It's Just Like Fire!

In this episode, we dive into Jeremiah 20 and explore the raw and real power of personal lament. Prophet Jeremiah was beaten, mocked, and imprisoned for speaking God’s truth. His honest cry to God—full of frustration and fire—teaches us that it’s okay to be real in prayer. He said, “Your word was like fire shut up in my bones”—a burning conviction that wouldn’t let him quit, even when everything said to.

We’re joined by Lauren Shepherd , who shares her own story and walks us through what it means to pray from a place of pressure—and still find purpose.

If you’ve ever felt like giving up, tune in. It’s time to press.

@presstopray

#PressMovement 

#PowerOfPrayer 

#HowToPray 

#FaithPodcast 

#ChristianPodcast 

#Jeremiah20 

#PrayerWarrior  

#SpiritualWarfare 

#HolyGhostFire 

#Encouragement 

#PersonalLament 

#BibleStudy 

#PrayerLife 

#GodIsWithUs

Transcript

Press mean to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Welcome to the Press Movement Podcast. Thank you for joining us today.

I'm in the studio slash office with, um, one of TPYD's finest that's turning point young people's finest. And this is Lauren Shepard. Lauren, say hello.

Hi guys. She's way more excited than she sounds. So Lauren, tell us a little bit about yourself.

How long you've been saved, et cetera. Uh, so I'm 26. As you said, my name is Lauren.

Uh, I've been saved maybe like 2014. I'm one of those that don't know the date when I got saved, but around 2014, I was filled with the Holy ghost. And I think maybe a year before that I was baptized in Jesus name.

So, so yeah. Uh, other than that, I'm a social worker. I work with high schoolers and that's pretty much it about me.

Not too much. So, okay. Yeah.

All right. So you're here today. I believe we're in Jeremiah 20, but tell us about where we're at Lauren.

Yep. So we're in Jeremiah chapter 20. The key verses are, uh, verse seven through 13.

But to give some background, I had to look in chapter 19 of what caused Jeremiah to pray. So chapter 19, the Lord, he tells Jeremiah, of course we know Jeremiah is a prophet. And he tells him basically these words to speak.

And I'm not going to read through chapter 19, but you can find it in 19, three through 13, uh, what he's telling Jeremiah to go and speak. And essentially God has a problem with his people and he's telling them, well, his problem is that they have forsaken God. They're disobeying him and following other gods as Israel is like known to do in the old testament.

They've have built high places of worship, burnt incense to other gods. And essentially they're no longer following God. The one who says like consistently delivered, save them.

He's been faithful to them and they've been unfaithful. And so basically as Jeremiah has said that to these people, this is what the Lord is telling them that's going to happen. So he's like, I'm going to bring evil upon this place.

Going to let them fall by the sword of their enemies. And in times past, I think, well, I know that God, every time like Israel, their pattern is they sin, they cry out, God delivers. And this time he's letting them know, like, I'm not saving you from your enemies.

And then we keep going. Jeremiah, he's basically prophesying destruction because of their disobedience and like their blatant acts of worship toward these other gods. And then I think one part that stood out to me was the fact that God was like, there's going to be so much death in this city that y'all won't even have enough room to bury these people.

And that sounds crazy. Like the whole city is going to be dead. Essentially.

I think to paint the picture, you would go to like chapter 14 where Jeremiah, he's talking about these other prophets that are preaching peace or that are prophesying peace. And he's coming up saying, you know, everybody's about to die. This city is about to be desolate.

That's really the background, but it's a setup. And so we go to chapter 20, verse one through six, we have a leader, the governor or chief governor. So he's a high person.

And he hears what Jeremiah is saying. Basically hear what he's prophesying. He hear the death that he's prophesying compared to, again, these other people that are prophesying peace.

And he decides to literally put his hands on Jeremiah. The Bible says that he smote him. They says he also, that he put him in stocks.

Now what stocks is specifically, I believe it's like a prison, but it's some form of punishment. So now Jeremiah is being persecuted physically and, you know, verbally as well. And then we go to chapter 20 where our prayer is.

It's Jeremiah 20, verse seven through 13. I'm going to read it. It says, Oh Lord, thou hast deceived me.

And I was deceived. Thou art stronger than I and has prevailed. I am in derision daily.

