Finding God's Voice: How to Create a Happy Family When the World Feels Chaotic

Ed Tandy McGlasson shares how to maintain a happy family during fearful times by learning to recognize and participate in what God is already doing in our lives and relationships.

• Broadcasting from Mammoth Lakes, where Ed has been fishing, painting, and preaching for three weeks
• Sharing a divine appointment story about Daniel, a man whose life was transformed through prayer
• Performing an impromptu wedding ceremony at Lake Mary with three bald eagles circling overhead
• Exploring the story of Bartimaeus and how Jesus modeled attentiveness to the Father's work
• Understanding that our role isn't to perform but to discover what God is doing with people around us
• Learning to see beyond political labels to love the person in front of us
• Recognizing that most people feel invisible and crave genuine connection
• Shifting from trying to fix everything to joining God in His redemptive work
• Embracing our identity as sons and daughters of God rather than through accomplishments

Visit www.thefatherdifference.com/links for a free book download and information about personal coaching.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome from Mammoth Lakes
• 2:21 How to Have a Happy Family in Fear
• 4:21 Divine Appointment at Lake Mary
• 8:50 Bartimaeus: Seeing What God Is Doing
• 17:35 Learning to Love the Person in Front
• 21:29 Meeting the Political Fundraiser
• 37:14 Resources and Closing Prayer

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Well, welcome. I'm your host, Ed Tanney-McGlason. We are getting ready to go live right now and I'm really looking forward to who's going to show up here and when we get some people on here, we'll let you know. I am in Mammoth Lakes. The Lord kind of provided free housing for us and we're up here fishing and loving each other and preaching every weekend. The last three weekends I've been doing a series here and I'm in a condo on Mammoth Mountain right now and there's a fish that my friend, jerry, who owns this place, caught and he didn't get to eat him because he mounted him. So we're here tonight. We're going to talk about how to have a happily family in a time of fear. There's my sweetheart, jill. She's just coming in turning up the lights here, getting the ambiance just right, but I've missed you guys.

Speaker 1: 1:16

I've been in the mountains here for the last three weeks ministering to people, having an incredible connection with people in the town and kind of relearning and really connecting into this incredible time that God has given Joe and I to rest and the rent's been good because we've gotten some free faces to stay and we're still doing carnivore if you're wondering about that still losing weight and doing a lot of painting. There's a painting right back there, oh, actually over that shoulder, plein air, painting up in the mountains, and I've been doing that every day too. So I'm getting back to doing what I used to do and love to do to rest, to get up and spend some time painting and doing all those kind of things. So tonight I'm going to talk to you about, and kind of start a series, how to have a happy family in a time of fear. This is a crazy time in our culture. There's all kinds of things going on and there's an overall theme that God's kind of impressed me with this. Last three weeks I've had some amazing, amazing, divine appointments up here with people. I'm going to tell you about one of them that just happened the kind of the theme on a slide here, and it was something that happened to me years ago and I'll tell you the story at the end. But basically it's God saying to you and to me let me do it this time. I've seen how you run your life and I'd love to have a shot at really helping you through those, some of those places where you've been stuck, where you have kind of issues in your story, and so I'm going to start out with a fresh live from Mammoth Lake story and so one of the things I've been doing is going out and painting and doing cleaner paintings, and next week I'll show you some of those when we get back into the studio.

Speaker 1: 3:51

But I went to set up my tripod and my Prashad box, which is a great painting box and this incredible view of Lake Mary with mountainscapes and everything else, and there's a gentleman there fishing and he looks over at me and then does a double take and looks at me again and then does a triple take and looks at me again and and then does a triple take and he goes you look like somebody I know. And I said well, well, who do I look like? He said you look like pastor ed. And I said, really. I said what's your name? Says Daniel. He said four months ago you came to a men's event that we had at our church and at the very end you stopped and said there's a guy here who is in a horrible accident and you've been in a major kind of surgery and restoration but you've lost sight in your left eye and I'd love an opportunity to pray for you.

