Why The Question Matters

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All right, welcome back to the uh PQ for Christians podcast. And this is an impromptu recording because on Thursday at the last group meeting, and we had an amazing conversation that kind of centered around what if God was inviting us into a more deeper, intimate relationship when we get to that place in PQ where we are desiring more, and we know that more is there, but yet we come to that place where we do you don't PQ can't take you there. Let me just say it from that perspective. So at the last meeting, we talked about the five stages of the PQ progression, PQ and Christianity progression. Now, this is not a science, this is just something that myself and Alexa we realized like two years ago. We we realized a natural progression as we walk through. She walked through it first, and then when I came on, I kind of walked through this same progression, and we decided to map out these stages. So, stage one through five. So I'm gonna mention the stage five, but the purpose of this recording is to address one question that came up that was pretty profound. And I've been sitting with it since Thursday. And the question is how do you invite God into your PQ sessions? And I think that is the most important thing for us as believers, is how do we invite God in to something that we've already started? I believe we're led to PQ, that we were led to PQ, and God is using PQ as a sacred tool to awaken us to something deeper into his presence. And I've talked about the mirror. PQ as a sacred tool is a mirror where it allows us to look into the mirror, and then eventually we get to that point where we hand the mirror over and we hand it over to God, and then now we look in the mirror and we see ourselves and God in the mirror, or God is using the mirror to show us. Because a lot of times when we hold the mirror as a as a metaphor, we we will focus on our good side. Like everyone has a good side when they take a picture. This is not a negative or a positive, it's just we go there. But once we hand the mirror over to God, what we're saying is, Lord, we are trusting you that you are shaping in us how we are seen and how we show up in the mirror. So it's about recognizing and acknowledging

The Mirror And The Door

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the reality of what's going on in that first stage or in the mirror. So the the second point is that then once you get to that, there's a deeper movement in, and I call that movement the door. And if you stay with PQ long enough, if you are a believer and you stay with PQ long enough, I believe that every one of us are going to come to a door. And the door is there that God presents that door for us to step through the door into what now we're calling is a deeper, intimate relationship, because it takes us beyond the PQ framework, and it did exactly what the tool was to awaken us to something deeper, that God was actually all along inviting us into something. So when you think about that, and I want to give you an example of this. When Moses went to build the Ark of the Covenant, the craftsman that God anointed to be to build the Ark of the Covenant was Bezilel. And he wasn't a priest, he wasn't a prophet, he was anointed by God to have the skills to build the Ark of the Covenant in the manner in which God desired it to be done. So he didn't build it on his own, he had the blueprint. And I look at PQ in some instance, I look at PQ as a Bezael, as a tool or a craft that God is using to bring people to that place where they acknowledge or they become aware. I think awareness happens first. They become aware that there is a deeper presence of God that's here, and that presence starts to pull. And it's pulling on us, and we sense it pulling, and out of that, PQ did its job. So we might have come for PQ for, you know, to build a coaching practice or you know, transformation or mental fitness and all those different things. But underneath it all, or I should say, on top of it all, God was saying, I'm drawing you into me. So as I go into this and explain how to invite God into your PQ session, I just want you to listen to this. Listen to what I'm saying. And if it works for you, it does. And if it doesn't, we're gonna pray that God will reveal to you what is next for you. So let me first let me give you the five stages because I think understanding the five stages is important. Stage one is when you first come in, it's seeking alignment. And most believers, when they hear about PQ as a coach or even as a client, they're seeking alignment. So they're interested in learning how PQ and Christianity are aligned, if there's if it complements, right? And then we discuss barriers, saboteur involvement, and bringing awareness to the scriptures that highlight PQ. And the key is I am seeking and finding answers. Because I will challenge you now, if you look at PQ and you understand the saboteurs, the judge, hyper-achiever, hyperrational, stickler, controller, victim, you will see all of these in the Bible, in scripture. And I'm not talking from a spiritual or demonic perspective and in the enemy perspective. I'm seeing you will see them active in people within the

