If it's fire, it's got to look like fire, feel like fire, smell like fire or something.
Welcome to another Raising Home Fire Secret Place Training Session.
Those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of
the Almighty.
And our prayer and our vision for this time is that you would be further equipped, that
you would be taken into a deeper experience of the secret place, into a deeper personal
connection with God, and that you would experience what it's like in a deeper way to come under
the overshadowing of God.
Bill Johnson says, whatever overshadows you will come out in your shadow.
And you know, the book of Daniel, Daniel writes this, he says, those that know their God shall
do great exploits.
And so our prayer is that you would grow in your knowledge, not just your knowledge about
God, but your intimate, personal, experiential knowledge of knowing God.
And so enjoy this session.
God bless you.
Hey, welcome to this practical session, we're going to be talking about some of the practices
of the secret place that have been so helpful, it's not the right word, but so life-giving
to myself.
And I'm sharing these because my prayer is they will be for you.
Now in this one, I'm going to be talking about heart journaling.
That's the term that I've coined, but I'm sure someone else has coined it and a whole
bunch of people have coined it as well, where it's basically a way of laying your heart
bare before the Lord.
And the Lord loves intimacy.
Like the big deal of Christianity is not about rule keeping, and it's not this moral thing.
It's so much more about relationship, and it's actually about intimacy with the Lord.
And intimacy, a really simple way of thinking of it is, and to me, you see.
Now Jesus, in the scriptures, he says, depart from me, I never knew you.
The reason he's asking people to depart from him is because he never knew them.
Now here's the crazy thing though.
He's omniscient.
He's great.
His eyes see all things.
He is the all-knowing one.
So how can he say, I never knew you?
And I believe so much of that is because on our side of the relationship, he, although
he's all-knowing, wants us to let him in of our own choice so that we can have intimacy
with him.
So intimacy with him is really, really meaningful, and it's a big deal.
And so I want to share how I came about the journey of heart journaling, and then obviously
how we actually do it, how Andy Piggott does his heart journaling before the Lord in the
mornings at my secret place time.
And so a part of this journey was, I remember quite a few years ago now, I'm going to say
about five years ago, I was feeling so ticked off.
Something had happened at church, at work, and I was feeling so taken advantage of, and
I was just feeling hurt, like I'm good-natured, I want to serve people, they're just taking
advantage of my nature to want to serve, and I was actually feeling resentment.
It bled through into the weekend, and it was a Saturday, and I was struggling to be present
with my kids and my wife because all this stuff was coming up from my heart, and I was
trying to forgive, and I was trying to deal with it, but it wasn't working on the fly.
So I said to Diana, hey, Diana, I need some time alone with the Lord.
I need to go for a prayer walk.
Can I go out for an hour?
And she's an amazing wife.
She said, yep, you can go for it.
And so I drove to one of my favorite spots to pray in the woods, in the forest, and I
began to pray.
And I'm trying to, before the Lord, just get rid of this resentment, get rid of this pain
that I was feeling in my heart, and come into His presence.
So I was working through forgiveness, doing all that kind of stuff, and I'm doing my best
forgiving that particular person, and then, Lord, here I am trying to worship Him.
I want to be in Your presence.
And about 45 minutes into this, and I've only given an hour to this that I've talked to
my wife about, I find myself saying something like this, because I just can't get into a
sense of freedom of heart in the place of God's incredible presence.
I say this, God, I'm so frustrated.
I've come here to be with You and to be in Your presence.
And I'm so frustrated.
Yet I'm struggling with my heart, with what's going on in my heart right now.
And so I would so much rather have spent all this time, instead of in resentment, God,
I'd so much rather be spending my time in your presence.
And I heard this voice respond, and it responded in a profound way, and it was almost like
a laugh.
And it was, oh, Andy, have you categorized my presence as only Western thought categorized
nicey-nice emotions?
Something like this, anyway.
