Praying With Impact - Part 2

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Tuesday, May tenth. If you struggle with knowing how to pray for others, today's podcast can help. Let's turn to Colossians chapter one and get scriptural guidance for praying with impact. If somebody says to me, Pastor how can I pray for you?

I have an exact answer. And it's an answer I want you to consider this morning. It's an answer I want you to consider for yourself. Because it is a prayer, two things are true about it. Number one, you do not have to ask if it's the will of God. And secondly, you can pray it with absolute confidence. And so oftentimes we say almost like magic, if it be Thy will. Lord, if You'll do this, if it be Thy will. There's some things very clear in the Bible that's the will of God. And so I want you to think about this prayer seriously because if somebody prays this prayer for you, it's going to make a difference in your life.

If you pray under a couple of conditions we'll mention later, for somebody else it's going to make a difference in their life. So I want you to turn to the first chapter of Colossians. And I want us to read a few verses here. Paul was in Ephesus about three years and preaching the gospel. One of his converts that he mentions here was Epaphras. And he went to Colossae and probably began preaching there.

And so, Paul didn't know them personally. And so he writes this epistle and here's what he says in verse seven. Just as you learned it from Epaphras, our beloved fellow bond servant, who is a faithful servant of Christ on our behalf, and he also informed us of your love in the Spirit. He said, and I'll read it to you, And I will say unto you, That you have not been a good reason also since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you'll walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please Him in all respects, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God, all steadfastness and patience, joyously giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. You may think, well now, how in the world is that prayer going to affect anybody that I know?

So I want us to look at it because, yes it will. If somebody asks me, oh pastor, what can I pray for you? Here's what I say. Pray Colossians chapter one, nine through fourteen.

Watch this carefully. It doesn't make any difference what's going on in your life. That prayer will fit your life. So I want you to think about your children, moms and dads. I want you to think about your grandchildren. And think about your friends. And think about, most of all, somebody praying this prayer for you.

It'll impact your life. So let's look at these verses for a few moments. Here's what He says, For this reason also, since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you, and to ask that number one, watch this, ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding. Now, it's always right to pray that somebody would know the will of God for their life. And I tell you, somebody says, what do you, how do you want me to pray for you? I just say, look at Colossians one, verses nine through fourteen.

So watch what He says. He says, with all spiritual wisdom and understanding. And until we understand the will of God and know His will for our life, then we're still floundering. You don't want to just pray to make somebody feel good. You want to impact their life.

And impact means change. And so, you have the power, the privilege, the awesome opportunity of doing that. Because the truth is, we all want to know the will of the Father for our life, whether we are sixty or whether you are six. Then notice the second part. He says, to be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

Well, what is that? What you're saying is, you want that person to walk in a way in a manner that is worthy of, that is consistent with His life. Now, that doesn't mean that you're walking up and down the road preaching the gospel. But it means His character, who He was and who He is in our life. Walking in a manner that is pleasing to Him. Bearing fruit in every good work.

Listen to that. Bearing fruit in every good work, which simply means what? That you live a life that is wisely invested.

You don't waste it. Bearing fruit in every good work. That is, our life is not a waste, but it makes a contribution. So, ask yourself the question, in what way is your life making a contribution?

What are you saying to your sons and your daughters about their life and God's will for their life and how you believe that they have something to contribute, something to give? Not something, in other words, so oftentimes kids go to school, they want a job, how they can make the most money. But I heard a wonderful testimony, one of our staff members a little while ago, when I said, Where did you go to college? She told me where she went to school.

And I said, What did you major in? She said, Well, I wanted to serve the Lord. And where she went to school, they didn't have any other serve the Lord business. And so, she majored in social work. She said, That's the closest thing I could get to ministry. And then when she got out of school, of course, she began to serve the Lord.

You know what? She had godly parents. They began to teach her to invest her life in something that was worthwhile and something that has eternal value.

And so, ask yourself the question, In what way are you bearing fruit that has a lasting value to it? I would hate to think that I lived my life and the only thing I wanted to do is make enough money to have a good time. And then one of these days die.

I'll tell you how those people die. They end up dying this way, saying, If I don't listen to that, if I don't listen to Him, if I don't listen to her, if I don't, if I don't, if I don't, if I don't. What a terrible way to spend one's life and end up in the only thing you have primarily, regrets, because you see, money's not going to keep you a minute longer.

