Jentezen Franklin - Pray Big Prayers
I wanna go to Psalms 78 and there's this powerful verse in verse 40. "How often they provoked Him in the wilderness". Listen to the strong wording, "And grieved Him in the desert"! God's being grieved over something. What is it? Because they limited the holy one of Israel and they did not remember His power, the day when He redeemed them from the enemy. And today, I wanna show you the power of praying big prayers. I want to spark your faith. I want to stir you today to believe for something beyond what you think is even possible, and I want us to take the limits off of God. That's what I'm gonna preach about. And I don't wanna just preach it, I want us to do it. I want us to allow Him in this service today wherever you're watching this, online, or those of you watching by television, or those of you at one of our campuses. I want you to hear that we have the same problem they had back then. We limit the holy one of Israel.
Notice, if you read Psalms 78, there is this constant theme. He starts listing miracle after miracle. How God rolled back the Red Sea. How God fed Him with manna. How God clothed them for 40 years. How God caused the air condition to work with the cloud by day and a heater to work with fire by night. How God did supernatural thing after supernatural thing. And then, the Bible says that they began to limit that same God and God... Notice the strong wording was "grieved". Grieved. Why was He grieved? He was grieved and provoked because they limited Him. They did not give Him the privilege to do everything He wanted to do for them. They limited Him.
God wasn't limited in His ability they limited Him by their unbelief. And when you understand that He wasn't able to do everything He wanted to do for 'em... And I think about Matthew 23:37, how Jesus said to the city of Jerusalem, but He could be saying it to someone listening to me today, "How often I would, I would have taken you under my wing. I would have blessed you. I would have raised you. I would have protected you. How often I would," He said. Notice those words. He said, "I wanted to gather you". King James says, "I would have but you were not willing. You would not". The King James says, "I would have but you would not". That's a phenomenal thing to understand when you think of God and His unlimited power. And He says, "I would have but you wouldn't. You would not. You limited Me".
If you're short, if you're limited, if you're running a deficit in some area of your life, I want you to know that God is able and ready to do bigger, to do greater, to do larger than any of us can conceive in our mind. Here's the scripture for it. 1 Corinthians 2:9, "Eyes have not seen, ears have not heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him," And I wanna add, "Who will not limit Him". And then, in Ephesians 3:20, "Unto Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we could ask or think, according to the power that works in us". In other words, "Don't limit God". We must no longer limit Him. It's time to turn Him loose. It's time to let Him be God.
I'm asking today for this place to be charged to change. That the days of small prayers, the days of little prayers, will be over, and it's time to pray big prayers, and receive awesome answers to those prayers. Take the limits of God. No restrictions. No limitations. Sovereignty means God can do, when you say, "He's a sovereign God", it means God can do what He wants to do where He wants to do it with anybody He wants to do it with. And here's the big part, He does not have to ask anybody's permission. I believe in the sovereignty of God, and I believe His power is limitless, and I believe He has so much more for us if we'll take the limits off.
Imagine it like this. Imagine Bill Gates, the billionaire, got together with Elon Musk and Warren Buffet, a bunch of other billionaires, and they all personally invited you to come in with your dream, come in with your needs, come in with the craziest vision that you could come up with, and they actually are saying, "I want you to understand what the meeting is about. We have enormous billions of dollars, and we want you to come in and ask us for what you think you need". And imagine you walking in to the presence of those men knowing that they have it and want you to have it. And you said, "Hey, could you give me $5 to keep... Give me $5 to keep me alive". They would look at each other. Can you imagine? We wouldn't even probably do that. Our mentality is so... "Would you lend me $10? I'll pay you back".
Well, when I'm talking about the God of Heaven when we go before Him, He owns the cattle of a thousand hills. He is so mighty, and we bind Him with small faith, with little dreams, low levels of satisfaction and ant-sized expectation. It's time to get a fresh vision and a fresh dream, and expand, and ask Him for bigger and greater things. We must free Him to do supernatural things in this hour that we're in. And if we will not limit Him, I believe He will do phenomenal things for His people. The Bible said, "He was grieved". Why was He grieved? Because they limited Him. They did not let Him do all that He had planned and longed to do for them.
