Prayer Summary for Friday, August 04, 2017

Dave shared…

I’m a firm believer in God’s plan for us and what He planned out for us from the beginning. If you believe that, you have confidence… confidence you need to enter your day, to know that today is the day that the Lord has made, I will rejoice and I will be glad in it. The thing that the Lord speaks to me about on a regular basis is communion, communion, communion. Just that fellowship with the Father to be one with Him. Because we have need of Him. Life is not worth living without Christ. There’s no hope. What hope do you have? In your stuff? Stuff doesn’t give you anything. It makes you happy for about a couple seconds and then you’re onto the next thing. You go out and buy that nice shiny thing and just a short time after, you’re like, “Yeah, not so big.” Then you still got all the payments on it. You start realizing, that feeling didn’t quite do it for me and the pain and suffering I had to go through for that feeling was not worth it. That’s what they call the deceitfulness of riches. It is those things that we get caught up in the world.

The only satisfying thing in life—long term, effectual thing—that will give us satisfaction is knowing you have favor with God, that He loves you, and that you’re His. That’s the only thing that matters. Cuz I don’t care who you’re with, I don’t care how nice they are, they’re not going to meet every need that you have. It doesn’t exist. And that’s a fleeting idea. It’s a lie from the enemy. Where we think that somehow people are going to bring us to that place “If I just had them to do this and if they did that, I’d feel better about it. I would love my wife more… I’d love my husband if he just did that.” We live in this world where that is what we think upon and then we continually do that to ourselves and get disappointed after disappointment after disappointment. And then you become unhappy and you’re dissatisfied. And that whole cycle repeats again.

But I’m here to tell you that, that’s not the way it is with the Lord. Because He is faithful. All the time. Every single day, 365, He’s on. And He’s always there. For you. Whenever you need Him. And the Holy Spirit is there to give you that sense of who He is. That’s our connection. And that’s the thing especially the young these days that they call the millennials. I have some millennials, by the way. So I know whereof I speak. They look at life and they tend to see life as an experience of “feel good, kind of touchy feely kind of thing.” God’s not a touchy feely thing. God is a spirit and He communes with us in our spirits. And as we get connected to the Lord and we develop a communion with Him, really, all our problems go away. That’s really the answer to all the problems that anybody ever has, is that communion with God. That fellowship with God.

I remember brother Hagin talking about that. Being in the ministry for as long as he was, one of the things he would talk about was when he used to pray for his kids or for people for healing. He said he never just laid hands on the sick or he never just addressed the issue right away. He said he’d go away for a time and get that connection and find out what God was saying about that situation and address the issue. The thing with that is you get to the point in a fellowship with the Father whereas communion develops in your relationship with the Father, you get closeness with Him, and all He has to do is tell you “It’s going to be okay.” That’s all He has to do. And then just a still small voice “I’ve got this.” He tells you that, that’s all you need. You don’t need anymore. You don’t need to put all those scriptures on the refrigerator and repeat them every day, all day long and get on your knees and pray for two hours a day on that subject. You don’t need to do any of that.

I’ll give you a testimony of that. I was abroad in mainland China several years ago with my daughter, and she had a growth on her neck the size of a marble. The size of a dime, maybe. I took her on this trip. Before we went, I took her to the doctor and he told us “we need to operate right away and take care of this, otherwise it could be a problem.” I prayed about it and said, “Lord, what do you want to do.” She was already planning on going on that trip and we were going the next day. The Holy Spirit said, “Keep going in that direction.” So I did. Every single day on that trip, I’d pray for her in the morning. We’d get up and I’d lay hands on her and I’d quote the scriptures over her concerning healing, Isaiah 53. I did that every day. About a week into the trip, I’m in a taxi cab going to a meeting and I’m sitting in the cab with her. I’ve got my arm around her. She’s about 12 years old. I told her that I loved her. As I did that, the Holy Spirit said to me, “Stop thinking about it. Stop praying about it.” When He told me that, I said, “Okay. Got it.” And He wasn’t scolding me. It was just one of these things. Like He put Him arm on my shoulder and said, “Stop praying about it.” In other words, don’t worry about. Focus on what you’re doing.

I go into a meeting that night, sitting there next to me is my daughter and sister. I’m getting ready to go up and my sister says to me, “That thing on your daughter must be really bothering you.” About this time, it’s no longer the size of a dime. It’s the size of a quarter. It kept growing. I said, “Nope, it’s not bothering me. The Lord’s already talked to me about it. I’m done with it.” It was three or four days later, we’re on a flight back from mainland from Beijing. While I’m sitting there, my daughter starts itching her neck like this and she starts going, “Dad, this thing is really bothering me.” We’re right in the middle of the ocean, about half way and you can’t do anything there. I took my hand and put it on her neck and it was like somebody took a needle and popped that thing. It just [gerrrooop] and it was gone. Dissolved instantly! That was a miracle that God gave to me and her. That will always be with her what the Lord did for her.

