Sermon

The Power of Powerful Prayer

Rock Hill Baptist Church II Podcast

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  1. Welcome to the official podcast of Rock Hill Baptist Church 2

  2. where we are focused on glorifying God, spreading the

  3. gospel, and making disciples of Jesus Christ right here in the

  4. heart of Greenville, SC. Each week we bring you a life

  5. changing word from our Senior Pastor, Pastor Matthew D Long

  6. Junior, or one of our anointed guest speakers.

  7. We pray this message strengthens your faith, deepens your

  8. understanding, and empowers you to elevate in every area of your

  9. life. Let's join the service already

  10. in progress. Bless his name, Father, I thank

  11. you now as I stand. I pray, Father, that you will

  12. have your divine way, that you will use us truly for your

  13. glory, that the words that proceed from my mouth will be

  14. captured by ears open to heaven, that Lord, we will hear you in

  15. the Spirit, and that we will see You and your mighty hand working

  16. upon us and in us. We thank you, God, for your

  17. presence that's already here. Thank you for showing up for us

  18. because we invoked your presence.

  19. We thank you for a leader who loves you so much that knows not

  20. only how to teach, but God to bring the people into a place of

  21. worship that you would see fit to show up and sit among us.

  22. So God, we glorify you, we magnify you and we wait with

  23. great expectation for what it is you desire to do tonight in

  24. Jesus name, Amen and Amen. How many of you all have a

  25. lifestyle of powerful prayer? Anybody have a lifestyle of

  26. prayer? I know that's a hard question

  27. because many of us don't know what that might mean, right?

  28. We consider it that I find a moment, I find some time to

  29. pray, but it's like Pastor Matt said earlier, it's more than an

  30. act is a it's a posture of life for us.

  31. And since you're here tonight, I pray that I'm able to give you

  32. something that's going to help piggyback off what Pastor has

  33. already shared, but that will take you a little bit deeper and

  34. a little bit further. I'm honored to be able to stand

  35. tonight and to be able to share on intercession.

  36. That is truly the gift. Some I don't even know how to

  37. put it, but that is where God moves in me most.

  38. And it all started in intercessory prayer where He

  39. began to open up to me that I could even hear His voice to

  40. know what He desired of me to do.

  41. And when I got it, Oh my God, things begin to change and they

  42. begin to shift in my life and not only in my life, but for the

  43. lives of others who were around me and that were in my presence.

  44. So this is what God desires of us is to be able to understand

  45. how deep of a relationship you have with him that you can meet

  46. him and that he will meet you in that prayer room.

  47. Amen. So tonight I want to use as my

  48. base Scripture James chapter 516 B New King James Version says,

  49. and that's James chapter 5 verse 16 B new King James version said

    James 5:16

  50. the effective what fervent prayer of a righteous man, what

  51. avails much glory to God, You just take that scripture home

  52. with you and you keep working on that because what he wants us to

  53. know is that it prayer is more than an act.

  54. How many of us just get into a moment or we get into a

  55. situation, we get into a problem and we begin to then call on the

  56. name of the Lord. But when things are going great

  57. and we just moving about and God is blessing us and we seeing

  58. blessings on the left and on the right, how many times do we

  59. pray? Then it's usually when we get in

  60. trouble or when we have a problem or when there is a pain

  61. or when there is something going on.

  62. Somebody's in trouble, somebody needs help and that's when we

  63. begin to cry out. And most of the time when we cry

  64. out, it's really not for somebody else, it's for

  65. ourselves. But God wants us to know that

  66. prayer is not just an act, but it is a lifestyle when you can

  67. make prayer a part of your daily life.

  68. I said it Wednesday night. Elder Nicole and I were sitting

  69. on our time at the table Bible study.

  70. And one of the things that he said is that, you know, we, we,

  71. we don't know how to get into the presence of God or we don't

  72. know how to do certain things until there's a problem.

  73. It's the truth. It has to be a problem before we

  74. enact something to go forward, right?

  75. So many of us struggle with prayer because we view it as an

  76. occasional practice, an occasional practice, rather than

  77. a daily posture saying if you want something to happen.

  78. You should be. Praying and you don't want

  79. something to happen. Here and there, right?

  80. Don't we look for the blessings of God every day?

  81. Don't we look for the goodness of God every day when you get

  82. up, it should not thank you, baby.

  83. We should not you. She clapping her hands.

  84. She just handled business. So we've got to learn that we

  85. can't just wait until problems come and troubles come that it

  86. should be a daily posture for us, right?

  87. And that's an important it's a way of life.

  88. How many of us do this daily? We could be honest with each

  89. other because this is a lock in. Don't nobody out there know what

  90. we talking about? So be honest.

