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Prayer on Fire #1 of 3 (3)

January 27, 2017

Scripture referenced 16 passages

The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.

  • Romans 11:36 quoted to show that everything originates from God, lives through Him, and returns to Him, supporting the idea that worship starts with God

    36 For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.

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Matthew 5:6

quoted to teach that those who hunger and thirst for righteousness will be filled to overflowing

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled.

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Isaiah 55

read at length to paint a picture of God inviting the hungry and thirsty to come closer and receive freely what money cannot buy

1 “Hey! Come, everyone who thirsts, to the waters! Come, he who has no money, buy, and eat! Yes, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.

2 Why do you spend money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which doesn’t satisfy? Listen diligently to me, and eat that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in richness.

3 Turn your ear, and come to me. Hear, and your soul will live: and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

4 Behold, I have given him for a witness to the peoples, a leader and commander to the peoples.

5 Behold, you shall call a nation that you don’t know; and a nation that didn’t know you shall run to you, because of Yahweh your God, and for the Holy One of Israel; for he has glorified you.”

6 Seek Yahweh while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.

7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Let him return to Yahweh, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for he will freely pardon.

8 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, and your ways are not my ways,” says Yahweh.

9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10 For as the rain comes down and the snow from the sky, and doesn’t return there, but waters the earth, and makes it grow and bud, and gives seed to the sower and bread to the eater;

11 so is my word that goes out of my mouth: it will not return to me void, but it will accomplish that which I please, and it will prosper in the thing I sent it to do.

12 For you shall go out with joy, and be led out with peace. The mountains and the hills will break out before you into singing; and all the trees of the fields will clap their hands.

13 Instead of the thorn the cypress tree will come up; and instead of the brier the myrtle tree will come up: and it will make a name for Yahweh, for an everlasting sign that will not be cut off.”

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Psalm 42:1

quoted to illustrate the soul's longing for God as a deer pants for water

1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants after you, God.

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Psalm 63

referenced alongside Psalm 42 to describe earnestly seeking God in a dry and weary land

1 God, you are my God. I will earnestly seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My flesh longs for you, in a dry and weary land, where there is no water.

2 So I have seen you in the sanctuary, watching your power and your glory.

3 Because your loving kindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you.

4 So I will bless you while I live. I will lift up my hands in your name.

5 My soul shall be satisfied as with the richest food. My mouth shall praise you with joyful lips,

6 when I remember you on my bed, and think about you in the night watches.

7 For you have been my help. I will rejoice in the shadow of your wings.

8 My soul stays close to you. Your right hand holds me up.

9 But those who seek my soul, to destroy it, shall go into the lower parts of the earth.

10 They shall be given over to the power of the sword. They shall be jackal food.

11 But the king shall rejoice in God. Everyone who swears by him will praise him, for the mouth of those who speak lies shall be silenced.

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1 Peter 2:2

quoted to call for an intense craving for pure spiritual milk so that believers may grow

2 as newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that with it you may grow,

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Exodus 24:17

cited as a biblical term for God's manifest presence described as consuming fire

17 The appearance of Yahweh’s glory was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.

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Exodus 33:18

cited as a reference to the glory of God as a term for His manifest presence

18 He said, “Please show me your glory.”

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Psalm 85:6

cited as a reference to revival as a term for God's manifest presence

6 Won’t you revive us again, that your people may rejoice in you?

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Isaiah 61

cited as a reference to anointing as a term for God's manifest presence

1 The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me; because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to those who are bound;

2 to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn;

3 to provide for those who mourn in Zion, to give to them a garland for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of Yahweh, that he may be glorified.

4 They will rebuild the old ruins. They will raise up the places long devastated. They will repair the ruined cities, that have been devastated for many generations.

5 Strangers will stand and feed your flocks, and foreigners will work your fields and your vineyards.

6 But you will be called Yahweh’s priests. Men will call you the servants of our God. You will eat the wealth of the nations, and you will boast in their glory.

7 Instead of your shame you will have double. Instead of dishonor, they will rejoice in their portion. Therefore in their land, they will possess double. Everlasting joy will be to them.

8 “For I, Yahweh, love justice. I hate robbery and iniquity. I will give them their reward in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.

9 Their offspring will be known among the nations, and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge them, that they are the offspring which Yahweh has blessed.”

10 I will greatly rejoice in Yahweh! My soul will be joyful in my God; for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation. He has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

11 For as the earth produces its bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown in it to spring up; so the Lord Yahweh will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.

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Acts 1:3

cited as a reference to the Holy Spirit as a term for God's manifest presence

3 To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about God’s Kingdom.

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Exodus 33:14

cited as the passage containing the word presence referring to God's manifest presence

14 He said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

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Exodus 33:16

cited as the verse showing that God's manifest presence distinguishes His people from all others on earth

16 For how would people know that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Isn’t it that you go with us, so that we are separated, I and your people, from all the people who are on the surface of the earth?”

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1 Thessalonians 5:19

quoted as a warning not to put out the Spirit's fire

19 Don’t quench the Spirit.

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Revelation 1:12-20

referenced to describe Jesus with hair white as wool, eyes like flames of fire, face shining like the sun, walking among flaming torches

12 I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. Having turned, I saw seven golden lamp stands.

13 And among the lamp stands was one like a son of man, clothed with a robe reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest.

14 His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.

15 His feet were like burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace. His voice was like the voice of many waters.

16 He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.

17 When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man. He laid his right hand on me, saying, “Don’t be afraid. I am the first and the last,

18 and the Living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. Amen. I have the keys of Death and of Hades.

19 Write therefore the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will happen hereafter;

20 the mystery of the seven stars which you saw in my right hand, and the seven golden lamp stands. The seven stars are the angels of the seven assemblies. The seven lamp stands are seven assemblies.

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Luke 11

referenced as the passage where Jesus gave the Lord's Prayer and showed his disciples how to pray

1 When he finished praying in a certain place, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John also taught his disciples.”

2 He said to them, “When you pray, say, ‘Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come. May your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.

3 Give us day by day our daily bread.

4 Forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’”

5 He said to them, “Which of you, if you go to a friend at midnight, and tell him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread,

6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him,’

7 and he from within will answer and say, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give it to you’?

8 I tell you, although he will not rise and give it to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence, he will get up and give him as many as he needs.

9 “I tell you, keep asking, and it will be given you. Keep seeking, and you will find. Keep knocking, and it will be opened to you.

10 For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.

11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he?

12 Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he?

13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”

14 He was casting out a demon, and it was mute. When the demon had gone out, the mute man spoke; and the multitudes marveled.

15 But some of them said, “He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons.”

16 Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven.

17 But he, knowing their thoughts, said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation. A house divided against itself falls.

18 If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.

19 But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your children cast them out? Therefore will they be your judges.

20 But if I by God’s finger cast out demons, then God’s Kingdom has come to you.

21 “When the strong man, fully armed, guards his own dwelling, his goods are safe.

22 But when someone stronger attacks him and overcomes him, he takes from him his whole armor in which he trusted, and divides his plunder.

23 “He that is not with me is against me. He who doesn’t gather with me scatters.

24 The unclean spirit, when he has gone out of the man, passes through dry places, seeking rest, and finding none, he says, ‘I will turn back to my house from which I came out.’

25 When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order.

26 Then he goes, and takes seven other spirits more evil than himself, and they enter in and dwell there. The last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”

27 It came to pass, as he said these things, a certain woman out of the multitude lifted up her voice, and said to him, “Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts which nursed you!”

28 But he said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God, and keep it.”

29 When the multitudes were gathering together to him, he began to say, “This is an evil generation. It seeks after a sign. No sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah, the prophet.

30 For even as Jonah became a sign to the Ninevites, so will also the Son of Man be to this generation.

31 The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation, and will condemn them: for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, one greater than Solomon is here.

32 The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation, and will condemn it: for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, one greater than Jonah is here.

