Teach us to Pray - Part 9

We've been doing a series called Teach Us to Pray.

And I was thinking as as I was praying yesterday, have you ever

seen a man eat oysters? I don't know why people do

something so stupid. You, you pay an enormous amount

of money and you don't actually eat it.

You sort of, you sort of, have you seen it?

You sort of like that, that, that I don't know what you do.

You don't chew it. You don't, you don't bite it.

You sort of, it's a funny, it costs a heck of a lot of money

and, and you sort of almost like strangle it to death and then

you swallow it one shot. I put prayers a bit like that.

Hey, it's like, what are we doing?

Lord? It's like, and, and if you open

the fridge, the the last thing you would choose is the celery

sticks. Hey, I mean, you'd rather take a

little bit of peanut butter or, or the leftovers on the night

before, but pray sometimes like choosing the celery sticks.

It's like it's like really healthy and it's really, really

a good choice, but it's not easy.

I mean, it's, it's quite difficult.

So, so we've been sort of labouring through prayer and

learning how to pray and trying to understand pray.

We're not saying we've arrived. We're just saying it's

absolutely vital and key. And so one of the things I do

over this church is I pray 13 prayers over you every single

day of my life. And I'm trying to pray some of

them. I want to pray them.

If you can just close your eyes, open your hands, sit.

I want to pray 2 prayers, one from Ephesians 6 and one from

Ephesians chapter 3. It should be going up.

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

Just receive. These are the prayers I pray for

you. Finally, be strong in the Lord

and in His mighty power. I met a man here just in a place

of prayer. I met a man who's really didn't

know where else to go, so he came here today because his life

is falling apart. I want to say to you, Sir,

finally be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

You've got no strength left in your own situation or your

circumstance. You've got no control right now

over what is happening in your life.

I say be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.

Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand

against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against

flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities,

against the powers of this Dark World, and against the spiritual

forces of evil. In the heavenly realms, enemy

hates God's people, hates you, hates your marriage, hates your

well-being, hates your health. But God is fighting a battle way

above us, way above us in the heavenly realms.

God is fighting Jesus, is seated at the right hand of the Father,

interceding on your behalf. Therefore, 3 CI and everybody

visiting us, those from Cienico, those who have come for the

first time, put on the full armor of God.

And when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your

ground. And after you've done everything

to stand, I pray mighty God that not one person in this

auditorium will buckle over today because of the pressure

that they're facing, their circumstances and situations,

their relational tensions. They will not buckle.

Lord God, they will stand in the grace and the goodness of an

almighty and powerful God. I pray, Lord God, that you would

put steel in their spines, Lord God, that the pressure that is

coming upon them would not buckle them in any way, Father

God, but that they would stand not because of a decision of the

world, Lord God, but because you're a mighty and strong God,

and because you overcame the enemy, Lord God, on the cross,

and you nailed every rule and regulation to that cross, and

you ended the war that is against us in a victory, Lord

God. And so I pray now that that

victory would be made present in every person's situation and in

every person's life right now, Lord, that victory would become

a reality inside of their hearts, inside of their

families, inside of their businesses, inside of their

homes, and inside of their health.

Father God, I pray mighty God that they would stand and after

doing everything, they would stand, Lord God.

And there's some even who said this morning, I'm going to

buckle under this pressure. I pray Lord God, they will not

buckle, Lord God, because you are strong and you're powerful,

Lord God. And we don't have to hype it up,

Lord God, but we just believe that what you have done, Lord

God, is a complete work, and you are seated at the right hand of

the Father. And because of that, Lord God,

we can thrive on the earth as it is in heaven.

Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your

waist, I break every lie, every condemnation, every heaviness,

Lord God, every half truth, every exaggeration, every

disqualification that has come across people.

I pray right now, Lord God, that the belt of truth will be

buckled around the waist of every person.

Your truth, Lord God, they are worthy.

They are your sons, they are your daughters.

They do qualify. The past is finished.

The mistakes are paid for. The depth of the darkness of the

debauchery of this sin is forgiven.

I put the belt of truth around their waist, Lord God, so that

their pants would not fall down and that they would be exposed,

Lord God, That the belt of truth would hold their clothing in

place, Father God, so that embarrassment would stop today.

Lord God, I pray that that belt of truth would hold their

clothes together so it will not flap around and they would trip

around, Lord God, but that your goodness and your kindness and

your grace and your love and your mercy would hold it all

together, Father God. I pray this over the people of

this church, Lord God. I prayed over the visitors, Lord

God, those who have stumbled in here, Lord God, because they've

listened to lies for so long, I pray that the belt of truth

would gird the loins of their minds.

