The Power of Faith-Kneeling – Part 2

Hey, podcast listeners! Thanks for streaming today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's word through the most effective media available, like this podcast. To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. Now, here's today's podcast, From Pathway to Victory. God's Word with you every day on this Bible teaching program.

On today's edition of Pathway to Victory. You see, a lot of Christians think that they have to die to experience the benefits of their Christianity. They think that being a Christian, you know, it's all misery until you die and go to heaven. But the Bible says you don't have to wait until you die to experience the benefits of the kingdom of God.

You can experience it right now. Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, most Christians understand that prayer is really an important part of their spiritual life.

But many don't fully understand why. I mean, if God already knows everything, then what's the point of praying? Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress explains how prayer relates to experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit. Now here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Dr. Jeffress. Thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. In children's Bibles and Sunday School coloring books, the Holy Spirit is often portrayed as a dove. And while that image is certainly biblical, it can often be misleading. You see, Christians tend to think of the Holy Spirit as some passive, peaceful being, aimlessly floating around in the atmosphere like a cloud or a gust of wind.

And that idea couldn't be further from the truth. The Holy Spirit is a person, and He's powerful, dynamic, and He wants to do radical work in your life today. To help you learn more about what the Bible says about God's Holy Spirit, I've written a bestselling book called I Want More. In my book, I'll show you how to access the divine power of the Holy Spirit and feel a renewed sense of God's presence in your life.

A copy of my book titled I Want More is yours when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. I'll say more about my book later, but right now it's time to continue our discussion on prayer. Praying effectively is simple. Praying consistently can be very difficult. So today we'll answer two important questions regarding the power and the pattern of prayer that can help all of us become more disciplined in our talking with God. I've titled today's message The Power of Faith Kneeling. I want to share with you two truths about prayer that might be an encouragement to you. Truth number one, I want you to write it down, praying consistently is difficult.

Look at what Paul writes in Romans 15 verse 30. Now I urge you, brethren, by our Lord Jesus Christ and by the love of the Spirit, I urge you to strive together with me in your prayers to God for me. He said, Roman Christians, I want you to strive with me in prayer. That word strive is the Greek word agonizomai. Doesn't take a Greek education to know what word we get from agonizomai. He's saying agonize with me in prayer.

Here's the good news, though. God understands our difficulty. He understands how difficult it is to pray. The Bible says God understands our frame.

He knows we're nothing but dust. Let's get this settled in our heart. Nobody ever masters prayer. Nobody ever is going to find prayer easy. Praying consistently is difficult, but here's the balancing truth. Praying effectively is simple. I think one of the downsides of the plethora of books and seminars and sermons out there about prayer is we have needlessly complicated prayer. For example, some people think unless you have an hour or two to devote to prayer like the saints of old, we can't pray effectively. We think that somehow power and prayer is equated with the length of our prayers.

But look at what Jesus said in Matthew 6-7. He said, when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition as the Gentiles do, for they suppose they will be heard for their many words. God is not impressed with the length of your prayers. Don't confuse the length of the prayer with the strength of the prayer. You know, other people assume, well, in order to pray effectively, I've got to empty myself of anything I want and only pray for those things I think God wants me to pray for. Get rid of this idea that you can't pray for the things you want to pray for, the things that you need in your life. You see, God's answer to your prayers does not depend upon the amount of faith you have. What did Jesus say? He said if you have the faith of a what?

Mustard seed. A teeny tiny amount of faith, you can still move mountains. Get rid of this idea that somehow you have to have everything just right to pray. God wants us to be honest in our prayer.

Why is that? Look at verse 8 of Matthew 6. So then, do not be like those Gentiles, for your heavenly Father knows what you need before you even ask Him. You know why you can be honest with God about your prayer request? He already knows what's in your heart anyway.

And more importantly, He knows what you really need. When you pray, pray what is in your heart, not what you wish were in your heart. Yes, praying consistently is difficult, but praying effectively is very, very simple.

It's simply talking with God. And yet, as simple as prayer is, we still may find it difficult to pray consistently, don't we? I personally don't believe any of us will ever pray consistently until we have four questions answered about prayer. Now we're going to look at two of those questions for these final few moments, and we're going to address the third and fourth questions in the next message. But here's the first question about prayer. I think we all need to get settled. Maybe you feel it's too unspiritual to ask this question openly, so I'm going to ask it for you, okay?

