Turn Walking Into Spiritual Warfare (Sharon Williams & Heidi Donovan, 09/21/24)

The topic of our presentation today is turning walking into spiritual warfare.

And I would like to ask that you would join me in prayer as we get started here this morning.

Father, we're coming to you this morning and we're asking for your Holy Spirit.

We're asking for your wisdom.

We want to know how can we use the tool of walking to do spiritual warfare

in order to gather souls for your kingdom.

And I ask that the message will go to every person here.

I can only speak one presentation.

Heidi can only speak one.

But with the Holy Spirit, Father, you can put the messages into the hearts here that need

to hear what message you have for them.

And so we're looking forward to see what the Holy Spirit does today.

And we're so grateful for you and for your love and for the opportunity to partner with you

in bringing souls into the kingdom.

In Jesus' name, amen.

So I am the person, one of the people in our office who loves spreadsheets.

And I like things to be very orderly and in columns, color coded if possible.

That just adds the little maraschino cherry on top of my little Excel spreadsheet,

I mean Sunday going on there.

So I just want to give you an idea of where we're going

to be heading this morning as we're going to be speaking.

So we are going to talk about what we as the body of Christ are up against.

Then we're going to look at who has the real power and what does that mean for us

as servants of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We're going to talk a little bit about developing faith vision.

We're going to talk about walking as spiritual warfare.

And then I'm going to give some personal experiences that I've had with doing prayer walking.

And then Heidi's going to come up and she's going to give her experiences with prayer walking.

So one thing I just want to say upfront is that depending upon what information you have received,

prayer walking may have come to you as some sort of a very strange kind of thing,

a little woo woo out there.

And that's not what we're talking about today.

We're talking about actually walking and praying, which is prayer walking.

So we're not, so I don't, I pray that any misconceptions

or preconceived ideas you have about prayer walking, that you would pick those up

and put them way over here.

And then let's go through this together and see how this may work with the Bible view.

And then you can either pick that back up or you can just leave it over there

because it's not what we're thinking.

Okay, so the first thing we're going to look at is what are we up against?

Now I made the decision not to put Bible verses up here.

I was hoping that people could come with their Bibles,

their electronic Bibles and look at them yourselves.

So that's what we're going to do.

We're going to take a look at scripture this morning.

If you want to take a screenshot, a photo of this slide so that you can look

at the verses later, I'm also happy with that.

So we're going to start out with Matthew 24, 14,

under the topic of what are we up against?

So Matthew 24, 14 says, and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world

as a witness to all the nations and then the end will come.

Now this may seem overwhelming.

We look at how many like seventh day Adventists there are in the world

versus the eight plus billion population.

We may look at the number of Christians in the world versus

that eight point something billion people.

And we have Jesus telling us right here that this gospel will be preached in all the world,

not just some of it, not just the convenient parts, but all of it.

And we're like, well, that just seems overwhelming.

I don't know what it is that we can do about this.

But God's way of looking at things is not the same way as us looking at things.

So we learn in first Samuel 14, verse six, in the story of Jonathan and his armor bearer.

This verse, first Samuel 14, verse six, and it reads,

for nothing restrains the Lord from saving by many or by few.

So we may look at the size of the task that God has given us to do,

and we may think, oh, we just can't do that.

We don't have enough people.

But the word says that how many numbers we have is not the determining factor as to whether

or not God will work through us to reach the whole world.

So we can take that burden off of our shoulders and realize that even if we're few in number,

even if it's just you, God can work through you to reach souls.

Ephesians 6, 12.

This is a very well-known passage, and this has to do with the armor of God.

And we're further exploring what are we up against.

We're up against a huge task, but the Lord can save by many or by few.

And now in Ephesians 6, 12, we read, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood,

but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age,

against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Well, okay, now we're back to a very huge task, right?

It's us against all of the principalities and powers.

Now, that can be overwhelming as well.

When you think about, well, who's out there?

And who are we?

And we're going to get into more about that.

But these rulers of the darkness of this age, the principalities and powers,

what games do they play?