  91. Shay, it's so good to see you so.

  92. We have to make it a priority to be a part of our daily life and

  93. we should understand the posture in which we are to be called to

  94. pray, right? We it should be a daily thing

  95. for us. This it transforms not only our

  96. lives, but you think about how it transforms the lives around

  97. you. I remember when I started an

  98. intercessory prayer, there were people that would come.

  99. Here and there and things would change.

  100. They would come and get what they need.

  101. But I can stand as a testament today that Elder Nicole has been

  102. with me at the ministry. We were at Saint Luke together

  103. under our great pastor, Doctor Roy C Jeffco.

  104. And then she followed me and we've been together for 16

  105. years. But it all started in the

  106. intercessory prayer room, and now she's one of my leading the

  107. the leading intercessor in the ministry.

  108. That's because what God did in me had to transform those around

  109. me so that we can reach more than what we're doing right?

  110. So our prayers are not just for ourselves.

  111. And I'm talking this because I want to hone in on intercession

  112. tonight. If you're willing to do it and

  113. pray for someone else, God, go bounce.

  114. They're bouncing sound. It's going to come back for you.

  115. What? Who what you make happen for

  116. someone else, God will make happen for you.

  117. Bless his name, somebody. So it transformed not only our

  118. personal walk but the lives of those around us.

  119. God is looking for intercessors. That's a great call.

  120. It's a deep. Call and it's not meant.

  121. For everybody, but everybody should aspire to be.

  122. Amen. So we got to fill in some gaps.

  123. God wants us to be able to fill in the gaps while there's

  124. somebody or stand in the gap for somebody while they're out there

  125. crying. You're somewhere praying

  126. somebody's worried, and you're somewhere praying somebody's

  127. real concerned, but you're praying because you're believing

  128. God. So we got to develop this

  129. powerful prayer life and we're at stages, different stages of

  130. our life. I heard him say there's babies

  131. in the house, there's seniors in the house, there's baby boomers

  132. in the house, there's every age in the house, every generation I

  133. believe is represented. So if that's the case, then what

  134. God is desiring of us to is to have this powerful prayer life,

  135. no matter what stage of life you're in.

  136. Come on, somebody. We got to learn how to cry out

  137. on behalf of others so that God will show up.

  138. So we create. We have to create this divine

  139. atmosphere for God to show up. It happened after teaching and

  140. Pastor Matt started praying. The musicians were praying,

  141. playing. They were going hand in hand and

  142. I could not sit down on it. That's the type of atmosphere

  143. that you're supposed to be setting as a prayer warrior.

  144. Come on with Saints of God, you want stuff to happen, Then we

  145. got to make some things happen. Oh my God.

  146. The atmosphere where God shows up and not just show up, but

  147. speaks. He said that he speaks, and then

  148. what? Something else he said moves

  149. supernaturally. We need a.

  150. God, that could come in when it looks.

  151. Like this to us in the natural. He could flip it just like that

  152. and your prayers can take you there.

  153. Come on Saints. So I want to talk about 3

  154. different things tonight. First of all, we're talking

  155. about when I said this divine atmosphere, setting this divine

  156. atmosphere, one of the first things we got to do is commit to

  157. the secret place. Commit to the secret place,

  158. glory to God. So secret place where God meets

  159. us. Have mercy.

  160. Somebody making prayer a daily priority requires you to commit

  161. to a secret place. Wednesday night, Jesus, I said

  162. Wednesday night, one of the things that was said is and and

  163. I was trying to get back to it. That secret place.

  164. We should not be factoring or putting a placeholder.

  165. Well, I'll put God here. How many of us get up every

  166. single day and we already got the day journey.

  167. We already know what we got to do.

  168. We got to go to work, we got to get this ready.

  169. We got to get kids ready. We got to get on the move.

  170. We got to do that. Where was God in the plan?

  171. You got to work, you started working, you started dealing

  172. with people. Then you finally got you're on

  173. your way home and then you got to think about what's for

  174. dinner, what am I going to do? What are we going to do this and

  175. how are we going to do that? Where did God fit into the

  176. equation? Did we consider that He would be

  177. the first thing? Did we commit to the secret

  178. place? The timing that says when you

  179. commit to the secret place, Matthew 6 and six, what does it

  180. say? Matthew 6:00 and 6:00 But you

  181. when you pray, go into your room and when you have shut the door

  182. prayer, pray to your Father who is in the secret place.

  183. God will meet you where you set up a place for Him to meet you.

  184. Where is your altar? What are you doing?

  185. Glory to God. Thank you, deep.

  186. Thank you deep. So the foundation of a powerful

  187. prayer life begins in a secret place, a place that you know

  188. that you can be in without distraction.

  189. My husband always tells me, and I share this all the time, is

  190. that he said, what's the tractor trailer turning in your head?

