Grace Guidelines And Welcome

SPEAKER_01 1:21

Uh so I'm Jackie and I'm based in the UK and I've recently joined the uh PQ for Christians Core team, so it's always a delight to be with you on a Thursday. I'm just going to talk a little bit about our grace lines and then grace guidelines and then introduce us with the prayer. We need to recognise that we all come from different branches, diverse branches of the Christian faith, and that everyone is on their own transformational journey. We are here to offer support and compassion to each other at whatever stage your journey is. We need to accept that we are all learning and we lead by building wisdom together. I want you to feel that you can be open on this call, but that might be feeling uncomfortable. But as we know, all growth comes with some discomfort. And vulnerability is the currency of relationship, so keep that in mind too. We also want to ask the Holy Spirit to help each one of us to speak with love and grace. We are here to care for each other by listening and operating in our sage power. Before we move further into this meeting, we'd like to remind everyone about that. We welcome you to this next part of our day. Thank you. And you say that in you you are well pleased in Luke 3 22. And Lord, may we come before you now, knowing that you delight in us. Whatever shape we're in, whatever form we're in today, you delight in us. Help us to live in that delight today. In your son's name, Amen.

Guided Contemplation In The Inner Room

SPEAKER_12 3:14

Amen. All right. So we're gonna transition to PQ reps, or we like to call it integration of PQ reps along with some contemplation. And a focus of this meeting is more from the perspective of willfulness and willingness. So we want to walk through the scriptures and kind of see it in action. So if you want to, you can turn your camera off and use your sense of ears to hear what the contemplation is focused on. And it'll be about a five minute or so contemplation. Alright, so take a couple of deep breaths in. Slowly breathe in. Remember, every time we breathe in, we're breathing in the love of God. And we're breathing out the love of God. Allow your body to settle and be at peace in this moment that we have together. Release any urgency to achieve, strive or perform in this moment. Let's take this opportunity to be still and know God.

SPEAKER_13 5:07

We're here to be.

SPEAKER_12 10:57

An openness to God's movement rather than our own control. Not to give up, but to yield. Let that invitation rest in you. Let's return back to that image of the inner room. That secret place that only you and God know.

SPEAKER_13 12:26

You're not alone here.

Sharing What We Noticed

SPEAKER_12 12:30

God is present, not waiting for our effort, but welcoming our openness. And when you're ready, turn your cameras on and return back.

SPEAKER_13 15:19

I I can start.

SPEAKER_11 15:23

Donald, first of all, your voice reminds me of my Abide App. So it's very soothing and drives you into that contemplation. So I I appreciate that. But it's it's like a small journey for me. My first door that opened was myself in my room. And so for me it was just almost like a almost like a little trip I took with the Lord. And just came back to feeling the bee still, which is on my bedroom wall. And it's very hard for me to, you know, the judge in me comes out big time. Uh so for me it was just a little journey that I took with the Lord. Is that what you were looking for? I'm I'm sorry, but I didn't understand.

SPEAKER_10 16:23

There's no wrong or right answers. Okay. This is just what we experienced during the visualization.

SPEAKER_08 16:33

Yeah, and I would just add, you know, I agree. I love your contemplations. It puts me in a different place. What really stuck out to me was when you talk about you know, Jesus didn't grasp, Jesus didn't strive. I feel like especially in my work, I feel I catch myself striving and and grasping and comparing and that reminder that that Jesus didn't do that. He was in he was not never in a hurry. He just listened and was open. So thank you for that. It was lovely.

SPEAKER_06 17:10

Thank you.

SPEAKER_10 17:14

Vanessa wrote in chat breaking up that last verse and starting backwards, be still and ending with be was powerful.

SPEAKER_03 17:34

I had to get a little distracted. Something came up on my phone uh very quickly, but as I was thinking about it toward the end, a room is not my space. Nature is. So that's how I love spending time with the Lord and just sell the presence of him. So that was my mindset.

SPEAKER_04 18:04

I will piggyback on that, Leah. I was under a tree that's just like a a pine tree that the bottom branches are tall enough, but they hang down and it makes a little private space. And you can just smell the pine, and it's just that's where I love to be.

SPEAKER_05 18:26

But there were things that came up that I'm starting a pod with a group, and it's been really difficult to get everybody together on the same page. And I think I've been trying too hard.

SPEAKER_10 18:50

Nice transition to the topic, um, Donald.