Father God would completely and utterly take captive every

thought that is not from you. Heavenly Father, the Bible says

in Philippians. Therefore, whatever is true,

whatever is honorable, whatever is holy, whatever is pure, think

about such things. Stop believing lies, stop

believing half truth. Stop believing words that people

have spoken of. You believe the word.

Father, I pray the belt of truth around minds and hearts and

around bodies and around clothes.

Father, the belt that will hold things in place.

Mighty God, I pray for the breastplate of righteousness to

be put in place. Lord God, like a thick armored

guard over my heart and over my chest.

Lord God, that when people are vulnerable, when people are

emotional or when people are rejected, when people are going

through stuff, Lord God, that I have a six inch armor plate of

righteousness guarding my heart. Lord God, and while people's

hearts even today are in different places, some hearts in

absolute turmoil, I place upon them the breastplate of

righteousness. Lord God, that no enemy can get

behind, that thick armor that protects.

Lord God, the provision that you have made for peace.

The Bible says in Colossians 3 to rule inside of my heart.

I pray that peace would come back into people's hearts, Lord

God, protected by the thick armor of righteousness.

Because we wear a breastplate, Lord, we think of that

breastplate that you wore in the book of Leviticus with 12 Stones

equally placed upon it, that every person as I met those in

the back row, every person in this auditorium is equally dear

and equally near to you. Lord God, as the enemy lies and

says you're not worth it. You don't make them.

You don't. I want to put the breastplate of

righteousness and place, Father God, that protects the people,

people that protects their hearts, that protects their

understanding. Father, that nothing can get

behind that plate. Lord God, nothing can get behind

that thick armament of your blood of righteousness that

covers my chest. And Lord God, that we would

worship with our hands in the air, not scared that something

would penetrate our hearts, that we would make ourselves

vulnerable, knowing that the breastplate of righteousness

would keep us secure and safe and constantly under your power

and under your care. I pray this over the people of

three C our Lord. I pray this every day over them

Lord God and I pray nothing would get behind that

breastplate of righteousness. Not behaviour, not

disappointment, not disqualification, not bad

behavioural patterns. Nothing will get behind the

breastplate of righteousness. I pray now and place it upon

every member in this auditorium. Those who are sitting in the

overflow room are young children that are down there.

Lord, I pray the blessed prayed of righteousness over every

person in this church today. Stop panicking Sir.

Stop panicking man, for my chest is safe and the secrets of my

heart are safe, and the deep things inside of my heart are

safe because they are protected by God.

Jesus Christ died so that I could be righteous and I don't

buckle over it says again in Romans 5I Stand in the grace of

God. I stand in the credited

righteousness of Christ. I do not buckle over when times

are tough. I do not get pushed down by my

own behavioural patterns. I stand up under the

righteousness of the credited nature of God and with your feet

fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.

I pray, Lord God, you've put a new set of shoes on every person

here today, wherever our feet have taken us, wherever we have

journey, rough ground, dry ground, burning ground.

I remember Lord God, walking down to Victoria Bay, Lord God,

with barefoot and hot tall and blisters under my feet.

And sitting here today are men and women who have walked on hot

tall for a long time. Father, would you put the shoes

of the gospel on their feet? Father God, those who are

blistered by disappointment, those who have walked, as we say

in Afrikaans, Yeheta, Lung butt, Grace Butt, those who have

walked along Dirt Rd., Father God, those whose feet are cut, I

said you would put unto their feet the shoes of the gospel,

the shoes of the gospel. Lord God, when our feet have

taken us to the wrong places, Lord God, when we know we

shouldn't have been in those places, when we've chosen to go

left and we should have gone right.

I ask that you would shoe the people of Three CI with the

shoes of the gospel of peace. It says we continue to pray.

I didn't. I wasn't going to do this, just

just receive. I pray these prayers.

I've prayed these prayers for years of your lives.

I remember preaching to a man, he was on drugs and he said I

don't want to listen to you. And one day after dancing

barefoot on a glass where glass bottles had been broken in

Johannesburg and he was full of Red Bull and cocaine, he phoned

me and I went and picked him up and he's flat with his feet

absolutely cut by the glass of dancing and the cocaine and the

scripture came to mind. My feet are fitted with the

readiness of the gospel of peace.

Oh God, would you re shoe like people specialize in re shoeing

horses so that they can function properly?

Would you re shoe the people of three CR who are here today

whose feet are cut and broken from the despair of their own

journeys and their own choices? Father God, would you just place

upon them the kindness of the gospel on their feet so that

every step they take does not hurt them?

Father God but heals them. I pray for healing to come upon

their feet. God, some have made one bad

choice after the next. It feels like everywhere you've

put your foot has been wrong. I pray that God today would put

new shoes on your feet. In addition to all this, take up

the shield of faith which you can extinguish all the flaming

errors of the evil one just if you left-handed or right-handed,

just lift your hand by faith. And I pray, Lord God, that this

shield of faith will protect the people of this church from every

one of the flaming arrows of the Evil 1.

