The Power of Prayer: Stories of Faith and Transformation

0:00 So I'm challenging people in this room City Light. If you want to see that classic breakthrough, if you want to see your works, your prayers being answered, you got to pray what Pray, fervently Pray until something happens. Push in prayer, travail in prayer, persevere in prayer, keep praying and keep praying, and keep praying until the breakthrough happens. Welcome to the City Light 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 City Light Church, feel free to visit us at CityLightNYCcom.

0:41 That's CityLightNYCcom. Pastor Boyan Jansic 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. God is in this place, amen. As you see, I'm not Pastor Boyan. In fact, both our names start into the first two letters of our Word. Our names are like the same, so it's like Bo Yan Bonnie.

1:23 I'm so happy that he let me speak, and most of the time I'm a short notice. God bless Him. I just got off the plane from California, so that's why I'm wearing all the Cal Gear. Does anybody from California come on? Cal, so Cal, no Cal, no Cal. All the cool places. So I just got off the plane. Man, those planes are long. It's almost like how many hours is that? It was almost six and a half hours just to get to San Francisco. I spent the last 10 days there. You might be thinking I was on holiday. No, we were on a mission. We were at the University of Berkeley, university of California, berkeley.

2:10 Why am I saying this? Because this church is my church. This church has been a praying church, this church has been a giving church, this church has been a sending church and you guys have sent us to be on this mission to see every student in every nation gospelized and mobilized. And we've been on this, on this tour, in the University of California, berkeley Fantastic place. I mean, we hear all these kind of narratives. I'm not saying those narratives are not true, you know those are facts. But the truth is that Jesus loves Berkeley. So we were there for the last 10 days just serving the students and working to get this outreach.

2:54 I don't know if you have heard this movie called God's Not Dead, right. So we were out there doing this apologetics event with my mentor, dr Rice Brooks. We are officially collaborating LifeJumps bringing this to different campuses, and we were there. And, man, I want to just say that we had a record-breaking crowd in the history of Berkeley in the recent times 478 students right packed up in this place, standing room only. This is historic because this is the same campus that Martin Luther King stood on the steps and made a big speech. It was also the same place that Billy Graham went to in 1956.

3:37 And there was a massive revival and thousands of students were touched and impacted and campus crusader big ministries were launched into this campus and most of the time we hear about stories that happened in the past, but I was like man. We got to see that right now, right here, because the God that we serve is the God of the right nows, amen. He's also the God of the yesterday. He's done some great things, but he's the best. I tell people, the best is yet to come, amen. So we were there 478 students packed up in this place and 107 responded. Out of that, 23 students gave their lives to Jesus.

4:19 The captain of the football team gives his life to the Lord, walks up to us and says God, touch me today. This is not like a revival service, is a college campus. So we are asking questions. You know, I want you to know, that 60 to 70% of the students that walk into a college campus walk out of the place losing their faith. I often tell the story about this young girl just like on fire for God, like most of us are, went on. You know she was given this opportunity to study in any campus. You know her parents wanted her to go to Christian school. She said now I want to go to UNC, chapel Hill. And she goes there with a mission to change the campus upside down and six weeks later she calls up her dad and says I don't believe in God anymore.

5:08 This is the truth that we're facing, so we got to go beyond that campus. Engage with them, answer some of the questions. So we talked about the three E's, we talked about the fact that there is evidence to what is written in this book. This is not just a fable, this is not just a story. This book has got more evidence than any historic book in the world. So we just laid out all of those things. Jesus rose from the grave. It was not just like somebody just told somebody oh yeah, that's a good idea. Let me just get you know Jesus rose, no, jesus rose from the dead and over 200 people saw Him rose from the dead alive. So it's 200 witnesses. So you know, just talking this.

5:49 We talked about evolution, we talked about evil why do bad things happen to good people? And then we shared the gospel. There was this girl who came as a skeptic. She was arguing with this friend of mine that we know at that event and she's like you know, I don't like all this stuff, but I'm just here to drill some holes and into the, into the middle of this event, she starts crying. At the end of this event she gives her life to the Lord and says show me, well, tell me where the next services. I want to be there for that. There was another guy who was there. He didn't want to come. His dad pushed him and forced him to come. He had been robbed. You know just a little bit about California. The moment I landed and got a render car, the render car person said make sure that you don't put anything in the car, because there's a lot of break-ins in this area.

