Sermon
The Power of Prayer: Stories of Faith and Transformation
Publisher transcript
Transcript
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So I'm challenging people under some city lights.
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If you want to see that classic breakthrough,
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if you want to see your work, your prayers being answered,
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you've got to pray.
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What? Pray firmly.
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Pray until something happens.
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Push in prayer.
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Travelling prayer.
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Perseverant prayer.
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Keep praying and keep praying and keep praying
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till the breakthrough happens.
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Welcome to the City Light Church podcast.
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Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word
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and discover the hope and truth that He has for us.
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If you want to connect with City Light Church,
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feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com
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that's citylightnyc.com.
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Pastor Boyan Jansik and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit
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is already working in our hearts and minds.
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As you listen to today's teaching,
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remember that you are deeply loved by God,
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that you are surrounded by His grace,
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and that He has a real hope and a future for you.
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God is in this place.
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Amen.
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As you see, I'm not Pastor Boyan.
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In fact, both our names start into the first two letters of our word.
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You know, our names are like the same.
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So it's like, bo-yan-bonny.
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And so happy that He lets me speak.
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You know, and most of the time in short notice.
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God bless him.
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I just got off the plane from California.
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So that's why I'm wearing all the Cal gear.
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Is anybody from California?
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Come on Cal.
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So Cal, no Cal.
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Right?
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All the cool places.
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I just got off the plane.
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Man, those planes are long.
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It's almost like how many hours is that?
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It was almost six and a half hours just to get a San Francisco.
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I spent the last 10 days there.
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It might be thing I was on holiday.
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No, we were on a mission.
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We were at the University of Berkeley,
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University of California, Berkeley.
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Why am I saying this?
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Because this church is my church.
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This church has been a praying church.
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This church has been a giving church.
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This church has been ascending church.
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And you guys have sent us to be on this mission.
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To see every student,
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in every nation,
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gospelized and mobilized.
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And we've been on this,
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on this tour in the University of California,
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Berkeley, fantastic place.
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I mean, we hear all these kind of narratives.
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I'm not saying those narratives are not true.
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You know, those are facts.
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But the truth is that Jesus loves Berkeley.
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So we were there for the last 10 days just serving the students
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and working to get this outreach.
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I don't know if you have heard this
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movie called God's Not Dead.
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Right? So we were out there doing this apologetics event
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with my mentor, Dr. Rice Brooks.
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We are officially collaborating.
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Lifes家 is bringing this to different campuses.
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And we were there.
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And men, I want to just say that we had a record-breaking crowd
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in the history of Berkeley in the recent times.
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478 students right packed up in this place standing room only.
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This is historic because this is the same campus
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that Martin Luther King stood on the steps and made a big speech.
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It was also the same place that Billy Graham went to in 1956.
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And there was a massive revival.
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And thousands of students were touched and impacted.
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And campus through Santa Big Ministries were launched into this campus.
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And most of the time we hear about stories that happened in the past.
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But I was like, man, we've got to see that right now.
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Right here because the God that we serve is the God of the right now.
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Amen. He's also the God of the yesterday.
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He's done some great things.
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But he's the best, I tell people the best is yet to come.
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Amen.
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So we were there for 478 students back up in this place.
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And 107 responded out of that 23 students gave their lives to Jesus.
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The captain of the football team gives his life to the Lord.
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Walks up to us and says, God touch me today.
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This is not like a revival service.
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It's a college campus.
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So we're asking questions.
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You know, I want you to know that 60 to 70 percent of the students
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that walk into a college campus walk out of that place losing their thing.
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I often tell the story about this young girl just like on fire for God.
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Like most of us are when on, you know, she was given this opportunity to study
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in any campus, you know, her parents wanted her to go to a Christian school.
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She said, now I want to go to UNC Chapel Hill.
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And she goes there with a mission to change the campus upside down.
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And six weeks later, she calls up at that and says, I don't believe in God anymore.
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This is the truth that we're facing.
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So we've got to go beyond that campus, engage with them, answer some of the questions.
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So we talked about the three ease.
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We talked about the fact that there is evidence to what is written in this book.
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This is not just a fable.
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This is not just a story.
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This book has got more evidence than any historic book in the world.
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So we just laid out all of those things.
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Jesus rose from the grave.
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It was not just like somebody just told somebody, oh yeah, that's a good idea.
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Let me just get, you know, Jesus rose, you know, Jesus rose from the day
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and over 200 people saw him rose from the dead alive.
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So it's 200 witnesses.
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So, you know, just talking to this.
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We talked about evolution.
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We talked about evil.
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Why do bad things happen to good people?
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And now we share the gospel.
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There was this girl who came as a skeptic.
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She was arguing with this friend of mine that we know at that event.
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And she's like, you know, I don't like all this stuff.
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But I'm just here to drill some holes and into the middle of this event,
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she starts crying at the end of this event.
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She gives a life to the Lord and says, show me.
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Tell me where the next services I want to be there for that.
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There was another guy who was there.
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He didn't want to come.
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His dad pushed him and forced him to come.
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He had been robbed, you know, just a little bit about California.
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The moment I landed and got a brand of car,
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the red car person said, make sure that you don't put anything in the car.
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Because there's a lot of break-ins in this area.
