The Power Of Prayer 3

Let's reach down and pick up our Bibles now and, as is our custom, let's just lift those Bibles up and wave them around and make Jesus glad and the devil mad.

And let's say this together say Heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be here this morning.

I'm having my mind renewed to the Word of God, concerning prayer.

Lord, there's great power available and I wanna tap into that power for my benefit and for the benefit of those whom you have me pray.

We're moving forward in this year.

We've gotten momentum to defeat all the plans of the enemy and receive what the covenant provides for us to have.

In Jesus' name, amen, you can be seated and let's turn in our Bibles, please, to James, chapter five, and I've been reading there out of verse 16, the second part of the verse, and we can read it in the King James.

But let me just start off this morning.

I've already done that before.

I'm gonna read it out of the Amplified classic James 5, 16 B, and it says the earnest, heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous person makes tremendous power available.

Everybody shout tremendous power.

It makes tremendous power available, dynamic in its working, and so James, as we've discovered, is an end time book and it has an emphasis on the end times.

It talks about the great and precious harvest.

It talks about the end times.

It talks about the wealth of those that have plundered by fraud the wages of the laborers and they're gonna come under judgment and the laborers are gonna get repaid.

I mean, I don't know about you, but I'm crying out for my defrauded wages and I have a whole series that I did on that.

I mean crying out for you defrauded.

We're not a bunch of victims.

We always pray for the place of victory and faith is the victory.

Amen, this is the victory that overcome with the world, even our faith.

So the tremendous power available through prayer and, of course, by implication, the tremendous power vacuum that exists when there is no prayer, whether it's in your life or whether the church, falls down on this job of praying for elected leaders.

We're charged in Timothy to first of all to pray and pray for those that are in authority.

And Jesus said whatever we allow on earth is allowed in the heavenlies.

Whatever we prevent from happening is prevented.

So it's obvious, looking at our world, especially in America, it's obvious that the church has had a power vacuum exist because of a lack of interest, mostly from the pulpit and no guidance from the shepherd, and part of this mission of this church is to correct that.

I mean, god told me to wake up the church and they're beginning to wake up, praise God.

So John Wesley said, the great Methodist revivalist.

He said that it seems that God is limited by our prayer life.

He can't do anything for humanity unless someone prays.

That sounds kind of strong, doesn't it?

But he's right.

And I like what Kenneth Copeland said decades ago.

I heard him say this years ago.

He said all failure in Christian enterprise is a prayer failure.

So sometimes we're looking around and trying to figure out what happened.

Well, let's just examine.

Did we pray?

Did we continue to pray?

Did we you know amen?

That's why we're teaching this wonderful series about prayer, or renewing our minds.

And so some points from last two weeks tremendous power is available, so make yourself available.

You know it's up to you to occupy your prayer closet.

If you don't occupy it, well then there's a power vacuum, you see.

And then when God wants to change a man, or he wants to change a nation, or he wants to change any circumstance, he always touches our mouth.

He will give us a word and we call that in the New Testament, a rama word.

You know, when you read about the armor of God, a whole armor of God in Ephesians 6, is wherefore, take upon you the whole armor of God.

If you keep reading those verses all the way through 17, 18 and 19, you discover that the armor of God is prayer armor and the last piece of the prayer armor is the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God in verse 17.

And that word word is not logos, see, this is the logos, but the rama word of God is the God breathed word, it's the word for now, it's the word specific for your situation or for whatever it is that you're praying for.

And I've seen people over the years just kind of pray shotgun and just take the Bible and pray everything in the Bible.

Well, let's get the rama word.

Why?

Because it's the sword of the spirit.

The word sword.

There's not one of the big long, eight foot long blades, it's a dagger.

It's hand to hand combat and we have to get up close and personal with the devil.

And so he touches our mouth and he gives us a word.

And in Jesus said in Luke 18, we found this last week we ought always to pray and not to faint, to turn coward, to lose heart and give up so easy when we don't see results right away.

It's easy just to drop and say, well, I guess God didn't want.

I guess his answer is no.

You know I get so tired of these experts talking about well.

You know, when we pray, God sometimes says no.

Well, you know what that means.

It's on you.

If he said no because you didn't pray correctly, I want us to say it right now.

God never says no If you pray correctly.

But there's an if prayer and we'll get into that.

