Prayer for the Last Days Pastor Christine Miller

Glory to God, we're glad you're here. And ready to continue along the lines of what God is wanting to do in the earth today. How many of you receive Randall Greer's newsletter? Most everybody, good. I was thinking, if you don't, we ought to get a bunch of copies for you. It's just good he's grounded and solid. But I want to open up tonight just reading the last section, just a little bit of the last section of his newsletter. And this will tie right in with what the Lord has for us tonight. He said, Earlier I said I would share more on prophets and political prophecy. And he quotes from Acts chapter 1 verse 6. He says, When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? Jesus appeared to them after he had risen from the dead. Their focus was on natural things by the question they asked him. It was a political question that he did not answer. I'm guessing, he sighed heavily before he said, it is not for you to know. Many today are guessing, seeking and desiring to know the political climate and give the review. It's not for you to know. He will tell us if we need to know anything. Many are caught up in overthrowing the government and political parties that are corrupt and against Christianity. There was fraud in the election. We know this. And the first questionable president is now in office. We can speak up but not get caught up and over-focused on this. For anybody who may be skeptical about this, there is absolute solid proof that it was a fraudulent election. But you won't hear about it in the media because everything is controlled by the spirit of the world right now. Now, he said the political situation was worse in the days of Jesus Christ. The Romans controlled the Jewish people. There was very little freedom. Jesus did not try to overthrow the Roman Empire, even though they had taken over Israel's government by force. You know, this is not the first time in history that things were done against the rules. He could have started a war to end all wars. He could have called legions of angels to come and assist him and the Jewish people, but he didn't. Why? He was following the heavenly vision from God, his Father. Politics was not his calling. Overthrowing the Roman government was not his calling, even though they despised the Jewish people and their faith in God. But there is coming a day when every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord of all lords, like it or not. And that day is in the plan of God, and I am able to focus on the heavenly vision he has given until that time. It is not my job to overthrow the government. It is my job to pray fast and crucify the flesh and seek God with all my heart and do what he tells me. You may wonder if Christians will suffer persecution for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ. Anybody in this church wonder such a thing? Now this is just worth repeating. John the Baptist had his head chopped off. Remember, Jesus Christ was murdered by crucifixion by the government. Next, Stephen was stoned to death as he preached how they had murdered Jesus Christ. James had his head cut off by King Herod for preaching the gospel. Philip was beaten, thrown in prison, and then crucified for preaching Jesus. Matthew was attacked and killed with a spear and axe for preaching Jesus. Matthias was stoned and had his head cut off for preaching Jesus. Andrew, Peter's brother, was crucified transversely on a cross for preaching Jesus. Mark's body was dragged to pieces for preaching the gospel. Peter was crucified upside down for preaching Jesus Christ. It is said he requested to be crucified upside down because he was unworthy to be crucified right side up like his master. Paul had his head cut off for preaching about Jesus. Jude was crucified for preaching Jesus. Bartholomew was cruelly beaten, then crucified. Thomas was killed with a spear. Luke was hanged on a tree for preaching the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. Simon Zelotis was crucified for preaching the gospel. And John, the beloved disciple, was boiled in oil and it did not kill him. Then he was banished to the Isle of Patmos. He was the only one of the original apostles of Jesus that did not die a violent death. Millions upon millions of other Christians have been tortured and killed for serving Jesus Christ throughout church history. That is why hell will be hot for those who do such things to God's children. They will suffer in the eternal flames of hell forever and ever and ever. I would like to point out that all these violent persecutions happened in the dispensation of grace in the New Testament era. There are those who are suffering persecution and death today because they are Christians. If the Church of the United States does not repent and turn back to God, this persecution will take place on our soil. The Church can hold it back if it repents, turns to Jesus Christ, and takes authority over these evil forces. The worldly church today does not have the power or authority to do so. The remnant church does. So, it is interesting. Well, let me finish this because we want to end on a positive note. What is the heavenly vision? It is the greatest move of God ever known to the