January 24, 2025 • 27 mins
What if understanding prayer could transform your spiritual journey? Join us on this enlightening episode as we promise to unravel the simplicity and depth of prayer, transforming it into a meaningful dialogue with the divine. As we celebrate four years of spiritual exploration together, this episode ventures into the heart of prayer, challenging misconceptions and offering insights that could reshape your spiritual conversations. We reflect on questions like "What is prayer?" and "How do we pray?", emphasizing that prayer need not be elaborate to be significant. Dive into scriptural contexts, such as John 9:31, to explore the idea that every voice matters to God, even those burdened by sin.
Our discussion doesn't shy away from the challenges of aligning personal desires with divine will. We navigate the spiritual growth found in accepting God's decisions, even when they diverge from our own hopes. The Lord's Prayer serves as our compass, guiding us through the elements of praise, alignment, and supplication. We emphasize the profound importance of sincere communication and unwavering faith, regardless of how our prayers are answered. This episode is not just a conversation; it's an invitation to deepen your spiritual connection and cultivate a fulfilling prayer life.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello everybody and welcome to today's episode of
Walk With Me.
I am your host, jj.
So good to have each and everyone of you here.
Thank you all so much forlistening and sharing.
Thank you all.
As I adjust my mic here, I hopeI'm not blowing out your ears.
Thank you all so much Love,each and every one of you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Can't thank you enough.
(00:21):
Do you guys realize we'recoming in on four years?
In about three weeks we will becelebrating our fourth year
anniversary of this journey,walking towards salvation.
And I say that because that'swhat the name of the podcast was
.
It was Walk With Me on this.
It was a little known fact,something little known fact.
(00:48):
The reason why we came up withthat title was because I used to
say that when I have a longthing to talk about and it's
going to take me a while to getto the point, I'll say walk with
me on this.
So that's where this wholething came out about.
And, uh, we were most having Iwas most saying that when
talking about biblical things,because sometimes, like we will
talk about today the answersthat people have, the answers
(01:11):
that I have, the answers thatyou have the answers that a lot
of people have.
They're not very simple.
Sure, the question is simple,like today's question is you
know, how should I pray, or whatis prayer?
But the answer is not a verysimple answer.
There's various variations tothe answer to that question and
(01:36):
it just makes sense thatsometimes we've got to take a
little bit of a journey to getthere.
That being said, I'm going tosend a special shout out to our
sponsors, true Bars, lyricist,and his lovely wife, my wife,
exquisite Creations, and also toour newest sponsor.
(01:57):
Right now.
They're still getting thingstogether.
I'm still waiting to be able tofully express them, but they
are listening, so I am thankfulfor them.
I'm thankful for each and everyone of you.
Thank you for everyone who isin the United States and outside
the United States that listensto this program.
Yes, there have been downloadsin places I dare not mention
(02:20):
because I don't want thegovernment to come after them.
Thank you all so much.
Thank you, thank you, thank youand thank you all so much.
I cannot thank you all enough.
Thank God for this podcast,thank you for the desire to have
this podcast and to make surethat you know we're being.
We're getting this word out.
(02:42):
Okay, because that's what it'sall about.
A lot of people have questionsabout the Bible.
Some of us were taughtincorrectly, some of us are kind
of like half taught, and thiswhen you have to use something,
you often end up contradictingit.
So that's a problem, right?
So the big question we havetoday is what is prayer?
(03:05):
How do we pray?
Now, if you ask this questionto 42 different people, you will
probably get 42 differentanswers and, believe it or not,
the answers, even though theythink they're different answers,
they're going to be remarkablysimilar.
So we're going to talk about,first off, what is prayer, why
(03:27):
do we need prayer and how topray.
Now, hopefully, I get all thatin one episode, but if not, then
we'll carry it over to the nextepisode.
Now, so, what is prayer?
Okay, prayer, by definition,does not need to be this big
thing that sometimes we make itout to be, believe it or not.
(03:49):
Prayer is remarkably simple.
It is just the simple act ofyou communicating with God, and
it doesn't have to be this bigthing.
I mean, it can be, becausethere are different types of
prayer and so I don't want toget ahead of myself.
So there is a prayer where youcan just talk to him exactly the
(04:14):
same way I'm talking to eachand every one of you.
Now, that is a form of prayer.
It is also a form of prayerwhen you go through and you do a
consecration.
That's also a form of prayer.
And then I hear this stuffabout corporate prayer, which
I'm not a big fan of.
But basically corporate prayeris where you're kind of standing
(04:34):
in church and I say a thing andthen you say the thing right
after me, like a lot of peopledo it during benedictions.
I guess you might call that amore kind of a corporate prayer.
But the most effective twotypes of prayer is going to be
that direct communication withGod, and then the so-called
(04:58):
formal prayer.
Now let's get one thing out ofthe way really quick.
It is said in John 9, 31, thatGod doesn't hear the prayer of
sin.
Now, well, yes and no, okay,and the reason why that's the
(05:21):
case and the reason why we'retalking about that.
Oh and, by the way, before Iget into that, we do have a rule
on this podcast and this iswhere this rule applies.
Listen very carefully, walkers.
This is where this rule applies.
The reason why we have thisrule is because of this right
here we hear it all the time Goddon't hear the prayer of
(05:42):
sinners.
