Two Ways to Pray (And Why You Need Both)

Most believers only know one way to pray. In this message, Melissa Medina opens up the difference between priestly intercession and kingly intercession — and why you need both to walk in the fullness of what God has called you to.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello. Happy Sunday, family. I just spilled my water on myself on my way up here, but it'll try out. Well, I am not Pastor Tracy. For those who don't know, I'm Melissa Medina and my husband Anthony and myself and our son Caleb. This house has been home for us for a couple years now. And what a day, what a day we are living in, guys. It is a day that is going down in history. As a day where the Lord is being proclaimed as the God of this nation. Where this nation is being rededicated to him. It is such a special thing. It's so precious. And if you've not tapped in, tuned in, you know, it's being broadcast on television today. You can pull it up on your phones. You can pull it up, you know, anywhere you can stream it. But I encourage you to, you know, even if you just watch it on replay throughout the week, um, because it's going on for most of today, and just let your heart connect with what is happening. Um, and really that's what my message today is is all about. But I want to back up for a moment and just um, you know, share as well how Lindsay was talking about the Hebraic calendar and how we have just stepped into the month of Sivan, which is most prominently marked by the festival of Shavuot, which celebrates the giving of the Torah, the giving of the tablets, you know, with the uh Ten Commandments, the law, the Ten Commandments inscribed. It was given at Mount Sinai. And that mountaintop encounter for Moses with God aligns also with Pentecost. So we're gonna be moving into Pentecost Sunday next week, and that's the upper room outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon believers. And Shabuel celebrates God meeting Moses by lightning and thunder and smoke and fire on that mountaintop on Mount Sinai. And but Pentecost celebrates God meeting not just with one man, but with a multitude of believers gathered in the upper room with the baptism of fire, where they were filled and equipped, they were clothed and they were filled with the power of his Holy Spirit. And there was fire on the mountain when that one man Moses went to meet with God and receive the Ten Commandments. But now there's fire upon the head, upon all of our heads, and there is fire within all of our hearts, and there is fire in our daily mountaintop spiritual encounters with God. It is available to every single one of us every single day. And Sivan is also the month on the Hebraic calendar when the people of God, that this were delivered from Haman's death decree. Remember in the book of Esther? And the and the deliverance, a life decree was written on their behalf. Today, death decrees are being broken off this nation, are being broken off our families. Decrees, persons of destruction are being broken off the land as blessings are being released. And Pentecost is the time as well when the first church was birthed by fire into her identity as the Ecclesia, God's legislative, governing, assembly of God on the earth. And that's a big part of what I'm gonna share today. I'm gonna break it down for you. But before I begin, I want to bless you with a free resource that we have prepared to help guide you in daily encounters with God over the next seven days leading up to Pentecost. We actually prepared this um a couple months ago as a seven-week focus over the 50 days of Pentecost to prepare hearts for just a fresh outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But it's only seven focuses, so you can use it for seven weeks, you can use it for seven days. So if you scan that code there, you'll immediately, and and you fill out the little um just put your email in there, you'll immediately immediately get it to your inbox. It's a teaching accompanied by a prayer guide with scriptures and prophetic decrees. And I encourage you, it's very simple but profound. And I encourage you to use that to uh prepare your hearts for what the Lord is inviting us into. Even as today, it's like mountaintop Mount Sinai experience, right? With the word of the Lord being re-established as the law of the land here in the United States of America, but the Lord also calling us up to the mountain of the Lord. Come on, to another upper room experience where we are filled with fresh fire from the throne of God. So if you're watching online, I think you can go to hopefires.com forward slash encounter, and that's where you can access that. So I was actually not supposed to preach today. Um, my wonderful husband was scheduled to preach, and I was gonna do the last weekend of the month. Um, but we flip-flopped because last Sunday during the amazing worship set that we had last Sunday, I was over there having a whole encounter with the Lord and just ended up on my knees back in that second or third row where I was. Um and just with the the Lord gripped my heart in that time speaking to me about his desire for me to preach today, out of a well of intercession that he's cultivated in me throughout my lifetime, intercession for this nation. So because today, as as part of the soon coming right 250th anniversary of the birthing of our nation, 4th of July, our nation is being rededicated to the Lord as multitudes, including our pastors, gather on site in Washington, D.C. And millions more tuning in online, not just from the United States, from around the world, agreeing with us in prayer, responding to that 2 Chronicles 7.14 invitation from heaven to humble ourselves and pray and seek the Lord's face and turn from our wicked ways. And he promises to hear us and to heal our land. And it's not just geographic