Pressing into His Presence

Two-way Communication

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Shelley Quinn

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Series Code: PHP

Program Code: PHP000003


00:01 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn. Let me ask you a question.
00:04 When you are talking with God, do you do all the talking?
00:09 Please join us today on "Pressing into His Presence."
00:12 When we will consider
00:14 that prayer should be a two-way communication.
00:39 Welcome to "Pressing into His Presence."
00:41 This is a series that is going to be teaching us
00:44 how to have a more intimate prayer life
00:47 and therefore a more intimate relationship with the Lord.
00:53 If you have joined us for the last two programs
00:56 you know that we've been considering
00:58 the back story so to speak,
01:00 in other words how the Lord led me into this teaching.
01:04 Today we will conclude
01:06 the personal testimony groundwork for this series
01:09 and we are taking this series from a companion book
01:14 that I was blessed to write,
01:16 it's also titled Pressing in to His Presence.
01:19 So many of you are already following along
01:22 and for today we are going to begin on page 25.
01:26 During our last program, I was sharing about my response
01:31 to what I believed was God's call to me
01:34 to pray an hour a day.
01:36 This was to correct my backsliding
01:39 and turn me around
01:41 but it seemed so terribly long and next to impossible to me.
01:46 And on that first morning,
01:48 I sat at my computer at 8 o'clock
01:51 and began, I was gonna type out my prayer to the Lord.
01:56 And something-- this was something
01:58 that I've never done before
02:00 I was gonna type it out like a letter to God.
02:03 So what I did was I covered the clock
02:06 so that I wouldn't be watching it.
02:08 And at the Lord's leading the prayer developed
02:12 that morning in the following order,
02:15 praise was the opening segment
02:18 then it was followed by repentance,
02:21 intersession and supplication.
02:25 And when I finished pouring out my heart to God
02:28 and I couldn't think of another thing to pray
02:33 then I was going to see what God was doing.
02:38 So I thought how much longer
02:40 that I have to go before my hour was complete
02:44 what else was there to talk about at the moment
02:47 and thinking perhaps that 45 minutes had passed.
02:50 I peeked into the sticky note on the clock to check the time
02:55 and it was already a quarter past 10,
02:58 I had spent 2 hours and 15 minutes with the Lord.
03:03 Amazing.
03:05 And as I typed the words in Jesus' name, amen
03:10 that still small voice of the Lord interrupted
03:14 catching me totally off guard saying this,
03:19 "Be still and know that I am God."
03:24 I know the Holy Spirit
03:26 will never impress anything upon our mind
03:29 that is not in perfect agreement
03:32 with God's council in the Bible.
03:34 And those words were a direct quote of Psalm 46:10
03:39 which says, "Be still, and know that I am God,
03:44 I will be exalted among the nations,
03:49 I will be exalted in the earth!"
03:55 Well, you can imagine I froze in my position
04:00 with my fingers poised on the keyboard
04:03 then I began to doubt was that really
04:06 God's command to be still or was it my imagination.
04:10 And another distant thought came drifting into my mind
04:14 then I frantically asked,
04:16 "Oh, Lord, is this You or is this me?"
04:19 And then yet another thought
04:20 and then again I questioned the source
04:23 "Lord, please, is this You or is this me?"
04:27 And in the past I had often claimed John 10:27,
04:33 which is-- this is where Jesus said,
04:35 "My sheep hear My voice,
04:38 and I know them, and they follow Me."
04:41 And I also claimed John 10:5, where He said,
04:46 "Yet they will by no means follow a stranger,
04:50 but will flee from him,
04:51 for they do not know the voice of strangers."
04:55 I had-- I had prayed this saying,
04:57 "Oh, Father, thank You Lord Jesus,
05:00 that I know Your voice thank You Lord Jesus,
05:03 that I'll never follow the voice of a stranger.
05:08 And now the idea that the Lord
05:10 wanted to share a thought with me
05:12 during my prayer time was unbelievable.
05:16 Suddenly the thought flashed into my mind
05:20 "I will teach you to quit interrupting in the
05:23 spiritual realm as well as in the physical realm."
05:26 Write what I speak to you that you may take note of it often.
05:31 Well, with trepidation I typed out the thoughts
05:35 being so strongly impressed upon my mind
05:38 And they only amounted to three sentences.
