Discover the 5 Prayers (Steps) I use daily that changed my life.

Every story has a beginning. Your story has a beginning. My story has a beginning. God's story has a beginning. In fact, God is so cool that he's got two beginnings, one in the Old Testament and one in the New Testament. We're going to go to the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and cue the intro guy.

The Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ.

Here's Greg Ryan. Welcome to episode 5 We have got 4 in the tank and here comes number 5. I'm gonna make a little change now. I'm gonna go away from talking about how horrible I am or was, and we're gonna kind of turn into how all of that— I think you get the picture. I wasn't perfect and I'm not claiming to be, but the thing that has changed me is the Word of God. And what I want to do is in is encourage you to use the exact same thing, the exact same tool that I used to help me grow. So with that said, I am— since this is episode 5, I thought to be clever I would have to do something with the number 5 in it, and I have created 5 daily prayers. And, and I've been doing this for a long time, and I want to encourage you, if, if you just take this episode and don't listen to any other episodes. This particular episode will change your life if you apply it to your life. And, and the reason that I can say that is because it has totally changed my life. I wish someone would have told me this when I first got started. I mean, they did to a degree, but they didn't tell me this specific and why I was doing it. It may be because I was a little baby and didn't know anything and needed a bunch of cleaning up. But anyway, this— I'm giving you this because in, in all of my walk and all of my journey with God, these 5 things I have, I have— this is my daily prayer, and I do this first thing in the morning. And I'm going to give you scripture to back up, but there are 5, there are 5 different steps or prayers, if you will. It's one prayer But it's 5— in my mind, I've got 5 different steps that I go through. And, you know, and I'm really— if you knew me or saw my office, you can tell that I'm scattered, kind of a shoot-from-the-hip kind of person. But I need a little bit of structure. And so I come up with these 5 prayers. And the first prayer— and when I say 5 prayers, it's 5 steps in one prayer. I do this all in the morning. I wake up early. But the, the 5 steps, it begins with Psalm 100:4-5. It says, enter his gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with praise. Be thankful to him and bless his name, for the Lord is good, his mercy is everlasting, and his truth endures to all generations. So I was told, and it is true, gratitude is such a huge part in, in your life. And if you kind of change the picture and the whole idea, you know, we got all this fear and we got all this division and we got all this hate that you're daily bombarded with. So God, in God's word— and God is so wise, I mean, a million times more wise than me, I mean, it's more than a million— but he, in his wisdom, he said, look, you know, this is how you enter in. This is how you enter in to you know, to my presence, it's with thanksgiving, it's with praise. And so I thank God. Just to kind of give you a rundown on step 1, I just, I just thank God for everything that he's done in my life. I thank him for any— and if you don't have much to be thankful for, thankful that you're breathing, thankful that you get out of bed. I mean, there are so many things. When the— when it's cold, I thank God for my heater, you know. And I just go down the list, and it, it just puts me in a different position, uh, spiritually, I guess, but, you know, just in my body and my mindset. And then I start praising God, just his name, just how wonderful— you start thinking about how wonderful God is. And that's the whole— if you can change the picture, if you've got a faulty picture, if you don't see God as love and perfect and not mad, it's incredible to, to just start picturing God as being the most wonderful powerful, loving Creator in the world. So that's— you start praising him, and that leads you into step 2, which is found in Romans 12:1. And this is Paul, this is Paul speaking, and he says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body— bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. After I've gone into step 1, I then go into the altar. And if you kind of can imagine yourself going into the temple and you walk into— you enter his gates with thanksgiving, and you, and you kind of picture yourself, and then there's the altar, and then that's where they had the sacrifices. Well, Paul's saying, hey, I present myself. And when you present yourself to God, and this is You know, you, you've probably heard a lot of things, you know, that I die daily, and that, you know, it kicks in— this thing kicks in a bunch of other, bunch of other promises and a bunch of other things. But the one I want to concentrate on is found in James 4:6-7. It says, but he gives more grace. Therefore he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore submit yourselves to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. When I— what I'm doing, because I know that, I know that I'm going to be in a battle. I know, and, and the warrior scripture I told you, my— I love Revelation 12:11, and it, it reminds me I am in a battle. That life is, life is— it's meant to be lived, but it is a battle. You have an enemy and you have a, you have a friend. So you've got people on each side And, and so you get yourself in a position, you present yourself to God a living sacrifice. And I'm going to segue