This message is one of the Times Square
Church pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other takes are available by writing World Challenge,
PO Box 260, Lindell, Texas 75771 or calling
903-963-8626.
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However, for all other forms of reproduction or
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I'm going to speak this morning a message
entitled, When Prayer Touches Glory.
When Prayer Touches Glory.
If you go with me to the book
of Matthew chapter 6 and just leave your
Bible open there, we'll go there momentarily.
Pastor David sends his greetings.
This morning, I don't have the specifics on
numbers and the pastor's conference and the crusades.
All I have is that they have gone
beyond expectation.
The Lord's presence has been there and Bettina
told me last night that they have experienced
the holy hush in the meetings just the
way we have here at Times Square Church.
And very unexpected, but producing incredible results in
the spiritual realm.
And we just thank God for that.
It's marvelous to hear that the Lord is
working the same way there that he does
in our midst here in New York City.
All of our visitors, welcome to your Education
Annex and Main Sanctuary.
Please take time to fellowship with us after
the service today.
We'd like to give you a gift and
a reminder of your visit here.
I need your prayer today.
Let's pray together.
Father, we thank you, God, for the anointing
of the Holy Spirit.
Thank you for strength and power, Lord, that
only you can give.
Lord, this message came from you and it
comes back to you to honor you.
Lord, it honors you when it finds a
resting place in the minds and the hearts
of your people.
I ask first and foremost that this message
may find its resting place in my life.
Lord, that you would lead me and guide
me and take me into that place of
prayer where you want me to go.
God, take this church, take all of us,
Lord, all who desire to pray.
Lord, who want to be a people of
prayer.
You said it is written, my house shall
be called a house of prayer.
Lord, we have to cry out again as
your disciples did and say, Lord, teach us
how to pray.
Lord, we see in the scriptures incredible, marvelous
answers to prayer.
And God, we want to move in that
dimension.
And we thank you, Lord, that you're going
to do it.
You're going to open something from your word
today.
You're going to further your kingdom.
That is the cry of our heart today.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done.
Lord, let your kingdom come into our lives,
into our hearts with great power.
I thank you for the ability to speak
this.
I thank you, Holy Spirit, for taking me
beyond, far beyond any natural ability, natural thought.
And God, giving me the words and the
ability to speak them in a way that
people can understand.
That your truth may live in our hearts
and that we may become a people who
honor you in this final hour of time.
God, I thank you for it from the
very depths of my heart.
In Jesus' name.
Now, I want to take time today to
talk about why so many Christians don't pray.
If there is a battle in the church,
I think it is above all other battles.
Yes, we have battles.
There are battles of immorality.
There are battles of mental torment.
Now, many of these are sin battles.
But in the spiritual realm, probably one of
the greatest, if not the greatest battle that
faces every Christian is the battle to pray.
It is an absolute battle.
There is no doubt about it.
You can go to a football game and
have no problem at all cheering and clapping
and paying attention and talking to everybody.
But go into the prayer closet.
Bow your head and close your eyes and
all of a sudden you realize that there
is a force without and within.
There is a dual battle as it is
trying to shut the Christian down from prayer.
Trying to stop that very lifeline, that very
channel of God's lifeline that conclusively is proven
in the Scriptures.
It is not an arguable point that the
power of God and the leading of God
is interconnected to prayer.
The devil will do everything he can to
cut the prayer line.
Your communion with God, that intimate communion that
opens up the realm of God, that nothing
but prayer will...
You can study the Bible from now until
Christ returns.
You can be knowledgeable.
But if that knowledge and that study does
not bring you into a life of prayer,
then you will just be a knowledgeable but
a powerless person in the kingdom of God.
Able to expound on truth, but having no
sense of the power that you are expounding
on in your own life.
Always learning, but never coming to that intimate
knowledge of what it is that God has
been revealing to us through His Word.
I want to tell you, I'm going to
try today to explain why churches don't pray.
I think the blight, as it is in
almost all, not all, thank God, but almost
all, perhaps that which is called by the
name of Christ today in North America, in
the church doesn't pray.
You'll find socials, you'll find bake sales, you'll
find entertainment nights, you'll find bowling, you'll find
sports nights with screens brought into the church,
you'll find all kinds of entertainment, but very
few prayer nights anymore in the house of
God.
I'm believing as we open our hearts and
honestly, it's going to take an honesty today,
in my heart and in your heart, God's
been speaking to me all week, been leading
me, been giving me some incredible experience in
prayer.
I'm not going to maybe share on it,
but the Lord has so touched me this
week.
And I'm believing that God is going to
move all of us forward if we have
hearts to be moved forward.
Luke, when he's writing his gospel in chapter
11, verse 1, said that Jesus was praying
in a certain place.
And when he had finished praying, one of
his disciples came to him and said, Lord,
teach us to pray.
Now, I'm sure that they were familiar with
prayer, because prayer, of course, was part of
the religious life of Israel.
You went into the temple, you prayed, you
recited prayers, and there were manners of praying,
there were learned forms and traditions of prayer.
And I'm sure they were familiar with these,
but when they heard Jesus pray, there was
something in that prayer, there was such an
intimacy, it so defied all form and tradition
that they had learned.
It so seemed to live in another realm
that they were unfamiliar with, that when they
heard him, and when he was finished, it's
almost as if they didn't dare interrupt him.
