The Power of Relational Prayer - Zac Acosta

In this transformative session of the Apostolic Prayer Pattern series, Zac unpacks the often-overlooked power of relational intercession and how authentic friendship fuels kingdom advancement. Drawing from 2 Corinthians 1:3-11 and other key passages, this teaching reveals how prayer becomes most effective when rooted in genuine relationship and mutual investment.

Key topics covered:

• Prayer-based relationships: Moving beyond detached intercession to praying from authentic connection and shared life
• The power of vulnerability: How transparency and openness create space for effective prayer partnerships
• Kingdom impact through intercession: Why Paul consistently invited churches to partner in his mission through prayer—and what that means for us today
• The economy of God: Understanding how generosity, giving, and prayer work together to advance the gospel
• Bearing one another's burdens: Practical insights on rejoicing and weeping with others as an expression of authentic community
• From isolation to collaboration: How local churches, ministry leaders, and marketplace believers can work together through prayer and mutual support

This episode challenges the common perception of prayer as a solitary, supplemental activity and repositions it as central, relational work that advances God's mission. Zac shares candidly about his own journey learning to lift his eyes beyond personal ambition to partner with others in prayer—and the breakthrough that followed.

Perfect for intercessors, ministry leaders, and anyone longing to see their prayers make a tangible difference in the lives of others and the advancement of God's kingdom.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

Hey everyone, it's Zach, and I'm so excited to be with you yet again with another session on the apostolic prayer pattern. Today we're going to chat about the power of relational prayer and building kingdom partnerships specifically through intercession. There's really three key points we want to talk about today. First, is we want to talk about uh prayer-based relationships, how we can pray for people from the place of relationship. Then I want to talk about how prayer and relationships can effectively advance kingdom ministry and the spread of the gospel. And then I want to talk about the economy of God, the economy of the kingdom, and how it works together. So let's dive in. There's a couple scriptures that have really radically transformed the way that I understand relational intercession. And you're like, bro, what is relational intercession? I've never even heard of that term. Well, maybe I just made it up, but I I think it's a good term for what we're going to talk about today. We're going to start with 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 3 through 11. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with a comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. But if we are afflicted, it's for your comfort and salvation, or if we are comforted, it's for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer. And our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are partners in our sufferings, so also you are in our comfort. For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, of our affliction which occurred in Asia, that we were burdened excessively beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life. They were pretty they're they were suffering pretty bad. Indeed, we had the the sentence of death within ourselves, so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead, who rescues us from so great a danger of death, and will rescue us, he on whom we have set our hope. And he will yet deliver us if you also join in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons in our behalf for the favor granted to us through the prayers of many. Okay, everybody, take a deep breath. Okay, but it's profound to me, anyways. I think what Paul is doing here is he's uh opening up to the Corinthian church, asking for prayer, updating the Corinthian church, saying, Hey, this is some stuff that's been going on. We need some prayer, we need some deliverance, we need some breakthrough. But he's talking about the shared burdens and the shared sufferings and the shared comfort. He's like, when we're comforted, it's for your comfort. And even if we're suffering, it's it's for your comfort. I think that there's this thing called prayer partnerships. Say that with me. Prayer partnerships. I think that there are relation relationships that God puts within our lives, and there's people he positions around us so that we can partner with them specifically in prayer. Remember, I'm speaking to you. I believe you're a praying person. I believe you're an intercessor, somebody who's committing hours of their week to prayer. I believe that when you say yes to praying, God will direct people to your path specifically for you to intercede for them, to contend for them and what God has asked them to do. And I think one of the things that makes our prayers effective isn't that we just pray general prayers like, okay, Lord, thanks for this person, help them do their thing, help this guy over here do his thing, help this ministry establish their thing. Those prayers count and those weak words matter, but there's something to relationship that brings transformation. If there's anything