The Key to Hearing God's Voice with Chris Garcia

0:00 Well, with me today in person in the studio here at Charisma Headquarters is one of our new authors, Chris Garcia, who we met virtually because of his YouTube channel, where he spends time leading people into the presence of the Lord in private worship, in private time with the Lord, which is something that you can't do in a big environment normally. He's done that. We're gonna talk about that in a little bit. But that intimate time with the Lord is something that we're always trying to learn. How do we get better at? How do we spend more time with the Lord?

0:41 How do we make our time more with the Lord more effective? And how do we hear the voice of the Lord in such powerful ways? And so Chris, it's great to have you here in person to be able to talk about this. Your book, Fresh Oil, will be coming out this fall. Super excited about that. Excited, very excited. I know that it's gonna bless a lot of people, and God's gonna move through that book. I'm believing that the book will excite the spirit to be alone with the Lord, which is the whole purpose, just to be with him. Let's talk about this being alone with the Lord, because we know throughout the scriptures, the Lord has called people to be alone with him, whether it's Elijah going to the cleft of the rock, or David had to go, he was obviously being chased, but he had time in the wilderness.

1:32 The children of Israel as a group, as a congregation, they had to be into the wilderness, but that's the glory of the Lord took them there. And of course, we know that Jesus went alone to be with the Lord. I believe that in our modern day and age, we're so longing for community, that in our quest for community, we often devalue our community with God. Right. Let's talk about that and how the glory of the Lord comes out. Well, absolutely. So like the first and highest ministry that the believer is called to, is to minister directly to God. The Bible says in Revelation chapter one, it says that Jesus has called us to be a kingdom of priests unto our God.

2:20 That's echoed from second Peter, and that's also echoed back to the original. I believe it's in Deuteronomy or in Numbers, one of those in the Old Testament. But basically, what does it mean to be a priest? A priest is someone who stands to minister directly to God. And for us, we have Jesus in us. We're born again of the Spirit, and the highest ministry is to minister to him as a priest. When we use terms like priest or kings, this is symbolic language for someone who stands with the Lord. What marked Jesus's ministry, his powerful ministry, yes, he casted out devils, he healed the sick, he raised the dead, but there was a relationship between Jesus's prayer life and the power of the Spirit and activation, so much so that the disciples were like, Master, teach us to pray.

3:14 They saw a relationship between his alone time with the Father and his public ministry of power. What we also see is, for example, Moses in Deuteronomy chapter 24, I believe is in, no, or Exodus 24, scripture says, the Lord spoke to Moses and he said, come up to the mountain and be there, and I will present to you the tablets of instructions and the testimonies of the covenant, but God says, come up to the mountain and be there. Scripture says, be still and know that I am God.

3:58 The person of God, the man or woman of God is called to be with the Lord, and unfortunately we've deduced prayer to a list of things that we have to do, or we've deduced it to a chore or a list or different things like this, but it's more important that we have God's attention and that he has our attention and that we are with Jesus. We are with the Lord. The scripture says, and I believe in 1 John, John the apostle, he says, that which we have seen with our eyes, which we have held, that which we have handled, the word of life, him, we declare to you.

4:41 We are to come from a place of experiencing God and declare that which we have seen. And so unfortunately in Christianity, especially in the West, we've reduced it to formula and it's spiritual. Like we're supposed to connect with God. It's relational. And so community is important. We need community, absolutely. We need relationships, but we can't forget communion with Jesus. And everything should stem from that place. It's a true community is found in the communion of Christ first. When I say communion, I'm not necessarily talking about bread and wine.

5:23 I'm talking about the actual word communion. What does that word mean? It means the shared feelings and thoughts expressed one to another. You and I are called to share space with God. Where his thoughts become our thoughts, his feelings become our feelings. That's oneness. And the great mystery that's in, what is it? Colossians chapter one, verses 26 and 27 is Christ and you, the hope of glory. He's the final hope of glory. The glory of God that resided in the wilderness, in the tabernacle, the glory of God that transitioned from the tabernacle to the temple.

6:06 That very glory became man, it's Jesus. And now through the Holy Spirit, that same Jesus is in the church, is in us. That's where the glory of God resides. And I think conferences are powerful. And I've been a part of them and I speak in them and I love doing them. I enjoy them very much, but we have to get back to a place of coming back to the Lord first love, loving him, ministering to him directly, have the priority to be the secret place and to seek him and to seek his kingdom. And all of those things will be added to us. Yeah, you know, Chris, there's so many distractions in this day and age and we just scroll on our devices.

6:52 And a lot of times we don't know how to be alone anymore. We don't know how to just sit and be still. And that is something that I try to practice in my own life where it's like, oh, I could be on my phone doing something, but let me just stand here. Like waiting in line, like we used to actually have to wait in lines and be like alone with our thoughts. Now we don't have to do that. And so we've gone to the same, we basically put the same principles in with God where it's, you know, we're not spending the time with the Lord alone, where we're almost uncomfortable being alone with him. Now there's, how do we deal with that uncomfortableness with being with the Lord?