Five Stages Of PQ Progression

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Bible and major people within the Bible. But the key is to observe as you're reading, and then look for the tendencies and understand what that is, and then you will see all the judge, you will see the controller, you will see the stickler, you will see the victim show up. The victim shows up in Genesis 3. It shows up in Adam and Eve immediately after the fall. The victim is present, the judge is present. Right, I just want you to grab that. So now stage two. Let me get stage two. So stage two is when you get to that place and you say, I understand the alignment. So I am seeking to deepen my understanding and awareness, especially with being and doing as a believer, as a coach, and any other role we operate in. And notice I didn't say being or doing or being overdoing, because one of the things we understand is as a believer, we're learning to live in the place of Mary and Martha, or let me say Martha and Mary. Martha represents the active, the believer that's active, right? Just do, do, do, doing. But also Mary represents the believer that is, I don't want to say passive, but I'm gonna use the word present, acknowledging the presence of God that's there with us. And for a long time, we decided, or it came about, that you had to choose between the two. And if you read that text again, Jesus never chose between the two. He said Mary has chosen what is better. That doesn't mean that it's not good to be active. So what I understand now is that we live in the being and doing and operating from that. So that's stage two, understanding the alignment. So I understand the alignment. Now, stage three is that stage three is what's next. And this is what happens. Something, something flows in this. I'm embracing, deepening, and accepting transformation that moves from inward being to outward loving of others, and this is where I think you begin to sense that there is more, because part of you starts to acknowledge and see the move that's happening. And it may appear that like it's PQ moving and then things like that. But what we understand is when you start to acknowledge and see the fruits of the spirit that are listed in Galatians, love, peace, joy, patience, long-suffering, perseverance, enduring, endurance, right? And you start seeing compassion. All these things is, yes, PQ's system operates that, but we understand from a believer's perspective, we can understand that those fruits, it's what does it say? The fruits of the spirit. So we see that God has been working underneath or above what PQ was doing all the time. And now we we see that because now it's not only for us, it's not only happening internally for us, it's actually starting to go outward as we it flows out of us to others. And that's the what's next stage. So this is kind of that that that pivotal point. Stage four is when you understand, it's like I we call it go deeper. So my Christianity, PQ, and the presence of God leads me to embody love by loving others in their spirituality or lack of spirituality, especially when others differ, other beliefs differ from my own. So let me say that again because I want to put this in, I want to switch this up just so that you can hear it. So stage four is going deeper or go deeper. It says, and I'm gonna say it this way the presence of God leads me to my Christianity, leads the presence of God, my Christianity, and PQ leads me to embody love by loving others in their spirituality or lack of, especially when others differ, others' belief differ from my own. You see the difference? So the presence of God goes first. My Christianity, because God's presence is what drives my Christianity, and PQ leads, it gets me to this place. Now, stage five is this.

From Alignment To Transformation

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Stage five is what we call intimate love. I now want to help others experience a deep love for, and I we say Christ, but a deep love for God, right? They may not come to the place of acknowledging Jesus, right? But they may be open to the experience that there is something deeper and something outside of them that's drawing them in, right? So I want to encourage you here to experience a deep love for God, right? And we know we don't have to explain this that God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit here using the PQ framework. So you don't have to use Jesus right up front. Just allow God to give you whatever words is needed in the moment in which you are, it's flowing out of you, or you're speaking to someone. Because this is about the acknowledgement of the agape of God that's working in them, right? I I like to say it, every human is the beloved of God, the apitos, the agapitos of God. And as a result of being the agape toast of God, they believe. You don't believe first and then become the beloved of God. You are the beloved of God, and therefore you believe. So just remember that. If we're as believers, we want to be led by the Spirit of God in our conversations. And I don't know where I'm going with this, but I want you to grab this. I want to help others experience a deep love for Christ slash God the Father, right? I'm gonna say God here, using the PQ framework, because now here's the point. I believe you understand that PQ now becomes a sacred tool. In level five, you have to know this. This is this is it. It becomes the sacred tool. You you understood it in number four, stage four, but now in stage five, you know it. See, it is no longer about what I want. Stage five, right? It's no longer about what I want as an individual. It is now about what God wants to do through me and my resources. You become the vessel of God. Your resources and you become the vessel that God can use to reach others. And that door might be opening just the fact of being able to get people to that place where they become aware of God. They become aware that they are the agape toast of God, the beloved of God. So now that you understand the five stages, here's what I want to do. I want to go first, I want to answer the question right up front. How do you invite God into your PQ sessions? It's, in my opinion, I think it's simple. You invite God into your PQ sessions. It's not how, you just invite God in. So I'm gonna offer you a simple prayer. And this is the prayer that I use before all situations or circumstances that I'm going in, meetings, coaching sessions, or whatever it is. And I say this prayer throughout the day. It's just not about going into a PQ session or when I'm praying. I now this becomes a dialogue that's inside of me. And the simple prayer is this I consent to your presence and action within. And I started out with Father. I consent to your presence and action within. You can say God, you can say Jesus, however, you want it, but that consent is literally opening the door and handing over the mirror, using the metaphors that I gave before. Now it's about trusting

