You are invited to join the church in a 21-day fast to deepen your relationship with Him. Start practicing prayer without ceasing by surrendering your time and distractions to God today.
Hello, Real Church. My name is Mariah Mullins, and we are continuing the series called I Love You. **God loves you** so much, and we have this opportunity to say I love you too. I love you too, God. And today, we're looking into what that looks like in prayer.
Enjoy. Like Emily said, my name is Mariah Mullins. I have been coming to Real Church for almost a year now. It's gone fast. So blessed to be a part of this church and so blessed to bring you the word today.
Continuing the series on I love you. So, God has already said I love you and that's what we're gonna talk about today. I did just wanna say thank you to pastor David for asking me to preach. I'm excited excited to share what the Lord is saying. When pastor David's family is here, they call him DJ or David John and my parents are here today and they call me Rue.
So, today, I am Rue and I'm so glad that they're there. So, they're in the back. I love them. I wanna honor them today. They are I'm so thankful for them.
They taught me everything I know. So, God loves you. He loves you so, so much. So, so much. Pull up that scripture, *1 John-4:9*, if you could, please.
This is how God showed his love among us. He sent his 1 and only son into the world that we might live through him. So, is how God said, I love you. It's done. You don't have to earn it.
It's already been done. He died on the cross because he loves you. Jesus loves you. The Father loves you. That's it.
He said, I love you. And now, it's our opportunity to say, I love you too. And, 1 John-4:19 points to this scripture. *1 John-4:19* says, we love because he first loved us. So, now, we're saying, God, I love you too.
And, what does that look like for us to tell God of the universe, our savior? How do we say, I love you too? And, we're gonna look in-depth on this in prayer. Pastor David, he spoke on prayer a couple weeks ago and he gave some interesting facts. He said that 91% of American women pray and 85% of American men pray.
And, my first thought was, wow, a lot of people pray. That's pretty cool. And then, he said that only 15% of those people would say that their *prayers* have been answered. It's kinda discouraging to hear. But, Pastor David spoke a lot about effective prayer.
And, effective prayer is praying the will of the Father Amen. Which is so powerful to know that we can pray effective prayers that are answered when we know the will of the Father. So, I too wanna talk about a certain kind of prayer. And, there are lots of different prayers. There's memorized prayers.
There's the Lord's prayer. We know that 1. Our Father, who art in heaven. There's blessings. We pray blessings over our food before we eat it.
Bless the hands that prepared this food. Bless our bodies as we receive it. We pray blessings over our children and over each other. *Numbers-6:24* and 26 says, may the Lord bless you and protect you. May the Lord smile on you and be gracious to you.
May the Lord show you his favor and give you his peace. These are biblical prayers, powerful prayers. There's also intercessory prayer. It's talked about in 1 Timothy-2. And, that's when you "stand in the gap" for something and you're making things happen in the spirit.
You're you're taking a time, dedicating time to pray, things move in the spirit. It's a powerful time of prayer. And, I want to talk about "prayer without ceasing". *1 Thessalonians-5:17*. It says, pray without ceasing or "pray continually".
Pray always. Now, I've heard people talk about this scripture before and say, well, they can't mean without ceasing. They can't mean always. They can't mean continually. That's impossible.
How would you pray without ceasing? Maybe they just mean pray a lot. Maybe it just means pray a lot. But, it says pray continually. That's what it says.
It says, pray without ceasing. So, I wanna talk about what does that look like? Pray without ceasing. It also says in Romans-12:12, keep on praying. Philippians-4:6 also says, don't worry about anything, instead pray about everything.
It says this multiple times in Scripture. And, if I were to pray the Lord's *prayer* or a blessing without ceasing, it would start to get kind of repetitive. If I were to pray that way, not that those ways are bad, but if I was to pray without ceasing in that way, it would become very, very repetitive. In Matthew-6:7, Jesus says, and when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathens do, for they think they will be heard for their many words. So, if you're gonna pray to the Lord and and it starts to sound repetitive, you could probably imagine how that would sound like it would feel a little religious spirit, like a negative religious type of prayer.
As you're praying repetitively, you're like, do I even really mean this anymore? Like, it doesn't have power in it anymore when you start praying repetitively. What are you what are you even doing? And, Jesus says not to do this for that reason. So, we're not going to check the boxes of Christianity to get the result that we want.
That's not what this kind of prayer is. This kind of prayer is a relationship. This kind of prayer is love. See, God already said he loves you. So, if you're gonna be in this relationship with him and say, I love you too, that's what I'm talking about when I say, pray without ceasing.
