 It's time to go to higher places in your prayer life. Whether you're just beginning a prayer life or you're a seasoned believer who knows the depths of prayer, it's time to go deeper. It's time to go higher. I want to talk to you about the seven realms of prayer. I want you to publicly declare, make it a public comment, a public prayer. Write this in the comment section right now. Three simple words. Take me higher. If you're ready for the Lord to take you to greater heights in the realms of prayer. Now, when I talk about the seven realms of prayer, I'm not talking about different worlds or different dimensions. It's actually quite simple what I mean by the realms of prayer. I'm talking about the different realities of prayer, the different facets of prayer. And we begin with number one, adoration. John 4.24 says, For God is spirit, so those who worship Him must worship in spirit and in truth. Really, prayer is simple interaction with God. And one of those ways in which we interact with God is through worship. Now, true worship is born of spirit and truth. What does that mean? Well, all true worship is a response to revelation. You can sing without a revelation. You can dance without a revelation. You can clap your hands and jump up and down without a revelation. But you can't truly worship without a revelation. So, revelation comes by truth, knowing the Word, knowing Christ, the guidance of the Holy Spirit. And as the Holy Spirit begins to reveal Jesus, we see the truth. And our being begins to respond to that truth by the Spirit. And that is where worship is born. Worship is born of the Spirit. It is your being responding to God's being. It is giving God glory as you see God's glory. You begin to reflect that marvelous light. And when you capture that glimpse of His glory, everything in you, everything about your being begins to cry out in praise and in worship. Now, often believers, when they go to pray and they begin to pray, they may struggle to at first find the words that can initiate that prayer moment. But this is where worship is such a powerful tool in the prayer life. When you don't know what to pray, worship. Just begin to adore Him. Just begin to respond to Him. Sometimes worship can simply be the intensity of attention. What we give our attention to, we begin to obsess over. And obsession is a form of worship. I don't know about you, but I am obsessed with the presence of the Holy Spirit. So, worship is that first realm. It's an important component of prayer. And it actually helps to break you through that fog when you begin to pray of not knowing where to go. You start, you enter in stillness, you begin to worship Him and adore Him and focus on Him and then you become pooled into greater realms of glory. Number one is adoration. Number two is supplication. That simply means the prayer request or asking of God. Philippians 4-6-7 says, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done. Then you will experience God's peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. Worry is how your flesh prays. Worry is a pointless, powerless attempt at control. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. And notice here that the Scripture says that you are to tell God what you need while thanking Him for what you have. There's this misconception, this religious idea that tells us that we ought not ask God for anything. Don't ask God for anything. Don't ask Him to bless you. Don't ask Him to give you a job. Don't ask Him to bless you financially. Don't ask Him to bless your marriage or your family. Well, that's just nonsense. The Scripture tells us that we ought to take our prayer request to God. Now, to balance this thought, of course, we have to recognize that it's not all about blessings. It's not all about material gain. It's not all about the things of this world. But the Scripture makes it clear that God does want us to present our prayer request to Him. In fact, it is the prayer request that makes it easier to pray. Why? Because verse 7 tells us, then you will experience God's peace. So when I unburden myself by giving to Him all of my prayer requests, when I give to Him all of my concerns and worries, when I pass to Him the list, at least for the moment of prayer, all of the things that I have to do in life and I just give those over to Him, I become free. I become liberated. The weights of the world begin to fall off of me. The tethers that bind me to the cares of this earth begin to become torn and I am lifted to higher places and the peace of God fills my heart. When you begin to submit your prayer request to God, you're placing your concerns in His hands. So yes, make that prayer list. Yes, pray for your loved ones. Yes, pray for your needs. Well, also maintaining a posture of gratitude as the Scripture commands us to do. And what begins to happen when you unburden yourself, the chaos within you begins to calm because you're no longer worried about all of the distractions that keep you from focusing on prayer. And then that peace fills your heart and watch this now. That peace fills your heart and it initiates the depth of prayer. Here is where most believers make their big mistake. They come to the Lord, they give them their prayer requests. He hears them. Then the peace of God fills their heart. They wave at God and say, thank you, Lord, I received your peace. I'm so happy. And then they walk out of the prayer room without pursuing the presence of God. Peace is not the conclusion of prayer. It's the starting point. When you give your burdens over to God by means of the prayer request, his peace fills your heart and that peace is to be used to enter deeper into prayer without distraction. Number three, confrontation. James four seven says, submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you. First Peter five, eight through nine says, be alert and sober. Your enemy, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him standing firm in the faith because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. Now confrontation is what I would call spiritual warfare. There is a dynamic of prayer in which we ought to confront the powers of darkness. We ought to pray for those in our lives who are bound by the enemy's power. We ought