But what I wanted to point out was not so much the miracle but the communion. In life, the thing I tell people is that for me the greatest thing I’ve ever seen any time I’ve ever seen miracles or any kind of manifestation of God’s grace has always been in that place of communion. Some of those places of communion are some of the hardest places in life. If you’re going through an illness or you’ve got a financial debt, or some kind of crisis, that is the time where you get closest to God. I’ll tell you why. Some people say, “God put that on you so that you could grow up…” No. He didn’t do that. I don’t look at issues like that as things God is teaching you a lesson, because God doesn’t look at those things as, “Okay, let’s see if you get through this one,” like putting roadblocks in front of you. That’s not God. What He does, He knows that He is able to overcome everything. God’s ability to destroy that which is before you is absolute. There’s no shadow of turning within Him. He knows whatever you face, He has overcome. He said He came to give life more abundantly.

That’s not abundant life when you’re suffering. People do that all the time. It may not be you or it might be a loved one. That’s what we’re here to do is to pray for people like that. It’s not praying for you. It’s praying for someone else. Those things that happen in life are not things that God’s doing to make you grow. He knows you can overcome this. But it’s that relationship and communion that connects you to Him that allows you to recognize that He is more than enough. That He is exceedingly and abundantly above all.

It’s almost like this. It’s like as you’re traveling down your life’s trail and the Lord is right there with you. He’s ready to pick up every heavy load that you have. He is well able to do it. So you’re on this journey and He’s with you, now the question is, are you going to do it or is He going to do it? Are you going to let Him do it? A lot of times we say, “Lord, I got this.” And we go right into it and do our thing and all of a sudden, we realize halfway through, “Oh my, this is way more than I thought. Lord, I’m weary. I’ve been working on this healing and what’s the deal here?” You’re working it. You’re “scripturing” it. You’re praying for it. You’re using your faith. You got your scriptures on your refrigerator. You got all your stuff and you’re working that thing and you’re getting a handle on it. You’re on top of it. You got the word in your mouth and you’re doing all these things. And Jesus is right back here waiting on you and you’re doing your thing. He’s like, okay, I’ll wait until they get enough sense to reach out to Me and then I’ll show them how to take care of it. That’s what it is, right there!

It isn’t Him saying, “Let’s see if you can do it.” It’s Him saying, “What are you doing?” You don’t have the ability to overcome it yourself. You never will. He never designed you to be separate from Him. You were created to have fellowship with the Father. You were created to be one with Him. Inseparable. That’s the way it’s supposed to be. That’s the design. And when you are separate from Him, that’s when you fail. When our weaknesses come up.

That’s why I say, “How in the world can you live in this world without Christ?” That’s why the world so much needs Christ. That’s why we share our faith with others, not because we have to build. “We got 50 this week, we got to get 100.” That’s goofy. It’s about, “Lord, they’re out there and they need You.” It’s the compassion in your heart to say, “I’m willing to go out there and grab those because I love them like You love them. I care for them the way you care for them. Lord, give me a heart for the lost, for those in need.”

Some people ask me why I spend my vacation time, especially people that aren’t religious, “Why do you spend your vacation time going out onto the missions field? Why waste your money on that? You could be going to the Bahamas or wherever. You could be refreshed.” No! Who else has the words of life? When you come into the knowledge of that truth, those things don’t matter to you anymore. They don’t matter to you because the true satisfying things, the things that feed your soul… remember what Jesus said. “My meat is to do the will of the Father.” That’s what ours is as well. Ours is to do the plan and purpose God has laid out for us.

Because only until we do those things will we be truly satisfied, because we can seek life and its “things” and they may give us a temporary fix if you will and a joy… that new pair of shoes, that dress, or that car or whatever it is we want, that might give us a temporary fix but at the end, it leaves you empty. Like I mentioned earlier, those things don’t matter. The true eternal things are the Lord’s plan and purpose He has for our lives. Those things are satisfying to me.

I like garage sailing. That seems contrary for me. People that know me say, “Why do you do that? You don’t need to do that, why do you do it?” Ask my wife. She says, “You just like going out there because you like to talk to people.” And she’s right. I get chances to tell people about the Lord and His goodness and spend time with them. I’ve had some wonderful things happen to me out there. I’ve had some miraculous things happen to me. Not just with people where they’ve been healed or delivered or set free and had the opportunity… It’s just my thing. I enjoy doing it. It feeds my soul.

