Pressing into His Presence

What the Lord Wants Us to Hear

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Shelley Quinn

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Series Code: PHP

Program Code: PHP000021


00:01 Hello, I'm Shelley Quinn.
00:02 Do you know what kind of messages
00:05 God wants to speak to your hearts?
00:07 Please join us today on "Pressing in to His Presence"
00:10 as we examine this topic.
00:33 Welcome to "Pressing in to His Presence."
00:36 Our journey in prayer has taken us through praise,
00:39 through repentance, affirmation,
00:42 intercessions, supplication and to the final point to enter
00:47 and be still listening for the voice of God.
00:51 During our last three programs we have considered
00:54 how God has spoken throughout history to mankind.
00:58 And who it is that God is trying to reach.
01:01 Today we will consider the types of messages
01:03 the Lord wants us to hear.
01:06 If you are following along in the program companion book
01:09 also titled Pressing in to His Presence.
01:11 Today we begin on page 178.
01:15 When we cry out
01:18 with sincere supplication in prayer,
01:21 the Lord answers, He hears and He answers.
01:25 He desires to speak words of encouragement, instruction
01:30 and even discipline to our hearts.
01:33 Let's consider some Bible promises
01:35 which indicate that.
01:37 Psalms 3:3-4 is one of my favorite promises.
01:43 It says, "But You, O Lord,
01:45 are a shield for me, my glory
01:48 and the One who lifts up my head.
01:51 I cried to the Lord with my voice,
01:55 and He heard me from His holy hill."
01:58 Is your heart breaking right now?
02:01 God is near to the brokenhearted,
02:03 cry out to Him.
02:05 He will cup His hand beneath your chin,
02:07 and lift your head up.
02:10 He will heal you and bind up your wounds.
02:14 He promises in Psalms 91:15 that "When we call upon Him,
02:21 He will answer us and He will be with us
02:24 in times of trouble and will deliver us."
02:27 Are you mourning?
02:29 Cry out and He will console you.
02:31 Giving you the oil of joy to replace your mourning.
02:36 The garment of praise
02:38 to replace the sprit of heaviness.
02:41 You know Paul describes God this way,
02:44 in 2 Corinthians 1:3, 4 where He says
02:49 "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
02:53 the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,
02:57 who comforts us in all our tribulation,
03:01 that we may be able to comfort those
03:04 who are in any trouble, with the comfort
03:07 with which we ourselves are comforted by God."
03:13 Do you desperately need direction?
03:17 Call upon the Lord.
03:18 He promises He will not hide Himself.
03:22 In Isaiah 30:21 and further,
03:26 He promises that your ears shall hear
03:29 a word behind you saying,
03:31 this is the way, walk in it.
03:33 Whenever you turn
03:34 to the right hand or to the left,
03:37 God desperately wants to instruct you.
03:41 Now look at what He promises in Isaiah 48:17.
03:47 'This is what the Lord says, your Redeemer, the Holy One.
03:51 "I am the Lord your God,
03:53 Who teaches you what is best for you,
03:56 Who directs you in the way you should go."
04:01 What a God?
04:03 Here we see that God is anxious to help us.
04:11 We hear the echo of His voice
04:13 just saying to you the same thing
04:15 that He promised to Jeremiah.
04:17 he said,
04:21 "Call to Me, and I will answer you,
04:24 and I'll show you great and mighty things,
04:27 which you do not know."
04:29 God knows the end from the beginning
04:31 and He declares things that are not yet in existence
04:37 as though they were already done.
04:39 The Bible says that
04:40 He confines in those who reverence Him
04:44 and causes them to understand His covenant.
04:46 He wants to pour out His sprit of wisdom on us,
04:51 and make His words known to us.
04:53 Look at what He says in Proverbs 1:22-23.
04:59 "How long, O simple ones...
05:01 will you love being simple?
05:03 And the scoffers delight in scoffing
05:06 and self-confident fools hate knowledge?
