Dharius Daniels - Mastering Meditation

Well, what’s up, everybody? Man, I hope y’all are doing incredible! Come on into the office, come on into the room, and sit right across from me right here at this desk. I am so grateful to God for you, and I am just floored that so many of you have been showing up at the office for this Fire Starters Bible study. Thank you for spreading the word, and we want to help as many people as possible get exposed to this. So, if you’re watching this live, I want you to like this, and as we get into the content, if you feel like, «Ah, yo, there’s somebody on my mind that I feel could benefit from this,» I want you to share the word with them as well. You never know how God might want to use you to get somebody else the message that they need, so I always want to encourage you that as you’re receiving teaching, if there’s someone whose name comes to your mind or heart, don’t ignore that prompting. It could be God. There have been so many times that I have ignored or suppressed promptings, feeling like I didn’t want to look weird, crazy, or hyper-spiritual, only to receive confirmation later that I should have reached out and shared something. So, I want to encourage you to keep that in mind. I think we’re going to have an incredible time. Listen, if you’re watching this live, talk back to me in the comments; that’s always so encouraging! I want you to get ready to take notes because remember, this is no frills. It’s not fancy; it’s not intended to be that way. I want you to feel like I’m sitting in my office, and you’re in my office with me, having conversations for the purpose of application—not just revelation and inspiration, but application—as we explore this subject of Fire Starters. All right? So, I’m really, really excited about this and just believing God will use it in an incredible way to add tremendous value to all our lives. I’m going to jump right in. We spent the past couple of weeks discussing this fire starter of prayer, and we really attempted to take a practical approach, exploring the idea of how to overcome some obstacles and hop over some hurdles that get in the way of us actually praying. We addressed some of those for two weeks. I want to move on from the discipline of prayer now and talk a little about this idea of meditation. Here’s a thought that I want you to utilize to frame our conversation today: the heat in your heart is impacted by the condition of your mind. The heat in your heart is impacted by the condition of your mind. Now remember, this series, Fire Starters, is one that we’re using metaphorically to explore what disciplines we can actually engage in to strengthen our spiritual core. If you’re not familiar with that imagery, you need to go back to part one of this Fire Starters Bible study, where we unpacked and explored the most consequential part of your life. The most catalytic part of your life is the spiritual part. What the core is to the body, spirituality is to your life—it has a domino-like impact on every other area. I want you to keep that in mind; it has a domino-like impact on every other area. Your spirituality affects you relationally, vocationally, emotionally, and financially. There is no area of your life that isn’t impacted by your spiritual well-being. So, we’re using the imagery of fire to depict and describe a healthy, vibrant, passionate spiritual life. What I’m telling you is the heat in your heart is impacted by the condition of your mind. Why do I say that? Because the heart and the mind are both parts of the human existence called the soul. Now, many people describe this differently, but this is the working definition that I use: the soul is your mind, will, emotions, imaginations, and affections. So, when I say «your heart,» I’m not talking about the physical organ; I’m talking about your emotional center. I am telling you that the heat in your heart concerning your affections and emotions is impacted by the condition of your mind. Listen to me: you are wherever your head is. Have you ever been in one place physically, but your mind is somewhere else? You cannot be fully present. I don’t care if you’re physically present—if your mind isn’t there, you cannot be fully present emotionally. This is why it’s possible to leave a relationship; some people leave a relationship while others leave and stay. If you know what I’m talking about and you’re watching this live, I just want you to put «truth» right in the chat. If you’re watching this live, put «truth» right in that chat! Yeah, it’s possible to leave a relationship and leave; it’s possible to leave and stay. What does it mean to leave and stay? It means your heart is there, but your mind is no longer there, excuse me, but you’re going.