Praying Like Elijah by Wayne Hilsden

well I'm Wayne Hilson and I get to preach tonight and I do so about once a month I'm always excited to do it I love God's Word I'd like you to turn into James chapter 5 in your Bibles and I need prayer and I think you do too I need prayer to articulate the Word of God to explain it to apply it to help us understand it and then go with it and you need anointed ears to hear what the Holy Spirit would say to this congregation tonight so lord I ask you now for a supernatural dimension in this preaching of the word Lord may it not be a lecture may it not be just a bunch of information may it not just be head knowledge but may it reach our hearts Lord may it reach our whole being that we might be changed that we might live better for you that we might be better witnesses in Jerusalem Judea Samaria and to the ends of the earth I pray amen amen I'm thankful that I get to preach when I do and I'm passionate about what I'm preaching about tonight we're gonna be talking now in a series of messages on prayer and fasting and I'm excited about that we're gonna have a time of prayer and worship in a very exciting way on Rosh Hodesh on July the 6th we're looking at 10 years now of our prayer tower that is devoted to the Lord to seek his face and so that's exciting too we're planting a new congregation and Herzliya in August we need a lot of Prayer in preparation for that and so prayer is on our hearts and on our minds right now we need the intervention of God have you ever been in trouble anybody in trouble right now just let me encourage you with this promise of Yeshua to us in this world you will have trouble I hope that encourages you sometimes it's just a comfort to know that all of us have trouble you're not the only one I was in trouble yesterday when I still didn't have a sermon to preach for tonight I think I'm out of trouble now you know they say in surveys what is the scariest thing for you to do and it is generally speaking at the top of the list to speak in public and so I do get scared myself sometimes it's probably good to tremble every once in a while as you come to deliver the Word of God but I don't think I'm in trouble right now the Holy Spirit is with me and I believe he's going to anoint me maybe you're in trouble maybe you've worked hard you got a great degree you got a super job even beyond what you expected but suddenly the company says we're cutting back and you don't have the seniority necessary to keep your job and you're gone maybe you just found out that your son for two years has hidden from you that he's been on drugs and you've wondered why he was acting the way he is now you know you may have been told by a doctor that you only have a few months to live maybe you put all your money into a an investment your friend your trusted friends said it's a sure thing and then discovered it was a scam and you lost your savings James 5 and 13 says is any among you anyone among you suffering in the NIV version it says is anyone among you in trouble the Greek word can express either suffering or trouble then he goes on to say is anyone in good spirits he should sing praises I wish I could talk about that tonight but my subjects on prayer we'll get to that at another time is anyone in good spirits he should sing praises now verse 14 is anyone among you ill he should summon the elders of the congregation and they should pray for him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will save the one who was sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven so confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed the prayer of a righteous person has great effectiveness elijah was a human being like and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and there was no rain on the land for three years and six months then he prayed again and the sky gave rain and the land sprouted with a harvest my brothers and sisters if anyone among you wanders from the truth and someone turns him back so he should know that the one who turns a sinner back from his wandering path will save that person's soul from death and will cover a multitude of sins back at verse 10 of the same chapter and I think I need a new microphone it's fading at least in the monitors I'm in trouble please help in verse 10 of the same chapter it says as an example of suffering and patience brothers and sisters take the prophets who spoke in the Lord's name the prophets were almost always in trouble than one kind of or another and that's why most of us would rather be nonprofits now I'm wondering if we can learn for something from one of those prophets a man who has had a freight train load of trouble in his life Elijah was a prophet during the ninth century BC during the reign of King Ahab and his wife Jezebel a hab was one of the great kings over the northern tribes of Israel the Kingdom of Israel I should say but a hab was a weak King he was dominated by Jezebel his wife and he was ready to do anything to make her happy Jezebel was a princess from tyre from Phoenicia and the god of the Phoenicians was known as Baal or bail a hab pleased his wife by building a temple dedicated to bail in Samaria in the mountain heartland of the land of promise Jezebel imported a bunch of prophets of bail from her home country of Phoenicia and dipped into the Treasury of Israel to pay their salaries the Northern Kingdom of Israel was on its way to