Prevailing Church (part 1)

You can't build a prevailing church unless you raise a church that knows how to prevail

in prayer.

You can't build a prevailing church, as in a church that has the ability to overcome

situations without raising a church that contends in prevailing prayer, as in the kind of prayer

that helps you break through things.

So that's what we said three weeks ago.

And by the way, Matthew 16, 19 says that, I will build my church and the gates of hell

shall not prevail against it.

So know that you have an active enemy called the devil who also likes to prevail.

So prevailing is not a Christian word.

Prevailing is just a word that anybody can take and use.

And so Satan or the devil, hell, loves prevailing too.

And so how do we define prevailing so that we know what we're talking about?

To contend, to engage in battle, to overcome, to not be beaten, to grapple or wrestle and

win.

This is what we mean by prevailing.

And God wants to build a prevailing church here on earth.

He doesn't want churches that don't know how to battle.

He doesn't want a church that does not know how to wrestle and grapple and win, jockey

for position and win.

He does not want churches to be overcome, but wants churches that know how to overcome.

He wants churches that have a desire to contend, have this gleeful anticipation of a fight,

which is so alien to our way of thinking.

But that's the kind of church he wants to build.

But to build a prevailing church, you must have a people that understand prevailing prayer,

as in the kind of prayer that contends, the kind of prayer that engages in battle, the

kind of prayer that overcomes, the kind of prayer that does not get beaten, and the kind

of prayer that wrestles and jockeys for position.

And over the next, hopefully, a couple of months, we'll be going over this, but today

we just start.

And so Satan also likes prevailing.

Satan also likes prevailing.

And our lives have had so many situations where we saw the enemy prevail, where things

broke in our lives, where things were beaten in our lives, where things were trampled down

in our lives.

And so there are two methods that the devil uses to prevail.

The first one is he tries to ravage.

He tries to ravage.

He tries to ravage.

And then the second one is he tries to corrode.

And both are different in that ravaging is an outright onslaught that has, that cannot

be mistaken.

It just is wave after wave of attack till a person crumbles because of just absolute

hopelessness and weariness.

And corrosion is a slow acid drip where it just keeps gnawing at you till, in the end,

it's hollowed out from inside.

And you see both these methods in the Bible.

So if you go to Judges chapter 6 verses 3 to 6, Judges 6, 3 to 6, you'll see that happening

Judges 6:3–6

there.

Judges chapter 6, verse 3 to 6, Judges 6, 3 to 6, and I'm reading.

Judges 6:3–6

It says here, whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites, and

other Eastern people invaded the country.

They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living

thing for Israel, neither sheep, nor cattle, nor donkeys.

They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts.

It was impossible to count the men and their camels.

They invaded the land to ravage it.

Midians so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help.

This is when wave after wave just comes against you.

Just when you, this is what happened to Job.

Job heard some bad news and while he's still trying to figure out that bad news, here comes

more bad news and then more and then more.

Where the intent is, can I bring you down to your knees because you can't handle the

onslaughts I'm bringing.

So that's one way that the enemy prevails.

The other way is corrosion, where it's eating away, nibbling away at the root and the fruit

where nothing is ever whole.

There's always a pain here or a pain there or something breaking down here and something

breaking down there.

It's nothing big but a group of little things happening.

And that's from Song of Songs 2.15 where it says that little foxes are gnawing away at

your vineyard where Satan has his ability to send little things that keep eating away

the root of your vineyard.

And so it doesn't matter that you have a really good vineyard, that you're nurturing it well,

that you're watering it well, that the climate is good, that everything you're doing is good.

The stock is good.

But you still can't see the kind of fruit you want to see because there are these little

foxes that keep coming and eating away.

Our lives fall into one of these two categories when it comes to the enemy attack.

And Satan is really someone who does this for a living because it says in Ephesians

Ephesians 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6 that Satan comes with fiery arrows that are continuously being shot, that he

comes to steal, kill and destroy.

This is an active, active enemy.

It is scary that the church is losing sight of its enemy, the devil, that we attribute

things to psychosomatic conditions and rarely attribute anything to the devil.

But he's a really active enemy.

If there was no devil, there would be no need of a savior because it was someone who took

us captive that Jesus needed to come and free us from, which is why it says in 1st John

4 that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came down to the earth in flesh to destroy the

works of the devil.

It is one of the reasons he came down to the earth.

It's one of the reasons he hung on a cross.

Colossians 2 says that he made a public spectacle of the devil and caused him to dismount from

where he sat and is now paraded as a prisoner in Christ's triumphant procession, meaning

when a returning army general used to come into a city after victory, behind him would

be slaves in tow.

They would be paraded as part of his victorious procession.

That is the true condition of the devil, but more and more churches are becoming unaware

of it and may you never come to that place where you're not aware of the fact that you

have an active, alive enemy who's more powerful than you, were it not for Christ.

So these are the two methods he uses to ravage or to undo or to prevail over us and one of

the ways we prevail over him is through prayer.

Here's the strange thing.

The devil does not know how to stop, handle, negate prayer.

He does not know what to do with it.

Right from when this guy called Seth, who was one of Adam's son in Genesis 5, right

from when Seth was born, man has been seeking God and the devil does not know how to stop

it.

