2021 Hawaii Prayer Breakfast Special with Priscilla Shirer

and i've got two lovely ladies here what's your name missy and how about you christina now you've got some books there in front of you tell me what they are uh this is uh the armor of god study that priscilla wrote as well as elijah so um i'm here with my women's group and our group actually formed doing this study five years ago and we've continued to meet at weekly or bi-weekly and um right now we are on week six of elijah and we're so excited to see priscilla that's great she's coming up next so yeah that's why i keep listening i don't want to miss her i'm very excited to hear tony evans and priscilla shire too really i'm surprised yeah she's my very favorite communicator of the bible woman how many bible studies have you done using priscilla's material every single one of them oh you're kidding me been involved with the prayer breakfast for some time we've been involved with a national prayer breakfast for about 38 years and the hawaiian prayer breakfast since we moved here from washington d.c 18 years ago so we've been on the committee for a long time i'm currently in two different studies with priscilla shire she never ceases to expand the universe of my knowledge of jesus christ i don't worship a person but i love to worship with people who worship him and even though she's expanded my knowledge of jesus christ i expect for it to get blown up today even more there's an old saying you can only get what you expect and i think god is going to confound people's expectations today that's perfect but here's the bigger question are you a waffle guy or a pancake guy you know do i look like i need waffles or pancakes but thank you french toast that's not even on your menu it's the secret item on the menu but it's a great day and it is a miracle day i was so stoked for priscilla shire i did not sleep so i see your eyes darting around because you don't want to you don't want to be missing priscilla what are you expecting to hear from priscilla no i'm going to freak out and scream she's just i love first of all i love how she's always so well put together i love the way she speaks i just am moved every time i hear her so yeah how about you what are you expecting for her i'm i'm just attending with my mother-in-law actually i'm not sure yeah get away no i'm not sure i'm just excited to be here i saw him this morning in his jesus chair he had his eyes closed he had worship and he was just praying out loud and it's just being anchored as that son and as that daughter that we connect with him that's that's hang time with jesus amen well listen i have a big question for you but i'm going to have to pass the question because you got to get up there we got to get ready all right god bless you guys enjoy good morning everybody it's so great to be here to have an opportunity to see all of you that stayed for the second half of the morning i know that every time i hear dad i see you way back there waving high every single time dad preaches which the four of us there are four siblings i have three siblings so there are four of us all together we all attend oak cliff bible fellowship church in dallas that is our home church where dad and mom started the church that we all still attend and all of our children their grandchildren we all still attend there they started that church when i was one year old so i've known i've known nothing other than being underneath the teaching of dr tony evans at every single time i'm like lord have mercy i'm so grateful for him and i'm so grateful that you all would give us the privilege of being here all together our dad my brother anthony i get to be here with my husband as well and we brought one of our sons the other two had a couple of things going on my older sister crystal i thought i'd let you lay eyes on her i know she doesn't want to be pointed out but crystal just stand up over there so that they can see you because dad talked about you in the message this morning this is my oldest sister crystal right there who just stood up she is sitting next to her husband jesse and then my aunt is here as well who is my mother's sister she is here as well and then our beloved miss sylvia who's been serving at our church for about 30 years now or more and so just a whole posse of us came up from dallas texas and it feels like such a gift to be able to participate in this 42nd annual prayer breakfast with you i hope that what i can do for just a few moments is share something that will just add a layer of thought that the holy spirit might be able to cement in your heart on what dad already said this morning and that it will just help to cement it and maybe even put an exclamation point on it in your life as was just mentioned a few moments ago i do have three sons and they are not little anymore they once were but around the age 12 years old or so my boys all start sprouting up very quickly so by the time my oldest was about 13 years old he was nearly six feet tall he already wore a size 14 men's shoe when he was 13 years old all three of my sons have followed that path so now at 18 and 16 and then my youngest jude is getting ready to be 13 years old my oldest two stand about six foot three inch tall everybody in the house is now towering over me all i do is feed people all day long every day that is my full-time job and one of the ways that their size works on the behalf is that they are athletes they like football and basketball and at one point my second son was mostly engrossed in baseball that was the thing that he did american baseball is what he loved and we enjoyed watching him play he was actually pretty good at it at a fairly young age probably because of his size he could get a lot of power behind his swing and when he would swing he would send the ball sailing i remember at 10 years old was the first time he sent the ball sailing over the net we were so proud of him seeing the potential that he could have as a baseball player i enjoy watching my sons during spring ball baseball during the spring i like it i like going to practices in the evenings i like sitting down there on the bleachers with the other parents underneath the lights of the baseball diamond and watching my kid practice i like the saturday morning early games in the spring here you are at 8 a.m in the morning or so and you got this game you know you're sitting there with the other parents starbucks in hand as you watch your kid play i enjoy that very much the only problem with spring ball though is that it is going to become summer ball i'm not exactly