How to Have a Consistent and Effective Prayer Life: 3 Keys to a STRONGER Prayer Life

if you want to go deeper in prayer this message the truth of the word of god is going to take you to greater depths if you're struggling to establish a prayer life perhaps you feel distracted perhaps you're inconsistent perhaps you have a desire to pray and consistently so but there seems to be this other force within you fighting against that spiritual desire well we're going to look to the word of god right now and we are going to see keys that will bring forth an effective consistent prayer life again this is not just for those who are struggling to establish a prayer life this is also for those who have a prayer life but desire to go deeper because the greatest enemy remember this the greatest enemy you will face when trying to establish a prayer life is the flesh you see the thing about the flesh is the flesh doesn't mind if you attend church the flesh doesn't mind if you sing and dance during a worship service the flesh doesn't mind even necessarily if you only read the word the flesh doesn't mind if you get involved with charitable efforts the flesh however begins to fight you the moment you begin to pray have you ever noticed that you can be doing almost anything else but the moment that you go to try to pray your flesh begins to squirm your flesh begins to fight you there's this resistance to prayer and the reason for that is because prayer is the death of the flesh prayer is what weakens that old carnal nature within you and so some of us face the struggle of distraction and prayer some of us have mental and emotional barriers that prevent us from moving forward some of us don't know how to surrender in a way that we can see those greater depths of prayer so if you want to go deeper or if you want to begin in prayer this message is going to bless you the first key to establishing a consistent and effective prayer life number one is focus if prayer is to be effective it must be focused the wandering mind keeps the believer bound to the natural realm the excess of distracting thoughts is too heavy to allow for heavenly ascension now you'll notice that when you go to pray one of the assaults that the enemy uses is distraction have you ever noticed that you go throughout your day without a distracting thought and then all of a sudden when you go to pray when you finally say i'm gonna commit this moment now to the lord that i might focus on him that i might seek his face in prayer that suddenly all of these thoughts begin to bombard your mind distractions the cares of this world responsibilities relationship issues questions and doubts and concerns thoughts just begin to wander through your mind and it can be very difficult to grab hold of those thoughts and pull them in under subjection to the spirit and what begins to happen is as you're trying to pray you become so distracted not just even by the thoughts themselves but you become distracted at the battle against those thoughts so there's almost two layers to it the thoughts themselves are distracting bombarding your mind and then we get distracted by another layer of distraction we become frustrated that we have to fight those thoughts in the first place and we begin to feel guilty or ashamed or we feel condemned or we feel like we're not doing a good job because these thoughts are being thrown into our minds we deal with worries we deal with doubts all of these thoughts i call inner chaos and they clutter the mind now it's interesting because we say things like well all day i was perfectly fine but it wasn't until i went to pray that suddenly all of these thoughts showed up well that inner chaos my friend didn't show up when you started to pray that inner chaos was revealed when you started to pray you just were never quiet enough to hear what was going on inside of you well no wonder we're walking around feeling lowly no wonder we're walking around filled with fear no wonder we feel so distracted spiritually we have inner chaos with us and we don't even recognize it because we're never still or quiet enough to hear what's going on inside of us so again it's not that that distraction it's not that that inner chaos suddenly appears when we start to pray rather it's that that inner chaos is suddenly revealed when we begin to pray now how do you focus the mind because it's one thing to point out a problem distraction worry doubt but it's another thing to present a solution so if you've ever dealt with that when you go to pray just this bombardment of a series of thoughts that just distracts you and keeps you from focusing on the things of god while you pray i'm gonna give you keys to overcoming that problem with focus number one the first key to overcoming distraction number one is silence matthew 6 6 says but when you pray go away by yourself shut the door behind you and pray to your father in private then your father who sees everything will reward you jesus here in matthew 6 6 is speaking of private prayer prayer that's secluded prayer that's secret only those who actually believe in prayer pray privately why because if i don't believe in the power of prayer then why am i going to pray in private when there's no one around to impress so you see it's when you go to those secluded places that you're proving you believe in prayer those who believe in prayer actually pray and so it is doubt that keeps us from going to the secret place and we may not even realize that it's doubt and so that silence that we find in the secret place actually cultivates an atmosphere in which we can more clearly hear the lord you see prayer and focus on prayer doesn't cause god to speak it causes us to recognize and hear more clearly so if we are to focus in prayer if we are to overcome these distracting thoughts then we number one need silence now silence is a very practical thing i set the atmosphere i shut the door i seclude myself i turn off the cell phone i turn off the television i communicate with my loved ones that i'm not to be disturbed for that moment of prayer and you carve out a section of your day in which you say this belongs to god this is god's portion now of course you can pray 24 7 all throughout the day and that's one form of prayer but what i'm talking about here is that very intentional form of prayer where you carve out a section of your day you carve out a place that you can bring forth silence in and in that moment in that atmosphere you're praying without distraction now silence is good because silence gets rid of all the distractions around you but silence doesn't get rid of the distractions within you you see silence will help you get rid of outer distractions but only stillness can quiet the inner distractions but without silence in the first place you would never know what was going on inside of you think about the fact that we live such fast-paced distracted lives that we hardly have a moment of pause in which we can consider all that we're thinking of have you ever really gone to a quiet place put aside distractions and just listen to your own thoughts think about how we constantly put distractions before us we're constantly before screens we're constantly communicating we're constantly consuming media and data and information and music and interactions we are constantly stimulating the mind with all sorts of things around us this is why when all of it goes silent we can become uncomfortable because of the things going on within us so silence will put away outer distractions but silence can only reveal inner distraction it can't get rid of them so silence can get rid of maybe a conversation that would distract you from prayer conversation silence can get rid of what you're looking at on social