Gregory Dickow - 5 Reasons Your Prayers Will Be Answered
Welcome to the 37th episode of, "Think Like a Champion". This podcast is dedicated to helping you win in every way and enjoy every day. And we are evolving as people, were evolving as a ministry, we're evolving as a church. What started out as our Wednesday evening Bible study turned into our "Moments" during the pandemic. And out of that emerged, "Think Like a Champion".
And I really believe that each and every one of us is called to conquer; to go forth in life and conquer whatever is in front of us, and whatever is assigned to us. And this podcast is helping people win in life. And I want to thank everyone who has written a review or shared this podcast on social media. I appreciate you partnering with me to help expand this community of champions. Now listen, in last week's episode, we talked about how to pray like a champion. So, we think like a champion, and we really focused on how to pray like a champion. Today, I want to share with you five reasons your prayers are going to get answered, and what everyone should know about prayer; what everyone should know about prayer.
Now listen, I mentioned the other day, in this earth are incredible natural resources that changed the world for the better every day: water, coal, forest, sun, wind, soil, natural gas, and natural metals, and silver, gold, copper, so much more. And while all these things, all these natural resources are good, because they do change the world as we harness them; as we tap into how to use them. But we have something even more powerful; the most supernatural resource the world has ever known, and it's the power of prayer. Prayer is not a duty. It's not a ritual. It's the source of power. It's the source, and the force, of the greatest power the world has ever known. And the beautiful thing about prayer is that it's made available to every human being on the face of this earth.
Everyone and anyone can pray, and anyone can pray and get results. Prayer, when harnessed properly, it can't be stopped, it can't be turned off, it can't be voted out, it can't be defeated. Prayer can do anything. And I think sometimes we are listening to the lies of the devil and the lies of religion that says we're not good enough to pray. But Satan only tells us that, and we hear those thoughts just because he knows how powerful prayer really is, and he's scared of it. And it's time for us to go bold, go big. In our prayer life. We have this supernatural source of healing, of breakthrough, of wisdom, of everything we need. And it's available to you right now through prayer.
And listen, too many Christians... And I've noticed this over the last several months that we went through another election cycle, and too many—at least in America, I don't know about your country—but too many Christians are looking to the government to empower them. They're looking to politics and elections. And these things have their place. But what changes things is prayers, not mayors, so to speak. Prayer is what changes things. And we have that. We have access to the throne of God's grace. We can appeal to a Higher Power. So, your guy didn't get elected, your girl didn't get elected, the person you voted for didn't get elected? Your family members or your friends are kind of laughing at you or pointing at you saying, "Oh, you should have picked our side".
And in some ways that's okay to be playful with that arena of life. Because we need to realize that politics really are not what's in control of this earth. But it's people who use the power that they have, and the power of prayer that they have, to change the world. You actually can change the world by coming into the knowledge of the power of prayer. And we've got to come together. Like, it doesn't matter if you and I disagreed in the elections. We got to come together and agree in prayer. If two or more of you, He said... "If two of you shall agree," Jesus said, "about anything they ask, it shall be done by My Father who's in heaven".
So, Jesus' declaration and empowerment to us about prayer elevates us far above who gets elected; far above what the policies are in our country. You're not going to change the policies without changing the hearts of people. And if there're more people that are going against the heart of God than there are people that are going for the heart of God, then the only solution is to change the hearts through the power of prayer; change lives through praying for people, blessing people, praying prayers of blessing, praying that God's presence will manifest in your enemy's life; in your enemy's eyes. Like, if they could get ahold of God's presence, if they could experience God's presence, it would melt their hate, it would melt their fear, it would melt their hunger for power over other people.
The power of prayer—unity over politics. We got to come together through the power of prayer; the power of the cluster. Unity over politics, unity over parties, unity over division, unity over differences, unity over who we like and don't like—we have to get over that stuff. We have to unite around prayer. It's the most powerful force. It's more powerful than any government; more powerful than any nuclear energy. No matter how hard the world or the devil tries to stop you, prayer can't be stopped. It can't be thrown away. It can't be silenced. It can't be minimized. Prayer changes everything. And if you have this power available to you 24 hours a day, it's something to rejoice about.