6:35 So this guy got point blank robbed a week before. He was shaken, shaken up and he was there and God touched him and he gave his life to the Lord. You know so many stories like this. So I just want to say thank you for praying for us, thank you for sending us, thank you for giving us the you know, the resources and the finances for us to preach the gospel. So I've got a QR code right there and there's some city kids, some naughty kids. I hope it's not my voice. Mama Mia is here. My beautiful wife is there. Wave your hands up in the air. Best thing, best thing's, happened to me. So you can scan this QR code and, you know, be part of the praying team.

7:22 You can just pull up your phone, scan this code and get you signed up and if you want to, you know, I know this is a free church. It's given me this freedom. If you want to financially give to these campaigns it costs us thousands of dollars to be on these campus. If you want to be partner, partnering with us in this ministry, you can even do that via this QR code and talk to us, or talk to Pastor James and he'll make sure that the money gets to us so that we can be on the campus. We've been dreaming about Stanford, right next to it. We've been praying into it. So it's been all the good things happening. It's been some great things happening in India as well, with our global teams. Show some of those pictures. Yeah, these are students, thousands of students. So this whole campaign. There will be a hundred thousand students all over in about 20 cities.

8:07 Students like this will hear the gospel directly or indirectly through some of our initiatives. We have a chat line. We have a big Christmas campaign coming, so we're not just reaching students in America, but we're reaching students around the world. Look at those thousands of kids. You know I'm telling you, I tell people you can count the number of seeds in an apple, but you can never count the number of apples that will come out of a seed. Somebody shared the gospel with me. That guy didn't have no clue that God is going to birth a movement out of this guy that will reach over three million students with the gospel. The next Pastor James, the next Boyan, the next president, the next you know the influencers, that the next CEO of the biggest tech company is sitting on those campuses and they need to hear the gospel.

8:56 So pray with us, partner with us to take this gospel to the ends of the world and in American campuses. Are you excited for the Word of God? All right, you know I want to say this message that I'm sharing with you this morning is really my life message. This is I live this message. I don't I'm not just trying to give you something that I'm trying to do. I live this. This is part of me and I want this to become and impartation. As you receive this word and say God, I want to receive this into the DNA of my life, that my life will never be the same.

9:36 Amen, you believe it? Say amen, all right. So this is a message. The title of my sermon is called prayer power. Many of us are praying prayers and you're wondering why your prayers are not answered. There are formulas in the Bible that we need to use and unlock to see the breakthroughs that we need to see in our life. Amen, have you ever wondered? I've been praying and I'm not seeing breakthroughs. Let's just relook into some of the things that are in the scriptures so that we get a glimpse of it. Okay, backtracking a little bit, last year my wife and I, the Lord spoke to us the scripture from the Bible.

10:19 Abraham walked the length and breadth of this land. Remember that God spoke to. Abraham walked the length and breadth of this land. I'll give it to you A little bit of a story about us. We are just four years into America. We are missionaries into this great nation. We are originally from the land of curry. Does anybody know what that is? India, right? So I tell people I come from the land of curry and I live in the land of curry, new York. So God brought us here on a mission and we didn't know a lot of people. So we said God, you want us to touch the lights of these young people in this nation. So we don't know where to start. So, whenever you are in doubt, start praying. Okay.

10:59 So God spoke to this word. So we got excited and the idea was to drive the length and breadth of America. So we got on a mini van. Anybody loves a mini van. I mean, I'm the guy, I'm not the driving. You know, I'm not the guy that likes to drive. I've been. If I'm driving for three hours, I probably take two breaks, coffee breaks, starbucks break, you know all that. But this was driving for hours. So we drove 9,000 miles, friends, new York to LA, the length go up to Seattle, down to Miami, back to New York. 9,000 miles of praying, over 30 cities, every city. We found somebody to pray with us. We said we're gonna ask you for money, we're gonna ask you for anything.

11:42 Will you give us one hour so that we can pray for your city, so that your young people will come to know Jesus? And all of them said yes. So we, you know, we drove through and my kids got to see America more of America in 30 days than most of America put together. All right, so at the end of 30 days we were like God, what are we doing? We're saying God, give us this land. The Bible says wherever the soul of your feet shall tread, I will give it to you. Ask of me and I will give you, the nations, and to the other supercession. We prayed all these words and we were praying in the spirit in the car. We have a global team. Some of the places, like I was at the University of Michigan, I switched on a Zoom call with all of our team sitting on the other side of the world and I switched the camera around.

12:24 Those guys sitting in India are actually praying for the University of Michigan while we drive around the place. How cool is that? And some of those kids got excited and inspired that one of our interns just came into Columbia University. How cool is that, getting inspired to come on the other side of the world. So 30 days later, I'm like Lord, we are in this location. And I remember being in DC, washington DC. We got there and then I was in a. I rented a little scooter the electric scooter and from our hotel all around Capitol Hill, just drove around the key places and saying God, here I am, here we are. We need a breakthrough, we need open doors, we need this, we need to see this nation. This is the most defining place, the most influential place.

