Follow The Prompt

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Follow The Prompt"

Change Church Podcast with Pastor Dharius Daniels
Date: March 8, 2026

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Main Theme

In this impactful message, Pastor Dharius Daniels delves into the importance of following spiritual “prompts” — the divine nudges given by God, especially as they relate to prayer. Drawing from 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18, Pastor Daniels unpacks how consistency in prayer cultivates spiritual strength, and how recognizing and responding to God’s promptings leads to deeper spiritual intimacy and a life aligned with God’s purposes.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Purposeful Ministry and Reaching All People

• Intentionality in Church Activities: Every event and service at Change Church is designed with intention, targeting unbelievers, new believers, mature believers, and those “done with church” (the “D Church”).
  • "[We] don't do things because we think you're bored. Everything that is done is done with a degree of intention so that we can try to faithfully carry out our mission here at Change Church that is to help as many people as possible." (02:17)
• Inclusivity: Emphasis on invitation and comfortable environments (via "side door" events) for those unchurched or previously hurt by church.

2. Series Foundation: Prayerology

• The message is part of the “Prayerology” series, focusing on the theology and practice of prayer.
• Main passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 — "Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." (05:18)

3. The Cost of Inconsistency

• Consistency is Key: Many people fail to fulfill God’s purpose not for lack of calling or ability, but due to inconsistency.
  • "Most people fail not because they lack desire. They fail because their inconsistency slowly erodes what their effort briefly built." (05:56)
• Inconsistency’s Effects: Relational, emotional, physical, and spiritual areas are all impacted when consistency lapses, creating cycles of restarts rather than progress.

4. The Enemy Attacks Consistency

• The devil works not just through overt spiritual attack but by undermining the disciplines that lead to spiritual health, especially prayer.
  • "I don't attack you spiritually by attacking you spiritually. I attack you spiritually by attacking the things that cultivate a strong, stable spiritual life. He attacks prayer." (11:05)
• Distractions, Not Just Demons: Most believers are tripped up by distraction rather than overt demonic activity.
  • "We don’t have a prayer problem because we need an exorcism. We have a prayer problem because when we should be praying, we're scrolling." (13:37)

5. The Role and Power of Prayer

• Oxygen for the Soul: “What oxygen is to the physical body, prayer is to the spiritual life.” (11:42)
• Prayer Cultivates Spiritual Vitality: It's a targeted area of assault because praying consistently nurtures spiritual strength.

6. Understanding "Pray Without Ceasing"

• Cultural Context of "Ceasing": The Greek term refers to a recurring cough, not a nonstop action.
  • "If someone says, 'I've been coughing all day,' it doesn't mean from 8am to 8pm non-stop... it means reoccurring bouts." (32:41)
• Living Available to God: Paul commands perpetual availability to God's leading, not endless monologue.
  • "Paul isn't commanding you to never stop talking to God. He's commanding us to never stop being available to talk." (35:07)

7. Following the Prompt: Promptings Defined

• Spiritual 'Coughs': Promptings are internal nudges from God, sometimes coming as intuition or a sudden urge to pray.
  • "Are you following the prompt, where God uses your intuition to prompt you and to prompt me to cough?" (35:25)
• Praying in the Spirit: Not only speaking in tongues but responding to the Spirit's urges or burdens to pray for specific people or situations.
• No Explanation Needed: Promptings often aren't accompanied by reasons and thus can be easily ignored.

8. Practical Applications: Recognizing Natural Promptings

Pastor Daniels provides four everyday promptings to pray:

a) Moods – (40:04)

• Changes in your emotional state signal the need for prayer.
  • "A shift in the condition of my soul is a prompting to pray. So when I sense I've gone from joy to sadness... that's a prompting." (40:10)
• Example: When discouraged, follow David’s example in Psalm 42.

b) Moments – (44:41)

• Unexpected opportunities or adversity throughout the day are signals to pray.
  • "Moments are unexpected, unplanned occurrences that interrupt the normal flow of your day that show up in the form of adversity or opportunity." (44:41)
• Example: Nehemiah prays briefly before answering a king’s question (Nehemiah 2:4) — "The king said to me, 'what you want?' Then I prayed to the God of heaven." (45:18)

c) Messages – (46:27)

• Unexpected information about yourself or others invites immediate intercession.
  • "This is like unexpected information that you get about you or someone else... that's a prompting to pray." (46:27)
• Example: News of someone’s hardship or blessing serves as a prompt.

d) Meals – (48:35)

• Every meal is “evidence that God keeps on providing for you”—thus, a prompt to offer thanks.
  • "Every time you look at a meal ... you should look at it and say jireh... I only have this because jireh has provided for me." (48:43)

9. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On comparison and calling:
  • "When you say yes, you become too busy to compare... When you obey more, you compare less." (20:09)
• On maturity in hearing God:
  • "The kind of conversations that God has with you that fit in the hard category is actually a compliment." (25:53)
• On prayer and dependency:
  • "Prayer expresses your dependency and frees you from the idolatrous practice of thinking you can meet all your own needs." (37:22)
• On living attentive to God:
  • "Paul isn't commanding you to never stop talking to God. He's commanding us to never stop being available to talk." (35:07)
• Practical effect:
  • "The intimacy is unmatched. It's an automatic tap in whenever, wherever — I could be playing pickleball, thank you Jesus." (49:04)

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Important Timestamps

| Time | Segment/Highlight | |------------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------| | 02:17 | The intentional mission of Change Church and reaching all types of people | | 05:18 | Introduction to the key scripture (1 Thess. 5:16-18) and core concept of consistency | | 11:05 | The enemy’s strategy: attacking spiritual disciplines, especially prayer | | 13:37 | Distractions as the primary attack against prayer | | 31:46 | Explaining “pray without ceasing” as recurring spiritual “coughs” rather than non-stop prayer | | 35:25 | Defining promptings as spiritual urges and following the prompt | | 40:04 | Four natural promptings: moods, moments, messages, meals | | 44:41 | Moments (adversity/opportunity) as prompts, Nehemiah’s prayer example | | 49:04 | Personal testimony: the difference following prompts has made in Pastor Daniels’ spiritual life|

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Conclusion: The Call to Action

Pastor Dharius Daniels closes with a direct invitation:

• Pay attention to the prompts from the Spirit — whether spiritual or practical.
• True consistent prayer comes through sensitivity to these everyday nudges, not by striving to “never stop talking,” but by always being ready to connect with God.

"May we follow the prompts." (50:11)

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For anyone seeking to deepen their prayer life and walk closely with God, this episode offers practical handles, relevant examples, and a fresh, freeing perspective on continual prayer.

Transcript

[Narrator]

You are about to hear the incredible teaching ministry of Darius Daniels. To inquire about more of these great resources, just simply log on and visit us here at www.dariusdaniels.com.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

a hand clap of praise this morning, man. So grateful to be in God's house. If you are here for the first time, we want to welcome you here. My name is pastor Darius and I've got the privilege of being the lead pastor here at this incredible spiritual family called Change Church. And we like to honor our first time guests without embarrassing our first time guests. And so we want you to receive this thunderous round of applause as an expression of our gratitude. Thank you so much for being here with us today. We also want to acknowledge the presence of a candidate for governor who is worshiping with us today. Senator Jason Estevez and his family are here with us. So we're so grateful to have him. Welcome, sir. So grateful to have him worshiping with us here at Change on today. Y' all all right? I say y' all all right. Listen, this is one of those Sundays. It's like time. When time go forward, church is like, woo. It's a little different. We lose that hour. But how many know God is still good and we worthy of our praise and gratitude and thanksgiving and we, we celebrate, we celebrate his goodness. I, I want us to help, I want you all to help me welcome in our Ewing, New Jersey family, our Westampton, New Jersey family, our Gwenette campus. Come on, let's welcome in all of our locations. We're so grateful to them. I want to give a special shout out to our New Jersey locations. Man, you guys had your sister to sister women's event on yesterday and it looked absolutely incredible and phenomenal. So thank you guys for being a part of that. Let me just share something with our church family, every location so that you understand why we do some of the things that we do. We're a busy church and we know you're incredibly busy. So we don't do things because we think you're bored. Does that make sense? Everything that everything that is done is done with a degree of intention so that we can try to faithfully carry out our mission here at Change Church that is to help as many people as possible. Somebody say many people as possible. So for us, that's not just like amounts of people, that's types of people. We call it first, second, third chair. We're called to the unbeliever, we're called to the newer believer and we're called to the mature believer. And what you'll find at every Change Church location, at every service, you'll see all three seats. And so we have what we call front door and side doors to get people, metaphorically, to get people into the ecosystem of what God is doing here. And here's what we found, particularly when churches are larger, people that are kind of unchurched. And here's what. I don't know if we're gonna have to add a fourth chair because there's a lot of these here at Change Church, too. D Church. You know what that is? Yeah, I was done with church. Yeah. Done not done with Jesus, but I was done with the institution of church. And for some reason I decided to give Change a try. And we hear that testimony a lot around here. So here's the point. So particularly with D Church. With D Church, any with D Church and with unchurch, side door events are much more comfortable invitational events for first timers. So sometimes it takes people coming to a men's event, a women's event, a singles event, a couples event, and then they come and they're like, oh, y' all not weird.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

You feel me?

