A Better Way to Pray - Week 4, Day 4 - The Gospel Truth

welcome to our Thursday's broadcast of the gospel truth today I'm continuing to teach on a subject that I've entitled a better way to pray and I tell you I have books on this this is my English and then this is the Spanish version of that we also have this study guide and I haven't mentioned this a lot but the study guide is just powerful you know the Lord has really put on my heart about making disciples and it's one thing to get the book and read it yourself but you need to share these throughs with other people and that's primarily what this study guide is for it's just real simple it takes these radical statements like I've made a lot of radical statements talking about prayer and you just read a few paragraphs and then there's questions and you discuss things it's not a right or wrong answer you just you know what do you believe about this do you believe that you can speak to the mountain instead of talk to God about your mountain and you just discuss it no right or wrong answers and then you go back and read the scriptures and the scriptures and answer it and it's just an interactive way of sharing these truths with Sunday School class Bible study or something and it's a it's a great way to share it and it would really be a blessing to you and to the people that you discipled and then we also have DVDs and CDs on this I'm now into my final teaching in this series and that's entitled prayer is a process and I tell you this is something that the Lord showed me decades ago and this has become a foundational truth in my life and this is one of the most important things that I've learned about prayer now let me say again I've already said these things in the previous weeks of teaching on this that I believe that the primary purpose of prayer should be just to love God and to worship Him fellowship with him and it should be a small part of our prayer life to pray and get needs meant I believe that that's really important to focus on that I've already made those points but I'm going to be talking today about how to receive from God how to get your needs men and how to see prayers answered but I just don't want to present that as this is the main part of prayer it is a part of prayer jesus said that hitherto of you asked nothing in my name ask and you shall receive that your joy may be made full there's nothing wrong with you asking and receiving but if we kept our priorities right and if we were really worshiping God and loving God fellowshipping with him the way that we should you'd find that if you put first the kingdom of God and His righteousness then all of these other things would be added unto us Matthew 6:33 and the things that he's talking no matter what you're clothed with what you eat where you sleep your physical things would come as a byproduct because most people aren't putting first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and they are putting first what they eat where they sleep in all of these things then it becomes a struggle and it's hard but if you would do things in its proper order then all of these blessings would just come upon you and overtake you and you wouldn't be struggling so before I teach on how to get your answers to prayer manifest and to do these things again I just want to say that we need to keep things in its proper priority and if we put God and his kingdom first then all of these things would come as a by-product I want to go back over to Luke chapter 11 I've already used these verses when I was talking about the man who you know needed some food for a friend who had come in the middle of the night and he went to his friend and asked him for help and the guy said you know I'm in bed leave me alone and that has been missed taught that we just have to badger God instead God was using this parable as a contrast to say you can't imagine a friend who would treat you this way well then why do you think that God would be hesitant to meet to our needs and he goes on to say that he will avenge us speedily he will answer our prayers and right in the context I've already used these verses but I want to go back to this in Luke chapter 11 and in verse 9 he says and I say unto you ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you now remember that this is a contrast and he's saying I'm not like this so-called friend who wouldn't get up because it was inconvenient for him he says if you asked me you ask you do receive if you knock it's opened unto you if you seek you find and so he's making this contrast and I just want to take this verse and you know this right here says that when we ask we receive when we seek we find when we knock it is opened unto us but did you know that not very many people really believe this verse and primarily because they have asked for something and they didn't see what they asked for come to pass they have sought to have something happen in their life and they didn't see it come to pass they have knocked and they've asked God for something and they didn't see it come to pass I can tell you there's things in my life you know when I was young my dad was sick and he spent months in the hospital and I prayed for him every day and believed that he was going to be healed and I was totally shocked when he died just a few days after my 12th birthday and so I've got things in my life that I've prayed for and I did not see come to pass I was with a girl that died and she strangled on her own blood she hemorrhaged