 Hello, this is David Diga Hernandez and you are watching Spirit Church here on the Encounter TV Network. Every sincere believer desires to develop a consistent, faithful prayer life. And I'm very excited about what I'm about to teach you. I want to teach you how to develop a lifestyle of prayer. After you hear this message, it is my prayer that you will be praying more than ever before. But first, Stephen Moctezuma is here with me. He's going to lead you in some very anointed worship. And then we're getting right into this message here is Stephen Moctezuma. Oh, as we do everything to God, we trials and entail their trouble and take it to the Lord. Can we find a friend so fit? Jesus knows I every week it to the Lord. Jesus knows I every week it to. It's time to move beyond the frustration and into the fruitfulness of a lifestyle of prayer. Every believer wants to pray more, but with all of the responsibilities of life, with all of the demands of life, sometimes it can feel like you're being pulled in multiple different directions and stretched too thin. So I want to teach you about two different kinds of prayer that you can begin to use. And as you begin to use these two kinds of prayer, you're going to see that your prayer life becomes more natural, that you will develop a lifestyle of prayer. So there are two kinds of prayer, unceasing prayer and intentional prayer. These, of course, are terms that I've come up with to help you understand concepts that are themselves biblical, but you won't necessarily see these terms being used in the scripture, but they are biblical. So again, unceasing prayer and intentional prayer. Now unceasing prayer is continual prayer. It's that 24-7 fellowship with God, that awareness of His presence, that involving Him in your everyday life, that talking to Him in every moment that you think about Him, that commitment to think about Him more often. You can pray with unceasing prayer in the car, on your way to work or to school. You can pray in your mind as you begin to move about your day. You can pray without ceasing 24-7, aware of the presence of God. And then there is intentional prayer. Now unceasing prayer is continual. It's 24-7, but intentional prayer is that ceremony to prayer. It's that discipline to disconnect from distraction and to set aside a time and a place that you can seek God. Intentional prayer focuses your attention on God and His Word and worship. So then using unceasing prayer and intentional prayer will actually cause you to develop a lifestyle of prayer, but you need both. Some just want to pray without ceasing, but they never want to develop that discipline to being intentional about their prayer life. Others prefer the intentional prayer life, but then go about their day and forget about God and live as though He's not walking with them everywhere that they go. We need both unceasing prayer and intentional prayer. Unceasing prayer is for any atmosphere. Intentional prayer is for a certain atmosphere. The undisciplined struggle with intentional prayer, the structured have trouble with unceasing prayer. The undisciplined think intentional prayer is unnecessary. The structured think unceasing prayer is strange. Unceasing prayer is spontaneous, intentional prayer is scheduled. Both are necessary elements of praying in the spirit. So unceasing prayer will produce longevity in your life. If you are continually praying and constantly aware of the presence of God, this makes you aware of His presence, of course, and it causes you to live in that awareness of His presence. But whereas unceasing prayer will produce longevity, only intentional prayer can produce depth. You see, I can settle for intentional or unceasing prayer alone and go about my day 24-7, but there will be a shallowness to my prayer life even though there is a consistency to it. And if I only go for intentional prayer, sure, there will be times that I find those depths of His presence, but then I lack consistency because I go on living without living in that lifestyle of prayer. So again, unceasing prayer produces longevity, intentional prayer produces depth. Let's focus on each one of these so that we can learn how to use them in everyday life. First, I want to focus in on unceasing prayer. When you become aware of the Holy Spirit's constant nearness, every room is a prayer room. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verse 17 says, never stop praying. This is a commitment to be prayerful. This is a commitment to be continually mindful of the nearness of God. It's this praying about everything that the Scripture commands us to do. Philippians chapter 4 verse 6 says, don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need and thank Him for all He has done. Unceasing prayer is constant awareness of the Holy Spirit's presence. Philippians chapter 4 verse 8 says, and now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right and pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. It's a commitment of the mind and the heart. Thoughts are the actions of the mind. Now, the Scripture would never command us to do something that we could not do. God would never require the impossible of us. God gives us commands that we are able to fulfill by the power of the Holy Spirit. So when the Scripture tells you to fix your thoughts, when the Scripture tells you to control your thoughts, it's telling you to do something that's possible. It's possible to choose your thoughts. And as you begin to choose your thoughts, new patterns begin to develop in your mind. And as new patterns begin to develop in your mind, new mindsets become established. So it's possible to control your thoughts. You can control your thoughts and choose to make that commitment to become mindful of God. Unceasing prayer is all about committing to choosing to think about God as often as possible. To think about God on as many occasions as possible. To think about God and consider his likes and dislikes as often as you are able. Unceasing prayer is that commitment to thinking about God. And as you think about God, that awareness of his presence changes the way that you live. When I am mindful of God, I am involved with God. When I am mindful of God, I am involved with God. Prayer doesn't necessarily bring God closer. He already lives within you. Prayer makes you more aware of the presence that's always with you. So there are several benefits to praying without ceasing. One of those benefits is the joy of the Spirit. We read a verse to you in Ephesians chapter number 4 verse 30. And it's a very well-known scripture I've taught on this before. And I want to show this to you again. Ephesians chapter 4 verse 30 says, And do not bring sorrow to God's Holy Spirit by the way you live. Remember, He has identified you as His own guaranteeing that you will be saved on the day of redemption. So one of the benefits of praying without ceasing is the joy of the Spirit. Now I know here in Ephesians 4 30, the scripture is describing the Holy Spirit's sorrow at our disobedience. But I want you to think about this. If the Holy Spirit loves me enough to be heartbroken when I disobey, then the Holy Spirit loves me enough to be pleased when I obey Him. When you obey the Holy Spirit, you begin to sense His joy. And that joy that doesn't go away, that joy that is eternal, that joy that is permanent comes from the eternal Spirit Himself living in you. So when you live a life that is pleasing to God, you sense the joy of the Holy Spirit and His joy becomes your joy. So when I begin to consider Him, when I begin to think about Him, when I begin to involve Him, it brings Him joy and you begin to walk in that joy vicariously. You begin to walk in that joy secondhand, so to speak. That joy, which is from the Holy Spirit, comes bursting out of you. You won't be able to contain it. And it is truly a joy to know that joy of the Holy Spirit. So you sense the joy of the Spirit. You also sense the pleasure of the Lord. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 10 says this. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. When you begin to live in such a way that you're more mindful of what pleases God, you begin to live a lifestyle of greater obedience. You see, sometimes we live too fast-paced, we're too distracted and we move too quickly to allow for the Lord to instruct us. But when I live my life at a purposeful pace, when I live my life aware of the presence of the Holy Spirit, then what begins to happen is that I begin to carefully determine what pleases the Lord. His likes and His dislikes become my likes and dislikes. So one of the benefits of unceasing prayer is also the pleasure of the Lord. Another benefit of unceasing prayer is spiritual alertness. Now this is found in Ephesians chapter 6 verse number 18, but the Bible says this. Pray in the Spirit at all times. On every occasion, stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert. You cannot be alert unless you are praying consistently. Consistent, unceasing, faithful prayer produces spiritual alertness. There's no spiritual rust that you have to work through in order to minister to someone or in order to pray for someone. I once sat down with a great man of God and I asked him, how do you prepare sermons? He looked at me as if I asked a silly question. He said, I don't prepare the sermon, I prepare the man. In other words, he was saying that he lives prepared. He lives in that state of spiritual alertness and those who pray without ceasing, those who live in this awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit receive this spiritual alertness in their lives. There's no spiritual rust. They can jump right into it because of that awareness of God. Now, when I first got my driver's license, I admit, I would drive probably faster than I should have been driving. I was single, I had a car, I was excited about getting my license and I probably went above the speed limit now and then and I'm not recommending that you do that, I'm