Speaker 1: 5:20

He's telling me this story and I mean he's weeping and he looks at me and he says I went to that church feeling like it was at the end of my life. I've been living in fear. I've been feeling like you know my life's over, and when you spoke that word out there, I knew that God saw me. I knew that God knew me and it was so impactful that it completely changed my life. I gave my life back to Jesus. Not only that you know I'm plugging into my church. You know it's like my whole life changed. And he's just weeping as he's telling me this, like my whole life changed. And he's just weeping as he's telling me this. He says and it was you that came up to my church and you called me out and prayed for me and I was just so grateful, so grateful that I had that opportunity to be there for him. And so I'm there and then a car pulls up and out comes his daughter with her boyfriend and his girlfriend, and so we start talking and we're having this and he goes this is the guy. And they all knew me. I guess they've been talking about me now for four months, about what happens when somebody comes in and hears from the Lord for the sake of somebody else. It can completely change your life. That's what I'm going to talk about tonight.

Speaker 1: 7:10

You know how do you minister to your family in a time of fear? Well, you connect to God in such a way that you begin to deliver to your children, to your family, to your friends around you, no matter what's happening in Washington the election, all this stuff going on, the president almost being assassinated, president Trump you know all the stuff that's going on. In the midst of that, god is looking. You know there's a great verse in the Bible. It says the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth. That he might strongly support those whose hearts are completely his. God's plan is to use you in your family in such a profound way that when your children see what God is doing in you, if you're a dad or you're a mom, it stabilizes your family because they understand, even though that the world is crazy and the economy and all the stuff, and the political theories of the day, and the yak, yak, yak, yak, yak all over the place, that in the midst of there. Daddy's okay because he's hearing from God. Mommy's okay because she's hearing from God, from God. Mommy's okay because she's hearing from God, because if we put our identity in anything other than the love of the Father through His Son, jesus Christ, we're going to be sorely disappointed, because elections never really turn out the way we want them to. Either there's somebody who loses and somebody who wins. Either way, the mess that we have in our country is going to take a move from God to heal our families, to heal our children, to heal our broken culture. Only God can do that.

Speaker 1: 8:57

So back to the story. So Daniel's telling me this story and pointing me out this is Ed McClassen, and they're all looking at me like you're, ed. My father's life has completely changed. The daughter said so we're talking. And after a few minutes I asked I said so, how long you guys been dating? He says well, five years.

Speaker 1: 9:21

And I knew that they've been, you know, kind of together as a couple for a long time. And I said well, are you married? And he puts his head down and he goes no, we just haven't been able to plan it or afford it. And she looks at me and she goes yeah, I really want that, you know. And he says something about we've always kind of dreamed that one day we could come up here and get married. And I said, well, why don't we do it right now? I'm a pastor, I'm licensed, why don't we do a wedding at Lake Mary? And so, beloved, let me tell you, I, just, you know, god kind of dialed up that marriage ceremony in me that I've done probably a hundred times, and took them through their vows, exchanged rings, did the whole thing right there on the edge of Lake Mary, and then I pronounced them husband and wife and as soon as I pronounced that, you may now kiss your wife, they had the sweetest kiss together.

Speaker 1: 10:32

And all of a sudden we heard something and behind us were three bald eagles circling around us Never seen that before. And they were squawking and flying around like a sign from God, like I'm with you, the Father, son and the Holy Ghost here is with you. And they went up in a tree and, just you know, lit in this tree to look at the lake and do what eagles do. And it was incredible. These guys are hugging me, they're crying, people are driving by, honking, and you know, we're just doing a kingdom thing. We're learning to hear from the Father for the sake of whatever we're facing in our life, and that's kind of the theme that I want to kind of break down with you tonight, because to really connect to God we need to, you know, pay attention to what he wants us, to learn how to do. And I'm going to do this by just there we go, we're back. A little technical difficulty there, but no problem, for some reason, you know, it just kind of dropped out up here in Maniflates, but we're hanging in there, we're going to finish this, and so I had a PowerPoint presentation that was all ready to go here for you. Let's see if it there it goes. It's right back. There it goes, it's right back.

Speaker 1: 12:28

And so I want to read this story with you to help you really catch something that Jesus kind of lived in when he was dealing with people, when he was praying for people, and it says that when he came to Jericho and he was leaving Jericho with his disciples, a great crowd comes around and Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside, and when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and saying Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And so he was. You know, he wasn't going to be denied, and many rebuked him, telling him to be quiet. I mean, just like the. I don't know if there was disciples, I don't know if there were religious people, but this guy's screaming. Evidently they knew this guy. He was a professional beggar, but he was blind and so he needed mercy. He needed the mercy of people, but he cried out all the more Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stopped and said call him.

