Louie Giglio - Faith That Captures the Attention of Heaven
I’m wondering, as we’re in this series on prayer, if you’ve ever had a thought like this: If God already knows everything, why do I really need to ask God for anything? If He knows everything about everything and already knows how everything’s going to work out, do you believe God knows how everything’s going to work out, or do you think there are moments when God goes, «Well, I had no idea that was going to happen?» I mean, that’s a tough question, isn’t it? Have you ever considered that God might have those moments, thinking, «I didn’t know you were going to do that?» Or does He know? His word states that He knows exactly what day we’re going to die, so what if, on that day, believers are praying for us, asking that we won’t die, even though He already knows it’s the day appointed for us to take our last breath? Does this create any tension for anyone else, or have you all already resolved this and moved on? Thank you!
Let’s think about some things this word says, as they appear to operate on two sides of the equation. Psalm 115:3 states, «Our God is in heaven; He does whatever pleases Him.» Now, personally, I appreciate that about God—He does what He wants to do. You might say, «Well, I didn’t like what He did,» but remember, He is a good God, so He’s always going to do what is ultimately good, even if it doesn’t look like it at first. So, if God does whatever pleases Him, why do I need to pray? Should I just say, «Whatever pleases you, Lord, do that in Jesus' name, amen?»
What about Job 42:2, which states, «I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.» I love proclaiming that when I know God is working according to my plan, even when facing headwinds, I can say, «It doesn’t matter; no plan of God can be thwarted.» But I don’t enjoy that as much when God is using circumstances to unfold a plan different from mine. Job believed that no purpose or plan of God’s can be thwarted. So why are we doing a series of talks on prayer that moves God’s heart when no plan of God can be thwarted? In Psalm 139:4, it says, «Before a word is on my tongue, you, Lord, know it completely.» Isn’t it a bit redundant to say things to God that He already knows I am going to say before I even say them? So why say them? Is anyone else struggling with this, or just me?
When you take all of this together, consider the invitation of Matthew 17:20: «If you have faith even the size of a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Be moved! '» Unless, of course, it’s not what pleases Him, because He does whatever pleases Him. That’s what I’m thinking right now. Do you want to move the mountain? I can say to it, «Be moved,» but do you want to move it? There’s tension in that. He says you can speak to it and say, «Be moved,» and it will be cast into the sea. I obviously can’t resolve today’s tension between a sovereign God who runs the affairs of history and does whatever He wants, along with a God who invites me to pray bold prayers and say to things, «Be moved,» and see them move.
I want to guide us through the tension today, if that’s okay, toward a faith that captures the attention of Heaven. Why should we pray, even though God already knows everything? Because He is inviting us to believe Him for the miraculous and to ask Him for the impossible. In Luke 7:1, we see a story where Jesus is amazed—and that’s extraordinary. It says, «When He had finished saying all this in the hearing of the people, He entered Capernaum.» There is a centurion whose servant, whom his master valued highly, was sick and about to die. The centurion heard of Jesus, sent some elders of the Jews to Him, asking Him to come and heal his servant. When they came to Jesus, they pleaded earnestly with Him, saying, «This man deserves to have you do this because he loves our nation and has built our synagogue.» So, Jesus went with them.
He was not far from the house when the centurion sent friends to say to Him, «Lord, don’t trouble Yourself, for I do not deserve to have you come under my roof.» That’s interesting because his friends said he did deserve it, yet he said he didn’t deserve it. I think God liked the posture of his heart. His friends said, «Jesus, you should do this for him because he has helped us; he’s a friend of our nation.» Then, when he heard Jesus was coming, he sent word saying, «No, don’t come; I don’t deserve to have you even come into my house.» He had a humility of heart toward God and Jesus.
He said, «I am not even worthy to come to you, but say the word and my servant will be healed.» Notice what he says in verse 8: «For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, 'Go, ' and he goes; and that one, 'Come, ' and he comes. I say to my servant, 'Do this, ' and he does it.» He understood the authority at play. He knew the Almighty had sent this Jesus and recognized that given authority operates in a certain way, so you don’t even need to come to my house; all you need to do is speak a word, and my servant will be healed. When Jesus heard this, He was amazed. Now, we don’t know exactly what that looked like; was He astonished? We don’t know, but He was amazed. I am marveling at the possibility that my actions could amaze Jesus. Then He turned to the people and said, «I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.» This man wasn’t one of the insiders. He didn’t know all the language, the prophets, or the law; he hadn’t been raised the way we had. Yet he understood how it works.