Through guilt, he tries to make man hide.

He was able to cause Adam and Eve to hide.

It's one of the ways the enemy removes prayer.

He causes enough guilt, enough shame, enough hopelessness to force you to hide.

As long as you're not hiding, he cannot stop prayer.

Yeah.

Any questions?

Any questions?

Okay.

So here are some ways that we can begin to get to know the devil.

So here's the first one.

The second one.

The third one.

The fourth one.

The fifth one.

The sixth one.

The seventh one.

The seventh one.

That we can begin this whole idea of prevailing prayer.

When things begin to overwhelm you, here are some conditions for prevailing prayer.

This is not the content of prevailing prayer.

We'll talk about the content of prevailing prayer later.

But these are the conditions for prevailing prayer.

As in, if you begin to think like this, prevailing prayer becomes easier when situations get

overwhelming.

I'm not just talking about your life.

your life. I'm talking about lives that you are praying for. Lives that you are praying

for. How do we contend? How do we prevail? How do we engage in battle? Because this is

the kind of church that God is looking for and a prevailing church must be a church that

engages in prevailing prayer. So the first thing is guys, if you want to be someone,

either an individual or if you want to be a church that knows how to contend, engage,

battle and win in prayer, the first thing you need to do is rebuke untruth. Rebuke untruth.

Titus 1.13. Rebuke untruth. Rebuke untruth. Titus 1.13. Let me read it and then I'll explain

it. Titus 1 verse 13. It says that if you are a church that knows how to contend, you

Titus 1:13

must, this testimony is true, therefore rebuke them sharply so that they will be sound in

the faith. And if you read the previous verses, it tells you how there was a need to refute

those that do not speak the truth. I'm taking the verse out of context, but the first thing

you need to know if you want to be a person who knows how to prevail in prayer is that

you've got to rebuke untruth. You've got to rebuke untruth in your mind. You've got to

rebuke untruth in circumstances. What do I mean by that? So let's assume you are going

through a situation and the lie that has been spoken to you is that you will not recover,

that God is not interested, that he's going to bring you through, he's not going to bring

you through this, that there is a reason he's doing this, that God is trying to teach you

a lesson by breaking your leg, that the doctor's prognosis will be right, that your circumstances

will not change, that God has meant for you to suffer. When you hear these untruths, it's

not enough to say, no, no, no, not really, not really. No, no, no, you've got to rebuke

it. To rebuke it is to come against. Jesus rebuked the wind and the wave. You know what

happens when you rebuke? You put a new value on that which was wrong. To rebuke is to say,

this cannot be, this is not the truth. Stop. That's the idea of rebuke. There has to be

an active rebuking of that which is a lie. So even amongst us, when I hear stuff that

you are saying that is not true, I'll gently say something that's contradictory to what

you're saying because I don't want to hurt you. But if I had a chance and you were not

the type that hurts, I'd say it really bluntly, as some do to me. You've got to rebuke deception

and untruth. You can't let it take hold of a church, take hold of a person because once

a person has untruth established in their heart or their head, there is no question

of anything being built on that foundation, guys. How can you build God who is the truth?

He said, I am the way, the truth and the life. How can you build God's principles who said

he is the truth? How can you build it on a foundation that you strongly believe but is

false? You can't rebuke untruth. Any questions on that before we go on? It doesn't matter

who is bringing it to you. What if it is not received? If it's not received, then you just

have to go back after a while and try again. You just have to keep going back and trying

again. That's how God does with us, right? He tells us something we don't listen to.

He comes back again and says it again. That's the only thing. He won't take away your free

will. There's nothing God will do with your will. He won't take it away. So you have the

choice. But man, untruth needs to be rebuked gently, gently because it says in 1st Timothy

that if you speak and correct someone gently, it might so be that they will escape the snares

of the devil and will come to their senses. But it very clearly says do not be quarrelsome,

but be gentle. Therefore, truth can rebuke can be gentle man. Rebuke doesn't have to

be at the top of your voice. So rebuke untruth. Second one, overcome weariness, overcome weariness

because when things begin to happen where you're getting slammed again and again, overcome

weariness. How? Surprisingly through revelation and we'll explain that overcome weariness

through revelation. What do we mean by that? Go to John chapter 4, John chapter 4, verse

John 4 · chapter mention John 4:6

6, John chapter 4. Guys, we saw Molly Caudill, those that speak things that you know are

John 4 · chapter mention

false, but we just sympathize and it just helps them dig a deeper hole because we give them

a extra spade to dig that hole. If you have nothing truthful to say, just don't say it,

but do not sympathize because it gives the person a spade to dig a deeper grave. John

John 4:6

chapter 4, verse 6. Jacob's well was there and Jesus, tired as he was from the journey,

sat down by the well. It was about the sixth hour. So here Jesus is walked like crazy,

done a lot. He's tired and he sees Jacob's well there and he comes and sits down because

he's tired. He's weary and he would think that now that he's sat down, he's weary.

