 If you've lost your prayer life, I wanna show you how to regain it. If you're someone who's committed to prayer in this season of your life and you have been for the past several seasons, maybe you're someone who's consistent in daily devotion to the Lord. Well, I wanna show you how to maintain that so that you never lose that place of devotion in your life. Let's take a look at number one. Again, these are keys to restarting and then maintaining your prayer life. Number one, acknowledge that a lack of prayer is ungodly. Psalm chapter 79 verse six says this, pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to acknowledge you. On kingdoms that do not call upon your name. So there in the book of Psalms, we see that wrath came upon those nations who just simply refuse to call upon God by refusing to call upon the Lord, by refusing to seek his guidance, by refusing to acknowledge his presence, we are inviting the wrath of God upon our lives. And in the case of the believer, that wrath comes in the form of correction because he loves us and he chastises those whom he loves. If you lack prayer, your life will be filled with chaos, period. Even if you're a born again believer, why? Because you're not making use of those things that God has given to you. You're not making use of that inheritance that is yours through Christ Jesus. Look, you know that as a born again believer, you have the Holy Spirit, you have power, you have the love of God, you have peace and joy deep within your spirit. But if you're not committing to prayer, then you are not making use of what God has given to you. Psalm 53, four says this, will those who do evil never learn? They eat up my people like bread and wouldn't think of praying to God. Here we see in the scripture that ungodly people don't even have that in their mind. It's in their nature to ignore the presence of God. Don't be like the unbeliever. Don't ignore the presence of the Holy Spirit in your life. Don't ignore that connection with God that you have 24-7. Acknowledge that a lack of prayer is ungodly. Prayerlessness as a lifestyle is ungodliness as a lifestyle. Jeremiah 10, 21 says, the shepherds of my people have lost their senses. They no longer seek wisdom from the Lord. Therefore they fail completely and their flocks are scattered. Zephaniah three, one through two, what sorrow awaits rebellious polluted Jerusalem, the city of violence and crime. No one can tell it anything. It refuses all correction. It does not trust in the Lord or draw near to its God. So here the Lord is rebuking this nation because they refuse to draw near to him. James four, two puts it this way. You want what you don't have so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have but you can't get it. So you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it. We have to acknowledge the serious nature of prayerlessness. We can't be so dismissive about the fact that we're not seeking the face of God daily. Look, I understand that the presence of the Holy spirit dwells in the believer 24 seven. I understand that he'll never leave you nor forsake you but prayer is about submission to God. Prayer is about aligning with his will. Prayer is about making use of those things that he's deposited into your life. Prayer is about doing and becoming all that God desires. Prayer is about doing and becoming what pleases the heavenly father. So if you are not praying as a born again believer, you are lacking seriously in your spiritual life. Now this is not a message of condemnation. This is though a message of correction because I think that we can become so passive in our lives about spiritual matters and we even somewhat joke about it. We kind of laugh it off. We say things like, well, you know, God's been dealing with me or you know, I really should pray more often or you know, I really should pray more consistently or gee, I missed several weeks of prayer. I got to get back on that. We treat it like it's a diet that we're not doing well in when in fact it's the very essence of spirituality. It's to enjoy the presence of God. It's to commune with the Holy spirit. It's to receive revelation of the word. It's to be empowered with boldness and faith and joy and peace. It's to help you focus. It's to help you receive guidance. It is the manner in which we walk with the Holy spirit. That's prayer. Now you can pray by going away privately to a room that's secluded prayer, that's intentional prayer, that's structured prayer, but then there's spontaneous prayer. This is to speak to the Lord all throughout the day to acknowledge his presence in every moment of every day to acknowledge his presence in the car, at work, at school, wherever you are when you wake up, when you go to bed. So both structured prayer, scheduled prayer and spontaneous prayer are needed, but whatever you do, please believer, pray. The proof that you believe in prayer is that you pray. We don't pray because we're self-reliant. We say to the Lord things like, well, Lord, I don't really need you. And you might say, when did I say that? You say it every time you start your day without prayer. Whatever you don't pray about, you're telling God I don't need your help in. Whatever you don't pray about, you're telling God, I don't want you involved. Prayerlessness is self-reliance. Many times we also don't pray because of sin. I'll talk a little bit more about that in a moment. And other times we pray because of unbelief, because we don't think it will work, because deep down inside we're telling ourselves, why pray if nothing's ever gonna change? And all of these things have to be dealt with. But at its root, we have to acknowledge that prayerlessness for whatever reason and however often it manifests is ungodly. That's number one, we have to acknowledge that. We can't be dismissive, we can't treat it like, oh, it's just a goal I didn't meet or it's just a good idea that I didn't actually take action upon. No, prayer is vital to the life of the believer. Number two, acknowledge your need for the Lord's daily guidance. Psalm 86.1 says, bend down, oh, Lord, and hear my prayer. Answer me for I need your help. Look, I understand that we don't just approach the Lord to receive from him. We approach the Lord because we're receiving of him. I