Gateway Church's Podcast
Why Bother to Pray?
I mean, if I was going to pick somebody out, I'd pick somebody better than that, right? Somebody younger. See, you don't ever give it, but you don't ever put somebody down when they're coming up next. You know what I'm saying? I was thinking about Jeff, you know, Jeff's our children's pastor, and I was thinking about the last church that I passed her, and I heard this guy, and he was going to pick up his son for Sunday school. He said, "Son, come out." He said, "Son, what did you learn today?" It's like six-year-old Sunday school class, and he said, "Dad, I learned today that when the children of Israel came out of Egypt," he said, "they got all the way to the Red Sea, and the Egyptian army was just closing in on them, about to get right on them, about to kill a whole bunch of them, and all of a sudden the Israeli Air Force came out of nowhere and just started dropping bombs on the Egyptian army. And while the Israeli Air Force was dropping bombs and keeping favor away, the Israeli Navy came up in a bunch of boats and started shutting them across the Red Sea. The dad just looked at him and said, "You've got to be kidding. You know, why are they teaching you in Hartford?" You know, and he said, "Dad, look, if I told you the way it really happened, you'd never believe it." And that's true. You'd never believe it. All right, turn within your Bibles tonight. So first John chapter 5, we're going to have a lot of the scriptures on the screen tonight, but I want to read this one to you in first John chapter 5. I spoke, I'm going to speak tonight on a subject that is real near to my heart. You know, this week is a national day of prayer, it was on Wednesday, but I believe that there needs to be more than one day that we focus our attention on what God's saying to us about prayer. And in first John chapter 5, verse 14, I'm going to really tonight, my goal, honestly, is to really simplify it to a lot of you why we should pray. The title of my message tonight is, "Why bother to pray?" You know, it seems like that that's a derogatory title, but let me just say this to you. You know that George Barna just did a recent survey, and he asked about 6,500 American people who said they were born again who regularly attended church, and they were asking questions about their life, and it came that the average American Christian since been seven minutes a day praying, but they spent 23 hours a week in front of the television. Now I'm not putting down TV because I have one in my home, but I think it's an indictment against the church today. For example, when Jesus left, Heath said for all of us, he was talking to his disciples, but he also said to all of us, "Go lay hands on the sick, go cast out devils, and lead people to me, and make disciples of me." Did he not tell that to all of us? And in fact, most of us have never had one of those experiences, not even one of them. In fact, there are long periods of time in my life where I go where I have not laid hands on anyone who's seen anybody recover. I haven't helped anyone overcome oppression. I haven't led anyone to Jesus. Why is it that I go through long periods of time in my life where I'm not seeing the work that Jesus has for me? Well, I found the answer, I believe, throughout Scripture, one of them first John chapter 5 verses 14, and I'm going to read out the new living translation because I like the way it sounds. He says, "And we can be confident that He will listen to us whenever we ask Him for anything in line with His will." I'll just stop right here. The Word says tonight that you as believers, all of us tonight, can have complete and total confidence that when we go before the Lord and we're asking something that we know is His will, that He hears us. And it says, "And if we know He is listening when we make our request, we can be sure that He will give us what we ask for." Now, I'm just saying to you tonight that if it's that simple, that all we have to do is ask according to His will and not only does He hear us, but it actually will happen. Why is it that we're not spending more time in prayer? Why is it that we're not making a greater commitment in my own heart and the hearts of my children and the hearts of my family every area of my life? Why is it that I'm not spending more time asking for what He's already given me? You see, John Wesley, who was the founder of the Methodist Church, a hundred years ago said this, "God does nothing on the earth," 150 years ago actually, "God does nothing on the earth save an answer to believing prayer." Now, John Wesley, that's a pretty radical theology, that God does nothing on the earth and wants someone asking. Now, here's what I believe, all right? Our decision to pray or not to pray can literally influence history. Now, I'm going to share this with you in just a minute what the Lord showed me this morning as I was praying about the history of South Lake Tech and the Metroplex right now. But God has limited Himself, in other words, God put limits on Himself, because He's the only one that can put limits on Him, right? He put the own limits on His self concerning the affairs of the earth to working through human beings, aren't you glad? He's really amazing why He would even choose to use us, but He does. As always, God makes the decision in heaven, and then He calls a man or a woman to enforce that decision on earth through prayer and faith. Now, I want to take you tonight to Genesis chapter 1, verses 26. If you'll turn there with me, I want to give you just a brief history of why God shows human beings to pray. In Genesis chapter 1, verse 26, it