human race coming upon planet Earth, prayed for and sent down from heaven. Yes, Jesus Christ himself will oversee and steward this move of God through his remnant church that he has prepared. So, you can rest easy. The devil is not going to take over until this move occurs. And let me just say this, you know, he can't until the church is caught away. The remnant is going to prosper and overcome the gates of hell. Prepare yourself to live in and be caught up in his glory. It will be the book of Acts of supernatural events multiplied by ten. Healing the sick, raising the dead, angels appearing, Jesus appearing, preachers being translated like Philip. We've heard a few that have in our day. And a Holy Ghost outpouring the world has never seen. Pray for this, seek God for this, major on this, not politics or political parties and election fraud. Heaven is upon us. Now, I thought that was good because, you know, we have to be careful. The devil wants us to be continually distracted. And one of the ways he'll try to distract the church is through causes that are not really going to be a cause. I stopped after the election was over. I maybe watched for a short while news, but I pretty much stopped since the inauguration. There is no good news. And it takes less than 60 seconds to find out what's going on. And, you know, you're just going to get caught up in the spirit of criticism, conspiracy, yada, yada, yada. And you have to guard against that because all of that is distraction from what we really need to be doing as the remnant church. So I would just caution you. Don't watch too much, even in Christian television, if all it's talking about is the political scene. Now let's turn to Isaiah chapter 60. And I know Elizabeth read from here recently, but this is in keeping with what we just read from Randall Greer's newsletter. Isaiah chapter 60 in verse 1 says, And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you. Hey, we've got something more exciting that we can look at than the news. It's called the word of God. It puts you in a different state of mind. It puts you in a spirit of victory instead of a spirit of depression. And it says this in verse 2, Well, that's the time we're living in. Darkness is covering the earth. Deep darkness like we've never seen in our lifetime. But the Lord will arise over you. And his glory will be seen upon you. That's why we're reading this book. We want it seen upon us. The Gentiles shall come to your light. And kings to the brightness of your rising. Lift up your eyes all around and see. They all gather together and they come to you. Your son shall come from afar and your daughter shall be nursed at your side. Then you shall see and become radiant. And your heart shall swell with joy. I mean, this is talking about the harvest coming to us. Have you ever been more excited about anything in your Christian life than winning somebody to Jesus? Nothing can satisfy you like praying the prayer of salvation with somebody. And you know it's the first time and they meant it and they were changed. And then the next part says, Because the abundance of the sea shall be turned to you. And the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you. This is good news. Just because there's deep darkness doesn't mean we should fret or get discouraged. Because we are living in the greatest time in history that our forefathers in the faith would have loved to have been alive during this time. Amen? Praise the Lord. I mean, many of them are in heaven in a far better place than we are. But they're looking from the grandstands of heaven. They're going to be rejoicing with us and they're going to be cheering us on that we make sure we cross the finish line. Amen. There are so many Christians that have been growing weary, that have fallen away. The devil's intention with this pandemic was surely to weaken the church. And it's pretty obvious that there's something wrong. That's why we're experiencing all of this darkness and terrible situations in the United States. And that something that's terribly wrong is a lack of repentance. And there are so many churches today that are popular, that are preaching that you don't even need to repent anymore. Well, it's no wonder the church is in a weakened state. And so we had the door wide open for Satan to attack us in this country. And he did. And he's continuing to. But you see, the result of the pandemic, which Pastor John was just saying, there are still churches that haven't opened up. And there are still people that haven't gone back to church. And somehow they still think they're okay. Listen, folks, if you've ever been away from a good church and then come back to it, and then you go for a while, you realize how far you've slipped away after you came back to it. You don't realize it when you're in that state, but once you get back into truth and you get back into, you know, revelation, then you realize, wow, I was further away than I thought. It's kind of like with us when we go to our pastor's conferences. You think you're okay. You know you could do better, but you think you're pretty much okay. And at the end of a whole week of services, you realize just how much you slipped. And so everybody, there's a degree