Mother's Day Panel

Hey, welcome to the City Point Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us. Every day is an opportunity to

take hold of. So we hope this message inspires

you and build your faith, but it helps you have more of a God

perspective for your day. Enjoy.

To hear from each of you about your life story, testimonies of

what it means to be a praying woman, what it means to be the

daughter of an incredible praying woman and through many,

many seasons. And so I know that I am

absolutely blessed to hear your answers to each of these

questions and church. I pray it be a blessing to you

too, as we get to know these women more, but also get to

learn a little bit more about how we men as a women, be so

strengthened in our relationship and our intimacy with our God.

And so this morning I have a few questions.

My first one is for all of you. So I'm sure you each have a

microphone. Fantastic.

I'm going to let you decide who gets this one first.

My question is because each of you have different journeys and

have had different life experiences, I would love if you

could share with us what prayer looked like in the world where

you were raised. OK, I'll go first.

Yes, Justine. So for me, prayer looked very

different from a Christian life. In fact, it was the complete

opposite. For those who don't know, my

family and I were raised in a Muslim background, so prayer in

the household looked like going to the mosque.

You'd pray to Allah, you'd have prayer mats, you'd get beat if

you don't pray, and you'd have to pray five times as a day a

day. So as a child I didn't really

understand any of it. But still to this day I remember

how stroked and mandatory prayer was.

But after being saved and coming into Christianity, it was

completely different. Thank you Lord.

My mother was probably the biggest example of what prayer

looked like. She would be up at night or

early in the morning praying so loud so we'd always hear her.

But growing up, this showed me that Christianity is a

relationship with the Lord, that it's not strictly limited to a

certain time of the day, that prayer can be done anywhere and

everywhere. But I will.

Say, I do admire the consistency and effort that Muslims put into

praying. I think that as believers, it's

something that we should all be going in if we want to build the

habit of daily prayer. Thank you, Justine.

Wow. I did not grow up in a Christian

home, so we had no prayer at all in my home.

I think if there's one way that it's now shaped how we pray in

our house now, how I do as a discipline, it's that when I

growing up, the moment we woke up, things were like always

super hectic, like there was no peace or calmness in our

morning. So now the like first fruit of

my morning goes towards prayer, goes towards humbling myself for

my day and also before the Lord and setting my day for him so

that he can direct me in each each way that I go so that I can

have peace and and some sense of calm in this world throughout

the day. So that's probably mine.

Significant. Well I have a very different

story to the 2 girls. For I was raised in a House of

faith and so for me there are two things that I saw as a

rhythm of prayer in my childhood for all good church kids, any

church kids in the house. Monday night prayer colouring

under the Rose. It was a normal part of the

rhythm of our family for all of my years growing up and I,

unlike these two girls, woke up to the sound of a praying

parent. And so when I we would wake up,

it was to the alarm of my father storming heaven and my mother

lying in her bed with a cup of tea, praying in tongues.

And because we lived in a 2 bedroom flat, even though we

were a family of six with some of us children inside their

bedroom, we got to witness a life of prayer.

And that was our morning wake up.

Beautiful. Wow, that is so much like just

remarkable. Pastor Mel, this question is for

you. Would you be able to speak to us

about how you learnt to pray and what that looks like?

I would say to everybody here in the room who has faith to answer

your question, Pastor Nicole, it was absolutely learnt behaviour.

So because I witnessed what it was to pray to the Lord, it was

easy to step into it myself. Unsurprisingly, that is part of

the rhythm that I have done for my life is morning prayer

because it is what I saw as a pattern for many years in my

years of formation. So I would say that would be the

number one answer is it is a learnt behaviour.

But to step into it myself, I received an incredible gift

every year. Our church used to give us a

part of the Christmas pageant, which is what they were called

back then, Christmas pageant. They would give you a Christian

book and every single child received one and they were very

individual and at 12 years old I received, for all of those of

this era church, you know exactly what this is.

I received Rebecca St. James 40 Days with God and it

was a prayer journal to walk you through teaching you how to

pray. And so at 12 years old, I

received this for Christmas and I took this 40 days, which at

that time was coupled with fasting, which was significant.

