Summer of Prayer PT. 2
Summer of Prayer • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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What happens WHEN we pray?
What happens WHEN we pray?
In the third year of Cyrus king of Persia a message was revealed to Daniel, whose name was called Belteshazzar. The message was true, but the appointed time was long; and he understood the message, and had understanding of the vision.
Prayer takes time. Daniel was praying about future empires that would make way for Jesus to come. He didn’t know all the details, but what he was praying for would change the entire world. God wanted Daniel to know that what he was praying for would take time. There are some things that are answered immediately, but some require our time and heart, for as long as it takes. We saw this last week in Luke.
“And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.
God wants us to know something too. Some prayers will take ongoing persistence, and if we wont make the time commitment to the prayer, then even though its true, it wont happen. Let me say this another way, if we give up, it wont happen.
In those days I, Daniel, was mourning three full weeks.
Mourning here doesn’t refer to a loss, like a death, its talking about a burden or a weight being on him. Prayers can have weight. There is a difference in the weightiness of a prayer for the right friends in your life and the prayer for your spouse in the ambulance after a car crash. There is a difference when you are praying for your brother or sister to come back to the Lord. There is a difference when God puts something on your heart to pray for the world.
Those weights or burdens are not easy. We see that it wasn’t easy for Jesus either. In Matthew chapter 26, we see Jesus going with His disciples to pray because He is about to face the cross. He asks them to pray because the mourn, Matthew 26:38 “He told them, “My soul is crushed with grief to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me.””
Then He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here and watch with Me.”
Prayer is challenging and difficult because our bodies will resist the burden. (If you’re having trouble sleeping at night, get in bed and start praying. You’ll fall asleep quick!)
Watch and pray, lest you enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Prayer engages heavenly opportunities and power.
On April 23, as I was standing on the bank of the great Tigris River, I looked up and saw a man dressed in linen clothing, with a belt of pure gold around his waist. His body looked like a precious gem. His face flashed like lightning, and his eyes flamed like torches. His arms and feet shone like polished bronze, and his voice roared like a vast multitude of people.
This is not a natural description of a person. I had AI create an image of this passage. He was seeing an heavenly being. As this angel speaks to him, he discovers something that we need to know. (Which is why God put this in the Bible. He doesn’t add things without purpose. He uses His word to teach us about His Kingdom and thought process.)
Then he said, “Don’t be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day you began to pray for understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your request has been heard in heaven. I have come in answer to your prayer. But for twenty-one days the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia blocked my way. Then Michael, one of the archangels, came to help me, and I left him there with the spirit prince of the kingdom of Persia. Now I am here to explain what will happen to your people in the future, for this vision concerns a time yet to come.”
God moved day ONE! He answered as soon as Daniel prayed. But the answer was resisted. The enemy can resist for a time, but not forever. Most of the time he doesn’t need to resist for long because we give up praying.
The thing God is trying to help us see is that our prayers are doing more than we can see. As we just read, “… since the first day… I have come in answer to your prayer…”
As soon as I pray, you answer me; you encourage me by giving me strength.
This is why we cannot give up. Like the story I shared last week, she prayed for 70 years for her husband to get saved. What would have happened if she gave up? What would have happened if Daniel gave up? What would have happened if Jesus gave up and never submitted His will to the Fathers?
Prayer changes the world. It changes our world. It can change any situation. Just not always in our preferred timeline or the way we wanted. So can we stick with it? Can we be tenacious?
HOW do we pray?
HOW do we pray?
There are many different types of prayer, which we will cover over the next few months, but there are also different ways you pray. Prayer is communication with God, so some pray is based on growing closer to Him. Other prayers are focused on bringing God’s will into the world. Like for healing, finances, faith, peace, anxiety, etc.
When we are praying about or for something, we need to speak God’s Word. When Jesus was tempted by the devil, He gave us the key to victory over the enemy, He said:
But He answered and said, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.’ ”
We need to speak and pray God’s Word. We need to know what we can pray for, which means we need to know what the Bible says is available to us to ask for, what it says is already ours, and even what God says can hinder our prayers. Let’s start with things that hinder our prayers.
Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
When there is someone with something against us and we haven’t tried to reconcile.
But when you are praying, first forgive anyone you are holding a grudge against, so that your Father in heaven will forgive your sins, too.”
When we have something against someone else.
If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
When we are living in sin and haven’t repented and stopped.
In the same way you married men should live considerately with [your wives], with an intelligent recognition [of the marriage relation], honoring the woman as [physically] the weaker, but [realizing that you] are joint heirs of the grace (God’s unmerited favor) of life, in order that your prayers may not be hindered and cut off. [Otherwise you cannot pray effectively.]
When we dishonor our spouse. This could be in words, actions, attitude, deed, or in our heart and mind.
As we end service, lets look at what God says for various situations.
He has made everything beautiful in its time. He also has planted eternity in men’s hearts and minds [a divinely implanted sense of a purpose working through the ages which nothing under the sun but God alone can satisfy], yet so that men cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.
This is what I pray for people who don’t know the Lord.
“When he finally came to his senses, he said to himself, ‘At home even the hired servants have food enough to spare, and here I am dying of hunger!
What I pray for someone who knew God but is far from Him now.
The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.
For health.
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
We are pressed on every side by troubles, but we are not crushed. We are perplexed, but not driven to despair. We are hunted down, but never abandoned by God. We get knocked down, but we are not destroyed.
When people feel overwhelmed or that life is against you.
Give all your worries and cares to God, for he cares about you.
God is on our side.
I will be your God throughout your lifetime—
until your hair is white with age.
I made you, and I will care for you.
I will carry you along and save you.
We are never alone.
And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.
“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.
Trusting God with our every day life and keeping priorities straight.
Prayers to Grow Spiritually
Prayers to Grow Spiritually
Ever since I first heard of your strong faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for God’s people everywhere, I have not stopped thanking God for you. I pray for you constantly, asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called—his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance.
I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God’s power for us who believe him. This is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God’s right hand in the heavenly realms. Now he is far above any ruler or authority or power or leader or anything else—not only in this world but also in the world to come. God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church. And the church is his body; it is made full and complete by Christ, who fills all things everywhere with himself.
When I think of all this, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit. Then Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him. Your roots will grow down into God’s love and keep you strong. And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think. Glory to him in the church and in Christ Jesus through all generations forever and ever! Amen.
