You are invited to stop treating prayer like a religious checklist and start seeking a genuine relationship where God speaks to your heart. If you feel the Holy Spirit calling you today, take the step to surrender your life to Jesus and experience the healing He promises.
Let's begin with prayer. *Lord*, I thank you for your goodness. I thank you for who you are. Lord, I thank you just for how you reveal yourself to us. Lord, how you invite us to know you in a real way, not a religious way like people that don't know you think, where it's just a bunch of rules and do this on a Sunday, read your bible enough, and all.
But you invite us to know you in a way that changes things. You invite us to know you like a son knows a father, like a daughter knows a daddy, and you invite us to follow you. Not just as father, but also as Lord, also as friend. And then you give us your **Holy Spirit** to teach us how to hear your voice, teach us how to walk in you, how to live a life of faith just like the people in the Bible did. Oh, yeah.
What what an honor and joy to get to know you and to get to reflect you. And *Lord God*, I pray that today, that the things that I say would not be from me. Lord God, I pray that that you would speak to hearts in the way that only you can. Lord God, that aspects of this message would be for every single person in here. Lord God, I pray that hearts are healed.
Emotion emotional issues are healed. *Lord*, I pray that physical bodies are healed because you did it in scripture. I'm crazy enough to believe you at your word. And, you've done it over and over in this in this building. Thank you that we get to participate in a God who cares and a God who heals and a God who comforts the hurting and the broken.
And, a God who's present, our present help in time of need. Holy Spirit, I pray that you would overwhelm people right now. That they would sense your presence in every unbelieving, lying spirit that would try to hinder people from understanding your will. I rebuke it and cast it out in Jesus name. Amen.
You know, the Bible says that. Right? Bible says the devil has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they can't understand what God wants to spiritually speak to them. It's a truth of his word that cuts it away so that we can hear him. I just I want you to be careful today how you hear.
*Jesus* said that. He said, be careful how you hear. Some people go into church with a critical eye and a critical spirit, just looking to cut down and cut away. They're they're they're looking to for an excuse as to why I don't have to hear, and they're gonna get it. That's What they come seeking, they're gonna find.
Did you come seeking Jesus today? Did you come seeking to hear him? Man, I hope you did. And, I pray that something has created in you a desire to know him more. Because the bible says, "seek and you'll find", ask and it will be given to you, knock and the door will be opened.
Amen? So any anything that I say that's not scriptural, toss it out. But, if it's in Bible, believe it, apply it, put it in your put it into practice in your life because it will change your life. Amen? I like hearing amen.
And, talking back and forth, it just it encourages me, it encourages a speaker, it's a good thing. Alright. I think you see a title out there that says "prayer changes things". I'm gonna speak to you today about prayer. And, if you're looking for that 3 point message, some scriptures, and a poem, Not today.
Somebody said, not ever.
If you'll
look back on the podcast, you'll see the message on prayer. I've written it. I've spoke it, kind of. And, you know, have all
of the scriptures, what is prayer? This is what prayer is. This is what the Bible says prayer is.
And, this is how, you know, and and I would encourage you to go back and listen that message. It will help you, but that's not today's message. I'm sorry. Sorry, not sorry. Today's gonna be a little bit raw, and it may take some detours that necessary.
We're gonna read Matthew-17:20. *Jesus*, he The he there is Jesus, said to them, the disciples, so he said to them, because of your little faith, for truly I say to you, if you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, which is a super small amount of faith, very very small, a mustard seed small, at least. If you have faith like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move. Nothing Everybody say, no thing. Nothing.
Nothing will be impossible for you. *Luke-17:5-6*. The apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith, which is my prayer. Increase my faith, Lord. Help my own belief.
Verse 6, and the Lord said, that's Jesus, if you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you could say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you. That's crazy. Where is the type of faith that cast mountains into the sea? Where is the type of faith that tells the mulberry tree to be uprooted and thrown into the sea? I feel like a lot of Christians As a matter of fact, I talk to Christians all the time.
