The Frequency of Prayer | Pastor Nelson Bowen

Let me say thank you for all that you've done, all that you're going to do, and the reality is if you've never did anything else, it's already been enough. Do I have anybody in here that can praise him for what he's already done, for what he's already done, how he's already kept? You know, some people died in 2025, but you got breath in your body and movement in your limbs, and you didn't think your marriage was going to make it, and yet, y'all still staying here, maybe not knowing what it's going to look like tomorrow, but today, we staying here together. Your kids are healthy. Come on, would you just begin to worship him for what he has already done? Thank you, God. It's in your name that we pray. If I got any believers in the house, would you say amen? Come on, say amen like you mean it. So good, so good. Well, welcome to 2026. The best year of your life started four days ago. I said the best year of your life started four days ago. You should look at your neighbor and say, you should just be glad I let you sit next to me today. You should just be glad. It's going to be a good Sunday. I got a few announcements, and then I'm going to get straight to the word. Is that okay? Caleb Generation, my 55 and older crew, Caleb Crew. Man, I'm hanging out with you guys next week with Lady B and I. We're looking forward to it. We're excited to just see, you know, just to hang out and just hear from you guys and you all from us and where I believe God has taken us, and I think this will be a great time, so hang out with us.

I told the 9 AM, I said, I guess maybe you can just go and pray because you can't go home and eat and come back because we started 21 days of prayer and fasting today, man, today. Some of y'all said, I didn't know we started already. I already had breakfast. Shame on you. No, no, no, I'm playing, I'm playing. Just start now, but I'm excited about it. I told them on New Year's Eve that if we are just fasting and not praying, then we're just dieting, and dieting does not create breakthrough, and so we need both, and there's opportunities all throughout the week for us from Tuesdays at 6 AM and Wednesdays in person at 6 AM. I'm going to be there. It's going to be exciting, and I know that sounds like a lot, but that's what sacrifice is. We sacrifice, and we say, before I go to work and get my day started, God, I'm going to spend it with you, and so it'll be great to do that, and then I think that's all the announcements. Oh, I got this shirt right here. Have y'all seen the new gear, this 64 and part? Some people, this is a nice shirt, too. It's kind of heavy. Someone asked, what is 64 and part? Well, it's the address. Sometimes you don't know how to, you don't know the address, but you know how to get there, and so 64 Industrial Park, 64 and part, and I thought it'd just be cool to kind of have some, like a walk-in billboard. I asked you what that means. You said, that's my church. You should come and be a part of our set. You know, that's what it looks like, right? But it's going to be pretty cool, and so I'm excited, but I'm really, really looking forward

to teaching this morning. Anyone excited about the Word today? We're starting a brand new sermon Thursday called The Sound, say The Sound. The Sound. Of Breakthrough. Of Breakthrough. Prayers that'll shake heaven and silence hell. I don't have, and I expressed to the 9AM that I really don't have enough time to get through all the content that I have for this message series, and so what I'm going to be doing is continually teaching it, like on Wednesday, for Faith Wednesday, and I might even hop on some Zooms, because it is imperative that you get all of the notes and all of the information. In fact, in case I forget, y'all remind me, PB, give us the notes and I'll know what that means because I see all y'all do is just be up there like this, trying to zoom in and squeeze. And so our creative team was so, so ingenious. And so, yeah, no, don't give it to them. And so you'll be able to QR code all the notes at the end of the message. And it's gonna be, hear me, that's gonna be pretty cool. Don't clap yet, I'm not finished, man, stop. But it's gonna be a living document for every series. And so by the time you get to the end of this series, you have all of the notes that were there on your phone for you to be able to keep it all in one place. Cause I got tired of y'all just, you know, just get the word, man. And so I'm not going to be doing much preaching during this series. My intent for this series is to just teach

