The Power Of Prayer 4

wave our Bibles around and make Jesus glad in the devil man.

Let's get into the word together, shall we Say.

Heavenly Father, I'm here on purpose this morning.

A driving rainstorm can't keep me out of church.

I'm hungry and thirsty for more of you, more of your word, more of your spirit.

I opened my heart to receive what you have for me today.

I'm not listening for someone else, I'm listening for me and I'm bringing myself into a place of knowledge, and that's where faith begins.

In Jesus' name, amen, praise God, you can be seated.

I've been preaching a series entitled the Power of Prayer.

I think I'll wrap this up today.

You know, sometimes it keeps going.

But the fourth message on the power of prayer.

And let's turn in our Bibles to James, chapter five, and read the foundation scripture.

I believe that James is an end time book.

He talks about the end days.

He talks about how God has long patience for the harvest.

I believe we're living in a time of an end time harvest.

Well, you know, it doesn't look like it.

Well, we're not going to go by what it looks like.

You know, if you read your Bible, you can find out that God can suddenly do things, and I believe there's a few suddenlies he's got up his sleeve For even America.

Some people have given up on America.

I'm not one of those.

Amen, praise God James.

Chapter five, verse 16, the second part of that verse of the King James.

It says the effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man or woman avails much.

But I like to amplify it the earnest, heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man or woman makes tremendous power available.

Dynamic in its working, amen.

Dynamic in its working, multifaceted, I mean there's nothing too hard that we face when we come into prayer.

Prayer is the key to overcoming whatever there is in front of you, and so we've been dwelling on these things and teaching you, and I really don't have time to go over everything that we've covered.

I think last week was an emphasis on how many times I learned this 40 years ago from Brother Hagin and Brother Copeland.

In fact, brother Copeland was just I was reading my partner letter and he was talking about the same subject.

I just opened the partner letter and there it was talking about what I was talking about last week, about how Christians many times just come busting through the door and praying out of their brain tissue.

They get a bad report.

Whatever the bad report is let's just make up a bad report.

You've got stage four cancer.

You've got six months to live.

I've scheduled an appointment with an oncologist.

They probably have an experimental treatment for you.

Just here, just call this number and you leave there.

And a lot of times people's reaction of that, after they have a pity party for a couple of days, is to then start spouting off every kind of healing scripture they've ever heard.

They start going off and rattling off everything in fear.

See, that's just, that's your head talking, when we really ought to just calm ourselves.

Don't let your mouth say anything, don't cry and moan and groan and let the devil know that he's gotten to you.

If you don't cry, he doesn't know you're disturbed.

Now, brother Hagin used to say it this way.

He said the best thing is not even receive the disease to begin with.

Now, you know, not everybody is in the 12th grade when they are five years old.

So if you're not there at that level of faith or you can just say, no, I don't accept that disease, I don't have it, and that's it.

Not everybody can do that.

I had a lady tell me one time she got a bad report, got cancer.

It wasn't terminal, there was treatment for her, but it was chemotherapy.

She said I'm not.

I just I prayed.

I'm not gonna take chemotherapy.

Besides that, I don't wanna lose my hair.

So I knew from her talking she was a hypochondriac.

Any way, I knew her well enough to know that everything she got sick at every chance she got, and now she's gonna overcome cancer without even going to treatment.

I said well, you wanna die and go to heaven?

Then don't you?

She looked at me.

She didn't like what I was saying.

I said you're just making a decision based on vanity.

You don't wanna lose your hair.

Who does?

Who wants to lose their hair?

I don't wanna lose my hair, but it's falling out anyway.

God's been numbering it and the number's getting smaller and smaller.

I need to change what I'm saying.

I know I know here's the faith preacher confessing, but I mean, you know she called me pastor.

If you call me pastor, that gives me the right to say things to you that might upset the average person.

Well, you can get glad in the same clothes you got mad in and she did think about it again.

Then she went ahead and her hair fell out and I actually bought her a wig.

I mean, I had to make a.

Well, I'll tell you what.

If you'll just go and get the treatment, I'll buy you a wig, and she kept me.

I mean, you know, I had to wind up buying her a wig and golly man talking about paying to preach.

But she got completely over it, praise God.

So we go off half cocked a lot of times.

So let's calm ourselves and let's get into the presence of God and let's find out what the Holy Ghost has got to say to us about the situation at hand.

He can give you a unique word.

We, you know, listen, if you come to this church very long, you know that's God's will for you to be healed, no question about it.

But just because that's a fact doesn't mean that you just got to spout off a bunch of healing scriptures and count it done.

No, let's find out from the Holy Ghost.

I was reading another testimony by Brother Copeland.

I just love these men of God, how they just, you know, they just have an open life.

They just they just opened the books.

He said I was having trouble with my elbow.

My elbow was hurting so bad and it wasn't responding to my faith at all.

I couldn't get.

I mean, it got worse and said better.

So I decided I better fast and pray Now.

He wasn't fast and praying to get healed, he was fast and in praying to seek God, that's a proper reason to fast is when you want to seek God.

That's the only reason you don't ever fast to get something.

You don't fast to get something that already belongs to you.

That's silliness, that's religion.

But you fast to approach God and to find out, and then you basically deny your flesh and you turn all your attention on hearing from God.

So he did that and the first day all he could think about was how much coffee he had been drinking.

He was up to 16 to 18 cups of coffee a day.

This is a brother Copeland now he's admitting.

And he said why am I thinking about that?

I'm seeking God about my elbow.

I don't want to think about that.

And it was really.

God was dealing with him, you know.

So the afternoon of the second day the Holy Ghost said you know you're addicted to caffeine and you're going to have to quit drinking coffee.

Well, he didn't want to hear that.

He'd already tried to quit drinking coffee and caffeine withdrawal hit him and he gave him a massive headache and he finally couldn't get rid of it, so he just started drinking coffee.

