Pastor Ken…
Good morning. Welcome everyone. Welcome to all of you that are logging on to YouTube onto our online church platform onto our online church platform. Good to have you with us.
Living out of your heart…
I have a couple different things on my heart. I think probably one of the big things that’s on my heart is just the whole concept of living out of your heart, which really describes how we’re to pray really and how we’re to function and how God is ordained for us to live. It’s what Jesus modeled for us in His earthly ministry. He lived out of His heart, not out of His intellect. Yes, He had an intellect and of course He used it. He had a body. He had emotions. He had a soul. But His life was led from His spirit.
God leads us from our central operating system…
As my daughter said when she was six years old, “Out of your ‘spirit heart,’ daddy. You’ve got a spirit heart on the inside of you. The Bible says your spirit is in your belly.” And the Holy Spirit comes to cohabitate, to live and dwell and partner up with you on the inside right down here on the inside when you profess His name and invite Him into your life.
God intends to lead us from our central operating system right down in here. That’s why oftentimes I put my hand on my belly. It helps me to locate the real me. Because how many of you know that your mind can be going a particular direction influenced by the world and external stimuli and all kinds of things.
Learning to hear the still small voice…
But the Word says that it’s through a still small voice inside of us that He wants to coach us and deliver us and open doors for us and teach us and heal us and set us free in our souls, in our emotions, in our trauma, in our hopelessness, in our confusion, in whatever we’re grappling with on a given day. God is transmitting via the Holy Spirit, 24/7. He’s transmitting right now.
He’s sending. He’s speaking.
The Holy Spirit is like a coach giving direction from the sideline…
Maybe you’re not a football fan, but if you’ve watched football, sometimes they pan to the coaches on the sideline. Oftentimes, the coach will be giving signals, telling the quarterback to call a time out. Or just different signals. In baseball, they’re different coaches and there’s a manager and a head coach and they’re giving signals and different signs to players to do certain things.
God’s got some sure “aces” for us…
My daughter plays volleyball. I’ve mentioned that before and sometimes her coach will have a clipboard and on the sidelines, he will be trying to coach her to serve in a certain spot on the floor, because maybe there’s a weak spot on the opposing team. And if you’ll serve there, it’s a sure ace. Well, God’s got some aces for us today. He’s got some sure things for you. You weren’t sent here to just clumsily feel your way around. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t succeed kind of life. God intends that we do all of the will of God and succeed. He has in fact set us up to succeed. And that includes in prayer.
Like Jesus, in prayer we can bat a thousand…
Using a sports analogy again, I like to say if Jesus batted a thousand in prayer, in other words, He was successful every time He prayed, then that should be our model and our aspiration. But we as pray-ers have to become more skillful. And one of the key ingredients to becoming more skillful is learning how to live out of your heart… from this place. And for sure, praying out of your heart, because the Holy Spirit, like the coach on the sidelines, is instructing you today. But it’s not in a mighty wind or a fire or some cataclysmic, all encompassing, distracting thing. It’s in here and it’s quiet. And it’s small, oftentimes.
We’re to have a heart of flesh that is responsive to God’s slightest touch…
In the book of Ezekiel 11:19, it says God’s intent prophetically under the Old Covenant was that He was gonna take out the stony heart out of people and replace it with the heart of flesh. And I think the Amplified says “tender and responsive to even the slightest touch of their God.” That we would be tender and responsive to even the slightest touch of our God. Time with God practicing the presence of God, learning to host His presence and calm yourself within yourself is such a key ingredient to moving forward now for us.
Be a tuning fork, picking up God’s vibrations…
I’m thinking of a high school science experiment where maybe you’ve did this, where your teacher or you maybe in the class struck a tuning fork, right? And it began to vibrate at a certain frequency that you could measure. And then the teacher would say, “Now bring this other tuning fork, which isn’t vibrating, close to the other tuning fork that you just struck. And by transmission, that tuning fork that you struck will begin to cause the other tuning fork to vibrate as well.” And so God’s intent for us each and every day is to come close to Him so that our hearts begin to pick up on the vibration and what God or heaven is sending… in regard to our steps… in regard to our timing… and in regard to what to say, what to pray, where to go, when to be at a certain place… what we should be contending for… how we should be living.
His power is available for us to draw upon…
How you choose to live your life, our determination to prioritize God’s presence and host His presence and make that an important thing to us in our daily walk has an effect and will determine how people around us live their lives. Because when we begin to vibrate at the frequency of God’s presence, when we begin to function in the wisdom of God, in the ways of God, there’s the anointing again, messing up with the electronics. It’s true. Come on now. Oh, you better believe we’re gonna have to invest in some better electronics in the days ahead when the power continues to get turned up. It’s gonna melt electronics. I don’t know about you, but I am just over there into another place in regards to the power of God. I’m not trying to just speak some… ethereal, spooky pooky kind of thing. I’m telling you, the power of God is in evidence in this world. Just like the outlet over there or in your home is available for you to plug into and receive power… so too the power of God, the frequency of heaven is here in the earth. It always has been. And will be. And it’s available for us to draw upon, tap into, receive wisdom and grace.
