The ABC’s of Prayer

00:00 - Speaker 1 Our heart posture has to submit to when we pray. We have to need Him, we have to be dependent on Him. Humility equals your dependence on God. You have to really need Him. I mean really really need Him. Jesus said apart from me, you can do nothing. Most people interpret that as apart from me, you can do something. But prayer that works comes to God going Lord. Apart from you, I can do nothing. 00:26 - Speaker 2 Welcome to the CityLight Church podcast. Thanks for joining us today as we look into God's Word and discover the hope and truth that he has for us. If you want to connect with CityLight Church, feel free to visit us at citylightnyc.com. That's citylightnyc.com. Citylightnyc.com. That's CityLightNYC.com. Pastor Boyan Jancic and his team believe that the power of the Holy Spirit is already working in our hearts and minds. As you listen to today's teaching, remember that you are deeply loved by God, that you are surrounded by His grace and that he has a real hope and a future for you. That he has a real hope and a future for you. 01:05 - Speaker 1 We'll turn to somebody. Welcome them to CityLight Church. We're so glad you're here. We welcome you, those of you joining us online. We're glad you're with us. Thank you Lord, thank you Jesus. Well, we had a baby dedication in the first service as well, so that's quite a number of babies that we've dedicated today, and may the Lord increase that More and more. 01:41 Supposedly, people aren't having enough children. We're trying to do our part in Jesus name. So get married and have kids, amen. I mean, I would say more if it was more complicated than that, but get married and have kids, hallelujah. 02:03 If you're wondering, well, how do I begin the first process? I'm believing God for a spouse, you came to the right service because we're gonna be talking about the power of prayer, amen. And how to, how to get results to prayer, how to have effective prayer, and that's important, because not all prayer is the same and if you don't understand the concept of prayer, you're not going to have prayer that brings results, and it's okay to want results. It's okay to want prayer that gets answered, amen. And it's okay to notice that some people's prayers never get answered. Okay, that some people's prayers never get answered, okay, you know you can think these things and not be judgmental and not be harsh and not get an elitist attitude, not become arrogant or smug, but you can still notice things. 03:00 Sometimes I feel that, in an effort to be compassionate and loving, christians throw all judgment out the window and you're all judgers. I mean, you made a judgment what time to leave your house so you could be here on time. Yeah, at every red light I made a judgment I'm going to stop here. I don't want a ticket. Right, you're hungry. You make a judgment. You judge that you're going to eat. 03:27 And so I remember as a young Christian, very early on in my Christianity, I would notice that some people, their lives just never changed. You could tell after talking with them wow, your life has been the same for 20 years. You're like the Lord. You change, not Except the Lord. The Lord is okay for changing, not because he's perfect already, but you need help. But nothing ever changes. Yet you're always praying. You always talk about I'll pray for you and I'm praying and you're at every prayer meeting. So I think it's safe to say you may be doing something wrong. You know, it's okay to say you're a soup, but your soup needs a dash of cayenne. You're not seasoned right. You might need a few extra ingredients in order to work as a soup. Amen. 04:13 And so when I first became a Christian, prayer was this abstract concept? Most people are terrified of praying. I was to actually speak to God, my maker, my creator, from my heart. You ever talk to somebody and say let's pray, and they get terrified. You know what I'm talking about, you know. Maybe you should ask a few of your friends will you pray with me? They start trembling. Well, what do I say? I mean, if it's not pre-written, everybody gets nervous, and I was nervous. 04:45 I asked a person who led me to the Lord what is, how do I? I knew I wasn't. I wasn't comfortable praying, and he said something that got me off to a good start. He said praying is like picking up the telephone and talking to your best friend. That helped me a lot. The idea that God now loves me and calls me a friend, that I can speak freely to him. That helped me find him more approachable. That I didn't have to be terrified of him, that he actually welcomed me into prayer. That got me off to a good start. 05:20 But a couple of years after that, as I began to seek the Lord and I was called into ministry. I was in my late teens and called into ministry and I would endeavor to spend time in prayer. I thought to myself and even to the Lord I expressed I want you to take me deeper in prayer. I want to understand the principles that govern prayer, because sometimes I can just tell in my spirit I'm hitting bullseye in prayer and other times I would just sense I'm off here. And how do I learn how to pray better? And thankfully we don't have to just throw darts in the dark. But God gave us a manual. He gave us his word that has much to say on the topic of prayer and if we abide by the principles that God shows us in his word, our prayer will be effective. 06:07 Amen, and I want every single one of you to be effective, not to be forgive me here. I know I can come across harsh Sometimes. I say it just to wake you up and for you to maybe collectively sigh or relief. But you don't want to be. You know, 80 years old in a church, attending every prayer meeting and still being a prayer babbler, just praying, praying, nothing happens, nothing changes. You're celebrating the one answer you got back in 1962. And a Christian's life should be dynamic and should be filled with the glory of God and prayers should be getting answered. Amen, that's effective prayer. Look at James 5, verses 16 and 17. That's an insight into prayer and what prayer should look like the people I have in my life. 07:03 When they tell me they're praying for me, I get excited because I know their prayers work. I know they know how to touch heaven. If you don't get excited when someone says I'm praying for you, it might mean that you've discerned that their prayers aren't that effective. Maybe you're judging them based out of what you're experiencing, that your own prayers aren't that effective. You know, when someone says I'm praying for you, it's like good luck with that. It shouldn't be that way. I know there's a half a dozen men in my life. 07:35 When they tell me they're praying for me, it's happening. My wife is praying for me. My mother is praying for me. Stuff is happening, amen. If I'm going through something difficult, in the past, especially before I met Emily, my mom would text me and say I'm turbo praying for you this morning. I know what that meant, because she'll start praying off in English and very quickly run out of things to say in English. And then she kicks it into fifth gear in tongues, amen. And very quickly run out of things to say in English. And then she kicks it into fifth gear in tongues, amen. Confess your trespasses to one another. I do that a lot when I'm preaching to you and pray for one another that you may be healed. 