also understand that we don't approach God to be connected with him. We pray because we are connected with him. So I don't want you to think that I'm placing legalism upon you with these teachings. No, we understand the connection is there. God already loves us. We have all things in the spirit, but when you pray, you're acknowledging your need for him. You are depending upon him consistently. Prayer is the act of dependency upon God. I mentioned a moment ago how every time we go a day without prayer, we're basically saying to the Lord, I don't need you today. If you go a week without prayer, you're saying to the Lord, I don't need you this week. If you live a lifestyle without prayer, you're saying, Lord, I can live in my own strength and you are self-reliant. Maybe that's the way you were taught to be. Maybe at a young age, you have to take up responsibilities that most kids don't have to take up. Maybe you've had to learn to be tough and self-reliant and strong on your own. But as believers, we must set aside old mindsets. We must set aside thought patterns that come from the way that we were raised or the culture in which we were raised. And instead, we must embrace the realities of scripture recognizing that we are new creations now taking on new mindsets. And this new mindset involves the idea, the knowledge that I need him. He's the breath of life. He's the sustainer of all things spiritual in my being. He's the giver of joy. He's the revealer of truth. He's the giver of discernment. He's the giver of peace. He's the demonstrator of love. How are we to become like Christ if we're not spending time with him? How are we to experience transformation? Yes, the veil has been removed, but are you fixing your eyes on him now that you can see him in the spirit? Are you fixing your eyes on him and being changed, as the scripture says, into his glorious image, reflecting that light, that marvelous light of glory? That's what prayer is. It's depending upon him as you become like him. It's to admit that there are flaws deep within us that we cannot handle on our own. It's to cry out, Lord, change my name. Lord, change my nature. Lord, cause me to be more like you. I wanna be more like you. I wanna know you. I wanna hear your voice. I wanna see your ways. I wanna see your face. I want to seek your presence. Draw me closer to your heart that my heart might be more like yours. That is hunger. Far too many believers operate in desperation when they should be operating in hunger. Now, many won't like the way I just said that, but hear me out. Desperation is a great initiator, but it's a terrible sustainer. You say, brother David, I thought we're supposed to be desperate for God. Yes, that's why I said it's a great initiator, but you can only be desperate for what you don't have. Desperation comes when there's calamity all around. Desperation comes when there's lack. I'll put it this way. The difference between desperation and desire is the difference between starvation and hunger. Well, if you're eating daily properly, you'll be hungry for the next meal, but you won't be starving for it. In the same way, if you're spending time with the Lord daily, you're operating from a place of desire. You want him, you know you want his presence, you know you need his presence, but if you are lacking in prayer, if you are lacking in devotion to the word, if you are lacking in spending time in his presence, then you become desperate because you put yourself in difficult situations because of the lack of wisdom and the lack of becoming like Christ, the lack of his character, the lack of his power. Not that those things aren't there, but we're not making use of them. So again, the difference between desire and desperation is the difference between hunger and starvation. Hungry for the things of God? Yes, why? Because I'm eating daily. Starving for the things of God? No, because if I'm starving, it means I haven't been partaking. It means I've come to a point where I've not been acknowledging that presence. So this is why we have to daily depend upon him, be hungry for the things of God, daily go before the Lord recognizing I'm broken without you. I'm a mess without you. I'm a wreck without you. I often tell people that if it wasn't for the presence of the Holy Spirit, I would be a thousand pieces shattered on the floor. His grace is the glue that holds me together in my brokenness. And only in prayer do I find that sustaining strength. Only in prayer do I sense that wind at my back, that inner strength and confidence in who I am and Christ comes by the Holy Spirit through prayer. So that's number two, you have to acknowledge your need for the Lord's daily guidance. And too often we just dismiss this idea, oh, I can handle it, I'm doing just fine. Well, things aren't really that bad, especially, please hear me now, especially those in ministry. You become so busy with the ministry itself that you fail in the area of prayer. And so now the busyness of ministry has replaced time with them. I'd rather spend time with him than do things for him. Because if you're doing things for him without spending time with him, the pressures of ministry will destroy you. They'll cause doubt and fear and anxiety and a lack of peace and so forth. So number one, acknowledge that a lack of prayer is ungodly. Number two, acknowledge your need for the Lord's daily guidance. Write that in the comments section right now. Just say, I need you Lord. Write it in the comments right now. Publicly declare that whether you're watching live or on replay, I need you Lord. Acknowledge your need for his presence. Acknowledge your dependency upon him. Acknowledge your desire for who he is. And then number three, and this is key, I'm probably gonna spend more time on this point than I will on any of the points I'm going to give you save for the last point. Number three, you have to repent and renounce prayerlessness. Repent of and renounce prayerlessness. Repent and renounce are very key biblical concepts. And by the way, when someone fails to understand what it truly means to repent and then renounce, they find themselves struggling with not just prayerlessness, but all sorts of other sins. So if sin has a hold on you, if sin has gripped your heart, if you