33 “No one, when he has lit a lamp, puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, that those who come in may see the light.

34 The lamp of the body is the eye. Therefore when your eye is good, your whole body is also full of light; but when it is evil, your body also is full of darkness.

35 Therefore see whether the light that is in you isn’t darkness.

36 If therefore your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly full of light, as when the lamp with its bright shining gives you light.”

37 Now as he spoke, a certain Pharisee asked him to dine with him. He went in, and sat at the table.

38 When the Pharisee saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed himself before dinner.

39 The Lord said to him, “Now you Pharisees cleanse the outside of the cup and of the platter, but your inward part is full of extortion and wickedness.

40 You foolish ones, didn’t he who made the outside make the inside also?

41 But give for gifts to the needy those things which are within, and behold, all things will be clean to you.

42 But woe to you Pharisees! For you tithe mint and rue and every herb, but you bypass justice and God’s love. You ought to have done these, and not to have left the other undone.

43 Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the best seats in the synagogues, and the greetings in the marketplaces.

44 Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like hidden graves, and the men who walk over them don’t know it.”

45 One of the lawyers answered him, “Teacher, in saying this you insult us also.”

46 He said, “Woe to you lawyers also! For you load men with burdens that are difficult to carry, and you yourselves won’t even lift one finger to help carry those burdens.

47 Woe to you! For you build the tombs of the prophets, and your fathers killed them.

48 So you testify and consent to the works of your fathers. For they killed them, and you build…

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Recap

The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.

Pastor Don Young of the College of Prayer International came to First Baptist Jackson for a Prayer on Fire weekend, opening with a time of worship led by Amy Lutz. His message centered on what he called the single foundation beneath everything else the church does: genuine hunger for God himself, not merely for what God can give. That hunger, he argued, is what makes prayer the primary work of the church rather than one item on a list of programs.

What was said

Pastor Don opened by establishing that Jesus said "My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations," and that the problem with most churches is not that they refuse to pray but that they treat prayer as one activity among many rather than as the thing everything else has to flow from. He described how the College of Prayer has operated on that premise for eighteen years, growing from 75 pastors in Atlanta to over 500,000 pastors trained across 44 countries, not through strategy but through teaching people to pray and letting God move from there.

He made a distinction that ran through the whole evening: hunger for something from God is not the same as hunger for God himself. The first keeps God at a useful distance. The second is what Matthew 5:6 points to when it says those who hunger and thirst will be filled to overflowing, and what Isaiah 55 pictures when God calls people to come and eat without money, to stop spending their energy on things that do not satisfy.

To make Isaiah 55 concrete, Pastor Don brought a friend up from the audience and demonstrated what it looks like when God says "come closer." He described doing the same thing in Cuba, where a man sat on the very edge of his knee, afraid to come any further, until Pastor Don put a hand on his chest and the man began to cry, saying his father had never held him or told him he was loved. That moment, Pastor Don said, is exactly what hunger for God is: a desire to get close to him and to be held by him, not just to receive a benefit from him.

He then separated what he called the omnipresence of God from the manifest presence of God, drawing on A.W. Tozer. The omnipresence is real and is everywhere, including at the dog sled races that were pulling people away from the service that evening. The manifest presence is different: it is God tangibly perceived, always known when it arrives, always tied to prayer and obedience, always transformational. He argued that many churches have settled for theological comfort in the omnipresence and stopped expecting or pursuing the manifest presence, and that this is what drains the fire out of a congregation over time.

He described the five things he has seen happen consistently in every encounter weekend: high worship, deep repentance, forgiveness, freedom, and being filled with the Holy Spirit and equipped for ministry. Each one leads to the next. High worship is not a warm-up; it is the thing that causes people to see themselves clearly before God, the way Isaiah saw himself and said he was undone.

He closed the teaching portion with stories from China, where nine pastors told him before a session that all of them had served prison sentences and all expected to return to prison within the year. They were not asking God to prevent it. They said "you can only grow in prison with what you take into prison," and they asked Pastor Don to prepare them for the next wave. He said he came home from that trip unable to claim he understood what hunger for God really costs, and that it reshaped how he thinks about what is and is not serious in the life of a church that prays only when a need arises.

Doing a Bible study?

Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.

  1. Amy shared a quote from A.W. Tozer that worship starts with God, not with us, and that it 'pierces the heart of man and then returns to the God who started it all.' What difference does it make to your own worship when you think of it as a response to what God has already started rather than something you initiate?
  2. Pastor Don said that most churches pray, but that praying is not the same as being a house of prayer for all nations. What do you think the difference looks like in practice, and where do you see that gap in your own spiritual life?

