Prayers in my life and in your life
should be the very most common thing in
our life.
In fact, unanswered prayers should be a great
exception.
And our lives should be a continual testimony
of answered prayer.
And when we aren't getting answers to our
prayer, we should take serious inventory as to
what the problem is.
We'll always find the problem is not with
Him, the problem is with us.
What does it mean to be the friend
of God?
You see, because we become the friend of
God.
We have all things in Christ.
Unanswered prayers should be the greatest press into
a true situation to find out what's wrong
with my life.
Unanswered prayers should be the most pressing reason
a believer has for self-examination by the
Holy Spirit.
Is answered prayer the characteristic of your life?
Is it?
Because if it's not, He wants us to
take an inventory this morning.
We're going to talk about why my prayers
aren't answered.
I want to pray with you.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we ask you this morning to
receive praise and glory from our time together.
And most of all, affect change in people's
hearts, my heart, these people's hearts, other people's
hearts, that when we hear the Word of
God, we may be a doer of the
Word and that the end might be a
life full of prayer and meaning before God.
Bless this time and just give the devil
a beating around the head and shoulders and
show who the Lord is.
And may that one who might feel condemnation
realize the difference between the sweet voice of
a redeeming God and the accusing voice of
a nagging devil.
May we see the difference of that.
And may we run to our Savior, knowing
that you break, then you heal.
We thank you in Jesus' name.
Amen.
When we are right with God, answered prayer
comes very easily, very easily.
In fact, God always answered prayer, always answers
prayer.
There's some things I just want to list
about how God answers prayer.
Number one is that he often answers very
quickly.
He often answers very quickly.
And our scripture for that is Isaiah chapter
65, verse 24.
Before they call, I will answer.
While they're yet speaking, he'll be moving and
answering our prayers.
Often God answers very quickly.
But you know, there's a big difference between
quickly and in a hurry.
God's never in a hurry, but when he
moves, he moves quickly.
Oh, I love to go through the scriptures
and look at how many times it says,
and suddenly, and suddenly, because when he moves,
it's quickly, but he's not in a hurry.
But when he answers prayer, quite often, it's
quickly.
Number two is that he usually says yes.
He usually says yes.
In fact, in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, verse
20, it says every promise of God is
yes and amen, in Christ Jesus.
His delight is to give his children the
things that delight their heart, and to bring
us into an understanding of what he would
desire to give us.
And thirdly, he usually answers big.
Big.
And our scripture for that is Ephesians 3
20.
Now unto him who is able to do
exceeding abundantly above all that you ask, we've
talked about asking, or think.
He's able to do not just more, but
exceedingly abundantly above all you ask or think.
That ought to encourage your heart.
He's not poor.
God's not poor.
He's not stingy.
He is not capricious.
He's not reluctant.
The fourth characteristic about how God answers prayer
is that sometimes he says no.
Sometimes he says no.
And as he did in 2 Corinthians chapter
12, verse 8 and 9, when Paul had
his infirmity in the flesh, the Greek is
very clear, you can't deny it, says flesh,
a stake in his flesh.
Three times he asked the Lord to take
away this physical infirmity, but the Lord knew
what was best for Paul, because that way
he had a tendency to pride in his
heart, and so he let this physical infirmity
stay to keep him from a more horrible
liability, which is pride.
Because pride lasts for eternity, and physical bodies
are going to be replaced with a new
bodysuit one day soon.
The Lord is very willing to let us
suffer a temporary liability in the flesh, in
order that he might accomplish an eternal glory
in the Spirit.
And so sometimes he says no.
He operates at a level beyond our feeble
capacity to understand.
And so he's the all-wise God.
That's what we need to remember.
He's the all-wise God, and that life
is like a giant checkerboard.
You see, when he hears your prayers, he's
not just considering you, he's considering the whole
sphere around you.
And you could see like a giant checkerboard
with all these men, and you're just in
one square.
And every single move of each piece affects
every other square and every other piece.
And he may want to answer your prayer,
but he's affecting someone else here, and he
has to wait.
So sometimes the answer is even no.
But fifthly, then sometimes the answer is not
yet.
Not yet, but delays with God are not
denials.
Delays are not denials.
That's a key thing to remember.
You see, God often takes time to bring
our heart into a position to where the
great things of God are greatly desired, to
where we appreciate the finest gifts of God
because we've agonized and waited for them.
Instead of just having a bunch of spoiled
kids, he lets us come into a position
of appreciation.
And then lastly, he usually answers in a
way we don't expect.
He usually answers in an unexpected way or
through an unexpected channel and another source.
His thoughts are not ours.
His ways are higher than ours.
When there is no answer to your prayer,
then it's time to take a serious inventory
and examine why.
It's not just a passing affair.
You need to really get serious about it
and take a serious inventory.
You see, God's not only going to judge
you for what you have done, but he's
going to judge you for what you haven't
done.
To whom much is given, much is required.
That's what a great man of God once
said.
He said, it's not so much the scriptures
that I don't understand that I'm worried about.
It's the ones that I do understand that
aren't in my life.
Those are the things that press my heart
and concern me.
You see, we miss so much in our
day-to-day life by letting opportunities slip.
You know, there's a wonderful example in the
scripture of this.
Remember Mary, that precious woman who was always
at Jesus' feet in the scriptures?
And she came and she took a pound
of spikenard and she anointed the feet of
Jesus before his agony.
And he said, she's done this for my
burial.
She's anointing me.
Spikenard was a burial ointment and it was
one pound.
