The Power of Prayer - Three Conditions for Power in Prayer, Part 2

Do you have a situation in your life that seems to drag on and on, and you wonder why God isn't answering your prayers?

Maybe you're not sure why, but it feels like there's some distance or there's something wrong, but you can't quite put your finger on it. If that's you, stay with me, because today we're going to talk about how to restore your intimacy with God and experience His power in your prayers. Welcome to this Edition of Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. The mission of these daily programs is to intentionally disciple Christians through the Bible teaching of Chip Ingram. And in just a minute, he'll pick up where he left off in his series, The Power of Prayer, with a remainder of his message, Three Conditions for Power in Prayer. But before he gets going, let me encourage you to use Chip's message notes while you listen. They contain his outline, scripture references, and a few key fill-ins to help you remember what you hear. To download these message notes, go to the Broadcasts tab at livingontheedge.org.

Atlas Nurse Tap fill-in notes. Okay, here now is Chip with the second half of his talk from 1 John chapter 3. What the Lord wants us to understand is that these promises He's talking about where He'll supernaturally work, there's some paperwork involved. You need to meet the conditions. You need to come with a clear conscience, and you need to come with an obedient lifestyle. Now some of you at this point, I hope you're asking, well, that sounds pretty open to interpretation.

What's it mean to have an obedient lifestyle? What's it mean to obey His commandments? Well, He's going to tell us.

Look at verse 23. He explains very clearly what commands He's talking about. And this is His command.

Is that clear enough for you? There's two things. The first one is to believe in the name of His Son, and to love one another as He commanded us. The tense of the verb here for believe, it's a tense of the verb that means at a time, at a point in time, the very first thing you need to do to fulfill this commandment is that if you've never asked Jesus Christ to be the Savior of your life, if you've never looked to the cross and said, Jesus died on the cross for me, His death paid the price for my sin, and He rose from the dead to forgive me all my sin, has offered that free gift. If you've never received that free gift, He says that's the first step of obedience.

And until you've done that, this promise doesn't apply to you. God's not going to hear your prayer. See, we've got this idea that sort of God is sort of a benevolent king of a democratic society and that there's all these hotlines that go to heaven, and He answers them all the same.

He doesn't. Some people call, He answers very regularly. Other people call and call, and He says, you know, I've left a few messages on your recorder. And when you take care of the few messages that I've left on your recorder, call me back.

See, we do have a part. And see, we don't deal with that, and yet, you know, we keep calling and calling and calling, and then we get hot at God because, you know, He doesn't answer. He answers. So the first step is that if you've never asked Him to come into your life and forgive you, do that today. In fact, I encourage you to skip out on the rest of this message and glaze forward like this to make people think you're listening and have a private conversation with God and ask Him to come into your life and forgive you. The second thing though, it says, a different tense of the verb, this is present tense, ongoing habitually, it says, what's the second part of the, what's His commands? To love one another. He says that in loving one another, that command needs to be fulfilled. There ought to be a love for one another in the body of Christ that is so radical that that has to be fulfilled before you meet the condition for God to hear your prayers. And at this point in time, you know, again, that gets great. What's it mean to really love each other? I'm here today, aren't I?

I sang the songs. Well, that is neat, but this passage will explain what's it mean to love one another. Look up at verse 16. He gives us the definition of love, the measuring, the litmus test. This is how we know what love is.

Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. Love is a choice. Love is radical sacrifice. Love is seeing the needs of someone else and putting aside your wants, your desires, and extending your time, your energy, your resources, and even your life, if need be, to give to someone else. That's what love is. So now we've got to back it up and say, am I loving people like that or do I just love them when it's convenient? Is my attitude in the body, what do they have for me? Are you meeting my needs? I'd like a little bit more of this.

Do you think you could start earlier or start later or whatever? Did you notice the next line in verse 16? And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

Now you think about this condition. See the people that are seeing God do graphic, supernatural works of power in their life are people that are radically loving their brothers and sisters in Christ who are expending and giving their life, their heart, their time, their emotions, and their finances to meet the needs of other people. That's who qualifies for this promise. In fact, verse 17, He gives us the first illustration.

He says if that's too vague, I'll picture it for you. Look at verse 17. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother in need, but has no pity on him, how can the love of God be in him?

Apostle John, you can almost see him scratching his head. You say that you belong to God and that you were desperate and God forgave you and gave all that he had for you. And now you're forgiven and you're a part of his family and here you are a part of his family and other people who are a part of his family have these needs over here and you've got this time and these spiritual gifts and these money resources and you know they have needs and you don't share what you have with them. John goes, how can God's love be in you? See, the reason Jesus talked more about money in the New Testament than heaven and hell combined is because the fact of the matter is money will tell you who's your God. And when other people have needs and I can't give of my time or my emotional energy or if I can't give my finances off the top to love other people, then the love of God isn't operating in my life.

