SPEAKER_00: Welcome to the Lookout Weekly Podcast.
SPEAKER_00: The church at the Lookout is the old Colorado Jesus abiding in his presence, growing in his family, and living on his mission to transform the world with awe-inspiring love.
SPEAKER_00: Visit us online at the lookout.church.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, today, is today the day that you guys are praying for miracle signs and wonders?
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, so um let's start with this.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna just move this if that's okay, because that's gonna be in my way if I don't.
SPEAKER_01: All right.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna first start just with my own journey of prayer, and I kind of want to weave this morning into where you guys are at right now with miracle signs and wonders, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Um, when I I was very, very blessed to be raised by parents who love Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: My father's actually with in heaven right now, so I'm sure he loves Jesus even more because that's what you do when you're in before God and worshiping him and being aware of his amazing beauty.
SPEAKER_01: And uh, my mom is an incredible believer.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I was raised in the Catholic Church, and obviously, you know, I've there's differences of theology that I have now from then, but that does not change the fact that my parents taught me about Jesus from the womb.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't have a single memory of not being believing in Jesus because of that.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but prayer in our home was, you know, I don't know how many of you have a Catholic background, but there's a lot of ritual in the Catholic Church, you know.
SPEAKER_01: So I was used to going every Sunday kind of to the same prayers, and sometimes they would feel really alive to me, and sometimes they wouldn't.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and my mom was really great about making sure we prayed before every single meal.
SPEAKER_01: And I can still say the prayer, Bless us, O Lord, and these I guess which we're about to receive from thy bounty through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: And there were many times when that was wrote, and there are times now when I pray it.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, I pray that prayer every day now because my puppies need a little prayer before they I pray it out loud.
SPEAKER_01: Like I pray internally when I eat, but I also pray it out loud.
SPEAKER_01: Now, sometimes I'll I'll do a spontaneous prayer, but for whatever reason, God put that prayer in my spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And now, because I have a new relationship, a growing relationship, a living, alive, Holy Spirit-filled relationship, that prayer is no longer wrote.
SPEAKER_01: That prayer is filled with life.
SPEAKER_01: There's another prayer that my mom um prayed with us.
SPEAKER_01: So every night we would go to bread and um and good night, Jesus, Mary, Joseph.
SPEAKER_01: And all bless us.
SPEAKER_01: Bless all the angels and saints.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for my food, thank you for my bed, thank you for my, and it was like this rote prayer.
SPEAKER_01: But she taught us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: She taught us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And so that was part of my life growing up.
SPEAKER_01: Now, that wasn't necessarily the kind of alive prayer that we want with Jesus now, in the sense that you and I, if you're a believer in Jesus in this room, you have the Holy Spirit living inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: That's what happens when you come to know Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit takes up residence inside of you.
SPEAKER_01: So now you actually have God Himself living in you.
SPEAKER_01: You have the ability to hear his voice, and if you don't yet know how to do that, I want to encourage you, it's it when you learn how to hear God's voice, I just want to say this: it is not so much learning the mechanics of hearing his voice, it is about becoming aware of how he has already been speaking to you.
SPEAKER_01: Because you couldn't be sitting in this room if God hadn't spoken to you.
SPEAKER_01: Because whatever it was that prompted you to come this morning, that was the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And you followed that prompting to come here.
SPEAKER_01: And if you have received Jesus into your heart, well, then you heard God because it was the prompting of the Holy Spirit that came, you were from which you came to salvation.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever understanding you have of the word of God, whatever understanding you have of who he is and how he moves and all of that, that comes from the Spirit of God inside of you telling you that.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: Now he lights upon the word, okay?
SPEAKER_01: This is how God primarily speaks, but it is also in the word where he shows us many ways that he speaks.
SPEAKER_01: So now our prayer life doesn't have to be the same wrote prayers anymore, because we have this living, breathing, alive God inside of us, and we can actually pause and we can be still and we can listen and we can ask God, would you make my prayers alive?
SPEAKER_01: You know, the scriptures say in Romans 8, 34, that Jesus is constantly interceding for us before the Father.