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

And it's okay, I'm gonna come back on Sunday. And so we do these things to reach people that are not a part of the family and to also strengthen people in targeted areas of discipleship that are a part of the family. And as a man, one thing I know is I don't understand the dynamics, the challenges, the struggles, the vicissitudes. Emotionally, physically. I don't get that. In a way another woman would get that. And so women need to be in environments and men need to be in environments where they've got that kind of targeted work. And so I'm excited about all that God's doing in the women's ministry. Atlanta, you up next this coming Saturday, and it's gonna be an incredible time. Well, I hope you care about it. I started a series last week called Prayerology, and I want to move into the second installment of this series. Today we're going to be reading the book of from the book of First Thessalonians, chapter number five, beginning at verse number 16. And here's what Paul says. He says, rejoice always, pray without ceasing. Give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus. I want to stop the reading of scripture there and talk from this subject family. Follow the prompt. Follow the prompt. Clap your hands if you're ready for God's word. Follow. Follow the prompt. I want to start this time of teaching family with a thought that I'd encourage you to consider. Many people will get to the end of their life to only discover that they did not accomplish God's purpose for their life. They will experience the reality of that old adage that suggests you can climb the ladder of success only to realize you leaned it against the wrong wall. And this reality will be the experience of many. Not because they weren't called, not because they weren't capable, not because they weren't clear, but simply because they weren't consistent. Consistency is the key that unlocks the door to the potential of your capability and your calling. Inconsistency is expensive. And most people fail not because they lack desire. They fail because their inconsistency slowly erodes what their effort, briefly built effort builds it up. Inconsistency tears it down. Because inconsistency.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Watch.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

This keeps us in a cycle of always starting over. Therefore, instead of progressing in life, we constantly live in a life filled with perpetual seasons and cycles of restarts. So time moves, but life doesn't. But I just have a question, and the question is, am I talking to anybody that is in a season of your life where you are honest enough to admit that you are sick and tired of unnecessary restarts? Come on here. Yeah, that. That if I experience a restart, I want it to be because God's taken

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

me to a new place, not because

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

I'm starting over in an old place. Are you here with me today?

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Why?

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Because inconsistency is expensive and the enemy understands this reality. So he targets this area of our life in an attempt to undermine God's intention for and through us.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

He attacks our consistency relationally because he knows that your faith cannot just be lived out vertically, it must be lived out horizontally. In other words, I cannot get Christianity right if I'm getting people wrong. Ah, if there is not just a love for N for God, there has to be a love for my neighbor. And the enemy knows if he attacks our relational consistency, we will get to the end of our life and realize

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

that the people that meant the most to us got the least from us. So he attacks the consistency relationally.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

He attacks the consistency emotionally because he knows the difference, danger and the devastation that comes with a soul that is

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

not constantly purged from the toxicity that

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

it can accumulate of doing life with an imperfect self, with an imperfect past and with imperfect people. He knows the grip that our soul

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

can have on us.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

And so if he can make us inconsistent when it comes to our emotional life, then he undermines God's intention for us, if he can make us inconsistent

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

with our faith, physical life, then we

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

will not be able to carry the mission of God because God has given us this body as a tool and as a instrument to steward his mission. And everything he's going to do in us and for us and through us in this life is going to come through this body. And so the enemy knows if he can make us inconsistent in stewarding it and caring for it, well, then he can undermine God's intention for our life.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Inconsistency is expensive, and the enemy understands this. So he attacks us with inconsistency relationally and emotionally and physically. But there seems to be an area that he attacks with a degree of unique aggression, and that is inconsistency spiritually, because he knows that spiritual poverty is the worst kind of poverty. He knows that our spiritual life is not the only important part of our life, but it is the most important part of our life because it affects everything that's important. And so one of the ways he attempts to carry out his intention to make us inconsistent in our spiritual life is by making us inconsistent in the

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

disciplines, in the practices, and in the spiritual exercises that cultivate spiritual vitality and strength and stamina. And one of those exercises is prayer.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

I don't attack you spiritually by attacking you spiritually. I attack you spiritually by attacking the

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

things that cultivate a strong, stable spiritual life. He attacks prayer.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Are you hearing what I'm saying? I said, are you hearing what I'm saying? Yeah, prayer. He attacks this particular area. And this is why Paul's letter here to believers in Thessalonica becomes incredibly important to those of us who are serious about creating, maintaining, or advancing consistency in prayer.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Because what oxygen is to the physical body, prayer is to the spiritual life. Did you hear what I just said? What oxygen is to the physical body, prayer is to the spiritual life. Thank you. I got one witness at the cab. That's it. And the enemy.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Am I making sense?

