Positioned - Kingdom Prayer with Pastor Vanessa Cintron

Thanks for checking out the Anchor Faith Message podcast

from St. Augustine, FL.

Now enjoy this message. Again, it's an honor.

I'm for those who don't know me, my name is Vanessa Centron.

I am the children's minister here and also the preschool

director. And so most of the time I am

with the littles. Thank you.

It is my honor again to be here to minister.

Tonight. Pastor asked me to minister on

prayer. And so tonight we're going to

talk about some Kingdom positions in prayer.

And so we're going to do a little stirring up in the Word

some people that knew I was minister and always ask, well,

what's your object lesson? Because, you know, in children's

ministry, I've always got an object lesson or something I

pull out of a hat or a box or something.

Tonight, this is my object lesson.

This is my object right here. It's the Bible.

OK, if you ever, if you ever need your own object lesson, you

just pull this right out. OK, so tonight we're just going

to we're going to keep it with the Bible and the holy ghosts.

OK, those those two and one and we're going to dig into some

specific topics in prayer next coming Sunday.

We were we're going to go into another weeks long prayer and

fasting. And so pastor thought it would

be fitting for us just to kind of review some things in prayer.

It's always good. Everything in the world's always

good to review because we need to be stirred up by way of

reminder. That's what it tells us in

second Peter 31. It says, you know, stir you up

by way of reminder. The only way that we're going to

be able to do that is to be able to open up the word and read the

scripture. So I'm going to start out with

our key scripture tonight, and that is in John.

Excuse me. First, John 5 verses one through

15. So bear with me.

It's going to be a little bit of a long text, but we're going to

read it first in the NLT version.

And it says this. In verse one it says everyone

who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God

and everyone who loves Father God loves his children too.

We know we love God's children if we love God and obey his

commandments. Loving God means keeping his

commandments, and His commandments are not burdensome.

For every child of God defeats the evil world, and we achieve

this victory through our faith. And who can win this battle

against the world? Only those that Jesus who

believe that Jesus is the Son of God.

In verse 6 it says in Jesus Christ was revealed as God's Son

by his baptism and water and by shedding of his blood on the

cross, not by by water only, but by water and blood.

And the Spirit who is truth confirms it with his testimony.

So we have these three witnesses, the Spirit, the

water, and the blood, and all three agree.

And since we believe human testimony, surely we can believe

the greater testimony that comes from God and that God has

testified about his Son, who's his son Jesus, that we were

singing about tonight. All who believe in the Son of

God know in their hearts that this testimony is true.

Those who don't believe this are actually calling God a liar

because they don't believe what God has testified about a son.

Verse 11 And this is what God has testified.

He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son,

who's his son, Jesus. Whoever has this son has life,

and whoever does not have God's son does not have life.

And verse 13 it says I have written this to you who believe

in the name of the Son of God so that you may know and have

eternal life. And verse 14 and 15 will be our

our key scriptures tonight out of this text.

And we are confident say confident that he hears us

whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.

And since we know He hears us when we make our request, we are

we know that He will give us what we.

Asked for. OK, so this will be our key

scripture when it comes to prayer tonight, and I want to

talk to you about six different positions in prayer.

And when I mean the word position, I'm going to give you

the Webster's dictionary definition is the state of being

positioned or placed in the manner which something is

placed. It's also an attitude, a

condition or or something that's inclined to or an upright

position. We're going to use the

definition when it comes to attitude.

Another word in Scripture when we talk about position could

mean something that's set or an attitude.

Right now in the world, we have a lot of things where people are

given one position this way and one position that way.

But tonight we're going to talk about what it means to have the

Kingdom position in prayer, Kingdom position in prayer,

because we want to make sure that we are set in the Kingdom

way of looking at things, not just in the subject of prayer,

but that's what we're going to tackle tonight.

But in all areas of the word of God, we always in any part of

our life, we want to make sure that we are always looking back

to the word. My object tonight, the word is

always has to be our source of where we fix our position.

Because it really doesn't matter what somebody says to the left

or to the right. We have to make sure we stay

firmly in the middle and stay fixed to what God says about it,

what he's already given the answer for and so.

As I was. Getting prepared and looking

over scripture, I kept getting going over this phrase that I've

heard all of my life, and especially as I've gotten older.

Sometimes people will say the phrase, oh, they're just set in

their ways, you know, have you ever heard that before?

Someone will say, Oh yeah, they're not ever going to change

because that's just the way they are and they're set in their

ways. Well, that may be true for

people until they get victory and they get freedom and they

come to know who they are in Christ, then they can become

something new. They can be something different

and they should be something different.

And that difference is being Kingdom minded.

And when you get Kingdom minded and you do want to have this

philosophy that you are set in your ways, you're set in a

Kingdom way because once you get yourself, your eyes fixed to the

author and the finisher of your faith, you do not want to come

off of it. You want to stay fixed.

And so tonight as we read that scripture, our first point that

we're going to talk about is staying in a position of

righteousness. When we think about prayer, the

very first prayer that we've ever said as a believer is the

prayer of salvation. That's the entryway into being

born again. And so in Romans 10/9 and 10, it

says, you know, if you believe in your heart and you confess

with your mouth that it takes an action of you confessing.

And that's the prayer that then you pray to ask the Lord to come

in your heart. You know, make him first of your

life. You know he, he say.

Not only does he save you, but he endeavors to then be your

Lord. As you say, he is Lord over

everything. He's number one in a supreme and

authority of everything. And so when you do that, that's

that first entry prayer that we that we make and then we take.

And so we have to know that whenever we get positioned at

that moment where we say, Lord, I want all of you, that we are

then put in place into a right standing.

