Summary

Bishop Hugh Daniel Smith teaching Spiritual Wrestling at Embassy Metro Detroit. Full sermon with transcript.

Transcript

Transcript begins at the message. The video above includes the full service — welcome, worship, and announcements. Auto-processed from the live-stream captions; the video is the source of truth.

Ephesians 6, beginning at verse number 10. Perhaps we’ve committed this to memory by now. Let’s read. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the ws of the devil.

For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand, what we going to do? Stand therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shaw with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Verse 16, above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all of the fiery darts of the wicked. Man, we bad.

My goodness. Bad meaning good. It’s verse 17. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God. Now verse 18 is the text.

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching there unto with all perseverance and supplication for just our favorite people. Oh, for all the saints. People debate what to call believers today. Some call us believers, some call us disciples, and the Bible affirms both.

But probably more than anything, the Bible calls us saints. Look at somebody and say, “Praise the Lord, saint. No, really, we have to understand how God defines us. He said, “Prayer for all the saints.” Don’t be afraid to use that word. We got to reclaim our biblical language.

Spiritual wrestling number eight. Today’s installment is simply called prayer. Father, thank you for your hungry people. I feel their hunger in the house today. Thank you for your willingness to feed the hungry, not just with physical food, but with hidden mana.

Thank you for your desire to clothe the naked not just with physical clothes but with yourself your mant. Thank you for providing housing not just physical homes but you are our shelter and you are our hiding place. Woo God, thank you God for being everything we need you to be. We ask that you would use this message to set us in motion in Jesus name.

Amen. Spiritual wrestling is the emotional, psychological and spiritual conflict assigned to believers for the purpose of kingdom advancement and personal transformation. Basic statement. The Lord has commissioned and empowered every believer to spend their entire lives standing for the will of God and standing against every thing that opposes his will in the earth. His objective is that we would be successful in our stance.

And I’m getting a little feedback here. Brothers and sisters, we have to accept the fact that what we’re doing is not a weekend kind of thing. Spiritual warfare cannot be relegated to church services.

But it is something that we must live in readiness for. It has to become what I call warfare readiness. It must become a lifestyle. I think the children of Israel, not the children of Israel, but the state of Israel uh provides a great example of this. They live in what we call war readiness. every time uh a couple could be at the supermarket out to dinner, children could be at school, and when the sirens go off, they have already been prepared and trained as how to respond.

The children are brought to a place of shelter. the parents that are out for the night know where to go and what to do because of what we call war readiness. Everybody say it with me. War readiness. And we’re going to ask you just give me a teeny bit more up here. In the same way that they live in readiness for anything to jump off, we too must begin to function like that.

You may be at the mall shopping, but when the sirens go off and you feel and sensing the Holy Ghost, somebody’s in trouble, believers are going to have to leave that location and go to the appropriate post to fulfill the work that God has called you to do. Maybe you’ll be out to dinner with your honey, but the prophetic siren goes off or the apostolic directive is issued and it is a clarion call for all soldiers to report for battle because the fiery darts of the wicked are flying over our head. And if we don’t respond appropriately, we’re going to have casualties in our midst. This is not for weekend warriors. It’s easy to come to church on Sunday and shout the victory in here.

But what happens tomorrow when things go contrary to God’s plan in your life? We can’t wait for Sunday before we fight. But we’re going to have to be ready to fight any moment of the day. Somebody say any moment of the day. Because the sirens do go off and you can hear it in your spirit.

And we got to learn how to respond to emergency military protocols. Say it with me. Emergency military protocols. You got to call in and say, “We got a 911. We heard somebody’s going down.

What is my responsibility? What would you have me to do? Are we gathering anywhere? Or are we going to drop right where we are and go into the bathroom? go into the heavens and pull down a stronghold and save somebody’s life. We can’t schedule the warfare, but we must respond to what’s happening in the moment.

And so the key is that response has already been rehearsed. I’ve practiced on what to do when emergencies hit. And this is why I can’t be caught off guard carnal in the flesh uh doing something where I’m so far from God. And then I get news that somebody’s uh in the hospital getting ready to take their last breath. And you get the assignment.

You don’t have time to go on a fast. You don’t have time to be talking about hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

They may die on your watch if we are not in a place to address spiritual opposition. Whenever the call is made, somebody shout, “I’m a I’m a soldier. I’m a soldier.” It it’s very similar to um Nehemiah and his team. They had to uh have a hammer in one hand because they were building their life, but they also had a sword in the other hand. And they didn’t know when they were going to have to shift from building to cutting.

Say lifestyle, lifestyle, lifestyle. So, I’m declaring warfare lifestyle over this church in the name of the Lord. I don’t care if you’re on vacation. I don’t care if you’re off work. If you hear the prophetic siren, if you hear the Holy Ghost go off in your spirit, then you’ve got to know how to respond and do what’s been you’ve been trained to do because it could be a matter of life and death.

This is how the mature soldiers function uh in the days of old. They lived in what we call warfare readiness. And they were able to respond because it became a lifestyle. And it is this group that will experience success. Say it with me.

Success. And so this is my first point. I want to talk about success. What is it uh to be successful in spiritual warfare? Um what does it mean?

I I think there’s a great deal of confusion around this word in the church. Uh for some success means to acquire things. If you acquire some physical property or some physical thing, you got a new this or new that then you’re successful. Or you have great influence in the secular market, you must be successful. Or you have a number of people following you on social media, you must be successful.

But but that could be misleading. That could be misleading uh because success uh of outward trappings is eancent. It’s it’s things that are fleeting. They could be here today and gone tomorrow. You could be popular today and forgotten by some people tomorrow.

So if your success is predicated on things you have, then it is in the hands of those that control the things. But success uh outward success is is the fruit of something but true success begins on the inside. And that’s where I want to go because it is possible to say to the Lord uh Lord Lord he says everybody that cries Lord Lord is not going to enter into his kingdom. He said some he’ll say you prophesied in my name outward success. He says, “But but and” and somebody else will say, “You cast he” He, he’ll say to someone else, “You cast devils out in my name.” And he says, “But I never knew you.” So it is possible to cast out devils in his name and prophesy accurately in his name.

And still he says you were workers of in other words you were never in relationship with me and you never here it is you never became the person I designed you to be. So success is not the outward thing immediately. It comes don’t get me wrong but we cannot make that the standard without a person becoming the standard is becoming uh who he uh designed us to be. That’s success. Success is is me becoming the Hugh Smith that he thought of before the foundation of the world. is is us being conformed into the image of Christ.

And the closer we get to that image, the more the closer we are to arriving at what the Bible calls success. And from that person, you’ll produce much, you’ll have much, and things will happen. But the things don’t validate my success. It’s the person I’ve become that determines whether or not I have arrived. That’s what Paul talked about.