because scripture makes it clear that my people, that's God talking, my people will be believers. They perish, why? For a lack of knowledge, because they have no understanding. And so my job over this next month is just to teach you. Cause one of the things that's so embarrassing to me, Ms. Lorraine, is when you ask believers to pray and they get that dumb look on their face. Can I say dumb? It's kind of early to say dumb, right? What's the word I want, baby? But you'd be like, hey, can you pray? They'd be like, huh? And what I'm discovering is that too many of us as believers don't know how to pray. And we don't know the effectiveness of our prayers. And I'm not at this point. The last thing I'm concerned about in 2026 is a full room. We have got to the place where the rooms are going to be full, whatever. It's who have we put in the room and how we equip them and how have we discipled them and how have we matured them and how have we made sure that when they say that they're a believer, that they know what that means. Does this make sense? And so we have to learn how to pray and understand what it is because we got some phenomenal people coming to visit us this year.

And if I told y'all the people that were coming, man, this room would be packed more than what it is now. And then we're going to say, we're going to do prayer on 8.30 on Saturday and six of y'all going to show up. And it's because there's a lack of understanding of what prayer is. And so my job over this month is to put a battery on your back as it relates to prayer. Like, yo, no, let's go because I now have understanding of what this thing is. And so I want to lean in. I'm going to preach a verse today or exegete a verse today that I think is taken out of context far too much. And we got a lot of that in the body of Christ too, where people that take a verse and don't even know what the verse mean, it's out of context and trying to get something from it and wondering why it's not working is because you don't know the context of the verse. Does this make sense? And so can you just kind of lean in with me a little bit today? Say, I'm here. I'm attentive. I'm ready. And I'm excited. Okay, let me tell you this. Prayer is not begging. Prayer is not begging.

It's alignment. Prayer isn't about volume. You have people that get to the, God, I just thank you. And you get loud. And listen, if you get loud because that's your flow, cool, but if you're getting loud because you think that's what produces the result, you're ignorant by the literal tense. I'm not calling you a name. You're lack knowledge. Prayer is not about how many words you can speak. And some people, they get embarrassed because they feel like they don't have enough words. You don't need enough words. You need the word. That's a bar. Come on, click that. Prayer is about saying the words that align with God's will and intent for your life. Are you with me? So if we're gonna read this verse that I think gets really just a bad misinterpretation, I'm gonna preach a chart. You don't even gotta take a picture of the chart. I got the chart for you. What'd I just say? So you ain't got, don't be the one. I got the chart for you, I promise. Because I really need you to lean in because sometimes when you're taking a picture of

the chart, you're missing what I'm saying. And if you'll get what I'm saying when you get the chart at home, it's gonna make a lot more sense. Does it make sense? So I'm gonna read this verse, and after I read the verse, I'm gonna bring up what this verse means in its original language. Say original language. Got it? Let's do it. First John. First John, chapter number five, verse 14. It says, now this is the confidence. Let's read it together. This is what? Confidence. Okay, so we just read a word that said confidence, and we did not say it confidently. Let's say it, come on. This is what? Confidence. Okay, that we have before him. Look at this. He asked what? According to his will. Now most people, they stop right there. I can ask God anything. No, you can't. No, you have to ask him according to his will. And look at this, Elder Bell. When you ask him according to his will, here's what happens. He hears us.

Some of y'all should miss the shout right there. Verse 15. This is important. And if we know that he hears whatever we ask. Now what John is assuming and letting us know is that there are some people who when they pray, they don't know that God hears them. And so what John is saying is, if you know, as you should know, that if you pray asking according to his will, look, then whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of him. Okay, now can I break this down phrase by phrase? It's a few of you guys, four of you guys. Can I break this down phrase by phrase? Because oftentimes what happens is we'll read scripture and really don't even know what the original intent of the scripture is and then walk away trying to apply something with ignorance. And the word is designed to get results. Listen to me. Not some of the time, not most of the time, but every single time you're supposed to get results. Okay. So let's look at it. First John chapter five, verse 15. Here's what goes. Don't y'all take no pictures. All right. Y'all was good. Clap for yourself. Okay. So this phrase is, this is the confidence. That's the Greek.

