Ask - Pastor Raymond Woodward

well once again we are so appreciative that you have taken the time to join us in our Sunday evening service today and I want to share with you from the word of the Lord you know we are certainly living in one of the strangest times that I think the world has ever seen certainly the strangest time in my lifetime the coronavirus the kovat 19 pandemic has literally brought the world to a screeching halt schools and malls and businesses are closed and huge segments of the global economy teeter literally on the brink of collapse right now while families have to deal with the restrictions of self isolation in their own homes and for many fear seems to be spreading faster than the virus itself and their anxiety has triggered many questions is this the end of the world as we know it is the corona virus somehow God's judgment is there a sinister agenda behind all these invasive restrictions from governments and is this somehow a prophetic sign of the last days I couldn't tell you how many times I've been asked that question in the last few weeks people are wringing their hands and making themselves sick not by catching the virus but by listening to so many doom and gloom predictions and so many constant negative news reports now it is a dire situation to be sure the corona virus has now impacted every nation on the planet and as of this week there were more than 1.5 million active cases around our world with more than 56,000 in serious or critical condition and more than a hundred and fifty thousand deaths no one absolutely no one saw this coming as we entered the year 2020 on the last day of 2019 a Chinese government website had announced the detection of quote a pneumonia of unknown cause in Wuhan an industrial city of 11 million people but that little news rapport seemed quite inconsequential at the time however within two weeks the virus crossed the border of China within four weeks it made its way to Europe and by late February it had taken hold globally by mid-march governments were enforcing lockdowns stay-at-home orders quarantines and self isolation measures and now in mid-april there's still no end in sight and no agreed-upon strategy to return life to normal literally over the last 110 days the corona virus has frozen international travel extinguished economic activity and confined half of humanity to their homes and no one absolutely no one saw it coming meanwhile church buildings like ours sit empty and quiet all in-house gatherings have been canceled with church services being held online only and pastors preaching into video cameras and empty auditoriums like I'm doing right now as Apostolic believers that is so strange and so frustrating to us and for faithful Church attenders my goodness it changes our typical weekly schedule in a dramatic fashion but on this Sunday night I want to say once again as clearly as I can just because the church building is inactive does not mean in any measure that the church is inactive you see the church has a secret weapon that works anywhere and that secret weapon is Prairie the coronavirus did not catch heaven by surprise and I believe God is at work through this pandemic to put his church in the secret place of prayer right now we've discussed it we've talked about it we've preached about it we've taught lessons about it but it is so important that we get it in the core of our spirit that if God our great God allowed the world to be shut down he didn't do that so we could waste the time he did it so we could invest the time and invest it wisely now I'm glad you're able to get a bunch of odd jobs and some spring cleaning done at your house right now but don't only do that I'm grateful that you're able to catch up on your rest and enjoy long walks with your family right now but don't only do that I'm thrilled that you're able to spend some extra time playing and reading with your children right now but don't only do that I'm even okay with you relaxing and enjoying some extra media time right now but for heaven's sake and for your sake don't only do that if you're going to binge on anything don't forget to binge on Bible reading and prayer while you have extra time therein is the problem because prayer can be difficult for hyperactive human beings candidate we've been conditioned by everything in our modern world we have 24/7 convenience stores and microwave ovens and curbside pickup and drive-through windows and online shopping and overnight shipping and express delivery and we have been conditioned to expect things right now the moment we desire it the minute we think about it but if this viral pandemic has taught us anything it's that we don't enjoy waiting we don't like it we chafe at it we resist it we push back we don't like waiting and yet prayer in your Bible is often described as waiting on the Lord there's a little song that was written several years ago and every once in a while we sing it says I don't mind waiting don't mind waiting I don't mind awaiting on the Lord we lift our hands we sing I told mine away I don't mind away I don't buy the way oh the Lord beautiful isn't it probably the most beautiful musical lie we ever sing to ourselves because the truth is we certainly do mind waiting we can sing it a hundred times we can put verses with it we can put beautiful music and praise teams to accompany us but we do mind waiting on the