PRAYER: CULTURE CAMPAIGN

by Pastor Ron Teed - ronteed at aol dot com
630-926-8489

Village Church of Wheaton

How is your prayer life? If you are like most Christians, there is room for improvement. I cannot think of a more appropriate way to emphasize that then by relating a story I heard about an event in a small town some years ago that historically had been "dry." That is, no alcohol was allowed to be sold or consumed publicly in the town. But then a local businessman decided to build a tavern. A group of Christians from a local church were concerned and planned an all-night prayer meeting to ask God to prevent the bar from opening. It just so happened that shortly after that prayer meeting lightning struck the bar and it burned to the ground. The owner of the bar sued the church claiming that the prayers of the congregation were responsible for the destruction of the bar. The church hired a lawyer to argue in court that they were not responsible. The presiding judge, after his initial review of the case, stated that "no matter how this case comes out, one thing is clear. The tavern owner believes in prayer and the Christians do not." #

That’s pretty much how I see the prayer life of so-called Christians in churches today, faithless. It has been said that if you want to see how popular a church is, take a look at the size of the sanctuary and find out how many different programs and social activities that the church offers its members. If you want to see how popular the pastor is, find out what the attendance is at services on Sunday morning. But if you’re interested in seeing how popular God is in that church, see how many people attend the prayer meetings, and how many prayer meetings take place every week.

I can tell you from experience that prayer meetings are very poorly attended in almost all churches. If we were to walk into a prayer meeting at any given church in the Chicago metropolitan area I can with 98% reliability assure you one of two things that you will find prevalent in almost each one of them. The first thing is that out of the total membership in the church, you will find that the attendance at the prayer meeting will be less than 3% of the total membership of the church. If there are 400 members in the church, there will not be more than a dozen people at the prayer meeting. And of those dozen people, 8 will be senior citizens, one will be the pastor, and who knows what the other 3 will be. You can be relatively certain, however, that none will be under 40.

My wife and I attend a prayer meeting at the Billy Graham center on the campus of Wheaton College every Wednesday at noon. This is a very meaningful prayer meeting because we pray for the needs of the college, the community, and the various ministries in countries all over the world. This prayer meeting is usually attended by approximately 8-10 people, half of which are in their late eighties. The director of the Billy Graham Center is usually there when in town, and their may be a couple of ministry leaders from the center. Rarely is their anyone there under 40. In other words with a campus of perhaps 2,000 students and another 150 faculty, and a community population in Wheaton alone of some 45,000 people, only 8-10 feel that ministry all over the world is important enough to get together and pray about. By the way there has never been any other member of the clergy in attendance from any of the Wheaton churches. I consider this to be truly shameful.

It is quite sad that both young and old have simply not been exposed to the importance of prayer in the church. I’ll go even further to say that both young and old have for the most part not even been exposed to the teaching of God’s word in the modern church. Many church pastors are becoming more and more liberal as are the church councils which administer the curriculums and programs of the church. Go into most churches today and give a surprise “pop quiz” regarding the Bible and you may well have a 90% or greater failure rate.

Far too many churches have become religious social clubs and not many see how dangerous this is to the long term health of the people, the community, and our country. We need to remind ourselves of what God told Abraham and Moses about when and how the people would be blessed and when and how they would be cursed.

Did you know that from the very beginning God promised people continued blessing if they were obedient to His Word and His will? And did you know that God also promised the people would be cursed if they were disobedient to His Word and His will. Let me prove it to you. In Genesis 12 God says to Abram (Abraham):

Genesis 12:1-3 (NLT)
1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others.
3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.”

In Deuteronomy 28 God is speaking to His people through His prophet Moses when He says:

1 “If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commands that I am giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world.
2 You will experience all these blessings if you obey the Lord your God:
3 Your towns and your fields will be blessed.
4 Your children and your crops will be blessed.
The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed.
5 Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be blessed.
6 Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed.
7 “The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven!
8 “The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
9 “If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, the Lord will establish you as his holy people as he swore he would do.
10 Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord, and they will stand in awe of you.
11 “The Lord will give you prosperity in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundant crops.
12 The Lord will send rain at the proper time from his rich treasury in the heavens and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them.
13 If you listen to these commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.
14 You must not turn away from any of the commands I am giving you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them.