Just to remind you of what we talked about yesterday, the Bible says in Ephesians, there’s exceeding great power to and toward you. And I’m speaking out of a place of experience, but this power isn’t just some spiritual ethereal kind of “out there” thing. I’m talking about power that is dynamic in its working as the Amplified Bible says in James 5:16. Dynamic, meaning it will morph into what you need. If you need the ability to rise above fear and take a next step in some way in your calling, then if you begin to pray, that power will begin to morph and give you the “uhh” to step out and get in front of people to speak, or to take that crazy, audacious step toward your dream… to step out into risk.
Don’t underestimate the potency of time with God…
Faith is nothing but risk. But mitigated because we are sensing the leadership of God and relying on Him. There’s power in His name. There is power in the blood. There’s power in prayer. Don’t underestimate the potency of time with God. Don’t underestimate or overlook the power that is released when you pray. Yes in the spirit, we know for certainty that power is produced when we pray in the spirit. You become your own self-generator of God’s power when you pray in other tongues, when you lift up holy hands and begin to worship. When you just simply acknowledge and are aware of the heavenly dimension and God, the Holy Spirit, with you. It draws power and that power morphs. It’s gonna morph today. It’s gonna produce today. It’s going to cause your cells in your body to align today… step by step.
He is to be our dwelling place, in the cleft of the Rock…
How else is it possible for your youth to be renewed like the Eagles? Oh, I’m telling you, it’s not all about vitamins and whole foods and, you know, that cold treatment stuff that cryogenic thing that you go to and you get in that cold box… I’m telling you one of the greatest ways to renew your youth and extend your longevity and fulfill all your days is to be perpetually in the presence of God. That that would be your dwelling place. Isn’t that what the Old Testament writers talked about, that He would be our dwelling place, that we would be found in the cleft of the rock, that we would be hidden in the secret place of the most high God, that we like David would pursue Him like the deer pants for the water brook. So our souls would pant and yearn and pursue after Him and learn to live from in here, our heart.
Don’t overlook the power of repentance …
So to become skillful in prayer, you’ve got to first learn how to live from your heart. And I just referenced this verse, but I’ll read it again, cuz it’s so good. But James 5:16 says in the Amplified classic. “Confess to one another therefore your faults. Your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins.” Why? Because God will forgive us. And honestly, one of the most important things that keeps you continually and seamlessly in connection with God the Father, and always with a sense of an awareness or a sense of His presence and what He’s saying is repentance. Don’t overlook the power of repentance as a practice in prayer. Just call a spade is spade. I mean, I try to get real specific. If I know I’m messing up, I just say, “Lord, I just call that out. I am sorry. I repent. And I just receive your forgiveness.” I honestly don’t usually ask even.
“Whoa, Ken, where’s this heresy coming from this Wednesday morning.”
No, God says He says He already forgives us. We need to learn how to receive. Repent! Yes. That means change your mind, turn, and go in another direction and then just simply receive and thank Him for His mercy. Just let the beauty and the fullness and the overwhelming goodness of His grace and mercy and fresh start… let it bathe you on a daily basis, whether you’re driving down the road or if something happens in the moment, say “I’m sorry. I repent.” I don’t mean you need to be like hyper whatever… but when you’re aware of it, just call it out. Be specific. Keep your heart open before God and perpetually receiving His grace and mercy.
But it says “confess to one another, therefore your faults, your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins, and pray also for one another, that you may be healed and restored to a spiritual tone of mind and heart.” It goes on to say “The earnest heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available, dynamic in its working.
And as pray-ers, if you pray for any length of time, you get to know how to pray certain things… parrot certain things, cuz you heard it somewhere else. Repeat it, in other words. And I’m not saying it’s not bad to repeat or pray out of the scripture. Absolutely. But what are the skills of effective prayer? Not only is praying from your spirit out of the well of the Holy Spirit in other tongues, but also getting real quiet and settling yourself down, but instead present and aware of Him. Maybe spending some time in the Word. Because you’re acquainting and becoming more familiar with the ways and the thoughts of God. And that alone is you’re getting close to the frequency of God and the way He functions. And so you begin to think and speak and will begin to pray as He does.
In the quietness, you’ll begin to pick up on the transmission of heaven…
But as you get quiet and listen, you’ll begin to pick up on that transmission that’s perpetually happening inside of you. You’ll start to hear things. I think it’s important to have a journal close by and a pen. Because there’s just something about putting pencil to paper and write. And there is a connection to your spirit. And you begin to write things that the Spirit of God is saying. I can look back even years ago, many times… I remember one time in particular, I was practicing the presence of God on a daily basis. I was in living in California, actually doing an internship in Azusa, California, which is a suburb in the inland empire of Los Angeles. And every day I would just pray. I’d force myself to write something, even if I didn’t feel inspired. And more often than not, that inspiration would come. The Holy Spirit, my coach, would come and I would begin to write things.
