Praying God
Praying God’s Will
8/25/2001 and 8/26/2001
Review:
Before Zola came we were talking about prayer. (Seeking the Lord and Different types of Prayer) Today we are handing out family devotions and an insert in the bulletin concerning fasting. We are entering a 30-day season of prayer and fasting. It is very specifically about the vision and purpose of the church. We are looking at the future and asking God to make adjustments so we can cooperate with Him.
-WE WANT GOD’S WILL. THAT IS WHAT WE ARE LOOKING AT TODAY…PRAYING GOD’S WILL.
1 John 5
14 ¶ This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
15 And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him.
2 Corinthians
18 But as surely as God is faithful, our message to you is not "Yes" and "No".
19 For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by me and Silas and Timothy, was not "Yes" and "No", but in him it has always been "Yes."
20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are "Yes" in Christ. And so through him the "Amen" is spoken by us to the glory of God.
Prayer
1. DISCOVER GOD’S WILL FROM HIS WORD
-A time of searching the Scripture and prayer should precede praying for a specific request.
-We see Daniel praying for Israel and Jerusalem in response to a Scripture in Jeremiah.
FAITH BEGINS WHERE THE WILL OF GOD IS KNOWN
-Often our prayer becomes a time of begging for God to help us.
-Other times we try to move our situation from the want category to the need category so we can convince God that we really need it.
-Remember also that FAITH IS YOUR HEART’S RESPONSE TO THE GRACE OF GOD.
-God is god and we can’t tell Him what to do. We don’t demand or command God.
-He has revealed Himself to us in HIS WORD.
-In order to discover God’s will, you have to see what He has said in His Word.
For instance:
-I WOULDN’T PRAY FOR GOD TO SAVE MY FAMILY…IF IT BE THY WILL.
-THE WILL IS CLEAR ON THAT ONE.
Tit 2:11 ¶ For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men.
1Ti 2:4 who wants all men to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation:
19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.
20 We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf: Be reconciled to God.
-That is one of those whosoevers that clearly relates to all men.
-There is a song called “whosoever surely meaneth me.”
-I WOULDN’T ASK GOD IF IT IS HIS WILL FOR ME TO REACH LOST PEOPLE.
-THE WILL IS CLEAR ON THAT ONE.
Matthew 28
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age."
-I WOULDN’T ASK IF IT WAS GOD’S WILL FOR ME TO KEEP THE WALLET FULL OF MONEY THAT FELL ON MY CAR SEAT WITH THE PERSON’S I.D. IN IT.
-THE WILL COVERS THAT.
-You get the point.
-The Bible is very much a legal document.
-We have a Hebrew Covenant/Testament sealed by God swearing by Himself. He enacted a covenant with Moses and the Hebrews.
-We have a New Covenant sealed by the blood of Jesus Himself.
-He then rose from the dead to be the “administrator”.
Hebrews 9
15 ¶ For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance--now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.
16 In the case of a will, it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it,
17 because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living.
18 This is why even the first covenant was not put into effect without blood.
-The Bible is very much a legal document.
-We are told to make petitions to God in Philippians 4.
-That doesn’t change God into a judge.
-When you leave something to someone in a will, it is because you love them and want them to have it.
-The will is two-fold, it lets you know what is yours, and it keeps others from taking what is yours.
-It is in the form of a legal document so it can be enforced against the world, the flesh, and the devil.
-I learned recently that in Hebrew thought words that are spoken take on a life of their own. They can’t be retracted. That is good.
-When you have a relationship with God, the Scripture comes alive.
-The Word of God becomes a “word” to you. Faith comes by hearing this word.
-You respond then knowing God loves you and wants you to participate in His promise for you.
-WHENEVER POSSIBLE, PRAY THE WORD ITSELF.
-You can pray Bible prayers, like the prayer of Jabez.
-Personalize the Scripture and pray it.
2. DISCOVER GOD’S WILL FROM THE HOLY SPIRIT
-This is the process of decision-making, prayer, and guidance where we seek God’s specific guidance.
-In order to get specific guidance, we have to follow the general guidance.
-This includes the study of Scripture but it also opens you to guidance by a LIVING GOD to a living person, you.
-You never let this contradict Scripture.
-Jesus made decisions in prayer, like for His disciples.
IF YOU HANG OUT WITH GOD, YOUR WILL AND HIS WILL CAN BE THE SAME
Joh 15:7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.(NIV)
7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. (KJV)
7 If you remain united to me, and my teaching remains in your hearts, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be yours. (TCNT)
-If you abide and live in Jesus, your will begins to change.
-If I pray for God to punish someone and I keep reading the Bible and praying, I discover that it isn’t God’s way to hurt them and instead, I begin to ask God to forgive them.
-I begin to pray for a Mazerati so my insecurities at work are overshadowed by my coolness!
-As I read the Bible and pray my insecurities are changed and I begin to want to help those guys, not just impress them.
-YOUR WILL IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
-The guy who was a scientist before he became a Christian said that God said to him,
YOU AND I ARE INCOMPATIBLE AND I DON’T CHANGE.
-God’s ways are above are ways, but they don’t have to be! We can change our minds and our wills.
Ps 37:4 Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart.
(NIV)
Proverbs 16:3 Amplified
“Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.”
-Here is another aspect for the Spirit-Filled believer:
PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT
Romans 8
26 ¶ In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.
27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.
Jude
20 But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit.
Ephesians 6
18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.
-In order to pray in the Spirit we are going to need a prayer language.
-People say, here comes this PENTECOSTAL THING. No, here comes this Christian thing.
-Jesus said believers would speak in tongues.
-People who spoke in tongues wrote your new testament.
Mary, Jesus mom spoke in tongues.
-Paul was totally a Charismatic.
-There are conservatively 540 million people who are Spirit-Filled and speak in tongues.
-One of the ways we discover God’s will is by praying in the Spirit then interpreting or listening to our prayer.
-We hear ourselves praying in English what we just prayed in the Spirit.
-God changed my will when I interpreted my tongue about our children.
-It doesn’t happen all the time but it is available all the time.
-YOU’VE GOT TO GET IN THE ZONE!!
MESSAGE – 1 Corinthians 14
-This is normal Christianity.
-When you are praying in tongues you are praying God’s will.
-Your prayer life is no longer limited to your intellect or understanding.