So many people believe in God and yet feel powerless in this world.  So they go to Him and pray for power.  But what if, well, what if instead of praying for power, He wants us to pray with power.

One of the most exciting things I know about God – and I’m grinning ear to ear with joy as I sit here talking about it, – is that He delights in empowering little people like you and me.

We kind of somehow imagine that the big names and the big preachers and the big leaders, they’re the ones that God empowers. Well I’m sure He does, at least some of them, but it’s the little people in the pews that He delights in empowering too.

Now that’s important because so often the little people feel as though God’s power is only for the ‘super Christians’, whatever they might look like but actually, actually Gods power is for anyone and everyone that puts their trust in Jesus Christ, His Son.

The reason I know that is that this letter we’re about to read, from Paul, is written to the little people in the pews. The Church in Ephesus, the whole Church, not just the elders, not just the preacher, no, the whole Church. We’re going to have a look at that letter today.

And it’s the apostle Paul, telling these people in the pews in Ephesus, how he prays for them. Let’s have a look with me. If you want you can check it out, it comes from the Book of Ephesians, in the New Testament, chapter 1, beginning at verse 17. This is what he says:

I keep asking the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, that He may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart would be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparably great power for us who believe. 

That power is like the working of His mighty strength which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him up from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the age to come. And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.

You see, I love the way Paul starts off, he’s a great guy. He is so direct and he’s so ‘in our faces’. His prayer is that we, the little people in the pews, would get to know God better. Not that we would sin less, not that we would feel better about ourselves, not that God would use us more powerfully, not that we would become mighty prayer warriors or big people or be used by God to perform miracles or anything else for that matter, no, none of those things.

The apostle Paul wants us to know God better. All of us in the pews.

Paul tells the folk in Ephesus that he has been pleading with God that God would put His spirit in them so they would know Him better. Obviously Paul knows that they need to know God better and there’s a purpose behind this prayer.

Paul wants them to open up their eyes. In fact, he wants God to open their eyes. “Wake up!” I can hear him shouting as only Paul could – “wake up, open your eyes, have a look at this”:

I pray also that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which He’s called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance, in the saints and His incomparably great power for us who believe.

See, three things that Paul aches for his beloved friends in Ephesus; to see with their eyes open by God:

1. the certain hope of the future they have in Christ,
2. the riches of their inheritance in Christ and, wait for it,
3. the incomparably great power for us who believe.

Now, I’m definitely no great scholar of Greek. Of course these words were initially written in Greek and then later translated into the English. I, like most people, have to rely on the linguistic work done by others in the main. And here, in understanding the full force of what Paul is saying, I rely on a great teacher and a colleague of mine, Dr Barry Chant who, in one of the classes that I attended when he was lecturing me and I was a student.

He said, “If I were to transliterate the Greek words that Paul uses here to describe the nature of the power that he wants us to wake up to, it would go something like this.” The words for ‘incomparably great power’, the Greek words, Barry said, he would transliterate them like this: “hyperbalistic, megathonic dynamite”. Do you get the point?

Paul isn’t talking about some teensy weensy bit of power. He’s not talking about a moderate amount of power. He’s not even talking about a lot of power. He’s saying, ‘I’m praying for you, that you would get to know your God better and that then you would know, finally wake up to the fact, that the power that He has for you is hyperbalistic, megathonic dynamite”.

“This power is for me, this power is for you”, Paul’s saying and in fact, he goes on to say, “it’s the very same power that raised Jesus from the dead. That same power is the power that God has for you if you believe in Him”.

See, it’s kind of a contradiction. We bow our lives down in complete submission to God through Jesus Christ. We humble ourselves at the foot of the cross and we cry out, “God, it’s not about me, it’s about You” and in doing that, it’s really easy to develop what I call ‘a worm theology’. Psalm 22:6 says:

But I am a worm and not a human, scorned by others and despised by people.

