Pathway to Victory

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Hey podcast listeners. Thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory and Dr. Robert Jeffress.

We're dedicated to bringing you bold biblical teaching that transforms your life and strengthens your walk with God.

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Have you ever witnessed the breathtaking majesty.

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I want you to experience these unforgettable moments with me on the Pathway to Victory Cruise to Alaska, June 13th through 20th, 2026.

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There's something powerful about connecting with God.

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And fellow believers in the majesty of his untamed wilderness.

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You spiritually, physically and emotionally.

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Hi, this is Robert Jeffress and I'm.

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Glad to study God's Word with you.

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Every day on this Bible teaching program on today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

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And ladies and gentlemen, if prayer is essential for the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, if prayer was vital to him, how much more important.

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Is it for us?

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Jesus was sold out to prayer not only so that he could speak to God, but so that he could listen to God as well.

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Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. You know, few things are more frustrating than trying to speak with someone who is clearly not listening. It makes you wonder why you're bothering to talk at all.

Well, today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress warns us about making that same mistake with our Heavenly Father. God has important things to tell us, and we need to put our focus on listening.

But first, let's take a minute to hear some important ministry updates.

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Thanks, David, and welcome to this Friday edition of Pathway to Victory. Even though we're just beginning September, I want to invite you to join us for the 2026 Pathway to Victory cruise to Alaska, 6-13-20. Behind the scenes, we're crafting a completely Christian experience aboard this luxury liner. For example, we're bringing our own wholesome entertainment to ensure your journey remains purely Christ-centered, and together we'll sing uplifting worship songs and find spiritual refreshment through brief, inspiring studies in His Word. Between these meaningful moments of fellowship, you'll have abundant time for spectacular sightseeing adventures and peaceful relaxation. Join us for an unforgettable week of Christian fellowship and Alaskan adventure. Download the brochure and reserve your spot today by going to ptv.org.

Well, we often hear from Pathway to Victory listeners who tell us how much they appreciate the relevant subjects we address on this program. Today and all this month, we're talking about the art of determining God's will. How does God expect us to read His mind? Can we truly know what He wants from us? I've titled this teaching series "How to Make Wise Decisions," and I've written a bestselling book that parallels our study as well. In fact, I'll be glad to send you a copy right away when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. I'll explain more about the book and other resources later.

Right now, however, let's get started with today's message. Do you ever wonder why you can't figure out what God is thinking? I titled today's presentation "The God Who Speaks."

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Dan Rather was once interviewing Mother Teresa and he said, "When you pray, what do you say to God?" Mother Teresa responded, "I listen." And then Rather asked the inevitable follow-up question, "Well then, what does God say when he speaks to you?" She said, "He listens." Have you ever thought how remarkable it is that the Creator of the universe is interested in listening to you? Your boss at work may not have time for you. He might not even know your name. Your mate might be too preoccupied to give you his or her undivided attention. Your children may be sitting mesmerized in front of the computer screen or the television set, only emoting an occasional grunt when you try to engage them in conversation. But think of it. The Creator God of the Universe is interested in listening to you. Not only does God want to listen to you, God also promises to speak to you.

Jeremiah, the Old Testament prophet, found himself in prison after giving a politically incorrect message that God was going to judge his country for their ungodliness. He was in desperate need of a word from God that God was still in control of his life. And in that verse so many of us quote for our own, Jeremiah 33:3, God said to Jeremiah, "Call on me and I will answer you and I will tell you great and mighty things which you do not know." God said, "If you will talk to me, I will talk back to you and show you things beyond your imagination." You see, ladies and gentlemen, prayer is a two-way communication. We speak to God, and God speaks to us.

When I think about that truth, I'm often reminded of the story that came out of the first Persian Gulf War. It seems that a major had just been assigned the rank of major, and he was excited about his new post and the chance to have his own office and secretary for the first time. So on Monday morning, he arrived in his office, was seated in the big chair, and his secretary buzzed in on the intercom and said, "Major, your first appointment for the day is here." Wanting to appear busier than he actually was, he picked up the telephone and pretended to be in a conversation. When the private walked in, the major started talking. He said, "Yes, General Schwarzkopf, yes, we enjoyed dinner with you and the Mrs. last night as well. Yes, we need to do that again. Thank you so much, General." He hung up the phone, looked at the private, and snarled, "Now what do you want?" The private kind of stuttered and stammered, "Well sir, I was the guy assigned to hook up your telephone."

