How to Connect with God through Solitude | Landon Schott | Mercy Culture Church

If you have your Bibles turn with me to 1st Samuel chapter 17 if you want my notes you can text notes to the number that comes on the screen or you can text the word grow for the Grow guide discipleship guide so you can steward this message as the week goes on 1st Samuel chapter 17 beginning in verse 31 It says when the words that David spoke were heard They repeated them before Saul and he sent for him and David said to Saul let no man lose heart because of him your servant will go and fight this giant the Philistine and Saul said to David you are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him for you just a boy You're a youth and he's been a man of war since his youth but David said to Saul your servant has used to keep his father's sheep and When a when there came a lion or a bear and took a lamb from the flock I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth And if it arose against me I caught it by the beard struck it and killed him your servant has struck down the lion and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistine shall be like one of them for he has defied the armies of the Living God and David said the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand Of the Philistine and he's and Saul said to David go the Lord be with you Then Saul clothed David with armor and put a helmet of bronze on his head and clothed them with the coat of mail David strapped a sword over his armor and tried to in vain go for he had not tested them Then David said to Saul I cannot go with these for I have not tested them So David put them off verse 40 then he took his staff in his hand and he chose five smooth stones of the brook and Put them in the shepherds pouch His sling was in his hand and he approached the Philistine and the Philistine moved towards David and came near him with the sheer bear In front of him and when the Philistine looked and he saw David Disdained him and he was but a youth ruddy handsome in appearance and the Philistine said to David am I a dog that you would? Come with me with sticks and the Philistine cursed David by his gods Then the Philistine said to David come to me I will give your flesh to the birds of the air and the beasts of the field Then David said to the Philistines you come at me with the sword and the spear and a javelin

But I come at you in the name of the Lord the host the God the army of Israel's whom you have defied This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand. I will strike you down and cut off your head I will give the dead bodies of the host to the Philistines this day to the birds of the air and the beasts of the Earth that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel finally verse 47 and all the assemblies may know the Lord saves not with sword or With spears for the battle is the Lord's and he will give you into our hand. I Came to tell you you can connect with God through solitude the title This message is connecting with God through solitude. Let's pray. So father. I declare right now. Your word is true Let every man be a liar We declare let your word be a lamp unto our feet and a light into our path We hide your word in our hearts so we won't sin against you. I pray right now ears to hear I pray hearts to receive minds to understand what your spirit is saying. Holy Spirit I ask for you to breathe upon your word. I pray the logos of word would become Reema personal revelation to us today I pray right now Holy Spirit that you would come and you would speak we declare right now No spirit, but the Holy Spirit is welcome in this place So I declare spirit of fear or any other distraction you must go Holy Spirit come rule and reign father I thank you. Nobody came to hear me. We all came to hear you We declare right now in Jesus name no spirit, but the Holy Spirit is welcome. I pray right now We declare we don't make room for you, but we give you the entire room so father I pray right now Would you speak we are listening and all God's people said amen And amen, we are stewarding a prophetic word this year on encounters and visitations. This is gonna be an Exodus 3 5 year This is gonna be a year. We're gonna find ourselves standing on holy ground Here's what we know you choose your daily encounter, but God will choose your holy visitation We've been in a series on connecting with God. This is more than just a vision of our church This is the heartbeat. This is the life of church Here's what we know there are there's one way to God and it's through Jesus But in Jesus, there's many different ways to connect with him And this is why so many people don't spiritually grow is they don't learn how they best connect with God So they don't spend time connecting with God. So then they stay the same they stay spiritually stagnant and they don't grow

I want to let you know more than anything at Mercy Culture. We want you to spiritually Grow, so I really want to encourage you get connected learn how you best connect with God grow in your daily encounters Because that is the path for spiritual growth in anyone's life when you grow in daily encounters today I want to be talking about solitude I'm excited about this because this is one of the primary ways that I connect with God and this is the primary way many People connect with God you've heard people say growing up a quiet time and in what they really mean is solitude It's when you're alone with God, and you're being intentional to be with him, so what is solitude solitude is? Experiencing intimacy with God by getting alone with him if I was going to give you a simplified definition I would say it like this solitude is Intentionally being alone with God it's not on accident It's something you're doing intentionally the Hebrew word for solitude is the word badad It means to be alone Isolated or separated it was used through the Old Testament to describe physical separation or a sacred Withdrawal these led to divine Encounters and the Greek we get this word era moss Which means a desolate place a wilderness or a lonely place it emphasized separation from people Unto God this was not merely Geographic, but it also meant that there was going to be testing purification Dependence on God and the New Testament solitude becomes an intentional withdrawal of prayer clarity and intimacy with the Father Especially we see this in the life of Jesus. It's important that you know solitude is not Loneliness it's an intentional intimacy with God in fact when you start connecting with God through solitude You do not feel lonely you actually feel the most comforted You've ever been because you're spending time with God, and so you don't feel lonely. I'm explaining a little more about solitude We see a biblical word of consecration. It's when you separate yourself from something unto God That's what solitude is I would describe it as a spiritual detox What's awesome about solitude is you can experience God in solitude even when you're around people when you learn? How to be alone with him in your heart and spirit if you notice that mercy culture a lot I have you close your eyes how many have been in a service, and I tell you to close your eyes, okay? You won't find Bible verses that tell you to close your eyes

