You are invited to stop treating prayer as a checklist and start seeking God's heart above all else. As you maintain His character in your requests, remember that true friendship with Jesus is found in the obedience that follows. Today, surrender your comfort and let the Holy Spirit mold you into the tool He wants you to be.
Alright. Good morning, Real Church. My name is Mariah Mullins. I've been coming to Real Church with my husband for a little over 3 years now. We are both elders here, and we are just so thankful that God has called us to be a part of this church.
I got to speak last week, which was really fun, and I'm bringing the word again. And this is part 2 part 2 of my message. We've been talking about prayer for quite a while now. Man, I love prayer. I'm so thankful for prayer.
And this is going to really build on what I talked about last time. So I'm gonna give you a little bit of a refresher and get us all on the same page so that we can build on that. Okay? So the verse that we brought up a lot last week was Matthew-6:33. So I just let's just put that back in our in our hearts.
It says, but seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Okay? So we talked about seeking first the kingdom is focusing our eyes on the Lord, asking him what do you want me to pray about today? And maybe we have things. Maybe you are used to going to the Lord with your list of things that you wanna pray with.
But in this way, we're seeking first the kingdom and saying, God, what's on your list for me to pray for today? What is on your heart? I wanna be connected to your heart and your mind when I pray. And and don't get me wrong because all of the other things will be added to us. Right?
So it's it's it's just beautiful that we can seek first the Lord and all the other things are added to us. So keep that verse in your heart. I'll I'll talk about it a little bit more as we go. But we're talking about prayers that are specifically seek first the *kingdom* prayers. And now I've prayed other kinds of prayers, but this specific type of prayer man, I always see the answer to my prayers when I pray this way.
There's a verse in John-16 that says, ask and you will receive that your joy may be full. So I'm going to talk to you about praying this way, so that we can ask, we can receive the answer to our prayers, and we can be full of joy. Right? See, my prayers are answered when I pray this way, and let's dive in. So the first thing that we talked about last week is we just reviewed King Solomon's interaction with the Lord.
Right? So when King Solomon was first declared king, he has this interaction with the Lord that I believe is a seek first the kingdom prayer. It's a "seek first the kingdom" type of interaction. So the first thing that he does is it starts by saying that Solomon loved the Lord and he worshiped the Lord. He brought 1,000 burnt offerings to the Lord at the place of worship.
And and when you worship in that way, when you worship with your heart fully, Right? Maybe you have your hands raised, like an honest heart of worship towards the Lord. You know that that verse that says the presence of God inhabits the praises of his people. How amazing is that? That I go to worship the Lord.
Right? I'm going to give him my all. To give him all of who I am, but then I receive his presence, which is the greatest gift. I came to worship him, and he gave me his presence. Just the best gift.
So worship is what I would call "God's phone number". Right? And Solomon worships the Lord and God answers the phone. He in a way, he he responds. He goes, hey, what do you want?
Ask and I'll give it to you. *God* responds to Solomon in that way. And then Solomon goes on, he says, first he recalls the goodness of God. He says, Lord, you were faithful to my father. You've continued to be faithful.
So he's recalling the goodness of God. The next thing that he does within this prayer, this conversation with the Lord, is he's humble. So Solomon has just become promoted among men. He's just become king over all these people, but he humbles himself before the Lord by by saying, I'm like a child here. I don't even know my way around.
The next thing that Solomon does is he maintains the character of God. Now I wanna talk about that a little bit. Maintaining the character of God is understanding who God is to you and who God is to the situation. Right? So I know that God is good.
That's maintaining the character of God. So I'm not gonna go to God in prayer and say, God, you don't even care about me. That's not maintaining the character of God. Right? I know a lot about the character of God.
I know that he is good, and that he loves me. I know that he sent his son to die for me. Right? His love for me is great. So if you get that first gear in place, it clicks in place, I believe that the rest of your prayer will follow in soon.
Right? That's the first gear that needs to be in place. Just lock it in place. Maintain the character of God. Understand who God is to you and to your situation.
