Embracing Breakthrough: Faithful Dedication and Transformative Prayer

Can you imagine the ripple effects of dedicating two years to teaching and leading prayer? In this Fourth of July special, we reflect on this journey of faith, encouraging you to serve the Lord in any capacity and witness the unforeseen blessings that come from such dedication. We delve deep into the significance of breakthrough, sharing heartfelt prayers that touch on various life aspects, from spiritual connections to financial challenges. Drawing wisdom from Psalm 121:2, we remind ourselves that God's help and opportunities align perfectly with His will. Don't forget, the Three Praying Sisters phone line is available for additional prayer support, ensuring you're never alone on this journey.

Ever wondered how to approach God with a heart full of humility and trust? Using Hezekiah's plea as a powerful example, we explore the strategic nature of prayer, emphasizing the need for precise requests while recognizing God's ultimate sovereignty. Through personal anecdotes, we understand the importance of aligning our prayers with God's will. The chapter also celebrates the blessings of the day and highlights our Thursday Prayer Ministry Service, inviting you to connect with God and the community without the need for donations. Join us for a genuine, free prayer experience filled with love, encouragement, and a call to kindness for all our listeners.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

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Speaker 2: 3:44

It's also Fourth of July, which is a big holiday here in the US, and I know I appear in different countries. So good morning and happy 4th of July to the folks in the US and good morning, good afternoon to everybody else. I'm so glad you're here. So, listen, we are kicking off July. I think you've seen the intro. Our theme for the month of July is Breakthrough. Now we've had some really good series. Go back and take a look.

Speaker 2: 4:11

I was just sitting here before I came on live. I was just sitting here thinking about it's been I think it's been two years now. Two years steady of coming on and teaching, and I teach and lead a prayer five times a week now and on top of my day job. So for those of y'all who are saying you know you don't have the time to serve the Lord in the capacity that he calls you to, please do it. You never know who needs the worthy encouragement and everything that I do and share is it's all Bible-based. I'm not coming on giving you Shelley-isms, but it is just interesting. I was just sitting here again just reflecting, good morning Carol.

Speaker 2: 4:54

Just reflecting on what I'm witnessing God do in the people around me, and that says a lot. I mean, it's one thing to be a maybe you're a singer, you know, maybe you sing in church, or maybe you're a gospel singer, you're you know. It's another thing when you're a pastor, you're a minister, and you can kind of see through your physical eyes not your spiritual eyes you can kind of see some of the blessings that people are experiencing eyes, not your spiritual eyes. You can kind of see some of the blessings that people are experiencing. But truly, when you're in my seat, where you know I'm just reaching, you know who God sends me to, and but to still see and be a witness of his blessings in their lives and watch all of us really experience God in a in an amazing, powerful way that is confirmed not just in the Bible Y'all always have a Bible. It's not just confirmed in the word, but you also see it in confirmation through witnessing. When people come back and tell you about breakthroughs they've had in prayer, breakthroughs in their mind and their health, breakthroughs in their pocketbooks and in their careers, and I'm just in awe, not surprised, but in awe of what God does for us, through us, with us, by us and concerning us. So, lord, as we come into this month of July and we're really leaning into this theme of breakthrough and I pray that this is the month for those who are still stuck, that they will become unstuck in their thinking that the very things that they have been praying for for months and even years, that some of these things will come to fruition, that it will come to completion, that what you started in them will be finished the ideas, the divine help, whatever they need to finish out what they have started. That it will happen this month. I ask for spiritual breakthrough for those who are trying to connect and go deeper with you, lord, that this is the month that they will see and hear from you clearly and, lord, that you'll truly bless, bless these next few minutes that we're coming together in before you and bringing people before you. As I usher, your people before you, lord, I ask that you will use this time to touch their very hearts. In Jesus name. Amen, y'all.

