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I. Ten steps toward having Christ “formed” in you A) #10-
Slow Down!!!!!
B) #9-- Practice solitude!
C) #8 ---Rediscover Joy!
D) #7--- Practice Humility
E) #6 -- Sharpen your focus!
F) #5-- Keep in Step with God!
G) #4--- Live With an well-ordered heart!
H) #3---Embrace God’s path for your life!
I) #2--- Make the main thing… the Main Thing
J) #1--- Let your Voice be Heard in Heaven
I. Illustrating our Prayer Habits
Your favorite football team is playing. They are
losing; the clock is running out. They only have one more
possession of the ball. What play are you likely to see when
the ball is snapped? Hail Mary!
Hail Mary- a final desperate attempt to accomplish what all
your careful game plans have failed to accomplish.
The term, of course comes from Gabriel’s greeting to Mary in
Luke; Hail Mary full of grace etc. Roman Catholic tradition has
made it part of their daily prayer litergy.
Question: Why would we humans nickname a final attempt
to win a losing game after a tradition of Prayer? Why would we
call a final football pass a Hail Mary pass?
Answer: Because Americans, in general, tend to associate
prayer with desperation!
The football analogy fits so well with what often happens in
life.
1) For the majority of the game I can rely on my own
resources
2) I will depend on my prepared game plan
3) However when a moment of crises and desperation comes,
when I’ve run out of time and opportunity, when human
cleverness and strength have failed me, when all other options
have been tried.. and failed; then it’s time to throw a Hail
Mary.
4) Desperate people pray. Some pray without thinking
about it, they pray even if they don’t know who they are
praying to, or if they believe anyone is really listening.
People in foxholes pray
5) When human being reach the limit of their resources they
pray instinctively, reflexively like the way a falling person
grabs for something or a like man lacking oxygen gasps for
breath.
6) It is not a bad thing to pray in times of crises.
Desperation prayers have been the beginning of spiritual life
for some (Sometimes not). God is so full of grace that he
reaches out to people in crises with just as much love as He
extends to anyone else…. Even if they have ignored him for
years.
However, a believer, who has a personal relationship with
their creator; who’s prayers are only prompted by crises or
pain, who the rest of the time relies on his own strength or
cleverness; that person is a “Hail Mary” Christian and is
probably not at all convinced that his/her prayers actually
change anything.
II) Interrupting Heaven
A) When you bow your head and offer a prayer do you really
believe that that prayer is going to change anything?
B) When you bow your head and offer a prayer do you really
believe that your prayer is being heard and acknowledged in
heaven?
When one of your prayers arrives in heaven what happens
to it? I think I can give you a little peek into that without
doing an injustice to Scripture.
In Revelation 8 we see into heaven in the end times and
one strange happening should catch our eye…
When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven
for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand
before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Another
angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He
was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the
saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the
incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up
before God from the angel's hand. (Revelation 8:1-4 NIV)
God didn’t have to record this… He did it to give us insight
into something…let’s try to figure it out…Without going into
any of the prophetic end of this thing let’s just study the
obvious facts.
1) Silence in heaven is very unusual. Why? Praising day
and night..
2) Why was their silence in heaven? Preparation for
something to come
3) What huge event was causing this moment of silence?
Offering of saints prayers
When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven
for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand
before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Another
angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He
was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the
saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the
incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up
before God from the angel's hand. (Revelation 8:1-4 NIV)
All of this in response to the prayers of the saints.
Notice that all of heaven stops so the saints prayers can
rise to God!
When he opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven
for about half an hour. And I saw the seven angels who stand
before God, and to them were given seven trumpets. Another
angel, who had a golden censer, came and stood at the altar. He
was given much incense to offer, with the prayers of all the
saints, on the golden altar before the throne. The smoke of the
incense, together with the prayers of the saints, went up
before God from the angel's hand. (Revelation 8:1-4 NIV)
I don’t for a moment think that these are all of the
saints prayers… these are only the ones that apply to the end
times and God final judgments. Presumably others prayers
throughout time that arrive in heaven have had the same effect.
Heaven is this amazing place with going on that are beyond
descriptions and nothing stands in the way of what is happening
on a Divine scale except….. The arrival of our prayers.