We were wrong before, and then you're put into the right

alignment and you're in the Kingdom.

And so Second Corinthians and the Amplified Classic tells us

this. It says for our sake He made

Christ virtually to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in, in and

through him we might become endued with viewed as being in

and examples of the righteousness of God, what we

ought to be approved and acceptable and in right

relationship with Him by his goodness.

So that last part says in right relationship the.

Moment that we are in Christ and it's all because of who?

Who were we singing about tonight?

Jesus, it always, it comes back to Jesus.

Jesus took care of this for us. God made a way for him to come

and take care of the penalty of sin for us.

So now we could be back in right standing.

So in our position of prayer, we have to remember who we are,

that we're right. So we have a right to come and

talk to the king. We made, we made the contract

connection and signed the deal. Whenever we said, I want you,

Lord, I, I'm giving my all to you.

I give it all up and I, I surrender my life to you.

At that moment we became right and we're in righteousness.

Romans 8 verses 12 through 17 tells us this.

Romans 8:12–17

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation, but it's

not to the flesh to live according to it.

For if you live according to the flesh, you will die.

But if you live by the Spirit, you put death to the misdeeds of

the body, you will live. For those who are led by the

Spirit of God, they are who they are children of God.

And the spirit you received does not make you slaves so that you

lived in fear again. Rather the spirit you received

brought about your adoption to sonship.

And by him we cry ABBA Father the Spirit himself testifies

with our spirit that we are God's children.

Verse 17 Now if we are children, then we are now heirs and heirs

of God and Co heirs with Christ. And if we indeed share in his

sufferings in order that we might also share in his glory.

You know, children have different access than just any

old person. You know, if you think about it

in your own house, your children have the right to come in, go

through the refrigerator, go through the pantry.

You know they're at home because they are with their family.

There's an intimacy there. We're heirs, which means we have

right to everything. Everything in the Kingdom that

the Lord is, it's there for us, and we have a right to it

because we are right, because he made a way for us to be right.

And so when we're thinking about in the terms of prayer and US

communicating to God and communing with God, we can come

to him and we can come to him with boldness because we're his

children. We don't have to be afraid.

We don't have to cower. We don't have to be ashamed

about anything if we're in and we remain and right standing

with him because we're in that relationship and we get to tap

into all of the benefits that he has.

You know, it's a benefit. And and you know, my house,

whatever's in there, you know, in the pantry, you can have it.

You know, I've got a teenage son.

So he says there's usually not enough in there, but that's, you

know, he needs to get his faith in there.

I guess on that right. But when we're in a right

standing position, we have to remember that we're in right

standing and we need to stay in that right, that right position.

So that's our first position in prayer.

Our next one is in faith. And I'm only going to just give

you a little snippet because our pastor has given us a great

study on that here recently in the last past Wednesdays.

And so if you haven't listened, you need to go online and make

sure that you listen to those past.

I believe we had five weeks of faith there.

There's nothing in the word that we could ever exhaust.

There's just so much, so much in every single session that we

Pastor Marcy was ministering in faith.

There was just more and more and more.

She could go for 10 more weeks on it because there's so much

that we need to remember and be stirred up in.

You know, we can forget. We can forget where we put our

keys. We can forget where we, you

know, did we start the laundry? Did we do, you know, did we do

that? Because there's so many things

going on in our life. There's so many different

distractions. But it's so important that we do

maintain that attitude to stay stirred up and fresh in the

word. So we are going to talk a little

bit about faith because we had to have the faith in the moment

that we said, I'm going to believe, I'm gonna, I believe

that there's a God. I'm hearing that there's this

God who's who sent Jesus for me, that sent someone to rescue me.

And then I'm wrong and I need to get right.

So there's a level of faith that you had it to to call upon him

that day to get right. And in John first, we just read

in first John 5/14, as we we said, and this is the victory

because we're born again. This victory that we have is

because of the faith we have. And what kind of faith is

overcoming faith in every obstacle, in every circumstance?

If we're positioned in the right alignment of prayer that the

Lord has placed us in, guess what?

We will have an overcoming victory in every circumstance,

in every situation. No matter what comes, we're

going to have an answer because we're in Him.

We're in, we're positioned right with Him.

Hebrews 11. One great faith.

Scripture says now faith is a confidence and what we hope for

the assurance about what we do not see.

Other versions tell us that this isn't a confidence is another

word for assurance. Being sure it becomes your

reality. Your reality becomes what God's

reality is as his child, what he has, what he says, what he's

done in the word now is your reality, whether you see it with

your physical eyes or not. And I like this next version

because it it touches on that little bit.

It says now, and this is in the amplified classic.

It says now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the

title deed of things we hope for being the proof of things we do

not see and the conviction of their reality, faith perceiving

as real fact. But what is this?

What is not revealed in the census?

So it's not anything we see externally, not anything that's

out here. It's in and by faith that we

believe whatever it is that we're praying for, that we're

going to receive it because our dad, Father God has told us and

we're his child and we believe our Father and we know what he

said is true. So guess what, we we say

position and faith, no matter what comes, I'm going to say

right directly position and I'm going to be set.

I'm going to be set. I'm going to be set in my way

that what God told me it's going to be.

So it doesn't waver. Our position is what you hold on

to and it stays steady and. Strong and you don't back down.

So when you're when we are praying, we pray out the

solution. Now our relationship with God is

is one of those and again, I'm not going to go into too much.

In fact, if you haven't read Pastor Mercy's prayer book, you

need to get it at guest relations.

It's a great book cool of the day.

