1 00:00:01,160 --> 00:00:05,080 We are one church. We love God, love people, love 2 00:00:05,080 --> 00:00:07,000 His mission, and love His church. 3 00:00:07,520 --> 00:00:09,560 Welcome to the One Church podcast. 4 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:19,560 Over September, across all of the One Church sites, all of us 5 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:22,200 will have the opportunity to hear a message in a series that 6 00:00:22,200 --> 00:00:24,080 we've called the People of Power. 7 00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:26,680 There are two main purposes to this series. 8 00:00:27,080 --> 00:00:29,800 One, to clearly restate some aspects of who we are as a 9 00:00:29,800 --> 00:00:34,400 church, that we are people of power and that we want to be 10 00:00:34,400 --> 00:00:37,360 that more as a house. And secondly, to practically 11 00:00:37,360 --> 00:00:42,000 equip and to train people of power who know their God, are 12 00:00:42,000 --> 00:00:45,800 strong and do exploits, as it says in the book of Daniel, to 13 00:00:45,800 --> 00:00:49,920 be ready for what's here now and also for what is to come for the 14 00:00:49,920 --> 00:00:52,760 move of God that we believe is coming. 15 00:00:53,440 --> 00:00:55,920 So why train again? Because this is a bit of a 16 00:00:55,920 --> 00:00:59,320 training sort of series. Well, we're remembering Jonathan 17 00:00:59,320 --> 00:01:02,600 Conrath, who came back in May and did some missions with us. 18 00:01:02,600 --> 00:01:05,160 You remember him. He met with us as well as 19 00:01:05,160 --> 00:01:06,920 leaders. And on that morning when we had 20 00:01:06,920 --> 00:01:09,680 some training as leaders, he gave us some powerful prophetic 21 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:11,640 statements. This is just a quote from one of 22 00:01:11,640 --> 00:01:13,880 them. He said this is what he believed 23 00:01:13,880 --> 00:01:15,240 God was saying to us as a church. 24 00:01:15,240 --> 00:01:18,280 He said one church will see waves of salvation, waves of 25 00:01:18,280 --> 00:01:22,200 conviction, waves of miracles, waves of prodigals, and you'll 26 00:01:22,200 --> 00:01:23,760 have a heart to restore the fallen. 27 00:01:23,760 --> 00:01:28,360 So call people to follow Christ, not just to be saved, but make 28 00:01:28,400 --> 00:01:31,000 disciples. He said from one church, many 29 00:01:31,000 --> 00:01:32,640 will go. This is going to be a sending 30 00:01:32,640 --> 00:01:35,200 house again. These are accelerated days. 31 00:01:35,200 --> 00:01:38,240 So train, train, train. And he said train people not 32 00:01:38,240 --> 00:01:40,080 just a course, but even on a Sunday. 33 00:01:40,080 --> 00:01:42,960 So this is what we're doing. Your willingness to equip and 34 00:01:42,960 --> 00:01:45,720 train the whole body will determine what I do with you. 35 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:48,840 Or it can't be sustained. But if you do, the fire will be 36 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:51,800 carried and rivers of living water will flow out of you. 37 00:01:52,080 --> 00:01:54,320 So if that doesn't get your heart going first thing in the 38 00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:55,880 morning, then I don't know what will. 39 00:01:56,240 --> 00:01:58,720 And in these key weeks, we've looked at the power of surrender 40 00:01:58,920 --> 00:02:03,920 back on OC together a few weeks ago, where David encouraged us 41 00:02:03,920 --> 00:02:07,600 to lay our lives down again. And we brought all the aspects 42 00:02:07,600 --> 00:02:09,520 of one church to the table. Do you remember? 43 00:02:09,720 --> 00:02:12,680 We had a table at the front and we were saying we want our 44 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:15,080 church to be an altar, not a stage. 45 00:02:15,080 --> 00:02:17,120 We want to build an altar for you. 46 00:02:17,120 --> 00:02:20,160 God lay everything down. We talked about the power of 47 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:21,360 giving. We had that inspirational 48 00:02:21,360 --> 00:02:24,760 message from our finance team a couple of weeks ago, again, 49 00:02:24,760 --> 00:02:27,640 really about the altar of our hearts and what that means for 50 00:02:27,640 --> 00:02:30,600 our lives and our money. The power of miracles. 51 00:02:30,840 --> 00:02:34,160 And that we are all encouraged to pray for miracles in our own 52 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:36,440 lives and also in the lives of people around us. 53 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:40,000 And we're also going to talk about the power of family, just 54 00:02:40,000 --> 00:02:43,880 to restate some of our values as a church and how we can be part 55 00:02:43,880 --> 00:02:45,640 of that. That's coming next week. 56 00:02:45,640 --> 00:02:49,000 But this week we're talking about the power of prayer. 57 00:02:49,160 --> 00:02:52,600 Yes, because none of that is going to happen without prayer. 58 00:02:53,200 --> 00:02:55,640 So by the end of September, we should all be fully in there. 59 00:02:55,760 --> 00:02:59,360 Yes, fully ready to go fully pilgrims on this journey 60 00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:01,960 together. So the power of prayer. 61 00:03:01,960 --> 00:03:04,600 Well, statistics would say that wherever you are in this room, 62 00:03:04,600 --> 00:03:08,320 even if you're not yet a Jesus follower, you've probably prayed 63 00:03:08,760 --> 00:03:12,960 quite likely very regularly and quite likely recently. 64 00:03:13,600 --> 00:03:15,680 So what is prayer? Well, prayer is what we were 65 00:03:15,680 --> 00:03:17,880 made for. It's connection with our 66 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:22,720 Creator, deliberate connection. For me, I was thinking prayer is 67 00:03:22,720 --> 00:03:25,160 really my life. I, you know, because prayer is 68 00:03:25,160 --> 00:03:29,680 such a big part of now who I am since I became a Christian. 69 00:03:29,680 --> 00:03:32,560 And it's far more than just a quiet time, just a devotion 70 00:03:32,560 --> 00:03:36,880 time, One church and prayer. We think about us as a church. 71 00:03:37,160 --> 00:03:39,400 It's our breath. Our church is built on prayer. 72 00:03:39,600 --> 00:03:42,200 I was thinking about how many prayers have been prayed in this 73 00:03:42,200 --> 00:03:45,480 building, in the building we used to own over in high fields 74 00:03:45,480 --> 00:03:48,920 in other places where we've met as church to pray, in small 75 00:03:48,920 --> 00:03:52,000 groups to pray and so on. Thinking about how many prayers 76 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:54,520 have gone into the ground. And they're all like seeds. 