good morning church family and ministry
friends i'm pastor stephen brooks
welcome today to our online internet
around the world
church service i'm so happy that you are
here
and i built i believe with all of my
heart that god's word
will strengthen you to be the person
that he has called you to be
and also to do the things that he has
called
you to do and i know those things are
special praise god
today we're going to begin our service
by receiving the holy tithes and
offerings
and bringing them into the storehouse of
the lord there's a verse in the bible
from psalm
35 verse 27
that i would like for you to carefully
look at with me this morning
verse 27 let them shout for joy
and be glad who favor
my righteous cause and let them
say continually and my friends i would
encourage you
to let this be something that you say
continually
in obedience to scripture because it
will
form within your heart the right
framework for finances
praise the lord pastor stephen what
does god's word instruct us to say
continually
and let them say continually let the
lord be
magnified who has pleasure
in the prosperity of
his servant now from an old testament
perspective we look back
upon the identity of the old testament
saints as being
in the eyes of god in a servant position
and while i know in the
new covenant we also serve the lord
we belong to the lord the identity is
different in the sense that now we are
sons and daughters of the lord
and the lord has pleasure in the
prosperity
of his servant or of his children
now stop and think about the example i'm
going to give you
if this actually took place what would
you think
here's the example let's say you're in
church
and the pastor says i would like for
somebody to stand up
and testify about god's goodness
and what if a father stood up and said i
want to give glory to god
i have two sons and they're both
homeless and they're living on the
street
and i am so happy about that
now if you actually sat in the church
and heard somebody stand up and give a
so-called testimony like that you would
think
something's wrong with that person's
head they've got to be messed up that
they're actually rejoicing
that their children his two boys are
homeless
and out on the street hungry and not
clothed properly and all messed up
something would be severely wrong
i need to let you know that god
doesn't take any pleasure in
any form of financial lack or financial
suffering that you would experience
god doesn't take any pleasure in poverty
so why would you want to identify with
something
that christ bore himself on the cross to
deliver you from
praise the lord now it is true
sometimes within the hearts of men and
women even
those that greatly love the lord there
can be efforts
to maybe try to express that love
through
external acts i think about a certain
uh group that it was i'll just be open
it was the carmelites
back in the 1500s and they had the idea
this would be uh i believe it's teresa
of avila
and you also had saint john of the cross
they would collaborate they would talk
because they both loved the lord and
wanted to serve the lord but they just
thought you know what
perhaps we could get closer to god if we
were poor
and didn't have distractions of the
world so they embraced poverty
and they structured what became norma
became known as the descaled carmelites
and that is a word the scale that
originates from the latin
brought over into the english and it
basically means
you're barefoot no shoes can you imagine
going around in the winter it's 15
degrees uh fahrenheit
outside you're below freezing and you're
walking around barefoot
well pastor stephen we're holy uh
we're not saying you're not holy but you
might not uh
have thought that one through especially
if you ever get frostbite
so holiness
does not correspond to poverty poverty
does not enhance
holiness at all
so you have to eliminate from your life
what god does not want in your life
see jesus came to redeem us from
spiritual death
yes came to redeem us from sin and all
of the curse of the law which included
what
included poverty poverty is bad it's bad
now if you want to go around barefoot
you know that's between you and the lord
but if you get ringworm which you
probably will
eventually if you walk on the dirt
enough and you know because what happens
is
you know animals or creatures that are
out there they they use the restroom and
if you step in those little bacteria
particles they're so small
they're microscopic they go right
through your skin and they get into your
body they get into your bloodstream and
they produce
worms oh pastor stephen then we're extra
holy no
now you're extra sick and if you don't
do something about it you're going to
die
very soon a very painful death as well
my friends god delights
in your prosperity god doesn't take
any delight in somebody being
impoverished
having old tore up clothes or not having
enough clothes at all because
they don't have any that doesn't make
god happy
would it make you happy to see your own
children destitute
not having any food in a mode of
starvation
you'd be torn to pieces in your heart
you'd think i'm going to do everything i
can to help
bring them out of that praise the lord
now if the pastor
would have stood in the pulpit in the
church that i was raised in
and if he would have read this verse and
would have said
we need to do this we need to proclaim
let the lord be magnified who has
pleasure and the prosperity of his
servant now let's all stand up and say
that
they would have thrown him out they
would have thrown him out
and you know what the pastor never
preached
what we would call the full gospel oh he
he preached repentance
turning from sin turning to the lord but
he never taught
us about god's financial plan for our
lives that god has a good plan for our
lives
and because we didn't know many of us
in the church suffered financially you
could look
across the assembly of the believers and
um
not only were we in the poorest state in
the nation
we were in one of the poorest areas of
the nation we didn't some of these areas
we didn't have
paved roads until you know the 19
somewhere along in the late 1980s whoo
just still old dirt
gravel roads and um you know people
you know was still with no indoor
plumbing having outhouses and stuff like
that i'm talking 1980s
and i was raised in an atmosphere like
that
but thank god that we know that god has
pleasure
in your prosperity
now of course god doesn't want you to
get covetous always keep the right
balance
god doesn't want you to love money he
wants you to love him
but as he blesses you with money you can
do a lot
of good things with it you can enjoy it
yourself
and then you can enjoy what it does for
others
woo praise the lord so let the lord
bless you
and be ever diligent
to if you are raised in religion with a
lot of
religious tradition not based on the
word but based upon
you know men's ideas of what they think
holiness should be such as walking
around barefoot
you know when it's freezing or things
like that i could understand that people
want to demonstrate
their passion for the lord and i
i can understand that i don't criticize
a heart
that would try to say i'm all out for
god i
i can see the motive of that but in the
process of endeavoring to please the
lord
just understand that prosperity
is part of the salvation package
and i would encourage you to be bold
with your faith and to embrace that
don't be ashamed or embarrassed of
any of the blessings of god
because what you respect is also what
you're going to
attract well pastor stephen i don't know
if i would
want a prosperity angel to show up and
visit me well if you're not sure
let him come over here and see me whoa
praise the lord
i don't know about all that pastor
stephen well while you're trying to
figure it out
the rest of us are going to move forward
into the fullness
of all that jesus made available for us
at calvary and that's not just
forgiveness of sins
it's the whole enchilada
praise god that way you can have some
extra money go out and buy some
enchiladas not only for
yourself maybe for some others praise
the lord
let them say continually i would like
for you to do that
this week say it continually let the
lord be magnified
who has pleasure in my prosperity see
make it personal
the lord takes pleasure in my prosperity
may he be magnified
and the more prosperity you have the