And, and I have used that rhythm of prayer then for the rest of

my life. So I would encourage those who

have young people in the room to set your children up.

Don't just leave them to their own.

You know, they'll figure it out for themselves.

I was. I felt like I was set up as a

child both through a learned experience I got to witness it,

but also given some tools to help me discover and study and

understand what it was to talk to God and have Him talk back to

me. Thank you, Pastor Mel, I've seen

many of the how to pray for tweens and for children and for

teenagers and for adults at Quran with a sneaky plug.

Pastor Soraya, would you be able to speak on what what it was or

what happened in your life that made prayer personal to you?

Could you bring us through that journey?

Yeah, I think prayer isn't something that I, in my personal

opinion, that becomes personal for a person.

Prayer is actually just personal.

And so I think we sometimes can feel distant from it.

So I think at the beginning of my prayer life and understanding

what prayer was, I felt very distant from it because it was

something foreign to me that I didn't understand properly or I

still don't. I'm still learning, but I think

in the journey that we take in understanding the personal God

that we serve, like the fact that we have a God who is not

separate from us and who is like we're here and he's far away and

we have to do all of these different things to try and get

into his presence and know him is not the reality of who we

actually serve. Not only do we have Jesus Christ

who came down on onto earth as fully man, fully God, and dwelt

amongst his people so that now we have a high priest that knows

every single part about our struggle and our life.

Not only that, but when he was, he ascended back to heaven.

We were then given the Holy Spirit to dwell with us always

so that we wouldn't be separate from God.

That was no longer a separation. So I think it's so personal in

the whole makeup of what we believe as Jesus believing Holy

Spirit filled people. It is a personal thing that we

do. And so prayer isn't is not

separate from that. And so I believe that I know

that when I started to learn about prayer and learn what

prayer actually looked like for me, one thing that helped click

into my head what it looked like because I'm very visual was in

Psalms and Revelation. It talks about the prayer of the

Saints being like gold bowls of incense in the throne room.

And that to me just clicked something in my head.

And I remember thinking, I, I grew up in a house where my mom

constantly burnt incense. And I hated it because anybody

who's been in a room full of incense, it's like a full

sensory experience, right? It's thick so you can see it,

you smell it, you can feel it because it's so thick.

You can hear it burning, like you can even taste it.

Incense is this is that thick. And this is what sits in the

throne room of heaven and that is how our prayers are received

for our Holy Father and Jesus Christ who sits at the right

hand side. And it is a sweet and pleasing

aroma to Him like that to me is if there's anything that made it

feel personal, it was that. Because what do you mean that I

serve a God who not only made a way for my salvation so that I

was no longer held and bound to sin and shame and death, but now

he sits in the throne room, the holiest of holies, and my

prayers are able to be there in a gold bowl?

What? Like that, that was super crazy

to me. So I think the more you begin to

learn about who it is that you serve, who it is that you've

given your life to, who you have handed everything over to, you

see that he is personal. So he has given us this personal

thing of prayer to be able to speak to him.

Like just like Justine was speaking about before with what

people who who are Muslim have to do to pray, like they have to

face a certain way. I don't know the whole Muslim

thing, sorry if I get it wrong. You can come talk to me

afterwards. But like, they got to face a

certain way and they got to do these things.

No, I can shut my eyes right now.

I can shut my eyes right now and be like, Holy Lord my Father in

heaven, oh Holy Spirit, you are with me and you dwell with me in

every place. I am able to come into the

throne room boldly because of Jesus Christ and what he has

done for me. Like this is the God that we

serve. He is personal and prayer is

another just personal key for us to be able to speak with him,

have his ear. Like I could be in my car and

just be like, Lord, I'm having a, I'm having a day, please, I

just need you right now. And he hears it.

It's still in a gold bowl of incense in the throne room.

So yes. Amen.

Thank you Pastor Saraya, I love that you touched on just the

praying in the car bit as well. Just a reminder to everybody

that you can pray with your eyes open.

He still hears You Beautiful. I would love, we already are

getting really honest, to be honest with you, but I would

love if we could hear from each of you.