And they like to play games with us, and we don't have to play with them, by the way.

They can play all they want, but we don't have to play with them.

So in 2 Corinthians 4, 3 and 4, this is what the apostle Paul tells us.

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing,

whose minds the God of this age has blinded, who do not believe,

lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,

who is the image of God, should shine on them.

So have you ever come across a situation where you have been trying

to share the gospel with someone and they're just not getting it?

Like you can show them all the proof texts.

You can talk to them with all reason, but they're just not getting this.

And you're like, I don't understand this.

I'm showing you everything.

Reason should dictate that those, you know, those light bulbs go on.

And they're just like, I, you know, you're speaking a foreign language.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Well, the reason is because Satan and his minions go around and blind people's eyes.

So they cannot see what it is that you're talking to them about.

So you may feel like you are the worst evangelist ever because you are trying

to share the gospel and people aren't getting it.

It's not you.

The God of this planet, the enemy, his principalities, his powers are going around

blinding people because the enemy does not want the people to understand the message,

the beautiful message that we are sharing.

Now, the question is, is that fair?

Is Satan playing fair?

No, he's not.

And should these people be left in a deceived state because we may feel like it's too

difficult to go out and win souls?

And I would say, no, it is not fair.

And they should not be left that way.

Now let's turn to John four and we're going to look at verses seven through eight.

This is in the chapter of the woman at the well.

And you may be wanting to kind of figure out where we're going.

I will tell you.

So this verses say, a woman of Samaria came to draw water.

Jesus said to her, give me a drink for his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.

Now that may sound like an odd verse to bring up right now, but it is a very

odd one right now, but I want to ask you a question.

The disciples walked into the city.

Who was coming out of the city?

The woman, right?

The woman was coming out of the city with her water pot or her pots in order to go to the well.

And the disciples would have passed right by her.

Did they see her?

No, they did not see her because she was a woman and she was a Samaritan.

And for them, the disciples, this person was of absolutely no consequence to them.

And so part of the blinding of the eyes of people is also the enemy blinding our eyes to the people around us.

So how many times do you pass by people that I pass by people and we just don't see them?

Whether we're going to the grocery store, whether we're getting gas, whether we're going to a park with our family,

there are people that are searching for God and we pass right by them.

If the disciples who had been with Jesus had stopped, they could have ministered to the woman at the well.

Instead, they went right by her.

So we need to pray for the enemy to not blind our eyes to the people who are in need,

even though the enemy is blinding their eyes to the truth.

He's blinding eyes everywhere and not just in out there in the world.

Sad to say.

So next, we're like, okay, we've seen the power that the enemy has.

We've seen the enormity of the task.

Well, now we're going to take a look at who has the real power and what does that mean for us?

Because Satan likes to flex his muscles.

You know, you've seen photos, I'm sure, of people in the gym who are flexing their muscles and standing in front of a mirror

and looking at themselves and thinking how wonderful they look after they've had their workout.

And that's what the enemy likes to do.

He likes to flex and he likes to think how wonderful he is, but he's not the one with the real power.

So let's take a look at Luke 10 verses 17 to 19.

Luke 10:17–19

And then the 70 returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name.

And he said to them, I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.

Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over them.

And over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

So the disciples were really excited about what they had been a part of.

And Jesus said to them, I saw Satan fall.

He's not, he does not have the power.

The Godhead has the power.

I have the power and I'm giving it to you.

So you have power.

You don't have to worry about Satan's games.

You don't have to worry about the false power that Satan thinks he has.

And that's not to say that in and of ourselves that we can walk up to Satan and punch him in the nose

and not feel like we're going to get retribution or anything because it's not us.

It's the Holy Spirit in us.

But we have, don't need to be afraid of the enemy and we don't need to be afraid of what it is that he is trying to do.

Because Jesus is way more powerful than that.

Now let's look at Ephesians 1, 20 to 21.

And the apostle Paul says, talking about power, which he worked in Christ when he, God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion.

And that every name that is named, sorry, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.

So when Jesus was resurrected and he went back to heaven, where did he go?

