Bill Johnson - What to Do When Your Prayer Isn't Answered
Wow, wow, wow, this last week was outrageous again! We just seem to go from glory to glory. It’s nice to have Mike Hudgin here from Randy Clark’s Ministry. Good to have you here. He heads up a huge part of that ministry, and we’re just glad Randy came and the Holy Spirit came—wonderful! I tell you what, we had some extraordinary moments. How many of you were there Friday night? It just blew up! My goodness! I mean, metal disappearing from an arm, 37 years of Lyme disease in the final stages absolutely broken off. So many things—auditory nerves completely severed, and hearing restored. The list goes on and on. I don’t know how many miracles it was, but it was somewhere around 160 when we turned the ministry team loose, so that’s almost scary. We had such a wonderful time, and we’re thankful for Randy and his team coming to serve our city so well. Glad you guys are a part of it.
Oh, I need to read just one very simple, very brief little thing. All of you parents with children will appreciate this: «Dear sleep, need I say more? Dear sleep, I know we had problems when I was younger, but I love you now.» I think that’s so funny! Oh man, I mean, as a kid, the last thing in the world you want to do is take a nap or go to bed at night. As an adult, you’d pay any amount of money just for an extra hour or a snooze button that lasted longer. Oh my goodness!
All right, open your Bibles to Matthew chapter 6, and that’s where we’re going to start. We’re going to probably end up with about four references, so let’s just start there and see how we do. Prayers without answers are pointless. Complacency and ignorance tolerate unanswered prayers; you were not designed for unanswered prayers. That’s why there’s no instruction about them. It doesn’t mean it’s illegal for there to be a delay. It doesn’t mean it’s illegal for there to be a process. It just means we were not designed to coexist with unfulfilled prayers. Prayer is not my opportunity to have my way with God; prayer is my response to His invitation to come boldly into a throne room and engage in discourse that alters the course of world history. It is my chance to partner with God, to tap into His heart, to co-labor with Him, and through prayer, help to release His will and purposes on the earth.
There are two extremely significant revelations given to us in the Lord’s Prayer, which I will call the disciples' prayer from this point on. We call it the disciples' prayer because, in this prayer in Matthew 6, there is the confession of sin, and Jesus, of course, had no sin, so it can’t be His prayer. But it was the model prayer He gave to His disciples. Beginning with verse 9: «In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come; Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do not lead us into temptation but deliver us from the evil one, for Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever.»
We have worked around the theme of the will of God on earth for as long as I can remember. The theme is 'on earth as it is in heaven, ' and I believe that to be the backbone of the will of God as revealed in all of scripture. His desire, His passion, is not just to take us to heaven but for us to realize the reality of Heaven as it impacts and shapes values, life experiences, etc., here on earth.
So the first revelation we said yes to, and we agreed to several years ago, is that we can see it and feel it. Every time Jesus ministered to someone and brought deliverance or healing, as in Matthew 12:28, He brought deliverance to someone, saying the deliverance came because the kingdom of Heaven came upon you. There was a collision between darkness and light. All of life, all of ministry that He modeled for us, illustrated and taught about, was on earth as it is in heaven, and our hearts have said yes to that. We have pursued, as best as we know how, to see that happen.
But the second part of the revelation contained in this prayer is the process to bring it about. The process is through prayer. He did not command us to pray, 'on earth as it is in heaven, ' to keep us spiritually active. He doesn’t command us to dig a hole and then command us to fill it up. He’s not interested in keeping us enthused; He’s interested in tapping into our reason for being, giving us specific assignments to fulfill our purpose and call. When He invites us to engage with Him in prayer, He is 100% committed to fulfilling the things that we pray. When He tells us what to pray, it’s because He has all the resources of Heaven waiting to be dispersed to enable us to see the fulfillment of what we pray.
