April 24, 2025 • 30 mins
Developing a disciplined prayer life is about building a genuine relationship with God that involves both speaking and listening, rather than depending on others to pray us through difficult seasons.
• Prayer requires both watching (discerning God's movement) and praying to avoid temptation
• Avoid being like hypocrites who pray to be seen by others rather than connecting with God
• The effectiveness of prayer is measured by its fruit, not how it sounds
• Create dedicated time for prayer after dismissing crowds or completing responsibilities
• Prayer is a two-way conversation - many struggle because they're not listening for God's response
• We have direct access to God through Christ and don't need intermediaries
• Prayer doesn't require elaborate practices - even brief, authentic conversations with God are effective
• When confessing to God, leave negativity behind before moving forward
• Simple check-ins with God throughout the day maintain your connection
• Jesus modeled stepping away from crowds to commune with the Father
Lord, I thank you that this day is going to be amazing. Thank you for the blessings of today and that everything we do today is going to be successful. We're going to be filled with joy, receiving all the good news and blessings. Remove any distractions and give us the most amazing day. We love you, amen.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
no-transcript this morning and I feel like I feel
(03:43):
no.
I know it's because of what I'mgoing to talk to you all about
this morning.
So, good morning everybody.
If you're on Facebook, please,if you could share this video
with our communities and yourfriends, your family, this is
going to be a good one.
They're all good ones, but thisis a good one, whether you have
a prayer life already or you'reworking to maintain or build
one Again.
(04:05):
I'm just grateful that we'vecome to see another Thursday.
I can't believe the month ofApril is almost out of here
y'all.
So I'm praying that when youlook back on this month, you'll
be reminded just of how good Godis, because some of us are
coming through things that wedidn't know how we were going to
make it, and I'm just gratefulfor all of your testimonies.
(04:25):
So, before we go far, lord, Ijust thank you for this morning
and I thank you for what you'regoing to teach us this morning
through your word, through yourscripture, and encouraging us to
have discipline with our prayerlives.
We thank you, lord, that it isnot about the noise or just
showing up in ways that don'tmeet our needs with you, but
really communing with you,hearing from you and speaking
(04:47):
with you, amen.
So when I was preparing thismorning, you know, obviously I
get up early, I have this kindof mapped out scriptures in my
mind, all the things right.
I'm using a technology becausethis is essentially a podcast,
so it goes out on multipleplatforms.
It goes out on Facebook, onLinkedIn, youtube, parade Deck,
(05:09):
all at the same time, and thenit goes to the audio version,
the audio streets.
You know, later today ortomorrow, whatever.
But there's a lot that happensbehind the scenes, before I come
to these podcasts, right BeforeI come to these teaching
sessions, and there's a lot ofprayer that happens not just
(05:31):
today, obviously, but before Ieven step into this, before I
sit down here.
And I have a very strong prayerlife and I know that a lot of
people have.
You know, there's some folkswho are just not sure what a
prayer life looks like.
People get confused when theyhear the scripture that talks
(05:53):
about pray without ceasing, andit's not about you going to the
wall or going into your closetand just constantly praying.
It's not about a monologue.
There is a discipline around it, and so I just want to
encourage us this morning.
I'm going to share just threescriptures to encourage us
around our prayer life.
But I'm I'm praying just, youknow, quietly in my heart.
(06:15):
It's just me speaking to myLord and also allowing time for
me to hear.
I need to, I need to meditate,I need to hear what he's saying
and I just.
This is so.
This is something that's likeit's so important for us.
We can get caught up in, youknow, doom scrolling social
media.
You know we can get caught upin all and everything that's
(06:38):
happening in our lives.
We can also even get caught upin prayers, like you know those
people, who people are like oh,you need to go to so-and-so and
have her pray for you.
You don't need to do that.
You need to have a betterrelationship with the Lord and
the presence of the Holy Spirit.
You don't need to depend onsomeone else to pray you through
.
So one of the things that we'remost proud of with this prayer
(07:01):
ministry is that we're equippingyou so that you can be the
breakthrough and the blessing inyour family through prayer
right, so that you don't have towait for a prayer line even
though we have one right.
We don't want you to bedependent on the tools.
We want you to be dependent onGod, right, dependent on the
Holy Spirit showing up in yourprayer.
And then also for those who'vebeen praying.
(07:24):
You've been praying what wecall donkey years in Jamaica.
You've been praying for a longtime for the same thing, over
and over, and those prayers thatit just seems like your prayers
are.
Oh my gosh, my prayer is justnot being answered.
And yet the Lord answered youalong the way, but you missed it
because it wasn't the answerthat you wanted.
So that's why it's alsoimportant that when we pray, we
also followed up.
(07:44):
We meditate, we listen.
We're intentionally listeningfor the Lord, all right.
So, all that said, I'm going tojust look at the comments real
quick to say good morning, drTracy.
Yes, you can be the one to geta prayer through the Lord,
exactly, you don't have to relyon just your friends.
We want you to be dependent onthe Holy Spirit.
Much as I love y'all, don'tdepend on me.
We're pushing you to bedependent on God, all right.
(08:11):
So I have this scripture.
I want to drop the first oneand I'm just trying to copy it
up on another screen, trying tograb it real quick.
This is the first scripturehere and this is coming out of
Matthew 26, verse 41.
I'm going to pull it up on thescreen.
And this one, again, is justtalking about.
We're talking about developingour prayer life.
(08:31):
So, again, you might have afantastic prayer life and you're
like I don't need this, that'sfine, this is going to be a
reminder.
Or maybe you're just like Idon't even know what a prayer
life is.
It's having a discipline.
It's a discipline and settingtime, but again, it's.
You know, just the little things.
If you're on the job and youfeel a sense of frustration, you
know, step away, go in thebathroom for a second and just
(08:53):
you and the Lord and just speak.
You know, pray from your heart.
Okay, all right.
Matthew 26, ignore the typowatch and pray that you may not
enter into temptation.
So there's two things thathappens right, remember I said
you know, in the same way thatwe pray, we also have to listen,
right, speak and we have tolisten.
Matthew 26, 41 is sayingthere's two things.
(09:13):
First is watch, right and pray.