Here's question number one. It's related to the power of prayer. Why pray if God's going to do what He's going to do anyway? Have you ever wondered about that?

Honestly. Why should we pray if God's going to do what He's going to do anyway? I actually had a deacon ask me that question. Pastor, why should we pray if you believe in the sovereignty of God, that God is going to do what He's going to do anyway? Does our prayer actually change God's plan, or does it simply change our attitude toward God's plan?

I want you to turn over to Romans chapter 9 for just a moment. There are two extremes in this whole answer to God's sovereignty and our responsibility, especially when it comes to prayer. Some people say, and I bet you've heard this talk before, that God's power to answer prayer is limited by whether or not we pray.

There are some people who believe that. They believe that somehow our failure to pray limits, it handcuffs God from being able to do what He wants to do. To limit God's power by simply what we ask Him to do is to strip God of His sovereignty. In Romans chapter 9, Paul talks about the truth of God's sovereignty when it relates to His elective purpose. God says, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.

And then in verse 16, Paul says, So then, it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. God has a purpose that He is going to fulfill in spite of what we do or don't do. To limit God's power by our willingness to pray is to strip Him of sovereignty. On the other hand, there are people who go to the other end and who say, yes, God is sovereign, and therefore prayer is unnecessary. We don't really need to pray because God's going to do what He wants to do anyway.

That's another extreme, and it's a lethal extreme. People who believe this way believe the same way about salvation. They say, well, you know, God is sovereign. He's going to save who He wants to save, so why should we witness to anybody?

I mean, if God is sovereign, why should we witness, and so they don't share their faith? I like what one theologian says. He says, God not only ordains the end result, but He also ordains the means to the end. That's true about salvation. Yes, God has chosen who is going to be saved. God has declared who is going to be saved, but He also has declared the means by which those people are going to be saved. Romans 10, 17 says, so faith comes by hearing and hearing the Word of God. Yes, God has chosen you and you and you and you and you to be saved, but He's chosen the channel by which that salvation will occur, and it is our faithfulness in preaching the Gospel.

It's the same way with God's elective purpose and prayer. Remember the words of Jeremiah 29, 11. God says, for I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord. Plans for your welfare, not for calamity. A plan to give you a future and a hope.

Listen to me this morning. God has an infinite number of good things He wants to do for you. He has an infinite number of blessings He wants to pour into your life. But prayer is the channel through which those purposes and those plans and those blessings flow into our life.

Yes, God has ordained the end. He's ordained the means to the end as well. Why should we pray if God is going to do what He's going to do anyway? The simple answer is because God tells us to. But the more complex answer is because prayer is that channel through which God's power and blessing is poured into our life. That leads to the second question of prayer. What sort of things should we pray for? What sort of things should we pray for? Is it wrong to pray for a bigger house? A bigger salary?

A nicer car? Is it wrong to pray selfish prayers? Is it wrong to pray, Lord, heal me or a loved one from this sickness? Should we instead just pray, Lord, your will be done? Again, there are two extremes in this idea about prayer. Some people say, well, they treat prayer like God's some divine bellhop and prayer is the buzzer by which we summon His attention to do whatever we think He needs to do. Other people disgusted by that image of prayer say, no, in fact, we should never pray for selfish things. I remember hearing all of my life that there are three levels of praying. Maybe Christians pray at the me level.

Lord, do this for me, do this for me, do this for me. And then we've been told the next level of maturity is learning to pray for others. Do this for Jim, do this for Sally, praying for other people. But finally, when you reach maturity, you quit praying for yourself or other people. You only pray for the glory of God. Have you ever heard that before?

There's a Greek word for that, hogwash. Now, Jesus gives us a much more balanced view of how we pray. The Bible says we ought to pray for God's glory, but we also ought to pray for other people. We ought to pray for ourselves as well. In fact, we have a pattern for how we ought to pray effectively in Matthew chapter 6.

Turn back to Matthew 6 for just a moment. Now, last summer, I preached a six-week series on the Lord's Prayer. And even though I'm sure you remember everything I said from that series, I want to remind you here that in Matthew chapter 6, we've been given not a mantra that needs to be repeated, but a model to be followed in our praying. Nowhere in the New Testament is this prayer ever repeated. I have people ask me in first step, why don't we say the Lord's Prayer in our services? God never gave the Lord's Prayer to us as a mantra to repeat over and over and over again. Remember the occasion for this prayer?

