Discipleship in Prayer
Sunday, March 20, 2022 – RECAP/Study Points
I am shifting the onus on you all… I am making it your responsibility, to disciple. I am placing you in a position that is making a greater demand on you to be able to teach what you are hearing here. This week you will be required to speak with someone about this lesson. You can open conversation with… do you know that there are different kinds of prayer?
Dr. DeeDee: “You (Pastor Mike) said you were shifting the culture of this ministry and I would like to say maybe you’re being a little bit more intentional in putting the onus on the congregation because we have always been a teaching ministry. Anybody will be able to tell you that we are a teaching ministry not just full of hype, excitement, and enthusiasm as it relates to the Word of God. I am where I am because of your teachings. My life is where it is today as far as the word is concerned because of your teachings. You have always been a teacher of God’s word. We are taught well in the Word of God.”
God and his word are one; you cannot separate God from his word. You cannot separate his word and prayer. Stay in fellowship 24/7 then you will know what you heard God say. I heard God tell me this. All we have to do is pray what’s in the word and bring God into remembrance of what he already promised you. This will build your confidence. It is so important that you have confidence in your own prayer and not somebody else’s. I have to take ownership of this word and believe it for myself.
I am not leaving my life to anyone else’s prayer life. “Don’t leave your life to anyone else’s prayer life.”
SHOUT THIS!
“I am not leaving my life in the custody of someone else’s prayer life”.
Dr. DeeDee: “Andragogy is how adults learn. As an adult, if you don’t feel like you need something at that time you won’t deposit it in your heart. If he’s teaching on healing and your body is whole you will filter everything through a healthy body, your thoughts may say, “I’m good…I don’t need that.” You may not necessarily take that and deposit it into your heart as you should because it doesn’t apply to you at that moment. Therefore, when the enemy comes and attacks your body, you’re not prepared (you can’t pull on the Word as it relates to health) because you didn’t hold onto that information or Word of God that you heard when you were healthy.
Just like this subject that we are teaching now on prayer you may feel as though your prayer life is good… you don’t need this right now. However, the Bible talks about putting you in remembrance. It’s so important that you continue to feed your spirit what you need to hear, so in the time of trouble, you’ll be able to stand. Pastor Mike wants to teach you to penetrate your soul, so it’ll get in your heart, so you’ll be able to recall it at any time.”
A lot of what we did and received pre-pandemic, prior to the pandemic has been proven not to be profitable in the life, situation, and circumstances of many believers-the church.
Note: “Whatever you refuse to repair, you will continue to repeat.”
Pastor Dewayne: “I believe that everyone really could almost look at Mark 4 and identify where they are with becoming one with the word. That’s why Jesus was so effective because He became one with the word that God spoke to Him. He was able to reflect or reveal what God said to Him. There are so many people that are coming and hearing the word, but they are not becoming one with it.
I look at Mark 4 seeing four different types of ground, or four different types of hearts. I also see those 4 types when you look around in the body of Christ. You see those who are Wayside hearer, Stony ground hearer, sown among thorns, then the good ground hearers. The good ground hearer is the ones that are coming to get the Word of God and become one with the Word and produce fruit”.
You know what made his prayer so powerful I only say what I hear my Father say. Where are you going to hear it? You are going to hear it in his word? He will speak to you inwardly as well. There is some stuff you will hear that the people right next to you will never hear because of your engagement. Your engagement with God is wherever you are it can be at home, in your car, or at your desk. don’t wait until you get to the church building for your engagement with God. The more you fellowship with him you will talk like him and walk like him. Notice you have what you say not what they say.
Do not refuse to repair this intimacy. When I begin to talk with him, I will begin to talk like him. When I begin to walk with him, I will begin to walk like him and that builds confidence. There is nothing God can do if you are walking in doubt and unbelief. If the best thing you can do is not to say anything, just don’t speak doubt and unbelief.
Pastor Dewayne: “You can do a self-examination by looking at your behavior and really match your behavior with what you really believe. There are a lot of people that are they have a form of godliness, but inside their heart is far from what you see. You can fool everyone around you, but you can’t fool yourself. So don’t use your behavior to try to change your belief; use your belief to change your behavior.”
There is a hefty harvest attached to these adjustments that this ministry and, subsequently, you are making concerning this season. So, what I am taking you through right now, am telling you there is a hefty harvest attached to it. You can sit in this moment, be inactive, and you will miss that hefty harvest and then wonder why in the world don’t I have my stuff. We are not just talking about monetary or material stuff we’re talking about peace of mind. Peace of mind is priceless. If you are a part of this ministry, you are making adjustments that have never been connected to this ministry, that have never been made prior to this season. It will be your season to reap what you have sown. You are not going to come up in 2023 talking about, “Happy New Year”; this year is going to be better for me. No, you’re going to say, “it’s my season for favor,” because you’ve already put in the work. It will not just be a song, but a reality in your life.
Video presentation: A community praying as a storm was coming toward them…
James 5:16 (NKJV, NLT)
- We noticed several different types of prayer in the video:
Prayer of Intercession Prayer of Agreement
Prayer of Petition Praying in the Spirit Prayer of Binding and Loosing
I need you to be the people that will get out in front of your storm. Storms for your family, storms for your family’s family, storms for this ministry, storms for your neighborhood, storms that are designed to destroy your village. But the scripture says I found none. But that won’t be so at Spirit of Faith Christian Center because we will be able to find ladi, dadi and everybody.