He cares. He's a good God. He is powerful and mighty. No problem is too big or small for him, maintaining the character of God. Solomon maintains the character of God by using the word your 3 times.
So Solomon has these people. This is his situation that he has all these people that he's king over. And he understands who God is to this situation. He says, these are your people. He keeps on going and he says, how am I supposed to to lead this nation of yours?
These great people of yours, he says it 3 times, understanding who God is to the situation. The Lord grants him his request for wisdom, and he also says, because you ask for wisdom, I will I will also, excuse me, I will also give you riches, fame, and a long life. See, the riches, fame, and a long life is the and all these things will be added to you portion of Matthew-6:33. Solomon was seeking first the kingdom of God and all that he said, recalling the goodness of God, humility, maintaining the character of God, *worshiping* him in the beginning. That's seeking first the kingdom of God.
And the and the fame, the riches, and the long life, that is the and all these things will be added to you. Right. So Solomon, what he does is he goes and he worships the Lord after receiving this promise. So he has breakthrough in this word. It's not the end of his life.
He doesn't he doesn't see his long life before him, but he has the promise of that. He has the promise of wisdom. He has the promise of fame and riches. And so he goes and he worships the Lord more. And then he brings together all of his officials, and they celebrate this word that he's been given.
See, that is trusting the Lord. Now, I'm a mom. I've got a, almost 1 and a half year old and an almost 3 year old. They're they're 1 and 2 right now. And when I you know, I've prayed for them like this before.
I've prayed, oh, Lord. Help me get through this crazy day with my crazy kids. Just help me get through it. Right? I've prayed like that before.
But what I could do is I could pray like this. Oh, God, you are good. I worship you. You are greatly to be praised. God, you are mighty and powerful.
Father, you are you are the god that came through for my parents in raising me and their parents in raising them. God, you are faithful. Your goodness is evident in my life. Lord, who am I to raise these children of yours? Lord, you are good.
I trust you in raising these children. I thank you for the promises that you've put in my kids. I thank you for the hand that you have on them. I thank you, Lord, that you talk to them. God, I just ask that your hand would be on me, that you would give me wisdom in interacting with my kids today.
Lord, I thank you so much for your *spirit* that you're pouring it out on me, and you pour it out on my kids. *God, I praise you and I worship* you. You are good. Do you oh, man. I could keep praying like that.
And do you see that my prayer has really already been answered? Like, I've been filled with the *spirit* through that time of prayer, through just that just a small prayer. Praying in accordance with the will of God in a seek first the kingdom of God manner. And and I feel full of the spirit, and I am just ready to go for the day. Like, I can't wait to see how God interacts with my kids and my day today.
So my prayer has already been answered in that way. Now seeking first the kingdom of God prayers, there's some there's some more elements I wanna point out specifically. And last week, my first point was that you don't have to be smart to pray like this. You don't have to be smart. You don't have to to speak a certain way or feel like you sound so good when you pray, to get your prayers answered, but you do have to be humble.
That's the only thing. You need to be humble. *James-4:10* says, humble yourselves before the lord, and he will lift you up in honor. The next point from last week was maintain the character of God. I've already talked about that a bit.
Maintain the character of God. Who is God? What is his will? If you're not sure, read the word and then start praying in accordance with who he is. He has plans to prosper you.
So that brings me to you today. Point number 3, prayers like this, seek first the kingdom prayers, they're persistent. They're persistent. We're gonna stand for the reading of the word. Open up to Luke-18.
I love standing for the word. Luke-18 verse 1. So this is the parable of the persistent widow. It says, then he spoke a parable to them that men ought to pray and not "lose heart", saying, there was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. Now there was a widow in that city, and she came to him saying, get justice for me from my adversary.
And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her. Lest by her continual coming, she weary me. Then the lord said, hear what the unjust judge said. And shall God not avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him though he bears long with them? I tell you that he will avenge them speedily.