of that deception. But imagine when you're not even in church. You could say, well, I just watch it on television. But there's still something missing. And so we're glad that we can meet together. Now the church of the Lord Jesus Christ really consists of a remnant at this point in time that are really sold out to the will and the plan of God. And one of the primary things that we're assigned to do is to pray. And so tonight we're going to talk about prayer for the last days. Prayer for the last days. And the Book of the Month has been True Stories of the Miracles of Azusa Street. And if you've been reading this, one of the things that's very clear is that this was a group of people that prayed. There was a small group that was praying before Seymour came to town. And then they prayed every day. And then William Seymour himself spent his whole day in prayer before the services. And so this was not a coincidental happening. There was somebody somewhere that had to yield to the Spirit. And yielding to the Spirit doesn't begin with signs and wonders. It begins with prayer. If we can't yield to the Spirit in prayer, we're not going to have signs and wonders. So we all talk about how much we want the signs and wonders, but we have to be people in prayer. Now something that they wrote in this book, it says the Azusa Street revival was really an awakening. An awakening is for all people, not just for the saints. And I mentioned that before when I preached out of here. He said, Azusa Street was not planned, it was prayed down. There was a physicality, if you will, to the realm of the Spirit. Revelation chapter 5 and verse 8 speaks of this. They held gold bowls filled with incense, which are the prayers of God's people. Rain doesn't fall. Rain never falls. It just keeps collecting and getting so heavy that gravity eventually pulls it down. And that's the truth. The clouds get heavy with moisture. Well, the clouds are moisture. And it doesn't come down until it's too heavy to stay up. The power of God works the same way. We keep praying and praying until the bowls get so heavy with prayers that we pull heaven down. That's what they did at Azusa Street. That's what Bartleman was doing with his prayer groups all over the city prior to the outpouring. I'm going to keep telling people these stories from Azusa, Tommy says, until the prayers of God's people get so heavy, we pull it down again. According to Tommy, we don't have to contend to have the hundred-year prophecy fulfilled, but we have a part to play. That role is mainly praying and seeking God and to keep on seeking that anointing until we pull it down. And so in light of that, we're going to talk about prayer tonight. And regarding this last day's outpouring of God's Spirit, it's going to require supplication and intercession of the saints. And our prayers are primarily for people to see the light and repent. You better write that down. Our prayers are primarily to be not, oh God, put Donald Trump back in office. Our prayers are primarily to be for people to see the light and to repent. God has already been ready to pour out His Spirit. He's always ready to pour out His Spirit. People usually are not. That's the problem. People usually are not. Now, a definition of supplication, and I've taught on this before, but we need to hear it again. A definition of supplication is a humble, earnest, entreaty or request. And if a request is not made in a heartfelt, fervent, and earnest manner, it's not supplication. You know, there are places where Paul said, I made mention of you in my prayers. That's not supplication. A lot of times we just make mention of somebody. I do that quite often in a scriptural. You know, Lord, bless so-and-so. Lord, I thank you for sending laborers across so-and-so's path. Lord this, Lord that. But making mention of somebody is not supplication because when you're really supplicating for somebody or something, it's heartfelt, it's fervent. It has some oomph to it. There's times where I even shed tears praying in English for somebody, and it wasn't tears of sorrow, it was tears of the Spirit. But that was not the same as groaning and travailing in intercession. It was supplication. So for whom can supplication be made? Well, we're going to look at the Scriptures tonight. You know, one thing that Pastor Nancy said, they had a prayer conference last week. And one thing she said that really stood out to me, which is so true, when it comes to prayer, you always have to start with the known will of God and the Scriptures. And so often we just want to start in some random place. It's right and it's okay to pray in the Spirit, but it's always scriptural to start where the Word starts. And then you can pray over that in the Spirit and let the Holy Spirit carry it further or carry you in a different direction. But we're going to look at some of those Scriptures tonight. For whom can supplication be made? Well, number one, for yourself. Both for natural needs and spiritual needs. So supplication can be made for yourself. In Philippians chapter 4 and verse 6, it says, Be anxious for nothing. And we normally always use this Scripture to teach on not having anxiety or worry, casting your cares on the Lord. Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. So rather than being anxious about things in life, we're to supplicate. We come before God with a heartfelt, earnest prayer, asking for His help, and we're praying according to His Word. Number two, we can supplicate for believers or all saints. Now in Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18, it says, Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end, with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints. So again, we're exhorted that we can supplicate for the saints. Now, Goodspeed's translation says this, Use every kind of prayer and entreaty, and at every opportunity, pray in the Spirit. You know, if you don't start out directing what you're praying in the Spirit, then you're just praying in the Spirit. You know, let me try to clarify this. We've been given this ability to pray in other tongues, and it is a gift from God, and I'm thankful for it. And you can pray in the Spirit as a type of fellowship. So if you just start out, You're praying in the Spirit, and you're really just fellowshiping with God, but you may not always have set the direction of that prayer. You're just praying in the Spirit. You don't really know what you're praying about. You're just fellowshiping, really. But if you start out praying for, you know, a particular situation or person by bringing the Word before God, say, This is what your Word says. This is what I'm praying over this situation. And then once you've prayed over it with a praying in the understanding and praying the Scripture over it, now you can pray in the Spirit over it, and you're directing what you're praying in the Spirit to that particular situation. So that's why I say use every kind of prayer and entreaty and at every opportunity pray in the Spirit. I would pray in the Spirit every day, all day, as much as you can. But don't just pray in the Spirit and never pray the Word or pray something directed by the Word. Number three, we can supplicate for all men and those in authority. And those of you that come to our prayer meetings on Tuesdays and on Friday, we have a few ladies that get together and pray. We don't usually intercede in the truest definition of intercession. And I'll explain that in a few minutes why. But we do supplicate. And we always start out with 1 Timothy 2, verses 1 and 2, because it says, Therefore I exhort first of all, first of all, that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and reverence. So first of all, we do this. We lift up all men. Now the thing is when it comes to intercession, because I gave you the definition of supplication. Let me just see. I know I have it in my notes here. Intercession is to stand in the gap in prayer between a person or persons who have provoked judgment upon themselves through their wrongdoing. See, this country right now has, it's provoked judgment upon itself through wrongdoing. And a lot of the church is responsible because they backslid and didn't keep this a matter of prayer. A short definition of intercession is to hold back judgment. But when it comes to intercession, even though you can plead with God, it requires more of a spirit-inspired or spirit-led situation. You cannot just decide to groan and travail, and if you try, you'll get involved with demons, because it's as the spirit wills. I could desire to travail over a situation, but I can't make that happen. I try to make that happen, I get into error. So with supplication, though, we can direct that. Now the more time you spend supplicating, if it's heartfelt, and the more time you give yourself over to praying in the spirit, the more likely you are to be used in intercession. But it's not something we can ever decide we're going to do. I think I'll decide to groan and travail at the prayer meeting today. Now, you know, it's funny, and yet it's not. I know you all know my story, how the first church service I ever went to, outside of the Catholic Church, was conducted by a guest speaker who specialized in groaning and travailing. And it was the most peculiar thing I'd ever been exposed to. And honestly, because I got there at the beginning when they were praising and worshiping, and in those days they could praise and worship for an hour. And they would sing in the spirit, and it was so anointed, so anointed, that it was the praise and worship that drew me to put my guard down. Because I said, Lord, it sounds like there's a choir of angels in here, and I've never heard anything like this in my life, and I know God is in this place. So because of that, then when the next part of the service took place, and this lady was teaching on groaning and travailing, and then walking around laying hands on people, and they'd all fall on the floor and be rolling, like you talk about holy rollers, this is a holy roller service fall show. They're rolling, and I'm just a Catholic girl, Catholic for, you know, the time I was born. And when the Charismatics tried to lead worship in our Catholic service, we just stared at them like crazy. And all they did was play a tambourine and clap their hands, but these people were rolling and groaning, and I'm sure most of it had to have been put on, knowing what I know today. But I didn't know these things