A Call To Prayer

Welcome to Truth Talk Live, a daily program powered by the Truth Network, where pop culture, current events, and theology all come together.

And now, here's today's Truth Talk Live host. No man is greater than his prayer life. The pastor who's not praying is playing. The people who are not praying are straying. A pulpit can be a shop window to display one's talents.

The prayer closet allows no showing off. Poverty-stricken, as the Church is today in many things, she is most stricken here in the place of prayer. We have many organizers, but few agonizers. Many players in pairs, but few prayers. Many singers, few clingers. Lots of pastors, few wrestlers. Many fears, few tears. Much fashion, little passion.

Many interferes, but where are the intercessors? Many writers, but few fighters. Failing here in prayer, we fail everywhere. Nice.

Leonard Ravenhill, why Revival Terrys? Well, there's your answer right there. The power of prayer. How has prayer changed your life?

Call and tell me today on Truth Talk Live. I'm Stu Epperson, asking that question. I have two prayer warriors in the house. I'm humbled to be in the presence of greatness, because they are going into his presence every day, and when you're in God's presence, you have the glow of God. And I'm so honored to have you all. Brother, pastor, Julius Kootz, sister, Tanya is here too.

What a blessing. And you all are so excited about prayer. You have rented a theater in Greensboro, North Carolina, and you're calling one calling all, including my good buddy, Dr. Alex McFarland, and a star-studded cast of prayer warriors. And you want everyone to come to this from all over the Truth Network and everywhere, and if you're somewhere in Utah or Dayton, Ohio, and you want to load the camper up and come on, come on, right? But what's going on, Tanya?

What's all this excitement about? Well, you know, I love what you just read. That is incredible. Absolutely wonderful. Let me get your mic here working. There we go.

Okay. Yes, I love what you just read. It is wonderful.

And I love this quote by A.T. Pearson that says, There's never been a spiritual awakening in any country or locality that did not begin with united prayer. So that's what we're doing. September 21st, we're going to be in Greensboro at the Carolina theater. We are believers coming together to pray under the blood and the banner of Jesus Christ, knowing that he is big enough and he hears our cries and he's worthy of our worship. Well, I've heard about a lot of people getting together for concerts and for hoedowns and barbecues and stuff like that.

Monster truck shows. But this is a prayer gathering. This could be the most powerful thing. Pastor Julius Kuch, tell us how you're involved with this thing. How did she get you involved in this prayer thing, man?

This is exciting. You know, about eight years ago, I was invited to a prayer breakfast and and probably about 40, 50 people that don't know the number. But when I got there, I was invited. Well, matter of fact, I was greeted by Tanya.

And matter of fact, I got a chance to sit at the table with Tanya and her husband. And believe it or not, after that, we came together by the Spirit of God. And we were just hoping that something can come out of that and something did. Something did. And pray.

Rowan came out of that. And ever since then, we have been like brothers and sister, true brothers and sister. You know, a lot of sisters sometimes get on your nerve, but you still love your little sister. She keeps calling.

Yes, she keeps calling. But we the Lord has put us together to bring a message, bring a message to to those who perhaps understand what it means to come together at the body of Christ and make a difference. Even if we can't agree. One thing we can agree is prayer. We may not agree on what to pray for, but we know that we can agree that we all need to come and pray. Amen. And time you would agree with that.

You're smiling big about that, right? So cool. And so I want to talk to you all about this event, kind of how it came together. I want to take some calls if you want to comment on how the power of prayer has changed your life. Our toll free number nationwide is 866-34-TRUTH, 866-348-7884.

I'm Stu Everson. This is Truth Talk Live. We're so excited. We've been promoting this all over the airwaves. Or should I say the prayer waves like that?

And then also, I want to I want to know about what God's done in your life with prayer and how has that been? Let me go back to Tanya and let me get you this mic right here. We're going to get this one working, though. We'll figure that out. Tanya, what's God done? What how did what was your awakening moment with God in prayer? And to bring you to a point of calling people from all over to come to the theater in Greensboro to do this event?

