Prayer Warriors - 260206

SPEAKER A Hi, I'm Mike Browning. Welcome to Let God Speak. Prayer has been described as talking to God as a friend. Now this makes praying a unique privilege. So what things are appropriate to talk to God about? How personal can we be? So to guide us today, we'll look at the prayer lives of some of the Bible's great prayer warriors. Well, folks, on our panel today we have Cassie Sollano and Rod Butler. Thank you for joining us today. We appreciate your contribution today, and we'd like to invite everyone to join us in prayer before we start our program. Father in heaven, we just thank you for your great love towards us. We thank you that you speak to us through the scriptures and through your Spirit. And as we talk about prayer today and us communicating with you, I pray that you'll guide us, please, in Jesus' name. Amen. SPEAKER B Amen. SPEAKER A So, Rod, why do human beings pray? Why do we pray? SPEAKER B Well, God made us with this desire to speak to Him, to have a relationship with Him. And I like the way it says it in Psalms, and I'd just like to open with reading Psalm 116:1-2, because I think this says it very nicely. It says, verse 1, "I love the Lord because He hath heard my voice and my supplication." And verse 2, "Because He hath inclined His ear unto me." Therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. So this is a desire to call upon God forever in this person's life. And Psalm 116 says it nicely, but Ecclesiastes 3:11 also says God put eternity into our hearts, which sort of says to me that originally we were created for some relationship that goes on and on for eternity with God. SPEAKER A Yeah, we're God's children. He wants to communicate with us and us to communicate with him. Thank you for that, Rod. Look, this is interesting. I want to talk about the way people pray, Cassie, for a moment. There are some people who pray the same prayers over and over again. Question is, is that a meaningful thing to do? SPEAKER C Yes, it's an interesting thing because it almost treats God as less intelligent than a human being. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER C Why would God, being so much more intelligent than us, need to hear it over and over again? It's not like he's going to be hard of hearing. And Jesus talks about this very thing and He puts it very succinctly. It says, "And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words." So it's almost as if He's saying it's not about quantity over quality. You know, like the amount of words isn't the important thing. And you shouldn't think that you'll be heard more if you just speak more. SPEAKER A No, I mean, you don't talk to your friends, say the same thing over and over, do you? SPEAKER C Yes, exactly. SPEAKER A That's right. Okay. Thanks for that, Cassie. Look, I want to take Daniel's prayer life as an example here for a moment, Rod. He's a captive. He's in Babylon, well away from his own home in Israel, and he's facing a death decree. And I want to read about it in Daniel 2:13. And this is what is going on. A decree went out from the king and they began killing the wise men and they sought Daniel and his companions to kill them. So what did he do? SPEAKER B Well, what else could he do? He goes to God. He goes straight away to God. And he also goes to his friends and he goes to his friends to also to pray. And if we pick up from the Gospels and Jesus talks about the importance of praying together with other people, If I read Matthew 18:18-19, sorry, 19 and 20, I'll read. Verse 19: "Again I say unto you, that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they should ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." And verse 20: "For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them." So there's power in prayer and God responds. And God likes us to be together praying and He will intercede. SPEAKER A That's right, He's impressed if we show enough care for each other to pray for one another, He responds to that. I like that thought, that's beautiful. And this wasn't the only time that Daniel found himself in trouble in Babylon. On another occasion, Daniel's own life of integrity got the jealousy of others who worked around him, some of the Babylonians, And so they concocted a plan. What was it? SPEAKER C Well, it wasn't just jealousy. It was quite intense. They hatched this plot to kill him because they knew of Daniel's integrity. They weren't going to catch him out and doing anything wrong, so they talked King Darius into signing a decree commanding everyone to only pray to the king for 30 days. And we'll read about this in Daniel 6. SPEAKER A They really appealed to his vanity here, didn't they? SPEAKER C They did. And in verse 7 it says, "All the governors of the kingdom and administrators and satraps, the counselors and advisors have consulted together to establish a royal statute and to make a firm decree that whoever petitions any god or man for 30 days except you, O King, shall be cast into the den of lions." This was serious. It was. SPEAKER A Very serious. So what did Daniel do? SPEAKER B Well, he went straight to prayer. But this time it's a little bit different. He doesn't change his routine at all. And if we keep reading down in verse 10, it says, "Now when Daniel knew that this writing was signed, he went into his house; and his windows being open in his chamber towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as did aforetime." So he keeps praying publicly like he always has done. SPEAKER A Even though the king's decree said not to do that. SPEAKER B He's not worried that people see him. He just wants to maintain that relationship with God regardless of anything else. That's the most important thing for him. SPEAKER A You can't help but be impressed with Daniel's courage and integrity here. SPEAKER B No, no. And his enemies had all the evidence and the lions were hungry that night. So Daniel really was sort of putting God first. SPEAKER A Good point. Okay, so when it was reported to the king But Daniel continued to pray, right? He continued praying. What was the king's response? 