Faith-fueled Prayer - Tapping Into God's Promises

The grass fades and withers, but his word will remain forever.

So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth.

It shall not return to me void.

In other words, God's words don't fall to the ground.

And it doesn't speak and it just bounces back with nothing.

His word is full of creative power.

In fact, inherent in God's word is the ability to fulfill itself.

So if God said it, that settles it,

and you can take it to the bank, amen.

Welcome to the City Light Church podcast.

Thanks for joining us today, as we look into God's word

and discover the hope and truth that He has for us.

If you want to connect with City Light Church,

feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com.

That's citylightnyc.com.

Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe

that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working

in our hearts and minds.

As you listen to today's teaching,

remember that you are deeply loved by God.

That you are surrounded by His grace

and that He has a real hope and a future for you.

Well, last week, I was ministering on the power of faith,

the force of faith, the substance that's faith,

I want to continue in that vein.

Because I want to be like my hero, Jesus Christ,

who is the ultimate faith preacher,

who went about everywhere declaring the kingdom,

calling people to repentance,

but yes, teaching constantly about faith

and how you receive everything by faith

and how to grow in faith.

It's your faith that goes into the invisible spirit realm

and pulls down the promises of God

to where you need them right here on earth.

It's your faith that's gonna get you through.

Faith ceases the promises of God.

And we are a receiving church, amen?

Not just a talking church, not just a praying church,

because it's possible for a Christian to be praying

and praying, but not receiving.

And so that's when we have to look at the man in the mirror

and make a change.

He-he, that's when we go,

hey, something's wrong here.

Prayers shouldn't just be this thing

where we're talking to God and maybe,

maybe just maybe once in a while,

like one out of 50, he answers,

no, prayers should be answered, constantly and consistently.

Jesus said, my father is glorified when you ask

what you will and it's done for you when you have

in John 15, he's talking about prayer fruit.

When you are fruitful in your prayer life,

that means you're asking and receiving, asking and receiving.

That's how the dynamic Christian life should be.

God is actually glorified by that, amen?

Yet a lot of Christians are like those Christians

that prayed for Peter, the most hilarious example

in the Bible.

Peter's put in prison, Christians are praying for him

to be supernaturally released from prison.

He gets supernaturally released.

Change, drop.

He's released from prison.

He goes to the prayer meeting where they're praying for him

to get supernaturally released

and a little girl opens and goes, hey, it's Peter.

And you know what the rest of the group says?

No, that's just his angel.

What?

In other words, they didn't even believe fully

what they were asking for.

The prayer got answered and they go, it's an angel.

That's like you're praying for break through what happens

and you go, oh, that was a coincidence.

No!

That's how it should be.

Your prayers are getting answered.

Hallelujah.

So the better we get at digging into God's word,

knowing God, knowing the person of Jesus,

the better we get at receiving.

And I want to just today lead you in some foundational,

some fundamental truths that'll help you receive

when you pray.

So let's begin with 1 John 5 verses 14 through 15.

1 John 5:14–15

We're talking about the promises of God this morning.

All the promises of God are yes and amen in Christ.

The Bible says in Peter that we've been given

these exceedingly great and precious promises.

There's over 7,000 promises in the Bible that are for you

that show you the heart of God, the character of God,

the nature of God, that when you know these promises,

you have confidence when you pray

because God's will is revealed.

1 John 5, 14 says this,

now this is the confidence, shout confidence.

This is the confidence that we have in him.

See when you pray, you need to have confidence.

But what's your confidence in?

A lot of people don't have confidence when they pray.

Why not?

Because they're wondering, I wonder what God thinks about this.

Does he really want me to have this?

I don't know.

But if he gave you a promise that he wants you to have it,

then the answer is yes and amen.

And with over 7,000 promises,

everything you're going through right now,

you say it's 2025, it doesn't matter.

Everything you're going through right now

is covered by the word of God.

It's in there.

You just gotta be willing to go dig in.

Search the promises of God and then claim them

and apply them for yourself.

If you're lacking confidence in prayer,

it's because you don't have a promise from the word.

People don't doubt God's ability.

They doubt his willingness.

Last week we saw that with a leopard in Matthew 8.

He comes up to Jesus, I picture him stuttering.

Not confident.

I mean, you know he wasn't confident.

He wasn't even allowed to be that close to Jesus.

He should have been at a leopard colony, but he heard the crowd.

He heard the miracles and he comes up to Jesus

and he says, Lord, if, if, see that conditional if,

the doubt, if you are willing, you can make me clean.

He's not doubting Jesus' ability.

He's doubting Jesus' willingness.

And Jesus turns about and says, I am willing.

Be thou made clean.

So you need that kind of confidence

and it only comes from the Word of God

from a promise in his Word

that speaks to your special situation,

your unique and particular situation.

Now this is the confidence that we have in him

that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

Keep that verse up there, please.

If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

I have seen that scripture by religious people

absolutely butchered and, you know,

religious people don't like answered prayer.

They never get their prayers answered.

They don't want you to get your prayers answered.

