Today's message theme is “The Power of Prayer”. How many of you here believe that prayer has power? This is a rhetorical question, right?
Absolutely everyone will say yes, but in effect, we see that this is not the great belief of people, because if people were convinced that prayer moves the heart of God, opens doors, establishes foundations, people would pray more. Yes, or no? Every time that you go pray… let me ask you this question.
This one is not rhetorical. Do you feel your mind wander? Do you have to fight to stay focused?
Do you experience attacks in your mind, such as, "your prayers will not be answered", "you're a sinner", "you don't deserve this blessing"? Do you feel that? There are a number of reasons that discourage us from praying, but today I want to start by telling you that there are a great number of experiences in the Bible of people who prayed and changed, not only their destinies but also of all of their bystanders.
Prayer really has power, prayer is really necessary, but there are two aspects that are parallel to the theme of prayer, in fact, I would say that they are two tracks on which the miracle train goes. The first is faith. Say: faith.
And the second is… What is the second? No. Prayer is the rail that goes over it The second is a heart completely surrendered to God.
God's word shows us that God Himself speaks to His people. "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me". So, before I go to say anything about prayer, it's very important that you understand that you need faith and you must have a heart completely surrendered to the Lord because to approach this wonderful God, you have to approach Him with these two behaviors.
In the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 6, the author of Hebrews, in my opinion, Paul, is very emphatic, he presents an absolute here. He says: "In fact, without faith, it is impossible to please God". It's impossible to have the favor of God when you approach Him without faith, and he continues saying, "because anyone who comes to Him must believe" in two things that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek him".
In other words, those who do not believe that God intervenes, -hardly anyone will say "no, God has no power", God has power for anything-. The great struggle people face is to believe that He cares about their needs, that He cares about their problem, and that He comes down from the throne to intervene in my life and yours. How many of you here believe that God still does this today?
Prayer is so important; it can change a destiny. How many of you don't know Jabez's prayer? He had a name that literally meant the obscure person, a person who had no shine and he didn't accept this decree that was given by his parents when they gave him that name, and when he prays to God he says, Lord widen my life, increase my influence and the Bible says that God made him a very prosperous man who really impacted his bystanders, his circumstance, amen?
Jeremiah 29:13 says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart". Say this: faith; whole heart in the presence of God. I begin by stating that the self-sufficient doesn't pray and there are many people who believe they are self-sufficient, until they find, or find themselves, in a situation they cannot solve.
The satisfied also doesn't pray, and Satan is a master at replacing what really fills man with palliatives, with deceit, with lies and that is why humanity is increasingly walking away from God because they believe they can be happy, be fulfilled internally in other ways than surrendering to the Lord. The unbelieving does not pray. Martin Luther says that no man is greater than his prayer life.
I will repeat it. Say: No man is greater than his prayer life. After this preamble – I haven't started preaching yet – I want to tell you about a man called Hezekiah.
A king called Hezekiah He ascended the throne when he was 25 years old, and when he ascended the throne when he took office, he realized that Jerusalem and Judah were living apart from God, so he made many reforms, he overturned the altars, overturned the idols and the idol poles, he reopened the temple that was closed, he brought back the reading of the Torah, the word of God, he started to celebrate Easter again and He did all this, and God was very pleased of Him and the Bible says that his kingdom started to thrive. Hezekiah began to invest, he made a plumbing system in Jerusalem that still exists today, 2700 years later. How many of you have heard of Hezekiah's tunnel?
It's a tunnel through which the water flowed. There was water outside the walls and that water entered through the walls so that even though they had to fight a very powerful enemy, they had the security of the walls and had water inside, but every time someone walks in God's will, whenever God starts to lean over someone's life and bless someone, Satan isn't happy, amen? Do you testify that?
Have you ever lived a situation where something big happened and then suddenly out of nowhere a fight you were not expecting starts? Isn't that right? Say this: the enemy is not happy when God blesses his people.