77 00:03:55,440 --> 00:03:57,120 Some of them have already borne fruit. 78 00:03:57,200 --> 00:04:00,080 Some of them are yet to bear fruit, but they're all there 79 00:04:00,080 --> 00:04:02,280 waiting for the rain to cause them to sprout and to grow. 80 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:04,840 Not one prayer that we've prayed has been wasted. 81 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:08,840 And all of them have been heard. And our church is the people who 82 00:04:08,840 --> 00:04:10,160 are part of the church. Yes. 83 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:13,200 We're not the building. So we're all part of this. 84 00:04:13,200 --> 00:04:17,320 We're all part of this. So I wonder today, are our lives 85 00:04:17,320 --> 00:04:20,839 built on prayer? Do we really understand the 86 00:04:20,839 --> 00:04:25,240 power of prayer? Because people say that prayer 87 00:04:25,240 --> 00:04:29,520 has power, but actually that's not exactly true because it's 88 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:33,240 God who has power, isn't it? God has power, but through 89 00:04:33,240 --> 00:04:37,040 prayer we access the power of God and that power is released 90 00:04:37,040 --> 00:04:41,800 to work for us and through us on this earth to bring his purposes 91 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:45,720 to be to bring in his Kingdom. So if you want to see him break 92 00:04:45,720 --> 00:04:50,560 into this city, into love for up the road into our county, do you 93 00:04:50,560 --> 00:04:51,920 want that? Do you want to see him break 94 00:04:51,920 --> 00:04:54,560 into the area around this site here? 95 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:57,160 Do you want to see him break into your neighbours lives? 96 00:04:57,160 --> 00:05:00,200 Do you want to see him break into your work colleagues lives, 97 00:05:00,200 --> 00:05:04,360 your friends, your family? Our nation is in desperate need 98 00:05:04,680 --> 00:05:07,800 of God, Yes, and the world is in desperate need of God. 99 00:05:07,800 --> 00:05:11,160 All the suffering and the pain that we see on our TV screens. 100 00:05:11,160 --> 00:05:13,880 Well, the first thought of call is to pray. 101 00:05:14,560 --> 00:05:18,640 The Bible is full of prayer. Jesus wove prayer through every 102 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:22,640 aspect of his life, but we're going to look at 1 main key 103 00:05:22,640 --> 00:05:25,960 passage today and just pull out of it, use it as a bit of a 104 00:05:25,960 --> 00:05:29,080 springboard to answer some questions that we might have 105 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:32,960 about prayer. So here we go, James letter, 106 00:05:32,960 --> 00:05:37,200 chapter 5. Is anyone among you in trouble? 107 00:05:37,520 --> 00:05:39,880 Let them pray. Is anyone happy? 108 00:05:40,280 --> 00:05:43,240 Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone among you? 109 00:05:43,280 --> 00:05:46,160 I'll let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and 110 00:05:46,160 --> 00:05:48,160 anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. 111 00:05:48,560 --> 00:05:51,480 And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well. 112 00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:54,600 The Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will 113 00:05:54,600 --> 00:05:57,120 be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to 114 00:05:57,120 --> 00:05:59,920 each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. 115 00:06:00,320 --> 00:06:04,000 The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 116 00:06:04,640 --> 00:06:07,160 Elijah was a human being even as we are. 117 00:06:07,560 --> 00:06:09,920 That's Elijah, the Old Testament prophet. 118 00:06:10,720 --> 00:06:13,200 He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not 119 00:06:13,200 --> 00:06:15,160 rain on the land for 3 1/2 years. 120 00:06:15,400 --> 00:06:18,320 Again, he prayed and the heavens gave rain and the earth produced 121 00:06:18,320 --> 00:06:21,360 its crops. So just a quick word about those 122 00:06:21,400 --> 00:06:23,720 last couple of verses about Elijah. 123 00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:28,920 We read of Elijah and 1 Kings 18 particularly where he prophesied 124 00:06:28,920 --> 00:06:32,200 as a prophet to the nation of Israel who prophesied that there 125 00:06:32,200 --> 00:06:34,320 would be a great drought and that happened. 126 00:06:34,560 --> 00:06:36,960 And then he tells the king that it's going to rain. 127 00:06:37,840 --> 00:06:41,160 And it says in that chapter, there's the sound of heavy rain. 128 00:06:41,360 --> 00:06:44,120 Elijah climbed to the top of Mount Carmel, bent down to the 129 00:06:44,120 --> 00:06:46,400 ground and put his face between his knees. 130 00:06:46,440 --> 00:06:48,360 That's the posture of childbirth. 131 00:06:48,360 --> 00:06:51,240 So he was like birthing something in the spirit. 132 00:06:51,440 --> 00:06:54,120 He said, go and look towards the sea to his servant. 133 00:06:54,120 --> 00:06:56,400 And his servant went and looked. There's nothing there. 134 00:06:56,400 --> 00:06:58,920 He said seven times Elijah said go back. 135 00:06:58,920 --> 00:07:02,040 And the 7th time the servant reported a cloud as small as a 136 00:07:02,040 --> 00:07:04,880 man's hand is coming. He's rising from the sea. 137 00:07:05,320 --> 00:07:08,640 And the sky grew black with clouds and the wind rose and a 138 00:07:08,640 --> 00:07:13,040 heavy rainstorm came on. Now, interestingly, several 139 00:07:13,040 --> 00:07:16,560 people over the life of one church across all the sites have 140 00:07:16,560 --> 00:07:19,320 preached into those verses over the last few weeks. 141 00:07:19,680 --> 00:07:22,520 And we just believe that we're seeing a cloud like a little 142 00:07:22,520 --> 00:07:25,520 man's hand, people coming to Jesus. 143 00:07:25,520 --> 00:07:29,640 There is a move happening in our nation, in the world. 144 00:07:30,120 --> 00:07:32,560 But if we're to see more of what we're beginning to see, then we 145 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:36,680 need to know more of the practise of the power of prayer. 146 00:07:37,160 --> 00:07:40,960 And we believe that the rains will come, that we will see a 147 00:07:40,960 --> 00:07:44,280 mighty harvest. When the Holy Spirit was poured 148 00:07:44,280 --> 00:07:47,800 out on the church about the days before, then the, the, the early 149 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:49,680 Christians were sort of soaked in prayer. 