7:37 Yeah, it all goes back to the level of your knowing of the Lord. And so like, for example, if you've met someone that you just met and you are in the car with a person that you hardly know and there's moments of silence, that's really awkward. That's really uncomfortable. Why? Because you don't know that person. But now flip the script to your spouse. You can drive an hour without saying anything, just enjoying the moment. Why? Because you know that person. And I think a lot of people are uncomfortable with being with the Lord is because that level of knowing him hasn't fully yet developed.

8:20 And I think that the more you pursue knowing him, those moments of awkwardness go away because you know him. Sometimes it's hard to be still and it's not necessarily just that it's because you may not know him. It's that you don't know, the person may not know how to. And so, for example, the first five minutes you spend time being alone, it might feel really weird because it's like, I'm used to getting my phone out. I'm used to doing all these things. But I tell people in order to develop a deep prayer walk with God, it simply starts with setting the Lord before you.

9:02 So like when you're in line, put your attention on him for just a few moments. When you're driving, put away the distraction or the care for just a second and just acknowledge him. And these little acknowledgements throughout the day become an invitation to a greater awareness of the presence of God. And for me, I used to struggle so much in the area of prayer. I didn't understand how people can spend like an hour or two praying, like, what are you doing? What are you saying? But the more you learn to acknowledge the presence of God throughout your day, the more it becomes natural to slip into a deeper prayer walk.

9:49 And some people have a hard time because they're comparing themselves. Well, I don't have a prayer life like brother so-and-so or sister such-and-such, but it's just more about just learn to acknowledge him throughout your day. And then it grows, it becomes easy. Prayer shouldn't be a chore. Prayer is easy. Prayer is just turning your attention to the Lord. That is prayer. You don't even have to say anything. It's more about just being with him to enjoy him for the sake of being with the Lord. And for me, I used to think like prayer was, I have to pray this way, have to get on my knees and save this and try.

10:32 No, it's more about enjoying the present time with his presence. Think about the word, the presence of God. What is the presence of God? It's God being present with you in the present moment. And we have to learn to do that. And so sometimes it's hard because our minds are so preoccupied, but when we learn to acknowledge those little baby steps, it starts to grow and it becomes an enjoyment. Prayer should be something that is not a bondage, it's an enjoyment. Yeah. You know, Chris, you're here because you've written a book and that book is gonna be coming out this fall and we're excited about that. And it's called Fresh Oil.

11:15 That's part of the ministry that you have where you're on YouTube a couple of times a week and you are leading people into the presence of the Lord. And what has come out of that has, there's been some powerful prophetic moments that's led to us connecting. And then now it's led to this book. Tell everybody what it is that they're gonna get from this book. Yeah, absolutely. So the Fresh Oil Secrets to Intimacy with the Holy Spirit is just different keys and secrets that the Lord has given me throughout the years to teach on how to spend time with God. And so I don't wanna give away all of the details in the book, but there are things that the Holy Spirit has taught me in my personal walk with him that I felt in my heart to share in book form where it will be a blessing to you.

12:09 So if anything, the aim of the book is less informative and more impartational. If it leaves you with wanting to be a part of it, to be alone with God, then that's pretty much why we're doing the book. So yeah, it's Fresh Oil comes from Psalm 92 10, where it says, you've anointed my head with oil. It says, no, I'm sorry. You have exalted my horn like a wild ox, which is a symbol of strength. And you have anointed me with fresh oil. God wants to anoint you with fresh oil. Fresh oil for what? The fresh oil of his presence. We, the Bible says in Proverbs 20 27, that the spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all the innermost parts.

12:57 The vessel of a lamp is a container that contains oil. And so it's all symbolic for the stewarding of the Holy Spirit in your life and prayer. And as you grow in prayer, you grow in sensitivity. And as you grow in sensitivity, you grow in power in the spirit. And so that is pretty much the premise of the book, what the book's about. It's all about coming back to these little keys that we're spiritual first. Like we're living in a day and age, John, where people want to be spiritual without having Christ. Yeah, that's very true. But Christ is inviting us by Christ and for Christ to return back to being spiritual for Christ.

13:43 And that's what the book is about, a return to cultivating intimacy with the spirit, different things that the Holy Spirit has taught me throughout the years to deepen my walk with him. Recently, I was just reading through the New Testament and came across where Jesus talks about new wine versus old wine. Oh yeah. And how new wine can't be put into old wine skins. That's true. And just like a new patch of cloth can't be sewn onto an old patch because it's gonna cause tears. But the wine symbology really stuck with me, more so this time, just for different reasons, because I really want the presence of the Lord, the Holy Spirit, the infilling of the Holy Spirit in my life of fresh, that fresh oil, that fresh wine.

