Mike Bickle emphasizes the vital call to prayer, highlighting its role as a two-way conversation with God that transforms both the individual and the world. He discusses the importance of intentionality in developing a prayer life, noting that prayer is not merely a duty but a delightful partnership with the uncreated God who desires relationship with His people. Bickle encourages believers to grow in prayer, asserting that it is essential for spiritual well-being and the fulfillment of one's calling. He also points out that prayer is a means of participating in God's work on earth, inviting believers to engage in the divine dialogue that shapes history. Ultimately, Bickle inspires the congregation to cultivate a vibrant prayer life, assuring them that even weak prayers can ascend in power through faith.

Well, we're not going to, as always, cover all the details that's in the notes. I have a book coming out in a month or two or three called Growing in Prayer, and I'm taking this course from that book. And it will be, again, out probably in November, December. And so we'll have a lot more detail if anybody wants to study this in a deeper way. But we're going to do part one of Growing in Prayer. In the autumn, right now, this fall semester, and then we're going to do part two in the spring because there's a lot of ground to cover, even to get a foundational understanding of the subject of prayer. There's just a whole lot that's important that keeps our heart inspired and our mind focused. Paragraph A, this course, the part one here in the autumn and the part two in the spring, will cover many topics related to prayer, the biblical foundations. We're going to put a lot of time on practical application, which is very encouraging, the historical expressions. There have been dynamic prayer ministries through history that I think will be surprising how many even 24-7 prayer ministries have existed through history. It's just the point of how the Holy Spirit has emphasized prayer. And then we're going to spend a session or two talking about the prophetic importance of prayer in the generation the Lord returns. How many prophecies in the Bible focused on prayer? And it's my opinion we're in the early days of that generation. I might not be right, but I think we are, which means the Holy Spirit, if that's true, is going to be emphasizing prayer in a way second to no other generation in history. And if we're not in that generation, then I think it's a good chance your children and their children will be. But a prayer is on the mind of the Holy Spirit. Always has been, but He's bringing this to a whole new level, which means there'll be a new dimension of grace for it. That's the point. Paragraph B, the goal of this course is threefold. To give practical instructions. I want to help you identify what to do when you're having prayer. I want to give biblical understanding of the different types of prayer. There's many types of prayer and the principles that are associated with them. Then I want to give a big picture perspective of what's happening across the earth right now because we're all a part of that grand storyline. Whether you're in this city or in another city in another nation, the Holy Spirit is orchestrating a global young adult prayer and worship movement. And it's part of your story. It's part of the story of the body of Christ in this hour of history. Paragraph C, we'll start with a very simple definition of prayer. Prayer is talking with God. Now that seems very obvious, but it's not that obvious to all because it's not talking to God, it's talking with God. There's a big difference. There's a two-way conversation. There's a two-way dialogue that's going on that transforms us, that transforms and releases blessing to others, and there's a number of dimensions to it. Paragraph D, I mean just imagine the glorious privilege of prayer. I mean we hear prayer, like okay, prayer, but we're talking to the uncreated God. The God who has never ever was there a time He was created. He's uncreated. He's eternal. He's the God of the universe. And He's listening intently to you with great affection. I've asked the Lord many times, why are you so interested in talking to me? I'm not that interesting. But He is so attentive to you in your weakness and your brokenness. And He has great affection. And He's not just attentive, He responds. He responds by revealing His heart. And most of His response are very slow and progressive. And you really can't measure prayer, as a rule, by days and weeks and months. We really measure prayer, particularly for revival and for changing a nation, by decades. And I mean there's a lot of prayers that are answered instantly in circumstantial blessings. But in terms of transforming the heart and transforming a nation, you want to measure prayer by decades, not by weeks and months. And we're building on the shoulders of the decades before us, but this thing is escalating. And the prayer furnaces are burning hotter and hotter. And whenever, you know, one preacher said that whenever God's about to do something in the earth, He sets His people to pray. He sets His people to praying. And when God's about to do something, and I'm talking about a spirit of revival. We're talking about a third great awakening in America. A great awakening in the nations of the world. The sign of that is the escalation of the prayer ministries that are exploding all around the earth. I mean there's so many of them, but that's for another session. I'm getting ahead of myself. But God responds. He reveals His heart. He gives us direction. He blesses circumstances. He transforms our emotions. He revives the church. He saves the lost. He impacts society. All of this in partnership