Praying and Waiting for God's Timing

When you need something supernatural, that's not saying grace. That's not saying a quick prayer.

That's going in the labor. Dr. Tony Evans says the kind of prayer that really makes a difference is hard, hard work. You say, why do I have to go through all that?

Because you're giving birth to a miracle. You're asking God to do something out of the ordinary. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. Prayer can be a pleasure as we enjoy the closeness it gives us with God. But today Dr. Evans will tell us how to take our prayers to the next level, a level that's much more effective but much less comfortable.

Let's join him as he explains. Prayer is the one thing God has established to make contact with what He has already decreed. Where there is no prayer, there is no contact, and where there is no contact, you do not get what God has already declared for you to have, known as His will. The lesson that you and I are going to learn from Elijah today, I want you to right now put everything out of your mind you've ever thought about prayer for a few moments. And I want us to learn from Elijah this point of contact and how it works.

Let me start off by reading two verses. Chapter 17 verse 1, 1 Kings, Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word. So Elijah tells Ahab, it's not going to rain. Chapter 18 verse 1, And now it happened after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth. So in chapter 17 verse 1, he says, it's not going to rain. In chapter 18 verse 1, he says, it's getting ready to rain.

So before we go any further, let me explain why this rain thing is there in the first place. Ahab didn't make this up. You see, in Deuteronomy chapter 11 verses 13 to 17, this is what God said. God says, if you go worship idols, I'm going to close down heaven so it won't rain. If you choose other gods, I'm going to no longer bless your crops, I'm no longer going to bless your planting, I'm no longer going to bless your fruit bearing, and the sky is going to dry up if you go after other gods. But he says, if you turn away from other gods, then I will open up heaven and I will let rain again fall on the earth.

So the whole reason Elijah is praying is based on something God had said years early to Moses. So having prayed biblically, we now are going to see something. I do want you to turn your Bibles here. Hold your finger in 1 Kings and turn to James chapter 5. The book of James chapter 5.

In James chapter 5, let me read beginning with verse 16. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effectual prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

Now watch this. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. So he's taking us back to Kings. And it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

Stay with me here. God said it's not going to rain. God said it's now going to rain. There's a gap of three and a half years between when he said no rain because of their idolatry and when it was going to rain.

So watch this. The change with the rain only came when the idolatry was addressed. As long as there was idolatry, there would be no rain. Many people want God to send rain in their lives, called blessings, without wanting God to change their lives. And he gives you the secret of prayer that produces the supernatural. James said the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. So we not only know that Elijah prayed, we now also know how Elijah prayed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And James is writing to New Testament Christians. James is writing to you and me. But he uses an Old Testament saint to explain to New Testament Christians how to get heaven to deliver rain, how to get heaven to open up to deliver the will of God, which is varying from person to person in its application. So that means if you and I understand effectual fervent prayer, as illustrated by James in the life of Elijah, you and I can affect heaven opening, heaven closing. No rain, rain. We can affect it just like Elijah affected it.

And let me tell you why, and then I'll tell you how. You know why? Because James says that Elijah was of like nature as us. In other words, he wasn't Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, or X-Man. He wasn't some superhero. He's just a man. So he wants you to know Elijah has nothing on you.

Questions, what does that look like? All right. Verse 41. It says, I hear the sound of the roar of a heavy storm.

That's what it says. Elijah says, I hear a thunderstorm. But wait a minute. In the verses to follow, there is no storm yet. In fact, you're going to see in a moment, the sky is clear. In fact, there's not even a cloud in the sky. In fact, nobody hears this but Elijah, because Elijah has to tell Ahab that there is the sound of a storm, because Ahab can't hear it.

So let's get something straight. Your proximity to God will determine what you hear. See, if you are not close to God, you won't hear the will of God applied to you.

You'll be like Ahab. What you talking about? Because you don't hear anything. One of our problems is we want to hear from God while keeping our distance from God.

No. Elijah could hear the will of God, and he could hear the timing of God's will. See, he already knew what the Word of God said, Deuteronomy 11. But the question on the floor is, how do I know that word in Deuteronomy is applicable to me right now? That has to do with spiritual distance. What made his proximity so close? It said Elijah was a righteous man.

He lived his life to please the Lord. You cannot hear the sound of God's will and live a lifestyle that makes him sad, that makes him unhappy, that is not seeking to please him. You can't hear his voice and be in a long-distance relationship, all right? So if you want to experience supernatural power in prayer, the proximity must be close. It cannot be far away, so you can hear the sound of the particular application of Scripture in your personal experience. Okay?

So that's number one. But it gets deeper, because verse 42 says, And Ahab went up to eat and drink, but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees. Stay with me here. Elijah goes up to Mount Carmel. He doesn't go with Ahab. He goes up to Mount Carmel. He separates himself, and he finds a place to get alone with God. In other words, what he was getting ready to ask for was so big. What he was getting ready to call on from heaven was so deep that he needed an undistracted environment for his discussion. Okay? Do you have a place you can go?

