The Glory Of Praying In Jesus' Name

To me a verse and I think it describes what's happening here There in John chapter 20 verse 30 and many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples Which are not written in this book But these are written that you might believe What you heard in testimony? Well, so you will hear on the on the CDs if you weren't here in the last service You need to hear that the testimonies the things that have been written so that you can believe that Jesus is the Messiah the Son of God and here's the phrase and that believing You might have life in his name What we need is life. What we need is who he is and it's in his name And so I want to talk to you About prayer the last thing here, but it's just the beginning you see Jesus said whatsoever things you ask I Will do did he say that? Anything you ask I will do I'm leaving out something You can ask what you will and greater things than all these things Whatever you ask or think I will do more. I've left out a word in my name Ask in my name and We need to know what that really means because I hear all kinds of people praying in Jesus name Like a medicine man swinging a stick over people sometimes and and they don't understand what it really means to ask in Jesus name I want to go to several texts this morning, but I want to look at John 13 first of all, Jesus has come to the end of His time on earth They've seen miracles they've they've done miracles their names are written in the book of life They've unto them it's given to know the mysteries of God but they come to the end in that upper room before he's arrested that night and Jesus knows this is his last words with his disciples on earth Before he goes to the throne He's told him 14 times I'm going away I'm going away and sorrow fill their heart because you see the familiar things of being around the things of Jesus We're going to change Everything was going to change because what they've seen him do They were gonna be able to now walk in that because of something that would happen Well, let's pray together father as we look in your Bible your word I pray this morning that you will make it clear to us That you want to use us to change the world we live in right around us across the street Our neighbors you set such things before us So we can embrace them by faith You could make us like a robot, but you want us to choose you and love you So help us to love you and choose you now this morning and put your exclamation point on these brief hours Together we've had weave it together into a picture of the risen Lord Jesus so that we might walk in all that that means in this day you have a plan bless this church Lord with vision and passion and an obedience and and Tenacity as we heard to press in to all the will of God and you're going to you Lord I just sensed you're going to use them more than they could ever ask or think as they go lower and higher and wider So take your word now Lord Empower a weak person with the glory to share who you are in a new way We thank you in Jesus name the promises to prayer or mind-boggling It's like God gives a blank check and he lets you sign it Not your name But his name and that's what endorses the check around the throne of God So when the disciples knew that Jesus was leaving imagine how they felt when they came to that upper room that last night They were together. They probably didn't know what was really going to happen altogether, but they could sense he had told them things are going to change And so in chapter 13 of John verse 1 This is for someone in this room now before the feast of the Passover when Jesus Knew that his hour had come and that he would depart out of this world to the father Having listened to this loved his own He loved them right to the end. He's not going to change in that matter These guys are arguing about who's going to be greatest in the kingdom of heaven when it comes around the next kingdom But having loved his own he loved him to the end and in a demonstration of that the Lord Jesus washes their feet They don't understand you see four disciples asking questions and each one. This is such an amazing chapter Chapter 13 14 15 and 16 If you read that don't ever let anybody teach you about the Holy Spirit if you don't study these chapters to balance out everything they teach you to I hear a lot of people preaching about teaching about the Holy Spirit and they Never touched John 14 15 and 16, but that's what Jesus says about the Holy Spirit And oh what a need it is to read in there and have the Holy Spirit Apply the truth and lead us into all of it. Let's read together in John 14 What Jesus says to them after he's washed their feet after he's speaking to them about loving one another The way he loves them. He says in verse 1. Let not your heart be troubled you believe in God Believe also in me. It's not just an a distant. Well, there must be a God or we see his power The it's it's a saying this so be it. It's let it happen to me according to your word That's what Mary said let it happen to me According to the Word of God as you've said and blessed is the one who believes There will be a performance of the things that have been spoken. That's what the angel said to her So as as he's there with them He's changing what they believe about believing but look at verse 12 when Jesus says Amen, amen, or verily verily he means that he says verily verily verse 12. I say to you He that present tense believes is believing on me the works that I do Shall he do also and greater works than these shall he do? How could anything be greater than what he did? Well, here's the reason that it's going to be greater. He says it because I Go to the Father Three times in this these chapters five times he says because I'm going to the Father Everything's gonna change what you've seen on earth The earthly side of the kingdom is gonna change and he's setting before them They don't know it yet that he's gonna go away and he's gonna go Offering his blood on the throne of the universe that he will sit down and because he lives on the throne There'll be life coming to them in his name in his name I want us just to say together with with Force and power his name together. Oh, you can almost heal here the devil just hating this We're gonna say Jesus and I say 1 2 3 1 2 3 loud Jesus Can you feel the power of that I Love that verse that says he signed my deed. Have you ever heard this Brent? It's he signed forgive the singing. He signed my deed in his atoning blood He ever lives to make his promise good Though all the hosts of hell march in to make a second claim They'll all march out at the mention of his name and then everybody's singing and wait, wait, wait, wait, wait And you get softer You say Get softer Jesus and the whole place yells Jesus you can almost feel the devil have a hernia When that happens the church According to the Lord. Jesus is to do greater works. Listen to what he says and here's how they do it verse 13 and it's built right on that and Whatsoever you shall ask in my name That will I do that the Father may be glorified in the Son this last hour We heard testimony of answered prayer that made me want to crawl on the floor of my face But it was the words were there that the Son may be glorified that the Lord Jesus would be glorified and then he says it again verse 14 if you ask anything in my name I Will do it so Prayer by the Lord. Jesus here is being set forth as the primary way that the church would bring to heaven the greater works of the risen Lord Jesus and see His kingdom come to thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth It's being done in heaven and your word is settled in heaven But we settle it on earth and how do we do it in prayer through his name? That's the blank check that he gives and he says you endorse it But it's got to be a legal and true endorsement and it's got to be right. You see we're to plant the heavens We're to lay the foundation of the earth as we see in the Word of God What God really wants see God's method is always a prayer method. I I I I I I I I I I I those awesome, awesome words from the cross, but have you ever considered his seven last commands before the cross? Ask in my name. He says it over and over to them so they'll understand. But he also says this, up till now you've asked nothing in my name. Well, they prayed and they were wanting God to do something, but he was talking about his name being given a special power. You know it wasn't until after his resurrection that the Lord raised him above all principality and power and might, and set him on his own right hand in the heavenlies, and