I talk to people about the gospel. I talk to non Christians and Christians alike. On the street, in Publix, in Walmart, in Downtown Clearwater, all around. And, a lot of times, I'll ask somebody, hey, can I pray for you? And, they say, I already pray.
I pray every day. I'm a I'm a Christian, you know. I just get the feeling that a lot of Christians say that they understand prayer, and think that they understand prayer, and maybe pray in the morning, and pray before they eat, or they pray when there's a crisis. I kinda get the feeling that a lot of Christians, maybe not you, don't really understand prayer. And, don't really know how to pray in a way where they see the answers to their prayers.
I feel like a lot of Christians, when they pray, there's they're throwing up a hope that something would happen, but they've not really heard God's heart, and don't really know how to hear God's heart, or how to pray in the midst of a situation. They're just praying in order to get back to comfort, because what they're going through is uncomfortable. I feel like Christians either, or at least a lot, have never been taught how to pray, or just plain don't know. *John-16:23-24*. And so, we're going to talk by the end of the message, you will understand how to pray the types of prayers that will cast mountains into the sea.
You will understand how to
pray the types of prayers that will uproot a mulberry tree and plant it into the sea. And you might think I'm crazy by saying that, but I promise you, you stick with me, and
you understand the principles of
this message. You you will increase in your ability to have faith in the midst of the storm, and you will understand what Jesus is talking about here, and what it means to pray that way. I'm going to, like I said, take a
lot of detours, but I'm also gonna share a lot of stories and a lot of testimonies. And I think I'm gonna share most of the testimonies at the end, but I'm gonna give you a testimony now. And, you have to understand, when I'm saying this, I'm saying this as discipleship. I'm boasting in what the Lord did. Okay?
Amen? When I boast, I'm boasting in what the Lord did. And if
He did it in me,
then He can do it through you. Amen? I'm not super special because I'm up here on a stage and have a microphone in my ear, or you know, whatever this is.
I'm super special because I'm a child
of God, and I have Jesus inside of me. And if you've given your life to Jesus, you've been born again, then man, you're super special too. And, he
can answer your prayers just like he does mine.
Amen? 2019, God began to put a prayer on my heart. Specific prayer. He began to put a prayer in my heart that I would be like, *Lord God*, I want, not because I stand on the street corner and want everybody to see me praying, but Lord God, I want to be known as a man of prayer. Cry of my heart in my journal, 2019, you see it.
*Lord God*, I I just I wanna I want prayer to be so real in my life, and and so just effective that you're willing to share your heart with me, and that you know me as a man of prayer. And then, I began to be able to disciple others, and what it looks like to be people of prayer. I began to pray that in 2019. Well, you know about a year later, maybe to 2018. You know about a year later, I was hired at Christian Television Network to host their America's prayer meeting show on Thursday nights from 12AM to 3AM.
Isn't that crazy? *Lord God*, I wanna be known as Would you teach me to pray? And and, I want you to know me as a man of prayer. Praying that consistently, and then
a year later, without seeking it, somebody in the church said, hey, I think you'd be good
for this. I I worked at **Christian Television Network**. Oh, you do? Yeah, I do. Hey, would you come in for an interview?
Sure. And, they they put me as a host of America's prayer meeting from 12AM to 3AM on Thursday nights. And so, from 12AM to 3AM on Thursday nights during COVID, I'm driving there, and people are calling in live on television with prayer requests. And, I began to document them and document what God did. So, I have a whole notebook in my laptop here.
I use OneNote. And, I highlighted when people were healed. Like for instance, on 02/21/2020, right around the time COVID started happening. Lupe called in, back and elbow was hurt. He was healed completely on air over the phone as he was watching.
Pain moved as as I prayed for him from his elbow to his shoulder after I prayed. And then, prayed again. His arm and shoulder were completely healed, and then, the back got a little bit better. Prayed a third time, and I guess, Lupe was a girl because I said she. She was able to walk as she couldn't before.
