 What I wanna give you now is going to enrich your prayer life. We're gonna look at what it means to pray in the Holy Spirit. And then I wanna show you how to do that using scripture. Let's go first to Jude chapter one. I'm gonna read verses 20 and 21. But you, beloved, building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in the love of God, waiting for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads to eternal life. Now, this particular Bible verse is very often misapplied. So let me say this just to be clear. I believe that the gift of tongues and tongues interpretation, both of those gifts are for today. I pray in tongues. I encourage people to pray in tongues. I have many teachings on the gift of speaking in tongues. I have nothing against the gift of speaking in tongues. It's one of the topics I actually cover most often. It's probably in the top five topics that I cover. So I wanna make it very clear here that I affirm the gift of tongues as a gift for today. And it's not just an earthly language. It's what some would call the gibberish, that kind of tongue where when you're speaking it aloud, people may look at you and think you're drunk. I affirm that gift as a true gift of the Holy Spirit. Having said that, Jew chapter one verses 20 and 21 are very often misapplied because people teach Jew chapter one verses 20 and 21 as if these verses are talking about the gift of speaking in tongues and they are not talking about the gift of speaking in tongues. In fact, speaking in tongues is a form of praying in the Holy Spirit. But praying in the Holy Spirit is a much bigger category. So I would say that praying in the spirit is the category and praying in tongues is a specific practice under that category. Now, when I talk about praying in the Holy Spirit, this is what I wrote. To pray in the spirit is to desire in agreement with heaven, to speak aloud those petitions which originate in the will of the Father. True prayer in the spirit begins in union with God. Praying in the Holy Spirit is praying in harmony with the will of the Holy Spirit, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in the power of the Holy Spirit. Bottom line, to pray in the Holy Spirit is to pray in a surrendered posture. To pray in the Holy Spirit is to pray in union with what the Holy Spirit is praying. Union is a thing we rarely hear about today. Union is the beginning of prayer. Many believers think that they pray and pray and pray in an attempt to connect with God. They think that you have to pray and pray and pray to find and to perfect union, but it's just the opposite. We already have union with the Holy Spirit. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. We are already one with the Holy Spirit and it is out of this oneness that we pray. It is out of this union that we gain our confidence. To pray in the spirit is to pray in him, to pray through his power with his guidance under his direction, by his will. To pray in the spirit is to pray from this beautiful union that you and I share with the person of the Holy Spirit. I want you to write this in the comment section whether you're watching live or on replay. I want you to say this without shame, without apology. I want you to let others know where you stand when it comes to praying in the Holy Spirit. Write these two simple words whether you're watching live or on the replay. I surrender and that must be the cry of the heart. That must be the beginning place of prayer. True prayer begins with yielding to God. Well, think about the fact that all spiritual desires that we possess originate with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit doesn't just give you the desire to pray. He also guides you when you pray. But the Holy Spirit though he will give you the desire relies on you to enact the discipline. He'll provide the desire to pray. That's why you and I get those nudges from the Holy Spirit randomly throughout the day. You'll feel this tugging at your heart. This gentle nudge in the direction of prayer where the Holy Spirit says, come away and pray. Come away and worship. Come away and know me. And it's up to you and I to respond to the desire with discipline. We must respond to that desire by choosing to obey that voice. Think about when we say, I pray in the name of Jesus. You'll ask anything in my name, he says. They show lay hands on the sick in his name, the scripture says. And so what does that mean in his name? Well, to do something in his name is to do it in his authority in his stead. When you pray for the sick in the name of Jesus, it's as if Jesus himself is laying hands on the sick. When you cast out devils in the name of Jesus, it's as if Jesus himself is speaking against those devils. That's why they can't put up a fight. That's why I've always been curious when we see this back and forth between the person speaking against the demonic power and the demonic power, as if the demonic power can wrestle with God. When we look at the scripture, we find that the Bible doesn't really talk about stubborn demons as much as it talks about faithless men, faithless men and women. It's our faith and the exercising thereof that causes us to step into that authority. And in stepping into that authority, we step into Christ. You and I are not perfect. You and I are not righteous. You and I are not holy, but Jesus is. He's the only one who lived a sinless, perfect life. And when we step in him, we step into that perfection. When we step in him by faith, we step into that power and authority. When we step in him, we're seated in heavenly places with him. It's the same thing with the Holy Spirit. When I pray in the Holy Spirit, I'm praying by his will. I'm praying the things he desires. That's why there's such power in it. You see, my friend, there is no such thing as persuading God. You may be able to point to Old Testament examples that seem to indicate that God could have his mind changed by a persuasive or persistent man. But this isn't the case. You see, all along it was the Lord's will to show mercy. All along it was the Lord's will to show compassion. But he chooses to partner with people and he chooses to use you and I in prayer. I often ask the Lord, why pray persistently if you're just gonna do what you want to do? And this is precisely because he has chosen to partner with us in the earth. He doesn't need us, but he has chosen to use us. He doesn't need our permission, but he chooses to work in partnership with men and women within the earth. So then, the will of God is like a mighty river. You can't change the flow of that river. You can't change the force of that river. You can't cause it to go up or down, left or right. That river goes where it goes. That river is the sovereign will of God. That river cannot be moved. I mean, who with enough pleading and persuasion can cause God to do something that