But the point of what God wants to do in our lives is to restore us back to His image, to adopt us back into His family, to give us hope, riches and power. Not to misuse and abuse as we used to do for our own selfish gain, not for that but for us to be His children. His agents of peace on planet earth in this waring world. His light to shine out His glory into this dark and lost world and as we’re restored back into His image.

As we start to live out the lives that He always intended for us, there is a wondrous fulfilment in that. It truly is about Him and yet He fills us with His joy and a peace and a wonder through this laying down of our lives that words simply cannot describe.

Do you believe in Jesus? Are you one of these weak sinners on your knees before God? Then let me say this again, the 3 things that Paul prayed for, here in Ephesians chapter 1, are for you and for me. The hope, the riches and the power are for you, here and now.

I believe it’s time to stop praying for power, it’s time to stop asking God for power because God’s word clearly tells us that this incomparably great power, this hyperbalistic, megathonic dynamite is already ours. I believe it’s time to take the little bit of faith that we’ve got in our hearts and start praying with power, here and now.

Let it sink in, that’s what God wants us to do, let the Holy Spirit etch this on our hearts. Instead of praying for power, it’s time to start praying with power, the hyperbalistic, megathonic dynamite power. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power that God has already given us.

Let me ask you something – when you pray, what can you ask God for?  I mean – anything and everything, or are there some limitations on what He wants us to come to Him for?

You know, for a long time I was confused about this whole ‘prayer’ thing. Bottom line; what can I ask God for? I mean, how does that work? See, on the one hand He’s the sovereign God, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lord’s, Jesus taught me to pray:

Your kingdom come, Your will be done.

On the other hand, if I truly am His child, then shouldn’t I be able to ask Him for whatever I please. I mean, that’s what kids seem to do. When I read through the first 3 chapters of Ephesians, what I discover in the amazing, truly amazing list of who I already am and what I already have. All this stuff that is mine, every spiritual blessing; hope, inheritance, power. Well, are they or aren’t they?

If God wants to bless me, is it okay for me to ask for blessing or not? Can I ask Him for a new house or not? Or should I stick to stuff that’s not about me but for other people? Mmm, but then I have needs too.

Can I tell you, so many people struggle with this question, so that’s what we’re going to take a look at on the program today. What can I ask God for?

There are two schools of thought, two extreme ends of the spectrum on this. The first one is this; Gods word says that I can ask for anything I want and it will be given to me.

Whatever you ask for, in prayer with faith, you will receive. Jesus said. (Matthew chapter 21, verse 22)

So, I have a shopping list, I’m believing for doubling my salary, I’m believing for, mmm, well, I want to win the lotto and have fifty million dollars. Ooh, I’m believing for 3 new cars, a house full of new furniture and a boat, definitely the boat. That’s what Jesus said and I’m going to pray for those things, in faith. Let’s call that the, the ‘name it and claim it’ school of prayer.

The second one is this; the only thing that matters is Gods will. I really shouldn’t ask for anything for myself. I’m going to pray for everyone and everything else but not for me. That would be wrong, we’ll call this the ‘not for me’ school of prayer.

So, which one’s right? Well, let me take you to a 3rd school of prayer, it’s called ‘the Jesus school of prayer’. This teaching from Jesus came in those final tense days and hours, in Jerusalem, before His crucifixion. Jesus knew what was going to happen. He knew he was about to be arrested, to go through a trial, to get nailed to a cross and into a tomb. He knew about His resurrection and His ascension.

He knew that Pentecost, although it may have seemed a million miles away, was, well it was really just around the corner. Soon He would be with them no more, soon His spirit, the Holy Spirit, would be poured out in power on His disciples. Most important things He left until these final tense hours and when it came to prayer this is what He said.

Believe me that I am in my Father and the Father is in me but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do, in fact will do greater works than these because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If, in my name, you ask me for anything, I will do it. (John chapter 14, verses 11 to 15)

And again, this is what He says:

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples. (John chapter 15, verses 7 and 8)

And again a few chapters on:

On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, He will give it to you. Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive so that your joy may be complete. (John chapter 16, verses 23 and 24)

Three times in these last days and hours He makes the same promise to His disciples; that they can ask anything of God in Jesus’ name and it will be done for them, three times. Jesus must have thought that this was so incredibly important. He was giving them an outrageous licence to pray, they could ask for anything. Anything means anything in His name and it will be given to them.

