5 AM Prayer | Day 20 of 21 Days of Action with DR. MIKE WOODS

Well, glory to Jesus. Uh, welcome this morning, everybody. This is the day the Lord has made. And we rejoice and we are glad in it. Welcome to day number 21. Glory to God. Not 20, I'm sorry, of 21 Days of Action. I am super excited about everything this fast has done. Glory to God. It's been, uh, absolutely amazing. I can't testify for anyone else, but I can testify for me. This fast has been great for me physically. It's been great for me spiritually. It's been great for me mentally. Just the mental clarity that I've been able to arrive at about different things through this fast have been phenomenal. While I've been teaching you about confidence and dealing with conflict in your life, It has helped me to revisit areas of my life. You know, the Bible said the husband of a man should be first partaker of the fruit. And so most of the time preachers have learned to skillfully study the text and not see themselves in it. And a lot of times that just makes for a bad situation because at the end of the day, we preach with more love, more authority and compassion and watch this, more, um, potency when we can see ourselves in the text and really become one with what God is saying to us. Again, the Bible said the husbandman should be first partaker of the fruit. So anytime I teach, anytime I preach, I have to become one with the text, you know, and see how it has affected me, um, and that's how God deals with me. It's his word. So he says again, I got to be first partaker. I think he deals with every preacher like that. I think that Leaders a lot of times just choose to not align themselves with what God is saying. Um, but yeah, this fast has been great. So welcome this morning, guys. Uh, do me a favor if you're here, uh, just share this whether you're live or by replay. Uh, we're gonna pray in a moment. I know we're running a little late this morning. Glory to God. Um, My alarm didn't go off, but I got up right before 5. So we're here, we're alive, we're well, we're breathing. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Wonderful Jesus, wonderful Jesus. Uh, good morning everybody. Good morning, Kiara. Good morning, good morning, good morning, Tanya. Good morning. We missed you on Sunday. Glory to the name of God. Good morning to you. I know you're running that empire. Glory to the name of God. But we, we missed you. Glory to God. As always, Good morning, Apostle Betty. We love you, Mother. What a glorious time we had celebrating your 80th birthday on Saturday. And listen, everything from the ambiance, the room, the people, everything was perfect, Mother. Uh, Tressa and her team did an immaculate job planning that event. I mean, it was just amazing. And, you know, the fact around this, Mother, is that all of the people that assembled there, they assembled around your life because you have impacted every person that was in that room in some kind of way. And it was just beautiful to see the words that were being said. Honoring you, the prophetic words that went forth, you know, just about where you are in this season. It's just amazing to see God plan so much more. Hallelujah! For someone that's 80 to know that you're nowhere near finished. Glory to God! So, Mother, we enjoyed every— I'm talking about every moment of it. Felicia and I had A tremendous time, uh, sharing and celebrating with you. And guess what? I'm looking forward to you, uh, going on that cruise with us. Glory to God! And I'm looking forward to blessing you with that. That's my gift to you. So we're excited about that. Glory to God! It's going to be absolutely amazing. Uh, so welcome, Mother. We love you. Glory to God! Welcome, Pastor Montgomery, we love you, sir. Thank you for being here today. Glory to God. And of course, wife, welcome as always, my number one fan. I appreciate God for that woman right there. Glory to God. God is so good. We're gonna pray this morning. Um, our prayer focus this morning, glory to the name of God, I'm, um, I want to pray around evangelism and, um, because we've been fasting again, 21 days of action. One, so we could seek God better. Uh, two, so we can serve God better. And three, so we can share God better. One of the missing pieces, guys, in the church— hear me— is that the church is failing big time. Hear me. When it comes to the Great Commission. And for those of you that don't know what the Great Commission is, glory to God, it's the power to engage others with the Gospel of Jesus Christ that Christ himself left in the earth. Matter of fact, he came back from the dead, I believe, not only just to resurrect but to tell us to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And these signs shall follow them that believe, and make disciples of all nations. In my name they shall cast out devils. In my name they shall speak with new tongues. In my name they shall tread upon scorpions and serpents. In my name they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover. We're so busy having good church We're so busy bucking and shouting and speaking in tongues, prophesying and spitting and laying in the floor, we've forgotten that we have an assignment, guys, to a dying world. Listen, listen, people who say that