Radical Prayer | P. Lorena Gamba

Prayer is one of the most powerful practices in our spiritual life. 🙏

In Ephesians 6:18, we are encouraged to pray at all times with all kinds of prayers and requests, allowing God to lead us as we stay alert and persistent in prayer.

Prayer is not just a religious activity—it is an ongoing conversation with God.

In this message we learned:

✨ We can pray anytime and anywhere.
 ✨ There is not only one way to pray.
 ✨ Prayer helps us practice God’s presence throughout the day.
 ✨ Jesus gave us a model for prayer through the Lord’s Prayer.
 ✨ Prayer aligns our hearts with God’s will and purposes.

Prayer for the soul is like breathing for the body. 🌬️

👉 Set aside time to seek God, read His Word 📖, and pray based on Scripture.

Need Prayer?

At Mission Orlando Church, we believe God hears us and can change our lives through prayer. Our team prays every week for the needs of the church. Join us every Tuesday at 6:00 AM (ET): missionorlando.church/prayer

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Mission Orlando's podcast. We hope that through this word you will get closer to Jesus. Be sure to subscribe so we can get you new messages every week. Have a blessed day. All right, and I want to talk to you guys about radical prayer. Radical prayer. So I was very blessed to grow up in a praying church in in Colombia. My parents are from Colombia. They lead a church, a very large church, and they have many, they have hundreds of churches around the world. But, anyways, my mom used to lead prayer, and prayer over there was at 5 a.m. Hallelujah, right? So as a teenager, I was like, I wanted to sleep a little later, you know, all those things. And my mom was like, no, you gotta come to prayer with me. I had no choice. So, amen. So she would like just take me every day to church at 5 a.m. And over, you know, over here our prayers is one hour, right? Hallelujah. Can you praise God for that? I heard a pastor saying, you know how some people feel like three three hours of prayer feels like five minutes? Have you heard of that? He was like, No, it still feels like three hours for him. So, anyways, uh, but anyways, over there was three-hour prayer. So I was like, okay. The good thing is that we had a really good worship team, so we were worshiping for a long time. But man, we were transformed in our prayers because over there prayer was like fire, right? You know what I'm talking about? Fire, a lot of worship, spiritual warfare. You know, I got saved every day, I think. So I was transformed after those prayers. I was in worship, and many of those times, like the Lord even gave me some songs, some worship songs. So it was amazing. So I know what what prayer can do. You don't prayer to ask God for something, you pray for for God to transform you. Can you say amen? So you gotta you gotta practice prayer. Tell the person next to you, practice prayer. So, you know, we we we we have only 30 minutes uh a week online prayer. Um we're not gonna have it this week, but next week. So join our our our online prayer, and then you you gotta come to our in-person prayer. It's very different to our Sunday services, it's like fire. You know, we pray, we worship, it's a little bit more revived, you know, more revival, but you you gotta experience that. But besides that, you gotta practice the presence of God. Because one thing is when we're here, when we're all together, but another thing is when you have your personal prayer life. Look what Ephesians 6.18 says. It says, um pray in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. So I love it that it says pray in the spirit on all occasions. Can you say all occasions? That means that God wants you to talk to him the whole throughout the whole day, not just like in your prayer time, but throughout the whole day. And I spoke a few a few weeks ago about a little book called The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. I highly recommend it. It's very, very little. But he speaks out you could just make God part of your everyday life. Like, hey God, you know, I have kids. Sometimes I have to wake them up, they don't want to wake up. So you're like, thank you, God, help me to wake up my kids. You know, talk to him about anything. Oh God, look, I'm cooking pancakes today. Not very healthy, but here I am. I'm cooking eggs, like make them part of your everyday life and just practice the presence of God. And it says all kinds of prayer and requests. Sometimes I'm I'm in the car and the Lord would bring someone to my mind. So if the Lord brings someone to your mind, just immediately pray for him. Or you hear something, you know. A lot of times people call us and they're like, oh, look what happened to this person in church. Recently, our friend Carla, who attends our church, she recently had a baby, but she was going through some health issues. She was in the hospital. So me and my husband, we immediately prayed, stopped, and we prayed for her. And then my husband also went to the hospital and prayed for her. But it's like when you hear something, just stop. Don't just