SPEAKER_01: If you want something to meditate on when you are feeling forlorn or hopeless or discouraged, downtrodden, away from God, whatever it is that you're going through, meditate on that verse.
SPEAKER_01: Romans 8 34.
SPEAKER_01: That even when you don't have the words, even when you are feeling far apart from God, even when you do not know what to pray, your husband Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That's who he is.
SPEAKER_01: Whether we understand that or not, it's a great mystery.
SPEAKER_01: Your husband, he's also our brother, your savior, your Lord, is constantly interceding for every single one of us in the room.
SPEAKER_01: So when we don't know what to pray, it is okay to sit in his presence and know that he is praying for you.
SPEAKER_01: And when we don't know what to pray, we can ask Jesus, that same Holy Spirit who's living inside of me, who's prompting me to do all these things that I don't necessarily always know what I'm doing, but I know it's you because it's godly.
SPEAKER_01: Would you make me aware, Jesus, of what you're praying before the throne?
SPEAKER_01: Would you help me just catch some promptings of your spirit right now?
SPEAKER_01: And would you help me to agree with you in prayer, whatever it is that you are praying right now?
SPEAKER_01: So that way when we're looking at a situation that seems hopeless, right?
SPEAKER_01: We're in a job, we're stuck, we have to go there because it's the money that we need in order to pay our bills, but our boss is unkind and we don't get, we don't get along with our coworkers, and we don't understand why it is that we have to be stuck in a job that we absolutely hate and have to do.
SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is praying for you before the throne about that situation.
SPEAKER_01: And instead of looking at the, why God, why am I here?
SPEAKER_01: And how are you gonna get me out of it, and constantly focusing on the removal of pain, which is what we're all geared towards, right?
SPEAKER_01: And the head towards pleasure, a different job that I'm gonna like much better.
SPEAKER_01: Instead, we get to be in the situation with Jesus, confident that he is praying for us, and asking him to help us be aware, Jesus, would you help me know how to pray?
SPEAKER_01: And here's in my experience, if I was in that situation, which by the way, I'm not in now, but I have been before, my prayers in that season of life was something like, Lord, I don't know why you brought me to this place that I don't like working, why you brought me to a place where my boss is really unkind towards me.
SPEAKER_01: But what I do know is this that you work everything together for good.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Jesus, thank you that in this moment, even though I don't understand it, even though I have a hard time reconciling you being faithful and true and all the things that I know that you are, and yet also allowing this situation to be what it is, Jesus, I trust you because you are faithful and true.
SPEAKER_01: And I trust you that when you allow circumstances like this, it is for my good.
SPEAKER_01: Would you help me to know how in this situation you are making me more like you?
SPEAKER_01: Would you help me have my eyes awakened to whatever it is that you want to bring to death in this process of walking through this season so that I can have the new life that you bought for me on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: And when we catch prayer like this, prayer no longer becomes rote.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is not ritual that is without life.
SPEAKER_01: Prayer actually then has the breath of the Holy Spirit on it because our hearts in that posture are like, I want to be aligned with you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be with you in this.
SPEAKER_01: I want to hear and see and know how it is that you are with me in whatever it is that I'm going through.
SPEAKER_01: It changes prayer when we learn how to sit with Jesus and hear what it is that He is praying for us and get in touch.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, if you are like, gosh, that sounds amazing, but I don't really know how to hear God like that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, like that sounds to me like you're actually hearing something separate in your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes, yes.
SPEAKER_01: But did you hear how much the word of God was in my prayer?
SPEAKER_01: So when you don't, let's say, let's say you're in a position right now where you know you're not really sure that you hear God's voice.
SPEAKER_01: Well, guess what?
SPEAKER_01: We have this thing called Google that you can go to and say, Scripture, when you're feeling doubt.
SPEAKER_01: You don't even have to know the word of God anymore.
SPEAKER_01: You don't even have to look in this tiny, teeny little thing called the concordance at the very back of your book that has like hardly anything in it, and say, okay, what scripture can I go to?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what I used to have to do, right?
SPEAKER_01: When I didn't know the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Now we literally can go online and we can just type in, I'm feeling hopeless.
