Thank you for joining us today on our daily Christian prayer podcast with myself, Reverend Ben Cooper, recorded live here in London, England, as we just gather around the Word of God, as we gather for worship, prayer, encouragement, peace, and biblical truth for everyday life situation. We just want to hit the drumbeat a little bit different at this moment in time. This is just a bit of a bonus podcast. If I can use that type of terminology, please bear
with me a moment. I want to take us to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 11, verses 1 through to 4. You know, I really believe in the power of prayer. I really, really believe in prayer. You know, I look at my life and how God has brought me full circle from 31 years of ministry. You know, started out in prayer. My mum used to pray for me as a child. You know, I'm 54 years old now, whatever that may be. You know, my mum prayed for me. I lived a bit of a wayward life in certain areas of life and all that, but my mum continued to pray for me. So prayer is really key in my life, and prayer is such a biblical uh teaching point, you know, and I really pray for each and every one of us. You know that we push six prayers out a day, uh scattered across the major time zones, and uh, we're seeing a great acceleration through that. But you know, prayer is key. We are living in the second coming of Jesus Christ. He's coming, Christ is coming, and we've really got to gather for prayer. So, what I'm trying to say very quickly, this is a different type, this is just a bit of an add-on. This is uh maybe the seventh one of the day, you know. This is not directly about and uh praying as we normally do, but I just want to I hope you can just listen to this a minute. I really believe in the power of prayer. I really believe in the power of prayer. I've seen it in my life, you know. I've come full circle, preaching and teaching, pastoring, all the sort of stuff, chaplaincy, done loads of uh ministry work and all that, you know. But I'm not saying that I went away from prayer. I won't say that I went away from prayer at all, you know. But my prayer life seemed to thin out. Do you know what I mean? It seemed to thin out in certain areas of life. And over these last number of months, you know, God has really been stirring me again for prayer. So I'm still pastoring, still doing what I do, authorship, you know, podcasting, everything with CST, hashtag Christian
Straight Talk. If you've got a chance to check that out as well on the podcast, you know, we've got a back library as well. Before we go any further, I know we're seeing loads and loads of prayers we're putting up on the on this timeline, but go right the way back. We have got so many podcasts, we have got a massive back library of podcasts, and what I want to try and do at this moment in time is just to get us to go back in the back library, have a look, have a download, all that sort of stuff. Also, I've done a lot of stuff with Simon Pinchbeck, a really good friend of mine. Uh, really interesting testimony he's got. We've done a lot of podcasting. You can find that on hashtag Christian Straight Talk. There are four books out we have done as well, but this is not about pushing this. I just want to give you a quick overview. Like, so I've been in ministry for around about 31 years, and I really believe and I I just trust God in so many areas of my life. You know, I need miracles all day long. You know what I'm saying. Just like every one of us, you know, life is tough, you know. Just because I do what I do, I find life really difficult. And I'm at a point in my life, honestly, I'm at a point in my life now where I really need God to show up. I really need God for clarity now, direction. And the only way I'm getting it is through the through prayer. It is prayer. Prayer is absolutely critical. So wherever we are, whether we're leaders, whatever we do in life, we're just born-again Christians, Bible-believing
