IN HIM - Part 11 - Prayer In Him

We're living in victory The battle's won in victory We've overcome whatever comes our way No one can change the scene We're living in victory Through our Lord Jesus Christ Hello, this is Mike Kennedy with the Living in Victory broadcast. We're continuing our series today titled In Him. The message today is titled Prayer in Him. This is the completion of the Armor of God portion of the series. But the series is based on Philemon verse 6. It says that the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. As I've stated before, these three words, in Christ Jesus, oh my, they are important. I believe they are the most important words ever written, ever inspired to express the relationship between a Christian, a believer, and the Most High God. In Christ Jesus, we are made right with Him. We have victory in Him. Our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life in Him. Amen? This series is based on Philemon 6, but we've been focused on the Armor of God that we have in Him, enabling us to stand, to fight the schemes of the enemy, and to put on the Armor of God, enabling us to win and win big time. Amen? So we're going to focus on prayer today. Remember, Ephesians 6.14 says, Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, that's the second part of the armor, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace, number three, above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one, not some, all of them, and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And verse 18, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. So we've discussed this in previous messages.

Truth protects against lies. Righteousness protects against condemnation. Shodding our feet with the gospel of peace protects against missing opportunities for the kingdom, for blessings of God. Amen? Putting on the shield of faith guards against Satan's deadliest weapons, doubt. The helmet of salvation protects the head, which is our thought life. And the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Amen? Prayer. We're going to talk about that today, man, which I believe the timing of this, only God could ordain it. Prayer, it's critical for us to start the new year off in prayer. Amen? Acknowledging God, asking Him for wisdom, for direction into the new year. Ephesians 6, verses 18 through 20, saying, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. Paul is asking for prayer. You know, brothers and sisters, I covet, I desire your prayers. As I bring forth the Word, as I study, as I prepare. If I come on your heart, I ask you to pray for me and Shara. Amen? That the utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the Gospel. Paul asked for prayer so he could rightly preach the Word boldly. He could hear from God. He could decipher and give examples that we would grow in Him. Amen?

We come to God in prayer in the name of Jesus. In other words, in Him. Prayer was not first and should not be first. The Word is first. You can't even pray properly without the Word. It doesn't say, prayer became flesh. No, it says in John 1, 14, in the Word of God became flesh. In other words, Jesus came. The written word became flesh and came to earth for you and for me, amen. God desires for us to have fervent effectual prayers that avail much. But for us to do that, to have effectual fervent prayers, means that we must know the Word, the Word of God. We need to know what prayer is, how to apply it by faith, the different kinds of prayers, what to pray for that's in alignment with the Word that we would get results from our prayers, amen? He gave us the Word to help us be more fruitful in our prayers, to win more battles, to win and win and keep on winning, to be successful. The Word of God must be foremost in our life, in our minds, in our hearts, in our prayer life, amen? I had somebody ask me, well, isn't prayer just asking God for things? No, it's not. That is a portion of it. Prayer is more than talking to God or asking for things. It's communing with God. It's a relationship with Him. You know, I had a friend of mine, he was telling me the other day that his daughter only calls them when she needs money. Otherwise, she doesn't answer their calls, their texts, she avoids them. But when she needs money, she calls. And that really hurt them.

It's really bothering them that the only time their daughter even contacts them is when she needs money. Just think of every time you commune with God is only when you ask for something? No, we should have a relationship with Him. And it shouldn't just be talking, it shouldn't just be begging, rambling on. We need to commune with Him, have a relation with Him. It should not just be one-sided. Not talking to God, but talking with God, amen? We need to pray, and there's times we just need to get quiet and ask God to reveal Himself. Listen to Him, and He will talk to you if you get quiet and listen, amen? There are four types of prayers mentioned in 1 Timothy 2, verse 1. It says, therefore I exhort first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men. You say, well prayer is listed there. Well, let's talk about the Greek words listed here. Supplications, that means request, a sense of need or asking for something from God. The second one, prayers. That means praying goodwill, obtaining good or divine direction for someone or for ourselves. Asking God for wisdom, asking God for knowledge, but also asking Him for His will to be done in somebody's life. For them to be led by the Spirit, to help them, amen? Intercessions. This is when intercession, you cannot intercede for yourself. That means you're praying for somebody else, for mercy, to help, for wisdom, for direction, amen? And it's about others. And then the last one is giving of thanks. 25% of your prayer time should just be thanking the Lord for His goodness, for all that He has done, amen? Let's talk about what prayer is not.

