Dr. Michael Youssef with practical words about prayer. When you just call upon the Lord for what you want or what you need and not pray with thanksgiving for what He has done in the past, your prayer becomes ineffectual. When you just come to God with your grocery list and say, give me, give me, give me God, and then get on your happy, merry way, you have failed to grasp effectiveness in prayer. To be sure, God said, call upon me. But how you call upon the Lord is of vital importance. Welcome to Leading the Way Audio, where you'll always hear Dr. Michael Youssef passionately proclaim uncompromising truth from God's Word.
When Israel finally crossed the Jordan River into the Promised Land, Joshua chose 12 leaders to play stones of remembrance, visual reminders of thanksgiving to God for his faithfulness in bringing the people out of bondage. And on this episode of Leading the Way, Dr. Youssef reveals how this act of thankfulness can also influence the trajectory of your life in 2025. It's part of his audio series called Call on Me. Oh, and if you'd like to learn a little bit more about Dr. Michael Youssef or Leading the Way, take just a moment and visit ltw.org.
Right now, though, join listeners worldwide for the teaching of Dr. Michael Youssef. I was thinking how often we joke about our memory and what we remember and what we don't remember, and particularly when we reach a certain age, an age of which I now have become familiar that I belong to. And I even heard about this elderly widower who was dating an elderly widow.
And he said to her, he said, did I propose marriage to you last night? She said, I know someone did, but I can't remember who it was. But the reality is that scientists tell us that from every study that's being done, that most of us, the most that we can use of our brain capacity is less than 20%. That is the one that uses the most. The average person uses less than 5% of memory capacity that God has placed in our minds, physiologically placed it there. We are capable of remembering far more than we admit.
And of course, a list of some illness that affects a memory, that's different. In fact, our minds are capable of storing up to 86 million bytes of information. Now, when you think about this, this is like hundreds of thousands of books that can literally be stored in our minds and our memory banks. But as long as we tell ourselves we can't remember, we want to remember.
It's like that self-fulfilled prophecy. But the truth is, we all remember what we want to remember. Human nature, the way it is, we remember those things that we want to remember.
And in fact, that is why from the pyramids of Egypt to the monuments in Washington DC, they're all throughout history, they were designed to remind us and to keep certain memories in our minds so we don't forget. Our nation right now, at this moment in our history, we are going through of what I would call a serious case of amnesia. It's a deliberate case of serious amnesia. Amnesia as to the truth of the founding fathers. Amnesia as to the real history of this nation. Amnesia as to the biblical foundation of this nation. Amnesia as to the biblical roots of this nation. Some of our leaders are running around and deliberately trying to obliterate that from our memory.
They're trying to obliterate from our memory that this is a nation that was founded upon Christian truth. That this is a nation that was built on utter dependence on the God of the Bible. That this is a nation who became great simply because of the godly foundation.
That this nation is so generous and welcoming and loving of others because they sought to express their love for God by being a welcoming nation. Why am I telling you this in a series of messages on prayer entitled Call on Me? Well because when you just call upon the Lord for what you want or what you need and not pray with thanksgiving for what he has done in the past, your prayer becomes ineffectual. When you just come to God with your grocery list and say give me, give me, give me God and then get on your happy merry way, you have failed to grasp effectiveness in prayer.
To be sure God said call upon me. But how you call upon the Lord is of vital importance. If you examine all the great prayers of the Bible from the prayer of Daniel in chapter 9, to the prayer of Nehemiah after the people of God came back from exile, to the prayer of the temple dedication of Solomon, even the prayer of Stephen before he was dying in the book of Acts. You will see that every one of those prayers began with remembering with thanksgiving what God has done in the past. Every one of them, these great prayers begin by reciting God's past provision for them. Every one of these great prayers began with enumerating what God has done in the past.
Why? Because amnesia of the past blessings of God is an indication of an ingratitude to God. Amnesia as to the past interventions of God renders our prayer ineffective.
Is he God who made us, who put us together, who nestled us in our mother's womb? He knew that we can easily develop the sense of amnesia toward what God has done, toward God's past blessings in our lives. And that is why he constantly reminded his people over and over and over again.
That is why he constantly urged them to deliberately and definitively and intentionally set up a visible memorial for those past blessings. Our God who made us, who created us, who knows us, knows our capacity for rewriting history. He knows our capacity for ingratitude. He knows our capacity for reinventing the truth. He knows our capacity for manipulating history. He knows our capacity for taking credit for that which only God could have done.
He knows, he knows that. And that is why Abraham set up a memorial. That's why Jacob set up a memorial. That is why Lot's wife turned into a monument to the divine judgment of God. And that is why Joshua tells the people of Israel to set up those memorials. Joshua chapter 4. God said to him, set up those stone of memorial, a stone of remembrance on the bank of the river Jordan.
