Follow The Prompt // Prayer - ology Part. 2 // Dr. Dharius Daniels

A handclap of praise this morning! Man, so grateful to be in God's house. If you are here for the first time, we want to welcome you here. My name is Pastor Darius and I've got the privilege of being the lead pastor here at this incredible spiritual family called Change Church. And we'd like to honor our first-time guests without embarrassing our first-time guests. And so we want you to receive this thunderous round of applause as an expression of our gratitude. Thank you so much for being here with us today. We also want to acknowledge the presence of a candidate for governor who is worshiping with us today. Senator Jason Estevez and his family are here with us. So we're so grateful to have him. Welcome, sir. So grateful to have him worshiping with us here at Change on today. Y'all alright? I say y'all alright? Listen, this is one of those Sundays. It's like, when time go forward, church is like, whoo! It's a little different. We lose that hour. But how many know God is still good and worthy of our praise and gratitude and thanksgiving? And we celebrate. We celebrate His goodness. I want us to help. I want you all to help me welcome in our Ewing, New Jersey family, our West Hampton, New Jersey family, our Gwinnett campus. Come on, let's welcome in all of our locations. We're so grateful to them. I want to give a special shout out to our New Jersey locations. Man, you guys had your sister-to-sister women's event on yesterday and it looked absolutely incredible and phenomenal. So thank you guys for being a part of that. Let me just share something with our church family, every location, so that you understand why we do some of the things that we do. We're a busy church and we know you're incredibly busy, so we don't do things because we think you're bored. Does that make sense? Everything that is done is done with a degree of intention, so that we can try to faithfully carry out our mission here at Change Church. That is to help as many people as possible. Somebody say, many people as possible. So for us, that's not just like amounts of people, that's types of people. We call it first, second, third chair. We're called to the unbeliever, we're called to the newer believer, and we're called to the mature believer. And what you'll find at every Change Church location, at every service,

you'll see all three seats. And so we have what we call front door and side doors metaphorically to get people into the ecosystem of what God is doing here. And here's what we found, particularly when churches are larger, people that are kind of unchurched. I don't know if we're going to have to add a fourth chair because there's a lot of these here at Change Church too, de-church. You know what that is? Yeah, I was done with church. Yeah, not done with Jesus, but I was done with the institution of church. And for some reason, I decided to give change a try. And we hear that testimony a lot around here. So here's the point. So particularly with de-church, with de-church, with de-church and with unchurch, side door events are much more comfortable invitational events for first-timers. So sometimes it takes people coming to a men's event, a women's event, a singles event, a couples event, and then they come and they're like, oh, y'all not weird. You feel me? And it's okay, I'm going to come back on Sunday. And so we do these things to reach people that are not a part of the family and to also strengthen people in targeted areas of discipleship that are a part of the family. And as a man, one thing I know is I don't understand the dynamics, the challenges, the struggles, the vicissitudes emotionally, physically. I don't get that in a way another woman would get that. And so women need to be in environments and men need to be in environments where they've got that kind of targeted work. And so I'm excited about all that God's doing in the women's ministry. Atlanta, you up next this coming Saturday, and it's going to be an incredible time. Well, I hope you care about it. I started a series last week called Prayerology. And I want to move into the second installment of this series today. We're going to be reading from the book of 1 Thessalonians, chapter number 5, beginning at verse number 16. And here's what Paul says. He says, rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I want to stop the reading of scripture there and talk from this subject, family. Follow. The prompt, follow the prompt.

Clap your hands if you're ready for God's word. Follow, follow the prompt. I want to start this time of teaching, family, with a thought that I'd encourage you to consider. Many people will get to the end of their life to only discover that they did not accomplish God's purpose for their life. They will experience the reality of that old adage that suggests you can climb the ladder of success only to realize you leaned it against the wrong wall. And this reality will be the experience of many, not because they weren't called, not because they weren't capable, not because they weren't clear, but simply because they weren't consistent. Consistency is the key that unlocks the door to the potential of your capability and your calling. Inconsistency is expensive. Most people fail not because they lack desire. They fail because their inconsistency slowly erodes what their effort briefly built. Effort builds it up. Inconsistency tears it down. Because inconsistency, watch this, keeps us in a cycle of always starting over. Therefore, instead of progressing in life, we constantly live in a life filled with perpetual seasons and cycles of restarts. So time moves, but life doesn't. But I just have a question.