  191. What you thinking about? Because he's like, I'm thinking

  192. about 50 million things at one time.

  193. But you got to find a place where there is no distraction

  194. and you tell your mind to shut up.

  195. I'm focused on my God right now. I need to hear something from

  196. him. So what he says is if you go

  197. into that secret place, you will meet him there because he's in

  198. the secret place. So foundation is a powerful

  199. thing. When we pray in secret places,

  200. Jesus often withdrew from the crowds, did he not?

  201. That's. Right.

  202. And as Christians, we are Christ like, have mercy God.

  203. So we too have to withdraw from the crowds.

  204. And so God spend some time with the Father.

  205. Isn't it refreshing when you know, you might be tired, but

  206. you go ahead and you spend that time?

  207. Or how about now that you're used to doing it, you look

  208. forward to it? Many people ought to be looking

  209. forward to prayer time because they know something.

  210. Is going to happen, huh? Jesus withdrew from the crowd so

  211. he could hear and be alone with his Father.

  212. So if you want to become an intercessor who shakes heaven,

  213. glory to God. You can't get by on an

  214. occasional prayer. You got to be rooted and

  215. grounded and be in this thing. That's when things start to

  216. change in the church. That's when things start to

  217. change in the house. That's when things start to

  218. change in your neighborhood. We need to be praying as a

  219. church for the nation secret place to get it done.

  220. So he says that if we're going to become these intercessors and

  221. and even if you don't feel that you're the intercessor, you are

  222. still supposed to be a prayer warrior.

  223. Because if I. I can't get my mouth to open and

  224. I have to wave my hand. You ought to know something

  225. going on. Let me go pray for sis.

  226. While I was over here in the corner and you were praying,

  227. Pastor Matt, I was trying to get myself together because our pain

  228. hit me up the right side of my head.

  229. And usually when pain strikes me somewhere, it's somebody else

  230. I'm feeling. I don't know what it is, who it

  231. is, where they are, but I begin to pray as I touched my head.

  232. I was interceding for somebody, somewhere.

  233. You got to know when God is doing, having unctions on you,

  234. when you're moving, have mercy. So to become an innocent, you

  235. got to be able to shake heaven, my God.

  236. We must make it personal and intimate time with God.

  237. That's when things begin to shift in your life.

  238. My God, you said some people been praying for 24 days and so

  239. many years for something and then you want to give up.

  240. Intercession is praying without stopping.

  241. That's right. I don't care how long it is.

  242. And I got stories to tell of how long I prayed.

  243. But God has shown up over and over again.

  244. So how do you develop this strong secret place?

  245. Glory to God. Have mercy.

  246. Y'all remember Daniel, right? Daniel 6 and 10.

  247. I don't have it up to read, but I made a note of it because this

  248. is all I want to say is you got a set specific time for daily

  249. prayer. That's right, Ellen, Nicole is

  250. on 7:00 AM. It's set and everybody's

  251. looking. If they're not looking, if she's

  252. not on at 7:00, they want to know where she is, what's going

  253. on. That's for public, but imagine

  254. your private time. Your secret place that you got a

  255. set time to meet with God. Daniel showed up at Daniel 6 and

  256. 10 and what was he doing? He prayed 3 times a day no

  257. matter what they said. He opened up the window, faced

  258. you and he prayed. He had a set time and God knew

  259. where he was going to be. Have mercy, Lord.

  260. So when God knows when you going to be there, He's already

  261. waiting to let you know some stuff.

  262. He's already waiting to speak to you.

  263. He's already waiting to give you what you need.

  264. You got to get in and set that daily time.

  265. I dare you this week or over the next however many days of Linton

  266. season we got left and we just getting started.

  267. Set a time, I challenge you. Set a time, sis.

  268. Set a time, my sister, set a time and stick to it.

  269. And you watch how God is there waiting for you when you get

  270. there. Watch how God starts to show up

  271. and speak to you when you get there.

  272. So what you got to do when you get there though, is eliminate

  273. the distractions. What I like about Daniel is

  274. Daniel didn't worry about what the king said.

  275. He didn't worry about how they were out there talking and

  276. trying to set him up. He was committed to God.

  277. When you're committed, you'll do what you need to do.

  278. Have mercy, Lloyd. When you're committed, you'll

  279. hang in there no matter what is going on, glory to God.

  280. So eliminate the structure. So you need to make sure that

  281. that secret place is a quiet place where you can, what, hear

  282. from God. There is no need of us believing

  283. that we're praying and spending time with God and.

  284. He's not going to speak back to you.

  285. I expect to hear something, even if it's only through a function

  286. of the Holy Spirit. He ain't got to say a word.

  287. But when I feel it, have mercy, God, when I feel it, I know He's

  288. shown up and this is what you need me to do.

  289. He'll give you an unction of where to go and what to do and

  290. how to move. Oh my God.