2 Corinthians 7:6 says, "Nevertheless God," That's a revelation in itself. God is nevertheless. He is always the more. And when you understand that, He will always have more grace than sin. He will always have more power than your problems. He'll always have more mercy than you have mistakes. He'll always have more love than you have hate. He'll always have more supply than you have need. He'll always have more forgiveness than you have failure. He is nevertheless. He is always the more. So, stop limiting Him. Stop limiting by not asking. Nobody will strain God's spiritual budgetю
Let me give you another verse. Luke chapter.. am I preaching the word or am I preaching just... is it in the Bible? If it's in the Bible, that's not limited. And I think God knows how to say what He means without you having to water it down, and apologize, and come up with theology that throws it out the window. For example, Luke 1 says it like this, Luke 1, "Everybody", out loud. Boldly. "For with God nothing shall be impossible". No challenge is too great. No Devil is too big. How do we limit Him? We limit Him by prayerlessness. Listen to what He said in John 16:24, "Up to now you have asked Me for nothing in My name".
He says the reason that much ain't happening is you're not asking. You think about your problems. You talk about your problems. You wallow and have sleepless nights, twisting and turning all night because you don't have the answers. But He says, "Until now you've asked nothing in My name. You're limiting Me when you don't ask Me". And then, I love the fact that He said, "Ask and you will receive, that your joy may be full". I want people happy. I want people full. I want people blessed. I want people to have the full benefit of everything the cross has purchased. But He said, "If you don't ask Me", And I love that He didn't say ask small only, He didn't say ask medium prayers, He didn't say ask large prayers, He said, "You decide. If you want little of My power, then ask little, medium or large. Just like you order your drink, get the big gulp".
Let your cup run over. He says, "My cup", David said, "I'm gon' have a cup running over". And you have to decide and the way you decide is you limit Him by little prayers or no prayer. "You have limited Me by not asking". We have to get the audacity to ask. When we ask, we need to ask big, ask God not just to help you but to heal you. Ask God not to add, ask Him to multiply. Ask God not for a few but ask Him for overflow. Ask Him for more than enough. Ask Him. Don't limit the God of Israel. Ask God for miracles. I did when He called me to preach at this church. This is the only church I've ever pastored. I've never pastored another church. Never will pastor another church.
This is it. The Alpha and the Omega. But I asked Him. I asked Him over, and over, and over. I just wanted to believe. I just wanted to do. I just wanted the church to grow. I just wanted to have outreaches. I just wanted to change lives. I ask Him for TV. Ask Him for this. Ask Him for that. Ask for more campuses. Ask Him for this. And I tell you, none of it happens if somebody doesn't get something in them that says "Well, I just believe He's a big God". And once you get a win under your belt, you start asking for bigger things and bigger things. And when we started out, you know, oh my God, I remember that land down the road where our old building is. It was $385,000 and I said, "Oh dear Lord, He's gon' have to shut down one side of Heaven. If we ever pay off $385,000".
My goodness. I had ant size faith, ant size expectation. We serve a mighty God. We serve a big God. He can do anything. I wouldn't be surprised if Elon Musk was watching me right now. I wouldn't be surprised if Bill Gates' satellite gets messed up and he can't flip the channel. I've just seen God do too much. You don't know what God can do. Stop limiting the God of Israel. He's mighty. He's powerful. Jimmy Stewart, the famous Hollywood actor, left all of his memorabilia from all of the movies that he had done, and all just amazing things to a university that nobody had ever heard of. He was being interviewed, it was worth hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. And he's being interviewed, and the person said, "I heard you gave this university all your stuff. Why did you do that? Did you go to that school"? "Oh no, I didn't go to that school". "Did your children"? "No". "Did your grandchildren"? "No". "Why did you do it"? He said, "Well, they asked".
