Bearing Fruit - Part 7 — Keith Daniel

The Necessity of Daily Quiet Time

Make me miss the quiet time just once. Just take once and I'll start missing again. And up to now, the devils never kept daddy from God. Never. You're not weeping, but you will weep because I can take you to hundreds of preachers' homes whose children weep because their daddies are so ungodly, though they preach the gospel.

So un-Christ-like. You're as real as your quiet time. I said, boys, I can take you to homes of ministers across the world. I can take you to homes, boys, where the mommies weep and weep and weep and weep.

There's few towns I've ever been in the last 20 years. And within moments, ministers' wives have got me aside, weeping, sobbing because of the un-Christ-likeness of the man. Oh, mommy will weep one day if I miss this time.

This is the only reason I can be to your mommy what she wants of me, what she needs me to be. There's no other reason apart from this time with God. You want to see your mother weep, boys? Let me miss this time just once.

Teaching Children to Persevere in Communion with God

It might pave the way for another time. You know, my boys walked away from that door. You might say I was too hard, sir. But to this day, they don't miss God. Twelve o 'clock in the night, if they study for their exams, they still open the Bible and read their chapters.

Even I turned one night and said, Roy, God doesn't expect this of you. You're tired. He'll understand. Go to sleep. He said, Daddy, if I miss just once, it will mean I will miss again. I don't want to miss even once, Daddy, no matter what time it is in the night through studies.

Honest and Alert Prayer

You're as real as your quiet time. You're as safe as your quiet time. If you get on your knees and you go to sleep, don't ever get on your knees again. Don't lie. A quiet time is not sleeping. On your knees, you may as well stay in bed.

Don't ever get on your knees again, sir, if you fall asleep. If your mind just goes, get up. Wash your face, have a bit of tea, something. Show up. And you people don't shave. I forget where I am. Soon you'll never let me back if you see me with a beard.

I don't know. Well, the whole thing is don't just go on your knees and fall asleep. Get up. Do anything. Do exercises. God is far better than two hours of sleep on your knees. Don't lie. Do what works.

Using Psalms and Hymns to Pray

Sing. You can't pray. Sing the hymns. Sing the psalms. Like Luther, when he said he couldn't pray, write the psalms. He realized God gave us the psalms. He only learned to pray properly when he had prayed the psalms through many, many times.

He said he learned to get into the presence of God. So he even bypassed normal prayer and he just prayed the psalms. They're not just there for poetic beauty. They're to teach us to pray. Sing hymns like others.

Do anything but get through to God. Do what works. Do what works. Walk with God. Because you're as real as your quiet time. You're as safe as your quiet time. I'm going to tell you something now that will shock most of you.

The Quiet Time and the Fall of Ministers

I don't know why I had to argue with God a lot about this. But for some reason, when preachers of all denominations in our country fail and fall into God, fall into sin, for some reason, God gets this poor man now.

Just get me to these preachers. Some men who've moved literally thousands to God. Be careful now. Don't judge some denomination. There's very few left where preachers haven't fallen into sin and brought great shame on God.

And they always get this poor man. For years now. Oh, I used to argue so with God about it. Then I, I say, I can't come to Him. I sat at His feet when I was saved. For years I sat there. Why do you want me to come?

Here is 140 ,000 to God, they say. Now the shame, the scandal, the front page headlines, the disgrace on the church in the name of God, fall into sin. What do you do? They say, you're coming. You're getting on the plane.

You're coming. You know what they do to me? They just push me in the door. And they all get away. In the cars, leave me. And I look at these people, these men, some in the household names in our nation who fell into sin.

Weeping Over Sin and Spiritual Ruin

And I weep. That's the first thing I do. God seems to have got that right in me. I just weep, and I weep, and I weep, and I weep, and I weep. And then only after 15 minutes sometimes they start weeping.

Sometimes the first tear that leaves their eyes after the shame and the disgrace upon their home and the church in the name of Jesus. The only time they weep is when they watch somebody sobbing in front of them for 15 minutes.

Then they start weeping. Do you know that exception? I've never ever asked. I've never ever asked what went wrong. What went wrong, I would have told them. You neglected God, or this would never have happened.

It wasn't that woman that was your sin. That woman would never have happened if you didn't have a wife, preacher. You neglected God. When you were real, when you moved the world to God, everybody trembled under your ministry.

I have no doubt, I don't have to ask you to answer me. You were in tender touch with God. Nothing kept you from God. The quiet time was the result of your ministry. Your ministry was the result of the quiet time.

Busyness as the Opening for Temptation

And the devil couldn't touch you. The devil cannot touch you if you don't neglect God. He cannot touch you. Don't doubt that. And I know the devil must have watched you, sir. And after the year, all he could say is, there's nothing I can do.

He can't miss the call. He's always there getting through to God. I can do nothing. So the devil said back and by, there is time. Until one day, one day the devil saw you through God's work probably. Most probably.

Too busy with God's work. And God's work becomes sin if it keeps you from God, sir. That's sin. Even if it's God's work itself. And I guarantee you the devil watched you one day when you suddenly, through busyness, neglected God.

And he sat up and he looked and he said, ah, now I'll get him. Oh, I'll get him. And he got you, sir. Without exception, and I mean this, and you would not believe how many preachers I've had to go and pray with about this.

Confession, Cleansing, and Restoration

Without exception, not word perfect, but basically they say this. Keith, God sent you. This is my sin. Not the sin the world is disgraced now by my life. My sin is I began to neglect God and that's when these things started.

Before they were never there. God sent you to tell me. Well, we get on our knees, we weep, we pray for cleansing in the blood. Most of those men, I thank God, were forgiven and allowed back in the pulpit.

Some of them were never allowed back in the pulpit. Their sin was too great for them to ever know. Even if they were made right with God, they were never given the right to ever preach again. They forfeited that right.

Quiet Time as the Foundation of Christian Purity

You're as safe as your quiet time. You're as real as your quiet time. You say to me, give me 10 reasons here, sir. Of what makes a Christian real. I can't. There's only one. The quiet time. The 10 things you're thinking of are the result of the quiet time.

They could never be there. Serving God doesn't keep you pure. Reaching souls, witnessing doesn't keep you pure.