And so when you talk about how good God is

and how we answer his prayer,

or maybe you're frustrated that a certain prayer

is taking time to manifest, they'll, well, you know,

if you pray according to, you know,

sometimes what you want is not what God wants,

but what God wants is better.

So you just, what?

There's always a way to spin this thing.

I know what he wants because his word is his will.

If he says in his word, he wants me to prosper,

that's what he wants.

If it says in his word, he wants all men everywhere

to be saved, that's what he wants.

If he says in his word, the gift of the Holy Ghost

is for everyone, that's what he wants.

If he says in his word, by his stripes,

you were healed, that's what he wants.

If he says in his word, he's the good shepherd,

he will lead you, he will guide you, he will protect you,

he will provide for you, that's what he wants, hallelujah.

So we gotta get rid of this manby,

panby, Mickey Mouse Christianity,

where we're tiptoeing around God.

Well, I don't know what you want.

No, nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done.

You have to know his will and his word is his will.

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

So we're gonna be receivers of his promises.

And we're gonna be like a good son or good daughter

and say, Dad, you said, you got it, listen,

the scripture actually says that God says

that put me in remembrance, put me in remembrance.

You're going to the Father with a promise

when you're putting him in remembrance

of what he promised he would do,

and he will back his word up every time.

Hallelujah.

Isaiah 55-11.

So shall my word, God's word is holy.

It's unbreakable.

Heaven and earth will pass away,

but his word will never pass away.

The flowers grow old, the grass fades and withers,

but his word will remain forever.

So shall my word be that goes forth from my mouth,

it shall not return to me void.

In other words, God's words don't fall to the ground.

And it doesn't speak and it just bounces back with nothing.

His word is full of creative power.

In fact, inherent in God's word is the ability

to fulfill itself.

So if God said it, that settles it,

then you can take it to the bank, amen.

You show me a person who receives, in prayer,

consistently, I'll show you somebody who's in the word

and bringing the word of God back to him in prayer.

You show me somebody who's frustrated

and not receiving in prayer.

I'll show you somebody who's not in the word

and the word is not alive in them.

And their prayer is more emotional.

And so they talk to God about the problem,

but never ever bring the word into the problem.

And there's a time sometimes.

You know, you just want to talk to your best friend, Jesus.

So it takes on an emotional component.

There's a place for that.

But that's not the prayer of petition.

That's not when you need a breakthrough.

Look, I've had it rough sometimes

and I go to the Lord and go, Lord,

oh, it's tough right now.

Lord, I need to feel your presence

and I'm just talking to him like to a friend.

That's wonderful.

But that has to stop at some point.

And then when you need a prayer answer,

that's the prayer of petition.

When you're asking him,

approach him on the basis of his word.

I'll demonstrate in just a little bit.

I shall not return to me void,

but it shall accomplish what I please.

And it shall prosper.

God's word, prosperous.

It creates this ground that I'm standing on,

this earth that we live in,

the universe that we behold,

all created with the word of God, his word, prosperous.

It will prosper the thing for which I sent it.

Amen.

Let's go to Jeremiah 112.

Then the Lord said to me,

you have seen well for I am ready to perform my word.

The Old King James says,

I watch over my word to perform it.

Please note, he doesn't watch over my words to perform them.

He watches over his word to perform it.

The only time he watches over my words,

to perform my words is when I'm echoing his word

and speaking his word.

Amen.

I feel like I hit an herb there

when I talked about emotional praying.

If there's anything I love,

I love hitting an herb.

Whew, that's how it,

that's what juices me up for a Sunday.

He's your father.

He loves you.

But sometimes you gotta know how to do business with God

and just coming up to him,

weepy, defeated, or just talking.

There's so much talking in prayer, too much sometimes.

This is why, when we have 21 days of prayer and fasting,

I did, I feel like one of the most unholy ghost things

I could have done.

I said a two minute limit on prayer.

It's like, Lord, please, can I do this?

He said, yeah.

Lord, I don't want to quench you.

I'm sure if you move, somebody will go on,

but because if you let your average believer go on in prayer,

good Lord, they'll go on for 15, 20 minutes.

They'll start up and say, hey, pray for me, I need more water.

I got half a bottle, can you pray?

Yes, water, okay.

Then they're praying for missionaries

in China five minutes later.

They'll go around the world six times.

And we all have to pretend we're not bored out of our mind.

We all have to play nice.

And we all have to be like, mm-hmm, yes.

Meanwhile, we're all thinking the same thing.

I don't even know how to agree with you anymore

because you're all over the map.

Is it any wonder people aren't getting their prayers

answered when they're like that?

In fact, Jesus talked about that.

He himself, this isn't my theory.

He said, the pagans, the heathen, the unbelievers,

they think they'll be heard for they're much speaking.

There are many words, don't be like them.

Sometimes the most powerful prayers

are the concise, short ones,

but they're underguarded with the word.

22nd prayer, full of the word of God,

beats a half hour jubber jabber all over the place any day.

Oh, amen, good, I'm glad I hit that nerve.

I didn't hit it in the first service

so they didn't hear that, but you heard it.

Is there anyone right now?