Remember, he says, “I’m not going to tell y’all I’ve already arrived. I’m not going to tell you I’m already perfect.” What was he talking about? What he was becoming. He says, “But this one thing I do, forgetting those things that are behind. And I’m looking forward.

I press toward the mark. What mark? What he was meant to be? The high calling of God that is in Christ Jesus. So success is transformation.

Success is becoming. As we said earlier, he’s the potter and he’s building something in us. And we’re only successful when we become that. Cuz what sense does it make to get all of this stuff out there and still be something other than what he intended for us to be? You can have things and still be hateful.

You can have big things and be popular and still be lustful and perverted. And you can still be ugly and still be demonic. And so God doesn’t call that success. I know people are shallow to the degree where they call success outward achievement and they ignore inward imperfection.

But God has reversed the whole order. He says you have not arrived until you change until I become what he empowered me to be. And so this is success becoming like Jesus. This is the goal from glory to glory even by the spirit of the lord.

And so we must have this in our view because the truth is the world is a reflection of what uh of what we are internally. All of our environments are a reflection of our internal environment. I didn’t hear nobody say anything about that.

But the truth is our environment, the whole world is a reflection of everybody’s internal state of being. And if we want to change the world, we don’t start with changing the outer world. We start with changing the inner world. Gandhi allegedly said, “Be the change that you want to see in the world because if I’m not whole, I can’t bring healing. If I’m not good, I can’t make good out there.” And so God starts the work inside of his people.

And this is when we have arrived because when he does the work inside of us, then we begin to carry his presence. Our presence becomes his presence. And did you know it is presence that transforms the world? I said presence. Everybody say presence.

It is whatever you are that will bring change to the environment that you’ve come to change. You have to be the change. And so God wants to make sure his love is in our presence. His joy is in our presence. His joy is filling us.

His peace is in our presence. His humility is a part of our presence. His goodness, all the whole fruit of the spirit, his holiness, his righteousness, his justice. The more his presence is filling us and we carry his presence, then when we show up, our presence will overcome the presence of the dark one. Somebody say presence.

Everything has presence. Everything really does. Fire carries heat. Water carries moisture. Light carries illumination.

Flowers carry fragrance. A lion carries strength and mature believers carry the presence of God. So the question is what’s in your presence? When you show up, what do people feel? When you show up and you your you come into a room, what presence comes into that room?

That determines what happens? God’s presence, they said, in the presence of the Lord is fullness of joy. You get into his presence, you feel his joy. And at his right hand, there are pleasures forever more.

But what happens when we walk into a room? So God says, I’m not trying to change the earth. I’m trying to change people. This gospel is not about right now changing the earth or the systems right yet. We will get to that.

If I change the people, I can change the family. If I change the people, I can change the neighborhood. If I change people inwardly, their presence will cause the outside to be transformed.

And so, you came here for transformation is what this thing is about. And that is success in the kingdom of God. And so, the Lord wants us to do a audit on our presence. That means we got to go to trusted friends and say, “What do you feel when I come in the room? What do you feel in my presence?

Does my presence carry love? Does my presence carry peace? And if a person’s presence carry fear, then they will release anxiety every place they go. If a person’s presence carry bitterness, then they’re going to release distortion and destruction everywhere they go.

So, we all show up carrying something. But God called us to be carriers of his presence. You can preach the right thing, but if you got the wrong presence, your words will never have the impact that they were intended to have. You can say the right things, mother, father, to your children, but your presence is impacting them more than the words that are coming out of your mouth. It’s about presence.

The greatest ministry in the church is the ministry of presence. Moses says, “God, I’ll go talk to Pharaoh if you go with me. If your presence go with me, I’m not about to go talk to Pharaoh without your presence.

But if your presence comes with me, then I what what am I what am I afraid of his presence for? He He has mere human presence. If I show up with sovereignty in my spirit and show up with omnipotence in my spirit, then I can overcome even the Egyptian stronghold.” And I hear the Holy Ghost saying that if we allow God to uh uh cause his presence to fill us, you can show up in a place and your very presence will have impact.

And so we have to do an audit. Everybody say an audit. A presence audit. I mean ask your friends, tell me, be truthful. What do you feel when I come into the room and when we’re on the phone to uh together?

What what do you sense in my presence? Because if we allow God to perfect our presence, then we will see great transformation in the world that is around us. All it takes is presence. What do you think we was in here rejoicing over today? It’s because who what was going on in here?

It was the presence of the Lord. And how many just love his presence? Just love his presence. Oh yeah. You got up early this morning, put on your shoes, wash your face, brush your teeth.

Uh you you you you dealt with this terrible traffic in the parking lot and you did all the stuff to get into this room here all for one reason. What was the one reason? It was the presence of the Lord. And you know what I hear the Lord say? If you let that same presence live in you, you will have the spirit of attraction on you, people will find you because they just like being in your presence.

Your marriage can get better if you change your presence. It ain’t what you’re saying, baby. Your presence is ugly. It ain’t what you’re saying, sir. Your presence is annoying.

You got some stuff you need to work out. Go to therapy. Do what you got to do, but deal with your internal reaction to the external experience that’s giving you an emotion that’s causing this damage to take place in our midst. Whatever you got to do, go deal with your presence. Cuz I’m trying to have some fun.

Come on, somebody. If you trying to have a party, you want somebody to come with joy in their spirit so they can release the atmosphere that can cause us to celebrate. Somebody help me praise him right there. Shout presence. Shout present.

Success is when God has perfected your presence. Because perfected presence will make other things happen. When you go or hear about an event that took place, what’s the first question we ask? Who was present? Because if you didn’t have the right presence there, we say, “Oh, that wouldn’t hit no nothing.” No matter what people is doing, right?

Not the right presence is not hitting on anything. You need the right presence to make stuff pop. And you think you can just come to church and your presence don’t matter. If your pres if if in your mind your presence doesn’t matter, that means you have somehow uh abdicated uh the value of your own person. If your presence doesn’t matter, oh, I got to show up at certain places cuz I know that the party ain’t going to be what it’s meant to be until till my presence is in the mix somewhere.

You got to have an understanding of the worth of your presence. I don’t care if it’s my baby granddaughter. I got to show up cuz my presence will bless her life. Are you hearing me? Presence is everything.

This is why God is not trying to give you things first. He’s trying to perfect our presence by transforming our insides and our response to the things that take place in our lives. Some people carry death in their presence. They really do.

But Jehovah Shama means the Lord is present. He’s present. So every saint is graced and commissioned to wrestle until their presence is perfected before we fight for any other thing. We’re fighting for personal transformation. Because you can get all the things in the world and your family still fall apart because of bad presence.

