Prayer: Knowing God’s Will When You Pray About a Mountain (Part 4 of 14)

Prayer: Knowing God’s Will When You Pray About a Mountain (Part 4 of 14)

by | Sep 18, 2017 | Prayer, Spiritual Warfare

 

You Don’t Need to Know Everything About the Mountain to Move It Through Prayer!

Knowing God’s Will
When You Pray About a Mountain

“Now this is the confidence that we have in Him,
that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask,
we know that we have the petitions
that we have asked of Him.”

 1 John 5:14, 15

I heard the sigh of frustration. That’s one of the problems, isn’t it? Often we don’t know the will of God; so how can we pray in confidence, especially if the answer is delayed? Good news! God didn’t give you the promises above to tease or frustrate you. He wants your prayers answered.

How to Pray According to the Will of God

 Let’s begin with what’s not mysterious. There are innumerable Scriptures which tell us what to do and not do. For instance, 1 Thessalonians 5:18 says, “In everything [in, not for] give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.”

You don’t have to search for Scriptures like these; they’re everywhere. So are the others which don’t have “this is the will of God” in them, but nonetheless are as clear and directive as those that do. So it is entirely possible that the answer you’re searching for in prayer has already been revealed in the Bible. You may be able to cut down your prayer time considerably (at least for the object you’re presently praying) by aggressively searching the Scriptures. I suggest starting by carefully reading through Proverbs.

However, you won’t find a Scripture that says, “Marry Blake. He’ll make a great husband and father, and you’ll never regret your decision.” Sure, you will find a ton of Scriptures about relationships and marriage and commitment and so forth, but none of them will mention Blake. This is where things start feeling like a dangerous coin toss. Thank God, there’s a better way!

Is Your Prayer Paralyzed Because You Don’t Know What God Wants?

 Christians are often paralyzed in place, afraid to go left or right, for fear of missing God. Now waiting on God before big decisions is good, but when taken to an extreme, it works against our prayers. I’ve talked to Christians who purported to be so spiritual that literally everything about them was “Spirit led.” Sounds awesome; actually awful.

This one real example represents what I’m speaking of. A woman told me she was so led of the Spirit that she didn’t even dress herself until she was sure of the exact clothing God wanted her to wear. To me this is cringe worthy because my understanding of the Scriptures leads me to believe God gets glory from our growth in Him, and from the decisions that arise from that growth.

Super Spiritual Lady Waiting Hours for God to Tell Her What Clothes to Wear

God gets no glory from a daughter of God sitting in the closet waiting for Him to tell her what clothes to wear. This example may appear silly and a waste of space in a book this size; it’s not. It’s directly related to praying in the will of God.

Imagine the prayer life of a person who thinks like this. If she can complicate something as simple as what clothes to wear, prayer must be an exceeding complicated task for her. I know she’s an extreme case. And in all honesty, I’ve only dealt with a few people who go this far. Yet many Christians who would never ride the bus as far as this lady does, are in fact on her bus. And in my over thirty-five years of serving Christ, I’ve talked to bunches of Christians like this.

To illustrate, I read an article about mental illness. It discussed the different levels of mental illness. For the sake of simplicity, let’s say on a scale of one to ten, ten qualifies as the level where a person’s life is functionally disrupted and perhaps noticeable to others. The article went on to say that tens of millions of people are at levels that don’t reach the severity of ten, but are at high enough levels that they possess extremes in their emotions, judgment, and perspective. Functionally normal, but compromised.

Similarly, many otherwise outstanding Christians who don’t wait for God to tell them what clothes to wear each day do possess a milder version of this paralysis. They go about their lives routinely making hundreds of decisions, some of them quite important, based upon common sense, academic or specialized knowledge, Scriptural encouragement or prohibitions, growth in Christ and experience with God, among other things.

Nonetheless, often when it comes to seeking God for specific things in prayer that aren’t clearly spelled out in Scripture, they wipe the board clean and promptly forget everything they’ve been doing to this point.

They default to “I don’t know how to pray in this situation because I don’t know what God wants here.” And since they don’t know exactly what God wants, they can’t pray with the confidence spoken of our Scriptures, 1 John 5:14, 15.

I understand. Trust me. There are some situations that are so complicated and time critical and potentially far reaching in their effects that we don’t want to flip a spiritual coin and hope for the best. So I’m not blasting you for hesitating to thump the coin into the air. What I want you to see is you don’t have to call heads or tails. God has a better way. And it’s one hundred percent His will—always!

What Did Paul Do When He Didn’t Know Exactly What God Wanted?

I don’t believe we need to know exactly what God wants for us to do exactly what He wants. The apostle Paul wrote two-thirds of the New Testament and was, according to the Holy Spirit, the greatest of the apostles. He certainly knew what we call the great commission: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mark 16:15).

Yet we see him going about his missionary journeys in Acts 16:6-10 making what we might call mistakes or presumptuous decisions in his attempt to obey God. He tried to go into Asia (not our geographical Asia) and “they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the gospel in Asia.” So they went to a place called Mysia and “tried to go into Bithynia, but the Holy Spirit did not permit them.”

Lord, I don’t know exactly what to do. But I know You don’t want me to just sit and do nothing. Please cover me with Your grace as I go forward.

What were the others thinking? “Wow, I’m trusting this guy with my life, and he has no idea what he’s doing. Why, he’s just flipping a coin!” Just when the board was about to call a secret meeting to discuss Paul’s inability to hear from God, Paul had a vision directing them to go to Macedonia.

How does this relate to you praying in confidence when you don’t know the exact will of God? Look at Paul. If we conclude that him knowing the exact will of God meant knowing which direction and destination to go, then he clearly didn’t know. Yet in the end, he arrived exactly where God wanted him. What happened for him can and will happen for you.