I want to pray for you.

You're going through a crisis right now.

You need a miracle.

Just raise your hand.

All right, just come up here, please.

What is the issue?

Financial breakthrough.

Financial breakthrough.

Okay.

Does anybody have any scriptures?

He needs financial breakthrough.

Now I can pray and go, oh, Father,

you know your son here, he needs some money

because this earth, you know, it runs on money.

Can't wait to get to heaven because in heaven

we don't need money, but oh, God, we're on earth still.

We need money.

No, we're going to go in with the promises of God.

So who's got some promises of God

that have to do with finances?

Tell me one, shout it out.

An uppercut at the end.

The blessing of the Lord makes one rich

and he adds no sorrow to it.

Who else?

He loads us daily with benefits.

Anybody else?

Hallelujah.

My God, that's a preaching voice.

No microphone.

Just right from the back, just like that.

Praise God.

Okay, we got three promises of God.

Now, stretch your hands towards him

and we're going to pray.

Father, the name of Jesus,

we come to you with your word.

Your word says that Jesus who was rich was made poor

so that we could be made very rich.

Your word says, Lord,

that you load us down daily with benefits

and the word of God, Lord, a promise to us

is that your blessing will make us rich

and unlike the even,

you don't add any sorrow to it.

So we pray for our brother right now

and we stand on your word.

Oh, we stand on your promises

that the mighty anointing of the Holy Ghost

will come upon him and bring breakthrough, breakthrough.

Move his environment around.

Change circumstances, open doors.

Multiplication in Jesus name.

Hallelujah.

Hallelujah.

Amen.

Who else?

I want to pray for you.

And I said, who has a crisis?

Because it's a real, if it's a real crisis,

you don't care that I'm doing it in public, you know?

When it's a social crisis, I don't want to be out there

open in front of everyone.

But when you're hanging by a thread,

there were times I don't care, I'll run out naked.

I don't care, just help me, Lord.

I don't care how, who here?

Yes, come on.

Amen.

What's happening?

Society and a lot of family issues.

Okay, how old are you, sweetie?

You know, I came to Jesus at 16

because of family issues.

That's why I came to him.

I didn't really want heaven at 1617.

You're not really thinking about heaven so much.

I just, my family life was a mess.

And when he held me, the preacher held me to baptize me.

He said, what do you want the Lord to do for you?

I just said, my family, my family, you know,

it was not good.

And the Lord came and he made it good.

He made it filled the family, my mom, my dad, my,

with love and there's breakthrough for you.

Amen.

All right, family anxiety.

Thank you for coming up.

We're gonna see, we're gonna see this thing turn around.

Family, give me some anxiety ones.

I got the ones for family.

Because we see whole houses getting saved in the Bible.

Noah's Ark wasn't for no's for his whole house.

The Philippian jailer said, what must I do to be saved?

The response was believe on the Lord Jesus

and you will be saved you and your whole house.

When God comes to rescue, he rescues the whole house.

My parents, I had to hide the fact that I was getting baptized.

I had to hide, you know, some kids hide the fact

they're doing drugs.

I had to hide the fact that I was going to church

because they were so against me going to church.

And then when I got saved like Domino's,

they just fell one right after the other

because the Lord comes and rescues the house.

But for fear, do you know how many promises there are

concerning fear in the Bible?

I said there's 7,000 promises in the Word,

specifically for fear.

365, you know what the Lord is saying?

January 1st, fear not.

Second, fear not.

January 3rd, fear not.

You got one for every day of the year.

I've had anxiety, it makes no sense.

In fact, I leave and lower my voice a little bit as I'm so,

you know, when I had anxiety, I couldn't be around loud to it.

I had anxiety, I was on a movie.

I couldn't watch, I was on a plane.

I couldn't watch a movie.

It was a war movie.

And like 10 seconds, I'm like, I can't even see guns going off

because I'd be ducking the airplane, you see.

So I know the spirit.

But the Bible says he has not given you a spirit of fear,

but of power and of love and a sound mind.

Over and over again, he says fear not.

And then he says because, do you know what's on the other end

of the because?

He says fear not because I am with you.

The number one reason not to fear

is because he's with you.

What's your name?

Nicole.

Nicole, stretch your hands towards Nicole.

You've received Jesus as your Lord and Savior?

Yeah.

Say that out loud, say Lord Jesus.

Lord Jesus.

You're my Lord and Savior.

You're my Lord and Savior.

I put all my faith in trust in you.

I put all my faith in trust in you.

In the name of Jesus, we pray for Nicole,

release the anointing of God upon her,

and we cancel Satan's plans over her life.

This tormenting spirit of anxiety of fear,

we break it in Jesus' name.

Command her mind to go into harmony and balance.

Even her chemicals within her body

be balanced in Jesus' name.

I even feel to just pray for strength to put the phone down.

That scrolling that increases anxiety, not decreases it.

But the Lord, the God of Peace, comes around you,

removes that anxiety right off of you,

and we speak that household blessing upon you,

that the peace of God, Nicole, the love of God,

will supernaturally flood your home in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

Applause.