I know there's nobody in here that's addicted to caffeine.

I know that's true, but brother Copeland was, and he knew it, and so he's.

The Holy Ghost said you know, the coffee bean has got substances in it that are harmful to your tissue and it's lodged.

You drink so much it's lodged in your joints and that's why you've got pain.

You can forget about believing for healing until you get rid of the caffeine.

See how long would he.

He would have gone to heaven and I'm sure it wouldn't have cost him his life.

He just would have went to heaven with a bum elbow.

It never would have moved.

Are y'all with me now?

See how silly it is to just go out in your head knowledge and start praying about things when the Holy Ghost knows exactly how for you to approach the situation.

So it's one of the most important points I've made in four weeks.

So I want you to make sure you realize that.

And so today I wanted to, and also Wednesday night.

How many of you have looked at the live stream video on Wednesday night?

Nobody, no, three, five, six, seven.

Okay, well, I'm not doing this to whistle Dixie.

Y'all want me to keep going Wednesday night, or do you wanna?

Because you're not even having to come to church.

Or if I get in here and I preach for 30 minutes and you're not listening, you know what I'm gonna do I'm gonna go on vacation.

You think I'm joking?

Listen, this is hey, this is crunch time.

We need everything the Holy Ghost is showing us.

Don't skip Wednesday night.

I mean, you don't have to watch it live, watch it in your leisure, but watch it.

What did I preach Wednesday night?

Praying to see things.

It's meat.

You're gonna have to chew on it.

If you're kind of new to prayer and you've never had this kind of prayer you've heard prayed at this church, you're gonna hear some things and it's gonna make you go tilt.

Well, listen, you need to chew on the word, you need to meditate on it and let God impart to you, because this is so vital.

And today I wanna get into a subject praying to know things because the spirit of seeing and knowing.

Brother Hagin prophesied this.

You know, back in 1999, just a few weeks after Brother Osteen went to heaven I went to Winter Bible Seminar and I heard him prophesy that the spirit of seeing and knowing is coming into the church in a greater degree.

He was talking about the gifts of the spirit and but that's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about what you can see and know through your praying.

God wants to show you and that's what I preach Sunday night and the idea of seeing the eyes, of your understanding.

So your spirit has eyes.

Today.

It's a very similar message, but a different set of scriptures.

So I'm gonna come up to the mountain from a different pathway.

You know how many of you know if you climb, mountain climbing, you can climb one way, but then there's another side of the mountain you can come up on and you can gain some more knowledge coming up the other direction.

So that's where we're headed today.

Pray everybody say pray and to know things.

How many of you know everything and you don't really need to know anything else?

No, you need to know a lot more, because knowledge I'm talking about.

That's where faith begins.

So let's look at Luke 24, if you will, and let's see what Jesus said about prayer and what Jesus said about things, how Jesus operated in prayer, because Jesus well, jesus was a son of God.

He didn't have to pray.

Oh really, I mean.

He said I only do the things I see my father do.

I only say the things I hear my father say.

So where did he see and do that?

Well, he did that in prayer.

He went away to pray.

Half the time he got interrupted.

People would follow him out there.

That was the miracle of loaves and fishes.

He went out there to pray and he finally did have some time.

At the end of the day, when was it?

In the middle of the night, after a long day of ministry, he sent the disciples out there and said let's pass, you know I'll meet you on the other side.

And they thought how in the world is he gonna do that?

He walked across the sea.

That's after he prayed, all right.

So let's look at Matthew, or Luke 24.

And in here you know, we have, as we're reading this in Luke 24, verse 13.

Luke 24:13

This is after the resurrection.

Remember, the women went to the grave to finish preparing his body for burial and angels appeared to him.

Why you seek you that live among the dead?

He's not here, he's risen, as he said.

So they went running back to the 12, to the disciples, and they didn't believe them.

So Peter and John come back over there, and it says here in verse 11,.

Their word seemed to them as idle tales and they believed them not.

Then arose Peter verse 12 and ran under the sepulchre and, stooping down, he beheld the linen clothes laid by themselves and departed, wondering in himself at that which has come to pass.

He's confused, he's doubtful.

They're in disarray, like a lot of the church is right now.

They're in disarray.

They don't know what to think, they don't know who to think.

And so, in verse 13,.

And behold, two of them went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem about three score furlongs, and they talked together of all these things which had happened.

And it came to pass it.

While they commune together and reasoned, jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were holding, their eyes were restrained that they should not know him.

He's standing there, he winds up talking to them, and they didn't know.

They didn't know.

And so he said unto them what manner of communications are these that you have one to another as you walk in her sad, what you so disturbed about, what's wrong?

And one of them, whose name was Cleopas, answered unto him aren't there only a stranger in Jerusalem and has not known the things which are come to pass there in these three days.

And he said unto them what things they said unto him concerning Jesus of Nazareth, which was a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the people, and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered him to be condemned to death and have crucified him.

But we trusted that it had been he which should have redeemed Israel.

And beside all this, today is the third day since those things were done.

Yeah, and certain women, also of our company, made us astonished, which were early at the sepulchre and when they found not his body, they came saying that they had also seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive, and certain of them which were with us, went to the sepulchre and founded even so, as the women had said, but him they saw not.

So here they are talking to the one that rose from the dead.

I mean, there's a whole lot of people who wouldn't know Jesus had walked in that church.

They wouldn't know.

They think the Holy Ghost is a fable, is a symbol.

No, it's free, it's real.

Barna, barna, research.

There's a huge percentage of Christians Thanks to the Holy Ghost is a, is a is a fable, is a symbol.

Oh, thank God, we know.

Different though.

And uh, and Jesus said under them, verse 25, old fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Did he give them a hug, did he slobber on them?