And the question is, am I talking to anybody that is in a season of your life where you are honest enough to admit that you are sick and tired of unnecessary restarts? Come on here. Yeah, that if I experience a restart, I want it to be because God's taking me to a new place, not because I'm starting over in an old place. Are you here with me today? Why? Because inconsistency is expensive and the enemy understands this reality. So he targets this area of our life in an attempt to undermine God's intention for and through us. He attacks our consistency relationally because he knows that your faith cannot just be lived out vertically. It must be lived out horizontally. In other words, I cannot get Christianity right if I'm getting people wrong. Ah, if there's not just a love for God, there has to be a love for my neighbor. And the enemy knows if he attacks our relational consistency we will get to the end of our life and realize that the people that meant the most to us got the least from us. So he attacks the consistency relationally. He attacks the consistency emotionally because he knows the danger and the devastation

that comes with a soul that is not constantly purged from the toxicity that it can accumulate of doing life with an imperfect self, with an imperfect past, and with imperfect people. He knows the grip that our soul can have on us. And so if he can make us inconsistent when it comes to our emotional life, then he undermines God's intention for us. If he can make us inconsistent with our physical life, then we will not be able to carry the mission of God because God has given us this body as a tool and as a instrument to steward his mission and everything he's going to do in us and for us and through us in this life is going to come through this body. And so the enemy knows if he can make us inconsistent in stewarding it and caring for it well, then he can undermine God's intention for our life. Inconsistency is expensive. And the enemy understands this, so he attacks us with inconsistency relationally and emotionally and physically. But there seems to be an area that he attacks with a degree of unique. aggression and that is inconsistency spiritually because he knows that spiritual poverty is the worst kind of poverty he knows that our spiritual life is not the only important part of our life but it is the most important part of our life because it affects everything that's important and so one of the ways he attempts to carry out his intention to make us inconsistent in our spiritual life is by making us inconsistent in the disciplines in the

practices and in the spiritual exercises that cultivate spiritual vitality and strength and stamina and one of those exercises is prayer I don't attack you spiritually by attacking you spiritually I attack you spiritually by attacking the things that cultivate a a a strong a stable spiritual life he attacks prayer are you hearing what I'm saying I said are you hearing what I'm saying yeah prayer he attacks this particular area and and this is and this is why Paul's letter here to believers in Thessalonica becomes incredibly important to those of us who are serious about creating maintaining or advancing consistency in prayer because what oxygen is to this to the physical body prayer is to the spiritual life did you hear what I just said what oxygen is to the physical body prayer is to the spiritual life thank you I got one witness at the cab that's it and the enemy I'm just am I making sense and the enemy understands this boy I wish I just wish I had time yeah here it is here it is this is important family this is important so because of this because of this the catalytic nature of prayer it becomes a uniquely targeted area I want you to know the things that advance us the most are the areas we will be attacked the most and what here's here's what happens is when we're forming views of things that like come from Christian traditions and denominations but not necessarily rooted in the truth of Scripture then what ends up happening is we become prey to deception because when I say the word attack many people think of demonic possession so like they when we think of spiritual warfare we think demons when I can show you in Scripture that's that's rare extreme cases what most of us are dealing with are not demons you're dealing with distractions we don't have a prayer problem because we need an exorcism we have a prayer problem because when we should be praying we're scrolling we have a prayer problem because when we should be praying and talking to God we're talking to other people we have a prayer problem so so it's so when Solomon says catch now the little foxes that spoil the mind it's the devil uses not just dragons he uses foxes and so so can cultivating consistency in this area is key and vital to our

