 This morning. I want to talk to you about the secret place. I Want to speak with you. I started on Friday to speak about build fire From the story of Apostle Paul on Saturday night I've talked about how to set your world on fire and today I'm going to talk about pretty much how to build that fire in your personal walk with the Lord in your personal Relationship with Jesus. I learned about prayer Pretty much from my pastor when our church started our church started in a year about 2000 We immigrated from the Ukraine. We spoke zero English. We had no building We were just cousins and relatives and my pastor had a vision that we will see all Nations represented in our church our services are going to be filled with salvation and miracles and God will use our young people Not to fill jails, but to empty hell and populate heaven It was audacious radical crazy most people thought my pastor lost his mind He's fresh in America has no idea about American cultures Nobody trusts Russians to do anything but steal and lie and so them winning souls ain't not gonna work in America But you know when you don't have language when you don't have people when you don't have resources when you don't have connections When you don't have the proper documents as Christians We always have something that is advantage to everything that we don't have is called prayer And so my pastor started to spend I would see him praying at night's morning Sometimes three four hours is and it's not the amount of prayer It's the passion that that that prayer came out of because you can pray long long prayers You can spray short prayers But it's the passion that came out of and I remember us being teenagers me and pastor Ilya Together on Friday I fried the nights consisted of you know going to 7-eleven getting a slurpee and then at 11 o'clock Driving to this church that we rented and because we were not trusted with the keys What we would do when we would rent that church is we would leave one of the windows open So that we could sneak that sneak in and pray during the night And so we would come in at one time, but the pastor lived very close It's kind of like across the street you guys have a facility here That's how close the pastor lives so we had to turn off the lights turn off the engine and go on neutral Scroll into the church so that we wouldn't wake up the pastor and then we would sneak into the church and go pray And you know how we pray with Pentecostals if it's not loud It's not prayer and so we would pray very loud and we woke up the pastor one time So he came with a flashlight looking for a thief and when we found out you know that he was looking and searching We actually crawled underneath of the pew and hid there He went everywhere looking and didn't find us and so he left and you know They didn't have the alarm system to us. It was a great benefit And so we would finish praying and leave and that church Was a prayerless church. It doesn't exist today. It's shut down Our church got its own building things were going great, but our church with time Became also a little bit prayer less prayer became a burden Another prayer meeting another Friday night prayer meeting there were times we were pray all nights and then all this And it's not about all night prayers. It's not about morning prayers It's about the passion that that comes from and I'm gonna share a few things that I believe could change your prayer life forever today things that I've learned personally and with time There was no activity in the church and activity is not the solution But when there is no fruit and there is nothing happening God is not moving and the church is pretty much dead People are not getting saved people are not getting baptized and there is no prayer usually sin and other stuff begins to creep in and with us We had four churches renting our facility and a government school renting our facility We stayed in our own building for free and things were going really well except each evening was free each morning was free There was no cell groups. There was no salvation things were pretty much dead But we were covered financially so we were doing fine and one time I couldn't sleep in the morning And I came to church to pray it was one of those, you know days that I didn't pray for for a lot for a long time now Didn't live that consistent prayer life and I come in and I see cars in our church parked And a five in the morning I walk into the sanctuary and I see a Hispanic church that's renting our facility with this You know old tape player Putting CDs and a tape over there and these women with headcovers crying at the altar And I find out that they come there to our church without our permission at four o'clock in the morning and for three four hours They're praying every day in the church. They're renting and The Holy Spirit convicted me and he said very soon your guys who church will shut down too He says now you have everything you have English you have a building you have everything these guys have nothing But they got something you used to have and God convicted me Graciously and I said Lord I can't promise that I'll be praying at four tomorrow, but I'll be thinking about it You won't see me here next week at five, but I'm gonna tell you one thing God Please give me some time. Don't don't chop this tree yet. Give me a year Lord I promise at least two maybe and I'll get back there and I started to slowly make my way back To living a life of prayer Living a life of dependence upon God little do I knew is that that will create a climate in our church where prayer now is like Breathing it's part of life of our church. It's not the amount of prayer that's being prayed It's the fact that the church is soaked now where you know doors open at five for the last three years from five to seven Every single work day and people come in Normal it's like normal for people to come and spend at least an hour 30 minutes 15 minutes in prayer Where service is going on somebody is always praying for the service where it's normal to hear people in their church Who are new believers too fast for 21 days on water? It's normal. There's a teenager she's 17 And she just finished a 40-day fast on liquid what it's normal for businessmen and other people you hear You know, they're not eating cuz they're doing they're not trying to lose weight But they're trying to see God's face and today that's normal and today That's normal to see revival seeing people safe not just the church being full because stadiums are full of people coming to see Basketball when big crowds don't impress