James MacDonald - 10 Prayers that Changed Me
Summary:
In this passionate message, the pastor emphasizes that Jesus desires His house to be called a house of prayer above all else, yet prayer is the hardest spiritual discipline to sustain in the church. Drawing from personal stories of near-quitting in 1991 and desperate prayers that led to breakthroughs, he urges persistent, passionate intercession—rousing oneself to take hold of God as in Isaiah 64:7. He outlines key ways to pray: from intimacy with Jesus, for harvest laborers, in agreement and persistence, for lost souls worldwide, according to God’s will in uncertainty, with Scripture in crisis, in bold faith believing it’s already done, and for those in authority—calling the congregation to a renewed commitment to fervent prayer that changes everything.
The Priority of Prayer
Pray from intimacy with Jesus. Pray for laborers in the harvest field. Pray in agreement with others. Pray with persistence. The most difficult thing to keep fired up in a church is prayer. You can get people to worship. You can get people to serve. You can get people to attend. You can get people to give, but to get people to pray and keep on praying.
How is it that the priority of prayer keeps crawling off the table when we’re not looking? And we have to go get that and bring it back for our Lord, who said, «My house shall be called a house of prayer.» A house of prayer. Say it again. He said, «My house shall be called a house of prayer.» House of Prayer. This is what He wants.
We Have Not Because We Ask Not
Now what don’t we have because we haven’t? Say it. Ask God to help us. Just ask. Just ask. Pray with persistence. I remember in 1992, I’ve written this story in a book. Pastor Rick and I were discouraged after a difficult season in the church, and those come and, by God’s grace, those go. But the lessons remain with us.
Pastor Rick and I were probably lower than we’ve ever been in the history of the church. It was December of '91, and it’s hard to believe, but the church was significantly smaller than just this section right here in one service. It was significantly smaller than that. Maybe a couple of 150 people, including kids. And not much was happening.
A Prayer That Changed Everything
It had been several months since anyone was saved, and we’d been through so much. We were so, we were so torn up about what we’d gone through and, and you may remember me saying this. I said to Pastor Rick, «I’ve been invited to go and be the pastor of a church in Canada. I think I’m going to leave.» And he said, «Well, I’ve been talking to somebody in Detroit who’s been talking to me. If you’re going, I’m going first.» And I said, «I don’t want to be here without you.» He said, «Well, I don’t want to be here without you.»
So we knelt down in a little office over in the Clearbrook Center on Central Road in Rolling Meadows, and we wept and prayed and said, «We’ll give it two more years.» When you think about all that the Lord has done and all that He knew, and we were this close to giving up. That’s a prayer that changed our church and changed us. And I want to challenge you to persist in prayer; you could be so close to God’s readiness.
Rouse Yourself to Take Hold of God
And then this: turn with me back to the wonderful portion of God’s Word called the Old Testament, and let me look with you at Isaiah 64. I found a verse in Isaiah 64 preparing this message I’ve never preached before. I found a verse in Isaiah 64 that I’ve never seen. And what’s crazy is I’ve preached on Isaiah 64:1, «Oh, that you would rend the heavens and come down.» That’s the vertical church verse I’ve preached in 40 cities around North America.
And many times I’ve mentioned Isaiah 64:6, which says that all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in God’s sight. But here in this passage, God is coming to the people and declaring His intent to judge them for their sin. And Isaiah is aware of the impending judgment of God and pleading for God to rend the heavens and come down.
No One Calls Upon Your Name
And then he says in verse 7, «There is no one who calls upon your name.» That’s prayer. «There is no one, here it is, who rouses himself to take hold of you.» Now, I just want to ask you this, church family: Is there somebody in this church who’s willing to rouse themselves to take hold of God? Because that matters. That matters.
James 5:16 says that the fervent prayer of a righteous man results in much. And God doesn’t want us to just phone in our prayers. God wants us to pray until our voices are hoarse. God wants us to call out to Him until our eyes are filled with tears. God wants us to lift up our voices and plead with Him with passion to come and answer and do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
Longing for God to Move
And is there someone in this church who longs to see God move in a way that He will get so much glory, awesome things will happen, and none of us will be the same? Is there someone? I want to be that one. And by God’s grace, a couple of times this week, I have had some rip-roaring times with the Lord and roused myself to take hold of God.
And is there someone who will join me in this challenge and explore to the absolute depth what it means that we don’t have because we don’t ask? Pray with passion.
Passionate Prayer in Desperation
My first really passionate prayer was when Kathy and I lived on Kirchoff Road, and I went out into my backyard. Forgive the review of history if it’s familiar to you, but I want to pull out the prayer part. Our church was very small. We needed about $300,000 given in six weeks to get into this building. It seemed like just an impossible miracle.
I led the church, but I didn’t have any idea how I was going to challenge them, what I was going to say, what I was going to ask. And if we had enough buses, I could take the whole church over to the exact place, and I could point to that on the ground and say, «That’s the first time I ever got on my face before God.» And it all seems so wonderful now, but at the time I had no idea what God was going to do. I had no sense of anything at all, just a sense of desperation that birthed in me a passion that I had never experienced in prayer before.