So those things work hand inhand.
It says why so that you're notgoing to enter into temptation.
You have to be able to discernand see where God is doing right
.
You have to be able to see howGod is operating.
And a lot of times and againmaybe I'm just speaking for
myself a lot of times we getcaught up in the gossip pool or
(09:37):
the.
You know, you get kind of getcaught up with your friends and
your I vent.
I have two friends that I workwith, that that I vent to and
because it's a sacred space forme, I can vent to them and, you
know, just tell them how I feel,like I'm losing my mind, all
the things right.
But even in those situations Ihave to be very careful, I have
(09:59):
to watch to make sure that thatspirit of gossip doesn't take
over or it doesn't become anegative.
You know we're not speaking,we're not cursing ourselves or
things like that.
So I'm watching but I'm alsopraying.
Lord, show me what you want meto do, even as a witness, in
this situation.
Right, when we finish that wealways end on a positive, we
lift each other up.
But we pray, why?
(10:21):
So we don't end up into anytemptation.
It says the spirit is, thespirit is willing, meaning our
spirit, but our flesh is weak,y'all right, we can all admit to
that.
It's really easy to get whippedup into what's going on right
in your life.
So I'm gonna share one morescripture.
This is now Matthew 6, versefive.
(10:41):
I'm sorry it takes a couple ofseconds for me to load it up in
the stream yard.
But Matthew 6, verse 5, anotherreally good one.
And this one says let me pullup on them, I'll put up on the
Facebook screen.
It says and when you pray, youmust not be like the hypocrites.
Okay, some of y'all are goingto be mad, so just bear with me.
(11:02):
Okay, for they love to standand pray in the synagogues and
at the street corners, that theymay be seen by others.
Truly, I say to you, they havereceived their reward.
Okay, so there's two things.
The first thing is thank you,holy Spirit.
It's not just about praying insynagogues and street corners.
This is about people who prayto be seen.
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This is very, very prevalent onTikTok.
It's very prevalent on Facebook.
It's prevalent in our churches,right, if you grew up in certain
denominations, there's that oneperson they call to pray, or
some of the prayer teams havetaken, you know, taken on the
form of acting out.
(11:45):
Like you know, people areperforming prayer.
Now, right, how you know?
How do you know someone'sprayer isn't effective.
Is the fruit?
What happens after that?
What you know?
Prayer when you're praying,you're planting a seed, but what
is the actual?
What are you bearing from?
What is the fruit?
What is the actual reward?
So I want to encourage what isthe fruit?
What is the actual reward?
So I want to encourage you allto don't be like hypocrites,
(12:09):
even when you go to the Lord.
Y'all don't be a hypocrite, youknow.
Don't go to the Lord.
You know and ask where you'regoing, and there's a way for me
on different prayer ways, eventsor things that I am expected,
the Lord shows me how toapproach his throne.
That's what we're doing right.
We're going to him right, andso it's very, very important
(12:34):
that you listen to what I'msaying.
Okay, hear what I'm saying.
So the first thing is, if you'rea prayer ministry leader or
you're praying at an event oryou're leading an event, you
have to know the way God has toshow you how he wants you to
bring that prayer communitytogether, like when you're
(12:54):
teaching, when you'reencouraging, now and again.
You know you don't have to havea title to do this, I'm just
saying maybe you're the personin the family and it's it's a
holiday and they count on you topray, like literally, like
let's not make it toocomplicated, okay, but even then
, if you're the one that's beentasked to pray, you should have
had a whole prayer before youstarted that prayer, right?
(13:15):
So, lord, you know how do youwant me to show up?
What do you want me to say?
You know, lord, use me as yourvessel, speak to me.
You actually go through thatbefore you go out front For
those of y'all who are, you know, on the social media spaces or
you're at different events andyou're being called up to pray
again.
You don't want to come off ashypocrite.
I know when someone's prayer isjust word, it might be fire, it
(13:39):
might be.
You know you feel excited.
You know you're just like, yes,right, you know what I'm saying
.
Like you ever hear that somepeople pray?
Like you know, I used to lovelistening to.
I used to go Baptist church.
We've gone through manydenominations.
I used to go to this Baptistchurch and there was this one
lady and older lady and whenlisten, when she prayed, you
(14:00):
felt like heaven came down Rightand I would look around the
room and you could see the firefalling and people are whipped
up in the prayer, yeah, amen,and then, and then, and then,
nothing happened.
Right, they didn't.
They all they did was theyswallowed the words effective
prayer, but they swallowed.
They listened to the words ofthe prayer, but then, when the
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Lord was speaking to show them.
These are some of the thingsnow that you need to do in order
to to have this be fruitful.
Right, no one want they want todo work, ok, so so I don't want
you to fall into.
You sound good, your auntiesounds good, your grandma sounds
good.
You know, whenever I hearpeople say you know, I have, I
have, I had.
(14:43):
My mom has passed.
I had a mother who prayed.
She was also a minister.
Prayer was a part of herlifestyle.
Okay, but I never rested onexpecting my mom to pray me
through a storm.
My mom taught me how to praythrough a storm.
You understand what I'm saying.
So that's the difference.
You are equipped to have thisincredible, awesome relationship
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with the Lord where you go tohim.
You, you know, you one-on-one.
You go to the Lord and youpresent your case, you present
yourself, you present yourproblems.
I mean, I talk to the Lord, youknow.
So my prayers might not sound,as you know as wonderful, as you
know as the prayer leaders atyour church.
But when, when I'm on a in aone-on-one with the Lord, like
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it's a conversation, meaningthat I'm speaking but I'm also
listening, I'm hearing.
So, again, we don't want to belike hypocrites, if you know, if
you're, if you're praying forthe same thing over and over
again and you're doing it, andyou know, because it feels good,
it feels good to say whensomeone says, oh, you need to
get so-and-so to pray with you,no, no, you have the same access
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that all of us have.
Because of the blood of JesusChrist, because of his sacrifice
, we have access to that samethrone.
So I don't want you to fallinto that mentality where you
have to wait for somebody elseor you fall into that.
I saw somebody on TikTok andnow you're following them
because you're needing theirprayers.
(16:13):
No, we can pray for ourselves,all right.