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So this guy got point-blank robbed the week before it's shaken,
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shaken up and he was there.
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And God touched him and he gave his life to the Lord.
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You know, so many stories like this.
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So I just want to say thank you for praying for us.
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Thank you for sending us.
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Thank you for giving us the resources and the finances
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for us to preach the gospel.
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So I've got a QR code right there.
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And then there's some city kids.
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Some Nordic kids.
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I hope it's not my voice.
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Mama Mia is here.
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My beautiful wife is there.
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Wave your hands up in the air.
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Best things happen to me.
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So you can't stand this QR code.
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And be part of the praying team.
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You can just pull up your phone,
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scan this code and get you signed up.
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And if you want to, you know, I know this is a free church.
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It's given me freedom.
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If you want to financially give to these campaigns,
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cost thousands of dollars to be on these campus.
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If you want to be a partner,
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partnering with us in this ministry,
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you can even do that by this QR code and talk to us
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or talk to Pastor James.
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And he'll make sure that the money gets to us
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so that we can be on the campus.
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We've been dreaming about Stanford right next to it.
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We've been praying into it.
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So it's been all the good things happening.
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It's been some great things happening in India
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as well with our global teams.
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Show some of those pictures.
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Yeah, these are students,
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thousands of students.
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So this whole campaign,
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there will be 100,000 students all over
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in about 20 cities.
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Students like this will hear the gospel directly
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or indirectly through some of our initiatives.
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We have a chat line.
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We have a big Christmas campaign coming.
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So we're not just reaching students in America
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but we're reaching students around the world.
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Look at those thousands of kids.
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You know, I'm telling you,
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I tell people,
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you can count the number of seeds in an apple
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but you can never count the number of apples
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that'll come out of a seed.
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Somebody share the gospel with me.
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The guy didn't have no clue.
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The God is going to birth a movement
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out of this guy that will reach over three million students
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with the gospel.
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The next Pastor James,
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the next boy on,
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the next president,
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the next, you know, the influences,
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the next CEO of the biggest tech company
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is sitting on those campuses
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and they need to hear the gospel.
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So pray with us, partner with us
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to take this gospel to the ends of the world
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and in American campuses.
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Are you excited for the word of God?
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All right.
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You know, I want to say this message
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that I'm sharing with you this morning
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is really my life message.
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This is, I live this message.
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I don't, I don't, I'm not, I'm not just trying to
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give you something that I, I'm trying to do.
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I live this.
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This is part of me
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and I want this to become an impartation
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as you receive this word.
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I said, God, I want to receive this
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into the DNA of my life
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that my life will never be the same.
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Amen. You believe it?
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Say amen.
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All right.
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So this is a message.
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The title of my sermon is called Prayer Power.
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Many of us are praying prayers
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and you're wondering why your prayers are not answered.
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There are formulas in the Bible
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that we need to use and unlock
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to see the breakthroughs that we need to see in our life.
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Amen.
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Have you ever wondered?
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I've been praying and I'm not seeing breakthroughs.
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Let's just relook into some of the things
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that are in the scriptures
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so that we get a glimpse of it.
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Okay.
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Backtracking a little bit.
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Last year,
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my wife and I, the Lord spoke to us,
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the scripture from the Bible,
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Abraham walked the length and breadth of this land.
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Remember that?
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God spoke to Abraham.
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Walk the length and breadth of this land.
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I'll give it to you.
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A little bit of a story about us.
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We are just four years into America.
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We are missionaries into this great nation.
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We are originally from the land of curry.
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Does anybody know what that is?
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India, right?
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So I tell people, I come from the land of curry
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and I live in the land of hurry.
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New York.
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So God brought us here on a mission
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and we didn't know a lot of people.
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So we said, God,
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you want us to touch the lives of young people
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in this nation.
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So we don't know where to start.
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So whenever you are in doubt,
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start praying.
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Okay.
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So God spoke to this world.
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So we got excited.
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And the idea was to drive
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the length and breadth of America.
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So we got on a mini van.
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Anybody loves a mini van?
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I mean, I'm the guy.
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I'm not the driving.
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You know, I'm not the guy that likes to drive.
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I mean, if I'm driving for three hours,
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I probably take two breaks.
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Coffee breaks, Starbucks break,
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you know, all that.
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But this was driving for hours.
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So we drove 9,000 miles, friends.
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New York to LA, the width.
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The length, go up to Seattle,
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down to Miami, back to New York.
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9,000 miles of praying over 30 cities.
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Every city we found somebody to pray with us.
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And we said, we're going to ask you for money.
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We're not asking if anything will you give us one hour
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so that we can pray for your city
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so that your young people will come to know Jesus.
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And all of them said yes.
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So we drove through.
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And my kids got to see America.
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More of America on 30 days
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and most of America put together.
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All right.
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So at the end of 30 days,
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we're like, God, what are we doing?
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We're saying, God, give us this land.
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The Bible says wherever the soul of your feet
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shall tread, I will give it to you.
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Ask me and I will give you the nation
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to answer the other's obsession.
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We prayed all these words
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and we were praying in the spirit, in the car.
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We have a global team, some of the places.
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Like I was the University of Michigan,
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I switched on a Zoom call with all of our team sitting
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on the other side of the world.
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And I switched the camera around.