Why? Because God did not want them of course to set up a monument for the sake of setting up a monument. That was not the intention of his heart. He wanted them to continuously expressing thanksgiving and praise in their prayer. Every time they will see these monuments, God wanted them to continuously be filled with faith in prayer. Every time they saw these monuments of what God has done, God wanted them to testify to their children and to the next generation. Every time they saw these monuments, they wanted to take time to praise God in prayer. There is no greater witness than reciting how God has blessed you in the past. There is no more powerful faith builder in prayer than beginning with enumerating what God has done for you in the past. Can I get a witness?
Listen, even if you're going through tough times in life, in fact I want to hasten to say, especially when you're going through tough times in life, especially because those are the times when your vision is so clouded, you cannot thank God because you're in so much trouble. And then you focus on what you want God to do, you forget what he had done. You see here's what happened and that's why Joshua was adamant about them doing what they did and setting up these memorials. You see Joshua was there with Moses when they came out of Egypt. He was there when he saw the miracles of God and the plagues.
He was there when they crossed the Red Sea. He was there when he saw the manna coming from heaven. He was there and he's there, he saw all of this but then he also was there when he saw how easily they have forgotten all that God has done. How easily they denied what God has done in the past and how easily they ignored what God has done in the past. And when Joshua saw this, when he remember all the past grumbling, when he remember all of their past complaining, every time they face a challenge they murmured and they complained and they said to Moses, were there not enough graves in Egypt that you're bringing us here to die in the wilderness? Every time they face a challenge they did not stop and say thank God for what he has done.
First they grumbled and they murmured and they complained. Joshua saw all of this instead of thanksgiving and praise and adoration for all the miracles that were performed. When Joshua saw how their past forgetfulness of God's miracles of parting the Red Sea. When Joshua saw how ungrateful they were for the provision of water and manna. Joshua saw how their ingratitude to God on the part of the Israelites in the wilderness. When Joshua saw the rotten attitude of the Israelites toward God was so expressed in the words that we probably would use today and say well you know what have you done for me lately?
Okay, he did all this but what have you done for me lately God? You see when he saw all of this and that God basically said because of that attitude of ingratitude, that generation, every single one of them had to die and be buried in the wilderness that every one of that generation literally will never be privileged to go into the promised land. When he saw what their ingratitude in praise and thanksgiving did to that generation he was saying I don't want this to happen to my generation. I don't want this to happen to the next generation. You see literally their lack of praise and thanksgiving stopped them from going into the promised land and God waited 40 years until every single one of those grumbling, complaining, ungrateful people died and buried in the wilderness.
Please hear me right on this one. Joshua understood that for prayer to be effectual it must be filled with praise and thanksgiving to what God has done in the past. For prayer, your prayer, my prayer to be effectual is not to run with God with a grocery list. That's because God is merciful and gracious and he will answer your prayers doesn't mean that you do that as a habit. If you continue that as a habit then you are dishonoring God. God wants you to come into his presence not bursting there with your grocery list but bursting there with praise and with thanksgiving.
Let me ask you a question. Why does God answer prayers for his faithful children? Why does he?
Do you want to know why? Well the scripture tells us very clearly to strengthen their faith in him, to help them always trust in his word, to express his love for his children. So just imagine when God acts in love and in mercy and in grace toward his children and all of that gets taken for granted.
Just think of how he feels. When they never acknowledge in prayer all of his past answered prayers or they treat it as if it is their right, that only God was due to them. Or they reinterpret it as to give the credit to somebody else or to themselves as more likely or to explain it away as luck or being fortunate. Or that I was at the right place at the right time.
Or that it's my strategic thinking that really got me here. Whatever it may be, just think of what God thinks when you come to him crying to him for something else without spending time thanking him for what he already gave you. This attitude of gratitude must take place in our individual prayer life.
It has to. This attitude of thankfulness and praise to God must take place in our public prayer life. This thanksgiving of praise to God for his past blessings must be the cornerstone of every family's prayer time. I know that in my own life as I learned this lesson earlier on that many times as many of you I'm up early and I start recounting and blessing God for all the answered prayers, all the past blessings and all the things he's done.
Forty minutes later I haven't prayed for anybody yet. He said I can lose count. Okay, write them down. It's okay. Write them all down. Read them to God. It's all right.
He ain't going to be upset about that. Write them down. Take a moment.
Have them all listed. Keep adding to them and begin by praising God and thanking him for what he had done. Moms and dads, let me challenge you that in your prayer time with your children testify, testify to them of what God has done in answering your prayers, the predicaments that he brought you through, the healings that he performed, the things that would have been impossible otherwise, even the things that you have long rationalized that it may happen because of this or that.
God did it. Begin your prayer time with thanksgiving. Begin with praising God. I know it's not easy, especially when the dark storms of life begin to break loose on us.
