Telling the Truth

Jill Briscoe: My holy, heavenly Abba, Father, Father dear. Yes, but a holy heavenly God. He is God, and we are not. And so we need to know who he is as we pray, and we need to know who we are as we pray.

And if we concentrate on his holiness, that holiness will become real in us. There's no talk of sanctification in the Lord's Prayer. It's presumed. When we think of who he is, holiness is an obvious. We cannot speak to God unless we have confessed our sin.

Guest (Male): Prayer is not some magic formula, but powerful prayer does follow certain principles that connect you to the true and heart of God. Stay tuned to find out more from Jill Briscoe on today's Telling the Truth.

But first, building a consistent prayer life can be a challenge. That's why we want to let you know about a special opportunity to soak in Stuart and Jill's wisdom on prayer through a newly curated collection of their messages called Powerful and Effective Prayer.

This resource is our thanks for your gift today to help others experience life in Christ through the global ministry of Telling the Truth. So call today to request your copy of this special collection: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online at tellingthetruth.org. Now, here's Jill Briscoe with her message, "Teach Us to Pray."

Jill Briscoe: And Jesus constantly, maybe because he couldn't get alone inside, was constantly out, out among the birds that his Father made and the flowers that he made and just feeling sort of God's great church was a place that was very easy for him after all the dirt and the filth and the leprosy and all of this. It was somewhere to renew himself.

Stuart and I were in Vancouver Island, Canada, and we were talking our heads off and it was spring and we didn't even get out for four days and we haven't had a walk or anything. And I just felt the Lord was saying, "Come outside. Don't go to one more meeting you don't need to go to. Just come and walk with me." And my Stuart loves God's world just like I do.

After we did this, just had a walk instead of going to one more meeting, my husband caught the way that simple time in the woods renewed us both in God's sanctuary. Sunlight glancing through the trees, branches dance to summer breeze, eagle circle as your sky, redwoods reaching up on high, reminding us of you, Lord, reminding us of you. Warm as the sunlight, gentle as the breeze, vigilant as eagles, steadfast as the trees. So are you to us, Lord. So are you to us.

Go walk, find a lake, park, I don't care. Just make sure you go to a certain place like Jesus did. It helps. And then of course address the Father, Abba Father. By using this familiar tender name for God, Jesus transformed a formal theological exercise into an intense and intimate experience. And he taught his disciples to do the same.

Abba Father. I've had a lot of talks interestingly this weekend with people that say, "I come from a traditional background and you know when I came into this particular group that pray, I felt uneasy when we address God in such a familiar way with our own words and our own language. It didn't sound respectful."

Daryl Bock in his commentary on the Book of Luke says Abba, the word itself combines respect for the Father's authority with a sense of intimacy. Intimacy doesn't do away with respect. Just remember who you're talking to. That's all. Just remember he's holy and you're not. That's all.

My holy, heavenly Abba, Father, Father dear. Yes, but a holy heavenly God. He is God, and we are not. And so we need to know who he is as we pray, and we need to know who we are as we pray. And if we concentrate on his holiness, that holiness will become real in us.

There's no talk of sanctification in the Lord's Prayer. It's presumed. When we think of who he is, holiness is an obvious. We cannot speak to God unless we have confessed our sin. And you said, "But Jill, I came to Jesus and he forgave all my sin." Yes.

If you think of this line of this pulpit as the timeline and God is here and you get born and you live and you accept Jesus and you go all along here out back into the presence of God. And you accept Jesus here, he forgives you all your sin—all that stuff and all this stuff that you haven't even done yet.

He forgives your sin. So why do I still need to confess it? Because of your fellowship with him. Your initial confession deals with your relationship. All of this deals with your fellowship because if you have a child, a son, and your blood is in him, he is your child. He'll always be your son.

But maybe he'll leave home and maybe you'll have a row and what you need is to reconcile and say sorry and your fellowship. That's why you need to go on confessing those things that stop you talking to him and listening to him along this way. Your sin has been dealt with—your sin as a whole—but your fellowship needs to stay intact.

And if you feel far away from God, it might be because those things aren't dealt with. Remember that he is holy. Concentrate on his holiness. And then we turn to the life in the community, the second part of the prayer. There is not one single singular pronoun in this. Not one.