Yeah, so this this started actually about eight years ago. We live in Broanne. I live in Broanne County.

Pastor Koontz doesn't. He's in an adjacent county. And at the time that we met, he was in Guilford. But my husband's a retired army officer. We moved to Salisbury. And a few years after that, I was studying the Book of John.

I was in BSF. And when I got to John 17, 20 through 23, before the Lord goes before Jesus goes to the cross, he's praying for believers yet to come. And he's praying that we would be united. As I'm in you, you and me, that we would be united.

Believers be united so that the world will know that he was sent. And I was looking around my new community and I was seeing, you know, the black churches over here and the white churches over here and the Hispanic churches and not crossing the street and staying in our silos. And my heart is for revival.

And we've got to cross the street if we want to see revival. And so what came birth out of that is Pray, Rowanne, which we've been doing this for eight years, coming together the first Saturday to pray. But then now we're in our third year, all 100 counties coming together to pray, which is Pray, North Carolina. And there's something powerful when God's kiddos get together and pray in unity, in agreement.

Well, and Julius, there's never been a time in our country. I mean, there's so much division. We've got two heavyweights teeing off against each other tonight in the big debate, the big presidential debate. There's a lot on the line. There's a lot at stake. There's this election going on. There's hate ads. There's lies all over television about all the candidates.

It's just that people are like, I don't want to watch TV. So has there ever been a better time to get on our knees before a holy God and just cry out for mercy? Not in my life. Not in my lifetime.

Not in my lifetime. Because I think that God has designed and he has orchestrated a moment such as this. There could not be a better time for us to come together as a state being that the state of North Carolina. They can come together and pray under the same banner, the kingdom agenda banner, where that we can be intentional with our prayer, intentional with relationship, because again, we have a relationship with Christ because of what he did for us and what we do for others.

Determine also our relationship with each other. Unfortunately, we have overlooked the opportunities that God has given us from the church. And because of that, we believe that he can reset what he could have done four years ago. We're believing that prayer can make a difference. Amen. Okay, we're going to take a break and we're going to talk more about prayer on the air. We may even pray over the air for you. You have a prayer need? Call us. 86634 Truth. More Truth Talk Live coming up right after this.

Hang on. Connecting to the Father through prayer. The power of prayer.

It's an all prayer over the prayer waves today on Truth Talk Live. I'm Stu Everson, so glad to have Sister Tanya and Brother Julius in. And what would bring two different people? A white female, a black male, and who knows what I am? I don't even know what category. I break all the categories together in the name of Jesus. You know, we're brothers and sisters in Christ forever, and yet prayer is so powerful and it unifies. And we're just pumped about what God's doing to bring a whole country and a whole city and a whole state together. We're going to pray North Carolina, and we may have a little prayer work for you all, if one of you are up to it, okay?

To pray, because I believe we have them on the line. Grayson is the reverend, evangelist, legendary football coach, man of God, Rick Gage. Is that you, sir? Stu, how you doing, buddy? Hey, man.

There's something—I'm hearing—I'm getting texts from my man Austin Cavanaugh. I'm getting reports the Holy Spirit of God's moving in Mount Airy, North Carolina. Give us a prayer update, Brother Rick, will you?

Well, all that God does, he does through prayer, eh, man? Hey, we had over 100 decisions for Christ on opening night, Sunday night. We had over 30 decisions for Christ last night. Our noon follow-up luncheons are growing each day, and testimonies at those new luncheons have been just incredible. We're just in the move of God up here, and Stu and you and I talked off air here about 10 days ago about the school assemblies. Well, we've been in every high school and middle school in Surry County delivering a non-religious, but challenging, motivating message about making wise decisions in the game of life. And we'll be in schools tomorrow on the Virginia side of this state line.

So after it's all said and done, Stu, we will be in front of 6,000 students in the public schools with, again, a non-religious message. Bobby Bowden said this, Stu. You remember Bobby Bowden? Yes, sir. Great football coach.

