Pastor Dustin welcome…
Welcome to Friday morning prayer. My name is Dustin Sherry and I am the youth pastor here at Living Word. I guess my title is Next Gen Pastor at Living Word Christian Center. And we want to welcome you and thank you for joining us this morning.
Sometimes I need to pray about what to pray about…
So whenever I pray, sometimes I’ll come in with a list of things that I want to pray about. Sometimes I have some things kind of on my heart. But I found, lately, it seems like I need to pray about what to pray about. You know what I’m talking about? There is so much going on in the world and so much happening around us. I like to spend some time praying in the Spirit just to get direction for which way we should go in prayer. So I’m just going to start by praying in the Spirit. I’d encourage you to join along.
If you’ve never prayed in the Spirit before, you can start today…
If you are watching or you’re here in this room and you have never prayed in the Spirit before, you might as well learn today. You might as well start today, right? Let’s just take a moment and talk about this. The Bible says that it’s a gift from God. The Holy Spirit is power. Jesus said it’s better for you that I go… He was talking to His disciples. And He said, it’s better for you that I go because I’m sending the comforter, the counselor, the intercessor, the strengthener, the advocate, the standby, the paraclete, the one who will come alongside you and aid and support you. The Holy Spirit is a gift. The Holy Spirit is your source of strength, your source of power. And when you yield yourself over to pray in the Spirit, the Bible says that you’re praying out God’s perfect for your life and for every situation.
When you pray in the Spirit, you pray out mysteries…
When you pray in the spirit, you’re praying out mysteries. Sometimes you read the news or something’s happening in your life, or sometimes you just feel an unction to pray. And sometimes we don’t exactly know what to pray. And when you find yourself in that place, you yield yourself over and you begin to pray in the Spirit. You begin to pray in tongues. And the Bible says that as you do that, you’ll pray out God’s perfect will for that situation. When you pray in tongues, there’s a lot that it does. But one of the things that praying in tongues does is it strengthens you internally. The Bible says it edifies you. The apostle Paul walked in a lot of power. He walked in a lot of authority as a Christian. And he said, I thank God that I pray in tongues more than all of you. I think the two are connected, right?
Walk you through praying in tongues…
Praying in tongues connects you and it gets you in the spirit I think better than anything else. It’s powerful and it’s a gift. So I want to take some time and walk somebody through this. Maybe you’ve prayed in tongues before, but it’s always felt awkward or forced. Maybe you’ve never done it before. You’re open to it, but you’ve never done it. You don’t know how to do it. I compare it to this.
I’ll share my experience…
When I was young, like five or six years old. I’d asked Jesus in my heart early on in my life. I was at a friend’s house and their mom came into the room and said, “Hey, we’re going to pray in tongues for half an hour.” And I was like, “What is that? I don’t know what that is.” Like I said, I was five or six. My friend goes, “Oh, don’t worry about it. Just repeat after me.” He goes, (speaks in tongues…) He said, just repeat that over and over. It’s like, okay. (Speaking in tongues) And so we set cushions on the floor. We pretend that the ground was hot lava and we jumped from cushion to cushion, just praying (speaking in tongues). And so that little phrase (speaks phrase in tongues) kind of stayed with me for years. And so growing up in a church that believed in praying in tongues, whenever they would say “Let’s pray in the Spirit, let’s pray in tongues,” I would always say (speaks phrase in tongues). And so I didn’t know a lot about it. I didn’t have a lot of teaching on it or if I did, I wasn’t paying attention. That could have been the case.
And so I would have these thoughts while I was praying in tongues. “You’re not really filled with the Spirit. You don’t know what you’re doing. You’re just imitating what your friend did. That’s not real. That doesn’t count.” And all of these years passed and I felt really insecure about it, but I was probably in pride or something and I never wanted to admit to anybody, “Hey, I actually don’t know how to pray in tongues. I don’t think I’m actually filled with the Spirit.” So I kept doing my little phrase.
I was in a church service here at Living Word and Pastor Lynne was talking about prayer and how God will expand your prayer languages. And I heard Pastor Mac’s story about how he was filled with the Spirit. I’m paraphrasing, but basically somebody met with him and said, “Make a sound… make an utterance.” And he was like, “oh, uh, oh, uh…” You know, something like that. And it took him time to develop and grow his prayer language. And so I realized that was the same for me. It wasn’t that I wasn’t filled with the Spirit. It wasn’t that I couldn’t pray in tongues. I just never been taught before. I had never taken time to really allow the Spirit of God to help me grow my prayer language. I never stepped out and made another sound or utterance because I was afraid, or I didn’t know what to do.