me It's what happens after people leave that service our people healed our people delivered our people set on fire our young people Being equipped to see God is God restoring families our new people coming to Jesus our Buddhist converting to Jesus Our Muslims converting to Jesus our drug addicts being converted to Jesus is our baptism Just people that we're baptizing from our own families or we baptizing people because they're coming new into Christ I genuinely believe is that before we can see revival of salvation of souls We have to see a revival of prayer in the church today This message it's gonna be my let's do this if we clap we all clap otherwise we don't Because sometimes for preachers like when somebody starts it like a golf club Everybody's so we just just we support everybody to to not you don't clap for me I can live without that, but we did you receive the word you say a man you clap you get up You run around you can bring money to the offering baskets if you want to whatever you whatever you need to do Come on. I Just ask you for one thing do not throw anything at me except a hundred dollar bills. I Had one church where one pastor told people to do whatever they want people start throwing stuff at him And they didn't throw money they threw shoes and so I Rejected in Jesus name and so in our church. I thought our church to respond We're half of our church a little bit less this is Slavic The other half is Hispanic and white folk and then people grew up in church where they you know church supposed to be quiet He's supposed to behave yourself and everything and and they behave themselves in church and these people You know are so quiet so modest and so So this and that but they're not like that on the traffic They're not like that when their team is losing Like they're so emotional. They're so exuberant and so I teach our church that when the preaching is going good You get up and you clap people get up on the when the president does that boring speech And you see these guys in suits For a minute Like there's nothing to clap about what are you guys clapping about but when we talk about was erected Christ You know people sit and act all modest and stuff and for those of you whom this offends your consciousness That I just said that it's okay to clap in the church when the preaching is going good I'm pretty sure you clap when your kids perform really good on the stage when the Lord performs when the Lord does things You should be engaged. Amen. Come on somebody. Let's put our hands together for the Lord. Thank you Jesus Bro when people start clapping I want to hear a little bit more. That's good. Okay now. It's good. All right. Amen So prayer is very important to see To see the movement of the Holy Spirit to see the movement of God in our churches and in our lives Before I mentioned the three things that I learned about a secret place When I mentioned how important it is To have a secret place I believe each one of us either lives in a secret place or in a secret sin Something that you're hiding Something you're deleting after you browsing the internet Something that after you go you make sure you delete the history the moment you have to delete Conversations the moment you have to delete certain things The moment you find yourself living in secret sin It's one of the first signs that sometimes you might not be living in a secret place There was two stories in the Old Testament one of them was Rahab Rahab the scripture says that she hid spies in Joshua chapter 6 verse 25 and says that Joshua spared Rahab the harlot her father's household and all that she had for she dwells in Israel this day because She hid the messengers whom Joshua sent to spy out Jericho So what Rahab does is that she lives in a very bad place? She herself is not doing good right now She does for living what's what's not good, but in that culture, you know the morals were not like the morals today Especially to those of us who are Christians so it was acceptable But still it wasn't good for her and the spies come in and you know instead of just greeting and meeting them She does something that's radical She takes them home and she doesn't just take them home the scripture says is that she hides them She doesn't just hide them she protects them because when the king comes and says give them up She says I don't know what you're talking about She hides them and because of what she hides the scripture says that her life becomes transformed Not only she is saved from the wrath of God her family is saved from the wrath of God And we know not only she is saved she gets a different job She no longer is a harlot and not only that but being a harlot she marries a good man Actually, one of the guys she was hiding Salman She marries him and not only she marries a good man and ex prostitute But the scripture says out of her seed comes the king of Israel and the son of the living God Whatever you're hiding today can change your life tomorrow Whatever you're hiding today will change your life tomorrow If you are hiding the presence of God if you are hiding the Holy Spirit in your private life if you are hiding a spy Your life will change your career will change your relationship will change your future will change but at the same time as Rahab is hiding spies Aiken in the same similar story He was hiding something else under his tent He was hiding the forbidden things occurs things under his tent. So one is hiding spies The other one is hiding clothes One was saved Aiken was destroyed Rahab's family was rescued Aiken's family was stoned Rahab lived in Jericho Aiken loved Jericho Rahab wanted to be like Israel Aiken wanted to be like Jericho There is two kinds of people in this room today There are Rahab's and there are Aiken's Rahab is not somebody that things don't look really good on the outside in her life But it's what she hides privately that will change the course of her life publicly in the future and there are Aiken's It's the guys who have the title. It's the guys who know how to speak right who know how to dress right who know how to appeal Righteous, but privately they are hiding things under their tent that are not good Not only they're not hosting God, but they are hiding something that is not good and within time your private Compromise will become a public scandal It will affect your family. It will affect your children. It will affect your business. It will affect your health It will affect every area of your life Anything that's hidden will be revealed and whatever you're hiding today. Are you hiding spies or are you hiding