13:07 A few months later, god did this Show that picture right there. Yes, that's me, the good looking me With the Surgeon General of America. He's the highest ranking official under the President of America in charge of the health and human services I mean human departments of all of America. Now you know that we've been working in college campuses around the team of mental health. It came to know about it and I love to say we walk into what you pray into. Say that with me. You walk into what you pray into. A few months before, I was cycling around that place in the electric scooter saying, not knowing a lot of people in DC, saying God, give us open doors.

13:51 A few months later, boom, we are having the meeting with the Surgeon General talking about some of the things that we're doing and he's like all right, love what you're doing, I want to come and be a part. So he actually wants to come and attend one of our events. Number one, number two the next day, the White House put this picture out there and tweeted it on their partnership Twitter ID government partnerships on the Twitter ID. How did this happen? You walk into what you pray into. You walk into what you pray into. What am I doing in California? What am I doing in Stanford? What am I doing in Berkeley. I've never heard of that place, I've never been to that place.

14:32 But guess what you walk into, what you pray into. I was praying all over California, in Los Angeles, in God, give us California for Jesus. So you walk into what you pray into. Now doors are opening everywhere we went. So what am I saying? Just give me your recipe, recipe recipe For the last one year, god's been given us a zip code, 11545. I was here for a meeting and I saw this place and something in my heart said this is where you're going to be living. We will live right next door here in Roosevelt Island, and we're feeling in our heart For the last one year, every month, sometimes every other week, my wife was like what are we even doing here, just circling around 11545, long Island area, saying God, this is a place that you're giving us and you're going to give it to us.

15:19 I don't know where it's going to happen. It's expensive All the logical reasons why there is no way that we can get to that place. Guess what guys. We live there right now. 11545 is my zip code. You walk into what you pray into. You walk into what you pray into. I'm just building some faith in this room. Guys, you pray, you ask, you knock, you seek. The scripture says ask and you keep on asking, seek and you keep on seeking, knock and you keep on knocking and it will. No, it shall be, it will be open. So I want to impart this to you because I live this.

16:00 The other day, the last 10 days, there were some friends of mine who was hanging out with me. They don't probably believe in the same things that I believe. So it's like you know, I'm praying, we're praying around Berkeley, we're standing on the balcony, we stand in every high place, we're walking around the place, we're going. You know every place so we could find ourselves and we said God, give us Berkeley in Jesus' name. So then the other day they asked me so are you praying in an Indian language, or are you praying? And what are you praying? I'm like, brother, this is my moment. I know this is a church that believes in this stuff. I'm praying in tongues, brother, because the Bible says, when you speak in tongues, you speak not unto man, but you speak unto God. So are you ready, people? Are you ready for the formula for the breakthrough?

16:40 Let's go to the book of Nehemiah, the book of Nehemiah. If you are pregnant and you found out that it's going to be a boy and looking for a name, nehemiah is a great name. Nehemiah means God comforts. You can call him at home Nemo and of course, we've watched plenty of Finding Nemo in our home. That is almost like, yeah, you know what I'm trying to say. All right, all right, all right. So here is the breakthrough. Let me just get to the I'm getting. This is a spoiler. Nehemiah is praying and he found out the information that the walls of Jerusalem are broken, right, and everything is in a mess, and he has a mandate now to see these walls being broken.

17:33 The spoiler is that in. He built the walls in 52 days never done before, never done before. So the breakthrough was that he was able to build the walls of Jerusalem in 52 days. How did he get to that breakthrough is what we're gonna figure out. Are you ready, pastor James? Let's go All right. Number one, nehemiah hears about what's happening and they said to me that remnant was number three. They said to me the remnant there in the province, having survived exile, is in great trouble and shame. I think these days we just need to wake up and open up our eyes and see what is happening around us. I could be in Berkeley looking for the coolest hey, what are the five things that we saved man?

18:19 What's the coolest eating joints out here? Tell me the Korean barbecue. Tell me the hottest spot. And, as an Indian, I'm looking for what's the best Indian spot here in Berkeley. These are four or five questions that we wanna ask people, because eating is very important for us. But instead of asking them for the five things that make me happy, I just ask you what are the big crisis on this campus? Because I know that every crisis is an opportunity. Winston Churchill I don't like everything about him and I like his quote, this quote that says do not waste a good crisis. So every time there is a crisis, god's about to show up, right? So we just ask around what's happening?