And he says of her, wherever the Gospels
preach, this will be a testimony to her
and the Gospel, wherever the Gospels preach, because
she's done this in remembrance of me.
Contrast Nicodemus after the death of Jesus.
The time has slipped.
Jesus has died.
His body is a dead Christ.
Nicodemus takes it and he doesn't use one
pound.
He uses a hundred pounds of spikenard and
aloes and other things like that.
And you don't hear anything else about it.
He anoints the body of Jesus.
You see, the opportune moment is while you're
in a living relationship.
When he brings you by a situation, one
pound in time is worth a hundred pounds
too late.
That's the lesson of that.
I heard about a rich Texan that gave,
he was buried in a gold coffin and
he gave a hundred million dollars to a
Christian foundation.
And everyone says, how wonderful.
He'll get a great reward.
No, you won't get a thing because the
scriptures say, God loves us a cheerful giver.
You know, it says, do your live, do
your giving while you're living, then you're knowing
where it's going.
You see, there's no, there's no sacrifice.
You got to leave it anyway.
Big deal.
You see the opportune moment to be a
participant in the living sacrifice of the Lord
Jesus.
You see, prayer is like that.
We have a privilege to pray, but we've
got to trust God by faith.
One of the ladies last night said, well,
I'm just going to have to live by
faith.
I said, praise God.
You know, how does God want you to
live?
You know, somebody was in trouble in a
situation.
They said, well, I guess we'll just have
to trust the Lord.
You know, well, what else is there to
do yet?
You should have been trusting him all along.
You see, one day soon, we're going to
see him as he is, and we're going
to be like him.
We're going to have perfect faculties.
You won't be able to walk by faith
anymore.
You won't be able to win a soul
anymore.
You won't be able to sacrifice anymore.
And then you'll look back and say, oh,
if only I had, I believe that's the
tears that you'll see in heaven.
He'll wipe away all tears.
When people look back, there'll be no martyrs
that said they didn't like the guillotines and
all the rest.
They won't be any sorry martyrs there in
that day.
In fact, oh, Joe, you died in the
hospital bed.
I'm so sorry to hear that.
You should have stood up there like William
Tyndall and said, God save the queen, the
king of England as the flames engulfed him.
That's the way to burn out for God.
You know, you can imagine in those days
what it's going to be like as we
stand together.
Adore him now, because in the coming day,
there'll be no, uh, opportunity to grow in
that type of thing.
You see one hour of right praying now
will be worth thousands of hours in eternity
of endless praise.
I really believe that it's like Spike nerd.
Now, when he's, when you're in that relationship,
it'll mean so much more in faith.
Now whom having not seen you love blessed
are they who having not seen yet believe
that when we all can see so perfectly
and it's we're falling down before the throne,
do it now in prayer.
Don't let unanswered prayers phase you.
Don't let them put you in depression, but
find out why the key today is that
God wants me to pray.
And the devil does not want me to
pray.
In fact, he just about just assumed me
to do anything and pray.
One of his main objectives is to get
you discouraged about what you're hearing here about
prayer, to get you looking at yourself, to
get you realizing that you have no hope.
And you begin to doubt God.
Of course you close it under doubting yourself,
but it's really doubting his ability.
And instead of doing that, you need to
take a spiritual inventory of the situation, get
down to brass tacks and really see why
your prayers aren't answered.
And I want to take a list of
things.
The reason that our prayers are unanswered first
and primary above all things else is unconfessed
sin, unconfessed sin.
And we've seen this scripture, but I want
to say it again.
Psalm 66 18.
If I regard iniquity in my heart, the
Lord will not hear me.
If I look on with favor and that
in my heart, which God has not sanctioned,
that which is not faith is sin.
If I regard that and let stay, then
I shut myself out effectively from a powerful
prayer line.
But also Isaiah chapter 59 verse one and
two concerning the prayer for the salvation of
our loved ones and all the rest.
It says, behold, the Lord's hand is not
shortened that it cannot save.
His ear is not heavy that it cannot
hear, but your iniquities have separated between you
and your God and your sins have hidden
his face from you and he will not
hear.
That's the same principle as John 15, seven,
that we have to have clean prayer.
We have to abide in him and let
his words abide in us.
Back in Isaiah chapter one, verse 15, it
talks about when the Israelites made prayer to
the Lord and they came before him.
And the Lord said in all the religious
activity, he says, When you spread forth your
hands, I will hide my eyes from you.
Yea, when you make many prayers, I will
not hear because your hands are full of
blood.
Yea, wash you, make you clean, put away
the evil of your doings from before my
eyes and cease to do evil, learn to
do well, seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge
the fatherless and plead for the widow.
He's saying, listen, prayer is more than motions,
prayer is more than words, prayer is a
life.
And that's what he wants us to have
with him.
Now, as you begin to let God search
you out, unconfessed sin, rest assured that as
light comes, light attracts bugs too, remember, as
you're outside at night, remember that.
And there's going to be condemnation.
I heard that some of you were under
condemnation for what you'd confess the first night
in prayer.
Somebody said, Oh, what do they think of
me today?
Well, you see, there's a big difference between
condemnation and conviction.
I don't think you're under condemnation.
I think your pride was just starting to
come back up, some of you, as to
what you'd said.
Let me give you some help to see
the difference between condemnation and conviction, because it'll
really help you.
Number one is that condemnation is primarily self
-conscious.
Oh me, oh my.
And you're looking at yourself, whereas conviction is
primarily God-conscious.
You become aware that God is there.
And it's, and I'll tell you what, they
both aren't very much fun.
They both often feel alike at first, and
you have to pray to see which this
is.