say, don't just say, Oh, I'm gonna pray for you. And then you never do it. But actually do it, actually pray. And it says at all times, there's not there's not a bad time to pray with all kinds of prayers. There are many different types of prayers. You know, if you read the book of Psalms, that's a prayer. That's a prayer. Like every psalm is a prayer. A lot of times we don't know how to pray. Just go in the book of Psalms, pray a psalm. And that it's very important to pray with the word of God and keep a running conversation with God. It's like breathing. And that's the thing. Sometimes we think like it's gotta be everything, it's gotta be spiritual. But you just gotta you you you wanna talk to God as a friend. And then we see the example of Jesus. You know, the disciples saw Jesus, saw his prayer life. It says that sometimes he would get a way to pray by himself. And they would they were curious, oh, how do you pray? Like, how do you pray for such a long time? Teach us. So in Matthew 6, we we see the Lord's prayer, and we see the disciples asking Jesus, teach us how to pray. So if you go to Matthew 6, verse 6, it says, But when, but you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your father who is in the secret place, and your father who sees in secret will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. So here the Lord is telling us to first seek Him in the secret place. And something that we we say here is pray first. Can you say that with me? Pray first. That means that you're gonna make God the first thing in your life. Obviously, after you brush your teeth, amen. So, obviously, after that, um, you want to talk to God with good breath, alright? So make sure you do that first. Make sure you also wash your face. You wanna be awake. A lot of people just wake up, they're in the dark, and they don't even turn on their lights, they don't wash your face, and they're like, oh, I don't know why I fell asleep, right? It's because you gotta be you gotta be intentional, you gotta wash your face, you gotta turn on your light and make sure you're awake. So give him your first 15 minutes if you don't have that habit. At least 15 minutes of your day. So five minutes in the word, five minutes in prayer, and five minutes in worship if you don't have the habit. It's really, really easy, it doesn't take much, but you you're just saying, God, I'm giving you my first. And then also, a lot of times we just don't know how to how to pray. You know, and uh, if you go on our website, if you go to prayer, there's some there's a booklet there, our prayer book, and it has prayer models. I love prayer models. I I use one pretty much every day. You know, there's the Psalms, there's the Lord's Prayer, the Tabernacle Prayer, many types of prayers that you could just use to pray. Because how many of you have tried to pray for more than five minutes and you you've not been able to? Right? I think we've all done it because you don't you don't have a model. But if you have a motto, then it's easier. So the Lord's Prayer is basically a motto. So let's let's read the Lord the Lord's Prayer. It's not necessarily you that you have to repeat it word by word, but you use it as a model. Um, let's read verse 8 of Matthew 6. It says, Therefore do not be like them, for your father knows the things you have need of before you ask him in this manner. Therefore, pray, our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. So today I want to use the word pray as an acrostic to be a guide for your prayer life. So if with every letter, we're gonna have learn a little step. So with the word with the letter P, you're gonna start with praise the Father. P stands for praise the Father. Can you say that with me? Praise the Father. When it says our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. It's a lot of times we just go to prayer because we need something. You want to start with a request. Oh God, I need healing for my body, I need a new job, I need my finances. You know, we all have requests and we want to start with requests. But in the Lord's Prayer, when the disciples ask Jesus to teach us how to pray, you're gonna start by praising the Father. So you're gonna start by saying, by recognizing him in adoration, in reverence, and you're gonna decide to wake up with praise and with gratitude. Praise and gratitude always go together. So always think of the things you're grateful for. Have a gratitude list. If you can write it down, think of things you're grateful for. So write it down, and it could be the same things. My my body, my health, my if you if you have a spouse, if you have a kid, if you don't have a spouse, even be grateful for that. Anything, just think about it and just pray. Like if you if you have a house, like like sometimes we take for granted the little things. You have food, many of these things we take it for granted, but just thank God about all these things. I have a gratitude journal, and it helps me to say, God, I'm grateful for this. Because a lot of times we tend to be just focused on the negative, but focus on the things that you do have, and