I just want to echo what Matt said a few weeks ago about coming up here and doing prayer.
It's something that I don't think he took lightly or nor am I.
His presence is strong this morning.
I'm reminded in Psalms 23, I make a place, a table for you in the midst of your enemies.
We're at the table today.
There's darkness all around in the world.
We're at his table today.
And it doesn't matter what's going on on the outside because we're with him.
He spoke to me, I don't know, a while ago.
He's been speaking to me about some things.
Part of me misses the West because I love the atmosphere, the community.
They love God out there.
It's the total opposite of what it's like in this region.
And the part of me misses that.
But I would not trade what God is doing here for anything out there.
Because you can't find what God is doing here in many places.
My wife and I would always be like, when we were out West, if we would stop doing what we're doing, where would we go out here?
And we'd always look there's nothing.
We went to many different places and there's just not the atmosphere of God's presence like there is here.
So this morning I just want to reverence his presence, honor his presence, think for his presence.
Because it's not a small thing to come into his presence.
Without his presence, I would not be here.
Amen.
So let's start on what God placed on my heart when I was asked to come up and do prayer.
He gave me a word.
And it's going to sound like, when I'm going through this, how this sounds like a rebuke or a hard lesson.
But it's not.
What he's saying, it's a reminder of not getting into complacency.
Or just in the sense of expecting that we don't have to do anything.
God's just going to take care of it.
We still have a part in it.
And he gave me this word. He said, ask in prayer.
Sometimes we can get so used to God just performing the miracles, doing the things that he does.
That sometimes we just expect him to do it.
Which is, it's a good thing, but it can be a bad thing because God wants us to ask him.
And he gave me this analogy. I have teenagers.
Well, two teenagers. The others are in their 20s now.
But when they would come and ask me for something, like, let's say they wanted to borrow the car.
I'm going to say yes.
But I don't want them to come up, hey dad, give me the keys. I'm taking the car.
Hey dad, I'm going out tonight.
I'll be back around 10.
No, ask me.
There's a reverence and an honor that just ask me.
I'll give you, but just ask me.
It's not that he's not going to answer the prayer.
Just ask because it's an honor and a reverence.
And it goes along with what Pastor Igor has been talking about.
It brings the lowliest of mind. It brings the humility into it.
You are in the authority. You are the Father.
I come and I ask you, Father, may I?
Yes, my son. Yes, my daughter.
But he brought me to James chapter 4.
Now, if you read the Bible, especially in the New Testament,
there's a lot of good scriptures about ask.
Ask and they'll be given to you. Seek and you'll find.
Keep knocking and the door will be open.
Whatever you ask in my name will be done for you.
These are great Bible verses, but no, he brings me to James 4.
Chapter 4, verse 2.
If you back up to let's go to 1 and get a run and start, he says,
Where do wars and fights come from among you?
Do they not come from your desires, pleasures that were in your members?
Verse 2, You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain.
You fight and war. Second part of verse 2.
Yet you do not have because you do not ask.
And that's the one he impressed on my heart.
You don't have because you don't ask.
Sometimes we get so used to God being in our lives that we forget just to ask.
I have notes. I don't know if I'm going to go on doing.
He wants us to ask him.
And then he brings me out of the second part of verse...
He goes into verse 3.
Then you ask, but you ask amiss.
You ask with the wrong motives.
So here's what's going on in the church.
Is there trying to accomplish God's will in the flesh?
And they're starting to fight and they're starting to quarrel.
They're starting to have these things rise up.
And James is telling them, stop it.
You need to ask and then you need to ask with the right motives.
Because some of their motives were wrong.
And even our motives can be wrong. We could think it's good.
Like Lord, we ask for this building, but it's the motive right for this building.
Is it the motive of God give us this building so that we can prove to everybody how good we are and how spiritual we are.
Or are we building this building because we need a place to put the babies which God asked many years ago.
He's preparing this body, but he needs the physical church.
He asks us, where am I going to put the babies?
That's not just preparing us, which we're walking through now.
But we need an actual physical place that they can come and they can rest in the presence like we rest here.
Now we can do that anywhere, but there's something about coming together in this setting.
Leaning on one another, encouraging one another.
I get so much encouragement coming here and seeing people in just the smiley faces.
I mean, I'm looking at them now and I didn't have this for 13 years that I have it here.
Can't take it lightly. Lord, we ask, but we ask with the right motive.
We need to check our heart.
So why do prayers go unanswered?
The first one I covered, we just don't ask.
Secondly, the lack of faith or doubt.
