Episode 22 – Contend, Teach, Empower with Margie Fleurant

0:00 You pray it and he can answer it. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. God will put the prayer in your heart to pray so that he can answer it. It goes into the hearts of the people, doesn't return void, it produces results. Welcome my friends to Prayer and Purpose. I'm your host, Margie Florent. We are going to continue talking about how to develop the practice of secret prayer. We said in our last episode that this is a very practical teaching, although it's very powerful, very spiritual. And it actually, as you practice it, will launch you into the presence of God. So this is following hard after God part. too so we're talking about closet prayer i'm going to go ahead and review so how do we develop the practice of closet secret prayer we said in our last episode to decide on a time that works best for you where You will not be interrupted. Number two, find a spot in your home that you can call your quote prayer closet.

1:21 I like to call it your quiet place. Okay. Number three, begin where you are. You can begin with 15 minutes. The Bible says that the Lord will perfect everything that concerns you. I like to highlight that scripture and bring it into our teaching. As you begin with 15 minutes, the Lord will perfect your prayer life. You will enter into the presence of God. And as you do. What will happen is you will begin to desire more time with him. You will begin to crave more time with him, but we have to have a beginning place. Okay. So begin with 15 minutes of your time and your devotional time with him. But I would say this, if you could try. to stretch your time out with him to at least an hour. Okay.

2:19 Jesus said to his disciples, couldn't you watch just one hour? That's not law. We are not under the law. We are under grace, but it's a discipline, disciplining yourself and saying, Lord, I am going to seek your face. First, we're beginning with 15 minutes. And that's, if that's where you stay, my friends, that's good. Just focused attention on him. Any amount that you give him is going. to change you and you've heard me say this anytime you spend Anytime that you have time in the presence of God, you are being changed. As you behold him, you are being changed into the same image from glory to glory to glory.

3:01 And at first you don't see that you're being changed, but you are being changed because you become what you behold. And whoever you spend the most time with, that's what you're going to become. So when you spend time in the presence of Jesus, It's like looking in a mirror and you see a reflection. You will become what you behold. OK, so begin, like we said, with 15 minutes. But like we also said, set your goal at at least one hour. OK, let's go on. So begin. Now, this is important by stirring yourself up. How do you stir yourself up in the presence of God?

3:50 That's my dog. How many of you have have ever gone into prayer, your time and your devotion with him and you didn't feel like praying? You felt like David did, like we talked about in our last episode. You felt dry. You felt thirsty. You felt barren. You felt like nothing, that God wasn't there. You go into your place of prayer. And you just don't feel like praying. Now, I don't know about you, but that's happened to me. Maybe, you know, maybe you're just superhuman, but I don't think any of us are. I don't think any of us always feel like praying, but we make a decision. I will seek the Lord. So you go into prayer and you don't feel like praying. So what do you do? You have to stir yourself up. And that's what I do a lot of times. And there's different ways that we're going to talk about how we can stir ourself up. We can stir ourself up. Well, let's read the scripture first. Isaiah 64, 7 says, There is no one that calls on your name and awakens and besows himself to take and keep a hold of you. So we are stirring ourselves up. It's a getting ourselves ready to seek the Lord. So how do we stir ourselves up? First Corinthians 14, 15 says, what shall I do then? I will. Notice

5:20 the I will. That's an act of your will, my will. I will pray with the spirit. I will pray with words I understand. I will sing with the spirit and I will also sing with words I understand. So how do you stir yourself up? Number one, you can stir yourself up in the presence of God by praying out words that you understand with your intellect. OK, so I like to tell people when you go into the presence of God, you go in. You could go into his presence. Just be open and honest with him. You know, tell him how you feel.

6:06 Tell him what's going on. And if you're struggling or if you've got some things that are really bringing you down, talk to him about it. But my friends, don't stay there. Okay. It's very important to acknowledge what's going on. Bring it before the throne room of grace. He is an ever present help in the time of need. You go boldly to the throne of grace. You're asking for grace and mercy in your time of need. Bring your petition before him, but don't stay in that place of defeat or anger. or the place where you're upset, or just a continual complaining before the throne room of God. What I would encourage you to do is go to the word of God, find a scripture that meets your need, and after you've told him what you want to tell him, present that scripture or that word before the throne room of God. In other words, Your scripture, the scripture that you choose for that day becomes your prayer.