Several years ago, I was in a foreign place, in front of a couple of thousand leaders, and I was asked the question, «What is my theology of suffering?» My response was, «I refuse to have a theology for something that shouldn’t exist.» Specifically, you need to understand that in this particular group, if we tolerate sickness because God uses it to build character in us, then it’s a violation of what Jesus taught. If suffering is persecution, then of course that is what comes with faith in Christ. The Scriptures say very specifically that anyone who lives godly will suffer persecution, so there is a theology for that. But I refuse to sanctify something Jesus suffered to get rid of, to somehow exalt the process of disease.
Now here we have a conflict. We’ve got a problem because every one of us has a good list of things that haven’t been fulfilled or answered. We haven’t seen breakthrough in. The big challenge in our lives is to navigate through that process without accusing God on one hand and without taking blame ourselves. A lot of mournful prayers are actually subtle ways of accusing God because they essentially say, «I have more compassion than You do for this problem.» They are prayers of self-pity, hoping that God will notice our condition and come and save us. That is acceptable with an 18-month-old child; it’s not acceptable for a 38-year-old adult.
That kind of response to the Lord is not okay. Randy Clark said something several years ago that really struck me: «For us to beg God to heal someone is for us to assume we have more mercy than He does.» This was His idea; He’s the one who welcomed us into a covenant and then said, «This is what’s to happen through you.»
So what do we do in the meantime? What do we do when we find opposition? What do we do with the things where there is no breakthrough? That’s what I want us to take a look at today. First, we looked at the disciples' prayer, but let’s go to the end of chapter 6 and look at verse 33. Verse 33 is one of the most well-known verses in the Bible and rightfully so. I’m glad it’s one that is quoted frequently: «Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.»
The context is the fear, worry, or anxiety about daily provision—about food, clothing, and the basic daily needs that every one of us has. So Jesus clarifies something; He says to seek first the kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added. To seek first the kingdom is to set our hearts to pursue, first and foremost, the display of God’s dominion in every aspect of life that we have influence in. If there’s disease, it’s gone; if there’s torment, it’s gone; if there’s conflict, there’s restoration. The whole point is that we seek first the kingdom; it’s all about the dominion of Almighty God realized in the practical, everyday circumstances of life.
And His righteousness—that righteousness is that Christlike character in us. This is to be the first and foremost part of what we have set our hearts to pursue. The problem with many believers is we have made all these things the primary focus of prayer instead of what He told us to take on as our primary focus in prayer. Is it legitimate to pray for personal needs? Of course! The disciples' prayer said, «Pray like this: Give us this day our daily bread, forgive us our sins as we forgive those around us; keep us from temptation.» There’s this process of praying through specific needs. It’s very legitimate.
But what happens is often times people become so burdened with personal immediate needs that they pray for those things at the expense of what He told us to pray for. I tell people every once in a while, «Listen, if you’re not hearing from God, talk about what He wants to talk about. Just change the subject; find something He enjoys discussing.» You may find that once you pick up His heart for a matter, He’ll pick up yours! That was better than your response! If we pick up His heart about something, suddenly He becomes interested.
I don’t even want to imply He’s not interested in anything you’re interested in; we know that’s not true. But oftentimes we put Him in a position where, for Him to bless us is actually to violate the process He’s created for us. He said, «This is first; this is the result,» and to exalt this above what is first is to actually emphasize that this is no longer important.
The Lord wants to build on this primary concept called the lordship of Jesus so that everything that is added to our lives—whether it’s insight, favor, authority in ministry, or provision—everything is in the context of the lordship of Jesus. The dangerous thing for us is it’s possible to have the same amount of money or favor or opportunity in service or whatever it is, and have it come into our lives for a different reason—not founded on the lordship of Jesus.
Just like wheat and tares look the same as they grow, and it’s not until the harvest time that you find out that you’ve actually been planted on something unstable. Shaking reveals what is unstable. Yes! So the Lord has created a system, an economy, and this economy says we’ve been washed by the blood of Jesus. The Father sees you in His Son; you are as acceptable in the throne room of God as His Son, Jesus.
