Sermon

The Power of Prayer: Stories of Faith and Transformation

CityLight NYC Church Podcast

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  1. So I'm challenging people under some city lights.

  2. If you want to see that classic breakthrough,

  3. if you want to see your work, your prayers being answered,

  4. you've got to pray.

  5. What? Pray firmly.

  6. Pray until something happens.

  7. Push in prayer.

  8. Travelling prayer.

  9. Perseverant prayer.

  10. Keep praying and keep praying and keep praying

  11. till the breakthrough happens.

  12. Welcome to the City Light Church podcast.

  13. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word

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

  15. If you want to connect with City Light Church,

  16. feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com

  17. that's citylightnyc.com.

  18. Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit

  19. is already working in our hearts and minds.

  20. As you listen to today's teaching,

  21. remember that you are deeply loved by God,

  22. that you are surrounded by His grace,

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

  24. God is in this place.

  25. Amen.

  26. As you see, I'm not Pastor Boyan.

  27. In fact, both our names start into the first two letters of our word.

  28. You know, our names are like the same.

  29. So it's like, bo-yan-bonny.

  30. And so happy that He lets me speak.

  31. You know, and most of the time in short notice.

  32. God bless him.

  33. I just got off the plane from California.

  34. So that's why I'm wearing all the Cal gear.

  35. Is anybody from California?

  36. Come on Cal.

  37. So Cal, no Cal.

  38. Right?

  39. All the cool places.

  40. I just got off the plane.

  41. Man, those planes are long.

  42. It's almost like how many hours is that?

  43. It was almost six and a half hours just to get a San Francisco.

  44. I spent the last 10 days there.

  45. It might be thing I was on holiday.

  46. No, we were on a mission.

  47. We were at the University of Berkeley,

  48. University of California, Berkeley.

  49. Why am I saying this?

  50. Because this church is my church.

  51. This church has been a praying church.

  52. This church has been a giving church.

  53. This church has been ascending church.

  54. And you guys have sent us to be on this mission.

  55. To see every student,

  56. in every nation,

  57. gospelized and mobilized.

  58. And we've been on this,

  59. on this tour in the University of California,

  60. Berkeley, fantastic place.

  61. I mean, we hear all these kind of narratives.

  62. I'm not saying those narratives are not true.

  63. You know, those are facts.

  64. But the truth is that Jesus loves Berkeley.

  65. So we were there for the last 10 days just serving the students

  66. and working to get this outreach.

  67. I don't know if you have heard this

  68. movie called God's Not Dead.

  69. Right? So we were out there doing this apologetics event

  70. with my mentor, Dr. Rice Brooks.

  71. We are officially collaborating.

  72. Lifes家 is bringing this to different campuses.

  73. And we were there.

  74. And men, I want to just say that we had a record-breaking crowd

  75. in the history of Berkeley in the recent times.

  76. 478 students right packed up in this place standing room only.

  77. This is historic because this is the same campus

  78. that Martin Luther King stood on the steps and made a big speech.

  79. It was also the same place that Billy Graham went to in 1956.

  80. And there was a massive revival.

  81. And thousands of students were touched and impacted.

  82. And campus through Santa Big Ministries were launched into this campus.

  83. And most of the time we hear about stories that happened in the past.

  84. But I was like, man, we've got to see that right now.

  85. Right here because the God that we serve is the God of the right now.

  86. Amen. He's also the God of the yesterday.

  87. He's done some great things.

  88. But he's the best, I tell people the best is yet to come.

  89. Amen.

  90. So we were there for 478 students back up in this place.

  91. And 107 responded out of that 23 students gave their lives to Jesus.

  92. The captain of the football team gives his life to the Lord.

  93. Walks up to us and says, God touch me today.

  94. This is not like a revival service.

  95. It's a college campus.

  96. So we're asking questions.

  97. You know, I want you to know that 60 to 70 percent of the students

  98. that walk into a college campus walk out of that place losing their thing.

  99. I often tell the story about this young girl just like on fire for God.

  100. Like most of us are when on, you know, she was given this opportunity to study

  101. in any campus, you know, her parents wanted her to go to a Christian school.

  102. She said, now I want to go to UNC Chapel Hill.

  103. And she goes there with a mission to change the campus upside down.

  104. And six weeks later, she calls up at that and says, I don't believe in God anymore.

  105. This is the truth that we're facing.

  106. So we've got to go beyond that campus, engage with them, answer some of the questions.

  107. So we talked about the three ease.

  108. We talked about the fact that there is evidence to what is written in this book.

  109. This is not just a fable.

  110. This is not just a story.

  111. This book has got more evidence than any historic book in the world.

  112. So we just laid out all of those things.

  113. Jesus rose from the grave.

  114. It was not just like somebody just told somebody, oh yeah, that's a good idea.

  115. Let me just get, you know, Jesus rose, you know, Jesus rose from the day

  116. and over 200 people saw him rose from the dead alive.

  117. So it's 200 witnesses.

  118. So, you know, just talking to this.

  119. We talked about evolution.

  120. We talked about evil.

  121. Why do bad things happen to good people?

  122. And now we share the gospel.

  123. There was this girl who came as a skeptic.

  124. She was arguing with this friend of mine that we know at that event.

  125. And she's like, you know, I don't like all this stuff.

  126. But I'm just here to drill some holes and into the middle of this event,

  127. she starts crying at the end of this event.

  128. She gives a life to the Lord and says, show me.

  129. Tell me where the next services I want to be there for that.

  130. There was another guy who was there.

  131. He didn't want to come.

  132. His dad pushed him and forced him to come.

  133. He had been robbed, you know, just a little bit about California.

  134. The moment I landed and got a brand of car,

  135. the red car person said, make sure that you don't put anything in the car.

