Pray, Not My Will But Yours Be Done (Pt.1) (336) - February 7 2026

Many are seeking God’s face in the wrong way. Sadly, if we do not educate ourselves on the Lord’s instructions, in the Bible, we will not see progress in our lives. God hears all of our prayers. If we are not praying God's Will be done, our prayers are not hitting the Throne Room.

You see, only the fervent (white hot) prayers of the righteous availeth much (James 5:16). If you are not submitted to God (James 4:7) and saved (Romans 10:9), that is the first step. Following God's instructions and not our own is the second step. Why? Because when you become saved, while you believed God raised Jesus from the dead, you are also required to confess Jesus as your Lord (Romans 10:9). So Jesus is now leading you in your life. Your life is not your own; you have been bought with a price (1 Corinthians 6:20). Similar to an employee of a company, where there is a boss: the employee has to follow the rules, it is no longer what the employee wants any longer. Well, the same applies to the Lord's Kingdom, except the Lord paid a very great price for you, and loves you, both far more than any company would have paid for you. Not only this, the Grace of God actually allows you enjoy serving Him and there is no longer a separation between you and your Creator because Jesus has paid your punishment, in your stead... instead of you.

Topics this week:

- If you’re not submitted to God that is half the problem

- If you are still doing things your way, then you are not submitted to Jesus (James 4:7)

- God’s Ways are Higher

- Only God’s Word accomplishes and does not return void

- Serving the devil and praying to Jesus will not get you breakthrough with the Lord

- God prepares the Way for you when you live, pray, study, acknowledge, and do His Will

This program covers the following Scriptures from the Amplified Classic version (AMPC): Psalms 34:14-19, 1 John 4:15-17, Luke 22:41-44, Joshua 24:15, Proverbs 5:21-23, Proverbs 15:3, Psalms 24:3-6, James 4:7-10, Proverbs 14:8-12, Proverbs 21:2-8,Proverbs 21:1, Isaiah 55:6-9, 1 John 4:15-17, Isaiah 55:1-3.

Pastor Catrice teaches this this week.