And then he used the circumstance again. There was a very powerful kingdom called Assyria, it's not Syria, it's Assyria. The Assyrian king was called Sennacherib and in 722 BC he arrived in the Northern Kingdom in the capital called Samaria and simply slaughtered the Samaritans and he did more than that.
History tells us that the Assyrians when they invaded a territory, they killed people, beheaded them, and stucked it in spears at the city gate so that everyone knew that those people couldn't resist them. He then descends towards Judah. The 10 northern tribes were taken captive.
He even brought people from other nations, also captives, and put these people in place of the Hebrews, so that the land would never again be in possession of the people of origin. So when he arrives in Jerusalem, he is convinced that he would also defeat Judah, and the first thing he does is to send the ambassador, telling Hezekiah, "surrender or I will destroy it all! ", besides that, he places people around the walls, who shouted, blasphemed, who intimidated the people inside saying "Will your God stop what Sennacherib is going to do?
Look at what he did to Samaria and the 10 northern tribes" and finally he sends a letter, a mailman who brings a threat letter to Hezekiah. Hezekiah reads the letter, puts it on the floor, and says to God, "God, Lord, you need to read this letter" and God read it. He knew it before he read it and God sends the prophet Isaiah, who says to Hezekiah "do not worry.
Through the same path that he came, he will run away. He came through this path and he will go back because I am the Lord. Resist, stand firmly because I'm going to fight this fight" and the bible says that, on the same night.
Say: in one night, 185,000 men were destroyed, not by human weapons! The bible says that the angel of the Lord passed through the Assyrian camp and all men died. Sennacherib flees to his land.
Assyria's capital was Nineveh. You already know this kingdom and when he gets there, there was a coup in which he ended up losing his life. Say this: God is good.
Dear ones, I want to tell you that your God is powerful enough to intervene, to disarray, to dismantle, to deconstruct, and make his glory manifest in your life. Be it in a natural, gradual way, or at once through supernatural power, amen? But the truth is that this man Hezekiah, he had victory because he sought God, he was a God-fearing man, he had already surrendered his heart to God and during the most important time of his life, he presented himself and God, as always, was faithful and gave him the victory, but the Bible goes on saying that “in those days”, and therefore we don't know exactly how long it took, but after that victory, Hezekiah began to experience another big problem and I'll read it with you in II Kings 20:1-11 “In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death.
The prophet Isaiah son of Amos went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover. ” Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes. ” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.
Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now, you will go up to the temple of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life.
And I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria. I will defend this city for my sake and for the sake of my servant David. ’” Then Isaiah said, “Prepare a poultice of figs.
” They did so and applied it to the boil, and he recovered. Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What will be the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I will go up to the temple of the Lord on the third day from now? ” Isaiah answered, “This is the Lord’s sign to you that the Lord will do what he has promised: Shall the shadow go forward ten steps, or shall it go back ten steps?
” “It is a simple matter for the shadow to go forward ten steps,” said Hezekiah. “Rather, have it go back ten steps. ” Then the prophet Isaiah called on the Lord, and the Lord made the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.
” What a terrific story! After a complete victory, after celebrating God’s greatness, he receives a visit from the prophet Isaiah, who says, put your house in order, because you will die and not live, you will surely die. When he received that decree, the Bible does not say that he rebelled against God, it does not say that he was in despair.
He turned his face to a wall and prayed and cried and begged. Isaiah didn’t even have the time to leave the palace. He was in the middle of the palace courtyard, probably the outer courtyard, going out and God said, “come back” - Why come back, Lord?
- You will take a word to Hezekiah that he will not die. - How Lord? You said that I was to bring a word that he was going to die, now you’re saying that he won’t die?
- That’s precisely what I’m saying. Go back there and tell him that he will live and I will give him 15 more years. How many of you would want to receive such news?
But the truth is that Isaiah took the word and he was impacted, but he was at the same time intrigued because when God spoke the first time it was for real. Say this: whenever God speaks it’s for real. There’s no such thing.
