Praying from Sonship | Can you keep a secret place w/Pastors Geri and Ashley

In this episode, we dive into the heart-stirring sermon “Can You Keep a Secret…Place?”—a message that challenges us to rediscover the beauty, power, and necessity of meeting God in the secret place. 

As we wrap up that conversation, we open the door to a brand‑new theme for this episode: praying from sonship. Instead of praying from striving, fear, or spiritual performance, what does it look like to pray from identity, inheritance, and belonging? How does prayer shift when we approach God not as distant servants, but as beloved sons and daughters?

This episode sets the stage for that transition—moving from the secret place with God to the confident place in God.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey young adults, this is Pastor Hetty. Welcome to the Say That Again podcast.

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hey guys, it's Pastor Ashley here. Hope you guys are having a good day. Welcome to episode one. We're so excited to have you.

SPEAKER_00 0:15

Episode one. Wow. So we're just so excited to introduce and kick off this podcast. It's been a minute since we've done any kind of podcast, but the OGs remember. The OGs remember. All for you podcasts. That's that's the past.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

So why are we doing this podcast?

SPEAKER_00 0:36

Well, the main reason is that we're just a bunch of yappers and we just love to talk.

SPEAKER_01 0:41

True. Say that again.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

No, the main reason for this podcast is we just want to continue talking about our sermons, the topics that we've been preaching on. We've had um so much hunger when we preach, and you know, these young adults are so desperate for the word that we know that they want more. So this is just a space and opportunity for them to learn more, ask questions, and we also get to bring on different people. We we just have a lot planned that we're not gonna say we're gonna keep that a secret.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Yeah, I want to tell you guys everything because it's so exciting and I can't wait. But this is gonna be such a great podcast to dive deeper into those weekly sermons. Um, and we'll just dive right in. So on February 27th, which was our last Y night, our Y nights are every last Friday of the month. Um, Pastor Hetty preached a message called Can You Keep a Secret? Dot dot dot.

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Please. Let's go.

SPEAKER_01 1:41

We repeated it like a thousand times.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Yeah, yeah. I'm the type of preacher that I'm gonna make you preach to your friends. So everybody's a preacher when I preach.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

I love that. And during your sermon, you had so many quotes that we created actually a carousel on our why page because you were just dropping so many bombs. And I want to go ahead and read a couple that really stood out to us. Um one of the first ones was prayer feels unproductive to the flesh because the flesh craves recognition and prayer gives none.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

That's well, that it's talking about how Christians nowadays love public prayers and love events. Everything has to be seen. But the concept that Jesus introduced is for us to take it to the secret place, that it doesn't matter if people see us or not, that everything we do should come from the secret place where the Father is at. So that's one of those bars, you know, that hits hard for me, too.

SPEAKER_01 2:47

It's so good. It reminds me of a recent sermon that I listened to from Francis Chan, where he was talking about how he wishes young people would call Instagram Sinstagram and post their sins because the Bible talks about how we should boast um not on about our righteous deeds, but confess our sins. And it makes me just think of that of how like we're so quick to post our highlight reels or good things that we do. And those are the things that should be hidden, those are the things that should be, you know, with Jesus, and we should get satisfaction and gratification from him and him alone. And so, man, that's a big heart check.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

Absolutely. I think we live in the generation where we do everything online. So now when we eat, we post online. When we go out, we post it online. We go keep we can go grab a coffee or we're we're in the drive-thru line and it's online. Everybody knows what we're doing 100% of the time through a story, through a post. And I mean, that's okay to a certain extent, but when it comes to our walk with Christ, it's easy for that kind of behavior to bleed in into our relationship with Christ, where now everything we do has to be on Instagram, everything I have to do has to be on the story, on the real. And if if it's not Instagram worthy, then we're not gonna do it. But that's not the heart of Jesus, that's not the heart of the kingdom. Jesus calls us to shut the go into your closet and shut the door. He says, Shut the door. Like, why does he say shut the door? Because he wants make it known that you're disconnecting from the world and connecting to him, that you're connecting to the reality of God. And the only way that you can truly pray effectively is to disconnect from the world, from the noise, from the junk of social media. Like you can't be praying and then scrolling at the same time. It don't work.