becoming a post a donee Society with the God of bale taking charge of the promised land some of us in this room are from Western nations and we're deeply troubled troubled by the rapid changes happening and Western society a movement away from the absolute truths that are taught in the Word of God and built upon a judeo-christian value system and maybe the most shocking and disturbing thing of all is that the prophetic voice of the body of Messiah is mostly silent or when we do speak most of the world doesn't listen could it be that we have not taken seriously what Yeshua said about being in the world but not of the world maybe much of the church operates today more using the value system and the success formulas of the world rather than depending upon God's Word and the power of the Holy Spirit where is Elijah's church when we need it have the gods of Mammon apathy taken over are we bailing out sorry the pun are we bailing out on pure religion Elijah was a true prophet of God and he would not stay silent but that would make life very difficult for Elijah it would create a lot of trouble in fact this is what we read in 1st Kings chapter 18 verse 17 then it happened when Ahab saw Elijah that Ahab said to him is that you O troubler of Israel if you're a true man or woman of God you won't compromise on truth and that means you're going to have a lot of trouble it comes with the territory Paul told us about the kind of field were in it's not just a harvest field it's a battle field and he says in ephesians chapter 6 and verse 12 for our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers against the powers against the world rulers of this darkness against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens what did Elijah do when he was in trouble when he was in the midst of this spiritual battle the spiritual war that he was in he prayed he prayed james 5:17 says elisha was a human being like us and he prayed why did he prayer pray because prayer works have you noticed that when you pray coincidences happen James 5:16 says that the prayers of some people have great effectiveness literally in the New Testament Greek language James says that prayer is very powerful in its working Elijah was faced with the powers spiritual powers and earthly powers and they were evil powers inspired by the devil himself inspired by a so called fertility God named Bale but Elijah proved more than once that prayer is very powerful in its working and prayer folks ought to be our engine and not our caboose and that's why we built the prayer tower 10 years ago it's the engine it's the thing that pulls the vision that God's given us along the tracks and gets us to the goal that we need to get to if prayer is the answer and if it is the engine if prayer is so powerful even more powerful than the gods of this world then why don't we pray all the time is that a dumb question why don't we pray all the time Leonard Ravenhill that great prophetic voice of the latter part of the last century said the average Church knows more about promotion than prayer how many prayers never do get answered because they are never asked and we've got a lot of reasons why we don't pray all the time I'm too busy to pray well if we're too busy to pray we're probably too busy prayer is hard work and I'm pretty weak I'm tired Hudson Taylor that great pioneer of the gospel to China said do not work so hard for Christ that you do not have strength to pray for prayer requires strength I'm afraid to go to God in prayer and ask him for anything I have failed him so many times I think he's fed up with me I don't I'm not worthy to go before the throne forgetting that it's a throne of grace and then there's this reason I tried praying and it didn't work when I prayed it was like my prayers hit the ceiling and bounced back I'm just too discouraged to pray anymore prayer hasn't worked for me but I think most of us in the room haven't given up on praying I think we still pray because we know that without a prayer life we don't have a prayer but many of us who do pray even regularly don't get the answers to prayer like we had hoped there is praying which is talking to God and then there's praying that's talking to God and God talks back to us and there's praying that does hit the ceiling and never really reaches God effectively and there are other prayers that God just loves to answer and he can't wait to send the answer down from heaven Elisha talked to God and God talked back Elisha touched heaven and heaven came down to earth how did it Elisha pray listen to this Elisha prayed with authority and so should we Elisha was convinced that he was a true the only true believer left in the land yet he knew that one man with God is majority and he knew that the one true God of Israel was on his side James recalls Elijah's audacious declaration in James chapter 5 verse 17 our text says Elisha was a human being like us and he prayed earnestly that it would not and there was no rain on the land for three years in six months Elijah's prayer was an audacious prayer for Elijah was not speaking however on his own behalf but on God's behalf and that's all the difference right there look at this first first Kings chapter 17 verse 1 and Elijah the Tishbite of the inhabitants of Gilead these are the folks on the other side of the Jordan River that's where Elijah came from said to Ahab as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand there shall not be dune or rain these years except at my word as the Lord God of Israel lives before whom I stand he went before a happened Jezebel not on his own merit or with his own voice but he went before him with the authority of the Lord and that makes a big difference in our praying certainly Elijah had no doubt about the will of God concerning the State of Israel under this king it says in first Kings 16 33 that a have also made an Astra pole he did more to anger the Lord God of Israel than all the kings of Israel who were before him God was very interested in this matter Elisha was not alone in this God is very very concerned about this situation in the land but not only did Elijah know that God was not going to put up with Ahab and Jezebel zville rule but we read in first Kings that Elijah was a man who heard the voice of God if you look at first Kings 17 verse 2 you'll see that he heard the voice of God in the same chapter we read that God spoke to Elijah and said get up go to Zarephath and the Lord directed him to go to that poor Widow woman and you remember he went and he asked her for something to eat and she said I've only got this little bit of flour and I've only got this little bit of oil in this jug and it's all gonna run out I'm gonna die and you're asking me for food and he said give me food it kind of spoke with authority audaciously and maybe upsetting to us in our more genteel way of speaking but he knew that God had spoken God said get up and go and so he went and you know the other the rest of the story after she said that there's just this little bit of flower at a little bit of oil when she made him something to eat the oil never ran dry and there was enough flour to keep on keeping on and then it says this in first Kings 1716 that she said it was just as the Lord had promised through Elisha you see he God had promised something to Elisha he had heard the voice of God he had the authority then to speak what he spoke Elisha wasn't a man who went around demanding that rain stop or that the flour and oil should continue on his own authority he did it because he had been talking to God and God spoke to him and God told him what he should do and that's why his prayers were so effective because he prayed with authority knowing that God had told him to pray in that way to do that very thing but James 5:17 tells us that Elisha was a human being just like us so those of you have heard so far about Elisha said well that's Elijah I mean he was the great prophet he's the one who came down with Moses on the Mount of Transfiguration appeared to Yeshua spoke to Yeshua I mean this is Elijah this is not Joe Blow here and I'm Joe blows wife I mean I'm just not in that league well let me just say again what James said Elisha was a human being like us the point James is trying to make is we can all have effective prayers like Elisha because we're no different than Elisha we can pray authoritative prayers that are very powerful in their working they are effective those twelve disciples were human beings very much like you and me I love the fact that the Gospels did not hide the humanity the disciples the frailty the foibles the goofy things they would say and do from time to time the slowness of their understanding of what issuer was talking about so many times it tells us that the disciples are like you and me and yet what did you schewe say to those disciples and would say to us again tonight in matthew 10:7 he said as you go preach this message the kingdom of heaven is at is near heal the sick raise the dead cleanse lepers cast out demons authority like that - these twelve regular dudes are you surprised a little bit by that yourself I think he's talking to us too because I'm just a dude like that you and I have more authority and power than we realize and if we knew how much authority we'd have in prayer then we'd pray a lot more and we'd be a lot more effective and when we pray and when we pray is not just Elijah and the 12 disciples and the other great men and women of God in the Bible who can hear the voice of God and turn prayer into a two-way communication you and I get to hear the voice of God every day if we want to hear it just open up your Bible yes the Holy Spirit can speak with a still small voice without the Bible but we got the Bible because God wanted us to hear his voice every day and I can tell you when I open up the Word of God early in the morning and the quiet place and my wife's doing the same downstairs that I hear the still small voice of God every day through his word without fail I am convicted by the Word of God he speaks to me speaks to my spirit convicts my heart and encourages me that I'm not doomed that there's hope that there's the gospel that does grace there's mercy hallelujah you get to hear the voice of God he directs your path he moves you here there and everywhere if you'll let him do that and he guides you're praying let's look at what it says earlier in James chapter 5 verse 14 and 15 is anyone among you ill he should summon the elders of the congregation and they should pray for him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up and if he has committed sins he will be forgiven James shows us a pattern we see healing not when lone Ranger's hold healing meetings but when they are in the community of believers that's the normal place where God moves by his power and does miracles