This sermon from Psalms 55 emphasizes the importance of calling upon God in times of trouble and oppression. It highlights the need for believers to rely on God's strength, joy, and inner power to be witnesses in a dark world. The message encourages believers to pray fervently, trust in God's ability to save, and stand against the works of darkness through the power of the Holy Spirit.

I have a message for you this morning from Psalm 55. If you'd turn there in your Bibles with me, Psalm 55, called I Will Call Upon God. I have to do that this morning. I've got a cold. My left ear is blocked. I feel like I'm inside a huge tomato can right now, trying to preach. Praise God. But Paul the Apostle says, when I am weak, then I am strong. We don't need to be seen anyway. Christ needs to be seen, and he needs to be heard. The rest of us are negotiable. Praise God. Father, I just thank you, Lord, for the touch of your Holy Spirit. I thank you, Lord, for the forgiveness, the covering that you've been speaking to all of us about in this service. I thank you, God, that we don't have to be strong. You are our strength. You're the strength of our life. You're the joy of our hearts. You're the inner power that makes us a witness in this and every other generation. And so, God, I ask in Jesus' name for the anointing of your Holy Spirit upon your word, not just to speak it, but to hear it in the inner man, each one of us. Oh, God, thank you for the covering that allows us to push away the condemner and to believe, God, that we belong to you and that you will strengthen us from image to image and glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of our God. Oh, Jesus Christ, we stand against all the works of the devil today, every attempt to destroy our homes and our families and our bodies. We stand against you, Satan, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We take authority over all of your weaponry that you form against the righteous. The word of God says that every weapon you form shall not prosper, and we condemn your lying tongue. That is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. And so, God, we thank you that we have a righteousness and a power to stand up and declare our Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit, believing for the miraculous in this generation. Lord, we give you the praise and all of the glory in Jesus' name, amen. Psalm 55, a Psalm of King David, beginning at verse one. I will call upon God. Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not yourself from my supplication. Attend to me and hear me. I am restless in my complaint and moan noisily because of the voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked. For they bring down trouble upon me, and in wrath they hate me. My heart is severely pained within me, and the terrors of death have fallen upon me. Fearfulness and trembling have come upon me, and horror has overwhelmed me. So I said, oh, that I had wings like a dove. I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander off and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues. For I have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go round on its walls. Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it. Destruction is in its midst. Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets. Now, verse 16, as for me, I will call upon God, and the Lord shall save me. Evening and morning and at noon, I will pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice. He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me, for there were many against me. God will hear and afflict them, even he who abides of old. Selah. In other words, pause and think about this particular statement. God will hear and afflict them, even he who abides of old. Paul the Apostle in 2 Timothy chapter three warned that in the last days there would be perilous times. There would be a breakdown of decency, morality, civility. The love of many would begin to grow cold just for what is decent and right and just and good. It would be a perilous time. Sin would begin to have its full expression in creating what I believe is and will be the last worldwide rebellion against the Lordship of Jesus Christ. And you and I today are having to pass as God's people through a season very similar to that which King David in his opening texts speaks about. In Psalm 55 verse three says, because of the voice of the enemy, I'm restless, he says in my complaint, and I moan noisily because of the voice of the enemy. I don't know about you, but I understand King David. I am just so sick of the news. I'm so tired of the speech of our politicians. The childishness, the lack of integrity, the lack of ability to live beyond themselves and their petty little agendas. The loss as we teach in our Bible school of the ability to live for the benefit of others. It's appalling. Truth is falling into the streets. And of course, as Isaiah said, anybody who departs from evil now has become a prey as it is something to be pursued and vilified in this society. Because of the oppression of the wicked, the emboldenment, may I call it, of the enemies of God to oppress the people of God, to oppress those who wanna stand for what they believe