Learning to spend time with God is not a religious ritual but a relationship you build in quiet moments, and this message shows why those moments change everything. The pastor teaches that God’s visitation guards and preserves your spirit, that His manifest presence is different from simply knowing He is everywhere, and that a simple five-to-ten-minute daily practice can open you to hear His voice.
The message grew out of something he noticed in church: when the congregation grew quiet and let the Holy Spirit move, some people felt fidgety and uncomfortable. Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of how to spend time with God, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline and practical steps for your own quiet time this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This message was preached at NTC Ministries as the Christmas season approached and posted on November 30, 2022. The pastor says the Lord laid it on his heart months earlier, during his own time with God, after the church had been learning about the Holy Spirit moving when believers gather. The Lord asked him to teach a simple lesson on learning to spend time with God.
He makes clear from the start that these practices are not about standing, sitting and kneeling on cue. Like any relationship, a relationship with God has things we do that we enjoy and count on, and these have an eternal purpose.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | The pastor (not named in the recording) |
| Series | Single message |
| Main text | Job 10:12 and Romans 8:29–30 |
| Key theme | Daily quiet time that lets God’s manifest presence guard, change and speak to you |
| Length | About 65 minutes, ending in prayer |
Conformed to the Image of His Son
The pastor starts with God’s purpose for every believer in Romans 8:29–30: those He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that Jesus might be the firstborn among many brethren. He explains that he does not believe God controls everything. God is in charge, but if He controlled everything, no one would be lost, and Scripture says God desires all to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4).
What God has predestined, he says, is that everyone who comes to Him would become like Jesus, and that only happens by His Holy Spirit. Christians for centuries called the habits that serve that growth spiritual disciplines, such as reading the Bible and praying daily. The term is rarely heard now, but the need has not changed.
Then he asks the church a direct question: what do your prayers sound like recently? Prayer changes over the years, depending on what we are going through and how we react to it. Even as a minister, he admits, there are times he is not on fire, yet he keeps the disciplines so God can keep sparking the fire. There are times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord (Acts 3:19), and they come to people who make room for them.
That is also why God tells us to be still and know that He is God (Psalm 46:10). The mind God gave us is good, he says, but our minds can keep too much control, and when the room grows quiet some people resist instead of allowing an intimate expression of God into their lives.
His Visitation Preserves Your Spirit
Why daily time with God? The pastor’s main text is Job 10:12, which he reads as “you have granted me life and favor” and “your visitation has preserved my spirit.” God’s presence works like a preservative. He teaches that the Hebrew word for preserve, shamar, means to hedge about and to guard: His visitation watches over us and executes great care toward us.
He says a Hebrew lexicon notes that the word is often used of God guarding man and keeping His people like a shepherd keeps his sheep. He points to Jeremiah 31:10 and to Jesus as the Good Shepherd (John 10:11). He also reads Psalm 127:1: unless the Lord builds the house and watches over the city, the builders and guards labor in vain.
He applies that to the scams and schemes that fill phones and inboxes today. You can be on your guard all you want, he says, but if God is not guarding you, you are doing nothing. God watches over His people like a mother hen with her chicks, just as the Spirit hovered over the waters at creation.
So we can be granted life and favor, he says, and still fall short of enjoying them without the presence of God. Quiet time in the presence of God is where His preservation and guarding come in, almost like a guarantee that you will enjoy what He has promised. Without it, His provision seems to stay at arm’s length. He cites two other renderings of the verse: one says God has taken good care of him and guarded his life, and another that God watched each breath with tender care.
He adds a side note on doubt. Faith comes by hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17), but doubt is destroyed by fasting, even a meal a day. When the disciples could not help the boy with seizures, Jesus said it was because of their unbelief, and that this kind goes out only by prayer and fasting (Matthew 17:14–21).
Finally he draws a key line: God is omnipresent, everywhere all the time, but he wants God manifestly present in his life. The manifest presence gives assurance that God is not a far-away, impersonal God but a loving Father deeply invested in our care. He has invested Himself in us, and we invest in Him when we spend time with God in quiet time alone.
Savoring the Presence of God
The pastor illustrates with his own story about food. Growing up in the woods, meals were meat and potatoes, eggs, bacon and pancakes, leftovers and soup. Eating was only a way to fuel the body. When he joined the Navy, he discovered food he had never heard of, including shrimp, and in port after port he chose to try what the local people ate.
His shipmates ordered the same meatloaf every time. When he suggested they try something new, they answered like any little kid: I don’t like it. How do you know, he would ask, when you never tried it? That, he says, is the problem with religion. It keeps our walls up and stops the presence of God from bringing something savory into our lives.