That's what he's talking about when he says, pray continually. Be in this very real relationship because he is so real. You know, when you invite Jesus into your heart, he stays.
Say that again.
Yeah. When you invite Jesus into your heart, he stays. He's there all the time. He stays. Jesus sent the *Holy Spirit* to be your constant helper.
*Matthew-28:20* says, and be sure of this, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. That's the second part of it. Teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. That's Jesus, who is now in heaven with our father.
How can he be with us always? But, it says that he is. Ephesians-2:18. Now, all of us can come to the father through the same *Holy Spirit* because of what Christ has done for us. So, Christ died on the cross.
He said, I love you and I'm gonna make you worthy of hearing it. I love you and I'm gonna make you worthy of coming and talking to me. I'm gonna make you worthy of this relationship by saying, I love you. And, it's through the Holy Spirit that we can talk to the Father at any time. The 3 in 1.
So, when you get up in the morning, he's there. And, when you're at work, he's there. When you're interacting with your family, he's there. When you go to the bathroom, he's there. He's always there in the shower.
He's there. And, you can interact in this relationship at any time, at all times, in the car, you're talking to the Father, the heavenly Father, and people are looking at you like, well, they're crazy, they're talking to themselves. But, really, you're just saying, hey, God, I'm in this relationship and I love you too. I love you too. He loves you.
He's he's so good at this. 2 Corinthians-13:14. I love this scripture. It says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.
That's what it says, be with you all. So, if you thought you were excluded, you're not. It says, be with you all. The Holy Spirit, having communion with the Holy Spirit is intimacy, it's an understanding of each other, the proximity that you have with the Holy Spirit, it's a closeness that you have with him, it's a real relationship that you have with him. And, scripture goes on to explain this.
There's a really great example of the *Holy Spirit* talking to Peter in Acts-10:19 and 20. I wanna read that. *Acts-10:19* and 20. See, Peter has just had a vision and he's perplexed about it. He's puzzling.
He's wondering what it means. And, it says that the Holy Spirit said to him, this is the voice of God. The Holy Spirit said to him, 3 men have come looking for you. Get up, go downstairs and go with them without hesitation. Don't worry, for I have sent them.
And, Peter follows through. He's obedient to the voice of the Lord, the voice of the Holy Spirit. And, I love that scripture because the Holy Spirit speaks to Peter and Peter hears him. Right? That's how we're interacting with the Holy Spirit.
It may not be audible, but he hears him, and he's obedient to what he knows because he knows the voice of the Lord. And, Peter's puzzling saying, I wonder what this vision means. Is that what the Holy Spirit gives him an answer to though? No. He says, how about you go this, turn right, make a left at the tree?
You know, he gives him specific instructions saying, go here, go there, this is the plan. And, he follows through, and he doesn't get an answer to his vision until later in the story. I think sometimes when we pray to God, we're asking specific specific questions, and we say, I need an answer to this, and I need an answer to this, and I need an answer to this, and you're only listening for those answers. Whereas, says, Hey, Holy Spirit, whatever you have to say, I'm gonna listen, and then I'm gonna be obedient to it, and that's how you say I love you too. *Prayer* without ceasing, it's a constant conversation with the Holy Spirit.
And he's waiting for an invitation to commune with you, to talk to you. Have you ever had a conversation with somebody and 1 person is just talking the whole time? Like, you're talking to them, you're trying to get a word in, you can't. Maybe they have problems and you have simple solutions for their problems. Maybe you just wanna say something.
You just wanna talk to them. And then, they just walk away, and you're like, man, I didn't get to say anything. Who talks the most when you talk to God? Who talks the most when you pray, do you think? I think, sometimes, we have this idea that when we go to the Father, we say, Lord, I I need this, or I desire this, or I I You maybe even say, I desire you.
Maybe you even tell him, God, I love you, and you talk, talk, tug, and then you walk away. Amen. What if my relationship with Gabe, my husband, was like that? If I just told him my desires and my needs and then said, Okay. Thanks, babe.
Bye. This communion with the Holy Spirit is a conversation where he talks to you. He wants to tell you things. *Amos-3:7* says, indeed, the sovereign Lord never does anything until he reveals his plans to his servants, the prophets. He wants to reveal plans to you.