He should be left alone, but then go to verse 31. You know the story, but let's go to verse

31. And then he starts saying, meanwhile, his disciples urged him, Rabbi, eat something.

But he said to them, I have food to eat that you know nothing about. Then his disciples

said to each other, could someone have brought him food? Then in verse 34, he says, my food,

Jesus, is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. Do you not say

four months more? And then he goes on to talk about the harvest. But here's the point I

want to make from those scriptures. Whenever you get weary, while it's a good idea when

you're weary to rest, one of the things that takes weariness away is to dive back into

finding out father, I am so tired by this onslaught after onslaught after onslaught.

Could you reveal to me truths out of your word that will build me up right now? Because

it is always a revelation of the truth that takes away weariness. There that weighed upon

the Lord for water, she will renew their strength. How is there, what are you waiting on the

Lord for? More oxygen? There's plenty of it around. More food? That ain't going to come

from heaven. The days of man are over. So what are you waiting on him for? What is the

idea of waiting there? The idea of waiting is to crane your neck forward, waiting in

anticipation of God, I will wait on you. Even though others say that God is does not care,

even though I'm overwhelmed, I wait on you. And as I wait on who you are and what you

will show me with regard to the situation after situation I'm going through, I will

renew my strength and I will rise up like what? Like the eagle. I will mount with wings

of an eagle. This is such a cool answer to weariness. But Jesus is sitting there, this

woman from the village comes and she pours him water and he begins to speak. He says,

you have no idea of the water you that I can give. And then he begins to tell her that

the father is looking for worshipers. What is he doing with a woman who has that five husbands,

who's an adulterous, who has a bad reputation, who's coming in the middle of the afternoon to

draw water because she doesn't even want to associate with other women who come to draw

water. What's he doing with her explaining worship theology out of him is pouring revelation after

revelation that the father is looking for worshipers who will worship him in spirit and truth that I

am he that you should be looking for. She begins to engage him and she says, but the Jews worship

there and we Samaritans worship here. And then he talks about other things. And as he does,

she gets full man. And he says, I've got food and drink that you don't even know of

in situations as you begin to wait on God and waiting is not some kind of,

that's not waiting. That's resigned acceptance of your condition with God thrown in waiting. Is

this father? This is my situation. I've taken blow after blow after blow after blow. If I can

catch a glimpse of what you want to show of the truth of who you are, something will happen inside

of God and my veeringness will begin to disappear. This is what happened to Hagar. She's lying by the

side of the road. She wants to stay at a distance from Ishmael because Ishmael is dying. And then

she has just one revelation that I am the God, something where I am the God who

sees and she sees that and God turns up, gives water to Hagar, Ishmael and restores her back

and says, go back to your mistress, Sarah, and I will take care of this boy and I will make him a nation.

I think vision is the medium. Revelation is the subject. Revelation is the subject, as in

God revealing a truth. And when God says I want to reveal a truth, what he usually means is,

I want to reveal to you something about myself. That's what he means. Because everything consists

in God. All truths are consistent in God. Is gravity real? Well, God discovered it. Is laughter real?

God discovered it. Is peace real? You can't touch it, but God discovered it.

Is creation real? God discovered it. Is love real? God is.

Does creation happen through words? Yes.

So all truths are basically God saying, let me show you something about myself or let me show you

something I have done in the past and I will do again. Let me show you how I will do it for you.

And it takes away weariness. It takes away weariness, whether you're a mom who has a little

baby or you're a mom who has four kids and a dog, or you're a single person who doesn't know what

to do with time or you're a person with disease and sickness or you're a person who has financial

situations or a family that is broken. It does not matter. Revelation has a way. You will look

in the Bible and you will find time and time and time and time again. What did David do when he

was weary, tired, running like a refugee? He would go and sit, start singing to God. He would see

something about God. Halfway through the Psalm, the Psalm would change. You'll see the first 10

verses of the Psalm lamenting his condition saying, Oh, woe is me. Could you pour some hot oil on the

guy who destroyed me and then pour some on his children too. And that'll be the first few verses.

And by the next few verses, it'll be, Oh, forgive. Oh God, show your mercy just as you've shown me

mercy. And the whole thing changes. What was causing that change? A sudden mood swing? No.

No. Got sight of something. Third, overcome diversion. When we are under onslaught,

purpose goes out of the window. Overcome diversion from purpose, overcome diversion from purpose

through resolve and persistence, resolve and persistence. One of the things that happens when

the onslaughts from the enemy, regardless of whether he uses people or does it directly

or circumstances, when it gets overwhelming as you lose, you're diverted from your purpose.

And yet one of the ways that you overcome diversion from purpose is through resolve and persistence.

And you see this in Nehemiah, in Nehemiah chapter six, verse one to four. You'll see,

just turn to Nehemiah six, one to four, Nehemiah six, one to four.

Nehemiah six.

Where is Nehemiah?

Yeah. If, if I can be distracted from my purpose, if I can be diverted from my purpose because of

different things that are happening in my life, then a man who loses or a woman who loses

a reason for life is just like a person who never met Christ. Christ brings to you a reason for life.

And when that is taken away, what do you have, man?

What did Jesus say? What did God say in Hosea four, verse six? A people without vision perish,

take away purpose and the decline begins. And I'm not talking about purpose as in goals and targets,

and I want to be this and I want to be that, but something inside you that begins to bring hope

inside you that begins to bring hope every day that you wake up thinking today is the day

when I will know a little more. I'll add a little more to what I know.