and even heals the sick that's the norm it's the exceptional that happens out there in the big meetings the norm is in the congregation of God's people in community James says in verse 14 that we should summon the elders who are the elders those old guys know not always just a few of us these are people that are appointed to be leaders over the congregation these are not self-appointed people these are people that you notice that God uses them in unusual ways and you notice that they have character which is spelled out in Timothy and Titus and they are operating and people actually follow them and so they alert they are leaders and so then people lay hands on them and say these are the leaders because they're already leading that's who elders are you don't just suddenly become an elder you don't just suddenly declare you're an apostle or prophet it's when you're it's obvious because you're doing the stuff then people acknowledge it and they ordained you and they anoint you with oil and do all that stuff it's usually within the context of the local body of a congregation in community that powerful prayers get released to heaven and heaven comes down to earth how many of you believe what the Word of God says tonight you're not enthusiastic but I've seen your hands I see those hands and how should we view these elders now now that I'm not the senior pastor I can talk about these things easier doesn't sound quite as self-serving but let me say some things that maybe bother some of you in the room just to be a troublemaker like Elijah okay even though I'm far from Elijah okay first Peter 5:5 says this be subject to the elders and all of you clothe yourselves with humility toward one another because God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble hey do you want God to move in your life you want the grace of God to be poured out and his gifts even the gifts of healing and miracles and prophecy and all of those wonderful things submit subject yourself to the elders that's a tough word I know I'm offending a bunch of people actually maybe because you're here tonight I'm not offending so many maybe I need to go out on the streets and preach this but I have noticed that in the places in the world where elders respect and esteem and are willing to submit to leaders in the body I'm talking about good leaders not unhealthy destructive leaders in the world where people actually respect leaders still unlike the Western world places like Asia where elders are respected even in general society let alone the congregations in South America where sometimes pastors are put on pedestals they respect them too much give them too much esteem in Africa you see the same thing but in those places more miracles happen than in the Western world where we don't want to submit to any leadership where individualism characterizes our Western society where we are proud not humble and when you're proud and not humble you don't get the grace of God the Peter says we should be receiving have I stepped on anybody's toes I don't know it must much of the Western world today we have a body of believers that are consumers and are on a perpetual shopping spree looking for the latest ideas and trends and in biblical and spiritual and Theological ideas where they can get what they think will satisfy their curiosities and their their desires get that exciting new teaching that will tickle their itching ears and we were we're told in the Bible that that's what's going to happen in the last days and we're seeing it all over the place where people don't want to be in community because they don't want to be in relationship with leaders because we're all leaders poor none of us are leaders and I have nothing against those little groups that pop up in in houses and apartments all over the world and that's the way it worked in China for for many decades when when they had to hide out and they were in little groups of people there's nothing wrong with anything let's little don't despise anything that's little little as much when God is in it but when people gather in the groups because they are not they're upset with some other group and they think that there should be no leaders in the body we have the opposite problem we used to you know the in Corinthians was I'm of Apollo's I'm appalled I'm of Peter I'm of the Messiah now it's like I'm of nobody I am the leader of me that's the attitude that we have in much of our Western society today I'm surprised more people haven't walked out on me yet could still happen well James tells us to pray for our breakthrough and exercise our authority in prayer to the degree that we are under Authority we have authority to the degree that we're willing to be under Authority God can trust us with authority when he knows that we're willing to submit to Authority that's how it works in the kingdom of God so James tells us summon the elders of the congregation and let them join in prayer and anoint with oil the last part of the verse verse 14 is very revealing about these elders it says that they do these things for us or with us in the name of the Lord not in their name and not to puff up that they've got these great healing powers or miraculous powers but in order to glorify God they do it for him and with his authority and that's when breakthroughs were gonna happen in your life authority I come now to a second part of effective praying not only did Elijah