Mastery over the flesh is vital to effective prayer life. In this message, Bill Johnson gives practical insight into advancing our prayer life to be effective and on the offensive. Learn how to posture your heart to pray for the will of God.
so much thank you thank you
beautiful thanks please be
seated good evening
nice to see you glad you showed up this
thing
i think you have to take a college
course
i don’t i’ll just i think i’ll just
raise it
excuse me i should have done this before
i got up here
but it would have been hard because my
arms aren’t that long
all right merry christmas
if you see me talking to myself please
go your way
i’m self-employed and having a staff
meeting
this is dumb
imagine i love this one imagine falling
in love with someone
[Laughter]
imagine falling in love with someone and
then finding out they clap when the
plane lands
[Laughter]
that’s so dumb
jesus can walk on water i can walk on
cucumbers
cucumbers are 96 water therefore
i’m 96 like jesus
i eat twice as much meat just so that
one
vegan who thinks he’s making a
difference is making no difference at
all
the fastest land mammal is a toddler
who’s been asked what’s in your mouth
i wish mosquitos suck fat instead of
blood
[Laughter]
all right grab your bibles you guys
ready ready to get going well
let’s uh let’s go to uh matthew we’re
gonna start we’ve got several verses
we’re gonna bounce around
so get your gospel track shoes on and uh
let’s go to matthew 26.
we’ll start there and um
i really had uh some stuff really
dropped into my heart
this morning in our uh our staff
uh we have a staff prayer meeting at
seven
and um really had some stuff stirring in
my heart then so i’ve been
i’ve been chomping at the bit all day
just to be with you and talk
so i’m glad somebody showed up otherwise
it would have been gabe and me
but i i’d have gone for it gabe i’d have
gone for it i’d had all call at the end
too just want you to know
i wouldn’t i would have had one
matthew 26
the disciples only asked jesus to teach
them
one thing now he taught them many things
if if i were in the disciples shoes
from where i stand now i might have
asked him
how to raise the dead or how to heal the
sick or
how to do any number of extraordinary
things how can you do that food
multiplying thing you know
there would have been a lot of things on
my list i would have loved for him to
teach me
but though the disciples the 12 who were
with him
constantly were actually
moved by everything jesus did and said
but they were rocked by one thing and
one thing alone
above everything else and that was lord
teach us to pray
they they somehow knew um i think
through observation
they knew that whenever jesus
left them and went up onto a mountain
things were different when he came down
there was something
in in their ability to observe how he
functioned how he had handled stuff for
example
uh scripture tells us that you know he
had such
great admiration for john the baptist
his cousin
the greatest of all prophets he prepared
the way for jesus himself to come
and the bible tells us that when he got
news that john had been beheaded
he left the crowd and he went up to pray
you can i don’t want to read too much
into it but there’s obvious
obvious in some measure in his humanity
he was rocked by the one he admired so
much
who really laid down his life for jesus
himself
he just he had to get along get alone
and pray
our prayer life is defined by so many
things we
we um we tend to learn
we tend to learn to pray fervently or
passionately out of pain
uh maybe a loss maybe a crisis uh
we we uh we do reactionary prairie
defense
praying uh fairly well
um there’s a crisis uh maybe somebody’s
dying
we’ll call it fast none of that is
inappropriate those are
appropriate things but we tend to learn
to pray
focused fervent prayer out of pain or
out of
crisis of some sort
jesus the disciples were with jesus in
mark 9
and they tried to bring deliverance to a
child uh this dad brought his son to
them
and and they tried their best and and
you have to remember
that the disciples are the most
experienced people in deliverance
of any group of people to ever live on
the earth
up to that point there was no one more
experienced at deliverance than they
were
except for jesus and so
they tried everything they had done
before
previous on this child that was brought
to him and he couldn’t get him free
and jesus came up and brought
deliverance
and when they asked jesus they took him
aside privately
and they asked him how how come we
couldn’t and you could
and jesus didn’t give the answer that
that the church would give
the church would say well jesus is god
and you’re just human
but that wasn’t that wasn’t the logic
jesus functioned with
because he knew he was functioning out
of his humanity dependent on god
which is available for every disciple of
jesus
so his answer was different he said he
said well this kind only comes out with
prayer and fasting
and then he brought deliverance which
means he neither prayed nor fasted
see at the beginning of jesus’s journey
beginning of his ministry
he fasted 40 days he wasn’t fasting for
a problem
he was fasting into a lifestyle
we tend to pray defensively reactionary
we got this crisis we’ve got this
challenge we’ve got this opportunity
and we pray into it not wrong not wrong
at all
but because of that we’re always we’re
often playing catch up
catch up not heinz 57
catch it catch up sorry i’m in third
grade mode
this tonight expect more it’ll come
so we’re always playing we’re always
just a little bit behind trying to catch
up and think i
always is too big of a word it’s not
true but frequently we’re
behind the game in certain areas and
we’re having to fight our way back to
the front
so the disciples asked jesus to teach
them how to pray so that moves me
because it was the only thing they asked
to be taught out of all the things they
saw him do
so somehow that tells me that was
for those who watched him that was the
key to everything
now go in matthew 26 we’re just going to
take
one verse that’s verse 41.