and and choked and I stood there for two hours praying for her to come back to life and she didn't come back to life I was with a little baby who died in my arms and I prayed for a couple hours and didn't come back to life I saw at least four people that I prayed for who died and did not come back to life before I saw my first person that was raised from the dead I've now seen four people raised from the dead but you know I I've had experiences where I prayed for something and I didn't see it come to pass and the sad fact is that most people let their circumstances dictate what they believe more than what the Word of God says what I'm saying is right here it says ask and you receive well I asked and I didn't see my prayer come to pass so does that mean that this didn't work I'm gonna present to you and I'm gonna explain this that God has answered every prayer that was prayed according to the Word of God now that's the only qualification I'll put on it it says over in James chapter four it says you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you might consume it upon your own lust it also says in first John chapter five verse 14 and 15 it says this is a confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will we know that he hears us and if we know that he hears us then whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions we've desired I'm so I believe that the scripture does teach that you just can't pray for whatever it has to be something that is according to God's will if you don't like the marriage that you're in and so you're lusting after somebody else and you're wanting to doors and remarried God's not gonna help you do that because that's contrary to his will he did not provide adultery in the atonement if you are desiring to rob a bank and get away with it you can't pray for that because God didn't provide thievery for you in the atonement so it does have to be according to his will but when you pray for something that is based on a promise of God's Word God answered your prayer and I know some of you thinking no he did I can show you the burial site where this person died I can show you that I was evicted from this apartment that my car was repossessed I prayed for this and it did not come to pass I'm gonna say this and then I'll spend probably a whole week explaining myself but God is a spirit John 4:24 says that God is a spirit and God moves in the spiritual realm and whether or not you see what God has done and what God has provided for you in the spiritual realm whether you see that come to pass in the physical realm is not an indication of whether God gave but rather it's an indication of whether you knew how to receive and it's not quite that simple we also have an enemy the devil that comes against us and sometimes you may be in a receiving mode and you may be operating in faith but we have demonic pressures and we have to take our authority and stand against that but what I'm saying is that just like the scripture says God answers prayer when we ask anything that's according to his will God does give when we seek we find when we knock it is opened unto us you know it's amazing to me that Christianity as a whole has become experts at making excuses of why the word doesn't mean what it says I've heard people take this exact passage of Scripture and say well God answers but sometimes he says no well over in 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 it's around verse 20 it says all of the promises of God in him are yes and in ma men know God doesn't answer no he might answer no to something that is in his will you may be praying for a new wife and that's not his will and he may say no but anything that's based on the Word of God all of the promises of God are yes and amen God is not going to tell you no but people will Brent go to great lengths of saying that you know maybe God wanted that you to stay sick to teach you something maybe this is how he's breaking you and we've come up with all of these excuses we've become masters at explaining away the Word of God why it doesn't work I'm telling you when it says that everyone that aspera sees that's exactly what it means notice he just said I say unto you ask and it shall be given under you seek and you shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you and verse 10 says for every one that asketh receiveth and to him that seeketh he finds and to him that knocketh it shall be open the scripture is saying every one some people will say well this works for you this works for the clergy but you know I'm not the super Saint I'm not the professional Christian they look at people I give testimonies about how God has done things for me and they say yeah that works for you you're a favorite or whatever but it just doesn't work for me this says everyone that asked receives and some of you are thinking but you know I can see what you're saying but here's what happened and what are you saying are you saying that that I could have received and yet I didn't receive I mean if if this is my experience how can you tell me that God answered my prayer because God moves in the spiritual realm and whether or not what God does comes into the physical realm is not dependent upon God and His faithfulness but it's dependent upon us whether we know how to receive you know I could make a comparison here between a television signal most of you are watching this on television some of you are watching it on the internet and different things but you know these