Participants: Shelley Quinn
Series Code: PHP
Program Code: PHP000002
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00:01 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn.
00:02 Did you know that spiritual apathy 00:04 is a dangerous heart condition and one that grieves God? 00:08 Please join us today on pressing into His presence. 00:12 And we will learn how to correct our backsliding. 00:36 Welcome to Pressing into His Presence. 00:39 If you tuned in last time you know that this series, 00:42 we are focusing on prayer. 00:45 And we are excited that because prayer is the handle 00:50 that opens the faucet for God's blessings 00:53 when we tap into His grace pipeline by faith. 00:56 I started sharing last time a personal testimony 01:00 to establish the circumstances of my life 01:02 that caused me to seek the Lord for a deeper prayer life. 01:07 Today we're going to finish that back story. 01:10 And our companion book for this series is 01:14 Pressing in to His Presence. 01:16 It is a book that I'm very-- was very privileged to write. 01:20 And today we're beginning on Chapter 2. 01:22 As we continue to lay the ground work 01:24 for the upcoming teaching on prayer. 01:28 Does this sounded all familiar? 01:31 Your priorities are out of order. 01:33 You know you're sliding God 01:35 and a fog of frustration has settled in. 01:38 Finally remorse lead you down one of two pass. 01:42 Either burdened with your guilt you begin avoiding God 01:45 spending even less time seeking His presence 01:49 or in your turmoil you cry out to Him 01:52 for an explanation of why you are so prone to wander 01:57 from the one you love. 01:59 Perhaps, like I have experienced in my past 02:02 instead of standing firm as a spiritual warrior 02:06 you have become a weak-kneed spiritual vainer. 02:10 It seems our condition 02:12 is not all that uncommon among mankind. 02:15 There's uncomfort in knowing this but very little. 02:19 It's rather like being diagnosed with cancer 02:21 but told not to worry because many are likewise afflicted. 02:26 Here is the good news God will provide a way out 02:30 when we get serious about seeking Him. 02:34 I want you to consider with me the words of this hymn 02:38 "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing." 02:41 Now I'm going to have to speak this fast 02:43 or I'll break into song 02:45 because this is one of my favorite hymns. 02:48 Here's the words. 02:49 " Come, Thou Fount of every blessing 02:51 tune my heart to sing Thy grace, 02:54 streams of mercy, never ceasing, 02:57 call for songs of loudest praise. 03:00 Teach me some melodious sonnet, 03:03 sung by flaming tongues above. 03:06 Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it 03:09 mount of thy redeeming love. 03:11 Here I raise my Ebenezer hither by thy help I come, 03:15 and I hope, by thy good pleasure, 03:18 safely to arrive at home. 03:21 Jesus sought me when a stranger, 03:24 wandering from the fold of God, 03:27 He, to rescue me from danger, 03:29 interposed His precious blood. 03:33 Oh, to grace how great a debtor 03:36 daily I'm constrained to be! 03:39 Let thy goodness, like a fetter, 03:42 bind my wandering heart to thee, 03:44 Now here's the refrain that captures my attention. 03:48 Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, 03:52 prone to leave the God I love, 03:55 here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it, 03:59 seal it for thy courts above. 04:03 Doesn't that sentiment kind of calm your heart? 04:07 We're not the only ones in the boat 04:09 riding a sea of troubled waters. 04:12 There is hope for us after all. There is God. 04:16 After singing this hymn in church one day, 04:19 a sweet little lady sitting next to me whispered, 04:22 what's an Ebenezer? 04:24 And I explained it meant stone of help 04:27 and refers back to the Prophet Samuel 04:29 when he was erecting a monument 04:31 for God's divine assistance in battle. 