Sometimes the voice of the Lord isn't words, it's just boom, information that comes to
us.
Have you categorized my presence as only nice feelings as defined by your Western culture?
And then he flooded me with Scripture verses.
Let me read some of the Scripture verses that flooded with me.
John 11, 35, Jesus wept.
Matthew 14, verse 12 and 13, then John's disciples came and took John's body and buried it and
they went and told Jesus.
When Jesus heard about John, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place.
So Jesus went off to grieve.
Matthew 27, verse 37 and 38, it says this, and Jesus took with him Peter and the two
sons of Zebedee and began to be grieved and distressed.
Then he said to them, my soul, this is Jesus speaking, my soul is deeply grieved to the
point of death.
Remain here and keep watch with me.
One more Scripture, Matthew 23, verse 27, woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites,
for you are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside
they're full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
So you too outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you're full of hypocrisy and
lawlessness.
So there's a snapshot of the life of Jesus from four verses.
We've got weeping, we've got grieving, we've got deeply distressed and deeply grieving,
agonizing in spirit, and we've got anger.
And the Lord challenged me that day in my prayer time, and he said, you've categorized
my presence into those nice feelings on the mountaintops with me.
But do you think that when Jesus was grieving the death of John, that he had stepped outside
of my presence?
Do you think, Andy, that when Jesus was filled with anger, pointing the finger saying, woe
to you, Pharisees, even in the temple where he's turning over the tables, do you think
in that moment of anger that he was outside of my presence?
Do you think that when he was weeping that he was outside of my presence?
And I realized, oh my goodness, Lord, I'm so sorry.
I've put your presence into only those nice feelings, those good feelings.
I didn't realize that all these other experiences are experiences that you have designed us
to have, and that we're not outside of your presence as we experience these.
Because intimacy is into me you see, and so we're to share a whole world with the Lord.
And even in these places that we thought, that I thought, Andy thought, were not presence
experiences, it's not true.
We can be completely in his presence and experience these almost negative emotions.
And so he taught me something.
And one day I was feeling the pain again, and I drove out to Ocean's Beach, and I wanted
to spend some time and space with the Lord.
And before him, as I was processing some pain within my heart, and I found this little prayer
cove at Ocean's Beach, which is this awesome, beautiful beach here in beautiful Northland
that is a real sacred space for me.
And I began to learn how to heart journal.
The scriptures say, guard your heart or watch over your heart with all diligence, for out
of it flows all of the issues of life.
Watch over your heart.
Well, I had grown up in a Christianity where when my heart was saying contrary to what
I had thought was the presence of the Lord, just ignore it, just bottle it, just forget
about it, just put it to the side and just go on by faith and just man up and go for
it.
But I didn't realize that my heart had a voice to me and that I was called, according to
the scriptures, to watch over it with all diligence, to look at it, to listen to it,
to hear it, my heart, with all diligence, for out of it flows all of the issues of life.
And so I had to learn a new way of praying.
And here's what happened.
I took my iPad out with me, actually, and I was on the sand with my iPad in this little
grove of trees by the beach, and I just began to pour out my heart and just recognize my
heart.
And then it evolved into this, and here's how I do it, and I've been doing it almost
every week ever since, and it's been years now, where there's a three-way conversation
going on, so to speak.
This may sound a little bit weird, but it works for me, and my prayer is it's going
to work for you.
This is not a religious formula or anything, it's just something practically that works
for me that may work for you.
But I have a three-way conversation, where there's my heart, where all I've done is I've
just pulled out this part of me that is Andy's heart.
Now I'm made up of more than my heart.
I have a brain, I have intellect, I have will, I have emotions, I have my body that
feels, but I just pluck out from me and focus in on heart.
And then that's one person, so to speak, of in the conversation.
The other person I have is my integrated self, like all of me, my mind, my heart, logic,
all that kind of stuff.
So that person, the integrated part of me, who I truly am, all of me, is in on the conversation.