he doesn't want to do? None of us are capable of causing God to do something that he doesn't want to do. None of us are so persuasive as to make God do what we desire. None of us are so convincing or so intelligent as to point out something that God himself missed. God doesn't miss a thing, my friend. So then, that river is the will of God. Prayer doesn't change the direction of the river. Prayer puts you in the river. I wanna say that again. The will of God is like a river that you cannot change the direction of. It's a mighty, flowing, rushing river and you can do nothing to change the direction. When you pray, you are not changing the direction of the river. You are jumping into the river. Far too many believers want to drink from the river of the spirit. They want to get on their knees on the very edge and sit on the riverbank. And they wanna cup their hands in the water and bring it up for a sip. And they wanna take sips of the spirit instead of jumping in. Why? Because they wanna maintain a sense of control. Because they wanna maintain a sense of self. Because they want to, in some instances, do their own will instead of God's will. But God is looking for people who will pray in the spirit, not pray in their own desires, not pray with their own emotions, not pray according to their own intellect. But God is looking for people who will say, Lord, I'm not gonna sip from the river. I'm gonna jump in. Yes, I may get soaked. Yes, the river may take me places I'm not aware of. Yes, it may be a little scary. Yes, I may not be able to decide on the direction of that river, but I don't care, Lord, I want everything you have for me. I'm jumping in the river. God's looking for people like that. God's looking for people who will pray like that. So the scripture tells us that God gave dominion to man. Just read the book of Genesis, the creation account. God gives dominion to man. Of course, he loses it through the fall into sin and then the Lord regains it. Now when we stand in him, we regain what was lost. And so man prays. Man is responsible for tending the earth. Man is responsible for cultivating God's creation. So when you pray according to God's will, it will be done. That's why Jesus said, ask anything in my name and it will be done for you. Well, what does it mean to ask in his name? It means to ask according to his will. So if God desires it and I partner with it as a human being in the earth, I bring it to pass in agreement with God. God is looking for prayer partners. Now I know to some that may sound like heresy, but I'm not saying that God needs us. I'm not saying that God isn't sovereign. I'm not saying that God can by his own decision, by his own power decide, you know what? I don't want any of you. I don't need any of you. And I'm gonna do it this way whether you like it or not. He can do that and he does do that. Ultimately he accomplishes his will. But he chooses because of his mercy and compassion and his goodness and his love, he chooses to involve you and I in his actions within the earth. And he's looking for partners. He's looking for people who will come into agreement with what heaven is saying. He's looking for people who will say, Lord, I'm not gonna pray my own will. Well, didn't Jesus have this same battle in the garden? He said, Lord, if it's possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. What a prayer Jesus prayed. It was true surrender, the yielding of self to embrace the cross and the pain that was before him. He had to accept God's will because he was modeling for us what it means to truly pray. True prayer isn't convincing God to do anything. True prayer isn't to set your agenda in the earth. Jesus said, when you pray, pray, may your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Prayer is the ushering in of God's kingdom. Prayer is the ushering in of God's will. It aligns heaven and earth. It's by persistent prayer that we pool all of the shattered broken pieces of creation into alignment with the will of God. We're not twisting God's arm. We're pooling creation into the river. We're bringing things into alignment with the will of God. We speak in agreement. We declare in agreement, why? Because that's what Jesus told us to pray. Why would Jesus tell us to pray for God's will to be done in the earth if the prayers that we prayed in that way accomplished nothing? Jesus wouldn't tell us to do something without a purpose. He wouldn't say pray that God's will be done in the earth but really that doesn't affect anything. No, it's by our prayers that the will of God becomes established in the earth. Could he do it without us? Absolutely. Don't hear what I'm not saying. We're not little gods. We're not divine. We are reflections of his light. He is God. He is the only one who can speak things into existence but he's given us the privilege of cultivating creation by persistently pooling the fallen creation into alignment with his will pray that his will be done in earth as it is in heaven. And this is the great privilege of prayer. This is what it means to pray in the spirit. Now this is why I say by the way that praying in tongues is one of the ways to pray in the spirit. Why? Because when I pray in tongues, 1 Corinthians 14, 14 tells me when I pray my spirit is praying and my spirit always prays in agreement with God. So when I pray in tongues, I'm praying prayers that are in agreement with God. That is why we say sometimes that praying in tongues is a form of praying in the spirit. But again, Jude one, 20 and 21 is not specifically talking about tongues. It's talking about praying in the alignment with the Holy spirit. So when you pray, you are transformed. When you pray, the earth around you is transformed. When you pray, you are causing creation to come in alignment with that will. Now we do this from oneness. More than it will change anyone or anything else, prayer will change the one who prays. I wanna say that again. More than it will change anyone or anything else, prayer will change the one who prays. Prayer is less about doing and causing and more about becoming the will of God in the earth. Prayer is about becoming God's answer in the world. Now, of course, God does things by his own power through the miraculous. He does healing and deliverance and he causes things like this to manifest completely apart from us. But he also chooses, he also chooses to work through us in this way. If you're receiving this, I want you to let me know in the comments section. If you have any questions, also write them because we read those also. Now, let me read this here to you. This is something I wrote concerning oneness with the Holy Spirit. And I wrote this and I'm sharing with you something now that's very precious to me. And this is something I wrote concerning that union with the Holy Spirit. You know, I talk often about the Holy Spirit and people