pray with authority and we should be praying with authority because we're just like Elijah and we can do what he does through the power of God and to the glory of God but secondly there's another way to have effective praying it's this Elijah prayed with faith and so should we we looked at at the earlier miracle of Elijah where he stopped the rain for over three years but he reverses the climate at the end of that and we read this in 1st Corinthians chapter 18 verse 41 to 45 it says then Elijah said to Ahab go up eat and drink for there is the sound of abundance of rain really so Ahab went up to eat and drink while Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel he bent down toward the ground and put his face between his knees he told his servant go up and look in the direction of the sea so we went on up looked and reported there is nothing seven times Elijah sent him to look the seventh time the servant said look a small cloud the size of the palm of a man's hand is rising up from the sea Elijah then said go and tell a hab hitch up the chariots and go down so that the rain won't overtake you meanwhile the sky was covered with dark clouds the blue and there was a heavy rain storm Elijah was a man of incredible faith it hadn't rained for three and a half years by now a lot of people thought that there's not gonna be any more rain it's been like this a long time it is not a fad it is a trend it's where the world is going no rain it's a result of global warming they said pretty soon the world is going to come to an end we're all going to dry up we're gonna wither like raisins in the Sun and we're done Elijah though had eyes of faith and he had ears of faith it's amazing he knew in his spirit God had revealed it to him God had spoken to him in that still small voice probably and he obeyed that voice he commanded the clouds to come in and the rain to fall and that it would happen exactly as the Lord had promised him and then he could hear the rain when there was no sign of rain he could see a rain cloud even when the servants said there is nothing James agrees that the prayer of faith is effective listen to this James 5:14 and 15 is anyone among you ill he should summon the elders of the church and they should pray for him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up so when the Lord is telling you to pray for rain make sure you bring a pail and maybe some galoshes - I remember when there was a huge drought in Israel a number of years ago almost two decades ago and I remember the Sea of Galilee got so low that it was below the red line below the second red line to the point when when the scientists were saying it's a there's gonna be permanent damage to this seabed and this water source and and we're in trouble now and I remember that that leaders in the land in the body said let's pray about this let's get serious about this and called corporate prayer meetings all over the country and you know it wasn't long it was very quick when near the end of the season of rain when there was little hope suddenly the rains came and we got more rain than we could handle and though the waters of that water of the Sea of Galilee rose several metres to the point that when storms came up and the waves came crashing they were crashing against restaurants on the shores of the Sea of Galilee in Tiberias and the shoreline was way out there just a month prior to that and suddenly the waves are crashing up and destroying restaurants along the Sea of Galilee you know that God answers prayer but it's a prayer of faith it's a prayer that you believe that God is gonna answer any answers and amazing things happen I remember we went out to the Shepherd's fields years ago I'm thinking almost 30 years ago King of Kings that was our tradition we would go just before the Lord's birth and the Shepherd's fields just close to where he was born and we would sing and then we got the weather report and they said it's gonna rain real hard we said we're goin anyway we went out there with a bus when it was safe to do so back then and we saw the rain come down it was raining hard and we began to pray that the Lord would open the heavens the clouds would move back and that we would have just for our time of singing a break in the rain did you know something we looked up in the sky there was a circle around our head of open space where we saw the stars God cares about the big things but he also cares about the little things that trouble us the little foxes the little things that bother us now I don't know about the farmers that were there they may have been upset with our praying but God cares about even these things God answers prayer when you believe that it's possible that it's possible even to change the climate if you pray hallelujah Matthew 18:18 and 20s as I tell you the truth whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven and whatever you release on earth will have been released in heaven again I tell you the truth if - on earth agree about whatever you ask my father in heaven will do it for you for where two or three are assembled in my name I am there among them issue it promises us that he is here with us when we are in agreement together we are together in one place in his name not just gathered for Club meeting but in his name and what is you shouid do when we gather he plays the role that he plays so well today Yeshua did great things in the