The Faith Walk

Jonathan Evans: Are you willing? This is the hard part of the prayer. Are you willing to pray this prayer that means you may suffer many things? It means you may be in places that you were already afraid of. It means that he will challenge your greatest fear because fear is actually a version of pride.

People think pride is me thinking too high of myself. No, pride is you could be thinking too low of yourself. Pride means you're thinking about yourself. You have made yourself the primary object of whether you're going to obey God or not.

Guest (Male): You are listening to The Faith Walk with Jonathan Evans. In a moment, Jonathan will continue today's message, but first, to thank you for your support of this ministry, Jonathan has a couple of special gifts for you. The first is the audio series that you're currently hearing called "House of Prayer: Building a Real, Consistent and Intimate Prayer Life through Honest, Private Communication with God."

The second part of this gift is a devotional called "Kingdom Family" written by Jonathan and Tony Evans. It covers real-life topics for parents and kids to explore together throughout the year. I'll tell you more about these later in today's program, or you can call right now at 1-800-800-3222 or visit TonyEvans.org to learn more. Now, here's Jonathan with part two of his message, "Aligning with Heaven."

Jonathan Evans: In Luke 11, before he gave salvation to those who didn't deserve it, he said, "Thank you, Lord, for giving to those who are less likely and less wise." In other words, Jesus is telling you how he prays. Often he would thank the Lord that preceded the thing that was about to happen. Don't you know that the person precedes the provision? How are we going to go to the provision before the person? We need to speak.

Then he tells you, when you speak, when you come in with a childlike faith and you speak to the Lord and you give him glory, he's not telling you exactly what to say because nobody else in the New Testament prayed this prayer. He's giving you a formula, a template, a how-to on how you approach the throne of God. And he's saying once you speak, then you say, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."

Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I run in with faith like a child. It's my Father. I give him glory for who he is because everything that I need is already wrapped in his name. Then my focus is the kingdom. You still aren't talking about my payday? No. The disciple should have a yearning for the kingdom.

A disciple, a Christian, should have a yearning for his kingdom. Why? Because his kingdom is righteousness. With righteousness, that answers all your prayer requests. The reason why you have a prayer request is because you live in a world of sin, which produces your prayer request. The culmination of all of your prayers answered have to do with his kingdom coming. So the yearning is for the kingdom to come. And I hope you understand this, it isn't that far off.

The birth pains are everywhere. The kingdoms are rising up, nation is rising up against nation. There is pestilence and earthquakes. The earth is shuddering. Matthew 24 lets you know what it looks like when the time is drawing near, and I'm letting you know it's drawing near. Matthew 24:27 says like lightning striking from the east to the west, so it will be when the Son of Man comes.

Psalms 2, which is the first mention of the Christ in scriptures, the anointed one, says you are my son which I have begotten and you will rule the earth with a rod of iron and shatter them like earthenware. Don't you know that Jesus is coming, and when he comes, he will rule with a rod of iron? His kingdom will be established, which means righteousness all over the earth. That is the yearning of the disciple. If you have a prayer request, that should be your ultimate yearning because once you understand that his kingdom sets everything straight, it's a whole another ballgame.

The kingdom means rule. The kingdom was established already in the garden when you had a perfect God with perfect people in a perfect place. That's the kingdom. That is the manifestation of his rule because it looks just like him. He is a perfectly holy God, totally unblemished, and that's what the garden was like. So you have the kingdom in that scenario and he gave rule to Adam and Eve. He said, "Let them rule," and he gave them dominion in this kingdom. But then the enemy came and the enemy got them to disobey God.

Once they disobeyed God, they lost the attributes of the kingdom. They were no longer in a perfect place, they were no longer perfect people, and they lost God's perfect presence. Now the kingdom has been shifted to the enemy. The reason why you have all these problems is because you live in the enemy's kingdom. It was handed to him. That's why by the time you get to Matthew chapter 4, how in the world is the devil able to tell Jesus, "I will give you the kingdoms of this world if you bow down and worship me?"

