When Prayer is Not the Answer

John chapter 14, verse 12. Open your Bibles. John chapter 14 and verse 12. And we see Jesus talking here and he says, Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, watch this, the works that I do, he will do also. And greater works than these he will do because I go to my father. Let's pick up in the message translation, same passage of scripture in the message.

The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing, will not only do what I'm doing, will not only do what I'm doing, but even greater things. Because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you and giving you the same work. I'm giving you the same work to do that I've been doing. Amen. Somebody say amen. Amen. Several years ago, it was holiday season, and Stacey and I were talking just the other day. She's ready to put the tree up. I'm like, it's too soon. It's too soon.

But it was holiday season, and we had put the children to bed. I'm getting ready to prepare to sit on the couch. In our house, we're a blanket family. Everybody in the house has their own blanket, except the kids always are taking our blankets. But they have their own. But we're a blanket family. And that means we sit on the couch and we have a throw blanket and we always throw it on us. And as we are on the couch or as I'm sitting on the couch there,

Stacy says, I have a surprise for you. I said, oh, great. What is it? And she had purchased my favorite holiday drink. And she bought a quart of it and it was eggnog. Oh, I love eggnog. Some of y'all are third. Y'all agree with me. Come on. Somebody say, I love eggnog too. No. Yeah, you do too, don't you? Yeah. I love it. I love the eggnog so much that I used to buy quarts and freeze it and drink it in March, April, and May.

That's how much I enjoy eggnog. And so she said, I brought you a surprise. And she poured me a chilled glass of eggnog. What I would do is I would put the glass in the freezer and then pull the glass out, pour the eggnog, and have it a little chilled around the rim. And I'm sitting there with this sweet creamery taste going down my esophagus. And I'm enjoying the eggnog. And I'm like, I'm in heaven. And we watch a little TV. And I go to bed that night.

And, man, I just can't wait to drink more eggnog when I wake up in the morning. And so when I wake up that next morning, oh my goodness, I woke up with a bunch of hives all over my body. I'm talking about big, red whelps that were itchy all over my thighs, my back, my chest, my neck, and my face. And I'm like, what in the world happened? It can't be that I'm allergic to my favorite holiday drink. It can't be that. And Stacy's like, I think it's the eggnog. I'm like, I do too.

And so I stopped drinking eggnog. Truth be told, full disclosure, I still haven't had eggnog since. I stopped drinking. However, I woke up the next morning with hives all over my body. And I woke up the following morning with hives on my, so I'm not drinking eggnog anymore. And we're thinking maybe the eggnog's still in my body and it needs to come out. Well, a week later, hives all over my body. And they're itching and they're whelps. And I look in the mirror and they're

looking crazy. And my greatest fear was that it would be on a Sunday morning. And I got to come in here with hives all over my face. But I was going to come anyway and just preach the word. Amen. And wasn't going to let nothing stop me, right? Right. And so I took some Benadryl and and I took some Zyrtec, but it didn't seem to be doing much of anything. And so we have to get these hives out of my body and they're all over and they're itching and and it's uncomfortable.

I'm buying all the cream, you know, everything you can think of over the counter. I got OK. I'm applying all over my body and it would only occur every morning throughout the day would subside. But in the morning I wake up. There it is. And so we're thinking, OK, maybe it's the detergent. Right, in the sheets, maybe it's the sheets, maybe it's a new bed, maybe it's a new house that we need, right? What is going on? I go to the doctor, and the doctor said, no more monkeys jumping on the bed.

No, I go to the doctor, and the doctor gives me, you know, some prednisone, is that right? It's a steroid, and now the prednisone, like, was a bazooka. I mean, it completely got rid of all hives immediately, except the side effects of the prednisone was that I was angry. I was yelling all the time. I would, I would, well, I was, I'm always hungry, okay? But this one, I was, I was angry, and I didn't realize it, and Stacey was like, I don't know if you know it, but you're yelling.

