The Power Of Prayer 2

Get your Bibles out.

Let's say this together Say, heavenly Father, I'm so glad to be living now and what is called the last days.

I see the signs all around me and I've come to church to fill in the blanks of my faith.

My faith needs encouraging, I need to be fed the Word of God and today I will receive the meat of the Word of God to strengthen my spirit, to build my faith so that I can overcome all in these last days.

In Jesus' name, amen, you can be seated turning your Bibles to James, chapter five, and I'm gonna be reading it out of the Amplify James 516.

And it's the second half of that verse, and the Amplify says it this way the earnest, heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man or woman makes tremendous power available, dynamic in its working.

And so we started last week on the power of prayer.

We wanna continue this week.

And prayer, we talked about it.

The book of James is an end time book.

We're living in the end times.

You say how do you know it's an end time book when it talks about the harvest.

Second Peter is another one of those books Revelation, of course.

So there's some books in the Bible that address the period of time that we're living in right now.

Well, how do you know we're living in Well because we're seeing the signs all around us, aren't we?

And so if we were driving down 610 toward the ship channel and know the ship channel at the old bridge, by the way they fired the engineer that designed it.

All that millions of dollars.

And they're the same engineers that designed the bridge that fell and killed four people in Florida.

So they decided, maybe, that he wouldn't write engineer.

So sometimes you have to fire engineers, and I fired a few, but anyway.

So if you had, on the freeway there going toward the ship channel, bridge out five miles, you'd start thinking, wouldn't you?

Wouldn't you think about an exit?

Wouldn't you think about how am I gonna get over the ship channel?

I'm gonna have to get off this?

And then you keep driving.

Well, you're thinking bridge out three miles, bridge out one mile.

Finally, when you see bridge out, you know you're gonna be sailing out over into the ship channel.

And so you know we have a warning that Jesus is coming soon.

What is that warning, israel?

Israel is the warning.

They're the billboard they're flashing Bridge out, jesus is coming soon, amen.

And so an end time book and prayer is such a vital thing that and we have new members here and come from different backgrounds you may not be familiar with how we pray around here, especially corporate prayer.

We're gonna have a corporate prayer meeting.

What do we mean?

Corporate, where we all get together and pray in a prayer meeting, corporate prayer the whole church prays at a prayer meeting.

So that's coming up Sunday night, september the sixth, so I invite everybody to be here.

More is caught than taught.

How many of you got that big catcher's mitt?

You can catch my knuckleball that I throw at you.

You know it's moving like this, so you gotta have a big mitt.

So I'm not watching any baseball right now.

I'm through with baseball football.

I'm through with all of these spoiled brats.

Let them boycott all they want.

Let them skip a.

I wonder if they're still getting paid when they don't play.

I don't know, I don't care.

All right so, but we're learning how to pray, and so that'll be another great learning experience for you.

If you've never been in a corporate prayer meeting in a spirit field church, it'd be something to see and understand how we pray about things, about our country and about our church.

But today we wanna quickly talk about last week the tremendous power available through prayer, and I like to say that when we don't pray, then what?

Well, you got a power vacuum.

That's what's going on right now.

There's a power vacuum in all these cities where they're having all this trouble.

Why?

Well, because the ones that are leading there the governors, the mayors, the city councils they're more political than they are caring about taking care of their people that are living there, and so they want to contribute to the chaos and they really don't even know how to stop it.

It's pretty hard to stop things like that when you're politically correct.

It takes somebody that doesn't care about being politically correct, it takes somebody that doesn't care about the names and the.

You know.

You just go in there and you stop it.

There's ways to stop it and they're not stopping it, and innocent people are being harmed, law-abiding citizens are being harmed.

What is that?

A power vacuum?

And who's behind the vacuum?

The devil.

The devil's behind it, so he's Again.

If we have a power vacuum in our life through a lack of prayer or not knowing how to pray properly, we're gonna have a power vacuum.

The devil's gonna occupy that vacuum and you're gonna have a lot more trouble than you would normally have if you were a praying person.

So John Wesley said it seems that God is limited by our prayer life.

He can't do anything for humanity unless someone asks him.

And so we talked about last week.

