(0:00)Is Prayer Inherently Powerful?
So when we say prayer is powerful, it implies that the prayer of a Muslim is powerful. The prayer of an atheist is powerful. The prayer of uh of anything and anybody is powerful because prayer is inherently powerful. No, God is powerful. And if you can access him as your father, if you can access him, then he can release his power on your behalf. Unfiltered. Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of PF Unfiltered. My name is Esther Griffin and I have my amazing co-host with me today, Kenneth. Kenneth on Green Day. And then of course we have Pastor Femi. Your heart is very very nice color. Kenneth, thank you. So is that what's that? Is that a statement? Oh, no. This is from the Barbie movie. Okay. We shouldn't be doing food. So Oh, so you're wearing a hat from a Barbie movie. Yeah. Ken, you get it. Oh, wow. Kendall. Kenneth. My name is Kenneth. This is I am Ken. Come on now. You're Kenoff. You know like who said you're not enough? I'm just Your heart is drawing my attention. He's affirming himself. Woo Kennedy. So this is you. Are you Is there something we should know? Wow. I mean it's okay if it if I mean you are welcome as you are. Know that I am just You're welcome in the name of the Lord. You are welcome in the name of the Lord. We can see all over you the glory of the Lord. You are welcome in the name of the Lord. And you are enough in the name of the Lord. I mean, sorry, Ken. Amen. Sorry. I'm sorry. Oh my god. Yeah. But you lowkey trying to be Shady. Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Just welcoming a brother or should I say sister. Okay, y'all. I got to tell y'all the
(1:52)The Embarrassing Prayer Story
behind the scenes. I got to tell you the story. Did I call you sister? Oh, brother. Oh, brother. Oh, So, y'all today we're talking about prayer. And I remember in my college years, me and my girlfriend were going to pray for somebody that was like moving away. And so she was like, "Hey, like we're about to pray." It was three of us in a circle. We're all holding and she and she was like, "Esther, can you bring up a song?" And I was like, "You was like, I must have been embarrassing now. Oh, good. And I was like, why do I keep singing this song? Like, how come there's no other song in my brain? Anyways, it was a funny time and a very interesting year in my life. So, I can imagine that you would lead a small three of us prayer meeting with you are welcoming the name of the Lord. He was welcoming my spirit. No, I was I was welcoming. See here's the thing. I was welcome him into the into the fellowship of into the fellowship. I see. I see. That's what it was. I see. Cuz he wasn't a believer. But he wanted us, he didn't want us to pray for him. And so, um, I don't know why I was singing that song, but that's hilarious. But yeah, anyways, we're talking about prayer today. Awesome.
(3:06)Why People Struggle with Prayer
And one of the questions I I have for you to get us started is what is prayer and why do people struggle with prayer? I I think people struggle with prayer because they don't know what prayer is, right? Um, prayer is simply communicating with God. There are different ways to communicate with God, but it's simply communicating with God, right? Telling God how you feel, what you think, what you want, how there are different ways to do that. What are some of those ways? I think at its simplest form, and this is the form that everybody should understand, it is opening your mouth and speaking to God. Mhm. What if you don't open your mouth? Articulating thoughts that speak to God. Talking to God in your mind. Mhm. Writing a letter to God. Mhm. Sending God an email. Mhm. Right. Although it will bounce back. Mhm. Right. It may not. It will. It doesn't have an email address. If it didn't bounce back, some spammer found it and they're about to fleece you, right? God does have an email address, right? But it's generally you talking to God and being open to God speaking back to you. Right now the reason why people struggle with prayer is they are more familiar with the demonstrative performative public expressions of prayer where one person stands up and prays to God in an eloquent and um um uh complex way. Mhm. Right. that then makes it seem as if if you don't know those things then you can't speak to God.
(4:44)Do You Need to Be 'Good Enough'?