But if that's not, if that'sactually 100% true, then God
would not hear you when yourepent of your sin.
So it is true up to a pointwhere God is not going to be
granting all your stuff becauseyou're a sinner.
But if you look at John 9 31and go and read a verse or two
(06:04):
above, a verse or two below, butpreferably the whole chapter,
which is our rule here, you willfind out that we sometimes take
the scripture out of contextwhen we're talking to people who
have not been born again,because here we are talking
about this.
But that scripture, that oneverse, is literally where the
(06:25):
guy is recounting how Jesusopened his eyes and why he knew
that Jesus was God, because hehad to be of God, because he
performed this miracle.
Now, as beautiful as thatmiracle was of him opening,
getting his eyes open, the moreimportant miracle is the
(06:46):
forgiveness of our sins, thefact that we can have our sins
wiped away and have our namewritten in that last life.
Now, if God didn't hear youbecause you were a sinner, then
technically he wouldn't hear youif you repented either.
So we have to be careful how weuse scripture and how we.
Some people weaponize and I'm Iused to be that way weaponized
(07:11):
scripture, and this is thisdoesn't make any sense because
the word of God is not a weapon.
Yes, I know some of y'all justsay well, it's a sharp,
two-edged sword.
Yes, it is.
However, it is not to be usedto cut people down, as far as
you know, turning them away fromGod.
It's supposed to be cuttingtheir sin off to bring them
(07:33):
closer to God.
Cut our sin off to bring themcloser to God.
Cut our sin off to bring uscloser to God.
So this whole thing about makingsure that we are talking to God
, as far as our repentanceprayer which you should do every
day, every day, and we're goingto talk about why I say that as
we get along.
So we have that repentanceprayer.
(07:55):
That's one type of prayer.
Then we have the casual, what Icall the casual prayer.
That prayer is more of the sameway you would talk to your
friend, a very close friend.
You tell them things.
You say, hey, this is the thingwhere.
And that prayer is more alongthe lines of, hey, god, you know
(08:20):
, I really just thank you forbeing who you are.
I love you, and the same thingyou would do Now, the reason why
you want to do those prayers.
A prayer in that way is sort ofmaintains an open line of
communication.
See, a lot of times we, as faras humans, we like to just kind
(08:41):
of drive by prayer oh God, hopeI get this job.
And then you just keep itmoving and you don't stop to
listen.
Maybe God is telling, mighttell you that that job ain't for
you, or that woman or that manain't for you, or that woman or
that man ain't for you or orsomething like that.
It's, it's, it's kind of likeuh, we just like, we demand all
(09:03):
this stuff from god, but wedon't stop to listen to god.
That's where this informal sortof dialogue you have back and
forth and it's important torealize that having that is
really the Holy Ghost in withinyou speaking.
And sometimes the Bible doessay to try those spirits.
(09:25):
It does say to try thosespirits Because the devil will
lie to you and present himselfas the Holy Ghost to you.
And I just want to throw thatout there because sometimes we,
some people you can tell theyjust don't have the Holy Ghost.
It's what they do, and I don'twant to get off on those weeks.
But there's also the other typeof prayer, which I call the
(09:47):
formal prayer.
Now, that is pretty much yournow.
This formal prayer is morealong the lines of what we will
commonly refer to as the Lord'sPrayer.
Now, let's stop right here,because Jesus is going to
(10:09):
address something that we oftenforget when we talk about the
Lord's Prayer, and this is alsoa case where you should read a
verse or two above, a verse ortwo below, but preferably the
whole chapter.
So let's talk about Matthew,chapter 6, verse 7.
Matthew, chapter 6, verse 7.
Now, if you, that whole entirechapter is a chapter on prayer
(10:33):
and this is a chapter on, and bythis prayer I mean more of a
formal kind of a sit down I needto get in touch with God type
of prayer.
This is kind of like it's moreof an effort that's involved.
So if you look right up toverse one, we're going to go up
(10:54):
to verse 1.
And it says it talks about hownot to pray.
In other words, don't get outthere and trying to act like
you're all super spiritual bypraying out in public and
praying real loud.
And you guys know what I'm.
What I'm talking about.
Like people who seem like superspiritual, but and but there's
(11:16):
just something about them that'sfake.
There's something about themthat that feels off when they
pray and it kind of sits in yourspirit if you got the holy
ghost, you know what I'm talkingabout.
It just sort of rubs you likeraw sandpaper, all Alright.
So, and it's basically in verse2, it talks about those being
(11:38):
hypocrites and Jesus said theyhave their reward.
That reward is coming.
People look at them, all superspiritual, but we know that
they're not going to a very niceplace.
Alright.
So in verse 4 it says thatthine arms may be a secret and
thy father, which sees in secret, shall reward you openly.
(12:01):
Now, that is to say that andthis is the type of formal
prayer that I'm going to spendmost of our time on today we're
just going to go ahead and jumpto that prayer and by doing so
it's something that it sort ofcovers everything that, when you
need to talk to God about it,gives you kind of an outline of
(12:24):
what to do and how to address it.
The one thing you will notmention, not see anywhere in
this prayer that we're going totalk about as a begging type of
prayer.