just admitting that I did. However, when I began to date Jessica, my wife, suddenly my driving habits began to change. As I would drive her around, I had to be more mindful of her comfort in the car, especially when she's putting on makeup. I have to make sure I keep that ride nice and smooth. So the married version of myself drives much more carefully than the single version of myself. However, my driving habits changed the most dramatically the day that we brought my daughter home from the hospital. When we put her in that car, in that car seat, she was so tiny. I remember driving out of that parking lot from the hospital and just being aware of all of the traffic around me. I wanted to make sure I stopped properly. I wasn't speeding. I was checking every lane change. I was double checking every lane change. Why? Because I was aware of someone else in the car besides me and I have to consider them now. And just as my driving habits changed as I became aware of those in the car with me. So our lifestyles begin to change as we live in awareness of the presence of the Holy Spirit. So unceasing prayer is 24-7. It's the commitment to keep God in your mind, the commitment to involve him in everyday life, to pray in the car, at work, at school, wherever you're going, whatever you're doing, you can pray without ceasing. And the benefits of praying without ceasing are the joy of the Spirit, the pleasure of the Lord and spiritual alertness. Now I want to spend a couple minutes to talk to you about intentional prayer. The strength of your spirit is directly proportionate to the consistency of your prayer life. I want to say that again. The strength of your spirit is directly proportionate to the consistency of your prayer life. Several years ago I had a dream. And in the dream I saw myself floating in a dark abyss. It was just me, nothing else around me. And within myself I could see a glowing white ball of light, an orb, and it was pulsing and growing. As the orb would pulse and grow, it would become brighter. And as the orb would shrink, it would become dimmer. Now over the orb I saw a layer of dirt and on the dirt I saw tiny structures that look like buildings, like skyscrapers. Now, as I'm watching this, I notice that any time that white ball of light would shrink and become dim, the dirt would become uneven. And when the dirt became uneven, all of the structures that were on top of the dirt began to fall over. But whenever that white ball of light would grow to full size, the dirt would even out and the structures would stand upright. When the Lord revealed the meaning of this dream to me, He revealed to me that all of the structures that would stand and fall, depending upon the brightness and size of the light, represented all of my responsibilities, my marriage, my ministry, my relationships, all of it was represented by those structures. The dirt represented me or my life. And any time my life was chaotic, all of the structures and responsibilities would fall over. The Lord revealed the meaning of the orb to me. The white pulsing ball of light represented my prayer life. Whenever my prayer life was intact, everything about me was even and whenever I was even, all of the structures representing my responsibilities were able to stand. But whenever that light would shrink, chaos would ensue and nothing was able to stand. The strength of your spirit is directly proportionate to the consistency of your prayer life. Add to unceasing prayer the ceremony and notice I call it the ceremony, the ceremony of intentional prayer. Yes, you can talk to God 24-7. Yes, you have access to Him wherever you go. Yes, He will hear you when you pray. The question is, do you hear Him when He speaks? You see, as I'm going about my everyday life, sometimes I can become so distracted by the things around me that I have trouble hearing the voice of God, not because He isn't speaking, but because I'm so distracted. But what intentional prayer does is it adds the ceremony to prayer. And by ceremony, I simply mean the set time, the set place and the reverence that goes with praying intentionally. In addition to unceasing prayer, in addition to praying 24-7, in addition to being aware of God's presence, you should add a time of your day that you block out for no one else but the Lord that you dedicate to Him. Jesus Himself taught us to pray this way in Matthew chapter 6 verses 5-6. 