He knows there’s a throne with all authority, and he knows that this man has that authority because he’s under it. Yes, He’s God in human flesh, but He’s also under the authority and orders of the Father in Heaven, who holds all authority. He knows that all Jesus has to do is say a word, and something happens in the spiritual realm, and his servant will be healed. Jesus was amazed at him. It brings us to point number one today: great faith captures the attention of Heaven. I want you to know today that you can cause Heaven to stop and be amazed.
You might say, «Well, Louie, it’s amazing in this story that the servant got healed, but there are also stories where Jairus' daughter got healed, and the woman who touched His garment got healed, and all these people received miracles. But when we prayed our bold prayer of faith that we hoped would touch Heaven, we didn’t get the miracle, and then we’re left wondering if our faith was not good enough.» That adds even more tension to the equation. Obviously, I can’t speak to every situation that has happened in our lives, but I can say this: when we pray bold prayers of faith and ask for miracles, if a different outcome happens, it doesn’t mean we didn’t have enough faith; it means God is using the circumstances for a different plan. That’s a shift, and it’s the shift Jesus was making. While He was healing people, including the centurion’s servant, He knew there would come a moment where He would face His last day on Earth, before His departure from this world.
On that day, His prayer would need to be different. We’ve looked at this prayer a lot at Passion, but I think it’s a heartbeat prayer for every believer, found in John 12:23. Jesus replied about the timeline of His life, saying, «The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.» That sounds great. «I tell you the truth; unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed, but if it dies, it produces many seeds.» So there are two plans: if the seed remains by itself, that’s good, but it remains just one seed. If that seed chooses to fall into the ground and die, it can multiply into many seeds.
Which one of those plans would you choose today if you could decide: keep your life and hang onto everything you have, or lose your life and somehow, in the process, allow God to multiply your life into many more lives than if you had kept it? This is the call for every follower of Jesus, but it’s specifically His call. Here’s how He explains it: «The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.» Now we come down to His prayer, verse 27: «Now my heart is troubled, and what shall I say?» In other words, «I’m about to pray. What am I going to pray? Am I going to pray, 'Father, save me from this hour? '» That’s prayer one. Or should I pray the last prayer found in verse 28: «Father, glorify your name.»
We are coming down to the wire here, and I’m going to pray a bold prayer. I’m either going to pray, «Save me from this moment—these people are trying to kill me,» or I will pray, «Glorify Your name.» He understands which prayer to pray because He knows who He is and where He fits into the timeline of God’s salvation plan. Should He pray, «Save me from this hour?» No! He answers himself: «It was for this very reason that I came to this hour, so I’m going to pray, 'Father, glorify your name.'» One plan could have seen God miraculously pull His Son off the cross and send down angels to rescue Him in that moment, but God didn’t do that. Why? Because God was working all the madness into a different plan. Jesus recognized that the right prayer and the miracle of the moment were for God to get glory through His sacrifice.
That’s point two: to pray, «Father, glorify your name,» is the prayer God always answers. But this brings up a question: «So, Louie, are you saying we shouldn’t pray for miracles?» Of course not! We should absolutely pray for miracles, but primarily, we should pray for miracles that advance the gospel in the world. Does that make sense? In other words, don’t just live your life detached from Heaven’s mission; don’t go through life doing your own thing. Of course, I love God, and when I need Him to do things I can’t do, I pray for miracles with bold faith. Instead, I need to get connected to Heaven’s mission. As I align with that mission moving through life, I pray bold prayers, and those miraculous prayers I’m praying are primarily to advance the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pray for our loved ones, meetings at work, or situations we are invested in—it doesn’t mean that at all. It just means we should be attached to Heaven’s mission. When we lean into that mission, it leans back into us. If you want to tap into Kingdom power, then tap into Kingdom mission. Jesus said, «Go into all nations and preach the gospel, and I will be with you to the end of the age.» So, if you want to be sure God is with you, do the thing God sent you to do.
I believe there’s a correlation here. I can’t quantify it, and I wouldn’t try, but I go back to Acts 4, where we’ve been in every one of these talks: their prayer was, «Consider their threats; enable your servants to do what?» To make it through? To get by? To escape hardship? No! To preach the word boldly! We want to align ourselves with Heaven’s mission so we can be assured we have the miraculous power of Heaven in our story. As we do that, we look at every situation, praying for the miraculous all the time, but we do it with the motivation that Jesus would be seen, that people would be saved, and that the gospel would move forward. Amen?