Paul didn’t know the exact details of what God wanted. So he started with the clear will of God: Go, preach the gospel in all the world. He took this general command and chose a way he could practically implement it. Yes, I’m sure he prayed first, but we know from the record that Paul’s prayers didn’t exempt him from having to forge ahead without customized directions.

He spent time, money, emotions, and work doing by principle what had not yet been revealed to him by revelation. Or in other words, sometimes you don’t get the big unmistakable, “Whoa, that was awesome!” confirmation that you were in God’s will until after you have tried to go into Asia and Bithynia.

Your Asia and Bithynia may be taking a timid step toward what you think may be God’s will. What if you’re wrong? So, what if you are wrong? Was Paul wrong for taking a step toward Bithynia and later Asia?

Did God reprimand him for using his initiative in the absence of customized instructions? No. He blessed him as long as he followed His general will. And when Paul’s initiative, which was in submission to God, brought him to a place God didn’t want him, God spoke clearly.

God is a fantastic communicator. If you get to a place where you are about to make a so-called wrong decision, whether it stems from your humanity or sinfulness, He’ll talk to you, too.

God Doesn’t Expect You to Know Everything When You Pray

 Here is something that has helped me and others hugely in our prayers. Paul was wrong only in the sense that he was human, and humans don’t know everything. Please hear and never forget this: God doesn’t expect you to know everything—even as you pray.

I like to tell people that failure is built into the system, and it doesn’t bother God one bit. I get this concept from the entire Bible, but specifically from 1 Corinthians 13:9, 12. Here it says we see through a glass, darkly, and we have only partial knowledge and partial effectiveness in spiritual gifts. Call it what you will, but this sounds like the perfect recipe for a bunch of mistakes and a bunch of unanswered questions.

Don’t worry about this context of imperfection we’re in. It’s just the way it is. It’ll be this way until the Lord returns. Drop to your knees. Submit yourself to God in humility. Tell Him you don’t have all the facts you’d like to have, but you’re going to use what you do have to make your petition.

You know that God is holy, righteous, just, loving, kind, and forgiving. You know that for some reason He has this crazy, irrational love for you. You know that the Scripture says, “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry,” (Psalm 34:15). You know that He has told you to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16).

God has set this thing up so that His glory and power is manifested through imperfect and often bumbling misfits who dare to trust Him to do the impossible. Soon you’ll be able to say with the psalmist, “I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4).

Come on, son or daughter of God. You can do it!

Lessons Learned

 Lesson One. The answer to my prayer may already be revealed in the Bible.

Lesson Two. Prayer paralysis is often caused by forgetting to use some of the principles we successfully use every day as we make decisions.

Lesson Three. If I don’t know the exact will of God, I can confidently follow the general will of God and what I know about Him until He chooses to reveal more details. My confidence in prayer is not in knowing exact details, but in knowing God.

Lesson Four. God doesn’t hold my humanity against me as I pray. I can boldly go to the throne of grace to get help even when I don’t know as much as I’d like to know about the situation or the exact details in God’s heart.

Practical Exercise

Pray out loud: “Lord, I don’t know as much as I’d like to know about this situation, but I now know You don’t expect me to know everything. Though I offer You my prayers with imperfect knowledge, I have faith that You hear me. As I pray, I’m watching and listening for any further light from You. Until I receive more, I will pray in faith with what I have.”

 

If you found this post helpful, please use the buttons below to share it with others. Also, try one of my other articles on prayer by clicking here

If you want to grow in spiritual warfare and supernatural ministry, read about Eric’s School of Spiritual Warfare and Supernatural Ministry at ericmhillauthor.com. The school’s main forum is Facebook.com/groups/ericmhillauthor.

Copyright 2017 by Eric M Hill. You may contact me at ericmhillauthor@yahoo.com, Facebook.com/ericmhillauthor, or Twitter.com/ericmhillatl.

Click on image below to get more information about my books!

5 Things That May Be Killing Your Prayers

5 Things That May Be Killing Your Prayers

by | Sep 8, 2017 | Prayer

Are You Killing Your Prayers with These Five Things? 

5 Things That May Be Killing Your Prayers

“Why can’t I get my prayers answered?”

You may be asking yourself that painful and puzzling question. Well, let’s take a look at five known prayer assassins and see if any of them are killing your prayers.

Prayer Killer Number One: Sin

There are thousands of promises in the Bible. It’s easy to grab one and believe God to fulfill it for us without considering that every promise of God is given within the context of our assumed obedience. Or in other words, the promises of God are for those who obey God.

This may come as a shock to many people. Especially since today’s popular presentation of God is depicted in such a way that it leaves us believing that we can do nothing to offend God. And then even if there is such a thing as offending God, we’re told His great love for us compels Him to overlook our behavior and give us what we desire.

This may attract large crowds and increase our popularity (with people, not with God), but it’s one hundred percent wrong! The biblical record of God from beginning to end, from Genesis to Revelation, is that God is inherently, uncompromisingly holy, righteous, and pure, and that He demands obedience.

Yes, our holiness, righteousness, and purity comes from the accomplishments of Christ in His sinless life, sacrificial death, and victorious resurrection. However, we must be careful that we don’t convince ourselves, or allow false teachers to convince us, that Jesus lived right so we don’t have to. Or that because of Jesus obedience is now an option.

Let’s conclude this section with just a few Scriptures that prove my point.

Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.

Isaiah 59:1-2

“But that’s the Old Testament,” you say. “I’m under grace.”

Ooo…kaaay, so the first thirty-nine books of the Bible don’t apply to you? I disagree, but I’ll use a Scripture that we both hopefully agree applies to you.

And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

1 John 3:22

This is a crystal clear New Testament declaration that obedience to God is required of anyone who approaches God with a request.

