Devotional sets/ Classes, Ep 9

What is a devotional set in the prayer room? What do classes look like? These questions are discussed in this episode.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome to the Lafayette Prayer Room Podcast, where we discuss what it looks like to grow in God through prayer, worship, and life in the context of a prayer room. We're located in Lafayette, Louisiana, and we are open to all Bible-believing, Jesus-loving Christians. We would love anyone in the area, even if you're just passing through, to come and join us in the Lafayette prayer room. My name is Janie Myers.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

And I'm Tristella Sword. Today we are talking about our classroom times in the prayer room and our devotional sets in the prayer room. Because we've kind of done an episode on what an intercession set is, what a worship with the word set is. So these are the other two times that we have in the program, a devotional set and a classroom time. So today we just wanted to do a short episode on what those look like for us. How would you explain to someone what a devotional set is?

SPEAKER_00 0:54

Devotional set, we won't typically have anybody live on the stage. We'll have another prayer room streaming on our screen, but there's still music, there's still prayer. But a devotional time for me is I come in and do whatever it is I want to do, basically. Um, and people do a number of different things: personal prayer time, Bible study. If you're reading a book that you're enjoying, you can do that. I use it sometimes to prep for the set that we're about to lead, or I do a lot of Bible studies during devotional time.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

It's very much a personal time with the Lord. So I'll come in there, I'm gonna pray for my family, you know, a verse the Lord's put on my heart. Some people may even be coming from work, and so they'll have their laptop or be on their phone and they'll get a little bit of work done in there. They're coming for the six o'clock set, and maybe they come in at five and they're gonna wrap up some work while they're in there before this set. So it's really whatever you want to do in that time is what it's there for. Some people are walking and pacing, uh, other people are sitting. There's always coffee. So it's just whatever you want your time to be.

SPEAKER_00 2:07

So, what would you say is the difference between devotional time in the prayer room and your prayer time at home?

SPEAKER_01 2:13

So, my prayer time at home, number one, the biggest difference I would say is time. Because at home, I'm gonna have a certain time that typically I'm gonna do, whereas the prayer room, by nature, because it is many days and long hours, it gives me more time. That's one of the goals of being in there. So for someone, it may be an hour, for someone at maybe two. For some of us, we're trying to do all the hours. So it may be four hours I have in there. And two hours of that is gonna be a devotional set. So it just gives me permission to not have to be as rushed as at home, but I can go much slower and longer in the prayer room. I would say that's the first thing that comes to mind. What would you say are some differences?

SPEAKER_00 2:55

Yeah, I think that's the main difference for sure. The other thing for me is the distractions of just the home has distractions, kids, to-do lists, laundry, you know, whatever. I'll just quickly go and start this laundry and then come back to my prayer time. Whereas if I'm in the prayer room, it is uninterrupted time with the Lord. So the no interruptions, it's something I value about the prayer room.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

So what is your what's your go-to routine when you're in a devotional set? Not that we do the same thing every time, but typically we start kind of the same way, I would say.

unknown 3:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:29

I mean, of course, first get there and set up my table, however, I'm gonna be for the day. Um, and I'll typically start with praying some sort of song just to like, or Revelation 4, 5, to center my heart back to like what I'm doing, just to get the busyness out of my mind. Um, a prayer I typically will pray is, you know, Jesus, you're worthy of this time right now. Like, help me focus my mind, my attention, my heart on you. Because I don't want to sit there and waste the time. So that just to dial myself into what we're doing, I'll I'll typically start there, pray for my kids. Um, and then usually in these sets, what I'm doing is Bible study, like working on our ETS scriptures, prepping for the next set that I'm gonna lead or a class that I'll teach, something like that. I use the time in there.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

Mine's very similar. I'll get in there and I like to do my setup. And we all have different things. I call it setting up my office because I like having everything I might use because typically I use a certain set of things. So I have a prayer room bag, and all of that stuff stays in that prayer room bag so that when I get there, I'm not like, oh, I wish, man, I need a highlighter or those the little sticky arrows to hold my place in a chapter that I'm studying, whatever it is. And also I want to have it kind of all handy because I don't want to have to go out to my car because something's in there. So I typically I know my setup, I set up my little office when I get there so everything's readily available because I don't like to be distracted. Like you said, I want to make the most of my time because what you quickly learn when you're in a program hours, you imagine hours means was just gonna be this long and unbroken time with the Lord, but you can quickly lose a half hour just doing busy stuff within your time with the Lord. So I've watched that happen so many times to where now I'm like, I don't want to waste half an hour, I don't want to waste the first 15 minutes. I want to get in there and especially if I'm leading a set, um, my devotional time is all I have as far as my personal time. So I have to get in there and get done what needs to be done. It goes quicker than you think. It goes quicker than you think. But once I'm set up, it's that dial down because it does take a minute, just the traffic of running around, the mental traffic, the emotional traffic takes a while to dial down. I usually do communion on the front end uh just to enter into that with the Lord. And then I'm starting to go into a little bit of worship before I would do, say, prayer for my family, or before I would do maybe a Bible study. Uh I would just spend some time really connecting with the Lord and then go on to whatever I was gonna work on. And typically, if I'm leading a set later in the day, I will be doing basically a Bible study on those scriptures that I'm about to do a set with. So that's definitely part of it, or the end-time study chapters for the week. I'm gonna work on that. So that's my personal time when I'm not engaging with an intercession set, which I would be following what we're praying for in that and in worship with the word set. I would be following along in the scriptures that they're doing in that worship with the word set. So that's why it's different in a devotional set, because you're not following along with something else, it's just you and the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 6:52