That's number one. Number two, people struggle with prayer because they feel like in order to pray you have to attain a certain status. Right? So am I good enough? Am I holy enough? Am I well behaved enough? Do I go to church enough? Yeah. If I don't fall into any of those categories, then God cannot like me, love me, or care about about me. So praying is redundant. Right. That's why people struggle with with prayer because people can talk to each other. People communicate with each other. Yeah. Right. And that is essentially what prayer is. It is a communication between me and God. And people try to make prayer seem like it is more than that. Right. And I've had I preached a sermon and I had a few people complain and I keep saying that prayer is not powerful. God is powerful. Prayer connects me to God. Prayer opens me up to God's will and God's counsel. And the way that it opens me up is that God communicates with me, right? Either he communicates to my mind or he communicates to my spirit, but then my mind eventually needs that communication in order to function with it. Oh, no. You just said prayer is not powerful, but God is powerful. God is powerful. So, what do you say to people that believe or like the idea that you like prophesying is also like prayer and so like the words that you say like your your words have power? Your words have
(6:03)Is Prophecy the Same as Prayer?
power because the Bible says that the words of our mouth are creative in ability, right? But that's not prayer. Me prophesying and saying um first of all, prophecy is me speaking the mind of God, right? Or speaking. So prophecy is either declarative or um what's the other word? or um it it no it's declarative in that it declares the will of God or it's informative and informs me of God's will that is yet undone. Right? So I'm referencing the decl I'm guessing the declarative Thank you. I'm just declaring the word of God. That's not prayer. Declaring the word of God is not prayer. Prayer is inherently communication between me and God. If it's not between me and God is not prayer, right? It is a lot of things. It's a proclamation. It's a declaration. It's an announcement. It's a prophecy. A prophecy is not between us and God. God gives the prophecy. You speak to the people. Yeah. Right. Prayer is focused on God. It is communicating with God. And this is why I say prayer is not powerful because many people pray. Yep. Right. Yep. People who do not believe in Jesus pray. Mhm. Right. If we say prayer is inherently powerful, then you would expect that the prayer of somebody who does not believe in Christ is also powerful. But Jesus is clear, right? The Bible is clear. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man is not powerful. It makes power available. Right? He that prayer effectual fervent of a righteous man gives that man access right to power. All power belongs to God. All power resides in God. All power, all dominion, all glory and all honor belong to God. So what prayer does right is that it puts you in a position where the power of God is released by God on your behalf. Do you know what I'm saying? So I don't want to call any particular religion, right? But if somebody who does not believe in Christ prays, what happens to those words that they speak? They are focused to God, but they don't get to God. Right? Because the Bible says that God's ears are not deaf that he cannot hear or his hands shut, but it is your sin that separates you from God. So the prayer of a person who's separated from God is still prayer, but there's no efficacy to it. There's no
(8:28)When God Doesn't Hear You
power to it. That's a hard reality. Yeah. There's no usefulness to it. That is the truth, right? If we if we believe that Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the father except through him, then we must also believe that there's no prayer that is offered to God that if not offered through him, gets to God. The Bible says sin separates us from God. When you pray with sin, having created a schism between us and God, you're literally shouting into the wind. Wow. Right. Because the Bible says God is deaf to the prayers of a of of a sinner. Mhm. Right. That's what that verse means. He's deaf to the prayers of a sinner because Bible says he's not he can hear you but he ignores you. That is the thing, right? So when we say prayer is powerful, it implies that the prayer of a Muslim is powerful. The prayer of an atheist is powerful. The prayer of uh of of anything and anybody is powerful because prayer is inherently powerful. No, God is powerful. And if you can access him as your father, if you can access him, right, then he can release his power on your behalf. So I feel like this takes away like the call it um call it call it as it is. Call it as it is. Some Oh god, my brain's name it. I claim it. Thank you. Well, there's a scripture that's talking about what God can do, but then we interpret it as what we can do. What scripture is that? He call He calls those things which are not. Okay. So, say God calls those things which are not as though they are. But then we say we use it in prayer where we say we should call. That's not prayer. When you call things which are not as though they are, what you are doing is accessing what Jesus Christ said when he said