gave him the name above every name. That is when his name took power. And this became the day of his power that we read the other night, that thy people will become willing sacrifices in the day of your power. And so he says to them, he says, listen, I'm going to be raised. In a little while, you will sorrow. The world will be glad. They'll think they got rid of me. But then a little bit after that, you're going to rejoice, why? Because you're going to see me. And it's expedient for you that you get out of the old way of looking and seeing at things. Even though you've seen miracles and all those things, there's something bigger and greater. I've got to go away so that the comforter who the Father will send in my name, he will come. Who is this comforter, Philip says? And we don't understand. And Peter and Jesus said, you know him. He's been with you. See, Jesus never did anything on his own. It was always the comforter, the Spirit of God in him doing his Father's will. He humbled himself, the perfect Son of God who knew all things, but he lived in total dependence on the Father. And he says, this life you've seen in me is going to be not just with you. You know him, this one, but he will be in you. It's a lot better than being with somebody to have him be in you. Be with me, Lord. No, no, I got something better. I'm going to be in you. You see, it's the abiding life. It's not just getting close and clean. How close is close enough? It's abiding in him and having him abound in us unto every good work. And so you see him being raised from the dead and taking his place at the right hand of the Father. And now the Bible says that the Lord crowned him king and priest, he's Lord of all. And he administrates now in these chapters, he's telling his church, because I go to the Father, I will be on the throne and I will administer to you everything that my blood will buy for you. I will sit there and my prayers will guarantee that whatever you drink, no, my prayers will guarantee that whosoever believes on me greater works than I have done on your presence. Will you do, all of you, because I'm with the Father, but here's how you do it. Ask in my name and I will do it. You see, here's the thing you need to learn about the book of Acts. The book of Acts, we read it with awe, but the book of Acts starts with the ascension. And their message was not miracles like walking on water and multiplying bread, although that blew their mind, but they were written so that you might believe on him and his name. Their message was the risen Lord. You've turned Jerusalem upside down with this doctrine, the risen Lord, and that's your message. And your witnesses, the word also means sample. People can take a bite of you and see that the Lord is good, tasting and seeing. You're a sample of things to come, and that's what's meant to happen, and he gives us this authority. Look, Luke, who wrote Acts, as well as Luke, he says this. The former things I wrote to you, O Theophilus, I wrote to show you what Jesus did while he was ministering on earth. But now, he says, that's what he did, but it's finished. But now, I'm writing to you to show you the things that he continues to do from heaven. Mission on earth, it's finished, it's accomplished. Never will he go to the cross again. Now he's in heaven, and now he has a continuing, I call it the unfinished work of Christ, because he ever lives on the throne to make sure that the victory and beauty of Calvary is carried out in your life, if you'll come to the Father in his name by the Spirit of God. You say, that sounds strange. Yes, it is strange. When you begin to believe it and see it, it'll shake you to the core, because you will understand. You see, he left behind to the church, they had no building, they had no church constitution, they had no trained leaders, they had no real finances, they had no political involvement, except for stocks and bonds, which they wore and not invested in. Stocks and bonds, you get that finally, when you get home, maybe. Their secret was, God left them several things. The Word of God, the Spirit of God, and prayer. Now the first two are unchanging, they're not varied. The third one is the only variable, prayer. It depends upon our response before the throne of God. It's the weapons of our warfare, the Word of God and the Spirit of God and prayer. And the Spirit of God takes the Word of God, his weapon of choice, and he wields it. But you know what he uses as he takes the Word of God? Your arm, your arm. He has you take the sword of the Spirit and he cuts down to the bone and marrow of those. 40 times in the book of Acts, the first chapters especially, the prayer is set forth. Of all the 28 chapters, prayer circulates through every chapter except for two. And in those two chapters, the church was really in trouble. You see what's happening. So it rises or falls on prayer. This is what we leave you with after this conference, that you will not leave it to others to be a leader in this whole matter of prayer, but you yourself will take this mantle from God and say, Lord, you said it right here, whatsoever I ask the Father in the name of Jesus, he will do so that the Father will get glory in the Son and that the world will know that you are God and you're awesome. You see, the Acts begins where the Gospels end, at the ascension. And so we got to see Matthew 28 in that light. All power is given to me in heaven and on earth, but you're the ones that are going to exercise it and here's the way it's going to come to be seen and known. It's going to be through prayer. If you ask, I will do. And you see, but there's a qualifying phrase and that is, in my name. You know, I do a lot of, I'm privileged to spend time with some of the people in bands that you might know. And some of them came to my house every Thursday morning. We'd meet for two hours and we talked about prayer and other things. And you know, it's such a privilege to invest in young people. But you know, sometimes young people and old people too, we get so used to saying, we pray this long prayer at the end, we say, I ask you in Jesus' name in my name. I say, what? I ask you in Jesus' name, amen. What? What did you just say? It's fast, you know? Did you say, I ask this in Jesus' name, amen? Yeah, that's what I said, in Jesus' name, amen. I said, look, when you get to the end of the best prayer you've ever prayed on your time on earth, stop, take a deep breath and look to the Lord God and say, I'm asking this in Jesus. I'm asking this in Jesus' name because it is the most important part of your prayer. Through his name, we have access by one spirit to the Father. And what does it mean then to pray in Jesus' name? A lot of people throw it on like an exclamation point at the end of a prayer. You see, Jesus is saying, look, because you're mine and I'm going away, everything is gonna change. I'm giving you the great key to the throne room. If you could imagine hearing this for the first time, whatever you ask in my name, you know what I'm talking about, I will do. So that the Father, not just to make anybody's life better or easier, but so that the Father would receive glory in the Son. You see, it's not a magic formula. Jesus is signaling a whole new beginning. Up till now, you've asked nothing in my name. You're not tracking with me, some of you. You say, where is he going with this? The ascension changed the dynamic of prayer. For the first time, there was a glorified man on the throne of the universe whose very presence there and the scars he bore gave a guarantee and God swore by his own existence that the promises that he had made to the Lord Jesus would never fall to the ground. Not one of them would ever fall to the ground, but that every promise, every word, would have its complement and mate on earth. But he wants his church to lay hold of it. It's called the throne of the universe. It's called the royal law of prayer. He wants you and me to dare to rise up beyond who we are in ourselves and because of the worth and majesty and might of who Jesus is, dare to get tough with the devil. Dare to get tough with the things. We've been praying for people these last, and I'm amazed at the number of people that come up and say, my husband is lost or my wife is away or my, all the moral problems and all the drug problems, but it's all over our land. But he, it's like a man that takes a far journey and leaves his servants with authority. But you see, we're so reluctant to take that authority because we're trying to pray in our own name instead of the name of Jesus. So, some use his name wrongly. People say profanity is