I guess why I’m saying all of this is that I’m trying to get to this point. All these things are connected to that communion thing. That “knowing God” thing. That’s all that really matters. The scriptures are the thing that helps us learn. But you could read the scriptures all day and it not have any effect in your life. You can have it memorized and still not have any effect on your life. The thing that will affect in life is communion and the communion is predicated on your faith. And when you engage your faith based on direction the Holy Spirit gives you and you see things happen in your life based on your faith, that brings the depth in your relationship. The use of your faith is what brings depth in your relationship with the Father.

The reason why is because you see Him as He is. And when you see Him as He is, you become like Him. And you commune with who He is and you give to people. It’s satisfying to your soul. When you do something for somebody else, it’s like endorphins inside you that is a release inside—“Man I feel so good that I did that.” You ever minister salvation to someone and you walk away and it’s like you’re higher than a kite? Well, what is it? It’s not like you saved them yourself. No. It’s because you saw God in you in that situation. That’s why when I take people on missions trips from time to time; I tell people to go on a missions trip because what you see there, you see God. You see miracles and everything you read in the Bible. I’ve seen things happen that were just absolutely mind numbing, where you sit there for hours and think, “How is that even possible.” Can you imagine when Jesus spit on the clay and rubbed it into the guy’s eyes and he gets up and says “I can see.” You’re watching that and you know the guy, and he hasn’t ever seen ever. Born that way. You see that. What’s that going to do to your brain? That’s incredible. When you see that, you can’t deny God. When you run into situations and challenges in life, or you’re helping to pray for others, it gives you faith. You know it’s possible. You know that what you read in the Bible is real. You know that there is a living God and He delivers and miracles are for today.

When you’re not involved with any of that, you don’t know that. So all you know is what your senses tell you. That’s the thing that we need revival in the young these days. We need them to have that touch of that experience like my daughter when she was in that taxicab.

I remember when I was 10 years old. I was in a church service and I wasn’t even born again. My mom drug me to a church service. I don’t think either one of us were born again. Someone invited us. I was in the service and they’re playing music. I was sick. I had congestion. I didn’t want to go but I couldn’t stay home. So I was there and I remember the music going on and this warm feeling came over me. I was instantly healed. I didn’t even know what believing was. I just got healed. All I knew like that one who got healed in the Bible that was in front of the religious leaders and they asked him, “How did this happen? Tell me about the guy that did this for you.” He said, “I don’t know about all of that. All I know is I was blind and now I see.” That’s the way I was when I experienced that as a kid. It changed my life forever. We need to have that in our services in our community, in us… and we need to be part of that so those people around us can have their lives changed.

What I want to spend time today in prayer is praying for the youth in America, for the salvation of those who are not connected, who have no connection. You come here because you know there is something and you know how to connect to that. You see the value of it. That’s why you’re here today. But it’s rare to see many young people here. I’d love to see this whole place filled with young people seeking God. Taking it to the nations with all that energy.

Prayed…

Thank You, Lord, for Your revelation of the truth. Thank You for the help of the Holy Spirit to pray for those people in need, those young people at Living Word, that are being trained up, that they have the real thing. That it isn’t just a bunch of words or scriptures that mean nothing to them. But, Father, that it is a connection with You and the reality of Your presence and that You’re real to them.

I ask You to reveal Yourself to them and make Yourself known to them. Open the eyes of their understanding and enlighten every one of them to know the hope to which they have been called. Open their eyes, Father. I ask in the name of Jesus. The children, Lord, that are in this world that are influenced by natural things… the Internet, the junk that’s in the world, the things that cause them to stray from You. Though they may be sitting in that pew, they’re nowhere close to where You are at. I pray, Father, that You connect with them.

This weekend, they’re getting ready to go out into these meetings. They have camp this weekend. I lift them up that when they go that their lives are changed. That they are not the same when they come back. That they come back with a testimony knowing they had been visited by You. Just as you did with me when I was a young boy. Lord, how You visited me. You showed Yourself to me to let me know who You were. I pray in the name of Jesus, Father, and ask that You come down in these meetings and do the same for these children. Instill within them that connection that they can take for the rest of their lives, that memory, that thing that will keep them on the path of righteousness for Your name’s sake. That connection that communion, whatever it is they need, those kids who are on the edge where they feel lonely and feel separate. Those kids with problems that they can’t kick, and struggled with. Those struggles in the name of Jesus, we take authority over that darkness upon their lives and we loose it in Jesus’ name.

So this weekend is something that’s absolutely a monumental thing they can look back on. For the little ones, the young ones that are looking and observing. Reach them and change them forever, Father. We ask it in the name of Jesus.

Group prayed in the spirit…

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