Telling the Truth

Jill Briscoe: Welcome to Telling the Truth with Stuart and Jill Briscoe.

Stuart Briscoe: Prayer is communication with God. It's our talk with God. And no relationship can grow unless you have good communication. The better communication, the better the relationship.

Prayer is for our sake. "If your day isn't hemmed with prayer, it will unravel," someone has said. And it's also for God's sake. Prayer isn't about getting something for ourselves, but getting something for God.

And that's what the Lord's Prayer is all about. It's all about Him, Him, not us. And if we're honest, prayer is the last thing, our last resort and not the first thing in our lives.

Guest (Male): Jesus's life was fueled by prayer, and yours can be too. Today on Telling the Truth, Jill Briscoe takes you on a journey through the prayer life of Christ to reveal how you can pray with more power and purpose.

But first, the generosity of friends like you keeps broadcasts like this one going out around the world so you and others can experience life through the biblical teaching and resources of Telling the Truth.

As thanks for your gift today, we'll send you Powerful and Effective Prayer, a newly curated collection of messages from Stuart and Jill that will give you timeless wisdom on the subject of prayer and help you build a more consistent and inspired prayer life.

So call today to request yours: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill Briscoe, sharing from her message, "Teach Us to Pray."

Jill Briscoe: Luke, more than any other writer, any other Gospel writer, talks about Jesus's prayer life. He's fascinated with it. How did He pray? Where did He pray? When did He pray? What happened when He prayed?

And the information is given back to this Gospel writer, and he puts it here for us. And so we can follow Jesus's sandals and find Him at prayer. We can hear what He prays. We can learn from it.

Prayer is the Christian's vital breath, the oxygen of the soul. Yet most of us would, if we're honest, rather be on human life support than breathe in the clear, sweet prayer air in God's waiting room.

But if you go to the deep place where nobody goes, far from the shallow place where everyone lives, you'll begin to breathe easier. I noticed it one day as I sat on the steps of my soul and waited for the springtime. While actually, it's always springtime outside the front door. It's only me that brings the winter.

It takes a little while to feel the springtime in my heart. But as the Spirit's quiet warmth begins to do the melting, I take a deep breath. Clear air, so clear.

Stuart and I were in New Zealand. As we got off the plane, I turned around, and all of us on that plane, after 15 hours in the air—I don't know what it was—were breathing deeply for more reasons than one. There is no air in the world clearer, I'm told, than in Australia and New Zealand. It is so clear, and the sunshine is so bright.

But it's that air that reminds me of what happens when you still your soul. The stilling of the soul, the listening part of prayer—how we have to get that right before we can hear the voice of God.

God says, "Hey there, human race, let's talk." And it begins with us listening. Mary of Bethany, sitting at the feet of Jesus, looking in His face, just being there, not talking His head off.

And prayer mustn't be divorced from our relationship with God. It's so strange how we do this. I got an email from one of our focus group leaders this week, delighted that we're addressing the prayer life.

He said, "In my efforts, our efforts, our group's efforts to recruit people to join our focus group, we're usually asked one question over and over: 'Well, what do you do?' And when I respond that first we pray, I'm usually interrupted with the same question: 'Oh, well, besides that, what do you do?'"

There's a mindset in this area that prayer isn't doing or being objective or productive at all. And when I respond that prayer is the first thing we do and a continuing thing we do at every meeting, eyes begin to roll. People usually begin seeking some opportunity to get away.

We've divorced prayer from what it is, simply our conversation with God. Think about a marriage. If I only talked to my husband on a Sunday morning and Wednesday night and at Easter and Christmas, what sort of marriage would we have?

Prayer is communication with God. It's our talk with God. And no relationship can grow unless you have good communication. The better communication, the better the relationship.

Prayer is for our sake. "If your day isn't hemmed with prayer, it will unravel," someone has said. And it's also for God's sake. Prayer isn't about getting something for ourselves, but getting something for God.

And that's what the Lord's Prayer is all about. It's all about Him, Him, not us. And if we're honest, prayer is the last thing, our last resort and not the first thing in our lives.

There's a very famous preacher in London called Spurgeon. You might have heard of him. His impact goes all over the world. And one day a couple were visiting his church from outside the country, and they were met by the janitor at the door. They were early, and he said, "Would you like to see our church?" And they said, "Oh, yes, that would be nice."