Those are you sisters, Mark and Nicole.

Surround her lover, minister to her.

We're gonna see you get far in the things of God.

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Now imagine if this is how whenever something came up,

you prayed over your own life.

This is how I cover my wife, my kids.

This is how I pray for you.

I don't come in with a bunch of emotional talk.

It's gotta be the word, the word,

because he watches over his word to perform it.

We have these exceeding great and precious promises.

John 15, seven.

If you've been a part of our 21 days of prayer and fasting,

you know this is our foundational verse.

Jesus said, if you abide in me and my words abide in you.

You will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.

What's the condition on his word abiding in you?

So little word, little faith, little answers to prayer.

Big word in you, big faith, big answers to prayer.

So what's the hang up?

I found the hang up typically is people don't want to dig into the scriptures.

And they don't want to do the work daily of memorizing the scriptures

and bringing these scriptures up and putting the Lord and remembrance of them.

It's really mind-boggling.

Some people are just like that.

They can hear testimony after testimony of God answering prayers and a voice in their heads.

Oh, that's just them.

Oh, that's a coincidence.

Oh, they're just special.

They're favored by God.

And if not you, though, your lot is just a sufferer.

And get one out of 30 of your prayers answered.

It's not.

It's not.

His word makes all the difference.

Have his words abiding you and you will ask what you desire

and it shall be done for you.

First Timothy, 118.

Hallelujah.

Paul is writing young pastor Timothy.

He says, this charge I commit to you, son Timothy.

According to the prophecies previously made concerning you that by them, by what?

The prophecies.

Timothy had a legacy of faith.

His mother had faith.

The scripture says that.

His grandmother had faith.

And Paul is saying, would these promises of God, these prophetic words?

And when it says prophetic words, the prophetic because there's so much

pathetic and not prophetic going on today.

People, I say prophetic and some people say,

don't mention prophetic because I was going to the restroom and some guy

stopped me and gave me a word.

And no, that guy usheres, escorted him out wherever he is.

We don't tolerate that guy.

No parking lot prophets, no on the way to the bathroom prophets.

I'm talking about a real prophetic word.

And by the way, most of the prophetic words you'll receive in your life that

actually matter will be direct from the Lord to you.

All the words that actually were life changing for me, destiny changing words,

big events, the Lord spoke them to me.

And then later somebody with a prophetic gift will come and they would confirm it.

But the prophetic should always be confirmation, not information.

Amen.

So there's these prophetic words that Timothy had.

We don't know what they were.

But it was most likely having to do with the gift on his life, the calling on his life,

the way that church that he's passering is supposed to go.

Paul says that with these prophetic words by them, you may wage the good warfare.

King James says, fight the good fight.

Hallelujah.

So what are the promises of God for?

There's so that you can keep fighting.

That's so you can remind the Lord and remind yourself, because often what tends to happen

is after the Lord speaks something glorious to you, the opposite can happen.

You're like, what is the Lord torturing me?

No.

He gave you the word because he actually saw the opposite was going to happen.

So he gave you the word so you can use that word, that prophetic promise to get you through.

Hallelujah.

You all with me?

There is the logos.

That means I feel like whenever I do a Greek word, have the people check out.

No, you got Greek on me.

It's all Greek to me.

But this is important.

You have to distinguish.

There is the logos.

That's the written word of God.

That's important.

So important.

Vital.

In fact, if something doesn't line up with the written word of God, throw it away, discard it.

The written logos, the word of God is vital.

That's when you read in the scriptures of promise.

Like we just did when we prayed for those two people.

You can take those promises to the bank.

But then on top of the logos is the ramah.

Ooh, the ramah.

The ramah is not what God said, which is still valid, but not what he said 2,000 years ago.

It's what he's saying right now.

It's when he breathes on the word for your particular situation right now.

In fact, when Jesus said that we should not live by bread alone,

but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God, that's what the ramah is.

It's the now proceeding fourth word of God.

Amen.

So there's several scriptures talking about finances.

Several that I've stood on for many, many years.

One of them I put on our offering envelope.

Let them shout for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause.

Let them say continually let the Lord be magnified,

who takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servant.

But in May of 2023, not too long ago, I was puttering about in my kitchen.

And many of you know I've been in Bitcoin for a number of years.

Not the OGs from 2009 or 2013, but 2019.

And in May of 2023, it was the bear market still.

Nobody was talking about Bitcoin.

You may not know this, but Bitcoin usually operates in four-year cycles.

So we had a major breakout high in 2013.

Many of you probably only heard about Bitcoin in 2017 when it had another major breakout high.

Then in 2021, most of the world started to really take notice.

At 2023, nobody even wanted to talk about it.

Cause it had gone down and it wasn't in the news.

If it wasn't in the news, it was a headline saying Bitcoin is dead.

I'm puttering around the kitchen.

And I had been praying, but I wasn't praying when I was puttering around the kitchen.

I don't think I was even thinking about Bitcoin.

But this plan just got downloaded into my heart in about five seconds.

It just crystallized.

And what I felt to do, which I hadn't done before, was purchase stock options.

