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Have You Ever Stopped Praying Too Soon?

I want to ask you something honestly.

Have you ever prayed for something… and then stopped?

Not because you got your answer.
Not because God clearly told you no.
But because you got tired. Discouraged. Distracted.

I think many of us have.

And I want to show you something in scripture that completely changed the way I see prayer, persistence, and breakthrough.

A Personal Experience That Sparked This Message

Over the last couple of days, I had what I can only describe as a supernatural experience.

I woke up and heard someone praying. Not physically in the room, but clearly. A man praying with authority, calling things out with boldness. The next morning, I heard a woman crying out, glorifying God.

I cannot fully explain it.

But I knew this: it was a call to prayer.

And instead of questioning it, I realized something.
Do not waste the moment.

That led me straight into 2 Kings 13.

2 Kings 13 Explained: The Moment King Joash Missed

In 2 Kings 13, King Joash visits the prophet Elisha as he is dying.

This is a moment. A significant moment.

Elisha tells him to take a bow and arrows. He instructs him step by step, even placing his hands over the king’s hands. This is prophetic. This is spiritual partnership.

Then he tells him to strike the ground with the arrows.

Joash strikes the ground three times… and stops.

And Elisha is angry.

He tells him plainly:

You should have struck five or six times. Then you would have completely destroyed your enemy. But now you will only have partial victory.

Three strikes. Three victories.

That was it.

The Danger of Stopping Short in Prayer

This is not just about a king.
This is about us.

How many times do we:

• Pray a few times and stop
• Believe for a while and then lose momentum
• See a little progress and settle

Joash did not fail because he refused.
He failed because he stopped short.

And I believe many people are closer to breakthrough than they realize… but they stop.

What Persistent Prayer Really Means

Scripture tells us to:

• Ask and keep asking
• Seek and keep seeking
• Knock and keep knocking

Persistent prayer is not repeating empty words.

It is partnering with God in faith.

It is continuing even when you do not yet see results.

It is believing that what God has shown you is worth pursuing all the way through.

Preparation vs Regret: The Two Ways to Live

As I studied this, I saw a clear contrast.

Preparation

Preparation is faith in action.
It says, I believe something is coming, so I will act accordingly.

It looks like:

• Prayer
• Time in the Word
• Removing distractions
• Staying spiritually ready

Regret

Regret is what happens when the moment has passed.

It sounds like:

• I wish I had kept going
• I should have done more
• What if I had not stopped

Preparation looks forward with intention.
Regret looks backward with sorrow.

Why Your Prayers Still Matter (Even If You Don’t See Results Yet)

One of the most powerful truths I want you to understand is this:

Your prayers do not die.

In Revelation, we see that prayers are like incense before God. They are held, remembered, and active.

Even after Elisha died, a man was thrown into his tomb and came back to life when he touched his bones.

That is how powerful what God places in motion can be.

Your prayers are still working.

Even if you do not see it yet.

How to Start Praying Again with Confidence

If you feel like you have stopped short, do not stay there.

Do this instead:

• Return to prayer
• Ask God to show you what to pray
• Stay consistent
• Let go of distractions
• Keep going until you see it through

Do not let regret define your story.

Pick the arrows back up.

A Prayer for Breakthrough, Faith, and Persistence

Father, right now in the name of Jesus, we pray for the salvation of our loved ones, our family members, our children, our grandchildren, our friends, our coworkers, God, whoever they are, calling out their name today, God. We lay hold of it together and we pray for the salvation of those people, that they would come to know you in spirit and in truth, that they would humble their hearts before you, give their lives to you and lift you up as Lord, serving you all the days of their life.

God, we ask for deliverance from addiction, from those that we know and love who are bound. We ask for freedom for those caught in sin, in habits that are bringing chaos and destruction into their lives. God, we speak order where there is disorder in families, in relationships, in finances.

God, we choose today to prepare. We ask that you give us insight, strategy, and direction. Show us how to pray. Show us how to act. Show us what needs to change.

Give us the strength to cut off what needs to be cut off. Give us boldness where we need to speak. Give us discipline where we need to grow.

Father, today we pick up our arrows. We will not stop short. We will keep praying. We will keep believing.

We thank you that our prayers are powerful, that they are heard, and that they are working even now.

In Jesus’ name, amen.

Don’t Miss Your Moment

If God is stirring something in you right now, do not ignore it.

Do not delay.

Do not stop at three.

Keep going.

Your breakthrough may be on the other side of one more prayer.

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and a personal supernatural experience
02:00 A call to prayer and spiritual awareness
05:30 2 Kings 13 overview
10:15 The danger of only calling on God in crisis
14:00 Recognizing your moment with God
18:30 The arrows and what they represent
24:30 Why stopping early limits your breakthrough
30:00 Preparation vs regret
36:00 How the enemy keeps you stuck
42:00 What it looks like to prepare spiritually
48:00 Why your prayers never die
54:00 A call to action and prayer

Full Transcript

This transcript is auto-generated and not perfect. We hope it blesses you.

Jaime Luce (00:00.558)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Jaime Luce podcast. am so excited to be with you today. I’m so grateful for you. Thank you for taking time today to make diving into and studying the word of God a priority in your life. can never go wrong. It is the bread of life. It’s what feeds us and encourages us. And so I’m happy to be with you today. I have had, um, boy, I’ve had a weekend. Um, we’re going to be in second Kings today.