believers, the titles are absolutely irrelevant, really, to the kingdom of God. So, whatever life looks like, prayer is the key, prayer is the way forward. So, I want to encourage you right now, wherever you are, to keep praying. And we're getting a lot of this lately, you know. How do we pray? What is the purpose? How do we pray? You know, that the greatest place we'll ever go to learn and and to find teaching on prayer is through Luke chapter 11, verse 1 through to 4. So I just want to take this text, you know, teach us to pray. This is what Christ says to the disciples. So wherever you are, if you can just take this time. I know we love our prayers and all that sort of stuff that we're doing together as brothers and sisters across the world, but just take your time. I really would encourage you just to look at these scriptures and try and listen to what I'm saying. I'm not saying I've got everything right because I don't, you know, I make mistakes and everything, area like that, but these scriptures are critical. So this is what Jesus told the disciples. Luke 11, verses 1 through to 4. If you're looking to pray and how to pray correctly and maybe a study on prayer, and you just you just feel that maybe God's calling you to a greater prayer life. This this scripture, 11, Luke 11, verse 1 through to 4. So let's just read this a moment and then we'll pray through this. And it says, One day, uh Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he had finished, one of the disciples said to him, Lord, teach us to pray. Just as John his disciples, uh, he said. Uh then he said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come, give us today our daily bread, forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. Lead us not into temptation. Now, when you take that there, Christ has given us the greatest teaching on prayer. Now, I love prayer on these shelves in this studio, just behind me, uh, amongst everything that's going on in this studio, we have got uh bookshelves that are literally loaded with books on prayer. You know, man's understanding of prayer, this way of prayer, that way of prayer, prayer rain, prayer shine, prayer this, prayer that, or you know what, and fully respect to all those books. I'm not not pushing them at all, but what I'm saying is, is it's it's Jesus gives us the greatest answer to what we're looking for. So if you are looking and you're thinking to yourself, maybe at church I'm a little bit embarrassed to pray. I don't know how to pray, I'm not sure how to pray. I'm frightened of making a noise, and I'm frightened of saying the wrong thing, and uh, is my throat gonna stop? You know, all that sort of stuff. We've all been there. Even now, when I'm when I'm doing what I'm doing through church, so I still get nervous. Uh, you know, I always get nervous, even doing all this stuff, you know, and goodness knows how long we've been doing all this. Now, nerves are good. It's good to have nerves, so don't ever worry because you're in a prayer group, and even if you're in a small prayer group, you have your friend or your family, you know, I would
encourage you to get Psalm 23, get Psalm 23, six verses, read it, excuse me, when you get a chance, read it over and over and over and over and over again, and get it in your spirit, get it in your spirit, get it in your spirit, get it in your spirit. Psalm 23, and then use it as a prayer. So when you're in a prayer meeting, you know, and and you get encouraged, and if one says, join, please join us for prayer, and wherever you are, you know, let's pray, blah, blah, blah. You know, just open up your Bible and just say, Father, I thank you that the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want, because that is the prayers of David. So you already have uncountable prayers in the Psalms itself. But if you if you want to go a little bit further and you just want to maybe uh look and have a bit of an explository sort of uh time with prayer, this is a great way, because this is from Jesus Christ, and this is what he says he says, Lord, teach us how to pray. Just as John uh taught his disciples, and he said to them, When you pray, now when when we when I read this, when you pray, this is Jesus, this is what he says to the human beings in his life. He said, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come. So let's just take this a moment. Let's just take this a moment and have a look. So let's put this into a bit of practice and just put it to uh the Old Testament. Let's put it to, as I just said, Psalm 23. Dear God, Heavenly Father, Lord, I thank you that hallowed be your name, your kingdom come. Lord, I pray today, Lord, that you are my shepherd. Father, I thank you for the psalmist. So just see where I'm coming from, just see what I'm getting at. So when we start our prayer, we say, uh, Father, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come. And then it goes on a little bit further. We could literally just take this as it is. We could say something like, Father, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, give us each day our daily bread. So we could take it a little bit further. So what we could do, we could mix and match it around a little bit. As long as it's the word of God, it's okay. So it'd be Father, hallowed be your name. Father, I thank you today that your name is holy. And Lord, I come to you right now, Lord, through the book of Psalm 23, Lord, and I ask you, Father, that you will be my