evangelism and the doctrine of signs and wonders towards sinners is no longer needed, those are people who are trying to justify or explain their powerless assemblies or the powerlessness in their life. When they start telling us it's not necessary for us to lay hands on sinners, it's not necessary for us to go into the world, it's not necessary for us to see miracles, signs, and wonders Good God Almighty, they're trying to justify why they don't. But out of everything we do, guys, the whole purpose we do it is to get people saved. And I'm telling right now, we got a world full of people who were created to come to Jesus who are rejecting him, who won't come to him. Hear me, because the church is not doing their job. And so I want to pray about this morning because, um, there is— glory to the name of God— a way to evangelize. So there are a few ways we evangelize, guys. Um, you know, we have power evangelism, which is what I was just mentioning. Lay hands on the sick. Because you know what, the moment a sinner receives prayer from us and they get a miracle in their life, this won't be popular today. People won't stay around for this because nobody wants to do this. You know, people want to scroll timelines and put up Facebook posts and never tell anyone that's not saved about Jesus. Um, but my goal today is to make— and you know, this is why I finished confidence yesterday, because these two days These last two days of this fast, I'm going to teach on evangelism. I'm going to cover these areas: power evangelism, presence evangelism, priority evangelism, prayer evangelism. Glory to God. We, we have to do these things, and we— these things we really want to see the church grow, and we really want to see the church increase. Glory to the name of God. And we just have become lazy in this. And the reality is, are you out here trying to, you know, again, show how spiritual you are? You have a responsibility to reach people who are lost. See, I promise you, we got busy doing this, a lot of other drama and stuff we go through in the church We won't have time for that foolishness. We're out here trying to expose people, we're out here talking about people, we're out here gossiping. You know, most of the churches out here really bad, you know, and not doing what we're supposed to do. So I want to pray about this, man, because this is a real problem. It's a real problem. Everybody wants the mic, you know, everybody wants to get up, we get a mic and preach or do something at the church, but nobody wants to talk to people about Jesus Christ. This is a responsibility, and we cannot any longer take this lightly, guys. I'm talking about not another day, not another day. Oh my God, not another day. So let's go to Acts chapter number 1. We're going to read and we're going to pray around this scripture today. Glory to God. I want to say this before I read this, for real. Yeah, I hear you, Father, I hear you. And I need to say this to you. I need to say this to you. Yeah, yeah, you. Every person, including you and I, who has the Holy Spirit No matter how you say it, every person who has Holy Spirit or the Holy Spirit is all relative. Matter of fact, just saying the Holy Spirit is just good English, okay? But it doesn't mean that, you know, people say that differently, which is fine, okay? But at the end of the day, uh, it doesn't mean you're saying it right and somebody else is saying it wrong because you just choose to say the Holy Spirit. No, you're just really not saying— using a prepositional phrase of love in front of the Holy Spirit. We know he's a person. We know he lives in us. We just choose to speak good English. Okay, but anyway, anyone who already has the Holy Spirit— listen, yeah, I'm up now. I'm up now. God have mercy. I'm up now. Is already empowered— watch this— to be a witness for Jesus. Before I read this, I want you to get that in your spirit. See, we think we got the Holy Spirit just to move in gifts, but what if I submitted to you the gifts are for sinners? They edify the saints, they build us up, but really they are in our arsenal for those that don't know Jesus to show him how— show the sinner, man, how real he is. So if you have the Holy Ghost, glory to God. Again, there's another one— Holy Ghost, Holy Spirit, whatever you call him. He's God in you. I, I don't— I really don't care how you say it. I just need to make sure you got it. I just make sure you know he's there. Glory to God. I need you to know that he's on board, that he's the king of your life. Don't just— don't just say it a certain way. Make Make sure you're relational with him. Glory to God. Oh, we give you glory, God. We give you glory. We give you glory. So if, if he's on board, why don't you talk to sinners about Jesus? Matter of fact, before we pray and read, I want you to start thinking about this now. When was the last time you went fishing? When was the last time you went fishing? I'm not talking about you went on the lake with your boat, your hook, your rod, your worms, and you dropped your line to catch some crappie, some bass, some perch, whatever you fish for, some trout. Catfish. No, I'm not talking about that. When the last time you went fishing for men? Jesus specifically said he— I'm already