Your friends, they can't keep you. When God calls us home, there's nothing we can do to stay here one second. The one thing you don't want to do is end up saying, If either. And how many people die full of regrets? When, listen, you could die with a life that has borne fruit, listen, in such a way pleasing the Lord in every way, yearning in your heart for God, desiring to be what He wants you to be, increasing, listen, and He says, increasing in the knowledge of God. Where are you going to learn that? In a Christian private school you'll learn some, but in most public schools you're not going to learn any. There's some wonderful public school teachers, but they're not allowed to talk about the Lord.

Listen to me, if you don't do it at home, forget it. And if you don't go to church where somebody teaches the Word of God and believes the Word of God, and I'll say this, and I say it lovingly, but very strongly, you go to church, I don't care where it is, what denomination it is. And the pastor talks about some of the Scripture being true and some not get out.

Here's what you're doing. You are teaching your children, you're teaching your children that the Word of God is not all true, and therefore why should they grow up believing it? Why should they grow up believing it? Why should they grow up wanting to be a Christian? Why should they grow up wanting to follow God? Why should they grow up believing and trusting God when they have been told that part of it's true and part of it is not true, and therefore don't get too serious about all that religious stuff?

And if you don't think that happens in many families, it happens everywhere. It's very important. It's very important. It's very important that we assume the responsibility of teaching our children, listen, a desire for God.

Now, how do you do that? This is how you don't do it. You go to church, go home, close the Bible till next week. Here's what that says to kids. It says to kids, well, you know what? Yeah, I have a Bible. In fact, they gave me a Bible in Sunday school a long time ago, and it says to kids, well, you know what? I have a Bible. I have a Bible. I have a Bible. How many of you read your Bible every single day? Amen?

Good. The best way to teach your children to have a desire for knowledge of God is to see you reading this book and to read it with them. You say, well, they don't understand.

You don't know how much they understand. I've been reading the Bible all my life. I've been reading the Bible for the first time. And I've been reading the Bible for a number of years.

I don't know how many years. I've been reading the Bible for a number of years, because that's the way I grew up. But, when my kids said to me, Dad, we don't understand this. I bought them a copy of the Living Bible translation.

Both of them. I never had to ask them to read the Bible again, because they understood it better than they did King James. Whatever it takes to help your children But you've got to talk about it.

You've got to talk about what you've learned. Not just here's what the pastor said or this, but here's what we're learning. And when children grow up in a family where they talk about the Lord, and I can't even imagine any day in any family that the Lord's name shouldn't come up about something. If you can live a full day and watch TV and read the newspaper and the magazines and your friends and talk on the phone and so forth and never mention Jesus, there's something wrong. We're followers of Him. Tell me anything any more important than the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Nothing so important as that. Children need to be, listen, and here's what happens. I can graphically show you what happens when you start praying from early in life. They come up in life and little by little, as you pray for them and you give them guidance and direction for life, you bend their heart and their life toward God because they hear the truth over and over and over again. Now, there are three things that are essential for that. Number one, you've got to read this instead of the Word of God. You've got to read the Word of God. And secondly, you've got to apply it to your life. And thirdly, which most people forget, then you observe what happened as a result of my obedience.

Now, I can say this confident, any Sunday you come to church here and many other churches too. You ought to have enough notes that when you go home, you can talk to your kids about them. What did you think about so-and-so? Let them talk. It doesn't mean, listen, don't say, mm-mm-mm, that's wrong. Just let them talk. Because what you need to find out is what are they thinking. Watch this, because they, they see and hear something that God has impressed in their little heart is very important.

But you see, you know better. You have the privilege of taking it home and saying, well, let's think about this. Just in today's message, you can say to them, what would you think about me praying this for you every day? Would you want me to pray that for you every day? Your kids are going to say, sure I do. And if they're teenagers, they may say, oh, well, I don't know about it.

But you say, well, I'll tell you what, I'm going to pray for you every day anyway, so watch out. You need to drill that into your children's hearts and minds. Because, listen, you're forming their minds in some way.

So, why not gear them and direct them? Listen, growing in the knowledge of God. And I would ask you, do you feel like that you're growing in the knowledge of God? Listen, a stagnant Christian is backslidden. If you're not growing, you're going backwards.

You say, well, how do I know whether I'm growing or not? Whether you're changing or not. Because listen, there ought to be something in all of us that we're not going to be able to do. There ought to be something in all of us that we're not going to be able to do.