Kevin, first time caller from Florida, not Kevin Featherston. His knee was healed, prayed for him multiple times, pain went from a 10 to a 3, and then had him pray the last time, and then the "pain completely went away". 02/28/2020, the next Thursday, Robert from Nevada, he was lost and anxious, gave his life to Jesus and experienced peace over the on of God and they tested it out and it was healed. I mean, I got a ton of stuff, you know, other things that I prayed for that that weren't healed over there. 03/05/2020, Jesse, Georgia, back pain in in right and pain in right wrist healed.
Wanda, Arkansas, nephew Billy, blockage in every artery by dye test, then asked for prayer, and was completely healed the previous Thursday night. Called back in to share what the doctors had said. 03/13/2020, word of knowledge about somebody over the phone, had problems breathing. I assume they were healed because usually with a word of knowledge, people are healed. Let's just skip ahead.
04/24/2020, in the middle of COVID, everybody's usually focused on the biggest thing. That's probably what most people are praying about. Right shoulder, stiff, whole body, diabetes. God healed them. 05/05/2020, Peggy, Georgia, cancer, "completely healed of cancer".
Healed hernia instantly, tubes and kidneys, daughter's nosebleed, so she must have called back in and testified to what God had done before. If this is challenging your faith, if you've never seen this kind of stuff before, it's not because I'm super special. I just believe *Jesus* and take steps of obedience. I mean, there's many people out here that have prayed for people, and and "mountains in other people's lives" have been moved because they're just take God at his word and don't believe that this is just a bunch of stories from history. There's a reason that this doesn't happen in a lot of people's lives.
Prayer is communication with God. You can't have a relationship absent of communication. Like, Jesus said this crazy thing in John-16:23-24. Would you pull that up? In that day, you will no longer ask me anything.
Very truly, I tell you, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. Verse 24. Until now, you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. There's a lot of Christians that are praying a whole lot, but have no joy because they're not seeing answers to their prayers.
Prayer is communication with God. You can't have a relationship absent of communication. He wants to communicate with his children, and absent of communication, things simply don't happen. In order to have any relationship with anyone in this world, you have to consistently communicate in some way. And, for a healthy relationship, you have to have healthy communication.
Your heavenly Father longs for you to experience the depths of prayer because prayer changes things. God reveals His will to His people through prayer, and then God moves mountains in response to that prayer. Heidi, would you stand up for just a second? I would Come here. Just right here.
So, me and Heidi, we're friends. If every time we got together and we started talking, if every time I only shared stories about myself, and every time I only asked her to do things for me, and every time, like, the whole She would try to get a word in, and I'd just cut her off and start talking about myself. She'd try to say, uh-uh, and I'd start talking about myself. Is that healthy communication? But yet, that's how we pray.
And, we wonder why we don't see anything happen. You can have a seat. John's John's 16 24, it says, if you ask anything according to my name, it will be done for you. And we so often just prayed in Jesus' name, and tagged on in Jesus' name at the end of the prayer and think, man, it didn't happen. Bible's a lie.
That mountain didn't move. I'm tired of praying for mountains, and I'm try I'm I'm just gonna stop praying as much and tell everybody I pray, but stop because really, I'm discouraged because I'm praying in the way that I think I know how to, and it's not happening, I don't understand why. Anybody ever felt that stress?
But you've tagged in *Jesus name* on at the end of every prayer, why is it not happening?
Could it be you're doing it wrong? Could it be you don't know how to pray as much as you think you do? And I'm not saying that to be mean. I'm saying it because I'm your pastor and I love you. I don't wanna encourage you even though the truth is cutting, sometimes, let it cut a little bit.
Open up your heart. And and humility, let's learn together what it looks like to pray. In Jesus' name, I'll tell you this, and then we're gonna take a major detour. And this major detour is going to unlock how to pray. In Jesus' name means in line with His authority and in line with His will.
When you give your life to Jesus, Bible calls it being born again. Jesus said, nobody *John-3:3, nobody can see the kingdom of heaven* unless they've been born again. No 1. Being born again means that you believe Jesus died and rose again. He he died to pay for your sin.
He rose again, so you can experience his life. But, you don't just believe that. Even demons believe that. It's like believing that door is there. Yeah.
