Overcoming Everything With Prayer

Dr. David Jeremiah offers some tips for improving your prayer life—an essential part of being the overcomer God wants you to be.
“In Scripture we see example after example of God coming alongside people who felt weak and inadequate—who felt the absence of the strength needed for the assignment they’d been given—and calling them to be strong. In fact, there are more than thirty occasions in the Bible where God commands someone to be strong.”
― Dr. David Jeremiah

Are you feeling powerless, powerless to control your destiny in the fate of our nation, your career, financial security and even your daily life.
We are in a spiritual battle for our hearts and minds sometimes with little strength to be victorious.
What if I told you there is one who can empower you to prevail over the emotional, physical and spiritual chaos in your life.
One who can give you the power to be more than a conqueror, more than a winner, more than a victor.
But an overcomer as an overcomer, you are no longer defined by your trials, but by your victories as an overcomer, you put on God, give an armor that both protects you from the enemy and empowers you to conquer your greatest obstacles.
We’re called to be overcomer, men and women.
We’re called to walk in victory and strength and peace and love.
Sometimes I hear people say when I ask them how they’re doing, I’m doing ok down under the circumstances, but we don’t belong under the circumstances.
We belong above the circumstances. We’re not under commers, we’re over commers, amen, live a life of unstoppable strength, unmovable faith and unbelievable power.
Discover how you can be an overcomer, unstoppable, strength, unmovable, faith, unbelievable power.
These are the qualities of an overcomer. Discover the eight steps to unlocking God’s power in your life.
In David Jeremiah’s book, Overcomer, feeling powerless, hopeless, anxious, tempted the message an overcomer can help you start living victoriously request overcomer today.
When you give a gift of any amount in support of this program, and if you give a generous gift to the ministry of $75 or more, you’ll receive the Comprehensive Overcomer study set, which contains the Overcomer book, Dr Jeremiah’s complete teaching series on DVD, including his interview hosted by Sheila Walsh correlating study guide and the Warriors prayer bookmark.
Plus with any order of the Overcomer book or set, you will receive the super eight Overcomer cards, stunning cards highlighting the God given powers of an overcomer be defined by your victories.
Be strong in the power of God’s might be an overcomer order.
Dr Jeremiah’s book Overcomer or the complete study set today.
Thank you for watching Overcomer here on turning point in appreciation of your viewership, Dr Jeremiah would like to send you the Warriors prayer bookmark.
Absolutely free contact turning point today. And now here is Doctor Jeremiah with his message, overcoming everything with prayer.

I heard a story once about a mother who got a call from school saying that her young daughter was ill.
She heard to pick up her child and then she called the doctor but the doctor’s schedule was already overbooked that day.
He could see the child the following morning.
And in the meantime, he recommended an over the counter medicine to ease her symptoms.
So the mother tucked her little girl in bed and drove to the pharmacy, bought the medicine, hurried back to the car only to realize she had left her keys in the ignition and locked herself out when she called her daughter to explain why it was going to take more time to get home.
The little girl told her to find a coat hanger. Mommy. She said, I’ve seen it on TV.
You stick this coat hanger down inside the window, you hook it on the handle and the doors open.
Well, the mother didn’t know her little girl was so street smart, but she went back into the store and she got a wire hanger and she made an attempt to open the door and she didn’t do it.
She couldn’t figure it out. Finally, she was just frustrated and she just lifted her racing heart to the heavenly father.
And she said, Lord God, I don’t know what to do. My keys are locked in this car.
My little girls at home sick, I’m here with this stupid coat hanger. Please send somebody to help me.
She finished her prayer and his car pulled up at the curb and passenger got out and the man had a rough look.
I mean, he didn’t look like somebody God would send, but he was there. He hadn’t shaved for days.
It occurred to her that he might be homeless. But here’s God’s answer.
So she said, sir, can you help me? What’s the problem?
He said, well, I’ve locked my keys in this car and I’ve got this coat hanger, but I don’t know what to do with it.
He said, lady, let me have your coat hanger.
After bending the hanger and inserting it down inside the window glass, he opened the car door.
Pretty scary thing that people can do that.
The mother was so overwhelmed that she threw her arms around this scruffy old guy and gave him a hug.
