Ominous Times & the Power of Prayer Part 4 - Wednesday Night Prayer

You're listening to the road with Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

I believe that when we pray, God responds with what his mission on this earth is, and that's to drive back darkness through the people of God.

When you pray, men and women, I don't get it logically, but when you claim your kingship, or queenship, I guess, your kingship, your queenship, your priestly right.

Over the heavenly realm.

Inviting the Holy Spirit to pray through you, you're making way more impact than you know.

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We hope you are encouraged by today's message from Pastor Teacher Steve Holt.

I want to talk about violence in prayer.

And I and it's still under this rubric of ominous times and the power of prayer that I've already been doing on Sunday mornings.

But I want to talk about holy violence.

So turn in your Bibles, if you would, to Matthew 11, 12.

And it almost seems like an oxymoron, doesn't it, talk about holy violence.

Holy violence.

But I want to, what I want to start doing now as we move into prayer over on the Wednesday nights is I want to start talking on this issue of how we pray to see answers to our prayers that sometimes may make you uncomfortable because of the agony that's involved in it.

And in this case, tonight I want to talk about briefly this idea of holy violence.

It's very interesting in Matthew 11, 12, because Jesus explains that with the coming of John and with himself coming with the kingdom, there was actually going to be a fundamental difference of how ministry was going to happen on the face of the earth.

Really interesting.

And he says this, verse 12, and from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

That there are actually powers on the earth.

And you know from Matthew 4 and Luke 4 that when Jesus was about to begin his public ministry, he was in the desert, in the wilderness for 40 days, 40 nights fasting and praying, and somewhere in that 40 days, he was taken up to the pinnacle of a temple, literally by Satan up to temple.

And Satan told Jesus, all the kingdoms of the earth have been given to me.

Meaning that there are kingdoms all over the globe that Satan has control over.

Now, if you juxtapose that, again, I'm not going to cover all of that because of time, but look at Daniel chapters 9 and 10 another time.

Daniel 9 · chapter mention

You can just, if you're taking notes, put down Daniel 9 and 10.

Because in that passage, very interesting, that Daniel is under Cyrus the Great.

He has a revelation of the future that's going to happen to Israel, you guys.

And he goes into prayer to understand the revelation that he had.

And so for 21 days he fasts and prays.

And then this huge spirit, this angel, we believe it's probably Gabriel, who's the guardian angel over Israel, touches him.

He falls on his face.

And then he says an interesting thing.

He says, for 20, the 21 days, from the first day you started to fast and pray and seek me, we heard your prayers.

I heard your prayers, but I couldn't get to you because of the prince of Persia.

So there was this prince over Persia.

And remember, Cyrus the Great is over Persia.

So this prince is over Cyrus.

And for some 21 days there evidently was a battle going on as Daniel prayed.

And then as he broke through, he says, he broke through because Michael, the archangel, came and fought with me.

Now, is that spooky or weird or what?

I'd like to break it down.

We don't have time.

I just want to talk about violence and prayer right now.

Daniel has no idea about this.

He has to have the angel tell him that this is going on.

So he's not, he's not coming against a prince of Persia.

He's praying to God.

But when he started to pray, now this is what I want you to get tonight.

When he started to pray, it released power in the fourth dimension.

You see, most of us, we live in the three-dimensional world.

But when you pray, something happens in the fourth dimension that affects demonic powers.

Don't miss that.

And so when we start to pray, there is a reaction in the heavenly world, even with angels, in response to things that you're praying about.

And I think the response is elevated by the level of your own faith.

Okay?

So God evidently has allowed the earth to be an earth under demonic control that is using men and women like yourself, who are a kingdom of priests and kings, is what the scriptures say, to take back territory from the enemy.

That is your calling.

And he says that from the beginning of John the Baptist, there is a holy violence going on, both against us, but also through you to push back this darkness.

So Noah's Webster, I love Noah's Webster, 1828.

Dictionary defines violence as, quote, urged or driven with force, urged or driven with force, as of a violent wind or a violent stream.

Forceful extreme.

The Greek word for violence is biastis.

It means energetic, it means forceful.

When we go into prayer tonight, I want you to be energetic and forceful.

It's actually the same word for the wind that came at Pentecost.

Acts 2.2.

So when the wind came at Pentecost, some of your Bible, look at your Bibles.