We continue into James chapter, if we go back to James chapter one verse six, seven, it says,
but let him ask in faith with no doubting for who who doubts is like a wave of the sea.
Let not that man suppose he will receive anything from the Lord.
If we have doubt, if we question, if we are tossed to and throw, because one day you may be asking
and if you're not in faith, circumstances may change, circumstances might come up
and now you're tossed to the other side and you're like, well, God, I don't know if this is going to work.
You're doubting and God says that prayer will not be answered.
So we have to be firm in the faith that what we ask for God will do.
Don't doubt, have faith.
Prayers of unbelief will be hindered. That's obvious because the promises come by faith.
We are called to trust God's character and promises when we pray.
Whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them and you will have them.
A heart of faith honors God, whereas persistent unbelief hinders our prayers and hinders God.
It ties his hands. Just believe, just step into it.
And if you don't see the answer, there's a timing to God's promises.
I'm going to give a testimony on that.
I was 24 years old, 23, 24 years old, and I asked God for a child.
We prayed and prayed and prayed. We fasted and fasted. We believed. We done things.
We were doing what God was asking us to do, but the promise wasn't coming.
And see, we could have gotten into doubt. We could have gotten into unbelief.
And we would have never got the promise, but his timing, and I'm going to tell you why he probably tarried.
Because I see it now. I didn't see it then, but I see it now because of...
I said it's 2020, right?
I see it now because I want to have my other son.
I want to have my daughter.
Because I would have had my biological kid.
And I would want to protect that. I probably would have never done the foster care.
I would have never took... because we took the hardest of hard kids because God asked,
these are the kids that nobody wants. Will you take them?
Yeah, I suppose.
You know you're going to go through abuse, right? Yeah, I'll take them.
I will love them the way you love them more because you'll give me the grace to do it.
And because I was faithful in what he said, he gave me my son.
We never doubted for one minute.
We questioned if we... we did question, are we doing the right things for God?
We never doubted, God can't answer.
And as for the building, the right motive for the building,
I want to say this because God brought this up to me.
When we were... just so you know a little bit of history,
before we came to Word of Life, me and my wife lost everything.
We lost our house, we lost our cars, we lost our jobs. We had nothing.
We came to Word of Life, we learned about tithing, we learned about all this stuff.
And God began to just lift us out of that hole.
Sent us to Idaho with nothing.
No money, no place to live, nobody... we didn't know a single person.
He blessed us with a house.
Then we began to do his work of the foster care.
We had a 1500 square foot house. We can only take so many kids.
We can only take two at a time.
We want more.
So he blessed us and we built a bigger house.
And when we built this house, we built it with the idea,
this is not our house. This is a tool of ministry
so that we can have more kids so we can minister to more
and bring more out of the darkness into the kingdom of light.
Same thing with the building.
We're not building this because we just want a bigger building to look good.
We want this building, the motive for this building
is so that we can put people in this
that can encounter the Spirit of God and have changed lives.
Not just a wimpy prayer.
Not just a wimpy, you know, like,
I accept Jesus for insurance,
but they are radically encountered with the Lord and Savior of the universe.
That they are changed forever.
That's why we're doing it. That's our motive.
That is our heart.
Another thing that he pressed on me,
why we have unanswered prayer is our cherished sin.
Well, that sounds like, yeah, I was out smoking.
I was out drugging. I was out doing things I shouldn't have been doing.
But it goes deeper than that.
What he pressed upon me is the seers that we are going through,
of lowliness of mind.
There is a conviction going through this body of Christ
to change us into the more image of Christ
so we can receive those that who need us.
And if we refuse to listen to that conviction
and obey what he is saying,
we are entering into sin and rebellion.
And that will hinder the prayers of God.
If we want this house to move forward,
we have to embrace the conviction
and we have to walk it out and say,
yes, Lord, even though it is uncomfortable and it may hurt
and it humbles us, we need to do it.
Or else the prayers will be unanswered.
Does that make sense?
Isaiah 59-2 says,
our sins have hidden his face from you
so you will not hear.
That scares me.
It puts me in the fear of the Lord
because if I am in sin, my prayers will not be answered.
If I am in rebellion towards God
towards the conviction that he has given me,
my prayers won't be answered.
And my prayers are for the souls of the next generation.
My heart is to see them encountered
and saved and radically just declare
in boldness the Word of God is standing for truth.
So, Lord, search my heart like David said.
If there is anything in my heart
because the heart is deceitful.
If there is anything in me, show me
so that I can change it.
If we go on to James,
I love James.
Chapter four, we keep reading
he addresses that situation.