He was in such intimate communion with his
Father.
And it was so real, and it was
so powerful, and it was so life-giving.
And every man standing back, perhaps, and listening
would know, would instinctively know, this man, even
at this point, if they didn't fully comprehend
who he was, they would look and say,
this man has something with God that we
lack.
All of our attendance, and all of our
repetitious prayers, and all of our service in
the house has not brought us to where
he is.
And they knew that an intimate link that
he had with the Father was the very
source of the life and power that was
flowing through him.
Because out of the prayer closet he would
come, and they would walk with a man
who was just walking down the road, people
would just leap out, desperately touch him, and
be instantly healed.
There was a virtue that was otherworldly, that
was continuously just flowing out through him.
But that virtue was maintained by that communion
that he had with his Father.
Lord, they said, teach us to pray.
And I can't help but wonder if there
was a momentary reluctance on Jesus' part, as
he knew that how many would take his
words into, and make them into another one
of many repetitious religious formulas.
This is what the human nature wants to
do with God.
We want to turn God into someone predictable.
We want to turn our relationship with God,
and that's what humankind has always done, into
something that runs by the clock.
Into something where it ends up, if we
allow it to degenerate, our service to God
becomes nothing but empty repetition.
Coming into the house of the Lord, we
begin to run it by the clock.
We begin to look and say, I wonder
why we're late getting started.
I wonder why the choir sang five minutes
more than they should.
There's no sense of spontaneity.
There's no allowing the Holy Spirit to move
anymore.
Everything is empty repetition.
And that's exactly what we will do to
our relationship with God.
If we don't have someone more powerful than
us to come, and constantly turn us and
correct us, this is the direction that all
of humankind will take our relationship with Jesus
Christ.
Matthew chapter 6 gives us the fullest account
of the heart issues that Jesus was trying,
at least, to convey to those who would
join with Him in like-minded prayer.
Now, in verse 7, He said, When you
pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen
do.
For they think that they shall be heard,
for they are not speaking.
Now, folks, if you're coming into the house
of the Lord, into a prayer meeting, and
all you do is say the same phrase
for 45 minutes, something is wrong.
Something is wrong in your prayer life.
If you go into your prayer closet, and
you've got, every day, same words.
You know, vain repetition is not just memorizing
the Our Father.
Vain repetition is coming in with the same
list, saying the same words.
Could you imagine being in a marriage like
that?
Where your husband or wife came home every
day, and sat down at the table and
said the same thing to you every day?
The same words, day in and day out.
Can you imagine having your children come home
from school, and say, what kind of a
day was it today?
You're interested in their lives.
You want to have some input.
You want communication.
And every day, they sit down and say
the same thing to you.
Day after day after day.
You think your child is mentally ill after
a while.
And yet, we seem to have no difficulty
praying like this.
And the longer you pray, the more we're
able to add to our praises.
And so the longer they get, and so
they become just emptier and emptier repetition, because
quite often, there's really no heart in it.
It's just an empty, repetitious formula.
But Jesus now is talking about something else.
He said, don't be like them.
Verse 8.
For your Father knows what things you need
of before you ask Him.
After this manner, pray.
Now, He wasn't telling the people, here's a
prayer to memorize.
And just say this about 15 times a
day, and everything will be okay.
This was not the intent.
He was trying to show something of the
heart, as always, when He was teaching.
Our Father.
He said, now we start with this.
In other words, He's saying, I want you
to know, it's important to know, when you
go to prayer, that God is for you
and not against you.
He's no longer the God of Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob, or someone else's God.
He's now your God.
And He's your Father.
And He created you.
And many of you have not known a
good fathering relationship.
But God says, even in spite of that,
I want you to come into my presence
and know that I am good.
I want you to understand that I gave
you life.
And it's my desire to have my purpose
for you absolutely fulfilled.
I am not against you when you come
into the prayer closet.
I am absolutely for you, even if you
are falling short of what I have designed
your life to be.
You don't have to come in and hang
your head.
If you are a Christian, if you want
to live for me, the Lord would say,
if you want my glory in your life,
you walk in and understand that I'm your
glory and the lifter of your head.
I'm not your condemner.
There's another that condemns you, but one day
he's going to go into an everlasting pit
of fire and be judged forever.
Our Father, He said, which art in heaven.
Now, in other words, the ways of God
are higher than our ways.
He lives in a place other than we
are.
He dwells in eternity.
We live in time.
He sees the whole picture.
We see only a little wee part.
He is absolute strength and all glory surrounds
Him.
We are just a little puff of smoke,
as it is the writer James says in
the New Testament, that appears for a little
while and then vanish into thin air.
But He is in heaven and He is
for us.
Hallowed be thy name.
God is holy.
Marvelous, wonderful God.
An incredible thing to think that this holy
God was so infinitely higher, infinitely more glorious
than fallen man.
The creation that sinned against Him in the
Garden of Eden.
Incredible to think that this same God would
come to send to us and become a
man.
He would be born of a virgin.
He would walk for 33 years suffering the
foolishness of humanity fallen all around Him.
And instead of judging humanity, He would go
to a cross and take upon Himself your
failings and mine, that you and I might
be brought back into right relationship with Him
in time and also throughout all of eternity.
My God, holy is Your name.
Marvelous is Your name.