And a company called MicroStrategy, today's just strategy.

This is just two years ago, not even.

Where didn't even hit two years.

Purchase far-out options two and a half years out.

And the reason why I felt like the Lord was coming to me and why I got so excited was

it was the bear market.

What does that mean?

That's when you buy.

If you want to make wealth, you don't buy when everybody's talking about it.

If your Uber driver's talking about a particular stock, don't buy it.

Your door, man, it's talking about Bitcoin.

That's when you sell.

Well, you don't actually ever sell Bitcoin, but you know what I mean.

Now, you don't sell Bitcoin.

It's the most finite asset, the most precious asset on earth.

You don't sell it.

I've never sold actual Bitcoin.

But these options and stock shares with companies that are correlated and tied to

Bitcoin, like micro-strategy, it's the single biggest corporate holder of Bitcoin and moves

right alongside with Bitcoin.

So, I was at a place.

We were at a place in our life where we didn't have much money left.

We had the Bitcoin, but we're not selling that.

We put a down payment on a house.

This is from the big bull market of 2020-2021.

And we had a little chunk left.

And I went all in.

I mean, all in.

I mean, I didn't have next month's mortgage.

I went all in.

By the way, this is not financial advice.

And I'd never done something so reckless before.

But I just sensed.

And I did some napkin math.

I said, look, Bitcoin does what I believe it's going to do.

In two years' time, this will be a 5,000 percent increase.

Now, that's not too shabby.

People will do anything these days for 9 percent annual.

And at 9 percent, you're not even beating the money printer.

Because of the money printer, inflation is at 9 percent.

They'll lie and tell you it's 4, 5, or 6 percent.

It's not.

It's closer to 9 every year.

Our dollar is devalued by 9 percent.

Your purchasing power next year will be 9 percent if it's all in the US dollar.

Yes, I'm preaching a sermon still.

Bear with me.

So, I go all in.

You know what happens immediately after?

I'm down by 50 percent.

Now, I did the napkin math.

What if Bitcoin does this?

What will strategy do in my options?

And it was 5,000 percent.

And I went to the Lord about it.

And I said, Lord, I mean, I started giggling when I saw the number.

Because it turned into millions of dollars on paper.

And I'm like, Lord, could this be?

And I hear in my spirit, it will be so.

Just like, it will be so.

I'm like, oh, no, no, no, no.

That's just me.

Because I want this to be so, so bad.

It's the voice in my head.

I'm like, I can't play these kind of games.

This is my life that's on the line.

And now I'm 50 percent down.

Lord, will this really happen?

And I hear it will be just like that.

It will be so.

Over and every day I come to my hearing.

It will be so.

Now, let me tell you something.

I'd never heard.

Sometimes you hear silence from the Lord.

I'd ask them.

In 2020, 2021,

Lord, will Bitcoin go to a 400,000?

Silence.

I didn't hear enough.

Just silence.

I'm like, Lord, come on.

All I need is a thumbs up from you.

All I need is a word, nothing.

But this time I hear it will be so.

It will be so.

Over and over again, it will be so.

In September, I'm down by 50 percent.

Then came up tober.

It's October, but the Bitcoiners call it up tober.

Because every single time in October,

for whatever reason, Bitcoin tends to go up.

Market calendars, October's half a year away.

You'll remember this, by the way, in October of 25.

You will watch.

Not financial advice, by the way.

Because in order for my math to work,

I bought micro-strategy when it was at $300.

The stock would then have to go to over $5,000.

When have you ever seen a stock do that?

That kind of increased.

I mean, it's happened, but it's very, very rare.

And it did exactly that.

It beat Tesla, it beat Nvidia,

it beat Netflix, it beat Facebook,

it beat Google, it beat Apple,

it beat every single one of those.

And went in a span of a year and a half,

from $300 to over $5,400.

If you check the chart right now,

you'll see the high was $540,

because it got up so high, they did a 10 for one split.

Change my life forever.

What's the point of this?

The point of me telling you this,

is that you have to get the now,

Rema word of God, the promise for yourself.

And you do that by spending time with him,

worshipping him,

getting his word inside of you,

getting comfortable with hearing his voice.

And sometimes you will miss it.

This is just how we go.

Sometimes you will think it's his voice.

And it's not.

It doesn't shouldn't happen often,

but the older you get in the Lord,

the more mature you get,

especially if you're willing to be humble

and confess when you miss it.

And go back to the drawing board.

You know, there are people,

they'll just miss it for 20 years.

And never everything,

hmm, maybe I should adjust my strategy

of hearing from the Lord.

But then there are the mature ones that go,

okay, last time I thought it was God,

it wasn't God, why?

Oh, oh, that's right.

I was emotional.

I rushed into it.

You know what I noticed?

Whenever I thought it was God and it wasn't,

it was because I was getting my info from up here.

But God doesn't live in your brain.

He's not the holy cranium.

He's not the holy frontal cortex.

You know, he's the Holy Spirit

and he lives in your spirit.

And so learn how to distinguish

from the voice up here to

the still small voice,

the gentle, your powerful whisper in your spirit.

