Participants: Yvonne Lewis (Host), Dr. Nadine Joseph-Collins
Series Code: UBR
Program Code: UBR000208A
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00:01 Are you a prayer wimp?
00:02 Are your prayers short, weak and ineffective? 00:05 Well, stay tuned to meet a woman 00:07 who can give you tips to set those prayers on fire. 00:10 My name is Yvonne Lewis, 00:12 and you're watching Urban Report. 00:38 Hello, and welcome to Urban Report. 00:40 My guest today is Dr. Nadine Joseph-Collins. 00:44 Dr. Joseph-Collins is a woman's advocate 00:46 and a prayer counselor. 00:48 Welcome to Urban Report, doctor. 00:50 Thank you. 00:51 It's so much to say Dr. Joseph-Collins, 00:53 may I just call you Nadine? 00:55 Yes, it's perfect. Alright, good. 00:56 Good, good, good. 00:58 So you are involved in this whole aspect of prayer 01:03 and there are so many people, 01:06 I hear all the time and I have too, I must confess. 01:10 This is time for true confessions, right? 01:12 So up until this past year, my prayer life was really weak. 01:19 If I have to say, I mean, it was just weak, 01:21 I would just say a couple of lines 01:22 and then get up and do what I had to do but it just... 01:27 I wanted more and I knew that I needed more 01:31 and then the Lord showed me something 01:33 and we can talk about that later. 01:35 But there are so many people who like me, 01:38 had this or have just this weak, 01:41 ineffective prayer life. 01:44 What have you found as you go around the country, 01:48 what have you found had been the main concerns of people 01:51 with prayer? 01:53 Yes, one of the major concerns people have and I was surprised 01:57 because growing up in the church I thought, 01:59 you know, we see very good prayers, 02:01 you must admit, if there are any people 02:03 who can pray in the face of Adventist people, 02:06 we have the lingo correct... 02:07 Right. 02:09 We all of these, you know, I call Hailey Mary's, you know. 02:12 We have this gracious and eternal heavenly Father, 02:15 hasten the foot steps of those who are on their way, 02:17 we your loving children combine before you, 02:20 we have a lot of lingo and I thought, man, 02:21 we got this thing covered, 02:23 we know how to pray and God taught me, 02:26 that really we say prayers 02:28 but our prayers are not effective prayers. 02:31 Now what's the difference? 02:32 The big difference is you could say something very nice, 02:37 like a good prayer, 02:38 the ones that we do all the time 02:40 but effective prayer is praying that actually breed results. 02:45 Positive results, I'm talking about, 02:46 not just any results. 02:48 Right. 02:49 So you talk about what is the major problem I found, 02:51 both here in the US 02:52 and traveling around the world, 02:53 is that a lot of people are frustrated 02:55 in their prayer lives 02:56 because they're not getting answers from God. 03:00 It's like, I was surprised 03:02 to meet so many frustrated Christians, 03:05 they are like, you know, um, I've been praying, 03:09 God doesn't answer, 03:10 I have these needs and people are deflated. 03:15 They are disgusted somewhat in a sense as well 03:18 because we're speaking about this prayer thing 03:20 but God is not hearing me 03:21 and I found that there are reasons 03:23 why we're not getting answers to our prayers 03:26 and that is where the rubble meets the road 03:29 and everybody is not willing to go there. 03:30 Okay, so now let's talk about that, 03:32 'cause I wanna hear. 03:34 Okay, so what are the reasons 03:37 that people are not getting answers? 03:40 Okay, you want the long story or the short story? 03:43 The long story, we have time. The long story. 03:45 Okay, let's start. 03:46 So the thing is, when we first met, 03:49 I met you as Dr. Yvonne Lewis... 03:51 Yes. And now I call you, 'Yvonne.' 03:53 Right. 03:54 Maybe in the next three years, I may call you, 03:55 "Hey, what's up, Y?" 03:57 You know, you shorten the name, so on. 03:59 Now what people don't realize or we already heard 04:02 but we have not been implementing 04:04 is that in order for us to have a powerful prayer life, 04:07 we first need to have a relationship with God. 04:12 We don't just need to know about Him, 04:15 we don't just need to go to church, 04:16 we need an intimate relationship. 