Sharing good news of great joy to all people.
Elation Church. This is week number three in
our series entitled Powerful Prayer. Everybody
say powerful prayer. You got to be with me this
morning. Say powerful. Say prayer. Right? Let's
say powerful again. Say powerful. Say it like
you mean it. Powerful. Powerful prayer. Amen.
I like this title because it, you know, it kind
of implies that there's a prayer that is powerful
for the Christian, right? There's a prayer that
is powerful, but it also conveys and like infers
that there's a prayer that is powerless. And
did you know as a Christian, you can pray and
it'd be powerless, okay? That's what we've been
talking about. We looked at what prayer is and
what prayer is not. I'm not going to do much
recap. Today stands alone, but I would encourage
you to go on our podcasts and YouTube, Facebook,
and you can re -watch those services. But I am
kind of building on what we've done in the past
two weeks. But like I said, today does stand
alone. But as I said, there is prayer that is
powerful and there is prayer that is powerless.
And unfortunately, I believe many Christians
are kind of in that latter category. They pray,
but they don't see results, right? Let's be honest.
Just because we're at church, let's not put on
our little church halo and act like, you know.
I believe many of us, even here this morning,
we pray and we don't see results. We pray, but
we don't experience power. And as we look at...
What the Bible has to say, when it talks about
power, and especially when Jesus prays, we see
something dramatically different than our day
-to -day experience, right? When Jesus prayed,
all of a sudden, he was receiving some power.
He was receiving some direction, right? He was
changed when he left that time with the Father.
And how many of us, we pray, we sit back and
we just rattle off, thank you God, love you God,
I need, I need, this is it, help me, help me,
help me, amen, bye. And then we wonder why our
prayers are powerless, right? What kind of fellowship
are we having? Like if Caitlin just came to me
and she just started talking. Now, she's not
like this. I know she's not in here, but I'm
not. She's not like this. But if Caitlin just,
every time I was around her, she would just da
-da -da -da -da -da -da. I need, I need, we need
to do this. You need, I need you to do this.
And then, you know, oh, I love you. That's great.
Yeah, yeah. You know, and she just keeps going
and going and going. And every once in a while,
I would sneak in. Well, what if we, and she would
just keep talking over me, right? What kind of
relationship would we have? Right? What kind
of fellowship would we have? Sometimes we treat
God this way. And I believe one of the reasons
why our prayer is powerless and can be powerless
at times is because we are praying and leaving
God completely out of it. And you might say,
well, how can we do that? Well, I'm acknowledging
that that's who I'm praying to. But do you realize
that... God just don't want you just to acknowledge
like who you're praying to and then give him
a bunch of lists and instructions. See, we often
want to pray at God, right? We're just praying
at him. Kind of like I'm talking at you this
morning, right? I'm in a position and I'm speaking
to you based upon some knowledge, some information,
right? And I'm sharing with you. Sometimes we
treat God that way. Here's my understanding of
the world around me. So I'm coming to you and
I'm telling you and I'm telling you and I'm telling
you. Bible says that he knows what you need before
you even ask it. He knows what you need before
you even come to him. So why do we pray? Often
prayer is not at God. It shouldn't be at God.
But prayer at its core is communicating with
him. It involves him. It's a two -way street
of open communication. Acts 17, 28, all the verses
that I'm reading today are out of the New Living
Translation. And in Acts 17, 28, it says this,
for in him, everybody say in him. Be a little
stronger, say in him. When we read these verses
that are in him, through him, by him in scripture,
they need to raise a red flag in us and we need
to start paying attention. Because there's a
lot of things and there's a lot of Christians
living a life, you know, powerless life because
they don't realize their position in Christ.
For in him, listen to this, for in him, we, the
church, say me, for in him, we live. and move
and exist. I learned this in the New King James.
So it's in him we live and move and have our
being, right? Maybe you've heard it that way.
For in him I live, in him I move, in him I exist.
What does this mean? That nothing should be done
for the Christian. Nothing should be done apart
from our position in him. It is foundational
for the Christian. It's not just something that
we step in and out of. And this is included in
our prayer life. For in him, we pray. In him,
I live, I move, I have my being. It's all grounded
and founded in him. And listen, church, we got
to start playing some game. When we're talking
with God, right? We should expect to see some
things. We should expect to see some change.