For some reason we get outthere and because we're sort of
used to how the devil doesthings, we start begging God for
(12:45):
stuff I have not yet, and thisis sort of a new revelation to
me that we shouldn't be beggingGod for stuff.
You know, the bible talks aboutapproaching the throne of grace
with boldness, and the kingdomof the kingdom of god allows
violence and the violence shalltake it by force.
Doesn't say anything aboutbegging.
(13:05):
Now, I get it, I get it.
There are some situations wherewe are in between a rock and a
hard place and a bit of lava.
I get it.
Trust me y'all, I get it.
I've been there.
I've been there.
Oh God, please let me get outof this.
But that's because now we'retrying to change the will of God
(13:26):
.
I know that's a hard thing tohear.
We are trying to change thewill of God and that puts us in
a very, very bad place, a verystrange place to where we're
going to do maybe next episodebecause of this question we may
end up doing what's thedifference in the different
(13:49):
wills of God?
Okay, we've yet.
I'll probably do that next week, but we end up putting
ourselves in a very precarioussituation, trying to change the
will of God when God is going tohave whatever.
This thing be a lesson to usAll, right.
So and I don't want to get offinto those weeks, we'll take
care of that next week.
So we want to get away from, orstay away from, begging God to
(14:15):
do something.
If God's going to do it, he'sgoing to do it.
If God is going to heal you,he's going to heal you.
If he's going to heal a familymember, he's going to heal a
family member.
However, if he doesn't do thesethings for you, if his answer
is no, he is still God, he isstill almighty, he is still
perfect, he is still holy Hiswill.
(14:38):
He may have something.
He may use this thing thatyou're begging him to do, or
begging him not to allow it tohappen.
He may be using that as agreater reasoning to get into
this other thing, and again, I'mgetting ahead of myself.
So this will get back on trackand we'll talk about that next
week.
Let's jump down to verse 7.
(14:59):
Matthew 6, verse 7.
And this is where a lot ofpeople get it mixed up, and it's
weird, because we still usethis as a vain repetition.
But when you pray, do not usevain repetitions, as the heathen
do, for they think that theyshall be heard for their much
(15:20):
speaking.
And by vain repetition theyjust mean that people just keep
saying the same thing over andover and over, because they
don't.
A lot of times, people justdon't know any better, they
don't know any better, andyou're just repeating the same
thing over and over.
There's nothing behind it,there's no substance behind it.
So then, why then do we have theLord's Prayer?
(15:42):
And this is where some of thesemisguided teachings come from.
And he's going to go right intoit.
He says don't be like them,because your father knows what
things you have need of beforeyou ask him.
Right, this is verse eight.
But here, verse nine, it startsto tell you, jesus, starts to
(16:02):
tell you exactly how he wants usto pray After this manner.
Pray you so, pray after thismanner.
This is not to say repeat afterme.
When you pray, say this thing.
That's not what he said afterthis manner.
So that, right there, shows usthat there's something deeper
going on than our father.
(16:24):
Which art in heaven, hallowed bethy name.
This means that there's amanner.
In other words, uh, if you getinto a car, this is how you
should drive, but everybody hasa different way of driving.
But the first thing you alwayshave to do is crank the car up.
That's what you have to do,first and foremost.
You can't do anything elseuntil you crank the car up.
(16:45):
I don't care how you drive,where you're going, what
directions you use to get there,you still got to crank the car
up.
So this is so.
When Jesus says after thismanner, he basically so.
This is so.
When jesus says after thismanner, he basically means this
is an outline or a format foryou to pray, so let's go down
through it.
Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
(17:07):
So basically, this is just apraise session.
Lord, you're worthy.
God, you're wonderful.
God, you are the beginning andthe end.
You are.
Your name is above every othername.
You know those sorts of phrasesis what you're going to lead off
with when you're entering,quote unquote, the Lord's Prayer
(17:29):
.
You're not just saying OurFather, which art in heaven, god
knows he's in heaven, butyou're basically praising him
and getting your your spirit ingetting your spirit into
connection with god.
Think of it and I'm gonna datemyself here, but kind of think
of it like um, the old stylemodem connection we used to.
(17:49):
You know, dial up you, you knowuse, use AOL or whatever, and
it goes.
This is you connecting to thespirit world.
Okay, and so this is it.
Then you go into thy kingdom.
Come.
Thy will be done on earth as itis in heaven.
(18:13):
This is a completely new subject.
God, I just want to be in yourperfect will.
I just want to do what you wantme to do.
God, you know my life, you knowmy ending from the beginning.
You know exactly where I shouldbe going and what I should be
doing.
God, I don't want to get in,out of your perfect will.
I don't want to.
I just want to be where youwant me to be, god, you know
(18:33):
this thing coming up Whateveryour will is God.
If you want me to get this job,god, give me this job.
If not, god, I understand, Istill love you.
That's that section, that's thatoutline point, as it were.
Then you go back, you go ondown.
That kingdom comes.
Oh wait, give us this day ourdaily bread now.
(18:54):
Give us this day our dailybread Now.
Give us this day, our dailybread.
This is the only point, y'all.
This is the only point.
After we've praised him, afterwe've asked God for his perfect
will, this is where we ask himfor things.
God, I need a husband.
God, I need a wife.
