Cdc Aug 13 2018 the House of Prayer

Man's fellowship cannot be more spiritual than the individuals and families that constitute them. God greatly desires a godly home. These are words of restoration and instruction in righteousness from Family Time Ministry. May you be blessed as you listen. [Speaker 1] Mention of the name of the Lord, do not give him rest. That was what we were looking at in the most part of that last month. That you that mention of the name of the Lord, do not give him rest. Don't give him rest. And the critical point we were raising, and that's why I'm asking us that I hope we have been praying. We are now in the month of August, which is the eighth month. Today is 13th. We're almost at the middle of the eighth month. And if God is telling us at the seventh month, which is the beginning of the second half of the year, that look, I have made promises at the beginning of the year. God made promises to us. God said, "I will do this, I will do that." Pastor said he will visit us. And when we get to the second half of the year, we began to receive encouragement that we should not give him rest. We should not think that because I've not seen some things, let me rest. Maybe God don't want to do it. No, rather we should... he said, "until he has made and he has established Jerusalem, until we see it, we should not stop." And that's why I'm asking us that I hope we have been praying. Honestly, the beginning of the second half of the year has been so full with burden to pray. To pray. Just pray. Pray. Just pray. Pray. I keep looking at matters and matters keep coming. I remember the last Monday in the month of July when we went for evangelism, just before we went. I was reading the matter of the friend at midnight. I believe we still remember that. And I said even though we could not go to do everything that day, it was important for us to see that scripture. The scripture is in Luke. The scripture is in Luke chapter 11. [Speaker 2] Luke 11, from verse 5: "And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" [Speaker 1] Thank you very much. Does that whole thing border on prayer? I wanted us to read the whole thing so we can see that the whole thing borders on prayer. And you know that in this place again, Jesus was speaking to them about a parable. From the parable, he now went into specific instruction. Which means that parable about the friend at midnight is not just a physical friend. Do you agree? Do you get what I'm trying to say? It's not clear. Now, when Jesus gave the parable, look at the parable. He said, "And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say to you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity..." Look at importunity. Let me take a simpler translation. NLT: "But I tell you this, though he won't do it for friendship's sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence." That's importunity. Immediately they finish that, look at the next thing that followed. "I say to you, ask, it shall be given to you. Seek, you will find. Knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone that asks receives. He that seeks finds. To him that knocks it shall be opened. If a son shall ask any of you that is a father bread, will you give him stone?" So you know that that parable there was talking about... that friend there and the friend that went to the friend, they were not talking about physical situation. He was using that to illustrate what God will do. Is that not? Since immediately after the parable, he said, "I'm telling you, ask, it will be given to you. Seek, you will find. Knock, it will be open. Everybody who asks, you that are evil, if your children ask, don't you give them? How much more your father will also give?" So when he was saying that a friend went to a friend, and that the friend did not want to stand up to give him, but because he persisted he got up to give the person, he was talking about the need not to give up in the place of prayer with God. Okay, thank you. He was talking about the need not to give up in the place of prayer with God. Now, so that this thing is not in isolation. This story, I'll come back to this story because I want to take a little of this story and then I'll move on. Look at the similar thing at Luke 18. The same Luke again. Look at the way this story went. Look at the similar thing in Luke 18. This one we are more familiar with this one. [Speaker 2] One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint; Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man: And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man; Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me. [Speaker 1] Then the Lord said, "Learn a lesson from this unjust judge." Then the Lord said, "Learn a lesson from this unjust judge." You are the one that told the story. Then what is the lesson? Verse 6. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don't you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? Are you seeing it? Is this similar to the other one? It's the same story from different side. Then when he gets to the verse 8: "I tell you, he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on earth?" That is, what is that trying to say? Don't forget what we discussed in January. He said God will visit us. That's what he told us for this year. He said however, we should not be weary in well-doing, for in due season we will reap if we don't faint. So he's saying that when the Son of man will now come, when the due season comes and I want to give, will I still find you there asking? Look at the example of Zechariah that we gave then. He has been asking, at the point he gave up. When due season came, God came. God still had mercy and said, "Okay, your prayer has been answered." But you will not be able to... you know the point I'm making. When God finally came for Zechariah, he didn't find faith. But when he finally shows up... we are talking about... that's why I asked immediately we started this meeting. I said, "Brethren, I hope you are praying." I hope you are not giving up in the place of prayer. I know that prayer is a labor. Prayer is not something you enjoy. Prayer is a labor. But as you labor, the Spirit takes over from you to help you labor further. Just like when you want to start to pray, the whole thing looks very dry. Have you experienced it before? Everything looks dry, everything looks... but as you begin to pray, and as you are praying, suddenly something picks you up and then the prayer takes a different dimension. The prayer continues and continues. What we are saying, what we are telling ourselves is it is very important, brethren. I on my own side, I am not praying... sorry, I am praying not because I am not seeing results. In fact, there have been issues that have been long-awaited that God has begun to give to me and to my family this year. But even though we are experiencing these things coming in, what I still see the Lord still raising in my heart is "Pray. Pray. Pray. Pray. Take time to pray. Pray. Men ought always to pray." Now, do you know one thing that I want to call your attention to in the parable of Luke 11 which we'll soon go back? We'll go there shortly. Before we go there, look at this Luke 18. Now, look at what the Bible says. Verse 7. Can we try different translation? [Speaker 2] "And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?" [Speaker 1] Will God not make about justice for his chosen ones who cry to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? [Speaker 3] Look at Amplified: "And will not our just God defend and protect and avenge his elect, his chosen ones, who cry to him day and night? Will he defer them and delay help on their behalf?" [Speaker 1] Wait, are you getting something? Doesn't it look contradictory? Look at that verse very well. Doesn't it? What looks like the contradiction? He says he will not delay answering them, but he now says he bears long with them. He says he will not delay answering them, but he said he bear long with them. So are you seeing what I'm bringing out? To telling you that, listen. Listen. There are matters in our lives, there are issues about us, that the burden for prayer would have been coming long before the day of their answer. If those prayers are not accumulated, you will not get answers the day of answer. Because actually, God did not delay. He did not delay. There are things in our life we pray that it takes build-up prayers of years to obtain. It takes prayers that have built, built, built, built. God will begin to raise the burden for the thing to be praying, to be praying, to be praying, to be praying, to be praying. He is not delaying. But go back again to Habakkuk. He said it's the same statement like it is in Habakkuk. He said the vision is for an appointed time. Even though it tarry, wait for it; for it will not tarry. Though it tarries. You say but it's for an appointed time. Telling you that it may take long, but actually at the point of answer it came at its time. And those type of vision, what brings them into existence? What gives birth to them? What gives birth to those vision is what? Prayers. Prayers. God will have been building up the prayers, building it up, building it up, building it up, building it up, building it up, building it up, building it up. So God never delayed. There was no time he delayed. But there is a matter I want you to see. It says will God not answer his elect that does what? Cry day and night. So if we revert that statement, will God answer those elect that don't cry day and night? He said God will answer the elect that cry day and night. So the question is will he answer the elect that does not cry day and night? The reason why I'm saying this thing, you see, is because when God is giving instruction, when God is giving very clear instruction about matters, we should key into it. We should key into it. The story is very, very clear. That he gave them a parable to this end, to teach them. He wants to make them see that when it comes to our relationship with God, there are categories. Things with God, they are... how will I put it now? Have you been to this production facility before where they are producing things? The machine will keep working. At one point, I remember when we went to Seven-Up bottling company many, many years