05:09 If you will turn, if you will repent
05:11 and give heed to my reproof, behold, I wisdom
05:15 will pour out my spirit upon you,
05:18 and I will make My words known to you."
05:22 This reference from Proverbs Chapter 1
05:25 is the voice of wisdom
05:27 and it is calling out within the context,
05:31 wisdom is personified as a pure and virtuous woman.
05:35 But who does scripture identify as wisdom?
05:39 1 Corinthians 1:30 tells us that
05:41 "We have our life in Christ Jesus,
05:44 whom God has made our wisdom."
05:48 Wisdom lovingly rebukes mockers,
05:52 desiring to make His heart known to them.
05:57 God disciplines His children in wisdom.
06:01 When it comes to discipline,
06:03 Hebrews 12:9, 11 say this.
06:09 "Furthermore, we have had human fathers
06:12 who corrected us, and we paid them respect.
06:15 Shall we not much more readily be in subjection
06:18 to the Father of spirits and live?
06:21 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present,
06:24 but painful, nevertheless, afterward it yields
06:27 the peaceable fruit of righteousness
06:30 to those who have been trained by it."
06:35 You know some thing.
06:36 I am always amused to hear audience responses
06:39 when I mentioned that
06:40 I pray for God to discipline me.
06:44 Usually a collective gasp of horror
06:46 escapes most lips huh, as if to imply
06:49 where I was bringing a curse down upon my own head.
06:53 That is far...
06:55 from the spectrum of God's truth
06:57 as the color black is from white.
06:59 In Psalm 32:8 God says, "I will instruct you,
07:04 and I will teach you the way you should go.
07:07 I will guide you with My eye." God is the perfect father.
07:12 He knows when we need to be lovingly encouraged
07:15 and He knows when we need a word of correction.
07:19 If we listen and respond to His gentle words of rebuke,
07:23 He has to go no further,
07:25 but if we ignore His initial attempts to correct us,
07:28 He rams up the volume to gain our attention.
07:32 Ignore His further pleads, and the consequences
07:36 of our actions are the punishment.
07:39 Did you know that?
07:41 Let's look at Jeremiah 2:17, 19.
07:46 God is speaking here and He says,
07:49 "Have you not brought this upon yourselves
07:52 by forsaking the Lord your God
07:54 when he led you in the way?
07:56 Your own wickedness shall chasten and correct you,
08:00 and your backslidings
08:02 and desertion of faith shall reprove you.
08:05 Know therefore and recognize
08:07 that this is an evil and bitter thing.
08:10 First you have forsaken the Lord your God,
08:13 second, you are indifferent to Me
08:16 and the fear of Me is not in you,
08:18 says the Lord of hosts."
08:20 So we seed that this is--
08:24 what happens is it's our own actions
08:27 that bring us the problem,
08:29 this we suffer the consequences of our own actions.
08:34 And the next chapter records this sorrowful thought of God,
08:39 and He speaks again in Jeremiah 3:19.
08:42 Here's what He says,
08:44 "And I thought you would call Me 'My Father'
08:47 and would not turn away from following Me."
08:51 Detect, detect the note of sadness
08:53 in our Father's voice here.
08:55 God wants His children
08:57 to call on Him by name Abba, Father.
09:01 He wants us to trust His leading and His judgment.
09:04 The longing of our loving Lord is to have children
09:09 who have ears to hear His voice.
09:14 And the bottom-line is your heavenly Father
09:17 wants you to listen to His guidance.
09:20 Hearing from God is not a privilege
09:22 that belongs to a select few.
09:24 He wants to train your spiritual ears to hear
09:27 and recognize His authentic voice.
09:30 He will never communicate with you in any way
09:33 that is contrary to scripture.
09:37 So you don't need to be fearful,
09:39 but with all the commotion
09:40 of communication in today's world,
09:43 it is imperative to know Bible truth,
09:47 so that we may distinguish God's voice above the din.
09:51 And we may fine-tune our spiritual antennas
09:54 to receive only what comes from Him.