And do not disqualify yourself from hearing from God.

You are his sheep.

You hear his voice.

That's what Jesus said in John chapter 10.

John 10 · chapter mention

My sheep hear my voice.

Hallelujah.

Just say right now that's for me.

Yes, it is.

Yes, it is.

You qualify to hear from the Lord.

Hallelujah.

Let's go to first Kings 18, verse 1.

1 Kings 18:1

When I was down 50 percent and then it happened again

in a few months,

because Bitcoin will make you throw up 16 times.

Right, Chris?

It'll make you wake up with night sweats before it rewards you.

You should wake up and I literally

was driven to the ground,

rolling around the floor with the Lord.

Laugh.

Because I wanted to sound like I can't take

the stress anymore.

So what kept me going?

With the promise of God and the prophetic word,

I was able to wage a good warfare.

You know, if you're going to make real money,

there's institutions that want to shake you out.

There's other entities.

They will do everything.

They'll manipulate stock prices,

manipulate the markets.

Everything just to shake you out of your position.

You want to be like a pit bull and get locked jaw

and you can only do that and stay with it

if you got a word from the Lord.

Hallelujah.

And it came to pass after many days.

Is this helping anyone?

Because it's so quiet in here.

All right.

And it came to pass after many days that the Lord,

excuse me, that the word of the Lord came to Elijah

in the third year saying,

go present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth.

It hadn't rained in years.

In fact, God said to Elijah,

go speak that there will be a drought.

And what did Elijah do?

He just echoed the word of God.

See, God needs his ambassadors on earth to speak his word.

And Elijah called for a drought and there was one for years.

Now God is saying, I'm sending rain again.

That's my word to you, Elijah.

That's my promise to you.

People that haven't seen rain in so long,

they forgot what rain looks like.

That might be what your life looks like right now.

I haven't seen the blessing a lot.

God in so long, I forgot what it looks like.

Wait for that word.

With the word of God, you can do anything.

Go present yourself to Ahab and I will send rain on the earth.

Now, let's just fast forward to verse 41.

Then Elijah said to Ahab,

go up, eat and drink,

for there is the sound of abundance of rain.

Was there a cloud in the sky?

No, was there rain?

No, there really wasn't.

There was no rain.

In the desert, just that sun.

But Elijah heard the sound of the abundance of rain.

Where did he hear it?

With his natural ears?

No, and the inside of his spirit.

I wonder what you're hearing in your spirit.

If you're not hearing anything in your spirit,

you got to change some things.

You cannot be staring at your phone screen

12 hours a day and expect to hear from the Lord.

And it also doesn't mean that you have to be

in some study with a candle going

and six books in the Bible open.

No, you just need to get into a place to rest.

You go into the subway, take your phone

and chuck it somewhere deep in your book bag or handbag.

And just, you know, I remember when I got saved in the 90s.

And sometimes you'd see 10, 15 people on a subway car.

And I knew exactly what they were doing.

They'd be doing the Jesus meditation.

You just thank Jesus, thank Jesus.

Anybody remember that?

There were Christians and now everybody's looking out of phone.

But they'd be digging into that place in the secret place.

That's where you hear from the Lord.

That's where you hear from heaven.

Go eat and drink for there is the sound of abundance of rain.

So, they have went up to eat and drink

and Elijah went up to the top of Carmel.

Then he bowed down on the ground

and put his face between his knees.

By the way, in many ancient cultures,

including that Middle Eastern culture,

that was a birthing position.

So Elijah's down and he's in a birthing position.

What's he birthing?

He's birthing the promise of God.

When you get a promise from God

and you got 7,000 of them in the Holy Word of God,

and then you can be with Jesus and hear his spoken,

ram a promise to you.

That's him speaking specifically to your situation.

Because there's no scripture verse.

Many scripture verses on God bringing prosperity.

But no scripture verse saying,

hey, buy MSTR options and make sure they're out two years.

But I filled myself up with the written word concerning prosperity,

yielded to the Holy Spirit to carve out

an intimate relationship with him.

And then when the time was right,

that's what I heard.

I'm now spoken word A.

This prosperity I'm bringing you,

here's one of the channels I'm going to do it through.

Do this.

Can I just go back to that previous verse?

I want to make sure.

Okay, thank you, verse 43.

And said to his servant,

go up now, look toward the sea.

So he went up and looked and said,

there is nothing.

So Elijah's praying, he got a word.

What does the word say?

Rain is coming.

Is there any rain?

Rain?

Not even a cloud in the sky.

Thanks.

You got that.

Okay, Bruno.

Sorry, I can't sing.

So you can catch that from...

Not even a cloud in the sky.

Some jokes land, some not so much.

Not even a cloud in the sky.

But the word of the Lord is, I'm sending rain.

He tells his servant go and check.

He's in that birthing position.

Go look over the cliff.

Is there anything, not even a cloud, not even a cloud?

Then it came to pass, verse 44, the seventh time,

that he said, there is a cloud.

But it's itty-pity.

It's insignificant.

A small as a man's hand rising out of the sea.