Prayer is not trying to get God's attention.

Prayer is not trying to get God to do something, but prayer is communicating right there.

I know I lost some people right there on that one, so just stick with me, give me the benefit of the doubt.

How many of you think I know something about prayer?

Amen, I do know something about prayer, and so this church is the fruit of it.

So let's just, if you don't understand that statement, stick with me.

You know, keep listening.

Amen.

But prayer is not trying to get God to do something, but prayer is communicating with God, believing and receiving what he has already done in Jesus.

And so the result of Word-based, spirit-led prayer is tremendous power being released, and we found out last week that power is resurrection power.

It's the same power that raised Christ for dead.

And so today we wanna look at Luke 18.

I mentioned it last week.

I want you to see what Jesus said about prayer, luke 18-1.

And we wanna continue this week, probably on another subject next week.

I mean I could preach on prayer for six months.

I wanna wet your appetite.

So, luke 18-1,.

He spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint.

And the word faint means to turn coward, to lose heart, to be a sinner and give up.

So he gave them this parable.

See, it wasn't an actual story, it was a parable, it was illustration to illustrate how we should bear long in prayer.

Say it, there was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man.

Well, we've got a lot of judges like that right now, man, I can think of a whole arm load of them.

And there was a widow in that city and she came unto him saying avenge me of my adversary.

And he would not for a while.

But afterward he said within himself though I fear not God, nor regard man.

Yet because this widow troubled me, what?

She only came one time.

She only came one time.

This widow troubled me.

I will avenge her less by her continual coming.

She weary me.

So he had only listen, he had only been exposed to her one time and he made a conclusion out of that one inner intersection with this woman.

I don't wanna mess with her.

She's gonna trouble me, she's gonna eat my lunch, she's gonna weary me, she's gonna wear me out.

I wanna just go ahead and do what she asked me to and save myself a lot of misery.

Okay, y'all with me now?

This is Jesus talking about prayer.

And the Lord said hear what the unjust judge said.

And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cried day and night unto him?

Though he bear along with them?

I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.

Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

And that's a question I ask all the time.

When the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

And I can only answer it for myself and I say yeah, if I have anything to do with it.

Yeah, because I teach faith and I have to practice my faith, I have to live my faith.

Amen.

This church is here because of that.

I'm not ashamed to say it didn't just happen.

It happened out of prayer, it happened out of faith, of what I heard in prayer, and you can have the same thing in your life.

So God is saying listen, you're not gonna get anything if you're just weak and undetermined, lest by her continual coming, her continual, in other words, in Luke 11,.

Let's turn back there real quick.

It's worth looking at this one.

In Luke 11, there was this so which of you having a friend shall go under him at midnight?

Say unto him, friend, lend me three loaves for a friend of mine, and his journey has come to me and I have nothing to set for him.

And he, from within, shall answer and say trouble be not, the door is now shut and my children are with me in bed.

I cannot rise and give thee.

I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him because he's his friend.

Yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as much as he needs.

And so his importunity, his shameful persistence, shameless persistence, shameless persistence.

So when you come to God, it's not about talking over and over about the same thing.

It's about already lining up on what basis you're praying.

You know what your ground is.

You're praying his word.

When you pray his word, you know his will, because his will is his word and he has to answer that prayer.

Well, I had three grunts and two old me's and one hallelujah out of that whole thing.

I said he has to answer that prayer when it's based on his word.

So it's not about saying it over and over again.

That's not what this is talking about.

It's not what's talking about in Luke 18.

It's talking about having that attitude.

You already have it built in.

I will not be denied.

Are you with me?

Now?

When you read your Bible, you'll see that same kind of persistence all through the Bible.

Amen.

And so faith doesn't quit.

Faith puts pressure on the Word of God.

See, the pressure's not on you.

I've had to remind myself over 26 years, and even before that, all the years that I started in the ministry 1988, so 32 years now.

I mean, I've had to put pressure on the Word.

I've had to get pressure off of me, the pressure to perform, the pressure that people are gonna be there and they're waiting for me to say something.

And I'm thinking what am I gonna say?

