Rabbi Schneider - Prayer God Responds To

TOPICS: Prayer

Do you know it's a powerful thing to realize, get this now, that your prayers can move God. Think about that for a second. Your prayers can move God. You know, sometimes we invest so much time and energy in trying to move other people. You know, we look at how human beings try to manipulate people, how sometimes we'll find people even crying as a way to manipulate somebody else to move them. People screaming and yelling, trying to manipulate another individual, another human being. But think about the fact that you can move God. How much more powerful to realize that you can move God rather than focusing on how to move other people.

You know, in life sometimes, even when people are praying, they're not even, if they're praying out loud for example, often times they're not even thinking about moving God. They're thinking about how to impress the people around them that are listening to them pray. Isn't that ridiculous and preposterous? Let's get rid of all that. Beloved, you can move God. The Bible tells us in the Book of 1 John, chapter 5 that when we pray in the spirit, according to God's will; in other words, when our heart, when our soul is truly communicating that which is from the Spirit of God, it moves the heart of the Lord and God hears us and he responds to us and answers our prayers.

Listen to what the Bible tells us in 1 John, chapter 5, verse 14, beloved one. Hear the Word of God. We find John writing this: This is the confidence which we have before Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Listen to this again. He said: This is the confidence that we have, that if we ask anything according to God's will, God will hear us and he'll grant us those things that we're asking of him. So we want to delve deeper into the will of God for our lives. What are the type of prayers that we see prayed in Scripture that the Lord's responded to? Prayers beloved, that resonate with God.

I'm gonna be walking through the entire Bible. This series is just gonna continue to go on. I'll probably divide it up into four to six different episodes and then I'll change the name of the series, just so that we can get it to you, those that wanna, who wanna put it in their hands. But what we're gonna be looking at today, we're gonna go all the way back to the beginning of the Bible. As I said, as I continue on with this theme of prayer, we're gonna go from the Old Testament into the New Testament. But today as I begin this series, I want to go all the way back to the Book of Genesis. And I want to look in the Torah which is the first five books of our Bible, and I want to examine with you, beloved ones, prayers that were prayed that God heard and responded to. So let's begin today, first of all, just by praying to the Lord, and then we're gonna go to the Book of Genesis.

Father God, we love you today and we need you today. And Father, we worship you today in the name of King Jesus. And Father God, we pray right now that you would touch our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And that Father, the words that I speak, Father, that they would be spirit and life, that you would use them to touch your people, Father God, that you would move their hearts, that you would help them to understand the types of prayers, Father, that you hear. And that you would give them confidence, Father, I pray, that when they pray according to your will that you'll answer them so that when they stand before you in prayer they're confident that you're hearing, Abba God, and that their requests are being granted by you, in Jesus's name. Amen and Amen.

So let's begin now, right now. We're going to the Book of Genesis, chapter number 28, verse number 20 through 22. Hear the Word of God: Then Jacob made a vow, saying, If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father's house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. And this stone, which I have set up as a pillar, will be God's house, and of all that You give me I will give a tenth to You. So this is Jacob's prayer here. And let's take a look at it kind of piece by piece. Jacob here is praying, beloved, for security, get this now, and safety, for provision and safety. Let's listen to this.

Then Jacob made a vow saying, If God will be with me. He's saying, God, if you'll be with me and if you will keep me on this journey that I take; so let's look at that first phrase. Jacob says, Father, if you'll be with me, God, if you'll be with me, and keep me on the journey. So Jacob is looking for assurance, and he's looking for confidence, number one, that God would be with him and that God would keep him. Do you know when we look at that very famous prayer that I pray at the end of every broadcast, beloved ones, it's called the Aaronic Blessing from the Book of Numbers, chapter 6, it begins by saying, the Lord, the Lord bless you, get this now, and keep you. This is the same thing that Jacob is asking for. Lord, if you'll be with me and keep me. (Hebrew phrase: Y' va-re-che-cha Yahweh v'yish-mire cha) The Lord bless you and keep you.

Isn't that an awesome thing to know that when you ask God to bless you and to keep you that God hears that? That you were made to communicate with God in that way? That when God made you in his own image and he put a need in your heart for him, one of the needs, beloved ones, that he put in your heart was that you would depend on him to keep you? Listen again what Jacob says: If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take. Let me ask? Are you on a journey? You and I are on a journey right now. Our whole life is a journey, isn't it? This life that we're on, beloved one, it's a journey and we can pray that God would keep us on the journey. What about when you get on your, when you go outside your front door and get in your car every day, those of you that are driving, aren't we dependent on God as we're driving on the road to keep us and protect us, that God would give his angels charge over us, lest we dash our foot against a stone?