08:21 The effective, the prayer that gets results. Red, hot, fervent, that's what it means. Red, hot, fiery, passionate prayer of a righteous man avails much. What does avails much mean? It means it gets the job done, it works, and God gave us this gift to communicate with him, to ask of him, and it should make a difference in our lives. We should not have a powerless Christianity. Our Christianity is filled with power, with our connection to the creator of the universe, and through prayer we're invited to change our surroundings. Are you hearing me? Church? You're invited to co-create with God. Yes, I said co-create. 09:01 You see it right in the book of Genesis, right in the beginning of creation, when God invites Adam to name the animals. It doesn't mean that Adam then, when the tiger's name is Harry, the elephant's name is Bob and that walrus over there I'm going to call Gary To name the animals, means that he now imparted the nature and the purpose and the destiny of that animal. That's what name means. So when Adam said you are a lion, he was co-creating with God. What was a lion then? It was just something. But when Adam said a lion, it was your king of the jungle, your carnivorous, you have a roar, you live in a pride With an ant. He said you're an ant, not Jeffrey the ant, because Jeffrey's a better name for a giraffe. No, he said, you're an ant. You can lift 50 times your body weight. You live in a colony, you're a hard worker. He was co-creating with God and when you pray, you actually are now receiving God's invitation to co -create with him. 10:04 What does God want to create? He wants to create your life. He wants you to be a part of it. It should be powerful and it should work. Amen. But some of us, we just need a few dashes of other ingredients. If you're frustrated in your prayer life, get ready for some Holy Ghost, bam, cayenne to kick it up a notch. So maybe some salt, some pepper. Some of us need a little turmeric, but we need some specific ingredients to make our prayers work. Hallelujah, ephesians 6, 18. 10:38 Understanding prayer Pray at all times, on every occasion, in every season, in the spirit. And here here it gets. It gets very telling With all manner of prayer and entreaty. So we have to understand there's different kinds of prayers. Now, this really helped me when I first found this out, because before I would just think all prayer is prayer and all principles can be applied to all prayer. But it's not so. There are different kinds of prayer. See, prayer is a giant umbrella term and underneath that umbrella term could be worship. That's a type of prayer. If prayer is just defined as communicating with God, worship would fall under that umbrella of prayer. Praying in tongues would fall under that umbrella of prayer. Asking God for stuff is the prayer of petition. You're petitioning for something you need. That's a type of prayer with its own specific principles. Praying for someone else? That's an intercessory prayer. That's under the umbrella of prayer. 11:53 Another kind of prayer you saw in the Garden of Gethsemane is Jesus praying the prayer of dedication and consecration, where he ends that prayer with nevertheless, not my will but yours be done, amen. I had to pray that prayer with, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done Amen. I had to pray that prayer this week. I was really tempted to move to Florida. My parents already have a place on the water. I was thinking we're at the place right now, we've got a nice look at sunset views and all. But I pray the prayer of consecration like Jesus. Not my will, but yours be done, Lord. And you've called me to New York City and this is where my home is, and I had to recalibrate Hallelujah. 12:29 But you see, people slap. They slap on Jesus's words Not my will, but yours be done to the end of every prayer. How many of you Don't raise? You're not going to answer anyway. But when people get nervous or awkward in prayer, you know they're praying, let's say, for their job, for a spouse, and they're praying. And then, right as they're praying, satan introduces doubt, makes them feel like they're unworthy, whatever the doubt may be, and then they start squirming and then they go well, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. You just canceled out your whole prayer. You weren't dedicating and consecrating yourself to a particular course, so you can't just put at the end of every prayer not my will, but yours be done. 13:10 You're supposed to know what his will is when you ask for something, amen. Well, how do I know his will? His word is his will. You have to find scripture that covers what you're asking for and when you see it in his word then you have confidence. Amen, hallelujah. 13:26 For example, a man wants to get married Doesn't say Jeffrey is gonna find Susan in the scriptures. You can't stand that. But you see, in the scriptures, he who finds a wife finds a good thing. Oh, and then you read every good and perfect gift comes from the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Oh, and then you read every good and perfect gift comes from the father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Oh. So, Lord, good things come from you, and he who finds a wife finds a good thing. Now I have the word for that. Amen. Now I don't have to go. God, if it's your will, I see what your will is. Amen. 14:00 This is going to help you, man, so that your prayers you should not feel when you pray like you're a blind man with a stick just kind of fumbling around in the dark. So I want to just teach on some principles that will help you have effective prayer, prayer that gets results, that your whole week would change, amen, and that this week would be better than last week and that next, next week would be better than this week. Amen, all right, right. Number one the principle of dependence. This is a good first thing to understand about our heart posture when we pray, what catches heaven's attention? What's the first? What's the first our heart posture has to submit to when we pray? We have to need him, we have to be dependent on him. Humility equals your dependence on God. You have to really need him. I mean really really need him. 15:05 Jesus said apart from me, you can do nothing. Most people interpret that as apart from me, you can do some things. But prayer that works comes to God going Lord. Apart from you, I can do nothing. That's really hard in New York City, because in New York City, most of you have already done something Just by being in New York City. Because in New York City, most of you have already done something just by being in New York City. New York City has some very successful, ambitious and aggressive people. The weakness of that is you can be proud, amen, and by proud I mean confident in your own ability. But either I'm gonna be very confident in God's ability or confident in my ability. I've seen what I can do. I'm not very impressed. I've seen what God can do in spite of me. That's very impressive. 