Participants: Karen Thomas (Host), Joseph Ikner
Series Code: IAADD
Program Code: IAADD000033A
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00:27 Welcome to Issues and Answer.
00:29 Today we are going to be 00:30 talking about the power of prayer. 00:33 How many of you wondered how to get that prayer through? 00:36 You know, you're thinking that 00:37 maybe I need to get with this woman, 00:39 you know, she's a really good prayer 00:40 or maybe this pastor, this minister 00:43 but how can we actually engage the power of prayer. 00:46 Today our guest is Pastor Joseph Ikner. 00:51 He is the prayer coordinator 00:52 for the Central States Conference 00:54 of Seventh-day Adventist. 00:55 He is based in St. Louis, Missouri, 00:57 a place where prayers get through. 01:00 He is the pastor 01:01 of the Berean Seventh-day Adventist Church. 01:04 And we are so happy to have him here. 01:06 He is also a graduate of Andrews University. 01:09 Under graduate as well as his Master's degree 01:11 from Andrews University. 01:13 Welcome to Issues and Answers, Pastor. 01:16 Thank you, Karen Thank you so much for coming. 01:17 Yeah, so glad to be here. 01:19 So why is prayer important today? 01:24 You know, I think that everyone is looking for way 01:27 to be able to connect with God. 01:28 And a lot of times we feel like 01:31 we can't really have that real connection with God. 01:34 And sometimes people feel like God is not concerned about 01:38 what's going on with their life and so forth. 01:41 But one of the things that I have found 01:43 from my own personal experience is that 01:45 God is concerned about 01:47 everything that is happening in our lives. 01:50 God is a God of relationships, 01:52 He really wants to be able to connect with us 01:55 in a real and personal way, 01:57 and when I was thinking about that, 02:00 this quote came to mind from one author, 02:03 who writes this in the book, Steps to Christ, page 93. 02:08 And the author says that 02:09 "Prayer is the opening of the heart to God 02:12 as to a friend, 02:14 not that is necessary an order, 02:16 to make known to God, what we are, 02:20 but in order to enable us to receive him. 02:23 Prayer does not bring God down to us 02:26 but brings us up to Him." 02:28 I have to ask you a question, 02:30 because you are from St. Louis, Missouri, 02:32 which Ferguson, Missouri is a suburb. 02:35 There is a lot of issues going on 02:37 that have happened in the past there. 02:42 Where is God in the midst of all of that? 02:44 Yeah. 02:46 You know, I think that's a good question, 02:48 because you know the whole situation 02:50 between Darren Wilson and Michael Brown. 02:53 There was a lot of uproar over that particular situation 02:57 and of course, with this tragedy, 02:59 people really need hope 03:02 and I think that sometimes we say, 03:04 Well, God, why didn't you stop this? 03:06 Why didn't you prevent this thing from happening? 03:09 I mean, Michael Brown was so young, 03:11 God, where were you, you know, in that moment? 03:14 And sometimes we don't realize 03:16 that God allows things to happen for a reason. 03:20 God brings good even out of tragedy. 03:24 God brings blessings even out of bad situations. 03:28 And I think that sometimes 03:29 when people go through a particular tragedy, 03:32 or they see something happen like 03:34 which has happened in our city, 03:37 it causes and brings us to a deeper places 03:39 to say you know what, we really need God. 03:42 I mean, for us it has cost us 03:46 as the pastors and the churches 03:48 in that area to say you know what? 03:50 We recognize that we're living closer to the end of time. 03:53 We need to be more united 03:55 and we also need to seek God in prayer. 03:58 So one of the initiatives 03:59 that we had toward the end of the year 04:01 in Central States Conference was 21 days of prayer, 04:05 where we were, for Ferguson, 04:07 where we were seeking the Lord to do something 04:10 mighty in this area. 04:12 And we just believe that 04:13 God is going to create the opportunity for us 04:16 to be able to reach Ferguson, 04:17 to be able to touch people's lives, 04:20 to be able to interact with people in a way that 04:22 we didn't have the opportunity to do before. 04:24 Because some of our members have gone to that community, 04:27 there have been some prayer visuals 04:28 that have been held there, 04:30 they had some demonstrations that have been peaceful, 04:32 there have been some doors that have been knocked on, 04:34 there have been some conversation 04:35 that have been had, 04:37 that otherwise would not have been had 04:40 if it wasn't that for that situation. 04:41 And of course, we are not saying 04:43 we want these things to happen. 