Acts 10:1-4
Unleashing God
It is obvious from this passage that Cornelius was a praying man. He
prayed and God sent an angel to visit him. It is obvious that Peter
was a praying man. \\#Acts 9:40\\ He prayed and God raised Dorcas
from the dead. It is obvious that the church at Jerusalem was a
praying church. Although they lacked faith in their prayers. they
prayed and God sent an angel who released Peter from prison
\\#Acts 12:12\\. It is obvious that Paul and Silas were men of prayer.
\\#Acts 16:25\\, they prayed and God sent an earthquake to open the
doors of a prison.
All of these Bible passages and many others teach us that prayer
unleashes the power of God into this world. This is the promise of
God.
Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide
in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall
be done unto you.
Php 4:6 Be careful for nothing; but in every
thing by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving let your requests be made known
unto God.
Mr 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things
soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them.
Question: Why, then, do Christians not pray more? I think it gets
down to two reasons.
1. Either we do not believe we need God unleashed on this world.
2. Or we do not believe prayer will do any good.
Let’s consider them both.
1. Does the world not need God’s power unleashed?
a. Would we not like to see diseases eradicated? I saw an
articles that stated brain cancer has become the leading
cancer death for children ages 1-19. Brain cancer and
leukemia together account for more than 1/2 of cancer
deaths in children but in recent years, brain cancer has
moved to the number one cancer for children’s death.
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/17/health/brain-cancer-leukemia-children-
report/
Do we not want to unleash God on that?
b. Would we not like to see violence reduced? During the
night last night, an explosion occurred in New York City,
injuring dozens. The article that I read stated, "a
second device with wiring was found blocks away…."
http://www.cnn.com/2016/09/17/us/new-york-explosion/
insinuating that it was terrorism of some kind. Do we
not want to unleash God on that?
c. Many have complained about the direction of our nation. A
good man, Judge Roy Moore, will face a hearing for
standing against a sin that twenty years ago he would
have been tried for NOT standing against. Do we not want
to unleash God on that?
d. I think we would all agree that we need God unleashed on
this world.
2. So then, it must be that we do not believe prayer will do any
good.
a. Not all prayers accomplish what we want. We have all
prayed and not gotten the answer we wanted. In fact,
using that standard—getting what we want—I think it is
safe to say that most of us have more unanswered than
answered prayers.
b. But does our not getting what we want mean prayer does not
work? Is prayer about getting what we want? The answer
to both of those questions is not.
(1) Not getting what we want is not an indication that
prayer does not work.
(2) In fact, prayer is not about us getting what we want.
For a few moments this morning, let’s talk about prayer.
I. There are some qualifications for getting your prayers answered.
A. I am no expert on prayer. I do not lift myself up as one, but
I have studied the Bible and do know there are some
qualifications.
B. Qualifications
1. You must be saved to get your prayers answered.
a. I am not saying God will never answer the prayers of
an saved person for He might.
b. I remember meeting a man once who fought in the war.
He was the proverbial fellow in a fox hole who prayed
and asked to get him out. His comrades were being
killed all around him and he was under heavy fire.
He asked God to get him out alive. He said some
might not think God answered his prayer but then he
looked at me and said, "but I’m still here."
c. While speaking with the man, I did not get the
impression that he was a Christian, but still God
heard his prayer and saved him.
d. So I do not say that God will not answer the prayer of
an unsaved person; however, I will say that God has
no commitment to answer the prayers of an unsaved
person so an unsaved person can have no confidence
that God will answer his prayer.
e. God has only committed Himself to answering the
prayers of a saved person. It is the saved person’s
right as a child of God to be able to talk with God
and have God work on his behalf.
2. You must be right with God to get your prayers answered.
Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide
in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall
be done unto you.
Psalms 66:18 If I regard iniquity in my heart,
the Lord will not hear me:
a. To abide in Jesus is to stay close to Him, to stay
connected to Him. That describes the Christians who
stays right with God.
b. To the backslider, the carnal, and the cold Christian,
I remind you that you are living in a state of sin,
selfishness, and willfulness. You are choosing those
things over Jesus’ presence, protection, peace, and
power.
c. You have no reason to expect God to answer you
Eze 14:3 Son of man, these men have set up their
idols in their heart, and put the stumblingblock
of their iniquity before their face: should I be
enquired of at all by them?
3. You must have faith to get your prayers answered.
Mark 11:24 Therefore I say unto you, What things
soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye
receive them, and ye shall have them.
a. I have spoken on faith several times in the last few
weeks so I will say only this.
b. You cannot receive from God what you do not believe
God is willing to give.
c. There are some exceptions for the church of Jerusalem
prayed for Peter’s release and then refused to
accept he was standing at the door; but generally
speaking, if you do not believe God will give it, God
will not.
d. I fear some will not be saved simply because they
refused to believe that God would save them.
