Pastor Jeff Shortridge
October 9, 2016 - W1641

Somebody say, “Glory!” The word “glory” by itself, does not mean anything. It’s the way you say “glory” that adds meaning to the word. If someone says, “Man it stinks in here!”-you respond by saying “glory” in a dead tone.  If someone says, “Jesus Christ has risen from the dead!”-then you respond “Glory!” with joy and excitement. 

I grew up fourth generational Pentecostal where we get excited and stand up when we read the Word of God. Today there is a word burning in my spirit that I would like to share with you. The Bible says, “Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. 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 all the Lord’s people.” (Eph. 6:17-18)

In referring to this verse, “Take the helmet of salvation,” means to get saved and “the sword of the spirit” means the Word of God.

You ingest the spirit of God into your life when you read the Bible. The Bible says, “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (John 1:1)

I grew up in a church that was attended by a lot of military personnel, because it was close to a military base. Thirty minutes before each service, prayer rooms within the church building were opened to be use freely for prayer. I remember before one church service had started, that I was walking down a hallway headed towards a prayer room, when I heard the resonant prayers of a male voice coming from within one of the prayer rooms. This man was an African American Army sergeant. I heard him cry out to God. “Oh God! Father of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel. Lord fill this house tonight! Bind the strong man! Loose the power of Heaven upon this house! Set free the captive!”   Upon listening to his prayers, my hair stood up, I mean – um! I felt the presence of the Lord.

When I walked into the room where that man was praying, I felt a tidal wave of God’s glory sweep over me. Immediately I fell to my knees and began worshipping and praying. Then I thought how can I learn to pray like this man? The Lord then spoke to me and said He had recorded prayers for me from a man that was after His own heart – and a light bulb went off in my head, and I said, “David in Psalms!” The Lord then said to pray Psalms.

Until you get it, pray someone else’s prayers – pray Psalms. So I grabbed my Bible and went to my bedroom and called out to God by praying Psalms. While praying Psalms, I would flip back and forth between different verses according to how the spirit of the Lord moved me. Reading scripture that David said, allowed me to learn how his heart ticked after God, and how David’s mind moved after God.

How many of you have secret faults? The Bible says, “Keep back thy servant. Keep me from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me, then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent.” Psalm 19:13  Presumptuous sins mean sins that you presume you will fall into if God does not keep you strong from it.

You become a person after God’s own heart when you come into His presence and express your weaknesses and faults and flaws before God, and worship Him despite of this. God will see your heart, and then help you. God can give you strength.

You cannot pray without Heaven taking notice, and without God paying attention to what you are saying. When you open your mouth and speak, God listens. You have to understand the power in prayer, because prayer changes things.

Today, I still flip through the book of Psalms, and pray the things that David prayed. As a minister I pray because prayer impacts the lives of people around us.

1. Your prayer life IMPACTS those around you.

“The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James 5:16)

Back in the 1980’s, I remember wanting God to fill my life, so I would attend church from Sunday morning until Sunday night, praying and fasting in my hunger for Jesus. Seeing my growth and spiritual maturation, my pastor had me start teaching men’s Bible studies. He then proceeded to have me lead in many other various positions. Believing or feeling that my plate was too full, I would beg my pastor not to offer me another position, thinking up every excuse to disqualify myself. This is because I was scared of promotion.

2. Prayer brings PROMOTION.

One night I went to church and my pastor introduced me to a multi-Grammy award nominee and double Grammy award gospel artist. He was well known and well-traveled. After talking to me, he said, “I want you to be my sound engineer.” I immediately thought, “This man has bumped his head! –I don’t know a thing about sound.” I was scared to death. Well, I accepted, and six hours later, me and six guys who also did not know about sound took six hours to wire up the sound system. The sound was terrible, but it was a good thing we had a real sound engineer on a cordless landline phone telling me where to plug the wires in. The next week we went on tour, and I still did not have a clue as to what I was doing.