So he brings them in, and they expect to go into the beautiful old sanctuary, and he doesn't even look that way. He opens the door, and they go downstairs, and they think, "Where are we going? Into the boiler room?" Yes, into the boiler room, which stretches all the way through this building.

And he said as he opened the door, "This is the church." And it was filled with people, wall to wall, all on their knees. And the janitor, who wasn't the janitor but was Spurgeon himself, said, "Take a look. These people will stay on their knees until I am done preaching today. That's the church."

A church is only as strong as its prayer. That's a very frightening and challenging thing. And Jesus modeled the priority of prayer. One day, Jesus was praying in a certain place. And when He'd finished, one of His disciples said, "Lord, teach us to pray."

There was something about Jesus. There was something about what He was doing. There was something about His face as He came back to them. There was something that made the disciples who were watching Him say, "I want that. Teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."

And remember, Andrew and John, two of Jesus's disciples, were John the Baptist's disciples before they were Jesus's disciples. And so there's this hunger, even just as they watch Jesus. And Jesus, being asked that, gives this pattern of prayer.

And all the way through the Gospels, if you read, we get little glimpses of Jesus's relationship with His Father, what it was like. He and His Father were one, and He wanted His disciples to be one with Him.

He loved His Father. He lived for His Father. He lived through His Father. He lived by His Father. He lived in His Father. And He said, "As I have lived by the Father, so you're supposed to live by me." Jesus loved His Father. He enjoyed His Father. He pleased His Father. He obeyed His Father. He served His Father. And He spent quality and quantity time with Him. And so should I, and so should you.

I just went through the Gospels and found every time Jesus was praying. And it was quite extraordinary, actually. A great hour of doing this, and you can do the same.

But I found at His baptism it said as He was praying, the Holy Spirit came and endued Him with power to accomplish our redemption. And then it showed me that Jesus went into the wilderness to pray and to fast.

And that's where He went after the devil. The devil didn't sort of come behind Jesus—I'm going to get you. No, the devil didn't want that confrontation in the wilderness. He would have given anything to get away from that. And Jesus went after him in the power of the Spirit and through prayer, and He dragged him from behind the rock, and He overcame Satan. Prayer has so much to do with that.

Guest (Male): We hope you're being encouraged by today's message on Telling the Truth. And we want to invite you to keep those teachings going strong on the air and online so others can be encouraged as well. People like Deborah, who wrote in and told us, "Telling the Truth has changed my life. And I hope my monthly contribution helps ensure that this amazing programming is available to many others. Thank you, Telling the Truth."

Thank you for your kind words and your support, Deborah. Do you ever feel like your prayers are bouncing off the walls instead of landing in the presence of God? Or do you pray more out of obligation than relationship?

Maybe you recognize a lack of passion in your voice even as you pray, and you're left wondering: Does God even hear my prayers? Or will He answer them?

We'd love to help lead you toward a more inspired and vibrant prayer life by sending you a newly curated collection of messages from Stuart and Jill called Powerful and Effective Prayer.

This one-of-a-kind resource is our thanks for your gift to help more people experience life in Christ through the teaching resources of Telling the Truth. Your support enables countless people across the globe to stand strong in the unchanging truth of Scripture. And we're so grateful for friends like you.

So request Powerful and Effective Prayer when you call to give: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Okay, now let's get back to Jill with more of today's message, "Teach Us to Pray."

Jill Briscoe: And then I look, before the appointment of the apostles. Do you know what it says? He went into a mountainside, and He spent the night praying to God. And when morning came, He called His disciples and chose them.

Before He chose those men for His team, He spent all night in prayer. I would have to tell you, I've only ever in my life spent two nights all night in prayer.

Jesus did it before any big decision, when He needed wisdom beyond Himself. Do you ever need wisdom beyond yourself? Big choices to make? Well, at least one hour.

In Gethsemane, Jesus said, "Come and pray with me. I need you to pray with me." And they fell asleep on the job. Do you remember those disciples, His three closest friends?

They were exhausted. Jesus said, "Well, flesh is weak. You are tired. And the spirit is willing." The spirit's got to do something about the flesh. You've got to keep awake. Couldn't you watch one hour? Apparently, He expects us to pray for one hour, and it should be nothing. It should be nothing.

And so every time I see Jesus in prayer, I learn something else. And so did the disciples. And as they watched Him and saw how prayer changed Jesus's direction in ministry or gave Him wisdom or changed their whole ministry, actually.

