What does Tribe teach about spending time with god?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At Tribe, the teaching on spending time with God starts with a straightforward observation Joy Abad has returned to across these messages: proximity changes everything. The disciples and the Pharisees had the same knowledge of the Torah, but only the disciples could follow Jesus into something new, and the reason was simple. They had been with him. Watching him, eating with him, following him day by day. Joy put it plainly: "Your capacity to recognize and receive from the Holy Spirit is directly proportional to how much time you spend with Jesus." That is not a motivational point. It is a description of how relationship actually works, the same way Joy's best friend Rachel knew every name and every backstory of her life because of years spent together. You cannot shortcut that kind of knowing, and the same is true with Jesus.
The 2 Chronicles 20 story of Jehoshaphat gave a concrete picture of what this looks like under pressure. Facing an overwhelming army, Jehoshaphat did not reach for a backup plan. He called a fast, gathered everyone, and stood before God recounting what God had done before and holding him to those promises. The new thing God said was striking: Judah would not fight at all. The worship team would lead the army out. Jehoshaphat obeyed, the singers went first, and the enemies destroyed each other before Israel raised a weapon. Joy pointed to the Hebrew word shema, translated as listen, which actually carries listen and obey together as two sides of the same coin. You cannot claim to have heard if you have not acted. That kind of responsiveness does not appear from nowhere. It is the fruit of time already spent.
Joy was honest that this kind of attentiveness takes real discipline, reading scripture, prayer, fasting, the ordinary habits that accumulate over time. She pressed on the tendency to reach for logic when God asks for something unconventional, naming it directly: "Stop getting your backup plans. Stop using your logic to talk you out of doing something that is unconventional." The capacity to trust an unfamiliar move of God is not courage summoned in the moment. It is built slowly, in the hours spent with Jesus before the moment arrives.
Taught from Matthew 12:1-14 · 2 Chronicles 20:1-24 · Matthew 25
“Your capacity to recognize and receive from the Holy Spirit is directly proportional to how much time you spend with Jesus.”
From New Wineskins ｜ Joy Abad
The passage taught · 2 Chronicles 20:1-24
1 After this, the children of Moab, the children of Ammon, and with them some of the Ammonites, came against Jehoshaphat to battle.
2 Then some came who told Jehoshaphat, saying, “A great multitude is coming against you from beyond the sea from Syria. Behold, they are in Hazazon Tamar” (that is, En Gedi).
3 Jehoshaphat was alarmed, and set himself to seek to Yahweh. He proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah.
4 Judah gathered themselves together to seek help from Yahweh. They came out of all the cities of Judah to seek Yahweh.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- February 10, 2025 New Wineskins ｜ Joy Abad Joy Bhatt teaches Tribe Church on how time spent with Jesus shapes our ability to recognize and follow where God is moving, even when it looks unconventional.
- February 9, 2025 Being With Jesus Joy Bhatt teaches on what it means to spend time with Jesus, how that shapes our capacity to recognize God moving, and why discernment matters more than ever.