  291. Then pray the word. Pray the word.

  292. Use the word in your prayers. Scripture still works.

  293. As some of us said, the word still works and some people say

  294. prayers still work. Listen, the word is always

  295. working for us if you need. If you got to find the

  296. situation. How many y'all Google a word.

  297. I know this one dude. If we need something, Lord,

  298. where can I find this in the text?

  299. We're going to find this in the scripture.

  300. Where can I find healing scriptures?

  301. We're going to find this type of scripture and it'll pull up a

  302. bunch of them for you to just go through.

  303. Have mercy. So that means that while I'm

  304. trying to get my help coming, then I'm looking for a word

  305. that's going to address exactly what my need is.

  306. So when I'm praying all to know enough of what I'm praying, I

  307. ought to have a word to pray it on God.

  308. Come on y'all? Y'all know how many of you been

  309. in trouble? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

  310. All y'all ain't going to tell the truth.

  311. I know more than me been in trouble.

  312. Look at the babies they in trouble.

  313. I love y'all because y'all honest.

  314. You going to find some help in this word?

  315. You know, when people get in trouble, man, they become as

  316. saintly as they want to am I right?

  317. You'll find them in church when they're going through but.

  318. When they come out, they go out. God is saying there is a word

  319. for you to play over every situation in your life.

  320. So when you, when you start getting it, start holding on to

  321. it. When you're reading the word,

  322. you don't know why you're reading this, but somehow God

  323. will recall it. He'll bring it up in your spirit

  324. at the right time for you to pray glory to God.

  325. So commit to the secret place and let God see.

  326. I'm telling y'all, when we consistently meet with God in

  327. the secret place, that's when He begins to reveal his heart to

  328. us, y'all. How many of y'all really want to

  329. know the heart of God? You want him to express himself

  330. to you. You want.

  331. You want him to let you know what he desires and what he's

  332. got for you and how He wants you to live, breathe, and move.

  333. That is being in consistent meeting place with the Lord, He

  334. reveals his heart to you. And so if that's the case, when

  335. he reveals his heart to you, then your prayers begin to carry

  336. more authority. You said something about it

  337. earlier, your your prayers carry weight because now you know the

  338. heart of God and you can start praying the heart of God and

  339. then you'll start seeing what it looks like in the natural.

  340. Yeah. Glory.

  341. He'll give you something, He'll give you a vision, He'll give

  342. you what you need to see. Have mercy, Lord.

  343. So now you got the secret place. How many y'all got a place

  344. established within your home? We know that the altar is on the

  345. on our heart. We do realize that that wherever

  346. we are, we can pray. We can call in the name of the

  347. Lord because we belong to him. But how many of us have a

  348. designated space? It may not be a room.

  349. It may not be a closet. It may just be a corner in your

  350. bedroom. It might be the place that you

  351. know, this is where I can go. This is my comfortable place.

  352. Since you said you got a space at the designated space where

  353. you go and meet God, it's working for you.

  354. It works. Yes, Lord.

  355. Anybody else got a designated place?

  356. If. Thank you.

  357. Thank you. If you don't have a designated

  358. place, I might ask you again to challenge you to do this.

  359. Find one corner, one space in your house that is you and God

  360. it's in my house. It's just me and my husband now,

  361. but it is sports 24/7 because he's retired and he is a lady

  362. game conference. So y'all know March Madness.

  363. The basketball has been going 24/7 at my house.

  364. My play yours, my place of refuge is my bedroom in the

  365. sitting area. So if I can get there, I can get

  366. comfortable. Like a it's not even my office

  367. because it used to be. I go in there now, books

  368. everywhere, all my work everywhere.

  369. It's just too much. So I have to go to a quiet

  370. place, a clean space because my office ain't clean.

  371. But you need to have that, that you are able to meet with God in

  372. a space that means something to you.

  373. And guess what? When He sees you going to that

  374. little area, He know it's coming.

  375. Think about it, He knows what's on the way when you start making

  376. your move to that space, he said Here she come.

  377. That's what you want God to say, am I right?

  378. Come on, we getting ready to have a time because she coming

  379. in, that's what you need to be doing.

  380. Second thing, be bold. Don't just don't just commit to

  381. the set. You got to commit to a secret

  382. place, find you a car, a place. But the second thing you have to

  383. do in your prayer and especially in intercession is you got to be

  384. bold. Standing in the gap for others

  385. requires some strength, especially if you're one of

  386. those ones can take on pain or take on the whatever it is that

  387. God does within you when you're interceding for others.

  388. You got to be bold enough and struggling to stand in the gap.

  389. The problem today is that we can't hardly find intercessors

  390. anymore. Word of the Lord.

