Finally! The Simplest Way to Pray and See Results

If you find yourself frustrated and filled with doubt when you pray, if you feel like you never get any results, then I want to talk to you about how to pray in a way that gets results. I know that it can be frustrating. I know that sometimes you can feel like your prayers are just going nowhere, but this message, I believe, will be an encouragement to you so that you can develop divine confidence when you pray. I'm not just gonna tell you that you should pray. I wanna show you how to pray. We begin by taking a look at the difference between praying in the Spirit and praying in the flesh. What do I mean when I say praying in the Spirit? Well, first of all, in Ephesians 6:18, we read, And pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for the Lord's people. Now here in Ephesians, this is not in regards to the gift of speaking in tongues. Sometimes we interchange the language and we say pray in the Spirit when we mean pray in tongues. Praying in the Spirit is an umbrella term. Praying in the Spirit is to pray in the guidance of the Holy Spirit. That is to pray as he leads you. To pray in the Spirit is to pray in the authority of the Holy Spirit. That is to pray with the backing of his power. To pray in the Spirit is to pray according to the will of the Holy Spirit. That is, to pray according to the desires that the Holy Spirit has. And in fact, when you pray in the Spirit, it's His strength moving you through that prayer. It's His faith being loaned to you for that prayer. It's His desire for connection. It's His desire for union in prayer that ultimately drives true prayer. When you pray in the Spirit, you're praying with the strength and energy of the Holy Spirit. When you pray in the flesh, you're praying in your own strength, by your own understanding, according to your own will, according to your own preferences. Prayer, remember this, begins in union with the Holy Spirit. This is one of my passions, is to help believers understand that when you go to pray, you're not fighting for points with God. You're not fighting in order to be accepted. Many believers imagine that when they go before the Lord, they're pleading with him and begging him for his attention and begging for his acceptance. No, prayer begins in the acceptance of God. You don't pray to gain it. You pray because you already have it. Now, when you pray in the Spirit, you are praying from that innermost being. What do I mean by innermost being? Well, let me show you 2 different portions of scripture. Jude 1:20-21. But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. So again, we see a reference to praying in the Spirit. Now watch this, 1 Thessalonians 5:23. May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So you as a human being consist of 3 different compartments, if you will. I'm not saying you're 3 different persons. I'm saying there are 3 different compartments or expressions to your being. That is the body, which is referred to often as the earth suit. That is the soul, your mind, your will, your emotions. and your personality, that is the spirit, which is ultimately your connection with God. So that is body, soul, and spirit. Now, many believers, rather than praying from the innermost being, that is rather than praying from that place of connection, rather than praying from that place of faith and acceptance, they attempt to pray and connect with God by use of the outer shells of who they are. I wanna break that down for you. So number one, many believers are praying from the body. That is, they are trying to connect with God based upon exterior practices. Now, let me tell you what I mean by this, because of course, when you pray, you're using the mouth. When you pray, sometimes you're closing your eyes. When you pray, sometimes you're on your knees. Sometimes you may be lying down. But I'm not saying that prayer isn't ultimately, or that it cannot ultimately be expressed through the body. I'm saying that prayer cannot begin with just physical posturing, as some believers think it does. In Matthew 6:7, we read, when you pray, don't babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. So there's an example of people believing that their prayers have effect simply because of the use of that external shell. That is, that they think that by saying a bunch of words, by repeating a bunch of key phrases, by maybe citing a script that they were given from someone, that they're gonna have this divine connection with God, or that they're gonna have some divine experience that they've never had before. But posture cannot get you into the presence of God. It doesn't matter if you're kneeling, or lying down or standing or pacing. Tone cannot get you into the presence of God. Many believers imagine that if they have a firm enough tone, that if they speak with maybe a King James accent, or perhaps if they speak with really long, drawn-out, spiritual-sounding cadence, that they're going to have this connection with God. Well, tone isn't going to do it. You can raise your voice all you want. Noise does not equal power. You can whisper all you want, it doesn't make it any more spiritual. Now, sometimes from the Spirit, the Holy Spirit will lead you to pray with an authoritative tone, or perhaps pray in a whisper, or maybe close your eyes so that you can focus more on Him. But what I'm saying is that you cannot derive the connection from that posture alone. You cannot derive that connection from the tone alone, or even the volume. I know a lot of people who think that shouting is power. I know a lot of people that think that if they talk really fast and speak really loud and maybe sound very excited, that this is going to somehow equate to some spiritual experience. Well, that's