sure what happens to the climate here in hawaii but i would assume that it might be fairly similar maybe maybe not to what happens in texas all i can tell you all about texas is that it does not warm up slightly in the summer it gets blistering hot in the summer and so you feel like actually the sun is mad at you about something you're just sitting there trying to enjoy your life but the sun is beating down on you you've probably been at your children's athletic games before where you're trying to enjoy it but you are just plain old flat out hot anybody know what i'm talking about and you just are feeling the sweat bristle up on your brow and then roll down your face and it's the kind of hot in texas where the sweat doesn't just roll down your face it's rolling down your t-shirt and down the back of your shorts and your jeans and you really want to enjoy this but really all you can think is is it okay to pray my kids team loses so we can go home and i will neither confirm nor deny that i have ever done that but on occasion at the end of the summer when there's not just one game on a saturday at the end of the summer there's going to be a tournament that's where the problem sets in because it means that you're going to be there not just for one game but for a second and then if they have the nerve to do well you're going to have to be there for a third and then they're going to make you come back the next day and they're going to put your kids team in a whole new bracket of teams you'll face that those teams at 8 a.m and then 10 a.m you get a little lunch break and then you come back at 2 p.m then you got to come back the next day for the same and i remember on one particularly hot summer day we got that little lunch break between games and we were so relieved because we got to go sit in a little restaurant where there was some some air condition and some ice water that the ice stayed in for a little while and then we came back and parked in the parking lot for the next game we opened up the back of the suv and we took out all of the gear and supplies and the bats and the you know the the tent that we had to sit underneath and all of the gear that we had for the game and we started walking back over towards the game i was following behind my second son he might have been 11 or so at the time i'm following behind him you need to know he is a fairly upbeat gregarious courageous personality he's always looking forward to the next challenge he was excited about the game i remember as i followed my boy that i could see the skip in his step i could see his chin was lifted high his shoulders were back he was excited about the game that he was about to play but as we walked just the short distance from where we parked to the baseball diamond i saw his countenance completely change i watched my son's shoulders that had been back i watched them sort of hunch over i saw his head start hanging down i saw him get a little bit fidgety he looked like he was worried or concerned i watched his eyes start darting around and here i am following him and i'm trying to figure out as i'm carrying the the uh bat and the bag that i had in my hand and i'm watching him and i'm trying to figure out what is happening to my son that is making this courageous go-getter of a young man feel and look so differently as he makes his way over to the baseball diamond then i looked beside us and i realized that as we were walking we were passing players from another team they were laying in the grass underneath the shade of a big tree and as we passed these players who were sprawled out in the grass i realized that i recognized these boys these guys who made up the team that we were about to play next these guys were a part of a team that was an excellent team we had faced them earlier in the season and when we had played them earlier in the season these boys had annihilated my my son and his team these were a team filled with serious baseball players you know the kind of team that has the serious parents these were the kind of players that when these boys were born at birth their parents put a baseball in one hand and a mitt on the other and they've been waiting on this their whole lives that kind of team and i remember these boys they are excellent players we're about to face them next my son as he passed them and realized he was about to have to play this team his countenance changed he became a little riddled with anxiety and fear because he knew he was going to have to face this team but as we walked past them two of the t team members from the opposing team leaned over and started whispering to each other having played our team before they remembered jc my second son one team member leaned over to the other in what he thought was a whisper but we could overhear him he leaned over and he said there goes that big kid from the red sox team the other one leaned back and said is that the kid that hit the ball and it went over the fence yeah that's him that's the first baseman he is jerry shire when my son heard his name crossed the lips of the opposing team members those shoulders that had been hung down all of a sudden they popped back up again i watched my boy with his chin hanging down all of a sudden his chin went up and i watched my boy get a little swag back in his step as he started heading over to the baseball diving in fact we had to pull him down a few notches before we got to the next game because it is actually amazing in that short moment i saw the difference that can take place in a person when you just really overhear and understand what the enemy thinks about you when he sees you coming even if the challenge remains when you know who you are when you know who you've been called to be and when you recognize that the one who is against you even if you don't believe every single thing that the word of god declares to be true about you and about me even if we don't believe it y'all the enemy does he knows that you have already been given the victory he knows that you have already been completely forgiven he knows that there is therefore now no condemnation for those of us who are in christ jesus he knows that you have been made competent by the spirit of god and y'all he knows that in the end we win what a tragedy it would be then if he could just sprinkle out a little challenge in front of us and that be enough to cause us to back down in fear and insecurity to the point that we won't even step up to the plate of being who it is that god has called us to be as sons and daughters of the most high gods but when you and i