spiritual life and it is one thing to want to cultivate consistency it's another thing to know how to cultivate consistency and this is where Paul's letter to believers in Thessalonica can help us cultivate consistency I love Paul because he's a practical theologian right he doesn't just tell me what to do he shows me how to do it see see this book of Thessalonians is is a letter that was written by the Apostle Paul to a group of believers in a place called Thessalonica now the book of Acts is called Acts because it's it's it's it records the acts of the Apostles you got me after the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus Christ Jesus the book of Acts captures the acts of the apostles of Jesus Immediately after his resurrection and ascension. Are you following me? and so one of the Apostles of Jesus was a man that was actually at one point a Persecutor of Christians his name was Saul his name was Saul Because he was named after Israel's first king in the Old Testament a king named Saul He was from the same tribe as that King called the tribe of Benjamin. You got me. So so he was a Religious leader that was hostile to the Christian movement He persecuted and imprisoned Christians, but one day Hallelujah on Damascus Road He had an authentic encounter With the Jesus other people were preaching and it radically revolutionized his life So much so that he changed his name from Saul to Paul and the persecutor of Christians Became a preacher of the gospel. I need to pause right there Because I don't want the intimate to continue having conversations with some of you regarding your past and trying to use your past as a weapon to stop you from stepping into the fullness of your future if God can use and Change the life of a man named Saul then God can use and change you

Who I was is not who I am and where I am is not where I'm going Here it is So this persecutor of Christians becomes a preacher of the gospel and and and his assignment his assignment see His purpose see purpose is not just what you've been born to do Purpose includes the way you've been born to do it And So many people get the what but they miss the way and so submission to purpose in just submission to the what? It is also submission to the way Because God's like there's a way I want you to do this Because when you look at the acts of the Apostles you'll see someone like Peter who has a call to ministry and somebody like Paul Who has a call to ministry? That's the what but the way they've been called to do it is completely different And you need to work your way and you need to trust the way that God's called you to do it Did you hear what I just said? Do you not know there were a number of different ways people defeated Giants in the Old Testament, but David? Refused to let Saul put his armor on him He says I'm gonna do the same thing, but I'm gonna do it a different way Because if you let me work my rock my rock will work and knock this giant down Because God has given us not just what to do but a way to do it Y'all not bored today. Are you? Okay, so so you got someone like Peter who's calling Required him to be more centralized He's in one place You got people like James Whose calling required him to be more centralized he's in primarily one place But then you've got people like Paul Whose calling required him? to not be as centralized But to engage in various missionary journeys

planting Christian presence in regions that needed it You got me so a lot of the letters in the New Testament are letters He wrote to communities. He either planted or has spiritual influence with Got me so Ephesians is written to believers in Ephesus and Corinthians is written to believers in Corinth and Philippians is written to believers in Philippi. Am I making sense? Okay, so so the nature of his calling required him to engage in missionary journeys, right and so it's it's it's not His is better than Peters is different Because calling requires freedom from comparison Did you hear what I just said yes, okay, cuz he wasn't looking at what Peter was doing and then asking God Why can't I do that? Because when you say yes, you become too busy to compare Hi, yeah, yeah, did you hear what I just said when you actually say yes, and you start obeying what God has called you to do You are so occupied with your own assignment. You don't have time to be aware of what everybody else is doing You're too busy to compare so comparison is actually an indication. You've been captured by distraction When you obey more you compare less is am I talking to anybody right now that's in a season Well, you can admit. I'm too busy to compare I mean I want to know what's going on with everybody But I don't have time to know what what's going on with everybody because I'm trying to keep up with everything that's going on with Me the devil is not the only one busy. I'm busy, too That's important right that's important It's particularly important for people who are part of this spiritual family like some people attend here And that's fine, but other people are planted here. This is your house. This is spiritual family It's important for you to understand that because that's why you got a church like change. That's got a presence in multiple places It's not that we just want to we're not trying to build an empire. This is harder. It's way more aggravating It's way more expensive. It's a lot easier to have one place, but but the nature of the calling The nature of the calling is more Pauline it is Establishing presence in the various places. So one of the places he established a presence was this place called Thessalonica Okay, so as he's establishing the presence