You know, most of us treat prayer that way. We think prayer is just a one-way conversation. We talk to God, but not only do we talk to God in prayer, God actually talks to us. And that's what we're going to focus on as we continue our series on discovering God's will for our life. We're not going to talk so much about how we ought to speak to God, but we're going to talk about how to listen to God. And what is it exactly that God wants to communicate to us?

Now, I have to admit to you, I have a lot of questions about prayer, a lot of unanswered questions. For example, if God has a sovereign plan for our life, if everything has already been planned, why should I bother to pray at all? Does prayer really change things? Could it change God's will? Or why is it that some things I pray about for months and years and God doesn't answer? Other things I ask him one time and he answers instantly and dramatically. Yet all of my questions about prayer melt away when I look at the example of Jesus Christ.

I want you to turn over to Mark 1 for just a moment. Mark 1, beginning with verse 35. Now it's interesting to note when this event in Jesus' life occurred. The day before this event occurred was the busiest recorded day in Jesus' ministry. Jesus had spent the entire day and evening preaching, teaching, casting out demons, meeting with people individually. He crawled into bed very late that night. But then, look at what happens on the next day. Verse 35: "And in the early morning, while it was still dark, he arose and went out and departed to a lonely place and was praying there."

Now, if I were Jesus, I could have come up with a lot of reasons to stay in the sack that morning, to roll over and hit the snooze button and say, "Lord, I know this is the time I usually meet with you, but I had such a busy day for you yesterday. Surely you want me to catch up on my sleep. Surely you don't want me to get sick." But you see, for Jesus, prayer wasn't a nicety; it was a necessity. And I think it was that commitment to prayer that caused the disciples to ask this question: "Lord, would you teach us to pray?"

Now, what were they asking when they asked that question? I don't think they were saying, "Lord, teach us to use that special prayer language we've heard you using when you pray." Read through the Bible. There's no example that Jesus ever employed a special prayer language. Nor was he saying, "Lord, teach us to use those theological terms you like to use when you pray." Now, Jesus' prayers were very simple. I think when they said, "Lord, teach us to pray," they were saying, "Lord, teach us how to have the same commitment to prayer that you have."

You see, Jesus didn't just pray when his back was up against the wall. Isn't that what we do? We'll pray if a crisis comes; that's when we're forced to pray. But that wasn't true of Jesus. He prayed at all times. He was committed to praying. And ladies and gentlemen, if prayer is essential for the Lord Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, if prayer was vital to him, how much more important is it for us? Jesus was sold out to prayer not only so that he could speak to God, but so that he could listen to God as well.

Well, what sort of things does God want to talk to us about? When you say prayer is a key, a primary channel for knowing the will of God, exactly what part of God's will does Jesus or did God communicate to us through prayer? Let me mention three things that God communicates to us in prayer.

First of all, God will communicate his direction through prayer. He communicates his direction in prayer. There's a very interesting verse in Psalm 14:4. It reads this: "Will evildoers never learn, those who devour my people as many bread and who do not call on the name of the Lord?" Notice how the psalmist defines an evildoer. An evildoer he doesn't define as one who gets drunk or one who commits adultery. Those are ungodly things to do. But look at the verse again. Psalm 14:4 says, "Evildoers are those who do not call upon the name of the Lord."

Ladies and gentlemen, to live your life, to start your morning, to end your day, without ever calling upon the name of the Lord—that's ungodly. It's wicked. The Bible says an evildoer is anyone, Christian or non-Christian, who lives his life apart from God without ever consulting God for His direction and his will. I think it's that thought that James had in mind. James 4:13-17 says, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we'll go to such and such a city and spend a year and engage in business and make a profit,' yet you don't know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor, a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.' But as such, your boast and your arrogance. All such boasting is evil."

James isn't condemning planning. God wants us to make plans. Like that great philosopher Yogi Berra said one time, "If you don't know where you're going, you're going to end up someplace else." The Bible says we need to plan; we ought to make plans. The sin here being condemned is not planning. It's planning without God, without ever consulting him for his direction in our life. Remember the story of the Israelites? They had had great success in their battle at Jericho and then finally at AI, and intoxicated with their success, they went after the Gibeonites, and they suffered tremendous defeat. Why were they defeated? Joshua 9:14 tells us, "So the men of Israel took some of their provisions, and they did not ask for the counsel of the Lord." They refused to consult God about their plans.