Living in sin can kill your prayers.

God Had Mercy On You, But You’re Not Going to Have Mercy on Others? Really? Good Luck with Those Prayers!

Prayer Killer Number Two: Unmerciful

Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matthew 5:7).

The obvious opposite of this statement is that those who are not merciful shall not receive mercy. Of course, many of our prayers require mercy to be answered. But if our behavior has cut off our mercy, then we have killed our prayer.

This is a difficult concept for some Christians to accept. Especially those who are victims of the false grace message. Nonetheless, it is true.

Jesus told a parable about a slave who owed his master a huge debt. This slave asked his master for mercy, and the master graciously forgave him the debt. Yet this same slave was owed a much smaller amount of money by another slave. Instead of having mercy and forgiving the debt, as his master had done for him, he had the slave thrown into prison.

Look at the sobering progression of this story in Matthew 18:31-34:

So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him,

‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’

And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.

 “Wow,” you say, “glad I’m under grace, and my heavenly Father would never do that to me!

Oh, really? Let’s look at the last verse:

So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.

 Being unmerciful can kill your prayers.

Prayer Killer Number Three: Unforgiveness

Unforgiveness and lack of mercy are similar, but not the same. For one can be unmerciful to someone without being unforgiving toward them. There simply may not have been an offense to not forgive.

For instance, Jesus told a story about a man who had been beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the side of the road. A couple of groups of religious people passed by, saw the man, and did nothing to help (Luke 10:25-37).

They were unmerciful, but not necessarily unforgiving. They didn’t know the guy. (And didn’t want to know him!)

Unforgiveness, however, has the element of offense, either real or imagined. The offended person refuses to forgive. What does Jesus specifically say about such a person’s chances of getting their prayers answered?

And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Mark 10:25-26

Living in unforgiveness will kill your prayers.

 Prayer Killer Number Four: Strife

The strife that kills prayer is the kind that either originates or ends in sin. It is more than disagreement. It is more than heated disagreement. It’s disagreement without the character of Christ. It’s disagreement without humility and love and self-control.

Strife Kills Prayers. Don’t Let It Kill Yours!

James talks about the futility of offering prayers in an atmosphere of strife:

Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members [body]? You lust and do not have. You murder [God calls hatred murder] and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war. Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.

James 4:1-3

 A few verses later, He tells these striving Christians that “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble” (v. 6). Now if God is the one resisting you, who is left to answer your prayers?

Strife kills prayers.

Prayer Killer Number Five: Impatience

Impatience is a great killer of prayers. Perhaps that’s’ why there is so much teaching in the Bible about being patient in prayer, and so many graphic examples of people in the Bible receiving spectacular answers to prayer—once they paid the price of waiting.

The writer of Hebrews captured this critical thought with only two verses:

Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance [patience], so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

Hebrews 10:35-36

Abraham was called the friend of God because he believed God (James 2:23). Read the narrative of Abraham’s life (Genesis 12-22) and you’ll see that this refers to more than him being declared righteous because he believed God one day.

It includes that. But it refers primarily to him patiently waiting on God for at least twenty-five years to keep His promise to give him a son when his body couldn’t produce a child.

It also included his willingness to give that son back to God twelve years later, and if necessary, to believe God to physically raise that child from the dead if that’s what it took for Him to keep His promise to give him a son. That’s thirty-seven years of believing God for a promise. No wonder he’s called the father of our faith!

Unfortunately, most Christians pray and don’t have the stamina to wait on God for the prayer to be answered.

Impatience kills prayers.

Now the Good News!

Let’s not end this thinking of the many ways we can mess up in prayer. Instead let’s end it thinking not of our many weaknesses, but of God’s great desire to give us more than we can imagine, and of His infinite ability to perfect us and get us to the place where our prayers are unhindered:

You Are Not Alone in Your Journey Toward Answered Prayer. God Will Help You!

Do not fear little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Luke 12:32

Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

Jude 24-25

Lord, I ask You to help everyone who has read this article to humbly consider any area of their lives that need correcting. I include myself in this prayer, Lord. Help us to repent of any known sin. If there are areas of darkness in our lives that we don’t know of yet, open our eyes to the truth. And once our eyes are open, help us to immediately turn from darkness to light.

Lord, if we are unmerciful or unforgiving, we repent this very moment. For You have so graciously shown us Your great mercy in offering us forgiveness. And if we are in strife with anyone, we offer that situation up to You. We will not press for our rights in an ungodly way.

Finally, help us to have patience as we wait for our prayers to be answered. In faith we believe that “the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears are open unto their cry” (Psalm 3414-15).

Be encouraged! The Holy Spirit is your Helper! It’s going to be alright!

***

If you found this post helpful, please use the buttons below to share it with others. Also, try one of my other articles on prayer by clicking here

If you want to grow in spiritual warfare and supernatural ministry, read about Eric’s School of Spiritual Warfare and Supernatural Ministry at ericmhillauthor.com. The school’s main forum is Facebook.com/groups/ericmhillauthor.

Copyright 2017 by Eric M Hill. You may contact me at ericmhillauthor@yahoo.com, Facebook.com/ericmhillauthor, or Twitter.com/ericmhillatl.

Click on image below to get more information about my books!

Prayer: Honestly Recognize the Mountain, but Compare It to God’s Ability to Move It (Part 3 of 14)

Prayer: Honestly Recognize the Mountain, but Compare It to God’s Ability to Move It (Part 3 of 14)

by | Aug 30, 2017 | Prayer

Glory to God, I’m not in trouble! Glory to God, I’m not in trouble! Glory to God…uhh, Lord, help! I’m in trouble!

