The Desires of the Heart [Part 1]

Pastor, author, and Bible teacher, Alan Wright. Yeah, desire can be unreliable like just fantasy of wish fulfillment, but desire, like hunger itself, has been put within us by the Creator. So here's a verse that's a key for me.

Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I'm Daniel Britt, excited for you to hear today's message in the series called Praying with Power as presented at Reynolda Church in North Carolina. If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. It can be yours for your donation this month to Alan Wright Ministries.

As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at PastorAlan.org. That's PastorAlan.org or call 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. More on that later in the program. But right now, let's get started with today's teaching in the series Praying with Power. Here is Alan Wright. Matthew 7 verse 7. Here's the text. Ask and it'll be given to you.

Seek and you'll find. Knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives, who seeks, finds, and to whom who knocks, the door will be opened. Father, we just thank You for the promise of Your Word. We thank You so much that You've let us be participants in the unfolding of the good news of the Kingdom of God on earth. We join with the early disciples in once again saying, Lord, teach us to pray so that we pray effectively, fervently with righteous results and with power for the Kingdom's sake. In Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Okay, if you had a genie and you got three wishes, you know, what would be your three wishes? Of course, the right answer was I wish for unlimited wishes. Okay, but if you couldn't get the unlimited wishes, you know, what would you want with your three wishes? And if I said to you this morning, is God like a magic genie in a bottle, you would say, oh, God, I'm proud of you for saying that.

I did that at verge and nine o'clock and only one person said no at each one. So we've, we're, at least we're laying that ground right now. God is not a magic genie in a bottle. You know, why is He not a magic genie in a bottle? Well, the fundamental thing, if you picked up from that cute little scene right there, is that when the genie spoke to Aladdin, the genie called Aladdin the master.

Let's be clear about one thing. God, our Father is the King and the master. We're not the master of God, right? So there's the first reason right now that you understand He's not a genie in a bottle because we don't own God. He's sovereign and free and powerful and almighty and He's the King and He's the master.

And so He's not a genie in a bottle. And yet we have this extraordinary promise, ask and you'll receive. And in fact, what we see in the scripture over and over is something that is just startling. And that is that God is keenly interested in what you want. Now, our desires are, okay, in some ways I know our desires are unreliable. And we have, so often we have, you know, fantasies about wishes that we like to see come true. On Friday night, I hadn't had this kind of dream in so long. And, you know, I just, I, but it was one of those great dreams and the alarm went off right in the middle of it, you know, messed me up because I dreamt I was flying. You ever dream of your flying? And I was flying. I mean, it was like, and it wasn't like I was, you know, flying with any other apparatus or anything. I was just flying. I could just soar. Yeah. I could just, I could just float where I wanted to float and, and, and just, you know, kind of soar a little bit and I could move around, not limited by, you know, the dust of the earth.

No, no limitations, just totally free. I was flying and the alarm went off in the middle of one of my flying adventures. And I was mad at that alarm. Ever been in a dream so good, it's like, oh, rats. And so I'm going, I cut the alarm off and I jumped back into bed, pull those covers. I'm like, I'm getting back into this dream. You know, I'm going to try, you ever try to get back into one and, and, and now you're just, you can't get back into, you're trying, you can't. And finally, you know, I got to get up and then you finally just have to throw the cover offs and go, I can't fly.

I can hardly walk to the bathroom. I'm so tired right now, you know, but you just get up and you just go over there because you realize it was a fantasy. You wish you could fly, but you can't fly. And so the wishing that you could, um, can make you kind of dream up a fantasy. So here's what some atheists, you know, would say as least part of the reasoning against, uh, against the, the existence of God is they would say, uh, at least some people would say who are atheists would say your wishes and desires that can't be fulfilled, but you want them to be fulfilled. So you project the idea of a God who could fulfill those things so that you could enjoy a sense of fantasy about them being fulfilled. No different than having a dream about being able to fly, but it's just fantasy and you really can't, uh, it's not going to be fulfilled, but you project this onto an image that you call God. And this, this so-called God is what you look to that's going to be able to fulfill these, these wishes. And so that a lot of, of what religion is, is just fantasy, um, about wish fulfillment.

That's not going to take place and, uh, atheists say, so therefore it's a waste of your time to, uh, pursue God like that, this idea of God, but you should be spending your time just cultivating your own skills because you're the only thing that's going to make any difference in the world. And so that's, that's kind of the argument like that. And you could say, well, yeah, we do understand that there are wishes that we have that are just wishes and they, uh, are not rooted in any reality and, and maybe it could point some, you could, you could see that, but isn't there another way of looking at this? And that is that, aren't there a lot of your desires, hunger within you that isn't there, isn't there a way in which it often does point to the fact that something does exist when the baby comes into the world and has never tasted milk and cries for milk before the milk has ever come, isn't it kind of like proof that the milk exists? In other words, there's a hunger that causes a longing that the baby doesn't even know what it is, can't say the word milk, never seen milk, never tasted milk, sure couldn't tell you about the various nutrients in a mother's milk and yet everything inside the little infant is yearning for the milk.

