Let's move on then.
I want to talk about one of the things I've noticed is sometimes we, at least I forget that some of us were not here 16 years ago
and some of the topics we talk about now may not have been heard four years ago, five years ago.
And so this is one of the topics I wanted to pull up.
We're going to talk about prayer, but prayer revisited, or however you want to title it.
Just a few things on prayer.
Another topic that I want to touch on is suffering, because over the last two, three weeks I've been listening to people talking about suffering
and the things that they attribute to God as suffering that is being put on us from God.
When I'd like to say to you that your suffering when it comes to what you think is God must line up with the things that Jesus suffered.
So Hebrews chapter 5, verse 14 and 15, if that is something that you are talking about, or verse 14 to 17,
where it says Jesus, because he was obedient, suffered and cried with tears, yeah, that is something if you suffer from, that's a legitimate suffering.
How about 1 Peter 2, verse 14 to 18, where it talks about how he was insulted and when he was insulted he did not complain, he did not strike back, he suffered quietly.
How about 2 Corinthians 6, where Paul talks about how he suffered because he was persecuted for standing up for the gospel.
These are the things that allow us to partake and complete the sufferings of Christ according to Paul.
But you cannot take other things that happen to you, sometimes because of the fallenness of the world, sometimes because of discipline,
sometimes because of the consequences of your actions, sometimes because of sin, sometimes because of attack from the enemy.
We cannot take that and say that I am suffering for Christ. You cannot.
That just falls under this huge scripture called, there will be trials and tribulations in this world but I have overcome the world.
So you can't take it all and say this is suffering for Christ. No.
Because then what happens is the devil can pull a number on you and you won't be able to do squat about it because you think it's coming from God.
How do you deal with suffering if God is the one who is making you suffer?
So we got to be aware of these things. But that's for another day.
Long ago we did a teaching on suffering. Sometimes I forget that those that were here in 2006 are few.
So let's talk about prayer. Prayer.
And so one of the ways I want to look at it is our ability to grasp, our ability to grasp and then enforce, grasp and then enforce the design of God.
The design of God.
Grasp and then enforce the design of God from the fullness of time, as in from where God plans things, from the fullness of time into the seasons of the earth.
That's not a complicated explanation really.
It is that hey guys, when it comes to prayer let's think of prayer as grasping. Let's think of prayer as grasping the design of God.
What is the will of God or the design of God for a particular situation, for a particular year, for a particular circumstance in your life, for a particular nation?
What is the design or the will of God? And then after you know the design and the will of God, how do you enforce the design and the will of God?
Where do we get this from? What scriptural backing is there for it? Very simple. Matthew chapter 11.
Die will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. As in it's not just die will be, die will be done.
So there is a grasping and an enforcing here on earth as it is in heaven where it is this idea of grasping things that are being hatched, plotted, strategized in heaven.
Or let's forget all those words. Things that are in the mind of God in heaven that are now being brought into the seasons of the earth, into your situation or circumstances.
That will require accessing the storehouse of God. And by the storehouse of God I mean all his principles, all his truths.
The storehouse of God as in his truths, his principles.
Both in the Bible and through our knowledge of him by the spirit.
It's very beautiful to be able to say that.
That our storehouse is not just the truths and the principles that are in the Bible but they also come from our knowledge of him by the spirit.
That it's not extra biblical but it is based on now our renewed understanding of Christ through what we read in the word.
But we get to know how he thinks.
Any questions on that? Because I don't want us to think that we are going extra biblical.
And so what you're doing is you pull out from the storehouse as it says in Matthew 13, 52.
You pull out new things that God hasn't done yet or said yet.
And you pull out old things as in things he's done in the Old Testament and the New Testament.
And then you in the process are able to access the heart, the mind and the hands of God.
Matthew 13, 52.
You pull out the new and the old as in there are things that God has done that we couldn't see yet.
And suddenly God says this is why I did it.
And you pull out the new and the old.
I mean a classic example is that of Joel chapter 2 where it says I'll pour my spirit upon all flesh.
Nobody knew what that meant.
And then one day Peter went and pulled out the old and presented it as new.
There is nothing new in God because everything is in God from the beginning.
But there are new things in God because old things in God are presented as new.
And this way we get to access his heart, his mind, his hands, what he wants to do, how he's thinking, what he's feeling.
What then transpires or not transpires, what is then conveyed through prayer or made to happen through prayer.
So it's not a new take on the idea of prayer but it's a new way of looking at how to grasp it.
Any questions on that?
Any questions?
Okay, so let's look at five different things.
How to struggle with prayer.
When it comes to prayer, the struggle with it, how to engage it, how to crank it up, how to avoid, what to limit and what to shun.
We look at those five things.
What are some of the struggles?
What can we engage?
How do we crank it up?
What should we limit?
And what should we shun so that we are able to practice what we defined earlier on saying,
hey, what if we could grasp and enforce the design of God from the fullness of what God is thinking in heaven right now to the seasons of the earth.
And guys, sometimes God conveys it through ways that only you can understand, where he'll keep pressing a certain thing saying,
hey, pay attention to this, pay attention to this, pay attention to this.
And suddenly you think, okay, let me pay attention to this.
Yeah.
So, struggle.
One of the struggles we have when it comes to prayer is we struggle through condemnation.
Struggle.
One of the struggles we have when it comes to prayer is we struggle through condemnation.
Struggle through condemnation.
One of the reasons we are not able to pray the way we freely could pray is because the Christians are some of us,
this is very sad, but the Christians are Xiao of the most guilty people on earth.
This is very sad, but Christians are some of the most guilty people on earth.
It is so sad that we who are supposed to be redeemed, we who are supposed to be restored, are some of the most guilty people on earth.
Hey, let me put out something else and this might offend some of you, but this is to help you.
