INTRODUCTION:
Isaiah 58 is full of some deep things to say about prayer and fasting; a lot of good things that we aren’t going to talk about today. Why? We’re going back to SCHOOL; we want to emphasize the basic teachings or doctrines of our faith. Last week we began with “Salvation;” today we continue with “Conversations with God.” In other words we are going to look at the basics of prayer; hopefully we will discover what prayer is and what it is not!
• Isaiah 58:9 (NIV)
Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.
• Then when you pray, God will answer. You’ll call out for help and I’ll say, ’Here I am.’ (Isaiah 58:9 MsgB)
Isaiah said two things would happen; what are they? Don’t overlook the obvious! First, you will pray. Second God will answer! In other words, WE PRAY GOD LISTENS, and then GOD SPEAKS . . . ARE WE LISTENING?
1. WE PRAY, GOD LISTENS
What is prayer? Put simply prayer is a conversation with God. Prayer is the communication and interaction of the soul with God, not in meditation or contemplation about God, but in direct address to God. Prayer is talking with God.
Because prayer is conversation with God that means it is a two way communication; we speak to God, and God speaks to us. However all to often our prayers are more like a “Tonight Show” monolog, placing an order with a waitress or a laundry list at the dry cleaners. We talk with God and the only response we expect is, “That’s very nice,” or “Would you like anything else with that?”
Genuine prayer flows out of the belief in the personality and character of God, and His ability and willingness to communicate with us. Tell me who God is and I’ll tell you a lot about your prayer life.
o If you believe God is aloof, distant and uninterested in His creation or us, then you are unlikely to pray at all.
o If you believe God is judgmental and angry, then your prayer is going to be filled with fear and with no certainty that God will even listen to you.
o If you believe in God but know little about who He really is, then your likely to only come to God with crisis prayers for help.
o If you believe God is a loving heavenly Father, then you will communicate regularly with Him expressing your love and thanksgiving. You will share your heart with God confident that He cares for you and wants to help in your time of need.
Prayer flows freely out of our knowledge that God is love; He is omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful), and omnipresent (present everywhere, so He is always with you). We pray with confidence because we know that God is in control of everything; nothing is beyond His ability or knowledge. Knowing that God will cause all things to work together for our good enables us to pray with faith in a God who loves us and will do what is best.
Prayer is not a ritual or a duty. God is not interested in repetitive memorized prayers; He turns away from prayers that are not sincere and heartfelt. God is not interested in prayer offered as a show or pretence to impress others.
• Matthew 6:5-8 (NIV)
[5] "And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. [6] But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. [7] And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. [8] Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
God is inclined to listen to prayers that are genuine honest and truthful. God just wants you to be real with Him. When you simply come to God with an open heart and tell Him what you need He will respond and help you. Notice: THE FATHER KNOWS WHAT YOU NEED EVEN BEFORE YOU ASK! It is impossible to fool God.
Look how God answered some of the honest cries for help in the Bible:
o Abraham’s servant was given the job to find a wife for his master’s son Isaac. He prayed, and God directed him to Rabekah (Genesis 24:10-20).
o Jacob was going to return to Cana, he had an angry older brother who wanted to get revenge still living there. He prayed, and God softened his brother’s heart renewing peace and friendship with Esau (Genesis 32:24-30; 33:1-4).
o Samson prayed, and God opened a spring of water where he quenched his burning thirst (Judges 15:18-20).
o David prayed, and God defeated the counsel of Ahithophel (2 Samuel 15:31; 2 Samuel 16:20-23; 2 Samuel 17:14-23).
o Elijah prayed and it did not rain for three years; when he prayed again God made it rain again. And don’t forget Elijah’s prayer on Mount Carmel when God answered with fire from heaven (2 Kings 18; James 5:17-18).
o Daniel prayed, and God enabled him both to tell Nebuchadnezzar his dream and to give the interpretation of it (Daniel 2:16-23).
o Nehemiah prayed, and God inclined the heart of the king of Persia to grant him leave of absence to visit and rebuild Jerusalem (Neh. 1:11; Neh. 2:1-6).
o Esther and Mordecai prayed, and God defeated the purpose of Haman, and saved the Jews from destruction (Esther 4:15-17; Esther 6:7-8).
o The believers in Jerusalem prayed, and God opened the prison doors and set Peter at liberty, when Herod had resolved upon his death (Acts 12:1-12).
o Paul prayed that the thorn in the flesh might be removed, and while the thorn remained God gave him grace perfecting his strength through weakness (2 Cor. 12:7-10).
