The Throne Room and Prayer

Well, I am so excited when Jay asks me to teach. He asked David and me — I’m in a meeting — and I said, “Yeah, I can talk.” And then he said, “I’d like for you to talk about prayer in the throne room.” I laughed at him. I’m going to be real. I laughed and thought, there are so many more qualified people to talk about this topic, period. Like, are you sure you want me to end this series? And he said yes. And then I double-checked again, and he still said yes. So here we are, and we’re going to be talking about the throne room and our prayers.

Grinning and bearing it

Before we get started, I have a picture of me, if you did not know. Okay, so this is me. We’ll just leave that picture there. I broke my tailbone in the beginning of February. I went snowboarding with my daughter and a friend, and this is me so excited. You can’t see it, but I have my thumbs up. I got on the conveyor belt all by myself. My daughter and her friend were already on the belt; they went ahead. I had it on a 40-year bucket list, and going snowboarding was one of my things.

Now, my daughter very kindly — not disrespectfully at all — reminded me that the last time I had been snowboarding was literally a lifetime ago. And she was right. The last time I went snowboarding I was like 18, 19 years old. There’s someone around here who’s 20, 21, and that’s how long ago I went. I did my due diligence, you guys. I watched a few YouTube videos to make sure I knew what I was doing. When I went snowboarding back then, I went with someone who was very experienced, and what I recall in my older mind these days was that it was a lot of fun. I laughed and I was on the floor, but we had a great time.

So I went snowboarding on the spur of the moment. I had thought, you should do lessons. I’m like, no, I got this. I watched these videos. I can do that. And lo and behold, after my first run, almost halfway down — my balance is not what it used to be, my core strength is definitely not what it used to be, and it was a lot icier than I remembered — and I fell. My daughter and her friend understandably laughed at me, because I actually rolled. And as I rolled, I rolled feet forward, landed on my tailbone first, and then back, and then hit my head, and my head bounced a second time for good measure.

And I laid there and thought, “Oh gosh, I don’t feel very good.” I didn’t know what was wrong at that point. I just felt like I was going to throw up. I thought it was a concussion; it wasn’t a concussion. And so I continued down, attempted to go down, went down a little bit further, and fell yet again, because again, my core strength is not what it was. I am not 19 years old, and my YouTube videos let me down. I was sitting there squatting and I thought, “Gosh, this feels painful.”

I finally made my way down the hill and told my daughter and her friend, “Hey, you guys just keep going. I’m going to go sit down.” And when I sat down, I immediately realized something was wrong. I went and got a snack. It hurt to laugh. And I told them, “I’m going to go sit in the car. You guys just do whatever you need to do.” Because, you know, skiing and snowboarding is not cheap, so I wasn’t going to say to her friend, “Hey, I know you just paid all this money, but we’ve got to go.” I was fine.

I am someone — I don’t know if anyone is like that here — I just power through. I can just do it. I can just bear down. I can take the pain. I can just push through this. And so my next picture is me walking upstairs, for proof that I was in pain. I was in a lot of pain. I think I’m funny. My life is an open book. The Lord put me where He put me, so I like to capture some of these things. So this is me. I had walked up the stairs and I was like, “What is happening?”

What I found out a few days later — I was supposed to teach that Sunday, I could barely get up the stairs, I’m rolling in bed — was that I had broken my tailbone. And if you know anything about a broken tailbone, the only way that it heals is to rest. There is nothing you can do. You’ve got to lay down. So for the first two weeks I was in my room laying down. When I would roll out of bed, I would full-body roll. Has anyone ever done that? Full-body roll, okay, and up. And then to get back in bed, I’d full-body roll again. I’m just letting you into my life, you guys. This is just real life.

And so I just continued to push through, because the last thing I wanted to do was be a burden. I have a family who is busy, and they like to do this thing called eat. And so there were things I needed help with, and of course I would not ask for help. I just did it. It would have been helpful, and I’m sure we ate out probably more than normal, but I never asked for help. And the longer I laid in bed, the more I felt like a burden, the longer the list of things that I could be doing, the more my mind wandered. And the thing that kept coming back around was, “You’re just a burden.” Well, it was on my bucket list, so, you know.

So I’m sitting with this burden. It’s there. And what I realized is, how many times is that our approach toward the Lord? We’re just going to get down and we’re going to bear it. “I know what to do. He’s given me the mind of Christ, and I’m just going to grin and bear it. I’m just going to keep showing up.” And really the Lord is just saying, “Won’t you just call out to Me? You don’t need to bear any burden. You don’t need to solve anything.”

The reality is — I don’t know if anyone could agree with this — I know that there are prayers that I have prayed that I feel like have never been answered. There are prayers that I’ve prayed — within the last seven years; when I say years, I mean recently — where I’ve prayed and cried out, and things just seem to get worse. There doesn’t seem to be breakthrough. It just doesn’t seem to resolve itself. And so more and more often, instead of praying, we just try to solve it ourselves.

