From His Heart

Guest (Male): God loves persistence. Have you thrown in the towel on something you’re praying about, something that you know is the will of God, but you say, "I don’t think this is going to work"? Listen, in so many marriages where we have difficulties, we need to remember that God doesn't want the marriage to be torn apart.

So you have great confidence to pray, "God, save my marriage. God, change me to be the spouse You want me to be. God, do a work here." And I’m not going to give up. I’m going to keep knocking, I’m going to keep knocking, I’m going to keep knocking. You want to believe God all the way to the end.

The Old Testament prophet, Elijah, was a man who knew how to get his prayers answered. He literally knew the secret that we're going to be looking at today on From His Heart with Pastor Jeff Schreve. The lesson is called Answered Prayer. It's from the seven-lesson series, Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah, the Prophet of Fire.

When's the last time you petitioned God for something very specific and God answered your specific request, specifically? Today, we'll hear the answer to this most plentiful question people have asked God throughout history: "God, why doesn't that happen more often?" or "What's the deal, God?" This series is our special gift of thanks to you for your support this month to From His Heart, and you can find out more when you go to fromhisheart.org. First, though, turn to 1 Kings Chapter 18. Here's Pastor Jeff Schreve with the answer for Answered Prayer.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Let me ask you a question. When’s the last time you asked God for something very specific? "Lord bless me" is not a specific prayer. You wouldn’t know if He did or not, really, because it’s just so general. When’s the last time you asked God for something very specific and God answered your specific request with His specific answer to that request and showed you that He hears you and He is a God who answers prayer?

All that can change today as we study the prayer life of Elijah and see the secret to answered prayer. I want you to notice with me three steps to getting your prayers answered. Step number one, answered prayer comes when we get our hearts right with God. Psalm 66:18, the scripture says this, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me."

He will not hear when you have sin in your heart and you have a regard for sin. The Lord had said to the people, "Listen, thus says the Lord, if you forget Me when you go into the land of promise and you start to worship other gods, let Me tell you what’s going to happen. I’m going to shut up heaven and there’s not going to be any rain for you until you get things right."

Well, Elijah knew what the Lord had said, and Elijah came to Ahab and he just claimed the word of God and says, "This is what’s going to happen, no more rain." So they had to deal with the idolatry. You and I have to deal with the idolatry if we’re going to get in on this thing called answered prayer.

Second step toward answered prayer: Answered prayer comes when we not only get our hearts right, but when we hear and align ourselves with God. When we hear from the Lord and align ourselves with God and His plan. 1 Kings chapter 18, it says, "The word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying, 'Go, show yourself to Ahab, and I will send rain on the earth.'"

Clear word from the Lord to Elijah. I have never heard the Lord speak audibly to my ears, but I’ve heard Him speak into my heart. I’ve heard Him impress something on my heart. So the God of the universe, He communicated with Elijah and the word was clear. Now, how does God do that to us today?

God speaks primarily through His word and always in agreement with His word. And then God answers prayer, keep that in mind, that’s how He speaks. He answers prayer that is rooted in His word and rooted in His will. Why do we not see more things happen that we pray for? Because so much of the time we pray for our will.

God’s not interested in your will or my will. He’s interested in His will. Here’s the prayer promise from 1 John chapter 5: "And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him."

But we have to ask according to His will. Now His word and His will are linked together. And so I can find out what His will is as I spend time in His word. Sometimes we think prayer is one of these things that we have to do to somehow overcome God’s reluctance to answer our prayer. So many of us think like that. You’ve got to pray and pray and pray and pray and pray, and the Lord says, "If you pray about that for three more years, I might think about it."

And somehow we’re trying to get God to do something He doesn’t want to do, kind of like when you were a little kid, or your little kids can do that to you. If they whine long enough about something, you’re like, "Fine, I’ll buy you candy. Just be quiet." Don’t ever get the idea that prayer’s like that, that we badger God to get Him to do something He doesn’t want to do just so He gets us off His back.

That’s not the God of the Bible. That’s not what prayer is. Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance. It’s getting in on God’s willingness, and God’s willingness is in His word, it’s in His will. And He says, "If you’ll pray according to My will, you can have tremendous confidence as you pray and you can know that I’m going to do what I said I wanted to do."

