God is calling us to go beyond convenience and co-labor with Him through prayer, that we would see His will carried out on the earth. We have the opportunity to “birth” the promises of God as we labor and partner with Him in prayer. He didn’t promise this journey would be free from suffering or pain, but we will see His purposes fulfilled as we hold onto and stand firm upon His Word. Refuse to settle for anything less than the promises of God for your life.
go ahead and sit down thanks thanks so
much
um
well i love you too thank you i just
feeling so much love in the room here
there we go
it’s too high i can’t see you well
on your on the floor
it was months ago
we weren’t able to meet in here so we
met out in a tent
and uh
these guys pitched a couple huge tents
out there and we were there in horrible
weather
i remember seeing some of our team
kneeling you know and and the rain was
pouring in going right where they were
kneeling
i thought that’s good and the kids were
there
children all bundled up on blankets
playing with their toys and
and
making a difference
in jesus name
anointed toys
and uh and since we have been able to
meet uh
we’ve kept this going but have wanted to
maintain some of
of what the lord really uh
i don’t want to say birth because it’s
been around for a long time but really
began to develop in us
and that is a real mission of prayer
and uh the whole concept uh mike
brickell and ihop has
really uh capitalized on it well taught
it well modeled it well
you know it’s out of room excuse me
revelation chapter five i was looking at
it just a moment ago in fact i was
reading revelation right now
and there’s this verse in chapter 5
where he says
it says the 24 elders fell down before
the lamb each having a harp and a golden
bowl full of incense which are the
prayers of the saints
a bowl of incense you heard
it talked about just uh just a moment
ago
the bowl of incense as
being
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bring the prayers of the saints
and i was i was uh thinking earlier
today in anticipating being able to come
uh to be with you tonight
about uh one of my favorite stories
and it’s in the book of numbers if you
want to turn there i’m just gonna i’m
not going to talk long which is a
miracle but
i do believe in miracles
i want you to turn if you would to
numbers chapter 16. i’ve got several
verses we’ll just see what we have time
for because i’m not going to do a full
teaching because then he wants to get
back into worship and prayer
but there’s this
situation in number 16. i love reading
numbers and
all these bizarre stories you know
and here’s this plague that is just
killing
i don’t remember how many now the
thousands of people if i recall
correctly
uh plagued and it says in
in verse 46 moses said to aaron this is
number 16 verse 46 moses said to aaron
take a censer
put fire in it from the altar
put incense on it take it quickly to the
congregation and make atonement for them
for wrath has gone out from the lord the
plague has begun
then aaron took it as moses commanded
ran into the midst of the assembly
and already the plague had begun among
the people so he put
in the incense and made atonement for
the people
here’s a phrase he stood between the
dead and the living
so the plague was stopped
what does the incense represent
biblically prayer
he stood between the living
and the dying and the dead
and
if ever there was a time where we needed
for the people of god god to rise to
[Music]
to our potential to our call to our
place in prayer it’s right now to stand
between the living and the dead
and um
there are times where
the
the measure of sin etc that exists in a
given situation requires judgment but
the lord looks for mercy
and he looks for those who will
intercede and pray and that’s really our
role
uh so many would look at this and say
well if god sent the plague just let it
go it’s supposed to
discipline everybody and put them in
their place and that’s not the heart of
the lord
the heart of the lord there are times or
circumstances demand response but he’s
looking for someone who will simply pray
and this uh harpoon bowl concept once
again that the ihop does so well
is a mixture of intercession and worship
and it’s what’s been going on here for
for months now uh very very grateful
very very thankful i’ve not been a part
of it uh
of
recently
due to
my need to be with the to take care of
my wife
but i i love the picture here of taking
incense or let’s just put it this way
the cry of your heart and run into the
middle of a battle
prayers of convenience get answers of
convenience token prayers get token
answers
and prayers that are costly prayers that
that are literally put on the line are
the ones that actually shape the course
of history and we see with hannah we see
that hannah when she was wanting a son
and she had prayed and prayed and prayed
nothing had happened and she finally
comes before the lord and she is she’s
besides herself in the way she is
praying in fact the uh
eli the priest comes to her and says you
know you shouldn’t come to the temple
drunk and she said i’m i’m not drunk i’m
i’m just i’m i’m grieved in heart and
she is praying outside of her norm and
sometimes it takes prayers outside of
our norm
sometimes we get a religious muscle
developed where we have a norm and then
there’s outside of the norm
see
you just with that you just make lights
go on and off it’s amazing
praying outside of yourself put puts you
on
puts you on uh
you put your
your your reputation your thoughts your
uh self-esteem your al
all of who you are it gets put on the
line and there is a summons
before the lord to see something changed
and uh it’s not an everyday prayer to be
honest it’s not an everyday prayer
because it’s it’s uh it’s too exhausting
and jesus talked about those of you who
when you fast put oil on your face do
all this make sure that your countenance
doesn’t carry
the countenance of the battle in the
