good morning my friends i'm pastor stephen brooks welcome today to our online internet around the world church service and i'm so happy that you are here today because i believe i'm convinced that god's word is able to build you up to do what he has called you to do and more importantly to be the person that he has called you to be we're going to jump into today's message in just a few minutes but first let's honor the lord by bringing the holy tithes and offerings into the storehouse of the lord let's take a look at a scripture that will build our faith concerning god's best concerning our finances matthew chapter 6 verse 31 here we see jesus saying therefore do not worry saying what shall we eat or what shall we drink or what shall we wear for after all these things the gentiles seek for your heavenly father knows that you need all these things and yes yes you certainly need them but look what jesus said is the solution but seek first the kingdom [Music] of god and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you wow we have it encapsulated in one statement from the lord that's verse 33 the solution to the financial dilemma that many face the challenges that so many face every day and you see the world out there running around in some situations doing literally anything from money and you see a struggle some refer to it uh in a very negative way as the rat race but either way my friends there is a covenant solution and that is to seek first the kingdom of god and his righteousness now what is the kingdom of god well to put it very simply and one translation actually translates it this way the kingdom of god is god's way of doing things anytime you have a kingdom whether it's the kingdom of darkness or the kingdom of light or any type of natural earthly kingdom anytime there's a kingdom there is a king that's governing over his kingdom whoa praise god now that king sets certain decrees he's able to set certain rules and king jesus he has a way of doing things that he has established this is known as the kingdom of god it's his way of governing his kingdom and god's way of doing things includes number one tithing so when it says that we are to seek first the kingdom of god that's not some kind of a you know ethereal mystical type uh realm or experience that's actually seeking after the principles commandments and teachings the instructions of god concerning how we are to live our lives seek first the kingdom of god seek first god's way of doing things well god's way of doing things is that we should tithe and that's laid out in scripture god instructs us to tithe that's 10 of all of our increase goes to the lord the lord says the 10 the tithe belongs to him now as we continue to operate in this kingdom governed by king jesus we see that another way of doing things concerning financial principles not only is the tithe but it's also what scripture calls seedtime and harvest and we see god's way of doing things in genesis chapter 8 verse 22 and as we engage in god's way of doing things see time and harvest sowing and reaping giving and receiving my friends as you continue to walk in these principles god's way of doing things and his righteousness you'll you're going to find out that all these things shall be added to you without struggling without fighting without quarreling without cheating without lying or dishonesty whoa praise the lord amen you'll find out that when you engage in god's way of doing things which can be very different from the kingdom of darkness and so when we come into the kingdom of light which is the kingdom of god's dear son we have to learn new principles we have to learn the operational procedure of this new kingdom that we are now in and when we engage in kingdom covenant practice then you will find out that god will bless you and the things that so many others out there in the world are striving and would do anything to get even kill those things come to you through the blessing those good things of course come to you through the blessing of the lord so today as we honor the lord with the tithe and with offerings let's continue to do things god's way praise god let's endeavor too as jesus said seek first the kingdom of god let's seek his way of doing it and it will bring financial health financial healing into our lives and it will bring us also into the overflow the place of abundance and more than enough now that we have sought these truths and god unveils these truths let us walk in them and operate in them right now let's bring the tithes and offerings into the storehouse of god if you prefer to mail your tithe you're offering in you can send it to stephen brooks international p.o box 717 moravian falls north carolina our zip code is 28654 now if you prefer to go online and bring your tithes and offerings in that way it's very safe very secure you can do it anytime day or night from anywhere in the world please visit our ministry website stevenbrooks.org there's a link on the home page that says give it has a red heart on it you can click that and it will take you right to the page where you can bring the tithe into the storehouse and you can bring an offer and you'll see the different projects we're focused on right now you could sow seed into one of those projects praise god and it moves the ministry forward and we are truly grateful for your giving heart now let me pray for you heavenly father i pray for your people that as they seek first your kingdom the kingdom of god they are discovering your way of doing things father in the eyes of the world in the eyes of those in the kingdom of darkness they would they would see tithing or giving as loss as being a subtraction but we see it as a principle within your kingdom and as we do that we honor you and you bless us financially you make a way uh even when the economy could have a struggle even when there could be a recession you will always make a way and with you we thank you that that way is always forward now father we give you praise we thank you for financial wisdom we bless you and father bless your people thank you father god that they are being overtaken by the anointing of overflow in jesus name shout amen praise god i mean i i just love that where jesus said he says all these things shall be added to you when you do it the lord's way tithes offerings your working his kingdom principles all these things shall be added to you all of them whoa praise god i see it coming into your life all right glory to god thank you so much for honoring the lord with your giving praise god let's take our bibles today and go over to the book of acts and we're going to be in acts chapter 6 and i want to talk about seven keys to staying devoted to prayer seven keys and each key is something that the holy spirit revealed to me and these keys will help you to stay devoted to prayer let's pray as we jump into today's message heavenly father thank you for your word we thank you that the entrance of your word brings light and as the light is turned on today we see the path that we are to walk in the path that we are to take so we ask that your holy spirit would illuminate the scriptures to our understanding and we thank you for this and we thank you for a clear steady path to walk on in jesus name amen now acts chapter 6 verse 1 now in those days when the number of the disciples was multiplying there arose a complaint against the hebrews by the hellenist because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution then the twelve