says, "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule.'" Now, the word rule here, listen to what the word rule means to prevail against and to have dominion. We've sung songs all night tonight about overcoming, about the lamb is overcome, he is overcome. And it says that, he says, "Let us make man in our image in our likeness, let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." And in Genesis chapter 1, verses 26, "God did not give away ownership of the earth." I want you to understand that God kept the ownership of the earth. He created it, the earth belonged to Him. However, He did assign responsibility of governing it to humanity. Adam, and Eve, was literally God's watchman and guardian on the earth. Do you believe that tonight? Do you believe that in all the things He created, that somehow man got special authority and special anointing and special ability to rule and to govern the earth? And then something happened. The fall of man, Satan came and deceived Adam. And Satan took that preeminence and adominance and authority away from Adam and took it upon himself. So that turned in Luke chapter 4, verses 5, 6, and 7, says, "The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world." Now they're in the supernatural realm here because He showed them all the kingdoms of the world, everything. He showed Him New York City, He showed Him Dallas Fort Worth, He showed Him Los Angeles, He showed Him all the kingdoms of the earth, everything on the earth. He showed Him just like that. And He said to Him, "I will give you all their authority." And the word again authority means delegated influence. So somehow Satan now had this authority that was at one time given to Adam, is that right? Adam had the authority, now suddenly Satan is telling Jesus Himself, who by the way was there when the world was created, Jesus was there, Jesus saw the creation of the world, Jesus saw Adam and Eve walking in the garden, Jesus saw all of that. In fact, some people believe Jesus Himself was the one that walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. And it says here, it says, "And He said to Him, 'I will give you all their authority,' which is delegated influence, privilege, and splendor, for it has been given to me." Now that phrase for it has been given to me actually sounds like this in the Greek. It has been surrendered to me. In other words, Adam laid down and gave away what he had, he had rights to, God had given it to Adam. Adam had the ability though to give it away or to keep it, and Adam gave it away and surrendered it to Satan. And then Satan says, "And I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." Now listen to this, Jesus, this must have been the most comical thing for Jesus throughout the whole temptation. Number one, He asked Him to jump off the thing, and then He asked Him to turn stones into bread. But the most comical request, the thing that really, must have made Jesus, is to really look at Satan and say, "You've lost your absolute mind." He says, "If you worship me, I'm going to give all this to you." That's like someone that's running your home from you, calling you, and saying, "You know, if you'll come over here, if you'll mow my yard, I'll let you have this house. Hold it out on the home." Yeah, but if you'll come mow my yard, I'm going to give it to you. You see, why is it that Jesus didn't take the offer? Why is it that Jesus did not take this offer? Number one, He's never going to worship Satan. He's the Creator. He's not going to worship Satan. Number two, and here's the one you need to remember tonight, Jesus said, in His mind, in less than three years, "I'm going to take it back anyway." It's mine anyway. And Satan, you know it. Satan, you know that the reason I'm here is because your days are numbered. Satan, you know, before you even made that request, while I'm on earth, you see, so complete and final was God's decision to do things on the earth through human beings like you and me, that it cost God the incarnation to regain what Adam had given away. He had to become, you see, Jesus had to become a part of the human race again because humans were forever to be God's link to authority and decision and activity on the earth. And John 12, 31, here's what it's about to happen. Jesus is getting ready to go to the cross, and we've heard Robert speak on this, we've heard Clark Witten speak on this, we've heard people speaking upon this the last four or five weeks, Jesus is getting ready to go to the cross. And you know what's happening. If you've been here the last few weeks, you know what was about to happen. John 12, 31, says, "Jesus says this," and he's saying this to his disciples. Now is the time for judgment on this world. Now the prince of this world will be driven out, the word driven means to be expelled. He's not about to expel you and you know it. And he's making this declaration, a public declaration, that something is about to happen. He says, look, he was telling his disciples, now look, something's about to happen before your very eyes. You're going to see me taken to the cross, you're going to see me nailed there, you're going to see me beaten and scarred and bloody, and it's going to be very discouraging at time. Like you're not going to want to be around and you're not going to be around, you're going to abandon me. He says, but listen to me, something much more powerful is happening in the spiritual realm. I don't want you to forget this and see tonight, the reason I believe that the church does not pray the way the first century church prayed is we've forgotten this. This scripture, the one I just read, is the scripture we've all