We’re gonna be in chapter 13 of Second Kings. I have, so over the weekend, our church that I’m a part of had a women’s conference. And over the course of the women’s conference, the name of the conference was Suddenly. And we are believing that God’s gonna bring suddenlies that people have been waiting for in their life. And I just,

I feel as though I have already received one of my sudden leaves and it’s not even that I knew specifically how to articulate to you what I was asking God for, but he has ignited something inside of me this weekend and, and then

over the last two days. So I’m going to tell you something a little personal. You can think I’m crazy. You may never tune in again. That’s okay. I’m going to give testimony to the spirit of God because that is my breath and life. That is my experience. I speak to the Lord and I feel that he communicates so clearly to me. Sometimes other times I’m searching, I’m trying to tune in, but sometimes, you know, I hear him so clearly and I have had

what I would consider a very supernatural experience the last two days. And I’ll explain. I’ve had trouble sleeping deeply, I think because I’ve been so geared up and having long days over the weekend, but also because of what God has stirred up inside of me, just a renewal of fanning the flame, the fire burning brighter.

Jaime Luce (02:17.582)
Any of the things that you’ve heard say all the little phrases we’ve coined in the church and honestly, I was surprised because yesterday morning I was laying in the bed with my eyes closed. I was awake, but I wasn’t ready to get up. I was still tired. Just laying with my eyes closed.

and all it was as if all of a sudden a suddenly I could hear and I cannot explain this to you I I can’t explain it to me I can just tell you what it was I could hear

I could hear a man praying.

and he was a man of God, a strong voice, praying with fire and fervency. And he was calling cancer out of bodies.

Jaime Luce (03:29.908)
It was very real. I could hear it. It was as if there was a building next door.

And he was so loud and so strong that I could hear what he was saying. It wasn’t as if he was in the room with me. Goodness, I have already messed myself up.

Jaime Luce (03:51.928)
So bear with me. I don’t have a tissue here, which I should have.

Jaime Luce (04:00.232)
it was so powerful that, it’s the kind of prayer that when you hear it, you immediately want to pray. You yourself are called to pray because of the prayer that you hear going forth. It’s that powerful. It’s that stirring. And I just kept listening to it and listening to it thinking, where is this? What am I hearing?

because it was faint enough that I knew I had to really listen, but I knew what I heard.

Again, this is a supernatural experience. So I pondered that all day yesterday.

I just thought about it. And then as I thought about it, the Lord began to speak to me as I was studying His word.

And I was rereading because when I’m getting ready to bring something to you, I read whatever passage that I’m going over, I read it and reread it and reread it and reread it. And I was reading it again. And when I was reading it, I felt the Lord showed me something for you that was tied to my experience yesterday morning.

Jaime Luce (05:28.472)
Well then, this morning, I was shocked because I was having the same thing. I woke up, but I was too tired and I couldn’t fall back to sleep. I felt very uncomfortable. Normal stuff, just normal stuff. But all of a sudden, there it was again, like tuning into an old radio station. This time I heard a woman praying.

Jaime Luce (06:02.296)
And she was just crying out the glory of God. She just kept saying, glory to your name. Glory to your name.

Jaime Luce (06:14.476)
And I said, Lord, you don’t have to tell me twice. This is a call to prayer. I did get up and pray yesterday, but I knew don’t waste any more time sitting here. If I get to experience this again, thank you for this experience. I don’t understand it. I don’t know who I’m hearing. I don’t know where this is coming from. But I had to get up and pray.

Jaime Luce (06:40.066)
So I share that with you because this morning, well last night and yesterday what the Lord spoke to me, I’m gonna give that to you, but this morning I realized don’t miss the moment. I’m having some kind of experience that I can’t explain. And instead of questioning it,

Don’t waste it. And we’re gonna see that in scripture. Don’t waste it. Get up and seize the moment. Seize this moment right now. Get up and pray right now. Join this saint, whoever she is praying, or whoever she was when she prayed. And I’ll explain that in a moment.

I don’t know if the people I heard was just something that is in my own spirit. I don’t know if God allowed me to hear saints of old pray. I don’t know, I don’t know what it was, but I know it was real prayers. And I can tell you that God showed me something so powerful and so beautiful from it.

that if you’ll lay hold of this, my friends, if you’ll lay hold of this, this will change the trajectory of your life. This will truly change the trajectory of your life. I heard a message once that so impacted me that I have sought it out over the years, multiple times on YouTube.

And it was the gist of it. I don’t know what the message is titled, but the gist of the message is a praying spirit. We need a praying spirit. And there are sometimes a praying spirit meaning that you are just always praying. You know scripture tells us to pray always. We are always to be praying. So all throughout the day, you’re just in communication with God.

Jaime Luce (08:51.916)
You’re just aware of him. He’s in the room with you. You’re, you are having conversation with him all day. Cause you, he’s a part of you. He has an agenda for you today. Even if it’s just to do the normal things that you do to care for your family. Going to a job, going to school, doing some kind of ministry, having a day off, doing, having some fun. It doesn’t matter. Do you know before I go anywhere, even if it’s for, as long as I remember, I shouldn’t say

I’m perfect at this, but if I’m gonna go do something that’s planned fun, planned fun. I’m hoping to have fun. It’s a day off or it’s a day to do some things. I’m sorry I really did need a tissue, but…

I will ask the Lord, I will say to him, I don’t want to go if you don’t go with me. I want you to go with me.

I want to spend time with you. want to enjoy you. Whatever I’m doing, I want to enjoy it with you. I want to enjoy you. I want to see that you are present. And I’m not talking about, you know, there’s a, I hate that we have these nuances, but we do. You know, so many people have a,

have what they think is a relationship with the Lord that is nothing more than a self-serving

Jaime Luce (10:26.722)
Well, it’s a false identity of being a Christian, I think. Where they aren’t really living their lives for the Lord, but they’re the kind that are always saying, I’m, I mean, they talk the talk. Bless the Lord, I’m blessed, God’s with me. And they say this kind of stuff, and then when they have things that they want to see God move in and do, because they know they need help, they’ll say, they’ll pray, God bless it, God.