7:14 Luke 11 3 says, give us this day our daily bread. So for that day, you may need a certain scripture. For example, if you're going into prayer and you have a lot of fears you're dealing with, well, then go to the word of God. Find a scripture that talks about fear. Look, you know, look it up, look up all the scriptures and then pray those scriptures out. For example, father, I thank you that I will not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the pestilence that flies at noonday. A thousand may fall at my side and 10 ,000 at my right hand, but it will not come near me. In other words, take your fear to the word of God. And that's what you pray out in your time of need. So are you lonely? You're going into the presence of God. Are you lonely? So find a scripture that meets that need in you for companionship, that need in you that will fulfill that loneliness. So you could go into the presence of God and in your prayer time with words you understand, say, Father, I thank you that your word says that you will never leave me. You will never forsake me, that you are with me always. So it shifts your faith. shifts your attention, and you're setting your affections on things above, not on how you feel, not on

8:46 the things of this earth. So you can pray like that with words you understand, okay? And then after you pray with words, you understand another way to stir yourself up. And I do this a lot is by praying in tongues or praying in the spirit. First Corinthians 14, two says, for he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to who? To God. For no one understands him. However, in the spirit. He speaks mysteries. So another way to stir yourself up is to begin to speak in an unknown tongue, praying in the Holy Ghost, praying out in the spirit. What I do a lot of times when I begin my prayer time to get my mind, you know, into focus. What I like to do is I like to just sit there and I just. For me, I like to just begin to pray in the Holy Ghost, pray in tongues. And I just pray in the spirit because when I'm praying in the spirit, I'm talking to God. and speaking to him exactly what I need for that day. I may not have the interpretation, but when I speak in an unknown tongue, God understands me. Not only that, but I'm building myself up.

10:15 Jude says, building yourself up on your most holy faith. in the Holy Ghost so when you enter into the presence of God in your devotional time you are stirring yourself up by praying in tongues or praying in the Holy Ghost what's another way we could stir ourself up we could stir ourself up like the scripture we just read by singing in tongues singing in tongues acts 2 11 says that when they were all filled with the holy spirit the bible says that the early church they were speaking in languages not of this earth and they heard them the people that were listening heard them magnifying god so you can go into the presence of god in your closet time of prayer and you can speak in tongues pray the word of god but also i would encourage you to sing in tongues you may say well I'm not a very good singer well who cares nobody's there the Bible says make a joyful noise unto the lord well what does singing in tongues sound like what's very interesting i was doing a lot of these spontaneous prayer calls and i did one called singing in tongues we had so many views and so many hits on that particular subject singing in tongues is a type of worship the bible says those that

11:45 come to god must worship him in spirit And in truth. And when people were listening to that video. I think they were curious. What does singing in tongues sound like? Well, it sounds like this. Well, you may say, well, what are you saying? Well, I believe I'm singing the wonderful works of God. I'm magnifying him. I'm expressing my heart to him. I'm worshiping him in spirit and in truth. And that is a good way to get. you started and it's a good way to motivate you to get focused in on Jesus it who is the author and the perfecter of your faith so here's another way to stir yourself up and this is a good one you need the right music okay now oftentimes and I've shared this with many people and in my teachings and it happens to me many times I'll wake up in the morning and if you think about it it's happened to you and I'll wake up in the morning and I'll have a song in my heart and one day I realized that song in my heart is coming from the Holy Spirit and what's the ministry of the Holy Spirit he has a he has he has a huge ministry on the earth one of his One

13:17 of his ministries to the believer is to point to Jesus, who is the key figure in all of God's plan. One of his ministries is to keep our relationship with Jesus fresh. The Bible says, Jesus said he will testify of me. He points to Jesus. One day I learned that those songs that I wake up with in the morning. It's the Holy Spirit awakening my heart onto intimacy with Jesus. And that is the very song that I need in my prayer time that will bring the anointing into my closet prayer that will cause me to focus in on Jesus. And so I want you just to think about that. When you wake up in the morning, look on the inside.

