What Can I Ask for? // Unlocking the Power of Prayer, Part 4

Christianityworks Official Podcast

Way too many Christians are way too timid in their prayer lives. Now, I’m not saying be belligerent and demanding, but let me tell you, if your faith is in Jesus … you have a lot more power in your prayer than you realised.

OUR FAITH IN CHRIST

Well, welcome to this last program in the four part series that I’ve called, “The Power of Prayer”. Over the last few weeks we’ve been looking at this whole prayer thing – “Bridging the Communication Gap”. You know sometimes we’re so busy, we’re running around we’re running around doing things. We just don’t take the time to spend with God. Then we saw how Jesus taught us to pray, just a humble, simple communication. Not trying to impress God or trying to impress anyone else, just spending time humbly before Him.

And then last week we saw what it meant to pray with power. This is so important. Last week on the program we saw time and time again God’s Word teaches us to pray with boldness, not with arrogance, but with a confidence in who God is and who we are in Christ Jesus.

When we talk about prayer one of the questions that comes up is, “Well, what can I ask God for? I mean, can I go to God and ask Him for anything? What if I want a flash new car, can I ask Him for that? Or a pay rise, or healing? How come sometimes He answers some peoples prayers for things like that and not others?” We’re going to take a look at that on the program today, because you know something, it’s an important question.

On the one hand, absolutely, we should pray with boldness because that’s what God’s word tells us to do. But on the other, in our me-centric world, and we’re all a product of that somehow aren’t we, it’s easy to get things the wrong way around.

We put ‘me’ at the centre and then we expect God to dance around to our tune. On the other hand, didn’t Jesus say, “Ask for whatever you wish and it will be given to you. And you haven’t received yet because you haven’t asked. See the dilemma.

On the one hand God is God. He’s Sovereign, He’s almighty. His thoughts aren’t our thoughts, His ways aren’t our ways. And yet He teaches over and over again to pray with a faith and a boldness and a perseverance and belief, as Paul puts it in Ephesians Chapter 1, “In the Power that we have”, with a capital ‘P’. Now how do we resolve this dilemma? How do we get it right? What are we missing here in our understanding about this apparent conflict? For me it starts and ends with a deep faith in Jesus.

I was just reading this morning in my own devotion time the Gospel of Luke Chapter 6. Grab a Bible if you have one and open it up with me. Chapter 6 verse 17:

Jesus went down with the people and stood on a level place. There was a large crowd of His disciples and a great number of people from Judea, from Jerusalem and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon and they had come to hear Him and to be healed of their diseases. Those troubled by evil spirits were cured and the people all tried to touch Him because power was coming from Him and healing them.”

See, power was coming from Him. The Greek word for power is ‘dunamis’ we get the word dynamite. We are talking serious power was coming from Jesus and people were getting healed. We have to look at what it says before then. You see it says that they had come to hear him and be healed from all their diseases. That’s verse 18 of chapter 6 of Luke’s gospel. And there’s the key. We need to be open to who Jesus is and what He has to say. Jesus said some outrageous things. Love your enemy for starters. Forgive people. Call God “Dad” which is very radical. He ushered in a power, radical love.

He hung around sinners and lepers and prostitutes and healed the lame, the blind on the Sabbath when he shouldn’t have. And criticised the religious establishment for its hypocrisy. This Jesus, this unconventional saviour, that you just can’t easily put it in a box somewhere. We need to be moved by Him. Influenced by Him.

These people were open to Him. Listen to it again:

A large of disciples was there and a great number of people from all over Judea, from Jerusalem and from the coast of Tyre and Sidon. They came to hear Him and to be healed of all their diseases”. They were moved by Him, they were influenced by Him, they were open to Him and so they experienced His power.

Somehow, you know, this seems to happen the right way up. Instead of creating God in our image to suit ourselves, these people were experiencing God as He was and is and accepting Him and so His power manifested itself in that place. They experienced His power.

Just a bit beforehand, if you flick back a couple of pages to Luke Chapter 4 beginning at verse 19 and onwards, you read about how they rejected Him in His own home town of Nazareth. They drove Him out. He didn’t do any miracles there. There was not much power happening there. It turns out that we need to accept Him for who He is on His terms and not ours, and then the power of God flows.

The same is true in Prayer. This kind of “I’m-at-the-centre-of-the-universe” thing and “God-is-there-to-serve-me” attitude is not where it’s at. Sometimes teenagers can have that view. If you’re a parent you know it doesn’t always get them anywhere with you does it? If anything, that attitude causes the parent to withhold blessing rather than to pour it out. No, these people have come to hear Jesus and then they were healed of diseases.

Here was Jesus on a level place with a large crowd who had come to hear him. The question is, when we come in prayer do we come to hear Him? Do we give Him sway in our heart? When His word is hard to accept, painful even; when He tells us to forgive someone we don’t want to forgive; when he calls us to let go of our pride or to humble ourselves before arrogant people; when He calls us to sacrifice, do we put Him first?