even thank God for the things that you don't even have. And it feels good when when people thank you for things, right? Sometimes, you know, as as a parent, I have to feed my kids. Hallelujah, right? So a lot of times dinner time comes and you're like, oh my goodness, what what do I do? God help me. So cereal, there you go. You know, that's the easy thing. But a lot of times I just have rice right there in my fridge for the for the week, and then I'm like, you know, fried egg, just fried egg, put it on top of the rice, mix it. It's a Colombian thing, I know. But it's so good, you know, you mix it and it tastes so good. But it's a very simple meal, and then what you know, recently I I gave that to my kids, and at the end, uh my little boy Ezekiel, he was like, Thank you, mommy, for the rice and the egg. I'm like, oh, that's so sweet, you know, but it feels good like when kids even like they they say thank you for the little things, and you're like, okay, it took me like two minutes, and it's a very simple meal, but still they thank you. And you know, with my kids, I'm constantly trying to teach them to be grateful because a lot of times you're like, okay, we're gonna go to the park. No, we don't wanna go, we wanna stay here, you know. So as a pay, if you're a parent, you understand what I mean. And then uh recently my husband was out of town, so I got a great idea. We're gonna go to a state park and we're gonna go hiking. You know, I was so excited. And I'm like, we're gonna go hiking. They're like, no, we wanna stay here. I'm like, nope, we're gonna go, it's gonna be fun. The weather's nice, you guys are gonna have so much fun, and we're gonna walk on on a trail, it's gonna be great. Okay, eventually I had no choice, they came. And but when once we got there, they were so excited, and they were like, This is so nice, and they're like, Mom, take pic, take a picture of me here. We gotta bring daddy, and they were so excited. We walked for like an hour, and and then at the end, they were all like, Thank you, mommy, for bringing us here. We had so much fun, and I'm like, I told you so. But it feels good when people thank you, right? Even your kids or for the little things or your spouse. That's something that me and my husband we we practice. We practice saying thank you because you know he knows he has to make breakfast, right? That's his part of his responsibility. But I'm still gonna say thank you. Or if he if he's cooking lunch, I'm still gonna say thank you. And before we go to bed, I always thank him for the things he he did that day. I'm like, you're a great dad, you're a great husband, I'm so happy to be your wife. So we're constantly saying that to each other because that keeps the fire alive. But you gotta practice that with God even more. So practice that with God, and you got you wanna practice blessing the name of God. You know, God has many names, he has about a hundred names. So when it says our father, you can start calling him Abba, Abba Father. So it's like a little boy saying Abba. So you you're you're declaring you're my father. I love you so much, and then declare the other names. Jehovah Rapha is the God who heals you. So declare you're my Jehovah Rapha. Rapha, you're El Shaddai, the Almighty God, your Adonai, the Lord, your Jehovah Jirah, you're my provider, you're Jehovah Shalom, you're my peace. So you also start blessing the name of God throughout the day. So that's what the letter P, with the letter R, receive and seek his kingdom. Receive and seek his kingdom. And that's what it says. That's when it says, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Matthew 6, 10. So you you want to align yourself with God's purposes and plans for your life. And when you say your kingdom come, your will be done, you're gonna pray for his agenda first. A lot of times we're we have our lists of requests, our own list. God, you have to do this for me, and you have to change my husband, or you have to give me a husband, at least. You know, you have all this list of requests, but you're gonna pray, your will be done. Can you say that with me? Your will be done. So his agenda first. And what is God's agenda? For those who don't know the Lord yet. So this morning I had I had a prayer walk and I was praying for the city of Orlando, like, God, bring revival to the city, reach the people who don't know you yet, for this nation, pray for the U.S., for Him to keep bringing revival into the U.S., for the world, pray for missionaries, pray for new church plants. You're gonna bless those in authority, for your parents, even if they weren't good parents. The Bible says to bless and pray for your parents, for your pastors, pray for the government officials, pray for the for the president, for the for the cabinet, for pray for the judges, for the supreme court, pray for the local governments, the city council, pray for everything because those in authority, they need to have God's wisdom. And you are there to pray for them. You want to pray for for the poor, you want to pray for the church around the world, pray for the peace of Israel. You