What is this uneasiness in my spirit?
Is it condemnation or is it conviction?
And God will certainly show you, you see,
because condemnation is very general.
Lord, show me why I'm feeling like this.
Show me what's wrong with me.
Well, condemnation is very general.
You can't ever put your finger on anything.
You come to God and you never really
find what it is that's destroying you.
It's just always like a little mouse, just
a little bit ahead of you.
And you're always, Oh, poor me.
Then you step on your lower lip.
And whereas conviction, when you ask, I like
to say it's disgustingly specific.
God will put his finger right there on
it.
And you'll say, I wasn't talking.
I mean, it'll be so clear that you'll
wish you hadn't asked probably at first.
It's very, very specific.
And condemnation is destructive.
Oh, it just leaves you without any hope.
You just seem to be without hope and
you feel cast down, whereas conviction is always
restorative.
The Lord comes and he says, listen, that
is exceedingly evil what you're in, but forsake
it and I will be with you.
There's hope there.
You see, it's always glorious hope set before
us.
And so with that, that should help us
as we come before him with our sin
and these things don't.
Our problem is the devil always confuses us
and has us calling things.
We should be under conviction about condemnation and
we ignore God or things that were under
sincere condemnation from the devil about.
Then we won't believe God that he's really
put away our sin.
We need to get right with him so
that we can walk in faith.
So unconfessed sin will put a damper on
your spirit, but just dare to believe if
you come before him and he doesn't tell
you anything that's wrong.
So hallelujah, I'm clean.
And then get out your sword and begin
to hack away the tentacles of ungodliness all
around you.
Secondly, pride or vanity, pride being that self
-centeredness vanity being that type of attitude that
loves to look in the mirror.
Perhaps you spend more time looking in the
mirror than you do in your Bible.
God would convict you this morning that you
need to repent.
Job chapter 35 verse 12 and 13 are
very good scriptures concerning this.
Let me just read them to you there.
They cry, but no one will answer because
of the pride of evil men.
Surely God will not hear vanity and neither
will the almighty regard it pride or vanity.
You see, we often hear in America, for
example, we need a revival of national pride
or stand up America.
That's not what we need.
We need a revival of national humility.
We need to say, fall on your face,
America.
That's the way to being heard in prayer.
You see, God's not interested.
Well, I can't say that.
I just won't say that.
That's not in good taste.
We need a revival or we'll have a
revolution.
One or the other.
We've got to have revival or we'll have
a revolution and all our prayers will not
help unless they're the right kind of prayers.
God promises revival, but he never promises revival
in answer to prayer.
Prayer will do us no good.
You know what kind of, what I mean?
If my people, which are called by my
name will humble themselves and pray.
You can pray to your blue in the
face, but if you don't humble yourself, God
won't hear.
You see, because it can be pride praying.
Oh God, thank you for our country.
You need us.
We're a missionary country.
God bless America.
You can't do without us.
Makes God want to vomit.
It really makes me want to vomit too,
because if we look around and see our
crime rate and all the rest, I'll tell
you, we need to fall on our face.
Like it says in Joel and get down.
You see, the Pharisee stood and prayed with
himself and he said, Lord, I thank you
that I'm not like other men.
Lord, we thank you that we're not like
other countries.
This is a Christian nation.
And over here is a little publican beating
his breast saying, God be merciful to me,
a sinner.
That Pharisee just prayed with himself.
He was just beating the air.
A friend of mine was reading that text
one day about the Pharisee.
And he says, oh, gross, look at him,
how prideful he is.
Lord, I'm sure that I'm not like that
Pharisee.
And the Lord just went, look what you've
done.
You know, you're just a step higher on
the pride ladder than him.
You see God knows the proud are far
off, but he gives grace to the humble.
And it says that this is something that
God doesn't have to give you.
He says, humble yourselves.
Come down, come down.
You can get down.
The question is, are you willing to?
That's the question.
The question.
Third thing, lack of compassion, lack of compassion
will keep your prayers from being heard.
Scripture is Proverbs chapter three, verse 27 and
28.
Let me read it to you.
Proverbs chapter three, verse 27 and 28.
And hear this word.
It says withhold not good from them to
whom it is due when it is in
the power of your hand to do it.
Don't say to your neighbor, go and come
again.
And tomorrow I'll give to you when you
have it by thee.
You see, if we are like that saying,
be warm and filled when it's in our
power to do something about it, then God
is not able to do in our lives
what he wishes.
Proverbs chapter 21, verse 13, gives light on
this.
Listen to this.
Whosoever stop his ears at the cry of
the poor, he also will cry himself, but
will not be heard.
Whoever stops his ear from hearing the cry
of the poor, when that person cries, he
will not be heard.
In fact, in Luke chapter six, verse 38,
it says, with what measure you met or
give, it'll be measured back to you.
If you give out with a little teaspoon,
that's what God will use to measure into
you.
You cannot give God.
And we cannot ignore the needs around us
and expect for God to answer our prayers
as we desire to see him answer our
prayers.
For example, is your neighbor in trouble?
Does your heart go out to them in
compassion?
That's what I'm talking about here that can
hinder your prayer life and why your prayers
aren't being answered.
Fourth, a lack of home unity.
First Peter chapter three, verse seven.
Let me read it to you.
First Peter chapter three, verse seven.
Likewise, husbands dwell with them, your wives, according
to knowledge.
That means understand what her needs are giving
honor to the wife as to the weaker
vessel being heirs together as of the grace
of life in order that your prayers be
not hindered.
That means that husbands are to dwell with
knowledge with their wives, there to be one,
there to be joint heirs together.