remember who we are it changes the way we face the battles and as dad mentioned earlier today and as we all know very well there are many battles that you and i are facing on the global stage but also underneath the roof of our own houses in our marriages and in our parenting and at the schools at which we teach and the offices where we work and the churches where we serve and the classroom students that we are in there are challenges that we are facing and i came to just reiterate to you this morning that no matter how deep or wide or big or vast the challenge that you may be facing or the challenge that i may be facing don't back down the spirit of god lives on the inside of you and has called us to walk in victory it is at least in part to this end that i thought i might um i was going to say end our time together but i know we have another session after this but at least put an exclamation point on what dad shared with you this morning by reminding you of a portion of scripture that the apostle paul wrote in the book of ephesians the book of ephesians i know many of you most of you probably are incredibly familiar with because the apostle paul of all of his writing scholars say that the book of ephesians really is the cream of the crop of all of his writing and y'all know the apostle paul was a bad brother he wrote a whole bunch of letters that made up for us the majority of what would become the new testament but of all of those writings theologians say that the cherry on top of the cake is the book of ephesians and that's because he spends more than the first half of the book just telling you and reminding you as sons and daughters who you are he wants you to know in the first chapter and then the second chapter and then the third chapter that even if nobody else has chosen you and even if you felt rejected he says i want you to know that you've been hand-picked and hand-selected adopted into the family of god he trips over himself to make sure you know that there has been grace that has been lavished upon you so that you can walk in freedom and victory every single day of your life he wants you to know that you are completely forgiven he wants you to know that you have been sealed by the holy spirit of god he wants you to know that you have so vast an inheritance available to you that you and i will never be able to grab hold of the fullness of the riches that we have as adopted sons and daughters into the family of the most high god in fact he is so dead set on making sure we know the power of who we are as the sons and daughters of god that he just burst out in a prayer in the first chapter and he says i'm praying that the eyes of your heart would be opened because if you would just know who you are it will change the course of your life and then he's trying to figure out how do i close this book i have gone out of my way to share with them the lavishness of the grace of god poured over them and the inheritance that is available to them and the victory that is theirs by virtue of their relationship with jesus christ the apostle paul picture him would you sitting at the time in a roman prison probably was sweat bristled up on his brow leaning over parchment paper with an ink quill in hand he's trying to figure out how do i put an exclamation point on this letter to make sure that the people of god will walk in victory every single day of their lives and he finalizes his letter with these words in ephesians chapter 6 verse 10. he says finally you be strong in the lord and in the strength of his might put on the full armor of god so that you may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil he says i want you to know that we are not wrestling against flesh and blood but against the rulers and against the powers and against the world forces of darkness and against the spiritual forces of wickedness that are in the heavenly places he says in verse 13 so therefore take up the full armor of god so that you may be able to resist in the evil day and having done everything to stand for he says you ought to just go ahead and stand firm [Applause] therefore the apostle paul introduces really what dad already described so eloquently this morning he introduces the concept for us of spiritual warfare he says i want you to know that every single battle that you are facing every single struggle that you are having in your finances and in your relationships in your health in your own peace of mind and peace of heart and the relationship with your coworker or your bowels with spouse with your teenager or your toddler with your adult child every single issue that you and i are facing the apostle paul says i want you to know that that person or that tangible issue actually isn't really your real enemy he says you have an enemy that cannot be touched that cannot be seen that cannot be detected with the five senses and the whole goal of the enemy is get is to get you to forget that he is the culprit behind much of what we are facing in this life his whole goal is to shift your attention stage left so that you forget often he's the one standing just off stage pulling the strings of much of what is disturbing us in our existence because he knows that if you are focused on the wrong person or the wrong issue or the wrong thing then you will direct all of the wrong solutions at the wrong issue and you will never actually hit him where it hurts the apostle paul says you have an enemy and your enemy is not the person that you are sitting next to today your enemy is not the person that gives you the most grief or struggle or strife in your life your enemy is nothing that you can see or touch or feel or detect with your five physical senses you have a very real enemy and the apostle paul says to the believers in his day and by virtue of the power of the holy spirit he says to us today right here in the year 2021 open up your eyes and see that there is an enemy who is hoping he's banking on the fact that you will forget he's there he wants you to think that just because he is invisible he is also fictional he wants you to chalk him up to no more than a caricature for a kid's storytime story time adventure book he doesn't want you to think that he is a very real enemy when i was my children were very very young we took them to a harvest festival at a small church around the corner from our house it's called faith bible church we would take them there because it was a really small church and so in this parking lot they would have a festival and i could keep my eye on all the boys my sister has five children but her