Nevertheless, when the son of man comes, will he really find faith on earth? Thank you, father, for your word. Thank you, God. We turn our hearts to you. We're listening to you.
*God*, have your way. We love you. Amen. You may be seated. So the first thing that Jesus says is is to pray and to not lose heart.
And see, there's there's many times in the word where Jesus reminds us to be persistent in prayer. See, the Lord is persistent in telling us to be persistent in prayers. And because I'm a persistent prayer, I have I have personally prayed for things for years that have then been answered. I have also I'm currently praying for things that I've been praying for for years that I know will be answered. And because of that, I've had a lot of thoughts that I think will pop up when you go into persistent praying that I want to address.
So the first thing that will pop into my head is what's taking so long? What's taking so long? Now I want you to realize the difference in the wording between what's taking so long and God what is taking you so long. Right? Because we just read he bears with us.
See, we're actually on the same team as God. We're partnering in prayer. And see when we persist in prayer while maintaining that character of God, that he's partnering with me in prayer. He actually desires for this prayer to be answered. So that's maintaining the character of God.
And and if we persist in that way, it starts to make us look like him. We start to look like him. And you'll grow this desire for your prayers to be answered. And what's that what that really is doing is you're you're just starting to grow and just hating the devil's hand in anything. So I want to encourage you actually to pursue that feeling of of just feeling fed up.
Like, I want the answer to this prayer, Lord. Lean into it. He's leaning into it too. You're not fighting him in this. See, and you have to become more fed up with the devil's hand at work than you are with praying.
I'm gonna say that again. You have to be more fed up with the devil's hand at work than you are with having to pray. *Matthew-7*, 7 and 8 says, keep on asking and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking and you will find. Keep on knocking and the door will be open to you for everyone who asks, receives.
Everyone who seeks, finds. And to anyone who knocks, the door will be open. We're gonna pray until we receive *breakthrough*. And when we pray, we're partnering with God. See, we're partnering with his plans, and we're partnering with his love, and his love does not give up.
So as we pray, as prayers are coming out of our mouth, they should sound like God's love. God is not giving up. If you're praying for your son to come to the Lord, God's not giving up. Partner with that love. Partner with him.
Partner with what he's doing. It's okay to have that feeling of being fed up. I want the prayer to my aunt I want the answer to my prayers, Lord. Partner with him in that. I also I wanna test your ability to wait on God.
See, persistent prayers, they can be over a long period of time, days, weeks, years, but they can also be done within a moment. Right? So maybe you sit down to pray and you've been praying for a minute or or 2, and you're feeling like it's time to be done, like let's end it. And what you're doing when you press into prayer in a moment where you're kinda ready to be done, is you're gaining muscle. You're gaining prayer muscle, and you're gaining endurance.
It's building character in you. So there's that verse, you know, when you wait upon the Lord, you'll rise up with wings like eagles and walk and not faint, run and not grow weary. Waiting on the Lord when does waiting start? When you pray. I don't actually have an answer for you for that.
But I have a 2 year old, and when I tell him dinner's ready and I tell him to go to the table, if there's no food at the table, he has a "0 wait time". Like, 0. He is 2. He's got no wait in him. He will be out of his chair.
He'll be grabbing things off the counter. He'll be yelling, mama, mama, food. The whole time. Like, wait time. I'm, like, walking to the table with his plate of food, and he has a 0 wait time.
But he's 2. So it's alright. He'll grow in that. If you're growing and waiting on the Lord, it's okay. But press in more.
Press into waiting, and I don't mean passive waiting. I mean, really active waiting. So I want you to picture. Right? I want you to picture a dog just like this, like a dog looking up at its owner.
Just just staring now the owner down, just staring. We've all had this. We've all had a dog just staring at us while we're eating like, oh, the the focus that that dog has just sitting so nicely. Like, I know there's a piece of chicken coming. Right?
That is waiting on God. Active looking at God and waiting. Another verse that really encourages me when I'm in persistent prayer, it is, do not become weary in doing good. For in due season, we shall reap a harvest if we do not lose heart. You know you're doing so much good when you spend time in persistent prayer.
