45, and I’ll I’ll just say this in preparation. You can go back and read this for yourself, because context is important. But he has said he brings his disciples. He says I’m gonna pray, sit here, but yet he still takes his three his inner circle with him Peter, james and John and they go with him a little further Into pray and then he tells them okay, you sit right here and you watch with me. Now this is recorded In three of the four Gospels it’s Matthew, mark and Luke.

It’s not recorded in John this way, but it’s been recorded Matthew, mark and Luke and each of them Talks about this, and so this is something that is very important. God is making sure we know this. This has now been recorded three times. Each of them saw this as being very important to make sure we get this. And Jesus is praying and he’s struggling in his prayer. He’s really concerned, he’s feeling the pressure, and it actually even talks about how he’s in great anguish over this. And when he comes to check on his disciples, this is what he says. This is verse 45.

And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow and again, I’m gonna go into this next week sleeping for sorrow. And he said to them why are you sleeping? I mean, can you imagine they’re sleeping because they’re sorrowful? Okay, but we’re gonna talk about the little bit more bit. They’re sleeping because they’re sorrowful, and yet he is way more sorrowful, way more in agony. This is his life on the line. They don’t even understand what’s going on. They, they know enough because he is praying with such anguish and sorrow that they are sorrowful, but they do not understand what’s getting ready to take place, and it’s not them that it’s gonna happen to. Different circumstances are gonna happen to them, but they don’t understand how deep the sorrow is. And he’s asking them why are you Sorry? Why are you sleeping? Why are you sleeping? Okay, rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation. Oh gosh, there’s so much there again. You got to hear next week, okay. So why are you sleeping? This is a question we have to ask, because sleeping it made me think of and I didn’t look it up to give it to you, but it made me think of the parable of the virgins. The ten virgins. Because there are ten virgins and because of the delay of what’s going on, they fall asleep. And because they are sleeping, when the time comes for them to be ready, half of them are not ready, okay, so there’s an element of understand. What does that mean? To be asleep spiritually? Okay for them. They were actually giving into their flesh Sleeping.

In this gospel, in Luke’s gospel, luke was a doctor. Luke always loved to dig into the why he wasn’t just a slap a medicine on it kind of guy. He wanted to give you the right prognosis Because he’s done the actual work to find out the reasons why and give you an accurate Assessment. Okay, so this assessment is what? Why are you sleeping? Well, he tells us that they’re sleeping from his perspective, that they had sorrow. But if you look in Matthew and Mark, their perspective is a little different. Well, in one of them it is anyway, and it says that they were. It was they were so tired. Now, the reason that Luke gives us this extra tidbit is because why were they so tired? Why were their eyes so heavy? There’s a reason why. Why would? Because of their sorrow.

This is a this isn’t a case for everybody. This happens to be something I deal with Personally. I don’t know if that’s a personality thing or if it’s just a A Psychological thing. I don’t know, but there are times when, if I am sorrowful, what comes on me is wanting to sleep. I get so sleepy it’s like I can’t Muster enough straight. All my strength is in the sorrow. So now I am exhausted and I want to sleep. It’s not necessarily the same thing, however.

For those who feel depressed and don’t want to get out of bed, it can kind of go hand in hand, because they tend to sleep a lot, right, people who get, who are battling depression. So he says. So he’s saying why are you sleeping? Now he has a right to ask this question because he’s in tremendous sorrow and he is not sleeping. What is he doing? He actually, by what he did and by asking the question, is Allowing us to know what we should have be, should be doing when we’re faced with these circumstances. What should we be doing? Instead of sleeping, we should be what praying? He says Watch and pray, be an expectation, know what it is that we’re praying for and the outcome that we’re actually looking for, and be actively pursuing that. Well, how do we actively pursue that? We pray, we pray. This is really important. Why are you sleeping?

We are living in a world right now where the circumstance is it and we’re using the phrase a lot. You know people need to wake up. You need to wake up. You need to understand what’s going on. You need to wake up and it’s true, both naturally and spiritually, we need to wake up. We need to understand what time it is. We need to understand the severity of the times we live in. It might be the severity of the things you’re dealing with right now, but we’ve got to wake up and be those who are not sleeping at a time when we should be active, and that activity is prayer. We need to actively be Because if we do not actively pray, then we will enter into temptation.

Now that temptation could be a million things. Let’s just say it’s going to be the temptation to do the wrong thing, to say the wrong thing, to be in the wrong place, to put our faith in the wrong thing, to not accomplish what we need to accomplish, to desire our own will above the Father’s will. The temptation will be to completely stand in opposition to God’s will. We have got to be people who are vigilant, who, like the ten virgins well, the five wise anyway, who had their oil pots filled with oil that they’re ready for darkness and they’re ready for whatever they have to face because they have been praying and not sleeping. We need to be those who are awake If we have fallen asleep. That’s the beauty of the five virgins in this parable is that, even though they had fallen asleep, they woke up and they had prepared beforehand and they had listened to what they needed to do, and they had.