If you look in Mark chapter 1, starting at 38, Jesus is in the synagogue. He goes and heals Peter's wife's mother. And then the whole town hears about it and, of course, gathers at the door with the sick and the lame and the blind and the lepers.

And Jesus heals. And it says somewhere else in the Bible that every time Jesus healed, virtue went out of Him. And He deals with the demons, and He cast them out. And at midnight or beyond, He falls down on His pallet on the floor. And the four disciples, for He's only called four at this point, they are out like a light.

But they're woken up very early in the morning by who? By everybody from the whole countryside that's heard about all the other healings. And they're all there.

And they're so excited, and they say, "Jesus, where's Jesus? I mean, we don't need to go anywhere else. The kingdom of God is going to come to us." And he's not there. Well, where is He?

And so they go and find Him, and He is praying, asking His Father some pretty big questions. "What are you doing? Everybody's waiting for you. We're a success." And Jesus says, "Let's go somewhere else."

"What?"

"Let's go somewhere else. Let's go to the small people, the little people, the villages. I came to preach. Not only am I here to help and to heal, but basically I've come to say the kingdom of God is among you because I'm the King and I'm here. And I'm going to preach the Gospel, and that's the most important thing."

And so Jesus was guided by His Father where to go and when to go and how to go. I read that in my own devotional life when I was absolutely flummoxed with what to do with a whole lot of invitations that had come from all over the world.

Many of you say, "How do you and Stuart know who to respond to and where to go?" It is very difficult. Pray for us. We try to be strategic. We try to say which is the right thing, not which is the big thing, which is the thing You want us to do.

And as I read that, I said to the Lord, "I don't want to make a mistake. We've got to make all these choices where to go and where to preach and to teach." And He said to me, "Come early, Jill. Come early."

He got up very early, and the Father explained it. And so I knew He wanted me to come early too. And that's hard, the older you get, the harder it gets. But sleep deprivation is better than God deprivation. I hate that sentence. I wrote it. But it's true. And if you'll come early, He'll tell you. He'll tell you.

And so the disciples, watching all this, had this hunger to know how to commune with God, how to be close with God, how to hear God about kingdom work and find His will and all of that.

And so Jesus gives them this pattern. And the Lord's Prayer here, the short version—the longer one is in Matthew—is simply divided into two parts. First, this declaration of dependence on a holy, heavenly, awesome, mighty Father. About His kingdom, His glory, His name, His will.

And then the second part is all about the life in the community that Jesus was creating, the community of the faith and the faithful. And there you talk about provision for that community life to do the will of God and the work of God.

And there you see about protection and what that means. And there you see about a life of forgiveness. And so it's really in two parts, this pattern of prayer that we can use to help us as we are taught to pray by the Lord Himself.

So first, Jesus withdrew. And let me just go back to this one more time. Is it important? A child asked me, 12-year-old: "If God is everywhere, why do we need to go somewhere?"

I love 12-year-olds. Love this. This is my age. What am I doing with you big people? I just love those kids. "If God is everywhere, why do you need to go somewhere?" Good question. Is He more evident in some places than others?

I have a little correspondence going with another child, 12-year-old. Let's call her Bethany. "Dear Nana Jill"—she calls me Nana Jill—"I have a question for you. Sometimes when I go somewhere like church, I hear a really good sermon or something like that, and for the time I'm in the building, I feel really good. And I feel very new and refreshed. It's really hard to explain. Anyway, when I'm out of the building, it's gone. What's wrong?"

Good question. Do we have to be in a building? Building can help. The music can help. It can be conducive to us understanding we are in the presence of God. Yes, of course we're in the presence of God anywhere, but it makes us center down to that fact, doesn't it?

And I wrote back to this little girl: Think about your relationship with your mom when you're with her, like Mother's Day, and somehow you're sort of conscious and you feel love for your mom on Mother's Day and it's a warm feeling.

But then when you're at school the next day, maybe you don't even think of your mom at all all day. Does that mean you love her less? No. You know you love her. You just don't feel it.

This is another aspect of love, a settled knowledge that you love each other, and that feels different. So when you're in a church building, it's like being with your mom on Mother's Day. So many things in the building—the music, the atmosphere—hopefully, that the sanctuary helps you concentrate on God.

When you leave, it's sort of like being at school without her. I hope that helped her. But we rely far too much on our feelings where our prayer life is concerned. Far too much. All of us do. But we allow our feelings to dictate our relationship with God.

