The Greatest Investment of Your Time - Time Management and Priorities - Ep 4

Welcome to Life Foundations. My name is Keri Pickett and you are joining me on this episode in this series where we are talking about time management and priorities. And maybe this is not a typical thing that you would watch on Christian television, but I'm telling you not understanding time management and priorities is actually one of the key ingredients right now that I see that the enemy is trying to steal from the body of Christ and so many times I walk and talk with people and they're like, oh, I'm just so busy. I myself can hear myself saying that. How are you doing? You know, they're catching me in between this and that and going here from there and oh, things are busy. Oh, I'm so busy, you know, and I'm more than busy. I'm blessed. I'm anointed of the Lord. I'm highly, I'm deeply loved. But yet the thing that comes out is the whatever in that moment seems to be weighing on your heart or mind can come out, oh, I'm so busy or I'm so frustrated or oh, I'm just so tired, right? And that ends up being these phrases that we're defining ourselves by. And so because of that, the enemy is keeping people from in such a whirlwind and in such a distracted mode that you and I can't fully then fulfill the call of God on their lives. The reason I'm sharing time management and priorities with you is I see not only for my own life but here at Karis Bible College, you know, one of the things that we do is we're teaching, you know, practical Christianity. How do we apply the word to our actual life, right? I don't want to just be full of head knowledge. You don't want to be full of head knowledge. Be all puffed up and we want to have something bigger than knowledge. We want to be people of wisdom. And wisdom is when we take this word and we actually apply it to our lives. So all the spheres of your life, spiritual, sexual, relational, vocational, right, financial, all these spheres of your life, we're supposed to say, Lord, they belong to you. And what do you want? We talked about in our last episode in Proverbs chapter 3, verse 5 through 8, that we acknowledge him in all of our ways and he shall make straight our paths. This is the desire I believe many of you have. You would want to get off this roller coaster of constant up and down, doing all of these things, and get in a place that you can say, I'm at the right time, doing the right thing, with the right message, with the right people. This is what's so powerful about the word of God in Romans chapter 12, verse 2. It says that we could know the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Because you're not constantly wondering how to lighten up your schedule or you're not constantly trying to figure out how to fulfill your own agenda or timeline or dreams for your life. Instead, you're giving management of your life to the Holy Spirit. So in the first two, three episodes, what we've been talking about is just redefining what time management is. That it's not packing more into the schedule, organizing it better, having all the automated TikTok things that show up and tell us what to do and how to do it. No, it's not that. It's the aspect of giving leadership to the Lord and saying, Lord, you lead my life. Am I supposed to say yes to this? So many of us are quick. Somebody asks us to do something. We say, uh, we're thinking, okay, when is it? Uh, for how long? Uh, yeah. Yeah. I think I can do that. And what we'll do is we'll say yes, either in trying to please someone else or just in, you know, yeah, sure. It seems fine. Right. And we'll do that. But I'm going to encourage you when somebody asks you to do something, especially as you're watching this series, I believe that God's really going to start showing you some things. And I believe as the same time God's showing you things, it's going to set you free. The enemy is going to try to bring a whole bunch more on your plate during this time. So I want to give you a trick. Not a trick. I'll give you a tip, right? Can I give you a principle here that when someone asks you, hey, could you just say, you know what? Can I get back with you on that? What were the details again? You know what? Let me get back to you. Let me pray about that. Let me, uh, uh, consult my calendar. See if it fits in. Let me talk to my spouse. Oh my goodness. That's a big thing. I'll be like, yeah, sure. And Mike's like, let me, can I get back to you? And I'll let you know, because sometimes the urgency of other people will try to make it emergency for you. Their lack of planning does not mean it's an emergency and a demand and a requirement on you to say yes. And that should set you free right there. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I just don't know what to do. Can you help me? And of course we're like, well, we don't want them to suffer. We don't want them. But again, people and guys, this is going to sound so, this is, this is major. When I heard this the first time I was like, oh my gosh, people will train you. They know, they know if they come to you with an emergency, they know if they come to the last minute, they go, I just don't know what I'm going to do. Can you help me? They know you're going to say yes. So they don't need to plan. They don't need to put their things in order. They always know that you're going to come in and help them and rescue the day. Don't let somebody else train your schedule and train your commitment levels. This has to go to the ownership of the Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, am I supposed to do that? Because there's times I've said no to people and they're like, but I don't know what to do. And guess what? They found somebody else or they figured it out, but their emergency didn't become my emergency. Didn't take away from my family. Didn't come away from commitments I had said to my children or to my marriage. And that's not being selfish. Now you and I can be selfish if we want with our time, but if we're learning to be operating by the leading of the Holy Spirit and say yes, when we're supposed to say yes and no, when we're supposed to say no, that's not being selfish. That's called obedience. That you're listening to the Holy Spirit and you're responding because he knows for them what he can be their source on versus you being the source. Amen. I believe this is setting you free. I want to talk today about the greatest investment of your time. You know, if we're looking at the spheres and going, okay, I only have so many hours. I only have so many fingers and hands. I only have so many spaces in my car or so much money in my budget. Where do I place all of these things? And as we're sitting there considering it, I want to share this principle with you that we have to first make the right priority before everything else. And we're going to talk about just some key priorities, but the greatest investment, and I wanted to use this word in a very special way, a very key way. Investment, just the idea of investment is I'm taking something and I'm putting it, I'm taking an effort, even a sacrifice, and I am putting it into something that I know is going to give me a return. The return is more than what I invested into it. That's why investments are such a great principle, especially when the Lord shows us what to invest in, right? So there's certain things that whether that's financial, whether that's practical people, right, that you make an investment, a sacrifice you're putting into them, knowing that there is going to be a greater return that comes back. So we talk about the greatest investment of your time. Where can you take time if now we're realizing we need to be a steward of it, and it's part of our responsibility that we'll now hand back to the Lord and say, Lord, I was a good steward of this. Now that we're starting to realize that the Holy Spirit should have the role in our time, now it's looking at time and saying, okay, so where do I take time and place it so that it can multiply? Just like we talked about in a previous episode, this says that God wants to multiply our days and add years to our life. So where do we take time and place it that it would multiply? It's a great question you're asking. So this says with time, you can place it in something that can bring back a treasure, not just a treasure of wisdom and resources, but of growth and wisdom. So when we talk about this investment of time, I want to talk about your relationship with the Lord. I know people would be like, well, yeah, yeah, of course it's my priority. No, I'm talking about an investment into your relationship with the Lord, that it becomes the priority. It becomes the thing that you put other things behind, knowing that if you give your time to relationship with the Lord, you place time, effort, and energy in that spot, you know it's going to have an overflow. It's going to have an abundance that comes out of your life. When you place your relationship with God as the priority that you give your time to, you're going to see your time be multiplied. You're going to see that all those other things that you were trying to juggle start to have a different level of grace because now God is the priority and you actually get more done with God than you could have done by yourself. I want you to watch this testimony. This is a testimony of an individual, that busy, super, super busy person doing great things even for the Lord. But as they were doing things for the Lord, their very relationship with God started to suffer. And when they turned around and placed their relationship with God as the priority, this is what happened. I grew up in Minnesota as a white kid on an Indian reservation. Watching my dad minister to the Native American people shaped my life on multiple levels. I kind of got to see what worked and what didn't and it grew a hunger in me to minister to others. However, I didn't necessarily know how to convey that. Everything I knew was just kind of mental assent, if you would, but I didn't really know it in my heart. And then there was a moment that came that was really a crossroads for me. I was at a high school gymnasium and there was a game going on and I talked to this foreign student and she wanted to know who Jesus was. She genuinely wanted to know, but I genuinely didn't know how to convey Jesus to her. So I just said something like, you're a sinner and you need Jesus. Amen. And I feel like I just totally blew it and it set me up in a position where I had to make a choice. Am I going to