  136. Because there's a lot of break-ins in this area.

  137. So this guy got point-blank robbed the week before it's shaken,

  138. shaken up and he was there.

  139. And God touched him and he gave his life to the Lord.

  140. You know, so many stories like this.

  141. So I just want to say thank you for praying for us.

  142. Thank you for sending us.

  143. Thank you for giving us the resources and the finances

  144. for us to preach the gospel.

  145. So I've got a QR code right there.

  146. And then there's some city kids.

  147. Some Nordic kids.

  148. I hope it's not my voice.

  149. Mama Mia is here.

  150. My beautiful wife is there.

  151. Wave your hands up in the air.

  152. Best things happen to me.

  153. So you can't stand this QR code.

  154. And be part of the praying team.

  155. You can just pull up your phone,

  156. scan this code and get you signed up.

  157. And if you want to, you know, I know this is a free church.

  158. It's given me freedom.

  159. If you want to financially give to these campaigns,

  160. cost thousands of dollars to be on these campus.

  161. If you want to be a partner,

  162. partnering with us in this ministry,

  163. you can even do that by this QR code and talk to us

  164. or talk to Pastor James.

  165. And he'll make sure that the money gets to us

  166. so that we can be on the campus.

  167. We've been dreaming about Stanford right next to it.

  168. We've been praying into it.

  169. So it's been all the good things happening.

  170. It's been some great things happening in India

  171. as well with our global teams.

  172. Show some of those pictures.

  173. Yeah, these are students,

  174. thousands of students.

  175. So this whole campaign,

  176. there will be 100,000 students all over

  177. in about 20 cities.

  178. Students like this will hear the gospel directly

  179. or indirectly through some of our initiatives.

  180. We have a chat line.

  181. We have a big Christmas campaign coming.

  182. So we're not just reaching students in America

  183. but we're reaching students around the world.

  184. Look at those thousands of kids.

  185. You know, I'm telling you,

  186. I tell people,

  187. you can count the number of seeds in an apple

  188. but you can never count the number of apples

  189. that'll come out of a seed.

  190. Somebody share the gospel with me.

  191. The guy didn't have no clue.

  192. The God is going to birth a movement

  193. out of this guy that will reach over three million students

  194. with the gospel.

  195. The next Pastor James,

  196. the next boy on,

  197. the next president,

  198. the next, you know, the influences,

  199. the next CEO of the biggest tech company

  200. is sitting on those campuses

  201. and they need to hear the gospel.

  202. So pray with us, partner with us

  203. to take this gospel to the ends of the world

  204. and in American campuses.

  205. Are you excited for the word of God?

  206. All right.

  207. You know, I want to say this message

  208. that I'm sharing with you this morning

  209. is really my life message.

  210. This is, I live this message.

  211. I don't, I don't, I'm not, I'm not just trying to

  212. give you something that I, I'm trying to do.

  213. I live this.

  214. This is part of me

  215. and I want this to become an impartation

  216. as you receive this word.

  217. I said, God, I want to receive this

  218. into the DNA of my life

  219. that my life will never be the same.

  220. Amen. You believe it?

  221. Say amen.

  222. All right.

  223. So this is a message.

  224. The title of my sermon is called Prayer Power.

  225. Many of us are praying prayers

  226. and you're wondering why your prayers are not answered.

  227. There are formulas in the Bible

  228. that we need to use and unlock

  229. to see the breakthroughs that we need to see in our life.

  230. Amen.

  231. Have you ever wondered?

  232. I've been praying and I'm not seeing breakthroughs.

  233. Let's just relook into some of the things

  234. that are in the scriptures

  235. so that we get a glimpse of it.

  236. Okay.

  237. Backtracking a little bit.

  238. Last year,

  239. my wife and I, the Lord spoke to us,

  240. the scripture from the Bible,

  241. Abraham walked the length and breadth of this land.

  242. Remember that?

  243. God spoke to Abraham.

  244. Walk the length and breadth of this land.

  245. I'll give it to you.

  246. A little bit of a story about us.

  247. We are just four years into America.

  248. We are missionaries into this great nation.

  249. We are originally from the land of curry.

  250. Does anybody know what that is?

  251. India, right?

  252. So I tell people, I come from the land of curry

  253. and I live in the land of hurry.

  254. New York.

  255. So God brought us here on a mission

  256. and we didn't know a lot of people.

  257. So we said, God,

  258. you want us to touch the lives of young people

  259. in this nation.

  260. So we don't know where to start.

  261. So whenever you are in doubt,

  262. start praying.

  263. Okay.

  264. So God spoke to this world.

  265. So we got excited.

  266. And the idea was to drive

  267. the length and breadth of America.

  268. So we got on a mini van.

  269. Anybody loves a mini van?

  270. I mean, I'm the guy.

  271. I'm not the driving.

  272. You know, I'm not the guy that likes to drive.

  273. I mean, if I'm driving for three hours,

  274. I probably take two breaks.

  275. Coffee breaks, Starbucks break,

  276. you know, all that.

  277. But this was driving for hours.

  278. So we drove 9,000 miles, friends.

  279. New York to LA, the width.

  280. The length, go up to Seattle,

  281. down to Miami, back to New York.

  282. 9,000 miles of praying over 30 cities.

  283. Every city we found somebody to pray with us.

  284. And we said, we're going to ask you for money.

  285. We're not asking if anything will you give us one hour

  286. so that we can pray for your city

  287. so that your young people will come to know Jesus.

  288. And all of them said yes.

  289. So we drove through.

  290. And my kids got to see America.

  291. More of America on 30 days

  292. and most of America put together.

  293. All right.

  294. So at the end of 30 days,

  295. we're like, God, what are we doing?

