Christine Caine - The Power of Off - Part 1
Next time you go to an airport, have a look. You're watching people. They're like, kind of like, "Whoo, I've got to shove. Where is this? Oh no, I'm running out. Please, do you have a charger? Does this thing work? This one doesn't work". And you watch people: they go cray-cray. It's like, "This cell phone, I've tried to plug this in, it doesn't work. It doesn't work. It's not charging. "I'm running out". I'm running out, and I'm gonna get out. "Just hang on a minute". And you hear them, like, yelling at each other. "Hang on, I'm running out of juice". I'm like, "I didn't need to know that from six terminals over". We live in a world that can't stand to be disconnected. If we think we're missing out on the latest news, the latest gadgets, or the latest gossip, then we feel like we're not enough or we've missed out. Maybe, just maybe, we've pushed God out of his place as our main source. Maybe we're exhausting ourselves by trying to charge our spirits from empty places. In a world yelling for your attention, let me ask you. What are you plugged into? I'm Christine Caine, and I have a personal mission to Equip and Empower people like you to connect with your God-given purpose and potential. I am so glad you're joining us today. Let's dive right in.
Hey, everyone, how are y'all doing? I am so glad that you have joined us today. I know that God has a word for you. We are talking today about what it is to unplug so that we can plug in. And how many of us have a phone and have got a charger for our phone? You know, I don't know. I travel so much, and there is nothing more hilarious than when you are going through an airport, no joke, and you can see people. Man, they're like, looking. They're like, missing flights, checking the board because they're like, "I need to stick my phone in". It's like they're, like, on crack. Like, "I need to put my phone in". And we are, like, the first generation that in our hands, we have all of our communication, all of our entertainment, and all of our news and information, bang. It's all there. There was a day, and certainly when I was growing up in the day of the dinosaurs, that, you know, if you wanted to communicate, you had to write a letter.
I mean, I'm talking about, like, a pen. I don't know if you know what one of those things is, and paper, and you would actually write something, and then you would have to stick it in an envelope, lick a stamp and stick it in there, and put it in a post box, and then you would pray and fast and pray and intercede and hope that it was gonna get to the other side. Well, we don't even know what that is anymore because I just send a text, and I'm expecting an answer immediately from someone on the other side of the planet because that's the world that we live in, and there is nothing that freaks this generation out more than to be unplugged, to be unplugged from the world. It's like, "Oh no, what's going on"?
And you know, it's almost like people are freaking out if they can't check their social media or their status or how many likes did I get. And as bad as, you know, being unplugged, is actually not having a plug to plug in your charger. It's like people are freaking out, and if their phone is done, "I've only got 1%. Quick, I've only got one". And like, I mean, like, they, like, bowl people over in the airport to stick that in the plug because it's like, "I've only got 1%. I've only got 1%," and some of you, you're operating right now in life, and you feel like you're at just 1%. You feel like you've got barely enough to give. You can't, and you've been trying to plug in to all of the wrong things to get your power source, and you think, "Man, if it was just more people, or more parties, or more drugs, or more sex, or more money, or more position," and you know what? It's leaving you dry because that current is not going to charge you.
You were created by God for a relationship with God. It's Jesus that connects us to God, and it's Jesus that connects us to the grace of God. So until you learn to unplug from this world and plug into God, you are always gonna feel empty. You are always gonna feel barren, and in this series, we're gonna learn exactly what it is to unplug so that we can plug in, so that we can be fully charged and do what God has called us to do and be who God has called us to be on this earth. That's who we want to be. And so in the book of Luke, chapter five, I love this scripture. There's a great story of when Jesus cleanses the leper in Luke, chapter five. It says this, verse 12. While he was in one of the cities, there came a man full of leprosy. So he wasn't just partially had leprosy. He was full of leprosy. And when he saw Jesus, he fell on his face and begged him, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean". And Jesus stretched out his hand and touched.
I love that about Jesus. I need you to know that leprosy was a terminal disease here. The lepers were the most marginalized group of people. I mean, they would walk along the street. They actually had to cry out, "Leper coming! Leper coming"! So that people would cross the street and walk on the other side of the street. They were the untouchables. And so the reason that this is a powerful story even at this point is because the Bible says Jesus reached out and touched him, and I want you to know that no one is too dirty for Jesus to touch them. You're watching this, and you're thinking that I have messed up so bad, Christine. You don't know where I've been. You don't know what I've done. You don't know what I've said. How could God forgive me? How could God want a relationship with me? How could God want to touch me? But I'm here to tell you that there's nothing that you've done that is too big to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus.