Some of them say, look at Acts 2.2.

Some of your Bibles say a violent wind.

A forceful wind.

I think if I remember New American Standard says forceful or violent wind.

So this violent wind that came, that's the word we're talking about at Pentecost, is upon you.

If you are filled with the Holy Spirit tonight, you have a forceful wind.

You have a violent energy within you that's from the Spirit of God because you are going to need that.

In the days ahead, as we near, as we get closer to the coming of the Lord, you're going to need that kind of holy violence within your spirit.

Or you are going to, you're going to falter, you're going to struggle.

Because the violence on the other side is coming increasingly dark and increasingly forceful.

So let me tell you a story.

Last week, um, I took a day with the Lord, and what that means is that I just drop everything and I usually go home or I go to 11 mile the stream there, 11 mile canyon, or I'll sometimes go to another uh place where I hike in and I'm just by myself.

I'm watering.

Usually I'm fasting at St.

on that day.

On this day, I was back in our backyard in Black Forest at our fire pit and I was just, I had the Bible open.

I'm just I'm just really in it, it was really a cool time because I didn't have a plan.

That's always good.

Because usually my plans, you know, aren't what God wants, and he changes them up and everything.

But anyway, in this one, I like had enough forethought to think I don't really have a plan.

So God speak to me.

So I was just, I was just there, I had my arms out, had my Bible there, I was there before the Lord, and I heard a buzz sound, and I looked at my phone, and it was a um, what do you call it?

It was a verbal text.

I mean, it was in my text, but it was a it was what is it?

Okay, an audio text from a pastor here in town.

You'd know him if I named his name.

But he's he's he's increasingly become a really, really close friend.

Anyway, in in the voice text, he said, Steve, I've got to have you pray for my son.

We haven't heard from him in weeks, and I think he's suicidal.

He's addicted to drugs and alcohol, and I'm down in Florida, and I actually flew to Florida just to intercede for him.

He's actually in Austin, Texas, the young man is.

But he has a but this pastor has a house in Florida, and he's just been, and I'm just pacing back and forth, and God put you on my heart to call you.

We don't know where he's at.

He's got a he's got a family.

I'm really worried.

And he sounded like he was like crying, kind of almost crying on the phone.

So I I hung up, and you guys, all I can tell you is something rose up in me.

And I mean, it was scary.

And I had such a hatred for this demonic power over my pastor's son, who I've never met before.

This pastor's son, never met him, he's 25 years old, or I think 25 years old.

And I started screaming out against a spirit of alcoholism and a spirit of death, and I and I forcefully for 10 minutes screamed so loud that my dogs ran away.

And these are hunting dogs.

They, I mean, since little puppies, I've shot shotguns over them.

I've killed pheasant over these dogs.

They they know loud, and they went, woo, you know, and took off.

But for 10 minutes, I just I just had this unction, I had this fierceness, and all I can say it was like violence in my spirit for my pastor friend son.

And then it was gone.

As quickly as it came, it was gone, and I went, wow.

And so then I called him back and I told him what happened.

And he goes, Oh man, thank you, thank you, Steve.

That was so awesome.

Appreciate that.

An hour and a half later, that young man in Austin, Texas, did something he's never done in his whole life.

He checked himself into rehab.

And he's in he's in rehab now and he's doing very, very well.

I checked with this pastor today.

We were praying together.

Thomas Watson, a highly esteemed 17th-century nonconformist Puritan preacher and author, wrote a book called Heaven Taken by Storm, published in 1669.

And in this book, he talks about this holy violence in prayer.

This is nothing new, you guys.

This has also been called travailing.

I would also call it travailing in prayer.

Learning to travail in prayer is to get God's heart for something.

I think what happened is I travailed.

That it was, that God gave me a sense of where he was at about this thing.

You guys realize that God, God's never met a demon he likes?

You know, I mean, Jesus, everywhere Jesus went, he cast out demons.

You know, you could arguably say that Jesus' main ministry was the proclamation of the kingdom and the demonstration of the kingdom through casting out demons.

That's just, he just did it constantly.

And there was a violence about Jesus with the demonic that he never had with people.

He had total compassion for people, total love for people.

And it was actually the love that he had for people that made him so angry with spirits that were that were coming down with their chains and their and their power and their strength to ruin lives.

