Transcription
Up, hey, what's up Radiant Global! It's Pastor KJ, and I'm going to welcome you guys to join us for a sermon entitled "Teach Us How to Pray." I believe it's powerful, it's going to be life-transforming, and I believe it will answer tough questions that maybe you've asked about prayer. Like, why didn't God answer this prayer? Why did he heal a family member? Why didn't he give you what you asked for? And it's really answering those questions and also teaching you how to pray, teaching you about the power of prayer. I believe you'll be blessed by it. Invite your friends, family members, co-workers to watch along with you guys and enjoy this sermon today.
The title of my sermon, if you are taking notes, is "Teach Me How to Pray," or as the disciples said, "Teach Us How to Pray." Everyone say, "Teach Us How to Pray." I'm gonna ask you a rhetorical question: Do you know how to pray? You know how to pray? Okay, well, you said you know how to pray, so I just got a couple questions. Do you pray every day? Really, though? Every day? You pray? Some of you guys do. Some of you guys skip a couple days without praying. Don't, don't say nothing. You can sit there just, if it's you, just blink twice. Blink twice. I got you. You skip a day without praying. And if we be honest, is there any of us in here that don't pray much at all? And if you do enough, and if that's where you are, that is also okay. But I want to encourage you about the power of prayer.
But before I do that, I got a question. Have you ever prayed to God and he not come through? Have you ever prayed that God will heal a sick family member and they stay sick? Have you ever prayed for a relationship and God didn't restore it? Have you ever prayed that God would just reverse the curse and get all the demons off a dentist and yet then it's still walking around with demons and you got a whole new boo now? Have you ever prayed that God would deliver, that God would deliver your kids from sin that's running from God and they haven't returned home yet? Have you ever prayed that God would pay a bill and it didn't get paid? Have you ever been driving in a car that you couldn't pay for and you prayed that God will pay that car? No. And then they towed it. I got news for you, church. There's a lot of prayers that you have prayed and God didn't answer. In some country, you would never admit it. "I always pray. God always answers. God always moves." You would never admit it. But deep down in your head and in your heart, you don't truly believe your prayer moves heaven because if you did, you would do it a lot more often.
Let me give you an example. I have a nephew. And one time I told him, it was his birthday. I said, "Hey, I said, because today is your day, anytime you call me and ask for anything, I don't care what it is, I'll do it." How many calls y'all think I got that day? I gotta call every five seconds on ice cream, chicken, burger, damn Xbox, price tonight. I got unlimited calls. Why? Because he was told he had an unlimited supply. Why does God get a call once a week, once a month, once a year? If he's an omnipotent, unlimited guy with unlimited supply? It's because, like my nephew, who believed I could actually do everything he granted, you don't believe God can do everything you granted. Because check this out: Do you believe God is all-powerful and he has all might? He can do whatever. You don't believe he'll do it for you because if you did, you would be at his door every second. And the truth of the matter is, most of the time you've prayed, they didn't work. And today, my job as a preacher, my assignment, is to teach you why. I'm going to tell you why God didn't do what you requested. Are you ready for it? Because you don't know how to pray. Because somebody lied to you and they said praying is just talking to God. Praying is just telling God what you feel. Praying is just, if you're going through something, just tell God. Praying is just asking God for what you need. That isn't true. It's not true. And if it was true, why would the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray? If you can just talk to God, they were literally walking with Jesus and they still needed to be taught. And they was talking to him every day, which means prayer isn't just talking to God. Prayer isn't just petitioning God. Prayer isn't just asking God to do something. Prayer isn't just, it's interceding on someone's behalf. You actually don't know what prayer truly is. And my assignment as an orator today, if I succeed, you would walk out here knowing how to pray. And when you learn how to pray, you will get your prayers answered. And when your prayers got answered, you will see God as a Heavenly Father, Jehovah Jireh, that can be your great provider. And that's just not material, that's faith, that's strength, and that's power. Oh, come on somebody, give them a shot of praise!
