He's an All Consuming Fire — Shane Idleman

The Miraculous God and the Need for Surrender

We believe in the God of the Bible who still does the miraculous, who still convicts. Could He still heal? Set people free? I mean, it's just amazing what God can do when we surrender. I know, Mark, you've got a great story.

Briefly, I got here early yesterday. He was here. He felt that God had him come here early and get prayer and he would be healed. He's been in bed for like ten days and he's 95 better tonight. He feels that everything's been totally lifted.

And I believe in that. I believe in God can heal and set people free. And that's basically why we're here. What Rend the Heavens is, if I had one wish tonight, it would be for all of you who were not here last night to listen to that message.

Because I poured out my heart on being desperate for more of God and what that looks like. And I don't know, maybe Mike will upload it to their YouTube channel. It'll be uploaded to our YouTube channel probably in the week or so to come.

So definitely check that out. Send it to friends and family who need hope and encouragement and also conviction. And just to recap, what we're doing, we have church every night. It's called Rend the Heavens.

And I pastor a church in the Antelope Valley called West Side Christian Fellowship. And you can hear our sermons on the radio here at 88 .5 and then down at my area 91 .9. And we've done it about four times now.

We have church every single night for a week. The first one we did was for two weeks. And we realized that especially where our nation is now, there's no plan B. There's no backup plan. We're not waiting for 2024.

Let's see if it gets better. It could get a lot worse. God is the only plan right now. And we pray, oh God, would you rend the heavens, Isaiah 64, would you rend the heavens, rip them open, come down and visit your people.

And there's a call of desperation. There's a call of anguish. There's a brokenness and humility because I truly believe that just going to church on Sunday is not gonna cut it anymore. Yeah, we get our three songs in, pastor gives a 30 minute message, one song to close us out and let's go to the buffet line.

That's not seeking God. That's not desperate for more of God. So we were so desperate at our church and we had a lot of people, up to 300 people, coming every single night of the week and just worship for an hour, hour and a half.

Sometimes the services went three hours and just people hungry at the altar, demonic strongholds being broken, families restored. And I wanna be careful not to explain too much of what I said last night because I don't wanna be repetitive, but some things are very important.

Sound Doctrine and the Power of the Holy Spirit

And you need to know my theology is I love theology. I love sound doctrine. I love the truth. Times change, truth does not. Truth is not flexible. Truth does not yield. Truth does not bend. The truth about God, the inerrancy of scripture, the essentials of the faith, you gotta have that.

That's the foundation. But you have to have the power of the spirit as well. Because if not, you'll be a cemetery. If all you do is shove the truth down the throat of people. The truth, the truth, the truth.

You've gotta have the power and the anointing, the unction of the Holy Spirit. But if you have just this, then you're a circus. Cemetery or circus. We wanna find the middle. It's not, this site says if it's odd, it's God.

No, that's not true. It doesn't line up with scripture. Put it through the filter of God's word. And so that's what I want to do. I want to have theology marry the power of the word, a power of the Holy Spirit.

And that's biblical. The Bible talks about the unction of the spirit, being filled with the spirit, the anointing of the spirit. These are all biblical terms, but because somebody does something weird on YouTube, we don't wanna have anything to do with it.

And I would just encourage you, be careful who you follow on YouTube. Some of these places are heresy hunters. They, if you believe in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, you are false prophet number one, target enemy number one, and that shouldn't be.

You can believe in the power and the anointing of the Holy Spirit and still have sound doctrine. How do I know that? Because that's what the Bible teaches. Jesus said, don't go and minister. Go ahead and wait for a while until you've received power from on high.

Then go out and be my witness. And I talked about it last night, and again, it's so important that I truly believe you have all of the Holy Spirit at conversion, but does he have all of you? That is the missing ingredient in the lives of so many people.

The Trinity and Full Surrender

The Holy Spirit, the triune nature of God, I believe in the Trinity, the Father, Son, the Holy Spirit. I'll let him sort out the details. Here, O Israel, I, the Lord, your God, am one. But he says, let us create man in our image, Elohim, the plurality three, and then I can't fully understand it.

I just know the Bible teaches it. So we believe in the Trinity. We believe in the Holy Spirit. They call it the person of the Godhead. And you have that at conversion, but does he have all of you? That's why full surrender is so important.

We repent, we repent enough to be forgiven, but do we surrender enough to be changed? And I know in my own life, growing up, and I believe I committed my life to the Lord, I repented at 12, but then got on the broad road to destruction, anyone ever been there?