three-and-a-half years that he was here but you know he left the earth and he went to a retirement village in the sky and he's got his feet up on the porch and he's reading novels and he's having a great time no no what's he doing he is the great high priest he is the intercessor he is working 24/7 he's not in retirement he is on our side he is mediating on our behalf to the same father he prayed to all the time while he was on the earth and he gets the oil into the gears of our prayers and helps them reach the place they're supposed to go aren't you thankful that you schewe wherever two or three are gathered in his name again it's corporates get it's community it's the primary place it's the normal place it's the not it's the old normal it's not the new normal it's the same normal that always was normal that in community Yeshua shows up and he intercedes on our behalf as our great high priest when Yeshua agrees with you in prayer you can bet the prayers are going to be answered anything you pray according to the will of God will come to pass now I want to just give you a few simple reasons to believe reason to have a prayer of faith on your lips okay listen to them real quick number one God wants to answer your prayer even in your impossible situation in order to prove again to the world that he is the Lord he is God how do I know that well we read it in 1st Kings chapter 18 verse 38 to 39 we see that Elijah is confronting the the prophets of bale and it's it's a showdown who's gonna bring fire down from heaven to upon the altar and burn the sacrifice and remember he Elijah he digs a ditch even puts water in the ditch I mean there's famine right he's puts water in the ditch and he wants to make sure that nobody would ever say that Elijah pulled this off it had to be a supernatural thing that happened and what happens fire comes down now what happens to the prophets of bale when this God does this thing it says this in chapter 18 verse 38 and 39 then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt sacrifice and the wood and the stones and the dust and it licked up the water that was in the trench now when all the people saw it they fell on their faces and they said the Lord he is God the Lord he is God I didn't repeat that it's in the text repeated twice the Lord he is God the Lord he is God God wants to answer your prayers not just because you're such a really cool person he just loves doing stuff for you no he does stuff sometimes for himself and one of those things is he shows off he demonstrates to the world that he has more power than some fertility God from Phoenicia he's more powerful than demons that are flying around in the sky and sometimes landing in people he is more powerful than any evil power in the world today and he'll put any this matter how much the people doubt it they'll just throw more water on the sacrifice and say okay watch this I can burn this sacrifice you can put all the water you want in there I'm coming down I'm bringing my fire with me hallelujah hallelujah praise God here's another reason to believe here's another reason to believe that your prayer of faith will be effectual it's this God loves you you are as child any good father gives good gifts to his children do I need to say any more about that number three God has answered your prayers before check out his track record look back at the ebenezer stone look at what he's already done he did it once he can do it again does that build up your faith I love you know I have every morning I have a number of things that I do it's a bit of a ritual I do it according to the tabernacle and the priest goes the various steps to the to the Laver to the altar to the to the table of showbread to the candelabra and goes to the altar of incense goes into the holy hose I do the whole thing I've been doing it for almost thirty years I'm sorry that I have a ritual but I need it I have to have a guide to take me through and every time I go through this I pray at that altar of incense but I pray with Thanksgiving because the Bible tells me to do that and when I pray with Thanksgiving I have to list the things I'm thankful for and then so many of the things I'm thankful for that I write down well now I speak to my computer using one of these voice recognition things I used to write it down I say to the computer and its really to God it's and the computer is not a mediator between me and God okay if I said enough just to clarify I state with specificity that I am thankful Lord for what you did yesterday you broke through you helped me you helped our family you fix that problem and I've got records now for years and you're decades now of the things that God has done because I prayed and you prayed we all prayed and God did something powerfully and I have a monument to God's goodness and His faithfulness to keep his promises to his people it's amazing my wife has a whole journal just telling of the miracles that have happened in the last 13 or 14 years when God told us to buy this place and then the top floor and ended up with 30 title deeds in this building I mean this is crazy folks but it happened in answer to prayer hallelujah it's amazing okay where am i I'm almost done there's another key to having prayers that work and it's this James 5:17 says that Elijah was a human being like us and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain and there was no rain in the land for three