I'm going to talk about a little book I put together about a year ago called Praying by the Power of the Spirit. I shoved this off to a friend of mine who's a theologian, Wayne Grudem, probably the most read systematic theologian in the world. I said, Wayne, I know you're busy. If you've got time, just check this manuscript for some errors, and if you feel led, write me a little foreword on it. Wayne is probably one of the most godly, I think, humble theologians that I know, and just a dear man. And well, anyway, nothing came back for about three months, and right before the book was about ready to be shipped, you know, he sent me this. And I share this because I think it's something that we all need to realize, is that we're all in a growing process. There's not one of us that doesn't need to submit to God to realize that every new movement I make in my own personal maturity, there's always something there that God wants to correct. None of us have arrived. Well, Rain wrote some nice things, but he said, I found the last chapter especially significant. After living more than 50 years as a Christian, and after teaching more than 25 years as a professor of Bible and theology, I took about two hours to work carefully through Neal's steps to freedom in Christ, and apply each step to my own life, reading each suggested prayer aloud. God used that process to bring to mind a number of thoughts and attitudes that He wanted to correct, and then to impart to me a wonderfully refreshing sense of freedom, peace, joy, and fellowship with Himself. And I promise you, if Wayne needed that, We do. But how I got to that is what I want to kind of share with you this morning. I go back and you look at certain times in your life when you just made a major shift in your thinking and your understanding. But to me, my biggest frustration as a young Christian, and actually just finished with seminary and started my first professional ministry, if you want to call it that. I was a college pastor in a large church. Nothing was more frustrating to me than prayer. I knew we were supposed to, I knew how important it was in my Christian walk, but I would sit down for three or four minutes with my little list, and I'd be pushing off tempting thoughts and busyness of the day, and I would just struggle, just getting through three or four or five minutes of prayer. Why is this so hard? Then I read Ian Bound's book, Power Through Prayer, or something like that, and these people would pray for two hours, and four hours, and all night. Four minutes was an ordeal. How'd they do that for two hours or four hours? And then I'd go to church, and after the sermon, I would sometimes pray like this, dear God, bless our picnic on Saturday, where A through C brings ketchup, mustard, and pickles. Who am I talking to? I was giving the announcements in my prayer. Or we had to have a man give the pastor a prayer, and the kids would time him. He never heard that long prayers are for the closet and short prayers are for public, but eight minutes this morning, and it was in King James. Is that more spiritual? And then we go to church and get in those little circles, and if A, you know, number one person to pray, and then the person beside him prayed next, you've got a precedent going. You're going to go around that circle, aren't you? Now, if you're number five and number four hasn't prayed, how long do you wait for him? You know, doesn't he understand how this works? Or I would sit down with my wife, and, well, let's pray about this, and let's pray about this. Okay, let's pray about this. We need to pray about this, too. All right, now, let's pray. And then we would go through the same exact list. And I started to wonder, where was God the first time? Hold off, God, we'll get to you in a moment. We're gonna talk about what we're gonna get to you in a moment. Now, I don't wanna make fun of prayer, but I think you'd identify with me, it can be kind of frustrating at times, and wonder if this isn't just some kind of human exercise that we're going through. Well, my first public ministry was a college ministry, and I had just read a book, Power Through Prayer, or something like that, by R.A. Torrey, it's an old book, 100 years old now. And I read halfway through it, I said, boy, this is good stuff. And so I just took the chapter titles and kind of announced that I was gonna be doing six or seven or eight messages that summer in prayer. I hadn't read the last chapter, and the last chapter was Praying by the Spirit. And actually, I didn't read it until the night before. I mean, when you're really busy in ministry, that kind of happens sometimes. So here I am, Saturday night, I read this last chapter. Now, this is no reflection on him, but after reading it, I didn't have a clue how to pray by the Spirit. These are great moments with God, folks. I mean, when you're absolutely bankrupt on a Saturday night at 10 o'clock, and you got 150 college students expecting you to share something tomorrow morning, and you don't have a clue. And you start reaching for that film that you was gonna use for that special moment, you know. And God has you exactly where He wants you. And that night, I had an encounter with God that forever changed my understanding of prayer. And I just wanna take you through that process. If you got your Bibles, get it open, because we're gonna move kind of rapidly here, and if you don't, read the book. But anyway, listen to what happened to me that night, and maybe you'd identify yourself. My thinking went like this. I'm just sitting here. My wife has gone to bed. It's 10 o'clock at night at least. I'm going, what am