to be true. The action and hatred against us, they bring down trouble upon me, and in wrath, they hate me. And many of you know what that feels like in the workplace. There's a sudden Jesus revulsion everywhere. And because you represent him, because you carry the presence of the living God inside of you into the workplace, you find yourself the victim of not just slander, but sudden action against you. You find that you're passed over in the workplace for that promotion. But thank God you're not passed over for the kingdom of God. They may get the promotion. Folks, listen to me. Keep it all in perspective, all right? They may get the promotion down here, but you get the ultimate promotion. You get to be at the throne of God one day knowing that you're covered and redeemed. Verses four and five, he says, my heart is pained within me. I feel sick inside at what is happening. David said that was in his day, of what is happening around me in the city. And in some cases in a city that has a history of righteousness. God, I feel sick, David said inside, and I am afraid for the future. My heart is severely pained within me. The terrors of death have fallen upon me and fearfulness and trembling have come upon me. I'm afraid for the future. I don't know about you, but if I didn't have the Lord Jesus Christ as the center of my heart and home, I would be really afraid for my grandchildren. I would be afraid for the kind of a world that they're going to inherit in the days ahead. Something so dark, something so far from God, something so evil. I would be extremely concerned apart from the fact that Christ is at the center core of my life and my heart. And I've always believed that everything I put into the hand of God, He is faithful and He's able to keep that until that day that we stand before Him at the throne of God. He is faithful, He is able, He can give strength where strength is going to be needed. We're living in a day when laws are being passed that are protecting everything, but what we as the people of God hold dear. Have you noticed that? It is tragic what's happening day after day. You just, you look at the news and you just see new laws, new regulations, new, and everything seems to be protecting ungodliness and vilifying that which truly represents God in our time. And David said what some of us say in our hearts. I don't know about you, but I've been sighing a little bit in the last year or so. And he said, oh, that I had wings like a dove, I'd fly away and be at rest. If I had enough money, some people say if I, my retirement plan was big enough, I'd be out of here, I'd be in Tahiti, I'd be gone. I'd be gone. There must be somebody there on the beach that needs God out in a place like that. I would fly away and I would be at rest. I'd be, I wouldn't have to listen to CNN or Fox or MSNBC and all the rest of it. I would be, I'd try to go so far away that there's no transmitter could pick it up over there. Once a year, somebody would come down and tell me what's happening. If I even care anymore back on the home front, oh, that I had wings like a dove. Have you ever thought that? Have you ever felt that? Oh God, oh God. I'd even go to Arizona, okay? I'd even go down there and I'd get a cabin out there in the wilderness somewhere up or Colorado up in the mountains, far enough away from the smell of marijuana. I would fly away and be at rest. Indeed, I would wander off and remain in the wilderness. David said, as long as I have to live. Don't you find it comforting that other people that God has used have felt the same thing that you do? Don't you find it comforting that the Bible says there's no temptation taking you or testing you but such as is common to all people. But God will not allow you to be tested above that which you can bear. And with your trial, with your difficulty, with your temptation, he'll make a way to escape that you may be able to bear it. David says, I'd remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest. You see, because David saw something even worse coming in the future. And if you are a person of spiritual integrity, if you're in the word of God, if you're spending time in prayer, you can see what others around you can still see. There's something worse coming to this world. Now the Bible declares it. You don't have to be a mystic. You can see it by reading the scripture. But most of us have never thought we'd live to see it in our lifetime. Most of us have never thought that the world could go so crazy in just a moment. In pre-World War II, you think of all the people sitting at their dining room tables, having dinner together, eating with their grandchildren, talking about the future. Never ever there would be a whisper of the hell that was about to be unleashed on the whole world. The insanity that was about to come and touch much of Europe and the hell that people were going to have to go through. And David saw something on the horizon. Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. Day and night they go around it on its walls. Iniquity and trouble are also in the midst of it. Destruction is in its midst. Oppression and deceit do not depart from its streets. And here's what David saw. He said, they're relentlessly promoting their godless and deceptive agenda, even promoting violence in our cities, if that's what it's going to take to achieve it. And David saw it and he saw it coming and he cried out, he said, O God, God, I want out of here. And honestly, that's the cry of the righteous heart. It has to be. There's nobody wants to go through this. If you love God, if you love the ways of God, you love the word of God, and you see where our society is now headed, you don't want to stay through this. Nobody does. You want to find a refuge. You want to find an escape. Now here's my main point today the Lord's given me. If you and I are only a natural church age, we have much to be afraid of right now. If we're only a natural church, in other words, if all we can do is match word for word, argument for argument, sword for sword, then the future indeed looks bleak. If all we are is an argument, if all we are is a counterculture thought, if all we have are facts, even though they're true, but there's no power behind them, then we have indeed a future where we're going to be marginalized and virtually overrun. Just like the people of God have been from generation to generation, even in the day when Christ himself was born, a dominant society had come in. They had literally corralled the people of God, were hurting them in any direction they wanted them to go into, just to count and tax the people. Their laws were being violated repetitively. New laws were being superimposed on that society. From time to time and generation to generation, we all have to face the things that those who have gone before us have had to face. But in the midst of it all, there has always been a people who have discovered, and in our case, we need to rediscover a profound truth. And that profound truth is simply who we are in Christ Jesus, who we are as the church of Jesus Christ. What kind of people are we? What is the source of our influence in society? And can we indeed make a difference? No, if we're a natural church, we can't. If we're operating in the flesh, if we're trying to build the kingdom of God by our own ideas, our own strategies, our own natural zeal, no, we're not going to win the battle. But by God's grace, in our time of weakness, we suddenly rediscover again the source of our life and the source of our power. We may be, as Saul's army once was, on a hillside with all of our spiritual warfare conferences behind us, the enemies shouting at us over the valley, telling us, if you cannot defeat us, you will serve us. That, make no mistake, that's the battle we're fighting now. If you can't put somebody against us and defeat us, you will serve us. In other words, you will bend your knee and you will bow to our agenda. Nobody, not even King Saul, who stood head and shoulders above the people, had the courage to enter into this battle. And suddenly, out of nowhere comes a teenage boy who's been walking with God, who knew something that the people of God of that season had forgotten, that it's not by might, it's not by power, it's by my spirit, saith the Lord. Walking again in that which the world mocks, in that which the world considers to be foolish. But remember, it's the foolishness of God that is stronger than the wisdom of men. That's what the scripture tells you and I this morning. In 2 Corinthians 10, beginning at verse three, Paul says, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God, for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. You know, a lot of people look at those verses I just read and they talk about the weapons of our warfare, they talk about the power we have to cast down arguments and bring every thought, even social thought, into captivity to the obedience of Christ, being ready to punish this disobedience to God as it is, but there's a little qualifier at the end of all this, when your obedience is fulfilled. In other words, when you and I begin to agree with what God tells us about who we are. Ephesians 4.8 says, when he, that is Christ, ascended on high, he led captivity captive and gave gifts unto men. In other words, Christ triumphed over darkness and gave you and me supernatural giftings to fight against it. We're not called to fight in the natural. We are following one, the one who defeated the powers of darkness, destroyed the work of the devil. The scripture says he took everything the devil has and made an open display of it. That's what was done in that generation. When you conquered and invading a foreign army, you took all their weaponry and you spread it out on the ground for everybody in your society to see, telling them that no matter what they brought against us, it didn't have the power to overpower the kingdom of God. When Jesus Christ rose from the dead, captivity, which was the power of death and sin and hell and the earth, was taken captive. And you and I were given giftings of God's Holy Spirit to stand up as men and women of God, to make a difference in our generation. When evil comes in like a flood, the spirit of the Lord will raise up a standard against it. And the standard is his church. It's you, it's me standing up and agreeing with God when our obedience is fulfilled. When I begin to understand that I'm left on the earth as a living witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ, of the fact that he sits at the right hand of God in all power and all authority, every name that is named, not only in this world, but in the world to come, not only on earth, but in heaven. Every name that is named is in subjection to him and every knee will one day bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. When our obedience is fulfilled, that's when you and I agree that we are not powerless in confronting the darkness which threatens this moment in history. Will you please get that deep into your heart today? We are not powerless in confronting this moment. We are not just observers on a highway watching this parade of hell pass by and dominate our society. We have power. Jesus said to the early church, you'll be given power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be witnesses of me, not just an argument about me. You'll be witnesses of the fact that I am at the right hand of God and all power and all authority is in my hand. You'll be living witnesses of the reality of what happened on the cross and what happened three days later when by the power of God, Christ was raised from the dead. Can you imagine if the early Christians in the book of Acts in their moment of social darkness had yielded to the stronghold of natural reasoning? The stronghold of natural reasoning just says it's hopeless. What kind of a difference can I make? What if they had closed their hearts to that which Jesus had declared they would be? He told them to tarry. In other words, stay in my presence and pray. The Holy Spirit's gonna come upon you and you're going to be witnesses of who I am, where you are and in other places all throughout the world. If you will tarry, if you will pray, and if you will agree, if you will agree, just simply agree, this is the purpose for my life. I'm not going to, I'm not called to run into the wilderness. I'm not called to fly away and escape. As dark as it may be, as foreboding as the future may seem, I'm not called to run, I'm not called to cower, I'm not called to escape. I'm called to go down in that valley and with the weaponry God puts into my hand, it looks ridiculous in the sight of the world. Goliath said to David, what are you, am I a dog? You come to chase me with a stick? And he probably added in with a couple of stones or at least one that you've got in your bag that he could see. No, the world will mock the weaponry of God. World will laugh and say, you have nothing. You have no organization, you don't have the money, you don't have the resources, you don't have the moral media behind you. You're marginalized, we've triumphed over you. Not so fast, not so fast, Satan, not so fast. We are the church of the living God. Christ lives inside of these earthly bodies. The Christ that rose from the grave, the Christ that triumphed over all darkness, the Christ that sits as king over the flood, the Christ that has all power and all authority, all might and all dominion lives inside of you and I. Oh, thank God they didn't back off. Thank God they didn't cower when it looked like hell had triumphed. Jesus Christ had been crucified by a society that didn't want him to reign over them. Rome is dominating that people of that particular day, imposing their will, vilifying, mocking the faith of the people of God on the earth at that time. When it looked like it couldn't be worse, they didn't have an army, they had no strategy, they had no weaponry. And suddenly the Holy Spirit came and filled every one of their hearts. And they stepped out in faith after having been in prayer and they began to declare who Christ is, what he was doing, what he was going to do. And they were doing it with a supernatural ability and passing by them were people from every strata of society, the scripture says. All kinds of opinions, political, religious opinions passing by. But when they saw the church of Jesus Christ empowered by the Holy Spirit again, when there was suddenly a group of people as small and insignificant as they were standing out one more time, coming from their inward parts was this river of life and living water. It happened just as the scripture says, the knees of all of those that were standing before them bent before a Holy God. 3,000 religious objections that day, 3,000 political opinions, 3,000 personal agendas. All these things bent their knee before a Holy God. And that's what the scripture says, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. When your obedience is fulfilled, when you finally recognize not just your purpose but your power, how heartbreaking it must be to God to look out upon his church and we've lost touch with who we are. Here go our children into hell. They're being lied to, destroyed in the womb and those that survive are lied to and confused in grade school, then lied to in high school, then radicalized in college. How heartbreaking it must be for God when he looks down and realizes and wishes that we understood that we have the power in prayer to turn this whole hellish agenda backwards and make it bend its knee to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. If we don't believe that after 2,000 years of Christian history, then