I, me, my, mine, "Give me today my daily bread, forgive my sin." No, it's all ours. Our Father. Not my Father, our Father. And Jesus is trying to teach, "I'm making a community, don't you see? I'm calling out a called-out people called the church."

There is one church, did you know? No, Jill, there's many, many churches. No, no, no. One church, Christ the head. And it meets in different buildings in different places in Milwaukee, you see. And in one of the buildings, we might sing a little differently and pray a little differently over here, but one church, a community.

And Jesus said, "I'm giving you a prayer to remind you of that community." And you cannot pray, "Give me today my daily bread," for it is our. Is there anyone hungry around me? I remember standing in the sanctuary, the old sanctuary long time ago when we had a bread pantry in the church, when we had food to offer for people that were hungry.

And you would be amazed how many people came from the inner city to get a bag of groceries from our pantry. And I was, I think it was Christmas Eve, I was sharing my hymnbook with a young woman I'd never seen before. She was a single mother. She had two little children next to her. And she fainted.

And we helped her and I got her out. And I found out she didn't have food. She had been selling her blood to pay for food to feed her children. And I thought, "What am I doing praying 'Give me today my daily bread, my Christmas dinner'?" Here's somebody, our community.

And so the intent is for God to turn our eyes outwards into our relationships. Forgive us our sins as we forgive each other. Now this is the part and the next bit, "deliver us from evil," that I've struggled with most of all. Still struggle with. Mystery.

Does it mean when it says in Matthew, Jesus speaking, "If you don't forgive people, I won't forgive you"? It can't mean that because then we would earn the forgiveness of God and we know it's all of grace. Then what does it mean? "Forgive me my debts as I forgive other people." Oh no, I hope it doesn't mean that.

How do I forgive? Grudgingly, when I have to? Do I want God to forgive me like I forgive other people? No, I don't. I want God to forgive me like God forgives me, right? So it can't mean that. What does it mean?

Well, basically in the big picture of it all, it means that we extend our hand to the grace of God. Many of us extend our fists, but we have to extend our hand to the forgiveness of God. And that's all of grace.

And as we receive his forgiveness for our grubby little lives, the wonder of it begins. And as we understand what we have done to God, how we've offended him, how we have hurt him, the size of what he's had to forgive us.

As we understand that we've been hitting God with a club with our sin, we turn around and see people with little sticks hitting us, it becomes very easy. For he or she that is forgiven much, loves much. He and she that understands the size of our redemption, what it cost Jesus to do for us. Then as he has forgiven us—how did he forgive us? Freely, fully, everything—then somehow out of the wonder of what he's done for us flows our forgiveness to other people.

Guest (Male): You're hearing from Jill Briscoe today on Telling the Truth. She's coming right back with more principles on prayer straight from the prayer life of Jesus. But before Jill jumps back in, okay, let's be honest. Prayer can sometimes feel like a bit of a mystery.

Some people feel so confused by how prayer works that they'll just forget it all together. But scripture paints an exciting picture of what a life of prayer can be and how you can experience it yourself. That's why we want to send you a newly curated collection of messages from Stuart and Jill called Powerful and Effective Prayer.

These five eye-opening messages will help you push past today's common platitudes on prayer and develop the rich and vibrant prayer life you're longing for. We're excited to send you this one-of-a-kind resource as thanks for your gift today to help keep sharing the life-changing truth of God's love with people around the world through Telling the Truth.

So call today to request Powerful and Effective Prayer when you give: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. For many, our smartphones have become our social connection.

But we want to help you make a spiritual connection with the Telling the Truth mobile app. You can listen to daily programs, engage in Bible reading plans, journal, and share your thoughts and prayers on the community wall. Get the Telling the Truth app through your app store or log off to tellingthetruth.org/mobileapp. All right, let's get back to Jill with more of her message from the series, "Let's Talk."

Jill Briscoe: I find that this is our hardest work, to forgive other people. We're waiting. What are we waiting for? For them to say they're sorry, right? Don't wait until they've done their work. They might never say they're sorry.

God doesn't wait for us to repent before he offers us forgiveness, and nor should we. We cannot do their work for them, but we can do ours. And I'll tell you where it's done: on your knees. You have to forgive them on your knees before you ever forgive them standing up face-to-face.