14:10 Do you have a song in your heart? Well, that's the Holy Spirit because that's your daily bread. That's what you need in your prayer time to cause your attention to be focused in on him. And then when you plug that song in, when you look it up and you plug it in and you play it, if you notice, there's an anointing that comes into your prayer closet. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is testifying of Jesus and he's showing you that's what you need as your daily bread. That's going to get you through your day. And that's what you need that will cause you to connect with the heart of God. OK, so look for that in the morning. So the right music will awaken your heart to the things of God, his love and his character music. brings the presence of God and helps you to quiet your mind and to focus in on him. Okay, we're going to take a little break here. And when we get back, we're going to continue with our teaching on how to develop the practice of closet secret prayer. The Lord spoke to me one day. He said, Marty, many of my people desire to be intimate with me. They desire to spend time with me. They desire to have a vibrant prayer life, but they just don't know where to begin.

15:40 They just don't know how to start. So I wrote this book with that in mind. Encountering God Through Prayer, Simple Strategies to Develop a Powerful Prayer Life. I take the reader from the very basics. Begin where you are. Begin with 15 minutes. Find a quiet place in your house. Go into a closet if you have to. Shut the door. Just begin where you are. And I teach the reader about the heart of the Father. Because if you don't know who God is, you're not going to understand his character and his nature, and you'll be afraid of him. So I go into the heart of the Father.

16:26 Who is the Father? What's his character? What's his nature? And then I take the reader all the way up into... what I call contemplative prayer. So if you would like a wonderful resource on how to begin your prayer life, I encourage you to get this book, Encountering God Through Prayer. Go to my website at margieflaurant .org. contend, stewarding the hearts and destinies of our children through prayer is one of my most favorite projects thus far. In this book, I teach the reader how to pray effectively for their children, their grandchildren, and the rising generations that are in the earth today. Make no mistake about it. There is war over the hearts and the destinies of our children. And this book will equip you as to how to pray effectively for those young people. In this book, I teach you about the power and the purpose of praying in tongues. I show you what a prayer alert looks like. There are sample prayers. Not only that, there are outlines at the end of each chapter. So if you run a Bible study, you can use this book as a springboard to teach others how to pray for their children.

17:49 Go to my website at margieflorent .org and pick Okay, let's continue our teaching and let's go deeper. I'm going to take you into a place of prayer and I'm going to teach you how to pray. I'm going to teach you something you've probably never heard before. Okay, so after we've stirred ourselves up, what do we do? We're going to go deeper. Now, something I want to just... encourage you about is that some things are better taught or some things are better caught than taught.

18:30 I'm teaching you how to go deeper, but you've got to catch what I am saying. So you've got to listen with the ears of your heart, the ears of your spirit, the rest of this teaching. Colossians 3, 12, 3, 2 says, set your affection. on things above, not on the things of this earth. Set your affection. So this speaks to me of an inward posture, whereby on the inside of you, you're posturing yourself and you're positioning yourself inwardly in the hidden man of your heart. the things above you're laying aside your thoughts you're laying aside the distractions and you're honing in on what the Bible calls the hidden man of the heart and you're posturing yourself and you're setting your affection or your attention on the things above on the things of the Spirit on the realm of the Spirit I'm just going to say this right here Remember this, heaven is your real home. God is your real father. We are only temporary residents in this place called earth, but your real home is heaven and your

20:03 real father is heaven. is is god okay so when we talk about setting your affection on things above we're talking about living from the inside out and again that's where the fun begins because you're entering into a deeper dimension of prayer so stay with me so this is a place where you should quiet your mind and And I like to call it hook yourself up to the inside of you. And I like to word it like this. You quiet your mind and you draw inward. This is the place in prayer where you become centered and focus. Let me explain.

20:59 You have these eyes, but you also have eyes in your spirit. Take these eyes, turn them inward and look on the inside of you. Posture yourself before the throne of God. Quiet your mind. Hook yourself up. to the inside of you. I'm going to give you scripture for that. This is not new age. This is Bible. The new agers took it from us. Okay. These are spiritual concepts that you and I can use in the place of prayer. This is the place where you're connected. with God in a very deep and intimate way God is taking you out of shallow ground and he's taking you deep into the reservoir of the things of the spirit Isaiah 26 3 says you will keep him in perfect peace all who trust in you all those whose thoughts Are fixed on you. Here's another translation.

