Video Transcript: Getting Whatever You Pray For

Video Transcript - Getting Whatever You Pray For

11 verses 12 through 25. On the following day, when they came from Bethany, Jesus was hungry and seeing in the distance the fig tree and leafy went to see if you could find anything on it. When he came to it, he found nothing but leaves for it was not the season for figs. And he said that no one may ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard it. And they came to Jerusalem and he entered the temple and again to drive out those who sold and those who bought in the temple and overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold pigeons. And he would not allow anyone to carry anything through the temple. And he was teaching them and saying to them, is it not written, my house shall be called the house of prayer for all the nations. The you have made it a den of robbers and the chief priests In the scribes heard it and were seeking a way to destroy him, for they feared him, because all the crowd was astonished at his teaching. And When evening came, they went out of the city. 

As they passed by in the morning, they saw the fig tree withered away to its roots. And Peter remembered and said to him, Rabbi, look, the fig tree that you cursed has weathered. Now some people have criticized Jesus for cursing that fig tree and say, Boy, he didn't act very holy. He was a bit grumpy that he didn't get the fruit he wanted and so he cursed that tree. Well, we all know that if Jesus had really wanted Of course could have blessed the tree and made fruit instantly appear on it and ate and eaten it and then nice and full. There. He had a reason for cursing that fig tree and he weathered that fig tree as a warning. And it was an echo from Jeremiah chapter eight, there will be no figs on the tree and their leaves will wither And what I have given them will be taken from them. And there are other statements also about the figs being taken away and the trees weathering that comes in Jeremiah eight obviously after Jeremiah seven and Jeremiah seven is a prophecy against the nation of Israel and against the city of Jerusalem and in particular against the temple. And Jeremiah called the temple a den of robbers. And he said that Jerusalem and its template would be destroyed. And it is right while Jesus is cleansing the template calling it a den of robbers on one side of it. He curses the fig tree on the other side of it, they find the fig tree all withered up. And that withered fig tree was Jesus warning of judgment upon the fruitless temple, the priests to Jerusalem and the Jewish nation unless they repented. David Crump commenting on this passage says like the fig tree and full leaf, but devoid of fruit, the temple bustling with priestly activity was all show with no true fruit for God. 

Consequently, the Jerusalem temple, which was supposed to be functioning as a house of prayer for Jew and Gentiles alike, would soon be destroyed and replaced by a new community of prayer to be drawn from all the nations. So that's one meaning of the shrivelling of that fig tree. It is Jesus' warning shot and his picture to His disciples of what is going to happen in Jerusalem. A text without its context is a pretext. That's the old saying and the context of the weathering of the fig tree is Jesus going into that temple and declaring it to be a den of robbers? So that's the first meaning of the withered fig tree. It is a negative picture of judgment on a faithless, fruitless people. But Jesus uses that weathered fig tree for another picture as well as a positive picture of prayer power. And that's what we're going to focus on, especially in today's message on the prayer power that Jesus talks about. He says, You think it's a big deal that I said, may you never bear fruit again, and it was whether the next day, prayer has tremendous power, Jesus answered them, have faith in God. Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, be taken up and thrown into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone, so that your father also who is in heaven may forgive your trespasses. This ends the reading of God's Word and God always blesses His Word to those who listen.

I have a text today that might be very, very popular. It is the Christmas season. And if you're a child and you're really, really hoping for a certain presence, will it work if you just believe that you have them and then when you open them on Christmas day all your presence will be exactly what you want and whatever you ask, believe you received and it'll be yours. If you're getting a little weary of this dreary, cold, gray weather, pray for better weather and believe it and you will be feeling the pony warm breezes and hearing the gentle ocean waves and You're a bear fan, and you're hoping that they can win, then you believe that Devin Hester is going to take one back to the house and maybe even believe that Jay Cutler's thumb is going to be better by next week and believe that they win the Super Bowl, and you receive it believe you received it, and it will be yours. It seems like the kind of promise that's a blank check. If you believe it, you will receive it. Well, some of us like nice cars, and so if you have a preference for Lamborghini, believe it, and you will receive it. 