find it very difficult to break a sinful pattern in your life, I'm pretty sure that you haven't yet come to truly repent and you haven't truly renounced that sin yet. So right now I'm specifically talking about the sin of prayerlessness, but this of course can apply to sins of all kind. So first we have to understand what it means to repent. To repent literally means to change one's mind. Now, right when I say that, there's this defensiveness that comes up in some people because they hear what I'm not saying. Some might say, brother David, no. To repent means to turn from. You're encouraging compromise. You're encouraging people to remain in sin. That's not what I'm encouraging at all. In fact, that's actually what renounce means. Renounce means to turn from to forsake. But repent means to change your mind. Why is this important? Because before you can truly forsake your sin, you must repent of your sin. Here in Matthew chapter three verse two, we see the scripture drawing a delineation between repenting of sin and then turning to God. Right here, Matthew three two. Repent of your sins and turn to God for the kingdom of heaven is near. So repentance takes place and then there is the turning. So repent means to change your mind. This is to acknowledge that you are wrong. And trust me, I have to repent quite often, especially as I read through the scripture, I'm constantly repenting. Oh Lord, I could be more like you there. Oh Lord, I need improvement on that. Oh Lord, I'm failing in this area. Lord, help me in my humanity in that area. So if you're like me, then as you read the scripture, you're just repenting, repenting, repenting, repenting, repenting. Okay, that's good because that means you're growing. The scripture's correcting you. So repent first, I changed my mind. What does that mean? Well, I come into agreement with God that the sin has to go. Why? Because the flesh is very subtle. You will deceive yourself. You will lie to you. That's just the nature of how the flesh works. Why do you lie to you? You lie to you because you crave certain things like the alcoholic who won't admit that they have a problem, who'll go to the bar and say, I can go to the bar, no problem. I can handle this with no issues. I'm gonna go to the bar and I won't have a single drink. Well, we all know that the alcoholic who goes to the bar telling themselves they're not gonna have a drink is lying to themselves. The unmarried couple who knows that sex outside of marriage is a sin and they go to one another's houses at night alone. They're saying to each other, oh, I'm gonna keep it, they're saying to themselves, I'm gonna keep it pure. I'm not really gonna do anything. I'm just going to hang out. They're lying to themselves. Why? Because the craving of the flesh is very subtle sometimes. The craving of the flesh is deeply rooted. And so the flesh will lie to you and say, I'm going there not really to get what I want. I'm just going there just to be there. You are lying to you. Why? Because it gets it one step closer to fulfilling its desire. This is why Jesus and the scripture tells us to flee from temptation. This is why Jesus said, deliver us from evil. Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. Why? Because temptation is a place where the believers should not find themselves. We are told to pray, lead us not into temptation. Not Lord, help me when I place myself in temptation. So if you want to avoid sin, first you have to avoid temptation. If you're going to avoid temptation, you have to change your mind about it. You have to stop lying to yourself because you will say out loud, Lord, I'm done with this sin. And then the flesh will whisper for now. You will say, Lord, I'll never do that again. And the flesh will say, well, maybe in a couple of weeks. You will say, Lord, I will never pick that sin up again. And the flesh will say, well, at least until the craving gets strong enough. And so you have to come into agreement with God, not that you're going to be rid of the sin for the moment because the reality is many times people want to be set free from the guilt of sin but not from the sin itself. I need you to hear what I just said because this is how self-deceptive we are. Many times people want to be set free from the guilt of sin, the consequence of sin, the shame of sin, but not the sin itself. And so they want to be released from the negative emotions that result from disobedience, but they don't want to be set free from the sin and they'll tell themselves things like, well, you know, if I can just live a lifestyle, you notice I use air quotes there, a lifestyle of obedience and just allow for the sin in little pockets here and there just to get the little taste I want. Technically, I'm living right because I'm not, because I'm doing well on more days than I'm doing bad on other days. And so we lie to ourselves religiously about these kinds of things. And we say, well, you know, I haven't done it in three weeks or I haven't lied in three weeks or I haven't thought that in three weeks or I haven't gone to that place in three weeks. I haven't allowed that attitude in three weeks. Let me allow myself just a couple of days to slump back into that craving. And then we tell ourselves, well, it's not technically a lifestyle of sin because I've been mostly walking in repentance. We say, well, you know, if I do 20% sinful living, 80% holy living, I think I'm good. That's not repentance. Repentance is to completely change your mind about that issue. To say, God, I agree with you that this sin needs to go now, like immediately, not next week, not some ideal situation in the future, not some point in time far off where things kind of come together for us. No, right here, right now, starting at this very moment and for the rest of my life, this thing needs to go now. And this thing needs to go in every form, in every measure and for all time. Please hear what I'm saying. It needs to go now. It needs to go in every form. It needs to go in every measure and it needs to go for all time. Rest of my life, that's it. I'm not gonna pick that up again and do what you need to do in order to cut that off. That is to repent. That is to come into proper alignment and that's what we need to do about our prayerlessness. Not, oh, okay, I