and 3 more questions in the guide

Open the study guide

Read the full transcript 11,787 words
0:00 Is going to be Amy Lutz, someone right here is going to be leading in worship and we're going to kind of follow along and see how the flow goes in worship and then, immediately after that, pastor Don, y'all know Don Young. He's out there right there and he's going to come up after that but we're going to just hopefully allow everything flows from worship and so we're going to start off with that and then gather as you would stand if you would to start off with and feel free tonight, okay? And then, as we come to the closing, we'll see how many songs it takes, okay? And then, pastor Donald step up and we'll just begin from there but welcome. Glad you're here.
0:39 I'm pastor Ray but I'm going to just be the bass player tonight.
0:47 Hi. It's good to be here. It is good to be here. I wanted to share something that I had shared. Some of you may have heard it when I was doing some worship at a women's retreat a couple years ago.
1:07 But there is a quote that AW Tozer has in My Daily Pursuit. And he says that worship starts with God. You know, so many times we think that we're the ones that started. We're the ones worshiping God. But worship starts with God.
1:24 It pierces the heart of man and then returns to the God who started it all. True worship maintains this divine cycle. In Romans eleven thirty six, it says, For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. Everything originates from Him. All life lives through Him, and then it returns to Him again.
1:54 And so tonight, as we worship, I just I want us to come from a place of what He's already given us and poured into us, and the revelation, and the love, and what we've already received, and give it back. But I also want us to be open that during this time, he's going to be pouring out more to us, that we can continue to give back to him. And so I just want us to be not, you know, I mean, definitely, I love I love singing the words and declaring the words, but I also want us to be aware and just be open to hearing his spirit during worship and just whatever he wants to say to us and any understanding he wants to give you during worship. And then that will just give you a new place to worship him from even more. So let's just open in prayer.
2:42 Thank you, Lord.
2:45 Oh, God.
2:51 Thank you, Lord. You are good. You are so good. You are so good, Lord. Thank you.
3:04 Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Father. We love you. Praise you, Lord.
3:26 We praise you. We thank you, Father, for all the ways that you have displayed yourself today, All of the ways that you have cared for us, all the ways that you have revealed yourself to us. Thank you, Lord. Thank you. Thank you.
3:49 Praise you. Praise you, Lord Jesus. Why don't we stand and sing this together? From the highest of heights,
4:23 from the highest of heights from the colors of fall to the fragrance of spring every creature unique in the song at it by name you are amazing God all powerful untamable awestruck we
6:03 light
6:07 Yet conceals it to bring us the coolness of night None can fathom indescribable, you are amazing God all powerful untamable awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim you are amazing you are amazing God are amazing
8:03 Who has told every lightning world.
8:14 To be uncontainable you place the stars in the sky and you know them by name you are amazing powerful, untamable, awestruck we fall to our knees as we humbly proclaim are amazing God incomparable incomparable unchangeable you see the depths of my heart and you love me the same you are amazing
9:30 incomparable
9:33 incomparable unchangeable you see the depths of my heart and you love me are amazing you are amazing you give life you are love you bring light to the darkness you give hope you restore every heart that is broken great are you you are love you bring light to the darkness you give hope you restore every heart that is broken so we pour out our praise it's your breath so we pour out our all the earth and all the earth will shout your praise our hearts will cry these bones will sing great are you and all the earth will shout your praise our hearts will cry these bones will sing great are you and all the earth will shout your praise our hearts will cry these bones will sing your breath and it's your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise we pour out our praise it's your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise you only it's your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise we pour out so we pour out our praise we pour out our praise it's your breath so we pour out our praise to
15:32 I want to sing the first verse again, but before we do, I just want to I want you to think of places in your life this week where God has given you life. Where He's let you know that you are loved. Where He's brought light to your darkness. Where He's given you hope. Or he's restored something in your life.
16:05 Just want you to think about that when you're just worshiping him here.
16:16 You give life. You are love. You bring light to the darkness. You give hope. You restore every heart that is broke.
16:34 Give life. You give life. You are love. You bring light to the darkness. You give hope.
16:46 You restore every heart that is broken great are you great it's your breath in our lungs so we pour out our praise we pour out our praise it's your breath so we pour out our praise you lead me further into you to the unknown far beyond what I now see that's where I wanna go I abandon everything as deep goes out to deep I want to be lost I want to be lost in you overwhelm me want to be lost I want to be lost in you overwhelm me take me higher take me deeper seeing your glory in your whisper I wanna be lost I wanna be lost in you Show your beauty. Show your beauty. Show your strength in this holy place. Let it be like gravity that I can escape till my life has been transformed and my heart is one with your I wanna be lost I wanna be lost in you overwhelm me Let the things of earth be swept away Draw me close till I want to be lost I want to be lost in you overwhelm me wanna be lost wanna be lost in you take in
22:55 to We're
23:00 life for his sake, we find in it. So I just want to sing that we're not only going to be lost, we're going be found. So I'm putting my own words in here, but I just want to sing, I want to be found in him. I want to be found in him.
23:21 Want to be found I want to be found in you overwhelm me wanna be found I wanna be found in you overwhelm me take me high take me deeper
24:49 Thank you, Lord. You guys know this one. It's just a short chorus, but it's one of my favorites forever. It never gets old. There is none like you, and
25:04 there is none like you. And no one else can touch my heart like you do oh I can search for
26:44 Wow. It's good to see you. Many of you I know, and just a couple I don't, but you all look great. Come slide in. You know, to come in, when I left Atlanta, it was, 72.
27:00 Yeah. You don't even think I'd resist anymore. And when I arrived here, it was 16 with a wind chill of, you know, minus something else. But this is great. This is great.
27:11 I love just being here. I love breathing. I love the beauty of what what's happening here in the Valley. Thank you Pastor for inviting us to be here this weekend. And before we start, make sure everyone has one of these.
27:23 We all have one of these little Who does not have one? Let's start that one. One. Raise your hand and if you'll go ahead and give out to the ones that don't have them. Alright.
27:41 I'm gonna put this down because I would rather see you. Just a couple of things. The prayer on fire weekend really comes out of the College of Prayer International, and we've been doing this for eighteen years. We started eighteen years ago in Atlanta. We had 75 pastors that we invited to come for a weekend.
28:13 And all we did was pray and seek God and find out what do you want to show us? What do you want to teach us? And from that moment to today, that was our first campus eighteen years ago, and today we have 2,150 campuses on 44 countries of the world. Over 500,000 pastors had been trained. When we started this, we never imagined that it would be like this.
28:37 We imagined, you know, we'd just get some pastors together and pray and seek God. We didn't know what God was going to do with it. And we had no idea that he would take it this far and expand it the way he has. And the reason that he has is because that's what Jesus does. Everything that Jesus did, he did through prayer.
28:57 He did nothing apart from prayer. He did many things, but nothing apart from prayer. And so if that's what he did, then that's what he wants us to do. And, you know, when he built his house, he said, my house shall be a house of prayer for all nations. Say that with me.
29:12 My house will be a house of prayer for all nations. Say it again. My house will be a house of prayer for all nations. Alright, take your finger and point to your neighbor and say, his house will be a house of prayer for all nations. Some of you are still trying to figure out who your neighbor is.
29:33 My house will be a house of prayer for all nations. Now, love that. I love that because it's his house. He didn't say, your house will be a house of prayer. He said, my house is a house of prayer.
29:44 Now, I'm staying at Berkeley and Murray's house, and it's a gorgeous, beautiful home. If you've been there, it's just so restful, so peaceful. But imagine if I'd arrived and went into their house and sat down and said, Murray, this is a great house. But you know that elf picture that's sitting there in the in the the with a firefly? That house is beautiful, but I don't I don't like it there.
30:06 And if I had gone and taken her picture and moved it across and put it somewhere else, someplace else. And then I would have sat down the chair and said, oh, this is a great chair, Marie. But you know what? I like a bigger chair than this. And I want you to get me a bigger chair.
30:19 And then if I'm sitting in and eating breakfast, the TV is just too small, Maria. I want you to get a bigger TV there. About the third time, Berkeley would say, Wait a minute, whose house is this? This is our house. These are our things.