Intimate Love And The Beloved

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and learning to trust God in all situations because you're consenting to God's presence in action within throughout this situation or circumstance. Right? And in the meeting, Steph mentioned about how she's transitioned from doing her PQ reps, and she's transitioned completely over to centering prayer. Now, for the sake of those that know don't know what centering prayer is, is I will tell you that centering prayer, the concept of centering prayer, has been around since the beginning of the church, actually before the church. And it became really heightened in the third century. And how centering prayer came to be about was in the late 1970s, some Trappist monks were given an assignment to learn to develop a process where the average lay person could practice contemplation. And through that, they came up with centering prayer because people were leaving, going into Eastern uh religions or different things like that, because they didn't think Christianity had the ability that you could practice or live in a state of contemplation. Or let me say it this way: you could live in a state of Mary, right? Because Mary represents the contemporative. That you could live in that state.

A One Line Prayer Of Consent

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So they developed this centering prayer, this four-step process, and it's been going on since 1980s, and like in the center, and I'll put it in the link. It's called the Center for Contemporative Action, I believe it's what it's called. Contemporative, I'll I'll get it right. But they've been teaching centering prayer since the 80s, and it's it's passed, it's just had its 40th anniversary, and it's been phenomenal from that perspective. And even myself within my Christian faith, I never knew anything about it. I everyone always talks about meditation and and doing those different things, but contemplation is is a is a level of deepness in your walk with God that goes beyond meditation. And if you want, I can talk more about that on another episode, right? So here's what I want to do. I want to first give you the four steps of centering prayer, and then I'm gonna show you how I integrate it into it. So the first step of centering prayer is to choose a sacred word as a symbol of your intention to consent to God's presence and action within. For instance, and how they teach it, the word should be of like one or two syllables, and you're you're gonna use this word silently as a way to bring yourself back. And I want to say this now because when we are doing our PQ reps and you remember hearing, Shazad would come on and said, let go of those thoughts, let go of the any thoughts that you might have. So when a thought comes up in sacred prayer, instead of actually rubbing a finger or drawing your attention to your breath or something like that, you now will just gently begin to say your sacred word, because that is the word that you chose as your intention. See, the key here is I'm gonna talk more about intention. I want you to hold on to that because your intention is to be in

Centering Prayer Meets PQ Reps

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God's presence. And the word, instead of saying all that, the word actually becomes the reminder that you consented to God's work within. Right. And when you're doing your PQ sessions, I mean sorry, your centering prayer sessions when you first start out, they recommend that you sit comfortably in a chair, right? With your back kind of secured and stuff and your feet flat on the ground, the same way we do PQ reps. And with your eyes closed, and then they begin that you start by briefly and silently introducing your sacred word as a symbol of your consent to God's presence and action within. So for instance, a sacred word could be love. So as you start out in the integration, you start out your breathing, right? And you get yourself to that place where you naturally start to slow down. And at that point of slowing down, here's what I here's how I'll do it. I'll show you how I'll do it. When I start out and I'm going in to do a PQ slash centering prayer session, first thing I do is I sit down in my space that I carved out, and I begin by, Father, I consent to your presence in action within. And then I go through the breathing technique just to calm me down. It might take 30 seconds or so. And then I gently introduce my word. And let's say the word is love. So silently I would say love as it's going with my breath. So I would inhale love and exhale love. And inhale love and then exhale love until it gets to the point where you no longer need to say it. Then what's going to happen is while you're in centering prayer, there's going to be moments, nanoseconds, seconds, and sometimes longer as you continue to do this, where you're going to be in this place I call peace. It's this place of presence where there is not a thought, there's not a noise, there's not anything going on. And right there, you are in the presence with God, and God is in the presence with you. God's there the whole time, but it's that acknowledged understanding of presence. You're not looking for that presence. I want to make sure you understand it. You're not looking for it. The whole purpose of centering prayer is to be present with God without words. And the same reason we go into what? PQ sessions to do what? To get charged up. Now, the integration is we're not going to get charged up. We're going in to be present with our father. And as a result of that, we come out with more presence of our father or charged up. Right? Now, here's another thing that happens. This is step number three. So step one was choose a sacred word. Step two was sit comfortably with your eyes closed and then briefly introduce your sacred word. And you want to keep the same sacred word for as long as you need it. You don't want to keep changing the sacred word each time you go into a session. So when you first start out, you're going to kind of stumble through some words and maybe go into prayer and let the word come to you. And then hold on to that word. Like I've had the same word now. It's been almost a year and a half. And I constantly, I keep using that word because that word is a reminder of who I am in God. Okay. And then the third step is when engaged, when a thought shows up, or when you're engaged in your thought, like PQ would say, is let go of the thought where you would rub your finger, or whatever it is that you would do. So now you're going to gently and silently return to your sacred word. And every time a thought comes up or a vision comes up, or like you begin to see a picture or or a memory or something shows up in this time that you want to spend with God, you actually just gently say your sacred word. And that sacred word will bring you back to your intention of being with God. And that is where you're building the muscle, right? The PQ reps build PQ muscle, right? It builds up the sage brain, but you're building up the muscle to be able to be in presence or to acknowledge God's presence that's already with you. Right? And at the end, step four is at the end of your prayer, you just rest. Rest in that. And I usually say thank you, Lord. And then whatever at the end, you just rest in that moment, knowing that you have ended the prayer and you're now with God. So at the end of the prayer, period, remain silent with your eyes closed for about a couple of minutes. So you're going to sit in what you've been doing. So just sit with it and allow God to do whatever needs to go on and the residue. So we don't want to automatically like jump up and you want to give your eyes time to adjust. So eyes are still closed, and then you just come up out of it. And I always say thank you, Father, for all time together. Now, here's one of the things that I want you to see here really quick. So moving, when you think about from PQ reps to centering prayer, one of the things is, as I like to say, integrating God into PQ. And it happens when you're moving from attention to intention. So the process of moving from like PQ or weakening the saboteurs by focusing our exclusive attention on our senses. That's what PQ does. Involves shifting our attention from the act to the intention behind it. So this is where centering prayer comes in. Centering prayer allows us to invite God into our situation by consenting to his presence and action within, whether in prayer or any other activity.