We have to do that. We have to become those who, even though it’s scary, even though the circumstance in front of you might be very scary, plan what you need to plan, face what you have to face, do what you have to do, think through the scenario you’ve got to think through, but pray, pray. We’ve got to be people of prayer. Prayer is the thing that takes us all the way back to the first question. If I’m regularly praying, then I am regularly seeking to be in God’s presence, so that I’m where I should be, that the question is not asked of me when are you? These questions take us full circle and if we will ask them, if we will say am I asleep, am I allowing myself to be lulled to sleep? Am I in sorrow? And he’s telling me? Pray, what did I say to you? Should their position have been? This goes along with the question to Mary and the women on saying why are you looking for the living among the dead? Because Jesus had made it known to his disciples this was all going to happen. They just weren’t paying attention, they weren’t listening.

And we need to know what has God said to you. What has God said? And if you don’t know, get in his presence, ask him so that you know what he’s saying to you. And when you know what he’s saying to you, then you need to take what you know and you need to make sure you are planting that in living soil, not dead soil, that you are fertilizing that, taking care of that word, that you are not placing your faith in anything around you the circumstances and the natural things or people.

What does the scripture tell us? Don’t trust in horses and chariots. We trust in the Lord, we trust in his might, we trust in his mighty arm, we trust in his all powerful strength. We trust in his wisdom. We trust God. If you’re putting your faith in God, you trust in God and not in man and not in your circumstances, and not in what you think you can do and what you think. Your faith isn’t in you, it’s not in what you have, it’s not in what you’ve built, it’s not in who you know other than knowing God.

And what did God say? Did he say you’re going to the other side. He say I’m going to rise again, even though this is going to look really bad for a few days. This is going to get ugly. Yes, I’m going to actually go through this. I’m actually going to die. Things are going to happen, bad things might actually happen. But what did I say? Did I say I’d overcome? Did I tell you that you’re going to make it to the other side? What did I tell you?

And then we have to say okay, God, you’re true. Let God be the truth in every man. A liar, and God will tell you the truth and because of that truth, you can know where to be, you can know what to believe, what to have faith in. You can be fully awake and know what exactly you’re supposed to be doing to keep you from harm, from temptation, from making the wrong decision. God can fully put you right where you’re supposed to be doing, right what you’re supposed to do, accomplishing what you’re supposed to accomplish, being blessed in this life.

Now, I know, you know we have to understand blessing doesn’t just mean everything is great. You can be blessed with a child. That child is still going to need to get fed and wake up in the night and have dirty diapers and probably throw up all their you know, spit up all over your clean clothes and there’s going to be messes with the blessing, but it’s still a blessing and don’t let that confuse you. Don’t let the mess convince you that the word that God promised you isn’t going to come to pass. It will stay in faith. Keep your faith in him, in his word, in who he is, in his truth, that his word cannot lie. Keep your faith there.

All I can do is encourage you, folks. I can just encourage you. Write these questions down, answer them and allow the Holy Spirit to show you where you should be, to show you what you should have your faith in. To show you where you should be looking for the answers, to show you what you shouldn’t be looking at, shouldn’t be where you, and to give you that assurance of, even though this is hard, don’t back away from this. Don’t go to sleep now, don’t.

This is not the time to sleep. Be with your relationship with the Lord, forget what’s going on in the world. I’m talking about you and the Lord, your relationship with your Savior. Don’t go to sleep now. Be vigilant, be very awake and pray. God is listening, child of God, he’s listening, he’s there with you, he cares, he hears what you need and he will answer.

Let me pray for you, father. We just thank you for your word. We thank you, father, that your word is so powerful and these questions in your word, these are examples of how your word divides even between soul and spirit. What’s going on in my emotions versus what’s going on in your spirit? Where should I be versus where am I at? Father, I pray you bring life and light to every dark place in every heart today, every place that’s cloudy, unclear. Father, that you illuminate what they need to know. Show them where they are, where their faith is, show them where they have been looking in the wrong places, Show them where they’ve gone to sleep. Pick them up and prepare them with your truth and your word that they are able to live and receive life, true life, blessed life, and we will give you all the glory and all the praise for what you’re doing, and it’s in Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Thank you for joining me today. I encourage you to get into your word, get into your, get a journal, write these questions down, answer them. God will be faithful. He will speak to your heart, regardless if there has been sin or mistakes. He is right there to answer your questions and to lead you into all truth.

I would love to hear from you and you can contact me by sending me an email at mail at jamieluce.com. That’s J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-E. You can also visit my website. I’d love to see, hear from you and give you access to all of my content there. If you would do me a favor today if you haven’t already subscribed, do that for me. Subscribe, give us a like and a share, get the gospel out with us. Help us do that in these last days and dark times and bring the light of the gospel to this dark and needy world, and I would very much appreciate it. Thanks you again. Thank you again for joining me today. Again, I apologize for all these allergies, but we’ll talk to you next time. Bye-bye.

0:57:03 – Speaker 2

Thank you for listening to the Jamie Loose Podcast. If you enjoyed today’s episode, please rate and review the show on Apple or Spotify and subscribe wherever you listen. For more, visit jamieluce.com that’s J-A-I-M-E-L-U-C-Ecom. You’ll find a free chapter of the new book. You Don’t Need Money, you Just Need God and a fresh word from Jamie on the blog. See you next week.