Because without power, without demonstration,
as we talked about the other week, without impact
and answers, direction and real change, why are
we praying? I'm sorry, I'm jumping this real
hard this morning. Growing up, I never knew like
the boundary of like, oh, you're supposed to
do this and then you're supposed to do this and
kind of build things. Like the first time I was
on a dirt bike, I was doing 50 miles an hour
over jumps with my friends. That's just who I
am. So we're just jumping in. I hope that's okay
this morning. You good? You good? Let's continue
on. Our prayer needs to be powerful. Demonstration
needs to follow. Impact needs to happen. Answers.
God wants to give you answers and direction and
you and I to experience real change because we've
been in the presence of the almighty King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. Amen? So if we are genuinely
communicating with God, we should expect to hear
him. Shouldn't just be a one -way thing. In his
presence, we should hear from him. We should
be empowered. We should be challenged. He corrects
those that he loves, right? So when we come to
him, there should be some things that kind of
the Holy Spirit kind of brings to our hearts
and our attentions and kind of, you know, checks
us on. Should challenge us. And also when we're
down, when we're in his presence praying, guess
what? He will encourage us. He's a great encourager.
But you've got to listen. You've got to be still
and know. Amen? When you're communicating with
God, you should expect to get answers. Many of
you want answers, but you're not willing to hear
for them. When we're communicating with God,
we should expect to get direction and we should
expect to be changed. Leave change because we've
been in his presence. And I want to give sort
of the cause of why this happens, why the Christian
sometimes experiences powerless prayer. Because
if your prayers are not being answered, listen,
it's not God's fault. It's not God's fault. It's
ours. Let's explain that a little bit. It's either
in our hearts, as we've seen, our hearts, our
methods of prayer, or the content of our prayers.
And they are originating in us instead of our
position in Him. See... We got to drastically
change our concept of what prayer looks like.
Our prayers should not originate in us. Because
you know what? Everything in you is not going
to be enough to take care of you. Right? Why
are we seeking a higher power if we're coming
to him just expecting, you know, what I already
know? Your prayers should originate in him. Amen.
James 4, 2 through 3 says this, and the Bible's
full of verses like this. Sometimes the Christian
just kind of wants to like throw him to the side
a little bit because our experience is different.
But it's important not to do that. Scripture
says here, you don't have what you want because
you don't ask God for it. Did I say that or is
that what scripture says? This is only one verse,
but I mean, we could go weeks and weeks on these
verses and get this. And even when you ask, you
don't get it. Why? Because your motives are all
wrong. So we can come to God in prayer and our
motives can be wrong. Our method can be wrong.
The content of our prayers, it can be wrong.
And we will not receive. And there's a lot of
things, like as we go through this series, we're
going to talk about them, that can hinder our
reception of his word and answered prayer. But
when Jesus prayed, and I said this earlier, when
Jesus prayed, he always got answers. Was he not
our example while he was here on earth, right?
He was our living example of how the Christian
day -to -day was supposed to be. And when Jesus
prayed, he always got answered. He always received
power. He always got direction. As we've looked
at in weeks past, Jesus, it says, he often went
away, pulled away from his disciples and the
world and all these things. He often pulled away.
in the early hours, and he would go off into
somewhere, sometimes climb a mountain even, to
just spend time. Do you think if it's essential
to Jesus, if it's important to Jesus, if it's
vital for Jesus to get a little bit of time away,
why do we act like, you know, I'm good, prayer's
the least priority of my day, right? For many
of us, for Jesus, it was essential. It was like,
you know what? Things are getting wild. Things
are kind of, I got to get away. It's time for
me to get away. I need direction. I need power.
I need answers. I need to go talk to the Father.
Because in Him, we live, we move, we have our
being. Jesus even admitted, He said that His
words were not His own. His works were not his
own. They were the Father working in him and
through him. He was saying what the Father revealed
him to say in that moment. Where did he get this?
Within constant fellowship with the Father. Within
constant communion and union with him. Prayer.
Working with him. And I believe we've been looking
for the past two weeks, we've been looking at
the Lord's Prayer. And I believe it boils down
to this. Jesus is teaching us how to tap in to
God's power. He's teaching us something. He's
not just telling us a list of words and phrases
that sound real spiritual. As we talked about
in week one, you know, we can be like... go into
King James English and be like, Thou is holiest
God in heaven above. We're so unworthy to receive
and thank you for your presence and all that,
you know. That's awful. Don't pray like that.
