“Getting Passionate About Prayer”
Part 2
REVIEW: (Four Preparations for Prayer)
1. Don’t pray to look cool Matthew 6:5
2. What you do is as important as what you say. Matthew 6:6
3. Shallow Prayers get shallow results. (Vain repetitions)
NUMBER FOUR: Make the connection!
"Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have
need of before you ask Him." Matthew 6:8
IMPORTANT! When we approach God, we've gotta know that He knows everything
about you already. If you walk in with that in mind, you won't try to get God to do
something for you. God already knows what you need and already wants to give it to
you. So you need to approach prayer as you KNOW what. You need to go into prayer
with the attitude that I'm connecting with my Heavenly Father. I'm not trying to talk him
into anything... I'm not trying to bribe Him. I'm not trying to put in so many hours that He
HAS to give me it. That doesn't work. You can pray for weeks and still not get it,
because it's not effective prayer. It's just blah, blah, blah...no heart and no passion!
(Remember John 16:23?)
You need to approach prayer as if you are connecting to your Father who already
knows all your needs. You connect with Him in faith because He hears your prayers,
and will take care of you. If you approach it that way, prayer will be a whole lot more fun.
Have you ever tried to talk your parents into giving you something? It isn't any fun is it?
You rack your brain before you go to them and you think, "OK, if I say this, they'll say
that. (And you know they will.) And if I do this, they'll do that. Let's see, how can I
manipulate this whole thing to my advantage."
People try to do that same manipulation in prayer. If I'm good for a week... and I pray
real hard... You've just gotta make the connection! God knows! He knows your heart.
He knows right where you’re at. He knows what you need. All you have to do is say,
"You know what God – I just want to connect with you in fellowship." He already knows
what you need. All you gotta do is get in there and ask. That's all there is to it, make the
faith connection with God knowing that he already knows.
(Conclusion of four things for preparation – go through again)
"In this manner, therefore, pray. Our Father in heaven, holy is your name.
Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us
this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors. Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one,
for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever, amen."
Matthew 6:9-13
Sound familiar? Let's look at this prayer by Jesus a piece at a time. Jesus was trying to
teach us effective prayer. You don't have to be like the hypocrites, you don't have to be
throwing out a lot of words, you don't have to be making a lot of noise and filling the air
with all the stuff you're trying to say.
Seven principles of effective prayer (in the Lord’s Prayer)
Number 1: Personal Relationship
Start with a personal relationship. It's inclusive. The first thing He says is, "Pray like this,
Our father..." We could do a whole message on just that. What's he saying? Start the
prayer with the personal relationship that you have. He didn't say start the prayer with,
(Lower voice, be REAL spiritual) "Oh God, thou art the most awesome heavenly force in
thy universe." He didn't say start with that. He said start your prayers this way. This is so
cool how he says it. "Our" -what's that mean? It means this is corporate. It's personal!
You could go to God and say MY father. You could do that. But you know what? God's
inclusive. See. God wants you mindful of the effect it's going to have on all of us when
you come to him in prayer with this personal relationship.
What are you doing in prayer? You're bringing the whole thing to him. Saying Lord, I'm
connected. Two words. "Our Father." It's a relationship. Jesus says start with the
personal relationship. If you start with that personal part, it's going to have the basis that
it needs in order to be effective prayer. If it's not based on that personal relationship,
then it's not going to be effective.
The greatest level of faith that you can achieve is faith in God's love. It's the greatest
level of faith you can ever achieve. Faith works by love. So if you want your faith to
work, get a revelation that God is your Father. And start with that personal relationship
when you pray. Go before God and say, "God, you are our Father." That's like the
crowning touch. That's where everything starts. Right here: Two words, "Our Father."
Number 2: Worship.
Matthew 6:9 "Our Father who art in heaven, holy is your name."
You establish the connection and then go right into worship. He did this by saying, "God
you are holy." Jesus was acknowledging who God is Father in heaven, you are holy.
The coolest thing about that is this: In the Old Testament, they couldn't approach a holy
God…couldn't do it! It was just too much.
EX: Priests who wore dingle bells. (Not jingle bells.) The bells were around the bottom
of their robe - dingle bells and pomegranates.
