Jentezen Franklin - Prayer Is The Priority
Turn with me to the Book of Leviticus 6. And I'll go to verse 13. "A fire shall always be burning on the altar; it shall never go out". A fire I want on the altar, God said. Your body is the temple, now. That's the Old Testament. But your body is the temple now. And that body has an altar, a sacred place. And it either has fire on the altar, the prayer place, or the fire has gone out. I wanna preach for a few moments on prayer today, but in a different way maybe than you've ever experienced it. I know that something is happening in my prayer life that I love, and I pray for impartation. I pray for that today. God instilled into the DNA of His creation a desire to communicate through prayer.
That's why when you find remote tribes in the jungle somewhere who've never heard of God or Jesus or the Bible, they're praying to something. Because something innate inside of us desires to communicate with God. There is an inner longing for Him, and the same with God. The only reason He made us was to fellowship and to communicate with us. We're made in His image with the ability. The Bible gives a beautiful picture of this in Genesis when it said in Adam and Eve, before they fell, God would come down at the cool of the day and walk through the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, talking, fellowshipping, communicating. There was, they weren't praying about their problems. They were being with Him. They didn't have any problems. They didn't have any in-laws. They didn't have any children. They didn't have any financial crisis. Food, and blessing everywhere. They were under the blessing. They didn't have any devil attacking 'em. There were no demons attacking 'em. The only reason that they were together was to be together.
That's what real prayer is. Real prayer is not, you know, like the little boy who the pastor said to him, "Son, have you said your prayers today"? He said, "No sir, I didn't get in trouble today. I didn't have to". That's what some people think prayer is, it's just when you get in trouble. You don't get it. It's never, in its original state, was it about that. It was about, and He walks with me. And He talks with me. It's our time. It's our time. God not only intends for His people to pray, but now I'm going to really hit you hard right here. I'm going to tell you straight up in your face that it is a sin not to pray. 1 Samuel 12:23, "God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you". I'm telling you, that verse right there gripped this pastor's heart several weeks ago, and he said, "If I cease to pray for you, and pray for this ministry, and pray for these families, and pray for people coming, and pray for the laws, I am sinning against the Lord by ceasing to pray".
If you forget your prayers, you are literally forgetting God. If prayer is not real to you, it means God is not real to you. Those of you in ministry, if you don't heed what I say to you today about prayer, you will not stay in this ministry long. God will weed you out. I know no one who doesn't pray. I'm just telling you. This has come to this. It's pray or die. It's pray or dry up. So I'm gonna give you the five laws of prayer.
Number one, these are, this is it. This is how you develop a prayer life. It's very, very, important. Number one, prayer must be a priority, the priority, of a Christian. Prayer. When you read the Bible, that's God talking to you. But when you pray, that's you talking to God. It's the most important thing that a believer can do is develop a prayer life. A consistent unbroken place in time of prayer, every day in your life. "I'm just not, that's just not me". I'm telling you what is vital to victory in your life. There will always be something else you need to do. There will always be something and somebody intruding. That's why Jesus said, "When you pray, go into a closet", a solitary place is all that He's saying. The word closet is found four times in the New Testament, and it literally means a secret place, a secret chamber, a secret, a private place. A place of privacy. Go into that place and He says these words, "Shut the door". Shut the door. Don't let people interrupt you. Don't let cause, this is our time.
This is it, and it, and it must be a priority in your life. Instead of you building your life all like this, and I got this, and I got that, and I got this and I got that. And then I'll try to work prayer in. You're not going to pray. You're never going to have a prayer life. You're never going to be powerful and be what God wanted you to be. You're never going to do it if you don't build prayer into your calendar. Everything else has to work around that. Not only do you need the priority of prayer, you cannot take it casual anymore. You cannot say, "Well that's for those other people". No, you. You.
Secondly, you need a time of prayer. Are you listening to me? If you don't have a time of prayer, you're not going to make it in the ministry. You're not going to make it. I'm just gonna go on and tell ya, go on and resign. You're not gonna make it. I'm not being mean. I'm telling people the truth. There must be a time to pray. "Well, you know, I kind of pray when God leads me". I will look you in the face if you tell me that and say, "Oh, so in other words, you don't have much of a prayer life". Because life runs on schedules. You don't go to work when you feel like it. You're on a schedule. You don't get up and get ready when you feel like it. You don't eat when you, you're on a schedule. And you may alter that every once in a while, but pretty much, you're on a pretty tight schedule with everything in your life except prayer, because it's not that big of a deal to you.