back then, nothing. And it really was frightening, and you could see why, because if this is a believer's meeting, and you're inviting people to come and get saved, it's not the right atmosphere for that. So anyway, thank God for the Holy Ghost. You know, he kept me. So what I'm trying to say is that this travail, this thing called travail is very real, but it's not something that we can decide to do. And that's a whole other message that we're not going to get into tonight, but I know we need to eventually, because we don't have enough of it. And it starts with learning and understanding. My first experience ever with travail was completely by surprise. And we were at a conference in Chicago, and I wasn't yet married. And my husband and I were, during the break between services, we were in a little restaurant downtown Chicago, and it was owned by a Greek man, I think the Greeks own a lot of restaurants. And so at one point I saw this very dirty, filthy bum, I don't know what the political correct term is today, but that's what we said then, bum, came walking into the restaurant, this long, scraggly beard, you know, very dirty, and he was begging for a cup of coffee from the owner. And the owner was very irate and did not want him in there because it wouldn't be good for business. And kept yelling and screaming at him and trying to drag him out of that restaurant. And the whole time this is going on, I am getting very disturbed on the inside. So disturbed that I actually kicked my husband under the table real hard, even though we weren't married yet, I said, let's get out of here now. And, oh, I know what it was, I'm ahead of myself. When he kicked that man out, I grabbed a $5 bill and I ran out after him, and I gave him that money, and I said, Jesus loves you. Well, I didn't realize it's not a good idea if you don't give cash to people that are alcoholics living on the street, but my heart was right. And I came back in and sat down, and then that Greek owner came up to our table and started yapping at us because he saw that I ran after that guy to help him. And I can't even tell you to this day all that he said. All I know is it was raving and irritating me, and I wanted to get out of there. And so we left the restaurant and went back to the hotel that was hosting these meetings, and we had rooms in that hotel too, but there was one level, I think it was the second level, that had, was it the Marriott, that had all of these seating areas and so forth. And so I remember being up there and walking around and looking out the windows over the city and just feeling this irritation and this grating sensation or this disturbance on the inside. And then finally when I sat down with a group of people, we were going to pray for the service that was upcoming, and we sat to pray together, and I mean almost instantly I went into travail. And I had no, I'd never heard anybody travail before. I had no idea what was happening to me. It was so strong, it was almost as if I couldn't control it. And I just began to groan and cry and groan and cry and groan and cry, and my husband was trying to make it a teaching moment. And I'm like, this is no time to be trying to teach me anything. I just, and I'm groaning and crying. And then I knew that it was God, and I knew that it had something to do with this, you know, with prayer. And then at the end it went into joy and laughter. When you really get into intercession and you pray something through until there's victory, you'll know it because you'll have that note of victory. You'll have joy. You'll have laughter. You'll have lightness that comes at the end of that. And so that night, because there had been teams of people witnessing out on the streets, that night one of the people that came in from the streets, not the same one I had given the money to but a different one, came to the altar during the altar call and got saved. And he was prophesied over that he was called to the ministry. And the Holy Spirit spoke to my heart immediately and said, that's the person you pray for this afternoon. So you see, there's a place for intercession. God's looking for people to stand in the gap for someone who can't pray for themselves. And had a plan for that man's life that could not be fulfilled unless somebody yielded to the Spirit. But that, again, that is not something that's going to happen because you decide to make it happen. Though I wish I could every day because I see the need is so great. But the more you yield to the Spirit of God, the more that will come on you. I think that's what happened with Grace on Tuesday. You prayed over Brother Ray. And it ended with a note of victory. And his whole countenance just changed right on the spot. Power of intercession. It's not just for salvation. But Grace didn't just think, oh, I'll decide to do this right now. It came on her. It was as the Spirit willed. It came upon her. I recognized it was God. And I know Sister Brenda was helping them there. And there's a place for that too. The Bible says in James, pray for one another that you may be healed. So when we don't have the Spirit engaging us in intercession through travail, we have to be supplicating. And don't ever get bored with it or tired of it. Because