 I wanna talk to you about three destructive habits that weaken your prayers. I believe that as you listen to these challenging words that you will see a greater demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit through your prayer life. There are things that we do, habits that we practice that weaken our prayer life. And I know that the Lord is going to bring not only correction today, but He's going to bring a great empowerment upon your life. But first, tell me in the comment section if you believe in the power of prayer. Now, before I list for you the three different destructive habits that I'm going to be addressing in this particular message, I want to at first acknowledge that there are some obvious ones that we should definitely look out for, like for example, unconfessed sin, sin that you've not confessed to the Lord, sin that you've not repented of, that can hinder your prayer life. Take a look at Psalm 66. I'm gonna read verses 17 through 19. For I cried out to Him for help praising Him as I spoke. If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. But God did listen. He paid attention to my prayer. Praise God who did not ignore my prayer or withdraw His unfailing love from me. Now, of course, we take Old Testament concepts and filter them through the cross. I don't think that the Lord ignores His children, especially if you're under grace. This by no means is an encouragement that you should go on sinning. But it could be said that there is still a disruption in our prayer lives when we walk in disobedience because we lack faith, because we lack confidence, because we're filled with shame and might even be afraid to approach God in the first place. Another one we should acknowledge is something like unforgiveness. Unforgiveness causes you to become bitter, makes it very difficult for you to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit, makes it very difficult for you to even receive the word that will soften your heart that will cause you to pray in faith. So things like sin, things like unforgiveness, these, of course, can hinder your prayer life in various different ways. So having said that, having acknowledged some of the more obvious ones, let's now go and take a look at number one, which is impure motives. James chapter four, verses two and three say this, you want what you don't have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can't get it. So you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don't have what you want because you don't ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don't get it because your motives are all wrong. You want only what will give you pleasure. So here the scripture is talking about those who approach the Lord with the prayer requests, but desire to consume that request upon their own lust. In other words, they're praying with impure motives. They're praying for selfish reasons. Now let me clarify here, there is a time of course that we make our supplication to the Lord. The prayer request is valid. Of course you can ask the Lord to provide for your material needs. Of course you can ask the Lord for favors say in a job or in a promotion. There's nothing wrong with asking these things, but when you take a look at the heart behind those prayer requests, you have to make sure that ultimately you want to do these things unto the glory of God. Ultimately you want to receive these things for the purposes of the kingdom. Now I understand too that the Lord sometimes does bless us with things for our enjoyment, but if your whole prayer life, if the whole motive that consumes you is entirely about self, there's an issue there. So when we pray out of jealousy and envy, that's an issue. That hinders prayer. When you pray for ministry growth because you're competing with other ministries, that hinders your prayer. When you're praying for selfish reasons, maybe you're praying from the place of greed. Maybe you're praying from the place of pride. You're praying because you want to get, get, get and gather and gather and gather and you want bigger and better and you're never satisfied. Or maybe you're playing, you're praying from that place of pride and you're simply asking God for things so that your status can be boosted so that others can look at you in awe so that others can look to you as someone who's important. To pray like that is to pray in a scattered fashion. It's to pray asking a miss. It's to pray from impure motives. Maybe you're praying purely for your own pleasure. I think of Simon the Sorcerer in Acts chapter eight. He saw that when the apostles laid hands on certain individuals that they received the power of the Holy Spirit and he wanted to buy that power so that he could use it. And of course, the apostles saw right through him and called him on his jealousy, his bitterness, his envy, rebuked him. He wanted something good, the power of the Holy Spirit, but he wanted it for bad reasons. How many times are we encouraged to ask the Holy Spirit to empower us? To ask Him for spiritual gifts, to greatly desire spiritual gifts. There's nothing wrong with wanting the power of the Holy Spirit to be demonstrated through your life, but what are the reasons for that? Why do you ask Him for the spiritual