Who’d a thunk it?
Heaven is interrupted so our prayers can be presented to
God!
III. Affecting the Future of History
A) Future History belongs to the intercessors!… those who
believed and prayed the future into being.
1) History does not really belong to the powerful or the
wealthy or the dictator or Prime Ministers or presidents, or
the armies or the corporations or the media… What they do may
seem impressive for a time but the day will come when all human
actions will be forgotten.
2) What ultimately happens in this world will happen as a
result of those who took on the task of interrupting Heaven!
3) Don’t you find it interesting that even in the life of
our Lord Jesus; He spent 3 years in public ministry teaching us
all we needed for eternal life and he has spent the last 2000
years in intercession for us.
Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to
God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them.
Such a high priest meets our need-- one who is holy, blameless,
pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens.
(Hebrews 7:25-26 NIV)
Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died-- more than
that, who was raised to life-- is at the right hand of God and
is also interceding for us. (Romans 8:34 NIV)
Interestingly enough the Holy Spirit seems to be similarly
involved…
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do
not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself
intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he
who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because
the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's
will. And we know that in all things God works for the good of
those who love him, who have been called according to his
purpose. (Romans 8:26-28 NIV)
B) The Prayer Power of Intercessors
The first real example of intercession is found in Genesis
18 when Abraham is pleading for Sodom and his Nephew Lot….
Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away
the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty
righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and
not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people
in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing-- to kill the
righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the
wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the
earth do right?"
Obviously Abraham feels like he’s talking to someone who can
future actions can be affected by what he prays… Can they?
Apparently so:
The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city
of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake." Then
Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to
speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what
if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will
you destroy the whole city because of five people?" "If I find
forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it." Once again
he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?" He said,
"For the sake of forty, I will not do it." Then he said, "May
the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty
can be found there?" He answered, "I will not do it if I find
thirty there." Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as
to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?"
He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it." Then
he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once
more. What if only ten can be found there?" He answered, "For
the sake of ten, I will not destroy it." When the LORD had
finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned
home. (Genesis 18:23-33 NIV)
Most of the prayers in the Bible are not some wishy washy
God I don’t know if you want to but maybe, possibly, perhaps,
if you don’t mind would you, could you…..please… if you don’t
mind…..
The examples in Scripture are people who boldly ask; and the
prayer commands in Scripture tell us to be bold.
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone
through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly
to the faith we profess. Let us then approach the throne of
grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find
grace to help us in our time of need. (Hebrews 4:14,16 NIV)
The History of the Future depends on the intercessors!…
C) Prayer Power is Learned
It seems that if we really love God prayer should simply
flow out of us almost automatically without effort or
discipline. It doesn’t seem to be so.
Jesus disciples watched the greatest prayer ever for three
years. They knew that things happened when he paused to
interrupt heaven. The saw him pray in times of crises…. They
saw him also pray just to commune with the Heavenly Father.
They saw him transfigured during a time of prayer. They watched
him go alone into solitude and come back nourished like a
hungry man after a big meal.
He would simply disappear; people needed him they couldn’t
find him, they had important things for him to do but he knew
he was involved in something much more important:
Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus
got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where
he prayed. Simon and his companions went to look for him, and
when they found him, they exclaimed: "Everyone is looking for
you!" (Mark 1:35-37 NIV)
You came our here without your beeper or cell phone; we had
no way to distract you with meaningless earthly things…What
were you thinking?
And they eventually had to ask: Lord teach us to pray
He did; yet they still seemed to have to learn even after
the best teacher in the world had showed them how.
1) Prayer is learned behavior. No one is born an expert
in praying and no one ever really masters it completely in this
life. This is one area where we will all be beginners all
of our life. How does one improve their ability to pray
effectively? By practice
The Practice of Prayer is Learned
1) Simple Prayer- Most commonly practiced in Scripture
2) intercessory Prayer- Most commonly commanded in Scripture
***** If Meditating on Scripture is like taking a spiritual
bath for the mind; interceding in prayer is like taking a
spiritual bath for the soul.
Not only does it bathe our soul with humility and purge us
of self centeredness; at the same time we are allowed to
literally affect the course of history!
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