God, you know.
(19:16):
God, teach me how to live foryou.
God, my sister needs to besaved.
My brother needs the Holy Ghost.
God, I want God, please give usa revival in our church.
God, bring the young kids backto church.
You know, that's where you askhim for things and it doesn't.
(19:44):
There is no, there is no timelimit on how you spend your time
.
There are going to be times,y'all, that you don't get out of
our Father which art in heaven,follow and be thy name.
There are times you are notgoing to get out of that session
because the Holy Spirit willjust come in there and all
you'll have is a praise time.
There will be times when youget down to give us this day,
our daily bread, that somethinghits you so hard that you can't
(20:08):
get past that.
It happens, and it doesn't makeyou any less of a saved person.
It doesn't make you any less aChristian if you can't complete
the entire thing, but just do itin order.
God is a God of order, right.
He made all these things.
He made it in order.
This is why Jesus put it inthis order right Forgive us our
(20:32):
debts and we forgive our debtors.
Now, jj, this is the book of JJ,the book of JJ.
I actually change debts totrespasses, because my debt to
God, my debt, my debt to God ismy sin.
And but if you, there arepeople who will pray this Prayer
(20:53):
and pray at debts and debtors,I get it.
I said trespasses because Iwant to make sure that I get a
repentance in there somewhere,because I got to make sure that
I'm not carrying aroundunnecessary sins.
Lead is not a temptation, see,that's why I changed it there.
Me, personally, jj changed itthere.
(21:15):
If you want to keep debts anddebtors there, that's why I
changed it there.
Me personally, jj changed itthere.
If you want to keep debts anddebtors there, that's fine.
However, however, you got tomake sure you put this deliver
us from evil and the dying isthe kingdom of the power and the
glory.
Now, the reason why I changed it?
Because in the right, the nextverse is talked about forgiving
other people's trespasses.
Doesn't write the next versestalks about forgiving other
(21:38):
people's trespasses, and so Idon't know if that's a uh kind
of a translation error on theking james version part or what.
But god, god is going to beblessing you with money
important, you know.
Deliver us, lead us not atemptation, because god is not
(22:03):
going to do that.
But this is you establishingwith god that you trust god,
that god is not going to put youinto a position which will lead
you to sin.
God is not going to put you ina position where he leads you to
failure, but he will deliveryou from evil.
He will deliver you from peoplewho don't like you.
(22:26):
He will deliver you from peoplewho want to see you harmed.
He will deliver you fromyourself too, because let's get
it straight, it straight,walkers a lot of times we are
just bad on ourselves.
We are our own worst enemy, asthe saying goes.
Why?
Because we are still in thisflesh.
(22:46):
I don't care how spiritual wewant to be, we are still in this
flesh.
So that's why, if you and justto wrap it all up and I'm so
glad we got this done in timethe last part of that verse says
for thine is the kingdom, thepower and the glory forever.
You wrap it back up with thepraise.
(23:07):
You start off with the praiseand you wrap it up with the
praise, because he's the Alphaand Omega, he is the
all-powerful, he with the praiseBecause he's the Alpha and
Omega.
He is the all powerful, he isthe provider, he's the deliverer
, he fights the battles for me,not because of me, but because
he is here.
He is he.
So it's important to kind ofmake sure that, instead of a
(23:32):
vain repetition, if we followthat prayer, that prayer format,
it is so effective.
And now this is your formalprayer.
This is not the.
I'm driving along and, oh God,thank you for helping me avoid
that accident that too, is aform of prayer.
We want to make sure, though,even outside of these informal
(23:54):
prayers.
We want to make sure, though,even outside of these informal
prayers, that we get that prayer, that formal prayer, in at
least once a day.
You don't have to do it.
You know, like, if you, ifyou've never done that before,
it's going to take you a littlebit of time, and that's fine,
that's fine, this is the thing.
That's levels to this thing, soyou work up to it.
(24:20):
Like I said, there are going tobe times when you can't get out
of.
Oh God, you're so wonderful.
There are going to be timeswhen you get to the give us this
day, our daily bread All youcan do is cry.
It's just, it doesn't.
You don't necessarily have toget to through the entire thing,
but you always want to makesure that you start it with a
praise and you end it with apraise when you are
(24:41):
acknowledging that it's not youthat is doing this through your
prayer, but it is him that isdoing this for you, him that is
doing whatever this thing thatyou're praying for.
However, your life is going,even if and I know this is going
to sound controversial even ifyour life is going really badly
(25:01):
right now, really terribly rightnow, it is God that is
orchestrating your life, andthere's a reason for it.
It could just be that God ishumbling you.
God has humbled me severaltimes and most of the time it
takes a few minutes to realizethat God is actually trying to
(25:23):
humble you.
By minutes I mean weeks, butsometimes God will do this to
you to get you to the pointwhere you turn to him in prayer.
And that's not to say that Godis mean God is trying to get you
refocused on him.
If you are focused on him, thenyou can make it.
(25:46):
If you're focused on you, andhow bad things are?
You're not going to make it,and I know that sounds gloom and
gloom, but it's absolutely true.
All right, god loves you and hedoes these things for you, for
us, no matter what.
All right, I know we've come outof time, but if you have any
other questions, be sure to hitme up at the walk with me Bible
(26:09):
study at Gmail.