That's because the kingdom has been transferred to the enemy through the people losing dominion by disobeying God. So now you have a kingdom problem. There is going to come a day where Jesus comes back, defeats the enemy once and for all, sets up his kingdom, and brings righteousness back on the earth like he had it in Genesis 1 and 2. The Bible is the returning to God's kingdom and his original intent with an upgrade. The upgrade is the enemy isn't there. He's been done away with.

And that's why you have in the Bible, God telling Moses, "I'm going to take you to a promised land and you're going to be my people and I will be your God," and he gave them a perfect law because it was always about his kingdom: his place, his people, his presence. And when you understand that he will establish that in the future, you're yearning for that. The question is why is it that so many believers really don't yearn for the kingdom?

We're not really yearning for the kingdom. We have all of these prayer requests, but we don't even yearn for the ultimate answer. People enjoy the devil's kingdom more than they yearn for God's kingdom. How do I know? You say, "I want Jesus to return," but first, I haven't gotten married yet, I want to travel, there are some things I need to do. First I've got this business that I just started, I want to see it come to fruition, I need to get this money. I've got ideas. So I want Jesus to come, but he needs to wait until I'm done.

So you want to pray about your problems, but you don't want Jesus to come back and rain on your party? If you don't yearn for the kingdom, then you're less likely to do his will until he comes because you don't really want it. The reason why you don't yearn for the kingdom is because you have things you need to do, which means what you want and your will and your way is more important to you than what he wants, his will, and his way.

Which means I'm not really interested in doing his will. That's why all of my prayers are for him to be Robin so I can be Batman. That's why all of my prayers are for him to be the stepstool that I can step on so he can take me higher. Jesus, I just need you to be my rocket fuel. I've got somewhere to go. We go to our Father, we're skeptics on who he is, and then we pray only for what we want him to do for us, not what we should be doing for him.

If you're yearning for the kingdom, you're thinking to yourself, "Until you come, what do I need to do to make the house ready?" If you're yearning for the kingdom, you're saying, "What do you need from me? How can I serve? Show me your will that you have for my life." And then he's going to give you a hammer and a nail and he's going to say, "Start building the ark because the end is coming." I need as many people to have the opportunity to get on the ark, which is Jesus Christ, through your gifts, through your talents, through your skills.

I need you to be willing to suffer for my sake because it's about the kingdom. Not your kingdom, his kingdom. So this part of the prayer is saying first, I'm acknowledging you as my Lord and Savior. I'm giving you praise and glory for who you are as my Father. Thank you for allowing me into the family. Dad, what do you need from me? Isn't it a blessing when your kids say, "What do you need from me?" Isn't it a blessing when your kids say, "How can I serve?"

Isn't it a blessing when the kids run up to mom and dad and say, "What can I do? It seems like you're doing a lot. What can I do? It seems like you've already done a lot. How can I serve? How can I be a part of the family and not a leech of the family?" This is the how-to of prayer. He's telling you how he himself prayed. Don't forget the Garden of Gethsemane when he had a concern but he said, "Not my will be done but your will be done."

That he was willing to suffer for the sake of the kingdom even at his expense. This is the hard part of the prayer. This is why people skip this part. Number one, we don't have a yearning for the kingdom. Number two, if you pray God's will on your life, it might make you do stuff you don't want to do. Jesus said, "Not my will, your will be done," and went and got mocked, beat, tortured, and crucified. The Christian life is not skipping through the woods.

There's a cross that has to be carried and many of us want to stray away from praying about that cross because typically serving the kingdom doesn't agree with your flesh. It's not going to agree with how you feel and where you want to go. It was the hardest prayer of my life. I finally started to grow spiritually and not just think about myself and say, "God, what do you want me to do? Whatever it is, I'll do it." Then as he slowly started taking me to a pulpit, I said, "Oh no, not that."

Guest (Male): Have you ever had a consistent, authentic prayer life? Building a real, consistent and intimate prayer life through honest, private communication with God can change your life. Today, when you give a gift to support the ministry of the Urban Alternative, Jonathan wants to give you two life-altering resources. The first is a copy of his series, "House of Prayer," encouraging you to pray persistently, seek God's kingdom first, and allow prayer to transform your heart to align with God's will.