Look at what God said about prayer. And we talked about this in James chapter five, that Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed that it would not rain and it did not rain on Earth. For three and a half years, this man's prayer stopped the rain for three and a half years. Some things just won't be stopped without prayer and some things won't happen without prayer. Boy, if you get a hold of this, this isn't a duty. This is a privilege. This isn't a burden. This is what relieves burdens. It alleviates burdens. The most incredible things of God can can never be received any other way than through the instrument of prayer, the power and authority that we have in prayer. God has given us power over the devil. The devil trembles at the power of prayer. It's a Satan in Matthew.
Remember Jesus said to Peter, Satan is asked to sift through like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith would not fail. So Satan's plan was to sift Peter like wheat. But Jesus said prayer turned this man who was about to be sifted like wheat into a giant apostle that changed the world. Prayer is what turned Peter's life around Jesus. Prayer for him, prayer is our greatest untapped resource. It is the source of the energy and the power that man is searching for and has been searching for for thousands of years. It is the greatest source of peace. It is the greatest source of joy. It is the greatest source of prosperity is the greatest source of happiness. Prayer. When done, God's way is simply the greatest source of power that we have on this Earth and in these earthen vessels we call our human body. It's time to learn how to pray and get results.
So how do we tap into this power of what everyone should know about prayer? Number one, you should know that it's your right to pray and get results. You got to know that it's your right. Religion gets in the way. By religion, I mean man's rituals and man's demands of you to be to be holy are man's demands of you to to your out. Make sure your outward actions are, quote, unquote, holy. That's man's religion. And that essentially disqualifies all of us because none of because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. So none of us have it all together. So if we have to be holy enough to pray, then none of us are going to be able to pray. But we are holy in Christ because we're the righteousness of God in Christ. Right?
So you have to know that it's your right to pray and to get results. Because when we read the words, the prayer of a righteous man, it says Elijah was a righteous, it says the prayers in verse 17, The prayers of a righteous man will avail much of verse 16. The prayers of a righteous man will avail much. We immediately when we hear that word righteous, we begin to analyze ourselves and we ask ourselves, Am I holy enough? Am I doing enough right? Will God even give me His attention when I have seen in my life and see, this is what we have to get past. We have to know that it is our right to pray because we are the righteousness of God. Jesus made us righteous.
Second Corinthians 5:21 He knew no sin was made to be sin for us, that we will be made the righteousness of God. If it sounds like I'm repeating myself, it's because I'm repeating myself. And the reason I'm doing that is because we learn through repetition. And when you realize that from the moment you accepted Jesus, from that moment you became righteous in God's eyes, and from that moment you were given the power to pray with authority. From that very moment, you might not have known it at that moment, but it was given to you at that moment, just like you might put, you know, when you when you when you dedicate a baby, maybe some of the relatives or will open up a U.S. savings bond or something for that child that will mature over years. And when that child turns 18, that hundred dollars or $500 becomes 5000 or 10,000 or whatever it becomes over time.
That child doesn't know about it, perhaps until they're 18, but it was always there. And in the same way, you might not know how much power you have, but the power has always been there. From the moment you accepted Jesus, you became the righteousness of God, not based on your actions or your behavior, but based on Jesus action of becoming sin for you so that you become the righteousness of God. Why is that so important? Because when it comes time to pray for things, the devil lies to you. And he says you're not righteous enough. You screwed up yesterday. Look at the bad thoughts you had. Look at the lust you had. Look at the fear you had. Look at the anxiety you had. Look at the. The bad feelings you had towards that person. You're not worthy to go to God. You're not worthy. Get your prayers answered. You're not worthy to to be able to have power.
