Welcome to today's program. The beauty of grace and I'm pastor Pete Norris of harvest fellowship, church, Goldsboro, North Carolina. Today. I want to talk to you about how to pray and what to pray. Now. So many times we got people trying to join together and pray, and we're going to make God move and we're going to change things. And Lord knows I'm all about prayer. And I really believe in prayer, and there's nothing more intimate than a than communication with you and the father. But, but I think we've, we've kinda, don't understand prayer a little bit because nothing happens by God on earth, without somebody praying it. Now, the word pray there. And the, and when we talking about prayer, most of us spend a lot of time begging God for stuff. Now I want you to understand that's not God's plan. That's not God's purposes for you to sit around the bed.
:beause he said, you won't find my seed begging bread. So there, I think the word we need to use is learn to declare what God has already said. If we will learn to declare and say exactly what God has said about us, get out of condemnation and guilt and live in the son, ship of Christ and understand who we are because nothing happens by God on earth, without somebody declaring it or speaking him Isaiah, 600 years before Jesus came and became a baby and lived on the earth. Jesus, Isaiah prophesied that the Messiah was coming. So he prophesied and declared this thing. Job, 22, 28 says you declare a thing and I will establish it. So as declare means to speak it, to proclaim it, to say exactly what God has said about you. Now look at Titus chapter two, verse 11, for the grace of God, that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
Speaker 1:Now I've heard people say, well, pastor wait a minute. You know, there's people overseas. They've never heard about God. They're, you know, we've got the reach and we gotta go get them. We gotta send evangelists over there and speak to them. And I'm all for that. I'm all for evangelism all for evangelizing the world. But, but I think if we read the scripture for the grace of God, that brings salvation has appeared to all men. And then you hear people saying, well, pastor we're the feet and the hands that go get them. And I totally agree with that, but I think they go get them. A lot of times, it's trying to pay God back for what he's done for us and not receiving his son ship. He's given salvation to all people, that drug addict, that man walking the street, that's struggling with his life. Maybe you've been married seven or eight times and gone through some controversy and probably grew up in a dysfunctional home is the reason he's had five or six wives. Salvation has appeared to that. Man. It's appeared to all men. The Bible says in Titus chapter two, verse 11. So why does all men receive it? When we don't pray heaven, doesn't have permission to release grace to what God has provided for you. Prayer is saying to God, what he has said and already done, that's our should be our prayer lives. But 90% of us spend a lot of time. They're just asking God for stuff, telling God to do things that he's already done. You know, we will pray, Lord put a protection, you know, something that God really spoke to me. And I got a revelation this a long time ago in my life is, is I never prayed my children to be saved. And you said, well, pastor, that's bad for you being a pastor. Didn't you didn't pray for your children to be safe. No, one day I read a scripture and there said the seed of the righteous shall be delivered. And so begin to look up those words in the Hebrew. And he said the seed, my seed of a righteous man, and I'm righteous because of the blood of Jesus Christ shall be saved or Sozo or whole. And so I began to realize, Hey, look, they're going to be saved if they don't have an option. You so a pastor, wait a minute. Now they're free more agents. You gotta understand. But the seed of a righteous man, I declare over them every day. But when I think of that, my children are safe. I think of that. My children are safe. And about six years old, my son got saved about six years old. My daughter, except the cross. What? In the driveway of our house, not in church, not in an order in the driveway at their house. I'm asking you what pastor, what are you trying to say to us? I'm trying to say this to you. That is, we begin to learn to declare the word of the Lord. As we begin to feed on that word, that word, I begin to become a part of who we are. And that word works every time. That word can't lie. That words it's impossible. That word, the lie, that words always got to come to pass and it's always got to come to fruition. So we understand that the word is going to do exactly, uh, examples of what the word said. It'll do. Now go to Ephesians chapter six, verse 10 and 11. Finally, my brother, and be strong. And the Lord in the power of his mind. Not your mind, his mind put on the whole armor of God that you may really stand against the Wiles of the devil. Now I do believe that Satan sets up devices to destroy you. Spiritual warfare is you and me maintaining what Jesus has already obtained in the finished work of Christ. We pray from a position of victory, not from a position of defeat. Satan's job is to use circumstances to move you from the position of victory. You are not fighting for victory. You're fighting from victory. That's the way we need to start looking at when we pray and speaking and stop giving the devil any credit and stop giving him any glory. But the whole armor of God is the word of God. Satan would to try to see you with what God didn't say. Think about that a lot of times. How many times have you given the devil credit? Well, I tell you what the devil is giving me a fit. I tell you why, you know, I've had a time with the devil that don't you give him any credit. He has been defeated. Now he's been defeated or he has a first John chapter, three verse eight said the son of God, come to destroy the works of the devil. Isn't that wonderful that the works of the devil have been destroyed. And the word destroy there is the word[inaudible], which means to loose us is he's loosened us on the bonds of the devil. We have no authority. The only place the enemy can come at you now is in your mind, your Solage man, which is made up of your mind, your will even emotions. We've got to understand. We need to proclaim what God has said about us and stop proclaiming what the devil is saying about us. If we know what the word says, we're proclaimed the word. That's the beauty of grace.