missed a little bit here and there and oh, there was some issue there. Eventually, I need to make this right and we see ourselves off in the distant future. We see some ideal version of who we are off in the future and we think God will reward our intentions instead of our actions. Well, I intend to become a person of prayer. It's my goal to one day be a person of prayer. I like the idea of one day becoming a person of prayer but that's not really something I'm implementing right at this very moment. I'll do it then and then we feel some sort of validation, some sense of peace in the fact that we intend to do right one day but aren't doing right right now. That's called hypocrisy. So we reward ourselves with positive emotions by saying I'm good because I eventually intend to do that and that's just not at all what repentance is. That's self deception. And so we need to come to the place where we say, prayerlessness needs to go now, like starting tonight. And prayerless needs to go in all forms and whatever way I'm being distracted that needs to be removed. And prayerlessness needs to go in all measures. So not, oh, I went three days without prayer but I'm good. No, it needs to go in all measures and it needs to go for all time. Not for the next 21 days I'll do okay and then allow myself to relax again. No, this is a new lifestyle that I'm taking on now. This is a lifelong commitment in which I will live now and so I commit prayerlessness has to go now in all forms, in all measures and for all time I will be a person of prayer from here on out. That's repentance. I agree with you God that I need daily dependence upon you. I agree with you God that I need to consult you for your guidance. I agree with you God that I can't do this on my own that I don't have the strength to maintain it. I agree with you God that I shouldn't wait for some ideal situation some imaginary ideal situation in the future that I should begin to pray right now. Don't wait until you have more rooms in your house so that you can have private time in prayer. Go pray in the bathroom if you have to. Don't wait until the kids are all grown up and the schedule works out better. Pray, pray, pray. Don't wait until your job or career path is less busy. Pray now. Don't wait until you're the head of some mega ministry. Pray now. Don't wait until that imaginary ideal version of yourself in the future exists. Pray now so you can become that person. And then number two you have to renounce. This now is where you turn from. Listen to me here please. Renouncing is not just pulling out a list. This is kind of what we do as Christians and it's superstitious really is what it is. We pull out this list, right? The scroll and all the things we've done wrong and the scroll rolls across the floor all the way across the room. There's a long list of a thousand things. And we renounce. I renounce what happened years ago with my great ancestors. If that were the case, you'd have to start renouncing all the way to Adam and Eve because we're all part of the same lineage. And you'd have to go back thousands of years and God forbid you don't have access to ancestry.com. How do you know who did what? You don't have the family history. God does not hide our freedom behind hidden mysteries, people of God. He makes it very plain. Your obedience brings about God's favor. Your disobedience brings about God's correction. Simple. So renouncing doesn't mean I'm reading a long list of things that need to go. If you wanna do that, fine. There's nothing wrong with doing that. But that biblically speaking is not what renouncing is. Whenever you see the word renounce in scripture, it's action not speech. We need to move beyond that religious way of looking at renouncing. Because again, this is why I talk about the fact that we've confused the words. So we think renounce means to repent, change your mind. And renounce nowadays could mean also a speech. But no, my friend, to repent is to change your mind. To renounce is to turn from. So the Bible says, 2 Corinthians 7-10, for the kind of sorrow God wants us to experience leads us away from sin and results in salvation. There's no regret for that kind of sorrow. But worldly sorrow, which lacks repentance, results in spiritual death. So turning from that sin, don't mistake regret for repentance. It's possible to regret your sin while still living in it. I need to say that again, that was for somebody. It's possible to regret your sin while still living in it. Regret is not repentance. We think that repentance means I feel bad for it. So like the young man who looks at pornography and then the morning comes and he remembers what he did last night and he goes, oh, you know, I feel really bad. Okay, I'm good now. No, that's just feeling bad for it. And you should feel bad because Godly sorrow works repentance. And I pray that the Holy Spirit would make us so uncomfortable in our mistakes and in our sins that we would aspire to be more like Jesus, that we would raise our lives to the standard of righteousness. That's what he's calling us to do. But don't confuse regret and sorrow for repentance because sometimes there's worldly sorrow, but Godly sorrow, that's the key. Godly sorrow leads me to turn from it. Now I'm working repentance in my life. I'm working that mind change, that mindset, which ultimately produces the ability to renounce. So it's not verbal incantations. That's not what renouncing is. Renouncing is to turn from. Look at Second Timothy 219. Yet God's solid foundation stands unmoved bearing this inscription. The Lord knows those who really belong to him. And this also let everyone who names the name of the Lord renounce all wickedness. Well, you can't renounce something until you've repented of it. And this is the missing step for many believers. They're trying to renounce their sin. They're trying to turn from their sin before they've changed their mind about it. When we should be going to God saying, Lord, I'm gonna align myself with what you think and say, what your will is. I'm gonna come into agreement here first and then it will produce fruit of actual repentance. So the fruit of repentance is the ability to renounce and forsake something. So if you try to change the behavior before you change