14:42 I'd like to talk about the whole concept of that wine, that new wine going into the new wine skins. And because Jesus talks about how those that have tasted the new wine, they still want the old. But whenever you're talking about wine, it's oftentimes the wine that has been aged that is the most valuable. So I've been mulling this over, okay, God, we're supposed to desire the new wine, but the old wine we know is still good and actually has value. I've been kind of looking at this as, is this kind of like new in fillings and old in fillings and rather than comparing and contrasting, I don't know.

15:27 I'd love to hear your thoughts on that passage. Yeah, so I'll start off with the new wine. The symbolism of the Holy Spirit is oil, a dove, flame. Another symbol is wine. And wine is so powerful because just the story of how wine becomes wine, there's an element to prior to that as well. Like for example, you start off with grape juice, but the grape juice has to ferment, but that fermentation to become wine takes time. Well, even before that, the grapes have to be picked. The grapes have to come from the vine, the true vine. And then they have to come and then they have to be picked and then they have to be crushed and bruised and broken.

16:08 And the juice has to then be forced out. It doesn't come out by itself. That's right, yeah. And that's a whole preaching right there. That's a whole preaching right there. But once you have that callus or that vessel for wine, there's time that needs to be spent. And in order for that fermentation to settle, it must take time. And if you want the new wine of the Spirit, you have to spend time just sitting there. So new wine is not grape juice. It's allowed to have fermentation. Yes, there's fermentation. We're not talking about alcohol so much as we're talking about the presence of the Lord and letting that ferment in your life. Absolutely, 100%.

16:49 And the scripture says, do not be drunk with wine, which is an excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Well, he's correlating wine with the filling of the Spirit. Again, that fermentation, that has an aspect of changing the way you talk and walk. The Holy Spirit does that. The Holy Spirit should cause you to walk and talk and maneuver yourself in a newer and vibrant way as opposed to the worldly wine. So there's many relationships there. But one of the things is this, is when Jesus is talking about old wineskins versus new wine is this concept of if you put new wine into an old wineskin, that wineskin will burst because of the energy and the air and the process of the wine.

17:45 It will completely just tear that thing open. And in order for you to preserve the new wine and the skin, you have to have a new skin. And so for me, Jesus is speaking concerning the old religious system versus the new kingdom, the kingdom that is at hand. But also it can be translated into the life of the believer. You want to have the new freshness of the wine of the Spirit. You've got to have a new wineskin. You've got to have a new renovated mindset of the Spirit. They that mind the things of the flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but they that mind the things of the Spirit will from the Spirit reap life everlasting.

18:28 New wine is received and sustained by a new wineskin. And that new wineskin is the renovation of the mind to renew in the Spirit of your mind. That is enabling you to sustain what God wants to do. Many times God wants to do something new and vibrant in our life, but we can miss out on it with an old mentality. It kind of reminds me of in Isaiah where it says, behold, I will do a new thing, shall you not perceive it? And so in order for us to receive the new and sustain the new and maintain in the new, we've got to allow the new thing to renovate us. We've got to allow the power of the meditative words, the scriptures meditating on that causes us to have a new mindset and then allow the Spirit to pour into us to give us that new wine.

19:18 Communion with God is eating and drinking, meaning you consume the bread, which is the word of God. Man doesn't live off of bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God and the Spirit, which is meant to be drunk, is meant to drink in, you need food and water to survive. In the Spirit, you need very much the same. You need the word of God to renovate your mind that you need the Spirit of God to take you afresh and bring into new waves of glory. And the thing is, is that the Lord is never stagnant. He's always gonna bring you from glory to glory, from faith to faith, from new wine to new wine.

20:00 And so that's what I would say to that. Yeah. Yeah. That's a good answer. You know, I've loved just thinking about this whole process and I've heard that if you can actually take an old wine skin and make it new by soaking it and beating it, kind of like you would like a baseball glove, you know, you make it pliable. So I've always just tried to make sure that I don't get rigid. Right. Because when we get rigid, then we break. Yeah. We gotta stay pliable. That's right. Let's talk about the presence of the Lord and how it causes us to bend. Yes. And how we need to be able to carry the glory so it doesn't break us.

20:42 Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. This is why waiting upon the Lord is so important. The scripture says, they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings of eagles. And this is why I like to use the term soaking in his presence because that's what prayer is. I like to liken it to this, like you take a cold freeze dried steak, it's rigid, it's cold. What do you need to do? You need to turn on the hot faucet, let the water soak in that, let that sit there for a little bit. And in time, it'll soften. It's the same, our hearts apart from the spirit will naturally be disposed to being carnal and cold.