Wonderful is Your name.
This is not a formula.
Jesus said this should be in your hearts
when you come into the prayer class and
say, My Father and my God who gave
me birth, who redeemed me from my sins,
who lives in a place so much higher
than where I am momentarily confined in this
human body.
Holy is Your name.
Wonderful is Your name.
Marvelous God that You would come down and
become a man and redeem me from the
power of hell and sin.
That You would give me a newness of
life and write my name in the Lamb's
book and give me an assurance that I'm
going to not only live with You, but
I'm going to rule and reign with You
for all of eternity.
Hallowed be Thy name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done.
After understanding who God is, knowing where He
dwells, knowing what His heart is, Jesus said
this should be the cry of our lives.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done.
Not my kingdom, O God.
Your kingdom.
Not my will, but Your will.
O God, all I will succeed in doing
is make a mess of my own life
and I will even make a mess of
Your kingdom.
O God, You've got to come and plant
another heart in me.
You've got to give me another mind.
You've got to give me another spirit.
You've got to touch me, O God, and
let Your kingdom come and let Your will
be established in my life.
Then verses 11-13.
Give us this day our daily bread.
Forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil.
There are really eight words I want to
focus on.
And it's just this.
Give us.
Forgive us.
Lead us.
And deliver us.
Jesus said these things ought to be in
your heart.
Pray like this.
God, You are wonderful.
You are awesome.
You are merciful.
Your kingdom is above mine.
Your will should be the highest attainment in
my life.
Give me.
Forgive me.
Lead me.
Deliver me.
Because all I need comes from You.
Everything I will ever desire comes from Your
hand, O God.
And You freely have said You would give
it to me if I would ask You
for it.
So, O God, You said I should ask
if my joy would be full.
Lord, I come and I knock and I
ask.
You said I would receive.
Give me.
Forgive me.
Lead me.
Deliver me from evil, O God.
For Thine, He said, is the kingdom and
the power and the glory forever.
Yours is all that will last.
Yours is the kingdom.
Not mine.
Not earth.
This earth is going to be dissolved one
day, the Bible says clearly, by fire.
It's going to be melted down.
The whole universe is going to be folded
and put away.
And all things are going to be recreated.
The only kingdom that is going to remain
is the kingdom of God.
Yours is the kingdom.
Not mine.
Not my objectives.
Not my desires.
Not my plans.
Not my ambitions.
God forbid that I should use You to
further my own kingdom.
It's not my kingdom.
It's yours.
I have abdicated the throne of my life
when I came to Jesus Christ.
And now I belong to Him.
It's His kingdom now.
And yours is the power.
The power to change.
The power to live a new life.
The power to be all that God has
called me to be.
The power to call things that are not
as if they are.
The power to go where I could never
go and be what I could never be.
Yours is the kingdom.
Yours is the power.
And yours is the glory.
Now the word for glory is doxa.
In the Greek it means...
Now this is my definition because it's an
extremely long definition in the Greek concordance.
But this is what it means.
It means the sufficiency of God Himself.
Which He places within those who are His.
To make them into all that He has
called them to be.
Yours is the kingdom.
Yours is the power.
And yours is the all-sufficiency.
You are everything I need.
Because not only do you call me.
But you come and plant within me yourself.
You give me of yourself and you make
me all that you've called me to be.
In other words, I have a destiny.
It was marked upon my life the day
that I was thought of in the mind
of God.
God had a destiny for my life.
Yes, I'm a free will agent.
I can choose to move in that direction
or I can move away from it.
Bringing nothing but disgrace and discredit to His
name.
But I have a destiny.
And the destiny is to be part of
His kingdom because it's the only one that
lasts.
The destiny is to touch Him and to
begin to understand His power.
And the destiny is to have that release
of God's power in my life.
That I might become everything that He has
destined me to be on this side of
eternity.
You see, the Bible says the man who's
in sin falls short of the doctrine.
He falls short of the glory of God.
Because sin cuts him off from the life
-giving influence of God.
Therefore, it's undebatable that you can't live in
sin and know the glory of God.
It's impossible.
It's foolish to think so.
Foolish to think you can come in this
house and be still doing things you know
the Bible says you're wrong.
And somehow know the glory of God.
You cannot know the glory of God.
Your prayers go nowhere.
You'll never touch the glory.
Now, the glory is that inward power of
God.
It's that presence of God.
It's that inner strength that comes from God
Himself.
You'll never get it anywhere else but from
God.
You'll never get it from study.
You'll never get it from church attendance.
You'll never get it from meaningless, repetitious prayer.
You will not get it from someone else
laying hands on you.
You only get it from God.
That's why in the end times, Jesus said
there are going to be foolish people running
around looking for oil.
And those that were wise and had oil
said, Well, we can't give it to you.
It's not ours to give.
You have to go and get it for
yourself.
Man without God is by himself in his
own nature a religious fool.
Man is a religious fool.
It's true.
You leave man alone without God, he will
develop his own religion.
He will worship his own shoes if you
leave him long enough apart from the Lord.
That's what he will do.
He will become a religious fool.
But there's religious foolery in all of us.
It's important to understand that.
When we understand these things, it causes us
to begin to flee these things that rob
us of the life of God.
Now, what is a religious fool?
