Prayer Changes Everything
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Intro
Intro
Today’s passage is about prayer.
It’s easy to feel that…
Epiphany: Prayer accomplishes more than you think it does.
God is in control, so why pray.
Or sometimes we feel like God isn’t listening, so why pray.
And other times we get so busy with what we are doing and life is going ok, so we don’t see the need to pray.
Epiphany: Prayer accomplishes more than you think it does.
I think, no matter where you are at and how you are feeling, there is enough mystery surrounding prayer that we underestimate its power.
Body
Body
And power is precisely what the disciples needed in our story today. They had a…
POWER PROBLEM [SYNOPSIZE STORY TO v. 18]
, “I asked your disciples to drive it out, but they couldn’t.”
Have you ever felt powerless to change your circumstances? What happens when you don’t have enough power? How frustrating is this?
Jesus gifted the disciples to cast out demons and then all of the sudden this demon gets the best of them. What happened?
(What happens when you don’t have enough power?)
What does ‘drive it out’ mean?
The nature of the demon, ‘classic demon’
Convulsions, seizures, foaming at the mouth
Shrieking when it comes out
Jesus rebukes the spirit: implication of rebuke—intentionality
No rational person rebukes an unintelligent being
Jesus gave them the authority to do this.
Sent out the 12 and later the 70. (even the demons obey us)
But this one was mute and deaf.
Made the boy mute (in the text) and presumably deaf as well.
NOTE: Unclean spirit (pneuma); deaf and mute spirit — not a fallen ‘angel’
Angels have spiritual bodies
This is a disembodied spirit so it is able to take up residence in the body of a person
Jesus rebukes the spirit:
implication of rebuke—intentionality
No rational person rebukes an unintelligent being
deaf and mute was the demons defence and that is why the disciples couldn’t cast it out—it wasn’t listening
There is something unique about Jesus’s voice—he has a power that they do not have.
Let the whole earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it came into being; he commanded, and it came into existence.
Jesus could drive the spirit out of the boy because Jesus’s voice has power over all things.
Conclusion: Although the disciples had been given authority to cast out demons, they had to appeal to a greater authority in the case of this tricky demon.
This is a reminder that, although God chooses to work through humans to accomplish His purpose, he requires that we rely on His power not our own as we do so.
The issue: The disciples had got in the habit of working on their own power and—at least in this story—did not even pray as a last resort.
We do this:
Act as though God doesn’t exist until we need him (ILL: Praying for food vs. Praying only when we need food)
Pray as a last resort
Or we don’t pray at all even when we need something because we never formed a habit of prayer
The disciples learned their lesson: If you read Acts, the disciples lives are ruled by prayer.
The problem with relying on our own power is that it’s limited (humans can be amazing, but we aren’t that great). We have to appeal to a higher power. And we all know prayer is important, but it really take a lot of faith—a strong belief in God’s power and promises to really harness the power of prayer.
The reality is, God’s power is available to you in proportion to your belief. That’s…
THE BEAUTY OF BELIEF
, “Everything is possible for the one who believes.” — gets thrown around a lot by Christians
, “Everything is possible for the one who believes.
c ;
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Anything tho?
Jesus’s teaching elsewhere: (this seems to say that…)
Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for—believe that you have received it and it will be yours.
Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), .Everything is possible for the one who believes. (Anything tho?)
“Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
What is belief (faith)?
is the mode of belief. (cf. last week)
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher?
Action < belief < hearing < preaching
Belief is not irrational hope that something will happen—if I just believe hard enough, then maybe… — this type of belief will fail if you do not receive what it is that you ask God for.
Authentic belief has entered into you on an intellectual/rational level and been written into your subconscious so that everything you say and do is motivated by that core rational belief.
So, everything does mean everything, but you are never going to believe on an intellectual/rational level that God wants to give you a million dollars or God wants to give you a new BMW or something like that. You know that’s nonsense, so it’s not going to happen.
Jesus says that if you have enough of that belief then you can ask God and he will give you what you ask for.