I'm not going to attempt to say any of these Greek words right now, but I really need you to focus on is what the definition of the Greek word means. Does that make sense? So that this is the confidence, the Greek word for it is that one. But that word, here's what it means, boldness, courage, unshakable, assurance, freedom of speech. Here's the main one. Legal right to speak openly. So what John is saying is prayer is your legal right to speak openly. Prayer. Here's the boldness that you have that you can speak openly, legally with your father. Okay. So prayers, authorized speech, it's not timid pleading. Well, God, you know, I just hope that, I mean, I know sometimes that I don't always get, but I'm just, that's not prayer. That's begging. No, no, prayer is the ability to approach God as a legal heir, not beggars. It's a confidence that you get from relationship with him, not how you have performed. Now this is important because some of you stop praying when you feel like you haven't performed well. Can I say it this way? You stopped praying when you sinned last night and now you feel like, I can't go pray to the father because I didn't perform well. And that's not what prayer is. Prayer is the ability to approach my father legally and to speak freely. Oh my gosh. Now this is the confidence that if we ask anything, that's the Greek word. You got it? What that Greek word means is to request as one that is fully entitled. To make a claim, listen, based on relationship, to ask with expectation of an answer.

What do you mean? So prayer is a petition. Listen to this, from a child. It's a petition from a child. It's you recognizing your sonship or you being a daughter, going to your father, making a request of him with the expectation that you are going to answer. So we ask, expecting a response because our standing with God is secure. Your standing with God is secure. Okay, I'll say it this way. Your relationship with God is not that fragile that if you messed up, he wants nothing to do with you. I'm going to say that again so y'all can hear me. Your relationship with God is not so fragile that if you mess up, he says you're no longer my son or my daughter. As a matter of fact, when you mess up, he's going to confirm his relationship as your father. So you have to have the boldness and understand your legal right to continue to go to your father. Are we good? Okay, now according to his will, this is some good teaching. There's two Greek words actually being put together. Oh, look at my man G. Now we can really have fun. You in the building. So those two Greek words is put together. It's like a compound word. You got that? So the first word, katah, is the alignment or agreement or harmony. So important. As a matter of fact, the entire verse is hinged upon this compound word. That you're not just asking for something randomly. That you're not just asking for something that you want. No, I'm asking for something that is in alignment or that's in harmony with that laima, which is the will, the desire, the intention, or look at this, the predetermined purpose. Because what you have to understand is that the person you're praying to, God our father, he is not unintentional. Right now, say right now, the moment that you are sitting in was already designed by God. There's nothing that you have been through. There's nothing that you have endured. There's nothing that has happened to you. There's nothing that you have gone through that has, number one, caught God by surprise, and number two, he didn't know what's going to happen. As a matter of fact, all of it has happened and will work according to the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. So every moment that you find yourself in is not a surprise from God, and as we learn to lean into that moment, we can then pray his intent out of that moment. You're not an accident. You're not just a byproduct of your parent's passion. You're an intentional thought of God. No, listen to me. Listen to me. You are an intentional thought of, Greg, he thought of you, then made you. Okay, okay. Roe, he thought of you first. I want someone who is going to be bold, courageous, not afraid to