'Cause this was very interesting. SPEAKER C He had immediately realized he's been played for a fool. He knows this is what happened. It was meant to catch out Daniel and this is his response. And the king, when he heard these words, was greatly displeased with himself and set his heart on Daniel to deliver him. And he labored till the going down of the sun to deliver him. That he wanted to rescue Daniel from this. He'd understood that these men were after him and later he'd get to them, but he wanted to get around his own law, but he ended up being unsuccessful. As we read earlier, it was a firm decree and not easy to get out of even for the king. So in Daniel 6, still in verse 16, we read, so the king gave the command and they brought Daniel and cast him into the den of lions. "But the king spoke, saying to Daniel, 'Your God, whom you serve continually, He will deliver you.'" So, he made this very firm statement of faith and the next day went early to the lions' den. And verses 20 to 22 say, "And when he came to the den, he cried out with a lamenting voice to Daniel. The king spoke, saying to Daniel, 'Daniel, servant of the living God, has your God, whom you serve continually, been able to deliver you from the lions?'" Then Daniel said to the king, "O king, live forever! My God sent His angel and shut the lions' mouths so that they have not hurt me, because I was found innocent before Him. And also, O king, I have done no wrong before you." Wow, that was such an amazing vindication. SPEAKER A And I like the fact the king comes with a lamenting voice. He doesn't really expect Daniel to be alive at this point. And of course Daniel was. So praying is powerful, isn't it? Intercessory and praying is powerful. You'd think we'd pray more when we read stories like that. And if you're a praying person, you have experiences like that yourself, not necessarily lion's den experiences, but still tough ones. And you'd think we'd pray more as a result of that. Now, some people pray regularly like Daniel did, 3 times a day, right? People who do that find it comes naturally in emergency situations to automatically go to prayer, and that's got to be a positive thing to do. Daniel was a regular praying person, 3 times a day. So the question is, should we do that, do you think? Is that a good recommendation, 3 times a day to pray? SPEAKER B Well, it is a good recommendation, but we also have to remember that we're all different. But I think generally speaking, it is a good thing to start the the day with prayer because we want to start the day inviting God to lead us and to guide us, to protect us during the day, during the day. But there are some people who are quite regimented and they can pray at regular times during the day. But other people are more spontaneous. And I'd just like to refer to Jesus' prayer life. So if we turn to the Gospel of Mark chapter 1, and in verse 35 it says, 'And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed.' So here we have Jesus, and Jesus had a very busy ministry. He's getting up when it's still dark. We don't know what time it is, could have been 4 o'clock in the morning, could have been 5 o'clock, but it was still dark. And he is praying because he knows how busy his day will be. And I think, was it Luther said that the busier he gets, the more he's got to spend time in prayer. Because he needs that power. SPEAKER A That's pretty hard to do though, isn't it? When you're a busy person, it's very hard to set aside extra time for prayer, but we absolutely need it. And I think it's a good thing not to waste waking moments. If you're awake during the night, make good use of it. Do some praying. Don't waste the opportunity. Thanks for that. Now, still on Daniel's experience in chapter 6 of Daniel and verse 10, which you read about, read for us before. Um, it just says this about Daniel. It says halfway through the verse, in his upper room with his windows open towards Jerusalem, he knelt down on his knees 3 times a day to pray. How important is it to kneel down when you pray? SPEAKER C Well, kneeling itself is an act of acknowledgement. It's you acknowledging God's greatness and showing that you have a sense of awe in approaching Him. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER C But it's not an always thing. It's not strictly necessary and often, like you mentioned, in emergency situations it may not may not be possible, and that doesn't mean we shouldn't pray. We can pray, like you said, during the waking hours of the night or walking down the street or at work. And we can find a biblical example of that. It wasn't always throughout the Bible strictly kneeling. In the reign of King Jehoshaphat, Israel was threatened by an overwhelming army. And in this case, the king called the whole nation together for prayer. So I'd like to turn to 2 Chronicles chapter 20 verses 3 and 5, which say, "And Jehoshaphat feared and set himself to seek the Lord and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah in Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord before the new court, and they stood together and prayed." And we find that in verse 13, "Now all Judah with their little ones, their wives, and their children stood before the Lord." Okay, so there are times when it's appropriate to kneel and times when you can stand. That's right. SPEAKER A And as you say, when you're busy, you might be in a meeting of some kind, it's appropriate to pray, give me guidance here, Lord. Sometimes that's all you've got time for when you're faced with a big issue. Moving on, the classic example of a person who had a great experience with the Lord God through prayer is the experience of Enoch. Now Enoch's a remarkable man. What do we know about him? SPEAKER B Well, Enoch, as it says, excuse me, as it says in Genesis chapter 5 and verse 22, it says, "And all the days of Enoch were 365 years. And Enoch walked with God and he was not, for God took him." And if I go down to verse 22, sorry, back up to 22, "And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah 300 years and begat sons and daughters." So we know that Enoch, he walked with God. And when we think about what does it mean to walk with God? Well, I don't know about you, Mike, but when I walk with someone, usually I'm talking to them and they're talking to me. So the whole walk is usually we're talking and time just seems to fly past. But the whole time you're talking with that person, you're relating to that person in the walk. So you've got the enjoyment of the exercise plus the communication and the fellowship. And here we have an example of a person who did that for 300 years. When you think about 300 years, some people have trouble for 2 weeks, but 300 years. He hungered for a deeper relationship with God and he hungered to the point where God took him. He, um, you might as well be with me, Enoch, because we're talking so close together. SPEAKER A It was a beautiful experience that he had. Um, did it take him the full 300 years to develop that? It may well have done. Um, it was certainly very beautiful. Um, what does Enoch's experience, however, tell us about our praying, Cassie, do you think? SPEAKER C At the end of the day, Enoch was an ordinary human being, and I think that's the central idea, that God loves us just as much as he loved Enoch and still loves Enoch. We can have Enoch's experience as human beings. And I'd like to read Psalm 139:9-10, which say, "If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me." It's this firm promise that we can too be constantly in God's presence. SPEAKER A Yes, I think that's— thank you, that's a good point. But these were ordinary human beings like us, and they had to develop their relationship with God using the same means that we do. And that's through prayer, through talking to God. Okay, let's talk about Moses now. What stands out to you, Rod, about Moses' experience now? SPEAKER B Well, Moses had a very close communication with God. And that communication was very important for that time too, because Moses was leading the people, but God was also there. It was a theocracy. He was the king. If we pick up in Exodus 33 and look at verses 14 and 15, it says, "And He said, 'My presence shall go with thee, and I'll give thee rest.'" And this is, "And he said unto him, 'If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.'" Here's Moses saying that you're leading us, but if you go away, there's no point in doing anything. We need you constantly to lead us. SPEAKER A That's good, isn't it? SPEAKER B And in that regards, Moses is basically saying that his presence is essential for their survival and their protection and the relationship. There's no point going on without God leading. And that applies to all of us, really. SPEAKER A It does. Absolutely does. Thank you for that. How close would you describe Moses' relationship with God? How close was he? SPEAKER C Well, I'll let the Bible do the talking for me, that we just stay in Exodus 33. It says, "So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend, and he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua, the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle." So in this verse we read It's face to face as if to a friend. SPEAKER A But he actually didn't see God's face as you and I are looking at each other here, did he? How do we know that, Rod, that he actually didn't see Him as we do? SPEAKER B Well, Moses asked to see God's glory and God was covered in a cloud. And it says in verse 20, God is speaking, it says, "And He said, Thou canst not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live." So Moses is having communication with God, but he's not seeing His face. God's having to veil Himself because Moses is, after all, a sinful mortal, and sin can't exist in the presence of God. SPEAKER A Okay. SPEAKER B And verse 23 says, but God says, I'll take away mine hand and thou shalt see my back parts, but my face you shall not see. So God's gracious enough to give Moses