Mary Bielski - Intimacy in Prayer: Hearing the Father's Love (2019 Power and Purpose Conference)

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] come on in yay I'm so excited um welcome welcome to a workshop I'm super excited my name is Mary you saw me this morning it's so nice to have a small group with you all um smoke compared to this morning I felt like I was like I just got a love on everybody so welcome this is the workshop on intimacy with the father and so for here we're gonna be talking about prayer and I want this to be a little bit interactive I don't want to just you know you can listen to me talk that's fun but how I want to just unfold this workshop we will pray to kick us off we'll do some prayer I want to hear from you because what I find often times the speakers have a sense of what people want to hear but I really want to know what you need what you hope for and where you struggle we could do it together as a community so as we talk about prayer this is not just me giving some wisdom this is all of us sharing the heart of Christ together and doing that little bit together that if that's okay and so we'll do that we'll do a little bit of sharing and then I will teach a little bit about just some of the things that I heard and just ways of growing intimacy and then in the end we'll do some exercise where we actually can pray with each other and have some time for silence as well initially I thought I would be able to have a musician come and do some prayer time I think we'll have a lot of time throughout the weekend to hopefully be praying but you can never what I really want to do is soak it was just soaking in his presence there's something about that and depending on our time if we have a little bit time at the end we'll let we'll let that happen so awesome let's pray Father Son Holy Spirit amen whoo Heavenly Father yes breathe in father we thank you so much Holy Spirit we thank you for your presence how you move and have your way I ask that you'd bless this workshop I ask you bless my heart that I could hear you father and that you would draw us into intimacy your your kids want to know your voice give us a stillness give us a heart focused on you we ask this all in Jesus name Amen so as we begin this workshop I want to actually part of what I wanted to talk about is becoming the beloved I talked a little bit about this this morning um but what does that look like to become more childlike in the craziness of our schedules and I work full-time in ministry and I am a recovering perfectionist now a good enough fist and a so y'all know what that is and I'm learning learning how to be a child again in my adult years after many many years has talked a little bit out this is morning many years of striving many years of seeking and trying to find love and now learning what does it mean just to be his delight and carving out space and time to let him love me which is so essential so to do that what I really wanted to do is actually we're gonna be like little children and so our opening prayer is actually going to be a children's book called yes so we're gonna actually put on our pajamas in this workshop gentleman you can have gi G or transformers or pajamas you do not have to have our whatever our womanly pajamas would be you can have some fierce army boot pajamas whatever you wear I want us to be a home kind of like we're hearing like like children that we're gonna hear this this rah if this book is called children of a king and I'm not gonna read the whole thing's it would probably take about ten minutes we're just gonna lead probably read the last five or six pages the beginning of the book starts with a character that is looking there's a king you can kind of see how this is what we've been talking about a king who's coming and she's looking to give him a gift and she can't read and she doesn't have many talents as she goes from one person I mean this is the pre-emptive she's going to one person in the village to another person trying to find a gift worthy of the king and she has nothing she's a peasant she can't read she doesn't have any like like what do I have to offer and all these other people in the village have like beautiful arts and poetry and and things works and she's like and she's kind of stumbling and she comes to this point where she she's kind of gone through all the places striving to find what's gonna be good enough and then she comes to this place where she's gonna have this exchange with the king so we'll have our what was your name again Theresa first of all can everyone notice how wonderful this height differences between the two of us is this guy awesome like so awesome okay I love it so she said that she I thought it'd be really sweet to have a generation just sharing as a mama and uau grandmother I'm a great-grandma parade I love it so we're gonna be urge grandchildren in this spiritual realm and have this share with us this last part of the book can you hold this is that okay or you want me to hold it okay I will hold it for you is that okay I have nothing to offer the King she said could you teach me to read so I might show him my wisdom the young sage to be didn't it speak he was lost in thought the child with no gift spoke again could you help me I have no talent go away said the scholar scarcely moving his eyes from the text can't you see I'm preparing myself