If you're listening to Paul Washer and people like that, stop it.
You'll only feel more condemned.
Just throw that out there and you might say, but Jacob, you shouldn't name people.
I'm naming them for your sake so that condemnation is something you completely avoid.
There's enough. I can condemn you. Just come to me.
Don't listen to professionals. Let me do my unprofessional condemning.
Yeah.
So, struggle through condemnation.
Struggle through condemnation because it stops us from prayer.
We are some of the most guilt-ridden people on earth, even though we have a God who says there is no condemnation.
Part of the reason is because we continue to try living in the Old Testament and New Testament.
Part of the reason is pastors make us feel guilty, leaders make us feel guilty.
We've grown up in a guilt-ridden Christian context and it so stifles prayer.
Guys, one of the things that I struggle with is this thing of condemnation.
Father, can you please bring me to a place where I don't walk in condemnation?
It's back.
So, I should focus more on violation of relationship.
Not on the guilt of sin.
Why? Because the guilt of sin has been taken away.
We think that God forgives us because we are really sorry.
God forgives us not because I'm really sorry.
God does not forgive me because I'm really sorry.
God forgives me because his son Jesus Christ paid a price for my sin.
We think confessing my guilt and shame is what takes away condemnation.
No.
It is not confessing my guilt and shame that takes away my condemnation.
It is wanting to fix my relationship that takes away my condemnation.
If we as Christians could begin to think of the violation of a relationship rather than the act of sin,
then you would stop acting out in sin if the relationship became more important.
Without knowing it, we are continuously cultivating a culture of condemnation, guilt, shame, repentance.
Condemnation, guilt, shame, repentance.
It is how we grow up. It is how our families were.
It is now how the Christian family is.
And yet we are supposed to be a forgiven and restored people.
What would it be for me to walk this earth never thinking that I wasn't forgiven or fully restored?
But that the thing that is being violated again and again in my sin is my relationship.
And what if that became so important to me that I would constantly work towards restoring my relationship?
Because being apart from him sucks.
So repentance then would be defined as wanting to get back into relationship.
So repentance no longer is can I get rid of my guilt and condemnation and shame.
Repentance is can I get back into relationship with you.
For us repentance has become can I get rid of the shame, I'm feeling the guilt, I'm feeling the condemnation, I'm feeling.
And that's what the world does say.
Every religion offers you that.
Take a dip in the Ganges, you'll be your condemnation will end.
Go to Mecca, your condemnation will end.
Sit, practice meditation, your condemnation will end.
Ours is not so much the condemnation, sin and shame that has to be affected first.
It is yes what I have done may be that but I need to fix my relationship with you and you are a good God.
So as I fix my relationship with you I realize over a period of time that that becomes more critical for me because you're not condemning me anyways.
Therefore there is no condemnation for those that are in Christ.
It is such a scary place to enter because this is what we think keeps us on the straight and narrow.
But what should keep me on the straight and narrow is my relationship with the Father.
Out of my relationship with the Father comes this idea of I can't bear this, I got to go repent.
I got to go say sorry to God saying Father really can't live without you, did something wrong, violated relationship.
You've given me your standard of holiness, I want to re-enter that.
Sorry about this.
That is how we work it out.
It is a violation of relationship that we should be after, not cleansing our sheet of handwritten accusations.
Because Colossians says that was nailed to the cross but every time we go over it again and again and again,
it gets in the way of prayer.
Because may I suggest this to you, in a really good church, most of us are almost always walking under some kind of condemnation
because we are never meeting the requirements most days.
This is why we were taught right from when we were kids, before you go to pray, ask God to forgive your sins.
So the first step in prayer is ask forgiveness for sins.
Nothing wrong with it but I'm trying to remove training wheels off our bicycles so that we can cycle better.
Otherwise we will always follow this pattern, it will be either like this or like this or like this.
There will be some pattern, right?
Nothing wrong with patterns.
First think of yourself, then think of God, then I forgot the third finger.
So it was this thing which you were taught and it was a pattern.
But patterns are good when you are learning but it should get to a place of relationship.
Any questions?
So you have to tell me by words, we have to work towards getting back to relationship and we have to do something.
But I think it's how if you don't have a relationship, you want to get back to it.
And I'm saying, Father, this is more important for me than anything else so put me back in.
He does all the work.
I'm just saying, I mean Chad preached on this, I think this morning and he called me to ask me about this story that you've heard many times where my sister scolded her son, my nephew.
And my nephew is standing there crying because he just got rebuked.
Then he's standing there and he's saying, Mama, I'm feeling bad, do something.
Here is a child who knows he's out of place, out of sync, not in connection with his mother.
And instead of finding some way to fix it, he looks at the very one who's rebuked him and saying, Mama, I'm feeling sad, do something, make the sadness go away.
For me that is a classic way to repent.
Makes prayer much easier.
Otherwise it's so hard to pray because you're always thinking maybe there's something here that will work against me because God might be upset with this.
Man, at least you guys started off well.
When I started I thought you had to repent with the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
All my prayers had to be three times.
Then I would first go tell the Father I was sorry, then I think better tell Jesus too because he paid the price.
So then would tell him, then I think now if I leave out the Holy Spirit that won't be good.
So I'd go tell the Holy Spirit too.
And the days I would sin a little extra, man those days most of the time would be taken up in repentance because you had to do it three times over.
We'll always have failures guys.
And these are not even sin.
I'm talking about failures, shortcomings.
We'll always not meet what is required.
But I cannot let that take away from God's desire to do things here on earth in terms of me praying and seeing what I need to access in terms of his designs for situations and implement them.
Ask yourself this question, do I walk the earth like a restored, forgiven person?