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Those guys sitting in India
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are actually praying for the University of Michigan
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while we drive around the place.
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How cool is that?
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And some of those kids got excited and inspired
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that one of our interns just came into Columbia University.
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How cool is that?
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Getting inspired to come on the other side of the world.
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So 30 days later, I'm like, Lord, we are in this location
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and I remember being in DC, Washington, DC.
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We got there and then I was in a,
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I rented a little scooter, the electric scooter
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and from a hotel all around Capitol Hill.
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Just drove around the key places saying, God, here I am.
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Here we are.
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We need a breakthrough.
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We need open doors.
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We need, we need this.
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We need, we need to see this nation.
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This is the most defining place,
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the most influential place.
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A few months later, God did this, show that picture right there.
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Yes, that's me, the good-looking me,
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with the Surgeon General of America.
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He's the highest ranking official
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under the President of America in charge of the health and
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human services, I mean, human departments of all of America.
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Now, you know that we would work in college campuses
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around the theme of mental health.
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He came, he came to know about it.
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And I love to say, we walk into what you pray into.
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Say that with me.
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You walk into what you pray into.
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A few months before, I was cycling around that place
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and that electric scooter saying,
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not knowing a lot of people in DC saying, God,
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give us open doors.
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A few months later, boom,
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we are having the meeting with the Surgeon General
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talking about some of the things that we're doing.
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And he's like, all right, love what you're doing.
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I want to come and be a part.
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So he actually wants to come and attend one of our events.
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Number one.
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Number two, the next day, the White House
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put this picture out there and tweeted it
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on their partnership in Twitter ID,
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government partnerships on the Twitter ID.
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How did this happen?
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You walk into what you pray into.
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You walk into what you pray into.
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What am I doing in California?
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What am I doing in Stanford?
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What am I doing in Berkeley?
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I've never heard of that place.
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I've never been to that place.
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But guess what?
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You walk into what you pray into.
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I was praying all over California in Los Angeles
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and God gave us California for Jesus.
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So you walk into what you pray into.
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Not doors are opening everywhere we went.
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Right?
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So what am I saying?
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I'm just giving you a recipe.
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Recipe.
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Recipe.
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For the last one year, God's been given
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as a zip code, one, one, five, four, five.
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I was here for a meeting and I saw this place
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and something in my heart said,
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this is where you're going to be living.
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We will live in right next door here
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in Roosevelt Island.
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And we're feeling in our heart
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for the last one year, every month,
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sometimes every other week.
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My wife is like, what are we even doing here?
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Just circling around one, one, five, four, five.
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Long Island areas and God,
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this is the place that you're giving us
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and you're going to give it to us.
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I don't know where it's going to happen.
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It's expensive.
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All the logical reasons why there's
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there's no way that we can get to that place.
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Guess what, guys?
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We live there right now.
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One, one, five, four, five.
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It's my zip code.
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You walk into what you pray into.
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You walk into what you pray into.
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I'm just building some faith in this room.
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Guys, you pray, you ask, you knock, you seek.
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The scripture says, ask and you keep on asking.
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Seek and you keep on seeking.
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Knock and you keep on knocking and it will.
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No, it shall be.
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It will be open.
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So I want to impart this to you because I live this.
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The other day, the last 10 days,
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there was some friends of mine who was hanging out with me.
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They don't probably believe in the same things that I believe.
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So it's like, you know, I'm praying and we praying around Berkeley.
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We're standing on the balcony.
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We're standing every high place.
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We're walking around the place.
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We're going, you know, every place.
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And we could find ourselves and we said,
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God, give us Berkeley in Jesus' name.
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So then the other day they asked me,
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so are you praying in an Indian language or are you praying?
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And what are you praying?
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I'm like, brother, this is my moment.
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I know this is a church that believes in this stuff.
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I'm praying in tongues, brother, because the Bible says,
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when you speak in tongues, you speak not unto man,
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but you speak under God.
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So are you ready, people?
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Are you ready for the formula, for the breakthrough?
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Let's go to the book of Nehemiah.
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The book of Nehemiah, if you are pregnant
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and you found out that it's going to be a boy
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and looking for a name, Nehemiah is a great name.
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Nehemiah means God comforts.
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You can call him at home, Nemo, and of course,
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we watched plenty of finding Nemo in our home
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that is almost like, yeah, you know what I'm trying to say.
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All right, all right, all right.
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So here is the breakthrough.
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Let me just get to the, you know, I'm getting,
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I'm, this is spoiler alert, okay?
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Nehemiah is praying and he found out the information
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that the walls of Jerusalem are broken, right?
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And everything is in a mess and he has a mandate now
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to see these walls being broken.
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The spoiler is that in, he built the walls in 52 days, never done before.
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Never done before.
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So the breakthrough was that he was able to build the walls
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of Jerusalem in 52 days.
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How did he get to that breakthrough is what we're going to figure out.
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Are you ready, Pastor James?
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Let's go.
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All right, number one, Nehemiah, here's about what's happening
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and they said to me that Remnant was number three.
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They said to me that Remnant there in the province
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having survived exile is in great trouble and shame.
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I think these days we just need to wake up
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and open up our eyes and see what is happening around us.
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I could be in Berkeley looking for the coolest,
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hey, what are the five things that we say?