According to this passage, where did he go?

He went to heaven, where is he seated?

Okay, he's seated at the right hand.

And is he at the same level as all the principalities and powers?

No, he's above.

So Jesus is above.

So keep in mind that Jesus is above all powers and principalities and above every name.

Everything is under Jesus feet.

Keep that in mind.

We're going to Ephesians chapter two, verses five and six.

So even when we were dead in trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So when we belong to Jesus, where are we in the heavenly realm?

Where are we?

We're with Jesus, right?

So if we're with Jesus and we're in the heavenly places together with Jesus, then that means that everything that's below Jesus is below us.

Is that true?

If Jesus is here and all the powers and principalities are here and then we are raised up with Jesus, then all of them are down here as well, correct?

So God is the one who has all power.

Jesus has power.

Holy Spirit, they have the power and they are bringing us to where they are so that their power is through us as well.

He has given that to us.

So we again, because we serve the living God with all power, then we don't have to fall prey to Satan's games.

We can act and not react to Satan if that's making any sense.

Last in this section.

I didn't move it.

Mark 634.

Mark 634.

Jesus, when he came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them because they were like sheep not having a shepherd.

So he began to teach them many things.

And as we talked about earlier about the woman from Samaria coming out of the city and the disciples going in not seeing her, and we have that tendency ourselves.

We need the compassion of Jesus in us so that we are moved into action for those around us.

So the Greek word that's used for compassion is not merely feeling sorry for someone.

It is an action word.

It is I am moved by this situation and I must do something about it.

So it's not simply feeling bad.

And so we need to have that compassion in us so that when we see people who do not know about the Savior, about the peace, and about who's going to win this thing in the end, we need to have that compassion to move into action to do something about it.

We don't want to just feel bad that, oh, there are lost people over there.

Isn't that too bad?

I just went to Walmart and it's filled with lost people.

Oh, that's too bad.

We need Christ's compassion so that we see the souls who are in need.

So we need to develop some faith vision.

We need that.

So we're going to take a look at Luke 1 through 6.

And I'm not going to read this whole passage.

You're welcome to read it for yourselves later.

But this is the story of the centurion who had the sixth servant.

And this centurion had heard that Jesus had entered Capernaum.

And this centurion wanted Jesus to come and heal or wanted Jesus to heal his servant.

But as a Roman, he either didn't want to start something by, oh, look at this Roman going to see Jesus,

or he just was like, I'm not even a Jew.

What is this rabbi going to do with me?

Either way, both another motive, but he did not go directly himself at first.

So what he did is he talked to the elders of Capernaum, the elders of the Jews,

and said, would you go on my behalf and ask him to come and see me?

And they did.

And Jesus came, started to walk towards his house.

And then he heard that Jesus, the centurion heard that Jesus was coming to his home.

And he's like, no, no, I can't do that.

So he sent other people to say, please don't, please don't come.

And in Matthew's version, in 8 to 10, he finally went himself.

Like he was getting nervous that Jesus was coming.

He's tried everything.

He can to keep Jesus from coming, but Jesus is still coming.

And he said, you don't need to come under my roof.

We're looking at Matthew because I know that all you have to do is speak the word

and my servant will be healed.

Verse 9 of Matthew 8, for I am also a man under authority, having soldiers under me.

And I say to this one, go.

And he goes.

And to the next one, he goes.

And I say to this one, go. And he goes.

And to another, come.

And he comes.

And to my servant, do this.

And he does it.

So the centurion understood the authority of Jesus.

And he understood what Jesus needed to do.

And that was to speak the word.

And the word had the power to heal his servant.

And Jesus said, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel.

It was a lot of faith the centurion put into Jesus' word.

As a team, Jesus for Asia, we just finished reading the book Cultivating Faith by A.T.

Jones.

And this is the definition of faith that Jones put forward.

And it says, faith is expecting the word of God to do what it says and the depending upon that word to do what it says.

So that's faith.

It's looking at what God said in his word and saying, God said it, and I'm expecting him to do that.

I need this. And I'm going to depend upon the word to do what it says.