be themselves. I need them in the year 2026 because I know I've got this thing right here that's getting ready to take off, but if she will lock in four years prior to that, then I can get her. I need Roe Meeker. Roe Meeker. Boom. Are you sitting? No, you're not hearing what I'm saying. You are not just air and combustion. You're an intentional thought with a predetermined purpose. You got to start walking like, man, I'm here on purpose. No, I'm here. I should have had some theme music. I'm here on purpose. You walk into your job. I'm here on purpose. You show up to your marriage. I'm here on purpose. You walk into the PTA meeting, I'm here because I pray. I mean on purpose. Okay, no, no, pull back up, pull up, pull up, pull up. Next one, next one. Watch this, watch this. He hears us. We could shout right there. He hears us. I said He hears you. I said the Father in heaven, the creator of the universe, He hears you. Now that Greek word is not, that's not the same here that I've had, regrettably, that I've had like these last two days with my little rascals in the house. It ain't been this type of here. I'm like, I'm gonna be the first one in the drop-off line tomorrow. I'm racing to be number one and I'm gonna be the last one to pick them up, the first one to drop, the first shall be last tomorrow, I promise you. But that's not the type of here we're talking about. That here is to hear with attention. Look, come on, this is this here, to respond. He's hearing to respond, to act, to grant favorably, and to engage. God is not listening to your prayers and ignoring you. He's leaning in, wanting to grant favorably. Oh my gosh, man. He doesn't just listen. He responds, and heaven moves when the prayers that we are praying are aligned with His will, with harmony. This is what the word is supposed to preach itself. When you preach the word, you don't need a dramatic preacher, but it takes you being able to understand what the word is. Does this make sense? Okay, we know that we have echo. Oh God, I'm supposed to be an echo of what God had in mind. Okay, that means to possess, to hold in hand, to own, and to experience. Faith shifts prayer from future hope, listen, to a present possession. I need you to understand. I did not have it before I prayed. Now that I prayed, I have it. I did not have it before I prayed. Now that I have prayed, I have it. I take possession, not at manifestation, but at a prayer. Oh my gosh, okay, okay, okay. What's aligned is already secured, even if it's not visible.

Secure the bag. What we ask, it's a formal request or a petition. Here's the deal, most people are not seeing the type of breakthrough they want in their prayer life because they don't understand this Greek word right here that means a specific claim. God, would you just be good to me? Well, I woke you up, so I've already been good. What else do you want? Be specific. God, would you bless me with a house? Well, there's a rambler, there's a townhouse, there's a single family house. See, sometimes you get so unspecific, you're just, you're not specific. And when you aren't specific, you leave room for too much ambiguity. Get specific and watch how quick he show up. Just saying. Aligned prayer produces measurable outcomes, not vague spirituality. What is asked in alignment is received in certainty. That's that verse. Are you with me? If I was to, to, okay, say calm down. This verse by John is written in present tense. It's important to know not just what the verse is, but then the tense in which he's writing. Is it past? Is it present? Is it future? This verse is present tense, which means that when God hears it, or he hears you, you have it. When he hears you, if it's according to his will, you have it. You're not waiting for, if he hears you, which we know he does, you have it. us. When you pray it, if it's according to His will, you now have it. Breakthrough is the moment of agreement, not manifestation. Okay, how can I say? I don't know how to say it any different. Breakthrough, when you're praying for whatever type of breakthrough it is. Most people think breakthrough comes when I can physically hold it. That's not when breakthrough comes. That's when you get the manifestation of the breakthrough. Breakthrough is the moment you pray it and you've gotten an agreement with God's word, you now have it. What you're now waiting for is the visible evidence of it. But you don't need the visible evidence because we walk by faith and not by sight. We call those things that be not as though they are. So the moment that I have began to pray it and I'm in agreement with what God has already spoken, I now have already, it's already in my possession, the thing that I... Okay, calm down. You said you wasn't going to preach. Just teach. So if we used to put this verse together, can I just give you Laman's translation? No, Nelson's translation. Can I give you my translation? Here's what this verse means. This is 14 to 15. This is the unshakable court-level confidence that we have, that when we step into God's presence

and make a request that aligns with his divine intention, listen to me, he not only listens, he responds. And because he responds, we already possess what we ask for. That's prayer. We're not begging. We're praying. Are you with me? Okay. Caleb generation, where y'all at? Y'all with me? Because Gen Z not going to know what this is. That don't look like no iPod or iPhone. Who know what this is? Anybody know what this is? It's a radio. You don't even hear that word no more. Somebody said, what you know about that? I know about the radio. The radio, at one point, this was how you got everything. It's how you got your news. It's how you got your music. It's how you got your sport. You had to have the radio. The weather, everything was the radio. And you couldn't just turn it on. You know, like, we could just turn it on. You had to turn it on. You know, Teddy was saying, turn it off. Y'all going to catch that. That's my Caleb generation. But you would just turn this down. You had to do what? Use the word. Tune it. Because there was a frequency that was going out and your job was to get in tune to the frequency that was already going out. The problem is this, if you were not in tune to the frequency, then what you heard was static. Yes or no? Only, I got to talk to Caleb because the young folks, they don't understand. So, but what I'm saying is that most of us, your prayer life sounds like static because you aren't in tune to the frequency of heaven. It's not that heaven isn't sending stuff out. It's that you have not tuned yourself to what is already going out. It's the reason why we got 21 days of prayer and fasting because you've taken on so much noise and so much junk and so much filth that you got to take some time to get in tune to what he is saying. Because if I never get in tune, I can feel like I'm communicating, but I'm not hearing anything. So, I got to get in tune. Heaven has a bunch of stuff that it's saying and there's a bunch of things going out, but sometimes my prayer life feels staticky. Yes or no? My job as a pastor, and I'm getting so adamant about this, that you understand the importance and the power of prayer. I bet in the 90 percentile when it comes to prayer. I'm just being honest with you. But it's because I have understanding. Going to understand the frequency of prayer, you have to understand what creates static in heaven. What heaven is not moved by. Can I help you out?

