Prayer life
Category: Prayer
Key Passage: James 4:1-2
Speaker: Paul Chisgar
Date: July 13, 2019
But that was the subject last week. And this week we want to look at a different aspect. Why we don’t have our prayers answered, all right? James chapter number four. James chapter four.
And we’re going to read the first two verses. James four, verse number one, verse number two. Would you stand, please, as we read these verses tonight together. James four, and I’ll read it out loud. You just read it silently there. James four, verse number one, if you’re there, would you say amen? Good. From whence come wars. Now wars there not necessarily, but it is part of it, but not necessarily just countries fighting against one another, but it’s groups of people fighting against one another. Okay? You get that in elementary school. You get that in immature Christians. But just groups fighting against one. From whence come wars.
And fightings. Now, fighting is one individual fighting with another, whether it be words or whatever it may be. From whence come wars and fightings among you. Come they not hence, even of your lust, that war in your members. You have all this outside fussing and fight because something on the inside is not right. Okay, that’s one of the truths we learn from that. They have their own desires.
You got this lust, that lust there is sensual desires. Verse number two, ye lust. By the way, this is a different lust, a different Greek word. It’s not necessarily a sinful longing, but it’s just a longing after. Okay? That was just to make sure you awake. Besides that, I don’t know what it was, all right. But verse number two, ye lust, you long after, you lust, and have not, you kill and desire to have. Now that you kill, you’re getting to the point you want something so bad you’re willing to do sinful to get there.
You’re willing to kill to get it, if you will. That much you want something, not necessarily bad, but you’re just longing after to the point that you’re willing to hurt someone else to get it. Okay? You lust and have not. You kill and desire to have, and cannot obtain. You fight war.
I ain’t get a bunch of fussing and fighting and arguing and bickered and gossiping and backbiting and all that’s going on. But look what he says. You fight and work. You have not because you ask not.
Now, just very simple tonight. We don’t have answers to prayer because we don’t pray. I’m finding it, and not necessarily our church, but just across the board, you have a prayer meeting, and it’s an hour or it’s breakfast, an hour and a half, whatever, and then 10 minutes of prayer. We have a prayer meeting. It’s an hour longer talking in five minutes of pray. Or we talk a lot about prayer, but we don’t practice it. Our prayer lies are very short. And sometimes we just don’t have answers to prayer because we’ve not been praying. And that’s what he’s saying. You’re doing all this rest of the stuff trying to get everything, but you have not, because you ask not. You’re just not praying, asking.
Now, I’m going to just kind of go through some things. Many of you heard me talk about this before, but I’m just going to try to maybe, oh, give us a little encouragement of praying and how to pray, how to have a good prayer life. And it’s not just praying during your prayer time. You usually have a good prayer time and you have to pray throughout the day. I’m just going to try to talk about this thing about having a good prayer time, praying, learning how to pray.
We’re not having answers to prayer because we’re not praying. Try to help us pray more. And would you ask God, it’s such an individual thing about your prayer time. So would you ask God to speak to you as an individual as I speak to the ears? But God can make that in your heart the way it needs to be. Would you ask him to do that as we go to the Lord of Word of Prayer? By the young people, would you do that? It would be great if our young people, if you learn to have a prayer time when you’re young. And you grow up having that be awesome. So would you pray and ask God to do that, to speak to you specifically about your prayer time as we pray?
Father, Lord, thank you that you invite us and you teach us, you tell us, really, to pray. Father, would you give each individual here tonight a vision of being a prayer warrior? Lord, I’ll maybe use some things. I think you want me to say. But Lord, would you interpret that if you would, Lord? And would you write it on their hearts as they needed as an individual? Father, would you do that, Lord, please. We’ll brag on you for what you’re doing and let you do that. Father, we’re asking that you do that in the name of Jesus. So Father, we’re asking in faith. We’ll praise you for it. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen. Thank you so much for standing. You may be seated.
When you go to God in prayer, one of the best things you can start off with is found over in Psalms 100. If you want to go ahead and turn over there, we’ll turn it a little bit tonight. But just you want to have your prayer time and you want to get close to God. You want to enter into his presence. Something special about entering into his presence. How do I get there? Maybe you’ve had a busy day. Your prayer time is later on in the day. Maybe you have your prayer time in the morning. You’re half awake, half asleep. How can I get into his presence? How can I start my prayer life off? Okay. Psalms 100. Verse number four is a great verse for how to enter into his presence at the beginning of your prayer time, all right? Psalms 100. Look in verse number four there. Notice what he says. It says, enter into his gates with Thanksgiving.