In fact, He fully expected His followers to do greater works than even He, the amazing things that He did. That my friend, stretches my faith. But, yep there’s a but, there are some fine print in these promises for those who would follow heart after Jesus. There are clear caveats, in fact, there are three clear caveats.

Let’s take another closer look at these passages and pick out the conditions, the caveats on what He said:
Caveat 1: “So that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (And again) My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit.”
Caveat 2: “If you abide in me and my words abide in you…”
Caveat 3: “Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask…”

Do you see that these aren’t unlimited promises, these aren’t promises that we can translate into being ‘me’ centric. They aren’t proof texts for the ‘name it and claim it’ school of prayer, far from it. They’re ‘Jesus’ centric not ‘me’ centric. Their purpose is Gods glory, not mine, not yours but His.

Listen to the 1st caveat: “So that the Father may be glorified in the Son. (And again) My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit.” See, the ‘anything that we can ask for’, first and foremost, has to be for God’s glory and not mine and not yours.

The 2nd one is, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you can ask for anything.” See, there’s the 2nd caveat. Not only does it have to be for God’s glory but these promises are only for people who are close to Jesus. Where we ‘abide’ in Him, have a deep relationship with Him, and He and His words abide in us. People who have drawn close to Jesus in prayer, in word and in deed.

And the 3rd caveat is that these promises are only for people who will ask. In fact that last one is more of a challenge than a caveat, isn’t it? A challenge that stretches our faith.

Only those things that bring Him glory, only those things that takes His kingdom forward, only those things that sees His will done. You see how this fits with the Lords prayer:

Our Father in heaven, hallowed by Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done on this earth.

Do you see how Jesus’ teaching on prayer comes together as one? The power in prayer is in us laying down our wills for Him. The power in prayer is when we say: “Father, you know something, the ‘anything’ that I want, I actually don’t want anything that you want”. When we so far lay down our pride and our will and our shopping list for Him, when our heart is to receive what God wants us to receive and to see done, in this world, what God wants to do. When we go asking Him for that, when that’s all we want, my friend, there is such great power in that sort of prayer.

When we say: “God, Your kingdom come, Your will be done, hallowed be Your name across the earth”. When that’s what we’re praying, there is enormous power in that prayer.

Sometimes when we go to God in prayer and ask for something, well, He doesn’t give us an answer straight away.  Sometimes, He can take a week, a month, a year, even a lifetime to answer.  Why is that?

What you and I would really like is, if God were entirely predictable. We would like Him to see things our way and then use His power to do our bidding. Now that may seem a bit harsh but by and large, it’s true, isn’t it? Our natural inclination is to figure out what we need and then go and ask God for it and expect Him to deliver but it doesn’t always work that way.

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts”, says God. “Neither are my ways are your ways. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts higher than your thoughts.”

That’s in Isaiah chapter 55, verses 8 and 9. I would love to tell you that after 13 years of praying, I have God all figured out. That I know if I ask Him this way or that way or if I push this button at this time, that’s how I get the answer that I’ve been looking for. I’d love to tell you that but I can’t.

Now Jesus talked about this in some really, kind of odd parables and I thought to myself, “we simply can’t talk about experiencing the power of prayer unless we learn to expect the unexpected”. So let’s have a look at a couple of these parables today.

The first one of these is about the unjust judge and for many years, I found it the most challenging because in it, Jesus seems to suggest that God is a bit like an unjust judge. Let’s have a look; it comes from Luke chapter 18.

Then Jesus told them a parable about their need to pray always and not to lose heart. He said: “In a certain city there was a judge who neither feared God nor had respect for people. In that city there was a widow who kept coming to him and saying, “Grant me justice against my opponent.