04:20 And when people hear intimate sometimes, 04:22 they always think about a man and woman relationship, 04:25 but when we think about the story of Elijah, 04:27 when he was in the cave in I Kings 19. 04:30 The Bible said, he heard God in a whisper, 04:33 that was above the rocks breaking down, 04:35 above the wind, above the lightning, 04:38 above all of the noise, 04:39 so it says that he must have been in close proximity to God 04:43 because if I'm in a room and I whisper 04:45 and you're on the other side, you'll not hear me. 04:48 In order for you to hear my whisper, 04:49 we need to be in close proximity. 04:51 So it starts with our relationship with God, 04:54 not just be in a said relationship 04:57 but a relationship that actually works. 04:58 You know how we spend all of that time, 05:01 when Facebook, what's apping people, 05:03 I-message, over Skype, whatever it is, 05:06 we spend a lot of time 05:08 investing in people that we love. 05:11 We spend all that time talking to them 05:13 and we expect our relationship with God 05:15 to be something hurried. 05:17 So in order for me to know your voice, like, 05:18 if I called you on the phone when we just met, 05:21 I would have had to say, "Hi, Yvonne, this is Nadine." 05:23 I'm sure I'll have to identify myself a few times 05:25 in the next few conversations until one day when I call, 05:29 I wouldn't have to identify myself anymore 05:31 in the advent of like caller id, 05:33 because you'd recognize my voice. 05:35 I'm loving this, Nadine. I'm loving this. 05:39 Oh, man, this is so beautiful, 05:41 because this is personalizing God. 05:44 Yes, yes. 05:46 This is not... He's not some deity out there, 05:51 He's someone that's wants to be right here... 05:53 Wants to be right there and sometime it comforts me, 05:55 you know, cause I'm like, Lord, you are who you are and yet 06:00 when we choose to spend time for you, 06:01 it means so much to Him 06:03 and that is why people 06:04 who spend a lot of time in God's presence 06:07 appear to be more blessed than others 06:10 because you're a parent and you know like, 06:13 you might have a kid who's close to you 06:15 and you may have a kid who lives far away from you, 06:17 the one who's close to you, 06:18 you usually get more of your presence, 06:21 they get more of your attention and stuff like that 06:23 and when we look at God and spending time with Him, 06:26 it's like the child who chooses to spend more time with Him, 06:29 end up getting a little more blessings 06:31 because they're right there under Him. 06:34 I am one of those children, 06:35 I want to be as close as possible 06:38 as I can get to God. 06:39 Yes. 06:41 I wanna get as much from Him as I can. 06:42 As my father, you wanna give me... 06:44 He says He wanna give us exceedingly abundantly 06:46 above anything we can ask 06:49 but He wants that personal time. 06:52 This is so good, um, there is a pastor 06:55 that came to 3ABN to visit 06:58 and he had told one of my friends, 07:01 Irma Murray, she had heard him say, 07:04 he has this relationship with the Lord that is really, 07:08 just special and he said that just what you're saying, 07:11 that God, that Jesus specifically, is lonely. 07:18 When she told me that, tears came to my eyes 07:21 because I don't think of Jesus as lonely. 07:23 I don't think of Him as wanting to be so close. 07:28 I mean, I do but I don't. 07:30 I don't think of Him as lonely though, 07:31 I've never thought of Him like that 07:33 and then when I talked to Pastor Portes, 07:35 when he was here, he said, 07:38 "Jesus doesn't just want members, 07:40 He wants friends." 07:43 He wants friends and so what you're saying 07:45 is just reinforcing that 07:47 and actually that's life changing 07:51 because once you realize that, 07:54 you find out how you can get closer to Him 07:58 and you do it. 07:59 I mean, my life has been changed totally, 08:02 so I totally, I'm just like, 08:03 I'm so into this, okay, so... 08:05 Yes, yes, so we need to know His voice. 08:06 Yes. 08:08 And one another thing is like I mentioned, 08:10 for us to know His voice, 08:12 we'd have to spend time talking to Him. 08:14 Right. 