Honestly Recognize the Mountain,
But Compare It to God’s Ability to Move It

“But He [Jesus] said, ‘The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”

 Luke 18:27

The Scripture above shows that Jesus recognizes the impossibilities of men. If you are going to get regular and spectacular answers to prayer, you must be based in reality. Ignoring a problem or pretending it isn’t as big or as serious as it is, isn’t faith. It’s foolishness.

A few decades ago the Word of Faith movement gained popularity in the church, mainly the portion that considers itself charismatic. After a few years of retrospect, it can be safely said that like other genuine moves of God (e.g., the Reformation; see Persecutions of the Reformation on the internet), much good and much bad resulted.

The good was that the power of faith in God and His word were taught in detail with great consistency. Millions of people found that the God of the Bible hadn’t changed one bit. He still answered prayer, and He still worked miracles. Subsequently, the Holy Spirit responded to this new atmosphere of faith in marvelous power—He is still responding!

2 Chronicles 16:9 was realized: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him…” Think of it. God actively searches for people to bless. The Word of Faith folks crammed this truth into our faces. I for one am grateful.

Nonetheless, the bad that came from this movement was very bad. Ambitious and enterprising preachers polluted the movement with their greed, covetousness, dishonesty, and astounding biblical ignorance. The point that fits in with our march toward spectacular answers to prayer is ignorance.

One of the extreme doctrines that came from this movement encourages people directly or indirectly not to speak anything negative. Well, I’m all for not being a negative person, but this doctrine goes light-years beyond addressing a negative disposition. It actually condemns an honest assessment of the mountain. It’s considered doubt, fear, or unbelief to acknowledge that the situation is horrible and getting more horrible by the moment.

Listen to me…please! No amount of ignoring a cancer will stop it from growing or spreading. No amount of ignoring bills will keep your utilities from being cut off or you from being put out on the street.

I’m not confessing I need a ride. All my needs are met. Whew! I’m not confessing how how it is either!

I have a friend, an absolutely incredible woman of God who is so far ahead of me in some Christian graces that I can’t even see her in the horizon. Nonetheless, it’s hard to talk to her when she’s facing a mountain. She’s so afraid of undoing her faith by an errant word that it’s hard to get a straight answer from her about what’s going on in her life.

It’s like, “Mary, I see you standing there in the hot sun. Do you need a ride?”

“Glory to God, all my needs are met,” she answers.

The disconnect here is I’m asking her about her practical need, and she’s responding by telling me what spiritual truth she believes. So I smile and drive off. Guess what? She just missed the ride God sent her. Do not think this is a hypothetical extreme. Unfortunately, it’s all too familiar. But not in the next story.

Recognizing the Problem as a Mountain
Won’t Damage Your Faith If You Compare the Mountain
 to God’s Power 

Part One

“Then some came and told Jehoshaphat, saying,
‘A great multitude is coming against you…And Jehoshaphat feared,
and set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast…
So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord…
they [the nation] came to seek the Lord.

Part Two

Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly…and said,
‘O Lord God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven,
and do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations,
and in Your hand is there not power and might,
so that none is able to withstand You?
O our God, will You not judge them?
For we have no power against this great multitude
that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do,
but our eyes are upon You.”

2 Chronicles 20:12

This story shows how to properly look at a mountain. This is crucial because your perspective of the mountain will determine your prayer and your behavior after prayer. Often post-prayer behavior slows down, complicates, or totally stops the answer. So it’s absolutely critical that we understand this lesson.

Part one of the story shows the mountain in all its power: Judah was vastly outnumbered by the huge armies that were coming against it. The king could’ve said, “Bless God, don’t worry about the bad report. We don’t want to glorify the devil by talking about what he’s doing. Doesn’t the 91st Psalm say, ‘A thousand shall fall at our side, and ten thousand at our right hand; but it shall not come near us’?

Notice in part one that the king does something that ordinarily is considered negative in the Christian context.

And Jehoshaphat feared.

Now how many times have we been blasted by faith preachers for having fear? Uh, a lot! I’ll go a reverent step farther. How many times did Jesus rebuke the disciples for their fear? A lot. So, isn’t fear bad? Isn’t it the automatic kiss of death for getting prayers answered?

I think not. I think faith preachers have missed it terribly here. In baseball parlance, they’ve hit the ball and run directly to third base. And as far as Jesus’s admonitions against fear are concerned, we’ve simply struck out. We didn’t understand the context of His words.

Fear certainly can derail prayer answers if we let it, but this isn’t inevitable. Jehoshaphat feared and received a spectacular answer to prayer. How can you imitate Jehoshaphat and get your prayers answered even though you feel fear? Start by understanding two things.

The presence of fear is not necessarily proof of lack of faith. It may be proof that you’re not presumptuous or delusional!

First, the absence or presence of fear doesn’t mean you are either in or out of faith. It is simply an involuntary emotion that the brain produces when it perceives a dangerous threat. You don’t turn off fear by declaring it’s gone, pretending it’s gone, or quoting a Scripture. And since you don’t need to get rid of fear to get your prayers answered, I suggest you spend very little time trying in the flesh to get rid of fear.

Second, Jesus’s commands to “fear not” doesn’t mean don’t feel fear; it means don’t obey fear. Isn’t He the one who said, “But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell” (Luke 12:5). Was the object of the Lord’s words simply to get us to feel an emotion? Was it not to get us to obey?

Absolutely. God knows that behavior follows what we fear. For instance, when He says in Revelation 21:8 that the fearful will suffer eternal doom, was He saying those who feel fear are doomed? No. In this context, and indeed whenever the Lord rebukes fear (you can check this by examining such references in the Gospels), He is talking about allowing fear to keep us from obeying Him.