For a while he refused but later he said to himself, ‘Though I have no fear of God and no respect for anyone, yet because this widow keeps bothering me I will grant her justice so that she may not wear me out by continually coming”. 

And the Lord said, “Listen to what the unjust judge says. And will not God grant justice to His chosen ones who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay long in helping them? I tell you, He will quickly grant justice to them and yet, when the Son of man comes, will He find faith on this earth?”

Jesus told this parable because we need to pray and not lose heart. Losing heart is exactly what happens when we discover that God doesn’t dance to our merry tune because we see things only from where we sit.

The person in there is a widow, amongst the most disadvantaged of all people. She’s obviously having problems with someone; we don’t know what the problem is. Simply, something unjust is happening to her, to this already disadvantaged and lonely woman. She truly is at the bottom of the social heap in the social and economic structures of the time. And she’s suffering this injustice so she does what she should do. She throws herself on the system of justice. She goes to the judge but he refuses her justice.

Now most of us, we’d go home at this point with our shoulders slumped and tears rolling down our faces and sobbing, “It’s not fair” and that injustice would cause us to lose heart, to give up. But not this plucky widow. She went back again and again and again and again and eventually, this unjust judge, gives her justice, simply because she persisted.

Doesn’t God sometimes feel like an unjust God? When we have this deep need, when we’re aching, when we need Him to come through on something. What we feel like doing is shaking our fists at Him and crying out, “This is not fair!” That’s how it feels and that is why I believe Jesus chose this parable. A powerless, lonely widow and what seemed to be an unjust judge but now, now Jesus goes on to explain.

Basically He’s saying that, “if that unjust judge will grant the widow justice because of her persistence, how much more will your righteous, and holy and loving Father in heaven, grant you justice. I tell you, He will quickly grant justice to them and yet, when I come back, will I find faith on this earth?”

Do you think He’ll delay for that long? This is a call of faith. Faith in who God is, faith in what God will do. You see, we’d rather have that God responds immediately to our need. But He is so much wiser than that because He will take this opportunity to stretch and grow our faith, to make us think about who or what we’re putting our faith in. In the things we can see with our own 2 eyes, in the things that we’re going through, in the pain and the injustice or in God?

The next parable says it again; it’s a parable of a friend at midnight, weird one too.

And Jesus said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘friend, lend me 3 loaves of bread because a friend of mine has just arrived and I have nothing to set before him’. And he answers from within, ‘don’t bother me, the doors already been locked and my children are in bed with me. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he’s a friend, at least because of his persistence, he will get up and give him whatever he needs. (Luke chapter 8, verse 5)

Now this is saying exactly the same thing and I want you to notice something, it comes straight after Luke’s telling of the Lords Prayer. This parable starts the very next verse. This is Jesus teaching us about a prayer of faith and a prayer of persistence. Again, it’s not told from our perspective.

Sometimes it does feel as though we might be inconveniencing God with our requests, as if that were possible. But that’s how it feels from where we sit. And then, it feels like God couldn’t even be bothered helping us because, “well, it’s just too much hard work”. Ever felt like that in prayer? But the punch line of this parable again is this; because of his persistance, the man will get up and give him whatever he needs.

Why does God do things that way? Because persistence is about this. It’s about trusting in the faithfulness of our Father in heaven no matter what we can see, no matter what we’re going through, no matter how big and ugly and hairy the monster is in front of us. It’s about putting our faith, not in what we can see but in the great unseen reality which is God.

And when the world is screaming out at us, “Your God has abandoned you”, we just stand in that place and say, “No, actually I’m going to go to my God and I’m going to believe what Jesus said to me in these parables and I’m just going to keep asking Him. I need this justice. I need this thing. I need God to help.’

Look at how Jesus finishes this teaching off.

“So I say to you, ask and it will be given to you. Search and you’ll find. Knock and the door will be opened. For everyone who asks, receives and everyone who searches, finds and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you, if your child asks for a fish, will give them a snake instead of a fish or if a child asks for an egg, you’ll give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give His spirit to those who ask?”

