Season 3 (Episode 2): How to Rest in God's Presence!

Welcome to Pain, Passion, and Purpose. I am your host, Shakeeta Torres, where I share mental health education, biblical teachings, and tips to help you to heal on purpose so you can walk boldly in your God-given purpose. This podcast is sponsored by Empowered Purpose Academy, a certified online Christian academy where where we provide services such as certification for Christian life coaches, mentorship for master's level aspiring and existing Christian therapists, mentorship for Christians, and continued education courses for the body of Christ. You can visit www.empoweredpurposeacademy.com to learn more and to download your free guide. If you like today's episode, please subscribe and leave us a raving review so that others can tap into the knowledge and wisdom that will be shared on this podcast. Thank you so much for being here.

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Hello! So let's get into today's message. I will go ahead and tell you the title of today's message, and it is called How to Rest in God's presence. Okay, we live in a world where there is so much overwhelm, so much anxiety, depression, burnout, especially among the body of Christ. But it is so important that we slow down. And for those of you who have been following me for a while, who seen any of my lives or heard my podcast or any of my teachings, you, uh, you can hear that I always have a story that goes along with what I'm sharing on my platforms, okay? And so today it's not anything different, okay? And so, you know, I had shared with, um, the people on last week how the Lord had pretty much told me to give him Thriving Thursday. So whatever he placed on my heart to share, that's what I was going to share. And so that requires faith, for one, because of course I have my thoughts, I have my agenda but I have to exchange my agenda for God's agenda because I belong to the Lord, all right? I surrender my life to the Lord, and so I want to be obedient in that. And so, um, I had been, you know, talking to God all week, okay, Lord, Thursday coming up now, what do you want me to talk about? Because I want to make sure that I'm ready. So it requires faith to wait on the Lord to give a message on a platform to different, you know, different platforms, right? And so last— so yesterday was a busy day for me. All week long I have been running. My little girl, my little, my little girl has soccer practice. She's on the soccer team. My oldest one, she didn't— you know, she's in middle school. They're at two different schools now. Their dad is working 80 hours this week. And so typically weeks like these are really busy for me. And so I spend time with God first thing in the morning And throughout the day, I try to, you know, be in my word or communicate with him. But yesterday was just crazy. I was so tired by Wednesday night. I was tired.

She had—

she had practice last night, she has a game tonight. I'm trying to, you know, finish my coaching program for certifying Christian life coaches and all of the above. And so typically, you know, when I feel that way, I'm like, okay, God, I have got to get in your presence. And oftentimes people will ask me, okay, how do you get in God's presence? And it's not always easy. It's not. I'm not going to sit here and tell you that, uh, my flesh wants to always slow down because it doesn't. As an entrepreneur, as a, you know, as a mom, you know, as a wife, it can be very difficult at times to slow down. It's always something to do. And so typically, um, oh my God, I need a full refreshing. I need you to refresh my mind, my heart, my body, everything. And so this is what I do. This is what I do. So some of you guys probably saw me post on Instagram that, you know, I have my own anointing oil. It's called Little Warriors in a Bottle. And I will put this oil on my forehead, I'll put it on my hands, I put it on wherever I have aches and pains and all that. And whenever I'm, you know, want to really get in God's presence, I'll get a prayer shawl, my prayer shawl over here, and I'll anoint it, um, and I'll cover myself and just play like instrumental worship music. All right, choose your favorite music. I love, um, you know, anything that has like a very soothing sound to it with no words, okay? Because the point is for you to get your mind and your spirit to slow down. And for me, sometimes even hearing the words of a song can be a distraction, okay? And not only that, I wanted to really, you know, hear God for today's message because I didn't have it yesterday. Here it is, it's like 9:30 at night, and I'm like, okay God, okay, what's tomorrow's message? And so in that moment, my brain was still going so fast. So what I had to do was I had to command my mind to slow down. I had to command my spirit to slow down. I had to command my whole entire being to surrender to God's presence. I had to speak to my heart and tell my heart to settle down. And you guys, as I was saying those things and speaking to my mind, my