Prayer's got conditions attached to it, and so the idea that God is you gotta catch him at the right moment.

You did a good mood, you know all of that stuff's just religious junk.

So let's get our mind renewed to the truth.

When you know the truth of your covenant and your access to what hit his, jesus' blood is bought and paid for.

I mean, you're fearless in prayer.

You never quit.

Faith never quits.

Faith never gives up, amen.

And so, as I said earlier, we pray from our place of victory.

We're in Christ, seated at the right hand of God.

We're in Christ, we're seated in heavenly places, far above.

That's our position of prayer.

We're never praying from standpoint of victimhood.

We're never down here.

We're always way above everything.

Gotta keep that in mind when you're praying.

You're not begging, you're praying.

And then, of course, the power that is released through prayer is nothing less than God's resurrection power, the same power that raised Christ from the dead, the same power that brought you out of darkness into light, out of death into life.

That I mean you were lost and now you're saved.

That's resurrection power.

It's the greatest power that can be named.

It's greater than nuclear power, it's greater than military power.

It's greater than all the power that anybody knows about.

It's greater than demonic power.

Amen.

So today we wanna get into this subject.

Prayer makes a covenant demand, and so I wanna have you turn in your Bibles to John, chapter 15, verse seven.

John 15 · chapter mention

Jesus is speaking.

And this is on the night before he was crucified.

They had just had the Lord sufferin'.

You know this.

These words here in John 15, jesus is speaking to them on the night before he's crucified.

You know he had some things to save up, to tell them before he left.

He said I have so many things to share with you, but you're not able to bear them now.

I, like what one Bible scholar said, that Pauline Revelation, the St Paul's Revelation, his epistles, is everything that Jesus took with him to heaven, unuttered.

He knew these things but he couldn't teach them.

Why?

Well, because they were spiritually dead.

Men they did not have.

They had not been born again.

Jesus hadn't gone to the cross yet, so they didn't have eternal life.

They're spiritually dead.

So he has to say some things to them, and he just kind of touches the surface.

We can delve into these things that he's saying, because they mean something to us as well.

So Jesus said in verse seven if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.

It shall be done.

That's the strongest language in the Greek, or the strongest statement in the Greek language.

It's absolute.

Like my dad used to say a lead pipe cinch, it's a lead pipe cinch.

You shall have.

Not.

You might have, or my answer might be no, but there are two ifs.

See all prayers conditional.

So he said if you abided me and my words abided in you, you shall ask what you will, not what grandma wills, not what your friend wills.

What you will, and it shall be done unto you.

Herein is my father glorified that you bear much fruit.

So shall you be my disciples?

So a disciple?

How many of you consider yourself a disciple?

Well, see, god is expecting you to bear much fruit.

What kind of fruit?

Prayer, fruit, answered.

Prayer is fruit.

And he goes all the way back to the very first verse in chapter 15, where he says Jesus said I'm the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.

And so the vine can't bear fruit.

It's the branches.

We're the branches.

That's connected to the vine.

So he's talking about prayer this whole time and warning them if they don't bear fruit, they can be cut off and thrown away and burned in a fire.

I don't know about you, but I don't want to be burned in no fire.

Amen.

I want to bear fruit for the Lord.

So I want to read these verses in the K and L translation.

And it says in verse seven as long as you remain united with me and my teachings remain your rule of life, isn't that good?

My teachings remain your rule of life.

You may ask anything you wish and you shall have it.

Woo, glory to God.

Isn't that good.

You can ask anything.

Why is that?

Well, number one, you're united with him.

See, I know that we're in Christ the moment we got born again.

The Bible says that we were baptized into Christ, that we're in Christ, we're one with Christ the moment you got born again.

You're one with him.

And that's the legal side of it.

But a lot of Christians don't live that way.

They live apart from him, they live apart from God.

They have a carnal lifestyle.

I think one example of that would be the Corinthian church.

They had all kind of sin in the church.

They had gifts, but, hey, they had sin in the church.

They had to write them two letters, had to write them two.

They didn't get the first.

I'll think out of it if, after the first letter, I think I would have amended my ways, but not the Corinthian.

No, they just kept on fooling around, messing around, doing things wrong.

Were they lost?

No, they weren't lost, but they weren't pleasing the Father.

They're living apart from him.

They're not united with him.

See, legally, yeah, they're one with Christ, but experientially, functionally, they're living their own life.