Instead of asking first, God is this even something you want me to do? Is this a place you want me to go? Is this something you actually want my hand to touch? So I am not, I want to separate when I say that I asked the Lord to go with me, I’m simply saying I already know this is the plan. Okay. I already know this is what, what is okay with the Lord. I’ve already, you know, I’ve already had that, um,

witness of the spirit about whatever I’m going to do. So I’m just, I’m giving that little caveat there. I don’t think it’s good for us to just randomly think that, or take the posture. Even if we don’t think it on our minds, sometimes we just take this posture. We have to be careful of this. This is our flesh creeping in. It’s the world creeping in. It’s a selfish nature creeping in. When we just…

We just ignore God until we want him to do something. It’s a genie in the bottle kind of reaction. And if we don’t get what we want fast, we get angry. And we think, what’s wrong? Why didn’t God do that for me? And it’s just a wrong mindset.

But there are times when God is moving and he is leading in a direction and we can miss our moment. And even if we don’t fully miss our moment, we can miss how great the moment should have been.

Jaime Luce (12:23.18)
I don’t know if you’ve ever had that experience where you, you got to do something or a, or an opportunity was presented to you in some form or fashion. And you realize when it was all over that you didn’t truly seize that opportunity. It was there. It was present, but you didn’t seize it.

And you know the feeling that comes afterwards, the terrible regret that comes after it. Cause you can’t get those moments back. We’re going to talk about that today. We’re going to talk about that today. We’re going to talk about why I brought up all this prayer talk and my experience the last two days. And I’m hoping, I’m hoping I have that experience again. I hope it wasn’t just yesterday and today. I hope I get to experience that again.

I can say that I did experience it once before. It was probably in the last year or two at the most, probably the last year, I would say. I did have that once before. I didn’t know what was happening. And I just thought about it. I just pondered it. But I didn’t want to lose my moment this time. So keep that in mind.

as you go with me to 2 Kings chapter 13.

And I’m not going to read the entire chapter, but I’m going to read a couple good portions of it. This is basically, we’re going to be talking about two particular kings today. Both, they are both kings of Israel and I’m sorry, that’s wrong. Kings of Judah, not Israel. In the book of second Kings,

Jaime Luce (14:24.756)
it flips back and forth which kings they’re talking about. Sometimes they’re talking about the kings of Israel, sometimes they’re talking about the kings of Judah. We’re gonna be talking about the kings of Judah in chapter 13, but it’s a father and a son. So both are kings, a king until he’s dead and then his son takes his place, which is generally the course. But these two have something in particular that happens that is, I think, worth noting about.

what we pass on and either that could be a blessing or that could be a detriment to us. And we see in the life of King Jehoahaz and then his son Joash that they would only call on God when they were truly out of every other option. These were not considered

kings that did what was right in the sight of the Lord. These were kings who did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. And interestingly enough, King Jehoah has, and I’m probably botching their names. Let me, I’m gonna look at a note I had here.

Jaime Luce (15:46.06)
Jaime Luce (15:49.346)
Well, I’ll leave that for next week. It goes with this, but that’s great. We’ll go over that next week. King Jehoahaz in chapter 13 verse four is dealing with the fact that he did what was wrong in God’s eyes and he was paying the consequences. He did evil in the sight of the Lord and he’s now paying the consequences. Actually, let’s go to verse three. Then the anger of the Lord was aroused

against Israel and he delivered them into the hand of Hazael king of Syria and into the hand of Ben Hadad the son of Hazael all their days. So another father-son duo from Syria is a problem for King Jehoahaz and Israel. So Jehoahaz pleaded with the Lord and the Lord listened to him

This amazes me, God does this over and over again in scripture. Sometimes we wonder why God has not destroyed certain evil people and sometimes it’s because those evil people in some form or fashion have a way that they are caring for or blessing people, whether intentionally or as a byproduct and God is caring for those people based off of

something that that wicked even person is doing and he will spare that person for a time in order to protect those other people. We don’t always see why God’s judgments are not what we think to be swift and quick. Sometimes he is patient, but there’s a reason for what he does because he is always just. He is always kind.

The scripture says he is just in all his ways and kind in all his doings. That is the Lord. And so Jehoahaz, though he’s not serving God, he is king over Israel and God has not yet fully forsaken Israel. So he listened to him and says, for he saw the reason he listened to them was for he saw the oppression of Israel because of the king of Syria.

Jaime Luce (18:15.0)
who oppressed them. Verse five, then the Lord gave Israel a deliverer so that they escaped from under the hand of the Syrians and the children of Israel dwelt in their tents as before. This is important as before. And verse six says, nevertheless, they did not depart from the sins of the house of Jeroboam.

who had made Israel sin, but walked in them. And the wooden image also remained in Samaria. For he left of the army of Jehoahaz, only 50 horsemen, 10 chariots, 10,000 foot soldiers, for the king of Syria had destroyed them and made them like the dust at threshing. Wow.

So God had to bring judgment on this king, but for the sake of the people, he heard him pleading to the Lord for help and brought someone to deliver them so that that king of Syria would at least leave them alone and go away. Left them with nothing, left the armies of a God with nothing, but at least they were able to dwell in their tents as before.

The problem with the phrase as before literally means none of them, because it says nevertheless they didn’t apart, did not depart. None of this, none of what God did for them, none of the goodness of God, none of the blessing of God was recognized or attributed to God in such a way that they walked away from their sin and now served God. They were unchanged.

the people of God unchanged.