And she said to him, you’re such a good man. You’re such a good man.
He said, lady, I’m no good man. I just got out of prison this morning.
As he walked away, the mother lifted her hands up to heaven and said, thank you Lord.
You sent me a professional that tell me, you know, sometimes God answers prayer, sometimes God answers prayer in unexpected ways, doesn’t he?
In fact, over commers in our warfare against Satan always deal with the issue of prayer.
The passage we’ve explored throughout this book. Paul tells us to put on the armor of the Lord.
And then at the end, he says, take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.
We learn, those are the sayings of the Lord.
And then he says, praying, always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this and with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.
Now, that’s a mouthful. But prayer is our line of communication.
Our secret lifeline that connects us to our leader. It gives us his strength and direction every day.
We don’t get that without prayer.
And this is why Paul devoted this little place at the end of this critical passage to discuss the importance of prayer.
Paul slowed down gave us a robust doctrine of prayer in 24 words, 24 words in that verse.
And we have probably the most important passage in prayer in all the Bible.
Let’s begin by looking at the persistence of the overcomer prayer. Notice what it says, praying always.
Now, what does that mean?
I mean, the Bible says, man, not always to pray and not lose heart.
Do we walk around like zombies oblivious to our surroundings? Mumbling mantras under our breath, praying. Always. No.
It means we’re always in contact with God.
It means like soldiers on the battlefield connected to their commander with the radio. We’re in touch with God.
This is how we maintain our connection and learn to live in fellowship with Him.
If we live this way, we won’t have to begin each prayer like this.
Oh God, we come into your presence. No. If you’re in his presence, you can’t come into his presence.
Lord, we come into your presence. If we live with an attitude of prayer, we’re always in his presence.
A vivid example of praying always is in the character of Tey, the struggling Jewish milkman.
In the classic stage play and film fiddler on the roof as he works and interacts with his family and neighbors.
He carries on a running conversation with God.
He’s chatting with him like a friend, he talks about whatever comes into his head.
His daughter is getting married, his lame horse, his poverty, his dreams.
He pauses to carry on business and take care of needs.
But the moment those things are done, he’s back talking to God again.
It’s as if his life is his prayer and the everyday things he must do are just islands in the stream that flows continually from his heart to God.
Praying always means to always be in touch with God.
You know, sometimes you don’t have time to get ready to pray.
If you see a car coming at you through the intersection, you say God help, well, you better be in good fellowship with God when that happens because you don’t have time to confess your sin and get things right when the card is coming at you, right?
So always being in fellowship with God, but it also means to pray persistently.
God wants to teach us the persistence of prayer. God doesn’t work on our time schedule.
Did you know that for God, everything is in the eternal present. So God isn’t waiting.
It’s all in the present. And at the right time in the right place for the right reason.
God will answer. One of my professors in seminary was a man by the name of Howard Hendricks.
He was an incredible man known by all of the Dallas seminary graduates as one of the great teachers of all time.
My wife actually was his secretary while we were in seminary.
One day, Doctor Hendrix came into our class and he said, you know, my father is not a Christian And he said, I have prayed for him every single day for 40 years.
And I was in class when he came in and told me that his father was very, very ill, probably gonna die soon.
But that he accepted Jesus Christ as his personal savior. 40 years, he prayed for his dad.
It’s always too soon to quit. You guys don’t quit just because it looks discouraging.
Oh, he won’t even listen to us. He doesn’t want anything to do with this.
Just keep praying, keep knocking on the door, keep, seeking keep asking and God, God is there.
God loves it when his Children come knocking on his door persistently, then notice the possibility of the overcomer prayer.
Here’s what it says. Praying always.
And then this little phrase with all prayer, it’s a little tiny word.
The term has an expansive meaning. It means everything that can place in the basket.
No, limits no exclusions, the entire gamut, the whole enchilada, everything with prayer, all prayer, praying, always with all prayer.
Stuart Briscoe said that when our Children were small and we were trying to teach them to pray, we had three kinds of prayer, please.
Prayer. Thank you, prayer and sorry, prayer, and those kinds of prayers, prayers of petition, prayers of thanksgiving, and prayers of confession.
You can fit everything in your life.
Our goal as over commers is to be able to reach out in prayer at any moment and immediately be in touch with God.