I was like, I don't realize it. Then, well, I am not yelling. You're just yelling at me right now. And then I'm yelling, and I thought, man, I've got to get, I remember one time I yelled at Zai, and Zai, you guys know Zai. Zai's a good girl. Now, she needs a little discipline sometimes, but she's a good girl, but I was yelling at her. And that's when I realized like, man, I'm just yelling all the time. And so I said, I can't do this prednisone anymore. I went and saw an allergist.

An allergist did not find really anything that I was truly allergic to that could be breaking me out with these HAVs. Eventually, I took some tests. They ran some tests to see if I had lupus and some other things. And by God's grace, clean bill of health, right? Nothing. Pray it. You can put your hands together for that. Amen. Anytime you get a clean bill of health, clap for Jesus. Amen. And it said, no, nothing's wrong. Everything is fine.

And so finally I said, I'm going to go check out this holistic doctor. So I went to this holistic doctor and by God, whatever they did actually begin to work. They had some different minerals and vitamins and some different things and begin Again, the work and the hives weren't there, but there was one thing I didn't do. And when I started to do it, it completely got rid of the hives. And that's what I want to talk to you about today.

Open your Bibles to, let's go to Luke chapter 4, verse 38 and 39. Luke chapter 4, verse 38 and 39. Now he arose from the synagogue, talking about Jesus, and entered Simon's house. But Simon's wife's mother was sick with a high fever. And they made request of him concerning her. So he stood over her and rebuked the fever. And it left her and immediately she arose and served them. How many of you will be honest today and say you have had some problems in your body?

If you'll be honest, raise your hand. That should be everybody here. So this message is for you, that there are things that have happened in your body that has taken place that are uncontrollable, that you don't know why, there's no reason, there's no connection. Things have happened in your body. And we notice in this situation, Jesus was summoned because Simon's mother-in-law had a fever. And I want you to notice what Jesus did when he addressed the fever.

He didn't show up to Simon's mother-in-law and say, let's just ask God to see what God wants to do in this situation. Oh, and by the way, the title of this message is, When Prayer Is Not The Answer. When Prayer Is Not The Answer. Notice Jesus and say, we need to ask God and see what he he wants to do about the situation. Notice Jesus didn't just say, man, I just feel so sorry for you that you have this fever. I just, man, I don't know what to do. I just feel bad.

No, what Jesus did was he commanded the fever to stop. He demanded the fever to stop. He expressed sharp, stern disapproval of the fever.

And when he commanded the fever to cease and desist in its maneuvers to harm Simon's mother-in-law, the scripture tells us that the fever left and immediately she got up and began to serve them. So this tells me that when Jesus spoke to the fever, the fever had ears. And heard what Jesus said, and then instantly obeyed Jesus and left.

Once we discover and find out that Jesus begins to talk to situations that ought not be in your life, we'll see what John 14, 12 says, that there are works that Jesus did that we're to do also in the earth.

Jesus came to the earth stripped himself of all his divinity his divine privilege came as a man on the earth filled with the Holy Spirit and showed you and I how to operate in the earth as a man or woman filled with the Holy Spirit Jesus is our example Jesus is our model and every Every time he spoke to the disciples, he told them, you can do what I can do. He said that was the theme in every message.

I mean, why would Peter in his right mind say when Jesus is walking on the water, say, if it's you, bid me to come. Like, why would that would never be the first thing I would say. I would say, oh, my gosh, look at Jesus. Oh, wow. Oh, that's awesome. Jesus. Go, Jesus.

Go go Jesus go right no he said if it's you then tell me to do what you do because you've always told me I can do what you do so he said to him okay well what Jesus supposed to say it's not me so don't come no Jesus said it's me come and we begin to see Peter walked on the water why Why? Because you can do what Jesus did on the earth.

The only thing Jesus did in his divinity on the earth was die, get on that cross for you, take all of your sin, guilt, shame, condemnation, all of your poverty and the curse on the cross was nailed to the cross and then go into the grave and then come up out and defeat death, hell in the grave and get up out of that casket and was risen on the third day victorious. He did all that in his divinity. But when he walked the earth, he did everything as a man filled with the Holy Spirit.