Wow! That’s about as much blessing as anyone could hope for, isn’t it? But then God went on to say:

15 “But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you:
16 Your towns and your fields will be cursed.
17 Your fruit baskets and breadboards will be cursed.
18 Your children and your crops will be cursed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be cursed.
19 Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be cursed.
20 “The Lord himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me.
21 The Lord will afflict you with diseases.

25 “The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will attack your enemies from one direction, but you will scatter from them in seven! You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
29 You will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will come to save you.
30 “You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her. You will build a house, but someone else will live in it. You will suffer under constant oppression and harsh treatment.
34 You will go mad because of all the tragedy you see around you.
43 “The foreigners living among you will become stronger and stronger, while you become weaker and weaker.
44 They will lend money to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, and you will be the tail!
45 “If you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and to obey the commands and decrees he has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed.
46 These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever.
47 If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received,
48 you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything.
49 “The Lord will bring a distant nation against you from the end of the earth, and it will swoop down on you like a vulture. It is a nation whose language you do not understand,
58 “If you refuse to obey all the words of instruction that are written in this book, and if you do not fear the glorious and awesome name of the Lord your God,
59 then the Lord will overwhelm you and your children with indescribable plagues. These plagues will be intense and without relief, making you miserable and unbearably sick.
66 Your life will constantly hang in the balance. You will live night and day in fear, unsure if you will survive.

Some think that this is Old Testament stuff and that none of that applies after the birth of Christ. If you’re one of those people, you are wrong. God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow and His Word endures forever. Whatever He said to Adam and Eve or to Abraham or to Moses applies as much today as it did then, and we need to be aware of that truth.

Now one of my all time favorite people was Vince Lombardi who became coach of the hapless and hopeless Green Bay Packers football team back in the late 50’s or early 60“s. I can’t remember exactly. But coach Lombardi knew his football and he also knew how to build a team of men that functioned as a single unit to play championship football. Coach Lombardi led those men to two successive Super Bowl championships, the first two ever played, by beginning with the very basic elements of the game. The very first time he addressed his team he held up a football and said: “Gentleman, this is a football.” He then went on to explain the basic elements of the game and what you did with that football to score points.

I believe that is what is necessary in the church. I believe the church first needs to hire a coach who knows what the Bible is all about and then to stand before the people and say, “Ladies and gentlemen, young ladies and gentlemen, this is a Bible, and this is what we’re supposed to do with it.” If you really want to understand the power of prayer and the essential part it plays in the life of individuals and the church, then know your Bible. Get to know intimately the God and Savior of the Bible in both the Old and New Testaments. In fact there is a book that should be on the must read list of every true Christian. It’s a little book by Kay Arthur titled, How to Read Your Bible. It is a real eye opener.

Now there is a possibility that some of us don’t fully understand the power and glory and supernatural wonder of the God we’re talking about here. I believe it essential that we establish that truth clearly in our minds before we go any further. And with that aim in mind I would like to read a few selected passages, one from the psalms and a few from the major prophets.

The author of Psalm 18:1-17 (NLT) is King David, and he wrote the following:

1 I love you, Lord; you are my strength.
2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my savior; my God is my rock, in whom I find protection. He is my shield, the power that saves me, and my place of safety.
3 I called on the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and he saved me from my enemies.
4 The ropes of death entangled me; floods of destruction swept over me.
5 The grave wrapped its ropes around me; death laid a trap in my path.
6 But in my distress I cried out to the Lord; yes, I prayed to my God for help. He heard me from his sanctuary; my cry to him reached his ears.
7 Then the earth quaked and trembled. The foundations of the mountains shook; they quaked because of his anger.
8 Smoke poured from his nostrils; fierce flames leaped from his mouth. Glowing coals blazed forth from him.
9 He opened the heavens and came down; dark storm clouds were beneath his feet.
10 Mounted on a mighty angelic being, he flew, soaring on the wings of the wind.
11 He shrouded himself in darkness, veiling his approach with dark rain clouds.
12 Thick clouds shielded the brightness around him and rained down hail and burning coals.
13 The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded amid the hail and burning coals.
14 He shot his arrows and scattered his enemies; his lightning flashed, and they were greatly confused.
15 Then at your command, O Lord, at the blast of your breath, the bottom of the sea could be seen, and the foundations of the earth were laid bare.
16 He reached down from heaven and rescued me; he drew me out of deep waters.
17 He rescued me from my powerful enemies, from those who hated me and were too strong for me.
49 For this, O Lord, I will praise you among the nations; I will sing praises to your name.
50 You give great victories to your king; you show unfailing love to your anointed, to David and all his descendants forever.

Now according to the recently self-appointed theologian, Rudy Guiliani, he would probably interpret this description as allegory or symbolism. Well, Mayor Guiliani was wrong in his evaluation of the story of Jonah and he would also be wrong here. There are so many descriptions like this of God in the Bible, we may know that He is a supernatural being beyond description and beyond the comprehension of the human mind. He is both glorious in His power and might as well as frightening in His wrath and judgment. Let’s just look at a few more, and by the way there is much more of this in the rest of Psalm 18 if you would like to read it on your own.
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Do you ever get discouraged? Then James has some encouraging words for you.

James 5:13 NAS:
13 Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing praises.

James is concerned here about believers who are in any sort of pain, who are struggling, undergoing hardships. It could be anything. He's not concerned so much about what it is as much as he is about the fact that it exists. There are probably some of us here tonight that might be suffering financially, or suffering physically or emotionally. Some of us may be suffering relationally; and there are those of us who are just suffering generally. In fact our lives always seem to be in a state of suffering.

James asks the question, "Is anyone suffering?" And his answer to those who answer by saying, "Yes," is "Let them pray." Why is James asking this question? What is his concern? Well if we look back at verse 9 James says, “Do not complain, brethren.” Isn't that what most of us do when we suffer? We complain. “Woe is me! Why is this happening to me? I don't deserve this; I haven't done anything wrong. Why can’t I find a job I like? Why can't I find the right mate? Why can’t I make ends meet? Why do people treat me the way they do?”

James is saying that when you suffer, talking to yourself or worrying isn't going to help you. The first thing you want to do is to talk to Someone who can help you. And who might that be? Paul has the answer.

Romans 8:34 NLT:
34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

1 Timothy 2:5 NLT:
5 For there is only one God and one Mediator who can reconcile God and humanity—the man Christ Jesus.
6 He gave his life to purchase freedom for everyone. This is the message God gave to the world at just the right time.

Unfortunately, praying is often the last thing we do, if we even bother to do it at all. Yet prayer should be the very first thing we do. If we're suffering financially, the first thing we usually do is ask ourselves, "How can I get some more money?" The first thing we should do is pray about the situation. When there are personal conflicts in the home, often the last thing the couple does is get on their knees together. Rather, they spend far too much time complaining and bickering, when they should be praying.

James says that if you're going through hard times, if you're hurting, then you ought to be praying. Instead of grumbling, instead of complaining, you ought to get down on your knees before God and say: "God, my life is falling apart. I can't handle this on my own. I need your help.” If that isn't your trigger response, your first response, your passionate response, than that means you don't really understand the power of the Christian life. You most likely don’t really understand God and what a relationship with Jesus is all about.

The power of the Christian life comes from above; it comes from God. And that power is given to us through the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ and His position as Lord and Savior to joyfully answer the prayers of those He died for.