SPEAKER_01 4:47

Oof, say that again. It's almost like the hidden, the hidden place, the hidden place in God is what we should be striving for. But so many of us strive for the scene place, you know, the likes, the views, the gratification. And it brings me to something else that you said um in your sermon. You said people can fake charisma, they can fake gifting, they can fake spiritual talk, but they cannot fake history in the secret place. A lot of times what I see, um, and I know not everybody does this, but people will post for views, they'll post for, you know, likes. And yes, people are helping people, you know, create reels or do certain things, you know. I do it um to help people, but if it's not from that place of the hidden place, if you're not getting your words from him directly from him, you know, in that quiet time and and you're cultivating that relationship first, people can feel that when you speak to them.

SPEAKER_00 5:58

Absolutely. I mentioned when when you're in the presence of God and you come out of that room and you do anything in public because Jesus, these Jesus doesn't just talk about the private, he talks about the public, but he says that he rewards us in public and we do these things in secret. But most people do stuff in public and they get the reward of everybody seeing them. But there's a reward in public that people can sense the presence of God on you. The old school people call it the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, others call it like, oh, they're oily. The younger people say that, you know, they just got aura, like they just got something on them. So you can tell when somebody's been with Jesus, you can tell when somebody's been just submersed in the Holy Spirit. They call it the Jesus glow, the Jesus glow, the glory, you know. And a lot unfortunately, a lot of Christians don't walk with that kind of confidence, they don't walk with the fragrance. And I even talked about something called oral formers or leeches. People that just try to oral form the anointing because they don't want to pay the price themselves. It's like some want the atmospheres others carry, but not the altars that built it.

SPEAKER_01 7:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Is that people rather I guess clout chase or feed from Yeah, you know, always asking for prayer or being around these events, these public moments and kind of like take snapshots.

SPEAKER_01 7:35

There's a difference when you're like, yes, you can feel um someone else's prayer life when you're at these conferences. You're feeling thousands of people's prayer life in the room. Like, yes, the Holy Spirit's there, but there are people that have prayed, sweat, tears, like all these things over these conferences, or even Wai Nights, or even over these things. And so you can't just take those moments and keep that as, oh, well, the Holy Spirit encountered me here, so I'm set for the rest of the week. Like, no, the Holy Spirit encountered you there, yes. Now you have to steward that encounter. You have to take that encounter home and you have to go pray into and ask the Lord for more because there's always more. And if the word of God says that you're a living well of water, of springing up to life, then you carry that well wherever you go. You carry them wherever you go. You can't blame the pastor or the church or the leadership for not carrying a well for drying out. That's on you.

SPEAKER_00 8:36

That's so good.

SPEAKER_01 8:37

Say that again.

SPEAKER_00 8:38

Say that again. I I think unfortunately, people live like that. Yes, they piggyback off of someone else's ministry life. And it's easy. Don't get me wrong, sometimes we're going through stuff and it's hard. And we need people's prayers. We need that help. We need that community. And we're not talking about that. We're talking about people that make a lifestyle when everything they do is in public or they get excited for these moments and events, you know, out in the public. And I keep talking about the public because everything's in public now. Like, why can't we just feed the homeless and not post it? Why can't we evangelize, preach the gospel and not post it? Yeah. And I love that we're, you know, we're we're make people make these videos and people are seeing Jesus glorified. But there should this should be the other side as well, where we do things in secret, not just praying, but also even ministry. Like what if you move in silence? What if nobody knew, but every day you were saving a soul, or every weekend you were going to H E B and you're praying for somebody and you didn't tell nobody.

SPEAKER_01 9:45

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 9:46

Would you be able to do that? Or do you have to say it so you can get recognition?