the thought, you may be able to change the behavior for a week or two, but you'll find yourself right back where you ended up. You'll find yourself right back at the beginning of trying to overcome that sin. This is why you must first repent and then renounce. So yes, you can try to implement the discipline of prayer. You can try waking up earlier. You can give yourself a devotional plan. You can give yourself a 30-day challenge, a 60-day challenge, a 90-day challenge. You can have a prayer partner who calls you and says, hey, are you upranked? You can do all of that and that's good and you should do every single one of those things if it helps you to pray more consistently. But in all of that, do not forget repentance because only when you've repented can you then renounce. Only when you finally come to realize that prayer is not just some option that will kind of help us out now and then. That prayer is not just some good idea that we should maybe consider, but that prayer is vital. I love the saying that, I forgot who said it. I wish I knew the attribution, but it's not my quote and it goes something like, many people treat prayer like it's the spare tire when they should treat it like it's the steering wheel. In other words, it's a last resort, not a first priority, but if you make prayer a priority, you'll have a lot fewer situations where you have to use it as a last resort. So you live in this lifestyle of prayer. You've repented in your mind of this idea that prayer doesn't really matter or that you can do without it or that someday in the future you'll eventually get your act together. No, I repent now and therefore, once I've changed my mind now, I can renounce, I can turn from that prayerlessness. Number four, and this is after you've received that correction. Now, this is straight truth for you. I'm not here to tell people what they want to hear. I'm here to tell them the truth from the word of God. And so I gave you the truth there and if you sense conviction, good because that means the Holy Spirit's working in you. Now, here's where there's hope. Number four, acknowledge God's forgiveness and acceptance. Let me read you a scripture. This wasn't originally in my notes, but I'm gonna pull it up in my Bible app here. Hebrews 10, 22. Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith. Having our hearts sprinkled, watch this now from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. So the scripture here is talking about approaching the Lord. Let us draw near with what? A true heart. How was this possible? Because our conscience was cleaned from the evil that we committed. So if you want to be able to approach the Lord, you have to acknowledge his forgiveness. Don't live in the condemnation of yesterday's mistakes. Once you've repented and renounced, now that's the beauty. You can be free from that past. And here's where many believers have a challenge. Especially Christians who once had a prayer life, struggle in this area because they can't help but look back at all the time that they feel they have lost. They can't help but look back at all the work they have to do in order to regain their standing with God, but here's the good news. There is no regaining your standing with God. Christ purchased that when he gave his life upon that cross for your sins. So now your sin is attributed to Christ on the cross. That's why God punished him, gave him full wrath for your sins. And now the perfection of Christ is attributed to you. How? By faith, because you believe that's what he did. And so now the attribution of Christ's accomplishments is on you, imputed righteousness. So then it works the same for prayerlessness. I can't tell you how many times in my walk with the Lord where I was so discouraged to pray on Monday because I missed prayer on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I got a little distracted with hanging out with the youth group. And I went to bed too late because we were all hanging out, playing games, going to the beach, and then Saturday morning rolls around. I didn't go to Saturday morning prayer and I slept in and then some other things happened on Saturday. Maybe that was, I found more entertaining and then Sunday morning and then Sunday. Before you know it, my goodness, I didn't spend any time in private prayer and then Monday rolls around, I got some time, go before the Lord and I'm saying, Lord, I'm sorry for that. But instead of being able to move on, I just keep replaying my mistake. Oh, how much further I could have been in the spirit? Oh, how many opportunities I missed? I wonder what revelations the Lord would have given to me had I just shown up in prayer. Maybe he was testing me and I failed the test. How much more do I have to regain? And this is to look at prayer as if it's some way to gain status with God when you already have that because of what Christ did. No, prayer is the means by which you enjoy what Christ purchased. Genesis three, nine through 12, look at this. After man sins, look what happens. Then the Lord called to the man, where are you? He replied, I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked. Verse 11, who told you that you were naked? The Lord God asked, have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat? The man replied, it was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit and I ate it. So here we see Adam, what's he doing? He's hiding from the Lord, why? Because of his shame. So please hear me now, child of God, you have to hear this. If you hear anything I say, hear this. Do not allow the shame of missed days of prayer to pull you away from today's prayer. Do not allow the shame of missed days of prayer to pull you away from today's prayer because that's what we do. And we think, okay, I was climbing up the ladder, I got to level 10 on consistency. I prayed for three months straight and then I had a bad week and I was so distracted, I was in the flesh, I didn't pray and now I'm just afraid to even approach God. I didn't even want to look at him. And we think that God is just kind of folding his arms going, hmm, well, look who decided to show up. No, that's not what he's doing. When you go before the Lord and you repent, that's a clean slate. You're washed, white as snow. He forgives you, he