Man, that happened to me every time I went overseas, when I'm driving at night going to one of my healing crusades in the Philippines, and I've got a little idea of what I'm gonna preach, I've got some notes that I'm gonna follow, and I know there's 2,000, 3,000 people gathered in an outdoor venue and they're waiting for the man of God from America.

And I tell you what?

There's pressure, pressure coming on me and I just say, well, thank God, that's your problem, lord, you're the one that sent me here.

All the pressure's on the Word.

Thank God, the Word produces.

All I'm gonna do is stand up and act like the Bible is true and everything else is up to you.

And oh, I mean, we had some marvelous things that happened.

Have any of that pressure.

We shouldn't have any pressure.

Look at Isaiah 55.

I'm talking about the power of prayer and Isaiah 55 is one of my favorite verses.

Even though it's in the Old Testament, it's still true today in verse 10.

For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and returns, not fither, I like the King James because of the hithers and the thithers.

Maybe you don't, but I like hithers and thithers.

So maybe you don't like that.

Right, read the new King James.

It's fine or something else, but so it doesn't return.

It returns not there, but it waters the earth, makes it, bring forth in bud that it may be seed to the sower and bread to the eater.

So, just in the same way, rainfall, so shall my Word be that goeth forth out of my mouth.

It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing.

Where too I send it.

God's Word doesn't waste.

It always brings forth what it was intended to God's Word and God's mouth.

But his word in your mouth will do the same thing.

That's when you pray or when you say the word.

It's going to do what it's designed to do.

Are you with me now?

So God already sent his word to us, and when we send it or when we speak it, it will accomplish what it's designed to accomplish.

That's what the Centurion said.

He said oh Jesus, my servant is lying home sick of the palsy.

He said I'll come in here.

Oh, no, no, you don't have to come.

You don't have to come to my house.

I'm not worthy of you coming to my house.

Just send the word.

That's all I need.

Just send the word.

Just send the word.

See, he knew the authority that Jesus had.

He knew the authority of the word.

I think more believers have to be acquainted with the authority of the word.

Not only that God gave us, but he gave it to us to speak.

So it accomplishes the same thing when we speak and agree with his word and speak the same thing.

That's what confess means say the same thing.

That's a form of prayer.

Are you with me Every time you speak the word or pray the word, either one.

It's like it's praying and you're gonna get results when it's based on the word.

So when we send it or speak it, it will accomplish and the word in our mouth changes the whole landscape.

Quickly to Jeremiah, chapter one.

I want you to see this.

This is so powerful.

Got ahold of this years ago.

Jeremiah one nineties.

He's calling Jeremiah to be a prophet and he's saying then the Lord put forth his hand and touched my mouth.

Let me just take an aside here, a parenthetical aside.

Anytime God wants to change something, he will touch a person's mouth.

Didn't he touch Abram's mouth and say you're no longer Abram, you're Abraham?

When he started saying I'm Abraham, they conceived a child, he's a hundred and his wife is 90.

But what had to happen?

God had to touch his mouth and give him something to say what you've been saying about your circumstance.

You need to find out what God says about it.

Quit saying what you've been saying.

Say what he says about it.

You'll see some things change real quick.

The whole landscape will change.

Look what it says here.

He said.

Then the Lord put forth his hand, touched my mouth and the Lord said unto me behold, I have put my words in my mouth.

Everybody say he's put his word in my mouth.

Come on, say it boldly.

He's put his word in my mouth.

And now, see, I have this day set the over the nations and over the kingdoms to do what To root out, to pull down, to destroy and to throw down.

See, being a builder in West University, I had to do that first part.

Before I could build anything, I had to root up.

I had to tear down.

I bought lots with houses on them.

I had to tear that house down.

I had to root everything out.

I had to haul it off.

Before I could ever do anything about building anything, I had to get rid of a bunch of stuff.

There's a lot of things in your life that have to go and they can go.

If you'll put the word in your mouth, you'll start tearing stuff up, rooting things out, pulling things down amen, then.

And to build and to plant.

No use trying to build on top of a bunch of junk.

What if I'd have tried to build one of those $695,000 houses on top of a 50 year old junk heap.

That wouldn't work, would it?

No, I had to tear all that out.