SPEAKER_01 9:51

Yeah, that's so good.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Right? Or do we have to tell our friend, hey, I was over here doing this so somebody can know and then they can tell other people. That's that's that's how deep doing things in public goes, is that we could do something that was so pure in heart, but then we can turn around and mess it all up just by telling people because now we want to get recognition.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

Lord, I'm getting convicted. That's the purpose of this podcast, guys. It's not just for us to talk y'all's ears off or teach you guys, but God's always working in our lives as well. Through these things. My husband, we have conversations, and man, our conversations, I I get convicted. I don't know, he gets convicted with conversations.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

Yeah, I'm getting convicted while saying what I'm saying. So whenever I say anything, I'm I'm not surprised that God is saying it because I'm also going through it.

SPEAKER_01 10:53

Yeah. I want to give a little encouragement to people who may feel um unseen and maybe you feel like I've been doing all of these things for the Lord, but I feel like no one sees me or nobody notices. I'm telling you right now, God sees and he is the only one that matters. Like he is the only one that we should care about watching us because guess what? When we leave this earth, which we all will someday, I'm not trying to be weird, but like it's inevitable. The Bible says to store up our treasures where?

SPEAKER_00 11:31

In heaven.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

In heaven. And so you're storing up treasures in heaven. Like you are, you are God has so much planned for you in eternity. We think we just go and we're just singing holy, holy, holy with the angels in heaven. No, like we're gonna have assignments, like we're gonna have things to do in heaven. Like there's a whole other world and life to be to be lived. And so if you feel like what you're doing here is not noticed or um acknowledged, I just want to tell you like the Lord sees you. Don't give up, keep, keep going, keep doing the amazing work that you're doing because it's unto the Lord, and that's everything.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

Amen. That's so good. What does the Bible say? Say, don't despise the small be the day of small beginnings or the small beginnings, these little things that people don't see, that people don't know about. Just do it. You're just racking up credit in heaven, and there'll be a moment where God elevates you because he trusts you. Yes, he trusts that you were doing it for him and not for men. And when you live that kind of life, sooner or later, it's not that the world is gonna notice, but God is gonna unveil the anointing that you carry. He's gonna position you in the right places.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Say that again.

SPEAKER_00 12:51

But most people, they they want to bypass the hand of God and they want to be the the hand of God in their own lives with their own decisions, and their own they're trying to control the situation. And you see, if I just talk about, if I just post, if I just promote myself, if I just take this shortcut, I'll be where I know what God has called me to be. It's not a question of if God has called you to that, but it are you taking the proper routes, inspired by the Holy Spirit, governed by God's ways and will.

SPEAKER_01 13:21

Or are you self-promoting?

SPEAKER_00 13:22

Are you self-promoting?

SPEAKER_01 13:24

That's a word.

SPEAKER_00 13:26

Yeah. So I want to add a little bit more to this message. Um, and I want to bring up a point that stuck with me after I preached it because I believe it's important, but it's learning to pray from sonship and not an orphan spirit. So prayer is not a religious performance, it is a son or a daughter speaking to their father, and heaven responds to identity and not insecurity.

SPEAKER_01 13:55

That's good.

SPEAKER_00 13:56

An orphan spirit prays toward toward God as if he is distant. A son prays from God, already already seated with Christ, already loved, already authorized. So I kind of want to just dwell in this idea because most people when they pray, they're it's like a disconnect. They feel shame, they feel guilt. Yeah, they feel like, well, I don't even know what to pray. Does God even hear me? I don't even know if God loves me. And the devil will sometimes make you feel this shame. Or if you're living a lifestyle that is questionable to the ways of God and walking in holiness, it's easy to allow these voices in your mind where this is why your prayers are not effective because you're praying from an orphan spirit and not from sonship. Remember, a son prays from God, meaning that they understand that they are seated in heavenly places, but an orphan is praying towards God. They're kind of like begging. Sons don't beg.

SPEAKER_01 15:03

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:04

Only orphans beg.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Right.

