Joyce Meyer - The Mystery of Prayer - Part 2

TOPICS: Prayer

You might think, well, if it’s what God wants you to do, won’t He give you the strength and energy? Well, you have not because you ask not. And I think that the more people who ask, the more powerful that prayer becomes because the Bible talks about how one puts a thousand to flight, and two, ten thousand. We become so much more powerful when we do things together. God does not answer what is not His will. However, there are times when God will give us something we ask for, even though it’s not good for us. His will is to teach us by example what is good and what is not.

There’s a great example in Psalm 106. Then Israel believed His words, trusting in and relying on them, and they sang His praise. Oh, sometimes how we start out so good and yet we end up going in the wrong direction. They believed God, and they were rejoicing, and they sang His praise. But they hastily forgot His works; they did not earnestly wait for His plans to develop regarding them. But they lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted and tried to restrain God with their insistent desires in the desert. And He gave them their request but sent leanness into their souls and thinned their numbers by disease and death. It actually took place in Numbers 11:4-6. It says, «And the mixed multitude among them,» which was a problem to start with. They took people out with them who really were not Israelites. They were the mixed multitude, different people who had come from different countries. And it was the mixed multitude, the rabble who followed Israel from Egypt, who began to lust greatly for familiar and dainty food.

You see, if we get around and let the wrong people hang out with us too much, they can affect us. Now, I’m not saying that we hide from every person who’s not following God because they need a good example. But the way I like to say it is you can hang out with them as long as you’re influencing them and they’re not infecting you. So they wept all night and said, «Who will give us meat to eat? We remember the fish we ate in Egypt without cost, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic.»

Well, I’m not overly impressed with that menu. I mean, the fish maybe, if it was the right kind of fish. I like fish, so that’s not easy to find. And cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic? I don’t think I would have cared for any of that. I would have rather had the manna. But now our soul, our strength is dried up, and there is nothing at all in the way of food to be seen but this manna. Wow. What an unthankful group of people they were. I think it’d be pretty awesome if God rained my dinner down from heaven tonight, and I didn’t have to do anything but gather it up and eat it.

Now, sometimes they beat it into flour and made cakes out of it, and they did different things with it, but they still had miraculous food sent to them every day. And at first, they were so thankful. How many times do we ask God for something, and at first we are so thankful, and then we begin to complain about the very thing that we asked God to give us? Maybe you wanted a bigger house, and you prayed and prayed, and God gave you a bigger house, and now you complain all the time about having to clean the bigger house. We need to remember to remain thankful. He gave them what they insisted on having just to prove to them that that’s not really what they wanted. And we need to have the attitude that I can ask for anything I want, but God, I don’t want it if it’s not Your will for me.

What should our reaction be when we don’t receive according to our prayers? Well, number one, we should not become confused. Well, I don’t know why God didn’t answer my prayer. I this, I that. You provide God a list of your good works, which that’s not why He answers your prayers, to start with. We should trust God and know that there is no fault with Him. If there is a fault or an error, we have made it. God is always right, and if anybody’s wrong, it’s never God. We should trust Him to give us what is good for us, even above what we want. Let me say it again: Trust God to give you what is good for you, even above what you want. We should know that His thoughts and ways are above our thoughts and ways. We should pray for God to show us His will so we can pray it or show someone else He chooses to use.

The next section I want to talk to you about is self and prayer. How many truly wait on God for His prayer to come into their hearts? Or do we just pray what we want and expect God to run around like a servant doing whatever we want Him to do? No, we approach the throne of God reverently. You can ask God for anything that’s on your heart, but know at the same time that what you have on your heart may not be the right thing. So if you don’t get it, don’t get all upset about it. Just trust God. God told me one time, «If I put this in your heart, if you don’t get what you asked for, it’s not because I’m holding out on you and don’t want to bless you. It’s because there’s something better that I want for you, and you don’t know how to ask for that yet.» You have not because you ask not.

Prayer is very important. Make sure that you set apart time every day to pray. Why would you not pray when you can get so many things from God that you need for that day? Every day I pray for strength and energy. Every day I pray for the lost. Every day I pray for people that are being abused like I was abused when I was a child. I pray that our television program will help people, that the books I’ve written will help people, that they’ll get them and read them, and that they will be life- changing. I pray for anybody I know who’s sick because I’ve been sick, and I know that people praying for me got me through it.

Let me say again, I appreciate you praying for me. We have a prayer list that we send out monthly here at the office, and I don’t know who’s in charge of putting it together, but they find out the needs of each department, as well as mine and Dave’s needs. And they pray diligently all month about those things. But the thing I like about it is they have scripture to back up everything that they’re praying. We talked yesterday, and we’re going to start putting a version of that online. So if you want to pray for us and this ministry, you can pray in agreement with us, and you’ll have all the scripture there. You could even have your Bible out, look up all the scriptures, and do a Bible study at the same time that you’re praying.