embraces you. He's not just barely tolerating you. He's filled with joy when you come before his throne this way. And that's why I read to you Hebrews 10, 22, because if you're busy struggling with the guilty conscience, you're never gonna pray. And in fact, this one thing alone probably keeps more believers away from prayer than other things that keep believers away from prayer. That's shame. That's this idea that God doesn't want to hear from me or I messed up too bad or I was so inconsistent. Now I'm discouraged. And you think you have to rebuild this rapport with God. Well, you know, I was a person of prayer for three years straight. I was in the secret place and then I went away from that. And then now I just feel like there's just too much to rebuild. There's just too much to reignite. Now I don't even know where to start because I got to pick up all these broken pieces that are my prayer life. No, my friend, when you go, I don't care if you miss 10 years of prayer. The moment you get back into that prayer room, God rebuilds the connection. Please hear what I'm saying. That's the grace of God. Now I'm not encouraging you to not pray. In fact, I just spent a long time telling you that it's a sin, that it's ungodly, that it'll destroy you, that God will correct it and so forth. But now I'll tell you the site of grace and that is it doesn't matter if you've missed 10 years and it's been 30 years, 40 years since you've done anything about your prayer life, since you've connected with God in that way. Remember, you're already connected. I'm talking about making use of that connection in prayer. It could be 30 years since you've prayed, but the moment you come back to that place, there's nothing to rebuild, not in the spirit. Maybe in the natural, there's a ministry to rebuild. Maybe in the natural, there are relationships with people that you have to rebuild. Maybe in the natural, there's a reputation that has to be re-earned. But in the spirit between you and God, the moment you come back to that place of prayer, it's reignited. The Lord will not hold your mistakes over your head like that. No matter how long you've been away from prayer, a single moment of repentance can fill in all the gaps. And this is what people need to hear because now that you've heard that, you might be saying, well, I wanna go pray now. And that's precisely how it works because it's God's goodness that leads a man to repentance. Yes, acknowledge that prayerlessness is ungodly. Yes, acknowledge that prayerlessness will bring destruction to your life. Yes, acknowledge that you should feel some sense of sorrow if you have been neglecting prayer, but also acknowledge that the moment you repent and renounce from prayerlessness and you step back into that place, having my conscience cleansed, having that guilt washed away, now I come back before the Lord and it's not as though he goes, okay, welcome back, but you've got a lot of work to do. Welcome back, but if you want your friendship with me again, you want that connection with me again, you've got a lot of work to do. My friend, you didn't do anything to earn it and you can't do anything to reignite it. The very moment you get back into that prayer room, heaven rejoices, the heavenly Father communes with you, the Holy Spirit communes with you, all of that is established in the spirit already. You haven't lost that. You haven't lost that. Yes, as I said, you may have lost a reputation. Yes, as I said, you may have lost some ministry influence. Yes, as I said, some of your relationships in life may be strained, maybe you've put yourself in foolish, maybe you foolishly placed yourself in some situations that you have to bear the consequence of. Okay, that's the natural I'm talking about in the spirit, there's nothing to rebuild. You are completely connected with him again and that truce alone should inspire you to go back into prayer because many believers don't even wanna try because they feel, why even bother? I have so much to rebuild. I don't even know where to start. Know my friend, he'll rebuild it for you. Number five, and this one is a little more practical now. So number one, acknowledge that a lack of prayer is ungodly. Number two, acknowledge your need for the Lord's daily guidance. Number three, repent and renounce of, repent of and renounce prayerlessness. Number four, acknowledge God's forgiveness and acceptance. Number five, accept responsibility for spiritual discipline. I'll show this to you in scripture. It's the Holy Spirit who gives you the desire to pray. Galatians 4.6 says, and because we are his children, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts. Watch this now, here's what the Holy Spirit does. Prompting us to call out Abba Father. So it's the Holy Spirit who prompts us to call out. Now, whereas the Holy Spirit is the one who gives you the desire to pray, you must exercise your free will to decide to act on the desire the Holy Spirit gave you. In other words, he provides the desire, you provide the discipline. So the Holy Spirit says, I'll prompt you, I'll give you the desire to pray, but you have to choose to exercise your will to act upon the desire that I gave you. First Peter 4.7 says this, the end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. That's a command. That is instruction for your part. It's a partnership. The Holy Spirit gives us the desire. The Holy Spirit gives us the connection. We must be the ones to implement the discipline to make the decisions to act upon what the Holy Spirit has given to us. So you have to accept that responsibility. Pray for me, David. This is when many people help me. Pray for me that I would pray more. Isn't that on you? I can pray that the Holy Spirit would give you a stronger hunger for prayer, but it's not gonna do you any good if you're not deciding to pray. If you're ultimately the one saying, oh, maybe tomorrow, oh, some other day, oh, not right now, that's on you. Look, you're not suddenly gonna one day feel like complete, or I should say 100% feel like praying because the flesh will always fight you when you wanna pray. So you ultimately have to be the one to decide. Don't wait for your emotions to change. Don't wait for your flesh to want to pray. It'll never come. That day will