In learning and processing, the Lord reminded me as I was lying there — obviously my broken tailbone; I’m glad I can wear jeans now, thank God, I hadn’t worn jeans in a while — the Lord began to break down my little experience with snowboarding. So trivial, but He was walking me through these things. I’m not going to rush. I felt pressure to rush, and I just said, “Lord, I’m not going to rush through this.”

But I am going to encourage you to take notes. The reason we take notes isn’t just to take notes. It’s because the Lord is speaking to you. My heart is that you hear the Lord through Scripture, that maybe something I say reminds you of something He’s already said. And the other thing is so you can go back and read your Word and look at these scriptures. That’s why we take notes. They’re reminders for me. I go back in my journals and I see what I’ve cried out to God. I see what I wrote out. I see the things He’s spoken to me in His Word. So I would encourage you to take some notes today. I’m going to pray, and then we’re going to continue on.

Father God, we just thank You for what You’re doing, Lord. As we are in the midst of Palm Sunday, Lord, where everyone was celebrating and calling out to You — most of our life is like the Monday through Friday. We can feel the pressure of life. We can feel the places of being forgotten. We have people who turn on us. We have people who are accusing. Lord, we are all facing different things of what You faced from Palm Sunday to Your dying on the cross for us. And so God, I pray that as we get in Your Word today, there would be a revelation through Your Word that would impact us, just as, Lord, You had a revelation of what You were intended to do that sustained You to push through when You felt like You couldn’t. God, I pray that You would speak to us. We open our ears, and Lord, we thank You for what You’re doing in this place, and we thank You for what You’re doing in us. In Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

Coming boldly, like you belong

You know, there are a few things that bless me, but nothing blesses me more than when my kids’ friends come over and walk in without knocking. Most people on our staff and our kids’ friends know how to get into our home. They know the code to our garage. It’s just the risk that we run in our home. But nothing blesses me more than when they come in. They call me “Sues.” They call Jay “J-Pop.” “Hey, J-Pop.” They come in, they go to the refrigerator, they open it, they pull out a Cutie. Maybe they’ll run downstairs and grab a bag of chips, go get something to drink. “Hey, what are we having for dinner?”

Nothing blesses me more than when my kids and their friends come over and make themselves at home. I am not offended by it by any means. This is just my personal thing in our home. Nothing blesses me more than when my son calls me and says — and this happens often — “Hey, I have two friends who are coming over for dinner.” Got it. I have already positioned myself to just make more food. Either we’re going to have leftovers or there are going to be people who join us. Nothing blesses me more than when someone calls and says, “Hey, are you home? Can I stop by?” That just brings me so much joy, you guys.

I grew up with an aunt that lived down the street, and I would walk home from school and go to her house. “Hey, how’s it going?” Go in, say hi, and then walk the rest of the way home. To this day, when I go home, I just go visit my aunts and uncles. You just run the risk: either they’re going to be there or they’re not. That’s just how I was brought up. You just go, you just knock. My friends’ parents, I call them Mom and Dad. That’s just what it is.

Nothing blesses me more, though, than when everyone comes into the house and they know that they belong. They come into the home and they know they have access to all the things that are available to them, without hesitation. You know, this is what the throne room of heaven is like for us, and it’s intended to be. It’s intended to be a place where we boldly walk in. Now, I’m going to tell you, these kids — if we’re in our room, they’ll come in and talk to us — but they’re not being irreverent toward our house. They’re not going places they shouldn’t be. But they know exactly what they have access to.

Hebrews chapter 4, verse 16 — and this has been one of the scriptures we’ve been talking about — says, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” This is what we’ve been talking about. And I can tell you, if there’s one thing I’m learning more about my relationship with the Father, it’s that as my relationship with my kids grows, as those relationships expand, I begin to see the Father’s heart for us even more.

Today we’re going to be talking about the throne room of grace and prayer, because in Scripture it says that we would come boldly into His throne room. I’m telling you, these kids come boldly into my house. They don’t come quietly. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is. Sometimes at two o’clock I’m like, “You guys, church is tomorrow. I need you to be quiet.” And you hear them making food at two o’clock, and everything’s shut, and I hear everything.

These kids come boldly because they know they have free access. They come boldly because they know that they’re accepted. They come boldly because they know there’s going to be food at the table, and I am going to want them to eat some. They come boldly. And as I was saying, so many times we can take the position of, “I don’t want to burden someone. I don’t want to burden God. I can figure this out.” And the Lord is saying, “No. My heart for you is for you to come boldly to My throne, to come boldly and ask. Because for you I have mercy set aside. I have grace for your time of need. So won’t you come boldly into My presence and know that this is where you belong, and you have access to everything?”

When Jesus died on the cross, literally the veil was torn so that we could have access. We no longer had just occasional access through a priest. It’s so that we could have access to God any time we need, because now we have Jesus, who’s sitting at the right hand, who’s interceding for us and says, “No, they’re Yours. That’s Your daughter. That’s Your son.” He knows us by name.