summoned the multitude of the disciples and said it is not desirable that we now that would be in reference to the 12 apostles it is not desirable that we should leave the word of god and serve tables therefore brethren seek out from among you seven men of good reputation full of the holy spirit and wisdom whom we may appoint over this business now let's continue the verse 4 the verse that we would like to have be our key text today but we the apostles we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word now we are seeing here that they have made a commitment the apostles have to give themselves to prayer and of course when you're prayed up and you spend time studying the scriptures you're going to be able to present a good message if you're just studying the messages they'll become dry they'll become intellectual and they will they will become like textbook uh curriculum type things that are just it actually it will get boring that's why the man of god the woman of god needs to pray so that the message is anointed praise the lord but they said that we will give ourselves now that phrase give ourselves in the greek means to adhere to to persist in to hold fast to to give yourself to well i've noticed that this past week we have had throughout the various american sports we've had many of them participating in their distinct form of the olympic trials you have gymnastics going on you have swimming going on you have track and field going on so you have these various athletes competing to get on the u.s olympic team and of course many of you watching from other countries you've noticed that they're in your home nation they're competing as well the athletes are competing they want to get on the team and usually on that team in the you know select sporting event they're only going to take the top three i think that that fourth place uh has got to be one of the most disappointing places that a person could end up in but when they look to the lord there's mercy even for that praise god but my friends this thing about the olympic trials and this desire to gain the olympics is something that's uh very parallel to what we're looking at today in the sense of staying devoted to prayer you know during the olympic trials you have certain athletes come in that are the pre-favorites and those that are familiar with their sport whether it's tennis or whether it's track or whether it's gymnastics you already know who's at the top of their game or at least is supposed to be but you know what the moment the trials actually begin there's always upsets there's always somebody that they were for sure was going to be a sweep to be on the team probably going to win the gold in the olympics that doesn't even make the team while and you know maybe maybe they uh just had a not only just a bad day but maybe for certain reasons they their training was not where it was supposed to be maybe they got injured or maybe like some they just lost that fire and although at one time perhaps they were doing really really good and were perhaps the best in their sport you know what after a year or two it's it's a real challenge to keep that fire going and my friends it can be a real challenge to keep that devotional fire going where you are consistent in prayer that's why today i want to release to you seven keys that will really help you to stay devoted to prayer glory to god you know going back um almost 30 years ago it was probably about 28 years ago somewhere maybe 28 29 years ago where i was living in a small little rental apartment behind my pastor's house now it actually wasn't like an apartment it was more like an efficiency i was the only one there it's just a little bitty uh room that was very very small you know uh bathroom bedroom and you know no extra rooms or anything like that so um i lived there behind him and i loved it because uh i would drive him around when he would go out and do revival meetings and stuff like that and i would watch him i would watch him minister and watch him preach and so i'm learning more and more about ministry but i was still very very young in what we would call pentecost or uh the full gospel experience so i'm trying to learn as quickly as i can so it was a very privileged position i've been able to live so close to him and of course he lived real close to the church he could walk the church in just a couple of minutes so that was a real blessing something that god had set up in my life but i remember that there was a friend of mine that he was getting established in the lord he was kind of unstable but he loved god actually had a calling on his life too to ministry i don't know whatever happened to him and i can't remember his last name so i can't really look him up or anything like that but it wouldn't surprise me one bit today if he's out there somewhere in the world ministering as well but my friends he came over to my little uh house one day my little bitty um uh guest quarters where i lived and uh uh said you know i'd just like to hang out a little bit with you stephen and stuff like that and uh so yeah we we talked late into the night and we were both tired i said hey you know just sleep on the couch i'm gonna go over here and sleep on the bed so we both fell asleep and so i got up early the next morning to pray so i went into the little prayer closet and i didn't have anywhere else to pray because the place was too small can't pray in the in the room because he's sleeping over there on the couch so i just went into the closet and i actually went in there often and now understand when jesus talked about going to your prayer closet you don't literally have to go into a closet but at the same time you could if you want to it's a great place where you're you're going to thin out a lot of distractions anyhow i went into the closet and in order not to have my head sticking up and all you know all the the jeans or coats or whatever that are hanging in the on the closet rack i just kind of laid down on the floor a little bit and i'm in there praying i i prayed in there often and i prayed i don't know for over an hour maybe like an hour and 20 minutes or something like that i honestly had a wonderful prayer time i followed my prayer system or method that i had learned and i i loved the prayer running track that i was on and had a great prayer time and so when i was finished i said i said father in jesus name amen and i went to open the door real quick to come out for some reason i opened the closet door real quick and when i did that when i opened the closet door i didn't know it but my friend his name was doug he had been laying on the outside of the door with his ear down to the bottom of the door because he was listening to me pray and he was trying to learn how to pray so he figured i'll just listen to stephen and he was i didn't know what he told me later he laid outside of the door for the whole time i prayed he must have saw me go in there and got up and just went over there and so when i opened the door i actually pushed the door open and it hit him in the head and i said brother what are you doing he said he said stephen i was listening to you pray he said that was that was one of the most beautiful things he said i don't know how to pray you know i'm trying to figure it out well i had learned my friends from the best i had studied the books and the cds we didn't have you know youtube or videos back then but i'd read all the books by dr david youngy cho and i devoured the books and i