04:34 In fact, that's for Samuel 7:12 which reads, 04:38 "Then Samuel took a stone 04:39 and set it between Mizpah and Shen, 04:42 and he called the name of it Ebenezer, 04:45 stone of help, saying, 04:47 'Heretofore the Lord has helped us.'" 04:51 In my personal spiritual battle, 04:53 God intervened in an interesting way. 04:56 And a teaching we're sharing this season 04:58 is how the Lord brought me out of a backsliding condition 05:02 and gave me victory over the enemy. 05:05 This teaching has been my Ebenezer since 1999. 05:09 I have shared it around the world 05:11 and by experience I can tell you 05:13 it contains the power of God to prevent backsliding. 05:19 Let me share a personal story 05:22 of how God grabbed my attention in September of 1999. 05:27 I was making my monthly grocery shopping trek of 60 miles 05:33 from my country home to the nearest Sam's Club. 05:36 And, if you live outside the United States 05:39 Sam's Club is simply a retail outlet 05:42 that sells bulk quantities. 05:44 Anyway, the breakthrough came to me 05:47 in the prayer closet of my car. 05:49 Shutting out the distractions 05:51 of our new business in the world, 05:53 I began praying to understand my backsliding. 05:56 Saying, Lord, I don't understand 05:59 how I-- how I can love You so much 06:05 and how I can walk so closely with You at times 06:08 that I sense Your heartbeat 06:10 and then plunge to such a backsliding condition. 06:14 Please, Lord, I prayed explained what happens to me 06:19 and my pleadings were earnest for that hour long drive 06:22 going to Sam's but when I reached my destination 06:26 there was still no answer to my dilemma. 06:29 I made an agreement with the Lord 06:31 to continue the prayer 06:32 after my shopping was completed. 06:34 And this was one day I didn't doddle all in Sam's Club 06:37 because I was a woman on a mission. 06:39 I went in there and I wanted to get back to God. 06:43 I checked out with the register 06:45 tossed my purchased items into the back of the vehicle, 06:49 I jumped in buckled up for the ride 06:52 and by the time the car was in gear 06:53 I was again pleading with the Lord 06:56 for a solution to my problem. 07:00 Praying out loud for the next, few, well, 30 miles I guess. 07:05 My tongue became less winey and more insistent 07:10 on understanding what I should do. 07:13 I prayed, please Lord, 07:14 show me the way out of this pit. 07:17 Teach me how I can prevent this from happening again. 07:21 And suddenly-- the still small voice 07:23 of the Lord whispered to my heart. 07:26 This is the voice spoken of in 1 Kings 19:12, 07:29 when Elijah was running from Jezebel 07:31 and had come to Mount Horeb, the mountain of God. 07:34 Let's look at that passage. 07:36 We're going to begin with 1 Kings 19:9. 07:40 "And there he Elijah went into a cave, 07:43 and spent the night in that place, 07:45 and behold, the word of the Lord come to him, 07:47 and He said to him, 07:49 'What are you doing here, Elijah?' 07:51 So he said, 07:53 'I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts, 07:56 for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, 07:58 torn down Your altars, 08:00 and killed Your prophets with the sword. 08:02 I alone am left, and they seek to take my life.' 08:06 Then He God said, 08:08 'Go out, and stand on the mountain before the Lord.' 08:12 And behold, the Lord passed by, 08:14 and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains, 08:17 and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, 08:21 but the Lord was not in the wind, 08:23 and after the wind an earthquake, 08:25 but the Lord was not in the earthquake, 08:27 and after the earthquake a fire, 08:28 but the Lord was not in the fire, 08:30 and after the fire a still small voice. 08:34 So it was, when Elijah heard it, 08:37 that he wrapped his face in his mantle 08:39 and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. 08:43 Suddenly a voice came to him, and said, 08:46 What are you doing here, Elijah?'" 08:50 I have come to believe that the still small voice 08:54 spoken of here in verse 12, 08:56 represent times when the Holy Spirit 08:59 impresses God's thoughts in our minds 09:02 with inaudible words. 