Dharius Daniels - Stop Praying Safe Prayers! This is your Due Season

I said some ghosting was God; you know I can’t believe they ghosted me. And God was like, «I was behind that because I needed to show you something that you couldn’t see unless I allowed you to experience it. You would know I was all you needed until I put you in a situation where I was all you had.» Settling—watch this, family—settling doesn’t show up in your practices first; settling shows up in your prayers first. Did you hear what I just said? I said settling doesn’t show up in your practices first; settling shows up in your prayers first. You can tell when you’re getting ready to settle on the outside because you start settling on the inside. I want to know who’s going to help me preach this this morning. Yep, your prayers all of a sudden become tamed when you’re not exhausted. You pray Jabez-type prayers. Did you hear what I just said? Who was a biblical character in the Old Testament whose name was Jabez? His mother named him that because he was painful in childbirth. So, he has a relationship with a person of influence who projected their pain upon him, and now he’s got to carry a name forever because she named him based on what she was going through in a season. So, his whole life he’s been hearing, «Come here, thou who has caused me pain! Come eat, thou who has caused me pain! Clean up your room, thou who has caused me pain! Go to school, thou who has caused me pain!» And the same man who got sick and tired of being sick and tired said to God, «God, I pray that you would bless me—let me see my Bible readers—and bless me indeed!» Watch what he says: «Enlarge my territory!» Did you hear what I just said? Yeah, we used to pray Jabez prayers, but when you get exhausted, you go from untamed prayers to safe prayers. So, your prayers no longer become a pathway to your destiny; your prayers become something that protects you from disappointment. But I came today to get those prayers out of that cage! I said I came today to push you back into dangerous prayers. I came today to push you back into stuff that, if you prayed it out loud, people would wonder what’s going on with you and what you’re thinking about. And I came to give you the audacity and the unmitigated gall to say, «God, if you say I can have it, I want it!» Let me find my old school church goals: «Lord, I’m running, trying to make a hundred; 99 and a half just won’t do» because settling shows up in your prayers first—safe prayers! Lord, I feel this right here—it’s not in my notes—but some of you right now are going through a season of confusion because God has closed the door on an opportunity that you were about to settle for. I need you to hear me when I just say, «He said, you know what, you are about to take less than what I have in mind for you, so what I’m going to do is I’m going to protect you from your own choices.» My God! I feel somebody getting ready to break out of that safe cage today! I feel somebody getting ready to step into exceedingly and abundantly above all. Our prayers become tame, docile, measured, and timid because we’ve forgotten a principle proclaimed by the Apostle Paul, where he says in Galatians 6:9, «Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time"—one translation says «in due season.» See, I know you thought there were four seasons. If you live the world’s way, there are four seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall. But in the Kingdom, we have a fifth season: winter, spring, summer, fall, and due season. I came to tell somebody you’re in the fifth season of the year—this is your due season! Thank you, sit down. This principle does not just apply to our practices. Jesus—wait a minute, I think y’all need to give me Galatians 6:9 one more time because what I said wasn’t incorrect, but I was almost incomplete. «Let us not become weary in well-doing, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.» One translation says «if we faint not.» One of the reasons people faint is because of sickness, and another reason people can faint is because of exhaustion. The devil’s trying to wear you out emotionally because he’s not trying to get you to think physically; he’s trying to get you to faint emotionally. But if I were sitting next to you, I’d shake you and say, «Wake up! If you don’t quit, there’s a tipping point. If you don’t quit, there’s a place and a space that you will step into where all of the labor and all of the years, all of the work, and all of the effects start compounding. All the work you put in for years starts compounding in your life in a season—come on now—where the reaper starts overtaking the sower. And this principle not only applies to our practices; it applies to our prayers. An amazing example of this is seen in our text here in the Book of Genesis. This is an interesting story because Jacob’s story, ladies and gentlemen, is a powerful personification of the importance of persistence in prayer. We’re introduced to a story where he’s attempting to have a moment of reconciliation with an estranged brother who was very temperamental and violent, and Jacob does not know what to expect. So, he’s getting ready to travel, and he hears word that his brother is coming with…