persecution gets intense So intense that he has to leave so he doesn't get an opportunity to finish Discipling them the way he desired now Initially we would assume something like this Is pitiful it's like man, this is sad Paul didn't get a chance To complete discipleship the way he desired But we just finished a series a couple weeks ago called name-dropping Well, we explored the names of God some of the names of God and one of the names we explored was El Elyon most high God Speaking to the sovereignty of God God having the final say that others have a say but he's got the final say Others have some power. He's got all power. Others can make some rules, but he can overrule Yeah, he's El Elyon. And so because he's El Elyon if he wanted Paul to stay in Thessalonica, no one could have run him out So sometimes what feels like persecution Providence Because maybe maybe are y'all okay, maybe believers in Thessalonica Could only handle What they receive at that moment Because because washes here's here's here's here's what Paul seems to suggest I'm getting ready to show you this Paul seems to be very cognizant of the fact that certain spiritual conversations require certain levels of spiritual maturation That's the way you get that from the Bible Because when he's talking to believers in Corinth in 1st Corinthians chapter 3 verse 1 y'all not bored. Are you? Okay, he says brothers and sisters I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as a people who are still worldly Now don't don't misunderstand this. He's writing to believers in Corinth. So this is a letter sent and is circulated So he's writing to believers in Corinth and he says he says to them now listen, I

Couldn't address you as people who live by the Spirit. He didn't say you aren't saved by the Spirit He says you're not living by the Spirit. He says you're saved but you first way It's in the text you're still worldly He said you're in Christ, but you're just infants I Are you following me here? Okay, so he says you're Christian, but you're still guided govern behaving thinking interacting Engaging like first way and watch what he says Watch verse 2. I gave you milk Not solid food for you were not ready He says there are conversations that I could have that I can't have because your level of maturation Doesn't give you the spiritual appetite to digest these sort of conversations Now upon your first reading this might make you feel a bit bad. It didn't for me because it clarifies the The fact that you're not why some of my conversations with God have been shifting as I grow on my spiritual journey. Because I used to hear people, I hear people say God prompting them and giving them messages like I'm about to open a door and I'm about to blow you up and I'm about to use you greatly and great things are coming. But when he's talking to me, it's like fix that and correct that and align that and don't say that and I'm like, why I don't get the words that they get? These conversations. So the more you grow, the kind of conversations that God has with you that fit in the hard category is actually a compliment. Ah, yeah, yeah.

The hard conversations is a compliment because God is saying you're at a place in your spiritual journey where we can have some real conversations now and you're open to hearing me give you not just milk. I got, I got, wait a minute, I got Bible. I got Bible. Here it is, here it is. Y'all remember Jeremiah 29 11? I know the plans I have for you. Says the Lord, plans to prosper you. Not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. Now you know what I teach you here? When you read the Bible, you can't just read the Bible. You got to read what becomes before it and read what come after. So, so, so that's Jeremiah 29 11. I know the plans I have for you. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. That's Jeremiah 29 11. But Jeremiah 29 4 says, this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel says, to all those I've carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon, build houses, settle down, plant gardens, eat what they produce, marry, have sons and daughters, find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters.

Increase in number, do not decrease. Also seek the peace and the prosperity of the city to which I've carried you into exile. Pray for it because if it prospers, you too will prosper. They are carried in exile and God sends a word to Jeremiah, tell them you're going to be here a minute. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. He says, you have been stripped away from your homeland. You have been robbed of your autonomy and your freedom. Jerusalem has been burned to the ground and you now are in a foreign land and you're under foreign leadership. And he says, build houses, plant gardens, have children. You're going to be here a while. And then in verse 11, he says, for I know the plans that I have for you. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you. Plans to give you a hope and a future. Because when you get mature, every word in, you coming out. Some words are, you're going to be here a minute, but I got plans that I don't have to move you to move you. That I don't have to change where you are to change where you are. That I don't have to change what's going on to change what's going on. That I don't have to relocate you to relocate you. I got plans and I can prosper you right where you are. See, that's a different kind of conversation. So if that's the nature of the conversations the father's having with you,