And so maybe it’s the same for you…
Maybe when you’ve prayed in the Spirit, it felt kind of forced and you just got your little phrase you keep repeating over and over again. I would just encourage you to, as we’re praying this morning, take time. If it helps you to close your eyes, you can close your eyes. But just really allow the Spirit of God to help expand that prayer language.
So if you’ve never prayed in the Spirit before, it’s as simple as receiving Jesus as your Lord and Savior. And then from that place… We’ll do it together in a moment. But it’s as simple as receiving Jesus, thanking Him for filling you with His Spirit, and then stepping out in faith and believing that He’s going to meet you in that place and help you.
You have to step out and make a sound… God won’t do it for you…
So a lot of people, when it comes to tongues, have this idea that God’s gonna fall on them and do it for them. So I like to say it like this, God wants you to give Him an offering, but He doesn’t take the wallet out of your back pocket, open it up and start taking cash out of it and put it in the offering. I’m sure if God could, a lot of pastors would pray that He would, but He doesn’t do that. God wants you to worship, but He doesn’t lift your hands for you. You lift your hands, right? God wants you to pray, but He doesn’t take over your mouth and start praying for the government for you. You have to do that.
It’s the same thing with tongues…
You have to open up your mouth, make the sound, make the utterance and trust that God is meeting you in that place. And He’s turning that into something supernatural. It’ll probably sound stupid or foolish to your natural mind. But that’s okay. It isn’t about what makes sense to your natural mind. It’s about trusting God’s Word and stepping out in faith. And it takes an amount of time. God will work with people in different ways. But it kind of takes an amount of time to grow in your prayer language. So an example that I give is like, when I first started speaking Spanish, I could say like “hola” and it was very bad, very broken, kind of awkward sounding. But the more I studied, the more I practiced, the more fluent I became in it.
Now you can’t take out a book on tongues and practice tongues that they have written down. It’s not really like that. But the more you practice it, the more you do it, the more fluent it’s going to become, and the more God will expand your prayer language.
Opportunity to receive Jesus…
So before we pray together, I want to just give everybody an opportunity to receive Jesus. So if you would, just close your eyes. If you’re here in this room or if you’re joining us online, just close your eyes for a moment. If you’re joining us online right now, you’ve probably heard some of these things before. But in case you haven’t, the Bible says that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life.
Romans 10:9 says if you believe in your heart and you confess with your mouth that Jesus died on the cross and rose from the grave, you will be saved. You don’t have to jump through a bunch of hoops. You don’t have to join a church first. Joining a church is good, but it isn’t what saves you. It’s believing and accepting the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and allowing Him to be Lord of your life. And that happens through confession. It’s called confessional Christianity. You’re declaring what you believe.
Receiving Jesus is the most important decision you will ever make…
So I want to give everybody an opportunity to receive Jesus this morning. That’s the first step in praying in the Spirit. That’s really the first step in walking out the divine plan that God has for your life. It all starts with making Jesus the Lord of your life. Like Pastor Mac says, until you get that issue settled, there’s nothing else of significance. It is the most important decision you will ever make in your life. So just say this with me this morning.
Prayer to receive Jesus as Lord…
“Heavenly Father, thank you for sending Jesus as a sacrifice for all of my sins—past, present, and future. Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross. I believe you were raised from the grave. I receive your abundant life. I give you all of me and I receive all of you. Thank you for saving me, in Jesus’ name. Amen.”
The greatest miracle…
If you said that prayer for the first time, the Bible says that the greatest miracle that could ever happen has happened. And you’ve been translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of His dear Son. It says that you’re a child of God. It says that all the angels in heaven are rejoicing. That’s not a fairy tale. That’s real. Heaven is your home. God is your Father.
You can step into what you were created to be…
And so after that, now you can begin to step into who you were created to be, what you’re called to do. You can begin to live life with power and authority here on this earth. Jesus said in Acts 1:8, “But you shall receive power, ability, efficiency and might when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be my witnesses.” There is a power that’s available to us in the Holy Spirit. And so I want to lead you in a prayer again. If you would just say this with me.
Prayer to be filled with the Spirit…
“Heavenly Father, thank you for filling me with your Spirit. I receive it. I receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit. And I believe that I will have the evidence of speaking in tongues.”