tell me all the time, you talk too much about the Holy Spirit. Why are you talking about the Holy Spirit so much? I love the Holy Spirit. I'm a friend of the Holy Spirit. I love his work. I love his nature. I love to hear his voice. I love the Holy Spirit. And so what I want to share with you now is something very precious that I wrote concerning that oneness. And I pray it's a blessing to you. Oneness, as I am describing it here, is that flow of the Spirit that is so natural, you don't even know you're flowing. It's obedience inspired from such depth that you're not even aware that you're obeying. In moments like those, there is no gap of time between when the Spirit speaks and you respond. It just is. Move your hand, shift your eyes, tilt your head. It's so very natural. There is no thought given, no mechanics to be forced. It's just like that. When you realize oneness with the Spirit, it's as though you are a member of a great body. And the Spirit is the mind that controls even the most subtle of movements. Your movement becomes his movement. Your intent dissolves in God's will. Your presence and his presence become indistinguishable from one another. Indeed, you are joined with the Lord and in that union, you find the beginning of true prayer. All true prayer begins as oneness with the Holy Spirit. I remember one time I was ministering in Orlando, Florida. And as I was walking into the church building of the church that I was ministering to, I was greeted by several people in the church lobby. I couldn't help but notice that there was this one lady standing there. She was one of the greeters. She's standing there and she's leaning on a cane. She could barely pick her hand up. Her hand had been paralyzed and it was difficult for her to move. She held it against her body in a twisted fashion. And I remember her hobbling just a few inches toward me. She could barely take a step and doing her best to keep her balance. She reached her good hand out. I shook hands, but I took a mental note of the fact that there was a woman in the lobby who was paralyzed on one side of her body. Barely able to move, barely able to reach. Her hand stuck at her side. Her leg barely able to be lifted off of the ground. I get on the platform after the worship. I stand up before the congregation and I begin to preach. I was preaching, I believe, on the deliverance and spiritual warfare that morning. And as I'm speaking, I'm talking about the things that I'm ministering and suddenly I hear myself saying, go get that woman from the lobby right now. God wants to heal her. And I thought, okay, that's a pretty bold statement, but there was something so very natural about that union with the Holy Spirit. There was something so very certain about that which what I was hearing. And I remember that which I was hearing. I call her out. I said, there's a woman here and the Lord wants to heal you. Bring her here. They bring her to the front. She came to the front with her cane. And again, this is not me doing this. I'm just the servant. I'm the delivery man, but the Lord is the one who sent the miracle. And so I'm praying for this woman in front of the congregation. And right there in front of the congregation, we actually have the footage for this. She begins to slowly lift her leg up which she had been unable to do for years. She begins to stretch out her hand. And then she begins to jump up and down, walk side to side. She's dancing and singing on the platform. The Lord completely healed her. That's what I'm talking about. That oneness, that union. It was just a beautiful flow of the Holy Spirit. I can't explain it any other way than to say that the Holy Spirit was so, he was so in control of that situation. And I was just flowing with what he was doing. Let's go to Galatians chapter five. I'm gonna read something to you. We saw Jude chapter one versus 20 and 21. I talked a little about Praying in Tongues. First Corinthians 14, 14. And there were some other scripture references as well that we gave. But let me show you something else here. This is the description of the life of the believer. I'm gonna show you something in Galatians. And I pray that the Holy Spirit takes this information and makes it revelation. Go there now. Galatians chapter five. Now, as a context setter, I'll just say that Paul is writing to the church in Galatia. And he's talking to them about rejecting a false gospel. He wants to make sure they reject the false gospel that enslaves them to works again. Because they had been fooled by some who were weaseling their way into the church and saying that they had to do certain things according to the law in order to experience salvation. And Paul is saying, look, that is a deception in Galatians three one. I believe he says, who has bewitched you? He's not talking about a curse or demon possession. He's talking about deception because he's saying, who's bewitched you? In other words, why are you believing this gospel? Why are you being deceived into believing this false gospel? And so this is where he begins to write about life in the spirit and freedom in Christ and these types of themes that have become familiar to us. But as we begin to read Galatians chapter five verses 16 and onward, I wanna show you something in regards to living in the spirit because when you live in the spirit, there's a certain surrender to it. There's a certain way of being. And this doesn't just necessarily apply to living in the spirit to avoid a false gospel. Though that's the context. In principle, Paul the apostle is talking about letting the Holy Spirit guide your life in general. Of course, he's specifically using this instruction to help them get out of believing a false gospel. But these verses have universal application to the life of the believer in many different ways. Galatians chapter five verse 16 and onward, let's read it now. I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. So again, he's talking about being broken away from the power of a deceptive false gospel. And in order to do that, he's saying let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. And then you won't do what your sinful nature craves. But here's what we get from this verse that has universal application. And that is that whatever strengthens my spirit weakens the sin nature. Whatever strengthens my spirit weakens the flesh. And when I say flesh, I don't mean physical body. I'm talking about the old programming of the mind, the sin nature, the person you used to be. Verse 17, now watch this. The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the spirit wants. Capital S there, it's the Holy Spirit. And the spirit, capital S, gives us desires. I love this. It gives us desires that are opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other. So you are not free to carry out your good intentions. Now here, Paul the apostle