more he's magnified
he's not magnified by your poverty
he's not magnified by your poverty
praise the lord some of you you have not
been taught that
and that's why we take time during the
tithe and offering not to rush through
it because
it's an act of worship and as we follow
the instructions of god
they lead us further along that path of
prosperity
hallelujah glory to god now in the
teachings of god's word we are
instructed to honor the lord
by bringing him the tithe which is 10
of all of our earned income or if you
received it
in a way that even wasn't earned maybe
money was given to you
then 10 of that belongs to the lord
so let's honor the lord let's put him
first and let's rejoice
and what he rejoices in hallelujah and
bring the tithe into the storehouse
and if you would like to sow seed a
special offering that would be a great
blessing
as we are endeavoring to put forth a
brand new
resurfacing of a new parking lot here at
the ministry
headquarters uh the the current parking
lot it's got a lot of cracks in it
and some areas have uh deteriorated to
the point where you can't patch it you
can't
you can't seal it it just has to be uh
it has to be redone over the right way
and that's with new asphalt praise god
so that's a forty thousand dollar
project working together we can knock
that out praise god so thank you
for sowing your seed now
if you want to bring your tithes and
offerings in online please visit the
ministry website
stevenbrooks.org there on the homepage
there's a link that says
giving as a red heart you can click on
that you can bring your tithe in
right there if you would like to sew a
special seat towards the parking lot
click on the on the header that's called
projects
and you'll see the parking lot project
and your contribution towards that
is a great blessing to the ministry
glory to god
if you would like to mail in your tizen
offerings please send them to stephen
brooks international
p.o box 717 moravian falls
north carolina 28654
heavenly father i pray for your precious
people
that they're not just your servants
they're your sons they're your daughters
and it would grieve your heart to see
them in a
place of financial pain and father you
sent your son jesus to bring full
deliverance into our lives
and that includes financial deliverance
as well health and wholeness
in our finances father lift your people
up
and out of any financial dilemma bless
them let them walk in the light of your
word and i thank you father god
that the heavens are open over their
lives and
the rain of ideas the rain of the spirit
coming down
as wisdom as creativity as
solutions to problems and the way to get
things done
that rain is falling upon them right now
and i thank you for prosperity
doors opening for them those that would
need jobs i thank you for breakthrough
jobs
earning more income than they've ever
earned at any other time in their life i
thank you father god
you're lifting them up and i thank you
that we are in covenant with you
in a financial covenant and you'll never
let us down we give you all of the
praise
now father we thank you in jesus
name amen and amen praise the lord
let's take our bibles today i would like
to talk about the subject
of prayer ignition we're going to be
today in the gospel of luke
chapter 11. we're going to start in
verse 1.
i would like for you to give careful
attention to god's word because i
believe
some things will be shared today that
are going to cause an ignition and
igniting within your heart
to move into some areas of prayer
that are very fascinating
yes they're very powerful but
they they also are uh exploratory in a
sense
where you're going to have a lot of fun
with the lord yes there's some work
involved in the sense of
uh effort being put out but it's a very
joyous thing
and i want to talk about how this new
level of
prayer ignition takes place praise god
and i believe something's going to be
ignited
in you today father we asked it as we go
into your word
we ask that your holy spirit would
illuminate the scriptures
and that we can see them and take them
and run with them and enjoy
the rich benefits they produce that
they're intended to bring forth in our
life
father i pray that this message based
upon your word would bring forth
the 100-fold harvest in the lives of
your people
who hearken unto your word we give you
all the praise
in jesus name we agree and say
amen praise the lord
luke chapter 11 verse 1 now it came to
pass as he was praying
in a certain place when he ceased that
one of his disciples said to him lord
teach us to pray as john also taught his
disciples so i believe of course they
saw something in the lord in his prayer
life
where he had it going on it's working
for him and
it's a little bit of a puzzle to them
and you did have uh several that were
previously
with john and they they saw how john
prayed but they realized the lord
he he has his own his own anointing his
own style
and they've never seen anything like his
prayer life before so they're fascinated
by it
they're wanting instructions and he
certainly
uh gives it to them in a very concise
way
that we can use as well so he said to
them when you pray
say and then he goes into the what's
known in scripture as
the lord's prayer now
while it only takes maybe 15 seconds to
pray through the prayer you have to
understand it was never intended
to be prayed in that fashion because
that's not really a prayer that's
just more of a declaration this what
you're looking at here is a template
where you take the template and you
build it out
in the in the way that the holy spirit
helps you pray it out
maybe you would like to visualize it as
a uh you know
skeleton in some of these college
classrooms you know if you're studying
anatomy they have a skeleton
which is just the frame but it's never a
frame only there's
always you know the the the tissue
there's the tendons the ligaments the
muscles and
everything uh layered in so this is also
like a skeletal frame
you're supposed to take uh you know
your heart and your effort and the holy
spirit leading you and then
add all of the muscle to it so to speak
and build it out
so it's complete and it's meant to be
prayed
by subject heading and if you work your
way through each
subject heading and you just you know
you don't rush you just pray through it
it takes from anywhere from you know
like 40 minutes
if if you have a little more time to
pray a little more deeply it'll take
usually exactly about an hour so
anywhere between an hour
or 40 minutes it takes actually to pray
through the lord's prayer
so he said to them when you pray say our
father in heaven
hallowed be your name so that's the
first
subject heading you could stop there you
could kind of camp out there
and just worship the heavenly father
father i worship you i know in scripture
that one of your names is jehovah jireh
i worship you as my provider i thank you
that your provision will be seen in my
life and
god i just bless you i worship you thank
you for all that you've done
so there's that element of spending some
time there coming into the lord's
presence praise and worship
uh by that leading statement our father
in heaven
hallowed be your name and it's very easy
to have fun and get carried away with
that before you know it you've been
there for
you know 10 15 maybe 20 minutes just
worshiping god's name
and of course he is worthy of all of
that praise that you're
lifting up to him and then you move into
the set the second subject hitter
which would be your kingdom come
your will be done on earth as it is in
heaven
and i would have to say that this is
usually the
the meat and potatoes of the lord's
prayer you're probably going to spend
more time on that subject header
than any other topic because that's a
very vast area you know you could pray
for your political leaders you could
pray for your president vice president
you could pray for senators you could
pray for your
governor uh then you maybe you want to
pray for your mayor
local officials and on and on it goes
and maybe for
those on the other side of the world or
however the holy spirit leads you
through that
because the kingdom of god is very
expensive and you're wanting to see the
kingdom come
or the gospel extend and go into the
earth and that influence be there
and so there's a lot of uh well you know
literally millions of directions you can
go
in prayer in that subject hitting right