i got some tapes on prayer particularly he would teach on praying the lord's prayer and i just began to consume those tapes and i took that teaching i began to implement it and i began to pray like they had learned to pray there in the oedo full gospel church there in seoul korea which grew to over 800 000 members and today it's still the largest church in the world technically dr cho's church it went way over a million members but the growth was so explosive that a lot of the converts a lot of those that came to christ they just sent them off to other churches because they couldn't handle all the growth sometimes so um there's a lot of other large churches that actually sprung up because of the overflow from that church but nevertheless here is dr cho one of the world's leading teachers if not the leading teacher on the subject of prayer with proofs after all it says in scripture jesus said wisdom is justified by her children in other words wisdom is justified through proofs that you can see that what you proclaim or teach or practice is actually working and producing in your life so wisdom is justified by your children and so i found that the teachings of dr cho they worked and so yes i incorporated that into my life and then other people like doug who learned it from me picked it up and you know he got up and running and stuff like that and off he went into the things that god had for him and here's here's the challenge though until we go home to be with the lord and we leave this planet we have this human tendency to drift and we see in the natural world we see things that that kind of sync with that i mean you can go out to the beach you could be floating on an inner tube or on a surfboard and thinking you're having a nice time you know you're just out in the water maybe you know uh 30 yards and you got you're caught up having fun or just floating around next thing you know you're you're a quarter of a mile or 100 yards or quarter of a mile offshore so there's this this thing to float or drift away you know rip tides and rip currents and all of that things you can't even see that want to move you away from the place that you would like to to be anchored at but my friends we thank god that we can stay devoted to prayer when it's so easy to drift even away from something that we know should be you know like an anchor for our lives let me give you an example i mentioned that i learned to pray effective prayer through the teaching of dr david youngy cho but something happened in the latter part of his ministry where with all of the knowledge that he had and all of the years of experience that he had and i don't know why but for some reason he began to let off on his prayer life he got involved in some financial dealings that were wrong and this went on for quite some time for several years and eventually it was brought to light it was exposed that there were financial wrongdoings and his two sons went to prison and he was going to go to prison also but the judge said to dr cho your ministry your church has done so much good for the nation that because of that alone i'm not going to send you to prison although you deserve to go to prison and although you did crimes that are worthy of going to prison he said you have done so much good for the country that we're going to let you not go to prison but of course he suffered in the sense of having given a a bad rep a bad representation of christ and you know there's a lot of buddhists in seoul korea and that gave them plenty of ammunition to say see there we told you we told you all this christianity stuff wasn't wasn't you know valid and legit and things like that so it it really it hurt the church it brought the church great pain and there were certain fallouts because of that now the church is still going on today there's a there's another pastor there and dr cho he's back on track now he has a strong prayer life again but you have to you have to understand that even if you know it even if you once practiced it you have to you have to stay with it or you're going to find yourself not only not going to the olympics you're not you're you're going to you're going to be left out you're going to miss out on what god has for you and if you are on the front lines or you're actively engaged for the lord and you let off and let up you're risking you're risking trouble can you imagine what would happen to me if i just stopped praying i just thought well you know i could just teach on it but i'm not really going to do it because you know i've already i've already done enough of that and uh i've got some momentum and i i you know nobody's going to know oh i tell you that would be uh disastrous consequences i know i have no intention on letting up one bit but we have to watch ourselves in this area because if it could happen to dr cho you you want to be careful the world's leading authority on prayer not only that as we're seeing here that peter is making a commitment to give himself continually to prayer you have to realize that later a few years down the road somehow peter took his foot off the gas pedal of devotion to prayer and the next thing you know he is he's literally acting like a complete hypocrite in front of the believers there in the galatian church and paul the apostle openly publicly has to rebuke peter publicly because it's so out of control this is not something he could have done on the side he has to do it publicly and even barnabas was carried away with the hypocrisy wow what happened well it's hard to pinpoint but somewhere along the line peter backed off of that deep devotional prayer life and now he's being influenced by church politics because you know you had the big wigs coming from jerusalem church to visit and uh you know you got all that political pressure and you get all these when this church starts getting like a structural type system and i'm not saying you don't we don't need structure but when you start getting into that type of a structure type thing it usually gets goofy and uh it creates a lot of um fakeness and that's what happened and paul had to call peter on it so for some reason peter had drifted from his strong devotional life he never would have normally done something like that so we have to be careful we have to stay devoted we will give ourselves continually to prayer praise god let's make a commitment to do that and in order to do that i would like to share seven keys to staying devoted to prayer first of all let me say this legalism and guilt will never motivate you to pray the way that you should you ever heard somebody you read the testimonies maybe you read martin luther's uh you know stories on his life and he would yeah there was the famous quote by martha luther i have so much to get done today that i i cannot possibly get it all done unless i pray three hours early in the morning to be basically spiritually prepared and you know like a normal christian hears that says three hours how could i ever and you know they think well why even try if i yeah three hours you know it looks like mount everest maybe to a young christian or maybe to a christian that's just coming into the deeper walk and or maybe you read about some of the mystic saints who would wake up in the morning and pray through all 100 psalms you're looking like four hours to do something like that and you think why even try [Laughter] so i'm here to say that legalism and guilt that could be based upon what others do don't let that shut you down because