But you know, here's how I wanna say, how many of you ever go to work, and sometimes you just don't feel like going? I'll join you on that one. But you know what I've learned? It's God, God says, "There's times when you're highly fired up, excited about going to work, and all into it, and then there's times you just gotta go cause, you gotta go. You know what, you get paid either way". And that's how prayer is. God says, if you show up with the time of prayer, and you put the time in, even if you don't feel it, and you just walk in there and you're kinda mumbling. "In Jesus' name". "In Jesus' name". "My Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done". And you sound like an auctioneer. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Because if you just show up, you get paid in the prayer place.
The greatest miracles in the Bible happened a nine in the morning or three in the afternoon because the prayer times in the times of offer and sacrifice in prayer in the old covenant was at nine A.M. or at three, which was called the evening prayer, because they didn't have electricity. And they had to offer it and then they had to clean it all up. We act like, you know, they just ran out. No, they had to kill animals. Skin animals. It all had to be done very, very, it took hours and hours. But the point is this. They prayed and God honored it, and amazingly, isn't it something, that when Elijah called down fire from Heaven according to 2 Kings 18:36, it happened at 3 in the afternoon. Fire hit. And Daniel prayed for 21 days. At the end of that fast in Daniel 9:21 at 3 PM, the Bible lets us know that an angel Gabriel showed up and gave him instructions. The day of Pentecost in Acts 2:15, the Holy Ghost fell at 9 AM. Why that time? It was the prayer time.
And at 9 AM, the Holy Ghost was poured out on the New Testament church. In Acts 3, the Bible said that Peter and John healed the lame man at the hour of prayer, the hour of power. They were going to the temple to pray. There was a set time to pray in Acts 10:3, Cornelius went out and received a vision from God at 3 PM in the afternoon and God told him to send for Peter to come and the Gospel opened up to the gentiles, certain times, specific times, 9. There's no magic in that, but you need to figure out what time works for you. Daniel 6 said that He opened the window, Daniel 6:10, and he turned himself toward Jerusalem, and he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, praying, giving thanks before his God as he did regular. If you will do it, and have a time of prayer established, miracles will start to break out in your life. There is a priority of prayer. There is a time of prayer.
Here's the next one, number three, there is a place of prayer. There must be. When they said, "Teach us to pray," Jesus took them to a solitary place. It says that over and over in the Bible. He went to a solitary place to pray. "Well, I can pray anywhere. I pray in my car. I pray," I understands that. I do that. I understand you can pray in a crowd. I understand you can pray in, you know, just while you, whatever. But the point is, there needs to be a sacred place where it can be a bedroom. It can be a back bedroom. It can, old brother Tinny used to sit in his chair. He had a chair in his office. I saw it. He had a chair at his house, an old rocking chair. It was 80 something years old, and he said, "The kids know when I sit in that chair, leave him alone". Because that was his prayer place. It may be the kitchen. It may be the kitchen table, but there was a prayer place. Jesus prayed in the mountains often over and over. He found the solitary place. He climbed up a mountain, or something about outside He liked. He prayed in the desert. He prayed in gardens a lot. The Garden of Gethsemane. The Mount of Olives. He did not wanna be in public places. He prayed in a solitary, private place.
Fourthly, and this is so important, what I'm about to share with you. I've done it for 40 years. I read a book by Dr. Larry Lee called "The Lord's Prayer". And then recently, Dr. Bob Rogers "Little Book on Prayer". So ignited me again, but I have prayed the Lord's Prayer all my life since I've been saved. Now, I want you to see, it's divided into six categories. And this is what it looks like. When you start praying, if you don't get a pattern of prayer, you will not pray. The reason some of you don't pray is not cause you're bad. You don't know how, and I get it. You don't know how to pray. You don't know how. They said, "We don't know how to pray. Teach us to pray". And Jesus said, "I'm gonna give you this little prayer outline". It covers five, six, every major category of life. Listen to this. Look at this preacher.