like cussing, taking Jesus' name in vain. Listen, cussing is not the only thing that's taking his name in vain. It's when God gives you his name and gives you all authority in heaven and you don't use what he's given you or walk in the privilege of it. It's when we treat prayer as light and we just might as well vainly have gotten his name from the Father, sure, taking Jesus' name in vain is cussing and that kind of thing. But he says, look, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel in my name. Now, I'm praying when you read the New Testament now, when you see that word in my name, that it will leap out at you and grab you by the heart and just say, hey, listen, I want you to understand this. The early church, the early church, they learned in the book of Acts about the power of the name of Jesus. The first six chapters, you'll see them together learning about the power of the name of Jesus. There's a little secret that I'm just gonna mention that I hope it stimulates you to study on your own. The disciples didn't have a clue about this and even after the resurrection, they were full of unbelief and the Lord came and he opened the scriptures to them as a risen Lord and they began to have a burning heart because suddenly they understood the form of what we're saying here today, that Jesus is gonna take the throne. They began to understand that. So as their hearts began to burn and that fire that Jesus came to kindle in their bones was kindled, he told them, for 10 days, he exegeted all the scriptures and said, this is who I am in Genesis, this is who I am in the Torah, in the writings, in the prophets. Don't be slow of heart to believe it all. It's too good to be true. That's why they call it good news. It's so good, I can't hardly believe it. And so, but you have need of something and that is you need to understand some things. So Terry in the city of Jerusalem, he says in Acts 1, until you be endued with power from on high because you need the great communion before you could ever think about the great commission. But see, they were burning on the inside. And so they waited together. People who've been fussing before, people who had been full of unbelief before in the upper room and it wasn't some kind of religious atmosphere with idols. I mean, they had to go out and use the restroom, I'm sure. And they had kids they had to take care of, but they came together. I mean, like you guys are doing some of that. You come together, you stay all night, you get tired and I'm sure they got tired. But they stayed together 10 days. And at the end of that time, while they were, it says in Acts 1, it says, and they all gathered together in one accord. Do you know what that word one accord in the book of Acts means? It's used 10 times in the book of Acts and only once elsewhere in Romans 15 when it says that you with one heart and one mind and one accord might glorify the Lord. And he wants them to agonize in prayer together for him, says Paul. That's the only other time. What does one accord mean? Well, it's two words put together. Homo thumadan, homo thumadan. It's a group thing. And homo means same. Thumos is one of the roots here of the very word for the wrath of God. It's the, there's two words, orge, which is when God folds his arms and just lets you have your way. And you know people that are experiencing the fruit of their own bad choice. The other thumos is when God comes in flaming fire and destroys unholiness. And that's what happens at the altar when they come. And the word in the Greek for the offering is thuo. Thuo, we get our word thermometer from it or thymus gland for the emotions and passions. All these things go back to a place. So homo thumadan is saying this, the same burning passion. The word means to breathe heavily. And you know what's so cool about it to me, how the Lord uses it to say, I wanna give you an illustration that the world can even have this kind of unified passion. Four times in the book of Acts, three times in the book of Acts, it uses homo thumadan talking about the world. You know when one of them was in Acts 7, when it says, they all, the world, the people that hated what Stephen said, they rushed upon him with one accord and they actually, they bit him and they were just so angry, they just couldn't get rid of him quick enough. It was a burning mob mentality and passion. That's the counterfeit. Another time when Herod stood up and they said, he's a God with one accord, he's God. And God not, and they began to pray the church and God not only got rid of Herod, but did exactly the opposite. And the other time was when Paul was in the arena and they said, away with this man, he's not worthy to live with one accord. But when you take it and put it in the kingdom, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, it's not just riding together in the car to a social. We call fellowship when we get together and play softball or intramurals or something like that. And that couldn't be fellowship. Yes, it can be. But this one here in the book of Acts, they all were gathered together with one accord in the upper room. 380 thought he said supper room, so they went somewhere else and they weren't there for that time and they missed out, you see. But the upper room, as they began to pray, you see in that first six chapters of Acts, they're learning the power of his name. You see them learning the power of his name. In Acts chapter four, after, I mean, this is what's so amazing to me. In the book of John, he said, greater works than I've done will you do also and you'll do it through prayer. In the book of Acts, after 3,000 people are saved, God doesn't use the word great. After 5,000 people are saved, he doesn't use the word great. He reserves it. You have the one word great that says the world saw Pentecost and they were greatly wondering. But not until chapter four do you see the word great start appearing in the book of Acts and you see it in an amazing way. You see it, Peter and John had been beaten by the Sanhedrin and told not to preach anymore in that name. And so it says they returned to their own company. See, by then, there were 3,000 or 4,000 people or maybe 8,000 that were gathered together three times a day when the Thu'o was offered in the temple, the offering, and they were gathered with prayer. They were all together in one accord, one common burning, one common breathing, one breath, one heart, one passion. And that is what you need at this altar, homo thumadan, where you say, Lord, we know what you want to do. We see what you want to say to people and we're asking you for power to do it by the name of the Lord Jesus. And this is what they're learning. And so you see Peter and John come into the assembly and there's a prayer meeting going on seven times in chapter four. It says they, they, they. It's a promise so big that it takes the whole church to lay hold of it. And they come together and it says they're in one place and they're praying. And Peter and John tell him what happened, forbidding to speak in his name. And the church, it says, they lifted up their voice. It's the first recorded instance of prayer by the church in the New Testament. First times, pay attention. They lifted up their voice with one accord and they quote from Exodus chapter 20. Lord, you made heaven and earth. Now, was it just everybody praying that? No, somebody stood up with a burden from God and said, Lord, you made heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them are. And he talks about, then they quote from Psalm 2. They're quoting scripture back to God. They said, Lord, behold how the nations are raging against the Lord and your Christ. That's Psalm 2. That's where it says, ask of me for the uttermost. See, they've been meditating in the word of God. They're together. And then as they say, Lord, now, help us, Lord. Help us not to be hurt by this because they're persecuting. Keep us safe. They don't pray that. They say, behold the threatenings of the world against your Lord and his Christ. And now give us protection, Lord. No, give us boldness that we might speak your word with all boldness and confirm it. And they'll do it, like you said, with signs and wonders, greater works. But there'll be a character in them, not just amazement. They'll present the glory of God. Do this, and I love this because it says, and after, after, after they had prayed, the place where they were assembled was shaken. Shaken. That's awesome. You say, oh, must have been an earthquake. San Andreas fall, you know. No, it wasn't that. God was so blessed and thrilled that his church was finally doing what Jesus left. And just like when he stood up when Stephen was stoned, this is what it's all about. I wanna be, have a witness, a living church. And so you see right after that, immediately after that together corporate prayer that one accord with great power, they began to make known the Lord Jesus and great grace was upon them all. And the next chapter, great fear came upon them all. And the next chapter again, great increase, sixth chapter, great growth, and a great number of disciples and a great wonders and miracles and great persecution and great joy and great earth. The word great just populates every verse in regular ways because you see prayer turns a gathering from good to great. 