DUMB PRAYERS THAT I HAVE PRAYED AND GOD HAS ANSWERED OVER THE YEARS

Over the past nearly 29-years of pastoring Legana I have occasionally mentioned that one day I would write about “the dumb prayers that I’ve prayed.” It’s not really that they are all ‘dumb’ prayers, it’s that they are the kind of prayers that are guaranteed to be answered by God (because they are “surrendered” prayers) but have not been fully considered what God’s answer might entail. I do not consider the more well-known and obvious “dumb” prayers – such as praying for revival to bring in hundreds of lost/lonely/broken souls into the kingdom and then being surprised by God’s answer resulting in exhaustion, burn-out, over-stretched resources, spiritual attacks, and the inevitable pride. Neither do I consider the even more obvious “dumb” prayer for patience and humility and the resultant means (difficult people and obvious trials!) by which such a prayer can only be answered. Instead, I begin with a prayer I prayed as a teenager then others that I prayed down through the years which have led me to this unexpected point. What I hope, and pray, you might discover after you have read this is something which will might benefit you in your knowledge of God and how He often answers prayers.

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WHAT’S THE POINT OF PRAYING THEN?

There a different ways to pray. Some prayers can be verbalised. Some prayers can be silent. Some prayers are spontaneous. Some prayers are prepared. Some prayers are prayed in private and are clumsy. Some prayers are prayed in public and are clever. Some prayers are long. Some prayers are short – even just one word. Whatever way you pray, there are three things you need to keep in mind.

¶ “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. ¶ “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
JESUS THE CHRIST, Matthew 6:5-7

Firstly, when we pray, we are talking to God. When praying at a public occasion we are still praying to God and we are praying on behalf of those present. Out of respect for those who are present these public-occasion prayers should be well considered. This is why I recommend writing such prayers out and reading them with passion when prayed in public. Otherwise, the pray-er often sounds confuddled with mindless phrases such as this prayer I have heard many times:

“Father God, oh Father God, Father God Lord, I [pause] I come to You to pray Father God, Father God Lord. Yeah [pause] Amen.”

(Perhaps this should go in the obvious dumb prayer category because I have no idea what is being prayed for.)

Secondly, when we pray, particularly in private, our words don’t particularly matter. There are not ‘right’ words to use in prayer. Prayer is not magic. Prayer is not like a Harry Potter spell. Prayer is coming from your spirit to God’s Spirit (Rom. 8:26; 1Cor. 2:11). God hears your heart when you pray.

Thirdly, God always hears our prayer but does not always answer our prayer/s they way we want. Prayer should be an expression of worship for God and trust in Him. When we pray we should also trust God with the timing of His answer not just the ‘how’ of His answer. One of the most inspirational books on prayer that I ever read — which had an enormous influence on my life — wasn’t even a book on prayer! It was the story of Dawson Trotman. As a young man he came to Christ and together with a few other guys they began praying for people, then nations, to come to Christ. Before his tragic drowning death as he rescued a young drowning girl, he had remarked that nearly everything he had prayed for some twenty-years earlier had been answered positively by God. “I now have” he said, “one regret – not that I didn’t pray enough, but that I didn’t pray for enough!” Dawson Trotman became one of Billy Graham’s intercessors and the founder coordinator of evangelism follow-up ministry called the Navigators. 

The point of praying is that we are invited by our heavenly Father to extend the reign of His Son over the earth through the ordinance of prayer. When we pray “Thy kingdom come!” we may not fully grasp either importance or the impact of our praying. 

 

WHAT’S ‘PRAYING IN THE SPIRIT’ THEN?

Christianity is the only ‘religion’ that regards prayer as a God-focused and God-empowered conversation. Jesus taught that after He had ascended back to the Father that it was imperative for His disciples to wait for the outpouring of the promised gift of the Holy Spirit who had been with the disciples up until that point, but when He would be poured out into the earth He would be in the disciples (Jn. 14:17). Other religions regard prayer quite differently. Some religions teach adherents that prayer is like meditation and needs to be mindless, while other religions teach their adherents that prayer involves the recitation of certain words sometimes in a language unknown to the pray-er such as Latin or Arabic. But Christianity teaches worshipers of the Creator and LORD to pray “in the Spirit” (Eph. 6:18; Jude 20). This can be (i) praying a Spirit-gifted language that involves the Spirit-baptised believer speaking in tongues to God in prayer (1Cor. 14:2); or, (ii) praying in your heart-language in a way that the Spirit leads you to pray (1Cor. 14:15).