30:37 We invited you here. If you don't like it, go to Steve Marzella's house. You see, my house is a house of prayer for all nations. What kind of house is it? House of prayer.
30:54 For who? For all nations. That's his house. It's a house of prayer for all nations. And yet, we have the audacity to make it everything else but that.
31:04 Most churches today are not houses of prayer. They they do good things. They're houses of evangelism, houses of caring for people, houses of benevolence, houses of biblical teaching, houses of theology. All those things are good, but none of those things are the main thing. We make them the main thing.
31:25 But that's not God's plan for the main thing. God's plan for the main thing is my house will be a house of prayer for all nations. And everything else has to flow from that. Now when it doesn't, we're out of balance. When and in most places, we just kind of plug in prayer.
31:42 We do it, you know, when aunt Susie is sick and there's a great need or there's something that's happening in the community, all gather together, we pray. And so then we say, okay, we're a house of prayer. No, we pray. Most churches, 99% of churches pray. That's part of the things they do.
31:59 We preach, we pray, we take an offering, we sing three or four songs, sometimes only one, and that's it. We've gone to church. Jesus said, my house will be a house of prayer for all nations. When we get it into that perspective, then the Lord moves in and does extraordinary things. When it gets out of that, then we're constantly trying to figure out what does God want to do?
32:20 What does God want to do? What does he want to teach us? Well, he's already said what he wants to teach us. He wants us to teach us to pray. And once we learn how to do that, everything else will come.
32:32 Everything that we need financially, everything that we need spiritually, everything that we need theologically, everything that we need emotionally, everything that we need comes from that paradigm. Jesus said, My house shall be a house of prayer for all nations. And so when the College of First started eighteen years ago, it was with that premise. And the whole purpose is to mentor, train, and equip pastors and leaders around the world because we believe that as we train them and equip them, they then will understand prayer and then God brings revival. There's no revival without prayer.
33:11 No revival without prayer. You don't plan you know, and I come from a Baptist background in the South. You know, we had revival every month, and Ray, he got converted in that. Ray gets saved every Sunday back in those days. And and, you know, and so it it that was just part of our culture.
33:26 You just we're having revival. Well, that meant you were gonna have some speaker who would speak an hour every night and, have a love offering at the end, and that was a revival. It didn't change anybody, but we had revival. And and that became a cultural trend. That that's not the revival that the Lord is speaking about.
33:42 But the revival the Lord is speaking about changes us from the inside out. He works in us before He can work through us. We want Him to work through us before He works in us. We just figure we can go out and do it and when it doesn't happen, we want to know why. What other program can we learn?
34:00 What other new video series can we study? What's the next thing that we can embrace and see God work in us? And he said, wait a minute, I've already shown you. I've already told you how to do it. But what is it, Lord?
34:11 Pray. Pray. So when we started that eighteen years ago and we began teaching prayer, and, we never knew we we just did one lesson after another after another, and the Lord would just raise it up. We had no books back then, and we had no manuals. The Lord just kept making them.
34:29 And now we have 34, base messages that we give, and we give them around the world. And as the pastors learn these, everything flows from prayer. They begin to understand that prayer is totally different from what they thought prayer was. They thought prayer was just something that they recited to God when they had a need, or prayer was talking to God but they weren't sure how to do that. And they didn't understand the Lord already taught them how to do it when he in Luke chapter 11, he gave the Lord's prayer and he showed them how to pray.
35:01 It's a very simple way. And he showed them how to do that. And so during these next, today and tomorrow, we're gonna go through it. Now we give you, this little handout. Now we do that because you'll say, you know, I came, they didn't give me anything.
35:17 So we give it to you. There's no guarantee that we're going to use it, but we give it to you so you can say, okay, got something, go home and get it. But I want you to know right away, this is not a seminar. If you came today tonight thinking it was a seminar, you're going to be grossly disappointed. This is not a seminar.
35:33 We do not do seminars. Seminars are good, but what happens with seminars is a great accumulation of knowledge. And then what we learn, we put back in our bookshelves and we say we've been to that seminar. And we have the video and the book to prove it. But nothing's changed.
35:51 So we don't do seminars, we do encounters. During these next sixteen to twenty hours, we believe that we're going to encounter the Lord in ways that you have never encountered him before. He's going to take you deeper than you've ever been. He's going to show you things you haven't seen. And more than anything, he's going to reveal himself to you.
36:11 That's what this is all about. It's an encounter with Christ and we just open up our hearts and allow him to teach us through the Holy Spirit and it's a powerful time. But I do give you this because there are some things that we will teach out of it and some things we won't, but you'll have them as references anyway. And so I do that. Now but I do want you to look at the first page, Purpose for the Gathering, so that we can get this through because we always start the same way all the time.
36:38 There are three prayers that we always pray. Prayers of protection, direction, and revelation. We've been doing this for eighteen years and every time that we do that, we know the enemy of our souls and the enemy who doesn't want prayer taught always try to do things to discourage and keep things from happening. So we always pray protection. We always ask the Lord to protect what he wants to do during the moments that we're here, and he wants to do that.
37:03 And then we pray for direction. We ask the Lord to direct each place and each time and each area is different. Your needs are different than the needs that I just finished up in, that that our team finished up in Ethiopia, that I finished up in Cuba, that your needs are different. I was in Mexico a couple weeks ago. Those needs are different than everyone has a different set.
37:22 And the Lord does what He wants to do in His way, differently in each place. And so we ask for direction. Lord, what do you want to teach us? We give it to you. And then we ask for revelation.
37:32 Lord, reveal to us. And you're going to learn this phrase and so I'm going teach you right away. What the Holy Spirit reveals, the Holy Spirit heals. Say it with me. What the Holy Spirit reveals, the Holy Spirit heals.
37:45 Say it. What the Holy Spirit reveals, the Holy Spirit heals. Say it again. What the Holy Spirit reveals, the Holy Spirit healed. The Holy Spirit never wastes a revelation.
37:58 Never. Never. He's not in the business of of playing games with our heart and our emotions and our mind. When he reveals something to us, it's because he wants us to do something about what it is he revealed or else he wouldn't reveal it. And so during these next sessions, tonight and tomorrow, the Holy Spirit will be revealing things to you.
38:17 And as he does, you write them down and you will see what he's gonna teach you through them. That's why I say it's not a seminar. A seminar gives you something and and then you take what we take back and and but we don't do that. The Holy Spirit will do the teaching. We're just the the venue that he uses, but he will teach you and I may be saying certain things, but the Holy Spirit may say what I say and take it to you in a different way because it meets what your personal need is.
38:40 And so what He reveals to you is for a purpose and receive it that way. And so that's how we do that tonight and tomorrow. So before we get into any teaching, let's go to those three prayers. And pastor Ray, I'm going to ask you to pray the prayer of protection and ask the Lord to protect us tonight. And Matt, I'm going ask you to pray for the prayer of direction and ask the Lord to direct us and lead us the way he wants to lead us.
39:04 And then Steve, if you'll pray the prayer of revelation, ask the Lord to reveal to us what he wants us to reveal. Okay? Direction, protect protection, direction, revelation. Alright. Amen.
42:07 If you'll open up your little booklets, on the back table, you can find all the material on collegeofprayer.org. And so I don't usually carry a lot of books with me, but I did bring a few. And so Church on Fire, everything that we teach is found in this book, Prayer on Fire, and then Everything by Prayer. So those three books are back there. There's a couple of them back there.
42:39 If you'd like them, they're just $10 apiece. It's the honor system. You could take them and just leave the money there. Then there the Adopt a Persecuted Church. Most of the work that we do, most of the places where I go now I'm responsible for 44 countries.
42:59 Well, that means that we have campuses. A campus would be like what we're doing tonight, except a campus commits to three years, once a year and sometimes twice a year, for three days. So this is not a campus yet. This is just what we call a taste and see. So there's no obligation.
43:17 There's no expectation. This is just merely getting you started. But this is an idea of what a campus looks like when we gather together for three days. And we'll have anywhere between 75 to two fifty, and we just come back from Ethiopia and we had 7,000. In Cuba, we had 800, and in China we have anywhere between, it depends on where we're at, but we have small groups of 75 to 100 and then 500.