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. Shut the door, find that privacy, close yourself in. That's the ceremony of prayer. Prayer is more than just thinking about God. It's also setting the time to focus. Establish a time and a place. Jesus prayed this way. Mark chapter 1 verse 35 says 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. Luke 5-16, but Jesus often withdrew to the wilderness for prayer. He would cultivate the atmosphere of prayer. There's this misconception about the ministry of Jesus. People think or they imagine that Jesus just kind of carried out his ministry walking around aimlessly, just kind of going with the wind, hanging out on the street corners and doing whatever. No, that's not how Jesus did his ministry. He was very intentional about the way he ministered. He was very intentional about the way he prayed. He was very intentional about the way he reached people. In fact, the Bible says in Mark chapter 14 verse 49, this is Jesus talking, why didn't you arrest me in the temple? I was there among you teaching every day. But these things are happening to fulfill what the scriptures say about me. Now here, Jesus is saying, you should have just arrested me where I was most of the time, which was in the temple. So Jesus here is telling us that he would go to the temple every day. Why? Because there was structure there. He could be intentional there. Jesus would go from place to place, find the temple, the synagogue. He would teach in the temple. Then he would pray for the sick and he would do that from place to place. Why am I telling you that? I'm telling you that because we need to realize that concerning the ministry of Jesus, there was structure. There was intention. There was purpose. There was a set way that he would do it. And this is what we must add to our lives if we are to be disciplined. And discipline is a part of prayer. Only those without God's presence have to chase atmospheres. Only those with God's presence can cultivate atmospheres. There is a discipline to prayer and it is the way you cultivate the manifested atmosphere of the presence of God in your life. So add both to your daily living. Unceasing prayer. 24-7 awareness. Constantly communing with him. And intentional prayer. Setting aside a time and a place to focus only on the presence of God. You do both of these. You'll have both longevity and spiritual depth. Father in Jesus' name, I pray for those receiving this now. And I ask you, by your Holy Spirit, to put a spirit of prayer and supplication in them. Let there be a fire ignited today that they might become people of prayer. Greater depths than they've ever known. I ask it in the name of Jesus. Greater depths. Cry out for, ask him for greater depths. Ask him for a deeper, more faithful prayer life. Right now, begin to pray. Father in Jesus' name, let it be granted. I pray, Lord, that you would help them to be aware of you. Your presence wherever they go. And give them and inspire them with the fire of the Holy Spirit that they might set aside times just for you. That they might guard the secret place and cherish it. In Jesus' name, we pray. And I want you to say it because you believe it. Say, Amen. There's somebody watching me right now. You're believing God to heal you. You have leukemia. And you were just about to turn this video off. You were just saying to yourself, He used to give words of knowledge so often. But now, I guess not. And you were just about to turn the video off. And right now, God's power is touching you. Father, I thank you for the healing virtue now flowing in the name of Jesus. Receive your healing. Receive your miracle. Go to the doctor. Have him check you and make sure you testify of God's healing power. God's healing power. Jesus is the one who is doing it. And if you're believing for a healing in your body, that healing virtue is flowing now. I do not have to call out your sickness for you to receive. You can receive from God's healing touch right now. I want you to say it again because you believe it. Say, Amen. And that is it for the lesson and the prayer. I want to welcome now the new members of Spirit Church. There you are up on the screen. We love you. We are praying for you. I always say that because I always mean it. If you like information on how you can join Spirit Church, just go to davidhernanisministries.com slash Spirit Church. When you go, you just have to scroll down a little ways and you'll see a form that you can fill out. It's 100% free. Join the Spirit Family, which is our online church. Make it your church. Join us today. There are thousands of members all around the world and I know your life will be blessed. When you sign up, that will enable you to begin receiving weekly emails from us with brand new content every week that will help you to grow spiritually. And now to your comments. These comments come from last week's teaching. How to pray with power. Three simple keys. If you haven't watched that message yet, I encourage you to do so. I give you three simple keys that will help you to overcome distraction and doubt and move into the effectiveness of prayer. And while you're at it, be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube, click that notification bell and follow us on all our social media accounts. And while you're at it, go ahead and leave a comment in the comment section and I may read it on next week's edition of Spirit Church. The first commenter writes, thanks for the teaching. I really needed this because I find myself not getting deeper into prayer and my prayer time gets shorter