Speaker 2: 7:09

I don't show up by myself, so just a quick reminder. Today is Thursday and we have a phone line called Three Praying Sisters at one o'clock and seven o'clock PM for 30 minutes Y'all can call in. There is no seed needed, it's free. So please call into that phone line. It's private y'all, we're not going to be gossiping about your situations. But you can call the numbers on the screen. You can call, you know, call in on the phone, put the numbers in your phone and make it a practice, make it a discipline of prayer, all right? So I went on long enough.

Speaker 2: 7:41

So now I want to talk about again. We're in the month of July. Breakthroughs, seven means completion. In the Bible, you know, the earth was created in seven days, etc. You can go back to Genesis and look it up. Not a Shelley ism is the word. So when we talk a lot, especially in this line of work, the spiritual line of work, this Bible based line of work, we talk about completion and the number seven, which is the month of July. But for real, for real, what the Lord showed me was that for us, we're going to be leaning in on breakthrough.

Speaker 2: 8:12

The first thing is overcoming obstacles and how we do that. So there is a verse, psalm 121, verse two, and it says my help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth. So I think, as Christians or believers or whatever you're titling yourself these days, that we know that our help actually comes from God and God will put in your place, in your path, the various things people, ideas, desires. He will put those things, he will align them according to his will for your life. Put those things, he will align them according to his will for your life, and that's kind of how you see the help pan out. So sometimes we have these obstacles. For example, I'm just going to say like, maybe it's a financial obstacle and you pray, Lord, help me, and all of a sudden you get this check in the mail. You didn't never expect it. Or maybe it's a bonus on your job. You never expected things like that. So he starts to lay things out.

Speaker 2: 9:06

There are times, of course, when the Lord says no, and that obstacle is meant to teach you something so that you can grow deeper, so that you learn. You build your spiritual muscles so that your first response is always, when there's an obstacle, you go back to God, not your friend. Okay, and that's something I also had to learn, that I had to go to God, not my friend. The Lord will. He will direct people around you to come and stand alongside and, you know, guide you, et cetera. But you've got to get your muscle into, the first thing being when you're overcome, when you come across an obstacle and I'm saying this because there are folks like me who want big breakthroughs in our lives. You know, in our physical lives, in our spiritual lives. You know we want more blessings for our children, our spouses, ourselves, our health, our will, all the things right. But the first thing that we've got to, we've got to at least level set, is when we have an obstacle, when you have a mountain, when you have a valley you know what I'm saying. Like you know, you've got to make sure that your first response is to your father, not your friend. It's the same thing we tell our children when things go wrong at school, when things go wrong in the playground, when things go wrong, you know again, even our adult children, we want them to come to us. We don't want them to run and tell everybody come to us and we can help you. It's that same relationship with God, amen. So don't be mad at me. I'll just tell you what I always say. That's the truth.

Speaker 2: 10:34

All right, so I'm going to share my screen because there is a particular scripture. This is so you know. So the way, let me just try to be transparent here. And so the way, let me just try to be transparent here. And y'all again, please don't judge me. Mothers of the church, don't judge. So there's this scripture that when I get the series it comes to me, I sit down, I'm in study and then the Lord will. He literally lays it out for the month. He'll give me some of the verses, but I never really know what's going to happen until I show up on the Thursday morning. I just don't, because I have to allow him to lead, otherwise it'll be Shelly up here talking to you. Okay, it'll be an encouragement ministry and that's not what it is, okay, so.

Speaker 2: 11:19

So when he gave me this breakthrough for the month of July, he also aligned it back. We do live prayers on Mondays and Tuesdays, and this this month he did a little bit differently. Where it was, not only are the Thursdays talking about breakthrough, but also the Mondays and Tuesdays were live prayers. So we're deep, deep, deep prayers. So for those of y'all on the YouTube channel, you'll see the replays of those live prayers and they're all focused on breakthrough, and every Monday and Tuesday there's something a little bit different. Okay, but this prayer was a part of the Monday. I believe it was a Monday or the Tuesday prayer this week, so obviously July and when I came back into my notes and realized, oh, my goodness, this is the, this is part of the, this is the overcoming obstacle prayer that the Lord gave me, and he gave me this while back right For those of y'all who, again, you're on the social media streets, you know I the information about what the series is going to be.