04:45 But the Bible says in Romans 8:28 04:47 that "All things work together for good 04:50 to those that love God 04:52 and are called according to His purpose." 04:54 So we begin to look for God, 04:56 what are you doing in this situation? 04:59 Instead of just saying God where are you? 05:01 As though God is not there, 05:03 and God does not exist but instead, 05:05 what is it that you want to do through this. 05:07 Right, so tell me more about that, Pastor. 05:10 Let me illustrate about saying this. 05:13 I think that sometimes 05:14 we treat God like He is Santa Claus, 05:17 that we only expect God to do good things for us 05:20 and give us great gifts, 05:22 instead of looking for God 05:24 in both good and bad situations. 05:27 So seven years ago my wife and I, 05:29 we lost a child, we lost our daughter. 05:33 I'm sorry. Thank you. 05:35 And my wife had to go into surgery 05:38 because she had a rare condition 05:40 called placenta percreta. 05:42 And so we were trying to figure out 05:44 what was going on with my wife, Nordia. 05:48 They transferred her to hospitals and so forth, 05:51 and so before they took my wife in a surgery, 05:53 I asked that they would bring in all the doctors, 05:56 all the anesthesiologists, all the nurses. 05:58 They said we think 06:00 we've got this situation under control, 06:02 you know. 06:03 And so we came in and I asked, could I pray with all of them 06:06 that God's will would be done. 06:08 And so we prayed and I asked God, you know, 06:11 when my wife is going in a surgery, 06:13 we know that they've got to take out our child 06:15 as well that's gonna be born premature 23 weeks. 06:18 And there is a possibility that some life could be lost 06:23 and so I'm saying to God, Lord, let your will be done. 06:26 But I want you to save my wife's life out of this. 06:30 So she goes in the surgery 06:33 and when they open up her abdominal cavity 06:35 they find two liters of blood sitting there. 06:38 And so they have to give her 06:39 a major blood transfusion of almost all the blood 06:42 that she had in her body. 06:44 And so they're suctioning out all the blood, 06:47 her organs are just standing in there, 06:48 they are pushing them down 06:50 and so when they close her up and they bring her out, 06:53 she is doing well, our daughter is doing well. 06:56 And I remember the doctor distinctly coming in 07:00 and sitting on the edge of the bed 07:01 and saying, "You know, Nordia, 07:03 the only reason why you are here 07:05 is because God intervened in this situation 07:09 and someone was praying about this." 07:12 So you know, we sit here 07:13 and we will share this testimony 07:15 and say, wow, 07:16 that's the power of the prayer, right. 07:18 But then our daughter is born premature, 07:24 she is born premature, 07:26 she is in a NIC unit and she is battling for life, 07:30 things are looking good. 07:32 But on her seventh day of life, 07:34 she takes her turn for the worst. 07:35 They take her in a surgery, they are not able save her, 07:39 she is bleeding out and she ends up dying. 07:43 And now would you ask... 07:45 you ask yourself, "Well, where is God in this?" 07:49 Well, I say that God is the same God 07:52 that was in the place who saved my wife seven days earlier. 07:56 So sometimes we don't understand exactly 07:59 why God allows things to happen. 08:01 I can't say even as a man of prayer, 08:04 the prayer coordinator, all the reasons 08:07 why God has allowed us to lose our child. 08:12 But I tell you this, as the years have gone on, 08:15 I've been able to see the evidence 08:17 of what God wants to do through that, 08:19 because I think that there is truth in the fact 08:21 that God will take misery and turn it into a ministry. 08:25 God will take tragedy 08:26 and He will turn it into a testimony. 08:29 And so we have learnt to have the capacity 08:32 to be able to minister to people 08:34 who have experience loss of all types, 08:37 but also including children in a way 08:39 that we would not have been able to do, 08:42 if we hadn't have had that experience. 08:44 So God takes that and when the word says that, 08:47 "All things really work together for good," they do. 08:50 "It works together for His purpose, for His glory" 08:53 and even to improve us and to draw us closer to Him, 08:56 to cause us to trust Him more, to have faith in Him. 09:00 And so things won't always turn out the way 09:02 that we want them to. 09:03 So instead of again asking the question, God, 09:06 where is God in the midst of all of this, 09:09 we should be asking, okay, God, 09:11 what are you doing in the midst of this? 09:13 What do you want me to learn in this? 09:15 What is it that you want me to see? 09:18 How am I gonna be better for this? 09:20 And that's the way that we should pray 09:23 because the quote that I