with our weak, simple prayers. But He won't do it apart from them. He will only do them in partnership with the prayer of people like you and me. And there's hundreds of millions of praying believers, but we're all the same. We're weak and broken people, but He insists on doing it in partnership with His people in prayer. It's a great privilege. I mean the implications of talking to the uncreated God, the God Almighty. Beloved, it's worth whatever it takes to cultivate a life of prayer. That's my point. And we hear the subject prayer and we kind of get used to it, but it is worth cultivating this. Paragraph E. And we have to contend for it, meaning we have to pour ourself into this, our strength, because our prayer life will not develop just on its own automatically. Unless you're intentional about developing your prayer life, 99% of the time it's not going to develop unless you're intentional about it. This was something that over 40 years ago, when I was about 18 years old, I'm 59 now, I set my heart to grow and to develop a prayer life. And I didn't like prayer at all, and I'll get to tell that story, but my youth leaders told me I needed to grow in it. And I was like, oh, the one thing, the only thing I disliked more than prayer in the kingdom was fasting. I had those two things I had no interest in. But I have good news for you, 40 years later, I'm a satisfied customer, though I have much to learn and a long way to go, by the Holy Spirit. I promise you, He will help you. I thought I was the one guy that it wouldn't work for. I know the feeling that a number of you have, it's not going to work for me. You have no idea how stuck I am in about three things. Well, you have no idea how powerful the Holy Spirit is and how committed He is to you. If you'll take one step, He'll take 10. Even you can be transformed and grow. It'll take time, but be intentional about it. Paragraph F, I remember a book that swept across America, I mean, it sold millions of copies by Larry Lee, who's even in our midst these days, and his book was called Can You Not Tarry With Me One Hour, taken from when Jesus asked the apostles in the garden, can't you pray with me one hour, can't you tarry or wait with me one hour? And that book sold millions of copies around the world. I mean, it was kind of a phenomenon. It was about 1984, 85, and everybody was reading it. And the classic statement to me, in terms that touched me, is that he wrote paragraph F here, that our prayer life can go from duty to discipline to delight. And that was such an exciting idea, the delight part. I go, I get the duty. I'm really into the duty, and the duty is wearing me out. But I had no vision it could turn into delight. And that one sentence, I mean, what's that, 30 years ago? That one sentence, I mean, the light went on, and I said, yes, if this thing can end up enjoyable, I'm in. I mean, I'm in anyway, even if it's horrible, I'm not backing down. But boy, if it could be delightful, that would really be something. And then Isaiah 56, Isaiah talked about this, about prayer that's delightful. And he called it, he says, I'm going to make my people joyful in the house of prayer. And joyful, it doesn't just mean they're expressing happiness in the traditional sense, they're all just laughing out loud. And though joyful certainly is a matter, a part of that. But joyful has a lot more dimensions than just kind of a momentary kind of feeling real kind of giddy and happy about something. I begin to use the phrase enjoyable prayer. I will make them joyful. I will give them a way to experience enjoyable prayer. That's prophesied in the Bible, Isaiah 56, verse 7. Because if it's not enjoyable, it won't be sustainable. If prayer is not enjoyable, if your idea of prayer was like mine for the first maybe five or 10 years, maybe 10 years, my prayer was more focused on duty. And if I'm really going to prove I love God, I'm going to pay the price and pray. It's like, and the idea now that for about 10 years, that was my idea, I'm going to pay the price and pray. I look back now and it's kind of like the Lord saying, you're going to like pay the price to talk to boring me, God? Interesting you is going to sacrifice to talk to boring me. That's kind of what we're saying. Now, the Lord didn't say that, but I could imagine him thinking, you're going to get the shock of your life when you find out how interesting I am and how enjoyable a conversation and a relationship with me can be. But anyway, this, it shifted my paradigm and it was very, very significant. And I want to give you a vision for enjoyable prayer. Roman numeral two, every believer is called to grow in prayer, every believer. You may be a brand new believer, you may be in the Lord 40 years. No matter what season of growth, you're called to grow in prayer. Everybody that loves Jesus is called to grow in prayer. That's a calling we never, ever outgrow. I've never met a believer that doesn't need to grow more in prayer. I certainly need to. The best thing that any of us can do to improve our life, to improve our relationships, is to grow in prayer. The reason I say that, some people have the wrong idea. If they spend a lot of time in prayer, their life will be somehow weakened or diminished, and so will their relationships. Beloved, you will love people far better when you have a stronger prayer life. And so, then you get stronger, and then as it gets even stronger still, you will love people more. So the prayer life won't get in the way of your relationships. It will actually clear the smoke out of our eyes, so to speak, and the distraction, and there'll be a lot less emotional traffic on the inside, and we'll love far better. Paragraph B, it's the most important calling in anybody's