How do you get close? How do you enter into his presence? Getting his gates. With what? With Thanksgiving. Yeah. Now you get past the gate. You want to get even closer into his palace, into his presence, into the throne room. You enter into his gates with Thanksgiving, into his courts with praise. Right? Starts off with giving thanks, and then it becomes a little bit more heartfelt, becomes praise. Okay. Be thankful unto him and bless his name.
Oh, maybe a week or two ago, my wife and I, we have a, I have a little dirt bike, a motorcycle, my wife has a four-wheeler, and sometimes we’ll go over to place. A little bit at this side of Chattanooga. It’s a Tennessee forestry. It’s thousands of acres. It’s free. Amen. And you have to check the dates, make sure it’s open, and we can just go out in the woods and ride. Over the years, I’ve did it. It may be up to 50 times. It may be 30 times. I mean, I’ve did it with my son. I’ve did it with my daughter. I’ve did my whole family. I’ve taken other people there. I’m taking my kids’ friends there. I mean, we just… And it’s always free. Somebody can say amen right there, you know. My name is Jimmy. I like what you give me, you know. And it’s great. It’s wonderful.
And so my wife and I, we’re riding out in the woods down some trails. And we see the Tennessee forestry up there in a four-wheel drive. And I thought, wow, all these years, I’ve talked to maybe briefly, but here’s one of the forestry guys. They always let us ride here for free. I mean, they have to maintain the road somewhere. Every once in a while, you’ll see a bulldozer out in the middle of the woods, whatnot. And so we see one of these guys out there. And so we pull up alongside, he pulls over to the side, the best he can. We pull up beside him. And I thought, well, this is one of the guys. He was higher up for him and had a crew out there. And I seen him, and I thought, well, you know, he’s let us do this for years and years. And I know it’s not his personal decision, but he’s part of it. He’s worked in Forster for years and did that.
So the first thing I said was, sir, thank you. I’ve rode these trails in these woods for years and years. I told him, I said, I don’t know. I’ve probably been out here 50 times over the years. My kids grew up riding these trails on broke down motorcycles and whatnot, you know, and I just want to thank you. Now, I mean, honestly, I think at first he was a little bit shy and a little bit closed up and not really wanting to talk to us. And he was a foreman, he had a crew on down the woods, had a dump truck, and bulldozer out there. But when we said that, thank you, it kind of opened him up. And he started talking.
And we were in the middle of the woods. We had turned our vehicles off and he turned his pickup truck off. And we just talked for a while. I don’t think that would have happened unless the first thing I said was, hey, man, I’ve been doing that riding these trails forever. I want to thank you. And when you want to get, you want to pray, you want to get close to God, one of the wisest things to do. Don’t go in there and just boom. That’s all my problems, God. Been pretty rough here lately, you know. Don’t start off like that. He’s entering and say, hey, Lord, thank you. Giving of thanks. You enter into his gates with Thanksgiving.
Now, here’s the wonderful thing about it. You’re half asleep. You only have a half a cup, half a cup of folders in you, you know? Or great value. How many great value? Yeah, great value, especially in those curate, you know, that’s a good one there, you know. Food lines got pretty good coffee, too. But anyway, I mean, you know that? And so you’re kind of out of it, you know, I mean, you still, we were talking about it. We were eating spaghetti. It’s funny Sunday morning. You’re going to be watching for it now, but you’ll know who has those masks on because they’ll come in and have those lines still on their face. You know what I’ll talk about there. Hopefully I didn’t get anybody here tonight. Don’t point it out to him next Sunday. I can tell you just woke up, brother. You know, don’t do that to him.
Anyway, I mean, you’re half asleep. And once you go in there and you say, well, I need to start thanking God. And so those old wills in your head start churning just a little bit. Sometimes I’ll try to think him for the past blessings of the past 24 hours. God, you did this out of other, you know. Sometimes there’s been occasions I go through my life and thank you for saving my mom and my dad and changing our family tree. Sometimes I’ll just thank you for maybe my family and things about my family. But you enter into his gate. You want to get close to God. Don’t get in there. Start complaining around the back. Go in there. Go in there. Thank you, Lord.