we are to be pitied of all people. The evidence is in scripture. It's not even debatable. The problem with it all is do you and I understand the power that we have? Are we willing to take seriously the words that say, have faith in God for verily I say unto you, whoever says to this mountain, be thou removed and cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart but believes that the things he says shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he says. Are we willing to believe it? Do we understand God has given us that kind of power in prayer? That's why David says in verse 16 of Psalm 55, as for me, I will call upon God and the Lord shall save me. You know, sometimes we're praying not just to be saved from the circumstance that's before us, but saved from ourselves, saved from our fear, saved from our lack of proper vision of who we are in God. He was called to be a king, yet he wanted to hide. He was called to rule and reign as a Christ type, actually in the earth, and yet he wanted to fly away and get away from it all and be in the wilderness. He just got tired as we do. He got tired of the speech. He got tired of the oppression. He got tired of the wrath, people trying to set him up because he was anointed of God. He got tired of all of the conversation of his time and all the evil schemes and the evil plans. He just got tired like you and I do. But instead, he said, I will call upon the Lord God and the Lord will save me. Because inwardly, David knew that escaping into the wilderness is not the answer. Inwardly, David knew that burying myself in some pursuit is not the answer. Inwardly, he knew that he was called to reign. And inwardly, somehow, some way, that's gotta get back in the hearts of God's people today. I'm not talking about physically reigning on the earth. I'm talking about a spiritual reign. I'm talking about the power that God's given us in prayer. I'm talking about a spiritual awakening in a perishing nation. I'm talking about the person like you and I that says, I'm just not willing to let my children, my grandchildren, I'm not willing to let this generation go into captivity. I'm not willing to sit on the sidelines or spend my future in Tahiti and say, well, so what? So what, society goes into captivity. I'm gonna find myself a place to ride out the storm. It's the man, it's the woman of God that says, enough with being lazy, I'm going to the prayer meeting. I'm gonna begin to pray. I'm gonna start calling out on God and the Lord will save me. And David says, evening and morning and noon, I will pray and cry aloud and ye shall hear my voice. It doesn't mean you have to pray an hour every time, but you can take a moment in the workplace when all hell seems to be breaking out. You can just lock yourself away in the bathroom for a moment and say, God, have mercy on this place. God, I stand against this weapons of hell that are formed against these souls of the men and women that I work with. I stand against this wicked agenda that's trying to dominate our day. And ye shall hear my voice, David said. He has redeemed my soul in peace from the battle that was against me. For there were many against me. God will hear and afflict them. Even he who abides of old. And it's phenomenal when you realize the word afflict here means to weaken the agenda and bring them into submission to the will of God. God will hear and weaken their agenda and cause their knee to bend and cause their tongue to confess and push back the darkness. And one more time, we will know light. Folks, here it is. Listen to me carefully now. We either have a spiritual awakening in America. We either go back to prayer in the house of God or we go into captivity. There's no middle ground. This thing's not gonna last for long. We've been given a window, just a very, very short window now to pray. But if we don't pray, we will most sincerely regret this day. But David did pray. And I remind you, a day came when he danced before the ark of God as the presence of God came back into Jerusalem. And those that wanted to do violence in the city are on the sidelines. And those that wanted to afflict the society are on the sidelines. Those who wanted to bring in godlessness are on the sidelines. And David, and I'm sure many who are with him, dancing at the presence of God one more time, and coming into their streets. And that's our prayer many times in this church. Oh God, may we dance outside on the streets of this church. May we have the privilege of dancing outside one day in these streets saying only God could have done this. Only God could have done this. Only God could have done this. God will hear. If we will pray, God will hear. This is not the time to be spiritually lazy. This is the time to go down to the brook and get the weaponry that God has prescribed for you. Those stones were in that brook and the water was running over them probably for thousands of years, making them smooth, fashioning them. The weaponry that God has for you and I in prayer is smooth. It's been fashioned by God. It's powerful. It has the ability to go into the foreheads of our enemies, casting down imagination, bringing down every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. It's not