prayer time make sure that when you get
in public you’re not that person
many of us were turned off at an early
age to intercession because everyone we
knew that was an intercessor was
depressed
they were they were the sourest looking
people on the planet why we didn’t want
to be like them
and uh
and the but the lord is is really
calling us into a place in a place of of
intense prayer
fasting is not an act that we do to
get brownie points it doesn’t like
increase our favor
fasting is because we’re hungrier for
something that we can’t see than we are
for what we can see fasting is just
simply one of the ways you refine focus
and refine focus is where there’s a
display
excuse me refined focus is where there’s
the greatest display of god’s given
authority that he’s given to us
refine focus is that laser beam of
effective uh
service in in prayer
what happens in in prayer so often
is
prayers of
prayers of convenience i’ve got to be
careful here because some of those
powerful prayers in the bible were one
sentence prayers
i read the book of nehemiah you’ll see
them but they weren’t prayers of
convenience they cost him
they cost him they they followed
pretty radical obedience pretty radical
pursuit of the will of god
and yet he he prayed these one sentence
prayers we sometimes think in terms of
long uh
you know
hours of
religious activity and prayers which is
has its place
but uh but the lord is actually there
are times where we pray pray pray pray
pray and then we pray and something
happens
there are times where we we keep
ourselves busy in the activity of prayer
and then there’s an insight then there’s
there’s a word that comes to mind and
then there’s somebody walks over to you
and there’s a partnership uh the
agreement in prayer sometimes the
breakthrough is waiting for a moment and
we position ourselves
with the absolute embracing of our
assignment to pray until we see
breakthrough
and there’s that kind of a moment that
comes upon the people of god where we we
we pray but we continuously position
ourself for god show me what else there
needs to be done because sometimes the
breakthrough comes at the end of a
simple decree sometimes it’s an act of
obedience sometimes
quite honestly sometimes we’re i’ve seen
situations where we pray pray pray and
finally we just
we see no breakthrough
but we just leave it and say it’s done
we just walk away i refuse to wrestle in
this one anymore
it’s because there’s that sense of
confidence from the presence of god that
it’s a done deal
and sometimes inactivity is your
greatest activity
sometimes the position of rest is your
strongest position sometimes it’s it’s
violence
by violence in a
christian sense let me
let me redefine that because this will
be reposted i’m sure
but not my explanation just the violence
part
violence in the kingdom is faith
and it’s faith that’s followed with
activity
faith is is is violence when when the
bible says in matthew 11 it says that
the kingdom of heaven suffers violence
and the violence take taken by force
that violence is the activity
that is sponsored by faith
it is
it is
faith faith is violent because it
requires action
and that and
you you can’t you can’t
take biblical action and have nothing
happen
you can be busy and have nothing happen
you know you can be busy with you know
christian activities but uh
uh and have nothing happen but but this
response to the spirit of god
where we make that decree where we give
that gift where we march from the
building
uh goodness
of
i remember goodness i remember so many
so many interesting stories in my own
history of learning this and i’m still
learning this by the way
but uh interesting history in in this
breakthrough of prayer
i remember um
hi guys
they might be playing cards or something
i remember
what would be
called our our level of maturity you
know going back 40 some years ago our
level of maturity was quite small but
our prayers were very sincere
and they were prayers of a spiritual
child and they moved heaven
i mean i could take you to a location
here in town where drugs were pretty
much dealt in the open
and
i
there’d just be a line of people there
and it was it was out in the open
you could get anything and it was we
would go we went down there one friday
night and we just cried out to god about
25 of us we’ve got a big circle and the
guy at that location came out and and
mocked us and called the police
and the police the police came said what
are you doing
and our leader said we’re praying for
you he said keep it up
and left
but that place that was a
center of drug dealing in the area it it
never was again it actually ended that
night
i i don’t know what happened and i was
able to compare notes with a friend of
mine who was a a heavy drug user uh
during that time who later got saved and
we were talking about
uh this particular location and he said
yeah he said the strangest thing
happened i i went there one saturday
night and now we
you know we prayed there friday night he
said i went there one saturday night to
to buy what i normally buy and
i couldn’t find anybody there there was
no one there and i said yeah we were
there friday night that’s why because
we’re their friend and something
happened the lord just took the simple
prayers of of about 25 of us that just
cried out to god god do something
different here
and sometimes you just have to step
outside of convenience sometimes you’ve
got to go somewhere sometimes you have
to walk on the property sometimes you
have to find uh the verse that god is
breathing on and you camp there and you
make the decree of that particular
passage and you pray that verse and you
just
there’s just the unwillingness to back
off from an assignment because heaven
has not yet invaded earth in that
particular location
and um
i
there’s an aspect of prayer that is uh
is the easiest aspect in the world to
avoid in fact why don’t you do this
go to
go to galatians 4 and colossians
colossians 4 galatians 4 and colossians
4.
