The Power of Prayer: When God Says I'm Done Talking About That!

In this powerful episode, we explore the raw honesty of Jeremiah’s prayers as he stands in the gap between God and a rebellious people. Drawing from Jeremiah 13–15, we unpack what happens when God decides He’s had enough—and what real, humble prayer looks like in desperate times. This episode reveals the *power of prayer* not as a magic fix, but as a heartfelt plea rooted in repentance and God's mercy. Learn how Jeremiah intercedes even when God says no, and what it means to pray not for blessings, but for God to simply *stay*. If you’ve ever wondered *how to pray* when all hope seems lost, this episode will challenge and inspire your faith.

@presstopray

#prayer 

#prayers 

#pray 

#christianprayer 

#howtopray  

#biblestudy 

#biblestudyforbeginners 

#biblestudyforteens 

#Christian

#pentecostal 

#apostolic 

#press 

#pressmovement

Transcript

Press means to apply force when God said, press prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through. And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us.

Greetings, everybody. Hello, welcome to the Press Movement Podcast. Thanks for joining me again.

Today, we are going to talk about what happens when God has decided to give up on you. There can come a point where God makes a decision and he decides, I'm done with this relationship. It's interesting to me when people paint grace like grace has to excuse each and everything that a person does.

But God makes it very clear when he talks to Moses in Romans 9 15. He lets him know I'm going to have mercy on whom I have mercy. In other words, that decision is up to him.

And in the book of Jeremiah, where we find ourselves today, as we're getting near the end of the prayers of Jeremiah, we see once again, Jeremiah standing between God and man. He doesn't stand between them the same way that Moses did, but he does talk to God about his decisions. And the Lord talks to Jeremiah as well about what he's deciding.

He tells Jeremiah to go get a linen girdle, a cloth girdle, basically your underwear. And he tells him to go put it in the Euphrates. And he has him leave it in the Euphrates in the water for some days.

And when he sends him back to get it, the girdle is marred. Now, this story is already interesting to me because I just keep going back to what we consider modern day prophets. And you never hear anything remotely like this.

Not saying that I want to hear about their undergarments being thrown in the water for days or anything of that nature. But I am saying it's interesting. It's interesting the way that God communicated with his people.

And he said to Jeremiah, just like this garment is marred, I'm going to mar the children of Israel. And he goes on to talk about why he's angry with them. The Bible says this evil people, which refuse to hear my words, which talk in the imagination of their hearts and walk after other gods to serve them and to worship them shall even be as this girdle, which is good for nothing.

Basically, he's saying these underwear I've had you keeping this water for days. You can't use them anymore. And that's how I look at this people.

Some people may think I'm being kind of crass or crude by being so frank. But that is what God was saying. He was being frank.

He thinks this is dirty. Y'all are dirty. And I don't want anything to do with you anymore.

And yet he says, what makes the people evil is they refuse to hear his words. They're not listening. And they walk in the imagination of their own hearts.

That word imagination means lust. They think that because their heart wants it, that's the way they should go. That is literally what that scripture is saying.

I should follow my heart. Now, how many times have we heard that? That is the theme of every Disney movie, of Hallmark sometimes, of all these different things in life right now. If you want a pep talk, if you're looking for a life coach, they're going to tell you to believe in yourself and follow your heart.

God said there's evil there. They're just doing what they want to do. And they're not listening to what I'm saying.

And they're chasing other gods with a little g. And they serve them. That means that's what they labor for. That's what they work for.

They serve these gods. They labor for them. They work for them.

And they worship them. That's what they bow down to. That's what's in control of them.

That's what they depress themselves for. They bring themselves down for the things they want to serve in place of me. And because of that, God was angry.

And Jeremiah says to the people, Hear ye and give ear. Be not proud for the Lord hath spoken. Give glory to the Lord your God before he cause darkness and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains.

And while you look for light, he turn it into the shadow of death and make it gross darkness. So Jeremiah is pleading with the people. But at the same time, he goes straight to the next verse.

But if you will not hear it, my soul shall weep in secret places for your pride. And my eyes shall weep sore and run down with tears because the Lord's flock is carried away captive. Jeremiah is not excited about what he's seeing.