God will hear you when you pray and will not ignore you. As Isaiah said, “you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I.”
So how should we pray? Jesus gave us a model prayer in what we have called “The Lord’s Prayer.” It would be better called “The Disciples Prayer,” as this is how Jesus taught His disciples to pray.
• Matthew 6:9-13 (NIV)
This, then, is how you should pray: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.”
“The Lord’s Prayer” has six basic parts. If we want to learn the art of conversation with God, then we should follow Jesus’ outline for PRAYER.
P – Praise—Begin your time with God giving Him praise—hallowed be your name.
R – Repent—Let God cleanse you of your sin—forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors.
A – Ask—Bring your request to God; don’t worry about tomorrow because you can bring those needs to him then—give us today our daily bread.
Y – Yield—Surrender control to God and let Him direct your path—your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
E – Empower—Let the Spirit give you the strength for today—lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.
R – Rejoice—End your prayer with a time of thanksgiving; praise makes great bookends for prayer—for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.
Let “The Lord’s Prayer” guide you in your personal time of prayer.
However, let’s not monopolize our time in prayer by doing all the talking. Give God the opportunity to speak to you!
2. GOD SPEAKS . . . ARE WE LISTENING
• John 10:27 (NIV)
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
The NLT and MsgB both say, “My sheep recognize my voice.” Let’s not make listening to God harder than it really is; Jesus said if we belong to Him, then we will hear His voice and follow Him. Jesus said the sheep “will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice” (John 10:5 NIV).
How can you develop an ear to hear the voice of Jesus speaking to you? Do you know how the Holy Spirit will communicate God’s heart to you? Do you know how God will speak to you?
For starters make sure you are listening with the right “ears.” God is most likely not going to speak to you with an audible voice that your natural ears can perceive. I’ve sometimes said, “When God speaks it is louder than an audible voice!”
GOD WILL MOST OFTEN SPEAK TO YOU BETWEEN YOUR EARS; WITHIN YOUR MIND IS WHERE YOU LEARN TO LISTEN TO GOD.
• 1 Corinthians 2:16 (NIV) Paul quotes Isaiah 40:13 saying
"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
• Isaiah’s question, "Is there anyone around who knows God’s Spirit, anyone who knows what he is doing?" has been answered: Christ knows, and we have Christ’s Spirit. (MsgB)
So what is Paul teaching us? If we have receive God’s gift of salvation through Christ Jesus, if we have been rescued from sin and death, then Christ lives in us by His Spirit and WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST. Therefore because we have the mind of Christ HIS THOUGHTS BECOME OUR THOUGHTS, or another way of saying it, JESUS SPEAKS TO US WITHIN OUR MINDS.
So how can you know if God is speaking to you? To be sure every though that enters your mind is not from God.
• 1 John 4:1-3 (NIV)
[1] Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, (friends, don’t believe everything you hear – MsgB) but test the spirits to see whether they are from God . . . [2] This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, [3] but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God (everyone who refuses to confess faith in Jesus has nothing in common with God – MsgB).
The thoughts that come and go within your mind can have only one of three places of origin, or in other words, there are only three voices you need to learn to recognize.
1. The Spirit of God,
2. the human spirit,
3. demonic spirits (Satan and demonic spirits are not just symbolic of evil, but real spiritual beings that want to destroy you).
• Psalm 85:8 (NLT)
I listen carefully to what God the Lord is saying, for He speaks . . .
How can we learn to recognize God’s voice and learn to discern when He is speaking to us? The key here is to recognize the method or ways God will use to communicate with us. So how does God speak to us today?
1. The Word of God, the Bible.
Anything that does not agree with what is written within the pages of the Bible is not of God. God has already given us His Word. GENESIS TO REVELATION IS THE FINAL AUTHORITY ON WHAT GOD HAS TO SAY. Nothing ever needs to be added to what God has already given to us within Scripture.
• 2 Timothy 3:16 (NIV)
All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness,
One of the most assured ways you can know that you have heard from God is by reading the Bible with an open heart. God knows what you need; HE WANTS TO SPEAK TO YOU so give Him the opportunity.
As you prepare to read ask God for wisdom; ask Him to speak directly to your situation or need. Let the Spirit direct you as you read scripture. At times God will direct you to specific places in the Bible to read. At other times He will speak to you out of the routine of just your regular daily Bible reading. It is His Word and He will put it to use in your life; open it and read it!
• Isaiah 55:11 (NIV)
so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
• Hebrews 4:12 (NIV)
For the word of God is living and active . . .