Transcript

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(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) And welcome back to yet another episode of Touch of God. My name is Catrice and I'll be delivering the message for you this week. This week's topic is pray, not my will, but yours be done. For those of you who like to follow along in the Bible, we use the amplified classic version. Last week on the undeserved grace of God offers us rescue through Christ from deserved punishment. We talked about the following. It was the greatest substitution of life that occurred at the cross. Jesus in our place, Jesus paid the penalty, the severe penalty that our sins produced the wages of which was death. This is God's mercy. The act of withholding deserved punishment from us who received Jesus as Lord and Savior. If we don't receive Jesus, then the punishment will be served. Judgment will be served upon us and we will continue to hell where we were already destined to go. Grace, however, is the act of endowing unmerited favor. So grace is favor. Mercy is withholding deserved punishment. Grace is unmerited favor, meaning favor we have received as a result of nothing we have done. It's a result of God's love for you and I and his creation. Unmerited favor. Favor that we definitely did not deserve. We do not deserve anything good from the Lord. We deserve what we have earned. Last week's topics were what occurred at the cross? What did Jesus pay the price for for us? If Jesus did not pay the price for our sins, where were we going? What is grace? What is favor? This week on Pray Not My Will But Yours Be Done, we'll be discussing the following topic. Many are waiting on the Lord to move, to do something for them. God is waiting on them to follow his instructions in the Bible. Why? Because faith without works is dead. This means you made Jesus your Lord, your boss through salvation. Like any boss or authority in your life, you must follow their instructions. Those who do the will of the Father and learn about his kingdom see results in their lives. This is if their focus is not on money, power, fame, or only talking to God to get things. Many are seeking God's face in the wrong way. Sadly, if we do not educate ourselves on the Lord's instructions in the Bible, we will not see progress in our lives. God hears all our prayers. Let's look at Psalms 34 verse 14. Depart from evil and do good. Seek, inquire for, and crave peace, and pursue, go after it. The eyes of the Lord are towards the uncompromisingly righteous, and his ears are open to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth. When the righteous cry for help, the Lord hears and delivers them out of all their distress and troubles. The Lord is close to those who are brokenhearted and saves such as are crushed with sorrow for sin and are humbly and thoroughly penitent. Many evils confront the consistently righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Amen. The Lord wants more for you than you even want for yourself. For those who are seeking Jesus, in every situation we must acknowledge his ways. Not our will, but his be done. If we are not seeking God first, if we are not submitted to God, if we are not placing God's will above our needs, we can't move forward. Why? This is the first step. You can't go past the first step without completing it. No one can do it for you. No one can pray this step into existence because it is an action required on your part. We must be sayers and doers of the word. We must be pursuing the things of God. If we are only making wishes like God is a ATM money machine, that's not how God works. The lack of reading God's word can keep a person ignorant to the ways of God. Saying that you follow the Lord, but still are going to do it your way and how you want is not submitting to God's will. The topics for this week. If you're not submitted to God, that's half the problem. If you're still doing things your way, then you are not submitted to Jesus. God's ways are higher. Only God's word accomplishes and does not return void. Serving the devil and praying to Jesus will not get you breakthrough with Jesus. God prepares the way for you when you live, pray, study, acknowledge, and do his will. Let's start with, if you're not submitted to God, that's half the problem. If you seek me, you will find me. If you seek me with all your heart. Those are words from Jeremiah. And it's a promise that God has made that if you seek him, you will find him. If you seek him with all of your heart. When we seek God, we are not looking for anything but him. We are not looking for God to tell him how things should be done. We are not looking for God to tell him when he should do something or for who. Our heart posture should be one of surrender. Knowing that when we come to him, Jesus, it's because we do not have answers. It's because we have tried things our way. It's because we no longer want to steer the ship in our lives with our directions. We are surrendered to Jesus in every way. No more fighting, no more telling him what you're going to do and not going to do. No more anger and bad attitudes towards correction from him. No more talking back except to say yes. Yes, Lord, to your will. Yes, Lord, to your way. Yes, Lord, to your truth and not our own. Just simply yes to everything of Jesus and no to everything not of Jesus. Amen. Let's look at 1 John 4 verse 17. As Jesus is, so are we in this world. Anyone who confesses, acknowledges, owns that Jesus is the son of God. God abides, lives, makes his home in him. And he abides, lives, makes his home in God. And we know, understand, recognize, are conscious of by observation and by experience and believe, adhere to and put faith in and rely on the Lord God cherishes for us. God is love and he who dwells and continues in love, dwells and continues in God. And God dwells and continues in him, in this union and communion with him. Love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us. That we may have confidence for the day of judgment with assurance and boldness to face him. Because as he is, so are we in this world. Let's look at Luke 22 verse 42 to 44. And he withdrew from them about a stone's throw and knelt down and prayed. So this is Jesus saying, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, yet not my will, but always yours be done. Let's pause right there. If we are seeking the father and we're seeking Jesus and Jesus himself was praying to the father, not my will, but yours be done, then we who are no greater than Jesus Christ himself need to do as Jesus is