God does not bluff. God does not threaten. When God speaks, it happens, so in fact, we have a dichotomy here, because the first time God speaks “you will die and not live”, but then he says, “you will not die anymore.
I will give you 15 more years”. What happened between those two words? Prayer.
Say this: prayer can change God’s decrees. Say it: Prayer can change God’s decrees. And then Hezekiah was like, “what a blessing and everything, but how can I know that this word is true?
Then Isaiah said, "you know the sundial that your father built? You will choose whether the shadow moves forwards or backward 10 steps. In fact, this word degrees can also be translated into steps.
Why? Because it's very common in several civilizations, it was very common to have a construction, a pyramid with steps, which depending on the inclination of the sun, would cast a shadow over the steps and thus they understood the calendar. We don't have, exactly, any traces of this instrument that Hezekiah had, but we have something similar among the Mayans.
Do you see it here? Can you see, there's a snake's head here? This is a Mayan pyramid.
This is a pyramid that shows the hours of the day. At the end of the day, when the Sun is down, the shadow started to rise. When Isaiah asks him, what do you want?
For the shadow to rise or fall? To move forwards or backward? He said, "move forward is easy, so I don't what it this way.
I want God to make it move 10 steps back". Isaiah declares that this is going to happen and when he arrives outside the courtyard, the shadow has already receded. And you know that when NASA tried to do some calculations regarding the planets, they could not reach an agreement.
Something was wrong, and among them, there was a Christian, who remembered his father, his mother, and the biblical stories that said that Joshua made the Sun stop and that God turned the Sun back 10 degrees, 10 steps. When they inserted these new aspects in the calculations, it was perfect. God is Lord of history.
You must know that God is even capable of doing that. So after all this historical context, I can start preaching. Amen?
I want you to follow with me some very interesting lessons that we can learn from this text regarding prayer So I wish from my heart, as I believe it is God's will that you understand how important prayer is, and that it becomes part of your daily life, because when you see people who have a life of victory throughout their existence, you can be sure of one thing, they are people who pray. Without prayer, it's impossible to overcome the enemy and face the demands of life, amen? So, let's see here some lessons that this story and text show us.
The first one is that when we pray, God gives us victory over enemies. Yes, or no? Dear ones, Hezekiah had even invested in the army.
Israel's army was prepared. He believed that with the walls and with that army prepared they could win any battle, but one day the enemy came and the enemy was way more powerful than he was, and what he and his people felt was great intimidation. Have you ever felt intimidated in your life?
Perhaps with news of a deadly illness? Perhaps with the news that your company is not doing well? Or perhaps the news that we hear every day on television that Brazil is about to break.
I want to tell you something, if the people of God pray, it will not break, because the word of God promises us, "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land". God promised that to Solomon, but His word is also for us today. How many of you here are the people of God?
So, people of God let's pray, let's not believe in men. It's not they who will make this nation a blessed and prosperous nation, but it will be the Lord. Prayer is very important, but whatever enemy we might have to face, and sometimes that enemy will be stronger than us, our resources, intelligence, ability to manage chaos will not be enough and it is at this time that we must pray, because God gives us victory over our enemies, amen?
So no matter to which command your enemy belongs, it matters if you pray God will give you victory, amen? Dear ones, when God acts this way, the week become strong, when God acts this way, the humble are exalted, the natural is replaced by the supernatural, say this: prayer is supernatural. Prayer is in fact, an email or WhatsApp that you send from the temporal dimension to the eternal dimension.
So everything you don't see, because the time for us is linear, God is in another sphere that is eternity and He has not only seen the beginning but the end, because the word of God says that God tells the story from the end to the beginning and not from the beginning to the end. Your God knows the path to victory and when you look at Him, you leave all natural instruments and receive all the supernatural provision, be it direction, wisdom, discernment, be it spiritual power to rebuke demons and God will give you victory. For the one who prays will experience extraordinary victories.