Jaime Luce (20:16.46)
This example was followed by his son, Joe Ash. We see Joe Ash come into play in verse 10, but I wanna take us to verse 14. And I’m gonna read you this last portion, these last verses from 14 through 25. And then we’re gonna really dig into this. I want you to be thinking about this because we have got to be a people

who are truly surrendered to our Lord. He’s Lord. He gives the commands. He’s in charge of our life. He orders our life. We simply follow those orders. We say, yes, we are obedient servants, loving Him and grateful for every good thing that He has done and the deliverance that He continually brings to us. He has cared for us.

the provision he gives for us. I mean, I’m even amazed. This should encourage some of us because we worry about friends and loved ones who we know are just walking in full on disobedience to God. And yet when they cried out to God, God listened, God listened. We serve a very merciful God, a very gracious God.

We don’t deserve what he gives to us. I hope that we understand how we should be treating that mercy and that grace. How we should be honoring him for all that he has done for us. All right, let’s go to verse 14. It says, Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. This is the prophet of the land.

This is the man who stands in between heaven and earth for Israel. The man who brings the message of God. The man who had the double portion, a double portion and the mantle of Elijah.

Jaime Luce (22:31.35)
I want you to understand the severity and the seriousness of this moment that King Joash is walking into. Because we have to recognize our moment. We have to recognize our moment. Which means we have to be looking for our moment. We have to be looking for it. There’s preparation there.

If you are looking for something, there is preparation that you are making if you were looking for that moment. If you have a scheduled, got recently, I was privileged to be a part of a very special dinner where I got to have dinner with President Trump’s son, Eric.

with my husband and another couple at Mar-a-Lago recently. And it was nothing that we made happen. It was simply something that a door was open to us for this. So we’ve, we walked through it and there’s a lot of preparation that goes into preparing for that. When you realize the environment you’re going to be in, you realize the powerful people that you will be.

sitting and speaking with and having a meal with. It made me think of all kinds of things to be prepared for. Things that you don’t think about when you sit down at your house just to have dinner. Doesn’t matter what you wear, doesn’t matter what you look like, doesn’t matter what time it is, if you’re on time or a little late or a little early, you get to, you know, it doesn’t, so many things about being prepared for a moment.

Some moments really matter and some moments are not those moments. So we have to recognize those moments. And we’re about to read that King Joe Ash is recognizing a moment, but he’s not, he doesn’t fully

Jaime Luce (24:58.262)
grasp or take advantage of the moment. Okay. Okay. Before I get ahead of myself, I’ll read this. Okay. So Elisha had become sick with the illness of which he would die. Then Joash, King of Israel, came down to him and wept over his face. I mean, it looks like he’s taking it pretty seriously.

He’s very grieved by this. I wondered, I Googled, like, why is he grieving over this? Why is he making such a fuss if he isn’t one who really serves the Lord? there was, know, Google will pull from different commentaries and things. And so I was just doing a quick, I just wanted to quickly see what it had to say. I did my own research, but I wanted to see what it had to say. And it was actually quite interesting.

It said that he had gone for two reasons. And I think they are accurate. The first one is spiritually.

He is a prophet of God. There’s no doubt he’s a prophet of God. Everyone knows he’s a prophet of God. Even King Ahab knew Elijah was a prophet of God, even though he didn’t like him. Even though he called him his enemy, he knew he was a prophet of the Lord. And so spiritually speaking, Elisha is sick, and this sick is so sick, it’s sick unto death. And who will be the person who can get a word because his father desperately needed

word from the Lord and got it. His father desperately needed to God to help and now he’s king and who’s he gonna go to? So his going and his weeping is both spiritual and political. Spiritual and political. Because politically if he doesn’t have God’s help how will he win his wars? How will he know what he should do if he’s in a battle that he’s in over his head?

Jaime Luce (27:04.407)
There’s a lot of what ifs, there’s a lot of fear here. There’s a lot of unknowns. But nevertheless, he does seem to be truly weeping. He came down to him and wept over his face and said, my father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen. Okay, this is interesting because on the one hand,

This is the very statement that Elisha made when Elijah was taken up into the whirlwind.

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Jaime Luce (28:39.794)
Elisha knew I’m about to walk into in his moment. I am about to walk into a position of caring for knowing that that caring for Israel, knowing that that mission to care for them includes using their mighty army, knowing how to defend Israel from heaven’s perspective. And then with earth’s

tools. God would intervene, God would use whatever they didn’t have, God didn’t need their army, but they would use their military might and their physical soldiers. And they understood that this is both a spiritual and on the other hand a political issue. So he’s being honest. Here King Joash cries out the exact same

It makes you wonder if he knew what Elisha had cried out when Elijah went. I mean, this is a moment of you’re dying and what comes next.

And Elisha knew the moment.

And now Joe Ash, King Joe Ash, King over Israel is recognizing the moment.

Jaime Luce (30:07.5)
Now if we are gonna compare and contrast a little, when Elisha knew that Elijah was gonna go up, that God was gonna take him, and all the other prophets knew it as well, they kept saying, do you know that God’s gonna take your master today? Yes, I know, be quiet, he’d tell him. He just kept following him. And Elijah kept telling him, just stay here, I’m gonna go on. And he’d say, no, I’m going with you. There’s no way I’m separating from you, I’m going with you.

He knew there was a moment coming. There’s a moment. There are important moments. He understood he was going to have to seize the moment. And finally, Elijah says, what can I do for you? he asks for, Elisha asks for a double portion of the anointing that is on Elijah. And Elijah says, you ask a hard thing.

But if you can see it, you can have it. If you can see it, you can have it. Meaning, if you can see me be taken up, you can have what you’re asking for. If you can see your moment spiritually, then you can have it.

