Prayer Uproar 2

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We will move very quickly and take the prayer opera tips. Please get ready. Everyone get your pens and papers or however you take notes, get them ready so that you can note down the items for prayer.

To help us with the prayer opera tips, we call on Finda Filakati all the way from Eswatini, Swaziland. Father, we continue to look to you for mercy as we come to the moment of prayer. In Jesus name, amen.

May I request that we turn to the book of Joshua, Joshua chapter one. We are going to read the first nine verses, which is where we'll be throwing our issues of prayer for this time. The book of Joshua, chapter one, I read.

Now after the death of Moses, the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua, the son of Nun, Moses' minister, saying, Thank you so much. Moses, my servant, is dead. Now therefore arise, go over this short time thou and all these people unto the land which I do give to them, even to the children of Israel.

Every place that the soul of your food shall fret upon, that have I given unto you, as I said unto Moses. For from the wilderness and this Lebanon, even unto the great river, the river Euphrates, all the land of the Hittites, and unto the great sea toward the going down of the sun, shall be your cause. There shall not any man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee.

I will not fail thee, nor forsake thee. Be strong and of a good courage, for unto these people shalt thou divide for an inheritance the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Only be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded thee.

Turn not from it to the right hand or to the left, that thou mayest prosper whethersoever thou goest. This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein. For then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success.

Now we are moving to a time of prayer. We want to draw some issues that shall inform our prayers this morning. But please allow me to couple the reference we read from scriptures with the church and the pattern that God brought to us through his son, his servant, when we're opening this meeting on Wednesday.

Now, I noticed that the issues that God raised in the church and the pattern are the issues that God confronted even our brothers in past generations with. Now, if you have your program with you, may I request that you turn to the church and the pattern, and then we'll throw some ease of prayer using the two reference materials. Now, I will first want to draw your attention to the first paragraph.

Now, there we have a statement, if I may read, it says, there is a generation that seek the face of the Lord, and upon whom he is going to cross possess the gates, and double in the enemies until they are made his footstool. This army of the Lord volunteers in the truth of their youth, rest in holiness and cleared with the zeal of the Lord, the almighty God, our Lord of hosts, the great strategist has been on a recruitment drive of such young men and women for an intense and concerted training of their lives in discipleship and in their professional career development. Now, I want us to pray again about the issue that God is raising in that first paragraph.

And as we do that, I want us to pay in mind the background to the Joshua passage, which has read. Now, our brother Joshua who we are reading about here, a conversation between him and God. We are not meeting him for the first time.

Now when we look into the background of the Jennings in the wilderness, we will know or will remember that he has been living in very close association with Moses for about 40 years. Now, those 40 years were times of concerted discipleship with him. Now, it's not arbitrary that now we are meeting Joshua here, and the Lord will be commissioning him.

There is a background behind the commission that the Lord is giving to our brother. And now in our case when God was raising the charge and the baton in the opening, God said, he is raising a young people who is calling aside for concerted training of their lives in discipleship. Now, I want us to pray on that principle this morning.

Now, Joshua is born, and we are the ones on the stage now. Now, if perhaps we could still be able to bring Joshua back, there would be no problem. But God is counting on you, and he is counting on me to bring revival in this day to possess the gates of the enemies in our day.

And now this is a principle that we cannot overlook. Now, we'll remember that yesterday, God spoke to us strongly about this matter of discipleship during the discipleship seminar. Now, we prayed or not, but I sense very strongly that we never overpray on this matter.

Now, what I want us to pray about is that God will bring it to very clear light to each one of us, even as we are going through this cycle, that each one of us shall come to very clear light and understanding of the need to go for his or her own personal discipleship. So, as we pray, I want each one of us to stand before God and be able to say, Lord, please make this issue very clear to me. Not just make it clear to me, but over and above that, give me a heart to pursue my own training.

It is God's will that we be trained for this responsibility. Now, if we are going to miss our training, then now we will not be able to stand squarely and be able to face the enemies at the gates. So, this is one issue I am sensing God will have us pray about again this morning in our different centers.

My own personal understanding of this matter and my own pursuit of discipleship, I'm going to stand firmly for God and possess the gates that he is sending us to. Now, there is another matter which I'd like to throw from the background to this passage. Now, we will remember from our Bible study yesterday, for instance, that when we're doing the first part, there we met Joshua in Numbers 27.

That informs another part of the background to the passage we are just reading. Now, there, God said to Moses, when Moses was perturbed about God raising a leader, who is going to lead his people to the enemy from his den, God said, it's Joshua who Moses must commission for this responsibility. Now, the basis for his commissioning, God said, his spirit is in Joshua.

When God was raising that, it occurred to me that whereas Joshua has gone through a concerted time of training in discipleship, but then now it was imperative. It was necessary that this Joshua be endued with power from on high. It was going to be the spirit of God that was going to qualify Joshua for this commission that we are seeing God giving to him at this point in time.

