Learning To Spend Time With God

Spending Time God Overview

In this powerful message from NTC Ministries, the pastor addresses one of the most foundational yet neglected disciplines in the Christian life: learning to spend daily time in the presence of God. Drawing from Romans 8:29-30, Job 10:12, Psalm 84:10, Psalm 127:1, and John 10:27, the pastor builds a compelling case for why consistent, quiet time with God is not a religious ritual but a relational necessity. He explores the Hebrew word Shamar, meaning to hedge about and guard, showing how God’s visitation literally preserves and watches over the believer’s spirit. Through vivid personal illustrations, including a childhood of simple meals that expanded into a global appreciation for food through military service, and the moving story of a Holocaust survivor who kept himself alive by warming another man, the pastor paints a rich picture of what happens when we open ourselves to God’s presence. He also addresses the practical barriers many believers face, including restless emotions, undealt-with doubts, and the fear of silence, and offers a simple five-to-ten-minute daily method to begin cultivating intimacy with God through stillness, reading the Psalms or Gospels, honest emotional prayer, and listening for His voice.

Spending Time God Outline

• 0:00 – Why This Message Was Given: The pastor explains how the Lord laid this message on his heart after observing restlessness in the congregation during moments of quiet worship and corporate stillness.
• 5:30 – God’s Purpose: Conformity to Christ: An exposition of Romans 8:29-30 establishes that God’s design for every believer is to be conformed to the image of Jesus, accomplished through spiritual disciplines and the work of the Holy Spirit.
• 13:00 – Job 10:12 and the Meaning of Shemar: The pastor unpacks the Hebrew word Shemar from Job 10:12, revealing that God’s visitation preserves and guards the believer’s spirit like a shepherd hedging his flock.
• 22:00 – The Difference Between Omnipresence and Manifest Presence: A distinction is drawn between God being everywhere and God being manifestly present in a believer’s life, and why cultivating that manifest presence changes everything.
• 32:00 – The Food Illustration and Opening to God: Using his personal journey from simple childhood meals to tasting global cuisines in the Navy, the pastor illustrates how opening up to God’s presence unlocks spiritual dimensions we never knew existed.
• 41:00 – The Holocaust Story and Warming Others: The moving account of Yankel, a Jewish survivor who kept an elderly man alive through a freezing night, becomes a picture of how God warms us so we can warm those around us.
• 49:00 – A Practical Five-to-Ten Minute Method: The pastor outlines a simple daily practice: begin in quietness, ask God to speak His love, read a short Psalm or Gospel story, check your emotional state honestly, then listen for God’s voice.
• 56:00 – Hearing God’s Voice and Journaling: Practical guidance on recognizing God’s voice, distinguishing it from one’s own thoughts, and using journaling or sticky notes to record scriptures and impressions received during quiet time.
• 1:02:00 – Breakthrough and Closing Exhortation: The pastor receives a word that this is a day of breakthrough for many listeners, and calls everyone to begin practicing daily stillness before God, trusting that lasting transformation comes over time.

Scripture References

Romans 8:29-30, Job 10:12, Psalm 127:1, Psalm 84:10, Jeremiah 31:10, John 10:27

Key Takeaways

• God’s visitation, described by the Hebrew word Shemar, literally hedges about, guards, and preserves your spirit when you spend time in His presence.
• There is a vital difference between God’s omnipresence and His manifest presence, and daily quiet time is the practice that invites that manifest presence into your life.
• Spending time with God is not a religious ritual to complete but a relational discipline that gradually conforms you to the image of Jesus Christ.
• Undealt-with emotions are one of the greatest barriers to hearing God’s voice, and honestly naming and expressing those emotions to God in prayer is a necessary step toward intimacy.
• Just as Yankel kept himself alive by warming another man through a freezing night, God warms us in His presence so that we in turn have something life-giving to offer those around us.
• God loves to speak and is always speaking, and as you consistently practice stillness before Him, you will grow increasingly able to distinguish His voice from your own thoughts.
• Lasting transformation through time with God is not a quick fix but a process, and a year of faithful daily practice will produce changes in your character that you never thought possible.

Spending Time God Notes

Conformity to Christ Through Daily Practice

The sermon is rooted in Romans 8:29-30, where Paul declares that God’s predestined purpose for every believer is to be conformed to the image of His Son. The pastor clarifies that this conformity is not automatic or forced but happens as believers cooperate with the Holy Spirit through consistent spiritual disciplines. These practices, long called spiritual disciplines in church history, are not about earning God’s favor but about positioning ourselves so that God can do in us what only He can do. Without this intentional cooperation, the blessings He has granted remain just out of reach.

God Watches Over Every Breath You Take

From Job 10:12, the pastor unpacks the Hebrew word Shemar, showing that God’s visitation goes far beyond a casual check-in. Multiple Bible translations capture the richness of this word: He has carefully watched over my life, He has taken good care of me, and in the Jerusalem Bible, He watched each breath of mine with tender care. This is not the image of a distant, impersonal deity but of a loving Father and faithful Shepherd who is deeply invested in every detail of a believer’s life, guarding and hedging about so that His promises of life and favor can actually be enjoyed.

Opening Your Spiritual Senses to God

The pastor uses his personal story of discovering global cuisine through military service to illustrate a profound spiritual truth. Just as staying locked into familiar, limited food meant missing out on rich textures, flavors, and aromas, staying locked inside religious comfort zones means missing the full experience of God’s presence. The Bible says taste and see that the Lord is good, and the pastor affirms that God’s presence carries real dimensions of taste, texture, aroma, and weight that our spiritual senses are designed to perceive, if we are willing to lower our walls and let Him in.

Five Minutes That Can Change Your Year

The pastor offers a simple, non-intimidating entry point for those who have never cultivated a daily quiet time. Beginning with just five to ten minutes each morning, before checking phones or social media, a believer can begin by asking God to speak His love, reading a short Psalm or Gospel passage, honestly assessing and verbalizing their emotional state, and then sitting in quiet expectation. This is not about feeling something immediately but about building a consistent practice. The pastor testifies that a year of this kind of faithfulness will produce changes in character and spiritual sensitivity that no amount of information or religious activity could generate.

Journaling as a Tool for Clarity

One practical method the pastor recommends is journaling, even informally through sticky notes or a simple tablet. Writing down scriptures that surface during quiet time, impressions received, emotional states noticed, or questions asked of God creates a record that helps a believer track how God is speaking and working over time. This practice also helps distinguish God’s voice from one’s own thoughts, because returning to written impressions and seeing how they aligned with Scripture or unfolded in life builds confident discernment. The goal is not literary quality but honest, ongoing conversation with a God who is always speaking.

Fasting as a Weapon Against Doubt

In a pointed aside, the pastor connects the disciples’ failure to cast out a demon in Matthew 17 with the problem of unbelief, and points to prayer and fasting as the biblical solution. He distinguishes between a lack of faith and the presence of unbelief, noting that unbelief can block even those who have been given genuine spiritual authority. Regular fasting, even skipping a single meal a day, is presented as a discipline that destroys doubt and clears the inner atmosphere, making a believer more sensitive to God’s voice and more effective in spiritual authority. It is a complement to the quiet time practice, not a replacement.

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