Now, first of all, a religious fool is
a man who supposes by all the meaningless
repetition that he gathers to himself that he's
become acceptable with God.
He supposes that meaningless and repetitious church attendance
is devotion to God.
He goes to church.
Sometimes he goes to church more than anybody
else.
But it's meaningless.
He's not progressing in grace.
He's not growing in the knowledge of God.
The doctrine, the glory is not part of
his life.
He's not growing in grace from image to
image and glory to glory.
The kingdom is not coming.
The will of God is not being established.
All he's doing is going to church.
But he supposes by frequent attendance, this is
devotion, but it's just really another form of
vain repetition.
He supposes that meaningless singing is worship.
Sings songs really not believing them in his
heart and thinking this is worshiping God.
He supposes that meaningless repetition is prayer.
Goes to a prayer meeting, puts his head
down, and then prays like he's a marathon
runner.
Never stops talking for five minutes to one
hour straight.
Just yak, yak, yak, yak, yak, yak.
Thinking this is prayer.
No times of quietness.
No understanding the mind of God.
No sitting quietly in the presence of the
Lord.
No letting the Holy Ghost reveal now the
mind of God.
No agreeing with God as it is.
Most of the prayer is about himself because
the whole focus is on himself.
He supposes that meaningless good intention is commitment.
Coming to God, always promising God to do
better.
Promising God that he's going to change in
this area and that area.
And he supposes this is a commitment to
the work of God.
But it's really meaningless.
Psalm 14.1, please don't turn there.
David said, the fool has said in his
heart, there is no God.
Now, we quite often associate this scripture with
an atheist.
But that's not what it's talking about.
You see, the fool can say with his
lips, I love Jesus.
But David said in his heart, he says
there is no God.
It's not so much what he says with
his lips.
The fool can be attending God's house every
week.
He can even be in the service here
at Times Square Church this morning.
He could have sung the songs of Zion.
He could have bowed his head and at
least pretended to be part of the prayers
that have been offered from this platform.
But in his heart, he says there is
no God.
Now, in his heart, he really doesn't believe
that God is.
He really doesn't believe that God is a
rewarder of those who diligently seek him.
He really doesn't believe that God is master
of his circumstance.
He really doesn't believe that as a Christian
that he's required to live for the purposes
of God.
He doesn't believe it.
He lives as if there is no God.
He lives as if he came to Calvary,
repented of his sin, and now is free
to pursue his own agenda for the rest
of his life.
He says in his heart there is no
God.
He says in his heart, I am so
blessed, I can now add Christ to my
list of accomplishments.
I now have heaven, I have my cake
now, and I can eat it too as
well.
There is no God who requires holiness of
me.
There is no God who requires a change
of heart.
There is no God who fights my battles
and brings me into the miraculous.
There is no God who has an intended
purpose and plan for my life.
He sings with his lips, but in his
heart he says there is no God.
He doesn't really believe that God is.
He doesn't really believe that God will reward
those who diligently seek him.
The greatest reward that you and I could
ever know is the actual presence of the
living God coming within our lives.
There is no greater reward than to be
in his presence.
There is no greater reward than to daily
live in the miraculous.
There is no greater reward than by God's
grace to be taken out of the bondages
of sin and to be brought into the
places that only God can take you.
There is no greater reward than to have
your mind expanded and have your heart enlarged.
To become like David the king when he
was a young boy running into the valley
to face every giant that defies the armies
of the living God.
There is no greater reward than to know
his presence.
There is no greater touch than to come
into the prayer closet and know that you
are talking with God and that God is
able to talk to you.
The man who doesn't really believe there is
a God lives.
He tries to pray in his own strength.
He tries to live to himself.
He tries to live for God, but he
can't.
Mark, go with me to Mark chapter 14.
Mark 14.
He makes promises, but he can't keep them.
Mark 14, 27.
Jesus said to them all, All of you
shall be offended because of me this night.
For it is written, I will smite the
shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.
But after I am risen I will go
before you into Galilee.
Now, Christ is saying, listen now, God has
spoken something.
And because he spoke it, it's going to
happen.
That's incredible, because it's a two-sided coin.
In this case, God has spoken about the
weakness as it is of humanity, without the
doctrine, without the glory of God coming to
give him the strength, the enabling strength he
needs to live for him.
He said, tonight, the shepherd is going to
be taken away.
And you will all run because it's written.
And it's written because you have no strength
without God.
You have no power, you don't understand his
kingdom.
But Peter said to him, although all shall
be offended, yet will not I.
And Jesus said to them, verily, I say
unto you this day, even in this night,
before the cock crow twice, you shall deny
me thrice, or three times.
But he spake them more vehemently.
If I should die with you, I will
not deny you in any wise.
And likewise, the scripture says, also said they
all.
They all said the same thing.
They all said, oh, even if we die
with you, we will not betray you.
And here they are, thinking that in their
own zeal, they can actually defy the word
of God.
It's an incredible thing.
You know, when I look at this, I
see the other disciples had a choice.
They could agree with Jesus or agree with
Peter.
And they made the choice and they agreed
with Peter.
Jesus said, you are going to flee, and
Peter said, never.
And now they have a choice.
Do I agree with God's word, or do
I agree with what someone else is saying?
And so they made the choice to agree
with what Peter was saying.