It goes over prayer breaks them and she actually talks about

positions and prayers well, and she gives you a great

illustration of a really what our relationship is the oneness

of the father and kind of takes you on a journey there as well.

We're not going to have time to get into all that tonight, but

get get her. It's great a great pick me up.

I read it again. It's just one of those things to

stir yourself up in the subject of prayer.

You can't read it too much so, but what I liked about the book

is it it talks about it starts out talking about our oneness

with Christ, which is our communication.

And pastor said this not too many services ago where he said

that well, how the Lord arrested him when he was at Raymond said

if you spent as much time with your wife as you did with me,

then you wouldn't be married very long.

And so we it it takes you back to remembering that your

relationship with the Lord when you prayed the prayer of

salvation and got into the Kingdom.

That was just an entry prayer. He didn't want you to stop

talking. He wants us to continue talking

and communing with him every single day.

And that's why we'll get to it in somewhere in my notes about

the fact that prayer is not just a one time occurrence.

It's to pray without ceasing. It's something that we'll do all

the time, and when you keep that mindset and that fixed position

that I'm going to stay in my communication with the Father,

then it's very, very easy to trust because the more you know

someone, the more you know about them, the easier it is to trust.

Now, prayer is one way we get to know God.

Obviously, we get to know Him in the Word as well.

And so those two things work hand in hand as we continue

staying set in our ways with the King in the Kingdom.

Mindedness. OK, so our confession when?

We again when? We pray the prayer of salvation

that got us positioned right and now we're in the right way.

We can talk to the Father easily.

You know, I imagine there's people out there that pray all

the time, and a lot of times we see when great tragedy comes to

the world that everybody goes to their knees at that moment

because. They know that there's a God,

whether they've called upon him or not.

They know that there's something greater the the creators

speaking, you know, whether whether they've acknowledged it

or not. But The thing is God.

Doesn't want us just to come in our time of need.

Scripture says we can come in our in the time of need, but he

wants us to come all the time. He wants us to call and speak

the name of Jesus all the time. It should be such an easy thing

to do that I'm so set in my ways and it's not it's not habitual

and so much so like the old test, I mean the New Testament

Pharisees where they just did it so that they could show, make

for show. We'll read that in just a few

minutes. But it's an intimate

relationship that you're spending the time with God, that

it's just something you do. It's just so natural.

It's so natural. It's more natural than you

picking up the. Phone and calling your parents

or calling your sister or calling a friend.

It's just it's it. The Holy Ghost number one is

within you all the time. So when you're by yourself,

you're not by yourself. You've got the Holy Ghost with

you and there's no separation wherever you're at, which

whatever you're doing, you matter to the Lord.

And that's why I'm getting jumping ahead of my notes.

But. It it's so awesome that God not

only gave us Jesus, but then he gave us the Holy Ghost that we

didn't have to be left alone. So I want to jump 2 ahead.

But again, our, our first position is righteousness.

We've been made right in him. And then because of that, we

then enter into this life of faith into the Creator who we

can't see. We can only see his effects.

We can see and sense the Holy Ghost that gets placed upon us

when we're born again. And then for those who have been

filled with the Holy Ghost, then you get the a pawn that's now at

the end filling where you then have a prayer language that you

can pray out that language. And so that's so very important

tonight. There'll be opportunities.

So if you don't have that, get ready, have opportunity tonight.

OK, position next is in confidence.

So our key scripture tonight when we read.

In verse 14 of verse John 5, it says, and this is the confidence

that we have towards Him, that if we ask anything according to

His will, He hears us. Well, His will is His Word.

So if we want to know what God thinks about something, what He

desires about something, the only way is for us to find that

out is for us to read the Word. We can find out His will and

then. We can pray just in line with

that so that we know that he's hearing us.

We're not praying wishes, we're not praying and in in a stance

of begging. We don't have to do any of that.

Again, we are His heirs and we have all of the benefits in His

Kingdom, and if we have all of His benefits, we can tap into

them and all we have to. Do is pray according to his

word, and we have this thing called confidence.

You know when you're confident you don't.

Nothing phases. You when you know you can go in

and do something and you can feel like you can conquer the

world when you have confidence and I'd much rather have the

confidence of the Lord than any other any other way that or

opportunity or alternative that could come in the world to give

you confidence. The word is all I want, God is

all I want, the Holy Ghost is all I want to give me the

confidence. And he says in first.

And 1st John of I'm going to read it in the back in the NLT

version, it says, and this is a. And we are confident that he

hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases him.

And since we know he hears us when we make our request, we

also know that he will give us what we ask for.

You know, our kids are very good about asking for things, right?

So keeping that perspective when we're talking about that he's

Father God and we're asking, you know, he wants us to remind him.

He wants us to remind, you know, our kids sometimes what can I do

this? Can I do this?

Can I do this? Especially when they're younger,

they'll they'll be repetitive and they'll ask and they won't

forget. They won't forget if there's

something they really wanted. And then you maybe you know my

my phrase, especially when they were younger was maybe.

And they're like, oh, I don't. Like maybe I said you'd need to

like maybe because maybe is maybe yes and maybe no.

It's kind of middle of the road. So I was I was pretty pretty

fair. I wasn't always no and wasn't

always yes. And so it was a maybe.

But with God, if it's according to his word, there's no maybe it

is what he said it is. He said we can be healed.

So there's no maybe there, he said.

We can have freedom over whatever addiction.

There's there's no there's no special case that that this

won't happen for no, we have every single thing, he says.

We have peace. Even when it's a stormy mess in

our life. All chaos is happening just in

our own personal lives, or it could be all over the world.

We see this and. That and just.