that Jesus demonstrated while he was on earth, it's that his kingdom is relational and he values relationship so much so that he would die, he would come to earth, die on a cross, so that we could be in relationship with him. It's not about this detached duty and these prayer assignments, it's about relationships that we're building with people. The early church didn't just pray for one another from a distance, though they were really uh challenged in getting to one another. They didn't have cars like we have today or airplanes, and so they were, you know, maybe physically at a distance, but there was deep affection, there was deep friendship among Paul and the Corinthian church. And he was asking them, inviting them into his scenario and his circumstance, asking for prayer, asking for breakthrough because he knew that they cared about him, they cared about the work that he was doing. They were genuinely connected in friendship. So, what Paul is saying is is pretty clear. He says that ministry, the ministry he was working in, and he's even talking about the ministry of comfort, it flows from what we receive from God first. Can't give what you what you haven't received. An authentic intercession springs naturally from authentic community. Romans 12, 15 through 16 says, rejoice with those who rejoice. That's my favorite. I can I can do that. I can I can be happy with some people who are happy. It also says, Weep with those who weep. You know what I think we can just simply say about that? Hey, do authentic life with people. Have authentic friendships, be with people when they're rejoicing, and be with them when they're weeping, and weep with them and rejoice with them. Verse 16 says, Be of the same mind toward one another. I think about some of my most valuable friendships and relationships in life. They're not those who um, you know, do me the biggest favors, but they're those who have been a part of my life in the good seasons who've rejoiced with me, and also in the worst seasons of my life. Those friendships mean more to me than anything else. I would I would do so many things for those friends, some of the some of the guys that that are my best friends. I I would do anything for those guys. They've they've been with me in so many seasons of my life, and they've done authentic life with me. There's so many scriptures and biblical ideas that that reinforce this, but even within this this portion of 2 Corinthians, Paul is is demonstrating he's got friendship, relationship with the Corinthian church, and he's inviting them into his season of life and his struggle of life, asking for prayer. Relational intercession, it's something that's born from the shared life. It's born from shared burdens. It's it's born from the things that we've endured together, the things that we've walked through together. It's it's intercession that flows from we've done the highs and the lows of life and everything in between. So if we really want to partner with one another in prayer for kingdom impact, then I think that we've got to be ready to embrace both the afflictions and the celebrations of others. I think it's through intercession that we don't just offer detached prayers, but we get in the mess a little bit. We stand in the gap. That's that's it's a common way for people to describe intercession, standing in the gap. We're those who stand in the gap for others. I think it's true, but I think that it's it's not just I'm standing here representing somebody that I don't know, or or you know, in some regards we do that when we're praying for large things like governmental leaders. I don't I haven't met very many governmental leaders or praying for somebody in a different country. We can stand in the gap on behalf of them, but again, we're talking about relational, intentional intercession. That we would actually know them, we would invest in them, we would do life with people, and that we would stand in the gap alongside of them and bear the weight that they bear and celebrate when they celebrate. We you just do life and be real people and real friends with one another. And we can call that ministry. It counts as real ministry when we're just friends and authentic with one another. Galatians 6 2 commands us bear one another's burdens and there five, thereby fulfill the law of Christ. That's a crazy verse to me. Just gotta say it. You can fulfill the law of Christ by bearing one another's burdens. Oh Lord, help me to bear one another's burdens. Guys, just in all honesty, it's so easy to not give a care about other people. It's so easy to be self-absorbed and self-consumed and care about my burdens and the weights that I have to carry. But scripture clearly calls us to bear one another's burdens. Jesus in John 13 says, I'm giving you a new commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you, that you also love one another. The best way that Jesus demonstrated his love for us was to come to earth and to die on a cross for us. Greater love has no man than to lay down his life for a friend, for a brother. And this is a command from him: love one another the same way that I've loved you. Give up your time, give up your attention, stop being self-centered and focusing on all of your struggles and carry the struggles of your friends with you. And just how life and friendship works, if you commit to do that for others, it's it just seems