It feels like a luxury. I really love the devotional time. Well, I have all the times, but oh my god, I get to do whatever I want right now.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

Like, oh it is, and I almost find that can be an excuse for some people to think I don't have the luxury of spending that much time in a prayer room. I've heard people say, Oh, I wish I could go, you know, more days or I could afford a whole afternoon. And there is a switch in the mentality when you start doing it of this is just um extra and almost selfish, self-indulgent to just to not go do all the other things to just go do what I want to do with the Lord until you get in that room and you start to encounter him there and you realize he loves it more than I do. And I am sitting there spending time with him. He's waiting for me to come and sit. I've said no to a whole lot of other things because we all have a list we could be doing. It's not that I don't have other things I could be doing that need to be done. I do. I just now have reprioritized my life in a way that I'm gonna accommodate being in that room, and I no longer see it as self-indulgent or you know, selfish. I see it as I'm laying down my life to be with him and for his purposes in prayer. It begins to shift when you encounter him, as opposed from the outside looking in. I just wish I could do that. When you start to do it, you realize this is not first for me, it's for him. And I get everything in the process too, but I'm here for him before me actually I'm showing up on him. Okay, so let's talk about our classes a little bit. So what purpose does the classes in the program serve?

SPEAKER_00 8:42

I think the classes well, they help solidify us as a group. The classes they give us depth in the word, more understanding. And as a group, it produces unity because we're all studying the same things, and then we use our classes as kind of like a springboard into worship with the word. We'll use those scriptures and Bible study them. It's it's kind of in every aspect of what we do. So I think it builds unity. It strengthens my walk with the Lord, my knowledge of the word, which helps pray more informed prayers if I know the Lord better through the word.

SPEAKER_01 9:26

I agree with exactly what you're saying. It disciples us. Like us sitting in a teaching in those classes, it's discipling me. It's helping me learn how to be like Jesus. It shapes our theology because we all have some theology whether it's wrong, right, or we know that it's theology, we're living through a certain lens of God and the Bible. And it helps take those loose concepts and then nails down what is the theology. I believe it helps give me definitions of what I'm pursuing and definitions of what I am not pursuing. It brings clarity of vision, it corrects, it encourages all the things uh we share struggles in those class times, discussions, and it establishes our community values. Like the things you talk about are the things you value. If you have a group or community and you never talk about the things you say are most important, they're probably not your core values because what you value, you're going to talk about. So in those classes, it's time where we really bring to light and to the surface and we tease out what we really value and then what that actually looks like. Because I can say I love God, but I never talk about Him or I never work out my faith. You know, that's part of what we do in there is we work through those things. We talk through details and struggles and this work for me. And one other thing that you said that I want to hit on is that we typically take what we're studying in those classes and we'll bring it into our worship with the words. So on a Saturday night, we have an in-time study class. So we will hear that teaching. We all go home that next week and we study those one or two chapters. We do our own Bible studies on it. Thursday night is a Zoom discussion where we really hash that out. And then the following Saturday, we show up before the next class, we're doing a worship with the word with the chapters we all just spent time in. So that worship with the word opens that up in a whole different way that the teaching did not, our own Bible study did not, and the discussion did not. It's just different components where you keep hitting every angle of the same verses. And it's beautiful to see it come together in classes, the launch pad for those types of discussions, digging through the word. And then on Monday, when we have class, you're teaching a Song with Solomon series right now. So the following Monday, when we don't have class and we have a set, we're using the verses that you taught the week before, and we're going to do our worship with the word on that. So we spend more time in that. So the beauty of the class lends itself to other sets in the prayer room so we can go deeper because we want to go not just wide, we want to go deep in what we're looking at. So more than hitting on some scriptures in the prayer room, more than hitting on some scriptures in a class, we then give ourselves time to come and sit before him with those scriptures. So that makes it go down much more than just hearing it.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

I also feel like we are called, first commandment, to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and class and studying is loving him with our mind. So I think it's even that. It's the living out the first commandment.