media how you're constantly checking your phone now you're constantly checking the computer how you're constantly looking for something to stimulate your mind externally silence can put that away but only stillness can quiet the inner man you see silence that turns my phone off but how do i turn my thoughts off how do i turn those distractions of how do i turn worry off how can i turn off doubt how can i turn off cynicism how can i turn off shame and all of these things that prevent us from entering the secret place of prayer well i'm going to give you two ways to do that so this first key that i'm talking about to having an effective and a strong and a consistent prayer life this first key is focus and in order to focus we must number one practice silence and this is a practical but effective means of bringing focus to our prayer lives that is to intentionally set the atmosphere so that distractions from the exterior realm do not affect us now these next two keys that i'm going to give you in regards to focus have to do with quieting those inner thoughts that inner chaos of the mind so first is silence number two the prayer request philippians chapter 4 i'm going to read verses 6 and 7 don't worry about anything instead pray about everything tell god what you need and thank him for all he has done then you will experience god's peace which exceeds anything we can understand his peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in christ jesus now this is a powerful key but it's often overlooked you know in the church sometimes we embrace superstitious cliches that sound spiritual but aren't actually biblical one such example is this cliche that you should never ask god for anything don't ask god just thank him don't ask god that shows you're not grateful stop always asking god to do for you and give to you but do you realize that your heavenly father wants to bless you your heavenly father wants to provide for you your heavenly father wants to give to you and that's why he's given us the prayer request so the bible says let's break it down now don't worry about anything instead pray about everything do you realize that worry is a useless attempt at control worry is the flesh's powerless counterfeit for prayer i want to say that again worry is the flesh's powerless counterfeit for prayer your spirit prays your flesh worries your spirit gives it to god through prayer your flesh tries to control the situation through worry and some of us confuse worry for prayer we think that because we're thinking about it obsessing over it that we're there for praying about it but that's not the case the flesh whirring is an illusion of control the flesh whirring is an illusion of productivity jesus said who can add any more height to his stature just by worrying in other words he's saying it's futile it's useless it doesn't actually produce anything worry just works you up it doesn't actually cause anything to happen but our human nature says to us that if i can think about this enough if i can obsess over this enough maybe somehow some way by thinking about it i can either a keep myself from being caught off guard or be prevented altogether and that's the illusion of worry is we have this strong sense of control but worry is just a lack of trust prayer is a demonstration of faith in god and so worry is the flesh's powerless counterfeit for prayer and the bible says don't worry about anything there's nothing that should cause you to worry instead pray about everything now watch this great exchange here tell god what you need that's the request and thank him for what he has done that's giving him praise for what he's done i request god please provide god please work a miracle god i'm asking for your intervention well at the same time i'm praising him for what he's already done so we see in scripture that is actually quite possible to be thankful for what god has done while also asking him for more so we have to get rid of that cliche that that superstition oh don't ask god for anything don't don't ask god to perform for you he's already done enough no no no our father is generous our father is giving which one of us who are parents wouldn't want to keep giving to our children we don't say i i gave you food and shelter and clothing that's all you need i don't want to give you anything else no as parents we want to give good gifts we want to not only provide for needs but also in some cases not in every case in some cases we also want to provide for their wants and our heavenly father is the same way it's the giving nature of the parent and so our heavenly father wants to give wants to pour out blessing wants to give us favor in our lives but we must practice gratitude so don't worry about anything instead pray about everything pray about that job you want pray about the rent that's due pray for the healing of that sickness pray for the wayward child pray for the battle in your mind pray about everything give it to jesus and thank him for all he has done watch this now this is so powerful this is the key portion of the scripture remember i'm giving you a key to silencing that inner chatter that inner chaos the inner distractions of the mind and emotion then you will experience god's peace wow when will i experience god's peace after i've had a prayer request after i've made my request then i will experience god's peace which exceeds anything we can understand prayer is like climbing a mountain remember god told moses come up to the top of the mountain and the bible says that as moses ascended to the mountaintop he disappeared in the cloud that's what happens to us god invites us to the top of the mountain and as we ascend the heights of prayer we disappear in the cloud or in the holy spirit we cease to be now prayer is like climbing that mountain and some of us tried to climb that mountain carrying a backpack over our shoulders and we carry these burdens with us and we try to climb that mountain with the distractions and the weights of responsibility holding us down pressing us into the dirt crippling our prayer lives we can't have any movement and if we do have movement it's very little because we are so weighted by the cares and distractions of this world and we're trying to ascend the heights of god's glory while carrying the weight of the world it cannot be done and so as i'm climbing the mountain and i have this weight on me this bag on me of all the things that have piled up in my life what i actually do when i make a prayer request is i remove the bag from my shoulder and i put it in the lord's hands and then i'm free now here's the mistake many believers make and this is actually where that cliche comes from don't ask god for anything this is where the cliche comes from because many believers will pray they'll unburden themselves they'll take the bag off their shoulder and they'll give the bag to jesus through means of the prayer request and then here's what happens we remove the bag we say okay lord now you take it the lord takes the bag and then we say okay lord i'll see you later and then we go back to the valley we go back down the mountain now wait a minute god lifted those burdens not so that we could stop climbing god lifted those burdens so that we could continue to climb unhindered so some of us come to the lord we say lord i'm carrying this i'm carrying this way here's my distractions you give them your distractions he takes them from you and then we say thanks lord i feel so much better we feel that lifting of the burden in prayer and then we say thank you lord goodbye and we leave not realizing that god removed the burden not just so that we could go back to everyday life not so that we could go back to the valley god didn't remove that