The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: The Lord is resident ready to pour out his spirit and to clothe every believer and every church with power.

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Healing Word. Here's Pastor Jack Morris with today's message that will grow your faith in God and lead you to a closer walk with Jesus.

Pastor Jack Morris: Today's message is entitled Prayer Power. You believe in prayer, don't you? I know you do. You've had answers to prayer in your life and you're going to have more answers because we serve a God, a father in heaven. Jesus told us to call God Father. We serve a father who loves his children. He loves you and he hears and answers prayer. Prayer is a powerful means of bringing the blessing of God. Prayer taps the unlimited power of God. Let's go into the sanctuary and hear this message. I pray your faith will grow strong and my prayer is that you will go to God in prayer and receive his mighty power on your heart receiving God's blessing in your life.

Let's go to the sanctuary and hear the message. Prayer Power. Dr. Hagersen just gave a beautiful testimony of God's hearing prayer and answering prayer. And God loves every one of us and we all have a prayer need or we certainly know someone who has a need and could certainly use prayer. With all Jesus has to say about prayer and everything that he has to say about answered prayer and everything he has to say about his desire to answer prayer. Now listen to me, friends. Jesus has told me and you repeatedly over and over and over again that he desires to answer prayer.

It's his will to answer prayer. Then the question that comes to my mind, why are we hesitant or reluctant to pray? If he wants to do it, let's let him do it. But we have to ask and it shall be given. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be open. I'm going to give you some of the thoughts that I have as to why we have a tendency to hold back and not ask. These are just some of my thoughts. If I ask you, you could more likely add to it, but I'm going to do some thinking out loud.

Why why don't we pray more than we do? Well, I think perhaps the reason one of the reasons is we're busy. We're very very busy. Everybody is busy and I've talked to people who are retired and they tell me some of them at least that they're more busy now that they're retired than while they were were working at their job. Now we know God answers prayer. We we desire to pray. We have all good intentions to pray, but we just run out of time. Now that's one of my thoughts. Another thought is we don't pray is because prayer is so awkward to us.

It's awkward because we do it so rarely and if you do it rarely, you have to learn how over and over again and it it's rather awkward. Years ago, I went to a movie. I can't tell you the name of the movie. I don't know anything. I don't remember about it, but it was a long time ago, but you may remember the movie star Burl Ives. I don't know whether you know remember him or not, but it was a movie. He was an old codger living way up in the mountains way back in the woods and something came up that he needed to pray about.

And he has these old bibber overalls on and he he's in he looks so disheveled and disarrayed and so he goes out into the woods. He sits down on a stump, takes his hat off and he looks up to the sky with a big grin on his face and he says, God, I bet you can't guess who this is. You know, I I wonder if God recognizes our voice, you know. Well, it it becomes rather awkward. I don't know. Maybe here's here's another. Maybe we don't pray as often as we should or as often as we would like is because we think we can handle the situation.

We don't need to trouble God with it. He's got bigger things to do. So maybe that's the reason. And another reason, maybe, I don't know the I'm just thinking out loud. Maybe it's because we're embarrassed because when we pray, we think we're going to have to tell God things that that we we would like to forget. We would we don't want to acknowledge that this is going on and our own words will cause us to blush or to be embarrassed. So we just rather not talk about it to anybody, not even to God. I don't know.

And then lastly, my last thought that I jotted down was we don't pray because maybe we think it's just not going to make any difference anyhow. I don't know why we don't pray. When Jesus says I want to answer prayer, invites us to pray, maybe these are some of the reasons. Now Andrew Murray in his book, an old book written so many many years ago with Christ in the School of Prayer, says this. Prayer is so simple that the feeblest child can pray. Yet it is at the same time the highest and holiest work to which a person can rise.

You see, anybody can pray, the feeblest child, the oldest person, the youngest person. Okay. I'm going to try to give a definition of prayer. The whole sermon is going to be a definition of prayer. I 'm going to start at the bottom. First, I think prayer is a conversation with God. Say that conversation with God. That's the simplest form of prayer. Now when we have a conversation with somebody, we are relaxed. We speak in a natural tone. I heard a person pray not too long ago that lady prayed and she almost screamed like God was 10 miles down the road and she just hollered that prayer and I mean I would trying to I would look up every once in a while.

I mean she would pray when she get out of breath it was like and then go again and then and then go again. And I thought you don't talk that way to the checkout counter, do you? When you get your groceries, you don't you don't talk that way to your neighbor. Prayer is a relaxed conversation. We we just talk and and speak words that we normally use. Now some people when they pray, they'll use words like thee and thou. That's okay. I don't usually pray that way, but that's okay to use those biblical words, those old King James version words.