The man DID believe that God would not want his son to be possessed by an evil spirit—that’s something we can believe on a subconscious level.
You unbelieving generation. (to the crowds)
Notice who Jesus is talking to:
You unbelieving generation. (to the crowds)
I believe; help my unbelief. (the father to Jesus)
NOTE: A week faith does not deter God’s working as in faith healer circles.
A week faith in yourself deters your ability to accomplish what is within your power to do as a human; but God’s power is never limited by our faith.
Therefore I tell you, everything you pray and ask for—believe that you have received it and it will be yours.
If you believe in Jesus then you get to pray and God hears you—he’s not waiting for you to turn into some sort of faith guru before He is willing to work in your life.
“Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
There are teachers that say God has bound Himself to give you anything you want if you believe enough or if your faith is strong enough. But, it’s not that you have to have enough faith; it’s that you have to have faith. But there are…
THE PREREQUISITES OF PRAYER: This kind can only come out by prayer (a reference not to ‘magic words’ or a particular style or mode of prayer, but to an individual who is a praying-person, as evidenced by the fact that Jesus does not himself pray when he casts this demon out).
PREREQUISITES TO PRAYER
i.e. What makes prayer work?
The disciples wanted to know why they weren’t able to cast out the demon. Jesus responded:
, “This kind can come out by nothing but prayer.” — What makes prayer a means to bring a demon out?
This kind can only come out by prayer (a reference not to ‘magic words’ or a particular style or mode of prayer, but to an individual who is a praying-person, as evidenced by the fact that Jesus does not himself pray when he casts this demon out).
Jesus is NOT saying to use ‘magic words’ — common in ancient societies
Jesus is NOT saying to use a particular style or mode of prayer.
Jesus did NOT even pray to cast the demon out in the story.
He has the power to do so.
It is God’s will to do so, not mans.
NO special words or mode of prayer is necessary, only that we pray and only that God choose to act.
4 Prerequisites for prayer so that we will know if God will answer our prayers
KNOW GOD: Ask according to God’s will:
This is the confidence we have before him: If we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
How to have confidence in prayer? — knowledge in
Know God and know what He is about and we will know if He wants to act on our prayers.
LIVE WELL: Verse, the prayer of a righteous man accomplishes much.
Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is very powerful in its effect.
The way you live is a demonstration of what you believe, … (out of the heart…)
… so a week life is an example of week belief.
But, a righteous life is an example of strong belief.
EX: Peter says that if a husband does not cherish his wife, his prayers will be hindered. ()
If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened;
If you love sin more than righteousness God doesn’t listen to your prayers.
The way we live says what we believe and it effects our prayers.
CHECK YOUR HEART:
You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.
Anyone preaching prayer and belief as a means to gather wealth and comfort is preaching a false doctrine.
We pray to accomplish God’s pleasure not our selfish pleasure.
Why?
Take delight in the Lord, and he will give you your heart’s desires.
This verse is often taken to mean that, if I love Jesus enough then he will bless me with all the comforts that my heart desires, all the basic comforts of the world.
But that’s not what it says. Here King David is telling us that when our delight is in the things of God, then we will receive what our hearts delight in.
This isn’t a worldly comfort that is earned; its a supernatural comfort stemming from a heart that has been moulded and shaped to be like God’s heart; a heart that in every way is far more satisfied and joyful than we could ever imagine.
ACTUALLY ASK:
If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.
I find that, almost universally, when someone comes to me with a crisis of faith—believing that God has left them or that He is not providing for their needs—there is a crisis of prayer.
We act like babies who rely on their parents to feed them and change them without us even asking.
But, when we grow up we learn to ask our parents when we need something.
If you are not sensing God working it may be that you need to grow up in your faith; it may be that you are a spiritual infant.
Seek to know God
Seek to live a life honoring to God
Check your heart—make sure you are asking with the right motives
And then be faithful to take all that to prayer and actually ask God to provide what you need
And I believe, if you do this, you will begin to see God work in ways you never imagined