heart, I could feel my spirit just like calming down. I can feel, you know, you know, the thoughts in my mind would just totally begin to slow down and kind of almost go away. And the presence of God just fell on me so heavily, and I was like, my God, thank you so much for showing up for me. Thank you, Lord God, for your presence right now. And so we have the authority to command our spirit, our mind, our body to align up with the Spirit of God. You have authority to do that just like I do. And so in that moment, you know, I'm, you know, I'm here at my desk now and I'm laid back, you know, on my chair, and I was beginning to hear the Lord say, share that tomorrow with my people. Explain to them how to get into my presence, how to create space to get into my presence. And as I said before, at times for me it's super easy and sometimes it's hard because my flesh wants to get stuff done, okay? But I cannot do that because I need to be settled in my spirit. It is easy, as I said before, to be overwhelmed, to have anxiety, to feel burned out, to feel stressed out. So no matter where you are, no matter what kind of job you have, if you're a mom, if you're a stay-at-home mother, if you're a wife, whatever you do, you have access, you have authority to be able to come to God and ask him for his presence. Don't be afraid to do that. The word of God says go to God boldly at his feet, boldly at his throne, and ask him for things. God wants us to invite him in, so invite God in. Yes, yes, that's right, Martin. He said obedience is the best therapy. Martine, yes, absolutely, absolutely. So best obedience. And so, you know, I know everybody had different situations, different dynamics. But I promise you, you create that space to be in God's presence, he will show up for you. He will show up for you. You know, it, you know, it don't take like— oftentimes I've heard so many stories, people say, well, I didn't fast today, or I didn't get in my word today, or I didn't do this today, or this and that, right? Like, that's not how God operates. In that moment, I wasn't reading my scripture. In that moment, I wasn't reading anything. I was just asking God's presence to show up for me and refresh my soul. And he did that. And you guys, it took me about 15 minutes to kind of like get together because I wanted to study this word for you guys today, but I also wanted to make sure that my mind and my heart was refreshed so I can give you fresh rhema from the Lord. Okay, so that's how I get into God's presence. And so when I begin to do my study about God's presence and the word rest The word rest is in the Bible 257 times. That's a lot. 257 times the Lord has used the word rest. And rest means to cease work or movement in order to relax, refresh oneself, or recover strength. It also means to be placed or supported so as to stay in a specified position. Okay, so here are some alternate words to what rest means: relax, take a rest, ease up, let up, slow down, pause, take a break, um, be in repose, um, become idle, do nothing, take time off, recharge your battery, relaxation, leisure, ease, activity, respite, time off, breathing. Oh my God, there's so many words that really explains the word rest. Yeah, somebody said, oh, I love that you said that we have to command our minds to slow down. I think a lot of people think it happens naturally. Yeah, absolutely. You have to talk to yourself, prophesy over yourself, okay? You do, you do. It's so much more, all right? And so I begin to study. The very first thing that came up was Genesis chapter 1, verse 31. Where, you know, God had created, you know, everything on the earth within— see, not everything on the earth, but created the foundation of what the world was going to be like in, um, the book of Genesis chapter 1 in 6 days. But on the 7th day, the Sabbath day, it says God saw everything was good that he made, and behold, it was very good. And he validated it completely. When we rest, we are able to really reflect first on all God has done. It opens up our ears to hear his voice and quiets our spirit. You guys, so God rested after doing everything he did, and then he took inventory and he said, wow, this is good, this is so good. And I'm like, God, even you take out time to like pull back and like look at everything that we're doing and assess it, okay? And so for me, when I looked at that, I thought about assessing, you know, my family, assessing my relationship with God, assessing my business, assessing different things, right? And wherever you are resting in God's presence, he's able to give you clarity, he's able to speak to you, he's able to give you, you know, insight about your different situations without being cluttered, you know. And so I thought about myself too as well. Like, when I read scripture, I'm looking at Shakeeta Torres, okay? I'm looking at myself. And I just remember, um, probably about 2-3 months ago, like, I— people think I'm busy working all the time. Now, for a season, I was extremely busy. I was building. I'm still building, but