so appropriate and it happens so often that they would actually care for you and care for your burdens and walk with you. So many of us are looking for friends and people to carry the heaviness that we face in life with us, but we're not willing to carry it with others. And so we never find the mutual carrying of burdens, and we're all alone and we're all sad and we're all depressed, and we're all hurting, and we all just need friends to carry burdens together. So I want to encourage us and challenge us to carry the burdens for one another. And one of the ways we do that is through prayer, it's through intercession, it's through having deep concern for one another. Look at what Paul says in Colossians 4. He's writing to the Colossians, giving his greetings, and then he says, Epaphras, who's one of your own, he's one of your friends, he's from, he's from the Colossian church, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, sends you his greetings, always striving earnestly for you in his prayers, that you may stand mature and fully assured in all the will of God. For I testify, he's like, believe me, believe me, church, in in Colossi or Colossee, whatever however you say it, that he has a deep concern for you and for those who are in Laodicea and Heropolis. So Paul's saying, this guy cares about you, and the way he demonstrates that is by praying for you in an earnest way. He's striving earnestly in prayer that you would grow and mature in the Lord, in the will of God. He's got a deep concern for you. Just a question. How often do you pray for your friends? How often do you pray for those that God has put in your life? And how often do you pray for those who you care about deeply? We should pray for our friends so often. We should pray for those relationships we build at our local church or in the prayer room or for those that we, you know, we've done life with for decades. We want to pray for them and strive in our prayers for them. It's a way that we express our deep concern as we bring them before the Lord. We stand in the gap with them, alongside of them, for them. So there's so many resources and tools out there that, you know, teach you how to be relational and teach you how to make friends or teach you how to cultivate real relationship. But I think from the 2nd Corinthians passage that we started with, there's uh a simple key to building relationship, and I think that comes through vulnerability or transparency. Paul is being pretty vulnerable. He's like, hey, we just had a season in Asia that was really hard. We we basically didn't even want to be alive anymore. It was that the suffering was that difficult. We need prayer. Pray for us. He's being vulnerable, he's being open, he's being transparent. He's providing this update that says, This is how you can pray specifically. I'm not hiding it. I'm not hiding my struggle. It gives them the tangible, he gives them the observable results and how they can pray for deliverance and breakthrough. And I think that we should take this pattern and we should infuse all of our relationships, all of our friendships with transparency and vulnerability. I mean, when we actually do life with people, when we have deep friendships, it's because they they know us. We we we know one another, we connect with one another. There's so many relationships within the body of Christ. I mean, I'm guilty of it. Where we just go to church on a Sunday morning or we go to the prayer room or wherever it is that we go, and we just have the surface level communication. Hey, how are you doing? Good. How was your week? Well, it's awesome. I'm I'm always the guy who says, they're like, How are you? I'm like, I'm living the dream. And I'm not really on the inside, like, nope, this week sucked. This week was so hard. Um, and I I want to challenge us to be people who would cultivate authentic relationships that go beyond the surface level and that we can update one another on the real stuff that's going on. It requires relational openness and intentionality. If we want to pray and see effective relational intercession take place, we've got to be open, we've got to be intentional. That means for those that are requesting prayer, you've got to be willing to share the stuff, the specifics, the details. Paul was like, we just suffered. We didn't even want to live. It was so hard. It's vulnerable. It's transparent to share that. Pray for us, he says. And then those who are praying for them, they've got to be willing to confidently and consistently approach heaven alongside the one that they're praying for. I think back to the session we did last week where we talked about James 5. And James is like, is anybody among you sick? Well, then call the mature believers, call the elders of the church so that they can come pray for you. And then when they pray in faith, you'll be restored. And while you're at it, confess your sins to one another. Be open, be vulnerable, be transparent with one another. There's this call into relationship, and prayer always seems to be just right in the mix of it. Even within James 5, verse 16 says, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. A prayer of a righteous person when it's brought about can accomplish much. In vulnerability, in relationship, in transparency, when we mix some prayer in with that, some intercession for one another in with that, some carrying the