And if that is not the case, then
their prayers are effectively hindered.
If there's not harmony in the home, prayer
is hindered.
So that's something to consider.
Wives, even if you have an ungodly husband,
it's something to consider.
Husbands, you're obligated to present your wife with
spots and all to the Lord, blameless by
your sacrifice for her.
They may not really be spots, they may
be just beams in your own eye if
you look a little closer.
That's what I found in my own experience
anyway.
Fifthly, prayer that is not in the will
of God.
We talked about this last night a good
bit, but prayer that's not in the will
of God will not be effectual prayer because
you cannot pray in faith without a word
from God.
And faith comes by hearing the word, and
it takes faith to please God.
You've got to know the will of God
to have an effectual prayer life.
You see, prayer secures God's will.
It doesn't change it.
It secures God's will.
It doesn't change it.
And that's what often we think we're doing.
We do not change God's will by praying.
We simply lay hold of it.
There's a danger of praying out of His
will.
In fact, in Psalm 106, verse 15, we
read about the Israelites when they had the
desires of their hearts set on something that
they wanted.
It says that God, oh I fear this
verse, He gave them the desires of their
heart but sent leanness to their soul.
Be careful what you pray when it's not
in the will of God, if you're checked,
because God may allow that to come in
order that you would learn not to desire
the things that aren't His will.
I believe He'll take it off, but let
me say this, He took it off Israel,
but there was leanness for a time.
Check your life, and if there's leanness, see
what you're involved in that's not the will
of God.
There's an example of this in the scripture
in Hezekiah's life.
Remember when he prayed, the prophet Isaiah came
to him and said, prepare your house, you're
ready to die.
And Hezekiah turned his face toward the wall
and wept and said, oh Lord, I don't
want to die, I don't want to die,
and he was afraid of death.
I think a lot of Christians are afraid
of death, they've never seen it, sting is
missing.
And the Lord said through Isaiah, your prayer
is heard, you'll live 15 more years.
I think he was one of the only
men in the world that knew exactly how
long he'd live.
You know something, Hezekiah would have been better
off if he'd never lived those 15 years,
because in those last 15 years, he ended
up bringing reproach on the Lord by many
of the things he did, and he fathered
an ungodly son during that time that became
the worst king probably in all of the
history of Israel, Manasseh.
So it's an amazing thing when we pray
out of the will of God.
Sixthly, what will hinder my prayers?
Disobedience.
Now that's very akin to our first one,
which is sin, but I just want to
just refer you back to the scripture I
read earlier, Isaiah chapter 1, verse 14 and
15.
When you come to me and spread your
hands and make many prayers, I will not
hear because your hands are full of blood.
He says, leave off the things that you're
doing on your own and start doing the
things that I want you to do.
Let me ask you a very personal question,
and here it is.
Why do you obey the Lord?
Do you obey Him because of His promise,
if you obey me, I will bless you?
Do you obey Him because you expect to
see blessings in return?
In that case, you have a hard time
obeying Him when you don't see results, and
that means the very motivation of your obedience
is selfish.
That means that if you don't receive a
reward, if you don't receive a visual return
on your obedience, then you will give up.
What do you do when you're called to
obey Him in prison, if you ever go
there?
What do you do?
You see, the Lord asked my wife and
I that not long ago in a certain
matter.
We weren't seeing anything.
We were getting discouraged, and He just said,
why are you obeying me?
For your reward and pleasure or for my
pleasure?
Because if it's for my pleasure, you don't
need to see anything.
It brings me pleasure, and you can be
content to wait until glory to see the
fruit of obedience.
You see, that'll help you to obey the
Lord.
You see, He does not desire just a
meek surrender, just a passive flopping in His
presence.
He desires this, a willful, strong surrender that
is active and trained and disciplined.
And therefore, faith has got to be tested
to be trusted.
If you've never been tested, you can't be
trusted.
He's not after innocence.
Look, innocence is not righteousness.
Innocence is innocence.
Righteousness is purity that's been put to the
test and come out clean.
If you want righteousness, and if you're seeking
that first, it means you're willing to walk
through whatever He sends you and remain pure
by His power and truly obey Him.
And when you do that, God gives the
Holy Spirit to those who obey Him.
In Acts 5.32, it says that it's
not talking about salvation.
It's talking, otherwise, it'd be by works.
It's talking about a filling and a using
by the Holy Spirit as we obey Him
in faith, then to whom the faithful and
the small things, then the true riches are
committed.
You want to be rich in prayer, obey
Him.
Obey Him.
Seventhly, we've talked about this some too, but
selfishness, selfishness, that is chronic in our lives,
and we must be rid of it.
James chapter four, we talked about this last
night.
Verse two, part B and three, he says,
you have not because you ask not.
And then he goes on and says, you
ask and you have not because you ask
amiss for the wrong reason that you may
consume it upon your own lust.
You see, our prayers must be poured in
the mold of God's Word.
We pour our prayer in that trough of
our life.
That's His Word that runs, and He can't
pour the ocean of His love in the
thimble of a heart.
He just can't do it.
We need to have our heart enlarged.
Well, how does He enlarge our heart?
Can anybody tell me a scripture?
In the Old Testament, in Psalm 5, it
says, in distress, thou hast enlarged me.
He enlarges our hearts in the fiery trial,
in the distress.
When we come forth as gold and He
breaks us and overthrows the strongholds and tears
up the fellow ground, He then makes us
able to hold more of Himself.
A plowed field takes water better.
So, is your main motive in your life
happiness or holiness?