If you look at that, out of the Bible will fall You start out, "Our Father, hallowed be Thy name". with praise. I don't go in asking. I don't go in saying, "Give me, give me, give me". I go in and I say, "I hallow Your name". What's His name? Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that heals thee. What's His name? Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. Jehovah Shammah, the God who was there. Jehovah Tsidkenu, my righteousness. Oh, I hallow that name. This is how I pray. This is what I do. Now, I'll vary, and sometimes if I got something really on my heart, I'll skip that and I'll just run through that just real quick. Just say the Lord's Prayer. But in general, almost every day of my life, I'll get up and do it tomorrow. I'll get up and do it the next day, the next day. I'll go and I'll say, "Lord, I hallow Your name". I just start out. "I praise You. I praise You. I enter into Your courts with praise".
And listen, if you can't remember Jehovah Shammah, Jehovah Shalom, the God of peace, and you can't remember all that Hebrew stuff, it's okay. All you gotta do is remember one name. I hallow the name of Jesus and all of heaven says all hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels fall, prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem. Crown Him Lord of All. So, the first few minutes of your prayer life, you just start praising God. You just start thanking Him. "Thank You, Father. Thank You for my family. Thank You for Your goodness. Thank You for my salvation. Thank You, You're my healer. You're my provider. Hallelujah. I praise you, Lord". And this is how I walk, I talk. You'd hear me, if you'd follow me, you'd hear me out in the woods. Glory to God, and then I'll talk in tongues in between. Glory to God, Glory to God, and I'll praise the Lord, and I'll praise Him, and I'll praise Him. I'll do that a little while, just get the heavens open. Clean my spirit out. Sweep the ashes out. Keep the fire burning.
And then I'll move to the second. This is the most important It establishes your priority. Thy will be done. Priority. Kingdom, seek first the kingdom. will be added under you. Kingdom first. Kingdom and Thy will be done. And then I go through my children. I name every one of my children. I name their husbands. I name their children. And if they're not married, I put, I say, I say like Drake, my son's not married, I say, "Lord," and I'll say, "God give him Your will. I pray that you will order his steps. I pray that not his will, but Thy will be done". You've got a plan. You've got, Jeremiah 1, from his mother's womb. And I do that on all my girls. I do the same. But he's not married yet, but I put the girl in there anyhow. I've done this for years. Drake and his wife. Conner, and she's got a boyfriend, and I like him so far, so I put him in there. But I can take him out at any time. But I'm just saying, I put him in there. And if your kids are not married yet, just put whoever, Stone and his wife.
And then notice the next one. "Give us this day,our daily bread". So you pray about your provision. "God, I thank You that I'm the head and not the tail. I thank You father that You promised that You'll supply all my needs according to Your riches and glory. And I thank You today that I'm gonna have good success in my business. I thank You Lord that you put favor on me and people gonna call me, because it's a favor of God. People gonna bless me that don't even like me. You did it today. You gonna do it before you leave here today". People. Because God is our provider, and He said to ask Me for your daily bread. Provision. And then notice the next one, Everybody say that with me. as we forgive those who have So right there, I'm asking Him, "Cleanse me. Lord, forgive me for the lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life". I just go through it. God, my words, my sins of omission, sins of commission, things I should've done, that I shouldn't. Things that I did that I didn't do that I should've done. Oh father, I just submit it. And I thank You for freedom of the cross and the blood and the power of Jesus' name to cleanse me.
And then before I can get out of there, He always reminds me if I get amnesia and I can't remember the last part of that verse, "forgive others who have the Holy Spirit always says, that I need you to pray about". Because He can't pardon you if you don't pardon them. And you have to pray that every day even if you don't feel it yet, if you start praying on it, God'll take care of your heart. The next one, look at it. "Lead us not into temptation" You wanna know why you can't overcome temptation? Jesus said, don't you know when the disciples were sleeping, Jesus said, "Watch and pray that you enter not in to temptation". The reason that you can't overcome temptation is you lack power that only comes through prayer. But this is the part of the Lord's Prayer that we take authority over the devil. We take authority over demons. You put on the whole armor of God. You begin to speak in the name of Jesus to powers of hell that come to kill, steal and destroy.