ago. At a point, the thing will pick the empty bottles. At a point, it will wash it. At another point, it will fill it. At another point, it will cork it. At another point, it will take it off. It will pick another one again. I don't know whether you get the point I'm making. But you know different things are happening in the sequence. The job is finally completed when the bottle is corked. But from where the bottle was washed to where the bottle was corked, the machine did not stop working. The machine kept on working. I'm trying to show you that in our walk with God, in our walk with God, there is this life of unceasing prayer that brings different things at different points. That you don't get to the climax of what God is doing if prayer is not unceasing. Do you understand me at all? Do I change that today? What I'm saying is this. Let's take it from the matter of the vision again. He said, "Write the vision, make it plain upon the wall." It is for what? An appointed time. Even though it delays, he said it will not tarry. It will come in its time which will speak at the end. Which means as far as God is concerned, no matter how it takes, it never tarries. It came at its time. Now, we are looking at prayer. We are noticing that Jesus was speaking to his disciples. He was not telling them... he was trying to teach them why men should pray without ceasing. Why they should keep praying. No prayer point was raised. He was talking about a lifestyle. Do you understand? No, he was not teaching about a prayer point. He was trying to teach them why men should pray without ceasing. Why they should keep praying. Jesus was not teaching them how to pray for having husband. He was not teaching them how to pray for having spiritual gift. But he was trying to teach them that men ought always to pray. So the matter is not linking to an article of prayer. But he was talking about a life. He was talking about a machine, how a machine should keep working. Even though at different production points, different things are produced. But if, for example, the machine finished washing and it stopped, the production will not go on. Because production have not finished at the point of washing. It's a continuous process. He's trying to show us that all that God is doing in our life is something that is procedural, accumulating, and climaxing. The thing is procedural. The thing is dynamic. It is a process. The machine that keeps working is the praying without ceasing. Men ought always to pray. Now, in talking about the unjust judge, the Lord was not trying to say that he's an unjust person. He's talking in respect of a lifestyle. It's not about a particular thing. But he's talking about a lifestyle. He's talking about a machine. A machine that keeps working is the praying without ceasing. Men ought always to pray. Now, in talking about the unjust judge, the Lord was not trying to say that he's an unjust person. In talking about the widow that came repeatedly and then the unjust judge now says, "Look, this woman will wear me out," he now says, "Okay, take a lesson." So it is the lesson we should go to. In the lesson, he said, "Hear what the unjust judge said." Hear what he says. "And shall God not avenge his own elect, who cry day and night?" Verse 6: "I tell you, he will avenge them." He's talking about a lifestyle of God's chosen people. God's chosen people are people who are crying to God day and night. How do you know the elect of God? How do you know people who truly depend on God? How do you know people who does not have any other thing they depend on except God? How do you know men who does not alternate God? How do you know men who don't trust in some other thing else? How do you know men whose hope is not in some other thing? How can you tell if a man, his only hope is in God? Is that his life pattern: he cry to God day and night. When you see a man whose prayer life is casual, he alternates God. He has alternatives to God. That's what he's trying to say. He's trying to make us see something. He's not that when you ask God for something, God may not answer you on time, God want you to pray without ceasing. That's not what the Bible is teaching. Or if I ask God for promotion, God will not answer me on time. That's not what it is. What he's saying is that by our life, we are a people that our breath, our thoughts, our emotions, our design, what we breathe in and out is prayer. It's prayer. That's our breath. That is who we are. That is what we are constantly doing. That is how our life is defined. That's our lifestyle. That's the way we are. Apostle Paul gave the attention in First Thessalonians chapter 5 when he said, "Pray without ceasing." In Ephesians 6, he said, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." Now, Jesus is creating a picture that a believer who is not praying day and night will not enter the fullness of what God intends for his life. A believer who is not given to prayer... Men ought always to pray. Now, and today I was asking a question. For those chosen people that don't cry day and night, will God avenge them? Will he avenge those that does not cry night and day? "Baba, this