  391. Ezekiel chapter 22, verse 2030. Ezekiel chapter 22, verse 30.

    Ezekiel 22 chapter mention Ezekiel 22:30

  392. So the Lord says this. So I sought.

  393. For a man among them who would make a wall and stand in the gap

  394. before me, and on behalf of the land that I should not destroy

  395. it. But I found no one.

  396. That's scary. Y'all hear what I'm saying?

  397. This is what God said. I sought for a man that could do

  398. this, that could build the wall and then stand in the gap

  399. between me and them, and he couldn't find nobody, he said.

  400. And he was set to destroy the land because they were

  401. outlandishly out of order and there was no one interceding.

  402. There was not one among them that he could call upon to

  403. intercede, that could stand on the wall for the people.

  404. That's not who. We're supposed to be that living

  405. sacrifice thing is real. I went to the doctor today for

  406. one thing, had to have a procedure while I was there.

  407. But look at me standing now. I I remember calling and she

  408. said do you need a pill that they give you any medicine?

  409. I said no, she didn't give me nothing and I'll get something

  410. later because I didn't want to be out of it.

  411. I'll take some tonight and go to bed.

  412. But you got to be a living sacrifice and still willing to

  413. do what God has assigned you to do because He'll give you

  414. strength. He'll make you able.

  415. So when God is looking for someone, can He say I got here?

  416. Can He say I got him? Can he say I got her?

  417. There is one that will stand on the wall.

  418. There is one that will stand in the gap.

  419. He just want to know now. Ain't nobody calling you for

  420. prayer. You ain't the one yet.

  421. I know. That's a little rough.

  422. That wasn't nice, was it? But you might be a private

  423. prayer warrior and they don't know it.

  424. I'm a fix it. Fix it.

  425. All I know is when your phone is ringing out the hood, pastor,

  426. Bishop, elder, I need a prayer. I need you to get a prayer

  427. through. I had a dream.

  428. I need you to interpret the dream.

  429. Somebody's always calling because they know the anointing

  430. that's on your life. That's it.

  431. And so somebody, yes, shout glory because if you get in the

  432. calls, God has placed something on you.

  433. He'll put a little extra extra oil in there.

  434. Intercession is the actor praying on behalf of others that

  435. thing is standing in the gap and bringing their needs before God

  436. when they can't do it. You're contending for their

  437. breakthrough. Contend your fate.

  438. You're fighting y'all in the. Description is a Jew contending

  439. for the faith. Faith.

  440. That's right. But you're contending on behalf

  441. of somebody else. You're contending for their

  442. breakthrough. And then when somebody gets

  443. their break, but don't you feel good when you done your part?

  444. Come on, say to God, because somebody did it for us.

  445. We were rich, undone, yes, Lord, but somebody stood in the gap

  446. for us. Some of us, Lord Jesus, some

  447. really, some of US has caused some of the greatest moves of

  448. God to happen For others. That's what happens with

  449. intercession. You caused the biggest

  450. breakthroughs to happen. You caused God to move in such a

  451. mighty way. And it's all throughout the

  452. history of the Bible. Through intercession, things

  453. happened. My God, I did a prayer.

  454. CDI didn't think about it until today and it was I think Tyler

  455. was intercession, the prayer that won't.

  456. Stop or the prayer. And that's what he's saying.

  457. You can't just stop at one time. And I know people say, well, why

  458. they keep going to the altar, They know what they're doing

  459. because they need a breakthrough.

  460. And until they get it, don't complain about them because if

  461. you were praying with them half the time, they might have

  462. already gotten the breakthrough. Keys to effective woo Lord Jesus

  463. intercession pray with faith. Ain't nothing worse than you

  464. praying and not believing that God will answer Mark Chapter 11

    Mark 11:24

  465. verse 24. It's right there.

  466. Remember when you read in that in that sector, it's where

  467. section, that's where the disciples, they're getting ready

  468. to walk back out of town and they walked past the fig tree

  469. and the fig tree had dried up. And the disciple says to the

  470. Lord, you know, hey, this was the tree that you cursed

  471. yesterday. And So what the Lord said to him

  472. was basically, you got to believe what you speak.

  473. I cursed the tree, so I knew it was going to be dead today.

  474. You should have expected it to be dead really, is what it's

  475. saying. If I cursed it, it was supposed

  476. to be dead, so he was increasing.

  477. Believe what you're praying. God wants you to believe.

  478. You got to believe that God will answer what you speak in prayer.

  479. If you don't believe it ain't no need to pray in glory to God.

  480. So he says I need you to pray and I need you to believe.

  481. I always say that I pray expecting God to answer.

  482. If you don't have that mentality, then you got to shift

  483. it tonight. You got to change that, because

  484. if you go pray, you got to believe God for every word that

  485. you're praying. And that you?

