- Welcome to 7 Days Ablaze.

This is the week wherewe at CBN gather together

on a daily basis, every dayat noon, and we pray for you,

and we have a speaker whowill come and share a word,

a word in season for today's headlines.

What is God saying today?

But we want to pray for you,

that's the purpose of what we do.

We want to set aside timewhere the staff of CBN

prays over the prayer requeststhat you have sent in.

If you want to be a partof this, it's really easy.

All you have to do iscall us, 1-800-700-7000,

and give us your prayer requests.

There's also a place on CBN.comwhere you can type it in,

or you can type it into our Facebook page.

Whatever place you decide,we want to pray for you

and we believe in prayer.

There is no time ordistance in the Holy Spirit,

and when you realize that, you realize

just how effective prayers can be.

The prayers being made to heaven,

the book of Revelation shows us

that it goes all theway to the throne room,

and there it's like the incenseof the throne room of God.

So let's fill the throneroom with incense,

our prayers, our requests,and let's let them

be made known with thanksgiving.

Now, before we pray, I want to read

some of the requests that we have.

Here's "healing for my grandson.

He has Lyme disease thatalso has caused meningitis."

And then here's one thatI think is universal

for a lot of families in America today,

"that my son would get a job.

He's been out of work for nine months

with a family to support."

Here's one, "protectionfrom COVID for my husband,

who's in a nursing home due to ALS."

Many people are in nursinghomes, and their relatives

are all fearful andthey're unable to see them,

and let's pray for those,all those in a nursing home.

And here's one, "As we open our schools,

health and safety for ourteachers, administration,

students, and all their families."

So let's lift these to the Lord,

and if you have special requests,

let them be made known today,

and let them be madeknown with thanksgiving,

not for thanksgiving for the problem,

but thanksgiving that God is the solution,

He will provide the solution.

He answers the prayers of His people.

Lord, we pray for these requests.

We pray for the grandsonwho has Lyme disease.

We pray for anyone who isat risk of being exposed

to COVID-19, for allthose in nursing homes,

all those separated from family members,

who are unable even to havethe comfort of a touch.

Lord God, be with them.

Let Your Holy Spirit touchthem and be with them.

Let them know that You'reright there with them,

"for in You, we live andmove and have our being."

Now, Lord, for all ourteachers, for all our students,

for anyone involved inschool administration,

for anyone involved inanything that puts them

at risk for COVID-19, forinfection, Lord, protect them.

Enable schools to reopenand be safe places.

We ask for protection for anyone,

and we ask for all worry andall fear to be gone from them.

And now, Lord, collectively, we ask

for a solution to this horrible pandemic.

We ask that You would give insight

to anyone researching it, to doctors,

to anyone involved in vaccinations,

for anyone involved in treatment,

that You would give themsupernatural insight

for a cure and for a prevention.

Lord, do this for us, for we ask it

in Jesus' name, amen and amen.

Again, if you need prayer,we're here for you,

and all you have to do ispick up a phone and call us,

1-800-700-7000.

You can also write to us, CBN Center,

Virginia Beach, Virginia, 23463.

It's our honor, ourprivilege, to pray for you,

we do it all the time, but especially

in 7 Days Ablaze, this week of prayer.

Well, without question, 2020has been a challenging year.

The coronavirus, racial unrest,

violence in our city streets.

And there's another thing coming,

it's called a presidential election.

Many are feeling more anxiety

and discouragement than ever before.

So, how do we find hopeeven when we're fearful?

Well, Pastor Nate Griffin bringsus a special message today,

urging us not to abandonthe greatest weapon

God has given us.

(inspiring music)

- Hello, CBN family.

It is my pleasure to be with you today,

and I just wanna talk to you about prayer,

and I want to really focus onbeing provoked for purpose,

being provoked for purpose.

There's a story in the Biblein 1 Samuel, the first chapter,

and it talks about a man named Elkanah.

Elkanah had two wives,Peninnah and Hannah,

and he would take his family to a place

called Shiloh every year to worship.

Hannah did not have children,but Peninnah had children,

and every time they would go to worship,

Peninnah would provokeHannah, because Hannah

had no children and shedesired it so deeply.

Now, the Bible was always clear.

Elkanah had a deep affection,a deep affection for Hannah.

He had a deep affection for Hannah,

but time and time again,her adversary, Peninnah,

would provoke her, andshe would provoke her

until she wept everyyear, year after year,

she had the exact same experience.

Have you ever felt like youwere in a cycle in your life

where year after year,things seem to not go right,

year after year, things seemto go from bad to worse,

season after season,calamity after calamity

seem to hit your house?