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Man, what's the coolest eating joints out here?
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Tell me the Korean barbecue, tell me the hardest part
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and as an Indian, I'm looking for what's the best Indian spot here in Berkeley.
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These are four or five questions that we want to ask people, right?
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Because eating is very important for us, right?
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But instead of asking them for the five things that make me happy,
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I just ask you, what are the big crisis on this campus?
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Because I know that every crisis is an opportunity.
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Winston Churchill, I don't like everything about him
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and I like his code, this code that says,
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do not waste a good crisis.
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So every time there is a crisis, God's about to show up, right?
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So we just ask her on what's happening.
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So mental health is off the roof.
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There's crime on campus.
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There's anti, there's rallies from pro-Israel, pro-Palestine.
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You talk about everything that's happened.
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I mean, I've never seen a campus with so much activity going on.
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You got the LGBTQ right?
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You have everybody doing something out there.
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But you're not just looking at it and just walking away, just like they admire.
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As soon as I heard those words, what's number four?
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I sat down and wept and mourned for days and I continued fasting and
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praying before the God of Heaven.
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You know that I like to fast.
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America loves fasting.
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The intermittent fast, the coolest thing, the fat fast.
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I mean, the sugar fast.
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I mean, every year you come up with the coolest thing.
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Last year, it was sugar.
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This year, it's about oil.
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Next year, it's going to be about something.
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Everybody's on some sort of fast to make you look good.
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But I'm talking about fasting that kills the flesh and makes your spirit alive.
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Some challenging people in this room, guys, it's time to fast.
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I think I say that all the time and I come here.
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Fasting is good.
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Fasting is good.
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Now they have.
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All right, he fasts and prays and mourns for days and continue fasting and praying
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before the God of Heaven.
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And I said, oh, Lord, God of Heaven, the great and awesome God,
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who keeps his covenant.
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And set fast love with those who love him and keep his commandments.
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What's number six?
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Let your your be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayers of your servant.
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I now pray before you day and night.
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Number one way to see the breakthrough and increase your chain,
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the climate of your prayer life.
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Number one, you pray fervently.
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Say that with me.
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Pray fervently.
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You know, I was in the labor room with my wife for all three of her boys.
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Oh my God.
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That's for one of the reasons why I'm more out of the apartment.
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They were kicking those walls.
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The walls were about to break.
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Neymar is building up the wall.
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I had to like pay the management because they were like super active in that
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New York apartment.
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So guess what?
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I was in the labor room with my wife.
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And it's not a jazz concert in the labor room.
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It's not Kennedy playing saxophone.
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It's not Eric Clapton playing.
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Right?
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Yeah, it's not Beethoven.
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It is like a metal concert there.
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It's bloody.
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Nurses up and down.
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And all I can hear the doctors screaming and my wife is push, push, push, push.
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And finally that big push.
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And the beautiful baby comes out.
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Somebody once gave me this wristband to wear.
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And it said push, pray until something happens.
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Many of our prayers have been one minute prayers.
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Many of our prayers have been good night prayers.
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Many of our prayers have been one week prayers.
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Many of our prayers have been one month prayers.
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Guess what happened?
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We live in one, one, four, five, four, five.
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To a point that my wife is like, what are we doing here?
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We've done praying.
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We've done God.
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I mean, one day, let me just say the last piece of this journey.
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One day for two hours.
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I could not see a breakthrough.
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Not an open door.
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Not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, not a, I mean,
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I was like, God, God, give me a sign.
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That day morning for two hours.
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I was driving around this place.
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Jericho, Glenhead, Brookfield, Upper Brookfield,
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modern town, going around in circles for almost two hours plus.
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God, give me a breakthrough.
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And then the breakthrough happened.
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You're throwing in the towel too early on your prayers.
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You're stopping before just before the breakthrough.
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I'm telling you guys, you gotta pray,
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Fatherly, you gotta pray until something happens.
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Guess what?
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Nehemiah got the walls built in 52 days.
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Cool, everybody around me.
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Tell me the, the greatest startup story in the world.
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Tell me the mantras.
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Tell me the things that you did.
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Tell me the, the VCs that you got.
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Tell me the, uh, the advices that you had.
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His advice was from the Holy Spirit.
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And guess what?
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He prayed for four months.
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He prayed and fasted for four months before he actually showed up in front of the king.
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We are praying for one day and I show now in front of a decision maker.
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Give me something.
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He doesn't even like you now because you haven't prayed enough.
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You haven't made your investment enough.
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So I'm challenging people in this room.
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City light.
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If you want to see that classic breakthrough.
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If you want to see your work, your prayers being answered.
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You gotta pray.
-
What?
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Pray fervently.
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Pray until something happens.
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Push in prayer.
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Travelling prayer.
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Perseverant prayer.
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Keep praying and keep praying and keep praying.
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Till the breakthrough happens.
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Is God speaking to somebody in the room?
-
Number two was, what's number seven?
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We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commands
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and the statutes and the rules that you've commanded your servant Moses.
-
Right?
-
What is he saying?
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He's making some honest prayers.
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I'm telling you something.
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It's time to repent.
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It's time to say that God, I tried with all my might,
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I tried with all my power,
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with all the people that I know,
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with all the influence that I know,
-
and it hasn't worked.