years and six months earnestly in the original Greek it says actually it's kind of like a Hebraic way of saying things he prayed with prayer it intensified his not just regular praying it's praying with prayer okay earnestly fervently and then we read in the life of Elijah it says in chapter 18 verse 42 so Ahab went up to eat and drink while Elijah climbed to the top of Carmel he bent down toward the ground and put his face between his knees wasn't the last time you prayed like that we've got all these different positions of Prayer you pray with your hands raised you pray kneeling on the floor when's the last time you put your head between your knees and parade what is that position that's a weird position that position says I am desperate I am dependent on you O Lord I can't stand I'm not strong enough to stand I can't kneel my knees are bad I'm finished Lord I need a breakthrough I my heads down Lord I'm in a fetal position Lord come to me come to the rescue Lord I am destitute that's what praying earnestly is and I remember growing up my father was a pastor and hardly anybody ever does it anymore we do it differently because we have a prayer tower but we used to Sunday nights after the service my dad almost every time would say let's go to the prayer room and in the prayer room we would get down and we would pray and nobody went down for two or three or five minutes you were embarrassed to get up that soon these were tarrying services you Terry you wait on God until the breakthrough you don't get up until you have this confidence in your spirit that God has heard the prayer and he's about to answer the prayer that's what it was like back then I think we need more of that I think we need more that I don't want to go back to the good old days and do it the way we did it but the essence of it put your head between your knees and cry out for mercy get desperate with God actually works and I don't want to go through my testimony again of how the Lord met me about 14 years ago in the Galilee when I was desperate when I thought the ministry was coming to an end and King of Kings was looking more like Prince of Prince it just wasn't growing anymore it was as wasn't it wasn't what it should be and I got desperate with God and I fasted and I prayed and I saw his face I got desperate I didn't have my heads but head between my knees but I was in that same position in my spirit and God answered that prayer and I'll tell you I got a download from heaven that has changed my life and I still operate in that same transformation spiritual reality today and I could tell you story after story it I don't want to tell them all now I've got to leave it for the book that my wife were right but it's amazing what God has done and it's not about me so that's another reason I don't want to go into this it's about all of us all of us disciples of the Lord but fervency and prayer desperation in prayer makes a difference yeah yushua went to that man who for 38 years label waiting for the waters to move and be the first guy to get in so he could be healed now I don't know if he turned that pool side into kind of a vacation time maybe he was on what he called those chairs a lounge chair as a better word for that a classier word than lounge chair what is it ashes lounge as Shea's lounge I don't know that he was just getting comfortable you know he's liking his his deal he's enjoying the pity party maybe because what happens is Yeshua comes along and asks that really dumb question he says do you want to be made well I've been here 38 years of course I want to be made well but you should discerned that he wasn't all that anxious to be made well there was some benefit somehow I don't know Maccabi maybe that you know he got a special penny he didn't have to go to work because he was disabled I don't know and I'm not mocking anybody in this because there's genuine reasons why sometimes we can't do anything it's true but Yeshua says do you really want to be well because Yeshua I think would ask each and every one of us do you really want to break through in your life do you really want that job so that you can work for a living do you really want that wife for that husband do you really really really want it and sometimes the Lord doesn't heal us until he knows that we really really really desire what God's placed upon our heart and that's where fasting comes in I'm not gonna preach I'm fasting tonight because I want somebody else to preach on fasting I like slowing not fasting myself but I have fasted and I continue from time to time to fast because I believe in it but I don't think I'm an expert on it but this one thing about fasting is one of the purposes of fasting is that you show God you really really really really really really want what you believe God has for you to have it is that desperation it is that fervency in prayer it is that tarrying in prayer waiting until the breakthrough comes that's part of being effective in praying and I'm really near the end I could go on with all kinds of illustrations the man who knocks on the door until he gets the bread the woman at the door until she gets justice you know we're not in and when it comes to spiritual things we're not in an ATM world we don't just go get four hundred shekels instantly out of the machine no we have to persevere and really passionately fervently want the things that we have and then God gives it to us and he