because we just read as Jesus is in this world, so are we. Jesus himself prayed to the father and as disciples of Christ, this is our calling to also pray to the father, not my will, but yours be done. Let's go back to Luke 22 verse 43. And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him in spirit and being in an agony of mind. He prayed all the more earnestly and intently and his sweat became like great clots of blood dropping down upon the ground. We can see here that if we are to be like Jesus and Jesus is earnestly praying to the Many times because we are not Jesus, we sometimes think that he went through nothing and everything was just so easy for him. But we can see here that if someone has that mindset that nothing was hard for Jesus, we can literally see here he was sweating and his mind was in agony and he was praying earnestly and intently. So remember when you are praying, the fact that you have emotions and you need to pray earnestly and intently, that's the same thing that Jesus did. And so it's not that we are not supposed to go through anything at all. The word itself says, yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil for God is with me. And if Jesus walked through this, he himself had to pray to the father to get through this. And that's the same pattern that we ourselves must use. All right. Well, I do have a story for you. A person gets hired to make a company's cookies. The company's recipe is for butter cookies. The recipe says to use butter, sugar and flour. The person who got hired reads the recipe and adds mustard because they want things their way. Well, that person works for a company now. They are under the company's rules and not their own rules. Then they get fired because people get sick from what they added, which was mustard to the cookies. This is not what the company hired that person to do. The person was under their authority, the cookie company's authority, when they agreed to work for the company, not following instructions and doing what they wanted with the company's recipe showed the company that this person is not under their instructions or authority. They were not listening. They were not ready to let go of their ways and thought process. Because of this, the company had to let them go. They were not willing to follow instructions so they could receive the benefits the company offered. This is what it's like when you become saved. You are under Jesus now. Jesus is Lord of your life now. Just like in the story, if you do not follow the instructions in the Bible, you will not receive the benefits that Jesus offers. If you're still doing things your way, then you are not submitted to Jesus. Let's look at Joshua 24 verse 15. Choose this day whom you serve. And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether gods, which your fathers served on the other side of the river or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. We can see here in this passage that God is not forcing anyone to serve him. The word literally says, choose this day whom you serve. And if you don't want to serve God, Jesus Christ, then you are serving other gods. And that's not of the Lord. So you have to choose. You either serve Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ, or you're serving whatever gods you are serving, and those are the benefits that you have chosen. So sadly, many are trying to enter into the Lord's kingdom, but are not submitted to the Lord's will and ways. They want the benefits of the Lord without doing the will of the father, Jesus's father. This does not work because the Lord first judges the intent of the heart of man. Many are not able to get past this step because the true intent of their heart is revealed to the Lord. Let's look at Proverbs 5 21. For the ways of man are directly before the eyes of the Lord, and he who would have us live soberly, chastely, and godly, carefully weighs all man's goings. So when we attempt to deceive the Lord, God is all-seeing, all-knowing, omnipresent. He sees everything, and he judges and weighs the heart. Let's look at Proverbs 5 verse 22. His own iniquities and man's own iniquities shall ensnare the wicked man, and he shall be held with the cords of sin, of his sin. He will die for lack of discipline and instruction, and in the greatness of his folly, he will go astray and be lost. This is, in fact, a warning to those who think that they're smarter than God and they want to mislead God. That they think that God doesn't know what they're up to or what's really in their heart. But God says right here that they themselves will be ensnared in the cords of their own sin. That is interesting. Let's look at Proverbs 15 verse 3. The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch upon the evil and the good. Those who approach the Lord with the wrong heart motive cannot enter into the things of the kingdom of God. Let's look at Psalms 24 3. Who shall go into the mountain of the Lord or who shall stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, he who has not lifted himself up to falsehood or to what is false, nor sworn deceitfully, he shall receive blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of his salvation. God is looking at man's heart and those who are going to receive blessings from the Lord are righteous. But those who have sworn deceitfully, they're not going to receive that from the Lord. Let's continue in verse 6. This is the generation description of those who seek him, who inquire of and for him, and of necessity require him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob. Amen. Those who are earnestly seeking the Lord's face and their heart motive is turned towards God. The righteous ones are the ones that the Lord is accepting, the clean hands and the pure heart. The good news is God's here to receive the ones that are seeking his face with all their heart. And he knows what they're looking for. Let's look at James 4, verses 7 to 10. So be subject to God, resist the devil, stand firm against him and he will flee from you. Come close to God and he will come close to you. So let's pause right there. Those who are coming close to God, it says here, he's going to come close to you. But if your heart posture and your heart motive is not to come towards God, but you're only seeking things, you're only seeking money and power and things of this world, that's not drawing close to God. That's coming to God, asking for things, but it's not seeking a relationship with him. It's not seeking to do right. The heart posture is not right. You're not seeking the kingdom of