SPEAKER_00 15:06

So I just wanted to talk about this a little bit more. Um, because I mean, let's talk about Matthew 6, verse 9, the famous scripture, right? Where the uh the disciples, as Jesus teach us how to pray, and what does he respond? Okay, I'll teach you how to pray. And he says, our when you pray, pray like this our Father in heaven. Those first four words tells us a lot already. Our Father. Meaning you cannot pray, you cannot approach the throne of God being an orphan. You have to approach it, understanding that you are a son or a daughter, and that you are loved, that you are welcomed, that you are appreciated, that God sees you, that he accepts you, that he's forgiven you. When you walk with that mentality and attitude, it shifts how you pray. And now you start to pray with more confidence, and then you pray with faith.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

That's so good. This is really good. This is exactly what I've also been studying in Romans 8 about sonship through the spirit. And um when I think about this, I feel like for young adults in particular, I want you to ask yourself this how do you view God? Do you view God as the supreme being that is mean and you know, checking boxes if you did this right, if you did this wrong? Like, how are you viewing him? Because your view of God dictates the way you view Jesus and the way you you um respond to the Holy Spirit, it all flows. So you the reason why the orphan spirit comes in and the orphan mentality comes in is because your view and your perception of God isn't that He is a father. And so to those young adults that have grown up fatherless, yeah, you know, me and you, Hetty and I both, we didn't grow up with fathers. Um, you know, Hetty, you lost your father at early six months old, yeah. Yeah, you were just a baby, and my father wasn't around growing up. And so, you know, those those things carry on because me, I'm viewing the father well, he's absent. I don't know where he is. I'm not, I don't know how to acknowledge him. But also I'm a little bit intimidated by him because he is all-knowing and um omniscient and omnipresent and all of these things. And so in my brain, I'm like, okay, he's checking these boxes, but no, like the father is looking at you with eyes of love and of fire, and he's drawn to those weak places in you because he is a good father who wants to love you and call you into this adoption. And and Romans, um, I think it's it's eight verse my Bible out. Romans eight verse five. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit, the things of the spirit, I want to just that that line right there. The orphan lives according to the flesh. Yeah, the orphan lives to please the flesh. The orphan wants to feel good.

SPEAKER_00 18:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

Pity pity. Right. But the spirit, when you see God the Father as a good father, you see Jesus as the one who paid the price. So now you're grafted in. So the spirit is now giving you life, and now you understand the things of the spirit. The spirit does not bring self-pity, but you have strength, you have this inner uh will to do good because you want to please the father. Because why? He loves you and you love him. You don't want to live no longer a slave to sin. You don't want to live no longer depressed because you know where your hope comes from.

SPEAKER_00 19:08

That's so good. That is so good. You're talking about that. Got this idea that sons and daughters pray from relationship, but orphans pray from rejection. They pray from a a place of distance, yeah, of her, of abandonment. And it's not the correct way. Think about you now trying to pray with that kind of mindset. It's gonna affect your faith. And remember, we're what what moves mountains? Your feelings or your faith? Your faith. You know what moves mountains, your tears or your faith, your faith. So praying with faith equals praying with confidence, and that means that we have to understand and pray from a place of sonship.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

That's so good.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

And I want to mention these things. How you when you know that you're praying from a place of sonship, is that you pray with authority, not anxiety. You command mountains instead of describing them. You release heaven instead of reacting to earthly chaos. You pray solutions and you're not praying survival. That's when you know that you've stepped into a place of sonship. Is that and you you almost feel your own atmosphere shift in your closet space. If you ever prayed and you feel heavy and you feel the guilt and the shame and you feel the negativity, if you can worship and praise and shake that off, and then you shift instead of saying, Lord, forgive me for not praying, I'm sorry, you know, shift away from that kind of talk and shift to a place of saying, Lord, thank you that I am your son or your daughter. Thank you that I am love, thank you that you sent your son for me. Thank you that you've graced me, you've anointed me. When you start speaking those declarations of a son or a daughter, and then you start to pray, you're gonna pray with an authority, you're gonna feel your room, the atmosphere in your room shift. And then by the time you know it, you're gonna be in the presence of God, you're gonna be like, whoa, 30 minutes, an hour pass, and you're just in it. Yes, you know, you're experiencing the Holy Spirit in a fresh, powerful way, and that's that's when you know when you stepped from an orphan spirit or from this mentality of shame, and now you're praying from sonship.