05:41 And I ended with this command, look it up,
05:45 searching the Bible I found scriptures
05:48 that supported and explained
05:50 what I now believed were His divine thoughts.
05:53 And I sat back in satisfaction
05:55 that my loving Father had given me instruction to heed.
05:59 I didn't really expect this to happen
06:02 in the same manner on the following morning, but it did.
06:07 God again impressed His thoughts upon my mind.
06:11 This time it was only two sentences
06:14 but they were powerful reassurance
06:17 that it was His still small voice
06:21 impressing His thoughts upon my mind
06:23 as we talk about from 1 Kings 19:12.
06:27 Now JD was working out of town
06:31 and we regularly called each other throughout the day.
06:34 And of course I was so excited about this new prayer privilege
06:39 that I just had to share my joy with him.
06:42 He didn't say much about it at first
06:45 but then after several days
06:47 of listening to my bubbling reports
06:50 he made his feelings understood.
06:53 He tenderly said, "Honey, please don't tell
06:58 anyone else that you're hearing from God
07:01 they will think you're crazy.
07:04 Well, within a few weeks JD was convinced
07:08 that God indeed was impressing thoughts upon my mind
07:11 during times at prayer.
07:13 Then my sweet husband questioned me saying,
07:17 "I pray throughout the day, why haven't I ever heard God?"
07:22 And I simply answer him by asking
07:25 "Well, have you ever listened?"
07:28 And a few days later, JD called
07:31 and cautiously shared a new prayer experience.
07:34 Wondering if the thoughts that came to his mind were from God.
07:38 We're going to examine
07:40 what happened to him in our later program.
07:42 But I think when we get there you will agree with me
07:46 God was definitely giving him
07:48 a loving and unexpected word of correction.
07:53 When 1 Kings 19:12 talks about hearing,
07:57 the still small voice of the Lord
08:00 think-- I think of it as describing
08:04 when the Holy Spirit impresses God's thoughts upon our minds.
08:09 I don't believe this type of communication
08:12 is an exclusive privilege offered to just a few.
08:15 JD and I are no more special than anyone else.
08:19 God is a loving Father and He wants to teach His children
08:25 if He could just get their attention
08:28 and their cooperation to listen,
08:30 He wants to teach us
08:32 that prayer is a two-way communication.
08:36 After all, God's purpose is to lead us.
08:40 One of my favorite scriptures is Isaiah 48:17.
08:47 And this is what it says,
08:50 "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer,
08:53 the Holy One of Israel,
08:55 'I am the Lord your God, Who teaches you to profit,
09:01 Who leads you by the way you should go.'"
09:05 If this idea of hearing God's voice His still small voice,
09:11 seems a little far fetch to you.
09:13 Please stay tuned for future programs,
09:16 please give me the opportunity
09:18 to prove this is a scriptural teaching.
09:21 If you don't, you won't know what you've missed.
09:25 I've traveled the world
09:26 and I have pulled congregation around the world
09:30 asking how many in the audience
09:33 were just certain that God had on occasion by His Holy Spirit
09:39 impressed His thoughts upon their mind in inaudible words.
09:45 Words that can't be heard with the physical ear
09:49 but it's being heard in your mind.
09:51 And almost always, at least two third's
09:55 of the members in the audience will raise their hand saying,
09:58 "Yes, I know God has impressed a thought upon my mind."
10:01 Now some raise their hands with timidity
10:04 as if they were embarrassed to admit it.
10:07 But before I learned to press into His presence
10:12 those precious occasions happen to me infrequently.
10:16 When I allow this practice of pressing in type prayer
10:20 to be crowded out at my schedule,
10:22 in other words, when I'm shamefully too busy
10:26 to spend substantial time with the Lord in prayer.
10:29 I don't perceive His still small voice
10:32 but it became almost a daily occurrence over the many years
10:37 that I faithfully practiced this teaching.
10:40 Occasionally, even when I was being still before the Lord
10:45 He trusted me with His silence.
10:47 To teach me He was still there,
10:49 even though I didn't sense His still small voice.
10:54 Don't be fearful of trying this biblical practice
10:57 of listening for the Lord's voice.
10:59 In today's culture, we aren't accustomed to thinking
11:03 that God wants to communicate with us on a personal level.
11:07 Oh, but He does.