for the coming of the king and so the girl went away sadly she had nothing to give she returned to her place at the city gates and took up her task of caring for people's animals after some days a man in merchants clothes came to the small town can you feed my donkey he asked the girl the orphan jumped up to her feet and looked into the brown face of the one who had traveled far his skin with leathery from the Sun and his eyes were deep his kind smile warmed at the girl's heart that I can she answered eerily leaving the animal trust him to me when you return he will be groomed and fed tell me she asked as the donkey drank have you come to stay for only a while I'm looking for someone are you weary from your journey that I am would you like to sit and rest the girl motion to a bench near the wall the tall man sat on the bench leaned against the wall closed his eyes and slept after a few minutes he awoke and found the girl sitting at his feet watching his face she was embarrassed that he had caught her staring she turned away have you been sitting there long yes what do you think nothing you seem to be a kind man with a peaceful heart it's good to be near you the man smiled and stroked his beard you're a wise girl he said when I return we will visit more the man did return quite soon did you find the ones you were seeking the girl asked I found them but they were too busy for me what do you mean the first one came to see that I came to see was a wood Smith rushing to complete a project he told me to return tomorrow another was an artist I saw her sitting on a hillside the but the people below said she did not want to be disturbed the other was a musician i sat with the others and listened to her music when I asked to talk to her she said she had no time the other I sought had left he has moved to the city to go to school the girl's eyes widened as she realized who the man was but but you don't look like a king she gasped I try not to he explained being a king can be lonely people act strangely around me they asked for favours they tried to impress me they bring me all their complaints but isn't that what a king is for asked the girl certainly responded the king but there are times when I just want to be with my people there are times when I want to talk to my people to hear about their day to laugh a bit to cry some there are times when I just want to be their father is that why you adopted the children that's why adults think they have to impress me children don't they just want to talk to me they know that I loved just the way they are but my brothers and sisters were too busy they were but I'll come back maybe they'll have more time another day the girl hesitated sir what about me I have no gift but I would like to be your child the Kings smiled my dear you gave the best gift of all you gave your heart your kindness your time your love of course you'll be my child I love you just the way you are and so it happened that the children with many talents but no time missed the visit of the King while the girl whose only gift was a gift of her heart became the child of the king amen father son so Heavenly Father we thank you for the Rhymes of the nursery rhymes of babes that teach us the wisdom of your heart ask that you'd bless this session help us to hear what it means to be like to be small and waste time with you to know your voice and to hear your laughter and to begin to become your friend I ask in this session that you give me wisdom how to move and how to hear that I don't have to dazzle I just need you and I ask us all in Jesus name Amen person Amon is that not the most amazing book ever I found it I'm like this is gold I'm like can someone that's why I like what just want to curl up and be like can you please read that over and over you know like a little kid with my feet swinging because I'm really tall and lanky you know I'm like just want to hear just the truth of who we are in Christ and I think we can make it really complicated and so as we start today I want to UM I want to just say that they'll forward hungers to spend time with you the Lord the lights and desires and as much as we're so busy and I say this for myself to have that frame of mind shift of the hunger of just God who desires desires time to be with his kids and I know that that is a hard balance our busy schedule that sometimes it feels very unproductive but the gift of what I've really learned is the gift of presence we see that in our own relationships and our friendships about giving time to someone is probably the best offering that we can give and so I'm going to share a little bit about how do we do that well some tips of what I find helpful and here's the beauty it's just like any relationship you're gonna have to find your own love story and how he speaks to you specifically but I will help talk about how that church really speaks about different modes of hearing in the spiritual realm and go a little bit deeper before I do that I want to hear from you on just your thoughts on prayer where as we start would be helpful for you or do you struggle what are your what are your like let me know if you are like writing the perfect workshop ever and you wanted a tall ginger to bare her soul and make you have fun what what would you want to hear specifically so that you don't leave like okay well that was nice we did some exegesis in