We can also just remember something, right? And
it's just, our Father who art in heaven, hallowed
be thy name. Okay, you know. And we think that
that's going to carry some weight, even though
it's not special to us, right? It has no meaning
to us. But Jesus here, as an example, his disciples
are coming to him. They're saying, teach us how
to pray, Master. This is found in Matthew and
Luke. And they're saying, teach us how to pray,
as John taught his disciples how to pray. Teach
us how to pray like that. It's not that they
didn't know how to pray. They didn't understand
what powerful prayer looked like. And Jesus was
walking in and praying something that they had
not experienced in their own life. And he's saying,
the disciples are coming to him saying, teach
us what is different. Show us how you're receiving.
Show us this direction and this power that you're
receiving to do these miracles, to do these things.
It's like something's different here. Tell us
what it is. And Jesus goes on to share the Lord's
prayer. Many of us have memorized. And to recap
a little, verse 9, Matthew 6, verse 9, Jesus
said, pray like this. Pray like this. This word
prayer really stood out to me during this series.
I'm not even going to try to pronounce it. That
would just be dishonorable to everybody. But
it means this. It means to interact with the
Lord. By switching human desires for his wishes
as he imparts faith. I like that phrase. Do you
realize that faith is imparted to you? I want
you to think about this. This is important. Don't
miss it. The faith that pleases God. is imparted
to you by the power of the Holy Spirit. He brings
revelation, impartation of his word and knowledge
of his word to a greater extent than you've just
heard it. Right? Because faith is more than just
hearing. It's believing. And you need some help
to believe sometimes. for it to really get a
hold of you, for the word of God to sit in you
so much that you're just confident and can't
be shook by it. You need the Holy Spirit to bring
light on something that was otherwise not known.
Maybe you had heard it before in a church service
time and time again, but all of a sudden, boom!
The knowledge of God, the knowledge of the Spirit,
all of a sudden he just brings revelation to
a word that you've heard a thousand times. And
my friends, that's when faith begins. When you
know it. When you're confident in it. When it
can't be taken away from you. It's not just mental
agreement to a set of things. No, it is an inward
knowing, like passionate knowing, dogmatic knowing
of the word of God. Who he is, what he wants
to do for you. He imparts faith. It's a divine
persuasion. And then he says, pray like this.
Like this, meaning in this manner, in this way,
fashion, in accordance with this description,
are along this line. He's not saying pray this
every time you come to me, even though it is
about the heart of the matter, right? He's saying
pray like this. Therefore, he's giving us a formula
to tap into his power. He's given us revelation
here for those who would hear it. What the Spirit
wants to say. Spirit's working through God to
reveal the truth of his word, what the Father's
saying here. The Lord's Prayer, therefore, is
a pattern of God, a model for powerful prayer.
The memorized Lord's Prayer, as we saw in week
one, excuse me, the memorized prayer, as we saw
in week one, you know, they can easily become
meaningless and powerless repetition. Okay? It's
not that what it's saying is bad, but as we talked
about, words don't in themselves possess power
unless they're connected to the source. Right?
Because words are just meaningless. You can throw
them all together. You can teach a bird to say
the sinner's prayer, but that bird is not going
to heaven. He said the words. Many Christians
will sit in church and they'll say the sinner's
prayer and they think they're going to heaven.
You can't just mentally agree. It's not just
knowledge. It's the Spirit's revelation. Of what
God did on the cross. And the weight of the sin
that was upon him. And it's confessing him as
Lord. You know, we wouldn't just naturally do
that in our carnal flesh. Submit ourselves to
him and yield ourselves to him. We do that when
the Holy Spirit comes on the inside of us. convicts
us, right? Not condemns us, but convicts us of
our sin, right? Last week, we looked at the first
two phrases, our Father in heaven, may your name
be kept holy. And it's talking about praise,
right? It's acknowledging, esteeming, and honoring
God. His name being precious to you and carrying
weight because when we know who God is, right?
When we know his name, we know his character,
we know his will, we know what he wants to do
in the earth. And it's time for Christians not
to be ignorant anymore of the God that they serve.
Everyone, Tries to tell you what God is and what
he's like. And if you're ignorant of the word,
you're going to fall for it every time. Because
it sounds good. If it didn't sound good, we wouldn't
take hold of it. The lies of the enemy. The deceit.