So there's one more scripturethat I want to share with you.
This is now another one fromMatthew.
Obviously, I was in Bible studyin Matthew, right.
Obviously you know where I was,all right.
So this last one is Matthew 14.
This is verse 23.
And again, super, superimportant.
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Don't worry about the typosFocus All right, matthew 14, 23.
And after he had dismissed thecrowds, he went up on the
mountain by himself to pray.
When evening came, he was therealone.
So here's what I'm going to sayabout this one, and especially
for those of you who are inleadership roles.
(16:55):
Maybe you're leading anorganization, you're leading a
team, you're leading a ministry,whatever it is, but you're in a
leadership role.
I'm also going to say this isimportant for especially moms or
caregivers.
Okay, I want after you when itsays after he had dismissed them
.
We're talking about Jesus afterthe crowds leave, after your
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kids go to bed, after you'vedone the work in the house, at
the end of the evening orwhatever that looks like, but
after everything is over, and Imake this a practice.
So if I have guests come over,like after they leave, I,
everything is over and I makethis a practice.
So if, if, if I have guestscome over, like after they leave
, I'm going up to pray.
Right, it's really more aboutthe discipline of you know of,
(17:38):
of setting time for yourself togo to, to the Lord, and I I am
positioning this as aftersomething, after you've been
around people.
So what it looks like for me.
I'm going to just be real.
Practical is I told y'all I'm acorporate girlie.
I go into the office onWednesdays.
I'm drained by the time I'mleaving, because it is very
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difficult.
It's because it's verydifficult for me because, one,
I'm in meetings all day long orI'm working heads down.
One, I'm in meetings all daylong or I'm working heads down.
So for me, when I leave thatbuilding, my after the crowd
quote unquote is when I get inmy car.
After I left the building, Ileft all the things and I come
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in the car and I use that as atime for me to start speaking to
the Lord about the day.
Sometimes I'm whining,sometimes I'm just so grateful,
thanking him, and I start to askhim to show me, replay the
things, anything that I'vemissed, if there's anything that
happened in the meetings or anyconversations or anything that
I.
This is also when I use thistime as an opportunity for me to
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do confession.
Some of y'all don't doconfession.
You confess to the Lord.
You don't need to confess to aman.
Some of y'all don't doconfession.
You confess to the Lord, youdon't need to confess to a man.
I know y'all gonna come for me.
You don't.
You don't need.
Your intercessor is Jesus andthe Holy Spirit.
You don't need a man.
So I sit in the car and I startrolling out my confession.
Lord, please forgive me for thethoughts and the deeds and the
words that I said, and evenbeing caught up in the negative.
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Lord, god, forgive me.
Wipe the slate, because nowwhat I'm doing is I don't want
to come into agreement withanything that is negative or
gossipy, or anything that's adoubt, anything like that,
anything that takes me away fromwhat the Lord told me about me.
I don't want anything to dowith it.
So, after the crowd, I'm goingto pull this back again because
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I'm trying to show you this injust a different context.
Right, what we're looking at isMatthew 14, 23.
After he dismissed the crowd, hewent up on the mountain by
himself to pray.
When evening came, he was at,meaning he was still there.
He was there for a time Now, inreality, right.
So now in our natural lives,you know we don't, we're not
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spending hours in our car, butmaybe you have a commute, you
know?
Instead of complaining about,ok, I've got this 90 minute
commute and I don't want to goin and blah, blah, blah, use
that time as your time to talkto the Lord.
Don't use that time as a timeto you know.
Run down a list of all the woesand nays, right, maybe use 30
minutes of that time to just be,you know.
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Talk to him like, listen, lord.
You know, sometimes, like likeyesterday I was, I was on my way
home and I felt like I just Ijust feel it's there's a lot of
unrest and but there's also somereally cool things that's
happening and I'm gratefulbecause I operate in very
complex, ambiguous situation.
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I don't know why, but somethingthat is a gift that the Lord, I
know, gave me is one, I peopletrust me.
Two, I'm credible.
And three, I'm a hard worker.
And he, he will drop me in themiddle of the most ambiguous
situations and show me all ofthe solutions all at the same
time.
But when I'm, uh, when I'm inthe middle of it, I need time
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for me and him to be like areyou sure?
And you know all the things?
Are you sure?
Is this what you're thinking?
Is that what?
And so if I'm not careful, Iwill start to listen and respond
to everything chaotic andnegative, and I will start to do
that.
I'll start chewing and eatingall of the negative news.
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I will start to do that.
I'm human, right, I'll start totake that in.
So what I do is I start to.
When I get in my car, I purgethose things from me immediately
and I start to confess and Ileave it in my car.
By the time I get home, all ofall them things are in the car
and then in my spiritual mind Idon't, don't laugh, don't like
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don't laugh at me, okay, but inmy spiritual, spiritual mind,
when I pull into my house, whenI park my car in my garage, okay
, when I step out of the car,there's a group of angels that
go in and they set the wholething on fire, meaning they burn
off anything.
So I leave that stuff, meaningI don't bring it into my
household.
My foot, my next step isoutside of anything negative.
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I leave that stuff there, Idon't bring it back, okay, and
that's what I do.
So that's again separating.
You got to give yourself time toseparate from whatever the
situation is.
So again, just reminding you ifyou're driving into an office,
use that, use your commute timeto do that.
If you're not physicallydriving into an office, you know
, make it up.
If you're someone who worksfrom home, then maybe your
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practice is when you close it.
When you finish the day, youclose your laptop, you turn off
the lights and you go outsidefor a few minutes and you start
talking to the Lord.
The idea is you have to havesome kind of discipline where
you're unloading to him morethan you're unloading to others.
The more that I unload to theLord, the more I see his
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perspective and I'm not whippedup in what other people say.
Your friends and your familymembers can cause you to do some
crazy things.
Okay, because they want todefend you, but sometimes that's
not the right answer.
So again, having that veryconsistent prayer life.
Now, notice, I'm going to justsay this and then I'm going to
do prayer.
And then, you know, again Ikeep saying don't be mad.
(23:06):
Notice, I've said nothing aboutyour beautiful prayer closets.