43:46 If you get any more than that, you're in trouble. Actually, if you have any more than 75, you're in trouble, but the Lord has really kept us safe. We've been into China almost 40 times now, and it's amazing to see what God does there. Now most of the stories I talk about come from Asia or Africa, and that's where we spend most of our time. Although this last year we were in Cuba three times and what's happening in Cuba is mind boggling.
44:09 So some of the illustrations that we give will come from that context. But we give you the persecuted booklet and you could take one of them tonight and pray for these different countries that we're in. It's amazing to see how God is bringing revival to the darkest places on earth, to places where people are losing their life on a daily basis for their faith, places where when they say yes to the Lord, it means something. When they go to church, it means something. When they gather together to pray, it means something.
44:39 When they are with other people, it means something. Because it could mean that they could either go to jail. The last time I was in China, I was gathered together with 500 pastors, and I had lunch with their leaders before we started the session. And I was there two two days with them, and they were meeting in a warehouse. And so these nine pastors were sitting around a table, and I said, what do you want God to do during these two days that we're together?
45:09 Each one of them said, pastor, all of us have been in prison for at least three years. We know that in the next twelve to fifteen months we're going back to prison. We've already been told that if we don't change the way we're doing church, if we don't comply to the rules of the government, if we don't become a registered church, they'll come and take our buildings, they'll burn it down, and they'll put us in jail. We already know that's going to happen. So here I am at the table listening to them as they're in a circle.
45:41 Each one of them says, yes, that's us, that's us. I said, what do you want to happen? Here are the words they said. You can only grow in prison with what you take into prison. And so what they were saying is, please prepare us for the next wave of prison.
46:01 That's a pretty humbling thing to hear from pastors who know that when they leave the place that we are in at any time in the next weeks and months, they could be carted off the prison, persecuted, beaten, and some will die. And so they said, Prepare us for that. How do you prepare people for that? How do you do that? You don't give them a book and say, Read this and get prepared.
46:23 You don't give them a video series and say, Look at this and be prepared. Only God the Holy Spirit can prepare them for what they're going to face. And so during those two days, it was such a powerful time of seeking the Lord, crying and weeping before Him, and getting themselves ready for what they knew the cost would be. It was powerful. And I came home from that trip saying, Oh Lord, I have no idea what it means, what it means to have hunger for you like that.
46:56 I don't know that. I don't know what it means to be persecuted like that. I go home to a nice warm bed, great food, beautiful home, family. I can get in my car and go anywhere and get in plane. I don't understand that, Lord.
47:09 I can't even put it into my mind what that means. These people, men and women and children, preparing for persecution. So I said, well, what's your strategy then when they close your building? Oh, we don't worry if they come and tear down our building. That doesn't even bother us.
47:26 If they do, because we're already organized, we have groups already. This group of 500 people, each one of these groups have people of twenty five and thirty and forty and they already know where they're going to meet and they already it's already organized. It's already there. The moment the building is gone, church is not gone. The moment that they take away our books, Bibles, preaching is not over.
47:47 The moment they take things that belong our life is not done because it's a higher purpose. And we hunger and thirsty and thirst for God. And so I want to take us there tonight as we go to the first session, hunger for God, because that will lead us all the rest of the way. If we don't have hunger for God, we might as well just close-up now. That's the key to all of this.
48:10 Now, many of us have hunger for what God could give us, something from God. We want that, God, you can do this, you can provide this, you can give it to us, we need it. We understand that. But that's not what I'm talking about tonight. Tonight is about hunger for God Himself.
48:26 Hunger for God Himself. So as you look at your notes here, you can see it, we put it in a square, so you can see what that is. Make no mistake about it, hunger for God is not hunger for something from Him, It's hunger for God himself and only God can activate hunger for God. Christ is the one who sounds our appetite alarm. He's the one with the with with the the cowbell ringing.
48:50 It's dinner time like the bar J. It's time to eat. He He's the one that does that. He's the one that says to us, it's time to eat. Are you hungry?
48:57 Are you thirsty? Do you wanna know more of me? Do you wanna have more? It's time. It's time.
49:01 It's time. I'll give it to you. If you're hungry and thirsty, I'll feed you. Because back on us. So look at the verses that we have here for you.
49:11 The first one is Matthew chapter five:six. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they will be filled. Now look at that. Blessed are those who what? Hunger and For what?
49:25 For they will be half filled, for they will have a snack. The word there means they will be filled to overflowing. The word filled there is overflowing. It's it's not a partial filling. It's not a tiny bit of fill.
49:38 I mean, fill means fill. When you say fill it up, you don't no, it's not full until it's full. They will be filled. Hunger for God is the first work of God. If anyone thirsty, let him come to me and drink.
49:55 I put this down at Martin Luther. Hunger is the best cook. It is. If you're hungry for God, he's ready to give it to you. He's ready to feed you like you've never been fed before.
50:05 God activates our hunger. Hunger for God can strike at any time. If anyone is thirsty, let them come to me and drink. All churches, all prayer meetings, all revivals grow out of a hunger for God. Look at Isaiah 55 for a moment.
50:23 Isaiah 55. Don't have it in your notes, you have to go to the Bible. Isaiah 55. I got this picture as I was reading it today, so I said, I'm gonna the the Lord wants me to go there, so we're gonna go there for a second. Isaiah 55 says this, Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters and you who have no money, come buy and eat.
50:54 Come buy wine and milk without, what, Without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread? And your wages, why do you spend them for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good. Delight yourself in, what's the word, abundance.
51:22 Incline your ear and come to me. Listen that you may live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you. I was reading I was teaching this in China and my interpreter is there and so I'm reading the scripture and I'm saying, Ho, everyone is thirsty. And she goes off. And I said, wait a minute, what do you use for the word Ho?
51:44 I mean, that's that's the word I mean, how do you translate the word Ho in Chinese? Because it's there and and words mean something. Words make a difference. So I'm saying, how do you translate that? She says, well, we say it we use the word that means come closer.
52:04 Hold to the come closer, you who are thirsty. Come closer, you are hungry. Come closer. Come closer. Come closer.
52:13 So as I as she was saying this, the Lord gave me this beautiful picture, and I love it. And so I'm going to share with you what the Lord gave to me. Right when I was speaking it, Steve, come here. You can always pick on Steve. Yeah.
52:35 Sit down, buddy. Alright. This is what this means. Come closer. Come closer.
52:44 Come closer. So that I can feed you. See, there's no way to be way back there. Come closer. You see, I see this image of the Lord saying to us, come closer.
52:55 So that he can put his hand on our chest, and he said, I'm gonna feed you. I'm gonna give you all that you want so you will be filled. And I'm gonna keep my covenant that I made with you. Come closer. It's very, very intimate.
53:11 Now, thank you. That's better than Santa Claus. Now, I did this I did this in Cuba, and there was this guy sitting up front and I did it and I had him come and sit on your lap. So he's a little worried about what that meant, you know, culturally. And so he's looking at me.
53:32 He's not doing anything. Steve knows me, so he just jumped there. But this guy wasn't about to jump in there. He just kind of stood there. I said, No, no, sit on my lap.
53:40 He's just looking at me. And I said, No, no, come and sit on my lap. Okay. And he sits on the edge. You know, not here.
53:51 Just it's like his whole butt's right there on the edge of my knee here. And I had to bring him in. Because he just wanted to stay there. Because he was scared. What's this guy going to he never it's the first time he's seen me.
54:03 What's this weird guy asking me to come sit on my lap? So, I mean, it's a weird thing. So, you just don't do that in that culture. Have you come sit on my lap, buddy? Know?
54:14 My arm around you. I mean, that's weird. In our culture here in America, met but in this culture, no weird. So he said and then I said and then I put my hand on his chest. And then something happened.
54:25 He began to cry. Now why? He said, My father never told me he loved me. I never had him hold me or put his hand on me and say He loved me. I never heard those words, Come closer from Him.
54:51 So when you were doing that, I heard the Heavenly Father, my Heavenly Father, say to me, Come closer. Come closer. Come closer. Are you getting that picture? Why does He want us to come closer?
55:07 So that He can fill us to overflowing. He can't do that when we're far away. Now, of us are like my Cuban brother who just went at the edge, who was afraid to go any further and just sat there on the edge and wondered what was going happen. Many of us are the same way. What's God going to do?
55:28 If I lay myself open bare to Him, what's He going to say to me? What's He going to do? What's He going to make me do? What's He going to expect of me? Can I really trust Him to do that?