There are a good many preachers out there who say something very similar to this and they have Jesus' own words, to prove it. If you've got housing issues, and you'd like a nicer house, you need to start picturing in your mind right now. The kind of house you want. Try to remove all doubt about receiving it until you're fully convinced. And then it will be yours. If you have complexion problems, pray about it, and the zits will vanish. If you would like to be beautiful, famous and rich and sing well, your problem is that you don't believe it hard enough. But if you can get yourself into a state of mind where you do believe it fully, then it will be yours. Or maybe not. But that certainly is how this sentence taken by itself sounds and that's what a lot of folks will do is take a sentence by itself and make it sound the way they want it to sound. If you're single and you wish you were married. You need to have more faith. And if you have enough faith, Mr. Right or Miss Right will come along and you will live happily ever after. If your marriage is struggling. All you need to do Is believe a little harder and pray about it and your spouse will straighten out and maybe even something about you would change for the better. And all will be well believe that you've received it. And it'll be yours. If you wish you could have children. All you need is enough faith to ask for children, and you want them to be good children, happy children, healthy children. And when they become teens, they're going to be respectful and obedient. And when they're adults, they are going to be successful and responsible. 

And if you picture that in your mind now and receive it by faith, then it is a dead certainty that your children are going to turn out well. If you happen to be a pastor, with sufficient faith, if you can picture that mega church in your mind and persuade yourself that it's going to happen, then it will happen. Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you received it and it will be yours. And this is a thrilling promise for many folks, especially When they hear it and hear it, explain it applied to them in a certain way. They're enthusiastic about Jesus Christ coming to give us life and life more abundant. God is so good. And this promise of Jesus proves it. It makes you optimistic about the future. Our faith can get us anything we pray for, and it'll make each day better than the previous day. And it gives us confidence in prayer. God's will is for us to be healthy, happy and successful. And by the prayer of faith, we receive that health and that happiness and that success in our lives. And so in certain circumstances, and for certain people, this is an extremely wonderful and thrilling promise. For others. It is about the most discouraging thing Jesus ever said.

Prayer doesn't work like Jesus said it would Jesus over advertised We all know that prayer doesn't work this way. And it's kind of a downer that Jesus ever said it would. we're ashamed of ourselves, because some of us aren't ready to be disappointed in Jesus just yet. And so we know that if Jesus didn't blow it, we did. And our faith is too weak to get what we're asking for. And we feel very ashamed that we don't yet have a large enough faith to claim all those things that could be ours. If only we weren't people of such small faith. And for some, it's a confusing promise. How does God want us to pray? When you get down on your knees and pray today? How are you supposed to pray? Does God want us to feel sure that we've already received whatever we request or does God want us to feel unsure about the prayer but very submissive to him, and our prayer with? If it be your will? How do you pray? By saying, Well, I'm not sure. But if it is your will, here's what I like. Or do you need to have a strong certainty that you're getting what you pray for? And so with this statement for some, it's a thrilling promise. 

For others. It's a pretty troubling promise and maybe at one point or another, depending where we're at. It's some of both. If you're in a hospital room, and you're praying for someone's healing or for your own healing, do you need to simply have enough faith and then healing is going to come because healing is always guaranteed to those who have enough faith. There are many people who left the hospital room for the morgue, and some of them were quite sure that they would be healed. There are cemeteries filled with people who did not get the healing they asked for. In fact, everybody goes to the cemetery. Last time I checked, all the faith healers end up going to the cemetery when their time comes. And if you got sick and stayed sick only because you didn't have enough faith, then why not raise people from the dead? Why don't the faith healers go out to the cemetery, if they've got enough faith, tell the people to come out from those graves. And if you're going to have this prayer of faith that brings about whatever you want, why don't you want something worthwhile? Instead of praying for your new Lamborghini, pray to remove world hunger and get rid of it by tomorrow. If the formula is that simple, or pray for world peace. If you can bring world peace about simply by the might of your own prayer. You see this promise, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and will and it will be yours is a challenging and troubling thing. And yet Jesus does mean it to inspire and empower faith in us and confident prayer. But it's probably going to mean something a little different than what certain health and wealth or prayer of faith people will tell you that it means. 

Does God promise to do whatever you asked if you're able to make yourself believe that you already have it? The short answer is, no. God does not give a blank check to you. And all you have to do is fill in the item you want and then sign your name at the bottom and you get it automatically. Faith is trust in God. And then when faith is related to a particular answer to prayer, faith is believing his promise to do some particular thing. And God's promise does not start with or originate in our faith. Our faith starts with or originates in God's promise. And if you do not have a clear promise from God to accomplish something, then you can try to psych yourself into believing it all you like, but you will never be able to pray the prayer of faith because God has not promised it. Doubt free faith is not psyching yourself into believing that something has got to happen.