I'm saying it's my time, it's my money. Who gave you the job? God did.

Who gave you the health? God did. Who gave you the family? God did. Who gave you the home?

God did. And then we tell them that I can't afford to give any of it back to you. You can't afford not to. Because when we are not radically loving and giving, not just of our money, our energy, our time, then we're not loving other people. And if you're not loving other people, you're not keeping His command. And if you're not keeping His command, this promise does not apply to you. God will not hear your prayer.

That's a condition. You know, it's like saying, oh God, oh God, I need a loan, I need a loan, I need a loan, I need a loan. And He says, fine, have you filled out the paperwork? And you say, I don't do paperwork. He said, fine.

When you do the paperwork, then you qualify to be a recipient of the eternal God of the universe who wants to give you more than you ever dreamed. Who wants to do stuff in your family? Who wants to do stuff at work?

Who wants to do things in relationships? It would take a miracle. God has miracles.

I think heaven, we're going to get to heaven, and we're going to open a door. There's the miracle room. And we're going to say, wow, those shelves are all full. He said, yeah, I tried to give them away, but people wouldn't take them.

They were going to work it out themselves. I mean, it's a storehouse. You know, the Old Testament says, you test me, I'll pour out, I'll open the storehouse of heaven, I'll meet your needs. The third condition goes beyond a clear conscience and an obedient lifestyle. Condition number three is you can write the words, a yearning heart. A yearning heart. And what I mean is a heart that longs to please God. God answers the prayers of those who do the things that are pleasing in His sight. Did you notice that in verse 22? And we know that we have whatever we ask because one, we keep His commandments, and two, building on that, we do what is pleasing in His sight, says the New American Standard.

See, there's some of us, it's part our personalities and part our background. We want to find out where the lines are. We're supposed to keep these four rules? Okay, I'll keep them. These five rules? Okay, I'll keep them. Are there 29 rules? I'll get them, I'll list them.

These people make charts, and then they go check them. Are you supposed to read the Bible? Okay, two chapters a day, pray for so long. And what God wants you to understand is that He wants a yearning heart, not rote, exterior, legalistic obedience. He wants you and I not just to do what's right, to say, okay, I don't do this, or I don't do this, or I don't do that. But instead, He wants you to have a heart inside that longs to please Him, and your obedience flows not out of duty and obligation but out of a love relationship. He wants you to go beyond just exterior obedience. Well, I kept the commandments. Okay, God, you've got to come through.

I filled out the loan papers, said it doesn't work that way. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram, and we'll get back to his message in just a minute. You know, we love to hear how you are deepening your relationship with God as you study His Word with us. But another way we want to support you in that is through our free resource called Daily Discipleship with Chip.

Let me encourage you to stick around after this message, as Chip will tell you more about it and how to sign up. But for now, let's get back to the remainder of his talk. I spent the good portion of the first two or three years of my Christian life finding out where the lines were. Having never read the Bible, I didn't know many of the rules, nor did I know that God had them for my benefit. But here's what I'd do. I'd find out, okay, now that line right here is sin.

Okay, and this is what I did. Okay, I'm not sinning. I'm not sinning. See, God, you know, I didn't break the letter of the law.

That kind of heart doesn't meet the condition for the God of the universe to answer prayer. I remember I just began to grow, and I started getting the Bible, and then I got in a Bible study, and I started to share my faith, and even a couple guys at least prayed a prayer with me to become Christians. And then I'd see them in the hallway, and they'd see me, and they'd duck and turn and go down the other stairs. It's like I had cooties or something. And I was doing all the quote right things, but there was no fruit in my life.

Nothing was happening. And then I began to pray, seriously, God, how come you're not using me? And then he convicted me about a relationship with my girlfriend. Oh, now, I wasn't sleeping with her.

We didn't do the big one. But I'll tell you what, our relationship did not honor God. And the things we did do did not honor God. It was not pleasing to God. Oh, I drew a line and said, you know, as long as we didn't, quote, have intercourse, I guess I'm okay. Let me ask you, is your focus in the Christian life trying to see how close you can get to sin without sinning? Or is yours one of a child's heart running to the Father and saying, you know, I'm not sure if this is right or wrong.

I want to do what you want me to do. You want to see a picture of that? Look back at the Psalm of David. Do you remember how he's described? He's described as a man after God's own heart. You want to hear his yearnings? You want to hear his heart? Listen to how he approaches God. This is why God answered his prayers.

He met the condition. I will sing of loving kindness and justice to thee, O Lord. I'll sing praises. Now, does that sound to someone like, oh, gosh, it's time to have a quiet time. Is it duty or is it delight?