  486. In it lines up with the will of God.

  487. But listen, even if it wasn't the will of God, I'm still

  488. believing He going to answer my prayers, even if it was crazy.

  489. That's right. That's.

  490. Right. You got to have that kind of

  491. faith in your Father. That's right.

  492. So he said believe, pray and believe that I'm going to

  493. answer. Then you got to pray with

  494. authority. Somebody look at John chapter

    John 14 chapter mention

  495. 14, John chapter 14, verses 13 and 14, John 14, chapter 13 and

    John 14:13

  496. 14. Nicole, you ought to know this

  497. one because this was your initial sermon.

  498. I didn't think about it till I was writing it down greater

  499. works. So somebody will just read that

  500. for me. John chapter 14, verse 13 and

    John 14:13

  501. 14. Uh huh and whatever.

  502. You ask? Anything in my name?

  503. Uh huh, there it is. That's a prayer with authority

  504. because you're putting Jesus name on it.

  505. His name has got to be on the prayer in order for these things

  506. he said because he goes to the Father, He now has the right for

  507. you to pray in his name and it and he will answer you.

  508. So you have authority in the name of Jesus.

  509. Authority. So pray in faith and pray with

  510. authority. That's a part of being bold.

  511. Then pray with persistence. Never give up till you see this

  512. thing. Listen, there's some things in

  513. our lives that we want God to move on and we are believing God

  514. to move on. Until you see it, you got to be

  515. persistent and praying it. So please don't give up.

  516. If there was somebody close to you, my husband was in the

  517. hospital and they had no idea what was wrong with him.

  518. No idea. And then they they said, well,

  519. they started doing primitive medicine on him.

  520. They were like tapping his back with these things and trying to

  521. figure out where the fluid was coming from.

  522. Wasn't in his lungs, but it was around his lungs.

  523. And it came out of nowhere and they couldn't figure it out.

  524. So in the midst of them doing this, a lot of problems

  525. occurred. They couldn't think.

  526. They wanted to know, had he been out of the country?

  527. Had he been working on a ship? Had he done?

  528. I mean, the list of things that they kept coming up was just

  529. crazy. In the midst of all of that, he

  530. was struggling so bad that I remember.

  531. Just. Praying.

  532. He lost 40 lbs in less than a month.

  533. In a month he lost 40 lbs. You have.

  534. I have never prayed like I prayed then so desperate times

  535. you'll go into some desperate measures and pray harder, but

  536. what God is requiring us is to be persistent in our prayers.

  537. Don't stop when you don't see the end of it.

  538. Keep praying you keep praying until listen my my nephew Chris

  539. Levy Johnson. He says until you, you prayed

  540. Lazarus back from the dead because they had seen my

  541. husband. And saw his condition.

  542. And he sure said he said until you don't pray Lazarus back from

  543. the dead, you. Tried to call my Lazarus, but it

  544. was that type of prayer and I wasn't alone.

  545. I had an army of people praying with me for him.

  546. That's why you can't just depend on pastor to pray.

  547. We got to be praying together in this church.

  548. We got to be praying together in this community for things to

  549. change. Y'all 140 years old about to be

  550. 140. It's a whole lot of stuff done

  551. going down the problem in this community and in this church.

  552. But imagine what's going to happen when you all praying on

  553. one accord and the things the visions that are being seen, the

  554. things that you can do. Y'all got a great community

  555. here. So many lives that you can

  556. touch. Keep praying if you want to fill

  557. the. House keep praying if you want

  558. to see change in the community, but God said pray with

  559. persistence. Luke chapter 18 verse one

    Luke 18 chapter mention

  560. through 8 y'all can look at it. It's the it's the parable of

  561. persistent widow. So basically don't lose heart.

  562. That's what he's saying in the Ted don't lose heart.

  563. Trust and believe in me and I will come to your rescue.

  564. God is looking for people to intercede.

  565. For families, for churches, like I just said, cities, your

  566. communities, all even the nations and we will see change

  567. when we learn how to pray according to God, Lord 3rd and

  568. final thing, I don't know how long I've been third and final

  569. thing, expect God to do something, expectations of God

  570. to speak and move. You don't want to just hear him

  571. and then you don't see no action.

  572. You have to expect God to speak and to make moves.

  573. So that's your third invite. Expect God to do something.

  574. Jeremiah 33 and three says, call to me and what I will answer you

  575. and show you great and mighty things, which you what do not

  576. know. Glory to God, if God is saying

  577. to you, call to me and I will answer you.

  578. Why are we keeping our mouths shut?

  579. Because that's what Satan wants. Is that not Satan's language?

  580. That's what the man of God said tonight.

  581. Silence is Satan's language, but God is saying to us, call out to

  582. me and I will. Glory to God, Come on, answer

  583. you. I will answer you.