Walk with me Bible study.
One word at Gmail.
Thank you so much to anotheryoung lady that sent me that
question.
I didn't put your name in thesubject line, so I'm not going
to say your name, so rememberjust.
Thank you for liking andsharing and subscribing to the
(26:29):
podcast.
Thank you for telling otherpeople about it.
Thank you for listening andtell someone that Jesus loves
you.
That's probably the onlypositive thing they'll hear
today.
All right, god bless you alland see you all on the next one.
Hello everybody and welcome to today's episode of
Walk With Me.
I am your host, jj.
So good to have each and everyone of you here.
Thank you all so much forlistening and sharing.
Thank you all.
As I adjust my mic here, I hopeI'm not blowing out your ears.
Thank you all so much Love,each and every one of you.
Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Can't thank you enough.
(00:21):
Do you guys realize we'recoming in on four years?
In about three weeks we will becelebrating our fourth year
anniversary of this journey,walking towards salvation.
And I say that because that'swhat the name of the podcast was
.
It was Walk With Me on this.
It was a little known fact,something little known fact.
(00:48):
The reason why we came up withthat title was because I used to
say that when I have a longthing to talk about and it's
going to take me a while to getto the point, I'll say walk with
me on this.
So that's where this wholething came out about.
And, uh, we were most having Iwas most saying that when
talking about biblical things,because sometimes, like we will
talk about today the answersthat people have, the answers
(01:11):
that I have, the answers thatyou have the answers that a lot
of people have.
They're not very simple.
Sure, the question is simple,like today's question is you
know, how should I pray, or whatis prayer?
But the answer is not a verysimple answer.
There's various variations tothe answer to that question and
(01:36):
it just makes sense thatsometimes we've got to take a
little bit of a journey to getthere.
That being said, I'm going tosend a special shout out to our
sponsors, true Bars, lyricist,and his lovely wife, my wife,
exquisite Creations, and also toour newest sponsor.
(01:57):
Right now.
They're still getting thingstogether.
I'm still waiting to be able tofully express them, but they
are listening, so I am thankfulfor them.
I'm thankful for each and everyone of you.
Thank you for everyone who isin the United States and outside
the United States that listensto this program.
Yes, there have been downloadsin places I dare not mention
(02:20):
because I don't want thegovernment to come after them.
Thank you all so much.
Thank you, thank you, thank youand thank you all so much.
I cannot thank you all enough.
Thank God for this podcast,thank you for the desire to have
this podcast and to make surethat you know we're being.
We're getting this word out.
(02:42):
Okay, because that's what it'sall about.
A lot of people have questionsabout the Bible.
Some of us were taughtincorrectly, some of us are kind
of like half taught, and thiswhen you have to use something,
you often end up contradictingit.
So that's a problem, right?
So the big question we havetoday is what is prayer?
(03:05):
How do we pray?
Now, if you ask this questionto 42 different people, you will
probably get 42 differentanswers and, believe it or not,
the answers, even though theythink they're different answers,
they're going to be remarkablysimilar.
So we're going to talk about,first off, what is prayer, why
(03:27):
do we need prayer and how topray.
Now, hopefully, I get all thatin one episode, but if not, then
we'll carry it over to the nextepisode.
Now, so, what is prayer?
Okay, prayer, by definition,does not need to be this big
thing that sometimes we make itout to be, believe it or not.
(03:49):
Prayer is remarkably simple.
It is just the simple act ofyou communicating with God, and
it doesn't have to be this bigthing.
I mean, it can be, becausethere are different types of
prayer and so I don't want toget ahead of myself.
So there is a prayer where youcan just talk to him exactly the
(04:14):
same way I'm talking to eachand every one of you.
Now, that is a form of prayer.
It is also a form of prayerwhen you go through and you do a
consecration.
That's also a form of prayer.
And then I hear this stuffabout corporate prayer, which
I'm not a big fan of.
But basically corporate prayeris where you're kind of standing
(04:34):
in church and I say a thing andthen you say the thing right
after me, like a lot of peopledo it during benedictions.
I guess you might call that amore kind of a corporate prayer.
But the most effective twotypes of prayer is going to be
that direct communication withGod, and then the so-called
(04:58):
formal prayer.
Now let's get one thing out ofthe way really quick.
It is said in John 9, 31, thatGod doesn't hear the prayer of
sin.
Now, well, yes and no, okay,and the reason why that's the
(05:21):
case and the reason why we'retalking about that.
Oh and, by the way, before Iget into that, we do have a rule
on this podcast and this iswhere this rule applies.
Listen very carefully, walkers.
This is where this rule applies.
The reason why we have thisrule is because of this right
here we hear it all the time Goddon't hear the prayer of
(05:42):
sinners.
But if that's not, if that'sactually 100% true, then God
would not hear you when yourepent of your sin.
So it is true up to a pointwhere God is not going to be
granting all your stuff becauseyou're a sinner.
But if you look at John 9 31and go and read a verse or two
(06:04):
above, a verse or two below, butpreferably the whole chapter,
which is our rule here, you willfind out that we sometimes take
the scripture out of contextwhen we're talking to people who
have not been born again,because here we are talking
about this.
