Praying Boldly

Giving God all the glory for my personal story included at the end of the lesson I gave yesterday at Community of Hope in Sidney, Ohio.

“Truly, truly, I say to you,?whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I?am going to the Father.??Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that?the Father may be glorified in the Son.??If you ask me?anything in my name, I will do it.”?(John 14:12-14, ESV)

This is the Word of our Lord.

Thanks be to God.

Good morning, Community of Hope!??How I missed this place and all of you this past Sunday.??I truly did.??I am sorry that I couldn’t be here last Sunday but I had to be gone all week on business.??And it was an amazing week, a bit of which I will share with you later.

As you?know, we’re going through the book, Draw The Circle.??Did anyone bring your copy with you today? It’s no big deal if you didn’t but I do hope that you’re following along at home, reading a chapter each day for the 40 days the book covers.

On Wednesday night, Dan and Kelli Elliott started a study group for the book which will continue to meet on Wednesdays at 7 pm in the Alpha Center for five weeks. I know a couple of folks were able to join them and it’s never too late to join up.??They start out with a video that covers part of the book and then they have discussion about it.??So, makes no difference whether you could attend last Wednesday, please feel free to attend this week and going forward.

Is anyone journaling your prayers???I have never been real good about that but I am working on it! I think that tracking what I pray for will help me in watching for God’s provision.

Last Sunday, Rich started talking about the book and also about how God calls us to prayer. You may recall that he talked about?Daniel in the OId Testament praying three times a day despite the King’s decree that no one should pray for 30 days.??Then he talked about?Jesus?teaching His disciples how to pray – and how that became our New Testament way of living.

You may recall that Rich also told you about a British evangelist from the late 1800s and early 1900s named?Gypsy?Smith. Gypsy was born of low means but went on to travel the Atlantic 45 times to and from the United States. He met with presidents and other dignitaries. He inspired countless people to see God and turn to God. When asked what the secret to a spiritual revival was, Gypsy Smith said “Go home. Lock yourself in a room. Take a piece of chalk. Draw a circle around yourself. Then pray “O Lord, revive everything inside this circle.” This is us praying for God to start a revival in each of us. And it all starts with what???Prayer.?

This week I want to review some highlights of the book from the readings over the past week but first I want to tell you about another circle maker.??This is someone named?Honi?the Circle Maker. Honie was a Jewish scholar who lived shortly before the time that Jesus walked the earth. He is not directly referenced in the Bible but he is written about in the Jewish Talmud.?

Honi was known for God responding positively to his calls for miracles to happen. His name, “Honi the Circle Maker,” came from one of those miracles. This happened during a winter when Israel was not receiving the rains they normally received. The earth was parched. Crops were withering and dying. There was going to be a famine. The Israelites were begging Honi to pray for a miracle.??

So?Honi?stood in the dry desert and with a long stick held in front of him pointed down to the ground, he turned around 90 degree, 180 degrees, 270 degrees, 360 degrees, creating a circle around himself in the dust. He then cried out to God and told God that he would not move until it started to rain.

Now, this was not a normal prayer. It was a bold prayer – very bold in fact, challenging God to do something – to make it rain – or else he would not move. You can guess, though, what happened.??It began?to rain. It was a light rain at first and so Honi cried out that he was not satisfied with a drizzle, that they needed more rain. And then the clouds let loose with a downpour, a deluge, a real gulley washer. As the area around them started to flood, Honi asked God for a calm rain … and the rains calmed down to a normal rate.?

The Sanhedrin – the judges of Israel – those who made and enforced the rules at the time – threatened to arrest cast Honi out of the Jewish culture over this – his actions were deemed that bold and inappropriate. Because demanding something of God the way that Honi did – boldly telling God to make it rain – was just something they did not do. They felt he was too forceful toward God, too bold.?

But yet it’s apparent that God did not see it that way because He answered Honi’s demands and brought life-giving rains to the people of Israel.

A big part of what I am learning from this book, Draw the Circle, is to?not be afraid to pray boldly. In fact, while we may be afraid that God will be offended or upset when we pray boldly, quite the opposite is true.?He is probably offended when we do?not?pray boldly.

You see,?our bold?prayers honor God.??We would not be bold and ask big things of God if we did not believe through and through that He is capable of anything, would we???Honi the Circle Maker would not have gone and demanded of his wife that she make it rain, would he have???(At least not if he knew what was good for him.) He also would not have gone to the Sanhedrin – the most respected people in Israel – and demanded they make it rain, would he???Of course not, because he knew that his wife couldn’t make it rain. He know that the Sanhedrin couldn’t make it rain. But he knew that God could make it rain so he honored God --?Honi honored the?power?of God, -- by boldly asking Him to make it rain.

