"Eyes Wide Open: Journey into the Spirit: Ep:2: Unlocking Divine Presence"

0:00 Welcome back to Diary of a Black Woman podcast with our devotional series. I'm your host, Connie Morris, and today we'll continue our eyes wide open with episode two, In the Spirit, the place where God speaks. But before we go there, I want to activate you with the prayer of Jabez. And it says, Jabez, we pray that God's hand will be upon us, that you will keep expanding our territory, that you will keep us from harm, that you will hear our prayers and you will answer our prayers, as we know Jabez's prayers was answered, and that we will rise from pain, walk in truth, and return to God with a deep intimacy with Christ, healed, empowered, and walk boldly in divine purpose.

0:49 So let's get started. Episode two, in the spirit, the place where God speaks. So, you know, sisters, let's get started here. Let me ask you something real. Have you ever been doing everything right? Praying, fasting, showing up? Yes, things still feel, you still feel like you are not hearing from God. You know, that was me. I was praying around the presence of God. Listen to the key word here. I was praying around the presence of God, but not in the presence of God. And the Holy Spirit lovely corrected me. He said, you're praying around me, but not postured to be in me.

1:35 Oh, wasn't that a revelation? You're praying around me, but not postured to be in me. Sometimes we think it's like maybe, I don't know if it's you, a scary thing to be caught up in the spirit. We think it's going to take us somewhere we don't want to go, somewhere unsafe, where we're not protected by the Holy Ghost or by our Heavenly Father, right? We always say, I'm praying in the Spirit. We think it's like just something that we do. You know, some people get so super spiritual that they really don't know what it is to be praying in the Spirit or in the posture of the Spirit. But when God says that you are praying around me, that you are not in me, You know, you're praying around me, but you're not postured to be in me.

2:22 That moment changed everything. But it taught me something. It said, proximity isn't the same as presence. It says, you're praying around me. And I was still, even today, I'm still imagining, like, what does that look like in the spirit? Like, you show up for prayer and you're praying to God. And God said, you're not even, you're not nowhere near me. You're praying and you think you're getting through, but you're not really getting through. You know, we have that five minute of prayer. And we think, Lord, bless me. And then you run off to work. Lord, I need your help. Boom. No relationship. Nothing, just like he's a robotic guy that you just punch a number and then he shows up because you say something, right?

3:11 But it says that moment changed everything. It says, because it taught me that proximity isn't the same as presence and being close to spiritual things doesn't mean that you are truly in the spirit. So let's get in the word and let's just kind of go through this very slowly so you can understand what I'm talking about. I don't want to lose you here because, you know, we spiritual people don't be like, well, she's going too deep. No, I want you to make sure that you can stay with me so that when we speak to God, that we as spiritual beings can connect with God spiritually. And so let these words you read kind of stick with you.

3:55 Let's go to Revelations 1.10 in the NIV. It says, on the Lord's day, I was in the spirit and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet. So John didn't step into the spirit after he heard the voice. He was already there. So position precedes revelation. If you want to hear God clearly, you have to be in a position before he speaks. What position is he asking you to be in? Ezekiel 3, 14 to 15, it says, The spirit then lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness and in anger of my spirit with a strong hand of the Lord on me.

4:44 I came to the exiles, and I sat among them for seven days, deeply distressed. Wow. We see Ezekiel didn't prophesy immediately. He sat. He carried the weight of the word in silence before he ever released it in public. Sometimes God will move you into a place not to speak, but to discern. That's what happens when you're in the spirit. You don't get the instructions. You receive divine restraint. So we see here two different ways here. We see that John, who in Revelation, that he was in the spirit on the Lord's day.

5:25 We see Ezekiel, if you read a book, Ezekiel, it's a very, very prophetic book, that he, God moved with him in a different way. So a lot of times we want to compare, I like this because this is what's coming up for me, is that we want to compare how God moves with someone else, how he moves with us. It's a different, it's different. And so we have to kind of understand how God wants to move with us. And that comes out of a relationship. Let's continue here. In Acts 8, 29 through 30, the Spirit told Philip, go to the chariot and stay there. Then Philip ran. Because Philip didn't hesitate because he was in the Spirit, the voice was familiar and not foreign to him.