And of course, when they pray, they're praying carnal prayers, they're praying just stuff out of their head.

Are you with me now?

So they're flunking on the first part of the if and if.

You know you, you're my teachings, if my teachings remain your rule of life, well, the main thing that Jesus requires is us walking in love.

That's the only commandment he gave love.

So when we're not walking in love, we're flunked.

The second if, when we just allow, give ourselves permission to walk in a way that's not pleasing to God.

You know telling little lies.

You know being fake being.

You know just not not having integrity.

You know can't depend on what you say.

You know, if, if people can't depend on what you say, what makes you think that you can depend on what God says?

It affects your faith.

When you're not a person of your word, you really can't trust God to be a person of his word.

Just, you're gonna, you're gonna automatically start doubting.

When you start doubting your prayer, life shuts down.

There's no fruit.

Are you all with me now?

So, and notice, in verse seven, you know it says if, if you about in me and my words about in you, you shall ask what you will, and it should be done under you, five times the word you is in verse, and that's five times.

You is in the verse verse seven, two times more in verse eight, so you have more to do with your prayers being answered than God does.

I said you have more.

You have more to do with whether your prayers are answered than God does.

Say just.

I mean, if your prayers aren't answered, just turn the, just turn that little finger that's pointing and just turn it right toward your own nose, see, cause you're the problem.

It's never God, god's never the problem.

Amen, all right.

So I got.

Thank you for three grunts and two omis In verse, eight answers.

I say answered prayer glorifies God.

How many of you want to glorify God?

See, really, I mean so when your prayers are answered, god's glorified.

That's what he's so proud, he's so glad.

It just brings him glory, you know.

And when we bear much fruit, much, it ought to be a common occurrence for us to see breakthroughs and the things that we pray about.

Now I want to get to the word ask.

If you're about in me and my words about in you, you shall ask what you will Ask.

So ask means ask.

It's the Greek word itayo.

It's translated ask as different Greek words and in the different parts.

But it can also mean inquire.

We'll get to that in a moment.

But ask or it means beg.

Even Now, I'm fond of saying we don't have to beg God and we don't have to beg God.

But in some contexts in the Bible you'll find an ask and it's a beg.

It has nothing to do with prayer.

And then it means to call for, it means to crave.

You know it's one thing to want something, you know, and it'd be nice to have.

But then if you crave something like a shipply chocolate filled donut, see that you don't just say, well, that'd be nice to have, no, you think about it and you really start.

You know your mouth starts, if you like me, your mouth starts watering and you think, man, how good would that be.

You know, it would really be good to have one of those you crave.

See, it's a whole different level.

It's a whole different level of desire.

I have a message.

How desperate are you?

How desperate are you to please God?

How desperate are you to receive your lost wages that have been defrauded by the God of this earth?

You know you're a poor nation.

You know your life is at the age.

See, some people, they just kinda well, it'd be nice to have it, but I've got enough for me and my four and no more.

Well, you know what you and your four and no more, is not enough, because we've got a whole world to preach the gospel and it's gonna require the largest amount of money you can even think of and dream of to get this job done.

That's ahead of us.

It means to crave, it means to desire, it means to require Hmm, require.

Now we're getting into something that's a little controversial and really, when you really dig down into it and really get down to it and look it up and you dig down in your concordance on the second page, you'll find out what it really means.

It's just a simple part of it.

It means to demand your due.

It means to demand your due.

Ask means to demand your due.

You're not really begging God.

You're not, you know, inquiring of God.

You're demanding your due, not of God, but of the covenant.

Do do what?

Well, your covenant says you're due something DUE.

Your covenant says you were owed healing and that it was already given and already paid for and if you don't have it, you're due it.

So, in the sense of actually praying for your healing and asking God to heal you, you're just wasting your time.

You're not using the right ask.

What you need there is.

You need to demand your due Now.

I'm not talking about your fist on the desk saying God, I demand my healing.

No, you're not demanding of God, he's already giving it to you.

No, you're making a demand on your covenant.

Making a demand on your covenant.

You know, in the old days they don't do that anymore on checks and people don't even hardly write checks anymore.

You know, they've got plastic, they've got debit cards, but I come from the time where we wrote checks.

I sit down at the desk and just write check after check after check, you know, and now that I'm in charge of bill paying, gladys and I switched roles.

She used to pay all the bills, now I'm paying all the bills.