Every lie, every scheme of the enemy, every poisonous comment

from people's mouths, every backhanded backstabbing

criticism will be absorbed by the shield of faith.

Now Lord God, I pray we cannot go into this world innocently

thinking it is a neutral ground. Lord, it is a battlefield that

is taking place in the heavenlies and it wants to

destroy God's people. And I pray, Lord God, that you

would protect. I pray that you would absorb by

your grace, every arrow that is aimed at the people of this

church. I pray that you would absorb it,

Lord God, every fiery arrow that is aimed at their bodies, their

heads, their mind, their sexuality, their finances, their

marriages, their children, their upbringing.

For God, ever arrows aimed. I pray to be absorbed by the

shield of faith right now in the name of Jesus, I pray for your

grace Lord God, I pray for your amazing power.

I pray Lord God, that no arrow can penetrate your faith.

No arrow can penetrate that protection that is over the

people of this church. Take the helmet of salvation and

the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.

Let's put your hands on your head if you don't mind.

This is not going according to plan but but but I don't know

when last you just got prayer. Just pray.

I pray Lord God, the helmet of salvation over every single

person in this auditorium in the overflow room at the kids

ministry and over our families, whether they're here or they're

in cynical. I pray the helmet of salvation.

Lord God, I was 10 years old when my dad bought me a

motorbike. I was 10 years old and he said

this is the conditions. You never get onto your

motorbike unless you put your helmet on.

You never get on your bike unless you put your helmet on.

You do not go out of your house unless you put your helmet on.

You did not go out of your house unless you put your helmet on.

It's dangerous out there. The road is slippery.

And I pray right now, Lord God, that the helmet of salvation,

everything you say about salvation, Lord God, Yasser

Sotira, the spaciousness, the grace, Lord God, you didn't come

to help us, You came to save us. You came to save us.

That Lord God, every time we go, I do remember your salvation

over our minds. Lord God, that you would protect

our minds, that when we go into the marketplace you would

protect our minds. Father God,

I have a crash helmet. Don't look at me.

I have a crash helmet that I keep because it was once and my

wife was pregnant with my daughter.

I looked behind to see if I was putting dust in their face.

When I looked back, the road had disappeared and I went over the

top of my motorbike and I went straight into a rock, smashed my

face, cut my nose off. You can see the scar on my nose.

It cut my nose off, but I had a full face guard guarding my

face. Here I was an Underberg.

I thought, I'm going to lose my nose.

They raced me off, couldn't even pick the bike up.

Raced me off to the hospital and I got there.

There was a Doctor Who had specialized in motorbike

injuries and he spent about 2 1/2 hours knitting my nose back

together. And he kept saying to me, the

helmet saved your face. And every time I remember the

scripture and I look at the scar across my nose for two years,

I've absolutely no feeling in my nose.

Every time I look at my nose in the scar, instead of thinking I

wish I didn't have that scar, I just remembered, Thank God I had

a helmet on. And I pray for your helmet to be

upon every single member of this church.

Father God, over their thinking, over their futures, over this

nation. Don't be scared in South Africa,

God knows how to take care of you.

We are saved to be alive in this country at this time.

Sometimes it feels like a slippery motorbike going

downhill. But we have the helmet of

salvation and the ANC and the EFF and the DA are fighting for

positions over Swanee and the mayor gets fired.

But on top of my head I have the helmet of salvation, and God

keeps reminding me what he promised me.

I pray this over three CI Lord God and the sword of the Spirit,

which is the word of God and Father God.

I pray that we would wield the sword.

We think of so many times when the devil came to Jesus.

If you are the Son of God, he said, it is written, it is

written. It is written.

And when you think you were alone, the Bible says that Jesus

is seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding on your

behalf. So when you're feeling lonely,

it is written that he is sitting and praying for you.

And when you are feeling like an orphan and alone, the Bible says

you are the Son of God. We can't go to God and say our

Father who art in heaven without understanding that you have the

full rights of a son and a daughter.

It is written. And so we go to war on the word

of God. We built this church on one

little verse of Scripture. Be still and know that I am God.

And every time the money stopped, God said be still and

know that I am God. I stand in this auditory.

I think if God can give me brick and mortar, how much more can

God give us salvation? How much more can God give us

healing? How much more can God give us

forgiveness? Brick and mortar is nothing to

God. We take the word Lord God, and

we do warfare over every mind heart us wield the spirit of

your word, Lord God, over every person in this auditorium.

Everything we've preached on. I just wield that sword, Lord

God now in the name of Jesus. And pray in the spirit on all

occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.

