Speaker 1 0:15

As I do each week . I get to Thursday , usually I start asking God okay , what do you want me to share ? And started thinking about some of the things that I'm trying to work on , and that's build better habits . No matter who you are , you can always focus on building better habits . It

Three Essential Biblical Habits

Speaker 1 0:30

was clear today to talk about those habits . What are three of the top habits we should build into our daily lives ? All right , let's talk about the first one . All of these are very much biblically based . I'm not necessarily going to give you a whole bunch of scriptures . I know for a fact that many of these are biblically based .

Speaker 1 0:49

The very first habit that we want to build every single day is spending time with God . If you look in the gospels and you read what Jesus would do , jesus very often would leave early in the morning

Habit One: Spending Time With God

Speaker 1 1:05

and go to a place by himself and use that time for prayer . It even says he meditated . He would go away and meditate , which means he would just get quiet , listen , quiet his heart down . I think a lot of us hear that term meditate or how do I hear from God ? A lot of people don't know how to hear from God . Years ago , I remember thinking to myself how do I hear from God ? I have this idea that when you hear from God , it's like this audible thing . My son or my daughter , like you , would literally hear it . That could be the case , but more often than not , when God is speaking to us , it's when our heart is at peace , when the noise going on in our mind is at its lowest . And I have noticed , when I am at peace about something , when I'm not emotionally reacting to things , when my mind is not overloaded with things , I can hear from God . And when you hear from God , it could be a very soft impression on your heart . And so when I say , spend time with God , that habit of spending time with God is also a time to get quiet , to reflect , to meditate . Just get quiet , let your mind get quiet .

Speaker 1 2:21

I truly have learned to appreciate quiet time , and quiet time helps me to process information . When I have too many things coming at me , it creates confusion . And this is very consistent with how Jesus did things . He would go away in the morning and spend time with God . What did Moses do in the Old Testament ? He went up into the mountain to be with God , to see God . He went up there by himself , right . So that's something to think about . How can you get more time with God , and some of the ways that you can do that is start by reading some scripture in the morning .

Speaker 1 2:57

I think a great way to start your day is to start with one chapter of Proverbs . There's 31 chapters in Proverbs , and I think that's a great way to start . Then you can move on to reading and studying other things , but wisdom is one of the greatest things that you can have today , and I think we can all agree that the wisdom that God gives us is definitely the most important , and Proverbs is loaded with wisdom . It's a book that literally will never be exhausted on the wisdom that it provides for our lives . Every time I go through it , I get something new . As you grow as a person , as your perspective changes , you read things from different angles , and it provides new insights for your life , which I believe is why when we get older that's why the Bible says we have more wisdom , especially as we age I fully believe that the person that has gone through life has a lot more wisdom than the person who's just getting started . I have a lot more wisdom today than when I was 20 years old . When I was 20 , I was probably a little bit cocky , thinking that I had it all figured out . Well , I can assure you I didn't . But as I'm here now , 50 years old , about to turn 51 , I definitely have a lot more wisdom because I've gone through life . So that's a great place to start if you're looking to start your daily time with God , god will speak to us while we are spending time with him , as we're reading the Bible . So another good way to spend time with God again is to reflect and meditate , but also ask God questions , as you're in that time .

Speaker 1 4:40

If you're trying to figure something out , if you've got a chance , ask God . Hey , god , I'm struggling with this . Maybe you can show me what it is that's causing this struggle in my life and help me to overcome it . It could be a lack of faith , it could be a relational issue , it could be a money issue . You can take it to God and because the scripture says that you have not because you ask not , if you don't ask , god can't give it to you . So ask God and you might not get an answer right away . Sometimes it can take a while to get an answer , but I will tell you . Every time I ask God , I always get an answer . So I think that's definitely where you have to fight for that quiet time and I'm not saying I'm perfect at this , but I know that it's very valuable to me . It definitely makes a difference , all right .

Speaker 1 5:29

Point number two is pray . That's a habit every day . For the longest time , I had the idea that prayer was like hey , you sit down , you put your hands together and you close your eyes and bow your head . That is not necessarily what prayer is . Prayer can be that , but prayer

Habit Two: Prayer As Conversation

Speaker 1 5:45

ultimately goes right along with time with God as you seek guidance from God , and that is conversation with God . Having a conversation back and time with God as you seek guidance from God , and that is conversation with God . Having a conversation back and forth with God . Talk with God throughout your day . That is one way that you can pray .