burden so that you could go back down to the valley god removed that burden so that you might continue to climb to higher heights on the mountain and so peace is not the conclusion of prayer that's the problem with some of us we pray until we have peace we give them our burdens we remove the distractions and then i feel so good my heart is filled with peace wonderful thank you jesus okay lord i'll see you later no no no no no peace is not the conclusion of prayer it's the entryway so we remove those distractions from our mind by the means of prayer requests and then once those distractions have been removed now we can climb to the top of the mountain the problem is some of us once we've had that burden lifted we go right back down and this is not the way that the lord intended us to approach prayer so when you unburden yourself by means of the prayer request you're actually coming to the place where your focus now your focus can be on jesus and not on the responsibilities not on the cares not on the worries not on the doubts but on him so we must number one if we are to have an effective and consistent prayer life we must number one focus and the way you focus is to silence the prayer request and number three worship isaiah 26 3 says something so powerful the bible says thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee that's a promise that's a promise from the word of god that if my mind is focused on him he'll keep me in perfect peace thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed focused steadfast given to the attention of on thee so when we look to jesus and we keep our minds on him everything else fades into the background worship is the key to still the mind and the soul so amen do the practical first silence the room silence the atmosphere set aside all outer distractions but then you must unburden yourself with the prayer request let the peace of god fill your heart and then begin to worship you see we praise god for what he does but we worship him for who he is so when i've found that quiet place and when i've gone to this secret place and i put aside the television i turned off the phone i've told my loved ones to leave me for that time when i've carved out that section of my day then i can make my prayer requests when i make my prayer requests i give god my burdens he fills me with his peace oh my goodness now i'm focused amen i can worship him i'm leaving behind the cares of this world and even as you worship some of those burdens that maybe weren't completely lifted when you were making your prayer request because sometimes we give god the bag but hold on to some of the things that we were carrying in the bag worship just liberates you and worship is not about us but it does affect us worship just liberates you from the cares of this world because you are so captured your attention your mind so fascinated by his being who he is that now i see the light of his glory and the light of his glory is so bright so brilliant so magnificent so beautiful so captivating everything in the background begins to fade all the troubles all the worries all the issues of life you know i travel a lot and my least favorite way to travel is by airplane which is ironic because i'm on airplanes all the time i prefer a nice road trip to i would i would rather have a long road trip than a short flight that's just me and you know there's just something so very unnatural about being 30 000 feet in the air sitting on a chair in some giant piece of whatever they're made of these days and you sit in the chair it just doesn't feel right now it's not necessarily fear of death or anything like that it's just it's just very uncomfortable it doesn't feel right especially when you hit the turbulence and there have been several flights where we've had turbulence where you're thinking okay this has got to go down at some point but what the what the captain begins to do in times of turbulence sometimes what we've seen them do is they go lower but more often than not in my experience when we hit turbulence we hit the chaos and the movement and the discomfort the captain will begin to ascend to higher altitudes and when he ascends to higher altitudes we leave the chaos below us you know that's what it's like when you worship in life there's a shaking there's a there's turmoil there's chaos there's movement there's discomfort over when you begin to worship come on the wind of the spirit takes you to higher plateaus and as you ascend all of the chaos of the world gets left beneath you that's what it's like to truly worship you're being raptured into who he is into the splendor of his glory you're being taken up into that beautiful place with the lord so key number one you want to have a strong effective consistent prayer life number one you're gonna have to learn to focus and you focus by practicing silence making use of the prayer requests and number three worshipping i'm going to get into key number two right now but tell me in the comments section even if you're watching on the replay tell me in the comment section what are some of the ways that the enemy tries to distract you during prayer and which one of these keys have you used have you used all of them have you tried just silence but without worship have you tried all three let me know in the comments section right now and steve we're going to check on the chat so chat you guys are doing amazing i've seen you guys comment so many things but i want to go ahead and highlight a few comments here through the pa or through the stream right now so this first comment comes from our friend sharon sharon said i've always noticed even the very thought of focusing becomes a distraction when in prayer it's a real discipline that we must attain and i love this comment as well i love isaiah 26 which you read earlier every time i go to pray it's a great reminder to focus on him no matter what is around make sure guys you're also leaving a like even if you're watching on the replay leave a like it helps to expand our reach if you think more believers need to hear this content maybe you're hearing this you're saying man i wish more people knew this i wish i knew this earlier then make sure to leave a like because that actually helps to spread this teaching around to more places a simple thing you can do to help us spread the word also make sure you're leaving comments constantly again even if you're watching the replay and especially if you're watching live and if you're new to encounter tv make sure that you subscribe we release sermons and teachings on the holy spirit prayers spiritual warfare miracles evangelism topics like these we also do live events with beautiful worship and we show footage of the power of the holy spirit in action healings people being baptized with the spirit people receiving a fresh touch of god's power people being delivered this is the holy spirit's channel make sure you're subscribed i'm gonna get into key number two now actually let me just look at a couple more comments here um i see um well they're coming in fast so i don't know if i'll be able to keep up with it but someone says yes doubt noises my mind will not stop talking yep i know what that's like veronica says i get lazy to pray yes laziness is one of those things that we deal with in the flesh now i would say 99.9 of the time that is not a spirit that is your flesh you can't cast you out of you which is an issue but you can discipline yourself to make sure that you're actually praying consistently i'm going to talk about that in just a moment let me see here um when you say a person falls back into the valley what do you mean i mean just basically leave that moment of prayer because biblically speaking the mountaintop is