It's funny because even when we pray people say close your eyes when you pray But it's actually not a biblical thing to close your eyes I've not seen one Bible study Bible verse that tells us to close our eyes, but why do we do it? I've actually had pastors ask me like why do you do that? Here's why because the moment I close my eyes. I'm in solitude The moment I close my eyes You're not with me, and I can focus on God so what it does is it allows you to be Intentionally alone with God even if a friend brought you to church with you That's how powerful solitude is and solitude is a place that you will spiritually grow tell your neighbor You will spiritually grow Tell your second choice you too Let me show you how people have grown in solitude in the Bible there's 340 different occurrences of solitude some 250 in the Old Testament 90 in the New Testament And they're connected to different forms of being alone or wilderness or prayer or encounter So there's all of these different words that are connected with solitude that make up these stories But let me give you a few examples in the Bible of people connecting with God in solitude We have John the Baptist in Luke chapter 1 verse 80 And it says this and the child grew and became strong in the spirit And he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance. This is wild so John is Miraculously born so if I actually use the story of Zechariah with inner vowels John the Baptist dad So an angel went to John the Baptist dad who was a pastor and said you're gonna have a son he responds How can this be he made some sort of inner vowel that was rejecting an angel telling him the perfect will of God? So John the Baptist mother Elizabeth is pregnant with John Elizabeth walks in the room with Mary and John the Baptist is the first person Biblically to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and he's baptized the Holy Spirit in his mother's womb Now John now throw that verse in Luke 1 up back again, so John is just baptized in the Holy Spirit He's just born in what a scripture say he's alone with God for 30 years Scripture doesn't say 30 years But we know he's the same age of Jesus because they were born at the same time and Jesus didn't start his ministry till he's

30 so 30 years he's in solitude in a place of preparation Now let me just help young ministers for a second that think at 25 you need to start your online ministry Let me help you. I was on Facebook the other day and I saw some 20 year old calling themselves a prophet on Facebook And I unfollowed them My spiritual father was a real prophet. His name was John Paul Jackson You know what he used to say? You don't tell people you're a prophet. They tell you you're a prophet Cuz prophets just prophesy and they're like, hey, I think you're prophetic Jesus did not go to the woman at the well and be like, hey, I'm a prophet. I got a word for you He said you got five husbands. She's like, hey, you're a prophet How'd you know that? Listen, you don't have to tell people you just walk in the gifting the assignment and the authority that's on your life But if you're young dumb and immature on Facebook, you have to tell people those things And they they're only trumped by Facebook apostles Listen to me John is 30 years old in the wilderness Filled with the Holy Spirit in his mother's womb, but watch still was in a season of hiddenness Why are you trying to rush your season of ministry when God wants to develop you in a season of hidden verse? Don't rush it John Paul used to say the worst thing that could happen to a man is Success before he's ready for it One of the worst things that can happen to a young minister is you start doing ministry before you're ready for it You know what? My ministry started out. I got baptized the Holy Ghost at 12 years old I started preaching full-time at 16 and then at 18, I met the Holy Spirit Now watch I was baptized in the Holy Ghost and I spoke in tongues at 12, but I did not know the Holy Ghost Just because you get filled with the Spirit does not mean you know the Spirit it is relationship that you know the Spirit This is important because you start going to a spirit-filled charismatic church and some people will think the goal is to speak in tongues one Wednesday Night one time in your life. That's not the goal The goal is you look like Jesus you act like Jesus you talk like Jesus you walk like Jesus You have the mind of Christ and you think like Jesus It's not that you spoke in tongues one time I'm glad you spoke in tongues now do it every day in your day in encounter and

Build relationship with the Holy Spirit. So when I was 18, I met him He started talking to me. I would talk to him and he would talk back. I fell in love with him I couldn't believe it. I I didn't need friends. I didn't need to be around people I remember telling people like like what I experienced is crazy. I would go into my dad's choir room He pastored a church. I'd go to this choir room and there was this old British band called delirious a Christian worship band and At the end of one of their songs they played these four random notes So I went to the piano player of our church. I said, what are these notes? He showed me where those four notes on the keys were So I would go in this this choir room on this old piano and I would play these four notes I don't even know what these notes are if he gave me about ten minutes I bet you I could find him again and I would play these four notes and I'd begin to worship and I'd begin to cry And I'd be gonna call out to God and I'd begin to spend time with them I did this every Friday night for almost a year Where I would go and spend my Friday nights with the Lord in those hidden places is where I learned how to hear the voice Of God hear me today. You do not find the voice of God on stages You do not find the voice of God in public places. You find the voice of God in hidden places If you're a leader in the making maybe you need to go to our leadership school SLS In fact in our school, we've broke it up to six different schools where we have an evangelistic school We have a pastor school. We have a worship leader school We have a school for those that want to be involved in justice and in politics and different things And what we're doing is we are raising up warriors in hidden places So that they have the correct resume to go take on giants Take on giants Let me help you just because you have a lot of followers on social media does not mean you have spiritual authority Ask the seven sons of Sceva what happens when they thought that they can put together a ministry and go cast out devils They responded Paul. We know Jesus. We know who are you and the Bible says they left them beaten and bleeding running naked out Beat up by a demon. How many know that's not a good online. Look Hidden seasons will develop you for what God has for you the deepest spiritual formation in your life Listen to this happens when nobody else sees it

Another example is Jesus in the wilderness. This is wild Jesus doesn't start his ministry till he's 30 now. Hold on a second just for all you 20 year old prophets Jesus 30. He's God. And he doesn't start his ministry till he's 30. Watch as he's God and doing ministry. He does it for three years and why he's in ministry. He's always sneaking away to go be with the father in solitude. Even as Jesus waits to do ministry, even while he's now in ministry, he's still connecting with the father through solitude. Look at this Luke five 16, but he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. God, Jesus even did this on a regular basis. So hold on a second. If Jesus saw the benefit of doing this and Jesus, whose God did this, how much more do you think we need this? I'm telling you connecting with God through solitude is an absolute game changer. And here's what he'll do. It will protect you from what the church calls burnout. How many have heard a Christian talk about burnout before? Okay. I don't want to ask your hands. I don't want to embarrass you. Someone has had burn has had burnout before, but let me break burnout down. Burnout is not you served at the food bank too much. Burnout is not once a month in children's ministry. Burnout is not you served in for liberty and justice. So the justice reform and, and, and, and, you know, you did it for a year, but there's just too much warfare. I can't do it anymore. That's not what burnout is. Let me help you with burnout. Burnout is simple. Burnout is when you have more spiritual output than you have spiritual input. What happens to your car when you don't put gas in it? You don't go anywhere. What happens if you have an electric car, you get a real car. I say this all the time. What would you physically look like if you only ate food as much as you read your Bible? Let me tell you why the church is so stinking weak. The church is so weak because we have weak Christians that don't feed themselves. I love the rebellious person that leaves the church. And they're like, I just need a pastor that feeds me the meat. I'm like, ah, you're feed yourself. We feed, we feed people on Sunday. That's not enough. You feed yourself. Grownups feed themselves. I don't wake up in the morning waiting for Heather to feed me. I get my own food. When my kids are little, if you don't feed them, they die.