just not the case. Many believers imagine that the time of day that they pray is special. I promise you, the Lord is not limited to certain times of day. He's not more available at 5:00 AM than he is at 10:00 AM. He's not more available at 1:00 in the morning than he is at 10:00 PM. The Lord is available at all times. And some believers take on pain for the sake of pain, punishment for the sake of punishment. So to speak, they're whipping themselves in the spirit, and they think by making themselves uncomfortable that they're positioning themselves for a move of God. Now, let me clarify this because this is a little nuanced. Sometimes obedience to God, in fact, most of the time, obedience to God will cost you comfort. Obedience to God will feel uncomfortable, but that doesn't mean that feeling uncomfortable always equates to obedience to God. Sometimes sacrifice will be required when you follow after his voice, but that doesn't mean that sacrifice alone means that you're following his voice. We don't seek pain for pain's sake. or sacrifice for the sake of sacrifice. Rather, we obey God, and if sacrifice and pain come along the way, then so be it. Yet many believers think that punishing themselves is going to get them into the presence of God. Well, if I wake up at 3 in the morning, even though I can wake up at 5 and pray just as long. Well, if I give up every single day and I never go to work, and I never spend time with my spouse, and I never spend time with my kids, and I'm just praying all those hours, surely the Lord will honor that. Actually, no, the Lord will be very angry. upset with you for neglecting your family responsibilities, if you neglected your family responsibilities as a means of, quote, sacrifice. So yes, sacrifice. Yes, there'll be times when your posture will be uncomfortable. Yes, there'll be times when the Lord may wake you up early in the morning, but to think that the time of day alone is what gives it power, to think that discomfort alone is what gives it power, well, that's just religion. That's just religion. You can shout, you can dance, you can sing, you can clap, but you cannot perform your way into the presence of God. It must begin in the Spirit. Number 2, praying from the mind. Now, obviously it's okay to pray to God in your mind. So again, I'm not saying that praying in the mind is necessarily bad. I'm saying that you cannot think your way into the presence of God. You cannot figure your way into an encounter with the Holy Spirit. You can't analyze and assess and then create a formula that will ultimately perform in the Spirit. What begins in the flesh cannot have any true results in the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:14 says this, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, For they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. There are certain things that the natural mind just won't be able to receive. And if you're pursuing God from a purely intellectual standpoint, then eventually that mind, that thought pattern is going to become a barrier to your progress in Christ. Far too many of us think that we can think our way into God's presence just according to humanism. We think that we can meditate our way into an encounter with God. Well, meditation is good. The Bible talks about meditation. Meditation is good for the removal of distractions. Focusing on Jesus is good. Putting your attention on the word is good. Putting your mind on the things of God, that's good. During worship, focusing on the Lord is good. But again, it's not necessarily about doing these things, but it's about thinking that doing these things is what's ultimately going to result in an encounter with God. So many believers are praying from the mind, and they think that that's going to get them results. They're filling their mind with theology, which is good. They're filling their mind with prayer doctrine, which is good, but you cannot rely upon that alone. It's not by power nor by might, it's by the Spirit, says the Lord. In fact, you know, there are some people, and even people who claim to be Christians, Who are practicing drug use as a means to try to connect with God. They think that if they take a certain type of mushroom or do a certain type of drug, that this is going to open a gateway that will cause them to connect with the divine in a way that they otherwise wouldn't be able to do. Well, my friend, you do that and you're actually opening a gateway to the demonic. You're actually communing with devils when you do that. So no, you're not going to be able to come into an encounter with God to the mind alone. Prayer is more than deep thinking. And again, you should meditate, you should pray, you should focus on the Lord. But ultimately, what's going to bring you into an encounter with God cannot be so of the outer shells. It cannot derive from self. You cannot, in your own effort, by your own means, develop a formula or a strategy to encountering the presence of the Holy Spirit. In fact, this has been a barrier to many of you encountering God in prayer and in worship. You're overthinking every aspect of this encounter with God. In fact, people are so worked up analyzing, is this God? Was that God? How do I find my way into the presence of God? And they're so worked up analytically that they're not yielding to the Spirit, trusting in the Spirit's work, and ultimately finding that true flow in prayer. Now, I find that many Christians attempt to manipulate God without even realizing that that's what they're doing. In fact, you may be trying to manipulate God without even realizing that that's what you're doing. I know you don't wanna do that, but many Christians are doing this completely unaware. I wanna show you how that looks in just a