15:56 Take as an example Solomon, the most prosperous man that ever lived. The Bible says during his reign there was so much gold that silver was on the streets. It was counted as nothing. You say, oh, what about Mansa Musa? Nothing. You actually calculate and it gives you the specific weight of Solomon's gold. Nothing even compares. And it was the most prosperous time in Israel's history. 16:23 And then you read in the scriptures when did that begin? When did that favor that blessing? When did Solomon's whole life change? It changed with one prayer. He said to the Lord Lord, I'm but a little child. He wasn't a little child, he was a man already. But he said Lord I'm but a little child. I don't know how to come in or go out unless you lead me. That was a prayer of dependence, of humility. And the Lord liked that prayer so much. He liked it so much that he said because you haven't asked for riches or wealth or honor, now you're going to get riches and wealth and honor and a lot more. Because you didn't think you were all that. But you showed dependence. You needed me. So prayer is set off like an atomic bomb when you first go in with a posture of God, I need you, not, I need you to kind of help me. I got it, Lord. I got it like 80%, but you know, if I fumble a little bit, could you help me? No, I need you, Lord. That activates the power of God. You see, in the New Testament the people who got miracles from Jesus, they really needed him and they knew that if Jesus didn't show up they were ruined. That's why they legally pressed through crowds to get to him, tore roofs off buildings to get to him. Hallelujah. 17:46 In the Orthodox faith my parents and I were part of that's Christian Orthodox, not Jewish Orthodox. I've said Orthodox faith before and people would after service say I didn't know you were Jewish and although I'm a son of Abraham, I used to belong to the Orthodox faith. And in the Orthodox faith, the monasteries Emily and I we spent the summer touring these beautiful, famous monasteries. You notice the doors, the frames are like three and a half. It's like we're hobbits, three and a half, four feet high. And I was shocked to learn that we had so many dwarves in the ministry. No, they would actually build those so low because, as you would enter the sacred space, you would have to bend down so low and it's impossible to enter that sacred space with your nose up and your chest down. Now they would do that physically. I mean it's good, for I mean you could be doing that and be filled with pride and arrogance anyway. But it was a picture of how your inward should be, even to match your exterior, your outward. But it didn't always work out that way. 18:54 But you get to decide how you approach God and you look at the Psalms and the Psalmists are crying out Lord, I'm nothing, you're everything. Apart from you, I can do nothing. There's got to be a dependence. It activates the power of God. A question I'll often get from people is or a statement, statement kind of wrapped in a question is I feel like I'm bothering God with my little requests. I'll only go to him with the big things. Why Can you handle the little things? I can't handle the little things. You're never bothering God with the little things. You're showing dependence. Tell him the big things, the little things, the middle things, tell him everything you need, like the loving father that he is, and you're never bothering him, but you're showing dependence, which activates his power, amen. So the first principle is dependence on him, that humility and, by the way, that word dependence is just a synonym for humility. And this is why the Bible says that God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. I don't like it when Satan resists me. How much worse is it when God himself resists you, and it says he resists the proud and gives grace to the humble psalm 66, 18. 20:31 Next principle is the principle of right standing with God, or righteousness when you go to prayer and the reason why so many people tap out so quickly. You know what I'm talking about. You go to prayer, you have it in your head as you're going to pray God, this is, I'm going to have a time with the Lord, and after 30 seconds you find yourself saying amen, all right, let me see what happened on my phone in the meantime. What's the catalyst? Usually? What happens? Usually people get, because when you go to prayer, satan goes with you. He hates it. 20:58 When you pray, he follows you into prayer and one of the first weapons he uses against you when you go to prayer is guilt and shame and condemnation. If you're honest, how many times you go to prayer? And the moment you go to prayer, your sin record pops up in your mind and you just start and you know Christians. Oh, the Lord is convicting me. The Lord is not bringing up all your sins as soon as you step into prayer. I mean that's terrible. That would be like I haven't seen my son or daughter in weeks and they finally come to me and I'm like all right, let me tell you everything you did wrong. They won't want to see me very quickly. No, that's Satan trying to get you into a place of shame and guilt and condemnation to keep you from praying. You gotta go into prayer knowing a few things One, that all of your sins past, present, future have been taken out of the way. That, because of the blood of Jesus, neither God nor Satan can point to one part of you and find one speckle of sin inside of you. 22:04 I've had people argue this with me and it's always people who desperately need to hear this message and I try to pound the blood, the forgiveness, and you see their eyes darting, nervous and no, this is too good to be true. I must punish, I gotta punish myself. There's Christians like that. How many of you have seen the footage from the Philippines, the Filipino Catholics, anybody from the Philippines here. You know what I'm talking about the Filipino Catholics that self-flagellate that hit themselves, yes or no, they'll think I'm lying. It's true, right, yes, right, okay, okay. I love that. I can almost call out anybody and a hand goes up. Do you know? We have 80 nations represented at CityLight. So, these precious people and, by the way, there's areas in Latin America where they do the same thing Because they don't understand forgiveness, they don't understand that all of their sins has been punished. 