Transformation Without Striving

SPEAKER_12 18:56

Oh, the topic. I was going somewhere else. Go somewhere else. No, and I mean before we go there, so I that brought me to the place, and and I don't I know most of us know the psalm Psalm 91. And the first part of Psalms 91, it says in the NIV, it says, Whoever dwells in the shelter of the most high will rest in the shadow of the Almighty, and I love that, and then the King James says, He who dwells in the secret place of the most high shall, right? And when you think about what Leah and what Steph all said, is that inner room, yes, we go externally, we have that room, but that room, that place is what God is talking about us on the inside. And and the more we go into that room, the more we get to experience God. And for me, it was whoever was a choice, because not everybody is gonna go into that room, and I saw that as a consistent reminder to go into the room and to rest in that room, so that's just the pastoral part of me that it just flows. So today we're going to talk about a topic, and then we're gonna connect PQ to this because I think this is this is a powerful topic here. Because over the last six months or so, and if you haven't been here for the last six or eight months, just go back and listen to it on the podcast. But we've been exploring how transformation unfolds, and it's not through striving because we realize there's something different about PQ for Christians. We realize that it's not about striving, it's not about what we do, but it's about presence, it's about surrender, and it's about being in partnership with God. We realize that PQ is a tool. We look at it as being a tool, and we understand that it's a tool, I call it a sacred tool. It's a tool that God uses to allow us to become aware more deeply into what's going on around us and within us. And I see it as a mirror, PQ as a mirror, and I also see PQ as a door. It's a mirror that allows us to see what is what is really going on, what's the reality from an identity perspective. And the what is, I mean, the what if is the possibilities that open up to us in God. So today, as we sit here, we talked about presence, surrender, and partnership with God, and then we went from accept and convert to the integration of being and doing with God being present with us. And as a result of this journey, the deep a deeper question kept coming up, and that's why we're here today. Are we living by willpower? Saboteurs? And we're going to call it willfulness, or are we being invited into willingness?

SPEAKER_10 23:01

So the question is what's the difference between the two?

SPEAKER_12 23:05

Let's start there. What's the distinction, yeah, between the two?

SPEAKER_03 23:23

Anyone would like to share I think being willing to do something is when your heart is open to whatever the scenarios are that you're willing to go forward. You don't know all the scenarios, you don't know, we couldn't possibly know everything that could be the play out of the situation, but we're willing to walk forward and willing to to take on whatever the scenario is. Whereas willpower is like something like, I'm I need to make this happen, I'm gonna do it this way, you know. You know, and it could just be that not even it depends on the scenario, but sometimes willpower is more focused on something very specific of what needs to be done and how it needs to be done, whereas willingness is a different perspective. That's how I see it.

SPEAKER_12 24:26

Can I just piggyback? Leah said something that is critical and essential. Notice when she said willingness connected to the heart. Did you catch that when she said willingness is when the heart opens? And willpower was not connected. It's something that needed to be done or I need to do, right? I just want you to keep get that connection. Anyone else?

SPEAKER_07 25:02

I think for me, when I think about willpower, it's it's and I was just having this conversation actually with my mom is who's in her 80s, is it's about what am I doing in my own strength? So, like in my conversation with her, my dad has Parkinson's and dementia, and life just is getting harder and harder for her. So she was telling me she's praying for patience every day. And I was like, Well, mom, that's good to pray for patience, but but you're but that's really all in what your flesh is gonna do with that patience. Whereas if you in in invite, you know, the the armor of God, the blood of Jesus to cover and be like a barrier so that that energy and those things that are being said that he doesn't mean, but he's saying that they don't penetrate, they don't go in you, that you know, you're asking for the Holy Spirit to do the work because just asking for the patience, though good, you're still doing that work. That's still your flesh, that's still, you know, Claudia doing Claudia with what she's receiving. But if you're asking, so the willingness to me is more like just surrendering and just asking, you know, Holy Spirits, do this, you know, put this barrier here, put this protection here, give me the shielding that I need, you know, to go forth. And yeah, so and just to piggyback, Jackie said something about not shutting the door. And I think that just because I'd had that conversation with her, literally we hang up at 15 minutes before this started, I I probably didn't do enough releasing so that I could fully engage in the contemplation. But anyway, so I think it's to me, it's between even if I'm doing it out of prayer, that willpower is still me doing me versus, you know, like the song, it is well with my soul, like like this is complete surrender. And, you know, like you said, Leah, the you know, we we can't possibly know the outcomes, but to literally just be like, no matter the outcome, I'm gonna ask you, Jesus, how do I, how do you want me to feel about the outcome that has now happened? Because nothing's gonna happen that isn't filtered through his hands. But boy, how hard. And sorry I'm babbling. Okay.