scripture that was nice we did a little bit of prayer and Bible I've done that before what do you need how can I serve you how could I love you today okay yes come on I'm gonna read over like little bit of a Oprah Winfrey so I'd love your thoughts on how do you move from just saying your prayers or doing your prayers day after day the Rosie okay done that read a bit of the Bible Chuck done that gone to mass done that to what you're describing of spending delighting to spend time with God and having him delight in you so good so good I see a sisters in the room that me and Schurz probably she can have some wisdom I'm gonna hold that and answer that because I think that actually has a couple layers to it being attuned to the heart so yes but he not in my mind yes I like to spend time with the Lord but I find that um I battle distractions a lot I'd like some help with that please beautiful yes yes who is a pen so I can write this down and make sure I hit them all can I still do you have an extra one generosity of the Lord thanks the best I wanted that love relationship with God that lights people's faces up and I've been searching for a long long time and still haven't found it and that's why I was hoping out of this weekend I'd like to know how do you let go of your sins you can't let go of dang this is so good I'm gonna cry a little so wait I just need to address you I want you to I want you to know this that what you're doing right now in your hunger is the beginning of it all okay well we can talk I hungered for ten years in the inner healing work I get that stay and I wanna I'm like want to minister to you right now but I own one try now well talk let us talk to you later but please know that the Lord is is closer than your breath and I think if you can stay in it the perseverance of these seasons so knowing the season you're in with the Lord is really important that every season looks right sometimes there are seasons but I am like you know this was parenting right you have some kids and there are seasons where you were like working on a discipline with your kids and that is where you were just leaning in you're like just hitting it over and over and sometimes the Lord will stay on that for a season with me and that is the season we're in we're in a season of this Appling and he's speaking to me that in prayers another time and so I want to just say faithful to this season and that there is breakthrough but I want to pray with you one-on-one because I want to speak into that and we'll do a couple more and then I'll jump into [Music] because it's too much then I stop and I try another thing so how do you build like kind of like is program as future discipline something was consistent not too much not to leader dang you guys are good you're not giving me easy ones we're definitely not what teenagers like at all dang y'all okay we have a couple hours we got the work today just kidding one of the reasons I came to this session particularly based on the title is I don't know how to hear God I don't know if he's talking to me I do quiet prayer contemplatively but I have I don't know I don't know if he's talking so he's talking but I don't know how to hear my question is you know maybe you've had a strong prayer life and you feel like you know the Lord but when things come at you and it's so heavy and so hard you can't even think straight and you need him so desperately and in that moment maybe how to get to him the fastest and SOS flare what did I do alright come on more patience in listening and recognizing it's the Lord right do something y'all now that I'm getting like what my brain doesn't you all know this it's also hormone sorry I'm sorry gentlemen but the ladies understand you can't remember anything anymore I don't even have pregnancy brain but I can't remember anything okay so um patients how do we know we're hearing and then when the storms it so good seriously what's also not cool who else let's do a couple more there's so many okay well it's do a couple more and then I'll jump in how do I overcome the fear of listening to him and and giving in to what he wants me to do I mean that means these about to do some great work okay so I'm gonna answer that right now so it's it's I would just say verbally give him the permission part of walking in faith is sometimes walking even in the midst of not knowing like it's almost like you're stepping out as you're on you're not fully sure a lot of times we think that we have to have the feeling and I'm saying like I need to feel like I could do this know most of my stepping is I don't know if I can do this I don't know forget this but I trusting you you and in this stepping out so in my prayer time I actually vocal either I'll say it out loud vocally say God I give you permission here and we're going to talk about if you go to my other workshop I do a lot of unbound prayer which will be which is about renouncing simply in the name of Jesus like the spirit of fear so I will actually take authority if I find that and I can go through I was gonna do more unbound work on my other workshop of just how to eat the process of like a really quick ways that you can just I I repent of any and so I'll just give you three I need any I'll repent of my fear or any places where I'm trying to control or just repent I oh I'm constantly repenting to give my heart pure I'm renouncing