Everyone mocks me. For I spake and I cried out. I cried violence and spoil because the word of the Lord was made a reproach unto me in a derision day.

It says, then I said, I will not make mention of him nor speak any more in his name, but his word was in my heart as a burning fire shoved in my bones. And I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay. For I heard the defaming of many fear on every side report.

They say, and we reported all my familiars watch for my halting saying parent adventure. He will be enticed and we shall prevail against him. And we shall take our revenge on him.

But the Lord is with me as a mighty, terrible one. Therefore, my persecutor shall stumble and they shall not prevail. They shall be greatly ashamed for they shall not prosper.

Their everlasting confusion shall never be forgotten. But Oh Lord of hosts that tries the righteous and see is the reins of the heart. Let me see thy vengeance on them for unto thee have I opened my cause.

Sing unto the Lord, praise you, the Lord, for he have delivered the soul of the poor from the hand of the evil doors. And so essentially what Jeremiah is saying here to God, I see as him just like expressing himself and being honest with how he's feeling as far as the reaction from the people, uh, he's being mocked daily. People are laughing at him and physically being beat on.

So Jeremiah is being afflicted and persecuted. And he's basically telling the Lord that like nothing good has come from me obeying you or nothing good as far as the reaction from the people has come from this. And so I see it as Jeremiah, like literally swimming upstream as far as the environment that he's in and not just as far as behavior, but he's having to speak against this.

And so he's feeling the effects of it. And I don't want to say blaming God, but it sounds like he's blaming God. And so we keep going.

And I think another part that was interesting, I think it's like a popular scripture. I don't think, is this where it's come from? Like, like fire shook my bone. Yeah.

Didn't know it came from this, but essentially he wanted to stop doing what the Lord had him to do, but he couldn't. And I think Jeremiah, I don't know Jeremiah personally, but he would probably say he was grateful for that because then he would have been a part of that destruction. You know what I mean? So we keep going and I think the big part there is him acknowledging how he feels.

So when we talk about the name of this prayer being a personal lament, that's his part of his lament, him pouring out his heart before God and how he feels. And so we get down, I think this is my favorite part of the prayer for sure. And he talks, he goes with but, and I think but kind of counteracts everything that he just said.

And we got to see Jeremiah basically encourage himself. And he talks about how the Lord is a mighty, terrible one who is with him. Essentially, that's what causes him to keep going.

Him reminding himself the fact that God is with him and the fact that God is mighty. And I think even if we go back to chapter one, verse 19, where the Lord told him like these people are going to come up against you, but they're not going to prevail. This is where we find our application today as far as what we can do in prayer.

Because when the Lord speaks a word, of course it has to come to pass. And this is kind of the part with Jeremiah when it was coming to pass with these people coming up against him. And so I think a key moment in prayer or a key aspect of prayer is reminding yourself of what God has said before.

Because in my experience, it has like an anchoring factor to allow you not to be moved. And so Jeremiah really just reminded himself of that. And yeah, that's kind of what we see in Jeremiah chapter 20 and him encouraging himself.

Of course, we see Jeremiah continue the will that the Lord has for his life because like there's 52 chapters and we only in chapter 20. So we can assume that he continues, I believe. And so that's pretty much, you know, what I got from the prayer is that there will be times that we have to remind ourselves of what God said.

And even I think for me and my experience in prayer, sometimes like I've gone to prayer and I've poured out my heart before God. But I think it's like his spirit in me also brings back those words to your remembrance. And so sometimes you got to fight yourself to remember other times the Lord will just bring it to you.

And so I think the key point is remembering what the Lord has said before. And letting it kind of settle your heart. And so, yeah, that's where we find Jeremiah today.

That was great. A couple of things you said I wanted to perhaps go back to because one thing you said that I think you said it quickly, but it had some juice on it. When you talked about the word was like fire burning inside of him.

We sing that as a song. It's just like fire. Oh gosh, I just did that on podcast.

But we sing that. But he was mourning that. And you said, I think he would be grateful for that, which I think is powerful, but I just want you to expound upon that.

Why would you think he'd be grateful? Because so if he were to shut up, then that means he would be a part of disobedience and now he could no longer go forward. And so like I said before, he would be a part of the destruction and he would no longer be in God's will. For me, when I come up against a fight, my fear is always that, okay, this is it between me and God.