Now, with that kind of invitation, what will you do with your opportunity? What will you do with the moment? We spend so much of our spiritual energy trying to fight for what He’s already promised to give us instead of for the things that will shape the course of history—things that actually have eternal significance. I believe in you getting the car and the raise at work; those are all good and wonderful things. But they should never be the focus of our lives at the expense of our assignment: our assignment is to see the dominion of God realized in people’s lives.
It is not an overpowering control; it is a life-giving, liberating experience with the Almighty God, who is an ultimate, perfect Father, who loves to bring liberty and freedom to people. This is the privilege of the believer’s life. What brings that about? It’s prayer.
" Our Father, we come to You as the Dad, the one who has favorably welcomed us into Your presence to make a difference in the world around us. You have made us representatives of another world, and we have been planted here to dispense the reality of Your rule into the circumstances and issues of life all around us. This is my privileged assignment in life, and to use this invitation that we have been given to just fight for what He’s already promised is to seek first the kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added.»
Why don’t you go with me to Matthew 11? Excuse me for a second—I’d rather go to Mark chapter 9; sorry about that. I could change my mind again because I have the microphone. I could do that! Yeah, go with me to Mark. This will make a little bit more sense.
There’s only one time I can find in the interaction time—the time with the disciples and Jesus—where something didn’t work as they expected, where they would have what we would classify as an unanswered prayer. It’s on this occasion, and their response should set a model or template for us.
All right, let’s look at the situation here. Verse 18 of Mark 9: «And when they came to the crowd, one of the crowd answered and said, 'Teacher, I brought You my son who has a mute spirit. And whenever it seizes him, it throws him down. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples that they should cast it out, but they could not.'»
He answered and said, «Oh, faithless generation! How long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me.» They brought him to Him, and there was deliverance.
In verse 28, when He had come into the house, His disciples asked Him privately, «Why could we not cast it out?» So He said to them, «This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting.»
What’s the point? The point is that in this situation they didn’t have it work like they were accustomed to. It’s important for us to remember they were accustomed to ministering in power very significantly, very successfully. In fact, at the end of one ministry trip, Jesus told them, «I saw Satan fall like lightning» in response to their effectiveness in their city.
He said, «I saw Satan fall like lightning» because they were so effective in their ministry. They did understand how to cooperate with the anointing, how to bring deliverance, and how to break off curses—all the stuff they engaged with as they ministered to people. Here’s one time where it didn’t work.
What they didn’t do is create a theology around what didn’t work so that it was okay. In our attempts to comfort people in loss, we tend to create untrue places of safety, untrue tenets of faith, untrue doctrines, if you will, that make unanswered prayers okay. I’m not looking to be comfortable; I’m not looking to be honored; I’m not looking to feel good about myself. Those things don’t matter to me. What I want is to have the significance I was born for. I want to have the effect—the domino effect—on humanity, on the planet, that you and I were assigned to and were meant to do.
To do that, I can’t look for answers that keep me comfortable in the middle of a mystery when it’s supposed to aggravate me to a breakthrough. Some things are not supposed to be comforting; some things are supposed to be provoking. Some things are simply meant to summon me out of what would be complacency because complacency and ignorance tolerate unanswered prayers.
So, here we have them come to Jesus, and they say, «How come it didn’t work?» They were unsatisfied with the absence of a breakthrough. How many of you would admit that you’ve tolerated the absence of a breakthrough instead of finding out why? See, this is the only time I can find where they didn’t get a breakthrough, and they had to find out why. Why? Because it wasn’t about them. They weren’t praying, «God, give me another blessing, please give me another prophecy.»
I’m fine with all of that, but that wasn’t their heart’s cry. Their heart’s cry was, «We were in front of a child who was horribly tormented by demons. We tried to help him, and it didn’t work.» They were praying for the kingdom to be manifest not in them, but through them. The renewed mind knows that sometimes God wants to do stuff through us and not for us.