forgotten. I believe the church today is waiting on Jesus to come back and put Satan under his feet. What has already happened? The only influence Satan has in our families or in your mind, in your heart, in your children, at your job is what we've given him. Satan has no influence except what we've given him. Satan, at 2,000 years ago, Satan was put under the feet of Jesus. And ever since then, the only authority and only a power, the only supernatural authority he has in any of our lives is this, is what we've given him. We've handed it over to him, just like Adam. You see, Adam had it all. Adam had the garden, Adam had immortality, Adam had daily communion with the Father. He had everything at his feet, no sickness, no death, no disease, and suddenly Adam, because he bought a bad deal. He took a bad deal. Have you ever made a bad deal? I've made a few bad deals. Sometimes when I pray and I get really right with the Lord, and I feel so close to God, someone always shows up at my door wanting to sell something. I'm just real pastoral, and I love people, and it's always somebody that looks like they need money, and I'm always making bad deals at my front door. And as always when I'm prayed up, when I'm in the flesh, I'm a horrible customer. But when I'm in the spirit, I buy a lot of stuff I don't need. I've noticed that, I make some bad deals sometimes. What you see in John 1231, listen to this, I'm going to read this to you, because I really want you to hear this. I wrote this down. It came to me like this this week. What Jesus was really saying in John 1231, he says, "There has been a long conflict between the powers of light and darkness between God and the devil. Satan has so effectually ruled that he may be said to be the prince of his world, but my approaching death will destroy his kingdom, will break down his power, and will be the means of setting up the kingdom of God over man." Now here's what he says, "I want you to hear this real well tonight. Pay close attention, all I'm about to say. You gained more through Jesus than you lost through Adam. You gained much more through Jesus coming to the earth, and finally putting an end to all of this stuff that Satan had dealt mankind." You see it was because Satan came and deceived Adam that we had the law. The law came in response to sin. Without sin, if sin had never come upon the earth, there would have been no law. Jesus came not only to abolish the law. He came to give us grace. He came to give us forgiveness. He came to give us healing. He came to give us intimacy with a father. Listen, do you know something today? This is something you need to remember. You have more intimacy with God the Father right now than Adam and Eve ever had. You know why? Because I can be intimate with the Lord all day, every day. I really can. In fact, there are times in my life where I don't know what it's like not to be in the presence of the Lord. According to Genesis, God would come down on the cool of the day, and we don't know how much time God would spend with them. All I've got to say is I like my deal better than Adam's, because I can see him any time I want. I can be with him any time I want. I can have communion with him and relationship with him and constant conversation with the Lord any time I want. The Bible says that I can come boldly into his presence any time. Now, I just don't say it any night, but I can come into his presence any time. I've got a pretty good deal. I gained more through Jesus than I lost through Adam. Now, I want you to bolt ahead here because Jesus, remember that Jesus has left now. Jesus said, "I have put the kingdom of darkness under my feet. Satan is no longer has authority on the earth." And he was telling his disciples, "The only authority you're going to give, the only authority that Satan will ever have again in the church or on the earth and your family at your job and your health, any of those things," he says, "because what man is going to give him." He says that you don't have to give him an inch. The power of the early church, listen to this, because by the way, we're one year old if you're visiting Gateway Church tonight, we are one year old today. It's amazing to me why the Lord gave me this message for right now because we're in the early beginnings of the church and we're about to build a building. Can I tell you what's going to happen when we build a building and I'm excited as much as anyone else about the land we just bought and the building? I've seen the plans. It's going to be the most beautiful building we're going to have right down the street. Can I tell you what the number one temptation for all of us will be when we walk into that building to think that that building and that land is what God had for us, that we've reached the pinnacle of what God had for us, when actually it's just a facility, it's just land and it's just a facility. You see, the power of the early church was not a result of its facilities because they hadn't had none. The power of the early church was not because of its structure or its committees. The power of the early church came from the same source as the power of today's church. The fervent prayer and Jesus had taught his disciples to pray because Jesus came to the earth for one reason, for two reasons, actually came to the earth to redeem mankind and he came to the earth to plant a church. You know that Jesus came to plant a church and you know what he told his disciples, he said, "Let me tell you what's the success of the church will be. I'm not going to leave you with any buildings. I'm not going to leave you with anything that you can put your hands on except