19:00 So mental health is off the roof. There's crime on campus, there's anti, there's rallies from pro-Israel, pro-palestine. You talk about everything that's happened. I mean, I've never seen a campus with so much activity going on. You got the LGBTQ rights, you have everybody doing something out there, but you're not just looking at it and just walking away just like Nehemiah. As soon as I heard those words verse number four I sat down and wept and mourned for days and I continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven. You know that I like to fast. America loves fasting. The intermittent fast, the coolest thing, the fat fast, I mean, the sugar fast, I mean every year you come up with the coolest thing.

19:44 Last year it was sugar. This year it's about oil. Next year it's going to be about something. Everybody's on some sort of fast to make you look good, but I'm talking about fasting that kills the flesh and makes your spirit alive. Some challenging people in this room guys, it's time to fast. I think I say that all the time when I come here. Fasting is good, fasting is good. Now they have All right. He fast and prays and mourns for days and continued fasting and praying before the God of heaven and I said oh Lord, god of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments. Verse number six let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayers of your servant.

20:27 I now pray before your day and night. Number one way to see that breakthrough and increase your change, the climate of your prayer life. Number one you pray fervently. Say that with me, pray fervently. You know I was in the labor room with my wife for all three of her boys. Oh, my God, that's one of the reasons why we moved out of the apartment. They were kicking those walls. The walls were about to break. Nehemiah is building up the wall. I had to like pay the management because they were like super active in my New York apartment. So guess what? I was in the labor room with my wife and it's not a jazz concert in the labor room. It's not Kennedy playing saxophone.

21:09 It's not Eric Clapton playing Right, yeah, it's not Beethoven. It is like a metal concert there. It's bloody, nurses up and down and all I can hear the doctors screaming and my wife is push, push, push and finally that big push and the beautiful baby comes out. Somebody once gave me this wristband to wear and it said push, pray until something happens. Many of our prayers have been one minute prayers.

21:51 Many of our prayers have been good night prayers. Many of our prayers have been one week prayers. Many of our prayers have been one month prayers. Guess what happened? We live in 114 for 545, to a point that my wife is like what are we doing here? We've done praying, we've done going. I mean one day let me just tell you the last piece of this journey One day, for two hours I could not see a breakthrough, not an open door, not a. I mean I was like God, god, give me a sign. That day morning, for two hours I was driving around this place Jericho, glenhead, brookwell, upper Brookwell, mottentown going around in circles for almost two hours plus, god, give me a breakthrough.

22:39 And then the breakthrough happened. You're throwing in the towel too early on your prayers, you're stopping before, just before the breakthrough. I'm telling you, guys, you gotta pray fervently, you gotta pray until something happens. Guess what? Nehemiah got the walls built in 52 days Cool. Everybody around me Tell me the. It'll be the greatest startup story in the world. Tell me the mantras. Tell me the things that you did. Tell me the VCs that you got. Tell me the the advices that you had. His advice was from the Holy Spirit and guess what? He prayed for four months.

23:21 He prayed and fasted for four months before he actually showed up in front of the King. We're praying for one day and they're showing up in front of our decision maker. Give me something. He doesn't even like you now Because you haven't prayed enough, you haven't made your investment enough. So I'm challenging people in this room City light. If you wanna see that classic breakthrough, if you wanna see your prayers being answered, you gotta pray what? Pray, fervently, pray until something happens. Push in prayer, traveil in prayer, persevere in prayer. Keep praying and keep praying and keep praying till the breakthrough happens.

24:03 Is God speaking to somebody in the room? Number two, verse number seven? We have acted very corruptly against you and have not kept the commands and the statutes and the rules as you've commanded your servant Moses. Right? What is he saying? He's making some honest prayers. I'm telling you something it's time to repent. It's time to say that, god, I tried with all my might, I tried with all my power, with all the people that I know, with all the influence that I know, and it hasn't worked. So it's time to get on the floor, face down and say God, I am sorry, I repent, I've done it my way.

24:51 Now I wanna do it your way, and this is not just for you. These prayers are not just for you and your family. Most of our prayers are about my credit card bills, my food, my clothing, my favorite parking. When you walk up into Macy's, lord, give me a good parking, get me the discount coupon. These are the levels of our prayers. I'm talking about prayers that shake nations. The Queen of England said I fear the prayers of John Knox than all of the armies of England. Your prayers matters. Now listen why your prayers matters.

25:31 I love this Saint Augustine's quote. He said let me get that right before I don't wanna mess it up. He said without God, man cannot, and without man, god will not. Can I say that again Without God, man cannot, and without man, god will not. God wanted to save mankind. Who did he use? He used Moses and asked him to make not Moses, sorry Noah and asked him to make a, an ark. An ark. People have never seen an ark in their entire life, not like you.