watch and pray lest you enter
into temptation the spirit
indeed is willing but the flesh is weak
let’s read it again watch and pray
lest you enter into temptation
the spirit indeed is willing but the
flesh is weak this is our first verse
we’re going to bounce around so
please keep your bibles in front of you
watch and pray
lest you enter into temptation so then
that tells me
that prayerlessness or weakness in
prayer
exposes me to temptation i didn’t need
to face
it not only allows exposure to
temptation
i didn’t need to face it sometimes
exposes me to temptation that i may or
may not have the grace to overcome
he goes on to describe this thing of
praying so that i don’t fall into
temptation
he’s not i don’t believe he’s saying
pray this way oh god
please don’t lead me into temptation i
don’t think that’s what he’s addressing
here
i think he’s saying a prayerful life
insulates you from temptation
a prayer-filled life a life of ongoing
prayer
um a few weeks ago i talked to you about
uh
first thessalonians 5. rejoice always
pray without ceasing and everything of
things
and i mentioned in that message
three things about that about that verse
that i felt the lord spoke to me it was
in the middle of the night is about two
two and a half months ago now i was
awakened in the night
a friday a saturday night before coming
here early in the morning
and awakened me with this phrase and in
the jur in this
dialogue i had with him or i shouldn’t
say dialogue
in my uh uh searching my heart and mind
for explanation for what he spoke to me
this the passage rejoice always prayer
without ceasing and everything if things
came to my mind
and as i began to think over those
verses i felt as though the lord spoke
to me and said
the key to mental health is is giving
thanks in everything
the key to mental health i then
remembered hearing a
psychologist on talk radio once saying
that um
something like i forget the exact number
now something like 90
of all mental illness can be traced back
to the attempt to avoid pain
so there’s something about embracing
your moment surrendering it
to the sovereignty of god knowing that
he and he alone is good
and giving thanks in the middle of it
and then i felt like he spoke to me and
said the key to emotional health is to
rejoice always
see before you were a believer you only
rejoiced when you had joy but once
you’re in the kingdom you get joy by
rejoicing
so the measure of joy in my life is
actually determined by me
so if i’m locking joy it’s just the
evidence of my choices
and then the last part of that verse is
to pray without ceasing and
and what really hit me on that was that
kind of lifestyle prayer without ceasing
is the key to heart health
what is heart health about jesus said
adulteries murders all this horrible
stuff comes out of your heart
but then on the other end of the
spectrum he said blessed are the pure in
heart for they shall see god
so the the management of the heart is
vital
for how well we do in life uh one of my
life verses that a dear friend of mine
gave to me
goodness it was 1972.
um he he gave me this verse out of
proverbs 4
23 that says watch over your heart with
all diligence because from it flowed the
issues of life
all the issues of life flow from the
heart
so think about this heart health is
praying without ceasing
by keeping my heart in touch with god’s
heart
the right things flow from it when i
allow
distance to come between the heart of
god and my heart
i have to fight to do the right things
it doesn’t come as natural
as it would if i shared his heart does
that make sense
i’m not sure if i’m saying it perfectly
but you get the point
just work with it until it sounds right
okay all right
now here it is again watch and pray
unless you enter to temptation
the spirit is willing but the flesh is
weak what what’s that about the spirit
is willing
to do what to pray
the flesh is weak about what
prayer so the strength of my prayer life
is according to the strength of my
spirit over my flesh
a weak prayer life is a dominant flesh
the holy spirit lives in your spirit
there’s perfect communion there
they function well day and night but
there’s something that will sometimes
take master
mastery over your own spirit and that is
human weakness frailty flesh appetite
desire that is very natural and can
become very very carnal
the issue of mastery over flesh is vital
to an effective prayer life
yeah that went over well all right um
let’s see where else should we go
let’s uh go with me to acts chapter
um
[Music]
yeah let’s go to no let’s go to second
king six
second king six we’ll go there first
then we’ll go to acts 3 then isaiah 59.