Lord and yet if you read your Bible Isaiah chapter 40 and verse 31 says they that wait upon the Lord they are the ones who shall renew their strength they are the ones who shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary and they shall walk and not faint now there are two things drastically wrong with that verse right there and the first is this waiting in that context we expect waiting to be the pathway to weariness but in this context waiting is actually the pathway to renewal and strength so that's just wrong it doesn't feel right to us it doesn't feel right to our hyperactive humanity but this is how god's upside down backwards paradoxical economy works that when you wait you get renewed that when you wait you gain strength there's another problem with that verse it's the sequence of Isaiah's three-fold promise to those who wait and again quite frankly it's backwards according to the rules of Hebrew poetry the sequence of ideas should progress from the lesser to the greater that's how Hebrew poetry works it crescendos it builds it goes from the lesser to the greater and from the weaker to the stronger so that being the case we would expect these promises to be reversed here walk and not faint then run and not be weary and finally the the great one the crescendo mount up with wings as Eagles that sequence walk then run then mount up with wings that's far more dramatic that makes more sense it's more inspiring to us any of us can walk that's commonplace but God sees it otherwise we may want wings so we can go quickly but what we need is to walk without falling down first to live for God consistently to simply not faint and so Isaiah says it this way they shall mount up with wings as Eagles then they're going to do something greater they will run and not be weary and finally the greatest thing on Isaiah's list is they'll be able to walk with God consistently steadily faithfully and not faint there's this other beautiful verse in the very last book in your Bible in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 8 and Jesus speaks of himself and says I am Alpha and Omega the beginning and the ending saith the Lord and then this is the description the Lord which is and which was and which is to come the Almighty every time we meet Jesus in the book of Revelation he is the Jesus who is who was and who is to come literally our God is not confined by time the Greek word there when it says in English the God who is to come the Greek word is Arkell my and it gives the sense of something which is about to happen that we're expecting and anticipating and it's almost here it's just about ready it's about to appear and that's why the message paraphrase of that verse says on the God who is the god who was and the God about to arrive now if you think about it scripturally speaking time is created phenomenon it consists of past present future it's it's linear and you cannot smell or touch or hear or see or feel time but yet time is always there it's ever present and it's ever marching into the future you cannot stop it but time was created by God time had a beginning and time will have an end but our God who is and who was and who is to come the Bible says he is the beginning and the end so he's an eternal God who created time and he works out his purpose in time but he is not bound by time before the creation of the universe there was no time at the end of the ages when this present material universe is dissolved and it's replaced with God's new spiritual universe at that point time as we know it will cease to exist it will be swallowed up into eternity and there shall be no more time just as death will be swallowed up into victory and there shall be no more death do you see it here time is not part of eternity eternity is composed eternity is not composed of segments of time eternity is not time standing still eternity is simply not time at all they're different animals all together eternity doesn't just go on and on and on ad infinitum eternity doesn't go anywhere eternity doesn't do anything eternity simply just is just as God is and so our God who lives and dwells in eternity and time doesn't pass for him and time doesn't impact him time doesn't make him older time doesn't make him weary time doesn't make him weak time doesn't impact God but God made a choice to create time in Genesis chapter 1 verse 1 in the beginning the beginning of what the beginning of time God created and he's obviously God over all of his creation including time time changes things we say it all the time but let me add to that God changes not Jesus looked at a group of people in John chapter 5 and he said before Abraham was I am he didn't say before Abraham was I was because with God there are no past or future tenses and there are none in eternity either there's only one eternal now what does that mean to me pastor well here's what it means I don't have to serve a Jesus who was because he is he is right now as alive and powerful as he ever was he's not dead on a cross or buried in a tomb he's not a has-been he's not washed-up he's not getting older or weaker Jesus is right now in my life and even better than that he's so far above me and beyond me he always has such deeper depths and higher heights and greater blessings for me to walk into that he's not only with me right now but in this sense in the sense of Revelation 1:8 he is the