Guess what?

I do it online and I do it electronically.

I hate writing checks, but it used to say on there, you know, you had the payee and the payor, the payee is the person you're writing the check to, and so on the check it would say pay on demand.

You know, stand the man I'm gonna write, stand the man here, a million dollar checks.

Stand the man, one million dollars.

And then you go out and spell it out O-N-E-M-I-L-L.

You know, write it all out.

And then the payor is me and I sign the check, and he's that check.

And what's he gonna do with it?

Just deposit.

No, he's gonna take it to my bank.

If he's smart, he's gonna take it to my bank.

And he's going to present the check and it says pay on demand.

This, stand the man, pay on demand.

I mean, he's the one and the only thing the bank is gonna do.

They're gonna do two things.

Number one stand the man better have picture ID To verify that he is the payor.

And then they're gonna look in my bank account.

They're gonna look up that bank account.

It's printed on the bottom of the check and all that.

And they look it up and they say well, god, griner's got a hundred million dollars in there, he's got plenty of money.

This isn't even gonna be a drop in the bucket.

But here's bank account.

Come on, here I go prophesying again.

So anyway, so that's how it is.

I mean, he didn't drop down on one knee and scream and cry.

He didn't roll in the lobby and weep and moan and groan.

Oh, they took in my million dollars.

You know, he just made a demand, he just presented it to the teller.

The teller might have had to go to her superior.

Maybe with that kind of money they probably not just gonna.

How do you want that?

I want it in $20 bills.

They would tell him to come back later.

Come back next week when we have to have a shipment, come in.

But if he's just gonna get a cashier's check, you see, he can get a certified check in return for his ID and the fact that he's there in person.

Are y'all with me?

Now?

I'm talking about making a demand.

It's not at all rude or distasteful to the Lord for you to make a demand.

See, you're not demanding it of the Father, you're demanding it of the covenant.

It reminds me of last week.

We talked about Isaiah 43, 26.

And God said you know, put me in remembrance, let us plead together.

Declare thou that thou mayest be justified.

See, we have a covenant with him.

He's delighted when we know our covenant and what's in it.

He's delighted to know when we know and we put him in remembrance.

Are y'all with me now?

There's just prayer.

So it's you're entering and when you do, when you, when you ask and make that covenant demand, you're gonna make it in the form of a legal pleading.

You're gonna declare your standing.

It's not emotional or supposed to be emotional.

I mean so much.

You know, if you're not careful you're praying, especially depending on the circumstance you're praying about, if it's a bad report you've received, and you go back and pray your prayer and it's emotional and you're crying and you're asking God and all that.

Well, you know, let's grow up, let's approach him the way that he says to that he wants to be approached on a legal basis.

You know I used this last week but that Colorado a group of Colorado attorneys that wanted to get Trump off the ballot in Colorado they came before the Supreme Court and they came ill prepared.

They didn't have a leg to stand on and all nine justices had something negative to say about.

I mean, can't you read?

Where did you go to law school, pennies, JC Penny?

I mean you gotta be kidding.

So they didn't come with the right precedent.

They misused the law.

The law was taken totally and made to say something that doesn't say and not applied in an area where it doesn't apply, because never in history has a state done that.

They don't have any precedent.

I got news for you.

New York has no precedent for taking Trump's wealth away from him and telling him he can't do business for three.

That's all illegal, has nothing to do with the law.

You gotta understand law now, and so you know how much more than when we come before the God of the universe, the judge of all men, we better have some precedent, better have some evidence that what we're asking is lines up with what he says is ours.

Amen, amen.

So you know, bottom line, don't be so quick to pray out of your head, don't be quick to touch your prayer life with your mind.

That's another thing I heard Kenneth Copeland say years and years ago and made an impact on me.

Thank God for Kenneth Copeland, he knows a little bit.

We're partners with Kenneth Copeland, glad to say that we are.

So.

In Matthew seven, the disciples you know this was part of, you know it's in more than one gospel, but Matthew seven is part of the Beatitudes sermon on the Mount and he was giving them how to pray Jesus there.

In Matthew seven, seven says ask, and that word ask is the same Greek word, iteo.

Ask and keep on asking actually is the actual meaning.

Ask and keep on asking, seek that is the Greek word zetheo, very similar to iteo, seek.

Ask is one thing, seek is another.