As women, we know that there are very, very busy seasons in our

lives. So from I mean, I know I'm not

even a mom yet, but moms, how do you do it?

There's so much, you know that women do and are responsible for

in the ministry of their homes, in their workplaces, wherever

they find themselves. Would you be able to speak on?

I'll start with you, Pastor Mel, how you prioritize prayer in a

full season. Well-being really honest, I

would love to know this season's thing and when seasons finish

and when seasons start because I don't know if anybody else is

feeling this in our age, in our times that busy seasons don't

seem to stop. Does anybody else feel that?

And I do think it is the God of our age.

I believe that when the enemy can't make us bad, he makes us

busy. And so we are distracted from

the important stuff or the priority stuff because our lives

are so full. So being really truthful, I have

felt like I've experienced a season that's gone for the last

15 years, and most seasons are really, really busy.

And so I would answer your question, Nick, that our rhythms

then have to prioritize, regard our circumstances.

I, I have through the grace of God learnt like Pastor Surrey

was saying that each moment of our day requires prayer.

And this does not mean by, you know, time or in a calendar, but

in the rhythms of our routines. We require stopping and talking

to the Lord regularly because we do a lot.

As a part of this rhythm. I have found I can't do

back-to-back meetings anymore. I require at least a 20 minute

break between. A lot of my life is is meetings,

is meeting with people, and so I require 20 minute intervals

between to stop and do what the Bible says, to cast my cares

upon the Lord and to reset and go.

You have anointed me and you have graced me for what I'm

about to walk into, regardless of what it is, whether it's, you

know, walking people through trials or finance or walking

back into homes where toddlers are like they want you on,

right? That you've graced me to do this

and you've anointed me. He has anointed you and graced

you for what he's called you to do today, each and everyone of

you. And so when we remind ourselves

of that and we go, God speak to me about what I'm about to go

into, we find we are less reactionary and more purposeful

in operating in what he says about whatever situation we're

going into. It doesn't matter whether it

carries great joy or whether it carries great pain.

And so I don't think it is a prioritizing a specific moment,

but rather lots and lots of rhythms around what your life

looks like. The truth is, as many moments

before a phone call to your next client could just have that God,

before I speak to them, let me be light.

Let me be love so that I don't come from me and I don't bring

what I last was carrying into this moment.

Yeah. Beautiful Justine, similar to

what Pastor Mel said, I just feel like I've learnt throughout

my life that there's no excuse to not pray when you understand

that it's a relationship with the Lord, you realize that he's

not there sitting counting the minutes you spend in prayer.

He's simply delighted that we've showed up and so that's helped

me to realize that I can talk to God wherever I am.

So if there's days where I've slept in or I've got an early

shift where I just don't feel like praying, I can still talk

with God and even in my mind because we all talk to ourselves

in our heads. So I just thought why not direct

that towards God instead? So yeah, it's just great to be

able to know that I can talk to the Lord anytime, wherever I am.

And I've changed my schedule to prioritize my time with him.

So I've noticed that when I didn't have uni or early

mornings it felt easier to spend time with God, but when it meant

waking up an extra hour early. But was staying up later it

actually began to cost me something.

And so I've noticed the shift in power and that when I work my

schedule around God first. That's right.

That's the Surya. I, I do agree a lot with what

both personal and Justina said about the rhythms of your life

and seasons change. Like last year I was in full

time Bible college and this year I'm not.

So it's a completely different way of how like last year I had

on the way home a commute that was nearly an hour and 40

minutes. And during that time, I would

just shut off, wouldn't answer my phone, and I would just pray.

And that was my time at the Lord.

But my discipline in prayer, because I do believe that it's

important to have a discipline of prayer.

Mine is my first fruits of the morning.

I wake up in the morning, whether it is I am still in bed

and I have 1/2 hour or whether I've gotten up when I was

supposed to and I've got 2 hours to give to the Lord.

The first fruits of my day will go to him, and I will be in His

presence in the morning before my children wake, before my

husband wakes, because my relationship with God, Jesus,

and the Holy Spirit is so much more important than anything

else I do in my day. And I want him to know that.