11:09 And we need to know how
11:11 so that we don't get caught up in counterfeit teachings
11:16 or be so fearful that we avoid the true experience.
11:22 In later programs, we will examine much scripture
11:27 to verify the way that the Lord communicates with mankind.
11:31 We will also look at His promises
11:34 that we reveal God wants us to learn
11:37 that prayer is a two-way communication.
11:41 I don't get the impression of His inaudible voice
11:45 when I rush in before Him and try to get an answer.
11:49 In fact, it rarely happens
11:52 if I haven't spent at least an hour in prayer
11:54 pouring out my heart before Him.
11:56 And then sitting still before Him.
12:00 When His thoughts come they are almost always
12:03 something of an extremely
12:05 personal nature and application.
12:07 And they always line up in total agreement with His word.
12:13 The Holy Spirit will not do otherwise.
12:17 John 14:26 says this,
12:21 and these are the words of Jesus,
12:24 He says, "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit,
12:27 whom the Father will send in My name,
12:29 He will teach you all things,
12:33 and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you."
12:38 So the Holy Spirit is our helper
12:40 and He's bringing to remembrance the words of God.
12:45 He will never ever contradict God's words.
12:49 So listening to God during my prayer time
12:52 is how I knew He was calling me into full time ministry.
12:56 He also announced 21 months before
12:59 I first appeared on 3ABN that He will open the doors
13:04 for television, radio and publishing
13:07 and that I would speak into all the world.
13:10 A couple of years later,
13:12 He prevented my husband and I from buying a new home
13:15 in Coleman, Texas where we were living
13:17 by telling us that we would move out of town within
13:21 several months but He didn't even reveal the location.
13:25 And you know what, I didn't ask.
13:27 I had already learned
13:29 that God tells me just a little bit at a time.
13:33 This was months in advance
13:35 of our surprise invitation to join the staff at 3ABN.
13:40 There are times when I had been in prayer with Him
13:45 feeling satisfied about myself
13:48 and the direction in which I'm heading.
13:51 When God has stunned me with a word of correction
13:56 and then there also had been times and days
14:00 when I'm just really crestfallen
14:03 and I feel like I'm a dismal disappointment to Him.
14:07 And my loving Father has surprised me with words,
14:10 of encouragement and assurance.
14:13 His response has never been something I have expected,
14:17 I have come to trust these thoughts
14:19 being impressed upon my mind are at divine origin.
14:23 I faithfully kept my daily commitment
14:26 to the Lord for the first 9 years.
14:28 Every day I prayed and in addition to praying
14:33 throughout the day, my normal prayers,
14:36 I mean, I prayed an hour each morning.
14:40 And I'm ashamed to admit it but I must say that
14:44 over the past several years I've let this practice slip.
14:47 Instead of daily pressing into His presence,
14:51 it became a weekly effort.
14:53 In some months it was not even that often.
14:56 You know we work four, 10 hour days
15:00 each week here at 3ABN Broadcasting Network.
15:03 And we travel most weekends to speak
15:07 at camp meetings or church revivals and retreats
15:10 and that has interrupted the rhythm of this practice
15:14 only because of I've allowed it.
15:16 I'm not proud of this fact.
15:18 And don't misunderstand what I'm saying,
15:20 I continue to pray often throughout the day
15:24 but it's different,
15:25 it's not pressing into His presence.
15:29 A 15 minute prayer is just not as satisfying.
15:33 And I don't hear from God
15:35 when I rush in before Him in this fashion.
15:38 And to answer the obvious question,
15:41 yes, I lose ground when I'm not practicing this.
15:45 I think that's called backsliding, isn't it?
15:49 Prior to taping this series, I felt that it was necessary
15:53 to return to the practice of praying an hour in the morning.
15:57 And praise God, He is reawakening
16:00 my passion for His presence.
16:03 Prayer is a vital life source.
16:07 It is the breath of the soul and how refreshing it is
16:11 to be deep breathing again
16:13 rather than just the occasional spiritual gasping
16:17 that I had gravitated toward.
16:19 More importantly, I cannot tell you how joyful it makes me too.
16:24 Once again be hearing the still small voice of the Lord
16:30 like that beautiful hymn,
16:31 "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."
16:34 Oh, it says
16:37 oh, prone to wander from the God I love,
16:40 prone to take His presence for granted.
16:44 To grace, how great a tatter I am.