And that opens, you realize it opens people up and we’re made in his image and likeness. And then once those wills start turning, you start giving thanks, you might not feel it a whole lot because all you do is feel tired of that moment, but you start giving thanks to the more you give thanks the more you start feeling it and becomes praise.
I like what old Curtis Hudson said. He said, I had a desire and a will, I was going to pray every morning. He said, but Will wanted to go pray, but Feelings didn’t want to go pray. And he said, I woke up, and Will said, we’re going to go pray. Feelings said, uh-uh, I ain’t going to pray. And so Will said, well, I’m going to go and my own. And Will went over there in the prayer room and started praying, you know, about 10, 15 minutes later, all of a sudden there’s not. And Will went to the prayer, closed the door, and he opened us up, and Feelings, sure enough, was standing out there, say, can I join you now? And that’s a lot of times your prayer life. But you get close to God, start thanking him. And you get into praise.
Why does this over there, Matthew 6th, and Luke over there, he says, now wait a second, we call it the Lord’s Prayer. Well, how does it, help me, how does it start off? Help me, how does it start off? Our father. Well, man, the greatest thing you can thank God for is that he’s your dad, you’re saved. We were in Sunday School here this morning, and we tried to start it off with praise, and I said, hey, somebody got to praise. And as a blessing, Cindy, in her class, she said, well, we could always praise God for our salvation. And she’s right.
And our father, how do you start all? What’s the model of prayer? First thing, our father, hey, thank you God for saving me. See? And you’re starting off giving thanks and acknowledging, man, he saved me. I don’t deserve going to heaven. I’m a sinner. But he saves me. He’s my father. And you can even get more personal about it and say, hey, you’re the best dad anybody ever had. That’s all right to call him dad. Abba father, if you will. And you start getting closer to him. You’ve been thanking him and praised him and thanking him for your salvation. I’m going to heaven. And it’s a good thing to remember the day you got saved. And you get closer to him. And now, man, you’re my dad. So thankful you’re my dad.
We have not because you walk. What? So I want to work at my prayer life. And boy, somebody that if you ever get in your prayer life or you enter into his presence, you’re like, man, there’s something to do that thing right there. I like that. How do you get there? You start off thanks, giving him thanks and praise. And it can get very personal. Maybe in things you wouldn’t share with anyone else, but your dad. You’re thanking you for it. And I’m just trying to throw out some things, maybe help us enter prayer life, challenge us a little bit.
For me, the first thing I really pray about, my prayer time, my first big request, if you will, is for myself. I pray for myself. Now, you say, is that selfish? Well, I don’t think I can really pray for somebody else like I ought to unless I get myself right. So for myself, I start off praying for myself.
Part of that portion of that time is as I asked Lord to reveal any sin. Remember David said that over there in Psalm 139, he said, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Try me, know my faults and see if there be any wicked way in me. Leave me the way every last thing. So during that time I’m praying for old Paul Chesgar and I said, Lord, is there some sins I need to confess? Now wait a second. If you’re practicing what we sang tonight and he walks with me and he, what? He’s going to tell you about some sins.
Look over in 1 John 1. Look over 1 John 1. And look in verse number 8. 1 John 1, 1, verse number 8 of God’s word. Look at this thing here. 1 John 1, verse number 8. By the way, he’s talking about having fellowship with God in 1st John 1, being close to him. And notice what he says here, 1 John 1, verse number 8, right there. Once you find out, would you say, amen? Good. We’re getting there. 1 John 1, verse number 8, told my having fellowship of God, verse number 8. He says, if we say that we have no sin, we, what’s the next two words?
We’re fooling ourselves. We’re kidding ourselves. We deceive ourselves and the truth. Hold out there in that truth. Part of that’s the word of God. And the truth is not in us. By the way, we can just about justifying anything. Y’all with me? Now the wonderful thing is the next verse right there. If we confess our sins, we just own up to it. If we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
How you got some envy in your heart? Got some bitterness in your heart. Got some hurts in your heart. Got some longing after some wrong things. You’re maybe wanting to get the love of money inside of you, whatever. Maybe you’ve been critical of other people, whatever. Maybe you’ve not been loving your wife like you ought to. Maybe you’re not been letting your husband lead like God. Whatever may be. And you let the spirit of God speak to you. And part of us praying for ourselves is us getting right, thoroughly right with God.