See, we are in a time where either we’re going to walk boldly into the things He’s already put before us, or we’re going to shrink back in self-preservation because it’s a little scary. I’ve seen it on the faces — the difference between friends who know how the house functions and friends who don’t. They kind of look like, “Are you supposed to be doing that?” Someone came over, and my son was doing something, so I told his friend, “Can you get so-and-so a cup of water?” He’s not even my kid, but it’s like, you’ve been here before. You know the role. Can you just do it for me, because I’m doing something? And these other kids are like, “What?” No — that’s the kind of access we have: that we can come on behalf of others and contend in prayer because of the access to mercy that is found at the throne of grace.

This life isn’t just to be lived to accomplish things. I think we’ve got to continue to remember that we’re not just living here for titles. We’re not just living here for positions. I had a friend who I talk to frequently, and they were bringing some correction and saying, “Suzie, the Lord has you — you need to know what you are intended for. You’re more than this.” We’re not just here for this setup of a good life. We’re here to contend and see the presence of God moving and people experiencing it here on earth.

Your prayers are incense, not a burden

Number one: our prayers are not a burden to our heavenly Father. You are not a burden to your heavenly Father. So many times our own experiences from life will begin to creep in and shape how we perceive who God is. But I’m here to tell you that you are not a burden to the Lord. Your prayers are not a burden.

In fact, Psalm 141, verses 1 and 2, if you have your Bibles, says, “Lord, I cry out to You; make haste to me! Give ear to my voice when I cry out to You. Let my prayer be set before You as incense, the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice.” Let me tell you — did we not just sing that song? “Let incense arise, day and night, night and day, let incense arise.” Our prayers are incense to the Lord. They are not a burden. They’re intended as a sweet aroma. Just think about that. When we call out to God, it’s a sweet incense. It’s an aroma before Him.

Revelation says this in two places. So David is saying, “Lord, when I cry out, let my prayers just be an incense to You.” And then we read in Revelation chapter 5, verse 8 — John is describing this beautiful vision — “Now when He had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.”

Oh, I’m telling you, as I’ve been meditating on this, as I’ve been thinking about this: my prayers to the Lord are an incense to Him. To some people I might be frustrating or annoying or whatever, but when I call out to my Father, when I’m praying, He’s saying, “Ah, Suzie, your words are an incense.” And not only are they an incense — all of heaven is worshiping. We read in the Old Testament about the Ark of the Covenant, and the way it was set up, there was a place of incense that would be lit. And now we’re reading in Revelation about this same place of incense — this golden bowl filled with the prayers of the saints, and it says that they pour it out.

And then we go to Revelation chapter 6, and it says, verse 1, “Now I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals; and I heard one of the four living creatures saying with a voice like thunder, ‘Come and see.’ And I looked, and behold, a white horse. He who sat on it had a bow; and a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.” Wait. I want to make sure. Oh no, wrong verse. That’s chapter 6. Revelation chapter 8, verses 1 through 6. There we go. I was like, that doesn’t seem familiar. I keep going to chapter 6. Maybe I need to go back and read chapter 6 later.

Okay. “When He opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.” I thought that was really cool. Can we just talk about that for a minute? We don’t really ever see time — time is an interesting concept in Scripture — but here John is saying there was silence in heaven for about half an hour. I love reading Scripture and seeing those little nuances. It just makes me smile. That didn’t have to be put in there. Okay, anyways, we’ll keep going.

“And I saw the seven angels who stand before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Then another angel, having a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense, that he should offer it with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. And the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, ascended before God from the angel’s hand. Then the angel took the censer, filled it with fire from the altar, and threw it to the earth. And there were noises, thunderings, lightnings, and an earthquake. So the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.”

Here’s a beautiful picture of what’s in the midst of the presence of God: the prayers of the saints being used. Do we get what is happening here? Do you realize that our prayers are not a burden? And even in places where things feel wasted and like they’ve not been heard, not one of our prayers will be wasted.

I heard a testimony of someone who prayed for a friend’s husband who had a drinking problem. They prayed for 27 years. This person was talking about prayer, and she went on to say that it wasn’t until he was on his deathbed — he’s dying — that he came and got reconciled with the Lord. And she said, “Lord, why did we wait 27 years?” And she heard the Lord say, “Not one of your prayers was wasted. You were praying for every other person. You were interceding for people you had no clue about.”

Not one of our prayers will be wasted. They are in heavenly places being poured out as incense. Do we get what is happening? This is so much bigger than the comfort of our life and our families. It’s about other people. What Jesus came for, what we’re in the midst of celebrating, had nothing to do with Him and everything to do with everyone else.

I know we want revival. I know we want these moves of God. For what? Our response should be so that people could know Him, could come to salvation. That should be our response, right? We’re praying and contending. You don’t even know what you might be standing in between. You may not know what your prayers might be preventing from happening. You don’t even know how many times your prayers have stood up as a shield for someone who had no one praying for them.

