The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: The scripture says when Peter went by the gate called Beautiful, there was a man who was helpless. He was crippled. He walked by that man and he said, "I don't have anything to give you, of myself that is, but such as I have give I unto you." What did he have? The power of the Holy Spirit within him.

Guest (Male): Communication is essential in every relationship. Yet the greatest relationship we can ever have, our relationship with God, is also built through communication.

Today on The Healing Word, Pastor Jack Morris is here to begin a series called The Power of Prayer. In this opening message, we're reminded that prayer is not complicated or mysterious. It is simply the child of God speaking with a loving Father who delights in hearing our voice.

Pastor Jack Morris: Let me begin by just prefacing everything with this statement: The Lord Jesus Christ promises us answers to prayer. Now, He's never gone back on His word. He never disappoints anybody. When He makes a promise, He keeps it. He's made many, many promises in the New Testament.

But one of those promises, so clearly given repeatedly, is that He will hear and answer prayer. He says over and over again: Ask, seek, knock. He uses as many words as He thinks necessary to convey that truth to us, that He is anxious. He wants to. We do not have to beg Him or plead. He's already prepared and He has told us so, that He will hear and answer our prayers.

He says this in Matthew chapter seven. He says, "Ask and it shall be given you; seek and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened. Everyone, everyone who asks, everyone who seeks, everyone who knocks." Say "everyone" with me.

Everyone, everyone who seeks, who asks, who knocks. Not a select chosen few, but everyone. He went on to say as we follow through on that chapter that, being parents, we know how we want to give good things to our children, don't we? We want to give good things. We consider it and if we think this is going to benefit our child, we give it.

Jesus said if you being earthly parents, who are natural in the flesh, even evil, if you know how to give good things to your children, how much more? How much more will your Heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him? I want you to say those words, "how much more."

How much more? So, friends, open your heart today. Believe in Him, trust in Him, and pray those prayers and receive the answers that He would have us to have.

There are several things, and this isn't in your notes—we'll get to your notes in just a moment, there's an insert—there are several things that keep God's people from praying. Several things. One is that they are too busy to pray. Now, I know you've heard that before, but just think it through with me. Just stick with me for just a minute.

We're too busy. It's not that we don't want to pray. We do want to pray. We do believe in prayer. But we don't pray. In James chapter four, we read, "You do not have because you have not asked of God." God wants to, but God does not answer prayers that are not prayed. Do you understand that? You have to pray it in order to get an answer.

But we become busy. Now, we get up in the morning and we intend to pray. We get rushed. We think, well, I'm rushed, I'll pray when I get to work. And we find out that we got caught in traffic and we got behind. Well, I'll pray when I get home in the evening. And we get home in the evening, there's things to do and chores and help the children with schoolwork. And we think, well, when I get all this done and dinner and the dishes put away, then I'll pray.

And we go through that whole day and finally when the time comes, 10 or 11 o'clock, we're so exhausted, we're so tired, and we think, well, I'm just so tired. I'll go to bed but I won't let this happen tomorrow. I'll pray tomorrow. Did you ever do that? And then tomorrow comes and you go through the same things. Pretty soon the whole week is gone. Your intentions are good. So, that's one of the things that keeps us from praying. We're just too busy.

Another thing that keeps us from praying is that prayer is very awkward to some of us. We do it so rarely. You see, if you do something only on occasion, then you're not comfortable. You're not relaxed with it. And when we get down to pray, it's so awkward. We don't really know what to say. We feel uncomfortable. We forget what we should say. We pray a surface ritualistic prayer and we get up and say, whew, I'm glad that's over.

It's sort of that attitude. Now, we want to pray, but we do it so rarely that it becomes so awkward that we're not really anxious or drawn to prayer. Another reason that we don't pray is that we think that we can handle it. We say, well, I think I can take care of that. I'm going to handle that situation. If we can handle it, then tell me why is our heart breaking? Why are we under such pressure? Why the confusion?

We think we can handle it. We don't take it to God because it's so simple, we think. It seems so ridiculous to pray about this, and yet all the while, we're experiencing defeat in our life. That's another reason we don't pray. Another reason we don't pray is that we don't really think it's going to make a whole lot of difference anyway.

Now, we believe in God, we believe in church, we believe in the Bible, but we don't have that motivation of faith to take us to that place of prayer. I'll tell you one more reason why we don't pray: We're too embarrassed. We know that God knows everything, but we cannot bring ourselves to confess that sin, to say it out loud. It even offends our own ears, and so we don't pray.

There are numerous things that are keeping God's people from praying, and consequently, God's people are suffering, really suffering. You're God's people. You're Christians. You're going to go to heaven when you die, but in the meantime, you're living in defeat. And all the while, God is telling us that there is power in prayer to overcome every obstacle, every problem, every habit, every frustration, every emotional difficulty. There is power in prayer and that He wants to bring that power to bear in our lives.

But we have to pray. We have to pray in order for that to happen. We're going to find out first: What is prayer? Prayer is a conversation with God. Conversation is a verbal exchange of ideas and information. It can be formal, it can be informal. A conversation.