Lord anything that I believe or any lie those are the three steps so repent renounce and then claim his truth gotta give you permission and I will step out show me what that looks like and you're just doing that you're just and you're gonna try it and if you mess up you're like okay and do that right help me and just like a relationship and you just try it out and and ask him specifically what that well we could talk more into specific areas but I would say vocally give permission a lot of the spiritual work also is in the renewal of the mind of a lot of the stuff that I hear and I see it isn't really about prayer you're talking about how do I manage my beliefs right how do I manage all the things that are coming against me and my thoughts my beliefs and that is really I do that in conjunction with my prayer time or all I ever do thought work which is when I am looking at the beliefs I have and asking God to speak into that and I'm looking for the truth or untruth and I'm renouncing anything that isn't out of him the spiritual battle is in the mind try and want to talk about this more my next workshop that the transformation of the mind is one of the most vital skills that we are not succeeding in the church is learning how to manage here and so I don't have any I'm seeking to have no thought that is not the father's thought so like today I have thought after my workshop some negative thoughts right I'm like oh my video didn't work perfect or but no lord I was perfect and I take take every thought captive right so I take that thought captive and I speak the truth and I'm doing that so st. Paul talks about prayer as being an act all throughout my day I'm not talking at so we're gonna talk about contempo to prayer sitting with the Lord and letting him love you which is totally a key but also throughout your day managing your mind and managing or the kingdom of heaven is at hand so so that's like we got to get this is you know it's a crazy up in here let's just be honest and so I have to really work at some days are better than others some days I just fell I just really got my butt kicked that day and I had even with my spiritual director I was talking to her yesterday on the phone and I had an I spoke about this today this this week had a couple old lies and I know their lies I know I know their lives this is an old one you know high school whatever like Lauren and so my spiritual director was like so it's a lie why are we still talking like a Brina like she's this kind of like the same thing where she's like okay let's let's claim it let's clean the truth and dot not get distracted keep your eyes on heaven keep your eyes on one Claude has don't let yourself be distracted so those disciplines I'm not saying that we don't there's times that God wants us to nurture those places and be really attuned like a little girl and like be allowing ourselves to weep and grieve there's healing work a lot of the healing work has grief work has that place where you sit and then other times it's like we did that okay that's I need into that discernment of spirit is it takes time to get to that but meantime all I'm saying is if you if you're afraid do it afraid I have a I have a sign in my room that says I can do hard things it's a it's it's framed above my bed I can do hard things because what I've learned my life is that if I want to get anywhere in the spiritual life and exercise that helped me this work I'm doing the whole 30 and trying to get my I have some autoimmune issues and I'm trying to get my eating right and man self-care is tough that's like the smallest battle for me but but even in that like I can do hard things I inside and so what I've learned is that part of its easy in some seasons but sometimes like doing the hard is the best thing that we can do and feeling our emotions and choosing like I'm just start it I'm still speaking to your thing but just choosing in the myths that being uncomfortable you're gonna be uncomfortable with God stretching you I'm just gonna be honest if you want they I mean I can talk about receiving his love all day and that's easy but you want the kingdom you must be willing to get uncomfortable he's gonna stretch you he's gonna ask you to let go of things he's gonna make you feel uncomfortable he's gonna tell you to speak words over people you don't want to he's gonna actually even let you get it wrong right here I get it wrong all the time like what that I feel embarrassed and the Lord is still gonna love me in that say okay what are you gonna do what are you gonna do with that you get trust in me and having that intimacy with my father that he's talking to me all the time does that make sense so I know I went to relax I want to get to prayer and guess that I think we had a couple more but I'm gonna jump in is that okay so a couple of things I just want to talk about in the spiritual realm we talked about rhythms of life there's many things the church is beautiful and I want to just honor the church that she gives the fullness of the beauty of what we'd really need to walk in and so some people are different I'm obviously a little more charismatic charismatic bent to me and so I tend to be drawn I want to say that because some of you are not drawn you're more like liturgically I love the liturgy I love our lady I love the church please hear that but I'm very much drawn to more of