life. I know that's a big statement. That's not obvious to everybody, but it is the most important calling. Jesus lives forever to make intercession. He's still living in prayer right now at the right hand of the Father. It's a higher calling than being a parent. And I think that's like the highest calling there is, is being a parent. Not exactly the highest, but it's certainly, if you had to pick the top four or five, it's in that list. I mean, being a mom or a dad, discipling your children, I can't think of too many things that have that kind of importance to the kingdom. Being a spouse, I mean, what a glorious calling. Being a pastor, and I don't mean just a pastor on a church staff, but being a shepherd, a disciple maker of people. Very high calling, whether you're married or not, or have children or not. Being a leader in the marketplace with a pastor's heart is a very high calling in the Lord. But you'll be a better spouse, a better parent, a better disciple maker or pastor, whatever you want to use either term. You'll be a better leader in the marketplace if you grow in prayer. You'll be a better mom if you take time to grow in prayer. You'll be a better father, a better husband. Not every believer is called to preach, but every believer is called to grow in prayer. It's not an optional activity. It's essential for our spiritual well-being. It's essential for our spiritual well-being. Top of page 2. Well, Jesus made an absolute statement in John 15 about prayer. In John chapter 15, he said, he that abides in me. And he said, that's talking about a prayer life. And I abide in him. And he goes, there's that two-way dialogue. He goes, you'll bear fruit. There'll be a supernatural spiritual dimension of inspiration in your life, and it'll be released through your life. There'll be a supernatural inspiration touching you, motivating you to love Jesus, and you will have the ability to say words and do things that motivate other people. You can't do that by your own strength. That inspiration is beyond human ability. Now, Jesus is saying that's what he means by bearing fruit in a very abbreviated way. But he says, apart from me, without connecting with me, you can't do that. You can't produce spiritual inspiration on your own heart, and you can't produce spiritual inspiration to move somebody else. You can give them a self-help talk, a motivational talk, but you can't move their heart and inspire them to love Jesus and to love righteousness. You can motivate them to have courage in a difficult thing, but you can't motivate them spiritually without the Holy Spirit doing it. And Jesus said, you can't do that. It won't happen to you or through you if you don't develop a prayer life. That's what he means by abiding me. Abide in me and I in you. That's an absolute statement. He says of our inability to walk out our destiny without growing in our prayer life. Paragraph D, we can't generate, we can't produce is another word. We can't produce spiritual life, meaning we can't inspire our heart or inspire others. We can't have Holy Spirit power. We can't have spiritual insight. Those are all part of fruit bearing. We can't do that by human ability and human personality and good study. It takes an invisible presence of the Holy Spirit moving on us and in us. Just like you could practice all day. I mean, you could be the most dedicated athlete, practice jumping, jump higher than any other human being. You'll never jump 100 feet no matter how hard you practice. It's never going to happen because it's not an issue of practice or an issue of effort. It's impossible for somebody to jump 100 feet high. It's not ever going to happen. The same way it's impossible for you to produce spiritual inspiration by your own personality, ability, study, giftings, you can't do it. Jesus said, if you don't connect with me, abide with me, you can't produce that. Can't be done by humans. So, I began to take that verse more literally and seriously and, Lord, I'm really locked in here. I really need to engage with you in just a simple way throughout the weeks and months and years. I don't mean just a dynamic one-time encounter. I'm talking about develop that dialogue called abiding in Christ, that dialogue with the Lord called prayer. And I want that inspiration to touch me and to flow through me to others. Paragraph E, the Spirit will touch you. He really will over weeks and months and years. Mostly it doesn't happen overnight, although there's occasionally that one dramatic encounter somebody has every now and then or once or twice in their life, I mean a big encounter. But most, 99% of our spiritual life are those very small little moments where our hearts are inspired little by little. The discipline of prayer will become delight. The dryness in prayer will gradually become a vibrant dialogue with the Lord. I've had the dryness. I've had the staleness. Then I've had that alive kind of sense of his presence. Then it got stale again and I was afraid. Oh no, I lost it. Then it came back. I stayed with it. And I've had that sense of that greater connection in prayer and lost it a few times in 40 years. Where I had it for a number of years and then for some months, I didn't have it. And again, it made me nervous the first couple cycles. But I have good news for you. Stay with it. And that sense of that feeling and experiencing his presence and that being your heart stirred in the word, it will return. When I was 20 years old, I hadn't ever experienced that. I didn't even, if you'd have told me that, I'd have said, cool. What do you mean? I mean, the prayer was boring. The Bible was confusing. I mean, I like meetings. I like going to meetings. I like the worship music and I like teaching. I like ministry