Cultivate a Deep & Intimate Relationship with God | Shawn Paul

Join me and my guest, Shawn Paul, a former real estate professional turned full-time missionary, as we discuss the profound transformation of relocating one's life for the faith. Shawn opens up about his transition from the American dream to the challenges of missionary life in Central America, sharing the pivotal moments that led him from Iowa to Honduras and Guatemala. Listen in as he reflects on the unmistakable call of God, the courage required to follow it, and the importance of distinguishing divine guidance from personal ambition or societal expectations.

In our conversation, Shawn and I explore the nuances of building a personal relationship with God, especially when one's earthly relationships, such as with a father, may be fraught with difficulties. Discover the significance of quiet prayer, the power of the Holy Spirit's whispers over constant noise, and the need for solitary communion with God amidst life's clamor. I open up about my struggles with feeling inadequate in prayer and how realizing that God understands our hearts, even beyond words, has deepened my faith. We also discuss the necessity of balancing church involvement with personal time with God, akin to private moments in a marriage, to sustain a healthy spiritual connection.

Wrapping up this enriching dialogue, Shawn shares his wisdom on the transformative power of scripture in personal and spiritual growth. We examine how God works within us to fulfill His will, drawing from Philippians 2:13, and delve into the practical steps of integrating this understanding into everyday life. Learn about the importance of prayer, Bible study, and responding to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, as well as the value of creating a distraction-free space and journaling for spiritual reflection. Shawn's insights serve as a guide for anyone looking to foster a more focused and fulfilling walk with the Lord. Tune in for an enlightening discussion that promises to inspire and encourage your own spiritual path.

Connect with Shawn Paul:
✔Websitelifeisjesuschrist.com
✔Facebook https://www.facebook.com/shawndpaul
✔LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnpaul-missions/
✔Podcast https://www.lifeisjesuschrist.com/podcast

✰ SOCIALS ✰
✔Website - https://www.ruthhovsepian.com/
✔Podcast - https://outofthedarknesswithruthhovsepian.buzzsprout.com/
✔Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/ruthhovsepian/
✔Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ModernDayRuthRedeemed/
✔LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthhovsepian/
✔Speaking - https://www.ruthhovsepian.com/speaking
✔Books - https://www.ruthhovsepian.com/booksruthhovsepian

✰ BUSINESS EMAIL ✰
info@ruthhovsepian.com

✰ MUSIC ✰
hot music - winning-elevation

Transcript

00:18 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
Welcome to Out of the Darkness with Ruth Hovsepian, and today my guest Shawn Paul, and we are talking about developing and cultivating a deep and intimate relationship with God. And it's really interesting that Shawn. Well, the interesting part is not Shawn is is from, but where he is today. Shawn is is a native of Iowa and now calls Guatemala his home. A believer in the Lord for over 30  Shawn, has dedicated the past decade of his life as a full-time missionary, blending his faith and technology skills to create a significant impact in Central America and around the world. Welcome, Shawn. 

01:02 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
Hey, ruth, it's awesome to be here. Thank you so much. 

01:05 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
It is my pleasure to have you and I would love to start off by how does an American involved in real estate and flipping houses leave it all and move his family to Guatemala? 

01:19 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
Well, you know, it just kind of goes down to this, as God said. So, you know, I just try to subscribe to follow the plan and purpose of God for my life from really actually the beginning, but it really kind of heavily started my life in 1993. So fast forward to 2008. God put me in the mission field in Honduras. I've been to Mexico as a missionary, you know, doing short term team missions. Never really even thought about missions. Honduras I've been to Mexico as a missionary, you know, doing short term team missions. Never really even thought about missions. But God told me to go to Honduras during that. You know the introduction, so to speak, of the missionary, the Lord's like you're going to become a missionary here in Honduras. So that's kind of where we started our mission work. And then about a year and a half ago we moved to Guatemala. So it was just really just the Lord just making an impression on my heart that this is the call and plan and purpose that he has for my life. 

02:10 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
I think it's hard enough to go into missions, especially in this day and age, but to do it with a family and leaving something that you've built up, I think is even more faith-based, that you're trusting. You're trusting in what the Lord wants you to do, and I understand that it's difficult, leaving the comfort of your home and going. But why Guadalmodo? What was it about it that really spoke to you at that time? 