And he was not gonna not be right there next to Elijah. He was not gonna miss his moment. And when that fiery chariot came, the mantle as Elijah was lifted fell from Elijah and fell to Elisha.

And Elisha says, when he asked to cross the Jordan, where is the God of Elijah? And he takes that mantle and he slaps that water and the water parts. And he knows I’ve seen it. And now I have, I have received that double portion. have received, I have seized the moment. I have received.

Jaime Luce (32:27.277)
what I asked for.

Jaime Luce (32:31.726)
Now want you to think about that for a moment. I’m not sure how much King Joash knew of that exchange and knew of that moment, but here he is and he is saying exactly the same thing. My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and their horsemen. He sees the moments here. And Elisha said to him,

take a bow and some arrows. So he took himself a bow and some arrows. Starting off well. Then he said to the king of Israel, put your hand on the bow. So he put his hand on it. And Elisha put his hands on the hands of the king’s hands.

So here’s the bow, the king has raised the bow, his hands on the bow, and Elisha puts his hands on King Joash’s hands.

Jaime Luce (33:47.128)
Verse 17, and he said, open the east window and he opened it. Then Elisha said, shoot and he shot. He’s doing really well so far.

And he said, the arrow of the Lord’s deliverance and the arrow of deliverance from Syria. For you must strike the Syrians at Afek till you have destroyed them. Then he said, take the arrows.

So he took them and he said to the king of Israel, strike the ground. So he’s telling them, open the window, shoot your arrows out, strike the ground with them. So he struck three times and stopped. Now, there are not words in here that don’t mean anything. Every word means something in this and it’s important what these words mean.

He shot the arrow, it started off as obedience. He was seizing his moment. He’s literally hand in hand, partnership with the prophet of God for future events. This is a picture of prayer, okay? There are future battles. There are future things you’re gonna have to conquer.

And you get your arrows out. That’s your prayer. You get those arrows out. There’s also another beautiful picture of this. If I were to make another kind of compare and contrast here, another portion of scripture says that a man is blessed when his quiver is full of arrows and it’s speaking of children, that children are like arrows in the hand of a warrior and he shoots them.

Jaime Luce (35:59.862)
and he shoots them where he knows he wants to go. Cause he’s going to conquer with them. He’s going to use them. And so this, can take this to also understand this is important for you to understand the prayers even for your children and your children’s lives. And you can, I’m not going to be concentrating on that today, but I want you to also have that vivid picture as well. But the scripture says that he stopped.

It doesn’t say that he had finished and shot all the arrows. It says he shot three and he stopped.

He stopped. Now if we’re thinking about prayer, means I prayed three times and I stopped. And you can say, well, you know, Paul prayed three times and he stopped. Well, that’s because in his prayer, God answered the prayer and told him, I’m not going to answer this prayer the way you think. My grace is sufficient for you. He got an answer. That’s why he stopped. But he did pray three times in expectation.

that was going to get a deliverance. Okay. So let’s go back to the scripture. He stopped verse 19 and the man of God was angry with him and said, you should have struck five or six times. Then you would have struck Syria till you had destroyed it.

He had just told him at the end of verse 17, for you must strike the Syrians at Afek till you have destroyed them. This isn’t just, you know, you need to fight this battle till the battle quiets down. You know, you need to do this until this isn’t such a pressure for you anymore. No, he doesn’t want them to just go away for a little while. You know, when Jesus was tempted,

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in the garden, I mean, sorry, in the wilderness, it says that he left knowing he’d come back at another opportune time. He was destroyed at the cross, but he did come back and we, Jesus finished it until he destroyed the enemy. Okay. We have things we need that God is calling us to destroy.

The problem with the first king of Israel, Saul, was God told him, you go in and you kill all of the Amalekites, all of them. Do not spare the king, don’t spare the people, don’t spare the children, don’t spare the animals, destroy them. And he didn’t. He refused to kill the king. He kept some of the animals. And then he tried to say, I did what the Lord told me to Samuel, the prophet.

who said, then what is the bleeding of the sheep that I hear? You didn’t do exactly what I told you to do. I gave you very specific instructions. You have to follow exactly what I asked you to do. Not part of it. Not a little bit, not halfway. We have to seize our moments. Seize our moments. When God is speaking to us, seize those moments.

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Verse 19, you should have struck five or six times, then you would have struck Syria, Syria till you had destroyed it. But now you will strike Syria only three times.

What if you’re somebody who’s battling addiction?

You’ve gone to rehab three times.

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What if you’d have stuck with it, that you would finally destroy that thing and it wouldn’t keep coming back on you?

What if you are praying for a prodigal child? You’ve prayed three times and they sort of come back, you know, they kind of leave those friends for a little while, but they go back. We have to pray it through. We have to pray it through. We need to destroy the enemy. And if God is saying,

Do this and keep doing it? You should have done it six or seven times. You should have kept going.

That’s why the scripture says knock any, and it will be open to you seek and it will ask. And because though that word, tell you this all the time. I know you know this. means knock and keep on knocking, seek, keep on seeking, ask, keep on asking. You just keep shooting those arrows. You just keep shooting those arrows.

First 20, then Elisha died. The moment is now gone. Then Elisha died and they buried him.

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Now Elisha, this is amazing. Then they buried him and the raiding bands from Moab invaded the land. Right away, here come the invaders. Right away, invade the land in the spring of the year. So it was as they were burying a man that suddenly they spied a band of raiders.

and they put the man in the tomb of Elisha. They were just hurry up, get him in there. They had to go hide. They just put him in there. And when the man was let down and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived and stood on his feet. Elisha literally carried such an anointing that this man who was dead was raised back to life because of the power that was in his bones.

in his bones.