Because if it's just happiness, you'll have a
hard time obeying Him.
You'll give out when it doesn't necessarily feed
yourself.
But if it's holiness, then you'll be content
to live just for His pleasure and glory.
You see, the corollary of the Lord's prayer
that says, thy kingdom come is my kingdom
go.
Thy will be done on earth means that
my will no longer can be done on
earth.
So, selfishness will effectively hinder my praying and
your praying.
Number eight.
This is a biggie.
An unforgiving spirit.
And this is not just when you've been
wronged.
This is not just when someone's wronged you
without a reason.
This is when you have a very good
reason in your mind to think bad thoughts
about them and you begrudge it and say,
well, God, you need to have them make
it up to me because they're just wrong.
But the Lord's prayer says, forgive us as
we forgive others.
In other words, Lord, you give to me
the same kind of daily cleansing and forgiveness
that I'm willing to shed forth to my
brethren and to those around me.
In Matthew chapter five, let me read this
to you.
Matthew chapter five in verse 23 and verse
24, it says this.
Therefore, if you bring your gift to the
altar and you remember that your brother has
anything against you, leave there your gift before
the altar, go your way and first be
reconciled to your brother.
That's the priority.
And then over in Mark chapter 11.
And when you stand praying, forgive if you
have ought against any in order that your
father, which is in heaven, may forgive you
your trespasses.
Here it is.
If you do not forgive neither in the
same way, will your father that's in heaven
forgive you your trespasses?
You see, we've talked to a lot of
people here at Reach Out that come in
for counseling.
And I would say probably over half of
the ones usually that are Christians that have
great turmoil is due to the fact that
they've got a secret lodging place in the
back of their heart for a root of
bitterness or unforgiveness, maybe towards someone that just
didn't treat their sweet old heart the way
they thought it ought to be treated, just
because someone didn't realize that they deserve better
treatment than that.
And even some who've had real legitimate reason
for actually hating their parents.
We talked to a man who had practically
been raped by his father, and his father
had turned gay and wouldn't write him or
anything.
And this man had a legitimate stronghold of
hatred in his mind, in his heart.
He was not saved.
He thought he was, and he couldn't even
say the words, I'm willing.
He had such a stronghold.
He got down on the ground and began
to pray and twitch and shake.
What a spiritual battle going on.
And he formed those words, I choose in
Jesus' name to forgive my father.
And when he did, it was like just
a popping of a water balloon.
I mean, it was just like just gushing
out of praise.
And that fellow got saved that day.
You see, we only damage ourselves by unforgiveness.
It's like a cancer.
In fact, it's worse than a cancer, because
it defiles not only yourself, but many others,
it says in Hebrews 12.
So, God wants us to be clean in
the spirit of unforgiveness.
And when you have unforgiveness in your life,
concerning prayer, bitterness and unforgiveness will close the
door and bolt it.
And until you get rid of that in
your life toward your mother, toward your brother,
toward your neighbor, toward your husband, toward your
wife, toward your children, God will not be
flowing in your life like you desire him
to flow.
You must forgive.
Number nine, unbelief.
Unbelief.
Are your prayers in faith or are they
a vent for despair?
One lady called me about her mother, who
was in the hospital, and she told me
all these ways she'd been praying.
And as she was praying, I became strangely
aware that the lady wasn't really praying.
She was like going to a psychologist or
something.
She was pouring out her griefs, which is
right before God, but she wasn't praying in
faith.
She was praying in hopelessness.
Oh, God, there's no hope for my mother.
Oh, Lord, this or that.
You see, we mustn't just vent our emotions
in prayer.
We must pray in faith.
In Hebrews 3, verse 19, it says that
unbelief will keep you from entering into rest.
You've got to believe God when you pray.
You've got to take from him his promise.
Listen, in a generation that stands for nothing
and falls for everything, we tend to not
believe God.
We won't do it because we want to
see something or feel something.
But you see, when you pray, you need
to have faith in God.
So many make the mistake of having faith
in their praying and not in God.
I just can't pray.
Well, you're trusting your praying.
You're not trusting God.
Quit trusting your praying.
Quit trusting and trust him.
Throw yourself in desperate desperation before him and
say, I can't pray.
I can't even groan right.
But Lord, you're alive.
Hallelujah.
You're alive and you understand and you're who
you say you are.
You see, if we would stay on our
knees, then unbelief would melt from our heart.
It would.
You cannot tiptoe around the throne of grace
without having unbelief plucked off from your heart
like an old leech.
Faith is omnipotent only when it's on its
knees.
But when it's on its knees, it can
choose that impossible.
The impossible becomes him possible when you're on
your knees and the eyes directed to that
sweet vision of him.
Then to bring out a little more of
what we said before, number 10, double mindedness,
double mindedness.
Last night, we made reference to James chapter
one, verse six and seven.
And the last of those verses saying a
double minded man is unstable in all of
his ways.
He's like a wave of the sea tossed.
You know, there's one thing about a wave.
It's never in the same place.
It may look the same, but it's always
moving and it's never really in the same
place.
And the question is in your life, do
you have a secret sympathy with sin?
Do you?
You'd never dream of doing it outwardly, of
course, but but in your heart as you
watch things on the idol and as you
spend time fellowshipping with your family before the
family shrine in the evenings, do you ever
do you ever have a secret sympathy for
the villain?
Do you?
Do you ever get in your like the
clever bank robber that got away with the
Bonnie and Clyde heist?
And you say, boy, that is really pretty
sharp, you know.
Let me tell you something that's double mindedness.
And God says you can't expect anything from
him.