Speaker 1: 13:48

It struck Jesus and the blind man, and he called the blind man, saying to him take heart and get up, he's calling for you. So the crowd is telling him you know, be quiet, don't bother him. Something has happened inside of him. He's not deaf, so he listens and he hears, and he's heard about this guy named Jesus. And when he hears his name, he knows that maybe this is his only hope.

Speaker 1: 14:28

So, throwing off his cloak, he comes to Jesus and Jesus asked him what do you want me to do for you? Well, what a question. I mean, isn't it obvious? Because, see, jesus was looking for something. Jesus was looking for the gift of faith. He was looking to see if God had given the gift of faith to this man or if he was going to get it to him and questions our powerful way for you to connect to what God is doing with somebody. And the blind man said to him Rabbi, let me recover my sight. And Jesus said to him go your way. Your faith has made you well. And immediately he recovered his sight and followed him on the way. I mean, can you imagine what an incredible thing that happened? And it happened because this guy, you know God, touched his heart with a gift of faith that Jesus was looking for when he was ministering.

Speaker 1: 15:48

And it comes from this principle, and I'm going to share the verse in a moment where Jesus said the Son of man can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees his Father doing. The Son does likewise, for the Father himself loves the Son and shows him all things that he's doing. So when Jesus came, he came to model to us what our life would look like if we learned to connect into what the Father is doing around our life, in this example, with our family, with our children, with our wife, with our friends, wife with their friends. What if you could learn to spend your time not asking God to give you more faith so you can pray for somebody, not thinking that you've got to somehow become some kind of religious zealot or you've got to fast and pray and be like John the Baptist, eating locusts and honey. You have to do some external thing for God to use you in your life. What if the secret of the kingdom that Jesus demonstrated was learning to do what the Father was doing all the time, Trusting in his timing, trusting in his provision.

Speaker 1: 17:15

In that moment, and where the step of faith is as you sense that God is doing something with somebody, you step in, even asking questions of this person to find out what God's doing. Asking questions of this person to find out what God's doing. And so how do we learn to do what the Father's doing? Well, here's that verse I was talking about the Son of man. Truly, truly. Jesus says the Son of man can do nothing on his own accord, but only what he sees his father doing.

Speaker 1: 17:52

How much of your life have you invested in trying to build a happy home and break the power of fear? But you didn't really ask God what he was doing with your kids. Why are they afraid? Or with your spouse? There's something that happens when you begin to ask him to help you love the person that's in front of you, or love the family, love the friend maybe an impossible friend and part of that is what's profound about that is that when I began to learn this in my life, what's profound about that is that when I began to learn this in my life, it took all this pressure off of me of performance, because all my life, my life, was about performing, about getting bigger, faster, stronger so I could play in the NFL, all those kind of things. And what I began to understand is that my role is not to produce a miracle. My role is not to try to be some incredible Christian in front of people like I'm on a stage performing, performing. My role is to find out from the Father how he wants me to love the person that's right in front of me.

Speaker 1: 19:19

You know, all kinds of crazy things are probably going to happen through this election season in our country, and if you're outside of our country, you're probably going. You guys are crazy here. And if you're outside of our country, you're probably going. You guys are crazy here. But what if you spent all your time trying to discern what God is doing with you and your family and with the people that you love? And I do want to encourage you. We still have the right to vote and I want to encourage you to vote and get out there and do your work, homework, and ask the Lord who he wants you to vote for and just make an informed decision.

Speaker 1: 20:03

But barring that and all the political things, what really matters to most of us and the people that I meet and the men that I coach, the women and the wives that I coach, at the end of the day, no matter who's in the White House, they care about their kids, their grandkids, they care about their financial life, they care about their heart. They want to be loved, they want to make a difference, and that's who God's made us really to be. Just imagine, you know, in your own life, being able to see what the Father is doing all around you every day, and you're doing it with Him. I'll tell you another quick story. And we were at one of our last vacations to Hawaii. My wife came to me and said Ed, could you do me a favor and maybe not lead so many people to Jesus on this vacation, because I don't go looking for him, I just pay attention to who God brings in my time and space. If somebody gets within like 10 feet of me, I'm going to say hello. It's just part of the way God's wired me, because I really do love people. And I've learned one thing, and you can kind of take this to the bank Most people in our culture right now feel alone.

