Glorious Way Church
Glorious Way Church equips believers for the work of the ministry and stands for God’s truth in our culture. We serve as a regional center, where people from all backgrounds find refreshing worship and true communion of the saints.
Glorious Way Church
Holy Ghost Prayers
Engage with the profound impact of Ephesians' prayers on spiritual growth. We explore how the prayers in Ephesians 1 and 3 can enrich one's spiritual journey, promising listeners a path to understanding the love of Christ beyond mere intellect. Discover how incorporating these prayers, alongside the wisdom of Philippians 1, fosters excellence in actions and decisions, encouraging us to recognize our shared victory and authority through Christ. This segment offers not just insight but the promise of growth and empowerment through prayer.
I'm just going to go ahead and share the Word with you, and you know I was on the schedule tonight, but it's always you know just something that I don't take for granted to get to share the Word and be with y'all and church is fun. Being in the presence of God is fun. You know, it doesn't have to be just something that happens right here when we're inside these four walls. You can take this presence with you. Amen. Most of you know that, but there might be one or two. This is worth saying. You can get in your room at home or in your prayer closet at home and you can praise and worship the Lord and you can have the same presence. And I'm telling you, one moment with the Lord can change everything and I just encourage you that.
Speaker 1:You know my dad keeps stressing over and over the importance of being men and women of faith and prayer and giving yourself and leading your whole entire human personality back into your prayer life. And we're going to take it a step further tonight, amen. And so you don't have to stand back up, you can just grab your Bible. We'll make a confession from the seated position. If you will. Let's say this together Say Heavenly Father, I'm grateful for Sunday nights. I'm grateful for Glorious Way Church. I'm grateful for the Holy Spirit that's led me here tonight. My spiritual ears are open to hear directly from you the things that I need to hear in order to grow my faith. My faith doesn't just affect me, it affects everyone around me, it affects my future, it affects my kids and my grandkids and my great-grandkids. So I take it seriously and I thank you, lord, for your presence In Jesus' name, amen.
Speaker 1:Well, I just had a fun little history here. Several weeks ago my dad was kind of cleaning up for my mom to be back home after being in different facilities and she's back in another facility, but he was kind of cleaning out the bedroom there and she spent a few weeks back at home, you know. And she spent a few weeks back at home and so, long story short, he got kind of, you know, her Bibles and a couple of some of her notes and Selena stole them and took them home and just was going to put them in a safe place. And it was funny because she got out the box on what day was that this last week, I don't remember, friday I guess, and Thursday or Friday and we found her old notes and we started reading. I know you're not really supposed to do that, but but I brought her one of these notebooks Actually, selena did, we both did and she read from cover to cover her old notes. These notes are from 1987 and one of them is from 1989. But it blessed me to hear her reading it and she was re-preaching Brother Osteen's notes and one of them is from Brother TL Osborne. So a lot of people don't know who John Osteen is or TL Osborne. So I just thought I would just, you know, read like just here as we get started here tonight but John Osteen, sunday morning from April of 1989, freedom from Condemnation, and he compared needing middle C to tune a violin. So she wrote down the story.
Speaker 1:You know, basic redemptive truth is needed if we are to stay in tune with God. Otherwise we'll have lack of peace and discord and we'll never function fully in our ministry. Amen, that's true, isn't it? So that's why we strive around here to have redemptive truth in everything that we preach, everything that we teach and everything that we sing. There's so much doubt and unbelief coming out of specifically contemporary praise and worship music, and so it's challenging around here to find good songs to sing. That's why you'll hear us. You'll be like, hey, wait, that's not the words on the radio. But we've got to change them in order for it to have redemptive truth and to be in tune with the Spirit of the Lord and to not go back on what Jesus did, amen.