there alone so that's why
a lot of this is just going to fall back
to your own individual prayer time and
how the holy spirit
leads you and guides you in your prayer
time no two times are ever going to be
the same
so you just take your time and pray
through it and then you get to
a fun part give us this day our
daily bread give us day by day our daily
bread
and you know back then it's not like
they were you know pouring all of these
preservatives into the bread
it's uh no preservatives so it's fresh
for a day and after day
it goes downhill really quick so you
want your daily bread
and there is that element of lord you
know i have these needs today and you
bring that before
the lord many times people in their
prayer life because they don't have
that template within their hearts maybe
they don't know the revelation of the
lord's prayer
they start their prayer time by putting
their needs first
and god knows that you know maybe
they're just in a place they don't
understand
a divine order so you know they're
putting that first but here we find it
further down the list
which is bringing your needs your
request
before the lord and then
verse 4 and forgive us our sins if we
also forgive everyone who is indebted to
us
and do not lead us into temptation but
deliver us from
the evil one and that latter part of the
prayer right there
you know if you're facing severe
persecution
or if there's things where you're really
being targeted
and you know the lord had times like
that he had times where
they wanted to kill him they even tried
to kill him at times and
they they gnashed their teeth at him
anytime you see that that is a demonic
manifestation
and so there's a lot of evil going on
with that and so
in times like that sure it's very
comforting to just to kind of
pray that and bring that before the lord
and camp there
until you sense that peace that security
blanket of the lord
and as you ask him to do that of course
he will lead you away from temptation
and he will deliver you from
the evil one so it's a very powerful
prayer
and in south korea
they they look at this prayer as this
prayer model
kind of uh like a running track where
many of the high schools in america
they have uh you know the football field
and then they have a running track that
goes around the field
and the south koreans look at the lord's
prayer as kind of like a running track
so if you pray all the way through it
maybe it took 40 minutes or an hour
and you know you come back later in the
evening and you have free time maybe at
night
then they they call it like just getting
back on the track because you can pray
it over and over again because it's a
holy spirit inspired prayer
and just run another lap that's the way
they look at it and i think that can be
very very effective praise the lord get
back on the track and do another one
i do think we see biblical parallels to
that when you look at the temple
of solomon and then you look at herod's
temple of course starting really with
the tabernacle that moses built
you see the beautiful golden altar of
incense
and there would be two daily offerings
you'd have the morning offering
then you would have the evening offering
and so
that incense the burning of the incense
and the smoke
going up was a representation of
prayer it was it was a real sacrifice
but it had a lot of symbolic meaning
that we as new new testament saints look
back and we realized oh
the purpose of that was god was
symbolizing prayer so as your prayer is
going up
in the morning and if you have time
later yeah
another another sacrifice another round
uh around the track praise the lord
glory to god
it is fascinating i'm sure many of you
have noticed this that if you
do have good prayer time in the morning
and then you come back at night
and you just give the lord that focus
that attention
and you start to pray again that same
day but at night
it's it's almost like skating on
real smooth glass or perfectly smooth
ice
why you are reconnecting with that
anointing that you've already stirred up
earlier
that day and you just touch that
anointing again and it doesn't take
20 minutes to get back into it it might
just take two minutes
and you're already back on the prayer
anointing and it there's just a flow
and it's very very easy to pray and that
is the blessing of course
of having two sacrifices two offerings
two prayer times during the day praise
the lord
now let's continue on verse five and he
said to them
which of you shall have a friend and go
to him at midnight
and say to him friend lend me three
loaves so let's keep the context the
request for the three loaves
is at midnight very bizarre time
very unusual time oh but there's a
purpose for a friend of mine has come
to me on his journey and i have nothing
to set before
him and he will answer from within and
say do not trouble me
the door is now shut my children are
with me in bed
i cannot rise and give to you
and honestly we could understand that
yes even though that's a friend
perhaps even a good friend that your
your good friend still has to get up and
go to work in the morning just like
everybody else does he
he would like to get his sleep uh the
kids they're going to need their
sleep they've got school and everything
like that so you don't want to disrupt
everything because it's going to wake
the whole family up
it's not like they had separated rooms
uh it was very rare back then so
usually it was just a single room that
everybody would sleep in
and the friend just is like no you know
let's let's just deal with this tomorrow
i mean
who wants bread in the middle of the
night anyhow but
you know back in that culture at that
time hosting
was a huge huge thing uh and it
could convey a great sense of honor to
be able to host somebody
regardless of when they might show up
now verse 8 i say to you
though he will not rise and give to him
because he is his friend
yet because of his persistence and i
would like for you to take your
highlighter your pen
just underline that word persistence
that is a key
uh prerequisite to receiving
phenomenal answers in prayer
yet because of his persistence he will
rise
and give him as many as he needs
so there's a point that if you stand
outside and you say look i know you're
tired and i know it's midnight i'm sorry
about this but
you just you just keep you you know kind
of you know knocking you know come on
you're already up might as well just you
know
there'll be a point he's just like well
yeah okay i'll go and give it to you but
since i'm up anything else you need you
would you like some peanut butter and
jelly
why not have a gallon of milk give the
gu give your host some milk
uh your uh uh just have go ahead and
have a nice meal over there
and so this persistence is very very
important now remember
we don't want to twist this this is a
little bit like
the parable that jesus taught in luke
chapter 18 of the widow woman
going before the unjust judge and some
christians have thought well that means
we have to just go before god
and wear him out until he just finally
says i can't take it anymore
here's what you want now get out of here
and don't come back for a long time
no that's that's not the right context
the lord's not trying to convey anything
like that
he's just trying to say we need to be
very very persistent
and stay with it in prayer there's many
evil forces
that are out there that you can't see
them with your natural eye
but they can clutter things up they can
try to block things
so it's not like god's sitting in heaven
just say no i'm not going to do it
unless they really convinced me
no god wants to be good to you god wants
to bless you
but there is an element of overcoming in
prayer
and it does take great persistence
so i say to you ask and it will be given
to you
now of course in the greek you would see
this if you read the amplified version
of the new testament which expands
the original greek brought over into
english
and it basically says in verse 9 so i
say to you ask and keep on asking and
keep on asking and it will be given
to you seek and keep on seeking and keep
on seeking and you will
find knock and keep on knocking keep on
knocking and it will be open to you so
the theme here
really is that the lord is trying to get
across to us
persistence well now pastor steve and i
prayed the lord's prayer and i didn't
see much happen
well just be persistent in your prayer