55:38 And we argue with the Lord and we go through all this stuff with the Lord and come close to me. Come closer. That's what hunger is. Hunger for God is a desire to get close to him. A desire to get closer with Him.
56:02 Close to Him and close with Him. And when we have that experience, there's nothing like it because it changes our whole understanding of who God is. When we get to the Lord's Prayer Pattern, the first part of this pattern is Our Father. It starts there. It's the only prayer that starts that way.
56:23 And that's why he said, teach us to pray. He starts where you start. All prayer starts out of a relationship with your heavenly father. Without a relationship with your heavenly father, there is no prayer. Who you're praying to?
56:33 Brick and mortar. But out of a relationship with Heavenly Father, all prayer flows. All prayer. That's how He started it. That's why He started it there.
56:43 He didn't start with, Come and give me all that I need. He started here. Because he knows when we start here, everything else flows from that. Everything that we need, whatever need, flows out of that. So when we hunger for God, we begin to understand, okay, I'm going to come closer.
56:59 And so he said, come, come, come you are hungry and you are thirsty, come, come. I'm going to give it to you. Then he said, why are you spending money? In other words, why are you spending energy on things that don't satisfy you? We do that.
57:14 We as humans spend our energy, our spiritual energy, our our church energy, our family energy. We spend our energy on things that don't that doesn't satisfy me for for the moment. But then it's it goes away quickly. And so Isaiah here is painting this beautiful picture of the Lord inviting us to come freely. It's already been paid for.
57:37 The buffet has been set. It's not just one thing, it's everything. You who have no money, don't worry about it, it's already paid for, and you who have money, why are you spending it foolishly? He hits two kinds of people, Those who don't have, and those don't have who who it's already been paid for, and those who do have who spend it foolishly. Why are you doing that?
58:01 Come here closer so I can give you what your money cannot buy, what your good works cannot satisfy, what your activities won't take care of. Come closer. Come closer so I can give it to you. So then he pours it in, pours it in, pours it in. And then he says, listen carefully.
58:20 Listen carefully and eat what is good. And then he says this, delight yourself in abundance. You have to like that word, abundance. You see, filled and abundance go together. There's no want at the savior's feet.
58:39 There's no want. There's only abundance. Look at his miracles when he fed the thousands. Not only did he take care of them, but there were how many baskets full? 12.
58:52 A bunch of them, right? Fish and bread. So he took care of the need of all those people and then he still had some left over. And that's what abundance means. I take care of what you need, and then I give you more than you need.
59:07 Take care of what you need, and then I give you more than I Say that with me. I take care of what you need, And then I give you more than you need. That all flows out of hunger. None of that happens without a hunger. None of that is received or experienced without hunger.
59:28 None of that is understood without hunger. It all begins at hunger. And so when we hunger for him and we're thirsty for him, he has promised to fill us to abundance. And that's why in the Beatitudes, he says, blessed are those. That means we who are hungry and thirsty, we will be blessed.
59:48 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst, they're going to be filled. I give you a thing, hunger for God is the key to virtually everything. Your personal worship, healthy marriage, effective parenting, evangelism, growing your church, it all comes out of a hunger for God. Look at the verses there at the end there in Psalm 40 two:one. As a deer pants for water, so my soul, what?
1:00:14 Pants for you. O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you. My body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. That's a beautiful bird picture in Psalm 63. No water, scorched dry, and then he says, I seek you earnestly.
1:00:33 He declares who his God is. You're my God and so I'm going to earnestly seek you. Then he goes through this picture of my body longs for you in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. One Peter two:two, Crave the pure spiritual milk, that by it you may grow up into your salvation. The word crave here means intense desire.
1:00:56 So have this intense desire for the pure spiritual milk that you may grow. Jesus gives the example, a man shall not live by bread alone. He says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me, and on and on and on. Hunger for God. Now there are five things that happen during the course of every time we gather together to encounter Christ.
1:01:21 These five things invariably always happen. They happen in different places, different ways, but they always happen. And so I wanna give those five things to you so that you're gonna be able to experience what it is the Lord does. The first thing is high worship. And so we always teach it this way.
1:01:35 High worship, deep repentance. See, high worship always brings deep repentance. That's why we say everything flows out of worship. High worship because worship is focusing on God. As we worship him, we see ourselves as he sees us.
1:01:50 What does Isaiah said? Woe is me. I'm a man undone. And actually the little translation, I'm burnt toast. I'm burnt toast is what he says.
1:01:59 Woe is me. I'm burnt toast because I see myself as you see me. I'm undone. I'm undone. I'm clean.
1:02:04 I'm clean. And so then the angel has to come and touch his mouth and say, okay, you're forgiven. So high worship leads to deep repentance. Deep repentance leads to forgiveness and freedom. That leads to being filled with the Holy Spirit, and then we are equipped for ministry.
1:02:22 So say it with me. High worship. High worship. Worship. Deep repentance.
1:02:26 Deep repentance. Forgiveness. Forgiveness. Freedom. Being Freedom.
1:02:31 Filled with spirit. Equipped for ministry. All right, let's stand together. Somebody's been working hard and you're tired, so get your blood flowing here. You ready?
1:02:43 Here we go. Hands up. High worship.
1:02:46 High worship.
1:02:47 Deep repentance. Deep Forgiveness. Forgiveness.
1:02:52 Freedom. Freedom.
1:02:54 Filled with Holy Spirit. Being the Spirit. Equipped for ministry. He's got it. You come here and help me before you kill these two.
1:03:03 They're picking on. Before you kill these two women next to you. Right. Alright. Here we go.
1:03:07 You got it right? Okay. Here we go. Oh, there we go. Oh, Give yourself a hand.
1:03:21 Alright. Good job. So you're gonna experience that. As we worship the Lord, he will begin to reveal things to us and then we'll ask his forgiveness. We repent.
1:03:40 Forgiveness always leads to freedom. I used to think, okay, well, just asked the Lord to forgive me, but unless I release, unless I let it go and walk in freedom, my forgiveness is not. I mean, I've been forgiven, but I'm still walking in bondage. I'm still walking in slavery. So forgiveness and freedom, we teach both of those things.
1:03:59 And then when we go through forgiveness and freedom, then we are filled with the Holy Spirit, and we are equipped to serve him. Those are the five things that always happen in an encounter. High worship, deep repentance. Oh, you got it. You got it.
1:04:36 I want us to, we're gonna pray for a hunger in a moment. Before we do that, go to session three, encountering the fire of God's manifest presence. Let me. Oh, because of their ski? Oh, today's the slide races?
1:05:06 That's where everybody's at, Drought Sled. We'll go out early and we'll go down there and say, oh, you missed it. You missed it. You missed it. Where were you?
1:05:14 Oh, I didn't know you were. Well, pastor, so good to see you. I was gonna come tonight, bud. Repentance. We'll give them a chance to repent while they're watching the dog sit.
1:05:25 Oh, I used to watch that. That was cool. I didn't know that was the night. Okay. Why don't you tell me, Rad?
1:05:28 I've gone okay. No. Well, I gotta be here, don't I? Alright. Session three.
1:05:34 Because I thought it was my microphone, but they're shooting at me. Encountering the fire of God's manifest presence. We put it in here because this is one of the most crucial teachings that we give, and so many people get it mixed up. Many, many people, many churches, many pastors are satisfied with the omnipresence of God and not the manifest presence of God. The omnipresence of God is everywhere.
1:06:08 The omnipresence of God is at the dog sleds. If you go down there now and watch those dogs sleds, the omnipresence of God is there. The omnipresence of God is at every rodeo. The omnipresence of God is at Bubba's when I had lunch the other day. Now you would have known it by some of the things I heard, but the omnipresence of God is there.
1:06:26 The omnipresence of God was at the inauguration of of, of president Trump. The omnipresence of God is everywhere. Everywhere. But the manifest presence of God is only when we pray and seek him and he comes. And so I I want us to look at that because so many people, I remember getting ready to teach us and they said, no, we don't want the presence of God.
1:06:50 The omnipresence is enough. Theologically, people are fearful of this one, and they miss exactly what it is. They get caught up. And so I want us to look at it quickly tonight and see how powerful it is for us. So if you look at it, it's session number three, encountering the fire of God's manifest presence.
1:07:07 Here we go. God's manifest presence is the essence of revival. His presence is the power cell of the church, and leading people to a fresh encounter with Christ is really what we do in the College of Prayer. Now the Bible uses various terms for the God's manifest presence calls consuming fire, in Exodus chapter twenty four seventeen. Exodus 3three 18 is the glory of God.
1:07:30 Revival in Psalm 80 five:six. Anointing, Isaiah 61. The Holy Spirit in Acts 13. And in Exodus 3three 14, the word presence is there. So it is a manifest presence of God that distinguishes the people of God from all other people upon the earth, Exodus chapter 3three 16.