Okay, and again, I've watchedso many people get stuck in
their prayer closets and ifyou're in your prayer closet and
you're in there praying, I prayfor you.
Know, I've been praying forthree days and 12 months.
Listen, I can say a prayer intwo minutes and get the answer
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that I need.
It's not, it's not about, it'sreally what's on your heart.
The truth is, the Lord knowswhat's on your heart and he
wants to give you the desires ofyour heart.
What is missing is that youain't listening right, so it's
not creating like we're makingit so difficult to speak to the
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Lord so that so many people noware saying that they're not
hearing from God.
And God is talking all day long.
If you just listen right, soI'm not a fan, if you will, of
putting in what's now becomereligious practices of a prayer
life where it put it like thisIf you and I are friends right,
(24:12):
you and I are friends you'rejust going to text or call when
you need me.
And then not only do you textor call when you need me.
I'm assuming that you also wantto hear how I'm doing.
Sometimes it's just a check inhow are you doing, but it's not
okay.
Every day at 3 pm I'm going togo here and I'm going to go into
this room and then I'm going tosit in that room for 12 hours
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and I'm not going to leave untilI get an answer, because I'm
beating down heaven's door.
No, sometimes when you go inthat room, you're speaking to
yourself, the reason yourprayers aren't getting answered
is because you're not listeningwhen God's talking to you.
He heard you the first twominutes of your prayer.
But because we've been, a lotof us have been trained right
that we have to pray withoutceasing, and we've taken that
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out of context.
So you know beautiful prayerclasses, but if you're still
struggling with the same thingover and over again, then that
means that your prayer itself isnot effective.
It's not the room, it's not howyou look, it's not the time of
day, it's none of that.
It's not real.
Your prayer is not effective.
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That's why having a prayer lifeand the habit and discipline is
so important.
All right, all right, I've saida lot.
Um, I hope that I hope thishelped y'all.
It definitely helps me.
Uh, this is a, a.
You know we're, we're doinglife together, okay, uh, and so
I?
My intention is really to helpall of us.
(25:36):
Just, just, I don't know.
I just feel like, like I said,I started out by saying I was so
fidgety Like I couldn't.
I couldn't, I didn't feelsettled coming on this morning,
because this is a tough one.
Everyone is trying to seek, seekGod and we're all wanting to
hear from the Lord aboutspecific again.
I'm maybe I'm just speaking formyself, but there's some things
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where I'm like I'm gonna needyou to go faster, lord.
I need you to operate faster.
You see what's happening hereand that in itself is a prayer.
When I say that to him, lord, Ineed you to help me here.
That's an actual prayer, right,but I want us to also come into
the discipline of listening, oflistening.
So, lord, I just thank you forall that you said this morning.
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We thank you for the scripturesand the words that you provided
to back it up and that you knowwe don't want to be hypocrites,
just, you know repeating wordsor doing things, you know going
through the motions.
We want.
We want to have a real,authentic relationship with you,
a real prayer life, and I thankyou, lord, that you're
reminding us that we don't needto go through any man, woman,
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boy or girl to access yourkingdom, that we just need to
come to you, holy Spirit.
I thank you that you'll evenencourage us and light that fire
again for those who have feltlike they're not hearing from
you, or that you'll speak to us,and we thank you for reminding
us that we have this accessbecause of the blood of Jesus
Christ.
I thank you for yourawesomeness.
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You're such a good father.
Father, I pray that you'll blessevery person under the sound of
my voice, that you'll justrestore them Everything that's
been taken or lost, whether it'seven peace or finances or
comfort, anything that they'restanding in need of.
That, lord, not only have youalready answered, but would you
just show them again, would youjust remind them of what the
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answer was?
If there's anyone who'smistaken your voice for
something else, when it trulywas you speaking, would you
speak to them again in the waythat you have defined it?
Thank you, lord, because youare so good.
Thank you that this day isgoing to be an amazing one.
Thank you for the blessings oftoday and that every one of us,
everything that we do today, isgoing to be successful.
We're not going to be tired ordepressed or feel any emptiness
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or loneliness.
We're going to be filled withjoy.
Today we are excited about theday.
We're receiving all the goodnews and blessings.
Today we thank you for ourfamilies, our friends, our
colleagues.
Lord, god, we even pray overthose who we work with.
That you'll bring peace intothe work life.
Lord, god, lord, in everysituation, I ask that you'll
remove any distraction, whetherit's a people, a place or a
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thing, lord God, anything that'scausing us to be separated from
you in any way, and just giveus the most amazing day of joy.
Thank you, lord.
You are so amazing.
We love you, amen, amen, see.
That's my whole prayer.
Lord, you are so amazing.
We love you, amen, amen, see.
That's my whole prayer.
Lord, sometimes my whole prayeris you are so amazing, I don't
want anything, I just wanted totell you.
Or sometimes my prayer is likeI'll just check in.
(28:33):
Hey, jesus, how's your daygoing?
I mean, we're making it toocomplicated.
This is a relationship, right?
Don't you want to have arelationship with someone who's
like, cares about you?
You know who's asking howyou're doing.
You know how.
I know what Jesus wants me todo, because I ask him hey, lord,
how are you doing?
How was your day?
What would you like me to dotoday?
(28:54):
How do you see this working out?
I saw you today.
Sometimes my prayer is like oh,jesus, I thank you, I saw you
today.
Then I start to list it up Isaw you and taking me safely.
I saw you in the smile on thischild's face.
I heard you, I heard you.
I heard your laughter.
I just started to, but again Ihave a relationship right.
Holy spirit, I thank you,you're so good.
(29:15):
Thank you for your coaching.
I heard you when you weretelling me not to listen to
so-and-so, thank you for urgingme to.
You know, giving me that nudgeto go.
He gave me a nudge to go into awhole room yesterday.
I had no intention, but thatone nudge because I was obedient
and I knew that it was himspeaking.
It again made no sense.
It was you need to get up, youneed to go in that room, you
(29:38):
need to go get some water.
Why I didn't?
I didn't.
Okay, lord, let me pray aboutit.
No, I know his voice.
So by being obedient, watch andpray.
I responded to that.
I went into that room and y'all, I made an incredible
connection.