And you bind them and plead the blood of Jesus over them and ask God for Holy Spirit power to deliver you from evil. And to keep you out of temptation. Keep me away from those, anybody who's plotting anything evil. Keep the wrong people out of my life. God, help. I don't wanna get in it and then try to get out. I wanna stay out of it. Lead me not into temptation. Deliver me from evil. And notice, you end it like you start it. You end it after you prayed all that, you've covered every major category of life. You've covered everything, "For Thine is the kingdom, forever and ever. You start giving God the glory. I give You the praise. Forgive me for pride. Forgive me for arrogance. Oh God, I wanna be careful to give You the glory". And suddenly, boom, you've established that day, the power and the kingdom, and the priority is set for your whole life.
And then lastly, not only is there the priority and the place and the time, and the pattern of prayer. But this is so important. Pray out loud. Pray out loud. I'm on a rampage today because I wanna hear a new generation learn how to pray. Pray out loud. "Well now, I believe the Lord, if you meditate in your spirit that", I understand that. But nowhere in the Bible does it tell you to meditate a prayer. Let me, Luke 11:2, Luke 11:2, "And He said unto them when you pray," everybody say the next word. Again. Again. Did He say meditate in your heart and think to yourself? No. He said, "When you pray", pray means out loud. Say. Because if you don't do it, you won't be serious about it. But when you start praying, your own faith needs to hear what you're saying. That's why I like to pray in a private place, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God especially when it's coming out of your mouth.
So when you pray, say. It used to be in the church. They used to have the prayer meetings in the Sunday school. It's always in a basement. In the Sunday school. Y'all know what I'm talking about? And they were cold little rooms that had nothing in it but a chair. Chairs. Wood chairs. But my God on Sunday nights, they had a prayer meeting lit on the altar fire on the, you talk about fire on the... Those old Pentecostal men would get in one side, and when a teenager walked in, it was normal for us back then to go pray with the old guys. And we would go in that room. And they'd have a bottle of oil, slap it on our head. They'd be shouting and kicking chairs, and beating against the sheetrock. And you didn't know if you were gonna get killed and make it alive out of there.
But I tell you, I'd give a million dollars for that sound in this church again. It was like a roar. It was like, and then you'd hear the women. The fire would hit down the hall and you'd hear the women. "Wow. Wow". You'd hear a Cherokee Indian scream. And you knew something's going on down there. Sister Jones just hit the vein. And when she hit it, 14 other women would hit it. And they'd come out of there, they had their hair stacked up, and it'd be like a whip. Y'all don't know what I'm talking about. And I'm not for going back for all that. But I am for going back to the fire. I want it in this church. We gotta have it. We're in the middle of the last days. We can't make it off little nice church.
That's why when you find remote tribes in the jungle somewhere who've never heard of God or Jesus or the Bible, they're praying to something. Because something innate inside of us desires to communicate with God. There is an inner longing for Him, and the same with God. The only reason He made us was to fellowship and to communicate with us. We're made in His image with the ability. The Bible gives a beautiful picture of this in Genesis when it said in Adam and Eve, before they fell, God would come down at the cool of the day and walk through the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, talking, fellowshipping, communicating. There was, they weren't praying about their problems. They were being with Him. They didn't have any problems. They didn't have any in-laws. They didn't have any children. They didn't have any financial crisis. Food, and blessing everywhere. They were under the blessing. They didn't have any devil attacking 'em. There were no demons attacking 'em. The only reason that they were together was to be together.
That's what real prayer is. Real prayer is not, you know, like the little boy who the pastor said to him, "Son, have you said your prayers today"? He said, "No sir, I didn't get in trouble today. I didn't have to". That's what some people think prayer is, it's just when you get in trouble. You don't get it. It's never, in its original state, was it about that. It was about, and He walks with me. And He talks with me. It's our time. It's our time. God not only intends for His people to pray, but now I'm going to really hit you hard right here. I'm going to tell you straight up in your face that it is a sin not to pray. 1 Samuel 12:23, "God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you". I'm telling you, that verse right there gripped this pastor's heart several weeks ago, and he said, "If I cease to pray for you, and pray for this ministry, and pray for these families, and pray for people coming, and pray for the laws, I am sinning against the Lord by ceasing to pray".
If you forget your prayers, you are literally forgetting God. If prayer is not real to you, it means God is not real to you. Those of you in ministry, if you don't heed what I say to you today about prayer, you will not stay in this ministry long. God will weed you out. I know no one who doesn't pray. I'm just telling you. This has come to this. It's pray or die. It's pray or dry up. So I'm gonna give you the five laws of prayer.