Doubt free faith is hearing God's promise and knowing he's going to bring it about and then speaking the prayer to him calling on him to bring it about. And that's what faith is: seizing upon God's promise, if you don't have the promise, then you may still pray and offer requests to God about certain things that you're unsure about. And that kind of prayer is okay. And you shouldn't feel guilty that you don't have enough faith. But the reason you don't have enough faith is you don't know the outcome, because God hasn't revealed the outcome, and he didn't promise you the outcome. And so you can offer some requests. Just saying, Lord, please take this into account. And I'm telling you what I seek and what I want, but I'm not sure if that's what you want. There may be other things and that's what Jesus is talking about in this passage where Jesus had made and God has made very clear what he intends to do, and now you're calling it down by praying to Him. 

I'm CS Lewis, in talking about this kind of prayer speaks of psychological gymnastics. We must not encourage in ourselves or in others, any tendency to work up a subjective state, which if we succeeded, we should describe as faith with The idea that this will somehow ensure the granting of our prayer. We've probably all done this as children. We tried to boost my faith just a little harder, and then God's got to give me what I want. But the state of mind, which desperate desire, working on a strong imagination can manufacture is not faith in a Christian sense. It is a feat of psychological gymnastics. Look at those phrases again and think about them just a little desperate desire, working on strong imagination. I want it, I want it. I want it so bad. And now I'm trying to picture it and imagine it happening. That's desperate desire, working on strong imagination, and that is not faith. It is a feat of psychological gymnastics. 

Jesus makes similar statements in the Gospel of John about getting anything you ask here a few excerpts I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father, you may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it. If you remain in me and my words remain in you ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. I tell you the truth by Father will give you whatever you ask in my name, ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. Now, what does that mean? What does it mean to pray in Jesus' name? Well, does it mean that as long as I've done my psychological gymnastics and bumped up my level of confidence, and then I say, in the name of Jesus, and then fill in the blank with what I was hoping for, then it accomplishes and brings down what God wants to give or not so much. God wants to give what I want. I want him to give me, Well, a few examples in the name of Jesus who walked dusty roads and had no place to lay his head. I claim a luxury car and a mansion. In the name of Jesus who says we cannot serve both God and money, I claim wealth. In the name of Jesus, the man of sorrows, who was familiar with grief, I claim a pain free, pleasurable life, in the name of Jesus who died on a cross. I claim comfort without a cross. Is something a little wrong with those requests? When you pray something in the name of Jesus, it's got to be inspired by the Spirit of Jesus and in line with the will of Jesus. And in keeping with who Jesus is. 

You can't just tack in the name of Jesus. There's a story in the Bible about a guy who did that. He knew that some people were driving out demons in the name of Jesus. So he went to drive out some demons in the name of Jesus. And the demon said, Well, I know Jesus, I know Paul, I don't know you and beat the soup out of the guy. Actually, there were seven guys that got beat up, who are doing that in the name of Jesus without having the power of the name of Jesus. So it's not some magic formula that you can just say and tack on to whatever you want to accomplish. Prayer in Jesus' name is not just believing really strongly, that you'll get what you want and then saying in Jesus name really loudly. Okay. It's not believing strongly, and then saying a certain set of words really loudly. You might be praying in Jesus name and never have mentioned the name of Jesus as you were praying, but it was all flowing from the Spirit of Jesus and aimed towards the kingdom of Jesus. And you might pray a lot of prayers where you tack on In Jesus name, which were not really prayed in the true name of Jesus at all praying in Jesus name means, first of all, I rely on Jesus' merit and not mine. God If you answer this prayer at all, it will be because Jesus deserves it.

And not because I deserve it. I seek Jesus' aims, and not my own aims. I'm aligning myself with the purposes of Jesus Christ in the world. And when I pray in Jesus name, I'm asking that his purposes are going to be accomplished. And then I pray in Jesus authority, and in Jesus power, not just on my own. If I'm a spirit in dwelt believer, and I am in line with Jesus, well, then I can pray in Jesus authority and power, but I'm always praying in Jesus name, if I'm praying as His representative, and you can't be praying as His representative if you're out of line with him, and with his will and then When I do pray in Jesus name I'm calling for Jesus supplies to carry on Jesus mission. So prayer in Jesus' name is not asking for goodies with a lot of psychological confidence and then repeating the formula in Jesus name at the end of it. It is knowing what Jesus wants to accomplish, knowing what he wants to accomplish through you, and then calling on Jesus for the power and the resources and the authority to bring it about. There are a lot of prayers that God ignores. He says even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. When I called they did not listen. So when they called I would not listen.