It’s very interesting in the model prayer we call it over there in Luke or Matthew. And that he really even doesn’t get to the part of confessing our sins to, but later on in your prayer time. And I usually think that’s because once you really get close to God, then you start seeing sins you never saw before. But sometimes it’s an issue by just to get a little bit closer, draw an eye to me and I don’t draw not to you, cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your heart’s a double-minded and me getting close to God is getting clean. Sometimes it’s just a process or going on process.
But I pray for myself and I confess my sins and I try to get right with God and I don’t want to. I don’t want to try to whitewash it and blame everybody else and try to pacify and make my sin not bad. I just won’t get right. That’s the key during that time. So many things, and the Lord will guide you. It’s amazing. Ask the Lord to guide you in your prayer time. But I try, and it’s on my prayer list, I try to pray for wisdom every day.
The Bible talks about how important wisdom is. Wisdom is the principal thing. With all thy getting, get understanding. Wisdom is so important. Lord said, I have his mouth come with wisdom and understanding. And so if I need wisdom, I go to God. Look over in James chapter number one. You’ll know this verse. Many of James chapter number one. Great promise. You pray about a lot of things and things I can’t specific to you, but you ought to pray for wisdom every day, every day, wisdom of your finances, wisdom in your marriage, wisdom in your children, wisdom with influence of your grandchildren of the Lord, young people, wisdom with your friends, wisdom with your decisions. You’re going to make, young people, you’re going to make the major decisions in life in the next 10, 15 years, the major decisions you’re going to make them. Who you’re going to marry? Typically, where you’re going to, what kind of career you’re going to have, what kind of lifestyle, you’re making those decisions when you’re young for the most part, and you need wisdom for making those decisions so very, very much.
So what do I do? Every day, every day, at least once a day, throughout the day, but be praying for wisdom. James one, look at verse number five, James one, verse number five. If any of you, I like that, I’m pretty sure I wasn’t raised in church. And Tyler, man, he’s got an amazing story. If you heard his whole story talking about his stepfather, he’d been so good to those kids. But look, it doesn’t matter if you’re raised in church, whatever your home life’s like. If any of you lack wisdom, some humility there, I need wisdom. Don’t come to him thinking you got it all together. You don’t, I don’t. If any of you like wisdom, what do you do about it? Let him ask of God.
Lord, I need some wisdom of my finances. I like five years down the road to be debt free. I like to be here in 10 years, 15. I like to have my house paid off at least by the time I retire. Whatever it may be. If any of you acquiesce, what do you do about it? Let them ask. Let them ask. There it is. Let them ask of God. That giveth liberally to all men. That’s amazing. All men. You know, Vines truth, God will even give wisdom to a lost person? Is that what it says or not? That’s what it says. To all men. And I like this and upbraideth not. God doesn’t come along and say, well, Pastor Paul, you’re getting old. You ought to have some common sense now. You big, why do you need wisdom about that thing? God never does it. He doesn’t upbraid you. He doesn’t say, well, my brother Marlin, you ought to know better than that. He doesn’t, he doesn’t embrace you. Hey, if I lack wisdom and the honest truth is we all do. Don’t ever get to the point. Thank you. You got it all together. If you lack wisdom, let him ask of God.
I’m not against going to some wise counselors. The Bible talks about that before we do all that. Let him ask you of God. And they give it to all men liberally. Amen. God says, I give out wisdom. What is it? They give it to all men liberally, and up, prayeth not, he won’t get on to you for asking for wisdom. That’s what I say it. Now, look at the last part of that verse. It’s amazing. And upraith not, and it shall be given him. That’s amazing promise. Light it out, God to give you the wisdom. Your marriage, yeah. What do I do about my health situation? And what supplemental insurance should I have? Anybody out there? Don’t talk about it on all that? Yeah, ask God for wisdom. And he promises, he’ll give it to you.