take those conversations as a compliment. So maybe the believers in Thessalonica weren't ready for certain kinds of conversation. So Paul now writes to them a letter. And the first one is called First Thessalonians. Got me? And in this letter, he's teaching them some keys and principles of Christian living. And at the end of the letter, which is chapter five, which is what we read, verses 12 through 22, you see these rapid succession of short practical commands on how to live as a community of faith. And tucked in this rapid succession of commands in verses 16 through 18 are these words. Rejoice always, pray continually, and in everything give thanks. Rejoice always, pray continually, and in everything give thanks. Rejoice always. Pray continually, and in everything give thanks. Rejoice always, and in everything give thanks. Not for everything. Not for, but in. I'm not thankful for betrayal. That hurt. I'm thankful for what he's teaching me in it. I'm thanking for how he's growing me in. Come on, am I making sense here? He says, okay, but rejoice always, and in everything give thanks,

is anchored by verse 17. Verse 16 and 18 are relatively similar. Rejoice in always, and giving thanks in all circumstances is relatively similar, but it's anchored by verse 17. Pray continually, which means I can't rejoice always, and I won't be able to give thanks in everything if I don't pray continually. Now, the King James says, pray without ceasing. Now, Pastor, you said this text would help me become consistent. All I see in this text is Paul telling me to be consistent. I already know to be consistent. You just told me that at the beginning of the sermon, but you said this text was gonna help me become consistent, so show me, Pastor, how this text is gonna help me become consistent. It's right here in the text. When Paul uses the word continually, this is a word that is used. Are y'all okay? Yeah, because for years, I'm just telling you the way I interpret the Scripture, not the way someone taught me, this is the way I interpret, because I used to read King James, the New King James, and it said, pray without ceasing, so in my mind, it's like, so I'm just supposed to be. And I'm trying to figure that out, because I'm trying to talk to, I got work to do, I'm trying to talk to kids, I'm trying to talk to wife, like, you understand?

It's like, I'm trying, okay, all right, so I'm like, okay, I'm thinking this means this long, extended, unceasing conversation with God, and then I say, okay, let me just see, not how I'm interpreting the word, what's the word that Paul used here? The word that Paul used here, because he wrote this letter in Greek, the word he uses here is a word that they use in that cultural context to refer to a reoccurring cough. So, he says, when you have a bout with coughing, if someone says, I've been coughing all day, it doesn't mean from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., nonstop, they've been coughing. If they say, I've been coughing all day, it means from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., there have been these reoccurring bouts, these reoccurring bouts with coughing. It means that I get these urges, and sometimes the urge is so strong, no matter how I try to resist and restrain, the urge to cough is so strong, I find myself coughing in places I didn't even expect to be coughing in. I'm coughing in the car, I'm coughing in the office, I'm coughing in the gym, I'm coughing in the weight room. Y'all missing this? I got this urge to cough. And so, when Paul is using this word, pray without ceasing. He's saying all throughout the day, you need to be coughing.

Throughout the course of the day, you should be coughing. When you wake up in the morning, you ought to cough. And then when you get to your destination safely, you ought to cough. And when you get back home safe, you ought to cough. When you walk in and you see your loved ones alive and well, you ought to cough. Does anybody feel like coughing right now? It is not this one long unceasing conversation. It's this reoccurring bouts of spiritual coughing throughout the day. This is important because the average individual isn't inconsistent with prayer because they lack desire. They're inconsistent with prayer because they lack discernment. What do I mean? Desire provokes us to schedule time with God. Discernment allows us to recognize when God is trying to schedule time with us. It is the ability to recognize that he has given you the spiritual urge to cough. That this urge to cough is not random, is not haphazard, that God has given you the spiritual urge to cough. So Paul isn't commanding you to never stop talking to God. He's commanding us to never stop being available to talk. And so, this urge to cough is a word I'm using called promptings. It's are you following the prompt, where God uses your intuition to prompt you and to prompt me to cough. This now, for those of us who have interpreted or who are familiar with Paul's words, praying in the spirit, listen to me, especially Pentecostals, listen to pastor, listen to me. Praying in the spirit now is not only praying with glossolea.

