Praying and Waiting for God's Timing

Some of you, you're dealing with situations. Counselor can't help you. Money can't fix it.

And people you know can't change it. Dr. Tony Evans says God can, but the process may take time and involve labor pains. You say, why do I have to go through all that? Because you're giving birth to a miracle.

You're giving birth to something supernatural. Celebrating 40 years of faithfulness, this is the alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of the Urban Alternative. When you order something online, you typically get to choose how fast you want it delivered. Well, today Dr. Evans explains why that isn't the case when we pray.

Let's join him as he talks about how to wait for God's perfect timing. All of us live in houses that have been wired for electricity. Electricity is the power that is conveyed through the wires so that we enjoy the privileges of being blessed through the appliances we use, the lights we turn off and on, through the heat of the stove or the refrigerator or the freezer, or the myriad of other things that electricity provides the power for us to do. But that power needs a point of contact in order for that appliance or light or thing that you're using to work. There must be a point of contact between you and God, me and God, in order to experience His power and supernatural provision. There must be a point of contact. If you don't turn on the light switch, it's not a power problem. It's not a provision problem.

It's a contact problem. There are many people today who believe in God's power but not seeing God's provision because they don't understand His place of contact. And the point of contact between your need and God's provision is prayer. Prayer is the mechanism God has decreed that is absolutely necessary for Him to release what He intends. Prayer does not make God do what He hadn't planned to do, but what it does is release God to do what He has decreed to do. When God answers, you become the distribution point for His supernatural activity.

You are the point of contact, and the switch is flipped with prayer. Now with that understanding, let's go to today's story in the life of Elijah. Let me start off by reading two verses. Chapter 17, verse 1, 1 Kings, Now Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the settlers of Gilead, said to Ahab, As the Lord the God of Israel lives, before whom I stand, surely there shall be neither dew nor rain these years except by my word. So Elijah tells Ahab, It's not going to rain. Chapter 18, verse 1, And now it happened after many days that the word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the face of the earth. So in chapter 17, verse 1, he says, It's not going to rain. In chapter 18, verse 1, he says, It's getting ready to rain. In chapter 17, verse 1, God says, I'm going to close heaven. In chapter 18, verse 1, God says, I'm going to open heaven.

And both of those statements were made by the same person. So before we go any further, let me explain why this rain thing is there in the first place. Ahab didn't make this up. You see, in Deuteronomy chapter 11, verses 13 to 17, this is what God said. God says, If you go worship idols, I'm going to close down heaven so it won't rain.

If you choose other gods, I'm going to no longer bless your crops, I'm no longer going to bless your planting, I'm no longer going to bless your fruit bearing, and the sky is going to dry up if you go after other gods. But he says, if you turn away from other gods, then I will open up heaven, and I will let rain again fall on the earth. So the whole reason Elijah is praying is based on something God had said years early to Moses. So Elijah reaches back to what God had already said, and by the leading of God applies it many years later to the situation we find him in, in what we've gone over so far in 1 Kings 17 and 18. In other words, his prayer was tied to God's Word.

Or let me say it another way. If you don't know God's Word, you don't know how to pray, because God's Word must be the basis or the foundation of your request. The reason why many of us pray so generally—Lord bless me, Lord help me, which means you've said absolutely nothing—is because you don't have a point of contact that you know about that you can point to in Scripture that becomes the basis of your request. So you don't even know whether that's something God is interested in doing. So he starts off by referencing something God has previously declared. Hold your finger in 1 Kings and turn to James 5. Let me read beginning with verse 16. Therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effectual prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

Now watch this. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. So he's taking us back to Kings. And it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months. Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit. Many people want God to send rain in their lives—called blessings—without wanting God to change their lives. They want God to do something for them while they remain idolaters.

And remember, idolatry is any unauthorized noun, person, place, or thing that you look to to meet your needs. So what God has are folks who worship Him on Sunday and date idols all week long. And as long as there was idolatry, God would not shift from no rain to rain. So we have people who come to church all the time looking for their blessing who don't want to be messed with by their God. And so they wonder why it won't rain. Because God's not going to rain on you so you can share it with an idol.

Okay? So that means anything you get, you've got to get on your own independently of God, because He's not going to help you become an idolater. But I want you to know something else. God said it's not going to rain—17-1. Then He said it is going to rain—three and a half years. But notice, when you read James that we just read, it says He prayed that it would not rain, and then He prayed that it would rain.

But wait a minute. God had already said it's not going to rain. God then said it is going to rain. So if God already said it, how come He had to pray about it?

Because what God has decreed needs a point of contact before it is delivered. So even though God decreed rain, start and stop, He didn't let it rain until Elijah made it a prayer matter. In other words, He was going to stop the rain when he prayed. He was going to start the rain when he prayed. So God's decree had to wait on somebody to suck it down. So God has decreed certain things for your life, His will, and is sitting up there to be delivered at the proper time when the point of contact is made.