And did he reach in his, in his robe, and pull out a participation, participation trophy and give it to them?

Y'all, we give you, we're going to give you credit for you know we're, we're so glad you care so much, we're so glad you're concerned.

No, old fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory?

And, beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expanded under them and all the scriptures, the things concerning himself, and they drew nine to the village, whether they win any made as though he would have gone further.

But they constrained him.

Everybody shout, constrained, saying abide with us, for it is a toward evening in the day as far spent.

And he went in to Terry with them and it came to pass as he sat at meet with them, he took bread and blessed it and break and gave it to them, and their eyes were opened and they knew him.

They went from not knowing him to knowing him.

They went from not knowing to knowing, from not knowing to knowing, and he vanished out of their sight, fium at 11.

And you imagine sitting there and you're talking about to eat with him and he's gone, just disappeared.

And they said one to another did not our heart burn within us while we talked with him, while he talked with us, by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?

So we're talking about praying to no things.

So we had, after the resurrection, we had these disciples.

All of them were in disarray, they're doubted and they're wondering.

And these two, their eyes were originally restrained from seeing him.

Why?

Because of unbelief and reason.

They were reasoning.

They were trying to touch with their brain the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

He made it public that he was going to rise.

He said I'll see you in Galilee.

I mean, these two were close enough to the 12.

I don't know what their relation was, but they're close enough to know a whole lot of inside information.

They heard about Mary and the other women that came to the tomb.

They're pretty well connected.

They're not one of the 12, but they're close by and they're sitting there.

Reason, reason, reason, reason, until until something happened.

And they said preaching made our hearts burn.

I mean, didn't our hearts burn while he was sharing the word?

But what was it that opened their eyes to know him?

And it's wrapped up in the word constrain, the word constrain.

They constrained Jesus and the Bible says he acted as if he would keep walking.

I mean said turn in with us.

And he just kept walking.

And they had to constrain him.

They had to, they had to urge him, they had to insist, they had to compel him.

That's what the word constrain means.

That happened to the disciples on the stormy seas one night.

They were on the boat without him and he went walking on the water and he was gonna act like he was gonna walk right past them.

And they said oh Lord, it's us over here.

And they constrained him to come into the boat.

Everybody say constrain, constrain.

And so, once constrained, what did Jesus do?

He ate with them, or began to eat with them.

He didn't actually eat, but he prepared to eat with them.

And in the Jewish tradition, a meal is the highest form of fellowship.

It really moves from fellowship into intimacy.

Everybody shout intimacy and that's what God wants to have.

That's what prayer is.

Prayer is fellowshiping with God to the place of intimacy, into me, sea.

Are y'all with me now?

Yes, and so now, when they entered into that intimacy, their eyes were open and as soon as that was achieved, jesus disappeared.

In other words, that was all he wanted to accomplish.

He wanted them to know.

How many things does he want you to know that you haven't yet constrained him, constrained his presence long enough to spend time with him.

Are you with me now?

Yes, everybody say time, time.

You know one thing that God gave me last week and, as you know, if you were here, I got away from my notes, started just going over this rabbit trail and the other, and my notes flew away.

That happens a lot, because it's more important for me to give you what the Holy Ghost has got in the moment.

I like to teach, but sometimes I have to deviate.

But one thing that I miss saying.

I'm gonna say it right now.

Remember the testimony about the young pastor's wife who spent the afternoon praying at her kitchen.

You know she dropped it to the floor at her kitchen sink because her hands were burning, and then later that night we were at a meeting all together and she walked over there and saw Gladys' hands with that purple stain on her palms and her hands were on fire, and she helped birth a ministry that Jesus has walked in for 30 some odd years, gifts of healings in her hands, and so I talked about the availability.

She was available here.

She's a pastor's wife.

She's got a lot when you're a pastor.

You've got a lot on your plate.

You've got a lot of things going.

I mean, it's just kind of like the Ed Sullivan show with a guy that got the plate spinning on the pool cues.

Remember that guy Ta ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta, ta ta and he's spinning the plates and they're on these sticks, you know, and then they start wobbling.

Then he runs, you know, and spins them a little longer and then if finally he has so many plates spinning, some of them fall off the cue stick.

I know some of you are too young to ever.

You don't even know who Ed Sullivan is.

I understand that.

I'm dating myself now.

He's on YouTube.

Just look it up.

It's hilarious.

But she took time.

So here's what the Holy Ghost told me last week to tell you.

And we talked about growing up in prayer, and that's what we're talking about today Growing up in prayer.

Let's grow up in our prayer and let's quit looking at prayer as asking like begging and a long list of things that we need.

That's just one tiny part of prayer.

There's all manner of prayer and we're supposed to pray all manner of prayer, every kind of prayer.

Praise is prayer, worship is prayer.

Why?

Because prayer is just communication with God.

That's what it is, and it's two ways.

It's two way communication.

It's not just us with a laundry list, but it's him reciprocating.

Are you with me now?

And so he said maturity demands availability, maturity demands availability.

If you're gonna call yourself a mature Christian now, you've gotta be available to fit in the slot that he needs you to fit in at any moment.

Well, you're a pastor, but you don't understand I have to leave my house at five o'clock.

Da, da, da da.

I understand.

I mean I woke up early, I don't.

I woke up at five this morning.

I mean you know, this is my job.

I get up early, I prepare, but average time I don't normally get up at five.

I have.

I know what it's like to get up at five.

It's not a lot of fun, even if you're a morning person.

I'm kind of a morning person anyway, but it's not a lot of fun to wake up at five.

So what does that take?

It takes maturity.

You know a baby wants to just keep sleeping.

Okay, little darling, get up.

Get up.

No, roll over and throw a shoe at the alarm clock.

Have you ever done that?

I'm an alarm clock.

People have thrown more than shoes at me.

I can tell you that I'm hollering.