Right? It sounds right. Sounds real good. Makes
you feel good too. Come on, we need to know his
name. We need to know God. My children, listen,
my sheep, hear my voice. I'm going to start running
and slapping some of y 'all. Come on, my sheep,
hear my voice. The sheep know his shepherd. If
you'd never heard the voice of God, you are not
a Christian. Come on. Too many Christians act
like, well, I can't hear God. I don't know. I
don't know if he's there. I don't know if he's
listening. What? Help us, Jesus. We need to know
God. I'm going to get some water. That was a
long introduction. Hallelujah. Let's go. We're
going to continue this week in verse 10. It says
this, May your kingdom come soon. May your will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. These are
powerful words. Powerful words. And I want us
to see this is God teaching us. He's saying pray
like this, in this manner. When we come to God,
We are declaring something. Do you see that?
We're not just like asking something. We're declaring
something. Be done. Now, if we look, Matthew
was originally written in Greek, and the New
Living Translation is more of like a thought
-for -thought translation, and so that's why
I want us to get kind of just the bare bones.
as close equivalence to the English language
as we can out of the Greek to the English. And
it says this because I believe it carries like
a greater weight when we look at just the Greek
word for word, no filler words added. It's just,
here's what it says, okay? Because sometimes
those little added things can kind of soften
it a little bit. sometimes help us with understanding
the concept. But in this case, I want you to
see, listen, I want you to see these words, these
Greek words to the nearest English equivalent,
just word by word. Listen to this. Come, the
kingdom of you. Be done, the will of you. As
in heaven, they parenthesis because that's not
there. So, also. That's pretty strong. It's pretty
strong. This word come, get this, we're going
to break it down each word. This word come here
means to come. It also means to go. To come and
to go the kingdom. And I want you to think about
this powerful prayer then. recognizes that your
voice is the gateway for God's kingdom to come,
to go in your life. The kingdom of God is his
heavenly rule and reign, the eternal rule and
reign of God. And Jesus is saying, come. He's
telling you and I to say, come, kingdom. Why?
Is his rule and reign being done in the earth?
He gave us dominion over the earth, right? And
what we're doing in prayer is we're saying, come,
go, have your way, your rule, your reign in my
life. Come, I submit myself to you. I yield to
your spirit. Come. Come the kingdom of you. Your
voice, listen. God works alongside us. That's
why he sent his spirit to indwell in us. He wants
to use you. And his plans and purposes in the
earth. You have a purpose for being here. You
have a purpose for breathing. You have a purpose
for living each day. Not just to get by. Not
just to do your little petty life things that
are trivial things that are vapor in the wind.
That's, you know, here today, gone tomorrow,
not going to matter in eternity. God has eternal
purposes for each person in this room. And you
know what? In order to walk in them, you're going
to have to start declaring, using your voice
to usher in the kingdom of God. Do you realize
that everything that was created from something
that was unseen. Everything that is came from
something that was not. And when it happened,
it was delivered and created by the voice. That's
why life and death is in the power of the tongue.
Right? When Jesus spoke, boom, life came to be.
Time, space, matter in an instant came to be.
Your voice is a gateway to God's kingdom to come
and to go in your life. When you speak of his
rule and his reign, It physically transforms.
The spiritual transforms the natural. That's
how heavenly things, spiritual things, come into
our existence, is when we speak. Everything's
in a state of motion. When you speak, it physically
moves the things around it. The sound bounces
off and comes back. It reflects it. It's physically
impacting your space. If I talk to a plant and
I'm very kind, guess what? It's going to grow.
If I play heavy metal music, it's going to die.
I'm not saying not to listen to heavy metal music,
but consider it. You do with that what you will.
I used to listen to heavy metal music. I can
say that. It impacts you, right? The sound actually
impacts you, and I'm not going to go any much
further than that. But listen, your voice, you
need to realize that when you're praying, when
you're communing with God, listen, your voice,
your voice is either ushering in the kingdom
or it's ushering in your fear. It's ushering
in yourself and your human. you know, understanding
or it's ushering in his rule and his reign in
your life. Continuing, be done. I like this word,
be done the will of you. Because his will is
not being done in the earth. His will is not
always being done in the earth. It's going to
take Christians speaking the word. Following
the Spirit to bring his will about in the earth.
He's a gentleman. He's not usurping your mind,
you know. It's not Jesus take the wheel and all
of a sudden, right? Be done, this word here.