I wonder how much we're living without just because we sit there and don't ask, and we limit Him. "They asked me. Nobody had ever asked me. I'd have given it to somebody else, but they didn't ask me. They asked me, so I gave it to them". Wonder how many times God's sitting up there saying, "I wish you'd ask. I wish you'd ask". Matthew 7:11, "If you, being carnal, or evil, or earthly know how to give good gifts to your children," Everybody shout the next three words. "How much more will your limitless Father who is in Heaven could give good things to those who ask Him"! How much more? Everybody shout those words. "How much more"? Shout it again like you believe. "How much more"?
I think two things cause us to limit God, prayerlessness, and number two is our wrong perception. In other words, a little perception of who God is. Do you know that if the Holy Spirit is in us, the Holy Spirit in us is everything God is? If you have the Holy Spirit in you, you have everything God is. The Bible said, "'If I by the finger of God cast Satan out.' Jesus said". I don't just have a finger of God. I don't just have an arm. With His arm, His right arm, He brought salvation. I don't just have His finger or His arm, I have all of God when I have the Holy Spirit. That's why the Bible said, "Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world".
Take the limits off. Believe Him for something exceptional. Believe Him to use you in a powerful way. I close with this. But the Bible said in Mark 6:5 that Jesus came to His hometown of Nazareth, and he could do no mighty work there. This is remarkable. Except He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. In other words, healing is not mighty works in His mind. He's so powerful, we think, "Oh, if one person could get healed". We think is a, in His mind, "Healing, opening blind eyes, cripples walking, lepers being cleansed, that doesn't qualify for Me". God's saying, "That doesn't qualify as a mighty work. That's crumbs".
He could do no mighty work there. Why? Because He was in His hometown, and they limited Him. They limited Him. Isn't it something that He had to go to strange places to do mighty works, but He wanted to do 'em in His hometown and He couldn't? You know what the church is? The church is His hometown. We're His family. We're His people. This is His church. I wonder how many times He comes, and He says, "I wish I could do some mighty works in this place but nobody's asking Me. Nobody's perceiving how powerful just a crumb from the master's table is".
Put the text up from Psalm 78 one more time. "They limited the holy one of Israel". They limited Him with unbelief. They limited Him. Let's not limit Him this morning. Let's ask Him for big things. Let's ask Him for great things. We dine on leeks, and garlics, and onions when cavalry purchased milk and honey. We're eating spiritual baloney and potato chips when calvary purchased fillet minion, and lobster. I thought you'd come alive on that. It's lunchtime. Never will forget hearing this story when I was first starting to preach.
I actually read it in somebody's book. They said there was this man who got on a cruise and was so excited 'cause he was leaving England and going to America where his family was. He got just enough money saved, saved, saved to buy the ticket. Got on there and brought all the clothes he had, everything he had, and he brought all the food that he could get 'cause he knew it was gonna be a long journey for several days, almost two weeks by boat. And so, he got enormous supply of cheese and crackers, and for the most part, he had crackers in the morning and crackers in the afternoon, and cheese and crackers in the evening. He would go in the cafeteria, and he'd see all those people eating a buffet, having a midnight buffet, and he'd just eat his cheese and crackers.
Last day of the cruise, last day of the journey, the captain noticed the man everyday sitting at that beautiful cafeteria pulling out his brown paper bag, eating cheese and crackers and people were eating all kinds of plates over running with food, and he walked over to him and sat down, introduced himself and told him his story. He was going to see his wife etcetera, etcetera, and he said, "Well, let me a ask you a question". He said, "Why don't you go up there and enjoy that buffet"? He said, "Oh, I didn't have enough money to pay for the food".
The captain with a sad face said, "Oh my god, did nobody tell you? You've been eating cheese and crackers the whole trip? When the ticket was bought, the food came with it". Some of you are gon' get to Heaven, I wish I had a church that could say "Amen" or something. Some of us are gonna get to Heaven and realize we've been living on cheese and crackers when cavalry bought so much more. "But my God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus". You don't have to live on cheese and crackers anymore. Cavalry paid it all.