time to be lazy. It's time to say, God, what do you have for me? What weaponry would you put in my hand? And I don't care if it looks stupid to this world. The foolishness of God is stronger than the strength of everything this world has got to offer. I'm going down to that brook and I'm taking those five stones in prayer and by the grace of God, they're going into the foreheads of those who would destroy this society with wickedness and with evil, casting down their thought that somehow they can exalt themselves against the knowledge of God and be unchallenged. It's time to pray. It's time to pray. That's why we're out on the radio now. That's why we're across the country now. That's why we're in 192 countries now on Tuesday night because it's time to pray. That's the time we're living in. I know that this world is gonna spiral out into unspeakable darkness for the scripture says so. But I also know that God is a God of mercy. God is good and his mercy endures forever. I also know that if we will call out to him, there can be one last final great spiritual awakening gathering into the kingdom of God, countless hundreds of thousands, perhaps even millions of souls. It is surely a cause worth undertaking. It is surely something that you and I should be giving our heart and our time to. Praise be to God. God will hear. God will hear. I will not run, but stand in prayer against that which threatens my future, my family, my city, and my nation. I will agree that Christ has given me power and my prayers can make and will make a difference. Just as David did, I will call upon God. No matter how dark it looks, I will call upon God. I'm asking you, I'm asking you as your pastor today to make a commitment to pray. A commitment. If it's only five minutes a day, it's not volume of prayer, it's faith and quality. It's the life that says, God, I believe, I believe that I have the power to push back this darkness. I encourage you with all my heart to not run, but stand, especially now. I encourage you to agree with God that you are not just, as I often say, an orange pylon in somebody else's game. You are an integral part of the work of God in the earth today. When all the rewards one day are given out in heaven, all the names that we knew are gonna be sitting in their seats for a thousand years, were people who really laid hold of God and they learned how to pray. God hears every word. And it's really prayer that pushes back the agenda of darkness in any generation. And I will call upon God. Folks, listen carefully now. The Lord has given us a worldwide prayer meeting in this church, unprecedented, perhaps in the history of the world. We are connected to groups and individuals in 192 countries now in this world. People are joining us, whether they come in live, real time, or they join after, depending on their time zone. They're coming in and they're praying with us. They're submitting their prayer request. God is answering prayer. We have over 8,000 answers to prayer now. People in dire situations. Children have come home. People who have been given physical death sentences literally have been given life again. It's amazing what God has been doing. I want to ask you to pray. If you understand the seriousness of the moment and the greatness of what God has put into our hand, he's given us a prayer meeting that's around the world now. I'm asking you to join me in prayer. Join the elders of this church. Join the leaders of this church. Join the summit interns and graduates who come just to pray every Tuesday night. The staff members of this church that come to sit on the platform. After a long day's work, they come as well. Join the choir that comes out, even though they've had a long day of work as well. And let's believe God for our city now. Father, I thank you, Lord, with all my heart today. You have enabled me to deliver your heart. Lord, help us to heed this moment, to understand the gravity of what we face, but the glorious power that you've given us to confront it. Help us, Lord Jesus Christ, to understand what you've called us to be and what you've called us to do. God, I praise you for all of it. And begin in my heart, Lord. I ask for a renewed faith, renewed courage, a renewed sense, Lord, of mission. I ask for a renewed call to be born in my heart for you, for your kingdom. A renewed passion, God, for our children that starve to death in our streets spiritually. I ask for a renewed fight as a grandfather to not give this generation over to darkness. If nobody fights for them, they don't even have a voice to speak for themselves, Lord. I ask as a church that you deliver us from laziness and self-seeking. And help us, God, to pray. Help us, Lord, to do what so many before us in their time of despair have done. It's all through the Bible. It's not debatable. They prayed. And when they prayed, you came in power one more time. God, help us. God, help your church across America. Help us, Lord. Help us, oh God. Deliver us from lightness and bring us back to prayer. Father, we thank you for these things. In Jesus' name. We're gonna stand in just a moment, and I'd like to give an altar call up in the annex in North Jersey and people at home. And here is the altar call. It's