So Father God, we ask you right now, Father God, please keep us, Father God. Keep us, watch over us, be with us. Let's listen again what Jacob prayed. We say in Hebrew, Yaakov. Let's listen to what Jacob prayed. If God will be with me, Jacob's Hebrew name, Yaakov, if God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear. So now Jacob, Yaakov, he's pressing it even further. He said, Lord, keep me. Protect me. Watch over me. Keep me safe and provide for me. Now he's praying for provision, that if, Lord, you'll give me what I need to stay healthy, to stay protected, that I'll have a roof over my head, and food over my stomach, if you'll be a tabernacle for me, Father God, as I'm on the journey of life.

Beloved, don't you and I need that? And don't we need the security to know that as we're on this journey that we call life, that our God, that King Jesus, that Father God, is blessing us, get it now, keeping us and providing for us? That no matter where we go and no matter what stage of life we're in, whether we're ten years old, whether we're teenagers, whether we're in our college years, whether we're in our, our formative years, whether we're in the stage of life that we're in our forties and working, whether we're raising our children, whether we're in our old age, that God wants us to know that we can depend on him, that we can trust him, that we can ask him to keep us and to provide for us? Aren't you happy to know that Jesus is with you, keeping you, and that he's gonna provide for you?

And he wants you to ask him for that; not to take it for granted but to believe him for it, to confess it that he is keeping you, that he is providing for you, and that he is gonna keep you and going to provide for you, but also to ask him for it. So we both confess it; thank you, Father God, that you love me, that I'm your child, that I'm your son and daughter, or daughter, and that as I'm on this journey of life, that you're keeping me all through the journey, that you're gonna keep me safe, that I don't have to be afraid of the future, that I don't have to fear what I'm gonna face tomorrow, that even when my hairs are gray and I'm in old age you're gonna keep me and provide for me, and bring everything into my life that I need to lead an abundant life with you. We confess it, but also beloved, we're asking him for it.

Father, keep me. Father, thank you today for keeping me, and Father, I pray that you'll provide everything that I need. Father, thank you that I won't run out of money; and Father God, King Jesus, I ask you that you'll provide for me financially all the days of my life. When you start asking God, beloved ones, to keep you and to provide for you, I want you to know that you've got a God that's concerned about these things and that he's gonna be faithful to do these very things for you. These are Biblical prayers. These prayers, beloved ones, resonate with God and you can trust him when you're depending on him in a pure faith and true humility to grant you these requests, beloved; that he's gonna grant these requests to you and that your answers to prayer have happened in Jesus's name.

Let's continue on and let's read that once again right now. Jacob made a vow saying: If God will be with me and keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father's house in safety, then the Lord will be my God. And then he made a memorial with God. He made a covenant with God, and he said, then this stone, which I set up as a pillar, will be God's house. And then he made a commitment to tithe and he said and Lord, and I will give you a tenth of all that I have. And so Jacob is pressing in, Yaakov, he's pressing in now and he's saying, Lord, keep me safe.

You know, he's sharing with the Lord. He's sharing with his Father his deepest needs, his needs to feel protected, his need to feel secure, his need to feel safe. You know, I don't know about you, but when I was a child, I really did feel safe, you know. When we're newborn infants in the world, you know, we think that everything's gonna be okay, many of us. Now I realize that some of you may have grown up in some difficult situations, and praise the Lord, God is more than sufficient. But the way that the Lord meant it to be is that, you know, as newborn infants coming into the world, as, as, as children, we do feel safe most often.

You know, we feel that our mom and dad have the answers. We, we grow up, many of us, in what we felt like was a safe environment in a, in a home where there were boundaries and there was structure. And many of you, as I did when I was a young person, I felt safe growing up. I wasn't afraid of the types of things that I'm aware of now, all the dangers that I'm aware of lurking in the world. As a young person, I felt safe. You know, David said in one of the Psalms that he had stilled his soul like a child at rest, he said, on his mother's knee. And he was talking about how he had come to the place of feeling secure and safe in his life through his relationship with God, that even brought him back to that sense of, get it now, security and safety that he felt as a little child being held by his mother.

And do you know that God has an environment for us in him that's even safer than the environment that we felt that we had when we were even young children? Because when we were young children we felt that everything was safe without realizing that the world was not as safe as we thought that it was, that murders were still happening, that kids were even being kidnapped, that people were getting in accidents on the road, that there was all types of diseases and sicknesses out there, even though we felt safe because our parents shielded us from those things. In reality the world wasn't as safe as we felt it was. But what God is saying to us is this.

Now that you're older and you've come to the realization that this world is a dangerous place without me, I want you to know that even though this world is a dangerous place, in me I'm gonna keep you safe. Remember David said, even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thy Word and thy staff they comfort me. So beloved ones, I want to encourage you as you're praying, pray to the Lord about your deepest needs. I'm sure that for many of you one of the deepest needs that you have right now is to feel secure and to feel safe. This is what Jacob, this is what Yaakov was praying for in the Book of Genesis. Lord, if you will keep me and bring me in safety, and provide for me.