In fact, did it ever cross your mind that maybe, just maybe, God is allowing the suffering in your life so that He can finally get you to pray? God tried taking care of you and you didn't pray then, so maybe allowing some things to go wrong will get you to pray. God often uses suffering and circumstances in order to call our attention to Him. Because otherwise we think we can function independently and don't need Him. In fact it's all too often the only alternative we give Him to get our attention. Therefore, it's fair to say that we can create our own misery by ignoring a God who wants to love us. And God, because He wants to love us and provide what is best for us, has to make us miserable so that we'll turn to Him and receive His love. Kind of makes mankind look pretty dense, doesn't it?

Now for those of you who like to raise the issue that one can pray alone with the same effect as praying in a group of fellow believers, I lovingly say, poppycock! You need to do both. Community prayer is essential to the sense of oneness in a church, Bible study, small group, committee, or any other organizational meeting among believers.

Matthew 18:19-20 (NLT)
19 “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you.
20 For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”

Luke 1:10 (NLT)
10 While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside, praying.

Acts 1:14 (NLT)
14 They (the apostles) all met together and were constantly united in prayer, along with Mary the mother of Jesus, several other women, and the brothers of Jesus.

Acts 4:24 (NLT)
24 When they heard the report, all the believers lifted their voices together in prayer to God: “O Sovereign Lord, Creator of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them—

Acts 12:12 (NLT)
12 When he 9Peter) realized this, he went to the home of Mary, the mother of John Mark, where many were gathered for prayer.

Acts 21:4-6 (NLT)
4 We went ashore, found the local believers, and stayed with them a week. These believers prophesied through the Holy Spirit that Paul should not go on to Jerusalem.
5 When we returned to the ship at the end of the week, the entire congregation, including wives and children, left the city and came down to the shore with us. There we knelt, prayed,
6 and said our farewells. Then we went aboard, and they returned home.

Many counselors and pastors will readily tell you that people who come to them, who have legitimate hurts and pain in their lives, have usually not talked to God about what they've come to them to talk about. If you haven't first taken your problems to God, you've missed the critical and most important first step in solving them. Now counselors may be able to help you and God will often work through such people. But our first step should be to drop to our knees and give the problem to God. It's amazing how many people want to quit or give up on a circumstance in their lives when they haven't spent any time praying about it. They want to throw in the towel without having lifted up the prayer. Is anyone suffering right now? Let them pray.

James poses a second question in verse 13: “Is anyone cheerful?” Then let them sing praises. Are there any happy people here tonight? Perhaps there are some of you here who are presently on the good side of life; you're enjoying it. If I were to say to you, “How are you doing?" You could smile and say, and really mean it, "I'm just fine!" Things are going well in your life; the bills are paid; your job is secure; you're just filled with joy.

Now everybody is usually in one of the two situations described in James 5:13. You're either suffering, things aren't going very well, or you're joyful, things are going pretty good. James says, "If you're joyful, thank God and praise Him for it." In other words, celebrate the good times! God wants to be in on the good times as well as the bad times. He doesn't just want to hear from you when everything is wrong. He wants to hear from you because nothing's wrong, because He's made everything right, because He loves you, because you are His child if you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Prayer is your proof that you're a Christian who is dependent on the Lord. Christians who do not pray are saying in essence, "Lord, Don't call me, I'll call you. I can make it on my own." It's that awful pride that says, "Really, God, I can make it without you, but you stay close by because I may need you in an emergency.”

Continual prayer and praise tell you that God is involved with you all day long. Let me tell you what prayer does. It changes your focus. You see, when you're in a tough situation the tendency is to focus on the situation itself. Prayer takes your focus off the situation and puts it on God. It stops you from looking inward and forces you to look upward, so that you're looking toward the hills, as David put it, from which comes your help (Psalm 121:1).

Now that we’ve touched on how awesome God is, the promises that He has made to those that are faithful to Him, and why it is important that we have an intimate prayer life with Him, someone is going to ask, “Well, how can we know if God is going to answer our prayers?” We can know if our prayers will be answered or why they might not be answered by again turning to the source of all truth, the Bible.

Psalms 66:16-20 (NLT):
16 Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what he did for me.
17 For I cried out to him for help, praising him as I spoke.
18 If I had not confessed the sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened.
19 But God did listen! He paid attention to my prayer.
20 Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer or withdraw his unfailing love from me.