Heaven is not moved by panic. You can panic all you want, it don't move heaven. Heaven ain't moved by your pity. I'm so sad. That's my Sunday, I'm sad. Heaven's not moved by passiveness. Heaven's not moved by your performance. I got one for you. You ain't gonna shout on this. Someone talked to me at the 9am, they said they didn't even hear what you said. I said, well, I'm glad you heard it. He said, I'm gonna tell you this. Heaven is not even moved by your problems. It's not. What I'm not saying is that heaven isn't concerned. I'm not saying that heaven doesn't care. I'm not saying that heaven isn't like, man, how do we make that? But it's not moved. The thing that moves heaven, what heaven responds to is agreement. That's what heaven responds to. It's not pity, it's agreement. It's not passiveness, it's agreement. It's not complaining about how bad things are. It's agreement. And if you're going to get an agreement, you have to get an agreement with four areas to really see heaven move on your behalf.

I'm gonna give you two today. I'm gonna give you the other two on Faith Wednesday. I might only give you one today. It's already 12, 15, oh my gosh. Can I give you this first one though? Here's the first one. You gotta agree with God's character. Hebrews 11, six. Let's read this together. Now, without faith, it's what? Impossible. To do what? Please God. Comma, which means pause and think about that first. Now, without faith, it's what? To do what? Some of y'all said, all I want to do is be pleasing to God. Okay, what are you in faith about? Here's, look at this one though. But since the one who draws near to him, what? What? Say it again. Here's my question for you. Is must optional? Is must optional? No. So he's saying, you can't even draw near to him without first believing that he exists and that he's a rewarder. Oh my gosh.

The major key, what'd I just say? Major key. Before you can agree with what God said, you gotta agree with who God is. And where most of us are going wrong in our prayer life, here's the static for you. You spend time trying to convince yourself or convince him. The static in your prayer life is you're trying to either convince God of whatever it is you fill in the blank or convince yourself. Trying to convince yourself. I think I'm worthy, I don't know. I think I'm deserving, I don't know. Or you're trying to convince God. And hear me, God doesn't need to be convinced. He needs to be trusted. He doesn't need to be convinced. He needs to be trusted. And the breakdown in most of our prayer life is this. It's not that you don't believe that God is powerful. If I asked all of you guys to raise your hand if you believe God is powerful, 90% of this room, your hands gonna go up. He's powerful. If I asked you, do you think he can do the impossible? 90, maybe 80% of your hands, y'all gonna go up. He can do the impossible. Here's the disconnect. You just don't know if he's powerful towards you.

