Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Welcome to today's installment of Power Walk. We're thrilled to welcome you to our broadcast today as we continue with our series, Powerful Prayers. Our teacher, Reverend Paul Cannings, is the founder and president of Power Walk Ministries and senior pastor of Living Word Fellowship Church in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Cannings wants to take the next few moments to talk to us about the privilege of prayer. It's true, God does not demand perfection from us to enter into His presence, but does that mean that we can take His grace for granted? Remember, we serve a holy and almighty God.

Our message for today is titled Prayer, Sunshine of Cloudy Days, and it's designed to help us in our daily walk with the Lord. So come, prepare your hearts to learn from the Word of God. Here's Dr. Paul Cannings.

Dr. Paul Cannings: Whether you want to pray or not, prayer will become a necessary ingredient in our lives every day as we seek to live out the will of God. The more you live out the will of God, the Bible would say in Psalm 34, is the more you are persecuted. 2nd Timothy Chapter 3 says the same thing in verses 12 and 13.

So the more you live out the will of God is the more you're going to need to pray. That's why the person who lived that out vigorously, Paul, in 1st Thessalonians Chapter 5 would say he prayed without ceasing. There's no time a person would not need to pray.

When you wake up in the morning and you face your day, or you're going down the road and need God's sense of safety and security, or just getting into the parking lot of your job and you're needing wisdom, or you are going through a terrible situation in your marriage and you need answers, or you have a family member that is sick and you need to see God powerfully move to bring healing, you're calling out to God. What we need is answers, hope.

That's why when we go through the process of a day, whether we pray all day or not, prayer pops up. The issue is, how do we walk with confidence, knowing God not just heard us? Because that's really a non-issue. People say, "Well, no, no, no, it's a big issue. I don't know if He heard me." He heard us.

What is it that God doesn't know to start with? Do we have to wake Him up in the morning and tell Him, "Hey, it's time to get up, God. I've got issues here," or "I've been up all night praying, God. Do something"? Is that what we have to do? No. Go before God with confidence that He hears us because He's our intercessor. That's the second thing.

He died and went to heaven and sits at the right hand of the Father because He's our intercessor. If a person is not saved, then that's the issue. He's not telling us to pray to anybody else either. Don't pray to Grandma, Mama, uncle, or Mary. No, that's irrelevant. The only intercessor we have is Jesus the Christ, the Son of the Living God.

He's the only one that sits at the right hand of the Father. Don't waste your time praying to anybody else. You're wasting time. So, folks, when we come to this, Hebrews Chapter 8 says He hears us. He's our intercessor. That's what He is doing for us. He sits there and making intercession for us.

We talked about the fact that if a person isn't saved, John Chapter 9, verse 31 says He doesn't hear their prayer because they haven't accepted the intercessor who's supposed to speak for them. And it's the blood of Jesus Christ, Ephesians Chapter 2, that brings peace with God. So there's still an issue with God when they haven't accepted Jesus Christ.

There's nothing outside of Him based on what He's teaching us about life. And He's given us everything we need for life and godliness in 2nd Peter Chapter 1. There's nothing outside of life that He hasn't addressed. So if I do anything outside of what He's addressed in life issues, I believe a lie.

So, folks, here's a second thing. He says this in verse 19: "and will assure your heart before Him." This is the scary part for me. This is why this is a scary part for me because to pray is to go into the presence of God. Now, you’ve got to trace that. You go back into the Old Testament. Coming into the presence of God is just incredible.

We are blessed because of the blood of Jesus Christ, and sometimes that makes us take it for granted. But coming into the presence of God is incredible. See, the word "before" here in this passage means being in His face. That's what the word means: being in His presence. What does that remind us of? The Holies of Holies.

One sin... they used to tie a rope around the priest's waist. If he falls down, they just drag him out of there. They're not going in there to get him. And a priest only went into the Holies of Holies once in his lifetime. You don't do that all the time if you plan to have a long life.

So understand, that's how holy His presence is. The presence of God is so holy, anything that comes into it gets killed that is not holy. He can't stop from being holy for a minute in order to incorporate us. So His holiness brings with it grace, the Spirit of God because of the blood of Jesus Christ, grace.

So it's not that we're not going to sin forever, but when we come before God, there is a consciousness that arises about our walk with Him. And that's why John starts out by saying we will know Him by this: that we are of the truth and will assure our heart. 1st John Chapter 3, verse 19: assure our heart before Him.

So you go before Him, so we need to assure the heart before we get there. We need to assure the heart while we're in there, because He makes us conscious of things. When I go before God, I don't take for granted His grace. See, Romans Chapter 6 says grace does not abound so we sin. Grace is not, "God forgives everybody. I'm okay," and keep sinning. That's not the point of grace.

The point of grace is that when I sin, I can confess it. I know He's forgiven me and cleansed me from all unrighteousness. I know it's done, and I can keep coming. I keep going. I keep moving forward so that I can keep growing in Him, keep learning and experiencing Him powerfully and develop a life in Him so that I no longer live. It's Christ that lives in me.

The life I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and died for me. Now, that's the point of grace: to experience Him and not have any long-term interruption like the Old Testament people who had to go get an animal, come back, deal with all of this stuff.

So when I go before Him, I always think, "God, I thank You for Your grace as I come before You because that's an awesome thing You've allowed me when in the Old Testament only one man came because Your holiness is so powerful." And that's why John brings up "if your heart assures you."