3,000 were saved, 5,000 were saved, that's great. Yeah, but they didn't, God didn't call it that. He waited until after the church got corporately united in real prayer, like he said, for the greater works that I've done. And so you see them moving. And I mean, that chapter 12 is years after Pentecost. They're there and they've taught, they've learned. They're still learning, they're in the school of prayer. But see, prayer opens the windows of heaven. It opens the doors of utterance. It opens the hearts of men and women. It absolutely opens the scriptures secrets and channels of blessing and the barricades of hell that the Lord has cast down. It's all through prayer. I gotta calm down here. And you see what happened, the Lord broke the barriers. You see them, every time they were together in one accord. Go through the book of Acts and mark that one accord for the church and you'll see how God breaks something. He broke the religion barrier in chapter two. He broke that resistance barrier that was there to the truth in chapter four, the kings of this world against the Lord and his Christ. He broke the racial barrier in chapter 10 when he went to Samaria. And he broke the reason barrier. And I mean, I've got a list of the region barrier. He took after prayer, always after prayer, the barriers of the devil come down. And so the prayer meeting is the heartbeat in the body of Christ. And our pulse is our obedience, you see. The church was always together praying and in one accord. When Jesus built his church, he said, I will build my church. And what did he call it? Everybody's talking about redefining the church today. Well, you don't need to. Jesus defined it. This is what you call my father's house. It's a house of prayer for the nations and for all the peoples. But you've turned it into something else, he says. So we need to understand today, especially Lord fill us with that burning. I hear y'all talk a lot about fire and that's a glorious thing. But this fire, God puts a furnace around it. A wildfire can just burn, but God builds a furnace and he puts an altar around it to direct the flame and it becomes intelligent worship, intelligent warfare, intelligent weeping, when we gather together in one accord, a common burning. Well, my heart feels cold. Well, come to prayer meeting and we'll set you on fire. You put an old cold ember out here among a bunch of burning ones, it'll start burning itself pretty soon, you see. God wants you to have a vision of who he is. The Lord Jesus, high and lifted up, looking unto Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. And when you fall into persecution, rejoice, because this is what your father says that you're to even, you're called not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake. It says in Philippians, you ever read those much? The fellowship of his sufferings, plural. And so now what I wanna take the last bit of this message to do is to talk about what it means to pray in Jesus' name. Because he took time, the first six chapters, to educate the church then. It was like seven years he took for the church to learn as it gathered together by the thousands to pray in his name until finally the Lord says, now you're ready to go. And a great persecution came and scattered them like sparks throughout all the land until you read in chapter nine, after Saul's converted, then all the churches had rest and they were edified and they walked in the fear of the Lord and in the comfortus, the word for paraclete, the Holy Spirit of the Holy Ghost, and they multiplied. God wants to multiply other places, what he has here, but it'll only come through a praying people who love him. Well, what does it mean to pray in Jesus' name? Well, I wanna give you several things and you can ask yourself as we go through them, am I really praying in Jesus' name? Because these are qualifiers and if you don't walk in these and these aren't operative, you may be taking his name in vain when you pray. God doesn't answer every prayer. God doesn't hear every prayer. He says, I will not hear your prayers when you pray to me back in the book of Jeremiah where our brother was preaching from. Well, number one, here's what it means. When you come and at the end of your prayer, you say, I'm asking this in Jesus' name. Inherently, it is to mean something specific and right. And you see, it means I'm acknowledging my need of a mediator and only one is available and that is the Lord Jesus himself. Only one mediator available, that's the Lord Jesus himself. So it says in 1 Timothy chapter two, listen to what it says. It says that there is chapter two, verse five and six. It says, there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man, Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. There's a mediator and when I come and say, I'm coming in Jesus' name, it means that I'm not worthy to come in my own right. My Bible reading, my prayer, my quiet time, all the things, the best preacher ever to live has to come in by the blood or he can't come in. It's by the blood of the lamb I come in, one mediator. It also says in Hebrews 10, it says, we draw near to God by a new and freshly slain is the Greek word, a freshly slain way that he has made for us within the veil. We come with our hearts sprinkled with the blood and our bodies washed with pure water and we come boldly to this throne. And he says there, having therefore, there are four havings and three lettuces. That's quite a salad there. Let us, let us, let us. He says, you have this, here's lettuce, lettuce in Hebrews 10, you should read it. But then it says, look, don't be like some, the manner of some forsaking the assembling of yourselves together like some do. You hear people preach about Sunday morning church that they think that means, it doesn't mean that. It means the kind of coming together that the church does together. They pay the price to come together. This is what happened to the church in Acts chapter six when the disciples began to see a huge multiplication. And there were Greeks and there were Hebrews and there were widows and you can't do anything better than help widows and orphans and deal with what you're dealing with when you see this movie, the abortion and the abominations in the land. But widows and orphans, God's for that. But the leadership, the leadership said, wait a second, we're getting distracted. It's better to minister and serve the word of God than it is to serve tables. We've got to find spirit anointed people to do this. But we will, Acts six four, we will give ourselves continually. The word is proskatario. It means to suffer together and endure hardness toward a target. We will give ourselves to the prayer. There's a the in there. It's a special kind. It's the kind of Acts two. It's the kind of Acts four. We can't lose that, that corporate together asking in his name and laying whole. We will give ourselves continually to the, to the prayer and the deaconing, washing the feet of people with the word of God, not the prophesying, but the serving the word of God instead of just serving like working in. I mean, many people are so busy for God that they're covering a barrenness that they have. I used to think that busyness caused barrenness, but now I've come to see that oftentimes barrenness experience down deep can make us very busy trying to make up for a nagging lack, but come to the altar. So I must believe you see that I acknowledge that I need a mediator and only one is available. It says in first John two, I talked about it yesterday morning. If any man sin, we have an advocate with the father. First John two verse one, he's an advocate. So he is the one that stands between us legally and righteously and every other way between pure, glorious Godhood. We come in by him and the sum of all we've been saying, it says in Hebrews is that we have such a high priest. The word such is so amazing. It's like an awesome, glorious high