The Power of Prayer - Brian Alarid

00:00 - Speaker 1 This was not my dream. I didn't dream this. It was a better dream. But my dream died and sometimes we have to let our dreams die and then God's dream what resurrects is not our old dream but a new dream, and that's kind of what happened to our family. A lot of our dreams died in Albuquerque. But you know, I think that's faith too. I love Hebrews 11. By faith Moses, by faith David. And then it says and by faith others die. Yet having received the promise, faith isn't just the power to win. Sometimes faith is the power to lose gracefully. 00:35 - Speaker 2 Welcome to Faithly Stories, the podcast that brings you inspiring tales from conversations with church leaders as they navigate the peaks and valleys of their faith journeys through their ministry work and everyday life. Join us as we delve into their challenges, moments of encouragement and answered prayers. The Faithly Stories podcast is brought to you by Faithly, an online community committed to empowering church leaders, pastors, staff and volunteers. Learn more at faithlyco. Get ready to be uplifted and inspired as we unveil the heart of faith through stories from the front lines of ministry. On the Faithly Stories podcast. 01:10 - Speaker 3 Welcome to another episode of Faithly Stories podcast. I'm Pastor Adam Durso and excited to be with you and have our guest Brian Alarid, who will introduce himself in a moment. But I get to sit next to the CEO and founder of Faithly, alicia Lee. 01:25 - Speaker 4 Hello, hello. 01:26 - Speaker 3 Welcome, and Brian. What part of the world are you in today? 01:32 - Speaker 1 Hey Adam, hey Alicia, Great to be with you guys. I'm in Guatemala this week, so Palm Springs next week, but Guatemala this week. 01:39 - Speaker 3 Guatemala this week and you live in Guatemala, You're completely fluent in Spanish and, before we jump into the ministry side of it, you know there was something really unique about why you moved to Guatemala and we'll backtrack and get to all the other stuff but why Guatemala? 02:01 - Speaker 1 That's a great question. Some days I'm still asking myself had in mind but yeah, you know that was never part of our dream or plan. 02:10 - Speaker 3 My wife mercy's from honduras which, brian, is absolutely the best name for a pastor's wife is mercy, because if us pastors need anything, we need mercy from our wives, daily, bro, hourly, hourly, you know. 02:28 - Speaker 1 So we travel a lot to Latin America. We have staff here, we have a team here. We would come three, four times a year, but never did I think, yeah, one day we're going to live here. I mean, like that never crossed our minds. We were preaching here. It was about two and a half years ago, august of 2022. 02:45 A we were preaching here it was about two and a half years ago, august of 2022, a couple of conferences, and then there was a youth crusade in Antigua, guatemala, about 16,000 teenagers, and I was getting ready to go about, to go to the platform to speak, and the Holy Spirit said your family needs to be here. The fire for your family's here. The burning. Bush is here in Guatemala. And so I mean, I'm discombobulated, I'm like what? Get up. 03:04 And now Brian Allred, I'm like trying to preach through that, and that night had to unpack and say to Mercy, I think we're moving to Guatemala, like what, we had just built a home that she helped design and her dream home in Austin, texas. So you know it was like what? And yeah, it was a real surprise, adam, but sometimes the Holy Spirit does that, he surprises us, and so we talked to each of our three kids, three teenagers, and said we're going to make this decision as a family. I want you to pray about it. Fast one meal, not a whole day, but at least one meal, and get off your phones for a couple hours, spend some time in prayer. So not easy to do with three teenagers. 03:43 And so you know, because the whole family was with us in Guatemala during that trip. And so you know, by that night, when we did family all through, all three of our kids said they felt called by God to Guatemala. They weren't happy about it. They're going to miss their friends and their house and their school and their life and their church and et cetera. But they felt called, and so that was middle of August. By October, middle of October, we were here in Guatemala, and so I've been here about two and a half years Best decision we've ever made as a family. It transformed my kid's life like you couldn't believe. 