if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you will speak to this mountain and the mountain will move. There is an aspect of a Christian, right? There's there's there's a part of our existence where we call things which are not as though they are where we're expressing our faith. But that scripture was talking about God. It was talking about God. But God says if you believe Mhm. right, you will. The Bible says that with the heart we believe unto righteousness and with the mouth we confess unto salvation. Our heart is what makes us in right standing with God. Mhm. Our mouth is what takes that right standing and brings it to pass in our lives. So we see the manifestation of the right standing by the things that we say. So the things that we say are powerful. Yeah. But prayer is not is not that prayer is me talking to God. Mhm. Right. If prayer is powerful then it has to be that it is powerful in the sense that it connects me to God. Yeah. Right. So in that sense it is powerful. Powerful. But we must understand that prayer is prayer has inherent in it. Mhm. The sense that God has to respond to it. Mhm. Right. So if my prayer is powerful, is it powerful in that it forces God to do what I he doesn't want to do? Is it powerful in the sense that it creates? If my prayer creates, right, then I don't need God. I can just keep declaring, right? I can just keep declaring. Okay, I declare that this light fixture is a car. I mean, that's what some people do then, right? Well, how's it working out for them? I mean, I even feel like some Okay, not naming names, but some doctrines or
(12:00)The 'Word of Faith' Movement
maybe churches, they are really heavy on like the like the word of faith movement. And correct me if I'm wrong. Yes. Right. Like where it's like declare and you you receive or you I I believe I believe that we should speak the word of God. Mhm. I believe that a confession is an agreement with what God has said. But it is what God has said, right? It is what God has promised. Right? I don't think we should confess, declare, manifest things, right? I don't think we should just What's the difference though? The difference is that what God has said, right? I am putting my voice, I am lending my mouth as God's mouthpiece. How do people know what he said? Uh that is where prayer comes in. See when you pray you speak to God and then God speaks to you. That's one. Number two, the word of God, the Bible also tells us what God says. So when I speak his word, right? It is not my words that have power. It is his words that I'm speaking that have power. Just I'm a vessel. Yeah. The power is of God. We need to understand that the power is of God. Right. The power is of his spirit. Now his spirit resides within me. But we can't ever forget that it is of him. Mhm. not of any man. It is always of him. Either directly without any involvement with a man or through a man, but it is always of him. The Bible says that the Holy Spirit distributes the ability to prophesy, the ability to work miracles, the ability to heal, the ability to give words of knowledge. The Holy Spirit distributes it as he not the man, as he wills. M but there's an expectation right that the closer you get to go the more your will lines up with his will so that when you are expressing your will it is because it is in line with his will when okay this prayer thing is actually a very has rel I think as it relates to us like being in a congregation amongst people that are praying and when these sort of confessions are happening being able to try to discern if is Is this coming from that person and their own desires or is this coming from God? In our church at the beginning of the service, we make a confession, a declaration. And what we declare is what the word of God says. I am the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. I am the head and not the tail. Right? Though a thousand may fall by my side and 10,000 by my right side, he shall not ens come near me. The Bible says a man's belly shall be satisfied by the fruit of his lips. The words that we speak, the Bible says they are spirit and they are life. That means that they have the ability, right, to create things. Yeah. But when we speak out of our flesh, right, when we speak out of our greed or out of our covetousness, God is not obligated to validate our nonsense. Just I'm going to say, but he's obligated to validate his word. Right? So if somebody is confessing the word of God, as long as it is the word of God, you can speak the word of God. But if somebody comes to church and says, "I I declare over you. Repeat after me. I will have five wives." Yes. If you want five wives, you can declare it until your eyes turn blue. God is not going to give it to you. You can go and get it. If you can find find compliant women and you are not in America and go to jail for bigamy, right? Yeah, feel free. But don't involve God in that conversation because he's not a part of it. Right? Prayer at its most rudimentary form and at its most powerful form is when we speak our mind to God. It does not need any frills. It does not need any eloquence. It is literally men God I need you. I have a situation I need you to intervene in in A B or C. Yeah. Right. We gather together. We're about to share. May God bless the food we're going to eat. Don't let it kill us.