for a doctrine and philosophy and truth that will always set you free." He says, "If you will pray, I will do it. If you do not pray, I have promised you nothing. If you pray, I have promised you everything that I have written down and spoken to you and given to you in the last three and a half years, I'll give it all to you. But if you do not pray, I have promised you nothing." And so in Acts 1, Jesus has just left them in verse 12, Acts 1, verse 12, so then I returned to Jerusalem from the heel called the Mount of Olives, a Sabbath day's walk, which is only a half mile, not a very long walk. They're walking back to the city, kind of strolling along. And here's what they're talking about. This is Brady Boy in chapter 4, verse 8, okay, this is just Brady Boy theology here. They're going, "Now if it was me, here's what I'd be saying." Well, Jesus just left, did you notice that? Yep. I saw him just like you did, kind of went up into the clouds like that. Think he's coming back tomorrow? Nope. I think he made that clear that he wasn't going to come back for a while. Well, what are we going to do now? This is what I'd be saying. What now? Our leader just left. What are we supposed to be doing? And then it dawns on him. I think we're supposed to go pray and wait on the Holy Spirit, isn't that what he told us to do? He said, "Yeah." In fact, he just told us to go up to that upper room and to wait. So all we're supposed to do is wait, yep, and pray, yep. We're not supposed to be looking for some land to buy in a building, put a building. Nope. What are we supposed to do? We're supposed to go up in that room and wait and pray. What's going to happen? I have no idea what's going to happen. We're supposed to go in that room, wait and pray. And then what? I have no idea. I know what Jesus said would happen. I don't know how it's going to happen. I don't know what it's going to look like. I don't know the way it's going to happen. I don't know where any of the money is going to come from. You know, I have a family back home. And my wife's going to be calling me on my cell phone, wondering why I'm up in a room with a bunch of guys. And I'm not out working. Well, just tell her if you're doing what Jesus told you to do. This is the kind of conversation I'd be having. These are just guys. These are people that are uneducated. These are people that have never done this before. See, I've never planted a church before. This is the most exciting thing to be at Gateway. I've always been in established churches. In fact, the church that I just pastored was 101 years old when I took it over. Can I tell you what I heard the most of? Well, we've never done it that way before. [laughter] You see, that's what I love about Gateway. No one's not, not one time and don't, please, no one tell me this in the next few weeks, okay? Because it's really going to burst my bubble. I have not heard that one time at Gateway. We've never done that way before. We've never done it that way. We've never done anything that way. [laughter] I love it. So here they go. When they arrived, they went upstairs to the room where they were staying. First President were Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip and Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James, son of Altheus, Simon, the zealot, Judas, son of James, and here's what they did. They did exactly what Jesus told them to do. They all joined together constantly in prayer along with the women and married the mother of Jesus and with his brothers. By the way, his brothers did not even believe until the crucifixion. Suddenly, they were in the upper room with a bunch of wild-eyed future apostles waiting on something that happened and they had no idea what was going to happen. But they were joined together constantly in prayer. What does the word constantly mean? I believe it means this. All the time. That's real deep. They were just praying all the time. People that pray all the time make me nervous. So sometimes I like people to just pray silently. Especially when they're driving things. I've been around people who pray all the time. They take that scripture and Ephesians, all the time in the Spirit. We'll keep your eyes open when you're praying all the time. Especially if you're riding with me. Acts chapter 2 verse 42, listen to what they're doing. He says, "Now remember, the Holy Spirit has come just as Jesus promised, but just because the power came, just because they had a great service, just because suddenly 3,000 people got saved." Now look, here they are. They were 120 and they didn't know what was going to happen. Then look what happened. They went up into the upper room. Fire came down upon them. They began to speak in tongue. Peter jumps out on the balcony, he preaches 3,000 people get saved, suddenly they have a large church with lots of people coming, lots of things happening, and look what happened. Look exactly what they continue to do. They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to men's basketball leagues. They did not. Even though they had great success, everything was going well for them. They were at a time in their life where everything was going right. People were getting saved, people were getting healed, people were just begging to join the church. Money was coming from everywhere. People were selling land and giving them all the money and people were doing things like that. Yet they still held fast because Jesus said in the bad times pray, in the good times pray, and that's what they did. I was praying this morning about the history, that's their legacy, you see we have their legacy written down in Acts, and it's easy