22:08 I will keep him in perfect peace. Whose mind. Is stayed. On you. So in other words. You can shut your mind off. Hook yourself up to the inside. Quiet your thoughts. And connect. Listen. To the heart of God. This is where he is on the. inside of you we're not going to probably get to all the scriptures today but you are the temple of the Holy Spirit as God has said I will dwell in them I will walk in them I will be their God they will be my people So you're drawing in, know ye not, you are the temple of the Holy Ghost.

23:00 Out of John 7, 38, your innermost being flows rivers of living water. Here's another scripture. The spirit of man is the candle or the lamp of the Lord searching all the inward parts of the valley. So it's quieting your mind, shutting off your thoughts, hooking yourself up, To the inside of you. Now, if your mind wanders, pull it back. Because when we pray, we are in the world. We're not of the world. We are in the human body. We do have an intellect. We are a spirit. We have a soul. And we live in a body.

23:43 Right? So your mind at times is going to wander. No condemnation. It's a discipline. It's the practice of secret prayer. We're learning how to tap in. We're learning how to dig deep, right? So if your mind wanders, just bring it back and draw inward again and look into your heart. Are you listening to what I'm saying here today? Now, when I was a little girl, my whole life, Psalm 63 was always my heart. I wanted to know God. I wanted to see God's face. You know, I just wanted to be close to him. And as a little girl, I used to sit in my backyard on a little tree stump, and I used to look up into the sky, and I wanted to see God's face. I didn't know it, but that's actually in the Bible. And as a little girl, I had a heart. For God. I had a heart to know him. I had a heart to be connected to him. And I'm just going to throw this out here. I'm going to quote Jeremiah. Before I formed you in the womb, God said I knew you. Right?

24:55 Who knows? I believe we came from the heart of God into the earth. We knew God. We were in the heart of God. We came to the earth. And it's the desires of our heart to be reconnected with him. So even as a little girl, I had a desire to know him, a desire to be connected to him. But I looked for him out here. I looked for him in the sky. I looked for him in the moon. I wanted to see his face. And as I, when I got born again, after many, many years, when I got born again, I learned that God is not out here. He's not out here. When we're born again, he lives on the inside of us. So therefore, when we pray, instead of looking out here for something spectacular, dive deep and go deep on the inside and search for him with all of your heart. The Bible says those that seek me will find me. Well, where does he live? He lives right here on the inside of you, on the inside of us. I speak. this wisdom in a mystery it is a mystery isn't it but God is on the inside of us we are the house or the temple of the Holy Spirit my friends we have it better than Adam and Eve God would come down to Adam and Eve in the cool of the day and they would fellowship with him but but now under the

26:26 New Testament, based upon better promises. We are the house of God. He lives in us so we can go to him any time, any place, any day, and we can seek his face. But it's a drawing inward. It's a looking inward. And it's a kind of prayer that will bring you to a deeper level of intimacy with him. I have so much more I need to teach you about following hard after God. But unfortunately, we've run out of time. So we're going to have to bring this this teaching into episode three.

27:06 So I just want to encourage you. Make sure you watch episode three. And I hope. that you will enter into greater depths of intimacy with your heavenly father than you have ever known before. So father, I thank you for my listener. I thank you for bringing them in. I thank you that they hunger and thirst after righteousness. And I thank you that because of your spirit today, you will bring satisfaction to their hearts. God bless you. This is my book, Decision Time. Everyone should read this book, especially those of you who are at a crossroads in your life.

27:51 You don't know what to do. You don't know how God is leading you. This is the book where you reach a place where you say, Lord, not my will, your will be done in my life. I also include in this book. How to Hear the Voice of God, which is important when you're making decisions. If you go to my website at margieflorant .org, you will see that this book is available to you. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's podcast. It has been such a joy sharing this time with you. For more inspiration and resources on today's topic, please visit our website at margiefloran .org.