Prayer, it's powerful. Um, I, I love what Smith Wigglesworth said. You probably guys probably don't know him, but he was a guy, he was so powerful and incredible. Like, legit, there's historical records of this. There will be somebody with one leg, and Smith Wigglesworth will come. They would have just a right leg. He would kick their right leg, and then the left one would grow back. I know it sounds dramatic, but this is historical records. People would be missing fingers. He would test their hands, and her fingers would grow back. The limbs will grow back. People will be dead in the casket. He would go and kick the chest. Imagine getting your cat casting kicked at the funeral. He would kick the cast and help. What's going on here? Everybody at my funeral. People will rise from the dead. And he said something so powerful about prayer. Here's what he said. He said, "I never go." He said, "I never pray longer than 30 minutes, and I never go 30 minutes without praying." "I never pray longer than 30 minutes, and I never go 30 minutes without praying." Why? It's because prayer should be a perpetual state of being in communion with God. God, when he created man, we would walk and talk with God in the cooler today. We would always talk to God, always been communion with God. God don't want you to just come and pray and leave and come back next week. God wants to actually live in a state of prayer with you. See, prayer ain't just you going to God begging him to pay your bills. Prayer is actually how you have a relationship with God. It's how you physically connect with the spiritual. God wants to live with you, talk with you, be with you all the time. I'm actually praying right now. I'm always praying. I'm praying, "God, give me the words. God, I pray right now that you would give me everything I need to speak to your bride. God, I'm praying that it won't be my words, but your words." You should live in a perpetual state of prayer. You should always be praying. The Bible says you should pray without ceasing. Your prayers are powerful. Your prayers move heaven. Your prayers make a difference. The Bible says, "The fervent prayers of the righteous avail much." In other words, the prayers of the righteous are effective. The prayers of the righteous can break the back of the devil. The prayers of the righteous can push darkness back. The prayers of the righteous can freeze hell. Your prayers are powerful, and you should always do it. Your prayers are more powerful than guns, bombs, and any kind of weapon you could ever wield. Your prayers have might. And I want to teach you how to pray, and I want to teach you how to get a response and get God to move every time.
Because here's what we do. We pray, and then when God don't do it, we just say, "Well, I guess that went in the cards. Guess he didn't want to heal them. Guess he didn't want to turn it around." And we start making excuses for God as if he needs our petty excuses. But let me tell you something about God. Your God is both infinite and intimate. He's both infinite and intimate. He's infinite enough to hold the world in his hand, and he's intimate enough to hold your heart in his hand. Let me say it again. Your God is both infinite and intimate. He's infinite enough to hold the world in his hand, and he's intimate enough to hold your heart in his hand. He can control the world and love you and know you and cut the hairs on your head and catch all of your tears. That's how powerful your God is. That's how magnificent your God is. That's how dynamite your God is. That is how great he is. And so, if we don't know how to pray, the first thing we have to do is what the disciples done when they found out they didn't know how to pray. If you have your Bibles, go to Luke chapter 11. You guys should bring physical Bibles too. If I had better vision, I would have one. Only problem is, I can't see those little words, and I'm wearing contacts or glasses. Luke chapter 11. When you guys are gonna say, "Ready." That's like five of y'all. Would give the, the rest of y'all some time. It's one of the gospels, one of the first four books in the New Testament. Give you guys a second. Let's start verse one, end with verse one. It says, "One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. It says, when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John has taught his disciples.'" So Jesus is praying in a certain place, and the disciples came to Jesus and asked Jesus to teach him to pray.
Now, y'all check this out. Check this out. Check this out. Now, now, I'm not talking, I'm not talking about you just praying to Jesus and talking to Jesus and reading about Jesus. Let's just take a moment. I need you to imagine something. Imagine you lived in a time Jesus lived. Imagine that you were with Jesus and talking with Jesus and walking with Jesus and eating with Jesus and doing everything with Jesus. Just imagining being with Jesus. Imagine all the vast questions you could ask our God. I want to propose to you that with all the things you can ask Jesus to teach you, you probably wouldn't be asking Jesus to teach you how to pray. You probably would ask that question. If I was with Jesus, I'm gonna keep it 100, as a younger generation say, I'm gonna keep it a stack. If I was with Jesus, I wouldn't be asking Jesus to teach me how to pray. I would be asking Jesus for some really cool things. I'd be like, "Jesus, can you teach me how to multiply bread and fish so I can live in a perpetual state of heaven? Long John Silver. And every time I'm hungry, bam, multiply the food. Let's eat. Come