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I don’t even know if I have words to articulate what I’m.

power of this. Jesus help me.

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Okay, we’ll get there. We’ll get there. And Hazael, king of Syria, oppressed Israel all the days of Jehoahaz, which was his father. But the Lord was gracious to them, had compassion on them, and regarded them because of his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and would not yet destroy them and cast them from his presence. Now Hazael, king of Syria, died. Then Ben-Hadad, his son, reigned in his place. And Jehoash,

it, which is also another name for Joe Ash, the son of Jehoah has recaptured. Okay. Get this. This is really important. Recaptured from the hand of Ben Haddad, the son of Hazael, the cities, which he had taken out of the hand of Jehoah has his father by war. the things that Jehoah has his father lost that we read first off, first thing that he lost his son, Joe as his now

recovered by war. Look at this. Three times. Joe Ash defeated him and recaptured the cities of Israel. Three times. How many arrows did he shoot? Three. How many times did he defeat them? Three. That was it. He failed to recognize.

Okay, this is a part of faith that we have to recognize. I’m sure you have heard at some point, and maybe you haven’t, but I’ve heard this a lot in church over the years. You’ll have someone who’s leading worship and they’ll say, praise him like he’s already done it. Or a pastor who will be speaking to faith will say, praise him for what he’s already done. Though you have not seen it yet.

You know by faith that you have received what you have asked for. Okay. And, they, and there they are beckoning you in that moment to seize a moment. They are by faith, seeing in faith and shooting their arrows of faith by preaching the word of God to say, this is your moment.

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Lay hold of it by faith. Well, what does that require of you? Usually that means there’s some kind of exuberance, whether that’s on the inside or the outside. We are all different personalities. I get that. But there is some kind of activation, at least on the inside, that we lay hold of it. We lay hold of it. We gain eyesight.

And what we’re doing is we’re doing just what King Joash was doing with Elisha, and we’re locking our hands on that bow and saying, yes, I’m going to shoot my arrows. And I’m going to keep shooting my arrows. I am partnering with this faith.

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I wanted to give you what I feel are two contrasting ways to deal with your moment.

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you well I shouldn’t say to deal one way that we should deal with it and when we don’t in contrast what that looks like to have missed it that’s a better way to say it.

The two things that I see are in our moment, facing our moment, we have a choice to make between these two things. The first being preparation.

And the lack thereof is the choice of regret, missing our moment, regret.

I think that preparation is a picture of hope. Preparation says I am hoping for a certain thing in the future, an outcome. That’s why I’m praying for it. That’s why I’m meditating on it. That’s why I am preparing for it. Preparing. I make preparation for.

King Joash, the preparation was halted. He got there, he recognized it, but when it came time to shoot his arrows of faith, he stopped short. He stopped short. For me, I think that looks like stopping short in prayer. Don’t stop. Pray and keep praying.

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Knock and keep knocking. Ask, keep asking. Seek, keep seeking. Keep praying. Don’t stop.

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If you don’t prepare, which is hope, you will live in regret when the moment has passed. That is now hope lost. That is now hopeless. It has passed. The moment’s gone. You missed your moment. You didn’t seize your moment.

Preparation is an action you take in hope that the action will affect the future outcome.

I asked Google to define preparation. This is what it said. It is as the action, or I’m sorry, the active process of getting ready, planning, and gathering resources in advance to ensure readiness for a future task

or event.

Now let’s contrast. We can see what preparation is. Let’s look at what is regret. Regret is the compilation of disappointment and grief or feelings of loss because the moment has passed and now hope is lost. The time for action is now gone. It’s that

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Just give me a second chance. Just give me a second chance. And it doesn’t come. No second chance is given. I again asked Google what its definition of regret is. And it says it is a complex, negative cognitive emotion involving sadness, shame, or disappointment over past actions.

or inactions often rooted in wishing for a different outcome. I wish I would have done that instead. You ever had that? I wish I had, I wish I would have handled that different. I wish I wouldn’t have said that. I wish I would have said this instead. I missed it. You think of what to say tomorrow. Don’t you hate that? Next day comes and you think, that’s what I should have said.

we missed our moment. We hadn’t prepared. This is something that I often commend my husband about. It’s a quality that he has that I greatly admire. And it’s whenever he is going to, he’s a businessman and whenever he has to have a meeting or a call with very important people, meetings that are of consequence, he takes on the posture

of like an actor rehearsing their lines. And he actually has done some, some acting, not professionally, but acting before. And he was very diligent in his study, his memorization of lines, his constant practice. He would constantly come and get me and make me go through lines with him and, and want critiquing and to find out, did he, you know, should I change it? Should I say like this or like that? What do you think? And he does this with himself before having meetings.

with whether it’s potential customers or bankers or investors or business partners or, or, you know, the gamut, he really prepares. mean, he really prepares. He’ll purposely not go into the office that day and he’ll work from home so that he has zero outside distractions. People can’t just come in and, and interrupt his thought process as he does that on purpose.

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And he will study. mean, he will read, he will focus. He is intense. He is so careful not to miss his moments. I think it’s a very admirable, great quality. I think it’s a successful quality that he carries that God can trust him with things like that because he will make much of it. He will not make light of it. He will make much of it.

So we see this contrast between preparation or regret. Preparation is looking ahead with intention and regret is looking back in sorrow. Looking ahead with intention or looking back with sorrow. Regret is reactive. But preparation is proactive with mitigating power.

Google again gave this great contrast. says preparation is predictive. Ooh, I love that. I jumped on that because it is prophetic. This is what we read. The preparation that Elisha was telling King Joash to do, the preparation was before these battles come, shoot your arrows, shoot them now, partner with this prophetic.

man of God and shoot those arrows. But he made light of it. He made light of it. Regret is counterfactual. It’s emotion centered on imagining a better past. When you have regret, you just sit and soak over what you imagine it would have been or could have been. That’s regret.