land that he's speaking of, it's the land of our hearts, it's the land of our homes, it's the land of our educational institutions and and and realms of government and so much more. And I'm deeply, deeply grateful that I'm here in Dallas, we're all here in Dallas, but here from this house we have representation there, boots on the ground with our pastors there. And while I was in worship last Sunday, the Lord gripped my heart with awe and gratitude over what seemed like this movie reel of my history with him as it relates to prayer. Prayer for our nation. And I want to start by just sharing a little bit of that with you to give you context for the message that I'm gonna share with you today. It actually builds, this message actually builds upon the message that I shared here last fall on forging your weapon with the word of God, the spoken word of God. If you've not heard that message or maybe want to refresh it, you can just go to the storehouse, you know, YouTube and and look it up there. I think that was in November. But some of you may remember from my introduction, I don't know, one of the times that I've spoken here that um I was on the road to law school in a dual degree program at New York University, born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, with dreams of becoming an attorney, until I stepped into a season of passionate, lovesick pursuit for Jesus. And then all I wanted above my career ambitions, above what I made an idol in my life, all I wanted was him. And in one of those times of encounter with the Lord, late at night, it's just me and him. He very, very gently extended to me an invitation. And he asked me, Will you lay down law school and legislate through prayer? And I grew up in the charismatic Pentecostal church. My dad is a pastor, and so I thought I understood what prayer was all about. Relationship with God and communion with Him. And through my schooling and law and government, I had gained some understanding of what it means to legislate, right? That's like where you create, you enact, you pass laws, the process of some governing body like a parliament or Congress, where you know they officially establish the rules and regulations that will control or regulate society. But up until that moment, I had never ever heard those two words paired together. And so, but in that moment, there also was no hesitation in my heart. I said, Father, I don't I don't understand what it means that you're inviting me into, but I trust that whatever you've planned for me is better than what I've planned for myself. So you have my yes. And that day shifted the entire trajectory of my life. I finished up graduate school with my master's in public administration and policy, and but according to my yes, I pulled out of the law school program. And then the Lord said, Okay, now it's time to prepare for ministry. And long story short, that's how we ended up in Dallas, Texas. My husband and I are both graduates of Christ for the Nations Institute. And throughout our 20 plus years here in Dallas, I'm dating myself, um, the Lord set me up for this prophetic call to prayer in the most amazing ways. So trying to make my long prophetic history very short, I'll start with what I consider my very my first big assignment in prayer. So just a few weeks, three weeks into our arriving here in Dallas, the Lord connected me to the general of prophetic intercession, as she's known, Cindy Jacobs, who brought me on staff for seven years to direct her national prayer network. Spiritual warfare, spiritual mapping, and identificational repentance and prayer journeys, especially to Washington, DC. And I thought I would be there forever until the Lord once again asked me, will you lay it down? And I did. And a few months later, he released me into a new assignment in legislating through prayer, working for Dutch Sheets, the author of the book Intercessory Prayer. He's an apostle of intercession for the nation. If you don't follow his Give Him 15 daily devotions and you know decrees for the nation, I encourage you to do so. It's a free app, it's on his website, Give Him 15. But there I was his executive assistant and ghostwriter and helped to launch that Give Him 15 prayer movement years ago, and Appeal to Heaven movement, if you've heard of that. And again, many more prayer assignments in Washington, DC. And my next big prayer assignment, governmental intercession, was working for Luengel and the call as part of the Hispanic pro-life prayer movement and the women's prayer movement. And that assignment included all these mass gatherings for fasting and prayer, several of which were in Washington, DC. And then the Lord said, okay, Melissa, now it's time to multiply yourself and equip others in legislative prayer and prophetic intercession. And so giving away all that I had learned and all I had received. And so Anthony and I served our local church. First pastoring a school of supernatural ministry, and then as pastors of prayer and prophetic and deliverance ministries. And that long journey brings us to today, where we're full-time ministers and missionaries partnering with the Lord to equip churches and transform cities and nations all through the power of prophetic intercession. And I share this not to boast about where I've been or what I've done, but to give you context for where this message today comes from. This journey of learning what it is to legislate through prayer. On this day when our nation is being rededicated to the Lord in prayer, and every time I talk about it, I start getting like, I'm gonna cry. On this day where our nation's being rededicated to the Lord in prayer, I believe that we are stepping into a new season. And you know that successfully stepping into a new season for the church, for the bride of Christ here in America and the nations of the earth, this calls