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

And the enemy understands this. Boy, I wish. I just wish I had time. Here it is.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Here it is.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

This is important, family.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

This is important. So because of this, because of this, the catalytic nature of prayer, it becomes a uniquely targeted area.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

I want you to know the things that.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

That advance us the most are the areas we will be attacked the most. And here's what happens is when we're

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

forming views of things that, like, come from Christian traditions and denominations, but not necessarily rooted in the truth of Scripture, then what ends up happening is we become prey to Deception. Because when I say the word attack, many people think of demonic possession. So, like, they. When we think of spiritual warfare, we think demons. When I can show you in scripture, that's rare, extreme cases, what most of us are dealing with are not demons. You're dealing with distractions. We don't have a prayer problem because we need an exorcism. We have a prayer problem because when we should be praying, we're scrolling. We have a prayer problem because when we should be praying and talking to God, we're talking to other people. We have a prayer problem.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

So.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

So it's. So when Solomon says, catch now the little foxes that spoil the mind.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

The devil uses not just dragons, he uses foxes. And so

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

cultivating consistency in this area

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

is key and vital to our spiritual life.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

And it is one thing to want

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

to cultivate consistency, it's another thing to know how to cultivate consistency.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

And this is where Paul's letter to believers in Thessalonica can help us cultivate consistency. I love Paul because he's a practical theologian, right? He doesn't just tell me what to do. He shows me how to do it. See, this book of Thessalonians is a letter that was written by the apostle Paul to a group of believers in a place called Thessalonica. Now, the book of Acts is called Acts because it records the Acts of the apostles.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

You got me.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

After the resurrection and the ascension of Jesus. The book of Acts captures the Acts of the apostles of Jesus immediately after his resurrection and ascension. Are you following me? And so one of the apostles of Jesus was a man that was actually, at one point, a persecutor of Christians. His name was Saul. His name was Saul because he was named after Israel's first king in the Old Testament, a king named Saul. He was from the same tribe as that king called the tribe of Benjamin. You got me.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

So.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

So he was a religious leader that was hostile to the Christian movement. He persecuted and imprisoned Christians. But one day, hallelujah, on Damascus Road, he had an authentic encounter with the Jesus other people were preaching. And it radically revolutionized his life. So much so that he changed his name from Saul to Paul. And the persecutor of Christians became a preacher of the gospel. I need to pause right there because I don't want the enemy to continue having conversations with some of you regarding your past and trying to use your past as a weapon to stop you from stepping into the fullness of your future. If God can use and change the life of a man named Saul, then God can use and change you. Who I was is not who I am. And where I am is not where I'm going. Here it is. So this persecutor of Christians becomes a preacher of the gospel. And his assignment. His assignment.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

See,

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

his purpose. See, purpose is not just what you've

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

been born to do.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Purpose includes the way you've been born to do it. And so many people get the what, but they miss the way. And so submission to purpose isn't just submission to the what. It is also submission to the way. Because God's like, there's a way. I want you to do this because when you look at the Acts of the Apostles, you'll see someone like Peter who has a call to ministry and somebody like Paul who has a call to ministry. That's the what. But the way they've been called to do it is completely different.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

And you need to work your way, and you need to trust the way

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

that God's called you to do it. Did you hear what I just said?

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Do you not know there were a number of different ways people defeated giants in the Old Testament?

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

But David refused to let Saul put his armor on him. He says, I'm gonna do the same thing, but I'm gonna do it a different way. Because if you let me work, my rock, my rock will work and knock this giant down. Because God has given us not just what to do, but a way to do it.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Y' all not bored today, are you? Okay, so you got someone like Peter whose calling required him to be more centralized. He's in one place.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

You got people like James whose calling required him to be more centralized. He's in primarily one place. But then you've got people like Paul whose calling required him to not be as centralized but to engage in various missionary journeys, planting Christian presence in regions that needed it. You got me. So a lot of the letters in the New Testament are letters he wrote to communities he either planted or had spiritual influence with.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Got me.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

So Ephesians is written to believers in Ephesus, and Corinthians is written to believers in Corinth, and Philippians is written to believers in Philippi. Am I making sense? Okay, so the nature of his calling required him to engage in missionary journeys.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Right. And so it's not.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

His is better than Peter's. It's different.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Because calling requires freedom from comparison. Did you hear what I just said? Yes. Okay. Because he.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

He wasn't looking at what Peter was doing and then asking God, why can't I do that? Because when you say yes. You become too busy to compare. Did you hear what I just said? When you actually say yes, and you start obeying, obeying what God has called you to do. You are so occupied with your own assignment, you don't have time to be aware of what everybody else is doing. You're too busy to compare. So comparison is actually an indication you've been captured by distraction. When you obey more, you compare less. Is am I talking to anybody right now? That's in a season. Well, you can admit I'm too busy to compare. I mean, I want to know what's going on with everybody, but I don't have time to know what's going on with everybody because I'm trying to keep up with everything that's going on with me. The devil is not the only one busy. I'm busy, too.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