6:09 And that's what happened when you walk with God daily. You start moving without overthinking. You don't second guess. you respond. So we see here three different people respond to the Spirit in three different ways, but it's still the same Spirit. We got Revelation where he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and we read the book of Revelation. We see, we don't know what happened before the recording started with John in the book of Revelation, but he says, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day. So we knew that in that time that everything he saw that happened in the heavenly realm, he was in the spirit.

6:50 Ezekiel stayed in the spirit. Everything he saw and done was in the spirit. And we see here that Acts and Philip, Philip heard the word of the Lord and what? He was in the spirit. So we see there's a hearing in the spirit, but there's a natural action in the natural. So we hear and then we do. We hear and then we do. And I love that Acts 8, 29 through 30. I want to just take a moment because that was just a quick blurb. And if you don't have your Bibles, that's okay. I will read it. And I'm just pulling it out now because I felt like I should read it now. Let me find it.

7:31 And it's in the book of Acts, verses 29, chapter 8, verses 29. That's in the NIV. Let me find the right translation. I'm going to probably read it in the NLT. But we're going to do an... Oh, we better find the right translation. NIV. So, the NIV. Okay. All right, this is, I'm recording it as I'm doing it, so sorry for the silence. We'll go back to NLT. It just came now, International.

8:13 Okay, here we go. We got the New National Version, and it's going to be verses 29 and 30. And we see here that he ran. He did it immediately because he was familiar. It said, the Holy Spirit told Philip, go to that chariot, stand near it. Verse 30, it says, so Philip ran up to the chariot. He heard the man reading Isaiah, the prophet. Do you understand what you're reading? Philip asked. So right away, he knew that God was speaking to him. So as you pray in the spirit, you get very familiar to what the voice, familiar with the voice of God.

8:54 And so you don't have to ask, is that you give me scripture to support that? You know, that's him. So you saw Philip says, he heard the spirit of the Lord say something. He responded immediately. Let's go to first Corinthians two verses 10 through 14. I won't look that one up. So the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God because they are discerned only through the Spirit. We see we're still talking spiritual things. And how do you understand spiritual things? You have to be able to read your Bible because when God speaks to you. He's speaking directly from His Word, right?

9:36 So let me break this down. You can't discern spiritual truth from a carnal space. Carnal means in your own flesh. You can't expect deep revelation when you live on the surface. The spirit is where we access mysteries, strategies, and timings. If we stay shallow, we may stay stuck. No, we stay stuck. So let's kind of do a quick review. I went through that really quick. We talk about hearing, staying in the spirit. It says, in the Spirit is the place where God speaks. So we see here in Revelation, God spoke to John.

10:17 We see in Ezekiel, God spoke to Ezekiel. In Acts, God spoke to Philip. And here in 1 Corinthians, he's speaking to us. He says, the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. The person without the Spirit does not accept things that come from the Spirit of God, because they are discerned only through the Spirit. So he's telling us that when we become spiritually discerning, that we can really understand the mysteries, the strategies, and the timing of God. But if we stay in a carnal place, we will only understand the surface things. And when we only understand the surface things, that we will stay stuck.

11:00 So what does that mean to you? It says being in the Spirit is not a church moment. A lot of times we think that we'll have that moment in the church and we have to be at church to have that feeling again. No, it happens in your daily realm. As you pray in the Spirit, you can begin to discern every single day. Most of the time that I'm writing my devotionals or I'm praying, I'm at home. We're only at church, if you really calculate it, maybe four hours a week if you're serving. And if you work at the church, that's a different story. But if you're serving, you're getting there maybe 20 minutes ahead. The service is about an hour and a half.

11:40 So you're two hours, two hours, and that's it. So if you're waiting to have a spiritual moment at the church out of all the other times in your daily life, then you're really missing it. God wants to be part of your life 24-7 all the time, not just at church. He wants to be part of your life 24-7 every single day. Another thing you want to know is that it's not just goosebump in the worship music. It happens. When does it happen? Yeah, we get those feelings, but it's also based on your availability. Are you available for God on a 24-7 round? Yes, it can happen at the church, but can it happen to you daily?