SPEAKER_01: Scripture for hopelessness, scripture for faith, scripture for whatever.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know what to pray, pray the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, that's not just when you don't know what to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Pray the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: Because this word is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing to bone and marrow, spirit and soul.
SPEAKER_01: And it has life.
SPEAKER_01: And when you speak the word of God over your situation, when you speak the word of God over your marriage, over your children, over your business, over your family, over your nation, over Boulder County, whatever it is that you're speaking, you are in agreement with God because it comes from his word.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And I love the charismatic church.
SPEAKER_01: I love this church.
SPEAKER_01: And by no means don't hear this as a correction because it's not, because I know you guys are steeped in the word of God, but let me just speak to the larger charismatic church.
SPEAKER_01: The larger charismatic church can err on the side of wanting to have a tangible, experiential encounter with God through which we have manifest glory come on us to the point where we feel the physical presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes it's like we feel like that is what we have to have in order to pray powerfully.
SPEAKER_01: And it is not true.
SPEAKER_01: It is not true.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Prayer is not always saturated by the divine glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my gosh, how amazing would it be if it was! And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I can only imagine how that would shift our prayer life.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: That's what it's gonna be like in heaven, because we're gonna be living in the glory.
SPEAKER_01: But we are on this side now.
SPEAKER_01: And God in his choosing, sometimes he blesses us with those amazing, beautiful, powerful, tangible.
SPEAKER_01: I know that God was here.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot deny the presence that I just felt.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we go to the Word of God and we're like, oh my gosh, here I go again.
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: I don't really feel you right now, God.
SPEAKER_01: I don't really see you right now, God.
SPEAKER_01: I don't really know how to pray, but I know that you hear me.
SPEAKER_01: I know that you are faithful.
SPEAKER_01: I know that your word says, just like Luke said, that there are golden bowls in heaven, that they are filled with the prayers of the saints, and that those golden bowls filled with the prayers of saints are incense rising before the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: If that does not tell you how valuable your prayers are, I don't know what could.
SPEAKER_01: Every single one, every single prayer is in one of those golden bowls, rising like incense before the throne of God.
SPEAKER_01: Just ponder that.
SPEAKER_01: And if you are someone who struggles with prayer life, you're in good company.
SPEAKER_01: Because if I ask that question in this room, who sometimes struggles to pray, the likelihood is every single hand would go up in this room.
SPEAKER_01: Because it isn't always something that we naturally want to do.
SPEAKER_01: And I will be the first to say when I am feeling lonely, doubtful, uh, lack of, you know, discouraged, um, looking at a hopeless situation or whatever, there are times when my soul wants to go to Netflix or YouTube, or Instagram, or Facebook, or thank God no, it's no longer shopping, because that got me into a whole heap of trouble.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because our soul is naturally geared to want to feel good.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah?
SPEAKER_01: And we have all these false comforts that we run to.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe yours weren't any of what I said, but maybe it's alcohol, you know, maybe it's golf.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's turning on football all day on Saturday.
SPEAKER_01: But that's not a problem if your prayer life is still rich with God.
SPEAKER_01: That's not a problem if you're not turning to it to fill that place in your soul that is aching and hurting.
SPEAKER_01: But when we go to any of those false comforts to avoid prayer, to avoid being with God, that is when we are missing something.
SPEAKER_01: And when those things are not only misdirected, they are sin.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this might sound strange to you, but the Lord convicted me of HTV, HGTV, watching HGTV of being a sin for me.
SPEAKER_01: Not for anybody.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because in the season when I was watching it a lot, I was doing exactly what I just said: avoiding pain, seeking that false comfort, right?
SPEAKER_01: And not only that, what it was doing as I was watching as much HGTV as I was watching is slowly over time I was becoming dissatisfied with my life because I wanted the life that I saw on the television.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah?
SPEAKER_01: And still to this day, there's an amazing program called Grand Designs that I love.
SPEAKER_01: My husband and I love architecture.
SPEAKER_01: And there are times when I can watch grand design and it's amazing, and I can celebrate it and I can enjoy it and we can talk about it and we can dream and it's not a problem.
SPEAKER_01: But there are other times when that same dissatisfaction, I can feel it rumbling in my soul.