James says well, you don't have because you don't ask but even when you do ask, you don't receive because you ask with wrong motives that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. That's a very short explanation of why some folks who pray the so-called prayer of faith for this and the other thing we're all they're  looking for is their own wealth, luxury and comfort. They shouldn't expect anything because James, speaking by the Holy Spirit says you're asking that you can get it to spend on your pleasures. And back to our original context. Now, before Jesus says, you'll get whatever you ask the first thing he says is this have faith in God. Faith in God Himself, comes before faith in any particular answers to your prayers. Faith in God comes before particular requests and answers to those requests. What's faith in God involved? Here's just a few things. One thing faith in God means to have faith in God means that you embrace God's Son Jesus as your Savior and as your supreme treasure. Another thing it means is that you know, God's character, to have faith in God is to have a growing familiarity with God and enjoyment of a relationship with him.

Faith in God means you believe God's word, his promises, as well as his warnings. Faith in God means you trust God's grace, that he's taken away your sins and made you right with Him, and that he will give freely to those who seek within his will. Faith in God means you desire God's glory. You want God to be honored and magnify Jesus. When he talked about prayers of faith in his name, he said that all of this is so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. Faith in God is a desire to see God look good. To see God look glorious in front of other people. And faith in God means then hearing God's promise. First of all, promises that are given in the Bible, the Word of God itself written and sometimes promises from God that He may impress on your heart in a particular situation, where you're serving Him and you need A great supply from him. And he may give you a certainty that that is going to come and you can pray for it. But that's a fruit of faith in God, not something that comes before faith in God. And then it does mean counting on God's power, that God can do anything. 

That there is no obstacle to God's kingdom that God cannot overcome, have faith in God. Andrew Murray, in his book with Christ in the School of prayer, says believing God is simply looking at God and what he is allowing him to reveal his presence to us. Give him time, and completely yield to him receiving and rejoicing in his love. Faith in the promise, is the fruit of faith in the promissor. You believe and trust the promissor. Before you believe any particular promise. Faith, that praise effectively isn't Do a gift of God, it is not something He bestows or infuses all at once. You don't go from zero faith, to having this mighty sense that when you speak a prayer God accomplishes whatever you asked, in five seconds or less, very often you grow in your capacity to discern what God wants to give you and in praying to bring it about. It's not something He bestows or infuses all at once, but it's far deeper and truer. It's the blessed disposition or habit of the soul, which grows up in us through a life of communion with Him and a life of communion with God. And a faith in God produces a growing awareness of what God wants to do. And then confidence in prayer that you know what God wants to do. And when you pray for it, he's going to do it.

Larry Crabbe speaks of contrast in prayer patterns. One prayer pattern is the get things from God pattern of prayer. In this kind of pattern, power in your petitions power in petitionary prayer depends on your visible passion really being all worked up your declared faith and your word of faith, perhaps the length of your prayer, or the number of prayers that you keep offering till you get what you want, maybe even your posture in prayer. And so in the get things from God pattern, you learn certain techniques to push God's buttons, to put it very crudely in the Get to know God better approach to prayer, your power in petitionary prayer and asking God for things depends on intimacy in relational prayer, get to know God a little and experience little prayer, little power in petition, know God a lot and experience great power in petition.

There's no shortcut to having tremendous prayer power. ability to call on God in petition if you have not grown in your relational connection with God, and so I definitely recommend the second of those two prayer patterns. The first prayer pattern may seem to work for a little while, but God did not give us prayer to enable us to be our own selfish pigs. Okay, that's the short of it, to think that prayer exists so that the great vending machine in the sky will produce when I push the right buttons, is a disastrous error. To believe that I want to know God better and better so that I get more and more in tune with him. And then realizing that part of what he appoints is prayer to bring about his purposes in the world. That is the right pattern for prayer. In this context, also, let's observe another thing right after Jesus says whatever you ask for to believe that you have received it and it will be yours. 