life and be focused
in your prayer life and eventually
something's going to move
it cannot be held back praise god
now i'm holding a book in my hand that
many of you you need to add this to your
library and by the way little side note
if you go into a home
of a very wealthy person
and you were to ask for
an emblem of their wealth where do they
take you
let me give you an example i went into a
man's home one time his home was
probably
at least 20 million dollars and he
showed me around this house his house
had an elevator you know going
up and down the elevator various floors
he took me down
to the private garage he had he had a
rolls royce
he had a bentley he had a mercedes
maybach so he had wanted me to come over
and pray for his wife and i did
and he had all these luxury cars he had
some other things in there too
he had all this wealth but the thing
that he really wanted to show me
that that to him represented his wealth
was on his cars he took me to his
library
why because he told me he said it's
those books
that i read to gain knowledge about the
lord's blessing the lord's
you know the lord's prosperity plan uh
the lord's goodness that you know
following the holy spirit that's
produced all of these things
so it's the library you need to have
your own library all wise people
have access to knowledge to books
to wisdom through books and this is a
book
that you need to have in your
library it's called reese howell's
intercessor the story of a life
lived for god and
the reason i mention this book is
because in this book
you see persistence in prayer
demonstrated
in ways that's it's not very regular
today you have to really look today to
see
some of the crazy stories like this guy
had
and this man was able to purchase
three of the most beautiful properties
in wales
when each time he he would go after that
property
uh he didn't have the money and see some
of you think oh
well pastor stephen why i pray for a
house i don't have the money
the kingdom of god it doesn't work like
that
it's based upon the currency of faith
and how
the word and prayer can build up
a faith and a release of god's power
that provision will come the miracle
will come and he prayed in
yes he was a giver he was a sower of
seed so he rightfully would have a
harvest coming in
but he didn't just sit back and say well
i guess that harvest will show up
eventually
he prayed like crazy and during times of
recession when the nation was going
through
financial lack he's purchasing
phenomenal properties and he's buying
them against
some of the biggest bidders in all of
europe
and he he was doing all of this on faith
and praying but when i'm talking about
praying i'm talking about
you want to read examples of persistence
whoo
heavy heavy persistence and prayer and
so he had a phenomenal track record of
what we would call miraculous answers to
prayer and i want to encourage you today
that if you will be very persistent in
prayer
you too can achieve remarkable
results in your prayer life that are
nothing short of miraculous
well mr howells uh
there with the bible college that he
raised up in wales that's what the
properties were for
various extensions of the bible college
and eventually because wells of course
is part of great britain
they rolled into world war
ii up against the military might
of the german army and hitler and so
when mr reece howells saw
the threat of hitler and saw the power
of the of the military
he realized great britain is in trouble
like
never before and so he said we've got
we've got to pray
so he shut the bible college completely
down no more classes
no more teaching and he and the
instructors
and the students that decided to stay
did
nothing but devote themselves to prayer
that hitler's army be overthrown
and that god would preserve england god
would preserve great britain
god would preserve london and that god
of course would preserve the properties
there in swansea
wales and there on his properties
although swansea was heavily bombarded
with the air raids from the german
yet nevertheless his properties never
got one bomb dropped on him
and he would pray god protect the
properties lord send your angels
and god certainly did protect those
properties
but the lord revealed to rhys howells
that they must pray as a group
of spiritual warriors they must pray
in a way that would they would
individualize themselves
at the same way as if they were fighting
on the battlefield
so they would listen to news they would
find out where the german army was at
and then they would pray
just as if they were soldiers fighting
they would pray with that strategy from
heaven and they would go to war
in prayer wow praise god
so i would like to talk to you just for
a moment
about what many war historians
refer to as hitler's
greatest blunder and when it looked like
hitler when he had started the war
and the panzer division and all these
you know phenomenal tanks that the
germans had
and that they were just cutting through
the the french line and you know the
uh taking paris and they're they're
cutting through the
the english uh countryside and they're
they're just you know
they're tearing everybody up and it
looked like they're gonna win the whole
thing
right off from the start and
there in wales this man of god was
praying mr reese howells
and he was praying that hitler's army
be stopped and i would like to read to
you
what happened and it's something that
the military historians they have no
answer
for why hitler made this huge blunder
why he did what he did
it makes absolutely no sense but you
know what
he did it and it altered the outcome of
the war and it's because
reese howells and those people were
praying
this is what took place little uh a
little note here says when the war broke
out
their prayer meetings at wales bible
college
became a daily event so the the bible
college
teaching stopped and this is what they
started to do
every evening from 7 p.m to midnight
and often later the students and staff
met to pray think about that just for a
moment i know it's easy
to read that let those time frames skip
by but think about the magnitude
of praying five hours every night
with a very concerted group with a group
of spiritual soldiers and you're in
there
five hours sometimes longer that's a
long time
to really push hard in prayer but that's
what they were doing
they were praying for hitler's overthrow
it says every week and often for days at
a time
there were whole days of prayer
it seems that god would lay one or
another aspect of the war
on the heart of reese howells or on one
of the other prayers
and the whole community the whole group
would intercede
and one of the most amazing things that
god answered their prayer
for was the battle of dunkirk
in may 1940 as hitler's blitzkrieg
rolled across france and the low
countries
the bible college prayed that he would
be stopped
now here is a writing from reese
howell's
own diary may 27 1940
2 45 pm he said
it is as much as i can do to believe
today
the news which was very negative the
news between the two prayer meetings was
awful
hell upon earth the next day
they're back to praying again in the
meetings the prayer was for god to
intervene at dunkirk
and to save the the british soldiers
and as the spirit came upon them in
prayer and supplication
what one prayed at the end expressed
the assurance that was given to all i
feel sure
something has happened my friends
something had happened on may 24
1940 hitler had given an order to
halt the armored columns driving toward
the trapped
british and french troops
there were 338 000 of them
trapped hitler's got them most of them
were british
troops they had fled they had fled from
the germans
not only in their fleeing had they lost
their
you know their positions they left all
of their weapons behind and they had no
guns anything and they're trapped
on the beach and hitler's got them the
germans have them
and for no explainable reason
when the german generals are ready to go
in there and just kill them all or you
know
have them all surrender and just capture
them all hitler said stop
they told this man to stop right with
the total victory
it's right there he said halt he said
stop
and the general all the german generals
are like why
let's just win the whole war right now
but they couldn't override hitler's
command
wow this order remained substantially
unexplained to this day