But that scripture, that oneverse, is literally where the
(06:25):
guy is recounting how Jesusopened his eyes and why he knew
that Jesus was God, because hehad to be of God, because he
performed this miracle.
Now, as beautiful as thatmiracle was of him opening,
getting his eyes open, the moreimportant miracle is the
(06:46):
forgiveness of our sins, thefact that we can have our sins
wiped away and have our namewritten in that last life.
Now, if God didn't hear youbecause you were a sinner, then
technically he wouldn't hear youif you repented either.
So we have to be careful how weuse scripture and how we.
Some people weaponize and I'm Iused to be that way weaponized
(07:11):
scripture, and this is thisdoesn't make any sense because
the word of God is not a weapon.
Yes, I know some of y'all justsay well, it's a sharp,
two-edged sword.
Yes, it is.
However, it is not to be usedto cut people down, as far as
you know, turning them away fromGod.
It's supposed to be cuttingtheir sin off to bring them
(07:33):
closer to God.
Cut our sin off to bring themcloser to God.
Cut our sin off to bring uscloser to God.
So this whole thing about makingsure that we are talking to God
, as far as our repentanceprayer which you should do every
day, every day, and we're goingto talk about why I say that as
we get along.
So we have that repentanceprayer.
(07:55):
That's one type of prayer.
Then we have the casual, what Icall the casual prayer.
That prayer is more of the sameway you would talk to your
friend, a very close friend.
You tell them things.
You say, hey, this is the thingwhere.
And that prayer is more alongthe lines of, hey, god, you know
(08:20):
, I really just thank you forbeing who you are.
I love you, and the same thingyou would do Now, the reason why
you want to do those prayers.
A prayer in that way is sort ofmaintains an open line of
communication.
See, a lot of times we, as faras humans, we like to just kind
(08:41):
of drive by prayer oh God, hopeI get this job.
And then you just keep itmoving and you don't stop to
listen.
Maybe God is telling, mighttell you that that job ain't for
you, or that woman or that manain't for you, or that woman or
that man ain't for you or orsomething like that.
It's, it's, it's kind of likeuh, we just like, we demand all
(09:03):
this stuff from god, but wedon't stop to listen to god.
That's where this informal sortof dialogue you have back and
forth and it's important torealize that having that is
really the Holy Ghost in withinyou speaking.
And sometimes the Bible doessay to try those spirits.
(09:25):
It does say to try thosespirits Because the devil will
lie to you and present himselfas the Holy Ghost to you.
And I just want to throw thatout there because sometimes we,
some people you can tell theyjust don't have the Holy Ghost.
It's what they do, and I don'twant to get off on those weeks.
But there's also the other typeof prayer, which I call the
(09:47):
formal prayer.
Now, that is pretty much yournow.
This formal prayer is morealong the lines of what we will
commonly refer to as the Lord'sPrayer.
Now, let's stop right here,because Jesus is going to
(10:09):
address something that we oftenforget when we talk about the
Lord's Prayer, and this is alsoa case where you should read a
verse or two above, a verse ortwo below, but preferably the
whole chapter.
So let's talk about Matthew,chapter 6, verse 7.
Matthew, chapter 6, verse 7.
Now, if you, that whole entirechapter is a chapter on prayer
(10:33):
and this is a chapter on, and bythis prayer I mean more of a
formal kind of a sit down I needto get in touch with God type
of prayer.
This is kind of like it's moreof an effort that's involved.
So if you look right up toverse one, we're going to go up
(10:54):
to verse 1.
And it says it talks about hownot to pray.
In other words, don't get outthere and trying to act like
you're all super spiritual bypraying out in public and
praying real loud.
And you guys know what I'm.
What I'm talking about.
Like people who seem like superspiritual, but and but there's
(11:16):
just something about them that'sfake.
There's something about themthat that feels off when they
pray and it kind of sits in yourspirit if you got the holy
ghost, you know what I'm talkingabout.
It just sort of rubs you likeraw sandpaper, all Alright.
So, and it's basically in verse2, it talks about those being
(11:38):
hypocrites and Jesus said theyhave their reward.
That reward is coming.
People look at them, all superspiritual, but we know that
they're not going to a very niceplace.
Alright.
So in verse 4 it says thatthine arms may be a secret and
thy father, which sees in secret, shall reward you openly.
(12:01):
Now, that is to say that andthis is the type of formal
prayer that I'm going to spendmost of our time on today we're
just going to go ahead and jumpto that prayer and by doing so
it's something that it sort ofcovers everything that, when you
need to talk to God about it,gives you kind of an outline of
(12:24):
what to do and how to address it.
The one thing you will notmention, not see anywhere in
this prayer that we're going totalk about as a begging type of
prayer.
For some reason we get outthere and because we're sort of
used to how the devil doesthings, we start begging God for
(12:45):
stuff I have not yet, and thisis sort of a new revelation to
me that we shouldn't be beggingGod for stuff.
You know, the bible talks aboutapproaching the throne of grace
with boldness, and the kingdomof the kingdom of god allows
violence and the violence shalltake it by force.
Doesn't say anything aboutbegging.
(13:05):
Now, I get it, I get it.
There are some situations wherewe are in between a rock and a
hard place and a bit of lava.
I get it.