Let this be your condition that regardless of who's died last night or who will die today,

or what may collapse last night or what may collapse today, every morning you get up with

this understanding that today is a new day. His mercies, as in his compassion filled attitude

towards you is new, that today there is reason to wake up with tremendous hope.

Nehemiah chapter six, verses one to four. It says that when the word came to Sanballat,

Tobiah, Geshem the Arab, and the rest of our enemies, that I had rebuilt the wall

and not a gap was left in it. Though up to that time I had not set the doors in the gates,

Sanballat and Geshem sent me this message, come let us meet together in one of the villages

on the plain of Ono. But they were steaming to harm me, so I sent messengers to them with this

reply, I'm carrying on a great project and cannot go down. Why should the work stop while I leave it

and go down to you? Four times they sent me the same message and each time I gave them the same

answer. Then the fifth time Sanballat sent his aid to me with the same message and in his hand was

an unseen letter and it goes on. The point being this guys, decide the things that you are non-negotiable

in your life. Decide that which is non-negotiable and do not move away from them. You know for the

last 27 or 28 years and I've been doing what I do on Sundays for the last 27 or 28 years, it does not

matter who dies, even when it was my dad, it does not matter what happens. There are certain things

in my life that are non-negotiable and nothing stops for it. Is that cruel? No, it's not cruel,

it's just this is how it's going to be. These are non-negotiables and for each one it may differ,

but do not be diverted from your purpose.

For me, if I can walk and someone doesn't have to carry me, then meeting together as a body,

assembling of the saints is non-negotiable all my life. For me, standing up here and giving

every ounce of everything I have during worship is non-negotiable. God has never gotten a bad deal

from me during worship and since the day I was born again, there has not been a single worship

session in all the 28 years that I've been a believer that he has received anything less

than the best I can give during worship. It is non-negotiable. He deserves nothing less,

I have given nothing less and it is by the grace of God, yes, but there is a resolve inside.

It's non-negotiable. I'm just giving you two examples.

Since Acts 29 has begun, I would rather mess up, change what I'm doing, look a little foolish

and uneducated and ignorant than follow what I have prepared. If I know that this is God, then

it is non-negotiable. It will happen. It cannot be anything else, even if it costs.

There should be a ferocity with non-negotiables, ferocity.

When you're growing up, they call it stubbornness. When you grow up a little more, it's resilience.

By the time you're my age, it is non-negotiable.

Yes, it is impossible to maintain non-negotiables if you aren't in love with somebody and that is

the reason why it's a non-negotiable because you don't have the willpower to do it.

You're doing it solely because there is someone who is far more important than you for whom you're doing it and it is not possible to break it.

If that isn't the motive, then at some point you will be broken. It has to be for someone else

that you love more than yourself.

So, decide that through resolve and persistence, you will overcome diversion from purpose.

Fourth one, overcome discouragement and fear. Overcome discouragement and fear. Overcome

discouragement and fear. Overcome discouragement and fear. Overcome discouragement and fear.

Overcome discouragement and fear. Overcome discouragement and fear.

Through overcome discouragement and fear.

Through remembering, through two ways. One, remembering what he has done. Remembering what he has done.

Two, depending on Aaron's and hers.

Depending on Aaron and Reni. Sorry, Aaron and hers.

So, discouragement and fear is so regularly used by the devil. So regularly used by the devil.

The number of people in this church who are in this church who are in this church who are in this church who are in this church

regularly used by the devil. The number of people in this church who go through discouragement and fear

is the same as the number of people in any other church.

Because this is the common common weapon used by the devil to break us.

Discourage, discourage, discourage. Nothing's working out. It's been a while. Bleak, bleak, bleak. Fear.

They don't know what kind of God he is. They don't know what he is.

In Jesus' name, almighty God in heaven, we seek.

It's fascinating how someone who can be really strong in the Lord is still afraid of doctors.

It can easily happen. I know people who are really strong in the Lord who when they go to doctors start feeling afraid.

It's not because they have less word in them. It's just because anyone with a white coat

Yeah, it kind of frightens you. So the point is it's not that we don't know scripture, but the devil has used discouragement and fear

to bring us to a place where we get scared. And so there's two ways we overcome it.

One, through remembering what God has done in the past.

Why that? Because the Bible talks about it. David would make statements like this.

These things I remember as I pour out my soul. So even as he's crying and pouring out his soul,

he's thinking of all the good things God has done.

In Psalm 42, verse 4, he does that. In Psalm 53, he says, I put my life in the hands of the devil.

Psalms 42:4

In Psalm 42, verse 4, he does that. In Psalm 53, he says, I put my trust in God whose word I trust.

Psalms 42:4

I put my trust in God whose word I trust. I put my trust.

That's what he says in Psalm 56, verse 3, where he begins to remember what God has done in the past.

Psalms 56:3

And it doesn't mean that God will do it the same way this time, but he knows God did it before.

And the last situation was really bad and he delivered me. We don't recount what God has done.

One of the ways you recount what God has done is by speaking it.

So the less you speak about it, the more it becomes a memory and becomes a hazy memory.

Speak often of it. In Malachi, it says that there was a book that God opened.

And you know what the name of the book was? It was called the Book of Remembrance.

