When the power of prayer prevails...

God knows you.

He formed you. He knows the number of

hairs on your head. He knows your joy

and he knows your pain.

So why do we keeping him at arms length?

Do you think he's too busy? Do we think

our problems are too small?

Do we not know what to say? Good

morning. My name is Meg. uh for those

who don't know me and it's my ab

absolute privilege alongside Hannah this

morning um to bring you the next message

on prayer which is our four-week um

series that we started a couple of weeks

ago. Um so week one Jess started this

series with the Lord's prayer and what

the meaning and purpose of the Lord's

prayer is and last week Liam spoke about

uh further about what prayer is and how

we pray and this week we are speaking on

prayer prevailing in our lives and if

you haven't listened to the previous two

messages I really encourage you to do

that. Um, it's on our YouTube page. You

can look that up. Really take some time

to listen and invest. And what an

opportunity it is to start the year

focusing or refocusing on prayer and the

importance for us as individuals and our

community here at York Street. So, let's

pray.

Dear Lord, as

we listen to your word this morning, may

our hearts be open. May our ears be

open. Maybe we feel challenged. Maybe

you'll shake us up a little bit in our

seats and where we are as we really

consider prayer in our lives and in

everything prayer prevailing. Um, and

Lord, yeah, just really ask you to speak

to us as we need to hear from you. You

know us, Lord. You know the way we

listen. We know the way we engage. And

so, would you engage with us the way

that you know that we do that, Lord? We

just pray these things in your name.

Amen. So, if you've got your Bibles

there, can I encourage you to open them

up to James chapter 5

and we are reading from verses

13 through 218.

I've just come off the back of a camp

and there is nothing more I love than

hearing the young people flip open their

Bibles and you can hear those pages

flutter. And so, I really encourage you

like physical Bibles, there's just

something about them. Um, but yeah, I

can hear it now. That's it's really

nice. So if you got the your Bibles open

there. So again, James 5 13 through to

218.

Is anyone among you in trouble? Let them

pray. Is anyone happy? Let them sing

songs of praise. Is anyone among you

ill? Let them call the elves of the

church to pray over them and anoint them

with oil and in the name of the Lord.

And the prayer offered in faith will

make the sick person well and the Lord

will raise them up. If they have sinned,

they will be forgiven.

Therefore, confess your sins to each

other and pray for each other so that

you may be healed. The prayer of a

righteous person is powerful and

effective.

Elijah was a human being even as we are.

He prayed earnestly that it would not

rain, and it did not rain on the land

for three and a half years. Again he

prayed and the heavens gave rain and the

earth produced its crops.

So in James we are given a picture of

what praying looks like in every season.

James says, "Is anyone among you in

trouble? Let them pray. Is anyone happy?

Let them sing songs of praise. Is anyone

sick? Call the elders to pray. Confess

your sins to one another and pray for

each other so you may be healed. The

prayer of a righteous person is powerful

and effective.

In other words, whatever season you're

in, prayer belongs there and let it

prevail.

But if we're honest, prayer is often our

last response. When we're in trouble, we

try and fix it ourselves. When we're

stressed, when we worry, we complain. We

get frustrated. And when things are

going well, we tend to drift. We pray

less. We read less. We depend on God

less.

Yet, James reminds us, it's normal for

Christians to experience both sorrow and

joy. The question is not whether we will

face these situations, but how we will

walk through them. But that all raises

questions.

Are we actually letting him in and

learning to walk through

all? Have we walking through all seasons

with God or have we put him in a little

bit of a box?

And so I ask you,

what kind of a box have you put God in?

What stops you from swinging that box

wide open and letting God into your

everyday, into your waiting,

into your trouble, your joy, your sin,

your sickness.

God knows you.

He formed you. He knows the number of

hairs on your head. He knows your joy

and he knows your pain.

So why do we keeping him at arms length?

Do you think he's too busy? Do we think

our problems are too small?

Do we not know what to say?

If we have a look at Psalm 62:8,

trust in him at all times, you people.

Pour out your hearts to him, for God is

our refuge.

Trust him at all times. Pour out your

hearts to him. Not tidy prayers, not

rehearsed prayers, your heart.

Some of the most powerful moments of

God's presence in my life have been in

the waiting. When I've gone to open my

mouth to pray and I sense God saying,

"Wait,

don't rush." And sometimes even

physically, my tongue has been locked in

my mouth until I have waited.

And when it comes out, it isn't the neat

little prayer that I'd planned, but

something stirred by the spirit.

Those moments remind me prayer is not a

performance, something scripted, a

one-way monologue. It's two-way, it's

open, and it's relational.