They weren’t asking for another ecstatic encounter. They were asking for something to be done in them. A child was brought to them in that kind of torment would not leave in the same kind of torment. Today, when this stuff happens, if somebody doesn’t get a breakthrough, theology is created around it that makes it okay. «Well, it just isn’t God’s timing; it’s not His timing.» God has His perfect timing and His will be done.
We create theology that insulates us from the pain of not getting a breakthrough. The pain of the absence of a breakthrough is supposed to do something to us. We seek comfort on so many levels that we believe lies to keep ourselves from the pain of the absence of a breakthrough.
So they say, «How come it didn’t work?» I’ll never forget; I was in Southern California, and a mother brought her son to me—a little boy that was horribly tormented by demons. It was a very painful thing to see, and I did everything I knew, but I couldn’t get the kid free. I’ll never forget the child and the look on her face when the man of God couldn’t get her child free. That’s not okay! It’s illegal at that point to quote some scripture so that I feel better about myself and go on my merry way.
It’s not supposed to be okay. It’s supposed to provoke. It’s supposed to cost. It’s supposed to put a demand. It’s supposed to take me to another place. I’ve been invited into the throne room of the Almighty God. Do I know what I’m doing? No, but I know I can go there. Do I know what to pray? I’m not sure, but I know I’ve been invited. Do I know what the outcome is supposed to be? Kind of, but not really. I just know people are supposed to be free, healed, and saved. I know that much. How it’s going to happen, I’m not sure. But I know if I stay where I’m at, it won’t increase. I’ve been invited to engage so that things do not remain the same!
Yes, I’m thankful for the breakthroughs, but I’ve tasted enough to be ruined. Hebrews 6 says «tasted of an age to come.» I personally think that’s what we’ve been eating of—eating of an age to come.
Jesus said, «This kind only comes out with prayer and fasting.» Interestingly, Jesus neither fasted nor prayed in that moment! See what you need is to have it in your account so you can make a withdrawal when you need it. Fasting and praying is not a hunger strike. It’s not saying, «God, I’m just not going to eat until I get an answer.» You know, I can just see the Father going, «Well, you’re going to get home earlier than I thought you would. Man, I hate to see you starve to death, but that’s just… we can’t manipulate God with Christian tools.»
It’s not a hunger strike, but neither is it something we do to earn points so that we get an answer. What was this prayer and fasting answer? What is it in response to? It’s in verse 19: «Oh, faithless generation.» What did He do? He brought them into a process where they could discover and rapidly grow in faith. Where does faith come from? Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word.
What does fasting and prayer do? It’s a time of refined focus to emphasize and accentuate the process of increasing faith, which is through God’s voice. That’s what prayer and fasting is: it’s saying, «I have set aside this part of my life in this season to hear the voice because my faith is too thin. I must have breakthrough in these areas.» The question isn’t about whether it’s God’s will for the child to be free; the question is how badly do I want it?
I’m going to work hard to end happy! You don’t look very happy at the moment, but I’m trying to think of things to say to encourage you! We’ll work on it! Matthew 11, let’s go to Matthew 11 now. I tell you what, this is where this comes from. I was in Asia last week—I forget where—and I was just thinking about the things I’ve seen through the years—the things I’ve prayed for through the years that He directed me to pray that have not been answered.
I’ve had different unique encounters, different words, things that the Lord has spoken to me—things I’ve prayed about, things I’ve fasted over that He has confirmed—and they still haven’t come about. I believe it’s dangerous to feed your heart with what hasn’t happened, but I also think it’s foolish to not bring what hasn’t happened before Him. He’s not afraid of discussing anything with you. He’ll never shame you; He won’t punish you. He doesn’t look at those moments to embarrass us. Instead, He wants to engage so that we actually become a part of the process.
He doesn’t speak in vain; He doesn’t give us flattering hopes and then dash our expectations. That’s not what He’s like—He’s a perfect Father. If He says He’s coming to your little league game, He’ll be there. He’s not one that promises one thing and does another.