26:13 Know what are you trying to build, brother? God always uses a man and he wants to use you. And if he wants to use you, you need to understand why he wants to use you. You know why I have authority in prayer. My authority is connected to my identity. If a guy just walks up and tells me, tell me your name, show me your ID, I'm like who are you? How dare you ask me for the ID? But he would go back to his car, change his uniform and comes in as NYPD guy and shows his ID and says NYPD, show me your ID. Now do I show my ID? My Indian me was sort of tremble.

26:54 I'm still working on my green car right now. I don't want anything to mess around. So here you go. This is my ID. You need my bank statement, my credit card statement. You know where I. You know you're ready to go. Authority comes from your identity. How do you have authority in prayer? It is locked in your identity. Who are you? You are the son and the daughter of the most high God. You need to know who you are and who's you are. And when you begin to pray, boom, there is prayer, there is power in prayer. Somebody said a prayer lesson Christian is a powerless Christian.

27:35 If you don't pray, you don't have power. Even the devil's like, oh that guy don't even worry about it, he's fine, let's go for somebody else. Even the devil's not scared of you. Because you don't pray, you don't read the Word, you don't walk with Jesus. You just have the Christian tag on and you show up in church for two hours and then go to lunch and have some fun and then go back to your normal life. God is not calling you to the cruise line Christianity. He's not calling you to sign up into the cruise ship. He's asked you to get on the warship. It is a recruitment process. You know why I get on the road and pray? Because the Bible says we don't fight against flesh and blood, we fight against principalities and force of darkness.

28:20 When you walk into a house, your wife doesn't want to talk to you. There's stuff going on. Your boss is screaming at you. Guess what's happening. It's a freaking devil praying at the background. You need to know that you are not fighting against that boss, your husband, your wife, your kid. You're fighting against the spirit of confusion, of manipulation that is working in the background against you. So you put that devil where it belongs and you walk in authority because of her identity as a son of God. That is why he said without God, man cannot and without man, god will not. So, number one you pray fervently. Number two you pray honestly, say God, I'm standing on behalf of the sins of my people.

29:04 I'm standing on behalf of my husband that doesn't believe in you. I'm standing on behalf of my son, who doesn't believe in you. I'm standing on behalf of my boss, who doesn't believe in you. I'm standing on behalf of all my friends and employees at my workplace on behalf of you. You know why? Because Nehemiah was not a pastor, he was a marketplace guy. He probably working in Citigroup, which he was here, probably in Wall Street, right. Nehemiah was a marketplace guy. Many times we want to delegate prayer to the pastors. You know what? Because we pay them to pray Too bad. You're missing out.

29:44 You will never graduate, you will never upgrade your Christian life by delegating things to other people. Start owning up your mess, start owning up your breakthrough and say if I don't pray, nothing's going to happen. Number one pray fervently. Number two you pray honestly. Say God. I can't do it, if I may use these crude words. I say, lord, I have screwed up, I have messed up, let me. I am repenting, changing the way that I think, changing the way that I operate. I want to take a U-turn and walk in the ways. Now I'm praying some honest prayers. Hey guys, listen, you cannot hide anything from God.

30:27 Did you know that? Many times you feel like, no, he can't see it. Not that stuff. Not that stuff that I watched last night, not the website that I went to last night, not the conversation that I had in my chat right now, not the calls that I met last week. You feel like you don't know that he can't see everything and you still just try running your life the way you want it. It's time to be honest and blatant and be humble and repent and put your face down and say God. I want to make some prayers that are honest. Say God, without you I cannot do it. I need your grace. Verse number eight and nine. Remember the word that you commanded your servant Moses saying if you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the people, but if you return to me and keep my commands and do them, though your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven.

31:20 From there, I will gather them and bring them to the place that I have chosen to make my name dwell there. When I wake up in the morning, I have two things that I can do. If I'm hungry, I can do two things. The first thing I can do is find two slices of bread, throw it in that toaster and then try to put some sort of what is that Spread? That's right, thank you for helping me. Put some sort of spread on those light spread on those toasts and grab a coffee, whatever the coffee is like. And you just keep going.

32:01 But if you are like me, I love a great breakfast, so I stop down, I toast some bread, then I look for some bacon Hallelujah, fry some bacon right now. Then I'm looking up, trying to make cook some eggs right now, and then I'm looking for some ham. Pulling that ham out, slicing it, making it symmetrical to the sides, because I don't want anything outside, right, pastor James, all the OCD people, nothing outside, clean and nice, straight cut it into pieces and load up that sandwich and what I call is a club sandwich in the morning.