02:45 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
it about it that really spoke to you at that time. Well, you know, as far as I mean again, kind of, the first country was Honduras. We were there for nine years and you know, again, it really does come down to the Lord saying you know, I want you to become a missionary here, I want you to walk away from what you have known. And we did that. But as far as why Guatemala, I don't know, I just kind of developed this love for Guatemala. There are two countries right next to each other. I've been to Guatemala multiple times. My daughter actually lives here, you know. You said bringing a family to the mission field. She came with us. She married a Honduran. They kind of migrated, I guess, over to Guatemala because her husband's brother actually owns businesses there. So he was working for his brother, so just just spending time in Guatemala, just developing a love for Guatemala. And we just kind of felt like our time in Honduras was done in the sense of living there. We still minister there. 

03:43
And I just asked God, there's two things in my heart. I said, look, you know, cause I don't speak fluent Spanish, so I can't sit in a in a church service and understand exactly what's being said. So I said, Lord, I really want to have a church that I can attend that's English speaking. And then I said, God, would you permit me to go to Guatemala? Would you give me permission to go to Guatemala? And what's funny is, when we announced that we were moving there, a lot of our mission friends meaning short term teams that came. They just said, hey, you know, you've always said that you wanted to move to Guatemala. So I really think it's kind of God's gift to me to be able to live here. So I've been here about a year and a half and, like I said, I just love being in this country, I love living here. 

04:31 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
I could stay and ask questions about the whole transition from our North American like our American way of life, to traveling and living in an area of missions and integrating. But I really also want to talk about, as I said on the onset, about building this intimate relationship with God, and I think that part of that is when we open ourselves up to what the Lord wants us to be doing in our lives, and that is a difficult one, right? How do we know that this isn't the desire of our heart, or maybe the pressure of our environment saying you know? 

05:13
you need to go as a missionary or else you're not fulfilling, you know, the Great Commission. But I really I'm very, very vocal about the fact that we need to and I love the way you put it cultivate a deep and intimate relationship with God. 

05:35
And I think that that is, that should be, the basis of our, of our faith and what we are doing. How does that translate into what you have? You followed it right, You've got this relationship because you heard the invitation, you know, and but what to you does that look like? What does it look like to have this intimate relationship with God? 

06:02 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
this intimate relationship with God. Well, I mean, I kind of want to dial back to 1993, because that's where, you know, I started a company, a construction company in Iowa. And you know, during that time, you know I've never owned a company before, never had employees before, I never had to, like you know, support my family beyond, you know, the 40 hour week job. So, during that time of owning that construction company, I was forced on my needs, I was forced to to, to enter in and pray and seek God's face, because I didn't know everything. You know I there was there's probably like 10 percent that I knew and 90% I didn't know. So, as I learned to, to follow God and follow his plan and purpose, and and and pray and and, uh, believe that I'm being led by God, that's where, that's where everything begun for me and to develop in this relationship with him. So see, I have just always desired to have this intimate relationship with God, but I would probably say even more so here. You know, let's just say, within the last year I've just really put a greater mandate on my life like never before, and that is being very intentional about my relationship with God. 

07:19
Not, you know, it's never been a, you know, shallow relationship. It's always been, you know, me seeking God, but me being very intentional, I used to just never set the alarm. Now I set the alarm, I, you know, would get up at six o'clock. Now I get up at five o'clock, you know why? Because I'm wanting to press in, I'm wanting to spend time with God, I'm wanting to be intentional about my time of reading the word and studying the word and developing studies and understanding God's word on a deeper level. But it all comes down to being very intentional about what I'm doing and it's not something like a side hustle, so to speak. It's my life, it's my devotion of my whole entire life. You know, my wife, my kids and my relationship with God, you know, is just really first and foremost. And then, like I said, my relationship with God is first and foremost of everything. 

08:14 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
Yeah, I never really understood this until I got into this healing process and coming out of addiction what it meant to make this kind of a commitment. I I grew up in the church. I was, you know, I was in church the first week of my life was teaching Sunday school at. You know, I was maybe barely 1213 years old teaching very young children. You know I grew up with that. You know my grandparents were believers. They were prayer warriors. My parents were, you know, there. I grew up with that legacy and I never understood it. And though I had made a commitment at a young age and was baptized and you know all of the things that were we should do, I never understood what it meant to develop and cultivate an intimate relationship with the Lord. I was living the faith of my parents and I only see that now, when I am in my own relationship with the Lord, I'm walking my faith not my parents' faith or generational faith, and I too have become, you know. 