So I want us to pray that as it was the case in Joshua, God provided some good discipleship and experience for him, which will be the case with you and me. And then, another thing we learned that this Joshua, who is being commissioned today, at some point in time, he was endued with the spirit of God, and not just at some point in time, it was going to be his daily affair. He kept pursuing and seeking God for ever fresh enjoyment with the spirit of God because it was by virtue of the spirit in him that he was successful in putting out this commission.

So as God, even at our point in time, says he is sending us to the gates. God is saying we must go and possess the gates. We know that we are not going to do that in the strength of the arm of the flesh, but will be by virtue of the spirit of God filling each one of us full.

I desire that this morning, in our different spaces, we are going to pray on this matter. Try to quote personally, Lord, I am desperate. And Lord, if I will not be endued with your spirit, with power from on high, I will fail, I will not be able, I will just not go to the gates.

And the beautiful thing is, our God is eager. God is very much willing and ready to enjoy us with his spirit, if we will come, if we will have the right heart disposition, if we will know without the spirit we can move, then we will develop the right hunger. We will develop the right yearning, the right thirst.

The Lord said, whosoever is thirsty, let him come and drink. And this morning, God is saying, are you thirsty? Are you hungry for righteousness? Do you want him to equip you with himself? And if you are, and I'm praying that God will make each one of us realize this need, then that will raise our voice in prayer. He has said, if we ask, we know we'll receive.

He has said, if we knock, we can know that door will open to us. So we are coming to the throne of our father, who is more than ready to enjoy us with his spirit. That's another matter I wish to raise with us from this passage.

Now, when we're looking at the church, which I find to be in this book, that's before us. Now, about 38 years ago or so, to this passage, our father Joshua had been in the company of the spies that went to the gates of the enemy in the promised land. Now, when they were coming back, we will remember that they said there are giants there.

Actually, some of the spies even got to a point where they said, when we looked at ourselves against the giants, we were as grasshoppers. And now that instilled some sort of fear in their hearts. Now, when God comes to Jonah this time, he will say to him, do not fear.

Now, God knows he is conscious of the giants who are at the gates in the promised land. And as God comes to us in this day, we are dealing with giants which we know in our lands, we have been referring to them from time to time. Now, for instance, I was thinking this morning when I was going through the church and the patents, that when I was growing up, I went to school.

I even went to tertiary. I had never in my life, even once, seen the marijuana plant. I had never seen Dachau.

But now it's so strange to me that now in this day, almost every child who goes to school will see the marijuana plant in Swaziland, which I find very strange. But that's what's happening now. I mean, that's so readily available.

You'll find them in the streets, quite unlike yesterday. Now, we have our young people dealing with those kinds of giants. Now, I was talking to one young person in our center this morning, and he has started an NGO, and he was telling me about how masturbation, he was telling me about how pornography and how sexual immorality is rife these days.

We're even talking about how even our young people in church are also dealing with sexual immorality. We've come to a space where it's like it's normal to just go out there, indulge in sexual immorality, confess to God, and then I'll come back, be a praise and worship leader, and again you fall, you keep falling and rising. Now, those are the giants that as young people we are faced with these days.

And the enemy knows that if I put sexual immorality, if I put pornography, if I put masturbation, if I put drugs, among others, in the gates, and our young people are victims to that, we cannot possess the gates that God is sending us to possess. I want us to pray on this note. We cannot be victims, and hoping at the same time that we can dispossess the enemy of the gates.

We can't be victims of the enemy, and then now advance towards the enemy and hope we can dispossess him. I want us to take this matter very, very seriously. Now, it's not in our strength we are to face this giant, but it is in the strength of the Lord that we will be praying about the enjoyment with power from on high.

Now, it is by virtue of that seed, as we learned yesterday, there is a seed that overcomes. Now, by virtue of the Spirit of God, in filling all of us, then now that is the basis of taking off this stupidness in us, even to overcome this giant in our own personal spaces. Before we can then hope to go and deliver our friends who are also under the clutches, or who are also under the stronghold, or under the master of this giants.

So I want each one of us to be serious about this matter. Now, we might say it's a private affair, people don't know about it, but Satan knows about these things. Satan knows about these things we call our secret failures.

Now, we cannot afford to be failing over and over again, and hope to be used of God. So I want us to pray. Now, like I'm saying, in the case of Joshua, he was dealing with the giants in the gates or in the promised land.

Now, in our day and age, we are dealing with as much giants, if not worse. Now, we are going to pray on that point. Now, we hear God say, do not fear.

He says, do not fear, you will need to have courage. Now, the courage is emanating from the divine resources embedded in us, by virtue of the Spirit of God, that we'll be trusting God to help us. I want us to note that as well.

So those three issues, let's please bear them in mind. And I am certain that this morning, we will have to go to court about these issues. Let's not just look at them casually.

Let's sit with them as God is raising them with us. This issue of our personal discipleship, please trust God for grace to see it clearly, and trust God for grace to pursue it with all your heart. Now, if you'll be letting that training, you will not go far in this mandate that the Lord is placing on our lips.

