A Better Way to Pray: Week 1, Day 1

welcome to gospel truth with Andrew Wommack a teaching ministry that focuses on God's unconditional love and grace Jesus forgave us of all sin past present and even future sin the first time I realized that Jesus took the absolute penalty punishment all of it for my sins that was freedom for me and now here's Andrew welcome to our Monday's broadcast of the gospel truth today I'm going to start a series entitled a better way to pray I have a book on this this is the English version this is the Spanish version una mejor manera de Ora something like that and I also have CDs and DVDs on this and this teaching on prayer is probably one of the most loved and hated teachings that I have people either love it or hate it but you will not be neutral to this teaching on prayer let me just say that this is going to be a lot different than anything you've ever heard taught about prayer I'll get into this in more detail but let me just say that I think that prayer is probably one of the most abused men misused things in the Christian life majority of people believe that just as long as you pray that everything is fine that is not true there is right and wrong print and wrong praying can actually release the power of the devil in your life and I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this I mentioned these things in the past especially when I was teaching on Romans 12:1 and 2 but there is actually some teaching that I got on prayer that I brought back from a conference gave it to a girl that I was unofficially engaged and she prayed and asked God to give her cancer so that she could glorify God in the way she handled death and this girl died and that wasn't God's will that was because somebody was too that everything that happens to use God and that God uses sickness to break you and glorify himself and that wrong teaching and therefore the wrong prayers that came out of it actually caused her to die and there's a lot of people that their prayers are destroy in their life you know I have a lot of people come to him it seems like it's more women than men and they will ask me for prayer and say would you please pray for my husband I've been praying for him for 20 years what do I do and I one of the first things I tell them he's quit praying for your husband and a lot of people are just taking back walton there's nothing wrong with prayer yeah you can't get enough prayer you can't get too much prayer well it depends on how you're praying and the way that a lot of people pray it's actually releasing negative things if the way you pray and intercede for your husband is you spend 45 minutes save God he beats me beats the dog he spends our money he's a drunk he's mean he doesn't appreciate me doesn't love you and you spend 45 minutes rehearsing how bad he is and then you say save him in the name of Jesus that kind of prayer is not helping you are him it's focusing your attention on everything that's wrong you're just speaking forth the problem prayer is not an opportunity to inform poor misinformed God of how bad your situation is I feel sometimes like people think God you know must have a million people asking him for something and so he's got so many requests you got to get yours to the top of the pile and so you just go through it so God the doctor said this and you give all of these details thinking God doesn't know what's going on and you got to inform him and let him know that this is crisis this needs immediate action all of the things that I'm gonna be teaching here come against that prayer is not an opportunity to just unload and gripe and complain and and talk about how bad things are I heard Charles Capps one time and he was talking about prayer and he said he was praying and the Lord stopped him right in the middle of his prayer and said Charles what are you doing and he says well I'm praying and God said you aren't praying you're complaining and I'm telling you of what people do is nothing but griping and complaining and if you started with in the name of Jesus or our Heavenly Father and then you end it with in the name of Jesus and whatever said in between you think well that's prayer no there's a lot of unbelief there's a lot of griping there's complaining there is a right and a wrong way to pray and this series on prayer has caused some people to be set free I've had so many people tell me about this just revolutionize their relationship with the Lord it's one of the most important things they've learned I've had other people who were friends of mine who've been friends of mine for decades got up and left during my teaching on it because they couldn't handle it they thought I was coming against everything they held dear I believe that prayer is one of the most misused abused parts and there is a right and a wrong way to pray notice that I say a better way to pray I didn't entitle this book you're of the devil if you don't pray this way because everything that I teach against in this teaching I have done and yet God loved me and I loved God and I'm not saying that it was you know off the devil and that God hated me and because of it rejected everything about me but over forty seven years of seeking the Lord I learned some things and I've learned a better way to pray I get better results today than I have ever gotten I believe that my prayer life my relationship with the Lord is better than it's ever been and yet when I was just really getting started I still loved God and God touched me and there was good things that happened out of it I would see a few miracles happen every once in a while you know it's kind of like on an old chicken an old blind chicken I'll get you know a grain of something every once in a while if it doesn't quit you just keep after it eventually you'll stumble onto something a blind squirrel will get a nut every once in a while every once in a while I would see the presence of God and the power of God show up and I'd see my prayers answered but were few and far between when I was praying the way that is traditionally taught and I've just learned some things and I've come up with a better way to pray and so I can guarantee you I'm gonna rub some of your religious feathers the wrong way I am going to