We can rest and knowing that the Word says I can have peace in

every situation and I can have the confidence to know that

whatever I need to pray for, whatever I'm believing for, He

hears me. I'm confident that nothing's

going to get me off the fact that God said it.

You know what? And a few weeks.

In the summer and then just a couple weeks ago, a Nautilus,

you know, I took Rhema's stance on what brother Hagin would say.

God said it. I believe it.

That settles it like there's no, there's no me changing like

it's, it is what it is. I am set in my ways when it

comes to the word and set in my ways when it comes to the

Kingdom. It settles.

It's done. I've you've drawn a line in the

sand and you said I'm not passing this point.

I'm with God and I'm firmly persuaded because of the faith

and because that I know I'm His child that I can confidently

ask. Ephesians 313 says this.

Because of Christ and of our faith in Him, we can now come

boldly and confidently into His presence.

Again, there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ, so

there's never a reason for us not to be able to come in and be

confident in His presence, no matter what, that we can come

and we can just speak. And again, it doesn't have to be

something special. You don't have to wait till you

get to church on Sunday or Wednesday.

He wants this at all times in, in every circumstance, in every

situation of our life. He wants us to come into His

presence and with boldness and with confidence.

Hebrews. 4. 16 It says, Let us then with confidence draw near

to the throne of grace, that may we may receive mercy and find

grace in the time of need. We have to maintain that our set

position is in confidence. And when we do that, we then

start tapping into the this thing called authority that we

have. Again, that's a whole other

topic, but we as believers have authority because we're Kingdom

citizens. We can tap in to all the Kingdom

benefits and in our prayer time, we can start seeking those

things out and we can only expect confidently that we're

going to have what we ask for, right?

So stirring you up just to think in the mindset of prayer, prayer

is not a one time occurrence. Prayer is something we're doing

consistently, constantly, you know, and if you're new here or

you don't, you, you're questioning what prayer is, You

know, prayer is just simply communicating with God.

It's communication. It's not just one way, it's both

ways because not only will you speak to him, but he will speak

back to you. You know, some other belief

systems, other other religions, you know, get really fascinated

by the actual physical position that somebody gets into prayer.

There's no right or wrong. You know, sometimes you'll

notice here in service, you know, some may kneel, some may

bow. There's going to be moments in

the Spirit of God where where we may do those things in it and

it's honoring to the Lord. But there's no wrong or right

way to, you know, you don't have to have your, you know, head

bowed and just like this. I know sometimes we do that with

the kids to help them practice and concentrate.

Sometimes it is easier to close your eyes, especially when

you're in a stance of worship. But if you're just alone with

God, you can kneel by the bed. You can sit on the bed and talk

to him. I mean, you can talk to him

while you're in the car, while you're in the shower.

I mean you this is there's no like set.

Place. That you have to be to make this

happen. Prayer is whenever, wherever.

In fact, sometimes he may or he may.

He may nudge you to have a conversation.

He may be just just like the kids come and nudge us for a

conversation. He might be coming up to gently

because that's what the Holy Ghost will do to have a

conversation, to remind you of something to spark, to spark

some things in you. Because God ultimately wants to

see us continue to grow and grow and grow further in our

relationship with them. And so in order to do that, we

got to talk. We can't know him more.

We can't do more, but we have to talk.

And so just wanted to give you that little insight that, you

know, it's not so much of A about a literal position,

although all of those things work.

You know, I know some people that is their, that is their way

of communicating with God. And there's nothing wrong with

that. If that's your routine to get up

in the morning and have your, your alone time with God and

it's a certain way, then you keep doing that.

You keep growing in it, but don't, don't be limited to that

because God can talk to you in any moment and he wants to

continue to do that. So maintain your position and

your confidence to know that when he hears you, when you

speak, he hears you and he's going to answer that prayer.

Next, let's talk about the position being positioned and

forgiveness set and forgiveness. Now when you were born again,

you were forgiven. All was forgiven clean.

Slate, wipe slate, but this? Is a moment, as you know, as we

talk about prayer, the scripture tells us about searching our own

heart because there are some hindrances to prayer there.

There are some things that can happen in prayer or happened in

our life that cause us to have an offense or cause us to have a

block and us not getting somewhere with what we're

believing for. And a lot of times we have to

search ourselves and make sure, OK, we know God's word's true

and we know that it's he said he'll never fail us.

He'll never forsake us. I know what his will is and I'm

praying that, but I'm just not seeing the results.

And so we have to go back and make sure we search our hearts

to to see if there's anything within us that we need to deal

with. And so let's talk about

forgiveness for just a moment. You know, the, it's so important

that as we come and we start to come in corporately, you know,

we have, we're talking about prayer and some different ways

tonight. Prayer individually for the

believer is something we all do. But then when we come together,

there's some power and greatness that can happen when we're all

unified in prayer, we're all having the same mindset.

We're all in the same fixed position in alignment.

So let's take it back to children.

You know, we I'm not many of you have different family dynamics,

but if you think about a family that has, you know, more than

one or two children, you know their siblings, you know, if one

child is out of alignment, you know, just use dinner for an

example. If just one child is often

dinner, guess what that is just caused a little chaos to

everyone at the table. Everyone is affected, right?

So if someone's at the table and they're ready to eat dinner and

little Joey. I'm.

Sorry, little Joey, first name I thought about so little Joey.

He doesn't want to eat the green beans or whatever.

And then he throws a temper tantrum.

Not him. So he he's throwing a tantrum.

Well, you know, all the other kids are eating, they're doing,

they're supposed to, But this one is causing the distraction.