And what would he write down in it? He would write down the names of people who were talking about him and the things he had done.

And then the other way is to be dependent on Aaron's and hers.

And what does that mean? Moses, at one point, had to lift up his hands and hold them up for a while when a battle was going on and his arms became tired.

It says so in Exodus 17. And so Aaron, this guy called Aaron, and this guy called Her.

Poor guy, what a name to live with. And so Aaron and Her came and stood on both sides and held up his arms.

And so sometimes when I'm discouraged and I'm afraid, I need people to come and say, Hey, Jacob, let me buy you a burger.

That only fills your stomach. And that's comfort food, especially a baconator.

But fear and discouragement need people to come alongside and say things that will build you up, not give you platitudes like, Oh, don't worry, I'm here.

Really? Tell me something new. Give me something a little more solid than God is still in control because that I could get out of a Hallmark card.

Give me something solid. And that's when Aaron's and hers come into play.

Next one. I love this one. This is so simple that it bothers me that we don't think like this.

Know that you have a good father who won't give you a serpent when you ask for fish.

Luke 11.11.

Hey, when you go pray, why is it that you think that he is going to give you a serpent?

A good father will not give you a serpent. It says, Will a good father when you go and ask him for fish, give you a serpent?

Will he give you a serpent?

There is no one who won't give you a serpent when you ask for fish.

Will a good father, when you go and ask him for fish,

give you a serpent?

Will he give you a scorpion when you ask for egg?

Will he give you stone when you ask for bread?

Well, you have a good, good father.

So Jacob, when you pray,

even when it's taking long to happen,

know without a shadow of a doubt

that your good father will not give you a serpent

when you are asking for fish.

If it's taking a little longer,

maybe it's a fish that's bigger than you asked for,

but it ain't going to be a serpent.

It's going to come.

Just simple assurance that children know.

I didn't know you're not supposed to disappoint a kid.

When you tell a kid something, you better deliver.

Yeah, or else they have these memories

that transform them into elephants.

But I didn't know this.

So I promised a kid the moon and then, didn't deliver.

And Eric called me and said,

hey Jacob, if you tell a kid something,

because he's got four of them.

He had four of them, then now he's got five.

So he said, you gotta deliver.

And this kid was waiting, man.

This kid was waiting.

And so what I've decided is not to make any promises to kids.

Because the thing is with kids, you...

But Lorient, at least with kids, when you make,

you tell them you'll play a game with them

and you play it once.

They want to play it 14 times, man.

With grownups, you only need to play it once.

Pardon?

Moving on.

Yeah.

Why did I open this?

It's awful.

Why did I open this?

It's awful.

Yeah.

Yeah, I thought you were gonna take a shot at me,

but I'm glad that you quoted a verse instead.

So you're on my...

So the next one.

This is...

Stay within the hedge.

Stay within the hedge

within which God wants to bless,

within which God wants to bless.

It's in Job 1, verse 10ish, I think.

Here's the thing, guys.

God loves putting a hedge around you.

A hedge is like a protective fence around you.

Stay within it.

Stay within it.

God puts a hedge around you.

Stay within it.

The strange thing is it's not with Job that he started it.

He did it in the beginning of creation,

where he took Adam and Eve, put them in a garden,

and said, within these confines of Eden, stay.

Everything within this area is yours.

The serpent was on the outside.

He wasn't on the inside.

And God loves putting a hedge around you.

He did that for Job, so much so that the devil

had to come and say, if it were not for this hedge

that you put around him.

And that won't be taken away in our case

because Jesus Christ has already defeated the devil.

Job won't be repeated in your case,

where God does not take away your protective covering.

You're his possession.

You're the apple of his eye.

He loves putting a hedge around you.

Once he puts a hedge around you,

he likes blessing you within that boundary.

But you and I have the ability to step out of the hedge

through habits, through bondages, through sin,

through broken relationships.

Stay within the hedge that God loves blessing you within.

He's been doing it since Eden.

And if you step out, repent and return

on the freshly slain blood pathway that Jesus has created.

Freshly slain blood pathway.

Jesus' blood isn't dried old blood.

It is freshly slain.

Thousands and thousands come to the Lord every day

because his blood is alive and calls out for mercy.

So anytime I break the hedge and I'm out of it,

repent and come back.

Don't stay out.

I used to do this ages ago

when I first started preaching that

it's never that God removes his hand.

It is always that I can step from under his covering.

It's never that God says,

okay, I'm gonna let you go.

I'm gonna abandon you.

That does not happen.

This is another truth.

Here's the untruth.

The untruth is, oh, God has abandoned me.

Not true.

Oh, God has taken my protection away.

Not true.

Oh, God has let go of my hand.

Not true.

These are the untruths we need to rebuke.

God does not take away his hand.

You and I can step out of it.

And if we step out of it,

there's an easy way of turning to him and coming back to.

Any questions on that

before we go on to the content of prayer?

Any questions?

Anything you wanna add?

Yep.

Partly because someone sent it to me

on WhatsApp from Australia.

But no, there's no reason for the order.

Yeah.

Yep.

Yep.

Reach out.

Reach out.

Ask.

Ask.

Ask someone you think you can depend on.

Ask someone you trust.