SPEAKER_01: And I know then you can't do this right now.
SPEAKER_01: And by the way, let me lead that.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, can I go to prayer with that?
SPEAKER_01: Can you please heal the thing inside of me that thinks that having a home like that is what's going to be the end-all be all and make life okay?
SPEAKER_01: You know?
SPEAKER_01: Would you would you help me with that, Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Because I need to hear you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus himself taught us, and remember, Jesus was a man, right?
SPEAKER_01: Fully God, but fully man.
SPEAKER_01: And so when he was on the earth doing what he was called to do, he would go away to isolated places to pray.
SPEAKER_01: There, I can't even tell you the number of verses that say that.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he went up to the wilderness, he went up to the mountains, and you know what he would do?
SPEAKER_01: Like right after doing amazing miracles, on so many of them, he would treat away to be with the Father and he would pray.
SPEAKER_01: And the scripture says not only was that the place where he would retreat too, it is also where he got the fuel for life.
SPEAKER_01: Because the scripture says that he never did anything that he did not hear the father.
SPEAKER_01: He never did anything he didn't see the father doing.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't ever say anything that he didn't hear the father saying.
SPEAKER_01: So his place in prayer with Father was a place where he was receiving what the father's will was, and then he was able to live it out.
SPEAKER_01: So as you think today about miracles and signs and wonders, I don't know where you're at with that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what you believe about that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if you're like, well, I don't even know if that really happens till today.
SPEAKER_01: Or, you know, whether you're like gung-ho, hey, we're gonna go for miracles, we're gonna go for signs and wonders.
SPEAKER_01: There's some somewhere along that spectrum, they're different, you're at different places here in this room.
SPEAKER_01: Or some of you are like, oh my gosh, totally believe that God does that.
SPEAKER_01: But I don't know that he's gonna use me like that.
SPEAKER_01: They're all that stirring, right?
SPEAKER_01: I want to share something with you that God spoke to me in a very intimate time of prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I was in school of ministry, it was a many years ago, it was around 2000, yeah, 2000.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, uh tremendous time of passion and zeal and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: And I was, I remember the day I was writing in my journal, I don't want to handle the sick.
SPEAKER_01: Exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation point, exclamation, you know, I want to raise the dead, exclamation point, exclamation point, I want to, you know, open, I want to see deaf ears opened.
SPEAKER_01: 20 exclamation points after it.
SPEAKER_01: That was my journal.
SPEAKER_01: And I was so grateful because where I was going to school, they taught us to listen to God.
SPEAKER_01: They taught us about prayer that was not just one-way prayer, which is what I had known all my life.
SPEAKER_01: What I had known all my life was I pray, it goes somewhere up there in the sky.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not really sure where it goes, but I pray because that's what I was taught to do.
SPEAKER_01: And now this was different because now it was I was being taught to listen to God for what it is that he wants to say in response.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm listening to God in this moment, and this is his response to that prayer.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you to focus on that.
SPEAKER_01: Don't focus on healing the sick, raising the dead, all those things.
SPEAKER_01: Focus on me.
SPEAKER_01: Focus on who I am.
SPEAKER_01: Let me take you to the depths of intimacy with me.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not that you won't heal the sick.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that you won't raise the dead.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that you won't see the deaf ears opened.
SPEAKER_01: It's just gonna be that you're so close to me that you hear me when I say, go lay hands.
SPEAKER_01: When you hear me say rise up.
SPEAKER_01: When you hear me say blind eyes be opened.
SPEAKER_01: And you will do it because you know my promptings, because you know the intimacy of my voice.
SPEAKER_01: You will move from that place.
SPEAKER_01: So by no means, and what I'm speaking, am I saying, don't pray and intercede for faith for miracles, signs, and wonders.
SPEAKER_01: I'm encouraging you to do that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm encouraging you to do that today.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just encouraging you to put it into the place of prayer and intimacy with God and knowing that anything, that anything that God is gonna do with you, through you, whatever, he's gonna do it.
SPEAKER_01: He wants to do it from the place of his presence.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look just really quickly at Hannah.
SPEAKER_01: So, Hannah, if you know her, she's in 1 Samuel, her story is in 1 Samuel, and um she struggled with infertility.
