Episode Transcript
Speaker 1 00:00:05 Hello, rediscover church. Morning, morning, morning, morning, morning. Hope you're doing well and um, it's great to be with you all today. Uh, how many of you were here for the weekend? Oh yeah. So it was an incredible time, wasn't it? So we're gonna be carrying on, uh, with what we've been talking about this morning as well. I wanna thank Mark and Nita for having me having a Rome SAE as well. It's been incredible. He's gonna be speaking in the second service and so I'm looking forward to that too. Uh, we have been on a journey. I know as a church you've been on a journey with prayer, and this morning I want to just maybe help give some pictorial, you know, addition to what God's doing to help you, to help, uh, to steward more the culture of prayer that the Lord is wanting to build and intensify in this place.
Speaker 1 00:00:55 Let's just go into a short time of prayer. Father, thank you so much for what you're doing in, in this church, in this local assembly. I thank you for everyone assembled here. Those no hair, those online, I thank you for what you're doing in us. Thank you for what you're gonna be doing through us more. Uh, father, as we go into your word, would you give us, uh, insight revelation that also breeds and leads to transformation? Lord, ask that there will be a, a shift in our perspectives. Ask that there will be an impartation of the spirit of grace and supplication, that there'll be an awakening to a whole new level. I thank you for the grounds that have been gained so far, but Father, we know there is more. There is more, there's more ground to be gained, father, in this region for your kingdom.
Speaker 1 00:01:40 So we say amen to them. Amen. Amen. As a church, you are called to not just be a local church. And I know this from things Pastor Marcus said to me that there's a regional call in on you as a church. And so that's not something that's just meant to be carried by the leadership. The entire congregation has to see. You have to see yourselves. There's one that your're called to impact this region. You know, one of the, uh, scriptures that comes to mind when I even think about that just now is, you know, Jacob's Ladder. And I believe I've ton this here before, where, you know, uh, Jacob had this dream and the ladder was set up on earth and its top reach to heaven and angels were, are descending and descending. And sometimes when I think about that, I actually like to think about it in the context of where I live, my region, that if God is wanting to send angels an assignment to that region, he has a spot that's like the hotspot where they have to touch base first before they're dispersed into the region.
Speaker 1 00:02:40 And I'm like, well, wouldn't it be awesome for a rediscovered church to be like a hotspot for angelic activity where God wants to do things in the southwest or in this whole region of Exeter? And because of how hot things are here in prayer, they have to first land here first and then they're dispersed to their various, uh, assignments. Are you with me? Anyway, that's the way my mind thinks. So we need to, we need to open up the prayer shaft. We need to create a highway for heaven to be able to easily access and release what heaven wants to release in the earth as we begin to give ourselves, uh, in consecration, in devotion and in prayer. So today we're gonna be looking at, uh, Ephesians two, Ephesians two one. And um, I wanna warn you before we go any deeper in this, because abouts are get intense <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:03:30 I don't think it's how, I don't think there are times where it's not intense with me. Anyway, <laugh>. So it's a, you're gonna hear things you've probably never heard before that's completely out of your, uh, your realm of kind of just life. And I'm not saying it to just have a shock factor. I wanna expose you to reality that many of us in the West are totally blind to you. I'm gonna be sharing a really, really, uh, impacting story of a guy I know. But before we go into that, um, let's just read this passage. Ephesians two, one, it says, and you, he made alive, you were dead in trespasses and saints. So let's just pause there. Paul is talking to the church, church. He says, the Lord has made you alive, but before he made you alive, you were dead. You have to understand that you were dead.
Speaker 1 00:04:32 Like you may not been physically dead, but you were spiritually dead. There was, when someone is dead, there's, there's no reaction, there's, there's no response, there's nothing going on there. It's just complete disconnectedness from the reality of life. So when you are dead, there's nothing you can do to make yourself alive as a dead person, right? So he made you alive. So you remember Jesus died, right? And he was in the grave. According to Romans eight 11, the Bible says the very spirit that raised Christ from the dead. So Christ Jesus was dead. His physical body, by the way, Jesus has a physical body. In case he didn't realize that. And that body is still existing right now, is a physical body that walked this earth. That body's in heaven right now. So now that body can exist in two dimensions or maybe more dimensions, I don't know.
