Any purpose other than God's purpose, God does not obligate himself to. You out there on your own. Dr. Tony Evans says connecting our prayers with the Lord's agenda is the key to finding answers.
So the question is, do we want to spin our wheels or do we want to make a connection? This is the alternative broadcast, featuring the timeless biblical teachings from the archives of Dr. Tony Evans. God answers prayers, all prayers. But today Dr.
Evans talks specifically about the ones God answers with a yes. Let's join him as he explains. But today I want to talk to you about connecting prayer with God's purposes. Maybe the most important. Connection.
of all. What is prayer? One might simply define it as relational communication of God. It is the divinely authorized means by which. The natural connects with the supernatural.
And the supernatural connects with the natural. And it is God's Only authorized means. of contact. In order to understand this, you have to understand something that God did. God operated in the spiritual realm with angels, but then he created man and put him in the physical realm.
And then, guess what God said? He said, let them rule. I want man. to act in the physical realm on my behalf. from the spiritual realm.
And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to develop a communication system. by which they can link with me in order for them to do in time what I'm wanting to be done from eternity.
So, prayer is not some sort of casual, mundane exercise that you throw in. before you eat. It was meant to be this mechanism. Of bringing heavenly involvement into historical context. The problem that I'm hearing you say, although you're not yet verbally speaking, is.
But I pray and nothing happens. John says in 1 John chapter 5 verse 13. Have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you might know that you have eternal life. Is that what he says in verse 13?
Okay, watch this now. He says, I have written. that you might believe in order that you might know. Did I get that right? I have written so that you might believe with the result that you know.
You know what? You know you have eternal life. You know, you're saved because you believe, but what did you believe? What was written? You believed what was written, therefore you know you have eternal life.
You say, but I thought you were going to talk to me about prayer. You got to go to verse 14. He says to those who know they're saved these words in verse 14. He wants you in your salvation to make a connection.
Now we know it's going to be tough for some of you. But stick with me. He wants you to make the connection. And this is the confidence we have before him: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And what is the result of that?
Verse 15. And if we know. That he hears us, and whatever we ask, we know we have the request which we have asked of him.
So, guess what he's saying? Just like you know you're saved because you believe what was written, you ought to know you're going to get an answer because you believe based on what is written. Let me say it another way. The same assurance you have about going to heaven, you should also have about answered prayer. You ought to raise your hand and say, I know I'm getting this one.
Prayer is a way Where God has given you and I the privilege of participating in the divine realm. by making human contact.
Okay, then how How do I get to know that my prayers are gonna be answered? Same way you know you have eternal life, you believe. In the name. There it is.
Okay. You got to believe in the name.
Now, let me tell you what I didn't just say and what John doesn't say. Shh. He didn't say use the name. Everybody ends their prayers in Jesus' name. That's using the name.
Okay. He is not saying you will know that you have your answer to your prayers because you. Tag on a tagline at the end of your prayers, and you say, Well, give me this, give me this, give me this, give me this, give me this, give me this, do this, do that, do that, in Jesus' name. That's a tagline. Just like you can't use the name of Jesus to get to heaven.
A lot of folk use his name will never go to heaven. You got to believe in his name in order to go to heaven. That is, you must place trust in his name. Yeah. The problem is.
We use Jesus' name while extracting out of it what it represents. Therefore, we use it. Powerlessly. It's tagged on. without meaning.
I would like to suggest to you now.
Okay. that the reason why more of us are not experiencing answered prayer is because of the misuse of his name. Look at John 14. Think John. Verse 13.
Notice what he says, and whatever you ask in my name, that I will do. That the Father may be glorified in the Son. And if you ask anything in my name, what? I will do it. If you want to get a response from my daddy, You gotta do it.
In my May.
So what's in her name? In the Bible, the word name represents the substance of a thing. It's not nomenclature. It's not just, oh, well, that's a cute name. Let me give him that name.
That's why meanings of names are given in the Bible so often, because names related to substance.
So in order to use a name correctly, you had to use it legitimately with the substance that was behind the name. And the name had to endorse. what you were using it for. Power of attorney. The power of attorney is where you give somebody the right.
To use your name. You give them the right to act on your behalf. On behalf of your name. In your name. They can do this because you've handed that authority over.
It's not. Your authority is their authority, but they have given it to you to use. But it's easy to misuse a name. To put it another way. When you go before God, you need to show ID.
When you go before the airport and they say, show me your ID, we want to know who you say you are is who you really are.
So show us a picture ID. You need ID in order to go back here to this gate. You've got to be authorized. The father Always authorizes the Son, and the Son always authorizes children who are carrying his ID. Who has his Many.
So it is asking based on the authority of Jesus. Christ. Prayer is that point of connection. Yeah. Then how do I get his name to work?
He tells you in 1 John chapter 5, verse... Fourteen. And this is the confidence we have before him that if we ask... Anything. How many things?
And I think anything means. Anything. There are no exceptions to the word anything. Yeah. If we ask anything, here it is.
According to is will.
Now you know what he means by name. What he means by believing in his name when it comes to prayer is making your request. in concert with his will.