SPEAKER_01: And um I've never struggled with that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't have children, but I I I got married later in life, so um I don't know the pain of going through actually, you know, trying to get pregnant and not being able to get pregnant.
SPEAKER_01: But her story is really intense.
SPEAKER_01: It's it's in 1 Samuel 1.
SPEAKER_01: And she sought, she was known for seeking the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: And her infertil fertility journey included being ridiculed, being laughed at, being scorned at for not being able to get pregnant.
SPEAKER_01: And it said that she was so scriptures say that she was so forlorn that she would actually stop eating.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what she did.
SPEAKER_01: She went to the temple.
SPEAKER_01: And the temple at that time was known where the host, where the presence, well it was, it wasn't just known, the presence of God was hosted in the temple.
SPEAKER_01: And so she knew in the place that she was in that she needed to go and be in the presence of God about this thing that she had been going through of infertility.
SPEAKER_01: And so she goes into the temple and she prays, and this is her prayer, it's found in 1 Samuel 1, 11.
SPEAKER_01: And the scriptures say she was deep in anguish.
SPEAKER_01: That she cried out to God and she prayed, O Lord of heaven's armies, if you look upon my sorrow and answer my prayer and give me a son, then I will give him back to you, and he will be yours for his lifetime.
SPEAKER_01: I just want to point out a couple of things.
SPEAKER_01: She didn't say, You will give me a son.
SPEAKER_01: She said, If.
SPEAKER_01: And this is so key.
SPEAKER_01: Because when we're taught to pray by Jesus, and we're going to go to this passage in just a minute, the first thing that he says is, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
SPEAKER_01: And this is a struggle for many of us.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe infertility isn't what you're going through, but for whatever it is, maybe it is that you've prayed and prayed and prayed.
SPEAKER_01: You have a son or a daughter who's gone away from the Lord and you've prayed for decades and they are not back with the Lord yet.
SPEAKER_01: You know, maybe you're praying for that new job.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what it is you're praying for.
SPEAKER_01: But she gives us this incredible model.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, she brought herself before the Lord in the pain of infertility, in the vulnerability of that, in the transparency of that, in the suffering, in the anguish.
SPEAKER_01: She came before the presence of God and she said, If you would look upon my sorrow, and if you would give me a son, I will give him back to you.
SPEAKER_01: And God answered her prayer and he opened her womb.
SPEAKER_01: And she did just as what she said.
SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
SPEAKER_01: It was there in the presence of God where she brought him back.
SPEAKER_01: And in the presence of God gave back the very thing to him that he had given to her.
SPEAKER_01: It is in the presence of God that you and I are called to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And I will confess drive-by prayers.
SPEAKER_01: And probably what I'm most famous for is like, if I'm running late, Lord, can I please get a parking spot like really fast?
SPEAKER_01: Like, you know, those are those are like pretty, pretty normal, normal drive-by prayers, right?
SPEAKER_01: And remember, the scripture doesn't have a qualification for which prayers end up in that bowl.
SPEAKER_01: It just has the prayers of the saints.
SPEAKER_01: And I just wonder, like, are the is that prayer up there?
SPEAKER_01: Because in my mind, I'm thinking it's gotta be something really good, not kind of have a parking spot.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, if you want to like watch a little bit of comedy later, check out John B.
SPEAKER_01: Christ on YouTube and watch his I'm not praying for that.
SPEAKER_01: Because it's hilarious.
SPEAKER_01: The things that we pray for, you know, the things that we pray for.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, side note.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, back on track.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Um, it's in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: We want to bring ourselves in the presence of God when we go to pray.
SPEAKER_01: That is what Jesus was teaching us in Matthew 6 when he said, Our Father who art in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: What is he, what is he saying?
SPEAKER_01: What is he telling us to do there?
SPEAKER_01: He's saying, set your gaze on the Father who is in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Look on things above, lift up who God is, put your focus there first before you go to pray.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because your prayers are going to be different when you do that.
SPEAKER_01: When you set your gaze on God, your prayers will be different.
SPEAKER_01: And when you're aware of the fact that there is this other realm that Luke was talking about, this beautiful heavenly realm that we read about in the Word of God, where things are vastly different than they are here on our fallen earth.