And our whole life can be a prayer as we walk day by day with Him, don’t sweat the details.
Leave those to God. Just pray.
Those please prayer, those thank you prayers and those sorry prayers and God will hear you.
Number three, the petition of the overcomer prayer, praying always with all prayer and suffocation.
Now, suffocation means to ask, that’s basically what the word means.
Ask God tells us that he has wired this universe to work by prayer and prayer works.
When we ask, I have to tell you that oftentimes as I stand at the front of our church on occasion, and people come to talk to me, they’ll say, Pastor Jeremiah, I don’t know what to do.
Can you tell me and then they’ll unfold their story and then I’ll say to them, have you asked God about this?
And they look at me like I just asked them a question. Nobody should ever ask.
Uh And, and no pastor, that’s why we’re asking you.
I said, well, why would you ask me when you haven’t asked God?
I mean, God’s at the top of the list. I’m way down here somewhere.
Ask God, you can go right to the head of the class.
Ask God and you know, it’s a simple thing, but it’s so interesting to me how many Christians there are who struggle with issues in their life and it never dawns on them that they should ask God.
The new testament encourages us to offer these prayers. When Jesus taught his disciples, the model prayer to pray.
He filled it with requests not only for ideals like the advancement of God’s kingdom, but for our daily bread and our personal needs like food and forgiveness and deliverance from evil.
The Bible says, when you pray, pray for those things in the sermon on the mount, Jesus invites us to pray prayers without holding back and he promises those prayers will be heard and answered.
James, who is the Lord’s brother tells us our failure to place our need before God explains why we do not have peace in our lives.
You have not because you do not ask Charles Spurgeon.
The great British preacher of another generation said, asking is the rule of the kingdom.
It is a rule that never will be changed in anybody’s case.
If the royal and divine Son of God cannot be exempted from the rule of asking you and I cannot ex exempt ourselves from that rule either.
God will bless you. When you ask, I remember preaching on Matthew seven where it says, ask and shall be given to you.
Seemed like it was sort of simple, the word ask.
I thought it must be some English translation of a Greek word that was much more complicated than that.
So I looked up that word in all of the dictionaries.
I looked it up in all of the uh translation helps that I had.
And you know what I found out, the word ask means it means ask. That’s what it means.
It’s a simple little word.
It’s a simple little word that means if you need something, ask for it, you know what?
Our kids don’t have a problem with that. Our grandkids don’t have a problem with that.
I heard a story about a little boy who went to bed one night and his father was home taking care of the kids and his father wasn’t, wasn’t used to the bedtime routine that most moms are pretty familiar with.
So his father was downstairs, he thought the Children were in bed and he could enjoy his television program.
Pretty soon. He heard his little boy at the top of the stairs saying daddy, I need a glass of water.
So he goes up there and he gives him a glass of water.
Few minutes later guess what? Daddy? I gotta go to the bathroom.
So it goes up and this goes on two or three times. Daddy. I need a glass of water.
Finally, the, the father had had it.
He said young man, you get yourself back in bed, don’t you? Let me hear your voice again.
The next time I hear your voice, I’m gonna come up there and give you a lickin, I’m gonna come up and give you a spanking.
It was real quiet. Then he heard his little boy say daddy.
When you come up to give me a spanking, could you bring me a glass of water?
I mean, you know, that’s the way it is, isn’t it? That’s the way we are.
Our kids can teach us a lot about being persistent. Amen. Amen.
And you know what? They’re not embarrassed. They don’t have any embarrassment.
God wants us to be to him as our father, as our Children are to us, as their father ask for what you need.
So the petition of the overcomer prayer, then let’s notice the power of it.
The power of the overcomer prayer is in the next phrase, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit.
What power drives our prayer. It is the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us.
The Holy Spirit wrote the word of God and it’s the same Holy Spirit who lives in your heart and lives in my heart.
And because he’s the one with the Father because of this. He knows your intent.
When you pray, he takes your fumbling prayers and reshapes them to reveal the deepest needs that are underneath the surface of your words and presents them perfectly to the father in heaven.
Isn’t that incredible? The Bible says in Romans eight, the spirit helps us in our weakness for.
We do not know what we should pray for as we ought.
But the spirit himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
Now, he who searches the heart knows what the mind of the spirit is because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God.