here, another, another example. Back in, I think it was 2001, it's been so long ago, but 9/11, I think it was 9/11, 2001, but it is, that's almost 20, 20 years ago. And this September they crashed in, you know, the terrorists crashed in and, and attacked our country. And if you remember, I can remember where I was. I can remember, you know, watching it on TV. It was unbelievable. But the thing that, you know, as it all came out, it— these, these men that drove those planes into those buildings and into the Pentagon, these men knew what they were doing. They were— and I, I say they were dead men walking. They knew they were going to die, and it made them— I mean, and I'm not trying to elevate them at all, I'm just trying to make a point that these men were powerful in this world and they created chaos because they were dead men walking. They were walking around amongst the living, but they knew they were going to die. So I think I've made my point. It— you've got to die to be powerful in the spirit realm. You have to die to self. And so that's the point I want to get. That, that's the second point, is that you, you present yourself to God a living sacrifice. You die, you know, you're crucified with Christ, and yet I live. I mean, there's a lot that goes on with this when you, when you lay yourself on the altar and then get up, and now you're— now you're ready. Now you— now you can— when, when I say, you know, kick Satan in the teeth, or, you know, he's a punk— I call Satan a punk. It— I don't call Satan a punk in my own strength. It's because I'm already dead and I've got somebody greater inside of me pushing the— pushing the buttons. Satan— if, if I shook my fist at Satan, he'd laugh. But when I— when I come as a warrior in God and use the name of Jesus in faith, he must flee. John— um, James 4:6-7. That, and, and part of it too that kicks that in is that you've got to humble yourself. And, and we'll go into that. And that's like humbling yourself. We sometimes— you can look at that as repentance, but it's just a, you know, that I— hey, I'm not much. And you'll hear me, I'm always trying to, to remain humble or use humility there. It's a big deal in the spirit realm. It is a big deal to, to remain humble because the grace of God is then appropriated to you based on, I think, and I, and we'll get into it more, but based on your humility. All right, we're going to go into number 3. This third step is then, now that I'm— now I've got myself in position, I then put on the whole armor of God. If we're in a battle, you might want to dress for battle. And this one thing right here, before I put it into a 5-step process, I started put— when I read Ephesians, and because I, you know, I kind of mentally got to picture stuff, you know, I knew we were in a battle. I knew this was— life was a struggle. But when I saw the armor of God, I'm like, oh, I need to, I need to put that on. And I didn't always do it, but I found when I put this armor of God on, my life, my day changes. So I want to encourage you to read or listen to Ephesians 6:10-17. And I apologize, there's a lot of scripture in this episode, but it's not going to hurt you, I promise you. But Ephesians 6:10-17, finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. Therefore, take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having girded your waist with the truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having charged your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one; and the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. That's a mouthful, but it is— I put on the whole armor of God, and I mentally, I put on, I, you know, I gird my, I gird my waist with the belt of truth. And I, I mean, I mentally put that stuff on, and I put on the helmet, and I put on the breastplate, and I put on the shoes, and I grab— there's 4 things, there's 4 items that you put on, and there's 2 items that you grab. And one of the items is the shield of faith, and it says that you will block all of— and it says above all, grab the shield of faith, and, and then the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And that is what I want to encourage you to pick up your sword and pick up your shield and put on the armor. It will change your life. All right, number 4, step 4. Once you've done all that, once you've gotten yourself in a position You've humbled yourself, you've got the armor on now. And some people argue, and if you want to take step 3 and 4 and switch them, I'm fine with that. But God, I think when I— the next step is then I walk into the throne. It says to come boldly into the throne, and I don't kick the door open and I don't announce my presence here. Oh God, here I am. I mean, I come— I come again, it's all about humility. It's all about being humble. And I just come in. I used to come in kind of cowering and with my head down. And, you know, boldly, isn't that? And I've already humbled myself. God knows where I am. He knows where you are. So, and I'm just giving you an example of how I mentally come into the presence of God. I walk in. And I walk into, I walk into his presence, and, and I just, again, I think when I'm in his presence, it's a different, it's a different deal. And, and when I walk in, I, I know that God's lit, and I know even if I don't do all of these things, God hears me and he listens. But there's, there's a different power that comes when you do this on purpose. And if you do this every day, it will— this, the, these prayers It has changed my life, and I just encourage you to do— to use them. And it— they're going to be free. I'm going to— I'm going to print them out. You'll