Prayer with results

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Transcript

Abiding In Christ For Fruit

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Grace that has been sufficient since Friday when we started off the mission. In John chapter 15, verses 5, the Bible says, I am the vine, you are the branches. And if you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and with us. And such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and they are burned. Then first seven he says, If you remain in me, and the words and my words remain in you. Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. This is to my father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourself to be my disciples. And in John chapter 15, verse 16, he says, You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit. Fruit that will last. Then he says, And so that whatever you ask in my name, the Father will give you. Whatever you ask in my name, my father will give you. So, brethren, this morning, as we gather here to uh fellowship, um, I want to encourage us on the importance of prayer. Um, because the reason why we pray and we meet here every morning is not just because it's a ritual, but because prayer brings results. And in John chapter 15, verse 16, he concludes by saying, And so that whatever you ask in my name, the father will give you. One of the key distinctions of a Christian is the fact that we can go to the Father and we can pray, and whatever we ask, He's able to give us. And the conditions for that is us to abide in Christ. Says if we abide in Christ, as is shown in John chapter 15, all that we need to do is to remain in him. Says, if you it's a condition, if we remain in him and my words remain in you. That's important. If we remain in you, and my words remain in you, he says, then so the condition is we remain in him, and his words remain in us, then it says whatever you wish, ask, and it will be done for you. And the Lord doing things that we ask of him is a true mark of Christianity that if we can abide in him, then there lies an open line before us for in the right resources in the treasure of God. That means we have an open line that

Prayer With Expectation To Receive

SPEAKER_00 4:35

we can go to him and we can ask and expect to be able to receive. All we need to do is to live in obedience to his holy will, then that gives us the ability to approach God in Jesus' name. Again, we receive not because we are good, but it says because he has chosen us. And that means everyone is invited. This is an invitation that is open to everyone. And so, brethren, if we seek to be a ministry and people of prayer, if we choose to be men and women of prayer, we'll get many things that are denied to the prayerless. There are things that those that don't pray will never get. And so we must get encouraged, brethren, as we meet here every morning. That the aim of our praying is so that the things that we pray for, we can see them happen. We are in a mission field, we've been praying for two weeks, um, interceding, fasting. And it's great when we go to the field and see God doing things that we had asked of him, and that's the true aim. That's the aim of true praying. It's like a child crying for bread, asking for bread from the father. At the end, um, it is expected that the father will get the bread um uh for the child, and that's exactly the relationship that we have with our father. So prayer is like a child, a helpless child, trying for compassion for the father's heart. And as long as you can reach your father's heart, you'll get the father's hand. That's why we meet here every morning. And so the true, really purpose of us needing to pray and for us going in to a prayer meeting is because we expect to receive that which we ask. And so the aim of seeking is to find, and the goal of knocking is to arouse the attention and get into the house. You don't go to knock and keep knocking and keep knocking, and you don't expect that the door will be open for you. Because the Bible tells us we knock and the door will be open, and so the purpose of knocking the door is to expect that the door will be open, and then we'll get into the house. The real purpose of asking is to receive, and so whenever we come to pray here every morning, let us believe God that we are praying to receive, we are knocking for the door uh to be opened.

Write Down Requests And Give Thanks

SPEAKER_00 7:49

In Philippians chapter 4, verses 6 to 7. The Bible says, do not be anxious about anything. But in every situation, by prayer and by petition, with thanksgiving, it says present your request to God. So we meet here every morning to present our request to God. And so we need to be in the habit of writing down what is it that you are presenting to God this morning. Every time we meet here, you need to have a book before you sleep at night. You can write down what is it that you want to present to God this morning and put a date, a date for the ask, what is in your book, in your manuscript, and put there what you're expecting from God. What are you presenting before God? So that you can keep expecting because you knocked that the doors could be open and then you will go in. Then because you asked, you shall actually be able to receive. So you put down what it is that you are believing God for. Verse 7 says, and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. And so whenever we come every morning, write down what it is that you are asking for. I've been really, really challenged as I've gone through the archives of our ministry because I have a lot of records of all our, you know, basically the history of the church from the moment we started documenting the ministry. I've looked at the prayer, the prayer calendars that we have had, uh, you know, for as long as in the year 2000. And it's been interesting to go through each of those and to see the things that we prayed for and look and say what has happened from that moment. It's amazing to see, brethren, we serve a God that answers prayer. So the value of prayer does not lie in the number or in the length. The value is found in the great through that we are privileged our relationship to God to unburden our desires and to make our requests known to Him and that He'll grant our petitions. The child asked because we expect that the parent is in the habit of granting the child's request. The reason why your children will keep coming and coming and coming to ask for something is because they previously asked and they got. So they are confident that when they show up again today, God, the parent is going to be able to grant that request. And so, brothers and sisters, prayer is mighty. And we need to know because sometimes you can you can get tired. When prayer becomes a routine, you can get tired. But when every time you approach the throne of grace, knowing that you are asking, expecting to receive, that you are knocking, expecting for that door to be open and for you to go in, it changes our approach to prayer. So prayer is mighty. And God never disappoints those who put their trust and confidence in him. Brethren, God never disappoints those who put their trust and their confidence in him. We may have to wait longer for the answer. It may take longer than we wanted. We may not live to see it. Sometimes some of the things that we ask for, they may not be given to you in your lifetime. But they'll be given to you to your children who come after you. But the prayer of faith never misses its objective.