now the purpose of prayer
you know we could probably make a list
of 100 things and still fall short so
i don’t want to over oversimplify
or or rob the part of prayer that is
the most important to you but let me try
to summarize at least from my
perspective here tonight
the purpose of prayer is not merely for
me
to talk to god about doing stuff
it’s really about obtaining his heart
because the more i
obtain his heart the more i pray
not parrot prayers
but the product of relation of
relationship
relational product called prayer
see it says in john 15 a servant does
doesn’t know what his master is doing
the friend does
the servant is accustomed to responding
to commands
and that’s not wrong the most
basic part of our our initial
time of learning to walk with jesus is
responding to command
but what he’s what he’s looking for is
an
interest in us about his heart so we’re
not just waiting for command
we’re looking for his values his
intentions those are the things that
move us
see when you pick up his heart you start
praying what he would have prayed if he
were in your shoes
since that is that cold laboring the
goal of prayer is to co-labor
where his heart is revealed in the earth
not because he commanded us to reveal it
or gave us recorded prayers to recite
but instead becoming a people who
in seeking him not just prayerful
outcomes
but seeking him we mirror his heart and
his nature
in our prayer relationship in our
co-laboring relationship
see touching the heart of god gives us a
unique advantage
that i’m hoping in this next phase this
next season of our life as a church
family
we can move into more aggressively
and i’ll illustrate it more in a in a
moment let’s just take a look at in fact
what we’re going to do is we’ll go to
acts 12 after this one
second kings chapter 6 verse 8. now the
king of syria was making war
against israel and he consulted with his
servants saying
my camp will be in such and such a place
and the man of god sent to the king of
israel saying beware
that you do not pass this place for the
syrians are coming down there
then the king of israel sent someone to
the place of which the man of god told
him
thus he warned him and he was watchful
there not just once or twice
therefore the heart of the king of syria
was greatly troubled by this thing
and he called his servants and said to
them will you not show me which one of
us
is for the king of israel and one of his
servants said
none my lord o king but elisha the
prophet who is in israel
tells the king of israel the words that
you speak in your bedroom
[Music]
it’s the advantage of knowing god he
knows stuff ahead of time
and if we’re listening we could pray in
advance to prevent a disaster
or to pray so that things are in place
for the disaster
when we don’t use that advantage we have
to respond or
react to things as they happen
i remember one of our uh couples
uh
in in weaverville uh their their two
kids young kids were in the back seat
kind of whispering together and and the
mom turned around and said what are you
what are you doing they said nothing
she said what did you do
and they said nothing she said tell me
what’d you do
said nothing she said okay
i’ll ask god
and she turned around she said you were
playing with matches
and they freaked because they had
started a fire that they had to put out
close to their house it’s cheating but
it’s not
you have the advantage to pray in
advance of something or
to to know where to step into place
to aggressively pray or to serve how
many of you have had
just a subtly just an impression you
wouldn’t you wouldn’t
you wouldn’t have glamorized the moment
by saying god spoke to you it’s just
a thought i’ll call somebody and happen
to be
exact moment they needed a phone call so
the lord’s voice sounds so much like
ours
that because he speaks most often for us
internally internal thought internal
impression
inspired thought and learning to lean
into him
is a huge part is a huge product of
effective praying
is that you pick up his heartbeat
without trying it’s not this groaning
and travailing to have the heart of god
it’s just simply you’re all i want
you’re what i’m interested in
i want your heart to shape mine and that
really is the outcome of prayer
jesus said come to me you are weary and
heavy-laden and i will give you rest
the real point of prayer is prayer is a
time of exchange
come to me with your weighty stuff i
will give you my light stuff there’s an
exchange
and if you come to jesus and you leave
feeling the way you came in you weren’t
praying you were complaining
prayer makes an exchange prayer takes on
the heart of god
and sees a matter from his perspective
that’s
the whole purpose of prayer and it’s not
just to leave us
there in that problem with his
perspective
it’s so that we can pray as co-laborers
to see things changed
effectively changed he’s invited us
into a relationship listen in in
you know what we call the lord’s prayer
the prayer our father who art in heaven
hallowed be your name
in the gospel of luke jesus teaches that
prayer
in response to the disciples question
lord
will you teach us to pray so
imagine this you’re one of the 12 you’re
watching jesus
things just happen when he does stuff
you see him run up to the mountain
and he’s there overnight it comes down
the next day
there’s you know stuff just takes place
and you finally just have this moment
you say teach us to pray
and then he gives you a prayer that is
the greatest commission in my in my
thinking and i
i i’m sure i could be well never mind
it’s just my that’s my
opinion the greatest there’s the great
commission to go into all the world but
the greatest commission is to pray on
earth as it is in heaven
because the whole world the whole going
into all the world getting disciples
is a part of the on earth as it is in
heaven prayer
so think about this they say jesus
teaches to pray
and he gives them a tool
that is to cause the collision of two
worlds
this is not a minor thing this is not a
philosophical thing this is not an
invitation to
dialogue with god so that you feel good
it’s about
a literal shaping the course of world
history through
your communion your conversation
intelligent conversation with the
almighty god
so that you know ahead of time what does
he want he wants on earth as it is in
heaven
so then we pray we press into these
things
so that we see it manifested in the