to pray against any demonic influence. We ought to resist the devil that he might flee from us. Now it's important that while we recognize that we have a real enemy, while we recognize that the enemy will attack us at times, we must not become obsessed specifically and solely on this one point of prayer. Many believers fall into the trap of imagining that this is the totality of prayer, the confrontation element or the spiritual warfare aspect, and they make their whole Christianity, their whole walk with God about fighting off the devil. When it's actually quite simple, when you walk in the way of the Holy Spirit, that is a form of resisting the enemy. Still there are times in prayer. Hear me clearly now. There are times in prayer where we ought to speak out and pray against the power of the enemy, the power of his influence, not just in our lives, but in the lives of those around us. So confrontation or spiritual warfare prayer is a very important element of prayer. So number one, so far adoration two, supplication three, confrontation number four, contrition. Matthew chapter six verses eight through 13 says this, don't be like them for your father knows exactly what you need even before you ask him. Pray like this our father in heaven. May your name be kept holy. May your kingdom come soon. May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today the food we need and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us. Now right here in verse 13, we see a reference to the type of prayer I just mentioned in point number three. And don't let us yield to temptation but rescue us from the evil one. So there again, we see confrontation where we are to resist the enemy and we are to pray against the temptation that the enemy tries to use against us. But look here for point number four at verse number 12 and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us. Contrition or repentance is an important part of prayer. It's in the Lord's prayer. We are to ask God for forgiveness. Now this doesn't mean that we are to list every single sin and that if we somehow forget about one sin that we committed that we're doomed for all of eternity. No, this is about posturing yourself in agreement and alignment with the will and the word of God. This is about aligning your mind with God's mind. This is about coming into agreement with him by saying, I agree, these things in my life need to go. And it's spiritual maintenance, something that we ought to do on a regular basis to have the Lord search us, point out anything within us that is not of him and then turn from that in agreement with him. This is something we ought to practice in prayer regularly, not condemnation but contrition, not constantly replaying all of the mistakes from our past for which we've already been forgiven, not replaying the things that we've already repented of, but spiritual maintenance by acknowledging that there are things presently in our lives that need to be fixed, areas that need to be smoothed out, areas in which we need to turn from wrongdoing and come into that repentance lifestyle. Number five, meditation. Now when I say meditation, it's going to freak some people out. They'll imagine all of this new age imagery but I'm not talking about new ageism. I'm talking about meditation, something that was originally described in Scripture. You see, worldly meditation tells you to empty your mind. Why? Because influence comes in emptiness. When the enemy is looking for a place of influence, he looks for places that are empty. So worldly meditation says empty your mind, godly meditation says fill your mind with the word and yes, devotion to the word or meditation on the word is a form of prayer. Why? Because it's interaction with God. What is meditation? Meditation simply and biblically speaking is repetition in thought. Psalm chapter one verses one through three, all the joys of those who do not follow the advice of the wicked or stand around with sinners or join in with mockers. Verse two, but they delight in the law of the Lord meditating on it day and night. They are like trees planted along the riverbank, bearing fruit each season. Their leaves never wither and they prosper in all they do. Here we see some of the benefits listed in regards to those who are meditating on the word, who have a lifestyle of a love for the word of God. They flourish in each season, not in some seasons, in every season they flourish and they prosper and all they do. Why? Because they're grounded on the word. If reading the word is eating the word, then meditation or repeating the thought of scripture again and again is digestion. So when you read it or receive it, that's the eating of the word. But when you meditate, that's the digestion of the word. That's how it becomes a part of you. To continually think about the scriptures that you heard and read. To continually think about the truths revealed by the Holy Spirit through the Bible. That is how you meditate. Let the word of God dominate your thoughts. Let the word of God constantly flow through your thought patterns. Filter thoughts that are not of God. Through that filter of truth in the word of God, meditate on the word. Number five is meditation. Number six, intercession. First Timothy chapter two, verse one says, I urge you first of all to pray for all people. Ask God to help them, intercede on their behalf and give thanks for them. So intercession is a very powerful form of prayer. It has to do with praying for others. You know in the scripture we see others praying for healing on behalf of another. We see them praying for salvation on behalf of another, blessing on behalf of another, protection on behalf of another. So you and I can pray whatever God has promised. If God has promised it, you can pray it. And you can pray it for someone else. So as you are interceding, you can pray for the protection and the health and the blessing and the favor of your loved ones. You can pray for those who haven't come to the cross yet to come to the cross. You can constantly pray that the Holy Spirit will guide them and bring people into their lives that will share with them the gospel message. You can pray that they be protected from the strategies of the enemy, that they would