So then what are we engaged in? We are engaged in a process where there is spiritual conflict that we don’t always see, perceive, or understand. Unless we know how to navigate—and sometimes it’s easy, and sometimes it’s very difficult to navigate this journey without accusing God on one hand and without walking out of the situation with guilt and shame.
If guilt and shame would help us come into great faith, how many of you think you’d have surpassed Wigglesworth by now? Exactly! It just doesn’t work. It gives you a temporary feeling of spirituality because it mimics humility, but it’s not humility; it’s foolishness. It violates the word of God over your life. Amen! I just felt good to say that!
I just felt really, really good to say that. All right, so guilt and shame do not bring us into the Kingdom. Accusing God is just stupid. We don’t lack anything because He lacked providing it in His covenant. Let me rephrase it: there’s no point of pain, loss, or lack; there’s no point of strain in our lives because His covenant was deficient.
This was all His idea—to welcome us into a relationship where we would negotiate. I don’t mean negotiate in a business sense, but exchange, interact in such a way that what we cried out for would actually become manifest and displayed on the earth so that you and I would be edified, but number two, His nature would be revealed in the earth.
See, that’s the big plan: answers to prayer reveal Him! To not pray until there are answers is to rob the people around us from seeing what He’s like! To complacently tolerate the absence of breakthrough and answers to prayer violates our reason for existence. We are carriers, divine carriers of the actual nature of God to be manifest in the earth, and how are they to be manifest? One of the primary ways is through answers to prayer!
I’ve got to hurry. Are you listening fast? Okay, if you’re listening fast, I will talk fast! All right, wealth in the natural is often created through a really good, risky investment that explodes. You know, you buy stocks for 50 cents, and three years later, they sell at $100 a share. Wealth is created through specific breakthroughs.
How is wealth protected? Through diversity! Many people get breakthroughs in their faith by seeing cancer disappear, blind eyes open, but they never diversify their prayerful expressions to where they always have incoming answers to prayer. Answers in this area are to keep me encouraged while I’m battling for this area. Does that make sense? Diversifying our prayer focus ensures we’re always getting breakthroughs.
We need to have multiple streams of answers. All right, are you with me? So that’s the design of the Lord—that we always have things we can feed on that keep us strengthened to face the areas where we’re not getting breakthroughs.
It’s when we put all our eggs in one basket and someone says, «If this healing would come, then I would believe God for miracles,» well, you know, good luck with that! I hope you get it; I really do! I’ll pray with you for it, but it’s just a poor way to advance in the Kingdom because you’re putting everything on one area of breakthrough when God may have a process of about ten things that are supposed to happen first.
Uh, Matthew 11 is actually what I was going to study today, but oh well! John the Baptist sent his servants to Jesus and asked, «Are you the coming one or do we look for another?» John already knew by revelation who Jesus was; he pointed to Him and said, «Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.» He already knows who He is. He’s already made the proclamation to the nation of Israel. He’s the Lamb of God. Now he’s asking, «Are you really the one that I thought you were?» Why? He’s in prison, and Jesus is the one who releases from prison, and he’s not being released!
You can see the tension! To prepare the way for one who could bring release to you, and you’re not getting it! So what did Jesus do? He told John’s disciples, «Go tell John the things which you hear and see: the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.» What’s the point?
If you could picture this, it’s as though Jesus takes John’s face, and He says, «All right, as long as you focus on what I haven’t done or what I’m not doing, you’re going to have a fight on your hands for your faith.»
So He turns their attention. He says, «All right, now look at what I’m doing! I’m healing the sick, I’m raising the dead; the lame are walking, the blind are seeing.» The best way for us to prepare ourselves for significant increase and breakthroughs is this process of feeding our hearts on what God is doing.