I had to slow down a little bit just to be able to breathe because when the pandemic hit It was like everything exploded. Like, I had started a nonprofit. Me and my family was running a prayer line. My children were being homeschooled. I was doing therapy at that time, seeing 25 clients a week. Like, I look back, that was God's grace, okay? That was God's grace over my life to be able to do what I needed to do in that hour, because there was a need in the earth, okay? There was a need in the earth. And so now things are kind of like, you know slow down a little bit. But to be honest, I was still kind of working like it was a need in the earth, okay? And so, um, I had to really like slow down because I was getting— I was tired. I kept saying, I am so tired. No matter how much sleep I got, I was tired. So I had to go and like see it and take inventory of, okay, God, where in my life do I need to adjust? Where in my life should I do X, Y, or Z? But for me, at that time, I had to pull back from everything. Uh, as you can see, I post on Instagram still, not like I used to. I did the prayer reels, I do post here and there, but I used to do a lot of stuff on Instagram, social media. I was doing a lot. And of course, everybody's capacity is different. So for me, to me, I'm not doing a whole lot right now. I'm doing enough where I'm comfortable, where I'm not overwhelmed, okay? And so with that, it gave me so much time to really just spend time with the Lord and reassess and behold. And then one of my friends gave me a word from the Lord. Lord said, Shakeeta Torres, the Lord said he wants you to look up. So when he told— what she was saying was that I was so busy working, so busy building, so busy looking at everything that I needed to do, that I didn't take out time to behold. I didn't take out time to look up and to see the things I have already created, I have accomplished. And that's what God did on the seventh day. He rested. He took a— he took a break and he looked and said, wow, behold, look what I have done, right? And so many of you guys need to do the same thing, right? You have accomplished so much. You have made progress in your life. And sometimes it's hard to see that if you're always busy, if you're always running. And this is where you feel the need to always keep going, to always like you have to have all these things, you know, done. Check this, check that, check that. When God is requiring you to just rest. Rest in his presence so he can refresh your soul. If you look at Matthew chapter 11, verse 28, it says, um, come to me, all of you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. He said come to him, okay? He said come to him and he will give you rest. Rest. Hey, you guys, thank y'all so much for joining. I'm gonna wave at you real quick. Hello, hello, hello. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask. I'm doing the teaching, I'm looking, you know, back and forth at my notes and everything. If you have a question, ask. I have no problem with that. And so I want to share with you guys my testimony, okay? And let me show you, show you also the power of resting in God and in God's presence, all right? So back in, um, the fall of 2020, I had this horrible shoulder injury, okay? It happened while I was at the gym. I tore a ligament in my left shoulder, and the first week I wasn't in that much pain. But as time went by, you guys, I was in so much pain. Oh my God. And my husband said, I think you didn't tore a muscle, you didn't tore something, you need to go get checked out. So me, you know, being a little stubborn, I don't have time to go to no doctor. And not that, you know, it's just I didn't think it was a big deal. I said, well, I'll heal, everything will get better. And so went to the doctor, got an MRI, and lo and behold, guess what? I had a tear. And she said, um, you need rehab, you need to make sure that you are doing exercises and all the above. So you guys, I was in rehab like 3 months, 3 months during the pandemic. Now, while I was busy, okay, Um, I was going to get, um, dry needling in my muscle because the muscles in my back were so tight and so tender to, to like, my body could never fully relax. I was on pain medicine. I had to get steroid shots in my back. I had to, um, make sure I get massages. I did a chiropractor for a little bit, but at the time, but the doctor told me that it was actually making my back and my body worse because I would get reset and I would go again and, you know, they can't really never really determine how it's going to affect your body overall. And it would almost like set me back. So I was in so much pain, you guys, and I kept saying, God, please, Lord, I'm like, please heal my back, because I'm doing all the things that I need to do in order to heal. And so, um, I prayed about it. My doctor told me, you know, don't get surgery. He told me don't get surgery because it would actually make it worse. And I would never, ever, ever, ever be the same in my body. And I said, well, God, I don't want that. I'm