08:15 So when the noises of life come, 08:17 the stress is the frustrations, above all of that noise, 08:20 we can still hear that voice of God, 08:22 that still small voice just like Elijah heard 08:25 and another aspect of our prayer life, like, 08:27 a fundamental aspect is that prayer 08:30 or talking to God is a two way conversation. 08:34 Most times when we go to Him, 08:35 we go to Him and we do all the talking. 08:38 Right. 08:39 Now how many of us would like to be in a relationship 08:41 where one person does all the talking? 08:43 Well, honestly, for me, that's what made it boring. 08:47 I mean, I just have to admit it 08:48 because I was doing all the talking... 08:50 Yes, yes. So, I mean, I was. 08:52 So if you're doing all the talking, 08:54 you're just saying, tu, tu, tu, tu, tu, okay. 08:58 And both parties are frustrated. 08:59 Why? 09:00 Because you do all the talking and you get frustrated 09:02 because you may not get the response you want 09:04 or you may not get any response at all 09:06 and the person on the list might feel left out. 09:09 So if we're talking about God as a personal God, 09:11 having that personal relationship, 09:13 you could imagine how hurt and frustrated He is 09:16 that He wants to talk back to us 09:19 and I thought about something recently 09:21 and I thought, "Wow, you know, 09:22 we actually should change our self, 09:24 when we do all the talking." 09:26 Absolutely. 09:28 Yes, because He wants to bless us 09:31 more than we can ask and as human beings, 09:34 if we have not died to serve 09:36 which is something I need to touch on soon, 09:38 if we have not given up our will for God's will, 09:40 every time we go to ask Him something, 09:42 we're asking Him something we can see in our own eyes, 09:45 something that we can measure, 09:47 something we think it's actually close above. 09:50 But when we trust Him and we allow Him to talk, 09:52 then He gives us the bigger picture. 09:54 He shows us so much more blessings I want to give you, 09:58 you cannot ask me things that I wanna give you 10:01 because I wanna give you so much more 10:02 than you could ever ask or think. 10:04 Yes. 10:05 Yes, and we should change ourselves 10:07 and we shorten God's hands 10:09 because we wanted all the talking. 10:11 So the first thing we have to do 10:15 is spend more time with Him, 10:17 so that we can differentiate His voice from any other, 10:23 then what? 10:24 We need to wait on Him, listen to Him talk, 10:28 allow prayer to be a two way conversation 10:32 and not just us bringing our requests to Him. 10:34 Love it. 10:35 Yes. Okay. 10:37 And then the other thing we have to recognize 10:38 is that we need to practice it, 10:42 like every other art, like everything else in life, 10:46 Ellen G. White speaks about prayer as a science 10:49 and most of us would like to hear the word, 'science' 10:51 but it simply means like there's a strategy, 10:54 there's probably something logical 10:55 that we can do to get responses from God. 10:58 And part of that has to do with us recognizing, 11:01 Galatians 2:20, 11:03 where it says "I am crucified with Christ, never the less, 11:07 I live, yet not I but Christ lives in me, 11:10 and so the life I now live, 11:11 I'm not living it 11:13 but I'm living it by the son of God is living in me." 11:16 This has so much today for prayer life 11:18 that we don't recognize 11:20 and it's exciting to me 11:22 when the Lord revealed that to me, 11:23 that if I die to self and Jesus is living in me, 11:29 this body belongs to Nadine, right? 11:32 Well, it doesn't really belong to. 11:34 This body is Nadine's body, right? 11:37 But when Christ is living in this body, 11:39 Christ is living in me, the Bible says, 11:41 "Whatsoever things you ask in prayer, 11:44 believing you receive it, you will have it." 11:46 And most times we say that text, 11:48 we quote that text and we think we're going to go 11:50 and ask things and of course, we will get it 11:52 but we have not recognized 11:54 that it's contingent upon Christ being the one in us. 11:57 He's living in us, so when He's living in me, 12:00 whatever I ask, it is not Nadine asking, 12:04 it is the Spirit of God living in me, 12:06 prompting me to ask God and that is why He says, 12:09 "Whatsoever you ask, you will receive it,..." 