I want him to know that I love him, and I want to see him in

the morning. And also like what Pastor Mel

said, just taking that time out so that you're able to respond

to things in a way because we all go throughout our day and

things happen and they're not great.

You know, all that kind of stuff.

Well, you know, life throws you a curveball.

But when you've set your day out and you've said, Lord, here I

am, use me today and whichever way you want and however that

looks according to your will, He's like, OK, cool, I'm allowed

in today. I'm allowed to be here today.

The Holy Spirit is allowed to work through through me today.

So I do keep that discipline. The other things might change in

my day, but my discipline is my morning for the Lord.

It's before my children. You can even ask Malachi or

Zion. If they wake up and I have my

Bible and I'm sitting there, it's more Zion than Malachi.

I'll say that it's more Zion. But if Zion like they come out

and they see me sitting with my Bible because we live in a

really small house, I'll just kindly remind them, especially

Zion and say, do you do you see what I'm doing here?

I'm spending time with my father and he will go OK mom and leaves

until my Bibles closed and I'm up and walking around again.

So yeah, that's what I believe. Thank you.

Beautiful influence on your boys there as well.

Pastor Mel, Pastor Shreya mentioned you know when when

times are getting hard, if someone is feeling not as

particularly spiritual to get up and to pray.

What does prayer look like in those moments as well for you?

It's a great question. I think that the enemy loves to

trap us in using our default behaviours to counteract or to

fight against challenging times. Regardless of what the

challenging times are. Humanity does one of two things.

We love to find somewhere to blame, right?

We love to find who's at fault. Because it couldn't possibly be

me, right? And #2 then we need to tell

somebody about it. Come on, let's be real and

honest this morning, all right? I have found that when I react

like this default behaviors that I am never praying according to

His Word. I am a pray.

I am praying, still praying according to my flesh, according

to my emotions. And I actually think that this

the enemy loves us to have these fruitless prayers, but not

effective prayers, right? Might be fervent, but not

effective. And so as a part of the rhythm

for my life, I have decided that I wanted to pray the Word of

God. And so regardless of where I am

in the Word of God, I pray because God speaks through every

part of it. None of His word is made

redundant. It is alive and it is living.

He is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

So there is no challenge. There is no situation that there

isn't an answer for here, but I don't even need to go searching

for it. I can simply open it and pray

it. And so for quite a long period

of time in my life, maybe the last 17 years, I've actually

used my Bibles as prayer journals.

So the margins, you have to buy Bibles that are margins to do

this, but the margins are the chapter title and then the

prayer, praying through exactly what the chapter says.

This then helps me align my life to His will.

I think so many of us feel at odds or even at a loss of

direction for our lives. And yet if we open our word,

direction is found instead of being LED emotionally or led by

being really honest. Others.

I, I read my word and I see that Job's friends, godly friends,

had nothing good to say. Nothing.

They were godly friends. And there isn't an account in

that word that is according to God's will.

And so Job just had to go back to the source and the source

alone. And I love this in the start of

Psalms when I've gone through really challenging times, not

just what I'm reading at the time.

At the moment I'm in Isaiah, which is really quite full on.

I'm sure many of us feel about the Bible in All in all,

wherever you are at like this. But I will revert back and I

will start to read the Psalms again because I'm reminded that

in hard times he is very, very, the psalmist is very, very

honest with the Lord. And right from the very

beginning it says comments like this made by the psalmist at the

very beginning of the Champ chapters, chapter 4 says, answer

me when I call to you. That's, that's the psalmist

talking to the Lord. Does anybody else talk to the

Lord like that? Answer me when I talk to you

right. Oh God who declares me innocent,

free me from my troubles, have mercy on me and hear my prayer.

Hear my prayer chapter 5 Lord, hear me as I pray.

Pay attention to my groaning. Listen to my cry for help, my

King and my God. For I pray to no one but you.

And this is what I have highlighted.

I haven't written in the front of my Bible, for I pray to no

one but you. I think church we can commonly

pray to ourself. This is how my feelings are.

This is what my friends have said.

And so I'm going to pray about that.