And you know, the end of the story,
later that evening, or very shortly after, when
all the leaders and rebels came to arrest
Jesus, they all fled.
They all forsook him.
The man who doesn't fully believe that there
is a God who has a legal right
to his life tries to pray and falls
asleep.
Again, Mark 14, 36.
Christ has now gone into the Garden of
Gethsemane preparing to go to the cross.
And he said, I'm a father.
All things are possible to thee.
Take away this cup from me.
Nevertheless, not what I will, but what thou
wilt.
And when he cometh, he findeth them sleeping.
And he said to Peter, Simon, sleepest thou?
Could you not watch one hour?
Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation.
The Spirit truly is ready, but the flesh
is weak.
And again, he went away and prayed and
spake the same words.
And when he returned, he found them asleep
again.
For their eyes were heavy, and neither wished
they what to answer him.
They didn't know what to say.
He invited them in, but they had no
power to pray.
You see, because in their mind and in
their heart, they were not yet where Christ
is.
Then he came to them the third time
and said to them, sleep on now and
take your rest.
It is enough.
The hour has come.
Behold, the Son of Man is betrayed into
the hands of sinners.
Now, he wasn't telling them to go back
to sleep because in the next verse he
says, rise up and let us go.
So, you look at it initially, it seems
to be almost a contradiction.
Now, when he said it is enough, in
the Greek text it means there's no further
direction on this subject are needed.
You have been taught a lesson here, and
there's no need for me not to teach
you anymore.
You have now seen it's impossible to pray
for you, to pray in your present condition.
You can't pray.
You want to, but you can't.
And why can't you?
It's because you don't understand the kingdom of
God.
You are not in tune with what God
is doing.
You're outside.
You're still living by your own plans.
You're still thinking you can stand.
You still have in focus your own objections.
You have a sense of direction.
You have a sense of what you're going
to do, but you've not touched heaven yet.
And because you've not touched heaven, you don't
know the mind of God.
And not knowing the mind of God, you
have not tapped in yet to the power
of God.
Your prayers have not touched glory yet.
And I've shown you now, I've taught you.
I've brought you to the place of showing
you your powerlessness.
So many places, so many churches today, they've
abandoned prayer for this very reason.
They're sleepy.
They come to pray, and they can't pray.
And unless somebody is leading them, someone zealous,
they can sort of lead them into a
sense of prayer.
They can't go.
There's nothing in them to pray.
They fall asleep.
Their heads are heavy.
They go home at night.
They know they should pray.
They bow their head before God.
They can't stay awake.
There is a reason.
There is still such a large element of
self-will.
There's still such a desire to build another
kingdom.
Not the kingdom of God.
Still such a reliance on self.
As yet in their heart have not come
to that place of saying, Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done.
God, what's your will for my life?
Where do you want me to go?
What do you want me to become?
What would you have me do?
How would you have me glorify you on
this earth for the rest of my life?
There are not very many that pray like
that anymore.
Yes, in days of old, we read biographies
of great saints of God.
Every one of them prayed that way, because
that's how they became wonderful living testimonies of
the Lord.
But we live now in a generation where
a prayer meeting is just coming to ask
for things.
For every man to further his own agenda.
Bless my job.
Bless my business.
Bless my house.
Bless my car.
Bless my physical body.
Give me this.
Give me that.
Just a great big grab-bag gift meeting.
That's why eventually people just get tired.
There's no light there.
There's no power there.
There's no glory there.
There's no doctor there.
Nothing there honors God.
And the meetings are limited to such absolute
mediocre testimonies of God.
That people who have at least a half
-thinking mind walk away eventually saying there's nothing
here.
Testimonies.
I've been in prayer meetings where testimonies are
about driving downtown and getting a parking spot.
You know, folks, God has something bigger for
our lives than getting a parking spot.
I prayed in the morning and I drove
down to Kmart and there it was.
Glory.
No, that's not glory.
That's just a parking spot that happened to
be there when you got to Kmart.
Now, I'll tell you why people can't pray.
And I believe you're going to see it
now.
Go to John 17.
Hallelujah.
And this is the very essence of what
the Holy Ghost gave me to speak on.
John 17 is a prayer.
The whole chapter is a prayer.
And it's a prayer that is prayed just
prior to the cross.
The garden and the cross.
It's an intercessory prayer for the disciples and
for you and for me.
It's a marvelous prayer.
We could speak for a month, I'm sure.
The Holy Ghost, if He were to illuminate
this chapter and open it up, we would
see such marvelous things in this prayer.
It's a prayer that Jesus publicly prayed to
His Father.
Not only for those He was praying for,
but for you and I.
In verse 20, He said, Neither pray I
for these alone, but for them also that
shall believe on me through their word.
That's also for you and me.
This is a prayer that Jesus uttered prior
to the cross for you and for me.
Verse 22.
He says, And the glory which you gave
me I've given them.
Now that word glory is the same word.
It's doxa.
That means the power.
The power, God, my Father, that you've given
me.
To be everything that you called me to
be.
And to glorify you in the manner you
called me to glorify you.
The power that you've given me.
Your personal presence, as it is, I've given
to them.
I've made a way.
Now Christ spoke about what was coming as
if it already was.
Because He was firmly intent on the cross.
And He knew the other side of the
cross was the release of God's glory for
you and I.
He knew that all around Him was weakness.