thing!" Will he avenge them? If Jesus is teaching a lesson, now where will you get the answer from? It's from the verse 1. Men ought... what is an "ought"? Is it a must? Should? Instruction. Command. There is something you should be doing. There is something that should be going on. There is something that should not stop. God needs that thing to avenge your matter. God needs it to answer to your matter. God needs it. And that's why let's now go back now to the parable that we initially read. And that's why I asked at the beginning, I asked that I hope we have been praying. Honestly, we have been praying. We have been praying. And honestly we have been seeing result. But my joy is not that I have result. My joy is that we have result. That is where my joy will be full. That I say it has been done, it has been done, it has been done. And we know because God asks us to pray and we pray. Let's now go back to the Luke where we read and then now try... if we now interpret it now, I believe it will be clearer. Because some Bible version don't write it the way King James wrote it. If you read it in King James, the matter is very clear. But if you don't first go to Luke to look at a similar parable, you will think King James is making a mistake. But he's not making a mistake. King James made it clear, the way King James wrote it. Look at King James, Luke 11 from verse 5. "And he said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend..." Look at that first "friend". Is it capital letter or small letter? Other translation don't do that. NLT now will just say... "Friend" house at midnight. Small letter "friend". Small letter "friend", just look like any other friend. But if you look at King James, King James differentiated it to make it clearer. King James says: "Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend..." If you look at that "Friend", it's now capital. "Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; For a friend of mine..." [Speaker 1 laughs] "...in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. I say to you, though he will not rise and give him because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needed." Not about three again, didn't say "three". "As many as he needed." What now followed in verse 9? "And I say unto you, ask, it shall be given unto you." So who are the two friends that he's talking about in that place? That friend at midnight. Is it not God? You notice that Jesus is creating a picture that a believer who is not praying day and night will not enter the fullness of what God intends for his life. A believer who is not given to prayer... Men ought always to pray. Now, Jesus was speaking to his disciples. He was trying to teach them why men should pray without ceasing. Why they should keep praying. No prayer point was raised. He was talking about a lifestyle. Do you understand? No, he was not teaching about a prayer point. Jesus was not teaching them how to pray for having husband. He was not teaching them how to pray for having spiritual gift. But he was trying to teach them that men ought always to pray. So the matter is not linking to an article of prayer. But he was talking about a life. He was talking about a machine, how a machine should keep working. Even though at different production points, different things are produced. But if, for example, the machine finished washing and it stopped, the production will not go on. Because production have not finished at the point of washing. It's a continuous process. He's trying to show us that all that God is doing in our life is something that is procedural, accumulating, and climaxing. The thing is procedural. The thing is dynamic. It is a process. The machine that keeps working is the praying without ceasing. Men ought always to pray. Now, in talking about the unjust judge, the Lord was not trying to say that he's an unjust person. He's talking in respect of a lifestyle. It's not about a particular thing. But he's talking about a lifestyle. He's talking about the widow that came repeatedly and then the judge now says, "Look, this woman will wear me out," he now says, "Okay, take a lesson." So it is the lesson we should go to. In the lesson, he said, "Hear what the unjust judge said." Hear what he says. "And shall God not avenge his own elect, who cry day and night?" Verse 6: "I tell you, he will avenge them." He's talking about a lifestyle of God's chosen people. God's chosen people are people who are crying to God day and night. How do you know the elect of God? How do you know people who truly depend on God? How do you know people who does not have any other thing they depend on except God? How do you know men who does not alternate God? How do you know men who don't trust in some other thing else? How do you know men whose hope is not in some other thing? How can you tell if a man, his only hope is in God? Is that his life pattern: he cry to God day and night. When you see a man whose prayer life is casual, he alternates God. He has alternatives to God. That's what he's trying to say. He's trying to make us see something. He's not that when you ask God for something, God may not answer you