this is what God has to work with. We have to be cooperative. So those are, you know, that's what we can't pray for in supplication, or who we can pray for. But what can supplication be made for? Well, number one, for laborers to be sent into God's harvest. We have Matthew 9, verses 37 and 38, where Jesus told his disciples, the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. And he said, therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest, that he would send out laborers into his harvest. Well, that word translated pray has the idea of an urgent and necessary request presented with fervency and desire. So that's supplication. It's not just mentioning, it's supplicating. Another thing that you can supplicate for is for the rain of God's spirit to be poured out on the earth. Amen. Zechariah 10 once says, ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain. Ask. This is the time of the latter rain, guys. The Lord will make flashing clouds, and he'll give them showers of rain and grass in the field for everyone. Hallelujah. Now let's turn to James Chapter 5. Let your fingers do some work so you don't fall asleep on me. James Chapter 5 and verse 7. The Lord is just wanting us to be inspired to spend more time in prayer. And we have to do it. We can't just talk about it. We have to do it. Or we're going to stay in the same condition or worse as each year goes by. In James Chapter 5, verse 7, it says, Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and the latter rain. So we see here in the New Testament, they're talking about the early and the latter rain again, which is the outpouring of the spirit. James 5, verses 16 through 18 says, 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. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit. Now think about this. He was old covenant, did not have the bin filling of the Holy Spirit, and he could supplicate and get his prayers answered. Remember Joshua? He told the son to stand still. He wasn't spirit-filled. You ever wonder about our evangelical brothers and sisters who are not spirit-filled, how they get their prayers answered? Now they might not get a lot of prayers answered, but some do get prayers answered because supplication doesn't require praying in the spirit, though it's helpful. But if you could get results when you weren't filled with the spirit, you could do it today again in the new covenant. It's supplication. As long as it's scriptural and as long as you believe what you're praying. And standing in the gap for somebody else, you know, when I say that, let me rephrase that. I don't mean intercession, but praying for somebody else, supplicating for somebody else. It can be done without praying in other tongues, if it has to be. But how much more and how much better when you have the help of the spirit. Now I'm going to read verse 16 from the Amplified. It says, Confess to one another, therefore, your faults, your slips, your false steps, your offenses, your sins, and pray also for one another that you may be healed and restored to a spiritual tone of mind and heart. The earnest, heartfelt, continued prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available, dynamic in its working. So we see this, that part of supplication is praying that we'll be restored to a spiritual tone of mind and heart. So we're talking about, we want to pray for the church that's backslidden as well. Now, we see through this verse in the Amplified, the characteristics of supplication, again, in these verses, are fervent, earnest, heartfelt, and continued. That's why every day I pull out my piece of paper that has the list of things I'm going to pray for, for the government. You know, every prayer meeting I pull that paper out because it's continue, continue, continue, continue, continue. How long do we have to pray for the government? Until we go to heaven. Continued. Sometimes I switch up the words a little. You know, I'm not praying for comfort anymore for the current president. I'm praying to shake him up and send laborers across his path. I want him to get saved. But, you know, you have to continue. And so there's not always a lot of excitement in the continuation. You know, it can be ho-hum, it can be dreary or boring at times, but if you'll just pray and let the Holy Spirit help you, he'll shake things up a little and make it a little more exciting for you. But continued is one of the things that goes along with supplication. It means we don't quit after one time. It's different than the prayer of faith. In the prayer of faith, you can pray one time for something for yourself, you believe you receive it, and now you don't keep asking for it. There are different rules that govern different types of praying. But supplication will make tremendous power available. And then another thing that we can supplicate for is to obtain forgiveness. And this is important when we're talking about praying for our nation. You know, in the book of Daniel, we see a beautiful example of supplication for the country. And in Daniel chapter 9, he first of all understood by the books the number of years specified by the word of the Lord through Jeremiah the prophet that it would accomplish 