symbolic for communion with god and therefore prayer and the valley is going back to the things of this world not necessarily sinful but just you know going back to work going back to school going back to conversation with your loved ones not necessarily evil things in and of themselves but not the mountaintop nonetheless so key number two so key number one i'll recap real quick key number one you want to have an effective strong consistent prayer life make sure you use focus how do you focus you focus through practicing the art of silence and creating that atmosphere through silence you must practice using the prayer requests to remove the burdens from yourself and then number three worship worship brings stillness to the mind number two faith now i know this seems like an obvious one but you would be surprised at how many of our struggles when it comes to prayer are actually rooted in doubt some believers are left wondering does god actually hear me and this right here is one of those lies that's so effective at keeping believers from praying because if you view prayer as the means by which you gain god's attention you're going to be very discouraged i mean who would want to spend any time with anyone a loved one a family member or a spouse would you enjoy spending time with them if every time you got together the first 45 minutes you were just trying to get them to pay attention to you one of the things i'm being more intentional about as of late is to make sure i'm not on the phone when i'm with people i'm trying to practice that more often because i think today we become so engrossed in our technology that we just become so distracted and we're not spending time with the people right there in front of us it's almost like well i might as well go home and just text you if that's the way to get a hold of you but really imagine if god was like that we went to pray and he was just like hold on one second i'm doing something else and we couldn't get his attention believe it or not that's how some believers picture the father they think that when they go to pray their job is to get god's attention to wave at him lord look at me god god look at me i'm praying god do you hear me god can you see me they think oh if i worship i'll get his attention oh if i praise i'll get his attention if i start crying i'll get his attention if i start reading scripture i'll get his attention and we think that god responds to systems when he doesn't respond to systems he responds to sincerity and surrender we treat him like he's a vending machine if i put this in i should get this result out if i put tears in that will invoke a response if i pray these specific words that will invoke a response if i pray standing if i fast if i go long periods of time in prayer that should get god's attention no no no no no it's not even necessarily about getting god's attention because you already have it it's a matter of him getting yours so when we go to pray we must have the faith to believe that god indeed does hear us because believing that it's a fight to get god's attention that in itself is a barrier to prayer because then when we think about prayer we're not thinking of all the splendor of his glory oh the wonder of communion with the lord oh i can't wait to fellowship with the holy spirit no we're thinking okay i'm gonna have to work up my prayer life i'm gonna have to start singing this and that and maybe jump up and down and wave my hands i have to work myself emotionally i have to exhaust myself mentally and then maybe god will respond to me and if you view that prayer if you prepare that way who's going to want to pray if that's your view on prayer who's going to want to pray as if god doesn't actually want to hear you as if god doesn't actually want to look at you so some believers approach the lord like that whether consciously or subconsciously so you may say no no i know god hears me but then we think thoughts that actually demonstrate that in the back of our minds somewhere we actually do believe that god doesn't hear us things like well is god really forgiving me for my past or did i pray enough today or is god upset with me because i forgot to pray yesterday and those are the barriers we create for ourselves i haven't prayed in two days now i have to really work for my place back with god wait a minute you you never worked for your place in his throne room in the first place you never worked you never earned your way in why do you think you have to earn your way back jesus paid the price for that entry you don't have to go back well i missed two days of prayer oh my goodness i missed a week of prayer and then you think that you're gonna go to the lord he's gonna be standing over you arms folded looking down from his throne room going well well well look who decided to pray today no that's not what god is doing that's not how our heavenly father is no he he's not even gonna hold he's not even gonna hold that over your head he's not and we hold it over our own heads because of some religious superstitious traditional thought that we somehow developed because of things that we've heard but that's not what the heavenly father is like at all so when you go to pray recognize you have his ear you have his attention his eyes are on you you have his focus luke chapter 10 powerful portion of scripture here luke 10 i'm going to read 38-42 as jesus and the disciples continued on their way to jerusalem they came to a certain village where a woman named martha welcomed him into her home her sister mary sat at the lord's feet listening to what he taught but martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing she came to jesus and said lord doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while i do all the work tell her to come and help me but the lord said to her my dear martha you are worried and upset over all these details there is only one thing worth being concerned about mary has discovered it and it will not be taken away from her so we see mary and martha both wanting the same thing both of them wanted to please the lord they just went about it in two very different ways mary knew that she was already connected she pursued fellowship she pursued communion she pursued that friendship with god martha on the other hand tried to earn what was already hers you know if martha just sat down with jesus jesus would have sat down with her but no what did she do i have to please the lord i have to work for him and some of us are so busy working for him that we forget to fellowship with him which is more important by the way and so martha goes i have to prepare this big dinner i have to get all things ready i have to make sure everything is in order and she was trying to perfect her presentation before she came before the lord when the key to that perfect presentation is fellowship with him and so both of them wanted the same thing both of them saw the same thing he's the lord i must please him but they went about it in two very different ways martha chose work mary chose friendship please hear me now people of god you don't enter the glory through noisy desperation you enter through faith filled confidence now i am about to address a mindset and my addressing of this mindset may offend some of you but please hear me i say this in all humility my goal is not to offend you it may offend you but that's not my goal i truly want to help you enter the depths of prayer i truly want to help you get rid of all barriers to prayers so that you don't face another barrier again but in order to do this we must rethink the way we approach god because there's this culture of desperation that somehow has become accepted in the church and you know you're in a culture of desperation