SPEAKER_01: It's where we can come into contact just a bit with what is happening there.
SPEAKER_01: And that is what Hannah did.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm going to share just a personal story about how this happened for me.
SPEAKER_01: Uh many years ago, I was uh sleeping, and all of a sudden I shot up out of bed and I started praying out loud for my nephew.
SPEAKER_01: And I was going back and forth between praying in tongues and praying in English, praying in tongues and playing in English for my nephew.
SPEAKER_01: I'd not been in touch with my nephew for a while and um didn't really know what was going on, but I could tell from how I was praying that I was warring for his life.
SPEAKER_01: I knew that.
SPEAKER_01: And as you can imagine, when you when you feel that intensity of the Holy Spirit doing that in you, and you love someone as much as I love my nephew, I didn't stop praying that night.
SPEAKER_01: But as I prayed, I listened.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord gave me some scripture verses.
SPEAKER_01: And at that time, he wasn't walking with the Lord, and I wasn't sure if I was supposed to send the scripture or not.
SPEAKER_01: But as I talked to the Lord, I was like, Yeah, I think I'm supposed to.
SPEAKER_01: So the next day I wake up in the morning after I go back to sleep and I text this, you know, verse to him, and he texts back.
SPEAKER_01: I cannot believe you just sent this to me.
SPEAKER_01: I've been wondering what my purpose is in life.
SPEAKER_01: And, you know, separate from what God is speaking to me, he's got his own journey, right?
SPEAKER_01: And God's been intersecting in his life in a lot of different ways that I don't know about.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't have a plan to keep doing this every day, but God decides to use me that way.
SPEAKER_01: So literally every single day he was bringing my nephew to my mind, every single day I was interceding for him, every single day as I was interceding, I was hearing just little bits of encouragement.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
SPEAKER_01: They weren't all scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Some of it was like tell him to go outside and look above the horizon and set his gaze upon the horizon and just look with hope.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God integrates our physical bodies into things like that.
SPEAKER_01: And I didn't know for sure, but what I thought was he was struggling with depression.
SPEAKER_01: God gave me things like that to say to him every day, just fresh.
SPEAKER_01: Long story, I'll make it short.
SPEAKER_01: I ended up inviting him to come and visit my husband and me when we moved to Victor, Idaho.
SPEAKER_01: He came, uh, that is where he heard the gospel for the first time.
SPEAKER_01: That is where he first said yes, even though he wasn't like fully kind of received the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And I just want to say this: he is now not only has he received the Lord, not only has he been delivered from all the stuff that had been happening where the enemy was literally battling for his physical life, he is now full of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: He is now regularly coming to Karas Bible College for conferences, he is now working at a Native American um reservation where I'm sorry if I'm saying that wrong, First Nations, I apologize.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, he's working at a First Nations um church and sewing into youth in the First Nations.
SPEAKER_01: And I am seeing him come alive in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And I still, years, this is a few years later now, I get on the phone with him and like we're talking the same language, the language that we speak in this room, and I'm like, oh my gosh, Jesus, what a miracle.
SPEAKER_01: Now, my prayers obviously not the only thing that God was sewing into his life.
SPEAKER_01: His mom was praying for him.
SPEAKER_01: His our our, you know, my group, my mother, oh my gosh, she's a prayer warrior.
SPEAKER_01: God was bringing people into his life.
SPEAKER_01: But those prayers that we pray, they are, you were saying it earlier, they are effectual.
SPEAKER_01: They are empowered by the Holy Spirit, they have the light of God on them.
SPEAKER_01: They change things, and we don't always see it right away.
SPEAKER_01: But God answers prayers.
SPEAKER_01: He answers prayers.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: So, Josh, you want to come on up?
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read in just a moment uh Matthew 6 from Matthew 6.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna read what we colloquially call the Our Father.
SPEAKER_01: And I've asked Josh to come up here just so that we can um enter into just a real place of stillness with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to talk to you just for a moment before we I read this scripture about this practice called Lectio Divina, which I believe you've taught here.