Speaker 1:And then I had some TL Osborne notes from 1987, from the word explosion, 187 from the word explosion. And he preached let's see six facts about your ministry. You know how many of you realize that you have a ministry. Every believer has a ministry. This is number four your power. It says practice the awareness you have in you to witness to unbelievers. Your attitude is power Practice the presence of Jesus in you and around you, because wherever you go, jesus goes, the kingdom of God goes. And she put I represent the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God is within me, and so I just thought that was precious and put your mark on people. Wherever you go, preach the word of God, for God confirms his word with signs and wonders, amen. And so I just.
Speaker 1:You know, all those years ago she was writing notes and I'm telling you that nothing's too hard for God. The situation that she faces is not hopeless and she is healed. And so you know we have new people walk in every day that don't realize that's our first lady, that's. You know that we spend a lot of time praying over her and believe in God with her. And so we know she's coming out and she's got good reports, amen. And so we believe the report of the Lord anyways, but she does have good doctor's reports, so that's also good, but we're believing the report of the Lord, amen.
Speaker 1:And so in her Bible though I just I was going through her Bible Don't tell her and in the front of it she had this note taped and it was Holy Ghost prayers. And I know that my dad's preached this message many, many times, but I just I took a picture of all those and then I began to go through it and I made it my own and I look back, I couldn't find anything recent. I'm sure he's preached it, I just couldn't find it where it was. So I had to go back to like 2018. I found some notes from 2018. But anyways, that's my title tonight Holy Ghost Prayers.
Speaker 1:And so you know, number one is to be Christ-minded. So let's look together in Romans, chapter 15. And I'm going to read all of verses, one through six. And so, and I don't know, does y'all's Bible that y'all are looking at, does it have like a title above verse one? Can anybody shout it out what your Bible says? Bearing others' burdens? Thank you, ms Teresa. Somebody else shouted, but that's when I heard bearing others' burdens In verse one.
Speaker 1:We then, who are strong? Everybody say that's me. You know why are you strong? Because it's a command in Ephesians 6, 10 to be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. So you're not strong in your might, you're strong in his might, amen. I think of Reuben over there. He's a Marine and I still wouldn't want to mess with him and I sure wouldn't want to mess with him back then. He has a Marine and I still wouldn't want to mess with him and I sure wouldn't want to mess with him back then. He has a picture on Facebook and he's in his uniform and everything, all of that, and he looks like a tough guy. But I'm telling you he's strong in the Lord, amen. And that's so much greater and better than being strong just in the natural right.
Speaker 1:So we ought to bear with the scruples of the weak and not to please ourselves that word scruples of the weak and not to please ourselves. That word scruples I looked it up in the Greek. It means several different things, but the one that I think hits is one of the last ones. It basically has having moral failures, where we're seeing that with weak people having moral failures left and right around here and we're to be strong and to bear them up and to restore them. The book of Jude is very strong about that. It goes into all kinds of nasty sexual perversion things that are really terrible, and it gets to the end and it says that we need to snatch them out of the fire. It says some, though, some people choose to go back to the fire and back to the fire and they can only be snatched out of the fire so many times.
Speaker 1:You know what I'm saying, but still, this is talking about people that are weak and we're strong and we're supposed to bend down, pick them up, and it says let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. So again, we need to be good at being good encouragers and knowing how to edify out of the Holy Ghost, having a supply. When you're strong, you're able to do that. Amen, and each one of us in this room need to be strong enough to help and know how to help and know how to step in when someone is struggling. It says back to verse one. It says not to please ourselves. So we're not doing this to post it on Facebook, you know, or post it on Instagram. Here I helped this person out. Look, I gave him a hundred dollars. Look at me, how great I am.
Speaker 1:No, it's not anything about that Verse three, for even Christ did not please himself. But as it is written, the reproaches of those who reproached you fell on me, for whatever things were written before were written for our learning that we, through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures, might have hope. I'm telling you, you don't have to leave it at hope. You can move hope to faith. What does Hebrews 11.1 say? Faith is a substance of things hoped for. So it starts with hope, but it doesn't have to end with hope. You can go from hope to faith and I'm telling you, we do that through patience and comfort. And finally we get to the prayer, verse 5. Finally, jay, you could have started with verse 5. But no, I wanted to preach the context here Now.
