What did Jesus mean when he said to pray without ceasing? Bill Johnson teaches from multiple stories about the significance of praying at all times. The true substance of prayer is our relationship with God increasing, everything else is icing on the cake.

erica shall be saved why don’t you say

that with me america shall be saved

you know say it again

america shall be saved one more time

[Applause]

turn to your neighbor tell them to put

on their seat belt

[Applause]

for some it’s already too late

you know before we uh

get into the word

um

why don’t you stand we’ll just

you’ve been sitting for so long at least

two minutes

this is the home of christian aerobics

when jesus said walk and pray we felt he

was serious so we we keep you on your

feet you know

or was i watching praying i was watching

but never mind

um

how many of you have uh family members

that just need to get right with god

they just need to get rid of god

man that looks like just about everybody

in fact put your hands down is there

anyone who would say you know i can’t

think of one family member

that doesn’t i’m serious if they’re

we got one back here

that’s awesome we just have you guys

pray for all of us see

i you know there’s just uh there’s this

anointing for evangelism uh not just

altar calls actually

a

a spirit of evangelism

christ is really released and

and uh largely the women got whacked

with that one

and uh

and i makes me a little bit nervous in a

real good way

and uh

yeah yeah some of the powerful powerful

ministries of in history have been women

who laid their life down so

here’s what we’re going to do

um you know what

find out

find the name of at least one person

that needs to get right with god from

the person on your right the person on

your left

do that quickly then we’re going to pray

together

just just give them a name

at least one

[Applause]

[Applause]

[Applause]

okay you should have

you should have the entire family

history by now

[Applause]

okay let’s we’re gonna do this

i like to do uh symbolic or what we call

prophetic acts prophetic acts have the

power of prophecy but they’re natural

acts that have no

natural correlation to the answer

like when the prophet threw a stick in

the water and axe had swim swam it was a

prophetic act of obedience but god

responded and accomplished the

impossible

i want you to take

your hands as though you’re bringing

people before the lord

and i want you to bring at least one of

the individuals in your heart

and one

of your neighbors i want you to bring

that literally bring them before the

lord lift them before the lord say lord

i bring these to you

i declare forgiveness over them draw

them to you

i want you to pray for them just lift

your voices and pray

please do not pray quietly in your heart

let’s pray evangelistic prayers god we

join their name with the name jesus

right now

we join the name of john

with the name jesus right now

sally

brian to the name jesus

julie to the name jesus

draw them near god

draw them near

draw them near we bring them to you we

lift them before your god

we bring them before you god

save these friends these family members

save them lord

jesus at one point said whoever you

forgive i forgive so i want you to

declare your forgiveness over these

individuals

just declare no matter how bad they’ve

messed up we hold nothing against them

we declare the forgiveness of our own

heart and the forgiveness of the lord

over these people right now in jesus

mighty name

jesus mighty name amen

amen all right well why don’t you hug a

few necks and be seated

just go to bc

hug somebody

you know

[Applause]

ever since i was a child

i’ve always had a fear of someone under

my bed at night

so i went to a psychiatrist and told him

i’ve got problems

every time i go to bed i think there’s

someone under it i’m scared

i think i’m going crazy

he responded just put yourself in my

hands for one year said to shrink

come talk to me three times a week

we should be able to get rid of those

fears

how much do you charge he asked

eighty dollars per visit replied the

doctor

i’ll sleep on it he said i said

six months later the doctor met me on

the street

he asked why didn’t you come to see me

about those fears you were having

i responded well

80 bucks a visit three times a week for

a year is over twelve thousand dollars

my neighbor cured me for free

i was so happy to have saved all that

money i went and bought me a new pickup

truck

is that so the psychiatrist responded

with a bit of an attitude he said and

how may i ask did your neighbor cure you

i replied he told me to cut the legs off

the bed ain’t nobody under there now

[Applause]

[Applause]

oh goodness all right

all right

several weeks ago i i um during a

message i i took a little detour for a

few minutes

and talked to you about the high price

of prayerlessness

and of course i would never mean this to

be a shameful message or

some

you know some harsh exhortation

but instead an appeal

that we could live sober minded and

realize

jesus gives this overall commission

command and it has to do with the

relationship with him and it’s the

invitation to pray at all times pray

without ceasing

i personally like to think that the

prayer without ceasing is the substance

of prayer and the hour or whatever you

take is the icing on the cake the real

substance of prayer is the fact that it

is continuous fellowship with god

and prayerlessness has

effects on our lives

that is uh is very very sobering so what

i want you to do is i’m gonna i’ve got

six

stories i want to tell you not sure if i

have time for all of them but there are

six passages that we’ll read and if we

don’t i’ll just do it another time so

let’s go ahead and start with the first

one i want you to go to the gospel of

luke chapter 22.