Back to Jehoshaphat. Can you imagine being told you’re being surrounded by ISIS, and then trying to not have fear? Are—you—kidding—me? Jehoshaphat did what I encourage you to do. He honestly and realistically looked at the threat…and subsequently felt fear. But! But! But! He didn’t stay focused on the fear. And I couldn’t hardly wait to say this: Instead of letting his fear stop his answer to prayer, he used the power of fear to increase a sense of urgency and to push him into the presence of God.

A sense of urgency in prayer is often needed to get certain prayers answered. And getting into the presence of God is always needed. This is why I am laboring on this point of Jehoshaphat’s fear. If you don’t admit how big and dangerous the threat is, you may not find the focus and intensity you need to hold on in prayer until its power is broken and the prayer is answered.

Follow Jehoshaphat’s example. Be honest about what you’re facing, and if this admission causes a so-called negative emotion, whether it’s fear, grief, worry, or whatever, let that thing drive you to your knees. Trust me. If you do this, you won’t have to try to spend more time in prayer. You won’t have to try to be more focused in prayer. You won’t have to try to be more fervent in prayer. The mountain will make sure you have all of these things in abundance!

I am surrounded by destruction, oh Lord, but my eyes are upon You!

Jehoshaphat Took His Mountain To God, And So Can You!

Part two of Jehoshaphat’s prayer is the good part. He did two things that are part of successful prayer results, especially spectacular results. First, he acknowledged and spoke out loud the general greatness of God. That’s always good, but he went a step farther. Second, he transitioned from speaking in general terms of God’s mighty power to specifically asking God to use His mighty power in the nation’s behalf.

Remember this: It’s not enough to acknowledge that God is great and powerful. At some point, you have to transition to asking God to use that mighty power and influence for your specific situation.

Let these words of Jehoshaphat roll around in your heart. Say them out loud a few times. “For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.”

Jehoshaphat didn’t minimize the threat, did he? He felt overwhelmed, didn’t he? He had fear, didn’t he? Yep, yep, and yep. Didn’t stop him one bit! Why? For the same reasons you won’t be stopped. He acknowledged this horrible threat. It produced fear. He let the fear drive him to prayer. In the presence of fear, while praying, he reminded himself of God’s power and spoke this out loud. He then admitted that he didn’t know what to do. Finally, he said out loud, “But my eyes are on You.”

You won’t be stopped because your eyes are on God!

Lessons Learned

Lesson One. It is not a lack of faith to honestly assess my need, the presence of a mountain, or the power and danger of the threat, if there is one.

Lesson Two. The presence of fear before or during prayer is not an automatic faith or prayer killer. I should use fear and other negative emotions generated by the mountain to drive me to my knees. I should continue this process until I know in my heart or I see with my eyes that the prayer is answered.

Lesson Three. I must remember that the things that are impossible for people are possible for God. He has unlimited power, influence, and creativity. I should believe God well beyond my ability to figure out how He will answer my prayers.

Lesson Four. As I take my issue to God, I should orally speak of His power. And at some point, I must transition to asking God to use that mighty power and influence for my specific situation.

Practical Exercise

  1. Do you have a mountain in your life? If so, write it down.
  2. Think of what happens if that prayer were to never be answered. Scary thought? Good.
  3. Be honest with God about the bigness of the mountain. Tell Him with your mouth how big the mountain is. Don’t be afraid. This isn’t unbelief; it’s actually faith!
  4. Now imitate Jehoshaphat. Say, “Lord, I don’t know what to do, but my eyes are upon You!” Say this out loud several times. Feel the spirit of faith come over you. Now with your eyes closed and hands raised, let the Holy Spirit feed faith thoughts to your mind about God’s ability to fix this situation. You don’t have to know how, just that He is able.

If you liked this excerpt of Eric’s book, You Can Get Answers to Your Prayers, please share it with someone on social media. And if you like spiritual warfare novels, click on the graphic below for a wild ride!

This was article three of a 14-part series on prayer. The next article in the series is Make Sure You Pray According to God’s Will When Dealing with a Mountain. You may read the previous article in this series here.

If you are interested in Eric’s School of Spiritual Warfare & Supernatural Ministry, read more about it here and visit the school’s Facebook group here.

 

Prayer: Move that Mountain through Prayer! (Part 2 of 14)

Prayer: Move that Mountain through Prayer! (Part 2 of 14)

by | Jul 31, 2017 | Prayer

Your Persistent Prayer and Bold Faith Moving the Mountain…Don’t Stop Believing! Faith Needs Patience.

When the Mountain Says No,
Move the Mountain through Prayer

 

Now in the morning, as He returned to the city, He was hungry.
And seeing a fig tree by the road, He came to it
and found nothing on it but leaves,
And said to it, “Let no fruit grow on you ever again.”
Immediately the fig tree withered away.
And when the disciples saw it, they marveled,
saying,“How did the fig tree wither away so soon?”
So Jesus answered and said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you,

If you have faith and do not doubt,
you will not only do what was done to the fig tree,
but also if you say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’
It will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer,
believing, you shall receive.”

 (Matthew 21:18-22)

Promises like the one above seem so out of reach for us ordinary Christians that we either skip over them or explain them away. Better to put the promise in the basement than to have to live within range of its mocking voice.

Great news! We’re unlocking the basement door and letting this great promise out. Look what happened to personal friends of mine once they put the contents of this book [this article is an excerpt of my book, You Can Get Answers to Your Prayers] into action.

Your Dental School Application is Denied…
Unless You Know How to Pray

 John is a wonderful Christian. He’s smart, too. He graduated with a double major from Georgia Institute of Technology. But sometimes no matter how smart you are, it’s not enough. You see, his passion was to become a dentist and periodically provide free dental services as a medical missionary. Standing directly in the path of this God-given dream was a mountain. The name of this mountain was Dental School Rejection.