We're done. There's separation. And so I would be grateful because now I don't have to turn from God.

You know what I mean? And so his spirit somehow being in me in a way that I can't walk away like that. I don't know. That's because at that point, it's not even just you.

It's like God in you. I don't, I don't know how to explain it, but it's more than just my willpower. The fact that he didn't have to walk away from God, no matter how much he felt it, that that's why I would have been grateful for.

So, and I think grateful is the right word. And I just think it's an amazing perspective because like I said, I've never heard it put like that, that we should be grateful when the word and when purpose fights for us. Yeah.

Yeah. That's a perfect way to put it. Yeah.

God sets up guardrails. Yeah. And it is so neat to me listening to you because we see again where Jeremiah is isolated.

He is tortured inside, outside. He is going through it. He doesn't look anything like modern day prophets to me.

The ones that like dress up and come for a $50,000. No, that's not the way it's going. But when it's, I either have this fight or that fight, I can go to hell with the group or I can go through here by myself and let God fight for me.

I understand why you say it's a blessing that is like fire. Yeah. That's just really neat.

I thought that was really neat. Sure. The other thing that stood out to me as I was listening to you is that being used by God doesn't stop us from being human.

No, not at all. They might bring it out more what it seems like. Because even when you think about David and how he poured out his heart before God, like his emotions were extreme.

And so no, it doesn't like stop you from being human at all. And so I think that's cool though, because it's like God can handle all of me. And I think for me, that's one of my favorite things about God is that I can just be honest with him.

Like somebody else may never know some of the things I think, some of the things I feel, but I can say it all to God. And so, again, grateful for that because it's one person I can take everything to and he not hold it against me or he not turn his back on me before because of it. And so, especially when I'm trying to walk in his will and as I'm looking at this scripture and he starts off by saying, God, you deceived me.

I know I talked about that in another episode, because that seems to be a word that Jeremiah is like, I feel tricked. But look, he wasn't though. He told you he was going to be persecuted.

They just won't prevail. He probably didn't think he did. He probably didn't understand like how bad it would be.

He couldn't see. He couldn't see. He probably wouldn't have went if he seen it.

But yeah, no, that makes sense. So I keep going. No, but I just thought about, like you said, the transparency and God being able to handle all of you, we all have sat in a seat with God where we had questions or didn't like the space we were in or this hurts.

Jesus is not fun. Yeah. But everybody doesn't have the opportunity to read our innermost thoughts.

Thank God. I agree. But we get to see Jeremiah's and I agree with you that we get to see his humanity, the humanity of a servant, the humanity of a prophet, the humanity of somebody who keeps their yes consistent, but it hurts.

Yeah. If you could leave those listening with any encouraging words, whether from Jeremiah or from experience, what would you say, Lauren? Learn to get to a place where you like fully express yourself to God or be honest and open with God because he wants that. Also get into a place where you have a made up mind that I'm not turning from this.

I think it'll cause you to have moments like this, where you go into prayer because I've got to find something to keep me going. That determination and commitment to walk in with God, along with the part of God being in it with you, it'll help you do anything. Take it all to God.

We say that a lot, but there's strength there. And I think you'll be kind of surprised how he responds. Cause I'll be praying and like, you know, pouring out your heart.

The next thing I know a word that he's spoken before comes to mind. Just walk with God. And he like, he really knows how to see us through.

He knows the moment that you need the word or like, it may seem like the timing could be better in your head beforehand. I think hindsight, you always be like, okay, they came right on time. We say that in church too, but it's very accurate.

And so just keep walking with God with that level of determination. And I think my biggest thing will also be getting the word in you, like scripture. I think a lot of times we go for like verbal words or we want a word from a prophet, I don't know.

But get the word of God in you and that'll really, really anchor you. I think that's been the biggest anchoring factor for me is the word of God. And so, yeah, that's my final spiel, I think, and I detect no lies.

I believe if you follow that advice, you will get to know God better. And you'll also see that prayer reaches every single situation. Join us next time.

Join the movement, join the community, like share and subscribe to this podcast. Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook. Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and we're wondering how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice.

It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you. It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer.

It's designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit PressToPray.com.