I believe in Jesus. And, a lot of people say they're a Christian because I believe in Jesus. Well, if you really believe, you walk through the door. Really believe, you confess him as Lord, and then your life begins to follow him. That's when you're born again.
When you believe in your heart that he's the Lord of your life, and you don't tell your Lord, no, you say, yes, Lord. You're no longer the Lord of your life, can because you've surrendered and submitted your life to him. What he says go, goes, and you say yes to him and no to you. In that moment, when you confess him as Lord with your mouth because you believe it that much in your heart, in that instant, are born again, born of spirit. He washes you clean, that's what the blood was for.
That's why Jesus died on the cross, and he puts his Spirit inside of you. That's what it means to be born of Spirit. So, now, you have a relationship with the Father, and the Bible calls you a co heir with Christ. A co heir of the Father. You have the authority of Jesus.
He gave you the authority of His name. So, everybody that prays doesn't pray in authority. Only Christians who have been born again, they're praying with the authority of the name of Jesus. But, that's only half of it. Praying in His authority as His kids, *co heirs* with Christ, but also, in His will.
Like a power of attorney. If I was the owner of a business, and I I said, Robert, I'm going on a on a trip and I need you to buy a home for me. I'm a power of attorney. I'm gonna give you a power of attorney to buy buy this home for me. And Robert took that power of attorney to the bank to buy the home.
He was he'd be able to get the mortgage. Why? The the loan. Why? Because he has the authority of my name, and he's doing it in line with my will.
But if he tried to use that to get in my bank account to use to buy it to buy himself a Lamborghini, He wouldn't be able to do it because I don't have that. But, he would be out of line of my will. It would be illegal. He wouldn't be able to use it to buy a Lamborghini because it's not my will. He'd have my authority, but he wouldn't be in in line with my will.
And, there's a lot of people that tag on in Jesus' name for what they want, not understanding God's heart.
And so, they don't get it. But God's a healer, and I'm not healed. So, I'm praying in Jesus' name. Yeah. But, do you know his heart in the midst of that situation?
Do you trust his timing?
Don't worry, we'll get there. It's gonna be good. If that eats your theology a little bit, it's okay. You guys ready for the detour?
Yeah. Alright.
Let's go on a detour. Let's go to Psalm chapter 87 verse 2. This is gonna help you to learn to **pray in line with** the will of God no matter what you're going through. And, to understand how to hear his will clearly in the midst of whatever you're going through. I think this is going to give you the key in your relationship with the *Lord* on how to see more mountains move.
Okay?
Psalm 87 verse 2 says, the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than any or more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. So, God loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. That's really interesting, isn't it? You would think he would love the dwelling places, some beautiful, amazing home, but know he loves the gates more than those. As a matter of fact, in other places in scripture, we can see that, like, this is a place he dwells.
Who would dwell at gates? Why does he love the gates of Zion more than all the other dwelling places? And, what is Zion? Zion is is this it talks about it in the Hebrews. It's the city of God.
It's the spiritual place where we dwell. It's the place where His worshippers dwell. It's We're we're we're living in Zion now by faith, but in eternity, it's it's where we'll dwell with Him. Zion. Amen?
It's a place of those who worship him. And, God loves the gates of Zion more than all the other dwelling places of Jacob. Now, I want you to think about I talked to the dream team about this, talked to a couple other people about this, but, anybody ever seen Lord of the Rings? Okay. Those of you that haven't, it's okay.
I'll try to explain the best I can. But, in Lord of the Rings, there's this scene, and I forget if it's the 2 towers or what it is, but you know, there's this walled city. And, in the walled city, the orcs, or the the enemy, or however you say it, they're they're coming and they're gonna attack this walled city. And, so the first thing they go to do is they go to bust open the gates, so that they can enter in. If they bust down the gates, then the city is not safe.
Right? When you think about cities 2000 years ago, 4000 years ago, or even hundreds of years ago in Europe, they have these big walls, and then, they have gates. If the enemy is gonna attack the city, they're gonna go through the gates. They might go over the wall in order to open the gate, but they're gonna go through the gate. A walled city with no gate is not safe.