for inquiring of the Lord concerning what in this new season we must do differently. So in asking this question of the Lord myself, I was reminded of a prophetic word that in my time of serving Dutch seats that he released, where he said, and this is just a little synopsis, but he said, the nation, United States of America, the nation will fully turn to God when the church shifts from priestly intercession to kingly intercession also. So, what does this mean? You know, in this house, this is not something foreign. You know, this has to do with something called the order of Melchizedek. You know, familiar to those who've been in this house for any length of time. So Melchizedek was first mentioned in Genesis 14, and again in Psalm 110, and then again in the book of Hebrews, and he was a type or picture, shadowing of Jesus in several ways, especially in that he was both a priest and a king. And at that time this was unheard of. Zechariah chapter 6, verse 13, it's a messianic uh verse of the Bible describing Christ, where it refers to him in his king-priest role. It says, thus, he will be a priest on his throne, and the council of peace will be between the two offices. So a priest on a throne where priests don't sit on thrones, priests don't rule from thrones in the natural. But we're not just natural beings, we are supernatural beings. And in the kingdom, in the realm of God, in the kingdom of heaven, where we are seated with Christ in heavenly places, this is the reality. To be both priests and kings. And it says, and the council of peace will be between the two offices. So the role of priests first, I want to talk to you about that. That was to serve the Lord, to minister unto the Lord, as well as serve and minister unto the people, representing the people before God. So it was more human-centered. It was, you know, it was relationship directly with God, but then the outward direction was with the people, right? And releasing love and mercy and grace and all of those things that we receive from the good and kind and merciful heart of our Heavenly Father. And as our high priest, Jesus, as our high priest, our great as our great intercessor, he represents our needs and our desires to God. And we as believers, we fulfill this role every day as well, ministering unto the Lord and presenting to him the needs of others by intercession. We present the needs of our families and the needs of our friends, and we present before the Lord. We come, right, in confidence before his throne of grace to receive mercy and grace in time of trouble. We come presenting the needs of our nation, the needs of our city. And in doing that, we are functioning in that high priestly role and calling. But now the function of a king was to rule, representing God's authority to the people. Not just bringing the needs of the people to God as a priestly role, but now this is releasing the authority of God, the rule of God from his throne to the people, to the earth realm, into different situations. So the kingly role is more God-centered in that it releases power and authority, his kingship in the earth. It doesn't mean that one is greater than the other. We are called to be, as I'll read in a moment, both priests and kings. And Jesus, our example, is both priest and king. So as a king, Christ represents and releases the rule, the authority, and the will of God from heaven to earth. So to contrast the two, the priestly role is petition, intercession-oriented, it's making supplication before the throne of God, as well as us ministering directly to the heart of God. While the kingly role is declarative in nature, we are making decrees, we're making proclamations, we're making declarations directly from the throne of God. It is directly sourced by the will, the revealed will of God to us. And now to declare is to state something, to state a fact out loud. To decree, however, is to issue an authoritative command. A declaration is declarative, stating a truth. A decree is causative, it causes something to happen, it brings life into dead things, it causes things to move and to be shaken and to fully even turn around. So a decree is an official order issued by a legal authority that has the full effect of law. Did you hear that? A decree is an official order issued by a legal authority, the highest authority being the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And that official order has the effect of law. That's legal authority issuing. The order is the Lord, of course, Jesus. But by virtue of the delegated authority that he has given to everyone who believes in him and receives him as Lord and Savior, this is us too. This is how we're called to function. This is how we're called to move. And when we make a decree that's inspired by the Holy Spirit, the one who searches out and reveals to us the will of the Father, that decree is fully backed by all the authority of the Word of God and the authoritative rule of Jesus Christ, the King and His kingdom. So we as co laborers with Christ, we as partners with Jesus and representatives of Jesus, we have become extensions. Of his priest king role. No one is exempt from this. And the Lord desires that no one only operate in half of this. Many believers do understand that we are the priests of the Lord, offering up sacrifices of worship and adoration and praise. This beautiful fragrant incense that should rise before the Lord continuously. Many believers understand that. And we understand that we have an open door, we have a continual invitation to ask, seek, and knock, to come before his throne and make petition and make supplication and ask through our intercessory prayers. But not all believers have understanding or involvement in God's plan concerning our kingly representation of Christ. Where we make prophetic decrees and declarations to release the authority