He applied to many schools and was denied. His Dental Admission Test scores were decent. They were within the range of others who had been accepted. He was at a complete loss as to why he was being rejected. Of course, many people are not accepted into dental school. It’s a normal part of life. The question, however, was as a son of God was he subject to this limitation?

John came up for prayer about this matter one evening at our church. I shared with him that he wasn’t subject to this limitation because God could overrule everyone who was denying him. I shared with him how I had gone directly to God many times when the mountain had said no and ultimately God had overruled the mountain. I told John to cry out to God and to thank Him for removing the mountain even before there was any natural evidence that it had been removed.

I then instructed him to go right back to those dental schools that had rejected him. I told him that because of his prayers, God could do one or more of several things to get him into dental school. He could change the hearts of those who had denied him. He could replace those people with others who would accept him. He could create a new program that would provide him a slot. Or He could do that God thing He does so often and baffle our minds with His creativity and power.

We went over Scriptures like Jeremiah 33:3, “Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.” Which you do not know. Think God opening the Red Sea to save the Hebrews from the Egyptian army (Exodus 14). Think Jesus multiplying a few fishes and loaves of bread to save thousands (Matthew 15:32-38).

There is no way you or I would’ve imagined either of those moves by God. His influence, power, and creativity are infinitely beyond our ability to figure out. That’s why we shouldn’t spend too much time considering how difficult it would be for God to answer our prayers. Our part is to ask; His part is to answer.

Oh, and I guess you’ve figured out John’s story. The school coincidentally started a new program that allowed him to be accepted. He starts dental school next month!

Oh, how I love those coincidences!

You’re Stuck at This Financial Level…
Unless You Know How to Pray

 Kenny and Abbey are wonderful Christians. They’d been dating for quite a while. Marriage was definitely an item of interest for them both. However, Kenny’s financial history and status, and his career path had built-in challenges that Abbey felt should best be changed prior to them getting married.

The mountain was that there was absolutely nothing in Kenny’s past or anticipated future to give them a realistic reason to think the situation would change for their good. So Abbey listened to my teachings about pressing in to God in prayer. She discussed this with Kenny and they agreed to change the situation through prayer. You know what’s coming now, don’t you? Yep, another coincidence.

It took about two or three months of them crying out to God and using the twelve elements of prayer listed in chapter one. Wouldn’t you know it? A friend of Kenny learned through a friend that there was a great job coming open at one of the major airlines. Kenny’s friend lobbied heavily to get his friend to consider Kenny.

In a little while Kenny was hired. Today he walks around with a permanent smile on his face, happy with his beautiful bride, Abbey, and gushing about his high salary and great benefits. Think of it. Decades of financial ruin and dead-end jobs spectacularly turned around through a few months of intelligent, fervent prayer.

In the following chapters, we’ll dissect the anatomy of prayers that are spectacularly answered. You’re going to learn exactly how to imitate others who receive great answers to prayer.

You’re next in line to receive your own, precious child of God!

Lessons Learned That I Can Use Now

Lesson One. Other Christians are getting spectacular answers to prayer and so can I!

Lesson Two. No doesn’t have to remain no if I know how to pray!

Practical Exercise

  1. Look at your prayer list. After reading about God so dramatically answering other people’s prayers, do you need to add anything to your list?
  2. Use your imagination to think of “coincidences” that could bring your prayers closer to becoming reality. Write the coincidences down. God has unlimited creativity; so He doesn’t need the coincidences you write down. But keep your eyes and ears open. Don’t be surprised if He uses a couple of them just to let you see He’s with you.

If you liked this excerpt of Eric’s book, You Can Get Answers to Your Prayers, please share it with someone on social media. And if you like spiritual warfare novels, click on the graphic below for a wild ride!

This was article two of a 14-part series on prayer. The next article in the series is Honestly Recognize the Mountain, but Compare It to God’s Ability. You may read the previous article here.

If you are interested in Eric’s School of Spiritual Warfare & Supernatural Ministry, read more about it here and visit the school’s Facebook group here.

Prayer: Spectacular Answers to Prayer Are Real (Part 1 of 14)

Prayer: Spectacular Answers to Prayer Are Real (Part 1 of 14)

by | Jun 25, 2017 | Prayer

You Can Turn Great Impossibilities into Great Testimonies!

Prayer: Spectacular Answers to Prayer are Real

“Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is there anything
too hard for Me?”

Jeremiah 32:27

Do you know the ecstatic feeling of having a prayer spectacularly answered? No, I’m not being mean and rubbing salt in the wound of unanswered prayer. On the contrary, I’m assuming you may have suffered a prayer defeat here and there that has left you needing someone to remind you that answered prayer is real. Of course, there are stories galore in the Bible of spectacular answers to prayer, but guess what? We’re not in the Bible! So what you need to be reminded of is that although you do not yet receive regular, spectacular answers to your prayers, many other people do.

But how does that help me? you may ask. It helps because if no one is getting their prayers answered, there may be no rational reason for you to expect to get yours answered. However, if others are getting their prayers answered, since we know God is no respecter of persons, there is no reason why you can’t make some adjustments and start getting your prayers answered. So let’s start with a real life example of someone receiving a spectacular answer to prayer—that someone being me and my wife.

The Worse Time to Sell a House…Unless You Know How to Pray

Shortly before the housing bubble collapsed in 2006, I felt that God was leading us to move from the suburbs into the city so that our home could be centrally located in the Atlanta metropolitan area. For ministry purposes, it would be ideal. No problem, right? Sell the house and purchase another one. Millions of people do it all the time, and without prayer!

Well, there was a problem. Actually, more than one.