ILLUSTRATION: At one time I was struggling with a decision. I asked God for His wisdom and direction about what I should do. In my heart I felt God directing me to move in a certain direction, yet part of me really didn’t want to do it. For two weeks I sort of bickered with God; in my heart I was sort of saying, “Lord are you sure that’s what you want me to do?” I never verbalized the prayer, but as I read my devotions each day I was looking for God to say something to me about the decision I had to make. After two weeks the time came when I had to take action; what was I going to do? Would I do what I sensed God wanted me to do or would I do what was more comfortable? That morning I was reading from the book of Jeremiah. At first it seemed like all the days before; I didn’t see anything as I read that seemed to give me any direction. Then I read Jeremiah 32:23 and the words jumped off the page.
They came in and took possession of it, but they did not obey you or follow your law; they did not do what you commanded them to do. So you brought all this disaster upon them. (NIV)
In that moment I knew what God wanted. It was as though He said to me, “It’s one thing to know what I want you to do; it’s another thing to do it.”
2. The Holy Spirit.
• John 16:13 (NIV)
But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
• Isaiah 30:21 (NIV)
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it."
God does not want to leave you to live your life with no direction or strength. The Lord does not want us to be like a ship drifting in the sea without a rudder or sail. God has given us His Spirit to empower and direct us in how we live our lives. Set the sail; catch the wind and let God’s Spirit show you the way to go!
For the Christian, and especially we who are Pentecostal believers, listening to the voice of the Spirit should be our natural and normal way of living! God has given us His Spirit to live within us, and we should listen to Him.
• 1 Corinthians 12:1-2 (NIV)
[1] Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. [2] You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.
What is Paul saying to us here? Simply this: WE SERVE A GOD WHO SPEAKS TO US BY HIS SPIRIT; GOD IS NOT MUTE! The Holy Spirit will speak to our hearts and lead us in the way of truth; listen God is speaking to you by His Spirit everyday.
ILLUSTRATION: God spoke to Susie and I as we were at VFCC to assure us that Chrysta was following Him as she stepped out of the nest and spread her wings.
ILLUSTRATION: The Holy Spirit helps me as I pray with people. Sometimes I will ask people how I can pray with them while other times I just begin to pray and the Holy Spirit impresses in my mind how to pray for them.
3. Other People.
GOD’S SPIRIT SPEAKS THROUGH PEOPLE!
• 1 Cor. 12:8-10 (NIV)
To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, [9] to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, [10] to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and to still another the interpretation of tongues.
• Hebrews 1:1 (NIV)
In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways.
ILLUSTRATION: When we were looking to buy a house in Toronto, God spoke to me through Bill our realtor. That’s how I knew God was leading us to leave Abundant Life First A/G and move to a new place of ministry; it was all part of the process God used in bringing us here to Garrettsville.
4. Circumstances.
You’ve heard the story of Gideon haven’t you? His story is found in Judges 6-8. God wanted to use Gideon to lead the nation of Israel in battle against their enemies. Gideon, however thought God had the wrong man for the job. So he ask God to show him in an unusual way. Gideon placed a wool fleece on the ground and said to the Lord, “I’ll know this is really what you want me to do if in the morning the wool is soaking wet with dew, but the ground all around is dry.” Well it turned out just as Gideon asked. Gideon however was still not totally convinced so he said, “Lord be patient with me, but I’ll be absolutely sure if tomorrow morning it’s the other way around; let the wool be dry and the ground drenched with dew.” It again happened just as Gideon asked. God worked through circumstances.
God will likewise use circumstances in your life and mine to speak to us.
God speaking to us through the circumstances of our lives is often refered to as His DIVINE HAND OF PROVIDENCE. God is in control of the events of this world. Nothing happens without His knowledge and approval.
ILLUSTRATION: God worked things out that Dr. Myer the president of VFCC was the morning speaker at family camp. It just so happened that he and his family had been avid campers when his children were growing up, so when I invited him to have lunch with us he cheerfully accepted. Through our sharing together over hot dogs and macaroni salad, God reassured Chrysta as well as her mom and I that He was indeed leading Chrysta to attend VFCC. And as things turned out God worked through those humble circumstances sitting around a picnic table at Heartland, that Chrysta is now doing her work study in of all places—the president’s office.
You might say it is chance; I SAY GOD IS IN CONTROL OF THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF MY LIFE AND SPEAKS OF HIS LOVE TO ME THROUGH THEM.
• Romans 8:28 (NIV)
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Don’t be fooled by the things you may see happening around you. God is still in control of the events of your life. Let Him speak to you through the circumstances of your life as you look to Him in everything.