32:43 If you have a club sandwich, bro, you don't have to have lunch till 2 o'clock. That's a packed-out breakfast, that's like a brunch, that's like you got bacon, you got ham, you got eggs, you got lettuce, you got veggies, you got everything, I mean. And to be more healthy, some more avocados. How about that? How about that? Right, we need that, we need that. And then some avocados and you put that all into this crazy club sandwich. And I know everybody's hungry. We all are going to have lunch today, okay, but guess what? Our prayers are often like the first type of prayer that I made. It's like two slices of those dried toasts with some sort of spread and off you go and guess, you're not having any breakthroughs.

33:34 You are hungry. By the time you get in the car, by the time you reach your office, you're like, oh, I need a bagel right now. But it's time for you to load up your prayers with scriptures and make it a club sandwich prayer. Load up the promises. That's what Nehemiah is doing. What is Nehemiah doing God? If God is bound by anything, he's bound by His own word, right? So he's reminding God, which is what you do. When you hire a lawyer, you don't know the law. So you hire a lawyer to plead your case in the court of law. Your Highness, it is written in your honor, it is written in this book and because it's in this, rule number one, two, three, four, whatever the number is, it has to be.

34:20 So the judge has to look into what is written and he cannot go beyond or backwards to what's already written in the rule book. So you've got to get your door. I mean, you've got to get your God excited about the prayers that you're making. You're loading it up with prayers. You're praying for your husband to get saved. You say, god, me and my household, we will serve the Lord. You said that Lord, me and my household will save the Lord. Number two you said, god, that none should perish but all should come to the saving knowledge of Jesus, every scripture about salvation. You're going to put that into that club sandwich prayer in the morning. If you pray for financial breakthrough, you said God, you are my provider, you will provide for me according to not my Bank of America balance, but according to the Bank of America, not Bank of Heaven, you're telling God.

35:11 If you pray in God, asking God for healing. You're telling God. God guess what your name? One of your names is Jehovah Rapha. By the stripes of Jesus, I was already healed. So you load up your prayers with what? Club sandwich prayers, and that's what I call biblical prayers. Number one you pray fervently. Number two you pray honestly. Number three you pray biblically, pray things that are already God's like. Who is this Indian guy getting up in the morning and quoting my word? I better pay attention to that guy rather than telling him oh God, you know I'm not in a good mood today.

35:53 You know you help me. You know the usual Starbucks prayers. We're not talking about that. We're talking about club sandwich prayers. Can we load up our prayers in the morning with the scripture and tell God what is written in the word? Remind him and tell him that, lord, if you said we will come back and return and repent, you said you will send me a breakthrough. You said, lord, if you was written in the word that you will heal me, you was written in the word that you will cancel my debt. If it is written in your word that you will heal me, god is going to pay attention to those prayers. Do I have a witness here. Say it. Number four, verse number 11. Oh Lord, let your ear be attended to the prayer of your servant and the prayer of your servants who delight to fear your name, and give success to your servant today and grant him mercy in the sight of this man.

36:43 Now, I was the cup bearer to the king. He's just about to show up. Now listen, boys, if you've been thinking about buying a car, you probably have all the men in the room you've been Googling for the last 20 years about the car that you're going to buy. You've been Googling the size of the rims, the tires, the engine size and the muffler, the tuning that, the car seats. It's got to be leather, it's got to smell. You've already been smelling it while sleeping in the night. I can smell the leather. You are so specific about the car that you want you don't walk up in your car showroom saying, hey, I need a car. I'm like what car do you want? No, they're going to ask, you already got it mapped up.

37:27 Some folks here need a mini van, right, thank God for mini vans. I hated the look of those mini vans, so bulky. I'm like God, I don't have an option. And then the Lord created this marvel called the Kia Carnival. Kia should be paying me for this. It looks like a mini van, but it functions like a mini van. It looks like an SUV. I feel like the man again. What am I trying to say? You make so vague prayers that God even doesn't understand what you're trying to pray.

38:08 You're specific about your car. You're specific about your computer. You're specific about everything else, but when it comes to praying, your prayers are so wide and vague and nothing to specify. Let me tell you something. Nehemiah had a specific prayer. He prayed for four months. He prayed fervently, he prayed honestly, he prayed biblically. He knew that he needed timber, he knew that he needed approval, he needed people. He had it all specified and prayed in to so that when he showed up in front of the King and the King asked what do you want? Wait a minute, let me just pull out from my iPhone. Here are the 10 things that I want. It's already on my notes because I've been praying for that for the last four months and that four months of prayer got him to get the 52 days of breakthrough.