God. You're seeking things because you want God to do things for you, but you're not willing to submit yourself to the Lord. Let's continue in James 4, verses 7 to 10. Recognize that you are sinners. Get your soiled hands clean. Realize that you have been disloyal, wavering individuals with divided interests and purify your hearts of your spiritual adultery. As you draw near to God, be deeply penitent and grieve, even weep over your disloyalty. Let your laughter be turned to grief and your mirth to dejection and heartfelt shame for your sins. Humble yourselves, feeling very insignificant in the presence of the Lord, and he will exalt you. He will lift you up and make your lives significant. Amen. Thank you, Lord. Let's look at Proverbs 14, verse 12. The way that a man thinks is right. The wisdom, godly wisdom, which is comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God, of the prudent, is to understand his way. But the folly of self-confident fools is to deceive. So this is a warning here that if someone is coming into God's presence to be self-confident and to deceive, that's not the way of the Lord. Let's continue in Proverbs 14, verse 9. Fools make a mock of sin and sin mocks the fools who are its victims. A sin offering made by them only mocks them, bringing them disappointment and disfavor. But among the upright, there is the favor of God. The heart knows its own bitterness and no stranger shares its joy. Verse 11. The house of the wicked shall be overthrown, but the tent of the upright shall flourish. There is a way which seems right to a man and appears straight before him. But at the end of it is the way of death. Let's look at Proverbs 21, verses 2 to 8. Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs and tries the heart. To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. Haughtiness of the eyes and a proud heart, even the tillage of the wicked or the lamp of joy to them, whatever it may be, are sin in the eyes of God. The thoughts of the steadily diligent tend only to plenteous, but everyone who is impatient and hasty hastens only to want. Securing treasures by a lying tongue is a vapor driven to and fro. Those who seek them seek death. The violence of the wicked shall sweep them away because they refuse to do justice. The way of the guilty is exceedingly crooked, but as for the pure, his work is right and his conduct is straight. Amen. God is so good. Let's examine all of this. If we are doing evil and we are trying to get the benefits of the kingdom of God, that does not work. We can see here with everything that we've been reading, the pathway to the kingdom is to have a clean hands and a clean heart in order to approach the Lord. But you know, it's not too late to get ourselves straight. It's not too late to look towards God. It's not too late to turn our hearts and to repent, to completely turn away from evil and to turn towards the Lord. This is not something that God is only asking one person to do, but it is possible for everyone. And even when Jesus was on the cross, the thief that was next to him, who acknowledged that Jesus did not deserve the same reward for what they themselves had done, he acknowledged Jesus. And at that moment, when he acknowledged that Jesus did not do what they did, he was basically saying, the thief was basically saying, Lord, you don't belong here. I know what I have done and I accept what I have done as evil, but you who have done nothing do not deserve this punishment. And you know what? Jesus said to him, there's a place for you this day in my kingdom. God is looking for the heart of a man. That thief on the cross did not have treasures. He did not have many things that many people today are seeking. He literally was in the midst of punishment and accepting his punishment as the right punishment that he deserved. But God, who shows grace and who shows mercy, lifted him up from that moment and prepared the way for him and allowed him to come into his kingdom because he repented of his sins by wanting and acknowledging that he was wrong and that Jesus was the way. How many of us are sitting here right now and think, wow, everything that's being asked of them in the Bible, it's just too much. It's just too hard. But Jesus went before you. Jesus paid the price that you didn't have to pay. And even now he's created a way out. Can you imagine if there was no way out from all the sins that have been committed? And remember, no one is perfect. No one is good but God. So that means all of us have fallen short. But God was so gracious to send his only son here. While we were still yet sinners, he sent his son here to die for our sins that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. That means it's possible that even while we're still sinners, Jesus made a way. That means it's possible for all of us to turn from our sins, to be translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. And he left instructions and he made disciples to go forward to also to preach and to teach the word which you are listening right now to. Because God cares about you that much. God wants to make a way for you. God wants you to see that he's reaching out for you right now, right where you are. You don't have to go anywhere special. You don't have to go to a crusade. You don't have to give big money in some crusade collection. God is saying, come to me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That means God wants to give you rest right now, today, right where you're at. And you don't have to do anything but accept, accept him, become saved, repent and turn from your ways, turn from your sins, begin to daily read the Bible, read the word, pray, allow the word to do the cleansing. You don't necessarily have to do anything, but just be obedient to the word. If one day you get up and you're not perfect, that's okay. Get up the next day and do it again and get up the next day and do it again and get up the next day and do it again. God wants you to just seek him and he's going to help you with the rest. He's going to help you find what you're looking for. As you seek his face, you will find him. If you seek him with all of your heart, we're going to go ahead and wrap up the show for this week, but join us next week for the continuation of pray, not my will, but yours be done. Lord, we thank you once again for the direction and it being not our own. Life is spiritual and we can only navigate in the spiritual realm during these times we are in through you. God, we're thankful that you even consider us in our daily lives. And so we praise you. Amen. Amen.