You get it? He wants to be with God. He says, I will give heed to the blameless way. When will you come to me?

I'll walk within my house and the integrity of my heart. Look at his character. He wants to be morally pure. He wants the insides of his heart to be clean, his motives and his thoughts. Is that you?

Is that me? That's a heart pleasing to God. He goes on, I will set no worthless thing before my eyes, a perverse heart.

It'll depart from me. See, I think if David was living today, I bet he would put that on the front of his VCR and his TV. I will put no worthless thing before my eyes. He wouldn't say, okay, now is this G or is this PG or is this PG-13 or is this an R1 that I heard is kind of clean? He wouldn't play those games.

He'd stick it and say, could I sit down on the couch with the Lord Jesus and say, do you like this movie, Lord? Not, well, it's okay, except for this, this, this or that. See, I'm not talking about legalism here. I'm talking about longing to please God instead of always seeing how close we can come. And I just, I just can't get the idea that the Lord had just watched people's head getting blown off and, and all the junk that we see and say, oh boy, is really encouraging, isn't it?

Huh? Ask yourself, does your heart yearn to please God in what you see, in what you do? Notice verse five, he says, I'll get rid of anyone who whispers evil things about someone else, his relationships to others. Do you listen to gossip? It's, it's, I mean, it's tantalizing, isn't it?

Or do you, you know what David would say? I don't hear that trash. You got a problem with that person, you go talk to him. That's ungodly. I don't put up with that stuff.

Not, well, gosh, oh boy, I've heard the same thing and if you talk to Betty, you're really fine. Look at his relationships. I approve of those who are faithful, those who are completely honest, no liars, no hypocrites. He wanted to run with people that had a heart for God. Proverbs 13 20 says, he who dwells with wise men will be wise, but the companion of a fool will suffer harm. Who do you run with?

Who do you hang out with? Ask God to give you a desire and a yearning because here's the deal. God wants to do marvelous, supernatural, tremendous works in your life, but some of us have not filled out the loan papers and you're not on praying ground. When you pray, you haven't put yourself in a position to realize God really loves you and you can have a clear conscience. You haven't put yourself in a position to obey his commandments because you honestly love sacrificially others and you haven't put yourself in a position where you can say in your heart of hearts, God, I blow it. We're not talking perfection. It's up and down and up and down and struggle, but it's that sense of, oh Lord, I want to be your man. I want to be your woman.

I want to be a student that would really be pleasing to you and I know I fail and I know I struggle and I know you understand that. You see, the flow of New Testament Christianity and Old Testament faith has to do with abiding, deep relationship of fellowship, that obedience and love and expenditure of energy and time and resources flows out of love, not duty. And if you don't want to give of yourself, of your time and your resources, it just tells you a whole lot more about you than you really want to know. It tells you about your relationship or lack of it in your heart of hearts with a living God. I would just hate to see all the miracles get stuck up in heaven that he'd like to open up for you. Verse 24 summarizes it all and it's for you and me as we meet the conditions. He says, those who obey his commandments, you ready for this? Live in him.

Is that great? And he in them. So when you live this way, the power, the sweetness, the fellowship, the grace of God lives in you and you live in him. And this is how we know that he lives in us.

We know it by the spirit which he gave us. God wants to do great mighty answers to prayer. And what we need to learn this week, it's not that he's unwilling.

It's that a great majority of his people haven't filled out the loan papers. You're listening to Living on the Edge with Chip Ingram. And the message you just heard, Three Conditions for Power and Prayer, is from our series, The Power of Prayer. Chip will join us in studio to share some insights from today's talk in just a minute. Prayer is an absolutely essential part of our relationship with God. It's how we talk with him. And as his children, we have free access to him anytime, anywhere.

But how does it actually work? What do we say? Well, in this series, we'll learn what a dynamic, consistent prayer life looks like. Chip also explains how to remove the barriers that hinder our prayers and why we can approach our Heavenly Father with confidence that he'll hear us and act.

So whether you are a new Christian or a seasoned follower of Jesus, you don't want to miss a single program. Well, Chip's joined me in studio now. And Chip, before we hear your final thoughts on this program, would you talk to a specific group of people right now? They were really motivated by this message to take their relationship with God to the next level, but are struggling to get into the Bible every day. Now, what would you say to them? Well, what I would say is you're not alone.

Of all the things in my early Christian life, I so struggled to be able to meet with God daily. I intended to. I wanted to.

I would set my alarm back, and then I would go back to bed. But here's what I can tell you. We're in a very busy, busy world with a go-go mentality and invisible pressure that I think we put on ourselves. And what I learned is if you can literally start the habit of meeting with God first and do it on a daily basis, yes, it begins with duty, but please hear me.