I remember being at a conference during my formative faith years, where amazing pastors from all over the world gathered, primarily from countries where the gospel wasn’t widely known or where being a Christian was illegal. They had come together at this retreat center, and someone had kindly invited me to be a part of it. During those few days, every conversation centered on some kind of miracle happening; it was normal conversation. Like if we were talking about a Braves game, one person would say, «Yes, and this miracle happened,» and nobody was shocked—it was just the norm.
Sitting at a round table for lunch, I listened to a pastor from Burma (now Myanmar) recount a revival in a village where the elders of the village got saved, and ultimately, almost everyone there came to faith. They renounced witch doctors and came to faith in Jesus. I thought, «Okay.» No one at the table was amazed—everyone simply praised God, except for one guy who wanted to see a revival happen near him. He asked the pastor, «What sparked the revival?»
He was one of those who spoke up and said, «It was interesting. There was a fire in one of the huts in this village, and a small girl died in the fire. When she died, the village was distraught, and naturally, her family called in the witch doctors for rituals to raise her from the dead. The witch doctors came and performed all these ceremonies, but nothing worked, and eventually, they had to give up. The girl was dead, and the village was about to bury her when one villager said, 'I’ve heard there are people in the next town who proclaim a name—Jesus—and I’ve heard they do miraculous things.' The elders gathered, called these men, and agreed to come to their village.
Upon arrival, they didn’t go to the family or the girl first; they went to the elders, told them who they were, shared the gospel, and explained that they were there to proclaim Jesus' message—the salvation of everyone, including the elders of this village. They said, 'We will pray, but if we call on the name of Jesus and He answers us, will you believe He is the Son of God? ' The elders looked at each other, agreed, and said, 'We will believe in Jesus.' They then went to the girl and her family, prayed for her, but nothing happened. Afterward, one of them prayed, 'Dear God, we pray that You’d be glorified in this village.' Then, he put his hand over the girl one more time, and remarkably, she sat up. All the elders put their faith in Jesus, and eventually, almost everyone in that village came to know Jesus.
Reflecting on that story, I considered two things that have stayed with me throughout my walk with God: First, God can raise the dead—amen? It’s not His normal operating mode; that’s why most people in this room don’t know anyone He has raised from the dead, nor do they know someone who knows someone who has been raised from the dead. Having traveled the world my entire life across different streams of the church, I haven’t heard many stories of people raised from the dead. But God can do it, and He may be doing it somewhere on this planet right now. If He is, understand why He does it: for the demonstration of His power, for the proclamation of the gospel, so people are saved, villages are changed, and revival comes.
While praying for miracles, I want to be attuned to those linked to Kingdom purposes, knowing that God wants people to be saved. But, there will always be people in this gathering whose son or daughter didn’t come back, so what about their prayers of faith? What about my prayers of faith that I’ve offered, believing and fasting, where I sought as big a miracle as possible and didn’t see the results seen in that village in Burma?
What I want you to know is that even then, your prayer for the miraculous shook Heaven. I believe that when we reach Heaven, we will see many miracles happened because of our faith. When they prayed in Acts 4, the place where they prayed was shaken. When we pray for the miraculous, things get shaken; most importantly, Heaven takes notice. I believe that when we pray, it touches the heart of Almighty God. Sometimes our perspective may not allow us to see the outcome we were hoping for, but what about that outcome—our faith touched the heart of God? What kind of miracle is that?
I’ve shared much about the depths of depression I faced in the past, and there was a breaking point about two months in, a night that changed everything. Though it didn’t instantly change, it was the tipping point that swung me back into reality and sanity. On this particular night, like all others, I was awake in the middle of the night, feeling as if a cloud were suffocating me, calling out to God. Many of you have been there, and your prayers become simpler and more desperate the deeper you fall. I wasn’t praying grandiose prayers; I was just crying out to God. That night, I prayed: „God, you didn’t heal me yesterday.“ That was a fact. „God, the doctors haven’t been able to heal me.“ That too was a fact, as I had consulted many. „You didn’t heal me today.“ Recorded fact again. „And based on that, I don’t know if you’re going to heal me tomorrow, but I want to declare this from the bottom of this dark hole tonight: even though you didn’t heal me yesterday, you didn’t heal me today, and you might not heal me tomorrow, I want to proclaim that You are a Healer. You are still a Healer!“
No, you didn’t heal me yesterday. No, you didn’t heal me today. My name might not be on the list, but you’re still a Healer! I believe something shifted that night. The Holy Spirit reminded me that my greatest weapon was worship, so I said, „God, I’m going to worship You right now because You’re a Healer.“ He gave me a little spontaneous chorus, „Be still, my soul; there’s a Healer.“ I believe that when we pray, saying, „All you have to do is speak a word,“ we recognize who He is, and how Heaven operates shifts and affects the situation.