There are things happening in the *spirit* as you press in during persistent prayer. Do not become weary. Another thing that comes to mind when I'm in persistent prayer is I don't know what to say. Like, I've run out of things to say I don't know what to say. Psalms-46:10 says, be still and know that I am God.
So this type of prayer can be done in complete silence. Just lean your heart into him. Lean your heart into the promises that he's given you. *Psalms-32:8* says, I will teach you and instruct you in the way you should go. I will guide you with my eye.
See, he's communicating with you, but just stay focused on him. Just wait on the lord. Look at him like that dog just stays waiting. Say, I know I'm gonna get some chicken. I know I'm gonna receive my breakthrough.
*Proverbs-23:26* says, my son, give me your heart and let your eyes observe my ways. See, give the lord your heart and you will observe him interacting in your life. I wanna come back to, you know, we're not just being in persistent in bringing my I'm not wanting to be persistent in bringing my laundry list of things to God. However, I do want to be persistent in asking for the Holy Spirit, in needing the Holy Spirit. In Luke-11:13, Jesus is teaching.
He says, if you then being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy *Spirit* to those who ask him. So picture this, I'm a mom, I give good gifts to my kids. But the Lord see he's better than me. He's he's more good. He is good.
He's everything good. So he gives the best gifts, And the best gift is his spirit, the Holy Spirit. And he's faithful to pour out his Holy Spirit. So I wanna go to the Lord and say, more Lord, More of your Holy Spirit. And he's always faithful to pour it out.
And whenever he pours it out, I think to myself, wow. "More Lord". More Lord. So instead of saying, why me that my prayers aren't answered? Why me?
You know, I I start to to say, oh, Lord. Why me that God would pour out his spirit so lavishly on me. See that's being poor in spirit. *Matthew-5:3* says, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Well, what's the kingdom of heaven?
I'm so glad you asked. *Romans-14:17* says, for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. So the kingdom of God is peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Man, sounds like my prayers are getting answered already. Come with me or I'm I'm going somewhere.
*Matthew-6:33, you know, we've talked about this a lot. Seeking first the kingdom of God and his righteousness*, and all these things will be added to you. This is like a beautiful circle. So first, we're seeking the kingdom of God. Say, God, what is your will?
What do you what do you want me to pray today, God? I'm seeking first your will. Seeking first the kingdom of God. Lord, pour out your spirit. See, that's what I needed this whole time.
I thought I needed, you know, bread and water. And Jesus said, I am the bread. I am the water, so that you would thirst no more. And suddenly, we have so much of the spirit. And now, we have the kingdom of heaven, and we have peace and joy and the holy spirit, and all these things will be added to you.
Oh, he's so good. Point number 4, prayer is *surrender* and submission. The seeking first the kingdom. This type of prayer, it's surrender and it's submission. It's very anti control.
You know, you can't have love and control together. They they don't mix. They don't work that way. So if you're praying over a relationship and you desire to control them, you have to surrender and submit unto the Lord. Right?
So I'm I'm gonna give you an example. I was engaged to Gabe, my husband. We were engaged about 7 years ago now, I guess. And and we were driving in the car, and he had a bit of road rage. And I didn't say anything to him.
I didn't look at him. I didn't I didn't make a peep. I didn't make a sound. I didn't even tell him I was praying. Nothing.
Not a word. And I go to the Lord and I'm like, well, Lord, what's going on here? You You told me to marry this man. Like, what what's going on? And and I just see his desire for Gabe, you know.
He he's gonna be a dad someday, and there's gonna be kids in the back seat, and that's not that's not how he's gonna be driving with those kids in the back seat. And I just, like, see the will of God for Gabe. And so I'm praying that, and I'm like, lord, I trust you, and I'm "hands off". And I just felt in so much peace to not talk to him about it or tell him anything. And within that week, Gabe comes to me and he says, you know, I've been feeling really convicted about, road rage, and I'm just done with that within that week.