and the rule and the reign of Jesus the King into all kinds of situations. We're not only priests, we are a chosen people, a royal or kingly priesthood, a holy nation, God's very own possession. In 1 Peter 2 9, we're told. Then again in Revelation 1.6, he has made us a kingdom of priests for God his Father. All glory and power to him forever and ever. Amen. And Revelation 5:10. And you have caused them to become a kingdom of priests for our God. And they will reign on the earth. And this is not just about reigning with Jesus once he returns to the earth, although, yes, we will. This is about learning to reign with Jesus Christ on the earth now. This is practice. This is a great rehearsal for when we will sit beside Jesus, enthroned with Him, and we will judge and we will rule over the nations. It begins now. Isaiah 22, 22 and Matthew 16, 18, and 19 are essential passages of scripture for shifting us into this aspect of prayer. Both of these passages are of Scripture mentioned keys as a way to illustrate the believer's authority in the spirit realm and how we are to function in prayer. And these keys are essential, indispensable tools that God is highlighting in this season for igniting a prayer movement even from this house that will bring about a righteous turnaround in our city and in our nation. Isaiah 22, 22 says, Then I will set the key to the house of David on his shoulder. And when he opens, no one will shut. And when he shuts, no one will open. To bind and release. Matthew 16, verses 18 and 19 says, and I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock, not Peter, but the revelation of Jesus, upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven. I want to highlight for you not just the keys of the kingdom that God says he gives to you, so that you will use those keys to open doors to his kingdom purposes and lock up doors to the enemy's plans. But here there is a word that you need to understand, and it is where he says, I will build my church. The definition, the translation of the word church is ecclesia. Ecclesia. It is the governing legislative assembly of God on the earth. Let me tell you what the ecclesia looks like. The ecclesia is God's government on the earth. And back in the biblical times, the ecclesia, they were the called-out ones. Cities had walls in those times. And the called out ones, they were the elders, they were the leaders from within that city. And they were referred to as the called-out ones because anytime there was a matter that needed to be decided, they were called to come gather, to come meet at the city gates, and they would deliberate over that matter, and they would seek the Lord, and they would pray, and they would discern and they would judge and they would come together in agreement and they would decide. Oh no, no, no, no. That we're not allowing within these city gates. Those people, no, no, we cannot allow them to come within these city gates and influence or defile what we've got going on here. No, no, no. We don't want our children influenced by those things, so we're not gonna allow that here. But the ecclesia, they didn't just determine what was kept out of the gates, they also determined what was led into the gates. Come on, when the queen of Sheba would come with all of her wealth and would come to city gates, and they would say, Oh, there is wealth, oh, there is there is riches, oh, there is blessings for our people. Come on in, and come on, doesn't that remind you of Psalm 24? Lift up you gates, lift up you heads, lift up you gates, lift up your ocean ancient doors, that the king of glory would come in. So, as the ecclesia, we are to stand at the gates, the spiritual gates of our household, of our community, of our church, of our city, of our nation. And as the ecclesia from those old days, we are the ones who are to legislate. Remember, you decide the rules, what governs, the laws that govern within society, and we are to legislate through prayer and through decrees what is permissible and what cannot be. The ecclesia, so the Romans, they were the culture creators. You ever heard the term do as the Romans do? Because the ecclesia, the Roman ecclesia, they would go into a city, into a territory, and they would completely take it over. They would go in there and they would change all the educational resources, they would have the people change their dress, how they dress, they would change the language, they would change the holidays, they would change the food, they would even change the the structure of the buildings, the architecture, so that everywhere you looked, it looked like Rome. It didn't matter where in the world it was, but everywhere you looked, it looked like Rome. And they would go and teach people to do as the Romans do. And the Lord is calling us his ecclesia for today, where we are to disciple nations, take up our mandate once again, our commissioning to disciple nations and teach them to obey everything that we've learned, to do as Jesus would do. We're called to transform our cities and our nations, our school boards, all the institutions of education. So that everywhere they look, it looks like heaven, it sounds like heaven, it feels like heaven. We shift atmospheres. And yes, we begin in the place of prayer and by our prophetic decrees. But friends, we can't stop there. Even our pastor here has encouraged us. We've got to take it beyond the four walls of the church, we've got to get involved in what's going on in our communities. Run for city council, get on the school boards. Come on, be vocal in your communities. But the ecclesia begins in the place of prayer. So we as believers, as kingly priests, as God's ecclesia, we've been given the keys of a kingdom, authority in which to bind and loose, to forbid and allow, to close and open, to lock and unlock. Friends, do you know that this