know, that's biblical. We're as Christians, we're supposed to pray for Israel. We uh something we I learned from my parents is to pray for the peace of Israel every time we take our meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner, we're constantly blessing Israel. And and pray for these things and make sure your kids also, if you if you have kids, they also know that there are many Christians around the world, there are many places that are still unreached. You know, recently we were with our friend Andrew here, Nadia's husband. And he works uh as a you know, training missionaries, right? So he was telling us that we were with my kids, and he was telling us about the persecuted church in Nigeria, and my kids were listening to that, and we were like, oh my goodness, you know, we gotta pray for for those people because there are many people who are still persecuted just for being Christians or or for uh preaching the word of God or even for carrying Bibles. So, you know, they were being killed in their churches many times. So Ezekiel heard about that, and at nighttime he's like, we were praying, we were doing our devotion. He's like, Lord, we I pray for the people the Christians in Nigeria that I learned today. I pray for them for God to help them, you know. So even teach your kids, you know, we have freedom of religion here, but there are many places where the word is still not out there, where you know, more more missionaries and more pastors and more churches are still being needed. So keep those people in mind and pray for for that for the Christians around the world. So you're praying for receiving and seeking his kingdom with the letter A, ask for his daily provision. This is the the part that we like, right? We want to start with this. Give us today our daily bread, verse 11. So God invites us to bring our needs to him. So this includes physical needs, emotional needs, spiritual strength, and right there you you recognize that everything you need comes from the Lord. So Psalm 21, verses 1 and 2, it says, I lifted my eyes to the mountains. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. So you are you realize that your provision comes from the Lord, your finances they come from the Lord. The job that you need, they come from the Lord. He's gonna help you make wise choices. He's the one who gives you favor for your job, he's the one who opens doors for you. He is your Jehovah Jirah. So you start declaring, God, my my provision comes from you. Because a lot of times you're like, I need two or three jobs, I need all this. God, what am I gonna do? But you start you start bringing your needs before Him, even if it's your health issues, you know, you you want to say, God, you are my Jehovah Rapha, you're my healer, and you start pleading the blood of God over every pain, over every disease. You start declaring that you're free from bondage. If maybe you've been struggling with depression, it maybe you've been struggling with mental health, you're saying, by the blood of Jesus, I'm free, and I in your name I declare it. And you start asking him, you ask him for peace, and then the Lord's gonna bring him to bring it to you. You know, when we moved to Orlando, it was a very tough decision we had to make because we were poor, we were both part of a of a church staff there, so that meant we had to quit our jobs and we had to move in faith, and and we were like, God, we know you're calling us, but you gotta let go of some things in order to conquer the new. Amen. So we we were like, You're our Jehovah Jairah, you're gonna provide for the church as well. We had zero money when we wanted to start this church. We just had a big dream in our hearts, and and we were like, God, you're our Jehovah Jaira, you're gonna provide for for this church, for us. And it was amazing. Well, we quit our we both quit our jobs, we moved here. The Lord started to provide through churches, through friends, through many generous people, and actually we were earning way less man, less money and seeing more. You know what I'm saying? It's like you're you you have way less income, but you see more, and the Lord was also guiding us to become better stewards as well. We we learned a lot about stewardship, but right there we were like, Wow, you're our Jehovah Jirah, and you're providing even when we don't know what's gonna happen, even if you're moving into a step of faith. So that's who God is, and then with the why, yield through forgiveness, yield through forgiveness, and it says, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. So, right there is where you confess your sins, you have that time of repentance. You you need to come before the cross every day, you need to repent from your sin every day. Today's faith is not enough for tomorrow. So you gotta come before the cross every day. And that's what the Apostle Paul said. He said he says, I died daily. So maybe you've you you had an encounter with the Lord, you repented for your sins from your sins once, but you gotta do it every day. You gotta repent from your sins every day. First John 1 9 says, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. So you confess your sins before the Lord. Maybe you've struggled you've been struggling with thoughts and pure thoughts. Maybe you've been struggling with pornography, maybe you've been struggling with gossip, maybe you've been struggling and with your finances, and you have a lot of people that you owe money to. Say, God, I come and I confess my sin before you. Help me, help me. So right there, you you confess, and you know, Jesus paid our debt. We could compare it to a man who was in serious financial trouble, and he was he just kept asking friends for more money, and until one day he he knew he had a lot of debt and there was no way out. So he kept receiving letters from all his creditors asking him to pay. And he it was very overwhelming, and he didn't know what to do until one day he received a letter, and he thought it was gonna be from one of his creditors, but that letter actually said, All your debt has been paid, and it was from someone who loved him and who paid all his debt, not because he deserved it, but because he loved him, and is it it was supernatural, and that's how God's love is. We don't deserve for him to love us, we don't deserve for him to pro to pay for our debt, but that's who Jesus is. So today could also be a day for salvation for him. Maybe you feel like you have too much sin in your life, too much debt. How could God love me? But he's the one who paid that debt for you. So that's when you ask for forgiveness, you repent before the cross, and also you says, Forgive us as we forgive other people. So we're supposed to do the same thing that Jesus did for us. Look what uh Ephesians 4 32 says, be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other just as Christ God forgave you. So when you make a decision to forgive, that's gonna bring that that burden that you have is gonna be taken away, and you're gonna be you're gonna feel so much free. It's not because they deserve your forgiveness, it's because you deserve your peace. That's why you're gonna decide to forgive. And not only not only are you gonna decide to forgive, but you're gonna bless those who have hurt you, who have persecuted you, who have spoken bad about you, because that's the Christian thing to do. Can you say amen? Amen. Give Jesus some praise today. So remember today, P stands for what? Praise the Father. R receive and seek his kingdom, a ask for his daily provision, and why yield through forgiveness. Amen. Let's all stand, lift up your hands, and say thank you, Jesus, because we decide today to go and be radical like Jesus. We want to have a prayer life just like you had, Lord, because you're our model, Lord. We want to go into the secret place. Nobody's watching us, just you. It's not something we can post on social media, but it's just me and my heavenly father having a time together, Lord. Help me to go in my prayer life, help me to pray for others, Lord. I want to praise you in the morning. I want to declare the goodness of God. I want to say how good you are to me, Lord. I want to say you're my Jehovah Rapha. I want to say you're my Jehovah Jaira. I want to say you are my peace, God. You are everything to me. I want to bless your name throughout the day, Lord. I want to call you Abba Father. I want to call you, Lord, my father, Lord, who who provides for me, Lord. Thank you, Lord, because I pray your agenda first. Your kingdom come, Lord. I want to ask for my daily needs, Lord, because you already know my needs even before I tell them to you, Lord. I want to ask for forgiveness, Lord. And and if you need to come before the Lord, perhaps there's sin in your life, perhaps there's something you need to confess. You know, it says the Holy Spirit is the only one who can bring conviction of sin. It's not a man, but it's the Holy Spirit putting it in you. So today, even if you have to come before the Lord and confess that sin, confess that struggle, maybe it's a friend, a thought, maybe it's even an addiction. Say, God, I want to confess it before you, and I I admit that I need your help, Lord. Thank you, Lord. And I also want to forgive others, Lord. Maybe those who have spoken bad about me, who've hurt me, who've abused me, Lord. I choose, Father, to forgive, Lord. Help me to have a prayer life, Father. I want to be more and more like you. Thank you, Jesus. And perhaps this is your first time here and you've never given that step to give your heart to Jesus. I want to extend that invitation for you to invite Jesus to be the Lord and Savior of your life. So, with the whole church, if you could just put your hand over your heart and repeat after me and say, Lord Jesus, I accept you into my life as my Lord and Savior. Forgive me for my sin. Write my name in the book of life. I want to know you as a friend and start a relationship with you. In your name I pray. Amen. Amen. Can you praise Jesus today? Thanks so much for tuning in. We hope this message blessed you greatly. We encourage you to subscribe and share it with your friends. For more content from our church, visit Mission Orlando Church.com.