You don't trust that he can do the impossible for you. You know that he can do it for others. You've seen him do it for others. But you don't know if he can do it for you because you have a mistrust in his posture towards you. And here's the issue. You can't pray in agreement with a God you secretly distrust. You can't. You cannot agree with a God that you secretly distrust. And let me help you out. If God feels distant to you, you also think prayer is pointless. I'm going to say that over here. If you feel like God is distant in your own life, then you also feel like prayer is pointless. Because you're not going to pray to someone who you feel like doesn't hear you. You're not going to pray to someone who you feel like is so far from you. You're not going to pray to someone who you feel like, man, I don't know if they're going to get me anyway. In Hebrews 11, 6, he says, man, you got to say or believe that God not maybe, not might, not could be. No, you have to believe that God is. That God does exist. And that He is a rewarder. How do I know if I'm out of agreement with God's character? I love this silence. This silence means y'all leaning in. I love this part. But how do I know if I'm not in agreement with God's character? Your prayer life has if in it. God, if you care. I don't know if you'll do this for me, but you've blessed others. I'm not sure if and if your prayers are riddled in if. It's because secretly you're still mistrusting. It's because secretly you're not sure or I don't know if you believe that God is who He says He is. The disbelief, listen, is not in His power. The disbelief is in your mistrust of His posture towards you. Matter of fact, you know how to pray the heavens down for other people in your life. Someone comes to you, man, we got to pray. Let's do this. But then the thing that you've been But then the thing that you've been struggling with for years, you don't take that same energy because you know He can do it for them. You just don't know if He can do it for you. And here's the essence of why this occurs. I was sitting down this week and I was in my office trying to figure out like how do we really just narrow this down? And God said here's the question

that most people are struggling with. And if you can't, and I know I'm taking a long time, I'm only going to probably get to this verse maybe, but if this question isn't settled in your heart, then you will not move forward in prayer. And here's the question, Rameca, is God good towards me even when I don't understand Him? That's the question that's got to get settled. Is God good towards me even when I don't understand Him? Why is this crucial for agreement? Because what we are agreeing about, Shante, is His character, not necessarily His outcomes. This is important because if the outcome is unfavorable, do I change my mind about His character? And where most of us are is that we begin to have our mind changed about God the moment the outcome isn't what I agree with. And if the outcome isn't what I agree with, then I no longer think God is good. I think He doesn't love me. I think He doesn't like me. I think He doesn't have a way for me anymore. And it's because the outcome wasn't favorable, and I started thinking about about one of my dear friends, his name is Joe Riddle. Joe, let's do some keys. Joe, you know, he was here last year, he'll be here this year. Joe went through a really rough time when his wife died at the age of 37 from a brain tumor and from cancer with three kids. In the last two years of her life, it was very, very difficult. It was very difficult, it was hard. She was in and out of the hospital and at some point she just ends up on bed rest. And with like six months left, she can't even speak anymore and she's in tremendous pain and they're taking communion every day and they're praying and of course people are fasting and people are believing God that she's gonna heal

and she's gonna get out of this and because he's done it before, she struck with this for like years, but this time it really got her and she gets to the point where she can't speak anymore. She can only write, she can only write. A couple of days before she passes, here's the last thing that Lauren Riddle writes. She says, I will not exchange what I know about God for what I don't understand. I will not exchange what I know about God for what I don't understand. And the reason why it breaks my heart is because I see too many of us as believers willing to have our mind changed about who we know God to be because we didn't agree with an outcome he gave for us. Because our prayer life is not agreement, it's begging. God, would you do this for me? God, would you open up this door for me? God, would you just do this for me, for me, for me, for me? And when he does it, we're excited and when he does it, he's no longer good. And it's because we have not yet crossed into alignment, into agreement. And we remember that God, you're good and always good. And even if I don't understand and even if I don't agree, you're still good. Isn't that what Jesus prayed? Not my will, but your will be done. And we have yet gotten to the place

and our maturity and our walk with Christ where we're saying that even if I don't understand this, God, if you're the one that's orchestrating my life, it must be something in this that I gotta lean into. But I can't have my mind changed about your character and about who you are and about what you've done for me simply because I don't like your answer in this season. It's when you're praying for healing in your body and you feel like he hasn't responded yet. See, disagreement with his character tells you God heals, just not me. But agreement says, no, God is a healer and his love towards me has not changed. So I'll stay persistent even when I don't understand. What if we shifted from begging to actually pray? God, what's your will for my life? Let me give you this second one. I'm gonna try to speed through it and just do the nuts and bolts of this, but it's after you agree with his character, you have to agree with his word. See, Isaiah 55, 11 says this. It says, so shall my, what? Word be that goes from my mouth. It shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose. Not what you purpose, but what God purpose. And this shall succeed in the thing for which I sent. Prayer is not you informing God on something. If I can be so clear with you,