Your God loves you. Your God cares for you. Your God embraces you. Your God will always touch you. He created you in his image. He created you with the touch of his hands. He made you out of clay. You are not an accident. God made you by divine design, and he made you on purpose. Everything else he spoke into being. He spoke the stars into being. He spoke the skies into being. He spoke the grass and the animals into being. But when it came to you, he didn't speak you into being. He touched you. He made you out of the clay, and then guess what? You took his breath away. He breathed his breath on the inside of you. That's how much your God loves you, and God's got a plan and a purpose and a destiny for you. So it says he touched him, saying, "I will: be clean". And immediately the leprosy left him. And he charged him to tell no one, "But go and show yourself to the priest and make an offering for your cleansing as Moses commanded for a proof to them".
But now even more, the report about him went abroad, and great crowds gathered to hear him and to be healed of their infirmities. Don't you love that about Jesus? He's like, "Don't say nothing". And you couldn't shut the guy up. He says, like, "Don't say nothing," and he went and told everyone, and greater crowds came. I mean, we would do a marketing program. We would put it on Facebook. We would do an email blast. We would put it out there on twitter and Instagram. Come to the big healing crusade. Come to the big miracle crusade. Jesus goes, "Don't say nothing". And the crowds still turn up. That's the kind of ministry I want. When I'm saying to everyone, "Don't say anything. "Don't post anything. Don't tell anyone". And then we turn up and go, "The crowds! Where did they come from"? That's the kind of revival that I'm believing God for. It says but he, Jesus, but he would withdraw to desolate places and pray. But Jesus would withdraw.
So there's crowds that are there. I mean, Jesus has done signs and wonders and miracles. Isn't it so fascinating that in the middle of so many miracles that Jesus still took the time to withdraw and pray? And we're gonna talk about this because the fact is that what Jesus had done for this leper was profound. I mean, not only was the physical disease horrible. I mean, imagine you lose all sense of touch and feeling. That's why they say, you know, the victims of leprosy, that you could have your hand on a fire and not even know, and you've burned. You don't feel. You lose all your sensation. You lose your extremities. Your fingers drop off. I mean, it is a brutal disease. It is a brutal disease. But in these days, the social consequences of the disease were as brutal as, you know, the physical consequences of the disease. And so for Jesus to touch him, and for this man. I think he was a gutsy man anyway that he broke taboo to reach out to Jesus and to say, "Look, if you will, make me well". And Jesus says, "I am willing: be cleansed".
But after all of this, all the crowds gathered, Jesus still took time to unplug and to go away and pray, and I want to talk about this for the next couple of weeks. And you know, a lot of us would think, "But Chris Caine, you're talking about unplugging, and you have got such a massive life". I mean, I've had someone say to me recently, which I thought was hilarious. They said, "Oh, Christine, I follow you on Instagram, and I'm exhausted. I'm exhausted after a week. I don't even go where you go, but I'm so tired watching where you go and what you do". Now, God has given me a supernatural strength. There's no doubt about that. Both Nick and I and our family, and a grace to do what we're called to do. But I need you to know that a huge priority in my life is my time with the Lord, and that I will often withdraw from crowds and even things I want to do and places I want to go to, 'cause most of the things I want to do now, like, I really want to do it. I love the people in my life. I love what I get to do, but I can't be with people all the time and be with God. I can't be with people all the time and be being replenished.
The Bible says that Jesus was having a revival. The crowds were coming. It was amazing, and he went away to pray. He said, you know what? I'll be back. There's more healings to come. There's more deliverance to come. Because I promise you, there's always gonna be a need. There's always gonna be something that somebody's gonna need. There's always gonna be something that somebody's gonna want. There's always gonna be a crisis somewhere. I've had to learn this with work. There is always gonna be, with 15 offices around the world. There is... Somebody's awake. No matter what it is, 24/7, one of my staff in some continent is awake, and there's always a drama going on. There's always some. You can't do what I do without there being some major crisis so if I'm gonna actually sleep at night, if I'm actually gonna be able to hear from God, if I'm actually going to be able to live a fruitful and a flourishing life and a peaceful life, then you know what? I'm just gonna have to flat out unplug from some things so that I can plug into God. And yes, you see me.
You go, "Wow, Chris, you're doing all of this stuff". But can I just say I've got the most amazing team? Can I just say that I certainly don't do it all? And there's a lot of things I don't do so that I can do what only I can do, and I intentionally allow margin in my day, in my week, in my month, and in my year for time that I am replenishing with the Lord because I am not like some superhero. I, too, like everybody else, need to wait upon the Lord so that I can renew my strength. What I do doesn't renew my strength. It depletes me. I love what I do, but that's not the source of my strength. The source of my strength is Jesus, not what I do. The source of my strength is not even Nick. It's not my husband. It's Jesus. The source of my strength is not my children. It is Jesus. And if you don't make some time in our chaotic world, where someone's always gonna text you. There's another party going on. There's another opportunity to do things. If you don't make some time to unplug, then you are going to have a meltdown, and I believe what we're seeing in our world and all the anxiety, and all the depression, and the hypermedication, not in every case, of course, but in some cases, is purely a result of people's anxiety at being connected 24/7.