And I know that right now that many of you that are sitting on your couch, I'm speaking right now to some of you widows and widowers, and some of you elderly people, and you're, you're in a place where you're fighting feeling vulnerable. You're fighting feeling threatened by life. You're fighting fears of sickness. You're fighting fears of maybe even falling and no one even knowing that you fell. You're fighting fears of going out on the road alone. You're fighting fears of ending up in a nursing home. You're fighting fears of, of running out of your finances. And I want you to know that God loves you and even as he answered Jacob's prayer, he's gonna answer your prayer.

I'm gonna pray with you right now that God is gonna keep you, that he's gonna bring you to the end of your journey in safety, and that everything that you need in the journey, he is gonna provide for you because he's the God of lights, and every perfect gift comes from him. And Jesus said, if God knows how to take care of the sparrows that are here today and gone tomorrow, if he clothes the lilies of the field more grand than Solomon, how much more will he take care of his own children. Jesus said don't worry about those things. Father's gonna provide. Not a sparrow falls to the ground without him knowing it. He knows everything that you need. He loves you, beloved one, so much. He's closer to you than you are to yourself. He's closer to you than your next heartbeat. He's closer to you than your next breath. He knows the next thought you're gonna think. And he loves you so much. He is gonna take care of you, beloved one, and you are safe in his arms, and he's gonna keep you. Let's pray. I'm gonna close my eyes, okay, for a moment here.

Father God, we love you today. And Father God, I want to thank you. I want to thank you, Father God, that you take care of your children. And Father, I speak Shalom right now to every child of yours; Father, especially to the elderly today, and the single women, and many of our men that are struggling with insecurity. Father, I pray over them your Shalom right now. And Father, we declare that you are a faithful God, that you will never leave us, that you are with us, King Jesus, according to your Word, even to the end, that you know that we need a roof over our head. You know everything that we're gonna need in life, the food, the money. Everything that we need of, all that we needed. Father God, according to that great hymn, your hand has provided. Great is your faithfulness, according to the hymn, Lord unto me.

And so Father, I speak favor and I speak confidence over every one of your children that's listening to my voice right now. And Father, I declare that you are faithful, that you're gonna meet every need, you're gonna provide for them just like you provided for Jacob when he asked, that you're gonna take them through this journey even as Jacob said, if you'll be with me on the journey and keep me, that you're gonna take each child of yours that's listening to my voice right now, you're gonna take each one of them, Father, safely to the end of their journey on this life, that when they breathe their last your arms are gonna be surrounding them and you're gonna take them, Father, into your eternal kingdom, into that place that you prepared for them, Jesus, in your Father's kingdom.

And so Father, right now I want to thank you that you're keeping and will keep every one of your children listening to this broadcast right now, that you're keeping them safe, Father God. Father, right now I just ask for a bubble of your Shalom around each and every listener and viewer right now. Father, that you would just give them a sense of inner security, knowing, Father, that you're protecting them; Father God, that you are protecting them and keeping them safe. And Father, I thank you right now, in Jesus's name, and Father God, I take authority, I just sense that there are some people out, that are watching right now, I'm coming against the spirit of pride right now. I'm coming against the spirit of pride. I take authority over every demon of pride.

Everyone that's watching right now, you think that you're self-sufficient. You think you can get through this life without God. I want you to know that's a lie. When you die and breathe your last breath, you're gonna have no control over what's happening to you and neither do you have control over your life today. So if you're one of those ones that I'm speaking to right now and you feel the pride in your heart, you feel hostility, right now I'm telling you it's satanic and it's demonic. And you have an opportunity to break the hold of that demon in your heart right now by getting down on your knees and asking Father God in the name of the Lord Jesus to forgive you of your pride, to break you of it, that you can repent of your sin right now by turning to him and by saying "Jesus, forgive me of my sin. I need you. Come into my life and let me know you and develop a love relationship with you".

Beloved ones, I want to thank you today for tuning in with me to Discovering the Jewish Jesus. I want you to know as we move forward in the weeks ahead, we're gonna delve deep into Scripture and find out the type of prayers that resonated with God, going all the way back to the patriarchs, to the prophets, to those people that walked with God. And by studying their prayer lives, by looking at the types of things that they prayed to God, and seeing how God answered them, by knowing this you're gonna be to pray before the Lord with confidence knowing that when you pray according to his will, he hears you and that he's gonna grant you, beloved, your request. I want you to know God loves you today. Jesus loves you and so do I. Thanks for watching Discovering the Jewish Jesus. From my heart to your heart, Shalom.