read earlier 09:24 Steps to Christ, page.93, 09:26 "Opening our heart to God as to a friend, 09:30 God is not against us, 09:31 he is not just a God who sits way up here 09:34 in the sky someplace, but He is King of kings, 09:36 He is the Lord of lords 09:37 but He is also a God that's so personal and real, 09:39 that's interested in what's going on in our very lives 09:42 that He wants to be a friend to us individually, 09:44 as though there was no one else in the universe, 09:47 but just us. 09:48 Amen. 09:50 You know, some people are moving away from God, 09:52 because they say, you know, 09:53 especially a lot of the young people 09:55 that are coming up, they are wondering 09:58 why is it that bad things are happening in this world. 10:01 If there is God, 10:02 why are bad things happening in this world. 10:04 Could you answer that question? 10:06 Well, I think that the reason why bad things are happening 10:09 is because there is a great controversy 10:11 that the Bible speaks of. 10:13 I mean, we believe that the Bible says 10:15 in Revelation 12:7-9 that there was war in heaven. 10:19 Satan warred against Christ 10:21 and eventually Satan lost that war 10:23 and then he came down here to earth. 10:25 We know the simple story of Adam and Eve, 10:28 them being tested in the Garden of Eden, 10:30 Satan showing up and then a fall into sin, 10:33 a fall from perfection, 10:35 then a fall into sin and along with sin 10:39 and our own moral choice to choose outside of God, 10:42 comes the antithesis of good which is evil and so... 10:47 Antithesis means opposite? 10:49 The opposite, yeah the opposite. 10:51 The opposite of good comes evil 10:54 and so the wars 10:57 that we see is because of evil and sin. 11:02 The strife, 11:05 children being disobedient to parents, 11:08 parents abusing their children, police brutality, the... 11:13 Gang violence. 11:14 Gang violence, 11:16 the community's response to the police, 11:19 ISIS, terrorism, 11:21 all of these things that we see are the result of sin, 11:25 which, when you really boil down to it, 11:27 is mankind making choices outside of God 11:31 and choosing to do their own thing, 11:32 and of course, 11:34 it's all perpetuated or ushered in more by Satan himself. 11:37 So there is a real entity on this earth 11:40 that's causing havoc and there is, 11:43 where you say there's a battle between good God and Satan, 11:47 and so where does prayer come into all of this? 11:52 Prayer is so essential 11:55 because we need help greater than ourselves. 11:59 Because when we look at all the things 12:02 that are happening in our world, 12:04 the judgment calls 12:05 that are being made by individuals everyday 12:08 just like, we just said things that, 12:10 well, before I mentioned the things 12:11 that we just named all, 12:13 the terrorism, ISIS, people being beheaded, 12:17 people being killed, you know, 12:19 all of the things that are happening around us 12:22 are the result of man just making his own decisions. 12:26 Selfishness is what we're saying, 12:28 a lack of care and concern for others, 12:32 a lack of the value for humanity and life. 12:36 We don't see those things in our world today. 12:39 So that means that we need something greater 12:42 than what we have and that greater thing is God, 12:46 and the way that we communicate to God about these things 12:51 is by talking to Him and that's prayer. 12:54 And that's really what prayer is. 12:55 Prayer is having a conversation with God 13:00 about what's going on in my life 13:03 and recognizing that I have a need 13:06 for something greater than myself. 13:09 So is there a particular way to pray, 13:11 I mean, are there certain words 13:13 that a person needs to use so that, 13:15 you know, some people just talk about, you know, 13:17 talking within the spirit realm, 13:19 you know what's the way to pray? 13:22 You know, I think that 13:24 Jesus leaves us a very good model 13:26 in the Book of Luke Chapter 11. 13:28 So if we can now take an opportunity to look at that, 13:33 Luke... Chapter 11. 13:35 Yeah, Luke Chapter 11. 13:37 New Testament. New Testament. 13:39 Matthew, Mark, Luke. 13:41 Yeah, Matthew, Mark, Luke. Okay. 13:42 Third book of the New Testament. 13:45 And we want to read through that a little bit. 13:50 So I want to ask you to read verses 1 through 4 for us. 13:54 Okay. 13:55 "And it came to pass, 13:57 that, as he was praying in a certain place, 14:00 when he ceased, 14:02 one of his disciples said unto him, 14:04 Lord, teach us to pray, 14:06 as John also taught his disciples. 14:09 And he said unto them, when ye pray, say, 14:12 Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. 14:17 Thy kingdom come. 14:18 Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth. 14:22 Give us day by day our daily bread. 