09:57 Our prayer needs to be like David's found in Psalms 143.
10:03 Let's look at verse 8 and in verses 10, 11.
10:07 David prayed, "Cause me to hear
10:10 Your lovingkindness in the morning,
10:12 for in You do I trust,
10:15 cause me to know the way in which I should walk,
10:18 for I lift up my soul to You... Teach me to do Your will,
10:23 for You are my God, Your spirit is good.
10:26 Lead me in the land of uprightness.
10:29 Revive me, O Lord, for Your name's sake!
10:32 For your righteousness' sake bring my soul out of trouble."
10:38 You know, as you're pressing in to God's presence
10:43 and we reach this final prayer portion,
10:47 the idea of being still to listen
10:49 and receive impressions on your heart from God's sprit.
10:53 If this makes you too uneasy
10:55 or if you don't know what scripture,
10:57 I suggest that you can conclude with the Bible reading,
11:01 to provide opportunity for a divine dialogue
11:05 rather than our usual monologue.
11:07 After all, it's said and done,
11:09 scripture is the most significant
11:12 way we hear from the Lord.
11:14 And prayer should be a two way communication.
11:19 Some people pray beautiful prayers,
11:23 but they are so busy talking to God,
11:25 it never occurs to them to listen
11:27 for His possible response.
11:30 That was me.
11:31 For several years I had prayed
11:33 all the scriptures about hearing God,
11:37 during my practice of affirmations,
11:39 and I thank the Lord for opening my ears
11:42 to hear His still small voice.
11:43 I thank Him that I knew and recognized His voice
11:46 and would not follow the voice of the stranger.
11:49 But it never occurred to me, to actually try to listen.
11:54 Yes, God broke through
11:56 my bustling routine from time to time.
11:59 And He impressed His precious thoughts upon my mind,
12:02 but that seemed acceptable
12:04 even though they were just rare occasions,
12:06 that was all I expected.
12:08 But when the Lord taught me to be still before Him
12:12 at the conclusion at my prayer,
12:14 He changed my life dramatically.
12:17 Let me share my personal testimony with you.
12:20 For a number of months earlier than the time
12:23 when I am sitting here at my computer,
12:25 and He was teaching me to pray.
12:27 I had labored feverishly
12:29 to develop business building seminars
12:31 for our new venture working with clients of CPA's.
12:35 We had enough accountants
12:37 who would promote our services across United States
12:39 to fill our seminar pipeline for year.
12:43 And with their client
12:44 participant estimate of at least a 100 each
12:47 and recommended seminar rates of a thousand.
12:51 You can do the math quickly a hundred times of thousand
12:54 for a week in seminar.
12:57 And we anticipated a profit of $50,000
13:00 per event after our expenses.
13:02 Well, this dangled before us like a big carrot.
13:05 I thought surely this was God's answer
13:08 to clear our debt
13:09 and make us financially successful.
13:12 So developing seminar content
13:15 had become my all consuming priority.
13:18 That is of course
13:20 until God taught me to press in to His presence
13:23 and to be still before Him.
13:25 When He impressed me that He had a greater plan.
13:29 Although He typically impressed His thoughts,
13:35 only a few sentences to me each day,
13:39 and often left me with searching questions.
13:42 It wasn't long before I knew
13:43 God was calling me into full time ministry.
13:47 My interest in our new businesses venture
13:49 just evaporated.
13:51 I was ready to give it up.
13:53 But the Lord clearly directed me,
13:56 that the decision for me to enter full time ministry
13:59 must be left up to my husband.
14:01 Does that sound strange?
14:03 God wasn't discriminating against me as a woman.
14:06 He knew that J.D could not launch
14:08 our new company without my help.
14:11 And we would therefore have to completely
14:14 abandon our business plans.
14:17 This was a time of deep soul searching for me.
14:21 Was I sure, God was speaking
14:24 and calling me into full time labor in His harvest fields.