That's important, right? That's important. It's particularly important for people who are

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

part of this spiritual family.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Like, some people attend here, and that's fine, but other people are planted here. This is your house. This is your spiritual family. It's important for you to understand that, because that's why you got a church like Change, that's got a presence in multiple places.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

It's not that we just want to. We're not trying to build an empire. This is harder.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

It's way more aggravating. It's way more expensive.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

It's a lot easier just to have one place. But the nature of the calling. The nature of the calling is more, Pauline.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

It is establishing presence in various places. So one of the places he established a presence was this place called Thessalonica. Okay, so as he's established in the presence, persecution gets intense. So intense that he has to leave. So he doesn't get an opportunity to finish discipling them the way he desired. Now, initially, we would assume something like this is pitiful. It's like, man, this is sad. Paul get a chance to complete discipleship the way he desired. But we just finished a series a couple weeks ago called name dropping, where we explored the names of God, some of the names of God. And one of the names we explored was El Elyon, Most High God speaking to the sovereignty of God. God having the final say that others have a say, but he's got the final say.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Others have some power. He's got all power. Others can make some rules, but he can overrule. Yeah, he's El Elyon.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

And so because he's El Elyon, if

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

he wanted Paul to stay in Thessalonica, no One could have run him out.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

So sometimes what feels like persecution is providence.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Because maybe. Maybe. Are y' all okay?

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Maybe believers in Thessalonica could only handle

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

what they received at that moment.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Because.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Because. Watch this.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Here's. Here's. Here's.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Here's what Paul seems to suggest.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

I'm getting ready to show you this. Paul seems to be very cognizant of the fact that certain spiritual conversations require certain levels of spiritual maturation. Pastor, where you get that from the Bible?

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Because when he's talking to believers in

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Corinth in First Corinthians, chapter three, verse one. Y' all not bored? Are you okay?

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

He says, brothers and sisters, I could

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

not address you as people who live by the Spirit, but as a people who are still worldly.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Now, don't misunderstand this. He's writing to believers in Corinth. So this is a letter sent, and it's circulated. So he's writing to believers in Corinth, and he says. He says to them, now, listen, I

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

couldn't address you as people who live by the Spirit.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

He didn't say you aren't saved by the Spirit. He says you're not living by the Spirit. He says, you're saved, but you.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

First way.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

It's in the text. You're still worldly. He said, you're in Christ, but you're just infants. Are you following me here? Okay, so it says you're Christian, but you're still guided, governed, behaving, thinking, interacting, engaging, like first way.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

And watch what he says.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Watch verse two. I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not ready. He says, there are conversations that I could have that I can't have because your level of maturation doesn't give you the spiritual appetite to digest these sort of conversations. Now, upon your first reading, this might make you feel a bit bad. It didn't for me. Because it clarified why some of my conversations with God have been shifting as I grow on my spiritual journey. Because I used to hear people. I hear people say God prompting them and giving them messages, like, I'm about to open the door and I'm about to blow you up, and I'm about to use you greatly, and great things are coming. But when he's talking to me, it's like, fix that and correct that and align that and don't say that. And I'm like, why? I don't get the words that.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

They get

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

these conversations. So the more you grow, the kind of conversations that God has with you that fit in the hard Category is actually a compliment. A. Yeah, yeah. The hard conversations is a compliment because God is saying you're at a place in your spiritual journey where we can have some real conversations now. And you're open to hearing me give you not just milk.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

I. I got. I got. Wait a minute. I got Bible. I got Bible. Here it is. Here it is. Y' all remember Jeremiah 29:11. I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

to prosper

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Now, you know what I teach you here when you read the Bible, you can't just read the Bible. You got to read what becomes before it and read what come after. So. So, so that's Jeremiah 29:11. I know the plan I have for you.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Plans to prosper you, not to harm

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

you, plans to give you a hope and a Future. That's Jeremiah 29:11. But Jeremiah 29:4 says, this is what the Lord God Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I've carried

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Build houses, settle down, plant gardens, eat what they produce, marry, have sons and daughters.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Find wives for your sons, and give your daughters in marriage so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number, do not decrease. Also seek the peace and the prosperity of the city to which I've carried you into exile. Pray for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper. They are carried in exile for. And God sends a word to Jeremiah.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Tell them you're going to be here a minute.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He said. He says, you have been stripped away from your homeland. You have been robbed of your autonomy and your freedom. Jerusalem has been burned to the ground, and you now are in a foreign land and you're under foreign leadership. And he says, build houses, plant gardens, have children. You're going to be here a while. And then in verse 11, he says, for I know the plans that I have for you. Plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and the future.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Because when you get mature, every word in you coming out some words, are you gonna be here a minute? But I got plans that I don't have to move you, to move you.