We understand that prayer is Grace based, he says whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your father who is also in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. Prayer depends on grace. And prayer happens in the sphere of grace. You need God to forgive you, in order for any of your prayers to be heard and answered, and if you want God to forgive you, you need to be living in a circle of grace, where you forgive others if you are holding grudges against another. Don't count on your prayers for forgiveness or too many other prayers being answered. Jesus says, Judge not, you'll not be judged, condemned not and you will not be condemned, forgiven, and you will be forgiven. Basically, that's just a repeated way of saying, live in the sphere of grace. Let forgiveness be the blanket policy. God's forgiveness of You and your forgiveness of those who have wronged you. Jesus says when he speaks of the Lord's Prayer, forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors, for if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. And in Peter's instruction, the husbands he says, husbands be considered as you live with your wives so that nothing will hinder your prayers, refusing to forgive, hinders prayers, being inconsiderate, and not gracious, hinders prayers, and this takes faith. If you want to talk about one of the biggest mountains that needs moving, it is the mountain of sin, the sin that stands between you and God, but then also that sin that stands between you and other people, the sins you refuse to confess and apologize for, as well as the sins you read. refuse to forgive.

Jesus says if your brother sins rebuke him, and if he repents forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times, saying I repent, you must forgive him. The apostles said to the Lord, increase our faith. They knew that forgiveness is hard. Or rather, forgiveness is impossible. unless God does some sort of miracle. They said, increase our faith. And the Lord said, if you had faith, like a grain of mustard seed, you don't say you got to have huge faith, but you do have to have faith. You could say to this mulberry tree be uprooted and planted in the sea, and it would obey you. Now pay attention again to the context. Jesus isn't saying I want you launching trees into the ocean every few minutes by demonstrating your superb prayer powers. He talked to people who think boys forgiven some blockhead seven times in the same day just because they said they were sorry. Come on, they just keep doing it. They just keep doing it. Why do they have to be such a bozo and I gotta live with them again tomorrow. increase our faith. Okay, that's it's not, first of all, straighten that person out so they stop offending me, although you might pray about that. But the apostles understand, boy, this is going to take a big faith increase for us to become forgivers like Jesus is talking about? Well, Jesus did promise that he could move mountains. The Old Testament speaks often of moving mountains that are obstacles to God's will and God's kingdom and God's purposes. Not by might nor by power but by my Spirit says the Lord of hosts. Who are you? Oh, great mountain before Zerubbabel, you shall become a plane. Zerubbabel was the man who was re-Building the temple of the Lord. And there were many troubles and many problems and obstacles that were getting in the way. But God had promised that his house would be rebuilt. And he says, I'm going to level any mountain that gets in the way.

And he did. God said in Isaiah every mountain and hills will be made low in the glory of the Lord shall be revealed. Any mountain that gets in the way of God's revelation of His glory is going to be wiped out. I will make all my mountains a road in my highways shall be raised up in Jesus context right here, Mount Zion, the Temple Mount, where Jesus had just gone to clean things up, and where they would go right back to business as usual, that mountain would be removed. When God's judgment came and the Romans destroyed the temple. The mountain that had resisted and rejected Jesus would be tossed into the sea of judgment. And the apostles and the later Christians who heard these words of Jesus could be comforted that Their main early opponents couldn't permanently hinder Jesus followers. And just as that mountain was removed, so the the seven mountains of Rome, which was the great enemy of the church, after Jerusalem, tried to persecute the church, those same mountains would not prevail against the church with all their opposition and prosecutions in the war of faith, against the mountain of unbelief, faith in Jesus would triumph. And they did not mean that you would have your Lamborghini by tomorrow. It meant that the persecutors would not destroy the church, that no matter how great the powers of this world might seem, they would be levelled and God's glory would be revealed and his kingdom would advance. Now, CS Lewis in talking about this prayer of faith said it's not psychological gymnastics, or desperate desire working on a strong imagination. He thought that this prayer was probably something But only a few people could pray. And we'll think about whether he's right about that. He said such promises about prayer with faith refer to a degree or a kind of faith which most believers never experience. 