SPEAKER_01: Is that right?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: Um but for those of you who are new, Lectio Divina is an ancient Christian practice that is basically just about listening to God and listening to God very particularly through the scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: And so when we do this, um when we're Lectio Divina is a practice where we enter into reading the scripture in a way that is like slower paced, allowing the Holy Spirit to help us know the sensitivity, like what he's resting on in a moment for us.
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, there's regular Bible reading, which is not Lectio Divina.
SPEAKER_01: There's study of the Word of God, which is not Lectio Divina.
SPEAKER_01: Lectio Divina is a way of slowly, deliberately praying the scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And it's also at the same time, it is asking God to make our spiritual eyes and our spiritual ears and every other spiritual sense that we have aware of what he's lighting upon for us in that moment.
SPEAKER_01: So when I read these verses, um, they're probably familiar to some of you, but I'm gonna pray and I'm gonna ask that the Holy Spirit would make this fresh.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to encourage you to ask the Holy Spirit to make you aware of like which part of the our father is particularly highlighted to you this moment.
SPEAKER_01: And then when that happens, don't pay attention to me.
SPEAKER_01: If it's the first phrase, our father, just sit with that.
SPEAKER_01: Let just that's what Lectiodivina is being sensitive as you sense the presence of the Holy Spirit on a certain part of the scripture, and you just let your mind and let your heart and let your spirit rest in what it is that the Holy Spirit is on for you.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when you're not in a place like this, because you can feel, I can feel the peaceful presence of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes it takes actually preparing your body to enter into this because of the noise of our life and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm just gonna encourage you before we start to just get comfortable.
SPEAKER_01: And I think this is a church where you can come and lay down up at the front, I'm pretty sure.
SPEAKER_01: If you feel like doing that, feel free to do that.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to lean in the back in your chair, just however it is that you can just feel the most comfortable right now.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna give you a moment to just sit in quiet stillness with Jesus before reading.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to encourage you, just focus on who He is.
SPEAKER_01: And don't worry if in this moment all of a sudden a list starts to come to your mind of what you're gonna do after church or whatever, that's normal.
SPEAKER_01: Just it's it's normal.
SPEAKER_01: But it's almost like just kind of let it, let whatever that happens, let it just kind of float away.
SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about it.
SPEAKER_01: Just let it go to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: You have plenty of time to think about it a little bit later.
SPEAKER_01: The way that Jesus taught us to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And as I sense the presence of your Holy Spirit on just one part of these verses, I thank you that your thoughts mingle with ours.
SPEAKER_01: Your promptings come to our spirits.
SPEAKER_01: And I just pray that each person here would sense those thoughts.
SPEAKER_01: And what fresh revelation you want to give to them today from these verses.
SPEAKER_01: And lead us not into temptation.
SPEAKER_01: But deliver us from evil.
SPEAKER_01: Now, whatever phrase caught your heart's attention, just settle on that phrase.
SPEAKER_01: Hold it in your heart.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in light of the verse or phrase that the Holy Spirit is on, Father, I ask now, would you bring to each person's heart and mind something they've been praying about, something that they are really lifting up to you that you want to put your finger on in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: And God, I ask now, would you infuse prayers inside each heart right now in light of the phrase that came to their heart to really focus on?
SPEAKER_01: Let the prayers for their situation in their own lives or someone else's life who they're praying for, whatever it is, let the light that has been put on the scripture give light to that situation, to a prayer for that situation.
SPEAKER_01: Now, for some of you, this has been a long time to sit quietly like this.
SPEAKER_01: Just depends on the place that you're in.
SPEAKER_01: It doesn't always have to do with whether you've done something like this or not.
SPEAKER_01: And for some of you, you could linger here for another half hour, even an hour or longer with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Whatever it is.
SPEAKER_01: Text yourself, write a note in your phone, if you have a physical journal, write it down.
SPEAKER_01: Anything that came to you is worth remembering.
SPEAKER_01: If it came from the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And if anything that you heard lines up with the Word of God, if anything you sensed came from that place of agreeing with the Word of God, take that as being from your amazing Father.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I ask in the name of Jesus that this whole week of prayer that this wonderful church has been through will deepen their prayer life.
