 You know what praying from the physical body is called? Desperation. I'm gonna really come against the mindsets right now. We've created a culture of desperation in the church because we don't understand our oneness with God. Shout a little louder, jump a little higher, maybe God will hear you. Get a little, as if God is in heaven going, ah, had you just jumped one more time, I would have been able to pour out my spirit on you. Servants beg, strangers beg, sons come boldly. I don't wanna pray from the flesh. I don't wanna pray from my emotions from the body or the soul. Now, what am I saying? Is it ever wrong to dance around? No, I love watching Steve and Mark de Zuma get up here and worship. I love that Steve shouts and jumps and dances. I love that you shout and jump and dance and the Bible says to do that. But we don't do that because we're trying to work up a connection with God. We do that because we're celebrating the fact that we've already been connected with God. Imagine how much time you'd save in prayer if instead of begging God to hear you, you simply believe that he already does. I don't pray to connect with God, I pray from connection with God. So I'm not praying from the physical body, yelling, shouting, that's an expression of what happens on the inside. If what's happening on the inside overflows to that, let's do it. But if I'm doing that to try to get something to happen in my spirit, it's praying in the flesh. I get phone calls, I prefer texting now. It's just much easier unless I need an answer right away and then I call. But sometimes I get a call and I like to go visit South Orange County and I drive down there to the spectrum. If you're over there on a Thursday, you'll find me and Steve. Just drive out there and we meet there, we go over notes, we tape Thursday nights. So Thursdays we go to the spectrum and we just writing notes and scriptures and he works on his music and we're just talking about what we're gonna do that night for the filming. But as I go through Orange County sometimes, I go through those spots where the signal starts to drop and I'll get these phone calls from people and invariably, sometimes the calls will cut out and they just talk, sound like that. And when they start doing that, please don't tell this to anybody, I know, just don't tell anybody, but I'll just hang up on them and I'll let them think the call dropped because I'm not gonna deal with the whole back and forth. But what happens is, what happens is they start yelling. So they go from sounding like, so they just go from quiet gibberish to loud gibberish. You see, they're trying to make up for what they lack in connection with volume. You know where I'm going with this. You see, in my spirit is where I'm connected. Do you know why at the worship events and at the conferences, they tell you to be desperate? Because it makes the worship team look good. I'm just gonna be real with you. Because if you don't respond loud enough to their gift, they're offended. I told you, I'm gonna preach truth tonight. Do you know why churches will build a culture of desperation? Because they wanna be able to brag at the atmosphere. Because they wanna be able to point to the hype and say, look how God is moving. So they make you feel like you have to work for it. Oh, I'm preaching this thing right now, exposing religious spirits. The problem is they're trying to make up for in the flesh what's lacking in the spirit. Because when the spirit starts moving, you don't need to force them. You don't need to coach them. You don't need to make them feel guilty for not making you look like you know how to lead a worship set. That's why I thank God for the worship ministry of Stephen. You just get out here and you have a good time. But you see, and it's not just worship leaders, it's pastors too. Preach a whole sermon on shouting so that they can show a two minute clip of everybody shouting and show off how wonderful they responded to their sermon. Guys, I'm exposing some real things here. See, these are things that are deep now. And the problem is it's all from the flesh. It's from the flesh. And they create that culture because they wanna create hype. They wanna create hype because they're lacking the move of God. So you're not desperate enough. You need to shout. Shame you for not responding to their gift. Oh my gosh, I can put the Bible, I can put the word away. Now I preach this thing. And the problem is we do it too to ourselves. We exhaust ourselves because we love that. We love to work ourselves in a frenzy. The problem is that's why you don't like to pray. You don't like to pray. You don't like to read the word because you think that when you come you're gonna have to work to connect with God. How discouraging is that? Jesus said when you pray, say our Father. He didn't say God, do you hear me? I imagine the conversation goes something like this. God, do you hear me? Yes, I hear you. Lord, please listen. I'm listening. God, do you see me? I see you. God, I need you. I'm here. Our pleading church, church, church. Our pleading is too loud. You're so worked up about having an encounter with God that you're preventing yourself from having an encounter with God. Praying from the flesh. Worshiping from the flesh. Trying to create something that's not there. Instead, instead. Romans 8.26, Romans 8.26. He pleads. He prays. He pushes. With groanings that cannot be uttered. First Corinthians 14, 14. When I pray in the spirit, when I pray in tongues, I'm praying in the spirit. When I pray in tongues, I'm praying with the spirit. First Corinthians 6.17. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. What does that mean? What does that mean? It means that when I pray in tongues, the Holy Spirit is praying for me through me. The Holy Spirit is praying for me through me. Now let me be clear. Because I don't want to get you confused now. If we're up here saying, come on, shout into God with the voice of triumph. That's good, shout. First saying, come on, let's dance, dance. We say, pray in the Holy Ghost, go for it. I'm talking about the mindset that says that's needed in order to connect with God. Thank you for watching EncounterTV. 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.