And so when he came, he would cast them out immediately.

So this holy violence that the early church, the early apostles had observed in Jesus.

So look at Acts chapter 4, and this is actually the only passage in the whole entire New Testament where we actually see how the early church prayed together, what they did in a corporate prayer meeting.

Acts 4 · chapter mention

And in this case, Peter and John have been arrested.

The church comes together.

And look at verse 23.

And look at the look at the violence of their prayers.

And being let go, they went and their own companions reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them.

So Peter and John are released.

Verse 24.

So when they heard that, they raised their voice to God with one accord and said, Lord, you are God who made heaven and earth and the sea and all that is in them.

Isn't that interesting that they actually didn't go straight into intercession?

They didn't actually pray about the problem that was before them.

That's really the thing they did is they went into worship.

They actually exalted the Lord.

That's what we're going to do in a few minutes.

We're going to go into worship and we're going to raise our voices into the heavenlies by acknowledging who God is in worship to Him.

Who by the mouth of your servant David has said, Why do the nations raise?

It's very interesting.

They're quoting Psalm 2.

Remember last week?

Last week I talked about the mystery of lawlessness, and I told you that the definition of lawlessness is Psalm 2.

1 through 3.

They're quoting it right here.

Why do the nations rage, and the people plot vain things?

The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ.

So they're talking about lawlessness.

For truly, against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles and the people of Israel, were gathered together to do whatever your hand and your purpose determined before to be done.

Now, Lord, look on their threats and grant, grant to your servants, that with all boldness they may speak your word by stretching out your hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done through the name of your holy servant Jesus.

And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken.

And they were filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.

Something happened in the fourth dimension, you guys.

There was a shaking through the prayers in the three-dimensional world.

There was some kind of cataclysmic encounter through the people of God praying such that it was like an earthquake.

And they were not praying in California.

I mean, there was an earthquake that happened, and there was a release of power, and people got filled with the Holy Spirit.

So they cried out to God, and then God released his power in a powerful way.

So, so look at Luke 4, 18, and 19.

Well, you don't have to look there.

Let me explain it.

In Luke 4, 18 and 19, Jesus says that his mission was to come to set the captives free.

Remember that?

To break off the heavy yoke, to break the chain.

So instead of looking at that, I want you to look at Acts 16.

So we see like an earthquake.

Now it's Acts 16, and Paul and Silas are in prison, and it says in verse 16, chapter 16, let's look at verse 25.

But at midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.

Suddenly there was a great earthquake.

Here we go again.

Through praise and worship and prayer, there's an earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken, and immediately all circle that word.

All the doors were opened, everyone, circle everyone, everyone's chains were loosed.

I believe that when we pray, God responds with what his mission on this earth is, and that's to drive back darkness through the people of God.

We talk about revival, we talk about revolution, that's why intercessory prayer, that's why Wednesday night, the 5 a.m.

prayer, the things that we do, when you pray, men and women, I don't get it logically, but when you claim your kingship, or queenship, I guess, your kingship, your queenship, your priestly right over the heavenly realm, inviting the Holy Spirit to pray through you, you're making way more impact than you know.

And that is why the enemy has made it his greatest goal to get pastors and leaders in churches so busy with things that don't matter because he's entrenched and he wants to keep us there.

And God is saying to us in the church today that I want a church that is a house of house of prayer.

And he gets mad when we're not a house of prayer.

We see it when he came into Jerusalem, he came in, and I mean he came through with those cords and he ripped that place apart.

And actually, in one account, one of the gospel accounts is the zeal of the Lord has consumed him.

And he said, This is not to be a house of merchandise, this is a house of prayer.

Look at Psalm 100.

In Psalm 100, I want to talk about, as I close, this idea of shouting to the Lord.

Okay?

Listen, guys, 52 times.

This is not an isolated idea.

This is prevalent through all of the Old and New Testament to shout the Lord.

I think Psalm 100 captures it the best.

Make a joyful shout to the Lord.

Make a joyful shout to the Lord, all you lands.

Serve the Lord with gladness.

Come before his presence with singing.

Know that the Lord He is God, for it is He who has made us and we are and not ourselves.

We are the people of His pasture, the sheep of His pasture.

Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise.

Be thankful to Him, bless His name, for the Lord is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endures to all generation.