You can get all the promotions at your job you want and everything still fall apart because of bad presence. And so God wants us to master who we are. Lift those hands right there. And believe God for the grace to wrestle until presence is perfected. I declare the grace to wrestle until presence is defect perfected.

Because Satan is fighting you in your presence. He’s fighting you about what you’re becoming. You think he’s fighting you about stuff. No. He wants you to stay in that state you’re in because he knows you only can produce so much in that state.

And so I’m declaring the grace to perfect presence. I’m going to wrestle until I change. Isn’t that what Jacob said? He wrestled until he went from Jacob to Israel. He wrestled until he changed.

He wasn’t talking about money. He wasn’t talking about houses. He weren’t talking about cars. He knew it was him that needed to change first. And I’m declaring the grace to wrestle until we change.

You’re not going to quit wrestling. Come on. You’re going to fight to the end until you become everything God ordains you to be.

Now, let’s clap our hands by faith there. Signifying the fact that I’m never going to stop believing in my own transformation presence. So, my first point is success. And I just told you what it was. It’s perfected presence.

My second point is prayer. I may get to the third point, I may not. But I want to talk about prayer now because this is what the text says. He in chapter number six, he concludes the believer’s armor, not with another piece of armor.

But he concludes it with prayer because prayer activates all spiritual gifts. Prayer inundated inundates environments and causes everything to work better. The analogy that I could use today is personal to me. Prayer is like hot sauce. It makes everything taste better.

It does. It really does. It doesn’t matter what you’re doing. If you if you pray it through, it’s going to go to another space. You can organize, you can have all your ducks in a row, you can rehearse, but if there’s no prayer, then it is limited to what you were able to produce.

But as soon as you put that prayer on it, it it it compensates for what wasn’t right. God fills the gaps and he takes it to another place. And this is what I’m telling all these pastors. You can’t have not pastors here, but these other churches, you can’t have no church and grow a church, right, without prayer. All of our efforts are limited if we don’t bathe it in prayer.

Everybody say prayer. prayer. It doesn’t matter your business, whatever it is. If you doing all that stuff and you ain’t praying over this stuff, right? And I’m not talking about some little uh you know those kind of prayers that some people pray just some prayer of you know some prayer just to say you prayed. I’m talking about bathing a thing in prayer.

When I bathe my day in prayer, things happen that I didn’t intend and God accomplishes things that I didn’t have on my mind. And I’ve lived long enough in the kingdom and I’ve learned that if I don’t bathe my day in prayer, I can see the Starks difference from a day bathed in prayer to a day where I just get up and pray a little bit and go do what I’m going to do. I end up wasting more energy that other day than I do on the day that is bathed in prayer.

And so I need you to understand everything must be saturated in prayer. Without prayer, truth remains information. Without prayer, righteousness remains positional. Without prayer, faith remains dormant. Without prayer, soarses remain sethed or in the seed.

Without prayer, everything is just what it is on the surface level. But prayer activates things and calls them to become alive and take on a life of its own. Prayer is the kingdom technology that gives believers the ability to commune and communicate with God while bringing the will of God to pass in the earth. It is the greatest technology ever given to human beings. And without prayer, people will faint and give up in this work to bring his purposes to pass.

So, individuals that don’t pray to me can’t fully be trusted. They can’t. You can’t trust a non-p praying person because they got a price. Just give them the right price, they going to show you who they really are.

Now, some of you may not take kind to that or may not believe that, but that some people just haven’t been tested deep enough. when the apostle Paul when he was Saul remember he was Saul he persecuted the church and uh then he converted to Christ and the believers didn’t trust him Barnabas tried to say he’s changed he’s changed but the only thing that they the only credential that they offered the people was that he now prayeth because a man or woman who really prays cannot remain the same impossible impossible to remain the same person that you were if you talking to God for real every day. Now, these other people that be saying they’re praying for hours and they’re not changing, they ain’t talking to the Lord. They in a religious exercise doing something else because it’s impossible to talk to light and remain in the dark. It’s impossible to talk to good and remain bad. It’s impossible to talk to power and remain weak.

It’s impossible to talk to God and remain unregenerated and unchanged. He is the changer. He is the miracle worker. And if you hang out with him, you’ll become like him. You can’t tell me you’re praying if you’re not changing.

First person that changes doing prayer is the one offering up the prayer. And if you want to really know power, you’ll get a prayer life. I said if you really want to get to know God and you want to have a authentic walk and relationship with God that’s beyond this surface stuff that some people abide in, then you’re going to learn how to pray. Jesus said men ought to always pray and not faint. Paul said, “Pray without ceasing.” And the early church continued in prayer.

So it’s nothing that you do sporadically. It has to become a lifestyle. And once you get hooked on prayer, my God, my God, you are an addict for the rest of your life because you find out, can’t nothing touch you like communion with God. Can’t nothing fill you like communion with God. I I feel so off if I don’t get my normal prayer right.

I feel like I’m a dollar short in a day late in everything I do. But when I get that prayer in there just right, my God, I’m in the pocket today. I feel like I’m walking in a bubble. I feel like I’m covered by the the power of God. And can’t nothing stop me because God and I are like this.

Somebody say pray. Somebody say pray. Prayer is one of the best things you can add to your spiritual arsenal. Thank God for the helmet. Thank God for the sword of the spirit.

Thank God for the breastplate of righteousness. Thank God for the shoes shaw with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Thank God for the shield of faith.

But by itself is is powerless. He says at the end after you get all dressed now fall on your face and call on the name of the Lord and God will take all that stuff and make it happen. Somebody shout prayer. Prayer. Prayer.

Watch. I want to show you what prayer really does. And I hope I motivate some of you in here to begin praying. I want to show you what it does. What it really does.

And this helped me when I got this revelation. Prayer is between two sovereigns. It’s the work between two sovereigns. Number one, God is sovereign. And ain’t no none of your prayers is going to make God do anything.

You ain’t going to make God do nothing he didn’t plan to do. So you might as well give up that prayer where you trying to change God’s mind. Come on, God. Please, please, please, please.

Come on, Lord. Please, please. You You wasting time, buddy. you might as well get up from there because God is sovereign and your prayers are not going to change his mind about what he plans to do.

So, so that’s that’s one thing we got to take off the list right there. And you say, “Well, that’s what I’ve been doing my whole prayer life. That’s why it’s so boring, ain’t it? That’s why it’s so messed up because you’re trying to change the sovereign’s mind. That that’s not prayer.

That’s that’s you’re trying to coersse him. You trying to trick him, manipulate him, force him. The creature trying to force the creator. And then man is sovereign. God made man in his own image.

Meaning he made us a sovereign like himself. He gave us free moral agency. And we have the freedom to choose whatever we want. We can walk away from God if we want to. We can walk out of here and do anything we want to do and it’ll be our choice.