But his word says, for I pray to no one but you, I'm going to

hear from you where my direction and my help comes from.

Thank you, Parsima. I was so hoping that you would

bring about how you've been journaling in your Bible.

You spoke about this. I don't.

Yeah, a while ago. And it's a habit that I have

been able to do as well. And I I hope that that blesses

many, many people here today because this our Bibles are life

manuals and they are prayer manuals as well.

They're amazing. I'm in Isaiah at the moment, and

if you're worried about anything that's going on in the world,

pray through Isaiah. It's all there says don't put

your hope in governments don't put your hope in wealth, don't

put your hope in. Don't put your hope in.

Don't put your hope in. You can't build trust with

anything else except God. God and God alone.

That's what it's telling you when it's saying rivers and

Cedars and let it have been on and all of the above, right?

Amen. Thank you, Pastor Saraya.

There might be women here today who we don't quite know how to

pray yet. Can you speak to those women in

the room? Yeah, awesome.

I would, I would say to anybody in the room who's feeling as

though they can't pray before we just before when I answered

about personal prayer and I talked about incense, what it

says in Scripture about incense burning in the throne room of

God. Incense needs fire to get

started. And we have been given the most

incredible helper, the most incredible in power in the

world. The same Spirit that rose Jesus

Christ from the dead now lives within us, and He is the holy

fire that we need at any single moment, that we can call upon in

any single moment when we don't know what to say.

And that's the beauty of our spirit language.

That's a beauty. Beauty of speaking in tongues is

that we don't even know what to say, but the Spirit makes groans

through us that are in line and in thought with the Father's

will for our life. And so that's the first point I

would say. We here in City Point are

Pentecostal, Holy Spirit, believing, fire, holding people.

And so then if you are in a moment and you feel as though

you can't pray, you don't know what to say, call upon the Holy

Spirit. He is present everywhere, every

moment. He is never not near you.

So you don't call upon Him, and He takes a while to get to you.

He is there always and as soon as you call upon Him, He will

bring to you words that you are able to speak, words that don't

have to be fancy. Prayer isn't fancy and all that

kind of stuff. But the Holy Spirit is your best

friend when it comes to prayer. He is the one who intercedes on

your behalf and He also even gives you the empowering and the

knowledge to even know what to pray about.

So the Holy Spirit first and foremost, speaking in tongues,

your spirit language, if you don't know where to start, start

there. If you haven't been baptized in

the Spirit, come and see one of us and we will lay hands and

fire will fall upon you in the name of Jesus by the Holy

Spirit. The second part I would say is

just like what Pastor Mel said is Scripture is your go to.

Scripture is where we find the makeup and the not rules, but

the blueprint for how to pray. Anytime I've had anyone come to

me and say how do I pray? I want to learn how to pray.

I say Scripture's the best place.

Psalms is an incredible place to start to pray.

If you want fancy language like I do, I love fancy words, I go

to Psalms. Psalms gives me all the fancy

words, but in Matthew 6, Jesus tells us he gives us the

blueprint on how to pray. And it says even starting in

seven. And when you pray, do not heap

up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they

will be heard for their many words.

Do not pray like them, for your Father knows what you need

before you ask him. This is how Jesus is leading

this. And then he says prayer like

this. I'm getting a little bit fired

up right now, but it says pray like this.

Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your Kingdom come,

your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day Our Daily Bread, and forgive us our debts

as we forgive those who have debts against us.

Oh come on, lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from

evil, for yours is the Kingdom and the power and glory forever

and ever. Amen.

So if you don't know what to pray, I just prayed Scripture

right then. And the fire of what comes from

what we have been been given is readily available to you to

speak in every moment. And you might think, oh, this

situation doesn't doesn't make sense that I would be praying

the Father's prayer. This prayer is the prayer you

can pray anywhere every time. And the Holy Spirit comes, you

are submitting yourself to the Father's will for your for your

prayer and what you are speaking in that moment.

So yeah, Scripture, Holy Spirit and Scripture, two of the key

ingredients that we need to be able to pray and pray

effectively. So.

Yeah, Pastor Saray, you are on fire, the Holy Spirit.

So I'm going to shoot back to you.