And so we have seen that we're up against a big task and we're up against the enemies of this world.

We have seen that the one who has the true power is Jesus.

And because of where we are positioned spiritually with Jesus and the heavenly places with him, everybody else is down below us.

And so through Christ, we don't need to be afraid.

We can see that the centurion believed in the word that Jesus spoke and we can too.

Because if Jesus is speaking it, then then we can claim that and say yes.

So with all that in mind, let's look at talk turn walking into spiritual warfare.

And we look at Joshua one three, which is a verse that I know almost everybody in here can quote.

And it's and this is the Lord talking to Joshua.

And the Lord says, Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon, I have given you, as I said to Moses.

So there is something in the act of putting your foot somewhere on behalf of God's kingdom

in the great controversy war gives Jesus the permission to be there as well as we are walking.

Let's take a look at Genesis 13, 17 again, our scripture reading.

This is the Lord talking to Abraham and says, Arise, walk in the land through its length and its width, for I give it to you.

So you are here in Ringgold and you can walk this territory on behalf of the Lord.

And you can walk it believing this scripture because that's what faith is.

It's expecting the word of God to do what it says.

You may not see anything, you may not feel anything.

But if you're out there walking to take territory for the kingdom,

there are things happening in the heavenly realm that you don't see and you have faith that when I'm walking here and I'm praying for people,

the Lord and the angels are doing something.

So I want to take a look at in the book prayer on page 254, paragraph 2.2 says this.

Heavenly beings are appointed to answer the prayers of those who are working unselfishly for the interests of the cause of God.

The very highest angels in the heavenly courts are appointed to work out the prayers which ascend to God for the advancement of the cause of God.

So there are angels who are appointed to answer your prayers as you are going around and praying for other people.

That you can imagine, you can see with the eyes of faith that if you walk into Wal-Mart and you start praying for people,

there are angels who are dropping from heaven right then to take care of what it is you are praying for that person.

That is what we are told happens.

Still in the book of prayer, page 255, paragraph 2.

There are ministering angels that are waiting about the throne to instantly obey the mandate of Jesus Christ to answer every prayer offered in earnest living faith.

So you may not see these angels dropping, but later this afternoon when we go out and do a prayer walk in your neighborhood,

you can know that there are angels dropping in every home with every person and every car that is driving by because that is what we are told is the truth and we believe that.

And so I want to just quickly go through some experiences that I have had with prayer walking.

And I am going to go through this rather quick. I am happy to talk further with anybody at lunch or afterwards.

And then I will turn it over to Heidi for her to go through.

So a group of us went to Java in Indonesia last November.

And this is our group that went. We had a number of people who joined our team to go.

And that's what we were going to do is we were just there to prayer walk.

Now, the good news about that is that we didn't speak the language, so there wasn't much more we could do but walk and pray.

But that was probably the best thing for us. And this was my first experience with prayer walking.

So what we did is we spent time in prayer and and in searching the Bible for promises that we could claim on behalf of the people that we would be walking around with.

So there we are. We were in Java on the southern coast in a town called Pangandaran.

And and so there we are. We're walking and we're praying.

Sometimes we would pray out loud, but most of the time, because we were walking in single file, we were just praying for people as we went.

And this is Marilla. She's a woman that I met. I prayed for her.

And then I got a chance to meet her. And I was very happy about that.

So I have a friend in Pangandaran and there I am with my colleague, Hannah, and two juice vendors we prayed for.

And so we had an opportunity to see them. These are precious children in a school that came out.

One of the things that we noticed after spending time in prayer before going out is that the Holy Spirit went before us and the people were incredibly friendly.

We were not expecting that because this is a Muslim majority country, but they were beautiful. They came out.

These kids were part of that. We would go down to the beach and people would ask us, can we take photos with you?

And sometimes they took them on their phones, sometimes on our phones, but we encouraged them on their phones because when they went back and looked at the photos,

we were praying that they would remember this and that the Holy Spirit would be able to talk to them.

And there we are walking through a village. After we were in Java, we went to Tokyo and we had a completely different experience in Tokyo.