signals come through the air and whether you know it or not there are television and radio signals around you constantly you are just being bombarded with them but you can't see them you can't hear them but they're there and when you take a television set and plug it in and turn it on and tune it in is not when the broadcasts start this broadcast is already going the TV station is broadcasting 24/7 but you don't always hear it because you aren't always receiving that signal that signal is in another realm and you can't profit from it until you take a receiver something that tunes into that signal and then takes it and rebroadcast it into a visual and an audio form that you can see in here but the signal is there already the you know if you have problems with your television set most of you don't call the station and doubt that they're broadcasting just because your set went off the first thing you do is check your receiver most of us have more faith in a television station than we have in God if we pray for something and we don't see it coming to pass we just immediately think well God didn't give God's not transmitting he never released it but the truth is God is transmitting constantly but your your receiver may be broken you may not know how to receive from God and so we just immediately if we pray for something and don't see it come to pass we think well God didn't give if you turn on your television set and it doesn't broadcast you don't doubt the television station what you do is doubt your receiver I'm trying to change your thinking so that you'll get to where you know that God is faithful just like it says if you ask you did receive God gave it if you saw it God gave it to you if you knocked it was open unto you everyone who asked God gives but whether you can see it or feel it or touch it whether or not it ever becomes tangible is not an indication of whether God gave it's an indication of were you able to receive now that is a big statement right there and I know that some people just struggle with this because again we are so carnal we are so dominated by our senses that we think that you know God's Almighty and if I pray for something and if God wanted to he could just heal me he could just provide this money he could just do these things and food it would be done and if we don't see instant manifestation there is automatically doubt because we don't understand that God is a spirit that God moves in the spiritual realm and you know the title of this teaching that I've got this last teaching in my series is prayer is a process and most people don't believe this they think that God if he wants to just snaps his fingers and boom it's done but many of the things we pray for come through people for instance if you are asking for finances did you know that God is not going to counterfeit United States currency or whatever country you're living in he's not going to counterfeit the currency that's against the law he's not going to make money and just put it in your pocket he is gonna use people Luke chapter 6 verse 38 says give and it shall be given unto you good measure pressed down shaken together and running over shall men give into your bosom God uses people if I'm gonna prosper God is gonna use people to prosper me and so it's a process if I pray for Prosperity God is gonna prosper me but he's gonna speak to people you know in my individual situation I'm a minister and I make my living from ministering the Word of God there's many scriptures that talk about that and so God uses people and there was a time in my ministry when I would have financial need I would just thank God what was wrong why aren't you meeting my need and I finally came to realize that it really doesn't have anything to do with God not meeting my need but God uses people like for instance when Jim Baker and Jimmy Swaggart went on trial this is back and I'm not sure but I'm thinking it's the 80s but anyway when they went on trial Jim Baker went to jail Jimmy Swaggart fell and you know went in with the prostitute and slandered him when that happened people immediately just thought men these media ministries they're all crooks they they're professing one thing but they don't possess it and did you know that when that happened my income dropped over forty thousand dollars per month over that summer when when those two got exposed and you know what my first reaction who is God why are you doing this man I'm seeking you I'm believing I'm doing everything I know but you know what I came to realize is it wasn't God who decreased my income God uses people and when people saw that media ministries were in these two instances not living up to what they were professing they just made a blanket statement against everybody and they got skeptical and they quit giving their money matter of fact the church that I go to in Colorado Springs the pastor got up in front of a you know mega church tins I mean thousands of people over ten thousand people in the church and he says this is the reason that you should never give anywhere except to your local church you give to the local church and then we will decide where to give and so he capitalized on that and I'm sure that other pastors did this and anyway the net effect is that my income decreased forty thousand dollars a month for a number of months not because God quit giving but people quit responding to God and God supplies my need through people so now I realize that yes I pray and I trust God and I believe that God is