in my message for 12 noon. Some of y'all might not get on because you don't want to hear this. You don't want to hear this because you want to prophesy and you don't understand that the prophecy is for them. Oh boy. Okay, all right, all right, all right. I'm gonna leave you alone right there. Well, just, just think about the question. For real, this morning, 5:38 AM, Apostle Michael Woods Senior is proposing to you an inquiry, young man, young lady. When was the last time you— yeah, you, you— went fishing? When the last time you told someone who did not know Jesus about Jesus. Yeah, think about that. Acts 1. Acts 1. This is Jesus talking to his people before he goes back to heaven. This is post-resurrection. He's a— he has died and come back. And this is what he says in Acts 1:4-10. The Bible says, while he was still with them, he said, don't leave Jerusalem yet. Wait here for the Father to give you the Holy Spirit. My God, just as I told you he was promised to do. Verse 5, John baptized with water, but in a few days you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Even the Bible says the Holy Spirit. Just, just for reference, because yeah, uh, verse number 6: While the apostles were still with Jesus, they asked him, Lord, are you not going to give Israel its own king again? Verse 7: Jesus said to them, you don't need to know the time of those events that only the Father controls. In other words, you worry about something that's not really important. Verse 8: But the Holy Spirit will come on you— here we go— and give you power, then you will tell everyone about me. Okay, so when, when the Holy Spirit— even Jesus said the Holy Spirit— but the Holy Spirit will come upon you and give you power, then you will tell everyone about me in Jerusalem, in all Judea, in Samaria and everywhere in the world. Verse 9: After Jesus had said this, and while they were watching, he was taken up into a cloud. In other words, I'm back from the dead to make you clear of why— the chief priority of why The Holy Spirit shows up in your life and he says, I'm gonna jump on this cloud and I'm gonna go on on to heaven. The Bible says he was taken with the cloud. They could not see him, but as he went up, they kept looking into the sky, which means he got on that cloud and it was moving at the speed of glory. They couldn't even see it. Glory to God. Let's go to Matthew 28:18-20 real quick. The Bible says, and Jesus came to them and said, I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth. But go to the people of the nations and make them my disciples. Baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and teach them to do everything I have told you. I will be with you always, even until the end of the age. Okay, let's hear this now. So that scripture here, Acts, sounds a lot like the Great Commission, don't it? He done reiterated this twice now in Mark 16:15, which is just Mark's version of what Matthew said. It's synoptic to Matthew's, but not different times, two different things. Yeah, we'll teach it later. Mark 16:15-18. Then he told them, go and preach the good news to everyone in the world, and anyone who believes in me and is baptized will be saved. Here it is. But anyone who refuses to believe will be condemned. Don't sound like everybody's already saved right there, right? For the inclusionist that wants to believe that everybody's already saved, that doesn't sound like everybody. I don't know, you know, you call me dumb or whatever, dyslexic. But that seems quite literal to me. Preach the good news to everyone. So somebody has to hear. They come out hearing so they can believe. And anyone who believes and is baptized— so, so that means there's a possibility of not believing. So I mean, it's— I'm gonna teach you later. I'm gonna teach you later. We were here to pray, right? Okay, we'll be saved, but anyone who refuses to believe in me will be condemned. Verse 17: Anyone who believes me will be able to do wonderful things by using my name. They will force out demons, they will speak with new tongues, they will handle snakes and will drink poison and will not be hurt. They will heal sick people by placing their hands on them. My God. My God, we as his followers— and we're getting ready to pray— we are to make disciples of men. You don't want to miss 12 noon. I'm gonna unpack all this. We'll talk about supernatural evangelism these next 2 days. Glory to God. And it's going to be profound. And again, we're fasting for fire, so I'm going to believe that as we teach this word these next 2 days, you're going to be ignited in your spirit hear me, to— glory to Jesus— catch on fire in a way that evangelism will become contagious and that we will all become fiery witnesses for the King. Glory to God. But I want to pray this morning, glory to God, hallelujah, that God will bless us and he will strengthen us. Glory to God. To win the lost. Praise Jesus! He will strengthen us to be bold witnesses. Did he give us a passion for those who need him? Do you want that? Glory to God! Because if you— and if you ask yourself the question, when was the last time you went fishing? And yeah, It's been a minute. You got to get that right because you're in direct disobedience to a command. This is a