on, y'all. Long John Silver for everybody. You get fish, you get bread. You get fish, you get bread." I wouldn't be asking him to teach me how to pray. Or imagine, I would, if I was with Jesus, I would say, "Teach me how to park the ocean so every time I'm on a cruise, I could be like, 'Hey, stop. Park the ocean. Run down the ocean. Watch party. Look at the whales and the sharks. Jump back on and be like, 'Hey, selfie.'" Like, I wouldn't be teaching Jesus to teach me how to pray. Or I would ask Jesus to teach me how to turn water into wine, and everybody would want me at their wedding. I'm like, "Nope, ain't coming." Like, I would ask Jesus to teach me something cool. I would be like, "Jesus, you know what? Teach me how to walk on water." And I'll be at the water park just walking on top of the pole. Like, I wouldn't be asking Jesus to teach me how to pray. And neither would the disciples. The only reason they was asking Jesus to teach them how to pray is because they were perspicacious. They noticed that prayer was the source of his power. And the moment they noticed that prayer was the source of his power, then they said, "Teach us how to pray." They didn't care about knowing how to pray at first. But when they noticed that the prayer was the most important thing Jesus did, they wanted to learn. How did they know prayer was the most important thing Jesus did? It's because a while before day, the Bible says Jesus would go to a solitary place and he would disappear for like four hours praying, interceding, having communion with God. He would come down the mountain and immediately start doing miracles. Blind eyes be open, deaf ears be open, with her hand, come on, stretch out, lady, issue of blood, touch my garment, okay, good, your blood condition is healed. And he would just walk around doing miracles. And they noticed that the miracles took four seconds, but it took him four hours doing some other thing. And finally, they had the sagacity to realize that maybe this other thing is what's empowering this other thing. Maybe he has this power because it's sourced and rooted in prayer. And when they noticed that the root of his power was prayer, then they said, "Lord, teach us how to pray." And we're the same way. They didn't really want to learn how to pray.
And there's a story in the Bible that I feel like humbled the disciples, that led them to this place. There was a guy, and his son was demon-possessed. I mean, this little boy was demon-possessed from a little baby, just walking around extra. And he walked around, he was demon-possessed. And then when he noticed Jesus' disciples, he was like, "These are the guys that be with Jesus. Maybe that can help my son. Maybe they can dispel this unclean spirit. Maybe they can deliver my boy." So all of a sudden, he brought his voice to the disciples, and he said, "Hey, hey, can you guys deliver my son? You wrote with Jesus, right?" And this is just my imagination. I don't have a Bible for this. I don't know what happened. I know the beginning and the end, Alpha and Omega, but I'm gonna jump in the story and I'm gonna see the story how I see it when I read the Bible because I'm extra. So he said, "Y'all can, y'all pray for my son? Y'all roll with Jesus, right?" I could just see the disciples now. "We're done with G-O-D." "Yeah, you know me." "We're done with G-O-D." "Yeah, you know me." "We're down with G-O-D." "Yeah, you know me." "Yeah, we roll with Jesus." And Peter was bold. I believe Peter stepped up first. He said, "Bring the boy to me. I am the right hand of God. I will be the first pastor of the church. I am Jesus' favorite disciple. Jesus loves me. He chooses me. I am Peter, and I will cast this unclean spirit out of your boy." And I believe Peter walked up to the boy and he said, "In the power that God has given me right now, I bind you and Lucia, and I bind you and I lose you, and I bind you and I lose you." Which is really stupid because it means to allow, not to allow, allow not to allow, allow to allow. But Peter, he didn't know. He unlearning. So he said, "I got to roll with what I got." And then all of a sudden, the demon looked back at him and he was like, "No." So then, I believe at that point, James came, one of the second closest disciples to Jesus. He said, "See, Peter, you just be doing too much. You ain't got no humility. You don't even, you ain't even looking into the person. Peter, move aside. Let me get the demon out the boy, okay?" And then he walked up, and you know that Christian, he like, "Um, your arm hurt a little bit? Okay, God heal that arm. Okay, move your arm. Okay, lift it up. Okay, does it hurt? Okay, let's pray again. Okay, lift your arm up. Does it hurt?" And then I believe James was like, "Right now, I command this spirit, unclean spirit, to come out." And I believe that the boy just kind of sat there. This is my imagination. And then James was like, "You know, um, move his head a little bit." And then they moved the boy's head. Anyway, he was like, "Okay, it didn't work. Unsuccessful." Then I believe John came. And I believe John was like, "See, I'm John the Beloved. And you know, I just allow, you know, had to be on Jesus' chest, and I can hear his heart being. You're just not answering enough, and you don't care enough about the person." And that's the way he still has this unclean spirit. And I believe he just went, he's just like, "Daddy God loves you so, so much, and he don't want you to be in this pain." And right now, "Daddy God, remove this infirmity, remove this unclean spirit." And I believe the spirit was like, "No."