priest who is able to present us blameless and faultless before the throne of God. So, so here's the first thing. Jesus name means, it means that he is the basis of our coming. My confidence is in him. It is not in how long I've walked with him or what I've seen him do. Every time I come in, I come in in Jesus name. I'm not coming by not by works of righteousness, which I've done, but according to his mercy that he saved me by, I'm coming in and I'm not gonna get what I deserve. I'm getting what he deserves and what his word shows me that he wants. So see, there's no sense of praying. You got a thing down the street and all over the place. They're praying like crazy, but it's not in Jesus name. Now God does hear prayers of sincere hearts that's not yet in his name like Cornelius. Cornelius, your prayers have come up before God as memorial. I'm gonna go get Peter and he'll tell you words where your house can get saved by. He came in to preach the gospel, but God looks at hearts, you see. Well, the second thing it means not just humility and grace, I need a mediator, but I must believe that he is. What does it mean? I must believe that he is. It says in Hebrews 11, six, without faith, it is impossible to please God. But whoever, present tense, keeps coming up to God. It's like the Hebrew, coming up, like we talked the other night, coming up. Whoever's coming up to God must believe that he is. You keep going back, believe, yes, he is what? No, you must believe that what we heard about. Behold your God. Believe he is and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. What does it mean then to pray in his name and you have to come knowing that he is? All the Bible says about him. That's what happened to the disciples. They suddenly saw Jesus in a full light of all the Bible said about him. So it means that you believe in his atoning death and the way, the truth, and the life. Nobody comes to their father but by me. You can't pray in Jesus' name if you don't believe that he is the way in and he's the truth and he's the life. You're praying in your own name and just throwing his around, taking it in vain. He is God, he is Lord of all. You can't pray in his name if all he is is a hopeful savior instead of a risen Lord. You gotta believe him. The name represents the person. Like when I say this, Hitler. All these things come to you. All that the name represents. So when you say, Jesus, like we did, you don't see it in the invisible. I wish we could've had some kind of way to see what happened when y'all said, Jesus. I mean, angels, they're like this and demons are like this. Like when Jesus came around and they cringed and they said, what have you come? You've come to bother us before the time. Let me tell you, in his name is authority and power. But you gotta be in him and you gotta pray in his name to know what's going on in the invisible when we have these lines of people praying and we're praying together in Jesus' name. I mean, some big things happened last night and this morning already in his name. He is faithful, he is unchanging. Prayer is our response. Here's the truest thing about prayer. It's our response, the depth of our prayer, to the revelation of God. When he shows you who he is, you see, when you see his goodness, then thanksgiving comes. When you see his holiness, then confession comes. When you see his mercies, then intercession comes. You see, it's all a response to him revealing himself to you and you begin to pray, you see. There are over 7,500 promises that are so distinct in the word of God, 7,500 plus. There's different people that say different numbers. I guess what you might read as a promise to some might, but 7,500 is enough. Caleb lived off one promise for 40 years. But the Bible says that every promise of God is yes in him and amen in him. All the promises of God are yes and amen. By us, it says, to the glory of God. By us, he wants you to believe him and trust him and learn to come together and not just in your need, ask him to bless you and rescue you. He wants you to come together and say, Lord, we see what's happening around here and how the kings of this world are against you. We're not surprised at all this evil that's around us and they're against you and your Christ, but you have all power. Now, grant unto us boldness that we can speak your word in season and for some out of season. I mean, I'm telling you, I was in a restaurant once and there's this guy over there, I'm with this young guy who's learning how to just share his faith and we're sitting there and here's an old boy over here and he's just saying, well, well, God bless, you know, he was saying all this stuff and GD that and the whole, it was a Korean restaurant and all these people were sitting around kind of hearing this, kind of cringing because he would say all this. Finally, you know, he said something. He says, oh God, and I said, what's his name? He said, I'll beg your pardon. I said, what's your God's name? I keep hearing you say, oh my God, what's his name? Well, I don't know. Well, you shouldn't talk about him if you don't know him. And so, my friend's like this, you know, and people are like this, you know, putting in food. And so we get up to leave and I walk over toward his table. I feel naked without these. This one's conformed to my image. But I walked over to his table and as I was walking, I put this down, I said, this is for you. This is about the God you talk about, but don't know. And he says, we're trying to eat here. Would you leave us alone? And I feel like he didn't want it. I put it down like this and he got the track. And as I walked away, he threw it at me and it hit me in the back of the head. And I just turned around and said, God bless you in Jesus' name. And the whole restaurant's like this, you know. We walk outside and this little guy's shaking like this. And I said to him, do you realize what just happened in there? It wasn't about him at all. Did you see the waitresses? They were watching, they were listening. You know, the next time I came to that restaurant, the owner, Korean woman, who didn't know the Lord yet, she came over and she sat down in my booth and she said, I saw what happened. She had scripture on her walls, but I sat down, she sat down and I told her about the Lord Jesus in a deeper, true way. And she prayed that night to receive the Lord. And next time I come in, I go, I saw, I saw, I saw welcome. Everybody thinks, you know, I'm some kind of hero or something. It's not at all, it's the glory of God. She started putting up all these things and it was all because, you see, you couldn't really tell what was going on. Some people, some people sow. Some people cultivate. Some people reap. I gotta get back to my message. You must believe that he is. So when I, you know, people say, well, God doesn't give me opportunities like that. Well, you wouldn't expect him to, would you? I mean, you're not a preacher. Well, I guess not. Well, that's why he doesn't. Because you're not believing, you're not believing he is. I'll tell you one more, I'm gonna take my time. Preacher said, take your time. I came home from a trip one time and I told the Lord, I said, Lord, anywhere, anytime, any way, any situation, I want to be yours and be available to share your word with people. And I remember I came up from a trip in my tank on my commode upstairs where my wife and I, and our bathroom was leaking on the floor. I turned the water off and I got that little silver thing, you know, off and took it to Home Depot. And I'm sitting there at Home Depot looking at this wall with too many choices. And this guy's sitting there, sitting there and looking at, and he says, he says, oh man. I said, there's a lot of choices, aren't there? I said, yeah, some are more important choices than others, and one thing led to another. And soon I'm able to share the Lord with him. And he's crying. And, you know, I said, look, I've got a book here for you. And he says, I'm taking it home to my wife tonight. We're gonna get on our face and we're gonna get on our knees and we're gonna ask Jesus to change our marriage and save us. And I prayed for him because I felt like I could pray right there with him. But I felt like it'd be better if they did that together at home. He'll change everything and bring life. He's believing in his name. And I got in my car and I started crying. I said, Lord, this is awesome, even at Home Depot. And here is what the Lord said to me. Al, I love you, my son. You told me anytime, anywhere, you're always available. Listen, if you'd be listening to me the way I want you to listen and learn to listen to me, I could have said to you, arise and go to Home Depot. I have an appointment there for you, a man prepared. But you're not listening like that. So I had to give you a leaky commode to get your rear end over there. When things go wrong, stop and say, Lord, give me discernment. Show me. You must believe that he is in Jesus' name. So the first one is then, what's the first one? I acknowledge I have need of a mediator. Second thing is that I believe that God is. He is who he says he is. And I believe that your promises are true and your prayer opens up the storehouse. Third thing, when I pray in Jesus' name, it means I'm standing in his light with a pure conscience. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord won't let me pray in his name. Not really, not really. I mean, if I'm just kind of holding on and not really wanting to deal with it, you know, it's because I keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight that 1 John says, he does what we ask in prayer, whatever it is, if we have confidence. But if you have a shirking heart, you don't have power. So it means when I pray in Jesus' name, I'm standing in the light of the cross in a pure conscience before him. Whoever follows me, John 8, 12, will not walk in darkness. In darkness there is, in light there is no darkness. We all have sin, whoever says they didn't have sin is a dummy, I mean, we deceive ourselves. But you see, it's conscious conscience that he says, I want you to deal with what I showed you. You couldn't deal with this, I'll tell you this in a year because you're too proud to deal with it. But I'm dealing with your heart, like his disciples, bit by bit, little by little, he took over, make over, take over. But so, Proverbs 28, verse nine, it says, whoever turns his ear away from the hearing of God's law, even his prayer is an abomination. It says that, 28, nine, Proverbs. So, if my heart is not right, my prayer is wrong. That means I can come and confess, first thing is to confess my weakness, it's holiness that I come and stand in his light at the cross. Fourth thing, that's gotta be true. I've gotta have, I realize I need a mediator and there's only one, that's the Lord Jesus. I'm coming in because of him. Number two, I believe that he is. Everything the scriptures say, I'm trusting that. I don't feel it, but I'm trusting that, I'm believing that and I'm coming on that basis. Number three, my heart, as much as in me as I know, I'm not consciously compromising or holding back from what you've said to me. I believe that I've acted, I'm abiding in you and your words are abiding in me and therefore, I'm asking in your name. You see, you gotta have that confidence. And the fourth thing is, you stand in his place. You're his representative. So that last night when I'm down there and Brian and the pastor were praying, it is not because we preach or anybody, it's because we're there in his name. And when we put our hands on people and pray for them, it's the Lord says, get this, this will humble you. It's like him doing it. When you lay hands on one another, it's the body of Christ doing it with one another. And so here we are, when I go to the hospital, there's a little widow there who's dying and she's wanting comfort and she loves Jesus and I take her hand in mine, then I pray for her, then I'm saying, when I say in Jesus' name, I'm saying, Lord, I'm offering a prayer that I hope and believe that you would offer if you were here physically. When I say in Jesus' name, as it is, you'll sanction it and you'll endorse it. And it means that I'm in harmony with his values. It means that I'm trying to pray what I believe would honor God and he would want him to pray were he there physically. It's love and harmony and you are asking God to endorse it. Do you see that? So when you hear these people praying, you say, Lord, give me discernment so I can pray according to your heart for them. Not just, well, Father, lead God and direct us and forgive us of our many, many sins in the name of Jesus. You know, they say, boy, that guy can really pray, can't he? You know, I'm so sick of people grandstanding their gifts or what they call gifts. When a real gift operates, you know what happens? People fall on their face. My Lord and my God, says the centurion. And so the last thing is, when you pray in his name, you're standing in his authority. You have his authority. You could call it power of attorney. Remember in Matthew chapter eight, in the Roman centurion, Jesus is walking by and he says, Master, well, he says, Lord, my daughter is sick. As he leaves Jairus' house, the centurion, Roman commands 100 men, my daughter's sick. My, excuse me, my servant is sick. And, but I am also, he says, a man under authority. And I say to one, go here, and he goes. And I say to another, and he goes, because I'm under Caesar's authority. And when I, under Caesar's authority, say to one of my centurions, do this, they do it. And so you are like that, he's saying to him, with your father. So all you have to do is speak the word and my servant will be healed. And so, and the Lord looked around. One of the two times in scripture that it says Jesus marveled in the New Testament. He marveled. One time was in his own hometown. He marveled at their unbelief. How can God marvel at anything? How can he be surprised in a sense? And then he marveled with this centurion. He says, I have not found such great faith in all of Israel, where it should be. But this man right here, you go in peace. Your daughter is healed, or your servant is healed. And he gets home, and that servant was well that hour. So see, your response to the authority and power of God can honor him or grieve him. Do you know he's left you with that privilege? When he says to you, go to the altar, you can resist. He loves you, he's not scolding. But you limit yourself, you limit God. But when you with all your heart say yes, and you say, I'll take this, I'll take up this cross. I don't, I really don't wanna die and leave my family. If I go on this trip, I might not come back, but you've told me to go. And I don't wanna miss Christmas with my family. I don't wanna be stoned over there. I don't wanna be one of those guys on the beach in Egypt. I really don't, if you want that martyrdom, something's nuts about you. But that's what love does, it faces the truth of it and says, Lord, you're worth it. And you go anyway. So this is what Jesus said was great faith, power of attorney in the name of the Lord Jesus. You know, my mom died in 2005. And she lived in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where the Tar Heels are from. If they might know where that is, they're from that, which is my alma mater, by the way, no. But she developed a manic depression in her last years. And sometimes, I mean, she was a kind of a helping of the town lady, and she was a Christian lady. And she was brilliant. But sometimes she just lost it. She'd be muttering, and you could never tell when it really was. And so I had to move her. My wife suggested it from North Carolina to Atlanta. And I moved her into an assisted living place. And she wasn't able to really handle that. So someone said, you should become her durable power of attorney. So I went to a lawyer, and she signed, and I signed. And I had complete stewardship, attorney power, money, health, everything. It's very frightening. But I was responsible for her. And I could make legal decisions. And so I wanted her to still being the woman she was, have freedom. So I gave her a little credit card. This lady kept her books for her. And they would get with their walker, and they'd get on this bus, and they'd go to Walmart. And she'd be able to buy perfume and whatever that stuff women shop for all the time. She would buy that little stuff like that and come home. And she felt good about it. But one day, as I'm looking over her things, there's a bill there that I'm looking at. And it says, babies are us, $3,000. And then there's another there, which is a home construction store for like $2,000. And there's another one for like, I mean, to the dollar, not pennies, but like an equal amount. And I said, oh, my word. And I said, I can't tell mom about this, because in her fragile state, she'll think they're going to come arrest her. And it'll put her over the edge. So I called the credit card company. And I said, listen, I wanted to tell you about this credit card transaction that couldn't possibly be my mother, you see. She is in her 80s. And they said, sir, sir, is your mother there? I said, no, no, no, she's not. I'm calling on, I'm trying to save you money. I'm calling