This one is causing a fit. This one is not right at the

moment. So yes, parenting, yes, they

need to address it and deal with it and get them right back in

alignment in the fixed position he needs to be in and eating

those green beans, right. But that's a whole different

subject and conference and all that.

But yes, you do need to deal with it for sure.

As a preschool director and children's pastor, yes, please

deal with with that. But for purposes, I'm talking

about you guys. I'm not talking about little

John, Joey, Johnny, Joey. I'm talking about the grown up

Joey that comes to feed here, you know, because this is part

of us being part of the body of Christ is that we come to eat.

You know, there's multi facets that the Lord built the church

and part of it is we come to get some bread, We come to get the

our shepherds here to feed us and it because we're his the

we're the flock. And so we got to be hungry.

But if somebody's messing up some stuff at the table, then

that can cause some disruption and in unity.

And so then this is what's so important as we get ready to go

into a week of prayer and fasting that we get things

right, that we're in right alignment, we're right fixed

position. We're not going to get off of

it. We're going to make sure that we

got everything right. And so as we talk about

forgiveness, let's go to James because we don't want to have

any hindrances to anything that we're believing for.

And we want to be able to come and connect with our brothers

and sisters in Christ and know that I'm fixed in position,

they're fixed in position, that was fixed in position.

And guess what? We're all fixed.

Then we can get in unity and we can bring some power together,

bring some authority with our prayer.

And guess what? We can see things happen and

change quicker and easier if we're in the right place.

So James 516 says this. It says, therefore confess your

sins to one another, your faults, step your offenses, and

pray for one another that you may be healed and restored.

The heartfelt and persistent prayer of a righteous man or

believer can accomplish much when we put into action and made

effective by God. It is dynamic and can have

tremendous power. So there's a lot to unpack here

because it's first telling us that we need to make sure that

there's anything that we need to confess.

So we get it right. We go to our brother and we

ultimately are coming to them to confess so that there's healing

and restoration. And sometimes that can be a huge

stumbling block to someone's answered prayers.

And then they can say that prayer doesn't work.

But really, we got to go back to what's on the inside that needs

to be dealt with with my brother.

Did someone offend you did. Is there something in you that

you know you did? And you're like, I need to

apologize. I need to make it right with

someone, whatever that may be. And this is talking to the

believer. Get it right because if you get

it right, you as just a single believer on your own.

It says that if you have a heartfelt and persistent prayer.

You can accomplish much much. So just imagine if I'm in the

right position, you're in the right position.

All each one of us in this body right now, in this sanctuary is

in right position. How much effectiveness we can

have, dynamic dunamis power that we can have in the Greek right,

mighty and effective that we can have if we are in the right

position, if we're set in the Kingdom way and set in the

Kingdom way. And so it's also, we're going to

get to jump to it in a little bit, but it's also embedded in

the Lord's Prayer. We're going to go through that

in just a little bit. But that it, it talks about the

fact that we have forgiveness and it's right smack in the

middle. It talks about some things and

then right in the middle it says that we must forgive.

So that must be pretty important to God that we can't go any

further in our prayer life with him and our conversation with

him. If we can't, we can't forgive

one another. OK, Matthew 6 verses 14 through

Matthew 6:14–15

15, the amplify tell us for if you forgive others, their

trespasses, their reckless and willful sins, your heavenly

Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive

others, nurturing your hurt and anger with result that

interferes with your relationship with God.

It says it, it interferes, Joey and those green beans is

interfering at the dinner table. So if you've got a hurt and an

anger that's unresolved, guess what, it's hindering and

interfering the relationship with God that says then God will

not forgive your trespasses. You're you're putting a blockade

from from the flow of what God wants to do and what's in his

will in the word when you don't forgive and you don't open that

up. So it's so very important that

we do that. And now let's go to the Lord's

Prayer. So Matthew 6, one through 18,

and it says this in the NSAB 1995 edition.

It says beware of practicing your righteousness before men to

be noticed by them. Otherwise you have no reward

with your Father who is in heaven.

So when you when you give to the poor.

And it emphasizes when you, because we are to pray.

It's not if you pray, it's when you pray.

Give to the poor. Do not sound a trumpet before

you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets,

so that they may be honored by men.

Truly, I say to you. That they have the reward in

full. But when you give to the poor,

do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

so that you your giving will be in secret, and your Father who

sees what's done in secret, will reward you.

When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites, for they

love to stand on the and pray in the synagogues and on the street

corners so that they may be seen by men.

Truly, I say to you, they have the reward in full.

But when you pray, go into your inner corner, close the door,

and pray to your Father who is in secret, and your Father who

sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

And when you pray when you're praying, do not use meaningless

repetitions as the Gentiles do for they suppose that they will

be heard for their many words. So do not be like them for your

Father knows what you need before you ask.

And then it goes on to say, OK, here is how you pray.

And this is what we we don't was known as the Lord's Prayer.

And so we're going to read that in just a second and verse 9.

But I want to key in on this. This is talking about the fact

that our prayer time is not to be a brag, you know,

braggadacious, so to speak. If I want to use that word it

the people that were Gentiles just wanted to brag.

It was all about just putting on a show inside.

They weren't changed. So everything that they were

doing on the outside was just just to make it look like it was

something. No, it's deeper with God.

God wants something way more than just me check in a box.

Just like when we read the word, It's not just about us getting

it done. Prayer is not like that either.

And it's also not about us just flaunting and and being now

there's a moment when we have corporate prayer that we should

be talking. And it's not that we're talking

loud so everybody can hear us, but we're talking in the

boldness and authority that we have because we're proclaiming

things out to the Lord. And that's a little bit

different. And I imagine pastor would have

no problem with us if we, we all were in here.