Or ask someone you don't know if you can depend on

and don't know well,

but you trust has the ability to help.

Go and ask.

Yeah.

And let's assume this body was really messed up

and broken and not nice.

You can still go and ask.

We do that in the world, huh?

We take on doctors who we don't know.

Ask.

Our problem with asking is sometimes that we're all peers,

so it's difficult.

Otherwise, I think you should just ask.

And never start a conversation with,

I think you may be busy, but just forget that.

Just ask.

Ask.

Ask someone you trust.

Ask.

Any other questions?

Okay.

We won't probably finish the content of prayers

and what does prevailing prayer look like.

We'll just start one or two and then stop

and continue another time.

If someone can remind me when I'm back that,

hey, you didn't finish it.

Since no one wants to remind me,

I guess I'll go right through it for the next one hour.

Could someone remind me?

Oh my Lord, there are volunteers.

Okay.

The content.

What does prevailing prayer look like?

One, it's a kind of prayer that,

guys, this is not the way we pray, huh?

It is not the way we as a church pray.

It's not the way that we as individuals pray.

So the first one is we inflict loss,

inflict loss

upon Satan.

We inflict loss upon Satan.

We provoke hostilities.

We provoke hostilities.

We smite the lion

and the bear.

That's from 1 Samuel 15 or 17.

This is part of what prevailing prayer looks like,

where you inflict loss upon the enemy.

When was the last time you inflicted loss upon the devil

where the devil touched you

and you came back in prayer in such a strong way

that inflicted loss upon the enemy and you saw it.

You saw damage done to the satanic kingdom.

You saw it.

This was common practice in the Old Testament

and surprisingly in the New Testament too.

Yet it is such an alien concept to us.

We presume that things are happening,

but there's no evidence to show that loss has been inflicted.

In the Bible, there was always evidence that showed

that my God, this prayer inflicted loss upon the enemy.

That when was the last time you provoked hostilities?

Where we as a church provoked hostilities saying,

all righty, you want to fight, Gisela?

You want to fight, come.

When was the last time we did that?

Don't do it to Gisela, but take on Kamal.

He'll drive his car over you.

So provoking hostilities.

And then the third one was smiting the lion and the bear.

So let's look at those three

then maybe we'll take one more and stop.

So if you go to first Exodus 17.9, Exodus 17.9,

depending, I mean there's one version

which actually uses the word provoke hostilities.

Hostilities, Exodus 17.9, Exodus, Exodus 17.9.

It says that starting at verse eight.

The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites at Dreyfidim.

Moses said to Joshua, choose some of our men

and go out to fight the Amalekites.

And another version it says, choose some men

and go provoke a fight with the Amalekites.

Tomorrow I will stand on top of the hill

with the staff of God in my hand

and then the victory is won.

So there is this idea where God sometimes would say to,

if he in the book of Acts, in Acts 18 and 19 particularly,

and in other places that listen,

I want you to engage a fight.

I want you to start a fight

because I wanna do some damage.

But he can't say to us because

to begin with we don't like fighting.

Forget provoking a fight.

I'm talking about fighting with invisible beings.

I mean if you are not someone who knows the Bible,

even me talking like this will freak you out.

And then the first one is inflict loss upon Satan

where there is damage and loss done to the devil.

I mean there's a pastor down in California

and he writes about the story where

he went up to his church one day

and brought all the newspapers with him

from the day before and he started reading out news,

article after news article,

and it was depressing the news

of all the things that were happening in their town.

And people started like good Christians saying,

end of the world, the world is going to the dogs

and oh this is the devil and oh God come quickly,

oh let's get raptured and all this stuff.

So they're lamenting the condition of their town

and at one point he asked us,

he said do you know the reason this is happening

is because we as a people,

as a people of God do nothing about it.

And so starting that night they would gather in a barn

on the far end of the city

and they began to pray every night.

A few people would just gather in that barn, open field

and then there's this wilderness at the edge of the city

and they would gather.

One day went by 365 days went by,

one and a half years went by

and they would not let up man.

And then one night, about a year and a half later

while they're praying, there is this loud

blood curdling streak at the end of where the woods are

and there's nobody there

but they can hear this blood curdling streak

and something fleeing.

And that day the town began to change.

And today if you go through that town

which was like a place that people would not even buy land,

it's a land that is doing well.

Older couples go there to retire because it's that peaceful.

Inflicts loss, there was a situation at Acts 29

which some of you may remember

where someone in this church brought us a prayer request

on a Sunday morning and said that a friend of his

had gone and eaten from a temple in India.

And he'd eaten from a temple in India

and now he was a Christian, eaten from a temple in India

Christian, eaten from a temple in India

and because of some demonic possession

literally started writing around like a snake

trying to climb up the wall like a snake.

And that morning this man gets a call

from the boy's mother saying, can you please pray?

And as we began to pray that morning

this boy began to get set free 12,000 kilometers away.

Inflict loss, inflict loss.

Where things, I mean the story that I just told you

is not so much as a loss as a deliverance.

I'm talking about the devil paying a price for doing harm.