A closet, a room, someplace you can go where there will be undistracted communication. It says he bent down, put his head between his knees. In Old Testament days, what the women did was crouch down, put their head down, and then somebody would say, push. In other words, it was the position of labor.

Why? It was the position of labor because he's about to give birth to a miracle. It was the position of labor because he's getting ready to give birth to something supernatural. See, when you need God to do something not regular but super unleaded, when you need God to do something not ordinary but extraordinary, you've got to get in a position of birth. But no woman gets in a position of birth unless she's pregnant. The whole point of birth is that you are pregnant. See, some of us want God to give birth when we haven't even let God get us pregnant. We don't have the pregnancy of his presence, the pregnancy of his life, but we want him to give birth to a miracle. He knew that he needed the miracle having to open, so he got in a position and he labored. This is the biblical word travail. Travail means to be in labor. When Jesus was with Martha and Mary in John chapter 11, and when he was in Martha and Mary and Lazarus had died, and he was getting ready to raise Lazarus from the dead, that's not an ordinary thing.

So what Jesus did, the Scripture says, is he stirred himself up. When you need something supernatural, that's not saying grace. When you need something supernatural, that's not saying a quick prayer. That's going into labor.

You say, why do I have to go through all that? Because you're giving birth to a miracle. You're giving birth to something supernatural. This is not regular, ordinary. You're asking God to do something out of the ordinary.

But he needs a point of contact. The question is, do you want to give birth to something? If you do, Dr. Evans will come back in a moment with more on the specific steps you need to take. Stay with us. It's easy to feel overwhelmed right now, but God is bigger than it all, and we want to encourage you with truth by sending you the best of Tony Evans 2020 on CD or digital download, featuring 20 of Dr. Evans' most popular messages for 2020. Get your copy when you give to help the urban alternative stay on the air and bringing message of hope and life in our confusing, out-of-control world. Plus, you'll also receive Dr. Evans' devotional book, Called for a Purpose. Go online to TonyEvans.org. Remember, you'll get a total of 20 of Tony's most popular messages, focusing on the keys to spiritual growth, biblical ways to beat worry and anxiety, how to know God cares about you personally, and much more. So get in touch with us today, make your generous year-end contribution, and let us send you the best of Tony Evans 2020 and his popular devotional book, Called for a Purpose. Make the arrangements at TonyEvans.org or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222.

Team members are standing by to help you day and night. Again, that's 1-800-800-3222. Right now, Dr. Evans is back with more of today's message. Here we got a man giving birth. Some of you, you're dealing with situations. Counselor can't help you.

Money can't fix it, and people you know can't change it. You need to go into labor. You need to find a Mount Carmel somewhere, and you need to go down and push and push and push. You say, how long do I push?

How long do I push? Well, let's go back to the scripture, because it says an effective fervent prayer of a righteous man. He said to his servant in verse 43, go up now and look toward the sea. In other words, look for the answer, because there's a storm, so look for the answer. So the servant went up, verse 43 says, and looked and said, there is nothing. Okay, let's stop there. He prayed and nothing happened.

Anybody know that feeling? You prayed and nothing happened. He went up and said, I looked for an answer, but there's no answer to the prayer. And he went up and looked again.

There's nothing. He said, go back seven times. Go back seven times. Seven is the biblical number of completion. When something is completed in the Bible, it gives you the number seven. It's the biblical number of completion. In other words, servant, I know what the word said, Deuteronomy 11. I know what God told me, because I heard his sound, and we're close. So when the written word lines up with what God is telling me in my spirit, and then I go in the labor and nothing happening yet, you keep going until you suck that thing down.

The bigger the miracle you need, the more labor you're going to be in, because that baby's head is so big. So you labor till God answers it. Once you can tie it to his word, tie it to your spirit, and you've labored in prayer about it, you don't quit because you heard nothing. You pray till you get an answer, because an answer is coming in due season. You keep going.

You don't quit. The man comes back after the seventh time, verse 44, and says, Behold the cloud as small as the man's hand is coming up from the sea. But that's all he needed to see, because sometimes God doesn't give it to you all at once. He lets you see a little something something, and a little something something says, I'm listening. I'm hearing you. We're not ready to complete it, but when you see that little cloud, he says, Oh, you saw a little cloud?

He went and told Ahab, Go get your chariot. Go to Jezreel, because it's getting ready to thunderstorm up in here, up in here. Why? Because sometimes God gives you a little down payment. He doesn't take care of everything.

He just shows you a little something so that you keep on going, keep on praying, keep on trusting, because I hear you. It says in the last verse, Then the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and out ran Ahab to Jezreel. Okay, wait a minute.

Watch this now. In the previous verse, Ahab has got a chariot, which means he has horses. Horses are pulling his chariots. And these are multiple horses because he's the king. So he's got a group of horses pulling his chariot from Carmel to Jezreel, which is 15 miles.