That’s being like God to a certain degree. Free moral agency. And so man, so prayer does not change God cannot force change on God. And prayer cannot force change on man. So what on earth in heaven is the purpose of prayer?

If it’s not going to change God and it can’t change man or force man to change, then why does he give us this medium of prayer? But let me tell you, come close to me. Let me tell you, prayer creates the conditions in the lives of human beings. favorable conditions that incentivize them to make the choices that agree with God. Did anybody hear what I just said? When I’m praying to God about a loved one, I’m saying, “God, this is your will.

You spoke it and this is what you want for this loved one, but they ain’t trying to hear you or me.” So, so God, I’m praying you move. Please move in this situation. And God says, “All right.” So you know what God does? He start creating conditions, situations. God ain’t going to force them to do nothing.

He will not. He will not cuz they sovereign. But he can put some situations around them that they will eventually get the message. Are you hearing what I’m saying? That the idol they trusting in comes down.

The ground they’re standing on starts shaking. The things that they believe prove to be wrong. They start having rude awakenings. You can call them an awakening all you want. We’re in an awakening.

Yes, it’s a rude one, too, isn’t it? Most awakenings are rude because you’re waking up to something you didn’t know was there. Something that you didn’t know that you didn’t believe.

But but but they wake up to certain things and then they decide out of their own vition to do what God said he wanted them to do. Prayer creates conditions that causes people to say yes to his will. How do you think you got here? People was praying for you and you had to almost die before you said yes to his will. God didn’t force you to say yes.

You said yes on your own because of the conditions in your life. And God told me to pray for a whole lot of y’all in this place. And you going to get to place where you don’t want me to pray for you. Because the more I pray for you, the more your conditions are going to change and the more God’s going to start squeezing the world around you to cause you to say yes to his will. And when it’s over, everybody going to have their hands raised.

But the journey from where you are to hands raised is going to be a journey of of of pain and agony. Because in order to get you to say yes from the depth of your heart, you got to have some stuff happen to you before you really put your confidence in God at that level. And he told us to pray for all the saints.

And so God told me to call people together. Say, “I’m praying for all the saints. Your behavior is messed up. I’m praying for you.” Now, now you know what I mean by that. I ain’t just praying you get a house or a car.

I’m praying you say yes to his will. And I’m praying that you experience something in your life that’ll cause you to say yes. This is one of the primary purposes for prayer. It can get your son uh before the Lord crying out.

Now, he might be in a prison cell when he lift his hands. I can’t I can’t say that ain’t going to happen. He might be on his deathbed. Uh I don’t know. I don’t know.

God will let some stuff happen. Are you hearing me? And we be talking about why did God let all that happened? Cuz you pray for me to cause him to say yes. And it’s only these conditions that is going to cause him to lift his hands.

So if you going to pray to God, you got to stomach the journey that people got to go through to get to that place where they lift their hands to him. Do I got prayer warriors in the room? Far too many parents are praying to God to save their child and then cry when the conditions are there and say, “God, why are you letting this happen?” He said, “Cuz you praying to me. If you don’t want it to happen, then don’t pray to me.” But this is the only way that child is going to raise their hands and give me the glory because I got to kill the stubbornness in them. And I got to kill the lust in them.

And I got to kill all these things that are blocking them. And they’ll say yes when I’m done. Saints don’t stop praying. I this thing scared me one time. It It really It really It was It uh I experienced the fright.

No, I really did cuz I was praying for people and it seemed like the more I prayed, the worse their life got. And it frightened me. I said, “What is this?” And then God showed me. He said, “No, son. The prayer is good.

This is me at work creating the condition because they’re sovereign. If you go to them and say do it,” they’re not going to do it. And I can’t force them and I won’t force them. It’s got to be of their own valition. How many of you want to be sold out?

You’re scared to raise your hands, aren’t you? Try it again. How many want to be sold out for the Lord? Do everything he called you to be. You know that comes with conditions.

I’ve been in this thing for 40ome years and I’ve seen the conditions that have made me say yes. I felt the conditions that have caused me to say yes. And most of them were painful. When you get to the other side, people see you sold out and they be like, I want to be like you. No, you don’t.

You don’t be like that last child in the family who learned from all the other siblings and say, “I ain’t got to go through all that. Y’all crazy. Y’all got in trouble and all that stuff. Y’all got beat bad. I’m learning from y’all’s experience.” I say yes right now to his will, to his way, and I ain’t going nowhere. be that kid.

Don’t be the hardhead kid. Cuz they going to say yes, too. But they’re going to have a story to tell. They’re going to be how I got over. My soul looks back in wonder.

How I got over prayer. Everybody shout prayer. Prayer. So he tells us to pray, but you need to understand the mechanics of prayer. What really happens?

So prayer works. It sends people on a journey. Before you leave here, anybody want me to lay hands on you? Pray for you. I just want to know.

People like, I ain’t trying to go to the altar no more on Sundays. Shoot. Moses had conditions before he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and decided to enjoy the before he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter and enjoying the pleasures of sin for a season. He he he he came to the conclusion that he didn’t want to do that no more after he had turned 40. Sometimes age is the condition.

Some stuff you just grow out of. You get too old to do it. Some stuff you just you’re just too old. And when you know you have more time behind you than you have in front of you, you think differently. Age is one of the conditions that’ll cause you to start saying yes on another level.

When you’re young, you know, you just think you got all eternity, but just keep living. Sometimes pain in the body makes you say yes. The doctor’s report sometimes it cause you to say praise the Lord. Conditions, things you lose. When you start seeing your mortality and you see that you have power in some areas, but some stuff you can’t touch, you’ll start saying yes differently.

Paul had a thorn in his flesh that kept him saying yes. He said, “God, get rid of this condition.” God said, “No way.” He sought the Lord three times to change his mind. God says, “This is a condition that keeps you where you need to be.” Do you love me, Paul? I I I prayed this prayer years ago. I really did. kid.

I said, “Lord, if I ever start tripping and I’m going to embarrass your name in a bad way, take me home.” I literally prayed that prayer. But it was during a time where other people was tripping and embarrassed in his name. I said, “God, I never want to be in a situation where I bring that kind of shame to your name. I would rather you take me home first.” And the Lord heard me.

Now, no, now I was young when I kind of did that. Now, I’ll be kind of scared to say stuff to the Lord. I do. I I’m sometimes I’m actually afraid because I know he hears and I saw the condition. I see the conditions start moving and and they can be painful.

Now, the secular community uh operates uh similar but not the same because the devil can’t make anybody do anything either because we’re sovereign. So, he uses bribery uh to to get people to make certain decisions. Um he’ll bribe them. He got to get them to make the decision, but he uses bribery. He uses blackmail uh to compel people to make certain decisions.