There's our group. Most of the people who were with us in Indonesia came to Tokyo. It was a huge difference in temperature.

You can see all of us bundled up and we were all in short sleeves in Java. It was much colder because it was now in December.

And we came to a crosswalk that night. And I don't know if this will play, but I hope it does.

The guy, the white guy on the other side is John Wood, our president. He's like, okay, everyone, you just line up on one side of the street.

And when the light turns to walk, just walk straight toward me and don't look at me. Just walk straight past me because I want to record you walking across the street.

So you'll notice to John's right, there are a couple of Japanese men with their cameras out.

They were like, oh, what's going on? This guy has his camera out. And so they whipped out their cameras and they're like, where are we shooting? What are we doing?

So it was pretty it was pretty funny. So here we are. This is John's video. Let's see if it will actually play.

There we go. I love the music of this.

I also wanted to show this because I wanted you to see the large number of people that are in Tokyo.

Tokyo is the largest city conglomeration on the planet with 37 million people.

And this is daytime, but it's the Shibuya. It's in Shibuya. Jump. I can't remember the name of it, but this is the most populated intersection.

If you've seen photos of all the intersections, that's where they are. The group of them at a temple.

And you look at these people and you're thinking they're going to this temple and they're not going to get anything that they're looking for because this is not where they need to find Jesus.

We had to take the train everywhere. And when we were there on the train, they would have a little screen up to tell you where you were on the train stations.

Like how close are you getting from one train station to the other? And they would also put delays up on that screen.

And there were many times, like two, twice, two, three times a day that we were traveling there. We were there for about five days.

They would say there's a delay on a certain track because there was a person on track.

And that meant that someone had committed suicide by jumping out in front of one of the trains.

And so you can see the devastation in the eyes of the people as you're walking around.

They just did not know Jesus. And we just prayed fervently while we were there.

And we left Tokyo and went down to Hiroshima. And we took a walk. A group of us took a walk through Hiroshima.

And this right here is the pastor of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Hiroshima.

And his assistant on the very left of the photo spoke English enough that we could tell him why we were there.

And the fact that we had flown from the United States to here to pray, he teared up because he is in desperate want of salvation for the people there.

And that's what he asked for. When we first asked, what can we pray for you for? He said salvation of the people.

And so we were very happy to connect with him. This is the Hiroshima Peace Park where they're looking for peace.

This is the peace statue. People come from all over the world.

And the people who are still here are begging for peace and searching for peace, but they're not going to find it here.

We met a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses of all things in Hiroshima. And we prayed with them.

They were there in the park witnessing. And that's the dome, the one building that survived the blast, the atomic bomb.

And it's still there as a haunting reminder. The last place we went was in Bali.

And this is totally different from Japan because this place is full of temples.

You can see what I just I felt the demonic oppression in there when we landed.

Bali is a place that's known all over the world that if you want to get in touch with the spirits, this is where you come.

So there we are out prayer walking. I don't know what was going on in the heavenlies while we were there,

but I'm sure that there was stuff going on as we were walking and we just anybody we saw on the street.

We just prayed for we prayed for businesses. And then in Chattanooga during our faith camp in July,

I think it was the end of July, we went prayer walking and a group of us went to the north side of the river.

And we met Charles. Charles was sitting in the park there. God told him he's a Christian.

God told him to sit on that bench and share the gospel with anybody who walked by.

So we stopped and we prayed with him. And the last thing that I'll share before turning this over to Heidi

is that another group could went most of the groups went south of the river.

Our little group went north of the river to walk around. And one of the ladies that went

had grown up in this area and she was part of the occult. I don't remember her name.

I just remember her testimony. She had grown up in the occult and lived in Chattanooga.

And as she was out prayer walking, she stopped because she recognized a building from her childhood

and went, oh, I used to live here. And this is where there was a cult activity. So she wanted to pray for that building.

And then something came out of the building and grabbed her by the throat and would not let her pray.

And she finally was able to squeak out some words. And Jesus came rescued her and the entity went away.