youngest three are the exact same ages as my three so we have six boys that are the exact same age and we would take them to this harvest festival because we could keep our eyes and our hands on everybody in close proximity i remember taking them there for the harvest festival and this church would have a trunk or treat does anybody know what i mean when i say trunk or treat okay churches don't do that that much anymore but it is when a church will have volunteers from their their membership that will come they will put their cars in the parking lot open up the trunk of their car and create some sort of carnival or fair game outside of the trunk of the car kids will line up behind the trunk of one car after the after the other they will do the game and then they'll get some some bit of candy or a gift for um their achievement in that particular game so we just go there for harvest festival every fall i remember one particular fall my youngest was four i was grabbing him by the hand as we waited in what was the longest line of the night it wasn't behind the trunk of a car it was behind the trunk of well the bed i should say of a truck it was a truck so this was the most exciting game that night and i remember the people that owned this truck they had been very creative they had taken a table top a big wooden piece of board they had placed it beside the bed of the truck they had cut six holes in the top of the board draped it with some drapery they put some stairs right there at the bed of the truck so that a kid could walk up into the bed of the truck turn to the side they would give the kid a plastic hammer a plastic mallet and out from those holes would pop up a puppet every couple of seconds and the kid had to run up and down inside the bed of the truck trying to hit the top of every puppet that popped up out of the side of the board it was a homemade whack-a-mole game is what it was the line was long here we were standing there waiting our turn behind us there was another little kid about my son jude's age and he was also waiting in this very long line and he was very annoyed about the whole situation he was vocalizing his annoyance to his mother and all of us were laughing out loud as we were listening to this little kid tell his mother how annoyed he was that he had to stand in this long line mom this carnival supposed to be fun for me and standing in line ain't fun for me how about mom i go do all these other games while you stand in the line and hold my spot and then i'll come back when you get to the front of the line we giggled at that but not only that we giggled also because this kid went on to describe how annoyed he was at the whole prospect of this game because he was looking forward to it but he didn't quite get it he said why in the world would i spend all that time and energy running up and down the inside of the bed of that truck to hit the top of those puppets that keep popping up through the holes when mom every time a kid hits the top of that puppet it disappears but then another one pops up over there then the kid runs over and hits the top of that one but another one pops over there over there mom what is the point of this actual game he was so annoyed at the whole prospect of the game that before any of us could think or see straight we just saw a four-year-old flash by our peripheral vision as he ran forward grabbed the drapery and pulled it off of the tabletop underneath there were three adults with puppets on each hand and we laughed long and hard but we also learned a lesson that there is always something you cannot see that is influencing what you can and if you and i spend all of our time and energy and our solutions and our own rationale and our resources dealing with everything that just keeps popping up in our marriages and in our finances and in our relationships and on our jobs and in our ministries and in our churches and in our society if we just keep racing around using our own rationale and our own resources to deal with everything that's coming up to the surface if we only do that we will find at best we are exhausted and our solutions are temporary the apostle paul says pull the curtain back and let the enemy know we got our eyes on you we see you back there behind the curtain and the apostle paul wants you to know that everything we're seeing happening in our culture the struggles i've had in my own home this year that you've had in your home this year the division the seeds of jealousy or envy or strife that maybe you've experienced in some area of your life the apostle paul uses a very key word that i wanted to make sure you heard and did not skip over when i just quoted and read through that passage of scripture he says i'm going to describe for you the warfare tactics of the enemy he says he schemes come on y'all somebody say schemes i want to tell you something uh about my personality i am a fairly easy going person fairly easygoing it's very difficult for someone to offend me if they do something to me and it was hurtful or whatever i can get over it real quick i'm not an easily offended person if someone apologizes to me for something i'm the kind of person that i kind of can forgive easy i'm just wired that way i'm not easily offended it is hard for someone to hurt me but if i find out that someone didn't just accidentally hurt me but they were planning to hurt me well now that changes the playing field because when i find out that you were scheming that makes me look at this whole situation a little bit differently when i realize and recognize that you've actually been taking time and attention to study my habits and to see when i come and when i go to figure out what my weak points are so that you can actually take advantage of them and when i discover that not only have you been scheming against me but you've been doing the same thing with the people that i love most with the man that god has given me to be married to for the past 22 years when i find out that not only have you been skimming against me but you've been scheming against him you've been looking into his history where he came from and what he's done and what he's been through and the hurts that he's suffered maybe so that you can see how to make what's in his history and to make what is in my history become a point of contention between us so that we can have peace and stability and health in our relationship when i find out that you've had your eyes on him to try to detect what weak points he may have so that you can dangle certain carrots at certain times in a certain way to very