He uses fraud. Sometimes he’ll deceive people into making certain decisions. They did it ignorantly. He uses manipulation and all kind of trickery. Uh but the bottom line, before you do anything, he he has to get you to do it.

He creates conditions or an atmosphere around people. That’s why people did what they did. They they were in an atmosphere that it made sense at the time and they pulled the trigger on certain things. It made sense to sleep with that person that night.

But now when you look back, you say, “That was the craziest thing I could have ever did in my life.” But the conditions were there that caused it to make sense that night. It made sense. It made sense to to to to do what you did. That was crazy. That cost you years of of trouble.

Uh the devil makes sin make sense in the moment. It feels good right now. We both feeling pretty good right now, aren’t we? Yeah. This is the good moment.

But don’t you know that eternity is connected to this moment? Your children are connected to this moment. Your destiny is connected to this moment. Don’t make a temporal decision that will affect your t eternal situation because of the conditions that the devil has created around you. Both are working to get us to say yes.

And so God told me to tell you, he wants you to just start saying yes to his will. and and and without needing all of that all of those conditions, at some point you should have enough evidence in your saved life to know that he is who he said he is and he’ll do what he said he’ll do. And so I don’t need you to do all of that anymore for me, Lord. I don’t. I don’t. Just tell me I got a spirit of obedience now.

It takes a while to get a spirit of obedience. And I pray that every day, Lord, let the spirit of your obedience abide in me and let it abound in the name of Jesus. I pray that prayer every day. Let your spirit of obedience when you call, I come. When you run, say run, I run.

Cuz I don’t want you to have to uh uh move me to say yes. Say amen in the house. And so I want you to step into what God has ordained for your person. Just step into it. You know the story when when when uh the angel came to Mary and said to her, “Mary, uh uh the the the power of the highest is going to overshadow you and you’re going to have a son and you’re going to call his name Jesus.

You’re highly favored of God and all of that.” And Mary said, “How shall these things be?” He said, “Okay, the power is going to overshadow you.” That’s what God said. And notice her response. “According to thy word, be it unto me.” She stepped into it. She didn’t need any kind of conditions. She said yes to something that seemed impossible.

A virgin is going to conceive and bear a son. And you going to believe that Mary? She said, “According to thy word, be it unto me.” And she stepped in what God had ordained for her life. And I want to release a little grace in the room right now for somebody just to step into it in the name of the Lord. You don’t have to wait.

Uh you don’t have to wait a year from now. I say step into it right now. Whatever thought that God has put on your spirit. Say, “According to your word, be it unto me.” According to your word, be it unto me. I don’t need you to whoop me, spank me.

I don’t need anything. Be it unto me. Can you say that? Be it unto me. Can you get that in your spirit?

Be it unto me. That’s obedience. One more thing I need to give you cuz we’re not going to make it even to the third point, but I need to give you this part of the second point. Prayer is the instrument that God uses to bring his will to pass in the earth by creating conditions.

And so we’re going to create some conditions that brings transformation in people’s lives. But I but there’s one one caveat here. The ethmology of the term prayer in this text is the Greek word prosuk prosuk and that word means come near and make the request. So prayer in the general sense means to draw near to God and make your request. In other words, you can’t put a petition in from a distance.

And this is why some people’s prayers are ineffective. They trying to text God. Lord, I got this going on. distance. You can’t have distant relationship and put in a petition. You’ve got to draw near before you can ask him things like that.

Prayer doesn’t register from a distance. It’s almost like husband, wife. Uh my wife and I have been married for how long? 45 years. 42 years. 42 years. It’s a long time, isn’t it? And you know what I learned?

I clap clap clap. All right. You know what I learned in 42 years of marriage? That if you want the relationship to remain intimate, when you get together, you can’t just talk about the children. You can’t just talk about your responsibility.

You can’t just talk about what’s going on at the church and what’s going on on the news. That’s distant relationship. You talk like you talk about those things to a perfect stranger. You go somebody says the weather something else, isn’t it? And those Pistons, yeah, they might be good this year.

That’s all surface talk. That that that’s said that’s a distant relationship. And many married couples talk about their responsibility. If that’s all you talk about, your relationship is distant and it’s not going to produce the life that you need.

And so, anybody want that relationship to change right now? I’m giving you some free help cuz this is just the the point to get to the point. You got to talk more about each other because you didn’t get together to do all that other stuff. That stuff came with your growth and your development.

So, it shouldn’t take priority. It is priority, but it shouldn’t take priority over your relationship. So, I’ve learned that my wife and I, we have to get together and you guys, you got to hear you want to I want you to hear from me about me. I got to make I got to become vulnerable and tell you how I feel about certain things and what what my aspirations are, my concerns are, my fears are and then if she respond in kind and give me her true heart on things. Now we cooking with hot greases as Bishop Bismar used to say.

It’s amazing how you just hear stuff. But but now we’re cooking if we’re communing. Prayer is communion, ladies and gentlemen. Prayer is not about just getting stuff done. It’s first and foremost about connecting with God.

And so God says, if you show up from a distance and you’re trying to ask me for something, that petition is not going to register. You must come in and commune with me first. You got to inquire in my temple. You got to desire my presence. You got to wonder about my love and wonder about my mercy and wonder about my goodness and my kindness and my my omniscience and omnipotence.

And you got to ask me questions about me. God wants you to be hungry for him. Forget your car. Forget your house. Forget your need right now.

Forget the trouble in your life right now. You standing before the most high God. And he wants to know what do you want or what do you think about me? Are you hungry for me? One thing have I desired of the Lord, and that will I seek after.

I’m going to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold his beauty and to inquire in his temple. If there’s no desire to learn of him, you are not intimate. If the relationship with God is purely about things happening in your life, that’s a distant relationship and those requests never register, you must come close to him. The word itself means to draw near to God. He says, “If you draw near to me, I’ll draw near to you.” He says, “Come boldly,” notice the word come boldly to the throne of grace.

But you ain’t going to get there unless you come, come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. and I’ll give you rest. It’s all here, but you got to come. I I’ve come far enough. I came from heaven to earth to show you the way. I already redeemed you.

I did all the work. Now, you got to get yourself up and come on up in here and have a relationship with me. Then, when we’re in the thick of our communion, you say, “Hey, God, I want you to do this.” You put your prayer request in when you are in intimate communion with him. It’s only when you close does your request register in his presence. Somebody say prayer.

So when I listen to people pray, and please don’t take this and be paranoid, but I can tell when they distant and I can tell when they’re close. Sometimes they’re praying for the congregation to hear them and they’re doing the rhetoric thing and they’re just praying because it sounds good and we like that sound together. But when you get intimate with God, he says you shut the door. You come into the prayer closet and you shut the door. This now there is congregational prayer, don’t get me wrong.