galatians 4 is what we’ll read first
verse 18 it’s good to be zealous in good
things always
and not only when i’m present with you
my little children for whom i am
i labor in birth again until christ is
formed in you there’s the phrase i want
i labor in birth again until christ is
formed in you
that’s a that’s a very strange statement
for a man to say
i’m in labor pains i’m having labor
pains until christ is formed in you
that’s what leaders do
see the weightier responsibility the
weight of your prayers
and they’re not prayers that are easy
they’re not prayers of convenience
but you have to remember when you get it
from prayer put the oil on your face so
to speak
walk out to be with people
and don’t carry that
that heaviness with you as you love and
care for people
that’s that’s the big deal it’s not very
complicated but it’s challenging
it’s it’s very simple but it’s it’s
challenging to carry out where you you
get alone with the lord
and you and you do business with god i
don’t know how else to say and nobody
feels like they know what they’re doing
nobody gets before the lord and says
well i know what i know what to do i’ll
do steps one two and three and then i’ll
get the breakthrough now
it’s a relational journey and you don’t
know what you’re doing
so you get before your father you bring
along his word and somehow you make it
work until there’s breakthrough
you read to get insight you cry out to
god make your heart known
and in that place of vulnerability he’s
able to adjust your heart when it needs
to be adjusted sometimes he’ll refine
the focus sometimes he’ll intensify it
but it’s it’s it’s the prayer that says
i am unwilling to be satisfied with the
discipline of prayer
i must be satisfied with the
breakthroughs of prayer
see many people have faith in prayer
it’s kind of weird it’s faith in god
look at colossians 4.
and this is the one that illustrates
illustrates it best
however you say his name i never did get
it
epifras epaphras
oh epi
who is one of you a bond servant of
christ greets you always laboring
fervently for you in prayers that you
may stand perfect and complete in all
the will of god do you see that
always laboring fervently and the word
here is labor as in giving birth
in case you were
were thinking it was just
diligence
laboring i was with my wife when she had
all three of my kids
if i wasn’t born again i would probably
worship her
i mean
what she went through my goodness
gracious honestly that’s that’s a joke
but you get the point it’s
stunning what they go through i remember
when she was giving birth to her her
last child leah
i
there’s others in the room and i turned
to have a conversation
and i felt this
grip
on my arm
that caused me to repent
i did not know we were in a moment
and that she needed my complete
undivided attention in that moment
and that’s what prayers laboring prayers
do
they are always unto something
laboring prayers are not
glamorous
there are not anything you want to talk
about afterwards but you’re certainly
ready and willing to celebrate the
breakthrough
it’s the it’s the child i remember when
we
first got married benny wanted seven
children
and uh after eric right after eric was
born she wanted one
it completely rearranged her perspective
but it took a little while then she was
ready to go again but uh
so here’s this here’s this interesting
statement it says
always laboring fervently for you in
prayers
so that labor of galatians could easily
be
described as efforts in prayer that you
may stand perfect and complete
i want to read one more verse it’s going
to seem somewhat out of place but i want
to tie this up because i’d rather get us
back to
to worship and
and prayer but look uh with me if you
would to first peter
chapter four i i actually had about
six or seven
passages that i wanted us to study
tonight but i just i don’t want to now
i don’t want to now
but i do want to end with this passage
very unusual
um
how many of you have remember the verse
in colossians i think it’s chapter one
where he’s where where paul’s writing to
the church at uh
the colossian
church and he he says um
i’m suffering
to make up for what is lacking in the
sufferings of christ
that verse has bothered me
forever
paul says he’s going to suffer because
he’s going to make up for what was
lacking