That's time to wake up and they're throwing stuff at me.

Everybody say maturity Demands availability, demands availability.

So praying to know.

Things are based on these four things, in this order Relationship, intimacy, revelation, or knowledge and faith.

Everybody, let's go over those together Relationship, say it after me.

Relationship, intimacy, revelation and faith.

And of course, revelation is just another word for knowledge.

In other words, you have a knowing.

He revealed himself, he disclosed himself to them and suddenly their eyes were open.

They knew it was Jesus.

See, jesus didn't look like himself after the resurrection.

I mean, the apostles had warped with him for three and a half years.

They knew him better than anybody.

I mean, john put his head on his breast and John said I'm the disciple who Jesus loved.

I'm talking about self-aware, john.

Come on, get over yourself, doesn't it?

Golly?

They were weird.

I mean, they just grawl.

Did Peter just die?

Peter's crazy.

They were weird.

If God can use the 12, he can use us.

Maybe you're a little weird.

God can use you anyway.

If he can use me, he can use you Relationship, intimacy, knowledge or revelation and faith.

And so when God reveals something to you, faith is born.

You don't have to go any further.

There's no cramming for the finals, there's no reading a bunch of books, there's no effort on your part.

When God shows you in revelation, or when he gives you knowledge of what it is he wants to show you in prayer, faith is there.

When he shows you what belongs to you, faith to receive that thing is right there.

You don't have to wonder about it.

You don't have to wonder if you've got faith.

No, you've got it.

It's yours and he wants to show it to you.

So we talked about that Wednesday night Be sure to go back and get that media and I told you this is similar, but coming up the mountain a little different way, with different verses.

That's how much God wants you to know this.

These are the last days.

This generation is all that's left.

I know that.

I know that as well as I know mine.

And what if you're wrong?

Well then I'll just go to heaven then and he will have tarried.

But as far as I can tell he's not gonna tarry.

I'm gonna live my life as if he's coming right tomorrow or today.

And prayer, then, is the cornerstone or the mother of faith.

I mean, you don't pray for faith, but your results of praying is knowledge, and faith cometh by hearing or understanding, or knowledge and knowledge by the Word of God.

So when God reveals through His Word and through prayer what His will is, that faith begins right there.

Now Jesus is our example.

Let's go back to Luke 22.

Remember Luke 21,.

He's telling the disciples the signs of His coming when he's coming back.

He talked about the temple there in Jerusalem.

He said there's not gonna be one stone left upon another.

This whole place is gonna be destroyed.

I mean, they didn't wanna hear that.

They wanted to hear that Jesus was gonna redeem Israel.

He's the Redeemer.

He's gonna drive the Romans out there.

They had a very small idea of what Jesus really came to do.

They had no revelation of that at all.

You want a revelation of that?

You have to read the epistles.

That's the revelation, especially Paul, he had a superior revelation of the real reason Jesus came and that's redemption and the blood of Jesus and the value of the blood.

So we need to major on the epistles.

But I'm in the gospels right now because I wanna see how Jesus operated.

And Luke 22 then he's having the Last Supper and he had prayed.

You know he'd had times of prayer.

And it says here in verse 21, luke 22, 21,.

Right here at the Last Supper.

I mean, these people are gathered there.

It's the last time he's gonna get with them, if, oh, I've desired to eat this supper with you.

You know I'm really looking forward to it.

And he knew the one that was gonna betray.

He was gonna be at the table and yet he desired to be there and he said verse 21, behold the hand of Him that betrothed me is with me on the table.

And truly, the Son of man goes as it was determined.

But it woe unto that man by whom he is betrayed, and that was Judas.

The chapter before it says that Satan entered into the heart of Judas.

So Judas is sitting there.

You see that painting, that famous painting of the Last Supper.

You see the 12.

I don't know which one of the 12 is Judas, but whoever that is, that's the one where Satan is right there.

It says Satan entered into his heart.

Didn't say a demon.

It said Satan entered into his heart so he went to hell.

I said he went to hell when he committed suicide.

Ain't no way to repent.

He knew it was wrong.

He knew he was wrong and he didn't repent, killed himself.

Satan went into his heart and so there he is and he dipped his bread in the dish and that's the one.

And so how did he find that out?

How did Jesus know that prayer, praying to know things?

Well, why.

He's the Son of God, I know, but he was right there.

He's the Son of God, I know, but he walked as a man in order to God.

He was our example.

This is how you know things.

You don't just know because you're superior and intellectual.

You don't know just because you've got a doctor's degree.

You know because you have intimacy with the Father in prayer and he discloses things that you need to know.

Come on, let's lift our hands right now.

Some of you are gonna get this tomorrow afternoon about three o'clock.

No, you're getting it now.

I believe you're getting it now.

If Brother Mark was here, he'd say ha ha.

Come on, let's say ha ha.

Okay, now I know you're awake.

Praise the Lord, all right.

So prayer revealed, judas would betray him.

And then second on the hit list of the devil was Peter.

And the Lord said in verse 31, simon, simon, see, when you see it twice, that's called a double enunciation of God.

That's code for looky here now, as my father used to say when everyone wanted to teach me a lesson, like how to start the lawn mower or something else.

Looky here now.

And so, in other words, it's an underline in red marks, a lot On a grease board, you know if you ever underlined Hee.

So, simon, simon, martha, martha, martha, martha.

Now it's covered about many things, but Mary, your sister, she's chosen that good thing.

See, a lot of times we're too busy to be available, and so we've got so much on our plate, so much on our schedule, that we don't spend the time.

And Jesus said whoever your name is, double Amen, amen, john, john.

Now Gladys adds third, john.

Every time she wants to get my attention, john, john, john, it's always three times.

So, simon, simon, satan had desired.

What did you say?

Satan has desired to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith doesn't collapse and, after you're converted, strengthen your brethren.