-
So it's time to get on the floor, face down and say,
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God, I am sorry.
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I repent.
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I've done it my way.
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Now I want to do it your way.
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And this is not just for you.
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These prayers are not just for you and your family.
-
Most of our prayers are about my credit card bills,
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my food, my clothing, my favorite parking when you walk up into
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Macy's Lord, give me a good parking.
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Get me the discount coupon.
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These are the levels of our prayers.
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I'm talking about prayers that shake nations.
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The queen of England said, I fear the prayers of John Knox
-
than all of the armies of England.
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Your prayers matters.
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Now listen, why your prayers matter?
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I love this San Augustine's prayers.
-
San Augustine's quote, he said,
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let me get that right before I don't want to mess it up.
-
He said, without God, man cannot.
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And without man, God will not.
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Can I say that again?
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Without God, man cannot and without man, God will not.
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God wanted a saved mankind.
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Who did he use?
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He used Moses.
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And asked him to make, not Moses, sorry, Noah.
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And asked him to make an ark.
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People I've never seen an ark in their entire life,
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not like, you know, what are you trying to build, brother?
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God always uses a man.
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And he wants to use you.
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And if he wants to use you, you need to understand why he wants to use you.
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You know, why I have authority in prayer?
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My authority is connected to my identity.
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If a guy just walks up and tells me, tell me your name, show me your ID.
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I'm like, who are you?
-
How dare you ask me for the ID?
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But he would go back to his car, change his uniform,
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and comes in as NYPD guy and shows his ID and says,
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NYPD, show me your ID.
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Now should I show my ID?
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My Indian me was sort of tremble.
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I'm still working on my green car right now.
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I don't want anything to mess around.
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So here you go.
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This is my ID.
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In my bank statement, my credit card statement.
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You know what, you know, you're ready to go.
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Authority comes from your identity.
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How do you have authority in prayer?
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It is locked in your identity.
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Who are you?
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You are the son and the daughter of the most high god.
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You need to know who you are and who you are.
-
And when you begin to pray,
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boom, there is prayer.
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There is power in prayer.
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Somebody said, a prayerless Christian is a powerless Christian.
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If you don't pray, you don't have power.
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Even the devil's like, oh, that guy,
-
don't even worry about it.
-
He's fine.
-
Let's go for somebody else.
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Even the devil's not scared of you because you don't pray.
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You don't read the word.
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You don't walk with Jesus.
-
You just had the Christian tag on and you show up in church
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with two hours and then go to lunch and have some fun
-
and then go back to your normal life.
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God is not calling you to the cross line Christianity.
-
He's not calling you to sign up into the cruise ship.
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He's asked you to get on the warship.
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It is a recruitment process.
-
You know why I get on the road and pray because the Bible says we don't fight against flesh and blood.
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We fight against principalities and force of darkness.
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When you walk into a house,
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your wife doesn't want to talk to you.
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There's stuff going on.
-
Your boss is screaming at you.
-
Guess what's happening?
-
It's a freaking devil plane at the back room.
-
You need to know that you are not fighting against that boss.
-
Your husband, your wife, your kid,
-
you're fighting against the spirit of confusion,
-
of manipulation that is working at the background against you.
-
So you put that devil where it belongs and you walk in authority
-
because of her identity as a son of God.
-
That is why he said without God,
-
man cannot and without man, God will not.
-
So number one, you pray furanly.
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Number two, you pray honestly.
-
He said, God, I'm standing on behalf of the sins of my people.
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I'm standing on behalf of my husband that doesn't believe in you.
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I'm standing on behalf of my son who doesn't believe in you.
-
I'm standing on behalf of my boss who doesn't believe in you.
-
I'm standing on behalf of all my friends and employees at my workplace on behalf of you.
-
You know why?
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Because near Maya was not a pastor.
-
He was a marketplace guy.
-
He probably worked in a city group which he was here.
-
Probably in Wall Street.
-
Right?
-
Near Maya was a marketplace guy.
-
Many times we want to delegate prayer to the pastors.
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You know why?
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Because we pay them to pray.
-
Too bad.
-
You're missing out.
-
You will never graduate.
-
You will never upgrade your Christian life
-
by delegating things to other people.
-
Start owning up your mess.
-
Start owning up your breakthrough and say,
-
if I don't pray, nothing's going to happen.
-
Number one, pray furanly.
-
Number two, you pray honestly.
-
Say, God, I can't do it.
-
If I may use these crude words, I say, Lord, I have screwed up.
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I have messed up.
-
Let me, let me, I am repenting.
-
Changing the way that I think.
-
Changing the way that I operate.
-
I want to take a U-turn and walk in the ways.
-
Now I'm praying some honest prayers.
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Hey, guys, listen, you cannot hide anything from God.
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Did you know that?
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Many times you feel like, no, no, you know, he can't see it.
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Not that stuff.
-
Not that stuff that I watched last night.
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Not the website that I went to last night.
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Not the conversation that I had in my chat right now.
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Not the calls that I made last week.
-
You feel like you don't know that he can see everything.
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And you still just try running your life the way you want it.
-
It's time to be honest and blatant and be humble and repent and put your face down and say,
-
God, I want to make some prayers that are honest saying, God,
-
without you, I cannot do it.