a glimpse of this great God, but you can't see my face. SPEAKER A So they were face to face in the sense that they were close like we are. Yeah, but he obviously obscured by a cloud and couldn't see his face. Yeah, he's made that very clear. That's really interesting to just to pick that up. There's another aspect to prayer, Cassie, that Moses' experience teaches us in Exodus chapter 32 still. And this is what it says. Yet now, if you will forgive their sin, but if not, I pray. Now this is God interceding right on behalf of of God's people. If not, I pray blot me out of your book which you have written. Now what is happening here, Kersie? What's going on? SPEAKER C What's happening is that Moses is becoming intercessor before God and he's doing that on behalf of Israel after they worship the golden calf. And God responds to that prayer. SPEAKER A Okay, so how effective was the intercession, Rod? How effective was he? SPEAKER B Very, very effective. In fact, it was without that intercession there would have been destruction. And we can pick that up if we read Deuteronomy 9:19-20. It says, this is Moses, "For I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure wherewith the Lord was wroth against you to destroy you. But the Lord hearkened unto me at that time also. And the Lord was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time." Here's Moses saying God was so angry at, and as we discussed earlier, there was continual disobedience here. And this was like one of the last straws and God's saying, I'll blot you out. But Moses intercedes and he intercedes not only for the people, but also Aaron, who was probably the person who helped this great apostasy happen. SPEAKER A That's right. SPEAKER B And because that intercession, God changes his mind. He doesn't destroy them. So how effective was it? Very powerful, vitally effective. SPEAKER A Very powerful. SPEAKER B And I guess for us today, our intercessions for people are very, very important, very powerful. SPEAKER A Okay, thank you for that. That's pretty important, isn't it? Because that's the question I was going to ask you actually, Cassie, to comment on. How important is it that we do intercede for others who we can see need that? SPEAKER C It's incredibly important that that's what we've just learned, that it's an incredibly powerful thing. And why would we not do that when we know with evidence that it has effect. So we can, on behalf of others and the lost, our children, family, friends, anyone, if we care enough to pray, God absolutely cares enough to respond. SPEAKER A Okay, that's true and that's good. Thanks for that, Cassie. So, um, now here's a thought that we need to pursue. Does intercession mean then that we will always get the thing happen that we want to see happen in the lives of other people? That's what intercession is. It's other people. SPEAKER B This is a harder one to answer because sometimes our will is not aligned with God's will and we'll be asking God to do something which may not be according to His plan, but we still intercede. Now God respects and He respects our prayers. He likes our prayers. But sometimes, as it says in James 4:3, we can ask amiss. We can ask something thinking it's the right thing but actually God knows who sees outside of everything. He sees the end from the beginning. He knows that that thing you're asking may not be the best thing. So He can answer our prayers in a different way. But the act of interceding is still vitally important. SPEAKER A It is. SPEAKER B God will answer in one way for the best. SPEAKER A Yes, and the other side of this is that when we're praying, say, for somebody else, let's say we're praying for someone to find the Lord and make and accept Him into their lives and so on. God will respect the will of the person as well, and if they choose to be obstinate, God will allow them to do that, even though He gives them the opportunities and draws their hearts. And I think that's important to work out. SPEAKER B Yeah, the important point for me on what you've just said, Mike, is that God will not force anybody. No, it's got to be from the heart. SPEAKER A Yeah, no, that's good. Thank you for that. That's so true. There are some things, however, Kersie, that are God's will that we know. He's revealed the fact that this is His will to do these things. What do you think? Have you got some suggestions about that? SPEAKER C Yeah, I have some examples. That it's His will to save the lost, to forgive the penitent, to impart the Holy Spirit. And in Luke 12:32, there's another one. It says, "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's will to give you the kingdom." So that also is very encouraging and very clear that it's God's will. SPEAKER A I like that, that promise actually. It's His will. To give us the Kingdom, those who believe, obviously. And I think, well, that's great. He's made that clear to us. And He talks a lot about the inheritance that He has in store for His people. Worth keeping in mind, folks, very much so. Okay, moving on. Here's a question. Now we're talking about prayer, don't forget, and we're always looking for God to respond. Does God respond? Sometimes with His own voice. Will He speak to us sometime with His own voice? What do you think on that? SPEAKER B Sometimes, maybe in an emergency, but the way God responds, God gives us promises in