God about to arrive when you serve this Jesus there's always something better greater bigger more powerful more blessed on the horizon it could happen at any moment it could happen any day he's the God about to arrive and so with all of that foundation in place let's consider for a moment on this Sunday night let's consider the subject of Prayer how is prayer this kind of intangible something that Christians do how is this prayer supposed to feel and more important how are you supposed to know if you're doing it right you're not going to like this message tonight perhaps because I can answer that from Scripture prayer is supposed to feel like waiting prayer is waiting on God if this pandemic has taught us anything it's that we don't like to wait wait for businesses to reopen wait for schools to reopen wait for the malls and the stores to reopen wait for your turn to get into a store wait in your home while the medical officials are trying to protect us and figure this all out wait while the government is giving us restriction after restriction we don't like to wait and yet prayer in the scripture is defined by waiting it feels like waiting listen to me if you are doing prayer right you're always going to be believing hoping trusting and expecting for something that is about to arrive I know the world thinks that's absolutely insane and idiotic but not for the child of God I have such trust in this Jesus I have such faith in this Jesus that I believe his promises are greater and bigger and higher and deeper than I can fathom so to me and to you and to us and to his church around the world he is the God who is and who was and who is to come he's the master who is and was Enys about to arrive I know that we're expecting his appearing the rapture his second coming I know we're expecting that he will arrive but there's another sense in which God can arrive with your healing any moment God can arrive with your miracle any day now God can show up in his power even in your home and do the unexpected he's the God who is about to arrive now you think of someone who's in the midst of a terrible trial maybe it's you maybe it's now maybe it's your family and it's a terrible trial and that person whoever they are maybe you they've waited a long time for deliverance and they wait and they pray and the waiting is long and dreary and heavy and at times they have a burst of spiritual energy and they get in a church service or in a conference and in those moments their faith is militant and defying the devil and commanding the spirit realm but then they go home they get beat around by life and circumstance and other times many times they pray with faltering hopes and pleading words and a begging spirit and there are times when they pray and they would tell you it's not so much on praying in faith I'm praying out of faithfulness on just praying out of faithfulness I don't know if I have faith or not I'm just loyal to a god that I haven't seen or heard from in a long time there is only one reason why a person like that may be you there's only one reason why a person like that should keep praying and it's because prayer and waiting are inseparably linked in the Word of God joined-at-the-hip prayer makes absolutely no sense scripturally apart from waiting because prayer is about us being made into the likeness of Christ and that takes time for human beings and because this is the case it is absolutely vital tonight that we grasp this concept in Scripture of divine delay Peter the day of Pentecost preacher in his epistle he tells us don't be ignorant of one thing keep in mind this one thing don't forget this one thing well Peter what is it that's so essential this one thing for us to understand here it is second Peter chapter 3 verse 8 and 9 but beloved be not ignorant of this one thing keep this in mind this is going to help you this will sustain you this will hold you up when your world is crashing in don't be ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day you say Oh Peter you just gave us a riddle no he said here's what I mean let me explain the Lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness God isn't just goofing off he's not just wasting time he's not lazy or unconcerned he's not slack concerning his promise but here's what's going on he's long-suffering toward us he's patient with us he's not willing that any should perish he's holding out to the last possible moment on so many millions of situations all for the salvation of men's souls because he's wanting all to come to repentance God hasn't forgotten you God isn't ignoring you God hasn't turned his back on you God hasn't taken his hand off you God hasn't forgotten your faithfulness or your moments of great faith God is not unjust to forget what you have done for his name's sake but furthermore God is listening and is attentive to the cry of your heart that is called prayer there's this unusual kind of irritating situation in the Gospel of John in chapter 9 as Jesus passed by he saw a man which was blind from his birth and a his disciple said master we got a question who did sin was it this man that sin and that's why he was born blind or wasn't his parents at sinned and God was punishing them and that's why they had a child with a handicap who sinned that he would be born blind and Jesus looked at them and he answered this he said neither hath this man sinned