trips. But when it was me and God with a Bible, just the two of us, or even worse, if there's five of us in a prayer room, that was bad. Cuz the other people were as bored as I were, and I had to listen to them. They had to listen to me. And I said, Lord, this is a bizarre way to run the kingdom. It didn't make any sense to me. Why are you making us do this? We could do so much more for you. I told him, if you just let me loose and don't make me talk to you so much, I could get more done for you. I mean, that sounds so silly, but I mean, I thought, why am I taking this time? You're invisible. You don't answer very quick. You don't answer very loud. I got stuff to do for you. Let me loose. Let me go do stuff. And of course, I was doing plenty. I just wanted to do more stuff and less connecting with him. Well, beloved, paragraph F, don't wait for a supernatural experience before you start determining to grow in prayer. You grow in prayer by praying. That's how you grow in prayer. Just like you learned just the way you master playing the piano by practicing. You grow in prayer by praying, not just studying by prayer. That'll give you a vision. Not just being around people that pray, not sitting in a prayer room and just kind of enjoying the music and doing our email. I'm talking, we grow in prayer by praying. You don't have to pray loud. You can whisper it. You don't have to pray real long hours. But I encourage people, when someone's in the corporate prayer room, whatever they're saying up front, just about every third or fourth phrase, just whisper it to God. You know, when someone says, Lord, release your power and revival in Iraq. We've been praying a lot about Iraq lately. Just about every third or fourth line, just repeat whatever the guy or gal is saying or singing, and your heart will actually be engaged in prayer. And they're providing the terminology, just whether it's a worship song or a prayer on the microphone, just every few phrases, say it to the Lord when they say it. Just echo it right back. And I tell you, that will bring you right into a place of prayer. And they're the ones putting all the time and energy and coming up with all the language. I love it. I love to sit in the prayer room and just, they're singing. And I go, yes, Lord, you're good. They say, Lord, you're good, or Lord, send revival, or Lord, touch us. And I don't do every phrase, and sometimes I'm locked in, I'm reading the scripture in another dimension or doing a Bible study or something. But when I'm engaging in what's going up front, I just repeat the phrases. I go, boy, this is the easiest way to pray, but I still feel his presence when I do it. It's better than just kind of enjoying the music and just kind of letting your mind wander. Actually, you grow in prayer by praying, okay, from delight, from duty to delight. Just a little bit about my story. In my early days, paragraph A, I loved Jesus, but I dreaded spending time in prayers. About 18, 19 years old, I saw prayer as a duty to endure. If I was really gonna prove to God I was serious, I would endure prayer. And it was miserable, but again, I didn't think about, God, you're so boring, but I'll stick it out if you promise to bless me. Paragraph B, then my youth leaders said, they taught all of us. They said, if you don't grow in prayer, you're not gonna touch the deeper things of God, which is true, and you're not gonna enter into the fullness of your calling. And I really loved Jesus when I was 18. I was really serious. I went, I want the deeper things, even if it means prayer. More bitter than death, that's horrible, I'll do it. I'll do it. And they said, you won't enter into the fullness of your calling. You'll enter into some of it. And I thought, I want the fullness of my calling. So they began to tell us different books on prayer to read. And I encourage you to read books on prayer. These books inspired me. And my favorites were by Leonard Ravenhill and Ian Bounds. Those are classics. You can get them all on the Internet. A lot of them are free, or I don't know that all of them are, but I know a lot of those old classics, you can just get them on the Internet. We got them in our bookstores as well. Leonard Ravenhill and Ian Bounds, I mean, inspiring. I mean, very inspiring, very convicting. I'd read those books. I would get so convinced that without prayer, I couldn't have all that God had for me. So I go, okay, I'm in. And it really motivated me. But the thought of having a prayer life the rest of my life, and I was 18, I thought, for 40 more years till I'm 58, I'll never be 58. Well, I'm 59 now. And I thought I'd never, I go, this is, they would say, get a vision for 40 years. I go, my gosh, that's a horrifying thought. I mean, to have, not being 58, when I was 18, I probably was. But my thought is, I mean, a horrifying thought of praying for 40 years every day. I thought, ugh, there's gotta be a better way to do this. Give me a resurrected body and I'll be fine. Well, these books inspired me, but they made me feel guilty. And I felt stuck. I felt spiritually stuck. Like I said, I liked worship meetings. I like Bible studies. I like going to a group and somebody teach and we talk about it. That was kind of fun. I like ministry trips. Well, so I began. It was the 1974, I remember, it was the summer of 74. I'm going to the University of Missouri the next year. And I said, okay, I just started, I'm gonna pray an hour a day. And I was kind of revving up in the summer to get ready for college every day, every night, 9 o'clock at night. And it was the dreaded hour of death. It was like 8.45. And I did it like every night. And it was like 15 more minutes till death. You know, three minutes till nine, I would start sweating. Oh