Speaker 1: 21:38

They feel invisible. Why do you think social media is so big? Because they feel invisible, and I've said this before. Facebook was started their first social media by a guy who couldn't get a date a nerd right. So he built a program where someone will like him and someone will be his friend. Think about it. People are feeling visible. We walk by people all day long. We're busy doing our thing. We're busy doing our thing. What would happen if you and just a little exercise for you to think about doing is just to say hello to people when you come across them Gas stations, food store work, that employee that you're not getting along with Just go up and say hello. How are you doing? I'm just thinking about you. It's amazing what will happen. And because you know God loves all the people around us more than we could ever love them and he's just looking for somebody who wants to love them too.

Speaker 1: 22:48

And so, anyway, we're in Maui and my wife says could you not lead so many people to Christ and just focus on me? And I said, okay, babe, I'll do my best. But what if somebody walks up and says I want to meet Jesus? What do I do? Well then, fine, if that happens, that's okay.

Speaker 1: 23:06

So, anyway, we go out the first day and we're at the Marriott Resorts in Kapalua. It's beautiful, and we had a family timeshare that we were sharing and there we were and I'm at the farthest beach. I mean, I'm so far away from the people and the guests that you can't see them. And so my wife said we'll just have our little private party out here and they would bring us food and drinks. And it was beautiful.

Speaker 1: 23:42

And she faced me towards the ocean and about an hour or maybe two hours into our daytime there in a Kapalua resort, there my wife looks over my shoulder and goes oh crap, okay. And turned and goes. She says go ahead. She says go ahead. And I turn around and there's a big Hawaiian guy Looks like an offensive lineman and he had a football jersey on from the University of Hawaii football team and he comes over and he apologizes, he goes. Excuse me, sir, I'm sorry for interrupting your vacation, but I can't take my eyes off you. I saw you across the beach.

Speaker 1: 24:40

I actually work here at the hotel and my life's a mess. I just hurt my knee. I might lose my scholarship. I got no dad in my life's a mess. I just hurt my knee. I might lose my scholarship, I got no dad in my life and I just feel like I needed to come up and talk to you. And I just looked at him and over the next 15 minutes I shared Christ with him. I led this Hawaiian young man to Christ. He got on his knees. He just was sobbing as the love of the Father began to descend through Jesus Christ and forgive him. And I laid my hands on him. The power of the Holy Spirit would fill him and empower him. It did, and he jumps up and I pray for his knee and he rips off his bandage and starts running all over the beach screaming hallelujah, raising his hands About a 360-pound man. It was glorious. It was glorious and I only share that story with you. And, by the way, you're probably wondering well, how many other people? Well, we had somewhere around 35 to 40 hotel guests that we got to pray for and love.

Speaker 1: 26:07

Imagine what your life would be like, amidst all the craziness of the world, if you spent your life paying attention to what the Father is doing around you and doing it with Him. It would change a lot of things and it will unlock an adventure for you. That is a profound adventure because you're not trying to get your identity from somebody else or from the thing you do. When you learn how to receive your identity as a son or a daughter from God, that core identity of being a son or daughter of the Father in heaven, who loves you, who sent His Son, secures you. And when your identity is secure and you're not trying to build a name for yourself or you're not trying to find out why you have feelings like this or different issues, because we have identity crisis in this next generation of young people, not because they're just different or, you know, weird, but so many of them are unfathered. And when you have a boy or a girl who doesn't have a present loving dad in their stories, it can tweak them and they can spend a lifetime feeling like they're invisible, and that's one of the missions of my life I do. So you might find yourself here today and you're saying, ed, I want this in my own life. I want to pray for you right now, and I know this one thing I know that God, the Father, sent his Son for you and for me to secure who he's called us to be, so securely that a crazy political environment is not going to change who we are.