But when you get intimate, that’s when you put your real request in. Cuz somewhere in the congregational prayer, we all need to go intimate for a moment. If you can only pray when somebody’s leading you in prayer up here and we got music going and we got people running around, then you can hang in there. Then that’s distant relationship. Sometimes you got to say, “Okay, we done with corporate.

Can we go intimate right now?” Because I got a couple of requests I need to drop off before the Lord. Is anybody hearing me on this one? Nearness. Everybody say nearness. It’s face to face.

It’s heartto heart. It’s the kind of prayer. And when we pray like this, we will see results in our prayers. So I’m declaring results. I’m going to continue to call you out for prayer.

The church, I’m saying this random Friday nights. If we got time on the calendar, I’m just going to call random prayer meetings. Those that want to come out, you can. Those that don’t, don’t because it’s not trying, we’re not trying to pray for uh uh uh for for the people. This revolution won’t be televised.

We don’t need nobody streaming. We don’t we don’t you know, if we have music, fine. If we don’t, fine. Cuz I don’t need all that stuff in prayer. All I need is a heart and God.

That’s all I need is a heart and God. It’s very basic. Break it down to the very basic thing. I’m in love with him. He in love with me.

So, we going to get together and we going to talk about some things and I’m going to put some petitions in to start processes in people’s lives called conditions. In my closing, what I want us to pray for today before we leave here, we want to pray that God would spare Gen Z and this generation from corruption. This is one of the prayer requests on my heart that I’m talking to the Lord about right now. Corruption is the progressive distortion of divine reality in the mind of a people. Anytime a person is being corrupted, they become so distorted in their thinking that they can see good and call it bad.

They can see God and call him be elabub. We would say that they are mentally unstable. But the enemy is attempting to prepare a generation to receive the Antichrist to receive the man of sin. And in order for the man of sin to be received as a leader in the world, then they have to become a corrupt people in order to receive a corrupt leader.

And so he has targeted Gen Z specifically to corrupt them to the degree where they normalize wickedness and they have no conscience of evil versus good. It’s all the same and they’re okay with it all. One of the signs that a person is corrupt is when they lose the ability to distinguish between good and evil and right and wrong. Jesus says to the pure all things are pure but to the defiled or the corrupt he says all things are corrupt. So that simply means if I’m corrupt and you talk to me you could be saying good stuff but once it hits my filter I turn it around and I hear something other than what you said.

If I’m corrupt, you can do something good and I’ll only see the bad in it. I’ll find a way to make good bad. You can do a great project and God could be doing wonderful things. Let corrupt people look at it. They’ll say, “But what about that and what about this and what and I’m not talking about positive correction.

I’m talking about corrupt people. Corrupt people will always distort the image of God. They will never see God’s intent. They will never see what God wants because they are corrupt.” Jesus says, “Be careful how you hear. Not what you hear, but how you hear.” When you’re corrupt, you corrupt everything that comes into your midst.

God can give you a beautiful house, you corrupt it. God can give you a beautiful relationship, you’re going to find a way to corrupt it. God can give you a business, you’re going to corrupt it. Those who are corrupt corrupt their whole environment. They’re they’re like a germ in their mind and they cause decay to come to every place.

And this is what he wants for Gen Z. He wants to corrupt them to the degree where they embrace evil as normal and they bring everything down. What causes corruption is when knowledge in a person’s life, exposure to knowledge outpace uh character development. And we have for the first time maybe a generation on the planet that will be exposed to so much knowledge because of the digital age and it will outpace their ability to develop their character. Children uh encounter unprecedented volumes of information right now.

They they experience violence, pornography, consumer advertisement, political conflict, conspiracy theories, misinformation, disinformation, online bullying, addictive digital platforms, gaming like games, uh AI generated content. They they have all of these things. And the child may know what violence is and a child may know what sexuality is, may know what hatred is, may know what manipulation is. Long before they develop self-control. Long before they develop discernment.

Long before they develop emotional regulation and empathy and biblical wisdom. They have all of this stuff going in their life before they grow up. And when you expose a child to that kind of stuff, they hear about gloom doom scenarios, the earth coming uh uh the the world coming to an end. How can a five-year-old who can hear that, process that? Without the wisdom and the character, it corrupts them.

Knowledge without stewardship equals corruption. Knowledge without stewardship equals corrupt. This is precisely what uh Satan did in the Garden of Eden. What did he do? He says, “Eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and you don’t have to have God’s wisdom or God’s character.” He offered them knowledge without wisdom and character which brought about corruption.

This is what he wants for this generation. We must decide that that’s not going to happen. It’s up to us to ensure that people are developed. The frontal cortex, which is the responsible responsible for long-term planning, impulse control, and judgment, and weighing matters, is not even fully developed in a human being until they’re in their 20s. Yet, these kids are being exposed to all kinds of things without their brain fully developed.

And with parents giving them things and not requiring any kind of accountability for their character will only bring about corruption. Giving them gifts without stewardship, reward without work, blessings without submission. Give them opportunity without dedication. It brings about corruption. Ladies and gentlemen, we got to change what we’re doing.

We got to say, if I’m going to give you this, you going to work over here. Because you got to know that work equals reward, not reward because of what you want. Corruption sets in when kids are exposed to stuff and there is no personal development required of them and they will be exposed in this generation.

And so it’s up to us to pray that somebody disciples them, that parents will raise them. Pray that God will create the conditions where people are willing to spend time with them and be more concerned about their development than about their talent. more concerned about their development than about their being quiet or them being mad at you. Be mad at me. No, really, I don’t care. Be mad at me.

I’m more concerned about your development than I am about you liking me. I am the old guy in the room that’s going to make people mad cuz I’m going tell you that that’s not going to work in your life. Be mad at the old man. I don’t care about that.

But I know if you get all of this and you don’t develop character, you’re gonna be a monster in 10 years. Prepared for the Antichrist. Everybody stand right there. The final thing the Lord gave us was prayer. He says after you get all that, now y’all got to pray and create the conditions and develop people.

We have to pray that people are willing to take time out of their life to develop somebody else. Then we got to pray that young people are willing to be developed. Create the conditions so they’ll come and say, “Somebody mentor me.” Create those conditions, too. Because one of the hardest things in the world is to try to mentor somebody that ain’t trying to be mentored. Create the conditions where people say, “Listen, I want to walk with God, but I need you to help me.” And somebody has walked with God long enough to where God has caused them to want to help.

It’s about development right now. It’s not about numbers in the room. about the quality of those people in the room in terms of their growth and their development. He’s trying to create us into his image. Lift those hands and come on, worship him with me. Worship him with praise.