150 00:07:50,120 --> 00:07:52,560 They were like soaked, if you like, ready for the fire to 151 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:55,960 come, just like you maybe soak your briquettes of on for your 152 00:07:55,960 --> 00:07:58,720 BBQ with whatever you soak them with. 153 00:07:58,720 --> 00:08:02,720 I don't know spirit or something for the for the fire to come, 154 00:08:02,720 --> 00:08:07,360 for the fire to to take. Pete Gregg of 24/7 Prayer said 155 00:08:07,360 --> 00:08:11,080 recently the hinge of history has always been the bended knee. 156 00:08:11,600 --> 00:08:15,600 So how will we respond at this key moment in our history? 157 00:08:16,160 --> 00:08:20,000 Revival always starts in prayer and it always gives birth to 158 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:24,200 prayer and through birth we are sent and we are mobilised. 159 00:08:24,840 --> 00:08:27,600 We think of John Wesley. This isn't all just about 160 00:08:27,600 --> 00:08:30,360 sitting in a room and just loving God and he loves us. 161 00:08:30,360 --> 00:08:34,200 That is a very important, but it's also about being sent out 162 00:08:34,200 --> 00:08:37,200 of that room. John Wesley, a man of God, 163 00:08:37,520 --> 00:08:40,360 strangely warmed. It says in his, in his diary, he 164 00:08:40,360 --> 00:08:42,480 said I had a night where I was strangely warmed. 165 00:08:42,720 --> 00:08:45,400 He had another night where he says he laid on the floor under 166 00:08:45,400 --> 00:08:48,200 the power of a God. This is when it was maybe not so 167 00:08:48,200 --> 00:08:51,800 usual in the circles that he moved in, but he didn't stay on 168 00:08:51,800 --> 00:08:54,840 the floor. He got up on his horse and he 169 00:08:54,920 --> 00:08:59,320 rode thousands of miles all around the UK planting little 170 00:08:59,320 --> 00:09:01,680 churches. You'll see Methodists because he 171 00:09:01,680 --> 00:09:03,920 founded the Methodist movement, because they were called 172 00:09:04,240 --> 00:09:07,280 Methodists because they had a method for helping people to be 173 00:09:07,280 --> 00:09:08,680 discipled. Well, that's what we want to 174 00:09:08,680 --> 00:09:10,320 have in the life of one church too. 175 00:09:11,440 --> 00:09:14,640 And you'll see these little Methodist chapels because he 176 00:09:14,640 --> 00:09:17,680 planted so many all around the country. 177 00:09:18,800 --> 00:09:22,000 Prayer accesses God's power and we need to pray. 178 00:09:22,680 --> 00:09:24,960 We need to pray now like never before. 179 00:09:25,080 --> 00:09:28,480 If we're to ride this way, then it's all of us being ready, Yes. 180 00:09:29,160 --> 00:09:31,240 So we're just going to have a wide-ranging look of prayer. 181 00:09:32,200 --> 00:09:34,920 Look at prayer, the power of prayer from this passage, but 182 00:09:35,000 --> 00:09:36,600 sort of quite loosely from this passage. 183 00:09:36,600 --> 00:09:40,080 It's not exactly an exposition of it, but just to build this up 184 00:09:40,360 --> 00:09:43,040 to have a bit of practical training on how we pray for each 185 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:46,360 other in the life of one church, just to equip us all. 186 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:49,000 So here we go. Some questions from this 187 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:50,360 passage. Then why pray? 188 00:09:50,360 --> 00:09:53,880 First of all, why pray if you just look at the whole of the 189 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:56,440 passage, it, it says quite a lot to us. 190 00:09:56,440 --> 00:09:58,520 It says we pray because we want to praise God. 191 00:09:59,080 --> 00:10:01,760 It says, you know, is anybody happy then sing songs of praise 192 00:10:02,400 --> 00:10:04,520 all creation praises God. You know that. 193 00:10:05,200 --> 00:10:07,000 So when you walk out in creation. 194 00:10:07,000 --> 00:10:09,680 We walked out with the grandchildren last Monday after 195 00:10:09,680 --> 00:10:13,440 it had been so windy found a horse chestnut tree and they 196 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:17,480 were I'd never seen so many conquers just amazing abundance 197 00:10:17,480 --> 00:10:19,800 of God's creation. We, they, they were wearing 198 00:10:19,800 --> 00:10:23,360 their hoodies, the big hoodie things and they filled the 199 00:10:23,360 --> 00:10:27,040 pockets and filled the hoods with, with conquers and they're 200 00:10:27,040 --> 00:10:28,760 now in these big baskets in our lounge. 201 00:10:28,760 --> 00:10:33,360 We cook with so many Creation praises God, but creation 202 00:10:33,360 --> 00:10:35,240 praises God without having a choice. 203 00:10:35,920 --> 00:10:39,280 We're the only ones in all of creation who can praise God 204 00:10:39,280 --> 00:10:42,560 because we choose to praise God and we need to be sane to our 205 00:10:42,560 --> 00:10:45,160 soul. Praise the Lord, Oh my soul like 206 00:10:45,160 --> 00:10:47,840 it says in the Psalms. Praise the Lord, Oh my soul 207 00:10:47,840 --> 00:10:51,360 because he is worthy. We pray because we want to thank 208 00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:53,480 God. We've got to 1,000,000 reasons 209 00:10:53,480 --> 00:10:56,600 to thank him today, small and large. 210 00:10:56,600 --> 00:11:00,080 And what a way to live with an attitude of gratitude. 211 00:11:00,440 --> 00:11:02,760 There's so many verses in the Bible about overflowing with 212 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:05,280 thankfulness, being full of thankfulness, praying with 213 00:11:05,280 --> 00:11:08,600 thankfulness. We had a an afternoon a few 214 00:11:08,600 --> 00:11:13,160 weeks ago with two lovely senior ladies, both in their late 80s, 215 00:11:13,160 --> 00:11:15,520 early 90s. We had a little cream tea 216 00:11:15,520 --> 00:11:19,480 together and the conversation flowed so easily because these 217 00:11:19,480 --> 00:11:22,360 ladies are, although they're getting older, they are full of 218 00:11:22,360 --> 00:11:24,600 vibrant faith. They're still thankful. 219 00:11:24,760 --> 00:11:27,400 They're still outward focused. They're looking ahead towards 220 00:11:27,400 --> 00:11:30,760 eternity, not with dread, but with excitement. 221 00:11:31,240 --> 00:11:34,160 They are looking back on their lives with gratitude. 222 00:11:34,800 --> 00:11:37,080 And it just was so easy to talk to them. 223 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:39,160 And what what about us aiming to be like that? 224 00:11:39,160 --> 00:11:41,360 Having an attitude of gratitude in our life? 225 00:11:42,360 --> 00:11:45,400 We pray because we need help. If you look through the Psalms, 226 00:11:45,720 --> 00:11:48,520 our great book of prayers and songs in the Bible, in the 227 00:11:48,520 --> 00:11:51,680 middle of our Bible, you'll see that quite a few of the Psalms 228 00:11:51,800 --> 00:11:54,760 have basically one bottom line, and that is help. 229 00:11:55,600 --> 00:12:00,680 You know, help me. If we need help, then let's look 230 00:12:00,680 --> 00:12:03,200 up. Let's turn it into prayer. 