legalism and guilt they're never going to motivate you to pray what motivates you is that you have to enjoy it you actually have to like it now we're all different um for some reason in sports i did get to a place it wasn't like that when i started when i was young when i was young my dad would say to me and my brothers hey let's go jogging and i would like jog maybe a hundred yards and i thought i was gonna die and i thought why in the world would anybody do something this torturous and this painful and i wasn't really into sports but then later as i got into junior high and then high school something just thought you know inside of me started to click or catch fire and i thought you know i want to do some sports and eventually got more into that and eventually reached the point where i really liked it and became what you could maybe call self-motivated in other words nobody had to say stephen you need to go to the gym today well i i'm i'm already there you know or something there's a place you can reach you don't even need the gym you just have it at your house most people however they can't function like that they're going to need motivation they're going to need to have somebody encourage them which is why most of the exercise equipment that people buy and they bring it to their home it's never going to get used maybe it gets used for a week or two weeks and then you're able to see it for you see them they're selling it on craigslist or even maybe trying to give it away because they simply don't use it they don't have that motivation now for me in that area that's just something that i developed and i maybe i should call it a gift from the lord so that's something i really like but you could still find areas where you succeed maybe it's business maybe uh you're the first one to work the last one out and you know it's rare but you still see those employ those type of employees where they are there every single day they're never sick they just don't get sick they don't take a time off they they you know they're always there and so that's that's somebody that's excelling in their anointing they've gotten good at it and you you you have to enjoy it in other words you're enjoying your work you actually want to go to work you don't want to miss you don't want to stay home you don't want to call in sick you love what you do and so i would say that the first key to staying devoted to prayer is that you have to enjoy it if you're being forced to do it that's not going to stick it's not going to last so you have to enjoy it praise god glory to god i think along with this enjoying prayer there has to be somewhat of a change perhaps even in the way that we view the christian walk the typical evangelical mindset is that we are born again now that we're born again we need to get as many of the lost people saved and born again and then we'll finally one day die and we'll go to be with jesus and we'll finally be out of here out of the suffering and misery and all of that stuff but i think that we have to move to a place where instead of just looking to get out and to go up like in the rapture or the catching up of the saints instead of just looking to go up we need to be looking to grow up and that's a different approach the lord wants us to mature into what the apostle paul called the sons of god where we're not trying to run we're not trying to escape we are fully aware of the difficulties within our nation and within our world but we are here to get the job done and we are also not only here to do a work but we are here to grow and mature in the lord and so that developmental process is something that can never reach its fullest potential without a life that is devoted to prayer and if you stop praying if you pull back on that the next thing you're going to be thinking is god it's so bad we just lord just get us out of here lord let jesus come back right now get us out of here it's just such a mess it's impossible to get it fixed there's no way the church can prevail lord just get us out of here you cannot base your eschatology nor your theology out of a heart that's full of fear you have to base it out of the word of god out of a peaceful state that comes from knowing the lord and knowing that the lord is about to move again in a powerful way we're about to see the unfolding of the third reformation i'll have more to say on that in the coming days praise god but if you're not praying and you're just looking at news looking at circumstances you would think there's no way we can go any further but my friends when you pray you realize god knows exactly what he's doing and god is also very patient and very loving and very merciful and god is going to have his way and there is yet to be a glorious outpouring of the holy spirit and the reaping of the end time harvest and this gospel of the kingdom will be preached to all the world and then and not until then and then the end shall come praise god so my friends in order to stay devoted to prayer you have to enjoy it you have to enjoy it you like it you actually like praying and for those of you that are familiar with it and i know i'm speaking to many of you once you actually do get into it you're like yeah this really is where the life is at this really is where the life flowing from the vine in through the branches to into us it's occurring it's taking place it's in the prayer life so you can enjoy that praise the lord step into that discover that the lord is good through prayer enjoy your prayer time number two the number two key to staying devoted to prayer is be willing to mix it up praise god be willing to mix it up if you are ever having a time in prayer you're you're endeavoring to pray and it's just like there's no anointing it's real flat and you're just like lord i i'm trying to pray but uh it's like nothing's really doesn't seem like anything is going on then excuse me you can mix that up in other words i have found that if you ever want to talk with god about a certain subject maybe you have a certain question or maybe you're praying about a certain thing and the lord just doesn't want to talk about that do you know what you need to do move on to a completely new subject you can't be like well god i demand i demand that we have conversation about this well no we can't make demands like that we go before the lord and if he's not talking about a certain thing for whatever reason who knows maybe he just doesn't want to that day maybe on another day he will but those are things that you learn by the holy spirit as you are in your prayer time so if it seems flat and you're talking to the lord or endeavoring to pray about a certain thing and it's just not clicking go on to another subject and find the subject where you catch fire praise god and that my friends will help you out number three in order to stay devoted to prayer be mindful of the reward be mindful of the reward hebrews chapter 11 verse 6 but without faith it is impossible to please him for he who comes to god must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him these rewards that come to the child of god who diligently seeks after god these rewards can be multifaceted it can be everything of course from answered prayer but sometimes even if that answer or manifestation has not yet come the lord can still reward you along the journey of the process of seeking and there can be supernatural encounters there can be visions there can be gifts of the holy spirit that will operate in your prayer