SPEAKER_12 27:42

No, that Shauna, that was beautiful, please. If you want to keep going, go right ahead. Because the fact that you were just having this conversation and this is where we are, that is what we have been calling sacred moments, where God enters the conversation.

SPEAKER_06 28:02

Shauna, what you just said really I could relate to. You know, you you said something about where God, how do you want me to see this situation, whatever it is? And I think of something that I've been going through for the past few weeks. I've had to go back to my hometown, Brooklyn, New York, twice within the past few weeks because of transitions of people that I loved. And within that sorrow, you know, God has sprinkled joy and ease. Where you know, and it just was what I needed, and it opened my eyes to this is how God wants me to see it, you know, and it's made me more mindful of that dichotomy of sorrow and joy. You know, they both can exist at the same time, and it I just felt like my eyes were opened, you know. Someone said something about opening the door, and I felt while I was there, and you know, and since coming back home, my eyes were opened to his ease.

SPEAKER_13 29:50

And you made me think of that, Sean. So thank you.

SPEAKER_10 30:02

What I hear in both of those stories feels like spaciousness that willingness brings more opportunity, more than we can imagine, where willfulness or willpower feels very sharp and narrow and scared and hard. But I I mean God is limitless and eternal, so I'm thinking about curiosity. I'm thinking about that willingness is a yes and but you're yes ending with God.

SPEAKER_12 30:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

Yeah, thank you. Thank you for all your contributions. This really helps to think things through, doesn't it, when people contribute different things. What it came to mind for me is something about the timing of these two things, and that willpower seems to have a limit on it, like you will run out of willpower. Whereas the willingness is like that that deep well that you know doesn't run out, it's sustainable. Whereas if you're striving with the willpower, you you will rich reach a limit. So just something about that timing and the longevity of willingness as opposed to the time-bound willpower, which which will run out.

SPEAKER_10 31:53

Or you're gonna fall spectacularly and scab your knee. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_08 32:00

So being limited by like what we can imagine and our human capacity versus the limitless, what God can imagine might be completely different, and we would never think of it.

SPEAKER_01 32:13

Yeah, yes, yeah, absolutely.

Saboteurs And The Need To Control

SPEAKER_12 32:16

Yeah. So what with that, let's connect the saboteurs to this. So willingness or willfulness, right? Or willpower. Let's just go with willpower. How do we connect willpower with the saboteurs? And I'm gonna say this first about willpower because Gerald May, which was a Christian psychiatrist, he he explained willpower from this perspective. He said willpower is pronouncing a verdict. It names the activity of the self as the center as control and frames the spiritual problem as needing more of what it already has. So when we think of willpower, we think of yeah we it's like I. So the other person may feel that as being shame, as being a judgment. They may take it as something that it that you're not seeing. And that's why he transitioned and started using willingness. I'm sorry, willfulness is what he called it. So willfulness is that ability to you want to do something. It's still in yourself, but you're not actually passing a verdict by saying it is you.

SPEAKER_13 33:57

Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_10 34:05

I'm not sure about the second part. Can you repeat that?

SPEAKER_12 34:08

Okay. So so willingness, let me let me just read the the definition of I'm sorry. I'll read willpower. I mean willfulness. Let me do it this way. So willfulness is defined as the posture of the heart that can recognize, name, and gently surrender, right? That's what willfulness is. It doesn't condemn the person, it illuminates the direction they are leaning to or or moving towards. Right? We can see it, we recognize that it's us doing it or ourselves doing it. Like we know, we can say, oh, that's the judge. Right? Or that's my hyperachiever.

SPEAKER_09 34:59

So our will.

SPEAKER_12 35:00

That that's correct.

SPEAKER_09 35:01

It's our will.

SPEAKER_12 35:02

Yep. So what he's saying, instead of saying the verdict, you are doing this, he's saying ease into it by using the term willfulness. Not attaching the activity to the person. Go ahead.

SPEAKER_10 35:19

Sounds like you're choosing. He's defining willfulness as choosing.

SPEAKER_12 35:23

Yes.

SPEAKER_10 35:24

It's the place from where you make a choice.