That's the devil's game. It's all a deception. It's all to get you focused on what you haven't done or what you've done, what you haven't done enough of, or what you've done against the Word of God or the law. And we need to understand that the devil is a liar. And just because you fall short, just because we all fall short doesn't make us any less righteous. Righteousness is not earned. It's a gift. Through the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, we reign in life. And the way that we reign in life is through prayer. We exercise our authority in life. Through prayer, you now have the power to reign in life. Through prayer, you reign over sickness. You can reign over fear. You can reign over your finances with prayer. You can reign over your your attitude with prayer.
So, number one, you have to know it's your right. You have the right to pray, you have the right, you have the privilege. You have the power to pray and get results. Number two, the second thing everybody needs know everybody should know about prayer is God invites us to be specific. Be specific, listen, be specific. One of the number one reasons prayers don't get answered is because we're vague. God bless the universe is not going to get it done, folks. That's that's just not God bless the universe. What does that mean? He already blessed the universe by creating it. You have to be specific, James. Chapter four, verse two says you have not because you ask not. And I love what Jesus said in Mark 11:24 whatsoever. Things you desire when you pray, believe you have received them, and you shall have them believe you have received them, and they will be granted to you.
Be specific. I think we have to realize that God is moved by our by our requests. His heart leaps when we pray. His heart is thrilled when we pray. He he's he longs to answer, but he can't answer a prayer that's not prayed, just like he can't. Increase a seed that isn't planted. Right. So in Mark Chapter ten, when Blind Bartimaeus heard that Jesus was in town, he jumped up and he started crying out, Have mercy on me, Son of David, have mercy on me. And they tried to silence him. They tried to shut him up, but he kept praying. Jesus, have mercy on me. What was part of May is doing. He was praying. He was reaching out to Jesus with his words. And the Bible says that Jesus stopped in verse 49 and said, Bring him to me. They said, He's he's shouting and let's, let's, let's silence him.
Even the disciples tried to silence Bartimaeus prayer, but even they could not silence his prayer. Even they could not get in the way between Bartimaeus prayer. And the ears of Jesus and the heart of Jesus. You know that. Nothing has to get in the way. Nothing has the power to get in between you and the heart of Jesus. That's because Jesus cleansed us of all sin. Therefore, removing the the gap, removing the barrier between man and God. Sin was the barrier and Jesus removed it. Your individual sins that you committed today in your mind, or in your thoughts or in your words, those don't separate you from Jesus because He already took care of them 2000 years ago. Nothing separates us from him now except our own fear or our own false beliefs about him.
So when Bartimaeus has Praise, Jesus, have mercy on me. Jesus stops and he says, Bring him to me. And throwing off his coat, verse 50, throwing off his cloak is beggar's garment. May jumped up and comes to Jesus and Jesus says to him, Listen to this verse 51. What do you want me to do for you? What do you want me to do for you? Jesus asks this blind man. What do you want me to do for you now? It doesn't. Jesus know this man's blind? Can't Jesus tell this man's blind? Can't Jesus realize this man's blind? Why does Jesus have to ask him? What do you want me to do for you? Because Jesus wants us to be specific. God wants us to be specific. God doesn't want robots. He wants us to understand what we desire, understand what our needs are, and go to our Heavenly Father about those things, and to go to our Savior about those things. He wants a relationship with us based on when we feel deficient, when we feel weak, when we feel lacking, we can go to him and ask him specifically for strength.
Ask him specifically for wisdom. Ask him specifically for five job up job opportunities this month. There may be some things that you have to do to put those job opportunities into motion, like getting a resumé and sending it out. You might have to do some things, but my point is, is that we can be specific with God and be specific and we must be Jesus said, What do you want me to do for you? And notice what it says. Part of me has said, Let me see again. Let me see again. And Jesus said, Go. Your faith has healed you. How did his faith heal him? And then it says and immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. It says his faith. Jesus said, Your faith has healed you. How did part of his faith? How was his faith on display? What was the how was his faith? Communicated. How did. What did his faith look like? He was specific. He said, I want to see again.