the charismatic even my worship style I want to give permission this room that it looks different and that within the seasons of prayer there is a spectrum of the way God works and moves and hearts and some of you that means like I put on Bethel every day I say serie and it lights up play Bethel I'm like half drinking my coffee and worshiping in my room that's my love language I worship in his presence I feel his presence I want to be a host of his presence that's just it's very Merry and it's very Catholic but I that's just me I love worship first for others of you in this room and it might be more Benedictine where it's work and pray work and pray right and to not compare yourself to look like my spiritual walk I want to get freedom your spiritual walk does not need to look like Mary BL skis your spiritual but but be attuned to what God is asking you right and so for some of you just couple spirituality some of you it might be more charismatic where it's worship others it might be you know can template about contemporary prayer one of my most holiest friends she she doesn't have she thinks that she doesn't hear from God it's not true she has more of a contempt and her prayer that she finds it in contemplation and she actually won't have any thought she'll just be with him and feel a peace and that could be just as much the Lord than even words I I mean I think that you can stretch if you hunger and want more of like words prophecy we'd like I feel like God wants to give all the gifts as kiddos but I think also to recognize that he's in the stillness and to be a peace that he's in the stillness and if you want more ask him like a good kid dad I want to hear from you I want to know what that looks like I'm gonna talk about that in a second for you but I want to just speak that you do hear from him you cannot sit and contemplative prayer and say the name of Jesus without him showing up and what I find with our people because we feel like God isn't gonna show up part of the thing that has shift in my heart is the expectation like I come to prayer like sometimes I don't feel it you know I'm just like you I'm not feeling it I don't want to be there and so I have to do my work too and I have to be I'm always doing the unbound I'm renouncing any thoughts or anything that is not of you and when I come into prayer just to clear my heart I go into worship that's just my own style but what I what I want to say in that whole um I'd lost my literally train of thought was I just talking out people oh god bless you I love y'all it's like family is to come with expectations come in expecting like and sometimes like didn't say it a lot father so I don't think he gets impressed with God please hear my prayer like that kind of pop like that prayer of a orphan please God please help me like I come in now and I say father thank you that you see me father thank you that you hear my voice thank you that you know every hair in my head I'll speak the words back sometimes I'll take a scripture verse and I'll say it back to him God you promised this to me and I thank you that your word is gold right it's such a different place sometimes the father's looking back in like I feel like he's like that's my girl you don't I mean like that's hot you know he's not impressed with her please love me I'm and this is from a girl who lived many many years with self-condemnation I'm not enough please God please throw me a crumb and like I feel like he just like you know what I mean so side note on that it's just coming in with expectations so number one one recognizing all the differences of Prayer styles whether that means the liturgy the rosary I want to give honor to the Rose you got when he give honor to the liturgy I go to Mass I try to go daily a mass multiple times in my week I go to adoration I do this stuff but in addition to this stuff I have my time in my room in my secret place of the Lord and some days that is more fruitful than others I'm just gonna be honest and some days my busyness that is not and when I'm anxious what you're talking about when I'm anxious and not able to and my heart is distracted in other places it's harder for me to settle in that place so when I find myself anxious or having those kind of calm floods where you're anxious about all these different things I have to discern is this something that God wants me to shelf so that I need just to be with him like sometimes I'm distracted about things that are probably not significant and he just wants me to be with him or do I need to actually make that my prayer that my aching and my laboring in that specific area is like god I need you to speak right here so frameworks everyone looks different I want to talk about the different senses and prayer so something that doesn't that and I'm going quickly but I got a lot to cover when we talk about prayer this the church is going to talk about a lot of different beauties within the liturgy and the rosary and all these I want to talk about contemplator prayer and I want to talk about the charismatic movements of prayer in my own heart this is just me one thing that really helped me understand how God speaks is that he speaks he definitely speaks but in different ways than perhaps we always think so just like in the in the natural we hear right he's like it's time to share my anointing so just like in the unnatural we have senses