Answered Prayers And Long Horizons

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Today, as we look back at the growth of the church, the massive explosion of the word of God and revival that has hit our country. You can think about the very first missionaries who came here to preach the gospel. They died, many of them thinking they'd failed. There was not much to be seen. They struggled, they labored. They were like alone, lone rangers who were stuck in so many ways. And many of them died, maybe thinking that they were failures. But look what God has done. The church has grown might and strength. And you can say that the first missionaries who came, when you go and see the humble beginnings, they lay, whether you're visiting the old churches that we have planted by the missionaries, the first churches, they are so small, they look so weak. But look at where the church is today. They prayed, they had faith, they did not see, live to see the results. But today we are enjoying the fruits of the earth labor. Most of us will remember when we were growing up, and the pastors who were ministering to us those days, the church was not that strong. Would give offerings in the form of maize and cobs and produce. There was not much money that we could give in the church. But they leoped. They did not get any salary. They were poor. Most of the original founders of the church today. They died poor. They did not have much. But look what the Lord has done. The church stands mighty every corner of his country, every street corner, you find a church. So at that time they might have felt like they failed. But they didn't fail. Look what God has been able to do. And so, brothers and sisters, some of the prayers you make, you may never see the results in your lifetime. But long after you are gone, the results will be seen by your children, your great-grandchildren. And they look back and they'll hear the stories of how much you labored for them. So we need to, we need to, we need to believe that as we come here every morning in prayer. And it's not just that I was, you know, as I was reflecting on some of the prayers we have made. And just how faithful God is. My

When God Answers In His Way

SPEAKER_00 14:24

mind was taken to a time in in early 1995, early 1996. And we were praying in a house in the corner where this ministry started. And we had we were we had suffered so much. We didn't have a place to meet. None of us had any house that was big, that could accommodate us, that we could pray. So we were just using the modest places that we could get. And this particular Friday, we were in a small house in Mombasa in the corner of Mtongway, and the place was so small. We were so cramped up. And that night the Spirit of God just came upon us and we began to pray, asking God for a facility, a place we could meet. And we were just crying and telling God of, you know, there are so many churches, there's so many places. How come we cannot get a place where we can be able to meet uh without this pain? It was the place we were meeting was so small. It was a small corridor in a small house. And we cried the whole night that if you never forget, we held hands together. A bunch of us who were there, we prayed. We were praying for God to open a door, you know, for a place that would allow us to be going in there. The churches we are locked up, they couldn't allow us to go into the church, and we were we couldn't understand why churches would be locked up. And here we are praying in a small house, and we're asking God to open those churches. And the truth is, God never opened the churches, they remained closed. None of them offered us a place, they remained closed for the whole for the whole period. But now move fast forward. We are in the year 2026. We have our own place, we have our own ministry center. It's not in Mombasa where we are praying. It is ours. We can go there anytime. We can pray, we can use it the way we want. But God knew he had bigger things for us. He knew if he opened up those churches, our vision would remain small. That's why he closed the churches so that we could continue seeking him. And at some point in time we could have felt that our God did not answer us. But he had his own way of wanting to answer us, he had bigger things for us, he had bigger plans for us, and he remained faithful. Today, that prayer has been answered, and God has chosen to answer it in his own way. I can go on and on. I was