Get this, to become. To come into being. to happen,
to be made, to be done, continuing to emerge,
become, transition from one point or realm, condition,
to another. The kingdom of God is where? In heaven,
right? The will of God is being done where? In
heaven. And we're asking it to be done, to transition
from this heavenly realm, to come into our temporary
one. Signifies a change in condition, a state,
a place, coming into being, manifestation, implying
motion, movement, or growth. Powerful prayer
then, listen, commands God's will to emerge from
eternity and become evident, to show itself in
your time, in your physical space. Oh, church,
I hope you're getting this. That's what Jesus
is saying. Be done, your will. Come, your kingdom.
As in what? As in heaven. Also upon the earth.
God's wanting to do heavenly things in the natural
earth. And it's going to take your voice to usher
them in. to bring them to pass in your life.
It's going to take communion, fellowship with
God, praying things that are not just in your
mind and in your understanding, but praying things
that the Spirit reveals to you, that the Spirit
helps you to know. That's what's going to have
the power to change the world, to reach four
corners, to reach your family, to reach your...
extended family that you don't even care about.
What's going to take? It's going to take you
getting in the presence of God, being still,
and knowing Him. And declaring heavenly realities
to emerge, to be created in the earth. What is
heaven? Heaven is the reality of God's will.
It's the reality of God's will. It's a place
of beauty, perfection, the Bible talks about.
It's where believers live in eternal joy, peace,
love, life, and presence of God. Revelation 21
.4 talks about that it's a place with no death,
no sickness, no suffering, no tears, no pain,
no crying, or sorrow. Come, the kingdom. Be done,
your will. What are we saying? If these things
don't exist in heaven, where his will is being
done, I want his will done in my life. I don't
know about you, but I want the will of God to
be done in my life. I want the kingdom to come.
I'm going to take a hold of it whether you don't.
You can stay here. You can live the life that
you say, or you can start declaring the kingdom
things, the heavenly things. Because I'm tired
of this world and its death and its corruption.
I'm tired of it. I don't live in this world.
Come on. I live in it. Excuse me. I live in this
world, but I don't live of this world. That means
the things of this world, listen, they're not
on me. They're not of me. I'm living for something
higher. I live in a heavenly reality that doesn't
get moved or displaced by earthly tribulation,
by earthly wickedness, by earthly corruption.
We're called to rise above it. And you're not
going to experience that unless you do as Jesus
did and climb the mountain in the spirit. Listen,
climb that mountain and spend time with a heavenly
God. It doesn't say some ways like in heaven.
It doesn't say maybe this is like a little too
much. You know, maybe it's like a dialed down.
Earth is some dialed down version of what heaven
looks like for the believer. Earth looks like
a dialed down version of like what heaven looks
like. It's not saying that. It says as in. Just
like. In the same way. in the same manner in
heaven as it is in the earth. Amen. Powerful
prayer then declares heaven's realities, God's
perfect will to be done, to emerge, to be evident,
to show itself and become real in the earth,
our reality, our time and our space and our lives
and our families. Amen. This nation and this
world is waiting on Christians to wake up. Start
speaking about not all the crap that's going
on. Yes, I said crap. You're welcome. Stop speaking
about the crap and posting about the crap that's
going on in the world. Come on. Come on. We need
to start speaking the kingdom realities. Speaking
things be as though they are in heaven. Because
this world is not your home. We're passing through.
Amen. We need to get about the kingdom business.
Amen. Powerful prayer then, listen, creates an
opening for God to move in the earth. God wants
to do so much more. When Jesus went down, he's
like, you know, God wanted to do so much more.
They just wouldn't believe. He wanted to do so
much more. Jesus wanted to do so much more in
his home village, but they wouldn't accept him.
And I feel like sometimes he's looking at us
who should be called his own, and they just don't
accept it. They don't believe it. Matthew 6,
11. Sometimes we separate these things out, but
God is making, Jesus is making very serious declarations
here. And he's saying this, and I'm done. He's
saying, give us today the food we need. That's
what it reads in the NLT. I want you to understand
that God cares about everyday needs. Don't let
anyone convince you otherwise. God cares about
everyday needs, and he teaches us that we should
pray about them. And he also teaches us how we
should pray about them. Okay? And that's where
we're going to finish up today. Listen, when
we look at the direct English equivalents, It
says this, the bread of us daily grant us today.