I going to do? And I said, well, if you're going to pray by the Spirit, you probably need to be filled with the Spirit. So I went to Ephesians 5.18. And you know the passage, be not drunk with wine, we're in this excess, but be filled with the Spirit. Sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. But what caught my attention for whatever reason that night was how it ended. In verse 20, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, even to God, even the Father. So, I went over to the Sister Epistle in Colossians chapter 3, where the same thing happens, only now it's allowing the Word of Christ to richly dwell within you. And you see this wonderful parallel. It's good to be filled with God's Spirit, but you also need the Word of Christ richly dwelling within you. But the results are actually the same. You'll sing and make melody in your heart to the Lord. But in verse 15 it starts, Colossians 3, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom and teaching, admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God, whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father." Now, it was that concept of being thankful or giving thanks, that whatever, it was a God thing. I mean, it just caught my attention that night. I just looked over to Colossians 4, verse 2, devote yourselves to prayer, keep an alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving. Be anxious for nothing, but by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving. 1 Thessalonians, pray without seizing and everything give thanks. So I started to go back. Now here's where I want you to just, if you got your Bible, just leaf with me a little bit. Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians chapter one. Verse 16, it says, do not seize giving thanks for you while making mention you in my prayers. Next epistle. Philippians 1, verse 3, I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always offering prayer with joy in my every heart for you. Next book, Colossians 1, verse 3, we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, praying always for you. Next epistle, 1 Thessalonians 1, verse 2, we give thanks to God always for all of you, make and mention you in our prayer. Trust me, okay? It was like I couldn't separate, in Paul's thinking, prayer from thanksgiving. Now, you ever have one of those times in your life when you have that kind of moment of discovery, like you're kind of on to something? And that's kind of how I felt. I said, why is this so prevalent? Well, about that time, one of my favorite Psalms, and I do want you to go there if you have your Bible, turn with me to Psalm 95, Psalm 95. And I went back there that night because There was a concept there that I was very familiar with. I just had never tied it together quite like this. But let me begin at the beginning of the psalm, Psalm 95. O come, let us sing for joy to the Lord. Let us shout joyfully to the rock of our salvation. Let us come before his presence with Thanksgiving. Why? Well, for the Lord is a great God and a great King above all gods, and whose hands are the depths of the earth. The peaks of the mountains are His also. The sea is His, for it was He who made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us worship and bow down. Let us kneel. That's not me. Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker, for He is our God. We are the people of His pasture, the sheep of His hand. Today, if you would hear His voice. And I thought there for a moment, I said, Lord, I'd love to hear your voice. Hear is the Hebrew word that means to hear as though to obey. You see, my prayer was kind of like that old country western song, Hello, Wall. I mean, it was just really a one-way deal, okay? And I would shoot up my prayers to heaven, but I wasn't hearing from God. And then the next verse says, do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as in the days of Masa in the wilderness. Why would that say that? Today, if you would hear my voice, don't harden your heart. Well, here's my struggle that night. Five minutes in prayer was an ordeal, and tempting thoughts, and busyness of the day, and whatever else. And then another passage I was familiar with in Roman 8.26. It says, we don't know how or what to pray for, but the Holy Spirit does. And He helps us in our weakness and intercedes for us on our behalf. And that little word helps is fascinating. Sun anti-lumbano. I don't mean anything to you, but what it is is it's two prepositions before the word take. that's pregnant with meaning. He said the Holy Spirit helps us. What he does is he comes alongside and bears us up and takes us across to the other side. My point really is this, that a prayer that God the Holy Spirit prompts you to pray is a prayer that God is always going to answer. Because it doesn't originate from you, it originates from God. And I was trying to help people in those days get out of terminal spiritual bondage and that. And I also knew that at the end of the armor of God in Ephesians 6, it kind of concludes with saying, pray at all times in the spirit for all of the saints. Well, here's what happened to me that night. Lord, I'd love to hear your voice. But I didn't know if I would know if it happened. And so I made a... Kind of a commitment that evening. I said, okay, Lord, this is what I'm gonna do. You're all powerful. I have the mind of Christ within me. The Holy Spirit has taken up residence in my life. He's gonna lead me into all truth. I'm gonna assume, God, that whatever comes on my mind tonight is either from you or allowed by you for a purpose. And so I just sat there and I said, whatever comes