We don't know what it is to have a president give us a pardon or the government take a long list of jail sentences and things that you've done and remove it.
When I think of Pawan, I think of the miracle of God.
Everything that he did was just swept away under the carpet as if it didn't exist.
He probably knows what it is to walk free, what it is to get a passport, what it is to get a license.
After all the things he did, he still gets to walk free.
We don't know what it is because we haven't borne the weight and then been pardoned.
But what would it be to walk fully pardoned?
What would it be to always walk in this place that Gloria Gaither wrote in that song?
I know my name is clear before my father.
I am his child and I am not afraid.
That is what it means to be forgiven and restored.
And I want to tell you that I'm not there.
I am so ashamed of it that after all these years I'm still struggling with it.
I can quote scripture, I'm a child of God, I'm a co-heir with God and I'm all that.
And then after standing in front of a mirror and quoting all that I can still feel this way.
There's a gap. It's here and here that have to work.
Yeah, what people fear is if you take away this element of repentance and all that stuff,
then wouldn't that lead people to commit more sin?
Probably, which is why relationship is critical.
You find it very hard to break the heart of someone you love.
Remember the definition of the fear of God.
The fear of God is the dread of offending the one you love.
The fear of God is the dread, the absolute dread of grieving the one you love.
You can't bear it.
To bring that much hurt to someone is so unbearable for you that you would rather pay the price than hurt them.
I've had such relationships in my life, man.
You have that with your children sometimes.
Struggle through condemnation.
Next thing is struggle through confidence.
Struggle through confidence.
One of the problems we have when we come to prayer is we lack the confidence,
either because we've had experiences that didn't prove God,
or because we are illiterate when it comes to the word,
or to the usage of the word or the wielding of the word,
or because we are armchair theorizers who haven't tried it out in battlefields.
Struggle through confidence.
Confidence is sometimes lacking because of my experience.
Because of my experience.
Sometimes I prayed it didn't happen, and so the experience then begins to affect me.
The second thing is sometimes I'm just illiterate.
I may know the word, but I don't know how to use it.
Or sometimes I want to use the word, but I don't know the word.
I love it when I tell stories and see people not knowing that story.
Not I love it. It tickles me.
I guess that is I love it.
But when you tell a story and you're watching the person and you realize,
hasn't heard this one before, we are very illiterate when it comes to stories.
And sometimes we have to become literate,
and sometimes it's not enough to know the word, we have to wield it too.
And so these are the reasons why there's a lack of confidence.
And the third one is armchair theorizers,
where you know the word and you can quote it, you can teach it, you can preach it,
but put you out in the field and you wouldn't know how one end of the spear from the other.
And so how do we deal with this?
By really devaluing this.
Your experience doesn't matter.
Your experience of failure does not count.
It is a fear that you have to deal with immediately.
You let that grow.
You let that grow roots and it's very, very difficult.
When something that you pray for does not happen and it begins to grow roots,
that's how doubt begins.
And doubt is a very simple thing.
Doubt is Satan's attempt to distort or deny the intent, nature and the voice of God forever.
Doubt, and we talked about doubt some weeks ago.
Doubt is Satan's attempt to distort or deny
the intent, the nature and the voice of God through an experience.
Because of this experience now, could I make you, Jacob,
come to that place where you either deny or distort forever the intent,
the nature and the voice of God so you can never trust him again for the rest of your life?
So much so that you will go and find theology to support your position.
You will go and find scriptures to back up your position.
It's crazy how we can back up doubt with scripture.
Always remember, guys, the way to see God is see him through his nature, not through the word.
The word should give you an understanding of his nature.
His nature should be experimented with.
Now having experimented with his nature and known his nature,
read the word through his nature, not read the nature through the word.
It's not complicated.
If I know his nature, then when I read what he has written,
I will know the tone, the heart, the mind behind every word.
If I don't read the... This is the death knell,
the bell toll for academic institutions that read the word through the heart.
Read the word without the nature of God.
And hundreds and hundreds of Tunis are being slaughtered.
Thank God we got him before he went down that route.
Where you will teach them the Greek and the Hebrew,
but you will not show them the nature of God.
Places like that should be shut down.
It's evil man. It's taking rich, potent people of God
and not teaching them the nature of God.
Is it important? Absolutely.
Is systematic study important? You cannot do without it.
But you read the word through the nature of God.
You don't read the nature of God through the word
because you will not understand the nature of God
just because you understand Greek and Hebrew.
Let me get off my hobby horse.
Discount your experience. Do not let the roots of doubt grow in.
The solution to this is obviously becoming literate.
So there's no choice there.
And this, the safest place to run a hockey game from
is from your recliner in front of your TV.
Get in there and you will see how much it hurts.
How your teeth go flying, your knee goes this way,
guys elbow you and then we will see whether you really have
what it takes to play seven games and he's not here.
You lose.
I told Evan I wouldn't say a word about the Leafs' loss today.
The Leafs lost again. It's 14 years in a row.
But since he's not here we can talk about it.
But I said I wouldn't bring it up while he was here.
But yeah, let's move on.
I'm glad he's teaching the kids today.
Though today might be about hell and stuff like that.
Someone should go and check on what he's teaching them.
Okay, struggle through conflict.
Struggle through conflicting schedules and so on.
One of the reasons I find it so hard to pray is because
my time, my calendar does not allow me to move from
being relational with God in prayer
to being intentional with God in prayer.
It's great to be relational in prayer
where you pray unceasingly.
You have these conversations with him.
And that's an important part.
At some point if I don't go from being relational in prayer
to intentional in prayer, then I'll never get to that place.
Never get to that place.
Most of us don't have enough time to pray.
So what if I could be intentional about it?
Is it possible? Some of you are good at it, eh?
Some of you are good at it.