Right? A walled city with no gate is not safe. And, the Lord loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwelling places of Jacob. Follow me here. I'm going somewhere.
This is important. What's He talking about? Let's go to *Isaiah-60* and verse 18. *Isaiah-60* verse 18. It says, violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders.
You shall call your walls, what? You should call your walls, what? Salvation. And, your gates, what? Praise.
You call your walls salvation, and your gates praise. That's pretty awesome. The walls are salvation, what He's done for us, and the gates are praise, praising Him for what we who we see He is. Like, we're responding to what He's done for us. The walls are salvation, the gates are praise.
And, he loves the gates more than any other dwelling place in all of Zion, which is a big deal. Just a hint, I think people don't understand how to pray. I think Christians don't understand how to pray because they don't know how to praise. I think Christians approach God with their need instead of with who he is. And so, because of that, they can't hear God's heart, they can only hear their own.
And, they only hear God's voice if it's in line with what they want, or getting them back to the comfort that they feel they need. And, my bible says in 1 John-5 14 and 15, if we ask anything "according to His will", he hears us. And, if we know that he hears us, we know that we have what we've asked. So, anytime that I pray in line with his will, I am guaranteed to get the answer to my prayer. But anytime I don't pray in line with his will, it's not even guaranteed that he'll hear me.
Ain't that crazy? Let's bring all of this together. His gates are praise. He loves the gates more than anything. A city, a walled city without gates is still not safe.
So, we have to have gates, which is vital. We have to have praise. There's a lot of people that have salvation. They've they've given their life to Jesus, but they don't understand how to praise him in the midst of every circumstance. And so, the enemy attacks and keeps attacking, and there is no victory and no joy because they don't understand how to put the gates up.
Amen? You guys are quiet. Now, let's talk about this. We're supposed to Psalms-104. We're supposed to **"enter His gates"** with thanksgiving in our hearts, and enter His courts with praise, giving thanks to Him and praising His name.
So, the way that we approach God is based on *thanksgiving*, thankfulness for who He is and what He's done, and praise, praising Him for His character and His nature. That's the way that we're supposed to approach Him. That's the way that we start prayer. That's vital and important. Because too often, as Christians, we live as as though in in prayer, like the whole world was created for us.
*Colossians-1:16* says, the world was created by Him, through Him, and for Him. For in Him, all things were created. Things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers, rulers or authorities, all things have been created through Him, you got verse 17, and for Him. Guess what? This world ain't about you.
You ain't the center of the universe.
Let's stop praying as if we are.
And we might see more answers to our prayers. I'll give you an example. You you realize you you don't hear the whole sound spectrum? Dogs hear sounds that you can't? If the world was created for you and for your pleasure, you'd hear all the sounds.
It's created for him and for his pleasure. You don't see the whole light spectrum. Why did God do that? For his pleasure. It's created g, it's created for him.
You're not the center of the universe. And yet, I don't know about you, but it's convicting for me, because a lot of prayer ends up being about me. So,
I'm praying as if I'm the sinner of the universe and not him.
Amen? Oh, me? *Hebrews-13*. There we go. Hebrews-13:15.
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer the "sacrifice of praise", the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. Everybody say, sacrifice of praise. Praise. Sacrifice of praise. Man, if it's a sacrifice, then that means there's some level of inconvenience when I do it.
Anybody can praise God when their team wins the Super Bowl. Any anybody can praise God when they get the raise. Anybody can praise God when they get the promotion. Anybody can praise God when everything's okay. But, can you bring a sacrifice of praise when it's not?
Can you praise him when it's inconvenient for you? Can you praise him when it's uncomfortable? Can you praise him when it costs you something to do so? The gates, are praise, are more precious to him than all the dwellings of Zion. Why?
*Revelation-21:21*. She's doing a good job back there. I'll just read that. The 12 gates were 12 pearls. Everybody say, 12 pearls.
12 pearls. Each gate made of a single pearl. The great street of the city was gold, as pure as transparent glass. Okay. So, the gates that God loves are praise, but they're also called pearls.