Speaker 1 00:05:29 But the body's in heaven and the body can exist on the earth. And if it were to appear right now physically, you'll see the nail prints in his hand. And that body, even though it was resurrected, he was able to eat. He was able to eat fish when he was resurrected at food. Maybe that's, I believe that's a picture of what's gonna happen when we receive our resurrected bodies. That is gonna be abilities that we're gonna be receiving. That's a picture of what happened with Jesus in his resurrected. But are you with me? Yes. So when Jesus was dead, what raised him up from the dead was not something in the flesh,
Speaker 1 00:06:07 Okay? There was a power that caused his dead body to come back to life. That power was not in the realm of the physical, as in yes it was, but that power resides in the spiritual realm. So what powered up his dead body was from the spirit. And the power was so strong that even though it was from the spirit, he had an impact in the physical. Are are you tracking with me? That's one of the ways we understand that spiritual realities can supersede physical things, things in the spirit realm can actually cause us to override the laws of physics. How do you think Jesus was able to walk on water? Because that doesn't make sense and that's not normal. He was defined the law of gravity. Gravity because he was operating from the spirit. So there are things in the spirit that makes it possible for you and I to override the natural laws. Amen? Are you tracking with me? Because he sent you, you are dead. So when you are dead, you can't do anything about being dead, you're just dead. Boy, he came, died on the cross. You know the story of the gospel, right? Died on the cross, was resurrected first born from the dead. And that's an example of what he's doing in us. So because you were dead, he now came and made you alive. But do you know the scary part of this? It says the very spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in you
Speaker 1 00:07:41 That should challenge you. Cause if the potential of that spirit is to raise a dead buddy, come on. And that spirit is in you and your life is dead right now. Even though you have Jesus and your life is boring and disconnected and you're not seeing a power of God in your life, you should ask yourself, how can that spirit be in me? And somehow my life is not reflecting that power. I I am I making sense to you this morning? I told you you'll get intense. So
Speaker 1 00:08:12 How could that power be in you and your life is not reflective of a believer that's carrying the power of the Holy Spirit, being able to see the move of the spirit. I often say God is not boring. He cannot be boring. Now that's not to say there are times I don't find prayer boring. And I know many of you find prayer, boring fact, many of you, that's why you don't pray cuz say, oh this is boring. God is not boring. You are the one that's boring. Think about it. I don't, I'm not trying to be re when you break it down, you understand the God who created the universe, the God who look at the beans around is throne read revelations. You know, they have all eyes all around and within. I don't even know where the idea to create such a creature came from.
Speaker 1 00:08:57 How come that God be boring if your Christianity is boring is a, is a, is a sign that you've subscribed to a fake version of Christianity. The real gospel is not boring. Now, when we find things like prayer boring, it's not because God's born. It's because we are still living in the reality of the flesh realm and have pushed past the distractions of the flesh and the flesh wars against the spirit. The spirit was against the flesh. So when you st live in that realm of the flesh, so much spiritual things become boring to you. You know, my son, you know, is nine year old, eight year old, loves playing games and all these things. And recently we've banned him on playing video games. Amen. Someone <laugh>.
Speaker 1 00:09:43 The reason is we noticed that the more we play video games, the worse his behavior got. And so we, we and, and so sometimes my wife and I having discussions in the home and about spiritual things and I have no idea he is listening to us. Well, you know they're listening but you don't realize how much they're actually understanding from what they're listening. And then one day, uh, which is, it's just a random day, we decided to do this livestream together myself and justice. And then he came out with this revelation that I didn't even know he understood. And I was blown away because he articulated it in a profound way. Eight, this is what he said, he says, if you are entertained in the flesh, you'll be bored in the spirit <laugh> eight years old. He says, if you are entertained in the spirit, you'll find things of the flesh less interesting. Come on.
Speaker 1 00:10:34 So after he said that and he got home and he wanted to play his video games, I I'll send him Justice, you are being entertaining a flesh right now. <laugh>, what do you think the consequence of that will be? When we're about to pray? I can see you are not really wanting to be engaged because you've been, are you with me? So the more you feed your flesh, the more things of the spur become boring. But the very power, the raise Christ from the dead dwells in you. So you should be like, God, if that power is dwelling in me, why am I not seeing its fruits? Good question. The bridge between the power and this reality is the breach of prayer. It's already there. Boy, still dormant. So Paul is saying to the church, you, he made alive, you were dead in your trespasses. And then verse two, so I'm paraphrasing as well as I read this, says, while you were dead in your trespass, you by the way I'm reading from the new King James, while you were dead in your trespasses, you walked according to the course of this world.