And the third person, of course, is the Lord.
And the way the conversations and the journaling starts off is this.
Often it's, hi, heart, how are you today?
And then I have a tab.
Now for me, I normally do this on my laptop, actually.
You can do this in a journal.
I often will do it in a journal, but more often it's on a laptop.
And I push a tab, and that one tab in is my heart.
And then two tabs in is the Father.
So I can watch the three-way conversation happening that I'm a part of, massively a
part of, and I'm typing it out, and we'll often start with the first line, right up
against the margin, hi, heart, how are you?
And then one tab in, I just allow my heart to speak.
Now here's what I've learned.
My heart doesn't know how it should be according to religion, according to Christianity, according
to any—my heart just simply is.
And I've come to this place because I know that God is safe and God is accepting, where
I can just let my heart out.
I believe that David was a man after God's own heart, and as you read the Psalms, he's
just letting his heart out.
And part of the reason why he's a man after God's own heart is he just lets it all out
there.
He just lets it all out there.
And so all religious stuff, expectations, and all the shoulds of religion, how I should
be feeling, forget about it.
The heart just is.
And I just write my heart's response.
And sometimes, honestly sometimes, I want to let you know, it's got colorful language.
My heart is in pain or it's angry, and I'm just expressing it.
I'm just writing it down.
Often it's just in capital letters, and it's got swear words in it.
I've come to learn that the Father is safe.
And then I will ask another question of my heart.
I will sit with my heart, and then I'll allow the Father to speak with me on that.
So how are you feeling?
High heart, how are you is how I'll often start.
High heart, how are you?
I'll hold my hand over my heart, and I'll start typing.
I'm feeling really angry, this and that.
Often it can be really good things.
I'm so excited.
It doesn't just need to be painful and negative things, but I just pour my heart out and just
pour it out without any religious filters.
I'll ask other questions from my integrated self back to the heart, and it will just pour
out.
And then, it doesn't take very long, in that space of just pouring out my heart, I hear
the voice of the Father.
I hear the voice of Jesus, the voice of Holy Spirit.
And I just type what this Father is saying back to me in response.
And I have found so much healing and health in that.
I have found so many lives have fallen to the ground.
And one of the things I learned is that as I poured out my heart to the Lord, I was just
actually an unmet desire. The Lord gives us the desires of our heart. He's created
us to desire in our heart, and when desire is fulfilled, we're happy, we're
good. When desire is unfulfilled, we're unhappy, we're not good, we're angry,
we're sad, we're in resentment, we're in bitterness. And so what I would often do
is just hold my hand on my heart after it's vented out, and just sit there in
that heart in motion, in the presence of the Lord. And together we would discover
what that unmet desire is, what that unmet need or longing of my heart is. And
when that need was discovered, I now know what I need to do before the Lord to
enter into more of who I am, because I'm designed to live out my desires. Another
question I would often ask right at the very start would be, heart, what is most
alive in you right now? And I'd pull out that most alive thing, and I'd feel it. I
just type it out. Anger, whatever it was, peace, hope, you name it. At the
start of my process of doing this, I got to confess, there was far more like
negative, unmet, like painful emotions that were coming forth. But each time I
would do it in the presence of the Lord, the voice of the Father would come. And
as I'd hold onto those emotions in my heart, I'd discover the unmet desire that
was under it. And every time it was pure, every time it was godly, our heart is
born again. David said that, I am fearfully and wonderfully made. This my
soul knows very well. I began to very well know that the Lord had created me
wonderfully and fearfully, because every negative emotion I was feeling was a
pure desire that was not being met within myself. So you can do this too. I
encourage you to give this a go. Just sit with your heart in the presence of
the Lord and allow yourself to ask questions of it. So my journal looks like
the first tab is myself, my integrated self. The second tab is just my heart
speaking. The third tab is God's response, and it's just this
flow. Sometimes I'll be heart journaling for an hour or more, and every single time
I come out of that space feeling a hundred bucks, because the Lord has
spoken to me, and I've led him into my world, and he knows me.