so right so we can hear this I want to just mirror this so much of the natural is actually mirrored in the supernatural and so you'll see these movements so how do I hear from God I just want to say how do I hear from God I don't want to just be honest that sometimes I don't I don't think I do that I don't always hear and a lot of times I'm taking I'm getting senses and as I get more at home with Holy Spirit and with Jesus it's like I'm learning our love language and that takes time so I want you two to have permission that but our senses are in the spiritual realm are very similar to this the physical so sight so when I'm in prayer it's going to give this a quick little helpful tip is sometimes people we talked about this yesterday seeing with your heart the way the Holy Spirit uses speaks to me is through images and so often times when I'm sitting with Papa which means all I'm doing and I want to talk about once I go through some of these kind of core principles I'll talk about what a prayer session for me would look like and I'm gonna open it up to whatever that God wants to do for you but so sight so sometimes when I'm praying God will give me an image in prayer I think we talked about that last night and some of you if you're saying I don't get images that's okay I wanted you to close your eyes real quick I want to do I'm gonna do a demonstration of what an image would look like you probably all know this is very Elementary's but just love me I want you to enclose your eyes with me and I want you to imagine a Christmas tree does everyone have that in their mind awesome keep your eyes closed I want you to keep that and now I'm gonna have you say your name in your mind but with your voice okay open your eyes you guys hear that two things so when I see things in the spiritual realm sometimes it looks like the critic it'll be a visual just so you know that it'll be a visual image of my heart from my imagination Catholics are not afraid or imagination it's very ignant Ignatian and so sometimes in the spiritual realm pill put a image of my heart and I'll actually sit in that place where I'm listening and looking and sometimes things will flash it and sometimes I won't see anything right but being a tune that being attuned to the way God wants to speak he's actually speaking to us all the time we're just not tuning in if you're not getting a sense of God's speaking it's not because he's not speaking it's probably cuz we're just not tuning in and it's just a slight turn okay so that the second sense so the visual sense is the image the second sense is the hearing so we also have a spiritual hearing when you heard in your mind your name you all heard that when God speaks to me this blew my mind up I was probably in my 20s and I was like waiting for like you know people say Oh God spoke to me and I was literally waiting for like voices you know what I mean like God said this okay he's not saying anything like that I'm getting these a stomach ache and hearing my random thoughts all day but those Rana Plaza are exactly where God is working not always right but what it what the Lord sounds like no one ever told me this you're like well then how do I know when it's my thought crazy Mary Bielski thoughts or what it's God's thoughts he takes time right but to be I want you to have confidence that oftentimes he is speaking to us in our own thoughts right and so when we hear our voice and that's what it sounds like when I hear my voice Mary you know and also has its different tone to it it tends to be more of a the peace so you can know those as well the other the third is the sense I'll get a sense a sense can be when I'm with someone it could be an uncomfortable sense like a sense of knowing and this is we're gonna have Holy Spirit douse everyone tonight so I'm convinced that you're all gonna come home like here and seeing feeling in the spirits around more than ever and to be to believe it to believe it to believe that he wants to speak and then takes taking steps outs and face and in faith and so a lot of the senses is the best way I describe it is kind of an interior knowing a sense that I'll have about someone it's like feels like a weightiness it doesn't I can't even explain I had a friend once say that when they met their husband they just knew he was the one and so sometimes God will just speak to me with like a sense of his presence such as a sense of this is right in wisdom as I'm talking about something and so those are kind of interior it's really hard to explain the interior world but I'm trying to give some tangible ways that we can kind of navigate through that and hearing him and so the senses and so recognizing like I remember once I was in prayer and sometimes God even uses are like are crazy minds I was in prayer once and I was I do a lot of crying I'm a tender heart and a fierce warrior all mixed up and I was in prayers really struggling because I went through a year of inner healing work where there was a lot of just just a lot of unworthiness just a lot of unworthiness a lot of just not feeling good about myself and not loving myself and having a lot of that stuff and not knowing how to navigate not having any anyone to really help me and I remember being in prayer and just really struggling with this this shame that was just so overwhelming and all I remember sitting in prayer and God wasn't really