-
I need your grace.
-
What's number eight and nine?
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Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying,
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if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the people.
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But if you return to me and keep my commands and do them,
-
through your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven.
-
From there, I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name
-
to hell there.
-
When I wake up in the morning, I have two things that I can do.
-
If I'm hungry, I can do two things.
-
The first thing I can do is find two slices of bread, throw it in that toaster.
-
And then try to put some sort of...
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What is that? Spread.
-
That's right.
-
Thank you for helping me.
-
Put some sort of spread on those light spread, on those toes and grab a coffee, whatever the
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coffee is, like... and you just keep going.
-
But if you are like me, I love a great breakfast.
-
So I stop down, I toast some bread, then I look for some bacon, hallelujah.
-
Fry some bacon right now.
-
Then I'm looking up, trying to make cook some eggs right now.
-
And then I'm looking for some ham, pulling that ham on, slicing it,
-
making it symmetrical to the sides, because I don't want anything outside, right,
-
passage aims, all the OCD people, nothing outside, clean and nice, straight, cut it into pieces.
-
And load up that sandwich, and what I call is a club sandwich in the morning.
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If you have a club sandwich, bro, you don't have to have lunch till two o'clock.
-
That's a packed out breakfast, that's like a brunch, that's like you got bacon, you got hand,
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you got eggs, you got lettuce, you got veggies, you got... I mean, to be more healthy,
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some more avocados. How about that? How about that? Right, we need that, we need that.
-
And then some avocados, and you put that all into this crazy club sandwich, and I know everybody's
-
hungry, we are all going to have lunch today. But guess what? Our prayers are often like the first
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type of prayer that I've made, it's like the two slices of those dry toes with some sort of
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some sort of spread, and off you go. And guess you're not having any breakthroughs.
-
You're hungry by the time you get in the car. By the time you reach your office, you're like,
-
oh, I need a bagel right now. But it's time for you to load up your prayers with scriptures and
-
make it a club sandwich prayer. Load up the promises, that's what Neymar is doing. What is Neymar
-
doing? God, if God is bound by anything, he's bound by his own word. Right? So he's reminding God,
-
which is what you do when you hire a lawyer, you don't know the law, so you hire a lawyer to
-
plead your case in the court of law. Your Highness, it is written in your honor, it is written in
-
this book, and because it's in this rule number one, two, three, four, whatever the number is,
-
it has to be so that the judge has to look into what is written, and he cannot go beyond our
-
backwards to what's already written in the rule book. So you've got to get your door, I mean,
-
you've got to get your God excited about the prayers that you're making. You're loading it up
-
with prayers. You're praying for your husband to get saved. You say, God, me and my household,
-
we will serve the Lord. You said that Lord, me and my household save the Lord. Number two,
-
you said God, that none should perish, but all should come to the saving knowledge of Jesus.
-
Every scripture about salvation, you're going to put that into that club sandwich prayer in the
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morning. If you pray for financial breakthrough, you said, God, you are my provider. You will
-
provide for me according to not my bank of America balance, but according to the bank of America,
-
not bank of heaven. You're telling God if you pray in God, asking God for healing, you're telling
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God, God, guess what? Your name, one of your names is Jehovah Rafa by the stripes of Jesus,
-
I was already healed. So you load up your prayers with what club sandwich prayers. And that's what I
-
call biblical prayers. Number one, you pray fervently. Number two, you pray honestly. Number three,
-
you pray biblically. Pray at things that are already, God's like, who is this Indian guy?
-
Getting up in the morning and coding my word, I better pay attention to that guy.
-
Rather than telling him, oh God, you know, I'm not in a good mood today.
-
Help me, you know, the usual Starbucks prayers. We're not talking about that. We're talking about
-
club sandwich prayers. Can we load up our prayers in the morning with the scripture and tell God
-
what is written in the word? Remind him and tell him that, Lord, if you said we will come back and
-
return and repent, you said you will send me a breakthrough. You said, Lord, if you're written in the
-
word that you will heal me, you're written in the word that you will cancel my debt. If it is
-
written in your word that you will heal me, God is going to pay attention to those prayers.
-
Do I have a witness here? Say it. Number four, what's number 11?
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Oh, Lord, let your ear be attended to the prayer of your servant and the prayer of your servants
-
who delight to fear your name and give success to your servant today and ran a mercy in the sight
-
of this man. Now I was the cup bearer to the king. He's just about to show up. Now, listen,
-
boys, if you've been thinking about buying a car, you probably have all the men in the room,
-
you've been googling for the last 20 years about the car that you're going to buy. You've been
-
googling the size of the rims, the tires, the engine size, and the muffler, the tuning,
-
that the car seats, it's got to be leather. It's got to smell. You've already been smelling it while
-
sleeping in the night. I can smell the leather. You are so specific about the car that you want. You
-
don't walk up into a car show. I'm saying, hey, I need a car like what car do you want? No.
-
They're going to ask, you already got it mapped up. Some folks here need a mini van, right?
-
Thank God for mini vans. I hated the look of those mini vans. So bulky, I'm like, God, I don't have
-
an option. And then the Lord created this marble called the Kia Carnival. Kia should be paying
-
me for this. It looks like a mini van, but it functions like a mini van. It looks like an SUV.