The ones who are older are usually better at it
because they grew up at a time when things were systematic
and they dedicated time to prayer.
But some of us are not.
I wish I could pray more because I don't pray intentionally enough.
I pray relationally a lot but intentionally not enough.
And that's dangerous for you as a church, eh?
Because if the pastor does not set aside intentional time
for these things, the church begins to suffer at some point.
We've been afraid.
Pardon?
We've been afraid.
All righty, send her down to Sunday School also.
I mean, you misbehave when Mike is not here, eh?
I've noticed.
All righty, lots of Sunday School teachers today.
Yeah, struggle through this conflict of time and schedule.
Struggle through this conflict.
Okay, next one, engage.
Engage, and this is the flip side of it.
Engage in conversation first before you go prayer.
Probably most of us know how to do that, but in case we don't,
remember that this intentional time of prayer should be preceded by conversation.
And conversation is unlimited.
Conversation is unlimited.
It just goes on and on and on.
And in our conversations with God, there might be intentional times of prayer,
but conversation must be developed first.
It is in conversation that you begin to develop a relationship.
It is in conversation that you begin to think like God.
It is in conversation that God gets an opportunity not to answer.
I'll explain that.
When you ask God a question in conversation and he doesn't give you the answer,
now you have to engage him in more conversations before you get there.
You do that with your children and your parents did that with you.
When you ask your dad a question, he could give you the answer,
but instead of giving you the answer, he takes you down another route
so that at the end of the day you find the answer yourself.
It's in conversation that these things happen.
And if you can get it right in conversation,
and conversation cannot be the typical intentional time of prayer,
father, I pray for this, now I pray for this, now I pray.
No, it is father, what are you thinking of?
Father, this is what I was thinking of.
Father, how come this happened?
It's like a child and a dad conversing.
Out of that must come intentional times of prayer.
I guarantee you if you went up with Jesus up the mountains in the book of Mark
when Peter was going looking for him,
man, it would have been amazing to be a fly on the mountain
where you could hear his conversations.
And in between there'd be intentional times of prayer.
Which 12 should I pick?
Matthew 11 is a conversation.
Father, all I have is yours and all you have is mine.
And then in between the conversation he begins to pray,
thank you for these ones that you have given me.
And then from the conversation to intentional prayer,
he then moves into actual, he moves into actual prayer.
Thank you for these ones that you have given me.
And then from the conversation to intentional prayer,
he then moves into actual speaking to his disciples and he says,
come to me, all you that have weary and I will give you rest.
It moves from having a conversation with the father
to being intentional about praying
and then from that into this is what God is saying now.
This is how it moves.
Any questions on that one?
Okay, engage in compassion.
Engage in compassion.
When you pray, engage in compassion.
Even if you're praying judgment, engage in compassion.
Even if you're praying for something that is evil to be turned around,
engage in compassion.
Compassion is the dynamo that generates power.
Very often Jesus would do things because he was moved with compassion.
So even when I'm praying judgment,
I must be moved with compassion because there might be a lot.
There might be someone in Sodom that needs to be spared.
So compassion generates power.
Compassion generates power.
Any questions?
It is important to deliberately take compassion and fit it in your heart.
Like Iron Man has a thing that he fits into his heart.
In the same way you're going to take compassion and...
Because once you fit it, then everything that you pray comes from heaven.
Heaven is a highly compassionate place.
I'm Yahweh, gracious and compassionate.
That is the first revelation of his name.
That is the first revelation of his name in Exodus 33.
You've got to take it and put it in,
and it allows you to pray like you've never prayed before.
Third, engage in contention.
Engage in contention.
As I'm writing this, I'm sure you're aware that this is not your emu.
Engage in contention.
Can you be persistent like God invites us in Isaiah 62, verses 8-6?
I know it should be 6-8, but if you read verse 8-6 and go that way,
it says, Hey, do not give me rest.
I want you to come to me and begin to pray and be persistent.
Do not give me rest.
God is inviting us to be persistent.
The battle has never been between God and the devil.
The battle has always been between man and the devil.
Christ came to return to man the authority that he has.
So sometimes persistence is necessary.
It is not that God cannot wipe out the entire Satanic army by blinking his eyes.
He doesn't even need to do anything.
But because the battle has always been between the sons of Adam and the devil,
the victory also will come through the sons of Adam, sons of the second Adam.
So sometimes we have to be persistent.
Persistence, engage in contention.
Aggression.
Aggression must be emotional.
Aggression that is not emotional is not aggression.
Jesus didn't say, Ah, there's a whip on the wall.
Let me just take that whip.
Come now. Go. Go.
He didn't do that.
Aggression is emotional.
When I hear an aggressive prayer, I know it.
Oh, by the way, the Bruins lost too.
It is then that we get to inflict.
That's an old wound from 2011.
You inflict loss on the enemy.
It is through contention that you inflict loss on the enemy that he is.
It is through contention that you inflict loss on the enemy that you provoke hostilities.
That you smite the lion and the bear like David did.
So my question is, is this a normal part of your praying?
And if it is not, why is it not?
Is it because I am not literate?
Is it because I am an armchair theorizer?
Is it because I don't know how to?
And if that is the case, what are you going to do about it?
Don't answer. I'm just asking these questions.
There's a place in Exodus 17, or Numbers 17.
Exodus 17, verse 9, where some version says that
God says to Israel, hey, go and provoke hostilities with the Amalekites.
Go needle them. Go irritate them so that they rise up.
And when they rise up, I'll just put them down.
But go do something to get their mojo going, get their goat up.
It is almost like God saying, come on, these guys did great harm to you.
And now I want you to go and needle them so that they rise up.
And when they rise up, I'll slap them silly.
So the question is, is this kind of prayer something you engage in at least once a month?
What do you engage in it for?