*Jeremiah-33:3*, this is the Lord speaking. He says, Ask me, and I will tell you remarkable secrets you do not know about things to come. Oh, if the Lord has a remarkable secret that he wants to tell me, I really hope I'm listening. The Lord has remarkable secrets that he wants to tell you. He wants to reveal his plans to you.
He desires to talk to you and tell you things. It's a real relationship. And, maybe you say, but, Moriah, I have never heard the voice of the Lord. I don't know what he sounds like. Well, the Bible tells us that too.
*1 Kings-19:11* and 12. This is when the Lord passes by Elijah. It says, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was a sound of a gentle whisper, and that was the Lord. Other translations say his "still, small voice". So, he's not in the wind. He's not in the earthquake.
He's not in the fire. The Holy Spirit is a gentleman, and he doesn't force himself upon you. So, if you're waiting to hear from the Lord, if you're waiting for him to shake you and scare you into listening to him, you'll miss his sweet and loving voice. *John-10:27* says, my sheep know my voice. And, Romans-8:14, for all who are led by the spirit of God are **children of God**.
So, if you're a child of God, you get to be led by the spirit of God just as Peter was. Just as Peter was. I am sure we've all been in a position where we're like, man, I really wish that the Lord would just tell me where to go specifically. If that's needed, he'll tell you. And, you can just listen.
That's it. I really wish the Lord would tell me if I should take this job, or if I should do this, or if I should move, or if I should stay. Oh, he'll tell you. He desires to tell you his plans. He desires to tell you his secrets.
I personally have never heard the audible voice of God, but I do listen to the Lord. I definitely hear the Lord in my head at all times. And, maybe that makes me sound crazy, but, man, it's good to be crazy. It's so good. The Lord talks to me a lot, and I have stories I wanna share, but I'm gonna share a story about Gabe's life first.
Gabe is my husband, if you don't know. And, he told me I could tell this story. It's my favorite. This is before I knew Gabe, and he was a young man following the Lord. He had struggled with pride before, and the Lord had really done some work to pull that out of his heart.
And, he went to go spend some time with the Lord, spend some prayer time, and he set up a hammock under a tree, and he started praying to God. And, it was starting to sound repetitive. He started praying against pride, repenting again. And, as he's praying for pride to leave, something wet starts dripping on him. As he's praying for pride to leave and repenting, he looks up, and there is a squirrel peeing on him.
You have to be ready for whatever the Lord's gonna communicate to you. You just have to be. The Lord speaks to Gabe with animals a lot, it's why I call him a Disney princess. It's I did not ask permission to call him a Disney princess, but I did ask permission for this story.
I'm not good. He's not a little bit dumb.
I know. Yeah. He's a good man. The Holy Spirit's very real. He's very in your He's there.
He's present in your life at all times. There have been times where I'm stuck cooking at the oven, I know that Isaiah is sleeping, he's taking a nap, my son, he's 5 months old. And, I'll hear him crying the cry. Right? He'll be like, Mom, come and get me now.
Yell. And, I can't leave what I'm doing. So, because the Holy Spirit is present with me at all times, I can talk to him, and I say, Holy Spirit, it's your turn. Go take care of the boy. Go give him some peace.
And, he does. He does. Isaiah will go from full on screaming to, oh, I'm calm now. I'm peaceful. Because, the Holy Spirit is real and you can talk to him and you can invite him into your life and into your everyday goings on.
He cares about me trying to be a mother. He cares about Isaiah and his peace. He cares about you. He loves you. And, you can say, I love you too.
Welcome into my life. Be a participant. When Gabe and I were first engaged, we were on a long car ride. And, he started this conversation about how he did not like the gift of speaking in tongues. He said that it was weird, he didn't really understand it.
And, when he started this conversation, I felt the Holy Spirit grab my ear, really strongly. Like, I felt the weight of the conversation in that moment. The Holy Spirit was saying, Moriah, do not say anything. So, we're on this long car ride, Gabe goes through his whole monologue and sharing experiences and all the reasons why he thinks that speaking in tongues is just a weird gift of the spirit. He doesn't understand it.
And then, after his monologue, he realizes, I haven't said anything. And, he says, Well, what do you think about that? And, I think, oh, no. I was told not to say anything. So, I talk to the Holy Spirit and I say, well, what should I say?
I cannot respond to that. And, the Holy Spirit gives me 2 things to say, and he calms my spirit, like, say these softly. And, I said, yeah, you know, I do like the gift of speaking in tongues. I speak in tongues. And, that's all the Holy Spirit gave me to say.