12:10 Why? 12:12 Because God is the one living in me 12:14 and He's telling me what to ask 12:16 and then He answers Himself and He will never deny Himself 12:20 what He puts in my heart to ask Him 12:23 and so that's where or that's the key 12:25 to have in our prayer lives, go wow. 12:28 That's the key to having God answering every prayer 12:31 that we ask because when you go to Him, 12:33 it's not Yvonne asking God, 12:35 it's the Spirit of God asking through you 12:38 and God answers these prayers so He can help build our faith. 12:41 He answers these prayers, 12:42 so we can have that confidence to continue to seek Him 12:45 which is another thing. 12:47 Yes, yes, so what do you say though to the person 12:51 who, let's say, my spouse is very ill 12:55 and I pray and I pray and I pray 12:59 and I ask God to raise my spouse up but He doesn't? 13:05 Then that prayer was a no, the answer was a no. 13:09 How do you explain that? 13:11 That is one of the most frequent questions 13:14 I get when I travel around. 13:17 There are a few different ways we can look at it, 13:19 we can look at it in one way where, 13:22 did you ask God if it was His will 13:25 that this person is healed? 13:27 Maybe, there maybe more glory 13:30 in this person's death than in life, 13:34 that's just one angle, in other words, 13:36 God sees beyond us, our eye sight is so limited, 13:40 we can only see now, so, "Oh, Lord, 13:42 I just want my spouse to be healed now." 13:45 I was just speaking to a friend today. 13:47 Her daughter died, 13:49 so I was in a prayer group and so my friend 13:53 the contact I am with in touch of all the time, 13:55 she was relaying the message to me, 13:57 so the lady's daughter died just about two months ago 14:01 and we found out that because of her death, 14:04 so many people have changed their lives. 14:08 And when I heard it today, she was only 26, 14:10 it was comforting because I'm like, "Wow, 14:12 so God is doing more in her death than in life. 14:15 More lives have been changed." 14:17 I mean, it's not our desire for our family members to die, 14:19 especially young people, but it's just simple to say, 14:22 God is in control of all things and while we might think, 14:26 "Okay, my spouse needs to be healed 14:28 and God is not doing that." 14:29 1)Maybe, we should see God's will. 14:32 Lord, what is your will? 14:34 Which is one of the things that is attached to self, 14:38 when self is alive, 14:41 the will of God we are not seeking. 14:43 So we are never going to edify 14:45 Lord, what do you want? 14:47 But when self is dying or when self is dead, 14:50 all you're doing is seeking God, 14:51 what do you want, Lord? 14:53 What do you want? What do you want? 14:54 And I remember the first time I came across that word, 14:57 'the will of God, ' I was in my late teens, 15:00 around 19 there about and there was this book in the ABC, 15:03 'How to know God's will in your life?" 15:05 And I read the book 15:07 and I think in the first chapter the author said, 15:08 "To know God's will, you have no will of your own." 15:11 And I struggled with that for a long time, I thought, 15:13 "How could you not have a will of your own? 15:15 Meaning, okay, I want to go to the store 15:19 or I don't want to go to the store. 15:21 So I thought, "How could I do that? 15:23 How could I not have a will? 15:25 You know, how we're as human beings, 15:26 we want to do something, we usually have a direction. 15:28 Right. 15:29 You know, even when you do research, 15:31 you generally have a direction that you want to go in... 15:32 Right, right. 15:33 And I struggled with it but I decided, 15:35 Lord, let me try this. 15:37 And so I wanted to get a computer, 15:38 that's when people were now getting desktop computers 15:42 at home and so on, 15:43 and I went to the bank and I said, 15:45 "I would like to take a loan to get a desktop computer." 15:47 So that's like, in the late 1990's 15:50 that I bought it, 15:51 I hope I didn't gave away my age... 15:54 If you did, you're so young.? 15:56 I think it was in the late 90's, 15:58 like around 99 that I bought and so I went to the bank, 16:00 I gave my papers 16:02 and the gentleman put everything in the computer 16:04 and then he looks at me and he says, 16:06 "I don't get it." 16:08 He says, "You look on paper 16:10 as if everything is in order to get the loan 16:12 but the competition is saying you don't qualify." 