Isaiah 59:2 (NLT)
2 It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.

Micah 3:4 (NLT)
4 Then you beg the Lord for help in times of trouble! Do you really expect him to answer? After all the evil you have done, he won’t even look at you!”

The Lord will not answer prayer unless the person praying has a pure heart. Is your heart pure when you go to God in prayer. Have you cleansed yourself from your sin by asking God with a sincere heart to forgive you through the blood of Jesus? If we would get down on our knees here and now and pray to God that He heal our country, would you be one of the reasons that prayer would not be answered? Confession and asking forgiveness are essential for prayer to be answered.

Proverbs 1:20-33 (NLT)
20 Wisdom shouts in the streets. She cries out in the public square.

22 “How long, you simpletons, will you insist on being simpleminded? How long will you mockers relish your mocking? How long will you fools hate knowledge?
23 Come and listen to my counsel. I’ll share my heart with you and make you wise.
24 “I called you so often, but you wouldn’t come. I reached out to you, but you paid no attention.
25 You ignored my advice and rejected the correction I offered.

28 “When they cry for help, I will not answer. Though they anxiously search for me, they will not find me.
29 For they hated knowledge and chose not to fear the Lord.

31 Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes.
32 For simpletons turn away from me—to death. Fools are destroyed by their own complacency.
33 But all who listen to me will live in peace, untroubled by fear of harm.”

The Lord does not answer the prayers of nor protect those people who ignore the evil they see going on around them. God does not answer the prayers of those who participate with others in behavior that they know is against the will of God. God does not bless those who remain silent when others blaspheme the holy name of God. And God does not answer the prayers of the stubborn who ignore His Word of instruction to them through the Bible. For example we know of God’s compassion for the poor.

Job 34:28 (NLT)
28 They cause the poor to cry out, catching God’s attention. He hears the cries of the needy.

And He makes clear how He will treat those who ignore their needs.

Proverbs 21:13 (NLT)
13 Those who shut their ears to the cries of the poor will be ignored in their own time of need.

This doesn’t just mean giving money to the poor. The cries of the poor may require your time and fellowship.

James 4:1-4 (NLT)
1 What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you?
2 You want what you don’t have. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it.
3 And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
4 Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.

If you desire to spend your time watching raunchy movies and television; if you want to dress like a hooker or defile your body in any number of ways; if you want to use profanity and participate in casual sex; if you want to promote homosexuality and abortion and same sex marriage; if you believe you have the right to dishonor and make fun of your parents; and if you want to run up a total debt that far exceeds your ability to pay, God will allow you to do that, and if you one day come to Him and ask forgiveness for living like that and accept Christ‘s atoning death as payment for such sins, He will lovingly forgive you. But don’t expect Him to answer your prayers while you’re living like that.

Continuing in James 4:6-10:
6 But he gives us even more grace to stand against such evil desires. As the Scriptures say, “God opposes the proud but favors the humble.”
7 So humble yourselves before God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8 Come close to God, and God will come close to you. Wash your hands, you sinners; purify your hearts, for your loyalty is divided between God and the world.
9 Let there be tears for what you have done. Let there be sorrow and deep grief. Let there be sadness instead of laughter, and gloom instead of joy.
10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up in honor.

We have seen a few of the reasons God does not answer prayer, and this includes some of the prayers of those who are saved and possess the Holy Spirit of God. Believers can and often do embrace sin in our culture today. If we want to have our prayers answered as the body of Christ we need to get our act together.

Whose prayers will God answer and who will He protect? Listen to some great promises.

Psalms 91:14-16 (NLT)

14 The Lord says, “I will rescue those who love me. I will protect those who trust in my name.
15 When they call on me, I will answer; I will be with them in trouble. I will rescue and honor them.
16 I will reward them with a long life and give them my salvation.”

