TD Jakes - Why Prayer Is So Important?
I’m going to give you a few ways that Jesus models prayer and the benefits of prayer for you to jot down.
Number one: peace in the storm. Peace in the storm is a result of communion with God. They are in a tornado, and Jesus is at rest. This is what prayer does for you; it braces you against external extremities so that you’re not always reacting to what you see going on around you. When you have a lifestyle of prayer, you don’t act like the crowd—everyone screaming and running and jumping off the boat. But when you’ve been talking to God before the storm, you have peace in the storm. Oh, y’all don’t hear what I’m saying; I got chill bumps on my heart. You’ve got peace in the middle of the storm. Is there anybody here who has had unexplainable peace? You don’t even know; it’s not even your character.
It’s not even your nature that comes from having a consistent prayer life; not a church prayer life, not a «Oh thou God who rules the winds and waves and stands in eternity and overlooks the corridors of time» type of prayer. No, no, no. This is the kind of prayer where you drive down the road saying, «Jesus, I don’t know what we’re going to do about this, but I’m trusting You about that.» And if You don’t want me to do this, I need You. This is the kind of prayer that is not eloquent; it is just you crying for help.
Somebody holler «help!» Who said that? Who authored that book? Her daughter was grievously vexed with a devil. She didn’t have time to be eloquent. When you’re in a fight with the devil, you don’t have time to be eloquent. We don’t need an exercise in your vocabulary; we don’t need you to tune up. We need you to open your mouth and say «help.» And the benefits of prayer are demonstrated in the storm. How you react to the storm determines how far you’re going to go. You can’t be a leader if you freak out. You’ve got to keep a calm head in a crisis. I might freak out after the crisis, but in the middle of the crisis, I’m going to stand. One of the things I love about my wife is that she does not freak out in a crisis. No, she goes into lockdown mode, and some of you have not seen that. Now, two weeks later, she may burst into tears, but while you are in the storm, she is going to box like Mike Tyson.
Let me tell you, girl, you bad with that! I was raised to box like that; I was raised to fight like that. If you started getting hysterical, my mother would slap you. She said, «You may not have the peace of God, but you’re going to have the piece of order because I’m going to knock you out. You hold it together; you hold it together.» I couldn’t even fall apart at her funeral because I could hear her say, «What good would that do?» Discipline. Discipline over your emotions. We have a generation, and I’m talking about all of us, all ages, that are alive in this area of undisciplined people who say whatever they think, however they think, whenever they want to. You don’t have a prayer life; you talk to people when you ought to be talking to God. If you start talking to God, it’ll change how you talk to people. Come on, somebody! Jesus demonstrates prayer for them.
Number two: deliverance for others. He comes down off the Mount of Transfiguration. The disciples have been wrestling with this boy, fighting for his life. He’s casting himself into the water; he’s casting himself into the fire. They cannot control this demon. I want to talk to some people who have a demon that’s out of control in your life, and you cannot control it. When Jesus comes down, the boy’s father embarrasses the disciples by saying, «I brought him to your disciples, and they couldn’t do anything with him.»
There are some things you have to bring directly to Jesus. You don’t need an appointment with the bishop; you don’t need an appointment with a counselor. You don’t need an appointment with a teacher. Some things, you got demons you have to take to Jesus. Never mind the fact that the boy got into the fire but didn’t get burned up, and got into the water and never drowned. Jesus is already present, but you’re tired of going through the struggle and the fight and the war. For Jesus says, «Bring him to Me.» Afterwards, the disciples ask Him what went wrong, and I respect them for that because no failure makes you a failure unless you will not examine, «What did I do wrong?» If you learn from it, it can’t be a failure. Jesus said, «You didn’t do anything wrong; it’s what you didn’t do. This kind cometh out by much prayer and fasting.» So, Jesus is gradually teaching them about prayer.
Number three: He teaches them submission to the process through prayer. He teaches him that when it gets hard, submit to the process. And it often does; it even did for Jesus. So stop trying to sell me this bill of goods that everything is easy for you. If it got hard for Jesus, I know it got hard for you, so shut up. If you just walk by faith, it ain’t easy. Shut up, shut up, shut up. You’re a liar and a hypocrite too. It got hard for Jesus, and Jesus took His inner circle out to the Garden of Gethsemane just so that He would be able to pray His way into submission to the process. «Father, if it be Thy will, pass this bitter cup from Me.» Sometimes God’s will will carry you through roads you don’t want to ride on.
Oh, y’all don’t hear me. Talk to me. Sometimes God’s will will carry you through roads you didn’t pick, roads you didn’t foresee, roads you didn’t design, and frankly, roads you don’t like. But it’s still God’s will because God is not in your life for your lack. Oh, y’all didn’t hear me; that was so good. God is not in your life for your lack. And Jesus goes into the Garden of Gethsemane and says, «This is how you submit to the part you don’t like,» because God will send what you don’t like to kill your flesh.
You know the cross was designed to kill the flesh, and the flesh will always scream out when the nails go in. And Jesus goes to the garden and prays so He has grace for the cross. I’ve always thought that we pay more attention to the cross than we do the garden because the cross is only where He demonstrated the power of the garden. You’re trying to deal with the cross, and you don’t have any garden of prayer. I come to the garden alone. The dew is still on the roses, and the voice I hear falling on my ear, the Son of God discloses. And He walks with me, and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own