I remember Graham Cook going up to the city council

that was denying him an application to set up

place that would help the poor and the downcast

and he kept going back with the application saying,

I'd like to do it right, here is everything you need

and they kept rejecting it, kept rejecting it

and then he goes in one day to the city council

somewhere in the UK and he says to them,

I have brought you everything you need

and I've brought the documents,

I've done everything you've asked me to.

I've done it three, four, five times

and now I want you to know that you have no reason

to deny me permission

and I want you to know this, if this is denied,

every embezzlement in this room,

every adulterous relationship, every form of corruption

practiced by anyone in this room

will be exposed over the next week by my God.

So either go ahead and grant this document

and release it to me or know what's gonna happen.

He got permission within minutes.

But how do you get to a point where you are so sure

of praying like this?

You see how poor we are in that, how poor we are in that.

We don't know how to.

Some of the things that are happening in India

based on the letter that was read

and some of the other things that are happening

are causing actual loss and damage.

I remember showing you bullets being fired

at this guy who runs this conference.

Some of the stories are untellable guys

because it is on one hand scary,

on the other hand, will freak you out.

God wants to make us a church.

Like the smite the lion and the bear is the church.

God wants to make us a church.

Like the smite the lion and the bear

is another thing that David would practice.

David said in 1 Samuel 17 that listen, Saul,

Saul is trying to put his armor on David.

And David says, now Saul, I don't want your armor.

Why David?

Because I've learned how to use just stick and stone

because when I would be in the field

and there would be a lion or a bear

that would come towards me and try to take one of the sheep,

I would smite it.

And if it didn't release the sheep,

I would go grab its jaws, pull it open,

pull out the sheep and smite it so hard

that it would learn a lesson.

When was the last time you prayed?

And if you prayed this, make sure that you don't pray

out of presumption but pray it out of absolute faith

that Satan, if you do this again,

I will cause the smiting of God to fall upon you.

But the thing is, you've got to make sure

that you can follow through

and you know how to follow through.

I remember once a guy in front of me who was driving slow

and I honked and he gave me the finger

and I started following him thinking he was a small guy.

And then he stopped and he got out of the car

and I rolled up my windows.

Because I thought to myself, oops, this is not one of the,

this is not a fight I want to go through.

I rolled up the window and I said, it's okay, it's okay.

And I went off on the side.

If we begin to take this on,

you've got to know that you can see through.

Otherwise, out of the car will come a guy

who's twice your size.

So I'm not saying let's go and do this.

I'm saying look at what awaits us and look at where we are.

I was thinking of all the stories I could tell

of these three and one day I will.

I just wanted to write it down accurately

and then read it out so that it's not piecemeal

because I don't want to exaggerate.

One of the things that you've got to be careful of

whenever you talk about any victory over the devil

is that you do not exaggerate

because he's a liar, a thief and a murderer.

And so when you tell stories of what God has done

and when you tell stories of how the devil was defeated,

it is very easy to add a little here and there.

And that's exactly what he's looking for.

Because if in your testimony of what you have done,

you can add lies, then it plays straight into the hand

of the one you're trying to defeat.

This is why when I was driving,

I was thinking of different stories and thought,

Father, I've got to make sure every one of them

is exactly what I saw and not presumption

that this could have happened or this may have happened.

We don't realize sometimes that when we tell a story,

the moment you add exaggeration to it, it thrills the crowd,

but it impoverishes the work of the spirit in the crowd.

There can be no presumption in your stories.

And then I believe God did this.

No, if you didn't see it, then you can only say,

I'm praying that God would have done that.

I don't know for sure.

So we look at this and then let's touch on one

and then stop, let me see which one we should take.

Look at this scriptury and then we'll see

Look at this scriptury and then we'll stop with that.

Isaiah 62, Isaiah 62, Isaiah 62.

Guys, I don't know, you probably heard of this word,

push prayers, right, you've heard of it?

Push is basically prevail until something happens.

Basically the idea that hey, there are times

when prevailing prayer is a kind of prayer

where you keep pushing, you keep pushing,

you give God no rest, you give God no rest.

But what do you mean give God no rest?

If you read Isaiah 62 verse six onwards,

Isaiah 62 verse six, look at what it says there.

Let me stop with this, I've got six others.

Yes, six of us.

Isaiah 62 verse six to eight, five others.

I have posted watchmen on your walls of Jerusalem.

They will never be silent day or night.

You who call on the Lord, give yourselves no rest

and give him no rest till he establishes Jerusalem

and makes her the praise of the earth.

Imagine what God is saying, God is saying listen,

I have decreed some things, you know what I wanna do.

But now I want you to get up and stand like watchmen

on the wall and do not give me rest,

nor do you take a rest till this comes through.

He's literally saying come and press into me

and press into what I've already decreed.

He's not, because it's not like God,

what are we asking, what is God asking us to do?

God is saying hey, don't give me any rest.

I said something, now wait till I do it,

but don't you back off, you keep persisting after me,

saying you said so, you said so, you said so,

you said so, don't let go of me.

I'm inviting you to do that.

When he invites you to do that,

it's perfectly okay to do that.

When he does not invite you to do that,

it is harassment, it is lack of faith,

it is being a child that is not convinced

of the Father's goodness, it's tugging at the Father's shirt

till it's out of his belt loop.

But when he invites you to do that,

then my God, don't let go.