the Babylonian clothes? Your secret life your secret place has to be a place where you're hosting God Not hiding sin Are you Aiken or? Are you Reha? Maybe in the outside people don't give a second thought about you. There's nothing special. It's so average I give you a secret today The goal of Christian life is not to avoid hiding sin duh Everybody knows that The best way to not hide sin is to host the spirit. I'm not encouraging today Please get rid of the sin in your life. No, don't get rid of the sin replace the sin with something else have secrets Make sure your secrets is like Samson. He had a secret. It was his connection to God Make sure that you don't give that secret up for nobody under no circumstances because that secret is the secret of your future success It will change who you are. It will change how you dress how you live It will change everything about you because whatever is hidden will be revealed The world will know you other people will know you and there was nothing special about you except the Bible says Rehab hid spies. She didn't have a great prayer life. She didn't have a great word life She just simply had a secret and her secret became real it changed her destiny What is your secret is a secret place or a secret sin in the New Testament? Apostle Paul says in Corinthians in Corinthians chapter 3 verse 11 It says the following for no other foundation can anyone lay than that what? For no other foundation can anyone lay than that which is laid which is Jesus Christ Now if anyone builds on this foundation with gold somebody say gold Somebody say silver and somebody say precious stones all the ladies love all of these. Okay, maybe not the silver But diamonds, right? So gold silver and diamonds Wood hay and straw each one's work will become clear for the day will declare it because it will be revealed by fire a Fire will test each one's work of what sort it is if anyone's work which he had built on indoors He will receive every word if anyone's work is burned He will burn he will suffer loss for he himself will be saved yet as though through the fire So Paul tells us pretty much the same story that we just we just learned in Joshua About a secret life. So he makes it very clear. We all build on Christ Amen Christ is the foundation. Can I can I hear an amen? So Christ is the foundation for every person Christ is our identity Christ is our anchor Christ is the foundation But Paul in here says I want you to notice this about this verse. He says that but each man builds on Christ differently Each one has a Christ as a foundation But each man uses different material to build on Christ and he gives us two categories of material I'll give you a little Bible study right now if you're taking notes I want you to make the difference between these two the first category He gives us is gold silver and precious stones and the second category. He gives us wood hay and straw Gold silver and precious stones whoever's in the back there if you can hook us up with some notes Gold silver and precious stones wood hay and straw Gold silver precious stones wood hay and straw the first difference is what wood Wood is over there wood hay and straw the difference between gold silver and precious stones as you see behind me is One is found on the ground This one is underground The second difference is one comes in big quantities the other one comes usually in small quantities You see the difference is that one is cheap the other one is expensive one is common The other one is rare one gets burned by fire. The other one gets purified by fire Christ is our foundation But the material you build your career your family your ministry on You pretty much have two options One is the wood hay and straw What is that wood hay and straw? It's things that people see it's big It's cheap. It's common and it doesn't stand the test of time And on the judgment day the eyes of Jesus that have flame will burn through everything that you've done your success your Accomplishments your Roth IRA your retirement funds all of your vacations all of your good success Good things that you've done it will go through with fire and everything you've done They looked good on Instagram It looked great in front of your family members But was it built with Things that people don't see Things that cost things that maybe we're not big and Things that time trials and tribulations cannot wipe out but only purify In other words, we're building our life on Jesus But we must be building our life with Jesus Because you can build your life in America today with your degree You can build your marriage today in the United States with your intellect and with your wisdom and your discipline You can build a ministry today on a great team on a great management and a great software You can build a lot of things today without an intimate relationship with Jesus as long as you work hard and as long as you work Smart your ministry can become big your family can become successful and that is awesome I applaud big nice expensive buildings But the question is not how big it is in the eyes of men. The question is can it last when I die? Can it last through a scandal a trial a tribulation? Can it last through a human rejection? Can it last if persecution rises against the church right now and going to church would mean you're going to jail? Will the church still be there? Will the family still serve God? Can it go through the fire and get purer or smaller? I'm challenged by that personally as a pastor and as a husband and as a Christian. I Build my life on Jesus. I know that you know that you build your life on Jesus But in eternity what will matter is not how big things God It's what material did I use? building it Was my dependence upon my gift or on my intimacy? Was my dependence on my my my ability to communicate and my ability to relate to people and my ability to promote myself and My ability to make finances or was my dependence though build on Jesus build also with my devotional intimacy with the Holy Spirit I Want to challenge you today that in eternity a lot of rich people on earth we poor and a lot of poor people will be rich But it's not gonna be dependent on how rich you were or poor you were on earth That doesn't matter what matters is this were you building on Jesus and number two were you building with Jesus? With gold silver precious stones or with wood hay and straw wood hay and straw is easy to find It's easy to impress others with it wood hay and straw doesn't require prayer fasting giving it doesn't require consecration Requires being smart and