to get fired up about their early church, it's easy to look at the early church and say that's our model, that's what we've got to do. Look at the success they had, obviously we should pray, and I was thinking this morning about South Lake and Grapevine and North Richland Hills and Colleyville and Flower Mound and all the cities that I can't remember. All the towns in this area, the Metroplex, and I begin to think what are they going to write about Gateway Church in the year 2001? Will anybody even remember what happened in the year 2001 at Gateway Church? Will somebody write our story? Will we leave a legacy? Let me ask you a question, does God have a plan for 2001? You think God's plans are big plans? I do too. In fact, I believe his thoughts are higher than our thoughts, his ways are greater than our ways, and I believe that we don't even have the ability to ask or imagine for what God really wants to do. I think God wants to do more than we can ask or imagine. I believe his plans would blow your mind if you saw everything that he had in store for you and your family and your children and your finances and your health every area of your life. It would blow your mind to see God's plan for you in every one of those areas. I'm asking you, I saw this morning when I was praying a timeline, an historical timeline stretched out across the front of me, and the Lord said, "This is your time." I heard it is loud, in fact, it's bold here, in big, uppercase letters on my notes because that's how loud the Lord spoke it to me this morning. He said, "Brady, you're speaking to me personally. Brady, this is your time. I've given you this time." He said, "Your children will follow after you. You see, I have a two and a half year old and a five month old. They'll follow after me. They'll have their time. This is not their time to pray, and it's not their time to intercede, and it's not their time to accomplish anything right now, except just being babies and kids. They'll have their time, but this is my time. And the Lord's saying to you tonight, "This is your time," the Lord said, "to rise up in your nobility." In fact, some of you tonight have wondered if God ever even hears your voice, and I'm speaking to you tonight. He's hearing you, and he's waiting for you to ask, because he already has it planned out. This is a simple thing about prayer. God already has it planned out in intricate detail. If you would see the fabric of your life, the way God has woven it together, the way God has every plan and purpose woven together for your life. It's just waiting there. He's saying, "All you have to do is ask. Just ask for it. Ask in a general way. You don't even have to be specific. Just ask for it. Believe for it. Stand in agreement that I have it for you." He said, "I want to give this to you." See, I believe the reason that the prayer of J. Bez is in the Bible is not because of what J. Bez asked for. It's because he asked, "Why is it that in 1 Chronicles chapter 4 we hear all these men's names? Do you believe that none of those men prayed? No. All those men, many of those men were religious leaders of their time. Many of those men knew God. Many of those men served God. Why is it that J. Bez is singled out? I believe it is, because J. Bez asked continually and with great faith. He did not stop asking, and he asked specifically, but he asked all the time. In fact, he asked so many times that Ezra, who wrote the book at Chronicles, remembered it. That's that J. Bez always praying for the same thing. That's that J. Bez always standing up and saying, "God's going to bless him. God's going to enlarge his territory." Whenever I think of the name J. Bez, all I think about is a guy who's just always praying, always believing, always asking. That J. Bez, that guy. Or a name a town after him. So they did. I'm going to give you tonight real quickly in the next 10 minutes. I'm going to give you two elements that's going to make your prayer time more effective than you've ever had it. If I've got you up to this point where you believe that God's just waiting for you to ask right now, do you believe tonight that God's just waiting for you to ask and he's going to pour it out upon you? All you have to do is ask. All you have to do is stand in agreement. Stand in agreement. Stand in faith believing that God's already put the enemy under my feet. Satan has already defeated. The only influence he has in my life is that which I've given him. So tonight, how do we get past that and get into prayer time that's really effective? Why, Brady, after all this, do I need to even pray? Why do I bother to pray? Because I'm so discouraged. I've prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and nothing's happening. I've not seen the answer, Brady, what do I need to do? Number one, pray with the power of the Holy Spirit. You see, our greatest prayer resource is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is our empowering force as we go to prayer. The Holy Spirit breathes in us a desire to pray. It gives us power in prayer and enables us to persevere in prayer. When spiritually alive people offer living prayers, there is a spiritual combustion and powerful prayer. You see, all you have to do is look, do you believe the Holy Spirit is working with you and not against you? Do you believe the Holy Spirit is here tonight to show you how to pray? Well, by the way, they wrote something about that in the Bible in Romans chapter 8, verses 26. It's amazing that God thought about answering that question. And verse 26 of Romans 8, it says, "In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness." Let me ask you a question. I