He's not out there going, Yep, God's gonna get y'all. No, he is weeping. He is mourning because the people will not hear.

He's begging them humble yourselves before God. So God's talked to Jeremiah and Jeremiah is talking to the people. And then God begins to talk again.

And he says, If thou say in thine heart, Wherefore come these things upon me? I'm in Jeremiah 13, 22. For the greatness of thine iniquity are thy skirts discovered and thy heels made bare. He says, You're gonna stand there and act like, Why is this happening to me? Oh, my gosh, why? But really what's happening is you're being exposed.

You're being caught with your pants down. That is literally what he's saying there. God is painting a very visual picture that most of us would turn away from.

Maybe even say, This is out of order. We don't talk about these kinds of things in public. But that's exactly what he's doing.

And I believe it's to make a point. You have your private prides. You think things should be handled in a certain way.

And we should keep our demure. And we should be seen as this type of classy person in this great person. And all of that means nothing if what you really are and what you really look like is dirty and marred and wrong.

He's coming for these people. In Jeremiah 14 and 1, the Bible says that the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth, which is a drought. And he lets Jeremiah know there's a drought coming to this land.

People are going to look for water, the nobles, the rich people, and they're not going to find any. Jeremiah begins to pray in Jeremiah 14, 7 through 9. He says, Oh, Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name's sake. For our backslidings are many.

We have sinned against thee. Oh, the hope of Israel, the savior thereof in time of trouble. Why shouldst thou be as a stranger in the land and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldst thou be as a man astonished, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, Lord, are in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name.

Leave us not. That is a powerful prayer. When it has to come to the conclusion, God, just don't leave us.

And he is saying us. Remember, Jeremiah is not the one who's sinning. He's the one who's trying to warn them.

But in his begging with God, he reminds God, I'm here too. In his begging with God, he's letting him know the things that we've done wrong. They are speaking loud and clear.

They're testifying against us. But let your name be louder. Let it be louder than our backslidings.

We have sinned against thee, but you are the hope of Israel. One definition of that word hope means outcome. You are the outcome.

You are what comes out. You are what we lean on, hope of Israel. You're the one who saved us out of trouble.

Why should you be a stranger here? He's talking to God about himself. Because as I've said repeatedly throughout this podcast, we see a pattern here that when there's nothing left to barter with God on, you don't have anything to give him. You're wrong and you know you're wrong or you're looking at wrong and you can't say, God, well, we tried this or we're doing that.

No, when there's nothing left to say except guilty, you plead with God based on who he is, that he is hope, that he is the savior, that he has this name worth saving for. And it's that name that we're called by now. And he says, leave us not.

As you go on in the scripture, you begin to see another conversation between he and God. God still says no. The Bible says in Jeremiah 14, 11, then said the Lord unto me, pray not for this people for their good.

Don't ask me to make this better is what he's saying. When they fast, I will not hear their cry. And when they offer burnt offering in an oblation, I will not accept them, but I will consume them by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence.

And Jeremiah begins to talk back. He's like, Lord, God, behold, the prophets say unto them, you shall not see the sword. Neither shall you have famine.

But I will give you assured peace in this place. In other words, Jeremiah is now saying, hold on, God, there's people lying to them and they're lying in your name. They're telling the people they're going to have good blessings and good things.

Even in this place, they'll have peace, even though you're not saying it. I believe Jeremiah was trying to help the people out here by saying they're being misled. You're being lied on.

And that's part of the reason they're being tricked. God addresses that he said concerning the prophets that prophesy my name and I send them not yet. They say sword and famine shall not be in this land by sword and famine.

Shall those prophets be consumed? And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem. So he answers, Jeremiah. Yep, I see them, too.

They're going to get theirs, too. But I'm not letting these people off the hook. Jeremiah continues with repentance and continues interceding.

In Jeremiah 14, 21, he says, do not abhor us. God, don't hate us. Totem in verse 20, we acknowledge, oh, Lord, our weakness and the iniquity of our fathers.

We've sinned against thee, but don't break your covenant with us. Please, God, is what he's saying. Please don't abandon us.