working hard and our culture honors it our culture Applauds it Christian world today will stand and applaud that and that is awesome I'm one of those people. I want nice big fast things, but in eternity Jesus made it very clear his eyes will go through everything I've built and I will be saved But the reward is not dependent on how big things were it's how good things were built with him or just with myself Are you with me? It's my last service So I'm preaching it as though I'm not coming back and I'm just kidding. Well, whether I'm coming back or not That's not up to me, but but amen now in the conclusion Let's I want to share with you on three principles to To make your secret place Become enjoyable place For so many people The reason why they don't live a life of prayer is because it's not enjoyable everything you enjoy you keep doing everything you endure you quit and For many people they get fired up, you know at the conference or at the service like this as many people will get fired up today but the problem happens is that Discipline cannot make your prayer life last Lasting Relationship with Jesus can never be ran on discipline the same way You're not gonna keep dating a girl because you have to Marriages are not built on have to marriages are built on want to it There's love that that that oil that keeps things going and so is with a relationship with the Lord I know what it's like to do things, but I'm by nature. I am more disciplined than I guess maybe average people And so discipline comes easier for me So I praying reading fasting a lot of times I've seen it as a as a discipline and I know I'll do it no matter if I feel it or not But I do know that our church is not a praying church because everybody has discipline you have to discover the light Beyond discipline to continue to pray and I'm gonna share something with you that I believe the Lord will help you as well To discover the sweetness in the relationship with him When they use two stories from the Bible the first one is Matthew chapter 6 verse 6 It's a statement about prayers said by Jesus and the second one from second Kings chapter 4 verse 4 Matthew 6 6 is the following but you when you pray Jesus didn't say if you pray He says when he's expecting us to pray go into your room and when you have shut your door Pray to your father who is in the secret place And your father who is sees in the secret will reward you openly. So not only he is there, but he also sees second Kings chapter 4 verse 4 almost similar verse When you have come in a prophet speaks to a widow who has her kids Almost like on Greg's list for sale to pay off the debt. She's about to lose her kids He lost her husband. He was a man man of God and she's looking for a financial solution to her dilemma and the prophet And the prophet tells her the following. He says when you have come into your house You shall shut the door behind you and your sons Then pour into all these vessels and set aside the fool ones pour the oil that she had a little bit off in the house The first thing that I want to share with you About secret place is you have to close the door When you come into your secret place so that God can open the window a lot of people do not find the presence of God in Their secret place is because when they get entered their doors are open You have to learn to close the door when you go to your secret place Now a door is called distraction. What distractions do is they split your focus and they actually birth defeat Distracted Christian is a defeated Christian every wife knows that about their husbands when you go out to eat and your husband's on the phone Now you're at the right place Intimacy supposed to happen there you supposed to be close or he's picking up business calls Or maybe your wife is busy with something else and you know you want to talk about something and they're distracted now It's okay if it happens once it's okay if it happens twice But what's bad is if it happens always like that and then you hear complaining that you hear Why because the person says I feel like I don't have you like well my fingers my body my toes and my eyes are here My heart is here like yeah, but you are not here. I had two car accidents and two car accidents were due to distraction The first one was I was driving to this leader in our church over the bridge and it was in the time where we had my space My space kind of like Facebook Something like that and and I've remembered it like yesterday I had this bling that went out on my phone that somebody left a comment on my photo Which was like you know getting a comment on the photo for me on my space like once a week was a breakthrough So I'm driving over the blue bridge 395 in Pasco from basket to canvig and I get this bling so I got so excited a breakthrough and it gave me like three or four words You know give you the preview and I saw this person. I've been trying to reach out She's commenting how she wants to come to church. So I'm like this is definitely from God But you know you're driving. So what you're doing is your multi-tasking now You say I can drive and still answer so I open my phone my my space app And by the time I got to the third sentence next thing I know is The rapture came and then it dawned on me. It wasn't Jesus. It wasn't rapture I just hit an old car right in front of me. I told the other car completely when the police officer arrived He says why did you not see the car? I said I I I was looking at the sky He said you you meant to say you were Distracted and he didn't ask me about the phone. So I'm like I'm not gonna bring on the phone if he doesn't ask me I don't want to confess sins that I he didn't ask me for this is not God's heaven You know so this is just police officer You want to avoid getting a ticket the more he asked questions? He found out that I was so distracted so she just gave me five hundred fifty dollar ticket for negligent driving The second time I had an accident. It was few days before my wedding On the parking lot of TJ max smashed a brand new work vehicle of someone else because I was busy Answering pastor Martin about the use service details And that was the last time That I've hit a car because when we got married my wife said this you make me one promise if we're married You will not drive and text I said babe, I can improve on my texting skills Have you heard of Siri she can text on your behalf and She says nothing is more important than your life She says I want you in one piece Not in a casket, but in front of me each time you come home And when I made that decision I