be preserved and that they would ultimately be set on a path that is godly. Your prayers matter. Remember this, it is impossible to accomplish nothing in prayer. For every moment you are praying, you are accomplishing something. Whether you see it in the natural or not, whether you fill it in your emotions or not, whether you consider it something that makes sense in your mind or not, whether the person is responding in the way you want or not, prayer is working. Prayer does work. Prayer will continue to work. So intercede for your loved ones and don't give up. Number seven, appreciation or thanksgiving. This is like praise, but this is more so talking about the things that God has done. This is posturing yourself in gratitude. Psalm 100 verse 4 says, enter his gates with thanksgiving. Go into his courts with praise. Give thanks to him and praise his name. Much like the prayer request, the giving of thanks clears the way into his presence. You need to make a habit, we all do, of thanking God for the blessings that he has placed in our lives. Again, religious mindsets tell you that you ought not to even look at the material world around you, but think about how heavily that impacts your life. I mean, look at your loved ones. You experience relationship with them in the material world. Think about the blessing of God. We can use our material to bless the church, to expand the kingdom, to help those in need. We ought to be thanking him, yes, for the material too, but also thank him for the spiritual aspects. Thank him for his love. Thank him for his mercy. Thank him for his grace. Thank him for his patience. Amen to that. Thank you, God, for your patience with someone like me. Thank you for my salvation. Thank you for the joy that daily overflows by the power of the Holy Spirit. And you're going to find that as you begin to thank God, it's a form of praise. The opposite of this is to complain. Complaint is how your flesh praises the negative. But when you thank God for what he is doing, for what he has given you, for who he has placed around you, for what he's doing in you and through you, the material and the spiritual, the earthly and the heavenly, thanking him for all aspects of his blessings, this postures you in the place of thanksgiving and this causes you to go into his presence unhindered. Now, when I say go into his presence, I don't mean that he's not omnipresent. Of course, the presence of the Holy Spirit is everywhere all the time. I'm talking about entering into that awareness of his nearness to where you experience encounters in the glory of God. So just to recap here, adoration, supplication, confrontation, contrition, meditation, intercession, appreciation. Let's pray right now that the Lord would cause you to become a house of prayer, that you would be a tabernacle that hosts his presence. Come on, let's ask him now to give us desire for prayer and to remind us about prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to guide you in all these realms as you continue to grow in your prayer life. Father, I pray it be done in the mighty name of Jesus. Lord, I pray that you would fan into flame desire for prayer. Let it be a fire within our hearts. Make us houses of prayer. Tell him that right now. Say, Lord, make me a house of prayer. Lord, I pray that you would do this by the work of the Holy Spirit. In the mighty name of Jesus we pray. I want you to say it because you believe it. Say amen. Now, don't click off this video. I want to ask you something. What is waiting for you on the other side of your obedience? What is waiting for you on the other side of your step of faith? You know, Jesus said that sometimes the people of the world are more shrewd or more wise than the church. Do you realize that many times, well, everyone else is panicking. There are wicked people in our world who see opportunity where everyone else sees disaster and they keep their calm and they see opportunities where everyone else is shrinking back. Let's exercise wisdom. Let's not look at our surroundings. Let's look at the promises of God. The promises of God are certain. The promises of God are trustworthy. And let's see kingdom opportunities in this season. What is waiting for you on the other side of your step of faith? You say, God, I know there are things you placed in my heart to do. God, there are goals that you have given to me. God, there's a ministry that you've called me to walk in. God, there are blessings that you promised me and my family. And while many people are too fearful to step into the blessing of God, those who live by faith take steps of faith and step into that blessing. Like Peter, who exercised his faith to step out of the certainty of the boat and on to the water. He wasn't walking on the water. He was walking on a word. He was walking on a promise. Like the children of Israel, when they were stepping into the promised land, when they were stepping into what God had told them was rightfully theirs, they marched around the walls of Jericho and then released shouts of victory. The walls came tumbling down. They took steps of faith. So I want to challenge you to take a step of faith right now and join this ministry in our kingdom expansion efforts. Join this ministry in our soul-winning efforts by becoming a monthly ministry supporter, giving a one-time donation or both. You can do that right now by going to davidhernanisministries.com slash donate your support, helps us to do all the live streams, release all the content, and do all the events that we host around the world. So get involved right now, davidhernanisministries.com slash donate, take that step of faith, get involved, do for others what you want God to do for you and see what happens when you let generosity flow in and through you. And if you like this teaching, don't forget to leave a like on the video and also don't forget to subscribe if you haven't already. About 60% of the people who watch Encounter TV have still yet to subscribe. So make sure you subscribe and click that notification bell when you do. And I leave you with this. If you enjoyed this teaching, then you will love three things I've learned about prayer. These are three practical truths that will help you grow in your prayer life.