Your Prayer WON'T Work | John Giftah | Christian Sermon

0:01 Do you ever look around and think, Wow, the world is a crazy

0:06 place and it just seems to get crazier and crazier. Ease your mind and

0:12 take a break. This is Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. We're

0:17 a hub for inspirational Christian sermons, practical keys for Christian living, and Christian

0:24 discussions and interviews. You'll be inspired to live the life that you were created

0:29 for. Your host is a top ranking podcaster, best selling author, world

0:34 record holder, aerospace engineer, life coach, evangelist, and founder of John

0:39 Gifta International. Welcome to Fuel for the Soul with John Gifta. A lot

0:53 of times I've come across people right they say, Oh, John, you

0:57 know what I've been praying about this. I'm praying, I'm praying. Nothing

1:00 is happening. I'm praying, I'm praying. I'm not seeing a change.

1:02 I'm praying. I'm praying. Will prayer work? Can I tell you something?

1:06 See, there is another idea to understand here that prayer as a whole,

1:10 your effort as a whole, that you're doing it as a ritual,

1:14 you doing it with your own strength. You is thinking that your act of

1:19 prayer is going to make a difference. It's not going to make a difference.

1:23 It's not going to make a difference. I want to start up by

1:26 sharing a scripture with you, and I want to take this forward. There's

1:29 a moment found in Jonah chapter two. Here to understand that Jonah ran away

1:34 from God. God and asked him to go towards nin Away, But he

1:38 took a ship towards Starshish, and he ran in the opposite direction. He

1:42 put everybody in jeopardy, and eventually he finds himself in the middle of the

1:48 waters, swallowed by a veil, a big fish, and his life is

1:53 just at stake. He doesn't know what's going to happen. And chapter two

1:59 begins from a place where the Bible says, and I'm reading from the nib

2:02 version. Okay, from inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord,

2:07 his God. He said, now listen to this. Even in that moment,

2:10 he's praying to the Lord, right, He says, in my distress,

2:15 I called the Lord, and he answered me. From the deep,

2:20 in the realm of the dead, I call for help, and you listen

2:23 to my cry. You held me into the depths, into the very heart

2:28 of the seas, and and and and it goes on to talk about her

2:31 direct conversation he has with God. Okay, he's not just doing it like

2:38 a ritual. Oh you know, I'm I'm I'm in a very bad shape.

2:42 Oh my goodness, Oh God, do something. You know. He's

2:45 not doing it like that. It's not a ritual. It's not an act.

2:49 Okay, he's talking with God. He's saying, um, you know,

2:53 um, you listen to my cry, you held me, you know.

2:57 So he is having a direct talk with God. Okay. It's not

3:01 an act that he's doing. It's not just a performance. And many of

3:06 us may be in a place where you're in a deep trouble. You may

3:08 be in a trouble waters, you may be in a very bad situation right

3:13 now, and you're doing the act of prayer instead of talking with God,

3:17 instead of having the real relationship with God. Today, I want to encourage

3:21 you guys. You know, even before I started, I want to tell

3:23 you something. Okay, before I start recording every single episode, I pray

3:28 and then I start, okay, and this word is something I had to

3:32 do myself, and I said, God, you know what, I don't

3:35 want to just pray like you know, I put my faith on the prayer.

3:38 I put my trust on the prayer, my confidence on the prayer.

3:42 God, you know what helped me to pray from a place where I am

3:44 involving you. I mean, I mean inviting you into this. Uh you

3:47 know me recording this and I'm asking you to take control and I depend on

3:52 you. At the same time, I'm having the direct conversation with God instead

3:57 of praying as a rich will saying you know what, I'm done as an

4:01 act of prayer, so something good is going to happen. I'm doing it

4:04 from a place of ritual, so it's just going to work out. No,

4:09 it's not. Because I want you to understand. The word that really

4:12 caught my attention was if you look at worse ten okay, from worse one

4:19 on words, he starts talking with God and till worse nine and he says,

4:25 those who cling to worthless idles turn away from God's love for them.

4:29 But I, which shouts of grateful praise, will sacrifice to you what I

4:32 avowed. I will make good and I will say salvation comes from the Lord.

4:38 And listen to this worse tend It's what really caught my attention. Okay,

4:41 it says, and the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah

4:46 into the dry land. And the Lord commanded the fish. I want you

4:49 to get this into your spirit. It is not that his prayer made the

4:54 fish to vomit him. He prays from a true place, from the genuineness

5:02 of his heart. He has the conversation with God where he's pouring out to

5:06 the Lord. And the Bible is very clear in noting us and telling us

5:11 that, you know, it's not that once he started stop praying, the

5:14 fish just vomited him. The Bible is very clear that at that moment,

5:18 the Lord commanded the fish and it vomits it Jonnah into the dry line.

5:25 I want you guys to understand this. You know your prayer as a ritual,

5:28 it's not going to work out. You can't say, oh I prayed

5:30 and things would have changed. No, when you have that real conversation with

5:34 God, it's not your prayer that has the power. It is God who

5:39 has the power. So you need to always come to the place I know

5:43 something. I know. I keep checking myself. Yes, God, I'm

5:46 praying, but is it coming from a place of a ritual? Sometimes you

5:49 are so used to have the style of prayer or a heart of prayer.

5:54 The way you pray, this is the way I do, or sometimes you

5:58 know, it can just flow like, you know, okay, when everyone

6:00 says, oh, let us pray, or somebody says, you know,

6:04 close your eyes, let's pray, you know, in a corporate prayer.

6:08 So we have accustomed to think that is prayer. That you know, citing

6:11 a few words and saying it in a certain way means prayer. You close

6:15 your eyes or you get into a certain posture, and you think that is

6:18 prayer. But I'm here to remind you, guys that something that you need

6:21 to constantly check yourselface. Are you putting your confidence transtant reliance upon your act

6:27 of prayer? Or are you really putting your trust confidence on God who is

6:30 the one who's going to act in accordance to your prayer. Amen, I

6:35 want you to think about it. I want you to introspect where is your

6:41 prayer coming from? And I pray in the name of Jesus Christ, that

6:44 every single person who's listening will get this into the spirit of God. Help

6:48 us to get to that place where we ensure that we don't put our trust,

6:51 confidence and reliance on our prayer. That we don't pray from a place

6:56 of a ritual, but we put our trust in you because we believe that

7:01 a prayer is not going to set the miracle emotion. You are going to

7:05 set the miracle emotion. It is not its prayer that commanded the fish to

7:14 go out and vomit him. It was the Lord who did it. Because

7:18 a lot of people are doing the act of prayer, they're saying, oh,

7:23 you know, prayer is not working for me. Prayer will not work

7:25 for you. You need to have that communication with God. You need to

7:29 have the direct relationship with God, and then you will see the difference in

7:33 your life. Amen, God bless you. You've been listening to Fuel for

7:42 the Soul with John Gifta. We hope you were blessed and inspired to live

7:46 the life that God has for you. Make sure to subscribe to the John

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8:31 Gifta dot com. See you on the next episode of The Fuel for the

8:35 Soul with John Gifta. God bless you