(16:00)Why Intimidation Keeps You Silent
So why do people feel so much I guess intimidation around just like that that prayer that's so because because they don't understand that all the flourishes are not necessary right is it based on what they've been taught or cuz I think it's based on what they it's what they've seen seen okay I don't know that people say if you want to pray to God you have to say thou thee and thine right I think people just assume that those um those public expressions of prayer which many times the person praying is also trying to make a point right you know I know God I've read my Bible you know not sometimes that is how they themselves have been taught right if you grow up reading the King James version and you're trying to pray God's word back to him in the King James version right you can sound a little like that yeah but people need to understand that prayer is simply expressing your will to God, right? Expressing your desire to God, right? There are certain there are different types of prayer, right? There's a prayer where you are saying to God, well, you said in Ezekiel 37 that the breath will come upon the dry bones and that I should speak to the dry bones. There's a part of prayer where you speak God's word back to him. Yeah. Okay. There's a part of prayer where it's corporate where we as a nation, as a community, as a church gather together and express our will, our desire to God. There's a part of prayer that involves you petitioning God. Like, you know, I I I need this done for me. I can't believe got him. I can't believe that that happened. I I had the phone on on actually had it on. It's my daughter. I had it on do not disturb. conversation must have been able to penetrate my do not disturb. OH, I thought so. No, cuz I thought my do not disturb did not respect anybody. Oh, really? Yeah. My do not disturb usually, even if you're my favorites, if my do not disturb is on, you can't get through. There's a prayer that is a petition. Mhm. There's a prayer that is a supplication, right? And these are the these are things that as you as you grow in your walk with God, you learn. Yeah. But every child, babies know to communicate with their parents. Yeah, as you get older, you form words. You know that, okay, well, daddy is like this, mommy's like this. When you talking to daddy, this is how to say we're talking to mommies how to say it. But every child understand the parents, they know I'm hungry, right? Yeah. So, why can't you say that to God? I I I I'm sad. I'm afraid. Mhm. Right. I need you to help me get another job, right? I need you to make me feel better. I need you to do this. I need you to do that. And it's based from that is prayer. What about when the Bible says um uh come into my gates with praise and come into my gate come into the gates with praise. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and come into his court with praise. Praise. Yeah. Yeah. You don't always have to enter his
(19:01)Do You Need Worship to Pray?
gates with thanksgiving or come into his courts with praise because I am here. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Right. That is a it's speaking of that's a different type of prayer, right? How many times did Jesus Christ when he was praying praise and worship before he prayed? Seriously, how many times Jesus Christ do praise and worship before he prayed? Yeah. When when when Lazarus was um when he was at Lazarus's graveside, he said, "Father, I thank you." And I'm only saying that because these people are listening to me because you always hear me. That's all he said. This is this is a good point that you're bringing up. So again, we we over complicate things. Yeah. Right. Paul, how many times did Paul pray with prayer and thanksgiving with um with sorry with worship? And the only component that was added in the new covenant to prayer is thanksgiving. Right? And the reason why thanksgiving I think is added is not to show God how grateful you are. Mhm. It is to help you remember what God has done for you so that you can have faith as you pray, right? But let's add thanksgiving to it. When you ask somebody for something, it's good home praying to say thank you. Right? But there's a power that is released in your mind with your gratitude. Faith increases in your heart as you contemplate what God has done for you in the place of gratitude. Right? But again, why do we complicate prayer? Because it makes certain people more relevant. Right? So the the professional clergy, right, the people who pray for you, the contract prayers need to make prayer hard. Otherwise, they're not relevant. They not do they not Nobody's going to pay you to pray for them if it's something they can do while they're driving to work, right? Nobody. You make it mysterious. Yeah. You make it mysterious. You make it sound difficult like, "Ah, my story. Okay, I'm going up to the mountain top to go and pray for you." This is this might be a little controversial, but I think it's