In reflection time, preparing for this

message, sitting in the verses, driving

home from camp the other week, seeking

what God had for us this morning, there

was something that kept coming to my

mind, and that was timid in prayer, in

the actual act of praying, and timid in

what we pray for.

We need to start to shift that. We need

to be bold in how we pray and bold in

what we pray for.

In James

5:17

U. James points us to Elijah, an

ordinary human being who prayed bold,

faithfilled prayers and God moved. We

need that boldness again as individuals,

but also as a church family.

Did you know that every week on a

Thursday afternoon there is a committed

group of eight to nine faithfilled

people of prayer that gather together or

if they are unable to gather to pray

together same time wherever they are

they will pray. They pray for revival

for our church for our community. They

pray for our leaders here at York

Street, our city and our country

leaders, for our missionaries both

locally and globally to see God move in

a way that we haven't seen before.

But I ask you, why is it only eight or

nine people? Now, I understand the time

doesn't suit everyone or maybe this is

the first time you're hearing about it,

but why not set an alarm and pray

wherever you are at 2 p.m. on a Thursday

or come down to the church if that is

possible for you?

or anytime on a Thursday, set an alarm.

You could pray anytime, anywhere. It

doesn't matter. What a shift that could

bring to our lives, our church, and our

city. For us to be boldly praying as a

community for revival to happen in our

city.

And last Sunday, as I was getting ready

uh to come to church, I was thinking

about this message. As you do, it kind

of percolates in your little system and

you're like, "Oh, yep. No, I'm not

sure." Um, and I had this picture come

to me and it was angels sitting around

something like a tea room around a table

and there's this thundery rumble coming

and the angels are looking around and

looking up and going, "What is that

noise?" And God responds to them, "Ah,

that's the sound of Thursdays from my

people at York Street."

How powerful would that be for us to be

shifting in that space to coming

together every Thursday no matter where

you are praying and obviously it doesn't

have to just be Thursdays but Thursdays

for a start

and so as I was thinking about other

things you know this is just a tiny

example but a big shift um and it's

about how I've been praying for and

about things so one of the jobs I have

is a pastor worker for ESA Country

Ministries and for those that are not

familiar With ESA, a core part of what

we do is run camps for young people

during the school holidays.

Each camp there are various roles that

need to be filled, including speakers,

cooks, camp parents, leaders, etc. And

three or four weeks um before the camp

season kicked off, we had an ESAwide

prayer night. And one of the things that

came up was a need for one of our camps

for a speaker.

Three weeks before the camp started, two

weeks before Christmas, where on earth

was that speaker going to come from? You

think about it, humanly possible, shall

humanly speaking, impossible. And we

prayed the usual type prayers. God, we

know you'll provide. We know you've got

someone lined up. And yes, he does. But

the very end of the prayer, I found

myself saying, God, we know you've got

it, but can you just tell us who it is?

And it felt cheeky, you know, it was

forward and but it was honest and it was

me and God knows me. He doesn't need a

prayer version of Meg. And as we

continued praying, a name appeared in my

mind clearly typed in Times New Roman

for those who know about texts. Um, and

it was not someone who I'd thought of

and it wasn't someone in my contacts. I

asked and God answered.

Within a week, that person had said yes.

And from all reports, they did an

incredible job. And moments like that

show me God welcomes bold and expectant

prayer.

But sometimes our language around prayer

tells a different story. Have you

noticed how often we say we'll just

quickly pray or if someone could do a

quick prayer before we finish. Why

quick? Why apologetic? Why rushed?

It subtly communicates that prayer is an

interruption, a formality, a tickbox

before we get into the real work. But if

we truly understood who God is and the

authority we have in Jesus, we would

never treat prayer as an add-on.

So let me ask you, when was the last

time you reflect you reflected on your

prayer life? Is prayer your first

response, your instinct, your rhythm,

your refuge? James calls us back to a

life where prayer is woven into

everything. In trouble, pray. In joy,

praise. In sickness, ask for prayer. In

sin, confess and pray. In community,

pray for each other. In faith, pray

boldly. Because the prayer of a

righteous person, an ordinary trusting,

an ordinary person trusting an

extraordinary God is powerful and

effective. May we be people who pray

like we believe that. I'm now going to

invite Hannah up to share some stories.

Thanks, F. Thanks. Hey, for those who

don't know me, I'm Hannah. Um, I had the

amazing opportunity to go to the

Philippines last year as part of my YWAM

um, outreach trip. Now, the first thing

they tell you when you go to the

Philippines is put your mozzy repellent

on because they have all kinds of nasty

diseases over there. And the first thing

I did was forget.