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That I don't have to change where you are.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

To change where you are.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

That I don't have to change what's going on. To change what's going on. That I don't have to relocate you. To relocate you. I got plans and I can prosper you right where you, you oh, see,

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

that's a different kind of conversation. So. So that's the nature of the conversations the Father's having with you. Take those conversations as a compliment. So maybe the believers in Thessalonica weren't ready for certain kinds of conversation. So Paul now writes to them a letter. And the first one is called First Thessalonians. Got me. And in this letter, he's teaching them some keys and principles of Christian living. And at the end of the letter, which is chapter five, which is what we read, verses 12 through 22, you see these rapid succession of short, practical commands on how to live as a community of faith. And tucked in this rapid succession of Commands in verses 16 through 18, are these words, Rejoice always. Pray continually, and in everything, give thanks. Rejoice always. Pray continually and in everything give thanks. Rejoice always. Pray continually and in everything give thanks. Rejoice always and in everything, give thanks not for everything, not for, but in. I'm not thankful for betrayal. That hurt. Thankful for what he's teaching me in it.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

I'm thanking for how he's growing me. Come on. Am I making sense here? He says, okay, but. But. Rejoice always and in everything, give thanks is anchored by verse 17. Verse 16 and 18 are relatively similar. Rejoicing always and giving thanks in all circumstances is relatively similar, but it's anchored by verse 17.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Pray continue, which means I can't rejoice always, and I won't be able to give thanks in everything if I don't pray continually. Now, the King James says, pray without ceasing. Now, Pastor, you said this text would help me become consistent. All I see in this text is Paul telling me to be consistent. I already know to be consistent. You just told me that at the beginning of the sermon. But you said this text was gonna help me become consistent. So show me, Pastor, how this text is gonna help me become consistent. It's right here in the text. When Paul uses the word continually. This is a word that is used.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Are y' all okay? Yeah.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Because for years, I'm just telling the way I interpret the Scripture, not the way someone taught me. This is the way I interpret. Cause I used to read King James and New King James, and it said, pray without ceasing. So in my mind, it's like. So I'm just supposed to be.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

And I'm trying to figure that out because I'm trying to talk to. I got work to do. I'm trying to talk to kids. I'm trying to talk to wife like you Understand?

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

It's like I'm trying.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Okay, all right.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

So I'm like, okay.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

I'm thinking this means just this long, extended, unceasing conversation with God. And then I say, okay, let me just see.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Not how I'm interpreting the word. What's the word that Paul used here? The word that Paul used here because he wrote this letter in Greek. The word he uses here is a word that they use in that cultural context to refer to a reoccurring cough. So

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

he says.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

He says, when you have, you know, when you have a bout with coughing,

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

if someone says, I've been coughing all

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

day, it doesn't mean from 8am to 8pm non stop, they've been coughing.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

If they say, I've been coughing all

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

day, it means from 8am to 8pm There have been these reoccurring bouts,

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

these reoccurring bouts with coughing.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

It means that I get these urges.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

And sometimes the urge is so strong, no matter how I try to resist and restrain the urge to cough is so strong, I find myself coughing in places I didn't even expect to be coughing in. I'm coughing in the car, I'm coughing in the office. I'm coughing in the gym. I'm coughing in the weight room. Y' all missing this. I got this urgent to cough. And so when Paul is using this word, pray without ceasing, He's saying all

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

throughout the day, you need to be coughing.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Throughout. Throughout the course of the day, you should be coughing. When you wake up in the morning, you ought to cough. And then when you get to your destination safely, you ought to cough. And when you get back home safe, you ought to cough. When you walk in and you see your loved ones alive and well, you ought to cough. Does anybody feel like coughing right now? It is not this one long, unceasing conversation, this reoccurring bouts of spiritual coughing throughout the day.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

This is important because the average individual isn't inconsistent with prayer because they lack desire. They're inconsistent with prayer because they lack discernment.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

What do I mean?