If it makes you feel more reverent and you feel closer to God, then by all means use those words. But prayer, don't make it complicated. Just talk to God. He's your father. He's your father. Just talk to God. So the second is prayer is communication with God. Communication cannot be rushed. When I was in talking about why we don't pray, the very first thing I mentioned was we're too busy. Johns Hopkins Health Review 2016 it just came to my home the other day has a chief article in it entitled Cult of Busy. Cult of Busy.

And it says that the American public has bought in to the Cult of Busy. Now this Johns Hopkins magazine that comes from the university and the hospital has very little, if anything, to do with religion, but they they tell us in this article that the American people have bought in to the Cult of Busy. I believe people in the church has also bought in to the Cult of Busy. We want to pray. We have good intentions to pray, but all of a sudden the day is gone. We have run out of time. We're worn out and tired.

We'll do it tomorrow and tomorrow is like today. And off it goes again. We have missed our opportunity to talk to the Lord. Not only American people, but Johns Hopkins says it's a global epidemic. We're caught up into being busy. We're we're overscheduled. There there's just deadlines, things we have to do. The church service is going on too long. We had to cut out the the prayer dance because of saving time. We are very time conscious and time has become a cult. We bow down to time. We regulate our lives by time. We're all over scheduled.

I'm talking about myself as well as everybody else. And if you can if you can relate to this, you don't have to say amen if you don't want to, but Okay. There is one person that understands what I'm talking about today. The Hopkins magazine says this over busyness, this over activity, this running at breakneck speed. You're out on the highway, people cut in front of you and if you're not going fast enough, they get around you, but then you catch up with them at the next red light, you know. It's just it just from morning till night.

It never stops. It just goes on. But this this global academic, this Cult of Busy is straining relationships. We're having a difficult time getting along with with with people because we're in such a hurry. That's one of the reasons we have the the church of friendship and love and we stop, we shake hands, we hug one another, we we talk together, we have a women's fellowship breakfast, we have a men's fellowship breakfast. We're trying to bring everybody together and and be blessed, but strained relationships, increased anxiety, lack of sleep. Strained relationships, increased anxiety, lack of sleep, bothering the church people also.

But prayer is tapping the unlimited power of God. God has great power, wonderful power, wonderful power that he wants to display and give and work in every one of our lives. Let me go on with Andrew Murray. I'm going to quote again. The powers of the eternal world. Listen to me, friends, because sometimes when you quote, people they they'll they'll wait until the quote is over. You don't like the preacher to do any reading, but listen. The powers of the eternal world have been placed at our disposal. Prayer is the channel of all blessings, the secret of power and life.

Now it says in the scripture that in the early church, that's the first church, the Book of Acts church, that was that's when Christianity was just beginning and of people gathered together and they we call it the early church, the first church. The scripture says they were devoted to prayer. Now sometimes we wonder why in the early church miracles, raising the dead, healing the sick, great and wonderful, spectacular, phenomenal things were happening. They were devoted to prayer. They were not devoted to the clock. You see this little candle light here. That looks like a pilot light that when I was a boy growing up, we had a gas stove and that gas stove had a pilot light.

Now that pilot light burned in readiness to do something. That little pilot light did not light the house. That little pilot light did not cook the food. That little pilot light did not heat the house, light the house, cook the food. It was just there ready to do those things that I've just mentioned. It was there in readiness. Now every believer here this morning, you have Jesus in your heart. That's that little pilot light. He's ready to be turned on and to come forth in power, in glory, in majesty. He's ready. He's ready. Am I ready?

That's the question that I need to ask myself. He's ready to do this and he will do this when we look to him and when we seek him and when we ask him. Now let me see if I can illustrate it again, another little illustration. In the smallest speck of dust that maybe you can't even see that dust with the naked eye. But in every element of matter, there is atomic power and energy. You may not even see it, but it's there. It's there. That power I liken it to the Lord Jesus within us, within our hearts.

We have power within us. The pilot light is burning. Jesus is standing ready. Jesus is knocking at the heart's door, not to necessarily to get into a sinner's life, but as they get into a Christian's life to answer their prayer and to bring his power to bear. He's knocking at the heart of of churches today trying to get inside that we might know him and know him in the power of his resurrection. Jesus is there. Do you have Jesus? How many you know that you're saved? You know Jesus is in your heart. Would you raise your hand right now?