this we’re going to read a portion where

jesus is praying in the

garden

and this is where his sweat became

as drops of blood on his head the

anguish his own prayer

prayer time

was physically having an effect on him

where sweat became blood

i don’t think it was a watered or wine

type thing i think it was actually

such pressure was on him in prayer that

he physically

manifested blood as sweat on his

forehead

right before this

jesus and the disciples had a

conversation

and in this conversation jesus announced

to them that they were all going to fall

away and peter made of course the

statement they they they might but i

won’t

and then jesus said as a matter of fact

peter you’re going to deny me three

times

and this is the prayer meeting that

followed that warning that jesus gave

him

so if you look at this with me let’s go

right to verse 33 we’re going to jump in

the middle of the story

because of how much we have to read

tonight verse 43

then an angel appeared to him from

heaven strengthening him

and being in agony he prayed more

earnestly

then his sweat became like great drops

of blood falling to the ground

when he rose up from prayer and had come

to his disciples he found them sleeping

from sorrow

then he said to them why do you sleep

rise and pray

lest you enter into temptation

that is a stunning uh

moment to me in peter’s life

in that jesus announced to him

that he was about to deny him

and yet he gave him access to a strength

where jesus would have been wrong

he invited him into a time of prayer

where had he had pursued he never would

have entered into temptation

temptation is an interesting thing

because god never puts us in a position

to be tempted

the real issue of temptation

is that it’s the individual’s heart that

translates a circumstance and makes it a

temptation

an illustration that i give

fairly often is let’s just say brian and

i are going to a lunch and let’s just

say

he’s doing real good with the lord doing

well his finances are just in order he’s

just living in a great victory and i’m

living in great fear i just i just i’m

having a hard time i’m afraid i’m not

going to be able to pay my bills i’ve

got this anxiety fear thing going on so

we sit down at the restaurant

and right next to the salt and pepper

shaker

is a hundred dollar bill folded up but

the waitress doesn’t see it

when

she uh cleans the table

and brian excuses himself wants to go

watch the fellowship off of his hands

before we have uh have a meal together

and uh when he goes i spot the hundred

dollar bill

and it crosses my mind

i could take that because

she doesn’t even know it’s there

and then i resist the temptation i come

in that’s just totally wrong what am i

thinking i repent for even having the

thought

i don’t take it brian comes and sits

down he notices the 100 bill he calls

out the waitress by name hey sandy look

somebody gave you a really good tip it

never crossed his mind now neither of us

took the money but one of us was tempted

heart condition turned a circumstance

and made it a temptation

there are certain it’s almost like doors

on a stage there are circumstances in

life

and what prayerfulness does

is it gives you a discernment on the

nature of the door

you don’t even fall into the situation

you don’t even come to where you would

be exposed in your weak place because

prayerfulness prayerfulness has

heightened your awareness of what’s

behind the door

without the prayerfulness

you may open the door you may fall into

a temptation and you may successfully

hopefully resist the temptation but the

point is is you want to go through life

you don’t want to face things for which

you have no grace

it doesn’t mean you can’t muster up the

strength to say no to that

temptation of course you can we all have

a will and we can choose but what’s

tragic is some people because of

prayerlessness

live in a battle with circumstances they

never should have had to face

it it it um it depl it replenishes is

that the right replenishes it robs of

strength

it robs of creativity it robs of natural

healthy authentic expression of who we

are because we’re having to constantly

fight battles we were never designed to

fight

so he said pray

that you wouldn’t enter

you wouldn’t even go through the doorway

of what would be appealing to you

at some weak place in your own life

i remember years ago paul manwering was

he he used to be a

used to run a prison in the uk

and a highly decorated prison warden

and i remember what he would do when he

was working

with the prisoner

as

is he would remind himself

that he had the same potential to be

where they’re at that they had

and he would remind them

they had the same potential to be where

he was it’s all grace

and what prayerfulness does is it makes

us aware

of unseen things that are actually more

real than what is visible we’re not

talking about a land of make-believe

we’re not talking about the power of

suggestion and just getting us psyched

up so that we don’t fall into sin it’s

not that at all it’s that we’re actually

drawing upon a strength that is superior

to everything else we could possibly

muster up and prayerfulness

unclutters the eyes to see what is real

turn uh in your bibles to the book of

matthew chapter 44. this one

is um

is really stunning to me matthew chapter

5.