You need to hate evil.
That's the fear of the Lord to say
something like that and not even desire to
see it, to be able to turn that
thing off and to not look at others
who are suffering through the wages of sin
and have sympathy because of sin, but rather
have sympathy because of God's compassion.
You cannot be double minded.
Number 11, prayer is often not answered because
of non-diligence.
We come as casual inquirers rather than diligent
seekers, just coming and casually inquiring.
But Isaiah chapter 45 verse 15 says, Verily,
thou art a God that hidest thyself, O
God of Israel, the Savior.
He hides himself from the non-diligent.
Did you know that?
Can you by seeking find out God?
No.
Job asked the question.
The answer is no.
You'll never find God.
He's got to reveal himself to you.
He comes when your heart is right.
When you're before him and he sees that
you've met the conditions of faith, he comes
and says, this is who I am.
It's not a matter of you saying, there's
God.
Oh, hurry up.
I see him.
We'll catch up with him.
No, you'll never catch up with him.
You rather come before him and he's hiding
himself from you.
You will never see him until you come
believing he is and that he's a rewarder
of those who diligently seek him.
And when you come before him like that,
he says, you have sought me and searched
for me with all of your heart.
And because you've done this, I promise that
when you seek me and search me with
all your heart, I will be found of
you.
Here I am.
This is your heart's desire.
You see, I remember a letter that came
to General Booth, the founder of the Salvation
Army, and some of his new recruits in
a major city had been seeking God's power
in the salvation of souls and they didn't
see anything and they didn't see anything and
they'd been praying, but they just didn't see
any answer to their prayers.
And they wrote General Booth and says, we
are not seeing answers to our prayers.
Please tell us what's wrong.
General Booth wrote back two words.
Try tears.
That's all he said.
You know something?
They did it.
And you know something?
It worked.
They stayed before the Lord until tears came.
You know, when Jesus squeezes your heart, your
eyes will water.
They will.
There's no such thing as being too hard
to cry when he gets ahold of you
because the Niagara Falls of years of emotions
will begin to come out as he opens
up the Pandora's box of hidden little grimies
we keep down in there so afraid for
anybody to see.
You know, it takes a free heart to
weep before others.
It really does.
And then number 12, this is a big
one.
This is a big one.
This is warfare.
Our prayers are sometimes not answered because of
warfare.
And we need to realize the truth of
Ephesians 6, 12, where it says these words,
we wrestle not.
And you know, a lot of places ought
to just put that over their prayer room
and leave it like that.
We wrestle not.
But it goes on and it says we
wrestle not against flesh and blood.
That's where we do most of our wrestling,
isn't it?
Against flesh and blood.
But the Bible says we don't wrestle against
flesh and blood, but we wrestle rather against
principalities and authorities or powers against the rulers
of the darkness of this world and spiritual
wickedness in heavenly places.
There's a whole host of unseen that are
seeking to devour your prayers and to take
the desire away that God is planting in
your heart this week.
And he would love to destroy that beginning
that God has made in your life.
Well, your warfare is not that which you
can so much do in your own counsel
and figuring out.
Second Corinthians 10, 4 through 6 says this,
or verse 3, excuse me, 10, 3 through
6.
Though we walk in the flesh, we don't
war after the flesh.
In other words, you're going to walk away
from here with the body suit, but you're
not going to be warring according to what
you think is the way to war.
Here's how you're going to be warring.
The weapons of our warfare are not fleshly
or carnal, but they're mighty through our God
to the pulling down of strongholds.
And then it says to cast down imaginations
and every high thing that exalts itself against
the true knowledge of God and bringing every
one of our thoughts captive into the true
obedience of Christ.
And then it says these words, the stinger
of it verse six, God is ready to
revenge all disobedience.
When your obedience is fulfilled, we're praying for
other people and strongholds to be broken down
and imaginations and for minds to come into
captivity to Christ.
When we begin to pray like that, uh,
and, and we don't see in our own
life that our, that we have a disobedience
in our heart, then we've got to deal
with that disobedience in our heart.
And he is ready to revenge all disobedience
out here through our prayers and our non
-carnal weapons.
When our obedience is fulfilled.
I'll never forget the time that a man
brought his son over to the living room
and it was at a team conference.
He had brought him down and he had
brought peyote buttons with him and, uh, cigarettes
and pornography pictures, you name it.
He came prepared for the team conference.
And, uh, he had been in a JD
home and all the rest, you know, and
he was so concerned for his son.
He brought him in the lights of them
are like these.
They're very bright.
And he says, I feel like I'm being
cross-examined.
And I just began to talk to him.
And I said, you're not being cross-examined.
We cut the lights out and began to
talk.
And as he began to talk, uh, he
just hostility and bitterness just came up out
of him.
And, uh, it was just absolutely impossible to
talk to him.
I went over and just grabbed him by
the hands and looked him in the eyes
and said, in Jesus name, I'll take authority
over this spirit of rebellion in this boy,
in Jesus name, you must leave him alone.
And his jaw began to go disheveled like
that.
And his tears began to course then his
cheeks like this.
And he just jumped out of my hands
and he lifted his mother and says, you're
killing my mother.
I said, no, you're killing your mother.
And he got up and he bolted out
of the front running up on the hill.
Needless to say, his mother and father who
were sitting there were a little upset and,
but they were upset for the wrong reason,
because you see their obedience wasn't fulfilled.
That's what, that wasn't why they were upset.
But, uh, I just said to that man,
I said, sir, you're his umbrella.
Is your obedience fulfilled?
Are you right with God?