simple. I will not run, but I will stand in prayer against that which threatens my future, my family, my city, and my nation. And secondly, I will agree that Christ has given me power and my prayers can and they will make a difference. And yes, I will call upon the Lord. I will. I will pray. I will. As God strengthens me, I will. As God quickens me, I will. When we stand, I'm gonna ask you to just make your way out of your seat and just come to the front. And we're gonna pray together for a moment after we worship and ask God for the courage, for the strength, for the conviction, for everything that we need to do what God's calling us to do. Let's stand together. Balcony, go to either exit and make your way down. Main in the sanctuary, do the same. Please, folks, heed the call to pray now. Beloved, when we come into the presence of God, we come in one way, sometimes small, feeling small, needy, overcome, powerless. But then we open our mouths and God will begin to pray through us and he will begin to share his heart. And we start one way in our own understanding and we can end up in the spirit of God, praying the heart of God. And God answers that prayer. And as I was thinking on this thing, Pastor Carter came to me and he said that we as a church need to be filled with the Holy Spirit because we cannot pray as we are called to pray with power, with faith, believing, except we follow the example of the early church and we ask to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Because a very small group of people who were fearful and trembling, but still obeyed the word of the Lord to them that await on me and I will fill you with power. I will fill you to overflowing with my Holy Spirit. And I will give you the power to pray my heart. I will give you the power to pray believing. You will start one way in the natural, but you will end in the power of the spirit which moves back darkness, which breaks unbelief, which changes things. It is the privilege of the church to be filled with the Holy Spirit. When we come to Jesus Christ to be forgiven of our sin, the seal that he has done this, he has answered that prayer for forgiveness and covering is that a measure, the Holy Spirit comes and he lives in us. But then we are promised more of the Holy Spirit. And that is real. And we can ask for it. And it will change everything with the Holy Spirit indwelling us in a greater measure. It will change everything. Beloved, you will not be the same when you're filled with the Holy Spirit. When Pastor Carter was filled with the Holy Spirit, and he will tell you, he was a fearful policeman, but I witnessed the change. And he became a lion in the spirit. Not that the physical man had changed, but God fully indwelt him by his power and he changed. This is a promise to us, his church. And so we're going to believe God that we're going to be able to pray. But I think first we need to pray to be filled with the Holy Spirit, that we may pray in the spirit with the mind of God according to the will of God. So beloved, the Holy Spirit is for us today. And God will not give us a gift that will not glorify Jesus Christ. And we can ask fully and freely to be filled with the Holy Spirit. And the scripture says, how much more is our heavenly father, who is a good, good father. He will give us the Holy Spirit if we ask him. And you know that word, ask, A-S-K, ask for A, S, seek, K, knock, ask, seek, knock. And the scripture says, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door shall be opened unto you. So before we pray, I would like us to join in prayer. And all those that would like to be filled with the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues, with the evidence of the power of God coming into you, we can have this. And this is for us. So Lord, I just thank you. And I'm just going to ask now, you know, beloved, we're going to ask in faith the same way we did with salvation. We came to him needy and he answered that prayer and he saved us. We could come the same way, asking Lord, I need to be filled with the Holy Spirit. I need the power. I need a prayer, a prayer language. I need the ability to pray with the mind of God and the spirit of God. So Lord, I thank you that we just come in faith as a very needy people, knowing our need of you. I thank you in the New Testament that it is our privilege to be saved and then to ask you to fill us with the Holy Spirit. So I ask you Lord, in the name of Jesus, all over this building, those that are seeking, those that are asking, those that are knocking, that you would be pleased in Jesus' name to fill them with the Holy Spirit. I ask you to come upon them, oh God. And I ask you to fill them and give them, oh God, the power to speak in a prayer language that glorifies you. I pray we stand against every hindrance of the enemy, every lie of the enemy. We thank you, oh God, that as the saints of God, all over this building, we lift our voice, oh God, and we ask you now to fill with the Holy Spirit those, Lord, that are seeking this experience. And I ask Lord, just join me, church. I just ask you to open your mouth now and I just ask you if you have a prayer language that you would begin to pray that the will of God and the filling