See, people go here and they go, "Oh, you know, I'm not a perfect person." Oh, please, take the banjo and put it in the closet. That's not it. He's already addressed this issue in Chapter 1, as I explained. It's not perfect people that have to come to Christ. I am nowhere saying that.

There's no perfect persons that come to Christ starting out, which John is saying they don't exist in Chapter 1, verse 8. There're no perfect persons. When the Bible uses "perfect," it talks about a person complete in Christ, meaning whatever they're dealing with, they know what to do. It's like a person who's a complete basketball player.

They understand the plays, their skills are fully developed, they're at the peak of their game. You can't really teach them anything. You can't teach them how to do a free throw. They've gotten it down now. They're at 80 or 90 percent free throw shooting. Hitting a percentage of shots over 50 percent... what are you going to teach them about the wrist and how they release the ball and how they dribble?

They've been in the NBA for a long time. They've been through many coaches and they got it. The issue is executing what they have. So when the Bible talks about "complete," that's what it's talking about. We've dealt with all the satanic attacks. We know his game, so we know how to play.

And we know which verses to use to play in it. And we've developed the wisdom and the understanding and the inner strength based on the powerful Holy Spirit to know how to combat it. That's why Paul would say, "I've learned to be content. I've come here now. What else you got, Satan? I'm anxious for nothing." So you're not going to create anxiety in my life and cause me to walk away from God.

Because for me to live is Christ; to die is gain. I'm all Christ now. I'm complete. So when we come to this whole thing, he's not saying you've got to be perfect. And if you're not perfect, God doesn't hear us. No, no. He's not there. What he's saying is found in verse 16 right here in 1st John Chapter 3 through verse 18.

He says this, and if I could start off in Deuteronomy 15:11 before he ever comes here because he tells them in the Old Testament, "the poor will be among you and you do not ignore them." That's what you see with the whole story of Naomi and Ruth. You can't ignore them. He says this: "We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for our brethren. Whoever has the world's goods and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him?"

In other words, this person doesn't know God. He said, "Wait a minute. He didn't say that. He said, how does the love of God abide in him?" This person doesn't know Him. That's what he's saying. Why you say that? Look at 1st John Chapter 2, verse 4: "I come to know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him."

But whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know we are in Him. So John is saying the fruit... this is what Christ would say in John's presence. If you love the Lord with all your heart, your soul, and your mind, what will come out of you immediately is a love for your neighbor.

So the evidence that I know Him is love. So if a person's heart does not condemn them in that they saw a need in the church and they didn't need to be a deacon, an elder, a pastor, or whatever, they saw the need and they serviced the need and they gave their best to that need and they helped in various situations wherever God has used them...

Maybe they have the blessing of having the gift of giving, the gift of service, the gift of mercy, the gift of encouragement. They're serving people and they're constantly using that gift to serve people and there's no need for somebody to preach a sermon to them. They automatically want to do it.

The Bible is saying that person knows God. So when they come before Him, they're showing evidence that they understand His will and are committed to it and are willing to submit their lives to it. And because of that, their heart does not condemn them.

So the second aspect to having our prayers heard so that we can move forward confidently when we come into His face, before Him, is to not have our hearts condemn us. Folks, one of the things I love about my mom is that there's really nothing you can do to stop her from loving you. It's just not going to happen.

If there's anything her kids, her eight kids, would say is that her love is unconditional. That's not the issue. But she always wanted the best for her children. Always wanted the best. And she would always say this: "I would listen to anything you have to say. Just don't lie to me."

She couldn't stand people lying to her. She couldn't stand it. As a matter of fact, we all knew: go to Mom, but don't lie. Because you have grace, so you could always say, "Mama, I messed up." And she would say, "Okay, baby. What happened here?" And she's willing to pour her life into helping it get fixed. She'll walk with you through it. But you lie? And she goes, "Okay."

She's just, you know, she's upset. Because you came to her, your mom, who is unconditionally loving you and you have this experience all your life, and yet you choose to lie to her. She couldn't stand it. God is saying, "When you come to Me, don't let your heart condemn you. I'm God. I love you. I care for you. You're all that I've died for.

If you're the only person that lived on this earth, I would still die for you. I so pay attention to you every day that my attention is so consistent, so constant, that I know the numbers of hairs on your head. I end up counting them. I pay such close attention."

So what is it that I'm not concerned about about your life? Just when you come to Me, show the respect of who I am and I will hear your prayer. Oh, folks, God's desire is for us to know Him. Answering prayer is not a big deal. He loves us. He wants to provide. He could create something out of nothing anytime He wants.

The issue is, just when you come to Me, show the respect of who I am and I will hear your prayer as you approach Me. Oh, folks, stay focused. God bless.

Guest (Male): Thank you, Pastor Cannings. We hope that our current series, Powerful Prayers, will challenge each of you to draw nearer to the Lord. To become a Power Walk partner, please visit us online at PowerWalkMinistries.org. Our number is 281-260-7402.

If you'd prefer to write us, our mailing address is P.O. Box 920517, Houston, Texas 772092. Or you can find us online at PowerWalkMinistries.org. As we conclude our broadcast today, we'd like to invite you to join hands with us as we seek to train and equip individuals to serve in their communities.

Please know that your financial gift will be used to bring glory to God. Now remember, God can create something beautiful out of nothing. So live in His presence each day.