23:07 They have to help God out, apparently, and punish themselves. Why should you punish yourself when all of your sin has already been punished? It's like the sacrifice of Jesus wasn't enough. Well, it was more than enough. The Bible says once and for all. And after that he sat down. If it wasn't enough, he wouldn't have sat down. But he sat down and put his feet up on his enemies who've been made his footstool. 23:36 You don't have to self-flagellate, beat yourself up, but people will do that in prayer. Why? Because they're regarding iniquity in their heart. See what that scripture says Psalm 66, 18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. So when you go to prayer, what does Satan try to do, get you to look at all the iniquity in your heart. Get you to look at your mistakes, your failures, your shortcomings. You have to immediately shut that up the blood of of Jesus and declare forth God's forgiveness and his gift of righteousness to you. 24:10 I am forgiven completely. Sometimes you just have to start the prayer off. That way, Lord, I'm praying to you, knowing I'm forgiven completely. I have right standing with you. I can come boldly to the throne of grace. I have access with confidence. Satan has nothing in me. You know who have access with confidence. Satan has nothing in me. You know who said that, Jesus. He said Satan has nothing in me. You, because of Jesus, can say that now, he has nothing in me. So don't regard iniquity in your heart. 24:37 And there's Christians who think they're being humble when they do. No, that's called being faithless, not humble. No, that's called being faithless, not humble. Faith is saying no. I am now the righteousness of God in Christ. And when I speak because I am in Jesus, my life is hid with God in Christ. When I pray to the Father, it's the same as Jesus talking to the Father. That is the glory of the cross, that is the blessedness of this gospel. That's how far we've been elevated. Hallelujah, just that alone. 25:08 If you would catch that, it would quicken your prayers and the results would start happening quicker and more Prayer would be more fruitful. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, thank you Jesus. Thank you Jesus. You know that brought back so many memories. That was my mom. Do you remember when we started CityLight? There'd be like 15 people. It would be so awkward. You hear every creak. Somebody opens up a piece of gum, you know, like a candy, and it's like. Everything's so loud and right in like this holy moment. This phone would go off, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, and my mom would be smiling back at me like oopsie, hallelujah, praise God, thank you, Lord. John 14, verses 13 through 14. 26:27 This is the principle of the name, the principle of the name. Jesus wouldn't tell us to use his name over and over again if it wasn't important. Now, of course there's semi-believers, just so that I don't call them unbelievers. But you know there's a lot of cultural Christians and when you, for example, when I first moved to America in the early 80s, they would show families saying grace on TV and in the movies all the time. How many of you remember that? But they would never invoke the name of Jesus. The prayers were always like Dear Lord or Dear God, never the name of Jesus. Why? Because that name is powerful and that name is actually the deal-maker or deal-breaker. That's the all-access pass. Have you ever heard a politician use the name of Jesus? You know they have the prayer breakfast, prayer, congress. They pray all the time, but it's always dear Lord. 27:30 Well, you say, what does it matter? It matters a lot, because to somebody a tree is a Lord, to somebody a cow is a Lord. There's many, many different gods. You look in the book of Acts, when the Christians were being persecuted, specifically, the people persecuting them always brought up the name of Jesus, always, always, quit preaching in that name. We forbid you to speak that name. Don't talk about that name, even an atheist. When they stub their toe in the middle of the night, they don't say oh Buddha, muhammad, oh Confucius. When even an unbeliever is looking to invoke a powerful name, they say the name of Jesus, because the Bible says that he's given him the name and no other name is given amongst men under heaven, whereby we must be saved that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess it's the name that's higher than every name. He's given you his name. Think of it as an all-access pass. 28:38 And when you pray and specifically use the name of Jesus, what are you actually saying? Think about it. When you say, father, in the name of Jesus, you're saying I'm not coming to you here alone, father, because if I came to you alone, I'd be disintegrated. You know, if you got close, if you got in within 10,000 miles of the sun, I'd be disintegrated. You know, if you got close, if you got in within 10,000 miles of the sun, you'd be disintegrated. Now imagine the maker of a million suns. You're going to stand, just sashay into his presence and go. What's up? No, I'm coming to you in the name of Jesus, in and through what Jesus has done on the cross, which is give me his righteousness, make me a child of God, cause him to be completely pronounced, not guilty and forgiven. Now I have the legal right to appear before you and to request of you Hallelujah. That's why the name of Jesus is so powerful. That's why, look, you could be at a party. 29:37 When I first got saved, I noticed at part. You know, I was in high school. Go to lots of parties. I can talk to people about God, I can get a crowd of people around me Talking about just G-O-D. Is not that offensive because people just interpret like you're talking about the universe or you know some abstract creator. But I noticed the moment you say Jesus, record, scratch. That's when it gets real, because there's power in that name. So use his name and use it often, hallelujah. Look, I know I'm going through some of the basics. Yet we'll have 21 days of prayer and fasting and then I'll still see a good chunk of people not using any of these principles. Is it true or false? Oh, right, and you go, and I know I'm going through the basics. This is why it's good to go through the basics. 