I think of UK St. Paul's Cathedral. I think of Cairo, Egypt, and a great cave in the mountains that holds 5,000 people, Greek Orthodox. I never wanted to leave that sanctuary when I was there.

I think of a small chapel for the family by my home in England. Anywhere, inside or out, that helps to still the soul. Where's your sanctuary? It's amazing what the outside incidentally, the cathedral of God's creation, does for the inside.

Guest (Male): You're hearing from Jill Briscoe on today's Telling the Truth. Jill will be right back to answer some questions about today's message. But first, here's a powerful resource you'll want to know about.

"I'll pray for you." "Just pray about it." "Prayer changes things." You've probably heard statements like these from other Christians or said them yourself. But if you ask most believers how prayer works, the answers are likely to be all over the map.

So how does God want to use prayer in our lives? Is He listening to every single request? And can prayer really make a difference?

To help answer questions like these, we've put together Stuart and Jill's five-message teaching series, Powerful and Effective Prayer. This collection of messages can help you uncover the secret to a more vibrant prayer life, one where you lose yourself in the presence of God and have confidence that your prayers are rising, making a difference.

You'll gain wisdom and insight on prayer from Stuart and Jill's decades of ministry. Powerful and Effective Prayer comes as our thanks for your gift to help more people fix their eyes on eternity through the truths of God's Word shared through Telling the Truth.

So be sure to request your copy when you give a gift today. Call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill Briscoe with some helpful insight into today's message. Jill, what should we learn from the prayer life of Jesus?

Jill Briscoe: Everything you want to know about prayer, I suppose. It was as the disciples watched the effect of Jesus's prayer life. Jesus had withdrawn from His disciples who could still watch Him, actually, in prayer with His Father.

It was something about Jesus who came back to them after that prayer time that brought from the disciples the spontaneous, "Lord, teach us to pray." I don't know what it was. Was it a peace, a light on Jesus's face? Was it a more relaxed Jesus than when He'd gone away to talk to the Father?

What was it? It was something that made the disciples hungry for that, "that" being what had happened when Jesus had quietly knelt or sat and started obviously communing with God. And when He came back, that's what the disciples wanted: "How'd you do that?"

And so follow Jesus's prayer life. Just get a Gospel, read it. Every time you see Him pray, stop. What do you learn? Where was He? Did He say anything out loud? What do you learn from what He said out loud?

Like when He prayed outside the tomb of Lazarus. He said, "I'm not praying this out loud for me, I'm praying out loud for them so that as they listen to me, they'll learn something about you." And so sometimes you can learn. He wants us to learn. He lets us listen in.

At there's so many times it says, "as usual He went out and prayed." Those two little words: "as usual." "As usual." So what you learn about His prayer life: "as usual." It was a discipline. It was a habit. And then learn, write down what you learn every time you see Jesus or hear Jesus praying. You can start there.

Guest (Male): How can we model His pattern of prayer?

Jill Briscoe: Use it literally as a pattern. There's nothing wrong with that. "Our Father, which art in heaven"—it's a very, very good pattern. Looking above, looking within, looking around. And just follow the pattern.

I mean, that's the pattern He gave His disciples, and nobody's improved on it as far as I know. And so they said, "teach us to pray," and He didn't mean just pray these words, although that's where you can start.

I often borrow other people's prayers. I love to read the prayers of the ancients who knew God so thoroughly and well and have written prayers. And I learn God through using their words.

I don't have these wonderful expressions that I want to use when I pray to God, but they do, so I borrow other people's words. And Jesus invited the disciples, "Borrow my words. Start there."

But there is a pattern to it. And there's a pattern of who God is—start there. Start in talking to Him and praise Him for who He is. And then look within and look at your heart, yourself, and have a time of confession. And then pray "thy kingdom come" and look around and pray for the world and the missionaries and your pastor, et cetera, et cetera. That's a good pattern.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much, Jill. We hope today's message encouraged you. Before we go, remember that when you give today to help keep Telling the Truth broadcasts like this one going out, we'll send you Powerful and Effective Prayer, a newly curated collection of five messages from Stuart and Jill that can help you start moving from a mundane prayer life to one that's rich and vibrant.

So call now to give and request Powerful and Effective Prayer with our thanks: 1-800-889-5388. 1-800-889-5388. Or give online at tellingthetruth.org. We're glad you've joined us today. Come back again for more biblical insight to help you experience life. That's next time, right here on Telling the Truth.