Speaker 1: 28:25

Let me tell you this one story. I was on an airplane a number of years ago when Obama had just become president the first African-American president Amazing, amazing thing. And I'm on an airplane getting ready to fly back home and it had a mechanical, and so they were going to cancel the flight and I got this guy and I just met eyes and and I looked at him and I said we need to jump on another plane or go with me. Boom, we ran to. Well, let me say this he ran. I walked swiftly to the next gate. We got the last two seats on the plane to get home, and so we're riding home and we take off and we're both kind of celebrating that we got the last two seats next to one another. It was only it was a small plane, so it was two seats on both sides.

Speaker 1: 29:30

And so we started talking and I looked at him and I like I do often because you know, no matter how popular you think a person is or how beautiful or et cetera, most people feel invisible. And so I said man, tell me, tell me what's kind of your passion? Why do you think God made you? And he looks at me and he goes well, you know, no one's ever asked me that question. And I said, well, I just did. He said, well, I'm kind of a professional fundraiser. I helped raise gosh almost a billion dollars to get President Obama elected.

Speaker 1: 30:15

I went, wow. And he looks at me and he goes so who are you? And I said my name's Ed. How are you doing? He goes no, no, no, no. What do you do?

Speaker 1: 30:29

And so, for fun, when I'm with a guy that I'm—all this time I'm asking God what's going on with this guy, what do you do in his life? That internal question that Jesus asks all the time. He said the Son of man can only do what he sees his Father doing. So Jesus has questions, he's paying attention Because, remember, jesus laid down his right to be God and became fully human so that we, when we follow him, can live the same kind of life he did. That's his promise to us.

Speaker 1: 31:14

And so I'm trying to listen and ask questions, and so when I want to kind of tweak and mess with somebody, I said, well, I'm a cultural revolutionary. And he said, so, you're a democrat. I went oh, no, not a democrat. Oh so you're a republican? And I said no, no, not a republican. Oh, you're an independent. No, no, not independent. Well then, who are you? I said I told you I'm Ed McClassen. He said, no, no, you're party. I mean, how do you? I said I told you I'm Ed McClassen. He said, no, no, your party.

Speaker 1: 31:47

I mean, how do you vote? I said, oh, I vote for the guy or the gal that is closest to the king that I serve, jesus. And he looks at me and he goes oh, so you're one of them. I said, absolutely, I love him, he saved my life, and so we're talking. And he said absolutely, I love him, he saved my life, so we're talking. And he said what's this cultural revolutionary thing? I said, well, I was just playing with you. Actually, god sends me.

Speaker 1: 32:17

I've been all over the world. I've been in 24 countries doing these events and helping men who have sold their life for their job or what they do, but they've lost their children. And this guy looks away from me, looks out the window, comes back, his eyes are misting. He says I can't believe you just said that. He said I mean we won the election but I lost my daughter. She's in her third rehab and I really feel like I failed as a dad and I just don't know what to do. I've not spent much time with her and so I spent two hours that we had on the plane just I gave him my book, the Difference a Father Makes, and I just loved on him, just loved on him. I didn't see a Democrat, I saw a broken dad.

Speaker 1: 33:25

Imagine if we could lose those artificial labels and begin to love the people in front of us, love our children. I meet dads and moms who mistakenly label their children well, he's a bad seed. No, I say well, he's a bad seed. He's 50% of your bad seed and 50% of your husband's bad seed. It's amazing what happens to children when they're loved and they feel seen and cared for.

Speaker 1: 34:02

And so I'm ministering to this guy for about two hours and I said would you pray with me for your daughter? And we prayed together. It was a sweet, tender prayer and I said you know, you could change your whole family with one thing and he said what's that? And he said if you were to truly invite Jesus in all the way into your life so that you're not the king on your throne, he gets to be so much bigger. And he prayed with me. It was just an incredible moment.

Speaker 1: 34:43

I don't usually share that part of the story very often, but it was just tender. And so we land, we hug one another and he's getting his bags down and he looks at me and he goes quite honestly, I've never met anybody like you. And I just kind of jokingly chided him and said well, maybe you're hanging around the wrong group. He started laughing. I said maybe I should start going to church and I said listen, there are millions of people, millions and millions of people all over the world who get their core identity from being loved by God, and that's a great group to hang your hat on. And we laugh. And incredible time.