Yes, sir. Bobby once said that the youth of America, they may not be 100 percent of our population, but they are 100 percent of our future. And we want to do all that we can to reach the youth of this nation.

And when we go into these schools with a non-religious school talk, assembly program about making wise choices in the game of life, I'm telling you, you can hear a pin drop in those gymnasiums. And as you study the history of revival, moves of God, movements of God, you will learn that so many moves of God began with young people. You remember when revival broke out last year over there in Wilmore, Kentucky at Asbury College?

That didn't break out because of a bunch of gray hairs. It broke out because of a bunch of teenagers. And it kept going.

People from all kinds of states went to see that. We are seeing a move of God up here. And I'm going to tell the leadership tomorrow, I may say it tonight from the platform, if God gets a hold of this campaign, why not extend it? Now, give us the schedule now.

So you got tonight, and then you got how many more nights are you up? Tonight at seven o'clock there at Veterans Park, Tony Nolan, evangelist Tony Nolan, one of the most gifted Ephesians 4-11 evangelists on the planet. He drove up this afternoon from the Atlanta area.

He'll be with us tonight. We had Ken Freeman last night, a testimony that would just blow your mind, a victim of nine broken homes. He was saved in a Freddie Gage revival in the late 60s because a football player by the name of Jeff kept inviting him to come to church. And he brought him to a Freddie Gage revival and God saved Ken over 50 years ago. And Ken's been preaching the gospel now for some 50 years all over the world and has seen tens of thousands come to know Christ. Tomorrow night, we got Miller Gibbs, Joe Gibbs' grandson.

Miller's with Joe Gibbs Racing. He played football over here at App State in Boone, North Carolina. And he'll be giving his Christian testimony on Youth Night tomorrow night. And we got a Grammy, a Grammy-nominated Grammy musician by the name of T.J. Harris, T.J. Harris out of the Winston-Salem area. And he's going to be with us tomorrow night for some special music.

So we got a great lineup this week. Praise God. And souls are getting saved. The gospel's going out.

We've been promoted. We had Tony Nolan on our show last week. Dr. Carson hosted in just powerful testimony. Rick Gage has a remarkable testimony. We've interviewed him.

It's a podcast. I mean, but we want to we're doing a focus on prayer today. Rick, you walked into a prayer land mine, brother. OK, so this is sacred ground and we're going to we're going to pray for you right now. This is a prayer. Andrew Murray said prayer that is in unity with Jesus. Prayer that is in union with Jesus is always answered. Amen. I can't think of anything that's more dear to God's heart than the salvation of sinners. Hallelujah. Well, how about Tonya praying for Brother Rick? He's going to bring the message of the gospel tonight with other speakers and just pray for hearts. And what can we lift you up right now, brother? Are we allowed to do this on the air?

I don't want to break any laws or I mean, management could come up here and shut me down any minute now. I don't I don't want that to happen. The throne of grace right now. Go ahead.

Tonya, go ahead. Lord, I thank you for Brother Rick's obedience. Your love language is obedience, Lord. And so I just thank you for what you're doing in and through this ministry. Those that are coming that are speaking. I just praise you for the souls that have been saved that have a new birth. They have a new birthday. So we praise you for that because we know, Lord, with one person, one life can can change the world.

Twelve lives we saw change the world upside down. So, Lord, we thank you for these new births. And, Lord, I just ask that those that are coming out and especially the youth, as we talked about the youth, Lord, we ask for soft hearts as they hear this word that the gospel is preached and that there is revival in Mount Airy. We we just come to the throne just asking. There's so many things that we we need.

You know our needs, but you want to hear from your kids. And so, Lord, we bring all of our prayers, our petitions, but we just want to glorify your name. You're doing a mighty work. There's so much that you are doing and we praise you for that. But, Lord, I want to acknowledge there's so much that you're holding your mighty hand back to that we don't even fully understand. But we just acknowledge that you sit on the throne.

You've never left the throne, Lord. So we just praise you. We honor you. We love you.

Lord, have your way tonight. In Jesus's name we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. That's Reverend Evangelist Rick Gage who's preaching the word tonight.