Okay, so now Where do I discover his will? That becomes a question. Where do I find out? What his will is. Let's go back to verse 13.
And it is written. That anyone who believes in the name of the Son of God will know. The Bible is the revealed will of God. Meaning It tells you. What God wants Universally So, in whatever issue you're dealing with life, you want to ask the question: Has God said something about this?
What has He said? That gives me the revealed will, but that doesn't solve our problem because. Everything That God wants to do to us for us. And about us is not written in the Bible.
Now watch this now. You became intimate with the Savior because you got saved. You accepted Jesus Christ. Once you are straight with the written word. Then what God does is apply The written word to your personal situation.
He personalizes it.
Okay. That's the job of the Holy Spirit, by the way, folks. The Holy Spirit, the Bible says, has been shed abroad in our hearts. Why is he there? to be a witness to the written word.
in your daily life. Yeah. His job is to apply it to your name. Which may be different than how he applies it to somebody else. That's why the Holy Spirit is such a powerful being in your Christian life because his job is to hear it is.
highlight it for you. You know, a highlighter where you go over something and now it jumps out at you. His job is to apply the word. In your daily situations. How does he do it?
He does it by your relationship. When Dr. Evans returns in a moment, he'll share a powerful principle that'll help you begin seeing answers to your prayers. Don't go away. Hey ladies, it's time to gather your friends, small group, or all the women of your church for a soul-fulfilling, faith-awakening time with the Lord.
Join us virtually for the Desperate for Jesus Conference this July 25th and 26th. Get ready to worship and hear powerful teaching from Crystal Hearst, Priscilla Shire, and their special guests. Don't miss this chance to be refreshed as you grow spiritually. Hurry over to DFJConference.com to register for the live simulcast. That's DFJConference.com.
The message you're hearing today is part of Tony's powerful compilation of sermons on the power of prayer. Across these seven messages, Dr. Evans unpacks how prayer isn't just a spiritual duty. It's the pathway to real change, deeper intimacy with God, and strength for every season of life. We'd love to send you this complete audio series as our thank you gift when you support the ministry of the alternative.
And if you do that right away, we'll also include a copy of Tony's brand new devotional, Anchored by Prayer. It's a practical step-by-step guide to help you pray with confidence and consistency, even when life feels overwhelming or you're just not sure what to say. This exclusive package will only be available for a few more days now, so visit TonyEvans.org right away to make your donation and request. Or call our resource team any time of the day or night at 1-800-800-3222. I'll share that contact information again after part two of today's message.
Here's Dr. Evans.
Okay, now let me show you something. I want you to turn your Bibles to St. John again, chapter 5, and I want to show you something. Jesus has just healed the man. at the pool of Bethesda.
All these sick people out there. And Jesus comes along. And he sees this man, he comes over to this guy, he says, Do you want to be made well? God says, well, yeah. Jesus says Pick up your bed and walk.
God takes up his bed and starts walking. And this man has been sick for over 30 years. And all of a sudden Jesus passes by and says, you want to be made well? Come on, get up. The people who saw him do this said, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
What are you doing? You can't do that. Jesus responds to them. And look what he says in verse 19. Jesus therefore answered and said to them, Truly, truly I say to you, the Son of Man can do nothing of himself.
unless it is something he sees the father doing. For whatever the father does, these things the son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all that he himself is doing. And greater works than these will he show him that you may marvel.
Now, I don't know if you just caught that. Jesus is saying, you know why I healed him? Yeah. Because I saw the father healing him. When I saw, I got up this morning and I was spending time with God.
And while I was spending time with God, I saw what God was doing in history. And when I saw what God was doing, he was healing a man at the pool of Bethesda.
So now that I see that that's what the Father is doing, I'm going over here to the pool of Bethesda and we're going to heal this guy. In other words, I'm going to manifest in history what I saw my daddy doing in eternity. That now tells you what prayer is supposed to be. Yeah. Not supposed to be sitting down, said, okay, bless my mother, bless my father, bless my kids.
You know, bless my job today. Give me a raise, make sure my car doesn't break down. I want to thank you for food on my table and a roof over my head. Yeah, that's nice, but you can do that in three minutes. All right, that wasn't what Jesus was doing.
He says, I position myself in the presence of God. Until God showed me what he was doing. What that meant was, I wouldn't waste my time with all these other people because God wasn't doing anything with them. He was doing something with this man at the pool for 30-something years, sick.
So when I saw what he was doing, I was. Went over and I participated in that. Let me tell you what Jesus did. He would spend an hour. with God so that he'd only have to spend one minute with people.
He walks over people, say, yeah, this is the one. Yeah, this is the one. Rise, take up your bed, and walk. He would spend an hour with God, so he only had to spend a few minutes with people. We spend a minute with God, so we got to spend years with people.
We never find out what he is doing.
So that we can stop trial and error.
Some of us ought to be tired of trial and error, trial and error. I tried this, it didn't work. I tried that, that didn't work. I tried, I tried, I tried. And we keep making, we keep doing the same stuff over and over.
I tried, I tried, none of this is working. You know why? Because we never got around to finding out what he was doing. We just wanted to do what we were doing and didn't ask him the blessing. Even though his name wasn't signed to it.