nor his parents he didn't do anything wrong and his mom and dad didn't do anything wrong isn't it strange that we're always looking for somebody to blame isn't it odd that we're always looking for someplace to put all of our hurt and all of our anger and all of our disappointment and we want to blame it on that or blame it on them but Jesus said no it wasn't this man that sinned and it wasn't his parents sinned and then he says something that is so strange and maybe so frustrating for you he said this happened this man was born blind that the works of God should be made manifest in him now we never learned this man's age from the Bible the Bible simply says that he's of age he's an adult he can speak for himself so let's just say he was 20 years old just to say an age his blindness happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life his blindness happened for one reason so that one day Jesus could walk by and heal him of his blindness and God would receive the glory but if you flip that coin and you look at the other side of it 20 years is a mighty long time to wait for the purpose of God to be displayed you can imagine the frustration in that man all those years of feeling around four walls and railings all those years of wandering around in darkness and stumbling over obstacle and for what so that the work of God might be displayed in his life that is so massively frustrating but God doesn't mind waiting oh we can sing it the other way but we do mind waiting but God doesn't mind waiting he is the God who is exactly on schedule and he knows exactly when he's going to arrive with the miracle and the deliverance in your life this business of waiting it's behind all the struggles we experience in prayer you've maybe thought this I know I have if praying worked more obviously and more transparently and more tangibly if the results of our praying were immediate and concrete oh we might still find prayer to be difficult but we wouldn't doubt its usefulness because we would see those results we would see the difference prayer made simply by charting its progress day after day but unfortunately for us who are results driven and results oriented and we're pushed to achieve and were used to instant feedback and immediate gratification unfortunately for us that is not how prayer works now maybe you like me maybe sometimes in your honest moments you find it a little frustrating that with all the power and all the authority that God has stockpiled up in heaven the primary discipline for us his people here on earth is waiting on God waiting we live with the conviction that the Lord is not slow or slack in keeping his promise as some would understand slowness or slackness we've got that conviction we trust the word of God and we know it's true even when our emotions are battling against us we know that our God is so powerful so mighty so massive so awesome that what we think may take forever what we think couldn't happen in a thousand years oh we've got testimonies in our church family we've seen those things happen in one day in one service in one prayer meeting in one single moment what we didn't think could happen in a thousand years but more often we're on the other side of the coin and what we wish would happen in a day seems to be taking forever if you can grasp this with me the key to prayer is realizing that with our God one situation is exactly like another the situation where it should take a thousand years in our mind but it happens in a day and the situation where we think God could fix this in a day but it seems to be dragging out to a thousand years see what you've got to understand is with God one of those situations is identical to the other his power hasn't changed his promise hasn't changed he's the same powerful God Jesus tells one of his famous stories in Luke chapter 18 and Luke gives a little preface to the story here's what he says Jesus spoke a parable unto them to this end there was only one reason Jesus told this story to this end that men ought always to pray and not to faint he told the whole parable because he knew our tendency would be that we'd stop praying too soon and we'd faint along the way Jesus is trying to help his disciples cope with the seemingly endless delays and the seemingly endless disappointments that they are experiencing in prayer and so Jesus tells them this story about an insistent widow woman who literally nagged an unjust judge into granting her plea it's a powerful story here's here's Jesus story he said there was in a city a judge and this judge didn't fear God and he didn't regard man he was rough and tough and mean and there was a widow in that city perhaps the most powerless person in that place there was a widow in that city and she came unto this judge this unjust judge and she said avenge me of mine adversary there's something wrong in my life and you have the power to set it right avenge me of mine adversary and he would not for a while he just ignored her no matter how many times she asked her came by his house he just ignored her but then Jesus story goes on to say afterward that judge said within himself though I fear not God though I regard not man I'm not afraid of anything or anybody yet because this Widow trouble with me because she won't leave me alone because she won't stop disturbing my mealtimes because she won't stop coming by my house because she