A single bit I mean,
can you imagine, like, this is a huge city. And, it's a huge Like, each gate is this huge single pearl, very valuable. And, this is the place that he loves to dwell more than anything, more than any place in Zion. That's pretty awesome. Do you know how a pearl is made?
A pearl actually, just read, it's actually a myth that a piece of sand gets in there. A lot of people think it's a piece of sand that gets into a clam or an oyster, and they create a pearl around it. New new new material says that's a myth. It's actually almost always a parasite. A worm drills down into the oyster cell shell and tries to attack the oyster.
And then, the oyster's response is to create a pearl. It encapsulates the parasite in what it's made of, and and makes a hard shell protecting the organism from the parasite. And that's a pearl. Gates, *praise*. Gates, pearls.
The enemy wants to attack you in every area of your life. And, we're supposed to make a pearl out of it. Every time there's loss, every time there's destruction, every time the enemy is stealing from you, every time there's heartache, every time there's hardship, every single time, our response is supposed to be praise. And, I'm not saying, pretending like it didn't happen. That's not the kind of praise that I'm talking about.
I'm talking about *praise* of faith, where we bring that heartache, that hardship, that loss, that struggle, that thing that we've been hoping for that just hasn't been happening and we don't know why, the thing that that is our current issue, we bring that before our face. We don't pretend it's not there, because then it's just gonna create a bunch of infection down the road. We bring it before our face, not in order to magnify it, but in order to face it. David didn't kill Goliath by hiding from him. David killed Goliath by facing the giant.
As men and women of God, we don't slay our dragons, if you will. We don't we don't win in different areas of our life by hiding from them and just pushing them down. We have to face them, and it's fear not to.
We face it, but then we begin to praise God in the face of it. So we're "magnifying God" over the problem. We're magnifying his character nature. Praise praising God is glorifying him for who he is despite what we see. It's *faith*.
If your problem right now is financial, and you have financial struggles, bring that before your face, see it, face it, and begin to praise God that He's always your provider, that He's always good, that you can thank Him, and you can know that He's going
to take care of
you no matter what. You're shifting your whole perspective to see God in the moment instead of your problem. If it's healing, if you've got issues physically, bring that before him, and begin to praise him as your healer, as your provider. If it's relationally, you got all these relational issues, he's the God who reconciles. He's the God who loves you.
You can trust him. You can trust his process, and begin to praise him. The problem is, the reason we don't see a lot of prayers answered is because we don't do that. And because we don't do that, we go to God on the basis of our problem, instead of on the basis of who he is. And so when we go to God on the basis of our problem, we're only able to hear him if he's saying what we want him to say.
And now, we're praying our will instead of
his
will. But if I go to God on the basis of who he is, I'm gonna be able to hear His heart even in
the midst of my problem. And
now, I'm praying His will, and I will see mountains moved because 1 John-5:14 and 15 says, if I ask anything according to His will, He hears me. And, if I know that He hears me, I
know that I have what I've asked. Give you an example from Jesus' life. The night before He's about to be crucified, His flesh knows what's coming. And, he says, Father, if there's any other way, do that. Nevertheless, not my will be done yours.
And, he steps in obedience to what Jesus said to what the Father said because Jesus only did what he saw the Father doing and only said what he heard the Father say. So, he takes our the the beating, he takes all of that, and then he says on the cross, he prays the **Father's heart** because he only said what he heard the father say. And he said, father, forgive them for they don't know what they're doing. His flesh didn't wanna do it. But yet, he was about the Father's heart.
Do you understand? If you pray that way, every time you pray that way, you will always see the mountains move that you're praying for. Always. I haven't seen mountains move. Yeah.
You were probably praying selfish prayers. Because my bible says, 1 John-5:14 and 15, which is a crazy promise, if you ask anything according to His will, He hears you. And, if you know He hears you, you know you have what you've asked. Let me give you an example. Now, we'll get into story time.
I'm I'm in Colombia, Bogota, Colombia. And, I'm preaching the gospel in the streets after rapping. I can spit a few bars. A little. But, I'm I'm preaching the gospel in the streets.