So, in other words, he gave him hope right there.

He let him know yeah, you're gonna mess up, you're gonna stub your toe big time.

I mean, you're gonna decide, you know, but I've prayed for you and he, of course Peter, you know, he just, oh, no, lord, I'm ready to go to prison with you.

In fact, I'll die with you.

I'll do anything.

I'm going with you, I'm on your side.

I got you back.

We got this.

We got this.

We got this.

Jesus, we got it.

He said Peter, you're gonna deny me three times before you even hear the cock crow once.

You're gonna even deny that you ever knew me.

Did it destroy him?

No, because prayer had been made and Jesus had made that prayer and he had prayed for Peter that his faith wouldn't collapse.

Well, guess what?

Every one of us has been prayed for by the Lord and our faith is not gonna collapse, even though things are looking kind of dicey around here and all the crazy things that are going on in our world.

Amen, are you getting anything out of this?

So prayer revealed Satan's plan and so Jesus prayed against it.

Jesus, do you think that Jesus labor.

Do you think that he worried about it?

I mean, he prayed and he said I prayed for you, you'll be all right After you're converted.

You strengthen your brethren and then, after the resurrection, you know when they had the fish tacos that's what I believe they were.

I believe they were fish tacos.

Jesus cooked some fish and they got their fish and then he said Peter, and he let him know hey, love us, thou me, feed my sheep, feed my lambs, three times for each of the denials.

And so Jesus let him know that he didn't have any problem.

So on the day of Pentecost, when all of them were filled with the Holy Ghost, when Peter rose up to preach to the same Jews that said, crucify him, he didn't lead with his testimony.

You know, I really am very unworthy to be here today.

I deny the Lord three times.

No, he was completely delivered from that.

Have you ever stubbed your toe?

Well, get over it, forgive yourself and get on down the road.

Get it under the blood.

Glory to God.

So then Jesus told the disciples to pray in verse 40.

He said pray that you enter not into temptation.

And then he said the same thing in verse 46.

He said pray lest you enter into temptation.

In other words, don't enter into it and be kept through it.

God wants to keep you.

We'll all be tempted one way or the other.

The word temptation is temptation, tests and trials.

Jesus said in the world you shall have those.

It's not a matter of if it's when, it's when and when.

Then you don't have to enter into it, you don't have to put it on like a bunch of clothes.

I mean just don't enter into it.

I mean begin to pray and find out where the way of escape is.

There's always a way of escape in anything that's facing you, whether it's finances or disease, or relationships or marriages or kids or whatever you've got.

That is a big problem.

It looks really big, it looks scary in a way.

But listen, when you have the confidence in praying, you'll find out what is the way of escape.

Glory to God.

All right.

So let's look at Colossians chapter four.

In fact, I'm gonna read it out of the amplified.

I just love this version Because I mentioned the epistles, and the epistles are where we need to spend more of our time Meditating and getting this into our spirit.

Colossians chapter two.

Colossians four two.

I'll read it in the King James first, continue in prayer and watch in the same, with thanksgiving, with all praying also for us that God would open unto us the door of utterance to speak the mystery of Christ, for which I'm also in bonds, that I may make it manifest as I ought to speak, but listen to the amplified, be earnest and unwirried and steadfast in your prayer life, being both alert and intent in your praying with thanksgiving, and at the same time, pray for us also that God may open a door for us, for the word, the gospel, to proclaim the mystery concerning Christ, the Messiah, on account of which I am a prisoner, that I may speak boldly and proclaim it fully.

So there again, that's the grown up kind of praying.

You don't just pray for yourself and your needs, you pray for others, you pray for your spiritual leaders, you pray for your nation, you pray for you know, you pray for, yes, you pray for your family, so forth and so on.

I like in Ephesians, chapter one.

It says making mention of you in my prayers, and sometimes I just call a name out.

I don't go into great detail when I'm praying the Word of God.

I'll just mention somebody's name while I'm going past a certain scripture or while I'm praying a certain thing.

I don't go into great detail, just mention their name.

I mean, you know, let's pray.

I'm so glad God mentions my name.

He knows my address.

I don't ever have to wonder whether he's listening to me when I pray.

Some of us do.

Some of us have that.

We have the idea that somebody else can do better praying than we can.

We have the idea that we need someone else to pray for us.

We have the idea that I've got to call Oral Roberts University and get on the prayer line and have them pray.

Whenever I have a certain thing, a lot of people think the more people are praying, the better it is.

Let's get about a thousand people to pray for my situation.

Let's get as many people praying.

Well, that's not how it goes.

You and the Holy Ghost are a majority.

Really, honestly, you don't need a whole bunch of people praying.

In fact, they might pray something that isn't quite right.

They might pray something that's kind of skewed and it may do more harm than good.

I'm not putting fear in you.

I'm just saying let's develop the confidence that we need that our prayers are heard.

That's where we got to go, especially this church.

I said especially this church.

How many of you kind of figured out?

This church is a little different.

We're cutting edge.

We're out ahead of a lot of things, we're leading on a lot of things and when you lead in a lot of things that means there's a whole lot of blowback and you've got to have on your whole armor of God.

You've got to realize that when you over into the spirit realm you're just one step out of the natural and one step into the supernatural.

You can get into supernatural just like that.

You don't have to fast and pray for a week.

You don't have to go through all this fall to raw.

I mean you take one step and you're out of the natural in the supernatural and you're praying the mouth of God right there.

But that means that you've got a prayer life to go with that.

Everybody say my prayer life.

Maturity demands availability.

When I go through these five, I've got five things about your prayer life.

When I mention them you're gonna say, man, I don't know, I don't think I can do the.

Yes, you can.

It's a choice.

You might have to decide to get rid of some things.

You might have to drop this club.

You might have to drop this hobby.

