Power Walk Ministries

[Guest (Male)] This is the Power Walk Ministries broadcast, and our current series is titled Steps to Answered Prayer, brought to us by Dr. Paul Cannings. As believers in Christ, we all might have experienced seeing our prayers answered right away sometimes and exactly as we have requested of God. And yet, there are some prayers that we have sought the Lord for weeks, months, or even years with no answer. Well, helping us to understand this better, here is Dr. Cannings now with the day's message, Answered Prayers.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Christmas time was coming around a while back and the kids were small. My wife says, "Let's teach them how to spend money. Don't let's just make this so surprising, the gifts that they get. Let's just do it a little bit differently." I said, "Sure, what do you want to do?" So she said, "Let's sit and talk with the boys." We went in the boys' room and she said to them, "We're going to get the newspapers and we want for you to find what you want, but it has to be on sale. You find it, it's on sale, Mom and Dad will see how well you're managing your money, and then we will tell you how much we will spend on you and you manage how to work that."

I thought that was an excellent idea. My wife is excellent with budgeting and I just said, "Let's do it." I watched the boys and they started going through the newspapers. I could hear them sometimes at night. They'd go get the newspapers like we think they're asleep, and they were in there. We would listen at the door and make sure they don't see our feet at the door. They would sit there and they'd go back and forth on what they wanted and how they could spend their money and how they could use their money. It's interesting to see that she did the exact same thing with our grandkids.

Christmas time came, she looked at our grandkids and she said, "I'm inviting all of you over to take you shopping." Well, you know the phone was ringing off the hook on when is this happening? When they came, she said, "Here is—I'm giving you cash. Everybody has in this envelope a certain amount of money and you could work together because some of these things you could buy two for one. Maybe you could work together as a group and you could figure out how you could best spend the money that's in that envelope." They all got the envelopes and they opened the envelopes and they're standing there. We said, "No problems. After this we go to eat, but you learn how to do that."

It was just excellent to see how that worked. Why was that something that led to them getting what they want? Because they understood what was expected of them, they ended up with what they wanted. It's no different than what John is talking about here in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 22. Today, since we have this confidence and since we have this assurance, as we're willing to function this way, now we can expect Him to answer the prayer. That's where John is in verse 22: whatever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.

There are some heavy words in this particular verse that we're going to spend some time on today. So there are times when we talked about this assurance and confidence that we don't feel. Great men didn't feel like God listened to them. You've got Paul with Epaphroditus, praying over him being sick, and he's praying and praying and then eventually Epaphroditus was healed. Paul was saying, "Oh God, I thank You for healing him." It's like he's prayed, an apostle writing half the New Testament. When he came to praying to God, the assurance was there that He's listening, the confidence was there, but God, are You really going to answer this?

Many times, we are right there. That's why John is saying in verse 22, "Whatever we ask, we receive." What do you mean by whatever we ask? Well, John actually discusses this in the book of John. When we look at John chapter 15, the whole issue is abiding. Why is he telling them to abide? Because he says later on in chapter 16 verse 33, "You will have much tribulation." They're going to go through the whole thing of Christ's death and all of that, so Christ knows that they can walk away from Him. So he's telling them you have to remain in my word, you have to live in it. It has to become a place where you dwell, or I end up cutting you off.

So Paul in abiding, this whole issue of abiding, says to them in verse 7, "If ye abide in me and my words remain in you." In other words, if you hold onto the Bible—everybody, people study the Bible—but when trouble comes, when these difficult times arise, he says when all those emotions are going in all these different directions, do you continue to hold to the word of God? Because that's exactly what his disciples are going to experience and we know what happened to them. So he says, "Let the words remain." Let them become an anchor to your soul. David would say it's a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. I have to hold onto it or I would sin against God. I have to hide the word of God in my heart, the seat of my emotions, so that I don't sin against God.

When he let it go, he committed horrible sins. So understand he says, "Abide in you, he shall ask what ye will." Now watch the words carefully here. "Abide" means the word is staying there. He talks about that; he says that's going to even lead to harder trials in verse 1 because God will prune you. He disciplines those whom He loves, Hebrews chapter 12. So when I hold to God's word, He keeps refining me, 1 Peter chapter 1. Therefore in this process of refining, this process of maturing, this process of trimming the vine that can be painful, he says I continue to abide in His word.

If I'm abiding in His word in the midst of all of this and it's remaining in me, nothing is plucking it out of me. Nothing. I'm good soil. I'm not thorny bushes or a rocky soil. I'm good soil and it stays in there. Guess what you're praying? You're praying for the very thing that you're living. You're praying for the very thing that you're committed to. You're praying for the very thing that you're surrendered to. As a result of that, watch this word carefully here: it shall be done for you. It shall be created for you out of nothing. It doesn't have to be the job market is great and therefore I can find another job. He's saying the job market may not be great, but I'll create one for you. God, they're talking about this cancer and they're not talking about me living. God says I can create that for you. It doesn't have to be that when I'm praying, there's this substance around me to make things work. He said there could be nothing around me that says anything can work, but because I stayed in His will and prayed in His will, as a result of that, God makes it happen when nothing says it can happen because He's going to do it for me. He's going to create the energy for it. He's going to bring it out of nothing. He's going to continue it so it's productive for me. Not only do I get it, He's going to take it to where it is productive and functional so that I get what I'm wishing for because I choose to remain in Him.