on time, God want you to pray without ceasing. That's not what the Bible is teaching. Or if I ask God for promotion, God will not answer me on time. That's not what it is. What he's saying is that by our life, we are a people that our breath, our thoughts, our emotions, our design, what we breathe in and out is prayer. It's prayer. That's our breath. That is who we are. That is what we are constantly doing. That is how our life is defined. That's our lifestyle. That's the way we are. Apostle Paul gave the attention in First Thessalonians chapter 5 when he said, "Pray without ceasing." In Ephesians 6, he said, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit." Now, what I want people talk about this scripture, they seem to relate it to a particular thing. Jesus is not addressing you asking for a particular thing. Jesus is addressing the lifestyle of God's chosen people. The lifestyle of God's chosen people is that one, they are widows in Israel. Do you know what that means? A widow in Israel does not have a defender, a protector, a help. A widow in Israel is vulnerable. A widow in Israel does not have somebody to defend them. That's why he says God is the husband of the widow. God's chosen people are people who know that their defender, their help, their spokesman, their everything that a widow needs is God. Again, God's chosen people are people who have a necessity that cannot make them leave God. Understand the situation in that story. A friend came to a friend at midnight. Do you get that? Do you know what Jesus is trying to draw? If I come to you at midnight and I needed to eat bread, where can you go and buy it? I needed to eat bread and you don't have bread at home. Where can you go and buy bread at midnight? Which shop will you go and knock? Is it ShopRite? But you know that God who is living close to you and you know that God will have so much bread in his house. And we need to use that bread that night. So you are not going to buy because you know that even if you have resources, your resource there is at that point is useless. No matter how much money that is in your bank account, even if you have a hundred billion, you cannot transfer it that night to buy that bread. Do you get the picture he's creating? He's saying that God's people are people who are under necessity that cannot make them leave God. They are people who know that they are under necessity to call God. That's what he's trying to say. They are people who are constantly under a necessity. Who knows they are under constant necessity to call God. And that is the secret of the ceaseless praying. It is a knowing. Father, help me this night. Help me. Can I show you? I'll just show you. Look at this very simple story in Nehemiah. Can we turn to Nehemiah? Nehemiah chapter 1. Nehemiah chapter 1. [background noise] The verse 1 talked about Nehemiah, the son of who he is. Chapter 2... it says that Hanani one of my brethren came. He and certain men of Judah. And I asked them concerning the Jews that had escaped, who were left in captivity, and concerning Jerusalem. So what did they tell him? And they told him that the remnant are left of the captivity that are in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and the gate thereof have been burnt with fire. So what happened in verse 4? It came to pass when I heard these words that I sat down and wept and mourned certain days and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then from verse 5 is the prayer. "I beseech thee, oh God, let thine ear be open, let we have dealt corruptly." He was praying. "Remember I beseech thee, Lord." But if we turn back to you, you will answer us. "Now these thy servant thy people." He was still praying. Verse 11: "Oh Lord, I beseech thee." He was still praying. He prayed and prayed to the end of verse 11. To the end of 1, which is verse 11. Now, look at the last prayer. Look at that verse 11. It says: "Oh Lord, please hear my prayer. Listen to the prayer of those of us who delight in honoring you. Please grant me success today by making the king favorable to me. Put it in his heart to be kind to me." In those days, I was the king's cupbearer. This was with fasting and with praying. Is that not? When he heard the something. Okay, now look at chapter 2. Look at the last prayer there. Look at chapter 2 verse 1. "It came to pass in the month of Nisan, in the twentieth year of the King Artaxerxes, that wine was before him. Now I took up the wine and gave it unto the king. Now I had not been before time sad in his presence. Wherefore," verse 2, "the king said unto me, Why is thy countenance sad, seeing thou art not sick? This is nothing else but sorrow of heart." What did Nehemiah say happened to him? "Then I was very sore afraid." And said unto the king, "Let the king live forever. Why should not my countenance be sad, when the city, the place of my fathers' sepulchers, lieth waste, and the gate thereof are consumed with fire?" Then the king said to me, "For what dost thou make request?" What is the next thing? "So I prayed to the God of heaven." Are you following me? The king said to me, "For what do you ask?" Now so I prayed to