Do we give Jesus true Lordship in our lives? Do we let His kingdom, His reign, His authority, His rule, His will override everything else? All of our selfish desires.

Do we come to Him in prayer? To hear Him? Have we got the creator/creature relationship the right way up? Or when He has something difficult to say are we like the people in His own home town. “Who the heck does He think He is?”

Jesus did some specific and powerful teaching on exactly this issue, when it comes to Him answering prayer. Right towards the end, just before He was crucified, we will look at this teaching next.

WHEN JESUS MOVES OUR HEART

There’s power in prayer? Absolutely, there is! There’s power when we come to Jesus. The problem is so often, even without realising it, we come to Him on our own terms. We want Him to do it our way, not His. I was struggling with an issue recently. It was something in an organization, and you know something, I wanted a certain outcome. ‘I’ wanted! The question though, was for me, what did Jesus want? Well, what was His wisdom, what was His will? Was I prepared to go to Him and say, “Lord, this is how I see it, but actually, You know what I want more than anything else? I want Your will to be done.” Just like Jesus in Gethsemane, He prayed, “Father, if You can take this cup of suffering and make it pass from Me, do it, but not My will; let Your will be done.”

None of us likes to suffer, do we? Never fun – Jesus didn’t want to suffer, but sometimes that’s what we are called to. Sometimes we are called into situations where on the surface, we lose and we want our outcome but are we prepared to make Jesus Christ Lord and live with His outcome?

Have a listen to how Jesus taught His disciples on this issue – this paradox of prayer; this key that unlocks the power of prayer. If you’ve got a Bible, flick it open to John, chapter 5 – John’s Gospel, fourth Book in the New Testament – chapter 5, beginning at verse 5. “Jesus said:

“I’m the vine, you’re the branches. If you remain in Me and I in you, you’ll bear much fruit because apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone doesn’t remain in Me, they’re like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Branches like that are picked up and thrown into the fire and burned, but if you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you. This is to My Dad’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.”

Isn’t that a great picture – the grapevine and the branches? Well, it’s pretty obvious isn’t it? Unless the branch is in the stem of the vine it can’t produce fruit. Grapes produce wine and there are symbols throughout Scripture of God’s abundant blessing and the vine is the place where they get their life. And Jesus says:

“Apart from Me you can do nothing. If you don’t remain in Me, you know what’s going to happen? You’re going to wither and die.”

What does that mean – ‘remain in Me’? Well He goes on to explain that – look at verse 7. “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you” – see there’s a big ‘if’ here – ‘if’ you dwell in Me, ’if’ you abide in Me, ’if’ you stay close in a permanent relationship and bond with Me, I’ll give you life.

“And if My words remain in you” – there is it again; just what we were looking at earlier – “My words remain in you” – if you give Me sway in your heart, everything I’ve taught; everything I am; sacrifice; if those things have sway in your heart and you are close to Me, then, “ask whatever you wish and it will be given to you.”

Why this caveat? Well, it’s about the Lordship of Christ in our lives. If we put Him first; if we grow in Him; if His Word is ‘the’ thing that sways our hearts, no matter what the cost, then we have the relationship the right way up.

Then more that anything, we’ll want His will to be done. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your Kingdom come, Your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.” The very first part of what Jesus taught us to pray in the Lord’s Prayer is getting the relationship with God the right way up. If that’s where we are, then we can ask whatever we wish and it will be given to us.

Why can Jesus make such a sweeping statement? Because it’s to those in whose hearts He has complete sway; it’s to those who call Him ‘Lord’ and truly mean it; it’s for those who have made Him Lord in their lives and will sacrifice their lives for Him. It’s for those who, more that anything, want His will to be done and those one’s He can trust with a promise like that.

I don’t know how it is for you but in my walk with Jesus, it’s a journey. It’s been progressively learning and growing and maturing and getting my actions in line with my heart. Putting this stuff into practise, takes practise and time.

And time after time He’s called me to lay things down along the way – to sacrifice things I wanted, so His will could be done. To leave my six-figure consulting salary and trade it in for a minister’s salary so that God’s Word could be proclaimed around the world. And you know each time I’ve done that, it’s turned out to be a great joy and a great blessing.

But you know, He tests our hearts – He give us an opportunity to live out what’s in our heart and now when I come to Him, I take great care in what I ask for. You know why? Because I want His will to be done first. I know I can ask for anything I wish, but above all, I want His will to be done and for Him to be glorified.

I know the reason for the promise is for His glory. See what He said at the end? He says, “This is for My Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be My disciples.” See, it’s all about Him – not about me – it’s not about you. And so I ask for things that will bring Him honour. Sometimes I have needs – real needs – and I bring those to Him. Sometimes I see needs out there in other people or ministries or whatever, and I go and pray for those.

I take this promise really seriously, because I know that it’s for me. So I honour Him with all my will and my wishes. When we lay our lives down, that’s where the power is in prayer – when Jesus moves our hearts; when He’s truly Lord of our lives, that’s where the power is in prayer.