too young to like not fully be where I, where I need to be. But not only that, over the past couple of years, I would have setbacks while I heal. And I have a setback, a setback that happened with me just turning the wrong way or going to the chiropractor or sleeping on my shoulder the wrong way. And so I said, God, I can't do this no more. I'm in pain all the time. I'm like borderline miserable when it comes to it. I'm irritable at times, and I I can't stand it. I want to be irritable with my family, irritable with people, right? I didn't really show it. I do a really good job of not showing my pain and really lashing out at other people, but I was tired of my body. So the Lord will always tell me like to rest in him. Doris, rest in me, I got you. Rest in me, I got you. And so I remember in the fall of last year, I went to a ministry conference and they just had— it was just amazing. It was just awesome. It was in praise and worship for about 4 or 5 hours, y'all, and it felt like it was 5 minutes long. That's how powerful it was. So we went there, went back to the hotel, me and my, uh, my friend and her daughter. And I woke up the next morning, I said, I feel different, like, what is going on? And you guys, my whole body was healed, okay? Healed, okay? I had no pain. I cried for 30 minutes straight. I was on a hotel balcony, I'll never forget, and I was just crying and weeping because I had already heard so many horror stories of people and how they could never fully recover from, from injuries like my injuries, okay? So after that happened, you know, of course I had to be very mindful of how I slept. I had to be mindful of stress. I had to be mindful of how I took care of my body because it would trigger— I would have like little pains here and there. And also I was weak in that area. So God had healed my body, but I was also very weak. So what, you know, when you being, being weak like that, my muscles in my body couldn't handle but so much stress, okay? So I go get massages. So I remember one Friday, I was like, God, okay, I have a massage today, I can't wait to go. So he had to cancel, and I said, oh God, he had to cancel. He's amazing. I have a— I had an amazing massage therapist. He is moved on now. He's not here anymore. I miss him so much. He was— he was really good with sports stuff, so he know how to, you know, get in there and get me loose in my back and all that good stuff. And so I heard the Lord say, he said, um, spend time with me today, spend time in my presence. And I knew what he meant when he said that. And so I went, as I said before, I got my anointing oil, I got my prayer shawl, and I played this instrument of music, worship music, for probably about 45 minutes. And when I came out, y'all, I felt as though I had went and got a massage, okay? I had— my body was relaxed. I felt like I was floating. I had no pain. I had nothing. I felt like I was on cloud nine, okay? And so that particular day, I really did spend time with God because he was giving me so many prophetic words to share with so many people. And I said, okay, I see why I need to rest. I need to go and get refreshed so I can hear God clearly. When we rest in God's presence, we can hear him a lot more clearly because like there's so many things competing for our attention. You got your family, you got social media, you got work, you have all these things always competing for your attention. And just recently, the Lord told me, uh, last week, he said, daughter, you can't afford to not be in my presence every day. I'm like, okay, I'm like, God, I'm reading. He said, no. He said, you're reading your word, you're praying, you're doing all the things, he said, but my presence— meaning I need to make sure I create an atmosphere where I can truly invite him in and he can saturate me because of where I'm at and where I'm going. And I have a lot of things that I know that God has called me to do, and I can't afford not to rest in God's presence. I cannot. I cannot. And many of you guys can't either. Too much is given, much is required. It is. And so, you know, I know anxiety is real. I know depression is real. You know, I'm a licensed therapist. I've treated that for years with so many people. But the foundation is the word of God, you guys. It really is. Like, of course your mindset matters, how you think, all that could affect you having anxiety and depression too, okay? That's a whole separate conversation, it's a whole separate teaching. But what the Lord wanted me to remind you guys was to rest in his presence. That's where you'll find liberty, that's where you'll find joy, that's where you'll be refreshed, that's when you'll be able to hear his voice clearly. Like, that's whenever you're able to get clarity and really focus on the things that God wants you to hear, because you will always have something competing for your attention. Always. Oh, it's for all of us. And you guys, I'm waving at you guys on Instagram. Hello, hello, hello. And so especially if you're a Christian leader, if you're