-
I feel like the man again. What am I trying to say? You make so vague prayers. God even doesn't
-
understand what you're trying to pray. You're specific about your car, you're specific about your
-
computer, you're specific about everything else. But when it comes to praying, your prayers are so
-
wide and vague and nothing to specify. Let me tell you something. Niamh Maya had a specific prayer.
-
He prayed for four months. He prayed fervently. He prayed honestly. He prayed diplomically. He knew
-
that he needed timber. He needed approval. He needed people. He had it all specified and prayed
-
him so that when he showed up in front of the king and the king asked, what do you want?
-
Wait a minute, so let me just plot from my phone. Here is the 10 things that I want is already on
-
my notes because I've been praying for that for the last four months. And that four months of prayer
-
got him to get the 52 days of breakthrough. You want the 52 day breakthrough and you make that one
-
minute prayer too bad. Backtracking a little bit. Number one, you've got to pray fervently. You've
-
got to pray till something happens like my wife in the labor room pushing until something happens
-
to get that baby out. Like me praying number one, one, five, four, five for the last one year that my
-
wife and my kids were like crazy. Like what are you trying to do? Now we don't say that again because
-
they live in that house. What is your zip code? One, one, five, four, five. Right? You walk into what
-
you're praying to. Number two, you pray. Honestly, you say, God, I give up. I repent. I've done it my way.
-
But if you weren't says what? If you repent, you will turn away from your wicked ways. Then I will
-
heal the land. Number three, you pray. Biblical prayers at club sandwich. Don't forget that club sandwich.
-
Every time you get up in the morning and think about that slice, that dry toast. You said the devil
-
isn't this toast. I need to get my, I need to get my club sandwich prayer. I'm going to load it with
-
bacon and avocados and ham and eggs and cheese and I forgot about the cheese.
-
Pepper Jack cheese only guys. I'm trying to be American now, right? I was like, we just had one
-
cheese, one libra cheese. When before we got here, like 10 types of cheese. See us. You're like 100
-
seedles in the, what is this? All right, you're spoiled. Number four, pray specifically,
-
write it down for all the single people in the room. I heard New York as the largest
-
single population in all of America. I wouldn't say the world. I had friends of mine at a
-
friend of mine who used to fast every Wednesday for his wife. Fast and pray so specifically,
-
write it down. This is what I want my wife. This is what I want my wife. This is what I want,
-
praying specifically. Last time I visited, I mean, he's in Kuwait. Long behold, he's married to
-
exactly what he prayed into. So you walk into what you pray into. You pray into that. You
-
pray through. You make prayer specific prayers. Now, let me just jump into some of the new testman
-
stuff. You know, we are people. The Bible says, what happened in the, in the upper room?
-
Acts chapter two. How are we doing? Time, Pat? Good. Just giving me a thumbs up. So, all right,
-
we're good. All right. So just what happened the upper room? Fire of God fell, right? Everybody's
-
hired to speak, speak in tongues. And let me just get the scripture right so that I get it right.
-
When you pray in tongues, God's given us the gift to speak in tongues. Paul says, I pray in the
-
spirit. I pray in the understanding. I pray in tongues more than I pray in the, in the understanding.
-
He talks about it. It's a, it's a lifestyle. It's a gift. I'm not imposing it on anybody. But if
-
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
-
it to you. So I have the gift to speak in tongues like most of the people in the room. So here I am
-
on a five-city prayer tour because I told you this is my life, right? I want to see a breakthrough
-
in the Middle East. Don't have the money. Don't have the people. But I knew I had connections.
-
And I said, can I come into your country to pray? And they're like, when are you, what about
-
preaching? No, no, no, no. I said, we're not on the preaching tour. We're on the praying tour.
-
So five nations in five days, land into the place, find a car depending on the people in the
-
people in the room. They're like sometimes they had a minivan. They're like a like a spring
-
tour kind of thing. Sometimes they have cars. So we're praying in different places. Dubai,
-
Qatar, Bahrain, and we're in Oman and we're praying in front of this grand mosque.
-
And I've lost. They give me some understanding prayer. So I pray that I've run out of words.
-
You know, the thing about praying in the understanding is you run out of words and you get so bored.
-
I'm like, I run out of words praying for America five minutes of praying. I'm like, what else?
-
I don't know. But when I'm praying in the spirit, I can be praying for an hour, two hours
-
because I am not tired praying in the spirit. Because when I'm praying in the spirit,
-
I have a direct link to heaven. It's a decoded language. Hallelujah. Not even the devil can understand
-
what you are praying. He's like, what is going on here? It's encrypted. It has got the highest
-
level of security. And you're praying in the spirit. So here I am in the car in front of the
-
grand mosque. And that is where all the major decisions are made in some of these Muslim countries.
-
And we're praying in the spirit. I'm praying in spirit. I'm praying in Tanzorra,
-
al-Aba, Shah-Torobo, and suddenly the guy at the back just touched me. Pastor Bonnie,
-
Pastor Bonnie. I think I was a pastor then. Oh, no. Pastor Bonnie, just checking. Hey, what's
-
happened? Pastor, do you speak in Arabic? I'm like, I don't speak in Arabic. But he said,
-
no, you are fluently speaking in Arabic right now. And the prayers that I was praying was way
-
beyond my paycheck. In a sense, I have no idea the kind of things he was telling me when I was
-
praying. It was way, way, way, way up high level of prayer when I was praying in the spirit.