You might have to drop something else.

But let me tell you something when we are right now demands our availability, because we have to grow up.

We have to grow up.

There's so much immaturity in the church.

There's so much wrong praying.

If I hear another leader stand up in a big crowd and quote 2 Chronicles 714 again, if my people are called by my name, I'll hum with themself and play.

I want to go like this.

I want to twiddle my thumbs and say twinkle, twinkle, little star.

I know I'm offending somebody right now.

I know I am.

I want to.

I want to get you offended enough to read your Bible and say that that is for Israel.

It's not for the church.

That's Israel when they were in idolatry, fleeing from God's will.

That's what that's about.

It's not a church prayer.

It's not a prayer that the church should ever pray.

Why?

Because Jesus died on the cross.

His blood has been shed.

He's already healed everything.

There's nothing left to be healed and it's up to the church to rule and reign.

It's not about asking God to heal anything.

It's silly and it shows how immature and most of people pray that or not.

Filled with the Holy Ghost.

You get filled with the Holy Ghost.

That's where the power is.

We're pastoring nothing.

We prayed for the election and didn't turn it Well.

We're not responsible for the results.

When we prayed, we filled bowls.

I'm not teaching on that, but we in Revelation 4 and 5, it talks about the bowl judgment and which is there's incense filled bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of the saints.

When we pray, it fills bowls in heaven and then when men resist our prayers and go against what God wants done, he pours that out as judgment.

Listen, there's going to be a whole lot of burning flesh around.

It doesn't give me pleasure, but I'll tell you what our prayers avail.

Much.

I'm not backing off, because the Bible says that.

Quit speaking against the Bible.

Amen.

All right, five things.

Number one establish intimacy based on your relationship with God.

Establish it.

It's not going to just happen.

I mean you're going to have to schedule God into your schedule.

You're going to have to commit to praying a certain amount of time.

It takes time.

I mean it's not enough just to pray in tongues on the way to work.

That's just not going to cut it.

That's better than nothing, but it's just barely better than nothing, because when you're driving you've got to pay attention to the road.

You've got to be involved in what's going on, otherwise you're going to have a cracker.

So no, I mean that's really not the thing.

I mean you're just kind of that's a religious exercise, then.

I mean, let's honor God enough to have a certain time when we spend.

And if it's night or day?

Brother Hagin didn't get up in the morning and he liked to sleep, so he prayed at night.

He was a night person, so he just adopted his habits to what he didn't try to fight.

It doesn't have to be a burden.

It shouldn't ever be a burden.

It won't be a burden.

Prayer will put more into you than it ever takes out of you.

Establish intimacy based on your relationship.

What is my relationship?

You're a child of God.

You're a king of kings.

You're the kings he's the king of.

You're the Lord that he's Lord of.

That's really our status with God.

It's time for us to quit waiting around in the lobby and come right up into the Holy of Holies and find out what it is God wants to show us.

Are y'all with me now?

How many of you know you can't get much in the lobby?

I mean, I went to the heart doctor here.

I spent 45 minutes in the lobby.

It didn't help me at all.

I just sat there and sat there and sat there.

Nothing profitable happened.

I mean, I'm just sitting there looking at my iPhone, looking at the walls.

They took all the magazines out because they're just infected with COVID-19.

You can't touch a magazine.

You go to the restaurant, get your iPhone and take a picture of the menu and look at that on your iPhone.

We can't give you a menu.

Give me a menu.

Oh, yes, sir.

Okay, all right, just ask for it.

Kind of demand.

They're so rude.

Yeah, I know, I'm fed up with mass.

I'm fed up with this whole, especially after Friday night.

If y'all weren't here Friday night.

I mean, god, I didn't need any vindication for my decision to open up a year ago on Palm Sunday.

I didn't need the vindication because I followed the Holy Ghost, but I mean it was absolute vindication.

I mean if I needed it, it was there.

I mean the science was right behind us.

So establish intimacy based on who you are in Him and quit waiting in the lobby and go right into the Holy of Holies and get the information you need.

And, number two, constrain God's presence.

What does that exactly mean?

Well, it literally means to urge, to insist and compel.

As I opened the service today, I went to Galveston a number of years ago and God just spoke to these words to me.

He said many he just used the word many Arsaceated with the cares of this world and with the pleasures of this world, and much of the care comes from the pursuit of the pleasure.

Many just tip their hat to me and go along their merry way.

Now those were.

He said that to me and I'm thinking what does that mean?

I think I know what satiate me.

I had to look it up in the dictionary.

I found out that it means filled or gorged.

Have you ever gorged on fajitas?

Have you ever gorged on any food that your chicken fried steak Gorge just means filled to overflow and filled to where you can't get anymore.

So think about people are satiated with the cares of this world.

Does that describe our world right now?

People are satiated, they're filled, they can't go anywhere.

It's so heartbreaking to watch that film Friday night and the effect on our children is that they can't even they can't read faces.

Little babies are looking at mama and sees a mask, and little babies the biggest thing they have is facial recognition and now they can't even see it because mama's got a stupid mask on.

Get a brain, lady.

Your baby can't even get sick and can't get you sick, so why you got a mask on?

And if he did, the mask wouldn't help you.

Would you take ditch water and pour it through a mask and then drink it after you filtered it with the mask?

You think it's going to filter out typhus?

You think it's going to filter out E coli?

Oh yeah, e coli.

Yeah, it'll filter.

Your mask will filter out E coli.

Well, let's make a bet.

I'm going to bet you $100.

Amen.

So I began to see that people you know their absence away from prayer and absence away from the Word of God had created this.

And so what's happening now is people are under pressure financially because, you know, another thing came out in that film the other night the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of the world from small businesses to large corporations.

When I heard that idea of transfer of wealth, I said, oh, it's the wrong direction.

We need a transfer of wealth into the church for the purposes of the harvest.