04:21 - Speaker 3 Talk about that because there's so many pastors that are doing great ministry and you know, home is tough because their kids aren't really serving the Lord. And I think about 2 Kings 4, the widow. The prophet tells her bring your sons in with you. When you close the door behind you, we have kids that witness the struggles of ministry, but they're not part of the miracles of ministry. They don't get to see that side of it. And you brought your kids in to see this miraculous side of it. And you brought your kids in to see this miraculous side of it. And now, two and a half years later, you're looking back and saying it's the best decision. Talk to that a little bit, not only the decision, but the process of the last two and a half years and how to encourage pastors and leaders that are struggling with. Hey, my kids are at home and I'm doing great stuff on the platform, but, man, my kids are spinning out of control. 05:08 - Speaker 1 Yeah, you know it was kind of poignant. I preached in India to thousands of leaders in that summer, july of 2022. Got back, we went to Disney World and I remember thinking, adam, this was the worst vacation we've ever had. Our family was so disconnected. You know, it's like they're taking photos like we're on a ride and it's like, you know, instagramming. I'm like off your phone, okay, phone's away, we're going to throw them away. And just I remember thinking we're so disconnected as a family and I remember my heart hurting. And in India I preached on the family altar and I'm like man our family altar is struggling and that had always been our strength as a family every morning and every night, with our kids praying, reading the Bible together, you know, and we just reached that point, you know, and it was just like man. So when we came to Guatemala, I was saying, god, we need to change, we need to shift. Our family's not doing great, and we know it, and they're fighting amongst each other. And how do we get that unity back, that joy back? And so, honestly, it came out of a place of deep struggle and brokenness and disappointment, and so when we got to Guatemala in October, we just said let's reset as a family. And so, on the way to school, in the morning, we do the Bible. We don't do our phones. In the car, we don't listen to music. We're going to go through the Bible in the car together, read the Bible, pray over each other. At night, nine o'clock, phones away, tv off, you know, and we're in our room for family devotions and you know, not like it happened in a week, but within a few months, our family reset. You know, they readjust to rhythms and into habits and this last two years with our family, our family's gotten. I would say this is the most on fire for God All three of our kids have ever been. It's the happiest we've ever been as a family, the unity stronger, not perfect, but but stronger than it's ever been. 07:02 My son's now in college and he went to Oral Roberts on fire for God, devoted to God, and that was my prayer. They want my son to leave for college struggling. I wanted him to go because college has its own struggles, right, and all our kids have to choose their own faith. They just have to walk in the God of Abraham, isaac and Jacob right on their own. But I didn't want him to go there struggling. I wanted him to go there strong. I wanted Chloe and Jacob right on their own. But I didn't want him to go there struggling, wanted him to go there strong. Wanted Chloe been sick for nine years so that was part of our family. Brokenness is when you have one kid who's chronically sick. It doesn't just affect that kid, it affects the whole family, right. 07:34 - Speaker 4 And it affects them all. I know, Adam, you've got a lot of questions for Brian, but I just want to say I'm just struck by the vulnerability and transparency of what you just said, because you know, pastor Adam asked you like you went to Guatemala. Tell me about that, and I think a lot of pastors might've started with how they were ministering in Guatemala. But I mean, you came out with like how Guatemala is ministering to you and to your family and there's something so beautiful about that. Thank you for sharing that with us. 08:01 - Speaker 1 Thank you, Alicia. 08:03 - Speaker 3 Yeah, I think you know I got to meet your son just last fall in Oklahoma City, first time I was in Oklahoma Apparently. You can get to anywhere in the world on a direct flight except Oklahoma City, but I can get to Guatemala from JFK without a problem. But you know, really there's this interesting just way that God has really your ministry and your family come together. I mean you talk about in your book when we pray, that you know it was really the struggle with your daughter and I think some of our audience, most of which are ministry leaders, many of which are pastors, they don't know that. And you're talking about nine years because people think you know, weeping indoors for a night, joy comes in the morning, like as if that's a 24 hour period sometimes. That weeping that indoors for night is years and it's it's it's believing God and it's holding on. 08:55 Can you tell us a little bit of that story? I got to read it in your book but I got to get it from you firsthand. That first restaurant, uh, that we were sitting there, when you know we just connected and knew that it was a God moment for the two of us and our hearts knit. Can you share and encourage the people that are watching and listening to say hey, this is how this prayer movement really began. It began in my home with what happened with your daughter. 