SPEAKER_01 12:45

So what are uh some of the series that we've done? We don't always do a series. A class can be on one-all, but typically we like to do series because we like to go deep. We like thoroughly study something else. So what are some of just rattle off some of the what we've done?

SPEAKER_00 12:59

We've done obviously times on prayer, but we've done Life of David. We're doing Song of Solomon, we're doing an in-time study. We've had ones on intimacy, emotionally healthy, spirituality, um, spiritually healthy relationships. So those are some of the ones that I can think of right off the top of my head.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

And one of the things off of a class is it's class and discussion. It's never just class, ever. It is always class and discussions where we literally will take the notes and we'll say, okay, page one, what was jumping out to y'all, and we'll just work through each page and almost rehash the teaching, uh, kind of just going, or someone will have a thought completely different, but off of a point that was made that now they have time to share. And it's where we get to hear from people who weren't teaching the class, a struggle. I mean, I've said it many times, like, man, I am struggling in this area. I needed to hear this section. This is gonna help me deal with this situation.

SPEAKER_00 14:00

Um, have any of the series that we've done, have they surprised you? I'm not gonna ask if one is a favorite because there's no way I could pick a favorite. They're all so good and timely. The Lord knows when to bring the correct class. So pick a favorite is not gonna be a question. But I know for me, something that surprised me was the emotionally healthy courses on relationships and spirituality. It was so practical. And like things I'll think throughout the day, and if that class will come up, like you can't be upset, you didn't make your intentions clear, you didn't ask, whatever. They didn't agree. That was intentions that they didn't even agree to, so you can't expect that of people or different things. It has benefited me. That class benefited me a whole lot, and it surprised me. I knew it was gonna be good, but it was even better than I thought it was gonna be. For end-time study, I very similar. We would see my life, and I would try to pull God down into my timeline, like the blessings have to happen within you know, my years on earth or whatever. It was constantly pulling God down and making him very small because I'm putting him in my time in my little box when in actuality, like you said, it's a timeline that goes no beginning, no end. And then I am inserted in a really small part into that timeline. Like I almost see it as the watchman on the wall, like that timeline forever. I want to be on my place in the timeline. Something else that surprised me with doing in-time study attached to doing it with intimacy, like doing both classes is how they're one and the same. Like I would have seen in-time study for a long time as it's the harsh judgment, which it is. I mean, there are some harsh judgments, but as you study and you see the depths of sin at that point and the extreme reach of the love of God for Israel, for all the world, it produces intimacy because now I don't see oh, that's harsh, that's mean. No, I see it as look what he's willing to do for love. And it produces love in me. So even that they have become the same, like in time study and intimacy are the same, is something was unexpected, but that he he did in my heart.

SPEAKER_01 16:16

One of the phrases we've sang many times on those sets watching the motivation behind what he's doing has shifted what we think. And so something we sing sometimes is I'm falling in love with the judge. I'm falling in love with the judge because he's easy to fall in love with as the king, he's easy to fall in love with as a bridegroom who's coming for a bride. It's a little bit harder as an American Christian to love his judgments, but when you see it as him removing everything that hinders love, then judgment looks different. Changing definitions, we talked about earlier. It has shifted definitions, and I've come more into alignment with the word and why he's doing what he's doing. So when I look at them now, I'm saying it's right that you do that. It is just that it is bringing justice, and only a God of love comes and deals with evil and removes it. To allow it to continue and not judge it is not loving, it continues to harm others. You're coming as a judge because you love or falling in love with the judge. That's one of the revelations we've had that I did not have before at all. I remember years before, we're kind of off on an end-time study tangent. I just remember growing up and just reading some of those chapters in Isaiah and just thinking, gosh, that's so harsh. I don't know what to do with that. And you know, that took a level of faith, which counts. It counts. But as I really began to sit and Bible study those chapters and tease that out, I realized how much resistance there was in my heart to that, how much I was not in agreement with it, and partially because I didn't understand it, I didn't know his heart behind it, but the study has given me time. So a class, I'm talking about class, that class has dug that up and revealed his heart in those areas because I've had the time with it. So that's been some of the shifts in me that have come through our classes.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