on and after may 28th in the miracle of
dunkirk
hundreds of thousands of british and
french soldiers
were rescued they were rescued they were
not airlifted they were sea lifted the
british got ships in there
and they started getting all their guys
off the beach and get all the french
soldiers off the beach and they
got them out of there hundreds and
thousands of them wow
wow and so all of those men live to
fight
again whoo praise the lord now why in
the world did hitler make a crazy
blunder like that because they were
praying
intense bombardment of prayer intense
prayer persistence
persistence hours and hours and hours
oh pastor stephen we can't move it you'd
be shocked at what you could move
if you gave it some more persistence
hallelujah i see i see some of the most
amazing prayer results coming into your
life because of your persistence
glory glory to god
now i thank this whole experience
of this flaming fire on the inside of
you to be persistent
i think there's an activation for it
where somewhere in your prayer life
you get um you get lit up
and it's like you know your prayers are
moving things
and when that happens it's like you
become a superman or you know ladies or
superwoman
and it's very very interesting i'm going
to see if i can give a little
insight into it from the natural realm
i would call it from a a sports
uh representation it's almost like when
you become anabolic
and i'm not talking about anabolic
steroids although that would certainly
be
an extreme example of that but when you
come
in your body anabolic you're in a place
where you are in a muscle
building process the exact opposite of
that of course in sport science would be
when you're catabolic which is not good
that's actually
when your body is being torn down and
there's times
you can be very vulnerable and your body
can go catabolic
so you need to you need to step in there
and do some things to
uh bring healing and nourishment example
if you just finished running a marathon
you're going to be depleted you have
been sweating
for at least two hours maybe three hours
and you're sweating out all these
minerals all this vitamins and all and
all of this stuff
and you're at a level of depletion not
only uh
in the sense of minerals but also within
your your blood there's a drop
of uh you know certain type of blood
cells and so forth
and so there needs to be some
very quick refreshing so that you don't
go into a catabolic state
when jesus fasted for 40 days
he had gotten to a point where his body
was white
it was right on what medically you would
call a catabolic
edge because it says he hungered what
does that mean
that means that he has no more fat to
burn
and he's burned it all up and that's
your body telling you
you're going to have to feed me now
because if you don't
i'm going to keep burning other stuff up
see your body designed by god is
is an incredible um
well-structured system of surviving
because in order to survive
if you're catabolic and there's no more
fat to burn it'll start eating muscle
tissue
it'll start eating consuming your own
heart
what you're about why would your body do
that it's trying to it's trying to get
something for fuel that's called
catabolic
very very dangerous and by the way
that's when satan appeared to him
and began that temptation when he was in
that very
very weak state where you have a very
small window
where you have to deal with that or else
you could do damage to
your body it's interesting because
if you're let's take an example let's
say you're a skinny guy
and you have a fast metabolism i've
heard guys tell me this
you know pastor stephen it doesn't
matter what i eat i can't gain weight
if i if i eat it's i burn it up within
like a few minutes
and i just you know i'm going to be
skinny the rest of my life
well i could understand why they they
would think that because
there are there is genetics there is
body structure body type and things like
that but the truth is
is that if you start
drinking protein powder drinks and you
start with three a day and you eat three
meals a day
and you you'll feel bloated but the next
day you start bumping up the six
shakes you you might think if you're
real skinny oh i don't have room
you might not you force it down anyhow
well i feel yucky i feel bloated yeah
you probably do and you'll feel like
that but
you've got to get more calories in so if
you've only eaten 1500 calories a day
and you want to say bye by the skinny
you want to get muscles on
you keep eating high protein food and
you hit the weights
or else you know you're not going to
have that strength you have to eat and
hit the weights
and you know what if you do that for
about two months it could take a little
longer
could take three and a half months and
you're working out with a good
strength training program under the
oversight guidance of somebody that
knows what they're doing that can
instruct you right so that you don't
over train
but at the same time so that you don't
under train
there become a point where something in
your body
it it ignites and you go anabolic
and it's like a switch got turned on on
the inside of you and suddenly you're
like
i want a steak or you just had one an
hour ago i want another one
i want another cheeseburger where you
had one earlier i want another one
and and you it just you begin like you
become like a furnace
you start you could just start eating
and you it's it's like
muscles start popping out what happened
you you became anabolic
and it flipped and from then on it's
just like watch out you're gonna have to
get some new t-shirts you why
you're growing your neck next getting
bigger everything's getting getting
stronger
it's very very interesting something
clicked so it's the same way
in prayer if you push you push
you're persistent you're persistent
knocking seeking ask him
even even if the guy's in bed oh come
back tomorrow
i don't want to get out of bed but you
you're just so strong in your prayer
life
like mr reece house you'll get to a
point you can
you can move anything that god gives you
permission to touch in prayer
you can move it i mean it's incredible
it's incredible what you can do
when i was young my dad would he would
try to take me and my brother's jogging
and you know he was in the air force for
a while
he got out of the air force but he still
had some of that you know of course
military mindset and
thought you know would be good for me
and my brothers to jog and be in shape
and i tell you what i hated it every
time he'd take us jogging even if it's
only for like a
you know half a mile to me it was like
agony i thought
why would anybody want to do this i felt
like i wanted to vomit and
throw up i i felt awful i'd say dad i i
don't like this
this is well this is not my thing and um
it's just uh the whole thing felt
terrible but later
when i was in high school and i was
i think it's like 10th grade or
something like that um
there was there was the the senior track
star
and he was he was real good he had one
of the fastest times in the mile in the
state
and for some reason he and i like met
one day and started talking
and uh you know i knew who he was i
heard about him and he said
he said stephen why don't you start
running with me and i thought oh i could
never keep up with you he goes no i'm
not talking about racing
just like training just like training
why don't you just come out and start
running with me some
and um uh i just thought
okay i guess i'll try and uh you know
because he was mr cool and
everything i thought well that would be
fun to get to know him and uh and so
he kind of like took oversight of me
with training
and then the coach noticed i was running
with him and you know he was already the
track star
so the coach said well let's let's help
stephen along too
and it took a while but and i'm not
really sure when it happened
but there came a point where something
clicked in me
and i moved from like being a jogger i
moved from somebody that was struggling
i moved to where like hey this is like
this is kind of like fun
then you start then you start having
longer runs and then you know
uh in in track and practice on sunday
they call it lsd that stands for long
slow distance so you want
to get in the long run on sun to get
your mileage up and you know you go out
for 10 or 12 miles
and you run you you would run with your
teammates they're also distance runners
and