Speaker 2: 12:21

I usually release it at least a few weeks ahead, so people get a heads up. So this is important. So what I'm saying to you is this is important. So Hezekiah's prayer, this is in 2 Kings 19, verses 14 through 19. I am going to release it because, again, I think this is a word for not just y'all, but it's for me.

Speaker 2: 12:40

Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers and read it and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord and spread it before the Lord. And Hezekiah hold on for a second. So when he got some news let me just break this down he got some news. So again, we're talking about overcoming obstacles so he got some news and his first response was he went up to the Lord. So, house of the Lord, for some of y'all might be the church, it might be for you. Your prayer closet might just be your car, wherever you meet the Lord in prayer. Okay, he says. He went up to the house of the Lord, he spread it, he laid out all of the issues and the obstacles before God.

Speaker 2: 13:18

Verse 15 says and Hezekiah prayed before the Lord and said oh Lord, the God of Israel, enthroned above the cherubim, you are the God, you alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. Now I was like Lord. Why does he need to do that? The reason that Hezekiah is doing that is that when we approach the throne, remember in the New Testament how Jesus taught us, how he gave us the framework for prayer. I didn't say this is every prayer, our father, but what he's doing is he's acknowledging God. He's acknowledging who God is, and sometimes for us again, in our obstacles, in our situation, we have to acknowledge who God is. In our troubles, we have allowed our minds, we have allowed situations to put God on like the same level we are. So that's part of why a lot of us become so disappointed when we don't get what we want because God isn't doing what you asked or told him to do. He's not operating in your timeline because you have put him on your level. And God is spirit, he's not us, he's not people, right? So the verse 15 here is just showing you that he is acknowledging who God is.

Speaker 2: 14:35

Now watch the second verse, excuse me, verse 16. I'm listening and speaking to y'all at the same time. All right, thank you, holy Spirit. It says incline your ear, o Lord, and hear, open your eyes, o Lord, and see. Hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to mock the living God. Now, again here I was like hold on Lord, you see and know everything.

Speaker 2: 14:58

But again we move from acknowledgement and now we're asking the Lord. It's like again, it's like a child. I love this. It's like a child going to a parent and you're asking for help. First, you acknowledge who that parent is and the power that that parent has, and the second, the second thing, is, it really is an ask. It's like hear me, I want you to hear me and I want you to see me. Right? I love this heart posture that Hezekiah had. He didn't show up to God saying you better did. And where were you? Why didn't you? And you know, come now and I'm going to declare it Amen. But you know, based on the blood. He didn't do that. This, this heart posture, the approach in the middle of trouble that he had was to, is to one.

Speaker 2: 15:46

In verse 15, he acknowledged who God is, and then, in verse 16, he starts to petition in a different way. Incline your ear. He starts to speak to God's heart. You know here, incline your ear, o Lord, and hear and open your eyes and see and hear. So it's ear and it's eyes and see right. It's listening, it's seeing and speaking right. And so, as we go into verse 17, it says truly, o Lord. Now he starts to give the petition this is what's going down, lord. So verse 17 talks about the situation. So, oh Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands and have cast their gods into the fire. But they were not gods, but the works of men. Men's hands were in stone and therefore they were destroyed. So he gives the petition right, this is what's going down, this is what happened, okay. And then verse 19 says so. Now I love that. Oh Lord, our God, save us please from his hand that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that you, oh Lord, are God alone.

Speaker 2: 16:49

This prayer is so strategic in the way that it is done. There are some prayers that and again. You know, if you go on, especially if you're on YouTube, you'll run into a prophet and apostle just about everywhere who tries to teach, and teachers try to teach you that prayers are strategic. A lot of times people pray and they pray for the same things over and over and, over and over again and they do not get a response. At least they don't get a response in the way that they think. But prayers are strategic.