When we don’t ask God for big things, we’re telling God that we don’t think He’s capable of those things, so we won’t even bother to ask.?

But,?because God is all-powerful, we can ask things of Him that take just that – all power.

So, that in mind, let’s take a quick look at Days 8 through 14 of the book.

Day 8. One God-Idea.??“Speak to the earth, and it will teach you.”?Job 12:8?

George Washington Carver was an American scientist and inventor who lived in the late 1800s and early 1900s. One of the things that Carver studied was crop rotation. He learned that if you always planted the same crops in the same fields, you’d rob the soil of the nutrients that are necessary to grow that crop. He lived down south where they grew cotton but the more cotton they grew, the worse the crops began to perform over time. So he got them to start rotating peanuts with cotton. But at the time they didn’t have many uses for peanuts so Carver prayed to God to help him discover more uses for peanuts – to show Him why God created the peanut. God told him to keep looking deeper and once he really broke down the peanut, he eventually found over 300 uses for it, from food items to shaving cream, cosmetics, insecticides, fertilizer, and even linoleum.?

We may look at a?peanut and it may not look like much. But God had an incredible plan when He created the peanut … and so this is our reminder that God is not a small God.??He is huge and unlimited. Our problems are never bigger than God.??God is bigger than our problems. So, like George Washington Carver did,?we can?pray huge prayers … and ask God to reveal to us His plan and His power over all things.

Day 9.?Dream Factory.?“We take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5.

This scripture is something that at first look is talking to us about turning our bad thoughts, our negative thoughts, our impure thoughts over to God and letting Him turn them around.??And that is very true.

But we can also turn our good thoughts over to God.??If you have a dream or a vision or an idea of a way to serve God better, of a way to serve humanity, then turn that thought over to God and let it be captive to Him so that He can do something great with it. If we turn anything over to God, He can turn it into a huge reality.??Again, our prayers bring honor and glory to Him.??They show Him that we know He is everywhere and has all power.?

When we?bring our wishes, our dreams, our ideas to God, He can do so much more with them than we can ever do with them on our own. By praying through those wishes, dreams, ideas, we make them His and we bind them together with His power and might. God makes them huge whereas if those ideas stay just with us, they are miniscule.

Day 10.?Crazy Faith. “This woman is driving me crazy.” Luke 18:5

In Luke Chapter 18, Jesus tells the story of a persistent widow who kept going to the local judge, who was known for being unfair, asking for justice of some sort for her family. She bothered the judge enough that he said, “Okay, I will give her what she wants.”??

And then Jesus says this:

“Learn?a lesson from this unjust judge.?Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off???I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man?returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?”??(Luke 18:6-8, NIV)

When we’re persistent in our prayers – even to the point of those around us saying we’re crazy – we can know that God hears our prayers.??Don’t be afraid to be bold and persistent in your prayers.?

As the author says in the book, “If we want?to see God do crazy miracles, sometimes we need to pray crazy prayers.??Bold prayers honor God.??God honors bold prayers.”

Again, this idea that our God is huge and we should not be afraid to ask – even repeatedly – for huge things.

Day 11.?First-Class Noticer.?“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.”??(Colossians 4:2)

Here’s how I summarize Day 11.??It’s easy to say prayers and then just move on with our lives. Sometimes we might even move on saying “Well, God didn’t answer that prayer,” completely missing that, in some way, He did bring us an answer to prayer.?

Maybe we pray for healing and yet miss the fact later that while maybe we weren’t completely healed, we did get some relief. Or we received some hope.??Or we received the ability to cope better with whatever is plaguing us.?

Batterson talks about how we can develop a “Spiritual Sixth Sense” where we start to see God in not just the huge things but in all things. And when we have those Spiritual Eyes, we start to see more of how God is working in our lives and around us.??More of how He is leading us. More of how He is answering our prayers.?

Think of how many things you don’t notice in life until you really paid attention. You may get a?new bright?red shirt and only then do you notice how many other?people wear bright red shirts, right???Isn’t that always how it works?

We miss?God’s work when we’re not paying attention yet we see God’s work when we are paying attention.

Day 12.??Sow A Seed.??“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed?…”??(Matthew 17:20)

Mustard seeds?are very small but yet they can grow big plants that produce thousands of more mustard seeds.??A?watermelon seed?can produce something that is 200,000 times its own weight.

And this is how it can be with our prayers.??We should not have a short-sighted or small vision of our prayers. God promises answers to our prayers but those answers may occur over time and many years down the road.

Each prayer?is a small seed that can create something far bigger than itself.?

You may pray for the spiritual life of your child or grandchild.??Because you want them saved for eternity and to walk in the way of the Lord.??But what you may never live to see here on earth is that, because of their salvation,?their?great granddaughter or great grandson may do something unfathomably great.??They may spark a revival in the world or they may play a role in curing disease or creating peace in the world.?