The part I want to emphasize this morning is that in light of that, when you get alone with God, make sure you bring before Him the things where you’ve not been seeing breakthrough. Personally, I will not just… if I could—this stage is representative of encountering the Lord—so I come in boldly before the Lord and say, «God, I’ve been praying for so many years, and as You woke me in the night, You spoke to me! There was the audible voice, and I still don’t see what’s happened here!»
I’m engaging with God. I know the shortage; I know the lack is not on Your end of the equation. I know that it’s somewhere else, but I’ve got to have clarity of heart and mind so that I can be used by You—either I need to be used by You to bring this change, or I need to know how to rest until there’s breakthrough. But You’ve got to help me!
All right, so I’m in this time of engaging with God. I will not leave that moment in frustration over the absence of an answer. I purposefully, in those moments, give Him thanks for the answer before I see it and make sure that I leave refreshed and filled with joy from the encounter with God that I actually get to partner with Him.
I do not need to understand; I just need to remain engaged. We get through this whole chapter. This chapter is dedicated, honestly, to John the Baptist. It is a profound chapter that is so rich for us, but what I need to do right now is just quickly get to something that I hope will help us.
We get down to verse 12: «From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.» This is a fascinating chapter because we have John in the first part of the chapter in prison; he’s forgetting what he’s learned. He’s struggling. Here we have Jesus honoring him, and we have the violent taken by force. In the next few verses, we have Jesus playing the flute; people are dancing; John is doing the dirge—there’s mourning! I mean, we just have this contrast in the chapter.
So now we have this decree right in the middle of this chapter, and it makes a profound discovery for us: the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence. What does that mean? We have all been planted in a conflict intentionally by God. Every person here, you already have built within your system, your DNA, within your gifting, the capacity to war and to war well. But the war is not against people; it’s not against flesh and blood. The war is against a power that tries to conform us to the inferior.
People that are devoted to seeing the dominion of God realized on Earth hang on to this calling, this promise. When we see it, we rejoice; when we don’t see breakthrough, we rejoice anyway. It’s just the nature of the kingdom. So in the middle of this, we have this decree: the violent take it by force. What is that? It’s not the violence of swords; it’s not the violence of verbal abuse or anger or hatred; it’s the violence of faith.
Can you imagine how depressed the devil gets when he causes bad circumstances around a believer’s life, and that believer still rejoices and celebrates? He’s hoping they will feed on their circumstances; instead, they are feeding on a superior reality because they’ve been planted in the middle of it to bring change to it. There’s not a thing the enemy can do about it.
The only thing he can do to get the victory over us is to help us accuse God or take the blame ourselves, and neither works. All right, the violent take it by force. Go to Mark 10—our last passage. Mark chapter 10. People were bringing children to Jesus in verse 13 just that He might touch them. The disciples thought that was a poor use of the anointing and rebuked the parents, which went over real well with Jesus.
He was greatly displeased and said to them: «Let the little children come to Me; do not forbid them, for of such is the kingdom.» Another passage says, «When you receive a child, you receive Me.» I’m way off subject here, but not receiving children prioritizes when they’re standing at your leg pulling on your pant leg while you’re having a conversation with an adult. When you stop and turn your attention to the child, the presence of God comes with it because He says, «When you receive the child, you receive Me.»
One of the ways of ushering in a greater manifestation of presence is the value we have for children. That was free. Verse 15: «Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.» All right, here’s the challenge that we have: every one of us has things. I can give you my list; I won’t, because I don’t want to depress you, but I have my list, as you have your list of things. I have things where I’ve seen extraordinary breakthroughs—things that I never knew would happen have happened. But I also have things that I expected to be answered by now, and they aren’t.
So what do we do? I have to navigate without accusing God, without blaming myself. Number one, I need to know the moment I’m in, and I can only know by the wisdom of God. Why? Because I have one of two responses: I either have the responsibility of moving into violent faith—violent faith is the prayer, the fasting. It’s bringing out our flags and oil and all the other Christian tools we have just to, you know. I’ll wave a flag if it’ll bring a breakthrough! Give me the tambourine; watch me play that! You know, I don’t care what it is.