counter a lot of religious teaching about prayer but that doesn't mean that it's wrong I had some people who are leaders in the body of Christ get so upset over this book they came back to the people who published it and said how could you have even published this book it's against everything we believe for and I remember the lady just saying you know get past the first chapter the first chapter is so offensive it counters so much stuff that a lot of people won't read the rest of the book but I tell you it's powerful and some people think well why do you do that well did you know that this is the way Jesus approached prayer look at what Jesus said when he started talking about prayer in Matthew chapter 6 verse 5 it says and when thou prayest thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corner of the streets that they may be seen of men verily I say unto you they have their reward you know the very first thing that Jesus did was say that hypocrites love to pray this is my very first teaching in this series the first CD in this is entitled hypocrites love to pray and I make a big point out of this and you know I actually had a guy come to me just recently last week and say that their kid was up in the room listening to some of my teachings and he came down and he said dad you're a hypocrite and his dad says what what are you saying and he didn't explain it he just left went back up listen for a while he came down he says mom you're a hypocrite too and they couldn't understand so finally they went up to the room says what are you saying and says well Andrew right here says hypocrites love to pray you love to pray so you must be a hypocrite this little kid didn't quite get the full impact of it but Jesus when he started talking about prayer he said don't be like the hypocrites because they love to pray did you know that every religion on the face of the earth prays I mean you can look at the Muslims and they have three five times a day whatever it is that they put down their little mat and they bow towards Mecca and they pray you can go into the Hari Krishna or alarm the Buddhist you can go into anything and every religion loves to pray they emphasize prayer and yet there is only one way to God the Father Jesus said that I am the way the truth and the life no man comes unto the father but by me if you aren't praying in the name of Jesus and going through Jesus you are not connecting with Almighty God there's people watching this program that I'm sure take issue with that and say how narrow that is but that is absolutely true you have to pray and approach God the Father through Jesus he isn't a way he is the way the only way and so that means that the millions and millions and millions of people in other religion who are putting so much effort into prayer are not connecting with God the Father they may be connecting with some demonic power they may just be listening to themselves soothing their own conscience but they are not in true relationship with God and even inside of the Christian church there are a huge amount of people who go through the ritual of prayer and they may say that they're praying but they aren't connecting with God if that's true of people outside of Christianity who are praying to Allah and praying in the name of whatever and all of this stuff and I think that most Christians would acknowledge that that's true well then it's also true of people even inside of the body of Christ who aren't praying in a proper way Jesus is going to go on and expound and counter a lot of things but when Jesus started teaching on prayer the very first thing he did was teach what prayer is not jesus said this in Matthew chapter 7 verse 13 he says the traditions and turns of men make the Word of God of none effect before you can actually so the proper seed and get a harvest sometimes you have to dig up the ground pull out the rocks you have to get rid of these traditions and doctrines of men that negate the Word of God it's not a matter of just teaching what prayer is Jesus started by countering all of the religious hypocrisy and concepts against prayer and so I'm following his example in the very first teaching in this series is hypocrites love to pray and it comes against just the concept of some hour now they're going through these rituals you know I'm not against any individual but I'm also not afraid to speak the truth and I'm telling you I'm not trying to single anybody out but I'm saying that there's people that have these beads and you go through and say so many Hail Marys and so many our fathers and they call that prayer that is not prayer that violates everything that Jesus is teaching right here he talks about vain repetitions and people thinking that they'll be heard for their much speaking there are people that call at prayer there are people that recite written prayers and they call at prayer which although you could listen to what somebody else said and repeat those exact words and there may be an opportunity for you to get a connection there between you and God in the vast majority of cases I mean the vast majority of cases people are just saying words they aren't connecting it's not coming from their heart prayer is just communication from your heart to God and it's not a one-way communication it's not a monologue where you're just saying all of these things to God you need to also listen and let God minister unto you and anyway many people today have turned prayer into a religious calisthenic that they do it's something that they do primarily to sue their own conscience they feel that if they will spend a certain amount of time in prayer then it makes them feel better that they are somehow a better person and they feel that God now owes them something they've put in their time they collected so many stars for all of their prayers and after you get so many stars you can cash them in for one answer to prayer and it's something that people do and many times God isn't in it you know I used this example but there was a time that I used to pray a couple of hours and I would set the timer and and I would force myself to pray and yet one time right before this prayer time I was just having a wonderful time with God and God was speaking to me through his