I believe something happened that night. No, I didn’t wake up the next day to a perfect normalcy; it took weeks and months for my brain to reorganize itself. But that prayer became the tipping point. When I pray a bold prayer of miraculous faith, a miracle occurs: God’s heart is touched, and that prayer doesn’t just bounce around the room; it lands in a phenomenal destination. We can see where that destination is in Revelation 5, where it says, „Then I saw a Lamb looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne encircled by the four living creatures and the elders.“
He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the Earth. He came and took the scroll from the right hand of Him who sat on the throne, and when He had taken it, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb. Each one had a harp and was holding golden bowls full of incense. You would expect that around the throne of God, but here’s the surprising part: the golden bowls full of incense were the prayers of the saints. They sang a new song, declaring that the Lamb looked as if He had been slain.
Why did the Lamb look as if He had been slain? Because He had been slain. One day, His prayer wasn’t, „I need a miracle; I need you to save me from this cross.“ It was, „Glorify Your name.“ And because of that, He is now in glory, to the extent that when He takes a scroll, all the elders fall down and worship. Why? Because of that prayer that God always answers: „Father, glorify Your name.“ Then, look at the 24 elders—they each have a harp in one hand and a bowl in the other. The harp symbolizes worship, and the bowls are filled with the prayers of the saints.
Our prayers are not just songs to get us ready for a sermon or to somehow lift our moods; they surround the throne of God, creating the atmosphere in which He lives. The bowls filled with the prayers of the saints rise like incense around the throne of God right now. You may think, „I know, but I didn’t get what I asked for.“ But God is working miraculously. How do I know that? Because your prayers are still living at His throne right now.
This brings to mind my mom, Martha Jean. She was a praying woman; anyone have a mom like that? As she grew older, my sister and I would receive calls at night that often went like this: „I’m in the tub,“ which meant „Call me in about an hour because I’ll be in here singing hymns for about 30 minutes, and then I’m going to pray for every single person alive for the next half-hour.“ Every night, she did this. Eventually, as her condition declined due to a debilitating illness, she would need to go to the hospital often; there were many ambulance rides. Eventually, she went to assisted living and to a higher level of care, ultimately ending up in the hospital the weekend she died.
In every one of those journeys, the last thing she would say before getting in the ambulance was, „Somebody grab my prayer journal.“ Someone would hurry back in and retrieve her little spiral notebook with shaky handwriting from Parkinson’s, filled with names and prayer requests for the women she was praying for through a ministry in our city. She had a list containing specific requests, divided by days. It was Thursday, and she would say, „Today is the day I’m praying for these specific women.“ I remember being with her the moment she took her last breath. A flood of thoughts raced through my mind, but a significant one was, „I’m not going to have Martha Jean praying for me anymore, like she has every single day of my life.“
Yet, God’s spirit nudged me, reassuring me, „Don’t worry; your mom has put enough prayers in that bowl that you will be covered for the rest of your journey on this Earth.“ Thank you, Martha Jean, for filling your bowl with bold prayers. They are the incense at the throne of God. Do you have any prayers in your bowl? Wouldn’t it be tragic to eventually reach Heaven and realize your bowl has none of your prayers in it? God is inviting you to pray bold prayers.
Lastly, remember that every prayer of great faith results in a miracle, and the miracle is that it ends up being the incense at the throne of Almighty God. Here are five practical things I’d encourage you to keep in mind:
1. Don’t get stuck trying to resolve the tension. Don’t spend too much effort figuring out if God knows everything; just lean into the mystery of His invitation to pray bold prayers.
2. Pray prayers that are as big as God. Your requests can be as big as He is!
3. Don’t fixate on how God is moving. Trust that He is, indeed, moving.
4. Make yourself available to pray for things that don’t directly involve you. This is when you know you’re moving with the Kingdom.
5. Link miracle prayers to bold mission. Don’t just ask for God to do what you want; connect your requests to God’s mission.
Don’t say, „This is my person, and heal them afterward so people will be saved.“ Instead, start praying for God to save people! When praying for specific individuals, link your request to His mission and ask Him, knowing He will do what is best in every circumstance. Did that make sense to anyone? Believe this shift can move Heaven!