09:22 - Speaker 1 Yeah, thank you, adam. You know, as people of faith and we're used to seeing God answer prayer the question is what do you do when God doesn't answer your prayer? Do you still trust him? Will you still love him with your whole heart? If you read the narrative and Mary and Martha are like come, and he says I'm going to come. And sometimes God says I'm coming, I'm going to provide, I'm going to do a miracle, and it doesn't happen the way or when or how we thought. When Jesus finally arrives, martha's like why'd you show up now? He's already dead, he's already stinks, like you're late. If you had showed up, you know what she's saying. Why now? Why are you coming now? You came too late, you didn't do the miracle right. So sometimes, even when you have faith, lazarus still dies. Sometimes you still go through bankruptcy, sometimes you still go through foreclosures, sometimes the ministry still closes, right. So sometimes God doesn't answer prayer. We knew that we had a lot of theological understanding of that, but then God took us there. So story is nine years ago we were pastoring in Albuquerque. 10:28 I was a civic leader in the city with the mayor and the chief of police and chaplain for the Senate, those kinds of things and also worked full-time for Billy Graham Association, so traveling every week doing pastor's events with BGEA. And one day my daughter, sir Chloe, was, and she got sick at a track meet. She was a starting point guard, starting track star, so running with the eighth graders, winning first, second or third in every race. She got sick, stomach flu, I mean. We thought right. So she came home hurting. Was it the talkies, maybe, I don't know. She got a stomach ache two, three days. It was a little bit better. She went to school. 11:07 So I went on a Billy Graham trip and I think it was Little Rock, and I got to Little Rock Mercy said hey, babe, fly home, and Albuquerque to Little Rock is not an easy connection either, right, and Franklin didn't loan me the private jet, so I was flying commercial, right? I don't think I got to Albuquerque until about midnight and I text Mercy on my way to the ER. She goes no, they moved us to the main hospital. They're talking about surgery tomorrow. I'm like how many men gone 12 hours? What do you mean surgery? But they did the MRI, they did the ultrasounds and they didn't find anything. And so they sent her home. Fortunately, no surgery, but it took about three or four days. Sent her home Fortunately no surgery, but it took about three, four days. 11:48 She got better, but she had a level 10 stomach pain. So like, really, really violent. And so she got a little bit better, went on another trip I mean, this time Missouri mercy calls babe, get home, we're back in the ER. So a couple of weeks in a row, like that I'm like okay, I'm not traveling anymore, you know. And so in about three months she just digressed and got worse every day to the point where they had to hospitalize her full-time at Children's Hospital. And so you know. And then she stopped walking. So from track star from one day to the next day she couldn't walk in one day. So MS doesn't come on that fast, right, like there's. So they couldn't understand, they'd never seen that happen before and so, and then her eyes went open and so she can't walk, and now she can't see anybody. She's scared, right, so there's. And still in level 10 pain. They can't get the pain under control. 12:37 The crisis moment for us was May 13th 2016. That's when she got complete amnesia and she didn't know her name. So I said, hey, chloe, and I had to hold her eyes open to talk to her. Hey, chloe, she goes. Hi, chloe, started talking like a two-year-old and I said yeah, baby, you're Chloe. Do you know who I am? And she struggled and strained and just said you, you, dada, you love me. I'll have the worst day of my life and I'm like I'm half German, half Mexican. 13:10 I was like I can scream. So I was like, ah, doctor, get out of here. And it all just comes in and I'm like what is going on now? Like what is this? And uh, and they tested her and didn't know. And so the doctor gave her 20 questions. She didn't know any of them, didn't know the name of her school, didn't know what a school was, didn't know the year, didn't know her name, didn't recognize her mother. So a very painful moment. 