It will end in delight. What helped me the most was someone doing it with me, having that accountability. And he didn't say, this is what it says. He showed me how to read the Bible, how to study the Bible, how to hear God's voice. And that's what I want to do for you. In fact, one of the greatest things that came out of the pandemic was this idea of daily discipleship, of literally meeting with people one-on-one. It's called daily discipleship with Chip. And all I can tell you, the response has been beyond anything I ever imagined. It's not people telling me, oh, Chip, you're a good teacher, or now I just understand the passage.

I'm hearing people say, I know how to study the Bible. I'm hearing God's voice. God's changing my life. So let me tell you how this works. For each series, I begin with a short teaching video, no longer the 10 minutes. And then there's a little assignment that I'm going to ask you to take 10 minutes on your own and do some study.

And here's what I know. People that have done this with me, who make it a habit just to spend 20 minutes with me, day after day, for somewhere between 10 days to a couple weeks, they learn to hear God's voice. They learn to discern the Spirit. God begins to change them from the inside out.

This is a habit that you cannot afford not to develop. Thanks, Chip. So if you're looking for a practical way to deepen your faith, let me encourage you to sign up for Daily Discipleship with Chip. This free video resource will help you learn more about God and His Word. To sign up for our Daily Discipleship series, visit LivingOnTheEdge.org.

That's LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap Discipleship. Okay, let's get to Chip's application that we promised. As we close today's program, let's do a brief review of the three conditions for answered prayer. Now, I think a lot of us have come to the point in our walks with God that, one, prayer is a challenge. Number two, we often don't expect God to really answer. And number three, we don't have a lot of friends that are experiencing powerful, dynamic prayers. And so what I'm trying to say is I think we're missing something. And I think we're missing something big because we don't really understand these three conditions.

So let's review them, and then I want to give you a great word of encouragement. Question number one, according to the Apostle John, is a clear conscience. A clear conscience gives us boldness and confidence before God in prayer.

Second, an obedient lifestyle. God answers the prayers that keep His commandments. And that wasn't just some moralistic thing. It was His commandments to love one another. It was His commandments that when we see someone in need that we meet those needs.

In other words, God isn't a socialist. What I mean by that is He doesn't answer everyone's prayers the same. He looks into the heart of His servants. And He's wanting to develop a relationship with you. He's wanting to change you.

He's wanting you and me to learn to trust Him. And part of that journey is as we are obedient and as we are walking in faith, the door of prayer and the power of prayer becomes real. And we come with confidence and in faith. And guess what? God shows up in very powerful ways. And the third, the one that we talked about mostly in this broadcast, was a yearning heart. God answers the prayers of those who do things that are pleasing in His sight. You know, it's not just that we do what's right. I want to remind you that He delights in you, that He longs to give you the desires of your heart, that you're His son, that you're His daughter, that He literally wants to do miraculous things that your friends, your relatives, the people at church, the people at work would go, like, are you kidding?

How did that happen? I mean, aren't you just a normal person like the rest of us? And your experience would be, yes, but you're on this internal quiet journey where you're saying, Lord, search me. Psalm 139, verses 23 and 24 is a prayer that David prayed that has made such a difference, at least in my life. As I've prayed, I've said, Oh God, search me and know my heart. Test me.

See if there'd be any wicked way in me, and then lead me in the right or the everlasting way. And you know, when you come before God with, Lord, if there's something wrong, show me, He will. And Lord, if there's a relationship that I need to address, He will.

But here's what I want you to remember. You're His son. You're His daughter. He's for you.

He loves you. What we're talking about here is, I don't think talked a lot about when people talk about prayer. I think somehow we think that God is a cosmic vending machine, and you know, you say a few words, and He's obligated to do this or to do that. Prayer is the sensitive, intimate relationship between the God of the universe who has adopted you, if you're a follower of Jesus, as His son or daughter. And it's one in where He wants to shape your life, draw you close to Himself, and literally give you the desires of your heart. But the conditions are a clear conscience, an obedient lifestyle, and a yearning in your heart to say, Lord, what would be pleasing to you?

When God sees that, He shows up in power. Great point, Chip. Well, as we wrap up, I want to thank those of you who make this program possible through your generous financial support. Your gifts help us create programs, purchase airtime, and develop additional resources to help Christians live like Christians. Now, if you've been blessed by the Ministry of Living on the Edge, would you consider sending a gift today? You can do that by visiting LivingOnTheEdge.org or by calling 888-333-6003. That's 888-333-6003, or visit LivingOnTheEdge.org. App listeners, tap donate. We want you to know how much we appreciate your support. For Chip and the entire team here, this is Dave Druey thanking you for listening to this Edition of Living on the Edge, and I hope you'll join us next time.