cannot say that I have been a perfect husband and never picked up the phone I'll read a text message, but I can tell you one thing by the grace of God. I've done a lot better than I've ever done before distractions breathe defeat They split your focus and for many people what happened with me driving is what happens with you praying all the time One of the ways sometimes we bring distractions to our prayer by not closing the doors for many people They pray with their phone The phone is there all the notifications on all of your apps are enabled The moment you get into a secret place somebody likes your photo somebody commented Somebody sends you a text message. Oh you get a call and then guess what happens. You're constantly distracted from that Why does God want us to close the door in praying because intimacy always happens behind closed doors God wants intimacy every married person knows you got to close the door Mm-hmm a man usually don't care, but the women are the ones that gotta close that door Nothing can happen until that door is locked and I know for sure that it's locked because we got kids dogs cats and neighbors I can come in gotta lock the door and God is speaking to us his bride and he says listen I want when you get into the room. I want to have stuff happen. I want to be intimate with you I want to be close. Could you close the door and for someone was that simple. It means could you leave the phone behind that door? Did you say what to leave my phone behind that door? Like how am I gonna read the Bible? Have you heard of like physical Bibles? They still make those No, I am not I Don't want to make anybody feel bad for bringing their phone into the into the prayer. Sometimes I do it, too But I understand one thing about prayer It really you really connect with God the same way as on a date with my wife If your phone is off or if your phone is in your car Like when I come on a date with my wife and I leave my phone at the house my wife resurrects She's like you did what? You what did you do? It's almost like I like won the world for her something. It's a babe I just left my phone and then of course I would spoil the surprising because the better is dead So some media text messages phone calls they distract you will say but I need to get that call You wouldn't be getting that call if you be meeting with the president of the United States There's nobody more important than the creator of the universe when you meet with him I am not saying in any ways you should make so rigid and this is be such a controlled environment But what I'm saying is that if your prayer life Consists of distractions if the wind if the doors are open and the windows are closed You are breaking the first protocol of prayer Close the doors. I started to practice something. I am not good at it And I'll be the first one to admit I broke this rule in my own life more than I have succeeded in it And one of them is that not to bring my phone into my room, but to leave it in the kitchen overnight I don't want the last person to be my phone screen But to be my wife's face and the first person that I see in the morning I don't want it to be my phone screen But I want it to be my wife's face and the second thing is not to check social media until I'm done with prayer And to leave my phone in the car instead. I do have an iPad. They're not expensive I have like a really old one and Has no text messages has nothing except the Bible and to bring that in why because when I am there I want to hear God. I'm gonna spend the rest of the day with people I'm gonna spend the rest of the day creating things and and and doing things But when I am there, I want to give God my undivided attention to the best of my ability That's the secret of a secret place is you have to close the door for some of you closing the door might not Just mean that you remove distractions But some of us would mean that a lot of us don't even pray because we are busy The distraction is that we bring all kinds of business with it and many people I find today are so busy doing things for the Lord So busy doing good things in life that they sacrifice their prayer life and saying well I'll rather be doing God's will I'll rather be doing what the word says instead of spending time with God I'm gonna tell you one thing Jesus was the ultimate doer of the will of God He was the will of God yet. He spent mornings in prayer. He spent nights in prayer He prayed at the cross he prayed in front of a Lazarus tomb if there was one person on this planet who did not need to pray Because he had the fullness of the spirit because he had all the power of God flowing through him is Jesus yet He prayed so much The disciples didn't ask him about his preaching life. I didn't even ask him how to heal and cast out demons They came and says Jesus how do that? How could how come you you heal the sick for all night long? We're tired and exhausted. You're tired too because we saw you fall asleep on the boat We saw you get tired and sit at the well in Samaria You get tired and yet in the morning we wake up and you already in the desert talking to the father How come you feed the multitude spend time for three days and you tell us to go ahead of you And then you run to the mountain not to nap, but to pray all night Jesus teaches how to do that People who come and tell me I know God so much. I don't need to pray your delusional You have went so deep that you're drowning Any depth that goes surpasses my Lord Jesus Christ is borderline heresy If Jesus prayed So should I But I must discover the secret and what is the secret closed doors the scripture says Jesus prayed at night Everybody's sleeping at night. Jesus prayed early in the morning. Everybody's sleeping during the time What that what that means is that he was praying at times where nobody can disturb him. I Started to experience the I'm a more of a morning person So it works for me to pray more in the mornings But lately last few months I started to experience, you know to pray at night Sometimes the whole day just goes on and I didn't have time to spend time with the Lord and just you know Kiss my wife goodnight and just go 10 or 11 all the way till the till the sun rises and it's yes First few moments you you know you you hold yourself a little bit awake, but you're not there to prove anything You're not there to to to get spiritual you dare to be with the father the same Jesus was you walk out from there Something is different about you. Something is different about your walk with God. Something is different about your relationship with