Then finally, Jesus came on the scene, and Jesus heard about what went down. And the reason why I got to all that because Jesus was frustrated. When Jesus heard about what went down, he said, "This how long do I have to be with you? And how long do I have to put up with you?" Jesus went to the unclean spirit, and he said, "Right now, come out." And the US clean spirit went, "Bye Felicia!" And it was gone. Go like lightning, gone. And Jesus was frustrated. He said, "How long must I deal with you? How long was I put up with this?" Why was Jesus so frustrated? I believe Jesus was frustrated because in discipleship, some things are taught, and some things are caught. And the best disciples catch what they need to catch. And Jesus was saying, "At this moment, you guys don't get it, and you're not catching it. You want power in public, but you don't have prayer in private. You want power in public, but you don't have prayer in private."
And he's saying, "You guys with me every day? You see me up there with the Father all morning alone, and I do miracles right away. But yet, you want to go pray for 30 hours and never spend time with the Father? You're not catching it. You're not getting it." Jesus was like, "How long must I be with you? How long do you have to be around me before you finally get the source of my power?" And Jesus said, "The source of my power is prayer with the Father. If you want power, if you want your prayers to avail much, if you want your prayers to move heaven, you have to spend time praying with the Father." Jesus spent four hours a day, roughly, praying, and he spent four seconds healing. If you spend four hours in the morning with God, you will only have to spend four seconds healing, man. But instead, we grab people and we pray for them for 30 minutes. And the power of prayer is not the length of your prayer, it's the strength of your prayer. And the strength of your prayer is determined by who your prayers connected to. See, the presence of God is the only place where name-dropping to get you somewhere. It would get you somewhere in the presence of God. A demon may not listen to you. It may not obey you. A situation may not listen to you. It may not obey you. Oh, but when you say the name of Jesus, at the name of Jesus, demons have to bow. At the name of Jesus, darkness has to leave. At the name of Jesus, bondage has to loosen its grip. At the name of Jesus, sickness has to pack its bags and go. Why? Because his name has power. And tell me, you guys need to quit name-dropping people you know and start name-dropping Jesus. Because at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess. Oh, come on somebody, give God a five-second praise break in this place. Five, four. If you go, name drop, drop the name of Jesus.
Now, later that night, when the cross is gone, the disciples came up to Jesus. And this is why I feel like to ask the question at the beginning of the text. They say, "Uh, Master, we have a question. Why when we try to cast out the evil spirit, it said no, and when you did it, it said, 'Bye Felicia!' Why? Why? Why?" And if Jesus says something so powerful, he said, "This kind only come out by fasting and prayer." In other words, there is a realm that you have to live in to get rid of this spirit. There's a realm that you have to live in to break that generational curse. There's a realm that you have to live in to unlock something in your city. There's a realm that you have to live in to unlock some in your church. "This kind only come out by fasting and prayer." In other words, you're not going to remove this until you go there, to the secret place, to the private place, until you have intimacy with God. Which means intimacy, God, if you're not there, you're probably not going to be able to remove this kind. There's dementia to this. There's levels to this. There's a rim to this. And we're in a series called "Next Level." And if you're going to remove this kind, your prayer life got to go to the next level. So, so, so, when Jesus finally told them what they should, when they finally taught them what they should have caught, that this time only come out by prayer and fasting, then they said, "Lord, teach us how to pray." They didn't understand, realize that power, miracles, the source of prayer is spending time in His presence.