The work must be done in here. And those of you that have come and you're holding grudges, and who cannot understand, for some of you have been dreadfully injured. And that's the word Jesus uses. The offense, the thing somebody has done, the debt they owe you that has offended you and hurt you.

It's huge for some of you. I am appalled to hear how we treat each other and how people are treated. Absolutely appalled. But you have to forgive one incident at a time. Lewis Smedes has written a book called Forgive and Forget.

It's a classic for me. I give it out all over the place. Ordinary people forgive best if they go at it in bits and pieces. I love this. And for specific acts. Forgiving carte blanche is silly. Nobody can do that but God. And he is God and I am not. That helped me. Okay, I forgive in little bits.

So this person has done this to me, they have done that, that, that. There's so much. I can't just say, "I forgive you all of it." No, no, no. What I have to do is incident by incident I have to go there on my knees and start bit by bit by bit.

And when I'm there I have to be honest. I have to tell God where I am. Well, I don't want to forgive them yet. Well, I thought I'd forgiven them and then I saw them again face-to-face. Well, no I don't want to ever forgive them. And I'm only going to forgive them if they come and ask me to, right?

Tell him where you are and it can be anywhere. And then drop the conditions, will you? Drop the conditions. "Until I understand why they did this to me, I'm not going to forgive them." Anybody there?

We don't need to understand why they did it. We need to understand we don't need to understand before we forgive them, okay? You may never understand, but we are to forgive as we have been forgiven freely, fully, whether they ever respond or not.

He forgave us no strings attached. So if our hands are full of anger and bitterness and we can't accept his ongoing forgiveness for our own ongoing sin, we'll never be able to offer forgiveness to others.

And the devil wants us mired in the past, in what could have, should have been, what we did to others or they did to us. He wants us to stay offended, he wants us to stay upset, angry. He wants to neutralize us because that'll neutralize you for the kingdom of God and the will of God and the purposes of God.

It's got to be dealt with. What are you doing harboring it? What are you doing cherishing it? What are you doing coddling it? Let it go. One prayer at a time. One day at a time. Pray God will deliver you from the Evil One, from the temptation to keep it.

It's all in context. Deliver us from the Evil One, from this temptation to neutralize my life, to make me a bitter person, an angry person, a no-use person for your kingdom and your work. Deliver me from the power he has had in my life. Help me with this.

Some of you don't even believe in the devil. I had somebody talk to me: "I'm finding it difficult, Jill, to believe in a personal devil." Listen to me. Behind all the dangers in our life and behind all the dark menaces that overshadow it, there is a dark, mysterious, spellbinding figure at work.

Behind the temptation stands the tempter. Behind the lie stands the liar. Behind the death and the bloodshed stands the murderer from the beginning. And he wants to tempt you away from your relationship with God. That's his whole thing.

"Worship me," he says. And he is bitterness, and he is anger, and he is rage, and he is unforgiveness. Oh God, deliver us from that. That's what we need to pray. He will tempt us away from our relationship with him. He came to deliver us.

After this event, Jesus meets a demon immediately and he drives it out. And Jesus is the one that can do that. And he wants to do it for us. Don't mess with him yourself. You can't. You're too young. Like the little girl that said, "When the devil knocks on the door of my life, I send Jesus to answer the door," right?

Send Jesus to answer the door. And the finger of God will do that work for you. We've so much going for us. We have the Holy Spirit. There's one prayer, it's said, I read it to you, one prayer he'll always answer: "Give me the Holy Spirit."

How much more will your Father in heaven give you the Holy Spirit? And it occurs to me that there might be somebody listening to me that has never received the Holy Spirit. None of this that I've talked about today will make any sense unless the Holy Spirit is living in your life.

Sure you've got him? Has he come in? He's the one that will explain God to you, your Father. And he's the one that will give you the power you need and the enlightenment and deal away with the confusion, make your life full and generous and satisfied.

Holy Spirit. So in this closing prayer maybe that's the prayer you need to concentrate on and forget everything else. "O Holy Spirit, come into my life. You are bringing with you God's forgiveness. You're going to cleanse me. You're going to come and live forever in my heart and give me salvation."