It's called the prodigal son story, and I'm convicted, I know, Lord, but I'm kind of enjoying this stuff, and I'm a Christian, but I don't really know. I like God on Sunday, really not on Sunday, how about on Easter, Christmas, maybe a few other times, and it's not really popular, it's not really cool to follow God, and so I was quenching and grieving the Spirit, but when I finally surrendered everything, and I'm gonna talk about that more tomorrow night, I'm gonna share my story, the title of the message tomorrow is Hope for the Hurting, Broken Yet Unbreakable.

And you need to get those who are addicted here, you need to get those who are prodigal sons here if they'll come, I know it's hard. Don't tell them it's church, tell them there's free chili, and books or something.

Don't tell them it's a church, necessarily. And I had to be dragged into these many times, and so I can relay, thank God for praying moms, that even when I was living in sin, and just blaspheming God, she was praying for me and contending for me.

The power of prayer, did you know that your prayers will outlive you? They speak into eternity, they speak into the, praying for that son that you might not see come back to the Lord, that daughter, those prayers outlast you.

And so I just have a desire now, because once I fully surrendered everything, God, you broke me, you humbled me, and now the word of God comes alive. Now worship, I love worship. I gotta turn off my great American country.

Right, I love George Jones, and getting drunk, and Metallica, I had a weird mixture there, and just, my flesh liked it, don't get me wrong, but the Holy Spirit was wanting me to go deeper with God, and putting on worship, and my heart's changing, now I'm feeling this boldness to go out and witness, where does this come from?

It's the power and the anointing, the unction of the Holy Spirit. Without that, I don't know how a person gets through life, to be honest with you. How do you get through life without fully surrendering to God?

And that's what I talked about last night, and that verse was Isaiah 64, oh God, would you rend the heavens? There has to be desperation. There has to be desperation. God hears the cries of desperate people.

And many of you that have children, you know if your child cries, you know that cry you can ignore? And you know that cry where you're putting down everything, and you're running to that child. Why? Because there's a cry of desperation.

The All-Consuming Fire of God

There's a, Daddy, Mommy, help! Help! And God hears the cries of His people through brokenness and humility. So tonight, though, I want to keep going with a different theme. Now that we have that desperation understood, that brokenness, that humility, the title tonight is He's an All-Consuming Fire, Let Him Burn.

He's an All-Consuming Fire, Let Him Burn. And at this point, the negative Nellies like to come up and say, you know, Shane, fire's not good. It's not good for the unbeliever. But it's very good for the believer.

John said he's gonna come and baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with stagnant water? Fire. Fire consumes. It explodes. It burns. It eliminates. It annihilates. It's destructive. In certain areas. And it can destroy the works of the flesh.

It can get rid of the carnality and you can have the fire of God in your life. It's a very good thing. The passion, the desire, and I would say that's what most Christians, especially in America, are missing.

The reason many Christians in China, we support some churches, an underground church in China as far as getting Bibles in there. And third world countries. And you're not playing church there. You're desperate.

You've made the decision and there's not much lukewarm carnality in those churches. Because if you're lukewarm or carnal, you say I don't want anything to do with that. I value my life too much. But in the American church, there's this idea we can kind of get by with just a little bit of God.

I don't want too much of God, please. Not enough to explode my soul. Just a little. Not enough to disrupt my schedule. But He is an all-consuming fire. We need to let Him burn. And I picked up, I left off last night, Isaiah 64, we went through verses, I believe one through six or so.

Desperation, Revival, and the Call to Return to God

But what's interesting, and this is heartbreaking, this is verse seven. After Isaiah cried out, oh God, rend the heavens, and that was a prayer. Think about it. He's praying, he has a desperate prayer for God to rend the heavens.

And I don't know if you know what that means, but that means to rip open the heavens and come down and visit your people. Let the mountains shake at your presence. Let our enemies flee because the spirit of the living God is here.

And if you're like me, I have a lot of questions. As I'm, years ago, I was like, okay, I understand all this, but God is everywhere. So how is this any different? Well, as I explained last night, electricity is all throughout this building.

It's everywhere. Go ahead and pull a plug out, though, and stick a knife in there. And hold it. Now you'll experience that electricity. Big difference. It goes from non-experiential to experiencing. And feel, ow, oh, wow, that is, that's, yeah, that's God.