He is now weaponized with prayer. And by the way, there are a lot of people praying for this revival all over the country. A lot of our listeners, you know, that are sitting perhaps in Roanoke, Virginia, can't get there.

Martinsville, Virginia, maybe Toledo, 106.5 in Toledo. But they're praying, and that's powerful. I mean, that is powerful because Jesus told this lady, the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 9, she says, Go, your daughter's healed. He cast that brutal, violent demon out from hundreds of miles away.

But she's not giving the word. That's the power. And so what you just did is so special. Rick, real quick, I know you're short for words, you don't say much, you're very introverted, but tell us a testimony of answered prayer in your life. We're asking people to call in and share prayer testimonies as we're launching this prayer North Carolina event September 21st, just a week and a half away. Tell us, Rick Gage, how has prayer impacted your ministry and how you're even doing what you're doing today and preaching what you're preaching tonight? Well, when God called me to the ministry in 1986, I was a football coach up there at Liberty University.

In fact, we had Don D. Costin, the president of Liberty University. Ten seconds, go, go, go. Awesome. We ran out of time. Five seconds, give us one more word. Well, pray, pray, pray.

Those are the three greatest things you can do. I love that. We're praying for them tonight, Mount Airy, North Carolina.

I love it. Listen, we see Jesus praying, and we need to be people that are faithful praying. A fascinating story in Mark 11 of Jesus cursing the fig tree. And this has put all kinds of theologians all over the world since antiquity into some sort of conundrum. Why would he curse the fig tree? And there's some really, really rich lessons in there, because it's one of those Markan sandwiches where Mark jumps into this encounter Christ has, cursing the fig tree, jumps to Christ going in. He's cursing trees, then he's cleansing temples, right? He goes in, he cleanses the temple. And he says, hey, don't turn my father's house into a den of thieves. It's a house of prayer.

Isn't that interesting? His primary description of God's house is a house of prayer, where we go to connect with God. And here you have Gentiles on pilgrimage, Holy Week, from all over the world, Jews from all over the world coming into Jerusalem to connect with God, and it turned into some big merchandising, big money-making political scam.

And so Christ got violent, turned over the tables. He says, this is a house of prayer. And so I just love the fact that Julius, Tanya, you're in here to talk about prayer. We have a whole show dedicated. We've opened up the prayer waves. We've prayed in the last segment.

Oh, wow. And if you didn't hear this, if you just joined us, go back tonight. Grayson, our awesome producer, we're going to make this a podcast, right? And we're going to put it on there for you to listen to this whole thing and hear the whole story of this special event coming up, September 21st, 2024, Prayer North Carolina. Of course, if you're from South Carolina, listen to 88.3 FM in Boylan Springs or in Gaffney.

You can still come, right? Or if you're listening to 96.9 FM, Truth Divine on 96.9, maybe you're driving on Wade Hampton Boulevard right now, you can come to the prayer event in Greensboro, North Carolina, just a few hours away. But you can pray and be a part of that. We'll do a Prayer South Carolina.

We'll do a Prayer Ohio. But, you know, it's just a moment to stop at all the chaos. And so Jesus comes back to the fig tree, and he says a beautiful thing in 1122. And he uses the fig tree, which had leaves but no fruit, which is interesting. How much does that describe the American church?

And how much does that describe our lives often, right? We're all show, all had no cattle, right? Where's the fruit?

Where's the beef? We got all the show, we got all the talk, and, you know, Jerusalem was all regaled with all the ornate stuff for Passover. They had the lambs, they had it all lined up, but there just was no heart. It was a big den of thieves.

And that fig tree had the leaves but no fruit. And Jesus said, he said, Have faith in God. 1122 of Mark's Gospel. And what a statement, because ultimately prayer is faith, right? I mean, how do you guys define prayer when you're out there talking and lecturing, and you're going to obviously be talking a lot about what we were about to do on the 21st. How do you guys describe prayer? Well, for me, I communicate with God first, because everything we do, we must do in faith.