09:30
I look back at the years where I thought I was walking with the Lord and I wasn't, because I was very quickly, you know, drawn into the world and I was very quickly falling for what the world was offering me, knowing the truth and that's mind boggling right that you know the word of God, you know all that he has offered. But I think that if you don't experience it like, if you're not walking the faith, then you don't understand the freedom that your faith gives you and you fall into that temptation very easily. And I now going through this journey for the last nine years. I look back and I understand why I didn't find the peace I should have, because I was not, I was not in that relationship with the. 

10:30 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
Lord. 

10:30 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
I was just, it was just, you know, sort of let's, let's sort of say, it was a Facebook friendship. You you think you know them right. 

10:41 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
Yeah you. That's a good way to say that. 

10:43 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
Yeah, you see their Facebook posts. Oh, this is lovely, I love what they're saying, I agree with them. You see their images and you sort of picture yourself with them, but do you really know them? No, you don't know their hurts or what makes them smile or what hurts them, and I think that's the difference that I'm no longer a Facebook friend or you know, with God I've got this very intimate relationship. It's I encourage this to everyone to to get this experience. 

11:20 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
And I think you know, like you said, the Facebook, and that's really great analogy. I'm going to remember that. But I just believe that, you know, to some people relationships doesn't come natural to them. You know, you know I was jokingly saying, you know, years ago I'm I'm from Iowa but I, a lot of my adult life is in Kentucky. And you know, in Iowa, you know it's like this at church. You know, the arms stretched out, shaking the hand, kentucky it's like come here, give me a hug. You know, and you know, over the years I've developed into this person of you. Know, like I said, the outstretched arm. I'm gonna shake your hand, I'm not gonna hug you, I don't want to hug you and now you're in Central America. 

12:00 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
So you are uh. 

12:01 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
I'm a, I'm a hugger and you know I just I just love to, to connect with people. So I'm just saying, over the years it's kind of like the same thing with my relationship with God. You know, it was kind of a superficial relationship, not not? You know, again, I was a guy that loved God, I chased God, but again it was still a shallow, superficial relationship. But over time now it's like like it's an obsession of mine, it's obsession of my having this relationship with God and I just think it's over time the Holy Spirit's just kind of molded me into this person who I am today and I just obsessively want to have this relationship with God. But again, it takes work. You have to be intentional. 

12:44
I mean, I'll admit, like this morning I was just kind of throwing a fit, I was just being a baby about some things, you know. You know, and I'm like God, I don't even want to talk about it right now, I just you know. And then, you know, slowly but surely, as I'm working on my stuff, this morning, the Lord's like tapping me on the shoulder, like I love you, buddy, I really care about you. You know, we need to work this thing out, you know. And again, it's just some things I'm believing for and I'm just wishing it would come quicker than what it is for ministry and stuff like that, and I'm not willing to put in some of the effort that's required, you know. So I'd like I said, just that's the relationship I have with him, you know, and and before this, before this podcast interview, you know I'm like, ok, god, I get it All right, you know, and that's just like I said, but that all comes in time in just developing their relationship. 

13:34
And one other thing I do want to mention and I think a lot of people struggle with, is that they associate their relationship with God as their earthly father, their biological father. 

13:43
Yes, you know now, I had an amazing relationship with my earthly father. He was a great father but at the same time I've seen people like their fathers are abusive. They kind of correlate that with Father God. That Father God's abusive as well, and that's the thing that the greatest mistake a lot of people can make is they. You cannot associate or correlate your earthly father with your heavenly father. You need to get in the word of God and really truly find out who he is and once you do, you're going to realize wait a minute, I've been treating my father God like my earthly father all these years, when really my father God loves me, you know, and he sent his son. I mean, he loves me so much he wants to have a constant, consistent relationship with me. Once that revelation comes, then it's kind of like full bore, like you can just go into this relation full bore and having this intimate relationship with him yeah, it's. 

14:37 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
It's interesting. I I, I'm glad you brought that up because I've had people tell me the same thing that they they didn't have a healthy relationship with their earthly father, and you know it's very difficult to to have that. You know, have that trust in their relationship and I, I, I agree with you in that there are two different relationships. And when you are digging into the word of God, when you are spending the time to pray and build that two-way conversation, when you sit quietly and let the Holy Spirit speak to you and you allow the Holy Spirit to speak to you, we're afraid of the silence, right, we live in a world full of noise. 