A Specific Need Met Unexpectedly

SPEAKER_00 17:28

in a prayer meeting in Valley Road, NPC. I just moved into Nairobi. That was around you know, early late 1990s. And things were very difficult at that time. The ministry was small. Uh, we were not, we didn't have much. The little money we were making in between missions and paying school fees, we couldn't really have much left. And I remember being in a prayer meeting and viral that night, and I was calling upon God, and I was telling God, I didn't know where the school fees was going to come from. Uh for my, you know, for my sister, for my sister when I was raising um, you know, money to pay school fees for my sister. And and and I didn't know where that money was going to come from. And that night I'm in a prayer meeting, I'm praying, and I'm just saying, God, I, you know, it just came through. It was a lot of money that was needed at that time, and I and I was trying to raise it to be able to pay. And as when we finished the prayer meeting, we I went, we went home, we of course we went home, and then the following week I'm seated in the office, and I got a telegram of someone who had sent me $400 um dollars equivalent. It came in by telegram. I don't know who that person was. I don't know why he sent that money, but he sent it to me by telegram, $400. We convert that money at that time. It was enough to pay the school fees that I needed at that time. And I stood there and I said, surely, the God that we serve is a God that answers prayer. And when we come here every morning and we are we we we we we we we are we are expecting from him, he's faithful to answer prayer. And so I want us to be encouraged that when we come here every morning, uh come, let's come with an expectation and put a journal of the things you are you are asking of God, because he's our father and he will come through for us, brethren. And with you know, with that mindset, we we will be flocking here every morning, coming here with faith and expectation, not just because of our routine, but because God answers prayer. And I received that money. I sat there. I've never known actually who sent it up to today. But when I cashed the money and I was able to get in our school fish, um, you know, um to pay um, you know, for us. We can go on and on. But brethren, what he has prayer. When we when we pray to him with that clean heart, we abide him, we allow his word to abide in us, it's a God that he has prayed for us and he answers us in his own way. He chooses the method, and but if we tally and we don't we don't um if we tally and we don't get tired, God he has prayer. If

Revival Comes Through Intercession

SPEAKER_00 20:32

we need revival, we need to know that revival comes through prayer. We need revival in the ministry, we need revival in our own lives, in our churches, it's a function of prayer. It's a function of prayer. The story is told of Dial Moody, the man of God, you know, the ministry in 1872. Um D. L. Moody was based in Chicago, he said that his church in Chicago had been banned, and then he went to England in 1872. He went to England, and this time around, those who read history, church history, he went to England not to preach, but to listen to others preach while his new church was being built because he had been banned, and so he decided to sell to England to just go there and sit down and just listen to others preach while the church was being rebuilt. And so one Sunday morning, they told him, you know, dear Moody, we need you to preach. You can't just sit and not preach. So they prevailed upon him to preach in London at that time. He writes and he says, when he went to the church meeting at that time, it was dry. His spiritual atmosphere was completely missing. He confessed that later he went on to say. It was such a hard time. It was the hardest type of preaching that he had ever done in his life. It was dry. Nothing was moving. It was a difficult period or a message. Everything was dead. And some of us who are preachers who preach, you'll understand what I mean. When you go and you're preaching and the place is bent, the congregation is not connected, and you feel like, why did I stand up here to preach? You know, Father says he even questioned why he had agreed to preach. And these are questions raised on his head as he's standing there in the pulpit preaching. And it is said that he had to preach in the evening service because when you preached in the morning service, you had to come back and preach in the evening service like we always do. And so he had to come again in the evening service, and he only agreed to come back because he had agreed to preach. You know, he came back to preach because he had agreed before, but his he was completely discouraged. He didn't want to preach. He could remind you another another another time in that church. It was just difficult. So he didn't want to come. But then he agreed to come. When he entered the pulpit that night and faced the congregation, he was conscious of a new atmosphere. Something had changed. And as he drew towards the end of his sermon, he felt convicted to make an outer conversation. And he stood up and he said, if there is a man or a woman here who will all at night accept the Lord Jesus Christ, please stand up. And he writes that over 500 people, he stood up. And he had to repeat again and again to make sure that they understood what he was asking. And he got the same response. They stood and he prayed for them. And this was the beginning of revival in that church and the neighborhood. From that night, the meetings continued. There was a revival that burst in that church. He started to continue doing more meetings and continued and continued until D. L. Modi went back to Chicago. Now, what had changed? Those of you who have read history and you are the biography of D. L. Modi, what had changed? What was different between the morning and in the evening? And it's written that when D. L. Modi preached in the morning, there was a woman in the congregation who had an invalid sister. So when she returned home after the morning service, she shared with the sister that the preacher had been D.L. Modi from Chicago. And when she heard this, this sister was an invalid, she could not go to church. When she heard that the preacher who had come to preach in their church was DL Modi from Chicago, she told the sister that she had been reading about Diane Modi and praying that DL Moody would come to their church. And if she had known that DiL Moody was going to be the preacher that morning, she would have, she would have, um, if she had known that D.L. Moody was going to be the preacher on that day, she would have made sure that she went uh to church in the service because she'd been praying that DL Moody would come to their church. She was an invalid, she had been to be moved from place to place. But when she read about the articles of Dial Moody, she started praying that God, would you send this man to her church? If only you would send this man to her church, maybe something can happen. Maybe something can change. And God had opened the opportunity for DL Modi to come, as she didn't know. So that after that morning, she was told that Dial Moody is going back again to preach in the evening. So she told her sister, I'm not eating, I'm not doing anything, I'm locking myself in the room so that I can pray for that service. So while DL Modi was standing to preach, a bedridden sister was lifting him in prayer in the evening service, and that changed everything. Brethren, prayer brings results. When we pray, God answers us. The prayer of an invalid made such a difference, and revival broke in England, and many more people want to get saved because an invalid sister who could not be in the service was praying every minute that the man of God was on the pulpit and interceding for him and praying that people's hearts be converted. Brethren, we have a mighty weapon called prayer. And God has given us the privilege to be able to be here every morning to pray. The same way God answered TL Modi, I believe God is willing to hear and answer to the faithful, believing prayers of his people who are gathered. So as we gather this morning, as we pray, as we lift up the services today before God, we have three services in the morning, in the afternoon, as we conclude this word has been an amazing and main mission this weekend. Brethren, let's be persuaded that God is faithful, that God hears prayer. That's