Our prayers, if prayed fervently and with enough dreaming, can lead to amazing things in God’s Kingdom. God can do immensely huge things with the prayers we say so always say them in a big way.??Be patient?and let God create His outcome from your prayers.?

Day 13.?One Day.?“One day at about three in the afternoon, he had a vision.”?(Acts 10:3)

With God, there is always hope.??He can do so much in one day, or at any time.

Reading from the book, “In one day, God can deliver from an addiction that has held a person captive for years. In one day, God can bring back a prodigal child who has run away and been gone for decades. In one day, God can provide more than someone has accumulated in a lifetime. But, if we’re going to experience a miracle one day, we must pray every day.”

While we must always take a long-term view as we look for God’s responses to our prayers,?never lose?sight of just how big God is … and just how possible it is for Him to change everything in just the blink of an eye. When the stone was rolled away and Jesus walked out of the tomb, the word “impossible” was eliminated from our vocabulary.??Because He made the impossible happen.??And, keep in mind, He did that because He loves you.

The same thing goes for all your prayers – because He loves you, He can make the impossible possible.??God can?accomplish more, in a moment, or in a million moments, than we can possibly fathom.

Day 14.?Speak To The Mountains.?“Say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move.”?(Matthew 17:20)

Here’s the point of the Day 14 reading as I see it.??We do not need to be afraid of anything in our lives.??We don’t need to be afraid of other people.??We don’t need to be afraid of what they may say to us or about us or what they may do to us. We do not need to be afraid of illness.??We do not need to be afraid of poverty. We don’t need to even be afraid of the devil.??Because God is bigger than all of that stuff. He has power over it all.?

Jesus said in Matthew 16 “I will build?my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”??He was not afraid. Even to the end of His life here on earth, Jesus showed that nothing can prevail over the Father.

“If God is?for us, who can be against us?”?(Romans 8:31)

Here’s the answer folks – pray for your persecutors.??Pray for the problems that plague you.??Pray for overcoming the demons, the addictions, the chains, the downheartedness that may persist in your life. Because God has power over it all.??And God?can change it all in a moment.?

Now, I told you that I was out of town this week.??And during the week I saw God in huge ways.??Can I share a bit?

For about 30 years I have dealt with chronic pain that is largely unexplained and hard to get relief from.??Starting a few months ago, it got especially bad. I have tried medicines, chiropractors, physical therapy, prolotherapy, reiki, even acupuncture over the years. None of which provides permanent relief.??In recent months, I have had times where walking was just about impossible and standing more than about 30 seconds is excruciating.

As I approached this past week, I was nervous. I knew that on Sunday I had to drive to Indianapolis and then fly to Mississippi through Dallas. Then on Monday I had to give a talk at a conference and fly back to Indy through Charlotte. Then on Tuesday in Indy I had two Board meetings to attend. On Wednesday, I had a talk to give followed by two more on Thursday.??On Wednesday through Friday I also had to help out in our trade show booth.

I was big-time nervous.??I did not know how I’d be able to accomplish all of that in the pain I’d been dealing with.

So, I prayed boldly. I don’t normally pray for myself … but this time I did.??I asked God to help me through the week and even to heal me of my ongoing pain. I tried to pray without ceasing.??I needed God to get me through. I had no idea what I’d do if I suddenly found myself in an airport or convention center or hotel, unable to walk.

I’m so excited to give Him the glory and tell you that?He saw?me through the week.??My pain was really tolerable all week – even non-existent at times --??and is still better than normal. There were two things I was especially nervous about. One, I had to change planes in Charlotte.??Usually I end up walking for like 6000 miles when I have to change planes in Charlotte.??But, you know what???My flight gates were just about 200 feet away from each other.??It was not a problem.

Then I was also worried about standing during my talks.??But I got to where I’d be speaking in Indianapolis and, lo and behold, I’d never before seen a room set up like this – they had a high podium and tall stool for the speaker.??I would not have to stand the whole time!

God heard my prayers. He didn’t mind me being bold. He didn’t mind me praying for myself.??He answered?my prayers.??And I am here to give Him the glory.

Now, I know a few things here.??Maybe God would not have pulled the pain from my body last week. Maybe He would not have had my Charlotte gates virtually next to each other.??Maybe He would not have had the high stools for me to sit on in Indianapolis.??But I know God is huge and I know He would have seen me through those situations and the week anyway.

My friends,?Pray big.?Pray HUGE.?Pray earnestly and seriously.?Pray crazily.?Pray boldly.?Pray without ceasing.??But pray -- and watch for God to do His thing.

Let’s pray.