09:05 So there I was praying in my car 09:07 when suddenly the still small voice of the Lord 09:10 whispered to my heart saying, 09:13 "Child, if you will come to Me 09:17 and spend an hour in prayer each morning 09:20 I promise you will never backslide again. 09:24 What? I was so flabbergasted. 09:27 I did not respond to Him. My mind was churning. 09:30 An hour a day in prayer, who could keep that up? 09:35 Well, of course, 09:36 that would keep anyone from backsliding 09:39 because even if we lost ground during the day 09:43 we'd be starting over again the next morning. 09:46 You know, one of my favorite promises of God 09:49 is found in Lamentations 3:22, 23. 09:53 And it says, 09:55 Though the Lord's mercies or "Through the Lord's mercies 09:59 "we are not consumed, 10:01 because His compassions fail not. 10:04 They are new every morning, Great is Your faithfulness. 10:10 Isn't that a wonderful promise? 10:13 God has such empathy for us. 10:17 He loves us so much and His mercies are new 10:21 toward us each and every morning. 10:23 He is the God of new beginnings. 10:26 And if we begin each day by spending an hour with God, 10:31 how could we stay backsliding? 10:34 As I was driving alone, I thought, 10:37 if only I could practice this advice, 10:40 if it would be-- 10:42 it just seemed that it would be impossible though 10:45 if I did to lose touch with Him. 10:48 But who am I kidding? I couldn't do that. 10:52 Suddenly I protested loudly. 10:53 But, Lord, you know I'm not that disciplined. 10:57 My life so... I don't know. 11:01 My life is just so fractured. 11:03 There's just too many demands on my time. 11:06 I can't promise You I'll spend an hour in prayer each morning. 11:11 Father God, I'm not disciplined enough 11:13 to make that commitment to you. 11:15 Lord, it would have to be You empowering me to do this. 11:21 And then my voice trailed off because the clear truth 11:24 of that last statement arrested my attention. 11:27 Of course it would have to be God's prompting 11:30 and God's enabling to help me keep 11:33 such an overwhelming commitment. 11:35 I had voiced what God knew already. 11:39 He was just waiting for me to recognize 11:42 how much I needed His help. 11:44 In first-- excuse me, in John 15. 11:47 Jesus declared that He is vine 11:51 and that we must abide in Him 11:53 for without Him, we can do nothing. 11:58 He also promised the apostle Paul something 12:01 that still applies to you and me today. 12:04 Let's look at that promise in 2 Corinthians 12:9. 12:09 Here's what Jesus said, or Paul saying, 12:12 "And He Jesus said to me, 12:14 'My grace is sufficient for you, 12:18 for My strength is made perfect in weakness.'" 12:23 Hallelujah. 12:24 And then Paul concludes, 12:26 "Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, 12:31 that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 12:36 The reminder of my time 12:39 while I was driving home was spent in astonished silence. 12:44 I was wrestling not with God, but with my own days thoughts. 12:48 There had been so many occasions in my life 12:51 when I prayed for an hour but everyday, 12:55 how could I consistently practice that? 12:57 I'm always on the run, too busy for my own good. 13:01 What would I say to Him everyday for an hour? 13:05 Wouldn't my prayers become repetitious? 13:09 Deuteronomy 30:19, 20 string on my mind. 13:14 God said there. 13:17 "I have set before you life and death, 13:21 blessing and cursing, therefore choose life, 13:24 that you may live, 13:26 that you may love the Lord your God, 13:28 that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, 13:32 for He is your life and the length of your days." 13:37 This was the familiar voice speaking familiar words. 13:41 I knew it was from God. 13:43 In 1995, he had set another spiritual life and death choice 13:49 when He called me 13:50 into a more intimate relationship with His word. 13:53 God explained how His word was life to me. 13:56 And that if I choose to cling to His promises 13:59 I was choosing life. 14:00 I made the right choice then, 14:02 now it was time to make another. 