God is not like, there's nothing that you can give God and he's gonna be like, oh, really? I didn't know that. Prayer's not, like you're not informing God of something. There's nothing that you can. to him, that's going to catch him off guard. So when we pray, the way that we get to frequency and away from static is we have to pray his word back to him. Why? Because his word, hear me, is the language of heaven. His word is the final authority. So when I pray his word, I speak heaven's language. All right, here's the best way I know how to say this. When I was in Target, let me get my phone, when I was in Target, I was, we went to Target for the Legacy of Hope drive and we was getting toys and there was this person who like really wanted to help us. And I needed her help. The problem is that when I got to her, I said, hey, could you help me find this specific toy? She looked at me like, no habla ingles, sir. I said, oh. But you could tell that she was trying to put some of the words together, but she couldn't really like get all of them because I was, you know, she could get toy, but she couldn't put it all together. And then I remembered that I had this phone and I said, hey, hey, I need your help with a specific toy. Could you help me? And I went like this. And she said, because she wanted to help me, but we had a language barrier. And the moment that I began speaking her language, she was all around there helping me do it.

And I'm telling you is that you don't serve a God in the heaven who doesn't want to help you. There's probably a language barrier. And so when you fumble around in your prayers like, God, I don't know if you could possibly do this. Could you heal? Oh, I heard healed. What are they talking about though? I mean, I know that you've done it for others, but I don't know if you can do it for me. So if you could just this one time heal my, huh? I'm hearing a little something, but there's a difference when you pray like that and we learn to pray like this. God, it says in your Word, in Exodus 15, 26, you are the Lord, my healer. In the book of Jeremiah 30, 17, you said you restore my soul and my health and you heal my wounds. Matthew 8, 17 reminds me that you took my infirmities and you bore my diseases. So I come to you, believing God that by your stripes, I have been healed. And let me remind you that James 5 says that when prayer is offered in faith, it makes a sick person well. So God, when you start praying like that, heaven begins to shake. Heaven begins to move because they hear their language. You got to learn to stop fumbling and go to your father as his son and as his daughter and make your specific request known before him. God, I need you to fix my marriage this year. You said in your Word that when you bring two people together, let no man—see, you got to say, no, God, here's what I'm believing and decree and declare it out of—you got to pray with specificity. God, I keep getting all these nightmares. No, you told me to have the mind of Christ. You got to pray the Word.

Amen? We'll pick this up on Wednesday. All right. I've been going long all day. God, no. Let's pray. God, thank you so much for you being so good. Father, forgive us for begging. Help us to get into alignment with what you have decreed and what you have declared. Help us to find the intent and the will for our lives so that we can pray into that, God. We thank you. We love you. We honor you. You're so good. In Jesus' name, we pray. Okay, we'll pray for one person, no one looking, all eyes closed, heads bowed. The best decision that you could make today is to start your year off by giving your life to Jesus if you have not done so. Maybe you drifted to dating to find your way back. As I said before, you aren't here by accident. God designed this purpose, this moment here for you right now. So start the year off strong. Start the year off saying, man, God, I want to give you my life. The debate that's always going on is, is heaven or is hell real? The answer to that question is yes, they are real. Here's the myth. Jesus or God doesn't send you to neither one. You get to decide where you go and we go to heaven by saying, Jesus, I need you to come into my life, man. I need you to make me new.

