Halleluia. It’s quite an honor, particularly since it was….. well, watching your dad as a young boy l2 years old and Richard Roberts heard the call of God to preach and from that time I fell in love with your dad and what an honor here quite a few years later for him to bestow a doctorate on me. It’s almost beyond comprehension.

There are several others, Jerry, that are going to receive honorary doctorates and I’m so glad that your name is among those this year and we honor you, we honor your wife and your family, we honor your ministry, and we pray and believe that God has even greater things in store for you. Jerry, when you think of prayer, what comes to your mind?

The first thing that comes to my mind, Richard Roberts, because this is…. I believe this is what caused my prayer life to become effective and that was a reality of righteousness. I read in James, chapter 5, once years ago that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. The Amplified says, “The earnest heartfelt continued prayer of a righteous man, one who has right standing with God, makes available tremendous power, dynamic in its working.” I thought: Boy, if I could ever get to be righteous I would be a praying dude, wouldn’t it? And I found out one day I am righteous, I found out one day I am the righteousness of God and it changed my entire prayer life.

Well, Jerry, most people have the wrong interpretation of the word righteous, don’t they? They think righteousness is something they have to attain or have to be worthy for, but that’s not the way it is. That’s not what that words means, is it?

No, righteousness is simply right standing with God. There is nothing you can do to earn it. There’s nothing you can do to deserve it. The Bible says that it is a gift of God. You receive it when you make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life. The Bible says with a man’s mouth he confesses unto salvation and with his
heart he believes unto righteousness. So the moment I believed that Jesus is my Lord, he also bestows a gift on me called righteousness and Paul tells us in Romans, chapter 3, and Romans, chapter 5,… he says, “Declare his righteousness.” So I’m declaring the righteousness of Christ and that gives me the right to stand before the throne of God just as boldly without fear, without condemnation, without inferiority, just as much of a right
to do that as Jesus does.

In fact, Jesus prayed and said, “Father, show him that you love him as much as you love me.” So he made me righteous and that gives me the ability to stand before God boldly and know that when I pray it’s going to make available tremendous power, dynamic in its working, and my prayer life hasn’t been the same since that revelation came into my heart.

I had lost most of my friends, I had given up on any hope of a career or just about anything you’d like to name that was important. I had lost my girlfriend. I was asked to leave my apartment when my lease came due. I look back now and I was doing things that I can’t conceive of myself doing now but I was doing them and embracing it almost.

MOTHER: I had been listening to Richard Roberts for quite a while now and I had been trying to get my Richard to listen to the program. So when I received the wafers for the communion service, I myself… I didn’t even know where Richard Roberts was at that point, so when I received them, I carried those with me to Los Angeles because I didn’t think I’d be back in time enough to have them here. And then I found him in Los Angeles at the hotel and then he came home.

She turned on the program and we sat and prayed together and we took the communion along with Richard on the show and I felt…. it’s hard to explain but I felt kind of lightened like a lot had been lifted off me, a lot of the heaviness had been lifted off of me. And at that point I immediately….. not immediately but in the rest of that day I drank half as much as I’d been
drinking and even less the next day. My mother fixed me a large chicken dinner and I asked for seconds and for anybody who drinks, food is way down on the list. And Monday I quit drinking altogether and I haven’t had a drink since. MOTHER: First of all he stopped drinking and second, he’s like he was years ago when he was so sweet and pleasant.

And he wants to do something for somebody else now. He isn’t selfish like…. he started to drink and become selfish and mean in his life and it was very hard to handle. And now he’s totally different.

If it wasn’t for Richard’s show I think I’d either be in a hospital or possibly not walking this earth. I’d be dead. Thank God that I got it turned around and on the right track again, that I got a second chance. A lot of people don’t get one.)

Friend, he is the God of a second chance. He went to the cross for you that you might have a second chance. You may be a lot like that young man. God can turn the situation around in your life. In a few moments we’re going to pray. I want you to get yourself ready. Here we are on the National Day of Prayer but I don’t need a National Day of Prayer to pray. I believe in praying
all the time. And in a few moments we’re going to join together and pray for you.

Dony, this is the National Day of Prayer and in a few moments we’re going to have prayer. I’m going to ask you and Reba to join us. What’s in your heart now about prayer before you sing this next song?