30:29 Vince Lombardi, at the start of every season with the Green Bay Packers, vince Lombardi, world-renowned coach, and then professional football players, and he would start every football season how many of you know what he would say? Say it, this is a football. To a bunch of professional football players In the NFL. This is a football. In other words, nobody's beyond going through the basics. And if Vince Lombardi thinks you need to know that this is a football, you probably need to know this is a football. 31:03 Amen, and some of you right now go, yeah, pray in the name of Jesus. Well, yeah, what else am I praying in? I got this man. Listen, listen and apply Hallelujah, oh, glory to God. Hebrews 4.16. Because we're going to get some prayers crack-a-lacking up in here, people who can shape and shift their own environment through prayer, hallelujah, hallelujah. 31:43 And having a successful and dynamic prayer life makes you very attractive to the unbeliever, because they're looking for a Christianity that works and they're looking for somebody who says little cute religiousisms. I'll pray for you. Well, they might be thinking, please don't. There's nothing of your life that you should advertise to me. Hallelujah, hallelujah. But the Lord, actually, his desire is to lift you up. Do you know what the word blessed means? It has several meanings. One of the meanings is empowered to prosper. Another meaning is to be envied. The Lord knows how the sinner thinks and the sinner is very rarely moved with altruism, but they are moved by envy. And one of the definitions of to be blessed is to be envied. God's desire is to lift you up and raise you up. So unbelievers will go wow, what a life I want to have what they have. I want to serve this incredible Yahweh God through Jesus. I want to serve him because that relationship is working for that person, hallelujah. 33:00 The next principle is the principle of boldness, because prayer will not work if you're mousy. It just won't. You don't see mousy prayers anywhere in the Bible getting answered. You won't see timid prayers getting answered. I've heard people say well, that's just my personality, then change it. But I would beg to differ that it's not your personality. 33:34 I've had lots of quote-unquote shy, timid friends. You know what I noticed? They're only shy or timid in specific scenarios. You put them in the right scenario, we become a lion. I have no shy and timid people who love cake. They're very shy and timid. Then try to take a piece of cake from them, rawr. What happened to your timidity? Oh, your love of cake from them. What happened to your timidity? Oh, your love for cake is greater. So don't ever partner with that demon. Don't partner because the demon comes and says well, you're just shy, and then you go yeah, I'll make my whole personality about that. No, don't partner with a demon that's telling you you're shy. 34:24 In the scriptures, paul wrote Timothy and said God has not given you a spirit of timidity, but of power and of love and of a sound mind, and please don't ever think like, for example, my wife. Don't ever think she's timid. My wife may be quiet, which is actually a beautiful biblical trait, where Paul instructs wives to have a quiet spirit. There's no timidity about her. Touch her kids. See the lioness come out. Don't love her cooking. See the lioness come out. Amen, amen, hallelujah. 35:14 Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So this boldness is fueled by understanding who you are, and who you are is a child of God that has been made righteous. A sin consciousness will cause you to be timid. A righteousness consciousness will cause you to be bold. Sin makes cowards out of men. If you are regarding iniquity in your heart, if you haven't embraced the blood of Jesus and the new creation, the new birth, you'll always be timid. 35:47 What's the first thing Adam did after he sinned? God rhetorically asked him where are you, adam? And his response was I was afraid and I hid myself. Sin and a sin conscience has caused you to be a hider. But you have been made clean, you have been forgiven. You've been pronounced just, which means not guilty. So that should produce in you a boldness. 36:16 And, yeah, satan will come. If you're not solid in this truth, he'll come and challenge it at the start and you'll go to pray and he'll try to play a movie of all your sin for the last year. Just play it in your mind and you have to learn how to address the devil. Some of you I feel this in my spirit right now some people talk to the devil too much. Some people don't talk to him at all. You gotta talk to him just right and command him. Devil, stop, I break your power. 36:45 In Jesus name, I've been made the righteousness of God in Christ. The bible says I've been made perfect. Yeah, but you fell. The bible says a righteous man will fall down seven times, but each time get back up again. Hallelujah, yeah, but the Lord has forsaken. A righteous man will fall down seven times, but each time get back up again, hallelujah. Yeah, but the Lord has forsaken you. The Bible says that he'll never leave me, nor forsake me, even for short people. It says, lo, I'll be with you, even to the uttermost parts of the earth. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Colossians 4.2. 37:25 There's a principle of praise, of being grateful when you have faith and you truly believe God has heard your prayer. There should be a gratitude that it's expressed, but sincerely, from your heart. See, early on, when God was teaching about prayer, I was really kind of overwhelmed and down about something. So I had the horse face You're down and I went to pray. I prayed and when I said amen, I got up. I still had the horse face, the long face, and as I was getting up and my face hadn't changed at all, the Lord arrested me and said do you believe that I've heard you? No, you don't. If you believed, your face would be different. There'd be a hallelujah that comes out of your lips. If you actually believe that the answer is on its way now, then why are you still down in the dumps, like you just talked to the wall? 38:30 So oftentimes that tension between praying and then receiving that time space that can be shortened in proportion to how much you praise him. So, once again, because here we have different cultures and this is just for some cultures. Yeah, it's easier to praise. Some cultures just are more expressive. But I really don't care about my Serbian culture. Your culture, I like your culture. I like Bible culture. 