So I want to teach you how to pray. But before I teach you how to pray, I'm going to teach you how not to pray. Is that cool? Okay, let's teach you how not to pray. Go to Matthew chapter 6, verse 5. And I'm gonna read fast because y'all ain't turning your Bible anyway. And it says, "And when you pray, you shall not pray like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners, or on the corners of the street, that they may be seen by men." So the hypocrites, the Pharisees, they like to pray in the synagogues, on our street corners so they can be seen by men. "Assuringly," Jesus said, basically just means for sure. "If you don't know, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go in your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place. And your Father who sees and Seeker will reward you openly. And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the he's, as the heathens do, for they think they will be heard for their many words." In other words, Jesus is saying, "Don't pray like the hypocrites. Don't pray like the hypocrites. Don't pray like the hypocrites." Jesus said there's two rewards to prayer. There's two rewards, and those rewards is determined by how and where you pray. There's a reward for praying in public to be seen by men, and there's a reward for praying in private to be seen by God. And God said there's two rewards. He said, "If you pray on the street corners to be seen by men, that's your reward. But if you come to your Father in secret, there's a different reward." What is he talking about? There's several words of prayer. There's one reward is you looking spiritual, and another reward is you being spiritual. On one end, you look spiritual. On another end, you are spiritual. And God says, "You can pray to be seen, and your reward is everybody thinks you're spiritual. But if you pray to be seen by me in secret, if you would come to your closet, your reward is I'll actually hear your prayers." See, you don't actually want God to do your prayers. You just want God to hear your prayers because sometimes your prayers are stupid. That girl you pray for, you look at her now, you're like, "Thank you, Lord." That dude you pray for, you like, "Thank you, G." When I think about Jesus, what he's done for me. So you don't want God to do your prayer, you want him to hear it, and then use his divine wisdom to decide what you need. And sometimes you're praying for God to remove a circumstance, and God said, "I'm not going to remove a circumstance that's divine, that's designed to develop your character." You're praying for God to remove a hardship. He's saying, "I'm not going to remove a hardship that's designed to shift the heart's posture inside of you." Sometimes we pray and we not know what we're praying for. The Book of James says that sometimes we pray amiss. What does that mean? We pray and miss because we're asking for a target that God don't want us to hit. Oh, that's a different sermon. So God is saying, "When you pray, don't pray like the hypocrites. Don't pray like the Pharisees because they think they'll be heard for their many words." I just imagine a Pharisees praying, looking very spiritual and pious. "I therefore beseech you by the mercies of God, the propitiation of my salvation, the justification of my sanctification, for my rectification, God, I know that your omniscient, I'm not present, omnipotent, is sovereign and power. And God, I pray that you would show up right now. You will be advantageous to your servant. You would grant me the sagacity of heart, and you would bring me the Shalom of God, and I pray you would bless me, oh Lord, the little monkey said it in my shot days of my life." That's weird. We're God would much rather you to pray like this: "Help me, Lord." Now, that sounds crazy, but if that's authentic, that's crazy powerful. That's crazy faith, and that'll move heaven in a crazy way. Because when it comes to prayer, God doesn't hear words, he hears hearts.
You can have a simple prayer that can shift heaven. You can have a complicated prayer that won't. How do you pray for rain and I'll bring an umbrella? How do you pray for provision without writing division? How do you pray for a miracle without stretching out your arms? How do you pray for your family without inviting them to church? God is saying, "If you believe me, how about you walk by faith and talk by faith?" What is faith? Faith is acting like it is so, even when it ain't so, in order that it may be so, simply because God said so. "God, I got faith." In other words, when I pray, I come up expecting. Do you expect God to move? Do you expect a miracle to come? Because if you don't have expectation, then God's not going to bring transformation to your situation. That all rhymed. Oops. Um, so, so, so, the power of prayer isn't the words in the prayer, it's the heart behind the prayer. Let's say it again. The power of prayer isn't the words in the prayer, it's the heart behind the prayer. So the Bible says, "Go in your room." It says, "Go in your room, and it says, shut the door, and pray to your Father who sees in secret, or season, who's in a secret place, and he will reward you openly." In other words, and saying, "If you go to God in secret, he will reward you in public." Which means, if you have no power in public, I know you spent no time in prayer in private. Because if you spend time in private and prayer, you will have the anointing and the power of God in public. And God is saying, "If you would spend four hours with me in the secret place, you only got to spend four seconds healing in the public place." And God is saying, "If your private devotion matches your public promotion, then you will actually see heaven turn some things around." And that's why the church is so powerless. The reason why we're so powerless is we're not privately seeking who we're publicly preaching. God said, "If you seek me like you preach me, you will actually see me."
But we're so busy preaching Jesus, we don't see Jesus. And the reason why we don't see Jesus is because we don't even read Jesus. Man, I'm at, I'm at your head today. I'm in your house, and I'm sorry about that. I know you didn't invite me in, but we kicking though down. Um, so you can't stand in power until you've kneeled in prayer. You can't stand in power until you've kneeled in prayer. And the power of prayer is being heard by God. Now, it raises the question: Why does God hide his power in prayer? To keep it from imposters. To keep it from imposters. To keep it from imposter. See, an imposter, an imposter will show up, and they want to walk into power. They want to walk into the miracles. They want to walk into glory. And God says, "I'm actually going to put the power in secret. So if you don't really want to seek me, you won't get the power."