16:48 Father, take our hearts and seal it,
16:51 seal them for Your courts above as the songs says.
16:55 That's my prayer for every sincere
16:59 hearted seeker of God's kingdom and God's righteousness.
17:03 Let's return our focus to
17:05 what happened that September of 1999
17:08 when the Lord first led me to pray in this manner.
17:11 If someone spends an hour with God each morning,
17:14 and learn to sit at His feet and listen.
17:17 Wouldn't you think that she could expect
17:20 greater spiritual power
17:21 to overcome the obstacles of sinful flesh?
17:26 Well, in my case it just wasn't happening
17:28 at least not for the first two weeks.
17:30 And on the 15th morning of my new prayer experience,
17:33 I awoke rather late and I opened the windows
17:37 to the best weather of September can muster.
17:39 The air was crisp and golden leaves
17:42 were on the ground moist with dew
17:45 and they reflected the sun's sparkling rays.
17:48 Now normally this scene would have exhilarated me
17:52 but I was feeling down in the mouth,
17:54 dissatisfied with my spiritual progress.
17:57 After opening my prayer with praise,
18:00 I began my ritual of repentance.
18:03 And as I confess my sins,
18:05 I pleaded with God for more spiritual power.
18:09 And the still small voice of the Lord broke through saying,
18:13 "All of My promises are yours in Christ."
18:16 Isn't that what 2 Corinthians 1:20 says?
18:21 It says, "All of the promises of God in Him,
18:25 in Christ are Yes, and in Him Amen,
18:30 to the glory of God through us."
18:34 Hallelujah.
18:36 These words struck like a thunderbolt.
18:39 Of course, God had proven to me several years earlier
18:43 how affirming His word, in other words,
18:46 how claiming and confessing His promises.
18:50 Praying them back to Him, speaking them over my life,
18:53 that was the way to plug into His power source.
18:57 So, that September morning,
18:59 I added a generous portion of life affirmations
19:02 from scripture to my daily prayer.
19:05 And immediately I was transformed,
19:08 endued with power from on high.
19:10 The struggle of my flesh was banished.
19:13 God thrust out the enemy from before me,
19:17 just as He promised
19:19 in Deuteronomy 33:27, let's read that.
19:23 It says, "The eternal God is your refuge,
19:27 and underneath are the everlasting arms,
19:30 He will thrust out the enemy from before you,
19:33 and will say, 'Destroy!'"
19:37 Hallelujah. That prayer prevailed.
19:41 My day was dramatically different.
19:44 Before I went to bed that night I reviewed the prayer
19:47 and I decided to label the various segments
19:51 of the portions that had been produced
19:54 that or that had produced such a powerful pattern.
19:58 These are the segment labels.
20:01 First was praise then repentance,
20:05 affirmation, intercession, supplication
20:10 and the last one I titled, enter and be still.
20:14 Please note that if you take the first letter of each word
20:20 we develop an acronym praise, P-R-A-I-S-E.
20:26 I alternately referred to this teaching
20:29 as pressing into His presence or the praise prayer.
20:33 And I may be over estimating this
20:35 but I believe that God had a reason
20:37 for directing the segments
20:39 in the special order that He did.
20:41 And in upcoming programs, you will learn
20:44 why I think this is true you can decide for yourself.
20:48 You know I've never been a fan of prayer formulas.
20:52 There's always the possibility of developing
20:55 mechanical and meaningless practices.
20:58 But I don't think of this teaching as a prayer formula,
21:01 it's just prayer patterns.
21:03 And over the many years of practicing this type of prayer
21:08 as I've said before it's never become mechanical for me.
21:11 I often use this pattern
21:13 in a much shorter prayer as well.
21:16 Please understand I'm not trying to advocate
21:19 that this is the only manner in which to pray.
21:22 Prayer is an intimate communication
21:25 with an intimate being of love
21:28 and it will naturally take on various forms of expression.
21:32 I send up many different types of prayer daily
21:36 before His throne of grace.
21:38 But still the praise prayer pattern
21:41 has been the most successful I have used
21:43 for pressing into His presence.
21:46 Please don't become discouraged and tuned out this teaching
21:50 because the thought of praying an hour a day seems impossible.
21:54 This is not a commandment,
21:55 yes, it will absolutely correct backsliding if you do it.
22:01 But God doesn't insist that we pray an hour a day.