Speaker 1 00:11:51 So because you are are dead in your trespasses, you are dead in saying you have no connection to God without you realizing it. By default, your life comes under a certain course. It's like a programming. I don't understand computer programming. But this reminds me of the, of computer programming in that you just have to write the program and he enter and the program runs. So there is a program in the enemy has set and is known as the course of this world. Are you tracking with me? Yes. The course of this world, however, okay, it's influenced according to the prince and the power of the air. Are you reading this with me? Is this on the screen? No it's not. Okay. Okay, well look in your Bible so you don't think I'm making it up. It says, according to the course of this world, which is according to the prince and the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience, by the way, the sons of disobedience are also those that are dead in their trespasses.
Speaker 1 00:12:57 So by by default, if you are dead in your trespasses, you live according to the course of this world. However, the course of this world is set by the prince and the power of the air, it didn't say the prince and the power of the trees. It didn't say the prints, the palms of the sea, the prince in the power of what of war. So it's pointing our attention to the airways. There are things in the airways that affect how we live on earth. There are things in the airways of Exeter that influence the lifestyles of people dead in trespasses. Are you with me? There are things in the airways that influence the way believers think and the way believers live in regions. I've been to regions where I've ministered and I can tell it's a stronghold of a religious spirit there that is existing in the atmosphere.
Speaker 1 00:13:50 And even though it's a demonic power, it is somehow God, its influence in the life of the believers. One of the ways you can discern a spirit that's at work in a particular area is to observe the lifestyles of the people in that region. Because the lifestyles of the people would often give expression to the prince and the power of the air. And in his manifestation in that region there might be that religious spirit. There might be a spirit of lost and immorality, there might be a drunkenness, there might be drug addiction, name it. There are all sorts of things that are dumb is out in the, in the air, but they find the expression through because spirit beams like to express themselves. Spirit beings are not just there just to, you know, you know, just to be in the vacuum, so to speak. They always look for humans to express their desires through. Are you with me?
Speaker 1 00:14:51 I have a friend in Uganda and uh, he's gonna come to the UK for the first time in June cuz we're inviting him. His testimony is one of, and I've had, I've heard many testimonies of people being delivered and you know, people who are involved in the occults being self free. His testimony is one of the most intense, even not the most intense I've ever heard. I'm not gonna go into the details, but just to give you a snippet, his mother was so, uh, desperate for a son. She went to different witch doctors cuz every time she had a baby was a girl. So she was so desperate for her son. She was going through all these rituals going to, to all these witch doctors and all everywhere she could find, but it was unsuccessful. And then someone introduced it to someone somewhere. Anyway, long story short, she went through all these rituals and she ended up having a boy that was him. And so the agreement when he was is, are you ready for this
Speaker 2 00:15:51 <laugh>?
Speaker 1 00:15:54 By the way, I've made references to this guy in my book as well, just some parts of his testimony. The the agreement, the agreement when he was born was that the day he is born, he's meant to engage in a ritual ceremony, marrying him as a baby to like an 80 year old witch. Are you tracking with me? So the day he was born, his mother takes him into the forest and he's engaged in this ritual activity and he, he's married on the days born. It's weird, isn't it? Right? The reason I'm sharing that, I want you to understand the depth of, um, how, how deep he was in the accords from his birth. So by the time he was three, by the time he was four, he was already like a high ranking wallock. And listen, this may baffle your mind, but after he was born and his mom took him home, she couldn't breastfeed him for three months. You know why? Because there was a serpent that was around him for three months straight. I see I told you this was gonna stretch your mind. I warned you
Speaker 1 00:17:02 All his, all the mom's family thought, you know, she was crazy and she's got devil childhood. The left her on her own with this baby that had a serpent around him. No one understand what's going on. Anyway, he just started to grow very spiritual and highly intelligent in demonic activities. By the time is three, by the time is four. If I don't remember if I remember correctly, grown men leaders were coming to consult from him, uh, for demonic wisdom. But before he is a teenager, he said he is broken all the 10 commandments. But as a teenager fighter, if I remember correctly, he became a high ranking warlock in the whole region where he was feared by everyone. And he was walking in such, uh, demonic powers, you know, you know, he was interacting with demons and you know, he, he had killed many people with one look of his eyes. He could send demons to turn people mad and, you know, do the just one gaze. He, he, he was like, it was high ranking in the spirit. Now obviously he got saved. That's how we know this story. But you know how we got saved. Do you, so where I'm going with this is, do you know how we got, well you wonder know how we got saved? Well, let me tell you how we got saved. This is how it connects to rediscover church.