Come on team. Hallelujah. Come on, worship with me. Jesus. Jesus.

Jesus. Come on. This serious business, y’all. This is serious stuff. Hallelujah.

Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Jesus. Jesus. Worship the name of the Lord.

Everybody come on. Worship his name. Worship his name. He God is trying to make us into his image. He’s trying to That’s what warfare is about. us becoming.

Step into it like Mary. Come on, worship him and get a vision of where he’s taking you and your presence. Your presence is important. Your presence. What’s in your presence?

What do you want in your presence? It’s like alakart. I want this from God, that from God. I want to carry all of that in my presence. That’s what causes victory to take place in this world. presence.

Help us, God. We call on your name right now. Before we pray for Gen Z, before we pray against corruption, we calling on your name right now to create the conditions for us to give you that yes. Come on. I want you to pray for yourself just for a few moments.

And I want you to be bold enough to say, “God, I want to say yes at a depth. And I’m asking you to create the conditions that that that’ll cause me to say yes.” Be bold. God ain’t no killer in the sense of destruction. God loves you.

So, he ain’t going to put no more on you than what you can bear. Don’t be afraid. But say, “Lord, I want your help for real. I want your help. I want help.

I want a real relationship with you. I want to be able to draw near to you. I’m drawing near to you even right now.” I said, “I’m coming.” Yes, I am. I’m coming boldly to the throne of grace with my heart. With my heart.

With my heart. With my heart. Oh God, touch your people. Oh God, touch your people. Even now.

Let there be a move at the altar of their seat. Let this be a Sunday where God moves right where people are standing. release your faith and believe God right now. You got to step into some things and your heart has to say yes. You’ve come a long way, but God still has more in the name of Jesus. Satan, the Lord rebuke you.

Demons, the Lord rebuke you. All of you are defeated by the cross and the blood of Jesus. So you might as well go from here. Now we declare the Lord’s judgments against you. Every demonic spirit that has held a man or a woman captive at a certain level.

The judgment of the Lord against every evil spirit that’s been working in their life to try to hold them back, to blind them, to create the conditions that will cause them not to say yes. Every demonic spirit that’s been working in my life, working in their life to keep them saying no to the next level, I declare God’s judgments against those evil powers. May the wrath of God be released on all dark powers that’s holding me back from the will of God in Jesus mighty name. And may that judgment hit right now. And I declare the crucifixion of the flesh.

May all of our flesh, carnal mind, carnal spirit, carnal heart be judged, crucified in the name of the Lord. We going to clear everything out of the way so we can say yes. Whatever you got to do to judge this carnal mind, judge my carnal nature, let that judgment fall in the name of the Lord. Satan, you’re defeated. The carnal mind is defeated.

I declare a heart that loves God. A heart that wants God. A heart that reaches to God. I declare the resurrection of the Lord. May the Lord’s spirit resurrect in me right now.

May his love resurrect in me. May his joy resurrect in me. May his peace resurrect in me. May his goodness resurrect in me. May his mercy and compassion resurrect in me.

May his uh his patience resurrect in me. May his integrity and his faithfulness resurrect in me. May may may his humility resurrect in me. May his meekness resurrect in me. May his obedience resurrect in me.

May May his self-mastery resurrect in me. May his peace resurrect in me. May his joy resurrect in me. May his holiness resurrect in me. May his righteousness resurrect in me.

May his justice resurrect in me. May the spirit of the Lord resurrect in me. May the gift of his power rest on me. The gift of dunamis, the gift of exusia, the gift of Kronto’s governing power, let it rest on me. May the omnipotent power of God rest on me.

May may God’s victory rest on me. May the grace of his rule rest on me. May the grace of his sovereignty rest on me. May the gifts of healing rest on me in the name of the Lord. May the gift of his faith rest on me.

May the gift of the grace of the apostle rest on me. May the grace of the prophet rest on me. May the grace of the evangelist rest on me. May the grace of the pastor teacher rest on me. May the grace of the intercessor rest on me.

May the grace of the priesthood rest on me. May the grace of God rest on me. May the power of God rest on me. May the gift of his knowledge rest on me. May the gift of his wisdom rest on me.

May the gift of miracles rest on me. May the gift of prophecy rest on me. May the gift of tongues rest on me. May the gift of interpretation of tongues rest on me. May the gift of discerning of spirit rest on me.

May Jesus rest on me. May Jesus live in me. May Jesus work in me. Somebody say yes to Jesus. Somebody say yes to Jesus.

God creates a condition where we’ll say yes to everything you are. I am the potter, the clay, and you are the potter. I’m the temple and you are the spirit. I say yes to your will. Glory to his name.

Glory to his name. When you step into him, you have arrived. When you step into him, you have arrived. You’re now showing up. And your presence will carry all that stuff that we just pray.

Create the conditions where I’m willing to carry Christ wherever I go. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. Thank you, Father. I don’t just want to preach.

I want to carry Christ. I don’t just want to sing. I want to carry Christ. I don’t just want to conquer in this earth. I want to carry Christ while I’m doing it.

Because to conquer without Christ is not his plan. is bringing his presence to every space and changing the environment by the presence of the Lord. Thank you, Father. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.

God knows it’s late. If you want to join this church, I don’t want to close the service without giving somebody an opportunity to join the ministry. And you want to give your life to the Lord. You want to join the church or give your life to the Lord. I need you to raise your hand right now so I can see who here wants to join this church or give your life to Jesus.

Just raise your hand. I just want to see who here says, “Hey, I want to be a part of this ministry. I’m sensing something special here and I’m going to step into it.” You’re interested in becoming what God wants you to be. I need you to raise your hand so I can see you. Thank you, Father.

Thank you, Father. Those of you who have not raised your hand, but you’re sensing that God wants to do something in your life, I want you to know we’re praying for you. We’re praying for you. He would make the conditions right for you to make godly choices. Thank you, Father.

Thank you, God. Let your glory rest on each person. If you sense the Holy Spirit dealing with you, raise your hand. I just need to see anybody sense Holy Spirit dealing with you in a special way today specifically. And he’s always dealing with, but you can sense something today.

Glory to God. I see hands. Very good. If you want us to pray for you, raise your hand. And don’t be afraid of what we preached about.

Just a few. If you want us to pray for you, I see some hands. Very good. Very good. We we’re going to labor in prayer in this next season.

God told me, he said, “Labor in prayer cuz the text said that.” The text said, and we didn’t even refer to it much, but verse 18 says, “Praying always.” And you know what that means? The word always there is chyros. So it means in every moment that God is moving in, it must be saturated with prayer. It doesn’t matter what whatever God’s doing, you better saturate it so it can go to the next space. No movement of God should go without saturated prayer.