14:05 Let me make this clear, 14:07 God did not command me to pray an hour each morning. 14:12 That isn't one of the requirements for salvation. 14:16 May be I was just in greater 14:17 spiritual jeopardy when I realized. 14:20 If I had fallen overboard again, 14:25 and He was throwing a new lifeline to his child 14:27 who is in danger of going down for the third time. 14:31 It was up to me to choose 14:34 whether I grabbed and hold of it or not. 14:36 He had set before me another life and death decision 14:40 so to speak. 14:41 And I really wanted to choose His abundant life. 14:46 I was weary of my spiritual stupor 14:50 and my spirit was willing, 14:52 but the weakness in my flesh trembled. 14:54 I didn't want to disappoint Him 14:56 as the disciples had in the garden. 14:59 When, at Gethsemane when Christ innercircle 15:02 Peter, James and John 15:04 demonstrated so little commitment 15:08 in watching and praying with Him for an hour. 15:11 Christ reaction is recorded in Matthew 26. 15:16 Let's look at that. Matthew 26:40, 41. 15:21 "Then He came to the disciples and found them asleep, 15:24 and said to Peter, 'What? 15:27 Could you not watch with Me one hour? 15:31 Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. 15:36 The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.'" 15:42 Reaching home, I parked the car 15:45 and I sat in stun silence for a few minutes. 15:49 Finally, a whisper escaped my lips 15:53 then I said, okay, Father, 15:55 I will make a commitment to pray one hour each day. 15:58 It's not a promise, but I'll commit to cooperate with You. 16:02 Of course, Lord, I'm relying on Your help. 16:05 You will have to motivate me and You will have to teach me 16:10 how to pray everyday for an hour. 16:13 We will start first thing tomorrow morning. 16:16 Well, the next morning, 16:17 I rouse at my usual hour at 5 A.M.. 16:21 And it seemed wise to eat breakfast first, 16:24 that would surely increase my concentration power 16:26 for the upcoming hour. 16:28 And naturally I watched the morning news 16:31 during breakfast as that was my habit. 16:33 And being an obsessive housekeeper, 16:36 I washed the dishes, tidy the kitchen, 16:38 took out the trash and made the bed before praying. 16:42 That would purge those pesky distractions. 16:45 And soon I opted to shower and dress 16:48 before meeting with the Lord reasoning it would make me 16:51 a more bright eyed and bushy tail disciple 16:54 unlike, Peter, James and John. 16:56 In the shower the fact of the matter washed over me. 17:00 My old familiar pattern of procrastinating had surfaced 17:04 and ashamed, I determined to quickly ready myself 17:08 and to keep my appointment with God without further delay. 17:12 So grabbing my Bible, 17:14 I descended the stairs to the family room 17:17 and I choose a comfy chair for our meeting spot. 17:20 I've had back surgery and I'm fused from the waist down side. 17:23 I knew my back could not endure an hour on my knees. 17:26 But clasping my hands and bowing my head 17:30 I enquired of the Lord, how to begin. 17:34 Suddenly I was strongly impressed 17:37 to journal my prayers, 17:39 to write it out as a love letter to God. 17:42 Now I had never written a prayer before 17:45 but thought about the Psalms. 17:47 Isn't that what they are really? 17:49 The written prayers of David, which were later set to music. 17:55 Was it God impressing me to do this 17:58 or did the thought originate from me? 18:00 Glancing at the open Bible on my lap 18:03 my eyes fell on Habakkuk 2:2, 3. 18:09 "Then the Lord answered me and said, 18:11 'Write the vision and make it plain on tablets, 18:14 that he may run who reads it. 18:16 For the vision is yet for an appointment time, 18:20 but at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. 18:24 Though it tarries, wait for it, 18:27 because it will surely come, it will not tarry.'" 18:32 Well, that was a sufficient answer for me. 18:35 But handwritten prayer presented a problem. 