Hallelujah. Come on. Let's let give praise to the Lord. Let's give praise to the Lord. You have within you a power greater than the power of the universe. But week after week and year after year, we we go without experiencing that power in our lives, in our family's lives, in our work life. Now Jesus says now if you read that scripture, we use that so often pastors do to talk about Jesus trying to get into a sinner's life. He does stand at the door of a sinner and knocks, but if you read that in in the context, it's the layout of seeing church that Jesus is standing on the outside of the church knocking on the door of the church saying, let me come in.

The context says he's not trying to get into a sinner's life, but he's trying to get into a church and you are the church and I am the church. Behold, I stand at the door and knock. Jesus says believe and you will see the power of God. Then he says if you can believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. Big things, little things, all things are possible. I got to go back to that at atomic speck having that atomic power. You can't even see it. I think of the the maybe the the oldest person in the church or the youngest person in the church.

That person does not have necessarily a a position that can be seen. That person isn't very visible. That person doesn't sing in the choir. That person isn't visible like the pastor. That person is just a little maybe a speck. But no matter who that person is, how young or how old, how how sick or feeble or well, within that person provided Jesus is in that person, there is supernatural majestic power of almighty God. God answers prayer and God's people has that power ready to be turned on and ready to go forth. Prayer is believing. Now how do I answer that call?

Jesus is standing at the door. He's knocking. How do I answer that call? Now notice he's there at the door that that he's not coming. You don't have to look down the street and see if he's coming up the street. He's already there right now where you are, where your problem is. Sitting here in a pew, Jesus is there. If you have it in your heart, he's sitting in that pew. Jesus is there in your heart. He he's already there ringing your doorbell, wanting to come in to heal you, to bless you, to provide for you, to answer your prayer, to do something great and something beautiful for you.

He's already there. Now when you invite him in, this is how you invite him in. You name the hurt. You name the disappointment. You name the financial problem. You name, hey, my I need college funds to get my son or daughter into college. You name it. You name it. You name it. And when you name it, the door opens and Jesus walks in. But if you don't open your mouth and name it, you're going to have to handle your kids' financial problems all on your own. Your hurt, your sickness, your disease, your marital problems. He can't do anything, but he's knocking and knocking and knocking and knocking and waiting on somebody to say, come in, Lord Jesus, into my marriage, come into my financial condition, come into my my physical condition.

And when you name it, the door opens and the Lord Jesus with all the power of heaven walks in. Hey, are you ready to have victory, power released in your life? Are you ready? He's ready. He has been ready to come in. Now praying praying, remember this if you forget the whole sermon. Praying is giving him permission to come in. He's a gentleman. He's not going to kick the door down and heal your marriage relationship. He's not going to kick the door down and say, okay, I'm going to take care of your financial needs. No, he's not going to do that.

When you do your part and you call up on the Lord with a sincere devoted heart, and if there's sins that come to mind, confess those sins. Tell him how negligent you've been for years. Yes, I'm a Christian, but I don't have power. Friend, when you come clean with God, God's going to move into that situation and there's going to be power in your life. God is here today to answer your prayer and to bless your life and to minister to you. The powers of the eternal world have been placed at our disposal. Praise be to the Lord.

Now I don't want to single anybody out, embarrass anybody, but friend, you have you have a Jesus. You have a savior. He's with you now and I want you to bow your heads and I want you to talk to him and you can talk out loud and say the words. He can read your thoughts, but but go ahead and say the words that need to be said. Say it to him. It would be nice if I could just hear a sort of a rumbling across the the sanctuary of people talking to the Lord. Talk to him now.

Tell him. Be honest. Tell him your need. Tell him why you haven't come with that need before, but why you're coming now. And the power of God, that pilot light will come on. That heavenly atomic power will be released. Friend, now it's your turn. Go ahead. I'm going to wait on you while you pray. This whole church becomes an altar service. Okay, with your heads bowed and no one's looking around, so nobody will be embarrassed. Some here people here, you have and the Lord's talking to me. I believe it right now. The thoughts are going in my mind.

There are family, marital relationship needs. You want to raise your hand? Okay, about 13 14 about 14 of you need need God. Now when you tell God when you tell Jesus, I have this marital family need, that's when the door opens. God, I pray for these dear ones. About 14 as I counted so quickly. I pray now the door of their home, the door of their heart, the door of their family will open and Jesus will come in. Jesus will come in. Now friends, keep your head bowed and you say to him now, you say to him in your own words, I have a family need, a marital relation need.

I need you, Jesus, to come in. Please come in. You're giving him permission to come in. I'll wait and you say it to him. You have to say it to him.

Guest (Male): If today's message strengthened your faith, we invite you to stand with the Healing Word through your prayers and your generous support. Every gift helps us take the gospel to more people who desperately need to hear that Jesus still saves. Join us tomorrow for another Healing Word message. Until then, blessings on you.