And the reason I remember this is because I was pretty shocked that this was in Chattanooga.

Maybe I shouldn't be. I come from the mid-Atlantic Washington, D.C. area.

And I've always viewed the south, you know, the Bible Belt. This is where all the Christians are.

This is, you know, and living down here. But it was shocking to me to find out there is a cult activity in Chattanooga.

And so we are near that here. You are near that here. And so when you're out walking, when you are out walking,

that is spiritual warfare going on all around you that we're not safe from it even here in the Bible Belt.

And so anything that that you do for the Lord is is huge in the spiritual realm.

And so I'm praying that what you will take from my presentation and then with Heidi, come on up, Heidi, and I'll move my stuff,

is that you are a warrior for the Lord and everything that you do is spiritual warfare.

You praying is spiritual warfare. You going to Wal-Mart and praying for the people you see is spiritual warfare.

And I pray that that shift in your thinking happens because it did for me when I was walking around overseas.

I'm like, why can't I do this at home? You know, I don't have to, you know, anytime you go on vacation overseas,

you can prayer walk whatever city that you're in. But here, here, we can prayer walk here all the time.

And it's amazing what angels will do in response to that prayer. So I'm going to turn that over to Heidi.

I'm just going to step away.

So Sharon has laid the groundwork for prayer walking.

Thank you so much that I'm so glad that she spoke about the things she did.

And she's told us that God has given us the power to fight spiritual battles that we're facing.

Particularly, we can help fight with we can help fight the battle that will impact other people.

And we're doing that through prayer. And God gives us that power through his word and through his angels.

And so I want to share with you a little more of the why of doing this.

If everybody can turn to First Timothy two, verses three and four.

God has given us a most important work. And in that he tells us his heart's desire.

And I've asked someone to read First Timothy two, three and four. Kevin, thank you.

This is good and pleases God our Savior who wants all people to be saved and to come to him.

OK, thank you so much. For this is what? Good and acceptable.

In the sight of God our Savior, who desires what?

All men to what? To be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth.

This is so important for us to think about because God is sharing his heart here.

And so what is the this that's talked about in verse three?

Everybody look back. It refers it's referring back to verse one.

What does verse one say?

So therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers,

intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men.

So that is the call that is expressed of what is good and acceptable in God's sight.

And the word exhort means to strongly encourage or urge to do what?

Pray, intercede, give thanks. Supplication is kind of a hard word.

I looked it up in the dictionary and it's asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly.

So asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly.

God wants us to ask or beg for people to be saved.

And for who is this to be done for?

All men. Does that include just those in our church?

No. Who does it include?

Everybody. It includes your community in Ringgold.

It includes the Chattanooga area. It includes Tennessee.

It includes across the world.

And I had planned to share a couple things,

but God's put on my heart to share a little bit of my personal story.

And that is the fact that I was.

We lived out in Washington state for the past seven years,

and we were very involved in our community and working.

And my husband felt called to go to India on a mission trip.

And I was very busy working where I was.

And that was kind of his thing.

And that's kind of how I felt about it.

And so then he went again a few months later.

And I really felt I just I didn't have a desire.

He went to India. I'd never gone to Asia.

I love overseas work, and I had gone to South America and Central America,

but I had no desire to go to India.

And so this is actually kind of before that.

I'm not going to share all of this because it's too long.

But I was sitting in church about a year ago, a little over a year ago.

And there was a woman who came to share,

and she is a missionary in northwest Africa in a closed country

where her life is at stake.

But she has she's single.

She has felt called to go over there and live

and to be part of their community, to be a blessing to them.

And and I've heard her speak before, but that Sabbath as she was speaking,

God began to speak to my heart.

And this is a little hard to share, but towards the end of her service,

he towards the end of her talk, he said to me, Heidi,

you have grown up knowing about the gospel your entire life.

You have raised our two boys to know about Jesus and his love.

And for the last at that time, six years,

you have been teaching other kids about Jesus and his love.

And he said to me, what about those who've never known about Jesus,

who've never heard his name, who know nothing about him?