time and there's no telling what might happen so you need to be mindful of the rewards that are associated with a strong prayer life all kinds of rewards i mean the shield goes up the shield of protection goes up and you need to have it up every single day where the enemy would look for an entrance in but he can't find one the shields are up and those are the prayer shields whoo glory to god i see him going up in your life and i see the enemy's frustration because he cannot accomplish what he wants to do because you're too prayed up you are too alert and he has zero access into your life so be be mindful of these rewards which is why you don't want to abandon or miss out on your prayer time it's too it's too good the rewards are too good and be just think about those because they will come he is a rewarder he is well pastor stephen nothing ever really happens in my in my time well you have to really be diligent you have to really be consistent and things will start happening oh praise the lord stick with it stick with it put your time in put your time in do the workout do the spiritual workout you never want to be out of shape spiritually you want to be fit spiritually ask yourself that question am i spiritually fit whoa praise god well pastor steven that's easy for you to say because you're supposed to be your preacher you never know when you're going to be called upon well as a minister though i still have to make that choice to stay devoted to prayer trust me there's a million things that pull on preachers also and the same things that pull on you they pull on me i've been asked many times before pastor stephen how come you don't play golf well i don't play golf because if i ever did i would probably like it and i i don't want another thing uh pulling on me for my attention i've got my little narrow streamline things that i like to do it's not much but it's my little maybe you can call it a hobby a little tiny thing that i like i get to touch it every now and then that that hobby that i like but i don't need all these other things when we go to heaven we will have all eternity to do some of these other things watch out watch out for the preacher that's spending all of his time out on the golf course well now pastor stephen he needs to fellowship with his church members he you they're having fellowship well uh you know fellowship is good but there's a point you do all that talking you do all that talking uh but you do so little praying you're gonna end up empty and then you're gonna start having a a downturn on miracles on the power of god on the anointing you can stand up and talk still and the words may be right but if they're not anointed listen to me they will not set people free it's the anointing it's the power of the holy spirit riding on what we do that delivers people praise the lord glory to god so we must be aware of these things thank you jesus now the fourth key to staying devoted to prayer is recognize that without prayer certain situations will never change in your life until we become convinced that there are some things that only god can do we will not take prayer seriously well pastor stephen you know uh we're gonna maybe there's another option maybe a medical science will finally figure it out maybe they'll come up with a cure maybe but maybe not maybe not in your lifetime and on these other areas where you need another type of america whether it's healing or whether it's financial or something else or relationship or something like or something else there are some things that only god can do and when you realize that it comes it comes down to that suddenly you realize wow i really should pray because if i don't it's never ever going to happen because this is going to take god well now pastor stephen you know um you never know god may just step in there and do it well you know um there are sovereign moves of god but it doesn't seem like he's moving like that in anybody else's life that i know sovereignly so we should not just sit back and expect just something like that to fall from the sky it happened to us we should pray so again number four recognize that without prayer certain situations will never change and until we become convinced that only god can do it we will not take prayer seriously whew i see i see real genuine bona fide miracles taking place in your life but you have to stay very consistent in prayer because if you pull out that faith that you're trying to stack within your heart from hearing the word of god uh if if you don't mix it with prayer it's going to get real dry and you're going to you're going to get into this intellectual thing where you know what god's will is and you know what the word says but without prayer you're not going to be able to reach it it's that prayer that makes that faith come alive [Music] thank you jesus glory to god yes it's knowing what god's word says standing on the word believing the word but you cannot do that in your heart if your prayer life goes down whoa thank you jesus so we must stay devote it to prayer oh yes yes say pastor stephen i will glory to god all right now this next one is very important to secure this devotion to prayer we must this is not optional we must stay separated from all known sin again we must stay separated from all known sin now in the epistle of first john chapter 3 we have verse 5 and 6 and i'm going to read this to you but i want you to understand this is why we must study god's word and teach it from a from an informed position or else you can read through scripture and read some things and you think well i'm in a bad mess but if we study the scriptures and we see really what the author is saying through the or by the holy spirit then we can make a good application of it and we see that here in verse 5. and you know that he that would be jesus was manifested to take away our sins and in him there is no sin verse 6 whoever abides in him does not sin whoever sins has neither seen him nor known him i used to read those verses particularly that one about whoever abides in him does not sin and as a young christian i thought well lord i thought i was abiding in you i thought i was saved but i've sinned today so i i must i must be really messed up i don't know where i'm at but as all new testament teachers who are familiar with the greek text know that this is a reference to the practice of sin in other words whoever abides in jesus does not practice sin whoever practices sin has neither seen him nor known him this is not talking about our failures our blunders our sins that we you know unintentionally or through weakness commit this here is just talking about those that are just sinning and they're sending that you know what they're not really con that concerned about it this is this is for christians but they're just tolerating sin in their life and they have no they have really no desire to get the axe and chop down that uh uh that tree at the root but my friends if you're practicing sin as a christian it's going to really hinder your prayer life and it's going to cause the cylinders of your prayer engine to hit and miss they're not going to fire properly praise god you'll gum the whole thing up so you have to deal with those things and if you have any type of addiction or bondage you have to say lord deliver me set me free let your grace and mercy be strong in me glory to god and then repent or whatever thing that you've have stumbled in before and get up and go on praise god and establish a strong