13:32 And that was the day that God called us to prayer. So, leave your church, leave Billy Graham and pray for the whole world. And you know I think it's true of all of us God will always ask of us what's hardest for us. Right, david said I won't give something to God that doesn't cost me something. So, true, worship is costly, obedience is costly. And for me to start a prayer movement when I don't see answers to prayer? Right, like a year before I'll start a prayer movement, I've seen so many miracles, right, prayed for the sick, seen miracles. Yeah, in that moment I don't want to start a prayer. I don't see any answers to prayer. 14:05 And so that was the struggle, you know. And God just said if you'll pray for the whole world, I'll take care of Chloe. And so we had to make a choice. Are we going to trust God when he doesn't make sense, when he's not answering prayer? She's not getting better, she's getting worse. Are we going to trust God? 14:22 And it was a very painful, slow, slow recovery. She's still not a hundred percent today but, um, she was able to open her eyes. Um, took a few days, uh, she got, she got over her amnesia, um, about three, three to six months to get out of the wheelchair. Never got to run again, never got back to sports. So, um, just fatigue issues and uh, but through that came a lot of chronic pain. So she battles chronic pain, day to daily, chronic pain, chronic fatigue. So you know, last year she spent three weeks in bed at a time, 20 years old. It's hard, hard, hard, to go preach to 10,000 leaders in Africa and come home and your daughter hasn't got out of her bedroom in three weeks. You know, just like Lord, please throw me a bone here, lord, you know, and we've just learned through pain, through disappointment, that that broken faith isn't rejected faith and faith isn't rejected faith, you know. 15:16 The father came and he said Lord, I brought my son, my son's struggling, to your disciples. They couldn't, they couldn't heal him. Can you do something? And oh, you have little faith, but he still healed his son, right Like he. Still, he didn't withhold the miracle because he had doubt. I've learned that God is more loving and more gracious than I knew before, but there were moments of doubt and struggle. And even Adam, I wouldn't even say even three years ago, the movement grew, the movement exploded. So many great things. And three years ago, three, four years ago, she was back in the hospital again in Denver, this time for three months. 15:51 I wrote my resignation letter to our largest donor and the chairman of our board and said I'll be a volunteer for World Praise, but I just can't lead. I'm too broken, I'm hurting too much. My baby girl's back in the hospital, I just don't feel like getting in the plane and going and training leaders on the power of prayer. I don't see the power of prayer. And so here's what I learned. I learned this that the prayer is more about the object of our prayer, jesus, than it is the outcome, and I think we're taught to pray for outcomes. I think the real purpose of prayer is to love on the object of our prayer and that's Jesus, and so I would say that my prayer life's deeper now. I learned just to focus. I don't see outcomes, all that's in God's hands. There's things out of my control and I think everybody listening could relate to that right. There's things in your marriage or your family dynamic or your health or your finances that you can't fix, and you've been praying and praying, and praying and haven't seen that answer to prayer. And my broken encouragement is just to hold on to Jesus, because he's faithful, even when prayers aren't answered and miracles don't come and you cry in pain. There are nights and nights and nights. I'd stay awake with my daughter all night in pain and then have to get up and go do a Bible study to senators or to the police department or hop on a plane and just broke it, you know. But I think God doesn't want our comfort, he wants our transformation right. 17:12 And so now you know, nine years later, chloe found awesome. So her husband was waiting down here for her. So they're working towards marriage. She found a godly, young Guatemalan pastor, and just the one that God we're just like. What a prince you know, and so we're just so proud of Joshua. Her health isn't 100, but she became an intern last week at World Praise. He's one of our graphic designers now and and and living her purpose. 17:38 And my son's, you know, an oral robber student. Great, my, my 15 year old Lauren. We asked her last summer when my son went to college baby, do you want to move back to America? Because I know she really missed Austin. Of the three kids she struggled the most down here and she goes. Dad, I miss my school and my friends. And her best friend lived like one house away, right Like that. And she said but, dad, I'm closer to God in Guatemala and I think it would hurt my walk with God to go back to Texas. So can we stay here, even though I'd rather be in Texas? Can we stay here so that I can be more devoted to Christ? So you're just like that's okay. Yes, we're staying. 