Speaker 1 00:18:19 When he was old, I think I, I dunno if he was in the earlys twenties, he was like very much respected and just highly feared he was summoned or he was summoned somewhere to, in Europe, I believe, to an international gathering of warlocks and witches. And they were at this meeting discussing the destiny of nations. And so they were talking about different parts of the world and some of the threats that they were facing. This is just before 2000, the year 2000, all the threats. And they're talking about some of their plans to, you know, take charge of these regions and these nations. They were discussing all the moves of God and things and how they were gonna, you know, stop them. Now they started discussing his region, Uganda. And in the international gathering of warlocks and witches, these witches were talking about his country. And they were all really scared about one church in the Hall of Uganda. As in they were like, they've, they'd sent people to destroy the church. Either the people died or they became Christians. So it's like they, they knew that they had to do everything they could to destroy this one church. Do you know how many people were in the church? 21 people.
Speaker 1 00:19:32 Do you know it was one pastor, a man and 20 women.
Speaker 1 00:19:37 Now the question we need to ask ourselves, how come one church is causing such an uproar in the spirit that international gathering of warlocks are talking about the destiny of a nation and all they're concerned about is we need to destroy that church. Do you know what the church was doing? The pastor taught the church something. He called it coven and praying. Everyone say covenant and praying. Covenant say covenant and praying covenant. And what he said to the churches, we're gonna change Uganda. He said to you, church, we are gonna impact this nation for God. And so he says, this is what we're gonna do. We're gonna go on a 90 day stretch of prayer and we're gonna pray from the hours of 3:00 PM to 9:00 PM and we're gonna pray prayers of warfare, prayers of worship, and prayers of repentance. And he said, we are gonna start as soon as we all agree on the terms. And these are the terms. If we are on day 40 and any of you come late to the prayer meeting, we're gonna reset to day one. If you are sick and you can't come to the prayer meeting and we are not 21 when we gather, it doesn't matter if we're on a 60, we're gonna reset to day one. Now you gotta understand the culture. Ugandans don't keep time.
Speaker 1 00:21:10 Well the Ugandans, I know time is an issue. You've heard the whole saying of African time and all that, right? Well, not all Africans are like that, but some have a greater tendency to not keep time. And for Ugandans, in my experience, it's been one of those things. So to say to them that if you come late, are you hearing me to say if you come late to the prayer meeting, it doesn't matter if we're on day 40, we're gonna reset. Now, do you understand how intense that is? So he said to the women, these are the terms for the next 90 days. Who wants to be in this? And they said, we are in day one. They started day two. They, and so they kept pushing in. They kept now the craziness, their church was not increasing in number, but they were having such an impact in the spirit realm that the prayer that they generated this guy was a warlock. He was not Christian, but they were, they could feel the shock waves of that prayer meeting. And the, the, the, the the, the impact of that prayer meeting was reviving pastors in Brazil.
Speaker 1 00:22:24 The impact of that prayer meeting was reviving churches in the region but in even international impact. But the church had no idea. Are you with me? So they summoned this guy up to this meeting and said, your assignment is to destroy this church. Because if they hit, if they hit day 90, now I've got the numbers wrong. It's been a while I've heard the Claire testimony again. I'm excited that we're gonna have him in the UK cuz I, I wanna capture this te cuz people need to hear this, especially western people that think these things aren't real. So they worked out these warlocks and you know, people in Leo cult, they worked out that if this church were to hit day 90, they were gonna secure a move of God for like, I think it was like 10 years.
Speaker 2 00:23:16 Wow.
Speaker 1 00:23:17 Are you with me? Like they were gonna blockade the spirit realm and, and they were gonna secure something that would be impossible to stop for a block of time. So they knew they had to stop this church before they hit 90. And so they sent this guy to go and destroy the church and sadly he succeeded.
Speaker 1 00:23:39 And it was actually through that whole process, I ended up getting saved. I'm not gonna go into the details cause that's not the essence of my teaching right now. The, the reason why I'm sharing that story with you is to give you a idea of what one church can do when we really begin to take prayer seriously and not just take it casually when it doesn't, when it shifts from a prayer meeting to a prayer culture and it becomes the very source of life. It becomes how we operate. Where whoever comes into this church has no choice but to be indoctrinated into the life of prayer. Like there is no option. And you see, when you begin a prayer as a church, it actually starts to bring a, a cation to groups of people. It your life of prayer sends some people away. They're not meant to be part of the army.