So I don't want any of us tomiss that right.
I don't want it to miss it.
And that is actual.
That is prayer right.
All right, I love y'all.
(30:00):
Jesus loves you more.
I hope to see you next week.
Have an amazing rest of yourThursday, Don't forget.
We've got a prayer line.
Call us if you need us, and Godbless you.
Bye-bye.
no-transcript this morning and I feel like I feel
(03:43):
no.
I know it's because of what I'mgoing to talk to you all about
this morning.
So, good morning everybody.
If you're on Facebook, please,if you could share this video
with our communities and yourfriends, your family, this is
going to be a good one.
They're all good ones, but thisis a good one, whether you have
a prayer life already or you'reworking to maintain or build
one Again.
(04:05):
I'm just grateful that we'vecome to see another Thursday.
I can't believe the month ofApril is almost out of here
y'all.
So I'm praying that when youlook back on this month, you'll
be reminded just of how good Godis, because some of us are
coming through things that wedidn't know how we were going to
make it, and I'm just gratefulfor all of your testimonies.
(04:25):
So, before we go far, lord, Ijust thank you for this morning
and I thank you for what you'regoing to teach us this morning
through your word, through yourscripture, and encouraging us to
have discipline with our prayerlives.
We thank you, lord, that it isnot about the noise or just
showing up in ways that don'tmeet our needs with you, but
really communing with you,hearing from you and speaking
(04:47):
with you, amen.
So when I was preparing thismorning, you know, obviously I
get up early, I have this kindof mapped out scriptures in my
mind, all the things right.
I'm using a technology becausethis is essentially a podcast,
so it goes out on multipleplatforms.
It goes out on Facebook, onLinkedIn, youtube, parade Deck,
(05:09):
all at the same time, and thenit goes to the audio version,
the audio streets.
You know, later today ortomorrow, whatever.
But there's a lot that happensbehind the scenes, before I come
to these podcasts, right BeforeI come to these teaching
sessions, and there's a lot ofprayer that happens not just
(05:31):
today, obviously, but before Ieven step into this, before I
sit down here.
And I have a very strong prayerlife and I know that a lot of
people have.
You know, there's some folkswho are just not sure what a
prayer life looks like.
People get confused when theyhear the scripture that talks
(05:53):
about pray without ceasing, andit's not about you going to the
wall or going into your closetand just constantly praying.
It's not about a monologue.
There is a discipline around it, and so I just want to
encourage us this morning.
I'm going to share just threescriptures to encourage us
around our prayer life.
But I'm I'm praying just, youknow, quietly in my heart.
(06:15):
It's just me speaking to myLord and also allowing time for
me to hear.
I need to, I need to meditate,I need to hear what he's saying
and I just.
This is so.
This is something that's likeit's so important for us.
We can get caught up in, youknow, doom scrolling social
media.
You know we can get caught upin all and everything that's
(06:38):
happening in our lives.
We can also even get caught upin prayers, like you know those
people, who people are like oh,you need to go to so-and-so and
have her pray for you.
You don't need to do that.
You need to have a betterrelationship with the Lord and
the presence of the Holy Spirit.
You don't need to depend onsomeone else to pray you through
.
So one of the things that we'remost proud of with this prayer
(07:01):
ministry is that we're equippingyou so that you can be the
breakthrough and the blessing inyour family through prayer
right, so that you don't have towait for a prayer line even
though we have one right.
We don't want you to bedependent on the tools.
We want you to be dependent onGod, right, dependent on the
Holy Spirit showing up in yourprayer.
And then also for those who'vebeen praying.
(07:24):
You've been praying what wecall donkey years in Jamaica.
You've been praying for a longtime for the same thing, over
and over, and those prayers thatit just seems like your prayers
are.
Oh my gosh, my prayer is justnot being answered.
And yet the Lord answered youalong the way, but you missed it
because it wasn't the answerthat you wanted.
So that's why it's alsoimportant that when we pray, we
also followed up.
(07:44):
We meditate, we listen.
We're intentionally listeningfor the Lord, all right.
So, all that said, I'm going tojust look at the comments real
quick to say good morning, drTracy.
Yes, you can be the one to geta prayer through the Lord,
exactly, you don't have to relyon just your friends.
We want you to be dependent onthe Holy Spirit.
Much as I love y'all, don'tdepend on me.
We're pushing you to bedependent on God, all right.
(08:11):
So I have this scripture.
I want to drop the first oneand I'm just trying to copy it
up on another screen, trying tograb it real quick.
This is the first scripturehere and this is coming out of
Matthew 26, verse 41.
I'm going to pull it up on thescreen.
And this one, again, is justtalking about.
We're talking about developingour prayer life.
(08:31):
So, again, you might have afantastic prayer life and you're
like I don't need this, that'sfine, this is going to be a
reminder.
Or maybe you're just like Idon't even know what a prayer
life is.
It's having a discipline.
It's a discipline and settingtime, but again, it's.
You know, just the little things.
If you're on the job and youfeel a sense of frustration, you
know, step away, go in thebathroom for a second and just
(08:53):
you and the Lord and just speak.
You know, pray from your heart.
Okay, all right.
Matthew 26, ignore the typowatch and pray that you may not
enter into temptation.
So there's two things thathappens right, remember I said
you know, in the same way thatwe pray, we also have to listen,
right, speak and we have tolisten.
Matthew 26, 41 is sayingthere's two things.
(09:13):
First is watch, right and pray.
So those things work hand inhand.
It says why so that you're notgoing to enter into temptation.
You have to be able to discernand see where God is doing right
.
You have to be able to see howGod is operating.
And a lot of times and againmaybe I'm just speaking for
myself a lot of times we getcaught up in the gossip pool or
(09:37):
the.
You know, you get kind of getcaught up with your friends and
your I vent.
I have two friends that I workwith, that that I vent to and
because it's a sacred space forme, I can vent to them and, you
know, just tell them how I feel,like I'm losing my mind, all
the things right.
But even in those situations Ihave to be very careful, I have
(09:59):
to watch to make sure that thatspirit of gossip doesn't take
over or it doesn't become anegative.
You know we're not speaking,we're not cursing ourselves or
things like that.