18:15 Like what's there to pray about when your 15-year-old says I want to stay to be more devoted to Christ? Yeah, so that's the journey, you know. I was in the hospital when Chloe didn't know her name. That's the genesis of this movement of praying for everyone by name, because God told me everyone's my Chloe and I call everyone by name. So that's the dream of our ministry, is that one day we pray for every man, woman and child by name. And so last year we prayed for 600 million people by name, 5 million churches engaged. How'd that happen? 18:44 - Speaker 4 Only Jesus, you know only only Jesus, and so God's been very good. Wow, that is breathtaking. That is just breathtaking. Did you ever get any answers as to what happened to Chloe, like why she came down with that illness? 19:03 - Speaker 1 No, no. She went to about 13 different doctors, hospitals, clinics and they said an unknown virus attacked her nervous system in a way that they hadn't seen before, they'd never seen her combination of symptoms and blood work was clean. Mri always came back clean. Ultrasounds always came back clean, you know. And so you know, when there's not a natural answer, there's probably a spiritual answer. You know, and Adam got to be there for my 50th birthday last year in our seventh anniversary world praise, and Chloe shared her testimony, alicia, and she just said the pain was worth it, you know, to see all these people getting prayed for If my sickness was a catalyst for that, then it was worth it. Right, and to see her loving God now. But, yeah, never got answers. 19:51 About a year ago they diagnosed her with fibromyalgia. They think that's the chronic pain, but that doesn't explain what happened before, and so we've asked God and sometimes answers don't come and you just have to trust, right, you just have to walk and trust. But I would say she's about 90%. Still has some rough days. She's in the hospital again three weeks ago here in Guatemala. So still has some rough moments, you know. 20:14 But she loves Jesus with all her heart and you go, then it was worth it, right. What do we want as mom and dads? That our kids love Jesus. And so she loves Jesus with all her heart. It was worth it, you know, and I mean I wouldn't be living my this right. And so, uh, they, some died in faith, and so I love that if, if he hadn't finished the statement, it'd be like only people, if you, you only have faith when you win, but sometimes you have more faith when you lose, when you break, when you have heartache, when you go through struggle, when families are divided, when churches struggle, when there's health issues right, I think that's actually where faith is stronger. I think that's where faith is really forged, is in the fire, and so our family's been through some fire, but so is every family watching. You know different dynamics, but we've all had our pain, we've all had our struggle, and through that is a faithful, faithful God. 21:44 - Speaker 3 We don't preach the back end of Hebrews 11, you know where? They saw it in two and the world wasn't worthy of them as much as we preach by faith. They ripped apart giants and subdued kingdoms, and a good friend of mine once told me he was a mentor. He said a faith that has not been tested cannot be trusted. And the truth of the matter is we've got weak faith because when it gets tested we fold. 22:11 And so the beauty of the dichotomy of what you were going through, pastor Brian, and I heard the mayor of Albuquerque give a greeting to a room full of 400 pastors outside of New York City at a pastor's prayer summit. When you were with me, you were going to get up and preach and encourage these pastors to begin to pray by name for their communities, and you know I'm 100% behind it. You know, in true New York fashion, I'll show up on your 50th and bring you a pair of unreleased Nike Jordans, just for the record. You know, say we're going to do it. But I heard this mayor, who wasn't necessarily particularly God, give credit to God for the prayer movement in Albuquerque and the socioeconomic conditions therein. While you're dealing with what was going on in Chloe, can you tell us a little bit about what happened in Albuquerque, because then that becomes the impetus for now what you're doing globally and around the world. 23:09 - Speaker 1 Yeah, thank you, adam. Yeah, you know, I think you always got to start where you're at right, like if you want to change the world, change your community, you know, and that's one life at a time. So we just said, all right, well, we're here, we live in, I don't know how we're going to pray for the whole world, but we're in Albuquerque. I know a bunch of pastors. Surely we could get, you know, 30 pastors to join us. And so we started a month through prayer rhythm, where every church would take one day of prayer a month and cover that day in prayer. You know, you just need 24 intercessors. Everyone pray in an hour a day, and so we're hoping for 30. We got 150. So that, to me, was like that had never happened in Albuquerque. 