The bread of us daily grant us today. Daily bread,
many theologians feel that this is reference
to God's promised provision of manna, which was
given every day in the desert while... The Israelites
were roaming in the wilderness. There was a provision
out of heaven each day. Manna would fall to the
ground. Quail would fall to the ground. And they
would just be able to go gather it. And it was
actually more than enough for them. But there
was a daily supply. Everybody say daily supply.
There was a daily supply. And bread is often
viewed as the supply of substance to meet physical
need. That's what bread is. Our white, bleached,
enriched flour, it doesn't really have everything
that you need. You can't just live on that. But
historically, bread had every nutrient that you
need to sustain your life. Okay? That's why a
lot of people are going back and grinding their
own flour and doing all that kind of stuff because
in those first two weeks, I'm like really into
bread, I'm sorry. In those first two weeks, when
you make that bread out of that roast, it will
sustain you and you can live off of a loaf of
bread and be completely healthy, have every nutrient
that you need. Bread in the Bible refers to three
different things. It refers to the physical,
literal sustenance. and provision supplied by
God. It also is referencing a spiritual supply
that's available in God. When we think of his
grace and his mercy, which are new each and every
day. Amen? His grace is more than enough, right?
He's more than enough for you. It's a spiritual
supply of all those things. And bread is often
seen as the presence of God. In the tabernacle,
it would be the show bread, and it represented
his presence among his people. Bread's important.
And Jesus here, without understanding, he's saying
the bread of us daily. He's saying the bread,
the complete physical and spiritual supply. Listen,
who brought the bread in the wilderness? Who
brought the bread? Who has the manna? Right?
It's God. All these things are from God. He is
our source. The bread, the complete physical
and spiritual supply that God has made available
each day, the bread of us daily, and he's declaring
that it be given, and he's given it to us. Listen.
He's given it to us, making it ours. The bread
of us, meaning something that belongs to me,
right? He's given it to us. He has supplied it
and therefore makes it ours. So when we come
to God in prayer, listen, we're not asking for
something. Getting ahead of myself. We're not
asking for something that he's already supplied.
Something that he's already given us. He's already
made available to us. His joy, his peace, his
presence, his forgiveness is available to us.
But also, when we look at bread, he's not just
saying those things. For some reason, we can
take a hold of those spiritual things at times.
But then we think that God somehow changes his
mind about the physical things, about the actual
bread on your table. Look, I grew up in the ministry.
There's been many times where all of a sudden
the bread just arrived on my table. Where living
by faith all of a sudden meant, God, you better
show up. If your word's true, it better happen.
You supply my daily need. I'm standing on you.
I'm standing on your promise. And things would
happen. Our daily needs would be met. The physical
needs, not just the spiritual needs. Because
God cares about that. If you care about the physical
needs of your children, do you not think that
God cares more about your physical need than
your children? You know, come on. Like, he cares.
Amen? And what is he saying? Is he saying, oh,
God, would you, God, please give us this bread.
It's tough down here. Oh, God. Help me now. Come
on. He says something. Grant us today. Grant
us today. This is not begging. This comes from
a place of knowing it is yours. It is a request
of appropriation. It's asking for something because
it's important to ask. There's plenty of verses
all throughout Scripture talking about asking.
But there's a difference between asking for something
that you don't have or asking for something that
belongs to you. This is why the heart and the
method and the content of your prayer matters.
When we pray prayers of our position in Him,
we can stand in faith that He will supply my
need. But if I'm just standing in a position
of my own ability and my own self, and I'm saying,
God, please give me something. I know you have
something. I know you can. I don't question your
ability, but I'm just like, I need it. You know,
it's like you're in that spot. You're not going
to receive it. You have to know God is your source.
You have to know that he is the bread. Not only
the bread of life, but he is the physical need,
you know, embodied in human form. His body was
broken. Listen, his bread was broken. He came
for us. It's a physical thing. And God wants
to do physical things in your life. He's enough.
Kayla and I, we recently... bought a car. I just
want you to get this in your heads. I'm going
to share two examples. Recently, we bought a
car. We were at the dealership. They got to have
everything, your mother's maiden name, your blood
sample, all these kind of things. You're signing
all this paperwork. We put in the down payment.