important for us to let it let it be known. When it comes to Catholicism and someone praying on your behalf, what do you say to that? I can intercede for you. I can pray for you. Mhm. So the Bible says that we, you know, Bible encourages us to pray for people, right? Pray for our leaders. That is intercession. Yeah. I can I can pray for you, right? That is anybody can do that. There's nothing wrong with that, right? I think for me I I I I I um in my interactions with people I I I've come to realize that it is not that people can't communicate. Mhm. Is that they feel that they can they are not qualified to communicate. So they want to outsource it to the qualified. Quote quote yes they want to outsource prayer to the men of God who are holier. Yeah. Right. Who do not have any sin. Right. But the truth is this. Right? If you shy away from God because of sin because you feel like, okay, I can't talk to him cuz I'm dirty. I'm filthy. Right? It means you do not fundamentally, you do not understand the fundamentals of how you are even able to talk to him at all. It is based off of what Jesus Christ did. Mhm. Right. If God were to look at you, Yeah. he would kill you because you're you're you're a sinner and all of your righteousness, he says, is as a filthy rag, right? M. So if you step back from prayer because you feel guilty Mhm. then you've got a problem. So what about Christians that say, "Oh, I'm in a funk." What does that mean? I'm in a prayer funk. Like I, you know, I just can't pray. I just can't pray. The words. Well, well, this is the thing, right? I believe that every relationship has ups and downs. Okay. There days when, you know, my wife and I is just a little off. We're just not chatty. Mhm. I I don't We don't stop being married cuz we're not talking. Mhm. Right. It doesn't change that. It just means that, you know, we're in a season where we're a little bit in our heads, right? And sometimes it's like that with our relationship with God. God is never in his head. You are the one y who is in that funk. And when you are tired, he's there waiting for you, right? It has it is not a reflection of anything but your head. Your feelings are the product of your thoughts. If you feel if you don't feel like praying, you're thinking something. Yeah. you're thinking something. That lack of a desire to pray is driven by thoughts in your mind. And many times it is driven by thoughts of guilt, right? Thoughts of
(23:33)The 'Prayer Funk' Explained
um what's the word to use of offense. You're offended with God, right? God has not come through on a particular issue that meant a lot to you. Mhm. So you're kind of peeved. Mhm. Right. So you're not praying, right? Or you're just so busy, right? So busy doing life that you're not praying. So what about So um it's I need to say I think it's important. So the past couple of weeks I've been super super super busy. But every morning I wake up, I feel like the Lord knocks on me to acknowledge him. Mhm. And I do I maybe spend, you know, 5 10 minutes because I don't make I don't wake up that much earlier than my kids even though everybody says I'd be sad. Um and so I I spend maybe like 5 to 10 minutes. 10 is even a stretch. Maybe like 5 to seven minutes just like acknowledging the Lord, praying for the day, praying over my children, and just being fact like, "Oh Lord, you woke me up this morning." Having that meditation time. I'm not necessarily opening my mouth though, right? And so what do you say about people that haven't opened up their mouth in a while, but they have they're constantly in communication with the Lord internally? They're communicating with the Lord. I think God is I think God can read your mind, right? But I think I think the problem with praying through your mind is that your mind wonders. So that focus doesn't stay there necessarily, right? And sometimes it doesn't register in your mind that you have prayed. Right? And and there is a component that matters in the sense that we need to be able to recognize what we have done like awareness. Yes. It it helps us. God hears your prayer. But if you don't feel like you've prayed, sometimes you your faith is affected. You feel guilty. Yes. Your walk with God is affected. So sometimes you do things not for the relationship with God but for yourself. Right. Just something. But it's not I like that you I like that you said that cuz it's not that those things are bad. It is just good for you to it's a good discipline that you should have when you talk about for example 5 minutes in the morning. Sometimes I don't get 5 minutes in the morning. Sometimes my day I open my eyes and my day starts. Jeez. Right. Those are tough days. Yeah. Right. And I but all through the day my life my conversation paper God will help me and God help us. God man I need you. Ah man, God I don't understand how to do these things. God, give me wisdom. God, give me knowledge. I think that when you start your day with God, it's great. Yeah, it's awesome. Right. But