practical areas of life
our father who art in heaven hallowed be
your name your kingdom come
your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven
give us this day now we break it down
into the practical parts of life
there’s no lack in heaven so there
should not be lack here
so there is the confident request for
the provision of bread
some people when they translate that
verse they’ve actually said we’re not
praying for today’s bread we’re actually
praying in advance of tomorrow’s bread
that tomorrow’s bread would be released
today
give us this day our daily bread forgive
us our debts our sins as we forgive
those
who sinned against us that’s the the
nature of heaven
over our over our personal issues our
personal life
lead us not to temptation deliver us
from the evil one
for yours is the power of the kingdom of
glory forever it’s
everything else in that prayer is a
manifestation of the first part
so imagine being one of the 12 and jesus
gives you a tool and he says here
you can actually impact the entire globe
with this one tool
so here’s a prophet that hears
what a enemy king is saying in his
bedroom
actually no i have a friend of mine he
was having an
argument with his wife
and there was a prophet that was a
friend of theirs
that they both knew that was hearing the
conversation
not naturally but spiritually
this is true story he was hearing the
cover he was some distance away
but he heard them arguing and so when he
met my friend he said your wife is right
so i just i did he didn’t
he didn’t like that so you know it’s
it’s just
it’s just cheating all right
go to acts 3. forget acts 12 we’ll do
that next
go to acts 3 and then isaiah 59
you guys all right i do hope so
this this will help if we can make it
all the way through it
acts chapter three is an interesting
verse
uh the lord is is uh speaking of course
to all the believers
and in verse 25 he says
you are sons of the prophets and of the
covenant which god made to our fathers
saying to abraham
and in your seed all the families of the
earth shall be blessed
the part i want you to capture
is he announces to every believer you
are sons of the prophets why would he
say that
every believer is to live with a
prophetic anointing
every believer
there are few prophets but there are
many who are to be prophetic
if i can be really practical there’s few
evangelists but all of us are to be
evangelistic
there are few who are pastors but all of
us can be pastoral in our care
compassion for people apostolic this all
all across the board the point is
is these graces are to be functioning in
us
according how to how we are influenced
by these kinds of
of people in our lives we pick up their
graces now so that we can get a title to
tell what what’s the purpose of a title
the function is what’s important
and so here here to every believer if
this were happening right now
the decree would be made to each one of
you
you are all sons of the prophets
now isaiah 59
expands on that concept and it’s in
verse 21 the last verse of the
of the 15 did i say 29 or 59
59 go good good i meant to say 59 so i’m
glad it came out that way
you just never know all right so isaiah
59 verse 21
as for me says the lord this is my
covenant with them
my spirit who is upon you and my words
which i have put in your mouth
shall not depart from your mouth nor the
mouth of your descendants
nor the mouth of your descendants
descendants says the lord from this time
and forevermore the lord has just
identified
the way his giftings work in a family
line
he says you hear god you tell people
what he says
good now your kid’s going to do the same
and your kids kids everyone after you
is going to inherit the same grace to
hear from god and tell people what he
says
now the prophetic is simply that it is
that let’s forget the title for a minute
i believe in titles
but they’re completely unnecessary in
this context
the important thing is that everybody in
this room
has the realization i can hear from god
but we have to learn how he speaks
because he doesn’t always speak in
english
in fact he rarely speaks in english
i love how he talks to me it’s a
lifelong adventure to discover his voice
and what i found is if there’s a
willingness to hear
there’s a willingness to speak
if there’s a willingness on my end to
hear what god is saying there’s a
there’s a willingness on his end to
actually speak
there’s a passage in in john 7 that says
if you’re willing to obey his word
uh i’m going to misquote it i can feel
it
and i don’t want to because it’s
it’s important so give me just a moment
here
if anyone if anyone wills to do his will
he will know concerning the doctrine
whether it’s from god
or whether i speak on my own authority
jesus is talking he says
if you’re willing to do his will you’ll
know whether i speak on my own or from
him
what’s the point you don’t know until
you’re willing to obey
it’s it’s that illustration that we’ve
been given through the years
sign your name on the bottom of the
contract and then he’ll write the
contract
all right acts 12.
am i out of time or did it just never
start
never started i haven’t gone that long
have i no
all right oh oh i’m i’m not stopping
wild horses couldn’t stop me
all right
this is such a great chapter but there’s
a real sobering part of this chapter so
let’s
let’s uh let’s talk through this uh
beginning with verse one
acts 12 now about that time herod the
king
stretched out his hand to harass from
some from the church and he killed
james the brother of john with a sword
and because he saw it pleased the jews
he proceeded further to cease peter also
now it was during the days of unleavened
bread so when he had arrested him he put
him in prison delivered him to
four squads of soldiers to keep him
intending to bring him before the people
after passover peter verse 5 was
therefore kept in prison
but constant prayer was offered to god
for him by the church when herod is
about to bring him out
that night peter was sleeping bound with
two chains between two soldiers
the guards before the door were keeping
the prison an angel of the lord stood by
uh by him a light shone in the prison he
struck peter on the side
raised him up saying arise quickly his
chains fell off his hands
the angel said to him gird yourself tie
on your sandals and he did so and he
said to him put on your garment and
follow me
he went out followed him he didn’t know