the God of heaven. Now between the request and the answer, what has happened? Prayer. After all the fasting, praying, and everything, what do you see again? The king made request and the answer. I'm showing you the kind of men that God uses. The kind of people that qualify to carry God. You see, prayer is... I don't know. Prayer is... it is in recent time over and over as I'm seeing this matter, I began to understand this song. I know it more in Yoruba version. "Adura ni opa Kristi lati bolo more." In those days, I used to wonder. Adura is not the staff that... no. The Holy Spirit is the staff, the... but you see over time I began to understand. I began to understand. If you go and read, please, go and take time again and look at that Luke 11 to the end. At the end, go and look at what Jesus said there. He said if you being evil know how to give good gift to your children, he said how much more will your Father not give his Holy Spirit? Mind you, there was no Holy Spirit in the whole request. He was talking about prayer. Suddenly when he gets to the end, he said he will give his Spirit. There is something about something. The spirit of prophecy, the spirit of revelation, the spirit of inspiration, the spirit of God is the spirit of prayer. Mark my word: the spirit of inspiration, the spirit of prophecy, the spirit of revelation, the spirit of God is the spirit of prayer. You cannot separate those things that I've just mentioned. Men who are not deep in prayer can never be deep in revelation. Men who are not deep in revelation cannot be deep in prayer. Go and check scripture. Men who are not deep in prayer, they cannot have the spirit of revelation. Go and check Ephesians chapter 1. It says, "Since I heard about your prayer, I do not cease to pray that the God of heaven will give unto you the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of him." So even revelation is a spirit. Revelation is not common sense. It's not intelligence. If not, professor of theology should be the first in heaven. It's not ordinary intelligence. That's why you will see stark illiterate, they will interpret scripture in a way that you will marvel. You see... do you remember what Bible says about the Holy Ghost? It said even the Holy Ghost helpeth our infirmities. That even when you don't know what to pray, what is the Holy Ghost doing? The Spirit of God is the Spirit of prayer. He said the Holy Spirit teaches us how to pray. He searches the deep things of God. He will be bringing them out. So as you are praying, actually God gives you His Spirit. You search again the deep things, you see it, you pray again, he takes you deeper. There is a spirit in the place of prayer. You will pray to some stage and then you will see God will push you again. He will give you some revelations about the future. You will continue again and look... go and check. Do you not see that Jesus prayed all night in morning before he called the twelve? So where was he given their name? Did Jesus come to die? He came to die for our sin. Where did he get the spirit to die? Bible say angels appeared unto him, strengthening him. In the place of prayer that he got the strength to die. Look, I'm showing you the connectivity of this matter. There is a great connectivity. And God is... this burden as I'm sharing with you, began immediately we entered the second half of the year. That's when I've been raising this matter: that God is calling His people to prayer. He said, "I have given promises. I have given my word. Pray, you that make mention of my name. Don't give me rest. Pray until I have made and I have established Jerusalem in praise. Pray until something happens. Stay there. Be there. Form a lifestyle of prayer." Giving up things in prayer, calling it up in prayer, wrapping it up in prayer, wrapping it up in prayer, speaking it up in prayer, sparking it up in prayer, meditating in prayer, driving in prayer, cooking in prayer, sleeping in prayer, waking... I don't know how to put it. But I'm talking about... look. David was... we called David a man of prayer. Is that not? Because of the Psalm. Because of the various Psalm. No, but David is a man... because of the various Psalms he wrote. Some will carry the Psalm and put it in... okay, Psalm 24, put it on your pillow. When you wake up, God will have fought your battle. They forgot that those Psalms they actually somebody's prayer. But for you to understand the dimension and the extent of David in prayer, look at when David was running away from Absalom. And David was told Ahithophel is among the conspirators. What did David do? Even as he was crying. He was crying away. What did he do? He prayed: "God, turn the counsel of Ahithophel to foolishness." Even though God was pursuing him for his sin, was in that prayer... did God not respond to that prayer? I'm talking about... but imagine that David is not praying. He was overwhelmed by the affliction. This thing... I'm trying to bring us our memory to something. Whatsoever things were written down, they were written down for our learning. So that through the encouragement of the scripture we may have hope. They were written down for us to