One day I wrote something that I didn’t realize quite how prophetic it was with dates and times. And it was six months later, I’d written down dates and times that sure enough… I didn’t realize it at six months later when what He said to me would come to pass, but I look back, I’m like, oh my gosh, that’s almost freakish how that happened.
God is all encompassing…
God is all encompassing. He’s got you today. He’s all encompassing regards to your family, your finances, your future. He’s got this thing. Prayer is simply transportation to travel down the road of God or the journey of God’s plan for your life. And it’s not just about you. Prayer is a relational journey that allows you to travel down the road that God has already prepared to access and to enjoy and to receive what He’s already prepared in every possible way. In addition to maybe pick up some passengers along the way in your prayer life. In other words, you’re picking people up and praying for them and helping move them into a position, helping them to move up into God, helping them to get their breakthrough, helping them to walk in the presence of God and begin to journey to know Jesus for themselves. And then in turn, begin to influence their children and their grandchildren. And suddenly this becomes a generational deal, and it begins to spread out and affect nations.
So prayer isn’t just this little, “Hey Lord, my name’s Jimmy. I’ll take all you can give me” kind of thing. This is an all-encompassing, beautiful journey that impacts us and releases and assigns power to us. But God’s intent is that it would become exponential in its impact, and it all starts in your heart. Not your head, not your emotions. I know those are components of your makeup and your being. But first and foremost, the eternal you, the part that’s been recreated in the image of God, the part that you can surely trust, because the Holy Spirit’s in there is your spirit. And if you’ll get quiet and you learn the practice of presence, not only presence of God, but being present instead of perpetually distracted by the Internet or whatever. And I’m preaching to myself here this morning, okay. You’ll begin to hear. You’ll begin to sense what to pray in your understanding. He’ll begin to assign to you… “I want you to go talk to this person and share this with them.”
Testimony of hearing God…
I was talking to R— earlier this week and she was sharing with me how God had given her assignment in church this last week to go talk to somebody. She was picking up her journey, her transportation of prayer was causing her to see a road sign, to catch a cue, to see her coach, the Holy Spirit, say “Go over to that young woman, have a conversation with her.” He gave some other instructions to her that she carried out and that woman began to melt with tears as she shared her story and what she was going through, which was really, really difficult. And in that moment, God began to minister to her true ministry just by her simple obedience transpired in that woman’s life. And I believe her life’s gonna be changed forever.
It starts by living out of your heart…
And so it all starts by living out of your heart. Your earnest heartfelt… not head thought up… not prayer you once memorized, although that may not be a bad thing… but heartfelt. Down in here. That’s why one word can change the whole situation, can shift a whole deal. Because if it’s a heaven-sent word, if God the Holy Spirit is coaching you, He’ll use that one word it’ll cause the whole line of demonic host, who’ve been warring, harassing, creating problems in that situation in your life to fall back in terror.
I’m gonna read this here. Pastor Lynne shared this prophetically a number of years ago in San Diego at a church. But this kind of syncs up with what I’m saying here. Some of this I’ve learned from her, honestly. I’m saying this to you, because you’ll find your prayers will become more effective, more targeted. Even Jesus taught, it’s not you’re much speaking or praying that causes you to be effective in the spirit. Once again, it’s hearing like Jesus said what the Father’s saying and seeing what He’s doing. And then just doing that. Following in our Father’s footsteps. He’s already gone before us. Pastor Lynne prophetically gave this word one time and she said, “And so there is a rising in prayer. There is a place now that the church can plead from. There is a position…”
There are things God wants to bring through you…
Actually I want to inject this. There isn’t like one spot in prayer. We all have a place that God has prepared for us in our relationship with Him and in prayer. We have assignments. There are things that He wants to bring through us. He wants to inspire you specifically to pray out, to lift up. Some things He wants you to contend for, maybe for years, maybe for a nation or something that’s just in your heart. And you just got to stay faithful to that and just know that God is using the heavenly materiality called faith that’s emanating through you to construct and create the reality of His intent for what you’re contending for, for what you’re praying for, for what you’re lifting up. That’s why the old timers in prayer used to have this phrase called “praying through.” Stay with it. Yes, there are some things you simply pray one time, the prayer of faith. And you believe you receive. But then there are other things that we continue to just have a conversation with the Father about. Some days there’s real impassioned prayer in tongues about a particular thing. And other days it’s “Lord, I just lift up so and so, or that deal over there.” And maybe that’s it. And then you maybe pick it up again the next day or the next week. But you always go to your heart. You get down inside and you get in touch with the Holy Spirit. You can trust what He’s saying.
You’ll make mistakes, but just keep going…
But what I wanted to say was there are different levels and promotions in prayer. Faithfulness, by the way, counts in the kingdom of God; as you’re faithful to take up that mantle and place of prayer… just walk with Him. It doesn’t mean you’re perfect. Doesn’t mean you have some tough seasons. But you just continue to go and walk with God. His grace where you mess up and make mistakes. Trust me, I’ve made many. I won’t elaborate, but His love and grace and patience were there. And I just picked up whatever I let go of in the spirit in prayer, in my walk. And I just kept going.