And the problem is we have gotten so worried about the wrong things. And the Lord is saying, “Would you not know that your prayers are an incense before Me? I hear every one of them.” Not only does He hear every one of them — you’re not forsaken. There is life that will continue to happen, and His heart is for us to call out to Him, not try to solve it.

No matter where you stand on any of this — first of all, if you’ve not read the Bible, the Lord already knows what’s happening. I was just reading Revelation chapter 21, and it’s like it’s already finished. He already said who’s not entering heaven. He has a standard. He called out that people would become cold toward each other, cold toward love. He talked about how in the latter days there will be young people who will rise up in rebellion, and it’ll be mother against father, father against son. Everything that we are walking through has already been said. It may not be exactly the same, but it’s already been said in here. And what we need to realize is that we can either keep saying it to Him, or we can change our posture toward prayer, toward Him.

Contending for the next generation

All right, I’m going to tell you, I am really amped up about this. And maybe it’s because I see it — not in theory, not in a retweet, not in opinion. I see what the generation of my kids, and those after them, are walking through. They don’t need me to spiritualize something. They need me contending with them and for them. We have a generation of kids who are being bombarded every day with information. Most of them know in the depths of their heart what is right and what’s wrong. I’m just speaking from my experience. Teens sometimes get a bad rap for saying, “Mom, I know, I know.” But they know. There are things that they do know. And if anything, they know more than anyone what it’s like to have to rise up in a dark place. They’re walking through it every day.

Jay and I were talking about some things, and he looked at me and said, “Honey, we get to do things differently.” We get to say, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” — differently than any generation before us. I’m telling you guys, I know there’s a lot that we want, but to see the kingdom of God at hand is going to cost us something. And the first place it costs us is in our prayer room — storming boldly into the throne room of grace and coming on the kids’ behalf, on behalf of people who have walked away from the Lord, and saying, “Lord, let Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

They need us interceding. They don’t need me looking good. They don’t need me acting like I have it all together. No. They need me to hear from God on their behalf, to declare truth over them, to declare protection over them, to declare that God would reign in their life until they are able to get their feet set and walk on their own. This is serious business.

Most of us in this room are over 55. Most of us in this room have our salvation taken care of. Most of us in this room have already walked in obedience to God in some capacity and are living in maybe even the fruit of your obedience. We didn’t just get here to get here. It’s not to go into cruise control. It’s to begin to pick up our sword and go on their behalf. Because I can tell you, my strength — well, now that’s a questionable thing. There was a time when my strength was different than my kids’ strength. But I’ll tell you where I can swing a sword and go after anything, more than they can ever do, and that’s in the throne room of God.

He has given me promises. He has given my family promises. He’s spoken to my mom. He’s given her promises. And God’s will isn’t just going to happen, guys. Let me just tell you. It’s not like, “Oh, well, if God wills it.” No. Jesus had to make a conscious decision. And we’re going to talk about that from here until His crucifixion. He had to make a decision, despite it being God’s will for Him to be crucified. Just think about that. He had to make a decision to be crucified.

Our lives are not set up so we can go into cruise control. When we look at Scripture — you look at Moses and Abraham and Jacob — what were they doing in their last days? They were laying hands. They were proclaiming blessing. They were speaking from generation to generation. You don’t get off easy because you’ve done all the right things. We’re the ones who should be contending and drawing them in and bringing them in. It says that they knew from generation to generation because people proclaimed what God had done.

So we’re talking about prayer. Psalm 56, verse 8 says this: “You number my wanderings; put my tears into Your bottle; are they not in Your book?” I’m here to tell you that whatever you’ve experienced — your tears, your cries, your prayers, your places of feeling forgotten — you have not been forgotten. The Lord has your tears wrapped up. He has our prayers as an incense in a golden bowl. I don’t even know how that works, but He put it in there to be poured out. It has not been forsaken, and you have not been forsaken.

And God is saying, “Will you not keep calling out to Me? Will you not keep coming boldly into My throne room until you see the will of God come to pass in your life? Will you not be like the woman who came to the judge and kept coming and coming and coming until she got what she needed?” See, we’ve given up too easily, because it’s comfortable. I can live my life pretty comfortably and say some good prayers and do church well on Sunday, and everything could be untouched. It costs me nothing.

You guys, I don’t know what your heart is to see the will of God come to pass. I don’t know the things He’s spoken to you that are to come to pass. But my heart is that we would be ignited. Not because we want a big church. I am not interested in a big church for big church’s sake. I am interested in people experiencing the move of God in this place. And we as a church have the capacity to lead and be people who come alongside, if we’re willing to come alongside and contend with people in prayer and in supplication until the will of God is experienced in their life, until those places of brokenness are made whole. This is about that, not about us. God’s heart is for His people. That’s what this whole week is about.