Praying in the spirit includes praying in response to the spirit's prompts. It's not just praying in tongues. It is praying when the spirit, either through your intuition or through your mind, gives you a burden and urge to pray. Did you hear what I just said? Because listen to this now, because the spirit, the Bible says, knows the mind and the will of God. And the one that knows the mind and the will of God knows, watch this, knows what is happening, what is getting ready to happen, what doesn't need to happen. He knows that. And he knows that it won't happen or what shouldn't happen won't be stopped without his intervention. But we taught you last week that there's some intervention he won't engage in without our invitation through prayer, because prayer doesn't notify God of a need. He knows it already. But prayer expresses your dependency and frees you from the idolatrous practice of thinking you can meet all your own needs. So it says every time you ask me, it reminds you, you not me. That there are going to be some situations that reveal your human limitations, and you're going to need me to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. And so the spirit will see something that is getting ready to happen or something that is getting ready to happen that doesn't need to happen, and then will prompt you and I to engage in prayer on that. And what happens is the promptings don't come with the explanation. And because the promptings don't come with the explanation, it makes it easy to ignore. Which is why you can be on the treadmill and somebody's name can come to your mind randomly, and you have no idea why their name is coming to your mind, and the spirit has planted their name in your mind, because there's an accident on 285 waiting on them, and he is... Your children can be at prom, and something comes to your mind. So praying in the spirit isn't just praying in tongues, it is praying in response to promptings.

These seemingly random urges, and here's what happens. It's easy to ignore promptings in the things that do matter, because God trains us with promptings in the things that don't matter. So he will train us to obey promptings in prayer by giving us promptings outside of prayer. You ever been going somewhere and something tell you, don't go this way? And then you go that way, and you run into some like traffic jam or something like that, and you're like, something told me not to go another way. It's not that that's going to change your destiny. It's God's teaching you the consequence of not following promptings. And he is using something that doesn't matter to show you the importance of following promptings when it comes to things that do matter. So promptings happen. I'm done talking. Promptings happen, not just spiritually, right? But there are also promptings that happen naturally. Got me? So spiritual, in terms of the spirit prompting us to pray, we need to follow that prompt. And then there are promptings that happen naturally, that happen naturally. And I want to give you some of these natural ones so that we can discern these when we're experiencing them. Here's one. Here's one. I got four. Y'all ready? How many need all of this? Oh, yeah. I need all four, Petey. Here it is. Number one.

The first one is my moods. A shift in the condition of my soul is a prompting to pray. So when I sense... I've gone from joy to sadness. When I've gone to despair, when I've gone to disappointment, when I've gone to discouragement, that's a prompting to pray. David is an example of this. He says in Psalms 42, my soul, why are you downcast? Why are you disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and Lord. Watch what he says. My soul, why are you downcast? Which means, watch this. Here's what one writer says. She says feelings, they're not always right, but they're real. They are the language of the soul. She says they are the equivalent. I can't remember the name of the book because I would quote it if I would. I have to feel like she's a safe author. But she says feelings are the equivalent of a check engine light on the car. It doesn't tell you what's wrong, but it tells you to look up under the hood. So when I'm in despair and when I'm downcast and when I'm not experiencing the peace of God or the joy of the Lord, I need to check under the hood. So a shift in my mood is a prompting to pray because God cares about the state of my soul. Now I grew up in church, so I'm like, I'm second way. I came out of the womb second way. It's just, I just grew up in church and church gave me a great foundation. Praise God. And it was good in a lot of areas, but yes, in some areas there's some things I had to relook at and relearn. And one of the things that was kind of subliminally suggested to me, I feel like in my experience, it was almost like feelings are too trivial to pray about. It was never directly stated to me, but that's kind of what I gathered until I started studying for myself and I started seeing the intricate details that God was concerned about when it came to my life. When he says like things in Matthew six, like the hairs on the head are numbered. God cares about the state of my soul. And here's what happens when you don't see that. And when I don't see that as a prayer prompting, you stay in soul cycles. We talk about sin cycles, but soul cycles that are inconsistent with the father's intention for your life. We discouraged and we sit in it and we don't pray about it. I can't wait to after Easter because this is prayerology. After Easter, I'm doing something called humanology and that's going to be, some of y'all about to get delivered. Oh, you're going to get so delivered. This is going to be a mass deliverance. It's not going to be, and it is not

