Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] You.
[00:00:01] The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous availeth much. King James version. James five. Brian Phillips here with you today. Want to bring this concept of fervent to you. It's a word. It's something that you must have in your prayer life. The world we live in is dying. I mean, you can't be focused on a think. The next 30 years will be like the last 630 years or 60 years. We are living in unprecedented times. Global evil is breaking out against righteousness in ways we've never seen before. Those battles have always existed in ways we've never seen before. We've seen our own country start supporting things like Hamas and just pure evil, jewish genocide, all kinds of corruption is breaking out in the earth. And I want to talk to you today about being fervent in your prayer life. What is fervor? It's fire. It's like a burning furnace. You have to have this in your prayer life. You can't have some humdrum, boring, check the box prayer life. You must engage God. I'm calling you into a higher level. So wherever you're at in your walk with Christ, wherever your passion level is, don't take this as guilt or shame. Take it as inspiration to take one step deeper in, one step higher up, whatever way you want to look at it. Look at it as development. Not me coming against you. And I'm definitely not above you. I still am working on this myself. That's why I'm preaching to myself.
[00:01:27] All right, hey, let's dig into this for a few moments. Fervor means to burn. It means to have fire. It means to have intense passion. Now, I want to talk to you about this for a moment, because it don't make the mistake. It's not like a good workout in the gym where when I work out good, one of my veins up here in my head, a couple of my veins pop, and my heart rate's up there. I'm sweating, I'm loving it. I'm having a great time, fully engaged. It's not necessarily like that. We're not bringing some type of grunt, and it's not even about volume. It's about who we're beholding. Fervor doesn't come from me. It comes from God. It comes from his faithfulness. So think about this.
[00:02:07] The fervency of our prayers comes from who we're praying to. It's about who he is and about what I believe about him is what increases my fervor increases. So you can have fervor without words. This isn't about shouting and getting loud. You can have fervor with vein popping, screaming declarations, okay?
[00:02:26] And you can do the opposite, too. You can yell with no fervor. You can yell for show and not have the inner connection. This is connecting to what you believe in, who you believe in. So I want to stir you for a moment. What is he like? What is our father in heaven like? What's he like? Well, he's loving, he's kind. He's creative. He's a creator. He's giving you gifts. He gives favor upon your life. He removes favor from your life. I mean, he loves us and he disciplines us and he equips us and he calls us always into the high purpose and the high calling of his to be a priest before him. So, men, today I want to challenge you to have fervor in your prayer life because of who he is. Now, let's think about this. What has he done? What has God done? God freed Israel from Egypt. God established covenant with Abraham. I mean, Isaac, Jacob, God was the God of Daniel. He was the God of David. He was the God of.
[00:03:21] He's the God that came in the incarnation.
[00:03:24] I mean, all of the Bible, all the stories of the Bible. This is the stories of our father. This is the God who gives fire, this guy who gives dunimous power through the Holy Spirit. This is the guy who sent his son Yeshua to make the world, to buy the world back, to reclaim the world, back to the days of Eden. And that's kind of where we're still hanging in the balance. We're hanging in the tensions of redemption. So I want you to have fervor in your prayer life because of who God is and because of what God has done. I want you to think about what God has done in your life, what he's done historically, how he's faithful, even when we're faithless at times. Have fervor in your prayer life. I mean, James 516, I read to you the King James version because that's the only version I know of that has that. I'm an ESV kind of guy, but I love this version. It's always in my mind, says, the effectual, fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much. But the first part of this verse says, confess your faults one to another. I love it that you may be healed, that you would be healed. You receive healing.
[00:04:28] This whole passage, the end of James five, is talking about community. And in gracehouse, we talk about that in the concept of brotherhood. A band of brothers. Who are you being real with? Who can you confess faults to? If you want to walk in power, if you want fervor to burn, you want the fire to get hot, release these things. Do you need to release bitterness today or unforgiveness? Or do you need to break out of a victim mentality? Are you scared of the days in which we live? Maybe not knowing. I mean, maybe you wanted the next 30 years to be like the last 60 years, right? I won't lie. I'm not going to lie. That'd be kind of nice. Sign me up for that. But we live in a day and age where the kingdom of God has a timeline, has a purpose, has a plan. And Jesus said the most mature prayer, and all scripture said, not your will be done. Not my will be done, Father, but your will be done.