And it cut me to the heart.

And I thought, wow, Lord, you're right.

I have invested all this time.

All those things I did were good.

It's nothing wrong with that.

But sometimes God takes us through transitions

and there's a time to take that next step.

And so that is part of why I was willing to come for us to move back here.

Because then my husband received the call to do that.

And so anyway, I praise God for the burden he puts on our heart.

But the burden he's putting on our heart is whose desire?

It's his desire.

He's not willing that any parish, he wants everyone to be saved.

And so the only way that they're going to be able to do that

is through us cooperating with him.

And that's the plan he's set up.

Yes, his spirit works on people's hearts.

Yes, people can hear.

But we can join in that work by going and praying for people,

praying for neighbors, praying throughout your town here.

And so I just really encourage that.

And one other point I wanted to bring out in 1 Timothy 2

is I wanted to just take a look at verse 8.

Verse 8 says, I desire that men, notice it says men.

I believe it's talking to everyone.

But men, there is a call for you here too, especially.

But men are to do what?

Pray everywhere, everywhere, lifting up holy hands without what?

Anger or wrath or doubting.

And I think about that doubting aspect.

And I really appreciated the children's story today.

Wasn't that an incredible story?

They lived their faith.

They lived it.

They stepped forward in it.

They stepped into the Red Sea as it was and lived it.

They lived it.

They lived it.

They stepped into the Red Sea as it was and lived it.

And that's what God wants us to do.

Mrs. White makes a statement.

She says, I saw that every prayer which is sent up in faith

from an honest heart will be heard of God and answered.

And the one that sent up the petition

will have the blessing when he needs it most.

And God can exceed his expectations.

Not a prayer of a true saint is lost if sent up in faith

from an honest heart.

So when we pray for other people,

don't you think that promise applies to them?

When we pray that they will receive a blessing,

will they receive it when they need it most?

God works on our hearts individually.

He knows exactly when and how to reach people.

And I just encourage you to press forward in praying

both for yourselves and your walk with God and for others.

When we're praying, we're joining God's work.

And our prayers will not be lost.

I love prayer walking because prayer walking

is something anyone can do.

Every one of you can do that.

And I've told shy people, because you don't have to talk

to anybody, you're talking to God, your Father, shy people,

outgoing people, rich people, poor people,

people new in the faith, and people who've been in the faith

all their lives.

Anyone can do this.

And if we don't have the desire to do it,

what does Ezekiel 36, 26, and 27 say?

Do you know what that verse says?

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit

will I put within you?

Does that verse bring a bell to anybody?

So God is willing to put that new heart in us.

John 15, 12 says, this is my commandment, that you love

one another as I have loved you.

God gives us that command, which he does, he says it's his commandment.

Does he give us the power to fulfill that?

Yes, absolutely he does.

So do we need to conjure up love?

I'm going to love you.

Right?

We don't, because how do we receive it?

Through God.

God puts that love in our hearts.

Do we always feel it?

No.

We don't always feel it because our life isn't based on feelings.

But if we move forward in love, he puts that on our hearts.

He puts that in our hearts.

The Matthew 929 says, and whatever you ask in prayer believing, you will receive.

So if we ask God for love in our hearts for others, he's going to give it to us.

If we believe he's going to do it.

James 1 17 says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above and comes down

from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

Is love a good gift?

Yes, and all the gifts, all the things that we would ask.

So we can pray these things for others.

Prayer walking can be done individually, but remember in Matthew 18 20, Jesus says that

where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.

So prayer walking in pairs or groups brings God into our midst.

So when you go out, you can think, wow, God's here with us.

That's pretty awesome, right?

That's what he says in his word.

So what an honor and a joyful opportunity for us to go out and have this experience

together.

I want to close with a prayer in Ephesians chapter three.

Says for this reason, I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom

the whole family on heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you according to the riches

of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man, that

Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you being rooted and grounded in love

may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and the length and the depth

and the height to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that you may be filled

with all the fullness of God.

Now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think according to

the power that works in us to him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations

forever and ever.

Amen