Isaiah 58:1-14 (NLT)
1 “Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast. Shout aloud! Don’t be timid. Tell my people Israel of their sins!
2 Yet they act so pious! They come to the Temple every day and seem delighted to learn all about me. They act like a righteous nation that would never abandon the laws of its God. They ask me to take action on their behalf, pretending they want to be near me.
3 ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say. ‘Why aren’t you impressed? We have been very hard on ourselves, and you don’t even notice it!’ “I will tell you why!” I respond. “It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves. Even while you fast, you keep oppressing your workers.
4 What good is fasting when you keep on fighting and quarreling? This kind of fasting will never get you anywhere with me.
5 You humble yourselves by going through the motions of penance, bowing your heads like reeds bending in the wind. You dress in burlap and cover yourselves with ashes. Is this what you call fasting? Do you really think this will please the Lord?
6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
8 “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply. “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
10 Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
11 The Lord will guide you continually.

13 “Keep the Sabbath day holy. Don’t pursue your own interests on that day, but enjoy the Sabbath and speak of it with delight as the Lord’s holy day. Honor the Sabbath in everything you do on that day, and don’t follow your own desires or talk idly.
14 Then the Lord will be your delight. I will give you great honor and satisfy you with the inheritance I promised to your ancestor Jacob. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

Luke 11:9-10 (NLT)
9 “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.
10 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Listen to the words of the Psalmist in

Psalms 4:3 (NLT)
3 You can be sure of this: The Lord set apart the godly for himself. The Lord will answer when I call to him.

Do you remember 2 Chronicles 7:14 NLT:

2 Chronicles 7:14 (NLT)

14 Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.

What could be more clear. Isn’t this verse a perfect summary of all the verses we’ve read so far? God promises to heal our land, to provide us blessing and remove the curses if we are only obedient, humble, repentant, and willing to seek His forgiveness. The people of Israel never learned this lesson, and it seems the people of the United States have cast aside this source of blessing in favor of pride and self-satisfaction. We are already paying for that mistake and if we don’t turn things around we will pay the ultimate penalty as Israel did. When you get a notice of the next Culture Campaign prayer meeting is there any question about what you should do. After what we’ve just discussed is there anything that takes a higher priority in your life than gathering together for prayer?

James 5:16 NAS:
The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

The prayer of a righteous person, not of any individual, but someone who's living it before he or she is praying it. That man or woman can accomplish much. The impossible becomes possible to the righteous people who pray. The impossible marriage becomes a possible marriage, when two righteous partners pray. The impossible financial circumstance becomes a possible financial circumstance, if the righteous person with the financial need is praying. James gives an example in the next two verses.

James 5:17,18 (NAS):
17 Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months.
18 Then he prayed again, and the sky poured rain and the earth produced its fruit.

Now I call that big time praying. Anytime you can ask the Lord to stop the rain and it stops, that's really something. If it stops for a few minutes, I'd call that coincidence. But if it stops for three and a half years, I would call that "accomplishing much."

Now you might be saying, "Wait a minute. That happened in the Old Testament where that kind of thing happened all the time; and besides Elijah was a prophet." You would be wrong. Verse 17 says that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Elijah was a person just like you. There wasn't anything supernatural about Elijah, there was nothing special about Elijah; he was simply a man, an ordinary man who could even get very depressed according to 1 Kings 19:2-4.

Verse 17 tells us that Elijah was just like you and me. How then could this ordinary person stop rain for three and a half years? Even though he was only an ordinary man, he was in touch with the super God. He was an ordinary person connected to an extraordinary Person. He was a righteous person who prayed in accordance with God's plan and God shut up the heavens.

Now let me tell you a little bit about Elijah's prayer. The only reason James is quoting this in the New Testament is that it applies in the New Testament.

The reason he’s telling this to us is that if we effectively, fervently pray and we are righteous in our lifestyle, then we can also expect to see God accomplish supernatural things.

