David Diga Hernandez - Must-Watch Sermon on Deeper Prayer

When I was praying about what message to bring to this conference on prayer, I remembered hearing many great messages. I said, «Lord, I want to find the direction, the vein in which You want me to minister.» The Holy Spirit began to deal with me about the four realms of prayer. Now, don’t get alarmed when I say «four realms of prayer.» I don’t mean four dimensions; I’m talking about four different realities, four different categories, and four different expressions of prayer. No matter where you are in your prayer life—whether you’re a new convert or experienced, whether you’ve learned the subtleties of prayer or not, whether you’ve come to be familiar with the nuances of spiritual warfare and worship, and how all these dynamics work together—the interaction between Spirit to Spirit, your voice to God’s ears, and God’s voice to your ears matters. Whether you’re very familiar with this or completely clueless, even if you have to say, «Jesus, teach me to pray because I don’t know a word I’m saying,» it is the Holy Spirit who enables prayer. Let me tell you something: not only can you not pray without the power of the Holy Spirit, but you couldn’t even desire to pray without the Holy Spirit. It’s not merely a matter of discipline, though that’s part of it. It’s not just a matter of the will, though that’s part of it too. It’s not only about emotion, even though that can be affected by prayer. It is by the Holy Spirit that we are led into the depths of the presence of God. It is by the Holy Spirit that we are brought to the place where we are granted audience with our Father. Prayer is by the Spirit; you cannot enter the Spirit in the flesh. You cannot enter the Spirit through will or aggression. When I first began to pray, I was 11 years old, and I remember the Holy Spirit starting to deal with my heart. He began to speak to me about dedicating myself more to prayer and dedicating my heart more to Him. What happened was interesting; it was one of those very sweet seasons in life. That’s the word I used to describe it—there’s just a sweetness to the presence that abides on your prayer life during certain seasons. Do you know what I’m talking about? I remember coming to one of those seasons when I was 11 years old, and like many of you, I came to God with somewhat of an ultimatum. I was desperate, I was hungry, I was passionate. I said, «Lord, I want to know Jesus more. Father, I want to step into everything You have for me.» I remember going into my room, closing the door, locking it, and saying, «Jesus, I am not leaving this place until I have an experience with the Holy Spirit.» I had heard that the Holy Spirit could be my friend, and that notion intrigued me. I used to think that it was somewhat of a spiritual misdemeanor to talk to the Holy Spirit or a form of idolatry to pray to the Holy Spirit instead of Jesus. I used to wonder, «Jesus, do You get offended when I address the Holy Spirit?» For that matter, why do they call Him the Holy Spirit if He’s a person? I reconciled that because we call Him the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit; it has nothing to do with it. All I knew is that I wanted to connect to this reality—the spiritual helper, this Advocate, this Comforter, this one who would come alongside me and assist me into the depths of the Spirit. I wanted to know Him, and I said, «Holy Spirit, I want to know You, and I’m not leaving this room until You touch my life. I want to experience the overwhelming presence; I want to experience the manifested glory of the Son right here in my room.» I said, «Lord, I want my room to become a little piece of heaven on Earth.» I stated, «Lord, I’m not going to leave here.» I remember starting my prayer with emotion; I reached for every melancholy emotion you could imagine. There was frustration. I even did that whole thing where I said, «Lord, are You ignoring me? God, do You hear me?» You know, trying to guilt God into a response as if He could be manipulated: «God, don’t You hear me?» I often use this analogy: using emotion to pray or trying to find that place of prayer is like yelling at someone on a cell phone when there’s a bad connection. The issue isn’t the volume; the issue is the connection with the network. You can yell or scream; power is