It's awesome. We're also going to the high schools of Columbia in Sowacha, and doing the same thing. This crazy favor, God let us in. We got to preach the gospel after rapping to the high schoolers, and and man saw hundreds and hundreds and thousands of salvations. It's wonderful.
Well, I'm I'm a soccer player. I like playing soccer. I was a little little better back then too, 7 years ago. But, you know, so we're kicking the ball around, and I do this little spin move, and I somehow, someway tear my meniscus. And, it swells up.
I can't open my leg all the way, because you know how it is with a torn meniscus. Maybe you do, maybe you don't. But, I'm only like 3 days into the trip, and we're on a 10 day trip. I ain't got time to go to the hospital. So, in the name of Jesus, heal my knee, get the guys to heal my knee, and man, I'm hobbling around, going from place to place.
It was crazy. We'd we'd go on stage that next night, you know, there's like 30 something bands, and we were 1 of the last ones to do it each night. And we'd end up going on stage, and just the anointing would hit, and I'd have the ability to jump around and do all kinds of crazy stuff you shouldn't do with a torn meniscus. And then, get done, whether it's adrenaline, anointing, whatever, altogether, it worked out. And then, and then, get done and not be able to to walk, just hobble around.
If I was more **focused on my problem**, I wouldn't have been able to do the ministry that God wanted me to do. And, if I was more focused on why wasn't he healing me, I wouldn't have been able to do the ministry God wanted me to do. But, I was praising him in the midst of the storm. So, we end up going to You know, we had a Towards the end of the trip, we had a, like, vacation day or whatever, and we took our team to Downtown Bogota. And as we're there in Downtown Bogota, there's a guy on crutches.
He had a messed up knee. He was supposed to have surgery. I'm hobbling. *Holy Spirit*, since his presence, he tells me to go pray for that guy. So, I bring our team and talk to him.
Grew up Catholic, but had never given his life to Jesus, really. Just his relationship with God was based on being baptized as a kid, not knowing him. So, I start to share the gospel, he doesn't really wanna hear it. I say, hey, can we pray for your knee? He says, yes.
So we pray for his knee. It goes from about a 10 on the pain scale to about 8. Have the next guy in our team pray for him. We end up praying for him like 5 times. He goes from carrying his crutches like this, to carrying his crutches like this and walking away.
It's
amazing.
Hey, just told you a testimony of how Jesus healed a knee. Let's honor him, Jesus, for what he did. Let's Come on. Thank you, Jesus. What you honor multiplies.
What you dishonor dwindles. Okay. So, prayed for him, he's healed, my knee is not. I still have a torn meniscus. If I was more focused on me, I wouldn't have been able to hear God, and God's heart was to heal that man in that moment.
Well, you did have enough *faith*
for you. Yeah, I did. But, it didn't happen then. Why? I don't know.
I don't care. All things work together for good, for those that love God and are called according to His purpose. I'm not gonna get messed up on what is and what isn't happening. I'm just gonna praise Him in the and hear his heart, and and pray what he says to pray. The "mountain moved" for
that man. Praise the Lord. I'm gonna rejoice that the mountain moved for him instead of complaining that it hasn't moved for me yet. Man, that's putting up a "gate of praise" that's gonna keep the enemy out, because if I'm only focused on what I'm not getting, my gate's down, and the enemy's gonna wreak havoc on my life. I
get back home, knee's still not healed. And I love to Back then, I love to run. I don't like to run as much anymore. But, I love to play sports, man. It's how I rest.
5 different knees that year were healed. The same way, me praying for them, but not mine. I could have complained, instead I wrote them down praising God for what he did for those people. Then after a year, my knee was healed. No surgery, no nothing, I'm good to go, I can play soccer, everything.
Torn meniscus, not torn anymore. Praise the Lord. Amen. You know? We get so self focused in Christianity that we can't hear God's heart.