New Levels of Need
If you didn’t make a note of it, please do now: When you reach a new level of need, it’s time to reach a new level in prayer. When you reach a new level of need, it’s time to go somewhere you’ve never been before in prayer. And unequaled problems call for unequaled praying. Do you understand? Unequaled problems? We’ve never been through anything like this before. Awesome. Awesome. And are you going to pray like you never have before? Pray with passion.
Pray for Lost People Everywhere
Six, pray for lost people everywhere. Psalm 2:8. I always get really nervous when I feel a prompting to sing to you because I know how painful it is for you. But there was a little chorus that we sang in the first six or eight years of our church from Psalm 28. And the chorus was, «Ask of me, and I will give the nations as an inheritance for you, as an inheritance for you, my children. Ask of me, and I will give the nations as an inheritance for you.»
My children asked, and we did. When this building here was an empty warehouse with not a wall in it from side to side, just a big couple of big air handlers over on that side, we put a yellow tape down this wall here around the columns that are hidden there. You can’t see them. And there were still columns here that have been cut out. And we put yellow tape down here and down around—this was the original worship center over on this side.
Circling in Prayer
And we stood in a circle and held hands. Kathy and I came out every night for a month. Why are we doing this? Why? Why? So that people in Chicago can find a church? Well, certainly that. And so that lost people can—yes, certainly that. But we stood in a circle and sang the song with the words, «Our heart, our desire is to see the nations worship. Our prayer is to sing your name to the ends of the earth.»
And we would sing that, and sing that, and sing that, and pray that. «Ask of me. You have not because you ask not.» We don’t have to wonder if that’s a biblical prayer. He told us, «Ask me; I’ll give the nations to you as an inheritance.» Pray for lost people everywhere, and think about church planting. Lord, all that you’re doing, we give you praise for it.
Pray the Will of God in Uncertainty
Number seven, pray the will of God in uncertainty. 1 John 5, right near the end of your Bible, if you’re newer to the scriptures: Hebrews, James, Peter, First John. Just to the right of where we started is First John. And at the close of First John, we’ve preached through this entire book verse by verse in years gone by: Hebrews, James, Peter, John. 1 John 5:14.
«And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will"—underline that in your Bible—"according to His will.» See how the prayer gets changed? See how the prayer gets changed? We pray for easier paths when we ought to pray for stronger shoes. And the prayer gets changed, and the prayer gets changed.
Seeking the Giver, Not the Gift
«And we ask according to His will, and He hears us. And if we know that He hears us and whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.» More on that in a moment. But just jot this down: Pray the will of God in uncertainty.
When we were just a one-campus church and we were looking for a place to relocate the church, another prayer that changed the church and changed me was the piece of property where they’re now building a warehouse over behind Medieval Times on the tollway there. And I went out on that property, and I can’t even tell you how many times I went over there. I took my mom over there, and I would go and pray on that property and ask God to give that to us.
Lessons from Closed Doors
And it was owned by the Catholic Church. And it’s a long story, but I’ve told it before. I prayed and prayed and prayed myself into a bad place. Make sure that you’re seeking the giver and not the gift. Big lesson for me. And when that door finally shut, I was just devastated.
And it says in Psalm, I think 105, that «He gave them their request and sent leanness into their souls.» If you pray so hard for your daughter, if you pray so hard for something that you begin to communicate to God, «I’m not going to be happy unless I have this. You’re not enough for me, ” if you start to pray like that, that’s not going anywhere good.
Pray the Word in Crisis
And that’s why we pray according to His will, because in the end, what I was praying for—a piece of property—I’m so thankful we never got that. God had something different in store for us and all that He brought with it and all that He taught us through it. And let God be God. So pray the will of God in uncertainty, whatever you ask according to His will.
And then this: pray the word of God in a crisis. I’m going to show you two verses really quick: Hosea, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Seth, Daniel, 12 minor prophets. Number one is called Hosea. And Hosea—beat you. Hosea was a prophet. His wife, her name was Gomer, was a prostitute or worse.
Hedge of Thorns
And God allowed His servant Hosea to suffer the shame of a wife who became a prostitute. Thank God for faithful wives. But God did that to paint a picture of how we are with Him. And he prayed what’s called—and you can find it—a hedge of thorns around his wife. She was so determined in her sin that he prayed a hedge of thorns around her so that all of the unbelievers that were dragging her down would turn away from her, and that she would have no place to go but back to her husband and to God. And that’s what happened.
Now that is an awesome thing to pray for somebody. Hosea 2:6: „Therefore, I will hedge up her way with thorns.“ There it is. „And I will build a wall against her so she cannot find her paths.“
Restoration of Lost Years
And then this: I want to show you one more. Hosea, Joel, just the next minor prophet to the right, Joel 2:25. Joel 2:25 says this: „I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has eaten.“ See, when you hook into something in the Bible like that, the prayer isn’t going to need to be changed.