a mass deliverance from demons. It's going to be a mass deliverance from deception. Because there are some things we call the flesh. That's not the flesh. It's humanity. And God's not trying to make you a God. God became a man to show you how to be one. The incarnation is God becoming a human to show you what he intended for a human to be like. And so as a human, I'm going to have feelings. Am I making sense? And when I get those feelings that are inconsistent with the intention of the father, I need to know how to bring them to him. So a shift in my mood is a prompting to pray. Does that make sense? And I'm not talking about trivial mood swings, but I'm talking about, you know, when you're in despair, you know, when you're downcast, you know, when you're discouraged, you know, when the frustration is overwhelming, you know, when you're in despair, you know, you know, when you're in despair, you know, when you're downcast, you know, when you're discouraged, you know, when the frustration is becoming toxic. Lord, this frustration is impacting the way I'm engaging with those I love. We need to talk about this because this is not their fault. Okay. I really think y'all bored now. Number two. Moments. Moments are unexpected, unplanned occurrences that interrupt the normal flow of your day that show up in the form of adversity or opportunity. So adversity and opportunity can both be promptings to pray because adversity make you nervous and some opportunities make you nervous. And in Nehemiah is an example of this in Nehemiah chapter two, verse four, he says, the King said to me, what is it you want? He says, then I prayed to the God of heaven and I answered the King. If it pleases the King. And if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so I can rebuild it. Y'all missed it. The King said to me, what you want? Then I prayed to the God of heaven. You missed it. The King said to me what you want, then I prayed to the God of heaven. You missed it. The King said to me, what you want, then I prayed to the God of heaven. He didn't leave the room and pray to the God of heaven. Between the time the King asked the question and the, between the time he answered it, he prayed what you want. Help me, Jesus. I need to go back to, I need. In the middle of the conversation, did you hear what I said? It wasn't long, it wasn't drawn out. I gotta make a quick decision, Lord help me. I gotta give a quick response, Lord help me.

And there are gonna be moments where you gotta do something quickly. You can't fast and pray over it. You gotta make a decision there. And in those moments, it's a prompting to pray, Lord help me. Because Nehemiah was asking for a leave from work. Because he was a cup bearer. He said, I need time off. And the king was like, what else? I need wood to do the rebuilding. What else? I need a military escort to escort me with the wood to make sure I don't get attacked. King was like, what else? See, I don't have time. But because he took the opportunity to prayer, he didn't let his nervousness and his nerves rob him of an opportunity that the king was waiting to give to him. Because he handled a moment. All right, number three, messages. What is this? This is like unexpected information that you get about you or someone else. You get word, like one of my team members this week let us know, let me know, his son's being deployed. That's information about someone else. That's a prompting to pray. I don't know the person, but it's a prompting to pray.

My question is, do you have to know them to pray for him? So here's what happened. Let's say you're online and you see something. Somebody's baby died. Have we become so desensitized to our responsibility to intercession that we just scroll? You know who took his intercessory ministry seriously? Samuel. Here's what he says in 1 Samuel chapter number 12. He says, for the sake of this great, for the great name of the Lord, he will not reject his people because the Lord is pleased to make you his own. As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against God by failing to pray for you. So when you get word that something is going on with somebody, that's a prompting to pray. Yes. When you get word that something's going on with you, either adversity or opportunity, it's a prompting to pray. A door open, celebrate, but then pray. God, give me wisdom to steward this well. So my moods are a prompting to pray. My moments are a prompting to pray. What's the third one? The fourth one is this, meals. Meals. The reason this sounds trivial to us is because we live in the cultural context we live in, where we pick over what other people wish they had.

So the meals are not about the chicken. The meals are evidence that God keeps on providing for you. Every time you look at a meal, you shouldn't call it soul food, you shouldn't call it Asian food, you shouldn't call it Thai food. You should look at it and say, Jaira. I only have this because Jaira has provided for me. So practically, the Spirit is nudging you and I to follow the prompts. Praying without ceasing isn't one unending conversation. It is bouts of coughing in response to promptings from the Spirit or practical promptings. And if we will practice this, I practice before I preach. Yes, sir. You got me? And I am telling you experientially, what this has done for my prayer life and my spiritual life in the past three to four months far exceeds the 30 years I've been walking with the Lord. The intimacy is unmatched. It's an automatic tap in whenever, wherever. I could be playing pick a ball. Thank you, Jesus. I'm telling you something here. May we follow the prompts.