We’re close to one another.  We know of the pains that many of us are going through emotionally.  God knows.  And those of us with chronic pain, and those of us that are battling cancers, and those of us that feel alone and feel rejected, and those that among us daily fighting depression and war in all of these different areas, and to watch us come together, and faith calling those things that are not as though they were.  Cast all of these thoughts down and lift our hands up and begin to worship Him.  Hallelujah!  For the Lord is good, and His mercies endure forever.  Hallelujah!

You see, praise is prayer.  There are many different types of prayer.  Worship, praise is prayer.  We know there’s intercessory prayer to where we stand on behalf of others.  God stood in amazement one day and said, “What is wrong here?  Not one person that will stand in the gap?  Not one guy that will become an intercessor, not one person willing to bear the burdens of others and find himself into my presence and pray fervently?”  Beloved, the prayer on the way to play time is not what gets results.  It’s effectual fervent prayer of righteous men that avails much.  How much biblical praying are we doing?

We know that prayer in its general understanding is to petition—is what the word means—to come and petition God.  What are we petitioning Him for?  That His will would be done on Earth as it is in heaven.  Amen?  And I want to remind us this morning just on the introduction to this subject, the Lord Himself speaking, and He tells us, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation” (Matthew 26:41).  Think that’s good advice?

Oh, God’s looking for those three hundred that will lap like a dog, that’ll stay on duty, that’ll be alert, as Gideon’s three hundred, and when everybody else was refreshing themselves, and their heads stuck in the pond, and they’re just getting refreshed, that was such a time of weariness, weak, they were thirsty—heads in the water, drinking as much as they could gulp down with every gulp.  And then there were three hundred who took the water into their hands and lapped like a dog and kept their eye on the horizon for the enemy. Who are we going to be in this hour?

Those of us like myself, hearts broken for our loved ones, our children that are wayward. They’re going to come home through your intercession.  They’ll show up at your doorstep when you’ll camp out at God’s doorstep.  Those miracles that we want in our bodies and in our families will come when John 15 becomes a reality, like it was in the days of Jacob, and we grab ahold of God and say, “I will not turn You lose until You’ve blessed me.  Until You’ve done Your will in my life.  I will not remain another day as the supplanter; I want to become a prince with God.”  And he changed his name from Jacob, the deceiver, the con man, to a prince with God, Israel.

Praying is work.  Praying is hard.  Praying brings no immediate gratification.  Praying occupies your mind to where you’re not even aware of a whole lot of what else goes around you.  Prayer without ceasing, praying in the Holy Ghost.  When you stop to pause for just a moment, you realize there’s this voice going on throughout your whole being, and it’s the Holy Ghost praying for us—praise God!—and through us.

But it’s pretty hard to hear that voice when all this other noise is going on.  And everybody’s gathered at the house, and everybody’s playing and having fun time and family time and playing.  What’s wrong with slipping off for twenty minutes into a room by yourself and asking God to come into your midst and change lives that night?  What would be wrong with coming together?—and we know food’s always involved, but we need more prayer than just blessing the food, praise God.  And someone prayed, and all of a sudden, we begin to hear someone speaking out a word of knowledge or a tongue and an interpretation where God is being exalted.  What kind of birthday party would that be?  Hallelujah!