This is the same writer in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 22 would say, "Whatever you ask, we receive because we keep." He brings in a different word here, not the word abide. The word keep. Abide and keep are pretty much the same thing. This one has some other connotations to it that we need to pay attention to. The word keep here literally means that I preserve. Let me get a little fancy for you for a second here. It's a present tense indicative verb. What does that mean? Bottom line it means that when life is taken—don't forget he's talking about heart here—when the life, the emotions, difficult times come and hardship come, do I preserve? Do I not let my emotions drive me? I just believe in God so much that I choose to hide in Him.

I remember standing over my mom's grave, a difficult time for her kids, seven alive at that time. We're all there, thank God. I stood for whatever reason I stood at her grave and I said, "How do you expect me to thank You right now?" I don't know why that came to my mind, I don't know, but it did. I'm standing there. Great mom, that's why we're all here, that's why everybody is going on like this, very concerned for each other because they know how meaningful this woman has been in our lives. So everybody's leaning on each other.

I said, "God, how could I thank You right now?" Because my emotions want to go in 50,000 different places. Then verses start coming to my mind. She's been a good mother, so you are blessed. You could thank Me. I prepared a place for her. You could thank Me. The reason why you stand here today saved is because of her, so you could thank Me. This list kept getting longer and longer and longer, and even though the pain was still there, holding to His word allowed me to preserve and not lose the faith I need to hold to in His word.

Understand the context that is going on here. You have the Gnostic philosophers, Cerinthianism, those ascetics. You've got all these different things taking place within this church. You've got people sinning, walking out the church doors because they have a different gospel, a different way to think. People are leaving the church because this doctrinal issue was there and all of these different things are taking place. You've got people that are believing that they're hearing a special word from God. You've got people that are afraid of God and he says perfect love casts out fear. "Am I missing out in the rapture? Is God going to be mad at me?" They have all these things. That's why he talks about condemning the heart here.

But he says, in the midst of all of this, let the word that you hold onto preserve you from your heart going in this direction, your heart going in that direction—fears and concerns, insecurities, anxiety going in different directions. But you choose to hold to God's word and sing. One of the things I love doing is many times when the diverse thoughts are there, I turn on a good spiritual song and just sing. So I'm pouring my emotions into the song, I'm not pouring my emotions into what comes naturally: the anxiety, the stress.

Because God says when you choose to live in the hedge that I provide to you, the Holy Spirit is in you. You have angels around you. Hebrews chapter 1. Paul talks about we live in heavenly places. Why? We have the Holy Spirit inside of us. Colossians chapter 3 says we live in Christ who lives in God, so we live in heavenly places. The Bible says when I live in this hedge that Psalm 34 would talk about when the Lord encamps around me and He guards me, when I choose to live in that hedge, now I preserve in Him because they're no longer just words. They're now commandments because I have to hold to them. I have to see them as God legislating to me what I need to do. It's not a suggestion. He talks about words and walking in the word, but now he's saying it's a commandment to those who please Him, those who would worship Him.

I come to the point where I'm now worshipping Him. I'm giving Him praise. I'm going back home saying, "God, thank You. I bless Your name." I find such strength because in spite of losing somebody that was so dear to me and still is, I kept finding ways to worship Him because His word was preserved. Who's doing that? Not Paul Cannings. Who's doing that is the spirit of God in me. Paul talks about that in Ephesians chapter 5 where he would say it would lead us when we're drunk in the Spirit. He would lead us to psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We'll start crying out to God. We don't even know why we're doing it. We don't even know how our hands got lifted. We don't even know how we're singing again. We don't even know how we feel this peace again. It doesn't matter because the joy of the Lord is my strength. That's why He says you choose to trust Me, I choose to bless you. Stay focused.

[Guest (Male)] Thank you, Pastor Cannings. Also along these lines, we're excited about the release of Pastor Cannings' brand-new book on prayer titled When We Pray. While Pastor Cannings teaches about prayer, he clearly also explains the reasons prayer is the most effective instrument we have for living a victorious Christian life. The book also lays a theological foundation as to why we can boldly approach the throne of grace and how this is applicable to our everyday lives.

For your financial contribution of any amount over $25, we will send you a copy of When We Pray by Pastor Paul Cannings. You can contact us online at powerwalkministries.org. That's powerwalkministries.org. Or call us at 281-260-7402. Once again, that's 281-260-7402. Our mailing address is Power Walk Ministries, PO Box 920517, Houston, Texas, 772092.

And as we wrap up today's program, remember David is a wonderful example of one who often encourages himself to deliberately shift his focus from his circumstances to God, and through that shift, he offers worship and praise.