no. And I would march into my room. We had an apartment. None of my roommates, they were all believers. And I told them I was going to do it for accountability. Because I knew I would die out real quick. And my pride would keep me going because I told them I was going to do it no matter what. And so I would go in there. And I mean, I would, you know, 9-0-0. And I got till 10. I'd say, Lord, thank you for arms. And thank you for legs. And thank you for food. And help me score touchdowns on the football team. I played on the college football team. And help me get the girl and get good grades. Well, I didn't score any touchdowns, but I did get the girl. That's good. We've been married 37 years. She's a really good one. Anyway, I said, Lord, I got it. Two minutes after praying, I had 58 minutes to go. I had no prayer list. I had no thought of anything. I thought, I did it all. I don't know what else to say. Then I started complaining. I said, what is this? Why is this so hard? Why do you run your kingdom? Actually, I was now praying. I was actually praying. I didn't even call it that. I go, I don't get why you do this this way. I mean, you make it so hard on your people. It's like the old Puritan guy says, God, the way you treat your friends, it's no doubt you have so few. That's an old Puritan quote. Then I would say, Lord, just lighten up and make it easier. And actually, I was actually praying when I was complaining. And it took me a few years to figure that out. I needed a new perspective of what prayer is, why God insists on it. I began to see, I mean, not in when I was 18, 19. It took me a few years. I began to see that it was far more than a religious duty. There was a delight. And when that phrase came about 1984, I think it was, when Lately wrote that book and a delight. I thought, oh, you know, it was about 10 years later. It crystallized. I learned that prayer was a place of encounter. It was a way to receive blessing. It was a way of active partnership with God. It wasn't just me in the duty of enduring this burdensome thing. It was this, there was this dynamic that I could touch God's heart and partner with him, not just get blessings. Although that's an important part of prayer as well. Roman numeral four, Roman numeral four, prayer paragraph B. It's a place of encounter. It's a place of encountering God, growing in relationship with Him. It's where we position ourself in that dialogue, where we receive, we in that very position, though you might not know it on the beginning of the journey, but you look back over some months and years that you start getting insights. Even though there's one here and one there, you get new perspectives about yourself, about God, about the kingdom, and it changes your emotions and your heart gets inspired. Not just sitting in a prayer room. That's not what I mean. I'm talking about talking to God while you're in the prayer room. You can sit in a prayer room and die spiritually. If you don't talk to the person, you can die spiritually. You can sit in a restaurant, the best restaurant in the world, be a connoisseur of the food, study all the menus, but never eat the food and die of starvation. A lot of folks, they're connoisseurs of the menu. They study the menu. They don't actually eat the food. They can sit in a prayer room. They can go to a Bible school and actually never talk to God much at all. And you can die of starvation by doing that. Top of page three, the call to prayer is the call to participate. I'm going to be brief on this point because I'm going to spend a whole session on it. The call to prayer is so much more than just releasing blessing, but we're participating in the family dynamics within the Godhead, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father's heart burns with love for His Son. The Son burns with love for the Father. They have actually the same love for us they have for one another. They love us people, the people of God, like they love one another, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God's heart burns with love and prayer. He's inviting us into that participation of that family dynamic that they enjoy. Prayer is so much more than just enduring a duty to get a blessing. We're actually participating with the most interesting person. Well, God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one God in three persons. I mean, it's the most remarkable reality. I call it paragraph E, the fellowship of the burning heart, that God's heart, the Father burns for the Son. The Son and the Spirit, they burn for the Father. Their heart burns for us. And the Father is saying, come and participate in this. Get involved in this family dynamic. You'll be a part of for all of eternity. Because we're not just angels that serve at a distance. We're called to participate in the family and the family dynamics that the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit participate in. Roman numeral five. Prayer is also a way to receive blessing. Now, some folks are really into the communion with God part I just mentioned. And they're not into the blessing. They think, well, you know, I just want to love God and God love me. And that's the part I just mentioned. That's, to me, the ultimate. But paragraph A, we don't pray just to pray. Yes, we commune with God. I just made that point. That's the highest. But we also want to see His power released in us and through us. We want to see His power released in our circumstances. Some folks have this wrong idea that they really love Jesus. They won't ask Him to change their circumstances. Because I just care about Him. I don't care about my life being blessed in my circumstances. And that's a wrong idea. We don't have to choose between blessed