14:28 Considering the investment that J.D
14:30 and I had made and the time not only funds,
14:33 but the time developing our new company.
14:35 It seemed unlikely that J.D will be willing to discontinue
14:38 the business effort particularly
14:41 because of the incredible income potential.
14:44 And I prayed, and said Lord if J.D does agree,
14:48 how can I be certain
14:50 that we're really following Your will.
14:52 If we do decide to give all this up and do this,
14:56 could you please give me a sign
14:58 that this is really You speaking to me,
15:00 and that we are making the right decision.
15:02 Would you please do something
15:04 to confirm this decision if we make it?
15:07 God's response was this time, I will give you sign.
15:13 That's all that was impressed upon my mind.
15:16 But the message I received was
15:18 don't continue to ask for signs.
15:21 It seemed that God wanted me to learn to trust His leading
15:25 and to keep my eyes on Him,
15:27 rather than seeking a sign
15:29 every time for proof of His will.
15:32 Now I didn't want to be,
15:34 want to broach this important topic with J.D.
15:38 So I ask God to cause my husband
15:40 to know His will in God's perfect timing.
15:45 The following weekend
15:47 I visited J.D in the panhandle of Texas,
15:50 where he was working temporarily.
15:53 And as we drove to lunch,
15:54 I was tempted to open the discussion,
15:57 but the Holy Sprit reminded me of my request to the Lord.
16:01 So heavy silence settled over us in the vehicle.
16:05 Finally J.D sighed
16:08 and he asked me a probing question.
16:10 He said, "Honey what's wrong with you?
16:13 You are so on fire about our new business
16:16 and suddenly you hardly even mention it.
16:19 Do you even have an interest in it any longer?"
16:23 Well, I responded with sing song
16:27 in serenity saying,
16:29 "Well yes, I have some interest in it."
16:32 And then he said "Shelley,
16:33 if you could do anything in the world,
16:36 what would you want to be doing?
16:38 Well, I blurted out my answer with no reservation.
16:42 I said, "I would be giving Christian seminars
16:46 to teach people,
16:47 how to have a closer walk with the Lord,
16:49 rather than giving business seminars to teach,
16:52 people how to be more profitable."
16:55 God had opened the door for this conversation.
16:58 Much sooner than I had expected,
17:01 and my mind, and my mouth were racing
17:04 as I try to convey all that had transpired
17:07 during these times of prayer.
17:09 And the heart change God had influenced.
17:12 But still not trusting
17:13 what God could do in J.D's heart,
17:16 I put forth the idea that,
17:18 perhaps the Lord didn't really
17:20 mean full time ministry right now.
17:22 Maybe I can start in part time ministry
17:25 and we could simultaneously work on new business part time.
17:30 We can profit plenty to get out of debt,
17:33 and we can fund the work of the Lord.
17:35 The ministry could eventually evolve into full time.
17:40 J.D looked uneasy.
17:42 He had become convinced
17:44 that I had learned to listen to God's still small voice.
17:47 And he now sensed
17:48 that I was holding something back.
17:50 He said, "Shelley,
17:53 you know, what God is asking you to do, don't you?"
17:56 My response was, "Yes I know.
17:58 God is calling me to full time ministry
18:01 and I believe His timing is now."
18:04 And to my amazement without a moment's hesitation
18:09 my precious husband answered, "Who am I to argue with God?"
18:16 I said, "Oh, honey, that's wonderful,
18:19 I asked the Lord to give me a sign,
18:21 just to make certain that
18:22 we are making the right decision.
18:25 So if this is what we're supposed to do,
18:28 I 'm sure He will confirm it."
18:30 Then J.D said something in a strange way.
18:34 He said that's the trouble with you Christians,
18:38 you are always asking for a sign.
18:40 So if God doesn't give you a sign soon,
18:43 does that mean you won't follow
18:45 His leading into full time ministry?
18:49 Now I want you to understand.
18:50 My precious husband was a Christian,
18:53 he was a strong believer in the Lord
18:56 and I knew he prayed all the time.