you so you won't lose this money. Sir, sir, we can't talk to you. Lady, don't you understand that, I mean, my mama couldn't have gone out to babies, all right? She didn't have babies. And she couldn't ever make it to the equal $3,000 if she tried. Don't you understand, sir, sir, we cannot talk to you. Goodbye. Well, I said, well, what can I do? And I said, well, I have a, I am her power of attorney. She said, oh, well, send us your papers. Send us your papers. I faxed them a copy. And I got on the phone and said, yes, sir, yes, sir, yes, sir. You've got a situation in your home, your mama, your daddy, your brother, your sister. The devil comes along and says, you don't have any authority in this matter. Who do you think you are? Look at your past. And he begins to mock us and make us feel about this tall. Well, my word to you is, show him your papers. Show him these papers. Devil, you say that I'm a dirtbag. Well, actually, I was wrong about you. You have more discernment than I thought you did. I am a dirtbag. And I'm a totally needy man. But I know the Lord Jesus. He is on the throne. And in the name of the Lord Jesus, I claim this. That's what Brian did. If you didn't hear that story about Leon, that man that got saved, the hardest sinner in town, I'm telling you, this is what God wants to do. He wants you to go on conquest, not just to have a few leaders in the church do it. He wants mobilization of the church here to go out and to come back in here and pray. I remember being in Australia, and I told a group of 17 pastors. I said, you want to see the Lord change your communities? I said, you get six praying deacons, if you can find them. I said, you find six praying deacons, and you come together, and you get down at the altar together, and you pray for your neighborhood. And then you go out with a clipboard, and you knock on the doors. And you say, listen, we're from the church just down the road here, and the Lord has convicted us that we want to be stewards of our closeness to you. And we're not here to ask you for money. We don't even ask you to come and see our performance. We're not asking you to come to church. We just want to know if we can pray for you. Do you have any prayer needs? Well, some of them slam the door, and some of them will say, pray for my mother. And you write that down like it's your own sister or mother. And you come back together, and you men get down, and you pray over those needs. And you really lift them to the Lord and believe God like we're talking about. Then you go back out. Listen, we've been praying for your mother. How is she? You know what? Some of those churches did that, and every single church that took that word tripled in size in the next year because the Lord said, I want them to know you as a house of prayer. That's who you are. You connect heaven and earth. You lay hold of it. And so somebody knocks on your door at night, open up. You probably won't do it. But if they say, open up in the name of the law, and they show a badge, you might probably do it quicker. So when we come, we come with authority. We say, in the name of the Lord Jesus, I'm tired of praying up in desperation without knowing. I've seen it, and I've seen it with Christ in the heavenlies. And I'm praying down. I'm saying the word in Jesus' name. Save this person or kill them, Lord. You say, that's bold praying. Well, that's how I felt about some of the leaders that are around who are doing such destructive work behind the scenes. Lord, I know you love them as much as you love me. But they're not listening, and I pray you'll save them, move heaven and earth to bring them to you like you did Saul. Breathing out threatening and slaughter. You knocked him off his high horse and made him a puddle in the dirt, and he became the greatest preacher. Save this person that way or kill them. But may they stop hurting your church. Well, first of all, then, I come to the Lord, and I believe, I acknowledge that I have need of a mediator. Is this true about you when you pray? Do you believe that he is the second thing, that you acknowledge that he is what the Bible says he is, and he is who he says he is? Third, that you're walking in the light, and there's not areas of your life that you're withholding or saying, don't mess with this, it's a closet, I don't want you in, Lord. Well, you can't pray like we're talking about here. But clean out the closet, let him do it, he'll help you. And you let it go, and then you come forth, and when you pray, pray prayers that you discern or prayers that he would pray if his lips were here. He's using your lips by the Spirit to pray prayers just like he did. Father, Lazarus, come forth. I did this not for display, but so people would get to see your glory, Lord. And then lastly, to realize the authority that backs you and stands behind you in total power, you see. I'm just gonna embarrass someone that, well, I hope I don't embarrass him. No, I'm not gonna do that. May I tell one more story, brother? Where is Shane? May I tell one more story? Is it too late? Of course it's too late, or of course I can tell it. I'll just take it however I want to take it, right? And you can talk about me later. My dad taught human genetics at the university for 40 years, my stepfather. When I became a Christian, he saw a drunk become a preacher within two years. Everything changed. He watched, and I saw the Lord moving in on him, but he always, he was an evolutionist. He went to Dartmouth, and he was just real smart, and he was the smartest guy I'd ever met. He wasn't my, nothing came down to me about genes, but he was really smart. And, but I was so burdened for him, and I would do all these things. Like one time, I took him down to the end of the road, and I said, Pop, you know, I'm so glad I'm a Christian. You've seen my life change. He said, yes, I have. And I said, I'm going to heaven, but you know, heaven won't be as sweet for me if you're not there. Would you just trust him? Call on his name. And he got a lump in his throat, and he said, I think I'll just be consistent right to the end, son. And I was just devastated. And so at that point, I was in seminary, and my friend that was there named Jeff Williams, who's with the Lord now, we were at Southwestern in Texas together, and we took a covenant to pray for our dads. His dad lived in Atlanta. He was a lost man. And my dad lived in Chapel Hill, and he was a lost man. So we began, over the years, to pray together. And I would call him, and he would call me. I moved to Chattanooga and was preaching there with Precept Ministries for six years. And during that time, we were praying. We were bombarding. My children prayed for my stepfather their whole life as they grew up. And they would always say, do you think that Pop will ever come to know the Lord? Will he ever be saved? And I said, I can't imagine him not with all the burden of prayer behind it. Now, I'm telling you this for a reason, because some of you in here have loved ones that you've given up hope on. So Jeff and I prayed. And so one day, I'm in Chattanooga. This is like 19 years into this praying. 26 years this prayer went on, 26 years. But 19 years into it, Jeff calls me, and he says, Al, dad's having problems. He's passed, he's got a coma, he's got cancer all in his body. He's down to nothing, he's in the hospital at Piedmont. And I think they say he's in a coma, he'll never wake up. And I said, Jeff, meet me at the hospital, I'll drive down. We went to the hospital, got down in the prayer room down there, and the Lord gave me scripture from the thief on the cross, that last-minute trust of God. And gave me scriptures for Mr. Williams, but I didn't know he was passed out like he was. So we said boldly, Lord Jesus, we've been praying for these men for all these years, and you've led us to believe they'll be saved, both of our dads. And so for Mr. Williams, we pray in Jesus' name. You will, his soul is forbidden to leave earth until he has the opportunity to make one last choice about you. Get his attention, Lord. We got up and walked upstairs. His sister was vice president of Coca-Cola, and so she was in the room with the mother. And we came into the room, Jeff and I, there's his daddy on the bed. He looked like a skeleton with rubber stretched around it. He was like this. And so Jeff's sister said, Jeff, we're going to get some breakfast. We'll see you later. And so Jeff and I walked over, and he just ran his hand down the bed, and he walked to this side, and I did. And his daddy said, blip, blip, blip, blip, blip, blip, blip, blip. And his eyes start blinking like this. And Jeff