burdens of one another in with that. I believe that we we see some breakthrough because again, the kingdom of God is relational. The foundation of God's kingdom is friendship, it's relationship. Okay, let's talk about kingdom impact and the spread of the gospel. We'll zero in on verse 11 from 2nd Corinthians 1. Paul says to them, We'll be delivered if you also join in helping us through your prayers, so that thanks may be given by many persons in our behalf for the favor granted to us through the prayers of many. So, what Paul is doing here is essentially validating the work of prayer. He's saying, Yeah, we're out here spreading the gospel, suffering for Christ, but you can make a tangible real difference, Corinthian church, if you pray for us. You can join in helping us through your prayers. You can you can give us favor. You can grant us favor from God and man through your prayers. So I think what Paul is saying is that prayer isn't just this thing that we do for ourselves and you know, we grow relationship with the Lord. It very much is that, and you know, we get in our contemplative hideaways and we pray and we grow in love with Jesus. Yeah, it is definitely that. But prayer is also the work of advancing God's kingdom. It is partnership with the mission of God, it is the real work. There's so many reasons we can pray for ourselves, for others, and for certain circumstances, but prayer is the actual work. It's how we partner in God's mission. It's one way. Just like going and preaching the gospel is a way to partner in the work of God, just like building, making disciples and baptizing people is a way to partner in the work of God, so also is prayer and intercession. Paul consistently invited the Corinthians and almost all the other churches that we read about in the New Testament into partnership with his ministry, specifically by asking them to pray, to intercede for him. So I think that this shows Paul thinks prayer is indispensable. It's so valuable. Prayer to him wasn't just a supplemental thing, it wasn't just a side mission thing. I think he Paul looked at prayer as the essential fuel for advancing the kingdom. And when we relegate prayer to just the supporting role or the thing that the old ladies do in the back room at a church, at our church on Sunday morning, when we look at it that way, instead of looking at it, looking at it as the central work, then we've misunderstood prayer. We've misunderstood its power, we've misunderstood its purpose. Prayer doesn't just support the mission, prayer is what moves the mission forward. Prayer is ingrained in the work of God's mission. In the study notes, if you're looking at those, I've got a bunch of examples of Paul inviting these communities of faith into prayer. And it wasn't just the Corinthians, he invited the Romans, he invited the Ephesians, the Philippians, the Colossians, the Thessalonians, he invited them to pray for his mission because he needed prayer support, because he understood if I don't have prayer support, if I don't, if I don't have prayer ingrained in the preaching of the word and the making disciples, and the church planting and all the other things that God has asked me to do, then I can't do this. So Paul had a huge prayer team, he had a huge ministry team. I thought it was valuable. Prayer brings the tangible results and the deliverance. That's what Paul was praying for, is what he was asking for. And he was convinced, he believed it, that through the Corinthians intercession, that he would be rescued from deadly peril and sustained in his mission, what God told him to do, that he wouldn't give up despite the sufferings that he was facing. So we even see this same dynamic with Peter when he was in prison and was a you know, he had the death penalty. This is such a fun scripture in that in Acts 12. The church prayed for him, it says intensely, and then an angel appeared and chains fell off, and then Peter walked free through the gates. That opened by themselves. If you're if you're got the study notes, you've got to look at Acts 12. I'm just summarizing it for us. He's in prison, he's about to die. He just his friend was just executed, and it says the church was it was in verse 5, it says, prayer for him was being made to God intensely by the church. There were some intense prayer meetings happening for Peter, and then an angel shows up, chains fall off, Peter walks free, says the gates opened by themselves for the angel and for Peter. And then it wasn't until after that Peter realized, oh my goodness, like this was God. God showed up and sent an angel. I mean, I I just can imagine your chains fall off, a gate randomly opens, like a ghost is opening this gate. And then later on, Peter's like, oh yeah, that had to be God. It just blessed my mind that that that would happen. But I think that this gives courage to all of us that that when we commit to pray intensely, I am so for intense prayers. I'm so for loud prayers, I'm so for passionate prayers, and and we scream our guts off and believe. It's Acts 12 gives us gives us a commission. Pray intensely for breakthrough because it shifts the atmosphere. That gives us courage when we go to the prayer room. Things can shift, angelic activity can happen, deliverance from bondage can happen. Supernatural things like gates opening for themselves can happen. I believe that when the church prays intensely, I