James 1:5 says, "If any one of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who generously will give to all men without reproach, and it shall be given to him." Now they say confession is good for the soul. So let me confess something to you this morning. Too often, prayer for me is a last resort instead of a first response. I'll face a difficult dilemma, and my first instinct is to pick up the phone and call somebody to talk the problem over with or to seek counsel. And in the weeks ahead, we'll see why that's important. Or I'll pull out my legal pad and I'll make a list of the pros and cons of a particular decision. I do everything except pray. And what the word of God says is, when we are facing a dilemma or a problem, prayer ought to be our first response, not our last resort.

The late Paul Little writes about an experience he had when he was a college student attending the Urbana Mission Conference. He said, "At the Urbana Convention in 1948, I heard a speaker ask this question: How many of you who are concerned about the will of God spend even five minutes a day asking him to show you his will?" When I heard that, it was as if somebody had grabbed me by the throat. At that time, I was an undergraduate student, concerned about what I should do. When I graduated from the university, I was running around the campus, going to this meeting, reading that book, trying to find a little 1, 2, 3 formula. I was frustrated, out of my mind, trying to figure out the will of God. I was doing everything but getting into the presence of God and asking him to show me. May I ask you the same question? Do you spend even five minutes a day asking God to show you his will? All of us Christians would do well to take that question to heart. Praying for God's will is a daily responsibility and one for which a serious Christian must make time.

God communicates his direction for our life. Secondly, when we listen to God, he communicates his peace through prayer. His peace through prayer. Remember when Paul was in prison? He had a number of things he could have chosen to worry about: whether or not he'd ever be released, whether he was going to live or die. He could have worried about the church in Philippi that was being torn in two. But instead, look at what he says in Philippians 4, verse 6. He said, "Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God." The Living Bible says, "Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything."

And remember the suggestion I gave that you make a list of everything you're worried about—your worry list. Think of everything you've ever thought about worrying about. And then make another list—your prayer list. One by one, take things off your worry list, scratch them out, and place them on your prayer list. Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything, and what will happen? Look at verse seven: "And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, shall guard, just like a Roman soldier, it shall march around your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." People whose worry list is full usually have a prayer list that says empty. And people with a full prayer list usually have a worry list that's empty. The Bible says if you will simply pray instead of worry, in some inexplicable way, the peace of God will flood your hearts. God communicates his peace to us when we pray.

Number three, God will communicate to us his desires when we pray. You know, when we pray, sometimes we find ourselves talking to God about the things we're concerned about. But did you know every now and then, God has some things he's concerned about that he wants to talk to us about? And that's why prayer is important. It's not only a time to talk to God, but also a time to listen to God about the things he's concerned about in our lives.

Turn over to Genesis chapter 17 for a moment, would you? Turn over to Genesis chapter 17. We see a great illustration of this in the story of Abraham. The story of Abraham actually begins in Genesis chapter 12. In chapters 12 through 16, there are some exciting events in Abraham's life: his call out of Ur of the Chaldees, his successful battle against the Kings of the East, the night of forbidden pleasure with that slave girl named Hagar (that's Genesis 12:16), and then when we get to chapter 18, some more thrilling things happen: the near death of his son Isaac, a wedding, the loss of his mace, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah (that's from chapters 18 on). But between chapter 16 and chapter 18 comes chapter 17. Isn't that a great theological insight? You never knew your pastor was so theologically astute, did you? Seven years of seminary between 16 and 18.

Come, chapter 17. I want to show you why that's important. Because in chapter 17, in one of those lulls that you wouldn't think was that exciting, God did something significant in Abram's life. Look at chapter 17, verse one: "Now, when Abram was 99 years old, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to him, 'I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. And I will establish my covenant between me and you. And I will multiply you exceedingly.'" Now, here's the key.

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Verse three.

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Start. And Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying. It doesn't say that Abram fell on his face and began speaking to God. No, it says, Abram fell on his face and God began to speak to him.