So I'm watching but I'm alsopraying.
Lord, show me what you want meto do, even as a witness, in
this situation.
Right, when we finish that wealways end on a positive, we
lift each other up.
But we pray, why?
(10:21):
So we don't end up into anytemptation.
It says the spirit is, thespirit is willing, meaning our
spirit, but our flesh is weak,y'all right, we can all admit to
that.
It's really easy to get whippedup into what's going on right
in your life.
So I'm gonna share one morescripture.
This is now Matthew 6, versefive.
(10:41):
I'm sorry it takes a couple ofseconds for me to load it up in
the stream yard.
But Matthew 6, verse 5, anotherreally good one.
And this one says let me pullup on them, I'll put up on the
Facebook screen.
It says and when you pray, youmust not be like the hypocrites.
Okay, some of y'all are goingto be mad, so just bear with me.
(11:02):
Okay, for they love to standand pray in the synagogues and
at the street corners, that theymay be seen by others.
Truly, I say to you, they havereceived their reward.
Okay, so there's two things.
The first thing is thank you,holy Spirit.
It's not just about praying insynagogues and street corners.
This is about people who prayto be seen.
(11:24):
This is very, very prevalent onTikTok.
It's very prevalent on Facebook.
It's prevalent in our churches,right, if you grew up in certain
denominations, there's that oneperson they call to pray, or
some of the prayer teams havetaken, you know, taken on the
form of acting out.
(11:45):
Like you know, people areperforming prayer.
Now, right, how you know?
How do you know someone'sprayer isn't effective.
Is the fruit?
What happens after that?
What you know?
Prayer when you're praying,you're planting a seed, but what
is the actual?
What are you bearing from?
What is the fruit?
What is the actual reward?
So I want to encourage what isthe fruit?
What is the actual reward?
So I want to encourage you allto don't be like hypocrites,
(12:09):
even when you go to the Lord.
Y'all don't be a hypocrite, youknow.
Don't go to the Lord.
You know and ask where you'regoing, and there's a way for me
on different prayer ways, eventsor things that I am expected,
the Lord shows me how toapproach his throne.
That's what we're doing right.
We're going to him right, andso it's very, very important
(12:34):
that you listen to what I'msaying.
Okay, hear what I'm saying.
So the first thing is, if you'rea prayer ministry leader or
you're praying at an event oryou're leading an event, you
have to know the way God has toshow you how he wants you to
bring that prayer communitytogether, like when you're
(12:54):
teaching, when you'reencouraging, now and again.
You know you don't have to havea title to do this, I'm just
saying maybe you're the personin the family and it's it's a
holiday and they count on you topray, like literally, like
let's not make it toocomplicated, okay, but even then
, if you're the one that's beentasked to pray, you should have
had a whole prayer before youstarted that prayer, right?
(13:15):
So, lord, you know how do youwant me to show up?
What do you want me to say?
You know, lord, use me as yourvessel, speak to me.
You actually go through thatbefore you go out front For
those of y'all who are, you know, on the social media spaces or
you're at different events andyou're being called up to pray
again.
You don't want to come off ashypocrite.
I know when someone's prayer isjust word, it might be fire, it
(13:39):
might be.
You know you feel excited.
You know you're just like, yes,right, you know what I'm saying
.
Like you ever hear that somepeople pray?
Like you know, I used to lovelistening to.
I used to go Baptist church.
We've gone through manydenominations.
I used to go to this Baptistchurch and there was this one
lady and older lady and whenlisten, when she prayed, you
(14:00):
felt like heaven came down Rightand I would look around the
room and you could see the firefalling and people are whipped
up in the prayer, yeah, amen,and then, and then, and then,
nothing happened.
Right, they didn't.
They all they did was theyswallowed the words effective
prayer, but they swallowed.
They listened to the words ofthe prayer, but then, when the
(14:23):
Lord was speaking to show them.
These are some of the thingsnow that you need to do in order
to to have this be fruitful.
Right, no one want they want todo work, ok, so so I don't want
you to fall into.
You sound good, your auntiesounds good, your grandma sounds
good.
You know, whenever I hearpeople say you know, I have, I
have, I had.
(14:43):
My mom has passed.
I had a mother who prayed.
She was also a minister.
Prayer was a part of herlifestyle.
Okay, but I never rested onexpecting my mom to pray me
through a storm.
My mom taught me how to praythrough a storm.
You understand what I'm saying.
So that's the difference.
You are equipped to have thisincredible, awesome relationship
(15:07):
with the Lord where you go tohim.
You, you know, you one-on-one.
You go to the Lord and youpresent your case, you present
yourself, you present yourproblems.
I mean, I talk to the Lord, youknow.
So my prayers might not sound,as you know as wonderful, as you
know as the prayer leaders atyour church.
But when, when I'm on a in aone-on-one with the Lord, like
(15:30):
it's a conversation, meaningthat I'm speaking but I'm also
listening, I'm hearing.
So, again, we don't want to belike hypocrites, if you know, if
you're, if you're praying forthe same thing over and over
again and you're doing it, andyou know, because it feels good,
it feels good to say whensomeone says, oh, you need to
get so-and-so to pray with you,no, no, you have the same access
(15:52):
that all of us have.
Because of the blood of JesusChrist, because of his sacrifice
, we have access to that samethrone.
So I don't want you to fallinto that mentality where you
have to wait for somebody elseor you fall into that.
I saw somebody on TikTok andnow you're following them
because you're needing theirprayers.
(16:13):
No, we can pray for ourselves,all right.
So there's one more scripturethat I want to share with you.
This is now another one fromMatthew.
Obviously, I was in Bible studyin Matthew, right.
Obviously you know where I was,all right.
So this last one is Matthew 14.
This is verse 23.
And again, super, superimportant.
(16:33):
Don't worry about the typosFocus All right, matthew 14, 23.
And after he had dismissed thecrowds, he went up on the
mountain by himself to pray.
When evening came, he was therealone.
So here's what I'm going to sayabout this one, and especially
for those of you who are inleadership roles.
(16:55):
Maybe you're leading anorganization, you're leading a
team, you're leading a ministry,whatever it is, but you're in a
leadership role.