I'm a sinner in need of a savior. What I'm trying to say is that God loves you so much that he gave his one and only son to die just for you so that his father could become your father and together you all could live in harmony and that's what gives you the ability to pray as his child, a legal heir to say, God, I need you, man. Now, here's what'll happen. I'm not saying your situation is going to change overnight, but you will. You'll get a peace that surpasses all understanding. You'll get a love that is incomprehensible, a joy that this world can't give and this world can't take away and you'll begin to slowly change from the inside out. But that only happens, you only come into agreement with God by accepting his son. And so I want to give you that opportunity today to say, that's me, man. I need to get my life right with Jesus and I'm not going to do anything spooky or scary. I'm just going to ask you to raise your hand on the count of three. And maybe even now your heart's racing like, yo, what is this? It's Jesus knocking on the door of your heart, simply asking one thing, man, can you let me in? He's a perfect gentleman, so he doesn't come by intrusion. He comes by invitation. He's saying, yes, I want you to change my life. And so if that's you today, on the count of three, just raise your hand as fast as you can. Don't make this about anyone else. Just do it with boldness, do it with courage, do it with quickness. But just say, man, it's me and you. I want to get my life today. On the count of three, we're going to do this together. One, God loves you. Two, your life will never be the same. Three, if that's you, they all over, they got on their back.

Come on, you got right here. You got one there. You got one over there. You got one over here. Come on, come on, come on. You got another one up front. Come on, come on, let's go. Come on, let's celebrate. Let's make some noise. Come on, let's say this together. Say, God, today I give you my life. I believe in my heart and confess with my mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord. Come on, let's celebrate. If you said that prayer for the first time, please text ICCPrayer to 94000. If you're watching this online, if you're in here, man, they put something in your hand on the way out in the Life Centers, that table right to the right. Would love to get your information, connect you, say, man, thank you, welcome to the family. Come on, let's celebrate those people one more time. So awesome. Well, it's time to trust God, everyone. It's time to trust God. See, I didn't like that response. I said it's time to trust God. If you're new here, that simply just means that it's time to give. I'm going to take a few moments on this. I told them at the 9-1-1, one of the things that Lady B and I have just endeavored to do. This is what we've endeavored to do. I'm not saying you should endeavor to do this. I said this is what we've endeavored to do. Is every year we go up half a percent or a full percent.

Every year we chose a full percent this year because God's been so good. And so we're at the point now where we're giving 25% of our income back. The goal for us is to give 80 and live off 20. And so that's just what we're trying to do, is be able to do that. And the reason why, here's the understanding behind it. God's faithfulness and his goodness and his mercy is amazing. Scripture says that wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also. He's talking about love in that moment. That if you love me, you'll keep my commands. And so one of the ways that we show our love for God is through giving. And so we're not going to love God the same way every single year. No, we're going to challenge ourselves and say, God, man, you've been so faithful. You've been so good. And so we increase it every year. What I'm challenging you to do, I'm challenging everyone in this room, here's the challenge, and I just got to ask of you, is that there's some of you, because at the end of the year you're going to get all your tax statements, you're going to get all that stuff, January 15th and all that stuff and good. But there's some of you who will be here for a whole year and you've never given anything. me to give to me. I'm saying would you start trusting God with, hear me, something. I'm not even saying give 10% yet. What I'm saying is, won't you start your trust journey and don't just leave here without saying, God man, here's a moment that I can show my trust to you. And what would it look like if all of us in this room say we're just gonna start trusting God with something this year. I'll let God do the rest because he'll trust me. You cannot out give him. Does that make sense? And so what I'm asking for are the people who have never given to start giving. For the people who do give, won't you pray to God over these next couple of weeks about, am I still giving, hear me, at the level that you're asking me to give? Or have you moved up so that I can move up? Amen? That's all I'm asking, to just go to God about your giving. We're starting the year off. You haven't gotten into anything yet

and just see what God will do. Amen? Okay, you can give a couple ways. You can give by texting 240-434-0761 in the Life Center, scan the QR code, but let's say a faith confessional about finding and say, God, today as I sow my seed, I sow in faith, trusting, believing, and knowing that you're a God of your word. Your word says that when I sow, you'll give it back, press down, shake it together, run it over, you'll put it back in my lap. The same measure in which I give, so I give, full of faith, with expectation, and cheerfully, knowing that you will do what your word says. Come on, to some 30, to some 60, who we believe in, guys? A hundred fold. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Hey, I love you guys so much. I'll see you Wednesday at 6 a.m. or Wednesday evening at 715. Love you guys.