Not that itself. You know what I'm saying? That the analogy is, there's something incredible when the tangible presence of God hits a place, hits a life, hits a family, hits a church. They want to worship.

They're not in a hurry. God is an all-consuming fire. Let him burn. I don't want this fire to go out, Lord. I've been lukewarm. I've been carnal. I haven't desired the things of you. I've desired the things of the flesh, and I've been lost to God.

I want to come back. And so he cries out, rend the heavens, but then he goes on to say, and there is no one who calls on your name. There is no one who stirs himself up to take hold of you. It was almost like he was building up, but then he realized there's no one.

And I don't know if you know the prophetic books of the Bible, but Isaiah, Jeremiah, they wrote at incredible times, the nation of Israel was broken up in the northern and southern kingdoms, and they had succumbed to idolatry.

God has blessed them financially, and they were just abundant and rejecting God and drunkenness and lasciviousness and all kinds of things were going on. Sound familiar? USA, if I may be clear. But that was the role of that prophetic voice.

And the same call goes out today. Would you turn back to God? Wake up, nation. Turn back to God, and that he might relent, he might turn back to you. And I believe that scripture, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek his face and turn from their wicked ways, he will heal their land.

Now, the context of that is dealing with the nation of Israel. And God was giving a promise to Solomon. Absolutely. I love context. Without context, you can make the Bible say whatever you want. One of the most famous scriptures, I'm gonna take a lot of rabbit trails, by the way, is when the scripture, I know the plans I have for you, plans of hope and a future, and well, they just went into 70 years of captivity.

They were not experiencing that verse. But he says, when I bring you out in 70 years, after my plan has been fulfilled, I have a promise and a hope and a destiny for you. Now, if that scripture leaps out, if that scripture ministers to you, if God speaks to you through that, I believe that the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, but we can't just apply it to anything.

What about the famous scripture that Hollywood loves to apply? Shane, don't you judge? Don't you judge me? Haven't you read the Bible? I did, but you forgot to keep reading. As soon as I remove the plank from my own eye, which means as soon as I'm not judgmental, I'm humble, I'm broken before God, I actually have a biblical obligation to judge according to God's word.

I have an obligation according to God's word. Jesus said, judge with righteous judgment in John, that we can say this is what God's word says, this is not right. These ungodly agendas that are trying to be pushed in our nation, especially in California, we can say by the authority of God's word, this is not right.

The Prophetic Voice and Public Truth

I'm actually called to judge. I'm not being judgmental, but I'm called to say this is what God's word says, and let me give you a quick history lesson. Did you know that for many decades and decades, I can go back to, I've got sermons, I mean, obviously in the 1600s, but 1700s, America was being formed.

Did you know that the pulpit used to set the climate, the spiritual tone for the nation? Did you know that? I'm gonna get controversial, I knew it. Dang it. Now, let me exhaust this a little bit, but the pulpit was actually very political.

They would say, this is what the Bible says, this is what the legislation is. They would have election day sermons. They would preach on what is righteous, what is not righteous. If you look at every king in the Old Testament, every one of them just about had a prophet.

So is a prophet political? Because he's telling the king what he should and shouldn't do? The problem is they don't want us to voice God's truth in the political arena. That's the problem. So they'll try to silence you, shut up, Shane, you're a homophobe, you're a white racist, you're a white nationalist.

You're, I mean, you throw wokeness, political correctness, doxing you, gaslighting you, all these new terms, all of them to shut you up, to silence you. And I love when all these people, if I'm a racist, white supremacist, let's do this, it's $300, I'll pay for it, let's take a lie detector test and find out who the real racist is.

Nobody's taking me up on that. Because they know. They actually are. They are promoting racism. They are stirring these things. And so the pulpit used to set the tone for the nation. They would say, this is not right.

What the Supreme Court justices are doing, they would say, this is what God's word says. The Supreme Court is not the law of the land. God's word is the law of the land. They're to submit to that. And it was around the 1800s, a man by the name, at least it's attributed to him, I can't find the quote exactly, but it's Alex de Tocqueville.

He came to America because he wanted to know why America was so great. Now, of course, there is sin in our past. From how they handled slavery to Native Americans, I mean, there's a list of things, amen?

We can all find something. But in the midst of that, God is working, and then also evil is trying to stop plans. So he came to America and he said, I searched everywhere. I looked in her boundless prairies.

I went to her fertile fields and in her vast world commerce. I went to her gold mines and I could not find it. He said, it was not until I went to the churches of America and I heard the pulpits aflame with righteousness that I understood the secret to America's success.