George Müller was born in the early 1800s. He was from Bristol, England. He’s known as a man of prayer. Tremendous faith and prayer, those work together. The things that he did are just amazing. He started an orphanage with 50 cents, and just on the sheer power of prayer, 50 cents became 7.5 million dollars. He just asked the Lord. He saw God do amazing things as he prayed.

I love what he said concerning prayer. He said for him, prayer was always a matter of finding a promise in the word of God. He said if there was something on his heart, I looked through the word of God till I found a promise in the word of God that matched up with this need so I could say, "Lord, I feel this is impressed on my heart and this is what You say in Your word."

He said, "I would put my finger on the verse and read that back to God and say, 'God, this is what You have said. And Lord, I’m claiming Your word.'" So He answers prayers that are rooted in His word and in His will, and God answers prayer through a relationship, not a ritual.

Now here is what Elijah said in verse 41. He said to Ahab, "Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower." There are no clouds in the sky and it hadn’t rained for three and a half years. There is no evidence at all that rain is coming, just that God said in 1 Kings 18:1 that He was going to send rain.

When there are no clouds, Ahab’s not hearing any thunder or anything like that, but Elijah is. Why? Because he’s hearing with the ears of faith. He’s seeing with the eyes of faith. The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 1, "Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen."

As Elijah got close to the Lord in his relationship, he could hear from the Lord and he could hear things that the Lord wanted him to hear. Many of us don’t get close enough to the Lord to hear what He wants us to hear. You know how God speaks? He doesn’t speak in a booming voice.

He speaks primarily in a still small voice, in the sound of a gentle whisper. And if you’re going to hear a gentle whisper, you’ve got to get close. Some of us are too far away from the Lord, we can’t hear Him. And what do we do? When it comes to prayer, we go through the ritual of prayer and the Lord says, "I don’t care about any of that stuff because I’m a God who wants a relationship."

Answered prayer comes through a relationship with God, not through ritual, not just through going through the motions. The Lord Jesus spoke of that in Matthew chapter 6 where He talked about prayer, and He said, "Don’t use meaningless repetition when you pray. That’s what the gentiles do."

He said they think they’re going to be heard because of their many words. He said, "No, when you pray, you just share your need with Me. Your Father knows what you need even before you ask it." So you just share from the heart to the God who loves you. It’s all about relationship.

Guest (Male): Pastor Jeff will return to conclude today’s message called Answered Prayer in just a moment. But first, we’ve learned today Elijah certainly knew the secret to answered prayer. He prayed that it wouldn’t rain, and it didn’t for three and a half years. Then he prayed it would rain, and it did.

How did that happen? Well, he didn’t do it, God did. God heard the prayers coming from Elijah’s sincere and contrite heart, a heart that was right with God, and Elijah’s life was aligned with the word of God. As a result, he saw answers to his prayers.

To help you discover how you too can have that powerful prayer, we’d like to send you Pastor Jeff’s impactful booklet, Unveiling the Mystery of Prayer. This booklet and the eight-message series, Holy Boldness: Lessons from Elijah the Prophet of Fire, are our special gift of thanks to you for your support this month of any amount to From His Heart.

From His Heart is being heard and seen on radio and television around the world, not to mention always online. And your gifts make that possible when you support this ministry. To get the booklet and the series, call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org. And know that with that gift, you are impacting the world for the kingdom of God.

God bless you for standing with us to tell the world about God who is waiting to answer their prayers. Now let’s conclude the message, Answered Prayer. Here again is Pastor Jeff Schreve.

Dr. Jeff Schreve: Elijah saw his prayers answered, why? Because he knew it was rooted in the will of God, it was rooted in the word of God, it was rooted in a relationship with God. And that’s the second step. First step, I’ve got to get my heart right. Second step, I’ve got to get aligned with God and I have to hear from Him.

Step number three, answered prayer comes when we persist with confidence. Verse 41: "Now Elijah said to Ahab, 'Go up, eat and drink, for there is the sound of the roar of a heavy shower.'" So Ahab went up to eat and drink, but Elijah went up to the top of Mount Carmel, and he crouched down to the earth and put his face between his knees.