39:04 And the Bible culture says shout a hallelujah, amen. Bible culture says to praise him. Praise him in the morning, praise him in the evening, praise him all day long, continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it, with not moaning and grumbling and complaining, with thanksgiving, hallelujah. In fact, I try to pray for things only once, because if I keep praying for the same thing 50 times, probably 49 of those times is with doubt and unbelief. So my prayer is once. You don't have to get legalistic about this, but I pray once and then, until I see it manifested, I'm praising him. Thank you, Lord, that it's coming. Thank you, Lord, that you heard my prayer. You're a good, good father. You're on my side, Lord. You make a way where there seems to be no way. I love you, Lord. You've always been good. You'll continue to be good. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. 40:08 Some of you I know this in my spirit you're like a 10-minute praise festival. Away from getting your answer, you are. You just need to lock yourself in your room and be silly for 10 minutes. I say be silly because in your mind you call yourself silly, but you need to just forget. That's why revival is important, and you know, when the power of God smashes you, you go dancing and spinning and oh, hallelujah, you don't care what anyone thinks. And now you're alone in your room and you're wondering you know what would the walls think? You need to close that door and dance like David danced Amen, praise him, get silly. You say how do I know if I'm doing it right, when Satan is telling you you're being a total fool. You're doing it right, then praise him some more. It expedites the answer Hallelujah, hallelujah, ooh, here's a good one the principle of forgiveness. 1 Peter, 3, 7. 41:13 Husbands likewise dwell with them. Who's them? The wife Dwell with them with understanding. That word understanding there in the Greek it means study. So, husbands, study your wives. No, really, you got to study them. Study the calendar, study them Giving honor to the wife as to the weaker vessel and as being heirs together of the grace of life, that your prayers may not be hindered. Now, look at that. That means, if there's now. 41:55 This doesn't really apply to me, because my wife never, ever makes a mistake, so I don't really ever. But for those of you lesser beings out there that are married, here's the and why you said well, you know a man's like yo why it's picking on me. Where's the good scripture to the wife? Well, you wanted to be the head of the home, congratulations. Now you get to lead in forgiving first and loving first, and yeah, that's how it works, amen. But I want you to catch the spirit of the scripture. It means that if you're in bitterness and unforgiveness, your prayers will be hindered. And what we're talking about here is having effective, powerful prayer. And really I started with this marital one. It applies whether you're married or not married. It applies in every sphere of life. 42:53 The greatest teaching on prayer, in my opinion, is Jesus in Mark 11. Mark 11, 23. He talks about speaking power. If you say to this mountain, be removed, it'll be removed. 43:04 Next verse Mark 11, 24, talks about the power of prayer. Whatsoever things you desire when you pray, believe that you receive them and you shall have them. And then the next verse in that same teaching on it says and when you stand praying, if you have a problem with anyone, forgive them, because bitterness and unforgiveness will mess up your prayer life. Now you have a choice to make. Right now, all of us have something in common. We have people in our lives that have hurt us and have offended us Some terribly, some deep, deep wounds. I get it. You have a choice to make. You can either enjoy the feeling that you have from hanging on to that bitterness, or you can love yourself enough to release them, cancel all their debts and clear the air so you can pray with authority. The choice is yours. 43:59 Matthew 5, verse 23 to 24. You show me somebody who lives in bitterness. I'll show you somebody who's not getting answers to prayer. Therefore, if you bring your gift to the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, wait for it. You won't believe what he says in the next verse. There it is. Leave your gift, therefore, before the altar and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift. This is is Jesus speaking. 44:39 So, in order to have effective prayer and a clear relationship with the Lord, you got to forgive others. And if you ever need motivation on like why you should forgive others, just remind yourself of all of the stuff that the Lord has forgiven you of and then multiply that by about 10, because the other times 10 comes from all the stuff you don't even know that he's forgiven you of. He's forgiven you. You didn't even ask for forgiveness, you didn't even know you needed it, and when you meditate on how much you've been forgiven, you'll be more inclined to extend that same forgiveness to others. And powerful is the person who can say you know what? I don't hold a grudge against anybody Free. Is that person who can say I forgive, I don't wish anything bad on anyone, I've forgiven. And if you really want to know you've forgiven them, oh, you're going to love this. Get them an anonymous gift, like if there's that one person in your life. You just don't know if you're forgiven or not. And, by the way, the process of forgiving someone could take weeks. It could. It's not just one decision, because tomorrow you're going to hate them again and you'll forgive them. Then the next day you'll be reminded. You'll see an old email or someone will bring their name up. You really want to kill that thing. Give them an anonymous gift and make sure it stays anonymous. You cannot stay bitter and give to someone at the same time. Hallelujah. 