Speaker 1 6:00

Praying is not always just sitting down , closing your eyes and bowing your head . It is communication , back and forth with God . It is a fellowship with the Father , back and forth with God . It is a fellowship with the Father , and so you want to start to build that habit . Okay , father , I'm struggling with this . I need help here . Hey , I'm looking to some guidance here . What would you want me to do ? How do you want me to handle this situation ? That can be prayer , but prayer also , again , during that quiet time , can also be sitting there , quiet , with your eyes closed and speaking to God . It's regular communication back and forth with God . Okay , and I think one of the important things that I've learned when it comes to prayer is that the scripture says believe for what you want and you shall be given , or something like that . I'm paraphrasing the verse .

Speaker 1 6:52

One of the things to getting answers to prayer and this is a big thing is we're looking for answers to prayer . The scripture tells us when we ask or pray . If we ask anything according to his will , he hears us . Our goal is to get our prayers in alignment with God's will . God will answer those prayers when our prayers are in alignment with his will .

Speaker 1 7:20

How do we know God's will ? Spending time with God and reading the Bible If you don't know it ? The Bible is the will of God . The Bible is the will of God . It is the starting point . It is the foundation of a believer . It was for Jesus in his day . He knew the Torah , the Old Testament . He quotes them in the New Testament . So Jesus knew the Bible . Now , of course , they didn't have all the New Testament like we have today , but he had the Torah . He had the scriptures , the scrolls , he had access to those . He knew them . That was the will of God . The word of God is the will of God , and so that's important to realize . How do I know God's will when I pray ? If I pray and it's according to God's will and it's in alignment with God's will , I can expect great things from that .

Speaker 1 8:12

So you have to ask yourself sometimes is what you're praying for the will of God ? I can promise you this God's will is that you're healthy . God's will is that you have healthy , not just a healthy body , but also healthy relationships . He wants you to have a healthy mental state . He wants you to have all . Health is definitely part of God's plan for you in this life . Now , does it always happen like that ? No , this is still an imperfect life . We're living an imperfect world , but we serve a perfect God . The key is to know God's will for your life .

Speaker 1 8:46

Starts with reading the scripture . A lot of people are like God , what's your will for my life ? But they don't know any of the Bible . They just keep asking what's your will ? Guess what ? You got a book right in front of you . You got an app you can read every day . You can listen to an audio Bible . There's so many different ways to learn the will of God through the scriptures .

Speaker 1 9:02

Sometimes people go to the Bible and they're confused or it's hard to understand . Start from the beginning . And there's a lot of controversy about certain versions of the Bible . And don't read this version , and they've changed it . I got news for you . Every single translation of the Bible has errors . Okay , the translation has the error . The actual scripture , the real word of God , does not . Okay , and there's a couple of things that you can do .

Speaker 1 9:30

I like to read all different versions of the Bible . I'm not stuck on just one , but when I'm reading , I like to read certain Bible translations and if I'm doing a deep dive study , I tend to go back to the King James . If I really want to understand the meaning of certain words , I'll go to the King James . Look at some of the Greek and the Hebrew , which it's so easy to do today , guys , with software and things like that . I have a software program that I use called eSword

Understanding God's Will Through Scripture

Speaker 1 9:58

and I love it . It's great . I've been using it for years . You can pull up all different versions of the Bible . It's all about cross referencing and that's what I love to do . My Bible of choice for reading is the Passion Translation or the Amplified version . Those are great for reading . They read very much like a book . Listen to the cues that God gives you .

Speaker 1 10:21

If you read something and it doesn't quite make sense , maybe pull up an older version of the Bible and do a little bit of research on that verse itself . That's what I like to do . The tool I use is called eSword . You can go to eSwordcom . Just do a search on eSword . It's free . They have a whole bunch of free Bibles that can be downloaded into the software . They even have the iPhone app .

Speaker 1 10:45

I pull it up on my phone all the time . This is my Bible when I go to church . I don't even carry my regular Bible anymore because I can pull it up right here . I can highlight verses , I can do all kinds of things and I love it and it's all right here and you can search out all these different versions of the Bible . You can see I have them all downloaded on my phone so I can cross-reference very easily . These are all the different versions that I have and I love this app and the cool thing about this app like this is the passion translation right here . But it has this window right down here .