Seek means inquire.

You're inquiring, you're investigating about something, seek and keep on seeking, you shall find.

Knock means wrap.

It's what polite people do before they come in the door.

I mean, do people come in your front door without knocking or bringing the doorbell?

I mean, no, it's protocol, isn't it?

I mean, wouldn't you be insulted if somebody just walked right into your house?

I mean, you know, if they did, if I didn't know them, they might get a 38 right through the forehead.

I've already decided I'm not letting anybody come in my house.

Have you decided that?

I've decided a long time.

I don't have to make a decision once it happened.

If I have to wait, you know, if I have to wait and say I wonder if I should defend myself.

No, I'm gonna defend myself and my wife if anybody comes into my house and, you know, try to do me harm.

So what do they do?

They better ring the doorbell or the better knock, knock and keep on knocking, and it shall, you know, be answered.

For everyone that asks receive, everyone that seeks finds, everyone that knocks, it's open.

And then he goes on to say if you then, being natural parents, know how to give good gifts under your children, how much more everybody shout, how much more?

How much more shall your heavenly father give good things to them that ask him?

So I go back again to this idea of praying.

What's in your head Just immediately when you've got a need?

Suddenly there's something, there's some circumstance and all.

We just start touching it with our brain and we start praying, praying, praying.

And we're praying in a kind of really more of a panic mode than we are.

Faith depending on you know.

Just let's just picture some the doctor tells you that you've got cancer and then you just go home and come all apart and weep and cry and scream and holler and tell God all about it.

Well, that's not the proper way to approach it.

You're not helping yourself at all.

God is a faith.

God does he love you?

Yes, he loves you.

He's already paid the price for you to be healed of whatever this attack is.

So don't treat him like he's a million miles away and don't treat him like he doesn't already know it.

So I like to go in the reverse order knock.

What do you do when you come into the King of Kings, I mean the judge of all the earth.

He's the God of all.

You're gonna knock.

What's knocking?

Praising Father, I just love you.

I thank you today that you're always available.

Your eyes never leave me.

Your eyes are always upon me from daylight to dark, when I'm asleep.

You never slumber, you never sleep.

I just praise you.

I thank you, I magnify.

You See, take some time to knock.

That's knocking.

That's prayer.

What are you doing?

You're being respectful, you're being, you're the fear of the Lord.

You're coming into his presence.

The Bible says that God inhabits the praises of his people.

So he comes to the door.

He comes right to the door.

When you start praising him, he's right there for you to talk to.

And you keep doing that.

He's gonna invite you on into the Holy of Holies and let you sit down in his presence.

See again, I think when we just lead with all our trouble, we're not in order.

We're praying out of a panic mode.

Don't do that.

Take some time, no matter how difficult it looks, to praise him.

That's knocking.

Then you ask but not yet.

What's next Seek?

What are you seeking?

A word?

You have this.

You've been reading this.

You've stored this up every day.

You're reading your logos.

How many of you know you ought to be reading your Bible every day?

I know you don't, but I'm gonna say it anyway, because if you'll read it every day and store the logos up in your heart, then when you seek God will bring that logos out and make it a God breathed word for Throw.

Hello, sorry to be so demonstrative with the children, but you know, children, it's okay to hate the devil.

You know what I'm saying.

Your parents say don't hate.

Well, hate the devil.

It's okay to hate the devil.

All right, that's one thing you can do.

You can hate the devil, and I do.

I hate what the devil does, everything the devil, I hate it.

I don't tolerate it.

All right, so you're seeking for that response and then you'll get it.

Now it may not be right.

Then it may have to pray in the Holy Ghost.

See, well, how do you do that?

You pray in the Holy Ghost.

Last week we talked about Romans 826.

The Holy Ghost, likewise the Spirit Himself, helpeth our infirmities.

He takes hold together with us against our weaknesses, for we know not what to pray for, as we ought.

That is a weakness, isn't it?

I mean, we just got this bad report and we're not sure how to pray, we're not sure which word to use.

We've got a whole bunch of words.

We've got cards out there.

That's got the word on there for healing scriptures.

You can confess those, but you need a Rama word.

You need a Rama, and so you're seeking for that Rama and you shall find it.

So you pray in the Holy Ghost.

You pray in the Holy Ghost and the Holy Ghost takes hold together with you against this infirmity.

