This is the Truth Network. Encouraging prayer. God offers an open invitation for his people to talk with him at any time about anything. On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the best-selling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray.
And now, here's James. What a show we have for you today on encouraging prayer. I love this. It's the prayers that dreams. Are made of, so to speak.
And we got a scripture from Joel that says, In the last day, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.
So, James, this is available to us if we know and pray and ask for it. Yeah. Peter is quoting Joel in Acts 2.17 when he says that. And it's an amazing passage because it's a reminder that no one is more creative than God. And we want to stay open to Him and open to His creativity.
And of course, all of this is under His Word and in His Spirit. And that's where I want to go today. I want to talk about how do we go to bed at night? Because, you know, sometimes we're taught these bedtime prayers that sort of, you know, have a beginning and an end.
Now I lay me down to sleep or put that prayer off. Uh But are we staying open to God? while we are sleeping. You know, some people may say, Well, I you know, I fall asleep praying.
Well, okay. But How are you praying when you fall asleep? Um Yeah. Are you praying, and this is what I really want to encourage our listeners to do. to just pray, Lord, I'm yours.
And I want to rest in you tonight. If you have anything to say to me Uh I'm listening. Help me to hear you. even while I'm sleeping. And You know, that isn't just about dreams or visions.
That's also about the still small voice of the spirit that can get through to us. Um you know, when when we're finally quiet. But I I wanted to call this episode the The prayers that dreams are made of because. You know, there's nothing better than walking with God in His Spirit and in His love, and that is the very definition of a dream come true. But while we're talking about that, sometimes, and granted, this is the rare occasion, but sometimes God will speak to us.
through dreams. And that's a beautiful thing. It's scriptural. Think about Jacob. where he has this dream of the ladder ascending to heaven, and then he wakes up and says the Lord was in this place.
And I didn't know it. And then again, think about these words from Joel that Peter later repeats. You know, your young men will see visions, your old men We'll dream dreams. Uh what does that mean? I I think it's a beautiful truth, don't you?
Oh, yeah, it just is because there is a relationship that goes on continually And King David makes mention of it, I know, in Psalm 119, where he says, I remembered your name in the night, O Lord, and this I had because I kept thy precepts. In other words, he's challenging me and has for years that that part of praying without ceasing is when I like you said, right, before you go to bed, ask God, you know, help me stay in there because that relationship, it's it's 24-7. It doesn't shut off when the lights do. Yeah, well, and that's the thing, you know, this We need to retrain ourselves sometimes, you know, not to just.
Okay, I'm I'm watching a cop a cop show and then I you know, I click off the T V and and turn out the lights.
sort of thing. Again, we need to rest in the Spirit. And Um as we do that, God I think shows us more of himself and more what he wants for us, and he leads us, and inspires, and encourages us. And that's just an absolutely beautiful thing. Uh I was telling you earlier about how uh You know, I I had a a long conversation with a dear friend that I did youth ministry.
uh with decades ago. And um One of the things that Uh that happened after that conversation. I just turned out the lights, went to bed. And um That night I You know, I had dreamt that I was going to store some things for the church, and I walk into this house where we had stored things before, and there were some presents that had been there left by some very godly people, some Christmas presents that had been left there a while ago. And I thought, well, these haven't been given, they need to be given.
And then I turn from there, and I walk into the main room of the house, and it's this vaulted, beautiful, beautiful room. And I looked up at the ceilings. And the ceilings. have these iron doors. And the doors are meant to be open, you know, open to the heavens, to let the heavens in, if you will.
But they were. They were shot. And it wasn't that they were stuck, it wasn't that they were rusted, it was just that they were old and ironed and hadn't been opened in a long time.
So I kept thinking that. How can I get them open? And then I kept on walking through the house, and I realized what a grand house this was. I mean, it was just amazing viewpoints that were like my boyhood from California, looking out over these rolling hills, and this valley, and this lake. Uh oh my gosh, it it was just So colorful.
And yet full time, as I'm walking around this house, I'm thinking, what about those doors? And Then I I start to think, you know, I'd like to buy this house. I could live in a house like this someday. And but the first thing I'm gonna do is I'm gonna get those doors open. And I realized, you know, as this is going on, and as soon as I woke up, that this was about a future of promise that God has.
for those who come to him. And what those doors represent is prayer. And sometimes it takes effort to open the doors of prayer, if you will. You know, we've got to think about it. We've got to spend some time wrenching and pranking But With his help, we will.
And then. We let heaven in. You know? And then there are vistas, beautiful things to see that we never would have seen if we had not prayed. And to me, that's what the dreaming the meaning of that dream was.
And it was just such an inspiration as I woke up and just a reminder. That God speaks to us. And, you know, of course, first He speaks through His Word, but because we're in a relationship, He has beautiful ways of communicating with us that we do not want to miss.
Well, this would be a good time to pray that we do that. Yeah, please do. Lord, thank you for. There's 24 hours in a day that we can commune with you. Lord, show us.
Teach us how to pray for that. Teach us how to reach out for you in the night that we can enjoy more and more of you and be able to share that love with others. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen.
You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray.