America's great because she is good. If she ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great. And so what I do, I don't elevate a nation, I elevate God's word. That's the key. So basically, now all these terms of Christian nationalist, I love my country, I love God and I love my family, I'm a Christian nationalist?

What is this junk? Label you to silence you. And many pastors are falling for it. And without the power of the anointing, the unction of the spirit, I would too. Oh, I don't wanna upset people. You think I wanna upset people?

The Holy Spirit does. He's a wrecking ball. The word of God is not a soft, gentle pillow, folks. It's not a gentle feather that falls upon your face. Jeremiah, my word, God says, my word is like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces.

My word is like a fire that devours. My word is like a sword that pierces the heart and the soul. See, on one hand, it encourages when we submit to it and it convicts when we fight it. The word of God has to be let loose.

Repentance, Judgment, and the Necessity of the Gospel

And I believe that could shift our nation. Can you imagine pulpits throughout America preaching the truth of God's word with the power of the Holy Spirit? There are churches in my area who would take out worship songs if they mentioned the blood of Christ in them.

Don't talk about repentance. Don't talk about judgment. I don't talk about hell. Oh my goodness, don't ever have that word come in. Nothing that offends. The only problem I have with that is you're removing everything that put Christ on the cross.

Why he died. I died to release them from judgment. I want them to know about the blood of Christ. I don't want them to be condemned. I want them to be convicted and turned to me. Repentance is the only way.

I am the only truth, the only life. Nobody comes to the Father except by me, Jesus said. These are foundational truths and they cut like a knife. They're designed to wake up. Have you ever had a cold glass of water thrown in your face?

That's what the word of God does sometimes. Whoa, did he just say that? Did that bald guy just say that? I can't believe, you don't know how many times I've had people tell me, you know at first you really ticked me off.

I walked out, my wife dragged me on, but I start to listen. And God starts to work in my heart. And I realize that I'm the problem. But if you don't shoot people straight, how are they gonna change? Do you know that millions go into church tomorrow, they'll come in with their porn and their addictions and their adultery and they'll leave justified and encouraged because nobody challenged them.

And that's what the word of God does. And something is very interesting if you read the Old Testament, how many of you have heard about the fire upon the altar? It's a very important part of the Old Testament that God called them to build a tabernacle.

And what they would do is they would put the sacrifice on the altar and they would burn that sacrifice. And of course the blood and the Holy of Holies and the priests and make atonement for the sins of the people, a temporary covering.

It was just a temporary covering. But it's so interesting when that fire got started in the tabernacle that burned, I don't even know how many years, a hundred and some years possibly. Did you know that God started that fire?

The fire of God came down when the sacrifice was ready. The fire of God came down when the sacrifice was ready. There's something there. The fire of God comes, oh, Romans 12. Present your bodies as living sacrifices.

When that sacrifice, the fire of God falls on that sacrifice. And again, I don't like reading things into Scripture and making up stuff, digging out of the context, but there's a lot of truth to that.

The bottom line is God started the fire and the priest had to keep that fire going. Had to keep that fire going. Bring in the fuel, bring in the kindling, bring in the wood, keep that fire going. And the parallels are amazing because if you were here last night and if you've surrendered your heart, surrendered your life, or maybe you're seeking that all-consuming fire, there are things you must do.

Here's why. If you do nothing, you will drift. Go jump in the Owens River and do nothing, watch what direction you're gonna go. South, with the current. So that's what happens to believers. Hey, I'm not gonna do anything.

Guess what? You drift from God. It's a fight, it's a battle, it is warfare. Isaiah 57, 15, for thus says the high and lofty one. Think about this, this is God speaking. How profound is this? When you can say all of the Bible is God speaking, amen?

But when it stops and it says, thus saith the Lord, exclamation point, that's when you sit up straight. You look at that Bible, you highlight it. Man, this is profound and powerful. God is saying this.

Can you imagine if we just ponder that for a minute? The God of the universe, the living God, Yahweh, Elohim, He is speaking to us. He is telling us, this is what I say. Here's where, God isn't playing let's make a deal.

He's saying this is the deal. So when people wanna make a deal with God based on that game show, I'll do this if you do this. Oh, and I don't wanna give up this if you do this. God doesn't play games.

He says this is the deal. So God says, here is the deal. I'm saying this, I dwell, God says, I dwell in the high and holy place. I dwell where no one exists. I am high and lifted up. I am with him though.