I don't think if you reach out to God midday, God is like, "Oh, you didn't talk to me this morning, so therefore I'm not going to answer you." And I think we think he does that. I think we think he does. We feel so guilty. We project onto God our own emotional instability, right? And God is not like that. God says, "If I need somebody to praise me, I can raise up stones to praise me." As in, I don't need you to praise me. Your praise does not validate me, right? He's not some insecure old man waiting for you to acknowledge his existence with some sweet words. That's not the way it works, right? God is not saying, "Oh, oh, you didn't pray this morning. Okay, don't worry. I'm going to get you this afternoon." Sorry, this is a funny joke. When you say, "Oh, he's not an old man." I said, "Well, he is ancient." Well, Wow. Wow. Your sense of humor is rather um what's the word? Corny. But but you get the point I'm making, guys, right? We we we we we don't read the Bible and take God at his word when he says, "I'm here." Mhm. Right. If you call out to me, I will answer you and I'll show you great and mighty things which you do not know. ceremony uh is not for God. It's for us. We do those things for ourselves. We do those things to impress ourselves. Can we talk about the ceremony part though? Yeah. Cuz like I I feel like in church, not all churches, but I've just heard it too many times, right? I've heard people say things like if you are a certain age, this one is very specific because it was said like that. If you're a certain age and you haven't prayed for this long before, essentially the pastor said like you're essentially said like you're useless, you know, pretty much that pastor needs to have a conversation with the Holy Spirit. Mhm. Cuz he's talking nonsense. The length of time you spend in prayer should be determined by the depth of your burden, right? by the depth of the engagement between you and the Holy Spirit. It's not a formula, right? It's not something you legislate. There's no one size fit all. No. Jesus Christ for an hour, but he also prayed Lazarus, one sentence. Mhm. The prayer that brought fire from the sky to consume the offering of the prophet, right? Yeah. Wasn't complex or complicated. Mhm. But that same guy who said firefall is the same guy who put his head between his knees. Right. Right. The point I'm trying to make is that we have this one size fits all that is problematic for those who are listening. Right. Right. I think that we need to understand the dynamic of corporate gatherings. M human beings have a tendency to disregard dismiss the casual. M right they don't rever the casual. Yeah. So some men will try and create a mystery. Mhm. Right. They try and create reverence by mystifying things. Right. I don't know if that's the right word. No. Because when you say something like, "Oh, you don't pray for 2 hours." I've been going to school since I was in prek. I went to college. There's time is not every season I can be doing 5 hours, 10 hours in prayer. I have prayed for I've done a a sentence of prayer and I've done hours of prayer. But I promise you it it depends on how it is doing me. Mhm. Right. I have stayed on my face in prayer a whole night. But there are days when I can't sit down for two minutes. It depends on how it is doing me. Sorry, another thing just came to mind. Do you think we conflate with like entering the presence of God? Okay. So like we mean like okay when you pray for this amount of time that means you're entering the presence of God. Yeah. Or like so when he says I will never leave you nor forsake you only. What does that mean? He's always there. He's always there. He's always there. Exactly. It's only you're entering the presence of God. But it's like, oh, intimacy with the Lord. What does that mean? We we we see and these are the kind of things that are a problem, right? We use a lot of of language, right? To mystify, to um to explain things that sometimes confuse people who don't understand what we're
(30:56)We're Misusing God's Presence
saying. Yeah. M so I don't talk about you know intimacy and those things because I realize that these are basic simple things that we're using big words to confuse people right God is always here right what is missing sometimes is our awareness of his being here so when we talk about let us enter into the presence of the lord it is let us focus our attention to create an awareness of where we are Mhm. Right. It's almost like read the room, read the room. You are in God's presence. Mhm. It says where two or three of you are gathered, there he is in your midst. Not that he will come. He's there. Mhm. Right. So when we close our eyes, when we say let us pray. Well, we say welcome, let's welcome the Holy Spirit. We're not okay. We say those things. Yeah. But but those things are not quite accurate. He's always here, sir. Right. So, so I if you if you pay attention to the words I speak, I'm very careful. I don't say some things because I