  296. We're saying, God, give us this land.

  297. The Bible says wherever the soul of your feet

  298. shall tread, I will give it to you.

  299. Ask me and I will give you the nation

  300. to answer the other's obsession.

  301. We prayed all these words

  302. and we were praying in the spirit, in the car.

  303. We have a global team, some of the places.

  304. Like I was the University of Michigan,

  305. I switched on a Zoom call with all of our team sitting

  306. on the other side of the world.

  307. And I switched the camera around.

  308. Those guys sitting in India

  309. are actually praying for the University of Michigan

  310. while we drive around the place.

  311. How cool is that?

  312. And some of those kids got excited and inspired

  313. that one of our interns just came into Columbia University.

  314. How cool is that?

  315. Getting inspired to come on the other side of the world.

  316. So 30 days later, I'm like, Lord, we are in this location

  317. and I remember being in DC, Washington, DC.

  318. We got there and then I was in a,

  319. I rented a little scooter, the electric scooter

  320. and from a hotel all around Capitol Hill.

  321. Just drove around the key places saying, God, here I am.

  322. Here we are.

  323. We need a breakthrough.

  324. We need open doors.

  325. We need, we need this.

  326. We need, we need to see this nation.

  327. This is the most defining place,

  328. the most influential place.

  329. A few months later, God did this, show that picture right there.

  330. Yes, that's me, the good-looking me,

  331. with the Surgeon General of America.

  332. He's the highest ranking official

  333. under the President of America in charge of the health and

  334. human services, I mean, human departments of all of America.

  335. Now, you know that we would work in college campuses

  336. around the theme of mental health.

  337. He came, he came to know about it.

  338. And I love to say, we walk into what you pray into.

  339. Say that with me.

  340. You walk into what you pray into.

  341. A few months before, I was cycling around that place

  342. and that electric scooter saying,

  343. not knowing a lot of people in DC saying, God,

  344. give us open doors.

  345. A few months later, boom,

  346. we are having the meeting with the Surgeon General

  347. talking about some of the things that we're doing.

  348. And he's like, all right, love what you're doing.

  349. I want to come and be a part.

  350. So he actually wants to come and attend one of our events.

  351. Number one.

  352. Number two, the next day, the White House

  353. put this picture out there and tweeted it

  354. on their partnership in Twitter ID,

  355. government partnerships on the Twitter ID.

  356. How did this happen?

  357. You walk into what you pray into.

  358. You walk into what you pray into.

  359. What am I doing in California?

  360. What am I doing in Stanford?

  361. What am I doing in Berkeley?

  362. I've never heard of that place.

  363. I've never been to that place.

  364. But guess what?

  365. You walk into what you pray into.

  366. I was praying all over California in Los Angeles

  367. and God gave us California for Jesus.

  368. So you walk into what you pray into.

  369. Not doors are opening everywhere we went.

  370. Right?

  371. So what am I saying?

  372. I'm just giving you a recipe.

  373. Recipe.

  374. Recipe.

  375. For the last one year, God's been given

  376. as a zip code, one, one, five, four, five.

  377. I was here for a meeting and I saw this place

  378. and something in my heart said,

  379. this is where you're going to be living.

  380. We will live in right next door here

  381. in Roosevelt Island.

  382. And we're feeling in our heart

  383. for the last one year, every month,

  384. sometimes every other week.

  385. My wife is like, what are we even doing here?

  386. Just circling around one, one, five, four, five.

  387. Long Island areas and God,

  388. this is the place that you're giving us

  389. and you're going to give it to us.

  390. I don't know where it's going to happen.

  391. It's expensive.

  392. All the logical reasons why there's

  393. there's no way that we can get to that place.

  394. Guess what, guys?

  395. We live there right now.

  396. One, one, five, four, five.

  397. It's my zip code.

  398. You walk into what you pray into.

  399. You walk into what you pray into.

  400. I'm just building some faith in this room.

  401. Guys, you pray, you ask, you knock, you seek.

  402. The scripture says, ask and you keep on asking.

  403. Seek and you keep on seeking.

  404. Knock and you keep on knocking and it will.

  405. No, it shall be.

  406. It will be open.

  407. So I want to impart this to you because I live this.

  408. The other day, the last 10 days,

  409. there was some friends of mine who was hanging out with me.

  410. They don't probably believe in the same things that I believe.

  411. So it's like, you know, I'm praying and we praying around Berkeley.

  412. We're standing on the balcony.

  413. We're standing every high place.

  414. We're walking around the place.

  415. We're going, you know, every place.

  416. And we could find ourselves and we said,

  417. God, give us Berkeley in Jesus' name.

  418. So then the other day they asked me,

  419. so are you praying in an Indian language or are you praying?

  420. And what are you praying?

  421. I'm like, brother, this is my moment.

  422. I know this is a church that believes in this stuff.

  423. I'm praying in tongues, brother, because the Bible says,

  424. when you speak in tongues, you speak not unto man,

  425. but you speak under God.

  426. So are you ready, people?

  427. Are you ready for the formula, for the breakthrough?

  428. Let's go to the book of Nehemiah.

  429. The book of Nehemiah, if you are pregnant

  430. and you found out that it's going to be a boy

  431. and looking for a name, Nehemiah is a great name.

  432. Nehemiah means God comforts.

  433. You can call him at home, Nemo, and of course,

  434. we watched plenty of finding Nemo in our home

  435. that is almost like, yeah, you know what I'm trying to say.

  436. All right, all right, all right.

  437. So here is the breakthrough.

  438. Let me just get to the, you know, I'm getting,

  439. I'm, this is spoiler alert, okay?

  440. Nehemiah is praying and he found out the information

  441. that the walls of Jerusalem are broken, right?

  442. And everything is in a mess and he has a mandate now

  443. to see these walls being broken.