Mission Field Mindset And Spiritual Battle

SPEAKER_00 27:52

why we need to um pray even more. Whenever God's conditions are met, they are the revival is sure to fall. Many of you who saw the revival that broke out in Mombasa in the early 90s, and we would go into that tent where uh on Bamburi, and I remember you would go in, and there were two tents, there were two containers outside the church, two containers, and those two containers, remember how hot Mombasa is. Those two containers were full of brethren kneeling down and praying while the services were going on. They'll be full. We're kneeling there, praying. As the service was going on, they were at women praying, lifting up the preachers, lifting up the priests and worshiped him, lifting up you know, everyone. And people were getting born again, revival was eating people, people to do uh some people traveling from up country to attend services in Mombasa for the weekend and back. Revival broke up and broke up because men and women with a clean heart were kneeling down. Never forget a time. We went to a place in Mweni, not Mwengi, yes, in Kitui. It was those early days of the ministry. We didn't have much, we didn't have even any sound system of any nature. And I remember the testimony of this one brother who had gotten born again. And as the crusade was going on, the brother said, I'm going to lock myself here. And you guys will have to come and get me out of here. If you don't come and get me out of here, I'll pray until I die here. But as the crusade was going on in the marketplace, this brother was on his knees every hour, every minute, praying, crying, interceding. And as they were doing that, and we are in the mission, we are in the in the marketplace. We didn't have much sound, we didn't have anything. But people got born again, which doctors got born again. They, you know, it was a complete overhaul in that market. And that's why it's brethren, it's not by mind, not by power, but by the Spirit of God. But that these brothers were kneeling down as the mission was going on, and they were calling upon God for Him to move. I'm saying this, brethren, because we can be so relaxed. We can fail to understand the power that is in prayer. That when we are in the mission field, whatever you are standing, whatever you are doing as the mission is going on, you can never become a spectator. You're supposed to be in the intercessory mode, praying and interceding and believing God for the miraculous. And that's how the party for breaks in. We are in a battle, we are fighting against evil spirits, against dark forces, and therefore every one of us in the mission field, wherever you are standing, it's never a place for anything else. It's a place of battle, a place being in a lot, you are a soldier in the field, we are fighting. So we cannot be fighting. Then you are taking selfies, you are taking this, you are taking photographs, we are not in a display, we are not in a, you know, we're not we are not doing that. There are people who do video coverage, but all of us, the rest of us, we are supposed to be in prayer, interceding until the final day. Uh, when we say the mission is finished and we come back. Brethren, God answers prayer. And when we ask, when we ask of him, he you know, he responds. And today I look back at all those moments. There are many, there are many, many moments and go on and on and on of what God has done, what God is doing, uh, because people are praying. So, brethren, um, we you know, we've seen revivals, and and um I still believe that even there's got to be even more powerful revivals, but revivals will come when we attend the call of prayer, and we understand that we are praying, we are knocking, so the doors will be open, we would get in. We are praying, we are knocking, we are asking something maybe we would receive, and that's the promise that God has given it. I can go in and on and on and on and on. Um and and you know, if you look at Acts chapter 2, verses that 6 to 41, when you know, you know, that time Peter said about 3,000 people were added to their number in a single day. Why, what had happened as a revival that had broken in because men and women were ready to step out there for Christ. So, brethren, um you know, all nights of prayer are always succeeded by all days of soul winning. People come into the Lord, and I want to encourage us this morning as we go to pray. Let us know that we are praying uh to receive, we are asking to receive, we are knocking, and the doors will be opened for us. And when we do that, uh, you'll be amazed at the things that God is going to do in our lives. God is not done with us. This is just the beginning. Um, He wants to use us, He wants to use you and me. We just need to step out and take God use me. Here I am. Let us ask in faith, and we shall receive in Jesus'

Final Encouragement And Prayer Invitation

SPEAKER_00 33:21

name. I'm going to invite us to get into a period of prayer. And then now President Dolo will take it on from the