Trust me y'all, I get it.
I've been there.
I've been there.
Oh God, please let me get outof this.
But that's because now we'retrying to change the will of God
(13:26):
.
I know that's a hard thing tohear.
We are trying to change thewill of God and that puts us in
a very, very bad place, a verystrange place to where we're
going to do maybe next episodebecause of this question we may
end up doing what's thedifference in the different
(13:49):
wills of God?
Okay, we've yet.
I'll probably do that next week, but we end up putting
ourselves in a very precarioussituation, trying to change the
will of God when God is going tohave whatever.
This thing be a lesson to usAll, right.
So and I don't want to get offinto those weeks, we'll take
care of that next week.
So we want to get away from, orstay away from, begging God to
(14:15):
do something.
If God's going to do it, he'sgoing to do it.
If God is going to heal you,he's going to heal you.
If he's going to heal a familymember, he's going to heal a
family member.
However, if he doesn't do thesethings for you, if his answer
is no, he is still God, he isstill almighty, he is still
perfect, he is still holy Hiswill.
(14:38):
He may have something.
He may use this thing thatyou're begging him to do, or
begging him not to allow it tohappen.
He may be using that as agreater reasoning to get into
this other thing, and again, I'mgetting ahead of myself.
So this will get back on trackand we'll talk about that next
week.
Let's jump down to verse 7.
(14:59):
Matthew 6, verse 7.
And this is where a lot ofpeople get it mixed up, and it's
weird, because we still usethis as a vain repetition.
But when you pray, do not usevain repetitions, as the heathen
do, for they think that theyshall be heard for their much
(15:20):
speaking.
And by vain repetition theyjust mean that people just keep
saying the same thing over andover and over, because they
don't.
A lot of times, people justdon't know any better, they
don't know any better, andyou're just repeating the same
thing over and over.
There's nothing behind it,there's no substance behind it.
So then, why then do we have theLord's Prayer?
(15:42):
And this is where some of thesemisguided teachings come from.
And he's going to go right intoit.
He says don't be like them,because your father knows what
things you have need of beforeyou ask him.
Right, this is verse eight.
But here, verse nine, it startsto tell you, jesus, starts to
(16:02):
tell you exactly how he wants usto pray After this manner.
Pray you so, pray after thismanner.
This is not to say repeat afterme.
When you pray, say this thing.
That's not what he said afterthis manner.
So that, right there, shows usthat there's something deeper
going on than our father.
(16:24):
Which art in heaven, hallowed bethy name.
This means that there's amanner.
In other words, uh, if you getinto a car, this is how you
should drive, but everybody hasa different way of driving.
But the first thing you alwayshave to do is crank the car up.
That's what you have to do,first and foremost.
You can't do anything elseuntil you crank the car up.
(16:45):
I don't care how you drive,where you're going, what
directions you use to get there,you still got to crank the car
up.
So this is so.
When Jesus says after thismanner, he basically so.
This is so.
When jesus says after thismanner, he basically means this
is an outline or a format foryou to pray, so let's go down
through it.
Our father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
(17:07):
So basically, this is just apraise session.
Lord, you're worthy.
God, you're wonderful.
God, you are the beginning andthe end.
You are.
Your name is above every othername.
You know those sorts of phrasesis what you're going to lead off
with when you're entering,quote unquote, the Lord's Prayer
(17:29):
.
You're not just saying OurFather, which art in heaven, god
knows he's in heaven, butyou're basically praising him
and getting your your spirit ingetting your spirit into
connection with god.
Think of it and I'm gonna datemyself here, but kind of think
of it like um, the old stylemodem connection we used to.
(17:49):
You know, dial up you, you knowuse, use AOL or whatever, and
it goes.
This is you connecting to thespirit world.
Okay, and so this is it.
Then you go into thy kingdom.
Come.
Thy will be done on earth as itis in heaven.
(18:13):
This is a completely new subject.
God, I just want to be in yourperfect will.
I just want to do what you wantme to do.
God, you know my life, you knowmy ending from the beginning.
You know exactly where I shouldbe going and what I should be
doing.
God, I don't want to get in,out of your perfect will.
I don't want to.
I just want to be where youwant me to be, god, you know
(18:33):
this thing coming up Whateveryour will is God.
If you want me to get this job,god, give me this job.
If not, god, I understand, Istill love you.
That's that section, that's thatoutline point, as it were.
Then you go back, you go ondown.
That kingdom comes.
Oh wait, give us this day ourdaily bread now.
(18:54):
Give us this day our dailybread Now.
Give us this day, our dailybread.
This is the only point, y'all.
This is the only point.
After we've praised him, afterwe've asked God for his perfect
will, this is where we ask himfor things.
God, I need a husband.
God, I need a wife.
God, you know.
(19:16):
God, teach me how to live foryou.
God, my sister needs to besaved.
My brother needs the Holy Ghost.
God, I want God, please give usa revival in our church.
God, bring the young kids backto church.
You know, that's where you askhim for things and it doesn't.
(19:44):
There is no, there is no timelimit on how you spend your time
.
There are going to be times,y'all, that you don't get out of
our Father which art in heaven,follow and be thy name.
There are times you are notgoing to get out of that session
because the Holy Spirit willjust come in there and all
you'll have is a praise time.