learn. As much as we don't take divine instruction from story line, but we can understand divine instruction from story line. I hope I'm very, very clear. It's very important. God's principles they are not in the story line. It is where God said, "I am this, I am this, I am this." Like when somebody come say that, "Ah, see Abraham married three wives, so God want us to marry three wives." You get the point I'm making. Abraham told a lie and God defended him. So even if we lie, God can defend us. They are not understanding that in those story line, they are just story line telling about the life of the people. To draw direct instruction, we draw it from where God said: "Put away lying in all its form." So that God defended him does not mean that God will not punish the father, the man told a lie. These are very, very important things. But I'm saying that whatsoever things were written down, they were written for our learning. So for us to see the life of men who walked with God. We talk so much about Daniel and revelation. Please, the man Daniel, who is the man Daniel? A man of prayer. Do you see the kind of revelation that he handled? I don't know what God wants us to do. I don't know what God is saying about the future. I don't know where the future is going. Because your prayer life is not deep. Let us go and drink deep, press deep, deep, deep. We will find direction, we will find strength, we will find revelation. One work of the Holy Ghost is to tell you of things to come. But you must... there must be a fellowship, there must be... you stay with him, you stay there. And then see whether you will not know things to come. Brethren, I am appealing to us. The Lord wants us to pray. The Lord is calling us back to prayer. I summarize this way. Except the Lord brings back again to this burden, we may move to something else in the next discipleship class. But I summarize this way. You remember that eventually when the Lord appeared back in His temple, and after purifying the temple, after... the table of the money changers were overturned, those selling doves, they were chased out of the temple. He said, "My house shall be called the house of prayer." My house shall be called the house of prayer. I hope you must remember that when we talk about the temple of God today, our body is that temple. If this body is not a body of prayer, it's not the house of God. Go and mark my word. If this temple is not a temple of prayer, it is not the house of God. He said, "My house!" I'm showing you these are direct words of Jesus. They're not things people said about Jesus. They are the direct words. The parable of the friend at midnight, the parable of the widow, the issue of calling the house of God the house of prayer, they are all direct words by God Himself. God was manifested in the flesh. God spoke when he appeared in the flesh. Said, "My house shall be called the house of prayer." I don't know how you can describe your life. Is your house a house of prayer? Is it the house of... So I'm not talking about just... okay, I need... oh, there is bad now, let me pray. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a life of prayer. I'm talking about a life. It's not just, "Hey, there's trouble, let me pray." That's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking beyond all of that. I'm talking about the life of a man that God uses. The kind of people that qualify to carry God. You see, prayer is... I don't know. Prayer is... I'm talking about a life. It's not just a... I'm talking about the life of a man that God uses. The life of the people that God answers speedily. The life of men that carries the spirit of revelation. The life of men that carries the spirit of prayer. The life of men that carries the Holy Ghost. The life of men that experience divine intervention. The life of people that God cannot overlook. The life of people that God cannot bypass. The life of people that God grants insight. The life of people that God gives inspiration, revelation. The life of men that God constantly breathes into. That's what I'm talking about. Life of men that constantly experience the breath of God. As they go through their day they experience the breath. The breath of God is constant. The breath of God is persistent in their life. Those are the men I'm talking about. The men of prayer. The men of prayer. The men of prayer. The men of prayer. The men of prayer. I don't know how I can describe the life. Oh, Father! [Speaker 1 singing] My body is your sanctuary. Oh Lord, my body is your sanctuary. Purify me as gold so that I might be bold to say my body is your sanctuary. Oh Lord, my body is your sanctuary. Oh Lord, my body is your sanctuary. Oh Lord, purify me as gold so I might be bold to say my body is your sanctuary. Oh Lord, oh my body, my body is your sanctuary. In the name of Jesus. Thank you, blessed Father. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. [Speaker 3] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Everlasting Father, we thank you for your word that you've spoken to us. [Speaker 1] Thank you, sir. [Speaker 3] In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.