gifts? Why do you ask Him for power? Look, it's true that your spirit will desire a spiritual gift, for example, for the purpose of serving others and the Lord and glorifying Jesus. But while your flesh doesn't desire the gift itself, the flesh may desire what it imagines can come about as a result of the use of the gifts. In other words, when you desire from the spirit, you desire a spiritual gift to help others. First Corinthians chapter 12 verse seven makes it clear that we are given spiritual gifts to serve others. Your spirit desires that spiritual gift that it might glorify Jesus, but the flesh sees what could result in the material world from it, status, celebration, even financial gain and the flesh desires, even spiritual things for ill gain. And this is what we see with Simon the sorcerer. So he asked for the power of the Holy Spirit, wasn't given that power, but instead was rebuked. So the question comes down to, why are you praying for what you're praying? Are you praying not just out of envy, but are you praying for the sake of revenge? Are you praying that God would take away from someone? Are you praying for someone's downfall? Are you praying for someone to be embarrassed? Well, that's not a very good place to pray from. And it's proof that your heart has been hardened. It's proof that a root of bitterness has taken its place in your heart. It's proof that your eyes are not on Jesus, but on self, on the things of this world. Many of us pray petty prayers. We pray for the destruction of others. We pray against others, sometimes out of jealousy, sometimes because we've been hurt, sometimes because we're competing. But whatever the wrong motive is, it has no place in our lives. We ought to pray from the place of pure motives that ultimately Jesus might be glorified, that ultimately others might be saved, healed, delivered and empowered to pray with the motives of serving others and glorifying Jesus. That is to pray with true power. In fact, the desires of the Lord begin to flow through you as you pray. And as you surrender. But as I said, if you're praying from the place of pride, if you're praying out of jealousy and envy, if you're praying from pettiness, if you're praying from greed, if you're praying from the place of selfish gain, this is something that will weaken your prayer life and it will pollute even other prayers that you pray. Number two, insincere repetitions. This is the second destructive habit that will weaken your prayers. By the way, if that first point challenged you, let me know in the comment section what challenged you most about it. Matthew chapter six, verse seven says, when you pray, don't babble on and on as the Gentiles do. They think their prayers are answered merely by repeating their words again and again. Now we have to reconcile this particular verse with truths like Matthew chapter seven, verse seven, where we are instructed by the Lord to pray persistently. To pray persistently isn't the same thing as babbling. It's not really about how much you pray. It's not really about how often you make a request. It's not really about how often you repeat a certain word or phrase. It's about sincerity when you pray. So they think their prayers in Matthew six, seven, they think that it's the repeating of certain phrases, the repeating of certain scripts, the use of certain systems that ultimately brings about the result for which they are praying. But that is to pray from a place of insincere desire. That is to pray half-heartedly. That is just to go through the motions and the mechanics of prayer. When you pray, you ought to pray sincerely. When you pray, avoid scripts because it's not the script that's going to get the prayer answered. God does not respond to systems. God responds to sincerity. God does not respond to scripts. God responds to faith. And so when you approach Him, instead of just saying to yourself, this is an obligation I have to fulfill or this is something that I'm supposed to do as a good Christian or I need to check prayer off my list today. So let me say a few scripts. Let me repeat a few words. Instead of approaching prayer that way, I want you to realize that when you pray, you are approaching God who can see you, who can hear you and who has a response available for you because he's full of compassion and love and he looks upon you favorably. You see, when you see prayer as a negotiation to get God to listen to you, well, that's just going to be frustrating and you're not going to want to pray all that often. But when you realize that you already have his attention, that he's already looking at you. In fact, this is something that I say often in our services when I'm leading people through prayer and worship. I tell them, he's looking at you right now. He's listening to you right now. He's in the room with you right now. When you pray in that way, your heart is filled with faith. You don't come with the script. You don't come with it all written down. And there's nothing wrong with writing prayer points down so that you don't forget anything. Nor is there anything wrong with repeating something because again, we have to reconcile this truth in Matthew 6-7 with Matthew 7-7. There's something to be said of repetition with faith. But