I had to pull it all out.

I had to get rid of all of it.

And that's what we have to do, and we've got the way to do that.

The Word of God has been given to us.

The earnest, heartfelt, continued or, I can say, consistent Prayer of the righteous makes tremendous power available, the power of praying the Word of God, the shameless persistence that goes behind it, your attitude is one that you will not be denied.

It's not about praying the same thing over and over.

Don't be trying to fill the atmosphere.

Well, I'm storming the gates of heaven.

No, the gates are open.

There's no need to storm the gates.

Amen.

He's already opened the gates.

We're seated at his right hand.

It's too late.

I mean we went right through the gate and we're seated.

I mean Jesus made a place behind the veil for us.

See, all that natural thinking plugs your prayer life and makes it ineffective.

I want you to be effective in your prayer life.

Glory to God.

And then we mentioned this on the benefits of praying in other tongues, but Romans 8, 26 and 27 bears looking at it, because praying in tongues is part of your prayer life, right?

I mean those of you that just got baptized in the Holy Ghost.

It's gonna revolutionize your prayer life if you'll just give yourself to pray and make yourself available to pray in other tongues.

Sometimes we don't know exactly what we ought to pray for.

We know how to pray, we don't know what to pray for, and that's what Romans 8, 26 says.

Likewise, the spirit also help if our infirmity is, for we know what, not what, we should pray for.

As we are, we may know how to.

We can pray to the Father in the name of Jesus, but we don't know what to pray.

What do I pray?

I've got so many things.

Don't be intimidated by the list.

Don't be intimidated by oh my God, I've never prayed like this and in my whole life is how am I ever gonna?

No, don't just pray about what to pray about.

I mean, I go to Galveston every quarter at least.

I pray, you know, as a normal course every day, but I like to make a special trip to Galveston.

That's my place to go.

I like looking out over the water.

I find me a room, overlooking the, and over the years has been the holiday in right there on the by the sea wall, and I just go there fancier hotels, but that's a good old hotel it's, you know.

They've updated it over the years.

It's comfortable, I know all about it, and I can get on my balcony.

I can look out over the water and I can pray in the Holy Ghost and God has spoken to me over there all these years.

It's amazing things that he's shown me and but often what I do, I'm not sure what to pray about when I leave.

Sometimes I have a list of things that I want to talk to him about, but most of the time, if I don't have something suppressing me, I like to pray it like this Lord, what do you want to talk to me about?

I'm available.

I want to pray about.

What to pray about.

Show me what to pray about, lord.

It's pretty surprising some of the things that God has in mind, so you can trust him.

It says here in Romans 8, 26, and we don't know what to pray for, as we ought, but the Spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered, and one version says in other tongues, in other words.

Don't get all hung up on groanings and all that and crying and all of that.

Just pray in other tongues and then when you do, the Holy Spirit is helping you to pray.

He helpeth our infirmities.

What's an infirmity?

It's a frailty of mind and our body.

Sometimes a frailty is a weakness, it's something.

So if you don't know what to pray about a certain situation, it's good to get his perspective before you start flapping your gums.

Pray in a bunch of unnecessary things, things that's not Spirit-led.

Our prayers are many times mental, they're from the head up.

They are not effective when we pray from our Spirit.

That's why you need the baptism in the Holy Ghost.

We hadn't received it.

Receive it.

You quit putting it off, get it.

We've got that little pamphlet, so be sure and pick that up, and anytime we're having an altar call for any reason, you can always come up and receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost.

So it's really great, then, to pray about what to pray about?

The Holy Spirit will entreat, he will confer with, he will deal with and he will make intercession for All of those are involved in helping.

The word helps mean to take hold together with you against.

I wanna say that again.

Helpeth means he takes hold together with you against the Holy Ghost.

Does that?

The third person of the Godhead will take a hold of whatever situation you're praying about.

He will take hold together with you against that thing.

When you're praying, you don't know what to pray, but he does.

He's not intimidated by your trouble.

Oh, how many of you need his help, see.

That's why we've gotta have a prayer life.

We've gotta get rid of the power vacuum in our lives.

We've got to that tremendous power is just waiting to be released against everything you're facing.