word and I was speaking to him and I was having a wonderful time in prayer and yet it came time that this two hour of prayer time was coming up and I just told the Lord I said you know how I feel anyway so I'm just gonna be honest and confess it but I said I'd read there's two hours it seems like it takes four hours and I'd read I said I'm having a wonderful time right now just studying the word and praying and fellowshipping with you and I'd read these two hours where I go in and have to just force myself to talk for two hours and I confessed and said I'm sorry but that's the way it is and the Lord spoke to me and he says don't worry Andrew he says I go to dreading it thirty minutes before it's time for the prayer God doesn't like that kind of Prayer either you know people are always saying things like put me on your prayer list you can't find a prayer list in the Bible now am I saying that prayer lists are of the devil you can't find anything against prayer list either but I'm saying that there's some people that think that you just have to go through every single day and mention these people over and over and you got to keep bombard in heaven I'm gonna be coming against a lot of that and showing you that God loves the people you're interceding for more than you do and you do not have to twist God's arm and beg God and somehow or another get God and is as in love with these people as you are you know I actually when I first got started again I my heart was right but my head was wrong I was just modeling I was following the model that I had been taught and we started begging God and pleading with God for a revival because I was taught that this is the way you have to do it I'm not against revival America the world needs a revival I am forced seeing a supernatural move of God but the way we've been taught to pray for it and that we've got to get hundreds or thousands or millions of people to pray and just put pressure on God and not let go until he releases his power is absolutely wrong that actually is detrimental to you and your relationship with God I'm gonna be coming against that stuff and talking against the way that intercession is spoken off today but back when I first got started I've been taught all of these things that we forced God we grabbed hold of God and don't let go until God releases what you want that is a sorry-sorry attitude but that's the attitude that I had I'd been taught this and so I started praying and I literally caught myself saying this one time I was praying for the city of Arlington Texas that's where I lived and I mean I interceded in beg God to touch people and save people every day of my life and prayed for a move of God and all of this and I actually found myself one time just crying out to God pleading with God and I said this out loud I said God if you love the people of Arlington Texas half as much as I did do you we would have a revival and as soon as I said that I realize something is wrong with this picture I'm imputing to myself that I love people more than God but see I wanted to see people touched and I thought well I'm praying and I'm not seeing people touched I'm not seeing people turn around and come to God so it must be God who's not answering my prayer and I just had to pray longer and harder I started all-night prayer meetings and we started bombarding the gates of heaven and begging God for a move of God and praying through this and I tell you what that'll wear you out it's hard on you it actually is a criticism against God I had a woman come to me one time and she said I've been praying for my husband for 20 years I I prayed I've done everything I know how to do it God hasn't answered my prayers so would you please pray for my husband maybe God would answer your prayers now some of you may not think that there's much wrong with that but boy when that woman said that to me I said I will not pray for your husband and she immediately took well why wouldn't you pray for my husband I said because I'm not gonna enter into agreement with you because your whole attitude towards God stinks you are implying that God could just save your husband and you know the snap of his finger if he wanted to he could just force your husband to be saying I said that's not what the Word of God teaches faith comes by hearing hearing by the Word of God Jesus told us to pray Labor's to go across his people's path I said there is a writing the wrong way to pray but you are praying as if there is nothing that you have to do or anybody else has to do or your husband has to do it's just up to God and so you're begging God and since your husband hadn't been saved for 20 years therefore it must be God that somehow or another just isn't motivated to save him so maybe I'll carry more weight with God maybe I can motivate God more than you have I said that is a sorry attitude God loves your husband more than you love your husband you do not need to pray for people and beg God to save him because God is disinterested and if it was just up to God he'd let them all go to hell no that's not true God loves the people you're praying for more than you love them prayer is not an opportunity for you to beg and plead with God and somehow or another trying to get God to be as holy and is compassionate and as good as you are see when you approach God that way and this is primarily the way that prayer has been done that we somehow or another are motivating God we are forcing God to do something that he wouldn't do if it wasn't for you when you approach prayer that way it is a slam against God is an insult against God you are starting from a position of unbelief it hurts you you aren't gonna be effective I tell you what prayer is an area that has been really really misrepresented and I'm still in the introduction but let me just say this before I get into some of the exact details that there are people who glorify prayer and they will talk about prayer they teach on prayer you got to pray you got to do all of this I'm teaching on prayer there is a place for it but I'm saying that there's a lot of people that glorify prayer and not what prayer accomplishes to me prayer is like a vehicle you know I've got a car that got me from my home to my office so that I could make