if everything's really tense all the time the preaching is tense the application of the preaching is tense the worship is tense the prayer is tense you're in this posture of anguish at all times now i understand there's a time and a place for anguish there's a time and a place for some conflict warring in the spirit against the enemy but if you're always worked up if you're always tense if if the things of god just come with this culture of exhaustion and overworking and tension then you're not in a spiritual dynamic you're in a religious one because what are the fruits of the spirit love joy peace patience kindness and sometimes we lose these things when we have a misunderstanding of who god is and what he's like and so we've produced this this culture of desperation desperation and we say things like well if you want god to touch you you got to get desperate for him if you want a move of god you got to get desperate or people say as if it's something to celebrate i'm always desperate for god i'm thinking how can you be desperate for something that's already yours well now i will say this just to be clear because i do want to bring balance to this thought i don't want you to hear as i often say i don't want you to hear what i'm not saying but you know desperation does have a place desperation is a wonderful initiator a terrible sustainer please hear me people of god desperation is a wonderful initiator a terrible sustainer desperation will help to pull you out of spiritual ruts but the question is should you have been in that rut in the first place desperation will help get you going out of laziness but the question is should you have been in that posture of laziness to begin with here's what i'm saying desperation implies lack so if i'm lacking if i'm in a bad place if i'm doing things i'm not supposed to if my life is not up to god's standards in that case desperation is good kind of like when you got saved we were all very desperate when the lord saved us right all of us and that desperation for i can't take this anymore i'm tired of my life of sin i'm tired of carrying this burden i'm tired of the darkness that desperation caused us to what turned to him and god used the desperation but desperation is a great initiator but it's a it's a it's it's a very unhealthy lifestyle let me give you an example if i have breakfast lunch and dinner that's typically a an accepted way to live you know but if you have one meal a day people tell you you need to eat more or if you have too many meals a day people hopefully will tell you you shouldn't eat as much but you see in between each meal breakfast lunch dinner breakfast lunch dinner from breakfast to lunch i become hungry again from lunch to dinner i become hungry again hunger is good starvation bad right desire is good desperation not so much i think we have this mindset that desperation somehow is this wonderful spiritual trait to have when in fact desperation just shows that you are lacking to begin with desperation shows that you're not living as you're supposed to be living be hungry for the things of god absolutely be hungry for more from god absolutely but be desperate no no no never be desperate maybe you were in a desperate place to begin or perhaps some tragedy in life brings you to this place where now you're desperate and that happens to many of us many of us will experience tragedies that cause us to become desperate but a tragedy means something bad happened right and desperation pulls you out of that so a lifestyle of tragedies not necessarily the best thing a lifestyle of poor decision making not necessarily the best thing a lifestyle of desperation means i'm living a lifestyle where i'm constantly living under god's standard why should i be desperate for his presence i live in it hungry yes starving no come on desire yes desperation no and so what happens is we we out of desperation try to work try to work for the things of god you ever been in a worship service come on if you just shout a little louder if you jump a little higher if you spin your flags a little faster get desperate in this house and watch god move i don't see you guys jumping i don't see you guys dancing i don't see you shouting think about it sometimes people are being sincere when they ask you to do such things and sometimes shouting is good but it depends why you're shouting if you're shouting a shout of victory great if you're shouting a shout of spiritual warfare great but if you're shouting because you think you have to get louder in order for god to hear you you're coming at it from the flesh and not from faith you're coming at it from the posture of work and religion and burden rather than the posture of faith when jesus said pray like this he said our father in heaven hallowed be thy name he didn't say father in heaven please hear me no jesus began with knowing who his father was and that he was heard he didn't begin prayer by begging god god please please please please hear me god please please please i need you guys please i'm telling you right now the way you identify a religious move not a move of the spirit anything religious is always going to create this tension in you this almost this anger this frustration this that tension you have to be careful of that you have to be i'm not saying it'll lead you to hell what i am saying is it'll weaken you spiritually and we have to be careful that we're not relying on the flesh to produce what a linda spirit can produce come on so be careful of this posture of desperation it it's it's really uh if i can be real with you it's moving from immaturity to maturity and some might say well you don't want to lose that fire that's not fire that's flesh thinking i have to create some type of emotional hyped heightened response just to get god to respond to me is not fire that's flesh tension exhaustion religion it places burdens on you instead of lifting the the anointing breaks burdens if if you leave a meeting or you hear a sermon or you listen to a podcast or you're a part of a conference if you're a part of something that leaves you feeling burdened and like you are fearful and you have all this list of things now i've got to be careful this that and this and you leave tense and fearful and desperate did you really have an encounter with the holy spirit who doesn't leave us feeling fearful and desperate he leaves us bold and fulfilled so this is something to consider indeed and and what we do is we take this culture of desperation and we apply it to our prayer lives we we we lose that confidence when approaching him we think that oh i'll fast but do you realize fasting doesn't get god to listen it gets you to hear i'll pray for four hours it's not like god said oh you prayed for four hours now i'll show up no it's just that sometimes it takes four hours to get past yourself it took me four hours to get past myself so desperation has its place great initiator terrible lifestyle come on don't live a lifestyle of desperation i know that sounds counterintuitive but you never saw paul the apostle writing to the early church and finally my brother and remember to always be desperate for the things that you already have didn't write it why because it's not our position our position is we're fulfilled our position is we're righteous our position is he lives in me right we desire him desire yes desperation no hunger yes spiritual starvation no hebrews 4 16 says so let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious god there we will receive his mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most come boldly the scripture says not timidly not full of doubt not not saying oh lord if if it be your will please hear me no he hears you we have confidence that