commission. Two words: commission, to command, to deem as necessary a mission that comes from a high-ranking officer. That's what it means to commission. Uh, whenever I was in the military, when I was commissioned, glory to God, it came from an admiral that commissioned me into my duties, a high-ranking official. I had no choice but to carry out those duties because I was commissioned to do so. We've been given a commission to take this gospel to every creature. Let's pray, let's pray. Father, we give you praise this morning. Thank you for your word. So first of all, Father, I pray for love. I pray for love. And may we love the world like you love the world. For your word says you so love the world— not the church, the world— because we're all in the world. So you love the earth so— not, not so much because it's just a planet where human dwells. But you love the world because the world, when it was created, was intentionally to be— intentionally by you, God— created to be a colony of heaven, an extension of heaven, whereby you can fellowship with the entities on Earth as you do with those in heaven and Glory to the name of God. And those in cultures that you've created. Abba, we thank you that the world is an important place because it's a place where we give you glory. It's a place where, glory to the name of God, who you interact as God over his people. It's a beautiful place. It's the most beautiful planet in the universe. The world that we know. And so, Father, we thank you for this world, and we thank you for loving this world. And you even declared that the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, them and they that dwell therein. So, Father, the world belongs to you. That's why you love it. You love us because we're in the world. You love us so much that you gave your Son. And Father, he died for us. Yes, God, he died for us, and he, he transformed us, and he changed our life for real. And Father, so we, we thank you that we discovered that, that our eyes came open because you said no man come to the Father except Oh my God, you draw them. Oh God, I just want to take a moment, and I think you should too if you're saved, to thank God for drawing you to him. The Bible says no man comes to him except he suguru, except he draw them. Oh my God. And notice in Romans 5, he said we were enemies of God, we were sinners, we were ungodly. But yet in the midst of all of that, in his love, in his mercy, he drew us to him so we could receive his authority, receive his holiness, receive his power. So we can receive his authority. Yeah, come on, just receive that love today and thank God for how he loves you. You are a sinner and you're saved by his grace. You're saved by his blood. You're saved through his death, through his life. He bore your sins. Oh my God, oh my God. Thank you. And this is why we pray. He, he was a king that was a friend. And Father, the old mother would sing the song, what a friend we have in Jesus, all of our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege it is to carry, yes God, everything to God in prayer. Oh, what peace we often forfeit. Oh, what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. This is why we're praying today, God, just to thank you and reflect on the privilege to know you, for drawing us to you in spite of how messed up we were. Thank you for loving us. And you don't bring us to you to stay the same. You brought us to you to change us, to transform us, to make us better people. Oh, glory! To make our life better. And, and every one of us can testify even if we don't have the material things we desire, that being in you is better than how we was. And so, Father, we receive you and we thank you for your love. With loving kindness you draw us. Yeah, so no man can come to you except you draw us, and then you turn around and love us and you're kind to us. And you drag us to you even when we feel your love and know you love us. Many times we have rejected you and pushed you away, but anyway, you kept dragging us until our eyes came open. And Father, we are grateful for that today. And as a sign today, God, of our gratefulness Yes, Father, I hear you and I thank you and I give you glory, God, and I give you honor. Thank you for your love, God. Thank you for your love. Thank you for loving me. I can't talk for nobody else today, but thank you for loving me. I was a wretch undone. Thank you for loving me in spite of me and transforming my life. Woo! And so, Father, I pray now about our response to that love. May we respond to you in loyalty, in commitment. May we respond to the gift that you've given us with a life of love that shows that we appreciate what you've done. You said in your word, if we love you, we will keep your commandments. So as you have loved us, may we love you, Father, mercy. And may God, this morning, we keep your commandments. Not just in our behavior. Yeah, it's immature people that's still working on their behavior. And Father, we thank you for maturity, that we found out that it's children that need chastising for their behavior all the time, but grown folk take responsibility for their actions. So as we mature and grow up in the spirit, first natural, then spiritual, We don't want to be chastised