live by the things that I say or am I going to abandon them? Praise God I chose to live by them. And I just really dove into the Word and about around that time I got connected with Andrew Womack Ministries and their teachings. And in the process of time, I listened to hundreds, if not thousands, of teachings. And it just really helped to form my relationship with Jesus. It just pointed me back to Him, to His Word. And it was more of me knowing the Lord in my heart rather than knowing Him in my head. So as a result, I've been able to share Jesus with people and Karis Bible College has just led me further into that. So it came across my path after listening to some teachings to go to Karis. It became a desire in mine. I stepped out into that and ever since I've just been growing in the Word of God, I've learned my identity and really just how to minister the love of Jesus to others and to invite them into that relationship. I found my purpose in what God has called me to do. Here at Karis Bible College, I'm learning by doing. I am doing ministry. I'm in God's will for my life right now, not just training to someday get into that place. I have no doubt that God will continue to lead me in my calling. With what I'm learning here at Karis, I know I'll be ready. What I love about that testimony is that you can love the Lord, but sometimes what you can do is in your enthusiasm to serve the Lord, make your very relationship with Lord the lowest thing in your to-do list. Well, Lord, I'm serving you. So, you know, I'll spend time with you later. God wants more of you than what you do for him. So when we're talking about the greatest investment of your life, you know, sometimes people say, well, the greatest investment of your life is sowing into your destiny, sowing into your calling, sowing into your talent so that it can multiply. And I am in agreement that those are amazing things to sow into, but you're not going to know your talents, know your destiny, know those anointings, unless you're spending time in the learning to discern what is of him and just what's maybe natural ability or his timing on those things, right? So our destiny, and this is really important to know, is that our destiny and time, how we manage that time, go hand in hand. You can get so busy, live a decade of your life, not actually fulfilling or making any significant movement in your destiny, you just got busy. And you could be busy for decades, literally busy for decades, not doing what God called you to do. And I'm not saying that out of condemnation to you today. I'm saying that so that you can say today's a new day. Today, no longer is busyness and my agenda and my timeline and my control going to negate the call of God, the destiny of God on my life. And so Holy Spirit, show me, Holy Spirit, start this work. That's why I believe you're watching this today because there are some things that God is getting ready to do in your life, even things that he said a long time ago, or maybe brand new things, new seasons from previous obedience that now you're walking into. So look at Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11 through 13. And I use this verse a lot because for me, there's so many foundational principles in this verse. It says, for I know, and I like the personal pronoun that God is using in this, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. See, again, it's going back to the example that I shared in a previous episode. It's God's plan that he slides towards you and he says, you sign it, I'll fill it in. I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. And then he says, by the way, even though you don't see it filled in, can I share my heart? They're thoughts of peace and not of evil. Don't worry, you can trust me to give you a future and to give you a hope. Don't worry about what I'm going to fill in. This is really key because so many people have a hard time giving control up to God because they think God is harsh and punishing and dictating. And he's got this list of, his list is do, do, do, do, do, do. If you don't do this and you don't do this, I can't bless you here. I can't bless you here. And they think God's religious to-do list is so massive, they'll never get to a destiny to-do list because they're just trying to fulfill the everyday religious to-do list. Well, praise God, Jesus came to set us free from the law of sin and death. He came to set us free from fulfilling all of those mandates by our strength and our power, our sacrifices, literally sacrifices. He says, I came to set you free by myself. So now that in relationship with me, you would know my heart and you know that I always have thoughts of peace and not of evil. I'm not going to harm you. I'm not out to punish you. I'm not out to steal, kill, destroy, make you sick, take your kids, wreck your marriage. I'm not trying to teach you lessons so that you will follow me, says the Lord. God's big enough that he can teach you lessons without doing things in harmful ways. He's like, I'm so good. I'm a good teacher. Bad teachers teach people through manipulation. They teach it through control and fear. That's a bad teacher. God's not a bad teacher. He says, I have plans for you, declares the Lord. And even in that word declares, I see this