THE POWER TO CHANGE

Over these last four weeks we have been looking at prayer from God’s perspective and my prayer for you has been that you get a whole fresh perspective on what prayer is about. It’s not about you and me trying to weasel stuff out of a stingy God – it’s not that at all. God knows what we are going to ask for and what our needs are before we even open our mouths.

But you know, sometimes, old habits, old perceptions – they die hard. I believe God want’s us to do away with those right now – that He wants a people who know the power of prayer and have the power to change – the power to change their own lives and the power to change the world for the glory of Jesus Christ through prayer.

Before the break we talked about the Lordship of Christ. Have you ever done this – have you ever truly made Jesus Christ Lord – Lord of everything? Lord of every decision; the Lord at whose feet we lay down our pride and our anger and our un-forgiveness and our selfishness.

Not just believing in Jesus at a distance; not just some quick prayer when you need something – not that. The Lord of all in your life, of everything! Maybe you’ve laid your life down before Him, maybe once, a long tome ago, maybe never. Maybe it’s something you’d like to do again, now.

We are going to pray a prayer, if you want to make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life – if you just want to renew that in your life, why don’t you pray with me now.

“Father God, You know each one of us; You know our hearts; You know our strengths and our weaknesses; You know our failures; You know our insecurities; You know every hair on our heads. Father, as we have heard Your Word today; the beautiful words of Jesus, we feel Your Spirit calling us forward, to bow down our lives before You. Father, we just want to come right now and admit our own failure and our own sin and our own rejection of You. Lord, our pride, our arrogance; all the things that we just know aren’t from You. And Father, we just say please forgive us. We put our faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross and we just ask that You would forgive us those things. Father we just invite You to be the Lord of our life. Lord Jesus come and rule and reign in our lives. We bow our lives down to You today, for all eternity, no matter what the cost; no matter what the sacrifice; no matter what You call us to, we truly want You to be the Lord of our lives. Father we just thank You that as we pray this prayer, You don’t leave us on our own to live it out. We thank You that Your Holy Spirit brings resurrection life to our bodies. Holy Spirit come and fill us; fill us to overflowing with the live of Jesus. Lord, let us carry the death of Jesus around in our body, so that we can experience His life. We know there are going to be hard days. We know it’s not going to be always easy. We know, Lord, that we are going to make mistakes and stumble along the way but from this moment on, Jesus, we make You the Lord of our lives. We pray this in Your name. Amen.”

That prayer is about making Jesus Christ Lord and when we do that – simply, gently, yet radically, day by day, walk with Him – what we discover is power in our prayer. First Peter chapter 3, verse 12, says:

“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

Prayer is the power to change. Without prayer there is no power from God. Doing things in our own strength – our own strength is so puny and so inadequate, so flaky, so tiny, compared to the unimaginably great power of God.

You know, I recently, in the ministry, produced a Newsletter that goes out to all the supporters of Christianityworks and we have a great team of people here – people putting together stories and pictures just to share with our supporters the wonderful things God’s been doing – testimonies from around the world.

One of our board members owns an advertising agency and a wonderful Christian designer, a lady by the name of Mel, did the layout and design and when I saw it, I was so excited. It was so vibrant and beautiful and inspiring and I looked at it with delight at what God had produced through the team here and as I did, I felt the Holy Spirit say this to me, “Now pray that your Father in heaven will bless all of your supporters with the knowledge of what He as been doing through their gifts and prayers.”

And you know, I would almost have sent that Newsletter out without praying that prayer. But you know, the Holy Spirit was right, because without Him, we can do nothing. I wanted that Newsletter to bless the people that support this ministry – how did I possibly think that we would do that without inviting God; without saying, “Jesus, You are Lord, this is Your work. Bless this into the hearts of all the people who support the ministry.”

It doesn’t matter what we do – it doesn’t matter how good it is in the world’s eyes, unless He’s in it; unless His Spirit goes ahead and opens hearts, it won’t deliver the joy of the Lord that it was meant to. And that’s true in everything in life! We can race ahead and think, “God will just show up.” There’s power in prayer – prayer is the power to change – prayer is joining hands with the Lord to do His will. Think about it! The God who created all the stars in the whole universe – trillions of them – joining hands with Him to see His will done here on earth.

That’s what prayer is and part of His will is to bless you and me – part of His will is to provide for you and me – part of His will is to bring healing into relationships, to put food on our table. He wants to do all that, He’s our Dad, He loves us. But prayer is about joining hands with God and seeing His will done.

I’m not a great prayer – I’m not some super-spiritual prayer – you know, what I just try to do is, most mornings, I sit down with God. I just rest with Him and say, “Lord, you know, I’d love these programmes to be heard by more people. I just want to see Your Word change more and more lives”, and just through that simple prayer – no more than that – in two years we have millions of people listening to the programmes each week. That’s God; that’s prayer! It doesn’t get any better than that, does it? That’s the sort of prayer Jesus spoke about – that’s the sort of prayer the Bible talks about – it’s awesome.

We lay our lives down and just come to Him simply and humbly and say, “Lord, I want to join hands with You to do Your will.” We can ask for anything and it will be done for us.