God said, "I am hiding my power in prayer." In other words, God says, "I've hid the anointing and honor, and because you're dishonorable, you'll never be anointed." You knew exactly where to find the power, you would just get the power and dismiss the person of Jesus. And Jesus said, "You will not get the power of my hand until you first seek my face." Selah. Matthew chapter 6. So I taught you how not to pray. Is this good, y'all? Now I'm going to teach you how to pray. Can we learn how to pray? "Lord, teach us how to pray." Go to Matthew chapter 6. It says, "Therefore," whenever you see "therefore" in the Bible, you got to see what it's there for. It says, "Therefore, do not be like them," talking about those, those Pharisees, "for your Father knows that have need for before you ask." In this manner, or in this sequence, or in this pattern. "Therefore, pray like this: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And do not lead us into temptation, because most of us can find it all by ourselves. But deliver us from the evil one. For yours is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses." Wow. Wow. Wow. Wow.
So when it comes to prayer, the first thing you do, see, introduction is so important. How, how something is introduced, that's right. When we start our church service, we want to create an anticipation. We want to clock. We want to shout. Why? Because a king entered the room, and we want to properly greet him and welcome him inside of our room. Why? Because introduction is important. So when you start in prayer, the introduction of prayer is actually praise. The introduction to prayer is actually praise. That when you come to prayer, you start with praising God. When they came to prayer, here's Jesus said, "You have to come to prayer and say, 'Our Father.'" See, that's why the Pharisees' prayers didn't work because they prayed to him like he was their God. And if I'm praying to a God, I need all these big, fancy, elaborate words right now, the transformation, the propitiation, salvation. See, I need all that for a God. But when I come to my Daddy, I can say, "Help, Daddy, help." And that's enough. Talking to a father. And he follows in the room to vouch for that baby girl. Call you say, "Help." You finna turn over everything to her, baby girl, right? You don't need no fancy words. My daughters say, "Dada, I'm coming." And if you say, "Dada" to him, he's coming. "Our Father." Then, secondly, recognizing his location. Who's in heaven? Say, he's not on Earth. He's not limited to physical circumstances. He's not limited to your bank account. He's not limited to what they said. He's not limited to what people said you can't do and said you can't be and said where you can't go. Why? Because God can take a nobody and turn him into somebody, and he ain't got to ask nobody, and he can do it in front of everybody because he's the one body that's not limited by our body. He's in heaven, which means he has complete power over Earth. "Our Father who's are in heaven." Then it says, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done." "Your Father who's Art in Heaven." In other words, you come in, you're acknowledging him. "Hallowed be that name." That means magnify your name, glorify your name, make your name holy, set apart your name. How do you come answer him for stuff if you didn't put respect on his name? I'ma need some respect on my name. You have to put some respect on his name. "Hallow be his name." What does it mean to hallow something? The hallow song means to make big. God says, "You come in praise, and you make my name big, and you will notice it'll make your circumstances small. If you make the Savior big, the storm becomes small. But if you make the storm big, the Savior becomes small." So, "hallow his name." It means the praise. In other words, when you come to God, you come to him as your Father. God is not a genie to be rugged. He's a Father to be worshiped. He's not a genie to be rough. He's a Father to be worshiped. Let's not just come to the presence of God starting by asking for stuff. Let's come to the presence of God by asking for him. Because prayer isn't designed to get what you're praying for. Prayer is designed to get who you're praying to. The reward of prayer isn't to get stuff. The reward of prayer is to give God.