trouble with me because she won't give up I will avenge her lest by her continual coming she weary me you got to get this this unjust judge didn't answer that widows request because he was an ethical man or because she was an eloquent woman he didn't grant her petition because he felt especially benevolent or because she was particularly convincing he didn't pay attention to her plea because he was sympathetic to widows or because she was influential with judges no none of those things were the case the only reason the unjust judge avenged her of her adversary is that this little would a widowed woman simply would not give up and the Lord said here what the young just judge sayeth think about this story Jesus said listen to what that unjust unfair unethical judge did and said and then you think about your heavenly father then you think about the great judge of the earth and the creator of the universe and shall not God avenge his own elect which cry day and night unto him though he bear long with them I tell you that he will avenge them speedily and then Jesus adds the punchline question nevertheless when the Son of man cometh shall he find faith on the earth when I come back will you have given up when I come back will you have slacked off when I return will you have ceased serving me and asking me in prayer for the things you need will I find faith on the earth you see prayer is exactly like Jesus just described in this powerful story prayer is crying out day and night without seeing any justice at all but you continue anyhow prayer is exactly that prayer is asking God repeatedly and deliberately and methodically and consistently and incessantly and persistently even while you're wondering is this even working prayer is a powerless widow appealing to a powerful judge no matter how long it takes no matter how bad it gets no matter how bad it looks that's prayer the only difference is our God is not unjust that's the only difference our God loved to give to his children now as Jesus said he may bear along with us it may take a while our requests our petitions are asking our prayer he may bear along with us but when our God decides the time is right one move of his hand one word from his voice and everything changes although he bears along with us the Bible says he will avenge us speedily you've seen that in your life we've seen that as a church family that we pray and we pray and we pray for something and and just about the time humanity and flesh and emotion would say you might as well give up God's not even listening to you somehow God undertakes and we've all seen it where the end result is greater and higher and bigger than what we ever could have expected or even known to pray for because although God bore along with us he avenged us speedily and completely you see our God is not an unjust judge he's our loving Heavenly Father and the Word of God tells us in Matthew seven and eleven that he loves to give to his children look at this if you be evil you're just humans but you know how to give good gifts to your children it delights you when you give your children a gift and they love it and they play with it and they giggle with and laugh with joy if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children how much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him well pastor Raymond if that's true that God loves to give good gifts to me then why in the world is it taking so long to get my prayer answered well that's a very good question and I'd like you to help me answer it by taking a look at the context of the statement Jesus just made about God giving us good gifts just back up few verses and you'll see the context of that statement and you'll also see this principle of waiting on God for verses earlier same chapter Jesus said this ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you for every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened now our English word ask it's convenient it happens to make a really good acronym for Jesus Prayer process a s K ask seek knock that's the process Jesus gives us now if you think with me this process this progression is all about increasing your intensity in prayer no matter how long it takes no matter how bad it looks or no matter how hard it gets the word ask it has the significance of requesting something from God and literally the root meaning of that word is desire so it's a good thing when you have desires and you want to see the kingdom of God come in your life and your family you have desires in prayer you make your request to ask is to request to seek it goes a little further if you've ever lost your cell phone you know about this one you lose it and it's panic City you've got to get that back your whole life is there and so you go looking for it you go seeking and searching for it and to seek is a little more intense than ask when you ask you're making a request but when you seek you're insisting that something happened you're insisting we gotta find this we got to get this we've got to get through this we've got to have an answer so seeking has the sense of insisting and the root word in the Greek language actually has the sense of demanding something God this has gotta happen god I've got to see this happen God you've got to save them God you've got to heal them seeking is insisting and then finally knocking which is pretty self-explanatory