a Christian leader, and many times people, you know, Christian leader is not just someone who's a pastor or in the church, right? You are the church. If you're a Christian, you the church, right? So whether you are a pastor, a part of the Fivefold Ministry, um, you work in, you know, um, a marketplace ministry, teacher, whatever, and you are a believer of Christ, you are a Christian leader because you have influence over people's lives. And, you know, I see it happen all the time where you have, you know, example, teachers, right? You guys do a lot. These little kids, there's something else, okay? So you need the grace of God to really rest on you for you to have patience, for you to really be able to do what God has called you to do, because you have so many moving pieces, right? So whenever you rest in God's presence like that, he really does, you know, give you the grace, he really does give you the stamina, he really does give you supernatural strength to be able to do the things he has called you to do. Okay, so let's see. P said, uh, you better come on with this good word. Yes, my sister, it's— look, it's fresh word from the Lord, okay? Yes. So, um, you guys have any questions so far? Because that's all I have. Um, oh, I will say this too. So one of the things that, um, the Lord has, um, told me to do— two different things. One, I'm now doing what we call clarity, um, clarity calls and consulting calls, where most of my clients that I have for coaching most of the time what they're looking for is clarity. What they're looking for is wisdom. What they're looking for is how to navigate life, especially in ministry, especially when it comes to, you know, some life challenges. And so I'm really good at that because I have an ear to hear the Lord. I'm full of wisdom, and also, um, I'm anointed for it. And I've been a therapist since 2013, so I'm not doing therapy anymore. I transitioned to primarily life coaching, okay? And so I do— I have that, um, um, in my bio if you're interested in that. You can DM me, I can send you the link. Um, it is a price for it because it will be power-packed and it will be— it will bless your life, it will transform your life and transform your thinking. It really will. And also, I'm getting ready to open up my, um, group mentorship program called Pain, Passion, and Purpose. It is primarily for women, um, who need help with understanding their purpose, um, healing on purpose, um, how to hear God's voice, uh, prayer it's gonna be a lot, okay? I haven't even fully written out like everything is gonna be in it, but I know what God told me last week. He said, prepare, prepare, because I have my people and my daughters that I want you to help. So it's a mentorship program, um, we would get a monthly like live interaction Zoom, and it could be anywhere between 2 and 3 hours, to be honest. Um, my coaching clients that I see consistently, we meet for about 90 minutes at least. Because it's just so power-packed with just so much that God is saying and wisdom and clarity and all that good stuff. So yes, I want to let you know, God, you guys know about that. So before we end, I will say a quick prayer for those who are watching, for those who will watch the replay. Um, so thank you, God, right now for your word. Father, God, I ask you, God, to remind us, Lord God, to rest in your presence, Father, Father, to seek your face like never before, God, to know that we have access to you, that we have authority to command our mind, our hearts, our spirits, our souls to be be in alignment with you, to rest in you. Your word commands us to rest over and over and over and over again because you understand the cares of this world. Your son understood the cares of this world, Father. Father, I just continue right now. I just see like a hurricane or a tornado and how oftentimes, you know, everything around it can be so chaotic. But even in storms, even in the midst of mess, Father, we can be in the eye of that storm and find peace. Father, you desire for us to even have peace and Yes, God, in the middle of a battle, in the middle of a storm. So Father, I pray right now, God, that you will breathe on your people. God, refresh our hearts, refresh our mind, refresh our souls, refresh our spirits and our thinking, Lord. So God, we thank you today. We thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord God, for just loving us so very much, Lord. And we give you the honor, the glory, and the praise. In Christ's name I pray. Amen and amen. Amen. So that's all I have for you guys today. Um, I will be back up here again on Tuesday at 12:30 PM Eastern Standard Time. And thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode. Our prayer is that this podcast episode has blessed you. Don't forget to go and subscribe and leave us a raving review. If you would like to sow into this ministry or to this podcast, Pain, Passion, and Purpose, you can do so at anchor.fm/painpassionandpurpose or Cash App $shakeetatorres. Thank you so much, and I will talk to you next time.