Then Elijah said, oh, this is it.

Go up, say to Ahab, prepare your chariot and go down before the rain stops you.

Now it happened, verse 45, in the meantime,

that the sky became black with clouds and wind.

And there was a heavy rain, the first raining years.

So Ahab rode away and went to Jezreel.

What is the promise of God to you?

Only you know.

There's 7,000 of them you can receive from the Scriptures.

Spending time with him, he will then specifically give you a promise for your life for 2025.

How many of you by show hands you have a promise from the Lord for 2025?

Let me see your hands.

Look at the hands around here.

So what should your posture be?

Should you just be like, cool, I got a promise?

Let me chill and wait because you know, God's promise, it always comes to pass.

Ah, wrong, it actually does it.

The word of God and the promise of God must be hastened.

When you receive a word from the Lord, he's showing you what he wants to do.

He's showing you the potential of what can happen.

But it doesn't mean that it'll automatically happen.

Why do you think Elijah was praying?

If it automatically happens, the word of the Lord when he came to Elijah saying,

it's going to rain, Elijah would have been like, cool, it's going to rain.

Let's go home.

No, he immediately started hastening the rain.

No, he immediately started hastening the word of the Lord by praying

and repeating the promise of God back to him.

You said, it's going to rain.

And why?

How do we know he was doing that?

Because he said, I hear, I hear the sound of the abundance of rain.

There was no physical rain.

He heard that sound.

See, I was down 50%.

I had a mortgage bill coming in.

I didn't know what I was going to do.

But I heard the sound of the abundance of 5,000%.

I heard that and I clung.

I said, no, this is going to happen.

Hallelujah.

Thank you, Jesus.

Verse 46, then the hand of the Lord came upon Elijah

and he girded up his loins and ran ahead of Ahab.

I don't know why I included that, but it's there.

All right.

I think I had my point without the visual of him

girding up his loins.

But always fun to imagine that, right?

But actually it is, you know, because rich people didn't do that.

Because it's a humiliating thing.

To gird up your loins means you, you know,

you had those weird flowy robe things the men wore.

And so you'd have to gird it up when you ran.

But then you would have to expose your ankles and calves

which in Middle Eastern Hebrew culture was a no-no.

Why am I even talking about that?

Because it paints a beautiful picture.

Because we know that with the prodigal sun,

the father came running towards the sun,

which means he would have had to gird up his robes

and humiliate himself to run towards his son.

And it shows the humiliation God endured when he became man

and ran towards us.

Hallelujah.

Matthew 16 is my final, final passage

and then we're going to receive communion.

Matthew 16 verse 13.

Matthew 16:13

What do you hear in your spirit?

Do you hear the sound of the abundance of rain?

Do you hear a promise for 2025?

A promise for your family?

A promise for your future?

He's got something to say.

Just look through the scriptures.

Just in the gospel of John,

just the gospel of John chapter 14 and chapter 16.

John 14 · chapter mention

And circle every time that Jesus says the Holy Spirit will speak.

Over and over again, Jesus says the Holy Spirit will speak to you.

He will speak to you.

He will show you things to come.

He will not speak of his own authority.

But whatever the Father gives him,

that he will speak.

He will speak.

He will speak because he's not quiet.

He's not a mute and he cares about you.

He takes an intimate interest in you.

If we're not listening, it doesn't mean he's not speaking.

When Jesus came into the region of Cessaria,

Philippi, he asked his disciples saying,

who do men say that I, the son of man, am?

So they said some say John, the Baptist,

some Elijah, others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.

And then the ultimate question every single one of us has to answer.

He says, but who do you say that I am?

And Simon Peter, he answered and said,

you are the Christ, the son of the living God.

And Jesus said to him, blessed,

are you Simon, Barjona,

for flesh and blood has not what revealed.

That's the Greek word apocalyptic.

A lot of us think apocalyptic means destruction or end times.

No, it means the revelation.

Specifically means the peeling back of the curtain.

Because we're all walking around like this.

And then God peels away the curtain and we can see.

And Peter was like this, and God pealed the curtain.

And he saw that Jesus' system has said,

flesh and blood has not revealed this to you,

but my father who is in heaven.

And I also say to you that you are Peter.

And on this rock, I will build my church, what rock?

Catholics will say Peter was the rock.

No, on this rock of revelation that I am the Christ,

the son of the living God.

On this rock, I will build my church,

and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven.

And whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven.

And whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

He said, I will give you the keys.

This is connected to the revelation or the promise or God speaking,

the prophetic word.

I hope what you're getting out of this message is not just

the importance of studying God's promises,

but of having a close communion with the Lord,

so you hear him for yourself.

And that is available to everyone.

And let me tell you something, I'm a holiness preacher.

I preach holiness, but I believe I preach it the right way

in that you cannot try to be holy.

It's all by God's grace, and you must yield to the Holy Spirit.

But I just want to say this to some people.

You think that if you're trapped in sin,

you actually have stopped listening to God,

because you don't think you qualify to hear him because you're in sin.