14:25 And forgive us our sins; 14:27 for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us. 14:30 And lead us not into temptation, 14:32 but deliver us from evil." 14:34 So I think by looking at this. 14:37 The Lord's Prayer. 14:38 Yeah, the Lord's Prayer, the Lord's Prayer. 14:40 What is so interesting there is that the Bible says 14:45 that Jesus was praying in a certain place. 14:48 And wherever that place was, 14:50 it wasn't important enough to Luke to mention that. 14:52 But what was important to mention is that 14:54 the disciples noticed something in verse 1 14:58 about how Jesus prayed 15:00 and maybe it was the quantity and the quality of his prayer 15:05 that caused the disciples to say, "Man! 15:08 We really don't know how to pray." 15:10 So they say, "Lord, teach us how to pray." 15:14 And then Jesus gives us this model prayer. 15:17 So when we look at this model, then we learn certain things 15:21 that teach us about things we should pray about. 15:24 So when we come 15:25 and when we look at verse 2, he says, 15:27 "When you pray say, Father hallowed be thy name, 15:32 " which is holy be thy name, 15:35 which, to me says that when I start my prayer 15:38 and I am coming to God, 15:40 I should just start with some praise 15:42 and some worship to God. 15:44 I mean, I shouldn't come to God 15:45 just saying, okay, Lord, here I am, 15:47 this is what I need, 15:49 I got this whole laundry list of stuff 15:52 I need you to do for me, you know, 15:54 take care of my family, take care of my friends, 15:57 I need a job, provide all of that, 16:00 and I'll see you later God. 16:01 Because God is more than our Genie, okay. 16:06 So we spend time in saying to God, 16:08 Lord, I just want to thank You 16:10 for the things that You have done. 16:12 I thank You for waking me up this morning. 16:14 I thank You for the food that You have provided for me. 16:17 I thank You for taking care of my family. 16:20 I thank You for the reasonable portion of health that I have, 16:23 and then that's praise 16:25 which is thanking God 16:28 for the things that He has done. 16:29 But worship is praising God for who He is. 16:33 So God, I just want to thank You 16:35 for being Creator all by yourself. 16:38 God, I just thank You for being an immortal God, 16:42 a God that has to live forever. 16:43 God, I want to thank You for being omnipresent, 16:45 being everywhere. 16:47 I want to thank You for being a God that's omniscient, 16:49 that is all knowing. 16:51 God, I just thank You for who you are. 16:53 I thank You for being loving. 16:54 I thank You for being kind. 16:56 I thank You for being faithful. 16:57 I thank You for being a God of peace... 16:58 Amen. 17:00 For all of those things, I just thank You for that. 17:01 And I tell you, 17:03 if we start our days like that... 17:05 Praising God. Yeah, praising God, 17:06 instead of just asking for things, 17:08 it changes our own relationship with God 17:11 because we recognize 17:13 just through the time of praise 17:14 and through the time of worship, 17:16 man, God has really been at work in my life. 17:18 God has really been doing some things already. 17:21 God is great. 17:22 God is holy. 17:24 And then it takes me now to a different place 17:27 because now I am saying. 17:28 Man! I got the God of the universe on my side. 17:32 Oh! I like that. 17:33 So when I walk... 17:35 I got the God of the universe on my side. 17:36 I got the God of universe... 17:38 Prayer does that? Yeah, prayer does that. 17:39 So when I walk into my job, 17:45 I got the God of universe who has my back. 17:49 When I've got to deal 17:50 with a difficult situation with someone 17:54 or we got a situation going on in our family, 17:56 I got the God of the universe, who's got my back. 18:00 When I am dealing with health challenges 18:02 or how I'm going to be able to make it financially, 18:04 I've got the God of universe who's got my back, 18:08 who's in control of the situation 18:10 because I couldn't understand that God has it all. 18:12 He owns it all and He wants to share with me. 18:15 So then after I praise and I worship God, 18:20 then the text says, 18:24 "Your kingdom come, your will be done, 18:30 " which is the prayer that His will is done, not ours. 18:35 I still haven't asked God for anything. 18:38 But I come to understand through prayer, 18:42 that the reason that I am there, 18:44 the reason why I've come is because I recognize 18:47 that I have a need 18:49 and I can't fulfill this need in and of myself. 