But prayer is more than just a conversation. Prayer is communication. Communication is opening my heart to God, becoming transparent to God, telling God everything that is in there. Every hurt, every pain, every disappointment, every frustration. That's what prayer is: conversation of communication. It's conversation, but it's more than conversation. It's communication.

Here's where a lot of marriages break down. Right here, because of lacking of communication. I do a lot of marital counseling and invariably, with only a few exceptions, the husband and wife will tell me, "Our problem is a communication problem." And what happens when the couple have a communication problem? That puts a strain on the marriage. That causes them to begin to pull apart. They begin to go in different directions and do their own things.

Now, the same thing happens in prayer. If we do not communicate with God, that puts a strain on our relationship with God. Pretty soon we're going to different directions, God and me. And we do not have that fellowship that we one time had. If we want to be close to God, we're going to have to be open and to communicate with Him. Say the word "communicate."

Communicate. That's when you go beyond the verbal exchange of information. You open your heart to the Lord and He comes inside and He begins to address those problems in there. In Revelation chapter three verse 20, we read the words of Jesus: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and will open the door, I will come in to him and sup with him."

But notice what it says: "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." That verse of scripture is often used as a picture of Christ trying to get into an unbeliever's heart to save that person, and I don't think there's any harm done in looking at it that way. But if you look at that scripture within its context, it's words to the Laodicean church that has grown cold and is living in defeat. It's Christ trying to get in the church.

It's Christ trying to get in a believer's heart. Not a sinner's heart, but a believer's heart. Here's the Savior. See Him now. He knows what's inside. He knows the frustration. He knows what we're battling. He knows we're losing the battle. And so He comes and He says, "I can help you."

You see, Jesus still makes house calls. He's the Great Physician. And He comes to your life and your house to help you and me with all of these difficulties that we're having. He knows that we're not handling it very well. He knows we're being defeated. And He says, "Behold, I stand at the door and knock." What's the next word?

"If." Say "if." If any man hears my knock. If any man hears my voice. If any man opens the door. There are three "ifs" there. "If." If you will hear my voice, if you will hear my knock, if you will open the door. If you will. Now maybe you won't, most of you won't, but if you do, what does He say He'll do? "I will come in."

But He's a gentleman. He wants to help us. He wants to move in. He wants to bring His great power to bear in order to alleviate what we're suffering. Now I want you to think of your problem, your suffering, your pain. Think about it. He doesn't want you to keep that going day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year.

He's there knocking at your heart's door that He might come in, and the scripture says that I might eat or sup. Your life is a desert; He wants to move in and make it a banquet. He really does. He wants you to know His power. And when we pray, when we begin to pray and we begin to address these problems that we're having, when you name it before the Lord, you're opening the door.

That's what you're doing. "Lord, I'm having a problem in my marriage." Right then, He moves in. You don't have to say anything else. He's there to help you with your marriage. "I'm having problems with my children. We're having conflict. We're not getting along well." Right there, He moves into that family situation. "I'm having a financial problem." Right there, He's moving in. He's knocking and when you name it, the door goes open and Christ comes in.

And that's what He wants to do. Oh dear friend, He wants to do it. And so often we won't allow Him to do it. Now, that's the kind of relationship that God had with Adam and Eve before the Fall. And this is what God is trying through Christ to bring us back to, to that paradise redemptive relationship where we will commune with God.

Where we will commune with God and have conversation of communication with God. The disciples saw Jesus praying. Are you following your notes? The disciples saw Jesus praying. Jesus had such wonderful heart-to-heart... God was in Jesus' heart, Jesus was in God's heart, and there was this kind of intercourse with heaven, sharing and sharing.

It looked so beautiful. It looked like heaven on earth. It was heaven on earth. And they longed for it because they were the recipients of redemption. And they longed for it and they came to Jesus and they said, "Teach us how to pray. Would you do that? We want to have that paradise heaven relationship, that relationship of redemption. We wish to have it."

You see, many, many years ago our first parents, your parents, my parents, regardless of your culture or your race, we all have the same parents, Adam and Eve. They were a beautiful young couple and their honeymoon lasted and lasted and lasted. And what a honeymoon they had in paradise. Every evening God came calling.

Can you see them? That young couple, Adam and Eve, standing there hand in hand toward the end of the day, anxiously waiting for their Heavenly Father to call and they would sit down with Him and share a beautiful time of sharing, of communicating. And they would share the discoveries that they were making of the new creation. It was beautiful. What a wonderful relationship.

That's the kind of relationship before the Fall. But when the Fall came, everybody was driven in different directions. God was gone, the communication was gone, sin had come, murder and bloodshed had come, and the human race had began its downfall, its cascade to damnation.

But Jesus had that relationship. He would commune with God. It was beautiful. It was wonderful. The disciples said, "I want to be able to talk to God like you talk to God. Teach us how to pray." They never asked Him, "Teach us how to preach. Teach us how to heal. Teach us how to counsel. Teach us how to be great administrators."

No. No. I would to God that someone would say, "What the church needs is not more administration, but more prayer." This is God's church. What the church needs is not more preaching, not more talent, not more visitation, but that we would get back to our relationship, a personal, heartfelt relationship with God.