Now just the prayer needs to be changed because the prayer is right from God’s Word, praying that hedge of thorns. And maybe you feel in your life like, „I wish I’d heard this a long time ago. I wish I could go back and pray about some things instead of how I handled it.“ But listen, listen, I pray this for you.
God’s Gracious Restoration
I pray that God would restore to you those years that were devoured by the enemy—years that you can’t have them back, and you can’t choose differently anymore. But I pray that God would pour out His grace upon you in such a way that your only focus is gratitude for His forgiveness and a determination to live the way that He wants you to going forward.
And God will give you back more than anything that you lost or gave up in those foolish years. He’s a gracious, loving, forgiving God, full of compassion, provided that the lessons that He has taught drive us into deeper obedience to Him. So pray the Word. Just find something in scripture and pray that in a crisis.
Faith in Prayer
I wish I could tell you the stories of prodigal children and brokenheartedness and regret and frustration that I have felt, and how some of these verses have become so precious in times with the Lord, and to have faith to believe that God is hearing and answering those things so much. So you’re going to love this: Two more quick ones. Mark 11:20.
In Mark chapter 11, Jesus is telling the story of—he’s actually going to—it’s not a story. He’s going to curse a fig tree. And in Mark chapter 11, verse 20, it says, „As they passed by in the morning, they saw a fig tree withered away to its roots.“ And Peter remembered and said to Him, „Rabbi, look, the fig tree you cursed, ” which is in an earlier passage, „has withered.“
Believe You Have Received It
And Jesus answered them, „Have faith in God.“ I preached on this passage back in 2000, and I’ll just say it in a sentence: The withered fig tree is a picture of a barren prayer life. That’s why Jesus is going to go on now and talk about prayer. So earlier, there’s this fig tree with no figs on it. And so He curses the fig tree, and they’re like, „What do you do that for?“
And then later they go back by it again, and Peter says, „Hey, there’s that fig tree you cursed. Look how it is withered. Look how barren it is.“ And here’s the lesson He wanted for us: „Have faith in God.“ Truly I say to you, „Whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea, ’ and does not doubt in his heart"—that matters—"but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him.»
It’s Already Done
«Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.» Notice the qualification: «But when you stand praying, forgive if you have anything against anyone.» If there’s anyone who could walk in here and sit beside you, and you couldn’t put your arm around them and say, «I’m glad to see you, ” I don’t preach like that. And you shouldn’t worship like that. You got to get that handled and give it to God again and come to church.
But this verse here, 24, is the main one: „Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.“ The faith that follows the prayer is as important as the faith in the prayer. Having asked, having the prayer changed, and the prayer changed, and prayed biblically and according to His will—now it’s done. It’s only a matter of time now. It’s done. That is done.
Live Like It’s Done
And I have some very specific things that I’m waiting on God to do. And I want to tell you right now, in Jesus' name, it’s done. And when it happens, I’m going to come and tell you, „That’s one of the things I told you was done.“ And I’m going to think like it’s done. And I’m going to walk like it’s done. And I’m going to live like it’s done. And I’m going to love like it’s done, because I believe that I have received it.
I have prayed according to God’s will. He knows how to give good gifts to His children. I’ve asked in His name. I’ve prayed in faith. And now I am believing that I have received it. I already have it. I already have it. The only thing left is how many pages on the calendar. It’s mine by faith in God. The prayer got changed. The prayer got changed. Now it’s according to His will and offered in faith in His name. And it’s done. Live like that.
Learning Bold Faith
I remember when I first learned that verse. Jim Cymbala taught me that first verse from Brooklyn Tabernacle. He preached in our church. He was the first person I ever remember. Kathy and I went to a special prayer meeting at the Brooklyn Tabernacle, never realizing I would be blessed to preach there several times as I have been blessed now.
But back then, and much younger, just so honored even to be in the building and so thankful. And what a house of prayer! And what a challenging call for this church to live and believe the promises that God has made about prayer and to be strong in faith.
Pray for Authority
Pray in faith, then rest in confidence. Last one, pray for all in positions of authority. 1 Timothy 2:2. „First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgiving be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet, godly and dignified life in every way.“
Do you see that there? Praying for people in authority. So turn right now and start praying, and I want you to start praying for people in authority. Let’s start by praying for the president of our country. I want you to start praying for him right now. This is commanded in God’s Word.
Intercession for Leaders
Pray for his heart to be open to the Lord. Start praying now. Pray for God to open his heart. Pray for God to give him wisdom. Pray with compassion and with mercy. Now, we have almost a hundred police officers that come to this church, men and women. I want you to pray for the police officers in our church that God would bless them and protect them and help them. Pray for their safety.
There are also many firemen in our church. Pray for them the same way and for their families when they’re away from them. The eyes of the Lord are searching throughout the whole earth for those on whose behalf He can show Himself strong.