Speaker 2: 17:20

And so if you just look at how Hezekiah approached the Lord in this, the first thing he did was he took the trouble in verse 14. He didn't go gossip about it, he didn't go cry about it. He took that trouble. He took the issues, he took the obstacles, he took the mountains and the valleys and he went to the Lord and he laid it out before him. He laid it all out before him and then he acknowledged in verse 15, who God is and the power and dominion. Oh Lord, the God of Israel. Right, you are the God, you alone, right?

Speaker 2: 17:53

Sometimes, when I go, I'm going to stop sharing my screen. Sometimes, when I go before God and I'm praying on behalf of other people, because I intercede for other people. Okay, you know, that's how I approach. I approach him like that, lord, here are the prayers, here are the issues, here's the situation. Okay, and I acknowledge you, you're the God of Israel, only you can do this. You, you alone can do this, right.

Speaker 2: 18:19

So I'm acknowledging his power over everything, all of these situations, right, and then I, you know, I'll say, lord, you see what's happening, you hear and you see, and I want to hear your words, you know what do you say concerning this? Then I petition and give him the problems you know, I need help, this, this one, this right. And then I give him my petition and then I seal it and then I say so now, oh Lord, now the reason where the reason Hezekiah ended it. So now, oh Lord, our God, save us please. Now, this is his ask, right? He's asking, he laid out the problems is what's going on? And now he's asking specifically what he wanted. Not, oh, lord, you know, just favor me in this. Let know, ask him for what you want, right, ask him for what you want.

Speaker 2: 19:06

And then what Hezekiah does, which is something I've learned to do Lord, forgive me, I'm a teller, but what I have also learned to do is I always align back to what, to what God's will is for us, for me? Right. And his will is to reconcile all his children back to him. So his will is not to get you a new car. His will is not to get you a new house. His will is not to get you a promotion. His will is to draw all men back to him. That is his ultimate goal is reconciliation. Because we know that, because that's why Jesus Christ was sent to pay for our sins right?

Speaker 2: 19:45

So whenever I close a prayer, I also ask that, lord, I want to be in alignment with your will that everyone on earth may see and know that you alone are God and you alone are God in my life. Let me be the witness to your breakthrough. Let me be the witness to your breakthrough in my life. Let me be the witness to your breakthrough. Let me be the witness to your breakthrough in my life. Let me be the breakthrough in my family. Let me be the breakthrough in my community. Let me be that right. Tie me back to your great will to reconcile your people back to you. Thank you for the financial blessings, lord. Let them know that this came from you so that they'll be drawn back to you.

Speaker 2: 20:26

That's a different prayer than Lord. I'm struggling. And again, it doesn't mean you don't say those prayers, right. It doesn't mean you ask for what you need. But when you close your prayers you also remind God, not that he doesn't know, but it is a heart posture thing. It is something about our hearts. When we go before the Lord, we acknowledge who he is First of all. We bring our struggles to him. We acknowledge who he is right, we ask, we ask Lord Again. Sometimes it's Abba, you see what's happening, you hear what's going down, you know all right, then I lay out the problems and then I come back and I seal it because I want specifically what his will is for my life, overcoming obstacles. And then you've got to have faith. I mean, even before this prayer you've got to have faith. You really, truly have to believe that when you speak to the Lord, that he's hearing it. Again, it doesn't mean that you've got to be in your prayer closet for two hours. Sometimes the most powerful prayers are the ones that you utter in two minutes. You don't have to have a prescription. It is about your heart, right. So pray now.

Speaker 2: 21:37

So this is week one, and we've talked about overcoming obstacles, again, reminding you Psalm 121, verse two, talks about where your help comes from. That's a good one If you want to just have something in your back pocket and you need to lean on for this week over week overcoming obstacles. If you have obstacles, challenges, mountains, valleys, if you've got stuff you're really going through that you're battling with. If maybe it's an addiction, maybe it's relationship issues, you know time management, like whatever I take literally, I take everything to God Like sometimes I'm like Holy Spirit. I know this is, I know you've got bigger problems, but I need your help here, right, and I can tell you that for those who are really faithful, they believe that God does, he does move. He moves mountains. There's a song that says that he moves mountains. He literally will put people in your path, right. He will change the environment that you're in. You end up becoming the change and the breakthrough that you've been asking God for. You end up being the breakthrough in your family. You end up being the one in your family that helps other people overcome obstacles. Right, you end up being that one. That's. The best thing about this is when we go to God and we ask him. You know, can you help me with X? He changes us on the inside.