That's what pleases Him. So even if you're praying, you must do it in faith. Because, again, that's what pleases God. So when I'm out there and I'm praying before I get out there, see, the thing of it is, people wait to pray when they get to the place to pray. You got to pray before you pray, because if you don't, it's just a matter of finding words to say. But you need to say what God says. So you need to pray before you pray, because then you know that whatever you praying, it was of God. We don't take the time sometimes to pray before we pray. So when I do go out, I'm praying before. So if God give me something to pray for, I know exactly what to pray for, because I've already prayed. He told Moses, He said, listen, if you go, I will be with your mouth.

Can you imagine? God said, I will not be with you. He said, I will be with your mouth. And the Word of God informs us how to pray. Just look at that. We're listening to God. We're letting His Word inform. But it's all connecting with Him.

I love that. Communicate with God. This idea of vertical.

So often we were rushing into the horizontal, but we're not right vertically. And even Jesus, as busy as He was, it says several times in Mark and Luke, Matthew, He got up before dawn, and He went out to pray. In fact, they're looking for Him.

Where did He go? But He's out praying. There's something powerful to the point where the disciples in Luke 11, they didn't say, Lord, teach us to do miracles. Teach us to cast out demons. Lord, teach us to prophesy. Teach us to speak in tongues.

No, they didn't say any of that. They said, Lord, teach us to pray. Tell us the impact prayer has had on your life and kind of when you're communicating to people, the basics, the baby steps. I remember probably 12, 15 years ago or something, I couldn't wait to talk to my husband to complain, to complain about something at work or to complain about something. And he listened. And then my husband's response was, have you prayed about it?

And I did a huge gulp and I was like, no. And that is my husband's default. And I've been able to watch him be a prayer warrior. And after all these years, that is my default is I go to God. You know, yes, we say amen after a prayer. But my day in and day out, I'm just talking to the Lord. So much so that it doesn't end with with amen. I'm just talking to him throughout the day. And very good. So, yeah, he is.

He has become my default. He wants to hear from me. And that is the relationship that he wants to have with us. Yeah, that's like what Paul was talking about in one Thessalonians five. He says, pray without ceasing. Yeah, that's right.

Yeah. You're not talking about some Gregorian chant with your eyes closed. You're bumping into everyone.

You know, we're crashing on the freeway, but you're just it's an open line. It's like Bill Bright used to call it breathing, inhaling, exhaling, you know, confessing my sin, keeping short accounts with God, admitting I need him, calling upon him. And just now does it have to be really big and giant and monumental for you to pray about? I mean, he doesn't hear us. We talk about when he was thinking, Peter's wasn't it was like three, three words.

Just like, hey, I'm about to go under here. Lord, help save me. But you know, the concept of prayer still is, you know, you notice that when we pray for people, we spend maybe 15, 20, 30 minutes. We pray with people, over people. And you notice what Jesus did. Jesus went out alone and prayed for three and four hours, perhaps.

But then when he walked through the city, someone touched him and they was here. See, we spend more time praying for people, healing when we should be in prayer with God so that when we do go to the places, they can just look upon us or they can touch us, as the scripture says. So we have it backwards. We want to spend more time praying over people than spending time in prayer with God. Now that goes back to something we touched on earlier, because you know, how often do we say these words?

Christianity or the gospel is not about religion. It's about relationship. Now we say that, but then when we go to God, it's like we go to him as a last resort instead of a first response. We go to him to get from him rather than to be with him. We go to him to try to be like him, right? Or to get, you know, give me, to have our need met rather than just enjoying his presence. But relationship, like if we treated each other, and I'm speaking personally, I'm talking right back to me. So I may have one finger, two fingers pointing at each hand, but I got three or four pointing right back at me. If we treat each other like we treated God, just as constant gimme, gimme, gimme, our relationships would be like, you know, dead ends, wouldn't they? Talk about that. Yeah. Well, and to your point, a lot of my prayer life is with thanksgiving and gratefulness and, you know, in all things, in all things.