16:16 Now when I was going for the loan, 16:17 I said to the Lord, I want it 'cause I want the computer 16:20 and if you don't want it, I don't want it. 16:21 So which ever way it goes, it's fine 16:23 and I looked at him and I said, "That's fine." 16:25 And he looked at me, "How do you mean it's fine? 16:28 I'm gonna go to the manager." 16:29 I said, "No, no, no, it's okay, it's fine, 16:30 thank you very much." 16:32 And I left. 16:33 The following week, 16:35 there's a couple I used to assist with doing, 16:37 um, projects with them 16:38 and I used to use my work computer to help 16:40 and they came to the office and said, "Nadine, 16:43 we would like to give you half of the money 16:44 to get your computer." 16:46 Wow, now look at how it would have been, 16:49 had you insisted, you would have paid the full price. 16:53 Only the full, I would have paid 16:54 probably three times the amount 16:56 for the desktop computer because, you know, 16:57 the interest rates on these loans are so high. 16:59 Right. 17:00 And so I'm like, that was my first experience 17:03 practicing having no will of your own and since then, 17:06 I have been using it and it has not failed me. 17:10 So it's a blessing 17:13 when we can take time to seek God, 17:16 to see what God wants for us 17:19 and then take time praying for that thing 17:23 that God has placed in your heart to ask of Him. 17:25 So when it comes to like the sick spouse and so on, 17:28 "Father, what is your will for my spouse? 17:31 How will you get glory in this situation?" 17:34 But most times, we do it from our own selfish perspective 17:37 not looking at how it might be in God's eyes 17:40 and so it will be a blessing when we spend more time 17:43 seeking the will of God and when we do that, 17:46 we would be less frustrated when we pray and answers come 17:50 because we are not praying on our own, 17:52 we are praying in the will of God 17:55 and that's where all of the answers are 17:58 because God will never deny Himself. 18:01 That's very interesting. 18:04 So... 18:06 I don't know if people ask you this question or not, 18:09 but, you know, there's this whole movement 18:11 of contemplative prayer 18:13 and that kind of thing in the church. 18:14 What... 18:16 and spiritual formation and that kind of thing. 18:18 What's different about what you are promoting than that? 18:23 For me, when I look at prayer 18:25 and what God has placed in my heart, 18:26 it's simply a matter of denying self. 18:31 Nothing in this has anything to do with me, 18:35 accepting the testimonies that God give me 18:37 from answering my prayers and I make sure 18:40 I share the testimonies because every time you do that, 18:44 you are lifting God up and because I call it, 18:47 "Being a billboard", I told Him, 18:48 "I want to be a billboard for you" 18:50 so that when others see my life, 18:52 they can know that you're real, 18:54 that you are true and that you work, 18:56 so it's all about God, 18:58 the answers that He gives to the prayers 19:01 and everything that He does, it's not about Nadine, 19:04 He's just going to use me so that He can shine, 19:06 that the world can see Him, 19:08 so it's not focusing on you really, 19:10 it's about God and I think God answers prayers for us 19:15 not because He just wants to answer the prayers, 19:20 He answers the prayers 19:21 because He also wants to build our faith, 19:23 so we have evidence that God works... 19:26 Absolutely. 19:28 And I tell people all the time like in my notes and stuff, 19:32 I keep this is the evidence of my prayer life. 19:36 So when God answers prayers and you keep the notes, 19:39 you know how we used to practice writing prayers, 19:42 requests and then burn them, 19:44 the Lord told me years ago, 19:46 over ten years ago, don't do that. 19:48 You're burning the evidence. 19:50 That's right, that's right. 19:51 You're burning the evidence 19:53 which will show that God actually works... 19:56 That's right. So you keep them. 19:58 And that's one of the things, Nadine, 20:01 that has revolutionized my prayer life 20:04 'cause Pastor Portes, again, came here and said, 20:07 "Get a notebook and write down the things 20:10 you want to ask God for, and then show, 20:15 you'll be able to see how He's answering your prayers. 