I mean, I can look back and see what he did, like James-1 says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you face trials of various kinds. You know the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. I can tell you what, in the midst of the storm, in the midst of the trial, like, he taught me how to persevere and praise him no matter what through that year. And now, I'm a little more mature than I was before then because I'm a little
less focused on me. But, praise the Lord, the healing came. Even if
it didn't, I should still be praising him. Verse 12, James-1 says, blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he stood the test, he will receive the crown of life. The crown of life isn't healing in this body. The crown of life is walking with him in eternity.
And, He loves to heal too. Healing is the "children's bread".
He loves His people. So, man, in the midst of the trial, I wanna go to Him and praise Him for who He is, and hear His heart. What if His heart for you in the midst of the trial, what if what if He says, like, you're going and you're praising Him, you got this issue, and really, the back of your mind, you want to bring this to Him, but you're praising Him and He shows you His heart, and His heart for you is to pray for that person. But, *Jesus said, anybody who wants to be my disciple must first deny himself*, pick up his cross, follow me. He's teaching you how to follow him.
He's more concerned with your maturity in Him than you being comfortable. Does He wanna bless you? Yes. Absolutely. Does He want you healed?
Yes. Does He want you delivered? Yes. Absolutely. A 100%.
And, he'll take you through whatever process is most beneficial for you to look more like him. Amen? Amen. Let's do this. I wanna ask you to stand.
And I want you to bring whatever the thing that's captured your attention besides Jesus before your face before your face. Not in order to magnify it, but in order to magnify God despite of it. *Psalms-23* says, he prepares a table before you in the presence of your enemies. He wants you to learn to sit and sup with him no matter what's going on around you. And then, want you to sing this with me.
And I'll praise you in the storm, and I will lift my hands, because you are who you are, No matter where I stand, and every tear I cry, you holding your hands. Sigh. And
though my heart is torn, I praise you in this storm.
Sing that again. And I'll praise you in this storm, and I will lift my hands. Come on. There's deliverance happening. Who you are, no matter where I stand, and every tear I cry, You hold in your hands my side.
And though my heart is torn, I'll praise you in this storm.
I'll lift my eyes into the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. I lift my eyes into the hills. Where does my help come from?
My help comes from the Lord, the maker of heaven and earth. Does anybody have problems in their left ear? Who's that problems in your left ear? Just raise your hand boldly. *Jesus* wants to heal it.
I I need a c hand. I see. Problems in your left ear? Anybody else? Problems in the left ear?
I see your hand. Just put your hand on your left ear right now. *Holy Spirit*, just come. We thank you that you are the healer. Pain be gone.
Ringing be gone. Tinnitus be gone. Whatever it is. In *Jesus name*, we are open. We thank you for your goodness and love.
We praise you that you are the healer. In *Jesus name*. That's just this real church, like, not fake it till you make it. Just be real honest. Did you did you feel anything as we prayed or is it is it any better yet?
Would you guys test it? Is it better? You think so? Praise the Lord. What about you, right here?
Is it any better yet? No. Not yet. That's okay. We wanna pray for you more at the end of service because we're gonna have the elders and stuff come up.
God wants to heal it today. Okay? Jesus is your healer. Just because I didn't call it out, doesn't mean he doesn't want you to heal you. I wanna do 1 more thing before we stop, before we end.
2 more things. Number 1, there are people here that have never experienced a relationship with Jesus like I'm talking about. That only happens when you confess that he's your Lord, when you give your life to him. He's not a truth, he's the truth. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life.
All the other religions point to Jesus as a good prophet. If he's a real good prophet, he wouldn't lie about himself, and he claimed to be the only way to God, and he claimed to be God in the flesh. When we surrender to the truth, we experience the truth and freedom that comes with it, knowing him. So if you if you need to give your life to Jesus, if you're ready, you'd say, man, I I want to know God as you're saying. And I don't care who sees me right now, I wanna be bold about it.
I wanna know Jesus. If that's you, would you raise your hand? Anybody say, I know I need to enter into a relationship with Jesus. Don't worry, I'm not gonna call you up right now. I just want you to confess by by raising your hand.
I'm ready.
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*"Transcribed with" Deepgram*