can make this real preachy, that when the church prays intensely, that the spiritual atmosphere shifts, that impossible doors swing open, and provision flows from the unexpected sources. And the gospel advances against all odds. Even when Peter was in prison with the death penalty for preaching the gospel, when the church makes if intense prayers, God does stuff. Things shift. Prayer multiplies thanksgiving, brings glory to God. Paul explicitly connected answered prayer to an overflow of gratitude. He's like, thanks may be given by many. This creates a powerful cycle where intercession leads to breakthrough, which produces thanksgiving from multiple witnesses, which in turn fuels greater faith and more prayer. So there's this relationship between celebrating. There's this relationship between thanksgiving and prayer because we celebrate together. Look what God did. And then everyone gets real excited about that together. And then in turn, we go back to the prayer room when more needs are there and more prayer requests are there. And we say, Okay, God, you did this. You brought the breakthrough when we prayed for this thing, this other thing. And we come back with more faith and more excitement in prayer. So answer prayer isn't just the thing that solves the problems, but it's it's what creates worshipers. It's what emboldens intercessors, it's what drives us back to the prayer room, and it magnifies God's rep reputation as the one who hears and acts. When we look at what God has done, I can worship God because of who he is. He's amazing. He's kind, he's loving, he's unlike anybody else. But there's things that God has done in my life. There's things that I've seen God do in the lives of my friends and family that I'll worship him for forever because he does amazing stuff too. When God answers our prayers, it creates worship within us, thanksgiving and praise within us. And when that happens in the context of community, it multiplies worship. It does it on an exponential level, and then it also gives us faith to continue praying and believing together. That's why the power of people sharing their testimony is so real. We've all been there at a church service when the guy comes and testifies. When I was in high school, I was on drugs and God broke in, and now I'm serving him and I'm planning churches in the 1041 or whatever the testimonies are, and that gives us such faith to believe. Oh, God is so good, and I can partner with the work of God by praying and worshiping. It's real. Okay, when testimony of testimonies of answered prayer are are shared, I think they become catalysts that inspire others to approach God's throne with a fresh confidence. And this multiplies prayer, it multiplies provision, and it of course multiplies praise. In the study notes, I've got another table of just so many verses that that uh talk about the multiplied praise and worship as a result of answered prayer. Okay, let's move on to our third point here, talking about the economy of the kingdom. Second Corinthians 9, verses 10 through 15. I'm gonna read it in the New Living Translation. I'm not usually a New Living Translation guy. I love the NASB. I'm a words guy, so the word-for-word translation is great. Um, but anyway, I thought the NLT said this really cool. And I've got to give a huge shout out to Brennan because he's the one who really showed me this verse a few weeks ago, and I thought it applied really well to this teaching. So Brennan, thanks for reading your Bible, and uh thanks for showing me Bible verses, because this one's awesome. Okay, 2 Corinthians 9, starting in verse 10, it says, For God is the one who provides seed for the farmer and then bread to eat. In the same way, he will provide and increase your resources and then produce a great harvest of generosity in you. Yes, you will be enriched in every way, so that you can always be generous. And when we take your gifts to those who need them, they will thank God. So two things will result from this ministry of giving. The needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God. As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God, for your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the good news of Christ, and they will pray for you with deep affection because of the overflowing grace God has given you. Thank God for this gift, too wonderful for words. I love the way it says that. So it's happening here, 2 Corinthians, within the early church, partnership even went beyond prayer. Now, prayer was valuable, and it's yet again mentioned here in verse 14. They will pray for you with deep affection, but it it extended to include even financial generosity. That relationship was so deep that there was this generosity that was validating the people's commitment to the good news of Christ. There was this generosity and hospitality that was validating the mission of God and the prayers of God's people. Generosity and intercession served as a tangible, as tangible expressions of authentic partnership. The church's giving and praying proved that they were obedient to the good news of Christ. Did you know that? Your giving, your praying can prove your obedience to the good news, to the gospel message. Believers shared all things in common and gave to the extent that anybody had need. It was it was ingrained in their culture. This is who they were. Both giving and praying