  444. The spoiler is that in, he built the walls in 52 days, never done before.

  445. Never done before.

  446. So the breakthrough was that he was able to build the walls

  447. of Jerusalem in 52 days.

  448. How did he get to that breakthrough is what we're going to figure out.

  449. Are you ready, Pastor James?

  450. Let's go.

  451. All right, number one, Nehemiah, here's about what's happening

  452. and they said to me that Remnant was number three.

  453. They said to me that Remnant there in the province

  454. having survived exile is in great trouble and shame.

  455. I think these days we just need to wake up

  456. and open up our eyes and see what is happening around us.

  457. I could be in Berkeley looking for the coolest,

  458. hey, what are the five things that we say?

  459. Man, what's the coolest eating joints out here?

  460. Tell me the Korean barbecue, tell me the hardest part

  461. and as an Indian, I'm looking for what's the best Indian spot here in Berkeley.

  462. These are four or five questions that we want to ask people, right?

  463. Because eating is very important for us, right?

  464. But instead of asking them for the five things that make me happy,

  465. I just ask you, what are the big crisis on this campus?

  466. Because I know that every crisis is an opportunity.

  467. Winston Churchill, I don't like everything about him

  468. and I like his code, this code that says,

  469. do not waste a good crisis.

  470. So every time there is a crisis, God's about to show up, right?

  471. So we just ask her on what's happening.

  472. So mental health is off the roof.

  473. There's crime on campus.

  474. There's anti, there's rallies from pro-Israel, pro-Palestine.

  475. You talk about everything that's happened.

  476. I mean, I've never seen a campus with so much activity going on.

  477. You got the LGBTQ right?

  478. You have everybody doing something out there.

  479. But you're not just looking at it and just walking away, just like they admire.

  480. As soon as I heard those words, what's number four?

  481. I sat down and wept and mourned for days and I continued fasting and

  482. praying before the God of Heaven.

  483. You know that I like to fast.

  484. America loves fasting.

  485. The intermittent fast, the coolest thing, the fat fast.

  486. I mean, the sugar fast.

  487. I mean, every year you come up with the coolest thing.

  488. Last year, it was sugar.

  489. This year, it's about oil.

  490. Next year, it's going to be about something.

  491. Everybody's on some sort of fast to make you look good.

  492. But I'm talking about fasting that kills the flesh and makes your spirit alive.

  493. Some challenging people in this room, guys, it's time to fast.

  494. I think I say that all the time and I come here.

  495. Fasting is good.

  496. Fasting is good.

  497. Now they have.

  498. All right, he fasts and prays and mourns for days and continue fasting and praying

  499. before the God of Heaven.

  500. And I said, oh, Lord, God of Heaven, the great and awesome God,

  501. who keeps his covenant.

  502. And set fast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.

  503. What's number six?

  504. Let your your be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayers of your servant.

  505. I now pray before you day and night.

  506. Number one way to see the breakthrough and increase your chain,

  507. the climate of your prayer life.

  508. Number one, you pray fervently.

  509. Say that with me.

  510. Pray fervently.

  511. You know, I was in the labor room with my wife for all three of her boys.

  512. Oh my God.

  513. That's for one of the reasons why I'm more out of the apartment.

  514. They were kicking those walls.

  515. The walls were about to break.

  516. Neymar is building up the wall.

  517. I had to like pay the management because they were like super active in that

  518. New York apartment.

  519. So guess what?

  520. I was in the labor room with my wife.

  521. And it's not a jazz concert in the labor room.

  522. It's not Kennedy playing saxophone.

  523. It's not Eric Clapton playing.

  524. Right?

  525. Yeah, it's not Beethoven.

  526. It is like a metal concert there.

  527. It's bloody.

  528. Nurses up and down.

  529. And all I can hear the doctors screaming and my wife is push, push, push, push.

  530. And finally that big push.

  531. And the beautiful baby comes out.

  532. Somebody once gave me this wristband to wear.

  533. And it said push, pray until something happens.

  534. Many of our prayers have been one minute prayers.

  535. Many of our prayers have been good night prayers.

  536. Many of our prayers have been one week prayers.

  537. Many of our prayers have been one month prayers.

  538. Guess what happened?

  539. We live in one, one, four, five, four, five.

  540. To a point that my wife is like, what are we doing here?

  541. We've done praying.

  542. We've done God.

  543. I mean, one day, let me just say the last piece of this journey.

  544. One day for two hours.

  545. I could not see a breakthrough.

  546. Not an open door.

  547. Not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, I mean,

  548. I was like, God, God, give me a sign.

  549. That day morning for two hours.

  550. I was driving around this place.

  551. Jericho, Glenhead, Brookfield, Upper Brookfield,

  552. modern town, going around in circles for almost two hours plus.

  553. God, give me a breakthrough.

  554. And then the breakthrough happened.

  555. You're throwing in the towel too early on your prayers.

  556. You're stopping before just before the breakthrough.

  557. I'm telling you guys, you gotta pray,

  558. Fatherly, you gotta pray until something happens.

  559. Guess what?

  560. Nehemiah got the walls built in 52 days.

  561. Cool, everybody around me.

  562. Tell me the, the greatest startup story in the world.

  563. Tell me the mantras.

  564. Tell me the things that you did.

  565. Tell me the, the VCs that you got.

  566. Tell me the, uh, the advices that you had.

  567. His advice was from the Holy Spirit.

  568. And guess what?

  569. He prayed for four months.

  570. He prayed and fasted for four months before he actually showed up in front of the king.

  571. We are praying for one day and I show now in front of a decision maker.

  572. Give me something.

  573. He doesn't even like you now because you haven't prayed enough.

  574. You haven't made your investment enough.

  575. So I'm challenging people in this room.

  576. City light.

  577. If you want to see that classic breakthrough.

  578. If you want to see your work, your prayers being answered.

  579. You gotta pray.

  580. What?

  581. Pray fervently.

  582. Pray until something happens.

  583. Push in prayer.

  584. Travelling prayer.

  585. Perseverant prayer.

  586. Keep praying and keep praying and keep praying.

  587. Till the breakthrough happens.

  588. Is God speaking to somebody in the room?

  589. Number two was, what's number seven?

  590. We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commands

  591. and the statutes and the rules that you've commanded your servant Moses.