¶ Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.
Romans 8:26

 

WHAT’S GOD DOING IN ME WHEN I PRAY THEN?

When C.S. Lewis’s wife, Joy, was dying of bone cancer, Jack (C.S.) was seen praying everyday in the nearby Anglican chapel. The Rector asked him if he was praying to change God about Joy’s prognosis? Jack replied, “No, I’m praying for God to change me!” Since prayer is a worshipful conversation with God, there is a high likelihood that when we pray throughout our day as our spirit communes with God that our spirit is also ‘hearing’ unconsciously from God. This perhaps is even more pronounced when we pray in tongues to God. Therefore, what may surprise praying worshipers is just how much they positively change as they wait on God in prayer seeking His face rather than His attention (Jn. 15:7). 

 

MY DUMB PRAYERS

I consider a ‘dumb’ prayer to be one that the pray-er had not fully considered the implications of how God might answer that prayer. The unconsidered implications are especially its cost, discomfort, inconvenience, and potential suffering. At one point I was prayerfully begging God to redeem and rescue the hurting, lost, lonely and broken people of my community. Those who have experienced my pastoring will be aware how God answered that prayer and how at times it was overwhelming. Then I developed a deep concern for the unwell. Again, those who are aware of my pastoral journey will know that I began a season some time ago, when for every significant health issue that someone came to me for prayer, was actually put on me. On several occasions this resulted in me being hospitalised. The list of ‘dumb prayers’ below are only the first half of these answered prayers. I am leaving the second-half — the implications — to your imagination. These are some of my ‘dumb’ prayers over the years that God has answered and as a result I have been transformed and become more responsive to God’s will:

🥺 Father, send me wherever You want – but please don’t make it an easy place. Make it a really hard place spiritually. Make it a place where few of Your servants are prepared to go! [Prayed before Kim and I moved to Tasmania.]

🥺 Lord God, fill me with Your love. Give me Your compassion for the hard-to-love. Help me oh God to truly see people and to truly hear them! [Prayed after Kim and I moved to Tasmania.]

🥺 Jesus, help me to understand Your Word. Show me what Your Word really says and to see past what I have been taught and told Your Word says to see what Your Word truly says! [Prayed regularly while in Tasmania.]

🥺 Holy Spirit, please rescue the lost, the lonely, the broken, the hurting, the confused, and the unloved! Holy Spirit, please bring them into the Kingdom of Christ through Your church! Help me to love them, heal them, and care for them. In the meantime, please fill Your people with Your love and power to be the hands and the feet to offer the love, the care, and the Father’s adoption to these needy people. [Prayed very recently while in Tasmania.]

🥺 Lord GOD, give me the time I need to complete this PhD with Monash and help me to navigate each of the challenges that will arise in doing so! [Prayed very regularly in Tasmania at the moment.]

🥺 Father, help me to hear Your voice and to heed Your Word! In fact, help me to make a difference both now and for the next four centuries by what I will leave behind [Prayed presently while preparing to depart Tasmania for wherever God will lead us.]

🥺 God, have Your way in my life! Make me, shape me, and break me, to be conformed to Your will! [Prayed presently while preparing to depart Tasmania for wherever God will lead us.]

 

PRAYING FOR GOD’S WILL TO BE DONE IS NEVER DUMB

I am a Pentecostal, but I do not hold to the Word-of-faith / Prosperity-gospel. As a Pentecostal I believe that the gifts of the Spirit are still available and will be so until the eschaton (“the Last Day” referred to in John 6:39-44, 54; 11:24; 12:48).Thus, I believe that the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit still performs miracles – including transforming lost souls into saved saints. But I also believe – not because I am a Pentecostal, but because I am a Bible-believing Christian – that God is good and always does good. This means that God has a good will and that I need to pray according to His will — even when I do not like His will! My ultimate example to pray according to God’s will is the record of Jesus in Gethsemane just before He went to the cross. And therefore, so should we.