Do you ever think about this? The fact that you are so hungry, you get hungry for food sort of proves that food must exist. Your hunger that you feel just for food, I mean, even if you didn't know that food existed, if you just were dropped here from Mars and you're just suddenly a human being and you're out in the middle of nowhere and just suddenly in the middle of the day you're just like something is just hurting here, you don't even know what that you're supposed to eat, you just have a hunger for something and it makes you so convinced that there must be food.

So what would you do? You start seeking food, wouldn't you? The very hunger that you have causes you to seek so that you'll find and the reason you're seeking so that you'll find is because the hunger within you has made you convinced that it must exist. So you'll ask, you'll seek, you'll knock, you'll do whatever you can to get some food because you just know it's got to exist. I mean, I'm hungry.

Well, duh, right? But it's this way with other things that are deeper things of life, like love. We're born with a need for love, to love and be loved. That's why if you're in a relationship and there's not real love and it's not being shown, you're not experiencing unconditional love, don't you just know, you're not satisfied because you just know there's something better than this. Even children that have come from abusive homes, under all the layers of the world, under all the layers of hurt and all the wounds and sometimes of calloused around the heart, but still underneath it, there is a heart that is yearning to be loved.

That's Alan Wright, and we'll have more teaching in a moment from today's important series. Prayer. As a Christian, you know it's important and you want to make it a priority. But if you're like most, your prayer life can slip so easily into routine, lacking fervor and passion. Maybe you're wondering what is the key to praying with real power.

In Ephesians chapter six, the apostle Paul has a clear answer. Pray in the spirit. But what does it mean to pray in the spirit?

Some would say that Paul is referring only to the spiritual gift of a supernatural prayer language. But in Alan Wright's unique series, Praying with Power, Pastor Alan reveals five different ways of praying in the spirit. Discover how praying God's word is praying in the spirit. Learn how to listen to the spirit as you pray. Come to see Jesus as your prayer partner. It's practical.

It's powerful. Get Pastor Alan Wright's Praying with Power and discover the power of praying in the spirit. Change your prayer life and you'll change the world. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer.

We're in the final days of this special offer being made available to you. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, PastorAlan.org. Today's teaching now continues. Here once again is Alan Wright. The very fact that we so need that kind of unconditional love is to me a proof that the unconditional love exists. And isn't it true that even your best moments in life, I mean the happiest moments, the great, great moments of life, where everything is going wonderfully, I mean just whatever it might be, imagine yourself in that moment. And isn't it true that even in that moment, there's still a sneaky suspicion underneath it there's more than this. This isn't all that there is.

You know why? Because ultimately we're yearning for heaven itself. And I believe that just as surely as a baby's cry for milk is evidence that milk must exist, so it is that the deepest yearning of humanity's heart is the very evidence that we were created for God. And Augustine was right, our hearts will forever restless be until they rest, oh Lord, with thee. So yeah, desire can be unreliable like just fantasy of wish fulfillment. But desire, like hunger itself, has been put within us by the Creator. So here's a verse that's a key for me. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. He's given me so many desires of my heart. Let's start with a basic piece of good news that took me at least two decades of pondering before I finally accepted that this is true, because it almost doesn't sound like good theology, but I want you to understand I am so committed to right theology, biblical theology, but this I'm absolutely convinced is true. God wants to give you what you want.

He does. I base this on so many scriptures, not least of which when Jesus Himself says, if you earthly fathers want to give good gifts to your children, how much more so does a perfect heavenly father want to give good gifts to his children? I base this also on just the only way that we can understand prayer is relationally, because as soon as you try to understand prayer as some kind of formula or something, now you're over into just religious stuff. But this is a relationship that we have like a child to a father. And so I can understand some things because I'm privileged to be a father.

And one thing I know for sure is even though I'm a sinful man, even though my mind is still distorted and I lose my patience and so forth, I know that I love to give my children what they want. Don't you want to give somebody what they actually want? I mean, if you're going to go to the trouble to give somebody a present because you care for them, I'm not talking about where you're doing it just out of duty or compulsion or something like that.

You're just trying to do the protocol. But I'm talking about you giving a gift to somebody because you love them. You're giving them a gift. Don't you want to give them what they want? You don't want to give them something and then find out they don't even like that.

They don't like that at all. I mean, it's like the time that Christmas and we thought we got a really nice little foosball kind of game for my nephew Christopher who at the time was about five or something like that. And he was just a little boy and he opened it up and said, ooh, I hate these things. And I appreciated his honesty about it, but I'd like to know what he'd wanted so that we'd gotten him something he didn't hate.

But yeah, watch the parents in that situation. Oh no, no, you love me. No, I don't like these things.

I hate these things. I want to give them what they want. I want to get, don't you want to give somebody what they want?