but in the context of the story Jesus just told us knocking is persisting because when you knock it's a noise it's an action that cannot be ignored you're persisting and in the Greek language again the meaning is quite strong it means to strike it means to to take action and reach out it and persist and knock on that door so when Jesus says ask seek and knock what we're saying is request insist and persist the prayer pattern the prayer progression is one that grows in its intensity you notice that you do this in Jesus teaching no matter how long it takes you keep asking seeking and knocking no matter how bad it looks to you no matter what evidence is presented to you and what facts fight your faith no matter how bad it looks you keep requesting you keep insisting you keep persisting you notice the suffix ETH on all the words in verse eight every one that asketh receiveth he that seeketh findeth to him that knocketh it shall be opened eth anytime you see that in the King James Version of the English Bible it means a continuing action it's showing us a tense of the verb in the Greek language and so anytime you see ETH it means something that just continues it never stops it never gives up so what Jesus is saying is I didn't just give you a cute little acronym here if you'll continue to and don't give up you'll continue to receive if you seek and keep on seeking you will find and keep on finding if you continue to knock doors will continue to be open to you let me conclude the disciples said to Jesus Luke eleven and one teach us to pray teach us to pray sometimes we misquote that teach us how to pray well he did teach them how to pray but before you ever get to the mechanics of prayer you just need the desire to pray teach us to pray and before Jesus ever got to daily bread or forgive our sins or deliver us from evil or anything else Jesus gave to his disciples and to us the master key for prayer he said unto them when you pray say this our Father which art in heaven hallowed be thy name so that's how you begin your prayer no matter what is going on in your life no matter what hell has attacked you with no matter what circumstance or situation you're facing no longer how bad your trial has gotten or how long it has lasted you start your prayer with this God you're my father and your name is set apart and I worship you you give God glory no matter what you're in or what you're facing and then here's the first prayer request the master key to prayer thy kingdom come Thy will be done as in heaven so in earth oh great now there's a prayer that's not going to be answered in a day thy kingdom come Thy will be done just like it is in heaven do it on earth now god that's great that that's not going to be answered in a day that's not probably going to be answered in my lifetime that might not be answered in a thousand years and yet with our guy it could be answered today because we serve the God who is and who was and who is about to arrive who is to come in a series we were teaching on prayer back last year I came across this statement and I love it because here's what I know ultimately there is no such thing as unanswered prayer for a child of God you can be confident that God's either going to give you what you asked for or he's going to give you what you would have asked for if you knew everything he knows you've met people maybe this has happened to you in your life somebody who's walked through a long valley a long trial a long sickness and they prayed and prayed and prayed and they thought God's answer should be deliver me from this trial this sickness this situation but for reasons only he knows God allowed them to continue on and they came out of that trial eventually but it took a long time maybe you said this may be someone you know has said this I certainly had situations in my life like this where you look back down the road and you would never want that or choose that you sure didn't enjoy it but when you got through it you said I can now see what God was doing I've never been this close to God I never prayed more I never got closer to God than I did when I walked through that trial you see God will answer your prayer he'll either answer it the way you prayed it or he might answer it the way you would have prayed it if you could see what this great God is doing in your life and that's why he taught us you pray for my kingdom to come before you pray over the things of your own Kingdom and that's exactly why we pray thy will be done that's why we pray that we're saying God here's what I want I'm gonna request and insist and persist I'm gonna ask and seek and knock and I'm gonna do that no matter how long it takes and no matter how bad it looks and no matter how hard it gets but ultimately God I trust that you know what is best for me Jesus told us to ask seek and knock because the very act of praying reveals God to us and it reveals ourselves to us the very act of praying prepares us to receive God's answer or it changes our hearts so we can get through whatever it is that God has allowed us to walk through so the key to successful prayer is what God is probably trying to teach you and me right now as we are isolated as we are social distancing as we are quarantined during this time of a viral pandemic in the world has literally shut down and God doesn't cause sickness disease virus pain suffering death that is the