And I believe, when I look at our church — Lord, the rich mercy and history and depth of our people. Oh Lord, You’ve positioned us. You have positioned us to be a place where people can come and be welcomed and prayed for and loved and experience the goodness, and they won’t just be abandoned. I’m going to tell you, living life with people is messy and inconvenient. I realize that every time my kitchen’s a mess. It is inconvenient and loud. But oh man, when people find their place, when people realize that they’re called, that they’re chosen, that they weren’t abandoned, that they’re called a child of God — oh man, we have the capacity for so much. But it begins with us. Will we be willing to go into this throne room for these people? Not so that they get it right. Not so that what we think should happen happens. But so that they would experience a move of God in their life. We must press in.

Keep going back: Jesus in Gethsemane

Matthew, if you have your Bible, Matthew chapter 26. This is familiar. Here is Jesus, and He is going with some disciples. “Then Jesus came with them to a place called Gethsemane, and said to the disciples, ‘Sit here while I go and pray over there.’ And He took with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and He began to be sorrowful and deeply distressed.”

This is Jesus. He’s experiencing deep pain and distress. He’s becoming sorrowful. What’s about to happen is beginning to weigh on Him. “Then He said to them, ‘My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.’” Just think about the transparency of this moment. Now there’s an invitation to these disciples. First it was, “Sit.” Now He’s saying, “Stay and watch.”

“He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.’ Then He came to the disciples and found them sleeping, and said to Peter, ‘What! Could you not watch with Me one hour?’” Again, interesting — we don’t see time often, but here He’s bringing out one hour. Could you not have given Me one hour? “Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”

“Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be done.’” Does any of this sound familiar? “Your will be done.” All right, we’re going to come back to that. “And He came and found them asleep again, for their eyes were heavy. So He left them” — by this point He’s just leaving them be, but what an opportunity it could have been for them — “went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. Then He came to His disciples and said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of Man is being betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, My betrayer is at hand.’”

There was an opportunity and an invitation that He was offering to them, and they missed it. And it was for their purpose. He said, “lest you enter into temptation.” I’m telling you guys, it’s going to be uncomfortable, but we need to keep at it.

When I read Scripture, when I try to get into the Word — I don’t know if anyone’s like this — I can get a little distracted. In fact, I told Jay the other day, “I need you to keep my phone away from me,” because I will legitimately go to pull up a verse and then I’m like, “Oh, I want—” and now I’m gone. And so when I read this, there’s a little bit of myself I see in Jesus, because here’s Jesus coming back, and to me it feels like He’s a little distracted. Maybe not. But I saw myself — when I go to do something, and then I come back, “Okay, no, I’m on task here,” and then I go back over here. That’s how I see Jesus a little bit. And clearly He was distressed. He was deeply sorrowful.

The disciples were invited to press in, but Jesus kept going back. Jesus kept going back and praying. Jesus kept going back and pressing in. I’m telling you, it might feel uncomfortable, and you might not be at an hour. You might not be at five minutes. You might not be at ten minutes of prayer. Keep going back. Keep going back and press in and press in and press in, until all of a sudden your five minutes turns into ten minutes, and your ten minutes turns into twenty minutes, and somehow you find yourself praying for an hour and think, “How would this ever be possible?” It’s because we’ve got to keep pressing in.

See, we live in a place of ease, comfort, and quickness, right? I don’t have stuff for dinner? We can just go get food, and within seven minutes we’ll have dinner, and within ten minutes we can be eating it, and then it’s probably gone in two minutes, because I inhale my food so fast. So within less than 30 minutes I have bought my food, waited in line, and eaten it all. I’m going to tell you, I’ve been trying to cook. It takes a lot more than 30 minutes to make something good. We’ve got to keep at it. We’ve got to keep at it until all of a sudden — we press in and we press in, and like Jesus we can say, “Okay, I’m going to come back. Okay, I’m going to come back.” We’ve got to continue to press in.

Pray the Word, not the situation

The other thing is, it didn’t say that Jesus just prayed. Jesus said, “Not as I will, but as You will.” If you’re familiar with the Lord’s Prayer, which is how He instructed people to pray, now He’s demonstrating it in His own words. He’s not praying His circumstance. And I think this is so key for us. He’s not praying His circumstances. He’s praying the word of God. He’s saying, “Okay, this is deeply sorrowful, but if I need to take this cup, then Your will, not My will. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

Jesus taught us a blueprint of prayer, and the blueprint is the word of God. That’s what He was demonstrating. We read it in Scripture where He says, “This is how you pray.” Now, when He’s praying, He’s praying what will ultimately be the word of God. And that’s how we ought to pray. So as we pray, we need to pray the word of God more than the situation. We need to pray the word of God more than summaries and repetitions of what’s going on. As I said, He already knows.