of God would come upon every hungry heart in this place. And Lord, I just thank you, oh God, we just abandoned ourselves to your word and we ask you to fill these seeking people with the Holy Spirit. I thank you you did that for me. I thank you you did that for so many in this building, oh God. Now we recognize we cannot pray except by the Holy Spirit and I ask you to put your spirit now upon all these hungry people. And I thank you, oh God, you are pleased to answer this prayer. We come believing, oh God, knowing you answer this prayer. We stand against every hindrance and lie of the enemy, every fear, everything that is holding them back from being filled with the Holy Spirit. And we thank you, oh God, that this service where we are asking, seeking, and knocking, you are going to answer exceedingly above and beyond all that we can think or ask. I thank you, oh God, those that have been seeking this experience for a long time, oh God, that you will touch today in Jesus' name. That those that, Lord, just want this experience, oh God, that you would touch them in Jesus' name. Lord, we ask for this gift that we may pray in the Holy Ghost. We ask for this gift that we may be found, oh God, coming in one way, but you stirring us by the power of the Spirit that we, oh God, may pray according to the mind and the will of God. And I thank you the darkness cannot stand before the Spirit of God. I thank you we can pray in the Holy Ghost and you shatter strongholds in Jesus' name. We can pray, oh God, and we know that you will afflict the plans of the enemy, that we will make a difference as we are filled with the Spirit of God and pray according to the will of God. I thank you the darkness cannot stand. And I thank you no weapon formed against your church will stand in this last hour of time. And I thank you, you are pleased to fill us with the Holy Spirit that we may be found praying in Jesus' name. That we may call on your name that you may hear us. That we may call on your name and you will answer us. That we may call according and whatsoever we ask in Jesus' name it may be done because we are not asking to consume it on our lusts, but we are asking that with us souls may be saved, that the darkness may be broken over our children, that you will make a difference by showing up in our streets, that you will let it rain by your Spirit. Oh God, these are impossible with us, but nothing is impossible with you. So we unite our voice today, oh God, believing we are weak in ourselves, but you are strong and you are mighty to save. That oh God, you will answer this prayer so deeper and better than we can ever know. So God, I thank you today for touching us with the very little mustard seed of faith. You are touching us, filling us with your Spirit that you may do a mighty thing in your church, in our generation. To God be the glory, beloved, lift your voice, find your voice now because he is here to answer our prayer, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah. Hallelujah, Lord, thank you God for your presence. Thank you for your power. Thank you for the touch of your Spirit. Thank you for raising us up as a people of prayer. Thank you for giving us the heart to agree. Lord, this is our purpose on the earth, to glorify you and to see people released from darkness. God, thank you. You've given us the weapon of prayer, more powerful than anything any country or army possesses. We have the power to push back darkness. Satan, we stand against you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We push you back in the power of his name and we command you as Moses once did before Pharaoh, let the people go that they may serve God, that they may worship God, hallelujah. Thank you, Lord. That's a type of prayer you showed it to us in the scripture. A simple man, God, a simple man had the power of faith in his heart. God, we thank you. The devil will have to let our families go. The devil will have to let our children go, our husbands, our wives go, our cousins, our aunts, our uncles. We believe God with all our heart. We believe with all our heart that we have the same authority to stand before darkness and say, let the people go that they may sacrifice unto God, that they may serve God, that they may worship God. We speak to the darkness that would try to swallow this nation. And we command you, we command you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we command you to yield to the light, yield to the light, yield to the light, yield to the light. And God said, let there be light. And there was light. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Let there be light in our schools. Let there be light in our homes. Let there be light in our cities. Let there be light in our colleges. Oh God, oh God, oh God, put to shame the works of darkness. Put a display of them, oh God, their powerlessness, Lord. Father, we thank you, God. We thank you for an awakening. We thank you for something that only you can do, Lord. We recognize we can't, but you can, oh God. And you've given us the power to move your heart and to move your hand. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, mighty God, in Jesus' name. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.