What is his faith look like? It was clearly stating to Jesus what his desire was in that moment was to see again. And Jesus said, Your faith has healed. You must be specific. Well, I can't I cannot overemphasize this point to be specific and to realize that God wants to do this for you more than you even want him to do it for you. What do you want me to do for you? How big do you want a dream? You can dream as big as you want. And then even bigger. Ephesians 3:20. Notice what he says. I'll read this from the message Bible. I love this verse. God can do anything, you know, far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request.
In your wildest dreams. In your wildest dreams. He does it not by pushing us around, but by working within us, his spirit deeply and gently within us. What a powerful promise is that God will do. Above and beyond our wildest dreams. So go ahead and ask Big. Go ahead and dream big. Go ahead and imagine big. And God's going to do even bigger. This is the second thing we need to know about prayer is that, number one, we need to know it's our right to pray and get answers. And number two, that we can be specific. We must be specific. We need to be specific because God doesn't want robots. God is not going to force his will on you. But He invites you to ask. He invites you to pray, invites you to to go to him about it.
Number three, I would say the third thing that everybody should know about prayer is that. God's answer to his promises is yes. So I would say, pray the promises of God. Pray the promises of God. You're not sure how to pray. Pray the promises of God. There are 7000 promises in the Bible. One of them says that he heals. One of them says, God will deliver you. One of them says God will provide for you. I mean, we can go on and on about all the promises, one's promises. Your whole family will be saved so we can go to God on the basis of that promise. Pray the promise of God. Father. Heavenly Father, you said in Acts Chapter ten or chapter 16, verse 31, that if I would believe on the Lord Jesus, I would be saved me and my whole household. So I'm asking for my whole household and my whole family. Salvation in the name of Jesus that's praying. The promises of God. And Second Corinthians 1:20 says, for all the promises of God are Yes, God's answer to His promises are yes.
So pray the promises of God, when you run out of promises, then you'll you say, what about? What else should I pray after I pray the promises. God. Well, when you run out of promises, you'll know if there's anything left to pray. But you're never going to run out of the promises of God because they are. There's 7000 of them in the Bible, and they apply to every area of life. So.
So, number three, pray the promises of God and realize the answer is yes. And number four. Resist condemnation. Now, this is so important. We have to resist and reject condemnation because condemnation, a condemned heart is a prayer less heart. When your heart feels condemned, you're not going to be bold. You're not going to ask God you're you think you're in the doghouse and you have to, you know, make up for whatever mistakes you've made. And you got to work your way back to deserving to be able to pray. And you don't have to work your way back. You have to resist the condemnation, because the Bible says in Christ there is no condemnation, but the stronghold in our minds that tell us we're condemned. You, you're not enough. You haven't done enough. You're not good enough. You're not holy enough. We have to pull those those strongholds down. We have to pull those lies down.
There's a great verse in First John, chapter three. It says in verse 24, Whenever our heart condemns us, I'm talking to somebody here today, now to myself and to you. Whenever Art doesn't say, if ever our heart condemns us, it says Whenever a heart condemns, we're all going to have moments when our own heart is condemning us. But notice what it says. Whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. Beloved, here's the secret. If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him. When will we? When can we have confidence? Notice what he says in verse 22. In verse 21. If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God.
So when we have confidence before God, we can ask and receive whatever we ask for. He says, We ask and whatever we ask, we receive from him. When our when our heart does not condemn us, when we have confidence. So what do we do when our heart condemns us? What does he say? He says, God is greater than our heart and knows everything. So when your heart is condemning you, you're only seeing your failure. But God sees that Jesus already paid for your failure. He sees the bigger picture. And so when your heart condemns, you go back to the father and remind him. Remind yourself, really? You don't have to go to him. Remind yourself that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ and you are in Christ the moment you're born again.