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Right.

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And I want you to think about it this way, Greg, because I'm going to talk about SAGE steps, right? Because we do SAGE steps, right? So what is the SAID step is a 10-second step that we use to energize or catch the

From Attention To Sacred Intention

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saboteurs, right? And it uses the Sage power, right? So we were intentionally doing this for multiple reasons. But now, here's the key. Every SAIDE step requires activation of the sage brain, therefore builds a sage muscle. But now, remember we talked about the sacred pause. So that's the same as a, I would say, as a SAGE step. Whenever you're in a situation or a circumstance, and you're, let's say, you get triggered by a saboteur, the sacred pause does the same thing. And you can pause for up to 10 seconds, or you can go longer if you want to. But the sacred pause, what it literally does, it is what I call the sacred intention. The pause brings you back to the acknowledgement of God's presence or action that is within. You're consenting to God's presence or action that is within. And every time we do the sacred pause, what happens is we're not building a muscle. We are building awareness of God's presence that's already there. So either we're in prayer or we're out and about doing whatever we need to do in our coaching sessions. And when we pause, we're acknowledging God's presence and actions that's right there with us. So I don't want to spend too much time on this, but all I wanted to do is I wanted to encourage you, and I'm going to see if I can do a little, I think I have a podcast episode that I did on my own personal podcast, Daily Living for Christ, where I talked about integrating centering prayer into your life. And I'm going to attach that link in there. But I want to encourage you if you're listening to this and you know that there you're sensing something deeper. My question for you is what if God is inviting you into something deeper beyond what the PQ Tula framework is able to do. And that to me is a beautiful thing. So be encouraged and know that in all things God works together for good, those who love God and are called by his name. And that we know every tool, if we bring God into the tool, it now becomes sacred. And God can use it to go deeper and to cause a greater awareness or a greater understanding of his love for us. So I want to leave you with a quote that I I man, I it I read this quote on Saturday, and it just touched me so deeply. And I just,

Holy Desire And Community Invitation

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I don't know. It just touched me. And the quote has to deal with holy desire. And I actually call whole it's a quote about holy desire, but I'm calling, I actually added the subtext waiting on the Lord. And it's St. Gregory said, All holy desire grow when postponed. And the desire that diminishes with delay was never a holy desire. I just want you to sit with that. And what a beautiful, beautiful statement from Saint Gregory, fellow brother in Christ, realize that holy desires grow when postponed. And if that desire diminishes when it's delayed, it wasn't a holy desire, it was our desire. So I trust that these words are meant for encouragement for you and they help build you up. And I also want to remind you of our live love communities on the third Thursday of every month where we get together and we support you on living loved every day or living as the beloved of God. So we appreciate you. And remember, we're here to support you.