18:58 He attended church regularly.
19:01 But in some way
19:02 he had reserved a part of himself
19:04 that he wouldn't surrender to God.
19:06 Sometimes is now and there is then,
19:10 his faith seemed stronger than mine.
19:12 I was dumbfounded by his response.
19:15 What would I do if God didn't give me a sign?
19:18 How long should I wait?
19:21 How would I even start in full time ministry?
19:24 Who was I that anyone would listen to me?
19:28 This happened on the first Saturday of January 2000.
19:33 We determined that afternoon after much prayer
19:36 that I would enter into full time ministry
19:38 and our new business pursuit would be shut down.
19:42 Our decision was made prayerfully and in faith,
19:46 but with the lumps in our throat,
19:47 not knowing what the future held?
19:50 The very next morning on a Sunday,
19:55 I received an unexpected phone call.
19:58 It was someone I had never met,
20:00 the vice-president
20:01 of an independent Christian broadcasting network,
20:04 it wasn't 3ABN.
20:05 It was a network that was gaining popularity
20:08 in coverage in Texas and surrounding states.
20:11 She had read my first edition self published work
20:15 of life affirmations from scripture.
20:18 And had gone to great lengths
20:21 to track me down on this weekend,
20:23 calling various sources to get J.D's cell phone number.
20:28 She invited me to come to the studios
20:30 and tape a program with her.
20:32 And I felt as giddy as Gideon must have
20:35 when the dew of divine grace granted him
20:38 a sign to confirm God's call on his life.
20:41 We had it. God had given me the sign.
20:44 Well, I returned to our hometown that night,
20:48 in wide-eyed wonder.
20:49 In the next morning on Monday
20:51 as I pressed in to God's presence,
20:54 the Lord spoke a word of encouragement
20:56 that would become foundational for my faith in His calling.
21:00 It is etched in my heart and in my mind forever.
21:04 Listen to what He said to me,
21:06 He said always before
21:08 you have put your hand to the plough
21:10 and turn back, but not this time,
21:13 for I will cup my hand over yours.
21:19 It was true.
21:21 I had felt God's call to ministry twice
21:23 before my earlier life.
21:25 And I had even enrolled in ministerial school.
21:28 But both times,
21:29 it seemed as it the gates of hell were opened wide
21:32 and demonic attacks descended upon my family.
21:36 Once I had even angrily shaken my fist
21:39 at the Lord in response
21:41 to what had happened to my mother?
21:43 And what seemed at the time is God's indifference
21:47 to my earnest pleads on her behalf
21:49 and unwillingness to keep His promises.
21:52 You see, I was under the impression at that time,
21:56 that sufficient faith could force God to act.
22:00 I had mistakenly been taught to have faith in faith
22:04 and not faith in God.
22:06 But now God had changed, He had taught me,
22:10 and He had cupped His hand over mine.
22:13 He had opened a wide door
22:15 of opportunity for me to minister.
22:19 My first television appearance
22:21 was one that I will never forget,
22:24 not because I was nervous.
22:25 I was not nervous, I was bursting to share.
22:29 But because of something
22:30 the Lord impressed upon my heart.
22:33 I had taken extra care to look nice
22:36 for the cameras that day.
22:37 But when I got to the set
22:39 and I glanced, I was sitting there
22:40 and I glanced up at the monitors,
22:42 I saw my own hoard reflection.
22:46 The lights were set for the host of the program,
22:48 who was much shorter than I.
22:51 And bad lighting was casting shadows on my face
22:55 that made me look 10 years older.
22:57 I was mortified
22:59 and suddenly this thought flashed through my mind,
23:02 crucify that thought this is not about you,
23:06 it's about me.
23:08 Boy, that's another jewel of wisdom from the Lord,
23:11 to which I constantly cling.
23:14 It's a great weapon
23:15 against insecurity about my appearance.
23:19 And for the next eight months
23:20 I appeared regularly on that network.