So it could be the stubbed toe. It could be something that you would think, why would I ever thank God for it? His ways are not my ways. His thoughts are higher than my thoughts. And so I can't see, you know, I have a finite mind, but I trust my Lord.

I trust him. And so it is with gratefulness. And I even, you know, my husband and I walk our dogs to our neighborhood. We're just, you know, I would say multiple times a week, my husband and I are like, oh Lord, just thank you. The blessings of our life, the air that we breathe, we get out of our bed, you know, that we have another day. And so... We have something to complain about.

Hey, I'm thankful that we have something to complain about. My dad used to always say that we'd be sitting around. He's been in chemo.

He's hanging on by a thread. We're arguing about some, you know, tiny, dumb thing. And Big Stu, in his brilliance, would say, hey y'all, isn't it neat that we can... Let's thank the Lord that we have something to argue about. You know, he's just given us so much. Enter his gates with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving's a big part. I heard Pastor Andrew Hopper, who's a Truth Network pastor, say, I heard his sermon from a couple weeks ago, where he said, Effective prayer is grown in the soil of thankfulness.

Yeah, yeah. I thought, what a good word, you know, of prayer, of thankfulness, of gratitude. And part of that's like, hey, thank you, Lord. You know, like, do I thank the Lord?

Two convicting thoughts here. And if anyone has a testimony about prayer, we'd love to hear from you. We are going to open the lines up. We're coming up on a station break.

We're going to take that break and come back. But if you have a testimony about prayer, or if you have a prayer request, I got a couple prayer worries in here. Okay, look, don't call in. That means they can pray for me the rest of the show. But if you do want to call in, it's 866-34-TRUTH.

866-348-7884 is our toll-free number nationwide on Truth Talk Live. But the thought of two things. One, am I thanking God for his answered prayers? So many times, that money comes in right in time. Am I thanking God for that? Am I taking a moment to thank him for the delicious food that's sitting right in front of me, or am I just diving in? And then the second thing is, another pastor friend of mine said, if God answered all your prayers that you pray today, what would happen?

Right? Or what wouldn't happen? Think about that. If God saved every soul that you asked him for salvation day, I can't stand that presidential candidate. Well, have you prayed for their salvation today? Amen.

And then why would you expect them to change? That's good. How about that?

Can we come back and expand on that? We've got Mike, we've got Gina, we've got some other callers on the line. 866-34-TRUTH.

We have an open line if you want to call in. How has God used prayer? How has it changed your life? More coming up, and we may even pray our way out of here talking about this big event coming up in North Carolina after this. Hang on. The power of prayer. Prayer that moves mountains.

When's the last time you sought the Lord? When's the last time, to quote Leonard Ravenhill, if John Knox had prayed, give me success, we would have never heard of him. But he prayed a self-purged prayer.

Give me Scotland or I die. And his prayers scored pages of history. If David Livingston had prayed that he might split Africa wide open as proof of his indomitable spirit and skill, his prayer would have died. But he prayed, give me Africa. He's prayed, Lord, when will the wound of this world's sin be healed?

And they found—how did they find Livingston, by the way, when he died? They found David Livingston on his knees in prayer. Where are those great prayers? Praying, seeking the throne of God. When's the last time you were up at night with tears flowing, praying for a lost child, praying for a soul? And so this is the power of prayer, and we're so honored that Tonya and Julius, brothers and sisters in Christ, unique brothers and sisters from other mothers and, you know— Same father.

Same father. That's exactly right. You're here, and God brought you together September 21st. That's the big prayer event. We've got a call around, but before we do, tell us real quick, September 21st, but you have to be a certain denomination to join, right?

Right, Tonya? That's absolutely incorrect. Everybody can come, right? Everybody's welcomed. Everybody's welcomed. And what I will also say is, not only is everybody welcome, we are encouraging you to invite your unsafe co-workers, friends, neighbors, loved ones. There will be a gospel presentation that we will give.