Yes, Diana, you'll have to hear the invitation.

Here he specifically says,

I have set watchmen on your walls,

do not give me rest, just persist,

because I have decreed it,

that Jerusalem shall be a city on its own.

So keep pushing, keep persisting, keep persisting,

do not let off.

In the process, what God wants to do

is not get all stirred up to do anything,

no, in the process, he wants you to be stirred up

and you to build the kind of muscle

that will allow you to take what he wants you to take.

That's the difference, guys.

And when he invites you to do that,

my God, don't back off, don't be like that woman

in the Song of Songs who heard a knock on her door.

And she's lying in her bed and she says,

but I'm in my nice comfy warm socks and my PJs are on,

I can hear you knock, but I don't feel like getting up.

And then her lover leaves,

and now she goes to open the door and she can't find him,

and so she goes running through the city,

looking for him, gets beaten up by a few people,

my God, you could have done it without getting beaten up.

Prevail through prayer that gives God no rest

because you know he has decreed it, he has decreed it.

It has to happen.

Guys, there are times when I know,

I mean, you can ask my mom this because she sees it.

Most of these prevailing, these kind of prayers,

no one else will see.

This is the kind of prayer that Jesus engaged in,

in Mark and Luke when he had to go up on a mountain

and pray through the night to find 12.

He knew that the gospel would spread through the earth.

He knew that he had his father's ear.

He knew that his father was delighted in him,

and yet he spends an entire night praying

because he knows that on this choice will depend so much.

And he also knew that one of them would betray him.

And he also knew that all 10 would flee and one would remain.

Nobody sees this kind of prayer,

where you will pace up and down through the night.

No one knows about it.

And you know the outcome, but you know that,

my God, I can get this done because God has said

it will happen, it must happen.

So stay up and stay through half an hour, one hour,

prayer that you can never imagine praying for one hour.

You keep going at it in tongues, in English,

with understanding, without understanding.

You keep at it because you know God has decreed it.

So I will give you no rest.

I will call on you.

I will not harass you,

but I will say that there is no other name

that is above your name,

that you are high and lifted up,

that this thing shall come to pass,

that you are the undefeated one.

And you keep at it.

You begin to tell yourself, you tell the enemy,

you tell the world and you tell God,

God, this is who you are.

This is what you said.

This is what will happen.

And I am not leaving.

It's called persistent prayer.

I remember teaching this in the course of faith.

And whenever I talk about faith stories,

I talk about Kony the circle drawer,

this Hebrew boy who once decided

that he will not move till the rains come,

because it's been years,

it's been a drought and he wants the rain.

So he steps out into the middle of the village square,

draws a circle around himself and he says,

oh God, I am not leaving the circle

till the rains come.

And there were many good Christians in that village.

And they said, presumptuous little fella.

He thinks he can draw a circle

and make God do things for him.

But Kony knew something, that God is the sender of rain,

that God is not the sender of drought,

that God likes blessing his people.

And so he decides he's not moving.

And the older people and the pastors begin to say,

fellows twisting God's arm.

All the usual stuff we say,

when we don't have the courage to trust him.

He stood there.

And guess what happened after a while?

Drops of rain.

And everybody started shouting saying,

Kony, Kony, come in, come in.

The showers have started and Kony said,

this ain't enough, we've had one and a half years of drought.

These are small mercy showers.

This is not what I asked for.

This will not help the ground get moist again.

I'm not leaving till the rains really come down.

And so he stays in that circle.

Few minutes later, it starts pouring torrents

that rip up the earth.

And they say, Kony, Kony, come in.

Because look at how profuse the rain is.

And he says, no, this kind of rain ain't God.

Because God's rain ain't violent.

This is tearing up the ground.

This won't be good for the crops.

And a few minutes later, it begins to rain.

Like good rain that doesn't tear up the ground,

but wets the soil.

And now Kony, they say, Kony, Kony, come in.

He says, no, I'm beginning to enjoy this rain.

Let me stand here a little while more

and I'll come in once I'm wet.

And now he begins to enjoy what has happened.

This kind of prayer is prevailing prayer

that has the ability to give God no rest.

It takes a certain substance inside us

to be able to stand like this

without coming up with foolish excuses, eh?

He is sovereign, but my God,

he is a sovereign God who is not nebulous.

He says, when was the last time

I spoke to you in riddles, Isaiah?

Don't I say things plainly?

When have I been hazy and nebulous?

Whenever I have to say some things,

I say to you, it's plain.

So why don't you begin to stand up and give me no rest?

There are four or five other categories,

so we'll talk about them later, yeah?

Be encouraged, church.

We are going somewhere with this.

If you heard me during the time of worship,

I said, there's a thin filament that separates us

from breaking into the next kairos of this church,

as in the next fluid timeframe

that God has constructed for us.

And it's coming.

We've been talking about building the church,

now we're talking about prevailing church.

How to prevail, how to become a strong, strong people

who God can use both as a gateway and as gatekeepers.

We talked about this two, three weeks ago.

So let's just rise and sing these two songs,

and then we'll go home.

Why sing it now?

Because I don't know, this song has something

that will perhaps drive the message home.

Think about this, go home, listen to it,

understand where we are heading.

If you are part of this,