23:44 - Speaker 3 Yeah. 23:45 - Speaker 1 Catholic Archbishop John Wester is a very dear friend of mine, my prayer partner, and he called me and said, can we join you? Like that had never happened. Not in a Catholic state, that doesn't happen, you know. But he's like, hey, can we join you? And so, yeah, sure, john, you know. And so do you believe in Apostles Creed? Yeah, okay, we're good, we're probably not going to co-author books together, plant churches together, pray together, care for the poor together and fight for life together, right and so. And so that was almost a sign and a wonder, because New Mexico is 50% Catholic, not 8% evangelical. So it's not, it's not Texas, right, it's, it's not. It's not Tennessee, it's it's. And so that the Catholics would join was also assigned Catholic mayor. A lot of the, a lot of the city council were Catholic, the governor was Catholic, and so it was like a sign and a wonder, right. And so, yeah, we just started. 24:33 We took Jeremiah 29, 7. That was the verse that God gave us Pray for the peace and prosperity, right, the shalom. And so I think that's the power of prayer. Jesus said pray your kingdom, come. Your will be done on earth, as is. I think that's shalom. You know, prayer has the power to bring the culture of heaven down to earth. What's the culture of heaven, shalom? It's peace, it's prosperity, it's health, it's goodness, it's wholeness. Right and so, and I love it that Jeremiah is talking about Babylon, not Jerusalem, right he's talking about the most wicked city in history destroyed three times. 25:05 In the Bible, right when sin reaches its zenith, it's called mystery Babylon. Right, like this is not a worst. So New York's bad Vegas is sincere. It hasn't been a bad. A lot Okay and so. 25:16 But God said if there's some people, some men and women, who know how to call upon my name, my name is more powerful than any sin, than any demon in hell, and if they know how to pray, they can bring shalom, they can bring peace and prosperity. So we just said, well, we've tried everything else. Nothing else worked in Mexico, like, let's try that. Would that work? Would the widow at midnight in Luke 18, could that bring justice? And it happened faster than we could have dreamed or imagined. And so we saw crime go down 32%, 26%, 18%. Every crime index went down and the FBI said it was the largest drop in crime in one year they'd ever seen in the city. Our economy turned around. So when we started praying, we were in deficit, bankrupt as a state, and it's a small state. California just keeps borrowing money, not New Mexico, like you have the worst economy, small population. No one's going to loan us more money. And so we started praying. Could prayer transform an economy? Yes, it can, and so actually went to number one in job growth in 2017, from 50th to first in one year. 26:21 And so Bloomberg News came out like how'd this happen? You can go from 50th to 30th, but not 50th to first. Like how does that happen? Only God. The only explanation was God. And so they discovered the second largest oil field in North America. They'd been drilling there for 100 years and they thought it was dry. And one day a random technician scans and finds out it's five times deeper than they ever realized. So they'd been there 100 years, thought it was about to close it, and God said I got more welfare. I got more in Argentina a few weeks ago. 26:56 Yeah, that was in 2017. What about now? I said it's continued. Every year bigger. Last year, $13 billion surplus. So every year that surplus has gone up, with COVID and everything and all the struggles continue to gone up. And so you know we always teach what you gain in prayer, you have to sustain in prayer, right? So there was, of all the crime indexes. All of them are still down. Murder went up. That went up nationwide in 2020. Most cities saw an increase of murder. There was so much angst and anger and frustration, isolation, right, and when there's isolation, anger. So we just said, all right. Then we got to focus on that, we got to pray for peace, you know, in New Mexico and so, but yeah, it's been so. 27:29 That became a catalyst and so two years ago in Argentina, they asked me to preach in Rosario, messi's hometown, which is the murder capital of Argentina. So we trained 5,000 pastors that week November of 2023. And we launched 24-7 prayer. You know, we launched the Jeremiah 29-7 model, told the Albuquerque story and what I meant to say in Spanish Adam, was I'm believing that God could do twice as much in Argentina, right, crime went down 32% in one year. You're in the murder capital, god could. But what I said was God could Very different verb in Spanish. Afterwards they were like so you're prophesying? I'm like no, I'm just saying God could do that. We pray to God. I wasn't saying he like no, you said and I'm like, oh Lord, if that wasn't you could you adopt it? You know, true story Last year, murder went down in Rosario, Argentina, 66% year over date. And so the mayor and the governor again Catholic mayor, catholic governor, uh, attributed, did a video for us and said this is the power prayer. There's no other explanation, because inflation in Argentina was 150 percent, so they had less officers, less military than ever to control violence, and yet yet it went down 66 percent. 