The Life-Changing Power of Praying God’s Word

I wanna talk to you about the power of praying the Scripture. Once you learn this biblical truth, your prayer life's going to the next level. There's a reason why praying the Scriptures works. There's a reason why praying God's Word is so powerful. Praying God's Word is praying God's will. This is where the real power is. When you begin to align yourself in prayer with the will of God. Now, I believe the Holy Spirit wants to speak to you. I believe God wants to communicate this truth to you so that your prayer life can be revolutionized. This will add power and effectiveness to your prayers. So if you feel like when you pray, there's this weakness, there's ineffectiveness, I wanna show you why that is sometimes. And this has to do with the fact that many of us are praying according to our will, simply because we do not know God's will. When you pray God's will, you are aligning yourself with the ultimate power. When you pray God's will, you are coming into agreement with that which cannot be stopped. Now, often as believers, we picture that prayer is about getting God to do what we want, but that would make us the Lord and Him the servant. And that's not the way it is at all. In fact, we understand That he is the Lord and we are the servants. And so I want you to visualize the will of God like a river. This river has a certain flow to it. This river has a certain direction. The way it winds and turns is predetermined. God's will is set in order. God has desires. God has intentions. God has a plan regarding this world, regarding your life. regarding his church, and that river is flowing now. Here's what many believers try to do when they pray. When they try to pray, when they pray, they're trying to terraform. In other words, they're trying to change the flow of that river. They're trying to speed up or slow down its pace. Now, some believers want a little bit of the will of God in their lives, enough to bless them, but never enough to inconvenience them. Enough to give them breakthrough in the areas where they need miracles, but never enough to call them to be disciples, carry their cross, give up that which they desire for that which God desires. So what do we do? Instead of getting into the river, many Christians through prayer simply drink from the river, sip from the river. They take in a little bit of what God wills in terms of holiness, in terms of moral code, in terms of being kind to one another, in terms of application of basic wisdom. Oh, but when it comes to that which costs them, when it comes to the will of God regarding the carrying of our crosses, when it comes to the will of God regarding that which we should place on the altar, many times we say, Lord, I'll just sip from the river enough to be refreshed, but not enough to be overcome. And so when we pray by our own will, we try to merge God's will a little bit in there, but mostly we want what we want. And so out of this comes selfish prayer. Out of this comes ambitious prayer. Out of this comes ill-intentioned prayer. Out of this comes prayers prayed out of jealousy because of what we see in other people's lives. And so we pray according to what we want because we're so moved by jealousy. But my friend, when you begin to pray the Word of God, you're not trying to change the direction of that river. You're not trying to speed up the flow or slow down its pace. Nor are you cupping your hands and simply leaning over for a drink. When you pray the scriptures, you're jumping into the river. When you pray the scriptures, you are aligning yourself with that flow. When you pray the scriptures, you're asking for the current to take you, and you have no control of where it's taking you. So alignment accesses authority. John 15:7, John 15:7. But if you remain in me, watch this now, and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want and it will be granted. Now wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. This is an incredible promise. He's saying, you may ask me for anything you want and it will be granted. That is a guarantee. That's coming from the Lord Jesus himself. That's coming from the highest authority. God is speaking these words to you. He's promising that you can ask anything in prayer, anything at all, and it will be granted. But there's a condition. And if we meet this condition, if we align ourselves with this desire that God has, then there is no limit to the power of prayer. Prayer becomes fully backed by the ultimate power of God. What's the condition? But if you remain in me and my words remain in you. Now, what does this mean? Remain in me or abide in me. This is important because remember, this is the context setter. This is the condition being given to us. And that condition, if met, results in perfectly prayed prayers, completely backed by divine power? Well, let's look at 1 John 3:24. Whoever keeps His commandments remains in God, and God in him. And by this we know that He remains in us, by the Spirit He has given us. Okay, so we're being clued into the fact That to remain in Him is to walk in obedience. And for Him to abide in us is to have His nature within us. Now watch this, it's more pointed here. 1 John 3:21-22. Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then we have confidence toward God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him. And then it tells us why. Because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight. In fact, Proverbs 28:9 says, he that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, that is the Word of God, even his prayer shall be abomination. Well, what does this mean in Proverbs? Let's read that again. Put that verse up. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law. So now this is someone who's This is someone who's not listening to God's word. This is someone who's not aware of the nature of God. This is someone who doesn't know what God desires. Why? Because I've turned my ear away from the law. And if I've turned my ear away from the word, I have no idea what to pray. I don't know the direction of the river. Now watch this. If I turn my ear away from the law, or if I'm not receiving the word, there's a danger here. And you have to be aware of this spiritual danger because your prayer shall be an abomination. Well, what does that mean? It means now, because I'm not aligned with the Word of God, because I don't know what God's will is, because I don't understand God's desires, now I begin to pray prayers out of selfish ambition. Now I begin to pray prayers out of anger, out of jealousy, out of entitlement, out of a lack of gratitude, out of fear. You begin to pray from the flesh. You begin to pray from emotion. You begin to pray from desire. You begin to pray from your own will. You begin to pray from peer pressure, what you think others want for you. Why? Because you've not grounded yourself in the Word. So your prayers now become an abomination. Your prayers now become filled with selfishness. Your prayers now become filled with human nature. Psalm 37:4 says something powerful. Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give you the desires of thine heart. Now I know that the heart can be deceitfully wicked. I know that it's sometimes impossible to know the depths of depravity of the human heart, but it's interesting to me that in the book of Psalms, we are promised to be given the desires of our heart. Well, why are we given the desires of our heart if it's so wicked? The answer's there in the scripture. Delight thyself also in the Lord. So what begins to happen to me when I delight myself in the Lord? When I begin to delight myself in the Lord, my desires change. Why? Because He becomes my desires. Well, who can know the Lord and not desire Him? Who can know His presence, experience His touch, have an encounter in his power and not desire him. You know this likely by experience, that the more you know of him, the more you want to know him. The more you taste of his goodness, the more your spiritual hunger is stirred. You begin to have those spiritual cravings intensify. Why? Because you're delighting yourself in the Lord. So by me delighting myself in him, I'm getting my desires changed. When he becomes my focus, my nature is transformed. I wanna say that again. When he becomes my focus, my nature is transformed. The core of who I am, there's a shift, something begins to change. And maybe God is doing this in you. Maybe you've noticed that you've become more patient, more filled with joy. Maybe you've noticed that you're standing a little stronger against temptation. That's because you're delighting yourself in the Lord. So notice here that all of these scriptures I've given you so far come with promises after certain conditions are met. And we see a theme running here. There is this alignment with God's will. There is this adherence to his standard. There is this taking on of his nature. There is this focusing on his presence. So when I delight in him, he becomes my focus. He becomes my desire. And because now He is my desire, I'm given the desires of my heart. Why? Because my desires become godly when I delight in the Lord. And now God can entrust you with the power of true prayer. He's not gonna give you the desires of your heart if your desires are sinful. He's not gonna give you the desires of your heart if your desires contradict His will and word. But when you begin to delight in Him, now you get that prayer backing. Now you get that powerful authority behind your every word, because you're praying out of desires that are born of the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. So then when I delight in Him, I am receiving now the desires of my heart. So what does it mean to delight in Him? Well, to delight in Him is to worship Him. To delight in Him is to obey Him. To delight in Him is to focus on Him. To delight in Him is to be thankful for Him. To delight in Him is to praise Him. To delight in Him is to be like Him. To delight in Him is to share Him with others. To delight in Him is to prioritize His presence. To delight in Him is to consider His feelings. To delight in Him is to say yes to His will. To delight in Him is to be consumed by Him. To delight in Him is to say no to the flesh. To delight in Him is trust and obedience, focused on who He is. You begin to do this now, and now your desires change. So you become that which you're praying for. Now, as you begin to pray, something happens in you. Something begins to transform. Watch this now in Matthew 9. I wanna show you something. This is powerful. Look at what happens to the disciples when they prayed. Matthew 9, beginning at verse 35. And it's possible we can miss things like this if we're not paying attention, but look at this. Jesus traveled through all the towns and villages of that area, teaching in the synagogues and announcing the good news about the kingdom. And he healed every kind of disease and illness. When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them because they were confused and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. He said to his disciples, the harvest is great, but the workers are few. So pray to the Lord who is in charge of the harvest. Ask him to send more workers into his field. Now consider the situation. Jesus carrying out the ministry that the Father