231 00:12:04,240 --> 00:12:05,920 We pray because we need forgiveness. 232 00:12:06,280 --> 00:12:09,880 This is a constant need. Maturity means asking 233 00:12:09,880 --> 00:12:12,360 forgiveness and allowing God to change us. 234 00:12:13,440 --> 00:12:16,520 It's a process of being changed to me, more like Jesus. 235 00:12:17,000 --> 00:12:19,440 One of the Find Your Voice preachers over the summer 236 00:12:19,800 --> 00:12:23,080 preached a message about moving from give me saying to God, give 237 00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:27,760 me this, give me this to change me, make me, make me different. 238 00:12:28,400 --> 00:12:30,560 And that's a process. And it involves also asking 239 00:12:30,560 --> 00:12:33,640 forgiveness. What about we pray because we 240 00:12:33,640 --> 00:12:36,400 need God. We need him. 241 00:12:37,160 --> 00:12:39,720 You know, if God withdrew his hand from our lives, we couldn't 242 00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:42,200 even breathe. We wouldn't even be here, would 243 00:12:42,200 --> 00:12:44,160 we? We would not, we would not 244 00:12:44,160 --> 00:12:46,640 exist. We don't realise how much we 245 00:12:46,640 --> 00:12:52,080 need God every moment we we pray because we know we need him. 246 00:12:52,760 --> 00:12:56,800 We had a a minister new to leading a church in our city 247 00:12:57,440 --> 00:13:01,440 came into our staff prayer a week ago and we said, how can we 248 00:13:01,440 --> 00:13:03,040 pray for you? And one of the things he said 249 00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:06,240 was well, I know I can't do this without God. 250 00:13:07,680 --> 00:13:11,120 And we thought, well, what a great healthy place to be and 251 00:13:11,120 --> 00:13:14,480 how many times do we need to say and how many times do we say, 252 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:16,840 well Lord, I need you, I need you. 253 00:13:17,320 --> 00:13:18,680 You might want to say that right now. 254 00:13:18,680 --> 00:13:22,520 I can't do this myself. We need miracles. 255 00:13:22,520 --> 00:13:23,960 So we pray because we need miracles. 256 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:27,520 I think the last week we need a demonstration of the power of 257 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:28,640 God. We need a demonstration of 258 00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:32,640 something that is not easily explained just in worldly terms. 259 00:13:33,360 --> 00:13:35,520 We need those sudden breakthroughs and we need those 260 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:39,920 longer term miracles. We've been praying a lot in our 261 00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:43,720 Friday Zoom prayer and in different contexts, praying for 262 00:13:43,720 --> 00:13:46,560 Pete and Barbie Reynolds, who used to be part of All Nations 263 00:13:46,560 --> 00:13:50,880 Church many years ago, who were held captive in Afghanistan. 264 00:13:50,880 --> 00:13:53,240 I don't know if you saw the news this week, but this week they 265 00:13:53,240 --> 00:13:56,920 were released and reunited with their family and it was like top 266 00:13:56,920 --> 00:13:59,520 headline on the BBC News I think on Thursday. 267 00:14:00,320 --> 00:14:03,720 Big and small miracles. I was thinking how many miracles 268 00:14:03,720 --> 00:14:06,760 I've seen just walking around the golf course on the Thursday 269 00:14:06,760 --> 00:14:10,080 morning, talking on the phone and praying on the phone with a 270 00:14:10,080 --> 00:14:13,680 friend of mine. How many miracles we've seen of 271 00:14:13,680 --> 00:14:17,360 healing of families in our families. 272 00:14:17,560 --> 00:14:19,360 We've seen weddings. We've seen changes in 273 00:14:19,360 --> 00:14:23,440 circumstances, lives lifted up, people giving guidance, help, 274 00:14:24,160 --> 00:14:28,120 and all because of just 1/2 hour prayer on a Thursday morning 275 00:14:28,560 --> 00:14:31,520 once a week. You know, we need everyday 276 00:14:31,520 --> 00:14:35,880 bread, so we pray daily needs. Jesus said give us this day Our 277 00:14:35,880 --> 00:14:37,640 Daily Bread. I wonder what you need today. 278 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:39,400 Well, just thank him. Just say Lord, you're my 279 00:14:39,400 --> 00:14:41,240 shepherd. You say I have everything I 280 00:14:41,240 --> 00:14:43,480 need. So I thank you for that. 281 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:46,480 So prayer is our breath. Prayer changes things and prayer 282 00:14:46,480 --> 00:14:49,400 changes us as well. So that's why. 283 00:14:49,400 --> 00:14:53,000 But what about when to pray? Well, again, there's clues here 284 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:55,280 in James 5. Is anyone in trouble? 285 00:14:55,320 --> 00:14:58,240 Is anyone happy? Is anyone I'll the answer to all 286 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:01,200 that is then. Well, yes, and pray is has 287 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:02,760 anyone's sin, they'll be forgiven. 288 00:15:03,640 --> 00:15:05,640 Do you need a miracle like Elijah prayed for? 289 00:15:05,640 --> 00:15:07,280 Who? Pray for no rain, then rain. 290 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:10,440 So we pray basically when we're in trouble, when we're happy, 291 00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:12,880 when we're sick, when we need forgiveness, when we need a 292 00:15:12,880 --> 00:15:15,520 miracle. In other words, we pray at all 293 00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:20,680 times because whether we realise it or not, at all times we need 294 00:15:20,680 --> 00:15:24,320 God's intervention. Rejoice always, says 1 295 00:15:24,320 --> 00:15:26,640 Thessalonians. Pray continually, give thanks in 296 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:29,480 all circumstances, for this is God's will for you. 297 00:15:29,480 --> 00:15:31,480 If you're looking for God's will for your life, well, there's a 298 00:15:31,480 --> 00:15:34,400 good start. Don't be anxious about anything, 299 00:15:34,400 --> 00:15:36,960 but in every situation, by prayer and petition with 300 00:15:36,960 --> 00:15:40,600 Thanksgiving, present your requests to God in every 301 00:15:40,600 --> 00:15:46,360 situation, says Paul, we pray. I found this lovely quote from 302 00:15:46,360 --> 00:15:49,400 Tom Wright in his book New Testament Prayer for Everyone. 