[00:05:16] And John the Baptist got beheaded. And right before he gets beheaded, he sends for Jesus. And Jesus, I think when he sent for Jesus, he's like, hey, can you come save me? I'm in jail. I confronted know, I want you to get me out of this. Aren't you the savior?
[00:05:32] And Jesus sent back, word to him, answers his questions, but he says, I hope you don't lose your faith on account of me. And that taught me a lesson.
[00:05:40] God's will is God's will, and he won't bend it or change it for us. We have to change. We have to die to our will to allow his will to come through. Same way Jesus modeled. So maybe you're in this day and age, and you're like, dude, this is crazy stuff. Well, you need some fervor. You need strength from God. God gives strength. God gives fervor. God gives boldness, and then you can stand with it in the earth. So today, I want to just challenge you with that. Want to challenge you to get into a band of brothers. Quit playing games, man. These are the days where we got to be alert, alive, awakened. So shake the dust off of your spiritual development at times, your spiritual slumber, I guess, or dullness. And I'm speaking to myself.
[00:06:23] I haven't mastered this. Shake the dust off my own boredom, right? And let's get some fervor in our prayer life. Let's get some fervor as we pray for the nations, as we pray for Israel. Maybe you never prayed for Israel. Like I said, take a baby step in it. Get some fervor as you pray for your family, pray for your boss, pray for your neighborhood. Right? Get some fervor. Walk around your neighborhood. And pray for houses. Call out people's names and faces, cry out before the Lord and have fervor the effectual, fervent, fired up, furnace like burning passion. Intense, intense prayer of the righteous man or woman availeth much. This is James solution to things like suffering, things like sickness. He's like, pray.
[00:07:09] Sometimes we think prayer is like the second or third thing on the list of our arsenal. No, James, like, put it at number one, baby. Put it at number one. So today, let's pray. Father, we lift up this nation, this land, to you, God, we want your kingdom to reign, your kingdom to rule. We want light to overcome darkness. And we're asking, father, for favor to advance your name in this day, in this age, favor to advance your name at work. Favor to advance your name in your kingdom. May your testimony grow in our lives. Father, we're praying for our wives, that you would encourage their hearts, be the lifter of their heads. Father, praying for our children, that your blood would protect our children, your angels would guard around them, and that you put a fire inside of our children, father, asking that our children would encounter your fire and the heat and the power of your presence today. Father, they would walk in might, they'd walk in strength. Lord, I pray you'd shield our children from algorithms and from destructive forces. Help us to parent well and father, well. Father, I pray for my neighbors in my neighborhood. God, you open doors and that you would break forth out in your signs and your wonders. God, these are the days in the age that we must live strategically connected to you. We thank you that you're our shepherd, Father, but we want to see your name and your kingdom advance in might and in power in the earth. We declare the power in the name of Yeshua, over the region in which we live, over this nation in which we live, father, we renounce ungodliness. We renounce darkness.
[00:08:33] We renounce lies that come from theological voices, Father, lies that disrespect your name and disrespect your word. Lord, we stand against the lies. We don't claim to have it all together, but, God, anything that's blatantly standing against your word and your kingdom, we renounce it. And, Lord, we just declare the name of Jesus over the land, over America, and we ask for your will to be done. Open our eyes for kingdom opportunity in these interesting days. In Jesus name. Men, go live with fervor today. Pray. As James said, that's the solution to this world, is prayer there. And, man, James was not just a dude that was like, go pray. He was like, you better back up with actions. Faith without deeds is dead, so don't think he's just saying, pray and then go about your way. He's like, pray and go back it up. By the way you live. And, you know, as we say, as always, live upright.