See, Jesus wants us to know, faith and persistance are what pay off in prayer.

When we go and pray – well, how does that work?  Is it a one way thing?  Or does God actually – well, talk back?  Am I just meant to speak and then hear nothing in return, or does He speak? And if so – how does that work?

You know, we can’t talk about prayer without talking about the Holy Spirit. Over the last couple of weeks we’ve been talking a lot about the Father and the Son and us but almost not at all about the Spirit. But here’s my problem with this, the third person of the Trinity, this Holy Spirit, He’s the most difficult one to understand and there’s a reason for that.

When we say “Father”, we kind of have this, this human understanding of what a father is, or at least, what he should be and so we have some starting point to understand God the Father.

Same goes with the Son; we have four books written specifically to record His walk on this earth. So, in a sense, we can see and feel and touch and hear Him and get our minds around who He is, we have a starting point.

But there’s no human equivalent to the Holy Spirit. No hook for us to hang our hat on, no starting point for us to understand Him, no physical metaphor of this Holy Spirit.

Over the last few weeks we’ve been looking at the power of prayer and I just want to look at the Holy Spirit today. I want to start with a story that leapt off the page for me the other day. It comes from the Old Testament, 2 Samuel, chapter 5, verses 17-25. Have a listen.

When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed as the king over Israel, all the Philistines went up in search of David but David heard about it and he went down to the stronghold. Now the Philistines had come and spread out in the valley of Rephaim. 

David enquired of the Lord, he said “Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you give them into my hand?” And the Lord said to David, “Go up, for I will certainly give the Philistines into your hand.” So David came to Baal Perazim and David defeated them there. He said, “The Lord has burst forth against my enemies before me like a bursting flood. Therefore that place is called Baal Perazim.” And the Philistines abandoned their idols there and David and his men carried them away. 

Once again, the Philistines came up and were spread out in the valley of Rephaim. When David enquired of the Lord, God said “You shall not go up, go around to their rear and come upon them opposite the balsam trees. When you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees then be alert for then the Lord has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines.” David did just as the Lord had commanded him and he struck down the Philistines from Gibeon, all the way to Gezer.

Now, why are we reading this story when we’re talking about prayer and how God talks and how we talk to God? Because what strikes me in this story is, that twice King David enquired of the Lord and both times the Lord said to David. See, David asked and God spoke.

So exactly how did God speak? Did David hear an audible voice? Did David go to one of the prophets, a man appointed by God to speak on His behalf? Or did David simply know in his heart what was the right course of action? Well, Gods word doesn’t tell us, all we know is that David enquired and God answered.

And will you please notice, with me, that David enquired very specifically and God answered him very specifically. Now, how is it that David could receive such specific instructions from God?

Well the answer is given to us back in the previous book, in the book of 1 Samuel, where David, as a young boy is anointed as the new king of Israel by the prophet Samuel. Listen to what it says:

Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers and the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.

See, the Holy Spirit had come upon him mightily; David was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now in the Old Testament, that only happened to a few select people; the occasional king, the prophets or the priests. The average punter, like you and me, we didn’t get to have a personal, intimate relationship with God through the Holy Spirit. No, no, we had to rely on the priests to be the go betweens, between us and God.

But here, in this story, we see the full affect of the presence of the Holy Spirit in David. He was able to enquire of the Lord and the Lord answered him. This is two way communication; David to God, God to David. Not some general communication but highly specific communication that David needed for that day. It was life or death communication. The go between? The go between was God Himself, God the Holy Spirit.

That’s awesome because no longer is prayer some kind of shouting clear across the universe. It’s an intimate conversation between the Father and His child, between two, who are as close as the Son is to the Father. And that’s the Spirits role – to guide and to speak. That’s what Jesus said. David knew that, he was a man after God’s heart. He received the Spirit in power. And if you and I are believers in Jesus Christ, we too have received the Spirit in power.