SPEAKER_01 21:31

That is so good. And I mean, it goes with the scripture that talks about how we've not been given the spirit of flesh and this orphan spirit. It literally says, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you. And it makes me think of Ephesians 1 where it says, We're seated in heavenly realms in Christ.

SPEAKER_00 21:58

Man, that's that's the whole game. He that's what that's how we should pray. That's what praying from sonship is you pray with an understanding that you are seated in Christ Jesus in heavenly places. Yes, it's not that you're rejected and abandoned, and you're trying to get close to God to even get your prayers qualified. No, when you shift your prayers, and this is what I do, and I tell people all the time when you pray, just declare that verse in Ephesians and declare from a place of gratitude and say, Lord, I thank you that I'm seated in heavenly places right now. And I pray from this place in you, and I'm so grateful that you accepted me. And that's how I usually start my prayers. And I can just already feel an authority when I pray. And everybody that's a son or a daughter of God, anybody who has the spirit of God in them, who has received Jesus as their savior, has the opportunity to pray from this place. Don't let the devil tell you that you can't pray from this place. We're not perfect, no one's perfect, but we don't always have to pray from a place of shame and guilt. I I understand repentance. I understand, you know, we we have to ask God to examine our hearts and cleanse us. I understand all of that. But we also have to learn how to pray to from a place of authority, right? From a place of identity.

SPEAKER_01 23:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 23:26

And let's not let the enemy fill the gap with shame and guilt.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Right. And if you are a young adult that's listening to this and you may be thinking, this is all great, but like I still see myself as this left out, kind of this orphan not belonging mentality or shame has gripped you. Um, if that's you, like we just want to pray for you today because we believe that there's power in the name of Jesus and that you don't have to be alone. There is community. If you don't attend Oasis, message us on our Instagram and we will find community in your area for you. You are not meant to do life alone. You belong, you are part of a family that's a family of believers. And guess what? It doesn't end here. It's for eternity, it's an eternal family. And so I just want to pray for that first part, and then you can pray for the second part. Um, so Father, we just thank you, God, for this time, Lord. We thank you, Holy Spirit, for this new podcast that we've started for young adults. Holy Spirit, I pray that you breathe on every word that any of us say, Jesus. I thank you for every young adult that's listening, God. I pray, Lord, for those that feel um just alone, abandoned, that that that orphan spirit is spoken to their mind, that they can't create a secret place because they feel unworthy. Father, we silence the voice of unworthiness. We silence every unworthiness in the name of Jesus, every spirit of shame. We silence it, God. And we cover them in your precious and holy name, Jesus. You call us sons and daughters. You welcome us home with open arms, Jesus. And maybe, maybe you're somebody listening and you don't go to church. You would consider, I even I'm just getting this vision of the prodigal son. Maybe you just came across this podcast and you have not come to church. Maybe used to come to church and you're thinking about coming to church again. I just want to pray for you that the Lord sees you and he knows you and he wants to know you deeper. He loves you and he welcomes you with open arms. So, Father, we pray this in your holy and precious name in Jesus' name.

SPEAKER_00 25:37

Yes, God. We just thank you for all the sons and daughters. We thank you for these young adults and anybody listening. I just pray that you just reveal to them who they are right now. That they just get they get a higher exposure and revelation of your love for them, that they understand that they are loved, that they are called, that they are accepted, that they are anointed, that they are called for such a time as this. So I just pray for everybody that is listening to my voice right now, that you open up their ears and their eyes, so that they could know your love in a deeper way and know that they are a son and a daughter, Lord, in you, and that we are seated in Christ in heavenly places. So we just thank you for this time. In Jesus' mighty name we pray. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 26:21

Amen. We'll see you guys next time.

SPEAKER_00 26:24

So awesome. We love you guys.

SPEAKER_01 26:26

Love ya. Bye.