Somebody say, I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. I'm filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, over the last few weeks, we've been talking about dominion and authority. And we've been talking about how God has given us power. Jesus said, all authority has been given to me. And then he transferred that to you and I. And so like the illustration we've been talking about, right? Right on Wednesday night, we talked about hindrances, and you go back and listen

to Wednesdaynighttruelifefc.org, you can check it out. We've been talking about these things. For example, the power company, if your bill is paid, assuming it is, you are receiving power at your house. But in order to activate the power, you're going to have to flip the switch and turn it on. The power is there, and you have the authority, because your bill is paid, to flip the switch and turn on the power.

The power is there and all you would need to do is flip the switch and turn it on today I'm showing you what Jesus did he began to talk to the fever and commanded the fever to stop and the fever stopped and left and the woman got up completely fine several years ago when Zai she's 21 now but when she was was probably around 10, we didn't have a lot of money. And we didn't have a medical insurance. And I didn't want to go to the doctor. I grew up in a home that we didn't go to the doctor a lot.

Stacy grew up in a home that they went to the doctor pretty often. And so I was like, let's not go to the doctor. She wanted to take her to the doctor. I'm thinking about the bill. Like, oh, Lord, how much that bill going to be, right? And we didn't have insurance. And I said, but But before we decide to go to the doctor, let me go in there and let me rebuke this fever. Jesus did it. He's our example. I went in there. I rebuked the fever, commanded it to stop, to leave.

I left. 20 minutes later, Zai gets out of bed, comes into the living room, and she says, I'm feeling fine. I said, well, test her, test her real quick. Get the thermostat and just see where the temperature is. Perfect temperature. The fever left in Jesus. But the reason why we put up with stuff is because we're not doing what Jesus did.

We're asking God to do something about it. And God's saying, you have the authority. I've given you the power. Rebuke the thing and watch it leave. Come on, somebody say amen. I wish I can give you a message today. A message that is filled with apple pie. Do you want some milkshake? Do you want to dance? Do you want to twirl? I wish that you can get this McDonald's message. I can't teach those kind of messages to you. I'm trying to get you delivered.

I'm trying to make you victorious. victorious I'm trying to help you succeed and dominate and experience true life on this earth come on somebody say amen Matthew chapter 8 verse 26 turn there Matthew chapter 8 verse 26, Matthew chapter 8 verse 26 but he said to them why are you fearful oh you of little faith. Then he arose, this is Jesus, and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. So now Jesus talks to storms.

So the wind you can't see, it's an invisible force, but Jesus rebuked it, commanded it to stop, gave stern disapproval of it, the wind stopped, the waves had to stop, and everything became peaceful when Jesus rebuked an invisible force. He couldn't see it, but he rebuked it. So we see now he talks to fevers, he talks to storms, and these things obey him. What if Jesus didn't say anything to the storms?

The storm would have kept on raging. What if Jesus said, God, can you do something about the storm? I just wish God would do something about the storm. The storm would keep going because God has given you the authority in the earth to speak to different situations, flip the switch, activate the power, and see the manifestation take place in your life. Somebody shout amen. Let's go to Luke chapter 17, verse 6. Luke chapter 17, verse 6.

So the Lord said, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, wait a minute. Jesus is talking to trees now? So he spoke to a fever. He spoke to a storm. Now he's talking to a mulberry tree. Be pulled up from the roots and be planted in the sea and it would obey you. So Jesus is giving us an example and an illustration of how to deal with things in your life. You're going to have to talk to them.

You're going to have to rebuke them, command them to stop, command them to no longer take place in your life, and demand that it leaves in Jesus' name. We'll talk about that later on. what it means to demand in the name of Jesus. You're going to have to do that because if you don't, the thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And how many of you know that fever was trying to kill Simon Peter's mother-in-law? How many of you know that storm was trying to kill Jesus in the boat going down

the road, down the river, the lake, down the road? He's going somewhere. How many of you know unless you begin to stand up and talk to it, Nothing will happen. Nothing happens until something is spoken. When it was dark outside, and God is our example as well. He is a speaking spirit. Guess what you and I are? Speaking spirits. No one else speaks except for humanity. God looked in the dark and he said, let there be light. And there was light.