How many here have ever experienced this in your life? You can experience this today. God wants His people to pray to him, amen?
Hezekiah experienced this, he cried to God, he didn't put his trust in his army, and God did something he did not expect. Because in Israel's story, many times God said, "Go to the fight, go to war, but in this fight, you will not have to fight alone, I will go ahead of you", moreover He was called Lord of Hosts because Israel knew that when they went to the battlefield there was an invisible force that even the nations knew and feared. They believed this power was in the ark, so much so that the Philistines stole the ark believing that they could steal Israel's power, but God was not in the ark God was in the covenant He had with his people.
So say: when we pray we receive from God victory over enemies, amen? The second truth that I want to tell you here is that when we pray to God, he can change his decrees. This is a jurisprudence, see brothers?
Because the Bible says that God's will is sovereign? How many of you here believe that God's will is sovereign? When God says "it will happen" and Isaiah was emphatic "you will die and not live".
How come? Why did he say that? It so it would be clear, "look, you have one foot in the grave", but because of prayer, God changed a death decree, into a life decree.
My dears, obviously God knew. It's obvious that in His Sovereignty He already knew that He would change the plan and that's how it goes with our lives too. Often, what apparently is the will of God, seems terrible to us.
You can take two actions, either surrender and say, ok, it's all right, if I die I'll go to heaven, I'll be with the Lord, or you can say, God, I don't want to die, I'm still young and I want you to step in, and he cried out to God, change Your decree, and Isaiah didn't even have the time to leave the palace when God spoke, “Go back because you will tell him, ‘you will not die anymore, you will live and I’ll give you 15 years”. Theologians believe that Hezekiah's disease was a tumor. A skin tumor, a melanoma, that if found or removed on early stages won't cause any problem, however, if untreated it becomes terribly malignant, ends in metastasis and that's probably what Hezekiah had.
And then they applied a fig paste. Since when does fig paste cure cancer? It doesn't cure cancer, but because he obeyed, God's word promised that in 3 days he would be praising in the temple and in 3 days he was praising in the temple, because when God intervenes, even the fig paste cures cancer and I want to tell you that whatever instrument He uses to establish his will works, amen?
You can give a hand to the Lord. This is our God. How many here have had cancer and had chemotherapy?
Stand up, please. Don't be ashamed, it happens to good people too. Are you healed?
A long time ago. Are you healed? Say this: God intervened and used the fig paste that is chemotherapy.
But how many of you know people who had treatment, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, and everything else that can happen and died? The Lord owns life and death Dear ones, if His will really is to take you, prepare your house and yourself, because there is nothing you can do. He is Lord of all things, but say: but the word shows us that through prayer God can change a decree.
God can change a death decree in your life, of bankruptcy, of defeat and He won’t change if you don’t cry out. When God says “you will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart”, so don’t imagine that a short 30 seconds prayer, “in the name of Jesus Lord, be healed” no! Put your face in the dirt, cry out, present your heart, your requests to God believing that he is powerful to reverse the decree of death, and establish life.
There are many Christians who don't understand this, and they're defeated in their battles because they believe in the lie that what is set in front of them is God's final will Many people ask me, but pastor what if I’m asking or such thing and I don’t know God’s will? How many of you here are children of God? Do you know I do it?
I ask. I ask for what I want. If God doesn’t want, He will say no, but I already had the no, and often the yes comes.
Because He loves when His children look for Him, seek Him and believe that He is the rewarder of those who seek Him, so dear, be someone who prays in your private life, in your challenges, put your company in the hands of God, put your family, your children's lives in the hands of God because God intervenes. When God makes an alliance with someone, He makes it with their household, their family, so when you present before God something that belongs to you, God says, whatever is yours has to do with me. Your life matters to me, your family matters to me, your business matters to me.