46:11 People were into the preaching up until I got up to this part. Tell us more about how awesome we are. John 15, 7. The principle of the word. I bring this up all the time during 21 days of prayer and fasting In order to get what you want. What you want has to be in line with what God wants. That's the big tension, isn't it? Well, how do you know what God wants for you? It's in his word. His word is his will. 46:53 Now, I know there's some things you need to work out there. For example, it's in God's word that he wants you to prosper, right? It's in God's word that he wants you to prosper, right? It's in God's word that he wants you to be fulfilled. It's in God's word that he wants you to live a joyful, vibrant for lack of a better term successful life. Amen, that's in his word. 47:13 But where you're going to work and how you're going to work may not be in God's word. Right? You want to work and how you're going to work may not be in God's word. Right? You want to work for Google? It doesn't. Thou shalt yay, I will employ thee in Google, you and all your generation, and there I shall multiply you. No, but maybe you want to work for Google because you want to get in there? No, never mind. 47:33 So what do you do then? You have God's word, you have his will and you talk it through with the Lord. That's what being sensitive to the Holy Spirit is. You present your options to the Lord and you let him speak to you and then he will guide and direct you. But you still come to him based on his word. If you just ask him without the word undergirding it, your confidence in it being answered will be zero. That's why people, when they approach God without the word, they don't know what his will is. So they then just tack on at the end of the prayer yeah, but nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, come to God with his word. Come to God and when you ask for him, present his word to him and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. Hallelujah, and I pray that God would raise up a group of people here that will obey this. I love you, church, but the unfortunate reality is there's always a chunk. They can be in a hundred services and they'll never, ever apply anything that's taught. That's very sad for me that, statistically speaking, there's a chunk here who'll just go and then never, ever do anything with it. In the book of James it says be doers of the word, not just hearers only. 49:13 I had a long time ago a woman who was a part of our church for years. She got hit with a terrible disease. She heard these sermons for so long and she came up for prayer and said what she was hit with. And me, I just said, what healing scripture are you standing on? And she went. The one you know, the one about him being hit, beaten for our healing. You know that one and I'm going. If I got sick and you ask me what healing scripture I was standing on, I'm going to rattle off 10 verses that I know better than I know my own name. That's how you got to be. 49:52 The word of God is powerful. The word of God is life. Don't you dare get frustrated at God not answering some prayer and you haven't memorized 10 scriptures that tell you you have that. Get upset at yourself. Rattle your own self. Memorize scriptures that memorize the. There's over 7,000 precious promises that he's already said amen to. All you have to do is claim them for yourself. But if you're not even willing to do the work of finding 10 promises that apply to your life, God doesn't owe you a thing. I love you. 50:28 I gotta tell you that there's gotta be a shaking out of a spiritual apathy, a complacentness of this weird case. Well, if God wanted it, he'd just give it to me. No, you'd be blown away. If you knew what God wants for your life, you got to shake yourself out of the mediocrity and plug into him. And what he wants for you it's in his word, hallelujah. He said blessing, I will bless thee and multiplying I will multiply thee. Hallelujah, just. Psalm 23 wants your cup to overflow. Just that, just the picture of that A cup that overflows. Some people are looking at a tin cup. They've been rattling in the prison cell and they look there's five drops in it. He wants that cup to overflow. That's his style. Everything he does, he gives in, he gives in excess. Hallelujah, worship team, come on up. Hallelujah. Thank you Jesus. Mark 11, 23,. I'll close with this. 51:53 It's the principle of specificity. When you pray the prayer of petition, that is, you're asking God for something. I'm going to tell you the shorter your prayer is, the better. Can you believe that when you're asking God for stuff, you're praying too long? That's probably maybe your biggest problem. Aren't you glad you have a pastor that's telling you to pray less? Who does that? Most pastors say pray more. The secret is praying less. 52:32 I heard that from a preacher once called Jesus when he said don't think you'll be heard for your much speaking. Now do I pray at length? Yeah, but when I'm asking him for stuff, how many different ways can you ask? Yet whenever you listen to someone asking for something, they get all nervous and they're asking for 10 minutes. Like he gets it. You're just talking a lot. You know why you're talking a lot? Because of a lack of faith. So you think you're going to convince God by using a lot of words. And Jesus said you know who does that the heathen, the pagan. Don't think you'll be heard for your many words. 90 plus percent of your praying should be praise and worship anyway, and sweet fellowship with the Lord. 53:23 But when it comes to something, you need be specific and be quick. I'm telling you there's a secret to that, by the way, it's just me telling you. I saw it in the scriptures. It resonated in my spirit. Then, when I studied the great men of God of the last 300 years, you'll see, every single one of them will say what I'm saying in one version or another, over and over again. Be quick, because when you talk at length, what's the point of you talking at length? Do you think you need to describe the problem to God, then explain to him the 10 different ways he's gonna meet your need. Give him a few ideas. You know, if I were you and you were me, God, let me suggest to you how I would go about this. 54:10 But be specific. Faith, by definition, has to be specific. For assuredly, I say to you Mark 11, 23,. Whoever says to this mountain be removed Not a mountain, this mountain, a specific mountain Whoever says to this mountain be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Thank you Jesus. Luke 17, six. You know Jesus, luke 17, 6. You know Jesus. 54:53 Over and over again he pushed people to be specific. He would come up to them and say what do you want me to do for you? What do you want me to do for you? And he made them get specific. They couldn't just say well, you know I want a better life. All right, here's a gift basket and a jug of water. That makes things better. 55:16 No, specifically, why don't you get together with the Lord tonight and get a little more specific and dream with God and talk about your future with God and invite him to architect it and ask him how can I help you build my life up, Lord? How do you want me to align myself? This is why we're going to have right now we're going to close the service soon and have ministry time and we encourage our ministry team to always inspire and provoke the people coming for prayer to be specific in their prayer, because if we're not half the time, people will come up and go just pray for me. Well, pray for what? Well, just pray whatever God puts on your heart. No, no, no, no, no. I'm not a prophet. You want me to do all the work. You can't even tell me what you want. How lazy am I going to be if you're still? Well, whatever God puts on your heart, whatever you think I need, I don't know you. I don't know what you need. 56:21 So we try in our ministry and say what's the number one thing you want God to do in your life? We're trying to force you to get specific. If you're wondering why they ask that, that's why, because you want vagueness, you'll get more vagueness. You want answers and power. Be specific, hallelujah. 