  584. Have mercy, Jesus. Prayer is two way conversation.

  585. If you praying and doing all the talking, I'm going to use this

  586. as an example. You know, Danita, Danita talk,

  587. talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. And every time I have a

  588. conversation with a Shay, I, I was talking to the Lord and such

  589. and such and such. Every time I talked to Danita, I

  590. was talking to the Lord and I said, well, did he get the talk

  591. back to you? Danita talks so much.

  592. And she constantly praying, but I know she don't give him time

  593. to answer. I shouldn't have to tell you

  594. everything because if you'd have talked to God that much, he

  595. should have unanswered something.

  596. So what he said give me a chance to answer you.

  597. Glory to God. It's a two way conversation.

  598. In other words, listen, talk and then listen.

  599. Pray and listen. Pray, watch and pray.

  600. There you go. Many people pray and never

  601. expect God to speak. I got to go back there.

  602. I'm coming back there because most of the time we are praying

  603. amiss because we don't listen or believe God's going to talk back

  604. to us. We have not been trained for an

  605. ear. We have not believed.

  606. We have not held on to the faith in knowing that if we talk to

  607. God, we're praying that we ought to expect.

  608. Him to talk back to us. You may hear it audibly.

  609. You may get an unction in the Spirit.

  610. Like I said earlier, something's going to move on you that you're

  611. going to know God is working and that He's moving on your behalf.

  612. He may do it even through the Word.

  613. He'll send you to the Word somewhere.

  614. You'll be praying something. All of a sudden that Word come

  615. up and out of you, and then you'll spend some time in it.

  616. Come on y'all God, we need to expect him to respond.

  617. So we ought to cultivate a lifestyle of prayer where we

  618. develop this spiritual sensitivity.

  619. A lot of us like to pray and be out right?

  620. It's usually a 5 minute prayer, you know, and you think that's a

  621. long time for some people. Some people say how y'all pray

  622. that long cultivated time and relationship with God will cause

  623. you to just pray and pray. And then from prayer there's

  624. going to be some prophecy, there's going to be some praise,

  625. there's going to be something that comes out of your time of

  626. prayer and what he's saying. Cultivate a sensitivity that you

  627. know when God is moving and when he's speaking.

  628. Like I said earlier, what my headache, I know the pain I

  629. felt. And so I begin to pray in the

  630. Spirit. And it was all led by the man of

  631. God taking us into a place. You got to set an atmosphere.

  632. That's why I couldn't sit down on it.

  633. Something too many of us sit down when God is moving.

  634. If you start moving and working it out, got to start working it

  635. out with you. My God, that's right.

  636. So let Him speak to you through His Word.

  637. The Bible is a primary source that we need to use through the

  638. Holy Spirit. Like I said, they may give you

  639. some impression, maybe an unction of Holy Spirit.

  640. It'll be a prompting and a pushing.

  641. I'm going to say this because I know Shay and I know Pastor Matt

  642. and Elder Nicole know this situation with y'all might not

  643. have been there, but I'm going to tell you what happened to me

  644. one Sunday when the Lord started working with me after

  645. intercession and I started feeling and getting these

  646. unctions I ain't quite know what to do with.

  647. I was sitting down in the church and see I was in the church

  648. where we would get called out if we made the wrong move.

  649. This particular Sunday Pastor Jeffcoate wasn't there, but I

  650. said I know he going to get the word and I'm going to be in

  651. trouble. I was standing up, I was sitting

  652. down, and then we were standing up in worship.

  653. May feel our musician at the time was playing the organ and

  654. this is what the Holy Spirit will do for you because you

  655. don't know. I was trying to make it about me

  656. now. Oh God, I ain't going up there.

  657. That's going to be out of order and I'm going to get in trouble.

  658. And I'm telling you, it was just like I felt like pushed me out

  659. of the Pew. I said this ain't right, God, I

  660. can't go. I kept saying it, but it's what

  661. the unction and the impression of the Holy Spirit will do for

  662. you. I get up and I don't think I'd

  663. ever been on the choir stand at that point.

  664. I get up and I walk around and I go up and I take a seat next to

  665. the musician on the organ and all I'm able to do is sit there

  666. and I'm praying. I did not know why God did that

  667. to me and I was so scared. I was like, all I knew is I was

  668. going to get in trouble because our pastor did not play I.

  669. Could not move though God made me sit and all of a sudden he

  670. began to play like angels were playing.

  671. It was a different sound that happened and then that same

  672. suddenly somebody said they saw look like angels bouncing at the

  673. ceiling. I don't know what God was doing

  674. and who He was doing it for, but I know He was using me and

  675. getting my mind right and my spirit right, but at the same

  676. time He was doing something else.