that what was done by the angel was real
he thought he was seeing a vision
that’s you know it’s got to be weird to
be in one of those moments
you don’t know if it’s real
or if you’re watching tv you don’t you
just you just don’t know
you don’t know the moment the moment is
so has so caught you off guard that you
don’t know what’s real and what’s not
real
the verse 10 when they were past the
first and second guard post they came to
the iron gate that leads to the city
which opened to them of its own accord
and they went out went down one street
immediately the angel departed from him
and when peter had come to himself i
don’t know where he had been but when he
had come to himself
he said now i know for certain that the
lord has sent his angel and delivered me
from the hand of herod
verse 12 we’ll read just a couple more
verses
so when he had considered this he came
to the house of mary the mother of john
whose
surname was mark where many were
gathered together praying
what were they praying for for his
release
as peter knocked on the door of the gate
a girl named rhoda came
to answer when she recognized peter’s
voice because of her gladness she did
not open the gate
it’s interesting the the angel opened
the gate out of the prison
but a little girl was to open the gate
into the house
some things god will do for you some
things you have to just keep knocking
she did not open the gate she ran in and
announced that peter
stood before the gate they said to her
you are beside yourself
so she kept insisting it was so they
said to his
his angel peter continued knocking
they opened the door they were
astonished it’s just a fun story a fun
story
it’s amazing to have the answer to your
prayer knocking on the door
and and is saying
oh no it can’t be peter
it can’t be a revival our job is to pray
for revival not
have one
but go back to the beginning of the
story james was murdered
peter was prayed for
the holy spirit orchestrated
the organization of these two stories
james was arrested and murdered what was
the will of god in that situation
god can use tragedy so good that people
think he sponsors the tragedy
his ability to turn the effect of a
tragedy
into a positive thing is so masterful
that others look at it and assume it
must be
god who wanted murdered him
perhaps you’ve heard statements like uh
martyrs
are the uh they’re really the foundation
of the church they are those the seed of
the church where there’s been
great increase multiplication absolutely
true absolutely true
but if you look at first timothy chapter
two
there’s instruction pray for those who
are in authority that you can live a
peaceful life
what is the will of god the peaceful
life
what did james experience martyrdom
slight difference
i don’t know if i can say this right
i’ve tried to teach it before i never
felt like it came out right
but it’ll just fit into another one of
my heresies
in the category of heresies
okay i got i got to get a running start
on this one
is it possible
that the will of god in a particular
situation
is determined by what we’ve become
is it possible that the will of god in a
particular situation is determined by
what we’ve become
the non-praying church had a friend who
died
the praying church had a friend who was
delivered
to them
see prayer shapes us
the main thing about prayer is not me
persuading him to do anything
the main thing about prayer is that it
shapes me
it shapes how i think you know
faith gets answers but enduring faith
gets answers with character
delayed answers gain interest but they
also prune the soul
they also prune the heart
and the pruning of the heart in delayed
answers is essential what i what i have
watched take place in
many people’s lives is there’s a great
hunger for the breakthroughs of god
but that hunger i’ve watched for the
last 25 years i’ve watched
some some people with great hunger great
desperation
but it leads them into unbelief i know
that sounds awkward and strange but it
does it does
if if um let’s
see if i can phrase this better
desperation either leads to breakthrough
or to unbelief
that passion of the soul that is
dependent on an answer to be satisfied
usually leads to unbelief the passion of
the soul
that leads to a person
ends up different the person we’re in
in i’m seeking for this miracle but the
number one ambition of my soul is to
discover who he is moses said
let me know your ways that i might know
you
every time every time god reveals an
aspect of his nature
it’s not automatic that i’ve encountered
him
but it is an invitation
revelation of his nature is always an
invitation for encounter
that’s that’s how he works he showed he
showed abraham that he was uh
he was jehovah jireh what was the point
abraham needed provision and he showed
him a possibility
he showed him what was available and he
came to know the god of provision
that story can be repeated countless
times throughout scripture the point is
when god reveals his his nature it’s
always an invitation for relationship
for encounter
he doesn’t show us what he you know he
doesn’t show us stuff so we get smarter
i mean intelligence is part of it but
it’s a byproduct it’s not the goal
the goal is encounter with the person
because the the more
the more i see him the more i am like
him
you know that passage it says when we
see him we will be like him
that’s true but it’s also a progressive
part of our journey
the more i see his heart the more i see
his nature the more i become transformed
in my own soul in my own heart
i started by saying we learn passionate
praying
out of pain and it may be a crisis it
may be a need
but but the point is is we’re desperate
and so we
we we we don’t just do now i lay me down
to sleep kind of prayers
we don’t just do bless the food and the
people who made it kind of prayers
we’re actually we’re actually praying to
make a difference in something we get
our heart and soul into it
and um
either we learn to pray
out of out of
passion we either learn to pray
passionate prayers out of pain
or we have to have we have to find
somewhere else
within us to learn passionate prayers
because prayers that don’t move you
don’t move him
you know the token stuff that we do i’m
not gonna say he
he can or won’t ever answer i’m i’m not
going to tell you i’m not going to tell
him what he can do
but we can see in scripture the things
that move him are
is when people put their life on the