Let me ask you a question. When is there in your daily schedule a time for you to listen to God, not to just pour out, "God, give me this, do this, do this, do this," but for you to listen to what God wants to say to you? Abram fell on his face and God began to speak to him.

Well, Pastor, what sort of things does God want to talk to me about? What kind of things does he communicate? What desires does he have? Let me suggest three.

Sometimes God wants to speak to us about sins that we need to abandon, sins that need to be abandoned. Is there anything in your life displeasing to the Lord? Sometimes he'll want to talk to you about those things. In Psalm 139:23-24, David prayed, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me and know my anxious thoughts; and see if there be any hurtful way in me, and lead me in the everlasting way." David was saying, "God, I want you to take the searchlight of your Holy Spirit and I want you to shine that searchlight into my heart. Look into the inner recesses of my heart and see if there is anything displeasing to you. And if you will show me what's displeasing to you, I'll change it. Because I want to walk on the everlasting way. I want to experience your blessing in every area of my life."

By the way, when you ask God to show you anything in your life displeasing to him, that's one prayer he will always answer, guaranteed. If you'll ask him to show you, he'll show you.

Sometimes God wants to speak to us about sins that need to be abandoned. Secondly, sometimes God communicates to us, speaks to us about relationships that need to be mended. Relationships that need to be mended.

Have you ever had this experience? You're in church, semi-listening to the pastor, or maybe you're at home trying to pray or reading the Bible, when all of a sudden the picture of somebody comes into your mind, somebody you're having a conflict with. And try as you may, you can't get that person or that conflict out of your mind. I used to think when that happened, that was Satan trying to interrupt my worship time, Satan trying to distract me from worshiping God. But I realized more and more, many times, that's the voice of God speaking to me.

God many times will speak to us about relationships, especially in the church, that need to be mended. Jesus had that truth in mind when he said in Matthew 5:23-24, "If, therefore, you are presenting your offering at the altar and there you remember that your brother has something against you." By the way, will you notice it doesn't say you remember that you have something against your brother? Big difference.

If you're worshiping, if you're driving along in the car and you remember you have something against somebody, you know what you're supposed to do? Forgive right there on the spot, let go of it. That other person doesn't have to be present. They don't have to ask for your forgiveness. You have the ability, Jesus said in Mark 11, right there while you're standing, to forgive, to let go.

That's not what he's talking about. He says in Matthew 5:23, "If, therefore, you are presenting your offering at the altar and you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there, go your way; first be reconciled to your brother and then come and present your offering."

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There's so much more we need to discover in this passage, and I'm urging you to join me when our study on Pathway to Victory continues. We're talking about how to make wise decisions. I'm confident the days and weeks ahead will produce much fruit as we study this pressing topic.

Keep in mind that you're invited to request my bestselling book by the same title. If you're serious about following God's will, this book is the perfect place to start. I'm pleased to send you my book, *How to Make Wise Decisions*, when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory. Your support of this daily program and your prayers are absolutely key to our presence every day on your radio station, on television, and through the podcasts as well.

And we love hearing feedback from people who tell us how God is transforming their lives. Listen to this encouraging note I received from Kelly. She said, "Pastor Jeffress, I live in a small town in Minnesota and don't have a church nearby. I was raised in the church but have wandered off course at times. I want to get closer to the Lord and find His will for my life, and I truly want to grow my personal relationship with Him."

With your help, I believe I can do that. Well, thanks to you and our ministry together, people like Kelly have a connection to Pathway to Victory and a way to cultivate their relationship with God. God bless you for helping me proclaim the truth of God's Word and providing a means to show people how to embrace God's will for their life.

Remember, when you give a generous gift today, be sure to request a copy of my book, *How to Make Wise Decisions*. Here's David to tell you more.

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When you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Free Victory, we'll say thanks by sending you how to Make Wise Decisions. To request your copy, call 866-999-2965 or give online at ptv.org. When your gift is $75 or more, we'll also send you, along with the book, the complete CD and DVD teaching set for our current series, how to Make Wise Decisions. Again, call 866-999-9929 or visit ptv.org. You're also welcome to make your request by mail; write to P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. That's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, TX 75222.

I'm David J. Mullins, wishing you a great weekend. Then join us again next week when Dr. Jeffress continues his series called how to Make Wise Decisions. That's Monday here on Pathway to Victory. Pathway to Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas.

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