Likewise you need to look at your situation and begin to demand and command of it and watch things change in your life somebody shout amen i want to read again luke 17 6 one more time put on the screen if you have faith as a mustard seed that's a tiny tiny seed back in the day that was considered the smallest seed of around if you have faith as a mustard seed you can say to this mulberry tree I'm talking to a tree. Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea and it would obey you.

What would it do? Obey. It will obey. When you begin to declare, it will obey. The tactic of the enemy is to get you so tired that you don't want to declare so that it can't obey. It doesn't want to obey, but when you begin to declare, it will obey. This may not be on the screen, but Mark chapter 11, I want to read verse 12 and 14. Mark chapter 11, verse 12 and 14. Now the next day, when they had come from Bethany, he was hungry.

And seeing afar off a fig tree having leaves, he went to see if perhaps it would find something on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs. In response, that means something said something to him.

The tree said something to him because it says here, in response, Jesus said to it the fig tree let no one eat fruit from you ever again and Jesus heard it, Jesus is talking to a fig tree the fig tree actually spoke to him he heard it how many know what how in the world did the fig tree talk your wallet be talking to you all the time, you ain't got I want to get my hair I want to get my hair cut you ain't got the money every time I sit and pay and pay our bills Darren every time I sit

the the the they'd be talking to me. You about to run out of money. You better not pay that bill because you might need that money. You're going to run out of money. It'd be talking to me. You're going to run out of money. Full disclosure, I'll tell this since it's close to my birthday. I'll tell it. I ain't scared of y'all. I don't mind telling stories. I used to go out to eat. I enjoy going out to eat. And I used to save a little bit of food.

On purpose. And it just saved me. I mean, I'm talking about a little bite of steak. I mean, a little bite and maybe two macaroni. And I would take that home. Crazy. And I would I would take it home because. The devil used to tell me you might be hungry later and you may not have any access to any food. This is what he talked to you. And when I met Stacy is when I stopped. Why are you taking that home? I don't know. I don't know. I might be hungry later, right? Eat that right now.

I don't do it anymore. Praise the Lord. But things will begin to talk to you. And this fig tree spoke to Jesus and said, nanny, nanny, poo poo. You ain't going to eat off me today. In response, Jesus said, guess what? Let no one eat fruit from you ever again. Now go to verse 22 and 23, 22 and 23. They find out the fig tree had dried Wide up from the roots. When Jesus commanded, let no one eat fruit from you. Look at verse 22. Jesus answered and said to him, have faith in God.

For surely I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be removed and be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes those things he says will be done. He will have whatever he says. I'll talk about that later more in depth, but what I want you to see is Jesus is telling the disciples, go ahead and talk to this mountain. There was a literal mountain there. Jesus said, if you will say to this mountain, he pointed at it.

If you'll say to this mountain right here, be removed, be cast in the sea, and don't doubt in your heart. Believe those things you say, so come the past, you're going to have what you say. So not only does Jesus talk to fevers, and they have to leave. The wind has to stop. Jesus now talks to mountains, mulberry trees, and fig trees.

These are all objects Jesus is talking to. All right, well, let's go and let's take a look at Mark chapter 9, verse 25. Mark chapter 9, verse 25. And when Jesus saw that the people came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to a deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more. Now we see Jesus talking to unclean spirits. They're invisible, but he's commanding of them. He's rebuking them.

He's demanding of them. And he's expressing stern disapproval of what's taking place. I received a testimony this week, powerful testimony. This man said, I could share the testimony, but I want you to pay attention to this testimony. He said, I've been listening to your messages, and the Bible's been coming alive. And this man's not in our church, so don't look around and see who it is. He's not here. He's the man that's been listening.