18:40 You know, we think so much faster than we write, don't we? 18:43 And when I'm writing hurriedly, 18:45 my penmanship could rival any physician 18:48 whose noted for chicken scratch handwriting. 18:52 I've often tried to decide from my own notes 18:55 scribbled in haste and it's much like 18:57 trying to decode ancient hieroglyphics. 19:01 But I thought truly impressed by God to try journaling. 19:05 And before we continue, 19:06 I need to make a disclaimer here. 19:09 Journaling is not for everyone. 19:13 It isn't required to journal your prayers 19:16 by writing them as a letter. 19:18 In fact, my husband J.D. is a mighty man of prayer. 19:22 And if someone told J.D. that he must write his prayer 19:26 to press into God's presence, 19:28 I doubt he would ever give it a try. 19:32 And there was a precious saint 19:34 who experimented with journaling 19:38 and she reported back to me and she said that, 19:41 it was actually diminishing the intimacy of her prayers. 19:44 So I quickly exclaimed then don't do it. 19:48 Still I want to encourage everyone to try at least once. 19:52 For many people journaling increases focus 19:57 and the results are increased intimacy with God. 20:02 What do I mean? 20:04 Well, have you ever experienced this? 20:06 You're on your knees praying to the God you love 20:10 and midstream of a sentence your mind wanders. 20:14 Oh, I must remember to pick up the dry clean. 20:18 So ashamed, you apologize to God 20:21 only to find that your mind is wandering again. 20:25 Oh, I forgot to return David's phone call last night. 20:27 I hope it wasn't important. 20:29 And then you think oh, Lord, forgive me. 20:32 I don't mean to get off track. 20:36 So with added urgency you purpose to focus 20:39 on what you're praying and then abruptly 20:42 another wayward thought interrupts. 20:44 Is my doctor's appointment this afternoon? 20:48 Who will pick up the children from school? 20:51 You sigh and throw a leash around that thought 20:54 and direct your mind to God once again. 20:58 It would surprise me, if you had never suffered 21:01 this common prayer time trend. 21:04 Our minds are prone to wander. 21:07 Keeping our thoughts contained 21:09 is like trying to keep puppies in a box. 21:13 Journaling is a more deliberate activity than merely thinking 21:19 and it engages more of your senses. 21:22 It involves writing and consequently 21:24 seeing your meditations on paper. 21:27 The more of your senses engaged, 21:29 the greater your focus and the greater your focus, 21:32 the greater the intimacy of prayer. 21:35 You know at 3ABN's 2009 Spring Camp Meeting, 21:39 I presented an abbreviated version of this teaching. 21:43 And my pastor John Lomacang 21:45 drop by my office several days later 21:47 to say that he had tried journaling for the first time 21:50 and he was delighted 21:52 by the increased prayer dynamics, that he shared 21:56 and he said that he was going to-- 22:00 he intended to continue writing his prayers. 22:03 Now, I don't know if he did or not 22:05 but that's what he said. 22:06 So on with my story, I'm a fast typist, 22:12 so I asked the Lord if typing my prayer 22:16 to computer was acceptable. 22:18 How do you think He responded? 22:20 Does it seem like something God would frond up on 22:23 spending an hour at the computer 22:25 writing Him a love letter? 22:27 Of course not. 22:29 I bolted upstairs to my office, 22:32 I opened a new word file on my computer, 22:35 I typed the date at the top of the page 22:38 and I glanced to the clock to confirm the time, 22:41 it was already 8 A.M. 22:43 and I had a lot to accomplish that day. 22:46 I didn't want the temptation of checking the clock 22:50 for every 10 minutes for the next hour. 22:53 So what I did is, I took a little sticky note 22:56 and I covered the face of the clock, 22:59 then I said, Father, please teach me how to pray. 23:05 How do You want me to pray the next hour? 23:08 I need Your help. 23:10 So in the following programs in this series 23:14 I'm going to take you through what I learned 23:17 from the Lord that day and in the weeks ahead. 