So now we move down. "Our Father who's in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven." Check this out. "Your will be done." When Lazarus was dead, it took Jesus four seconds to walk up and say, "Lazarus, come forth." And again, he said, "Lazarus," because everybody would have came forth, and it'll look like a Thriller video. But he said, "Lazarus, come forth." Took four seconds. But when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane, wrestling with his own death, it took hours. It took hours. And we saw the savior asking, we saw the creation actions for help from the created. Pray with me. Pray with me. Pray with me. I'm sorry, disciples fell asleep like most of you guys do when it's time to pray. Let me get out your business. Um, Luke 22:42 says, "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me, yet not my will, but your will be done." And then it says, "And angels from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him." Check this out. The purpose for prayer isn't for you to change God, it's for God to change you. You want me to tell you why your prayers don't work? It's because you go to prayer demanding God do something. See, when you go to prayer, it's not to go to introduce your will to God. "God, heal them. God, give us money. God, pay our bills. God, help, help." Not that you can't ask your Father, we'll get there. But when you go to prayer, it's actually designed to get God's will. Jesus is praying, and he's sweating blood, and the reason why he's playing praying so hard, and it's taking so long, and he was suffering so much, is because he didn't like God's will. Oh, Jesus would never like God's will. Let me quote the Bible. It says, "If it's your, if you're willing, let this cup pass from me." In other words, I don't want that cup. I don't want your will, God. And sometimes when you go to prayer, the first thing you need to start doing before you ask God for anything, we're looking at the priority, in the chronological order of prayer. We hallow his name, we praise him, and then we have to go and have the wrestle of wills. And now, what's happening? Just like Jesus in the garden, is Jesus is wrestling between his will and God's will. And you have to do the same thing. And sometimes this may take a minute. Sometimes you're going to prayer about the relationship you're in, and you have to wrestle with God. And sometimes you got to be like, "God, I can't lay this down right now. I'll see you tomorrow." And you come back and wrestle again. "God, I still like this little ugly dude. I'll be back tomorrow." And you gotta wrestle again until finally you can get to where Jesus, "God, nevertheless, your will be done." You miss this part though. What? Let me show you what you missed. It's sad. After that, an angel from heaven came and strengthened him. God says that you're struggling on Earth, but I got power from heaven. We know where angels come from. But God was saying, "Just in case you forgot, let me remind you, a angel from heaven came and strengthened him." I got news for you, church. Whenever you surrender, shortly after, strength will follow. The reason you ain't get no strength from heaven is because you didn't surrender on Earth. You didn't surrender. You didn't surrender. If you would surrender, you would get strict.
Now let me show you something else about prayer. It says, "Your kingdom come, Your will be done on Earth as it is in heaven." I'm going to give you this master secret key of prayer. You're going to know something about prayer that most people don't. Here's the secret. Here's the secret. Here's the secret. Are you ready for the secret? Let me show it to you. I'ma read it to you, but I'm gonna tell you first. The secret of prayer in power, the secret to God's power. Here's the secret. Here's the secret. The secret of prayer are the secrets of heaven. You missed it. You missed it. You missed it because you ain't reading the Bible intensely. Why did the Bible say, "Come to your Father who's in secret, and he'll reward you publicly"? The reason why you got to go to your Father who's in secret is because he wants to share his secrets to you in secret. And God doesn't share his secrets in public.
Here's the secret. John chapter 5, verse 19, 20. It says, "Then Jesus answered and said to them, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, that was mad at him for healing somebody on the Sabbath.' He said, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, see that's your problem. You think you can do stuff even of yourself. They say the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do. The Son can't do nothing but what he sees the Father do. For whatever He does, the Son does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows Him all things that He Himself does. And He will show Him greater works than these, that you may marvel.'" My God, you missed it. This I'm from preaching your Bible. I'm preaching your Bible. You missed it. Let me slow it down because you missed it. The secret of prayer are the secrets of heaven. You go to the secret place so God can give you his secrets. So here is this, the prayer extrapolated: If you want 100% answered prayers, it's to do what you see the Father doing, to say what you hear the Father saying. So Jesus said, "The Son does nothing of himself, but the Son only does what he sees the Father doing." In other words, when you go to the secret place and secret, the Father shows you what he's doing in secret. So when you see what the Father is doing in secret, you can go and be rewarded and do it in public. And that's why you don't pray because you miss one of the most important parts of this verse. It says, "Our Father who are in heaven, Your kingdom come." Okay, it said, "Your will be done," not mine. Yours. No, check this out. You missed this part. "As it is in heaven." See, the only prayers that make it to heaven are the ones that came from heaven.
So here's the power of prayer. You go to the secret place, and discernment comes. The veils fall, and then God shows you what he's doing in secret. See, he's showing Jesus right now healing the men, the lame man. He's showing Jesus the woman with the issue of blood touching the hem of His garment. He's showing Jesus Lazarus coming back from the dead. He's showing Jesus Peter walking on water. He's showing Jesus fish and bread being multiplied. Oh, in secret. And then when Jesus leaves, he's able to go multiply the fish, heal this person, heal this person, do this, touch my garment, and he's able to immediately go and do miracles because he saw them. Wait, wait, wait. He said, "I only do what I see the Father doing." See, he saw the Father healing Lazarus, then he went and done it. The secret of prayer is only doing what God has done, which simply means on Earth as it is in heaven. So the secret of prayer is figuring out how it is in heaven, and seeing it's already done. Every battle's won. And then you go walk that thing out on Earth. I'm telling you, this is the power of prayer. This is the power of God. This is how the chains are broke. Because I see you healing my generation in heaven, I'm about to come do it on Earth. I say you breaking generational curses in heaven, I'm about to do it on Earth. I see you right now using me in purpose in heaven, I'm about to do it on Earth. Oh, I see it first. And in order to do it, you must first see it. Or give our King a 10-second praise break in his face. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five.