Just like it's time for praise and worship.

And there's there's a, a volume change with our with our lips

and our mouths as we're singing. When we come in prayer, we can

have that. It doesn't have to be quiet and

solemn. And we can't say anything

because they can't hear it. That's not what this is saying.

We don't have to whisper. We can talk.

We can, we can speak out and, and the authority that we have

and talk because really that's what it is.

It's just talking to God and just it doesn't have to be

eloquent and, and all flowy and perfect and new King James or

not new King King James version. It doesn't have to be that like

it's not formal. It's not formal.

It's just you talking to the king, speaking at his will.

So it's so easy to look at this example and say, OK, not

supposed to do that, not supposed to do that, OK, this is

what I'm supposed to do. And this he tells us in verse 9.

He says I want you to pray this way our.

Father who art in heaven, or who is in heaven, hallowed be your

name, your Kingdom come. Down here, right, your will be

done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day Our Daily Bread, and forgive us.

There's that forgiveness of our debts, as we also have forgiven

our debtors. And do not lead us in

temptation, but deliver us from evil.

For yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever.

Amen. So again in verse 14 it talks

about forgiveness. Again it says if.

For if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly

Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive

others, then you, your father will not forgive your

transgressions goes on to same verse 16 whenever again not if

you pray, but whenever. Now he's talking about fasting.

He said don't when you fast, don't put on a gloomy face as

the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance so that

they will be noticed by men. And they were went that they are

fasting. Truly, I say to you that they

will have the reward in full, but you when you fast, anoint

your head, wash your face so that your fasting will not be

noticed by men, but your father who is in secret and your father

who sees what's what's done in secret or reward you.

Of course, we're pastors called and said we're going to have a

time of corporate prayer and fasting.

You know, we should live really a fasted life when, when that

what that means is at any moment, if the Lord says I need

you to adjust this or tweak this and I need you to maybe abstain

from this food, or maybe there's something that you're needing an

answer on that is part of living a fasted life that you take some

time and you starve the flesh so that you can let your that your

soul realm get connected with the spirit and you can hear and

be finely tuned because that's really what it's about.

Fasting is not, you know, although it will be helpful

sometimes to get rid of distractions of media and TV and

things like that. But scripturally a fast is about

fasting a food item or, or food group or sometimes food all

together. And so you want to be led by the

spirit on that, on what it should be that that God is

asking you to do because it, it's not the same for everybody.

God knows what you're dealing with and what you need.

And so whatever that may be, may be a meal, it may be a whole

food group, it may be you're going to, you know, cut out

something that you is really maybe has a hold on you.

And nothing in this life should ever have so much of a hold on

us that we can't say, God, I'm done with that.

I just want you and all. Of you is OK.

And so these moments and these times of prayer and fasting are

are times for us to consecrate this, this snippet of time,

although we're again supposed to be praying everyday, praying

without ceasing. These are moments though

corporately though we're all in our regular routines, but we're

taking a moment to really concentrate and consecrate our

time during a prayer and a fast. And so this coming week, as we

start on Sunday, whatever it is that God's placing in your life

to to take a take a, a pause or a break on, you can do it.

You can do it if you've never. Fasted before it's it.

You can do it. Your flesh will will be OK.

It will want to rise up, whatever it is that that God's

calling you to to put down for the weak.

You will be able to. Hear and be fine-tuned to say,

OK, God, what is it that you need to show me?

This week I went back through my notes because I do take paper

notes, but a lot of times in here, it's easy just for me to

get on my notes on my phone. And I, we've done a few

different prayer and fastings this year and I went back

through and not only do we do we prayer and fast on our own, but

then we come and we have a corporate time here together

during that week. So every night we'll be having a

time where we come together in prayer.

But pastors usually have a little moment or they'll do some

teaching on, on prayer or whatever they're sensing in the

spirit to maybe pray for something specific or minister.

But I had some awesome notes and some things that pastors

ministered during those nights, especially back in January and

then. All the words that the Lord.

Spoke to me during that time. I was stirring myself up reading

them. And so I just challenge you.

Not even just for this weekend and prayer and fasting.

If you're not a note taker for me, I'll retain it.

But I'll be honest, it's a discipline.

I, it's a discipline for me. It's one of those things that I,

I take notes because it helps to, to concentrate and, and keep

myself fixed and focused on what's being said.

And I, I have a little thing on my notes and I'll write Mt,

which means it's my thought, which I know it's not really my

thought. It's the Holy Ghost's thought.

But it's, that's always, I've just done that since I was a

teenager. I wrote Real Uppercase Mt and

when I go back to my notes, I know that that meant that during

the message, it wasn't what Pastor said or who was

ministering at the time. It was what the Lord said to me

and gave me revelation. And during these times of prayer

and fasting, the Lord wants to reveal more to us.

He wants to speak more into our life, and He wants us to be able

to have eyes wide open because the prayer and fasting is that.

That's one part, but it's also for us to come together in

unity, fixed in that position, Kingdom minded, stubborn,

Kingdom minded people. That's that's when you want to

be stubborn is when you're Kingdom minded.

You get your mind so set and fixed.

There's nothing that's going to change it that and those things,

those two things, we can see change.

We can see things move and we want to do that.

So and looking at forgiveness, those are just a few things that

the Lord showed me through Scripture today that we need to

make sure that we are keeping our selves fixed in forgiveness.

So if there's something that you got to deal with before you even

get to the fast, deal with it this week and just have an open

clean slate to say, God, I'm ready to walk into something

this week. You know, I know, I know

September has been a month. In past years, we have said

separate timber, you know, separate a time of separation

away from some normal habits, normal routines and again, food

items and things that it you know, when you get hungry.