and shorter as time goes by. Praise God for this. Indira Surreal writes, thank you for providing practical interpretations that we can implement into our everyday lives and put into practice immediately. We're all just trying to get closer to the Lord. If you're wondering what Indira is talking about, those three keys I gave in that message can be applied immediately like as soon as you're done watching the video. So make sure you check that out. The next commenter writes, this changed my prayer life completely. Since then, I have seen God working and answering my prayers. Thank you, David. And our good friend Carla Laskowski has the final comment and she wrote, thank you Pastor David for using that gift to help enrich the lives of everyone. My prayer for you is that God will enlarge your territory to reach for more souls and spread the good news of Jesus Christ around the world. May God keep blessing you, your family and all who make this ministry possible. I'm thankful for your service and your knowledge. Know that we all appreciate your hard work and sacrifice for the kingdom of God. Well, thank you Carla. We so appreciate that and I'm very encouraged to know that you are being blessed and we know that God receives all the glory but it is very encouraging to hear from you and from the comments in general. People telling us about how their lives are being impacted. That means the world to us. And now I want you to get involved. I want you to join our army of supporters in this spiritual battle for the soul of a generation. Did you hear what I said? We're fighting a spiritual battle for the soul of a generation and it's time to step up. It's time to get involved. It's time to finally get involved with what God is doing through this ministry. Maybe you've been standing on the sidelines. You've been blessed. You've enjoyed the teachings, the worship. Maybe you've come to an event. Maybe you've read a book and you know that this ministry is good soil but you haven't quite got in there with us through partnership. I want to encourage you. Now is the time. We need more believers to step up and help us win the soul of a generation. I'll tell you this. If you can give me their eyes and their ears, I can win their soul. If you can give me their eyes and their ears, I can win their soul. And you give me their eyes and their ears to supporting this ministry that we might continue with producing the media. That we might continue making videos. That we might continue holding events all around the world. That we might continue with the Holy Spirit School, our free Bible training program online. This is where you come in. This is where you make a difference. You might have looked around the world and said, how can I make a difference? How can I get involved? Here's how become a partner with this ministry for $10 or more a month. At that level of $10 or more, a beautiful Dove lapel pin so that you can show your support of the gospel. You're going to get access to our monthly Zoom calls that are just for partners. You're going to get a 10% discount off all ministry apparel. You're going to get event seat reservations and you're going to get an exclusive monthly update that's just for our partners at the $30 a month level or more. You're going to get all of those wonderful benefits, plus you're going to get your selection of a book from our warehouse. And if you partner with us at $100 or more a month, you're going to get all of the books in the selection and you're going to get a double discount on all ministry apparel. But most importantly, and what's more important than all of those wonderful benefits is knowing that you're helping us to spread the gospel around the world. That's just our way of thanking you. But the real benefit is knowing that you are funding the media. You are funding the events. You are the one that God is using to help this ministry go and grow. And this is a time of tremendous growth. So I'm asking you, step out in faith. You may look around and say, well, I don't really know. I don't know if it's time to do this yet or I'm kind of concerned. Step out in faith, do it today and you watch God will supply every need. You can go right now to davidhernanisministries.com slash partner to sign up to become a monthly partner or if you want to make a one-time gift go to davidhernanisministries.com slash donate. You can do that right now and help us win souls through the spreading of the gospel in the power of the Holy Spirit. And that is it for this edition of Spirit Church here on The Encounter TV Network. Until next time, remember nothing is impossible with God. This message was taken from my latest book Praying in the Holy Spirit. Order now at amazon.com. Thank you for watching Encounter TV. Don't forget to subscribe and click the notification bell. Also, help us spread the gospel of Jesus Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. Make a one-time donation or become a monthly supporter by clicking on the donate link now.