strategically draw him away and when i find out that not only have you been doing that about me and my man but you've actually had the nerve to have a scheme in place about these three boys that god has given me to rear and raise prayerfully to becoming the warrior men of god that god has called them to be when i find out you've already been looking at my boys trying to figure out how you can trip them up as they become who god has created them to meet be well listen if i find out you've been scamming against me and the people that i love well if it's a war you want it's a war you gonna have [Applause] y'all we can't just lay back and let the enemy run roughshod over our lives we've got to be the people of god who rise up and stand in the gateway of our homes and say not today satan not on our watch we've got to be women of god and men of god and church leaders who will stand up leaders in the community and in business who will stand up in the gates of our community and say not today satan we see you back there behind the curtain behind the curtain with all this political unrest that pops up and racial unrest that pops up and financial instability and concerns in our health both both emotionally and mentally and physically we see you and we're gonna use some weapons that actually work against you and so the apostle paul he says to lay down all the other weapons that we've been using that ain't been working anyway and pick up some weapons that actually have some power and in the remainder of these verses in ephesians chapter six he begins to tell us what are the traditionally taught six but i believe seven weapons that will actually push back the kingdom of darkness he says you need a belt called truth and you're going to need a breastplate called righteousness and if you want any hope of being able to move forward with any stability you're going to have to have something for your feet your feet are going to need to be shot with the gospel of the preparation of peace he says then you're going to need a shield because the enemy has flaming missiles that are going to be sent your direction in hopes of setting a flame the course of your life you're going to need a shield erected over your life and that shield is called your faith and then he says you're going to need something for your mind because the enemy is going to try to detract you and deter you with lies that will become strongholds and strongholds will stand against the knowledge of god in your life so you're going to need something to cover your mind he says you're going to need a helmet and the helmet is called salvation and then he says not only that you're also going to need a sword you're going to need something so that you can be on the offense against the schemes of the devil you're going to need a sword and the sword is the word of god but then he does not end with those six he says in verse 18 there is a seventh weapon and the weapon is pray do not discount the power of the seventh weapon and as dad said earlier don't just pray once a year at the annual prayer gathering prayer has to be a regular priority in the course of your life as women and as men as husbands and as wives as parents as an entrepreneurs as ministry builders and church leader church leaders and congregants within the church a priority of all of our lives have got has got to be to pray pray prayer does not manipulate god what prayer does is access all of the things that god has determined to do for us anyway prayer is the key that god has given us to unlock the resources of heaven and have those re resources unleashed onto the landscape of our lives why wouldn't we use a key like that prayer is actually what activates all of the other pieces of armor so that they become operative and functional and powerful in our lives and so i ask you brothers and sisters at this prayer breakfast have you prioritized prayer the victory you are looking for is directly correlated to whether or not you have prioritized prayer and i have prioritized prayer in our lives if you tell me that you want victory in some area of your life or mine where you remote where you or i are most struggling or some area of our country or culture where we most feel a burden and a compassion about seeing god bring resolution in that area if we say we want victories in those areas but we do not prioritize prayer we will never ever see the victory that we are looking for if my people who are called by my name if they will humble themselves listen if they will do it this doesn't even require a brand new evangelistic effort to get a whole bunch of other folk to pray it's just if the people who are already called by my name if i could just get them to prioritize prayer he says that i will hear from heaven and i will heal the whole land i wish i had time and i don't i don't want to spend too much time i know we have something else to do but there are two other pieces of armor that i thought i'd just share a couple of thoughts with you regarding the very first one in the list that the apostle paul brings up is the belt of truth now in the first century a roman soldier was a ubiquitous presence meaning people would just saw soldiers all the time walking up and down the street it was a normal part of everyday life and most of the time when you saw a soldier coming you would first be uh take note of the brightly colored colored feathers that would be at the top of the helmet or you'd see the huge breastplate that was guarding the major vital organs or you might see the boots the boots had hob nails or big steel points that would be at the bottom of that to help them in their terrain you would take note of maybe the huge broadsword that was about three or four feet long there were so many impressive parts of the uniform of a roman soldier but when the apostle paul was trying to write for us about the importance and priority of being people who are girded in truth he did not pick the most impressive parts the flashiest parts the most easily noticeable parts of the roman's soldier's uniform rather he chose just the piece that the roman soldier put on first the very first thing that a soldier would put on was this belt of truth and the reason why was not only because it brought stability to their core but the belt was actually the hanging place for every other piece it was connected in some form or fashion and brought stability and centralized everything else that the soldier would have on he says to the believers if you want any hope at all of being able to stand firm against the scheme of the enemy then you're going to have