Over the years his taste grew. He has eaten fried spiders in Africa and balut in the Philippines, and he jokes about the durian fruit that tastes wonderful but smells terrible. On the mission field, Scripture says to eat what is set before you (1 Corinthians 10:27–28), and he is glad he learned to do so young.
The presence of God is like that. Taste and see that the Lord is good (Psalm 34:8). He is the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valley (Song of Solomon 2:1), and there is an aroma and even a thickness to His presence. God once filled the temple like a thick cloud, and the pastor says the church has experienced that several times. Coming to church, he says, should not be fueling up on religion, but letting even your senses grow in the presence of God.
He tells of a survivor named Yankel, who later owned a bakery in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights. As a teenager on a freezing boxcar bound for Auschwitz, he spent the night rubbing the arms, legs and face of an elderly man from his hometown. By morning everyone else in the car had died. The old man survived because someone kept him warm, and Yankel survived because he was warming someone else.
The pastor’s point is that unless we let God warm us, we will have no warmth to give. In the presence of God He watches over us like a mother hen, problems no longer panic us, and we can reach out to others. Some call it soaking; earlier generations called it practicing the presence of God. It is not a pill or a quick fix, and some days you will feel nothing at all.
A Simple Way to Spend Time With God
People want a quick fix, the pastor says. He recalls John Maxwell’s observation that people do not want a miracle; they want magic, because a miracle requires working with God. Faith without works is dead (James 2:26). The measure of success is not how you feel after five minutes of quiet time but what you look like a year later. He says habits he carried from his own upbringing fell away that way, and we are transformed by the renewing of the mind (Romans 12:2).
There is no single right method, because God loves us all equally but not the same, just as a parent loves each child differently. You do not have to become like anyone else to find His love. So he offers a starting point: spend time with God for five to ten minutes, not an hour. He tells how his wife Pam took a free month at a gym, did everything the trainer said on the first day and could hardly get out of bed the next morning. Build up gradually.
He grounds the practice in Psalm 84:10, which he paraphrases as preferring one glimpse of God to a thousand years without Him. The table below follows the steps he lays out for a daily quiet time.
| Step | What to do | Why it matters, as taught |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Start early | Begin when you get up, before social media or your phone | The day brings enough cares; keep your head clear |
| 2. Get quiet and ask | Say, “Father, tell me again how much you love me,” and let Him tell you | It starts the time with His love, not your list |
| 3. Read a short passage | A psalm or a story from the Gospels | These are people who had love experiences with God; it lowers your walls |
| 4. Name your emotions | Use mad, sad, glad or afraid and tell God honestly | He has heard it all; unspoken emotions block His voice |
| 5. Be still and listen | Lay emotions aside and expect Him to speak | You cannot hear Him over a thousand other voices |
| 6. Write it down | Journal a verse and what it means for you now | It builds confidence in hearing God |
He explains why naming emotions matters. Praise and worship break up the fallow ground of a heart hardened by problems, so the seed of the Word lands in soil instead of on pavement. If you never deal with your emotions, quiet time in the presence of God will unsettle you. Even Jesus wept and grew angry, so do not become a spiritual mannequin.
Hearing His Voice and Journaling
What if you do not hear God? The pastor reads John 10:27 with the church: “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” Jesus expects us to hear. At first, he says, God’s voice will seem like your own thoughts, but as you cast down imaginations (2 Corinthians 10:5) and keep practicing your quiet time, you learn to tell God’s voice from your own and the devil’s.
God loves to speak. In the beginning was the Word (John 1:1), and He is talking all the time. Ask Him to help you. The most important question he has discovered is simply, Jesus, what’s going on here? Sometimes the answer is that you need to forgive someone; sometimes it is spiritual warfare, since the devil walks about like a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8). Either way, the presence of God bolsters and guards you.
He then pauses the service for a minute of silence and says the Lord told him it was a day of breakthrough for many, in the room and online. It does not have to be profound, he adds. God might simply say, I love you.
His second tool is journaling. He keeps sticky notes everywhere and once found one from two years earlier that described exactly what later happened. Write down a verse you hear and how it applies to you right now. The goal is not how many pages you fill but words that truly speak to you. Writing lowers your mental walls and clarifies your thinking, and he connects it to prophecy, since God’s sons and daughters are to prophesy (Acts 2:17).
Last, do the last thing the Lord told you to do. God is not a heavenly vending machine. If He has spoken and you have not followed through, why would He give you something else? If it has been hard, tell Him so. The more you talk with Him about everything, the clearer His voice becomes.