So you could have 25 years of something God is holding on to that He wanted to release 25 years ago, but He hasn't been free to release it because He's not yet seen the point of contact. Because even though God declared it, it didn't happen until Elijah called for it. Then He says, and He gives you the secret of prayer that produces the supernatural. James said, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. So we not only know that Elijah prayed, we now also know how Elijah prayed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And James is writing to New Testament Christians.

James is writing to you and me. But he uses an Old Testament saying to explain to New Testament Christians how to get heaven to deliver rain, how to get heaven to open up to deliver the will of God, which is varying from person to person in its application. So that means, if you and I understand effectual fervent prayer, as illustrated by James in the life of Elijah, you and I can affect heaven opening, heaven closing. No rain, rain. We can affect it just like Elijah affected it.

And let me tell you why, and then I'll tell you how. You know why? Because James says that Elijah was of like nature as us. In other words, he wasn't Superman, Batman, Spider-Man, or X-Man. He wasn't some superhero.

He's just a man. But what he had was an effectual, fervent, righteous prayer. And that was the prayer that closed heaven up, that opened heaven up. So if you're here today looking for a miracle that will open up heaven, shut heaven, that is bring the supernatural into history based on the will of God tied to His Word, you must be a effectual, fervent, righteous prayer.

Questions, what does that look like? All right, verse 41. Elijah says, I hear a thunderstorm.

But wait a minute. In the verses to follow, there is no storm yet. In fact, you're gonna see in a moment the sky is clear. In fact, there's not even a cloud in the sky. In fact, nobody hears this but Elijah, because Elijah has to tell Ahab that there is the sound of a storm, because Ahab can't hear.

So let's get something straight. Your proximity to God will determine what you hear. See, if you are not close to God, you won't hear the will of God applied to you. You'll be like Ahab.

What you talking about? Because you don't hear anything. One of our problems is we want to hear from God while keeping our distance from God.

No. Ahab could hear the will of God, and he could hear the timing of God's will. See, he already knew what the Word of God said, Deuteronomy 11. But the question on the floor is, how do I know that word in Deuteronomy is applicable to me right now?

That has to do with spiritual distance. Dr. Evans has a great way to illustrate that idea, and he'll share it with us when he comes back in a moment with more of this message he calls Praying and Waiting for God's Timing. It's a part of a brand-new collection we put together called Tony Evans Top 40, 40 of his most powerful sermons over the last 40 years. Right now volumes one and two of this four-volume collection are yours as a way of saying thanks when you make a donation to help keep this listener-supported broadcast coming your way. As a bonus, we'll also send you Tony's popular booklet on fasting.

It explains how saying no to your physical appetite can sharpen your spiritual one, creating a hunger for God that the Lord is only too happy to satisfy. This combo offer is only available for a limited time, so make the arrangements now, and we'll get this great pair of resources on their way to you. Our Resource Center is open around the clock to help you. Just call 1-800-800-3222 day or night. That's 1-800-800-3222, or visit us online at tonyevans.org, where you can browse through our huge collection of resources and sign up for Tony's free weekly email devotional. I'll repeat that contact information after part two of today's lesson, and this.

Coming to theaters this November. We're at the Church of the Nativity here in Bethlehem, where it is believed that the birth of Jesus Christ occurred. Travel with Dr. Tony Evans as he retraces the life and human journey of the greatest being to ever walk this earth. Well, we're here in Capernaum, a place where Jesus did most of His miracles, and it is in this place that He demonstrated He truly is the Son of God. You'll travel the streets, fields, and synagogues that Jesus walked and visit the locations where some of the most powerful events recorded in the Bible took place. It is highly likely that much of what we read about Jesus' ministry in Galilee happened right here. Journey with Jesus in theaters November 15th, 16th, and 17th with Dr. Tony Evans.

Visit tonyevans.org for locations, showtimes, and to learn more. When you drive your car a long way away, you're going to lose clarity of hearing in the radio station you're listening to. The further you go, the more static the station will become until the station disappears altogether because your distance is too far to pick up the station. You cannot keep a long-distance relationship with God and still hear the sound of the thunder that nobody else can hear. That's why prayer is relational communication with God, not ritual communication with God. So if you want to experience supernatural power in prayer, the proximity must be close. It cannot be far away, so you can hear the sound of the particular application of Scripture in your personal experience. Okay?

So that's number one. But it gets deeper, because verse 42 says, "'And Ahab went up to eat and drink, but Elijah went up to the top of Carmel and crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees.'" He separates himself, and he finds a place to get alone with God. Elijah says, he bent down, put his head between his knees.