speaking and I was crying and I journal a lot in my own personal prayer and I was just journaling my prayers my thoughts and I heard this in my back my mind is kind of like melody and I was like oh my gosh I'm always distracted and then I was like that melody was getting louder and I realized it was Whitney Houston and I never think about Whitney although who doesn't love like I want to dance with somebody you know I was a good karaoke winner and the song comes on in my mind and I realized what is this song what is a song in this song that the Lord and I realized in this moment it's that song which I will not saying I will always love you I always like right and I was sitting in this little chair my try and I just hear like which I think as an abstraction I think it's just my mind I think I would have normally dismissed it sometimes a word will come in and I'll just be a tune like is so so we're being attuned that God I just want to say that you God wants to speak to y'all he wants to start moving in bigger ways in your prayer and to be a tune that you can hear his voice it says in John 10:10 my sheep will know his voice and to be confident that he wants to speak to you that he will speak to you when you come into prayer saying I want to learn your voice and here's the thing a lot of it for me is I don't know for sure I'm not ohon I never get on stage a hundred percent sure I never give a prophetic word a hundred percent sure you know why because it makes me lean into him more if I start getting confident that I got it all and I could hear you in the update oh yeah whatever you say no I need to be like God it's just so gentle and so subtle that's important for us to stay small in him but I want to get encourage you to be to be confident that he wants to speak to you more in prayer and he wants to speak particularly in your interior life okay now let's talk about what that looks like for me in a really specific way when I go into prayer I personally I'm gonna because I can only be me I really love the power of worship I'm gonna talk about four tools at my next workshop being the word of Jesus the blood of Jesus the name of Jesus and worship I think those are our four power tools in the spiritual realm and I'll talk about that but just particularly the word of Jesus so scripture for me and worship or one of my primary ways of staying but generally when I go in you had talked about distractions so I might hit some ear thing so when I'm going into prayer I'm literally going in and it's almost like you ever go to a vacation I have made my room I've told the Lord that my bedroom is his his secret place sounds really cheesy I know this is being recorded but I walk in and I want my room to be a place that is just sacred and so I have a little gallery wall and it's like whatever but it is my little space with him and sometimes I'll just sit in my private prayer chair and I sit with the Lord and then some days I'm busy and I don't get to do it but I can always tell what I'm not doing it and I need to be with him and so for me every day looks a little bit different but when I sit with the father I'm just a tuning and I think what we have is sometimes they're shifting and it's hard for me to explain like the spiritual part there's a shifting that I can go to my busyness and a shifting that needs to happen to when I sit there's a shifting that we can get so busy that and some of us have a harder time doing that shifting than others because it's a muscle that we haven't worked what I want to encourage you is that shifting into that place of just abiding and into silence and to sitting is a place where you sit and you just receive and so sometimes for those who love contemplator prayer that just I'll sit in silence for a while and I'll welcome his presence calm Lord Jesus I don't hear anything I'm just welcoming in so I learned an old prayer model when I was like in eighth grade that I still sometimes use but I'll start with things I'll start with worship always in my prayer time generally and then if I'm rattled someone talked about like what do you do when you're all in your rattled sometimes I can't get to the worship because I'm in my rattled y'all know I'm talking about when you're just so then I'm sitting in my rattled with him and I'm either depending on where I feel like God needs to and sometimes it's trial and error that I'm throwing everything at it like the kitchen sink but oftentimes I'm just sitting and I'm trying to articulate my fear in journaling and listening to his voice and writing his his words back we need to be leaving prayer different than when we came in if we leave prayer feeling the same way that we came in most likely we weren't praying we were just complaining and so what I mean but so when I go into prayer I'm looking for an encounter with God to say not that not that my boss gets better not that my anxiety is gone not that but there's a shifting of my heart and just enough a little a taste of him so I will sit in prayer and I will start off with worship and I will always do praise and worship and then I just do that what I learned in like third grade which was like praise like ask ask adoration supplication wait act thank you contrition I'm like messing up my things contrition Thanksgiving I'll usually go through all of those but in general now I just let the spirit move but when I'm sitting