immediate devotional life with the lord and you say bye bye to those former things that used to trip you up and chain you and give you such frustration and such difficulty whoa praise god there is a place in the lord for the prayed up saint who lives in the reality of ephesians chapter 2 verses 6 through 8 of being seated with christ in the heavenly realms there is a place you get so prayed up but see you have to walk in that where you know you're strong and you know you're above that stuff and if the devil tries to even hurl accusations at you you already know that was forgiven that's washed away with the blood that has been burned up it's nothing but ashes and it's just a dead empty shell all the enemy could use against you perhaps could be the memory of it but my friends it's a memory of ashes woo praise the lord but see that reality of that and that clean conscience that comes from an established prayer life and if you let your prayer life go down you're going to have a lot of fragments within your soul that will need to be healing that will need to be healed so come to the lord let him do a cleansing let him do a washing let there be forgiveness and then get that prayer life established praise the lord so and have it strong so that you can step into verse 21 of the same chapter beloved if our heart does not condemn us we have confidence toward god i used to really struggle i mean really struggle with condemnation i saw very very few that ever came out of the denomination that i was raised in who did not have a sense of condemnation and guilt that's because we were not taught of our new position in christ which was a position of imputed righteousness i never heard imputed righteousness taught once to me in the first 20 years of my life and i was in church every sunday morning every sunday night every every mid-week service i never once heard it a pastor preach and say now that you are in christ you no longer have a sin nature you have a nature of righteousness because christ has imparted righteousness into us and all of the sin nature was put on him and we have now become the righteousness of god in christ jesus whew hallelujah praise god so not knowing that uh you know we would uh growing up in church we would always conclude every church service it doesn't matter if the pastor was saying the closing prayer if one of the elders was saying the closing prayer or the deacon was saying the closing prayer it would always end like this the final word said heavenly father thank you for hearing our prayer please forgive us of our sins in jesus name amen amen it was always like that every meal every family meal you know we're going to pray over the food father god bless the food thank you for it in jesus name please forgive us of our sins in jesus name then we start eating it was just a mindset of condemnation of not being worthy of not knowing who we really were in christ and of course if you carry that it will greatly affect your prayer life because you think you're unworthy you think god won't hear you you think you're dirty well pastor stephen yeah that's kind of what i've been going through okay come close to the lord in prayer confess any known sin the blood of christ will cleanse you now as you're walking with the lord that blood just keeps cleansing keeps cleansing it keeps cleansing and that close relationship that you have with the lord it just puts up it's part of this invisible shield of protection but also an identity established within you of righteousness and you know it you know everything's all right between you and the lord you can ask what you want and you're going to receive it why because your heart does not condemn you and then you have verse 22 and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight if you're doing all kinds of stuff that's displeasing in god's sight the enemy is just going to hurl accusations because you're not prayed up that stuff will just it'll hit you and the next thing you know is that you can't approach god with confidence in prayer so don't ever abandon your prayer life because it is in that place of devotion to the lord in prayer that your righteousness which is already imputed that righteous standing is understood and made known to your heart and it releases tremendous confidence tremendous confidence that you can go before god and ask him things in prayer and he'll do it woo it's good it's good it's good whoa praise god number six you need to be around others who are also passionate about prayer now perhaps you are in a place where maybe you're listening to this message and you're thinking pastor stephen there's not a lot of people like that around here they're not really in the prayer they're uh in all they're in there everything else under the sun but that well i believe i believe still the holy spirit will put you in relationship with those that have a heart like that um the ministers that i connect with they're all men and there's a few ladies also women ministers but when my my wife and i have ministerial relations with other ministers these other ministers they're praying they're all praying when we sit down our conversations always go towards the things of god that's what we talk about hallelujah glory to god and god will bring those type of people into your life but you must be that type of person and that anointing will attract praise god thank you jesus glory to god i see that anointing like honey that prayer anointing like honey coming coming upon you thank you jesus all right and by the way we see that in acts chapter 6 verse 4 our key scripture where the apostle said but we will give ourselves continually we will give ourselves so in other words they were all linked together in a common bond as the 12 apostles of the lamb and they're like hey we're in this together this is what we do so there's that like fellowship they have the same spirit i i can't imagine i couldn't just couldn't imagine like running with the minister who has no prayer life i'd be i'd be greatly concerned about him i'd be greatly concerned about him praise the lord now number seven it's important to understand that devotion to the lord in prayer originates from within you as an individual now verse 4 again acts chapter 6 but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word let me say this that you must be careful that you don't substitute church prayer meetings collective or corporate prayer group meetings for your own private individual prayer time have you ever known christians that don't have done that raise your hand i can see you out there on the internet raising your hand i've been in many church prayer meetings where you know we all come together to pray maybe before the service maybe like on a midweek service or something like that you'll always have some that come they never pray on their own now they know because they're christians and they've read the bible and they've heard teaching they know that they should have their own devotional life but for whatever reason they're not doing it so when they come to the church prayer meeting where we're all supposed to pray together they don't come prayed up they come and they're going to this is going to be their their prayer time and so what happens is you start praying it uh it starts generating that corporate prayer anointing and suddenly they start feeling the presence of the lord and they start feeling that blessing of prayer and they get caught up in that they start praying and that and you'll notice when