They also tied a rope around the priest's waist. Once a year the high priest would go
into the holy of holies where the arc of the covenant was kept. The presence of God
dwelt between the angels on top of this box. Inside the box were the Ten
Commandments. If the priest had any sin in his own life when he went into the holy of
holies, he would die instantly. He would just walk in and fall over dead. The dingle would
stop and they would pull him out by the rope. Why? He wasn't holy.
Jesus saying in Matthew 6:9 that you start with worship. Why? When you start with
worship it purifies you. It's a purifying process. You worship God and it does something
to you. God opened up the way when Jesus died on the cross. That veil in the temple
that separated the holy place from the holy of holies. (It was like 6 inches thick. It wasn't
just a curtain.) And it tore by itself from top to bottom. Basically God was saying, c'mon
in. Jesus died on the cross and shed his blood as a sacrifice for us. Everybody C'mon
in. (No more dingle bells or a rope! Thank God!)
Jesus is saying, come to your Father and worship him. That's how you start. That's how
you become effective in prayer. Worship!
Number 3: Bring Heaven Here! (Ron Macintosh – Revival = God Came)
Matthew 6:10 "Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven."
Here's what he's saying: bring the will of Heaven here. He's saying here's how I want
you to pray. Bring Heaven here.
Jesus wants you to ask God to bring Heaven here. What does that mean? In Heaven
there's no sickness, no disease, no poverty, no lack. Everybody loves each other. And
God wants Heaven, the kingdom of Heaven to be manifest here on the earth. So what
does He want us to do? He wants us to take care of each other, to look out for each
other, to love each other, to help each other. And how do we get there? How do we
become effective in doing that? It starts with prayer.
Everything in the earth that's worth anything starts with prayer. I got saved because of
prayer. You got saved because of prayer. Somebody prayed! (I’d like to meet the
people) Youth Aflame is here because somebody prayed!
(Some grandma, who lives close, watched teenagers wander around going, "Hey, dude.
What's going on? I fell off my skateboard, man!" … probably in her house going, "Oh
God, save them. God save them. God raise up a Church for these young people. God
do it in Jesus' name." And BAM! All of a sudden – Youth Aflame is here because
somebody prayed! You're hearing this message this because somebody prayed!)
This is effective prayer, Jesus says pray that God will duplicate Heaven here on the
earth among us and in us and through us. That's effective prayer! If you pray that way,
you know what'll happen? Heaven will come! You want some Heaven here on earth? I
know I do!
There are some churches in revival all over the world. {EX: Gold} You know they have a
lot of gold in Heaven. God makes streets out of gold in Heaven. If you had a lot of gold,
what would you do? Do your driveway? But in Heaven, they have lots of it. (I don't want
gold dust. I want gold bars to fall on us…have to duck out of the way. Can you imagine?
“Thank you Jesus…thank you Lord…TWANG! (Gold nuggets safer.)
God wants to bring Heaven here…all around us. Jesus said to pray to God and say,
"Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven." ...and it will happen!
Number 4:
Matthew 9:11 "Give us this day our daily bread."
He's talking about our needs. He doesn't say pray, give us tomorrow's bread, or for 2
years because of Y2K. He says THIS DAY.
(Children of Israel were in the wilderness) They were wandering around and God fed
them in the wilderness. EVERY morning they woke up, there was this stuff on the
ground, like coriander seed. (NO IDEA…like bread?) Every morning it was on the
ground, like dew. Have you ever gotten up really early and saw frost on the ground? It
was like that only it was bread!
God said, I'm going to feed you. Get up in the morning and only gather enough for that
day. But the day before the Sabbath, gather enough for two days and it won't spoil. But
if you gather more than one day's worth, the next morning, it'll be rotten and full of
worms. The first morning they woke up and they remembered what God said, "I'm going
to feed you tomorrow." So they went outside and there was food all around them…they
said: "What is it?" (In Hebrew “Manna”). The word manna in Hebrew is a question. It
means, "What is it?" So they went outside and they went, "Manna? Manna? Manna?"
(EX: Mom’s Goulash - Mom, what is it?" And she said, "Goulash." And you said, "Man!
Goulash again?" But the children of Israel said, manna? What is it! So for 40 years, they
ate "what is it?" What's for breakfast? What is it? What's for lunch? What is it? What's
for dinner? What is it?)
Jesus says later on, don't worry about tomorrow. Think about today. Think about what
you're going to do today. God meet our needs today. God pay our bills today. God take
care of us today. Jesus said pray for your needs TODAY. That's effective prayer!