here in Matthew 6-7, again, the issue is not repetition just for the sake of repetition. The issue here is specifically that they think repetition itself is what gets the prayer answered and it's not. That is to think that it depends upon your strength as if God is watching over from the balconies of heaven with his arms folded and saying, you know, I would have healed you, but you only prayed a thousand times. I was gonna heal you on a thousand and one. Or you know, I was gonna break that drug addiction, but you only asked 99 times. Had you asked 100 times, I would have responded and broken that addiction. That's not what happens at all. In fact, I would say that persistent prayer is more about who you become and the work that God does in you than it is about getting God to respond because you can't get God to do something he doesn't wanna do anyway. No one is so persuasive that they can persuade God to do anything. So persistent prayer is less about getting God to do and more about getting you to become. Persistent prayer, if God's will is a river, doesn't change the direction of the river. It puts you in the river. So persistent prayer is about yielding the situation to him. It's about pulling those wandering broken pieces of creation into alignment with the will of the heavenly Father. So insincere repetitions, just going through the motions, just going through the script, just going to the prayer room and saying, there, I checked it off. There, I did what I was supposed to do. There, I fulfilled my Christian obligation to the prayer room and now I'm done. Well, you might as well just go on about your day without praying because that in and of itself is not going to do anything for you. So again, number one, the first destructive habit is praying from impure motives. That is to pray from jealousy, from pride, from greed, and so forth. Number two, it is to pray with insincere repetitions. That is to pray scripts thinking that the power is in the script. To pray with systems thinking that the power is in the system or in your vain repetitions. Or I went through the motions, Lord, now you have to do what you have to do. That's not it at all. Remember, God doesn't respond to systems. He responds to sincerity. And finally, number three, the destructive habit that will weaken your prayer is when you pray with doubt. Now, I can relate to the man who brought his son, his demon possessed son, to the disciples. And in that narrative, the disciples were not able to drive out the demons from his son. This isn't because the Holy Spirit lacked power and authority. This is because they weren't using the authority that was available to them. We know, of course, that when you use the Holy Spirit's authority, it's never a question. Demons can't argue, debate, nothing. They have to go. And Jesus comes down from the Mount of Transfiguration, by the way. And he approaches this situation and the father says, your disciples couldn't drive the demons out. And he says, please help my son if you can. And Jesus says to him, what do you mean if I can? I love that response from the Lord. What do you mean if I can? And sometimes we approach him like that, don't we? Forgetting who he is, forgetting the power that he has. We often pray based upon what we believe to be reasonable. We often pray considering our own ability and timeline. And sometimes we forget that we're not praying in our ability, we're praying in his ability. So Jesus says, what do you mean if I can? Anything is possible to those who believe to which the father responds, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Faith is not necessarily the absence of doubt. Faith is choosing to put your trust in God even when your flesh wants to do otherwise. And so as we approach the Lord, we can say to him, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. Sometimes we doubt his power and sometimes we doubt his willingness. Sometimes we doubt both. But we have to come to the Lord knowing that A, he is able, B, he's willing. He is able and willing to move on your behalf. So when you approach him, know that you are praying to a God who can do exceedingly, abundantly above all you could ask or even imagine the scripture says, according to the power that worketh in you. And so when you're praying, come with bold faith. Pray bold prayers, pray big prayers. Sometimes even what we do, and this is natural to do because it's human nature, when we get into a situation, we think that if God hasn't done it for anyone, he won't do it for us. Or maybe the financial situation is so bad and we say, you know, I've never heard of anybody coming out of this. Maybe the Lord won't do it for us either. Or maybe sickness, the diagnosis is so severe that we say, you know, we've never heard of anyone being healed of this or being cured of that. So maybe this is just not God's will. And so we limit ourselves to what we think is reasonable. When we should be saying, Lord, even if I've never seen you do it, I know you're able. Even if I've never heard the testimony or the story for a situation quite like mine, I know that you're able. He makes a way where there seems to be no way. When God parted the sea, it was because he saw a pathway through the sea, a pathway that no