What my boy doing? In Old Testament days, they didn't have stirrups for pregnant women, for examinations, or to give birth. Uh-uh. What the women did was crouch down, put their head down, and then somebody would say, push. Push. Push. In other words, it was the position of labor.

Why? It was the position of labor because he's about to give birth to a miracle. It was the position of labor because he's getting ready to give birth to something supernatural. See, when you need God to do something not regular, but super unleaded, when you need God to do something not ordinary, but extraordinary, you got to get in a position of birth. But no woman gets in a position of birth unless she's pregnant. The whole point of birth is that you are pregnant. See, some of us want God to give birth when we haven't even let God get us pregnant. We don't have the pregnancy of his presence, the pregnancy of his life, but we want him to give birth to a miracle. He knew that he needed the miracle having to open, so he got in a position and he labored. This is the biblical word travail.

Travail means to be in labor. When you need something supernatural, that's not saying grace. When you need something supernatural, that's not saying a quick prayer. That's going in the labor. That thing may hurt. That thing may be in pain. That thing may be difficult because the bigger the miracle you need, the more labor you're going to be in and the harder you got to push and push and push until there's a birth. You say, why do I have to go through all that? Because you're giving birth to a miracle. You're giving birth to something supernatural. This is not regular, ordinary. You're asking God to do something out of the ordinary, but he needs a point of contact.

Some of you, you're dealing with situations, the counselor can't help you, money can't fix it, and people you know can't change it, you need to go in the labor. You need to find a Mount Carmel somewhere and you need to go down and push and push and push. A number of years ago, for those who haven't heard this story, I was doing an evangelistic crusade in Columbia, South Carolina. This crusade was at the Bryce Football Stadium, which is the football stadium for the University of South Carolina. It was Sunday night, the first night of the crusade, when somewhere between 15 or 20,000 people had gathered in the stadium for us to preach the gospel to. A gentleman came in and said, we've just been warned that a major storm is coming and it will be here by seven o'clock. So we went into prayer, and we prayed that God would hold the rain and we prayed that God would allow the service to go on, and we prayed. But ministers prayed, but every minister, including me, prayed a safe prayer. At the end of the prayer, a five-foot-one lady named Linda—me and Sister Evans were there—named Linda said, may I pray? We said, well, yes, yes, go ahead and pray, you know, we need all the prayer we can get. Here is the summary of Linda's prayer. Linda said, Lord, we are here doing what you ask us to do. You ask us to win people to Christ. You ask us to proclaim your word.

We have spent money, time, energy to put this crusade together, doing what you told us to do. So you would embarrass yourself if you let it rain, because you control the weather. So therefore, Lord, here got crazy, I command you to stop the rain. All the preachers did was just look at each other and wait for lightning to strike, because we got this little five-foot-one lady commanding God with the rain. The MC comes out and he says, ladies and gentlemen, we know that rain is supposed to come.

We're just going to go as long as we can go, so if you'll just remain here as long as you can, we'll do as much as we can. We're 10, 15 minutes into the service, and now it's black, it's thundering behind us, and you can begin to hear the rain. As we sat there at Bryce Stadium, as the rain came up to the stadium with our own eyes, the rain split.

Half of it went around this way, half of it went around that way, and then the rain came back together at the other end of the stadium. See, the preachers were being spiritually polite, but Linda gave an effectual fervent prayer of a righteous person. She got down and put her head down and pushed and pushed and pushed, and like Jacob said, I'm not going to let you go until you do something. I'm going to give birth to a miracle. Somebody here today needs a miracle in your life, needs a miracle in your emotions, needs a miracle in your home, needs a miracle on your job.

If you commit to righteousness, if you commit to prayer, if you commit to Mount Carmel, and if you get pregnant with God's life and are willing to go into labor, what happened to Elijah, James says, is available to you. If you've never experienced the miracle of being reborn into a whole new life by asking Jesus to forgive your sins, log on to tonyevans.org right now and follow the link that simply says Jesus. There Tony will tell you all about what it means to be a Christian and walk you through everything you need to know to start your brand new life. Just a reminder, you can get the full-length version of today's lesson as a part of Tony Evans Top 40, a collection of his best and most powerful messages of all time.

Remember volumes one and two of this four-volume collection are yours right now with our thanks for your donation to the Urban Alternative. We depend completely on the prayers and gifts of friends like you to keep Tony's teaching on this station. As a special bonus, we'll send it to you along with Tony's fasting booklet I told you about earlier. Again, that's tonyevans.org or you can call us at 1-800-800-3222 where someone on our resource team is always available to assist you.

That's 1-800-800-3222. A lot of people think God's offer to be close to us is too good to be true. Well, tomorrow Dr. Evans will explain how the devil perpetuates that attitude and what you can do about it. Be sure to join us. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is celebrating 40 years of faithfulness thanks to the generous contributions of listeners like you.