And I think if we unplugged in some way, some of us are gonna find we're gonna sleep better. We're gonna be able to come off some stuff that we're on because we're just trying to get through. And the fact is if you unplug, there's a whole lot of stuff I don't know. I love the fact that I don't stay, like, absorbed on social media, and of course, I post. You all know what's going on, and I post inspiration. A lot of that, you know, I'll schedule and make sure it's out there, but I do not spend my time looking and reading because I get depressed if I do that. Have you ever stayed on twitter for five minutes? It is depressing. I'm like, "No". And I go, "These people are mean. These people are, like, really angry". It's not good for my spirit. It's not good for my spirit to do that. I'd rather be in the word. I'd rather be listening to worship. I'd rather be doing stuff that is replenishing me on the...
Of course, what I need to know, I know. I've got a whole staff and a whole team that if I need to know something, "Chris, this is what's going on in the world. This is what's happening". But I am not spending my life scrolling through other people's lives. I'm busy living my own life. If you would live your life and stop scrolling through everyone else's life, you might find yourself strengthened and encouraged and filled with the strength of the Holy Spirit, doing what you're called to do. So you know, the crowds gathered. The crowds gathered, but Jesus went to desolate places to pray. I look at this, and it says the crowds came. Jesus said to the dude, "Don't say anything," and the crowds, I think this is the closest thing to going viral before technology. I think this is how you went viral before social media. Jesus says, "Don't tell anyone". We're the opposite. We go, "Post it on Facebook. Go and do an email blast. Go put it on twitter. Go put it on Instagram. Do a Snapchat. Tell the world". But Jesus says, "Don't tell anyone," and the crowds gathered.
And even when something went viral, we would think, "Good marketing opportunity. This is gonna build Jesus's ministry. All the crowds are gonna come. This is gonna be awesome for Jesus. This is gonna be so great. Quick, get the photo shoot out. Get these things posted. It's gonna be awesome, and then the crusade will be bigger in Nazareth than it was last year". And Jesus is like, "You know what? This is awesome. I'm gonna unplug. You all do what you want to do with the crowds. Me? I'm gonna go and have a chat to my father. I need to replenish my soul". All this 24/7 connection? It's a bit too much. I'm sure that if Jesus was here in this time, he'd be saying, "You know? You probably should monitor how much social media time you're really doing, how much screen time you're really doing".
How much time are you spending on the internet or on YouTube? You know, you probably need to disconnect. You probably need to set some really strict boundaries for you and for your family. Because so much of the anxiety you're feeling, you don't even realize it's because you're connected 24/7. So much of the depression and the stress that you're feeling? It's because you're connected 24/7. If you would just have the courage to unplug from this so you could plug in to Jesus, you would begin to find peace and love and joy come back into your soul, come back into your heart. You would begin to hear the voice of God again. You would sense him in his word again. You would have a lot less stress about things that you're worrying about that you shouldn't even know about. A whole lot of us are worrying about stuff 'cause we are in everybody else's business. No wonder the Bible says mind your own business. You would have a whole lot more peace.
Man, when I was younger, I wanted to know everything about everyone. Now that I'm older, I don't want to know nothing about anybody. I'm like, even to my team. I'm like, "Do I need to know"? Christine Caine is on a need-to-know basis. If I don't need to know, I don't want to know. I have just been burnt too much by knowing what I don't need to know, and so I never thought that I would get here, but I am here to testify, I am on a need-to-know basis. I sleep better, I eat better, I exercise better, I love God better because I don't want to know what I don't need to know. I'm like, "Knock yourselves out. Knock yourselves out". And so the fact is that if Jesus had to unplug from people to plug into God, so he could serve people, how much more do we? We've lost our minds in our generation that we would think we could stay connected to people in the world 24/7, when our own Savior, who was God incarnate himself, said, "You know what? I'm unplugging. I've just healed this guy. The crowds have come. Revival is here, but I am having a break. I'm going off first century social media. I'm going off the grid because I want to tap into my father".