And are these things happening?
And if it's not happening, is it because I'm not literate?
Is it because I don't know how to?
Is it because I'm an armchair theorizer who never gets put in situations where this happens?
And if so, what am I going to do about it?
Smite the lion and the bear?
No smiting Goliath till I smite the lion and the bear.
One of the things you cannot say in this church is that you don't have opportunities.
You can only stay away from opportunities.
There won't be a dearth of opportunities.
Next one, limit.
What can we limit so that we pray better?
Limit commitments.
As in limit the number of people you pray for.
If they say, please pray for me, don't reply if you don't plan to.
My poor niece, she said she's got exams yesterday at 7 in the morning.
Then at 8 o'clock she might be listening.
At 8 or 8.30 she said, I've got exams today.
Then she said, please pray.
I'm still not responding.
So finally just now she said, you will pray, right?
So I finally said, okay.
So I'm not saying do that to your niece.
But I'm saying limit commitment.
There's only so many people you can pray for.
So Jacob, what about the ones who ask?
It's sometimes impossible, guys.
There's a way that we can go about it.
Limit the number of people you can pray for.
Have you noticed how it's only when it's absolutely required that we send prayer requests.
Because I know that you're on at least four prayer chains.
And that you're praying like crazy.
And you don't have enough time to pray.
For yourself or for most things.
This is a terrible way to teach about prayer.
So people, prayer requests, calendars that you maintain.
Where in the olden days, and I'm talking about when you were in the olden days,
and I'm talking about when I was young,
you would take people in a church directory and begin to pray for them.
And it was good.
It was intentional.
It was systematic.
But while I'm doing that, there should be days when I have to do other things too.
Where I don't follow a calendar or a schedule.
It's not one or the other.
It's both.
So how do I then deal with this if I'm saying limit commitments?
Focus on your present role that God appoints you to.
In terms of people, places, functions.
That's how you look at it.
Yeah.
So again, if I'm an intercessor, I have to find out what am I supposed to intercede for?
So focus on your role.
What am I supposed to intercede for?
Let's say at present, let's pick on Derek.
Let's say Derek's focus is Wally.
So most of his time must be spent on interceding for, praying for things of Wally.
It's not that if I ask him to pray, he won't pray.
But he needs to know where his commitment is.
Because it will allow me to pray more for things with more time, more understanding, with a deeper insight than otherwise.
Otherwise, Prashanth said, let's pray.
Oh, Father, Prashanth said pray.
Father, I just pray for him.
Just bless him.
And then Remy comes and says, please pray for me also.
OK, Father, please pray for her.
I forget what he asked for prayer.
So you've got to go check.
You've got to go through scrolls of text messages.
Finally, you find.
Oh, Remy said pray for him.
OK, you pray for that.
Reality, I'm telling you what you actually do.
Or we gather them all together.
This is the easiest way to pray.
Collect them all together.
Put your hands on the Father.
Bless them.
Meet them at their point of need.
It is the easiest way to pray.
Thank God this church is small.
But even in a small church like this, I could do that.
Meet them at their point of need.
And I could do that quite sincerely.
But this is not a good thing to be live streaming.
But the thing is, what if I know my function and role at present?
And that becomes the main focus while I'm praying for other things too.
So there'll be a time when I have to ask God, Father,
are there things that I'm missing out that I need to pray for today?
Can you bring them to mind?
That you want me to pray for.
And when he begins to highlight it, you take time aside and you say, OK, Father,
so how do I pray about this?
Because remember our initial definition of prayer.
Can I get the design of heaven?
Can I grasp it?
Can I enforce it?
Can I bring to pass what God has in the fullness of time here in seasons of the earth,
in lives, in situations, in nations, in peoples?
So I spend a lot of time praying for nations.
Why? Because I know my role.
So I'll know when to change plans, when to go another place.
Does it mean I don't pray for people at Acts of the Land?
I do.
But it's not just your job to pray for everybody here.
Yeah.
Though if we had a few more deacons serving tables,
then I could dedicate myself to more teaching and praying, like Acts, Chapter 6.
Yeah. So it is important that the leaders pray,
but this is why the idea of a house tour is so inviting,
because the people that you focus on are so much lesser.
Dealing with nine kids is harder than dealing with two kids or one kid.
If you don't agree with any of this...
Peter, could you give us an example of the people of present function that you direct and focus on?
You focus on the ones that are placed in your chart.
You focus on the ones that have been given to you, say like a city called Wally.
You focus on the role that you play.
If my role is one of going to different nations and breaking nations open so that things happen in nations,
then I have to focus on that more than everything else.
In your workplace, why don't we find this difficult?
Why aren't you doing every job in your workplace?
Why aren't you doing some admin too while you're teaching?
Why don't you help the janitor?
Some after school training. Surely you have time for that.
At work, we don't have a problem with this.
I'm not saying we become specialized.
The danger of being specialized is you only focus on what you're good at, and that is not kingdom.
The kingdom of God is a place where the architect has to carry bricks on his head,
and the bricklayer has to try and design.
So you don't get specialized in this, but you also know your role and try to focus on it.
Engage, sorry, limit words, limit words, limit words.
As in, check on a couple of things.
Any wasteful words in your praying? It takes too much time then.
Any rehearsed words? Words that you have been saying for the last 20 years.
Any patterns in your praying that haven't changed?
Check.
People learn what they hear, eh? People learn from how you pray.
People learn from how you pray.
It happens to worship leaders, it happens to intercessors, it happens to pastors.
Some words they get, they've been saying for the last 20 years.
You remember when Darlene Sheck first came?
Every woman worship leader looked like Darlene Sheck.
They all wore that long thing, and they would say the same thing.
Limit words. Some words are wasteful, some words are rehearsed, some words are patterns.