SPEAKER_12 35:26

Yes, which is what we've identified as part of the tension, right? And the accepting and converting. Right? It's all it's all there. So but how do we connect saboteurs to the willingness?

SPEAKER_11 35:52

I was just looking at my notes, and and because I take notes on everything, and that reminds me of the left the the rational, the analytical side, right, that we're taught during PQ is what I think the psychologist was talking about. The willful power, willingness, the will power is from that analytical brain that we, you know, we're forcing ourselves to action, to do, versus the willfulness comes from, and I think it was mentioned, a heart-based approach to obedience, to surrender, to giving in to what the Lord wants for us. And that's the sage part of our brain that I think enlightens us to do more for him versus for us. So to me, the willingness is more of the me concept, the analytical piece, versus the sage being surrendering to his will as opposed to what I want. That that's how I'm interpreting for my for myself at least. That you know, I'm trying to, as a matter of fact, my intention for this war for this year has been to surrender. And so everything I'm looking at is, okay, this is what I want. This is the the this is all these judge in me and all the powers that be that my analytical brain says. But for me now it's trying to do the willfulness of the Lord versus what I want.

SPEAKER_10 37:39

And I don't know about you, but every one of my saboteurs operates in willpower. Oh yeah, yes. Right. I don't think, yeah, I don't think there's one saboteur that says, nah, I'll rest. I mean, maybe avoider.

SPEAKER_11 37:53

Even the avoiders, right? Even the avoider when you think about it.

SPEAKER_00 38:01

Yeah, um, to me, the controller also is very connected to willpower, like you're trying to impose your will by the power of your controller, and somewhat the stickler as well, that things need to be this way, as opposed to being open to the possibility that God knows better and he has a different path. And the word that keeps coming back from the initial thought and everything else is surrender, and that seems to be the theme. Surrendering our will and being willing to follow God's prompting.

SPEAKER_05 38:46

Yeah, it's really tied to accomplishing and achieving rather than allowing God to bless us. I feel like even something like the pleaser, it's about trying to control a relationship.

SPEAKER_10 39:09

Well, and there was something in that quote where it's not enough. Right? What God has for us is not enough. What we are holding on to right now is not enough, and so the saboteurs have to come in and go, Well, I'll make up the difference because it's not enough. I found an interesting quote this week. You are not too busy, you are simply too unwilling to be limited.

unknown 39:39

Wow.

SPEAKER_10 39:43

You are not too busy, you are simply too unwilling to be limited.

unknown 40:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_10 40:05

Good to see you, Kong.

SPEAKER_12 40:08

Can I can I bring this in because Shauna said something about when she was talking with her mom, she tied in the flesh. Right? So I want I want you to see how the flesh saboteurs are working together. So we're all Christians here, so we need to be able to see this from a from the lens of Christianity. The flesh, the old man was us trying to do what we wanted to do. Right? And that that's where it all flows in. That's willpower. And I love what Jackie said because she went in from a willpower, or we would say from a a willfulness, it's going to run out. It is limited. And when we when we live in that understanding that there is something greater than us trying to transform ourselves and others, we can't do it.

SPEAKER_10 41:21

Especially in difficult situations like Shauna mentioned with her mother. That is a really difficult situation that she is limited to meet.

SPEAKER_07 42:19

And there's just the presence of the Holy Spirit is here and with us. And because the ability to be so vulnerable every time and to be brought to tears every time, this is this is a gift. So I just wanted to write everybody to join me in recognizing and really praising the Lord for what he's doing here and how how dynamic it is. But it's dynamic because of his presence. But I feel it and I know it because I'm just able to openly share it. And everybody, you know. So what we pray for in the beginning, and what Jackie recognizes, or whoever reads it that recognizes that we're all from different places, and that that's being honored. And I think that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_10 43:16

So I think that's part of the willingness. Yes, it is, playing out and God meeting our needs through community. That when we're willing with each other, like beautiful things can happen, and that's the same between us and our clients and anyone God brings in our path.