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

Thank God, we're not intimidated.

We're not afraid of things that we're seeing on the horizon.

We're not afraid of riots and looting and all of these man, we're not afraid of anything we got.

God is with us, he's for us.

We're blessed, amen.

And so, oh Rabbi, I set it up.

I call you praise, god.

I'll just give you an example.

I mean pray about what to pray about.

We've done that for 26 years.

We'll have a prayer meeting on Thursday night, and I mean in the early days, we just spend the first 30 minutes praying about what to pray about.

Yes, well, that's the silliest thing I've ever heard of.

Why didn't you just go down the list?

Well, because my list is not important.

His list is much more important.

He's got the priorities that we need.

His priority Trump's my priority.

Trump's my priority.

Another reason to vote for Trump he trumps the rest of them.

He's made a whole new dictionary on Trumping.

He trumps anyway.

So in 2017, we were, we had this mortgage and it was just getting to be heavy.

I mean, it was getting to be kind of heavy and we had the property been for sale for four and a half years.

This was April, I think, no, january, january 2017.

So I went away to pray and I was praying about that thing, because we'd been calling it sold for years and we'd sold seed, we had done all that we knew to do, and here's this big old we couldn't seem to get anybody.

We'd had several good bites on the property and we had had some.

We called them the Chi Coms, chinese communists I don't know if they were communists or not, probably were young Chinese and they messed around with us for four or five months.

By the time they finally gave up, they had to forfeit.

What was it?

$17,000 in earnest money.

I mean, james got ahold of them and they didn't know what had happened.

Our broker said I've never seen anybody walk away from $17,000 in earnest money.

This is the first for me.

Oh, excuse me, 75.

I had a seven in there, 75, that's even worth $75,000.

They walked away from $75,000 in earnest.

Just stupidity, stupidity.

They were just here, they didn't know the rules we did and so, but anyway, we were still on the hook for this mortgage, and I mean it was originally a $5.7 million mortgage.

This building was 3.4, and then the 1.3 that we borrowed on the expansion and just things.

Because of the way I preach, I told you before 11,000 people have come through here in 17 years.

Back then it was 14 years and probably about that same amount.

I mean, people come through here and come through here and come through here and they don't stick.

Why?

Well, because a lot of people don't want the conflict.

They don't wanna hear, they don't wanna hear about the devil, they don't wanna hear about this country, they don't wanna hear about our responsibility.

Thank God for you, thank God for you.

Give me a smaller group.

You know, gideon didn't need but 300.

That's right.

Anyway, I went to the Lord and I said Lord, what have I missed?

I've missed something, because I know you've been providing, but it's just.

It's just.

This is not abundance and I don't like squeaking by.

And you know, anytime you have a mortgage, you have a deed of trust that can be foreclosed on almost any reason.

I had a friend of mine in Dallas who lost his whole church and they had asked him would you like to skip some payments?

He said yes, I had my lender.

My lender asked the same thing in 2008.

They said, hey, would you like to skip some payments?

Some of our lenders are, I mean, some of our churches are skipping payments.

I said, no, sir, pay every month.

And we did.

But he had skipped some payments and they turned around and foreclosed on him.

He lost his whole building and to start all the way over meeting in schools and his church went down, down, down, down down.

This COVID thing is gonna be the wreckage of a lot of ministries and a lot of churches, but anyway, I divert, I agree.

So anyway, I went to the Lord.

I said I'd like to know.

Whatever it is that I need to change, I'm willing to change.

And he showed me a scripture in first Corinthians chapter.

I forgot what chapter, but anyway it says what soldier goes to war at his own charges?

And I looked that up what soldier goes to war at his own expense?

So Sergeant Griner is out there on the battlefield and he's having to buy his own weapons, have to buy his own body armor, his own helmet, his own uniform, his own ammunition.

That'd be stupid, wouldn't it?

And I thought what does that have to do with me?

Am I a warrior that has gone to war at my own expense?

What does that mean?

I started praying and I started, and finally I got it that all these years that we have sown seed on behalf of this church, I mean, sometimes we'll write a $10,000 check, sometimes we'll write a $30,000 check and sow seed.