represented two sides of the same coin in kingdom partnership and kingdom advancement. Look what Paul says to the Philippians in Philippians 4. He says, You yourselves know also know Philippians, that the first preaching of the gospel, after I left uh Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you alone. For even in Thessalonica, you sent a gift more than once for my needs. This is normal for the church to support one another in their mission by giving through generosity. Second Corinthians eight, one through five. Now, brothers and sisters, we make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction, their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality. They were generous, even though that they were suffering and they had they didn't have a lot of money and they were afflicted, they they still were generous and they gave. For I testify that according to their ability and beyond their ability, they gave voluntarily, begging us with much urging for the favor of participation in the support of the saints. And this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. So here's what I'm trying to point out that within the economy of God, we should be generous to give definitely financially, if it's in within your means. And also, there's within 2 Corinthians 8, even if we don't have the ability, we should trust God. He tells us to give. But I'm equating the generosity of financial gifts to the generosity and the effectiveness of prayer as well. So maybe you don't have money. I'm one of those guys. I don't have a lot of money. But I do have time and a commitment to prayer that I can offer in a generous way. One of the things that we do at the House of Prayer, we've mentioned it so many times before, is partner with ministry leaders and marketplace leaders that are believers and missionaries, and we commit to generously pray for them. We don't always have the financial resources to donate to missions or to ministries or to go, you know, purchase all the things from the marketplace leaders that we partner with and the business leaders we partner with. But what we can generously offer is prayer. And what I'm suggesting to us is that in the relationships that God has given us, unto the effective advancement of the gospel, that we would generously sew into one another's lives however we can. For some, it's financial, for some, it's hospitality, for some, it's it's prayer, and for some, it's all in between. For all of us, it's probably all of those components at different times in our lives and working all together. But what I'm suggesting is that it is a worthwhile investment for you to pray and to give to those who God has positioned in your lives, that we would be generous with the resources that we have. True partnership and ministry flows out of genuine relational affection, not obligation. When we're deeply connected through the shared faith and experience, our hearts naturally carry one another in prayer and generosity. It's like I mentioned earlier. Those that I pray so deeply for, and those that I pray most consistently for, and maybe you might say most generously for, are those who are closest to me, my my wife, my kids, my family, my friends that have been with me in all the seasons. I pray for them often. I pray generously. There's, I, I, I bend over backwards sometimes for my kids and for family because I care about them. I'm so willing to give, not because I'm obligated to, but because I love them, because I've cultivated relationships with them. Committed intercession arises from love and investment in others, demonstrating care in real, tangible ways. Partnership in ministry then isn't just task-oriented, it cultivates a network of support where prayer becomes the natural expression of mutual affection and friendship. This relational foundation strengthens both the individuals involved and the kingdom work that they support. So look at some of these verses. Romans 12 10 says, Be devoted to one another in brotherly love and give preference to one another in honor. Galatians 6 2 again. We mentioned this earlier, but let's read it again. Bear one another's burdens and thereby fulfill the law of Christ. And Romans 15 30. Now I urge you, brothers and sisters, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. Guys, there is value to striving together in prayer for one another. There is value in bearing one another's burdens in prayer. There is value to being devoted to one another in brotherly love and expressing that like epapharis and striving and having deep affection and deep care, as it says there in 2 Corinthians 1.11. We want to care for one another. We want to, or sorry, not 2 Corinthians 1.11, 2 Corinthians 1.14, that we would pray with deep affection with one another because of generosity. I think every partnership in ministry, regardless if it comes through partnership in prayer, partnership through giving, or partnership through serving one another, it points back to Jesus, who really is the source of all blessing. Our efforts are not ends within themselves, but they're channels through which his grace and power flows and his glory is revealed. When we partner with others in kingdom work, we participate in a rhythm that begins and ends with the glory of Jesus. I think this shows his love, and I think this advances his mission. True partnership draws us into deeper unity with one