you guys all still alive

that’s good i hate when people die in

the meeting it’s just

so depressing

matthew chapter 5 i have an interesting

verse here

in verse 43 i want you to look at it

with me

you have heard that it was said you

shall love your neighbor and hate your

enemy

but i say to you love your enemies

bless those who curse you

do good to those who hate you and pray

for those who spitefully use you and

persecute you

that you may be sons of your father in

heaven

let’s take that last phrase

pray

for those who persecute you spitefully

use you pray for them not against them

pray for them so that you will be a son

and or daughter of god

now are you thinking

there’s an exhortation to pray

i don’t believe he’s saying

pray for those who oppose you and then

you’ll be born again

we become sons and daughters of god

in our faith in christ that’s what

causes us to be born again what he’s

declaring over us

is that when you pray

when you exercise your right to come

before the almighty god and you actually

use it to pray on behalf of someone who

has opposed you

you’re praying for not against when you

do that

it becomes clear

to you and to the entire spirit realm

that you are a child of god

it becomes manifested why because you’re

using your authority to come before a

perfect father and you’re using to

actually pray be

for someone on behalf positively for

someone who has opposed you

your identity in christ becomes manifest

this is interesting because uh we don’t

have time for it tonight but this will

trigger something and some of you you

remember in romans 8 it says

that all of creation groans

that’s creation praying

all creation groans travailing waiting

for the sons and daughters of god to be

manifested

what is this saying

when you pray

for those who have opposed you you pray

for those who others would consider to

be your enemy and you pray for their

blessing you pray for their welfare you

pray as the perfect father would pray

then your identity becomes established

firm and revealed

see there are certain things that are

being withheld

of the purposes of god in the earth and

they’re being withheld as they will only

be released to a people that have become

manifested as the sons and daughters of

god

it is essential that we step into

identity and one of the clearest ways is

to pray for those who are opposed to you

there are realms in god there are realms

in

in manifestation of presence and kingdom

of power there are realms in god that he

has withheld

only willing to release them upon a

people

manifested as sons and daughters of god

so what does this do causes the domino

effect

it positions us correctly as identified

from heaven you say well i was

identified when you were born again

he said do this so that you’ll be

identified

as a son as a daughter of god something

happens in the unseen realm that doesn’t

happen another way

some of you were here when i i’ve done

uh teaching on communion

benny and i like to take communion every

day which means it’s most every day and

sometimes we do it together sometimes we

do it individually

i take supplies with me when i travel on

the road

and i was just in indonesia last week

and would take communion before the lord

and there are a number of things that i

do and i won’t take a long time

to mention this but when i hold the

bread i make confession by his stripes i

was healed and i pray for those who need

the miracle because the payment is in my

hand it’s the torn flesh of jesus that

was torn in the beating that he suffered

by the stripes of jesus i was healed is

what the scripture says

benny actually somebody a friend of hers

was dying had seven different diseases

and uh she was in the hospital and she

wrote benny and benny wrote her back a

text or email

and said take communion every day and

gave her some instruction and within i

don’t know how long i think it was

within a month all seven diseases were

gone she was completely healed

there’s something about coming before

the lord

with what he paid

for you and for me so

by his stripes i was healed but when i

take the cup i pray over every family

member i pray for

my son eric and his wife candace for

kennedy and salah i pray for brian and

jen and haley and taya braden moses

i pray for gabe and leah

my my daughter and son-in-law and i pray

for their four kids judah diego bella

and cruz and i pray over them each by

name and i pray that prayer out of

jeremiah 24 that i actually started

praying for my children before i found

it was in the bible when i found it it

was in the bible i thought it’s legal

it’s a legal prayer i got so happy

and i i’ve been praying for them since

they are very very little children god

give them a heart to know you it’s in

jeremiah 24. so i pray that over every

family member i pray that god would help

them to know his ways that he would they

would hear his voice each one god has no

grandchildren each one needs to be

summoned by the father to himself and so

i pray into that god let them hear and

know your voice to be summoned to you

when i’m through praying for my family

which i just i enjoy so much

just in fact what i do is i make

confession as i make a confession by his

stripes we are healed when i hold the

blood before the lord i make the

confession as for me and my house we

will serve the lord every single family

member we will serve you with purity

with power we will do so with passion

and great zeal we will withhold nothing

from you it’s the great privilege of

prayer