Prayer is not the source. It's not the solution. God is, amen? It is something we are told to do, to come to the throne. It's part of obedience. The Lord does not hear vanity, pride. He resists the proud, but He hears our honest, open hearts that come to Him, amen? If you're not getting results in prayer, you know, people get discouraged because they don't see the results. Instead, let's stand in faith, but we also need to look at ourselves. Did we go and did we ask according to the Word? Did we ask properly without, with love within ourselves? Not out of bitterness, amen? Not just begging, but asking according to the Word, amen? In faith, glory to God. Jesus taught us about prayer. In Luke 11, verse 1, the disciples said, Lord, teach us to pray. It's now something that we call the Lord's Prayer. The prayer He's taught on had three different parts. The invocation, our Father who art in heaven, the petition, and then the ending or the doxology. Let's break it down just a little bit. It says in verse 9, it says, In this manner, therefore, pray our Father in heaven. That word, Father, means source. Jesus knew that his source of supply, his source of wisdom, his source of revelation, protection, everything he needed came from the Heavenly Father. It's a submission to God, an acknowledgement that God is the creator of all things. And then it goes on to say, hallowed be your name. Hallowed or holy be your name. It recognizes that God is creator.

He is God of all. Amen. The name of the Lord should not be used in vain with disrespect or taken lightly. You know, people say, OMG, oh my God. You know, Exodus 20 verse 7 says, You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain. And me and Shara were in a outlaw biker club a couple years ago and this guy, every couple words was GD, God and then the word damn. And we just cringed every time we heard it. And Shara just said, you know, would you do me a favor? Now we have had a relationship with him. He grew up in a home where his mom took him to church. He knew the truth. And she said, you keep using the Lord's name in vain. Would you please not do that when you're talking to us? He looked at him, shook his head and he says, my mom raised me better than that. And he said, ma'am, I apologize. And from that time on, once in a while he would say it, but he'd catch himself and say, ah, I'm sorry. He recognized it. Amen. People say, Lord God Almighty. You know, oh my Lord, Jesus Christ. No, you should not use his name in any way unless you are talking about him in a wholly righteous manner or talking to him. Amen. That's when you should use the word God with honor, with respect. Amen. The word vain means uselessly. There's not much difference than saying G-D or O-M-G. Both are uselessly being utilized to express the name of God or the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen. Wrong prayers can be divisive, cause church splits. They can cause hurt feelings. I'm not talking about you and just the Lord quietly praying. God's not going to answer divisive, manipulative prayers. I'm talking about people in a public setting saying, Lord, you know, just like the individual in the Bible that said, I'm not like those other men. Nothing but

pride. The Bible says he's praying about himself to himself. Amen. We need to pray. Lord, give people revelation. Give them divine help. Have mercy on them. I've been at churches where the pastor says, Lord, we need money. I ask you that, Father, since we need this money so bad to move on people's hearts, he's trying to manipulate them. The Lord says, bring requests to him. Doesn't mean you have to share with everybody else or try to manipulate. God's not in manipulation. Amen. And then it goes on in verse 10. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. If God is in control, like many people say God is in control, ultimately he's in control over what's going to happen through eternity. But he gave us a free will. He is not controlling you. He does not possess. He's not a demon. Satan tries to possess us. He gives us a free will. So he tells us to ask for his will to be done. Well, if he's already going to do his will, why do we need to ask him for his will? It would be a waste of time. Amen. If he was in ultimate control over everything you did, what you were going to do today, what you were going to wear, what you ate, you'd have no free will and there'd be no need to ask him because he's going to do what he's going to do. So why, if God is in ultimate control over everything you do, why ask him? He's going to do whatever he's going to do in that mentality. Amen. Now, we need to pray and ask God because he is not a God that is here to possess and to control us. He gave us a free will. We need to ask God to move on our behalf. Invite him in to work on our behalf. Amen. Verse 11 says, Give us this day our daily bread. Jesus is teaching that we should ask God for our daily bread, our necessities of life, food, shelter. Amen? Not just physical, but spiritual food, which is the Word of God. Amen? That's why many times during the