But as they get a little older, they start figuring it out. Listen, the spiritual mature feed themselves. Are you with me today? You need to grow in your ability to feed yourself. Burnout only happens when you don't daily encounter. I put it like this. I've been serving the Lord faithfully. I've been in full-time ministry for 20 years. I have been a senior pastor for seven years. We pastor 10 churches with 13 house vision nonprofits. I travel the nation in the world. I have a lot of responsibility and I never burn out. Do you know why? Because I spend time with God every day. Do you know why my relationship with God is more important than me pastoring you? Do you know why? Because I pray for me more than I pray for you. Watch. I steward my soul and I steward my soul well. And when I steward my soul well, then it gives me health and strength to steward your soul and help you steward your soul. But here's the problem. If you're just looking for somebody to do it for you, that's the problem. And you won't spiritually grow. I have to do mine. You have to do yours. But when you come before the Lord and when you come before the Lord, you're going to do it for when you come before the Lord. And when you daily encounter, I promise you, you will never burn out. Another biblical example. I love this one. Jacob wrestling with God, but the scripture up Genesis 32, 24, it says Jacob was alone and he wrestled with him and angel until daybreak. This is wild. I just talked to you about Jacob last week. Our last time I spoke, I spoke two weeks ago. Jacob was a deceiver. So watch this. When Jacob was around people, he was in his flesh and he was deceiving. But when Jacob was alone with God, God was wrestling with him and transforming him from Jacob to Israel. See something changes when you. Alone with God that you get to start getting the deceiver out of you You get to get the flesh out of you you get to get the old man out of you See some of you gave your life to the Lord you got saved But you don't look a lot different than you did before you were saved And the reason why you haven't spent time in solitude So you haven't been wrestling with him you haven't been spending time with him You and let the conviction of the Holy Spirit begin to change you and here's the wild part is when you spend time in solitude You get to meet God face-to-face and the greatness that's in you you get to become He went from Jacob to Israel the father of many nations

Now since we're talking about Israel I just wanted to take a moment and just pastor you because there's a lot of dumb people in the church. I Thought about a nice way to say it, but I felt like that was the most accurate way to say it And there's a lot of people that spend more time with heathen commentators and Podcasters than they do with God's Word or their pastors and so they don't know the difference between what is God in what is it? So I want to let you know something. I asked the Lord why I was supposed to plant this church This is about nine years ago and nine years ago He gave me five reasons why I was supposed to plant mercy culture so before you got here We have these things that God told us of why he wanted mercy culture and here's what he told me He said I want you to love and stand with Israel Now because there was four amens in the room it's because there's a lot of indoctrination going on with demons right now And I wanted to warn you about something that's called I called demonic logic that it's made its way into the earth and there is a Hatred for the Jewish people that is could only be described as Demonic I want to point this out for a second that the Nazis tried to exterminate Jews from the face of the earth a hundred Years ago they killed five million Jews in Consecration camps and we are on the verge of the same thing happening again Because what happened in Nazi Germany is happening in America today Let me ask this multicultural church, what if they treated black people like they treat Jews They would burn down cities But if they do it to Jews, it's okay You know why? Because it's demonic logic You say pastor what what is demonic logic demonic logic is when you use human with human reason partners with the demonic agenda to sound intelligent while opposing God Let me give you some examples of demonic logic for a second Okay, demonic logic sounds like the Jews of today are not the Jews of the Bible Which everybody's probably heard that so let me get this straight

Let me show you how it's demonic logic who else have you heard that about Name one people group It's pretty quiet in here, right? Because you don't hear it ever about anyone. What have you ever heard with the Italians of today? They're there. They're there. They're not of the the Egyptians the Greeks of today are not the Greeks of the Bible time But only to the Jews and it makes sense No, it doesn't make sense, you know, why does it make sense because it's spiritual and it's absolutely demonic Let me say this if how do you know that they're the same people because they're hated today like they were in the Bibles And why would you want to associate or even Be in that category if you're hated the most hated people group in the face of the earth No one in human history Watch this even the atrocity of the Jews of today the rise of slavery is Wicked evil and undefendable as it was is nothing Compared to what the Jews have gone through Slavery was invented for the Jews in Africa The Egyptians Africans enslave the Jews The demonic logic that has made its way into America is Absolutely mind-blowing. How about number two give you another reason for how you know, it's demonic logic. Okay, I can't love the Jews because their government is evil Like America's is not Hold on a second. I Love my nation, but we're jacked up gay marriage pride month President Biden bring in transgenders on Easter with men with prosthetic breasts to dance on the White House lawn Okay Obama lighting up the white house in rainbow colors, painting stripes, uh, rainbows in our cities. Okay. How about you go back to the native Americans? I think our government put smallpox in their blankets, the wickedness. You think our government's batting a thousand?