Speaker 1:May the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus. So, in other words, how are we to be like-minded? No-transcript. We're not supposed to be wrong-minded with each other. We don't find unity in the wrong. We don't find unity in fear. We don't find unity in sin. We find unity according to who we are in Christ. It's an in-Christ scripture. Therefore, it's an in-Christ prayer, and you can pray this over yourself, you can pray this over your spouse, you can pray this over your children. But that we become like-minded, we pray this over our church, that we come in the spirit of unity, because love plus unity equals miracles. That's not just a fancy slogan that pastor came up with. No, that's something that the Holy Spirit gave him, that we choose to live by right. And so, because we have love and unity I mean, yeah, love and unity, then we can see miracles, but we have patience and comfort one towards another. Amen. And so you know, I like to think of it this way you didn't choose your family, right? I was. I was born into my family and you were born into your family, and so we didn't have a choice. And so sometimes we don't get a choice.
Speaker 1:Who God brings through those doors, the church, the doors of the church are open and all kinds of different people from all different kinds of races and backgrounds, and maybe they don't look like you, maybe they don't smell like you, maybe they don't, maybe they don't pray like you, Maybe you know, but we have patience and comfort and it's our job to have fresh water for those that are thirsty, that are hungry and thirsty for more of the Lord, and we're to preach deliverance, we're snatching them out of the fire. Amen and so. But some people they really do. They want to stay the way they are, they don't want to change, and for those people they just they bounce right out, right. You see them come in, maybe they come to a service, maybe they come to two services, but eventually they're going to bounce out, right, because they're not looking for a pastor and they're not looking for a pasture either, they're not looking to feed, and so they're here, maybe to do their own thing, maybe they're. You know, I'm just.
Speaker 1:I look around the church and we have so many people doing different things. They have different businesses, they have different side hustles they have. We have the heads of two conservative political action groups that James mentioned this morning, and here they are serving the Lord together, they're tithing and they're serving their members of this church, and they both lead really good organizations that really do help our community. But you're not going to find them out in the lobby saying you know, hey, why don't you come out to my meeting next Tuesday night? And even though that could be a good thing if you showed up and helped them or maybe somebody gets a testimony, somebody just got a raise or a bonus or whatever you're not going to find them over. Hey, you know, my organization could use a thousand dollars.
Speaker 1:How do you feel about that? You're never going to find them. Why? Because their motives are pure. They're here for the right reasons, they're here to serve the Lord and and I've just you can tell when somebody's not here for the right reasons and then when you can tell when their motives are all messed up. And and I'm telling you, we pray every day that we're like-minded one towards another, the way Christ thinks to be. Christ minded right To be, you know, you know to be just like Jesus, right and so. But we do that through patience and comfort and not through the flesh. We're never going to get anywhere in our flesh, amen.
Speaker 1:And so let's move on to number two is Ephesians 1 prayer. We've all heard it, we can all quote it, but to be flooded with light, it says in verse 15, therefore, I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and the love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers. Isn't it nice that the Ephesians church knew that they had Paul praying for them constantly, never ceasing to give thanks for them. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give. Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, in the knowledge of him, that the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the hope of your calling, what is the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints or in you? You know, god has an inheritance in you. When he looks at you, he sees his inheritance, he sees his fruit, amen. And so we're to be bearing his fruit. And so, before I finish reading the rest of it, you know I think it was Kenneth Hagen, but obviously Mark Hankins and other Word of Faith.
Speaker 1:People preach this all the time. If you'll just say the Ephesians 1 prayer and the Ephesians 3 prayer every day for, you know, six months. It will change your life and honestly, I've not done that but I do get to like twice a week, three times a week, you know, but it does change your life. Right To be able to put yourself in these verses. Or, obviously, we pray it over other people. Right, I'll pray it over my son or over my daughter, over my family.