circumstances and God using us and loving God. We can do both of them. We can do that whole thing together. Some folks are so, they only see prayer as a way to get blessed in their circumstances. You know, to get the Lord to bless their circumstances. But they don't think of prayer as a way to commune with God. Others are just opposite. And we don't need to choose one above the other. We can have both of these dimensions. Paragraph, Roman Numeral 6. This is one of my favorite verses on prayer. Isaiah 30. This is a new picture of God. A new paradigm. A paradigm means a perspective. A new perspective of God. When I saw this verse some years ago. Isaiah 30, verse 18. One of my very favorite verses on it, on prayer. The Lord longs to be gracious. The Lord says, I long to be gracious. Look, look what it says. Verse 18. Therefore he waits. He's waiting to release his compassion. Verse 19. He will surely be gracious to you. At the sound of your cry, when he hears it, he'll answer you. The Lord says, you think you're waiting on me. And you are in a sense. He goes, I'm waiting on you. I long to be gracious. You don't have to convince me to bless you. I'm convincing you that I want to bless you. I mean, the reason we have such a struggle in prayer. One reason. We don't have a vision that God is with attentiveness. And with affection. Leaning into the relationship that he actually wants to bless us. To touch our hearts. To use us. To reveal himself. The problem is he doesn't do it all in one hour. Or one day. Or one weekend like we want him to. He does it sometimes. I mean, the miracle happens in one moment. But I mean, I'm talking about the inward transformation. And the national revival that we've been praying for for so many years. Those things the Lord says, I'll do them in my timing. But you'll look back over the years and you'll see I really did do it. Top of page four. Many of paragraph C. Many of God's blessings. This is very important. Many of God's promises for blessing. They are not guarantees. That's an interesting thought to some. All of God's promises are not guarantees. They're invitations. And if we do the conditions, then they are guarantees. Many of his promises. He says, I'm giving you a promise. But it has a condition. If you will call on me. It goes, if you'll do that part. The invitation then becomes a guarantee. But many people, they look at the promises. Then they go, well, they're not happening. The Lord says, no, I want you to call on my name. I don't mean just once or for a weekend or for a summer or even for a year. I want you to enter into that dialogue with me. And just do it the rest of your life in this age. And all of your life in the age to come. We will relate to God through talking to him. And speaking back to him the very things that he puts in our heart to tell him. Roman numeral seven. Praying with faith. I'm just noting this in the notes. We're not going to talk on it right now. But a lot of folks, they don't understand or they neglect. They sort of know faith is important. But they neglect it. They don't consciously, intentionally grow in faith. They just think, well, the faith thing, you know, whatever. We need, Jesus really emphasized growing in confidence. Faith and confidence are synonymous. That we have confidence in what his promises. What he promises. Confidence in his word. Because our mind naturally, our human thinking, our natural thinking is what I'm trying to say. Our natural thinking, we don't see or feel the promises. So we give up on them. But we renew our mind and we speak the word of God. And though we don't see and feel the promises with our five senses. We don't give up on the word of God. But we speak it. We stay with perseverance and confidence. That's what faith is about. A person says, I think I have faith. I said, well, if you stay with it, you have faith. If you give up on it, you had, you had, you were hoping it would work. But the very proof of faith is staying with it. That's where you can see. Because you have confidence that though it's in God's timing. That whatever God says, he will bring to pass. Top of page five. Well, prayer is more. Prayer is more than just communing with his heart. And it's more than receiving blessed circumstances. Or seeing a great revival. Touch another person's family that you're praying for. Or a city or a nation or whatever. The essence, another dimension of prayer, it's partnership. It's that he doesn't want to rule alone. I mean, he's the supreme ruler. But in his great humility and kindness, he goes, I want you to reign with me. I mean, just to imagine. I mean, he doesn't really need us to reign with him. He has all the power. But he calls us to reign together with him. Paragraph C. Jesus is not just a king with power. But he's a bridegroom with desire. He desires relationship. He doesn't just have power. Some folks are real locked into the God of power. He's a king with power. But they don't know he's a bridegroom with desire for relationship. I remember one time this struck me. And in just a moment, like a flash, such a clear insight happened. It was maybe 30 years ago, about 1980s, somewhere in the mid-80s. I came home from the church offices in the middle of the afternoon. And my wife and son, Luke, they were in the kitchen. And Luke was probably about six years old then. He's 35 now. So about 30 years ago. He was something like six years old, something like that. And he was all wet. He was helping my wife with the dishes. And there was a broken plate on the floor, water everywhere. My wife's hair was kind of sticking up, water. My son's shirt is soaked. And he turned around. I'm standing on a chair. And I walked. He goes, hi, dad. I did the dishes. I go, really? I looked at the