1:07:51 Now if you have a pencil, should underline that. That's what distinguishes us from every other religious group and every other group of people, is the manifest presence of God. Now Amy quoted AW Tozer earlier. Look at I put three of them in there because they're powerful. So you have them there.
1:08:12 Can you read them out loud with me? Let's look at the first one. Let's read the presence. Can we read it together? The presents and the manifestations of the present are not the same.
1:08:22 There can be one without the other. God is here when we are wholly unaware of it. He is manifest only when we are aware of His presence. Next one. Our pursuit of God is successful just because He forever seeking to manifest Himself to us.
1:08:44 Third one, if we cooperate with Him in a loving obedience, God will manifest Himself to us, and that manifestation will be the difference between a normal Christian life and life radiant with the light of His face. Now I put up a comparative chart there for you, the omnipresence and the manifest presence. You could have the omnipresence of God without having the manifest presence of God. The omnipresence of God is real and so is the manifest presence. The omnipresence is a true nature of God and so is the manifest presence.
1:09:20 The omnipresence is God everywhere, but the manifest presence is God tangibly perceived. Omnipresence is normally unknown. The people at the down there at the dog set, they aren't saying, oh, you know, hey, God's here. It's omnipresence of God all over this place. They're not talking about that.
1:09:40 When they're sitting and watching the rodeo, oh, God's here. No. The guy riding the bull, he knows God's there, us watching him, you know, he knows it. But they're not sitting and saying, hey, you know what? God's here.
1:09:54 I'm gonna friends with God's everywhere. He's here. They don't say that because it's normally unknown. The manifest presence of God is always known. When He comes, you know it.
1:10:04 When He meets your needs, you know it. When He heals, you know it. When He manifests His presence, you know it. We know it. Omnipresence is theoretical.
1:10:15 The manifest presence is transformational always. Omnipresence is pride. Oh, God is here. Manifest presence is contrition. Oh, God is here.
1:10:26 And because God is here and I see God, I see myself. There's always contrition with the manifest presence of God. Omnipresence is impersonal. You don't have to know God to know that he's there. But the manifest presence God is personal.
1:10:41 Omnipresence is obedience is optional, but there cannot be the manifest presence without obedience. Omnipresence, there's no prayer required. With the manifest presence, always prayer is required. Now I give you lots of examples both in the New Testament and the Old Testament there, many of them you already know. Moses in the burning bush, Exodus chapter three.
1:11:04 You remember Moses going up there and the voice of God comes out in this burning bush. Who's there? I am. That's a manifest presence of God. It was very clear, didn't Moses?
1:11:16 Israel in the pillar of fire at night. Elijah at Mount Carmel, that's my favorite one. I mean, that was a power encounter and it was powerfully done in the manifest presence of God. Isaiah chapter six, the burning coal that was touching the the the very lips of, Isaiah. Malachi talks about the refiner's fire.
1:11:34 John the Baptist, he come to baptize with fire. Paul talked about the spirit of fire. In the early church, tongues of fire. So that's the manifest presence of God. In Book of Revelations, this is something you should read on your own, Revelations chapter one twelve to 20.
1:11:50 What a powerful demonstration and description of Jesus and it's all about fire. His hair is white like wool, His feet are like bronze, glowing in a furnace. His eyes are like flames of fire. His face is shining like the sun. In his right hand are seven stars, representing the leaders of local churches.
1:12:10 He is walking in the middle of flaming torches. I love that image. And I was teaching this one day in Manila and how the church are flame holders. And I got this image of Jesus walking through the seven churches checking the flame. Walking through each one to see if the flame was burning because the responsibility and the purpose of the church was to hold the flame.
1:12:46 Churches are flame holders. He said in Ephesians, he said, if you're not going to do it, I'm going to remove your lampstand. What does that mean? I'm going to remove that which holds the fire, the flame. A lampstand was what carried the flame.
1:12:58 And so what he's saying is, if you're not going to do it, I'm going to remove that lampstand for you. You'll no longer have the influence or the impact in your community. I'm going to take the fire away from you. There are lot of churches that don't have fire anymore. The Lord has come in to take the fire away from them.
1:13:16 So the manifest presence of God is the image of Jesus walking through the churches seeing, do you have your light on? Is your flame burning? Let me see it. And it goes in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out, in and out. And so when we understand the purpose of the church, and we are the church, we understand that we need the manifest presence of Christ in our life.
1:13:38 We want to encounter that. We don't want to leave without it. We don't want to be satisfied to come and say, you know what? We have been in church and God is here because he is always present here and his omnipresence was here. That's not enough.
1:13:54 We're coming to church for the manifest presence of the Lord. We don't want to come and just do church. We want to come and experience and encounter Christ. That's why the church exists. Not to be a building to say, I'm here, God's here because God's everywhere.
1:14:11 The manifest presence of the Lord. How do you do that? Look at them. I give you three things. Actually, I give you five.
1:14:21 Look at them together. The first one is to invite God's manifest presence. God loves to come where he's invited. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near.
1:14:32 Now I want you to get this, underline it in your notes, because I always get asked questions about this, and there's always someone who messes it up. So I want you to get it. It's not about seeking an experience with God. To do that, then we have our own agenda. It's about seeking an encounter with Him.
1:14:57 When we seek an encounter, our experience follows His agenda. When we seek an experience, if it doesn't happen the way we want, we go away, Oh, I didn't get what that person got, so God must love that person more than he loves me, and I miss it. So we don't seek an experience. It doesn't mean that we don't experience this encounter, we do. You can't have an encounter without experiencing that.
1:15:22 But we're not coming and saying, okay, Lord, this is what I want from you. I want this experience, and if I don't get it, that means you haven't shown up and you haven't responded to me. That's not what this is about. It's seeking an encounter with Christ, and he then does it the way he wants as we encounter him. So we invite his presence.
1:15:41 We look for it. The work of the Holy Spirit is to exalt Christ by manifesting His presence in us and through us. One Thessalonians five nineteen, Do not put out the Spirit's fire. When the Counsel comes, when I will send to you from the Father the Spirit of truth that goes out from the father, he will testify about me. He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.
1:16:04 His manifest presence is is real and it's transformational and it makes a difference in our life. We don't want anything but. I always say, I don't want anything more and nothing less. Nothing more than what you want to give me and I don't want anything less than that. I don't want to walk away shortchanged.
1:16:22 I want all you have, all you desire from me. Many of us miss it because we put out the spirit's fire. We put it out. We squelch it. We quench it.
1:16:37 There's two words there. Putting out the spirit's flame. We we put out what this Holy Spirit's already doing. We said we don't wanna be a part of it. Or or we pour water on it and we squelch it.
1:16:50 We don't wanna do that. So we want to invite his presence. We want to look for his presence. We want to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I had a pastor come to me in India and said, why are you teaching on the Holy Spirit?
1:17:07 I have never preached a message in all my time as a pastor on the Holy Spirit. Why are you taking when the Holy when I got saved, the Holy Spirit came into my life. I had I said, don't need anymore. And I said, man, have you missed it the rest of all your life? Have you missed it?
1:17:24 What do you mean? I said, the Lord has so much more for you than what you had your first experience. He it's progressive. He wants to show you more and more and more. It's growth.
1:17:34 And And you have treated your people because you haven't taught in the Holy Spirit. How sad is that? And so we make it a point to teach in the Holy Spirit every time we go anywhere. That same week, I had a pastor come and say, now I know you're here to teach us on prayer, but I want you to know something, and he had a PhD. He said, there's nothing that you can teach me about prayer I don't already know.
1:18:01 And I said, you are right. You are so right. There's nothing I can teach you about prayer that you don't already know. However, there's an awful lot the Holy Spirit can teach you about prayer that you don't know. And if you let him teach you, you will see what I'm talking about.
1:18:22 So we were there for four days, and the last day he came up and he was weeping. And he said, I never knew. I never, never knew that I didn't know. I thought I knew, and I discovered I didn't know. And so as we approach tomorrow, tonight and tomorrow, I'd like for us to ask the Lord for an open mind to receive from him.
1:18:48 Not to commit with our preconceived ideas and our this is let him teach us. If he says it in his word, it's in his word for a reason. And let him teach us. Let him show us what he desires for us to change us from the inside out, to make all the difference in the world in how we pray. Because Jesus said, my house is a house of what?