realize that it is just people trying to create relevance, right? But I get why sometimes they do it. Mhm. Let me give an example. I used to pastor a church and I I talk the way that I talk. You guys know me. This is how I talk. Mhm. But I realized that people weren't taking me seriously. But when I say thus says the Lord, hey, the response was different. And I realized that I needed to create that sense of this is not for me. This is God. Mhm. For people to take it seriously, right? But that's the way people are. God can speak to me. I can say to Kenneth, "Man, I I feel like we should do something. I feel the Holy Spirit say we should do something." Right? And Kenneth is going to be like the way he said it was just very if it was God it would have been like my son Kenneth I had a dream in the heart you know the Lord said can you feel it that's nonsense but but some people need that some people need that there's a church where when they serve communion right the the ushers who carry the communion plates have to wear white gloves. Yeah, I've seen. And do you know why they do that? Because if you don't do that, then people don't take it as seriously. So some of these things, right, are to help people take it seriously, but it becomes problematic because it keeps people away. Yeah. So I I tell people all that I would rather Yeah. have some people take it for granted and keep some people away. You just I I'm not going to I'm not going to sensationalize it. Mhm. right to make it important. If it is not important as it is. Mhm. Jesus Christ did not wear a crown made with gold, right? And diamonds and rubies to prove to us that he was the king of kings and the lord of lords. Yeah. Right. He was casual with it. He he this is who he is. Yeah. Right. He came as a as a lamb. He he rode on a donkey. The Bible says he had no beauty in him. H a man of sorrows acquainted with grief he didn't have to embellish for emphasis right many times the supernatural is not spectacular but people do not regard the supernatural if it is not spectacular just set me free y yeah we want spectacular as as evidence of supernatural no so I'm not going to generate spectacular just to make it super I'm not going to use words like portals and and and and and doorways, you know, and dimensions. What dimensions? What portals? If you at the portal, be careful. I don't know where you're going. So, there's a lot of language in the church. Yeah. That we don't realize is not inclusive. It's exclusive. And it's not even excluding the wrong is excluding the people who are who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Yeah. We we we we speak like Pharisees, you know. as if you know to talk to God. Oh thou who sitst upon the when I pray when I pray I've been a Christian for a long time and I've read the Bible quite a bit. So I I I say things I say he that rides upon the wings of the wind right and and dwells in light that no man can approach. I'm saying those words because I visualize those things. Right? But I'm not going to say anybody who prays in my church if you do not know that God rides upon the wings of the wind you are not ready to pray. Are you born again? Do you did Jesus die for you? Yeah. Do you believe that if you pray in the name of Jesus, your prayers will be answered? Please open your mouth and pray, man. Doesn't matter if you know whether heads are upon the wings of the wind. Right? And I grew up in that tradition. Right? But I don't use it as a benchmark or preach it as a doctrine. So I tell people all the time, your location is not going to make your prayer more powerful or less powerful. That's good cuz some people think unless I am on the mountain top or in my prayer closet or in my prayer closet. Your prayer closet is just somewhere where you can concentrate and focus without distraction. And if you can do that in your car Mhm. please pray in your car. What about the idea that oh the Lord meets you I I I believe Okay, I just want to be clear. I do believe this. I believe that the Lord when you set appointed times the Lord meets you. When you set what? Appointed times to pray. The Lord will meet you there because I I think it's relationship. Like I So I don't say God leaves you and then he meets you. No, no, no, no, no. I just think there's an intentionality and awareness. Yeah. See, let me tell you. No, no, that is not that's not See, God said, "I will never leave you or forsake you. Not forsake you." So, when you say, "I will meet you at 6:00 a.m. every morning." Are you saying that, "Okay, he's going to go. He's off duty tonight." No, it's I think to your point is an awareness that I'm actually spending time this intentional and I'm being intentional about hearing during that time. Yes. So that's the you thing. And it's not to say that I'm not here any other time, but I'm like being super intentional. It's for you. Yeah. It's for you. Yeah. If you turn to God right now, he would be here. Mhm. Right. But you have said at 6:00 a.m. Right. It's