Satan loves to get us to do one of two things. Number one, don’t look with prophetic vision.

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What do I mean by that? Okay. That means take no preparatory action. Satan loves when you are not jumping on it. When you don’t have enthusiasm behind partnering with God’s prophetic vision of the future, the things that you’re believing God for, the salvation of your family members, the, the deliverance that you need from whatever sins are besetting you, whatever is, whatever is before.

for that God has shown you, that is the thing that is your eyes should be set on it and your expectation should be on it and your faith should be partnering prophetically by prayer to call that thing in. That’s calling those things that are not as though they are.

I that’s in Romans. I think I’ve got that in my notes somewhere. Let me look real quick for you. Yes, Romans 4, 17. The second thing the enemy loves to do is not just to have you look or not look with prophetic vision, but he wants you to, if you recognize that you’ve missed it, he wants you to keep wallowing in the regret.

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Wallow in that regret, stay there. Stay in that place of regret. Live there now, live in the past. Live in the shame, live in the sorrow. Live in the what could have beens. Park it there. Just like when the arrows stopped, threw shot three and stopped, he wants you to stop right there. Let’s contrast them a little bit. What does it look to prepare

with prophetic vision. If Satan doesn’t want you to look at prophetic vision, what does proper preparation look like? It means taking action, seeking God, study His word, pray, worship, gather with the saints regularly.

Cut out of your life things that are distractions, things that are gonna be a hindrance. Make changes that you need to make. Keep those resolutions of being faithful to God and all the things that it means to serve God. Put him first, keep him center.

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but to stay in regret. That means I’m gonna stay in this sorrow. I’m gonna stay here in misery. I’m gonna stay in the what could have beens and the should have beens and if onlys.

Well, how do I do the opposite of regret then? What should I be doing? If I find myself in a moment of regret, I, if I want to get out of the clutches of the enemy, if I want to stop this, stop ignoring my moment, stop stopping short in my moment, I’m going to have to do things differently, which means instead of,

Instead of staying in this shameful place, I’m going to take the posture of humbling myself before God. I’m going to repent of the sin of, of neglect, of not preparing, of not remaining in faith. I’m going to repent. I’m going to make changes. I’m going to become a person who prepares and takes seriously the things of God.

And then I’m gonna get up and I’m gonna get to that job of preparing. I’m gonna get up from this place. I’m not gonna stay here.

Because you have to prepare. Prepare for what, Jaime? Prepare for what? Well, I think it’s safe to say that whether you know exactly what you might be preparing for or not, some of you do know. Some of you know exactly what you’re supposed to be praying about. But if you don’t know, I can guarantee you, though you don’t know what the future holds, God does. God does. So my preparing would be, even if I don’t know what is in front of me yet, prayer.

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seeking God for the eyesight to see what I should be praying about. Teach me how to pray, Father. Show me what I should be praying. Show me what it is that I’m asking you to make on earth as it is in heaven. Show me what it is that I’m supposed to be doing so that my daily bread is provided for me. Show me what I should be doing.

Order my steps, correct my ways, make sure I’m walking the narrow road and not the wide road.

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We partner in faith with Jesus Christ and the work that he did at the cross.

your prayers are prophetic in nature. They do call those things that are not as though they are because if God has shown it to you, he’s saying this is what is. This is the same as when in heaven, God gave Moses a blueprint

of the tabernacle of the Ark of the Covenant told him how to make it. And he said, this was according to the plans and the picture of what’s in heaven. So God was taking something that’s heavenly and bringing it and making it manifest on earth. And when I use the word manifest, this is what the devil does every time it’s so infuriating. This is very new age people, all this talk about manifesting, manifesting, manifesting. There is a difference.

between the way the world does it. And when we say God has manifested something, God was manifest to us in Jesus Christ. We don’t do the, we don’t do what the world does. don’t, because the enemy always wants to warp and twist what is God’s. He wants to steal our language and our symbols. He’s always doing this. In fact, I’ll get to that.

I’ll get to that in a moment. Elisha put his hands on the hands of the king to partner with him and bring the future victories prophetically to earth manifested naturally here.

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The way that we partner with him for our future victories is by prayer with expectation and exuberance. The prayer of a righteous man avails much. The fervent prayer, actually. The fervent prayer. Exuberance. Preparation is prayer. The world likes to use the term, I’m gonna take another one.

The world likes to use the term, see something, say something. Okay. It’s good term. It’s got good, good meaning, good use, see something, say something. Well, I want to, I want to, since they always steal ours, I’m going to steal theirs, see something, say something. I want to say that if I see something spiritually, if I see something in prayer,

I wanna say something, which means I’m going to agree with that prayer and I’m gonna keep praying that thing until I see that thing come to pass. That is faith in action. I see it spiritually, I’m gonna say it with my mouth, I’m gonna declare it, I’m gonna keep going after that thing until it’s here. Until it’s here.

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We are called upon to shoot the arrows, to keep shooting the arrows. After this event of Elisha and King Joash, Elisha died.

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But guess what didn’t die? This is what I really believe that God showed me yesterday morning and this morning.

We need to understand our prayers don’t die. Just like when Elisha was buried, dead and buried, his bones brought that man back to life.

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Folks, your prayers, especially when your prayers are the word, pray the word, pray the promise, pray what God gives you, pray the word, because His word cannot fail. His word will accomplish what it was set forth to accomplish.