There will be times when youget down to give us this day,
our daily bread, that somethinghits you so hard that you can't
(20:08):
get past that.
It happens, and it doesn't makeyou any less of a saved person.
It doesn't make you any less aChristian if you can't complete
the entire thing, but just do itin order.
God is a God of order, right.
He made all these things.
He made it in order.
This is why Jesus put it inthis order right Forgive us our
(20:32):
debts and we forgive our debtors.
Now, jj, this is the book of JJ,the book of JJ.
I actually change debts totrespasses, because my debt to
God, my debt, my debt to God ismy sin.
And but if you, there arepeople who will pray this Prayer
(20:53):
and pray at debts and debtors,I get it.
I said trespasses because Iwant to make sure that I get a
repentance in there somewhere,because I got to make sure that
I'm not carrying aroundunnecessary sins.
Lead is not a temptation, see,that's why I changed it there.
Me, personally, jj changed itthere.
(21:15):
If you want to keep debts anddebtors there, that's why I
changed it there.
Me personally, jj changed itthere.
If you want to keep debts anddebtors there, that's fine.
However, however, you got tomake sure you put this deliver
us from evil and the dying isthe kingdom of the power and the
glory.
Now, the reason why I changed it?
Because in the right, the nextverse is talked about forgiving
other people's trespasses.
Doesn't write the next versestalks about forgiving other
(21:38):
people's trespasses, and so Idon't know if that's a uh kind
of a translation error on theking james version part or what.
But god, god is going to beblessing you with money
important, you know.
Deliver us, lead us not atemptation, because god is not
(22:03):
going to do that.
But this is you establishingwith god that you trust god,
that god is not going to put youinto a position which will lead
you to sin.
God is not going to put you ina position where he leads you to
failure, but he will deliveryou from evil.
He will deliver you from peoplewho don't like you.
(22:26):
He will deliver you from peoplewho want to see you harmed.
He will deliver you fromyourself too, because let's get
it straight, it straight,walkers a lot of times we are
just bad on ourselves.
We are our own worst enemy, asthe saying goes.
Why?
Because we are still in thisflesh.
(22:46):
I don't care how spiritual wewant to be, we are still in this
flesh.
So that's why, if you and justto wrap it all up and I'm so
glad we got this done in timethe last part of that verse says
for thine is the kingdom, thepower and the glory forever.
You wrap it back up with thepraise.
(23:07):
You start off with the praiseand you wrap it up with the
praise, because he's the Alphaand Omega, he is the
all-powerful, he with the praiseBecause he's the Alpha and
Omega.
He is the all powerful, he isthe provider, he's the deliverer
, he fights the battles for me,not because of me, but because
he is here.
He is he.
So it's important to kind ofmake sure that, instead of a
(23:32):
vain repetition, if we followthat prayer, that prayer format,
it is so effective.
And now this is your formalprayer.
This is not the.
I'm driving along and, oh God,thank you for helping me avoid
that accident that too, is aform of prayer.
We want to make sure, though,even outside of these informal
(23:54):
prayers.
We want to make sure, though,even outside of these informal
prayers, that we get that prayer, that formal prayer, in at
least once a day.
You don't have to do it.
You know, like, if you, ifyou've never done that before,
it's going to take you a littlebit of time, and that's fine,
that's fine, this is the thing.
That's levels to this thing, soyou work up to it.
(24:20):
Like I said, there are going tobe times when you can't get out
of.
Oh God, you're so wonderful.
There are going to be timeswhen you get to the give us this
day, our daily bread All youcan do is cry.
It's just, it doesn't.
You don't necessarily have toget to through the entire thing,
but you always want to makesure that you start it with a
praise and you end it with apraise when you are
(24:41):
acknowledging that it's not youthat is doing this through your
prayer, but it is him that isdoing this for you, him that is
doing whatever this thing thatyou're praying for.
However, your life is going,even if and I know this is going
to sound controversial even ifyour life is going really badly
(25:01):
right now, really terribly rightnow, it is God that is
orchestrating your life, andthere's a reason for it.
It could just be that God ishumbling you.
God has humbled me severaltimes and most of the time it
takes a few minutes to realizethat God is actually trying to
(25:23):
humble you.
By minutes I mean weeks, butsometimes God will do this to
you to get you to the pointwhere you turn to him in prayer.
And that's not to say that Godis mean God is trying to get you
refocused on him.
If you are focused on him, thenyou can make it.
(25:46):
If you're focused on you, andhow bad things are?
You're not going to make it,and I know that sounds gloom and
gloom, but it's absolutely true.
All right, god loves you and hedoes these things for you, for
us, no matter what.
All right, I know we've come outof time, but if you have any
other questions, be sure to hitme up at the walk with me Bible
(26:09):
study at Gmail.
Walk with me Bible study.
One word at Gmail.
Thank you so much to anotheryoung lady that sent me that
question.
I didn't put your name in thesubject line, so I'm not going
to say your name, so rememberjust.
Thank you for liking andsharing and subscribing to the
(26:29):
podcast.
Thank you for telling otherpeople about it.
Thank you for listening andtell someone that Jesus loves
you.
That's probably the onlypositive thing they'll hear
today.
All right, god bless you alland see you all on the next one.
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