So look, look, every evening, let's be

fair, every evening I was quite

diligent, but in the mornings I was

trying to get up and exercise cuz I'd

finally got it fit and I just kind of

forgot. Anyway, a few days later, um I

started fainting in really

uh bad repetitive ways. Like I fainted

three times in one day and were like,

"Oh, maybe it's just the heat. Maybe I

don't know, maybe something else is

going on." When I fainted twice the next

day, they're like, "Oh, no. This is not

okay. Okay, we're going to take you into

hospital. Went into hospital, fainted as

they're taking me in the door. That's

really embarrassing. Don't do that. Um,

but it does get your really quick

attention.

Um, anyway, uh, they tested me for

everything under the sun because as per

usual, my symptoms didn't look like

classic deni fever, but they're like,

"Oh, maybe it'll test you this." Anyway,

turns out I had deni fever along with

the other 20 people that were diagnosed

that day. It's a really popular thing

that happens a lot. Um, now I was so

weak I could not walk myself to the

bathroom. I could not stand up. Every

time I stood up, this massive headache

and dizziness and it was pretty yuck,

honestly. Um, and so after about 24

hours in hospital, I thought, "Oh, I

should ask someone to pray."

Okay, I was really sick. Um, and I

eventually like, "Oh, that's right.

there's people praying for me who have

actually said they'll pray for me when

I'm away on this trip. And so I typed up

an email, okay, please pray for me. I'm

real sick. And then I went back to

resting. And after 5 days on a trip in

the hospital, eventually they're like,

oh, we think you're finally better

enough to go home. Now, if I was in

Bellerat, going home would actually mean

going home. But when you're out on a

mission field, going home just meant

going back to the base where all your

team is still going out every day doing

ministry. And so I went back to the base

and I still didn't really have a lot of

energy and I was so tired and I'm like,

"Okay, I have to rest." And I get up in

the morning, I kind of have some food. I

go back to bed and all my team go out

and do all these amazing things like

visiting orphanages and prisons and

doing outreach ministry, which was what

I thought I was there to do.

God had other plans because I said to

God, "I'm meant to be here to do

ministry, right? I'm here for you. So

why I'm not out there doing ministry?"

And he just kind of whispered to me,

"Just just rest and just pray." He just

wanted to spend time with me. And I'm

like, "Okay, fine. I'll rest. I'm not

good at resting. I'm still learning to

rest." And then

dear. So I kept I kept pouring my heart

out to God, which is code for I kept

winging

like God, I just want to get better. Can

you just make me better? Okay, God,

please heal me. And I'm like trying all

these kind of formulas for how can I

make God do what I want him to do? And

he's like, "No, no, no. Just rest and

pray." I'm like, "Okay, fine. Rest."

praying kind of. Yes. My heart was

clearly not in the right place yet.

And honestly, after I got out of

hospital, I stopped asking people to

pray for me cuz I felt like I'd asked

for prayer and like I didn't feel like I

deserved more prayer. I didn't want to

be the annoying people. I'm like, "Oh,

can you pray for me again? Can you keep

praying for me?" And so, I didn't ask,

which rookie mistake.

Anyway, after 5 weeks of this, um, I was

still super tired, super weak. My

friends are out doing amazing ministry

things. I got to join them with a couple

of things, but then we have to go back

to New Zealand, which is the base where

I did my training. And um, after 30

hours of travel, flying back from

Taiwan, it was at that point, um, I

completely crashed again. And I was so

tired, I could not walk across the room.

I have two beautiful friends who would

put one person under each arm and they

would walk me across the room to the

dining room to sit down to eat food. Um,

and that was really hard.

Um,

I kept pouring my heart out to God

because I didn't understand why he

hadn't healed me yet.

Because physically I should have been

getting better,

but I wasn't. I was getting worse. And

wow, I didn't realize how hard this

would be to say.

I felt like I'd failed God. I felt like

I'd failed what he'd asked me to do

because he asked me to go there and give

him everything. And I didn't feel like

I'd done that. And so I'm still in the

like pouring my heart out wingy kind of

stage. And I got to the end of the week

and we had our graduation dinner and um

I stood up for about three minutes while

they gave me my piece of paper and then

I sat down again. That was all I had.

And the next night now I have this

amazing bold friend in New Zealand. She

lives on the base over there with YWAM

and she came over to me and she saw that

I was crying again and she just prayed

the most amazing bold prayers over me.

She just prayed that Jesus would bring

complete and utter restoration to my

body, that I would run and not grow

weary, that I would walk and not faint.