but as soon as i’m through praying for

my family

i i pray for

three people that are international

and two

that are not international

who have taken a position

to oppose me as an individual to write

against me to hold conferences against

me

and to do videos and write books that

sort of thing

and i bring their name to the lord you

see what they’re doing takes great zeal

and great courage do i think they’re

accurate no of course i don’t

but they are offering something to to

the lord

out of an offering of great courage and

great risk

they suffer for their decision

i don’t support the decision but i

support them

and so what i do is i bring their names

before the lord

and i ask the lord please cause them to

prosper

spirit soul and body

cause them and this is my the big thing

i pray for

is cause these men

cause them

all of their children and all of their

grandchildren to serve you with great

zeal and great joy

i want them to know the pleasure of

having children that serve god and

grandchildren i don’t want any of them

to fall away i don’t want any of them to

become complacent or cold-hearted and so

i bring them before the lord

see this is what jesus said he said when

you pray for those who spitefully use

you

when you pray for on behalf of in

support of those who persecute you

you are a son

what else is there

okay i’m going to be a son today i was

before i prayed but something becomes

pronounced and manifest

when i begin to pray out of earnestness

of my heart god cause these people to

prosper bless them i don’t pray that god

would change their minds i don’t pray oh

god expose the error of their way i

don’t pray any of those things you never

criticize a servant to its master

proverbs warns against criticizing a

servant to its master

that is forbidden territory

they are not my servant we had

situations go on here at bethel many

many many years ago and here in reading

and people would come to me they say

well what do you think about this and i

would tell them no one can force me to

have an opinion

i am unwilling to take mental energy and

put it into a situation for which i have

no responsibility you do not criticize a

servant to their master

and so jesus reveals in this passage

one of the greatest things we

that we need right now how many

believers are there in the world it’s an

extraordinary number of hundreds of

millions i wonder what would happen

to their posture

before kings

if they simply gave themselves to pray

for those who opposed

actually go to the book of james

you all right

yep me too and me too a little messed up

but i was messed up when i got up here

so

chris oh didn’t help at all with that

one

we we got a little little wreck down

there in the front row

second row third row

how many of you in the back row got a

little messed up too yeah that’s right

yeah

turn in your bibles to the book of james

and we’re going to look at just one

phrase out of one verse

um and and the reason the whole verse

the whole chapter obviously is always

worth studying

but i’m wanting to take a phrase because

that i i don’t want to be distracted by

the rest so

hopefully that’ll make sense to you

we’re gonna take verse two you lust and

do of chapter four james four verse two

you lust and do not have you murder and

covet and cannot con obtain

you fight and war

and here it is

you do not have

because you do not ask

say this with me you do not have

because you do not ask

say it with me now you do not have

because you do not ask say it again

you do not have

because you do not ask

prayerlessness creates lack

prayerlessness fuels lack prayerlessness

is is what

perilousness is what lack wants to

consume

when we face a need and there’s

prayerlessness

it actually fuels lack

instead of causes it to be solved and

disappear

you have not

because you ask not

so prayerlessness actually sustains

need

and lack

many people walk around waiting for god

to do something

and what i’ve been finding out and i’m a

slow and i do mean slow learner

i’ve been finding out most of the time

he’s waiting for me to do something

i mean how many understand we’re not

talking about

as you thank god for the meal god thank

you for the meal

and provide for us today amen

i’m not saying that prayer doesn’t work

but if you’ve got a big need you might

want to dig in a bit

you might want to dig in a bit

let the weightiness of what you’re

facing determine the weightiness of how

you pray

casual prayers get casual answers

if if you are willing to live off of

token answers then offer up token

prayers

but if you want heaven to move let your

heart be moved

he’ll move as far as you move

i’m not saying at all that he can’t

surpass anything that we do and cry and

lift up he’s god he can do whatever he

wants

but in his effort to raise us as sons

and daughters of god that can carry

responsibility into the earth

most of the time

he looks

for earnest response in us

to bring forth an earnest response from

him

i i hope that doesn’t sound like a works

thing because i don’t see it that way at

all

it’s just you know what

when you’re on the altar you can pray

earnestly

when you’re off the altar

considering the concept of the altar

you pray timidly

i heard recently

when you’re on the altar

[Laughter]

you can pray earnestly it’s when you’re

off the altar considering the concept of

sacrifice

that’s where we pray token prayers

amen bill that’s a really good point

why don’t you it’s too late luke chapter

8

i’m just teasing luke chapter 18.

luke chapter 18.

