Bonus #1: Fitness Instructor

This is the Truth Network. Let me just give you this illustration. The fitness instructor, the one who is responsible to encourage us concerning physical conditioning, maintaining a strong healthy body, this instruction will include the correct way to do any process, any procedure like an exercise. And you know, usually when you just begin that process, there is a natural reaction in the body. Anytime there's discomfort, anytime there's more of a demand place, that reaction is to pull back to a more comfortable place, to find a place that's easier, to remove the cause of any discomfort. And what you want to do when you're under the instruction of a fitness instructor, this is what that person will say to you. That built-in response to escape discomfort, in other words, don't pull back. Instead of pulling back to find a release, you want to ease forward, ease forward, and even he might say, she might say, you need to breathe through the demand of this exercise. You want to penetrate that place of discomfort, and as you focus that way, you learn how to benefit from the effects of the exercise, to build muscle, to create strength in the muscle, to allow your body to stretch in ways that you wouldn't normally. So this is our physical exercise.

When we are intentionally looking to establish something, to accomplish something that is better for us, better health, better strength, better stamina. Now if you apply that same example to prayer, you want to, in the same way that you don't want to hang out in the place where you pull back, in the place of prayer, you don't want to hang out in the place where your emotions rule, or in the place where you are overthinking a matter. Those things are okay.

They have their proper place. You just don't want to build your prayer tent there, because if you do, you will never pray big prayers. Your prayers will always be limited to your thinking, to your emotions. There will be a restriction and a boundary around what you're able to express in prayer, because you keep getting hung up on the discomfort of where you're going.

Basically it challenges your faith, doesn't it? And when you pray big prayers, I mean we have a big God whose capacity to answer prayer is infinite. Then we see we need to move through that hesitation to think this way, to believe this way.

Your ability to pray big prayers means that you move beyond where you might be comfortable, what you typically think, the status quo, the expressions you use. We're going to take on the mind of Christ, which is the thought life of a king. Here are the two things. Divine power is available.

That's number one. Divine power is available. And number two, the one who is praying understands this principle, understands God's power and the release of His power, that it's available. The one praying knows the source and can think this way. Like this, thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory forever. This is infinite kingdom, infinite power, infinite glory. And the one praying understands that God desires this kind of outcome, a kingdom outcome.

Jesus is saying, and you don't move off of that focus so that you maintain your determination to pray these big prayers. I think of John the Baptist here. Jesus said about John the Baptist. He said to the people, what were you expecting to see? And if we read from Matthew 11, we pick up in verse seven, Jesus began to speak to the crowds concerning John.

What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind, a man dressed in soft clothing, a prophet? Yes, more than a prophet. Behold, verse 10.

Behold, I send my messenger who will prepare your way before you. So this messenger John is a prophet. God is sending him to prepare the way before the people. He isn't shaken by the wind.

He isn't dressed in soft clothing. In other words, he's not lame, not limp, not reluctant. This word prophet here gives us the idea of a bold confidence in God, believing for that strength of one who is a messenger sent from God, not weak, strong. So if we understand this teaching about John, verse 11 helps us. There has arisen no one greater than John the Baptist, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. So that's where you fit. That's where I fit.

From the womb, from our mother's womb, we have this designation. There's no one greater than John the Baptist. He's not reluctant. He's not shy about pushing and pressing into the will of God. And you and I are even greater, yet the one who is least in the kingdom of heaven is even greater than John. So that's how God sees us.

That's how he thinks of us. Verse 12, from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence and the violent take it by force. The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing and violent people are attacking to reclaim, to lay hold to, to assure the plan of God. That's why we pray, kingdom of God come, will of God be done. So you have confident trust that God develops in a pure confidence.

You have this kind of trust. And the way that you believe God develops even more on a larger scale as your conscience is purified to understand what his will is, to believe him that way, and to pray these big prayers. You and I believe God best when we guard against anything that contaminates our conscience in this regard.

That means any opposing views that contradict Bible faith. Instead, this is not hard, it's simple, instead we simply believe him. He's big, his power, his desire to answer prayer is infinite.

Therefore, we pray big prayers. And as inspiration is drawn from this increasing purity, this place of purity that is on the inside of us, the opposite of distraction is our result. So pure poised confidence concerning the Lord and his word becomes our mindset. And all of this is developed because our purity of expression matures even further as we believe him further, as we believe him more and more.

Okay, so let's think back to the example of the fitness instructor. There is a way to do this exercise for optimal results and we want to optimize the way that we pray so that our prayers will be big, expecting big things. So let me point out just one or two things here about prayer that I think will help. Conversational prayer is great fellowship with the Lord, but it doesn't necessarily lead, it's not conducive to praying big prayers. Because conversation can be repetitive, sometimes it's mechanical, you know, we reuse the same terminology, the same spiritual expressions, things we've learned.

It's natural, it's familiar. But remember, we don't want to set up our tent in a familiar place, because that will not build the muscle, that will not expand to our infinite reach. So conversational prayer, where we are going over and reminding ourselves or reminding someone else of reminding our group of a principle, stay away from conversational prayer when you're learning to focus on praying big prayers. A second thing, repetitive prayer takes time. Sometimes conversational prayer is repetitive. So repetitive prayer where we say over and over the same things, pray this morning, pray again tomorrow morning, pray again tonight, same thing. Listen, this doesn't always reflect your faith in the greater way, in the greatest way. And therefore, it doesn't always accomplish the goal. So the focus is the concept of what God is saying to us, and too many words, just honestly, it's a distraction. So conversational prayer, where we are engaging in a lot of description and explanation, repetitive prayer, where we say the same prayer again and again, and day to day, these can be an obstacle to responding to the unction and the prompting that you have from the Lord in the first place. So here's the challenge. Here's your homework.

You want to, thinking of the fitness instructor, thinking of building that fitness, and that stamina in your body. You want to reach beyond your normal way of praying, the thing that's familiar and that you're accustomed to, and you want to ease forward, use your authority, practice, think this way. Your groundwork is laid, so now build. You can build now, instead of laying the same groundwork again and again, you think the way God is thinking, according to the unction that He gave you, the prompting He gave you.

Typically, usually I find that it is a phrase or an expression or a few words. That's what you build. That's your focus. That's your main declaration. Again, the one God put in your heart to begin with, His unction, His prompting, you want to stay with it.

This is your assignment. This is what you want to do. This is how you want to build your capacity to not only pray big prayers, but believe God to respond with big in the same proportion. Believe God to do that. He is waiting to do that very thing. My suggestion, try it.

Just try it. You'll be amazed at the bigness of our God. God bless you. See you soon. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support this podcast, please share it with others. Post about it on social media or leave a rating and review. Don't forget to check out the show notes or visit acleartrumpet.org where you can subscribe to Shirley's email list. Download the ministry app and purchase your very own copy of Shirley's 365-day devotional, Running with Horses. Thanks again and we'll see you next time.