Now, it does say in Scripture that we need to let our requests be made known. He does say that. So there is an element of that. But the word of God is what we must pray out loud, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Every time I’m declaring God’s Word, not only am I declaring what He’s doing, I’m building my faith. Every time I speak God’s words out of my mouth — I shout them or say them or whisper them, I cry them, I barely breathe them, whatever it might be — I’m praying the word of God, and my faith is being built up. My spirit is being built up. And I begin to remember, “Oh, I get to boldly come into the throne room of grace. Oh, this is mine. I have access to this. My Father said so.”

I’m going to tell you, I have kids. If one kid says to another kid, “Hey, get off your phone,” or “Come downstairs to eat,” whatever it is — 50/50 chance that they’re going to hear it, right? The sibling might tell the other sibling, “Why?” Now they’re in an argument. However, the majority of the time, when a sibling tells another sibling, “Hey, Mom says it’s time to eat,” “Hey, Mom says get off your phone” — it’s a different authority that they walk in, right? Oh, now I’m not just dismissing you. Siblings can dismiss each other super easily. Now they’ve got to dismiss Mom or Dad. Whole different authority. Whole different level. Do you get what I’m saying? So when we’re coming in to pray, we need to understand that we need to be praying the word of God.

Back to Psalm 56, verses 1 through 4. He says this: “Be merciful to me, O God, for man would swallow me up; fighting all day he oppresses me. My enemies would hound me all day, for there are many who fight against me, O Most High.” So here David is saying, “Look, they’re coming after me, Lord.” But what does he go on to say? “Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), in God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?”

See, David is saying here, not only am I going to call out to You, but it’s Your words I’m going to put my trust in. I’m going to declare Your words out of my mouth, not my situation. I’m telling you, this is where the game changer begins to come. David spoke the truth that was found in the Word. And while we need our requests to be made known to Him, we also have to let our requests be shaped by what we know about God and His Word. I’m going to say that again — this is why I get off my notes. We are to let our requests be known, but we also have to let our requests reflect what we know about God and who He is, and that His Word is true, and His Word will not return void but will go out and do the very thing it was sent to do. The word of God must come out of our mouth.

Hebrews chapter 4, just a little bit before it talks about entering the throne room of grace, verse 11 says, “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience. For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”

Here’s what it’s saying: this word of God, this scripture, can cut through any circumstance we are facing. It is the discerner of thoughts. That means, while I might make my request known, as I begin to declare who God is, as I begin to declare what He said, it begins to pierce through situations. It begins to divide my own thoughts, where I’m just being kooky-crazy in my mind and letting it run wild and having no self-control over my thoughts. Does that ever happen to anyone? Okay, only me. Thank you.

Sometimes my thoughts can just go, and I just press play: “Oh, they hate me. Did you see the way that they—? That must be—” No, no, no, no. I begin to say, “God, You fearfully and wonderfully made me. Lord, You say You correct those You love. So if I don’t feel like there’s correction, then I keep walking toward how You created me to be. And when You bring correction, guess what I’ll do? I will heed the voice of God.” Do you see the difference between the two? I begin to get my eyes off the situation, and I begin to declare what is holy and what is right. We get our eyes off the situation and we declare what is holy and true and right. The words must come out of our mouth.

The throne room comes with us

The last piece on this — I don’t know what number this is; I started numbering them and then I stopped. Lastly, we don’t have to leave the throne room. The throne room gets to come with us. Think about this. Yes, we read in Scripture that there are times when we go into our hidden places, we close the door, and we pray, and we stay there. But we don’t ever have to leave the throne room. Jesus says this in Matthew 6: “Your kingdom come.” Where is it coming to? It’s coming with you and me. When we’re going into situations and saying, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done,” it’s coming with us. That’s the intent.

The intent is that when I walk into a room, I am not just coming in as me. I’m coming in with a rightful authority as a child of God. I’m coming in as an heir with Christ. I’m coming in knowing that when something seems off, I can stand there quietly and begin to pray in the Spirit, and the Lord begins to show me. Or I begin to say, “What’s unsettling to me? Gosh, what’s happening?” I can begin to mutter under my breath, “God, Your will be done. Lord, is there something that’s happening here? Help me see what I need to see. Help me discern what’s going on.” That’s how His kingdom comes. We’re not supposed to just walk into a situation and let it be. We encourage ourselves. We build ourselves up. Your kingdom come. The throne room of God can come with us wherever we go.

Then, if the throne room comes with you wherever you go, there’s some accountability there too. It says in Scripture that what is done in the dark will be brought to the light. That can be twofold — what happens in the dark might be good or bad, but the Lord will bring it to light. The other thing is, when I come in, I come in as a child of God into every situation I’m walking into, with the throne of His presence inside of me. And so it matters how I treat people. It matters what I do. It matters the words that are coming out of my mouth.

My mom used to always tell me — go figure — “Suzie, love kindness. Kindness on your tongue, honey. Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Because, go figure, I had a little bit of a problem. I would just say what it was, and then my mom would be like, “Love kindness.” I was chuckling as I was thinking about that this morning. But we see in the Psalms — I think it’s 56 — where he’s like, “Lord, guard my mouth.” Help me to guard my mouth.