  592. Right?

  593. What is he saying?

  594. He's making some honest prayers.

  595. I'm telling you something.

  596. It's time to repent.

  597. It's time to say that God, I tried with all my might,

  598. I tried with all my power,

  599. with all the people that I know,

  600. with all the influence that I know,

  601. and it hasn't worked.

  602. So it's time to get on the floor, face down and say,

  603. God, I am sorry.

  604. I repent.

  605. I've done it my way.

  606. Now I want to do it your way.

  607. And this is not just for you.

  608. These prayers are not just for you and your family.

  609. Most of our prayers are about my credit card bills,

  610. my food, my clothing, my favorite parking when you walk up into

  611. Macy's Lord, give me a good parking.

  612. Get me the discount coupon.

  613. These are the levels of our prayers.

  614. I'm talking about prayers that shake nations.

  615. The queen of England said, I fear the prayers of John Knox

  616. than all of the armies of England.

  617. Your prayers matters.

  618. Now listen, why your prayers matter?

  619. I love this San Augustine's prayers.

  620. San Augustine's quote, he said,

  621. let me get that right before I don't want to mess it up.

  622. He said, without God, man cannot.

  623. And without man, God will not.

  624. Can I say that again?

  625. Without God, man cannot and without man, God will not.

  626. God wanted a saved mankind.

  627. Who did he use?

  628. He used Moses.

  629. And asked him to make, not Moses, sorry, Noah.

  630. And asked him to make an ark.

  631. People I've never seen an ark in their entire life,

  632. not like, you know, what are you trying to build, brother?

  633. God always uses a man.

  634. And he wants to use you.

  635. And if he wants to use you, you need to understand why he wants to use you.

  636. You know, why I have authority in prayer?

  637. My authority is connected to my identity.

  638. If a guy just walks up and tells me, tell me your name, show me your ID.

  639. I'm like, who are you?

  640. How dare you ask me for the ID?

  641. But he would go back to his car, change his uniform,

  642. and comes in as NYPD guy and shows his ID and says,

  643. NYPD, show me your ID.

  644. Now should I show my ID?

  645. My Indian me was sort of tremble.

  646. I'm still working on my green car right now.

  647. I don't want anything to mess around.

  648. So here you go.

  649. This is my ID.

  650. In my bank statement, my credit card statement.

  651. You know what, you know, you're ready to go.

  652. Authority comes from your identity.

  653. How do you have authority in prayer?

  654. It is locked in your identity.

  655. Who are you?

  656. You are the son and the daughter of the most high god.

  657. You need to know who you are and who you are.

  658. And when you begin to pray,

  659. boom, there is prayer.

  660. There is power in prayer.

  661. Somebody said, a prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian.

  662. If you don't pray, you don't have power.

  663. Even the devil's like, oh, that guy,

  664. don't even worry about it.

  665. He's fine.

  666. Let's go for somebody else.

  667. Even the devil's not scared of you because you don't pray.

  668. You don't read the word.

  669. You don't walk with Jesus.

  670. You just had the Christian tag on and you show up in church

  671. with two hours and then go to lunch and have some fun

  672. and then go back to your normal life.

  673. God is not calling you to the cross line Christianity.

  674. He's not calling you to sign up into the cruise ship.

  675. He's asked you to get on the warship.

  676. It is a recruitment process.

  677. You know why I get on the road and pray because the Bible says we don't fight against flesh and blood.

  678. We fight against principalities and force of darkness.

  679. When you walk into a house,

  680. your wife doesn't want to talk to you.

  681. There's stuff going on.

  682. Your boss is screaming at you.

  683. Guess what's happening?

  684. It's a freaking devil plane at the back room.

  685. You need to know that you are not fighting against that boss.

  686. Your husband, your wife, your kid,

  687. you're fighting against the spirit of confusion,

  688. of manipulation that is working at the background against you.

  689. So you put that devil where it belongs and you walk in authority

  690. because of her identity as a son of God.

  691. That is why he said without God,

  692. man cannot and without man, God will not.

  693. So number one, you pray furanly.

  694. Number two, you pray honestly.

  695. He said, God, I'm standing on behalf of the sins of my people.

  696. I'm standing on behalf of my husband that doesn't believe in you.

  697. I'm standing on behalf of my son who doesn't believe in you.

  698. I'm standing on behalf of my boss who doesn't believe in you.

  699. I'm standing on behalf of all my friends and employees at my workplace on behalf of you.

  700. You know why?

  701. Because near Maya was not a pastor.

  702. He was a marketplace guy.

  703. He probably worked in a city group which he was here.

  704. Probably in Wall Street.

  705. Right?

  706. Near Maya was a marketplace guy.

  707. Many times we want to delegate prayer to the pastors.

  708. You know why?

  709. Because we pay them to pray.

  710. Too bad.

  711. You're missing out.

  712. You will never graduate.

  713. You will never upgrade your Christian life

  714. by delegating things to other people.

  715. Start owning up your mess.

  716. Start owning up your breakthrough and say,

  717. if I don't pray, nothing's going to happen.