Now, as you’re praying for yourself, confess your sins, at least ask for wisdom. And then I’d say this, ask for the feeling of the Holy Spirit. You got saved, you got the indwelling, but there’s the empowering the feeling of the Holy Spirit. We have it on our wall over here in this room. Let me see if I can get it for you real quick. Y’all don’t fall asleep while I’m going. And let me see if I can get it. Oh, good, it came off. I didn’t even break it, not yet at least. When I got this over here, it’s Luke 11:13. If he then being evil, I like that. Because none of us are perfect, amen. If you then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children. How much more? I like that. How much more shall your heavenly father? I mean, we give things dads down here, but you’ve got a heavenly dad. How much more shall your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to who? To them that what? Ask. Yeah.
All the verses, not all, but many of the verses preceding that is talking about asking for the Holy Spirit if you read the passage. It’s after he gives what we call the Lord’s Prayer in Luke 11. Now look. I mean, in your prayer time, you ought to be saying, no, Lord, I need the Holy Spirit, I need the fullness. I mean, I know it happens in dwelling, but I need his empowering. If you’re going to influence the coworkers at work, you need his empowering. They don’t need you. They need the Lord flowing through you. See. And so pray about that. You have not because what? That’s not.
I know in preacher, he said the vast majority of my prayer life as far as praying for himself, just about all of it. He said, just praying for the Holy Spirit. That’s what I do. He said, God, I need the Holy Spirit. He promised he said to give it. So I enter into his prayers. When I start off my prayer time, how do I get into his gate? Somebody help me out. How do I do that? Give thanks, right. Thanks, shit.
Then I start, who do I pray for myself? Who do I pray for myself for me? Myself. Yeah, I start praying for myself. I confess to my sins. And I confess that me and Tammy shouldn’t have thrown those dishes at each other last night and fault. You know, I confess we shouldn’t have got the guns out and all that. I confess all that stuff, you know. And I confess that Tammy shouldn’t have been drunk when we were doing it. I confess all that stuff. I’m joking, of course. But pray for myself. This just me, and you don’t have to do it, and your prayer life won’t be like mine. I’m trying to give you my ideas.
But the next thing I do, I pray for my immediate family. I pray for my wife next. If you’re married, you ought to be praying for your mate. I try at least once a year to update my prayer list, and I’ll often go to my wife. Say, hey, something you want me to pray for you about. Hey, husbands, especially as husbands and wives too, don’t just pray for your mate selfishly. I won’t end to me this more. Why? So they’ll be better to you. No, no, pray for them. Lord, Lord, give them a good day. Speak to them through your word just so they have your presence and you’re speaking to them. They have that joy. Give them a good prayer time. And Lord, let them walk with you. Not so they’ll be better to you, but for them.
Pray for your kids. Oh, my goodness, that takes a long time to pray for my kids. There’s a lot of needs there. I’d tell you for sure. And I’m joking, but… But I pray for my kids. Ms. Tammy said it. I was thinking about mentioning the message, but I’ve been praying for McKenna for about 24 years. I didn’t know the name. Back, to be honest with you, I need to change my prayer list because I still have on my prayer list, John’s future mate. I pray for the future mate. I’ve caught myself and shame on me when I’m going in a rut, a routine. Lord, bless his future maintenance. Wait a second. She’s married. Pray for McKenna. Lord bless me. And I’ll pray for McKennan.
But that’s a good thing. And pray for your children’s future. Make great thing. One of the most important things they’ll do is who they marry. I’ve been praying for Sarah’s husband for a long time. Pray that he’ll be rich and he’ll share with his father-in-law. But I pray for immediate, then I’ll pray for extended family. I pray for my mom and my siblings and maybe just one or two things typically about each, if that. Don’t pray so genuine, you never know if God answers or not. I pray for my in-laws, my wife’s family, and I pray for them.
I pray for church. And I’m not saying I’m a great prayer where I’m not trying to act like that, just trying to give you some ideas and try to help you in your prayer life. But somebody asked me the day, said, preacher, why do you think? Wouldn’t it be a good thing to have a playground? And I think I said it, but I said, you know, I’ve been praying for that for years. Yes, I do think that. That’s one of the things I pray for for our church. We need a good playground. Now, I don’t think we need to make any decisions until we find out what God’s going to do with the property where we’re moving all that. And that’s part of that. It helped me start praying for the building, you know, because Lord, we need a good playground one day.