Number one, these are, this is it. This is how you develop a prayer life. It's very, very, important. Number one, prayer must be a priority, the priority, of a Christian. Prayer. When you read the Bible, that's God talking to you. But when you pray, that's you talking to God. It's the most important thing that a believer can do is develop a prayer life. A consistent unbroken place in time of prayer, every day in your life. "I'm just not, that's just not me". I'm telling you what is vital to victory in your life. There will always be something else you need to do. There will always be something and somebody intruding. That's why Jesus said, "When you pray, go into a closet", a solitary place is all that He's saying. The word closet is found four times in the New Testament, and it literally means a secret place, a secret chamber, a secret, a private place. A place of privacy. Go into that place and He says these words, "Shut the door". Shut the door. Don't let people interrupt you. Don't let cause, this is our time.
This is it, and it, and it must be a priority in your life. Instead of you building your life all like this, and I got this, and I got that, and I got this and I got that. And then I'll try to work prayer in. You're not going to pray. You're never going to have a prayer life. You're never going to be powerful and be what God wanted you to be. You're never going to do it if you don't build prayer into your calendar. Everything else has to work around that. Not only do you need the priority of prayer, you cannot take it casual anymore. You cannot say, "Well that's for those other people". No, you. You.
Secondly, you need a time of prayer. Are you listening to me? If you don't have a time of prayer, you're not going to make it in the ministry. You're not going to make it. I'm just gonna go on and tell ya, go on and resign. You're not gonna make it. I'm not being mean. I'm telling people the truth. There must be a time to pray. "Well, you know, I kind of pray when God leads me". I will look you in the face if you tell me that and say, "Oh, so in other words, you don't have much of a prayer life". Because life runs on schedules. You don't go to work when you feel like it. You're on a schedule. You don't get up and get ready when you feel like it. You don't eat when you, you're on a schedule. And you may alter that every once in a while, but pretty much, you're on a pretty tight schedule with everything in your life except prayer, because it's not that big of a deal to you.
But you know, here's how I wanna say, how many of you ever go to work, and sometimes you just don't feel like going? I'll join you on that one. But you know what I've learned? It's God, God says, "There's times when you're highly fired up, excited about going to work, and all into it, and then there's times you just gotta go cause, you gotta go. You know what, you get paid either way". And that's how prayer is. God says, if you show up with the time of prayer, and you put the time in, even if you don't feel it, and you just walk in there and you're kinda mumbling. "In Jesus' name". "In Jesus' name". "My Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done". And you sound like an auctioneer. But it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter. Because if you just show up, you get paid in the prayer place.
The greatest miracles in the Bible happened a nine in the morning or three in the afternoon because the prayer times in the times of offer and sacrifice in prayer in the old covenant was at nine A.M. or at three, which was called the evening prayer, because they didn't have electricity. And they had to offer it and then they had to clean it all up. We act like, you know, they just ran out. No, they had to kill animals. Skin animals. It all had to be done very, very, it took hours and hours. But the point is this. They prayed and God honored it, and amazingly, isn't it something, that when Elijah called down fire from Heaven according to 2 Kings 18:36, it happened at 3 in the afternoon. Fire hit. And Daniel prayed for 21 days. At the end of that fast in Daniel 9:21 at 3 PM, the Bible lets us know that an angel Gabriel showed up and gave him instructions. The day of Pentecost in Acts 2:15, the Holy Ghost fell at 9 AM. Why that time? It was the prayer time.
And at 9 AM, the Holy Ghost was poured out on the New Testament church. In Acts 3, the Bible said that Peter and John healed the lame man at the hour of prayer, the hour of power. They were going to the temple to pray. There was a set time to pray in Acts 10:3, Cornelius went out and received a vision from God at 3 PM in the afternoon and God told him to send for Peter to come and the Gospel opened up to the gentiles, certain times, specific times, 9. There's no magic in that, but you need to figure out what time works for you. Daniel 6 said that He opened the window, Daniel 6:10, and he turned himself toward Jerusalem, and he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, praying, giving thanks before his God as he did regular. If you will do it, and have a time of prayer established, miracles will start to break out in your life. There is a priority of prayer. There is a time of prayer.