You find it in Luke's account. The disciples came to the Lord and said, Lord, teach us to pray. Now, let's face it, the disciples were not always the brightest bulbs in the socket, okay? But even they, after being around Jesus for a while, saw a connection between the power in Jesus' life and the priority of prayer in Jesus' life. And that light bulb went on and said, wait a minute, here's a guy who's experiencing God's supernatural prayer and he's also praying all the time.

Maybe there's a connection between the two. And so they said, Lord, we want you to teach us how to pray so that we can have God's power in our life as well. And so the Lord says, pray in this way. He never says pray this prayer. He says pray in this way. Remember the five ingredients of this prayer? First of all, it begins with the praise of God's name. Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

A person's name represents the very essence of who he is. And Jesus is simply saying, when we kneel down to pray or we stop at the stoplight to pray, before we rush at God with all of our requests and needs, take a moment to remember how holy, how different, how separate is God from us. God is holy.

That's what the word means. Holy means separate, different, above us. Take a moment to thank God. God, thank you for being loving even when I deserve your judgment. God, thank you for being faithful even when I'm faithless.

Thank you for your wisdom that you know what I need to do even when I don't know what I should do. Take a moment to praise God for who he is. And then secondly, he says our prayers should include the priority of God's purpose. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Now folks, this is key. We are to pray for God's kingdom to come. That phrase, the kingdom of God, is a phrase we talk about over and over again, but I really don't think most of us understand what it really means. What are we praying for when we're praying for God's kingdom to come?

Listen to this. A king's kingdom is simply that geographical area where the king's will is done. It's where what the king wants done gets done. It's the extent of his rule.

It's the borders of his territory. That's what a king's kingdom is. For example, the king of Egypt is totally in authority over the country of Egypt. All of the citizens of Egypt are subject to the king of Egypt. But the king of Egypt has absolutely no authority over the United States of America, over you and me. The king could send you a note saying, I want you to send in 10% of your income to Egypt.

Would you do that? Of course not. Because he has no authority over your life. He is only king over his kingdom. When we talk about God's kingdom, we're talking about that part of the universe over where what God wants done gets done. Now, over what part of the universe is God king and sovereign? Well, in a very real sense, he's sovereign over all the universe, isn't he? But in reality, there's one small corner of this vast universe, of these billions of galaxies out there, there is one small corner of this universe where God's will is not being completely done.

And that one small corner of the universe is planet Earth. There's a rebellion that's going on right now against God's kingdom. But it's a temporary rebellion. One day, Jesus is going to return, he's going to establish his kingdom, and guess what's going to happen at that point? Everybody's going to submit to God's kingdom. The Bible says when the Lord returns, every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. And so when we pray, Lord, your kingdom come, we're praying for the future return of Jesus to set up his kingdom here on Earth. But we're not only praying for the future return of Jesus, we're also praying for the present rule of Jesus. Because that second phrase says, your will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. Lord, in the same way that your will is being done in Heaven right now, I pray that your will would be done on Earth right now, and more specifically, in my life right now.

That's what we're praying for. When we kneel before the Lord, Jesus says when we pray, we've got to get that issue settled. Is it going to be God's will or my will? And when we pray for God's will to be done in our life as it's being done in Heaven, here's what we're saying to God. We're saying, God, first of all, I'm going to obey your perceptive will.

That is what I already know that you've revealed to me in the Bible, I am going to quit fighting you and I'm going to obey. You see, a lot of Christians think that they have to die to experience the benefits of their Christianity. They kind of think it's like Social Security.

They think you have to wait until a certain age until you experience the benefits. They think that being a Christian, it's all misery until you die and go to Heaven. But the Bible says you don't have to wait until you die to experience the benefits of the Kingdom of God. You can experience it right now. To the extent that you allow God to be your King, to the extent that you submit to His rule in your life, you can experience the benefits of living under God's rule. For example, what part of Heaven are you most looking forward to?