said, Dad, Al's here with me, and he's got some scripture for you, because he was real antagonistic. And he says, no scripture. And I said, praise God, it's the old cuss himself, not some drug head on morphine. It's really the old skeptic, hallelujah. And I got down in his ear, and I said, Mr. Williams, you know the Lord Jesus loves you, and your whole life you've resisted him. And I gave him the scripture about the thief on the cross, and I said, God, even now, you're in a position, you're going to leave earth soon. You're going to stand before God, and I know you're too weak to even pray, but can you just say his name? And as you say his name, you're acknowledging your personal need and your sin, and you want to be saved. And I'll never forget this. He went, Jesus, like this. And it was like you poured warm water into that hospital room. Jeff picked up his dad's shirt, started rubbing his stomach, because he was so blessed. He said, oh, dad, I'm so happy. And he went, oh, oh. And Jeff was, we were singing and praising God, and we walked away from the bed and left. He said, I'll see you later, dad. I'll see you soon. We walked away. As we got downstairs, within five minutes, he had gone back into a coma. He never woke up again. He went home. The Lord rescued him. Now, you can imagine. The story's not over. The story's not over. You heard that story about Leon this morning, some of you. You heard stories like that just now. Well, I remember I went to the Lord, and I said, now, Lord, you did this for Jeff. In a sense, you owe me, because we've prayed, and you're no respecter of persons. And my dad is still not believing, and I'm trusting you. So I just say, his soul cannot leave Earth until he has the opportunity at the edge of time to pray and receive the Lord Jesus. Six more years went by, and I was up in Michigan waiting to go to a board meeting of this ministry with some guys. I'd landed. We were playing golf, and we come to the seventh hole. And the director of ministry's wife sat there with a phone, said, like this, shaking it like this. The seventh hole, I go to it. She says, they said, Mr. Whittinghill, your dad has had a ventricular tachycardia, which means your heart's like this. And he's in the hospital, and he might not make it. I said, I'm leaving. And I got on a jet and went down to North Carolina. And I said, Lord, keep him alive like you promised until he's there. And I get down there late at night, and there's this huge woman that, I mean, she looked like she could bounce anybody out of there. She's guarding things. And I walk up, and I said, is Mr. Whittinghill still here? And she said, are you his son? And I said, I am. She said, oh, Mr. Whittinghill, we are so sorry. You see, we've just had a shift. Because let me just tell you, he had on his folder DNR, do not resuscitate. He had it written on his folder. So if anything like that ever happened to him, he didn't want to be revived. He just wanted to go on. But you see, God's in charge of that. And so this woman, she looks at me and says, she thought I was going to sue him or something. She said, Mr. Whittinghill, we did not see that DNR. We are so sorry. They, and he is in there. And I said, no problems. And I walked in there and spent the next two hours, he was there, he had that chain-stokes breathing, going, right, right what you do before you die. His lips were cracked, swollen, and a little bit bleeding. And I'm sitting there walking around. And I said, I'm going to use the same, I talked about the thief on the cross. I talked about those glorious opportunities of grace. And I said, you're right now between heaven and earth. And you can see things that a normal person can't see sometimes because you might be aware of how real all this is. And dad, you've been a fool your whole life. When it comes to the things of God. But I said, I know you can't really respond, but I want you to let me know somehow. And I got down and I put my fingers in his hand and I said, if you're willing to confess you've been a fool and you need to be forgiven of your sins, would you call upon the name of the Lord? And just by doing, just squeeze my hand. Let me know that that's the reality on the inside. God knows. And there was this squeezing like this and went like this. And I said, and I let go like this. And I did it again, you know, and he's laying there and he did it again. And I knew it was real. He never came out of his coma then. So I went downstairs and slept in the hospital. They put me on this crazy bed and I called my mama. I said, come up here and see pop because he's prayed in a quiet way to receive the Lord. And so we went into the bed and I had a straw with some water in it and I put it on his lips and he went just the same, same way that Jeff's dad had done. His eyes blink and his eyes go like this. And my mama said, her name is Martha, my mom. And she looked at him and she said, Mari, that was his name. Al says that last night you prayed to receive the Lord. Is this true? And his eyes started to go like this again. And I, and I, and I said, pop, mom wants to know, did you receive the Lord Jesus? Have you trusted him? And he goes like this and he reaches out and he grabs my hand and he draws it up to his heart like this and puts it up with the other hand. He goes up like this. And you know what I said? I said, Lord, now let my soul depart in peace. And so my kids got there about that time and they stood around the bed and they're singing the Lord bless you and keep you, the Lord make his face to show. And, and Elizabeth's praying that he'll see angels. He's up there going like this and he's actually responding and he was, he was in a coma. He wasn't supposed to wake up. And the Lord brought him out and the doctor comes in there and he says, my, this is amazing. This, this man was, was out of it yesterday. Today he's cogent and he's talking. He's interacting with you. Then comes this liberal preacher of this church they went to that was no count. And he's standing up this, this side and then the surgeons here and this liberal preacher says, I think we should pray. I said, good idea. And so we all hold hands and I'm thanking God for the salvation. The preacher's crying, the surgeon's crying. My kids are singing. We're praising and I'm just delirious. And so I go into the other room after it's over. And while I'm in there, they come in and say, your dad just passed. And I was blown away. God did it exactly the same way. On the way home, I called my friend, Jeff. And I said, Jeff, I got to tell you what happened. I'm in the sky club of Delta and I'm sitting here crying like a baby with tears coming up. All these people going like, what is his problem? You know, I don't even care. I'm praising God and hallelujah. You know, but I had to preach that that was on Friday. I had to preach Sunday in Dalton, Georgia at a church. I'm almost finished. I promise. I had to preach Sunday at a church and I didn't have time to prepare a message. The Lord said, no problem. And I got up in the pulpit and I said, you know, I have not had time to prepare a message for you, but I want to say this, that a message has prepared me. And I told him about my dad and Jeff's dad and maybe your dad. And I said, if you're here today and you've given up on a loved one, we heard a lot of people burdened for their family praying this week here, this weekend. If you've given up or your prayers have grown weak, then this morning I'm saying, dare to pick it back up and not just pick it back up in frustration or it'll never work, but pick it back up in Jesus name. Lord, I need a mediator. And Lord, I believe that you are everything the Bible says. And I believe that your word is true. And my heart, as much as in me is, is clean. And I'm praying thy will be done. It's discernment and I have authority. So you've done this in whatever things I desire. When I pray, you said, if I ask and believe and doubted not, you'd do it. And then you start, give it time, give it time. Give God room. Don't crowd God. And watch what he does in this valley. Rivers flow out of a valley to all of California and to all the world. He wants to use you like that. Do you want to stay home during that? Or do you want to just not be part of it? You want to say, we go to a great church. I get so fed there. But aren't you tired of just grazing and gazing? Why don't you start going and being and do it after you've tarried and waited and believe God in prayer? Well, in the name of Jesus, may the Lord take the word this morning and the word now and apply it. This is the beginning of this conference. After this, it's the beginning.