I'm not relaxing on my belief of that.

I believe James, chapter five talks about a transfer of wealth.

I believe all the wealth that came out of the society going to make people rich like Bill Gates, who's got a divorce, getting a divorce now.

Well, money can't buy you happy, can it?

I'm not glad I'm just reporting.

These people fall apart.

They're complete basket cases as human beings.

And we're listening to them, yeah, so constrain God's presence, urge, insist, compel.

Thirsty people are dangerous when you just stay hungry and thirsty for more of Him.

When you just speak that, say it because your emotions will follow your words.

You may find it hard to pray as long as 30 minutes.

When you first start doing it, you might get tempted to I'm not accomplishing anything.

The devil will bring every thought into your mind, things that you're not doing.

You're going oh, you've got to hurry up and make this phone call.

Oh, the phone's ringing.

It's for you.

It's important, you've got to listen, it's going to take a while.

Draw a circle around you and don't let anything into that circle.

Well, you don't know my house.

I've got kids that have to go to school.

Well, at some point in time you can either schedule a different prayer time than that time or whatever you have to do, just draw a circle around yourself and that's your prayer closet.

I used to do that.

I just draw a circle around my green chair.

I had a green chair and I just draw a circle around it.

You know who?

I heard that from John Osteen.

He said you ever try to be spiritual with five kids running around the house?

He said I had to learn just draw a circle around my chair.

And when I drew that circle, that meant nothing could come in.

And I'm sitting there, I'm reading my Bible and I'm praying.

Nothing's going to penetrate that.

It takes maturity, it takes discipline.

But if you'll speak, god, I'm so hungry for you.

I can't wait for our prayer time.

I'm gonna constrain your presence.

I want you to be in my life.

I want the presence of God above everything.

Amen, Amen.

Number three when God reveals something to you, thank Him for it.

I said thank Him for it.

I was praying on my patio about 10 years ago, I think, and I was reminded this morning because something similar happened.

And remember I told you I like to watch the birds.

You know, jesus told us to watch the birds, so I'll watch the birds.

I'll watch all the birds that I can.

I guess I'm a bird watcher not with a binocular and all that, but just out in my backyard.

And so about 10 years ago I think it was, I was out in my backyard and here was.

They call them Robin Redbreast and I never have understood Redbreast as it's really rust, rust color, but they call them the Robin Redbreast.

And he come flying and lit in my backyard and started hopping around and hopping around and looking for worms and he was totally not afraid of me.

I kind of started talking to him and I realized that he was the first one I had seen.

He was kind of out of season.

He was early at that particular time.

As far as I thought he was kind of out of.

What is he doing here now?

They're seasonal birds and here he is in my yard.

And so I started humming this song and then I looked up the words.

You know when the red red Robin comes Bob, bob, bob and along, anyway.

So I looked up the words to the song and on Duck Duck Wint and some of you are still on Duck Duck Gold, but I'm on Duck Duck Wint, but anyway I gave up Google Brother, google is not doing any of my business and I found Dean Martin's version of the song, which I think is the best version of when the red red Robin comes Bob, bob, bob and along along.

There'll be no more sobbing when he starts throbbing that same sweet song wake up, wake up.

If you sleep ahead, get up, get up, get out of bed.

And so there's my ministry.

The Robin is a sign to keep doing what I'm doing.

And that was during Obama's administration, where everything that we were praying about was going the wrong direction.

I mean, we prayed against Obamacare.

They passed it with a straight party line vote, not one Republican vote, and we're still paying for it.

By the way, still got dysfunction, a lot of the dysfunction we have at the hospitals because of Obamacare.

They never got rid of Obamacare.

It's still there.

They got rid of a few things, but it's still there, breaking our healthcare delivery system, and they wanna do more of that.

They wanna break everything.

But anyway, when you look at results, when you look at when it doesn't do any good to pray yes, our job is to pray.

Our job is to speak against it.

Our job is to keep on waking the church up and get them mobilized, because why?

There's tremendous power that's going to waste.

There's tremendous power that's not being released when people pray.

2nd Corinthians, 7, 14.

What a waste of time.

You've got better verses to pray.

Thank God for Billy Brenn.

She said that.

She said that out loud and at one of her meetings and I heard her say it I said thank God for somebody that is bold enough to say what the truth is.

It kinda makes people's teeth set on edge.

But you've got an incomplete revelation when you're praying Old Testament Israel prayers for the church.

We got a better covenant.

So when God reveals something, give thanks.

I just gave thanks for that.

So this morning I'm sitting out there and here comes a robin red breast.

He started on my backyard in my extreme ride.

He went all the way down to the depth, to where the back fence was, and he turned right angles and he was hopping the whole time, never flew, he just hopped along, kinda looking around, and I started talking to him and he looked at me, you know, and he just kept on walking all the way down.

I lost sight of him.

He just went on behind the garage and I was just laughing because he just let me know Keep on waking up the church.

Wake up you sleepyhead.

Live, love, laugh and be happy.

That's another line to the song.

Are y'all getting anything out of this, pastor?

You're crazy.

You talk about birds?

Well, I'm going to a heavenly insane asylum.

I trust I'll see y'all there, amen.

Number four pray for your pastor, leaders and family.

You know that's scriptural Verse 10 of the two.

Pray for kings.

Well, we don't have kings.

A lot of people try to make a whole doctrine out of praying for Biden and take a.

I'm praying for Biden's salvation.

You know what.

You go ahead, just knock yourself out.

While you're doing that, I'm going to go ahead and twiddle my thumbs and say, twinkle, twinkle, little star.

He lives in America, he's been exposed to the gospel, he claims he's a good Catholic and all of that.

He's a doofus and wherever he goes he deserves to go.

I'm not praying for him, I'm praying against him.

I'm crying against him.