Wonderful. Alex McFarland is going to be this. You know, he's going to bring the gospel up, and he's going to have people on their knees praying. That's right. That's right. I love that, brother. He's a regular on the Truth Network. Mighty man of God. Mighty. So Julius, this prayer event, September 21st, at the Greensboro Theater, downtown Greensboro, is there a website people can find it on?

Yes, yes. You can go to www.pray-northcal.com. Pray-nc.com. Okay, that's easier. Okay, very good. Pray-nc.com.

And so, but to attend the prayer event, I mean, it's got to be 500 bucks a person or something like that for a ticket? No, as a matter of fact. Well, hold on now. You're approaching the throne room of Almighty God. Now, hold on. Now, listen here now.

Okay, you guys, I don't want to, you know, I don't want any bait and switch here. It's got to be at least 100 bucks, 50 bucks. I mean, if I pay in advance, can I get a cheaper deal? No cost.

What? No cost. Rolling charges to heaven have got to be— No cost. He's paid it all. The gospel is free and he's paid it all. He has paid it all. Okay, and that's something. He's paid it all so we can pray it all. Amen.

How about that? So you guys are a blessing. I'm so encouraged. Mike is on the phone, 106.5 FM, Dayton, Ohio. Hello, by the way, to my buddy Joe, listening in Dayton right now in his wonderful family. Mike, how has God answered prayer in your life? How has prayer changed your life, brother? Prayer has changed my life tremendously. It's prayer without ceasing, and the communication with God is just awesome. He deals with you every day. He tells you stop when you don't wonder why you need to stop in a parking lot, and then all of a sudden the car zooms by.

Prayer is the reason God wants to communicate to you to say something to someone who needs Jesus. I have so many things that I could say because I'm really tight to this, and that's why I'm calling in. One day, 15 years ago, I was on a surfing trip, and I'm surfing, and it's the most beautiful surf I have ever seen in my life. The water is classy, the wind is blowing offshore, the waves are nice and beautiful, and I am enjoying my surf time out there in the ocean. And I said, God, can you just make the waves a little bit bigger? And God said to me, no, I made this day for you. I made this day for you.

This is a beautiful day for you. And I said, oh, I am so sorry, God, and I cried out there on the surfboard, and I said, thank you, Lord, for this day. And now, every day after that, I say, thank you, Lord, for this day. May I reach the Lord, may I do your will, may I do the things you need to do. Thank you, Lord, for this day. What a testimony. Thank you, Mike, for blessing us.

How about that, you guys? Isn't that encouraging? Thank you. What a blessing.

What a word from Mike, Dayton, Ohio. You know, so many people have impacted by prayer. Hey, how many of us are here today because our mama prayed for us, because our grandma prayed for us? We're walking with God today because of that.

I mean, what a testimony. You all, a lot of testimonies are part of this prayer event, Prayer North Carolina. But you're not just looking in the rearview mirror, which we need to do, and we say, thank you, God, for what we've done. But also, God's calling us to ask for great thanks for him, to seek great thanks from God. And we're praying for healing in our land. What are some of the things we'll be praying for? This is a big event on September 21st at the Greensboro Theatre in Greensboro, North Carolina.

Also, for those that can't physically be here, what are some things that are deep on the heart? And by the way, look at this star-studded cast. Of course, Alex McFarland, my good buddy, who always brings the house down. Our own brother and pastor, Julius Kuntz, Christian Marketplace Ministries. Of course, you'll be there, Tanya, coordinating this whole thing, keeping us going, keeping us on task, and keeping the prayer wars going.

We've got Al Wood, legendary NBA, UNC, hardwood star, who's got a great testimony. I mean, I don't have time to read all these pastors and leaders and influencers. Lay people.

Lay people, too. But talk about the focus of this day, the 21st. Yeah, so we're coming together to pray over things that plague our own cities, our towns, our counties, our state, our nation. We're praying for our first responders. We're praying for our local pastors and churches. We're praying for godly marriages, our children, our students. We're praying against violence and drugs in our community. We're praying for revival. And we're praying for the unborn. So it's the things that we should be lifting up in prayer wherever we live.