floor, the broken plate, the water, my wife's hair, all wet. She goes, yeah. She goes, I handed him a plate. I helped him wash it. Then he handed it. Then he put it under the water to rinse it off. Then he handed it back to me. Then I gave him a towel. And we dried it together. And he dropped one or two of them, slipped in the water, got everything. And he thought he did the dishes. Now, if he wouldn't have been involved, the dishes would have been a whole lot quicker and a whole lot cleaner. I mean, the kitchen wouldn't have been near so messy. But when he said, I did the dishes, it hit me like in a second. It's like, yes, I'm building a ministry. I am working in the kingdom that God's handing me a plate. He's telling me how to rub. I'm dropping half the plates, falling in the water, getting a mess everywhere. I build a ministry. It hit me instantly. That's me right there. That's called prayer. That's called prayer. God says, just tell me what I tell you to tell me. Stumble and fall. Do what you do. But get back up and just keep taking the dish I give you. Tell me what I tell you to tell me and stay with it. And yes, you help me build the kingdom. That's right. But in one second, it hit me. I went, that's me. That's my prayer ministry. It's like, Lord, it's like almost like the Lord could have said, well, there's not that much more I can have you do. You just tell me what I tell you to tell me and just say some words I tell you to say and go bless some people, go serve them. And I'll inspire it and I'll change them. And we'll do this thing together. It's about partnership. Okay, Roman numeral nine, the importance of asking. Bottom of page five. A lot of folks think about the request. They even tell their friends what they need. They don't actually ask God. They think what they need. They think, oh, man, I need the money. I need the power. I need the transformation. I need the breakthrough. I need the alignment in relationships. I need the healing of this and the healing of that. Oh, I just need that. Then they tell their friends, oh, if I don't get this breakthrough in the relationships of my heart and my body, my money, my ministry, I'm just going to just quit and just die of discouragement. And the Lord says, tell me, talk to me. Don't just talk to others about what you need. Talk to me. And the reason God insists on this, not because he lacks information. You're going to lack the information. He's not saying inform me. He already knows. He says, I want the dialogue because I want the relationship. He goes, because when you tell me you're interacting with me and I'm touching you in ways you can't fully measure. And then when the event actually happens, whether it's weeks or years later, when the event happens or the breakthrough you're praying for, it touches you. And you look up and say, the God of heaven actually heard me. Oh, my goodness. This is amazing. So he says, I'm not going to do it unless you ask me. I'm not going to do it. I'm going to bring you into the dialogue, not to inform me of anything, not to deserve anything, because I want the dialogue. And I want you to be impacted by seeing the answer, because when the invisible God actually answers you, that's such a, it's like a, it's such a, a touches our heart when we see what we prayed for. And it actually takes place. Top of page six, top of page six. Just a couple of few principles to remember just as we're starting off in prayer. And again, we're going to do two complete courses. This is kind of just a kind of getting us in the flow of the, of the idea of growing in prayer. Paragraph A at the end of it, our prayers are effective. The last paragraph sentence there, when they're short, our prayers are effective even when they're weak and our prayers are effective even when they're poorly worded. Paragraph B, short prayers, 90 second prayers are important. Don't wait till you have an hour, pray through the day, pray when you're driving, pray when you're standing in a line, pray as you're coming and going. 90 second prayers will change your life. And 90 second prayers will change. God will release his blessing to others because of your 90 second prayers. Don't wait only till you have hours. And we're going to tell you what to do with an hour. I'm going to break all that down for you as well. And how to have longer times and shorter times. But beloved, the power of abiding in Christ is in 30 and 90 second little sound bites of conversation. If that's not too weird of a way to say it. Paragraph C, see the value of weak prayers. Sometimes, what I mean by weak prayers, that's, I put quote unquote, that we offer our prayers in weakness, but they ascend in power because of the blood of Jesus. So what I mean by weak prayers, prayers where we feel dry. We feel distracted. We feel no sense of inspiration. And sometimes we feel, well, here's what we conclude because I didn't feel anything. Then God didn't feel anything. And we conclude that if it didn't move me, it didn't move God. You know what moves God is when we agree with his word. And you can have no feeling at all, but you agree with his word and you come to him by the blood of Jesus. I tell you that prayer is as powerful as when you feel a lot when you're praying it. Some folks think that if you get the music just right, and there's a, you know, a couple hundred people in the room are really excited and jumping high and shouting. That was a dynamic prayer room, a prayer meeting. And I'm all for that. But there's something more fundamental than if everybody's shouting in the room and the music's real cool. If you agree with God, it works. It works. It's effective if you agree with his word, whether you feel anything. And that's the point I'm wanting you to