they're praying they're they're they're praying in a way like hey uh you should be doing that in your own closet in your own private life with the lord we're here to pray about the the corporate stuff this is not a time for you to start oh god i love you so much oh oh lord the glory oh i see your glory no you do that in your own prayer time so you're prayed up when we come to pray together and we can hit these larger issues but so many they don't do that they don't have that individual personal devotional prayer life and so they don't know how to behave when they come to a collective prayer meeting and because of that they they ride that prayer anointing and they they feel a little satisfaction and then they go right back to a life where personally they never kneel down and take that time to go to work and get into prayer themselves to create their own anointing to get now of course it's the anointing of the holy spirit but you generate that through your individual prayer life again we we must not just proclaim the message look we're all ambassadors of christ we're all ministers in the sense of ministers of reconciliation it doesn't mean that everybody has a pulpit ministry or is called to be an apostle prophet evangelist pastor teacher but we are all called to reconcile those that are lost back to god bring the lost to christ but we must we must not just share that message we must become that message and when you're prayed up you sense when's a good time not to talk to a person about that and when is a good time to talk to a person and you learn also through being prayed up to be genuine to not just be pushy you need jesus you know i was like well let's let's find out what their name is first let's show them that we love them and so you just some things you don't have to be taught the holy spirit just he helps you to understand it but it all comes out of a prayer life i see a lot of christians that are very very engaged in politics and while they are because they're christians of course while they're born again the way they go about their politics and defending their rights um in some ways it actually even though they may be technically saying good things they're they can do it in a very rude and mean nasty way and they can do it in a way in a sense where it just it ke it keeps the war going it keeps both sides fighting and they don't have enough sense because they're not prayed up they don't have enough sense to even see you're being pulled into a fight you're being pulled into a verbal quarrel that you're never going to win because you can't win arguing like that even if your facts are right even if your dad is correct they don't care about any of that you can't win that way you have to be prayed up have the mind of christ and you have to walk in the spirit whoa praise the lord so my friends number seven the number seven key to staying devoted to the lord in prayer is that true devotion originates from you as an individual praise god you can't allow others to carry you you have to have your own oil you have to generate your own oil praise the lord we are well familiar with the story that jesus told about the ten the parable of the ten virgins five wise five foolish and the foolish ran out of oil but don't forget they were still virgins they were still those that were you know right with god so to speak but they ran out of oil i see you never ever running dry i see you never ever running out of oil you know i think one of the greatest blessings of maintaining that devotion to the lord in prayer is that oil flows and you have a sensitivity to others to their hurts to their pains that you would never ever have if you were not prayed up but when you were prayed up it will automatically slow you down and you'll catch you'll catch little nuances in people's life not my i'm not only talking about the moving of the holy spirit through you but i'm just talking about life in general you'll you'll hear them say something that's a veiled reference to their inner pain nobody else is going to catch that maybe nobody else even cares but you heard that and you're and you have a moment just to step over to the side and say is everything okay i noticed that you mentioned this what's going on and you have a unique sensitivity and that gives you an opportunity to pour god's love towards them whoo thank you jesus hallelujah praise the lord you know if this is something that you have fought before to get into and you realize pastor stephen i haven't really maintained this the way i should i want to encourage you with an amazing truth there is something about god that he's so good that even if you have come up short if you realize that and say now lord i'm gonna i see that but i'm gonna i'm going to fix this and i'm going to make it right when you plug in the turnaround is immediate i know i know a minister that was involved in some really uh some things that were uh that a minister should not be involved in a very powerful man of god and uh used tremendously in revival throughout europe i've seen them some showed me his videos massive crowds but i knew because i knew him personally something he got tangled up in that was not good i never said anything to anybody never will of what that was and won't mention who he is and it it weighed on him but you know what he realized that he he had he had had a real high anointing at one point and he backed off that close walk with god and he realized the situation that he was in and just like that in 24 hours he turned it and something in his heart just said god i'm coming back to you and it wasn't shortly thereafter that i saw him with such an anointing on his life he literally looked like an angel when i looked at his face and this is just a few days later after all the mess i'm talking just a couple days later i looked at his face he looked like an angel that was walking on the earth whoa incredible incredi and i i marveled i thought tear god this is incredible your grace is incredible he got right back into that place of deep devotion made up for any lost time and never let off until the day he went home to be with the lord praise god my friends some of you you've drifted and you've you've gotten away from that nearness and you need to get back when pastor stephen today praise the lord tell the lord you're coming back to the lord you're running back into his open arms back into the secret place of the most high god and yes even as i shared at the beginning of the message just like the trials you have those that that are competing and you'll see that there were those that were competing that didn't come in prepared they weren't ready but my friends this is something even as all those athletes know you must stay with it you must be consistent and that is you do that as you do that you you keep winning you keep winning woo praise the lord you go from glory to glory thank you jesus i prophesy that your setbacks are over praise the lord hallelujah hallelujah thank you lift your hands father i pray for the wind of your spirit the fresh wind of your spirit to blow now to rejuvenate your people and those that are running with you let them continue to run and stay in that place but others father others there's there's quite a few that are watching there's been some carelessness and they're they're in a dangerous place lord i thank you for full restoration and i thank you for cleansing and i thank you for joy as they now move back into their assignment back into their seated position of