Speaker 1 11:18

Look at this , the King James version . If I'm like , hey , what does this verse mean right here , I'll click on it , it'll highlight it and that very verse will show up right here . Then you see these little things . I can click on it and hope what is that word hope ? I click the little link and look , it pops up a definition and all the different verses that it's used . And , look , I can read some of the definitions of what that word is . That's why I love this . It's so easy and so quick to read and study . That's why I love this . It's so easy and so quick to read and study . So if you're not , yeah , esword learning , but so easy to do these days with technology where you can really research and look at the Bible . So anyway , that's a great way to seek God's will , to know the scriptures , and it's a lifelong journey .

Speaker 1 12:06

Once you think something in the Bible , you start to realize you don't always be open to hearing different perspectives . I be open to hearing different perspectives . I'm always open to different perspectives . I don't always agree with perspectives , because there's certain things that I know in the Bible that contradict what somebody might say , but I'm always open and I'm never critical of people that are searching and trying , and so the only people I'm critical toward are Pharisees . If you're a Pharisee , get ready , because I'm going to be critical of you , because I know what Pharisees are . I've dealt with them before . I was in a cult for many years , as you guys know , and I dealt with legalism at the highest levels and I will never deal with it again .

Speaker 1 12:44

First time with God . Second , pray and our third . This is very important . I want you to listen to me and I'm going to challenge you a little bit here . Some of you might find this challenging what I'm about to say , but the third one is fellowship with others .

Habit Three: Fellowship With Others

Speaker 1 12:59

I hear a lot of people say this and I actually very much disagree with it . You'll hear a lot of people say all I need is Jesus . That's all I need , and I disagree with that . Jesus is not all you need . Jesus is number one , no question about it , but he's not all you need , because he put us in the body of Christ . When you read the scriptures , it's very clear that , yes , god is most important . We put Jesus on the pedestal . He is our guide , but we're also in a body and we're to have fellowship with others . Jesus didn't do it on his own . Jesus had his 12 disciples . We need each other and we need the fellowship of others . Nobody is meant to do this life on their own , and I'm not referring to necessarily being married . That can be part of it . If you're single , you've got a whole group of other believers to connect with .

Speaker 1 13:53

It's very common for people to say I don't need to go to a church to worship God . That's true on its face , of course , you don't have to go to a church , but God wants you to be around other believers because of what it can provide for you . So a lot of times when people say , oh , I don't need to go to a church to worship God , what they're saying is , a lot of times , behind that is , there's some type of hurt . Behind that , there's some type of fear behind that statement . Because here's the thing yes , dealing with people sometimes is difficult . I've been in many different situations where I haven't always had the best experiences with people , but that never stops me from seeking fellowship with others . Because I had one bad experience with one person doesn't mean I'm going to paint all people that way . It's very common that people will do this I've seen it literally hundreds of times and I've heard it many times where people are hurt by going to a church .

Speaker 1 14:55

They're hurt by something somebody said and they pull back and they don't want to go forward . We have to recognize what that is and recognizing that isolation is precisely what the devil wants . He wants you to not be around other people who have your best interest at heart , because if he can isolate you , then he's got a better chance of stealing , killing and destroying . Just the Bible says and I love what Eileen says here that church hurt is real . It absolutely is . I've experienced church hurt . I was in a cult for many years when my wife and I made the decision to leave that cult . We had so many friends disassociate with us . People that we had known for years disassociate with us , not want to be around us . This is back in 2000 . People we thought who were like family really weren't . They disassociated with us . Many of those people are no longer with that place either , because they left for their own reasons .

Speaker 1 15:54

Church hurt is very real and here's a perspective you may have never thought about . Jesus had church hurt . When you read the scriptures , you'll know that the real people that crucified him were the religious leaders . Rome carried it out , but it was the church leaders , the Pharisees and the Sadducees , which are the ones that condemned him , and they were the ones that manipulated the situation in order to get him crucified . So Jesus had church hurt . He had people come against him that didn't stop him from his mission . So while church hurt is real and it's something many people have dealt with we have to look at it from the perspective of just because there was a bad representation of the heart of God toward you from another person . It's not God's fault , and a lot of times we can get into why didn't God stop it ? Look man ? Those are all questions we'll get to ask God when we get to heaven , but all I know is that the scripture says his ways are higher than our ways . We are not going to have an answer for everything that happens in life , and that's part of having faith . It's part of having faith and that is definitely something that we just have to trust that God will take care of us , that we just have to trust that God will take care of us .