want you to be completely honest with me tonight. I believe that I am not a competent judge of my own condition. For example, I'm really nervous about the way my hair looks because this is the first time in 15 years that I've combed my hair different and it's all I've thought about all day. I haven't thought about the message. And so I've been asking people, "Please tell me. If my hair, some of you may say, "Brady, you should have asked me, okay?" But if my hair looks really bad, I said, "Pam, please tell me. If my hair looks really bad, don't let me stand in front of those people. If it just looks horrible, please don't let me stand." And so, see, I'm not a competent judge of my own condition. I need people to tell me, "When it's bad, don't you need people to tell you when things are bad around you? You may just be walking through and not think anything's wrong. Tell me if something's wrong." You see, the Holy Spirit, that's the purpose of the Holy Spirit. I have a wife. The rest of you have the Holy Spirit. To tell you when things are not right. To tell you when things don't look good. You see, the Spirit in the same way it helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for. Have you ever had that feeling just you kneel down and it's like, "God, show me what to pray for." I know I'm supposed to pray and I know what I'm supposed to pray for or who I'm supposed to pray for. I don't know how to pray. I just don't know what to do. And the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will. And let me ask you, very simple. I'm going to make this extremely simple for you tonight because this is a very deep and complex scripture if you let it be. Let's just make it real simple. Can I give you a real simple for you? Number one, you're not a confident judge of your own condition and you need the Holy Spirit to reveal the condition of your heart because you do not see yourself as God sees you. Amen? I mean, both for the good and the bad. By the way, you know that if you saw yourself through God's eyes, you know what you'd see? If you're a born-again believer in this building right now, you see most of you look at yourselves and you're like a sheep, you know, you've been called sheep by pastors, you know, I haven't seen an AK-47 on any sheep that I've seen. They're not, they're not armed, that they're helpless creatures. However, God sees you as a warrior. He sees you armed to the teeth. He sees you with this equipment that He has placed on you, the shield of faith. He has seen this powerful equipment on you and yet we walk around and let someone that weighs 75 pounds kicks sand in our face when we're sitting here ready for battle, armed for battle, and we never use the weapons. He says, "So look, the Holy Spirit sometimes will come to me when I pray and He'll show me who I am." And suddenly boldness rides up. Boldness comes over me. I pray with boldness. I pray with courage. I pray with a force in my thoughts in my heart that I never had when I walked into the room because the Holy Spirit wants to show me who I am and He wants to show you who you are tonight. Number two, you need to ask for the Holy Spirit to come in your prayer time. In fact, the very first thing you should do is to praise Him and then the second thing is Lord, come right now. Lord, I give you praise. Holy Spirit, come. That's the way you should start your prayer time. Lord, I give you praise. Come to Him with praise. The Bible says they come into His court with thanksgiving. Interim with praise. Interim with thanksgiving. Just give Him praise. If you can't think of anything else to pray for, just give worship Him. Be a worshiper in the house of the Lord. Your house is anywhere you are because this is the house now. Worship Him and then the second thing is the Holy Spirit, come right now and show me how to pray. Now look, that doesn't mean that every time you ask that, that you're going to feel something supernatural. It doesn't mean that you're going to get goosebumps, it could just be the air conditioning coming on. You know, a lot of us, we get carried away with things we're here and it's just the air conditioning coming on, the fan-hitness. You know, that's not always the Lord, so it's not always on feelings, okay? However, the Holy Spirit will come sometimes and you will feel His presence, other times you will not feel anything, yet He's still there. He's there. But you have to ask for Him to come. Holy Spirit, you're welcome here. Holy Spirit, you're welcome right now to speak into my mind and to speak into my heart and then be still and focus your attention. You see, where most people don't hit the mark in prayer is that they don't focus their attention when they're praying. By the way, how many of you, like me, pray, and what's the greatest enemy of your prayer time and don't yell out Satan because it's not? It's your flesh. Quit blaming Satan for something it's your fault. It's just flesh. You're thinking about everything you're going to do at work that day, like God does not know your schedule. You know that God can look inside your daytime or at work and can read fluent English. He knows exactly what's on your schedule that day. God understands what's on your plate so just leave it alone and your flesh is your greatest enemy. Or number four, I think, two or four, or it could be three. Be willing to wait. Be willing to wait on the Lord. Be willing to wait. Wait upon him. Wait upon him. Stay still. Sometimes the best prayer time I have is when I say about ten words, Lord, I love you. The Holy Spirit come right now and speak to me and then I wait for him to speak. I wait for him to come and I wait