This was Hannah's situation,and it was a familiar issue,

it was a familiar problem,it was a familiar foe.

Year after year, Peninnah would point out

her deficiencies to her.

And there are some things thatHannah would attempt to do

in order to cause herselfto be able to make it

through the situation andthe depths of her pain.

And I wanna talk toyou about these things.

One of the things she would do

was she would attempt to change her focus.

Have you ever been there in your life

where you tried to focus onanything that was happening

except what was really happening?

You tried to focus onanything that was going on

except the pain of whatwas really going on.

You tried to take your mind off of it.

What she would do is shewould just go to worship,

"Let me just go offer my sacrifices."

She would go up to the house of the Lord,

and she would attemptto offer her sacrifices,

and she would try to focus on her praise

and she would try tofixate on the Scripture

and she would try toconcentrate on her worship,

and she would try tocentralize her sacrifice,

and she would say to herself,

"Anything but this pain that I'm feeling.

God, help me to take my mind off of it."

But the adversary wouldprovoke her so viciously

that she could not help but tokeep her mind on this thing,

and year after year, she wept,

and year after year, she would sacrifice,

and year after year, shewould go home the same way.

Year after year, she wept,

year after year, she sacrificed,

and year after year, shewould go home the same way.

Have you ever been at a place in your life

where your tears seem not to be enough?

That, "I've cried all that I can cry,

that I've expressed myemotions and my feelings

about the situation, andI can't do that anymore.

I don't have many more tears left.

My tears are not enough. Theydon't seem to be working.

They don't seem to beswinging the pendulum

of what it is that I'm going through.

My tears are not enough."

Year after year, she was provoked,

year after year, she wept,

and year after year, she wenthome in the same condition.

I understand that it hurts,

and I empathize with yourtremendous discomfort,

but there comes a time in your life

where weeping doesn't get the job done.

I wanna really reachout to the individuals

right now who might feel stuck,

who might feel like you'vebeen in the same place,

doing the same thing, tryingto get a different result,

and it's emotionallyburdensome and it's tiring,

and you feel like you'vegot the weight on the world,

the weight of the world on your shoulders,

and you go to bed tiredand you wake up tired,

and your pillow is soaked because

you've been crying all night long.

(clapping) God told me to encourage you

that there's somethingmore that you can do,

that there comes a time in your life

when tears are not enough.

Don't get me wrong.

We serve a God whoempathizes with our pain.

"We do not have a highpriest who cannot be touched

by the feelings of our infirmities,

but is tempted at each point, as are we,

but yet without sin."

In other words, we havea God who can touch us,

who can feel our pain,who can fill our hurt,

and He hurts when we hurt,but there comes a time

in your life when tears are not enough,

and you've got to do more.

Time after time, she wept,

time after time, she sacrificed,

and time after time, she went home

the same way as she was before.

And the Bible says that one time,

just one time, she got fed up.

Have you ever been fed up?

Have you ever been,can I say it like this,

sick and tired of being sick and tired?

That, "I've got to do something (claps)

to change this situation,I've got to do something

to cause a shift in mylife, that the thing

that's been provoking me has pushed me

to the brink and haspressed me to my limit,

and something has got to give,

(clapping) and I've got to find a way

through this situation orout of this circumstance"?

So one time, one time, she pushed her seat

back from the table, havingleft the family meal,

and she went up to the temple by herself.

She went up to the temple by herself,

and this time, she didn'thave the double portion

of meat to offer as sacrifice.

This wasn't about the sacrifice.

"I've already got that part done.

I've already sacrificed whatI've been given to sacrifice,

So this part is not that."

She went with a different thought in mind.

"I've wept all I can andI've sacrificed all I can,

and now it's time for meto do something different."

And the Bible says thatshe went to the temple

all by herself, and this time, she began

to weep bitterly, but not only weep.

She began to do somethingelse, something different,

something that up until now,it does not speak of her doing.

It speaks of her going to the temple,

it speaks of her making sacrifices,

it speaks of her weeping,but it does not speak of her

doing this very next thing.

This time she went tothe temple, she prayed.

This time she went tothe temple, she prayed.

And it was interesting to me to know

that year after year afteryear, you would go through this,

or year after year after year,you would experience this,

but this is the first timethat it records she prayed.

Repeatedly, we find ourselves grieved

about circumstances somuch so that we talk

to our families, yeah, yeah,we talk to our friends,

we talk to our confidants.

We try to figure out thebest way to solve the issue,

the best way to address the problem.

We get self-help books.

We get "How to Make it Over for Dummies."