And verse six,
but he gives more and more grace
through the power of the Holy Spirit
to defy and live obedient life
that reflects both our faith
our gratitude for salvation.
Therefore, it says, God is opposed to the proud.
If we're not willing to listen
and embrace the conviction of the Holy Spirit,
we are standing in pride.
I know better. I can do it.
This isn't a big deal.
He may be asking you to put your phone down.
He may be asking you to shut off the TV.
He may be asking you to come to prayer
on Friday nights.
You know, it was hard for me and my wife
to get to prayer this last Friday.
The conviction of the Holy Spirit says, you need to be there.
You know, on Friday, by the time I get to Friday,
I'm dog tired.
I work hard during the week.
I got groups that I got to prepare for.
There's many things that go on.
Friday night comes, I just want to rest.
But the Holy Spirit said, no, you need to come
and pray.
So I have to sacrifice my flesh,
I sacrifice the thing that I want
and say, yes, Lord, I will.
Because if I don't, I'm in disobedience.
And then he begins to resist
the things that I'm trying to do.
As opposed to the proud and the haughty,
but continually gives the gift of grace
to the humble who turn away from self-righteousness.
So submit to the authority of God,
resist the devil, stand firm against him,
and he will flee from you.
Come close to God with a contrite heart.
I'm reading on the Amplified.
And he will come close to you.
Wash your hands, your sinners, and purify
your unfaithful hearts, you double-minded.
We have to get to the point
where we don't want the sin in our life
because the sin hinders the prayers
that God is trying to accomplish in this region.
Another thing that hinders the prayer
is broken relationships and unforgiveness.
We've been talking about things of
offense.
When God is moving,
offense rises every single day.
There is opportunity for me to be offended
and it's over little, minute things
that don't even matter to the kingdom of God.
And I daily have to say,
I will not be offended.
And if you get into...
and here's the thing, something might be said
that offends you, but you misheard
what was spoken, and so then you begin
to dwell on it, feast on it,
and then it turns into this big, huge thing.
If you would just go to the person and say,
hey, I want to clarify something
so the devil doesn't lie to me.
This is the way I heard it. This is the way you meant it.
And you're probably going to find out,
no, and the offense is over.
But we carry that. We don't take the time
to go up to the person and say,
I need some clarification on what you said.
And so then we carry around the offense
and then there's division, strife,
and the prayers that we pray are now hindered.
I like what Pastor Igor said the other day,
last week.
We are not in competition.
We are not in competition.
We're here for one another. We're here to work
with one another. We're here to lift
and encourage one another up.
We're in this together.
We're in the fight together.
We're brothers and sisters in arms
in the army of God.
And now what has happened,
how much more?
How much more
with the recent events that just happened?
Do we need to lean and encourage one another
to be bold to speak
and not to shrink back
but to move forward even stronger?
I know he's going to talk about Charlie Kirk,
but I just want to say this.
He reminds me of Stephen in Acts
because
Stephen's persecution, the gospel
spread.
Because of the persecution, the gospel
will spread.
Lastly,
not aligning our will
with God's will. We have to make sure
we hear what he is saying
and align ourselves
with his will,
his desires
and how do we do that?
We must
abide
in the Savior.
We must
abide in the Word.
As we
abide in Him,
He begins to pour Himself into us.
He begins to pour His desires into us,
which then become our desires
and then we begin to pray those out
and He will answer those prayers.
So He started with the word
ask
and that's what
the Bible verse He gave me.
There's plenty.
I mean, if I really wanted to go deep
we could spend weeks and years
on this.
But then He said,
we need to come in unity in our prayers
that we are praying for the same thing
that we are on the same page
and we are praying for the same thing
and so
Abby mentioned this at prayer on Friday
that to write the vision down plainly on a tablet
so that all who can see it will run with it.
A paraphrase.
And so God gave me
basically
said it to me but
as a faith aid
but more of a vision directive.
And so I went to pastor
and I said, hey, this is what God is showing me
telling me what is the exact
vision for word of life
because God is going to give him the vision
and pass it on to us that we may run with it.
Right?
So I go to him and I said, what is the vision?
Send it to him. He sends it back.
Great. Let me take it down. Let me break it down.
I wrote something out.
They have a little back and forth
and tweaked it and
ushers. Can I get a couple ushers?
What I want to do is hand out one to everybody.
Take it home every day. Look at it.
Pray it out. And what we are going to do here today
is we are going to begin to pray this out.
And we are going to ask God.
When we went to Idaho
the Holy Spirit spoke a lot of things to me.