is not saying that you aren't responsible for the decisions that you make or the sinful mistakes that you choose. Here he is talking about identifying. Here he is talking about these forces that can be a challenge to us. He's not saying that you are the sin nature. That sin nature, though it's a very real part of who you used to be, is not the basis of your identity anymore. These two forces are constantly fighting each other. Now some would say, well, that means I have two natures. No, no, no. You and I do not have two natures. That sin nature isn't the real you. That sin nature is the former self. That sin nature is the programming from a former way of living, from a fallen state. And the spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other. So you are not free to carry out your good intentions. This is the battle here. And perhaps you found yourself in this battle where you're struggling to overcome certain issues. You're struggling to overcome certain doubts. And especially in the case of prayer, you're struggling to pray. This is what the Bible says, Jesus said, the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. In other words, the spirit has these desires to pray. These spirit is calling you away to the secret place. How many times a day does the Holy Spirit call for our attention only to be ignored by us in exchange for something that we deem as entertaining or more worth our time? How many times do we trade the supernatural for the secular, the sacred for the secular, the wonders of heaven for the worldliness that we experience around us? How many times do we trade time and prayer for time with Netflix or time in the word for time scrolling down the Instagram feed or the TikTok feed or through the YouTube videos that we wanna catch up on? Now I'm not saying that there's anything evil unto themselves and unto itself and those things I mentioned. What I am saying is sometimes these become distractions. So the sin nature craves only entertainment. The sin nature craves only distraction. The sin nature doesn't want to pray. Have you ever noticed that you can do almost anything and the sin nature won't fight you? I mean, you can read the word and maybe there's some resistance, but it's not as bad as when you pray. You especially can listen to worship music. I mean, people can stand in a worship service for two or three hours and not even blink an eye, but the moment the word is preached, they can't sit down for more than 20 minutes. Why? Because there are certain things that kill the flesh faster and so the flesh is fighting at different levels, these things. These are things I've experienced, of course, in regards to subjecting the flesh. Paul the apostle talks about keeping the body under subjection. Now, have you noticed that you can read the word? I mean, atheists read the word, no issues. Philosophers read the word, historians read the word, no issues. You can serve in ministry, the sound team, you can play an instrument on the worship team, you can usher, you can be a greeter, you can work with children. You can sing and you can dance. You can jump up and down during the worship songs, but the moment you go to pray, the flesh starts to put up this fight. Why? Because prayer is the death of the flesh. Prayer is when the flesh becomes weak. Whatever strengthens my spirit weakens my flesh. And so we see that there are these two desires fighting one another. Some of us, I'm just gonna be honest here, some of us pray in the flesh. What does that mean to pray in the flesh? You know, Christians toss around these terms all the time. You're in the flesh, you're of the flesh, you're immature and in the flesh, and they say these things just kind of as insults against the people they don't like in the church. But being in the flesh actually has a very specific meaning and it doesn't just apply to anybody you dislike or you've gotten an argument with. Sometimes we say, oh, they were just in the flesh when in fact we were the ones in the flesh. So that's a different sermon for a different time. But what does it mean to pray in the flesh? Well, First Thessalonians 5.23 tells us that we are a spirit who has a soul that lives in a body. You are not your body, you are not your soul, you are the spirit, that's who you truly are. That's the part of you that's united with the Lord. That's the part of you that confirms your sonship. Read Romans chapter eight, verse nine. So we as believers find our identity in our innermost being. John 7.38, out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living water. So Jesus is talking about the inner man. So the body is the shell, the soul is the outer being and the spirit is the innermost being. Here's the problem, many of us pray from the outer shells of who we are. I pray you catch this, please hear me. Ask the Holy Spirit right now to help you get this because this could right here alone, this revelation from the word can bring real breakthrough in your prayer life. It can really enrich your prayer life. So ask the Holy Spirit right now to help you get this. I want you to get this. When you pray in the flesh, it means you're praying from the outer shells of who you are. How does this look? Well, some people try to stir a move of God by hype, screaming and yelling and jumping and dancing and there's nothing wrong with any of that. There is nothing wrong with jumping up and down during worship. There is nothing wrong with shouting. I say all the time, shout unto God with the voice of triumph. There's nothing wrong with the flag waving and the running around the church building as long as it's done in an orderly way or that's a part of the church culture because if you're running around the building with someone's trying to preach a sermon that's disruptive and the Holy Spirit would not interrupt himself. But here's the problem. It's not that these things are wrong. The problem is when you try to work up a move of God from the exterior rather than from the spirit. You're praying in the flesh. You're praying from the physical body. People think that if they pace around the room, pray really loud, shout unto God when they're praying or if they're hitting their fist against the table or if they're lying down on their face that somehow these physical postures and protocols will produce power when they don't. You can't pray in a certain posture. Well, you know, when I got on my face that's when God really started moving. Okay, maybe, but it wasn't the fact that you got on your face that caused God to move. We can't do things from the exterior and expect them to stir a move of God. You can shout all you want but noise doesn't equal power. You can wave your flags all around you want but that's just a show if the spirit's not in it. You can dance around the building but hey, I know some people who dance around the church on Sunday morning after