And the reason your prayers aren't answered is because you're trying to do what heaven ain't doing. You praying for God to restore a relationship heaven didn't already broke y'all up. You're praying for God to pay your car note. God said, "You got a 400 credit score. I didn't already impounded that car." You're praying for God to give you a business. Girl, you was late to work. See, heaven ain't. God to heal some. Heal some. Better off with me. They suffered enough. I'm not going to do what you feel I should be done. I'm going to do my will for them. They have served their purpose, and it's time for them to come to heaven. And because you're so earthly minded, you know heavenly good, and you think they die when really they just passed from one dimension to the next. God. So simply put, as I get ready to close, simply put, "Lord, teach us to pray." It's very simple. I'm going to teach you exactly how to pray. I'm going to walk you through how to pray. It's very simple. He taught us right here. The first thing you do is you praise God and you hallow his name. The second thing you do is you realize that everything he does is about his kingdom coming, not about building yours. Right then, it says, "Your will be done." It's not about your will, His will. So when you go to prayer, you're not actually asking God to do something. The most important component of prayer isn't talking, it's listening. You're going to God to find out His will. Before I pray for anyone, I started this about two years ago. Before I pray for anyone, even if I just do it in my head, I always say, "God, give me the wisdom to pray Your will." So sometimes y'all come down to me on the altar and you're like, "I'll pray you fix this relationship." And I'm like, "God, you need to break it off. Break it off." And you looking at me on cyanide. But God dropped His will in my ear, and I'm not going to pray your request, I'm gonna pray His will. And then if I don't know His will, I'll say simply, "God, let Your will be done. Let Your will be done." And then if we're actually praying His will, and it's His will for you to have it, guess what? It's already done. Now we have to pray so we can create a portal to pull it from heaven down to Earth. But that's another sermon.
So then, after that, I now want Earth to look just like heaven. So I go to the secret place, and in the secret place, I see heaven. And then God shows me heaven, and I know what to do on Earth, and I do on Earth what's done in heaven. Then, after we got, now that's how you pray. That's it. But then sometimes your prayers can be blocked. So we go to prayer blockers. First, it says, "Give us this day our daily bread." Okay, that's trusting God for your provision. That's asking God for stuff. Take your request. You got His will, give you a request. Now petition God. Cool. But then it says, "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." See, if you ain't forgave somebody, it's probably blocking your prayer because you can pray right with a bad heart, and you still don't get your prayer brought down to Earth. Then it says, "And lead us not into temptation." Why? Because sin separates. "Deliver us from the evil one." Because God's not going to bless you while you're carrying out Satan's will, right? Prayer blockers. Then to understand the purpose of life and the purpose of prayer. And that's, "Yours is the kingdom, yours is the power, yours is the glory forever. Amen." And when you get that down and know the purpose for prayer and the purpose for your life, God answers a prayer every single time. Show me in the Bible where Jesus prayed and it wasn't answered. Show me every time. Why? Because he had the perfect sequence of how prayer works. You don't need fancy prayers, elaborate prayers. You need to go and meet your will, see what heaven's doing, and that's that. Some of you guys like, "Pastor, that's deep. I don't know how to do that." Running, Justin Mitchell, won't say, "God, whatever, whatever Your will is, let it be done." And if you do that, God will show up. Wow. I hope he was blessed by that sermon. I hope it spoke to you. Hope you learned about prayer and how to pray. One of the highlights in discernment was, "The only prayers that make it to heaven are the ones that came from heaven." In other words, when we pray God's will, not our will, things actually shift and happen in the earth. I hope you were impacted by this message. Invite friends and family members and co-workers to watch it. And also, if you want to connect with Radiant Church deeper, text the Radiant phone number at 903-201-0606. We would love to connect with you, pray for you, and hear about your story. Thank you guys so much for joining us. You have a blessed day.