It clouds our vision. It's not easy to remember the incredible things that God has done in the past. It blinds us to these past blessings.
They erase from our memory past provisions, but remember to bless God for what he has done before you burst into his presence, crying for what you want him to do. Begin first by praising him for what he has done in the past. Begin first by taking time to thank him for his past provision. Begin by enumerating what he has done for us before. Stop and testify to your family and friends of his past provisions. You will be amazed.
You will be amazed how small your current predicament is going to look. And do that, especially when you are facing trial in life, especially when you are experiencing puzzling times and we all have experienced them, especially when you are not sure which way to go and we've all been there, especially when you are longing for God to split heaven in two and come down to your aid supernaturally first. Take time to thank him for past salvation. Take time to bless him for past healings.
Take time and remember with thanksgiving, past answers to prayer, and you will be the recipient of the incredible peace and confidence, contentment that only God can give you, even as you wait for him to answer your current prayer. The story is familiar to all of you. You don't have to turn to it. You know it. Most of you know it and it's found in Luke chapter 17. And it's the story of 10 lepers who came to Jesus and he cleansed every one of them. All 10 of them were healed physically. Out of the 10, there were 9 Jews, the people of the covenant, and there was one Samaritan.
Just one. And the Bible said only the Samaritan came back to Jesus. Don't know how long it took him to get back.
Don't know how many days or how many miles or did it instantly. We don't know. But he came back deliberately, definitively, intentionally. He came back to Jesus to say thank you. I wish I can convey to you the words of Jesus in Luke 17, 17 and how they screamed at me from the pages of the scripture.
Let me do the best I can. And here's what he said when he looked at this one man outside of the covenant coming in, bowing to Jesus, saying thank you for healing me. Here's what Jesus is literally saying. Were there not 10 who were cleansed?
Where are the 9? Verse 18. Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner? Verse 19. Then Jesus looked at the Samaritan and said, rise and go. Your faith has made you whole. Beloved, listen to me. If you've never understood that there is unique blessings that in store for you in prayer, when you spend the time of praise and thanksgiving, you need to learn that.
You need to understand that. And it's right here in this passage. All the others have received physical healings. All the others received temporary reprieve from their physical pain, from the pain of isolation, from the pain of rejection from society because of the nature of the disease. All of them received the miracle. But only this one who came back was so filled with gratitude, was so filled with thanksgiving. He was so filled with praise. And as a result, he received a whole lot more than just the physical healing of the body. He received total wholeness of his soul, his spirit. He has received a total forgiveness. He received a total cleansing. He received a total heavenly blessing. He received eternal life with Christ.
And that what happens. The blessings of thanksgiving in prayer, incalculable. Father, only you know each of our hearts.
We don't even know our own hearts. And Father, I pray that you begin to revolutionize our prayer life as you remind us to remember with thanksgiving all of your past interventions. Father, I pray that as we seek you for a transforming power, as we seek you for a revival that would absolutely sweep across the land, as we seek you to do great and mighty things beginning here in this place, that we would be first and foremost people of thanksgiving, of praise, of adoration of who you are and what you have done.
In Jesus' name, amen. Call on me and remember my past blessings. That's the title of Dr. Yusef's message today on Leading the Way Audio. Learn more about Dr. Yusef and the worldwide impact of Leading the Way at ltw.org or call us.
Speak with a friendly ministry representative at the Ministry Call Center, 866-626-4356. Pastor and International Bible Teacher, Dr. Michael Yusef, invites you to join him in this month's giving challenge to increase the reach of the Gospel through Leading the Way. Hello, friends. You know, God is opening incredible doors for Leading the Way all around the world. Thank you so much for your generosity, for your faithful support. And because of your partnership, we are reaching millions with the Gospel, advancing the kingdom of God. I just came back from overseas where we saw enormous harvest.
So double your impact this month. God bless. Fueled by your generosity, Dr. Yusef is more passionate than ever to continue the Gospel reach of Leading the Way in three strategic areas where the needs are greatest, North America, the Middle East, and remote villages. In just the last year, biblical content was broadcast on radio and television across six continents.
Multiple regions were impacted by awake rallies. Arabic speakers were exposed to the truth of the Gospel during Ramadan, and thousands heard the Word of God for the first time in their own languages through Navigator, solar-powered MP3 devices distributed in hard-to-reach areas. When you stand with Dr. Yusef during this month's giving challenge, you'll participate in changing the lives of thousands of unsaved, unchurched, and unreached through the global efforts of Dr. Yusef and Leading the Way. Give generously today. Reach a ministry representative at the call center or go to ltw.org. ltw.org. Stand with Dr. Yusef in this month's giving challenge today. Learn about ways that you can be part of this month's giving challenge at ltw.org. Or call us, 866-626-4356. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Yusef.