Speaker 1 00:24:36 Boy, your life of prayer draws in those who are called to be part of the army. Are you with me? So don't be discouraged if people are leaving. Remember Jesus went up the mountain and looked nine to pray. He took Peter, James and John with him. He went up the mountain to pray. And the purpose of taking them up the mountain was for them to pray. But when he got up the mountain, he was praying and they were sleeping. So the encounter was happening to him and not them, they went, they went up there to pray, but they were sleeping. So on the prayer mountain, you see a cation in two companies, those who are gonna press and to encounter and those who are gonna fall asleep in the place of prayer. When you begin to send the mountain, you begin to see a clarity.
Speaker 1 00:25:23 If I prayer brings clarity and exposure to where people are really at. So people that don't wanna be part of the church, God is building, oh, this prayer stuff is too much. Why are you guys always talking about prayer? Well, have you read how Jesus actually, uh, uh, uh, uh, led his ministry? There is, there's really no other way we in the west woman shot counts, won the great worship leaders and the great preachers. There are no shortcuts. Really. There are no. So if we are not gonna be indoctrinated into this life, we are actually into this life of prayer. We're actually kidding ourselves thinking there is another way to do ministry effectively. Have DE's revival those ladies, you know, the serve of the two ladies. What they did was a form of covenant prayer. If I remember correctly. They decided to pray through the night and they, and I think they did it twice a week in a certain pattern. And these are old ladies. One was blind, I believe one had arthritis. And they came into a covenant to pray until God came. Oh by the way, the day of Pentecost came as a result of covenant and praying. That's why we know the number of people. Hundred and 20. Exact it wasn't hundred 21, it wasn't hundred hundred 19 it was hundred because the hundred and 20 agreed to stay there until, do you know this church, when they started up to uh, uh, 90 day prayer, they did not allow anyone join them.
Speaker 1 00:26:50 Are you? You know, some people can join a prayer meeting and become the distraction to the meeting. Now I'm not saying you know, people shouldn't join your prayer meetings, but there's some prayer meetings that need to be closed
Speaker 1 00:27:01 Because in that prayer meeting, we know each other by the spirit. We can trust where each other is at. We've got in our consecration, and we know this can have a a, a quorum. You know, when you have a board of trustees, you need to have a quorum. You need to have a certain number of people on the board before you can make decisions that impact the destiny of the charity. So there's like a spiritual quorum where we can achieve that basis on not just the number but the depth of consecration of the individuals in the meeting. And when we reach that place in the spirit, as we begin to, our press begin to cause a shift in listen in the airways, Satan, we, we've just right hand Ephesians to is known as the prince and the power of the air, the prince and the power of the air. So one of the ways to understand how the enemy works is to actually have an idea of how the radio works.
Speaker 1 00:27:59 You know, a radio, a radio has a radio receiver in it. The radio receiver is able to pick up what already exists in the air, right? The airways frequencies are, are you guys alive? Are you with me? A radio receiver is able to pick up what already exists in the airways and then because of the electronics and mechanics or whatever is in the radio, it's able to take that, decode it and give expression to it. So if you had a radio in here, you could tune into water radio in the airways and then you can start to play, you know, radio stations, they're already here but you can hear them. But the radio receiver enables you to be able to express what's already there. Yes, your soul is like a radio receiver
Speaker 1 00:28:51 Whether you realize it or not. Everywhere you go you tune into what's in the air. That's why you can go to places and you can be like, goodness me, it's hard to pray here. Anyone experience that? Yeah. And then you can go to another place like, oh my goodness, it's so easy to pray here. And you might call that place a theme place. Why is it a theme place? It's because some people have been doing spiritual activity in that place for a long time. So they've taken charge of the airways. So it's easy for you to access the rem of the spirit in God. Are you with me? You not soul survivor, right? Probably run for like, I dunno, how many days in the week? How many days did he used to run for
Speaker 1 00:29:32 Five days a week? Some people will come to the first night, hardhearted not, not o open to the gospel, not wanting to receive anything that has been preached by the fourth and maybe the fifth night you find that their hard hearts are softened and all of a sudden they're open to the gospel. What do you think has happened? Because the church has been meeting for five days, they have influenced the airways. So the demonic powers holding that person captive from receiving the gospel is now weakened. Because when the soul of that individual tunes into the airways, guess what? It's picking up righteousness. Because the church has taken charge of the space. So now the demonic influence over his soul is weakened and now he's able to receive the gospel in South Korea during the revival in South Korea, it was said that the spiritual birth rate, the rate at which people were becoming Christians, the spiritual birth rate was four times the natural birth rate.