And and he's never struggled with this sense, like never had an issue with that sense. And that was my first experience in praying for my husband. And and you know, I'm not a perfect wife. I don't do it perfectly, but I will tell you that praying that way works. Like, I don't have to nag my husband.
I do not have to nag my husband. I can go to his boss. I go to the Lord. And I surrender my husband to the Lord, and I pray the Lord's will over him. You know, this is the same way that it works in in praying over any relationship.
Right? So so with my kids. Right? If I'm disciplining them and discipling them and growing them and it's not working, and I'm like, Lord, what is going on? What do I do?
And I go to the Lord and I submit to him and I surrender my kids to him, and I let go of control because control isn't love. Right? It's not love. The Lord always answers me in this way. Always.
He always gives me breakthrough in my relationships in this way. I surrender that person over to them. And the Lord fills me with the with the spirit. The Holy Spirit does the convicting. I don't have to convict anybody.
I'm not going to convict people. The Holy Spirit convicts people. And I always receive my breakthrough in my, okay, Lord. I'm not gonna control this. I give up control.
I surrender them to you. I submit to your will. What is your will, God? What would you have me do? You want me to stay here and pray?
Okay. I'm gonna stay here. I'm gonna pray. Let's let's look at what I got here. Here I have some clay.
See the word says the word says that he is the potter and we are the clay. And I have some clay here. And it's it's not "dried out". It's it's actually got some moisture in it. Just a little bit.
It's it's enough so that you you know, if I push really hard, I can get it into the form that I want it in. I've gotta give it quite a bit of muscle, but I can really push it and and get it into the form that I want it to if I give it some effort. See? So we are the clay, and here's the lord with his hands. Getting messy, holding on to us, taking care to turn us into the form that he has for us.
And, you know, the Lord is always making us look more like Jesus. Like, that's what he does. When he holds us and he forms us, he's always making us look like Jesus. And we all have our different functions, but we're all in the Lord's hands, and he is *faithful* to turn us into looking like Jesus. So John-15:4 says, **remain in me**, and I will remain in you.
For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. So here's the clay in the Lord's hands. That's the remain in me part. Next it says, and I will remain in you. See, this is where the Lord is faithful to pour out his spirit.
Alright. So here I have some water. I'm just gonna put it in this clay. Just like the Lord when he's pouring out his spirit on us into this clay. And the more water that that he adds to us, he's gotta kinda work it in.
Right? But it's becoming wow. It's already coming, like, more easily moved, this clay is. Just getting this water into this clay. It's becoming softer and more moldable already.
Right? So the more *spirit* that we can contain and he's faithful. He's working it into this clay, working it into us so that we can be molded into who we're supposed to be. Right? Already needs more.
See, pouring out his spirit, it's something that happens daily. He pours out his spirit so freely in us to soften us so that he can have his will be done in us. *Acts-17:28* says, for in him we live and move and exist. Right? In his hands, he moves us.
He creates us. He turns us into the tool that he's going to use. See, and if this clay was away from hands and water, away from the Lord's hands and water, it would dry out. It would lose all its moisture. Eventually, it would dry out.
And see here, have a a little piece, and it's it's dried out. Not quite done being formed yet, but it's dried out. And it can't be molded anymore. It can't be moved. And even if the Lord were to try, right, see, it just breaks apart.
It just crumbles. So he can't, like, even if he wanted to mold, he can't. There's no no moisture. But the Lord's he's attentive, and he's caring, which is why he pours out his spirit on us. It's why he molds us as we submit to him, as we surrender to him.
There's a quote by Madame Guillem that says, what is it you fear? Why do you not instantly cast yourself into the arms of love who only extended them on the cross that he might embrace you? What risk do you run-in depending solely on God and abandoning yourself wholly to him? What is it you fear? He's gonna make you look like Jesus.
He's got great plans for you, plans to prosper you, plans for you to be a part of what he's doing. You can see how this really relates to obedience. Right? There's a lot of obedience that's needed to be in the hands of God. See, I love my alone time with the Lord.