Physical obedience brings a spiritual release. Give it to me; I’m going for it! You know, I’ll empty my wallet; I’ll dance; I’ll do whatever! I don’t care. There’s a violent demonstration of putting everything on the line, saying, «I will not settle for anything short of a breakthrough!»
The violence of faith is one option. But there’s another option: the violence of faith when it’s the season to rest as a child and receive the kingdom doesn’t work. Amen? It’s shadow boxing! You swing at a devil that’s not there; there’s no way you can connect. Why? Because you are divinely designed to be in a moment, in a season, where your breakthrough will only come through rest. Some of what God wants to release to us, He will only give to a soldier, but sometimes, some things are way too precious to give to a soldier because then he’ll think he earned it.
He’ll only give it to a son who did nothing to get it, who just received the inheritance—a daughter who just discovered there’s an inheritance for them that someone else paid the price for. Some of the precious things of the Lord can only be released that way. You can’t do both of these responses at the same time; it’ll create a whiplash, and you’ll hurt yourself. You can’t violently pursue and rest and wait; it’s one or the other!
I feel like where the Lord has us is asking Him in these moments we’re in, just saying, «God, I don’t accuse You; I don’t blame You. I know that You want the breakthrough more than I do. So all I’m asking is that I want to co-labor with You in a way that delights You. I just want to reflect Your heart; that’s all. I will fight to the death if that’s what You want me to do, but I will also be silent. I will also be as a child, waiting for it to be brought to me, and it doesn’t matter which; I just want to fulfill the assignment You gave me here on Earth. I want to live fully in the significance of the moment You’ve given to me.»
Let’s go ahead and stand. I felt like the Lord just… I don’t know how else to describe it—I felt yesterday, or it might have been Friday—all the days blur together, but it was this week. I’m confident I felt like the Lord just dropped a seed of faith in my heart for corporate answers to prayer. I don’t mean prayer things that we pray together; I mean that everybody gets a breakthrough!
I just felt like I’ve talked about these things recently, but I felt like if I would bring them before you today, the Lord would release a grace where there are answers to things that have been delayed for a long time. So that’s honestly my entire motivation. My entire motivation is to see you get breakthroughs where you lost hope, where you didn’t think it was possible, or you’ve been fighting so long that you’re just tired.
When the angel showed up to Zacharias, John the Baptist’s dad, and told him that they would give birth to John the Baptist—the one who would prepare the way for the Messiah—the angel said, «The prayer that you pray has been heard.»
One of the amazing word studies that I discovered years ago shocked me! The way it can actually be translated is, «The prayers that you no longer pray have been heard.» That’s what I’m praying! I’m praying for the stuff you gave up on! The stuff you’ve just been too tired to fight! Maybe that’s the moment where you sit down as a child, and it’s actually brought to you!
I feel like all of this is not only for us to reveal Him to the world, but it’s for us to discover Him for ourselves. So, Father, I’m asking that You’d give a real wisdom, a clarity of heart and mind, so that it can be said that every person knows the moment that they’re in—that situation where it seems things have been withheld, breakthroughs have been seriously missing in certain areas, and we’re looking for Your breakthrough. We’re crying out, «Kingdom of God, come! Will of God be done!» That’s our cry!
Put a hand on somebody’s shoulder and just pray, «God, give them a wisdom, a gift, a gift of wisdom to know the moment that they are in—a wisdom to know exactly what they are to do.»
Father, I ask that this next week would begin the avalanche—the avalanche of delayed breakthroughs of delayed answers! That we would be, as C.S. Lewis said, surprised by joy; we would be shocked—shocked by what You have done on our behalf!
We look to You; we set our hearts towards You. We do not accuse You; we know that Your mercy is greater than ours. Your compassion is greater! All of this was Your idea and Your design. So I pray now: let this house experience the fullness of joy that can only come through answered prayers! I pray this to honor the name of Jesus. And everyone said, «Amen!» Amen! All right!