But you say, man, preacher, we need this, we need that. Isn’t it a full choir a blessing? It adds so much and adds volume and so much and depth and all they say, pray, Lord, help our choir fill up. You go to Sunday school class, you ought to go to Sunday, pray for your Sunday school class. And it helps me to pray for our people. I pray for all of our Sunday school class pretty much every day. And I ask me to pray for our teachers and whatnot. But pray for your Sunday school class. So many things, you can pray for different ministries, the bus ministry. What a vital ministry that is. And… pray for our teens this week going to camp. Pray for a building, Lord. If we’re going to go to the next level, give us a building in your time and work out our sewage situation. Pray about it.
And pray for your church. I try to always pray, Lord, let our church see soul saved. Not just about having a big number. It’s about getting soul saved. Pray for that. You have not because… Yeah, it’s not. Can I, Brother Anthony, it’s so good. But if you want to see people say, pray about it. Pray about it. God spoiled me rotten this week. I was wanting to see somebody saying, I’m trying to pray about it. And God, I’m lazy. I mean, I was in my office, and God sent two guys playing basketball up there, about 18, 20 years old, and both of them just out there. I mean, we even stood in the shade, amen. I mean, I’m lazy, you know. And God brought them to me, and got to leave him to the Lord. And what? Just pray about it. I’d pray a church gets people saved. Pray for that. Pray for baptisms. And if we haven’t had a baptism while, pray about that thing. Boy, Lord, we ought to have more souls baptizing our church. Okay, you’re right, good. Have you been praying about it? Pray about it.
My wife’s good about this. If so-and-so’s been missing for a while, she’ll pray for them. Sometimes, sometimes, she’ll mention to me, and she’s not trying to brag, she’s just thinking the Lord, but she said, you know, it’s amazing, so-and-so is in church and so on, and I’ve been praying for them. You see people missing, pray for her. But have a section. You’re praying for your immediate family, extended family, your church family. Pray for a country. Y’all, I mean, I don’t want to just get redundant, but I’m just trying to maybe get your wheels turning. It’s not going to look the same for you in your prayer line, but pray for your country.
I want to pray for a country, usually the first thing I pray for preachers in the churches across America. Now, I don’t pray for a great number, not trying to act like that, but I’ll kind of go across America and pray for preachers that I know across America. Somebody’s alarm just went all seven o’clock. We’re supposed to pray for a building. How about that? Somebody did that, had it ready to go, you know. And that’s a good thing. That’s a good thing. Let’s do this. Seven o’clock, we’re supposed to pray about a building. We’re supposed to pray about a building. Brother Phil, would you mind standing and just leading us in some prayer right there? This is seven o’clock. Let’s just pray. Amen. Thank you, Brother Phil. I appreciate that very much.
We’re talking about you have not because what? We’re talking about your prayer time. Section of your prayer time. We’re talking about praying for our what? Country, our country. Pray for the preachers. The church across America. Pray for the politicians. We complain a lot. A lot of pray for the president. Pray for the vice president. Pray for the Senate. Pray for the House. Pray for the Supreme Court. I’ve been asked, and I’m sure you probably more than me, but pray that God will give us one more conservative Supreme Court justice soon. You have not? Because… We complain and listen to every news channel there is, but that’s not going to do a bit of good unless we’re praying. Come on now. You have not because. Yeah.
Now, a couple of things that I’m done. Your prayer time is not going to look like mine. You can pray. These boys, these young men up here, they can pray to God. This fellow right here can pray to God like I never can. He can give to God something I cannot give to God. Tyrese. Tyrese can give something to God. I never can give to God. Tyler can give something to God. Fred can give something to God that I can’t give to God. I can tell what this guy ate for the last month. Amen. And God, God will love them like He doesn’t love me either. A very specific, special prayer they can give to God and a special love God gives to them. We’re made in His image and His likeness. His image and likeness is great. And you bear His image His likeness in a special way like nobody else does. So I can kind of share a little bit of my time, but you’re going to look a little different in mine. That’s good.
I’m not trying to get your prayer time to look like my prayer time. I’m just trying to give you ideas and get your mind and your wheels going and you asking the Holy Spirit to guide you in your prayer. It’ll be different than mine. Relationships are different. Marriages are different. I mean, there’s some things that are true about every marriage, a good marriage, but they’re different. I mean, some people, they’ll joke about 99% of the time. You ever seen some marriages? I’m not going to say any names, but they can a little bit fuss and fight with each other. And at the end of the day, they’re happy. Some marriages, boy, they say a little bit, something like that, they’re in a fight. Every marriage is a little different. And your relationship with the Lord is going to be different than my relationship for the Lord.