22:05 And I know that so many of our lives
22:08 are so very over schedule.
22:11 I really do appreciate the challenges facing you.
22:15 In fact, that's my problem, I experienced the same.
22:19 Is your to-do list just to demanding
22:23 to accomplish this daily?
22:25 Well, make some time on your day's off from your job
22:29 and at least you will be pressing into His presence
22:32 at least on a weekly basis.
22:35 And I guarantee you once you have tasted
22:38 the sweetness of praying this way,
22:41 you very well might see that it's easy
22:44 to make time for it more often.
22:47 Martin Luther, the priest who initiated
22:51 the protestant reformation in 1517 A.D.
22:57 he was known as a devout man of prayer.
23:01 And he reportedly said this, "Tomorrow I plan to work,
23:07 work from early until late.
23:09 In fact, I have so much to do
23:12 that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer."
23:20 This testifies that Luther recognized
23:23 his absolute dependence on the Lord.
23:26 And did you know that is God's plan?
23:29 It is something that-- it took me the longest time
23:33 to learn that that's what it's all about.
23:37 God wants us to come to Him
23:40 and recognize our absolute total dependence upon Him.
23:45 It is God who works in us to will and to do.
23:50 It is the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ
23:54 that is sufficient.
23:56 That He makes His power perfect in our weakness.
24:01 And if we are relying on self, if we are being independent,
24:08 we're actually insulting God.
24:12 Luther knew to be dependant upon God.
24:17 And what Luther did was he finally recognized
24:22 that by His-- keeping this appointment
24:26 he would leverage his productive time.
24:30 You know, I guarantee you
24:33 that if you will spend an hour a day in time with God,
24:39 if you'll make this your highest priority,
24:42 God will increase your productivity
24:45 and He will make certain that you accomplish everything
24:50 that you need to do.
24:52 Speaking from experience I can say that you will be
24:56 much more productive after pressing into His presence.
25:00 That's why Luther, oh, he found this out.
25:03 That's why he said, "I've got so much to do,
25:05 I'm gonna spend three hours in prayer."
25:10 Well, what I would like to do right now
25:13 is to say a prayer for you.
25:16 And what I'm going to do is show you how you can pray
25:21 the praise pattern in a very short way.
25:26 So bow your heads and let's pray.
25:29 Father, we thank You for Your love and Your grace toward us.
25:34 Thank You for the indescribable
25:37 gift of salvation through Christ Jesus.
25:40 We praise You for Your goodness,
25:43 Your holiness, Your mercy in power.
25:46 We ask in the name of Jesus for you to forgive our sins.
25:51 That we may come before You
25:53 with clean hands and a pure heart.
25:56 We are Your beloved sheep, we hear Your voice.
26:00 And we will follow You only
26:02 and will never follow the voice of a stranger.
26:05 I pray for my brothers and my sisters right now, Lord,
26:10 that anyone who's listening or watching this series
26:13 that You will send Your spirit to be their teacher.
26:17 Lead them in the way everlasting.
26:20 Teach them, teach me
26:22 how to truly press into Your presence,
26:24 cause us to seek Your face.
26:28 Give us a passion for Your presence.
26:32 Help us to be still and know that You are God.
26:38 Give us ears to hear Your still small voice
26:42 and obey knowing that we can be confident it is Your voice.
26:47 If what is impressed upon our hearts
26:50 is in perfect agreement with Your word.
26:52 Oh, Father, here we raise our Ebenezer
26:57 and we come in confidence of Your empowering help.
27:01 In the name of Your only begotten son,
27:05 Jesus Christ, amen.
27:09 Well, I hope that today has challenged you.
27:15 I hope that today has peeked your curiosity.
27:19 And I hope that you will be joining us for the next time
27:24 because what we're going to do on our next program
27:28 is we are going to learn how to enter into His gates,
27:33 the heavenly gates above with Thanksgiving
27:36 as we approach His throne of grace boldly
27:41 just as He asked us.
27:43 Thank you so much for joining us.
27:46 And I pray that next time
27:49 we're really gonna get started on the teaching.
27:52 So when you tune in next time,
27:54 have a pen and your paper and your Bible handy.
27:59 Until then, may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
28:03 the love of the Father and the fellowship
28:05 of the Holy Spirit be with you always.


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Revised 2014-12-17