But boy, if about a million of you would start praying for us. You know, we tell people all the time, «Send us your prayer requests. Send us your prayer requests.» And we love praying for you. We think part of our responsibility is to pray for you. But Paul never one time said, «Send me your prayer requests and I’ll pray for you.» He always told the people to pray for him, to pray for him that he could preach the word with boldness, that God would keep him strong. We should trust God to give us what is good for us even above what we want. The Holy Spirit knows the heart, the mind, and the will of God.

Oh, I am so thankful for the Holy Spirit. He helps us in our prayers and will lead us if we are willing to hear and follow Him. Now, I’ll just give you a simple example. And you know, the Holy Spirit loves to function and operate in just your everyday life. It doesn’t have to be some major miracle. I love it when I can just see His footsteps in my life. And I had a doctor’s appointment yesterday, an ear, nose, and throat checkup. I had been having some problems with sinuses like millions of other people right now. And so I wanted to see if there was anything better than what I was doing that I could do. My daughter usually goes with me to those appointments, and I started feeling yesterday morning like I should tell her she didn’t have to go, that I felt like maybe she needed the time at home.

And so when I called her, she said, «Mom, I was just on the verge of trying to get up enough nerve to call you and see if I could skip today because I’ve got so much to do here at home that I really need to be home today.» Well, see, the Holy Spirit put that on my heart. That was what Laura wanted, and He put it on my heart to give it to her. It’s just absolute fun to hang out with God. I love to watch Him work in my life. And every believer, the Holy Spirit lives in you, and He will lead you and guide you not only in things like that, but He will lead you and guide you in prayer.

But sometimes when you go to prayer, it can’t just be, «Let’s see how long I can pray and how fast I can pray and how many words I can speak.» The Bible says you’re not heard for your much speaking, but it’s our sincerity. I kind of had a wrong attitude about prayer. And one time God challenged me, «Why don’t you try to ask for what you want and need with as few words as possible?» Well, that was a challenge because I was repeating myself over and over. «Oh, God, forgive me. Forgive me. Forgive me. God, forgive me. Forgive me.»

Well, I actually did that after Dave and I got married. I got on my knees every night before bed, and I always prayed the same prayer. «God, forgive me for my sins and help me be a good wife, a good mother, and a good Christian,» because I know if I can be a good Christian — which there is no such thing, only God is good -if I can be a good Christian, then everything else in my life will work out right. And that was my prayer that I prayed every night: «God, forgive me for my sins.»

Well, I was talking about it in my heart, even though I didn’t really realize it. I was asking God to forgive my sins from way back here. And the Lord spoke and said, «I forgave you the first time you asked me. Now you need to receive it.» Well, if you believe when you pray that God hears you and you have what you’ve asked for, you don’t need to pray it ten times in a row. It might come to your heart every day, and you can pray again for some time if you want to. There is a prayer of importunity where you just don’t leave God alone until He answers you. But many times you can just thank God that He’s working.

Romans 8:26 and 27 states: «So too the Holy Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we don’t know what prayer to offer or how to offer it worthily as we ought.» You know, I go through that sometimes. I want to pray for somebody, but I don’t know exactly how to pray because I don’t exactly know what the problem is. You know, when I pray for our partners, I don’t always know exactly what to pray. So, I have to quiet my heart and let God put some things in there that He wants me to pray.

But the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. You know, sometimes one of the most frequently prayed prayers and one of the most powerful prayers is, «God, help me.» Sometimes I don’t even know what I need help about. I just know I need a lot of help. «God, help me.» And the Holy Spirit intercedes for us. He prays for us. And Jesus intercedes for us. I tell you, we’ve got some stuff going on if we can just get our faith to hook up with it.

There are times when I try to pray for something that I would like to see happen, and I have no peace about it. I can’t seem to find the right words; I kind of stumble around. And so that lets me know that I’m praying for something that really isn’t right yet, and I need to just be quiet. Don’t be afraid to just be quiet a little bit in your prayers and wait and see what God wants.

You know, I think a lot of people say — even a lot of people in ministry say-prayer is work, but I don’t like to say it that way. Prayer requires an effort, but I don’t think it’s work because when the Holy Spirit hooks up with us, His grace makes hard things easy. But I do believe we have to make an effort to hear from God, and we have to train ourselves to have some quiet times in prayer so we know what God wants us to pray.

I think God would rather me pray one thing that’s really His will than to pray a hundred things and just babble, babble, babble. See how much I can talk. We need not be bound up or fearful of praying selfish prayers. We simply need a right heart that desires God’s will. I pray boldly and freely, yet knowing that if it’s not God’s will, I won’t get it. And actually, I don’t want it. If I have doubts, I ask God not to give me what I asked for if it’s not His will.