What’s in me about prayer is that we as a people of God are learning more how to pray than ever before. We’re learning the things… we’re seeing satan as satan. We are not looking at our brothers and sisters, blaming them or ever even accusing them of being the problem when something arises in a relationship, but we’re saying, “Satan, we realize that you have come in here to destroy and to kill and to steal,” and we are looking at satan as who he is and we are putting him back where he belongs.

Our prayers are not praying condemnation on one another or guilt on one another or praying that God will give his wrath out on mankind. God gave his Son for the world and we’re learning that those who God has given us, we’re to minister to our brothers and sisters whether they be a part of the body or those that are outside the body of Christ. Richard Roberts and others minister to those and we are praying that the strongholds of satan are broken. Not strongholds of man,
but God’s love to infiltrate men.

Dony, we’re not called to criticize. We’re not called to castigate people. We’re not called to put people down. We’re not called to beat people, to condemn them, to fleece them. We’re called to pray for them and that’s what the National Day of Prayer is all about. In a few moments we’re going to be holding you up before the Lord and we’re going to be expecting miracles. And when we do, I want you to believe. If you have a special prayer request, go to your phone and call Richard Roberts and the Abundant Life Prayer Group right now. Let us know what your name and needs are and I’ll tell you, we’ll pray and we’ll expect God to bring a deliverance in your life. Right now Dony and Reba are going to sing again. Let’s give them another great welcome. God bless you as you sing.

Romans 9:25 talks about a people who were not a people. God is bringing his body together and he is making us one in love. “We Are The People Of God”, RICHARD BALLREICH: I started playing around with dope and with booze when I was in high school and went on in college. I’ll be 30 years old come June so it was the 60′s and everybody thought that was a pretty hip thing to do, to be smoking grass and drinking beers and that sort of thing. I was drinking at least a quart of Vodka a day and sometimes more.

And going in cycles of…. I would drink to the point where I could go to sleep and then I’d sleep until the liquor would wear off and then I would get up and drink again. So it usually went six hours of drinking, six hours of sleeping, around the clock 7 days a week.

And so I began to pray and I called the prayer partner here and, thank God, they were here and one of the little ladies prayed with me and I said, “I received that word Richard Roberts said yesterday for me today,” and she prayed with me and I went to sleep and woke up and your show was coming on live in Los Angeles then, or on the delay there that day, and I woke up just as you were coming on and you were talking about how I had called in to the prayer partner. And I woke up without pain, not the first pain in my body. I woke up, walked around the house praising the Lord.

It’s so wonderful. I guess in the middle of the night, you know, when you can’t sleep or sickness strikes or a fever, to be able to crawl out of bed and to step over to your phone and call Richard Roberts and the Abundant Life Prayer Group and know that somebody will be there and not only will they be there, but they will pray. Now that’s what you’re talking about. And the Bible talks about when any two of us agree. That’s the importance. A lot of people say, “Why, I can pray. Why do I need to call a prayer partner?” But the Bible tells us that two of us agree upon touching any one thing and there’s somebody here night or day that I can call and they’ll say, “Yes, I agree with you and we can touch that healing together,” and that’s the important thing. Of course, I can pray. We’ve talked about it.

We can make our prayer closet anywhere. But it’s so important to have somebody praying with you and agreeing and holding your hand before the Lord. That’s special.

Well, Reba and Dony, doesn’t the Bible say, “Pray ye one for another that ye may be healed.” We pray one for another. The Bible says, “Pray one for another that you may be healed.” Many times I ask people to join hands and pray for each other while I pray for them and I have them say out loud, “As I pray for you, I expect this healing not only to heal you, but to come back to me in the way that I need it the most.”

In our concerts now we have people….. used to we had them come forward for healing and we felt that they were looking more to Dony and I to pray for them. Instead, now in our concerts we have people in the audience stand for their needs and then the other people in the audience to go and minister and pray with them. But we get the most wonderful reports afterwards. They’ll say, “Why, I was praying for someone else’s healing and I received mine and I wasn’t even praying for me.” But that’s the way the Lord is. I was preaching one night and I had people to lay hands on one

another and all of a sudden during the prayer a man jumped up and stood out in the aisle and started moving his leg like this and I stopped the prayer and said, “What are you doing?” He said, “Well, can’t you see? I’m moving my leg.” I said, “I can see that, but why? He said, “You don’t understand. I’ve had arthritis in my knee. I haven’t been able to bend on it and now I can move
it.” I said, “What did you do?” And he pointed to this woman and said, “I prayed for her.” Now that’s praying one for another and God can work miracles that way.”