And God goes on to say to Jeremiah, though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people. He's like, even if it was Moses, even if it was Samuel, you can change my mind this time. He said, cast them out of my sight and let them go forth.

He said, and it shall come to pass if they say unto thee, whither shall we go forth? Then thou shall tell them. Thus saith the Lord. Such as are for death to death, and such as are for sword to the sword, and such as are for the famine to the famine, and such as are for the captivity to the captivity.

In other words, go get what you were chasing. I thank God that we did not live in this time. I thank God for living in an era where he is gracious towards us.

And I can't say he wasn't gracious towards these people, but I can say the Lord is suffering long with us. But what we see in Jeremiah is the picture of a God who's holding himself back in this hour. He's holding himself back from judgment.

He's holding himself back from fighting. He's holding himself back from letting us go. He's already scripted an end.

This time, the end is the rapture. And he's striving with us. He's striving with man.

He's fighting with us. And I thank God for the people that he has set up around the world that are praying, that are interceding, that are calling on him for this generation. Because there is somebody saying, God, don't let us go.

God, don't leave us here. There's still somebody who wants you. There are people that are crying out.

But what we see in Jeremiah is the God of judgment. And we have to remember, he said, I am the Lord. I change not.

That's Malachi 3 and 6. Who he was is who he is and who he will be. Hebrews 13 picks it up and says, Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forevermore. We have to realize in this hour, just because God has not thrown us away and given us over to famine and done all these things that we see in here does not mean he won't.

We have to celebrate his grace and be ready to intercede for the people. We have to remember, as Jeremiah, how to cry out, how to remind them of who they are, how to pray for them. We have to know God for ourselves.

The final portion of Jeremiah's prayer we'll look at today is in Jeremiah 15, verse 15. Jeremiah says, O Lord, thou knowest. Remember me and visit me and revenge me and my persecutors.

Take me not away in thy longsuffering. Know that for thy sake I suffered rebuke. Jeremiah starts turning to save me.

You know, there's a time to pray, save us. And then when God's made up his mind, he does say, save me. Thy words were found and I did eat them.

And thy word was unto me, the joy and rejoicing of my heart. For I am called by thy name, O Lord, God of hosts. I sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor rejoiced.

I sat alone because of thy hand, for thou has filled me with indignation. This could preach by itself that I was alone because I loved you, that I was willing to take that time, that I was willing to make a stand for you, that I was willing to be mocked. He's like, God, remember me.

When you're making decisions, when you're making judgments, remember me. He says, why is my pain perpetual and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? Will thou be altogether unto me as a liar and as waters that fail? God, are you going to leave me like this in a place I don't deserve? The word of the Lord then comes to Jeremiah. Therefore, thus saith the Lord.

If thou return, then will I bring thee again, and thou shalt stand before me. And thou take forth the precious from thy vial. Thou shall be as my mouth.

Let them return unto thee, but return not thou unto them. I will make thee unto this people a fenced brazen wall, and they shall fight against thee, but they shall not prevail against thee. For I'm with thee to save thee and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.

And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the terrible. You see, Jeremiah did get a little caught up and God corrects him here. And he lets him know, you know what? You do right, I do right by you.

But what I'm going to do with you is make you a place of division, a wall, a place of separation. It can also be a place of protection if you're behind it. And they're going to fight you, but I'm going to be with you.

Today, as we look at the ups and downs of Jeremiah's prayer life and talking to God in a society that was not pro-God, you get to decide what side of this you're on. You get to decide, do you go with the crowd? Or would you rather be like Jeremiah and be able to say, I set alone and I did it for your name's sake. I went through it, but I did it for you.

I was mocked, but it was about you. Will you be the one who can ask God for mercy in trouble? And he has it because he knows you. You see, even in judgment, throughout all the scriptures, even when God is angry, even when he's planning to destroy all the people, there's always all but one or all but some.

God will always have a people who choose him, who love him and who follow him. And I pray that as we look at the example from Jeremiah today, that we choose to be on the right side of God's anger. And I pray that no matter where you find yourself, that you'll know prayer reaches every single situation.

Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and we're wondering how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have. You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you.

It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit PressToPray.com