sorry i have a gift of torment i just

it’s just this is what i do i torment

people i my love language is teasing so

i

you know if i didn’t tease you you could

walk out here wondering if i loved you

but

but there should be no question now

read chris read this this morning in uh

i don’t know one of our services

we only had 800 services this morning

he read this this morning

start uh with me with verse one it’s a

longer piece he spoke a parable to them

men ought to pray and not lose heart

so we’re talking about prayer that’s not

just

a petition prayer but it’s persistent in

its petition

he said there was in a certain city a

judge who did not fear god nor regarded

man

there was a widow in that city and she

came to him saying

get justice for me from my adversary. he

would not for a while but afterwards

said within himself though i do not fear

god nor regard man

yet because this widow troubles me i

will avenge her

lest by her continual coming she wear me

out

the lord said here with the unjust judge

said

and shall god

and shall god not avenge his own elect

who cry out to him day and night

though he bears along with them

i tell you that he will avenge them

speedily nevertheless when the son of

man returns will he really find faith on

the earth

this is interesting because we have on

one hand we the picture

is of a widow that just keeps banging on

the door of the judge

and then

jesus uses this illustration for

repeated day and night prayer

and then god says i’m going to answer

speedily

he obviously thinks of speedily

different than i do

he says i’m going to answer speedily and

i’m thinking man i’ve been banging on

this drawer for 15 days you know when is

this thing going to open he says i’m

going to answer speedly

and he does

there’s a tippy point tipping point in

prayer in which the answer is released

and the answer always comes quickly

but to get to that place where things

shift sometimes takes persistence

prayerlessness

actually allows circumstances

to be

um

uh

prayerlessness allows the absence of

breakthrough to become the norm

and generally we come to the conclusion

well i prayed and it just

god sovereignly did not answer

so the absence of an answer falls under

under the category that we call the

sovereignty of god

and yet jesus is saying persistence

would have got the breakthrough

so we’re talking now uh not just about a

prayer prayed

but a lifestyle of anchoring into

something now i mentioned this i’ve done

this teaching here uh several years back

and i mentioned it in our conference

this week and let me give you like the

two-minute version

jesus said that we’re not to use vain

repetition in prayer in other words

you’re not to repeat a prayer over and

over again

because he knows what you have need of

before you ask

in the very next chapter he says ask and

continue to ask the language there is a

a

verb that says you do this but you

continue doing it until this

breakthrough so in two chapters back to

back one says ask and don’t keep on

asking the other one says ask and

continue asking what’s the difference

come back next week and i’ll tell you no

what’s the difference when he said

don’t repeatedly lift up the prayer for

before me for something

he said for your father father knows

what you have need of before you ask

this is pertaining to basic needs for me

to say father would you provide food for

me today and for me to ask him every

five minutes is for me to question that

he’s actually a father

because it violates his nature and his

covenant to me as a father who is

committed to taking care of my my needs

the persistence in prayer has to do with

how we pray with our dreams

the persistence in prayer i i i’m

supposed to pray for what i have need of

god provide for us

our food today

i’m supposed to pray for these things

god i need to buy coats for my kids

before winter sets in

i’m supposed to pray for those things

but those are

basic human needs

you lift them up and then you celebrate

the fact that you serve a righteous and

perfect father

but when it comes to the unfolding of a

dream god i’ve got it in my heart to

have this business

oh god

this thing has been in me for so many

years

and you fast you get before the lord you

cry out for breakthrough and you contend

for this breakthrough why because

persistence and prayer changes you

and changes you to where you become a

person that can properly steward the

answer that you just prayed for

if he gives us much of what we asked for

when we asked for it would kill us

i mean literally it would kill us

why does god discipline his children

it’s so that his blessings don’t kill us

we ask for oak trees he gives us acorns

why

can you steward the answer

in its embryonic form

because in stewarding as it grows i

become a different person

my strength increases my resolve

increases my sense of priorities change

all of a sudden i have this willingness

to pay any price because i can see

something happening before my eyes

i change

with persistence and prayer

and so this exhortation for persistence

and prayer

is connected to breakthrough

and where there is not prayer

and especially the prayer of persistence

there’s the absence of breakthrough

all right we’re almost done

isn’t that fun

let’s uh let’s do two more we’ll do uh

luke 11.

let’s back up a few chapters

you guys all right

everybody’s still all right

i don’t know what i would do actually

i’ve had times where i’ve said are you

all right and somebody’s yelled out no

[Laughter]

i wasn’t sure what to do

the only thing that works for me is just

to ignore them

[Laughter]

now this this one is a little bit more

abstract but i but i um

if i could teach 20 minutes on this

which i’m not going to do i’m going to

take maybe three or four minutes five

minutes if i could teach 20 minutes on

this it would make a whole lot more

sense i’m just going to trust that you

can work with it if you can’t stick it

on a shelf

and see what happens in the future

luke 11

verse 24

when an unclean spirit goes out of a man

he goes through dry places

seeking rest

does anybody remember who the holy

spirit is inside of us

he’s in us as a river in john chapter 7.