shepherd. Lord, will you be my shepherd? Hallowed be thy name. Your kingdom come. Father, I want you to be my shepherd. Just take one verse of Psalm 23 and just take that and just get used to it, you know, and just pray in your bedroom, pray in your car, your van, wherever you are, across the world, when you're walking the dog on the treadmill of life, whatever you are doing, you know, I've been in uncountable thousands of prayer meetings, all also birth prayer meetings, all that stuff, you know, and it's been so noisy. It has been so noisy, it's like, God, what's going on? And and you look back over prayer meetings, you think, actually, was that real? You know, we we put this such a powerful emphasis on I've got to speak in tongues, I've got to speak in tongues, I've got to speak in tongues. If I don't speak in the heavenly language, I'm not a Christian. Well, that isn't actually scripture, you know, so we've got to be really, really careful how we look at that. And if we go into certain cultural settings, if we go into certain churches of certain areas of life, we find that prayer meetings are so loud, are so loud it can almost be deafening. Well, that's not actually scripture. The Bible says go into that secret place, go into that quiet place, just you and yourself. It is important to pray in a church group, it is important to pray with one or two, but also it's important to pray on our own. So, you know, we don't need to make a noise. So, you know, I'm quite noisy. You're you're used to me now, you know. I'm quite loud and uh make a noise on the mic and all that sort of stuff, but just because it's noisy doesn't mean to say it's right, you know, and I have to be a bit careful there that I'm not making too much of a drumbeat of a noise. So please forgive me if I'm I'm a bit noisy, I get a little bit passionate and all that sort of stuff. But what I'm getting to, it's really important that I, as a believer, just realise that prayer is communication between my heart and God. It's that simple. I haven't got to be in a church, I haven't got to be in a studio, I haven't got to record it, I haven't got to push it across the airways, I haven't got to stand on Preacher's Corner in London, I haven't got to shout me my voice off till my voice
goes, you know. Prayer is simple. Driving your car, hoovering up, having a shower, laying in the bath, cutting the grass, on the treadmill of life, you know, wherever you are, prayer is prayer because it's a heart condition. You know, Jesus says don't stand on the street corners making a noise like the Pharisees and the Sadducees. And then he says, Don't be like the pagans. Don't be like the pagans. Listen to that lot making a noise. You know, prayer comes from within. So I want to encourage you now to pray from within. Now let's go back to Psalm 23 and let's go back to uh the Gospel of Luke, uh, chapter 11, verses 1 through to 4. This is how you should pray. Jesus is saying that just do this then. So here we go. Father, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come. Lord, I believe that you are my shepherd. Father, I thank you that you are a shepherd in me. Lord, and today I ask you that you will give me my daily bread. And Father, I thank you that you forgive us of our sins. So, Lord, I come to you today as a sinner saved by grace. And Father, I thank you, as it says in Luke chapter 11, verses 1 through to 4, forgive us as we forgive everybody else. So, Lord, help me, Lord, also. Don't lead me, Lord, help me not to go into temptation in Jesus' name. It's that simple, you know. The church and religion and pastors and myself over the years, we can make it really complicated, we can make it really difficult, we make it like it's got to be super spiritual, we've got to make all the noise, we've got to make all the razzamatazz, but it's not actually that. It's not that. It's a it's about praying from within.