Are you ready? I am sure there are many, many,

many, many many moments and accounts, but I would love for

us to hear one where prayer has changed something in you or

around you. This.

Yeah. Awesome everyday it is.

But if I can think of one specific moment was I, my

husband and I, we were supporting a close friend of

ours of my husband's through a court journey he was going

through. He was in jail and he was having

his court date to see whether he would be let out on a suspended

sentence or whether he would have to serve that time.

And so we went all the way to Brisbane to the Supreme Court,

you know, the big dog one. And we were in there and I just

remember sitting in the courtroom and it's so like, Oh

my gosh, it's so like they come in and you go to Bow and I don't

know if you've ever been to court, but it was like super

hectic. And I was sitting in our seats.

And then they brought our friend in and he came and sat on the

right hand side of where the judge was sitting.

He sat on the right hand side. And sorry, it's left because

when you're looking this way, but if you're looking from the

judge, it's right anyway. And he was being defended by his

lawyer and his lawyer would go to him and our friend, if, if

you knew him, he's he, he's doesn't have any fancy words.

He doesn't know, doesn't know any law terms.

So the lawyer would be going to him and be saying, and then

she'd come and she'd say something incredible.

And I'd be like, he didn't say that, not my friend.

He didn't say that. But I had this revelation

sitting in that courtroom and I just felt the Holy Spirit

descend upon that place and show me the throne room of God and

how when I enter the throne room of God, Jesus Christ, my Lord

and Savior, your Lord and Savior is sitting at the right hand of

the Father. And when I go into the throne

room, I probably come with words that don't make sense.

And I'd be like there. But then Jesus comes and he

goes, What was that? Okay, cool.

Comes before the Father intercedes and speaks on my

behalf. What?

That's just crazy. This all happened in that moment

of sitting in that courtroom, seeing how our Father in heaven

has set up prayer for us and what Jesus Christ, what the

price he paid on the cross now means for us more so than just

the salvation, which is an adjust.

It's incredible what he did there, but the tools and the

keys that he has given us now to live life as Jesus, believing

Holy Spirit filled, praying fervently people is just

immense. He goes before us on our behalf

half in every kind of way. So now when I pray and I enter

the throne room, it is a seed of humility that I always take

because it's not me I want defending myself or it's not me

that I want speaking on my own behalf.

It's Jesus Christ. And He knows what I'm going to

pray before I even get there. And then when I get there, he's

praying on my behalf with words that are more incredible and

more in line with the Father's will and that speak a better

word than I could ever, ever say.

And so that's something that I've forgotten the question

anyway. But this, this is how I pray now

and this is the breakthrough that I had in prayer was that I

have been given the keys to be able to enter the throne room as

the righteousness of Christ. Like this just blows my mind

continuously, which is why my face looks like that is that I

cannot make sense of the fact that not only did I receive

salvation from Jesus Christ so that I would no longer be bound

to sin, death and shame in my life, but that then he also gave

me life and life abundantly that I can go into these heavenly

places, these high places and be able to speak with my Father in

in in conjunction with Jesus Christ.

And then when I here, the Holy Spirit prompts me every every

second of the day, gives me the words to say and intercedes for

me. And it just it's insane to me

that we live this life and this is what we're we are readily

given when we accept Jesus Christ into my life.

So I hope that answered the question.

It does. Absolutely powerful.

Pastor Surrey. What?

Yeah, but what? Pastor Surrey you've just

shared? Not just what a moment where

prayer changed something in you, but truly for me and I'm sure

many people here just hearing that revelation alone,

visualizing it and now knowing it on our hearts, I I'm sure it

is going to change for each of us as well.

That was that was mammoth. Thank you, Possumel.

A few weeks ago you were chatting to me about a beautiful

story of a woman named Susanna Wesley.

And you were talking about how she was this busy mother, lots

of kids and and she would do something quite remarkable.

I was touched by this. And so I'd love if you could

speak on it to the to our beautiful church.

Sure. Who in the building knows who

Susanna Wesley is? A couple.

OK, great. So one of our incredible fathers

of the faith. This was his mother, all right?