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Desire provokes us to schedule time with God. Discernment allows us to recognize when God is trying to schedule time with us.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

It is the ability to recognize that he has given you the spiritual urge to cough. That this urge to cough is not

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

random, it's not haphazard.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

That God has given you the spiritual urge to cough. So Paul isn't commanding you to never stop talking to God. He's commanding us to never stop being available to talk.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

And so this urge to Cough is a word I'm using called promptings. It's. Are you following the prompt where God uses your intuition to prompt you and to prompt me to cough. This. This. Now, for those of us who have interpreted or who are familiar with Paul's words, praying in the Spirit, listen to me. Especially Pentecostals, listen to Pastor. Listen to me. Praying in the Spirit now is not only praying with Glasileia. Praying in the Spirit includes praying in response to the Spirit's prompts.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

It's not just praying in tongues.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

It is praying when the Spirit, either through your intuition or on your mind or through your mind, gives you a burden and urge to pray. Did you hear what I just said? Yeah, because listen to this now. Because the Spirit, the Bible says, knows

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

the mind and the will of God.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

And the one that knows the mind

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

and the will of God knows. Watch this.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Knows what is happening, what is getting

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

ready to happen, what doesn't need to happen. He knows that.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

And he knows that it won't happen

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

or what shouldn't happen won't be stopped without his intervention. But we taught you last week that there's some intervention he won't engage in without our invitation through prayer. Because prayer doesn't notify God of a need.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

He knows it already.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

But prayer expresses your dependency and frees you from the idolatrous practice of thinking

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

you can meet all your own needs.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

So he says, every time you ask me, it reminds you, you not. That there are going to be some situations that reveal your human limitations and you're going to need me to do for you what you cannot do for yourself. And so the Spirit will see something that is getting ready to happen or something that is getting ready to happen that doesn't need to happen, and then will prompt you and I to engage in prayer on that. And what happens is the promptings don't come with explanation. And because the promptings don't come with explanation, it makes it easy to ignore. Which is why you can be on the treadmill and somebody name can come to your mind randomly and you have no idea why their name is coming to your mind. And the Spirit has planted their name in your mind because there's an accidental 285 waiting on them. And he is.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Your children can be at promotion and something comes to your mind. So praying in the Spirit isn't just praying in tongues. It is praying in response to promptings, these seemingly random urges. And here's what happens. It's easy to ignore promptings in the things that do matter, because God trains us with promptings in the things that don't matter. So he will train us to obey promptings in prayer by giving us promptings outside of prayer. You ever been going somewhere and something tell you, don't go this way, and then you go that way and you run into some, like, traffic jam or something like that, and you're like, something told me not to go another way. It's not that that's going to change your destiny. It's God's teaching you the consequence of not following promptings. And he is using something that doesn't matter to show you the importance of following promptings when it comes to things that do matter. So promptings happen. I'm done talking. Promptings happen not just spiritually, Right. But there are also promptings that happen naturally. Got me. So spiritual in terms of the Spirit prompting us to pray.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

We need to follow that prompt.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

And then there are promptings that happen naturally. That happen naturally. And I want to give you some of these natural ones so that we can discern these when we experience them. Here's one.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Here's one.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

I got four. Y' all ready? How many need all of this?

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Oh, yeah, I need all four, Peter.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

Here it is. Number one. The first one is my moods.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

A shift in the condition of my soul is a prompting to pray. So when I sense I've gone from joy to sadness, when I've gone to despair, when I've gone to disappointment, when I've gone to discouragement, that's a prompting to pray.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

David is an example of this. He says in Psalms 42, My soul, why are you downcast? Why are you disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and Lord. Watch what he says. My soul, why are you downcast? Which means, watch this. Here's what one writer says. She says the. She says, feelings, they're not always right, but they're real. They are the language of the soul. She says they are the equivalent. I can't remember the name of the book because if I would quote it, if I would. I feel like she's a safe author. But. But she says feelings are the equivalent of a check engine light on the car. It doesn't tell you what's wrong, but it tells you to look up under the hood. So when I'm in despair and when I'm downcast and when I'm not experiencing the peace of God or the joy of the Lord, I need to check under the hood. So a shift in my mood is a prompting to Pray because God cares about the state of my soul. Now, I grew up in church, so I'm like, I'm second way. I came out the womb second way. It's just, I just grew up in church and church gave me a great foundation, praise God. And it was good in a lot of areas. But yes, in some areas, there are some things I had to re look at and relearn. And one of the things that was kind of subliminally suggested to me, I feel like in my experience it was almost like feelings are too trivial to pray about. It was never directly stated to me, but that's kind of what I gathered until I started studying for myself and I started seeing the intricate details that God was concerned about when it came to my life. When he says like, things in Matthew 6, like the hairs on the head are numbered, God cares about the state of my soul. And here's what happens when you don't see that and when I don't see that as a prayer prompting, you stay in soul cycles.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

We talk about sin cycles, but soul

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

cycles that are inconsistent with the Father's intention for your life. We discouraged and we sit in it and we don't pray about it. I can't wait to after Easter, because this is prayology. After Easter, I'm doing something called humanology. And that's going to be some of y' all about to get delivered. Oh, you're gonna get so delivered. This, it's gonna be a mass deliverance. It's not gonna be. And it's not a mass deliverance from demons. It's gonna be a mass deliverance from deception. Because there are some things we call the flesh. That's not the flesh, it's humanity. And God's not trying to make you a God. God became a man to show you how to be one. The incarnation is God becoming a human