So this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the

Saints. I pray now, Lord God, I don't

know sometimes what to pray. People don't even understand

sometimes the prayers. And I don't want to confuse you

with pray in the spirit, but it just means it comes a time when

we come to the end of our language.

You don't know what to say. I say God, you know every

person, you know every hair on their head, you know every

detail of their lives. I pray now, Lord God, for every

person in this auditorium. You know the situations.

God, Quesidia Abbasilitia, namato Kusiki abbasiti.

I don't know what words to pray, God, but she I do not know the

depths of the pain. I do not know the urgency of the

rental payments. I don't know those things, but

you do, Lord God. And I pray in the Spirit on all

occasions for the people in this church.

And so I kneel humbly. And so I kneel humbly in all

before the Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, and kneel

before you, Lord God, because every prayer, Lord God, in the

Old Testament was done standing. But when we come into the New

Testament, we come into the presence of our Father, we just

kneel. We just kneel.

We need you, God. I saw kneel humbly before the

Father of our Lord Jesus the Messiah, the perfect Father.

All of you have had imperfect fathers.

You've had absent fathers who had abusive fathers, alcoholic

fathers, disappearing fathers, never lasting fathers.

I kneel before the perfect Father.

I kneel before the perfect Father.

And even in that you should be healing should come into your

heart. We can't constantly go back to

the brokenness of our own families.

When we come under the prayer of God and the Word of God, healing

should take place. I kneel before the perfect

Father of every Father and child in heaven and on earth, and I

pray that He would inveil within you the unlimited riches of His

glory, that something would unlock inside of you and His

favor until supernatural strength floods your innermost

being with His divine might and explosive power.

I pray today that something deep would happen inside of your

hearts. It says in John chapter 6, I

John 6 · chapter mention

have come that you might have life and life eternal.

I'm so worried by so many people who've been in the church a long

time and they just have life. They don't have eternal life.

When God comes and lives in my heart, He gives me eternal life.

I do not get worried by 30 or 40 year decisions because I'm just

here for a little bit of time as the eternity of God grips my

heart and I spend my life serving God getting ready for

that day. And they've been offended and

being overlooked and being not promoted makes absolutely no

difference to me because eternity dwells within my heart.

And I pray that eternity would be released inside of the hearts

of people that we wouldn't make one week and two week and

three-year decisions. We will make eternal decisions.

Father, stop bitterness, stop hatred, stop cruelty, stop

rejection. Then by constantly using your

faith that the life of Christ may be released deep inside of

you. What we're doing here is not

some shallow Sunday event where we sing 30 minutes of songs and

listen to a preach and go home. No, we are asking God to do

something deep inside of our hearts.

Lord God, I pray that you get to the depths of every man and

every woman and every child to realize that they were designed

with a purpose to serve you, that you didn't mess up when you

made their DNA, that you made them alive in South Africa at

this time. I pray that you would do a deep

work in people's hearts that would not live frivolous lives.

Father God, that you would not live shallow lives.

And when I say I love you, I mean I love you.

It means I deeply love you. And the resting place of His

love will become the very source and root of your life.

Then you'll be empowered to discover what every holy one

experiences, the great magnitude of the astonishing love of

Christ in all its dimensions. I pray today, Lord, as it says

in the NRVI, pray that together we would experience how wide and

deep and long and high is the love of God.

And you're sitting and you're thinking God's love is not wide

enough to get me. God's love will get you.

It's wide enough. I don't care if you wired to the

left or you're wide to the right, God's love is wide

enough. I don't know how deep you've

gone. I don't know how dark you've

gone. I don't know how many levels of

depravity you've gone. But I want to tell you today

you're sitting here. The love of God is deep and high

and long. God's in it for the long haul.

God's in it for the long haul. Unlimited patience.

In the book of one Timothy in me, the worst of sinners, God

displayed his unlimited patience.

How long is that? It's long.

Longer than you will live. The love of God is longer than

you will live. The love of God is longer even

than the sin that you're caught in now.

The love of God is longer. God's love will outlast your

sin. How deeply intimate and far

reaching is His love. How enduring and inclusive.

It is endless love beyond measurement that transcends our

understanding. This extravagant love pours into

you until you're full to overflowing with the fullness of

God. I pray, Lord God, that every

man, woman and child would leave you a full today.

Not harmful. Full, full, full, Lord God, full

to the fullness of the overflowing fullness of God.

Never doubt God's mighty power to work in you and accomplish

all that He, all of this. He will achieve infinitely more,

say infinitely more than your greatest request, your most

unbelievable dream, and exceed your wildest imagination.

He will outdo them all, for His miraculous power constantly

energizes you. Heavenly Father, I pray in the

name of Jesus that you would protect these people and you

would provide for them in Jesus name, Amen.