SPEAKER_02: To their faith for prayer.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for those who struggle with prayer.
SPEAKER_02: I pray for there to be a breakthrough this week.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that they would remember that when they don't know what to pray, that you are interceding for them before the throne of the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And that they can come and simply be in your presence and thank you for praying for them.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for those in this room who've yet to understand how to hear your voice, that they will come to know the sweet, intimate whispers of their father, their husband, their
SPEAKER_02: God, their redeemer, their friend, their comforter.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray that you would take them on an exceptional, accelerated journey of growing and sensing your promptings and knowing how to discern.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray for those who do hear your voice, I pray the same that you would grow them because there's always more.
SPEAKER_01: That you would sensitize them to your presence, all of us.
SPEAKER_01: May we all be sensitized to your presence.
SPEAKER_01: May we be aware that our very breath tells us how close you are to us.
SPEAKER_01: Because our very breath is the breath of your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: I pray that in the place of your presence is where every single one of us in this room would learn to pray.
SPEAKER_01: So that when we pray, our hearts, our adoration, our love, our devotion are focused on your face, O Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: That we would pray your will and not ours.
SPEAKER_01: Because even when it's hard to understand what's going on, you promise, you promise to be with us.
SPEAKER_01: You are faithful and you are true, and you make good things come from everything.
SPEAKER_01: Everything.
SPEAKER_01: So as people go into pray today about miracles and signs and wonders, I pray, Jesus, may they hear your heart before the throne of God, not just praying for this beautiful house of God, but also for your desire to come and bring a great awakening to our nation again.
SPEAKER_01: And we know that the scriptures tell us that it's miracles and signs and wonders that open people's eyes to who you are.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're asking, Father, we're asking for an outpouring of them.
SPEAKER_01: We're asking that you would move through this house in miracles and signs and wonders, that people would come to know you, that people would come to know the incredible power that is found in you.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray for those who have faith for that already, that you would add to their faith.
SPEAKER_01: And I pray for those who are like, I'm not even sure if that still happens today, would you take them to the Bible and show them in the Bible?
SPEAKER_01: That you're the same yesterday, today, and forever?
SPEAKER_01: That you've always been a God of miracles, that you are a God of miracles, and that you always will be.
SPEAKER_01: And that even when we don't understand, when a person dies who we prayed for, when we don't understand that, it doesn't mean that we can't have faith to pray again for someone else.
SPEAKER_01: And so I pray for people in this room who have been hurt in that regard, disappointed.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for healing to come to their heart.
SPEAKER_01: That you would give them the ability to once again hope and pray and believe.
SPEAKER_01: But I pray, Father, even as they pray for miracles and signs and wonders, they would remember that the way that you did it, Jesus, was from knowing the Father.
SPEAKER_01: And you came to show us the way to the Father.
SPEAKER_01: So it's through that place of intimacy that we learn how to sense your promptings, to do what you do, to say what you say, nothing more, nothing less.
SPEAKER_01: So I pray for that too, alongside these prayers for them to be poured out.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for the oil of intimacy to be refreshed and renewed, and for some in here to have it for the first time.
SPEAKER_01: I pray all these things in the holy, precious, sacred, beautiful, powerful, unmatched name of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: One thing I had a sense of praying for, if anybody would like some personal ministry before I came, was that, you know, for some of us, for whatever season, doesn't matter how many years we've been walking with the Lord, we can struggle to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And if that's you, we would love to pray for you for that.
SPEAKER_01: If you're a new believer um and and you're like, I don't really know much about what it is to pray, we want to pray for that too.
SPEAKER_01: If you don't know Jesus and you're in this room, I just want to say this there was a man whose name is Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And he came over 2,000 years ago because he wanted to reconcile us to himself and to the Father, because he loves us so much that he wants us to make our home in him.
SPEAKER_01: And even though sin has separated us from God, he came to make that right.
SPEAKER_01: He came and he took punishment on a cross for every sin that every person has ever committed.
SPEAKER_01: And he died on a cross so that we could not only be forgiven for our sin, but we could be reconciled in relationship to the Father, and we could have victory over the very real enemy who is still present on this earth.
SPEAKER_02: And if we