And you know, prayer can be quiet as well. You know, we can pray just sitting there with the Bible open. You know, we can when we read, we don't have to actually open our mouth. We can sit there because we read it in the stillness of our mind. You know, as you read, you know, we've done that. We you've done a lot of that. I've done that in times when we haven't said a word and we're reading something, but we're reading it and our innermost being is hearing it. That is prayer too. So you can sit in a prayer meeting and pray without moving your lips. Now, as pastors, as bishops and deacons and and apostolic preachers and all these razzamatic names that we've labeled ourselves with, you know, prayer meetings are not about noise. Prayer meetings are sitting in the quiet, having a bit of scripture read, you know, it remind yourself it's not about making a noise, it's about being real. It's about being real. And prayer meetings, and you know, it can frighten people off, you know. If you if you're not outward and you're if you're if you're not like an extrovert, let's just say that, if we're not like an extrovert and uh we go into a prayer meeting, it's all noisy, it's intimidating. Prayer shouldn't be intimidated. You should go into the prayer room and you should feel comfortable just sitting in the quietness. But especially here in the UK and certain areas of the nation, we've got to make a noise. We think if we're not making a noise, is nothing going on, God's not moving, you know, but it's not the fact. So I want to encourage you to pray quietly, to pray quietly on your own. Sitting in your van, in your car, commuting on the train. You can pray on the train, you can pray on your journey, you know, all you've got to do is just open up the word of God. If you feel a little bit embarrassed, maybe carrying a Bible. I understand that, I get that, I ru I really understand that. Maybe just get it on your phone. But what we've got to be careful of is on the phone is that we get WhatsApps coming through, social media, work calls, rah-rah, rah, all that sort of stuff. So if you can uh get your phone and put it on airplane mode or something, just click it
over. So all you've got is literally is the word of God. Maybe that's a way of looking at it or putting it in your notes, copying it, and then and then just getting it in a way where you can flick your phone on to where there's no traffic coming in and and and confusing you and and taking your attention. But literally sit on the train, sit wherever you are, commuting in your staff room with your phone in your hand, and just literally just pray like this. Let's do this one more time before we click out. You know, so what we do is we take uh Luke chapter 11, verse 1 through to 4, and we can do something as simple as this. Father, I thank you, Lord, that our Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come. Father, I pray today that you will give me my daily bread. Lord, forgive me of my sins, as we also forgive everyone that has sins against us, and lead us not into temptation. But do you know what, sisters and brothers, the more I sit here and I just talking to you uh casually about this, you know, that Luke 11, chapter 11, verse 1 through to 4, it's God teaching us. Of course it is, we know that. God is teaching us how to pray. So that's all we need. If you just take those scriptures, those first four verses, sit on the train at home, in your bed late at night, before you get up in the morning, and just literally read that. That is a prayer because it says, Teach us. Then Jesus says, This is how you should pray, then say, Father, hallowed be thy name, your kingdom come, give us today our daily bread, forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us. Lead us not into temptation. Now, if Jesus has given us four verses on the teaching of prayer, it's all I need. I just need to take that. Now, I just want to encourage you now, when you go into a prayer meeting, when you're at home, maybe you can't even pray in front of your husband, your wife, your brother, your sister, uh, whoever it may be, you know, don't feel embarrassed, please. It's important. Don't feel embarrassed. You know, get yourself a Bible, go to Psalm
23, and maybe sit there and read that through the prayer meeting, or or take or get um, sorry, get uh Luke 11 verses 1 through to 4. You know, it's important, it's really important that we don't get intimidated when we're in prayer, because prayer comes from the word of God, true prayer comes from the word of God. So wherever you are, I pray, and I hope and I pray that you will take those scriptures, take Luke 11, verses 1 through to 4, and also get Psalm 23. So when you're in a prayer meeting and and the prayer leader says, please join us in prayer, if anyone feels like praying, please do so. Just literally read the word of God, open up the word of God and read Psalm 23, six verses. If you want to go a little bit further after you've done that, have a bit of a break, wipe the sweat off your brow, you know what I'm saying. Gather your thoughts, and then go and read Luke 11 verses 1 through to 4, because that is enough. That is enough, and we ain't got time, but we'll do this next time. I I pray for each and every one of you. As you pray for us, we pray for you. Remind yourself, never give up. God is with you. Just remind yourself again and again and again. You know, the Holy Spirit is in your life, the Lord loves you, and I pray that you will pray and you will see the miracle working, God. Don't worry about it. Please don't ever worry about making a noise. Just read the word of God in the prayer meeting at home, sitting by the fire, sitting on the porch, sitting in your vehicle, you know, just walking the children to school on the school run, you got it on your phone, whatever, you know. Just pray those simple scriptures. May God bless you in the mighty name of Jesus Christ. We'll see you soon. Take care. God bless.