First, no one in our subdivision could sell their home. The realtor said it took an average of eight months to sell. That wasn’t going to work for us. Oh, I didn’t tell you? I had done something that was foolish from a natural, business perspective. I had put a contract on another home!

People do that, too, all the time. However, we were not at a place financially where we could pay two mortgages without hurting. The reason I did something like this was because I was convinced God was leading me. Without getting ahead of myself, I’ll briefly state that is one of the secrets to getting spectacular answers to prayer.

Hearing God.

Had I not been thoroughly convinced that God was in my decision, there is absolutely no way I would have gone out on a limb like that!

Second, I put the house on the market in December or January. My realtor said the rule was that homes sell badly in the winter. I had chosen the worst possible time to sell.

Third, our neighbors on the immediate left and right of us put their homes up for sell months before we did. We watched them finally remove the For Sale signs in defeat.

So, what happened? Glad you asked. We sold the home in two months for the full asking price.

God Doesn’t Ask the Economy or Housing Market for Permission to Bless You or Answer Your Prayers!

My neighbors were shocked. Great story, but the following is the spectacular part. The part that’s going to help you get your own spectacular answers.

“Honey, that doesn’t apply to us.”

Early after deciding to sell our home, and after my wife and I had heard the dismal forecast from our realtor about the eight-month average selling time, and the fact that it was a buyer’s market, and the fact that if we were serious about selling, we’d have to drastically drop the price, I said something that you’re going to be able to say once you finish this book. I said, “Honey, I understand all of that, but those limitations don’t apply to us.”

Arrogant? Presumptuous? Denial? Nope, nope, and nope.

The reason those limitations didn’t apply to us was because God had taught me how to pray for spectacular answers during the first year after I received salvation. I’ve been using these principles and practices ever since. Briefly, here is what happened with the house ordeal.

I told my wife that I’d change the situation through prayer. Now since each day that we didn’t have our home sold meant we were one day closer to taking on a second mortgage, this added an element that is often there in strongholds. This was the element of a time deadline.

Deadlines can be soft or hard. A soft deadline is one where the world doesn’t end when the deadline comes. However, things do get pretty bad. A hard deadline is where, barring a Lazarus type miracle from God, your situation explodes in your face with finality.

My deadline, though serious, was soft. It was soft because if the house didn’t sell, I could’ve used my savings to pay the second mortgage. Once the savings were gone, however, the deadline would’ve turned hard because now I would be facing the loss of my home.

We had a lock box on our door so realtors (and hopefully their clients!) could access the home when we were away. There was that initial rush of realtors to look at the home. They left their cards in a bowl. Lots of cards, no buyers.

Each day after work, I’d take that soft deadline down to the basement and present it to God in prayer. My first goal was to not allow the soft deadline to turn hard. The prospect of depleting our savings and finally losing our home was ample motivation to keep me praying as I waited for the spectacular to happen. We’ll call this motivation a sense of urgency. This will come up later.

I’ve already told you that the prayer was spectacularly answered. So no mystery there. But what did I do in that basement that caused God to sell our house and leave other would-be home-sellers on our left and right scratching their heads and asking us how we did it?

I like to walk as I pray. I’ve found it’s quite difficult to fall asleep in prayer if I’m walking. It also helps me to focus. So, there I am in the basement walking around with a bowl of realtor cards lifted up over my head.

Sometimes I was down there for up to a couple of hours. I’d worship my Father and tell Him how much I loved Him. I’d remind myself of all the good things He had already done for me and thank Him for it. I’d talk to Him about the stories in the Bible I’d read about Him performing great miracles for people who had no other hope but Him.

I’d remind Him that I had signed the other contract only because I was convinced He wanted me to do it. I told Him that although I had signed the contract because by faith I was trying to follow His leading, I could have been mistaken (although I didn’t think I was). I asked Him to have mercy on me if I had indeed made a mistake.

I shared with Him what would happen if He didn’t help. I told Him that I knew we wouldn’t be helped, and He wouldn’t receive glory if my bank account was depleted and we lost our home. I’d also point and jab my finger at the floor or at the ceiling and shout at the dark powers of Satan and declare that God was my Father and that He was listening to my prayers. I quoted or read Scriptures out loud to myself, to the devil, and to God.

There are Scriptures in the Gospels where Jesus told His disciples that they could release unfathomable power in their behalf if they spoke to problems in His name and had faith that the problems would obey them (Matthew 21:18-22). Crazy stuff, I know! But whoever said Jesus was ordinary? And who started and spread the lie that His followers were to be ordinary? I think we know who this is.

Mountain, it’s just you and me…and Almighty God. You know the deal. Get out of my way in the name of Jesus!

So in obedience to words in the Bible that seem utterly ridiculous, I obeyed. I’d point and jab my finger figuratively at the problem of a house that, according to the expert, couldn’t sell unless I drastically dropped the price. I’d say things like this:

I know what my realtor says. I know what the market says. I know that no one in this subdivision can sell their home unless they practically give it away. I know that my neighbors on both sides of us have put For Sale signs out and have had to pluck them up again in frustration.

But you listen to me, mountain! I am a son of God, a child of the Most High God. You don’t dictate my limitations; He does. My Father gives life to the dead. He brought Lazarus back after he was dead four days. He made water come out of a rock for Moses. He fed the prophet Elijah in famine and drought by commanding a bird to deliver food to him twice a day.

There is nothing my great God can’t do. His word tells me that you must obey my command if I speak to you in faith. Well, listen up, oh mountain! Mountains were made to be moved. I command you in Jesus’s mighty name to move. House, I command you to sell!