Just because we think it doesn’t mean we need to say it. Just because it’s true and it’s bad and it’s of darkness doesn’t mean we need to call it out. What we need is the discernment of the Holy Spirit working in and through us, so we know exactly what needs to be addressed. Because we might be addressing one thing over here, and that’s not even it. It’s just the distraction from everything. And the Lord wants to say, “I want My kingdom to come with you wherever you go. I want you to be aware that there’s something that needs to happen.” And maybe it’s nothing. Maybe it’s just a hug. Maybe it’s just praying. You’re sowing seeds. Not everything has to be something, but it might be something. His kingdom is intended to come with us wherever we go and be walked out every day of our life.

And that we would be people who would boldly — boldly, boldly, boldly — just like my kids’ friends, boldly come in and say, “I belong here,” and we begin to declare God’s presence and promise over what’s happening. The presence, the power, and the anointing is something that we get to walk in daily and not ever have to leave. And we don’t do it. I mean, this is me too. I don’t do it. I walk into so many circumstances emotional about whatever, or maybe I haven’t even eaten — it could be as simple as that — and I’ve completely forgotten: “Oh, you’re a child of God. You can do something here. You can pray. You can pray out loud. You can go lay your hands on that person.” There’s a progression of what we can do as His children.

Two more things, and then we’re done. First John chapter 2, verses 24 through 27: “Therefore let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that He has promised us — eternal life.” We’ve already secured that. That’s a promise He’s given us. “These things I have written to you concerning those who try to deceive you.”

Okay, so again, there is nothing new under the sun. Everything we’re walking through — nothing is new. The players might have changed, but the scheme of the enemy is always the scheme of the enemy. There is nothing new he can do. We don’t wrestle against flesh and blood. Whatever you’re facing — not everything; sometimes it’s just us being hangry. Not everything’s a devil, but sometimes there is. We need the discernment to see: do I need something to eat, or do I need a move of God? It really can be that simple.

So here’s the deal. Our security has been given to us. Verse 27: “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you.” Everyone say, “It abides in me.” “And you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”

Just think about that. The anointing of the Holy Spirit is there to teach us. We don’t need to be qualified to do any one of these things. He already qualified us when He died and rose again and we submitted to His lordship and saviorship of our life. And here we’re reading in this scripture that when you abide in Him, the anointing that abides in you will teach you. Let that be a place of freedom. You do not need to be the most eloquent with your words. You do not need to have all of these things. What you want to move in is the anointing and the move of God, which will teach you in all circumstances.

That means even in the places where you’re the most gifted and talented, guess what? The Holy Spirit is there to teach you in that situation. I think we’ve just become so smart, with so much information, that we think we’ve got to have the answer, and we’ve actually taken God out of the equation. Because He wants to be glorified. He says, “I will be glorified.” So the anointing that abides in us will teach us, and we will abide in Him.

Praying the Word together

So today we’re going to do something very simple. I’m going to have the worship team come up, and we’re going to practice one simple thing. When we begin to pray out loud, it sparks and ignites something in us. When we pray out in a group, when we’re pressing into the throne room of God in a corporate place, when we begin to cry out to God — what I have found more often than not is that it triggers something in me. Now, that word’s been used a lot. It ignites something in me that then resonates, and I say, “Yes, Lord, that’s my prayer right there.”

So what I’m going to do is pray two scriptures — two scriptures that I’ve been praying as we’re entering into this Easter season. I believe in us pressing in together into the throne and what He can do. As I pray, I’m going to demonstrate very vulnerably. Like I said, I’m just going to show you what I’ve been taught, both in Scripture and by my mom. This is how I pray, because I am not eloquent enough to know how to pray otherwise.

I’m going to ask you to stand, and I’m going to read a scripture, and I’m going to pray that scripture. And as I’m praying that scripture, if there’s a part in you that resonates with it — whether it’s for your own family, whether it’s for someone you know — I want you to begin to pray out and come into agreement with me. So you’ve got to vocalize this.

Now, I am Mexican and Puerto Rican. There is nothing quiet about any of my heritage. None of it. We eat, we’re loud, we’re vocal. That’s just who I am. It’s part of the noise. So I’m comfortable with talking. I understand we live in a cultural place where being proper and having manners and being polite — I call it Midwest nice, right? “Oh no, I’m in your way, I’m so sorry.” We do this whole thing. So some of us have been brought up in Midwest nice, and when someone says, “Hey, I want you to vocalize something,” it feels a little different than what you’ve been told, or a little different than the culture you’ve experienced.

But faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. So as I’m praying with us — and those of you who are joining us online, hi — I want you to do this too. I want you to practice and realize this is a safe place. No one’s judging you. No one’s listening to you — although my daughter once told me she could hear me singing from the back. I know she listens to me, so when I’m off-key, I laugh, because I know she can hear my voice. It makes me smile. She’s the only one that’s like, “Mom, I heard you singing today.” That’s it. I say all that to say no one’s judging you. No one’s watching you.