the enemy is looking for dry places

[Applause]

those who fail to connect with the flow

of presence

become a dry place

and it’s completely unnecessary

you see what a christian uh i think it

was john wimber that said uh

that

why would a christian want a demon they

make horrible pets so

i always thought that was a pretty good

answer

but i remind you the apostle paul in

ephesians 4 warned the church the most

mature church of all the letters

received he warned them don’t give place

to the devils not demon possession it’s

a place of influence

which by the way in the old testament

when the enemies of israel

gained influence in the city to buy i

think it was tobiah ended up moving into

the temple

where they kept the money

if you want to know where the enemy

wants to live in your temple

he wants to live

where

the generosity lifestyle i’m not just

talking about offerings and money i’m

talking about the way you look at people

the way you look at human need the way

you look at the power of your words to

invest in someone

is that it’s that seat of generosity

that reveals we are like the father for

god so loved the world that he gave

and the enemy actually moved in took out

all

the possessions that were to belong in

the temple and set up residence in this

temple

it’s crazy

all right back to verse 24. i said i was

going to teach on this for three or four

minutes make that five or six all right

let’s try to get through this quickly

when the unclean spirit goes out of a

man he goes through dry places seeking

rest

finding none he says i will return to my

house from which i came

when he comes he finds it swept and put

in order he goes and he takes with him

seven other spirits that are more wicked

than himself

and they enter and dwell there the last

state of that man is worse than the

first

this is a very fascinating story it does

refer to a human being but it also how

many remember when the lord would speak

of the house of david david was a man

but he wasn’t talking about his physical

house

right the house of david he’s talking

about the family line the house of

israel an entire nation so there are

times where the scripture talks about

the house of a man and the implications

are much more far-reaching than just a

human being and possessing his own

physical body

prayerlessness

creates vacancy

in the heart of the person

this house was clean and swept

and when the owner of the house didn’t

put furniture in the house

in the place of where the enemy

occupied it was left vacant

i could take you through church history

and i can show you where denominations

and groups of people that were once

powerhouses of the gospel

slackened off and ended up with vacant

places that the enemy they once opposed

came back seven times worse

groups known for holiness

became the seed bed

of

vast expressions of immorality and

ungodliness

the very place is occupied and i don’t

say that in as a as a criticism or

or somehow to put people down i’m just

saying listen this is how the enemy

works and prayerlessness

is a vacancy because there’s furniture

that’s supposed to belong there in the

house of my heart

prayer is one of the

couches and if i if i remove the couch

there’s a vacant spot and wherever

there’s a vacant spot the enemy wants to

fill it

all right one more

one more one more why don’t you go to

first samuel

chapter 12.

let’s get a little old testament action

in this

we could probably get about a hundred

things on this list but i

i had uh

three or four of them written down and i

i wanted to add a couple today for our

our little talk

first samuel chapter 12.

this is kind of a sobering moment with

samuel and saul

he gives him a warning verse 21 he says

do not turn aside then you’d go after

empty things which cannot profit or

deliver

they are nothing the lord will not

forsake his people

for his great name’s sake because it has

pleased the lord to make

you his people

verse 23 moreover as for me

far be it from me that i should sin

against the lord in ceasing to pray for

you

now i don’t know i’ve read this verse

for you know

a long time

and it’s been one of those that has just

stood out to me concerning the

responsibility that we have for one

another the responsibility that we have

for leaders

etc but something hit me today when i

was looking at this passage

far be it from me that i should sin

against the lord by ceasing to pray

i i don’t know i i i don’t understand it

i’m just i’m marked by it as all

i i can’t teach on it well but i’m

impacted by the fact that he says it’s

almost like here’s a sinful act against

the lord but there wasn’t a sinful act

there was the stopping of a righteous

act

it almost looks like he’s saying you

know when you do this witchcraft do you

do this that this this junk that junk

you’re sinning against the lord but for

the prophet who knows what it is to bear

responsibility before god he said it

would be a sin

against god

for him

not to pray

i’m just here to encourage you that’s

all

prayerfulness

is a gift

that we can carry throughout the day

i loved blocks of time with refined

focus don’t misunderstand me

it’s been

a huge part of my life my goodness when

i was a young man

and was single

i mean both ends of the day with

extended periods of time

as a pastor in weaverville i remember

just walking the city walking in the

woods walking through the church i i

walk when i pray because i don’t get

sleepy when i walk you know

and i’m able to get a little bit more

militant aggressive

it’s just it’s just better for me i i i

can kneel and pray but i can also snore

so

i

sleep is kind of like the kingdom of god

it’s at hand it’s always right there

it’s it’s a beautiful thing it’s always

it’s always ever present

and i i i practice falling asleep in the

presence i really do i practice it

i do

how many of you have prayed you

determined to pray and you fell asleep

yeah how many of you how many of you

felt bad after you fell asleep god man i

just can’t seem to stay awake i i get

that i i’ve done that a lot

but you know when my kids would fall

asleep in my arms i never once got mad

at them

[Applause]

i actually held them hoping they would

[Music]