You think they're telling you the truth? How about COVID? Now hold a second. How many love America? How many love our nation? How many believe God's hands on our nation? Okay. How many, how many think God has a purpose? So, so yeah, people like, well, you don't understand the Jews are, are, are having the largest pride parade in, in, in the middle East. Yeah. At the location of Sodom and Gomorrah, pray for them. Here's what I'm telling you. I believe God loves America and I believe America is evil. I believe that God's hands on our nation and God wants to use America, but I think that we have a lot of sin in our nation. I think we've killed 80 million babies. So at the same time that God can love us, we also can participate in partner with evil at times. Number three, give you another third example for demonic logic is the Jews don't deserve a land to exist on. So the native Americans do, but not Jews. Have you ever heard someone say, Pakistan doesn't deserve their land? When a group of Muslims took land from India and created Pakistan, but I've never heard anybody say Pakistan genocide. I've missed that sign. Have you seen that sign? No, you only see it about Jewish people. So only the Jewish people that have the deepest, longest lasting history on the face of the earth, where we have our Bible that gives us the promises of Genesis 12, that God gave

his people and promised them the land, but they don't deserve land. Hold on a second. So you're a Christian without this Bible and without the Jewish people, you don't have a Bible. You don't have a promised land. I would remind you, our savior was a Jew. So if you resist them having a land, you're resisting God's promises. How about the worst one? Number four, this one's for the really self-righteous people is they say, Oh, I can't love the Jews. They killed Jesus. We killed Jesus. Hold on. My sin in your sin is what he died for. But hold on, hold on. On newsflash ain't nobody actually killed him because his assignment was the cross. That's why when Peter was full of offenses and tried to stop him from going to the cross, what did he say? Get behind me, Satan. You're an offense unto me because my assignment was the cross. How about John three, 16? God so loved the world. What he sent his son, what to die for our sins. The purpose of Jesus was the cross. Listen to me. This demonic logic has made its way into the body of Christ because not enough people get in solitude and wrestle with God and wrestle with God's word. Here's what I love about God's word. When you get alone with God in solitude, he touches you in just like Jacob's hip was touched and he forever walked different. You will change when you encounter God.

I remember one time on social media, this gay activist said to me, he said, landed. I can tell that you love the gay community, but just don't try to change them. And I responded, bro. An encounter with God changes everybody. He doesn't matter what you're struggling with. It doesn't matter what you're dealing with. It changes everybody. It changes liars into true tellers, perverted people into moral people, the unrighteous into the righteous. It changes every single one of us into the image of God. That's why the old has to go and the new has to come. Because when you encounter God, it changes you like this one. Paul is in prison in solitude. This is wild. Philippians four 11. For I have learned in whatever situation I am in to be content. Do you know Paul nearly wrote one third of all of his writings, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians by Lehman came from prison. Why Paul is alone in prison in solitude. Dude, he's writing the Holy Spirit through him is writing the New Testament. From a place of solitude, God gives holy visitations in the year of encounters and visitations. Maybe you need to encounter God a little more in solitude to find yourself in those moments on holy ground. But I want to warn you, the enemy knows how powerful solitude is, so the enemy will do whatever he can to resist and stop you from encountering God in solitude. One of the greatest dangers of the modern Christianity is that people are constantly surrounded by things instead of God. Today I'm going to give you four enemies of solitude. Number one, enemy of solitude is noise and distractions. Today people are constantly surrounded by noise, rarely alone with God.

The enemy does not always need to fight you, sometimes he just needs to distract you. Most people's phones are discipling them. Things distracting them all day. How do you know what you value and love most? It's the thing you reach for in the morning, the first. What you look to first usually has your heart. So if you look to stocks first, if you look to what crypto is doing first, if you look to social media or entertainment first, it shows you what is the idol or what you value most in your life. Distractions keep you from dealing with real issues. Solitude helps you focus on those issues. We see David in Psalms 139 where he said, search me, oh God, know my heart, test my thoughts. If anything grievous way in me, lead me in the way of everlasting. Solitude is the place that you get to pray those prayers. I would warn you constant noise, keep you spiritually dull while you stay spiritually busy. Number two enemy of solitude is busyness. Busyness makes you feel productive while your spirit is starving. We're so busy in our lives, filling our lives with all sorts of stuff constantly. I wanted to give a few challenge today. A lot of times in the modern day American church, we can have our priorities wrong. And I've seen some of this happen constantly in the body of Christ where we're so busy with life and sports and school and stuff. And we do not have our proper priorities in line. I want to challenge the parents today that school should not be the highest priority of your home. I was a youth pastor for over 10 years in 10 years of youth ministry. I found that so many parents value the child's grade over stewarding their soul. And they didn't care what the child did or their relationship with God is long as they

had good grades. I want to let you know, kids with good grades go to colleges and get indoctrinated, lose their relationship with God and lose their soul. The goal cannot be a child having good grades. Yes. Those important hard work education. I, yes, that's important, but it's not as important as their soul. I want to challenge you parents. Make sure your kids are growing in God. Their daily encounter is more important than their homework. I didn't say their homework's not important. I say your home might be out of order and it is so much easier to raise a kid in the way they should go rather than in their twenties and thirties, you're fasting and praying, asking God for them to come back. There was a prophetic word about rebellion, getting out of our homes this year. Part of what will help you do that is when you steward them in the way they should go in the first place. Another thing that I see out of order constantly in the lives of good Christians is they play sports and sports are more important than God or church. When you miss church for baseball, you are teaching your children that sports are more important than God. It's quiet in this spirit filled church. I can't, it's wild how many parents prioritize these other things. He's wild. Your kid has a 0.1 to 0.3 chance of becoming a professional athlete, but there is a hundred percent chance that they're going to stand before God one day. I know your kid's incredible, I'm just giving you the statistics. But imagine if you work with them on guarding their heart and loving God as much as you do throwing a ball. Parents, I want you to see differently, that you need to make sure you have the correct