Open your mouth and make a sound…
Now I want you to begin to do this with me. I want you to take a step of faith like we talked about a moment ago. Take a step of faith and open up your mouth, begin to make a sound, make an utterance. (speaks in tongues) Make a sound, make an utterance (tongues) You’re not praying out a language that you understand. You’re praying out a heavenly language, a divine language. You’re bypassing your will and your intellect and your emotions. You’re not praying from your understanding. You’re praying by and through the Spirit of God. Just begin to yield yourself over. When I say “yield,” I mean that you have the will, you have the authority to decide whether or not you’re going to pray in the Spirit. God doesn’t do it for you. You have to yield. You have to respond. You have to open up your mouth.
Being filled with the Spirit is not a one-time event…
Yes, Father, we thank you for filling people right now. Filling people in this room. Filling people online with your Spirit… being filled with the Spirit is not a one-time event. The Bible says to be being filled… stay filled… be filled continually… Yes, you weren’t just filled today and that’s enough for the next 60 years. Just because you started praying in the Spirit back in 1983. It doesn’t mean you’re set now until the return of Jesus. You have what you need, yes that’s true. But the Bible says that you have to continually keep yourself filled, stay full of the Word. Stay full of the Spirit. Stay filled with hope. Filled with strength. Filled with power. Filled with compassion.
Prayed…
Lord, I pray that the Church would be filled with compassion, like Jesus moved with compassion when He saw the loss moved with compassion. That the Church would be moved with compassion.
Tips for praying in the spirit…
And so as you’re praying in the Spirit, you’ll begin to think of words. Images will come to your mind. And some of those things are for you to declare and speak out loud. And so as a word comes up in your spirit, it doesn’t have to make sense to your natural mind. But as a word comes up in your spirit, if you feel like you’re supposed to declare it, declare that thing. Say that thing out loud.
Prayed…
Yes, Father, I thank you for an awakening … for blinders being removed… people seeing the truth… not led away by the lies… they would see the truth… the truth of who they are… the truth of what they’re called to do … the truth in each situation … yes, you have the Spirit of truth, the Bible says living on the inside of you… and the Bible says He will lead you and He will guide you in all truth… so you can look inward and you can listen to His voice speaking…
Some are confused and don’t know what to believe anymore…
For those saying, “I just don’t know what to believe anymore.” Well, be being filled… stay filled with the Spirit of God and allow the Spirit of truth to lead you and guide you … think of the time of Jesus, think of the time of Paul… there was no news that I’m aware of. There was no news. There was no social media. There was none of that. But yet Jesus was able to live His life with great accuracy. Because He was led and guided and controlled by the Spirit of God. You have everything that you need… Ephesians 1:3 says “Every spiritual blessing in heavenly places has been provided to you. May blessing, praise, laudation be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual given by the Holy Spirit blessing and heavenly realm.” Everything that you need, every gift, every equipping has been given to you and is your inheritance through Christ. Everything that you need, you already have. Just allow that truth to sink into your spirit. Everything that you need, you already have. All the wisdom that you need, it’s your inheritance in Christ. All of the healing that you need, it’s your inheritance in Christ… protection, favor…
Prayed…
Yes, Father, we thank you. We see it. Father. We see it. We see it. We see it. We see that it’s ours. We see that it’s available to us. And so we respond to that word, and we step out in faith and we determine in our hearts to do what you’ve directed us to do with it. We will not hide back in fear. We will not see ourselves as victims or less than our circumstances. We know the truth that we are well equipped. We have more than enough to do what you’ve called us to do in this season. You looked throughout time and you knew that in order for your plan to be realized, you had to have us here. And so you placed us here for this day and for this hour that we’re living in. And you’ve equipped us to walk out your will and your purpose and to build your kingdom in this earth right now.
Prayer for this church
Lord, I pray that this church, this group of people, this community of believers, I pray that they would see themselves as ministers of reconciliation. They would see themselves as a royal priesthood. They would see themselves as able ministers …
Prayer that the body of Christ would step into her place…
Father, we pray that the body of Christ would step into their place, that they would wake up and they would step into their place… and they would preach the gospel. They would lay hands on the sick. They would cast out demons. They would fulfill the mission and the calling and the assignment that you’ve given them.
I thank you, Father, for unity and for boldness, unity and boldness for the body of Christ. Every joint, every ligament, every part of the body coming together.
Morning Prayer YouTube Playlist
We’ve created a YouTube playlist for you, our pray-ers. You now have the opportunity to listen, watch, and prayer with us any time that fits your schedule. Each video is titled with the day and date of morning prayer.