18:51 The power as many says, 18:53 as people say that the power lies inside of me 18:56 and I can work it out. 18:58 You just got to tap into you inner self. 18:59 No, no, no, it's not in me. 19:01 It's in God and I need external help from Him. 19:04 So I pray and I say, 19:06 Lord, what's Your will, 19:11 what is it that You want me to do today, 19:15 and I give You permission to rearrange my whole day 19:21 and to do whatever You want to do, 19:24 whenever You want to do it. 19:28 Let me ask you, Pastor, you do prayer conferences, 19:30 is that right? 19:32 Sometimes, yes. 19:33 You have people coming together and they do a lot of praying, 19:35 okay. 19:36 Is it easy to get into the will of God 19:38 and do you have any examples of people, 19:40 who actually pray that prayer 19:43 and what was the result of that? 19:46 You know, at our church in St. Louis, you know, 19:50 we are praying church 19:52 because I just believe that prayer changes things 19:55 and prayer changes the whole atmosphere. 19:57 So we have spent time at the beginning 20:01 of every year in our church, 20:03 we spend the first Sabbath just in a day of prayer, 20:06 seeking the Lord for various things, 20:08 for the power of the Holy Spirit, 20:10 for God to do things in our lives individually, 20:13 for our ministries to set up before them, 20:16 God, what, you know, 20:17 what is Your will for us to do as a church. 20:20 And then we have these days of fasting and prayer, 20:25 you know, throughout the year, 20:27 some days as 10 days, some days as 7, 20:29 some days as 21, sometimes it's 40, 20:32 where we are praying for various things 20:34 and sometimes we are praying for God 20:39 to do things with our family. 20:42 So I am going to give a real specific instance of something 20:46 that I believe that could not have been just coincidence 20:49 because sometimes people says things just happen by accident. 20:53 Right. 20:55 There are no such things as miracles 20:57 or anything like that. 20:58 So I was... 21:00 I live in Cleveland, 21:01 I'm originally from Cleveland, Ohio. 21:03 And I was going home to do a revival there 21:05 and almost a whole trip there driving eight hours. 21:09 I just spent time talking to God 21:11 about various things that was on my mind. 21:14 And one of the things 21:15 that I was praying for was my brother. 21:17 I have a brother who is adopted 21:18 and I've never meet him a day in my life. 21:21 But I know that he's had some struggles 21:25 with some substancesin his life and things of that nature, 21:29 and I was just lifting him up 21:30 and praying for him and interceding for him. 21:33 So I get home... 21:36 I shouldn't say I get home, 21:37 I go to the church this particular night 21:40 and this is the first night of the revival. 21:42 I preached, 21:43 I had this awesome encounter with the Lord 21:47 and with the people 21:48 and at the end of the presentation, 21:50 the revival that evening, 21:52 a gentleman comes up to me out of nowhere 21:55 and says, "You are Ikner, right?" 21:58 I said, "Yeah." 21:59 He says, "I know your father and I know your brother." 22:03 Wow. 22:05 I said, "You do?" He says, "Yeah." 22:07 He says, "While you are here, 22:08 I am going to try to arrange for you to meet your brother." 22:11 Well, that's awesome. 22:13 "Because I know where he is." 22:14 Well, that sometime in the week became that very night. 22:17 Now remember, 22:19 I've never seen my brother a day in my life, 22:21 I've never had a conversation with him 22:23 and it's not by accident 22:26 that I run into him, and so that night, 22:29 I go with this church member from this church 22:30 and sure enough, 22:32 he takes me to meet my brother 22:33 and I end up being able to talk with him 22:36 and have a relationship with him. 22:38 And I find out that the prayers 22:40 that I've been uttering for him, 22:41 he has become clean in his life 22:44 from the substance at that time 22:46 and that his life is improving. 22:50 Now he is not where I would want him to be with Christ 22:52 and God and all of that, 22:54 but God surely has been answering prayer. 22:56 There is no way that I'm praying that prayer, 22:59 I'm interceding like that 23:01 and just by happenstance, you know, 23:05 I go to that church that night, 23:06 I meet this particular gentleman. 23:09 This gentleman says, I know where your brother is 23:12 and he takes me there and I am able to talk with him 23:14 and pray with him and have that encounter. 23:16 And that's the power of prayer. 23:18 I have seen where we have prayed for people 23:22 who have said, my marriage is over, 23:25 I'm done and we have interceded as a church. 23:29 I have prayed as their pastor 23:31 and situations have just flipped. 23:34 People who said I'm not coming back to church 23:36 or we couldn't get them to come 23:38 and we would just pray for them 23:39 and intercede for them, sometimes with fasting 23:43 and God would just bring them back around. 