to be first a person who has chosen to be girded in truth and just because you attend church on sunday and just because you're a part of the bible study group and just because you're an active part of um organizations and events like this one does not also automatically mean that you have chosen to gird your life in truth in other words for the word of god to actually be the compass for your life for you to have made a decision that as for me and my house what we gonna do is we gonna serve the lord that whether or not it is politically correct or whether or not it is applauded and appreciated by the masses whether or not high school student i have to and you will have to walk alone i will stand for the truth of my great god you've got to decide that you will be a person who knows god's word and then aligns your whole life to it so i want to tell you this about about dad my father is many many things he joked earlier at the beginning of his message about being a great orator and an intellectual and all those things he actually is all of those things he is a great man but here's what you need to also know about daddy he is incredibly technologically challenged it's embarrassing how technologically challenged he is and i remember this from like 15 or 20 years ago we had a a la we had a um a monitor you know a computer in the guest bedroom of our parents home they still live in or my dad now lives in the exact same house they raised us in they've been in that same house since i was seven years old when we moved there and in that back room i remember we had a computer there and i also remember when laptops became a thing everybody had i remember dad had a laptop it was in the drawer of his desk in the office so he had this technology available he had no idea how to use any of it still to this day my father writes out his messages using a yellow legal pad you know those yellow pads he actually hand writes in chicken scratch his messages none of us except our wonderful miss sylvia over there who's been dad's assistant for 30 years you are the only person that can read whatever dad has written down on those legal pads he does not type anything out i remember many years ago when my brother our youngest brother he was playing football for baylor university dad was so excited when one of his sons went to go play college level football and so one day he said i need to get on this computer so that i can go to baylor university website and find my son's photo in this roster at the time my sister crystal was at the house with dad he said crystal come back here and show me how to turn this thing on she commenced to go back in the back with him with the computer we had there in the house she showed him how to turn it on and then he said okay how do i get to the page crystal showed him how to put in the url address that would get to baylor's homepage just as he was about to ask or he did ask how do i maneuver around this page so i can get to where i'm actually going the phone rang crystal had to run out to another part of the house to get the phone and and he said how do i maneuver around this page she said as she left the room use the mouse so there's this little thing there with a tail sticking out of it he assumes that the mouse the way i understand it my sister returned to see our relatively intelligent father with the mouse up in midair just waving it around trying to see if it was gonna do anything when that did not work y'all i kid you not he put the mouse flat on the computer screen and was dragging it up and down so here's this man with a computer at home with a laptop and another computer available to him at the church in the offices he had all of these computers available to him but he did not know how to use it and because he didn't know how to use it he couldn't receive the full benefits of it and the thing about you and i sometimes as believers and churchgoers is that y'all we have so many bibles available to us because we've got that nice big pretty one that we put on the coffee table or on the mantelpiece and then we have the little small one that we keep beside us on the nightstand then we have one with all the marks and the tatters and the and the the torn pages and the edges that looks like we've really used it that's the one that makes us look holy we take that one to church with us we have all these bibles available to us but having them does us no good unless we know how to use them and david said here's how you use the thing you hide it in your heart so that you will not sin against him paul says if you want any hope against the scheme of the enemy you've got to make sure you are girded first of all in truth the reason why is because the enemy's main calling card y'all is deception it's like a bait and switch he pulls the wool over your eyes and the problem is when you're the one being deceived everybody else may know but you don't has within it a blinding agent that somehow causes you not to not be aware of your surroundings rightfully aware of your surroundings so if you're the one being deceived you can be standing on the edge of disaster and everybody can see that if you take one more step you're gonna fall but somehow you can't tell that you're in that position and the truth be told that if we were to really take time and i took this microphone and we just started passing around the room i know i could start by telling you about a time and a season in my life that i can look back on and realize in hindsight that i was being deceived can i get one witness that knows what i'm talking about because it's some at some points in our life it's not until we are outside of those seasons of our life that we can tell in hindsight that we're being deceived but in the moment you don't know you think you are seeing correctly you think you are judging correctly you think your feelings are correct you feel like the opinions that you are receiving are correct you have no idea that you're being deceived that's the reason why we have to have a standard that is outside of ourselves that continues to remain true and solid and that we align ourselves to regardless of the way we feel the enemy is hoping that we will trust our feelings he is hoping that we will trust our own understanding he is hoping that we will depend upon and lean into the opinions of everybody else that is around us what is most of threat to him is not someone who just goes to church or someone who just attends the gathering what is most a threat to the kingdom of darkness is a believer who is standing firm on the truth of god and uses