And I just love this because we hear of some of the significant

things that John Wesley has done for the body of faith.

There are incredible resources out there.

If you've never heard about the impact that this man's life had

on churches across the world, it's significant.

But this is actually the story of his mom who raised not one

son but many children. And he learnt, he spoke about

the story. This is how it came out about

the significance on and the impact on his life because he

witnessed, which is even why we have Justine sitting on this

panel today. She is sitting here as witness

and as testimony of an interceding mother, a woman who

intercedes with her life. There are many in this church

who've been impacted by the intercession of this mother.

Well, this particular mother, Susanna Wesley, was exactly the

same. And John was so marked by it

that he spoke about it many times.

And so he said he was taught the importance of talking to God

first, say first. We have a habit in this day and

age of talking to everything else first.

But Susanna found it such a priority to talk to her God

first that it mocked her children and it set them up for

ministries that went across the planet.

She had this unusual practice that she actually used to get

either her kitchen apron or a tea towel, and she would put it

up over her head. And when the tea towel or the

apron was placed over her head, it was a mark to her children.

Like Pastor Saraya was saying, when the Bible is open, Zion

knows she's spending time with her father.

For Susanna, the children knew that she was talking to her

father and that she was not to be interrupted.

For this mother, she actually John has actually unpacks that

she used to put this over her head for two hours every day.

Somewhere in the day, the apron or the tea towel would be

covering her face and she would say it would cover my face so

that I have time to come face to face with my Heavenly Father and

give him one-on-one attention and hear from Him.

And so this story absolutely marked me because in the seasons

that we have for so many here, there will be many of you in the

young family season. It gives us an incredible idea

of how we can prioritize this. For the girls who were at SWB

last week, you may have heard Pastor Lee say she locked her

children in a bedroom and would lie on the floor outside the

bedroom door. Did anybody else hear that riot?

Sometimes it takes extreme measures.

Do you know? It doesn't matter what your

strategy is. I have a place that I get to go

without them. And so it's a sacred place

without little ones where I get to talk to the Lord.

And often in those times, it's where you're weeping, but you

are also rejoicing. It's where the Lord meets you so

intimately. Do you know, I think one of

these great strategies that I've actually used and all of my

children will attest to this, doesn't matter whether they are

4 or 21 of these has been in the car.

Is anybody else find that children just become chaotic in

the car? It's like they know that your

hands are on the wheel and you're not allowed to do

anything else. And so you've done these ones

long enough and it's not working.

And it definitely doesn't work to go.

Would you be quiet? It's almost like it elevates the

volume, right? I don't know where I got this

from. I'd probably say if I asked my

mother, I probably got it from her because it's it's, it's one

of these wild strategies, but it's not uncommon in our car.

That when the children go chaotic, I will just start and

the car falls silent. Some of you are looking for

silence with the Lord. You might just need to speak in

tongues. Because the truth is, is I think

even when we've received really hard news, sometimes I've been

able to do nothing else but that is to pray in a heavenly

language or sing in a heavenly language and it is silenced the

noise. And some of us need to hear that

this morning. The noise will always be there.

But that what God has given us strategies to silence the noise.

So say some of you might need to exercise today, some speaking in

tongues on the way home from church with tired children.

Shiki Araba Cosi Carrera. Thank you, Pastor Mel for

teachers in the room. It works in the classroom too.

I'm just going to finish off with some rapid fire questions,

so Mike's ready. We'd like to hear from all of

you. One quick, quick answer as quick

as you can. So are you a morning prayer or

late night prayer or both? Morning, morning.

Both worship music or silence when you pray.

Silence. Worship music.

OK, love. It journaling prayer or walking

prayer? Journaling.

Walking. Journaling.

Journaling as well, yeah. One word women need to hear

today. Pray first, talk last.

Is it just one word or you can say it?

Could be a phrase. Phrase is fine.

You are the daughter of the Most High, Yeah.

I'd say authenticity. Yeah, say it.

What steals prayer most easily? Dizziness.

As Pastor Mel said before, I'd say pride.

Yeah, I'm with Pastor Surya. And lastly, do you have your

best prayer tip in one sentence? Just have a yarn.