It occurs only when the one who prays does so as God's fellow worker demanding what is needed for the joint work. The fellow worker, the companion, or dare we say the colleague of God is so united with Him at certain moments, that something of the Divine for knowledge enters his mind. Now, if you read about some great people of faith after the pass of someone like George Mueller, who was a mighty man of prayer, who ran orphanages for thousands of children, and was powerful in spreading the gospel, this was a man who got tremendous answers to prayer or someone like Jay Hudson Taylor, who was a missionary in China and did great things for the Lord saw tremendous answers to prayer, people who were God's colleagues in a very mighty way we're also people have prayer in a very mighty way. Now, the danger here is that we would say, yeah, I think this kind of prayer might be pretty rare. And it might be pretty rare because this kind of Christian is pretty rare. One of the dangers is to get into kind of a snooty elitism where you're trying to get some people into the upper echelon of Christians, and the others are kind of dragging along in the dirt. But the opposite danger is to say, well, we're Americans, everybody's as good as everybody else. We don't look up to anybody.

We are as good as you. Well, I don't think I'm as good as George Mueller, when it comes to prayer, or to the mighty works of God in His Kingdom. I think that Lewis is probably right, that this is a kind of faith that most believers either never or very seldom experience and I don't Think it is meant to be that way. So I think we should maybe accept both sides of that statement. It may be fairly rare. And it is not intended to be rare. Jesus is not restricting this only to a very rare few. He speaks it to whoever. But then it means that we whoever need to be seeking His will and the glory of God in the advancement of his kingdom, with our whole heart and our whole being. If we want to see that kind of power in prevailing prayer, Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. But that first part is the key. Delight yourself in the Lord, have faith in God. And then you'll give it your desires because you're desiring what he desires. Jesus says, This is the confidence we have an approaching God that if we ask anything, according to His will, he hears us. If we know that he hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have what we asked of him. He's not just writing to apostles now or to unique heroes, he's writing to a church full of people and writing to us today, that we can have this kind of confidence in prayer and get what we asked from him.

Basically, I talked earlier about the gap between what I want and not being sure how God's going to answer and what God's will is, but not being sure what God's will is. Well, the prayer of faith means those two things have come together, where God's will is clear, and you're aware of what it is, and you pray for it. It is often spiritual sloth that under the appearance of humility, professors, professors have no Will you go to God and prayer and say, well, Lord, I'm so humble. I'm not going to really ask for anything because I don't know what you want anyway. Well, that might be honest, but it might also be laziness. It fears the trouble of searching for the will of God, or when found the struggle of claiming it in faith, you would understand God's Will a lot better if you understand your scriptures a lot better, for starters.

And then if you're spending time with the Lord in prayer, seeking His guidance and his fellowship, then things become more and more evident to you. Before we can believe before we can have this faith, we must find out and know what God's will is. Believing is the exercise of a soul's surrender to the influence of the Holy Spirit. And then once we do believe Nothing is impossible. Now, I think it's important that we be very candid and honest with ourselves. I know that I fall very far short. I can't point to myself as this great example who always knows God's will in a given situation and then prays for and it occurs with a 1000 batting average. And yet, do I just say, well, that's just the way things are? Or do I say, well, boy, I wish I had a better understanding of God's will, a deeper intimacy with God Himself, so that I did know what he wants, and did know what he was going to do, even before He did it. As CS Lewis said, it's almost a share in the divine foreknowledge in the intention of what God is going to do. You already know it in advance, you ask it, and it becomes true. In all of this, you have to keep things in their order, because you can't graduate from an almost priceless life to this prayer life that always gets what it asks for, just by one jump. And so here are some aspects I think of putting First things first, relate before requesting Then the requests that you do offer to God are more likely to flow out of the relationship and are likely to get a hearing and an answer. Put God's glory before your own gladness. And then your main gladness is going to be in his glory, your delighting in him. And then he's going to give you your heart's desire, The Lord is my strength in the portion of my heart. The Lord is my shield. And in those kinds of verses in the Bible, when the Lord has everything to you, and you glorify Him in that, well, when you're glad in his glory, I got a guarantee for you. There's going to be a lot more gladness in your life, because he is determined to be glorified.