for him to speak to me. I don't have to do all the talking. I just want him to speak and sometimes it's all I get out and I just sit and listen and I get up and go about my day. First twenty-eight now, look, many, many times in most of your Bibles right now, most of your Bibles, if you'll look down, if you have your Bible in front of you, the next verse, I've read Romans 8, 26 and 27 and then most messages you've heard, verse twenty-eights never included. Look at verse twenty-eight. All of you can quote eight twenty-eight if you've been in Sunday school growing up and we know that in all things, God works for the good to those for good of those who love him and who have been called according to his purposes. Let me ask you something. Jeremiah twenty-nine says that God has a plan for you and it's a plan for good and not evil. It's a plan to help you not harm you. You know that scripture? It's twenty-nine, thirteen or twenty-nine eleven, it's in Jeremiah twenty-nine, just read it till you find it. But he says I have a plan for you, it's a plan to do good and not to harm you, plan to help you not hurt you, plan to help you along and not put roadblocks, it's a plan to bless you and not curse you. It says that we know in all things God works for the good of those who love and who have been called according to his purpose. In my mind, here's the way I interpret this, God's plan is good for me and God has a great plan for me. God has a detailed plan for me. I don't have to add anything to it or take anything away from it. I don't have to say God by the way, could you add this to my plan? I believe God in the womb of my mother even before the creation of the world, I believe he had a plan for me. And I stand in agreement with the Lord tonight that his plans and purposes will come to pass not only for me, but for my children and my children's children and their children. Number two, pray with persistence. You see, God is in to marinating and most of us are in to microwaving. In fact, I cannot marinate anything. I'm the worst griller, you know, when I want to marinate something, it always says leave it in there 30 minutes, 15 tops for me. I can't leave it in there 30 minutes. I mean, we went and bought a $15 stake and put it in your refrigerator and marinate it with something. You're looking at the stake, you're hungry. I'm not going to leave it in there 30 minutes, 10 minutes and it's on my grill. I want it now. In fact, I like going to the grocery store and buying those that are already marinated. I'll pay the extra five bucks just to get it on the grill quicker. You see, God knows in to marinating, he wants you to soak, he wants you to allow everything that God is in to your life and yet we want to hit a button, get it out and go. Matthew 7, verses 7 and 8 says, asking it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knocking the door will be open to you for everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds and to him who knocks the door will be opened. When you're called to pray, listen to this very closely, when you're called to pray for a person and right now in this building, I know there are some of you who have had people sit on your prayer list for a long time and you've been praying and you've been asking God, can I tell you when you're supposed to quit? There's two times you're supposed to quit praying. When the answer comes, our God lifts the burden and that's it. I know a pastor who had a man calling, an older man in his 80s calling and said, the Lord spoke to me that I'm supposed to pray for you, is that okay if I pray for you every day? I mean I don't get a lot of calls like that but I have always answered them right, yeah. Are you a Satan worshiper? No, I'm a love God. Well then you can pray for me. And this guy, and so this pastor was just curious, he never met this man, he says the man was from San Diego, this guy, my pastor friend lived in New York City, he said, I'm from San Diego, I got one of your newsletters, the Lord spoke to me that I was to pray for you, he said, well why aren't, why are you doing this far? He says, well I have a list in my Bible, the people that I pray for. And the only time I take him off is when God tells me to, which he never has, he says, he's never told me to take going off my list, or if someone else on my list, he's giving me a number of people. This number of people pray for this number of people, he says, and when one of those people die, you can add someone else to your list. He says, one of my friends that I've been praying for for over 40 years just passed away to go on with the Lord. I have an opening, and I want to put you on my list. You see, this is a guy that prays with persistence, he prays with persistence, he prays, I'm going to pray until either I die or you die, this guy is in his 80s, you know, and he's been praying for people for 40, 50 years, and they called and asked this man's pastor by this guy, he eats one meal a day, prays the rest of the day, and spends, he's retired, then he spends four or five hours a day helping people in his church that need help at their house. I'm not trying to put conviction on you or anything, but if you're not doing that, no, but tonight, here's what I want you to do, we're going to close right now. I want you to close your eyes with me, and I want you to think with me right now of one thing in your life, maybe two, that you're absolutely sure that it's God's will for this to happen in your life. You know it's God's will because it's in Scripture, it's been confirmed in Scripture, you know that it's God's will for your life, but it has not happened. [BLANK_AUDIO] [BLANK_AUDIO]