EXPLORING YOUR SOUL: GUIDED PRAYER
BEFORE YOU WATCH:
Make sure you have watched the previous video teaching from the Breakout at Iron Sharpens Iron Conference.
That video explains in depth why we’re exploring our souls. This video is designed to be the next step in engaging in prayer with God and asking him to show us what is in our souls and heal what we are unable to fix on our own.
AFTER YOU WATCH:
Were there any reoccurring themes or observations you noticed that spanned the heart, mind, body, and relationship categories?
What might God be drawing your attention to?
Additionally, I would encourage you to seek out a mature brother/sister in Christ to discuss what you discovered or heard from God. You may seek a Spiritual Director to help you explore what God is doing in your life in a deeper way. Feel free to email me if you’d like to explore spiritual direction.
During this time, we’re going to create space to spend time with the Trinity in prayer.
We’re going to ask the God, through his Holy Spirit within us, to show us the areas of our souls that need the healing, freedom, and comfort. To ask him to reveal places that are hurting. To expose ways that we have turned away from him and towards false gods and solutions.
We are seeking to experience his deep, lavish, and faithful love for us.
Like David prayed in Psalm 139, we’re asking God to search us.
As we begin, if you are using your phone for this time of prayer, to turn on the do not disturb function and place your phone across the room from you.
You may also want to take a moment and picture a place that gives you a sense of peace and safety. Some will like to picture God the Father or Jesus with them in that space, ready and longing to speak to you.
If you are able, find a comfortable chair and settle in.
Begin to rest your body and mind by taking a few long, deep breathes.
During the time of prayer, we will propose a number of questions. Don’t feel like you have to answer them all. If one stands out, it may be God’s invitation to pay attention to it. Stay with it and ask God what he may be wanting to say through that question.
We’re going to start with a minute of silence to give our minds a chance to begin the process of slowing and fixing its attention on Jesus. If your mind is restless, it’s okay. Don’t judge yourself. Simply making ourselves available pleases God’s.
(pause)
Father, Son, Holy Spirit. We give you this time. Speak. Your sons and daughters are listening.
We ask you to search our hearts. Show us where you want to work.
· We bring to you our longings, our deep desires, and our dreams. Take a moment to name and express those longings to God.
· Father, what do you want to tell us about those longings?
(pause)
· What emotions have been present in the past few days or weeks? (anger, sadness, worry, irritable, shame or gratitude, joy, satisfaction, or comfort)
· What things seem to make me irritable(polite anger)/angry? What am I afraid of losing? Am I obsessed with looking a certain way to others.
· What am I sad about or need to grieve? What losses have I experienced?
· What makes me feel inadequate or a failure?
· Do I feel loved, accepted, wanted, or significant?
· Fill the in the blank as you pray with God. God, I have been feeling…
· Are there any ways that I have been distracting myself or avoiding dealing what I have been feeling? Why might that be?
Jesus, what do you want to say about and through our feelings?
(pause)
Spirit, we ask you to search our minds. Show us where you want to work.
· What thoughts have preoccupied my mind over the last few days or weeks? How might those thoughts indicate what is most important to me?
· We all have a story of what we think life should be like. What story did your family tell you about who you should be and what your life should look like?
· When you think about God looking at you, what expression is on his face? Why might this picture be true or not true?
· In what ways does your picture of what the good life look like the worlds picture? In what ways is God inviting you to look at life differently?
· How has pain in your life shaped the way you respond to people and situations? (fear, planning, control, distrust) God what do you want to say about my pain?
Spirit we want to tell you about what is going on in our minds. We ask you to speak to us.
(pause)
Father, we ask you to search our bodies. Speak to us on where we need to surrender and honor you with our bodies.
· Take a moment to slowly pay attention to your body. Start at the top of your head, forehead, jaw, and neck. Is there any tension, tightness, pain, or tingling? Do you feel relaxed and rested or fatigued and exhausted? Now slowly work down paying attention to your shoulders, chest, stomach, pelvis, legs, knees, ankles, and finally your toes.
· What might God want to say to you through your body?
· How do you currently feel about your body? Tell God about that.
· How does the truth that your body is God’s temple bring you comfort or conviction?
· Our bodies like the rest of creation, tend to groan for redemption. If you were to put into words what your body is longing for, what would you say?
(Pause)
Jesus, we ask you to search our relationships. Show us how we have been shaped both in painful and beautiful ways. Transform our relationships.
· Who are the people in your past who have hurt you in the past? How do you feel about them now? How does Jesus view what has happened to you? How does Jesus feel about those who have hurt you?
· Who are the people in your past who have powerfully shaped you for good? Take some time to thank God for them and pray for them.
· How are your relationships currently? Are you experiencing closeness or distance? Are there people around you that are causing you to grow?
· Is there anyone you need to forgive? Do you feel like you need to be forgiven? Place yourself before Jesus and ask him to help you forgive or to feel forgiven.
· Is there a picture of someone that comes to mind that Jesus may want you to connect with. Who might that be?
Jesus, we ask you to search our relationships. Would you show us the faces and situations you want to work in.
If you have been hearing the loving voice of the Trinity and want to continue in prayer, or simply to linger and enjoy God’s presence. Feel free to continue even as I close with a prayer. The music will continue. Let’s pray.
Father, Son, Spirit, we pray that what we have started in this moment will continue. We offer ourselves as living sacrifices. Take our entire soul, heart, mind, body, and relationships and bring your kingdom in us, through us, and around us.
Amen!