He is just bringing them up
because what is odd and strange about it
the things that he said weeks before
we left are actually pertaining
to today. I thought they were for
us going out to Idaho.
They weren't. They were actually for us
for me today, which I am finding out.
He is revealing. I told you this for today.
But this is a good principle to live by.
He told me
that everything that you do
must be birthed out of prayer.
It is prayer that moves the heart of God.
It is prayer that puts action to God's hands.
It puts action on us
to come in agreement with the Spirit.
You are the one.
What I want to do is I want to start
praying this out.
And as I pray this out
coming to agreement. So if you would like to stand
sit however you want to do come
and join me in a prayer
for the vision directive of word of life
TBO and Red Lake
in this region.
First and foremost, God, we come and we just
give you the honor that you
are due here today.
We recognize your presence in this place
and we thank you, Lord, that your presence
is here. Lord, if your presence
is not here, I do not want to be here.
Where your presence
goes, that's where I want to be.
Lord, I give you honor and I give
you praise and I thank you so much
for being here and seeing us.
So Lord, we ask as a church
and we call for the blessing of God
to come upon every person
to come upon the house
this house TBO
and Red Lake. We call the blessing
on every human being that comes
into agreement here today. We call
the blessing upon them all.
We call the blessing upon the region,
Lord, that everybody will be
blessed and empowered to prosper
down the road. There will be no hindrance.
We ask you, Lord, for the blessing
to come upon this church in the name
of Jesus. We ask you with a humble
heart, Lord.
We call that blessing. Lord, we ask
and we call in the salvation
of today. We call in
salvation for the next generation.
Lord, just not some wimpy salvation
for an insurance card that I get to go ahead
but an encounter with you, Lord.
We ask for true encounters
with you, Lord Jesus Christ.
That will change hearts and minds
forever for your glory.
For your glory.
For the glory of the Father, the Most
High God.
We call in and ask for salvation.
We ask for miracle signs and wonders
that will glorify the name of Jesus Christ.
Lord, I pray that none of us
will siphon off your glory
but we'll
give it back to you.
Thank you.
Lord, we ask and we call for the blessing
of unity.
We will be a house
unified.
Lord, we ask for the unity to come into
the spirit of unity to be in this place
always. Lord, that any
lie that tries to come into our ears,
we reject it and we push it
out in the name of Jesus.
We don't receive the lies of the enemy.
We don't receive negative
talk of other people. We don't receive
things that are not of your kingdom
into our ears. We reject
them in the name of Jesus.
So Lord, we ask for unity.
We ask for unity
that there will be no strife and
no division. It does not
have a place here.
We do not accept it. We do not allow it.
We ask and we declare that
this house will major on the majors
and minor on the minors.
We will not make
more hills out of ant hills.
We will not take the little
things that make them big, but we'll take
the big things and we'll magnify them
because they will glorify the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
They will glorify the Father in heaven.
Number two.
We pray for the fear of the Lord.
Lord, we ask
for the fear of the Lord.
Give us
the fear of the Lord.
Show us what the fear of the Lord is.
Give us, Lord, we ask
that we have the fear of the Lord
in us.
We ask
for the fear of the Lord to fall on every
heart, every single heart
in this body right now.
Lord, we ask for it. Holy Spirit
come and give us the fear of the Lord.
We ask and pray
that the reverence for this
holiness we ask, Lord
that your holiness will be
repentance to the nations,
be repentance to this generation,
be repentance to this region,
be repentance to this state,
bring repentance to this county
and to this town, Your holiness
will be repentance, Lord.
We ask for your holiness to shine
bright and to bring repentance
across this land, across this nation,
across this world.
Because the reverence of your holiness will bring obedience and transformation.
We declare we will be a people who will not bow to the devil.
We will not be a people who bow to demonic forces or to the deception of the evil that
is pressing against the culture and the church.
You know, I did this.
We wrote this before the events of this last week.
We will be a church that stands against darkness.
We will be Lord.
We ask for the courage.
We ask for the strength.
We ask for the boldness to be able to stand against the evil and the darkness that is pressing against this generation and the pressing against this culture.
Gives us the courage to do so, Lord.
We pray that we are part of the last day's bride church that is pure, holy, and ready for the coming king.
Number three.
But we call for the hovering and the brooding of the spirit.
We ask and call for the Holy Spirit to hover and brood over the people, over the city, and over the region.
We will embrace the spirit's role to prepare.
God has put this on my heart heavy this morning that we will embrace the role of the spirit to prepare us for what is coming.
We embrace it.
Lord God, we embrace what you are giving us right now in the name of Jesus.