have is confidence that don't just wait until you have the dynamic moment. And then you have confidence that the prayer is, is really something. I remember the experience. I love to tell the story that it was in the summer of 1988 when I went to, I led the Saturday morning prayer meeting for years. And I'd go Saturday morning, every Saturday morning, 830 to 10, maybe 20, 10, 20 people, quite boring prayer time. But we just did it. And so I went to, and I was walking to the, I was, I drove up to the prayer room. And as I was walking in to the foyer, we had a little foyer and then a little about a 200 seat prayer room there, the music was so loud and the music was so, it was like Handel's Messiah, like hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. It was like so loud. And I thought, oh no, as I was walking up to the building and I ran up cause I thought the sound techs are going to blow the sound system out. I mean, it was so loud. It was unimaginable. So I opened the door real quick to run cause I saw the sound techs car there. I opened the door and it's completely quiet. I go, how'd they do that? Okay. So I walk in and the two guys are down front. There's only two people showed up to the prayer meeting. It's about 10 minutes early, 15 minutes early. And I go, okay, okay. How did, what did I just hear? And I think they got some little remote control and they're gonna trick me or something. And so I go, hey guys, how you doing? And the guy has a tear in his eye. They just praying for his mother. And I think, what was that sound? And actually I heard the angelic choirs is what it was. And I went, oh my goodness. I heard the choirs of the angels. I mean, it was dynamic and powerful. And so I said, this is going to be the most exciting prayer meeting we ever had. And so the, about 20 people ended up showing up, you know, at eight 30, we start. And just the normal prayers, the prayers, the apostolic prayers and 90 minutes went by. And the prayer meeting was just boring. Like always. I mean, every now and then it wasn't, but almost always it was. We had, you know, almost no music. I think we had like 15 minutes and somebody sang a couple songs and then we stopped the music and then we just pray and on a microphone. And it was just kind of boring, like always. And everybody left. And I said, Lord, I thought this was going to be the meeting where the great breaking through of the power of God happened. And I'm so confused. Why did I hear the angel choirs? If in fact nothing happened, surely this was going to be the great revival meeting where everything we traced it back to that meeting. And I'm there for about 20, 30 minutes, just sitting in the prayer room alone. Everybody's left and I can't make sense of it. And I go, Lord, what is this? And the Lord whispered to me so clear, he goes, those angelic choirs. That's what happens every Saturday, Saturday morning. When 10 of you gather before me in agreement with my word, that's what happens in every prayer room around the whole world. When they come in the name of Jesus and bring my word, I just let you see what I see every Saturday morning. When you gather and I tell you that encouraged me so much. I thought you mean we can boring little prayer meetings and the, and the phrase we offer our prayer and our human weakness, but our prayers ascend in power because of the blood of Jesus. Let's go to paragraph G. We'll end with this. Cornelius got the shock of his life. Paragraph G acts 10. The shock of his life grown. Cornelius was a Roman soldier. He has a little prayer meeting. An angel appears to him and says, your prayers are being remembered. They are a memorial before God. Meaning your prayers aren't just impacting heaven. They're going to be remembered forever in the presence of God. I go, man, what kind of prayer meeting is that? Then I started thinking about, I mean, Cornelius was shocked. He was not born again. So we're talking about five or he was a leader in the Roman army. So I'm picturing five or six guys, Roman soldiers sitting in a circle. They have no Holy Spirit. None of them are born again. They have no Bible. They're Gentiles. They can't have a Hebrew Bible. They have no anointed music. They don't have any, anything to prop up their meeting. You know, no Starbucks coffee, nothing. I mean, nothing could help their meeting at all. And I thought, boy, I wouldn't want to go to Cornelius' meeting. That's for sure. Five or six guys, no Bible, no Holy Spirit, no prophetic sense, no prophetic music, no presence of God. But the angel says, Cornelius, shock of your life. Your prayers are remembered forever. They're a memorial because it's not about the feeling of the prayer time, whether it's your personal prayer time or whether it's a corporate prayer meeting that's boring. It's not the feeling of the prayer meeting. It's the agreement with God by his word. That's what makes prayer powerful. Well, look at paragraph H at the very end. So I said, Lord, why are you, why are you running your universe, the whole universe through prayer? He's, he's, he's doing it because he's relational, that he's using prayer to establish intimacy with his people. He's bringing community because he's getting the people that pray together, even connected at the heart level together. He's producing humility in them because they're trusting and depending on God and his timing and they're engaging in partnership with Jesus while Jesus is using them to change the world. That's what's going on in prayer. The father says, I'm running the universe through prayer because I'm a father and I want relationship with my people. Amen and amen. I'm going to have you all stand for a moment, but don't start talking yet. We're going to have a five minutes.