If it's continuing in my life for years, then my prayer will...
Guys, here's the thing. Your prayer will betray your relationship with the Father.
Not betray, will expose. Your prayer will expose your relationship with the Father.
If you heard me talking to Derek, and if you heard me talking to Sade,
you would instantly know who I am more friendly with and who I have known longer.
Why? Because I've only known Sade for a year.
I've known Derek from the moment he sent me an email saying, praise the Lord, Pastor.
Yeah. That was many, many years ago.
That was many, many years ago.
Yeah. And when you say this is the way you should pray,
we just thought that the way he suggested the Lord's prayer is a pattern.
And it wasn't. In that one prayer, he shows you so many elements that take a prayer.
So there's the evil part there. There's the deliverance part there.
There's the will of God in heaven as on earth. There is the hallowing of the Father.
There is the need to know that grace is sufficient.
There is also the need to know that even though grace is sufficient,
you can still ask for provision. But a greater place would be to know,
why run after the things that the pagans run after?
And all of it, then... We take the Lord's prayer and we just encapsulate that.
But we forget what he said before that and what he said after that.
It is this continuous thing that is happening.
And in between, he also introduces the Lord's prayer.
And so, on one hand, it says, give us this day our daily bread.
And on the other hand, daily bread is the grace that he supplies anyways.
And he says before that in Matthew chapter 5,
why do you pursue after the things that the pagans pursue after?
They look for food and shelter and clothes.
Don't you know that your Father will provide them for you regardless of whether you ask or not?
He gives you before you ask. Look at the birds of the air.
They don't do anything. And so it's this double thing, eh?
What happened, Phoebs?
Oh my Lord, they're all coming.
I was going to say the barbarians are here, then I thought, no, these are children.
The next one is limit identifying.
This is an important one and this will ruffle a few feathers right now.
Limit identifying.
When we pray, we have a tendency to identify and sympathize.
We identify with our experience.
We identify with our experiences that others might be going through.
We identify with reasoning, saying, hmm, I understand.
And we identify with equity or justice where we want justice for someone else.
And what this does is it clouds intercession.
Because at the end of the day, intercession is defined as interceding on behalf of someone based on God's agenda.
But what happens to most interceders is because they identify with the ones they are praying for,
they begin to fight for the person based on the person's agenda.
Intercessors should identify with God's interest, not with a person's interest.
That is so critical. Otherwise we identify with these empathy and sympathy that arises.
It's not wrong, but it is not what fuels or directs it.
Otherwise we identify with justice causes.
Those of us who have a thirst for justice, it is great.
God has given you that quality. But don't let your passion for justice begin to cloud your intercession.
Some of us have experiences we have been through.
I've been through a drug experience, you're going through a drug experience, therefore I know how to pray for you.
You don't. Your experience is completely different from mine.
I have to intercede based on God's agenda for you, not based on how I experienced it.
Limit identification.
So many times I want to say, yeah I really understand, let me just...
No, and then you've got to stop and say, Father, I really understand, but I really don't, so what are you thinking?
OK, next one. Crank up. Crank up the prophetic.
Crank up the prophetic.
Hear God, speak the will of heaven.
In prayer, hear God, speak the will of heaven.
If you can't, start small.
If you can't, try.
If you can't, in prayer, start small.
If you can't, try.
If you can't, try. If you can't, insist on trying. If you can't get too many words,
if you can't get too many hearings, if you can't get too many ideas of what God wants,
try the little word that you've got and stop. Don't add more to it. Be desperate. Be embarrassed.
Be foolish. But try to hear heaven. Two words from heaven are far more powerful than 300 words from
your mouth. They mean nothing when those words come from your mouth and they're not in agreement
with God. Your prayers are useless anyways. The person feels better. That's about it till they
leave your presence. Crank up the prophetic. Hear God. Hear the will of heaven. Isaiah 50,
verse 4. He wakes me up every morning to instruct me so that I may have the tongue of a ready
learner. Isaiah 50, verse 4. Try that, eh? Let him wake you up with a word that instructs you
every morning before you grab your phone. Crank up the prophetic. Crank up purity.
Crank up purity. It's amazing how 1st Timothy 2.8 says, I want men everywhere to raise up holy hands
when they pray. I don't know why this holy hands thing is so important in the Old Testament, eh?
Psalm 24. Who can open the ancient gates? Who can open the gates so that the king of glory may come
in? Those that have clean hands and pure hearts. Crank up purity because purity allows you to pray
with great force. This is why it says in James 5, the fervent prayer of a righteous man.
Crank it up and you get great results with minimal effort.
Maximum result with minimum effort.
There's a scripture in 2 Samuel 23, verse 6, where David is talking about sons of bellyala,
sons of wickedness. He says, when you go against the sons of wickedness, don't handle those thorns
with your bare hands. Make sure you have spear or shaft. There again is this idea that there are
certain things you cannot deal with your bare hands. Holy hands on the other hand have the
ability to deal with bellyala, the sons of wickedness. Bellyala is just another name for
Beelzebub, kind of. It's basically worthless. Worthless wickedness.
So crank up purity.
The last one is
crank up expectation. Crank up expectation.
As in prayer, my expectations should be crazy.
Otherwise, I might only go to a mid-sized god.
A mid-sized god does not enjoy doing mid-sized stuff because he just ate mid-sized and so I miss
out. So crank up expectations. One of the ways we crank up expectations is by being
expressive about what we expect.
Expressive about what we expect.
Expressive about what we expect. How do I know what your expectation is unless you don't express it?
So when you don't express what you expect as a result, then your expectations are pretty low
or pretty hidden or pretty not sure.
What is your expectation? Every time someone had an expectation, they would say it.