28:49 And so I believe God wants to do that in every community. I believe we're here to transform, not just to hold on to the bitter end, not just to get to heaven. I don't think that way. I think we're here to impact, to transform society, the church. I see in the book of Acts they were changing cities right. When they showed up, the enemy was nervous. These are the ones that are turning the world upside down. They come to our town, right? The economy of the goddess Diana was destroyed in Ephesus because so many people started following Jesus and weren't buying idols anymore, right? And so I think we should bring transformation to earth, and I think it's not only prayer, it's prayer plus compassion, it's prayer plus service, it's prayer plus mission. But I think it starts with prayer, I think it's sustained by prayer, and so that's kind of what we've seen God just doing great things, and I believe God wants to do that in New York City and all around the world. 29:39 - Speaker 3 You know, brian I mean my mom growing up used to say you can either be a thermostat or a thermometer. A thermometer tells you the temperature of the room. A thermostat changes the temperature of the room and what you're doing in cities and globally is a godly kingdom thermostat man. And every time I'm around you I think I dream big and I think I'm excited for what God's doing around the globe. Man, and then I get have dinner with you or hang out with you for a couple of days in Oklahoma City or Austin, texas, and I leave like just charged up, ready to believe God. 30:12 And there are some very unique things as we wrap up this episode. There are some very unique things that God is calling you to do and help to lead in this season in partnership, not only in Leading World Praise, but in partnership with Pastor Rick Warren. In partnership with the Green Family so that the gospel is preached between now and 2033 to all the nations of the world. Can you share with the Green family so that the gospel is preached between now and 2033 to all the nations of the world? Can you share with the ministers, the pastors, the leaders that are listening to this right now what God's called you to lead in this season in partnership with those other ministries, and how they can get involved. 30:47 - Speaker 1 Yeah, thank you, adam. I think it's a collective dream. Victor Hugo said it this way he said there's nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come right. And I think that the time has come to pray for everyone and reach everyone, get the Bible in everyone's language right. It's been 2,000 years since Jesus. We have the money, we have the tools, we have the technology, we have the reach. It's time to finish the job For me. 31:13 Think that for me that's not eschatological, that doesn't mean we finish it and then Jesus comes back the next day. I don't think that way. He said occupy till I come. No man knows the hour. So for me that's not eschatology, that's discipleship, that's mission right. Go make disciples of all nations. 31:27 So there's a collective dream that many movements have, rick Warren's one of them leading, finishing the task. So I help lead prayer for that. Another movement's, empower 21. With Billy Wilson I lead the prayer movement for Empower 21. There's another Catholic movement out of Rome called Global 2033. My friend Henry leads that. So we're part of that as well. 31:51 And so a lot of different movements have come together Baptist, catholic, evangelical, pentecostal and have said hey, what if we did a moonshot right? What if we said would there be a way, by 2033, we could pray for everybody by name and share the gospel with 8 billion people? I'm not sure that we can or we will, but if you don't shoot for it, right, if you shoot for the stars, you might hit the moon right. So let's shoot for the stars. And so there's this collective dream, a lot of movements working together, a lot of denominations working together, more than I've ever seen in my life I'm 50, never seen this kind of unity on mission. Right, we don't need doctrinal mission I don't think that happens till Jesus comes but we do need missional unity. Right, we need unity around Jesus, who he is, and unity around his power and his mission. Right, there's things we're going to disagree on, I think, till Jesus comes. But we can agree on Jesus. We can agree on mission, and the mission is what's make disciples of the whole world. So you know, with the Green family and Illuminations, they're shooting to get the Bible in everyone's language, at least audio version of it, by 2033. 