20:18 You're very quick to forget but if we have it written down, 20:22 it's evidence." 20:23 I have some, I don't know if you want to see them. 20:25 Share it, yes, please. 20:26 You know, I have a lots but I just use a few here, 20:28 I wanted to just show you and I asked God, 20:32 you see when I talk about being personal, 20:35 I ask God for anything and for everything 20:39 and some of it might seem so frivolous to people. 20:42 Simple things... 20:43 But it's between you and God, right? 20:44 It's between us because it's our personal relationship. 20:46 Exactly. 20:48 And I tell people all the time, do not get upset 20:51 because of what I choose to ask God, 20:53 'cause I share with them what I ask, 20:54 some of the things I pass the notes around, 20:56 don't get upset because of what I ask Him for 20:58 because there's a lot more where that came from. 21:00 Right. 21:01 So you might think for example, 21:02 me asking Him for something like, 21:04 even braids for my hair or even undies, 21:07 I mean, it's crazy the things I ask Him for. 21:10 Yes, because He's my Father. That's right. 21:13 And I have made it a point, 21:14 "Hey, you gave me earthly parents 21:16 but I'm depending on you." 21:17 So everything I want, I go to God, 21:19 even when I ask Him for everything, 21:23 from my laptops to phones to everything and I'm specific. 21:28 Yes, that's another thing. 21:30 That's there's so much, I can talk about, 21:32 about prayer but I talk about being specific here, 21:35 in this devotional book, I wrote a few years ago, right, 21:38 and every time I go places, people tell me 21:40 this is one of the most powerful devotions for them. 21:43 Be specific and you know why we need to be specific in prayer? 21:46 Why? 21:47 Because the enemy is very ready to counterfeit 21:51 or to give us what it looks like the blessing. 21:54 So if I wanna pair of shoes 21:55 but I specifically want black shoes 21:58 and I just go to God and I say, 21:59 "I want a pair of shoes, Father." 22:02 And He blesses me and you give me a red pair 22:05 and I say, "Thanks, Yvonne." 22:06 Have my prayer been answered? 22:09 Well, no, you got a pair of shoes 22:10 but they weren't black. 22:12 Exactly, because my desire was 22:14 for a pair of black shoes, right? 22:16 But most of us will accept that pair of shoes 22:18 as the blessing but I will not. 22:21 I will take the red pair of shoes and then I will say, 22:24 "Thank you, Yvonne. 22:26 Thank you, Lord, 22:27 now I'm still waiting for my black pair of shoes." 22:29 You wanna hear another story. Yes. 22:31 Let me give you one about a phone. 22:32 Yes, yes. 22:33 I remember in college, where you know, 22:35 when Blackberries just came out, 22:36 there was a little square thing on the side, I had one 22:39 and then it got destroyed and I wanted an 8720. 22:43 It was coming out as a new one, very thin, 22:46 very cute and I remember asking God specifically right 22:50 and here just like I'm writing, 22:52 what kinds of phone I want and specific laptop I want 22:56 and so on and I wrote down, I wanted 8720, and one day, 23:02 somebody came and they brought me a Nokia phone 23:04 in the box and the bag, right. 23:07 And I took it from them only 23:09 because the person was very poor 23:10 and I thought if they went out of the way to get me a phone, 23:13 I need to take it. 23:14 So I took the phone, 23:16 I gave it to one of the gentlemen 23:18 in our prayer group and I tell God, 23:20 "I'm still waiting for my 8720." 23:22 So I called a friend, 23:23 I asked him to check the price for me and so I'm at home, 23:26 I didn't have the money 23:28 but I asked the question as if I had the money. 23:31 So can you check the price of that for me? 23:32 And, no problem. 23:33 They called me back that evening, 23:35 very same evening and said, "Nadine, I gotten your phone, 23:37 8720 and I paid zero dollars for it." 23:42 Wow. 23:44 So if I had accepted that Nokia as my blessing, 23:47 although I was specific about what I wanted, 23:50 I will not have gotten what I really want 23:52 and these things seem frivolous to people 23:54 but truly God is interested in every aspect of our lives. 