God Never allow your business and your success to hinder your intimacy with the Lord There was two people one was Esther the other one was Vashti Vashti was so busy making the feast for women that when the king called her and says come into my presence. She said I'm not coming. Why I'm busy and it's interesting that she wasn't busy Cheating on him she was busy Doing women's ministry. I called is the first women's ministry in the Bible Vashti was leading the women's ministry One served women another one prepared the meal for the king one created a fast another one Led a nation one created a feast another one led a nation into a fast one Lost her crown and the other one saved her nation people who say sometimes, you know, I can't pray today because I'm so busy Martin Luther said one time. He says because I'm so busy. I need to pray more today than before Prayer doesn't take time prayer saves time Vashti said I can't come why I'm so busy Esther said I will come even though I'm not invited She went into the presence of the king and guess who saved a nation not Vashti who was busy It's the other one who was intimate with the king You will do more with prayer than without God Your appointments will go better your business will go better Things will go better with your children if you don't squeeze intimacy with God out of your schedule out of the excuse I'm busy for God a lot of people are like Martha. They're making sandwiches. Jesus did not ask for and Walking around so worried and anxious because anytime you're working for God at the expense of being with God and pushing that aside and saying I don't have time for that. I need to quickly run into my office. I need to quickly run into my computer I need to work on my sermon. I need to work on this. I need to work I don't have time right now for that I'll find some other time and you always find that that time never comes if you do that You're like Martha running around all the pots are burning and you're frustrated at God Why is he not helping you to serve him better and Jesus looks at her some Martha Martha You are worried about many things but one thing is needed and Mary has chosen it chosen It means it won't be given to you. You got to take it mothers Don't let raising your children Hindu you're spending time with God Fathers don't let raising your family providing for your family and building your business to push you aside You will do more with God than without him You will make more money Praying than just working hard and burning your candle on both sides Because you will have the help of the Holy Spirit to help you God is not trying to take your time He wants you to save it When you spend time with him we made a rule in our office that nobody can come to the office until they spend a full-time Staff at least one hour and the part-time staff at least 30 minutes in prayer I get mad when I see them just walking straight into the computer or straight into the office because I know We are our boss is Jesus Christ and we can't do his work without his help and Every single day we need his help and we need his grace can somebody say amen In order to have God open the windows of heaven you got to close the doors of distraction So when you go into your secret place tomorrow morning when you go to a secret place tonight Whatever day or every time that you spend time with God. Could you remove distractions? Maybe for some when you turn off your putting your phone on the airplane mode close the door Do something where your family knows that for next 30 minutes do not disturb you Let me spend time with God Let me spend time with him and because then you are undivided and then you can be focused and God loves because intimacy can Happen behind closed doors number two. I want you to see that the scripture says not only Close the door, but in Matthew chapter 6 it says when you go into your room and You shut the door pray to your father. I want you to see this Who is in the secret place? If you believe underlining Bible is not a sin underlined there in your Bible who is in the secret place so God Point number two right is that don't go to a secret place to look for God Go there to be with him This was a biggest revelation that changed my prayer life. I used to go to a secret place to find God As though he was lost And I'm all with it You know when the Bible says to seek him knock and and it has its place just to make supplication It has its place, but if your whole prayer life has this mindset, it's a mindset That's all it is. It's not has nothing to do with God It has to do with the mindset if your mindset is this I'm gonna go to a secret place and God is hiding from me You will always discover him hiding from you But if you have a mindset that is built by the scriptures and the scripture says this you go to your room and the father is Already in the secret place You don't have to seek him. You need to be with him He's not inviting you to seek his face first. He says come and be with me in a secret place Prophet tells the woman who had a poverty problem. He says what do you have in your house? She says I have a little bit of oil. He says go back to your house. He didn't say buy more oil He says the oil you got needs to flow When you close the door you already have oil in your secret place. It's called the Holy Spirit You already have the presence of God He lives in your secret place when you go there you don't go there to find him you go there to be with him This forever changed my prayer life at one time. God tells Moses this he says Come up to me on the mountain and be there This is incredible Moses is busy. He got million complaining people These people if they're not complaining for the lack of meat and they're complaining about cucumbers If they're not complaining about this they're complaining about that and God says Moses Leave that alone But God they'll switch religions in 30 days if I don't watch them. God says don't worry come up to the mountain and What did God say to do? What did God say to do? Be there The scripture says when Moses came up there. He was there for seven days Doing what? Nothing Being there and after seven days the Lord spoke so for seven days. He was just chilling with God Be there. Do you mean Vlad to speak in tongues? No be there Do you mean to pray worship be there? Oh, this is scary for us Pentecostals Because if somebody's not talking in prayer, that's not prayer If there is no noise, there's no God and I remember when I had to learn to Be there. I'm gonna tell you how it came to me I developed this, you know consistency showing