-
So the highest level, you're talking about praying fervently,
-
you're talking about praying, honestly, biblically, specifically, the last one, the upgraded version.
-
The encrypted version is praying spirit-led prayers. When you pray in the spirit, this is what
-
happens. First Corinthians chapter 14 was this too. I'm switching to the King James here. That's
1 Corinthians 14 chapter mention
-
how you get something across. For he that speak at in an unknown tongue, speak at not unto men,
-
but unto God. So when you're praying in tongues, you're not speaking to people, you are speaking to God.
-
That is the greatest level of prayer. So here I am praying in Berkeley. Here I'm praying in Stanford.
-
Here I'm praying in Colombia. Here I'm praying in different parts of the world. I don't know a lot
-
about it. I know some things about the city. I'm praying into it, but the 80% of my prayers
-
about from being all the four things that we talked about, I am praying in the spirit.
-
And I'm challenging people in this room to start praying and operating in the spirit.
-
I'm praying in the first Corinthians 14 in the West 4. He that speak in an unknown tongue
-
edifies himself. Every time I pray in tongues, I just feel like, you know, it's like I've had
-
couple of those energy drinks. What's Red Bull? You can fly. What does that tagline?
-
Gives you wings to fly. Brother, I don't have wings. I'm on a rocket right now. Every time I pray in
-
the spirit, I'm praying in tongues, I feel like, come on, give me something. Let me pray for something.
-
I'm like, I'm praying for somebody and going to this prayer meeting and somebody's driving me
-
to the meeting. I'm like, I have to use this power. With great power comes great.
-
How can I exercise this wings power that I prayed in the tongues in the morning?
-
I am feeling charged up, fired up. I want to be used for something as a boom. Why do miracles
-
happen? Because you're charged up, fired up, prayed up and then you're ready to go.
-
How can you get a 52 day miracle, supernatural miracle that nobody has ever seen before, building
-
walls of Jerusalem or a whole city in 52 days, never heard before. Before you did the 52 day
-
miracle, the four months of praying, praying number one, fervently. Oh, you looking at me like
-
fervently. Come on, pass James. Number two, brother. Honestly, number three,
-
biblically, don't forget the club sandwich. Number four, you're making specific press,
-
think about the boys in the room, getting those rims and praying into that car, you know,
-
back in the day. Number five, one, praying spirit led press. I'm telling you, your breakthrough
-
is on the way. All of heaven is going to be like, no, who is that Indian boy there? Let me,
-
let me angles of God send a hundred one to that, that boy there. Give him breakthrough.
-
Give him breakthrough in Berkeley. They haven't seen an even of this size in a long time,
-
but average prayer meetings are 10 and 20 minutes, 20 people in the room. We had 478 people in the room.
-
And now we understand we're going to take Berkeley and then we're going to go to Stanford.
-
Why? Because our heart is now filled with faith. Whenever you're going to pray, Bible,
-
scripture-based prayers, the Bible says, you know, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of
-
God. Take somebody next to you. Nobody sleep on me today. But this morning is a land discernment.
-
I want to pray for an impartation because the service we have time to do that. If you want to see
-
an upgrade in your prayer life, if you want to see that 52-day miracle happening, and I want to see
-
an upgradation that prayer climate of my life, I want to change the way that I pray. Now that I have,
-
I have the mantras, now I have the five-step rule to pray better. I cannot pray what fervently,
-
I cannot pray honestly and biblically and specifically and spirit-led prayers. My breakthroughs
-
on the way, look at somebody, my breakthroughs on the way, watch out. When you begin to pray like
-
this two weeks from now, I mean, I'm talking now about going to Stanford. But the next time here,
-
I'll be saying, we just came from Stanford, a thousand people show, 500 people came in on the Lord.
-
Yes. You walk into what you pray into. Everybody, the worship team up here.
-
We're going to be praying. And I want to make a call right now. If you want to receive an
-
impartation of this new dimension of prayer, an impartation, say, God, I have got the steps right
-
now, but I need an impartation, the laying on of hands, and I want to see something happen
-
like this in my life. Not just for me. Hey, guys, this prayer is not just for you and your car
-
parking. I'm talking about for you and your family, your neighborhood, your kids, your colleagues,
-
your boss, your neighbor. I mean, whoever is next to you is not for you. The anointing on your
-
life is not for you, it is for others. So this prayer download is not for you and for your
-
Macy's coupon, I'm talking about a breakthrough that has got the capacity to change the life of a city.
-
Of a neighborhood. And look at these empty chastings. I father in the name of Jesus. I'm going to be
-
responsible. I'm praying people in. I'm working people in. I'm going to share people the message
-
of the gospel. I'm going to invite people in. You're latch going to be different. Everybody's
-
standing up right now. And I'm going to open up this altar right now. If you need a breakthrough,
-
if you need an impartation of this dimension of prayer like Nehemiah, like this accelerated breakthrough
-
of 52 days, I've seen the walls of Jerusalem build. Come forward.
-
You're free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you.
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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. Make sure that you
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subscribe to City Light Church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.