We embrace the conviction.
We embrace the correction.
We embrace the change that you want us to do.
We embrace the process, Lord.
We embrace the spirit's role in the preparation to birth and bring forth the will of God in this generation.
We need to embrace it for the generations, people.
We embrace it for the generations.
It is not just for us, but we embrace this role that the Holy Spirit has for us.
We embrace the preparation for the next generation.
We ask you to declare that the atmosphere here at Word of Life TBO and Chief Cornerstone will be saturated with His presence where revival fire is kindled and sustained.
Lord, we ask for a sustaining fire.
We ask for a fire that will not go out.
We ask for a fire that will burn up all the chaff and leave the purity of your bride.
We ask God in the name of Jesus Christ right now.
We ask for chukorahinanamayabrasonnuryati.
And we welcome the Holy Spirit to move in freedom, to convict, to heal, and to deliver, and to empower us in the Holy Spirit.
We, we, kurya risai rocipani androca.
We welcome it.
Number four.
We pray for the hand of the Lord to move.
We ask and pray that the mighty hand of the Lord to move in signs and wonders.
We ask and pray for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that will mark this generation.
Lord, we ask that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit will mark this generation.
In the name of Jesus, they will be sealed by the Holy Spirit.
We ask and we pray for your outpouring.
Outpour, pour your spirit out upon this generation.
Mark them, Jesus. Mark them.
We ask and pray that God hands guides us through the generational and spiritual shift with boldness and faith.
God gave me a picture this morning on this one.
Everybody who's 50 and above, can you remain standing? Everybody else sit down.
I want to thank you and honor all of you.
Every single one of you.
For the prayers and the labor that you have done so that we can stand here today.
I have sent you to read for what you have not labored.
Others have labored and you have entered into the labors.
We will reap a harvest because of your labor.
Because of your prayers and the seeds that you guys have planted, watered and cultivated.
Thank you.
Everybody who is from the age 30 to 50, please stand up and we'll sit down.
We are the transition team.
We take what that generation has given us and labored for and we give it to the next.
It is our job to impart into them the things that the generation before us have done.
The wisdom that they have done and the seeds that they have planted inside of us and have given us.
It is now our job and our duty to carry this on.
Their time is not done and don't get me wrong.
We need them more than ever.
And I am grateful for them.
But God is placing a mantle upon us.
Do not take it lightly.
You guys can sit and everybody else has what's not called please stand.
Young ones.
Especially you guys back there.
Your voice matters.
I was praying for y'all this morning and God said your voice is not silenced.
Your voice is not quiet.
Your voice is loud.
You have a voice.
Hear me.
I am prophesying to you.
You have a voice.
Rise up and speak it out.
Take what these people have done for you.
Embrace it and speak the truth of God everywhere you go.
You are a force to be reckoned with.
What God has planned for you is beyond our imagination.
It is what pastors have said.
Our floor is your ceiling.
Whereas we have left off.
You will take it further.
But when I prayed for you this morning it hit me so hard.
You have a voice.
You have a voice.
And I broke down.
Because the spirit of God was on that.
You have a voice.
You can be seated or stand.
Number five.
Lord we ask and we pray for the radical salvation and transformation.
We ask and declare that many will be radically saved and baptized in the Holy Spirit.
Lord they will be empowered to move in the Holy Spirit to declare your word with boldness in the name of Jesus.
We ask and declare that people will be transformed into obedient sons and daughters who will be disciples living in the fullness of what Jesus purchased.
Number six.
We ask and we pray for the provision of the physical building.
Lord to gather those that you are going to save.
To gather for future generations during the coming outpour of the Holy Spirit and revival.
Lord we ask and we declare that all needs are supplied by the heavenly Father according to his riches and glory.
And we believe that we are building the future of the church on the word, on the Holy Spirit and the supernatural vision.
From this foundation we ask to be a spiritual building that is built for the generations to come.
We will become a church ready for the outpour of the Holy Spirit.
A church that will not compromise.
We will be a people who will walk in unity.
We will be a people who will walk in faith and power.
We will embrace the call to be the church of the last days,
anchored in the word, moving in the Holy Spirit and expecting the supernatural to operate in our everyday lives from moment to moment to moment.
We bring these requests to you, Lord, and we ask of them in the name of Jesus Christ.
Lord, we do not doubt in our hearts.
And if there is anything that is sinful in us, Lord, show us, convict us that we may repent and change of it.
Lord, let our prayers not be hindered.
Let them go forth and accomplish what they were meant to do.
Let them break through the darkness that is out there and into the life of the Holy Spirit.