god's word as the moral compass for his or her life the apostle paul says you need a belt of truth and then finally he says you also need a breastplate and the breastplate is called righteousness jerry and i live in a fairly rural part we have lived up until recently in a fair rural rural area of the dallas fort worth metroplex it's close enough to the city to get there quick but it's it feels like it's worlds away i like it on a little quiet lazy two-lane road the house we were in was a pretty small little home but we loved it so much because it had a big backyard and i already told you guys i got three boys and i'm one of those parents that believes in go outside and play anytime they had the nerve to come to me and say mom i'm bored i'd say say what no you're not you see that tree out there go play with it i don't care if you eat it i don't play if you play play tag with it you can do whatever you want but you're not bored out here in the country i enjoy that by boys being able to spend time outside our neighbor across the street she's one of my closest friends still to this day has been for 20 years she has a huge pond in front of her property it's big it's several acres big so we can row out in a little little row boat they got got on craigslist we can row out to the middle of it and fish i've taken my boys fishing a lot most of the time my sister lived next door to me as well so we take all six boys sometimes we stand on this little cove right on the side of the pond most of the time we just fish right there in an hour we can just catch two or three fish really easily little sun perch nothing nothing major we would take the two fishing poles that we bought on sale at the local super walmart around the corner the same walmart that my dad detests going to the tackle box we also got from the walmart um you know i've got like some scissors in there in case we need to cut the line i have some extra hooks we always need extra those little ball bobber thingies we need extras of those so i have extras in there and i also have gloves on the tackle box because you all know i don't mind going fishing but i ain't gonna actually touch no fish so we grab whatever hot dog meat is left over from the week that's our bait because you know we're professional fishermen and we go to the edge of the pond we drop our line in and we fish but every now and then we're feeling adventurous and this little rowboat that my neighbors got on craigslist sometimes we'll say let's let's paddle out to the middle of the pond but i have to feel adventurous to do that and the reason why is because my neighbors when the boat isn't being used we'll leave it upside down right there on the bank of the pond rightfully so because it needs to drain all the water that may have been in it or or if it rains it would fill up so they've got to leave it upside down but the problem is to get in it now i have to turn it over and i just know that because the environment that has been created under the upside down boat is dark and moist and damp that when i turn this thing over inevitably something is either going to hop out from underneath it something's going to waddle out from underneath it or worst of all lord have mercy something is going to slither out from underneath it so whenever we decide to do this i always stand way back at the tip of the boat the boys stand on the side so that they can catch whatever's coming out and we turn it over and inevitably something comes out here's the deal never once have i ever had to send a golden sealed invitation into the brush nearby to tell the critters hey we're coming at one o'clock today if you want to join us feel free never once have i had to stand there and call out and say hey we're here come over and make yourself at home never one once have i had to invite them because the environment created by the upside down boat is invitation enough righteousness is right side up living that invites the sunlight of god's favor and blessing on your life [Applause] unrighteousness is a lifestyle a pattern of upside down behavior that is out of alignment with the truth of god that you say you affirm in your life it's upside down living that creates an environment for the enemy and his demonic influences to make themselves at home in your life and in your relationships and in your heart and even in your mind and on your job and in your ministry and in your churches and in our culture unrighteousness creates an environment where the devil can just play us for the fool that's why he hopes that god's people will no longer prioritize holiness i want you to know the apostle paul says that living right not perfect but honoring god as a lifestyle actually becomes a breastplate that protects your vital spiritual organs from the advances of the enemy because if a roman soldier had on every other piece and was strong had muscles and was smart and had experience in battle but if that soldier went into battle with all of that but without a breastplate one shot to the heart could wipe him out even though he was so well equipped the enemy wants there to be people who will prioritize everything except plain old flat out living right i want to encourage you sons and daughters of the most high god brothers and sisters pursue holiness it's not old school or something that was just for our grandmothers and our great grandmamas you and i have to have integrity we have to have character we have to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling by which we have been called i'll tell you in closing that the breastplate was the heaviest piece that a roman soldier would carry 70 pounds heavy if all of that weight was on the soldier's shoulders as it was draped over the shoulders to be carried if all of that weight had to be shouldered by the soldier can you imagine how much energy would be depleted before they ever even got to the battlefield they wouldn't be able to move nimbly or quickly or easily with that much weight on them and so the belt one of its responsibilities was to take some of the weight of the breastplate off of the shoulders soldiers so that all of the weight didn't have to be shouldered by them there was something else that would carry and take off some of that weight so that they would still have enough energy and vitality to perform well on the field of battle here's what i want you to know if you are trying to carry your righteousness all by yourself that is too heavy a wait for you to bear but there is some truth that will take that weight off of your shoulders because if the enemy can't saddle us and destroy