Speaker 1:Verse let's see 19,. And what is the exceeding greatness of God's power towards us who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places, far above all principality and power and might and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him to be head over all things, to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him. I'm telling you we are full, amen, amen, we're full of Him. Hallelujah, jumping into the Ephesians 3 prayer to know and understand the love of Christ, verse 14,.
Speaker 1:Understand the love of Christ, verse 14,. For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord, jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant unto David Taylor over there, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts, through faith that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend. How are we able to comprehend? By being rooted and grounded in love? But we're able to comprehend. We're able to understand.
Speaker 1:I don't know God's love, I just don't understand why he did what he did. No, we're able to comprehend it through our spirit. What all the saints? What is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge? It gets past your brain, right, you're not going to understand the love of God with your brain. You're not going to understand why Jesus did what he did.
Speaker 1:You know why he sweated great drops of blood in the garden, why he chose to go to the cross. He did it so that we would have a relationship with God. He had a relationship with his dad and he wanted us to have the same authority that he has. He wanted to share that authority with us. And so then he went down to hell and he stole the keys of death, hell and the grave, and he came up victorious in everything in all. And so we have that same victory. We have that same resurrection power, don't we?
Speaker 1:And so we can know the love of Christ which passes head knowledge and brain knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. That's just like in verse 22, he fills all in all. Right Of Ephesians 1, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him, who is able to do exceedingly abundantly, above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us. Where's that power? It's in us, it's working in us, and he's able to do exceedingly abundantly, above anything that we could dare ask or think, and it's all coming from the power that's within us. Amen. That's overwhelming to your brain, but not to your spirit. Your spirit can understand it and walk in it, amen, especially the more you pray this. So verse 21 to him. Be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. There's generations after you that need to know the revelation that you have. That's what you're praying over, amen. They need to know and comprehend the love of Christ, right. And so there's glory in the church Amen. And there's revelation, knowledge in the church that our eyes of our understanding are being enlightened to the spirit of wisdom and revelation. That that's where it all starts, with the spirit of wisdom and revelation. Where would we be without the spirit of wisdom and revelation? What would we know? We wouldn't know anything, would we? And so let's keep on going.
Speaker 1:Number four that love abounds and overflows the Philippians 1 prayer. Oh, that's number three. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. That we're Christ-minded, romans 15. That we're flooded with light, ephesians 1. Number three is Ephesians 3, to no one understanding the love of Christ. I probably skipped that, brother Joseph. I'll just share my notes with you if you want.
Speaker 1:And then number four that love abounds and overflows the Philippians 1 prayer starts in verse 9. And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in knowledge and all discernment. You know, my dad preached about a little bit about that this morning, about discernment and being able to recognize good and evil and good decisions over bad decisions, right. But you know that word abound in the Greek it simply means to make abundant, but it also means to make excellent. I think that changes the whole meaning of this. When you think about excellence, you know we learned growing up at Lakewood to have a spirit of excellence, and so that means that we do everything that we do with a spirit of excellence. We know that God demands he doesn't demand perfection, but we want to do our work with perfection. We want all of our efforts to be blessed by him, because we're representing him in everything that we say and everything that we do. So we want it to be good, right, and so that goodness comes from him.
Speaker 1:But this prayer says that your love may abound, but it's excellent love. You're excelling in excellent love, and so that kind of goes with the scripture that perfect love casts out fear. Why is it perfect? Because it's God's love, and God's love. There's nothing that needs to be added or subtracted from it. It's already been made perfect. So stop trying to do it with man's love or your own lustful love in your heart, but grab a hold of the agape love, and that's the love that's abounding still more and more in all knowledge and discernment. It's out of that love, amen.
Speaker 1:And so in verse 10, it goes on that you may approve the things that are excellent. So, in other words, that excellent love allows you to prove what things are excellent. So, so, so again, the perfect, the love is perfect. Therefore, you can walk, uh, and be able to recognize things in your life that are the perfect will of God right, and the perfect decisions that you make. It's all connected to God's love, can't you see that that's so neat, that you may be sincere and without offense till the day of Christ. And I'm telling you, there's so much fake out there. God wants us to be sincere. We're sincere when we grab a hold of the revelation of God's love, of God's agape, perfect love, and we're excelling in it more and more, we're growing in it. Every day, we're becoming more abundant in it, and so until it's overflowing, right.