  718. Number one, pray furanly.

  719. Number two, you pray honestly.

  720. Say, God, I can't do it.

  721. If I may use these crude words, I say, Lord, I have screwed up.

  722. I have messed up.

  723. Let me, let me, I am repenting.

  724. Changing the way that I think.

  725. Changing the way that I operate.

  726. I want to take a U-turn and walk in the ways.

  727. Now I'm praying some honest prayers.

  728. Hey, guys, listen, you cannot hide anything from God.

  729. Did you know that?

  730. Many times you feel like, no, no, you know, he can't see it.

  731. Not that stuff.

  732. Not that stuff that I watched last night.

  733. Not the website that I went to last night.

  734. Not the conversation that I had in my chat right now.

  735. Not the calls that I made last week.

  736. You feel like you don't know that he can see everything.

  737. And you still just try running your life the way you want it.

  738. It's time to be honest and blatant and be humble and repent and put your face down and say,

  739. God, I want to make some prayers that are honest saying, God,

  740. without you, I cannot do it.

  741. I need your grace.

  742. What's number eight and nine?

  743. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying,

  744. if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the people.

  745. But if you return to me and keep my commands and do them,

  746. through your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven.

  747. From there, I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name

  748. to hell there.

  749. When I wake up in the morning, I have two things that I can do.

  750. If I'm hungry, I can do two things.

  751. The first thing I can do is find two slices of bread, throw it in that toaster.

  752. And then try to put some sort of...

  753. What is that? Spread.

  754. That's right.

  755. Thank you for helping me.

  756. Put some sort of spread on those light spread, on those toes and grab a coffee, whatever the

  757. coffee is, like... and you just keep going.

  758. But if you are like me, I love a great breakfast.

  759. So I stop down, I toast some bread, then I look for some bacon, hallelujah.

  760. Fry some bacon right now.

  761. Then I'm looking up, trying to make cook some eggs right now.

  762. And then I'm looking for some ham, pulling that ham on, slicing it,

  763. making it symmetrical to the sides, because I don't want anything outside, right,

  764. passage aims, all the OCD people, nothing outside, clean and nice, straight, cut it into pieces.

  765. And load up that sandwich, and what I call is a club sandwich in the morning.

  766. If you have a club sandwich, bro, you don't have to have lunch till two o'clock.

  767. That's a packed out breakfast, that's like a brunch, that's like you got bacon, you got hand,

  768. you got eggs, you got lettuce, you got veggies, you got... I mean, to be more healthy,

  769. some more avocados. How about that? How about that? Right, we need that, we need that.

  770. And then some avocados, and you put that all into this crazy club sandwich, and I know everybody's

  771. hungry, we are all going to have lunch today. But guess what? Our prayers are often like the first

  772. type of prayer that I've made, it's like the two slices of those dry toes with some sort of

  773. some sort of spread, and off you go. And guess you're not having any breakthroughs.

  774. You're hungry by the time you get in the car. By the time you reach your office, you're like,

  775. oh, I need a bagel right now. But it's time for you to load up your prayers with scriptures and

  776. make it a club sandwich prayer. Load up the promises, that's what Neymar is doing. What is Neymar

  777. doing? God, if God is bound by anything, he's bound by his own word. Right? So he's reminding God,

  778. which is what you do when you hire a lawyer, you don't know the law, so you hire a lawyer to

  779. plead your case in the court of law. Your Highness, it is written in your honor, it is written in

  780. this book, and because it's in this rule number one, two, three, four, whatever the number is,

  781. it has to be so that the judge has to look into what is written, and he cannot go beyond our

  782. backwards to what's already written in the rule book. So you've got to get your door, I mean,

  783. you've got to get your God excited about the prayers that you're making. You're loading it up

  784. with prayers. You're praying for your husband to get saved. You say, God, me and my household,

  785. we will serve the Lord. You said that Lord, me and my household save the Lord. Number two,

  786. you said God, that none should perish, but all should come to the saving knowledge of Jesus.

  787. Every scripture about salvation, you're going to put that into that club sandwich prayer in the

  788. morning. If you pray for financial breakthrough, you said, God, you are my provider. You will

  789. provide for me according to not my bank of America balance, but according to the bank of America,

  790. not bank of heaven. You're telling God if you pray in God, asking God for healing, you're telling

  791. God, God, guess what? Your name, one of your names is Jehovah Rafa by the stripes of Jesus,

  792. I was already healed. So you load up your prayers with what club sandwich prayers. And that's what I

  793. call biblical prayers. Number one, you pray fervently. Number two, you pray honestly. Number three,

  794. you pray biblically. Pray at things that are already, God's like, who is this Indian guy?

  795. Getting up in the morning and coding my word, I better pay attention to that guy.

  796. Rather than telling him, oh God, you know, I'm not in a good mood today.

  797. Help me, you know, the usual Starbucks prayers. We're not talking about that. We're talking about

  798. club sandwich prayers. Can we load up our prayers in the morning with the scripture and tell God

  799. what is written in the word? Remind him and tell him that, Lord, if you said we will come back and

  800. return and repent, you said you will send me a breakthrough. You said, Lord, if you're written in the

  801. word that you will heal me, you're written in the word that you will cancel my debt. If it is

  802. written in your word that you will heal me, God is going to pay attention to those prayers.

  803. Do I have a witness here? Say it. Number four, what's number 11?

  804. Oh, Lord, let your ear be attended to the prayer of your servant and the prayer of your servants

  805. who delight to fear your name and give success to your servant today and ran a mercy in the sight

  806. of this man. Now I was the cup bearer to the king. He's just about to show up. Now, listen,

  807. boys, if you've been thinking about buying a car, you probably have all the men in the room,

  808. you've been googling for the last 20 years about the car that you're going to buy. You've been

  809. googling the size of the rims, the tires, the engine size, and the muffler, the tuning,

  810. that the car seats, it's got to be leather. It's got to smell. You've already been smelling it while

  811. sleeping in the night. I can smell the leather. You are so specific about the car that you want. You

  812. don't walk up into a car show. I'm saying, hey, I need a car like what car do you want? No.