And so it’s going to look a little different, your prayer time. But you have not because of what? That’s not. Prayer. We’re losing this thing of prayer. We’re trying every technique and every gadget they have. We have so much available today and printing presses and technology. We got it all building. We got all that. But you have not because ye have. We’re letting everything take the place of prayer. And those things, who was it? Oh, I’m forgetting the missionary. I think it was Hudson Taylor. He said, don’t send me a guy that can preach. They usually pass, they just pass off the scene. Send me a guy that knows how to pray. God will teach them how to preach. If he knows how to pray, he’ll stick.
And you have not because you ask not. Part of having your time alone with God is learning to hear his voice. I almost stopped in the middle of the song. I was asked Lord whether he wanted us to or not and just mention it, but I didn’t feel like he wanted me too then. And he walks with me and he, that ought to be involved in your prayer life. Now that takes some work getting there.
Remember Eli and Samuel? You remember that? Samuel is just a boy. He grew up in the temple of God, and Eli’s the old prophet there. And Samuel, they’re going to bed at nighttime, and Eli’s over there. He had the sleep acne. He had the mask on, you know, he’s older. Eli, he was a pretty large man, you know. But Samuel hears that voice. Remember you don’t talk about it over there first name? And he says, man, Eli’s calling me. So little Sammy, he hops up out of bed, he runs over there, hey, what you need. And Eli said, I didn’t call for anything. I’ve snored. I’m sleeping. Going back to bed, it’s all right.
Samuel went back over there, and Samuel was trying to lay down and go to sleep, and all of a sudden he hears that voice again. And Samuel, hey, what you need? I’m here to serve you. Eli says, I didn’t call for you. Stop waking me up. I had good dreams going. I was dreaming about fried chicken, amen. Go back to bed. And Samuel went back over there and Samuel, trying to lay down, trying to go to sleep. He heard that voice again. Hey, why you need there? I got a fried chicken leg for you from public. Amen. Eli said, give me that. Now go back to bed, amen. What did Eli say? He said, hey, go back. He said, that’s God speaking to you. The Bible says over there in Samuel that Eli, he didn’t know the Lord yet. And it takes some time and some spiritual discernment to hear to listen to the voice of God.
Remember Elijah? Elijah went out in the woods. He was depressed, discouraged, a great victory of Mount Carmel, but didn’t bring revival. That’s what I think happened. And then, you know, Jezebel. And he takes off and he says, I’m not better than my father’s. I can’t bring revival, you know. And he’s just so weary. Lord, just take me home. Ended amazing when we were discouraged. Lord, just take me home. You ever been there? Come on back. Lord, come on back. Things are going good. People getting saved. Wait a little bit long. I want to see some more saved. Y’all with me out there? Yeah. That’s where Elijah’s out. He’s discouraged, depressed.
And in a minute long, what happens? The wind comes. Man, it’s blowing. Tornado’s coming. And God wasn’t in the wind. What happens then? Earthquake. Somebody make an earthquake sound. These are my guys right here, man. Sound effects right there. All right, all right, all right. Enough of the earthquake. God wasn’t in the earthquake. Then what happens? The fire. I don’t know how in the world can make a fire sound. These guys got it going up here. I’ll tell you for sure. They’re the fire. All right, enough fire. God wasn’t in the fire. What happens next? Still, small.
Here’s the amazing thing about that. I’ve wrote this down. It’s First Kings 19:13. It was for you. And it was so when Elijah heard it. The Bible doesn’t tell us, but I always think when I read that, I wonder how long that still small voice had been speaking, but Elijah didn’t hear it. When Elijah heard it, and in your prayer time, part of it ought to be listening to the Spirit of God. It’s going to be hard to get it real tuned in in the middle of all the hustle and bustle of life. Usually you learn to hear his voice the best alone. And it’ll be so, so often you’ll learn to hear his voice alone that sometimes even in the midst of the crowd you’ll still hear it. But so often you get your ears tuned in. It’s like that radio dial, you’ve got to tune that in to that frequency. And usually you learn to get the frequency alone with God.