15:30
And when we cut that off. It is difficult for us sometimes to just sit there. It makes us nervous. We need to do something. But that was something I had to cultivate for myself and develop for myself was to stop talking when I'm praying. I'm a talker, I admit it. That's why I do a podcast. But you know, I had to in my prayer because I came into this, this journey of my own, saying OK, I need to, I need to become up. You know, I need to pray and I need to develop this praying relationship. 

16:09
So I felt very humbled because, even though I can speak a mile a minute, when it came to prayer I stumbled as a child, speaking in front of someone holy, someone great. And I'm the first to admit, I have a dear friend of mine. When she prays it is like music to my ears and it's not a front she puts up, it's just the way she speaks. And I listened to her pray and I think of all the songs that we read, the words, the poetry. That's my friend. And then I pray and I feel like a stumbling fool because the words you know they, they just don't come out the same way. So I was very fixated on that part of prayer. I had to learn to say Ruth, you don't have to be speaking all the time. The Lord knows your heart. Say your words, your baby words, and then sit silent and wait to hear, and I think that is part of our relationship. 

17:28 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
Yeah Well, you know, I do kind of want to jump in, if you don't mind. 

17:32 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
You said something that is very, very important. 

17:35 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
And one thing I do teach and share about is if we think we're going to have an intimate relationship with God amongst the noise that we permit in our lives, you're going to find massive hindrance. I kind of like try to associate it with like standing, you know, in a European train station, so to speak, and you're standing on one side and someone else is standing on the other side and periodically a train shoots through, but you're still trying to have a conversation with that person, and I think that's what we try to do with God. Is we think that we're going to like have God, like you know I use again the phrase side hustle, like catch him on the fly, amongst all the other noise that we have in life, amongst, like, the obsession with cell phones and TV and entertainment and and, like you said, it's strange to just not even have noise around you. It's like weird, you know so, people are just so obsessed with having that noise. It's like, you know so people are just so obsessed with having that noise. It's like when I go to sleep at night, I got to have a fan running. You know it's, it's it's for some reasons. It soothes me, you know. So I'm just saying is we've got to get to, we got to learn to develop those places of quiet time and, like you said, we can talk. 

18:50
But then there's times that we just got to shut up and listen, allow him to speak to us, because if we're just doing all the talking and then we try to catch him amongst you know what we're doing on our cell phones and stuff like that it's not going to work. It just will not work and I don't think he'll even allow it to work because he's like I'm not going to, I'm not going to have this relationship amongst all the other distractions that you're permitting in your life. You know I want some alone time. It's like me and my wife. You know there's times you're just like kids. Now I don't have kids in the house anymore, but it's like mom and dad are going away. You're not coming with us. We're going to have alone time and I think that's what God is demanding is alone time. 

19:33 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
Have alone time, and I think that's what God is demanding is alone time. Yeah, and some of the noise and I know that some people don't like it when I say this, but the noise also comes from the church itself. 

19:43
Right, we become so involved with church activities it doesn't matter what it is, church activities that we don't develop this personal relationship. It's great to go to church. I encourage people to be part of a church family, part of that community. That's part of this relationship. Right, we need those healing relationships that are there. But we also, on the flip side of it, sometimes become so preoccupied with all kinds of activities and commitments in the church that we first of all forget the family commitments we have to our spouses, to our children. But most of all, our personal relationship with our Heavenly Father gets put on the back burner because we're just too busy. 

20:42
You know, getting ready for this or getting ready for that, and it is difficult to have a happy medium. But I think that having that personal relationship and developing it will give us the balance that we need and know and I have found it very difficult over the years to say not now, this is not where the Lord wants me to be, even though I want to be involved in that particular ministry. This is where the Lord wants me now and when. And I think the confidence I hate to use that word but I'm going to, I'm going to use it because of a lack of a better word is the confidence for me to be able to say not this, but this is where the Lord wants me, is because you start to dial in to the right radio stations, the right, you know communication with the Lord, and I don't want people to misunderstand hearing us. 

21:43
But it is difficult even for me, and I love what you said about the. Sometimes we are impatient, even in our ministry lives, and I'm at that point in my life and I'm like Lord, I want to do this for you and I want to do that. And then I need to dial it down, tone it down and say, okay, lord, I'm. This isn't where you. You want me right now. Maybe it's in a year or two years or maybe never, and in and but. 