and the right priorities in your home and in your life, because the enemy is coming to distract us. And I want to let you know, if the enemy cannot make you fall in sin, he will often just make you too busy to encounter God. Number three, enemy of solitude, fun and entertainment, vacations, trips, social gatherings, constant experiences. Many people know how to relax, but they do not know how to be still in the presence of God. There's nothing wrong with fun and fellowship until it replaces fellowship with God. Fun can't be first. It's amazing how much effort we put into planning awesome vacations, but you don't plan your soul. You don't strategize how to keep your heart right. You don't strategize your spiritual walk with God. You don't plan trips with the Lord. I want you to think about this. There's nothing wrong. I turned 24 next Sunday and I'm going on a golf trip this week. I'm going to go play golf and I'm going to have a blast doing it, but I'm actually just as excited. If not more excited of going on my prayer runs by myself in fun places, and I'm going to encounter God. I've already made plans. I'm bringing specific shoes to wear to go and run and be with the Lord. Part of planning my trip is planning my time with the Lord. Go on your vacations this summer. Go enjoy your family, but listen, you're going to, you're going to regret it at the end of the summer when you've entertained your family, but you haven't stewarded their souls. And if you encounter God three times in three months and you have three dealing counters in three months, you are spiritually going to be more unhealthy after thousands of dollars

of vacations and rest. Come on. Are you here today? Don't hear what I'm not saying. Go have a blast. I'm saying prioritize God first and do not let fun and entertainment ruin encountering God through solitude. Number four, enemy of solitude isolation. From the world's perspective, solitude might be mistaken for isolation. Solitude and isolation are not the same thing. Let me give you the differences between solitude, which is spiritual and isolation, which is of the flesh. Watch this. Solitude is getting alone with God. Isolation is pulling away from people without God. Solitude produces intimacy while isolation produces a disconnection. Solitude fills you with God's presence. Isolation empties you into loneliness. Solitude is where God speaks. Isolation is where the enemy gets loud. Solitude leads to clarity. Isolation leads to confusion. Solitude creates dependency on God. Isolation creates dependency on yourself. Solitude leads to transformation while isolation leads to temptation. Solitude leads you back into corporate encounters. Isolation pulls you away from the house of God because isolation is the demonic counterfeit of solitude. The enemy doesn't want you to be alone with God because he knows what happens when you get with God.

Today, I'm going to give you the three benefits of solitude and what happens when you get alone with God. And I promise you, if you begin to, you begin to steward solitude, you will see these in your life. I promise you, you will see them. Number one, solitude will help you spiritually grow. In Acts 17, 28, I love this scripture. It says, for in him, we live, we move, and we have our being. What the scripture is saying is in solitude, you learn how to recognize God's voice above every other voice. And when you're alone with God, it reveals what voice is loudest in your life. And a lot of people can never hear God clearly because they haven't learned how to be quiet in his presence. See, in solitude is where you become a friend of God. Oh, I love this. John 15, 15. Jesus says, no longer do I call you servants for servants does not know his master, but I called you friends. See, solitude is the place your friendship with God grows. See, because when you're in. Solitude, you're really not alone, you're with God. And when you're building a relationship with God, just like building a relationship with anyone, your desire for that begins to grow. I don't know if you've ever craved water before and nothing else will satisfy your thirst because you just need water. I have found my relationship with the Lord, I start craving my time with him, where I understood what it must have been like for Jesus

who had to sneak away at times because you so desperately learn to yield, learn to live off that relationship with the Holy Spirit. If you don't know what I'm talking about, it means this, you haven't experienced it yet, and what your neighbor would say yet, but this is where you begin to spiritually grow. And I wanna help you, you have to be able to push past the awkwardness of learning how to do it. So when I started learning how to connect with God in solitude, I made a lot of mistakes because I fell asleep. So I wanted to like set the atmosphere like I was on a date with the Lord, dim lights, light candles, get those little pad music playing, the William Augusta music playing, and here's what would happen is I would create this atmosphere and then it'd be a little uncomfortable so I'd kind of get a pillow where I was kneeling before the Lord and I would just go ahead and lay before the Lord and I just wanna be with him and all of a sudden I would fall asleep. And I'd wake up and two hours went by, you're like, what'd the Lord do? Nothing, I was just sleeping. And there's an anointing to sleep on my life.

I got a gift, if sleeping, if napping was a superpower, that would be my superpower. I kid you not, this is a few years ago, I was with our lead intercessors, the Wingates, we're at my house, it was our intercessors, me and Heather, and we're praying together and I had a long week and I was kind of tired and I made the mistake where I threw my head back and prayed and all of a sudden I wake up to everybody laughing at me and I look around, I was like, what's going on? They're like, you were snoring. So in solitude, watch, I have to move. I'm gonna preach on to connect with God in movement in a few weeks. I had to move because if I didn't move, I would fall asleep. So you have to learn what you have to do in order to grow in this area. Don't fall asleep, trust me, I've done it far too many times but here's what will happen is you have to push past the uncomfortability of being alone with God and the awkwardness and the silence until you start building this relationship and what will happen is you will begin to hear him and this is what I love about this so much is when you're alone with God and you begin to think thoughts that are not your thoughts and you begin to recognize the voice of God, you know it's God because there's no one else around you. I'll give you the example. Sometimes in church settings, I could be preaching

or saying things and the Holy Spirit will speak to you while I'm preaching or while the word's being read or while worship's going but you'll hear it through me but it's God speaking to you. But in solitude, nobody's saying it to you so you know it's God because it's just you and him and this is what I love so much about this because the God who created the earth is talking to you and he wants to be with you. I'm telling you, when you break through in this area, it is one of the fastest ways to spiritually grow when you can get past the weird, awkward silences because you start to learn to hear his still small voice. Number two, benefits of solitude. This might be my favorite. Solitude is the place of revelation. When you start hearing from God, it is the place where revelation happens. What do I mean by revelation? I mean this awareness of what God wants to do and say, his perfect will and his heart that you didn't know. I explain revelation like this. When God speaks to you and gives you revelation, it's like watching a movie or knowing what happened in a movie you never watched. It's like you just know. I know what I need to do. I know the assignment. I know what God wants us to do, it comes. Let me give you an example.