SPEAKER_12 43:38

Yes. And Shauna, thank you for yielding and speaking forward what you just said. Because from the very beginning, when this group was called in to existence by God, that's the intention. We believe God is using PQ as a tool for some people to get a speck of light, even believers, to get a brighter light that there is more. And that's what makes PQ for Christians distinct. Because we realize that all of the work is not us. There comes a time where you're going to reach the door, and all of the stuff that we're doing, the door is gonna be there. And we don't have the key to unlock it. And once we open that door, that door is open for us, and we come through it. That's inviting God into everything, into PQ, into all that we're doing. We will see things exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask, think, or even imagine. It is a phenomenal tool. But it'll never be the end. We know where our end is. And as you yeah, come on now, Lord, you're doing this right now. It's so beautiful when this happens. And I invite you, when you're in your sessions, before or in the middle, or whatever, even if they're not Christian, invite God, invite the Holy Spirit into your sessions. Because those sacred moments are the moments where light is illuminated and it shines through. God is doing, we're doing something special here, ladies. It's, and I don't say we, through us, our willingness, God is doing something special using that tool, PQ. Because a lot of people are struggling, and PQ gives them a language. The fact that they can call it a hyperachiever or the judge and not say me, where they can transition from it's me to it's that, that opens up more space for God. Yeah, it it's for listen, I've been an ordained minister for twenty-six years, and twenty of those years, that voice inside, I thought it was me. And when I came to PQ, and I and God says, look, this isn't you, this is the judge, this is the hyperchiever, and I you don't understand the light that came from that. And I'm fully persuaded that as we are able to articulate this to more believers and non-believers, light appears because they're thinking it's them or using willpower, the verdict, it's me. No, you're the beloved. That's why we're we're talking about living love this whole year, because we want people to understand that you are loved, and through PQ, we can show them that they're loved, not beyond, not by themselves, beyond themselves, they are loved. Loved. It's past tense. You're not trying to earn this love. It was already provided before you made it. God said yes. I really pray, my prayer is that every time we come together, that you would get a word, a phrase, or something that you can take and let it flow out of you to someone else, because that's what God does here. He imparts in us not for us to hold on to it. He imparts in us for us to let it go for someone else. And Steriaki, your testimony about going back to Brooklyn and you you share that you have that peace. Listen, I'm from New York and I know what it means to go back. Do you understand what I'm saying? And to to have that and to show up in that piece without words? That breaks chains. That actually breaks chains and restores relationships without words. If we're willing.

SPEAKER_05 49:18

For me, what that brings to mind is being able to step into every interaction, every conversation wholeheartedly, without fear, knowing that God is with me and He's taking care of everything. All I need to do is be present.

SPEAKER_13 49:35

Yes.

SPEAKER_05 49:40

It changes every interaction.

SPEAKER_03 49:49

The word brave just came to mind. I don't know if you guys use that word, but that word just came to mind as brave means willing to just go forward, even if you don't a hundred percent feel it, but you're being brave to go forward and not necessarily in a negative way, it's in a very positive way. Trusting, because when we're brave, it's because we are trusting God that whatever we're in, that He's ordering our steps, and that this is why we should be brave.

unknown 50:22

Wow.

SPEAKER_12 50:30

Jackie says, I wrote in my notes earlier, Jesus was calm, confident, and self-assured in God. Hallelujah. And as she said, brave, Abraham came to me. Are we willing to leave our land, our father's house, and the things that we know to be present in every interaction? That's what God is asking us. Are we willing to stay empty that he may fill us in every interaction? Even when you're typing an email, are we willing to stay empty that he may fill us with the words to type in the email or the text? Are we willing? My goodness, this is wonderful. I didn't expect this today, but that's that's what God does, right?

SPEAKER_02 51:48

What are your takeaways from this hour?

SPEAKER_06 52:07

God is good. Oh the time.

SPEAKER_02 52:33

I love that component of that phrasing. You know.

SPEAKER_10 53:08

What has struck me is the multiplication of goodness, God's goodness when we open ourselves to each other.

SPEAKER_11 53:35

The power here is just exhibited through some of the words that people have used. And again, I I feel like for me it's been always about what is willingness and surrender to the Lord.

SPEAKER_08 53:53

And I love the staying empty and a way, I think it was Alexa said, entering wholeheartedly into every interaction and just being present. I love that. So thank you all.

SPEAKER_10 54:06

Vanessa typed in chat, the takeaway is being light and love in the world. I was just at a women's retreat. I got invited to lead in Tennessee. And I had multiple opportunities to share God's word, but I didn't want to go at first, but surrendered.

SPEAKER_12 54:29

Amen. So before we leave, we close every salt and light, we close every one of our meetings with Philippians 2 13. It says, For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good pleasures. So thank you for dropping by today and giving us some of your time, and may God continue to bless you and protect you and provide for you in all that you do. Be blessed until next time.