23:22 God taught me how to press in to His presence in such a way 23:27 that the practice could be sustained daily with joy. 23:33 I've never been a fan of prayer formalist. 23:36 There's always the possibility of developing 23:39 a mechanical and meaningless practice, 23:43 but I don't think of this teaching as a prayer formula 23:47 but rather as a prayer pattern. 23:51 Over the many years 23:52 that I've been practicing this type of prayer, 23:54 it has never become mechanical for me. 23:58 Now I want to share a couple of thoughts. 24:02 First, right now don't worry like I said, 24:06 praying for an hour is not a requirement. 24:10 But, boy, is it a solution to backsliding? 24:14 And you're going to see how God totally changed my life 24:18 by teaching me how to do this. 24:20 And secondly, if you're not all that familiar 24:23 with the process of journaling, 24:25 don't worry we'll learn it as we go through this series. 24:29 And remember, you don't have to journal. 24:32 And one thing that I will tell you is that 24:35 praying this way, 24:37 at the time that God was teaching me this, 24:40 I was pretty much an average Christian, 24:43 a pew warmer if you will with average Bible study habits. 24:48 But when God really taught me how to press into His presence, 24:52 He taught me how to make prayer or the word 24:58 I should say as part of prayer 25:02 so that there was a two-way communication going on 25:06 and really that's what it's all about. 25:10 When we are praying to God, we're communicating with Him. 25:15 And sometimes we're so busy doing all the talking 25:17 that we don't do any listening. 25:20 But if you will make the word part of your prayer time 25:24 then actually that's how you hear the echo of God's voice, 25:29 you're hearing His council. 25:31 He is there speaking with you if you will. 25:35 So all of this is coming up in our upcoming programs 25:40 and we're just so glad that you joined us 25:42 and I really believe you're gonna enjoy this teaching. 25:44 Right now I feel led to have a prayer for you, 25:47 so let's pray. 25:49 Heavenly Father, we come in the name of Jesus Christ 25:54 and we praise You holy and righteous, Father. 25:58 Lord, we're so thankful to you. 26:01 Oh, You have blessed us with every spiritual blessing 26:04 in the heavenly realms through Christ Jesus. 26:07 Father, we are so thankful to you for everything 26:13 that you are doing in our life even those things 26:16 for which we are unaware and we praise Your power. 26:21 Lord, yours is the glory and the majesty. 26:25 You're an awesome God. 26:27 You are not only the creator God 26:29 but the one who recreates us in the image of Jesus. 26:34 And Father, we come this day asking in the name of Jesus. 26:38 Oh, Lord, please forgive us. 26:41 Forgive us, Father, for spiritual apathy. 26:45 Forgive us, Father, for being Laodicean for being lazy. 26:51 And I pray in the name of Jesus, 26:53 change us oh God, 26:55 we give You permission to do a work in our heart. 26:58 Lord, as Sister White once said, 27:02 "Take my heart, take our hearts, 27:06 for we can't give them." 27:08 Oh, Lord, we're prone to wander, 27:10 but I thank you Father, for teaching me 27:13 and for allowing me this time to share 27:16 how we might draw closer to You 27:19 that we might draw near to You that You can draw near to us. 27:23 And I pray for my brothers and sisters at home, Father, 27:27 that and for myself that You will increase our desire 27:31 to press into Your presence, to seek Your face. 27:35 Thank you, Father, in Jesus' name, amen. 27:39 Well, our time is gone. 27:41 Remember, next time 27:43 we're going to be talking about 27:45 how we can make prayer a two-way communication 27:49 And our prayer right now is that you will be joining us. 27:54 May the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, 27:58 the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ 28:01 and the love of the Father be with you always. 28:05 And remember, 28:06 God is calling you to press into His presence. |
Revised 2014-12-17