one else knew was there. And you may be looking at a situation and you're trying to analyze it from all different angles and you're trying to do God's job for him. You're trying to do the thinking for the Lord. You say, oh, I don't know, Lord, it doesn't look like there's a way out of this. And so then you don't even bother to pray and you go before him with doubt in your heart. And again, as I said, there's nothing wrong with some questions and the Lord understands that we are human, that we're frail and that it's in our nature to fight that doubt, but faith is like a muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it grows. And so you approach the Lord knowing, Lord, I may not see how you're gonna do it. I may not understand all of the mechanics behind how your miracle working power is going to perform this one. But I know you and I believe you and I trust in your word and you've never led me astray and you've never abandoned me. And I know that you are able. That is faith. And to approach him like that, that is the way we should approach him. You shouldn't waver, James 1-6. When you ask him, be sure your faith is in God alone. I like that because sometimes we place our faith in ourselves or we think we can help it along. Now, let me balance this point too. You do the possible, God will do the impossible. You do the difficult, God will do the impossible. So there's nothing wrong with, for example, let's say you're believing for a healing. Well, while you believe God to heal you, there's nothing wrong with taking practical measures to help improve your health. While you're believing God for your financial miracle, there's nothing wrong with looking for a job. While you're believing for a miracle in ministry, there's nothing wrong with applying principles of excellence to see about how you might steward that ministry so that it can become fruitful based upon that stewardship. That's how it works. That's how God intended it to work. So of course, we should participate with the Lord's wheel. Of course, we should do as we're able. Of course, we should contribute positively to the situation. We can't be lazy. Just sit back and say, Lord, I'm gonna mess everything up. Well, you fix it, that's apathy. And that's actually disrespectful of the Lord's power. I'm talking about those situations where you've done all that you can do and now you're up against a wall and you're saying, I've done everything. I've tried it all. I've asked everyone. I've reached out every possible way I know how. And you know what? There doesn't seem to be anything that's coming from this. So in that moment, instead of saying, Lord, I've already tried it, the doors are closed. Lord, I've already tried to climb that mountain. It's just not something we can get on top of. So I'm not even gonna pray. I'm not even gonna bother. And that's where we're stuck. We pray things that seem logical. We say, okay, well, I can see that if this happens and this happens, then the situation will resolve itself. So I'm gonna pray that this happens and this happens. Okay, that's wonderful. But then we shouldn't withhold our faith just because we don't see what's going to happen or how it could possibly work. We can't always do the thinking for God. If we can never really do the thinking for God. Do your part, but let God do his. Don't tell God what he can't do. Don't tell God what he's not able to accomplish. Don't talk to God like he's working on your timeline, like he's working in your ability, like he's working with your resources because he's not. He's working far beyond what you have. He's working far beyond your capacity. He's working far beyond your energy. He's working far beyond your connections and he is able to do it. Now, of course, God is sovereign. We ask him, we believe, we have faith and then we leave the results up to him and we trust him, however he so chooses to respond. But know that he is able, do not waver, the scripture says. For a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. So when you ask, be sure that your faith is in God alone and don't waver, do not waver. You hold fast to the promises of God and the promises of God are yes and amen. You cling to those promises. You may be praying for your unsaved loved one and the more you pray for them, it seems that the further they drift from God. The more you witness to them, it seems the harder their heart becomes. You may be praying for financial breakthrough and the more you pray, it seems the worst the situation is getting or the more you pray, it seems that the situation is becoming stagnant, more stagnant, more stubborn, more immovable. It's just not budging, Lord. You may be believing for breakthrough in the area of fruitfulness for your ministry or his ministry that he gave you stewardship over and you're saying, Lord, why am I not seeing the fruitfulness? Why am I not seeing the effect? Why am I not seeing the expansion? And you've done everything you know to do, start praying bigger prayers. I wanna challenge you in that area. Now, let me balance this entire point by saying, the message of the gospel isn't come to Jesus and he'll fix all your problems that you could ever imagine. The message of the gospel is quite simple. We are sinners and when