22:11 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
We wouldn't be able to have that, that, that wisdom of saying the lord is telling me to sit back or to be patient unless I have the relationship yeah, you know, I just got in writing a blog post about, you know, growing weary, and this is kind of one of the things that I wrote in the blog post is about. We need to have these constant, constant assessments, so to speak, and assess our lives, assess where we're going and what we're doing for the kingdom of God. And you know, it's just like, for example, and what I'm doing is I'm reaching around the world for the gospel of Jesus Christ through my platform. Life is Jesus Christ and you know I get tugged all the time. I get constant messages on LinkedIn from pastors saying you know, can you do a Zoom call Bible study? Can you preach at this through Zoom? You know they're wanting me to do all these Zoom calls and at first it was exciting to get all these invites. You know it's like, hey, this is cool, but you know it was like God's like, dude, you need to dial this down, you are getting stretched out too far. 

23:14
So I just think that we always need to be aware because, yeah, even though you're going in the right direction and, like you said, the confidence, there's nothing. That's a great word. You have this confidence in the spirit. You have this confidence that you are being led by God. But sometimes we can have, we can sometimes tweak it a little bit ourselves and then, instead of going in the right direction, we kind of get off center and that's kind of where the weariness kind of comes in. So it's like, sitting at my desk this morning I was going through my schedule you know I'm obsessive with planning and things like that and I sat there and I thought you know, I wonder what I'm planning here, some of this stuff I may need to be dropping there. And I thought, you know, I wonder what I'm planning here, some of this stuff I may need to be dropping. So I just think that, like you said, you know, even with the church, years ago I'll never forget I was in Honduras and I went to a restaurant and I saw my friend that you know we were attending this church and stuff. 

24:06
I saw him. I said, well, where's your wife at? And he goes. Well, she's at the church. I'm going, oh, ok. And then he goes, like always, you know, he just mumbles on his breath, like always. And I'm like, oh, ok, and I'm like OK, so, and then I don't remember how the conversation went, but it's kind of like, yeah, she never has time to eat dinner with us, and so it was just kind of like OK, now I'm kind of getting what he's saying. And again he wasn't complaining that she was serving in the church. He served with the church too. He played in the, you know, he played in the church band and you know he did a lot of things as well. 

24:41
But again it kind of got to the point with saying she's out of balance. You know, and there's nothing wrong with being involved in local church, I am obsessive about being a part of a community, like we should be a part of a church. We should be going and being a part of it, because I think that's how we advance the kingdom of God. But I think it's important to have balance, have balance. It's okay to say no, it's okay to say you know, I just don't really feel like I need to be a part of it. Like you said, this ministry Now I'm very careful about this because I think there's ministry but then there's places of just serving. 

25:18
You know we should be actively serving. But again, you know, like a good pastor would say, you know what I've seen you at church here the last 20 nights. You know, every night you've been here doing something. I think you need to dial this back. You need to be considering about the balance of being, you know, either a father or mother, whatever it may be. I want you to have balance in your life, so I think you need to probably just take some nights off, you know? I mean, there's nothing wrong with that. 

25:48 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
Yeah, I have to agree with you on that one and I know that sometimes it's not a popular stance to take. But I think that if you want to be, you know, especially for men and I'm very traditional in that way that the man is the head of the house and especially leading the family spiritually right. And I've seen this in my own family where if the head, the man of the house, is not spiritually the leader, the rest of the family sort of falls you know, in spiritual matters and I think that it is a difficult instance. 

26:34
You know that balance of developing your own relationship with the Lord, serving in your church, serving in the church, you know, obeying the great call to. You know, like, we all have the Great Commission, what we have to do. It looks different for all of us, but we're all called. We all have the great commission what we have to do. It looks different for all of us, but we're all called. We all were called to that great commission. And balancing your, your family and your personal relationships with your friends and family and your spouse and your children. 

27:07
I think that I think when your relationship with God is being developed and nurtured, it becomes easier to be able to do the balancing because you have a better know with the type of ministry that you are doing and you know the podcast and whatnot. If someone were to ask you you know how do I grow in my relationship with God, like what? What first steps can I take? What would you what? What is your advice to someone in that way? 

27:52 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
Sure, you know the thing, the scripture that transformed and changed my life. And you know, sometimes, when you share the scripture so much as I do, you know, sometimes it seems like I'm a broken record, but I think it's so powerful I was actually trying to find it here. Maybe I don't have it written down, but it's Philippians 2.13, where it says God will give you the power and the desire to do what pleases him. Where it says God will give you the power and the desire to do what pleases him. So, and that's in the NLT version it doesn't read quite well, at least that well, you know. That doesn't resonate that well to me. Is this NLT version? 