Alright guys, welcome to the activation, where we're going to take this and we're
going to apply it into our own world. And I believe in the same way this has
been life-changing for me, this can be life-changing for you if you apply it
into your world. So here we go. What you're going to need for this is either,
if you're like me, it took me a little while to get used to prayer through a
laptop, because I'm like a bit more of an old-school guy. I'd rather have a journal.
But for me, I type way faster than I write. And so you can choose to either
have a laptop open, and I have a Google Drive where I have a private
folder where only my eyes can see it. I don't want anyone else's eyes to
see it. I don't even want to think that someone else could look at this, because
I'm about to bare my heart, and it's about to unleash, and I don't want anyone
to read that. I want to feel safe. Or in my journal, I need to make sure that no
one's going to see that journal. So if you're a journal, you need to have a pen.
If you have a laptop, you can use an iPad if you want to. On a laptop, the
first tab is just your integrated self, who you are, all of you. And here's what I
want you to do. I want you to type out or write out this. Hi, heart. How are you?
And I want you to close your eyes, be aware that you're in the
presence of the Lord. Just place a hand on your heart, and now to the best of
your ability, just allow what's in there. And don't worry about the religious
shorts, how you're meant to be as a Christian, a follower of Jesus, and all
that kind of stuff. Just be raw. Just be real. This is just between you and your
heart and God. And just go for it. Hi, heart. How are you? Feel it.
just to the best of your ability, articulate whatever comes back to you from your heart.
All right, welcome back. You've had time to just heart journal, just pour out your heart before
the Lord. And as you've done that, your heart has been heard by you. It's been heard by the Father.
There's something about a heart that is heard. There's just relief. There's just healing in that.
Now, here's what I would like you to do. Continue to hold your hand on your heart
and you've articulated and your heart is heard. And now I want you just to stay with that feeling
in your heart that you are feeling and experiencing in the presence and just hold it there. And don't
try and change it. Don't try and shift it. Don't do what you think that you should do according
to Christianity. Just hold it in the presence of the Lord. And as you do, I believe the Lord
will begin to speak to you. And as he speaks to you, you can either do one of two things. I'm
going to ask of you either a begin to on your journal, three tabs in or two tabs in this time,
type what the Father is saying on your laptop or in your journal, write out what the Father is saying
or discover with the Lord the unmet desire. It is right that you as a human being have desire.
You're designed to have desire and that desire is designed to be fulfilled.
I want you to begin to sit with the Lord and either hear his voice back on it or discover
with him the unmet desire. What is that desire that you're longing for? And begin to write that
out. I'm longing for this. My heart is longing for this. Write that out. I'll give you some time to
do that. So push pause and hear from the Father. Figure out the desire with him.
All right, this has been amazing. I've got one more activation I'd like for you to do.
This is super helpful for me in my prayer time. I love that sense of deep connection with the Lord.
If any bigot has that, I'm a happy camper. All hell could be breaking loose around me if I have
connection with the Lord. Yee-haw. And so one of the questions I ask as part of the heart journaling
process is this. What has moved my heart in any way over the last few days? It could be anything.
It could be words from a movie. It could be a conversation you had. It could be a dream that
you had, a conversation with God that you had, a conversation with a friend. But what has moved my
heart in the last few days? I want you to go and think about that and heart journal on that
and begin to discover why with the Father.
All right, it's homework time, guys. We've got one week, and so my challenge for you is give this a
crack. I want you in your prayer times this week, every day, to open up your laptop or open up your
journal and do this. You might want to just start every morning with, Hi, heart. How are you?
Or open up your journal and do this. You might want to just start every morning with,
Hi, heart. How are you today? How are you right now? Or, heart, what is most alive in you?
Or, what has moved you heart lately? And heart journal with the Lord. Go for it.