He said to his servant, "Go up now, look toward the sea." So he went up and looked and said, "There is nothing." And he said, "Go back seven times." So here’s Elijah, he hears the sound of the roar of a heavy shower. Nothing in the sky. Nobody else is hearing anything, but he hears it because he’s hearing with ears of faith.

He tells Ahab, "Go up and eat," and then Elijah goes to a place on top of Mount Carmel, and he gets down, crouches down, and he puts his head between his knees. That’s a picture of humility to get down before the Lord and get your head down. So I want you to notice about his prayer: it was earnest prayer. That means a sincerity, an intense conviction of focus. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.

So often our prayers just don’t have much earnestness, they don’t have much fervency. They’re just kind of milk-toast, just kind of mushy. And God says, "When you pray those mushy kind of prayers, I’m thinking that you’re not very serious about this."

One of the problems in America is we have so much. There’s so much affluence that we don’t feel like we really need God. People in other countries, they pray with fervency, why? Because they know if God doesn’t come through, I can’t make it.

We need to depend upon God like that. If we depend upon God like that, the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. It’s earnest prayer. And answered prayer is unrelenting prayer. So he prays. This is kind of interesting.

When he prayed earlier for the fire to fall, "God, show that You’re God," the fire fell and licked up the water and the sacrifice and the wood and the stone and everything, and the people said, "The Lord, He is God, the Lord, He is God." That happened just like that, just immediately it came.

But now he’s praying for rain, which God had said He was going to bring, and he prays and nothing happened. I can relate to that a lot better than "I pray and boom the fire falls immediately." It’s you pray and there’s nothing. You say, "Well, what’s the deal, God? You said You were going to do this, but there’s nothing."

So then I pray again. "Hey, go check and see if there’s a cloud." "There’s nothing." Go a third time, nothing. Go a fourth time, nothing. Go a fifth time, nothing. Go a sixth time, nothing. "Okay, God, forget it. I quit. I’m packing up my prophet stuff and going back to Tishbe. I guess You don’t want to do what You said You were going to do."

That’s not what he did. He kept praying. Sent him back a seventh time. You know, there’s something about God, He loves persistence. Why? Because persistence shows that we’re serious. God loves persistence. Have you thrown in the towel on something you’re praying about, something that you know is the will of God, but you say, "I don’t think this is going to work"?

Listen, in so many marriages where we have difficulties, we need to remember that God doesn't want the marriage to be torn apart. So you have great confidence to pray, "God, save my marriage. God, change me to be the spouse You want me to be. God, do a work here." And I’m not going to give up. I’m going to keep knocking, I’m going to keep knocking, I’m going to keep knocking.

It’s better to die in faith than to live in doubt. So if it doesn’t happen, so what? You stand before the Lord and say, "Well, Lord, I believed You too much. I guess I shouldn’t have believed You that much." No, you want to believe God all the way to the end. That’s unrelenting prayer.

Answered prayer is unwavering prayer. What does that mean? Means you don’t lose steam. You don’t start to doubt. It’s the George Müller thing. God, you put your finger on the promise. "God, this is what You said. This is what You said, God. If You don’t do what You said, God, then You would be a liar and I know You’re not a liar, God."

"And I know it says in the book of Kings with Solomon that no word of Your good promise has ever failed, and so God, this is what You promised and I’m clinging to Your promise." God loves it when we do that, because it shows Him that we believe. Answered prayer is unwavering prayer.

It says in verse 44: "And it came about at the seventh time that he said, 'Behold, a cloud as small as a man’s hand is coming up from the sea.' And he said, 'Go up, say to Ahab, \"Prepare your chariot and go down so that the heavy shower does not stop you.\"' So it came about in a little while that the sky grew black with clouds and wind and there was a heavy shower and Ahab rode and went to Jezreel."

Seventh time. "Hey, what do you see, servant?" "I see a cloud, and it’s the size of a man’s hand." Literally, just his palm. As some translations say, the cloud the size of a man’s fist. That’s a little cloud, little cloud. That’s all Elijah needed. He said, "That’s it. That’s my sign from God. That’s when He’s going to bring the rain. You go tell Ahab, hitch up his chariot, get it ready, and go down to Jezreel."

It’s 15-mile trip to Jezreel. Go down to Jezreel so the heavy shower doesn’t overtake him. He just believed God, and he saw God answer. And then lastly, answered prayer is strengthening prayer. Then the hand of the Lord was on Elijah, and he girded up his loins and outran Ahab to Jezreel.