like you It's like God is with you, but you're like, "Yo, I'm not going to talk to you on 6:00 a.m. 6 a.m. Right." And God is like, "Really, we have to wait until 6:00 a.m. Okay, cool. Cool." So you and him 6:00 a.m. But understand this, he doesn't go away and then come back at 6:00 a.m. Right. He's not in heaven. I say, "I have an appointment with Esther at 6:00 a.m. Then he will come down the elevator." Mhm. No, he's with you. Yeah. That is why when you say, "God, help me." He hears you. Yes. Yeah. When you say, "God, man, bless this food." He's there with you. When you say, "God, I'm tired. I need strength." He's there. Yeah. Right. He never leaves us nor forsakes us. Right? And I think that if you understand that, then you understand that God does not expect you to be ceremonial at every turn. He does not expect a session of praise and worship before you open your mouth and speak to him. They say the protocols of heaven. Which protocols? They are the protocols of the king. Listen. God Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. He taught the disciples to pray. He says, "Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Right? Some of those things are he's saying to you, right? This is who God is. This is the God you're coming to meet. Yeah. Right. You you saying our father who art in heaven is an acknowledgement that you are praying to a God who is not um physically. You can't see him. You're praying to a spiritual being. Yeah. Right. But we take some of those things as okay he said hallowed be your name so I have to worship God first. How many times did Jesus in his prayers right? When he was um giving holy communion right he said um after he had broken the bread he gave thanks said he gave thanks. He he that's all he did. He gave thanks. He gave thanks. Father thank you for this. Mhm. When he was praying for the disciples he said I I have kept them. Mhm. Mhm. You know, keep them. There was no long sessions of praise and worship. Paul, no long sessions of praise and worship. Where do we get this long session of praise and worship from the Old Testament and even the Old Testament, right? We don't fully we we look at David's as at the Psalms. We don't look at the religious ceremonies, right? and say, "Okay, before the sacrifice of the bulls and the goats, were there praise and worship sessions?" Do you understand what I'm saying? Now, I have no problems with praise and worship before before I hear about it, right? But we should understand that sometimes speaking your praise is enough. It's enough. Mhm. Right. I will enter his gates with thanksgiving coming to his court with praise. Right. That is David speaking. Right. Yeah. It is not you cannot enter his gates. And David many times was talking about that bringing the was talking about bringing the ark back to Jerusalem. Right. But it's okay. Enter his gates with 10 seconds with praise. We love it. I love it. Fine. But me, I can't sing. I have to be in the I have to be so focused and so out of sight of myself to open my voice to sing. And that happens sometimes, right? No, I can't see myself. I see myself. I hear myself or I'm caring about I I can't because I Yeah, let's not even go there. But anyway, point I'm trying to make is this guys. We have to come to a point where we understand what prayer
(41:01)Prayer is Just a Conversation
is. Prayer is talk to God. M say it in whatever language you know in English in if you if you're not a native English speaker in whatever language right there's so many things that man the the the the the the church right has done itself a disservice in not actually praying as frequently as we should and the reason why is because we have set up prayer as this major production it's not a production My guys, it's it's it's a conversation and you can have that conversation at any time, anywhere, any place. There is no time inappropriate and there is no place inappropriate for prayer. And there is no mandated length for it to be powerful. The only thing that is required is that you believe. That's all. Believe in the God you're speaking to. believe that Jesus Christ paid for your sins and you become that righteous man. Yeah. Because the Bible says that our righteousness comes from faith. Yeah. Not from our actions. Yeah. Amen. There you have it, guys. It's it's not about the methodology. It's not about the theatrics. It's theatrics, drama ceremony. Thank you. It's about your faith. Yeah. Pray anytime, anywhere. Yep. Just pray, man. I have a long Yep. All right. We ask that you guys follow us, share. Um, subscribe. Subscribe. And also, if you guys have any topics that you want us to discuss on the pod, let us know. We are open to the topics. We want to dissect them. We want to hear what you guys want to hear, right? We want to explore what you guys want us to explore. PS, we want to hear from you. We want to hear what you got to say. A lot apparently a lot. Anyways, thank you guys. We'll see you guys next time. Peace. Unfiltered.