up a five to prayer and I hit this Wilderness season what I come and honestly nothing. I just just can't get through To feel the father to experience the father and ta-ra And so one time I was very honest with God. I said Lord, let's be real I Don't like coming here fight Plus, I'm cranky. I live mad This prayer is damaging me. I'm like I am doing better when I don't pray As I got it doesn't do you good. It doesn't do me good It does the world better if I will sleep and not come to prayer at all And I felt the Holy Spirit speak back to my heart and he said Vlad. This is your problem It's just one you come here For my presence You you claim because you love my presence He says I don't want you to come here because You can find my presence or be in my presence. He says did you know that I love your presence more than you love mine? He said did you know that I actually enjoy your company? I Enjoy you being here like I I get a kick out of it I actually have scars to prove that I love your presence so much. I Enjoy your presence. He says how many times are you gonna come only so you can get my presence? What about coming sometimes so I can get yours? This was a revelation that changed prayer for me So then I came the next day I sat there in the chair and I said God here. I am enjoy me. You got me Lord. I'm here at seven o'clock I'm leaving so you got two hours to enjoy me I'm saying not a word to you today You love me here. You got me After about 15 minutes of my little Complaining that the presence of the Lord started to cover me like a cloud. I started to feel his love I started to understand that the reason why he wants to spend time with me It's not so I can get his presence is so he can get mine He brought me back to how I love my wife You know, I didn't drive all the way to Vancouver three and a half hours from what I lived so that my wife can get me I was getting there so I can have her. I just wanted to be in her presence. Sometimes it's just near her During those dating times, I mean just just this within her proximity It will ready like my heart was already feeling I was feeling way better and Lord says You know that that love is exactly what I feel every single day for you It never changed I am obsessed with you and I have the cross to prove it you walk around over there say I love I love your presence. He says shut up He says you compared with how much I love your presence the way you love your presence is embarrassing He says I did not initiate prayers so you can get my presence. I initiated for myself so I can get yours Prayer is not about you. It's about me Getting you because I love you. I really I am obsessed with you and the second revelation was this Vlad stop coming to find me Come to be with me Learn to wait learn to worship learn to just be learn to just be in him I believe in the protocol of prayer. I believe in our Father is in heaven. I believe in the tabernacle prayer I believe in confessing your sins proclaiming the promises and standing on the word of God and and praying through the prophetic words I believe in in you know worshiping God and repenting of your sins all of that has its place But God tells Moses come to the mountain and be there I want to challenge you today that God loves your presence so much more than you love his and prayer is not just about you Getting something out of God. It's God trying to get you guys getting your heart getting your presence Sometimes he just wants you What about if you fall into sin I remember when few weeks I was I was gone and and then I came back And I just kind of had a hard time to get back into the rhythm of prayer again And and because of that legalism that was still built in me about prayer I felt guilty for not praying and the Lord convicted me and he says when you don't see your wife for three days Do you feel guilty or do you miss her? He says when you didn't pray for a week or two? I don't want you to feel guilty I want you to feel thirsty. I want you to miss me. I want you to come back to me and not say God I'm sorry. I want you to say come back and say God I miss you God says I don't want you to come back and say I'm sorry. God says you didn't break any rule I want you to come back and say God. I miss you. I miss your presence. I miss talking to you I miss being with you, but Lord. I one time I remember I fall asleep in prayer woke up another Jesus I'm so sorry. I fell asleep like disciples in the garden. We can say many let's say it now I and I heard it Bill Johnson said one time the really minister to me He says when the when the when your daughter falls asleep in your arms as a father. Do you ever punish her? When you fall asleep in prayer God delights in that you're like that's my kid sleeping in my arms. It's so cool God loves your presence so much than you love his and prayer is not so that you can be a prayer warrior It's just your son you you're bright of Christ your identity creates your intimacy You don't pray so you get close to God you pray because God is there and he's waiting for you When Adam commits sin the scripture says that in Genesis I want you to see this verse And when they heard the sound of the Lord walking in the garden in the cool of the day and Adam and his wife Hit themselves in the presence of God among the trees and then the Lord God called Adam and said where are you? It's crazy because God saw full high definition Video of what Adam was doing. He saw in slow motion how he was eating of the fruit Everything was right in front of me all the angels were like Don't do don't do it Lucifer did it something like that didn't work for him Adam It won't work for you. Trust me, bro. Ah, she did it God she did it and it's interesting because the next day As it was God's habit to come in the cool of the day and fellowship with Adam You would think that God seeing the Adam sin. God says, you know what appointment cancel I'm not going there no more. Why plus Adam's gonna be hiding anyway God still showed up to the same place where he meets with Adam and is shocked The Adam didn't show up knowing Adam committed sin. God says, why are you not here? Where are you? I know you committed sin. I know that what you ate. I know you feel ashamed. I know that but why are you not here? Why is all of the that you did is stopping you from being here? God tells in Isaiah. He says you committed sins come let's reason together and if your sins are like this and that I'll make him wash what I love about God is this is that if you commit a secret sin You fall into that God wants you to still come back into the secret place so