gives it usually in greater abundance than we could have ever gotten out of an ATM machine believe me believe me but that's the way God works William gern all said this some prayers have a longer voyage than others but when they returned with their Richard lading but then they returned with their Richard lading at last you never want to have to say a really great quote like that and stumble in the middle I'll have to say it again just doesn't have the effect let me say it one more time all right can I say this maybe it's not worth saying some prayers have a longer voyage than others but then they returned with their richer lading at last Jacob wouldn't let go until he got the blessing so was let go too fast we ought to be hanging on to God until we get the blessing and that may mean fasting Oh fasting you know those two porn shops that were out here we couldn't get those things out of here no matter what we tried we prayed a lot but then we decided somebody really smart on our team said why don't we try fasting tried everything else let's try fasting we fasted and you know what instead of us having to find the owner of one of them and we thought he was in the Mafia it would be pretty scary to find him didn't really want to find him we want to mouth we really don't want him out because then we get in trouble whatever the guy the owner comes to us searches us out and says do you want to buy my shop and by the end of the day we had a verbal agreement and within a week or two we had a written agreement and he's out of there man neither of those born shops are there now because we fasted and we prayed praise God we really really really really really wanted them out of there and to put in there a family counseling center hallelujah praise God and I conclude James says James 5:16 that the prayer of a righteous man is effective Elijah was willing to believe what is right and do what is right even when the rest of the world around him was in rebellion he could be trusted with delegated and authority because God could trust him because he did whatever God told him to do he was the right stuff for God he was right with God you and I need to be in a right relationship with God and in a right relationship with our neighbor and our congregation and our elders if we're gonna see these prayers hit the mark and be answered some of you are not in a right relationship with God no wonder the prayers are not being answered I'm not saying this to everybody there's lots of reasons why our prayers aren't answered including the sovereignty of God and the mystery that we don't understand sometimes why the prayer isn't answered now but we trust God anyway but it says that we need to be right with God and then our prayers get answered that's what it says James 5:16 says so confess your sins one to another and pray for one another so that you may be healed the point that James is trying to say is you're right Nisour your righteousness is not about that you have perfectly obeyed God all the time but that you admit that you sinned and when you sin you say Oh Lord I confess I agree with you I have sinned I turn from my sin and you know what happens you become righteous and when you're righteous that means when you pray you're praying effective prayers for John tells us if we will confess with our mouth if we will confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from what all unrighteousness righteousness the prayer of a righteous person avails much if we will confess that we sin because we're imperfect and we too are always right then he makes us right and we take on the robes of his righteousness and God sees us through his son he sees us wearing his garments he sees us wearing white not black or blue he sees his righteousness and we are in him and he is in us and so if you will confess your sins if you're out of order you're not right with God you're not right with your brother or sister you're not right with the congregational leaders if something's not right all you have to do is confess that one to another and to the Lord and get in the right place and when you need a breakthrough God's gonna help you get that breakthrough because the Word of God tells us those kinds of prayers are effective praise God the prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its working lord help us to be a people of Prayer not just going through the motions but when we pray O God that you will hear our prayer you will answer our prayer we will see miraculous breakthrough not just little breakthroughs but huge break for those Lord that even that the prophets of evil and a bail will say that you are the Lord because of answers to prayer that we have seen Oh God let us not give up too soon let us keep on keeping on and seeing your breakthrough in Yeshua's name Amen you

Channel: King of Kings Community Jerusalem

Views: 2,235

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Yeshua, Jesus, Messiah, Christ, Lion of Judah, Lord, God, Jerusalem, Israel, Gospel, Word, Truth, Faith, Salvation, Holy Spirit, Holy, Prophecy, Preaching, Ministry, Ministries, Grace, Mercy, Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control, Believer, Christian, Church, Messianic, Congregation, King of Kings, KKCJ, KOKA, Pavilion, Pastor, Wayne Hilsden, Sermon, Message, Preacher, Prayer, Fasting

Id: nsHuYGWpZiw

Length: 52min 50sec (3170 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 28 2016