I'm also going to say this isimportant for especially moms or
caregivers.
Okay, I want after you when itsays after he had dismissed them
.
We're talking about Jesus afterthe crowds leave, after your
(17:17):
kids go to bed, after you'vedone the work in the house, at
the end of the evening orwhatever that looks like, but
after everything is over, and Imake this a practice.
So if I have guests come over,like after they leave, I,
everything is over and I makethis a practice.
So if, if, if I have guestscome over, like after they leave
, I'm going up to pray.
Right, it's really more aboutthe discipline of you know of,
(17:38):
of setting time for yourself togo to, to the Lord, and I I am
positioning this as aftersomething, after you've been
around people.
So what it looks like for me.
I'm going to just be real.
Practical is I told y'all I'm acorporate girlie.
I go into the office onWednesdays.
I'm drained by the time I'mleaving, because it is very
(17:59):
difficult.
It's because it's verydifficult for me because, one,
I'm in meetings all day long orI'm working heads down.
One, I'm in meetings all daylong or I'm working heads down.
So for me, when I leave thatbuilding, my after the crowd
quote unquote is when I get inmy car.
After I left the building, Ileft all the things and I come
(18:20):
in the car and I use that as atime for me to start speaking to
the Lord about the day.
Sometimes I'm whining,sometimes I'm just so grateful,
thanking him, and I start to askhim to show me, replay the
things, anything that I'vemissed, if there's anything that
happened in the meetings or anyconversations or anything that
I.
This is also when I use thistime as an opportunity for me to
(18:44):
do confession.
Some of y'all don't doconfession.
You confess to the Lord.
You don't need to confess to aman.
Some of y'all don't doconfession.
You confess to the Lord, youdon't need to confess to a man.
I know y'all gonna come for me.
You don't.
You don't need.
Your intercessor is Jesus andthe Holy Spirit.
You don't need a man.
So I sit in the car and I startrolling out my confession.
Lord, please forgive me for thethoughts and the deeds and the
words that I said, and evenbeing caught up in the negative.
(19:05):
Lord, god, forgive me.
Wipe the slate, because nowwhat I'm doing is I don't want
to come into agreement withanything that is negative or
gossipy, or anything that's adoubt, anything like that,
anything that takes me away fromwhat the Lord told me about me.
I don't want anything to dowith it.
So, after the crowd, I'm goingto pull this back again because
(19:27):
I'm trying to show you this injust a different context.
Right, what we're looking at isMatthew 14, 23.
After he dismissed the crowd, hewent up on the mountain by
himself to pray.
When evening came, he was at,meaning he was still there.
He was there for a time Now, inreality, right.
So now in our natural lives,you know we don't, we're not
(19:47):
spending hours in our car, butmaybe you have a commute, you
know?
Instead of complaining about,ok, I've got this 90 minute
commute and I don't want to goin and blah, blah, blah, use
that time as your time to talkto the Lord.
Don't use that time as a timeto you know.
Run down a list of all the woesand nays, right, maybe use 30
minutes of that time to just be,you know.
(20:07):
Talk to him like, listen, lord.
You know, sometimes, like likeyesterday I was, I was on my way
home and I felt like I just Ijust feel it's there's a lot of
unrest and but there's also somereally cool things that's
happening and I'm gratefulbecause I operate in very
complex, ambiguous situation.
(20:29):
I don't know why, but somethingthat is a gift that the Lord, I
know, gave me is one, I peopletrust me.
Two, I'm credible.
And three, I'm a hard worker.
And he, he will drop me in themiddle of the most ambiguous
situations and show me all ofthe solutions all at the same
time.
But when I'm, uh, when I'm inthe middle of it, I need time
(20:52):
for me and him to be like areyou sure?
And you know all the things?
Are you sure?
Is this what you're thinking?
Is that what?
And so if I'm not careful, Iwill start to listen and respond
to everything chaotic andnegative, and I will start to do
that.
I'll start chewing and eatingall of the negative news.
(21:14):
I will start to do that.
I'm human, right, I'll start totake that in.
So what I do is I start to.
When I get in my car, I purgethose things from me immediately
and I start to confess and Ileave it in my car.
By the time I get home, all ofall them things are in the car
and then in my spiritual mind Idon't, don't laugh, don't like
(21:34):
don't laugh at me, okay, but inmy spiritual, spiritual mind,
when I pull into my house, whenI park my car in my garage, okay
, when I step out of the car,there's a group of angels that
go in and they set the wholething on fire, meaning they burn
off anything.
So I leave that stuff, meaningI don't bring it into my
household.
My foot, my next step isoutside of anything negative.
(22:00):
I leave that stuff there, Idon't bring it back, okay, and
that's what I do.
So that's again separating.
You got to give yourself time toseparate from whatever the
situation is.
So again, just reminding you ifyou're driving into an office,
use that, use your commute timeto do that.
If you're not physicallydriving into an office, you know
, make it up.
If you're someone who worksfrom home, then maybe your
(22:23):
practice is when you close it.
When you finish the day, youclose your laptop, you turn off
the lights and you go outsidefor a few minutes and you start
talking to the Lord.
The idea is you have to havesome kind of discipline where
you're unloading to him morethan you're unloading to others.
The more that I unload to theLord, the more I see his
(22:44):
perspective and I'm not whippedup in what other people say.
Your friends and your familymembers can cause you to do some
crazy things.
Okay, because they want todefend you, but sometimes that's
not the right answer.
So again, having that veryconsistent prayer life.
Now, notice, I'm going to justsay this and then I'm going to
do prayer.
And then, you know, again Ikeep saying don't be mad.
(23:06):
Notice, I've said nothing aboutyour beautiful prayer closets.
Okay, and again, I've watchedso many people get stuck in
their prayer closets and ifyou're in your prayer closet and
you're in there praying, I prayfor you.
Know, I've been praying forthree days and 12 months.
Listen, I can say a prayer intwo minutes and get the answer
(23:28):
that I need.
It's not, it's not about, it'sreally what's on your heart.
The truth is, the Lord knowswhat's on your heart and he
wants to give you the desires ofyour heart.