you know because it's so long you just
you just talk the whole time
talk and laugh and i used to think oh
how could you do that you're gasping for
air
but that came a point i could run uh six
minute mile pace
when training and just talk tell jokes
laugh and stuff like that you know you
put your time in put your
put your workout in and then when you go
to compete of course when you're racing
you can't do that you have to
you know you're you are gasping for all
the air that you can get
but there came a point sometime in high
school
in that year where it just something
ignited
something ignited in me and i i became a
runner praise the lord and i really
really enjoyed it and from that point on
it was just a matter of
getting faster but i was i had it i was
hot
praise the lord and really when you go
anabolic particularly in strength
training
you're like hot you're you can even
censor feel it
and there's something about prayer where
if you keep pushing and you keep pushing
you light and you get ignited and you
know you are
you're like hey i'm getting pretty good
at this hallelujah i you may think i may
not be ruth's house
i may not be uh shaking a a
a nation but whoo i mean you're doing
some stuff
and not only that there's nowhere else
to go but up
woo praise god and it becomes very
very exciting and i would have to say
this as well
that one of the greatest motivators is
progress you know if you're trying to
get in shape
and you can see that there's a change
and you can measure
change you're like hey it's happening
what does it do
it motivates you why it's working so
it's the same way in prayer
when you see god's moving this thing's
moving
then it's like man i'm not missing my
prayer time i'm going to really start to
lean in
and i'm going to hit it really hard
praise the lord glory to god thank you
jesus
and so you realize that persistence
is just normal and so what you decide to
do
is you put that workload in yes is it in
a sense like a workload
well it's it's there's joy in it there's
great satisfaction
in it but to get in there and really get
going and
yeah there there can be um some
sacrifice in that
but i tell you what um when you're lit
you're just like hey this is what i do
anyhow this is your thing
and so you put that workload in and you
embrace
perhaps what we could call the price tag
of persistence
in order to be persistent you at least
have to be there
knocking seeking in prayer you're there
glory to god and
things my friends will shift and change
for you thank you lord here's a great
example
genesis chapter 32
verse 24 then jacob was left
alone and a man wrestled with him
until the breaking of day now we as new
testament believers
we look back on this we see that this
was
a real wrestling match and jacob is
exerting physical strength
he's sweating but you have to understand
that in the old testament
those were types and shadows in the new
testament we have more of a direct
substance which is prayer this was a
representation
of prayer what it would be like in a
sense to go all
out to really push yourself in prayer
and he wrestled with him until the
breaking
of day now think about that just for a
moment that this is something
where he pushed so hard he wrestled
all night long now
myself i'm i don't know i i would find
it hard to visualize myself wrestling
all night long after a while i'd be my i
might be like well
you know why are we even doing this what
are we wrestling for anyhow
but but in prayer um
you may think the same thing and you may
think well how in the world
could jacob or anybody really pray
you actually pray all night and you see
the sun coming up what what could
motivate a person to do something like
that
these are scenarios where you're lit
and when you have been ignited this is
not like
you know you're trying to agonize
through something
why you're pushing and you're dialed in
and you're in it
and it's not like you'd rather be doing
something else no you're here and you're
on it because
you know you're gonna move this thing so
there's a tremendous excitement
and you're actually happy to be there
and there is an element where
yeah the time moves it moves and you get
through it next thing you know
wow the sun's coming up wow praise god
and i think i think there are those
times where you have to jump in there
and and really exercise
a level of persistence that sure could
be beyond
a normal scenario but you have to also
understand we're living in a
in a culture today where what maybe we
would call normal prayer persistence
has so fallen off the side that there's
very little prayer going on at all
so nevertheless when you're faced with
any form of stagnation then
what you need to do is show a greater
exertion of
persistence and you'll move it you
absolutely
will move it and this ignited prayer
life
will refuse to tolerate any form of
stagnation
in your life you just got too much of
the fire of god in you he's lit you
and you can you know you can deal with
it and so you do
praise the lord i think about the time
that bishop david oyedepo
from winter's chapel there in nigeria
he talked about years back when his
church had
only 1 000 members now there would be
some pastors that would probably say
that's enough for me i you know i'm
happy with a thousand members but he
knew that god's plan for him
included a much larger impact so he
went before the lord in prayer and
fasting and he said lord with all of the
efforts we have made
and all of the organizing and all of the
praying we've been doing
we should not be stuck on this plateau
of just
you know only a thousand member church
he said if we continue
at this rate he said by the time we get
to ten thousand he said i'll be 100
years old
so lord what's going on here and he set
himself
to be very persistent and
focused prayer and fasting and it was
during that focused time
that the lord spoke to him on one of
those days of dedicated prayer and
fasting and said
go outside of the church building and
walk out a certain distance
and he did away from the church building
and the lord said now turn around
and look at the church look at the
building and when he turned around to
look at the building
he went into a vision and his spiritual
eyes opened and he saw
something that greatly shocked him he
saw that the devil
had fabricated some form of a veil
a huge veil and had dropped it over the
entire church
so that those in the surrounding
community
and even the unbelievers it's like the
church was invisible
they couldn't even see it it's like it
was veiled for them even the purpose or
the intent of the church no but nobody
even knew what what it was about or
anything like that
and and the lord told bishop oyedepo
this is what the enemy has done he is
blocked and he has veiled
your church from having an impact or
having effect that's why you're stuck
on this level but with that anointing
and with that vision
came the empowerment to deal with that
situation and the lord showed him what
to do
and he spoke to that evil power
and he bounded in the name of the lord
and that thing was broken
just like that and of course as you know
today he
uh has gone way beyond a church
membership of 1000
they now have over 400 000 members
they have a seating facility of 50 000
running about eight services
uh every sunday and yes he teaches every
service
and they also have plans
to build a facility that will seat 100
000
of the church members at one time that
way they don't have to have quite as
many
uh services praise the lord more
efficiency praise god
but my friends you have to jump in there
like jacob did and if it
would mean wrestling perhaps even until
the sun comes up
well it's it's your destiny it's your
life and i want you to see it from a
perspective though not as something like
well i've really got to have to have an
iron wheel to do that no
we're not talking about mental willpower
we're talking about
you're lit anyhow and so you're ready
for the assignment
you you're like reese howes and these
people you're just this is part of who
you are
you pray you jump in there and you pray
you don't put up with these things these
areas defeat or to stagnation
not when you know you can break through
whoo
praise the lord glory to god i see
some amazing things unfolding through
your life because you're going to push
through
you're going to push it through praise
god now
let's go to the gospel of luke chapter
6.
