So why haven't I felt His power much lately? Matt nailed it: I'm too busy to set time aside for God.

This podcast episode was a good opportunity for God to scramble me up and rearrange me. Usually I don't hear discussions like this that honestly express the challenges I face without being critical of them. Thank you. I struggle with the whole mix of making myself do things that I could or would never do without the help of the Holy Spirit so am I doing them in my own flesh question. When am I getting into a works-based mentality and when is God challenging me to do things just because they're good for me?

I'm educated far beyond my obedience in this area, but I'll string together a couple of nuggets I've found useful, as briefly as possible.

God answers every prayer: Yes, no or wait. God answers yes more often when we pray His will. Reading the Bible reveals His will. Praying before reading helps in this area.

My dad once explained to me how Lord's Prayer can be a great template for prayer: acknowledging who God is, seeking His will (and confessing we've fallen short of it), asking for His help and protection, and glorifying His name. Whenever I use this pattern, He always interrupts me to reveal something about one of those areas.

I'm enjoying the current batch of the podcast. It's been worth the wait. You guys really came out swinging this time around!

Micah

The clearest answer to prayer was a couple years ago when our Sunday school class prayed for my wife and her depression. After battling with it for close to two years, "the prayers of a righteous man avails much". She turned the corner and through counseling, medication, and confession, I have my wife back. I have thanked God for her everyday since then. Now we regularly look for answers.

I have an example of "sit down prayer" "working" tonight (although I'm not sure it is exactly what you were talking about, but anyway):
I was trying to help fix a friend's PC (it wasn't getting online), and I'd tried many things. At one point, it wasn't even booting up.
I had the pc on my lap, and I prayed that it would start up again.
I plugged it in, and it booted up fine, and I was able to get it back online again. Praying to help with technical things often "worked" at my soon-to-be-ex job too. I'd just "happen" to know the fix to a problem, even if I'd not seen it before - or independently I'd just read up on that particular thing recently, so knew what to do when someone asked.

God is great!

I just listened. Is joe now a Borg?? I think he's been assimilated.