God's purposes before my priorities. When I put God's purposes first, then after a while, his purposes simply become what I want the most. And I say, Oh, come on Lamborghinis. Don't take it or leave those. I can live with an old beat up minivan as long as I'm advancing God's glory. Others before myself We've been talking a lot about putting God's purposes first. But another part of prayer when it comes to requests and petitions, is praying for others being an intercessor. If I pray for others, and not just for myself, then the answers to my prayers for other people bring as much or more joy than the answers to prayer for myself. If you love your neighbor as yourself, you will pray for your neighbor, as you pray for yourself and it will be as happy when the neighbor is blessed. As when you yourself are blessed, and holiness. Before happiness. I'm more eager to be Christ-like and uncomfortable. And in this world, that means take up your cross and follow Him not settle down into the problem free, comfy, luxurious life. And that's why Jesus gave us this prayer when his disciples asked Lord, teach us to pray. Well, our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. pray that prayer and faith and it's gonna happen. Your kingdom come Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Jesus has promised to return his promise at the gates of hell will not prevail against his church. 

This is your first step in praying requests that you know God is going to grant and that you can with absolute confidence, keep on praying, you start with this and then you may end up working on more individual and specific things. But this is where you start our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name Your kingdom come Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread based on that prayer. The Old Testament Give Me neither poverty nor riches. We always like to stop it with Give Me Neither poverty. But this is a prayer, give me what I need. And not just what I need for food and clothing but also just what I need to walk with you daily and glorify your daily Forgive us our debts as we also forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. When you say, Lord, teach us to pray, he, the first thing he doesn't say is okay, here's you pump yourself into enough faith and then ask for the thing you want. He says, here's what you pray for. And it gives us the Lord's Prayer, not just something to rattle off, but to get ourselves in tune with him, and with his priorities. And then there is also a place for specific faith overall faith in God makes possible each prayer of faith in a particular situation. And as we relate with God, and we have a clear sense that we're part of his mission, God may grant a special gift of knowing what he's about to do. 

And this faith knowing of something that's not yet visible, but about to be accomplished by God enables us to pray a completely confident prayer, because God has given an extraordinary clarity and assurance of what he is about to do. We're authorized and empowered by God Himself. Jesus' curse on that tree was authorized and empowered by God the Father, in answer to prayer. And the more we're in tune with Jesus and with his mission, the more our prayers bring about things that are authorized and empowered by God. And if you're thinking yourself, well, that's kind of a downer. You know that. What I get to do is bring about things that are authorized and empowered by God. I was hoping you'd tell me how to get God to do the stuff I wanted. Sorry, no deal. He's still God, you're not. And he has never promised to just come through and be your sugar daddy. The more we're in tune with Jesus and His mission, the more our prayers bring about things authorized and empowered by God. And in the original creation, that's what it was meant to be. In the original creation. Adam and Eve were to rule things and they could bring things about and never fail and part of that was their time in the garden when they walked with God, and they have that communion with God, and that intimate personal prayer life with God. And then they would go out into the garden and accomplish anything. In the new creation, our words, and our work will again, rule reality. We will be perfectly in tune with God, we will know exactly what God wants, we will commune with him, we'll pray with certainty. We will speak words that always come true. And we will accomplish every work that we attempt.

And we're not there yet. And God, let us be honest, could not entrust us with that kind of power. Now, can you imagine 7 billion magicians with unlimited power to do whatever they wanted in this wicked world, running around trying to get whatever they wanted and having a blank check and unlimited power to do it. The world would be gone and In five minutes, God can't entrust us with that kind of power until he has purified us completely. And he will entrust us with levels of power that are in line with our conformity to Jesus in our likeness to him that will be authorized and empowered to the degree that we're in communion and resemblance to him. Now, I don't want to end by saying, here's what they say, doesn't mean here's what this doesn't mean. I do want to end by saying, here's what it does mean. And again, I'll clarify what it doesn't. We've already clarified, it's not just a name and claim a blank check. But it also doesn't mean dial everything back so that you have low expectations.

Jesus does not say here God factors your requests into his plan. He does. And that is one kind of prayer where you make requests not knowing how God's going to answer but you let him know what your desire is, and he does factor that into his plan. But that is not what God's talking about here. God grants the requests that are good for you and then declines the requests that are bad for you. Well, that's true. But that's not what Jesus is talking about here. This is a prayer that always gets what you asked for. Here's another one. Prayer doesn't change events. Prayer doesn't change things. Prayer doesn't change God's actions. Prayer changes you. It is true that real prayer changes you. And that communion with God changes you. And that's part of the change that will lead to you being mighty in prayer. But that's not just what God is talking about here. He's not just saying, Oh, I'm going to do whatever I'm going to do anyway. But I want you to pray so that you'll become a little different. Prayer changes things. There are things that God is not going to do unless those things are prayed for. 