to my mind, I'm gonna deal with. Now, if you try this, you're gonna find out pretty soon why you should not harden your heart. Because in the past, I'd have a tendency to, you know, get behind me, Satan, you know, I'm battling all these tempting thoughts and I'm trying to focus on prayer. Why do you think God's allowing that to come through? And I said, rather than say, I don't wanna talk to you about my struggle with lust right now, what do you think God wants to talk to me about? I'll tell you what, if you want prayer to be personal, I can promise you this, that the first thing on his list is the issues that are very important to him in terms of your relationship with him. Not the busyness of the day, not other things. But God, I don't want to talk to you about that one, but God does. But God does. I spend an hour in prayer. Let me draw a parallel concept to that. Have you ever got in a car and had to drive someplace with the total stranger? Silence is awkward, isn't it? Or sit by somebody's silence, you just feel uncomfortable with it. But I get in my car with my wife and we can drive across country and not talk for an hour. We're just comfortable in each other's presence. We don't have to feel like I gotta talk. And when it comes to prayer, why do I feel I have to talk? You know, in one sense, he is my best friend. And he says that in John, doesn't he, that we are his friend. Well, anyway, I just listened that night and I said, okay, God, I need to talk to you about this. I found out how personal God really is. Those are issues that he wanted to get, and that's why he's allowing this stuff to come into me like this. That's what I want to talk to you about. I didn't particularly care to want to talk to him about those issues, of course, but I said, but he already knew it. God knows the thoughts and intentions of our heart. But I didn't find it a condemning thing. I found it a releasing thing. And then I started to just learn to sit in the presence of God. I also picked up a book at that time. It wasn't a profound book. I usually wouldn't go across the street to read somebody's canned prayers. But this little book, a gal in my church at that time gave it to me. It's been one of those days, Lord. And she said, here, I think you'll enjoy this. And it was by a pastor who just kind of, it was like a diary almost, where he would just kind of dialogue with God. And I could not read more than three of those, and I'd have to put it down. He said, was it profound? No, actually, it was incredibly simple. Where he would just say, God, I gotta go see Barney today. I really don't like Barney. And you know that. But I know I need to do that, and I know you love Him." It was the simplicity of it. It was just sitting in the presence of your best friend, but not trivializing it. I mean, He is God, but it was the honesty, the sincerity, the vulnerability of it, of being able to say, there isn't anything I can't talk to you about. and the ones that I don't want to talk most, probably the most important things in my life I need to talk to you about. And then I started to realize what the idea of praying without ceasing was, is that it doesn't really end there. Once you start practicing the presence of God, then it would kind of go from my morning experience with Him, and I would ride my bike to church and start praying for people on the way to church and whatever. Well, that forever, forever changed my life. Now, don't do this passively. You take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. But deal with it, deal with it in a proper kind of a way. That little concept has led to more growth and understanding of ministry and counseling and helping with other people than any other thing I can share with you. that probably God's prayer list is probably going to be different than the one you have. Now, if you're, there's a movement in prayer that probably for anybody starting on the Christian walk, it's always petition. And you learn little acrostics like acts, adoration, confession, Thanksgiving, supplication, et cetera. That's okay. But if that's all it is, and it's just mechanical, it's a one way kind of a concept and nothing wrong with petitions. You get an op because you ask not. But if that's all it is, probably your prayer life is going to kind of dry up. There's another dimension to prayer where it becomes personal. This is what I'm talking about this morning, where it really is two ways, where you do sit in the presence of God, where you don't harden your heart, where there isn't anything that you can't share with God. My great joy in ministry is to get people to that point. And usually that requires some repentance on their part. And well, then the next step, and there are very few that are here, is what I would call true intercession. You'll never get to that if prayer hasn't become personal, because true intercession doesn't begin with you. That would be petitioning. But true intercession really begins with God. That's the kind of person who wakes up in the middle of the night and is so burdened with something, they can't go back to sleep until they've prayed through it. Don't make a public ministry out of that, folks. You'll ruin it for them. There's always somebody like that in our churches. Usually they're 55 or older and usually they're our latest, unfortunately. I mean, we need more people like that. But if you got all these unresolved conflicts in your life, then truth of the matter is there is no peace in mind. Silence is awkward for you. Probably the best way to determine your own spiritual maturity right now is close your eyes and see how quiet it is in your mind