Revelation five verse eight and Revelation eight verses three and four are beautiful metaphorically usable pictures for us to understand prayer in the heavenlies. They both speak to the fact that prayers are like in bowls as incense. They are like

poured out before God, they bring their sweet savor unto God. It’s as if he breathes in our prayers. They are a sweet smell. They are a good way to say that would be they are the fragrance of heaven, your prayers. They go up with the incense. Our prayers are a sweet smell to the Lord.

It’s like it’s his air. He’s breathing in our prayers. The air he breathes. He’s the air we breathe. But our prayers are what he is breathing in. Our prayers are in heaven, which makes our prayers eternal. Our prayers don’t die.

So your prayers, that’s why prayers can get answered for let’s say a grandmother or a mother was praying for a child or a grandchild and they died praying that that child would come to know the Lord and be saved and their life completely changed and turned around and they die before they see it. But the prayer’s not dead. And sure enough, that person comes to the Lord.

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And that prayer was still living and active and moving. Folks, your prayers don’t die. They’re still active. They’re so powerful. They’re so powerful that you can know with assurance, whether you see an outcome with your eyes, that your prayers are actually working. You just live in this finite moment of time, but your prayers make it to the eternal.

Your prayers are in heaven. Okay, let’s read those. Let’s go to Revelation. Just real quick, go to Revelation five.

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Verse eight.

says now when he had taken the scroll the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the lamb jesus is our lamb each having a harp and golden bowls full of incense which are the prayers of the saints praise god

Not only are your prayers saved, folks, they are alive and being poured out. They are the incense, the fragrance, the perfume of heaven before the lamb. All right, go to Revelation 8 verses three and four. It says, then another angel, having a golden censer came and stood at the altar. He was given much incense that he should offer it.

with the prayers of all the saints upon the golden altar which was before the throne. Does God hear your prayers? Absolutely, God hears your prayers. Absolutely, God hears your prayers. Your prayers are like arrows. You shall

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social. I’m going to read you the scriptures. So shall my word be that goes forth out of my mouth. It shall not return to me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please. And it shall prosper in the thing where to I sent it. That is when you pray God’s your God’s word cannot fail. His word.

that is sharper than any two-edged sword is doing battle. Those words, your prayers are incense, folks. Your prayers are powerful.

I was going to, but I won’t take the time today. But you could easily do a search just in the book of Proverbs to see the contrast between preparation and regret. We are encouraged like the ant who makes preparation for the winter.

and that those who are lazy and don’t prepare end up not having and starving and being poor. The Bible is full of examples of the importance of you preparing so that you can seize your.

I just, my heart is so full. I’m so convinced. I’m so enthusiastic about the power of prayer that right now let’s look with spiritual eyesight.

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and let’s join our faith together. Let’s pick up some arrows. Let’s you and me, let’s put our hands together prophetically on those arrows and let’s pray those things right now. And don’t let this be the one time you pray. Don’t pray it once, don’t pray it twice, don’t pray it three times. You keep praying this until you see God do what God has shown you He’s going to do.

And if it’s a generational prayer, then teach it to your children so that you can continue to pray to see that generational blessing continue to manifest and go from generation to generation. Let those eternal prayers continue to multiply. Let’s pray. Father, right now in the name of Jesus, we pray for the salvation of our loved ones, our

our family members, our children, our grandchildren, our friends, our coworkers, God, whoever they are calling out their name today, God, we lay hold of it together and we pray for the salvation of those people that they would come to know you in spirit and in truth, that they would humble their hearts before you, give their lives to you and lift you up as Lord, serving you all the days of their life.

God, we ask for deliverance from the addiction, from those that we know and love who are addicted. We ask for deliverance to those who are bound by some kind of sin or some kind of habit that is causing trouble in their life, that’s bringing havoc to their lives, chaos to their life. God, we bring order where there is disorder and chaos in families, in relationships, in finances.

God, we say right now we are going to prepare. We’re going to begin preparation. Father, I ask right now that you give them divine insight to know how to prepare in the practical way, that they’re praying, that they’re studying your word so they know how to pray your word, that they are staying connected to your spirit so they stay in a spirit of prayer, but that you show them what they must do. Give them strategies.

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Give them plans, give them blueprints, God, of what they need to do and how to prepare to do it. God, let your grace fall upon your people today, that they feel the grace of God like a warm blanket wrapped around them, that they are enabled with power to cut off the things they need to cut off, to stand bold and speak boldly where they need to, to change the things that need to be changed. Father, I thank you. We shoot our arrows today, God.

And we know that they are lasting, that they are powerful, and that they have entered heaven, and they are a sweet smell in your nostrils. We thank you that you are hearing us and answering prayer, and we give you all the glory today. In Jesus’ name, amen, amen. Continue to pray. Seize your moment. Don’t let it pass. Do me a favor today, share this moment.

with others, give others an opportunity to understand the power of their prayer. Share this message with someone who needs to hear it. Do me a favor, hit that thumbs up, give us a like, subscribe and hit ring that bell if you have not done so already. That way you are notified every week when a new episode comes out. If you’d like to contact me, if you want me to agree in prayer with you over your prayer requests or if you have praise reports,

You know, I want to hear them and rejoice with you. You can contact me with an email at mail at Jaime Luce.com and go to my website for all other information. If you are struggling financially and you want to know the types of arrows that I used to fight those battles that my family used to fight those battles because you don’t need money. You just need God.

You need his intervention. You pray, you follow his instructions. You get his insight. You get his strategies. I teach you how to do that in my book. You don’t need money. You just need God. You can get that. I believe it’s still on Amazon. You can also get that at my website. my website is JaimeLuce.com. That’s J a I E L U C E. Thank you so much for spending time with me today. Stay today in a prayerful spirit, stay in communion with God today and see what God will do. We’ll see you next time.

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Bye bye.