John K. Jenkins Sr - Principles of Powerful Prayer - Part 1

I want to talk this morning about the principles of powerful prayer. Somebody say, "The principles of powerful prayer!" Principles of powerful prayer- tell your neighbor the pastor is going to preach about the principles of powerful prayer . Pray, say all his points will begin with a "P." It will be a powerful presentation to the people of God in this place . Praise Him! You may be seated .

Just a couple of weeks ago, it might have been last week; I can't remember. When you get old, you can't remember stuff all the time. But last week or the week before, I felt the burden to call our church to a season of fasting and praying. Was any of y'all here for whatever service that was? Was that last week or the week before? Week before? Okay. We're calling our church to a season of fasting and praying. We need to become champions of prayer . If I had said I was going to talk about the principles of powerful prosperity, people would have said, "Praise Him! Glory to God! I came to church on the right day." But here's the reality: If you want to live a prosperous life, you have to learn how to be a prayer warrior. Amen? Prayer is the prerequisite for prosperity.

In a day when our society is running further and further away from God's truth and deeper and deeper into sin, adopting beliefs and practices that are opposite of God , it becomes imperative for us to become people of prayer. Amen? Our children are killing each other senselessly. I keep hearing about the record numbers of killings going on in Chicago, week after week, where blacks are killing blacks at alarming rates. Our families, the backbone of our culture, are slowly disintegrating before our eyes. We are passing the point where a father , a mother , and children being a family is becoming the norm. More and more families are becoming the opposite of what God's design intended. I believe God is calling us to a season of prayer because we can just sit back and watch our culture go down the drain, or we can be people who become passionate about seeing our culture change. That 's what my burden is: that God is calling us to pray and not just sit back and watch everything go down the drain.

Preach on, Pastor Jenkinson! Amen! Amen! Paul talks to the church in Ephesus, the Ephesian church . If there's ever a church to be modeled, there are a lot of things we can learn from, but one of the churches that we ought to model is the Church of Ephesus . It's a dynamic church-it's vibrant, it's alive, and it's a church that is changing its culture and its community. People are getting saved, being delivered, and demons are being cast out. Unrighteous businesses are being closed down . It is a church that is doing dynamic things, and they got there because they listened to the instructions of Paul.

As Paul closes out his directives to them in chapter six, he enters into this dialogue about spiritual warfare, and I think this is important for us to take a moment and talk about . Out of all the things he talks to them about-how to be a church that's impactful, how to have your lives changed, and transformed- he closes by saying to them in chapter six, "This is a spiritual battle ." Now look at verse 10: I'm going to walk through this with you . Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Verse 11: "Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles, or the tricks of the devil."

How many of you know that the devil is a trickster? Somebody say, "He's a trickster!" He wants to trick you. Verse 12 says this is key: "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood." You and I have to understand that our wrestling match is not with people who disagree with us . It 's not with the folks who are fighting you. The reality is your real battle is with the spirits behind the person you think you're having a battle with . Amen? I had to learn early in life not to get mad at somebody because they say something nasty about you, write you a distasteful letter, or cuss you out. Don 't get mad at them-understand that they yielded to the suggestions of the demons of hell.

And here's what I discovered: the more I'm right on target, the more letters I get, the more emails people write to me. Listen, that ain't going to stop me-that makes me know I'm right on target. You got to get concerned if nobody is trying to discourage you . If your life is just skipping down the road and everything is going well for you , and you love the Lord and everything is so great, you might as well go on home. You ain't doing nothing; you might as well go on home.

[Applause] [Applause] [Music] But I'm telling y'all to come back in the camp: you can't just skip through life without any drama. If nothing is happening to you, you ain't doing nothing. Yes, sir! Yes, sir! If nobody is mad at you, if nobody is talking about you, if nobody is cussing you out, if nobody wants to be around you , that means you ain't causing anything!