They'd have to hear God, otherwise they would look foolish. But regardless, foolishness is
part of this kingdom. Cannot survive in this kingdom without looking foolish.
So what is your expectation? Expectation is always expressed. Expectation is expressed
because it's faithful. Expectation is faithful because they are your God words.
Crank up expectation.
I'm not here to convince you about an expectation that I have in God. I'm here to tell you about
it and you will see. You will either disbelieve it now and not eat of it or you will believe
it now and eat of it. But mine is not to hold it back.
Tomorrow morning, Elisha said, these very rivers that you see will be filled with water
and the fact that you have been under siege for months will end and there'll be enough grain
to eat it. And the servant who the king was leaning on told Elisha, shut up, you're not
supposed to say something like this. Elisha said to him, you will see it but you will not eat it.
And the next morning the sun comes up and the river flows. And the river flows.
And the next morning the sun comes up and the river looks red like blood.
And the enemy flees thinking their armies have been slaughtered.
And three lepers go into the enemy camp and see tons and tons of food and spoils.
And they come and tell Israel. And Israel goes and eats the very next day.
What if Elisha did not express what he saw? But he expresses it.
Please understand, if your faith does not express your expectation, please don't call it faith.
Yeah. Yeah. I would expect, I don't even expect things this year. I expected
this afternoon and often it doesn't work out. So then I have to recalibrate timelines but it
doesn't recalibrate my expectations. My expectations have to be based on faith and my faith has to be
based on what God has said. So this is where I start. This is what happens and then this is how
it's expressed. The timeline is already not yet. As in, believe that you have already received it
and yet if you ask me to show, I wouldn't be able to show.
Yeah. How do you remain firm in prayer when timeline keeps getting pushed back?
One. Father, why is the timeline being pushed back?
Father, where have I heard wrong? Or where have I or did I hear a miss?
Those are my first two questions. Father, connect me with people.
Who know how to walk between immediacy
and eventuality.
Father, let me go to Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit,
could you help me practice Romans 4, 17 to 20?
When he considered his own body, he was not able to do it. He was not able to do it.
So, 17 to 20.
When he considered his own body, he realized he was absolutely important but he was fully
persuaded that God was able to do what he said he would. Therefore, even though he was hopeless,
he began to hope against hopelessness and was not discouraged but began to praise God,
giving him praise saying, what you have said will come to pass.
Father, connect. Oh my God, that's terrible.
Father, connect me with, even reading it here is difficult. Father, connect me with people who
understand.
Yes. I mean, if they don't give me an honorary doctorate, this is what I have to do.
Who understand immediacy and eventuality.
You're getting really emotional about this teaching, Erin. Sorry.
Yeah, it is faith with patience. It is believe that you have received it and yet.
You're waiting. But Jacob, this is so hard. Yes, but it can become a habit.
Once something becomes a habit. Remember how hard it was to ride a bike? Oh my God, my dad sent
people to teach me. He sent three people from work to teach me and that'd be this
pudgy little young fellow on a bike and he would go three and then he'd fall and then they would
pick me up and put me. Three guys, man, they literally quit their job. They said, no more,
we can't teach your son because I couldn't stay on the bike. It was so hard, so many scrapes
and then one day, what do you know, I sat on it and it kept going and since then it's been quite easy.
You want to learn how to?
Father, where have I, where did I hear a miss? Come on, you know this is a miss. It could be amen too,
but it is a miss. Hear a miss. A miss doesn't mean a spouse. A miss as in I heard wrong.
With so many single guys, you got to be careful. Go ahead, Nick.
I was like, wow, this is great.
Oshak's father, two people have been asking me whether I'm going to Perth.
You're trying to say something because I had absolutely no intentions of going to Perth
because it's five hours that way and it's going to cost me much more. I'm already flying to Australia.
Surely you didn't mean Perth. I know you didn't mean Perth. What? This person says Perth again,
maybe I need to consider Perth. So I'm going to sleep now. If you want to talk about Perth,
let me know. A dream would be just the perfect way like you do with Eric, but you never give me
dreams. You always make me work hard for it. Wake up this morning. Still Perth on my mind,
but you didn't give me a dream. I knew you wouldn't give me a dream, but if you want me to go to Perth,
I'll send Sheldon to Brisbane. So maybe during worship, oh God, I'll catch a glimpse. Oh,
shucks, I caught a glimpse. So I have to go to Perth. It's going to cost me a lot. Okay,
I'll go to Perth. Well then, now that I'm going to Perth, I better tell the church about it. Why?
Because I need to express what I believe in faith you want me to do. What about telling them what
you're going to do in Perth? Not yet? Okay, I won't say it yet, but I'm going to Perth. Alrighty,
I'll cancel my ticket to Brisbane. It's going to cost me again, but then you're paying the bills
anyways and I'm going to Perth. So that's how it works. Cool. So you're going to Brisbane.
Any other questions? Okay, last bit. And it's be it Perth or be it White Spot. The process is the same.
White Spot. Catch a glimpse is in Father, what are you showing? You're teaching in your class and
suddenly you see something about a child. You don't actually see it, but inside your heart,
you just know, shucks, this child has had a bad day today. I've got to be careful not to push this
child's button. You don't even know what's wrong with the child, but you know there's something
that's amiss. I think to myself, I'll be particularly careful and tender with this child.
Did you see an image? No. Did God say anything? No. Did you hear an audible voice? No. Did you
dream last night? No. But something just, you know.
Shun. Shun resentment and complaining. Shun resentment and complaining.
This is not very helpful when you pray. If you are resentful or if you are in a very complaining
mood, best to get out of it because a bitter heart, a bitter heart clogs prayer.
That looks like dog's prayer. Clogs prayer. A bitter heart clogs prayer and dulls your spirit.