And I think if we don't learn to balance... I think in many ways the blessing of being as old as I am is that I do have a life before the internet. I know some of you don't. Like, my daughters are like, "What is that? What does that even mean, mom"? My daughter came into my room yesterday, and she goes, "Mom, I know that I just need to just chill tonight and just kind of stay home". She goes, "And I know I've got serious fomo, but if I just don't look at my phone too much, I'll be better". She's like, and I'm saying, "Honey, it's true. It really is," and she knows it. She knows the difference even at her age as a teenager that if I spend, I could spend all my time and anxiety on my bed looking at what all my friends are doing, and I'm not there, and it could cause a whole lot of tension or I could just put the thing down and just say, "You know what? This is going to be okay, and there is life beyond being connected 24/7, all the time".
And I hope for some of you watching this, you know, I don't know. There are so many messages that I speak, and there's a whole lot more that are a lot more, like, wow, let's go. We're gonna take the ceiling off. But I don't know that there's much else that I'm gonna tell you that could be more helpful to you than what I'm telling you right now.
Some of you, the anxiety and the stress and the pain that you are feeling is because you have not disconnected long enough with this world and with people, to connect with God, and you feel like you're missing out on everything 'cause you're not going to the word to find out what you already have. When you don't know who you have and what you have, you are looking to people to try to get what is never gonna ultimately satisfy you any more. I love social media. I love the benefits of it. I love the connection of it. I love the ability to propagate the Gospel. I love that I can keep in contact with friends and family from all around the world, but I'm telling you, the day that it kicks over where you think there's no life outside of that life, when you can't bear, I mean, there are people, and, you know, I'm sure that the data and the research is beginning to come in that there would be, you know, measurable, quantifiable studies that have been done as to the damages this must be doing to a generation to be connected 24/7.
How that must hard-wire our brains. What that must make us expect. It is dangerous. The only way you are gonna be conformed and transformed to the image of God is to be rooted and grounded in the Word of God. The Bible says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed". You are not gonna be being transformed by being on social media or the internet or Youtube 24/7. You are gonna be transformed by having your mind renewed in the Word of God. It is only the Word of God that will change you, that will transform you. "If you abide in my word, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free". It's not the truth that you don't know that will set you free. It is only the truth that you do know, and if you have got your eyes on this 24/7, scrolling through what everyone else is doing, reading through a whole bunch of news which half of it is fake anyway, and then going through the whole sort of thing of what's happening and what am I missing out, and they're all temporal things that are over in a second anyway, you are just gonna constantly feel depleted.
You are gonna constantly feel empty. You are gonna constantly feel like you've missed out. You are constantly gonna feel like you don't measure up. You are constantly gonna feel like you are not worthy. You are constantly gonna be getting more stressed, more angry, more anxious, more feeling like you are a loser. But if you've got your face in this book. Maybe it's time to get your face off Facebook and get it in the book, and if you've got it in that book, you would discover who you are in Christ. You would discover the promises that are yours to grasp in Christ. You would discover that God is for you, that God made you, that God loves you, that you are created in his image, that you have an eternal purpose, and that he's got an eternal plan for you, and instead of feeling less than, you would know who you are and you would operate out of who you are and do what God has called you to do. But the thing is that some of us, we've just forgotten how to turn this thing off.
We've forgotten what it is to push the button, turn it off, and swipe it off. We are people that are running around in the spirit even, freaking out all the time. We're having conversations with people, and we're seeing how much charge have I got left. When is this thing gonna come through? And then people are running around. I mean, next time you go to an airport, have a look then. You're watching people. They're like, kind of like, "Whoo, I've got to shove. Where is this? Oh no, I'm running out. Please, do you have a charger? Does this thing work? This one doesn't work". And you watch people: they go cray-cray. It's like, "This cell phone, I've tried to plug this in, and it doesn't work. It doesn't work. It's not charging. I'm running out. I'm running out, and I'm gonna get out. Just hang on a minute". And you hear them, like, yelling at each other. "Hang on, I'm running out of juice". I'm like, "I didn't need to know that from six terminals over".
You met those people on the plane? It's like, honestly, I'm like, "Really, I didn't need to know all that about you. We haven't even said hello yet". But anyway, so the deal is, we're running around freaking out. Imagine if we would put in as much energy and work to think, "Man, I'm a bit low on my Jesus connection. I'm a bit low. You know what"? And that we would have this attitude to church, and to worship, and to the Word of God. It's like, "I'm running low. I've got to go plug in. I've got to get in with some believers. I've got to worship the King of kings. I've got to hear the Word of God. I've got to be in fellowship".
So instead of freaking out because we're not connected and our phone's running out of charge, and we're not connected to the internet, why don't we have that same spirit that says, "Man, I'm gonna do whatever it takes. If I don't get my time with Jesus today, I can't function. You know, I'm gonna be flat. If I don't get to worship my king, I can't function. If I'm not part of a local church community, I can't function. So you know what? You all can do what you want to do, but I need to plug into Jesus so that my world can function and my life can function". In Jesus' name. In Jesus' name. Amen.