word to me that signifies like the creator. The creator just said this, declares the creator. When he said, let there be light, there was light. When he said, let there be dark. When he said, let, when he declared something, man, the creative majestic things that happens when God declares something. Wow. So when he's looking at your life, he says, for I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, meaning they're put into place. They are divinely prepared for you. Now you and I get the opportunity now to focus on him so that we discover those plans and walk out those plans. It's not exciting. That's what relationship with God looks like. He goes on here to say, then you will call upon me and go and pray to me. And I will listen to you. See, this is what is so powerful when we're talking about our life and these spheres of our life and real practical Christianity. There are things that we don't know what to do. We don't know how to do it. How do I fix this? And how do I use my effort here? How do I raise my kids over here? And what do I do with my finances? Right. And you can look at all the things in the world and the world definitely has a plan for you. Definitely the world is trying to tell you who you should be, what you should look like, how you should sound and what you should parrot that they're communicating to you. And so sometimes you're just like, Lord, what do I do? How do I walk in this relationship with you? How do I use my time to make sure that I'm living in a destiny that you've designed versus what the world's telling me I have to be and look like. And so this is what I love about this is then you will call upon me and I will hear. I will listen to you, says the Lord. Oh, praise the Lord. So that means that any aspect of my life I can bring before the Lord and say, Lord, I need guidance on this. I need your wisdom on this. Lord, I don't know how to talk about this with my spouse. I don't know how to do this aspect at work. I don't know how to put that proposal together. Lord, I'm calling on you. I know you're hearing me. That's powerful. That's truly the everyday walk of acknowledge him in all your ways that you're inviting him in. And that prayer life isn't just, you know, this 15 minutes in the morning, you know, praying. Thank you, Jesus. I bless, I bless, I bless. Help, help, help. Give, give, give. Serve, serve, serve. You know, I rebuke, I cast, I bind. There, 15 minutes is done. Guys, it's so much more than that. This prayer lifestyle is, again, part of every part of your day. When I get up in the mornings, and again, I'm going to give you some examples of how I do my life. It doesn't mean you're supposed to do your life this way. This is what I want to say to you guys about time management. Just because somebody organizes their day, their time, their schedule a certain way, doesn't mean that's the exact same thing for you. That's really freeing because I may not be able to do certain things. I have two kids. We have school. We have science projects. We have volleyball camp. We've got, oh, goodness, we're talking about, you know, what is sex? And, oh, my goodness, there's all kinds of things I'm asking. Lord, I need wisdom. How do I share these things, right? You're going to be in different seasons of your life. And if I say, well, that mom is doing it that way, or if you're saying, well, that husband is doing it that way, or you as the man of the house is saying, well, finances are done that way by that family, so I'm going to make the same investments for me. Guys, this is not about anybody else's life. It's about yours. It's about, again, this specific calling that God's called you to live. But when I get up in the morning, my husband and I, we get up between 4 and 4.30. We get up. We'll exercise. And I have different things that I do on different days, different things, goals I'm trying to reach. I always compete against myself, you know, so I have these goals that I reach. And then afterwards, I spend time with the Lord, and I go through the Word. There's very specific things that I'm either studying or researching or asking the Lord. I write things down as the Lord shows me different things. I'll journal it. Then I'll go upstairs, and as I'm getting ready, doing hair and makeup, because I need it, so I'll go upstairs. I'll do my hair and makeup. As I'm doing that, I spend that time in prayer. I say, Lord, I thank you. Lord, show me this. If there's a specific word that he gave me, and I'm not sure where it gets placed, I'm meditating on it as I'm doing my hair and makeup, as I'm drinking a cup of coffee, as I'm doing that thing. I'm thinking about it, but then I'll also have my phone next to me. And I did it the night before, but now in the morning, I'm also relooking at my schedule. Okay, I'm having a meeting from 8 to 9, 9 to 12, 12 to 2, 2 to 1, or excuse me, 2 to 3. You're looking at all of these things, and I'm looking at the meetings, and sometimes I'll even open it up and see who's in my meeting. And I'm asking, and I pray over those meetings. I say, Lord, what do you want with this? And I'll think about them. I'm not just thinking of how I'm going to lead the meeting, or how I'm going to correct this person, or how I want to give this to that person, or how I want