303 00:15:49,960 --> 00:15:54,040 Prayer isn't just one thing amongst many, it's like a secret 304 00:15:54,040 --> 00:15:57,840 stream flowing along unseen, refreshing everything else we do 305 00:15:57,840 --> 00:16:01,400 and making things happen in ways we can't understand and often 306 00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:05,400 don't even expect, but which prove themselves real time and 307 00:16:05,400 --> 00:16:09,400 time again. When Paul writes pray 308 00:16:09,480 --> 00:16:12,080 continually all the time, he's not being prayer. 309 00:16:12,080 --> 00:16:15,040 It's just something we do because all of us have lives, 310 00:16:15,040 --> 00:16:17,000 don't we? So if you work in an office, you 311 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:20,280 can't just literally spend all your time just on your knees by 312 00:16:20,280 --> 00:16:22,240 your computer because you'd pretty soon get the get the 313 00:16:22,240 --> 00:16:24,280 sack, wouldn't you? Because, you know, you're not 314 00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:27,120 actually doing your work. But is it possible to pray 315 00:16:27,560 --> 00:16:31,200 continually? Well, I read the other day this 316 00:16:31,200 --> 00:16:33,320 fact about our brain, so this is interesting. 317 00:16:33,680 --> 00:16:37,360 The average person can speak about 150 words a minute, but 318 00:16:37,360 --> 00:16:40,960 the average mind can understand about 350 words a minute. 319 00:16:41,760 --> 00:16:46,200 So that's a 200 word per minute boredom factor just there. 320 00:16:47,200 --> 00:16:49,960 Which means that you can certainly talk to God even while 321 00:16:49,960 --> 00:16:53,240 you're talking to somebody else or doing something else at the 322 00:16:53,240 --> 00:16:57,720 same time, sort of underlying an underlying river and current of 323 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:01,040 connection with God, which might not be words, but sometimes 324 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:03,440 would burst into words. So pray about everything. 325 00:17:03,440 --> 00:17:07,160 Maintain a running conversation, develop A2 track mind if you 326 00:17:07,160 --> 00:17:10,079 like. Pray continually, and what 327 00:17:10,079 --> 00:17:14,520 happens then when we pray what we see here, we see that when we 328 00:17:14,520 --> 00:17:16,920 pray, we get help, we get answers, we get joy, we get 329 00:17:16,920 --> 00:17:19,839 healing, we get forgiveness, we get miracles, and His Kingdom 330 00:17:19,839 --> 00:17:23,079 comes. And in this passage, all the 331 00:17:23,079 --> 00:17:27,240 words, all the many words lead to a central sentence. 332 00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:32,880 The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. 333 00:17:33,800 --> 00:17:36,000 Powerful and effective. I think the new Living 334 00:17:36,000 --> 00:17:39,840 Translation says it's powerful and produces wonderful results. 335 00:17:40,840 --> 00:17:44,040 You might say, well, that's a righteous person. 336 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:47,160 If you're that way inclined, this is might be where your mind 337 00:17:47,160 --> 00:17:49,560 goes. But I'm not righteous, so maybe 338 00:17:49,560 --> 00:17:53,560 God doesn't hear my prayers or not as much as that person. 339 00:17:54,320 --> 00:17:57,480 It's not to do with that because if we're in Christ, then we are 340 00:17:57,480 --> 00:17:59,840 righteous. We may have been a Christian one 341 00:17:59,840 --> 00:18:04,160 day and we have this immediate access into the presence of God. 342 00:18:04,160 --> 00:18:07,520 And, and, and even if you are not yet a Christian, when you 343 00:18:07,520 --> 00:18:11,000 call to God, he will answer you. He will answer you because he 344 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:14,160 always hears the cry he's looking out for and listening 345 00:18:14,160 --> 00:18:18,280 out for our cry to him. So have faith, your prayers and 346 00:18:18,280 --> 00:18:21,240 making a difference. Now, I could give you an example 347 00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:23,120 because we're talking about miracles as well a little bit 348 00:18:23,120 --> 00:18:25,960 today of a miracle from a long way away somewhere else. 349 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:28,720 But here's just a couple of quiet ones from the last few 350 00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:32,640 weeks in the life of one church. I got a message from a lady 351 00:18:32,640 --> 00:18:36,360 called Sarah who's part of Northside and she's been unable 352 00:18:36,360 --> 00:18:39,480 to attend for quite a little while because she's had some 353 00:18:39,480 --> 00:18:41,920 serious mobility issues really to do with her knee. 354 00:18:42,520 --> 00:18:45,920 Now she's just had surgery a couple of months ago. 355 00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:48,560 Before the surgery, all the consultant teams, this is her 356 00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:50,880 own words. And the surgeon seen a growth 357 00:18:50,880 --> 00:18:53,920 within the knee which they said was a benign tumour, which they 358 00:18:53,920 --> 00:18:56,440 believed caused the sudden damage back in October, which 359 00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:57,920 meant that she couldn't really walk properly. 360 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:01,760 They showed me two scans and said that they were going to do 361 00:19:01,760 --> 00:19:05,520 surgery to remove the tumour and to tidy up all the other bits of 362 00:19:05,520 --> 00:19:07,440 damage that were in there from over the years. 363 00:19:08,160 --> 00:19:10,760 And she said she was struggling quite a lot, getting very tired, 364 00:19:11,040 --> 00:19:13,200 getting a little bit low. And she said, but I was staying 365 00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:15,760 at a friend's house in Leicester and we kept praying and laying 366 00:19:15,760 --> 00:19:19,400 on hands and we knew one church were praying, we knew the 367 00:19:19,400 --> 00:19:22,200 Stocking Farm small group that's from Northside, we're praying. 368 00:19:22,440 --> 00:19:25,400 We knew friends, family and friends from Holy Trinity Church 369 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:27,880 and my sister's Home group in Paris were praying as well. 370 00:19:28,480 --> 00:19:31,200 On the day of the surgery, the surgeon, who's quite well known 371 00:19:31,200 --> 00:19:34,200 and a knee expert, visited me and explained he's going to do 372 00:19:34,200 --> 00:19:36,080 everything he could to fix my knee. 373 00:19:36,800 --> 00:19:40,520 But then when he visited me after the surgery, he said the 374 00:19:40,520 --> 00:19:43,520 knee was badly damaged with scar tissue going back years, but 375 00:19:43,520 --> 00:19:46,720 he'd not done the biopsy he planned to do because there was 376 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:49,280 no growth because the tumour had disappeared. 