Praying with Power // Unlocking the Power of Prayer, Part 3

Christianityworks Official Podcast

Prayer is not always what we think it is. We expect instant results. But God’s ways aren’t our ways’ His thoughts aren’t our thoughts. Which is why Jesus told some strange parables about prayer.

A FRIEND AT MIDNIGHT

Today we are continuing on our series called the, “Power of Prayer”. And over the last couple of weeks we’ve been looking at ‘how to pray’ and it’s pretty simple; it’s pretty straightforward. Prayer is a humble, genuine communication with God. It’s not about show, it’s not about impressing other people or impressing God.

It’s just coming humbly before Him and communicating – listening to Him and speaking with Him. Just like people communicate, just like a husband and wife communicate – telling it how it is. And, look, if you’ve missed any part of the series so far, you can listen to it again online at our website: www.christianityworks.com.

Today we are going to look at more teaching on prayer. The Bible teaches us to pray with persistence and with boldness. Hang on a minute, how does that work? We’ve just been talking about humility – surely I have to bow and scrape and whimper and kow-tow or whatever I have to do? I mean, if God is God and I’m me, praying with boldness kind of seems a bit counter-intuitive?

I guess we can get boldness and arrogance all mixed up. On the one hand, if my children come to me with arrogance and ask me for something, well, they’re unlikely to get very far. But if they come in a quiet confidence knowing I’m their dad; knowing that they’re my kids and because of that relationship they can come to me with any need – now there’s a whole different ball-game.

Let me say it again. God’s Word, the Bible, teaches us to pray with boldness; with a quiet assurance that God’s our Dad and that based on what Jesus has done for you and me, we can ask Him for anything.

Now today we’re going to have a look at three, apparently contrasting passages about bold prayer. And the first one – at first glance – appears as though we have to, well, kind of whimper when we pray. If you’ve got a Bible, grab it. We’re going to open it up at Luke chapter 11 and we are going to look at it from verse 5 – Luke chapter 11 beginning at verse 5 – just after where Jesus teaches His disciples how to pray the Lord’s Prayer.

Now have a listen to what He goes on to teach them after He teaches them the Lord’s Prayer. It comes through a parable; a story and this one is definitely worth unpacking.

Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend and he goes to him at midnight and says to him, ”Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me and I have nothing to set before him.” Then the one inside answers, “Don’t bother me. The door is already locked; my children are in bed with me – I can’t get up to get you anything.” I tell you, though he won’t get up and give him the bread because he’s a friend, yet because of the man’s boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

See at the start of the parable, it kind of looks like we have to grovel. The picture is this: Jesus is saying that prayer looks like this – imagine it’s the middle of the night and you have a visitor and they’ve just arrived and you open the cupboard and there’s not enough to give the guy a sandwich. So you think, “Well, what I’ll do is I’ll go and knock on my neighbour’s door and borrow the proverbial cup of sugar or the loaf of bread.”

“But it’s the middle of the night – the neighbour doesn’t want to get up – why would he?” But ultimately, Jesus says the neighbour won’t get up because it’s convenient; he won’t get up because you’re his neighbour; he won’t get up because you’re his friend; he’ll get up because of your boldness and your persistence.

And notice this parable is not about borrowing one loaf of bread, it’s says, “Friend, lend me three loaves of bread.” In the middle of the night, what’s wrong with two slices? You know, I don’t think, when we come to God with a need, we can inconvenience Him. You know, He’s a 24/7 God and the implication of this parable is not that God is asleep and we waking Him up but it argues from a lesser to a greater. Jesus is saying, “Look, here’s a story, you know it, if you go and knock your neighbour’s door in the middle of the night, he won’t want to get up but ultimately, if you’re bold and you persist, the neighbour will get up and get you the three loaves of bread.

Now if a neighbour will do that, how much more will God respond to your boldness? Look at what Jesus says straight after that, so He says:

“So I say to you, Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks the door will be opened. Which of you dads, if your child comes and asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, you will give him a scorpion. If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your kids, how much more will your Dad in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”

See Jesus is teaching us to pray with boldness. Why? Because we’ve got a relationship with Dad; because we believe in Jesus and so He is our Dad in heaven and He does want to meet our needs.

Do you believe in Jesus? Then He’s your God and you are one of His children. In fact, if you look at that parable, the man who was asleep in the night, where were his children? His children were in bed with him and it’s the same thing – God is our Dad. We’re not some neighbour that has to knock from next door to come in.

God is Dad and He wants to meet our needs and we go to Him at midnight and say, “Dad, lend me three loaves of bread” and of course, He’s going to respond. You see, there is a ‘right’ boldness when we approach God. There is a ‘right’ boldness.