Remember when Israel was at Marah? Marah means bitterness.
Nothing was working. They were complaining. God named the river Marah or the pond. He named it
Marah. So shun resentment and complaining. It really cuts you off. So whenever you're
resentful about your circumstances, resentful about people, resentful about
ones that you're connected with, try to get rid of it. It's not that God isn't hearing,
but it just clogs your ability to connect and to do whatever is necessary and it dulls your spirit.
I remember saying this ages ago. I was at Richmond Pentecostal waiting for a
care group to start and I was going to teach on bitterness. One of the questions I asked God,
because I had really good notes on bitterness, but I still couldn't get the
gist of why is bitterness so bothersome to you, God? Why do you say bitter devouring is bad?
Why do you say root of bitterness must be eradicated? Why is it that you have such a
problem with bitterness? And I'm pacing up and down because I've come early and then
here's what God said, Jacob, there is nothing that I have in common with you when you are bitter
because everything I was on the cross was the opposite of bitterness. I had all the reasons
to be bitter on the cross. The father had closed the heavens. People had walked away. Everyone had
betrayed me. If there was any reason to be bitter, I had reason to be bitter. But when you are bitter,
you have nothing in common with me. You can be sitting next to me and it'll be like a huge wall
between you and me because the cross and bitterness have zero in common. Zero. And so he said that's
why I find bitterness so difficult because when you are bitter, Jacob, you could be... It's like,
haven't you seen husbands and wives who are sitting in a car and there's hardly a foot
separating them? But when you look, it's like the Berlin Wall or the... It's a wall so thick
that even Iron Man wouldn't be able to crack it. Why? Because even though there's a foot apart,
it is so thick. That is how God feels sitting next to you when you're bitter or when I'm bitter.
Oh boy, aren't we bitter every so often. I clog, see? You're not able to relate.
Shun ill treatment. Shun ill treatment. I'm so glad... I better not say stuff like that.
Shun ill treatment of your spouse.
Spouse.
1 Peter 3.7. One... And in those days, it was more common for men to treat women
poorly without respect, but those days are not these days. It flies both ways now. So I'm not
going to say man to woman. I'm going to say spouse. Shun ill treatment of your spouse because it says
in 1 Peter 3.7, a man who does not treat his wife with respect will end up having his prayers
unheard or hindered. So man or a woman who does not treat his husband or wife with respect,
because in the context of 1 Peter 3.7 was because she's the weaker sex, but sometimes today,
things are different. And so if you do not treat with respect, your prayers will be hindered.
Crazy, eh?
I was just going to say there are some things I don't have to worry about. Shun ill treatment of...
Shun ill treatment of the poor. Proverbs 21 verse 13.
One who treats the poor well... One who does not hear the cry of the poor
will not have their cries heard when they appeal to God. Proverbs 21 verse 13.
So shun ill treatment. Two more and we're done.
Shun disorder.
Disorder is internal or external
rebellion.
Rebellion.
Sometimes rebellion is not external, it's internal. I just resent and rebel and resist you
within me. I don't do it externally.
So the idea of submission to authority relationships is critical for prayer.
Where do we see this? We see this in the story of the centurion.
I'm a man under orders. I say to one, go and he goes, I'm also a man under order.
And therefore I know Jesus that if you come and say this, it'll happen. So this idea of
shunning disorder is so critical to having prayer answered.
It's so critical to having prayer answered.
I wrote this line, I don't know where, from some old notes. Powerful warriors who don't submit to
order fall in the battlefield because Satan resists their authority, prolonging and exhausting them in
battle. Powerful warriors who don't submit to order fall in the battlefield because Satan now
finds room to resist their authority, prolonging and exhausting them in battle. As in, if the
devil knows that I am not submitted to authority, he will resist the authority that I exert in the
name of Jesus Christ. Any questions on that?
Yes.
What does Philippians 2.14 say?
Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah.
Last one.
Last one. Shunned out. Shunned out. Already talked about it. James 1 verse 5 to 8.
One who doubts is like a piece of wood tossed to and fro and he, I've never heard a scripture that
has absolutely no encouragement in it. It says, he should not expect that he will get anything.
Come on, give us a small break. James say like he may get something. No, he should not expect that
he will get anything. It is so point blank. Doubt is when the enemy succeeds in his attempts to deny
in my life or distort in my life the nature, the intent and the voice of God so that in that area,
I will never be able to stand.
And James 1, 5 to 8.
Oh, the attempt the enemy makes is to try and distort or deny God's nature, God's intent, God's voice.
Once that is distorted or that is denied, what happens to my prayer in that area is it becomes
a religious, meaningless exercise
that I even find scripture for, that I can even theologize.
That I can even theologize.
What you think or what you experience is not who you are.
What you think or what you experience is not who God is. I've said it a million times and I'll say it a million times again before I die.
What you experience or what you think is not how you define God. God has a nature, he has defined it.
Your experience, your theology, your training does not define who God is. He is constant, you are not.
And if you try to theologize that, you will give account.
On that happy note.
Oh, happy day!
Hey, so let's just pray for Sheldon and me.
Guys, pray for Ukraine too.
I'm praying too. Jill just sent me a text. She's watching online.
Oh shucks, she sent me a lot of texts.
Now I'm in trouble.
What do you mean by praying relationally versus intentionally? Could someone answer her?
Do you mean setting aside specific time? Please answer her.
Oh, she says I think you kind of answered it.
The Ukraine-Russia situation.
So Heidi is going on the 28th to Budapest from Germany to meet a lady called Tanya who works with churches inside Ukraine.
And then Heidi will tell us how it went.
So let's just pray for Sheldon and me.
Sheldon and me.
Let me ask.
So let me ask May to come up.
Let me ask Diana to come up. I'll ask them to pray.