The second part of this gift is a devotional called "Kingdom Family," written by Jonathan and Tony Evans, that offers simple, engaging lessons that parents and kids can explore together throughout the year. Both the devotional book, "Kingdom Family," and the four-part audio series, "House of Prayer," are a way of showing appreciation for the continued support of listeners like you who make this program possible. Get all the details online at TonyEvans.org.

Again, that's TonyEvans.org, or you can call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Find your way out of distractions and into God's purpose for your life. Now, let's get back to Jonathan with the rest of today's message.

Jonathan Evans: You all need to understand, I have never once asked my dad to let me preach. You need to understand that. My siblings have for me, and I'm in the corner like, "Be quiet." I have never once strived to be up here. I spent my whole life running from anything that had to do with going after Tony Evans. This is not what I wanted for myself. I wanted to play in the NFL and go sit on a beach after ten years and retire. I wanted easy street for my kingdom.

This sounds like somebody's story because God will take you in a direction that you were probably running from your whole life when you start running to his kingdom. So now I'm up here doing God's will, his way. Are you willing? This is the hard part of the prayer. Are you willing to pray this prayer that means you may suffer many things? It means you may be in places that you were already afraid of. It means that he will challenge your greatest fear because fear is actually a version of pride.

People think pride is me thinking too high of myself. No, pride is you could be thinking too low of yourself. Pride means you're thinking about yourself. You have made yourself the primary object of whether you're going to obey God or not. Are you ready for this part of the prayer? His kingdom come, I yearn for the kingdom. God, whatever you need from me. And Jesus does that, "Not my will be done, but your will be done," and he goes straight to a cross.

But remember, for this reason he was highly exalted and lifted up and given a name that is above every name because he was willing to humble himself to the point of death, even death on a cross, which means he was cursed for your sake and my sake. Many of us are praying prayers for self-exaltation, missing out on God exaltation, and you can only take yourself so high before you come tumbling down because it's not about us.

We go into the Father's house and we have adoration and appreciation because everything we need is already in his name. We pray the hard prayer, "Dad, what do you need? What do you need from me, and how in the world can I do your will?" Because as it relates to the kingdom now, Christian living is the present kingdom of this world that Satan rules. I need you to understand. The kingdom garden, perfection. When Jesus sets it up, he's ruling righteously.

In eternity, you're right back to a perfect people in a perfect place with God's perfect presence. So it's one end of the Bible to the other end of the Bible, and in the middle with Satan ruling, your Christian living is the manifestation of God's kingdom in this present world that Satan rules. If the kingdom is not proliferating, it's a lack of Christian willingness. That's not the prayer for us. Our prayer when I go in is, "God, this is what I need you to do for me."

You still aren't getting to my payday? No, I'm not. I'm getting to your pay the price day. This is where it starts. This is the kingdom. That's why you've heard Tony Evans preach it. The kingdom agenda is the visible demonstration and manifestation of the comprehensive rule of God over every area of life. For us, it is not sacred and secular; it's all sacred because the kingdom rules through the individual, the kingdom rules through the family, the kingdom rules through the church, and the kingdom should rule itself out all the way to the nation.

Everything for us, we be switching teams too much. This is my secular time, this is my sacred time. No, it's supposed to be kingdom time. That's what the calling is of our life and what our prayer life should be going to is the kingdom of God. We've got too many people choosing between righteousness and justice. What do you mean? Psalm 89:14 says righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. You can't pick half of the foundation. It's the whole foundation.

That's why in Joshua 5, when the captain of the Lord shows up, Joshua says, "Whose side are you on?" Now you would have thought he would have said, "I'm on your side, Joshua, you're the man of God and these are the people of God." He didn't say that. He said, "I'm not on your side, neither am I on their side. I'm the captain of the Lord's army." In other words, we didn't come to take sides; we came to take over. That's the kingdom.

So as it relates to your prayer life, you're running into your Father's room knowing he will do it, and for that, you praise his name because his name is everything you need and a reputation that precedes itself. And because of all that, you're saying, "How can I serve you? You're the Father and you're the one with the name. You're actually the King. How can I serve you and what do you need me to do to get this house ready until you come?"