It’s not about groveling and yes, sometimes we have to persist in prayer – yes, sometimes we have to ask God again and again and again because He gives in His timing. And as we will see a bit later in the programme, sometimes He tests our persistence and He tests our faith. But the main thing here, that Jesus in teaching through this parable, is that we can be bold in prayer.

We’ve got a relationship; our faith is in believing with God that He will intervene. If we have a need, faith is that God will show up. If we have a hurt, faith is believing that God will heal. What can we ask for? Just about anything if we have a right relationship with Him and we’ll look at that a bit more next week. But the purpose of this parable is to say prayer is something that we should do in boldness and persistence.

PRAYING WITH POWER

We are talking today about praying with power. You know, it rolls of the tongue so easily, doesn’t it? But it is much harder to live that out and when we know that we’ve failed; when we see who God is and how far we fall short of that; when we look at how other people seem to have all their acts together and we compare ourselves with mister or miss’s super Christian next door, you think, “Me? Me? Me, pray with power? No I don’t think so. I think that’s for other people, not for me. I have to come and whimper and grovel and pick up the scraps on the ground.”

You know, even if we are feeling just like that, we have to have the strength of conviction.

There was a time when Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon and a Canaanite woman from the vicinity came to Him crying, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is suffering terribly from demon possession.” Jesus didn’t say a word, so His disciples came to Him and said, “Look, Jesus, send her away. She keeps crying out after us – she’s a bother, a nuisance. And He said, “Well, you know, I was only sent for the lost sheep of Israel.” And the woman came and knelt before Him and said, “Lord, help me.” He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and to toss it to the dogs.” “Yes, Lord,” she said, “But even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.” And Jesus looked at her and said, “Woman you have great faith. You’re request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour.

You know, Jesus response seems to be cold and it seems to be brutal. He says, “I only came for Israel,” and this woman was a Canaanite; she wasn’t an Israelite. Then He say, “It’s not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs,” because, you see, the Jews referred to the Gentiles as ‘dogs’. And in the face of that she says, “But Lord, even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from the master’s table.”

And then Jesus shows everybody else what He was up to. Jesus knew this woman had faith; Jesus knew this woman had boldness. And this story has been kept for two thousand years – for you and me – to show us what He is like. Jesus defies everyone’s expectations. Why? Because this woman was bold about her faith and she put her faith in who Jesus was. He tested her – you know, it wasn’t a softly, softly approach – He tested her to show those around him and to show us what it means to persist and come to Him in prayer.

And that’s exactly what the Apostle Paul talks about in the first chapter of Ephesians. Got a Bible? Open it up at verse 17. Now have a listen to what Paul says about this whole issue of power. Just in that passage, where we looked at Matthew chapter 15, about this woman – we saw her persistence and boldness. And now I want to talk about power. This is what Paul writes – Ephesians chapter 1, verse 17:

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know Him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened so that you would know the hope to which He has called you; the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints and His incomparably great power for those of us who believe.

That power is like the working of His might strength, which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand; far above any name or authority or rule or power or dominion on this earth, far above every title that can be given, not only in this present age but also in the age to come. God placed things under Jesus’ feet and appointed Him to be the head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills everything in every way.

Paul is saying, “I wish that you would get some wisdom and revelation, that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened”. In other words, get a revelation – wake up! As you get to know God better, open your eyes. There are three things that you already have if you believe in Jesus.

The first one is a certain hope, the second one is the riches of our glorious inheritance and the third one is incomparably great power for us who believe. The same power, in fact, that raised Christ from the dead and makes it so that He is seated above everything in the universe. That’s power – far above all rule, authority, power, dominion.

Does Paul say, “Go and whimper and ask God for strength and power? No! He’s saying, “I am praying for you to wake up to the power you have already got in Jesus. Wake up! Live a life of victory!” None of us has everything together, but we are not relying on our power, we’re relying on God’s power and He says, “incomparably great power”.

If I had to take those Greek words and I guess transliterate them into English, it would come out something like this – hyper-ballistic, megathonic dynamite. That’s what the words; the Greek words, kind of literally come across as. Incomparably great power – hyper-ballistic, megathonic dynamite. Like, Paul is going way over the top here in talking about God’s power.

Imagine there’s a room full of dynamite and we have this little fuse called ‘Jesus’ and we have this little spark called ‘faith’ that lights the fuse. Where does the power come from? The little spark? No! The power comes from the dynamite.

It’s time to shake ourselves up with the Word of God and say, “WOW! This is how God sees prayer.” “WOW! Maybe I’ve been missing the point; maybe it’s not about my power – got nothing to do with my power.” You see, we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all surpassing power is from God and not from us. Do you get it? The whole point in the relationship is that He has the power and in Christ He has already given this resurrection, new life power to you and me.