And then, Gabe, his heart that was closed, says, why? And, I say what the Holy Spirit gives me to say next because I'm listening. This is a moment that I know, like, I remember this moment like it was yesterday. The Holy Spirit was speaking to me, And, the Holy Spirit gave me something else to say and I said, yeah, I really like the intimacy that I have with the Lord when I speak in tongues. And, I've seen a lot of benefits from speaking in tongues.
I think it's really special time between me and the Lord. And, he goes, And, in that moment, because I didn't say my words, not what I chose to say or what I probably would have said in that moment, I have all these experiences and all these things I could have told him, but no, the Holy Spirit gave me these sentences to say, and that's what I shared. And, because I shared what the Holy Spirit said, they became the Holy Spirit's words. And, my words have no power, but the Holy Spirit's words have power. And, they hit like that.
They hit like a ton of bricks on his heart, and he shared that story before as if it was this magical moment that I said something that the Lord showed in his heart, and it was just this little couple of sentences. And, the power of the Holy Spirit came in those words and changed his heart, and the Holy Spirit revealed the gift of speaking in tongues to him. And, now, he has understanding. It's not about your words. The Holy Spirit's words are so powerful, and you can talk to him at all times.
See, I wasn't being rude talking to Gabe while listening to the Holy Spirit. I'm praying without ceasing. Gabe doesn't wanna hear my words. I mean, maybe. We're married.
He wants to hear the Holy Spirit's words about speaking in tongues. He wants the Holy Spirit's words. And, when you're in an argument, in your head, you can be listening to the Lord and praying without ceasing. When you're in conflict, when you're when you're in a time where you're like, man, I really need not my words right now. In your head, you can say, Lord, how do you view this person?
What should my heart posture be to this person? What should I say? And he'll give you words to say that because they weren't your words, but the Holy Spirit's words, they will land with power, and hearts will be changed. If you and I are having a conversation, I'm I'm probably listening to you. I am listening to you.
But, I'm mostly listening to the Holy Spirit. I am mostly listening to the Holy Spirit. And, that's what prayer without ceasing is. It's listening, it's being ready. It's being ready to say, Hey, I don't care what I have to say for this person.
This person doesn't care what I have to say, but your words are power, and your words will change hearts, and your words are all I want coming out of my mouth. There have been times when I've said something, and I want to stand back and be like, Woah, God, that was so good. That was so good. Oh, wow, that's true. That that was good to know.
If I've ever said something that was wise or sounded impressive at all, it was not me. It was not me. It was the Holy Spirit that spoke through me because And, I don't mean this in a negative way, but you don't want to hear what I have to say. I don't want to hear what I have to say. I just want to hear what the Holy Spirit has to say.
I'm going to say it again, the Holy Spirit's words have power to change hearts. If the Holy Spirit said to read you the phone book, like we have those anymore, the phone book, I could sit there and read the phone book with the Holy Spirit, and it would be powerful because that's what happens when you say what the Holy Spirit has to say. There's power in his words, and that's what what knowing his voice is, that's what prayer without ceasing is. Oh, God, that was good. That was good.
The Lord loves you. The Lord really loves you. And, pastor David, he gave an example during his last message. And, he said that saying, I love you more than I love myself, is the most. That's saying, I love you.
That's how we want to say, I love you, to God. And, he gave that example for fasting, specifically. So, we're going to start a fast as a church for 21 days. And, when you say no to something else, when you say, God, I love feeding this *relationship* more than I love fulfilling my own desires, more than I love feeding myself, I want to feed this. When I hunger, I want the hunger that I have for you to be bigger than the hunger that I have for food, or my phone, or caffeine.
And, that's what it looks like when you're praying without ceasing, and you say, I love you too. Not only are you saying, Lord, I'm in this relationship, I recognize you as a presence, as a powerful presence, I realize that you're with me at all times, but you're also saying, God, I love your thoughts more than I love my own. And, I love your words more than I love my own. And, when you pray for someone, you can ask the Lord, why should I pray for this person? Because the Lord loves that person, And you can say, I love them for you.
And, I wanna use your words instead of my own. I've been talking to people about the fast coming up excited about it, looking forward to it, the 21 day fast as a church. And I've heard people say, yeah, I've been asking God what I should fast. And after having a couple of these conversations, I went to the Lord and I said, Lord, what do you think about that? What do you have to say about it?