So this is a 15-mile ride. Kings had runners. The job of the runner was to run in front of the king to make sure there was nothing in the road so there would be nothing to jeopardize the king. So the king had runners. Now, I don't know what happened to Ahab's runners. Maybe they got scared when Elijah killed all them prophets and quit.

I don't know. His runner was nowhere to be found, and Elijah becomes his runner. But wait a minute. Elijah says he had to girdle up his loins. I mean, he had to pull up his robe, tuck it under his belt, and run. There's an old boy here. Old boy is running 15 miles, and he's outrunning the horses.

Okay? Oh, it makes me think of Isaiah 40. Those who wait upon the Lord shall get new strength. They will mount up with wings as eagles. They will run and not go weary.

They will walk and not faint. Somehow, you say, how do I know this was a supernatural track star? Because it says, and the hand of the Lord was on Elijah. And see, he started kicking it. He started kicking it because when God comes through for you, even though you've had to wait for it, you'll be like Caleb who said, I started when I was 40. Now I'm 85, but God has given me strength at 85 that I had at 40, and it was worth waiting on him for my change to come. God can take you and give you strength for whatever he's going to bring you away when you suck it down from up there down here through the effectual fervent prayer.

Now, let me close with something. A number of years ago, for those who haven't heard this story, I was doing an evangelistic crusade in Columbia, South Carolina. This crusade was at the Bryce Football Stadium, which is the football stadium for the University of South Carolina.

It was Sunday night, the first night of the crusade, when somewhere between 15,000 or 20,000 people had gathered in the stadium for us to preach the gospel to. Before the service, all the ministers and the planning committee went downstairs to pray. A gentleman came in and said, we've just been warned that a major storm is coming and it will be here by 7 o'clock.

It's now 6 o'clock and the meeting is supposed to begin at 7. So based on the meteorological report, we were going to be drenched with a heavy thunderstorm at 7 o'clock. So we went into prayer and we prayed that God would hold the rain and we prayed that God would allow the service to go on and we prayed. The ministers prayed, but every minister, including me, prayed a safe prayer. A safe prayer is, Lord, don't let it rain if it's not your will.

See, you throw His will in there in case it still rains, you can get Him off the hook. So we prayed that safe prayer. At the end of the prayer, a 5 foot 1 lady named Linda said, may I pray? We said, well, yes, yes, go ahead and pray.

You know, we need all the prayer we can get. Here is the summary of Linda's prayer. Linda said, Lord, we are here doing what you ask us to do. You ask us to win people of Christ. You ask us to proclaim your word.

We have spent money, time, energy to put this crusade together doing what you told us to do. So you would embarrass yourself if you let it rain because you control the weather. So therefore, Lord, here got crazy, I command you to stop the rain.

All the preachers did was just look at each other and wait for lightning to strike. Because we got this little 5 foot 1 lady commanding God with the rain. We walk up, it's now 7 o'clock, it's time for the service to begin. The MC comes out and he says, ladies and gentlemen, we know that rain is supposed to come. The sky is dark behind us, it's coming this way. We know it's supposed to come, we're just going to go as long as we can go.

So if you'll just remain here as long as you can, we'll do as much as we can. Because it wasn't looking good. You can hear the thunder in the background, it's coming this way. As we begin the service, we're 10 to 15 minutes into the service and now it's black, it's thundering behind us and you can begin to hear the rain. As the rain came up to the stadium with our own eyes, the rain split.

Half of it went around this way, half of it went around that way, and then the rain came back together at the other end of the stadium. See, the preachers were being spiritually polite, but Linda gave an effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person. She got down and put her hand down and pushed and pushed and pushed. And like Jacob said, I'm not going to let you go until you do something. I'm going to give birth to a miracle. Somebody here today needs a miracle in your life, needs a miracle in your emotions, needs a miracle in your home, needs a miracle on your job.

If you commit to righteousness, if you commit to prayer, if you commit to Mount Carmel, and if you get pregnant with God's life and are willing to go into labor, what happened to Elijah, James says, is available to you. Dr. Tony Evans, with an encouraging example of the power of praying within God's will and timing. Now, today's message is part of Tony's brand-new audio compilation, The Best of Tony Evans 2020. For a limited time, this giant collection is available as our gift, along with his popular devotional book called For a Purpose when you make a year-end contribution to help us keep his teaching on this station. Get more details and make the arrangements today at tonyevans.org, and be sure to take time to browse through our huge collection of CDs, DVDs, books, Bible studies, and more. We can be your one-stop shop for holiday gift giving. Again, that's tonyevans.org, or call our resource center at 1-800-800-3222. Team members are standing by to help you with your resource request day and night. That's 1-800-800-3222. Even though the coronavirus pandemic has stretched us economically and stressed us emotionally, Dr. Evans says Christians possess a very powerful tool that can transform our personal outlook, especially in times like these. Be sure to join us tomorrow for that important message. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.