is the essence of spiritual warfare? People are so intimidated by that terminology, spiritual warfare. And it's just you exercising your authority to say, Oh, no, no, not on my watch. You cannot come here. And you exercising your authority to say, oh, I opened the gates. As a glory carrier, I opened the gates for the king of glory to come in and shift this atmosphere. And that is spiritual warfare. It's every day by the way you live. And we've been delegated governmental authority by the finished work of Christ on the cross to function every day in every situation in this way, to legislate through prayer. And it is high time that we step into our identity as the ecclesia and exercise kingly governmental authority in prayer. You know, in John chapter 16, verse 26, Jesus is speaking to the disciples. And he says, This in that day you will ask in my name. I am not saying that I will ask the Father on your behalf. And he was teaching them, you have the authority and the power of my name to come before our Heavenly Father and pray. So, yes, Jesus is our great intercessor, and he's praying for us, but he's not praying the prayers we're supposed to be praying for ourselves. You get the difference? And there are so many things in scripture that the Lord tells us to ask, like the Lord's Prayer, we ask for forgiveness, we ask for our daily bread, we ask for deliverance from temptation. He also tells us to ask for laborers for the harvest field. But there are so many more things in scripture that we he's not inviting us to ask, he's inviting us to lay hold of those things. He says, Every spiritual blessing in heavenly places I've given to you. He says, You have everything you need for life and godliness. It's yours for the taking. And he says, the kingdom of God is at hand. He also says that the kingdom of God suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. And he's looking for sons and daughters who are gonna engage in spiritual violence and say, I am taking the promises of God, and I'm gonna decree that thing into existence because it's causative, because it makes things happen. Matthew 28, 18 and 19. Then Jesus came to them and said, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go. Therefore, go. Therefore, all authority is given to you. Go in the authority I give you. In Luke 10, 19, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions, representing all of the demonic, right? And to overcome all the power of the enemy, and nothing by any means will harm you. Nothing by any means will harm you. It says you have been given authority. To overcome all the power, eunamis of the enemy. The enemy may have power, which is essentially just the ability to do things, but he cannot, he does not have authority over you. Authority is the legal right to exercise that power unless we give it to him. And we give it to him by our agreement, and we take it from him by our agreement with the Lord. Agreement with his truth, with his word, and make that our decrees. So this kind of authoritative praying is kingly or governmental intercession. And the Lord is calling us to shift from merely some of us, we we are vibrant in our prayer life, we are faithful in our prayer life, we are diligent in our prayer life, but we seem to have stayed, we seem to just camp out in priestly intercession where we worship the Lord and we soak in his presence and we we we we lift up praise and adoration to him, and it's beautiful. It's a fragrance offering, it's a beautiful, beautiful sacrifice to him. And we seem to come before the Lord in prayer in a way where we're making intercession, we're asking him, we're petitioning, we're making supplication, but we seem to camp out there and not level up into the authority that he has granted to every believer for kingly intercession. We're in agreement with him, we operate as kings in the earth, and we actually, by our words and by our decrees, we rule and we reign, we extend the kingship of Jesus and his kingdom. So it's making declarations and proclamations and decrees, and as we are prophetically inspired by the Holy Spirit to do so. See, this is key. Because our decrees can never be sourced in our own good intentions, they must be sourced in the intentions of our good heavenly Father, which Holy Spirit reveals to us. The scripture, Zechariah 6.13, about this king-priest role, says that he will be a priest on his throne, and the council of peace will be between the two offices of priest and king. The council of peace will be between the two offices. This council of peace between the two offices of priest and king is the spirit of the Lord Himself, the spirit of counsel and might. Isaiah 11 2 is where it says it names him that way. The Holy Spirit, our counselor, our advocate, our helper in prayer, who, according to Romans 8:26, helps us in the same weakness that we all share, that we don't know how to pray as we should. That maybe we stay camped out in priestly intercession in the adoration and the petitions. But we need the help of Holy Spirit to move into kingly intercession, where in God confidence and delegated authority we release decrees that shift things in the heavens and in the earth realm. I'm gonna read it to you, Romans 8, 26 to 28. And in the same way, the spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray, but pray for, but the spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for God's people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. We get so frustrated as believers because we're not seeing all things work together for our good. But verse 28 begins with the word and, which is a conjunction, tying it to the verses above it, meaning that things are not going to work together for our good if we're not leaning into the Holy Spirit, our helper in prayer, so that he can actually guide us, inspire us in praying the very will of God that he reveals to us. First Corinthians 2, 9 and 10 says, However, as it is written, what no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, these things God has prepared for those who love him. And we often stop there. But verse 10 says, These are the things God has revealed to us by his spirit. What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, what no mind has conceived. It says the Spirit of the Lord reveals them to us. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. And he is inviting you to search the depths of his heart by the leading of his Holy Spirit, so that we can receive revelation of the deep things of God, revelation of the mysteries of God, and so that we can come into agreement with his plans, with his purposes, and by prophetic decrees release them into action in the earth. Ephesians 1:20 says that God the Father raised Jesus from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this stage, but in the one to come. And he put all things in subjection under his feet and made him head over all things to the church, which is his body. He's the head, we're his body, and if all things are under his feet, that means all things are under our feet too. The fullness of him who fills all in all. And in Ephesians 2, 6, God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus. We are not under, we don't have to be under anything that is happening within this nation, within this city. He has seated us above, far above, high above, all of those things. That is our heavenly position, that is our spiritual place, and all things are under our feet. But we have to recognize that this is the reality that we live in. We have to recognize that that is the place that we're to speak and decree from. We have to recognize our positioning in relationship to all other things. Decrees cannot be made apart from earthly perspective, but they also cannot be made without the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Spirit. We've got things happening in the earth realm as a reference, but that's not our compass. The Holy Spirit is. It is appointed you over nations and over kingdoms to pluck up and break down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant. And Ezekiel 37, do you remember the valley of dry bones? It's not Ezekiel 7. I prophesied as the Lord commanded me. And the broth came into them. And they came into life and stood on their feet. And exceedingly great army. We stand before a nation that in many ways is looking like a valley of dry bones. And today he's asking you the same question. Proverbs 18, 21, death and life are in the power of the tongue. And those who love it will eat its fruit. So just as the Lord has Ezekiel when he stood before the valley of dry bones. Come on, Ezekiel. You prophesy to the bones. You can make prophetic decrees over whatever dry bone situations there are. Not just at the level of our nation, but in your personal life. So you have wider children. It's your difficulty in your marriage. To cause life to come back into them. The Lord is looking to and from throughout the earth. Looking for someone whose heart is pastored in this way so that he can show himself strong on their behalf. And he's calling the church to move from merely ministering his heart to his heart in worship and presenting our keys, our petitions before the Lord. It's time to will the sword of the Lord. It's time to take up the keys of the kingdom. The kingdom is already understanding the king of the intercession. We must agree with holy voice. And our identity in him. And I invite you to stand to your feet. There was so much more I wanted to share with you in kind of my shifting into teacher mode on principles and practical steps for releasing prophetic decrees and all those kind of things. Maybe I'll get it to you another way. But I think in the spirit of what is happening in our nation today, I think the very best thing that we can do right now is agree with the prayers that are happening in Washington, D.C. And that begins with that. And we will engage in releasing prophetic decrees. And first respond to the invitation in 2 Chronicles 7.14. If my people were called by my name, would humble themselves and pray and turn from their wicked ways. And I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land. Next verse. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place. And I prophesy to Storehouse. The next verse, I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there. And this is not just storehouse, a physical building. This is every member of this house that individually is a temple of the Holy Spirit. So can we just close our eyes and even extend your hands? Some of you may feel led by the Spirit of the Lord to kneel or prostrate yourself. But we want to begin by repenting, Lord. Because we know that this nation belongs to you, was dedicated to you at its founding. With the intent of being a city set on a hill and the light of the nations. And in so many ways we've strayed and we've fallen short. And as part of your body, your bride, your church, we humble ourselves today. And we confess that we faltered in so many ways.

SPEAKER_00 51:18

We thank you, God, for your mercy. We thank you for your grace. And we just say, We need you today.

SPEAKER_01 51:36

We need you for our personal lives. We need you for our families and our households. We need you. Heavenly Father, we need you in every area of our lives, in every area, every part of this nation. And we repent. We repent, God, for living as if we don't need you. Our spirit of independence and pride. Intellectualism that has caused us to put up walls rather than be gates for you to come on in. Father, we repent for living with divided hearts rather than allowing you to be our first love. And what's preeminent. And we repent, God, for the divisions in our nation.