these programs today and it's a nice car and it's got things on it and I like the car but the car is just a tool it's what I can do with that it's I don't sit there and glorify my car I don't sit there and talk about old men I just love my car no I love what I can do when I get in my car and where it'll take me and how it gets me there and stuff like that there are people that just talk about prayer I believe that prayer is really not the issue its relationship with God that is the issue and prayer is just communing with God talking to God and communication talking to God is an important part of our relationship but I don't glorify a prayer I glorify my relationship with God and prayer my time of communion with God is an important part of that but I don't put the emphasis on the vehicle that I use I just talk about what it accomplishes and I am big into relationship with God and having personal time and intimate relationship with God in prayer is just the vehicle that helps me get there so again I go back to Matthew chapter 6 verse 5 and and says and wind out prayers this is Jesus speaking thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the street that they may be seen of men there's a lot of people that pray today because it gives them clout in their own mind and then as they boast about it and talk about it other people are in prayer with how long they pray and all of these kind of things and I'm telling you it says right here it says that that they may be seeing a man in the last part of this fifth verse says verily I say unto you they have their reward what does that mean I believe that it's primarily talking about that you know what when you brag about man I spent an hour in prayer I did this I did this I pray every day I discipline myself I get up at 5:00 in the morning that little pat on the back that people give you and say oh you're so wonderful you know what that's your reward that little bit of recognition the fact that people think you're awesome that's your reward you aren't going to get anything from God you aren't gonna see your prayers really be effective if you are praying for the acclaim of man so that you can boast and brag about what you've done that little bit of satisfaction you get that's your reward you know I'm out of time today but I do have this book entitled a better way to pray I would encourage you to please contact us get this book we've also got it in Spanish we've got CDs and DVDs if you'll listen our announcer will give you that information and please call or write today entries complete teaching titled a better way to pray is available as a book in either english or spanish today andrew would like to offer this book as his free gift to you go to a WMI dotnet to get your copy today I'd like to encourage you to get this free book that we're offering on prayer I've got other product here study guide DVD CDs but we're offering this book to you as our gift and I tell you this is a powerful teaching especially during this time you know we're just going through this virus that hit the world actually a pandemic and man people are praying but many times are praying wrong out of desperation begging God they don't know the rights and privileges that God has given us and I promise you this would transform your prayer life we are offering this as a free gift to you so listen to our announcer as he gives you the details and please call or write today to receive our free book on a better way to pray the individual topic highlighted on today's broadcast is available as an audio CD for a gift of any amount when you write or call we encourage everyone to give because there's a blessing in giving but if you're simply unable to afford it Andrew and his partners will provide today's teaching free of charge a better way to pray is also available as a CD or DVD album made from our daily television broadcast and as a companion study guide each of these valuable resources is available for a gift of any amount when you contact us this entire series is also available for audio download absolutely free from our website go to a WMI dotnet to see all the ways you can get this teaching we want to say a special thank you to the grace partners of Andrew Wommack ministries your gifts make it possible to put free ministry materials into the hands of many people in need if you're not already a grace partner we ask you to pray about becoming one today you can become a grace partner or order resources through our website and a WMI net while there you can discover more product details and download additional free resources or call our helpline monday through friday from 4:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. mountain time at seven one nine six three five eleven eleven to write us use the address on your screen we appreciate your generosity and hope to hear from you today I'd like to invite you to join me on June the 5th and the 6th for our truth and Liberty coalition conference this is going to be specifically to motivate and equip people how to get involved in their political realm in the government and get make a difference how to vote how to motivate people to vote to equip them to give them tools we've got James Robinson who's going to be our speaker on Friday night that's going to be powerful and then we got a whole day Saturday a great speakers lined up some practical things we are specifically focusing on pastors and I believe it's really going to be a powerful thing so I encourage you to come join us on the 5th and the 6th of June for our truth and Liberty coalition conference right here in Woodland Park if you haven't yet partnered with us I'd like to encourage you to pray about it and then if the Lord says so join with us because we are taking the gospel not only through television but we've got over 70 different locations around the world offices I think in 16 different nations we have probably 8,000 students going through Kerris Bible College at any time with over 8,000 graduates we're pumping out millions and millions of free material through 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Channel: Andrew Wommack

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Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 08 2020