There are things God is not going to do unless those things are prayed for. Understand that and believe that whatever happens It might give you in figuring it out in theology or philosophy or whatever else. It is quite clear from the Bible, there are things God is not going to do, unless they are prayed for. Here's another statement, which is true insofar as it goes, God always answers prayer. He answers yes or no, or wait while now that's true enough. But it's not what Jesus is talking about here. These are not prayers where you're going to get a yes or no, these are prayers, where you have faith and you know what God is going to do. And you have faith in advance that you already have it, and that he brings it about. Jesus says this. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. There is a kind of prayer where you know what God is going to do. You know it by faith in a promise God has given you. And this is a kind of prayer, as I said before, that I think is rare. And that ought not to be so rare. And so we must pray, Lord, increase our faith.

Let's pray together Father, we hear your teaching on prayer through the lips of your Son and we pray that You will help us to understand your promises. We pray that we will not be misled into expecting things other than You promise, but also Lord that we will not sell short the promises and expect far less from prayer than You are prepared to give. We asked for the first of all, You will help us to grow in knowledge of You in love for you in closeness to You in delighting in Your glory and in the name of Jesus, that You will catch us up into Your mission that You will help each one of us to discern Your will For our life, and as we walk within that will, as we work within the domain You have given us and pursue the purposes that You have for that domain. Help us learn not to just be busy workers accomplishing little, but to become mighty prayers, who combine work and prayer and are empowered and authorized by You, Lord God, it's so much easier to think about things than to actually live them. It's easier to talk about prayer than the prey.

So we pray that You will teach us to pray that You will help us learn not to be discouraged by our inadequacies, but that You will instead, help us to throw ourselves upon You upon Your mercy upon Your help and Your grace. Give us Lord discernment and help us to pray more and more in line with Your will Knowing that You will grant whatever we ask when it's in Jesus name, and in line with that perfect will. We pray to the Lord, for our church, we know that it is Your will for the church that it grows and unity and in love. And we pray, Lord, that You will remove every mountain that divides every mountain that prevents growth, that You will remove obstacles that may diminish our witness. And we pray, Father that You will bring these things about, we pray, Lord, for Your help in our individual lives, that as Your kingdom comes and as Your will is done, that You will also help us to be people of grace, that You will help us Lord to forgive others as You have forgiven us to leave all sins at the foot of the cross our own and those committed against us. We pray, Lord, that those who are arrayed against your kingdom in the world are the false teachers, those who would Make the whole world much more secularized or who had spread false religion we pray, Lord, that these mountains may be brought low and that your kingdom and Your gospel may continue to spread. We pray, Lord, that You will supply us all that we need. Sometimes Lord, we become weary and do good. Sometimes our health is fragile and we long for the capacity to do more but lack the energy and the good health to do it. 

Father, we pray that You will work in us what is pleasing to You, and make us healthy and strong if that's the best way to accomplish Your purposes. And Lord, if like the Apostle Paul, we have a thorn that you choose not to remove, but instead to display Your power in our weakness. We thank You for that and we glory all the more in our infirmities so that you may be glorified in us. We ask Father that You will show Yourself mighty in Your world today and through Your church all around the world that You Your Kingdom may advance that Your mission may move forward. We pray for missionaries, we ask Lord for the ghost family in India, Your continued strengthening and empowerment. We pray Father for the duffers in Mongolia Your encouragement that they will be close to You and find that You are more than sufficient for all their needs in ministry and bless Lord all those whom they work with. We pray for the Lord family as they need to return home for a time in the aftermath of an assault on a child. We ask Lord, for your help and Your healing and Your glory even in this terrible circumstance. And we ask Father, that You will work Lord in the lives of many other missionaries and many ambassadors of Your word in so many languages all around the world. We pray, Father, that You will hear our prayers that You will Lord hear the prayers that we don't know what You want to do either. We have many needs and many wants and You're a good God and we lay those before You. Hear the prayers of each heart, and then answer them according to Your perfect will. And we pray that more and more, we will become the kind of people who are fit to receive fuller revelation of Your will, and therefore able to pray more powerfully and clearly and effectively. Work that in us through Your Holy Spirit. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, we pray, Amen.