And there were times when I was trapped in sin,

and that's when I heard God the best, the loudest, the clearest,

because that's how he is.

He comes to you when you're in trouble.

So if you're living a messed up life right now,

and you're trapped in sin,

and you keep rejecting God's love,

because you feel like you don't deserve it,

you need to stop that.

Because God will reach down to you in the mud,

and pick you up, and he will speak to you.

How else are you going to get up out of the mud,

and then say I qualify to hear him?

Yeah.

So do you have those keys still, Chris?

We found out I was testing a different set of keys,

because you got this one that looks like it opens up the vault

to a 17th century bank.

Look at this.

I don't know, Keith.

I was looking for good keychain with lots and lots of jingle-jangly keys.

Because many, many Christians in the spirit,

they're walking around with a key set like this.

And their expert professional

promise receivers, but not promise users,

not promise realizers,

and they have a collection of keys that they've never ever used,

words that God has spoken to them, promises that God gave them,

prophetic words.

They'll be like, you know, they love to talk about it.

Oh, I got, ooh, this key.

I got this key back in 2006.

I was at a life group, and the Lord spoke to me,

and told me that He was going to increase me and give me

a career path.

I love this key.

Have you ever used that key?

No.

Have you ever applied the key?

No.

Did the key manifest?

No, but I love it.

It means a lot to me.

And then there's this key.

I got this key.

Ooh, this key is from 1997.

I was in a revival service, and God told me I was going to the nations.

Have you won a soul since then?

No, I never won any person.

But I got this promise, you know,

do you think about it often?

No, I just kind of, you know, I keep it.

And my key set, and my pocket.

If you don't, amen or owe me.

Amen.

First of all, when God speaks to you and promises something to you,

how would advise you to be very, very extremely selective

about who you share that information with,

if anyone at all other than your husband or wife?

Too many people, they blab it to everybody.

And if you blab it, you lose it.

It's truth.

Why would you want the enemy to know?

In fact, a lot of times people blab it

because they don't believe it,

and they're hoping someone else will believe it when they blab it to them

and encourage you minute.

They're not.

They're believing for their own thing.

It's true.

They don't have the faith capacity now to take on your key set.

You're responsible with your promises.

And don't go talking to everybody about them.

I didn't come here in September of 23 and go,

well, I'm 50% down on my life savings,

but God spoke to me.

No, I kept quiet.

I cried and quiet, amen, only for my wife to see.

And then I rejoiced in public, amen, for everyone to see.

And that's how it ought to be.

After the manifestation, thank you, Chris.

So what are you going to do with the keys?

Use them.

How do you use them?

Speak the promises back to God, stand on the promises,

put him in remembrance.

And even if it looks like you're 50% down

on the exact opposite of the promises have happened,

you hang on to the promise because that's why you got it.

To fight the good fight, let's all receive communion.

Come on.

Hallelujah, worship team, come on up.

We're going to receive communion as we do once a month.

And we're receiving communion and releasing our faith

to hear God's word like never before.

Both the logos and the ramah, both his written word

and the promises that he speaks uniquely and directly

to our hearts.

Hang on to the communion and elements,

and we'll all receive them together.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Jesus.

Thank you, Lord.

Thank you, Jesus, that your body was broken for us.

Thank you, Jesus, that your blood was shed for us.

As I was drifting off to sleep last night,

I felt the Lord come to me and remind me of Paul

and Corinthians talking about how he was taken up

to the Third Heaven, how he said,

whether I was in the body or out of the body, I don't know.

He had such an amazing God encounter,

and I just felt like the Lord would remind me

and tell me to get on you because he got on me

and just remind you of the realms of God.

This earthly realm is nothing.

But there are realms of God that you can go to right now

while on earth.

You don't have to wait to heaven.

Are you hearing me church?

Yes.

For him.

Imagine you're sleeping in your bed and all of a sudden

you just feel the anointing all over your body,

your body begins to shake and you're having a God encounter

and you're seeing him.

That's what he wants to do.

That's what he wants to do.

That you would experience his love.

The kind that can't just be intellectually known

but must be experienced.

Lord, what do you have in store for us?

I believe it's good.

What do you have in store for our people?

Lord, knock some people out of their bed at night.

Lord, may they be on the subway or going to work

and just break down as you put your hand upon them

and hear the audible voice of God.

Open yourself up to the supernatural.

Open yourself up to the realms of God.

The surprises of God.

Lord Jesus, we love you and we partake of communion

knowing we partake of Christ.

Death, sin and Satan have been defeated.

You have given us life eternal.

We thank you for it.

Say this.

All of my sins are taken away by the blood of Jesus.

I believe that I receive all of the benefits

of the finished work of Jesus Christ.

Now go ahead and partake of the body of Jesus

and partake and drink of the blood of Jesus.

This is the City Light Church podcast.

If you've missed any part of today's message

or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik

and City Light Church, visit us at citylightnyc.com

that's citylightnyc.com.

Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime.

We would love to connect with you.

We pray that you have been encouraged today.

That you have been reminded how much God loves you

and that you are surrounded by grace.

Thank you for listening.

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