21:25 And so we need to take that attentive time to get under the fountain of life, which is the Lord, and just sit there. And that soaking will cause a pliability. Our hearts will be softened. I can't tell you how many times, and I'm telling on myself, I can't tell you how many times I've allowed hardness to enter into my life because of busyness or other things that have crept in, it happens, it's the cares of life. That's so easy in life. And so I can't tell you how many times I have felt that. And I've had to be like, Lord, help me love you, help me grow in sensitivity because I am not feeling this right now.

22:07 But when you spend intentional time and you throw yourself on God, and you sit with him, he will shift your heart. Amen. And God will do it, and he's faithful to do it. So maybe for whoever is watching, maybe you feel like you've once loved the Lord, but you no longer desire him the way you did. Well, tell him that. Ask him to give you the desire to desire him. It takes, as my friend Eric Gilmore says, it takes God to want God. It takes God himself to desire God. Once you taste the Lord, you want him more and more. And it's so easy for the flesh to kick in and for us to forget the Lord, even though we know him, sometimes we can forget that sweet touch and embrace and communion of the Spirit because life hits us.

22:58 And so we've got to throw ourselves under the fountain of water and just sit there. Sometimes you don't even have to do anything. That's a revelation right there. Sometimes you don't have to do anything. Just be there. We're so conditioned to not sit still. We're so conditioned to not be in our thoughts or to not let ourself actually process. We're just busy, busy, busy, busy, busy all the time. That's powerful right there. Yeah, there is something to that because the scripture says, it's not by might nor by power, but it's by my spirit. And so it's the spirit of the Lord that moves upon your heart to desire the Lord and go after the Lord.

23:42 I used to have such a hard time connecting with God because I've allowed my heart to just, because of the busyness of life, to really, really hard to spend time with God. But I learned if you just be with him, just solitude with the Spirit will soften the heart. And it's his spirit doing it. The more you get out of the way and the more you decrease, the more he increases. Absolutely. And it's supposed to be, what's the word? Effortless is the word.

24:22 And I love that on your YouTube channel, what's your schedule for that? Yeah, so it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday at 7 a.m. Central or 8 a.m. Eastern. And we spend time in the presence of the Lord and we spend like an hour and a half just sitting still, putting on some worship and just being still. And it's so funny, because we'll get so many people, I need this, I need that, help me. And we purposefully don't give attention there. We give attention to the Lord. And then we will respond to a prayer we got. But it's to teach people how to be still. Because sometimes we need examples, sometimes we don't know. And so the Lord told me about two, three years ago, people don't know how to spend time in my presence.

25:04 And I just want you to just show by example, show and tell, just lead by example. And so we do that, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 7 a.m. Central, 8 a.m. Eastern. Spend time in the presence of the Lord. And then you can search for us, you can search for Chris Garcia, or you can search for Fresh Oil. And it's there on YouTube. That's wonderful. And I definitely recommend that you check that out. You join Chris for those Monday, Wednesday, Friday sessions because they are powerful. And block out the time. Don't let yourself just have it playing in the background. This is an opportunity for you to engage with the Lord and be led in that experience.

25:44 And to be not just an experience, in that practice. Because we need to practice the presence of the Lord. And that is such an important thing that we neglect so much. And Chris, I'm gonna ask you to just pray for everybody that's watching right now. Would you just pray for them that they would encounter the Lord in a special way today? Father, we just come before you, Lord, in Jesus' mighty name. And I lift up every person, Lord, that's listening. And I ask you, Lord, that you would begin to draw them in. That you would begin to woo them by your presence, Lord. Lord, that they would begin to see and to taste that you are good, Lord.

26:24 And I just pray that you would cause a deep yearning of the Spirit, that it's not by might, it's not by efforts or our own strength. It's by the gentle grace of your Spirit, that you're leading, that you're guiding, that you're feeding, that you're instructing. Father, I pray for a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the area of your very glory, just to overtake everyone watching. And that you would cause the hunger to arise. If there's anyone that has lost their first love, I pray that they would recover their first love. If there's anyone that their hunger has waned and they've lost the desire to be with you, I pray that you would quickly recover that and fan into flame those lost desires, Lord.

27:16 And Father, I thank you, Lord God, that you would just impart by your Spirit, by your grace, the desire to seek your face, to be at that place, Lord, of surrender, and just humbling. And I just thank you Father, that you're doing that, even now, in Jesus' precious name. I thank you for your sweet anointing, Lord. Your anointing is present. I thank you that that anointing rests on every single individual, breaking every yoke of bondage, bringing us to fullness of who you are and who we are in you, in Jesus' name, amen. Amen, amen, Chris Garcia, I'm so glad that you've got a book with us now.

28:02 I'm so glad that you're part of the family here at Charisma. And it's been a pleasure to be able to sit with you in person. Amen, same here. I'm excited to be here. It's been, I'm excited to be part of the Charisma family. Amen. Amen. God bless you, brother. God bless you.