You don't know how to pray as you ought, but the Spirit Himself make an intercession for you with groanings which cannot be uttered in intelligible speech, which means tongues.

You're speaking in tongues and the Holy Ghost gets in between you and this attack.

He says, okay, you know, stand, just get behind me.

I'm gonna stand between you and that attack and I'm here, I'm interceding for you See, we might, our emotions might be raw, we might be kind of shocked, we might still be a little bit shell shocked, or don't bother praying when you're in that condition, praying tongues.

That's why we all need the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

Are y'all getting anything out of this today?

And so then, of course, when you, you can be confessing the Word and seeking the Ramah Word and confessing the logos, and then, at some point, you're gonna receive a verse, you're gonna receive a word from God to help you as your dagger, as your sword of the Spirit and all along you can be thanking Him for it.

You can thank Him before you know it.

Sometimes your Spirit becomes you know, receives it right away, and it takes a while for your mind to understand what your Spirit already knows.

Well, just know that, know it's coming.

God is not putting you off, god is not delaying you.

Why?

Because you knocked on His door, he invited you in.

The blood of Jesus is there as your entree.

Come on, lift your hands right now.

You're making a covenant demand.

You're making a covenant demand and once you have it, then you can say Lord, I've got this word now.

You said by His stripes I was healed, that's my.

I demand that this cancer wither and die.

I demand every tumor melt.

I demand you know, my body's not my own, it's the temple of the Holy Ghost.

I had God.

Give me that one time.

What?

No, you're not that.

You're not your body's the temple of the Holy Ghost which you have of God, and you're not your own.

You've been bought with a prize.

Therefore, glorify God and your body and your spirit.

Well, that was the healing scripture for me.

One time I'm not to put up with sickness and disease in God's body God's.

This is God's body, not mine.

It doesn't belong to me.

He bought it.

I have to be a good steward over this body.

I'm not gonna let disease invade this body.

I'm not gonna let these symptoms stay in my body.

That was just another.

Well, it was a rainbow word.

He didn't give me by stripes you were healed.

He gave me that.

See, sometimes whatever God gives you is your source.

Are y'all with me now?

So I'm gonna share a message or a testimony with you, my Mercedes testimony.

How many of you know my Mercedes testimony?

And you can give it better than I can.

So come lift your hands up.

Okay, see, there's a bunch of people that have heard this before and they're gonna have to hear it again because I'm not gonna quit telling it.

It's one of the most outstanding miracles of my life.

I'm gonna tell it over and over again.

I don't care.

So that means a whole bunch of you have not heard it, but it's germane to this subject.

So it was about 1992 and I was in the home building business and we had a finished house and that meant there was no cash flow, and when you don't have cash flow, well, it's kind of hard to stay in business very long.

You know, the house that I had finished in West U had not sold.

It was sitting there, accruing interest every month and money's going down.

And so anyway, I had a couple come by and they wanted me to build their house, a custom house, in Rosenberg.

Well, I don't normally build in Rosenberg but, man, I needed whatever I could do.

So I signed a contract, cost plus, you know, 20%.

I'm gonna buy, I'm gonna build you a house in Rosenberg on this little acre lot and it's country subdivision.

There's nowhere anything around us, it's miles from anything.

There's not even a gas station out there.

Then, five miles of this place it was 57 miles each way to that job site from my house in spring.

And so in the meantime, see, I'm still driving an 86 Oldsmobile Regency 98 Regency that I had leased for three years.

Of course, at three years it had so many miles on it I couldn't afford to turn it in because I exceeded the miles, and so I just bought it.

So I leased it for three, paid on it for two, so I had five years from that, finally paid the thing off and at 140,000 miles it had I had to overhaul the engine and transmission.

I mean it.

Just you know one simple little part the timing chain broke.

And on that car, if the timing chain breaks and you keep starting trying to start it, well, the pistons get into the valves and tears the engine up.

I didn't know that.

Thank you, gm, that's a great design, bums.

And so we pulled it out and said look, pastor, I pulled the engine out and it's 140,000 miles, this ruined.

I gotta redo the whole motor.

But your transmission, it's got 140,000 miles.

Don't you want to overhaul the trans?

How much is that?

25, and oh yeah, 2500.

He said look, if I can button it back up, but then if it goes out I gotta pull everything back out again.

You're gonna pay a lot more labor next if it next week or next year it happens.

So I did both.