And I think about all the times I went overseas.

I never took a special offering and the budget on those trips was 100,000 plus every time I went.

Well, where'd the money come from?

It came right out of the tithe.

God just chastised me.

He said you've been going to war since the beginning at your own expense.

You've not shared anything with your congregation.

You didn't give them an opportunity to sow into it.

They are a supply.

They're not the only supply, but they are a supply for everything extra this church does and you have kept your mouth shut.

You just went along and just sowed the seed on your own.

You went to war at your own expense.

That's why you're behind.

Ow, it's hard to hear.

It's hard to hear that you've done something wrong for 20-something years.

You know, I had to get over myself there for a while, had to forgive myself, had to walk in love with myself.

I'll beat myself up.

Are you with me now?

Okay, lord, I can do that.

He said don't you don't have to make a big pull.

Just share it with the people when you have over and above expenses.

For instance, your congregation doesn't even know how much your mortgage payment is.

I said well, yeah, I don't talk about stuff like well, he didn't say it this way, but I'm perceiving You're crying to me about your money and you're not even doing what you could do to receive on behalf of the church.

And then I kept praying and he said I want you to stop supporting India.

Oh my God, what Now?

We had supported India and we have a great relationship and we still do.

But I mean that was a hard decision.

I mean he's telling me no more seed, we're not going to write that big check.

I mean it's, you know, for us it's a big check.

It was $3,000 a month for many years that we sowed and then we made a couple of trips over there where it was expensive to go and he said, no, it's time.

You know, the light that shines further, shines brighter at home.

You need to retrench and you need to give me an opportunity to bring a supply from a different direction.

And so I changed and I came up and I said, well, our $31,900 mortgage payment is due this month.

And everybody went what tilt, tilt, what?

Yeah, it costs us $31,900 a month just to open the doors on this church, and that's just the mortgage payment.

That's not the, that's not, you know, all of the lights and air conditioning and all of that.

I mean that's a bunch of money too.

And you know, money started coming in.

I'm telling you, money came in, money came in.

And then suddenly we had a buyer for that property and it was complicated because the county we had a right of way through our property.

That went through our property called West Ritchie Road.

West Ritchie Road right there, right out there, it turned and went through our property.

I've been messing with that 20 for 20 years, that that easement, 20 years, and all of a sudden, god just oh, it was too long a story.

I mean, god opened the door.

All we had to do was sign a piece of paper saying that we no longer we're going to give that land to the county, and it was over with.

That was four.

I'm just going to say four acres at 43,000, some odd square feet per acre.

That's what.

200,000 square feet times three dollars a square foot, that's about 600,000 dollars.

That when we sold the property, that was extra.

That we got put in our pocket 600,000 dollars.

I said 600,000 dollars.

I said 600,000 dollars and we paid that.

And we sold that property for top dollar and paid our mortgage off.

And we're more, we're, we're, we're.

See one word from God you've been going to war at your own expense.

We I mean we just we just share the need.

So now when we spend money like a few weeks ago we spent $50,000 on air conditioning units are you cool, is it nice in here?

Well, we had to replace these old units are 15 years old.

I mean, I don't know if anybody gave in the offering, but that's not even the point.

The point is we're in this together.

I need to share, when we're doing something extra, over and above what's normal.

How many of you appreciate that?

Well, let me tell you something.

God cares about it.

He wants this church solid.

He wants this church financially strong.

He wants you solid.

He wants you strong.

Just think about, if you went to prayer, what God could show you about your life.

I know everybody's done everything perfectly well.

I know there's nobody needing any correction whatsoever, I'm sure of that.

My nose just grew two inches.

All right, praise, god.

Are you getting anything out of this?

So when you pray in the Holy Ghost, you speak divine mysteries.

You're speaking, you're edifying yourself, you're strengthening your spirit, you're creasing your capacity to know what the will of God is.

I mean, we ought to pray about what to pray about sometimes.

Sometimes there's immediate needs and we, you know.

And the other thing I want to say about praying is a lot of people just have an idea.

It's just always begging God for a bunch of stuff, but that's the.

There is supplication.