When you pray the Holy Spirit is involved. And here’s the beauty of prayer.
Who is prayer dressed to, to the Father who pray the prayer you do, who’s in your heart?
The Holy Spirit, where does the prayer goes next?
It goes to the Son of God who is at the right hand of the Father making intercession for the believer.
Did you notice that the Holy Trinity is involved every time you pray the Holy Spirit in you Jesus Christ interceding.
And the Father on the throne. Hallelujah.
Mm Well, let’s talk about the precision of the overcomer prayer.
Here’s the next phrase, I’m just teaching this verse one phrase at a time.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end.
What does it mean to be watchful. Well, maybe it means to be awake.
Did you ever fall asleep when you were praying? Come on now.
It’s all right.
To be honest, I’m not telling anybody, Paul transitions from describing the Christian’s armor to the subject of prayer.
Notice how he returns this military imagery.
He does this because we face a real enemy to be up and awake means the battle is engaged to be watchful means.
We got our eyes open over.
Commers will understand that the enemy wants to attack you with distractions and doubts and temptations so that you don’t pray.
So guard your prayer time, keep your prayers constantly flowing, prioritize prayer as you plan your schedule, encourage everything that feeds and fosters your prayer life and focus your prayers as you can get a plan for your prayer.
Don’t be willy nilly at praying.
Don’t just pray whenever you feel like it because I promise you you won’t feel like it as much as you should.
And then prayer doesn’t get done.
And when prayer doesn’t get done, a lot of other things get done that shouldn’t get done.
But if you don’t know exactly what to pray for, don’t avoid prayer or hesitate to pray.
Trust that the intention of your prayer will be heard and understood.
Here’s what Colossians 42 says, continue earnestly in prayer being vigilant in it with thanksgiving.
And then notice number six, the perseverance of the overcomer prayer, praying always with all prayer and suffocation in the spirit being watchful to this end.
And it says with all perseverance, to pray effectively is to persevere no matter how soaring or earth bound your prayers may feel, no matter how focused or failing or frantic, you feel, the more you pray in all circumstances, the more you align your will with gods, which will mean more visible answers.
And here’s what I’ve done some days. I have it in my journal. Dear Lord.
I don’t know where you are and I don’t feel like praying today, but I know I am called to pray.
So I’m going to pray the best I can.
I’m going to do what you’ve told me to do and I’m going to trust that somewhere out there.
You’re, you’re there and maybe I’ll figure this out later be as honest with the Lord as you can when you pray, you know how I learned that.
Have you ever read the psalms? And, and seen how David prayed? I mean, he prayed honestly, he prayed, Lord.
How long are you gonna wait before you answer me?
Someone once told me the psalms all begin with a sigh and they end with a song.
Isn’t that true? You start out with David and he’s in the dumps and you wonder where in the world did this come from.
But he tells God what’s in his heart.
He prays honestly, he tells God he’s struggling with his prayers and then somehow through it all God breaks through.
We can’t just stop praying when it doesn’t feel right to pray anymore.
I tell, I tell myself this a lot of times Jeremiah, you got a soldier through man, you gotta keep going.
You gotta pray even when you don’t feel like praying.
Because if you don’t pray, when you don’t feel like praying, there’ll be a lot of times when you should pray that you don’t pray.
And that’s what I’m saying, be persevering in your prayer. And then the purpose of the overcomer prayer.
Here’s what it says. Next.
Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the spirit being watchful to this end with perseverance and supplication for all the saints pray for all the saints.
When we pray for each other, everybody in the body of Christ is praying for everybody else in the body of Christ.
And although I may be praying for you instead of for myself, I don’t need to worry about my needs being met because while I’m praying for you, you’re praying for me.
This is called reciprocal prayer. And Paul said, praying always for all the saints.
If we all did that, we’d never have to pray much for ourselves because we know everybody else is praying for us and we’re praying for them.
How many of you know, life gets so much better when you get your eyes off of you and get your eyes on God.
Somebody once told me that the best definition of humility is this humility is not thinking less of yourself.
It’s just thinking of yourself less, you know, and sometimes we need to do that to pray in humility before God.
Well, let’s look at the practice of the overcomer prayer. Are you prepared to pray effectively?