I dwell with him who has a contrite and humble spirit. God says, I will dwell with the person who is broken and humble. No negative Nelly's or judgmental Jerry's are allowed in this place. This is a humble broken.

God says, I will revive the heart of the broken one. I will revive the spirit of the humble. I will draw them back to me. I will give them a passion for my word. Do you remember? Have you ever had that passion for God where you couldn't get enough of God?

You got up hungry for God. You went to bed hungry for God. Where did that passion go? God doesn't leave folks. God doesn't leave. We drift and we've gotta keep that fire burning. How do we do that? First point here is through brokenness and humility.

What's the difference between contrite and humble? Contrite is an attitude of the heart. Humble is walking it out. We have to have both of those. Now, before you jump to conclusions, I am not talking about perfectionism.

Praise God. Because if we were, I'd have to do this. I can't stand up here. But see, it's not about perfection. John MacArthur would say, it's not about perfection. It's about direction. God, I can't measure up, but I will die trying.

The problem isn't we raise our standard and miss it. It's we lower it and we hit it. And I love these people. I pray for them. But this topic often upsets people. And they say things like this. Shane, that's legalistic.

Brokenness, Humility, and Obedience

We live under grace now. Yeah, but obeying God is not legalism. Legalism is I'm doing all these things. I am so special. God loves me more than you. I don't go to the movies. I don't cuss, I don't chew, and I don't hang out with those who do.

I read my Bible every morning for an hour and a half. I get through it three times a year. I fast every Wednesday and Friday. Measure up to that, hot shot. Legalism. God, Jesus plus works. Measuring my standard by my works.

But wisdom says I don't wanna watch things that pull me away from God. I don't wanna lust after women that are not my wife by what I watch, what I view. I don't wanna be taken captive by the darkness in this world.

I'm gonna act and live a different way because of my relationship with the Lord, drawing me to Him. See, it's out of a loving relationship that you do these things. But to remove obedience, you might as well take out a plethora of scriptures.

Make no provision for the flesh. Make no provision for the flesh that you might plan ahead to sin. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Put on the whole armor of God. Take away this.

Don't do this. I mean, it's just throughout scripture. And so what I found is people who don't like obedience love to challenge this point. They don't want to obey God because that's really where the rubber meets the road.

And really, you shouldn't have to force someone. If you don't want to obey God, you really have to look at your heart. Do I truly have genuine faith in God? Leonard Ravenhill, how many of you have heard of him?

He said, everyone wants my mantle. You know what a mantle was? Metaphorically speaking, it's when Elisha passed on his mantle, his calling, his gifting, his anointing to Elisha. And he's waiting for that mantle to fall upon him.

He says, everyone wants my mantle, but no one wants the sackcloth and the ashes. Everyone wants the limelight. Oh, I'll serve in church if I can speak. I'm so glad, you know where God started me? Cleaning toilets as an usher.

And then one day the pastor said, hey, do you want to give a message? I'm like, I guess so. Why not? The Holy Spirit's burning inside of me. If he's burning inside of me, see if the pulpit's burning, the pew will too.

That's how this works. You set the pulpit on fire, the pew will be on fire as well. It's a contagious fire as well. It's a consuming fire, a contagious fire. People, they either want more of it or they want to get out of here.

Spiritual Power and the Battle for the Fire

And if you don't like what I'm saying, it's probably because you need to hear what I'm saying. Acts 1 .8, many of you know, but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And again, I think it's so important because there is a big divide in the church from conservatives and charismatics, probably a mixture here.

And that's why I avoid labels often. What does the Bible say? The Bible says you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. Sounds like a good thing to me. 1 Corinthians 12, 13, 14, Paul says, these gifts have been given to the church because you need a little help.

Okay, that sounds like a pretty good thing. What does the Bible say? Strong theology with the power of the Holy Spirit. And power is related to the connection. Whatever you're connected to is what you will resemble.

The outflow, what is flowing out of me is related to the filling. What is going inside of me? And I talk often, we have a lot of pastors who follow the ministry. I've got a podcast, Pastors Unplugged, and I reach out and talk to a lot of younger pastors.

And a lot of questions come in, and one is obviously about how do I prepare a sermon? And they think you sit down Saturday night and you prepare a sermon. The sermon actually begins on Monday. Because who you are all week is who you'll be when you step to the pulpit.