Now the car has got 300,000 miles on it.

I have 160,000 miles on an overhauled engine and transmission.

I wasn't thinking that.

I wasn't thinking about that at all when I signed that contract.

I had driven out there and back a couple of times, but the whole time I'm in the word, I'm praying.

And one morning, while I was praying, I had an alert.

I had a concern that rose up and I started thinking I mean, what am I doing?

I'm driving this car that's basically wore out.

It's just a matter of time before it breaks, like it did before, on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere, and then I'm gonna have to not have a car.

What am I gonna do then?

I've got this job and I don't have another.

We had that one car, it was all we had one car, and so with that car broke, I've either got to go rent a car, I've got to go buy a car.

So I mean, the Holy Ghost he's the one that alerted me that I had an issue that I had not addressed in prayer.

Are y'all women now?

Thank God for the Holy Ghost?

When you pray in tongues, you don't know what you ought to be praying for, as you ought.

But the Holy Ghost started alerting me.

Hey, you got this situation.

You ain't handled it yet.

And so I'm sitting there thinking, okay, well, what can I do?

I started to think what, if?

What do I do?

I go and try to buy a car.

Well, god, buy a car.

That means a car payment.

That means a down payment.

I don't have either one, and I mean we don't have any cash flow and I'm just starting this house, I mean it's gonna be a while for any money that's coming in, for anything.

And so I said, well, lord, I just need a word.

I need a word to stand on on this thing.

And I just write like that Luke 638, give, and it shall be given unto you, good measure, pressed down, shaking together, running over, shall men give unto your bosom.

For with what same measure that you measured out to be measured back to you, luke 638.

And he went on to say you gave a car.

And he reminded me that I'd given a 1940 Cadillac, beautiful antique car man.

He was a he's a 15 footer, in other words from 15 foot it looked brand new.

When you got up close you could see.

But it's a CCCA classic car 40 Cadillac, 60 special V8, free speed.

It was beautiful car.

And one day the Lord just put in my heart I want you to give that car to Lakewood.

See, we've got a covenant.

See, everything I have belongs to him, everything he has belongs to me.

And sometimes the Lord will make a demand on his covenant with you.

And he wanted me to sow seed.

He wanted me to give the car to Lakewood and I looked at that car and I didn't want to give it because, number one, the carburetor wasn't acting right, the tires looked bad, the radio quit working, so I fixed it all up.

I found a guy in town that was, I don't know that guy's, 80 years old, used to work in Detroit.

He is a tube radio, tube type radio.

It weighed a hundred pounds.

I had to get that thing.

It was this big, pulled it out of the dash, took it to Blancadillac.

He picked it up, fixed it up, put brand new Coker wide white wall tires on it, sent the carburetor off to New Jersey.

They overhauled the carburetor, put a new float in there, put it back.

Man, this thing was better than I'd ever had it.

I said, man, I wish I'd done that when it was mine.

Now it's Lakewood's.

And they put it out front and sold it.

And sold it for $8,000 cash and the people that bought it got a good deal and Lakewood had 8,000.

That I you know.

So I was able to say so he reminded me in praise that you've sown a car, you've got a car coming See, so that, let me know, I didn't have to go buy a car, I didn't have to finance a car.

I didn't have to do all that.

I could just make a demand on my covenant for that car and the favor it takes.

God has got to give me favor in the direction somebody somewhere is going to give me a car and they got to want to do it and I don't think that would have been my first choice of things to do.

Number one I don't.

You know, it's kind of hard to receive like that.

I hadn't really developed my receiver.

It was easier for me to give the Cadillac than for me to receive a car from somebody.

Are y'all with me?

Now?

I'm talking about prayer, making the demand on the covenant, so I just I said all right, lord, I've got my request.

Now I'm just going to lay it before you.

So I've given it's going to be given under me Good measure press down, shagging together.

You're going to give me a good service of car.

While we're talking about the car, I don't care what brand or what color, I don't care what's on it, long as it's a good, solid, serviceable car.

I don't want an embarrassment.

You know I've sown better than that to have an old rust bucket.

I mean, I've already got a car that's wore out.

So I don't want another car that's wore out and it's got to get me back and forth to that job, at least Got to get me down the road a while.

I mean I drive four times a week besides that, to Lakewood in this car.

So I mean it's a lot of miles every week.