There ought to be something in all of our lives. And this week I picked up a book that I've had for years and years and years, and I just read the introduction. I got so blessed.

I got on my face for about a half an hour. I thought, Lord, thank You, thank You, thank You for showing me that. How could I have missed that? I may have gotten it then, but maybe I forgot it. Whatever it was, it was worth me reading again. It was just about five pages. It was just about five pages. It was just about five pages. It was just about five pages.

It was just about five pages. And I'm going to read it to you in just a minute. It's actually, how do you ever possibly fathom all that God, all of God's knowledge about Himself? And what does He want us? He wants us to know who He is and why He operates the way He does and how He thinks and why He thinks that. In other words, God is so willing to reveal Himself. He wants to reveal Himself. He wants to reveal Himself. He wants to reveal Himself. He wants to reveal Himself. He wants to reveal Himself. If this is what He wants to reveal, then He will increase in your knowledge of God and then watch this. Then He says, aiding with all power according to His glorious might. That is, praying for that person to live in the power of the Holy Spirit. He sent Him to indwell you and me in order that we might be He says, until you have been filled with the Spirit of God.

When you were saved, the Spirit of God came into your life. Now, once in a while, some parent will say, well, you know what? I don't have much education and I can't really teach my kids too much. Listen, you're teaching them whether you plan it or not. You're teaching them by the way you live, by what you say, by what you have, why you pray, how you or whether you don't pray. Don't pray, in other words, you are teaching them. And so, He says, strengthened with all power to His glorious might, that is the awesome supernatural power of God. Praying for that to operate in the life of your children. You say, well, how's that going to work?

His hat's going to work. You're praying that the Spirit of God will warn them about temptation, warn them about the wrong friends, strengthen them to say no when they need to say no, and it will be the same. And so, you're going to be able to do it. You're going to be able to start to be able to be able to enable them to be able to do their best when they're required to do something in school.

They don't have to cheat. They study. You're in a, in other words, you can impress and impact that child's life in so many ways. But the truth is you can do it for another adult who's going through some difficulty, hardship, pain, or maybe they have some job and they don't do very well at it. It is an awesome, impactful prayer. And then the last thing He says, giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light, for He rescued us from the domain of darkness, transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.

Look at this. He says, I'm praying that you would live in such a way that you would joyously, joyously give thanks to the Father. What are you saying? I'm praying for you that you'll have joy in your life, that you have happiness in your life, that you'll have peace in your life, because look what God has done for you. And you see, when a person begins to understand what God has really done in their life, really begin to grasp that, you're going to be thankful.

There is going to be a joy in your heart you cannot explain. Notice what He says. He says He's qualified us, He's transferred us, He's delivered us, He's redeemed us, He's saved us, and praying for somebody in that light, that God would do that in their life. Is God going to answer that prayer?

Yes, He is. Why? Because He's committed to it. Here's what He said, First John chapter five, say it again. This is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us, and if we know that He hears us, we know that we have the petition that we desire of Him. This prayer is the will of God for every single person. So, I don't have to ask if it's your will. Now, you want to unpack somebody else's life?

This is the way to do it. But let me remind you of something. Two conditions.

Number one, a clean heart. In that sixty-sixth Psalm, here's what He says, if I regard iniquity in my heart, He will not hear me. To regard it means I hold on to it, I know it's there, I practice it, I'm ignoring God about the whole issue, I'm allowing sin in my life. He said, I'm not going to hear you. And secondly, I've got to believe Him.

So, here's the issue. Do you value the person that you're praying for enough to live a godly life so God will hear you? And secondly, do you believe the Word of God that what He says He will do?

If those two things are true, there's no estimation of the kind of impact you can have in somebody else's life. Do you value your own life enough to pray that prayer for yourself? God, I want to know Your will. I want to walk in a way that's pleasing to You and honorable to You and all the rest of those things.

Do I value it enough to keep my heart clean and my faith in Him? Father, we pray the Holy Spirit will speak to every person who hears this message and remind them of what an awesome opportunity they have. And I pray the Holy Spirit will sing this so deep that not a parent who hears it could even think about going to sleep at night without praying this prayer for their children. It is my plea to You, God, in Jesus's name, amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Thank you for listening to part two of Praying with Impact. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or InTouch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of InTouch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.