to cast vision here. No, I'm saying, okay, Lord, what is your plan for this? Again, this is a practical way of how you then, with your time, take your relationship with God and say, it's the priority. But from that priority, it spills over into, okay, now what is supposed to happen in this day? And sometimes I'll look at it and say, you know what? I need to move that. It's not today. We're not ready. And then sometimes I'll walk out of the bathroom. I'll walk into my husband's office where he's spending time with the Lord, and I'm like, honey, I'm sorry for interrupting. Can I, I don't feel we're supposed to do this today. What if we were to wait because of, and he said, you know, I had that same thought last night, so I think that's the Lord. And I'm like, okay, I will, I'll write my EAs. I'll go back into the bathroom and I'll text my EA. And so usually I have a running text that I'll send to her a little later in the morning. I don't think she wants it at five o'clock in the morning, but I'll send it to her later in the morning of, let's change this. Let's do this. By the way, can you grab this? Or could you copy this for me? The Lord starts helping me think through my day so that I'm not coming here panicked, rushed, wondering how to do things. You have this ability to come to the Lord and hand everything to him in prayer. And he's listening. And not only is he listening, he's responding because the last part of this verse says, and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. Guys, this is the greatest investment of our time. When we can come to this word, we're coming to this word and saying, Lord, I believe there's a nugget. I believe there's a truth for me today. That's not just in my little Bible reading time, but I'm going to take, and I'm going to invite this truth into every part of my day. I'm going to invite this truth into every sphere of my life, because what that does is it helps keep your mind on the things of the spirit so that it's less likely. I'm not saying that it won't ever happen. It's more likely to keep your mind stayed on his way of doing things when you have started off your day in the word. And not just started off your day, you invite the word into your day. You meditate on those things. And maybe it was the scripture you read earlier, but maybe God brings something else back to your remembrance. Praise the Lord for the Holy Spirit. Again, he's trying to show you things that will help you manage your time. Because sometimes I'll get invited or there's something that comes up and I'm thinking about it. And again, trying to do the principle of, can I get back to you on that? And I'll ask the Lord, what about this? What about that? And there'll be truths or principles or God will remind me of something. And I'm like, oh Lord, thank you. Even honestly, even before I taught this episode, I was getting ready and the Lord showed me something. I'm trying to figure out a situation like, how did this happen? How did this mistake happen? Lord, what did, did I do something wrong? Who do I coach? Who do I help to make sure this doesn't happen again? And I was like, well, maybe I just let it go and we'll just, whatever. And the Lord actually showed me, no, no, no. Okay. You can't just let this go because by just letting it go, this, this, this, this, and this get affected. I'm like, I didn't even see that. And literally, if I just said, okay, whatever, it's going to cost the ministry $10,000. He showed me that right before I came in and taught you guys this. Praise the Lord for the Holy Spirit. You want to invite him into your day. I don't know what's going on within your life right now, and maybe it just feels so chaotic or it feels utterly boring. I don't know what your life looks like, but I can tell you that the peace of God and the life of God can touch your day and you can invite the leadership of the Holy Spirit. You can invite him and let him be the wisdom. Here at Andrew Womack Ministries and Karis Bible College, we would love to pray with you. We would love to come alongside of you and come into agreement that God's will and his ways and his wisdom would be revealed so that you would have that to be able to bring to all the things that God has entrusted into your life. When you call them, the numbers there on the screen, when you call them, also ask them about this resource, Intentional. This is an eight-hour series that we want to offer you during this series. For any donation, just say, I need it. Please help me. I need to listen to this because I'm sharing truths with you that I go into much, much deeper, and it will change your life. These principles are things not only has God taught me, but I'm continuing to walk out and seeing the fruit of these things. So please reach out to us. I'm so excited that you are going through this series because I believe God's taking you into new things and he's delivering you for some things that have been holding you captive. I love you. Bless you. Join me for our next episode where I'm going to continue to bring out some powerful principles that will help you be able to give this to the Lord and see the fruit of this in your life. And as you go about everything that you're doing, ask the Lord to show you how much he loves you today.