1:19:14 For who? All My house is a house of prayer for all nations. And we have to come to grips that it's not our house. This place is not your house. It's his.
1:19:33 Maria's house is Maria's house, but this is his house. And in his house it's a house of prayer for all nations. It's His house. And when we understand that it belongs to Him, it begins to change our paradigm of what that means. Yes, we need strong teaching.
1:19:54 Yes, we need high worship. Yes, we need time for fellowship. We need all those things. But if what we are doing and if what we're a part of and if the flow of what's happening is not bathed and flowing through prayer, we are missing what he has for his house. And if it's not a house of prayer for all nations, if it's just a house of prayer for Jackson Hole, it's still not his place.
1:20:20 Jackson Hole is only one part of the nations. And I've been in church that have never prayed for the nations. They only pray for their needs. And the the first night we had our prayer meeting and we began to pray for the nations, it blew them away. In fact, they didn't even know how to do it in the beginning, and we wouldn't let them go until they started doing it.
1:20:43 And they I said, I can wait as long as you. I'm not going anywhere. My hotel room is right here. Let's go. You just and the Lord began to birth prayers and they began to pray for nations they never even heard of before.
1:20:58 And they began to pray in power, and they began to pray in tears, and they began to pray with passion. And at the end of that time, they said, that's what we have been missing. My house is a house of prayer for all nations. So before we go into anything else tonight, I'd like for us to take a few moments of prayer. And I want you to just make your chair your own altar.
1:21:23 Some of you can come to the altar and pray. Some of you can just whatever your position of prayer is comfortable for you, I want you to take that. And I and I want us to pray our hunger for him. And this is how we do it. You're just praying there together.
1:21:37 It's your personal prayer. You're not praying for somebody. It's just this is your time. There'll be times when we're gonna pray in groups, but this is your personal prayer time right now. And so I just want us to make it that.
1:21:46 But you somebody can pray out loud, you're just praying. No one else is listening to you, you're just praying. But you're asking the Lord to come, and you're asking him to feed you and to activate your hunger. If you didn't come hungry tonight, ask him to activate it. If you didn't come hungry and thirsty because he's the activator, so ask him to activate your hunger and thirst for him.
1:22:14 Ask him to do that. Pray with your hands open. Words mean everything in the word and so do actions. And the Lord always taught us to pray and there are many ways He prays, prostrate or hands folded. But when we pray with our hands open, it's receiving from the Lord.
1:22:37 It's pretty hard to pray with our fists closed and ask the Lord. When we do that, we're angry. Let's just pray with our hands open and ask the Lord, activate our hunger, activate our receptors to be hunger for Him. Ask Him to open up our hearts and minds to receive from Him. Ask for His manifest presence to flow through us throughout these next hours and throughout the day tomorrow.
1:22:57 Ask for that. And then receive it. And then as that happens in your life, you're going to be able to see these things change you in ways you never expected. I don't promise that to you. He does.
1:23:11 He said, Blessed are those who seek and they will be fit. That's his promise to you. And so let's let him do that. So let's just spread out over this place and some of you can kneel up the altar and we're going to pray. And let's just take this moment.
1:23:29 We're gonna take a good ten, fifteen minutes. Let's just pray our hunger before the Lord. Let's pray our hunger before him, and let's do that. For some of you, it may be uncomfortable. It's okay if it's uncomfortable.
1:23:40 Just between you and the Lord, let him do something in your night in your life tonight that that he hasn't done before. Let him do it. Just relax before him, and let's just pray our hunger to him. Let's do it. You have those verses in front of you.
1:23:51 You have what's there if you need help. Let's just go to prayer. Lord God, we come to you tonight confessing that we are hungry people. We need You, Lord. And you promised that we could come to you and that we would be filled with abundance.
1:32:31 In fact, Lord, you say in your word that you lavishly pour out on us. You're not stingy. And so, Lord, tonight we are needy people, and we pray our hunger to you. And we ask, Lord, that you come and fill Those hard places that have been so difficult to enter in our life, Lord, we lay bare before you. We ask you to rip them out, crush the hearts of stone and give us, Lord, a heart of love and flesh that beats for you.
1:33:25 Our brothers and sisters in China are asking, Lord, that you prepare them for persecution. We ask you, Lord, you prepare us just to live. We are missing out on so much, And there's so much you desire for us to do here in the Valley that can't be done without a hunger and thirst for you. And Lord, we ask that you work in us so you can work through us. We ask, Lord, that you make this place a house of prayer for all nations, that you rip away anything that doesn't have that as its primary purpose.
1:34:10 Every elder meeting, every worship meeting, every business meeting, every church gathering, every life group, every fellowship time. You did nothing, Lord, apart from prayer, and we do so much without prayer. So we confess our prayerlessness to you tonight, Lord, and ask you to forgive us. We confess our arrogance and our pride and our willingness to do some things our way. And we ask you, Lord, to come and fill the empty broken spots, the pain and hurt that's there from words spoken against us, actions taken against us.
1:35:07 Lord, we desire nothing but your manifest presence. Nothing more, nothing less. We want, Lord, you to so fill us that everything that we do and say and are a part of make a difference. Time is so short. So Lord, would you rebirth in all of us a hunger and thirst for revival, a hunger and thirst for your presence, a hunger and thirst for your power, a hunger and thirst for your word, a hunger and thirst for our neighbors to lead them to Jesus, a hunger and thirst for you.
1:35:58 We are so used to asking you four things. We want something from you. Lord, forgive us. We need you. And as we receive you and seek you first, all things come that you desire us to have.
1:36:22 So Lord, tonight and tomorrow, make such a difference in our prayer life that it impacts everything that we're about, change our DNA, conform it to your DNA, which is prayer. Jesus, you did nothing apart from prayer. Every miracle, every action on the cross, everything you did, you did through prayer and you prayed for and prayed in and prayed through. So Lord, teach us, your people, how to pray, just like John the Baptist taught his disciples how to pray and just like you, Jesus, taught your children how to pray. Teach us, your children, how to pray.
1:37:16 And we'll thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Now it's quarter nine and I don't want to get into another teaching because of time. Tomorrow morning, we'll start at 09:00 with the Lord's prayer pattern. So I want you to take tonight when you go back there, every one of you get a bookmark.
1:37:42 Now, normally we would charge $20 because it's 16 below zero, it's free. So you can just pick one up, it's free back there, and we'll go through this tomorrow, the Lord's Prayer Pattern. I have a few of these, building your prayer shield. If you are an elder and you're a group leader in a church, you need to get this. There's nothing that you should be doing without having your prayer ship.
1:38:12 So pick up one of those. If you want to know a little bit more about the College of Prayer, you can get one of those. Those are all free. Everything back there on the table is free except these three books. And Prayer on Fire is $10 Everything by prayer is $5 and Church on Fire is $10 There are just a few of them there, so if you want them you can pick them up.
1:38:36 And this is free. This just gives you the areas that we're in, the persecuted church. Now, I use the word China tonight. In many places, we don't use the word China. We call it Asia Pacific for security reasons.
1:38:51 But you can get that one. So those things are available for you tomorrow. Tomorrow, we'll start right at 09:00 with worship, and then we'll go into the Lord's prayer pattern. Ask the Lord tonight as you go to sleep, say, Lord, look into my heart. Is there anything in there that's keeping you from doing in me what you desire?
1:39:19 Just ask Him that. You don't have to argue with him. You don't have to say, give it to him. Just ask him that. Is there anything in there, Lord?
1:39:26 He is so willing and waiting and wanting to turn the flashlight on. Just ask him. And then tomorrow as we gather together, we'll start peeling up the onion and let the Holy Spirit work. Alright? You've been so good, so gracious to put up with me for this minute, this is still long.
1:39:44 But actually, you get off good. I do this for ten hours a day. You only got an hour and a half today, so you're okay. But let's stand together and as do you have something you wanted to say? All right.
1:39:58 Then I want you to just get somebody get two people like you together. You are too willing. And I want you to bless the person. Right? Just say, I bless you with the love of Lord Jesus.
1:40:13 Okay? Can you do that? Everybody have somebody? Make sure everybody has everybody has somebody? Alright.
1:40:19 Say, I bless you with the love of the Lord Jesus. Say it. I bless you with the love of the Lord Jesus. Go home in peace. Go in peace.
1:40:27 And the love of the Father. Bless you. Amen. Alright. You've been blessed.
1:40:34 Don't go home in pieces. Go home in peace.

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Written up from the message given at First B Jackson. If something here reads oddly, the recording is the record.

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