56:45 Hallelujah, let's pray right now. Heavenly Father, thank you for the amazing gift that is prayer, that we get to communicate with you and we get to ask of you. Lord, you said you receive not because you ask not. Then you commanded us to ask, so our joy would be full. I pray, father, for a revival of prayer at CityLight Church, that people would be emboldened and filled with the Holy Spirit, that they would pray boldly and with specificity in the name of Jesus. Having forgiven all other offenses, Lord, let people begin to co-create with you and design with you the life you have intended for them. Let there be a sweeping of mighty prayer through our church, prayer that's effective and fervent and that gets results. In Jesus' name, amen, amen, amen, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. 57:54 Well, I just want to draw your attention to our end of the year offering. It's November, it's that time of year again. If you would just look at this card, it should have been on your seat. We're launching our first Fruits end of the year campaign. One side of that card has that title. The other side shows what's come in to CityLight church in previous years, what's come in this year and how our finances have been allocated. 58:26 If you notice and this needs to be corrected, I don't want to ever look in the rearview mirror and see that we were financially stronger in the past and if you actually think about it, because we had six locations excuse me, we had four locations, six weekend services back in 2019, 2020. It's amazing that when we consolidated all in Queens, the giving this is, I mean, a testimony to the Lord, because the giving could have gone down by 75%. Instead, if you look at the highs of I'm specifically showing you the bottom left-hand corner If you look at that, the Lord really sustained us, because right now we have about what does it say? How many do we have, on an average Sunday, 316 people. See, that number used to be between 600 and 700 people, but it's all spread out through six weekend services in four different locations. So the finances actually are awesome, considering that half of our people either got upset at me during COVID or moved to Dallas or North Carolina or South Carolina. 59:36 And if you ever get upset at me for anything, I say now hang on, hang on. Just don't leave right away. Hang on for an extra six months so you can see I'm right again. Amen. Before you get bitter or upset, just hang on. Forgive me in that moment. Receive the word from me and they'll go. You know that he was right again. Praise God. What a way to take a special offering, huh. 01:00:10 So what is the first Fruits offering? It's for people who maybe haven't tithed and given offerings to make them up. It's for those who have given tithes. If you want to go above and beyond your normal tithes and offerings. It's our end-of-the-year campaign. It's a time for you to say this is the first fruits Before we even get to 2026,. 01:00:33 I'm giving by faith and I'm believing that 2026 is going to be an exemplary year. You will never get any pressure. Some of you, you're waiting for pressure. You're not going to get it. Some of you, you're just waiting. I don't know what you're waiting for. You're not going to get it. Some of you, you're just waiting. I don't know what you're waiting for. You've been given the word of God. You see that the word of God works. The word of God should be enough that it says it works. I know beyond any shadow of a doubt every Christian will make a living by their giving. 01:01:05 Your giving goes into your future and opens doors that nothing else can. There is nothing that you release now that doesn't enter your future tomorrow. Your giving actually makes a way for you. When God's eyes were scanning the earth in Acts, chapter 10, looking for who was going to be the first Gentile to proclaim the gospel, the Bible says his eyes landed on Cornelius. Not because he had such a cool sounding name. It on Cornelius, not because he had such a cool sounding name, but it says that his prayers and his giving have come up as a memorial before God. Your giving actually gets God's attention. Yes, it does. It shows that there's been a deep work of the Holy Spirit done in your life. And then money doesn't rule over you, but you rule over money. And then God can entrust you with more money, because money is a wonderful servant but a terrible master. 01:01:54 And that's what this special offering is about. We have a goal of 100,000 and I don't wanna be meeting that like around Christmas time. Let's just blow that thing off the water by November, amen. So what should you give? Ask the Lord and give whatever he puts in your heart to give. There's a special drop-down menu so you can specifically designate it to the first fruits end of the year offering. And then, like every good church, we'll have a chart and a graph. I love that part, ooh, and we can watch it rise. I hope not to watch it rise too long. Amen, let's be done in a month. 01:02:31 So give with a glad heart. If you want prayer, our ministry team will meet you over by the blue light special. They love to lay hands on you and minister to you and pray for you. Don't be shy, they won't ever, ever hurt you. They'll be very, very gentle. I pray for you and everything you've given, every seed you sowed that, every tithe and offering come up a mighty harvest to you. We give praise to the Lord where the scripture says that he takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servant, where the scripture says that he causes an overflow, that when he fed the 5,000, the Bible says all had eaten and were full and there were 12 baskets of leftovers. That is your way, Lord Fullness and leftovers. 01:03:25 - Speaker 2 In Jesus' name, Be blessed, CityLight, Be blessed. That's citylightnyc.com. Feel free to visit us online or in person anytime. We would love to connect with you. We pray that you have been encouraged today, that you have been reminded how much God loves you and that you are surrounded by grace. Thank you for listening. Make sure that you subscribe to CityLight Church Podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.