meeting my needs but God isn't gonna drop the money out of heaven he's not going to just create money and put it in my billfold God uses people and the scripture says in 2nd Corinthians that those that preach the gospel should live of the gospel it's proportional i'm ministering to millions and millions of people and we're doing a lot of big things building a bible college campus we are on television all over the world and it takes a lot of money and because i reach a lot of people god speaks to people's heart and people give and that's the way that my needs are supplied and if my needs aren't supplied there's probably one or two things either i am trying to do something that isn't God's direction and God is not gonna pay for something that's not his will or if I am following God you also have to have people to cooperate and listen to God I don't have enough money to finance what we're doing it's not coming out of my pocket God's got to speak to people so I pray that you understand what I'm saying that God when I pray and believe God for something God moves but he moves through people and my financial prosperity is dependent upon God ultimately but it's also dependent upon people that God is going to speak to you know back when Jamie and I were first getting started in ministry it was you know sometimes when you have a small situation it's easier to grasp what's going on and and anyway we were in a situation where our rent was a hundred dollars a month and we were believing God for a hundred and twenty dollars so that we could not only pay our rent but give $20 as an offering and so I believe for this and I was three weeks late on my rent I contacted my landlady the very first day and I told her we will pay this I promise you I'm gonna be good for it but I just don't have it right now and she was being patient with us but finally when it got up to three weeks she came out against me and she says some Minister you are you're a crook you're a liar and boy it was it was hard on me and I was praying and saying god I don't understand and anyway that day that we got this letter and she just ripped me up one side and down the other I got a call from a woman who wanted to take Jamie and me out to eat which was good because we hadn't eaten in weeks we didn't have any if we didn't have money to pay our rent I wasn't gonna just be buying food I was putting a priority on paying my bills and anyway she took us out to eat which was wonderful and as we talked to her she handed me a check for a hundred and twenty dollars exactly what I was believing for and even though I was blessed I also thought God why is this three weeks late it seems like you could have provided this earlier I didn't say that but that's what I was thinking and as I thought it this woman said to me says Andy I wanted to give this to you four weeks ago God told me to give this to you over a month ago but she says I have never given money anywhere except to our local church and to give money to you individually I just wasn't sure and she said I have been praying about this for four weeks but I know it's God and then she told me all of this and as she was telling me this you know what I was thinking God you were faithful you answered my prayer even before the rent was due you spoke to somebody it wasn't you didn't move it was because you were gonna flow through a person and this person had reservations about giving money to a minister that wasn't in a church and that's how Satan hindered it but God spoke the supply came through did you know the next time I got behind on my rent I remembered that and what I did I was over at my mother's house and I was painting her house for her and as I was painting I thought about this and I said God I know that you've already spoken to somebody it's not you that hasn't supplied my need but you are using some person so right now what whoever it is I just pray that whatever the hindrances are get out of the way and anyway it's a long story but a previous teacher that I had had from a decade before or something my mother was a teacher my mother saw this other teacher this other teacher got to asking about me what I was doing she told him I was full-time in the ministry and pastoring a little church and she says oh I have wanted to give him this check and I think it was three hundred and something dollars and she says I just didn't know how to get it to him I haven't seen you she said would you please get this check to him and she gave that check to my mother my mother brought it home gave it to me and God supplied our needs after three days instead of three weeks and it wasn't God who was the variable it was people God uses people and as I understood this and prayed God worked some special things together to put my mother and this woman together and praise God the need was meant I'm telling you that regardless what you see or feel God is answering your prayers but there is a process from when God moves to when you see it you

Channel: Andrew Wommack

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Keywords: Andrew Wommack, Andrew Wommack Ministry, The Gospel Truth, Gospel Truth, The Gospel, Charis, Charis Bible College, God, God (Deity), Christianity (Religion), Holy Spirit (Deity), A Better Way to Pray, A Better Way to Pray 2016, Prayer, Andrew Wommack Prayer, The Prayer, Like a Prayer, Lord, Faith, Receiving from God, Prayer is a Process

Id: gFFenYyzTKI

Length: 23min 36sec (1416 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 22 2016