All Access 2010: Night One, Session One with Brian Houston

Session One of the first evening of the All Access 2010 Conference continued in its ‘incredibleness’ with a message from Pastor Brian Houston of Hillsong Church. Houston used James 5:17 to state that ordinary people (i.e. Elijah) with extraordinary prayers can do extraordinary things. He declared that prayer is a God encounter, has power in the heavenlies, and a confession that we completely depend on God.

Houston urged his audience to realize that there is nothing undimensional about prayer. In light of that he told them to ‘Spice up their prayer life and to spice up the prayer of their church.’

Brian gave the conference 9 dimensions of prayer to Spice Up their prayer lives:

1. Praise is a great dimension of prayer (enter His gates with thanksgiving and His courts with praise…)
2. Be Still and know that He is God
3. Ask (come boldly before the throne)
4. Cry Out to God! (Jesus! Save my son! Heal my friend!)
5. Pray in the Spirit. Paul prayed with understanding and in the Holy Spirit. If you pray in the Spirit you won’t be praying against the will of God.
6. Prayer is most powerful when it’s Real and Authentic.  (Nice clean churches don’t change people!)
7. Prayer should be Unselfish. Houston pointed out that James 5:16 says to ‘Pray for one another so that YOU may be healed.’ In other words, when you start praying for the healing and the well being of others, that’s when you’ll receive healing. He stated that the power of God is released in us when we focus on the happiness of others.
8. Remember the Authority of prayer- that you have authority in the name of Jesus
9. Prayers should be Fervent. Fervency is to be indignant, to not be satisfied, to be angry about the plight of people and the fact that there are millions of lost people without Jesus in our communities.

Houston urged us to not allow our prayers to be monotone, monologue, or legalistic, but to come before before God with the 9 dimensions of prayer mentioned.

He then introduced his son Joel and the Hillsong United band, pointing out that Joel was still single and desperate, to close the evening in worship and in concert. United then proceeded to lead the conference in worship until the late hours of the night and it was awesome. Looking forward to today!