so let’s make something clear
the redemptive suffering of jesus
there was nothing lacking
the only thing lacking in the sufferings
of christ is the sufferings that only
you and i can carry
it’s not that his was deficient
is that our yes requires excuse me our
yes subjects us to difficulty
all right
i can tell some of you haven’t read
first peter in a while
first peter chapter 4 verse 1 therefore
since christ suffered for us in the
flesh arm yourself
with the same mind
for he who has suffered in the flesh has
ceased from sin
pretty cool outcome
he has suffered
in the flesh she
ceases
a lifestyle of sin
see many people still struggle with
certain sin parts of their life because
they’ve never said a bold enough yes to
god to re that would attract conflict
and difficulty
it’s the conflict and difficulty that
refines the focus where sin becomes
unappealing
a bold yes that attracts opposition it’s
not the attempt to attract opposition
it’s not
you know it’s not uh
um
it’s not at all being obnoxious so the
people don’t like you it’s not that it’s
just being bold enough in your yes to
follow jesus
that people pick it up and they oppose
you
and that journey
is a part of what helps us if we can say
with paul makes up for what was lacking
the part that was lacking was jesus
couldn’t do what i needed to do
and suddenly refines focus to where
things that were once appealing no
longer have appeal why
because i’ve i’ve walked through fire
i’ve walked through the water
i’ve walked through the the war i’ve
walked through the battle
and the things that that may have been
mildly attractive a year ago are no
longer attractive at all why because
there’s
there’s been a fire
and it’s nothing to glorify it’s just
it’s the it’s a fact of life arm
yourself with this mentality that says
my yes
will bring opposition
and i’m okay
i’ve told you many many many times
through the years
if i don’t live by the praises of men i
won’t die by their criticisms
arm yourself
with the realization
that a absolute yes to jesus
brings breakthrough
creates eternal friendships partnerships
and occasion for opposition
and you don’t get to pick and choose
they all come in one glorious package
that was pretty cool huh won’t you stand
let’s get uh get our team back up here
and i i don’t know
if there’s something you want to do
right i’m gonna lead you in prayer and
then i’m gonna turn it over to these
people because they’re smart
they’re they’re in charge
jesus
said in john 16
it’s a portion of scripture that has
stood out to me
for quite a few years and i’ve actually
taught on it several times too so this
will be
perhaps a reminder for many of you
jesus said
whatever you ask for in john 16 will be
given to you
that your joy may be full
i know this sounds strange
but in some ways you and i have to take
responsibility
to get answered prayers
oftentimes we pray carelessly and blame
the lack of breakthrough on him
it just wasn’t his will
when in fact he was inviting us into a
place with a refined focus
where we’re unwilling to settle for
anything but the will of god
and strangely he describes this as as
one of the several times in scripture
where he says this is this is your
access point to fullness of joy
see i’m either going to have
joy
from the discipline of prayer
or the breakthroughs that prayer brings
and the fullness of joy only comes from
breakthrough in other words you were
born to get answers you were designed we
were designed to see things happen to
have the ache of god work in us where we
where we relentlessly pray lift up our
voices to see things happen
i want you to take a moment just to
put a hand on someone next to you
grab their hand do something
and i want you just to ask the lord to
release over them a real spirit of
prayer a real anointing for prayer
that john 16 would be fulfilled in them
and uh and lord keep us from just the
token
tokenism that often happens in prayer
but move us into
into the kind of prayers that aaron did
with that incense where he stood between
the living and the dead and the plagues
stopped god we want the plague to stop
because we stand between the living and
the dead
we stand between in that place
pray for that mantle of prayer to come
upon those around you
i want to hear you pray
i want to hear you pray out loud
breakthroughs lord god
breakthroughs