Speaker 1 00:30:37 Amen. And when you investigate why that was the case, you realize they had these places called the prayer mountains and there was ongoing prayer, there was ongoing investment in the spirit. And many of you, some of you may have seen Koreans pray the prayer with intensity. Listen, if the prayer is not moving you, why do you think heaven should be moved if you are just praying? Oh yeah Lord move if you want to, uh, it's up to you anyway. Amen. Why do you think heaven will be moved by such a wimpish, like a faith prayer? People who see things shift are convinced of what God wants to do when he lies. You was put in his head between his niece praying. He wasn't doubting that God wanted to send the rain. But the fact that God wanted to send the rain did not mean after Elijah prayed the fifth time the rain came.
Speaker 1 00:31:31 In fact Elijah kept praying and the rain didn't come even though God said he wanted it to come. So that's kinda like a bva contradiction. Well God I thought you said you won a revival, an Exeter God, I thought you said you wanna move in this region and you're praying the first time you're praying the second time. Well first let's decode and understand the quality of the prayer you're releasing. Let's understand the people who are praying it because prayer is not just what you're saying, it's way, its coming from the depth of consecration ultimately influences the impact we have in the heavens. Our death of consecrations on the earth influences our authority in the heavens. That's the life of John the Baptist. His consecration on the earth means his voice was so powerful, his shifted things in the spirit. There was no social media, there was no advertising.
Speaker 1 00:32:23 Yet people came to him in the desert. How is that possible? His voice carried authority over the whole region. He had done that in prayer way before he got to preach. But many of us in the church today, especially us preachers, we think it's how we can word things and how we we can communicate that's gonna shift things. And so we work on all our craft. God bless you if that's all you wanna do. But I understand that we will not change anything on the earth on on unless first we have deep consecrations here and then we'll be in to influence the heavens of our prayers. Then our words will carry authority to bring about real transformation. We have preachers with big heads and small hearts theology but no reality. And I'm tired of just knowing the stuff. I wanna experience the stuff. Many of us can quote the scriptures but we don't know it in experience.
Speaker 1 00:33:14 And there's some things you don't really know until you experience it. God is wanting this place to be a hotspot in the spirit. And God is sending me and people like me to wake you up as a church to realize you have been drafted into an army. See the nature of this church is not gonna be like every other church. So Pastor Mark, I'm sorry for about, I'm about to say if you are not caught to be part of this vision, it's probably best you move on because they're people that caught to be part of this. So stop, um, this getting intense stop taking their space. They're people that called to be in this army. Cause this church is called to be like a spiritual headquarters in influencing the airways. In other words, anyone who comes in here is gonna fill the prayer fire. It's not a Nigerian thing, it's not a South Korean thing, it's a kingdom thing.
Speaker 1 00:34:12 In fact, I believe this church is called to be like a flagship in the spirit of what it looks like to raise up a company of warriors in the spirit in prayer. But the sad reality is the 21st century church has become a nursery where babies have been fed and no barracks where warriors have been bred. So all of us just come, oh, bridge me a nice message, pastor. Make me feel good. Rome said it yesterday. You don't go to the barracks looking for love. You don't do that. You go there to be trained. Now I'm not saying God is not concerned about your problems, but as I've found in my own journey, as you take on his agenda, yes you actually develop spiritual stamina to deal with your problems. And even as you go after him, he starts to soar things out in your life.
Speaker 1 00:35:02 Some of you are wanting counseling for things that God wants you to grow up in. Oh pastor, I need some time with you counsel me, I'm no he against counseling. But counseling is not gonna fast track God's process of maturity in your life if you don't submit to his dealings in your life. You wanna pass to lay hands on you. And so that I one moment and God wants you to come to a place of surrender and dying to self and prayer, but you don't want that. You just want the, the passage of lay hands and pour on you. And it's all only one moment. But God is more interested in your development. God loves you, but God doesn't trust you. If he's gonna trust you, you're gonna have to go through his system of, of raising a people. It takes a while for God to raise a church.
Speaker 1 00:35:47 It takes a while for God to raise a man or woman of God. It doesn't happen in an instance. You have to go through his university, you have to go through his score, you have to go through his disciplines. And the interesting thing is, the interesting thing is for each person it looks quite unique based on his calling on your life. But if you want a quick way to do this, I'm telling you there are no quick ways. I said it yesterday, the churches that growing right now in the uk the churches, when I say growing, growing in quotes because numbers are coming, the fact that numbers are coming does not mean God is building that church. Cause you need to look at his criteria for how he wants to build a church and are the core of the church's building is what I'm saying right now, the prayer calling. But many churches have subscribed to just meetings, conferences, nice services and people have just lost the connection. Prayer. Yeah. We're wondering why we're not seeing a move of God.