I'm sitting and I'm just worshiping him and and being attuned with what the father has to say some of you don't think you hear from God and I want to just do an exercise with you that we're going to actually practice listening how about that I'm gonna read a little scripture so one of you I'm not gonna do I was gonna do a Lexi Davina have you all heard of LexA Davina yeah I figured you're like you're like this is not my first rodeo so I don't want to focus on that because most of you probably have heard of how to pray and how to listen I want to actually just talk about this the little nuances of prayer to hear God's voice and how to hear him more intentionally and so what I want to do is I'm gonna read a scripture and just see if anyone hears anything or any images come to mind I have a feeling that this will be more of an image based one but lets us see so we're just going to read like a little bit of Isaiah 55 and what I want to do is when in this prayer time I want to just so first as we start what's your relationship with the father that's it you don't answer this how many of you I may ask you this raise your hand if you feel like you have a good relationship with God as father pretty good how many people think that they could grow in their relationship as father awesome great I'm gonna start with this I feel like the one way that really helps me is I become a little girl or gentleman which is harder for the dudes I become a little boy when I am with the father I have to put my heart in a posture maybe that's uncomfortable but it helps me cuz sometimes it's hard to for us to receive as adults and so if you have a hard relationship with the father what what I would ask that you would begin to do as you go home in prayer is that you would start intentionally seeking the father's heart because he's already seeking yours what that looks like intentionally is I'll sit down and I'll imagine me with freckles I do a lot of imaginary prayer and I'll put myself as a little Mary sometimes he'll flash me to memories but I'll be with a father and I use my imagination to help him come and hear your voice so I feel like the Lord wants me to begin there instead of doing Isaiah I want us to actually do some father where we can actually hear father so what I want to ask that you do so how do we hear the father's voice in prayer let's just do it right now what I'm going to ask that we do is I want to have you close your eyes I'm gonna do a little bit the meditation of you being with the father and I want you to be attuned to the senses so when I say senses the spiritual senses what you see in your mind's eye what you hear and your he in your interior voice a sense that you feel right or any movements and all this exercise is if you walk away feeling nothing but your stomach grumbling that's okay we're just practicing okay so let's close our eyes Heavenly Father I thank you and I welcome you Holy Spirit that you are with us and that you want to teach us the father's heart and as we begin today father I ask that you would speak because your children want to know your voice they want to know how to hear from you and I want to imagine for everyone in this room that you would be like a little girl or a little boy in your mind's eye maybe you had pigtails maybe you had roughed up jeans maybe you're a boy who played sports and you're in a uniform and I don't know what age that is but I want you to imagine what it feels safe for you to be like a little kid again and I want to imagine what you you're walking into a room and you're opening a door and as you walk into the other side of the door you see your father you see your Heavenly Father you see his eyes light up as he sees you and the expectation for him to sit with you at just feet and as you get closer you're like excited but not sure he wants to spend time he looks at you with a big smile and this is Holy Spirit I asked that you would just reveal the heart today of the father and I feel like the father looks at you and he says what do you want me to do for you we're gonna ask that one more time what do you want me to do for you if you have a journal right now and I encourage you to start writing down maybe some things that you want to tell him or if you just want to sit here for a minute we're just gonna let the father minister as if right now no one else is with you I want you just to be with the father and say father I need help here we're seeing a little as little silence come next question I have is what do you need the father to know and finally as you're sitting with him and your dialoguing the father has it gifts for you today he has something that he's been waiting and so he reaches to the side and he pulls out this gift that you open when you to imagine what that gift look like looks like and how it's wrapped and there's something very specific only for you Father I ask as we pray that you would show what's the truth or the gift that you want to give each individual today it could be a word Holy Spirit right now I ask in your name father that you would just move and give us a sense of what you want to give each one of us today

Channel: Steubenville Conferences

Views: 1,211

Keywords: Steubenville Conferences, Catholic, Franciscan University, Catholic Ministry, New Evangelization, Youth

Id: J_j3asVodNE

Length: 46min 21sec (2781 seconds)

Published: Thu Aug 08 2019