Do you feel confident in your ability to pray as you should?
If not, don’t give up prayer is something you can learn. You can learn to pray.
I learned to pray. Professor Don Whitney of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary offers excellent advice.
If you’ve ever learned a foreign language, you know that you learn it best when you actually speak it.
The same is true with foreign language of prayer.
There are many good resources for learning how to pray.
But the best way to learn to pray is just to pray, just get alone in the room and pray.
Sometimes it’s best to pray out loud. You won’t fall asleep as easy when you pray out loud.
You say, well, I’m pretty awkward at praying.
I remember one of the great things when people get in a small group, usually somewhere along the way, people pray and sometimes they have a time at the end of the, the small group where they have a little pray time.
And I, I’ve been so many guys, especially who go to a small group with their wife and they never prayed out loud in their lives.
And the thought of it terrifies them.
The thought that somebody’s gonna put them under pressure in a small group or you go around in a circle and it comes your time and you, you don’t know if you’re gonna live through it.
And we try to say, well, if you don’t feel like you want to pray, just tap your neighbor and they’ll pass you by.
But then, uh I have to tell you on more than one occasion, I’ve had guys tell me come and tell me like they just like they just won the Olympics or something.
Doctor Jeremiah, I was at a small group last week and I prayed out loud for the first time and I gotta tell you, it was unbelievable.
That was unbelievable. How do you pray? You just pray, pray the best you can.
Lord, it’s me. I’ve heard all kinds of prayers. Lord, it’s me and here I am again.
And I love those prayers because they’re so honest and they’re so real. They haven’t learned Christian yet.
So they pray, they pray in normal terms. Like I think God would rather have us pray.
You get what I’m saying. So here’s Paul’s instruction to us at the end of the armor of the believer after he’s told us we’re to take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God and wield it against the enemy.
It’s almost like he takes a step back and he says, oh by the way praying, always with all prayer and suffocation.
This is how to prepare yourself for communication with your commander.
As you engage in life’s daily battles, you’re going to go into the war tomorrow.
When you get back home, you’re going to face the challenges of the secular group out there that hates God, hates Jesus and probably doesn’t think too highly of you.
But before you go out into that world, go down into your prayer closet, make sure you’re in contact with Almighty God.
And then you don’t go out there by yourself. You don’t go by yourself, you go with him.
Yeah, Doctor Jeremiah will return with one more inspirational word to close today’s Overcomer program.
Right after this, A new day has dawned hope is on the horizon.
Discover eight ways to live a life of unstoppable, strength, unmovable faith, and unbelievable power in Dr.
David Jeremiah’s book overcomer in a world where we often feel so powerless, applying these straightforward spiritual truths will awaken the power of God in you.
So you can conquer life’s everyday challenges and become an overcomer.
You will discover how to overcome falsehood with truth, anxiety, with peace, fear with faith and more request overcomer.
Today, when you give a gift of any amount in support of this program, and if you give a generous gift to the ministry of $75 or more, you’ll receive the Comprehensive Overcomer study set which contains the Overcomer book, Dr Jeremiah’s complete teaching series on DVD, including his interview hosted by Sheila Walsh, a correlating study guide and the Warriors prayer book mark Plus.
With any order of the overcomer book or set, you will receive the super eight Overcomer cards, stunning cards highlighting the God given powers of an overcomer stop living in defeat.
God created you to be an overcomer order. Dr Jeremiah’s book Overcomer or the complete study set today.
And now with one last word for today’s program, here is Dr Jeremiah God created you to be an overcomer.
He has given you supernatural tools to use here on earth that can both protect you from the enemy and strengthen you to conquer the greatest obstacles in your life.
You no longer need to be defeated and discouraged, disillusioned or distraught by life’s challenges.
Being an overcomer means putting on the whole armor of God provided to us by faith in Jesus Christ.
If you want to know more about the power you can have through faith in Christ.
I have two free resources from turning point. I would like to send to you.
One is a booklet called Your Greatest Turning Point and the other is our monthly devotional magazine called Turning Points.
We will gladly send them both to you free of charge if you will contact us here at turning point today.
Thank you for being with us today. Join Doctor Jeremiah.
Next time for a new series, Romans ain’t the greatest chapter in the Bible here on turning point.