Not one, praying always with all prayers and supplication. That Greek word is deas and it means emergency issues. He’s acknowledging that there will be emergency issues that will come called supplications and you’ll have to pray in the spirit. That doesn’t mean that they’re going to be speaking in tongues all the time. You can pray in the spirit without speaking in tonesues.

That means you’re simply praying by the spirit. And watch there unto. After you pray, you have to do what? You have to stop and watch. What does watch mean?

Discern what God is doing. Look at the conditions. See what’s moving, what’s happening, and then update your approach. You pray, then you watch and you gather. What happened?

Did anybody move? Did anything happen? Now, let’s go back again. Like the man who was praying for it to rain, Elijah. And he says, he sent a servant out to see is did anything happen?

He says, “I see a cloud the size of a man’s hand.” Then he could update his movement. And then he says, “You have to pray with all perseverance for all of the saints.” Look at somebody say, “I’m praying for you. I’m praying for you. I’m praying for you.” All of the saints. Everybody needs prayer.

Say it. Everybody needs prayer. Sometimes they get older, people like I don’t need no prayer. No, everybody. And to prove to you, the very next verse, Paul says, “And pray for me.” 20 says 19 says, “And for me that utterance may be given that I may speak what I need to speak properly.” He says, “So let’s pray for all the saints and don’t forget me.

Thank you team. We’re going to stop there. I’m not going to call you to the altar. We’re not going to do the altar thing today. I want you to make a commitment for prayer.

How many are going to make a commitment to pray? I guarantee you your families and everything is about to change. Everything everything’s about to change. and and first it might look bad, but it will end good if you pray and persevere in prayer. Let’s thank God. Give the Lord a praise right there.

You may be seated in the presence of the Lord. Come on, let’s lift that praise up. Thank God for the word. Glory to God. We’re going to receive offering right now.

We’re going to receive offering now. And so I want you to consider what God is encouraging you to give. Prepare your gifts as an offering. As an offering, after the offering, we’re going to dedicate a child to the Lord. Couple of kids to the Lord.

Those of you who have to leave, we’re going to ask that you be dismissed at that time. Hold those giving devices up. Father, in the name of the Lord, we pray you would bless every gift, every giver, every household. Let your blessing rest upon the houses of this church. Everybody watching by live stream, increase us that we might glorify you in Jesus name.

Amen. You can come and bring those gifts or you can use a QR code at this time. Just want to thank you. Just want to praise you forever and ever and ever for all you’ve done for me. Blessings and glory and honor they all belong to you.

Thank you Jesus for blessing me. Just want to praise you forever and ever and ever. All you’ve done for me. blessings and glory and honor they all belong to you. Thank you Jesus for blessing me. Just want to praise you forever and ever and ever for all you’ve done for me.

Blessings and glory and honor they all belong to you. Thank you Jesus for blessing me. Just want to praise you forever and ever and ever for all you’ve done for me. blessings and glory and honor they all belong to you. Thank you Jesus for me and your Embassy Covenant Church international family. Happy birthday to all those born in July.

Could it be that all this time marijuana has just gotten a bad rap? Today, it’s widely used in many different forms and it’s found a warm welcome not just in culture, but among the saints as well. After all, it’s just a plant, right? With lots of health benefits.

But what about wine? Does it not have the very same effect in the body? Whether you’re a wine connoisseur or enjoying a curated pairing over dinner, isn’t it essentially the same thing? Getting high. Aren’t we just relaxing?

Let’s look at both sides of the argument from a Kingdom perspective and uncover the truth behind the claims. Saturday, August 8th at 4 p.m. right here at Embassy Metro Detroit. It’s the first annual apologetics live debate taken on by the men and women of this house. This event is free and open to all age groups. So mark your calendars today.

Embassy mark your calendars for the send me evangelism summit happening August 14th through the 16th. This is more than an event. It is a call to be equipped, stirred, and sent to share the love of Christ with boldness, compassion, and clarity. Join us on Friday, August 14th at 7:00 p.m. for the evangelism night service. Then Saturday, August 15th from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. we’ll gather for midday evangelism training and outreach.

And Sunday, August 16th at 10:00 a.m. will close with baptism and testimonies during our 10:00 a.m. morning worship service. Whether outreach is familiar to you or completely new, there is room for you. Send me the Evangelism Summit August 14th through the 16th. Be in the room. Be equipped.

Be sent. Be sure to register in the midweek email. If you desire to be baptized during the Evangelism Summit, baptism and testimony Sunday on August 16th, scan the QR code on the screen or see the midweek email to sign up. Are you ready to identify what’s been standing in the way of your clarity, growth, and forward movement? Join the ECCI Ministry of Health in partnership with Oasis Wellness Centers for the Bottleneck Breakers Brunch on Saturday, August 22nd from 4 to 8:00 p.m. at Beachwoods Recreation Center in Southfield.

This 4-hour mini trauma recovery brunch experience is designed to help you move from overwhelm to awareness, regulation, and intentional next steps. You’ll hear from keynote speaker Dr. Lance Wells, engaged in guided reflection and journaling, experience practical wellness tools, and receive a bottleneck breakthrough starter kit. Registration is $40 per person and space is limited. The bottleneck breakers brunch Saturday, August 22nd.

Come ready to heal, reflect, and break through. Embassy family, as we continue to receive guests from across the body of Christ, we want to make sure we honor our visiting leaders with excellence and proper protocol. If you are inviting or aware of a senior pastor, overseer, bishop, apostle, dignitary, or other ministry leader who will be joining us for Sunday worship, please let our office know in advance. You may do so by completing the guest form on our website located in the footer of the website homepage or by contacting the office directly. If they arrive the same day, please have them sign the guest book and indicate their leadership role.

This will help make Bishop aware so that he may properly acknowledge and honor them from the pool pit. Thank you for helping us receive our guest with order, warmth, and excellence. The men and women in making registration is now open for boys and girls ages 9 to 17. See the midweek email or scan the QR code to sign up today. Are you interested in serving in the Gifted and Called Academy?

Sign up in the midweek email or scan the QR code located on the screen and the Gifted and Called Academy team will reach out to you to get started. Are you interested in serving on the baptism team? Well, you’re in luck. The baptism team is looking for you. Every role plays an important part in creating a welcoming, smooth, and meaningful experience for those taking the next important step in their faith.

See the midweek email or scan the QR code on the screen to sign up today. Embassy’s guest service team is looking for friendly, welcoming, and dedicated members to join our guest services team as ushers. This ministry plays a vital role in creating a warm atmosphere for all who come to worship with us. No experience is needed. See the midweek email to sign up or see someone at guest services.

Thank you for choosing to worship with us. Stay connected with the Embassy Covenant Church family by visiting our website.