we place our faith in the finished work of the cross, we place that in Christ Jesus. We are born again when we believe, Ephesians 2, 8, and 9. We say, by grace through faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. It's not of ourselves. There's nothing we can do to contribute to that salvation. So that, of course, we understand. The gospel is the central message. Additionally, it's also true that we serve a good God. We serve a father who wants to take care of us, who wants to bless us in ways that are best for us. So while we approach him asking for these things, remember, that's not the center of the gospel. He doesn't owe it to us. He's not our genie, but let's also balance this and realize that there are promises in scripture in the area of healing, of deliverance, of financial peace, of the salvation of our loved ones, of fruitfulness and ministry. There are promises in these areas that we can believe for. Now again, I emphasize God is sovereign, but at no point should we ever try to limit God. Even with our theology, when we say, well, you know, I shouldn't be asking God this because that's not really what the gospel is all about. True, that's not what the gospel is all about, but that doesn't mean he didn't promise it. So stop telling God what he cannot do. Stop trying to put God in this little barrier that you have and say, this is as far as I've seen you move and I can't really imagine you moving any further, so I'm not even gonna ask. In fact, some of us who've been in this longer, maybe you've been saved for 10, 20, 30, some of you saved for 40, 50 years, and you may think you've seen the extent of his power. Well, these are about the level of miracles that I've seen him do in the past, so I'm not really gonna believe for much more than that. No, no, no, my friend. It's time to let God expand your faith, stretch your faith and begin to pray according to his ability, not yours. So number one, impure motives, number two, insincere repetitions, and number three, doubt. Let's be rid of these three destructive habits that weaken our prayers. If this message challenged you, let me know in the comment section. Let me pray for you now. Father, in the name of Jesus, I pray for that one receiving this in this moment, and I ask you, precious Holy Spirit, cause them to become people of prayer. Give them faith to believe the impossible. Help them, Lord, to pray with pure motives and with sincerity. Father, as we approach you, we thank you. We thank you that you're a provider. You're the healer, you're the deliverer, you're the savior, you are the all in all. May we be entirely satisfied in you, and precious Jesus, I stretch my hands toward that one receiving now, and I ask you, Lord, to cause saving and healing and delivering power to begin to flow. Break every bondage in the name of Jesus. I rebuke addiction. I rebuke mental struggle, emotional struggle, strongholds, every demonic attack. Come against you now in the mighty name of Jesus. Father, bring healing to your people. Cause bones to be set straight. Cause organs to function properly. We rebuke all sickness and disease. We take it to you, Jesus. We give you honor and praise. I want you to say it if you believe it. Amen. Now, if the Lord healed you or delivered you, I want you to write your testimony in the comments section right now. I believe his power was flowing. Some of you may have felt like heat, others electricity, others may have felt like a weight come on you. Some may have not felt anything at all, but still experience healing and deliverance. Write that testimony in the comments section while you're at it. Make sure you leave a like on this video. That like helped to spread this message even further. If you think others need to hear this message, it's as simple as leaving a like. And don't forget to subscribe to my channel or release content on the Holy Spirit, prayer, spiritual warfare, topics such as these. We also show footage from around the world of the various different Holy Spirit encounters that we host across the nation. We host across in other nations, of course, as well. And the power of the Holy Spirit really moves in these meetings and people can sense the power and the glory of the Holy Spirit just by watching these streams. So make sure you subscribe and do click that notification bell when you subscribe so you can get notified when we put out new content. Now I want to read a portion of scripture to you and then I want to challenge you here. Matthew six, go with me now. Matthew six, I'm going to begin reading at verse number 24. No one can serve two masters, for you will hate one and love the other. You will be devoted to one and despise the other. This is Jesus speaking. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money. What does that mean? That's when money becomes your priority, your pursuit. Money is such a priority to you that it's difficult to give to the gospel. You become angry when someone asks for help with giving to the gospel or you become fearful whenever you're challenged in the area of generosity. Those are red flags to you of where your heart is. Verse 25, that is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life. Now notice here that the reason Jesus tells us not to worry is precisely because you cannot serve God and money. In other words, worry is one of the expressions of worship for mammon. Worry is how you worship money. I want to say that again. Worry is how you worship money. It's one of the ways that you worship money. It's where you're so afraid. Why? Because you trust in that money and not in God. That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life. Whether you have enough food and drink or enough clothes to wear, isn't life more than food in your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don't plant or harvest or store food in barns for your heavenly father feeds them. And aren't you more valuable than they are? Call or can all your worries add a single moment to your life? And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don't work or make their clothing. Yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Now I want to challenge you to continue to watch because I know that there can be a temptation to begin to click on other things. You know, the message is over. You received a good word and now it's tempting to kind of move on to the next thing, but hear this word here. Why do you have so little faith? Verse 31, so don't worry about these things saying, what will we eat? What will we drink? And what will we wear? These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly father already knows your needs. Seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously. And he will give you everything you need. Here Jesus is talking about material needs. And he's saying, and if you put the kingdom first and you live righteously, all of your needs are gonna be met. That's a promise from the Lord Jesus himself. Now, here's what I know about you. You love the Lord, you love souls, you love the ministry in general, the Lord's ministry, and you love the gospel. You have a heart for the lost. You have a heart to help. You're generous, you're giving. See, we as believers are moved toward generosity. And the only reason that often believers withhold from their giving isn't because they don't care about souls, they do care about souls. It's not because they don't love the Lord, they do love the Lord. It's not because they don't believe in the work of ministry. We as believers know it works. I'll tell you why they withhold, it's because of fear. They're afraid that if they release, that they're gonna lack in some area. They're afraid if the Holy Spirit instructs them to do something and they release it, they kind of hesitate and say, well, I don't know. And many of you have been right on that point, right on the verge of partnering, maybe even loaded the website and then you withheld. You were right on the verge of giving a gift to the ministry and you had it all ready to go and then you withheld. Why? Because we react sometimes in fear. And so I wanna lovingly challenge you in this area. Why? Because I know it works. And I used to struggle in the same way. So the Lord helped me break free from that mentality and now I live in the power of generosity and never have seen a day of lack since walking in this promise. And I know the same will be true for you. Now, what you do is you say, okay, I'm a little nervous. Yeah, there's a little bit of hesitation. And of course, there is that thought in your mind. Well, if I give this, I might lack over here. You hear from the Holy Spirit and do what the Holy Spirit tells you to do. And as you put the kingdom of God first and you live righteously, the Lord himself is gonna add everything unto you. That's what Jesus taught here in the scripture. So though I cannot promise what he will do, I do know this, he's a good God. He'll take care of you. And just know that as you give to this ministry, you're helping to resource a great work that's spreading the gospel all around the world, the events and media. So become a monthly supporter today, right now by going to davidhernandezministries.com Say no to fear, yes to faith. There's that little hesitation, right? You're right on the verge. Just jump out and do it. If you have to cancel a streaming service to do it, cancel that streaming service. If you have to cancel some membership somewhere to do it, cancel that membership. If you can do it without canceling anything, praise God, God bless you, but make sure you've partnered with the ministry. Consider today becoming a monthly supporter for any amount that you see there on the website. Go to davidhernandezministries.com slash partner. You can also give a single gift that will help this ministry to continue its mission. To do that, just go to davidhernandezministries.com slash donate. Now we accept all different currencies from all different countries, including cryptocurrency and stock donations. So I'm asking you, please go try the website first. And if the website doesn't work, then give through things like Facebook or YouTube. But do try the website first. Thank you for your giving. Thank you for being challenged and standing with me in the gospel. Thank you for being my partner. I know this ministry has been a blessing to you. Let's pay that forward so that others might be blessed too. Thank you for joining the live stream. Until next time, remember, nothing is impossible with God.