28:28
And you know, when I found this scripture, I was struggling. I was struggling in some areas of my life. I was struggling with some sin in my life and I was always trying to fix myself, you know, and I would fail myself over and over. And I just learned I could not fix myself. And what it came down to is, once I realized, once I saw the scripture, I was like, okay, now I get it. God, it's not about me fixing myself, it's about you, your power, you're going to empower me by the Holy Spirit to, to, to basically fix me, but you will give me the power and the desire to do what pleases you. So now, what I do now is I implement this in my life on a constant, consistent basis, because really, I mean, we can look at a broad range of things. 

29:10
What pleases God? You know, I tell people, you know, we always talk about the love of God. You know, oh, god loves us, god loves us. But see, yeah, that's right, he sent his son to a dying world to to bring salvation to them. Yeah, because he loved them. But my question is is God pleased with you? 

29:28
Now, I don't want people to listen and think about getting into a legalistic relationship with God. You know, let's just stay away from the legalism, because that that, to me, is just getting into the ditch on the right side, but let's just stay in the middle of the road. So see, I should focus on things. What would please God? Having an intimate relationship pleases him. Reading our word pleases him. Spending time in prayer pleases him. So see, to me, the first and foremost thing would be God. I recognize these are the things that please you. I need the power and the desire to do that Because I mean, as believers in Christ. Sometimes it's just easy to plop down on the couch, pick up the remote and just be just be absorbed in three hours of watching TV. You know that does nothing for us. 

30:13
So then you know, to me I'm like God, I want to have this intimate relationship with you, I want to read my word, I want to pray. And then the next step to me is just being obedient when the Holy Spirit prompts you and just says hey, look, you know, why don't you get up early tomorrow and why don't you go spend some time in reading and praying? And as we are obedient to those promptings of the Holy Spirit, guess what? He's a gentleman. He's going to continue to prompt us. He's going to continue to draw us in deeper. 

30:39
Now I'm not boasting on myself, but I'm just saying this is where I'm at in my life now. Tv, you know, I can watch three, four hours in one night and not even think about it, and go to bed and not even think about it. I had all my TV shows, I had my DVR where I had everything set. And now today I just sit here and think, dude, this is not profiting you anything. Why don't you go do something that's more profitable? Now I can't even watch TV, but maybe, maybe an hour, hour and a half. So I'm just saying it's just, we just got to be obedient to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Now I, like you know, the other night, sunday I do no work. On Sunday I really spend time either with my wife and things like that, but literally Sunday afternoon I we came home and I spent time with my wife and my mother-in-law. She's here and I was just like I want to go up and do a Bible study and I had a awesome time. I enjoyed it. I loved it. So see again that scripture God will give you the power and the desire to do what pleases him. So see now, to me, I'm just in my life where I'm just like, like I said, because of that scripture, it's transforming, so much so that now I desire to have this intimate walk with the Lord. To me, that's the first step. That's the first step. 

32:00
And then the other thing, too, is like journaling. You know, I know that's maybe an old, antiquated statement you know who journals today. You know me, I'm a tech geek. I love technology. My journal is on my laptop. You know, while I'm sitting there praying, I have music playing, I have my Bible study app open and I have my journal open and I'll sit there and think about some things and I'll, you know, then I'll just start journaling and chew on what I'm reading. So see, to me it's something I can go back and reflect on. I can go back and say, well, you know, this is what the Lord spoke to me at that time. Now I can see it coming forth in my life, you know, or I can see some direction that God's leading guided me. So I think journaling is very important. 

32:43
Then, you know, I know, a lot of times people can't always have this, but try to get into a distraction-free environment. You know, right now my door's closed to my office. You know, I mean, there's a lot of times my wife just knows, hey, his door's closed, he's studying the word, he's spending time with the Lord, you know, and she doesn't just barge in, you know, she may message me on my phone or something through WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger and say, hey, I need to check the printer or whatever. You know. So I'm just saying just having a distraction-free environment, you know. You know. So I'm just saying just having a distraction free environment, you know so. 