beginning of our message, whenever we're starting, I ask for prayer, for wisdom, for revelation to God to give us light and understanding of His Word. Amen? That's why Paul asked for his partners to pray for him, which is why I asked a few minutes ago for you to continue to pray for me. Amen? God knows that we have needs, but He tells us to ask for them. It gives Him a legal right to do things on our behalf. Amen? He is our source of abundant supply, but we need to acknowledge Him. Amen? Jesus asked God. Part of asking, or part of prayer, is thanks. He prayed to God, giving God thanks for the abundance to feed the 5,000 with the fishes and loaves. Amen? Verse 12, And forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Forgiveness takes love. It takes mercy. It takes strength, because your flesh does not want to forgive anybody. Amen? When God forgives, He never brings it back up. He forgets it. You know, there's outlaw biker clubs that'll have a patch that say the name of their club forgives. They'll say God forgives, and the name of the club don't. No, you need to be one who forgives. You're like our Heavenly Father, because if you don't forgive, God doesn't forgive you. That's in the Word. Amen? If you don't forgive, He doesn't forgive you. Take a look at that. I taught on that recently. There's a message called, If you say so, it will be so. And I go into detail about that aspect. Verse 13, And do not lead us into temptation. That word, Greek word for temptation, is testing. But deliver us from the evil one. So we've heard six different requests in this so far. We've heard for God's name to be hallowed, to be reverenced, for the kingdom to come, for God's will to be done, for our daily bread to be provided or given to us, our needs to be met, forgiveness of our debts or our sins, and for deliverance or from temptations or testing from the evil one. Amen? And then the

doxology, the closing, it says, For yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you. Now this is what I was just talking about. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. It's written right there in the word, red letters by Jesus. If you don't forgive, you won't give forgiveness. Amen? You won't get it. Glory to God. Jesus is teaching on prayer, but He's talking about forgiveness. If you want your prayers answered, you need to forgive other people that you can get the mercy and blessings and goodness of God in your life. Amen? First Thessalonians 5 16. It says, Rejoice always, not just when your ship comes in. Man, a lot of people are waiting for their ship to come in, but they've never sent one out. They've never sown a seed, but they're expect for the blessings of God. No, the word says, Give and it shall be given unto you. Notice, give comes first. Give and it shall be given unto you. Press down, shaken together, running over shall men put into your bosom. Amen? This time, whenever in First Thessalonians 5 16, Paul and Silas were in prison. They said this while they were in prison in the deepest, darkest dungeons. Rejoice always. Amen? Pray without ceasing. Well wait, I need to eat. I'm talking. I need to work. I need to sleep. How can I do that? You got to understand what he means. A lifestyle of prayer. Checking in with him. Lord, do I go left or right? Do I stop here? Do I get this order? What do I do today, Lord? Just checking in with him. It doesn't have to be this long, drawn out, holy is the Lord prayer. No, Lord, hey, what do I do today? Just check in with him. Amen? In everything, give thanks. That's a type of prayer. Remember, 25 percent of prayers.

One of the four different types that we just mentioned is prayer. Glory to God. In everything, give thanks. Not for the trial. You don't give thanks for the trial or the battle, but for the victory in that situation. For his goodness. always causes me to triumph. Lord, I thank You that I'm coming through this. I thank You that I'm getting free. Amen. That I am free. Glory to God. Hallelujah. For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. It's in Him. This is His will that you give thanks. Amen. Because He has plans to prosper you. He has plans to bring you up. He has plans for you to live in victory for good things. Amen. Glory to God. James 5.13 says, Is anyone among you suffering? The Good News Translation says, Is anyone among you in trouble? The Message Bible says, Is anyone among you hurting? Let him pray. See, a lot of people when they're in trouble, all they do is go to their pastor or friend and say, Pray for me. You should do that. But you should also pray. Amen. Somebody else can't do your prayers. I've heard people say, Oh, my wife is a prayer warrior. She does the praying in our house. No, she can't do the praying for you. It's a command for you to pray as well. Amen. Is anyone among you cheerful? Let him sing songs. Doesn't say to call the choir and tell them to sing. No, you need to sing. Praise you, Lord. Thank you, Father. I worship you. You're in the car driving. Just praise Him. Amen. It doesn't say that if you've got a good voice. Everybody can sing. Everybody can praise the Lord. Not everybody should record. I definitely should not record an album. I can tell you that. I can make a joyful noise unto the Lord. Verse 14. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the sick. Notice the prayer of faith will save not just any prayer. You need to be in faith. You need to hear from God. You need to pray according to the word. But let's back up. Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders. You know, I've been called and asked to go to hospitals for because somebody was in a motorcycle accident. And I get there and the people don't want prayer. They don't believe in God. It's a waste of my time from that aspect other than to pray for them that Lord have mercy on them and reveal Himself to them. But that's not a prayer of faith because they didn't ask for me to come, nor do they have faith in God or that He would heal. Amen. So we need to understand that if you're sick, you need to call and ask for the leaders and elders of the church to come and pray for you. Amen. Now, if somebody's incapacitated, they're in a coma, etc. You know, like I was