We go through all the hoopla, and it's like,
whoa, yeah. Let's go take a picture. We traded
in Caitlin's old Mustang, and we got a car. We
got good money for it. It was great. Great story
there. But anyways. when we get out to the car,
like I said, they were, oh, stand with your old
car in pose, and then stand with your new car
in pose, and okay, now get in it. We'll take
a picture like you're driving, you know? It's
so silly. It's so stupid. But, you know, you're
kind of in that moment, like the adrenaline's
pumping, and you're just like, yeah, oh, yeah.
Like, we'll ever look at that picture again.
Like, that's ridiculous. But there was a point
in time I realized they were like, crank it up.
Let's hear it. I'm like, it's a Kia. What are
you talking about, crank it up? It's going to
do something. It sounds like an old man farting.
Anyways, sorry, I went too far. Ran it in. Composure.
Listen, there was a point in time when I was
like, I need the key. You took my car. You took
those keys. And I'm like, I'm just standing out
here in the parking lot. I'm like, where's my
key? So I looked at the man and I said, I need
the key. Give me the key. I wasn't begging, you
know. I wasn't begging. I wasn't going, oh, please,
kind sir, will you please bestow upon me the
key that I so rightfully deserve? No. I said,
give me the key. It's my car, you know. I put
the thing, I signed in blood, you know, it's
my car. And then he gives me the key and then
told me have a good day. He acted like my best
friend for like the hour and then now he's just
gone. It was amazing how that happened. But that's
a good example of there's a difference between
asking when you know it's yours. When you're
asking from your position of who you are in Christ
and what's available to you, you're speaking
the authority that he's given to you is way different
than saying, God, come fix my thing. I'm going
to sit back and you just do your thing. I have
faith. I believe. Yeah, right. Another example.
Another example, debit card. Dad thought of this.
I thought it was really great. We were going
over and he was like, this is what you need.
I was like, yeah, this is right. Listen, when
I went to put the down payment on the card, right,
and I go, I take out my debit card and I place
it on the little beep machine, whatever that
thing's called. It just goes beep like that.
And somehow, somehow the money, Think about it.
This is crazy. When you start thinking and, like,
considering, like, the technology we got going
on, when you place your card on the little machine,
it beeps. And that beep signifies that it's taking
something that I know is mine, listen, in a different
realm, in a different place. I don't even know.
And all of a sudden, I'm laying it on there.
I'm saying, I know this is mine. I'm going to
pay for it. I know I have this in the bank, and
I'm going to put it on the scanner, and boom,
boom. The money comes from some mysterious place,
and then all of a sudden is right here and is
supplying the need that I had in that moment
because I put a demand on it. I made a declaration
on it. I said, this is mine. I know I have it,
and boom, it's there, and it takes care of it.
I ask for it. I say, grant me the daily bread
because I know that it's available to me. I know
that he supplies my needs according to his riches
in glory. That he takes care of me in grand style.
That if he cares for the birds, if he cares for
the lilies, how much more does your heavenly
father care about your need? Powerful prayer
then is our lips saying what's been given and
revealed to us by the Spirit. Something that's
in you. Something you believe. Something you
know. Powerful prayer then sees an image, listen,
sees an image of reality through the lens of
God's Word being fulfilled in your life. Coming
to pass. In our life. Our daily needs. Being
supplied. Amen. Amen. So answered prayer then.
Is not man's idea. It's God's idea. And listen.
Every prayer. And I'm done. Listen please. Every
prayer. The secret to powerful prayer. is that
prayer needs to be initiated in him. It originates
in him and who he is and his name and his character
and what he's made available to us. Every prayer,
listen, every prayer that is initiated by him
will be answered by him. Every prayer that is
revealed to you by the Holy Spirit and you declare
it, be so in your life, it will create that reality
for you. God's will, His plan, the heavens will
come to the earth and manifest themselves in
your life in a way that no eye has seen, in a
way that no ear has heard. It's God's will. Amen?
Amen. Powerful prayer is through faith. It's
through faith in what God has already provided
by grace. It's so simple. Don't make this hard.
Through faith in what God has already provided
by grace. And it's declaring that our reality
be according to his kingdom. When Mary said,
be it unto me according to your word, there was
a creation that began in her. God started to
do something that radically changed her life.
But it was by faith that she said, let it be.
Let it be. According to your kingdom, your heavenly
will, and your daily work. This online worship
experience was brought to you by the friends
and partners of Elation Church.