What, why do I, what? Now this is the strange thing about, it's a paradox, but it's almost like my generosity is in itself, has self-interest in it. It's all tied together because why do I love to give my children what they want? Because it blesses me so much, it causes me joy to see them have joy. That's just, it causes me joy to see my children be blessed in a way that they wanted to be blessed. It causes me tears of joy to watch them come to the realization of a long dream or reach some goal that they have anticipated and worked towards, and it comes to fruition. That blesses me even more to see that come to pass. And I want to see the things that they want.

I want to see it come to pass. And I just plainly, selfishly, it just makes me happy. It just makes me happy. Could you just, could you just suspend everything else that shame and lies have taught you about what you and your Father in heaven and who your relationship might be?

And just listen for just this moment and be sure you get this, your Father in heaven wants to give you what you want because it causes Him joy to see His children blessed. It's an astounding thought and it's true. Now He's got a real advantage over us in that we don't always know what the other one wants. So we get them a gift card. Because it might be, ooh, I hate these things, so, and you don't even know you can live with your wife for 22 years and still not really know what she wants.

Let's face it, no matter how great we get to know each other, we're still having to go around saying, do you like this? Do you like this one? What do you think of this? Because we don't fully know. Now here's an astounding thing. Not only does God want to give you what you want, He knows what you want.

Oh, that's awesome. So here, though, for a father is a dilemma. I want to give my children what they want, but I can't give them everything they want because some of their wants are not mature enough or based in enough wisdom to be healthy for them. So a parent can't give a child everything the child wants. Can't do it.

It's just some things that just can't let them just eat ice cream only, ice cream and Doritos and pizza. You just can't do that, you know? I mean, you can't. And you can't let your children stay up, you know, all night long every night. I mean, sometimes I think my children are just like, that's just their main goal, you know, is just to stay up. I mean, it's just, that's just one of the challenges of parenthood is just getting somebody to go to bed. I mean, just, you know, it's time for bed. But I mean, I don't, I can't envision a scenario in which it'd be like, hey, would you guys like to stay up another 45 minutes and watch this show and eat some popcorn? I mean, I just don't think I'm gonna, you know, pack it in a little early tonight, dad. I think they don't do that.

They don't do that, do they? So, you know, they have to say, can I please stay up longer? And you have to say, no, go get into bed now, you know?

And so every now and then you have to come and kind of, you know, make your feet hurt a little bit like this. I mean, anyway, it's just, you can't give, but it's a dilemma for me because it causes me joy to give them what they want. And yet I can't always give them what they want because they don't always want things that are good for them. And so I got, I got a dilemma about this.

So what do I do as a parent? What I do is I shift my strategy and my strategy is not, well, let me see about how I can be the magic genie to give them all their wishes. And I'm shift my strategy towards molding their heart and their character so that increasingly as they grow up, the things that they want will be more healthy, more noble, more pure, more godly, more right. Because the more that they want that, the more I'm going to be free to give it to them. The more I'm going to be free to share it with them.

You see? So we shift our strategy as parents and we say, you know, my job is not just to give you the things that you want. My job is to help you want the right things. Because my ultimate goal is I want to give you what you want.

It causes me joy. But if you don't want things that are in accord with what will be good and right, then I will not be able to share those things with you. And so we're trying to mold their lives, aren't we? Alan Wright and today's teaching Praying the Desires of Your Heart. Prayer. As a Christian, you know it's important and you want to make it a priority. But if you're like most, your prayer life can slip so easily into routine, lacking fervor and passion. Maybe you're wondering, what is the key to praying with real power?

In Ephesians chapter six, the Apostle Paul has a clear answer. Pray in the Spirit. But what does it mean to pray in the Spirit?

Some would say that Paul is referring only to the spiritual gift of a supernatural prayer language. But in Alan Wright's unique series, Praying with Power, Pastor Alan reveals five different ways of praying in the Spirit. Discover how praying God's word is praying in the Spirit. Learn how to listen to the Spirit as you pray. Come to see Jesus as your prayer partner. It's practical.

It's powerful. Get Pastor Alan Wright's Praying with Power and discover the power of praying in the Spirit. Change your prayer life and you'll change the world. When you make your gift to Alan Wright Ministries today, we'll send you Pastor Alan's messages through digital download as our way of saying thanks for your partnership. This broadcast is only possible because of listener financial support. When you give today, we will send you today's special offer.

We're in the final days of this special offer being made available to you. We are happy to send this to you as our thanks from Alan Wright Ministries. Call us at 877-544-4860.

That's 877-544-4860. Or come to our website, pastoralan.org. Today's teaching is Praying the Desires of Your Heart. Is this bringing our desires as they are to God, or should we filter them first? Well, what we're really going to focus in on is what this means to have the desires of your heart. When our desires start being motivated and matching what God's highest and best is for us, then in a real sense, our desires are going to be fulfilled by God because He put those desires down deep within us. But there are many things that we might call desires that are simply fleshly or selfish or would even be destructive for us. And God doesn't honor those, right? So there is a way in which you bring power into your prayer life by allowing the Holy Spirit to do the continuing work in your heart so that the desires of your heart become the very desires that God has planted there. That's what we're learning about.