you can talk about it So you can get washed so you can get cleansed so you can get forgiven never run never hide from God when you commit sin hide In him when you commit sin, that's the safest place to be in and If you can run after God into the secret place when you commit sin crawl into that place Walk into that place have four friends pick you up and carry you into that place But never stay in sin never stay in the mud. You're not a pig that enjoys to play You're a sheep. You don't like the mud. You like the presence of God. It is your identity Come on somebody When the pig goes into the mud it plays in it when the sheep falls into the mud it cries in it You're not a pig that enjoys the mud. You're a sheep when you fall into sin There's something in you that feels disgusted about it. That's why the Lord says listen even if you fall into your sin Into the same stinking sin 500 time or how many time God says you make your way to the secret place. Why we're gonna talk about it And if your sins are as deep as that I'll pull you out I'll forgive you I'll help you but don't hide from me hide in me We got a relationship. I thought you can trust me with your sin. I thought you can trust me with your struggle come to me The secret of a secret place is close the door so God can open the windows The second thing is don't go to a secret place to find God go to a secret place to be with him and the last one is God will reward publicly what you do privately What that means is that after a while when you keep your secret place consistent Your life will start experiencing things That cannot be attributed accredited to your good looks To your connections to you there will be something about your life that you will say God did it People will say that about you God will reward you publicly. It's crazy that you don't come to prayer for a reward God in here almost like motivates us says come be with me, but he says I'm gonna give you a promise I'm a God who rewards secret secret things. That's why many people go and scandal 20 years They're hiding a secret sin in even in Hollywood even in the government even with politics and celebrities preachers and pastors That sins that are hidden 20 15 years everything gets exposed and they get embarrassed and they destroy their family God says I'm a God who rewards what's done in private with good and the bad So if you keep a private secret life with God, God says listen it might take 10 years It might take five years But listen your oil will flow into your vessels and then when the oil flows in the private you can sell it in the public You will live in your public life Experiencing breakthrough in the conclusion I'll give you two things that your prayer life will do to your life one is it will give you a personal transformation It will transform you personally scripture says he just went up to the mountain and his face was transfigured as he was praying You personally become transformed when you pray and number two is not only personal transformation But it gives us demonic elimination where God eliminates demonic from our life Scripture says when disciples were trying to cast out demons that they couldn't Jesus says you must pray He says this kind comes with prayer and fasting I believe in the power of prayer the reason why is because power is released when you pray and that power first changes me Prayer doesn't change my circumstances first It changes me and secondly is it gives me power over temptation. It gives me power over my trials It gives me power over my sin nature. It gives me power over the demonic now. I have that power legally as Mish mentioned yesterday morning It's already been deposited to me. It's already been given to me Legally, I'm already healed legally. I'm already saved legally. I'm already dead to do my past legally I'm already righteous my mind needs to now be renewed But what happens in prayer is this is that you get the key that becomes the activates what you receive positionally See God promised Israel a promised land through Abraham But they didn't get promised land because they were promised they got a promised land because they fought for it I didn't fight for it. They fought from having the promised land as a Christian You don't fight for victory you fight from victory as a Christian You're more than a conqueror why because every conqueror gets victory after the battle you got victory before you got the battle But so you can fight the battle and win the battle Apostle Paul says in Timothy he says wage war according to the prophecies that you receive see when you got a prophetic word It's not God is gonna make it happen. You're gonna fight with the prophetic word Jesus says the sins the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of God suffers violence and the violent man a prayerful man a Passionate man. They take it they seize that and they fight with it and they make happen There are so many people that have a potential they have a promise, but the promise gets activated when you live a life of prayer It releases that anointing it releases that power one of my favorite illustration says when an eagle and a snake Fight see a snake snakes dominion is on the ground A snake has power on the ground Eagle has the power in the air Snake has no stamina And it has no balance and therefore it has no power when you take it from the ground into the sky When an eagle takes the snake now at first the snake will try to bite the snake will try to fight But the moment the snake left the ground is that moment snake lost the battle See God wants you to take your battle into the spiritual realm where satan has no advantage Satan can't stop God from answering your prayer. So he will try everything he can to stop you from praying it When you pray you take that snake into the air Where he has no advantage where he cannot fight back and it's like that snake It's a victim of your prayer and then your family gathers around and eats the snake for lunch Why? Because the enemy has no power on those who pray He has no power over us legally 150 percent, but most Christians live in sin In sickness in defeat many times And when you pray it releases A power that eliminates demonic a secret place. Thank you for watching this content. I know this was a blessing to you We would like to ask you to subscribe to our channel and click on the bell on our channel So that each time we upload something you can be notified Don't forget to share this content with your friends and family and on social media. We're so thankful to you Better is not good enough. The best is yet to come