In the book of Revelations, chapter one, verse 10, we call this book Revelation. Now, the setting of the book, if you have your paper Bible, just go ahead and flip through a couple chapters of Revelation, I just want you to look because you'll start seeing red writing through the first few pages of Revelation. Now, in your Bible, when we see red writing, it means that who's talking? Jesus is talking. But this is while John is shipwrecked on an island of Patmos, he's all by himself connecting with God in solitude. Put Revelations 1, 10 up there. He says this, he was in the spirit on the Lord's day and he heard the Lord speak to him. So watch this. So now Jesus is speaking to John. He's writing the book of Revelation because revelation comes when you're in solitude with God. Not just the book of Revelation where we get the entire revelation, but I mean personal revelation. So if you've ever noticed when I pray to open a service, I usually pray the same things. One of the things I pray, Holy Spirit, would you breathe upon. Your word, the Bible, would your logos, the written word, become Rayma, the personal revelation to us? Because here's the thing.

When it becomes revelation, it's when you get it. It's like this. You could read a scripture a hundred times, but when the Holy Spirit breathes on it, all of a sudden you get it. You didn't get it before. You didn't understand it before, but what you have the ability to understand. So let me help some of you right now. If you are struggling in reading your Bible, it means you're doing it wrong. You need to read the Bible in solitude, which means this. You're alone with who? God. So you start saying, Holy Spirit, you wrote the Bible. Would you begin to show me what you are saying in this? Would you begin to reveal your heart and mind? Would you begin to reveal this inspired word? Watch. You do it with the Holy Spirit. Then you have the author of the book reading the book with you. See so many times we get it wrong in church world because they think the Trinity is the father, the son in the Bible. And I don't say this to dishonor the word. I would say it's the second one because Jesus was the word. So it's the father. It's the son, Jesus, the word and the Holy Spirit, which makes up the Trinity. So here's the thing. You get the author to lead you and guide you as you read the word. That's where you get revelation. Revelation will change your life. Number three, solitude prepares you for spiritual battles. This may be maybe the most exciting part of this message today, where God began to speak

to me this week about mercy culture and the leaders of mercy culture. If I'm honest with you, I didn't, I didn't realize this. This is revelation to me. This is new wisdom to me. I didn't realize the secret and the key solitude was, was for so many of you in this church. Mercy culture is a church of warriors. We're a church of go getters. We're an active church. This is not a stay in the pew kind of church. This is take it to the four walls outside the four walls. This is take the city, take the nation. This is a reforming church. What I realized as I was writing this, I just thought I loved connecting with God in solitude, but what I didn't realize is God prepared me for battles in solitude. I just didn't know what he was doing. See in Matthew chapter four, verse one, before Jesus does any public ministry, before there's casting out of demons, before there's healing, before there's anything, watch their solitude. Even if you see this season of solitude outside of Matthew chapter four, I showed you this two weeks ago when I was preaching the very next thing says Jesus started his ministry because right after you have a time of solitude alone with God, he prepares you for whatever battles that he has for you. See private encounters with God prepare you for public battles in life. See we just saw this with our justice ministry where God began to speak to Heather about 15 years ago about raising up justice warriors and building a justice residence. Watch this happen on a run that she had with God 15 years ago and we begin to steward this in private for years. Then all of a sudden God speaks to us, okay, we're supposed to build it here on our property. We're supposed to build a hundred unit residence for survivors of human trafficking. So we start pulling the permits together. We start getting everything ready.

We're raising $15 million to do this. And then a group of people in our city said, we don't want you to do that. And we said, we don't care. Hold on. In solitude, God told us to do it and now they said, no, no, no, we really don't want you to. And our response was, we really don't care what you want. So watch. Then they started resisting us. City hall resisted us. City council resisted us. The zoning commission denied us. You legally can't. Our mayor had to go like, guys, Hey, this is their constitutional rights. We actually can't stop them. We showed up here on our property and there was a change of zoning sign that no one from our church submitted for asked for, yeah, you can't do that. They're like, Hey, we don't like that. You're not nice. We think you're mean. I think it's mean not to help survivors of human trafficking. I'll tell you what, you could have that dumb flag in your yard because it's your yard. And we're going to build on our property. What God told us to build on our property. So Heather goes and stands before a city council and they just lie about her for hours. My daughter is in this service today. She said, mom, why are they saying all those things about you? Why are they saying that you steal money? Why are they saying that you try to hurt people? Why are they saying that you lie?

Why are they saying you're trying to, why would they say all this stuff? Because in solitude, God prepares you for these battles you will face. I want you to hear this today. See, you don't just come and start taking on public battles. We're not coming around picking fights. We didn't try to pick any fight with anyone ever when people like, why do you have to be like this? Why do you, why do you have to be so bold? Cause we try to do it nice for four years and we had more community meetings and we ran out of things to say. And at the end of the community meetings, we found out that the only thing that they wanted us to do was not do what God told us to do. So we said, that's not an option. The only option is we hear God because when you go get in solitude, he speaks to you. Then you come out and you got to decide, am I going to obey him or not? So when we started to obey him, watch the battle found us. When you go in solitude and meet with the Lord, watch, he's preparing you for your battles of tomorrow. Let's go back to our verse that we opened up with in first Samuel chapter 17. You all know the story. It's a story of David in Goliath, but it's not really of David and Goliath. It's a story of David and his God. Now David wasn't a warrior. He was a shepherd boy. First Samuel and second Samuel actually in the original Hebrew one book, many believe Samuel was the author of this book written between 1025 to 1000 BC. David was approximately 15 to 17 years old. Watch. He's not a warrior. He's a shepherd, but as a shepherd, he's used to being alone with God in solitude and in