Why don't you get on your knees?
And first you get right with God.
And then you pray for him.
That man fell on his knees at our
coffee table and began to pray and pray
and confess sin that hitherto had been unimportant
to him.
He'd overlooked them.
He realized now it was at stake.
His umbrella had a big hole in it.
It was coming right through to his son.
And you know something, the devil was just
taking all of that hole in his umbrella
and just raking his son across the coals
because of that.
And that man confessed.
And finally he was clean he said, and
Lord, and now I just stand between the
devil and my son in Jesus name.
You can't touch my son, devil, get away.
Just then the door opened and he walked
back in and he walked back in and
he'd been up on the hill.
He'd thrown away all his peyote, torn up
his pornography, burned his weeds.
And, and he walked back down there and
he's shaking his head said, don't know what
got into me.
And he came up and he hugged his
dad with a great big old hug.
He looked over at his mom.
She broke down and crying.
Of course she did.
I mean, good grief.
She had a human heart and, and it
was just a glorious situation.
But to see the warfare was accomplished when
the obedience was satisfied.
I want you to look at another example
too, in Daniel chapter 10.
Things like that are hard to change gears
after you hear a story like that, to
change gears to something like this.
But in Daniel chapter 10, Daniel is praying.
He's been praying for 21 days and the
skies seem like they're brass.
There's no answer.
Maybe you felt like that about something.
There's no answer.
Where's God?
Is it maybe God's gone on vacation?
Maybe he's out to lunch.
Maybe we, we were tempted to think that
kind of thing, you know, but it says
in Daniel chapter 10, that as, as he
was fasting and praying and he was not
even taking a bath, he was seeking God
with all of his heart, just in a
room.
And finally, after 21 days in verse 12,
first, let me just give you some background.
He had a vision of a glorious, glorious
being.
I believe it was probably the Lord himself.
And as he, as he was coming to
Daniel, but it says in verse 12, then
he said to me, don't be afraid, Daniel,
because from the first day that you did
set your heart to understand in truth and
to chasten yourself before your God, your words
were heard.
I've come for your words, Daniel, even though
the heaven's been brass in your understanding 21
days ago, from the very first moment, you
really set your heart to be willing to
know the truth and to understand and to
really chasten yourself.
Even though you've been discouraged all this time,
I want you to notice God heard your
prayers.
And when you heard your prayers, you have
the petition that you've been asking for.
I've come for your words.
Here, here they are, Daniel.
But he says, here's the reason it's taken
so long.
Verse 13, but the Prince of the kingdom
of Persia withstood me for 21 days and
low Michael, who's the archangel, one of the
chief princes came to help me and I
remained here with the King of Persia.
But now I've come to make you understand
what will befall your people in the latter
days, because the vision is yet for many
days.
You see, there'd been a heavenly warfare.
They'd been ascending forth of God's provision, but
the Prince of the power of the air
had sent forth one of the princes of
Persia, a demonic spirit over an area, apparently,
and had contested that answer in prayer coming.
And there'd been a warfare waging.
And you know something?
That's often the case today.
And intercession and prayer breaks that.
It breaks that.
When you declare the victory of the Lord
Jesus in a situation, it's just an incredible
thing.
You can go into a situation where there's
absolute turmoil.
And the reason there's turmoil is because the
dominion of the Lord is not being exercised
there.
You come into there and just say, I'm
taking dominion in this situation in Jesus' name.
Let the peace of God be here.
You'd be surprised what happens, because you see,
I'm claiming victory on the basis of the
blood of Jesus.
Satan, your work must stop in this house.
Your activity must stop in this individual.
I have authority here, not you, because all
power is given to me in heaven and
earth.
It is written and lo, I am with
you always.
I have given you power over serpents, scorpions,
and over all the power of the enemy,
and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
Therefore, go see Jesus, devil, and see what
he says.
You know, and you can just, that's the
warfare we're talking about.
But oftentimes, we meekly lay back and we
say, oh Lord, the devil's beating me up,
and I understand that when you pray like
that.
I've prayed like that.
I still pray like that sometimes.
Lord, I just can't even muster strength to
raise my sword.
Lord, would you get somebody to fight the
devil for me?
But see, the battle's over.
The battle's over.
We don't ever win any victories anymore.
The victory's won.
It is finished.
We don't win any victories in the Christian
life.
We receive them by faith.
They're received.
Tell Zion, tell Jerusalem that warfare is accomplished.
The Lord says in the Old Testament.
You see, we clash with an invisible host,
and he wants you and he wants me
to exercise the judgment that is written upon
them.
Now, this is a long list.
I have one more.
Number 13.
What will keep your prayers from being answered?
Idolatry.
It can be anything from a thing to
a person.
It's anything that takes your heart away from
pure passion toward the Lord Jesus.
It can even be your wife.
I praise God for the emphasis on the
family in this country, but I'll tell you
something.
Jesus is supposed to be first, and many
people will give themselves totally, totally, totally, totally
to family so much that the sacrificial element
is gone in the service of the Lord.
They don't have time for Wednesday night prayer
meeting.
They don't have time for the getting together
with the brethren to prayer.
You see, there's two ditches.
One is not enough time with your family,
and the other is making your family an
idol.
You can make your job an idol.
You can make an ambition, a home an
idol.
You can make anything an idol.
You see, and it says in Ezekiel chapter
14, it says, talking about some of those
religious folks in Israel, he's saying to Ezekiel,
the father is saying, Ezekiel, these men are
coming to pray before me.
Should I be inquired of by them?
They've taken idols in their hearts.