Speaker 1:That's another scripture, 1 Corinthians 13, that talks about the God kind of love. It's another great scripture to meditate on Amen being filled verse 11, being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. So we're being filled, you know, by God's love, and it's growing fruits of righteousness, righteousness, right. And so we can't grow in righteousness, but we can grow in our revelation of righteousness, and so the more we grow in our revelation of righteousness, the stronger our witness can be Amen. And so we're moving on to number five is the Colossians 1 prayer to know God's will. How many of you ever prayed to know God's will?
Speaker 1:This is a good prayer, right here in Colossians 1.9. It says for this reason this is Paul writing we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding. So this is really familiar. This is a little bit of a mixture between the Ephesians 3 and Ephesians 1 prayer, but it's different. So obviously my dad has preached entire messages over this prayer right here and spent like an entire you know, four-part Sunday message on this prayer.
Speaker 1:But that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will and all wisdom and spiritual understanding and that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him. You know, if you have an issue or a problem, tripping and falling and stumbling and picking yourself back up and asking for forgiveness, you should do that quick. You know, keep quick accounts with God. But I'm telling you, all that is is a lack of spiritual maturity and a lack of you have a deficiency in your prayer life. That really is all that it is, and it really is that simple. And so how do you fix that? By praying more, by prioritizing your prayer closet, by making it a priority in your schedule to be first in your day, amen and so and to pray prayers like this over yourself.
Speaker 1:These are Holy Ghost prayers, because it's the Holy Spirit on the inside of you that's resisting, that's helping you resist temptation, that's leading you out of temptation. God didn't bring the temptation right, and so God has a way of escape out of that temptation and so that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, amen. So we're praying this Holy Ghost prayer, we're increasing in the knowledge of God. How are we doing that? But really, by the Ephesians 1 prayer, that the eyes of our understanding are enlightened, that we may know the hope of our calling right, of his calling in us and through us.
Speaker 1:Verse 11, strengthened with all might. With all might, not just some. We don't have just access to some of his power or some of his might. But it's all of it right, you've been given access, full access, to all of it according to his glorious power, for all patience and long suffering with joy. So we have joy, amen. We don't have to walk around with depressed looks on our face, all in the mully grubs. No, we have patience and long suffering, but we're surrounded with joy, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance.
Speaker 1:I just read that and the Holy Spirit, just I keep snapping my fingers because it's like instant up here. There's somebody in this room that the devil's been trying to tell you that you're not qualified, but you are qualified. You are qualified. The blood of Jesus has already qualified you and you've already been made righteous. And all you have to do is give thanks right, give thanks.
Speaker 1:Verse 12, I'm just reading it right out of the Word to give thanks to the Father who has already qualified you. So there's nothing that you've done that has disqualified you. There's nothing. There's no sin that is too great for the blood of Jesus. All you have to do is ask for forgiveness and turn around. Repent means to turn, and turn around Repent means to turn. So just turn 180 degrees and go away from that sin, and the Lord has qualified you and you can be a partaker of his inheritance of the saints in the light. And it goes on here to talk about darkness, because you're walking in the light as he is in the light right 1 John. But let's see, we're still here in Colossians 1.13. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sin. So we have the forgiveness of sin. There's nothing that you've done that's disqualified you. Amen that God himself has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us and taken us out of darkness into marvelous light, into the kingdom of his son and of his love. I think that's so awesome that we've been multiplied and the momentum has shifted and the momentum is really pushing us in the right, you know, in the right direction.