And we're supposed to study the word. Like we have no excuse for Bible illiteracy in America. I mean, I can look up any translation of the Bible that I want to in a second, you know. So I think we are called to study. It's actually doing what we're we're supposed to do, digging into the word. And it's fun. I mean, I love studying the word, I love doing it with people, I love hearing revelation and being spurred on. Oh, I didn't see that, I want to go look at that. Um, I think it's a fun part of the prayer room.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Yeah, to do it with friends is fun, and especially when your friends are hungrier than you for the spiritual things of the Lord, like to show up in the room and that spur me on, or to show up when I'm struggling and I know I'm dull or I'm just tired and I'm worn out. And to hear somebody else be like, oh man, this scripture in that set we were just in, this is what the Lord was showing me when y'all were singing that, that just re-energizes me, puts life on what we just did. So just rubbing shoulders with others who have the same very specific target and are running at the same pace really helps me to run strong and to run unapologetically. Like, because to make to prioritize being in that room, you have to say no to a lot of things and not bad things. Like, there's a lot of good things, but I can't do it all. I can't do it all. I have to choose. And I'm a priest before the Lord, and I want to spend time with him in that room. The encounters we've had in that room, I want to be there. So it helps me run unapologetic. Like that's another thing. Like the enemy's like, well, no, you can't, you have to do this. And it's like, no, I I can shift my schedule and put that in a different place. It doesn't have to be like this, or like the culture dictates it. I don't give myself out, like unless I'm out of town, very sick, or there's an emergency, I'm gonna be in that prayer room. I'll show them they're tired sometimes. You know, I walk out re-energized always, even if I'm walking in there tired. I value the time. But running with others who run boldly emboldens me to do that.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

No, no, I'm thinking about the times after a set, specifically on a Saturday, because we'll do worship with the word on the end time study scriptures from the week before. Then after we finish, we'll do a quick debrief and then the next class will be taught. And there's almost every time we walk in, we're like, Did you hear when so-and-so is saying this? And everybody's so excited, like that is new revelation, or when they prayed that. And that is so amazing because you've looked at the scriptures all week, you've heard a class, and then there's still more, and we know, like you said, we're gonna do it again, and we know there's gonna be even more. That is fascinating and fun.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

So, what piece of advice would you give someone wanting to grow in their personal relationship with God inside a prayer room? It could be our prayer room, but there's prayer rooms around the world, or it could be your prayer community, whatever that looks like. What advice would you give to someone to grow in that?

SPEAKER_00 21:45

First thing, my biggest piece of advice would be to make a hard commitment. Like whatever day they meet, or whatever Mondays, I am committed. No matter what, I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna get a babysitter, I'm not gonna plan extracurricular activities on that day or If it happens to be that day, I'm gonna see if someone else can bring the kid, you know, a hard commitment, not a I think I wanna go and I'll go when it when it works out, because it'll never work out. That'll be stolen. So the hard commitment first, second would be actually participating when you get there. Don't just sit in the back and watch everybody else, but participate when there's discussion, discuss. I mean, not that you have to talk the whole time, but just be active. Your voice matters, you know, throw away every lie the enemy wants to throw at you. They don't really want you here, they don't really care. Like all of those things that everybody kind of deals with at some point, throw that out and your voice matters. Get into the discussion because doing those two things will spur you on for more.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

Because we live in a culture that does not like to commit to anything. We live in a when it works out culture, which exactly what you said, it gets stolen. It will not work out, it's gonna be the exception that it works out. And then the participation was the second one in a intercession set, in a worship with the word set. It's it's easy to sit back and spectate and just watch what's going on on the stage, watch whoever's moving around the room, watch who's praying on the mic, as opposed to me engaging with my mind, with my heart and emotions with my mouth out of my mouth. That activates something different in me than when I'm just watching and not participating. And you're probably going to eventually not come if you're just a spectator. We talk about that in other episodes. Saying the word out of your mouth, saying a prayer out of your mouth, singing the worship song out of our mouth activates something different on the inside. It makes my heart awaken more, it makes me become more alive as I'm sitting in that room and I am participating. And when we pray for a focus, I know I helped hit that target. For if we're praying for those who are bound in addiction, and out of my mouth was prayers going up to heaven, that incense constantly rising. I am contributing to that tide, turning of that thing. Like I'm playing my part in history in bringing his kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven. So that participation changes a whole other level, and it makes you feel like you had traction and you are moving forward, you and the Lord, and you and what you were trying to pray for that day. So, yeah, spectating, I don't recommend it. There's times when someone may feel they need to come and just soak, uh, which I get that, like just kind of be in the room in the atmosphere, let the worship wash over you, just be in that peaceful setting. Uh, but that's not what I want to do with the majority of my time. I I come in there and I know what I want to do to connect with the Lord. So I would just recommend participate, not spectate. So we're glad that you guys spent time with us today. We hope this helps you in your journey with the Lord or with your prayer group, whatever your community looks like, wherever you are. We'd love to hear what works for you guys, what was beneficial to y'all with this, or even things you guys want to hear. So I'll see you guys next time. Bye.