that season of being alone with God, he builds a relationship with God. He falls in love with God in a field, in a hidden season, all by himself, where it's just the Lord worship prayer, a stone and a sling. His father gives him assignment to go feed his brothers on the battlefield. And as he makes his way to the battlefield, he sees a giant who's defying, cursing their God. He watches the armies of Israel and their king terrified of what Goliath is saying. No one will step up and fight the battle. David wasn't looking for a fight. He was looking for someone that would take on the fight. And when no one would take it on, he said, who was this uncircumcised Philistine that would defy the armies of the living God? He started asking question. How long has this been going on? Why are you guys allowing it? Why are you allowing them to do this? Why are you allowing them to defy God? Why isn't anybody stepping up? Why is anyone taking on this giant? And finally he's like, if no one will do it, I'll do it. So they said, you got to go talk to Saul. So he goes and talks to Saul and Saul says, you're just a boy. You're 15 years old. You can't do this. He said, you don't understand. This isn't my first rodeo because I've been in the fields with some sheep and out in the fields. I met some lions and some bears. And when the lions and bears would come to take my sheep, I would slay them. I would grab them by the mane and I would introduce them to my God.

And this giant will be the same as the lion in the bear's watch in the place of solitude is where God tests you. If you're ready for the real battles, because if you're faithful with lions and you're faithful with bears watch, if you're faithful with the private battles, God will promote you to a place of public battles. So Saul says to him, okay, I'm going to give you permission, but you got to wear my armor. So he puts it on and the Bible says he went in vain or watch. He felt the vanity of, I cannot fight like you. I can't do it the way you're doing it. See, David said this watch. I can't go in public and fight a way I didn't fight in private. See this is why so many people lose spiritual battles because you don't fight in private with the Lord. You don't spend time with the Lord. So you have nothing to do on the public side where you're just coming up with words in your own strength because you didn't get a strategy alone with God. See when he was alone with God as a shepherd boy in the field, that's where God met him. It's where God taught him. It's where God developed him watching in that season. He prepared him for giants. He didn't go looking for the giant. He went looking for his God and his God introduced him to a giant. He's wearing this armor and he said, I don't mean to be rude, but I cannot do this like you. you. So watch this. He's surrounded by the armies, but he said, I can't fight like you. I need to go back to the place of solitude. So according to scripture, in the middle of a battlefield, he finds a place of solitude that we call the brook. He makes his way to a familiar place of being alone with God and he finds five stones. The Bible doesn't say why he chose five stones, but according to scripture, Goliath had four brothers. So maybe he was just storing up in case other giants showed up

that this young man would be ready. Watch this. He goes in the biggest battle of his life to the place where he knew he was forged. So he goes to the place of solitude to meet with his God. Again, you can start playing those keys. And as he goes to meet with God again, watch he feels the strength of being alone with God. See, many of you have never felt that spiritual strength because you're not alone with God enough this morning. God's calling you back to the brook. He's calling you back to a place of solitude. Would you find a place of solitude right now by just closing your eyes all over this place? Instantly, you're alone with God. I want you to go back to the brook right now. I want you to think about the time you gave your life to the Lord right now. How old were you? Where was it? What'd the room smell like? Where were you at? What was going on in your soul? What was the place of desperation that you were at? What prayers did you pray? Do you remember when you said yes to the Lord? Do you remember when you started feeling him? Do you remember that weight? You remember that energy? Do you remember that peace? Do you remember that love? When you felt God for the first time. When you felt God for the first time. Now I want you to think about the time that you heard him for the first time. When you heard his voice. When you know he spoke to you. Because as soon as he spoke, someone else said the same thing and you knew it was God. Do you remember when you got those goosebumps? Because you felt his presence. I want you to think about the time you felt his glory. When the weight of his presence came on you. When you felt the power of God. When you felt his strength. When you felt his love. When you felt his protection. When you felt his mercy. This is what solitude is. It's getting alone with God. Feeling his power. Feeling his love. Feeling his intimacy. This is why scripture says he will never leave you nor forsake you because even in solitude you're still with him. This is when you know he has you. This is when you know fear has no hold on you. This is what gives you strength to take on giants in your life. To take on giants in your family.

To take on giants in your city. To take on giants in your nation. Because you are alone with God. And the same God that was alone with you in the field. That forged you in a field. Is the same God that prepares you for a battlefield. The solitude field prepares you for whatever battle God has for you. This is where you know no giant can take you down. No giant can intimidate you. Because you're not coming with wise or persuasive words. You're not coming with a sword or spear. You're coming with relationship with God that you found in a place of solitude. This is the place where you meet with God and God meets with you. This is your battlefield. Solitude is the battlefield of the spiritual warrior. Solitude is the place. He prepares you for battle and solitude is where we connect with God. Close your eyes a little tighter. Now just begin to talk to him. Maybe you thank him for saving you. Maybe you thank him for filling you with his spirit. Maybe you pray in the Holy ghost. Maybe you just tell him how much you love him. Maybe you just thank him for his mercy. Maybe you just thank him for dying on the cross for you. Maybe you just thank him for his presence. Maybe you thank him for your children that are healthy. Maybe you thank him for your marriage that was on the brinks. Maybe you thank him when you didn't know where to go and what to do, but he led you by his beautiful mercy and his beautiful grace. You thank him for delivering you from that substance. Maybe you thank him for healing you in your body. Maybe you thank him for healing your mind, whatever it is in this place, all over this place in the middle of solitude, just begin to love on the Lord. Would you just tell him how much you love him all over this place? Come on. Would you let God feel your love for him? Come on.