Again, for the second time, He went away and prayed, “My Father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be done.”  And again He came and found them sleeping, for their eyes were heavy. So, leaving them again, He went away and prayed for the third time, saying the same words again.
Matthew 26:42-44

Thus, praying for God’s will to be done in your life is never dumb!

Your Pastor,

Andrew

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THIS IS HOW AN EXPERT SUCCESSFULLY FOUGHT SPIRITUAL WARS

 THIS IS HOW AN EXPERT SUCCESSFULLY FOUGHT SPIRITUAL WARS

The distance between the spiritual dimension and our earthly-material dimension is a lot thinner than most people realise! This means that there is a direct correlation between the state of your emotional, spiritual, intellectual, health and your physical health. As part of my ongoing PhD research into aspects of this phenomena I have been struck by how disconnected many people view these realms, and even more so by how many ancients saw it clearly! The forces of darkness who have, in the words of Jesus the Christ, “come to steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10) often do so literally—that is, physically and materially. Perhaps I am even more struck by how many today fail to recognise that they way to deal with such spiritual attacks often requires very physical and material solutions. When Jerusalem laid in ruins a hundred years or so after the Babylonians destroyed it, Nehemiah was charged with the rebuilding project. Almost immediately upon his arrival in ruins of Jerusalem he as confronted by three evil men who deceptively did everything they could to hinder him. Nehemiah knew these men were under the evil influence of dark powers. And while he certainly prayed to God for divine help to overcome these forces, he also set about to do something very physical involving much material interaction. Six hundred years before Nehemiah engaged in spiritual warfare in this manner, the young military leader, David, also employed a similar strategy. The result of David’s spiritual warfare was a very physical interaction with evil forces – so much so that he was forbidden by GOD to oversee the construction of the Temple because of it (1Chron. 28:3). But without David’s role in that spiritual war the Jerusalem Temple could never have been built. David was an expert in spiritual warfare and we today can learn much from him about how we should engage in spiritual warfare.

¶ And David spoke to the LORD the words of this song on the day when the LORD
delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul. He said,
“The LORD is my rock and
my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation,
my stronghold and my refuge,
my Saviour; you save me from violence.
Second Samuel 22:1-3

This portion of Scripture (2Sam. 22:1-3) occurred at a time after he had been delivered from an impossible situation where the army of the then king (King Saul) had brought his army out to capture David and execute him. After David had been delivered from this threat he recounted what he had prayed to God. In Second Samuel we get a glimpse of what he had been praying. But later, after David had become king, he wrote out his prayer in more detail in Psalm 18. Here’s a summary of Psalm 18 and why it is a great insight into how we should undertake spiritual warfare as well.

Some scholars have wondered why there is so little references to demons in the Old Testament—especially compared with Christ’s ministry described in the Gospels. There are three references to demons in the Old Testament (Lev. 17:7; Deut. 32:17; Ps. 106:37) and one reference to an evil spirit (Judg. 9:23) and three references to a harmful spirit (1Sam. 16:14; 18:10; 19:9). In regard to the references to a harmful spirit they each have a context to David as an exorcist – that is, David had the spiritual power to cast out demons! Thus, when David was violently pursued by King Saul and his murderous agenda, he of all people had every reason to understand that there were demons fuelling Saul’s hatred. With this in mind, consider how Psalm 18 reveals how David engaged with this spiritual warfare:

1. Psalm 18:1-6 ~ David wrote a poetic prayer celebrating God’s faithfulness. 
2. Psalm 18:7-15 ~ David’s poetically praises GOD.
3. Psalm 18:16-24 ~ David’s poetically declares his testimony to those looking to him for leadership.
4. Psalm 18:25-30 ~ David utters worship of God poetically.
5. Psalm 18:31-39 ~ David continues to share his testimony poetically.
6. Psalm 18:40-50 ~ David poetically praised God for his goodness.   

You’ll notice that I have emphasised that David wrote poetically. This is deeply significant. Poetry requires thoughtfulness. Poetry involves the careful selection of choice words. It is almost impossible for good poetry to be produced spontaneously. It would take an infinite intelligence to utter such great poetry spontaneously (which only God has and repeated is recorded as having done so according to the Scriptures).