Speaker 1: 35:44

Now I share that with you because Jesus made a bold statement when he was walking. He says lift up your eyes and see, for the harvest is already white. In other words, he was saying fishing will never be bad for people that are lost or hurting. You might have them in your family. You might have them with your kids. You might have it in your family, you might have them with your kids. You might have it with your spouse.

Speaker 1: 36:12

And one of the most powerful things you can do is not to go in with kind of religious power and zeal, but to go in as a human being, like like Christ ministered to you, and just ask this simple question Let it roll in your heart Father, what are you doing with this person? And see what he says. Maybe ask him a few questions and just begin loving this person and watch what God will do. I want to tell you it works. I set up my easel on the side of the lakes up here in Mammoth and in the high Sierras and I have people, I mean, all week long. I don't know. I think Jill and I I think we've stopped counting after 50 people that we prayed for, either around the mountain or in a coffee shop, or a dinner or a waiter.

Speaker 1: 37:15

People right now are desperate to get good news, and why don't you become one of them? Well, I got a couple of tools for you. My amazing assistant, I see, is going to put up for you a number of things that you can use in your own life to help you. One of them is I have a training for men that we've written and it's actually a paid course that we're giving away right now. We felt like God wanted us for a season to sow it into every guy that wants it, and I'd love to give that to you and give you access to that.

Speaker 1: 38:03

It's called the Men of Honor. Access to that. It's called the Men of Honor and it's a coaching group that we have on our website. You can copy this down. You can actually go to the Father Difference website and actually find this link so you don't have to memorize this whole thing, and it's videos and material to really help you connect to God, the Father, in such a way, through his son Jesus, that it'll help you really bring healing to your family. And I would love for you to be part of our groups. We meet on Tuesday nights around the country and you can join there. There's a link as well. If you go to thefatherdifferencecom, to our website, you will see that.

Speaker 1: 39:02

And if these shows help you before I pray, would you consider supporting us? We actually run our ministry in our free book giveaway Right now. Our free book that we're giving away is in 224 countries being downloaded right now Blows my mind, and we're well over 600,000 copies out, and I'm just absolutely so grateful that God used our book, the Difference a Father Makes, to bring life to people that feel broken, feel stuck, and you might have a friend who would like to get a book, and you could actually take this link right there thefatherdiversecom slash free book and send this book. It's for gals and guys, about how you can connect to the most extraordinary father of all time so that you can become the man or woman, the father, the husband or maybe the grandpa you need to be, and so that's our gift to you. And we also have a special show every Thursday at 12 o'clock for all you gals, and it's called the Difference a Mother Makes, every Thursday and right here in the same time and station as they're on Facebook, instagram, youtube and you can join me there and we're going to talk about issues related to the incredible difference that a mom makes, a woman makes, in her life, and we just want to celebrate you and do that. And, last but not least, we wrote a daily devotional that our people are getting and you can get to from our website of learning how to hear God, the Father's voice, every day through Scripture. That is a must. If you really want to make an impact, you can take your phone and click on that or just go to the website, thefatherdifferencecom.

Speaker 1: 41:23

So let's pray A little long-winded tonight. I've been just waiting for two weeks to be back with you, so let's pray. If you've got a special prayer request, you can private chat me or in the comments. I'll be honored to start praying for those things. So, god, I thank you for those that are watching right now. I thank you for both the men and the women who are watching and I pray you would visit them. I pray that you would fill them, you would bless them so that they can know your love in such an extraordinary way that, everywhere they go, they share it with every person they see.

Speaker 1: 42:10

Lord, revive us as your people, the people of Jesus, for the sake of the world right now, for the sake of all the craziness that's going on. And, father, my prayer every day is restore men to being the fathers you have called them to be. Bless them, lord. Give them the tools that they need. In the name of Jesus, will this bless you? Send us a comment or like us if you're on YouTube, like our channel. Share with your friends Facebook. Love to hear from you. Remember my friends. It's never too late for God to change everything around in your life and your family, and if you're a good dad already, he'll make you even a better one. God bless you. The Father loves you and send his son to let you know. God bless, bye.