And just remember that Jesus is praying for you, will you? Do you know that? Read Hebrews. There was a time a few years ago when I was under a cloud and we had some very hard things happening in our family.

And I remember one day being so depressed and so down I couldn't get out of bed. But I had to get out. There were things to do. I had to go to some responsibilities. And so I dragged myself out of bed and I started to get dressed.

And as I did, my spirit began to lift and lift and lift. And by the time I got to the breakfast table, which I didn't think I could eat because of the knot in my stomach, the knot was gone and I was hungry and I ate a hearty breakfast and I began to feel the peace and the clear air around me.

And I thought, "What is happening?" My soul was tap dancing. And I said to the Lord, "Oh, I get it, I get it. The people that love me that know about this shadow on our lives, they're praying for me. My friends are praying for me."

And a voice said to me in my kitchen, "I'm praying for you." He's praying for us. Would you simply please be the answer to Jesus' prayers today?

Guest (Male): You're listening to Jill Briscoe today on Telling the Truth. You'll hear more from her in just a moment when she sits down to answer a few questions about today's message. But before that, you probably hear people talk about prayer all the time.

But aside from knowing that you ought to do it, how much do you truly know about prayer? For example, how does God want to use prayer in our lives? Is he listening to every single request, and can prayer really make a difference?

We'd love to help shine some much-needed light on the subject of prayer by sending you Stuart and Jill's new five-message collection, Powerful and Effective Prayer. This specially curated set of messages is our thanks for your gift to share the life-changing truth of God's word around the world through Telling the Truth.

It's only thanks to the support of generous friends like you that broadcasts like this one can keep going out, reaching others with God's love so they can experience life in Christ. So if you haven't given before, please consider a gift today and remember to request Powerful and Effective Prayer when you call and give.

Just call 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. Now let's chat with Jill about today's message.

Hi, Jill. How can we extend the hand of grace to others, especially those who've wronged us? How can we spill grace?

Jill Briscoe: By being full of grace, by being full of the Spirit. A cup that's filled with sweet water when it's jogged cannot spill one bitter drop. So it depends what you're full of what spills out when somebody bangs up against you, somebody wrongs you.

It tells you what you're full of. If you're full of self-importance, if you're self-sensitive, hypersensitive, covered in prickles, enjoying a pout, and somebody bumps up against you, that's what will spill out.

What are you full of? So how can we extend the hand of grace to others? That means how can we spill Jesus, I guess. And we come back to the discipline of concentrating on the lordship of Christ, on his sovereignty in our lives, fixing our thoughts and hearts.

David talks a lot about it in the Psalms: "Fix your mind on God." Paul talks about it in Philippians: "Mind your mind." Just mind your mind and God will fill your heart with the thoughts or the response to others, especially when you're suddenly faced with someone who's wronged you in a public place, for example, and you have no idea what your reaction's going to be.

Just a glance upwards, "Lord, fill me with yourself at this point so that what spills out of me is of you and not of me." And so it's practicing the presence of God if you wish and remembering you have within you all you need to extend the hand of grace to others.

Guest (Male): Jill, how can we know we have the Holy Spirit in our lives? And if we don't, how do we invite him in?

Jill Briscoe: Just ask him. Just say, "Holy Spirit, please come into my life." It says in the Bible then that the Holy Spirit will witness to your spirit that you are a child of God. There will be an inner connection, an inner certainty that the Holy Spirit brings with him when he enters your heart. He will do that work. You don't need to convince yourself, nobody else needs to convince you. The Holy Spirit witnesses to your spirit that you are a child of God and if children, then heirs, joint heirs with Christ. That's the Holy Spirit's work.

Guest (Male): Thanks so much, Jill. Before you go, we want to remind you to request Stuart and Jill's newly curated five-message collection, Powerful and Effective Prayer. It's our thanks for your gift today to continue sharing God's word through Telling the Truth broadcasts and resources.

So please, request yours when you call and give: 1-800-889-5388. That's 1-800-889-5388. Or you can give online when you visit tellingthetruth.org. We're so glad you joined us today. Come back again as the Briscoes share more powerful truth from God's word. Listen in and experience life next time on Telling the Truth.