when we ask anything in his name he'll hear us what a wonderful reality and that right there is a key to consistent prayer how because when i recognize that i already have his attention prayer becomes exciting it's not this this going to my prayer room to discipline myself so that i can try to work for god's attention how how dull and lifeless and powerless that is religion religion religion it's deadly no i'd rather go and approach the father god knowing that he hears me and that produces an excitement for prayer that when i go on my knees i don't have to worry about trying to get that connection i have it i don't pray to connect with god i pray from connection with god steve how's the chat doing chet's doing amazing and i wanted to go back to the question you asked earlier in the program what are some of the ways that the enemy has distracted you during prayer and i wanted to read a few of those answers here israel wrote he always distracts me through worries of day to day life and okie soko wrote i keep telling myself to set time to pray and then i get so distracted and finally jennifer writes i start getting weird thoughts and then start yawning and pictures fill my mind well interesting that's the flesh for sure and and by the way i want to know in the comments section right now if you're watching live great even if you're watching the replay have you ever dealt with the culture of the church culture of desperation and maybe you're hearing this for the first time and you're saying i've never heard this but it makes a lot of sense biblically if you're being liberated from the desperation mindset let me know in the comments section and if you've heard of other things that the desperation culture has produced let me know in the comments i just want to know what you think about that because we hear a lot of teaching preaching worship seminars podcasts on that this this desperate posture and i almost feel like we become like the prophets of baal who were jumping and cutting themselves and and that's not how the lord is what did elijah do he just called it down and there it came that's what it's like for true believers it's not this working for something we already have it so let me know what you think of that in the comments section also again if this is your first time joining us maybe you're joining the live stream for the first time on a note we do live streams every single wednesday at 6 p.m pacific standard time and we release sermons and teachings on the holy spirit prayer spiritual warfare and such topics make sure you're subscribed to encounter tv we also show the power of the holy spirit at work subscribe and click that notification bell when you do and we consider all of our viewers supporters of event attendees channel members anyone who's involved with this ministry in any way we refer to you as the spirit family so make sure guys are joining us every wednesday and make sure you're subscribed and finally make sure to like this right now if you think other christians need to hear that especially on that desperation part maybe you're saying oh my goodness i know some people who need to hear that then have a little boldness and share it with them and also leave a like because when you like it it helps to spread the content around yes it really does make a difference that's something simple that you can do to help us spread this content is simply leave a like right now on the channel on the live stream okay i'm going to get to point number three remember guys steven moctezuma is in the chat with you so he'll be interacting with you the whole time that i'm teaching if you're watching live number three and this is going to be a key one number three so the first one was focus and i taught you how to focus that is silence that's the practical thing that you can do the prayer request a tool that god has given to us to unburden ourselves and number three worship which focuses the mind on the lord then key number two to effective consistent strong prayer is faith you have to approach with boldness confidence not desperation knowing you already have his attention now number three is faithfulness every sincere disciple and follower of jesus wants to pray you're watching this because you want to pray you want to be a person of prayer you want to be a person of consistent prayer you're tired of the hit and miss you're tired of the back and forth you're tired of the three days good four days bad trying to establish a prayer life of thoughts and distractions fly through your mind you just want to have that consistent flow so that you can experience the benefits the awareness of that connection in the heavenly realm that's always yours this is one of the keys faithfulness now we try to spiritualize a lot of what is actually the flesh i can't tell you how many times i've heard a demon invented so that people could blame a demon rather than their undisciplined flesh and itching ears want to hear it's a demon you just need to have a special ritualized prayer so that you can break out of it that is of the flesh that's of religion we would rather be told it's a demon why because then someone else can deal with it you pray for me you deliver me you you walk me through the ritual you break the curse over me you send the oil lay hands on it send it over now i believe in all those things as far as prayer goes praying for the the oil and sending in prayer cloths and so forth but the problem is we try to put on others what is actually our responsibility lay hands on me make all my troubles go away lay hands on me and help me to establish a prayer life i've had people actually write to me and i'm not condemning them for asking this question but it breaks my heart because this is a this is a mindset that believers have they say brother david i i help pray for me lay hands on me so that i stop disobeying god and i'm thinking that's not something you lay hands for you see we blame on demons what's actually the flesh wow we blame on spiritual warfare what's actually the flesh it's not a demon in most cases it's an undisciplined flesh now i can't lay hands on you and impart discipline i can't do it in order to be disciplined in prayer you have to start taking responsibility for the decisions that you make now this what i'm teaching here is going to be a little harsh so let me slow it down and i say harsh in that it's a harsh reality but i don't mean it as an insult so let me slow down a little bit here now we know that there is a spiritual realm we know that demons attack believers of course now we know demons biblically speaking of course we all know demons can't possess believers oppressed believers cursed believers and so forth they can affect believers through deception but beyond that the other enemy that we're fighting is the flesh and in order to put the flesh into subjection you're gonna actually have to start making decisions now this is where people have difficulty because they're waiting for someone to lay hands on them and impart discipline they're waiting for the sky to split open and god to make their decisions for them but you must learn to exercise your free will to participate with the holy spirit that you might implement spiritual disciplines in your life if you want to pray more you simply have to choose to pray more if you want to pray faithfully you have to choose to pray faithfully it comes down to your decision now we all fail we all make mistakes and sometimes prolonged failure when it comes to discipline in prayer discourages us so we think that because we missed six days of prayer or three days of prayer or even one day of prayer that somehow that disqualifies us or somehow we've wiped off some record that we have to start all over again that