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

to show you what he intended for

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

a human to be like. And so as a human, I'mma have feelings. Am I making sense? And when I get those feelings that are inconsistent with the intention of the Father, I need to know how to bring them to Him. So a shift in my mood is a prompting to pray. Does that make sense? And I'm not talking about trivial mood swings, but I'm talking about, you know, when you're in despair, you know when you're downcast, you know when you're discouraged, you know when the frustration is becoming toxic. Lord, this frustration is impacting the way I'm engaging with those I love. We need to talk about this because this not they fault. Okay, I really think y' all bored now. Number two, moments. Moments are unexpected, unplanned occurrences that interrupt the normal flow of your day that show up in the form of adversity or opportunity. So adversity and opportunity can both be promptings to pray. Because adversity make you nervous and some opportunities make you nervous. And Nehemiah is an example of this. In Nehemiah, chapter 2, verse 4, he says, the king said to me, what is it you want? He says, then I prayed to the God of heaven, and I answered the king. If it pleases the king, and if your servant has found favor in his sight, let him send me to the city in Judah where my ancestors are buried so I can rebuild it. Y' all missed it. The king said to me, what you want? Then I prayed to the God of heaven, you missed it. The king said to me, what you want? Then I pray to the God of heaven, you missed it. The king said to me, what you want? Then I pray to the God of heaven. He didn't leave the room and pray to the God of Heaven. Between the time the king asked the question and the. Between the time he answered it, he prayed, what you want? Help me, Jesus.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

I need to go back to.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

I need to.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

In the middle of the conversation, did you hear what I said? It wasn't long. It wasn't drawn out. I gotta make a quick decision. Lord, help me. I gotta give a quick response. Lord, help me.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

They're going to be moments where you got to do something quickly.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

You.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

You can't fast and pray over it. You got to make a decision there. And in those moments, it's a prompting to pray. Lord, help me. Cuz Nehemiah was asking for a leave from work cuz he was a cup bearer. He said, I need time off. And the king was like, what else? I need wood to do the rebuilding. What else? I need a military escort to escort me with the wood to make sure I don't get attacked. King was like, what else? See, I don't have time.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

But because he took the opportunity to

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

prayer, he didn't let his nervousness and his nerves rob him of an opportunity

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

that the king was waiting to give to him. Because he handled a moment.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

All right, number three messages. What is this? This is like unexpected information that you get about you or someone else. You get word like one of my team members this week. Let us know. Let me know his son's being deployed. That's a method. That's information about someone else that's a prompt thing to pray. I don't know the person, but it's a prompting to pray. My question is, do you have to know them to pray for them? So here's what happened. Let's say you're online and you see something somebody baby died. Have we become so desensitized to our responsibility to intercession that we just scroll? You know who took his intercessory ministry seriously? Samuel. Here's what he says in 1st Samuel, chapter number 12. He says, for the sake of this great for the great name of the Lord, he will not reject his people because the Lord is pleased to make you his own. As for me, far be it from me that I should sin against God by failing to pray for you. So when you get word that something is going on with somebody, that's a prompting to pray. When you get word that something's going on with you, either adversity or opportunity, it's a prompting to pray. A door open, celebrate. But then pray. God give me wisdom to steward this well. So my moods are prompting to pray. My moments are prompting to pray. What's the third one? The fourth one is this meals. The reason this sounds trivial to us is because we live in the cultural context we live in where we pick over what other people wish they had. So the meals are not about the chicken. The meals are evidence that God keeps on providing for you.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

Every time you look at a meal, you shouldn't call it soul food. You shouldn't call it Asian food. You shouldn't call it Thai food.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

You should look at it and say jireh.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

I only have this because jireh has provided for me.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

So practically, the Spirit is nudging you and I to follow the prompts. Praying without ceasing isn't one unending conversation. It is bouts of coughing in response to promptings from the spirit or practical promptings things and if we will practice this, I practice before I preach. You got me. And I am telling you experientially what this has done for my prayer life and my spiritual life in the past three to four months far exceeds the 30 years I've been walking with the Lord. The intimacy is unmatched. It's an automatic tap in whenever, wherever I could be playing pickleball. Thank you Jesus.

[Assistant or Co-Teacher]

I'm telling you something here.

[Pastor Darius Daniels]

May we follow the prompts?

[Narrator]

You have been listening to the incredible teaching ministry of Darius Daniels. To inquire about more of these great resources, just simply log on and visit us [e-mail].