377 00:19:51,080 --> 00:19:53,960 So praise God for his, this is her word, praise God for his 378 00:19:53,960 --> 00:19:56,280 helping hand. And she's believing that as she 379 00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:59,680 works on her physio and begins to go back to work, God's going 380 00:19:59,680 --> 00:20:01,720 to continue to strengthen her. So we pray He will. 381 00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:04,000 So it's not not a perfect miracle. 382 00:20:04,000 --> 00:20:06,240 It's not all done yet. But that is a miracle, isn't it? 383 00:20:07,160 --> 00:20:09,640 Two weeks ago, we'd all prayed for each other after the 384 00:20:09,640 --> 00:20:11,560 meeting. And at the end I was just simply 385 00:20:11,560 --> 00:20:14,000 chatting to a lady who was on the serving team and she was 386 00:20:14,000 --> 00:20:18,160 telling me a need that she had for prayer, talking about her 387 00:20:18,160 --> 00:20:20,360 job. She works in court. 388 00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:23,400 She has a lot of very heavy cases on her caseload. 389 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:25,200 And particularly on a Tuesday, she was. 390 00:20:25,680 --> 00:20:29,120 Like overwhelmed every Tuesday by the, the level of suffering 391 00:20:29,120 --> 00:20:32,160 and hard things that she was hearing in the witness and the 392 00:20:32,160 --> 00:20:35,680 testimonies of people. And so I, I just simply say, 393 00:20:35,680 --> 00:20:37,920 well, let's pray now. We prayed and we agreed and we 394 00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:40,840 spoke over her mind and so on. And she'd been trying to do 395 00:20:40,840 --> 00:20:43,960 everything right. So she'd had praise music on in 396 00:20:43,960 --> 00:20:46,360 the car. She'd gone home and deliberately 397 00:20:46,360 --> 00:20:49,880 like had a shower, got changed and and tried to just get a 398 00:20:49,880 --> 00:20:53,240 whole new mindset, put all those things behind her, but she 399 00:20:53,240 --> 00:20:56,800 wasn't able to to shift some very horrible headaches she was 400 00:20:56,800 --> 00:21:01,200 having as well on that day. And well, a week past Thursday, 401 00:21:01,200 --> 00:21:04,160 I saw her and she came running up to me and she said it's 402 00:21:04,160 --> 00:21:06,560 amazing that things, these things have really happened 403 00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:09,120 since we prayed. She said that first Thursday I 404 00:21:09,120 --> 00:21:11,800 went in, she said, for a start, I didn't get any headaches. 405 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:15,080 The atmosphere has changed and even other people in the room 406 00:21:15,200 --> 00:21:18,320 said what's happened in this room because there's something 407 00:21:18,320 --> 00:21:21,000 different. You know, even in situations 408 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:24,760 where we feel in the minority, even in your, maybe your work 409 00:21:24,760 --> 00:21:27,720 situation, your college, the place where you are in the week 410 00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,640 and you may feel in a minority and the forces around you may be 411 00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:33,600 strong or feel strong. But Jesus is so powerful. 412 00:21:33,920 --> 00:21:36,720 And when we access his power through prayer and especially 413 00:21:36,720 --> 00:21:40,360 sometimes when we agree with somebody else, then prayer 414 00:21:40,640 --> 00:21:43,280 changes the atmosphere and God will lift the heaviness. 415 00:21:43,280 --> 00:21:45,800 So that's a promise for somebody here as well. 416 00:21:46,760 --> 00:21:50,360 Then how to pray? OK, so firstly we pray in faith. 417 00:21:50,920 --> 00:21:53,560 What does that mean? Well, I believe it means really 418 00:21:53,560 --> 00:21:58,560 seeing God as he really is. Does anybody here get absolutely 419 00:21:58,560 --> 00:22:02,440 blasted with emails and even texts from Specsavers? 420 00:22:04,320 --> 00:22:07,360 So Specsavers in Beaumont Lees are absolutely relentless. 421 00:22:07,600 --> 00:22:10,280 If you've once been and got any glasses from them, they, they 422 00:22:10,360 --> 00:22:14,080 will send you reminders on a very regular basis that you're 423 00:22:14,120 --> 00:22:16,680 basically your eyes are going to be in a terrible state unless 424 00:22:16,680 --> 00:22:19,480 you go and have another eye test and buy another pair of 425 00:22:19,480 --> 00:22:22,720 expensive glasses. They're keen really to get our 426 00:22:22,720 --> 00:22:25,160 views corrected, aren't they? Our eyesight corrected. 427 00:22:25,240 --> 00:22:28,920 And if we talk about coming to God in faith, I believe it's 428 00:22:28,920 --> 00:22:32,240 talking about really seeing God through the right glasses or 429 00:22:32,240 --> 00:22:35,600 seeing him through the right lens, Seeing him as he really 430 00:22:35,600 --> 00:22:40,280 is, not in a distorted way, and not seeing prayer as a 431 00:22:40,280 --> 00:22:43,080 technique, but as real communication with God as our 432 00:22:43,080 --> 00:22:48,160 loving heavenly Father. Seeing God that he is good, that 433 00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:51,720 he is for us, that he really wants the best for us, for 434 00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:55,640 example, all those sort of things, that he's a good father. 435 00:22:56,320 --> 00:22:59,880 And even in that short passage in James, there are hints to 436 00:22:59,880 --> 00:23:02,560 what we read all through the Bible as to the many and varied 437 00:23:02,560 --> 00:23:06,280 ways that we can pray. So let's just practise that 438 00:23:06,360 --> 00:23:10,080 praying continually, praying all the time, and let's rebuild a 439 00:23:10,080 --> 00:23:13,880 prayer altar in our own lives. I've got a friend who's from 440 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:17,280 Cameroon, and she always talks about a prayer altar, building a 441 00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:19,720 prayer altar, the place on your sofa where there's a groove 442 00:23:20,000 --> 00:23:22,960 because you've sat there so many times to call on God. 443 00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:25,560 And it just feels like that special place or that little 444 00:23:25,560 --> 00:23:29,520 walk that you do where you particularly connect with God. 445 00:23:30,040 --> 00:23:33,480 Even the prayer tent here in this room is the sign. 446 00:23:34,200 --> 00:23:37,720 It's a sign that we believe that we cannot do what we do without 447 00:23:37,720 --> 00:23:41,280 the power of prayer. So fundamentally, prayer is just 448 00:23:41,280 --> 00:23:44,400 to be with Jesus and for Jesus to be with us. 449 00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:47,760 And we can pray alone. We can pray together. 