When you look at the book of Jonah, chapter one, god told the prophet Jonah go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry against it.

He didn't go.

He didn't say go in there and slobber on the mayor and make sure he saved.

No, he said tell him I'm going to destroy the city.

Cry against it.

Why did Jonah leave?

Why did he rebel?

Because he knew that's what was going to happen, and when he went and prophesied doom and gloom, he knew they would repent and then he would look bad.

Just pride on his part.

He didn't want to look bad.

He didn't want to look like he had missed God.

So he ran from God and remember, though, they threw him overboard and swallowed by a fish.

Oh, that's just a legend.

No, it's in my Bible, and I believe it happened.

Just like it said If you can't believe your Bible, what can you believe?

That's the other problem.

In the church.

We've got teachers that are saying that the Bible is really not true.

It's filled with this, that and the other.

It's got this fable and it's got that.

No, it is God's word and it liveth in a bydoth forever, and I'm not going to speak against his word.

Are y'all with me now?

So pray for your pastor, your leaders, yeah, cry against evil.

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil and pride and arrogance and every evil thing.

So we don't pray for that.

You think the church prayed for Herod.

You think they were fast and bold?

Oh God, save Herod.

See, that's just baloney.

He already sent Jesus to save him.

He is saved.

He's just never received his salvation and in some cases, many people have rejected by their actions.

It looks to me like they've rejected.

I'm not going to waste my time unless the God told me to specifically, and then I would.

I'm offending so many people today.

I don't mean to.

Well, yes, I do.

I guess I do.

It's kind of like the sand in the oyster.

You know, the sand turns into a pearl.

Maybe this will be an irritant, that you can turn into something that's valuable.

Pray for your pastor, and you know this is what he said in the book of Colossians.

He said that in the book of Ephesians.

Pray for me that I'll have utterance to speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Listen, I've got to have your prayers to say the things that I'm saying online and make sure that I'm walking the tightrope where we're not taken out.

We heard the doctor.

They take them out.

They take.

Every one of those doctors has been sanctioned by their professional groups.

They've been taken out of all the social media platforms for just simply putting out there a contrary scientific study that's peer reviewed, that's proven, and because it differs with the diatribe that's coming out of Washington, they're thrown out.

That's got to change.

All right, the last one pray in church prayer meetings.

I can't stress this enough.

This is how I learned to pray.

I went to prayer meetings when I was first saved.

I started going to prayer meetings.

I started hanging around people that knew how to pray better than me.

I would watch, I would listen to how they prayed, I would watch them as they'd walk around and I'd just watch their mannerisms and I'd watch how they would get into the spirit and it seemed to me like that they would be going along and then they would kinda.

The best I can describe it is shift gears.

You know what I mean by shifting a gear.

I used to have a 71-4 F-100 truck and it had a four speed transmission on the floor.

But it wasn't the four speed like they have in the muscle cars, it was a truck transmission.

So the first gear was to you and up and it was grandma gear.

So when you let out on clutch that truck, whoa, oh, oh.

You know you could pull a railroad car with first gear.

It was unsuitable for anything.

I never found a use for it.

I never had.

You couldn't start off smooth.

You couldn't shift smooth, it just jerk you around.

So I just played like I didn't have first gear.

I just had second gear and then third and fourth, and then I'd go down the road, shift and I had clutch and all that stuff.

And so that's kinda the way people are when they first start praying, they're in grandma gear and they never get out of grandma gear and they never really get revved up, they never get moving in a direction.

And so there's gotta be a shifting, there's gotta be a gear shift, and that comes with time and it comes with experience.

And you're gonna learn how that happens in a corporate prayer meeting.

It happens every time we pray together, and we have a couple of opportunities for you to come.

First of all, there's Thursday night.

Every Thursday night, 7.30 in the youth room, there's prayer.

If you're a member of this church, we urge you to come.

We don't just invite the general public, why?

Well, because the general public sometimes is more distraction than they are worth.

So it's not really for that purpose, it's for prayer, and so we want our people to be there.

We want you to be there.

It's an opportunity, and if you're kinda unsure about how to pray, what to pray, come and avail yourself, because again, we're at the end of this thing.

I mean, jesus is coming soon and we've got things before us in this church that we have to pray about corporately.

You're sitting in a building.

That came from what I heard on Thursday night prayer and what words that came from that prayer meeting.

We've had it from beginning of this church 26 years Thursday night prayer and it makes a big difference.

And then the other thing that we have that's available is Power Hour Plus, which is the first Sunday night of every month.

So we've coming up here right after the next Sunday, after Memorial Day, will be Power Hour Plus.

Somebody said well, you know, pastor, it's a long way I drive.

I'm 25 minutes, I'm 30 minutes, I'm 45 minutes from the church.

I'm deaf to that.

I'm sorry, I don't even care, because I drove 27 miles each way for 15 years.

I wore out four cars.

I mean I never paid any attention to the drive.

I would go to sleep when I left spring and wake up at Lakewood.

I mean I'm just falling to a trance, my car, just you know.

Yeah, I was paying attention, but in other words, I never was a burden, it was a commitment.

I had four times a week, every service, two services on Sunday, when they had two services on Sunday morning, then Sunday night.

I mean two services.

It starts at 8.30.

One starts at 8.00.

I had to leave my house by 7.00 on Sunday morning.

Get there, go through one service, go through the second service, go home, come back for the 6.30 service on Sunday night.

A lot of them are nodding because they did the same thing.

Lots of people do it.

How available are you See?

That's just are you available?

Because maturity demands availability.

So avail yourself and learn how to pray by watching people who do know how, and as you develop your prayer life, you'll know the things you need to know Prayin' to know things.

Come on, lift your hands and receive today Hallelujah.

Do you get anything out of this today?

Praise God, hallelujah.

Glory to God, amen, hallelujah.