it takes all our points away that's not the way this works god is not tracking how many days you spend in prayer right what's more important is whether or not you have a connection with him and whether or not that relationship is strong and the way you keep that strong is through daily prayer but we have to overcome the guilt and the shame of missed prayer if we're going to stay focused because we get caught in a cycle let's say you pray consistently four days i did it four days and on the fifth day maybe your alarm sounded too late or you forgot to set your alarm you slept in you were late for work you went to work you came back home you had dinner with the family your kids needed you to play with them and then you went to bed you fell asleep because you were so exhausted and you realized oh my goodness yesterday i didn't get to pray if that's you i say to you keep going or maybe you were lazy maybe you didn't neglect prayer just because you preferred to watch something on television that's not good but to live in the shame and condemnation of that is going to prevent you from actually pursuing your prayer life so you wear that guilt you wear those burdens you wear that shame and you you're hesitant to approach god like oh my goodness i missed several days of prayer is he going to be okay with me coming back yes absolutely so we must recognize that guilt shame and self-criticism are counterproductive they're unnecessary distractions guilt and shame make it so that you don't even want to approach god and the discouragement comes the discouragement that comes from missing days of prayer weakens my desire to even try please hear me that's so important that you get that please write this in the comments too guys the discouragement that comes from missing days of prayer weakens my desire to even try so when i become discouraged because oh i missed that day of prayer oh i only prayed 30 minutes when i wanted to pray an hour that that shame that guilt from missed days of prayer or not praying enough that weakens my desire to try again you see it's the forgiveness of god it's the grace of god that empowers me to know that i can keep moving but we must commit to prayer and we must forget those things that are behind us okay maybe you missed a day or two maybe you didn't pray as long as you wanted to pray today but put that behind you and tomorrow keep going tomorrow try again god's again as i said earlier god's not folding his arms looking down at you angry and saying well well look who decided to show up no no he's ready to try with you again he's faithful like that and so when i go to commit to prayer there will be times when i fail but i must choose to implement that discipline you have to make that choice here here's a wild thought that doesn't get talked about a lot today did you know that you can choose every single one of your actions i think sometimes we act as though someone else is making choices for us it's not the case not for the believer anyway you can choose your own actions and your actions will have consequences and god will actually hold you accountable for those actions and consequences did you know that so then prayer like anything else that's a spiritual discipline is going to require my participation everything spiritual is partially discipline on my end and grace on god's end it's mostly god's grace but we must at least put in the action to cooperate with what the holy spirit wants to do matthew 26 40-41 says then he returned to the disciples and found them asleep he said to peter couldn't you watch with me even one hour keep watch and pray so that you will not give in to temptation for the spirit is willing but the body is weak make the decision to pray something that i wrote here to become a man or woman of faithful daily prayer you must make up your mind concerning prayer people often ask me how do i pray more and honestly the answer is simple choose to pray more it's your choice but you have to start by making up your mind you have to stop by half-heartedly saying at some point i'd like to establish a prayer life at some point i'd like to establish a devotion to the word you have to make up your mind say within your mind say within your heart i am going to commit to daily prayer period shoot for an hour but if you only make it for 20 minutes that's a good start it's better than not praying at all again the only way to pray faithfully is to choose to pray faithfully and the flesh will fight you and then you walk in this 24 7 awareness that's how you walk in a 24 7 awareness of the spirit is you just make up your mind to do so now i know this seems over simplified to some but it really is this simple you want to walk in that 24 7 awareness to walk in that 24 7 awareness you must choose to put your thoughts on god as often as you possibly can it's a discipline it is discipline people of god it is discipline we must discipline the flesh subject the flesh and say to the flesh you're not sleeping in today you're not watching netflix today you're not going to go to the park and play basketball today you're not going fishing today whatever your hobbies are you tell the flesh today you're going to pray and if there's time left over for those other things wonderful you can accomplish more in a prayer filled day than you ever could in a prayerless year come on you can accomplish more in a prayer filled today than you can in a prayerless year now choose to pray come on commit in your mind say i will commit to pray carve out sections of your day arrange your schedule cancel hobbies stop doing so many you know the bible says a man of many friends will come to ruin some people are so socially active that they have just a ton of shallow friendships very few deep ones just invest in a few good friends and stop filling your schedule with baby showers and weddings and outings and picnics and everything else and nothing's wrong with those things but i think sometimes we just like to stay busy we have all these shallow friendships people you haven't talked to for years and you're going to their cousin's uncle's you know wedding and we fill our schedule with all these social interactions when really what we need is a few solid friendships a few solid not saying you you know ignore everyone else but as far as investing time you can only give so much to so many people start saying no to certain things start changing the schedule of your hobbies change your jobs if you have to if you're too busy to pray you're too busy arrange your entire life around your prayer life arrange your entire schedule around your devotion to the word and your time in prayer with god guard it protect it and let nothing and no one touched that secret place stubbornly refuse to give up that time for anyone or anything else and when prayer becomes the priority only then can prayer become the foundation i want to say that again when prayer becomes the priority only then can prayer become the foundation how do you know if prayer is the foundation of your life well is it a priority or is it an afterthought come on is it scheduled first or do you squeeze it in between where you have time to spare no prayer must become the priority if it's going to become the foundation pray pray pray and then pray some more rearrange your whole life around prayer that's what it's going to take if that's what it takes do it and i promise you you will not regret it so father thank you for making us people of prayer come on just begin to pray right now watching live or watching replay the power of god is still present father make us people of prayer forgive us lord for neglecting our time with you and help us i pray to become disciplined people of prayer help us to focus when we're with you help us