luke chapter 6
verse 12 praise the lord
now it came to pass in those days
that he went out to the mountain to pray
and continued all night
in prayer to god and when it was day he
called
his disciples to himself and from them
he chose 12
whom he also named apostles
praise the lord all night in prayer
may seem like one of the most outrageous
things you've ever heard
but when you are
lit on the inside when you are
ignited when you're spiritually anabolic
you're like let's go whoo glory to god
i've got a coffee over here i have a red
bull over here and you realize you're
not running on caffeine this is not like
we're going to try to
you know have you know it reminds me of
a job i worked
many years back where um the manager of
the company
he had he had a whole line of red bulls
all lined up he was going to drink one
every hour
can you imagine doing that every night
he had a whole bunch of them all lined
up
he's drinking drinking them you know
just wired all the time
that's not good to do for your body but
you know one every now and then that's
okay
uh but i'm saying you're you're not so
much running off that
although if you need a little caffeine
you know whatever okay but i'm trying to
say
you're already lit praise god so you're
going in there
and you're praying and you can go all
night because that fire
is burning in you so this is not like
we're trying to display
some type of superhuman iron wheel
i had a former church member very nice
guy
good a good man and he
he really liked doing these ultra long
distance
bicycle races and
they were they were grueling uh there
were some that were literally
through death valley in california
others were in some other countries that
he would travel to
he had a very specialized bike and
you would have to ride for almost two
days
now you're constantly trying to eat you
know you're carrying on a backpack
various forms of food and liquid but
uh you don't really have time to sleep
you don't you hardly have time to go to
the bathroom is just jump off your bike
run through the bushes get back on your
bike and white because there's there's a
race
uh so it's it's a tremendous ordeal and
so it doesn't matter if it's raining you
keep going you keep on going
and i talked to him and he said actually
although
it's it's very grueling and you don't
sleep you don't sleep at all
not if you want a place high so it does
take that iron wheel
but he said truthfully the most
difficult part is not
the lack of sleep because eventually
you're going to get some sleep
the most difficult part is not pedaling
literally up mountains
and you're sucking for air he said the
hardest part
is sitting on that bike seat nonstop for
48 hours pedaling the whole time
because you know the the anatomical
structure of your body you've got those
little bitty bones in there
and you're sitting on a little skinny
bike seat
about as skinny as this book
and you're hurting if you're not used to
it you're hurting after 30 minutes
and even when you build up a tolerance
to it when you are
he wasn't a pro writer he was he was
amateur he was he was up there though
but it takes it takes years to build up
a tolerance
to then build up those little tiny bones
and little tiny muscles where you can uh
get used to that but
but after a day you're in pain after two
days you're in extreme pain
so he would be a good example of
somebody
that could push through it and do it
but that's not what i'm talking about
this is totally different
because some of you are thinking pastor
steven i don't i don't have that
type of a uh you know personality to
you know like be this iron wheeled
person i'm not a you know
triathlon person you know the triathlon
in hawaii
which is uh uh starts with a two mile
what 2.4 mile swim
then you transition straight into 112 my
12 mile bicycle race
and then you transition to the final
easy part which is a 26.2 mile
marathon you do the whole thing non-stop
ideally
we're not talking about stuff like that
we're talking about a fire
that's lit on the inside of you and the
holy spirit is
uh he's touching that stirring that and
you are cooperating with that and you're
just praying and you're
you're flowing through it and the
minutes are going by
an hour goes by two go by and you're
just like well lord the fire's burning
i'll just stay at it there's an
anointing
you're praying and you're seen in your
in the
in your mind's eye that thing being
moved and you're praying and you're
you're praying strong too i tell you
what
you can move it you can move it
hallelujah
this man was flesh and blood just like
you and i are glory to god
and they achieved amazing results
praise god and i see you doing the same
thing
somebody might say well pastor stephen
i've i've received prophecies
and i believe that god will bring it to
pass good i do too
but you better jump in there and really
pray over that thing you better cover
that thing in prayer
cover that prophecy in prayer because
the enemy is going to try to block
the enemy's going to try to hinder
that's just his job
that's just what he does and he's he's
he's consistent at what he does
so pray and really push and be very very
persistent
and and should you
have the freedom maybe you have the
weekend off it's friday night or
something like that
or maybe you're watching this on sunday
and you don't really have to be at work
early on monday
and you just think you know what i think
i'm going to go for it i think i'm going
to give it a shot
well then who knows it wouldn't surprise
me one bit
that you would pray all night long and
just push
until literally you saw the sun come
up glory to god thank you jesus now
we see here of course that jesus did
that we know that jacob did that
and so there is the natural element
there are times of i'm going to pray
late at night and if i have the ability
if if i can get a little nap maybe an
hour or 45 minutes
before i go into that sure i'll i'll do
that because
you know if you can prep for it a little
bit that does help
and yes your body will need some fuel so
if you need something to drink
or if you need a little snack that's
okay grab something but then
keep get right back in it so that you
don't lose that flow
that momentum praise the lord and most
importantly i would say
in these type of sessions if you go all
night is to do
what is the hardest thing for some
people to do when they tried to come to
the
maybe like a meeting or they try it
which is to what which is actually to
pray
wow hallelujah so many so many
they want to go over to the piano pastor
steven i just feel we should worship the
lord no
no we need to pray we're here to pray
you had all day to worship
you can go home tomorrow and worship all
you want
but see they it's not that they want to
worship it's just that they are so
unaccustomed to praying
that they don't really actually know how
to start doing it when it comes time to
do it
and so they they come up with all kinds
of things
and i used to when i was when i was in
my 20s i would go to a friday night
prayer meeting there at the church and
the church had about i don't know maybe
ten thousand members
and out of a ten thousand member church
we would have about five people
show up for the pr uh friday night
all-night prayer meeting
most of them were grandmothers
pentecostal type grandmothers that that
were prayers um and then there was
myself
and you might have an occasional
somebody else drop in but anytime
usually there was an occasional somebody
else drop in
they would always try to get over on the
keyboard they would always try to like
do anything but pray and we would be
like we hear the pray
the senior ladies uh under the pastor's
authority are like
we're here to pray we're here to pray
we're not here to you know do all no
we're here to pray
praise god so i would encourage you just
do that well pastor stephen i feel like
i
well you don't really need anything else
except just grab your bible grab some
water and just
go pray get along go pray
i think i'll just lay out and look at
the stars no pray pray
when the lord was up all night he
continued all night
in prayer in prayer
well i want to worship well then have a
worship meeting
but call it a worship meeting don't call
it a prayer meeting if you're not
praying
but if you want to see these miracles
and you want to see this phenomenal
stuff
you're going to have to be persistent in
prayer yeah yes there's there's a place
for
for worship there's a place for praise
and all of that
but um be careful your flesh will try to
cheat you
out of
really the workload you need to carry in
prayer
so just just do it just just do the
praying
praise the lord thank you jesus
glory to god and i believe you will one
more example
first samuel chapter 15.