23:58 Yes. 23:59 He said the bread and water is sure 24:00 and that doesn't mean 24:02 He doesn't want to give us everything else. 24:03 I ask for my bread and water and I ask for everything else. 24:07 Yes. 24:08 I tell God, I want every blessing 24:10 that has my name on it. 24:12 Every single one of these blessings 24:14 and so I have so many stories like that about things 24:18 that would come to me 24:20 before I get exactly what I asked for, 24:22 so we need to recognize when this fake blessings come, 24:26 but most of us stop right there, 24:28 we accept the look alike of the blessing 24:30 and we miss out on the blessing 24:32 that was almost there or the blessing 24:33 that's actually there. 24:35 You know, so... 24:36 I love it. And it's so good. 24:38 How did you get involved in prayer ministry? 24:43 You know, I'm tempted to say 24:45 that it started when I was in college 24:48 but I think it started a long time before that 24:50 because my grand mother 24:52 who raised me was a woman of prayer. 24:54 She was my first example of prayer, 24:56 that lady would pray all the time. 24:59 So that's my first real example of prayer, 25:01 prayer that actually works and then later on in life, 25:05 when I went to college, I had this friend 25:07 who actually taught me 25:08 about writing down my prayer requests. 25:09 We were prayer partners, Debbie. 25:11 And we would come to God 25:13 with our requests and the two of us would pray, 25:16 we would agree on it, 25:18 because remember the Bible says, 25:19 "If two agree on it, it is done." 25:21 And I recognize the enemy doesn't like agreement 25:24 because the Bible says, "One can slay a 1,000 25:27 but two can slay 10,000." 25:31 So the maths is not 1-1000, 2-2000, 25:34 it just jumps all the way to 10. 25:36 So we would write our requests and we would pray about them 25:41 and we would see God answer them 25:42 and that's how it really began for me 25:44 and then she introduced me to other people of prayer 25:47 and we began to minister to people 25:49 and I've seen God do the craziest of things. 25:53 For example, one time in college, 25:54 while I was in my masters, I asked God, 25:57 one of my AY leaders had a car. 26:00 His car would breakdown all the time. 26:03 I said to the Lord, "Listen, if I have a car, 26:06 I do not want a car like his, I want a brand new car." 26:10 Would you believe that I actually got a brand new car. 26:14 I didn't have to go to the bank for it, 26:15 I didn't have to take a loan, 26:17 I was just paying for it every month directly 26:19 because one of my friends' uncle, 26:23 we met over dinner and he needed somebody 26:25 to sort of sit his car, 26:28 that was another island and he didn't want it packed. 26:31 Wow, look at how God opened that door. 26:35 He is... I say God is crazy. 26:37 He is, He's crazy about you, He's crazy about me, 26:40 He's crazy about us, His children. 26:42 He loves us. 26:43 So what's the ultimate strategy for a wow prayer life? 26:48 I would say that we need to work on developing 26:51 the habit of praying everyday. 26:53 You realize that spells hope. 26:56 I love it. 26:57 Yes, we can use that acronym in our ministry, 26:59 you know, I use this product, 27:01 so we call it "24 Days" to developing a HOPE 27:03 which is the habit of praying every day 27:06 and psychologists are saying that top performers, 27:09 in order for them to do what they do 27:12 have really good habits, like athletes, 27:14 they say would spend at least 10, 000 hours practicing 27:18 to be good at their skill, 27:20 they say that musicians or artists, 27:23 Picasso, Mozart, 27:24 and these guys would spend a whole decade of silence, 27:26 they call it ten years to perfect the art 27:28 and if you wanna perfect your prayer life, 27:30 if you wanna be a top performer in your prayer life, 27:33 you need to practice praying everyday. 27:36 Everyday, praise the Lord. 27:38 Thank you so much for being with us, 27:40 but then put your website up. 27:41 So people can know how to reach you 27:44 and also we should tell them 27:46 that you are the new wife of our nice Collins, 27:48 who is the host of Dare to Dream's, 27:51 Taste of Paradise. 27:52 So tell Nyse, we said, hi. 27:54 Thank you so much for joining us, 27:56 we really love you and appreciate you. 27:58 Join us next time 28:00 'cause it just wouldn't be the same without you. |
Revised 2016-12-01