And the Spirit of God, you just cannot go without that divine equipment. Pray on that matter. And the giants that flip us all around, God can give you personal victory over them.

And God can also help you go and deliver the many others of our colleagues who are held in the clutches of sin. The giants out there, God says, now that you have God in you. Remember yesterday, we're learning from question four, four, about one who is in us.

Greater is he that is in us than he who is in the world. Now, that is the basis of the courage. That is the base of the charge not to fear.

Now, I want us to pray and trust God for grace to appropriate those divine resources, first and foremost, for our own health. And then now, having been held in our own personal spaces, we will then now go out of the gate and be able to bring about an exodus of those people out of those gates who are held behind those gates. Now, the other matter that confronts me from this Joshua passage we have just read, if I may take you to verse six, please.

Therefore, it says, strengthen up a good courage, for unto these people shall thou provide for inheritors the land which I swear unto their fathers to give them. Now, that is the fourth matter that comes to me. That is the fourth pattern that is in my heart this morning as we will be going to a time of prayer.

Now, God says to Joshua, it is not just about you, but it's about there's so many others. Now, if the others shall come to acquire their own possession nowadays, there will be a Joshua who will have to arise. And in this case, it's you, it's me.

Now, the inheritance of so many people depends on your arising. Now, if I was going to say, no, Lord, I will not arise, it will affect me, that would not be a problem. But the matter that comes to us this morning is, our constituencies, our countries, shall continue languishing in the tale of Satan if we don't arise.

The possession of many other people will not come to them if you and me won't arise. And I want us to pray on this matter, that God would open our eyes to see the plight of the many other people around us who are suffering so long as you are not arising, so long as I am not arising. And I pray that God causes us to see there's so many others whose success, there's so many others who are depending on you and me for them to know victory.

We will come to see them, and as we see them, God will cause us to take this matter more seriously. Now, when we were studying about Moses yesterday in the Bible study, we were talking about the whole nation of Israel that was languishing in slavery under Pharaoh in Egypt. Now, Moses had to be available to be sent of God.

And if Moses resisted, if Moses had not been discipled himself and had not been capacitated, the Israelites would be there for even much longer. But I thank God that Joshua was ready. I thank God that Moses was ready.

And then now there are constituencies, their generations were delivered. Now, it is your turn. It is my turn.

I pray that God will burden us with the plight of His people. And we know that this, our arising to present the case, is necessary at the point of this, so that now our nations shall know the revival we've been waiting for all this time. Now, those are the four issues that we are throwing from the Joshua passage, and which came strong to me from the charge and the burden, which I still want us to pray over.

We have prayed over them, but I honestly feel we can never overpray on these matters. The matter of our own personal training in discipleship, the matter of our own endowment with God from on high, the matter of the giants we are facing in our day, and God says, yes, the giants are there, but I'm equipping you sufficiently by the Holy Spirit to go to the cave and face them. And then now, of course, the responsibility that must lie on the shoulders of you and me concerning the plight of our people.

It's not right that our people are suffering, and they will continue suffering until we go. And then now we'll be talking about it from time to time. Now, what the Lord desires as he sends us to the gate at a time like this, is that through your hand, is that through your instrumentality, and through my instrumentality, revival shall come to our lands, and our people shall know freedom.

And then now I close this church with a sentence that comes to us from the last but one paragraph in the church. Now, God says, this is your personal opportunity to begin to be great before the Lord. The Lord wants you to come in.

And then now the paragraph above was saying, you and I are stakeholders in this matter. We don't want to be thinking it concerns so and so, and so and so, but each one of us must come to this point of taking personal responsibility and say, I am a stakeholder here. And be able to say, it is God who is giving me this opportunity to begin to be great before him in my day.

And then now as we come to God with that heart, we don't know that by the time we descend this mountain, the Lord will have set us on the right path to push us forward. So at this point in time, I will ask to take us back to our sites, and we raise these issues at a very personal level with God. Then now, as God spoke to Joshua then, God is speaking to you and me today.

He has been discipled properly. He has been endured with the Holy Spirit. There were times to face in his face, and there was a people who were to receive an inheritance.

And so is the case in our day and our time. So I want us to pray to make this very personal, and I want you to be hearing God as if he is not speaking to Joshua at this time. Put your name there, and know that God is giving this heart to you and me.

And if we fail to undertake this commitment, if we fail to arise, now I hate to say your constituency, your country, your generation, my generation, is going to suffer for yet many more years. And God forbid that that is the case. God forbid that you will be absent, and then your people will suffer, and my people shall suffer.

Shall I hand over back to the coordinator, so that we'll go to our different sites and pray over these issues. I thank you. Please all prayer coordinators on all sites.

We have 20 minutes to hold God's hand. So let's go for it. Let's raise our prayers.

Let's raise our cries. We have 20 minutes. We have 20 minutes.