I was just talking about to somebody not too many days ago

and they talked about being hungry and that that is a real

thing for people. You know, sometimes when you

just, they reminded me of the Snickers commercial, I laugh,

'cause she's in here. And, you know, they, they, they

made it really good when they said that they did their

advertisement there because it, people sometimes do get a little

bit cranky when they just haven't had a bite to eat.

You know, they haven't had anything to eat.

They're just, I don't know, Joey should have eaten those green

beans, right? Healthier than a Snickers bar.

But you, you get what I'm saying.

You know, you know when you're hungry, you know when things are

growling, you know when you know it may not be, it may not be

food. We know when we're getting when

things are getting testy, when we haven't been in the word and

we haven't been praying and we haven't been community like we

know we know what our own personal triggers are.

And if you don't know, the Holy Ghost will remind you of of it.

And don't turn a deaf ear to it. We want to be open and listening

all the time to what he has to say.

So get yourself selves in a position to be forgiven and

grant forgiveness so that you don't hinder any of what you're

believing for or what someone else is believing for.

So let's talk about we talked a little bit touched on as we were

talking about forgiveness, but purpose, you know, another

position is what? Why do I pray?

What's my purpose and and in even talking to God or bringing

something before him. I've referenced it a couple

different times tonight, but first Thessalonians 5 chapter 5

verses 16 through 18 says rejoice always pray without

ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances

for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you see our

participation. Sorry I'm skipping ahead and our

participation. That is one of the reasons that

he's given us purpose for prayer is that we'll participate.

We'll get to that in a minute, but.

We are too. To know that prayer is for us,

it's our communication link. We don't have to go to someone

else in the church on our behalf to talk to God for us.

We don't have to rely upon an intermediate.

Some, like some belief systems, are I can go right to him and

say I blew it or I'm going through this or I need help with

this or whatever, or hey, this is what's going on today.

At what? What direction should I go in?

This is why it's so important to know what your position is and

where you should be firmly set. Because once you do and you dig

in your heels and you say, I'm not going to, I'm not going to

change anything when it comes to the word other than you're going

to change when the word says change.

But what I mean by that is you're not going to change.

You're not going to get off the fact that you're trusting and

believing and staying focused and fixed on what God says in

his word and you're going to stay on that in prayer.

So that's our purpose. So when we participate, that's

our next one. We're position in participation.

You know, there's a quote by John G Lake says that I'm

paraphrasing, but there he says that man, we can't do anything

unless man prays basically that we want to see change.

God won't do it. He won't do it because he can't

do it without us. God has already made the way,

but He can't make the change without us using our voice to

confess, to proclaim, to use our authority and grab hold of what

He's already done for us. And so if a man can't pray, the

man can't receive. And so that is our way is to be

positioned in our participation that we keep our set attitude in

the Word, that we listen to the Spirit which will bear witness

to the Word of God. And then in everything we do, we

stand in that position and we know if it's something that's

got to change, we know it will change.

Because the word says it'll change.

We don't we don't look to the right or to the left, what we

say firmly focused and know that his word is true, that he's

faithful to his word. So you position yourself only

only only to see the result. Again, earlier I said, you know,

you pray the solution. Now I'm not saying you can't be

real with God and tell them the crummiest parts of what's going

on in your life because you should just be real with God and

that's fine. He's going to hear you.

But when you're saying God, I believe, you know, you can say

God, I'm going through this, but I know what your word says.

I know what the word says. You always go back to remind him

of what his word says, right? His word is what we stay fixed

on when we participate in. That's in in anything that we're

believing for. And again tonight our key

scripture in first John 514 and 15.

And this is the confidence that we have towards him that if we

ask anything according to his will, he what hears us.

So again, in our participation, there's a hearing two way, two

way communication. One is hearing, one is doing the

speaking. You know, we can't do all the

speaking. Some that love to talk so much.

Sometimes you got to stop and listen to there's a there's a

two way St. You can't just do all the

talking and you can't just do all the listening, right.

God wants you to to be a participator on both sides of

the spectrum. So again, he hears us and we

know that if we ask whatever according to his will, we're

going to have those requests because it says it, the word

says it. And what I love about the fact

that we get to participate in prayer is that God promised

greater works. And if you look at what he

promised us and then you see in the early church and Acts, you

know, God promised us in the Scripture, Jesus would tell his

disciples, you know, I've got to leave.

You know, he, he would tell him, I'm going to die, I'm going to

raise three days later. And then, you know, again, he

told him I'm going to have to leave.

And then when he came back and he was, he was risen again.

I've got to leave. He, he would, he always said,

I've got to leave because I've promised something better.

And the better is what we're living in.

He said we would. He would have to leave so that

the greater one would be able to come, so more and more could be

done. And so let's go to John 14,

John 14:12–17

verses 12 through 17. And it says this very truly.

I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been

doing, and they will do even greater things than these

because I'm going to the Father and I will do whatever you ask

in my name so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

You may, may ask me for anything in my name and I will do it.

If you love me. Keep my commands and I will ask

the Father and he will give you another advocate.

Praise the Lord for the advocate to help you to be with you

forever. That's what I'm talking about.

That's the Holy Ghost on the inside that is with you wherever

you go. Verse 17 says the spirit of

truth. The world cannot accept Him

because he neither sees him nor knows him.

But you know him, for He lives with you and will.

Be. In you.

So that's the the Holy Ghost that resides on the inside of

us. When we're born again and he's

as our advocate, our guide, we can speak to him.