never come. But instead act upon the desires that the Holy Spirit places there, and begin to pray. The Holy Spirit isn't gonna grab you off the couch, throw you onto the floor, and tell you to pray. The Holy Spirit isn't gonna pull you out of bed, take the covers off, pull the pillow out from under your head and splash some cold water in your face and say, hey, you gotta pray. He's not gonna move your mouth for you and fold your hands for you and place you on your knees. He's not gonna do that. You have to decide to get up out of the bed, or before you go to bed to kneel, to stand however you wanna do it, but to focus. You have to choose to set aside the time. That's on you. And then number six, I'm gonna give you some practical measures here to implement. So how do you do that? How do you actually take that responsibility and then turn it into action? I'll show you that in number six. Number six, take practical measures to implement prayer. Jesus spent private time with the Father. Matthew 14, 23 says, after sending them home, he went up into the hills by himself to pray. Night fell while he was there alone. So here we see Jesus prayed in private and he instructs us to do the same. Matthew chapter six, verses five and six say this, when you pray, don't be like the hypocrites who love to pray publicly on street corners and in the synagogues where everyone can see them. I tell you the truth, that is all the reward they will ever get. But when you pray, go away by yourself, shut the door behind you and pray to your Father in private. Then your Father who sees everything will reward you. So Jesus prayed privately and he instructs us to do the same. Jesus would pray early in the morning, Mark 135, very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed. Jesus also prayed late at night. Mark chapter six, verses 46 and 47 say, after leaving them, he went up on a mountainside to pray. Later that night, the boat was in the middle of the lake and he was alone on land. Jesus would set aside an increased amount of time for prayer before making a major decision. Look at Luke chapter six, verses 12 and 13. One day soon afterward, Jesus went up on a mountain to pray and he prayed to God all night. At daybreak, he called together all of his disciples and chose 12 of them to be apostles. So here we see Jesus had an all night prayer session before he chose the disciples. So before a major decision, he increased prayer. That's a great example to us. Jesus would often leave everyone and go to a lonely place to pray, verse Luke five, 16 says this, but Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. So how do you implement this? Well, we see Jesus set a schedule for prayer. Look, it may not seem spiritual, but you have to set a schedule. That's one of my philosophies of ministry. It's spirit led structure. Like for example, when I get up and I preach a sermon, sometimes people will ask me, well, did the Holy Spirit give you that just now? I go, no, I've been preparing this sermon for about a month now because I knew I was gonna be preaching. And they'll say, interesting, wouldn't you rather be spirit led? And I'm saying, look, the same Holy Spirit who guides me to preach when I'm behind a pulpit is the same Holy Spirit who helps me to study the month before. I'm sure the Holy Spirit who knows the future knows how to prepare his servants to enact ministry in certain moments. So here we see that there's a practical side. Scheduling is spiritual. Why? Because it's done decently and in order. Name me one thing that God ever did that didn't have structure to it. You can't because God is a God of order. The Bible's very clear on this. So the same is true when you're implementing your prayer life. You have to set a schedule. We'll give you some homework right now. Whether you're watching this at night or in the morning, it doesn't matter. Here's some homework for you. You need to come up with a schedule, a weekly schedule that accounts for all of the weekly tasks that you have to do. This could be doctor's appointments for maybe your parents. This could be school and extracurricular activities for your kids. This could be a job. This could be studying at college, whatever it may be. Know your schedule. And here's what's interesting is you'll find that the more organized you get with scheduling your time, you'll realize that you actually had a lot more time than you thought you did. Same thing with money. When people sit down and they actually budget their money, in many instances, not in every case, because some people just are way beyond their means. But in many instances, when I've sat with people who are budgeting their finances, they'll actually discover, oh, you know, I had a little bit more than I thought I did. And now that I've organized my spending, I can see that there's a little bit more there. Same thing will be true of your schedule. And you may find, please hear me now, you may find that there are some things on your schedule that you have to remove. That's just the reality of it. So you look at your schedule and every day may be different, but you need to have a structure, something to work for, and surprises arise and things change and there are emergencies and there are vacations and so forth. But for the most part, you have to have a structure. Why? Because if you have a structure and a spontaneous problem arises, it's much easier to readjust if you already have a structure in place than if you don't have a structure in place. If you have no structure and something spontaneous arises, you're not even gonna know how to address that. You're not even gonna know what comes first. But if you have a structure for your week and something spontaneous arises, you readjust, you shift everything over by maybe an hour or two and then you're rescheduled, you're good to go. So set your schedule, sit down Monday through Sunday, what does this look like? And then find the places in each day where you're gonna pray. 10 minutes, 15 minutes, start there. You can pray an hour a day, perfect. If not, no worries. If you can pray for more than that, even better. But don't feel guilt for not meeting what others say is the quota. You keep it between you and the Lord and the Lord is gracious, the Lord is understanding. For