Put it before God, amen? Say this: When we pray to God, He can change His decrees I want to share a small testimony here, because sometimes we can’t express things in an objective and practical way. You know that Erica had a baby now in July, so we spent several days in Tulsa waiting for the baby to come, and after the childbirth, Erica would help, I’m sorry, Lylian would help Erica with all the first cares, and I was very close from my other grandson and every time that I visit them I like to take my grandson to a store, because I like to buy him a gift, so I took my grandson, got the car and took him to the mall.
At the mall, there was a Disney store. He said: - Grandpa, I wat a costume. - Which costume do you want?
- Oh, Thor’s. Ok, so he went there, got dressed, tried the costume. Then he looked a bit upset so I asked: what happened Enzo, you picked it, you don't like it?
- I’m unsure, I also wanted the Star Wars one, I can’t decide. So I said, let’s end this thing, I’m buying both. I bought both costumes, went home, and then Erica goes, "dad, haven’t I told you to but just one?
Did you buy both? He is full of toys, I have nowhere to keep all this, and he won’t value things”. I said ok, I’m sorry, it was just this time.
Well, days passed and there was this one day, it was 107°F in the shade. We were planning a barbecue on the balcony, but we just couldn’t do it. If we put one foot there, it was 08:00 PM and it was 107°F.
That day, everyone was there, Erica was almost giving birth, so I said, “I must have a grandfather and grandson moment” I said Enzo let's go for a walk. I even asked Ramon: - where can I take him? - well, there is a pizza place that he loves because they have one of those electronic games.
So we agreed and he was all happy. When we got there, the pizza place was closed I said, my God, what will I do with this kid in 107°F heat? I said, let’s go to the mall.
Then he told me: - Grandpa, I don’t want to go to the mall. I asked: - Why son? - What if I get there and I want to buy a gift but I can’t?
I’m serious. So I said, I’m going to call your mom e see if she’ll let us go. So I told my daughter that the pizza place was closed.
The only place I had to go with him was the mall, but he told me he would be upset if he couldn’t buy a gift. - Ok dad, you can but it, but only one, ok? - Let’s go Enzo, your mom allowed us.
He was so happy. We got there. We went straight to the store.
He saw a box that had all the Avengers' heroes in miniature. - Is this the one you want? - That's it, grandpa.
$ 14,00, really cheap. When I was paying he said: - Grandpa, I'm not sure - What are you not sure about? - It’s because I also like the Black Panther – and he brought something – see this one with all these characters I said: - You're trying to be clever.
You want me to give you both because I did it the other time. He said: - it’s true grandpa. So I said it didn’t matter and that I was buying both.
Why am I telling this to you? I love my grandson so much. I love him so much that sometimes it hurts.
Why do I love my grandson so much? Because every time I go visit him or FaceTime him, he comes to me smiling saying, “grandpa, I miss you”. When we feel the love of a grandson for us we do everything that we can and cannot do.
That's what God expects of His people. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will satisfy your heart's desires. God is saying that to us.
God owns gold and silver. God knows the right path. God is God Almighty.
What He wants from us is that we love Him. Sometimes Satan puts a lie in our hearts that if we are wrong if we made bad choices there's no chance for us, but the truth is that when the prodigal son had this understanding, he realized that living outside of the father's presence was horrible. He had lost everything; he was eating with the pigs.
He said, "I'm going back to my father's house because even the slaves live better there than I'm living here; I will ask him, father I'm not worthy to be called your son. Let me be one of your servants", but Jesus's parable says that the father had his arms open and when he saw his son coming, he ran to meet him and hugged him, kissed him, changed his sandals, changed his clothes and put the sonship ring on his finger and he threw a big party, where the fattened calf was served, the fattened calf that represents Jesus was served. Do you know what Jesus is teaching us brothers?
As much as we stray from God's path, as great sinners we might be, God's love won't diminish and if there's repentance in your heart, He will reestablish all of your children's privileges. Give a hand to the Lord. When we approach Him, we do so as His children.