had given him to carry out. And then he looks and notices the crowds and his heart is filled with compassion. In fact, I believe his heart was aching on behalf of those who were sick, demon possessed, lost, confused, abandoned. And his compassion is extended toward them now. And he instructs the disciples. He says, pray, pray, pray, pray for God to send workers. Look, the harvest is ready. The people are ready to receive it. The people have their needs. The people have their prayers. The people are calling out to God. The harvest is ready. The harvest is ready. We just need workers to go and reap that harvest. So he tells his disciples, you pray that God sends workers. You pray that God will send harvesters to take up the harvest. So the disciples go, obviously they obey that instruction, they pray and watch what happens in the very next chapter. The first verse of the very next chapter, we see the results of their prayer. Watch this now. Jesus called his 12 disciples together and gave them authority to cast out evil spirits and to heal every kind of disease and illness. Wait a minute. Why did Jesus have compassion on the people? What were they coming to him for? Well, he was healing the sick. And so the sick were coming to him in droves. And he looked out and he realized, There's a lot of need out there, but there's not enough workers to carry out the need. The harvest is ripe, it's ready to be harvested, but there's not a lot of harvesters. Disciples, I'm asking you, pray, pray that God would send someone. So they go and they say, Lord. Jesus told us to pray, Father, that you would send harvesters. The sick need healing, the demon possessed need to be set free. The harvest is ready, but there aren't enough workers. Lord, send harvesters. Father, send harvesters. This is their prayer. And then in response to their prayer that God would send workers, God sends them. In other words, as they prayed, they became the will of God in action. Prayer is less about receiving and more about becoming, about dying to self, decreasing to the point where now the will of God can begin to flow through you. No longer I live, but Christ lives in me. Think about the sheer force that is the power of God. If God wills something, it is done. If God has a plan, no man, no matter how powerful or intellectual, can stop that plan. If God desires something to be, no one can debate with God. God doesn't have to double-check with any oversight. God doesn't have to converse with us to explain his decision. When God decides something, it is so, it is written in stone. And all of human power combined can't move the timeline even by a second when God wills something. Amen. He is that mighty flowing river that no one can change. And when you pray, that river, that power backs what you say. That's the power of praying His Word. When you pray in your will, you gotta do it by your power. When you pray according to your desire, it's gotta come about by your own ability. Oh, but when you pray according to God's desire, you are coming into agreement with something that's been set in motion that cannot be undone. So it's simple obedience, it's alignment, it's taking steps of faith. You wanna go to the next level? You want what people call breakthrough? You've got to align yourself with the will of the Father, because then nothing, nothing can stop that prayer. When you pray what God wills, who can stop God? Amen. Therefore, who can stop your prayers when they're prayed according to the will of God? Now, when you begin to pray outside of God's will, you're in grave spiritual danger of committing several different mistakes that can absolutely hinder your prayer life. Why? Because they're outside of alignment with the will of God. Now I'm gonna share with you what those are right now. But first, if you're enjoying this teaching, and you believe the body of Christ needs to wake up to this revelation, then make sure you leave a like on the stream right now. That simple like, that simple thumbs up is gonna help to spread this content even further and to more people. And share this with a friend or two that you think this might encourage. Now, I believe God joined us together. God wills everything. And so I want you to make sure we stay connected. Don't miss any of the teachings I put out on prayer, or the Holy Spirit or spiritual warfare, and don't miss any of the footage that I release of the Holy Spirit's power in action. Make sure you are subscribed to this channel by subscribing right now and click that notification bell so that you don't miss a single thing. So what are some of these mistakes that people make that take them outside of alignment with the will of God? Well, there's several things that people do that can negatively affect their prayer life. Number 1, pride. James 4:6 says, and he gives grace generously, as the scriptures say, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. So if you come to him in your own ability and strength, thinking that you can approach him because of what you accomplished, well, my friend, you're approaching him in pride and not according to his will. Husbands, the scripture tells us that if you're not honoring to your wife, that your prayers can be hindered. I'll never forget when Jessa and I were first married, we got into an argument. And in terms of what I thought about the argument, I thought it was just a standard disagreement where I expressed what I wanted, she expressed what she wanted, we disagreed and talked it out, and that was it, at least in my mind. But when I went to pray, I realized that there was this hindrance to my prayer. There was a flow missing. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Lord, Lord, what's going on here? And the Lord reminded me, do you remember that argument you had with your wife? I said, yes, Lord, I thought that was resolved. He said, well, when you stated your case, you were too harsh. Your tone was too harsh. The words you used were too harsh, too straightforward. It wasn't honoring. You hurt your wife's feelings, go and apologize to her. So I got up from the prayer room, walked over to where Jess was, and I said, Jess, remember the argument yesterday? All right, whatever it was. She says, yes. I said, well, I wanna apologize to you. because I was too harsh with you. And she begins to laugh. I said, well, what's so funny? She says, well, I was gonna tell you about that. I didn't wanna nag you or get on your case or make you feel guilty. She said, so what I did is I talked to God, and apparently he talked to you. In 1 Peter 3:7, we read, in the same way, you husbands must give honor to your wives. Treat your wife with understanding as you live together. She may be weaker than you are, but she is your equal partner. Hear that, gentlemen. Your equal partner in God's gift of new life. Treat her as you should so your prayers will not be hindered. Notice here, and I'm just gonna say it, notice here that it doesn't say that wives, if you mistreat your husbands, your prayers are hindered. No, it says husbands, you mistreat your wives. There's a higher standard there. We have to be honoring. Call it a double standard if you want, because it is. James chapter 4, we read that selfishness is something that can hinder prayer. James 4:2-3, you want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can't get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don't want— you don't have what you want. Listen here. You don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it. And then there's a follow-up, verse 3, and even when you ask, You don't get it because your motives are all wrong. You want only what will give you pleasure. In other words, you're praying from selfishness. Unconfessed sin. When I say confession, I'm talking about confession to God. Psalm 66:17-19. For I cried out to Him for help, praising Him as I spoke. If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But God did listen. He paid attention to my prayer. Now, the Word produces faith for what it promises. This is why it's key when we pray the Word. Of course, we know it's key to pray the Word because it aligns us with the authority of heaven. But think about the fact that the Word produces faith for what it promises. Romans 10:17. So faith comes from hearing, that is hearing the good news about Christ. In other words, the gospel message, when someone hears it, the Holy Spirit gives them the faith to receive it. That's the partnership we have. We preach the word, the Holy Spirit gives the person faith, and they respond and receive salvation from the Lord Jesus. Now, context considered, the base principle we glean from this is that when God speaks the word, it produces faith for what it promises. You want to align with his will, you want to align with his power, obey God, trust God, know his word, and pray according to his word. It really is that simple. Now you can pray for what God promised. You can pray to war in the spirit. That's Ephesians 6:10-12. You can pray safety over your loved ones. That's 2 Corinthians 1:11. You can pray for the salvation of your unsaved loved ones. That's Romans 10:1. You can pray for the wellbeing of cities. That's Jeremiah 29:7. You can pray for the faith of others to be strengthened. That's Luke 22:32. You can pray for leaders and people in positions of authority. That's 1 Timothy 2:2-3. Now, there are many other things that the word of God promises. In fact, write those in the comment section, the various different promises of God. Whatever the Word promises, you can pray. And when you pray the Word, you're backed by the power of God unto perfection of that prayer. So Lord, I pray you give your people the faith to receive, to believe, and to declare your Word as they pray. I thank you, Father, that the authority of heaven backs our prayers. As we align with your will. Strengthen each one, cause them to become more committed to prayer than ever before. Give them the faith to pick up that prayer mantle again and make them consistent in their prayer life. In the mighty name of Jesus, we pray. I want you to type it real big in the comment section if you believe it. Type a big amen. Well, I wanna invite you to be a part of what God is doing through this ministry. If this ministry is a blessing to you, you've received the teaching, perhaps you've maybe attended an event, maybe God has touched your life in some way through this ministry, you believe in what we're doing, you believe in the cause of souls, you believe in the spreading of the word of God, you believe in the events that we're doing, you believe healing is for today. In other words, you're linked in heart with this ministry. I want you to help us on our mission. to win the soul of a generation. So will you go right now to davidhernandezministries.com/partner to become a monthly ministry supporter? I'm asking you to sign up right now for monthly ministry support. That makes all the difference. You can start for as little as $15 a month. And if maybe you're already a partner and you wanna give an extra gift, or you're not yet ready to become a monthly supporter, You can give a single gift by going to davidhernandezministries.com/donate. Every gift, large or small, single or monthly, all of it counts. So go and do it as unto the Lord. And until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.