the Bible, right? And we can claim those promises because the promises in the Bible are in accordance with His will. And we can pray for those promises to be answered and God will answer. So yes, some people may hear God's voice, but a little bit of caution on that too, Mike, is sometimes you've got to be careful of voices. There might be a different voice. SPEAKER A It might be. SPEAKER B But God's Word is sure, so we can be absolutely certain that— SPEAKER A He's already spoken there. That's a good point. SPEAKER B The promises here in God's Word written down, and this is the Word of God, the Word, we can take these promises to the bank. We can take them, we can faithfully ask God to deliver on these promises and He will. SPEAKER A Yes, now that's very good. SPEAKER B But it doesn't mean He doesn't sometimes speak to us directly. SPEAKER A Yes. SPEAKER B I've heard stories of people where they've heard a voice and they've suddenly stopped their car and just, there was an accident happened in front of them. SPEAKER A Yeah. SPEAKER B Well, that could be, you know, it could have been God saying, "Stop." A lot of people have had God speak to them. SPEAKER A I've been privileged just a handful of times to hear His voice. Always very brief. God's— there's quite an economy of words with God, I've discovered. There are some people who hear God's voice a lot. I've talked to people. I've discovered that more women hear God's voice than men. I don't know why that is. Perhaps they're more relationally focused than men, but it's rather an interesting thing that that's what I've discovered. When God calls people to stop— my wife was about to go to a bag of grain one time to feed a goat we had at the time. Unbeknownst to her, there was a snake in the top of the bag waiting for rats and the like. And God said, "Stop right there," saved her life. So that's good. So sometimes God will do that. He will do whatever is necessary to get through to us, basically. That's what we are saying here. Okay, question to you, Cassie, will God talk things over with us the way he does with, did with Moses? Now I know Moses was a prophet and there is distinction there, but will he ever talk it over with us? SPEAKER C Yes, it is rare, but it could happen as we've just said. But when we're looking for a long conversation, we want some back and forth, we have the whole of the Bible at our disposal. And that's, yeah, as we've said, that's how he speaks to humanity, and that's through his Son. SPEAKER A That's right. People who think that God God needs to speak to me, never has. Need to remember, He's already spoken a lot in this book. So that's really good. I do know of one person who's talked to me about it, who had a conversation with God over a very important issue. So it does happen. As you pointed out, Cassie, it's rare, but it does happen still. God does what is necessary at the time. I don't think people should feel as though they have a second-rate experience with God if they don't ever hear His voice. Be at peace, God relates to us always as individuals. SPEAKER B Now Mike, in Isaiah 1:18, God says, "Come reason with me." So to invite, to be invited to reason, that implies a conversation, doesn't it? SPEAKER A It does actually. Thank you for that, it does. Finally, Rod, how interested in us is God when it comes to praying? How interested is us— is He in our concerns and the things that we bring to Him in prayer? SPEAKER B God is extremely interested, not in the big things, but in everything, even the minutest detail of our life. Not only does He know about them, but He's interested in them. SPEAKER A Okay. SPEAKER B In Matthew, the book of Matthew chapter 6 and verse 8, it says, 'Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things you have need of before you ask Him.' So yeah, you know, I can think of an example of a person who prayed and the answer was immediately, but that prayer answer had to have been set up before he even asked. So God knew in advance the need, but He still wanted to hear the prayer. So God is extremely interested in the the details of our lives and He answers the details of our lives and He knows what we're going through and His heart is touched when we do pray. SPEAKER A I think that's the reassurance that I get from this. God does know. He's acquainted with you closely and knows what's going on in your life and mine. That's really encouraging. I find that very comforting indeed to know that. Well, look folks, we're going to have to leave it there. Thank you for your input today. We appreciate that. Those spiritual The giants that we've looked at today are human beings just like ourselves. It's worth keeping that in mind. They have the same human frailty, yet they walked and talked with God, and we may do the same. Folks, God loves us and invites us to open our lives to Him in prayer. Well, we're glad you joined us today on Let God Speak. Remember, you can find all previous programs plus teacher's notes on our website 3abnaustralia.org.au. Emails can be sent to [email protected]. We invite you to join us again next time. In the meantime, God bless. SPEAKER B You have been listening to let God speak, a production of 3ABN Australia television. To catch up on past programmes, please visit 3abnaustralia.org.au. Call us in Australia on 02 4973 3456. Or email [email protected]. we'd love to hear from you.