You don't write some things down on a piece of paper. It comes from travail. It comes from the prayer closet. It comes from seeking God. It comes from studying His Word. And what God's downloading in your heart, you begin to download to others, and you come out of the prayer closet on fire for God.

It's who you are all week. What does that have to do with the church? With the Christians, same thing. The infilling, what you're putting in is what is going to come out. And I would say this, pride must die in you before God can truly fill you.

So back to this whole concept. He's an all-consuming fire, let Him burn. Did you know you must fight for the fire? You must fight for the fire of God. Folks, it's time to pull up our pants and put on the spiritual armor and understand the enemy is coming against your family.

This is the time, Dad, to where we need to not start, we need to stop hearing, thank God for praying, Mom, and start hearing, thank God for praying, Mom and Dad. Being the dads and the spiritual leaders of the home, that's why the condition of our nation is in this condition.

It's because men have forsaken their God-given roles as spiritual leaders in their home. I know it's tough, but we've got to do hard things. John Piper said, the evidence of being a Christian is not that there are no tactical defeats in the war, but that you keep fighting till the promised victory is given.

That's why we fight for our families. We fight for the truth. We fight for the innocent. The pulpits fight when we preach sermons. We are fighting for the truth. We are exposing the unfruitful works of darkness.

We're trying to make a difference in all areas of life. And I did an interview recently with Erwin Lutzer. Lutzer, I believe it's pronounced. And he made a great point that evil never retreats on its own.

Hmm. So for all those people who don't want me to get political, evil never retreats on its own. What happens? A greater force has to restrain it. So all the evil that we're seeing coming to our country, it is not going to retreat.

It has to be exposed. And you know how I fight my battles? Like we're doing tonight. This is how I fight my battles. This is how you need to fight your battles. On your knees, hands lifted up in your prayer closet at home, you go to that secret place.

You go to, I talked about last night. There is a place where God will meet you. Did you know that Jesus said there is a God, there is a place where God will meet you, the living God. He said, go to your prayer closet and you gotta shut the door and begin to seek God like never before.

Could it be that we're not seeing measurable results because we're fighting with carnal weapons? And I also want to remind you what Leonard Ravenhill said. There is no such thing as a painless Pentecost.

There's no such thing as a painless Pentecost. There is a price, there is a cost. So how do we keep this all-consuming fire burning? Number one, I talked about last night, the fuel of desperation. That is the main fuel.

If you've got a fire going, what happens when you pour some gasoline on it? Don't do it unless you have a little cup or something. I've seen bad things happen. But that desperation is a fuel that begins that fire.

And then follow with that, you have to have brokenness of heart and humility in actions. I'm gonna talk more about that tomorrow, but I wanted to share that verse with you I just did. In Isaiah 57, God says, I dwell in a holy place with those who have a broken and contrite heart.

See what happens when I come to God broken, now He can fix me. When I come to Him humble, now He can lead me. And when I come to Him empty, now He can fill me. And something I've noticed over the years is profound.

Prayer, Fasting, and the Fuel of Revival

The proud think they are broken, but the humble know they are not. And here's another log to throw on the fire, the fuel of prayer and fasting. The fuel of prayer and fasting. Did you know that fasting used to be part of the early church?

They used to talk about it a lot more than we do now. Now King's stomach is on the throne. We don't wanna talk about this. Let's make my prayers comfortable, convenient, get right to the point. Why are prayer meetings boring or we rarely have them when it's the most important thing in a church?

Because that's what moves the hand of God. When people pray, God moves. When people pray, God moves. You look all the famous people you love to read, all the famous Christians, they were men and women of prayer.

All of them. The revivals would spark up all began because of prayer. James 5 .16, confess your trespasses to one another, pray for one another that you may be healed. And then he goes on to say something profound.

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. But first we can learn a few things. The power of confession. Confess your trespasses.

Maybe some things you don't confess to people, but confess it to God. I think what's stopping many people with having that deep relationship with God is unconfessed sin. I liken it to a time my son turned on the water hose all the way, he was only three years old, nothing was coming out.

So I had to research and how many kinks were in the water hose? Three kinks. Open those kinks and the water, he couldn't even hold the water hose. Now parallel that with our own lives. That besetting sin, that unconfessed sin, it will stop the power of God.

It will hold it back. That's why many people church is boring. God is irrelevant. You don't like to read the Bible, it doesn't mean much, it doesn't make sense. You don't like to pray. Because something is stopping that flow.