We do everything we canto try to give ourselves

a leg up or to try togive ourselves a hand

through whatever calamitywe're facing in life.

And we've made our requestsknown to everybody around us,

we've communicated our need to(claps) everybody around us.

But in the book ofPhilippians, the Bible says,

(clapping) "Make yourrequest known unto God,

and the God of all peace shall guard

your heart and your mind."

I wanna encourage youtoday to make your request

known unto God.

It's interesting becausewhen I was growing up,

you know, I didn't grow upin the Facebook-Twitter age

and everything like that.

We grew up doing things thatyou may be able to relate to.

We wrote letters.

Any of y'all know what I'm talking about?

We grew up writing letters.

And we would write the letter,

and sometimes, if it wasa really important letter,

you might let one of your friends read it,

you might let somebodyclose to you read it,

and you may ask 'em,"Does that sound good?

Does that sound right?

Can I let you know another way?"

We had a lot of proofreaders.

We had a lot of proofreaders.

Have you ever typed anemail and not press Send,

but you just kept reading itover and over and over again?

If I could ask for something,this is what I would ask for.

If I could request something,this is what I would request.

But we never really quite press Send.

I wanna encourage you todaythat it's time to press Send.

Repeatedly, we find ourselves,

we find ourselves in timesof turmoil in our life,

and we've done everythingwe can to solve our issue,

and we've done everything wecan to address our problem.

But God said, "Don't forget to utilize

the thing that matters most.

Prayer is not just your wayof (claps) communicating

with Me, I wanna make this clear,

prayer is not just your wayof communicating with Me,

but instead, prayer givesMe license to cause My will

to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

"What are you talking about, Nate?"

What I'm talking about is thefact that when God created

humanity, the Bible declares,in the book of Genesis,

that He gave humanitydominion over the earth.

He gave humanity dominion over the earth.

And He gave humanitydominion over the earth,

and once He had givenhumanity that dominion,

even after the fall, He had already

given that dominion away.

And so our relationship withGod, our prayer life with God,

is a license for Him to interfere

with what's taking placein the earth realm.

It's a license for Him to cause His will

to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

So this is the thing that got me.

When Hannah finally began to utilize

this masterful form of communication.

I wanna encourage you todaythat you have it, too.

When Hannah finally began toutilize this masterful form

of communication, somethingbeautiful happened.

Eli recognized her.

Eli recognized her.

And he, he looks uponher and he says, "Hey."

At first he thought she was intoxicated.

He said, "It's too early to be drunk."

She said, "I'm not drunk. Ijust need something from God.

I just need something from Him."

She was moving her mouth andwords weren't coming out,

and she was in anguish, and heagreed with her right there,

"Whatever it is you needfrom God, you're gonna have."

This is the thing.

She went back home, she went back home

and she laid with her husband,

and finally, the thingthat she did not have,

the thing that she could notever wrap her arms around,

the thing that had plagued her

during her entire covenant,(claps) God gave it to her.

God gave it to her.

But she had to be provoked into it.

She had to be pushed into it.

"What do you mean?"

She had to be provoked to the point

where she would pray,where she was not afraid

to make herself (claps) look crazy

or (claps) sound crazy

or (claps) make people wonder what it is

she was going through ormake people hypothesize

about her situation or her circumstance.

She had gotten to the point where she's,

"I don't care whatanyone around me thinks.

I don't care what anyone around me says.

God has (claps) provokedme into this position,

and I'm going to pray.

Finally, she prayed until God gave her

what it is that she desired.

When she prayed, she told God,

"If you give it to me,I'll give it back to You."

And this is the thing.

God was preparing.

God was preparing to manifestHis will in the earth realm.

She did exactly whatshe said she would do,

and she gave that whichshe prayed for back to God.

It had to be exactly the way it was.

It was painful, she wentthrough a lot in that moment,

but it had to be exactly like it was,

because God had to allowher to get to the point

where she said that, "Nowit's not even for me anymore.

Now it's not even just soI can say, 'I have it.'

Whatever You give me, God,I'll give back to You.

I just need to get that thing."

She said, "I'll give it back to You,"

and she gave it back to Him.

Hannah gave her son backto God, and that same son,

that same son went to live with Eli,

and Eli raised him inthe ways of the Lord,

until the Lord called Samuel.

The Lord called Samuel.

Somebody say provoked for purpose.

I've been provoked for purpose.

I'm not sure why I had to gothrough what I went through,

I'm not sure for certainwhy I had to experience

what I experienced,(clapping) but I've been

provoked for purpose.