Two of Jesus's disciples betrayed him equally. Judas because he sold Him and took the Roman soldiers to the Gethsemane. Peter because he denied Him three times.
Judas ran from Jesus and hanged himself. Peter ran to Jesus and was restored. When he is in his boat, sad because he spent the entire night without catching any fish, someone shows up at shore saying, "you didn't catch anything?
Throw the net to the right" and the fish came and Peter remembered that the same miracle happened when Jesus called him. The Bible says that they were less than 200 yards, less than 200 meters from the shore. Peter couldn't wait for the boat to slowly get close to shore.
He dived e went in the direction of his Savior, and God not only forgave him, but He also made him the church's first leader. Brothers and sisters, God is still on the throne. He is still merciful to His children when they're experiencing difficult, atrocious times, but what does He expect from us?
That we seek Him, brothers! Prayer to God, like we've seen in Hezekiah's story! When we pray to God we receive a new chance.
This is the third reflection I want to do. Perhaps there are people here who need a new chance, perhaps the enemy is saying to you, "there's no second chance. You will never again experience fellowship and God's victory.
I want to tell you today that our God is a God who loves us. I feel God's love over my life so strongly. That is why every time I face battles – Lylian is a wonderful woman.
She gives me all the support in the world – but there are moments when I just want to be in God's presence, cry before Him, and call for His name and His help, so that His mercie reaches me. He loves you too and he wants to give you a new chance. It' was if Hezekiah never had those wounds.
When the shadow receded, Hezekiah's cells, the cancer cells started to be undone and the new cells started to take their place. Today I want to tell you, dear, that the Lord is a Lord of second chances. You know what you've done.
What is the instrument that Satan uses to accuse you? And you can let him accuse you and even take a posture of self-pity, oh poor me, I'm a sinner. God, I don't deserve your blessing and think that you're pleasing God with it.
It's the opposite, you're doubting the Father's love. He made you, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and He has great plans in your life. If there's repentance, brokenness, if there's a sincere heart, He will give you a second chance for you to go back to the original plan, to go back to His blessing, His favor, His care, and His mercy.
Do you believe that? How many of you receive this? Say: when we pray to God, He gives us a second chance.
In the selection, I read an illustration about a man called Colonel Archibald Gracie. This man was a passenger in the Titanic ship, which in 1912 sank due to an iceberg that tore its hull. On the day before, this man was enjoying the heated pool with saltwater on the Titanic, went to bed, and woke up with the sirens, with shouts saying the ship was going to sink.
It turns out that, back in America, his wife was sleeping, and she wakes up at 02:00 AM, and something filled her heart. A fear, a concern, an affliction, so she bent her knees, opened the Word and began to read the Word and pray to the Lord: "Lord, if my husband is in any danger to his life, please keep Him, God. Rid Him She prayed from 02:00 AM to 05:00 AM and went back to sleep.
At 08:00 AM, she wakes up with her sister entering the house showing the news saying that the Titanic had sunk. What happened was that when the ship sunk, it created a swirl and this Colonel Archibald was sucked in with many people. He then thought his life had come to an end, but for a reason he didn't know he was pulled back to the surface and was one of the few rescued alive.
Why? Because God warned his wife to pray for him. God could've simply done without prayer, but God moves the heart of a person of faith to pray for someone.
Dear, know that if you're here and have already given your life to Jesus, it's because someone prayed for you it's because someone presented your life before God, so father and mother, present your children because God is able to create the circumstances and the paths for your child, to surrender to Him one day. Don't give up on him! God is powerful to do that, amen?
Say: Prayer has power! That man received a second chance and could live again when many others didn't have this privilege. The fourth lesson or truth.
When we pray to God we experience miracles. Can someone here give me a definition of a miracle here? What is a miracle, my dear?
What man cannot do. It's a good definition. How many of you here believe that God can cure an illness?
But a cure for an illness is not a miracle. Why? Because doctors can heal.