line and they cry out
this uh verse i read a little bit ago
out of
excuse matthew 26 keep watching praying
that you may not
enter into temptation the spirit is
willing
the flesh is weak i didn’t know this
until this evening
i was i was looking at this word the
spirit is willing this word willing
because there’s there’s uh interesting
combinations
of words used in the new testament the
will of god and i was wondering
what category this one fell in but it
missed both of them
and it created a new category of its own
it it comes this word uh the spirit is
willing
this word actually comes from two words
the one is
uh it would be the word before or ahead
of it’s it’s uh
it’s aggressively moving ahead that kind
of a word
and the other word that this word
willing comes from is the word passion
so the word then can basically be
translated
the spirit is in eager pursuit
it’s not just willing in a sense well if
it happens i’m good with it
you know it’s not that kind of willing
it’s not uh you know i’m willing to ever
you know i hear pastors say i’m
i’m i you know i want revival i’m
willing if god
so chooses us he knows my address
kenneth
it’s not that kind of willing
we just bought a new house so actually
not just a year and a half ago we bought
our new house
and we’ve been remodeling and so we left
our furniture at the other house that we
sold
and uh but in that house i had a massage
chair that was
the will of god for my life
i believe in body ministry and that uh
that chair just did it i
i was sitting there i’d push the buttons
and
get a whole new release in my prayer
language right there
and betty would say uh say you want
something to eat i’m going in the
kitchen i go yeah i’m starving
i wasn’t starving enough to go into the
kitchen myself
but as long as you’re going in there
i’ll take
cheese banana an apple
that’d be great so she comes back with a
little plate
and the starving person is eating never
moving from his
body ministry chair
absolute will of god
and many people are willing to move in
the things of the spirit that way
if you bring it to me i’m ready
but that’s not the nature of this one
the spirit is willing
this is saying your spirit has an
appetite
and is in pursuit of something but your
flesh
can shut it down
so here’s what i was thinking about
and i i’m i uh
i’m i’m thinking here’s what i’m
thinking about
you’re probably wondering what is he
thinking about
and i’m about to tell you
i think
there’s a measure of prayerfulness that
we can learn
where we spot a disaster before it
happens
and can prevent it
i don’t want to get weird with this i i
believe in it very very much i
i i nobody could talk me out of it it’s
too strong in history
but there’s a there’s a prayerfulness
let me back up
either we learn to pray passionately out
of pain
or we start learning to pray
passionately out of hope
something has to replace the the
classroom the classroom for us
is problems very
few people can move
into a measure of hope that causes them
to burn
hope remains a concept an idea oh
someday it’s going to be better
boy i look forward to when our whole
city is saved
but it’s not a burning thing it’s a it’s
it remains a concept it remains a
a principle an ideal but when that ideal
starts working into the fabric of who we
are suddenly we learn to pray from a
different place because we’ve seen
what’s possible
we’ve seen what’s possible and it’s in
those moments of hope we start picking
up
his ideals his thoughts his ambitions we
start
we start seeing ahead of time um
strategies of the enemy now i’m not a
devil conscious person i just
and and i don’t people make me nervous
that i always talk about the devil
just it annoys me to pieces
it annoys me to many pieces
i i don’t like this no it’s not healthy
for me when i’m around people like that
i just i usually just kind of check out
you know anything that happens is a is a
demon and they measure their success by
the attack on their life
i don’t yeah i just don’t i don’t like
that the devil’s real he’s there
you know i want him in the crosshairs
long enough to pull the trigger that’s
just about it
he’s not a part of my conversation they
don’t create theology around him
i’m on a journey my my responsibility is
not to react to the devil it’s to
respond to the father
and we have we have one of two ways to
live
there’s a false sense of spirituality by
learning to react to the devil
because you’re spiritually minded but
you’re you know we become devil minded
we become reactionary
instead of offensive we’ve got to move
from defense to offense
having said that
when the king is making his plans
in his bedroom and god let you hear the
conversation
it’s always so something bad doesn’t
happen
without your action
and while i never want to be overly
devil devil conscious
i i you know paul i apologize it’s one
of the two and they’re both good
one of the two said i don’t want you to
be unaware of the devil’s devices
and that’s uh that’s a an important
thing to remember i
i don’t want to make him my study but i
don’t want to be ignorant of the kinds
of things he does
and what he does do
the lord already knows in advance
the devil’s predictable
he’s only got a couple cards in his hand
he uses accusation intimidation
mockery he’s only got he’s got only got
a couple tools
he accuses he intimidates
he mocks works to make us introspective
he uses a distraction
but there’s really not a lot of tools in
this toolbox
and tragically those tools have worked
pretty good
but the lord i believe through this
prayerfulness that i’m talking about
watch and pray keep your eyes open just
be alert
watch and pray so that you don’t
entertain
into temptation prayerfulness
being spiritually alert
enable you to see the environment you’re
in to where things that would have
caught you off guard won’t catch you off
guard
and things that would have put you on
the defense
are now null and void because you’re on
the offense
and things that would have appealed to
you now are like a third shoe you have
no place to put it
and when the heart of a person is
connected to the heart of god
wrong things are not appealing
they’re not appealing
jesus in john 17 said i gave them my
glory that they might be one
that they might be one unity is not the
product of
us working hard to have unity
i i believe in working hard to have
unity but i’m just saying
you’re not going to get there at the
level jesus is talking about