they just got done dancing in the clubs on Friday and Saturday night. So the physical way of connecting with God, the rituals, the superstition, the posturing and the protocols, all of that comes from the physical being. Now let me be clear so you don't hear what I'm not saying. I am not saying you shouldn't sing and dance and shout and run around the building and wave the flags and all of that, do all of that, that's wonderful. But the problem comes when you think that praying from the outer shell, the physical body is gonna somehow work up a move of the spirit. This is why I'm a little leery of people who think that you can just shout and jump and sing and dance and that equals a move of the spirit. I need to be very clear here because I don't want to confuse anyone who may be new in the faith. It's good to shout, it's good to dance, it's good to sing, it's good to do all of those outer expressions. But if those outer expressions are not reflections of an inner reality, it's just religious. It's just a show. Noise does not equal power. Physical posturing, physical protocols does not produce power. Those things need to come about as a result of what's going on in the spirit. So if something's taking place in your spirit and that overflows as an expression of praise or an expression of excitement, then that is a true move of the spirit. But we cannot cause a move of the Holy Spirit through what we do in the physical realm. That's to pray in the flesh. Many believers also pray from the soul. We're gonna get real deep here and we're gonna challenge some things now. Many believers pray from the soul. They go their whole prayer lives, praying their own will and then get mad at God when he doesn't do it the way they want him to do it. They go their whole lives praying their own desires. They treat God like a genie. They treat God like a vending machine. Well God, I put in the coin of faith. When am I gonna get what I want back? God, I gave you what you said you required. Now it's time to give me what I desire. No, no, no, that's not how it works. And we think that if we can emote or if we can feel or we can think enough that we can cause a move of God. Let me just say it to you straight. God is not moved by your emotions. He's moved by your faith and your faith comes from the realm of the spirit. So many believers will cry trying to guilt God into a response. God, don't you hear me? I've seen this done several times where when I talk about the miraculous, when I talk about the power of God I'll see in the comments section somebody say something like, well, you know, God never comes through for me. It just never works. I'm thinking, who are you trying to get to feel sorry for you? Who are you trying to stir up? Because it's not by manipulation that we see a move of the spirit. We can't pray from the soul, our own will, our own desires and expect that heaven will respond with full backing and power. I'm just telling you the truth. And so we must pray according to these desires. Verse 18, but when you are directed, and this is Galatians 5, 18 now, but when you are directed by the spirit you are not under the obligation to the law of Moses, okay? So that's talking about the Galatians coming out of the belief in that false gospel. When you follow the desires of your sinful nature the results are very clear. Sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outburst of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now watch this, very, very famous portion of scripture but I wanna show it to you hopefully from a way that you can apply in a way that's gonna transform the way you pray. Verses 22 and 23. But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives. Love, joy, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, there is no law against these things. So what does it mean to pray from my spirit? To pray in union with the Holy Spirit by his will, by his power? Are you praying with love? Are you praying with joy? Let's stop at those two just for a second. Love is selflessness. Love is not a feeling. Are you praying for others that their lives might be arranged to benefit you? Are you praying for situations so that ultimately you become the benefactor and you get your ideal situation no matter what may come for others? Are you praying with genuine care for others? Are you praying with joy? Or do you approach God from a victim mindset? Oh, nothing good ever happens for me. God doesn't hear me. I'm being ignored. Yeah, Lord, I'll pray but I know that nothing's gonna happen. That's not praying in the spirit. That's praying in the flesh. You're praying for your emotions expecting that God's gonna feel sorry for you and then move on your behalf. But that's manipulation. You can't manipulate God. Are you praying with peace? I've seen it so many times where believers confuse worries with prayer. What does the scripture tell us? Don't worry about anything. Pray about everything. Worry is the flesh's powerless counterfeit for prayer. Worry is your flesh's powerless counterfeit for prayer. People think that if they worry, worry, worry, worry that that somehow counts as prayer, prayer, prayer. Worried about our loved ones. Worried about our situation. We think that worrying about it is the same thing as praying about it. You know how you can tell if you're praying from worry? If there's a franticness to it. If there's a panic to your prayers. I can't tell you how many times I've been approached by believers who are frantic and panicked. And my heart goes out to them. I'm out saying, look, if you come up to me and you're frantic and you're panicked and you're asking for prayer, I'm gonna pray for you but I'm gonna try to help you calm down first. Why? Because we approach the Lord in faith, not in panic. We approach Him in prayer, not in panic. And you know that you're praying in the spirit when you're praying with peace. That's praying from the spirit. Now, Lord, Lord, I need you to come through right now. This has to happen. People come to me. David, David, David, please, please, please, please. And they literally will pull on my sleeves. I had one lady tear off a button on my shirt sleeve because she was trying to pull me toward her. And she's saying, please, please, please, please, please pray for me. Pray for me. She tore the button off my shirt sleeve, panicked. Now I understand people find themselves in desperate situations. We are sometimes in difficult circumstances. I myself have been here. I'm not saying anything to you that doesn't apply to me. Believe me, there are times when I'm tempted to panic instead of praying. All but those who pray in the spirit. It's not no, Lord, Lord, Lord, help me. Please, I got it. It's thank you, Lord, that you've taken care of this. Thank you, Lord, that you're gracious and you're merciful. Peace. Perfect peace. Here's a good one. Are you praying