450 00:23:47,760 --> 00:23:51,200 We can play at special times of celebration or at all times. 451 00:23:51,200 --> 00:23:53,760 We can pray at home when we're out and about in church. 452 00:23:54,680 --> 00:23:58,440 We can pray aloud or quietly, even silently. 453 00:23:58,440 --> 00:24:00,600 We can pray freely. We can write our prayers. 454 00:24:01,040 --> 00:24:03,880 I love writing prayers down sometimes, quite often actually, 455 00:24:04,960 --> 00:24:07,400 pray with music. We can pray with our voice. 456 00:24:07,400 --> 00:24:09,680 We can pray with declaration. We can use the Bible. 457 00:24:09,680 --> 00:24:14,680 We can speak in tongues. We can pray lying down, kneeling 458 00:24:14,680 --> 00:24:18,960 down, sitting down, standing up while we're cooking, while we're 459 00:24:18,960 --> 00:24:23,200 doing anything. We can pray for ourself and for 460 00:24:23,200 --> 00:24:27,000 others, and we can pray out in our lives for those that we meet 461 00:24:27,000 --> 00:24:29,520 as well. You know, I want to challenge 462 00:24:29,520 --> 00:24:32,400 myself, and I've been sort of challenging myself through this 463 00:24:32,800 --> 00:24:36,960 message to be a little bit more bold when I'm talking to someone 464 00:24:36,960 --> 00:24:41,000 who's not yet a Christian Lord, just to say, oh, you've shared 465 00:24:41,000 --> 00:24:43,680 with me you've got a bad knee. You know, I believe in the power 466 00:24:43,680 --> 00:24:45,280 of prayer. Can I say a little prayer for 467 00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:48,040 you now? And I believe as we do those 468 00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:50,720 things more and more, we're going to see more miracles out 469 00:24:50,720 --> 00:24:54,680 there in our everyday lives. I had a privilege of praying 470 00:24:54,680 --> 00:24:56,920 with a lady in a cafe on my birthday, which was like a 471 00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:00,640 little treat in Spain where she just began to open up, share a 472 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:02,720 bit of her life. And I just said before we left, 473 00:25:03,600 --> 00:25:05,160 you know, can I just say a little prayer for you? 474 00:25:05,160 --> 00:25:06,680 Because by then she knew what we believed. 475 00:25:06,680 --> 00:25:11,320 She knew a bit more about me. So, you know, let's just 476 00:25:11,320 --> 00:25:13,160 challenge ourselves to do that a bit more. 477 00:25:13,920 --> 00:25:16,080 I want to say that prayer is a battle. 478 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:22,040 There are two kingdoms and if we're a part of Jesus Kingdom, 479 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:24,440 then by default we have an enemy Kingdom. 480 00:25:26,200 --> 00:25:30,240 And one place that this war is played out is on the battlefield 481 00:25:30,240 --> 00:25:31,720 of our mind. And we're going to talk a bit 482 00:25:31,720 --> 00:25:34,840 more about that in a few weeks time in a two week teaching 483 00:25:34,840 --> 00:25:37,200 series we're going to do called the Battle for Your mind. 484 00:25:38,320 --> 00:25:41,240 This means that prayer can sometimes feel hard. 485 00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:44,960 It means that sometimes we can hear a voice or quite often 486 00:25:44,960 --> 00:25:49,640 maybe telling us not to bother, we're not good enough, or to 487 00:25:49,640 --> 00:25:53,880 back off because we have a real enemy who doesn't want us to 488 00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:56,680 pray. Because as the old saying says, 489 00:25:56,680 --> 00:26:00,840 Satan trembles when he sees the weakest St upon his knees. 490 00:26:01,640 --> 00:26:04,800 We don't have to be big and bold and have it all together, all 491 00:26:04,800 --> 00:26:07,960 our ducks in a row as a Christian for God to hear us and 492 00:26:07,960 --> 00:26:10,120 to answer our prayers. He can answer all of our 493 00:26:10,120 --> 00:26:12,560 prayers. So that means also that prayer 494 00:26:12,560 --> 00:26:14,200 is fighting. And it's often where we fight 495 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:19,240 the real battles is in that spiritual realm. 2 Corinthians 496 00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:21,880 10 says the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of this 497 00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:23,480 world. On the contrary, they have 498 00:26:23,480 --> 00:26:25,880 divine power to demolish strongholds. 499 00:26:26,120 --> 00:26:29,240 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up 500 00:26:29,240 --> 00:26:31,760 against the knowledge of God. And we take captive every 501 00:26:31,760 --> 00:26:33,480 thought to make it obedient to Christ. 502 00:26:33,480 --> 00:26:36,720 So we don't fight spiritual battles with worldly methods. 503 00:26:37,400 --> 00:26:41,080 We fight with weapons that are spiritual. 504 00:26:42,400 --> 00:26:46,200 So what this means is that it doesn't matter who you are or 505 00:26:46,200 --> 00:26:50,320 where you are because you could be an old lady in a, a, a 506 00:26:50,800 --> 00:26:54,160 sheltered housing complex and in your room, you can impact the 507 00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:58,840 world through your prayers. You can be a family around a tea 508 00:26:58,840 --> 00:27:00,800 table. And yeah, it can be a bit of a 509 00:27:00,800 --> 00:27:03,800 battle to get your kids to, you know, let's pray together. 510 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:05,760 And, and often you'll find somebody will begin to like 511 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:08,520 misbehave at that moment or something happens as a 512 00:27:08,520 --> 00:27:11,240 distraction comes. But if we persevere and we say 513 00:27:11,240 --> 00:27:13,160 we're just going to have a little family time of prayer 514 00:27:13,160 --> 00:27:15,480 every day, you wait and see what happens. 515 00:27:16,960 --> 00:27:20,960 It also means if you're a person in in your college or a school 516 00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:23,800 or a place where you work and you just gather with somebody 517 00:27:23,800 --> 00:27:26,320 once a week or you know, we're wanting to see a lot of our 518 00:27:26,320 --> 00:27:29,200 young people beginning Christian unions in their schools, for 519 00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,840 example. What amazing things can happen 520 00:27:31,840 --> 00:27:35,080 as we just join together and pray simple prayers together. 