moment. But first, if you're enjoying this content and you think others will enjoy it and be blessed by it, Then make sure to leave a like on the stream right now. Just by leaving that like, you're helping to spread the content to more people. Do your part, leave that like. You never know who's going to receive the word simply because you did. Also, if you're enjoying this content and you wanna stay connected with me so that you can continue to receive the teachings, as well as the livestreams of the events that we do around the world, where people are saved, healed, delivered, and empowered, Don't miss a thing. Make sure you're subscribed to this channel and click the notification bell when you do subscribe so that you don't miss any of the new content. Number 3, praying from emotions. Now, this is what I mean when I say manipulation, because I used to do it. I would get into the prayer room and I thought that if I cried enough tears, God would hear me. And there's some really bad theology floating around out there that basically implies that you can strong-arm God into a response. It implies that you can persuade God, or that you can, for example, take his word and say, Lord, you have to do this because your word says this, as if we're the ones that have control over him because we have the remote in our hands. The word of God is not a remote in our hands to control him. The Word of God is the standard God has given to us to which we must submit, and the way by which we come to understand his nature. But the Word of God is not a means to control him. Neither, neither is he obligated to respond simply because you really, really want him to. This is where we have to be careful of entitlement. And this is why many believers are just not seeing results, because they're trying to get God to respond based on how they're feeling. They're trying to get God to respond based on the fact that maybe they're really sad or really frustrated or really angry. One time I foolishly prayed, Lord, if you don't meet this need, then I have to quit the ministry. And I thought I was being really clever, that if I could get God to do that, then, you know, I would ultimately have my problem solved based on my need. But you know what? That was wrong. And the Lord rebuked me harshly, corrected me. That was immaturity in my heart. That was a lack of faith. That was fear speaking through me. That was discouragement speaking through me. And I allowed it to get to that point. But the point I'm making here is that I was trying to get God to respond in the way I wanted him to respond based upon my entitlement. And often we think that God has to respond to our emotions simply because we are entitled. And many believers live their whole lives thinking that God owes them a response. Like Job, they're demanding an audience with God so that he can give them the explanation that they feel they deserve. Well, that's just immaturity. That's a lack of faith. That's pride. That's an attempt to control God. Oh, look at these tears, Lord, you have to do something. I'm so angry, Lord, you have to do something about what they did. You have to give me revenge on those people because of how they hurt me. Well, now you are praying from emotion, and that's very, very dangerous. Because of our emotions, because of the power of those emotions, we can become convinced that we are praying righteous prayers when we're actually praying prayers of the flesh. And we can feel so vindicated, we can feel so right in what we're praying because of our feelings, but feelings are deceptive. We ought to go by faith, not feelings. Emotion doesn't move God, faith does. Matthew 21:22 says, You can pray for anything. And if you have faith, you will receive it. Does it say if you have feelings, if you have emotions, if you have tears, if you have anger, if you have frustration, if you feel entitled? No, it says if you have faith. Emotions and faith rarely work together. Emotions and faith rarely have the same goal. We go by faith, not by feelings. If you prayed by feelings, then you would only ever pray when you felt like it. If you prayed by feelings, then your prayer life would be just as inconsistent as your emotions. If you prayed according to feelings, then on the days that you felt ashamed, you would never approach God. On the days that you felt prideful, you would think that you were entitled to everything from God. We don't go by feelings, we go by faith, and our faith is based on His Word. You won't always feel God. You won't always sense his presence. You won't even always feel like praying. This is why we go by the consistency of our faith, not by the ups and downs of our emotion. Many of us spend time in the prayer room. We call it prayer. We call it connecting with God. But really all we're doing is working ourselves up emotionally. I see this at many Christian events around the world, and this is not a criticism. of Christian events in general. And I think to some degree, of course, you'll experience emotions in the presence of God. I have nothing against emotions, but I find that the formula at many Christian events is to work people up emotionally, creating false fire, and then calling it an encounter with God, seeing no transformation, and then therefore wondering why God didn't actually move. It's because we get so wrapped up in our emotions. We get so wrapped up in our own hype that we drown out our ability to hear the Holy Spirit and move according to his desires. So we often confuse emotion for fire. You hear people say all the time, oh, I lost my fire for God. Well, what do you mean by that? Do you mean that you lost the emotions connected to the right decisions? Because as we mature in faith, we're gonna rely less on feelings and more on the