Speaker 1 00:36:46 God is wanting to recalibrate our priorities to the culture of prayer and intercession. This is how we're called to live. I was thinking about this as I was saying now, cuz I spoke yesterday about content and prayer. You breathe in, you breathe out. That's just the way you live. You breathe in, you breathe out. You don't just breathe in all the time. That's like some of you that I just wanna receive from God all the time. Oh Lord, bless me, Lord bless me. Oh, thank you all this prayer. Oh, one more, one more boy. You're not breathing out. You breathe. Your, your breathing out is a picture of that country. You are releasing what's within you when you pray. Yes, you have intimacy where you receive, but you also have to contend it's not one or the other. It's both. Is this intense? It's probably is. See, this is the way God has made me. I'm sorry if you're offended, if I'm not sorry. With the level of distraction and oppression that we are facing in the church right now, sometimes God needs to raise people like me to shake us out of our rot.
Speaker 1 00:37:53 When I come off this platform and you speak to me, you see that I'm a very nice person. <laugh>. Rob says it's true. All right. I need, I need a volunteer to help me hold this paper cuz I wanna show you something. So anyone,
Speaker 2 00:38:08 <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:38:09 <laugh>, <laugh>. So what I like you to do, remind me your name. I forgot Julia. What I likes you do Julia, is to hold this piece of paper like tightly like this, okay? With both hands. So a as in you put one hand on this side. Yeah, yeah. Part. So if you just raise that up, just like, so what I'm about to show you is what happens when we begin to pray all the regents. I I said in the beginning, this church is not called to just be a local church that just does our own thing. And you know, marries people, embarrass people and do what every other church does. And we just go through the motions. You're called to impact this region. And if that's the case, you need to understand that there is a prince and a power of the air that's currently a work in this region. And so when you begin to pray, what happens is, lemme just get my, uh, my tools here,
Speaker 2 00:39:00 <laugh>,
Speaker 1 00:39:01 It's my pocket. <laugh> come out. All right, here we go. So I've got a pen here. For some people the volume, I don't mean decibel volume as in the volume of prayer they're releasing over the region. And the consistency has the impact of a pen. So when they pray, this is what they're doing over the region, that is okay, but that is not enough.
Speaker 1 00:39:36 And to see the prayer lead to actually do you wanna turn this way so everyone can see you, to see the prayer lead to a place where there is a breakthrough. This you are gonna take a while to keep doing this. And in fact, sometimes that's why prayers keep going on and keep going on because you're like, we've been praying, we've been praying, but we, but, but what's happening is sometimes the, the depth of consecration of the individuals praying, the quality of the prayer can be like a pen like this in the spirit. It doesn't have that bulldozing effect. Some of you're coming to the prayer meeting, you just want to, you just want to pray for your, your broken finger and your broken knee. There's nothing wrong with praying for those things, but praying meetings that are just focused on your needs will not affect the region. The prayer meetings that affect the region are prayer meetings that have his priority. He's, he has to give you the prayer points. And so for many people they're praying and in fact they having prayer meetings, not prayer cultures. So the impact is like this in the spirit. And for that to have a significant shift that's gonna take a while. Now what needs to happen is it needs to be growing bigger in its impact. And so you start to pray, boom. And there's a massive push through, right? The problem is for many of us, we stop or we had such a great prayer meeting, it wa this is why he needs to transition from a prayer meeting to prayer culture. Cuz the devil doesn't sleep,
Speaker 1 00:41:05 He works overtime. So when you think you've gained ground and you relax, he works on covering up the ground you think you've gained. So you could end up, you had a, a powerful monthly prayer meeting. Maybe 80% of the church showed up and that's it. You didn't have another prayer meeting for the next three months and most of the church didn't even show up. And you see, so the ground you have gained can be easily lost if you don't keep pushing. So when is the happiness you need to, to increase in the depth of consecration on the earth and the consistency of the push in the spirit. I mean the contending prayer, not the soaking prayer, the contending prayer. And what's gonna happen is this is gonna keep going like this. Like, and then eventually you're gonna have a breakthrough. Thank you ma'am.