There are many who have not yet yielded their lives fully to Him, they have not discovered that power. There are some who discover His power from the moment they believe yet others can go days, months, even years until they yield their lives so fully to Him, that He fills them full to overflowing.

This God of ours works differently in each one of us but this wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit is there for anybody who would believe in Jesus and lay down their lives. And in prayer, He is our guide and Gods speaker. So how does that work? Well come for a journey with me, if you will, through the chapter that many commentators refer to as ‘the Himalayas of the New Testament’, Romans chapter 8.

Here, the apostle Paul teaches us what it means to walk in the Spirit rather than in our old selfish desires. He speaks of the freedom that we have now, as disciples of Jesus Christ. Listen to how he’s carefully chosen words talk about the intimacy of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear but you have received a spirit of adoption. When we cry “Abba, Father” it is the very spirit of God bearing witness in our spirits, that we are children of God and if children, then heirs – heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if in fact we have suffered with Him so that we may also be glorified by Him.

Do you see the wonder and the beauty and the awe of this statement? The Holy Spirit witnesses to us. I know many people, me included, who can open the Bible and I used to do this. You open the Bible and you’d read it and it meant nothing, nothing. But when I gave my life to Jesus and the Spirit came upon me, I now open the Bible, I read the words and the Holy Spirit picks them up and puts them deep inside me in a way that, just me reading them on my own, could never happen.

The Spirit of God is there when we pray. We can go to God and say, ‘Father, I need specific help, specific instruction, specific guidance from your Spirit today’. Sometimes He talks directly to us, sometimes we open the Bible and we read a few words and they just leap off the page and you go, “That’s His answer”. And other times, He’ll come to us through someone else who’s got a gift to prophecy and to speak Gods word into our lives.

Listen, let’s not make this mistake that God has stopped speaking. The Spirit of God is alive and well today, just as He was when King David needed guidance about the Philistines. Prayer is powerful, you know why? Because God is in that place, God the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

When we pray, we’re meant to pray with faith.  And the bigger the mountain we need to move, the more faith we need, right?  So what happens, well, what if we don’t have enough faith?  Then what?

Well, over these last three weeks on the program we’ve been looking at what it means to unlock the power of prayer. And I guess what we’ve discovered, in a nutshell, is that prayer, that yields powerful results, is normal in Gods sight. The problem is that, as we wander the dusty roads of life, it’s not so terribly obvious to you and me.

Well I’m not sure of what you make of all that, I don’t know you or where you’re at in life’s journey but your God does. He knows you better than you know yourself. Just as He knows me better than I know myself.

In many respects, talking about prayer on a program like this is so much easier than living a life of prayer. B.ut I thank God that He took a hold of my life when it was so incredibly dark and stormy. And you know, that was almost exactly thirteen years ago that He did that. It’s been an amazing journey; every day is a learning experience.

Some of the stories that I’ve shared over the last few weeks on the program, the insights from Gods word, are just where I’ve been on the journey so far. They’re all given to me by Gods grace and I am so looking forward to the rest of the journey but as we finish up this fifteenth and final program in this series, there are two deeply personal things that I would like to share with you today.

The first is this; that the greatest decision of my life was to yield it all, to bow down to Jesus Christ. Not to sign up for some religion, no definitely not that but, to lay down my life for Jesus.

As I said, I don’t know where you are at but perhaps you’ve never done that and you feel, in your heart, that you’d like to do that right now. Or maybe, you’ve kind of been there but in your heart you know that you’ve been holding things back from God. Or perhaps you gave your life to Jesus a lifetime ago and you just want to re-dedicate it to Him now. If you’re in any of those places, I just feel to spend some time with you in prayer. Perhaps you’d like to pray this with me, right now.