Here's the next one, number three, there is a place of prayer. There must be. When they said, "Teach us to pray," Jesus took them to a solitary place. It says that over and over in the Bible. He went to a solitary place to pray. "Well, I can pray anywhere. I pray in my car. I pray," I understands that. I do that. I understand you can pray in a crowd. I understand you can pray in, you know, just while you, whatever. But the point is, there needs to be a sacred place where it can be a bedroom. It can be a back bedroom. It can, old brother Tinny used to sit in his chair. He had a chair in his office. I saw it. He had a chair at his house, an old rocking chair. It was 80 something years old, and he said, "The kids know when I sit in that chair, leave him alone". Because that was his prayer place. It may be the kitchen. It may be the kitchen table, but there was a prayer place. Jesus prayed in the mountains often over and over. He found the solitary place. He climbed up a mountain, or something about outside He liked. He prayed in the desert. He prayed in gardens a lot. The Garden of Gethsemane. The Mount of Olives. He did not wanna be in public places. He prayed in a solitary, private place.
Fourthly, and this is so important, what I'm about to share with you. I've done it for 40 years. I read a book by Dr. Larry Lee called "The Lord's Prayer". And then recently, Dr. Bob Rogers "Little Book on Prayer". So ignited me again, but I have prayed the Lord's Prayer all my life since I've been saved. Now, I want you to see, it's divided into six categories. And this is what it looks like. When you start praying, if you don't get a pattern of prayer, you will not pray. The reason some of you don't pray is not cause you're bad. You don't know how, and I get it. You don't know how to pray. You don't know how. They said, "We don't know how to pray. Teach us to pray". And Jesus said, "I'm gonna give you this little prayer outline". It covers five, six, every major category of life. Listen to this. Look at this preacher.
If you look at that, out of the Bible will fall You start out, "Our Father, hallowed be Thy name". with praise. I don't go in asking. I don't go in saying, "Give me, give me, give me". I go in and I say, "I hallow Your name". What's His name? Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that heals thee. What's His name? Jehovah Jireh, the God who provides. Jehovah Shammah, the God who was there. Jehovah Tsidkenu, my righteousness. Oh, I hallow that name. This is how I pray. This is what I do. Now, I'll vary, and sometimes if I got something really on my heart, I'll skip that and I'll just run through that just real quick. Just say the Lord's Prayer. But in general, almost every day of my life, I'll get up and do it tomorrow. I'll get up and do it the next day, the next day. I'll go and I'll say, "Lord, I hallow Your name". I just start out. "I praise You. I praise You. I enter into Your courts with praise".
And listen, if you can't remember Jehovah Shammah, Jehovah Shalom, the God of peace, and you can't remember all that Hebrew stuff, it's okay. All you gotta do is remember one name. I hallow the name of Jesus and all of heaven says all hail the power of Jesus' name. Let angels fall, prostrate fall. Bring forth the royal diadem. Crown Him Lord of All. So, the first few minutes of your prayer life, you just start praising God. You just start thanking Him. "Thank You, Father. Thank You for my family. Thank You for Your goodness. Thank You for my salvation. Thank You, You're my healer. You're my provider. Hallelujah. I praise you, Lord". And this is how I walk, I talk. You'd hear me, if you'd follow me, you'd hear me out in the woods. Glory to God, and then I'll talk in tongues in between. Glory to God, Glory to God, and I'll praise the Lord, and I'll praise Him, and I'll praise Him. I'll do that a little while, just get the heavens open. Clean my spirit out. Sweep the ashes out. Keep the fire burning.
And then I'll move to the second. This is the most important It establishes your priority. Thy will be done. Priority. Kingdom, seek first the kingdom. will be added under you. Kingdom first. Kingdom and Thy will be done. And then I go through my children. I name every one of my children. I name their husbands. I name their children. And if they're not married, I put, I say, I say like Drake, my son's not married, I say, "Lord," and I'll say, "God give him Your will. I pray that you will order his steps. I pray that not his will, but Thy will be done". You've got a plan. You've got, Jeremiah 1, from his mother's womb. And I do that on all my girls. I do the same. But he's not married yet, but I put the girl in there anyhow. I've done this for years. Drake and his wife. Conner, and she's got a boyfriend, and I like him so far, so I put him in there. But I can take him out at any time. But I'm just saying, I put him in there. And if your kids are not married yet, just put whoever, Stone and his wife.