Shouting to the Lord.

Now I'm a unit I went to University of Georgia.

And if you watch a University of Georgia football game with Steve Holt and Samuel and Josh and I, all the Holt boys, there's some shouting going on, folks.

And I mean you can hear.

Hear us probably ten acres away when a touchdown gets scored.

We shout to the Lord.

God's given you your vocal cords, He's given you the ability to shout, and it's my thesis that one of the most violent things we can do in getting our prayers answered is to shout to the Lord.

So Easter a year ago, a week or two before Easter, I can't remember exactly the date.

I've got it in my journal.

I'm in the round table room back here by myself, and I get a call from the young gal who's been who's been cutting my hair for like 10 years.

I know the whole family, they come here.

So I get this call from Lola, and she says, My dad's dying tonight.

And he's been in a battle with cancer for five years.

Okay?

So he he they're saying he's gonna die tonight.

Just wanted to let you know.

So I call Brian.

Brian can't answer, of course, because he's he's on his deathbed, his wife answers.

And I said, Hey, I got this from Lola, and she's crying, and she says, Yeah, this is I mean, all his vitals, everything's shutting down.

Again, something, something riled me about that thing.

I got riled up.

So I came in here by myself, turned on the lights, and I went nuts.

And I started shouting to the Lord, shouting out to the Lord, screaming out to the Lord for Brian's life.

And I just felt like that God was going to heal him.

And I shouted that healing forth, and for 30 minutes I marched all over this place, and I screamed it out to the Lord.

And then I went home and had supper.

And I get a call at night.

And I go, man, you're not gonna believe what happened.

He just rallied back and he's getting better, and then the next day he was better, and the next day he was better, and he's at Easter.

A week later, our Easter service.

He's still alive today.

Isn't that great?

So, men and women, if you're if you're if you tend to be a passive person, there's nothing wrong with that.

But I I believe God wants to pull something out of you of the fierceness of God.

He's looking for fierce saints.

And we can be fierce about so many different things, but it seems like when we come to our Christianity and we come to our faith, we just, I mean, I have seen men.

You guys know I major on building men.

That's why we have aim, you know?

And everything that we do as worshiper warrior.

I love being with men.

And it's amazing what you see.

I mean, any guy in the road, if there was somebody on the side of the road, man, any one of you guys would just drive over there.

If there was a bad guy robbing somebody, I know you guys.

Man, you just take them on.

And I think God wants that fierceness that's within you to come out spiritually with force.

There's something about us men, man, we get passive on spiritual things.

You women are way better at this.

When I'm all I'm looking around, the women are going, yeah, yeah, let's go, you know.

I'm looking at the men and they're like, Because that's the way, that's the enemy's way in your life.

And I just want to shake you and say, break off that spirit of passivity, man, and get fierce.

And let's do it now in worship.

So let's stand.

And some of you men, and all you young people, I know you'll do this.

Come up front.

Come up front.

Let's let's shout to the Lord, let's worship him, and let's be assertive.

You're you're shaking the heavenlies, man.

You're shaking the heavenlies up there when you guys come that way.

Do it on Sunday morning.

Calm.

Shake it off.

Don't worry about decor or decorum.

Just go for it and love the Lord.

I mean, I'll just tell you this.

This is what I really believe this.

That as a as a gymnast in high school and college, there were young guys that I would train that were like eight, nine, ten years old.

And I would tell them, the parents didn't like this, but I'd make sure the parents were there so I didn't get in a lawsuit.

But I'd say, you know what your son needs or your daughter needs?

I said, What?

They need to go jump off a really high bridge into a river.

You go, what?

And I said, because they're so passive, they're so full of fear.

They're just fearful.

I can't teach a person a backhand spring if they're fearful of a front roll.

I mean, come on.

So then you need we need to put them in something where they're like, where they're like freaking like courageous.

So can you create something for them?

I don't know what it is.

I'm not saying hit them with a bat or anything, but I mean, can can we have them jump off a house or something like that?

I mean, that's something I'm really gonna break someone's ankles, you know, or something.

But no, I mean it.

And I want to say to Christians, you guys, sometimes you gotta break out.

And sometimes you you'd be amazed if you shout to the Lord and you get violent in your prayers, it'll do something to your spirit.

Good for your spirit.

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