What I'm trying to say to you today. is that your whole life can be totally transformed. By prayer. If it's in his name, which means it's according to his will, based on his word, applied by his spirit. And I know he's going to do it.
But I don't know when.
Now part of our problem is we don't know we're going to do it. But once you know he gonna do it, you gotta. Timing issue.
Now let me tell you why there's always a gap. Between God letting you know he's gonna do it. And when he does it. or virtually always a gap. Nobody at the gap?
Preparation. He's getting ready to make the connection between what you know and when you get it, and that always. Always, always requires. Timing. God told Abraham, you're going to have a son.
They messed up with the timing. God told Israel, I'm taking you to the promised land. They didn't develop through the timing. God told Joseph through a dream, I'm gonna make it so your brothers will bow to you. But he never would have thought it was gonna take 14 years between when he heard it.
and knew it and when it Happened because God was making preparation in Egypt for it to occur at the proper time. Jesus was told, You're going to die for the sins of the world, but it's going to be a 20, 33 year gap between when you're born and when you're going to die. That's why Jesus said, My time has not yet come. It had to do with timing.
Now let me Let you know some. You can mess up the timing. Israel's trip. Should have taken a few days. It wound up taking 40 years.
Because they messed up the timing. They wouldn't let God prepare them. for the answer that God promised he would give them.
So God can let you know something without telling you when. He can tell you the what? But he won't necessarily tell you the win because it deals with your preparation. Are you preparing yourself to receive it? When you get on the highway, what do you do?
You merge, right? You're on the side road, you're on the on-ramp, you merge into the major traffic.
Now, it would be to your betterment. to slow down and look back. That would be wise to do. when you're entering on a highway. You know why?
Because Those cars are coming. God has the right of way. He's saying you got the merge. You have to merge into where I'm going. Then you're praying in my name.
You're praying according to my will. And I'm gonna let you in here and we going somewhere.
So the question is, do we want to spin our wheels or do we want to make a connection? The connection of prayer with God's purposes. Because any other purpose other than God's purpose, God does not obligate Himself to. You are there on your own. And a lot of us should be tired of being on our own.
Our time is up, but you know, Eagles. Eagles are known for Soaring, right? You know, have you ever watched an eagle? With them long wingspans, that bird will do this twice. Yeah.
Just two times it goes. See, when it does that, and catches the wind and creates the updraft. That creates The support for the guy. He just catches it and keeps going. It can go for hours.
And ours. You will never see an eagle do this. If they tried to do it, it'd kill them. Because those wings are so heavy that when they ran out of steam, they'd crash, land, and die. No.
Eagles catch the draft. Yeah. Oh, it's It's getting those stellar. Sure.
Somebody here and tired of doing this. I'm trying to make it. I'm trying to make it. I'm doing it. Yes, I can.
I can't hang it anymore. I'm trying. I'm trying. It's not working. It's not working.
Holy Ghost is saying, come on now. Catch the wind. Blink into my will and you don't have to do all that. You he says, guess what he says? He says, my commandments are not burdensome.
So if they're a burden to you, you ain't doing this thing right. My commandments, why? Because when you catch the wind, they become my burdens. No longer your burden. I'm gonna make you say, or I'm gonna get you there.
You can rest.
So shorten the preparation time. By making sure you're in his will, praying in his name. And he says, and you have the confidence. that he's gonna give you. Just what you ask for.
If you're feeling that weariness Dr. Evans talked about, don't go away. He'll come back shortly to share the most important prayer you could ever pray, a prayer that connects you with the God who longs to lift you above life's discouragement. In the meantime, if you'd like to feel more connected with God and need more assurance that you're being heard, get a copy of Tony's current series called The Power of Prayer. You'll get all seven full-length messages that'll teach you how your prayers can become more passionate and productive.
And as I mentioned earlier, you'll also receive his brand new devotional guide, Anchored by Prayer, when you make a donation to help support the alternative broadcast ministry. Experience a deeper, more powerful prayer life starting today. Request yours at tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222. Once again, that's tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222. Many of us think of prayer as us talking and God listening.
But on Monday, Dr. Evans will tell us about the intimate, relational side of prayer that a lot of us miss. Right now, though, he's here to talk about the most important prayer we can ever pray. If you've never accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, you can do that right now. Simply go to Him and acknowledge that you're a sinner in need of a Savior and that you're transferring your trust to Him alone because of His death on the cross and resurrection from the dead.
In fact, I'm going to say a little prayer, and you can repeat it after me. You just have to mean it for yourself. Heavenly Father, I know I'm a sinner, and that I can't save myself. I believe Jesus Christ, your Son, died on the cross in my place for my sin, and I now Am trusting Him alone to forgive me and to give me the gift of eternal life that He promised to give to anyone who came to Him for it. Thank you for saving me and help me from this day forward to live a life pleasing to you.
Congratulations. Welcome to the family. God bless you. If you prayed that prayer for the first time today, we invite you to visit our website at tonyevans.org and click the link at the top of the page that says Jesus. You'll find plenty of information and resources there to help you get your new life headed in the right direction.