He trains my hands for war,
so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze.
You have given me the shield of Your salvation
Psalm 18:34-35a

HOW DAVID ENGAGED IN DEMONICALLY-FUELLED
SPIRITUAL WARFARE

Psalm 18 provides some shocking insights into how spiritual warfare was conducted by David. While Second Samuel 22 describes David’s near-to-the-event poetic response, Psalm 18 was obviously written much later and with greater reflection. The insights that we can gain from a consideration of David’s method of dealing with spiritual attack are pertinent for believers today – who all-too-often have been misled into impotent methods of spiritual fancy rather than the truth prescribed in God’s Word.

For you equipped me with strength for the battle;
you made those who rise against me sink under me.
You made my enemies turn their backs to me
Psalm 18:39-40a

Firstly, when David was under attack, he worshiped GOD. Many Christians too easily abandon their duty to come together and worship GOD when they perceive that are under spiritual attack. If this is you, you are playing into our enemy’s hands!

Secondly, David was considerate of those he influenced and led and he reminded them about the times of GOD’s faithfulness and rescue. The enemy wants you to not recall GOD’s faithfulness and displays of greatness in your life because if you do you are more likely to exercise victorious faith!

Thirdly, David prayed to GOD, not against the enemy or even addressing the enemy! Too many believers are deceived into thinking that true spiritual warfare is simply shouting (loudly) at the devil!

Fourthly, David recognised that spiritual battles involved fighting with natural efforts. Believers today often fail to understand how susceptible our minds are to spiritual malnutrition and poisoning from such things as social media. Similarly we often fail to recognise that physical effort/discipline/exercise is also integral to genuine spiritual warfare. We need to learn from David the spiritual warfare expert and simultaneously heed what the apostle Paul taught about this:

For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God,
and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
Second Corinthians 10:3-6

Amen!

Pastor,

Andrew

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PRAYING PRAYERS

PRAYING PRAYERS The amazing thing about prayer, is that nearly everyone does it – but hardly anyone thinks they do it well. If you visit any Christian bookstore you will notice that the largest display of books is about prayer. And it’s not just Christian bookstores where you’ll find books on prayer. Regular bookstores also sell a wide range of books on prayer (even if they do classify them as books on ‘meditation’!). One of the most frequently searched questions on Google is, “How to pray” (which then points enquirers to over 2.3 billion web pages answering their question). But in all of human history – and two thousand years before anyone but one had ever heard of Google – there was just One person who was supremely qualified to answer this question. And fortunately for those of us who really want to know the answer to this question (without having to peruse more than 2.3 billion web pages!) He gave us the answer.

¶ Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when He finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples.”
Luke 11:1

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WHAT IS PRAYER?

Put simply, prayer is talking to God. It can be done by speaking audibly to God. It can be done silently. It can be done in writing. For those who do not understand what prayer is, it is – at least what they think is – a way to make God do what they want. While it is true that we can submit our requests to God in prayer (Phil. 4:6), true prayer actually begins by submitting ourselves to God first (Rom. 12:1). The person who begins to pray by telling God what to do is bound to be disappointed with God when they eventually discover that it is God who wants to tell them what to do! Perhaps this is why “unanswered prayers” is offered as one of the main reasons why atheists do not believe in God (even though it reveals the gravitational pull on every human soul to seek and connect with God).

Prayer is a mystery. Why does the all-powerful Supreme Being invite us, His creatures, to have direct access to Him through prayer? This is astounding! But even more astounding is that He invites us to share in His government over our world through prayer to Him! Notice the opening lines of the Lord’s Prayer:

Pray then like this:
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be Your name.
Your kingdom come,
Your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Matthew 6:9-10

It is almost like the parent who has not only provided their growing child with a comfortable bedroom in a comfortable family home that they can call (and to some extent, make – by their decorations and furnishings) their own, who then must ask their child for permission to enter. Even after they have told their child to tidy their room, the parent still enters after their child has left for school and does the last of the tidying up that their child didn’t notice (and still doesn’t even afterwards). There are times of course, when the child may be overwhelmed by the task to tidy their room. In those moments they may call out to their father, “Can you help me?” I sometimes see this as being like our prayers to God. He has given us our lives; He has given us our world; He has told us to keep them tidy; and, there are times when it is just too overwhelming to do it. It is in these times that we call out to Him for help. And just as our earthly parents love to help their children, our heavenly Father loves to help His children who call out to Him for help. 