to be filled with faith when we approach you and help us to use faithfulness in our lifestyles of prayer we honor and we bless you in the name of jesus we pray i want you to say it because you believe it say amen now i'm gonna ask you in the comments section tell me now in the comment section watching live or replay what are some things you're gonna need to do to implement now be honest now this is like an altar call here because sometimes i think we watch these videos and we go back to our private lives but but we're gonna hold each other accountable here okay everybody's gonna see your comment this is the spirit family let's hold each other accountable write it in the comment section what are some things you're going to have to do to have a more disciplined consistent prayer life let me know right now in the comments section live or replay now make sure you're subscribed to encounter tv like this video don't forget to do that that's also important it helps spread this message everywhere so a couple things you can do to help us spread the word number one make sure to leave a like and a comment on this video and share it with a couple people there's some things in here guys that every christian needs to know and you can help us spread this by leaving a like leaving a few comments and sharing this with some friends whether you're watching live or on the replay another thing you can do is to help support this ministry through financial giving now guys i believe that in the last days a great revival is going to sweep across the land i believe that the scripture is clear that this gospel shall be preached to the ends of the earth and then the end will come when listing end time catastrophes jesus said often but the end is not yet but the end is not yet but this gospel shall be preached to the ends of the earth and then the end will come we win church things end on a high note in victory jesus glorified the lamb of god this is going to be a time of victory for the church having said that there's a war and if you could have the scales removed from your eyes even if just for a few minutes to see into the realm of the spirit you would see a war for souls people of god please hear me this is so serious i know that at the end of the teaching sometimes it's tempting to click off to something else but it's so important you hear this we're in a war for souls look at how the nations of the world are reacting right now look at how the systems of government are falling into place just like it was described in scripture it's a wake up call church it's happening it's happening nations are changing something big is on the horizon there's a shift coming we all sense it we all know it now i don't say this to scare you i say it to prepare you but that's the truth and we're engaged people of god people of god we're engaged in a rescue mission this is a war for the soul of a generation the scripture says in romans 10 13-15 for everyone who calls on the name of the lord will be saved but how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him and how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him and how can they hear about him unless someone tells them and how will anyone go and tell them without being sent people of god send us the world needs it you see it powers of government systems of the world the movie industry the music industry culture corporate industry all of it is pushing against the church it's time to wake up it's time to stop playing games it is happening right now we are seeing it unfold before our very eyes and what's beginning to take place is this great transition now more than ever we have to be focused on souls the only way we fight back is with the gospel light will always win come on truth will always prevail the power to change the world the only true power to change the world the only true power to make change true and lasting transformation the only way to push back against that great dark cloud that's enveloping our world right now the only way to do it is the gospel of jesus christ it is the power of god to transform the world so if you're tired of seeing wicked agendas advance you need to push the gospel out there just like the devil is fighting hard to push his agenda we the church must fight back now and push a godly agenda how do you do that you need to support you need to fund this ministry why because i'm not going to compromise the gospel i'm going to tell it like it is jesus is the only way and if you want to be saved if you want to make it to heaven you must repent of your sins turn from your wicked ways and accept jesus as your lord and savior put your faith in him and what he did on the cross we preach the truth we preach it in the power of the holy spirit biblically balanced and spirit-filled a powerful combination and you can stand behind this ministry if you're tired of seeing the gospel water down if you're tired of seeing the world look like it's winning if you're tired of the agenda of darkness being pushed on this generation on your children the gospel is the answer the gospel is the only answer so i'm going to challenge you now join the army of supporters join us join the spirit family from around the world give to the gospel today i know you have a desire to win souls i know you love the lord i know you believe in this ministry so go right now davidhernandezministries.com donate and give your very best why because the gospel needs to be funded this agenda needs to be funded the world has their funding by the trillions people of god the world has its funding by the trillions of dollars we need to fund the gospel this the only way we can push back it's the only way we can push back you want a better world for future generations for your children for your grandchildren it's the gospel and so i challenge you today give because you love jesus give because you love souls give for the gospel david hernandez ministries.com donate do it now davidhernandezministries.com donate give a gift of 25 give a gift of 50 give a gift of 100 there are a few of you watching who could give those gifts of a thousand five thousand ten thousand we've had people do even more and i have no misgivings about asking for that why because i know that the gospel is important i know that our agenda is the most important the gospel message is the most important message that the world needs right now right now so go and give participate fight this war for the soul of the nations and help us win people to the gospel message of jesus christ i can see the gifts coming in from all around the world again davidhernandezministries.com donate you can give there become a partner maybe you give a one-time gift maybe you become a monthly supporter maybe you do both people sign up to become thirty dollar a month partners they do hundred dollars a month some do fifty some do ten but do something today consider a one-time gift consider becoming a partner or consider doing both giving a one-time gift and becoming a monthly partner but whatever you do please do it right now davidhernandezministries.com donate it's time to preach the gospel it's time the world sees the power of god this ministry is going and growing this ministry is effective this ministry is excellent this is the holy spirit's ministry we're just stewards and when you invest in this ministry through donations you're empowering us to go and grow so help us do it again one more time david hernandez ministries dot com slash donate [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Encounter TV

Views: 14,068

Rating: 4.9840283 out of 5

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Id: x2Y4-IevDSE

Length: 70min 19sec (4219 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 15 2021