Great. Just he just wants to talk to

you and that's what prayer is. It's super relational.

Just speak with your Father in heaven.

He'll receive you however you come.

Just as you talk with your friends, you talk with the

people you love. You receive them as they are

when they speak to you. Your Father in heaven does so

much more in that aspect. Just talk to him.

Just talk to him. I would say come boldly.

Beautiful. Just like pride steals prayer

lives. I think it's why we're prompted

to come boldly into the throne room.

We do not need to be covered. Or I would say, leave the cloak

of shame at the door, drop it off and walk in.

If there's anybody who can redeem, restore, renew, it's

Him. So come boldly, so.

Good. It's like God is our Father, so

you'd come to him as children when we pray and that it's a

conversation with the Lord. So to not have all these big

standards or expectations, but it's just communion conversation

with him. Amazing.

Hey, can we thank these beautiful women for sharing with

us? Thank you so much, Justine.

Pastor Saraya, Pastor Mel Touch. I'm going to leave you with

Pastamel as I know she's got something incredible to end this

morning. Yeah, we're going to do

something just a little bit different.

Girls, you received a gift this morning.

I'm going to ask you in this moment, would you unwrap it?

It'll make sense when you do. We've spoken today about Susanna

Wesley, and when I think about this extraordinary woman, she

didn't wait for perfect silence. She didn't wait for ideal

conditions. She made sacred space in

ordinary life. Today you thought you just came

to church, ordinary life, but each of you received a gift.

I want you to do something really bold.

I want you to put over your head, pray our photographer is

roaming right now, aren't you? Put over your face, put over

your head so you can't see. It's a simple symbol.

It's a reminder to you that you can make space with God in every

single season, in any moment of any day.

Now, for those of you who are sat in our auditorium around a

woman with a tea towel covering her head, I'm going to ask if

you would go and lay hands on this woman.

We as a church are going to pray for our mothers, our wives, our

daughters, our grandmothers, our sisters, or any special woman

that you are sat beside this morning.

And we're going to place our hands on her shoulders and begin

to pray a blessing over her. But I want to pray something

else as well. Pastor Soraya unpacked in this

beautiful moment on the panel that for those of you who desire

or so desire to have a an incredible relationship with

their Saviour, with their God through the dialogue of prayer,

that this is cultivated through the Holy Spirit and through

fire. And so I wonder right now, I'm

not going to do it. You're going to do it.

I'm going to ask that those around lay hands on and they

pray for fresh fire. Fresh fire, Come on right now,

somewhere you're going to stand and you're going to impart

something right now. Stand and impart something.

Pray and intercede. Prayer, blessing, pray fresh

fire. Pray right now that this woman

begins to hear the voice of God clearly because she hungers and

she yearns for it. Hoora basika rabba kushika rabba

rabba, fill them a fresh gone. Fill them a fresh, fill them a

fresh law gone. The hunger and the yearning can

be satisfied by you. And so, Lord God, this morning

we pray for fresh fire in each woman.

Would you stir that flame? Would you move it from a kindle

to a burning fire that cannot be quenched, but to spend time with

you? Lord God, I pray now for each

and every woman that they would receive clarity when they speak

from you, that they would receive direction, that they

would receive peace, that they would receive an understanding

of things that they do not understand.

Revelation from your word as they pray, God, I pray God right

now that women sitting here this morning who might even even feel

strange sitting with their faces covered would come face to face

with their Savior. Face to face with their Father,

face to face with the one who loves them dearly, face to face

with your glory. Lord God, that they would be

marked by you God, they would be marked.

We pray for a fresh impartation on your women.

Would we call them this morning? And we prophesied this morning

that they would be a praying generation of women who will

bear witness to not only a move of God in this nation, but their

children will rise up and call them blessed and know how to

speak with their God because they've witnessed these women

walk it out diligently day by day, cultivating relationship

with you. God bless their households,

bless their motherhood, bless their families, restore what is

broken, restore what is broken, and let them live out the

promises that you have for each and every one of them in Jesus

mighty name, Amen, Amen. Amen.

Amen.