Our prayers express our trust in God. When we pray to God we are acknowledging our dependence upon Him. The highest prayers we can pray sound very similar to the highest prayers ever prayed which were recorded by the Gospel writers, Matthew (Matt. 26:39) and Luke, who recorded what Christ prayed just prior to Him entering into His suffering for the sins of the world:

[Jesus knelt down] saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from Me. Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours, be done.”
Luke 22:42

This is the greatest example of a prayer ever prayed. It models exactly what prayer is about – 

1. surrender to God “not My will” (this is the essence of worship); 
2. trust in God “but Your will be done”;
3. talking to God “Father…”; and 
4. then submitting a request to God “remove this cup [of suffering] from Me.”

 

HOW NOT TO PRAY

Jesus taught His followers how not to pray. 

¶ “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.¶ “And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words.
Matthew 6:5-7

Praying is talking to our heavenly Father. It is not done merely to impress others. Jesus called this type of praying hypocritical. It is not a matter of having the right words, more words, long words, or even many words. Our praying should come from our hearts to God. Because praying is firstly an act of our surrender to God, we do not pray with a tone of telling God what He must do or how He is to do it. When we pray, we are not talking to the devil or any evil spirit – we keep addressing our heavenly Father when we pray. And when we are praying we are addressing the Only One who declares and decrees what will be, therefore we do not declare to the air what things must happen or how they are to happen.

 

PRAYING LIKE JESUS

Jesus spent time by Himself and prayed for certain people. This is remarkable. Jesus told Peter that He had been praying for him that his faith would not fail and that after he had been restored he would be able to strengthen his fellow disciples (Luke 22:32). How much more then, should we be praying for one another? When Jesus reached the tomb of His dead friend Lazarus, His praying for this moment had all been done. Thus, His prayer before raising Lazarus from dead was remarkably short:

So they took away the stone. And Jesus lifted up His eyes and said, “Father, I thank you that You have heard Me. I knew that You always hear Me, but I said this on account of the people standing around, that they may believe that You sent Me.”When He had said these things, He cried out with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out.” The man who had died came out, his hands and feet bound with linen strips, and his face wrapped with a cloth. Jesus said to them, “Unbind him, and let him go.”
John 11:41-44

It’s also amazing to me that as well as Jesus praying for Peter – and each of His other disciples (John 17:9-11) – He also prayed for all future believers yet-to-be-born!

¶ “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.
John 12:20-21

This tells me that I can pray for my great great great grand-children who are yet to be born to love God and walk after Him with all their heart. It also tells me that I can pray for our church family who, in two or three or four hundred years time, will be a witness to their community just as we are being a witness to ours now.

And He said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into His harvest.
Luke 10:2

Jesus often spent time on His own praying (Luke 5:16; 6:12; 9:18; 11:1; 22:41). He prayed for the will of God to be done and taught His disciples to do the same (Matt. 6:10). Perhaps this may mean that praying to God does something profound to us in the process. Quite possibly, praying for God’s will to be accomplished in the earth transforms our hearts and minds to be conformed to God’s will in the process. If this is the case then it might be worth our while examining the prayers that were prayed in the Bible – particularly by Jesus and His apostles as recorded in the New Testament epistles. By praying these prayers we may also become conformed to them and discover two beautiful things. Firstly, our hearts enter a rest with our Saviour even in the midst of any turmoil we may be encountering. This is what we see Jesus doing in Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed. Secondly, our souls find peace with God as we openly and transparently commune our petitions to Him and ask our Daddy to join us in our moments of overwhelming mess to help us to clean up what we could never manage on our own. This is why we should pray these prayers. Let’s pray.

Your Pastor,

Andrew

Let me know what you think below in the comment section and feel free to share this someone who might benefit from this Pastor’s Desk.