ephesians chapter 2 verses 6 through 8 of that knowing that they are seated with christ in the heavenly realms father we give you praise for this i speak that refreshing over your people thank you thank you father in jesus name amen and amen you know what this is taking us into what pastor stephen unending revival unending move of god the average revival throughout church church history lasts three years and it's over with doesn't matter how glorious it was how many miracles it usually runs three years and then it begins to begins to just shut down why because of that commitment to stay in that place but there's a new anointing where in the home stretch we are coming into the fullness of the third reformation that's about to be released the church's finest hour and this time this time it will be a sustaining move of god that will not be like the tithe goes in and out in and out one revival after another this one's over now let's get another one 10 years later now that one ends and let's go another 30 years oh here's another one and then that one ends nope this will be sustained until the lord's return praise god lift your hands father i bless your people i thank you i thank you they walk now with these keys utilizing these keys and they are sustaining that devotion to you in prayer thank you father god for your glory resting mighty upon their lives thank you father in jesus name hallelujah praise the lord glory to god i'm getting the word translucent that's coming to me really strong praise god i've actually had people i i taught a message some years back about what can take place when you get over in the spirit and i've actually had people photographed while they were doing things in the spirit that heard that message and when the picture was taken there was their body and their image on the on the photo and you could see right through them they were translucent at the same time and that's what happens when you get over in the spirit and it's prayer that takes you into these deeper dimensions praise the lord i have a prophet friend of mine has a very deep walk with god and he said stephen i have a mentor that i go over and i spend time uh with him from time to time he said he's deeper in the spirit than i am that's why he's my mentor so i go to spend time with him and he's this this prophet told me he said this prophet one day went to his mentor's house and the mentor was happy to see him and he said let me get my bible i left my bible in the other room and i've been meditating lately on a scripture that has just been so blessing me so let me get my bible you stay here i'll go get my bible and he was so he was so uh just thrilled with that scripture that he walked to the other room got his bible and walked back and to where his friend was at and my friend said to him hey um glad you got your bible did you realize what you just did and the guy said well no i just went got my bible what the guy didn't realize is that when he went to the other room he was so in the spirit he walked right through the wall picked the bible up turned right back around walked back with the bible so in in captivated so captivated by the word and walked right back to the wall to his friend and said you got to see this scripture he didn't realize what he had done woo glory to god hallelujah let the power of god be unleashed in your life to step into the glory realm praise the lord praise the lord hallelujah put the prayer time in praise the lord as they say burn the oil i see the oil coming down your face the oil of prayer the oil of the spirit now father we give you all the praise we thank you that we are entering the era of miracles miracles miracles and signs and wonders hallelujah thank you father god and that this move of your spirit shall be sustained you are raising up those that will not depart from the secret place we give you praise yes father i know that many are married and many that work and many that even if they're not married they work they have responsibilities but father even as enoch was married and had children and sustained that deep walk we thank you that there is this enoch company around the world walking with you thank you father god sustaining it sustaining it until we go home to be with you now father we give you praise in jesus name amen praise god if you're watching today's message and you don't know christ as your personal lord and savior well a relationship with god can only truly be had through knowing god as father and order to know god as your heavenly father you have to come to him through his son jesus and in order to do that you need to be saved and born again so for those of you that would like to receive new life pray this prayer right now say lord jesus i believe you died on the cross and you rose on the third day i believe that on the cross you paid the penalty for my sins so jesus i ask that you save me now wash my sins away i give my heart to you jesus write my name in your book of life step into my life and leave me and guide me from this day forward jesus thank you for saving me in your name i pray amen and amen and the lord has heard that prayer welcome to the family of god praise the lord now as a church family let us take holy communion together praise the lord grab some unleavened bread and some grape juice if you are a believer in the lord jesus christ you are invited right now to take communion together with us as many of us all around the world are taking it together let's pray father thank you for the bread and the juice we bless it we set it apart as holy we thank you this is now the body and the blood of jesus father as we receive the flesh of our lord we receive a committed heart a heart of devotion thank you father god super glued to you we give you praise we give you praise and father we thank you for the body of jesus in his name we pray amen let's receive praise the lord when you're prayed up you know what to do when your prayer life goes awry and you you're not in prayer you run up against things and you have no clue what to do that is an awful place to be but you're not going to be in that position anymore you know what to do and that will bring confidence and clear direction to you father thank you for the blood of jesus and his beautiful cleansing power we ask that if we have committed any sin that you would forgive and you would wash it all away and that you would also cleanse every conscience thank you father god we give you praise we thank you for right standing with you through the shed blood of christ and we receive his blood now in jesus mighty name let's say amen praise the lord praise the lord well you may not be an apostle but you can walk in an apostolic blessing by practicing what the early apostles did you give yourself to prayer continually and you also you make time for the word hallelujah and when you give yourself to prayer the scripture is alive whoa every page every scripture it becomes alive and it becomes your daily bread and it feeds your spirit it cleanses your souls the washing of the of the word it's the washing of of your soul with the word of god the water of the word and that word is also according to the writer of proverbs it's medicine to all your flesh praise god so we activate these things through a consistent prayer life father bless your people let this word be sealed within their heart producing the 100 fold return off the seed of the word sown today we give you praise in jesus name amen thanks for watching i'll see you back next time