Speaker 2: 23:04

I had this, this prayer, this, this dream this last night, and it was a. There was a vlog. It was a influencer of some sort, but I don't know why, but I was in her vlog. I was like I was the perspective, I was watching. I was in her vlog and she was showing how she was making this meal. She was outside barbecuing something, and then she turned to go. She was taking us into her house.

Speaker 2: 23:29

Now, from the outside, it looked like to me an apartment, a complex. It was brick, it was like a, a ugly tan color. I mean, just from the appearance on the outside, I was like for this, for this lady, you know, wearing all this stuff, and this blogger, I know, how does she live in this place? Right, just okay, I'm just sharing my dream. So I saw it. I was like, yeah, she just lives in like a regular apartment complex. But I was still walking behind her, I was still following her. Okay, and so she comes in, she opens the door, y'all. She opens the door to her. What I thought was an apartment turned out to be this magnificent, magnificent home and we walked in and her kitchen cabinets were brilliant white and the walls were just this pure gray and it was so beautiful.

Speaker 2: 24:18

And as I'm walking in this place and I'm taking in the surroundings, I'm like what does Lord? So some dreams are spiritual and some are not. Some of them are just. You know, it is what it is. But I was asking, like what is that you want to meet?

Speaker 2: 24:31

Because I woke up with this dream on my heart, in my mind, and I was like what does this mean? It is the perception that we have, the way that we see things, is never the way that God sees things. So here it is, that you might have an obstacle, you might see something as an obstacle, and it turns out to be a blessing. He doesn't. God doesn't see things the way we see things. So when we petition him in prayer, what we're doing is we're also asking him to give us the understanding and the wisdom of the obstacle that you're in, so that your perception of the obstacle even changes. Does that make sense? Isn't that amazing? That was my dream. So even asking Lord how should I see this problem? What is it that you want me to see in this obstacle and in this valley and in this relationship. What do you want me to see in this obstacle and in this valley and in this relationship? What do you want me to see? Because, abba, I want breakthrough this month. What do you want me to see Because I refuse to go back to the valley that I was in last week? I refuse to go back to where I'm coming from. I want more for my family, I want blessing, but what do you want me to see? So that is also part of what you should ask God. Right, that was that dream.

Speaker 2: 25:46

Thank you, lord, for the dream. Thank you, lord, for visitations. Thank you for encounters and messaging. Thank you, lord, for every person under the sound of my voice who's seeking you out, and they have obstacles right now. I pray, lord, that they are being led back to you, that you are the only God and that's it. There is none other but you. I thank you, holy Spirit, that you will continue to reveal to them what they need to see concerning your will for their lives, so that it will be an individual revelation, lord, god, so they'll walk away knowing what you say concerning their obstacles and their challenges.

Speaker 2: 26:21

Father, I thank you for this blessed Thursday that you've allowed us to see. I thank you for bringing us back to another week and I thank you for every person who have a prayer request coming to the prayer ministry prayer phone line today. Lord God, that they will meet you there, that they will have their needs met and that they will hear from you. In Jesus name, amen, amen, all right, y'all, we did it. We Another Thursday. I hope to see y'all on the prayer line one o'clock and seven o'clock PM, eastern Standard Time. You can call us from the US or the UK. It is free. You don't need a seed. I know I have to keep saying that because there's a lot of. You know we don't do pay for pray, so you know again. You know, please share the phone number with your friends and family and I will see y'all next week. Don't forget to be kind to yourself and I love y'all. Take care.