God does not always call the qualified. Usually God calls you, and then He will qualify you. If you have been hanging out with God and praying, the prayers like David prayed, then as soon as God needs you for something he will use you.

A couple of years ago, I was the sound engineer for a national music conference. We were pulling all-nighters at the studio with only a couple of minutes sleep each night. On the third day I drove home to take a shower and get some breakfast, then I jumped into my car and headed back to the studio.   After I pulled out to the traffic light, I was going to drive on to the interstate down to the church, but I fell asleep at the traffic light. Sometime later, I woke up in my car next to my church with the engine turned off and my car in neutral.   I believe this happened, because I had prayed for safety over my own life, and because I had been reading what David said, “For He will give His angels charge concerning you, to guard you in all your ways. They will bear you up in their hands, that you do not strike your foot against a stone.” Psalm 91:11-12    God protected me.

We need praying fathers and mothers who will go into their children’s rooms, who will anoint their children with oil for the Lord while praying Psalms 91 over them, and declaring that they are not the property of the Devil. We need school teachers who will go into the classrooms before the students arrive, anoint the chairs with oil and declare the spirit of suicide, bullying, drug addiction, and alcoholism cannot come into the classrooms. We need fire fighters and policemen to give the Devil the right foot of fellowship, and drive him out of our communities. This is because our community is a Holy place, and not the Devil’s. We need folks in this church congregation, as you are driving down the H1 and H2 to take the mantle of New Hope and pray over this area. Bind the Devil and loose the presence and the power of God.

3. Prayer brings PROTECTION.

The Bible says, “For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” (Ps. 91:11-12)

One night has I was getting ready to go to bed, I felt the Lord say, “Get dressed and go to the hospital!” So I immediately got dressed and drove to the hospital. After arriving, the spirit directed me to a group of people gathered around an ICU room. I introduced myself as a pastor, and someone replied that they expected this woman to die any minute.   So we joined hands and prayed. I took that moment to reach every person in that room for Jesus. When you are walking in the spirit, God will give you directives.

4. Prayer brings DIRECTIVES from God.

At a church in Atlanta, Georgia, a lady with extremely bad rheumatoid arthritis came up to me and asked me to pray for her after service. So I prayed the power of faith, but did not feel anything – nothing. Well, two weeks later, I received a thank you card in the mail saying she was completely healed because she went home on Sunday afternoon and pulled out her mower and cut the grass.

Prayer is communicating with God in a way that works for you. Talk to God like a friend, and ask Him to keep you from your presumptuous flaws and sins.

5. Prayer is a LIFESTYLE.

The Bible says to “Pray without ceasing…” (1 Thess. 5:17)

6. Prayer will MANIFEST MIRACLES.

The Bible says, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; in My name they shall cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick and they shall recover.” (Mark 16:17-18)

7. Two major reasons people don’t pray:

A. DISTRACTIONS

Sometimes it is difficult to stop, slow down and spend time with Jesus, because of our busy lives. If you sign up, every day at noon, you will receive a text telling you to pray about different things. This is a reminder to stop what you are doing and to seek God.

David went from being a shepherd to maturity as a King through prayer.

Stop and pray, encouraging yourself in the Lord.

B. TRANSGRESSIONS

David said he had presumptuous sins and faults and flaws.   We are descendants of Adam and Eve, so we tend to want to run and hide when we sin. It’s a trick of Satan to not feel worthy to worship due to transgressions in our hearts. God does not want you walking around with guilt, because guilt comes from Satan. Jesus shed his blood at Calvary so that when you sin, you can turn around and run directly to Him. The challenge for us is to shorten the time frame between the time we transgress and the time that we run to Him. Jesus says, “Come to Me and I will forgive you.”   We come to the Father through Jesus who shed His blood because He is worthy.

Questions:

• How will you shorten your time between your transgression and running to Jesus?

• How will we fervently pray? What distractions need removal?

• Share examples of prayers answered.
  

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