That's how we are able to communicate with God.

If he wouldn't have left, Jesus could only do so much as as

living on the earth as an earthly man.

There's three years of time and ministry until it was time for

him to go to the cross. He could only do so much.

He knew that if I sin now I've done my part.

Now it's time for the Holy Ghost to do its part in the earth.

And so we get to do the acts that were promised in this

dispensation, this time of of life, we get to do in the acts

that was promised that the that not only the greater would would

come, but then power would be given to be endued from on high.

And that power is the Holy Ghost.

Now upon that then fills us with the Holy Ghost with evidence and

speaking in tongues. And so we can participate in

English or whatever your native language is that you were born

into. But there's something even

greater that we not only can I talk to God in English to it's

much of my understanding that my mind can go to, but I've got the

Holy Ghost on the inside that resides in me.

And now I can pray out my prayer language and I, I can be, it can

help lift me up. It can help encourage me.

It can help stir me up. And then we're going to read.

It's going to help me, as Romans 826 and 27 says.

Now, in the same way, the Spirit also helps our weakness, for we

do not know what to pray for as we should, but the Spirit

himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.

And he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the

Spirit is, because he intercedes for the Saints according to the

will of God. So we not only have our we can

talk to God just like we're talking tonight, but we've got

the Holy Ghost on the inside that we can pray out our prayer

language and we're praying out mysteries.

We're praying out things we don't know.

And so a lot of times, when pastor even leads us in our time

of prayer, start out in English. Start out with what you know.

Start out with what's on your heart about, you know, the

church. And a lot of times when we come

to corporately, that's not the time at that moment for you to

be talking about all the things that's going on in your life.

It's then for us to come together and talk about what's

going on with the body of Christ, what's going on in the

world that we need to cover in prayer, what needs changing,

that we can connect our faith together and see that change.

And so we get to be participators.

We get to come and see as we are unified in the body of Christ in

all of these positions that we've talked about tonight in

righteousness because we're right, standing because we are

right. We can follow in God's faith

that He's given us with a confident expectation that

whatever we're praying for, whatever we're believing for, He

hears us and it's going to happen.

And then we walk in a purpose. We're purposeful in our prayer

that we are mindful of what we say to God and know that I'm

only going to speak what the Word says.

I'm going to come with the solution of the word.

I know this is the problem and this is what I'm going through,

but I know God's words is greater and it's stronger and

it's going to give me exactly what I need.

So I'm going to, I'm going to seek, seek out what the will of

God is for this situation. And then as we purpose in prayer

and keep ourselves fixed, then guess what?

That participation, we actually act upon it and we we show up,

we pray we should. What would it be if we all show

up? What it would be if every member

shows up every time that we have prayer.

You know, Pastor Marcy mentions this in her book and it and it

again, I believe our churches the anomaly.

We do have a strong not only do we have strong and prayer strong

and serving. I mean anchor faith rocks.

You know, hands down. I'm a little biased, but hey, we

should we rock anchor faith rocks.

You know, we do the word and so we should only expect that if

we're coming together and we got everything set and we're ready

to hear the words of the King. Every time we come to service,

we come to prayer just the same. We come not to get, but to give

out because not only when you come to get the word and get

fed, you're a participator. You know, as I mentioned, Joey

didn't want to eat his green beans at the dinner table.

But you know, family time and dinner time, and I know it's not

as common in our day and age as it was when I was a kid, but it

is important to do that. So if you, if you haven't, it's

a good thing to do to have family, family meal time.

And when you do that, guess what?

There's fellowship, there's participation.

Everybody takes a turn and has something to say about how their

day was. One thing, when our kids were

little, I would always play high, low, OK, give me your high

of the day. Give me your low of the day.

You can tell me whatever order you want.

And it would open up conversation, you know, and some

days the lows were really low. And then that gives you a chance

as a family to encourage one another, to strengthen one

another. And so that's what we do when we

come in here, when we're coming in prayer, we're not just coming

with a problem yet. We may have some lows, but we're

coming in here because we know that our power, the prayer, the

prayer that we're coming brings makes power available.

And so does the next person next to me.

And as we come and get connected and we stay fixed in that

position, we're only coming to see results happen.

That's all that we can expect and the greater things that he

promised would happen on the earth and in the earth at this

time, we get to participate in those.

We get to see all the things happen that were promised, deaf

ears open, blind eyes seen. I know Pastor minister a little

bit than this a couple of services ago.

We have to know that the Spirit of God wants to do some great

things in the earth, but it won't happen unless we

participate. It just isn't going to be poof,

God's not magical. He's not magical.

He's a God of order and he gave us exactly the right steps in

what we should do. And so we can do it anchor

faith, we can do at church. We can we can come and

participate and be stirred up in our own intimate communal prayer

time with the Lord that when we come here and we get together,

we're all coming with with a source.

We're all coming with a supply. And when we come where that

source and supply, guess what? These greater works that he

promised we're going to happen and this the the gates of hell

will not prevail against the church.

But we need to. Take our stance and we need to

take our authority that we have in the word and put it to

practice. We don't want anything coming in

that would try to come. I mean, arrows come, attacks

come. But if we come and we're ready

and armed, then then there's nothing that can withstand

nothing. And we know that we're part of a

Kingdom that cannot be shaken. And so I just encourage you,

Anchor Faith Church, that we come and this next week let's

get ourselves ready in position for a time of prayer, a time of

prayer, a time of purpose. That we know who we are in

Christ, that we've been made right.

That we're going to come full of faith, with confidence that

whatever God wants to do in US and then through us, that we're

going to be hungry and ready for that.

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