Surrounding Him were weak people who couldn't pray.
Couldn't stand.
Couldn't understand.
Knew so little about the kingdom of God.
Had explanation after explanation.
And Christ Himself had to say to them,
Are you yet without so...
Are you yet of such little understanding?
Do you not understand?
How many times did He have to say
this even to His own disciples?
And He says, The glory which you gave
me I've given them.
That they may be one even as we
are one.
He was saying, Father, I am one with
you.
We have one agenda.
There is one voice that speaks.
There is one pathway.
You speak, I speak.
You work, I work.
I'm in touch with you.
You're in touch with me.
I know your mind and you've given me
your glory.
Your glory is manifested in my life.
Your power is manifested in my life.
Your very heart is manifested through me.
Your life flows through me.
And now, the glory you've given to me
I've given to them.
That they may be one even as we
are one.
In other words, Father, I've now made a
way.
I'm going to the cross.
And they're going to be able to come
in.
They're not going to be locked out in
powerlessness anymore.
They're going to now understand your plan.
They're going to be grafted in as it
is to the very life of God.
They're going to know.
They're going to understand that your ways are
not man's ways.
Your ways are higher.
Your plans are higher.
Your glory is so much greater.
And where you will take them is so
much farther than any man can go in
his own strength.
They're going to be invited in now.
This was the chief delight of Christ's life.
Oh God!
God!
We've had a plan from before the foundation
of the world that I was going to
come.
That I was going to die.
And I was going to make a way
that they may come into the Holy of
Holies.
And no longer be shut out just looking
at the light.
But the very light would be inside of
them.
The very glory of God would come into
their lives.
And they would be transformed before their generation.
Transformed as evidence that Jesus Christ is alive.
That He is God.
They wouldn't need a theory.
They don't have to argue the presence of
God.
The presence of God will be in them.
I in them and thou in me.
I in them, he said, thou in me.
I in them.
Thou in me.
That they may be made perfect in one.
That the world may know that thou hast
sent me.
And has loved them as thou hast loved
me.
Hallelujah!
Now verse 24 is the key.
Father, he said, I will that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me
where I am.
That they may behold my glory which thou
hast given me.
For thou lovest me before the foundation of
the world.
Now listen very carefully.
Quite often we look at that picture, passage
of scripture, and we look into heaven, into
the future.
And Jesus is saying, I want them to
be with me at the right hand of
glory.
And that's true, he does.
But folks, this word in the Greek text
is present tense.
It's not a future tense.
He's not saying, I want them to be
with me where I will be.
But where I am.
He's talking about right now.
Right where he was standing.
Right as he was praying.
Father, I will that they also whom thou
hast given me be with me where I
am.
In other words, it means where I have
my being.
Where I have my existence.
Where I draw my strength from.
The source of my life.
I pray that they be with me where
I am.
Where I am.
They were around him.
They were confused.
They were weak.
But he said, Father, I pray now that
soon they will be with me where I
am.
It's so important to understand that because he
was absolutely in the divine will of his
Father.
Jesus was in a place where his greatest
delight was in fulfilling the will of God
the Father for and through his life.
That's where he was.
John 4.34, he said, my meat is
to do the will of him that sent
me and to finish his work.
Father, I pray that they may be with
me where I am.
That their greatest desire, their greatest delight would
become fulfilling the will of God for their
lives.
So many people can't touch heaven.
Their prayers have no power because they really
don't want to fulfill the will of God.
Because the will of God has a cross
with it.
The will of God sometimes leads where we
don't want to go.
Takes us where we are afraid.
Causes us to become what we have this
inward trepidation we could never be.
Jesus didn't hop, skip and jump to Calvary.
It was a battle all the way.
But there was a greater will inside.
Fulfilling the will of God for my life.
Oh Father, I pray that my church may
be where I am.
My people on this earth.
Those that I'm going to redeem by my
blood.
I pray, Father, that they may be where
I am.
I pray that when they come into your
house and stand and raise their hands and
their voices.
That they may be among those throughout history
that have raised their voices in the presence
of God.
And say, thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done.
In me.
As it is in heaven.
Jesus was in a place of trust.
In the purposes of God and in God's
plans for tomorrow.
A place of trust.
Father, if it be possible.
Because all things are possible to you.
Take this cup away from me.
But nevertheless not my will but thine be
done.
Oh God, I trust you.
Because you have a purpose and a plan.
To me it looks like pain.
To me it looks like separation.
To me, there are things about it that
are undesirable.
But God, I trust you.
Because you dwell in heaven.
And I dwell on the earth.
And you know, you understand the end of
the plan that's in your heart.
Jesus was hiding from self-promotion.
The Bible says when they came to make
him king, he hid from them.
And so many people today will never touch
glory.
Because they would allow themselves to be promoted
by man.
They would fall prey to the praise of
man and not the praise that comes from
God only.
He was in a place of looking beyond
his own need.
He was in dire need of sincere friends
at the moment.
Many other things personally.
But he said to Peter, Peter, Satan has
desired to sift you like wheat.
But I have prayed for you that your
faith doesn't fail.
You see, he was touching glory because he
was looking away from himself.
And so many people don't touch glory because
their prayers are so self-focused.
So self-centered.
It's not to say that from time to
time we don't have needs and we take
them to God.
That's a given.