about fornication, adultery, lying, cheating, all that. We know what's right. Glory to God. God, I'm talking about the responsibility to be committed to your will, your way, your plan, your desire. Let us return our love and commitment to you through obedience to what you've called us to do. Oh my God. And the Father will say unto us today, I'm calling you close to my heart so that the world may know who I am. But even I say unto you, there are many I have already assigned to you, my little ones, and their ears have been prepared to hear thy voice. So I say unto you, go into the world and speak as my Son has instructed and commanded you to do so. As I sent my Son in the world to be a lamb for your sin, it was only to bring you close to my heart. But even in times past, I the Lord say to you, I would become sore angered at your disobedience, even to the point where I have brought destruction unto you. But it is my heart to love you and to be one with you. And so I have made a way for you. And my desire of you, my little ones, said the Lord, is that you share with others what I have done for you and bring them to me so the joy that you have, they can have also. And as you do this, the world will be different. The world will change. And I, the Lord, your King, said God, will be glorified in all the earth. Oh God, I love you. God, I thank you. Be a man, a witness. So, Father God, even as you have spoken to us in the name of Jesus, give us the boldness to be committed to share the gospel, that everything we do will have a level of light upon it. That will draw those that don't know you to you. Father, we say this morning, get the glory out of our life. We're here, we're here, and we say, here am I, use me. We utter the words of the prophet Isaiah, here am I, use me. Not to be a performer before audience in church, but to show up in the world and release change, to become agents of change. Woo! Agents of transformation. Father, commission us today. Commission us, commission us, commission us. Even as I pray, commission us as we're praying as agents of change and make lives— woo! Yama Ribi kuya. And may lives be changed because we showed up. Not being brazen Bible-thumping Christians that's condemning everybody. But God, may we be agents of change that will set the captives free. Father, may we start in Jerusalem, as we read, when we start with our families, those that are close to us, those that we're familiar with. Father, may our light begin to be a light for the family members that's connected to us that don't know you. Maybe they're religious, maybe they go to church, but they really just don't know you. So may we become a champion to evangelize those in our Jerusalem. Yes, God, yes. First in Jerusalem, first in Jerusalem. That wife that's married to that unsaved husband, or that husband that's married to that unsaved wife, may that loved one that they are in love with be their first evangelistic assignment. And may they be able to speak with boldness to that man, to that woman, and may that man be born again. May that woman be born again. Yeah. Usha, Rebo Kunta Maya. I release boldness, boldness, boldness, boldness. We've talked about confidence. We've talked about resolving conflict. In the name of Jesus, I declare that we are bold. We are not conflicted that this is something we are supposed to do or not supposed to do. This is everybody's duty. We're not conflicted, and we have the confidence to be a bold soldier. Eba shetere nidi ansa tebebaia. To be a bold witness for the King. Glorious God. Woo! Glorious God, we bless you. Glorious God, we honor you. Oh man, you're so very amazing, you're so very wonderful, you're so very mighty, you're the King of Glory, and we bless you. Thank you for commitment, loyalty, to be a witness. And then God, hell yeah, as we move from Jerusalem, take us into Samaria. And Judea and the uttermost parts of the earth. God, we give you praise. We give you glory. We give you honor. Yeah, believe it or not, I thank you, Lord. He saved the best for last. This is— every assignment in the kingdom is wrapped around this idea. We give you praise and we give you glory. We give you glory. And Father, thank you that as we go forth to bring men to you, we don't make the excuse that this is not important because we want to make disciples. Yeah, you— we can't make disciples until we win them. They can't— they have to receive Jesus, and then we disciple them in the process. Yeah, we know that, but we can't omit this process. People that say that all the time, that's their excuse for not winning souls. But God, we repent this morning. Because when we asked the question, when was the last time we went fishing? And Father, we repent for such a lapse in time, such a delay. Forgive us, have mercy on us. Yeah, you should repent. Glory to God, because you have been in direct violation of a command from a high-ranking officer. And now that we know better, God, we'll do better. And Father, give us the boldness to be obedient. In the mighty name of Jesus, we bless you now, God. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Glory to God. Hallelujah. I pray— shetamando shiaya— I pray that the Spirit of God would inebriate us Hallelujah! With this passion for humans to know Jesus. Glory to God. When was the last time— I want you to take that inquiry, that question from this prayer time this morning, and I want you to do better. And let's be a witness for the King. Remember, if the Holy Spirit lives in you, you have already been empowered to be a witness. You just haven't turned on the switch. You know, my house has already been empowered to be well lit, but the lights don't work. If I don't turn on the switch. Hear me, guys, you gotta flip the switch because somebody needs what's in you, okay? Family, I love you. We just— the church has to get this right. Not just Raleigh Church, but the church, the universal church. You know, we must ensure that we're reaching people with the gospel, and the greatest way to do that is through foot soldiers, you and I, in our day-to-day life, making sure that we're superimposing ourselves upon the world and they're being saved. I'm gonna let you go, but one of the interesting things is that we have a church almost on every corner, and sometimes 3 or 4 churches on one corner, and sometimes 6, 7 churches on one stretch of a street. Sometimes, glory to the name of God, in a 20-mile radius there can be as many as 100 churches. But yet, in the midst of all of that— hear me— in the midst of all of that Church growth is at an all-time low because the Bible says God adds to the church daily such as would be saved. The church doesn't grow because people are not getting saved, hmm. And people are not getting saved because the church is not evangelizing. The people in it are not talking to people about Jesus. The Muslims are outgrowing the the Christian church 12 to 1. So every 12 Muslims that are converted, only 1 Christian is converted. I want you to hear this. I want you to really hear how serious this is. The Jehovah's Witnesses right now are outgrowing us 19 to 1. You know why? Because they're relentless. They'll knock on your door with Everything in error. Everything they got in their arsenal is error. They got a whole book that they've written that's in error. And that's what these inclusionists are trying to do, actually get the church to write a new Bible to accept their lifestyles. Reality is, let me tell you something, the Bible is right. It's the word of God. It's the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we are the people with the greatest power on our side, and we grow the slowest because our people are not engaged. Jehovah's Witnesses are relentless knocking on your door. Yeah, so before we judge them and criticize them while they have no truth, they believe in what they believe and they're advocating their cause. Again, we're too busy want to preach, we want the mic, we want to do it in church, we want to perform. We must become wise and take what we have and bring the world to the King. In Atlanta, and I'm closing with this, In the city where I live, the metropolitan area, all of the 5-county areas, which will be Fulton, DeKalb, Gwinnett, Henry— glory to the name of God— Cobb. Almost 7 million people, maybe a little over 7 million now. Yes, it actually is a little over 7 million. Are you ready for this? Of 7 million, only 6.3% are born again and attend church. But there are tons of churches in this city that say they are mega churches. The church is not growing because we're winning souls. It's growing because membership transfer is taking place. People leaving one church go to another one. Actually, what they're doing is leaving one thing that entertains them better than the other. Once they get tired of that first thing, they go to another thing. They get tired of it, they're gonna go somewhere else. And then the megachurches just change people. They just recycle these 6% of people. All the churches are recycling these people that want to be in church. So you know what that means? There's about 6 million people in Atlanta, the Metroplex, they need God. And God knows this city, this region needs Jesus Christ. Are you here? My God. So what do we do? We got to do better. We got to share God better. We got to take this fire we experience when we worship corporately into the world. Let it become contagious. And we need to begin to literally evangelize contagiously, that somebody else grabs it, they catch on fire, and they catch on fire, they catch on fire, till we set ablaze of God across this nation. Glory to God. We love him, and I love you guys. That's why I tell you truth. That's why I speak the truth in love to you, because I want to see us do it right. Glory to God. And I want to see the miracles of the scripture mean something, and I want to see people blessed. Glory to God. Because we live. Glory to God. God is good. He's kind. He's wonderful. I'm done, guys. Thank you for praying with us this morning. Thank you for hearing the prophetic utterance of God. Let's take action and let's win souls, all right? This is not about us. The moment you got born again, you got born again for somebody else. There was already, as the prophetic word came forth, people assigned to your salvation, your spiritual DNA. They're supposed to enter the kingdom through you. Yeah, I'm gonna leave that right there. I'll see you guys at 12 noon. Y'all be blessed. Heaven smile upon you is my prayer. Peace.