So much going on in our society,

and God continues toallow, for whatever reason,

the different calamities that we face,

whether it's pandemic, orwhether it's social unrest,

or whether it's individuals being laid off

or furloughed, or so manydifferent things going on

in so many different environments.

And I believe that God hasprovoked you for a purpose,

because it is (claps) time to pray,

to make our requests known unto God.

Eli raised Samuel in the ways of the Lord,

and Samuel will go on to bea mighty prophet before God.

Now, I want you to recognize the pattern.

Remember what we said prayer was.

Prayer is us allowing Godto enforce His will on earth

as it is enforced in heaven.

Now, in order to do business on the earth,

in order to do business on the earth,

you have to be of the earth.

In other words, you gotta have a body.

Let's just say it like that.

In order to do business onearth, you gotta have a body,

which is why, when the adversary

tempted the woman in the garden,

he utilized the body of the serpent.

Which also happens to be why God could not

just stop him in themoment, because He had

already given dominion of the earth

to things in the earth, humanity.

And so He said, "Okay," Helooked at what was going on,

and He said, "Okay, I understand."

He said, "Serpent, you think you've won.

Enemy, you think you've won.

Devil, you think you've won."

The enemy thinks that he'swon in some of our lives.

He thinks that he'scanceled your assignment.

He thinks that he's taken away what it is

that God anointed and ordainedfor you to be in your future,

but (clapping) I've got news for you.

I've got a celebratory moment for you.

This is what God said.

He said, "The serpent might have caused

the fall of humanity," butHe looked at the serpent

and he said, "The seedof the woman," He said,

"that same woman that you tricked,

that same woman that you deceived,

that same woman that you got to act

outside of what was My will in the moment,

that same woman will carry a seed,

and the seed of the woman will rise up,

and the seed of the womanwill crush your head."

Now, look at this relationshipand this communication

with God, us giving back to God

the ability to enforceHis will in the earth.

It was Samuel who was a prophet of God.

It was Samuel who would eventually anoint

a kid by the name ofDavid, a kid who had came

out of the fields,watching his daddy's sheep,

when all of his other brothers,the oil would not flow

for any of them, and he wasthe one that was left out.

It was David that Samuelwould eventually anoint.

And it was also David that God would say,

"I'll bring forth a seed, aseed from the line of David,"

and that seed came in theform of Jesus, the Christ.

So this is the thing.

Had Hannah never been provoked,

had Hannah never been pushed to the brink,

had Hannah never wentto her breaking point,

the chances that shehad gotten into position

where she could say, "God,whatever you give me,

I'll (claps) give back toYou," are slim to none,

But God said, "I've gotto push you sometime.

I've got to press you sometime.

I've got to force you into a position

where you'll give yourselfaway to Me completely,

absolutely, totally,utterly, and without fail."

She was provoked for a purpose.

She was provoked for a purpose.

God was about to do a greatthing through her life.

And I wanna encourage you right now

that you're being provoked for a purpose.

Over these last five orsix months, I have not run

into anyone who was notgoing through something.

I have not had theopportunity to communicate

with anyone that everythingis going right for.

It's been a tough time.

It's been a tough time.

And we've been gluedto 24-hour news cycles,

and we've been glued to the Internet,

trying to find out the latest news

and the latest thing that's taking place,

because time after time after time,

something seems to be going wrong.

And I want to encourageyou, body of Christ,

that God is provoking us for purpose.

That now, more than ever, it's time for us

to position ourselvesto communicate with God

and tell Him this, "Allow Your will

to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Use me however it is You wanna use me.

Send me wherever it is You wanna send me.

Strengthen me in the way thatonly You can strengthen me."

I know it's been hard, butGod is about to restore you.

I know it's been difficult, but God

is about to lift up your head.

I know some things mayhave taken place in life

that seem as if theytook your breath away,

but God is about tobreathe into you again,

new hope, life abundantly.

And He's gonna allow it to come

through the provocation of the adversary.

"I wept, I sacrificed, (sighs)

I praised, and nothinghappened until I prayed."

I want to encourage youto utilize your weapon.

Jesus spent an inordinate amount of time

doing this one thing, praying.

It's interesting.

His disciples posed a question to Him

once they'd seen Him do a lot.

They'd seen Him performmiracle after miracle.

They'd seen Him heal blindand cause the lame to walk

and the deaf to hear.

They'd seen Him do miraculous things.

When they got the opportunity,this is what they asked Him.

"Lord, teach us how to pray."

Because that communication isthe thing that matters most.

You've been provoked for purpose.

The calamity that youface will not conquer you.

You've got a victor within.

The victory is already yours,

and the glory will always be His.

God bless you.

(inspiring music)