penalty of living in a cursed world because of sin but God can step into that world that is cursed and God can step into your situation that is difficult and he can work his purpose in the middle of a very tough situation and I believe that God has allowed what we're facing right now to send His Saints including you including me to send his Saints into the secret place into the closet of prayer please don't just wait around for this situation to be over so you can straggle back to the house of God whenever we're allowed to have service and we can all gather together and then commence praying each other through because we've had a month and a half or two months or three months of no interaction with other Christians it came to me very powerfully this morning as I was preparing for this message it came to me very powerfully just as soon as I woke up that Moses walked with God but Aaron he walked with Moses and that's why when Moses went up on the mountain and he was gone for so long Aaron allowed the voices of the people around him to cause him to make a golden calf and let the people give in to their fleshly desires it was a disaster for Israel because while Moses walked with God and he talked with God face to face and he was a friend of God Aaron only walked with Moses and that's why Aaron messed up please hear me tonight as I close this part of the service during this time don't waste it during this time don't overlook what God is doing don't plan on well I'm gonna get back to church someday when they opened the doors and I'll come through and when I get back with everybody then we can pray then we can intercede then we can worship powerfully then we can see miracles that's not what God's doing what a disaster what a missed opportunity what a horrible outcome that would be God is speaking to you right now to draw you into that secret place don't just wait for the church doors to be open again wait on the Lord during this time and you will renew your strength by the time we get back into this building and we're all together it's going to be a different more powerful more energized more on fire Church than we've ever seen before if we learn what God is doing he's teaching us to do something that is so counterintuitive to our flesh wait on the Lord and you will renew your strength the key brothers and sisters to successful praying is to continue praying even when you see no results because you have the faith well I haven't seen any results yet but I will see results I serve the God who is and who was and who is to come he is the God who is and who was and is about to arrive in my situation in the next moment in the next day in the next week I have trust and faith in my god that he is hearing my prayer and he's going to do what only he can do learn the lesson of a viral pandemic learn to ask and if asking doesn't get it seek and if seeking doesn't seem to be working knock learn to do this request of God insist on it and persist in it and God will answer your prayers in a way you've maybe never seen before that's what God's trying to teach us I want to pray with you Lord Jesus I thank you for our church wonderful good faithful loyal giving people and God we're also a praying church people look at us that way people call us for prayer there were requests phoned in to our church this week people look at us as a praying people but God it's not enough to just have the reputation of a praying church because the church is not this building and the church is not just convened and in session when we happen to come to an organized service at a scheduled time right now you have dispatched your church to our homes and our neighborhoods we cannot gather in large crowds but that does not limit your power we cannot have public in-house services but that does not limit your authority and God wherever there's an apostolic person listening to me right now I speak to your spirit that is in their spirit and I call out of them the prayer power that you placed in them I speak to them and I call out of them purpose and destiny I speak to them I speak to the Holy Ghost that resides in them and I call out of them the greatness and the authority and the power and the privilege that you put upon them when you baptize them with your spirit God let the church arise I don't mean a public service and a great cheer at the end of a sermon God I mean the church in every house where we are gathered in this city and far beyond let the church arise in homes in neighborhoods god I pray that you would use us to call down the kingdom of God thy kingdom come and thy will be done and god while we have to wait help us to see that we get to wait on you bless your church bless these people thank you Jesus for being so good to us that you can even work through this pandemic to give us an opportunity to reorder priorities and to do what you've called us to do I thank you I release it over the people of God in Jesus name Amen god bless you

Channel: Capital Community Church

Views: 23,923

Rating: 4.8454404 out of 5

Keywords: capital, community, church, fredericton, nb, new, brunswick, canada, upc, upci, united, pentecostal, international, apostolic, christian, preaching, sermons, sermon, raymond, woodward, jack, leaman, matthew, bible, study, biblical teaching, ask

Id: 4oG8UFikFew

Length: 53min 44sec (3224 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 19 2020