Father God, I have heard your voice, I have heard your call. I know that today is the day when I want to lay my life down for you. I know that I have sinned against you, I rejected you. I lived a life apart from you and today, I want to look you in the eye and from the bottom of my heart, I want to say sorry. I know how much I have hurt you but I know too, that you sent your Son Jesus, to pay the price of my sin on that cross, to die for me and to rise again. Father, I believe in Jesus and because of Him and through Him and through Him alone, I come to you and ask for your forgiveness. I turn away from my sin today and turn towards you. I come to you to take up my cross and to follow Jesus. Fill me with your Holy Spirit. My life is now yours, I live for you and you alone and in Jesus name I pray. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer for the first time, I just want to encourage you to become part of a Bible believing Church and join fellow believers and really go on, in strength with God.

The second thing that I would like to share with you today is the enormity of our God. The completely unfathomable love He has for you and for me and the amazing power, the dynamite power that He has for you and me.

For a long time I believed in that love and that power but I couldn’t see how it could ever be for me. And as I started to pray, the Holy Spirit laid some crazy things on my heart. Things so big that I could never share them with anybody back then. Things that were so ‘out there’, so audacious that, either they were from God or I was nuts.

Years before I began doing what I’m doing now, I started praying that God would let me tell millions of people about His love. Millions upon millions is what I prayed. And my friend, if you could have seen my life back then, who I’d been, what a mess I was and had you known what it was I was praying in secret, you would have pulled me aside for a quiet chat and told me to get real. I’m sure of that and it would have been with all the best intentions.

Fortunately no-one knew what I was praying. Today those prayers have come to pass, today people say, “wow, isn’t this amazing!” Today it seems obvious that prayer that yields powerful results is normal in God’s sight but back then, can I tell you, it was far from obvious. It was ludicrous. But then the wisdom of God is foolishness to this world and I just kind of quietly decided to be a fool for Christ. I would rather die a fool than to allow one person, with whom God had intended me to share Jesus, spend eternity without Him.

If the truth be known, I’m still praying crazy outrageous prayers. And no, I’m not going to tell you what they are. I don’t want you to call me nuts, you know and pull me aside. Every now and then, I come into the office and I must have that crazy look in my eyes and our team here at Christianityworks all get that, “Oh no, here he comes, he’s got another idea” kind of look on their faces.

The reason I’m sharing this with you is this; because it’s too easy to imagine that these ‘anything and everything’ prayer promises that Jesus makes are for someone else. Not for us but for someone else. That they’re not for you, not for me, just those big people out there. But that simply is not what my Bible tells me. And if this stuff were only for the big people, why would I waste my time sharing this stuff with you on the program?

With all my heart I believe that our God wants each one of us to know that each and every promise that Jesus makes, in the Bible, about prayer is for us. And Jesus says:

If you ask for anything in prayer with faith, it will be given to you.

Prayer that yields powerful results, is normal in Gods sight. It is normal in my life and it’s normal in your life. And I know, I know that it’s hard to believe but fortunately, realising the promises, seeing them come to fruition in our lives, doesn’t depend on us. It depends on our God. All we need is to come to Him with a tiny little mustard seed of faith in our hands. That’s what Jesus said:

If you have faith the size of a tiny mustard seed, you can tell this mountain to jump into the lake and it will be done for you.

“Oh, I don’t have enough faith to move that mountain.” That’s when you stretch out your hand and you say, “Dad, here it is. Here’s my little mustard seed, it’s all I have but Jesus said it would be enough”. And my friend, your Dads heart will overflow with joy and He will do the rest.

I want to close up by praying with you right now.

Father, I want to pray for the person who’s listening now. I don’t know who it is. You know every hair on their head, you know the fears and dreams in their heart and you know the plans that you have for them. Father, I pray that you will fill this man or this woman with your Holy Spirit, fill them to overflowing. Fill them so full that, unless you flow out through them, they’ll burst and dear Holy Spirit, write your word on their heart. Witness to them right now that you mean what you say in your word. Witness to them right now that you mean for them to experience power in their prayer. Make them a person of prayer, a person whose life is laid down for your glory. Make this man, this woman a man or woman of prayer so they may see your glory, your power. Let them see the world change through them, by you, for your sake. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.