with patience? You know, your timeline is not the same as God's. And you're gonna find that by the time you get what you've been praying for, that you missed the joy of the journey. That you missed the joy of the moment with the Lord. You know, the longer I'm in ministry and I still, I have a lot to learn. I'm not like a sage seasoned ministry. I've only been preaching for 20 years, but I started when I was 13. So I've got a lot to learn. I've got a long journey ahead of me. But I can say that the longer I've been serving the Lord, the less hurried I am. I slowed down. I realized that once I get to certain goals, I go, okay, well, why did I rush this? Was this really worth rushing and pressuring and missing out on key moments with my family and my loved ones or with the Lord more importantly? You know, you may get to where you wanna go. The question is, will you like yourself when you get there? And some of us are in such a hurry that we're praying as if God is on our timeline. Do you know why we rush God? We rush God because we don't trust God. Do you trust his timing? Do you really, do you really trust his timing? You know, I announced at the top of the broadcast that we had brought everything that we needed in for Project ETV. That's great. The Lord gave me a vision. We said, okay, Lord, this is what you want us to do. We're gonna do it. And from the beginning, from the beginning, you can ask Steve and the staff members here. From the beginning, I was perfectly at peace. It was the largest project we'd ever done. My chief operations officer was telling me that the construction was the most chaotic that the company had ever experienced. The construction company, not the ministry, ministry's not a company. The construction company was telling us it was the most chaotic project they've ever done, period. And they've been around for decades and they've done big projects. They said it was the most chaotic project. It was like, they said it was like there was forces working against us, but ultimately the Lord prevailed. And you know, through all of that, I can honestly tell you, and this is not to brag on me. This is the grace that the Holy Spirit gave. This is not me. Trust me, this is not in my personality type to just kind of be relaxed about it. I just knew that I knew that I knew the Lord was gonna do it. Even raising the final, it was like half a million dollars that still hadn't come in and we were like 14 days. Our goal is October 31st. We've already met the goal, so we're ahead of schedule. But it was like the first two weeks of October. We got two more weeks left. We were doing a whole year of fundraising and still that last half million, for some reason, that was really difficult to bring in. And I just said, Lord, you're gonna take care of it. I mean, wouldn't you have it within three days completely taken care of? And I just knew God's gonna take care of it. Praying from that place. Faith, faith, faith, faith, peace, patience. Are you praying with kindness? Or do you pray, do you pray like the disciples who said, Lord, bring fire down on them? Are you praying with goodness? Is there a purity to what you're praying? Your motives, are they in check? Are you praying with faithfulness? You know, faithfulness isn't just consistency. Faithfulness is consistency with the right attitude. And persistence doesn't even begin until you feel like giving up. Faithful, Galatians 6-9. If we continue doing good, we'll reap the harvest. Do you pray with gentleness? Now this doesn't mean you can never shout. Gentleness is not a personality type. Gentleness is a spiritual posture. I know a lot of people who scream and yell when they preach, who are the kindest, most gentle people I've ever known. So this is not a style of prayer. I know prayer warriors who will, I feel like I need to get a hearing aid after they're done praying for me. Because they're screaming so loud. Nothing wrong with that. As long as you don't think that's what's producing the power, you pray as passionately as you want. That's the zeal, that's the fire of the Holy Ghost. That's fine. But gentleness is a posture of the heart. There's a certain elegance in a class about the way believers who pray in the spirit pray. Do you pray with self-control? Or are you just saying all the things that you desire? Praying in the spirit, praying in the spirit is to unite with the Holy Spirit in his will. Now I'm gonna show you one more portion of scripture. So again, yes, I know praying in tongues is a form of praying in the Holy Spirit, but it's a much broader subject than that, praying in the spirit. Praying in the spirit is praying in the power of the spirit by the will of the spirit under the guidance of the spirit. Now let me show you something here in Romans 8. I'm gonna read three verses to you, 26, 27, and 28. Romans chapter 8, 26, 27, 28 for those of you taking notes. Write that in the comment section for me, please, those of you who are helping others to take the notes. Romans 8, 26, 27, 28. This is what the Bible says, and the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. Let's just stop there for a second. Have you ever heard these stories about these mighty men and women of God who talk about how they pray for hours? They would say, oh, I would pray for hours a day. And have you ever wondered to yourself, but like, yeah, but what do you say? Like you want to do that, you know it's good to pray for several hours and on certain days that you can. You know that's something that you should desire to do, but then you think to yourself, well, what exactly are you praying? What exactly do I say to the Lord in those moments? What exactly do I communicate to him while I'm praying? For example, the Bible says, we don't know what God wants us to pray for. Ah, but the Holy Spirit prays for us. Watch this now. With groanings that cannot be expressed in words. Now again, I speak in tongues. I teach people about the gift of speaking in tongues. I believe every believer should pray in tongues, the personal prayer language, not the public expression of the gift in 1 Corinthians chapter 12. It's a whole different message for a whole different time. But this particular portion of scripture is also not about praying in tongues. Now this is the source of the gift of praying in tongues. In other words, when you pray in tongues, 1 Corinthians 14, 14, my spirit is praying. He that has joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. So if my spirit is praying and my spirit is one with the Holy Spirit, and when I pray in tongues, I'm praying with the Holy Spirit is praying. That's Romans chapter eight, verses 26, 27, and 28. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. Wow, what language the scripture is giving to describe the prayers of the Holy Ghost. The Holy Spirit prays for us. First of all, think about that amazing reality. The Holy Spirit prays for you. The Holy Spirit prays for you with more love than a parent prays for a child. The Holy Spirit prays for you with more tenderness than a grandparent prays for a grandchild. The Holy Spirit prays for you with more passion than a spouse prays for a spouse. And the Bible says that he prays with groanings. What does this word mean, groanings? It's this intense, it's this passionate, it's this strong prayer that he prays. He doesn't just pray, oh, bless them, help them. He prays with groanings, with force and with might behind his prayers. He prays for you with groanings that are so strong, so passionate, so zealous, so fiery that they can't even be expressed in words. Wow. And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying. And before we read the next portion, I want you to notice that the Holy Spirit prays for you with passion and the Holy Spirit loves you like no one else can love you. So, the one who knows you like nobody else knows you, loves you like nobody else loves you and prays for you like nobody else can pray for you. That's a great place to say amen. I want you to just to thank the Holy Spirit for that right now. The one who knows you like nobody else knows you, every flaw, every thought, every secret, everything that ever goes through your emotions, everything. He knows everything there is about you. The one who knows you like nobody else knows you. He loves you like nobody else loves you and he prays for you like nobody else can pray for you. I'm all for when my pastor prays for me, when my wife prays for me, when my parents pray for me. That's wonderful. It's a blessing and those prayers are powerful. Oh, but there's one who prays for me with groanings that cannot be expressed in words and he prays with force. Wow, perfect, pure prayers. He knows all the little flaws so he knows how to pray all the flaws away. You know, the scripture tells us that the Holy Spirit is the one who sanctifies us. Now watch this. For the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying. For the Spirit pleads. Wow, he pleads. Doesn't just pray, he pleads for us believers. What? In harmony with God's own will. That means his prayers pull you into alignment with God. I love the Psalm that says, incline my heart to your statutes. In other words, bend me towards your will. Move my heart in alignment with yours. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. So many just read that, right? That's a very popular verse, isn't it? And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. That's very popular. But what preceded that? What causes that? That's the prayers of the Holy Ghost. That's why everything works out for you because the Holy Ghost is praying for you. And when I pray in the Spirit, I'm praying in alignment with those prayers. And I'm not just talking about tongues. I'm talking about praying according to his will. How do you pray according to his will? You pray according to his word. You ever get these random bursts of spiritual energy and I'm not just talking about the physical sensation of the Holy Spirit's presence. I'm talking about how you can have a really bad week and you're struggling and maybe you feel dry in the Spirit. And then from seemingly nowhere, suddenly there's this fresh touch on your life. And when I say fresh touch, I'm talking about a sudden access to power. Like we saw when the apostle confronted the sorcerer who was trying to disrupt the preaching of the gospel. There was this sudden access to power. Ephesians 5, 18, this continual feeling, not like water in a cup but like wind in the sail. This accessing of what you have. It's kind of like this. The Holy Spirit is already in you. Everything the Holy Spirit is, is in you. The moment you were saved, the Holy Spirit came to dwell in you. It's kind of like a bank account and the access is the debit card. We all have the deposit made but some of us aren't using that card. So when we talk about a fresh touch or activating or accessing, we're talking about making use of that which you already have. And so suddenly you come upon this fresh wind at your back. Suddenly you get this wind in your sail. Suddenly you feel refreshed. Suddenly there's a strong desire to pray, to read the word, to worship, to realign your life with the will of God. And you go, I wonder where this came from? I was just kind of struggling there and I didn't do anything out of the ordinary. I didn't do anything to deserve this grace. I didn't do anything to cause myself to desire this. Just suddenly out of seemingly nowhere, I felt like the breath of God was blown into my spirit and I became alive in the spirit. That my friend is the work of the Holy Ghost. Those are his prayers pooling you into alignment with God. He is faithful even when we are not for he cannot deny who he is. And what does it mean to pray in the spirit? I'll read it one more time. To pray in the spirit is to desire an agreement with heaven, to speak aloud those petitions which originate in the will of the Father. True prayer and the spirit begins in union with God. Praying in the Holy Spirit is praying in harmony with the will of the Holy Spirit, with the guidance of the Holy Spirit and in the power of the Holy Spirit. There's a prayer I prayed and I've shared this before, but it's very personal. I'll share it with you. When I first gave my life to the Lord, I was a new convert, this is one of the prayers that I began to pray. Just something, I can't explain it, it was just something that suddenly started coming out of my mouth as I was praying. This is what I prayed and I want you to pray this too. Make this a part of your prayer life. It's not a ritual or an incantation. I'm not giving you a script, but the principle is behind this. I would say Lord, and I sense the anointing right now, I wanna pray, I want you to begin to pray in the Holy Spirit as I share this final thing with you. Pray, pray, pray in the Holy Spirit. I would say Lord, let my hands be your hands. Heal through them, touch through them, work through them. I'd say Lord, let my eyes be your eyes. Help me to see things, people and situations, the way you see them. Lord, let my ears be your ears. Help me to hear your voice. Let my mouth be your mouth, speak through me. Father, let my feet be your feet. Point me in the direction you want me to go. Let my being be your being. Let my heart be as one with yours. Crucify my will and in its place, resurrect your own. That's praying in the Spirit. To yield to his desires, to pray under his guidance, to speak solely in connection with the Holy Spirit himself. I want you right now, just begin to pray out loud. Even if you're watching from a public place, doesn't matter, just begin to pray out loud. And I want you right now to begin to comment in the comments section, just your prayer requests. And Spirit family, let's