Just begin to pour your heart out to him. Just begin to pour your affection out to him. Come on. Just a little louder in this moment, in this place, just begin to love on the Lord. Come on. The Bible says with all of your heart, with all of your mind, with all of your soul, with all of your spirit, that is the way that we're to love on God. Come on. In a sanctuary with thousands of people, just get alone with him, just you and God today. Come on. Connect with him right now in solitude. It's time to come back to the brook. It's time to come back to that field, that place where you're alone with God. Come on. It's the day of salvation. It's the day that you hear from him. It's a day for deliverance. It's a day to feel his glory. It's a day to feel his power. Today is a day to encounter God. The Lord's going to minister to a few of you. He's going to lead you into a deeper place of solitude, a deeper place to encounter him. So if you say, Pastor Landon, I've allowed distractions to keep me from encountering God. If that's you all over this place, just stand to your feet if that's you. You say, I've been distracted. I just felt the Lord prompt me to do something. Open your eyes. And I want you to find a place at this altar. Look at it now.

Find a place. Look. Find a place. Don't move yet. Don't move yet. Don't move yet. I feel like there's supposed to be a prophetic act. Lock eyes on a place on this altar. Find a place. Get your eyes on it. Don't take your eyes off it. Now go to the place that you were looking at right now. No distractions. Don't take your eyes off it. Don't take your eyes off that spot. Wherever, wherever you saw. I felt God on you as you're walking down. I felt God on you as you're walking down. I'm going to pray in my prayer language. It's not prophesying in tongues. This is my prayer language. As soon as you get a place on your knees where it's at lock, close your eyes as tight as you can. All eyes on Jesus. We sang it this morning. All eyes on Jesus. Come on. Just let the presence of God just begin to wash over you this morning. Some of you will be sweet. Some of you will be powerful.

Some of you will be gentle. Some of you will be intense. The Holy Spirit comes, and he ministers differently. But he comes to all of us. So Holy Spirit, come. Have your way. Have your way. So Holy Spirit, come. Have your way. So Holy Spirit, come. Have your way. So Holy Spirit, come. The King is meeting with you! The Creator of the heavens and the earth wants to meet with you! Come on, encounter Him today! Somebody just begin to love on the Lord! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! He met with his God all over this place just beginning to love on your God. I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you!

I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! I love you! It doesn't matter what it is, whether it's lions of addiction, bears of abuse, whatever it is right now where you say, Lord, I need you to take this off of me. I need you to take this out of me. I've tried in my flesh. Now I just need your mercy. If you need the deliverance of God today, just lift your hands and just pray right now for the mercy of God. I pray right now. Let the mercy of God find you. I pray the sweet mercy of God to lift off the people. I pray right now, Jesus, what you've done for me, I pray you do for them. I pray how you've delivered me, what you do for them. I pray addictions go, I pray bondages go, I pray perversion go, I pray for harassment go, I pray demonic harassment go, I pray for power, Jesus, to sweep through this place Can Jesus' mighty name play? Tell the Lord, what are we supposed to do? I heard him speak to me and say, repent. So right now in this place, if there's anything that you've placed before God, right now in this moment, just repent for it. Tell the Lord, I'm breaking up with the partnership of this, and I'm making you first in my life. Repentance is simply turning, where you say, God, I am turning to you first. Lord, we repent. We repent for the sins in our home, sins of our family, sins of our nation. Lord, even on this day, as we are dedicating America to you, we say, we're dedicating America to Jesus, because there is no God except Jesus.

Every other God is a liar, every other God is a fraud, every other God is an idol. Jesus, you are the one true living God. Make no mistakes about it. There is no one like you. There is no one like you, Yahweh. You are high and lifted up. We declare, you are the first and the last, the alpha and the omega, the rose and share in the beginning and the end. There's no God like our God. You are the God of angels' army. You are the God of mighty in battle. We declare that you are the God of heavenly hosts. We say, you are God of America. You are God over Texas. You are God over our families. We say, we serve you and submit to you. We dedicate our lives, our families, our state, our nation to you and you alone. We say, Jesus, you are God. I want to pray three things over you. And then we'll close the service, so as you just posture your hearts to receive. I pray spiritual strength. I pray the Lord is strengthening you. I pray that prophetic word, the hedge of protection is rising. I pray the temptations of yesterday no longer work on you. I pray over you what Jesus said to Peter, get behind me Satan, offenses have no hold on you. I pray the peace of God on you. I pray great peace, who loved thy law, nothing shall offend thee. I pray that you are not susceptible to the lies of the enemy, for you are not unaware of his schemes.

I thank you for the prophetic word and I pray that they're receiving it, living in it. I declare the greatest spiritual growth of your life is happening now. Now I pray fresh revelation, sound doctrine with fresh revelation. I pray Lord, that by your goodness, you are revealing yourself in scripture. I pray a grace to read the word, a grace to connect with God, a grace for solitude. I pray sweet revelation to come to you. Now I pray that you would prepare this church for spiritual battle. I pray right now the full armor of God on you, helmet of salvation to guide your mind, breastplate of righteousness to guard your heart, the belt of truth. I declare everywhere you go is where the truth of God. I declare the boots of peace and readiness. I pray right now the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit. I pray that this church is equipped and ready for the day of battle. I thank you in this fields of solitude, you're preparing us for the battlefield. I pray that this house of warriors, this house of reformers are equipped to fight spiritual battles. Now lift your hands as high as they go all over this place. And I pray the sweet presence of the Holy Spirit to rest upon you. Come on, breathe in the presence of God all over this place. I prayed the sweet rule of God, the breath of God, the life of God to rest on you. I pray over my friends. Speak Lord. Your servants are listening. I bless you with the blessing of the Lord in Jesus name. Amen.