whenever I had my motorcycle accident, which I've shared on the broadcast before when I was drag racing Harleys professionally, was lifelighted. I was incapacitated. My wife called the leaders of the church. Pastor Brother Keith Moore and his wife, Mrs. Moore showed up at the hospital. I came out when she walked in because my wife was in faith. They were in faith and they asked for mercy. Amen. I was incapacitated. I couldn't call. But if you can call, you should call. Amen. It goes on to say back up to verse 14. Is anyone among you sick? Let him pray for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord in him. Amen. Anointing him in the name of the Lord in the prayer of faith will raise the sick and the Lord will raise him up. And if he's committed sins, he will be forgiven. What? He asked for mercy. He asked for prayer. The person who was sick in his sins will be forgiven. Confess your trespasses to one another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effective fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Remember, we talked about the breastplate of righteousness and putting on the breastplate of righteousness. We do that and our prayers can be effective, fervent, righteous that avail much, that overcome, that defeat the enemy. Right? Jesus was a prayer warrior example. He withdrew himself to prayer daily. He went to lonely places or quiet places and prayed. Amen. He had a lifeline to the Father. If Jesus required prayer to go to the Father for wisdom, for direction, for strength, do you think that you and I need to do that? Absolutely. In the Gospels, there are 17 References to Jesus having prayer divided into some groupings. One of them is critical moments in his life. In other words, like in Luke 321, he prayed after the baptism that occurred in his life. And while he prayed in Luke 321, it says, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. And while he prayed, the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him. And a voice came from heaven which said, You are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased. So he was baptized and he prayed and the Holy Spirit came down on him. We see that he prayed all night long for wisdom before he selected the twelve apostles. It says in Luke 612, Now it came to pass in those days that he went out to the mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer, not just a couple minutes, all night.

And when it was day, he called his disciples to himself. And from then he chose twelve, whom he also named apostles. You have a big decision to make. You need to pray and not just for a couple seconds, amen. Jesus prayed all night long. We need to seek the Lord, get quiet, ask him for wisdom to make big decisions, amen. Jesus prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane before he went to the cross, amen. He was on the Mount of Olives praying which he was accustomed to or was his custom, amen. He got quiet. He prayed. He sought the Lord because he was getting ready to face the cross, a major trial in his life. Whenever you're facing something, you need to go and get on your hands and knees and pray. You don't go to your pastors just to pray and you walk away thinking, well, it's done. They've prayed. Or your wife to pray. You need to pray, amen. On the cross, he cried out. It is critical for us to have a lifestyle of prayer, to turn to God in prayer, amen, to have a relationship of prayer in him. Glory to God. It's not just about us asking God to do something. It's a relationship and whenever you do that, prayer will release the power of God. I like power. I like double twin turbos. I like upgraded cams. Sharon and I were talking about my Indian motorcycle today and putting new cams in it and new pipes. I want it to be loud.

I want it to growl and I want power, amen. That's what happens when you have fervent, effectual, righteous prayers that avail much, amen. That's what God has for you. It will open up the windows of heaven. Just like I want my motorcycle to rattle windows, your prayers will open up the windows of heaven into your life, amen. Glory to God. We need to have a lifestyle of prayer in him. Glory to God. Remember, Jesus did it. We should have that same type of lifestyle of prayer. Go into him. You should start your day off in prayer. You need to start this year off in prayer. Oh, it doesn't have to be a long, drawn out, oh, the Lord God. No, just commune with him. Heavenly Father, I acknowledge you. I ask you to be Lord and Savior of my life. If you haven't received him, that's where you should start. And then you go from there and you pray to him, commune with him, amen. Well, this is Mike Kennedy with Living in Victory. Remember, 1 John 5, verse 4 says, for whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. Glory to God. Have a blessed day.