  813. They're going to ask, you already got it mapped up. Some folks here need a mini van, right?

  814. Thank God for mini vans. I hated the look of those mini vans. So bulky, I'm like, God, I don't have

  815. an option. And then the Lord created this marble called the Kia Carnival. Kia should be paying

  816. me for this. It looks like a mini van, but it functions like a mini van. It looks like an SUV.

  817. I feel like the man again. What am I trying to say? You make so vague prayers. God even doesn't

  818. understand what you're trying to pray. You're specific about your car, you're specific about your

  819. computer, you're specific about everything else. But when it comes to praying, your prayers are so

  820. wide and vague and nothing to specify. Let me tell you something. Niamh Maya had a specific prayer.

  821. He prayed for four months. He prayed fervently. He prayed honestly. He prayed diplomically. He knew

  822. that he needed timber. He needed approval. He needed people. He had it all specified and prayed

  823. him so that when he showed up in front of the king and the king asked, what do you want?

  824. Wait a minute, so let me just plot from my phone. Here is the 10 things that I want is already on

  825. my notes because I've been praying for that for the last four months. And that four months of prayer

  826. got him to get the 52 days of breakthrough. You want the 52 day breakthrough and you make that one

  827. minute prayer too bad. Backtracking a little bit. Number one, you've got to pray fervently. You've

  828. got to pray till something happens like my wife in the labor room pushing until something happens

  829. to get that baby out. Like me praying number one, one, five, four, five for the last one year that my

  830. wife and my kids were like crazy. Like what are you trying to do? Now we don't say that again because

  831. they live in that house. What is your zip code? One, one, five, four, five. Right? You walk into what

  832. you're praying to. Number two, you pray. Honestly, you say, God, I give up. I repent. I've done it my way.

  833. But if you weren't says what? If you repent, you will turn away from your wicked ways. Then I will

  834. heal the land. Number three, you pray. Biblical prayers at club sandwich. Don't forget that club sandwich.

  835. Every time you get up in the morning and think about that slice, that dry toast. You said the devil

  836. isn't this toast. I need to get my, I need to get my club sandwich prayer. I'm going to load it with

  837. bacon and avocados and ham and eggs and cheese and I forgot about the cheese.

  838. Pepper Jack cheese only guys. I'm trying to be American now, right? I was like, we just had one

  839. cheese, one libra cheese. When before we got here, like 10 types of cheese. See us. You're like 100

  840. seedles in the, what is this? All right, you're spoiled. Number four, pray specifically,

  841. write it down for all the single people in the room. I heard New York as the largest

  842. single population in all of America. I wouldn't say the world. I had friends of mine at a

  843. friend of mine who used to fast every Wednesday for his wife. Fast and pray so specifically,

  844. write it down. This is what I want my wife. This is what I want my wife. This is what I want,

  845. praying specifically. Last time I visited, I mean, he's in Kuwait. Long behold, he's married to

  846. exactly what he prayed into. So you walk into what you pray into. You pray into that. You

  847. pray through. You make prayer specific prayers. Now, let me just jump into some of the new testman

  848. stuff. You know, we are people. The Bible says, what happened in the, in the upper room?

  849. Acts chapter two. How are we doing? Time, Pat? Good. Just giving me a thumbs up. So, all right,

  850. we're good. All right. So just what happened the upper room? Fire of God fell, right? Everybody's

  851. hired to speak, speak in tongues. And let me just get the scripture right so that I get it right.

  852. When you pray in tongues, God's given us the gift to speak in tongues. Paul says, I pray in the

  853. spirit. I pray in the understanding. I pray in tongues more than I pray in the, in the understanding.

  854. He talks about it. It's a, it's a lifestyle. It's a gift. I'm not imposing it on anybody. But if

  855. you want it, I can earn it. It's a gift. But I can ask for it. I can desire for it. And he will give

  856. it to you. So I have the gift to speak in tongues like most of the people in the room. So here I am

  857. on a five-city prayer tour because I told you this is my life, right? I want to see a breakthrough

  858. in the Middle East. Don't have the money. Don't have the people. But I knew I had connections.

  859. And I said, can I come into your country to pray? And they're like, when are you, what about

  860. preaching? No, no, no, no. I said, we're not on the preaching tour. We're on the praying tour.

  861. So five nations in five days, land into the place, find a car depending on the people in the

  862. people in the room. They're like sometimes they had a minivan. They're like a like a spring

  863. tour kind of thing. Sometimes they have cars. So we're praying in different places. Dubai,

  864. Qatar, Bahrain, and we're in Oman and we're praying in front of this grand mosque.

  865. And I've lost. They give me some understanding prayer. So I pray that I've run out of words.

  866. You know, the thing about praying in the understanding is you run out of words and you get so bored.

  867. I'm like, I run out of words praying for America five minutes of praying. I'm like, what else?

  868. I don't know. But when I'm praying in the spirit, I can be praying for an hour, two hours

  869. because I am not tired praying in the spirit. Because when I'm praying in the spirit,

  870. I have a direct link to heaven. It's a decoded language. Hallelujah. Not even the devil can understand

  871. what you are praying. He's like, what is going on here? It's encrypted. It has got the highest

  872. level of security. And you're praying in the spirit. So here I am in the car in front of the

  873. grand mosque. And that is where all the major decisions are made in some of these Muslim countries.