[Laughter]

so there is a spot for the earnestness

in prayer position yourself physically

to remain

earnest

and if you’re sleepy get up and walk i

mean just let’s be practical get up and

walk

if you’re not kneel before the lord do

whatever

but when you go to bed at night

remember you’re praying without ceasing

i use i don’t know if i if i still do

this because i’m i’m sleeping but i used

to

brian actually captured the lyrics of

solomon

in one of his songs years ago

although i sleep yet my heart is awake

that’s significant now we’ll wrap it up

with this but i want you to catch this

thought god appeared to solomon in a

dream

solomon made

a life-altering decision in his sleep

[Music]

god trusted him in his resolve to the

will of god so completely that he

allowed solomon to answer him in his

sleep

and solomon was the one who penned these

words though i sleep my body is shut

down resting my heart is awake

and i i i used to wake myself up praying

i didn’t wake up to pray i’d be praying

while i was sleeping

i took a trip with chris years ago chris

came with me to colorado to do this

white wine thing

and i would i would just pray throughout

throughout the night not knowing it i

was sleeping but my heart was exploding

with cries to god what you want to do is

you want to you’ll you’ll have you’ll

have a better day if you have a better

night and you’ll have a better night

if you engage with him

not over difficult matters

take care of that while you’re wide

awake

i made the mistake last night of

stirring up difficult matters

and lost a bunch of sleep as a result

it doesn’t happen much but it it

happened last night

and i just i just broke one of those

rules that i know better on

you don’t bring up the difficult things

in the middle of the night

you know

it’ll probably still be there tomorrow

so engage with him tomorrow but the

point is is we have this lifestyle of

continuous fellowship with him

ongoing prayer

pray without ceasing

and that is the luxury of this

relationship is that i live before him

in heavenly places before a perfect

father who hears me

i don’t think you have to have long

prayers to get big answers

but i do think you have to have earnest

prayers to give big answers

if you study the book of nehemiah you’ll

find a series of prayers that he prayed

that were only one sentence long

the prayers of nehemiah just look at the

prayers nehemiah one sentence long

but when you’re dug into an issue

and this

request

is not just a passive thing to ease your

conscience that you have now prayed but

you’ve actually dug in

regarding a matter and you lift up that

prayer there are times where one

sentence

brings the breakthrough

so we don’t earn breakthroughs in the

sense of i’ve got to pray for this one

thing for five hours then i know

there’ll be a breakthrough i had a

friend that he he was uh just contending

with the lord over something he said

he said i’m just gonna

i’m just gonna i’m gonna spend the

entire night before the lord praying for

this matter

as soon as he knelt down the lord

answered it and just kind of ruined his

whole night

and he was so shocked but you know

that’s what you do you dig in

and if he brings it quick then you

say thank you

[Applause]