And then notice the next one. "Give us this day,our daily bread". So you pray about your provision. "God, I thank You that I'm the head and not the tail. I thank You father that You promised that You'll supply all my needs according to Your riches and glory. And I thank You today that I'm gonna have good success in my business. I thank You Lord that you put favor on me and people gonna call me, because it's a favor of God. People gonna bless me that don't even like me. You did it today. You gonna do it before you leave here today". People. Because God is our provider, and He said to ask Me for your daily bread. Provision. And then notice the next one, Everybody say that with me. as we forgive those who have So right there, I'm asking Him, "Cleanse me. Lord, forgive me for the lust of flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life". I just go through it. God, my words, my sins of omission, sins of commission, things I should've done, that I shouldn't. Things that I did that I didn't do that I should've done. Oh father, I just submit it. And I thank You for freedom of the cross and the blood and the power of Jesus' name to cleanse me.
And then before I can get out of there, He always reminds me if I get amnesia and I can't remember the last part of that verse, "forgive others who have the Holy Spirit always says, that I need you to pray about". Because He can't pardon you if you don't pardon them. And you have to pray that every day even if you don't feel it yet, if you start praying on it, God'll take care of your heart. The next one, look at it. "Lead us not into temptation" You wanna know why you can't overcome temptation? Jesus said, don't you know when the disciples were sleeping, Jesus said, "Watch and pray that you enter not in to temptation". The reason that you can't overcome temptation is you lack power that only comes through prayer. But this is the part of the Lord's Prayer that we take authority over the devil. We take authority over demons. You put on the whole armor of God. You begin to speak in the name of Jesus to powers of hell that come to kill, steal and destroy.
And you bind them and plead the blood of Jesus over them and ask God for Holy Spirit power to deliver you from evil. And to keep you out of temptation. Keep me away from those, anybody who's plotting anything evil. Keep the wrong people out of my life. God, help. I don't wanna get in it and then try to get out. I wanna stay out of it. Lead me not into temptation. Deliver me from evil. And notice, you end it like you start it. You end it after you prayed all that, you've covered every major category of life. You've covered everything, "For Thine is the kingdom, forever and ever. You start giving God the glory. I give You the praise. Forgive me for pride. Forgive me for arrogance. Oh God, I wanna be careful to give You the glory". And suddenly, boom, you've established that day, the power and the kingdom, and the priority is set for your whole life.
And then lastly, not only is there the priority and the place and the time, and the pattern of prayer. But this is so important. Pray out loud. Pray out loud. I'm on a rampage today because I wanna hear a new generation learn how to pray. Pray out loud. "Well now, I believe the Lord, if you meditate in your spirit that", I understand that. But nowhere in the Bible does it tell you to meditate a prayer. Let me, Luke 11:2, Luke 11:2, "And He said unto them when you pray," everybody say the next word. Again. Again. Did He say meditate in your heart and think to yourself? No. He said, "When you pray", pray means out loud. Say. Because if you don't do it, you won't be serious about it. But when you start praying, your own faith needs to hear what you're saying. That's why I like to pray in a private place, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God especially when it's coming out of your mouth.
So when you pray, say. It used to be in the church. They used to have the prayer meetings in the Sunday school. It's always in a basement. In the Sunday school. Y'all know what I'm talking about? And they were cold little rooms that had nothing in it but a chair. Chairs. Wood chairs. But my God on Sunday nights, they had a prayer meeting lit on the altar fire on the, you talk about fire on the... Those old Pentecostal men would get in one side, and when a teenager walked in, it was normal for us back then to go pray with the old guys. And we would go in that room. And they'd have a bottle of oil, slap it on our head. They'd be shouting and kicking chairs, and beating against the sheetrock. And you didn't know if you were gonna get killed and make it alive out of there.
But I tell you, I'd give a million dollars for that sound in this church again. It was like a roar. It was like, and then you'd hear the women. The fire would hit down the hall and you'd hear the women. "Wow. Wow". You'd hear a Cherokee Indian scream. And you knew something's going on down there. Sister Jones just hit the vein. And when she hit it, 14 other women would hit it. And they'd come out of there, they had their hair stacked up, and it'd be like a whip. Y'all don't know what I'm talking about. And I'm not for going back for all that. But I am for going back to the fire. I want it in this church. We gotta have it. We're in the middle of the last days. We can't make it off little nice church.