us and distract us with sin or rebellion or addiction he will try to saddle you and slow you down with perfection to where you're trying to pursue perfectionism and pursue your own righteousness and you don't recognize that you don't have to carry all that weight on your own and here is the truth that will take some of the weight off the truth is that 2000 years ago a man named jesus christ came and he was the perfect one we don't need another perfect one the perfect one has already come and he sacrificed his life on calvary's tree and then three days later he was raised from the dead once and for all sealing the fact that we would never again have to carry our own righteousness and the scriptures say that the moment you accept that gift that not only does he withdraw from your spiritual bank account the wages that you would owe that i would owe for our own sin but he then credits our spiritual bank account with the righteousness of god in christ jesus so righteousness then is already in you now it just has to be on you and so really quickly before we go to this time of question and answer i just want you to bow your heads for a moment because having spiritual victory in your own personal life or in our communities in our cities in our in our world it begins with making sure you have made a decision to wear the righteousness of jesus christ and it would be remiss of me and our family to have come all this way and to assume that just because you've attended this prayer breakfast that you have accepted the gift that jesus has given you and so even here yes at the prayer breakfast i just want to ask you have you accepted jesus christ as your savior and if you're in this room as every head is bowed and eye is closed and you know that you have not made that decision would you just raise your hand up really high if you want to because today can be the day that changes the course of the rest of your life you can start living in victory starting today if there's anybody in the room that has not made that choice and you want to just raise your hand and wave at me until i see it anybody anybody lord i thank you at the assumption that i'm making in this moment father that every single person in this room knows you as lord i thank you for the victory that is ours in jesus name i praise you father for the armor that you have given us so that we can stand firm against the schemes of the enemy i thank you father that we are already walking in victory i pray that it would be our experience every single day for the rest of our lives we honor you father and we thank you for everything that you have already accomplished on our behalf in jesus name i pray amen so how was the prayer breakfast for you it was extraordinary there's no question that this team of evans the team evans is just what we need in today's environment they're articulate they're representative they're current and they're certainly the godly influence that we're missing in our community conspicuous i know you're a big priscilla fan along with my wife and karen yeah well i'm expecting that she will be like danielle i've missed you that will not happen because she does not know me but she did shout me out on her instagram yesterday so here's oh no i'm just kidding priscilla just spoke about the the truth the girding the truth around your waist sorry i'm getting emotional about this because it just really touched my heart she talked about the armor of god of god and i love the way she puts it into perspective and how the belt of truth is the one that really holds everything else up she said the truth is the core and that it actually holds everything else and holds the weight of everything else and it was something i just really needed to hear because everything that i'm going through right now is just it just it just touched on a lot i am so sorry i'm getting emotional for her willingness to just share her heart with the passion and the purpose that she comes with don't surrender to the enemy uh we're at war we know that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities rules in high places and so we how can we forget that yeah we forget it we forgetting she reminded us hey listen we have an unseen enemy you know i'm not fighting against you brother you're not fighting against me but it's the enemy that wants to separate us and divide us how exciting is this for you to see all these people there's like 1200 people here or plus what do you think about that oh i'm thrilled i love that we're together gathering i love that we're able to pray together to me praying in numbers is so powerful and you've been involved with the prayer breakfast for some time we've been involved with a national prayer breakfast for about 38 years and the hawaiian prayer breakfast since we moved here from washington dc 18 years ago you know we need to represent right we need to live out our faith and we need to not be ashamed of that and make that our our lead story when you pray often for us we have learned to be silent and let god speak to us before we even offer prayers but it is such a connection with our lord it's a personal prayer life and tell me how important is prayer in your life oh vital vital there was definitely a period of time in my life where i neglected prayer where i didn't plug into that power but actually priscilla schreier's war room was something that triggered something in me that i realized i was not activating the power that i had that i wasn't calling upon the power of jesus christ and wasn't just wasn't tapped into that what do you think is going to happen after this with all these people praying together christine i'm hoping it'll be a catalyst you know for us to just seek god more and because that is really the key to everything is seeking god first and so i'm hoping that this will be a catalyst for all of us and of course i'm hoping for good coffee yes yeah well that was my next question are you a coffee person or a tea person coffee i'm i'm okay i i like good coffee as well but she's she's the connoisseur yeah yeah a coffee snob as we say yes i'm right next to you don't worry about that hey aloha everybody we are the kalo team we've been doing production here at the hawaii prayer breakfast and you're watching you

Channel: KALO TV

Views: 112,890

Keywords: priscilla shirer, christian women, prayer, speaker, lifeway women, going beyond ministries, how to pray, priscilla shirer sermons, priscilla shirer 2021, priscilla shirer armor of god

Id: fDYtShq1Rgo

Length: 58min 0sec (3480 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 01 2021