another while pointing all glory and thanksgiving back to the indescribable gift of Christ. In this way, every act of collaboration becomes an opportunity to honor him and extend his kingdom on earth. I'm so convinced that if local churches, if pastors, if ministry leaders, if believers in the marketplace, if we can learn to work together, to serve one another, to give and to pray for one another, if we this would be a part of our rhythm, if this was a part of our pattern, the same way it was a part of the early church's pattern, I'm so convinced that we would see kingdom impact increase at a crazy rate. But so often we're we're so self-consumed, we're so um focused on our own mission, we're so self-ambitious that we don't look at what others are doing in the body of Christ and attach ourselves to what they're doing and serve them and give and pray for them. I'll be completely honest and vulnerable with you guys here, for whoever's watching this. I've been running the house of prayer now for just over 13 years. And it's been an awesome journey. Praise God. It's been really hard most of the time. And because of that, I often get really self-consumed and self-absorbed with the mission that God has given me. And so for many of those years, I was trying to build that apart from building genuine relationship with the world that was kind of around us. And it was really hard to bring people into it because they didn't really care or understand why praying night and day even mattered. And then earlier this year, the Lord just did something to us. He taught us to lift our eyes above our own ambition, our own ambition to build him a resting place in our city. And he started to connect us to marketplace leaders, to missionaries and ministry leaders all throughout our region and even beyond. And he says, I want you to pray for them. I want you to devote part of your mission to praying for their mission, because the mission that they have was birthed in my heart, God said. Just like the mission that I've given you, Zach, was birthed in my heart, the mission I've given them was birthed in my heart. And together you can attach your mission with their mission, and together we advance his mission. I believe that if we can get over ourselves a little bit and we can serve, we can give, and we can pray for those who are doing kingdom work and we can work together through genuine and authentic relationship. Guys, we'll see the kingdom of God advance like it did in the first century, where thousands were being added day after day is what it seemed like in the scriptures. Want to read Philippians 4, 15 through 20. I mentioned a verse earlier from this, but I want to read the whole thing as we close out. It says, You yourselves also know Philippians, and at the first preaching of the gospel after I left Macedonia, no church shared with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you alone. For even in Thessalonica, you send a gift more than once for my needs. Not that I seek the gift itself, but I seek the profit, which increases to your account. But I have received everything in full and have an abundance. I am amply supplied, having received from Epaphroditus what you have sent, a fragrant aroma, an acceptable sacrifice, pleasing to God, and my God will supply all your needs according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Now to our God and Father be the glory forever and ever. Amen. This is all unto God. This is all unto his glory, and he is the one who will supply everything that we need. All that we need. I just want to testify. As we've been praying for the marketplace leaders and the ministry leaders and the missionaries in our region and beyond, we've just been faithful to commit to, okay, Lord, we're going to cover them in prayer. The resource we have is prayer. Let's cover them. And as we've been doing that faithfully over the past several months, some of those leaders have just donated to our mission financially. They've given us uh gifts, some large, some small, some consistent, some one-time gifts. It's been amazing. And guess what? We didn't ask them, say, hey, will you sow into our mission? We really need money. As a house of prayer, believe me, we really need money. There's some months we have no idea how we're gonna pay rent, and God shows up. But as we've just been faithful to give and so in prayer, they've been giving because they have a heart of generosity and we're mutually supporting one another in kingdom work. And I believe that the more we do this in our cities, in our regions, even among individuals, if you just find three friends that you support in prayer, they will support you, maybe not financially, but maybe they'll support you in other ways. This is the pattern of God for us to engage in effective relational intercession. It's transformed the way I pray, guys. It's transformed the way our house of prayer approaches intercession. It's changing my idea of what revival looks like. And I'm so hungry and zealous to see it and to keep stepping in it. Would you build authentic relationships that are rooted in prayer? Would you pray for the advancement of God's kingdom and the spread of the gospel? And would you participate in the economy of God by being generous and giving the resources that you have? Because God is able to supply everything that we need according to his riches. God bless you guys.