Speaker 1 17:13

Fellowship with others is a very important part of this entire equation . It is very important to your own growth . It's very important for your own spiritual well-being . I love what Lorian says . Religion of any kind , even network marketing , love conditionally and done with you when you leave , that's absolutely it . Love is unconditional . Jesus had love .

Speaker 1 17:36

You can love somebody and not even agree with them . Ask my wife , her and I don't always agree on everything . I still love her . I would give my life for her . You don't have to agree with someone in order to love them . You can have fellowship with people you're diametrically opposed to . I learned that from my dad . My dad was the greatest example of learning to love people and looking for common ground . He loved on people that were the complete opposite of him . Watching my dad do that was the greatest example . He had such an uncanny way of connecting with people that just were the complete opposite of who he was . That's what I loved about him and I learned that from him . You can always see the value in that person , regardless of the sins they're committing .

Speaker 1 18:21

Okay , that's one of the problems I don't like about Christians . They are so quick to point out the sin . Got to point out the sin in the other person . Everybody's got it guys , we don't need to point it out in everybody . Okay , many times sin is its own reward and I think we have a very warped idea of what sin is in the Christian world . My opinion , sin is bad . I just want to make that clear . But the truth is , I think we have a very warped idea of what it is . Simply , that is the symptom of a cause . Many people are pointing at the symptom , blaming the symptom , when the real cause is a heart issue . You can't fix sin without fixing the heart . This is where religion comes in . This is where legalism comes in , because religion is always trying to fix the symptom and not the cause , and the cause

Applying Spiritual Habits To Entrepreneurship

Speaker 1 19:11

is almost always a heart issue . So when we point out constantly the sin , we're not loving on people .

Speaker 1 19:19

Part of what we have to do when we love on people and this is where I'm getting with fellowship with others is it's so important for us to be able to love the unlovable . Jesus loved the unlovable . He loved on the tax collector . He loved on the woman caught in adultery . That was love that he showed to her . If you go and you read and look at so many different aspects of how Jesus reacted toward people , he had compassion . When Jesus was feeding the 5,000 , it said he had compassion on them as he knew that they were like sheep with no shepherd . Maybe I'm getting things mixed up , but he had compassion on them . And you have to look at people in life . Is there's people out there that are sheep with no shepherd ? Have compassion on them ? There's so many things going on in our culture right now that I just they're not good , but you , when you look at people , have compassion on them because they're stuck in something in life that is not good for them . Love them . You love people out of things , the things that I have overcome in my life . It's because I was loved out of it , not because somebody pointed their finger at me . It's because I was loved out of it .

Speaker 1 20:26

Religion wants a quick fix Don't do this , don't do that but it does nothing to address the real issue , which is the , and that is what I've learned over the years . I used to be one of those finger pointers . I used to be one of those people that was overly religious , pointing the finger at everybody , telling everybody what they're doing wrong , but I don't do that anymore . If people give me the open door and they're willing to receive and they want my advice , I will do it , but in a very loving way . They're really talking about fellowship with others , because those are some of the things that hold us back sometimes from fellowshipping with others . I hope that helped you today . I hope it inspires you a little bit , because these simple things when we're building a business as entrepreneurs , can have a major effect on what you are doing and how you connect with others .

Speaker 1 21:13

Connecting with others is a vital part of business . We have that in the Keystone Framework and the Fearless Influencer Academy . That's all about connecting with people . But if you carry a lot of this with you that I was just talking about , you're going to have a hard time connecting with people . So how does this all apply to being an entrepreneur ? Time with God .

Speaker 1 21:32

If you want to build a business , you got to spend some time in training and application . Equate that to time with God . If you want to have a spiritual relationship , time with God is crucial . But if you want to build a business , you got to spend some time in training . You got to spend some time in application of what you're learning , things like that . You see the parallels here Praying , spending time , planning , thinking through parallel with business and then connection with others , fellowshipping with others . You are not going to build a successful business without learning to have some capability of networking . It's crucial , it's vital .

Speaker 1 22:07

So I hope you guys enjoyed that today . I agree , lorraine , he who loves the most wins . Remember that song they used to sing . I don't know , I haven't heard it in a while . But they will know we are Christians by our love . Not by finger pointing , not by pointing out every single flaw that people have , but just love on people where they're at . If you just love on people , god can give you the open doors to help people with the things they're struggling with . They will know we are Christians by our love .