Can they or can't they? A miracle is what science and man in his abilities cannot do. God still works miracles today, and I want to tell you that in this time of so much unbelief we need to pray to God, to the God of miracles so that He will work miracles in our lives so that we have a good testimony to give because against miracle there are no arguments.
When the apostle Paul was preaching in the city of Athens, on the Areopagus, he delivered the best sermon he ever had. He spoke of the unknown God. It was extraordinary because the Bible says that the Greeks want wisdom and the Jews ask for signs.
Paul was Jewish and Greek. He knew Greek culture, was born I the city of Tarsus, present-day Turkey, so he was under the Greek Empire, and also Roman by citizenship, but when he left Athens and started walking towards Corinth, he was thinking, because he says, "what went wrong? It was my best sermon and few people were converted".
When he arrives in Corinth he says, "when I went to you, I did not come with human words of wisdom and persuasion, but with the power of God and demonstration of Spirit". My dears, sometimes God allows something to happen in your life for you to cry out to Him and he will perform a miracle in your story, and this miracle will bring closer people who don't believe. Amen?
How many here believe that God works miracles today? How many of you here need a miracle today? So start praying for the miracle because if you believe that God can do it, you must pray.
Cicero, don't give up. God has a miracle for your house. Pray every day.
Cry to God everyday. God is powerful to perform a miracle. It happened in the life of Hezekiah and when he received that miracle his kingdom prospered even more and everyone knew what God had done in his story.
I keep thinking of a church full of the Spirit, with a pure heart, that doesn't give in to the mentality of this century because the word of God says that those who are friends with the world are enemies of God. You cannot walk, my dear, wanting to receive the blessings of God, living under the aegis of the mentality of this world. Either your heart is His or you will never experience an intervening God, a God who heals, who saves, who restores, who gives a second chance.
I want to end this word by quoting James 4:2 "You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God.
˜ The apostle James is here saying that people who walk in this world according to the modus operandi of this world, live fighting to conquer, to rise, and often to rise you have to envy, you have to leave others behind, you have to start wars, fights because this is the way of the world. And what does he say? All that you do is nothing, it's inoperative and you want it but you don't have it.
Why? Because you don't ask. Jesus taught, ask and it will be given to you, knock and it will open to you, seek and you will find.
Say this: for real. My dear, this is not, "I'm going to pray for a bit". The problem is gigantic, you pray for a little bit of time and go "Oh, I'm so tired".
God wants to look into your heart and see in your heart faith that He can do and genuine interest. Pray to God because, "all those", Jesus said, this is not a privilege for some, but for all those who truly seek with their hearts. Raise your hand to the Heaven dears.
God's word tells us, "Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this". What a beautiful thing brothers, this promise, to know that our paths will be straightened. The word also says, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.
" God makes the crooked walk straight. God makes the sinner a good man, a good woman. God can change your son's story, even if he is on drugs, prostitution, no matter how crooked the way, God expects us to present our loved ones before the all-powerful God.
Say: Lord, you can do anything and none of your plans can be changed. Say: I knew You from hearing, but now my eyes see You. Close your eyes.
Heavenly Father our trust is in You. One time, Peter spoke to Jesus, when Jesus asked if they wanted to leave too and Peter answered: "To whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life".
Where shall we go, Lord? Forgive us Oh Lord, when we're charmed by the things of this world when we believe that something in this life can lead us to a path of life, but today we want to say, only You have the words of eternal life, for this, we present ourselves to You. I present your church.
Lead us, Lord, show us your will, set us right when we're wrong. We ask as David asked. David said, don't take your Holy Spirit from me.
Today we know that Your Spirit will never leave us, but we can make you sad, erase You. That is why we want to say, take our hearts, our lives, our thoughts, our desires, and may the grace of Jesus, wonderful, the love of the heavenly Father, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with all Your people for all the days, Lord, until the end. Amen.
God bless you, have a blessed week.