12:21 Yes, it can happen when the worship music is playing, but are you available? It can even happen at church and you're not available, right? So it's the posture that says, Lord, I'll go where you lead, even if you just whisper it. That means being available, being in tune to the spiritual realm when God just whispers. Many times God whispers to me and maybe to you at the least convenient moment. He's giving you the answer to a question that you had at the time where you're not even expecting him to even talk to you. But he's still thinking about that, that question that you had in prayer.

13:03 But he picks a time and he speaks to you that answer. It's just a powerful time because you are available. You're waiting. Even though you're still going about your daily business, you're driving to work, you're on your way to do whatever you need to do that particular day, you're still available spiritually. And that's when God speaks. You could be washing, doing dishes, and you get a download. You could be walking into work, and you get a nudge, and you pause. This is the life in the Spirit. This is what the life of the Spirit looks like. It's your availability to God. It looks different to everyone.

13:45 You don't just chase moments. You walk in that movement. God just wants to see if you're available. And one thing that I do is, and this can be the oddest times, we know that, I like to say this, our mind can play tricks on us. Once I get that nudge, I go write it down. I grab my pencil, I write it down. Then I transfer it to my journal so I can keep track of what God is saying. Because many times it is an answer to what we've been waiting for. And a lot of times for me, it's like I wanted to, maybe I want, I'll give you one example. I wanted to buy a camera because I want to go live.

14:25 I'm going live on Twitch, Dyer of Black Women TV, DOBW TV coming in July. And I wanted the right camera, but I also wanted the right price. Can we just be real? And so I'm sitting there one day and I'm thinking like, okay, I looked around. And I said, okay, this is that price. And I'm waiting for it to, is that a good deal? I wait, I wait. And I just kind of look around. I'm a shopper, online shopper. And all of a sudden the Lord said, today I want you to buy that camera. And I'm like, where, which one? Boom, that's the one. And I'll go buy it. Boom, it's happened to be on sale that particular day. And it was, you know, it's like happened to be on sale that particular day at that particular price. Not that God is on a budget, but you are.

15:10 So he says that's it right there buy it today those little things, Paying attention to those things, the timing of when, right? Are you available when he speaks? Even it happens when it's time to buy clothes. I'd be like, I'm going to buy these clothes. And he said, not today. Then I'll say, buy them today. And I'll go back and somehow you leave them in that basket and something there on sale and they might be half price. And I'm like, whoa, I didn't know they were going to go on sale. But God did. Just paying attention to those things. Yes, he's concerned about the spiritual things, but he knows you live in the natural, the natural world.

15:50 And so he will give you, I call the hookup in the natural world. It's all about the availability, walking in the spirit and being available to God. You know, he hooks you up everywhere. So when real life meets revelation, have you ever had that one time moment? And this is a moment that I remember when you know you have this delay. I'm going to give this story, but it happens to us when we have this delayed moment, but it becomes a moment of, dang, you didn't expect it, but you get this blessing because you happen to be at the right place at the right time.

16:30 And so I'll tell you this quick story. A woman once told me that she felt led to stay home one morning instead of rushing out. Nothing dramatic happened, no lightning bolt, no booming voice. But around 9.30 a.m., she got a phone call offering her a position she thought she had lost. The person on the other hand said, I'm glad you answered. I was about to call someone else. If she hadn't slowed down, she would have missed her opportunity. And so those little nudges of a slowdown, those little nudges of when you pray and God says, can you sit here just for another few moments? Or maybe he doesn't even say that. You just sense that, I don't sense I need to go. I sense I just need to just be here in His presence now.

17:14 Right now, I'm not ready to go. You know, can you do that? Can you just slow your pace just for a few minutes to spend a little bit more time with God? He might have something extra for you. So being in the Spirit isn't about volume. It isn't about location. It's about your posture. What is your posture in the Spirit? Are you always available to hear from God? We spoke in the last episode about praying in the Spirit, seeing in the Spirit. And even though you might have prayed in the morning, He might show you this vision in your dream.