by mere human effort he said i gave them
my
glory that they might be one what is
that it’s the manifested presence
it’s hard to be in the glory and be mad
at anyone
two of our great heroes of the faith
actually be three it was john and
charles wesley his brothers
the theologian and the music writer the
wesleys
and then george whitefield and they were
they were both
uh great leaders and great men of god
in the in the great awakening
and i think it was charles wesley that
wrote a letter
to john they were they were opposite
theologically
uh they their their emphasis was was so
different one was very calvinistic one
was very armenian and they just they
were
in opposition theologically and
they were both used in the same move of
god
it’s crazy because throughout history
people would
have a certain belief exercise it with
great confidence
and there would be people saved and to
them that confirmed they were right
and then the person on the opposite end
of the spectrum
used their theology which is the
opposite
and would preach the gospel people would
be saved and that would confirm to them
they were right
it’s supposed to just confirm the power
of the gospel
and charles wesley wrote a letter to um
i believe it was charles who wrote a
letter to george whitefield
and he said we had more love when we
knew less
and that’s a sobering statement we had
more love when we knew less
thankfully that’s not that’s not a
predetermined outcome
it’s not like there’s no other option
but when your knowledge
doesn’t lead to encounter it trains you
to argue with those who differ and
knowledge from the scriptures to take us
to the person and if it doesn’t we’re
just getting more calloused
to to assert our correct
our correctness over
those who differ
back to the main subject i’m sorry i’m
all over the map gets back to praying
just pray okay
just pray and pray passionately
you know i i know probably for most
people in this room the thought of
praying for two or three hours is
is quite foreign just do it every once
in a while
you know once a month once every six
months i don’t care just do it sometime
just create something in your day where
you just go alone and you pray
and don’t wait for great inspiration
just obey
lift your voice and pray strong prayers
well i don’t feel like it yeah the flesh
is
strong so get that rascal to submit
and pray according to your spirit not
your flesh
the flesh will make you very appealing
to humanity the spirit will make you
stand up
it’s not about putting on a show it’s
getting alone with god but the point is
you take time and you bear your soul
every one of us need these moments with
god where we truly bear our soul and
and we just pour everything out i’ve had
times walking through the woods
i’m just i’m weeping before the lord
i’ve got such
consternation of soul i’ve got such
difficulty that i’m facing i’ve got to
have a miracle i’ve got to have a
breakthrough
and i just walk where the mountain
chapel is now up in weaverville
um that property i started walking we
were
in a little uh sanctuary seated i don’t
remember
80 people or something uh and we were we
were busting at the seams and multiple
services and so i started walking on
this piece of property thinking this
would be a great place to build
and uh and i didn’t know it was actually
two lots not one and it was owned by two
different owners
but i just started walking on it and all
of a sudden out of nowhere they both
came up for sale
and so i i went to the board i said man
i fee we gotta we gotta build
we need to build and and this property
up here is for sale
a couple of guys were real estate so
they began to research it and
came back and we were just not in a
place financially to do it
and then somebody prophesied that
morning sunday morning we were going to
have a meeting that sunday afternoon
when you prophesied sunday morning that
if you wait for all the
conditions to be right you’ll never
plant a crop
and so as a team we heard that word went
all right let’s do it
conditions aren’t right but god is
and we felt it was you know it wasn’t a
careless random decision
it was a prayed into decision that we
lacked the courage to
pursue aggressively in other words we
prayed for an open door he opened the
door and now
we’re going
if this be your will you know one of
those things
i need another sign
you know i i i chuckled george mueller
was was the ultimate man of great prayer
he had over 10
000 recorded prayers and answers
in his lifetime he was asked by a
reporter towards the end of his life
have you ever had a prayer that when it
wasn’t answered and he said
he said no and he said well one
it’s not answered yet but it will be
how can it be any other way i’m still
praying
how can it be any other way i’m still
praying and then he said
it’s for the salvation of of the son
of a dear friend of mine
and they that young man was converted at
george mueller’s funeral
the final check on his list of prayers
he was in prayer one day and he caught
this picture of a building he was to
build he
built and ran this orphanage
and he they just did everything by
prayer he didn’t do anything by
human promotions stuff like that just
everything prayer
so he caught this picture of a building
he was to build and as he’s walking from
the prayer room across the playground a
child comes up to him
and gives him the equivalent of a penny
and says here this is for the new
building
mueller took it lifted it up to heaven
and said thank you for the confirmation
i prefer checks of about a hundred
thousand dollars
to confirm thanks for me i i i need a
little
extra
confirmation
this is a fun journey we’re on
and the way you get more answers to
prayer is to pray more
it’s the fact that nothing’s off limits
it’s that i pray without ceasing and
it’s that connection to his heart that
keeps my heart in a right place
and what he’s looking for i i’ve said
this before and it sounds
it’s just another level of heresy but it
sounds
it sounds it sounds wrong so give me a
moment
the lord disciplines us so that his
blessings don’t kill us
but here’s the one that sounds worse
the lord disciplines us so that our will
will be done
now let me just let me just say
i’m not interested in talking god into
anything i’m not trying to demand my way
i i i like for him to tell me what to do
i love his will i’d just rather him talk
to me
but what i found out is he wants my
