Having Real Life With God

By Antione Ashley

A practical guide for any believer wishing to have a greater prayer and devotional life

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jan 10, 2017
• ISBN: 9781365671531

Book preview

Having Real Life With God

Having Real Life with God

HAVING

REAL LIFE

WITH GOD

We are called to spend time with Him

ANTIONE ASHLEY

Having Real Life With God

Copyright © 2017 by Antione Ashley

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed Attention: Permissions Coordinator, at the address below.

IGO Publishing

P. O. Box 1008, Semmes, AL 36575

www.igoministries.org

251-645-2117

Printed in the United States of America

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means - for example, electronic, photocopy or recording - without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Ordering Information:

Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations, and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address above.

ISBN 978-1-365-67153-1

DEDICATION

I dedicate this book to all of my former Lighthouse Christian Preparatory Academy students. You guys have allowed me these past nine years to teach you how to pray and its has eternally blessed me to know that you have come into an intimate relationship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

I love you all for openness and vulnerability to God and my ministering to you each school year. I especially want to thank Timothy Appel, Joselyn Diaz, Loida Padilla, Aeriell Dean, Dantravia Thomas, Lucas Sheldon, Andrew Mueller, Divante Robinson, Tavelle Johnson, Jeffery Cameron, Sterling Dean, Joey Morris, Justin Doane, Seyla Bryan, Briana Holloman, and Sadie Cooke for being students that I will never forget and always cherish for being so open to Christ in me for the hope of his glory.

I know you all will reach his divine calling, and I know you that you’ve personally learned how to find God in this thing we call life.

- Mr. Ashley

Contents

INTRODUCTION

Why is it so hard to live for God?

Learning about Quiet Times

Trails to God

Having Quiet Time  (Part 1)

Having Quiet Times  (Part 2)

It’s Not Your Mind

Having Quiet Times  (Part 3)

Prayer Requests

Pitfalls

Before You Leave…

Acknowledgements

INTRODUCTION

My salvation experience as a young man

Growing up, where I am from, if you were a youth you went to church! Sunday morning was an early rise and an all day event. Church started at 8:00am and didn’t get out until about 2:00pm. After that, you would go home for a meal, and at six that evening, church started all over again.

If that wasn’t enough, during the week we would have prayer meetings on Tuesday nights, youth meeting on Wednesdays, and sometimes we would have special revival services where big named speakers came to town and preached for about five nights that week. Needless to say, I grew up having to go to a lot of church.

I can even remember each fifth Saturday of the month we had to attend what we called 5th Weekend. This was where all of the churches in our local region would meet together for a service to showcase the talents of the youth in their respective churches. I hated those events because they were all day and I couldn’t stay home and ride my dirt bike. It felt like I was missing the entire world! I was in so much church that I thought if you were to cut my arm, I would have bled the lyrics to an old church hymn or something. (This is where you insert a laugh).

I really did not like going to church as a kid. I never found it fun, never found it interesting enough, and I never could overcome the hurdle of everyone being so old. This was all until I met a guy named Aireus Thomas.

I didn’t know too much of Aireus at the time, except that he was in the high school band and was extremely goofy. I wasn’t too fond of him. He found out through my cousin that I could play the drums and one day approached me saying he was going to be playing keys for a revival service and wanted to know if I would accompany him.

I immediately answered yes because I knew this meant a few dollars in my pocket, and for three nights we played. What at first seemed like a time to earn a hundred bucks later turned into a time that I wanted to keep going. Going to church with Aireus that weekend was fun; there was something special about playing with Aireus that I had never found hanging with someone else. Prior to this, I never wanted to go to church, but while in this particular revival, I found myself listening to the preacher more intently, and without thinking, I was being changed!

From that point on, Aireus would invite me to many other places, and in about one or two months of accompanying him, I went from a boy who hated church, to a lover of God. Needless to say, God moved fast in my life. I will never forget that feeling I had when I came to know Jesus as my savior. It felt as if all the light bulbs in my heart turned on with full strength, and I could feel God’s love in my life stronger than I have ever felt any love before. I was seventeen when I became a follower of the Lord and I have had the pleasure to experience a life that keeps getting better and better.  You can too...

Today, I am the Associate Pastor of my church, where I also serve in helping youth and young adults reach their destiny in God. I have been a bible teacher at our church’s academy for the last nine years, served as a worship leader for more than ten years, I host an annual youth conference called Fall Encounter, where we minister to hundreds of youth for personal spiritual growth and city transformation, and I have had the recent privilege to baptize my 5 year old son, Gavin.

God has also given me the privilege to travel to several mission trips around the world, including countries such as Nicaragua and Jamaica. I have been invited to speak to nations over radio broadcasts, been sent to lay on hands on the sick to see miracles happen before my eyes, and I have the privilege to raise up many sons and daughters in their walks with God, marriage, and ministry.

My life is nowhere close to its end, (I am not even thirty yet), but what I do know is, my life has been touched by God, and I live as an example of what Jesus can do when he enters your life. There have been some serious ups and downs in my