17:56 He might show you the vision as you're on your way to work. But are you available or do you go into prayer and then you pray and then when you're done, you turn them off for the day? So learning how to stay plugged in throughout the day. I think that's powerful. And I think we just covered nice long episode series of the games we play with God. And this is a whole different tone. Even my voice seems different. It's like God wants us to stay plugged into him. We're done playing games. But he said, if you can just stay plugged into me, you're going to see a whole different side of you through me. A whole different side of him through you. So it works both ways. Right.

18:42 So let's just pause and just reflect for a moment. So here are some things you can think about, some prompts you can kind of add on later. So, so am I, you can ask yourself, am I walking in the spirit or just rushing past him in prayer? And I laugh because, you know, I just had a quick vision. You going into prayer, Jesus is there, you know, in the spirit waiting for you. You rush You don't even talk to Jesus. You're talking around him like we just mentioned. You don't even say hello to Jesus. You just kind of run in there, say your three words, and you're out. And Jesus is sitting there looking, shaking his head. Boom, you're gone. What is your response in the spirit? Do you wait for a response?

19:25 Or do you just pop in and pop out? What areas of life have you rushed in that you need to surrender? Because many times when we stay in the presence of God long enough, There are some things we have to give up. And if you're like me, sleep is going to be one of those. You're going to get up early and you're going to pray. You're going to have to give up some food. You're going to have to fast. You're going to give up a lot of things walking in the spirit. You'll find out that you're not that hungry as you thought you once were. You're more hungry for the spiritual things of the Lord. And the third one, what would my days be like if I truly waited on divine direction?

20:08 And, yeah, what would it look like? What would it be like if I waited on divine direction? You're just zigzagging all around all the time, and you're not really getting nothing done, but you look like you're busy. You look like you are busy, but you're not getting nothing done. What would it look like if you just asked for direction? I always start my prayer off. Lord, thank you for this day that you have made, and I will rejoice and be glad in it. So that means I'm not going to walk in a fence today. I'm not going to look at people differently. I'm going to walk in gladness today. Then I ask you, Lord, to order my steps, and my steps be ordered, and let my day be productive.

20:49 And then what else is on your mind? I want to pray your perfect will be done today in my life and in the lives of others that you have that's going to come in connecting with me. And that's been my new prayer for 2025. I don't think it sounds the same like that every day. But lately, with my new job that I've had, led two people to Christ. Did I do that in any other job? My police job, I did. But I'm one-on-one with these people, and they're either coming from jail or going to another spot. And I always ask them, I said, what's your story? Are you interested in meeting Jesus? And they can say yes or no. I don't press it.

21:30 And most of the time, they are. And so there's two people, destination heaven. One person, Destination Heaven, he decided that he wanted to cut off his bracelet and just be free. But the Lord told me it's not my responsibility to be concerned with after I pray what happens to them. My prayer is that they meet to heaven. Anything between what happens after that is on, it's the responsibility of the Lord. A lot of times I think we, well, this is extra. This is coming up off the press. A lot of times we believe that when we lead someone to Christianity, that we've got to hold their hand and we're responsible for them.

22:11 We may be, if we're in a position, if we are a discipleship of them and God has put us in that role in their lives. But if we are not, our goal is to introduce them to Jesus and let Jesus do the work. And we know that when we first became saved as a Christian, did we run and do all the holy things? We got to be real. So let's not be holding people hostage or in bondage because of what we know now. We didn't know that when we were saved. Let's plant the seed. Somebody else is going to water it. Amen? So that's good. That's good. That's good. Let's keep going.

22:52 So I want you to write this in your journal if you have a moment. Holy Spirit, I want to dwell, not visit. Interrupt my pace, correct my hearing, and anchor my heart in you. Holy Spirit, I want to dwell, not visit. Interrupt my pace, correct my hearing, and anchor my heart. I want to share with you how that's going to feel. So for those who does the, I call it the popcorn prayer, Hello, Lord. Thank you for this day. Can you bless me? Bye. Those kind of popcorn prayers. Just, Lord, can you bless me? Help me. Like Jabez. Jabez, to me, I believe, prayed a popcorn prayer.