Did Not Our Hearts Burn Within Us?
The pastor closes with the two disciples walking to Emmaus on the day Jesus rose. Jesus joined them, but they did not recognize Him. He explained the Scriptures beginning with Moses, and when they reached their home they urged Him to stay. In Luke 24:30–32, as He broke the bread their eyes were opened, and they said to each other that their hearts had burned within them while He talked with them on the road.
There was so much commotion in their minds, the pastor says, that they did not recognize the Jesus they had walked with for three and a half years. Yet one thing they could not deny was the burning heart. That is what God wants for us. The only time he has felt life was perfect, he says, is in the presence of God.
The presence of God matters more than anything a preacher can say, and more than sitting, standing, kneeling or where we sit. He wants the church to become addicted to His presence. When believers spend time with God this way, the little foxes that spoil the vine (Song of Solomon 2:15) are dealt with, not by our strength but by yielding to Him.
He ends in prayer: the change comes not by might or power but by God’s Spirit (Zechariah 4:6). As God warms and fills His people, they can warm others who cannot yet see Him, just as Yankel warmed the old man through the night.
Building Your Daily Quiet Time
These steps to spend time with God come straight from the message and are meant to start small and grow:
- Set five to ten minutes. Start your quiet time with a short, daily window first thing in the morning rather than an hour you will not keep.
- Begin with His love. Ask the Father to tell you again how much He loves you, and wait for Him.
- Read one short passage. Choose a psalm or a Gospel story and picture yourself in it.
- Be honest about your emotions. Tell God whether you are mad, sad, glad or afraid, then lay it aside and listen.
- Keep a simple journal. Write down the verse or thought you sense and how it fits your life now.
- Follow through. Ask whether there is something He already told you that you have not yet done.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 Why some people feel uneasy in quiet moments
- 1:04 Be still and know: not a religious ritual
- 2:03 Romans 8: conformed to the image of His Son
- 5:39 What do your prayers sound like recently?
- 7:49 Job 10:12: His visitation preserves my spirit
- 9:06 The Shepherd and the Watchman: Psalm 127
- 11:01 Granted life and favor
- 13:21 Fasting and doubt
- 15:34 Omnipresent versus manifest presence
- 16:48 Meat and potatoes: learning to savor
- 20:52 “You never tried it”: the problem with religion
- 25:11 Taste and see: the aroma of His presence
- 27:18 Yankel and the freezing boxcar
- 30:27 Practicing the presence of God
- 31:35 Miracle, not magic
- 33:45 No single method: loved equally, not the same
- 36:54 Five to ten minutes and Psalm 84:10
- 41:04 Mad, sad, glad, afraid
- 45:42 John 10:27: My sheep hear My voice
- 50:25 A minute of silence
- 51:46 Journaling with sticky notes
- 55:03 Do the last thing He told you
- 57:15 The road to Emmaus
- 1:02:22 Addicted to His presence: closing prayer
Frequently Asked Questions
What if I feel nothing during my quiet time?
The pastor says that is normal and does not matter. Some days you will feel a little different and some days you will feel nothing at all, but you can be confident God is doing what He said He would do during that time. Like the young man warming the old man in the boxcar, you may not see what is happening while it happens. The real measure is how different you are a year later.
Does the pastor think God predestines everything?
No. He says plainly that God is in charge of everything but is not controlling everything, otherwise no one would be lost. Scripture says God wants everyone to be saved. What God has predestined, in his reading of Romans 8, is that everyone who comes to Him would be conformed to the image of Jesus, and that happens by the Holy Spirit as we spend time in His presence.
How is journaling connected to prophecy?
The pastor describes prophecy as hearing God and declaring what He says. Journaling trains that. When you write down what you sense and later see it come to pass, as he did with a note from two years earlier, your confidence in God’s voice grows. Writing also lowers your mental walls, which he says opens you to the gifts of the Spirit, including prophecy, words of wisdom and words of knowledge.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Job 10:12 — life, favor and a preserved spirit
- Romans 8:29–30 — conformed to the image of His Son
- Psalm 46:10 — be still and know
- Psalm 127:1 — unless the Lord watches the city
- Psalm 84:10 — better a day in His courts
- Psalm 34:8 — taste and see that the Lord is good
- John 10:27 — My sheep hear My voice
- Luke 24:30–32 — hearts burning on the road to Emmaus
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
Watch More Messages
If this message made you hungry to spend time with God, there are hundreds more teachings from NTC Ministries waiting for you. Browse the full sermon archive and keep growing in His presence.