interaction
and he’s the one who invited four times
in john
uh 14 15 and 16 four times in three
chapters he invited us ask for whatever
you want and it’ll be done
so how does that happen it’s not by
being robots
or a parrot that repeats scripted
prayers
it’s by interacting with him so deeply
that he trusts our heart
and it’s out of that heart connection
that we actually find ourselves praying
the things that please him
watch us down
i think this kind of praying is
something that every parent
in the room should ask god
to teach him because what happens is it
it enables you to pray ahead of a
problem
and i don’t want any you know i don’t
want to create any shame if you know if
you’re facing a crisis or something
you know the shame won’t help help us
deal with it
but i do think some of the times we
could avert something
we could avoid certain things by just
praying ahead of time
pray so that you don’t enter temptation
pray
because there are certain situations
coming your way that you don’t need to
face
and if you pray you will keep yourself
insulated from those things
amen amen
amen bill that’s a very good point amen
all right
i remember a guy talking years ago
um back in the 70s
i know most of you weren’t born in
but i remember a guy talking he lived in
the second story of a home
and uh and it just when he got up in the
morning to shower it just took forever
for the hot water to get from the
opposite side of the house
downstairs up to where his bedroom was
so every night before he went to bed he
would go to the
shower and he would just turn it on
barely
to where it would just drip hot water
all night long
now that would be heavily frowned upon
today
so this pretend you’re in the 70s
and he kept it so the hot water was just
really always available
is what it what it meant so when he got
up in the morning he turned hot water
it was instant when you pray without
ceasing a christ
crisis comes you’ve already got fire
you’ve already
you’ve already got the heat to deliver
to that situation
you don’t have to warm up you don’t have
to
you know go off and fast and pray for 10
days you already are boiling with
because you’re you’re birthing answers
continuously
we don’t we don’t pray just simply
because we feel inspired in the moment
we pray because
this is our life this is what we do
prayer is not something i turn on and i
turn off
prayer is who i am i am one who communes
with god
it happens uh brian wrote a song years
ago
uh my son uh out of uh a song of songs
where he says though i sleep yet my
heart is awake
your spirit man is a continual
fellowship with god
so learning to shut the flesh up
and listen to the spirit means there’s
this continuous
bent towards communion with god
all right i’ve pretty much
wore my mouth out so we’ll just stop
right there
let me just pray for you
put a hand on somebody’s shoulder next
to you
we’re just this warm and fuzzy group we
just like to touch each other all the
time
the poor people who come here that don’t
like touching anyone
i’m sorry make sure you always sit on
the end
because then you’ll only on one of the
far ends
because then you only have to touch one
side
we should put out a pamphlet keys to
entering bethel
things sorry
yeah how to do bath bomb yeah
when they wave the flag just duck just
stop
[Laughter]
oh i was going to pray yes get back to
prayer
take a moment and just ask
ask the lord to impart a fresh grace for
prayer
simple easy continuous flow of
interaction with the almighty god
thank you father increase the grace
for prayer the communion with god
wake us in the night lord i do pray for
that she’d actually wake us with this
this um this burning heart for you this
affection for you
that it would be uh not just during the
appropriate
song but it actually surprises how often
we just find ourselves leaning
into who you are leaning into what
you’ve said leaning into your invitation
for us to pray and i do pray that this
year would be the year of the most
extraordinary breakthroughs and answers
to prayer
and i do ask as well you said we are the
sons of the prophets and you have sealed
up
in our gift mix the ability to hear your
voice
so i’m asking tonight that you would
alert
us to things happening before they do so
we know how to pray
and that we would we would find
ourselves hearing the secrets of the
enemy king
of what he speaks in the bedroom at
night that we would hear those words
and not live devil conscious but live
proactive to bring protection safety
to the flock to the people of god i ask
this in jesus name amen amen
go ahead and drop your hands you know
i’m going to turn it over
mama’s here one one more
sorry one more thing there’s always a
chance with this many people in the room
i’m sorry my i got a a frog or maybe a
whole
a whole tribe of frogs in my in my
throat
sorry i was i was giving an altar call
once
gabe where you hear what i did this was
a lot of years ago i was giving an altar
call once and i burped in the middle of
the altar call
in i i did i went oh there goes one
right there
[Laughter]
i shouldn’t have done that
but i still think it was funny so
i i just killed the moment here
there’s always a chance with a crowd
this size that there could be people
here that don’t have a personal
relationship with jesus
that’s the big deal you know all the
other stuff
it’s all add-on but the big deal
is why i’m alive what was i born for god
created me for his pleasure
and for me to learn my absolute
perfect delight in life is with him
and he is here to forgive of sin
and to truly bring into his family
the disciples followed him they became
followers disciples of jesus
and if there’s anybody in the room that
would just say that’s me i i don’t want
to leave until i know
what forgiveness is like i truly want to
follow jesus
if there’s anyone in that category put
your hand up because we just want to
celebrate what god is doing in your life
there’s one way back over here
yep beautiful
is there anyone else anyone else just
saying that’s me
i i want to follow jesus with all of my
heart
anyone okay i’m going to ask um
joel maybe you could help me with this
go way back
there in the corner and the individual
will find you
he’s coming your way because he’s going
to bless you and talk with you
there he goes get in the aisle bless him
I trust in God God weapon is only Wisdom Jesus is not coming back the son of man is coming soon.