be able to go to the website under episode 5. I hadn't really figured out how I'm going to work all that, but— but you'll be able to download these and you'll be able to have them if you want a hard copy, or you can just listen to this again. But it's Hebrews 4:16. It says, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Now that, that is powerful. And the grace of God, the grace— I've got in my mind, I mean, I've got to picture stuff. And the grace of God is forever. The grace of God has already been poured out in the life of Jesus and his death. But the grace is so much more than just getting your, your, uh, spirit, spirit man changed and saved. The grace of God handles everything. And so we're going to talk about the grace. It is a, it is a deep, deep subject, a whole lot deeper than I can handle. But we're going to talk about, we're going to try to, try to figure out what grace is and what it looks like. And but we're gonna, we're gonna move on. But you come into the throne of grace, and this is where all the power is. This is— we're in the spirit realm now, for lack of a better way to describe it. We are in God's presence. God is a spirit, and we must worship him in spirit and in truth. So we go into the throne room of grace, and then we, we then start asking for— I, I pray for my family. This is where I pray for my family. I pray for my day. I pray for my business. I pray You know, this is where you— you know, I try not to give God a punch list. It's back to being— Paul encourages us to be anxious for nothing, but in all things, through prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. And I've got that memorized. I'm not exactly sure which, uh, where, where that is in the Bible. I know I'm supposed to know that, but I, I've just— I, what I do is I, I own some of this stuff as I memorize some of this stuff. And I, I don't— again, I'll read it and go, that's where it's at. But you don't have to be perfect to do this, but you do have to plant some of God's word inside of your heart so that you can pull it out. That's the sword of the spirit. You're not going to carry your Bible around and you know, say, wait a minute, you know, somebody's going to counter you. You got to have something inside of your spirit to counter. And that's where, when I, when I use that, that's where the thankfulness and the, you know, with all prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. So that supplication, I think that's a big fancy pants word, but it's, you know, it's, it's putting your list out. And so it's not, it's not against the rules to make your list, but this is where, if I have a list, this is where I'll give it. But a lot of times what I just do is, is again, I go back to thanking God for, for just allowing me to, to have this wonderful life that I'm living. And it, you know, it's not perfect, but it is, it is wonderful. And, and I'm a— it's, it's— I'm glad that he's allowed me to live this long, and I'm glad he's allowed me to see the things that I've seen. And I'm glad, in all honesty, I'm glad he's encouraged me to do this podcast. You, you may not be. You're like, would you please stop rambling? Okay, I will. But the last, the last step, and step 5, is I take a bite out of spiritual— my spiritual bread. And you can find it in Matthew 6:11, give us this day our daily bread. And this is Lord's Prayer, but this is just a little snippet out of the Lord's Prayer. And, and what I do is I I, every day I try to read some in the Word. And so that this is, this is my time. This is when God and I, I've talked to him, I've got my armor on, I'm ready. And so I read some of the Word and I try to get, get my mind straight and remind myself and encourage myself in his Word. It's the Word of God. That's the key. And that's why I've got the little introduction guy. I want it to all be about the Word of God and it If you build your life on that foundation, you are not going to go wrong. And I, and I just want to encourage you to keep going, keep building, and use these 5 prayers. If you will use these 5 prayers daily, it will change your life, and it'll be less than 10-15 minutes. It won't even take that long to, to do, to say these prayers. It may even take you as quick as 5 if you're in a race and you don't have a lot of time. But it will change your life if you'll do this daily, and you will daily, you will see the difference. And we're gonna, we're gonna stop there because this has gone a lot longer than I thought it was going to go. But I just want to encourage you that, that the Word of God is living, it's breathing. God is alive. The Holy Spirit is right there with you while you're praying. God hears everything you say and sees everything you do. And he is not mad. I, I haven't told you in the last couple of episodes my 3 things that God is not mad at you. He's not even a little bit upset. He gave all— he put all of his anger on his Son. Jesus took it on the cross. He died with all of that anger, and he rose the third day. And now he's, he's in the right hand of the Father making intercession. I mean, it is such a powerful story. God is not mad. He was mad. He's not mad. The second thing is you are God's favorite. If God had a refrigerator in heaven, your picture would be all over it. God loves you that much. He's got a lot of favorites, but you are definitely one of God's favorites. And the last thing is you are one day closer to Jesus' return today than you were yesterday. So live like it. Just ask God, get in the, get in the word. Let's start building some faith and I'll see you on the next episode.

Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.