example, I don't believe he'll hold a single mom who's working two jobs and going to school so that she can get a degree so she can get a better job. I don't think the Lord is gonna hold her the same standard as say, an investor who just has to look at his money on the stock market a few hours in the morning and then has the rest of the day free. They're gonna be held accountable for the time they had available. And so obviously, of course, there's the element of making time but there are some things you have to do. Like in the case of the single mom, she probably has to work two jobs and then that's very chaotic. So according to what you have, give unto the Lord. So you go through your schedule and you organize, okay, this goes here, this goes there and you create that schedule. Now here's another piece of information that will be tremendously helpful for you. You need to reclaim your morning routine and your nighttime routine. Look at how the scripture says that Jesus got up early and he also prayed at night. Jesus had mastered his morning and his night. So in the morning, you're setting the pace for the rest of your day. And this doesn't just include prayer. This can be setting yourself up for everything else. Like if you're moving through your day and you're so busy, you say things like, oh, I forgot to eat, that's not impressive. That's foolish because you're not taking care of the body which is the temple of the Holy Spirit. That's not impressive. That's not even necessarily busyness. That's just activity. So you get up, you have to know what does the day look like. And part of that is having your schedule set. So in the morning, you set your schedule, you reclaim that time, master your morning. And here's a big, big, big key. If you want to master the morning, you have to learn to master the nighttime routine. Don't tell me you don't have time for prayer. If you're up into the late hours of the night watching videos on YouTube and TikTok. I know I'm gonna say some things that are gonna stir up some of you, but that's okay. Don't tell me, oh, I had trouble in the morning. If you were just having entertainment at night, you're serious about your schedule. And I'm not even saying you have to wake up early to pray. Like in my case, I pray in the night. That's the time I seek the Lord. And then I'm prayerful all throughout the day. So if you want to master both of your day and night, you have to set a routine, nighttime and the morning. So your nighttime routine is just as important as your morning routine because your nighttime routine is the lead-in for the morning. So give yourself a cut-off time. Give yourself a time you will rest. Get your night in order. Even set some things for the morning. Like when I'm getting ready at night, I'm preparing clothes and anything I'll need to use or take with me for the next day. It's all being prepared, even planning my meals for the next day in the night. Now you don't have to get that organized, but you get the idea. If you will reclaim the night, it makes it super easy to reclaim the morning. So do practical things like this. And then finally, on the practical side, you're gonna want to prioritize, prioritize prayer. Fiercely guard the secret place. Like my daughter is adorable, but she can't have the secret place. My wife is a wonderful wife, but she cannot have the secret place. I have amazing friends. They cannot have the secret place. God's blessed me to be able to steward an amazing ministry. Ministry can't have the secret place. Be defensive with it. Be protective of it. Be sensitive about it. Guard the secret place. Just be stubborn when it comes to the secret place. Do not budge. Now, let me balance this, because I've known, for example, of some who are in ministry and their family's starving, and they don't have a job, and they're saying, well, you know, I'm guarding the secret place. Well, are you, or are you just not wanting to get a job? So that's a whole different thing. I'm not saying that you got to fill 12 hours with prayer and neglect your family and your wife and your kids. Not at all. I'm saying that there has to be something established that you protect. And then fiercely protect it. Don't let entertainment get in the way. Don't let other people get in the way. Don't let, throw your phone into the next room and say, I'm not answering phone calls. Don't even do the silent mode thing. Put it in the other room. And if you're like me and you have a Bible app where you read the word, okay, put it on airplane mode and have the discipline to not take that off until you're done reading the word. These are the practical steps we take. Let me know in the comments some other things that you do to help organize your day. But these are the steps to reclaiming, to reestablishing, restarting your prayer life and then maintaining it so that you will stay faithful, that you will not ebb and flow in your prayer life. You'll not be up and down. You'll be consistent in this. One, acknowledge that a lack of prayer is ungodly. Two, acknowledge your need for the Lord's daily guidance. Three, repent of and renounce prayerlessness. Four, acknowledge God's forgiveness and acceptance. Five, accept responsibility for spiritual discipline. And number six, take practical measures to implement prayer. Father, I thank you that you are rekindling the fires of prayer. I thank you that you've placed a spirit of prayer and supplication upon us. Cause us, Holy Spirit, to cry out, ah, but Father, give us a greater hunger for the deeper things of God. Help us to be attentive when you're inviting us to the places of prayer. Take us to higher heights and deeper depths I pray. And Lord, bring healing and deliverance to your people in the mighty name of Jesus as your power flows now. Come on, just lift your hands, receive that. Father, touch your people. I rebuke sickness and disease in the mighty name of Jesus. I rebuke every demonic attack in the mighty name of Jesus. Just receive it, take a moment. Just receive that now. In Jesus' name we pray, I want you to say it because you believe it. Type, amen. Well, if you enjoyed this message, you think others can benefit from this. Don't forget to leave a like on the video. 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