But there is a time, if we're going
to ever touch the heart of God, that
the heart of God is looking away from
oneself.
I've prayed for you that your faith doesn't
fail.
Satan has wanted to sift you, but I've
prayed for you.
I've prayed for you.
I've gone in my closet and I've touched
heaven.
And I've been enabled by the Spirit of
God to pray for you.
I've seen the battle.
And I've entered in and stood in the
gap and I've prayed for you that your
faith does not fail.
And Jesus, lastly, was in a place where
he was heading to the cross.
Where he's willing to be poured out and
to offer a way to forgiveness and freedom
and power to the masses of frail and
failing humanity all around him.
I don't know if there's a point that's
more pivotal than this.
Everyone was failing him.
Everyone around him is going to run away.
Judas is going to betray him.
You see all the confusion that's all around
him.
All the failing humanity everywhere.
But you see, the heart of God was
to come to failing humanity.
The heart of God is expressed through Jesus
Christ where the Scripture says, this is love.
Not that we love God, but God loved
us and sent his Son to be the
atoning sacrifice for our sins.
He came to us when we weren't even
looking for him.
He came to us.
When we were laying in our failure.
He headed to the cross to be poured
out so that you and I can have
a weight everlasting life.
And he said, Father, I pray that my
people, my church, may be where I am.
Do you want to know why there's no
prayer meetings anymore?
Because there are hardly any people left that
are willing to be poured out.
That others may come to freedom in Christ.
It's tragic.
I feel personally it's catastrophic in the church
of Jesus Christ.
The God's people gather to be entertained in
the midst of a perishing world.
It's like dancing on the deck of the
Titanic.
Those who understand God.
Those who can touch heaven.
Those that God can take and empower and
use our lives for his glory.
But it requires something.
You see, that's why he could pray.
He could pray because he had God's heart.
And because he had God's heart, he also
had God's power.
Oh, Father, he said, I pray that those
you've given me might be with me where
I am.
That they too might understand and partake of
the life and power that you've given me.
That they might be one with us.
That the world might know that you have
sent me.
That the world might know.
That they might see my glory in my
church.
That they might hear my voice in their
prayer.
That they might see my power in their
lives.
That they might feel my compassion in their
yieldedness.
For thine is the kingdom and the power
and the glory both now and forever.
Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.
I pray that they may be one.
I pray that they may be where I
am.
By God's grace, that can become the chiefest
delight of your life.
To be where God is.
I don't want to be anywhere where God
is not for the rest of my life.
Don't anybody, no clapping please.
I don't want to be anywhere where God
is not.
I don't want to go anywhere.
I don't want to have anything that takes
my heart away from him.
I had the most wonderful time of prayer
that I've had in years.
I think it was Thursday night or Friday
night.
I began to pray in my apartment and
the Holy Spirit came on me.
And I began to wail.
A gut wailing.
For the people of Africa.
It's as if the Holy Spirit took me
there.
And I saw the hundreds of thousands and
millions of souls that are so precious in
the sight of God.
And he began to give me his heart.
Because my prayer had been, Lord, I can't
go there if I don't have your heart.
You've got to give me your heart.
I want to walk beyond a sense of
duty.
I want your heart.
I want to speak through you.
He began to unlock to me his glory.
You see, that's the duksha.
That's the glory.
It's God.
It's God's thoughts.
It's God's heart.
It's God's power.
The common overshadow.
Remove, as it is, our own frailties.
And begin to release us into the power
of God.
So that I can stand in Africa with
the passion of God.
And it's not a religious thing.
It's God.
It's his heart.
Now, I honestly don't care if I live
or die there.
Because it's worth it.
It's worth it.
For every soul that will rise out of
the ashes.
For every man, woman and child that will
find hope in everlasting life in Christ.
It is worth it.
For every pastor that will be quickened.
For every religious worker that will be touched
by the spirit of God.
It's worth it.
Because this is humanity that Christ came for.
This is why he went to the cross.
We're not called to build our own kingdoms.
We're not called to flash around Rolex watches
and drive fancy cars.
As a sign that God is with us.
That is nothing but damnable selfish of western
Christianity.
It has no place in the kingdom of
God.
I'm believing God.
To the miracles.
I'm believing God to set people free.
I'm believing God to have his mind and
kingdom established in people's hearts and lives.
I'm believing God to take a frail vessel
and make me what I'm not.
And take me where I can't go.
And do what I could never do.
Because his is the kingdom.
His is the power.
His is the glory.
Both now and forever.
I began to wail.
Do you want to know why I began
to wail?
I fear for one thing.
I fear for a great judgment that's coming
to America.
Let me tell you why.
The western world is poisoning this part of
the world with a gospel that is not
the gospel of Jesus Christ.
God warns he will never let the poor
be touched.
He said you enter into the fields of
the fatherless, you face the wrath of God.
We've allowed these charlatans to rise in our
midst who don't know anything about the kingdom
of God.
Because there have been so few who have
been willing to press in and say take
my life and use it for your glory.
The moment that's in your heart, you'll see
immediately all the rest of this stuff for
what it is.
You see the self-seeking for what it
is and all of the chicanery and foolishness
that goes on in the name of Christ.
You see it immediately because you are headed
for the will of God.
And immediately it's open.
And you know it.
And you see the power of God.
Times Square Church, let's not degenerate into religion.