4. You must pray in Jesus’ name to get your prayers answered.
Joh 14:13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my
name, that will I do, that the Father may be
glorified in the Son.
a. I bring this up mainly to correct a false
understanding.
b. When Jesus made this statement, He was not saying that
any prayer we pray and tack the phrase "in Jesus’
name" on to it will be answered. Most of us close
our prayers like this but that is not what Jesus
meant.
c. To pray in Jesus’ name is to pray something that Jesus
would want. It is to pray in Jesus’ will.
d. Jesus used the phrase "in my name" often, 17 times in
the four gospels.
e. He spoke of giving someone a cup of water in His
name, receiving a child in His name, and praying in
His name.
f. In all of these cases, Jesus was speaking of doing
something because it was Jesus would want to be done.
g. So when we pray, we must be praying for things that
Jesus would want to be done, for things that Jesus
would approve of and be doing if He were still here.
5. You must pray in God’s will to get your prayers answered.
Mt 6:10 Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in
earth, as it is in heaven.
a. Prayer is not a tool for us to get what we want.
b. Prayer is a tool for us to get what the Father wants
to give us.
c. We must be praying in accordance to God’s will.
d. I will have more to say about this in a moment.
6. You must be praying for God’s glory to get your prayers
answered.
1Corinthians 10:31 Whether therefore ye eat, or
drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory
of God.
a. Everything we do must be for God’s glory—not ours.
b. To be quite frank, most of our prayers are not
answered because they are selfish prayers, prayers
for our own personal gain, prayers that would promote
us—most often at God’s expense, prayers that would
only prolong our journey into sin and rebellion
against God.
II. Discerning God’s will in praying
A. The hardest thing about praying, outside of praying, is
knowing God’s will about praying.
1. As I have already stated, this is essential.
2. Prayer does not change God’s mind about a thing. It never
has and it never will.
3. Prayer aligns the yielded believer to God.
a. Prayer put us in the place of desiring what God
desires to do.
b. So prayers that are outside of God’s will not be
answered.
c. How can I know what God’s will is?
B. Learn the Bible.
1. The Bible is the Word of God. It is the mind of God given
on paper.
2. Did you know that two are called the Word of God?
a. The Bible is called the Word of God and Jesus is
called the Word of God.
John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt
among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as
of the only begotten of the Father,) full of
grace and truth.
b. Why are the written words of God and the Son of God
both called the Word of God?
c. Because they both reveal God to the physical world.
3. How do I read the Word of God?
a. Some need to change their attitude while reading it.
(1) Some only read the Bible to critique it.
(2) No human being knows enough to critique the
Bible and those who read the Bible for that
reason will never learn anything from it.
(3) Read the Bible with a learners’ heart and if that
is too hard for you, at least read it with a
curious heart.
(4) Even if you are a Bible doubter, read it to learn
whatever it can teach you and it won’t be long
before your opinion of the Bible will begin to
change.
b. If your attitude is not a problem, then…
(1) Read the Bible.
(2) Read the Bible to learn and to understand.
(a) I like to challenge people to read through
the Bible and have done so for many years;
however, there is no reward for reading
through the Bible in a year.
(b) The reward of reading the Bible is to learn
while you are reading it.
(3) Read the Bible believing what it says.
(4) Read the Bible obeying what it says.
Jas 1:22 But be ye doers of the word, and not
hearers only, deceiving your own selves.
C. Divorce your desires.
1. To pray for God’s will means you must purge yourself of
your own.
2. Our desires cloud our perception of God’s, and our
emotions can totally deceive us into thinking our desires
are God’s desires.
a. Emotions like love, hate, anger, jealousy, bitterness,
can cause us to think God is leading us when in
actuality, God is totally against what we are doing.
b. How do we deal with them? The best thing I have
found is to refuse our desires until God
demonstrates and confirms His will in the matter.
c. It is not always easy but we must be certain that God
is leading.
D. Complete the prayer cycle.
1. If asked to define prayer, most will say that prayer is
talking to God.
a. That is correct as far as it goes.
b. I think it is more accurate to say that prayer is
communicating with God and communication goes both
directions.
c. Prayer is talking to God but it is also listening to
what God has to say.
2. When you pray, talk to God.
a. Feel free to tell God whatever you want. You can
express to Him your needs, desires, dislikes, wants,
fears, frustrations, aggravations, and everything
else.
b. Stay respectful, Stay humble, but talk to God like
you would talk to your best friend sitting in front
of you.
c. Before you quit talking to him:
(1) Be sure to thank Him for the good things He has
done.
(2) Be sure to praise Him for the good God that He
is.
3. Then let God speak to you.
a. This is part of "waiting on the Lord."
Isa 8:17 And I will wait upon the LORD, that
hideth his face from the house of Jacob, and
I will look for him.
Ps 27:14 Wait on the LORD: be of good courage,
and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I
say, on the LORD.
b. So after you have spoken to God for a while, just sit
quietly and let God speak to you.
c. That is why prayer takes time and quietness.
c. The prayer close is not just for secret prayer. It is
also for silent reflection and meditation.
III. Prayer Power Boasters
A. Pray fervently (intensely) \\#James 5:16\\
B. Pray Determined (until answered) \\#Matt 7:7\\
C. Pray with fasting \\#Is 58:1-6\\
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