Now listen closely! First of all, when Elijah prayed he prayed according to God's Word. He didn't make up in his own mind that he just didn't want it to rain for three and a half years. He had read Deuteronomy 11, and Deuteronomy 11 says that when the people obeyed God, God would send them rain to make their crops grow. But when the people disobeyed God, He would shut up the heavens so that their crops would die. So Elijah, knowing the Word of God, prayed in line with God's Word and, therefore, he could expect God to do it because he knew God's Word.

If you don't know God's Word, you won't be able to pray effectively. Do you know how you pray effectively?

Do you know what to do if you're facing a dilemma about finances? You open the Bible and find out all you can about finances, and then you pray according to God's Word. The next thing you do is pray expectantly. Let’s turn to 1 Kings 18 where we find Elijah asking for rain.

1 Kings 18:42 NAS:
42 So Ahab went up to eat and drink. But Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees.

You can often tell how sincere a person is about praying by looking at their posture. Often in Scripture we see people laying flat on their stomachs while praying. They would prostrate themselves because that's as low as you can get. In doing this you're saying to God, "I am so dependent on you that I want to go as low as I can possibly get. Lord, I have no solution to this thing and I just humble myself completely before you."

This passage goes on to tell us that seven times Elijah sent the servant to check for rain. He prayed; no rain. He prayed again; no rain. He prayed again; no rain. He prayed again; no rain. He prayed again; no rain. On the seventh time, the servant went out and came back and said, "it's not raining, but way, way out there, there's a tiny little cloud about the size of your hand.” No rain yet, it's still sunny, but there's this dark speck of a cloud way out there.

Elijah then told the servant that he had better go to Ahab and tell him to get home because the sky's ready to burst open with rain. And that little cloud grew and grew until finally the heavens opened in a deluge of a thunderstorm. So Elijah shows us how we need to pray persistently. You might ask, "How long do we need to pray?" I would ask you to remember the little acronym PUSH, “pray until something happens.” Pray until God answers. That's how long you pray. If it's a need in your life, if it's a burden in your life, you pray until God does something. If it’s for a revival in your country, you pray until God acts. You pray until He says yes or no; and if He hasn't said yes or He hasn't said no, you assume he says “Wait!” You pray until you hear from Heaven, and like Jacob you don't let God go until He does something one way or the other (Genesis 32:24-26).

So Elijah prayed biblically, he prayed persistently, he prayed expectantly, and he prayed obediently. He was willing to do what God said to do. That's why James said early in his book in

James 1:5-8 NAS:
5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.
6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.
7 For that man ought not to expect that he will receive anything from the Lord,
8 being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

What is a double-minded man? To be double-minded is to think two ways at the same time. To be double-minded means saying, "God, I'm going to pray, but I have to hear what your answer is before I decide if I'm going to abide by it.” Double-minded means negotiation with God. It means you haven't decided to do up front what God says to do.

If you haven't decided to follow God, you might as well not pray.

God will not bless a double-minded person because that person will take God’s will and do his or her own thing with it. You must decide before you pray that God's will is to be done, not yours. You must decide that you will do it God's way. If God says yes, you go with the yes; if God says no, you go with the no. Whatever God says, that's what you'll do. And God will talk to the person that does this because he knows that person is going to obey.

Another thing we need to note here is that Elijah prayed specifically. He didn't say, "Lord, bless me today." He said, “Lord, don’t let it rain today." So many of us have such general prayers. We wake up in the morning and say, "Lord, bless me today; bless me on my way; bless me in my goings and comings; bless my family; bless, bless, bless, bless, bless.” What kind of answers do you think you get to general prayers? God gives you general answers.

Now if you want specific answers then you have to pray specific prayers. What do you want? What do you want God to do? Now it must be biblical, it must be in accordance with His will, and you must be willing to obey, but you have to tell God what it is you want Him to do! Many of us don't see miracles because we don't ask specifically for them. What do you want God to do, specifically?

So, in closing, I'd like you to remember that God can do super-ordinary things with real ordinary people, who are in relationship with Him and who pray diligently. So, what is our conclusion? Our conclusion is to pray!

Now let’s begin to really pray according to the way God has taught us and let us commit to pray together.




Fasting