Let him talk to you there. Let him speak to you there. His ears are wide open there because it's all about his kingdom and that's the way Jesus lived his life. You say, "Jonathan, but you still aren't talking about my payday." Or maybe I am. Maybe since God made you, he knows exactly how he wants to use you. Maybe our prayer life is pushing us back from the table of our own legacy, and too many people will walk through the sands of life to look back and see that there were no footprints because they were engaged in the secular and missed the entire kingdom.

There was a little boy one day who was sad about his dad not being there, and he got some time to call because his dad was off at war. And he yearned to see his dad. He said, "Dad, I want to see you. I miss you. When are you coming home?" And his dad said, "I can't tell you that, son. I don't know. I don't know when it's going to be that I'm coming home, but just know that I'm coming."

And the son said, "Well, what can I do until you get here?" And the dad said, "Son, just take care of my wife, your mother. Son, just mow the lawn and make sure the trash is out. Keep the house military-grade clean and keep the flag folded military-style in its corner. You know how I like it, son." And he said, "Dad, I will do it." They got off the phone and day after day after day, the son was doing what the dad asked him to do.

A whole lot of time passed by, months passed by, and he didn't know when his dad was going to come. But one day, the doorbell rang. And the son didn't know who it was going to be. There's a lot of people who were bringing packages and all types of stuff, so he ran to the door, not knowing the day or the hour that his father would return. But when he opened the door and saw his father, he started crying tears of joy and not tears of regret because the boy was ready.

The dad said, "When I walked up, son, I saw that the grass was cut. When I walked in, I saw that my wife, your mother, was taken care of. I see that the house is military-grade clean, that the trash has been taken out, and that the flag, that precious flag, is folded military-style in the corner where it's supposed to be." The dad got down on one knee and he looked at his son and he gave him his payday. He said, "That'a boy, son. That'a boy. Your father is proud of you. Well done."

Let me help you understand something if you don't know. One day the doorbell is going to ring on history, and you're not going to know the day or the hour which he is going to show up. But when he does, will you be found faithful? When he does, will you have cut the lawn of righteousness? When he does, will the wife, the church, be taken care of? When he does, will your life be military-grade clean? When he does, will you have taken out the trash?

When he does, will allegiance to Christ, would it be properly folded and put in its corner where it's supposed to be? Because if he rings the doorbell and he finds his children faithful, you'll get the payday of all time when the Lord Jesus Christ gets on a knee and he looks at you and he says, "That'a girl. That'a boy. Well done." And that's what the kingdom is about. That's what he's calling us to do in our prayer life. So somebody right now can stand up and give him praise and hallow be his name because he's worthy. Thy kingdom come and thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. That is our calling, and that is our prayer.

Guest (Male): That was Pastor Jonathan Evans. Before you go today, I want to remind you that we have a couple of special gifts for you: a devotional book called "Kingdom Family" and a four-part audio series, "House of Prayer." The devotional, "Kingdom Family," written by Jonathan and Tony Evans, is a practical, easy-to-use guide designed to help your family grow spiritually together through short daily devotionals that fit naturally into busy routines like dinnertime or bedtime.

We are also including Jonathan Evans' "House of Prayer" audio series, helping you build a real, consistent and intimate prayer life through honest, private communication with God, rather than outward performance. Both the devotional called "Kingdom Family" and his audio series, "House of Prayer," are a gift to you to thank you for your donation to help support the ministry of the Urban Alternative. It's our way of showing appreciation for the continued support of listeners like you who make this program possible.

Call 1-800-800-3222 anytime, or get all the details online at TonyEvans.org. Again, that's TonyEvans.org, or you can call our 24-hour resource request line at 1-800-800-3222 and let one of our team members help you. That's 1-800-800-3222. Find your way out of distractions and into God's purpose for your life. Thank you for listening to The Faith Walk with Jonathan Evans. The Faith Walk is produced as a part of the Urban Alternative, a ministry of Dr. Tony Evans.