I love my quiet time with the Lord. But if I don't obey him, I'm not going to turn into the tool that he wants me to become. I'm not going to partner with what he has for me. I'm not going to be able to be molded and moved. I'm not going to be able to be filled with the spirit in the way that he desires to work that water into his clay.
*John-15:14 says, you are my friends* if you do what I command. That's Jesus talking. So we're actually his friends when we obey. If you wanna go deep in the Holy Spirit, depth in the Holy Spirit is the result of more obedience. Fellowship is useless without obedience.
See, I love my time with the Lord, but if my if my time with the Lord was powerful and then I went away and he told me to talk to my neighbor, if he told me to communicate with my spouse a certain way, if he told me, hey, read that book I've been telling you to read. See, he can't mold me anymore. I'm gonna step away from his hands and I'm gonna dry out. This requires obedience. I want my prayers to be answered, and then I have to be obedient with what he speaks to me.
And maybe you say, man, I'm not good at that obedience stuff. Or maybe, you know, God gave me a word a long time ago, but I never did it. So, you know, it's been a while and and I'm just I'm just not obedient. Well, I have a story for you. I used to be a substitute teacher, and I I would sub at a middle school.
And I'd walk in and there would always be a list. Maybe you know about this list. There's a list of students that were on the naughty list. They were bad students. They just couldn't be trusted.
And there was always a list there, and I didn't love it. I would push it aside. And 1 day I'm calling out roll call for the day, taking attendance, and I get to a name and he he says back, my name is on the naughty list, isn't it? My name is on the list. Right?
My name is on the list. It's on the naughty list. And I turned to him, I said, what list? What are you talking about? I don't know about any list.
Actually, let me introduce myself. And at the time I wasn't married, I said, you know, my name is miss. What's your name? And he told me his name. And I said, it's so nice to meet you.
This is my first impression with you. I don't have a list. You're not on the bad list. What kind of student are you? Are you a student that I can trust?
Are you obedient? And he said, 0. 0, 0, yeah. No. I'm on the good list.
I'm a good student. Definitely. Oh, yeah. You can trust me. And I'm telling you, could trust that student.
That whole day, he was a great student. So if you feel like you've struggled with obedience in the past, you feel like you're not good at it, well, I wanna tell you that your name's not on the list. In fact, your name's on the good list. He's poured out his spirit on you. You're now filled with obedience.
Being full of the spirit is something that happens consistently. It happens over and over again daily. He pours out his spirit on us. So I wanna give you a chance to surrender and submit to the Holy Spirit. I want you to all stand and just find yourself a posture of surrender and obedience.
And a lot of times, obedience is something that's a little bit outside of of comfort. It's a little outside of the box. Maybe you need to kneel down before the Lord. Maybe you need to stand and raise your arms. Maybe you need to put your hands over your heart.
If you're listening online, take this time to be with the spirit. Take with this time to be filled up with the "water of the Holy Spirit", to allow yourself to be formed by him. And I just want you to lift up your hands, be ready to receive him. Father God, I thank you so much for your people. I thank you so much for your children.
I thank you, God, for who you are. You are so good. God, I pray that you would pour out your spirit on them. Fill them up. There is actually nothing else that we need today but your spirit.
*God*, you are good. Thank you, God, that your spirit fills us with the ability to just look like you, to look like you and be like you. God, the more we look at you, the more we look like you. I declare your goodness in the lives of these people. I declare your healing power.
I thank you, God, for the power of forgiveness that you've put in people. I thank you for the forgiveness that you freely poured out so that they can pour out their forgiveness. The forgiveness that comes from you. God, I thank you for your good plans that you have for them. And I declare these people that are **"tools in your hands"**, that are clay, that are that are ready to do just anything to be filled with your spirit, anything to be by you, and anything to be in your work.
God, we worship you. We praise you. We give you all the glory. We we surrender to you. **Fully surrender** today and every day.
Fill us with your spirit, god.