They've taken idols in their heart.
Now, you've got to get rid of idols.
Let him tear them out by the roots.
They're there in your heart.
It's very, very hard.
You're going to have to be ruthless with
them, but the dearest idol I have known,
whate'er that idol may be, help me
to tear it from thy throne and worship
only thee.
Idolatry.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols, John writes
in 1 John.
So I would just say in the aftermath
of perhaps what is a rather, or could
be, depressing list, don't be discouraged because, you
see, the glory is that God is determined
to teach us to pray in spite of
all that we've just mentioned.
He doesn't answer our prayers because of us.
He answers our prayers in spite of us,
and there'll be no opportunity for any flesh
to boast in his presence one day before
him.
Prayer in your life should be the key
of every morning to open the door, and
it should be the bolt of every night
that you close your day off.
And as you lay in bed at night,
you can sing praises on your bed.
That ought to shock your partner, your husband
or wife.
Next time in the middle of the night
you wake up, start singing hymns in the
middle of the night.
Sing high praises of God at midnight on
your bed.
That's what it says in Psalms.
I will sing praises to you upon my
bed.
Let me close with this, because it's often
discouraging to try to pray and feel like
we've failed.
I just want to just use an example
of my son, Jonathan.
You know, he's only two years old, and
he doesn't know a lot of words yet.
He knows pretty much for his age, really.
I'm pretty proud of him, but I'll tell
you something.
He doesn't know a big vocabulary.
But one thing he is getting the hang
of, and even so much that it makes
me under conviction, is that he's understanding that
God hears prayer.
I don't know how he knows it, but
he just knows it.
It's an answer to our prayers.
And at night when we tuck him in,
we'll say, Jonathan, let's pray.
And he'll put his hand out and take
Mary Madeline's hand.
If I'm not there, if I'm there, he'll
take my hand.
If she's not, he'll take our hands and
we'll say, who do you want to pray
for?
And he actually can just, he'll say like,
Jack and Kay.
I mean, he prays for Jack and Kay
every night, more than me.
Talk about conviction.
And he'll pray for people that he's known
in the past that have gone overseas that
I would think he would never know.
That Stuart and Ann, and they left separately,
but he says, who do you want to
pray for?
Stuart and Ann.
And I'm just floored in my heart.
And he can't pray, but he just says,
go name.
And you know something, as, I mean, he
prays for stupid things too, like David and
the yellow motorbike.
He loves bikes and all the rest.
And, you know, but I find that as
I'm praying and vocalizing these prayers for him,
he'll pipe in.
I just can't quit.
He'll keep on saying, or he'll keep saying
names, and he'll say things like Mark, and
he'll say things like Mark gets, and Tom
gets, and he'll say all these names, and
he'll just keep on this big long list.
And I'll be sitting there with the brake
in my back, and he'll keep going and
keep going.
And it's not a game to him.
And if I leave out one thing, he'll
remember what it is.
And you know something, I just said all
that to say this.
He's not eloquent, is he?
He doesn't know the vocabulary of prayer, like
his mother or his dad.
But I'll tell you one thing that makes
me happier than anything else, and that's the
father's heart delights to see that he's learning
how to pray.
And I'll guarantee you this, the father's answer
to his prayers will be just as mighty
as they are to Mr. Eloquence or Mrs.
Eloquence, whoever they might be.
His answers to prayers are going to come
right on home because he looks on that
baby Jonathan's heart.
And your heavenly father understands that you don't
know how to pray as you ought, and
he understands that you don't have the vocabulary
of all the scripture that you might wish
you had.
But let me say this, the father's heart
understands the vocabulary of his children, and he
delights in the fact that you're learning the
things of the kingdom.
Oh, he wants you to learn it more
than anything else.
He wants you to learn to pray.
How much more shall your heavenly father give
you the things that pertain to the kingdom,
the Holy Spirit?
It's his good pleasure to give you the
kingdom, little flock.
It's almost like a giant reservoir up on
the top of a mountain, and we don't
really have to pump water down.
All we have to do really is just
open the spigot, and just the force and
the weight of all of that reservoir of
water will come pouring out as big as
the reservoir.
And that's how it is with God.
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill
it.
You know where from?
From the rivers of living water that are
coming from within.
Get on your knees and open the spigot,
and you'll find out that that reservoir of
prayer is as vast as God, and that
will begin to come out and come out,
and as that comes out, it'll wash your
insides out, and it'll wash your eyes out,
and you'll be clean before him.
Your father in heaven wants you to talk
to him.
He wants not to just hear a long
list of needs.
He just wants to love you and fellowship
with you, and so I exhort you at
the end of these sessions to see it
like that.
Don't be discouraged, but realize that he's delighted
when you begin.
Just begin, and let him teach you to
pray.
He really loves you, and he's long-suffering.
He won't give up.
If he hadn't given up by now, he
won't.
Let me tell you, if he didn't love
you before you were born, he wouldn't have
found the reason afterwards.
He has an everlasting love, and it's going
to stick on you.
He's counted the cost, and he's going to
follow it through.
He's going to present you before his throne
perfect.
So pray.
Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for your mercy.
We thank you for your grace.
Things that we say so easily, grace that's
greater than all our sin.
Oh, make those words live.
We thank you for the Spirit of God.
Oh, Lord, speak to our hearts with your
voice, and call us to prayer.
For Jesus' sake, for your glory, that the
Father may be glorified in the Son, we
pray these things.
Hide these truths in our hearts, protect them,
and send forth these praying people to accomplish
the will of God on their knees.
We ask it in Jesus' name.
Amen.