So as I’m praying, I’m going to pray two scriptures. We’ll go maybe about three to five minutes. I want you to come into agreement with the scripture I am praying. They’re really easy. The first scripture we’re going to put up is John chapter 6, verse 44: “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

So we’re going to be praying with the intention of knowing that there are people that need to be drawn to the Lord. As we’re giving out these invites, there are people who have walked away from the church, or have left because of COVID or whatever it is, that need to be drawn in — not by fantastic teaching, not by anything other than the Lord.

The next scripture we’re going to pray is Jeremiah 31:3: “The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.’”

Okay, so these are two scriptures. I’m going to go first with John. So as we’re going, we’re just going to begin to declare God’s Word out. And if there’s someone or something that you know by name that you need to ask the Lord to draw in, call them out. Call them out. Let’s go, pressing together. This is going to be uncomfortable, and that’s okay. We see Jesus kept going back. Jesus kept going back. So we’re going to press in, because this is about pressing into His throne room together.

See, there was an invitation that the disciples had that they chose not to participate in. That’s between them and the Lord. What you choose to do is between you and the Lord. I’m asked to do this. Your response is to be obedient to Him. And we’re going to practice pressing in and praying the word of God, because this is how we get into His throne room. We get His Word and we begin to declare it out. We begin to declare it out. And now we find ourselves in there, and we’re praying our heart’s prayer. We’re praying for that person. Does this make sense? So we’re going to begin to pray the word of God. They’re going to lead us in some worship after I’m done praying, then we’ll do a song, and then I’ll close this out.

All right, so you can all close your eyes. Oh, heavenly Father, we thank You. We thank You that we can come boldly into Your throne room. And you can start praying now too. You don’t have to wait for my instruction. You can lift up your voices.

So Father God, I thank You that You say we can boldly come to Your throne of grace. We can come and find mercy, and we can find grace in time of need. So God, we thank You that You’re teaching us how to call out to You. God, You are never leaving us or forsaking us. Your Word can be trusted. Lord, we thank You that Your Word will not return void and it will do the thing that it is sent out to do.

So Father God, right now we call out. Lord, Your Word says that no one can come to You unless the Father who sent You draws them in, and You will raise them up at the last day. And so God, we come before You and we call out people by name who need to be drawn to You, Lord, that there is no other way, that You are the only way. So God, we call out for those people who we know have walked away from You, God, or who have found themselves in places of comfort. God, we say, would You draw them to You? Would You draw them, Father? Lord, we thank You that You know them by name. You know right where they are.

So right now, as we’re praying together, as we’re lifting up our voices, we’re entering into Your throne room. As we come before You, God, we say, would You draw them in, in Jesus’ name? Would You draw them in, Lord? Would Easter be a catalyst that draws them in, God? Lord, that You would do what only You could do. Lord, we thank You that You love Your children, that You know them by name, that You’ve not forgotten them.

And so Lord, it says in Jeremiah 31:3, “The Lord has appeared of old to me.” Lord, I pray that You would appear to people, Lord Jesus. God, won’t You do it? Lord, I pray that we would rise up with faith that You would appear to people, God — whether it’s in a dream, whether it’s through someone else, whatever it is. Lord, would You appear to them? Would they know that You’re calling out to them, God?

And Lord, Your Word says, “Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you.” Lord, I pray people would be drawn in by Your lovingkindness, by Your tender mercies. God, would You draw them in? Lord, where there is resistance, that You would begin untangling those places where people have been tangled up with the wrong things, where people have been believing lies — that they’re rejected, that they’ve lost it, that they’ve been a burden. God, oh no. Your Word says that our prayers are an incense to You, that our prayers are being poured out in the place where You are.

So God, we pray and we call out for these people. Lord, we thank You that our salvation is secured in You. And so Lord, we come contending and interceding for people who don’t know You, God — for the people that You’ve placed in our lives that don’t know You, who’ve walked away. Lord, we call and pray that the truth would set them free. With so much that’s being spit out at them, with so much knowledge and all the things that we know, God, we lay those things at Your feet. Lord, we say, have Your way in this place. Have Your way, Lord.

Where marriages have been broken, Lord, that You would restore. Where children have walked away, that You would call them in with Your lovingkindness. Those who have turned away, Lord, would You call out to them? Would You send, by Your Holy Spirit, ministering angels out to them, Lord, that they would be drawn in by Your lovingkindness? God, because it is really only Your grace and mercy that brings us in.

Lord, Jesus, You said, “Not My will, but Your will.” And God, we declare in this place that Your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. Lord, that we may be people who carry Your presence with us wherever we go. Lord, that we would not walk in condemnation or guilt over what we should have done, but Lord, Your mercies are new every morning. God, every morning there’s an opportunity for us to reset ourselves. So God, I pray and I call out for those people, and that we would be awakened to what is around us, awakened to the people who need You.

Transcribed from the message recording and lightly edited for reading.