  874. And we're praying in the spirit. I'm praying in spirit. I'm praying in Tanzorra,

  875. al-Aba, Shah-Torobo, and suddenly the guy at the back just touched me. Pastor Bonnie,

  876. Pastor Bonnie. I think I was a pastor then. Oh, no. Pastor Bonnie, just checking. Hey, what's

  877. happened? Pastor, do you speak in Arabic? I'm like, I don't speak in Arabic. But he said,

  878. no, you are fluently speaking in Arabic right now. And the prayers that I was praying was way

  879. beyond my paycheck. In a sense, I have no idea the kind of things he was telling me when I was

  880. praying. It was way, way, way, way up high level of prayer when I was praying in the spirit.

  881. So the highest level, you're talking about praying fervently,

  882. you're talking about praying, honestly, biblically, specifically, the last one, the upgraded version.

  883. The encrypted version is praying spirit-led prayers. When you pray in the spirit, this is what

  884. happens. First Corinthians chapter 14 was this too. I'm switching to the King James here. That's

    1 Corinthians 14 chapter mention

  885. how you get something across. For he that speak at in an unknown tongue, speak at not unto men,

  886. but unto God. So when you're praying in tongues, you're not speaking to people, you are speaking to God.

  887. That is the greatest level of prayer. So here I am praying in Berkeley. Here I'm praying in Stanford.

  888. Here I'm praying in Colombia. Here I'm praying in different parts of the world. I don't know a lot

  889. about it. I know some things about the city. I'm praying into it, but the 80% of my prayers

  890. about from being all the four things that we talked about, I am praying in the spirit.

  891. And I'm challenging people in this room to start praying and operating in the spirit.

  892. I'm praying in the first Corinthians 14 in the West 4. He that speak in an unknown tongue

  893. edifies himself. Every time I pray in tongues, I just feel like, you know, it's like I've had

  894. couple of those energy drinks. What's Red Bull? You can fly. What does that tagline?

  895. Gives you wings to fly. Brother, I don't have wings. I'm on a rocket right now. Every time I pray in

  896. the spirit, I'm praying in tongues, I feel like, come on, give me something. Let me pray for something.

  897. I'm like, I'm praying for somebody and going to this prayer meeting and somebody's driving me

  898. to the meeting. I'm like, I have to use this power. With great power comes great.

  899. How can I exercise this wings power that I prayed in the tongues in the morning?

  900. I am feeling charged up, fired up. I want to be used for something as a boom. Why do miracles

  901. happen? Because you're charged up, fired up, prayed up and then you're ready to go.

  902. How can you get a 52 day miracle, supernatural miracle that nobody has ever seen before, building

  903. walls of Jerusalem or a whole city in 52 days, never heard before. Before you did the 52 day

  904. miracle, the four months of praying, praying number one, fervently. Oh, you looking at me like

  905. fervently. Come on, pass James. Number two, brother. Honestly, number three,

  906. biblically, don't forget the club sandwich. Number four, you're making specific press,

  907. think about the boys in the room, getting those rims and praying into that car, you know,

  908. back in the day. Number five, one, praying spirit led press. I'm telling you, your breakthrough

  909. is on the way. All of heaven is going to be like, no, who is that Indian boy there? Let me,

  910. let me angles of God send a hundred one to that, that boy there. Give him breakthrough.

  911. Give him breakthrough in Berkeley. They haven't seen an even of this size in a long time,

  912. but average prayer meetings are 10 and 20 minutes, 20 people in the room. We had 478 people in the room.

  913. And now we understand we're going to take Berkeley and then we're going to go to Stanford.

  914. Why? Because our heart is now filled with faith. Whenever you're going to pray, Bible,

  915. scripture-based prayers, the Bible says, you know, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of

  916. God. Take somebody next to you. Nobody sleep on me today. But this morning is a land discernment.

  917. I want to pray for an impartation because the service we have time to do that. If you want to see

  918. an upgrade in your prayer life, if you want to see that 52-day miracle happening, and I want to see

  919. an upgradation that prayer climate of my life, I want to change the way that I pray. Now that I have,

  920. I have the mantras, now I have the five-step rule to pray better. I cannot pray what fervently,

  921. I cannot pray honestly and biblically and specifically and spirit-led prayers. My breakthroughs

  922. on the way, look at somebody, my breakthroughs on the way, watch out. When you begin to pray like

  923. this two weeks from now, I mean, I'm talking now about going to Stanford. But the next time here,

  924. I'll be saying, we just came from Stanford, a thousand people show, 500 people came in on the Lord.

  925. Yes. You walk into what you pray into. Everybody, the worship team up here.

  926. We're going to be praying. And I want to make a call right now. If you want to receive an

  927. impartation of this new dimension of prayer, an impartation, say, God, I have got the steps right

  928. now, but I need an impartation, the laying on of hands, and I want to see something happen

  929. like this in my life. Not just for me. Hey, guys, this prayer is not just for you and your car

  930. parking. I'm talking about for you and your family, your neighborhood, your kids, your colleagues,

  931. your boss, your neighbor. I mean, whoever is next to you is not for you. The anointing on your

  932. life is not for you, it is for others. So this prayer download is not for you and for your

  933. Macy's coupon, I'm talking about a breakthrough that has got the capacity to change the life of a city.

  934. Of a neighborhood. And look at these empty chastings. I father in the name of Jesus. I'm going to be

  935. responsible. I'm praying people in. I'm working people in. I'm going to share people the message

  936. of the gospel. I'm going to invite people in. You're latch going to be different. Everybody's

  937. standing up right now. And I'm going to open up this altar right now. If you need a breakthrough,

  938. if you need an impartation of this dimension of prayer like Nehemiah, like this accelerated breakthrough

  939. of 52 days, I've seen the walls of Jerusalem build. Come forward.

  940. You're free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you.

  941. We pray that you have been encouraged today. That you have been reminded how much God

  942. loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you

  943. subscribe to City Light Church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.