And I sat there thinking, "This would be

really great." But honestly, my heart

was just like, "God, I don't know if

you're going to do this anymore. I don't

know." But she kept praying anyway, my

friend. She just went to war for me. And

I'm so incredibly grateful for the way

she did that because by the time she

finished praying, I felt like something

in me had shifted in my heart. Maybe not

my hands and my legs, but my heart. And

after that, I sat down with God and I

go, "Okay, fine. You win. Do whatever

you need to do in me. I can't I can't do

what I thought I was meant to do. So

maybe I'm here for something else." And

he's like, "Ah, I've got your attention

now."

And so I poured my heart out in a much

more reasonable way and just surrendered

to okay, whatever you want to do in me,

I'll do it. And um I had nothing left at

that point and that's okay. Um but the

next morning was Sunday morning and I

woke up and I walked from my bedroom to

the bathroom. By the time I got there, I

realized, hold on, there's something

different about my body. I number one, I

can walk without hitting the wall.

That's really cool. And I thought, oh,

hold on. My legs are actually working.

Which felt so strange after six weeks of

complete and utter weakness to actually

get your limbs working again. I'm like,

whoa. Okay. Now, at the base in um New

Zealand where we were, it's on a really

steep hill and there is this insanely

steep hiking track up to the cross,

which they've planted the very top of

the property, which is so cool. And

before I went on outreach, so eight

weeks before, um, I could kind of walk

up to that cross with stopping a couple

of times. Now, I was pretty fit. I was

running two or three times a week. I was

walking every day, but this this is a

steep track. And I thought, "All right,

God, how good are you today? Let's see

if you can get me up to the top of that

track. I know that you've healed me good

and proper." And I walked all the way up

to the top, did not stop once. And I got

there, I'm like, whoa.

Like not not only did God heal me and

take away all of my weakness, my

dizziness, my headaches, my lack of

strength, he made me stronger than I was

before. Now, this is physically

impossible. You cannot come off six

weeks of dangy fever and hike up a hill

like that. No one does that. It is only

Jesus.

And I was just like, whoa. Okay. All

right. God, you are God. You are king.

And I am clearly have no clue. And it

was it was the most amazing thing ever.

Um and yeah, I was I just had such this

such gratefulness and such thankfulness.

Um not only for the people who prayed

for me at the base, but also I know

there's a lot of people here who were

praying for me in that time and it made

the world of difference for me. And I

know there's a lot of people that I

asked. I've got, you know, friends all

over the world now, as you do when you

join YWAM. And just knowing that people

are praying for me, not only with me,

but in different places that just it

it's so encouraging and it's so

uplifting.

And so, I'm going to give back to Meg

and we're going to try something new.

So, be brave and be bold. Okay, you got

this.

>> Thanks, Hannah.

Yeah. So,

you know, a few little examples of being

bold in prayer and praying with and for

each other. And so, as we close today,

there's a couple of practical

applications for you. The first is to

consider how you respond when you get a

message from someone to pray for them or

you're finishing a face-to-face

conversation and they say, you know, can

you pray for me?

Uh how easy it is just to flick up the

prayer hands and carry on and say, yep,

I'll pray. And as you walk away, that's

that's kind of done. You've flicked up

the prayer hands or said, "Yes, I'll

pray." And that's the last of you think

of it. But I want to challenge us this

morning as we kind of enter into 2026 to

shift that. And you might already be

doing this. When someone sends you a

message, stop and pray and then flick up

the prayer hands. And again, you might

already be doing that. Or respond with a

texted prayer back or respond with a

voice message of prayer. And if they've

asked in person, stop and pray right

there and then. Pray with them and for

them.

But for some people, this might not be

anything new. Uh but for others, it's

going to push us out of our comfort

zones. But all we are doing is being

obedient and stepping into what God is

calling us to do.

And finally, we can't have a message on

prayer and then not spend time in

prayer.

So, what I'm going to ask you to do is

to turn to the person next to you or in

a little group around you, and you might

know them, you might not know them. And

I'm not asking you to share all details,

but just enough to say to them, "I'm in

a season of waiting." Or, "Praise God, I

have joy, or I'm in a battle. I have a

work thing I'd love prayer for. I need

healing." And pray. Don't rush, though.

wait on what God might have for you, but

pray with boldness and courage. So, I

invite you to do that now.

Thanks for tuning in today. We hope you

enjoyed today's service and if you are

looking for any resources to continue to

connect in, you can find them on the

links below or on our website. We'd love

to see you in the building sometime at

one of our future services. And

remember, no matter what happens this

week, keep coming back.