Dr. DeeDee shared: “What will build that confidence to get in front of the storm is to sit down and learn the Word. People think that prayer is something that you do when you are in need only, but I think about when we sit down and communicate one with another; it gives us insight into one another.”
I always challenge her to just talk.
Dr. DeeDee: “It’s the same with God, He wants to talk to you He wants to tell you about who He is. The more you talk and communicate with someone the more you get to know them and the more confident you will become with them. When you are talking to the Father and He is giving you direct instructions, a lot of times I think people separate the Bible from God talking to them. When you have an alignment of prayer and reading your Word it becomes one. It builds confidence.”
I want to oblige my Sizzling Saints, coming up they use to sing this song, “…and He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. You won’t ever walk with Him or talk with Him until you begin to walk like Him, and talk like Him.
Dr. DeeDee: “You can’t walk like Him or talk like Him if you don’t know how He walks and talks.”
How can two walk together unless they agree? That confidence is established through fellowship with Him. You’re not going to get in front of any storm if there is no fellowship.
Dr. DeeDee: “When you (Pastor Mike) were sick in the hospital because I knew something she didn’t have to beg plead and cry, crawl and roll on the floor and hope that God would do something. I knew God had already done something so all I did was call Him in remembrance of what He had already done.
I didn’t invite everyone into the prayer room with me when Pastor Mike was going through his situation, and you can’t either. You must handpick who you allow in your prayer room.”
Some got to get out and some must be invited in. Get out in front of your storm. Regulate the activity. When you are handling spiritual matters, you can’t consider the flesh. What did Jesus do when He got there and there was doubt and unbelief, He kicked them all out.
Dr. DeeDee: “Pastor Mike says that I am hard sometimes but it’s not that I am hard, am just so determined to see what God said that we can have in His Word. I used this even in the first 7 years of our marriage when it wasn’t so good. I said, Ok God if Your Word says that I can have whatsoever I desire when I pray, If I believe in my heart, then let me do this… let me see this (Prayer of Faith). I am going to do my part. I just came in agreement with the Word.
But if you don’t know the word you won’t be able to come in agreement with it. Therefore, you must train yourself to listen and be attentive now.”
Effectual
Successful, effectual, efficacious, productive, constructive, fruitful, functional, potent, powerful, worthwhile, helpful or help, assistance, beneficial or advantageous, valuable
A more effective argument can be constructive and supportive the opposite point of view that’s effectual, convincing, compelling, strong, forceful, forcible, powerful, quotient? weighty, plausible, efficacy, sound, valid, well-founded, telling, impressive, persuaded, persuasive, irresistible, credible, influential, conclusive, authoritative, logical, reasoned, reasonable, well-reasoned, rational, lucid, coherent, cogent, eloquent, clear, and articulate.
Effectual – It does not stop until the job is finished.
Dr. DeeDee: “I love how the people on the video prayed. They didn’t just pray and walk away from it. They continued to pray until they saw the manifestation of it. Don’t walk away and just hope your prayers are going to come to pass.”
This is what makes it effectual the fact that they stayed with it until it manifested. Understand that in the book of James, he is being very specific: James 5:16
- Prayers of the righteous avail much
- Only when they are effectual and fervent
- Every prayer does not have a great outcome
Dr. DeeDee: “You must believe to the grave. You cannot quit. You may have to tell yourself every day that you are not quieter. I am in to see the finished work that God has promised me.”
Some people pray for 5 minutes and if they don’t see immediate results, they quit. Don’t confuse effectual and fervent with someone else’s effectual and fervent. Don’t mimic someone else’s posture. You confuse effectual with something physical. What will end up happening is every partner praying like what they see. Thinking that that’s what makes it effective. The only thing required in prayer is that you believe. There is something that James has that’s necessary for prayer effectual, believing, fervent, believing, and faith, believing.
Don’t compare the way you pray with someone else.
Say this:
I have effectual, fervent prayer, that has great power and wonderful results.
You know your prayers have great power and wonderful results because they are effectual and fervent.
Fervent
Having or showing great warmth or intensity of spirit, feeling enthusiasm are then a fervent admirer, passion, passionate, intense, vehement, sincere feeling deep sealed heartfelt deep-seated, emotional, animated, spirited, enthusiastic, zealous, fantastical, wholehearted, avid, eager, earnest, committed, dedicated and devout.
Fervent – is becoming one with what you’re saying. You can’t separate me from my prayer because I believe it.
Engage yourself, but it does not have to sound like anyone else. Be unwavering in what you believe.
James 5:13-17
- If you pray the Word, there is a guarantee that you won’t faint
- Pray & Praise
- Call for Elders – Prayer of Agreement
- vs. 14 Those who are well, go connect with those who are sick… James is advocating connections
- vs. 15 every prayer requires faith
We have a far better covenant than Elijah. He didn’t have Holy Spirit. He was human as we are, but he was not as powerful as we are. Let’s walk in our God- given authority and be effectual and fervent in our prayer life.
Homework Assignment:
- This week you will be required to talk to someone about this lesson.
- Ask people, do you know that there are different kinds of prayer?
- Get your family together and discuss it.
- Read…
- 2 Corinthians 9:10
- 1 Chronicles 29
3. We have graduated in our giving; open your seed sowing account if you have not done so already.