word. As we mature in faith, we're gonna rely less on maybe our passion in the emotional area than we will on discipline. Now, this is why we have to be careful, because we may think we're doing worse than we actually are. Your fire for God, please hear this now, someone needs to hear this. Your fire for God is not measured in your emotion. Your fire for God is measured in your obedience. Amen. And you're not always going to feel like obeying, but so long as you are obeying, that's fire, that's submission, that's the yielded life, that's true discipleship, that's being radical for Jesus. And so we go not by emotions, we pray not from emotions, that's the outer shell. We don't pray from the posturing of the body. We don't pray from the analysis of the mind. We don't pray from the working up of our emotions. We pray from the Spirit. Number 4, praying from the Spirit. from the Spirit, that's true prayer. Hebrews 4:15-16 say this, This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for He faced all the same testings we do, yet He did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive His mercy and we will find grace to help us when we need it most. This is true prayer right here. Praying from that place of the Spirit. Not praying, not praying, hoping for a connection with God. Not praying, hoping that the Lord responds. Not praying, wondering if He hears us, wondering if He accepts us, but praying with that bold and confident faith, knowing That the moment I open my mouth, he's going to hear me, not because I've earned it, not because I live in perfection, but because Christ sacrificed himself for me, because I have a high priest. And so we recognize that prayer is not a means, please, this is a revelation that will transform your prayer life. That's not hyperbole. This will transform your prayer life if you just receive it. and finally accepted. We do not pray in order to acquire union with God. We've already been united with God, and because of that, we can truly pray. To pray in the Spirit is to pray from faith. I know He hears me. I know I'm accepted because of my faith in what Christ has done. To pray from the Spirit is to pray from that place of trust. To know that as I pray, God will ultimately accomplish his will. You're gonna frustrate yourself trying to figure out what prayers God should and should not answer. You're going to frustrate yourself trying to decide on the Lord's timing. You're going to frustrate yourself hoping that God aligns everything to exactly how you see the timeline going, to exactly what you have as a preference, to exactly what you think is ideal. You're gonna become so frustrated wondering, God, why haven't you done this yet? Why haven't you done that yet? Why haven't you performed the miracle over here? Why haven't you done this in that person's life? Why haven't you given me this thing that I desire? You're gonna become so frustrated, so worked up that you're just gonna give up on prayer altogether. Oh, but when you pray in the Spirit, you know that the moment you lift that knee before the Lord, you can trust him to respond now. Amen. Whatever your timing, I trust. Whatever your answer, I trust. Whatever your response in this particular situation, Lord, I trust. And you have confidence. Now you know who you are in him. Now you're not judging, please hear this. Now you're not judging your identity based upon how God responds to your prayers. I wanna say that again. Now you're no longer judging your identity based on how God responds to your prayers. Well, God didn't meet that specific request the way I thought he would. And God's timing on this other issue was a little bit off according to my timeline. Therefore, maybe he hasn't accepted me. Maybe I'm not a child of God. Maybe I did something wrong. Or how about you just trust that when you say a prayer, God will take it from there. And this gives you confidence now knowing that no matter how He chooses to respond or when He chooses to respond, that you are a child of God. Now, this gives you peace. Peace because you're no longer afraid for the future. You're no longer afraid for how things might turn out because you know God's gonna take care of this. I have perfect peace, and I know that He is taking care of me, and I don't have to strain, and I don't have to struggle. I don't have to live in tension and anxiety. I can just leave it in His hands. That's perfect peace. There's an ease that comes now. From the place of peace is where true power begins to flow, because now you're not trying to get God to change His will. But you're living in his will. Now you're not trying to get God to conform to your desires, you're conforming to his. Now you're not trying to convince God which miracles he should and should not do, you're walking in every miracle he desires you to walk in. And there's this flow that comes with the Spirit where now there's true power on your prayer life because you're no longer praying in the flesh. You're praying in the Spirit. Father, I pray you help them to do it. Give them that praying spirit. Remind them, Lord, that it's union with you, that you and you alone are sovereign, that you and you alone are able. We trust not in our ability, Lord, we trust in yours. Amen. Give them that strength, I pray. Touch their lives in a fresh way. Come on, receive that now. His presence, I believe, is touching many even now. Thank you, Lord. Let go of the tension. Let go of the way that you think, think things should be. Let go of all of that. Lord, I give you the praise and the honor. Give it to Jesus now. Strengthen and uplift them. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. Type it in the comment section real big if you agree, type amen. 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