He said, the Bible's been coming alive. I've read these verses, but I've never seen it in the light that you're sharing, that Jesus is talking to things and that there's an enemy and Jesus is not putting, he's not waiting on God to do anything about it. He's addressing it with authority and power. And he said he and his wife, he said he and his wife have not been seeing eye to eye. And out of the blue, he says, my wife will begin to start an argument.

This is what he's saying. He said, I can tell the story to y'all. She'll begin to start an argument and we'll just start arguing over absolutely nothing.

Nothing and he said I'm not perfect so maybe I've been a part of the argument process but this particular day we had a really good day and and out of the blue she just started this debate, and we're going back and forth and he said immediately I paused and I thought let me do what Pastor Devon is saying he says I got real quiet I let her go on and argue and he said I I just started speaking under my breath, and I thought it was a whisper. And she said, what are you doing? Are you praying?

He's like, oh, Lord, here comes another argument. And he said, I'm praying. She said, well, keep praying because I feel like something in the room is leaving. I said, what were you saying? I was saying, you spirit of division, get out of here.

Here you spirit of of disunity get out of here you spirit of accusation get out of here and he said that's what I was saying on my breath and I was putting into practice he said my wife said, I feel and sense like something's leaving the room keep doing it so he said he kept doing he said this point they're doing it together and they're they're holding there he said we're holding each other we're like you spirit foul spirits

you get out of our marriage you get out of our home you You get out of our room, you stop now. He said, all of a sudden we just started laughing and crying. He says, I'm seeing this in real time. Real time, and my wife melted, we both melted, and we laughed, and now we know we are not each other's enemy. There is an enemy that's trying to come against you, trying to hinder you, trying to stop you, trying to get you engaged in other things, but you've been too quiet about it.

It's time to rise up and start talking. It's time to start commanding. It's time to start demanding it's time to start telling it what to do instead of it telling you what to do come on somebody say man hallelujah Jesus gave us an example of how to handle this talk to it talk to it so how did the hives leave my body yes I I went through all of that. I started talking to him. I started saying, you know what? This is what I haven't been doing.

I've been going to the doctor. Nothing wrong with going to the doctors, okay? I was going to the doctor trying to figure out what was going on. I was going, trying to get some over-the-counter stuff. I was really trying to get this fixed in my own power and ability.

And as soon as the Lord told me he said there's something that you have not been doing you have not been addressing the hives do me a favor Josh grab my phone I want to show you something here as to what thank you sir he said you've not been dressed right so here's what I did when he said I had not been addressing the hives I said okay I know what to do I started getting in the word and every time I saw somebody had an incurable itch some type of.

Something popping up on their skin, something going on in their skin. I grabbed that verse and I started declaring, according to Second Kings 514, my skin is soft like the skin of an infant. According to Leviticus 1318, my body and skin is healed of all hives. According to Deuteronomy 2827, I am redeemed from the curse of hives and the incurable itch.

According to Matthew 8 16 Jesus healed them all all includes me according to first Peter 2 24 by his stripes I am healed according to Mark 11 22 through 24 Jesus cursed the fig tree and spoke to the mountain therefore I curse these hives I command them to be removed and cast into the sea I do not doubt in my heart I believe those things I say will be done I will have whatever I say I speak to the root issue of these hives,

and I command it to stop, ceasing to cease in its maneuvers to produce hives.

I curse it at the root, command it to die in Jesus' name. And I started declaring that. Hallelujah. The hives obeyed, and they didn't come back. Glory to God. I said glory to God. I said glory to God. Now, that doesn't mean they don't try to come back. One hive will pop up on my leg. I say, I curse you now. I've done my due diligence. I went to the doctor. They said, clean bill of health. I feel good. Everything look good. Blood work. I even got all type of blood work done.

Everything look good. This is a hindrance. And I ain't going to allow it. I said, I curse you hives. And them hives begin to disappear. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Look at, and I'll end with this. Look at Job chapter 22, verse 28, Job chapter 22, verse 28. It says, you will also declare a thing. That word thing could also be a word. You will declare a thing, a word, and it will be established for you. Glory to God. So light will shine on your ways. Hallelujah.

This is how you experience true life.