Matthew 6 twice. Matthew 6 says twice, The Father which is in secret. Then you grow in your prayer life and you truly mean it. And he walks with me and he talks. And the Holy Spirit becomes our guide. It’s a wonderful thing. You heard, and I’ve got to go, but you heard tell about the fellow, he had, oh, I think it was seven daughters, if I remember, seven kids at least. And he said, I’m going to pray for each of my kids five minutes a day. And so he said, you know, that’s pretty good. That’s 35 minutes. You understand that, you know. And first day, he prayed for one of his daughters, and he prayed everything in the world, and it’s only three minutes. And so he asked the Holy Spirit what she’ll pray for. And the Holy Spirit, he said, pray that she’ll feel lovely in the sight of God. And she’ll think she’s valuable and so on and so on.
And he had his prayer time. His daughter’s about to leave her school. And he said, you know, I just want to tell you that I prayed for this morning that you know how lovely you are to God and you’re a beautiful young lady and you got a lot of value and the girl started crying. She said, Dad, how did you know I needed all that? Spirit of God told him. And he walks with me and he talks with me. I’m not being spooky, but that still small voice still speaks to date. His spirit bears witness with our spirit. He’s to guide us into all truth.
It’s going to look different than my prayer life because you can pray to God like I cannot. And there’s going to be seasons. You know, God gave Paul that thorn of the flesh and he said, hey, I went to the three times. I think that was three seasons of prayers and God will grow your prayer life a lot of different ways. Yacht, yada, yada. But some of that, you’re learning to listen to the voice of God. I’m not there like I want to be. I often tell us story. When we’re looking for our first building, God said, hey, you hadn’t fasted yet. We didn’t fasted very long. You can tell that. Amen. I haven’t fasted the whole lot. That’s for sure, you know. But God gave us a building right after we fasted just for about an hour. And that voice. I learned to hear the voice of God.
Here’s a wonderful thing about it once you spend a lot of time with God. You learn to spend time with God. Here’s the wonderful thing. He begins to rub off on you. Oh, you ever hear this word godly? Brother Anthony, oh, two years ago, whatever, when they came, and we were having our foundation’s class. And Brother Anthony, he was in the class very first. And I just have a habit, didn’t mean it, but we do the review. And somebody gets the right answer. And I just, it just happened. I said, good, good, good, good. You know, that’s just, that was my thing for a while. I don’t know if I still said it or not. And it says, good, good, good, good. That’s a good, good good. And I think Ms. Gator was teasing Brother Anthony later on. She said, you’ve been saying that good, good, good. Because you’ve been hanging around Pastor Paul. He’s probably picking up a lot of bad things from Pastor Paul.
Well, that’s the way we are. I mean, we pick up things from others that we’re hanging around. And you start hanging around God a lot. He said, man, I don’t know where it’s coming from, but I’m loving people more. It’s not about me when I can get out of and how I love them. It’s God’s rubbing up on you. And you’re just quicker to forgive people, and you’re more gracious towards people, and it’s more about them and less about you and all those things. Where’s that coming from? Sure doesn’t come from flesh. It comes from hanging around God. I don’t see it like I like to, but it’s wonderful. You just hang around God enough where you’re starting to. It’s a blessing. That’s right, Paul. I know Paul. That’s the Lord.
What do you say? You have not because? Yes, not. I’m just trying to, hey, let’s work at our prayer time. Let’s learn to pray. Oh, John Rice used to often tell, many of you heard it before, you used to often tell about a dream. And I don’t know if it’s a day, dream, night, but everybody should talk about John Rice and he said, went up to heaven. And he’s kind of getting a tour of heaven, you know. And, I mean, he’s going through there, you know, and it’s amazing. Brother Fontaine’s got a big mansion there, and Brother Parthen does. And then you come along to, I’m trying to think somebody who won’t mind me picking on him a little bit. And you don’t mind me coming along with this fellow, and you see his little shack that he’s got up there. I’m teasing what you’re in. But anyway, he was talking about going up to heaven, John Rice, and he said, he’s seen all these big warehouses. And it had names over them, Richard, Marlin, John, and Paul. And finally he went and he said, what’s the deal with all these warehouses, all these names on it? And he said, well, those are things that God had prepared for these people, but they never ask.
You have not because help me out. Yeah. I mean, honestly, so often, I’m not having answers to prayer like I won’t because I’m not been asking.
Original File: ＂Prayer Life＂ Sunday PM Service 7⧸7⧸19 [YTznhzm0K_A]