You do ask him for certain things, but most prayer is really just cooperating with God and learning what's already yours and and having the wisdom you know.

Bible says if any of you lack wisdom, james, chapter one.

If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask in faith, nothing doubting, a lot of prayers asking God about and say that's what I was doing.

I was asking for God, for his wisdom, and he showed me what I was doing wrong.

I made that adjustment, I made that correction and, man, we took off financially and we found other people to so, uh, cede into Mark Hankins.

Mark and Trenton were good partners of their ministry every month and we have him come at least once a year and we bless them.

And then we go to his meetings at least once or twice a year, bless him when we go to their meetings and he's been a great partner to have.

And we began to just shift our sowing into listen America.

It's like our hair is on fire and, yeah, I believe in world missions.

I was in a church with world missions but we've done that for a lot of many years and you know what people like India and Africa are sending missionaries to us.

Now we are so backslidden as a nation that they are sending missionaries to us, isn't that does not just humble you, my God?

Are we that far?

Yeah, we're that far gone, and so we need to buttress and to strengthen the church in America right now.

Are y'all with me now?

So praise God.

Okay, final thoughts.

Let me just give you three things here.

Are you getting anything out of this today?

It's not.

It meant to be an exhaustive prayer teaching.

I just want to wet your appetite.

We've got a lot of material on our website, if you go back lots of praying, lots of teaching on prayer.

First thing, I want to emphasize tremendous power.

Number one tremendous power is available to those who pray.

So make yourself available.

Make yourself available.

Well, I'm too busy.

Where you're too busy, cut something off.

Cut your bridge game, your bowling league, your golf game.

Something has to go.

Usually that it's not, usually that it's not seeing its weights.

If you can't pray because of your enjoyment you've got too much enjoyment, not enough spiritual activity you're not going to make it.

I said you're not going to make it.

You're going to miss what God has for you in this hour.

So make time to pray, amen.

Make yourself available.

Number two anytime God wants to change someone, he touches their mouth.

So ask him to touch your mouth.

Lord, touch my mouth.

Help me to say the things I need to say right now.

Give me the word.

I need to be agreeing with right now.

Now we know we have a lot of good words we can agree.

I mean, thank God, I believe by the stripes of Jesus I am healed.

That's a good thing to say all the time, especially when everybody's wearing a mask out there.

Everybody's socially distancing well, not everybody install the Democrats.

It's become a Democrat mask.

It's become a.

I mean really.

I mean, you know, we had the Republicans here a couple weeks ago.

This whole room filled and there were some masks in there, but mostly people didn't have a mask on most and everybody was jammed right up next to each other.

All right, so so anytime God wants to change somebody, he touches their mouth.

So ask him.

Ask him to touch your mouth and give you the word that you need to be speaking right now.

And then, number three don't be overwhelmed at what to pray for.

Don't be overwhelmed.

You might think, man, I'm so far behind, oh, I've just got so many things.

Well, don't be overwhelmed about that.

Just start praying in other tongues, because he already knows the priority.

See, you don't know what the priority is.

Don't try to attack it with your brain tissue.

I mean, god is wiser and smarter than you are.

Praying the Holy Ghost for a while until you have, until you, until you know, you have a perception in your spirit of a direction that you can pray in your understanding.

Don't start with your understanding, start with the other tongues and then go into see.

That's what I did when I went to Galveston.

I didn't know.

I mean, I knew we had a problem and I wanted to know where I needed him to touch my mouth.

He said you went towards your own expense.

One word, one verse, and we've got a financial miracle in here.

I said this is a financial miracle.

You're sitting in glory to God.

Anybody need a financial miracle here this morning?

See, glory to God.

There's only two people that raised their hand.

Everybody else, so don't be overwhelmed.

They've been at what to pray for, praying tongues and let the Holy Spirit pray through you.

Come on, lift your hands and receive the power of prayer.

Hallelujah, the power of prayer.

Come on, let's rejoice right now.

Thank God, we've got the ability to tap in and join forces with God Almighty.

He's helping us.

He took hold together with us against everything that we're facing.

I say this is the greatest year.

Yet I don't care.

I don't care what the devil says.

I say this is our greatest year yet.