Answering Impossible Prayers

Answering Impossible Prayers Can my computer hear me? (Covered this Wednesday night) It seems as if it can. Exodus 17:1-7 Can any testify that God answers prayers? Does God hear the prayers of the Church when people gather together to pray? Can God hear our prayers – (Right side of the church) He can! Is God listening – (Left side of the church) He is! Does God answer prayer – (Whole church) He does! How about this one – Can or Does God answer impossible prayers? (Some notes form Chip Ingram’s How To Bring God’s Power to Your Impossible Situation, modified by me.) Acts 12:1-19 Notice Peter during all of this: Peter was sleeping in prison, resting in the Lord. According to V.4 there were 16 soldiers guarding Peter. According to V.6, he slept chained to two of them. It would be impossible for him to escape or for someone to rescue him. The Church, prayed, without ceasing, unto God, for Peter. Look how they prayed. 1. Corporately · The Church – this body of believers makes up this church, RFBC and collectively we are all a part of the greater body of Christ. We must come together corporately in prayer. · Prayed – the single most powerful tool we have and with it access to the GOD who is always listening. o And yet! If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me: Psalm 66:18 § What does it mean to regard? To observe or to notice § What is iniquity? Unrighteousness – Sin, an activity that is contrary to God’s will. § But there is always iniquity in my heart! 1 John 1:9 · The New Testament Church was born out of prayer – see chapter 1:14 of the book of Acts, and almost every chapter uses the word pray in one fashion or another. 5, 7, 15 and few more don’t. 2. Earnestly · Without ceasing – we are commanded to pray without ceasing 3. To GOD! · Unto God o Who is HE? – Isaiah 6:1 – He is HOLY! o Make sure you are in the presence of God when you pray and recognize His presence, His provisions, and His power. 4. Specifically · For Peter o Specifically, by name, and I suspect for his life and release. So, seeing that God does answer impossible prayers, what’s yours? What’s the one impossible thing you need God to do for you? Maybe it’s salvation, forgiveness, or the salvation of a lost loved one, restoration of a relationship, to deliver you out of a particular situation. If God can deliver Peter out of a well-guarded prison He can meet your need. Now understand that anytime we pray we must ask ourselves, · Are we praying according to God’s will? (Does it contradict the Bible?) · Though the prayer be seemingly impossible can or will God be glorified in answering? · OR are we praying out of a selfish or prideful heart? · Do I have faith? – “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” Hebrews 11:6. So again, I ask, what is your one impossible prayer that you need to ask God for? Understand, “ye have not because ye ask not.” God can do the impossible.

In the book of James 4, we find to all to familiar passage, “ye have not because ye ask not.” What is the context of the passage? The content appears to be dealing with fighting and lusting, and the phrase “Yet ye have not because ye ask not” perhaps is referring to peace. SO, I don’t think we can apply this to our lives let alone to any seemingly impossible needs we may have. OR CAN WE? Perhaps they should have been asking for whatever it is that they were fighting over.

Note: Access to the Father is by His Spirit.

We pray to the Father, through the Son, and in the Spirit. It’s the Spirit’s ministry to take us to the throne room of God. (Chip Ingram). Ephesians 1:18 “For through Him [Jesus] we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”

1. Pray unto God.

2. Pray Without Ceasing.

3. Pray Corporately (the Church)