Let's not have a fool's religion in this
house.
Let's continue to pray.
Let's have prayer meetings that are filled with
the passion and fire of God.
Where nobody here has to lead you.
The Holy Ghost leads you.
Where you and I just simply are touching
heaven.
We're touching the glory.
The glory is touching us.
We're touching his mind.
His mind touches us.
We touch his power.
His power touches us.
We touch his will.
His will becomes established in us.
And the chiefest delight is to yield ourselves
to the purposes of God.
There's no higher calling.
There is no other calling.
I'd like to sing a song because I
really don't know where to go with this
altar call right now.
We could have the musicians come.
Please just remain seated for a moment.
Now let the Holy Spirit speak to you.
God, I'm asking you that I could want
your kingdom first.
That you could show in my heart areas
where your kingdom has not come.
Where I'm still in control.
I'm still leading.
Lord, help me now to understand your path
for my life.
Give me your heart for dying humanity all
around me.
I want to know what it is you'd
have me to do and how I may
glorify you.
Sleepy prayers.
Father, we want the prayer meeting to be
the strength of this church.
The strength of our homes.
The strength of our individual lives.
That we might be called a people of
prayer.
Lord, we want to know your will.
We want to know what you'd have us
to do.
Every one, every man, every woman who's come
to this altar, oh God, is yielding to
you.
We want to touch the dopes of glory
of God in our prayers.
Lord Jesus, it was your wish that we
would be where you are.
And it was before Calvary.
God, I'm asking by your grace that you
take me.
Take the pastors of this church and the
elders and the ministers.
The choir, the orchestra.
Every person who calls this a church home.
Take those who are visiting today from other
places.
May this be the delight of our life,
oh God.
That we be yielded to you for your
purposes.
That your will and your way might be
accomplished through us.
You said that through this the world would
know.
The world would know.
It's the only way they could ever know.
Religion will never reach lost humanity.
It has to be your glory in a
surrendered people.
God, I surrender to you.
I surrender, I surrender everything.
Lord, I ask you to take it all
for your glory.
Lord, help me now in this.
For I know that my promises are worthless.
I need your power.
I can't fulfill it without your power.
But with you I know that all things
are possible.
Father, I thank you, God.
I thank you, Lord, that you're going to
touch us.
You're going to cause this house to be
a house of prayer.
It will be known in all nations as
a house of prayer.
I thank you that visitors coming to New
York will be able to come here to
pray.
I ask the Holy Spirit today to put
an anointing of prayer on this house.
That anyone who walks in this sanctuary, even
when it's empty, would start to pray.
God, there'd be an instantaneous yielding of the
heart.
An instantaneous desiring of your will.
And let it start with us, oh God,
today.
God, deliver us from empty, bankrupt religion.
Deliver us, oh God, from being fools.
Singing longer songs and having deeper unbelief grip
our hearts.
Oh my God, I ask you to forgive
America for the wicked gospel that we've exported
throughout the world.
Forgive us, my God, Jesus, for so staining
your name.
So disgracing your kingdom.
Using you as an avenue to be rich.
Oh God, forgive us.
God, forgive us.
We've been such an incredibly selfish people.
We've known so little about Christ.
Help us now, Jesus.
Holy Spirit, now help us.
Help us.
God, I have the desire to be poured
out, but you've got to come and give
me the power.
You've got to come and do it for
us, Lord.
We're not going to be able to do
it if you don't do it.
You promised us power.
You promised us, Lord, that if we would
be yielded, we'd be in the place where
Christ stood.
That we'd know the joys and glory of
God.
That we'd be one with you.
We'd be one.
Jesus, I thank you that you made a
way for us.
Thank you that we don't have to live
powerless, selfish lives.
Thank you that we can glorify your kingdom.
Thank you, mighty God, that you can do
exploits through your people.
Now open our minds, open our hearts.
Expand us, oh God, in our prayers.
Take away the dismal, sleepy prayers.
And lift us into glory.
God, I thank you for it.
I thank you for what you're going to
do today.
I thank you, Jesus.
I praise you, God.
Lord, we're lifting up this whole house before
you.
We're lifting up this whole house and asking
you to make it a house of prayer.
My God, my God, my God.
Make it a house of prayer.
Lord, let people be commissioned at this altar.
Let people be commissioned to nations throughout the
world.
Let people be commissioned to areas of this
city.
Let people be given gifts of heaven, oh
God.
To become evangelists and teachers of the word
of God.
Let the gifts of the Holy Ghost begin
to abound.
Lord, you said they'd lay hands on the
sick and they would recover.
Begin, oh God.
Begin to do the miraculous through your church.
Lord, as we walk yielded to you with
no secondary agenda.
My God, come and begin to be God
in us.
Lord, we ask you to touch this city.
Touch this city, oh God.
Touch this bankrupt city.
Lord God, let your glory come.
Let your glory be felt in New York
City.
Down every street and avenue, oh God.
In every borough and every place, let your
glory come.
The glory of Christ.
My God, take us beyond our borders.
Jesus, lead us.
Holy Spirit, lead us.
We cry out, thy kingdom come.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done.
Let the kingdom of Jesus come.
With great glory.
Hallelujah.
God, we praise you.
God, we bless you.
God, we worship you.
We worship you.
This is the conclusion of the message.