What is missing is that youain't listening right, so it's
not creating like we're makingit so difficult to speak to the
(23:50):
Lord so that so many people noware saying that they're not
hearing from God.
And God is talking all day long.
If you just listen right, soI'm not a fan, if you will, of
putting in what's now becomereligious practices of a prayer
life where it put it like thisIf you and I are friends right,
(24:12):
you and I are friends you'rejust going to text or call when
you need me.
And then not only do you textor call when you need me.
I'm assuming that you also wantto hear how I'm doing.
Sometimes it's just a check inhow are you doing, but it's not
okay.
Every day at 3 pm I'm going togo here and I'm going to go into
this room and then I'm going tosit in that room for 12 hours
(24:34):
and I'm not going to leave untilI get an answer, because I'm
beating down heaven's door.
No, sometimes when you go inthat room, you're speaking to
yourself, the reason yourprayers aren't getting answered
is because you're not listeningwhen God's talking to you.
He heard you the first twominutes of your prayer.
But because we've been, a lotof us have been trained right
that we have to pray withoutceasing, and we've taken that
(24:55):
out of context.
So you know beautiful prayerclasses, but if you're still
struggling with the same thingover and over again, then that
means that your prayer itself isnot effective.
It's not the room, it's not howyou look, it's not the time of
day, it's none of that.
It's not real.
Your prayer is not effective.
(25:16):
That's why having a prayer lifeand the habit and discipline is
so important.
All right, all right, I've saida lot.
Um, I hope that I hope thishelped y'all.
It definitely helps me.
Uh, this is a, a.
You know we're, we're doinglife together, okay, uh, and so
I?
My intention is really to helpall of us.
(25:36):
Just, just, I don't know.
I just feel like, like I said,I started out by saying I was so
fidgety Like I couldn't.
I couldn't, I didn't feelsettled coming on this morning,
because this is a tough one.
Everyone is trying to seek, seekGod and we're all wanting to
hear from the Lord aboutspecific again.
I'm maybe I'm just speaking formyself, but there's some things
(25:59):
where I'm like I'm gonna needyou to go faster, lord.
I need you to operate faster.
You see what's happening hereand that in itself is a prayer.
When I say that to him, lord, Ineed you to help me here.
That's an actual prayer, right,but I want us to also come into
the discipline of listening, oflistening.
So, lord, I just thank you forall that you said this morning.
(26:21):
We thank you for the scripturesand the words that you provided
to back it up and that you knowwe don't want to be hypocrites,
just, you know repeating wordsor doing things, you know going
through the motions.
We want.
We want to have a real,authentic relationship with you,
a real prayer life, and I thankyou, lord, that you're
reminding us that we don't needto go through any man, woman,
(26:42):
boy or girl to access yourkingdom, that we just need to
come to you, holy Spirit.
I thank you that you'll evenencourage us and light that fire
again for those who have feltlike they're not hearing from
you, or that you'll speak to us,and we thank you for reminding
us that we have this accessbecause of the blood of Jesus
Christ.
I thank you for yourawesomeness.
(27:04):
You're such a good father.
Father, I pray that you'll blessevery person under the sound of
my voice, that you'll justrestore them Everything that's
been taken or lost, whether it'seven peace or finances or
comfort, anything that they'restanding in need of.
That, lord, not only have youalready answered, but would you
just show them again, would youjust remind them of what the
(27:24):
answer was?
If there's anyone who'smistaken your voice for
something else, when it trulywas you speaking, would you
speak to them again in the waythat you have defined it?
Thank you, lord, because youare so good.
Thank you that this day isgoing to be an amazing one.
Thank you for the blessings oftoday and that every one of us,
everything that we do today, isgoing to be successful.
We're not going to be tired ordepressed or feel any emptiness
(27:49):
or loneliness.
We're going to be filled withjoy.
Today we are excited about theday.
We're receiving all the goodnews and blessings.
Today we thank you for ourfamilies, our friends, our
colleagues.
Lord, god, we even pray overthose who we work with.
That you'll bring peace intothe work life.
Lord, god, lord, in everysituation, I ask that you'll
remove any distraction, whetherit's a people, a place or a
(28:12):
thing, lord God, anything that'scausing us to be separated from
you in any way, and just giveus the most amazing day of joy.
Thank you, lord.
You are so amazing.
We love you, amen, amen, see.
That's my whole prayer.
Lord, you are so amazing.
We love you, amen, amen, see.
That's my whole prayer.
Lord, sometimes my whole prayeris you are so amazing, I don't
want anything, I just wanted totell you.
Or sometimes my prayer is likeI'll just check in.
(28:33):
Hey, jesus, how's your daygoing?
I mean, we're making it toocomplicated.
This is a relationship, right?
Don't you want to have arelationship with someone who's
like, cares about you?
You know who's asking howyou're doing.
You know how.
I know what Jesus wants me todo, because I ask him hey, lord,
how are you doing?
How was your day?
What would you like me to dotoday?
(28:54):
How do you see this working out?
I saw you today.
Sometimes my prayer is like oh,jesus, I thank you, I saw you
today.
Then I start to list it up Isaw you and taking me safely.
I saw you in the smile on thischild's face.
I heard you, I heard you.
I heard your laughter.
I just started to, but again Ihave a relationship right.
Holy spirit, I thank you,you're so good.
(29:15):
Thank you for your coaching.
I heard you when you weretelling me not to listen to
so-and-so, thank you for urgingme to.
You know, giving me that nudgeto go.
He gave me a nudge to go into awhole room yesterday.
I had no intention, but thatone nudge because I was obedient
and I knew that it was himspeaking.
It again made no sense.
It was you need to get up, youneed to go in that room, you
(29:38):
need to go get some water.
Why I didn't?
I didn't.
Okay, lord, let me pray aboutit.
No, I know his voice.
So by being obedient, watch andpray.
I responded to that.
I went into that room and y'all, I made an incredible
connection.
So I don't want any of us tomiss that right.
I don't want it to miss it.
And that is actual.
That is prayer right.
All right, I love y'all.
(30:00):
Jesus loves you more.
I hope to see you next week.
Have an amazing rest of yourThursday, Don't forget.
We've got a prayer line.
Call us if you need us, and Godbless you.
Bye-bye.
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