I see only requirement because I knew if I started saying, well, you know, lord, I want it to be metallic gray and I want it to have this and I want it to have that and I want this model and that model, well, he's just could take that much longer to find somebody willing to give me that.

So if I take all that off, then he can just go find someone that's willing.

And so then I just I presented it to him, I thanked him for it, started to give me that.

I said I'm going to give you a good service of car.

I presented it to him, I thanked him for it, started praising him about it and really kind of forgot when I look back on this.

I should have praised him every single day, every time I was driving to work I should have been praised him.

But I don't remember.

I just kind of left my mind.

I just turned it over to him and I just kind of forgot about it.

Month later my phone rang.

Dear friend of mine, thad, called and he's a young man, he's going to school and working this in Loretta.

And he said Mr Griner, I got a question for you, a couple of questions.

I said, sure shoot, what's going on with you?

Well, let's tell you this story.

He said I was driving down the road the other day, you know, and I just got this car not long ago.

It's an 83 Mercedes, 300 diesel, turbo diesel.

And he said I heard this voice say I want you to give the car.

He said that's not the Lord.

I can't give this car away.

Get out of here, devil.

I'm not giving my car away.

I got to have it to drive the school into work.

What am I going to do?

I don't have another car.

And so, you know, a little bit later a rock flew up and hit his windshield, broke his windshield, and he was pretty disappointed about that.

And then the next day, you know, he heard that voice again you know, I want you to give this car.

He said I'm not giving this car, get out of here.

That's crazy.

That can't be God.

God can't be telling me to give my car away.

What am I going to do then?

Hitchhike, you know.

So he pulled up to the red light and he changed light and changed lanes and this big 18 wheeler hit him.

He cut in front of an 18 wheeler and 18 wheeler, he hit him in the rear passenger door and mashed the passenger door in, and so now he's got a busted windshield and a messed up door on his nice little Mercedes 83 Mercedes and he got a ticket for illegal lane change.

And so he you know, he's so mad.

He's so mad he said what in the world is going on, god?

How can I?

I mean, you know you're supposed to be farming what in the world?

I got a busted windshield and I got a busted rear door and I got a ticket.

What in the world?

He said.

I told you to give that car and he said all right, I got to have chapter and verse.

I, you know, I can't keep going on like this is ridiculous.

You have to give me.

So he's mad at God.

You just give, you're going to have to give me chapter and verse because I don't have another car.

What am I going to do?

He said Matthew 16, for well, his anger turned into excitement and fear at the same time.

And God just answered him right back, specifically Matthew 16 for man.

He, he didn't know what that was, he didn't have his Bible with him, so he ran back to his apartment.

He ran up the stage, lived on the third floor, ran all the way up the stairs, went into the busted in the front door of his apartment, went over to his Bible, opened it up to Matthew 16 for a wicked and adulterous generation, seeketh after a sign.

And no sign shall be given it except the sign of the Prophet Jonah.

And I'm laughing on the phone, you know I wasn't very nice for me to laugh.

And he said so.

I got another question for you.

He said so do I have to fix the windshield and do I have to fix the rear door before I give it?

And I hated to tell him.

You know I hated to tell him.

But I said well, you know, if I had, you wouldn't give God a one-eyed lamb, would you?

You wouldn't give God a one-eyed lamb, would you?

And he said I knew you'd gonna say that You're the one I'm supposed to give it to.

I said oh, no, no, no See, I felt so bad.

Never in that whole conversation did it even, did it even cross my mind that he was talking about giving that car to me.

I never thought it.

I never.

God hid it from me.

He walled me off so that I would say exactly what needed to be said.

And so he came to town, drove that car to town and, you know, we took it to a body shop and they fixed the windshield, they fixed the rear door and I had me a car.

I had me a Mercedes turbo diesel to drive for the next four or five years.

I put another hundred.

It had 160,000 when I bought it, which is just getting broken for a diesel, and I put 300,000 on it before I got rid of it.

See, so you know.

My point is there's power in prayer, massive power in prayer.

There's nothing too hard for the Lord, no matter what you're facing, if you'll get in your prayer closet and process the plan of God and not pray out of your head head prayers, but pray according to your faith, pray according to the Word of God.

God always says yes in Jesus' name.

Hallelujah, come on, let's lift our hands and receive the Word.

Thank you, lord.

All of His answers are yes and amen.

Amen.