And now we're coming together to do this together. We have somebody that's praying for kingdom men to take their rightful place. We have somebody praying for kingdom women. But I do want to go back and say, as I said, we're praying for our local churches and our pastors. That is something that we need to be doing daily. And I encourage you, if you're not praying for your pastors, set an alarm on your phone that goes off every single day to remind you to pray for your pastors.

Such a good word. What is it you want to see happen, Julius, on this day? You've been a part of this since day one with this mighty woman of God here. What do you want to see happen? So what is your prayer for September 21st and why should everyone listening come out and be a part of this? I want people to come to experience the love of God that they have not experienced in a long time.

I want that place to be filled with so much God's love that the hearts will be broken, that only He can mend them back together. I'm praying and believe in God that everything that had held us back from being kingdom minded to being kingdom led to being the body of Christ, that God saw way back when, when Jesus died, he saw something in mind. He saw the body of Christ.

And unfortunately, somehow, some way we have come short of that. But I believe here in this gathering, this prayer gathering, I do believe that God is going to show up. I believe that hearts are going to be ripped out and going to be examined so that they can see where God is not. Our hearts need to be open and exposed and find the places where God is not.

And we want him to be in that place. And confession of sin. And confession of sin.

And there's something about this collection. I mean, the Israelites came together. And under Ezra, remember, they rent their clothes, confessing their sin. They brought the Word of God out.

I know the Word of God will be central to your prayer event. Yeah, and the Bible just said that the world won't know, the world won't know that God sent his Son unless we love one another. So we want to demonstrate what God intended is that Jesus Christ is alive and is well and is done through the love that we show one to another. And we have to be intentional. We have to cross over. We have to make sure that we're dead to self.

We're dead to self. When Jesus was praying, he said, not my will, but that will be done. When he do that, he did that in prayer. Your will will surrender in prayer. If you're not praying, your will would never surrender. It's done in prayer. His will, not my will. Not my will, but your will. Your final word and your challenge on prayer and your challenge on this 21st, pray-nc.com.

Tanya, what say you? Yeah, so you were talking about confession. One of the things that we do at Pray North Carolina is we have somebody who blows the shofar at the beginning of starting this so that we have, we take about 30 seconds to a minute to come with a clean heart, so that we come with a repentant spirit. And as Julius was talking, it just reminded me, we're coming to the well that never runs dry.

And so, yeah, this is from 12 to 2. The door's open at 11, absolutely free. We encourage you to go to our website, get your free ticket, and we are just so excited about what the Lord is doing and about to do. And we're praying for you, and we're inviting everyone to pray for this great event.

Julius, take us out of here. And if you're in the marketplace, anywhere in the marketplace, if you work, you've got a business, if you're at home, this will be a good time to break away and come and be prayed for. And again, to those involved, to Tanya, her husband Greg, to my wife Tammy, we just want to say thank you for allowing us to come together and support such a great time. We're looking forward for you to be there September 21st, 2024 at the Carolina Theatre, and we believe in God for great and mighty things.

I love it. All kinds of churches, different denominations, but they love Jesus, and they're coming together under one roof. In Greensboro, North Carolina, to pray. Pray that God would heal our land. And pray for these political leaders, pray for salvation, pray for repentance, pray for all kinds of missions.

We have people around the world who have never heard the gospel. Yes, yes, yes. And so, as you were just saying, we're not praying for the donkey, we're not praying for the elephant, we're praying to the lamb, because that is it. I love how you put that. Wow, I have no words after that.

What a blessing. But I do want you to give the website one more time. Pray-nc.com. Okay, pray-nc.com. And friends, hey, hang up with us.

Well, thank you for being on. Y'all have blessed my day. Hang up with us and dial up with God. Pray to him. Go to the Lord. He is one prayer away.

You may not know the Lord. Well, call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Start right there, right? It's that easy, right? That's right. And he is a God who is ready and mighty to save. And thank you, God, for saving us and for bringing us together today on Truth Talk Live.