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem. So he found out from the scriptures that there was a set time that they were going to be captive. And when that set time was coming to its end, he realized, I need to set my face toward God and pray and supplicate. Now, in Daniel chapter 9 verse 17, it says, Now therefore, our God, hear the prayer of your servant and his supplications. I thought I was going to get through this without a cough. Let me get my water, please. Excuse me, everyone. I caught my healing. So, it says, Daniel earnestly confessed his own sins. Sorry. There's just a tickle. And the sins of the people. This is an important point. I don't know why this is happening. Excuse me. Okay. Glory to God. When you go to pray for the country, don't just act like, oh, all those dirty sinners that live here. You better first repent of your own sin. Clean up your own backyard. Because we all have areas we need to improve. And that's what Daniel did. He confessed his own sin, and then he confessed the sins of the people. And that's where we hear sometimes people, preachers talking about repenting for the sins of the nation. They get it from Daniel. Well, you can repent on behalf of the nation. And it's part of supplication, but I think the most important thing is that we pray that people's eyes be opened to see clearly that they can repent. And that's where number four comes in, which is another purpose of supplication, is to lift up the spiritual needs of others. And this is where we look at the prayers of Paul in the epistles. And it would be a good habit to pray these prayers daily. And what I do is I start with Ephesians, and I lift up myself, all of my family, all of my extended family. I lift up my church family. And I pray from Ephesians 1, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. And then I go on to Ephesians 3, that he would grant us, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit. So what I'm doing, I'm supplicating for myself, but also for my family and my church family. Now, these are prayers that are prayed over the believer. But, because the greatest need of the believer is a renewed mind, to have light come. But we have people across this country today that call themselves believers that are best, and then don't see clearly. If just the church in this country alone would come back to their spiritual senses, we could transform the nation. Amen? But they're going to need some help from the remnant. So, I would encourage you, you know, one of my favorite prayers, I mean, then I go to Philippians chapter 1. We pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment, that you may approve the things that are excellent, that we may be sincere and without offense to the day of Christ. Why do you suppose Paul put that in there? Because so many believers get offended, and when you do, no more light can come. The devil has you right where he wants you. Then, one of my favorite of all the epistles is Colossians chapter 1. Just for whatever reason it ministers to me the most, I ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. Being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, strengthened with all might according to His glorious power, filled with patience, endurance, and joy, giving thanks to the Father. And then I read 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. May the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely. You know, you can go through the epistles and find every place where Paul prayed for the church. And take those prayers as your guide. Pray the Word. And as you're praying the Word, then the Spirit of God might quicken something to you to add in your prayers and pray over yourself or whoever you're praying for. Because we want the help of the Spirit in our praying. Amen? Thank you, Jesus. And just as a way to rephrase the difference between supplication and intercession, supplication is used in intercession, but it's initiated by us. And when we say intercession, it's basically praying for other people. But intercession is initiated and directed by the Holy Spirit only. I mean, He's the one that's got it initiated and directed. I had that written down. But let me just say this tonight. The most effective prayer in any situation is the prayer the Holy Spirit inspires us to pray or that's needed at the moment. Amen? So we have to always remember we're Word people, but we're also Spirit people. And we don't want to become, just like we don't want to become like robots in our giving, we don't ever want to be robots in our praying. We want us to recognize and learn how to flow with the Holy Spirit in our praying. And the more time you spend with Him, the more you get to know Him, and the more you flow with Him. So we should and must spend time every day exercising our divine privilege of prayer. It's a divine privilege, guys. You know, if you understood that Jesus' primary ministry for the last 2,000 years has been prayer, intercession, that it lets you know that it's not a less-than type of ministry. I'm just going to close tonight with this one quote by Wilford Wright, who was the husband of Gertrude, who was the daughter of John G. Lake. Got that? Such and such begat such and such begat such and such. He said this, Jesus