Ahab’s in a chariot. Chariots are pulled by horses. Elijah, I mean, he’s not a track star, but the hand of the Lord was on him. So he could take his robe and he could stuff it into his belt, and he could run, and he was running like the wind.

The Bible says in Isaiah 40:31 that "they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint." And God gives you strength as He answers your prayer.

When George Müller was 70 years old, he began to go out to preach the gospel around the world. He logged 120,000 miles on the sea in 17 years. While he was off the coast of Newfoundland, the fog was thick, and the ship wasn’t moving very quickly.

He had a conversation with the captain, and the captain shared this story. The captain said, "I was a marginal Christian, but Müller was on the ship. And everything changed when I had this conversation and this encounter with George Müller."

He said he came up to me, he said, "I was on the bridge, I’d been on the bridge for 24 hours because the fog was so thick and it was a scary time on the sea." Müller came up to me and said, "Captain, I’ve come to tell you that I must be in Quebec on Saturday afternoon." He said it was Wednesday. I told him, "It’s impossible."

He said, "Very well, if your ship can’t take me, God will find some other means of locomotion to take me. I’ve never broken an engagement in 57 years." The captain said, "Well, you know, I’d willingly take you, but I’m helpless." He said, "How can I help you?" He said, "Let’s go down to the chart room and pray."

The captain said, "I looked at this guy. You saw a picture of him. He looked a little odd. I looked at this guy and thought to myself, what lunatic asylum could that man have come from? I’ve never heard of such a thing. Mr. Müller, do you know how dense the fog is?"

He said, "No. My eye is not on the density of the fog but on the living God who controls my every circumstance." The captain said that Müller got on his knees and prayed one of the most simple prayers. He was the one who said he prayed like he’s eight or nine years old, and this was his prayer: "O Lord, if it is consistent with Your will, please remove this fog in five minutes. You know the engagement You made for me in Quebec on Saturday. I believe it is Your will for me to make that engagement."

Said when he finished, the captain was getting ready to pray, and Müller put his hand on his shoulder and said, "You don’t need to pray." He said to him, "First, you don’t believe His will, and you don’t believe that God will do this, and second, I believe He already has answered, and there is no need whatever for you to pray about it."

He said, "I looked at him, and Müller said, 'Captain, I have known my Lord for 57 years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to gain an audience with the King. Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.'" He said, "I got up, and the fog was gone." George Müller believed God, and he got to his appointment in Quebec on time.

Elijah believed God, and God did amazing things. Think back to that dream. All those things in that warehouse of heaven. How many packages are up there with your name on them? Unclaimed blessings from God, answered prayers from God, things He wanted to do but you didn’t call upon His name. You weren’t very serious about prayer. You didn’t get in on His will and on His plan, and you left so many things unreceived. And we can change that starting today.

Guest (Male): Wow. Heaven must be a big place to store all those unclaimed blessings from me. Perhaps you too? Listen, if you’ve lacked a certain earnestness about your prayer life, perhaps you need to just pray and say to God, "God, help me to get serious about my prayers and begin claiming Your word by faith."

Or maybe you know that you have never been saved. Would you like to have victory in your life rather than defeat? Then you’ll want to surrender your life to Christ in repentance and faith and have a genuinely contrite heart. And He promises to come in and to change you. You’ll be a new creature with new passions for the things of God.

To find out more about what it means to turn your life over to Jesus, why don’t you click the "Why Jesus" link at fromhisheart.org? We believe there are some real blessings you can claim there. Again, go to fromhisheart.org, click the "Why Jesus" link.

And remember to make a gift to From His Heart this month of any amount, you’ll receive the Holy Boldness series and the companion booklet, Unveiling the Mystery of Prayer. Call 866-40-BIBLE or go to fromhisheart.org.

Our time is gone for today. I’m Larry Nobles and we trust the message was a blessing to you today, and we can be a blessing to you again tomorrow as you reach out with the love of God in your heart. Join us tomorrow for the fifth lesson in the Holy Boldness series, and make it a must-listen for you tomorrow if you simply can’t avoid falling into the cave of depression. Learn how to escape the cave of depression on Thursday, right here on From His Heart.