23:23 They offered me a series of my own
23:25 without production cost or airtime fees.
23:29 And the next morning I left or the morning that I left
23:33 to go start taping that new series,
23:35 God spoke to my heart during my time of prayer
23:39 and He said,
23:40 I am calling you out of where you are.
23:44 Well, I thought perhaps
23:46 we would be relocating to the city
23:48 where this network was headquartered.
23:50 So that I can increase my work there.
23:53 But that was not God's intent.
23:56 A misunderstanding over contract terms
23:59 for copyright occurred with the network's general manager
24:03 during that week while I was taping there.
24:07 And I was stunned at the ferocity
24:09 of his attack against me.
24:11 The Lord assured me in prayer,
24:13 the cloud of my presence is moving
24:15 and you must follow.
24:16 My departure from that network was disappointing,
24:20 but I kept my hand to the plow
24:22 because God's hand was cupped over mine.
24:25 And you gonna have to tune in again,
24:29 to hear the rest of the story
24:31 because we are running out of time today.
24:34 But I pray that you will join us next time,
24:37 when we will see,
24:39 how the Lord performs His purposes in our lives
24:43 when we follow the cloud of His presence.
24:47 Right now, I just want to have a prayer for you.
24:51 And I want to ask that the Lord would open your ears
24:58 that He would teach you how to truly know His voice,
25:04 that you would never follow the voice of a stranger.
25:08 And I want to say something here.
25:10 Because it is critically important to understand,
25:13 I believe I have said this on-- previous program,
25:18 but I just want to remind you.
25:20 There is a type of prayer practice
25:26 that is becoming prevalent in many churches
25:30 around the United States at least.
25:33 And it's a type of prayer that-- I will name it,
25:37 it's called contemplative prayer.
25:41 It's a very dangerous type of prayer
25:43 because it teaches you to empty yourself of everything
25:48 and to meditate and sit
25:50 and try to receive communication from the Lord.
25:56 The thing that's dangerous about this is that,
26:01 it is a Middle Eastern practice.
26:03 God doesn't ask us,
26:05 our meditation is not to be empty of thought.
26:09 Our meditation is to be on His word.
26:11 Our meditation is to be on Him.
26:14 And then you can trust that as you are filling your heart
26:19 with His will and His word.
26:21 You can trust that you can listen
26:24 for the voice of the Lord.
26:25 So don't be afraid of the real thing
26:30 because of the counterfeit.
26:32 But it is incredibly important that we know the real thing,
26:37 so that you don't get caught up in the counterfeit.
26:40 Let me pray for you now.
26:42 Our heavenly Father,
26:44 we come Lord with thanksgiving in our hearts
26:48 that You Lord send Your Son Jesus Christ to die
26:52 for us while we were yet sinners.
26:54 That you send Your Holy Sprit to dwell in our hearts Father,
26:57 and that You have given us Your word
27:00 that we might partake of Your divine nature.
27:03 And Father, we pray in the name of Jesus.
27:07 Oh, Lord, teach us how to pray.
27:10 I know this is not the only kind of prayer,
27:12 but teach us Lord,
27:14 how to press in to Your presence.
27:16 Give us ears to hear what the Holy Sprit has to say.
27:21 And Father, I ask in the name of Jesus
27:24 that we will always check anything
27:26 that You say against Your word.
27:28 Anything that we think You have said
27:31 that we will check it
27:33 against the scripture to make sure, Father,
27:36 that it is no one else who is leading us.
27:39 Father, we love You and we are so...
27:42 We so want be like Jesus.
27:45 We want to walk in His footsteps.
27:48 Be with us, bless us in Jesus' holy name I pray.
27:52 Well, our time is all gone
27:55 and I'm so thankful you've joined us.
27:57 Our continued prayer for you is that the grace
28:00 of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
28:02 the love of the Father
28:03 and the fellowship of the Holy Sprit
28:06 will be with you today and always.
28:09 God bless.


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Revised 2015-01-08