and see how well you deal with solitude. Are you comfortable just being alone by yourself? Or do you have to keep busy, because you have no mental peace? Is there a peace of God that passes all understanding, guarding your heart and your mind? Yes, there is. And once we help people resolve their conflicts and find their freedom in Christ, suddenly it is there, it's quiet. When we finish a conference, I'll have people close their eyes, and they say, let's have it as quiet as we can, and silence. Peace. But we dealt with the issues. We're done with issues. Now, there's only one place in the Bible that says if you are sick or suffering, what to do. Where is that? James chapter 5. I want you to go there with me. I want you to see something. James chapter 5. You know, it's interesting, the only classes I get teaching are more doctorate of ministry classes by and large, and I've had pastors exegete this passage and give me a five-page paper before they come. And I usually get about three pages trying to figure out what the oil is. you know, is this a spiritual symbolism kind of a thing, or is it a mental health reference? And then they look at the effect of fervent prayer of a righteous man of Aleth Mutz. And the reason we do that is because, gee, if somebody called me and asked the elders to come and pray for me, you know, what would I do, see? What's my responsibility? And oftentimes what gets overlooked is what their responsibility is. But notice how this passage began. James chapter five, verse 13. Is anyone among you suffering? then he must pray. Now, why is that the case? I said, because I can't do your praying for you. I believe in intercessory prayer, but that is never to replace an individual's responsibility to pray. Look at it this way. Let's say you're a father and you have two boys, and the younger brother's always going to the older brother and saying, go ask dad if I can go to the movies tonight and see if I can have $10. Now, if you're a good father, what would you do? What would you do? Would you accept that? Would you accept a secondhand relationship with one of your children? Wouldn't you say to that older brother, go back and tell your younger brother to come in here? Wouldn't you? What do you think's happening here, folks? Oh, pastor, would you pray for me? Would you study for me? Think for me. Can you have a secondhand relationship with God? See, everything I'm sharing here is all based on two things. There is a priesthood of believer. Every one of you are children of God that are born again. And you all have the same access to your Heavenly Father. And there is no intermediary between God and man except for Jesus Christ. God has never called you and I to function as a medium. Are you with me? All right. Now, to illustrate this, I remember when I was still teaching at Talbot School of Theology, Chuck Swindoll still had his church in Southern California, and his guy who was head of all of his adult ministries was named Buck. He was a super guy. And they were referring people to me, and Buck called me one day, I got this guy, he's 35 years old, he's hearing voices, he's really struggling, can you help him? I said, I can't assume follow-up though, Buck. I said, if you come in with him and assume that responsibility, I said, I'll help him. So he came in and we sat down and I heard his story and we went through our steps to freedom and he walked out. Mine was free. I just submitted to God and resisted the devil. That's all I did. And so Buck looked at me and says, wow, what a trap I've gotten myself into. I said, what do you mean? Well, people come to me Sunday morning and you know, Buck, would you pray for me? Now if that happens to somebody today and somebody comes up to you and says, would you pray for me? What do you say? No. I'm going to pray for you. Now, you don't say that, do you? Can we be honest, folks? I mean, a hurting person comes up and says, would you pray for me? And you pray for him. How many great answers to prayer have you seen? I'll be honest with you. I don't think hardly any. But I'll join you in petition. I'll agree together with you in prayer. I want you to know I care about you. But there's a very good reason why we're not seeing a lot of answers there. What I learned, and this started for me probably about 84 or 85, something like that, and I would get stuck with people. I mean, I was one of these kind of guys that said, God has an answer for you. I don't know what it is right now, but if you're willing to stay with me, I'm going to keep praying, and searching Scripture, and we'll work through it. And I just did that for one problem after another. Usually it all ended up in a book, but the point was that I really believed in my heart. Christ was the answer and truth that set people free. But early on in ministry, I didn't have a clue how. I mean, I would pray with them and read with them and read scripture and give them assignments and nothing. What's gone wrong here? Well, anyway, I was honest enough with these people at that time to say, I don't know what your answer is. The Bible says if you lack wisdom, pray and God will give it to you. So I would stop and pray, God, I need some wisdom here, some direction, you know, help me out. And I remember we're sitting there one time for 15 minutes, we just sat there in silence, waiting upon the Lord. And then one day it dawned on me, hmm, why am I asking God to give me that wisdom so I can share it with that person? Why don't I have that person pray? Genius, right? And that was the whole development of what we now call our steps to freedom. It isn't what I do or pray, it's what that person