  677. You got to be willing to be obedient to the Spirit of God.

  678. When you're in prayer, do what God tells you to do.

  679. Don't just say yes, Lord, and then you don't move.

  680. Too many of us have done that. Then you don't You hate.

  681. Well, Lord, I wish I had done that when I was supposed to do

  682. it. Yeah.

  683. Yeah. Another example, Holy Spirit

  684. Pastor Jeffco was preaching at a church in Spartanburg.

  685. There might have been about 75 people in the congregation

  686. because the church has split her gone.

  687. Now they're over probably 1000 people at that church.

  688. They've come back. Pastor Jeffco was preaching and

  689. I'm sitting and this was so new to me.

  690. That's why I'm just want to share these examples with you of

  691. how. God will use you if you just be.

  692. Obedient and let him use you. I am standing up.

  693. Everybody's standing up. And all of a sudden he turns

  694. around because everybody's moving and there's one person

  695. sitting in the pulpit and she was sitting and would not move

  696. upon the spirit that was moving in the house.

  697. And I remember him turning around.

  698. Sister, you need a revival. I felt a clip at my knees.

  699. It was like somebody clipped me and I had to sit in the pews.

  700. And God say pray. I started praying because I

  701. didn't that was intercession for him, because that whatever the

  702. Spirit was did not want her to move.

  703. And so God calls me to go into intercession at that moment.

  704. You just got to be willing, y'all.

  705. To do what God is showing you, speaking to you, sharing with

  706. you, to do that. That really is the lifestyle of

  707. being an intercessor, being willing to go into the trenches

  708. and do what is not normal to eyesight, but do those things

  709. which are abnormal to man. But God supernaturally fixes for

  710. you when you're obedient like that, when you listen to the

  711. instructions and obey what He reveals to you.

  712. Is going to be mind blowing and it will carry you and give you

  713. strength to keep on going. I pray that you don't give up in

  714. this time of the season of your fasting and then what you're

  715. doing now. I want you to keep on pressing

  716. and I want you to keep going forward and I want you to if you

  717. you considering prayer, please do some of these things and

  718. let's watch the change who and the shift.

  719. Let's watch God change it. I don't I just believe God can

  720. do anything. I'm believing that, and I don't

  721. believe like I believe like Pastor Matt.

  722. It is not. By happenstance that you are

  723. here tonight, I believe that the right people are definitely in

  724. the room. No matter how you decided to

  725. come, why you decided to come, God has plans for you.

  726. Thank you Lord Father, we come before you.

  727. Once again, Truly thankful Father, for the opportunity to

  728. share how you desire for us to be men and women on the wall.

  729. We thank you, Lord, that you caused us to be a mighty army,

  730. one that knows your voice, one that knows your moves, God, one

  731. who knows how you move in us. So Father, we thank you for

  732. right now God maturing our prayer life.

  733. I hear the Lord say it's this. It's a necessity that he matures

  734. us quickly in our prayer lives. And when God, we thank you that

  735. when you say this, there's something to come.

  736. So Father, we bless you right now that as you touch each one

  737. that is here tonight, man, woman, boy and girl, I'm praying

  738. God that you fall fresh. Fall fresh upon each one of us

  739. that what our desires is begin to turn and look like yours,

  740. God. That what you show us, we

  741. desire. What you show us we go for.

  742. Father, we thank you for every intercessor in this house, God,

  743. For every prayer warrior in this house, God.

  744. That whatever you desire of us right now, O God, we say, we

  745. yield our bodies as living sacrifice unto you.

  746. That as you touch us, God. Transfer your power, fall fresh

  747. upon us. Anoint every part of our

  748. spiritual being that you need to use.

  749. Strengthen our physical bodies that we might not give up that

  750. we're willing to stand God when all else fails we bless you

  751. father God, for your faithfulness toward us now we

  752. just ask God that you turn our. Hearts.

  753. In the direction of you, O God, that all we'll see, and all

  754. we'll feel. God whole.

  755. Glory to God is what you give us.

  756. Hallelujah, rest upon the table of our heart.

  757. Purify our hearts that there will be no malice, no jealousy.

  758. No envy, and no. Deceit that you desire pure.

  759. Thank you for tuning in to the Rock Hill Baptist Church 2

  760. Podcast. We pray today's message planted

  761. something in your spirit and gave you the strength to keep

  762. growing here at the Rock Hill Baptist Church 2.

  763. We're a growing church, and growth starts with one step.

  764. If you're ready to go deeper, visit us online at

  765. www.myrockhill2.org and click Next Steps to get connected,

  766. join a ministry, or give your life to Christ.

  767. Be sure to follow the podcast so you never miss a message and

  768. share this episode with someone you know is ready to grow too.

  769. And remember, no matter what comes your way, you were built

  770. to elevate. Until next time, walk in

  771. purpose, live in power, and grow in grace.