23:46 We've prayed before at our church 23:51 that we want God's Spirit to be 23:53 so thick around us 23:54 that the Holy Spirit is felt outside 23:58 of the doors of our church, 24:02 that people would just be compelled 24:04 to walk through the doors. 24:07 Wow. 24:08 And on one particular Friday night we prayed that, 24:10 and on that same night 24:12 that we prayed that a woman walked through the doors 24:14 and said, "You know, I was just 24:15 walking down the street 24:16 and I just felt impelled 24:18 to come to church here tonight." 24:20 That is the power of prayer. 24:23 And just one more quick story. 24:26 We need God for everything. Amen. 24:29 And so I was doing this revival 24:33 and we were having this 24:36 Revelation seminar at our church 24:38 and I was getting ready 24:40 to present on a particular topic, 24:44 that I knew was going to be sensitive 24:46 to those that were coming 24:47 because we had a whole lot of new people 24:48 come that particular night. 24:50 And we were not necessarily anticipating 24:52 or at least I wasn't anticipating 24:54 God to do it like that. 24:55 And so I went outside 24:58 and two of my elders were standing outside 25:00 doing security for me and I just said, 25:04 I need you all to pray for me before... 25:09 for me tonight because I really feel like 25:11 I need God in a more special way than ever before. 25:16 And so you know, I'm thinking, 25:18 I'm just going walking and they'll go out. 25:21 And they are going to have their prayer for some place. 25:23 But one of my elder said, "No, Pastor, 25:25 we're going to pray right now." 25:26 And so we're standing out there in front of the church, 25:29 you know, and in the middle of our community 25:31 and they just begin to lift their voices up in prayer 25:34 asking God to be upon me, 25:37 his Holy Spirit to fall upon me and I tell you, 25:40 I just felt the Holy Spirit come upon me in a way 25:44 to give me a boldness and a courageousness 25:46 to be able to speak His word, and then the wisdom 25:49 to be able to share a very sensitive subject 25:52 with a new crowd 25:54 that I otherwise would not have had. 25:56 So when we talk about answer to prayer, 25:58 those are just examples of how I've seen it 26:00 and how it has worked inside of our church. 26:03 Wow. 26:05 Amazing, what you thing about prayer lines or prayer trees, 26:09 is there something powerful about a group of people 26:12 coming together in prayer? 26:13 Oh! Absolutely. 26:15 First of all, I think that 26:17 there is a power in corporate prayer 26:19 that does not just exist in individual prayer. 26:23 There are things that God would do for us, 26:26 as we come together as a group of people 26:29 that He would not do otherwise 26:32 and so we see that on the day of Pentecost. 26:35 Before that happens, 26:37 there is 120 that have gathered together 26:39 in the upper room, 26:40 and they began to pray and to intercede. 26:44 But the key is when we come to pray 26:47 we got to be on the same accord 26:48 looking for God to do the same thing, 26:51 and as we see intercede, 26:52 God will pour out His Holy Spirit. 26:54 So in our Conference in Central States, 26:56 we have a prayer line that functions five days a week, 26:59 Monday to Friday at 6:30 a.m. to about 7 a.m. 27:03 And we pray and we saturate our conference everyday 27:06 praying for the various needs of our field, 27:09 our pastors, our churches and such, 27:11 and we just know 27:12 that God does great things through corporate prayer. 27:14 Pastor Ikner, and for those of you at home, 27:16 we are going to take a moment right now to pray, 27:19 and we are gonna ask if you could please 27:21 pray for our viewers, for our listeners, 27:24 for ourselves, for our churches, 27:27 for the Holy Spirit just to come down in our midst. 27:30 Could you pray, please? 27:31 Father, we just want to thank you for the time 27:33 that we have had here today 27:34 and Lord, we just want to thank you 27:36 for the time and ability to be able to talk about prayer. 27:40 Lord, we just want to ask that you would just 27:43 please be with all of our viewers 27:44 those that are watching, 27:46 some are anxious right now, 27:47 some are worried right now 27:48 going through particular things oh, God. 27:51 But you have said in your word 27:52 and declare that we don't have to be anxious 27:54 for any thing but we ought to pray about everything 27:56 and give you thanks for it, 27:57 so Lord, by faith right now I give you thanks God, 28:00 that you have taken away worries, 28:02 you have taken away problems, 28:03 you have taken away situations 28:05 Lord, you are solving situations and problems 28:07 and you are working right now in the name of Jesus. 28:09 And you have promised 28:11 to replace our problems with peace. |
Revised 2016-10-10