Now that doesn’t mean that our God is a pet dog who jumps through hoops on command. That’s not it at all. It’s not some slot machine where you put a coin in and pull the handle – we’ll look at that some more next week. But Jesus and Paul both taught very clearly that, firstly we need to pray boldly and persistently and secondly we can rely on the power that we already have through Jesus Christ. Have to tell you – He’s never let me down. He’s never not been there when I’ve needed Him.

And maybe it’s time to change our whole perspective on prayer. Instead of praying for power, we need to start praying with power – the power that we have when we put our faith in Jesus Christ.

BOLDLY BEFORE THE THRONE OF GRACE

I trust by now that, as we unpack God’s Word, we are getting the picture that He means business when it comes to prayer. Sometimes, you know, we can feel weak and inadequate and like total failures and other times we kind of have this vague, nagging suspicion that maybe my prayer is not good enough. But I tell you, anybody who is prepared to bow their lives down to Jesus Christ has the right to come boldly before the throne of grace.

How do we know that? Because that’s exactly what God’s Word says. Hebrews chapter 4, beginning at verse 14, says something along these lines:

Jesus isn’t just some god in heaven. He’s walked in our shoes; He’s been through every trial and temptation that we have to deal with so He gets it. He understands exactly what we are going through and because of that we can come boldly before the throne of grace with a quiet confidence that we’ll find grace and mercy just in time to meet our every need. He gets it!

I love this phrase – ‘come boldly before the throne of grace’ because it speaks of a confidence, not in me; not in you; not in ourselves, but in Jesus – in what He has done for you and me. Because when He died on that cross He paid for my sin, my failure and when I put my faith in Him, when you put your faith in Him, we have free access to God. We can draw near to God because we are forgiven.

Jesus has been hot and bothered; He’s been disappointed; He’s been through everything that you and I will ever have to travel through and then some; temptation; other people failing Him. You name it, He has been there. Yes, He’s God in heaven. Yes, He knows everything. But you know something, He doesn’t just know it because He’s God, He knows it because He’s been there.

And that’s why we can come as we are and that’s why we don’t have to be afraid and sit down and pray, “Lord, you know something Lord, today I blew it and I’m sorry – forgive me.” Can I share with you a phone message from a listener that I received the other day that kind of says it all? He’s a young man, he says:

“I’m only a new Christian – I’ve only been with the Lord, probably about ten weeks and you know, I’ve been going great guns and then I had a night when I went out drinking and I told my friend, whose not a Christian, I wasn’t sure if I could be a Christian any more. I felt real terrible about it and I thought I had really blown the whole thing with God. It’s only when you came on the radio tonight that I realised that that’s why Jesus died for me. I want to say God bless you guys and thank God for His grace. God bless you, man. God bless you, He was awesome tonight.”

See, this young man was exactly where you and I sometimes are. “I blew it! God couldn’t possibly be pleased with me”. And right at that point God comes along and says, “Come boldly before the throne of grace.” You know what ‘grace’ is? Grace is unmerited favour! Let me say that again – ‘grace is unmerited favour.’ In other words, it’s favour that we don’t deserve. If you deserve it, it’s not grace – if you deserve it’s something you deserve. If its grace, by definition, you don‘t deserve it.

So this phrase ‘come boldly before the throne of grace,’ means exactly when you don’t feel worthy; when you don’t feel like God will listen to you; when you don’t feel you could possibly approach God, that is the moment to come boldly before the throne of grace – because grace is unmerited favour. And the only reason we can do that is because of what Jesus did for you and me.

You know, when we pray in Jesus name – it’s not some formula; it’s not some ritual – it’s fact. The only way that we can approach God; that we can ask Him for anything, is through the cross of Christ where the price for my rejection of God and the price for your rejection of God, has been paid for in full and then some.

The price that God paid for our sin is so huge; it so vastly exceeds the fullest extent of my sin and yours that we can always throw ourselves on the mercy of God through Jesus Christ, because that is what Jesus suffered and died to purchase for us.

And the truth is without Him we are never good enough. Can I encourage you today – it is time to pray boldly. It is time to pray persistently. It is time to pray with the power that we already have through Jesus Christ – to come boldly before the throne of grace, to pray with power. Anything less than that is less than what God planned for us. Anything less than that is less than what His Word specifically says that prayer is.

“But Berni, right now I feel so weak and so inadequate”. Right now is the time to come boldly before the throne of grace and pray with power.

Father we ask You, that as we have listened to Your Word proclaimed today, Lord, that Your Holy Spirit would take it and write it on our hearts. Lord, give us a confidence in who You are and what You have done for us through Jesus Christ. Give us a boldness to come to You at the time when we need mercy and grace; at the time when we just don’t deserve it and come to You and cast all our cares, all our failures, all our fears, all our concerns, all our hopes, all our dreams, on Your grace. Lord, we just take You at Your Word today because of what Jesus has done, that we can come boldly before Your throne of grace with a quiet confidence that we will find grace and mercy just in time to meet our every need. Father, we pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.