Oh, you say, «Joyce, can’t we just say, 'Oh, God, Your will be done in each situation, ' and be done with it?» No, because God wants us to seek His will. He says, «If you seek Me, you will find Me.» Those who seek Me early will find Me. Well, seeking means to put out a little effort. You wait on God. You quiet yourself before God. You see what’s in your heart. God doesn’t want us to be vague in our prayers. He wants us to pray specifically and to pray definite prayers.

The Amplified Bible of Philippians 4:6 says, «Don’t fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything by prayer and petition, definite requests-this is the amplification. With thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God.» We must be specific and definite, as definite as we can be. Therefore, prayer requires an effort. And prayer requires concentration. I mean, concentration, listening, and focus. And one of the problems that we have is created by the society we live in, where everybody’s always in a hurry, and there are so many things coming at us at once.

This morning, one time I answered my phone and said, «Grand Central Station,» and yet it wasn’t even like 8:30 yet, and I’d already gotten, I don’t know how many calls. Well, turn the phone off when you’re spending time in prayer. You don’t have to answer the phone when you’re praying. If it’s important, they’ll leave a message or they’ll call back. We have to train ourselves to be able to focus and keep our minds on what we’re doing because it’s so easy when you’re praying to get distracted because that’s what Satan wants. He wants us to be distracted. He doesn’t want us to pray through anything and actually hit the heart of it and be praying the way God wants us to.

Prayer must be fervent, accurate, concentrated, focused, purposeful, definite, specific, and not vague. I appreciate every prayer you pray for me. And you know, «Oh, Lord, bless Joyce,» I’m sure, is better than not praying for me at all. But I think if you think a little bit now, «What might Joyce really need?» Think about what I’m doing and what it takes to do it. And you know, you might pray like, «Well, if Joyce is working on a book now, Lord, I pray that You’ll help her be creative and that You’ll give her the grace she needs to write that book.»

And whatever sermon she’s preparing, I pray that You would give her wisdom and give her new ideas and new parables to share that will help people really understand. Give her strength. Give her energy. Give her wisdom. Help her know what she should do at all times. It just takes a minute. But we like to just say, «Oh, God, bless John and bless Betty and bless Susie.» And like I said, that’s better than nothing. But I think we can do better than that.

Prayer can be simple but not vague. We can ask with few words as long as we ask sincerely and clearly. Matthew 6:7 states, «And when you pray, do not heap up phrases, multiplying words, repeating the same ones over and over as the Gentiles do, for they think they will be heard for their much speaking.» One needs to think about what I would need in my situation. Wait before the Lord for Him to put things in your mind and heart and then pray about those things specifically.

Once again, this requires an effort. We must concentrate, which often requires developing a discipline in our lives. Effectual prayer must be offered by a righteous man. And that does not mean a perfect man; it means someone who is in Christ because when you’re in Christ, He makes you right with God through Him. Jesus is right with God. And when we come to God in Jesus' name, we come presenting all that Jesus is, not what we are.

One of the first things that God worked with me on to teach me was that I had right standing with Him. You know, if we don’t believe that we have right standing or if we don’t believe that we have a right to ask for what we’re asking for, then we’re going to be wimpy and weak and not really pray with confidence or pray boldly. So understand who you are in Christ, and go to God with that thought in mind that I’m coming through Jesus, not on my own merit.

James 5:16–18 states, «Confess to one another, therefore, your faults, your slips, your false steps, your offenses, and your sins, and pray also for one another that you may be healed and restored to a spiritual tone of mind and heart.» Now, I was just thinking this morning, you know, it might not be such a bad idea if every person had one person that they could really trust and depend on to keep their secrets. And it was somebody that if you felt you needed to, you could tell them your sin and ask them to pray with you. I mean, it’s in the Bible: «Confess your faults to one another that you might be restored and brought back to a spiritual state of heart and mind, that you may be healed.»

Elijah was a human being just like we are. The Bible says he wasn’t a perfect man; he was a powerful man, but not a perfect man. And yet he prayed for it not to rain for six months, and it didn’t. And then he prayed for it to rain, and it did. He had great power, but he was a human being with a nature just like we have, with feelings, affections, and a constitution like ours. And then lastly, I want to say that your prayers won’t be heard if you’re praying with hidden sin in your heart; that takes away your power.

There’s nothing you can’t confess to God because He already knows everything that you’ve done anyway. And confessing it really just brings it up and gets it out of you where you can deal with it. The Holy Spirit will convict you, not condemn you, but convict you when you sin, if you’ll just be careful and listen to Him. So start praying in a new way and pray regularly, remembering you have not because you ask not, and I think you’re going to see some major differences in your life. Thank you so much for being with us today, and I’m excited about your prayer life increasing. Goodbye.