Now, precious son or daughter of God, in the presence of God and knowing that I will have to give a public accounting of my words on that great day of judgment, I tell you without the slightest embellishment, this is what I said next (the spectacular part!):

I see that the weather has been bad and no one has been coming by to look at the home. I command people to come look at our home. Furthermore, oh mountain, I see you sitting there and looking at me. I hear your mocking laughter. You say, “I’m a mountain, and you’re just a puny little man. You can’t make me move!” Well, this is my response! Lord God, I thank You right now in the face of this great mountain. I declare that this mighty mountain is being moved, and in a little while I will see with my natural eyes that which has already happened, as far as I’m concerned.

Father, I’m only selling one house. I know that somewhere in this world there is a person who would be blessed by purchasing our home. And, Lord, I know there’s someone out there willing to pay full price for it. I ask You to find and direct this person here. [Check out my next words!] Lord, it doesn’t matter if they’re from out of town. It doesn’t matter if they’ve already signed a contract with someone else. You are able to cause this person to fall in love with our home. You’re able to work this situation out so that no one is hurt financially. I ask You to bring that person to us.

I continued to pray this way. One day soon thereafter, my wife was sleeping and heard a loud voice shout, “Exit!” She jumped up wondering what it meant. For the next several days, whenever she went to an enclosed area, she searched out the exit and made sure she was ready to make her exit. Why else would the Lord give her such a dream? (From time to time we receive dreams from the Lord and figured this was another.)

Exit? Uh oh! I’m outta here!

Well, there was another reason the Lord shouted, “Exit!” One day I came home from work and looked in the bowl for any new realtor cards. There was only one. Guess what was on the card. Come on, you can do it. Yep, Exit Realty. Guess who sold our home. Right again. Exit Realty. What a coincidence, you say. I say it was our loving Father letting us know He answers prayer.

Remember that part of my prayer to God where I specifically said, “Lord, it doesn’t matter if they’re from out of town. It doesn’t matter if they’ve already signed a contract with someone else. You are able to cause this person to fall in love with our home. You’re able to work this situation out so that no one is hurt financially. I ask You to bring that person to us”?

The lady who purchased our home was from New York. She was in town for only one weekend and had to purchase a home that weekend. She had already placed a contract on a home. Yet, we found out from her realtor that when she walked into our home, she said, “I feel the peace of God here. This is it. It’s the house.”

And the rest is history.

Now don’t jump on me because I included in my prayer for God to include in His search people who had already signed a contract. It was up to Him to find a buyer and seller who wouldn’t be hurt if He used them to answer my prayer.

Prominent Elements of My Prayer

We will explain these elements in detail in later posts. But I want to list them now so you’ll have a clearer understanding as we proceed. God isn’t a system to be manipulated or a formula to plug into a prayer request. He’s Almighty God. By the very definition of being God, no one can make Him do anything.

So let’s be clear that I am not listing how I made or manipulated our Creator and Lord and Savior and Judge to do my bidding. I am listing how He helped me do His bidding. Quite a difference!

  • Element One. I recognized the problem as the mountain it was, but I compared the mountain to God’s ability to move it.
  • Element Two. I believed I had been in the will of God when I created part of this scenario by signing the second house contract. (Think David and Goliath. Where does the Bible say God told him to challenge Goliath? Wasn’t it, shall we say, from a natural perspective…foolish?)
  • Element Three. I committed myself to change the situation through prayer.
  • Element Four. I had a sense of urgency to change the situation.
  • Element Five. I quoted the word of God out loud to myself, to Satan, and to God.
  • Element Six. I spoke to the mountain in faith just as Jesus said we should.
  • Element Seven. I prayed with great fervency and many tears.
  • Element Eight. I talked to God in great detail about the threat of the problem and the great blessing in having it removed.
  • Element Nine. I praised and worshiped God before, during, and after my prayers.
  • Element Ten. I asked God for something ridiculous and expected a spectacular answer.
  • Element Eleven. I boldly approached God’s throne for mercy to help in my time of need.
  • Element Twelve. I believed that despite my imperfections that our great God and Father wanted to help me.

We Need to Start Acting Aggressively Against the Mountains in Our Life

See How Easy It Is?

I say the above jokingly. Trust me. Although it’s not complicated, it’s often not obvious how you should pray. If it were, there’d be no need for articles like this one. Nonetheless, you’re on your way to getting regular and spectacular answers to prayer. But you need to know there is a single ingredient of getting spectacular answers to prayer that often—not always, hallelujah!—challenges the most seasoned Christians. Here it is in all of its formidable simplicity:

It’s acting upon the mountain
with biblical prayer principles,
and waiting patiently and expectantly on God
for the answer
while and after you pray.

We’ll take a brief look at a few people who were facing mountains, and who I had the privilege of teaching these prayer principles. Since they were part of our church, I was blessed to be able to personally see them get spectacular answers to their prayers.

Afterwards, we’ll systematically examine in detail what’s all involved in getting these kinds of prayer answers. We’ll end each article with Lessons Learned to help you easily see the main points. We’ll also go through some practical exercises and ways to get your own prayers answered. You’ll be pleasantly surprised to find that not all spectacular answers to prayer take a long time to come. Some come shockingly fast!

Prayer Hit-List Action Plan

This first exercise is short and easy, but full of opportunity. Imagine you’ve been invited by God into His throne room. You sit across from Him. He smiles at you and pushes a piece of paper and pen across to you. He asks you to write down a prayer wish list. Do it. Review the list as you read this book. Later, you may find yourself adding things and removing others.

***

If you liked this excerpt of Eric’s book, You Can Get Answers to Your Prayers, please share it with someone on social media. And if you like spiritual warfare novels, click on the graphic below for a wild ride!

The next article in this series is When the Mountain Says No, Move It Through Prayer.

If you are interested in Eric’s School of Spiritual Warfare & Supernatural Ministry, read more about it here and visit the school’s Facebook group here.

Click On the Photo to Be Taken to Eric’s Books