does. And when they pray and ask God who they need to forgive, God shows them. Out comes a list of 35 names. And it's just a God thing. And I started to realize after a while, I said, when I sit down with another person, there's not two people here, God's here. And there's a role God and only God can play in that person's life. And that all came out in our book back here, Discipleship Counseling. But we're starting to see people come out of all kinds of problems. And there's nothing magical about this. It's really a question of just submitting to God and in prayer. And then it goes on to say, then if you need to go sick, you call the elders. Now, who does God put that responsibility on to? To that person. Why is that the case? Listen, you will never see victory, wellness, health, whatever, in our churches until we help people understand that essentially that is their responsibility. I wish I could be healthy for you, but I can't. Can I? Sit by the healthiest person here. Would you catch anything? No? If you want to be healthy like them, you probably have to learn to have the proper kind of rest, exercise, and diet, wouldn't you? On the other hand, sit by a sick person here, you may catch almost everything they got. That's true spiritually. There is no such thing as spiritual osmosis. You know, make sure you sit by Greg when he comes back every Sunday. You won't catch a thing, folks, honestly. There is no spiritual osmosis. On the other hand, don't be deceived. Bad company crops good morals. And so if people will assume responsibility for their own life or whatever else, you're gonna start to see some tremendous results happen. All I'm really getting at here is that in this whole process of prayer, the ground before the cross is level. Now, you've all heard that before, but you all heard that we're the priesthood of believers. If you hold iniquity in your heart, God doesn't hear you. The answer is not to go ask your pastor because he won't hear you or somebody else. The answer is get rid of the iniquity, isn't it? So he will hear you. Now, I'll tell you what is effective is that when this person themselves will petition God, and when you pray and ask God who it is I need to forgive or whatever else, God will show you, and then you work through that process. Don't harden your heart. Then, when you will assume responsibility to study, to show yourself approved, and live a righteous life yourself, Then, the next thing is, the effect of fervent prayer of a righteous man does avail us. I can tell you all kinds of answers to prayer. But suppose you got a very rebellious son. I mean, he's rebellious. And you told him to mow the lawn. He didn't do it. And then he comes to you, Dad, I need, got a hot date tonight, need the keys to the car at 20 bucks. Would you give it to him? Would God? No, I think God would very lovingly sit down and say, son, I love you, but I told you to mow the lawn. Go mow the lawn, we'll talk about the date. But you got issues right now that are critical between yourself and me. And we need to talk about those. It's kind of like delight yourself in the Lord. He'll give you the desires of your heart. You turn that formula around, folks, and you'll end up as disaster. What would happen if you delighted yourself in the Lord? He would change your desires. Your desires would change. And so if this boy didn't mow that lawn, got right with his dad, chances are the date would fall away and he'd realize it was the wrong date. but he got back into a righteous relationship with God. And I've seen tremendous answers to prayer of people coming out of lifetimes of allergies and marginal things. Most of our people are actually sick for psychosomatic reasons. Doctors will tell you that. Is there any benefit for helping a person get radically right with God? Is there health benefit? Absolutely. There honestly is. It's the Spirit that gives life to your body. And so when we get back into that righteous relationship with Him, watch what happens. Watch the growth take place. But the reality of it, that I'm living in the presence of God, and I can take silence. I can do my devotions. I can pray. Somebody asked me one time, well, how am I supposed to act? It's not an act. It's a real thing. It's a real thing. It's a real relationship. Christ really does live within me. The Holy Spirit will lead me to all truth. I do need to be honest with God. He already knows the thoughts and intentions of my heart, but I'm already forgiven, so I can be honest with Him. I can walk in the light. It's a simple concept, really. Try it once. Go for a walk. Take an hour off and say, God, what do you want to talk about? Whatever comes to mind, deal with it. God loves you. The next hour I'm gonna talk about how to walk by the Spirit. That's another chapter in the book. Let's pray. Lord, we love you. You're here. And you're in the life of every one of your children. You love us all the same. And we can just submit ourselves to you. We can walk in the light because we're forgiven. And we thank you for that. And what a privilege to realize that all that received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. And so Lord, as we understand that, that we cry out in our hearts, Abba Father, and as you have taught us even to pray, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done. And Lord, that's what we want to happen, for your kingdom to come. Because if we are transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may actually, by the way we live, prove that the will of God is good, it's acceptable, it's perfect for us. And we thank you for that. And we pray these things now in Jesus' name. Amen.