verse 10 now the word of the lord came
to samuel
saying i greatly regret that i have set
up saul as king for he has turned back
from following me
and has not performed my commandments
and it grieved samuel and he cried out
to the lord
all night samuel
prayed about the situation of saul
the rebellious king because god's going
to change some things up
and samuel prayed all night
long how did he do that he he just he
had a very
vibrant prayer life oh praise god
and i think what's fascinating about
samuel is not only did he pray
all night long but in the morning
he just kept on going and went right
into the day
because there was something that he was
going to
accomplish verse 12 so when samuel rose
early in the morning
because he cried out to the lord all
night when he rose early in the morning
to meet saul
it was told samuel's saying saul went to
carmel so what he's going to do is he's
going to catch up
with saul and he's going to have a
conversation with him
discuss with saul about his rebellion
his disobedience
his failure to execute the
the enemy of god's people and so
it's actually going to end up where
samuel
the prophet of god himself is going to
have to do
the act and he certainly does verse 32
then samuel said bring
agag king of the amalekites here to me
because saul was supposed to put him to
death and he didn't do it
so samuel is going to take care of some
business so again
came to him cautiously and again said
surely the bitterness the bitterness of
death is past
but samuel said as your sword has made
women childless
so shall your mother be childless among
women and samuel
hacked agag in pieces before the lord
in gal whoa praise god
i believe that all night prayer meeting
that he had that time of crying out to
the lord all night
he was strengthened with the power of
god and the next day
the next day he wakes up and just right
into the day right into the day
and he takes care of business and he
deals with that
wicked king a gag
and so the enemies of the lord are
subdued
instead of being tolerated like saul was
willing
to do so there is a place to this very
prevailing prayer where you're very
persistent you step in
and you push and push in prayer and
you're going to get it done
even if the king himself didn't get it
done still got done god rerouted it and
did it through
his prophet it was a messy job but it
got done
praise the lord thank you lord jesus
so there is a grace a strength that will
come
now there are times you're going to need
a little extra sleep
through endeavors like this but the holy
spirit
he structures and organizes your life
and god blesses you
and rewards you when you pursue him and
seek him
in such diligent ways praise
god praise god i see you breaking
through
and because of your perseverance i see
extraordinary
answers to prayer being done in your
life that
that when people hear about it they'll
they'll be like
are you sure i've got to see it for
myself
and they'll come and find out that it's
true that you prayed a miracle
into manifestation praise the lord
lift your hands i want to pray for you
father i pray for those that are
watching
that you light them right now on the
inside with the flame
the burning flame of prayer
father even as reese howes was an
intercessor
praying your kingdom forward and
accomplishing literally exploits so
things that
just others couldn't figure out how he
did it they knew that he had a
connection with you but
they couldn't they couldn't replicate it
because they didn't pray but father i
see your people
really locking on really locking on in
prayer
and refusing to accept any form of
stagnation
in their life now i thank you i thank
you father god
i thank you for this fervency to pray
even sometimes
even sometimes perhaps all night
touching them
in jesus name amen
and amen praise the lord glory to god
my friends if we don't do our part it
can lead to
discouragement it can lead to
frustration
there are some christian sites there
they're constantly
uh posting prophecies a prophet or a
prophetess they'll get a prophecy and
they'll say this is the
this is the word for the week and this
is your prophecy for the day it is
something very
beautiful and lovely that god's going to
do all this wonderful stuff for you and
you know when i look at some of that it
almost reads like a like a horoscope
and then of course another week goes by
nothing nothing changes nothing happens
a month goes by nothing happens
and i'm not saying that it's not good to
uh share prophecy which in this basic
sense is for edification
exhortation and comfort but if you don't
tell people to
get in there and do their part you could
you can prophesy
to them and give them a thousand
prophecies
and they'll just sit there on the shelf
gathering dust
and eventually people start to get a
little frustrated because they're like
hey nothing happened that i'm that's
being told to me
well that's because they didn't tell you
that you need to be
persistent and you're gonna have to get
in there and pray
and so that's the rubber meet the road
that i think it has escaped or eluded a
lot of the evangelical church
even a lot of the penteco pentecostal
christians because
if you drift from the roots if you drift
from the ancient pads or basically if
you drift from the word
you're going to get out there and you're
going to find out that
square peg won't fit through a round
hole
it won't fit so you're going to have to
embrace that workload of prayer but
again
when you're on fire and you're lit
you're just like lord
bring it to me i'm ready for it and you
and you engage
you engage you're there to meet the lord
in heavy prayer
it's just what we do
praise the lord and if you're on fire
you've been lit
you know that and you're happy with that
i think some others have got lit with
some other things praise the lord
but the flame of the fire of the spirit
burning within you
and this knowing god uh you can't you
can't substitute
that you can't uh
it's it's taking you again into the gold
standard of what
of answering prayer proofs prayer uh
praise the lord
glory to god amen so it's happening
stay plugged in and push in deeply
praise god
now for those that are watching today
and you don't know christ
as your personal lord and savior
jesus died for you to redeem you from
your sins
to receive his eternal life all you have
to do is turn
from your sin and look to him in faith
and he will save you praise god if you
would like to do that pray
this prayer from your heart pray it
right now say lord jesus
i'm a sinner but you died to save
sinners like me jesus
i turn from darkness i turn from sin and
i come to you
save me now wash me with your precious
blood
write my name in your book of life
and from this day forward step into my
life
and lead me and guide me in the way
that i should go jesus i take you as my
lord and savior
right now in your name i pray amen
and amen welcome to the family of god
let's take communion together today as a
church family
grab some unleavened bread grab some
grape juice
praise the lord stop and think about
your life
maybe before you got saved maybe after
shh of the times you stayed up all night
doing goofy stuff pastor stephen
i watched that entire movie series it
was seven movies back to back and i
stayed up all night long
oh now you're just saturated with that
movie
the word of god's a million miles from
your mind your
destiny is cloudy but oh you know all
about that movie god bless you god bless
you amen
and your destiny sits over here stagnant
but you spent all night
all night watching movies god bless you
whoo hallelujah but now we know
that burn the midnight oil is to
spend time with god in prayer
pastor steven i can't sleep i just
haven't been able to sleep well just get
out
if you can't sleep get out of bed go
pray well if i do that i fall asleep
we'll fall asleep praying
hallelujah maybe you get healed get to
be able to sleep good amen
praise god amen but just push go for it
experiment try it um
and again i'm saying if you if you keep
doing it you get lit you get anabolic
and then on watch out praise god
sky is the limit father thank you for
the bread and the juice
we bless it through this prayer we set
it apart as holy
we thank you that this is now the body
and the blood of christ
our savior father as we receive the body
of jesus
we thank you for your infallible word
we thank you father that throughout
church history
biblical history there's always been men
and women
that could get a hold of you and get an
answer to prayer
and so father this will not be a
faithless generation
we will rise up take a hold of your
promises take a hold of the inheritance
of what you have assigned to us
and refuse to sit back
and just allow stagnation to remain
we thank you we thank you we thank you
father god we will not live on that
realm
we will rise into the fullness of the
calling of what you have for us
through prevailing prayer father we give
you praise we receive the body of jesus
now
in his name amen let's receive
praise the lord
father thank you for the blood of jesus
father if we have committed any sin we
ask that you would forgive us
wash all of our sins away with the
precious blood of the lord
we ask o god that you would lead us away
from temptation
we ask that you would deliver us from
the evil one we thank you for keeping us
safe and sound
we bless you o god we thank you
we thank you for yours as to kingdom and
the power and the glory
forever we give you praise o god we
thank you for the privilege of being
able to approach
your throne of grace
we thank you father god we give you all
of the praise
in jesus name amen let's receive
praise the lord well my friends god
bless you
be sure to hit the spiritual gym and
when the flames burning real strong
just see where it carries you too
particularly at night time
thank you for watching i'll see you back
next time
bye