521 00:27:35,080 --> 00:27:37,840 We can win a battle. We can pull down strongholds. 522 00:27:37,840 --> 00:27:41,960 This says, which is basically like a House of thoughts or a 523 00:27:41,960 --> 00:27:44,960 strong place that is a resistance to God, like sinful 524 00:27:44,960 --> 00:27:49,240 habits, negative thoughts, false ways of thinking, they can be 525 00:27:49,240 --> 00:27:51,840 pulled down through our prayers. We can demolish arguments 526 00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:54,240 against God. We can capture thoughts, we can 527 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:55,760 align our thinking with God's truth. 528 00:27:55,760 --> 00:27:59,240 This is spiritual warfare. This is a battle against evil. 529 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:02,040 And we have weapons like the word of God that's living and 530 00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:04,080 active and powerful. We have the name of Jesus, 531 00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:06,320 that's the name above every other name. 532 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,120 And we have the cross where the victory was won, the blood of 533 00:28:09,200 --> 00:28:11,480 Jesus. And we have our unity because if 534 00:28:11,480 --> 00:28:16,480 we pray in unity, that has also great power and better even than 535 00:28:16,480 --> 00:28:19,080 all that we are on the side of the one who's won the ultimate 536 00:28:19,080 --> 00:28:22,000 victory, Jesus. So let's go for prayer. 537 00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,520 Let's increase our prayer life as a church. 538 00:28:24,520 --> 00:28:28,280 Let's increase the spiritual temperature in this church both 539 00:28:28,280 --> 00:28:32,680 personally in our small groups prayer and fasting days join in 540 00:28:32,680 --> 00:28:36,080 with them when we have them once a term prayer and fasting. 541 00:28:36,080 --> 00:28:39,600 It's amazing united prayer we had on the 31st of August. 542 00:28:39,600 --> 00:28:41,920 It was amazing. We're going to do it again. 543 00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:45,680 Do come joining other other people around the city and 544 00:28:45,680 --> 00:28:47,960 county to pray monthly encounter nights. 545 00:28:48,040 --> 00:28:50,520 That's an opportunity to call on God together, to praise him 546 00:28:50,520 --> 00:28:54,600 together, to pray together, the prayer Army. 547 00:28:54,600 --> 00:28:57,840 Why not sign up now? We send you a WhatsApp message 548 00:28:57,840 --> 00:29:01,240 once a week and we meet for half an hour on the Zoom on a Friday 549 00:29:01,240 --> 00:29:04,560 morning and we love it. It's a great time just to join 550 00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:08,480 together to pray. And let's not have any time that 551 00:29:08,480 --> 00:29:11,840 we spend with any person, like particularly in church where we 552 00:29:11,840 --> 00:29:14,520 don't at some point say, OK, we've talked about all these 553 00:29:14,520 --> 00:29:16,080 hard things. Well, let's just take them to 554 00:29:16,080 --> 00:29:18,640 God. Let's just talk to Jesus about 555 00:29:18,640 --> 00:29:22,120 it before we part because it's so much more powerful than just 556 00:29:22,120 --> 00:29:25,600 standing together even. OK, so I'm going to give you 557 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:29,560 just a few guidelines as to what we do as a church when we pray 558 00:29:29,560 --> 00:29:31,120 for people, the sort of things we say. 559 00:29:31,120 --> 00:29:38,280 So one is be normal and be real. You don't have to put on like a, 560 00:29:38,480 --> 00:29:41,760 a super spiritual, religious sort of voice or sound 561 00:29:41,760 --> 00:29:43,920 particularly holy to pray for somebody. 562 00:29:43,920 --> 00:29:46,080 You know that you just couldn't use your normal voice. 563 00:29:47,360 --> 00:29:50,920 We ask people in one church to pray either for somebody of the 564 00:29:50,920 --> 00:29:54,240 same sex as yourself or if you pray in a pair, then that means 565 00:29:54,240 --> 00:29:59,240 really you can pray for anybody. So we just ask you to do that 566 00:29:59,240 --> 00:30:01,160 because it just keeps everything like really safe. 567 00:30:02,280 --> 00:30:05,200 We ask you to look a person in the eye if you're asking them, 568 00:30:05,200 --> 00:30:07,320 well, you know, what can I pray for you for? 569 00:30:07,320 --> 00:30:10,560 There's not unspiritual to actually talk for one minute 570 00:30:10,560 --> 00:30:12,520 just to say, how can I pray for you? 571 00:30:15,400 --> 00:30:17,760 Explain what you're doing. Only do what somebody feels 572 00:30:17,760 --> 00:30:20,120 comfortable to do. Lead them in the next step for 573 00:30:20,120 --> 00:30:22,480 what they come for. What do they maybe need next? 574 00:30:24,080 --> 00:30:26,440 When you pray and just take a moment, just say, Oh well, 575 00:30:26,440 --> 00:30:30,080 welcome you Holy Spirit, what is it you want to do? 576 00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:33,320 Because it might be he says something a little bit different 577 00:30:33,320 --> 00:30:37,520 to what you think is the most logical thing to do and just be 578 00:30:37,520 --> 00:30:41,480 keeping watching and listening, praying with authority when you 579 00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:44,040 pray for healing. So not to say please, please, 580 00:30:44,040 --> 00:30:47,360 please help us Lord, but to say, Lord, I take authority over 581 00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:49,960 this. I speak this back into alignment 582 00:30:49,960 --> 00:30:51,960 with your purposes. You know, all the all those sort 583 00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:54,200 of things. You just speak to the body, you 584 00:30:54,200 --> 00:30:56,600 speak to the situation with the power that you have, the 585 00:30:56,600 --> 00:30:58,800 authority you have in the name of Jesus. 586 00:31:01,560 --> 00:31:04,840 And we do it together because and we just basically let Jesus 587 00:31:04,840 --> 00:31:09,280 do what only he can do. Only He can do it and you know 588 00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:12,280 He's here. He loves you, He wants the best 589 00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:16,520 for you. The Lord bless you and keep you. 590 00:31:16,720 --> 00:31:20,360 The Lord make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you. 591 00:31:20,760 --> 00:31:24,240 The Lord turn his face towards you and give you peace.