What is it about Heaven that is appealing to you? You say, well, I'm looking forward to that time when I can be at peace and not worry about anything, be free from anxiety. You don't have to wait until you die to experience that. Jesus said, my peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you. You can have that peace right now by submitting to God's rule in your life. Some people say, well, I'm looking forward to not worrying about my money all the time and worrying about whether I'm going to have enough.

Guess what? You don't have to wait until you die to have that contentment. Paul said, I've learned to be content right now in whatever circumstance I'm in. Some people say, well, I'm looking forward to being free from this addiction. I'm looking forward to being free from the results of sin.

Guess what? You don't have to wait until you die to be free from the power of sin. Paul said in Romans, don't let sin reign over your mortal bodies, that you should obey its lust. You can experience God's power in your life right now. Listen to me, to the extent that you submit right now to God's will in your life, you do those things or stop those things you know are displeasing to Him, you can experience the benefits of the kingdom. When we say, Lord, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth in my life as it's being done in heaven, we're saying, God, I'm submitting to your perceptive will, that part of your will that's already in the Bible. But secondly, I'm submitting to your providential will. Now let's face it, most of God's will we don't know ahead of time, do we?

We can only see it in the rear view mirror. Most of the time we don't know when we pray what God's will really is. We can say, Lord, I want this relationship restored. We don't know whether that's God's will or not. We can say, Lord, I'm out of work and I need this particular job.

Please open the door for it. We really don't know if that's God's will or not for that particular job. We can pray, Lord, heal me or my loved one of this illness, but honestly we don't know if that's God's will or not.

So how do we pray in that situation? Jesus gave us a model. He said, when you don't know what God's will is, pray what you want to be done, but then submit to God's ultimate will.

Isn't that what Jesus did in the Garden of Gethsemane? When he prayed to God, he said, God, if you are willing, let this cup pass from me. He was talking about the experience of the cross the next day. He said, Lord, I don't want to do this. Did you know that Jesus did not want to go to the cross? Can you blame him for that? He said, Lord, if you are willing, let this experience pass from me.

I don't want to do this. But then he added, not my will, but your will be done. And in some inexplicable way that night, two wills became one will. And that's what it means to acquiesce to God's will, not my will, your will be done. We're to pray, praising God's name for who he is. We're to pray for God's will to be done, not just in the future, but right now in our life. But interestingly, that's not the only kind of things we're to pray for. As we're going to see next week, God says it's okay to pray those selfish prayers as well.

Next week, we're going to finish looking at how we should pray, and then we're going to answer the question I bet everybody would like answered, but few have the courage to ask, and that is, why doesn't God answer all of my prayers? And I hope you'll join us again for Pathway to Victory, when we'll be talking about how to become effective in prayer. At the beginning of today's broadcast, you heard me mention a book I've written called I Want More. I'm eager to get a copy of this book into your hands because it's designed to help you unleash the power of the Holy Spirit in your own life and bring about the transformation God wants for you. A copy of my book, I Want More, can be yours today when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. I truly believe this book can reignite your walk with God and bring you into a deeper relationship with him.

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So thank you not only for giving to support this ministry, but for bringing hope and light to a world that is shrouded in darkness. Now, don't forget you can watch Pathway to Victory Sundays on hundreds of stations and thousands of cable systems around the world. You can always catch us Sunday mornings at 9 a.m. Central, 10 a.m. Eastern on TBN, the Trinity Broadcasting Network.

Or you can catch us Sunday afternoons at 5 p.m. Central, 6 p.m. Eastern on Daystar. David? Thanks, Dr. Jeffress. You're invited to request a copy of the book I Want More when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Here's our toll-free number, 866-999-2965, or visit online at ptv.org.

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One last thing before we go. Dr. Jeffress is working on a new teaching series about miracles. Now, if you have a story about God's supernatural intervention in your life, you can share it with Dr. Jeffress by emailing miracles at ptv.org. That's miracles at ptv.org.

I'm David J. Mullins. Join us again next time for a message called Effective Prayers. That's coming up Tuesday on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast from Pathway to Victory, and we're so glad you're here. Pathway to Victory relies on the generosity of loyal listeners like you to make this podcast possible. One of the most impactful ways you can give is by becoming a Pathway partner. Your monthly gift will empower Pathway to Victory to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and help others become rooted more firmly in His Word. To become a Pathway partner, go to ptv.org slash donate or follow the link in our show notes. We hope you've been blessed by today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.