38:55 You want the 52 day breakthrough and you make that one minute prayer too bad. Backtracking a little bit. Number one you got to pray fervently. You got to pray until something happens, like my wife in the labor room pushing until something happens to get that baby out, like me praying over 11545 for the last one year. That my wife and my kids were like crazy, like what are you trying to do? Now we don't say that again because they live in that house. What is your zip code? 11545, right, you walk into what you're praying to. Number two you pray honestly. Oh my God, I give up, I repent, I've done it my way, but if you repent you will turn away from your wicked ways.

39:40 Then I will heal the land. Number three you pray biblical prayers at Club Sandwich. Don't forget that Club Sandwich. Every time you get up in the morning and think about that slice, that dry toast, you said the devil isn't this toast. I need to get my Club Sandwich prayer. I'm going to load it with bacon and avocados and ham and eggs and cheese. And I forgot the cheese, pepper jack cheese only. Guys, I'm trying to be American. Now, right, I was like we just had one cheese, one lab of cheese Before we got here. Like 10 types of cheese, seriously, like 100 cereals in it.

40:23 What is this. Alright, you're spoiled. Number four pray specifically, write it down for all the single people in the room I heard New York is the largest single population in all of America, I wouldn't say the world. I had friends of mine, a friend of mine who used to fast every Wednesday for his wife. Fast and pray so specifically right now. This is what I want my wife, this is what I want my wife Praying specifically. Last time I visited him he's in Coate law and, behold, he's married to exactly what he prayed into. So you walk into what you're praying to.

41:04 You pray into that. You pray into your breakthrough. You make prayer, specific prayers. Now let me just jump into some of the New Testament stuff. You know we are people. The Bible says what happened in the upper room, acts 2. How we doing in time, pat Good, he's giving me a thumbs up. So, alright, we good, alright. So this is what happened in the upper room Fireguard fell right, everybody started to speak in tongues. And let me just get the scripture right so that I get it right. When you pray in tongues, god's given us the gift of speaking in tongues. Paul says I pray in the spirit, I pray in the understanding, I pray in tongues more than I pray in the understanding he talks about it.

41:49 It's a life set. It's a gift. I'm not imposing it on anybody, but if you want it, I can earn it. It's a gift, but I can ask for it, I can desire for it and he will give it to you. So I have the gift of speaking in tongues, like most of the people in the room. So here I am on a five-city prayer tour because I told you, this is my life, right, I want to see a breakthrough in the Middle East. Don't have the money, don't have the people. But I knew I had connections and I said can I come into your country to pray? And they're like, what about preaching? And I said we're not on the preaching tour, we're on the praying tour. So five nations in five days land into the place, find a car, depending on the faith of the people in the room. They're like sometimes they had a minivan. They're like a, like a, like a sprinter kind of thing.

42:31 Sometimes they have cars. So we're praying in different places Dubai, qatar, bahrain and we're in Oman and we're praying in front of this grand mosque and I've lost. They gave me some understanding prayer, so I prayed. I've run out of words. You know, the thing about praying in the understanding is you run out of words and you get so bored. I'm like I ran out of words praying for America. Five minutes of praying. I'm like what else I don't know. But when I'm praying in the spirit, I can be praying for an hour, two hours, because I am not tired. Praying in the spirit, because when I'm praying in the spirit, I have a direct link to heaven. It's a decoded language, hallelujah. Not even the devil can understand what you are praying. It's like what is going on here.

43:14 It's encrypted, it has got the highest level of security and you're praying in the spirit. So here I am, in the car in front of the grand mosque and that is where all the major decisions are made in some of these Muslim countries and we're praying in the spirit. I'm praying in spirit, I'm praying in tongues and suddenly the guy at the back just taps me Pastor Barney, pastor Barney, I think I was a pastor then. Oh, no, pastor Barney, just check in. Hey, what's up, pastor, do you speak in Arabic? I'm like I don't speak in Arabic. But he said no, you are fluently speaking in Arabic right now, and the prayers that I was praying was way beyond my paycheck.

43:55 In a sense, I have no idea the kind of things he was telling me. What I was praying, it was way, way, way, way, way, way up high level of prayer when I was praying in the spirit. So the highest level you're talking about praying fervently, talking about praying honestly, biblically. Specifically, the last one, the upgraded version, the encrypted version is praying spirit-led prayers. When you pray in the spirit, this is what happens 1 Corinthians, chapter 14, verses 2. I'm switching to the King James here. That's how you get something across, for he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men but unto God.