Speaker 1:You know I just had this come up. Several weeks ago I was riding my motorcycle motorcycle, which I love to do and I was out. Let's see, I was I think I was by snook texas, over on the other side of college station out west, and there's nothing out there but really pretty cotton fields and cotton gins and you feel like you're in a time machine. You go through some of these little tiny towns it's not even really a town and there's old cars. It just looks like you know the 50s, all of a sudden, like it could be a picture on Texas Monthly or something.
Speaker 1:But I was going down this road and I don't know 70, 75, I wasn't flying or anything, but there was a railroad crossing and I decided I wasn't going to slow down and it looked flat to me. But it wasn't flat and it was too late and by the time I hit it, boom, I'm airborne and it just took all the wind out of my you know. Oh, my goodness, but what did I do? I landed and everything was fine and everything was straight and nothing happened. Why? Because I had all the momentum and all the centrifugal force of those big wheels turning at 70 miles an hour and nothing was going to cause me to go a different direction. I was already aimed straight, so there wasn't anything unsafe that was going to happen, just came straight down like nothing happened.
Speaker 1:And so that's our faith Amen. We're going in, and we have so much momentum that God is carrying us in the right direction that there's nothing. There's nothing that's going to get you off. There's no bump that can, that can cause you to or harm you to, to cause you to wreck or to cause. You know the devil may try his best, but you have all the momentum behind you when you're doing the right thing and you're, and you're growing. You know the devil may try his best, but you have all the momentum behind you when you're doing the right thing and you're growing, you're abounding more and more and more in God's love and you're moving faster and faster and faster in the right direction, in his love and in his mercy and in his light. We're people of light and I'm telling you there's no darkness that can hold on to us, amen. And so take a hold of that momentum. This is the year of light and I'm telling you there's no darkness that can hold on to us, amen. And so take a hold of that momentum. This is the year of momentum.
Speaker 1:And so my dad preached two weeks well, it's three weeks ago, I guess. Now all about momentum. Wait, that was when he came back from Galveston. That was the week before last, last Sunday, right, all about momentum. He got kind of scientific with it, and so so there you go, there's some more science. You know you have centrifugal force, the force of the wheels turning, that that don't allow you to wreck. You know you're going straight in a straight line. Amen, hallelujah. So that was the Colossians One prayer. We'll move on to number six. So that was the Colossians One prayer. We'll move on to number six, effective communication with the Philemon One prayer.
Speaker 1:Philemon is just one chapter and it starts in verse four. It says I thank my God making mention of you always in my prayers. Paul has a lot of praying to do. If he's always mentioning people, right, that means he's praying all the time. Hearing of your love and faith which you have towards the Lord Jesus and towards all the saints. That the sharing of your faith may become effective by the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus. That's another in Christ scripture. Right here, that's another in Christ prayer. For we have great joy and consolation in your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed by you, brother. And so here is Paul building up Philemon.
Speaker 1:And but that the sharing of your faith may become effective. How? By the acknowledgement of every good thing which is in you, is by Christ Jesus or in Christ Jesus and so we're in Christ. And so when you come to the acknowledgement of that, everything, everything that's good that's in you, is because you're in Christ. It's because of Christ. It's not because of you, it's not because you deserved it, it's not because you did anything to earn it, but God has given it and you're walking in it and you're in Christ and you acknowledge that. All you have to do is acknowledge that. Thank you, lord, that every good thing that's inside of me came from you. And I'm telling you some of you struggle in your witness of how to witness to people, and that's really all you have to do to be an effective witness and to an effective communicator in your witness, in other words, when you're sharing your faith. How are you going to have that become more effective? All you really have to do is acknowledge that every good thing which is in you is in Christ Jesus. In other words, that every good thing which is in you is in Christ Jesus. In other words, when you're acknowledging that it's him and not you. Every time you use that opportunity to acknowledge him instead of you, you're becoming a better, effective communicator of your faith. Amen, every time you know when somebody comes up to you at work and they congratulate you. Man, you sure did a good job on this project. Well, I'm telling you, it was all the Lord. I just I went home, I prayed about it. You know there's so many different ways that you can turn it from you to the Lord and give the Lord credit, and every time you do that, the sharing of your faith becomes more and more effective. Amen. And so that's a good prayer to pray over your pastor. It's a good prayer to pray when you're praying, because we need effective communication, we need the sharing of our faith to matter and to hit. You don't want to be a dud, but we do that by acknowledging that everything that we have is because of Him, because we're in Christ. Amen, all right.