32:56 Everyone in the world have access to the Bible. Right, there's a dream that everyone would hear the gospel. Probably a lot of that's going to be through house, churches, social media. There's places it's going to be hard to get into, but Facebook is everywhere. Instagram is everywhere. There's probably social media. There's also the house church planning movement in the Middle East is everywhere. Instagram is everywhere, there's probably social media. There's also the house church planning move in the Middle East is exploding. 33:16 And so there's this idea for big, big, big audacious. I don't like. Here he goes. I like a big, audacious. Holy goes right. So you know my RB hags, you know we pray for everyone by name, by 28 billion of us. You know, by 2033, everyone would hear the clear presentation, the gospel, everyone would have the chance to be in a life-giving church and everyone would have the access to the word of God in their heart language. Right, because it's not just well, they make a decision on their phone with an Instagram post who's going to disciple them? Where are they going to get plugged into a community, virtual or in person? So yeah, those are some big, hairy, audacious goals. 33:51 And all the movements have said we got to lead with prayer. I think that's what's different. So when Rick took over finishing the task, he said hey, we haven't finished the task, we haven't finished the great commission because it wasn't led by prayer. So the first thing we're going to do is start a prayer movement and Brian's going to help us lead it. I'm like, I am Okay, sure, you know. And so, yeah, it's been great to see how God's bringing people together. 34:16 And this by name thing, right, this, who you pray for, you care for, it's so intuitive. Anybody you love. You pray for them by name. So it's really intuitive. It's like, oh yeah, so how do you pray for 8 billion, five at a time? That's the challenge. 34:33 Could every believer take at least five minutes a day and pray for five lost people? So, a neighbor, a friend, a family member, a classmate, a teammate? My daughter, lauren, did it, prayed for seven friends when she was 11 and led five of her friends to Christ in our living room. And so if an 11-year-old can do it, come on, why can't we do it? So that's the sub-nations. They pray for Tim. So it's not a formula, but it is an effective strategy that God's using. And so, yeah, we're just excited to see. And what's great is everyone can have their. Everyone has a piece of that movement, right, we all can share our faith. We can all disciple, we can all pray. Right, we're not all gonna go to China. We're not all gonna go to Iran, but we can all pray, we can all share faith with people we know, we can all disciple somebody and we can all help with Bible engagement right. 35:18 - Speaker 4 Wow. So remind us again how many names are you at prayed for? 35:24 - Speaker 1 I didn't catch that? 35:26 - Speaker 4 How many names have you prayed for so far? 35:29 - Speaker 1 Yeah, so last year we prayed for over 600 million people by name 600 million 600 million. 35:35 - Speaker 4 All right so only about 7 billion more to go Right, but you know twice the size of the United States population. 35:41 - Speaker 3 So we'll take that and what we're going to do. We'll make sure that our guest today on Faithly Stories is Pastor Brian Allard. Is Pastor Brian Alarid, we're going to get some of those key tools and things uploaded on Faithfully so that people can follow along, can get links to what you're doing. The opportunity for pastors that are watching this literally around the country and the globe can be able to say you know what we want to pray for our city and what God is doing through you, my brother man, you are blazing a trail, brother. I get the opportunity to co-host today as a guest podcaster with my good friend, the founder and CEO of Faithly, alicia Lee, here. God bless you. Thank you for joining us. 36:28 - Speaker 2 Thank you for tuning in to the Faithly Stories podcast. We pray this episode gave you the encouragement you needed to continue on your journey. The Faithly Stories podcast is brought to you by Faithly, an online community committed to empowering church leaders, pastors, staff and volunteers. The Faithly digital platform offers innovative and practical tools and resources to enhance connection, foster collaboration and promote growth within the church and ministry space. Remember to subscribe, rate and review our podcast to help reach more listeners like you. Stay tuned for more uplifting tales from the front lines of ministry on the Faithly Podcast. Stay bold, stay faithful and never underestimate the power of your own story.