Speaker 1 00:41:52 When that breakthrough happens, you would know you've broken through because you walk into church, people come up the streets, you just say a few words them boom, conviction, salvation, healings, deliverances. And you would know that it's not anything you are doing in the flesh because Pastor Mark, you'll preach the same way you've always preached, but the impact should be on another level you've never imagined before. You would have the same worship band and people are sl things are gonna begin to happen. You can't think what on earth is going on is because you have broken through in the spirit. To break through in the spirit. <laugh> requires you invest in yourself in spiritual disciplines. And the culture that Jesus himself instituted for us to be a house of prayer. And this is what the church is running away from, yet we won the crowds. So many people have settled for crowds that have no territorial influence and authority.
Speaker 1 00:42:49 They're settled for just the externals and they think they're doing good because things look good on the outside. But really the region is not changing nothing. The demons are not scared because the church are gathering. In fact, they're excited because they know this one is, uh, still living in compromise, living in, uh, in sin, living in immorality and is comfortable with those demons. And they're like, you know what? Let them gather or they want to. We already have influence. You know, when I showed you the paper, some people are trying to pray and their prayer is not even pushing through at all because there's things in them that's connected to the prince in the power of the air of the region.
Speaker 1 00:43:31 Whatever is ruling this region, if that has a hold in you, you cannot shift until you break that pain in you by repentance. Not just repentance in your words, but in your lifestyle. And every time I come here, I know that God has called this place to really inherit something deep in the spirit. That's why, you know, when I go connected to a room elai of anywhere else I could think of, I'd like to connect him with, I thought I need him to connect with Mark and this church because the DNA I feel in this place, it's not fully, I don't think it's come into fruition in its, I, what's the word? It's not come to a place of maturity yet, but it's there. It's there, it's there. And that connection, you know, Romeo side come in here. I, I I believe God is sending people to you to help you navigate what he's calling you to cultivate here. It's not by power, it's not by my, but it's by my spirit. As long as there's a yes in your heart, he's gonna, he's gonna lead you in the process. He's gonna, he's gonna mature you. He's gonna stretch you in prayer. I wanna wrap up with this. I was talking to Nita yesterday and she made a comment and I said, I was just teaching him briefly today before time goes up.
Speaker 1 00:44:53 Maybe you came to this weekend and you're thinking, oh my goodness, I don't think I can do seven hours of prayer. Oh my goodness, I don't think I can do. Like I don't think I've, it's okay, start where you are. But I want to challenge you to not stay where you are. Maybe the most you've ever prayed on your own is 30 minutes. I wanna challenge you to double it.
Speaker 1 00:45:16 Maybe you never pray for an hour your whole life. This is the time to push into that. Or maybe you can easily pray for an hour, but you've never attempted two or three hours. This is the season. Say, Lord, I've been comfortable at this level. I wanna know what it's like to exercise what you've placed in mid to just go bit further. And as you begin to do that, you realize you're growing spiritual strength and stamina. And actually you begin to see the benefits of it. It begins to impact your life. Sometimes it takes a while before you begin to see the benefits. It might take months of consistency. I said I was gonna wrap up, I will wrap up with this one.
Speaker 1 00:45:59 Uh, one of the uh, letters. It says, you know, whatever a man sos that he will reap. I think if the moment we sold a seed in the ground, we reaped a reward instantly everyone will be sewing. As in if the moment you prayed, you saw all the manifestations of the road instantly <laugh>, everyone will be doing it right away because we want that instant manifestation. But the way God has structured this work is there is seed and then there is time and then there is harvest. So you could be planting seeds right now in prayer and you won't reap the harvest of that seed till three months later. However, if you keep investing your hours in prayer, now week after week, month after month, when the time of harvest comes, you're gonna be in perpetual floor of harvest because you've constantly been planting and then you keep planting steel, you know? Anyway, I'm gonna stop there. Do you understand with me my time is up?
Speaker 1 00:47:08 This is a calling for rediscover church. It's time for us to shift, it's time for us to say, Lord, we don't want just prayer meetings. We want a prayer culture. Show us your strategy to raise up this prayer tower in a way that influences, influences this whole region. All these churches that are gonna be planted, they're gonna have to have this as their dna. There are no shortcuts. So Father, we will lift our, just lift your hands with me right now as a rapper, father, we'll lift our hands to you. We say, holy Ghost make us a house of prayer. We want to take charge of the airways for you. We want to occupy this space and the spirit such that people come in this space and come under, under the government of your spirit of intercession and prayer that they can't help but live out a life of prayer. Thank you, Jesus. Yes, amen. God bless you.