23:34 But we don't know what he was doing before that day. We don't know what he did after that day. But he wanted God to be with him. What he did say, Lord, let your prayer I prayed in the beginning, put your hand upon me. You know, keep me from evil that I may not sin against you. So he wanted to partner with God with his life, right? And so we want to partner with God for our life. So as you, if you are a popcorn prayer and you don't know how to sit in his presence, I recommend you even just put a timer on. Everybody got a phone. Set your little timer. Pray a prayer. Ask God to lead you somewhere and listen quietly to that still, small voice.

24:18 Take that scripture he gives you and just marinate on it. Meditate on it all day long. Ask him to expand it in your heart and watch how you grow in the spirit. Just by that. Don't try to do the big thing. I'm going to pray for an hour. I'm going to get up at five in the morning. I'm going to get up at three in the morning. Do the basic. One thing you're going to find out from God, he's not going to force you, but he will definitely lead you. So you might start out getting up in the morning enough time to do a five-minute prayer. That's fair. Maybe five-minute prayer, five-minute wait, and maybe five minutes to maybe write down what he said. That's 15 minutes extra on your show.

25:00 And then once you get going, then pretty soon you'll be setting the time because you're going to be like, I need more time. It's not enough time. You'll see how that hunger begins to build. And then he might challenge you to set an hour. You'd be like, wow, I got to get up an hour early. And you're going to be surprised how your life changes because you have dedicated that morning time just to listen to him. Once again, Holy Spirit, I want to do well, not listen. Interrupt my pace, correct my hearing, and anchor my heart in you. I want to do this decree with you.

25:43 I don't visit the Holy Spirit. I live in Him. My heart, my ears, I'm sorry. I don't visit the Holy Spirit. I live in Him. My ears are tuned. My heart is available. I welcome divine interruption. I move at heaven's pace. I am in a position. Whenever He whispers, move, or sits, I respond. Can I say that again? I don't visit the Spirit. I don't visit the Spirit. I live in Him. That's what you're saying. My ears are tuned. My heart is available. I welcome divine interruption.

26:26 I move in hearts at heaven's pace. I love it. I move at heaven's pace. I am in a position, whether He whispers, move, or sits, I respond. I'm going to say it one more time. I don't know why this is so powerful. Three times is a winner. I don't visit the Holy Spirit. I live in Him. My ears are tuned. My heart is available. I welcome divine interruption. I move at heaven's pace. I am in a position. Whether He whispers, moves, or sits, I respond. Let's pray.

27:07 Holy Spirit, I yield, not just today, but my life. I repent for walking by assumption instead of alignment. Teach me how to sit, how to hear, how to wait, how to move only when you say move. Make my life a sanctuary you're pleased to dwell in. I surrender my routine. I surrender my timing. Let me hear the whisper. Let me sense the pause. Let me keep me, I'm sorry, keep me in the spirit and never again attend.

27:47 Never again content to be near, but not within. Let me hear the whisper. Let me sense the pause. Keep me in the spirit and never again content to be near, but not within. In Jesus name, amen. I hope this episode woke every something up in you. The Spirit is speaking. The Spirit is moving. You need to be in position. You need to be in position. Don't forget to subscribe and share this with a sister and join me for the next devotional, Discerning the War Behind the Delay. Until next time, stay aligned, stay available, and keep your eyes wide open.

28:34 Allow me to pray the promises of Jeremiah 29, 11 through 14 over you. God knows the plans he has for you, plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. And when you seek him with all your heart, you will find him. He will bring you back from captivity and restore everything that was lost. Hold on. Your healing, your clarity, your breakthrough are closer than you think. This is more than a podcast. It's a return to God's plan for your life. Let's keep walking it out together. Stay connected with the website, www.diaryofblackwomenllc.com, and watch out for Twitch TV, Diary of Black Women TV, D-O-B-W-T-V, that's coming in July.

29:27 Look forward to seeing you soon on our next episode. Goodbye.