spent about 3 1⁄2 years in teaching and training His apostles. Since His ascension, He has been interceding for about 2,000 years for the people of this earth. What a dignity this adds to prayer. Isn't that powerful? Teaching and preaching is important. It will always be part of our life, even in heaven. But when we're on earth, we have to become people of prayer as well. And so I would encourage you, that's just what the Spirit of God had for me to share tonight, that if we want to see these kinds of things happening, we have to be prepared. And that preparation comes through prayer. Praying for one another, praying for those that are to come, praying for the glory to be in manifestation. But mainly, as we're connected with God the way we should be every day, we all come completely full, then you just overflow once you get here. Amen. Praise the Lord. Why don't you all stand up. Thank You, Father, for Your Word. We praise You and thank You for Your Word. We thank You, Lord, that You are a good God, You have good things in store for Your church. You have great things in store for this end time that we've not yet seen. And Father, we know that we're not waiting on You, You're waiting on us. And so we commit ourselves afresh tonight to be people of prayer. People that will set aside time every day to pray and seek You and to be excited about dwelling in Your presence. More excited about dwelling in Your presence than dwelling in the presence of the news or some movie on television. Father, we just thank You for the privilege to be able to come boldly before Your throne of grace. Thank You, Jesus, You paved the way for us to come before the throne. We thank You, Father. We thank You, dear Father. And let me just say this too, that just because you supplicate for somebody doesn't mean that they will always come around. Because it says that we make great power available to them, but they still have a will. So don't ever feel badly if you supplicate for somebody and it still doesn't go the way you wanted it to. Because everybody has their own individual will and they still can choose not to cooperate even though that power is there. When we make it available, it's there. Praise God. If you came tonight with the expectation of receiving hands laid upon you for healing, you can come up right now and we'll do that. Thank you. I'm okay now. Praise God. Hallelujah. Let's all just lift our hands. Thank You, Jesus. We praise You, Jesus. We thank You, Father. You are the healer, Jesus. You are the healer. Holy Spirit, You are the one who brings the power. We thank You, Father. My hands laid on You for healing or something else. In the name of Jesus, I command this pain and this bulging to go. And I thank You, Father, for healing power flowing in these shoulders right now, completely restoring them to normal. Oh, we thank You, Lord. You are such a wonderful healer. We praise You and thank You for it tonight. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Hallelujah. Praise You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord, for the power of God working in our life. In Jesus' name, hallelujah. Thank You, Lord. Praise the Lord. Anybody else? We're all healthy and whole tonight, huh? Praise the Lord. Okay. Well, we believe you're getting it all. Let's come forward just a little bit, because I'm leaning like this. Next thing you know, I'm going to go... Blessed be the name of Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Yes. Yes. And a full head of hair. In Jesus' name. I would assume you'd want that. Let that be a sign of the Word. More beautiful than it was before. Praise God. Hallelujah. We'll say the Lord is good. And His mercy endures forever. Amen. We worship You, Jesus, because we love You, Lord. Thank You, Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Blessed be Your name. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord. Keep praying. Praise You, Jesus. We thank You, Lord, for people continuing to come and to find us. We thank You, Lord. We thank You, Lord, for the coming from the north, the south, the east, and the west to be a part of this church and other churches that are Word and Spirit churches. We thank You, Lord, for putting the precious fruit of the earth into the Word and Spirit churches. We thank You, Father, we're coming into this day where there won't be buildings big enough to hold all the people. We thank You for it, Father. Multitudes of people finding their way into the light. Thank You, Father. We thank You, Father. Glory be to God. And we pray for those that did find us, Lord, and have not yet come back, that You would draw them back by Your Spirit. In the name of Jesus. You know, Paul did pray that he would travail for some until Christ was formed in them. And there are some people that come, they truly get saved or rededicated, but they still need prayer because the devil will try to hinder them from coming back. That's true. And, I mean, I was one of those people. It took eight months for me to get back to church after I got saved. I meant well. But, you know, there's opposition in there. So let's just keep our visitors in our prayers, too. Amen. Well, praise the Lord. We'll see you Sunday. We love you all. God bless you.