44:42 So when you're praying in tongues, you're not speaking to people, you are speaking to God. That is the greatest level of prayer. So here I am praying in Berkeley. Here I'm praying in Stanford. Here I'm praying in Columbia. Here I'm playing in different parts of the world. I don't know a lot about it. I know some things about the city, I'm praying into it, but the 80% of my prayers, apart from being all of the four things that we talked about, I am praying in the spirit and I'm challenging people in this room to start praying and operating in the spirit and praying in the first Corinthians, 14 and verse 4. He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifies himself. Every time I pray in tongues, I just feel like you don't know.

45:26 It's like I've had a couple of those energy drinks. What's Red Bull? You can fly. What is this tagline Gets you wings to fly? Brother, I don't have wings. I'm on a rocket right now. Every time I pray in the spirit, I'm praying in tongues, I feel like come on, give me something, let me pray for something. I'm like I'm praying for somebody. I'm going to this prayer meeting and somebody's driving me to the meeting. I'm like I have to use this power. With great power comes great Responsibility. I'm asking that lady hey, what can I use this power to pray for? What do you want me to pray? I believe about God, jesus.

46:06 What? How can I exercise this wings power that I prayed in the tongues? In the morning? I am feeling charged up, fired up. I want to be used it for something, as I'm boom. Why do miracles happen? Because you're charged up, fired up, prayed up, and then you're ready to go. How can you get a 52-day miracle, supernatural miracle that nobody has ever seen before Building walls of Jerusalem or a whole city in 52 days. Never heard before Before you did. The 52-day miracle, the four months of praying.

46:46 Praying number one fervently oh, you're looking at me like Fervently, come on, pastor James. Number two, brother Honestly. Number three, biblically don't forget the club sandwich. Number four you're making specific prayers. Think about the boys in the room getting those rims and praying into that car, you know back in the day. And number five, one praying spirit-led prayers, I'm telling you your breakthrough is on the way. All of heaven is going to be like low. Who is that Indian boy there? Let me, let me, angels of God, send a hundred one to that boy there.

47:28 Give him breakthrough. Give him breakthrough in Berkeley. They haven't seen an event of this size in a long time, when average prayer meetings are 10 and 20 people in a room. We had 478 people in a room and now we're saying we're going to take Berkeley and then we're going to go to Stanford. Why? Because our heart is now filled with faith. When I begin to pray Bible scripture-based prayers, the Bible says you know, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God. Shake somebody next to you. Nobody's sleeping on me today, but this, this, this morning, is a land of sermon. I want to pray for an impartation because this service, we have time to do that. If you want to see an upgrade in your prayer life, if you want to see that 52-day miracle happening and I want to see an upgradation, that prayer climate of my life I want to change the way that I pray.

48:19 Now that I have I have the mantras, now I have the five step rule to pray better, I can not pray wide, fervently, I can not pray honestly and biblically and specifically and spirit-led prayers. My breakthroughs on the way. Look at somebody say my breakthroughs on the way. Watch out when you begin to pray like this two weeks from now. I mean I'm talking now about going to Stanford, but the next time here I'll be saying we just came from Stanford, a thousand people show up, 500 people came in on the Lord, you walk into what you pray into. So everybody, the worship team up here, we're going to be praying and I want to make a call right now, if you want to receive an impartation of this new dimension of prayer and impartation, and say God, I have got the steps right now, but I need an impartation, the laying on of hands, and I want to see something happen like this in my life, not just for me.

49:20 Hey guys, this prayer is not just for you and your car parking. I'm talking about for you and your family, your neighborhood, your kids, your colleagues, your boss, your neighbor I mean whoever is next to you is not for you. The anointing on your life is not for you, it is for others. So this prayer download is not for you and for your Macy's coupon. I'm talking about a breakthrough that has got the capacity to change the life of a city, of a neighborhood, and look at these empty chairs and say Father, in the name of Jesus, I'm going to be responsible, I'm praying people in, I'm working people in, I'm going to share people the message of the gospel.

50:01 I'm going to invite people in. The life's going to be different, everybody standing up right now, and I'm going to open up this altar right now. If you need a breakthrough, if you need an impartation of this dimension of prayer, like Nehemiah, like this accelerated breakthrough of 52 days of seeing the walls of Jerusalem build, come forward. This is the City Light Church podcast. If you've missed any part of today's message or if you would like to find out more about Pastor Boyan Jansik and City Light Church, visit us at CityLightNYCcom. That's CityLightNYCcom.

50:43 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 City Light Church podcast wherever you find your favorite podcasts worldwide.