all agree with one another. The power of the Holy Spirit is here, I'm telling you. There's a real fresh touch of God's power. That anointing is flowing like a river. I want you to receive that. So Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for that one receiving this prayer now. And I thank you Lord that like a river, your power is flowing. Father, use me as a vessel, I pray that that tangible touch of your power flow through my physical being, through my hands right now, through that camera, and right on the screen, the one who's watching. Father, let this power come upon them in a way that they can feel it. Just begin to ask him now. I'm telling you, something's happening. Right now, that's the touch of God on you. Some of you are beginning to feel that like electricity, flowing through your physical body. Some of you feel like a heat coming on you and others feel like waves of water. Others like a weight. Some don't feel anything physically, but you feel like a peace coming on you. Just receive whatever it is he's doing. Just receive it. I give you the praise, Jesus. I give you the praise, touch each one I pray. In Jesus' name, I want you to say it because you believe it, say amen. Well, if you enjoyed this teaching, then make sure you leave a like on it so that this can spread all around the channel and make sure that people see it. When you leave a like, it actually helps people to see it. There's something in the algorithm. I don't completely understand it, but that's how you can help. Also, make sure you're subscribed to my channel so that you can continue to receive the teachings, the live streams, the sermons, and the footage of the power of the Holy Spirit moving all around the world. Now I wanna ask for your help with something. I know it's tempting, after the lesson, after the prayer to say thank you very much. I'll be on my way. And especially because you're watching this online, I'm sure there are a number of things that you can click on right now. But I wanna ask you to do me a favor. Your brother in Christ is asking for your support to continue spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit all around the world, the events and media. Now, the gospel is free. We're not charging for the gospel, but the means to deliver the gospel on a mass scale, that's what costs resources. So I'm asking you today to consider becoming a monthly ministry partner. There are many of you watching right now who can partner with this ministry for something as simple as $30 a month. Now, here's a challenge for you. If you have streaming services that are secular, I'm not saying you have to get rid of your streaming services. Just don't watch anything ungodly on there. But if you have streaming services, if you have, I don't know, gaming subscriptions or things that are entertainment and you're paying those on a monthly basis, they're entertainment, they're not needs, they're wants. And you're paying those systems, you're paying those people but you're not willing to support the gospel on a monthly basis, then may I challenge you to replace those platforms with support for this ministry? Now, you may be able to say, I can do both. I can keep those platforms and I can support your ministry monthly. Okay, do both. But if you're in a place where you say, things are really hard right now, I can't support the gospel maybe later, but you have those streaming services, then may I challenge you as your brother in Christ to instead of supporting the things of this world, you support the kingdom. And by the way, this content is great because when you support this ministry, you're helping others to receive because we give it all away for free. So I'm challenging you now, today, right this moment, whether you're watching live or on the replay, go to davidhernandezministries.com slash partner right now and become a monthly ministry supporter. I'm challenging many of you to do $30 a month but you can really do any amount that you want. Anything monthly helps us. Maybe you're watching this and you're saying, well, I don't really want to do monthly but I can do something, then I'm challenging you. Give a one-time gift. Do your part in helping us spread this message. There are thousands of believers from all around the world from many different countries and people who are in many different financial situations, all of them supporting this ministry. So I'm challenging you now, do your part. Maybe you've been blessed by this ministry, you've been blessed by the teachings, you've been blessed by the services, maybe you've been blessed by the live streams, whatever you've been blessed by, whatever you've received from, I'm asking you to give back, pay it forward, help someone else be blessed and become a monthly partner or give a one-time gift. One more thing, that form on our website works for pretty much every currency and almost every nation. But if you're there on the website and the form isn't working for you or it's not converting to your local currency, it should automatically do that depending upon where you're watching from. If you're saying, well, I'm trying to use the form but it doesn't work, then I want to let you know you can support through YouTube or through Facebook. Now, we'd rather you do it through the website because YouTube and Facebook take good chunks out but it still counts. Let's say you're going on the form, the form is not working for you, not in your country, not with your currency, then we're asking you to support through YouTube. Now, I'm gonna actually pull out my phone here. I can see the names of those who are giving, partnering and just in general, supporting this ministry. I'm loading it up right now. You can take this comment section off for now, Mr. Lay, we're almost there, okay? Let me see here, coming up on my phone now, we're going to pull this up. It's loading, loading. Thank you to Melanie and Eugene. And look, we have Rinesh became a monthly partner and then Jenny became a monthly partner. Thank you Raymond and Nancy for your one-time gifts. Thank you to Ruby for becoming a monthly partner. Elizabeth, thank you for partnering with me. Edith and Juan, thank you for partnering with me. Cecilia, thank you for becoming a partner. Marina and Lorraine and Annette and Terry and Yvette, thank you for your partnership. Just many different gifts coming in from all around the world with many different names attached to them. Blanca, thank you, I just received your gift. And I'm seeing all those, I can see all those gifts coming out on my phone. I'm reading those names from davidhernandezministries.com slash partner. I'm challenging you to do that right now. Now, if this message blessed you, then you will love the teaching, the power of praying the scriptures. In this teaching, I talk about uniting your prayers with the word of God to accomplish the will of God.