With God. Ask yourself today: Are you in good standing? Do you have an intimate relationship or is prayer an awkward thing? Is it something that you rarely visit? Is it something that you think is not going to make any change whatsoever?

Listen friend, you need to be careful and so do I, that we don't take the place of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "I will build my church." My church. And we have to pray and get in touch with Him and get His thoughts and His ideas because He wants to do it His way because it belongs to Him. He purchased it with His own precious blood.

The church belongs to God, and you and I belong to God. And it's that intimate relationship that brings the power of God. Oh and listen, we are an intelligent generation. We are a brilliant people. I mean, we know how. We have all the self-help books. We have the Wall Street Journal. We have the Washington Post. We have all of the business and administrative acumen. I mean, we are experts at that. But we are inexpert when it comes to the power of God.

I think somebody ought to clap for me, don't you? That's better. Encouragement goes a long way. David, the scripture says, encouraged himself in the Lord, and if I have to, I will. But you know what I'm talking about today.

We have inner struggles that absolutely nothing, nothing can get to. No psychologist can get to it. No preacher can get to it. No administrator can get to it. Only the power of prayer can bring God's power to bear. You know, that's why the early church had such power. Do you know what Jesus told them to do when He was ready to go back to heaven? Do you know what He told them to do?

He told them, now listen: "Go to the city of Jerusalem. There's an upper room, and tarry. Don't do another thing. Just go in there. I don't want you to go out and win souls. I don't want you to go out and evangelize. I don't want you to do anything. I want you to tarry in prayer." Why? Because there is coming an enduement of power from on high to those who pray.

And the church needs that prayer and the church needs that power, or the church is not going to do the work of the church. It's going to fail. It's going to fail. It really will. The scripture says in Acts chapter one verse eight, the words of Jesus. He tells us of the power of the Holy Spirit that will come upon us, and then we're going to be witnesses unto Him.

First power, and then witnesses. I want you to know something friends: Without any human intervention other than a yielded heart to God, the church went out there and turned the world upside down and won them by the thousands to Jesus Christ. The church today is an intelligent body, but it is inexpert and impotent when it comes to power. We're smart and intelligent, but we lack power.

There are brilliant Christians today. We know how to orchestrate, but we don't know how to pray, and the power isn't there. The scripture says when Peter went by the gate called Beautiful, there was a man who was helpless. He was crippled. He walked by that man and he said, "I don't have anything to give you, of myself that is, but such as I have give I unto you."

What did he have? The power of the Holy Spirit within him. He had been to the upper room. He had opened his heart. The power of God had come in. He took that man by the hand and that man walked into the temple, praising God along with Peter and the rest of them. Now, that's what the church is supposed to do. I know what the church is supposed to do. I know what the church—you do, too. Let's begin doing it.

Now I want this to be said. I want to give you this encouragement. This is how I liken what has happened: In every heart, in every Christian's heart, there's a little pilot light that is burning. Just about like on this candle. That little flame. There's a little pilot light that is burning. It's burning in readiness. Christ has come into your heart.

Christians have a way of compartmentalizing parts of their life. But Christ has come into your heart, and He's waiting now to fill your heart completely. And that little pilot light is there. Jesus is knocking. That little pilot light... Remember the pilot light on the old gas stoves? We mainly today, I suppose, are doing our cooking and heating with electricity, some with oil.

But remember the old gas stoves with that little pilot light? Now, that little pilot light did not heat the house. It did not turn the lights on and keep them burning and light the house. That little pilot light did not cook the food, but it was there in readiness to do all of those things. It was there.

Christ is there waiting, and you and I are keeping Him in readiness, but we never allow Him to fully move in with His power and do the great things that He would do. He wants to cause our life to become alive. He wants to give us victory. But He is saying: "Ask. You have not because you refuse to ask God."

This is what He is telling us in James. But He also tells us that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. What we need is to open our hearts, to yield to Christ, and to say, "Here am I and here are all my problems." And then as you begin to tell Him, He moves in. He moves in. He moves in. He moves in. Healing and blessing and wholessness and victory begins to happen, and God's people are now in that conversation of communication. In that place of redemption, taking us all the way back into paradise. We have that relationship with God that the disciples prayed and asked Jesus to teach them.

The Holy Spirit is now answering that prayer not only for those disciples back then, but that prayer is still being answered today as God's people begin to take their problems and their needs to the Lord. Now the question is going to be: Who's going to do it?

Guest (Male): Prayer is one of the greatest privileges God has given His people. When we call upon Him, He listens. And He invites us to bring every need, every concern, and every joy before Him. If you would like to grow deeper in your prayer life, visit thehealingword.com and download the free ebook, A Prayer Compass.

You'll also find many additional messages from Pastor Morris and the opportunity to share your request on our prayer wall. If these broadcasts are strengthening your faith, would you prayerfully consider supporting The Healing Word with a donation? Your generosity helps us continue sharing biblical teaching and encouragement with listeners around the world. Join us next time for another message in our series, The Power of Prayer.