33:23
I mean there's a lot of practical things that you can do to begin to develop an actual intimate relationship with God and as you do, that it just become more. You know I don't want to say natural because that's like out of the flesh, but you know it's a supernatural thing, but it's just a natural thing in your life Now you just want it, you demand of it. It's something that you desire to have in your life and that's who you are, it's your lifestyle now. 

33:43 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
I liken it to going to the gym and muscle memory you know? 

33:48 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
Oh, that's awesome yeah. 

33:50 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
Yeah, you train your body, you train your mind, and I want to add to what you said, because I am in total agreement with what you said about developing that quiet space, that that that need to feed yourself. And I want to reach over here and pull iJournal in a different way. And for me it's like right now it looks like this look, I'm a techie person, but when it comes to my prayer time, this is my my book and it has developed, and you know my writing books about prayer is to me very important and this book signifies people. I pray for people who have have asked me to pray for them, and that is such a humbling thing. When someone says, ruth, will you pray for me, it's not because I am better than they are or my voice is louder than theirs. 

34:44
It is just that they want someone alongside them. So to me, this is my journal, my prayer journal, and it is very important. And I too have developed this time where I don't schedule anything. I don't, you know, work on my books. I don't write for anything else, I simply study the word of God and I pray. And there's a time in the morning I don't schedule anything. I have to admit I need to get into the getting up early. I go to bed very late. Sometimes I'm going to bed when everyone else is waking up. That's a whole other conversation. 

35:22 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
Shawn. 

35:23 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
But right now I have a time every time, you know my calendar is on my computer or you know, online and that window I don't schedule anything. It's my quiet time to pray, my quiet time to read the Word of God, to study the Word of God. And I always say those separately because I find reading is one thing but studying is something as well. So I agree with you. I think that we need to set out, you know, a routine, and I know some people hate that word routine, but it really is something we need to develop and want and have. Our body and our mind and our heart want and crave more. 

36:15 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
Yeah. 

36:15 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
So your example of you know this, you know wanting to go into your study and read the word of God and do a Bible study. I think that's a development. You develop that maturity to want that relationship right Because it is a relationship, you know, I think about young people, I think about my kids as they were meeting their spouses. Say you know that, that desire to be together all the time and talk about all the time. Well, you know, I liken that to our relationship with our Heavenly Father. 

36:51 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
You know we want to talk about him we want to know more about him, we want to spend more time with him. So let me ask you this, or just even your listeners, I mean, you know, let's just say the women that's listening what would you think if you went to your husband's desk and opened up his his calendar, so to speak and he had penciled in there every day, spend time with my wife. You know, and had an actual time that he noted and said this is the time I'm going to spend with my wife. I mean, what would that make you feel like? That would make you feel like, wow, that's amazing. Actually, put me into his schedule. You know he actually is going to be intentional about our relationship. Yes, why wouldn't God think the same thing? 

37:34 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
That's what I think too. It's intentionality of it. If that's a word, you know the person is being very intentional about it and and I think we need to do that, because there are studies that have happened, that have been done, that that say that if you put something on your calendar I know, and some of it has to do with goals and stuff like that If you write it down, if you put it in your calendar, if you note it, you will do it, whereas if you just think about and I'm a list maker if I make a list, I do it. If I put it on my list, it gets done. 

38:09
If I think about it, I have too much going on to just remember and the chances are it's not important enough enough and it gets pushed down to another day. But if it's on my list, if it's on my calendar, I do it because I like checking things off. So I really encourage people and I love what you just said as well. You know about being intentional, putting it onto our calendar and it may look different for everyone, but I think that we need to do it and I think that's part of building that real intimate relationship that we are looking for with God. Shawn, I want to thank you for being here today. 

38:50 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
Oh, thank you so much. 

38:51 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
Sharing with us your own experience, your wisdom, your knowledge. I've really enjoyed this conversation, and to the listeners and to those that are watching. If you have questions, tell us about how you have gone to develop your own relationship with our Lord and Savior. What does that look like? And if you have questions on what are your next steps and how you can do it, please leave a comment. You can reach out Shawn as as well. I'm going to leave all of his contact information in the show notes and the description below. Go out, you know, send him your questions, send me your questions and we'd be glad to follow up with you and answer your questions. Thank you for being on Out of the Darkness, Shawn. 

39:39 - Shawn Paul (Guest)
Well, thank you so much. It's awesome to be here and it was great to share you know just my relationship with others about the Lord. 

39:47 - Ruth Hovsepian (Host)
Thank you.