And I heard the Holy Spirit say, you don't have to ask God what you should fast because he wants it all. He wants everything. So if you're able, if you can fast food, give up food for a fast, maybe that looks like a couple days a week, maybe that's 1 day a week, maybe that's the full 21 days. He wants it. And, if you're able, if you can fast caffeine, he wants it.
And, if you can fast social media, he wants it. And, if you can fast sugar, he wants it. And, if you're going to wake up early in the morning and spend time with him and fast your sleep, he wants it. He wants everything. So, whatever you can give up with a pure heart, whatever you can say, God, I love you more than this.
He wants it. I'm really thankful that I was able to talk about this, about prayer without ceasing. It's not what I thought I was gonna talk about, and the Holy Spirit told me what what I was gonna talk about, prayer without ceasing. And I'm really glad that I was able to talk about this because I think we get that in our mind when we do something like fasting, and we get this, like, oh, it's very spiritual, and you sit down to pray, and and you can easily slide into that repetitive prayer. But prayer without ceasing is also listening.
So as you're fasting and as you're praying during this fasting, I want to just encourage you to listen, to surrender to him, and that's also prayer. That's also prayer without ceasing, to continuously be praying. We're gonna have 2 kinds of responses, and I'm gonna have the worship team come up. But we're gonna have 2 kinds of responses. The first response is to meet Jesus, to have Jesus come into your heart.
This is the salvation response. The Bible says that if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Jesus from the dead, then you will be saved. That's what the first response is. The second response is going to be to hear his still small voice. So, if you are a believer already or if you know the Lord, but you didn't know that this is what it can look like or that you can hear him, that's the second response.
And, the second response is between you and the Lord. I'm not gonna pray over you. I'm not gonna talk because we're gonna listen for his still small voice. So, during this next worship song and beyond, we're gonna pray without ceasing together. And, I want you to to be welcomed up to the altar.
I love inviting people to the altar because it's a physical representation. You're saying, I'm gonna physically move my body and say, God, I'm in this relationship. "I'm here for it". This is real. So, I want to invite you to come up to the altar and just listen.
You can stand, you can kneel, you can dance, And just listen for his voice. Asking Jesus into your heart and having salvation, it's not just a prayer that you pray. And, I feel the need to talk about this right now. It's just on my heart. Maybe you already know Jesus.
But, I just wanted I wanna emphasize this, that prayer without ceasing and this relationship that you have with the Lord, it's real. And you can talk to him right now. So, if you're accepting the Lord for the first time, you're also saying, hey, I wanna hear you. I wanna hear you. Because he doesn't wait until you're a seasoned Christian.
He doesn't wait for you to be ready. He made you ready when he said, I love you. He made you ready of hearing his voice. So if you wanna enter into this relationship, I do wanna pray with you and just walk you through *confessing* with your mouth what that means and also placing that in your heart deep. And as we worship, I wanna welcome everyone to come up here to say, Lord, I wanna hear you.
But I'm also gonna stand off to the side if you want to talk about salvation, and if you want Jesus in your heart. Heidi, I'm gonna have you help with that too. She's gonna be standing off to the side. She's the pretty lady in pink. Pastor David, are you gonna be available for prayer too?
Sweet. Daniel Mannix, if I'm missing somebody, just tell me because I know there's other people that are able to pray. Also, people next to you are able to pray. We're all believers. We're all believers, and we're all ready to pray.
If you would like to accept Jesus into your heart, I just ask that you would go to these people that are standing to the side, myself, Heidi, pastor, Daniel. And we're going to enter into a time of worship. Say, Lord, whatever you have to say to me, I want to hear it. If you're going to send a squirrel to pee on me, I'm here for it. I'm here.
I'm in this relationship, and I'm ready. I'm gonna pray us into worship so we can posture our hearts correctly. *Father*, thank you so much that you speak to us. Thank you that you love us. Thank you that you are real and that you talk to us.
*Father*, I can't believe that you would do that as the God of this universe, that you care about this this special relationship with me, and I'm so honored, and I'm so in love with you. *Jesus, thank you. Holy Spirit*, we welcome you. Amen.
Thank you for tuning in today to the Real Church podcast. I pray you walk away from today encouraged with a deeper understanding of how much God *loves* you. If you'd like to connect with us, we can't wait to reach out to you and pray for you. You can go to www.realchurch.us/connect. And then also, if you would like to give to what God is doing in and through our ministry, you can do so at www.realchurch.us/giving, or you can text any amount to 84321, and then just search in the link that comes up.
Search for Real Church Lord. God bless you, and the "best is yet to come".
*Transcribed with Deepgram*