Speaker 1:And then, just moving on to the last one is in third John. This is number seven to prosper and to be in health. Third John, verse two, third John, is also just one chapter long, and John says beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things, not in just some things, but in all things, and be in health, just or as your soul prospers. Amen. In verse 3, for I rejoiced greatly when brethren came and testified of the truth that is in you, just as you walk in the truth. I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth, and so that's a good prayer to pray, right. I pray, above all, that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. What is your soul? Your soul is your mind, your will, your intellect, your emotions, and so we're praying that, basically, you're praying over somebody, somebody's spirit, soul and body, because you're including the health of their body, you're including the health of their soul and their spirit because they're prospering in all things. Amen. And so that's just a good prayer to pray that the spirit, soul and body, that we are a spirit, we have a mind and we live in a body, right, but our spirit is the one that's excelling. The prosperity where we're prospering in all things, that starts in our spirit, amen. And so, like my dad preached this morning, you know these are Holy Ghost prayers, but we should develop a taste for it. You know, I was just reminding you.
Speaker 1:He was talking about in, about in the negative, and he about tasting beer, like growing up, and he left this part out. I was just, you know, um, when he really became a beer drinker. It was. It was, uh, riding around in the back seat of his best friend's convertible or whatever, and they would go get some beer. And he learned really quick that he couldn't just sip it. If he just sipped it he would get car sick and feel terrible. So he had to start chugging it and so and that's really what did him in as far as being a beer drinker and he developed a taste for it so much that he made his own, like he said, and I remember those days I was real little, but I do remember the whole process and all of the jugs and the whole, like taking up half the garage with all that junk and the smell a little bit, and I was so grateful that that didn't last long because he got saved, you know, just a few months later. That was when he was really desperate. And but you know, instead of developing a taste for alcohol which I never have, thank you, holy Spirit but develop a taste for a deeper walk with him, develop your prayer life, develop reading these Holy Ghost prayers.
Speaker 1:If you're new at this, there's so many different avenues. Like my dad said this morning, the King're new at this. There's so many different avenues. You know, like my dad said this morning, you know the King James Version Bible is. I've had several. You know, preachers ask me pastors, you know, hey, what version of the Bible does your dad teach out of? Well, the King James, of course. Well, you must have really mature believers at your church and I think, like Rhema, has moved to NLT and a few other translations and here we are with the King James. But I'm proud of that. I think it's great.
Speaker 1:But as your daily reader, you might not. I mean, I use the New King James. I've preached out of that before, of what Bibles that we do use. But you know, get you an NLT. You know, if you're, if you're just starting out. I know I gave one of my Bibles to to a young lady that started coming to the church. It was an, it was the, a passion translation, and that didn't last very long. She went out and got her another Bible, but just that gave her a good start and she could understand what the book of John was all about.
Speaker 1:Right, and don't start in somewhere hard. Start with the book of John. Don't read Leviticus first, but read the book of John. Read the epistles, you know Ephesians, colossians, philippians and so on and so forth. Galatians I'm backwards there for a second, but anyways and the main thing is to read right and to develop good habits of reading your word and, like my dad said this morning, making it the first place you look is the word the first. The first thing you do is you pray about it. You know, maybe your habit is now that you call your best friend or you call your sister or your brother or whatever. Pray about it first. That should be your first place you go to in your prayer life. It should be your prayer life and being led by the Holy Spirit and that is going to be multiplied quicker when you take a hold of these Holy Ghost prayers and you pray them every day. Amen. So I hope this gave you a foundation that you need to mature you in the direction, to give you some momentum moving you in the right direction, amen.