So, boy, this is one that people get tripped up on so often, and it's what prevents people from soaring with the power of prayer is they're afraid to ask because they feel condemned and they feel guilty. And when your heart condemns you. God's greater. When your heart doesn't condemn you, you're going to have confidence when your heart condemns you. You got to lean on God and say You're greater than my condemnation. And in Christ, there's no condemnation. So I'm going to go ahead and get my confidence back knowing that. I'm not condemned. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. I'm not condemned because I'm in Christ. It's not. I'm not condemned because I didn't do anything wrong. No, no, no. It's. I'm not condemned because Jesus took my condemnation. And there's no condemnation now for those who are in Christ. Romans eight one says so.
The fourth thing is we have to resist and reject condemnation. We have to reject it. We have to fight it. We have to pull it down. We have to stop letting us let letting it push us around. And the one thing that I believe that we all need to know about prayer is we need to know. And believe in the blessing. We need to believe in the blessing. We need to believe and expect the blessing. I wish I could say that better, but suffice it to say, believe and expect the blessings of Abraham. You know, in Galatians chapter three, verse 13, it says, Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. He redeemed us from the curse. Having become a curse for us for curse is one that hangs on a tree, that the blessing of Abraham would come to us because we belong to Christ. The blessing of Abraham would come to us.
Galatians 3:29 If you belong to Christ, your Abraham seed and you are an heir of the same promises that He was an heir of, you get to inherit the same promises that Abraham inherited. And here's one of them. In Genesis, chapter 20, verse 17, it says, Abraham prayed to God. And God healed Abimelech. And healed his wife and all of the female servants so that all of them had children. So they they were all coerced. They couldn't have any kids. And Abraham prayed. And God healed Abimelech. And God healed Abimelech, wife. And God healed the servants in their house. And they all got pregnant because Abraham prayed. God honored Abraham's prayers. And if we belong to Christ, we're Abraham Seed and we can pray just like that. Believe and expect the blessing. So what do we say? There's five things everybody should know about prayer. One. No, please know that it is your right.
Realize that it is your right. Number two, be specific. Number three. Pray the promises of God. Number four, resist and reject condemnation. And number five, believe and expect the blessing to come upon you and overtake you. And when you believe that, when you pray, God answers. There you go. These are the. This is how to be sure you'll get your prayers answered. And this is what everybody should know about prayer. If you knew this about prayer, if more people knew this about prayer, more people would be praying and there would be power manifesting everywhere. You're not afraid when you run out of money because prayer is heaven's currency. You're not afraid when the person gets elected that you didn't vote for. Because prayer is the currency of the Kingdom of God. Prayer is the currency of the Kingdom of God.
When the doctor says, you got, you know, six days to live, you don't have to be discouraged by that because prayer is the currency of the kingdom of God. So prayer is the what we use to exchange for the kingdom of God's currency, of healing in the Kingdom of God's blessing, in the Kingdom of God's provision, in the Kingdom of God's peace, in the Kingdom of God's joy. Prayer is the currency of the Kingdom of God. And when we pray, we're bringing that currency in Earth as it is in heaven. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in Earth as it is in heaven. When you pray the promises of God you are accessing and you are receiving the currency of the Kingdom of God, and it's the power of prayer. And it's prayer is the currency that brings the provisions that God has already laid up for you.
In heaven that you can pull down into this earth through the power of prayer. Wow. Prayer is a portal to heaven's supply. In a limited earth, prayer is the portal to an unlimited supply of heaven's resources. That's the kind of power you have. And when you realize that you're going to walk in peace and you're going to walk in faith and you're going to walk in kindness, and you're not going to let anything in this world discourage you because you have the superpower called the power to pray.
Thanks for joining me on things like a champion. Please share this podcast, won't you? Share it with and subscribe to it wherever you listen to podcasts. And would you take a moment and pay it forward? We take a moment every time we we gather for these moments to invite you to give. I want to encourage you to give. Plant a seed. Because God can only increase the seed that gets planted. Plant a financial seed and give towards the advancement of these kinds of messages. Getting to the hands of the masses and getting into the hearts and the minds of masses of people like we can change this world through our seed and planting our seed given it will be given unto you, Jesus said.