thank you so much

i would have just i’d rather have slept

so this is great news i will now sleep

but here’s this issue

of

failing

this is scripture so i i want to be

careful that i don’t trigger the wrong

message in you

but if i’ve been given an assignment

to pray

and i don’t

it’s as though i did something against

god

the absence the withdrawing from an

assignment is an aggressive posture

against

so why don’t you stand let’s pray

at least in weaverville we used to do

prayer meetings a lot

i we had them for

years

six every morning or five i think five

days a week

and then every friday night

we started with this perimeter started

at 11 at night

because i wanted people to have time

with their families i just want them to

miss sleep not family time

just this

hardcore

in-your-face kind of prayer stuff

and there were times there was a number

of folks there and for a number of years

there were times where nobody showed up

i remember chris one time he led the

prayer meeting for me i was out of town

nobody showed up for that particular

week so he took the microphone and he

was just praying loudly all these he’s

the only one in the room but he’s going

for it you know as though there was a

crowd of thousands i love that

and i love the corporate prayer

gathering i i hope i’m hoping our

schedules are so challenging

our use of facilities is so challenging

i’m hoping at some point we can have a

facility that’s just for corporate

prayer gatherings

it’s if you if you saw

we have a hundred events a year here

constant demand on

every room in the building

and it’s just one of the greatest

challenges and what frustrates me is one

of the greatest cries in my heart is the

corporate prayer meeting

i love agreement and prayer

i guess what i’d like to see

all of us take home

is just this increased

mantle

for prayer

there was actually

there’s actually one particular

so i see if i can find this there’s one

particular

part of this story

i did forget one

i’ll just mention it to you quickly

because it’s it’s just bizarre

this is old testament as well i knew

there was one to do with the presence

it’s a it’s a strange thing it’s this

one phrase is mentioned

maybe

seven or eight times in one chapter and

it was this whole deal they had built uh

the temple of solomon

and the lord was instructing people

listen when you when you get into a

battle when you get into a conflict when

you get in this situation of that

pray towards this house

and that that phrase toward this house

pray and we don’t pray towards buildings

and the lord himself would say there

isn’t a building you can make that i

could inhabit

you know completely and yet he created

this

this system of thought where people

would actually face jerusalem and pray

towards jerusalem why not as a religious

ritual why not because it’s a certain uh

you know it’s east it’s it’s it has a

certain direction a geographical

direction

it’s because god was there

the point is

prayerlessness

accentuates the absence of the awareness

of the presence of god

prayerfulness

heightens

our awareness of presence

it’s not just praying for the big things

it’s the continuous fellowship

it’s that keeps me connected to presence

ongoing presence so that when an urgent

thing comes up

we’re there where instant nc is in

season enough i remember back in the 70s

this guy

was was telling us um

his upstairs uh

bathroom

uh it took forever to get hot water

because the hot water was at the other

end of the house and

it would he’d just have to you know all

this water would go through just trying

to wait for hot water to come and so he

said i found out that if i turned it on

just a little tiny bit at night before i

went to bed it would just just slowly

drip and it would keep hot water ready

so that when i got up the next morning i

would turn it on instantly hot water

that’s what praying in tongues

throughout your day does

that’s that’s what that’s what

that’s what praying in tongue does

that’s what praying ongoing throughout

your day just keeps you connected to

ever-present hot water i’m ready to act

now

all right let’s grab a hand we’re gonna

pray

we’re going to pray for the

prayerfulness

the prayerfulness of christ

to be restored to us as people

the prayerfulness of christ

to be restored to us as people

tell them what you want

ask him to do it to you for you

i’m going to pray over you in a moment

but you pray right now for yourself pray

for the ones on your right and left pray

prayerfulness

prayerfulness

the prayerfulness of jesus

the prayerfulness of christ

the ongoing awareness of presence

the ongoing awareness

of the person of the holy spirit

expand us god in this next season

that there’ll be dramatic increase in

expansion

in our awareness of your presence of

your heartbeat

declare over the one on your right and

left prayerfulness just declare the

prayerfulness of christ is upon you the

prayerfulness of christ say it with

authority the prayerfulness of christ is

upon you the prayerfulness of christ is

upon you

the prayerfulness of christ is upon you

now just hold your hands before the lord

i’m going to pray for you lens father i

do ask that you would release as a gift

over every person

you know what folks i’ve never prayed

for this in my life the prayerfulness of

christ

there’s something in that phrase that’s

supposed to take us into this next

season lord i do pray the prayerfulness

of christ

the unbroken fellowship throughout the

day

between jesus and the father

and the spirit of god who is upon him i

asked for the prayerfulness of christ to

rest upon us

and that we would embark together on

this relational journey in a dimension

that is so new

so exciting so impacting

on every part of our life i pray this

for the honor of the name jesus

everybody said amen amen amen

[Applause]

hi hi ah there we are wow it feels like

such a significant night tonight how

many of you are feeling that in the room

such a timely word just it felt like

every single person that word was for

we’re going to do a fire tunnel tonight

so we’re going to have the ministry team

come up so just while the ministry team

are coming forward

just take a moment

it feels like we’re in such a

significant night i just really want to

encourage you sometimes we’re going to

go through a far tunnel tonight we often

do fire tunnels here i want you tonight

i feel like there’s a grace in the room

to go through the fire tunnel like it’s

your first time don’t get familiar with

the fire tonight come through the the

fight i’m expecting god to radically

touch you there’s just anointing in the

air it’s something in the air tonight so

ministry team are going to come forward

we’re going to have two tunnels

you’ll come down the central aisle and

there’ll be a tunnel to your my my left

and a tunnel to my right

and i will have somebody wonderful from

staff

this handsome man joel power you will

split at his right and left so getting

to form two lines down the central aisle

two lines down the central aisle

and then we’ll have a fire tunnel on my

left

and a fire tunnel on my right staff if

you can just help make sure those

tunnels

are ready to go

i really feel it though there’s just

something