Phil: I just pray that God will help me to understand how critical prayer is to the purposes of God. You know, I thought about simple illustrations. One of them would be if you’re out in the yard and you’ve got a tool or something, a power tool, and it’s the kind that you had to plug in. Have you ever been out in the yard, the other end of the yard, and you get ready to do something and you pull the trigger and nothing happens? Yeah, if you’ve ever been out with a power tool, you’ve had that happen.
So what do you do? Well, you follow the cord back, and maybe this is an extension, then you check that connection, then you check to where it’s plugged in. It’s a very simple illustration. But if I’m gonna do something with a tool, it’s great to be willing to do it, and to wanna do it, and to pick it up and walk out there and try to say, I’m clipping bushes or whatever I’m doing. That’s great, but what good is it if I’m not connected to any power? Nothing’s gonna happen.
See the problem, there’s no lack of power back at the house, unless it’s December 7th, or 6th, or whatever it was [reference to a recent power outage]. There’s no lack of power at the house. And here I am with a tool, willing to use it, what’s the problem? There’s a connection that’s broken.
Do we understand that there are times when God wants to do something, wants us to do something, and the absolute missing link is prayer, where we get connected to God in such a way that what happens is not I, but it’s Christ living in me, the words that I speak and so forth? So that’s one illustration.
Another one that I have used in the past, I remember preaching on prayer many, many years ago now, and I think it was called God’s Firemen. And in that illustration, you have this picture of a fire, there’s a need, okay? And there’s a fireman who goes, and what does he do? He’s got a hose, and the idea is to spray down the fire with water that’s supposed to cool it down and make the fire go out, okay?
So you’ve got a fireman who’s willing to do it, you’ve got a hydrant that’s nearby, that’s full of water, but what good would it do if he goes out there and says, I know what to do, and he just waves the hose around, but it’s never gets connected to the source of water?
That’s the missing link, I believe, in so much that we do, that God would teach us how to move in the Spirit, how to be connected to what He wants, how to have His power at work in things. Knowing His will. Yeah, knowing His will, but then stepping out and doing it.
I mean, there’s so many illustrations, I guess, in the scriptures, but I just pray that God will somehow get this thought across to me. I feel my weakness, but you know, God’s promised, hasn’t He? That His strength has made perfect in weakness. If this is what it takes, if my feeling weak is what it takes to minister something to you, then praise God!
Isn’t that how Jesus looked at the cross? I mean, He prayed like I would pray, Oh God, I need more strength. But Jesus prayed, Oh God, if it’s possible, let this cup pass from me so I don’t have to go through this. Nevertheless, what’s the bottom line? Not my will, but Yours be done. The focus of His life was not the affairs of this life, it was seeking God and doing what His purpose was and fulfilling His place in that purpose.
Do you know that every member of the body of Christ has a place? Do you know that every single member of the body of Christ is meant to be a vessel through which God absolutely works, and speaks, and accomplishes something? You know, so much of our prayers, I think it’s sincere and I think God is merciful, and we rightly ask if we have needs, like Paul, when he had that thorn in the flesh, God didn’t rebuke him for asking, but there had to come a time when God revealed the purpose of that, and when God did, Paul stopped asking to get rid of it. He said, Praise God, I get it now.
I wonder if we’re willing to do that. There’s nothing wrong with praying and asking God about earthly needs. But even in that, I see Paul not thinking about just earthly welfare. What was the reason why Paul prayed that in the first place? Did he not see that harassment by a spirit as something that is hindering my work? God has called me to work for Him and this is getting in the way, and oh God, get rid of it. So even in that, his motive was right.
But here we are, heirs of the eternal covenant. We are heirs of that which will take us beyond this world into the kingdom of God. And we are not just creatures. When God wanted to do something among the animal kingdom, He didn’t consult the head rabbit or the head of any in a particular group of animals and say, Here’s my purpose, you know, I’ve got a purpose in you fulfilling this. He just did it.
But folks we’re not like that, we’re not just animals, we’re not just pieces on the chess board, as we’ve said many times, we are meant to be His sons and daughters. We are meant to have a relationship with Him that is like His Son. When God wanted to do something through His Son, there was a relationship, He was plugged in, He was connected. He became a channel of God’s life and purpose. That was the whole reason for His existence.
Folks, is that not the reason why we’re here? Are we simply here to live an earthly life and focus all of our attention on its needs? Or are we here to say, God, I’m here for a reason, I’m here for a purpose. Lord, if it was just a matter of getting me out of here into heaven, you would just take me on as soon as I say, yes, to Jesus. But no, I’m here. It’s a time for me to learn your ways, to become like you. But in the meantime, I’m here where you want me to live like Jesus, in a sense.
Didn’t Jesus say, As the Father has sent me, so send I you? Well, how did the Father send Him? Again, the Father anointed Him, called Him, gave Him the ability to do what fulfilled God’s purpose, His part in that.
But every member of the body of Christ, if we are connected to Him, if He lives on the inside, our purpose is not just to have a sweet life here, and every time we have a little problem, we go to God, and you know, we go to the divine “vending machine” and try to pray a formula prayer: Oh God, fix it. Oh God, get us beyond that. He cares about needs, absolutely. But why are we asking?
You know, my mind, as soon as I read that passage about Isaac, my mind went to James. What is it, James 4? A scripture we’ve used many times. When it talks about, okay, anyway, beginning of the chapter, he talks about what was causing difficulties and trouble among the people. But he says, You do not have because you do not ask God. Okay? I wonder how many things that are part of the covenant of God that God has said belong to us, belong to me, and there’s something that I don’t have, I’m not experiencing. He says it in His word, Jesus provided it, He’s provided everything that we need, hasn’t He? Yeah. But I don’t have it. Why? Why don’t I have it?
Do you see where there’s a disconnect right here? Are there not things that just as Isaac went to God, no doubt with this in his mind, here I am 20 years in, I’ve married this beautiful woman and we have no son. And you have promised that through our seed all the nations of the world are gonna be blessed. And there came a time when he said, Oh God, please fulfill your word, please give us a child. And God listened and He did it.
I wonder how many times God is waiting for us and we’re waiting on Him, or we’re somehow expecting this, He’s gonna work in us till that day, all I have to do is sit back, go about my life, and He’s gonna somehow do it. I wonder how many things God has literally given to us in Christ that He wants us to come and say, Oh God, you have brought me face to face with a need in my life, and I have every right to go to you and ask that you would help me in this area?
I wonder how many things that we face and needs that we just sort of blow off or we just say, oh, that’s me, or whatever, and God wants to do something special for us? There are things that God longs to do in your life and mine, but we don’t even care enough to ask Him. It’s not important enough to us or we don’t understand.
Do you see where there’s this missing connection? I just pray that God will somehow show us what this is about. I don’t know how to say this in such a way, but God, you’re gonna have to get this across to me. Start with me, Lord, I need this.
There are things, there are needs that I come up against in my life. Do I not have the right to go to God, just like Jacob did, and say, I will not let you go until you help me? I need help, Lord, You promised, this Your word. I’m not going to You about something that I don’t have a right to. It’s not like I’m asking for a million dollars and a mansion, and some earthly blessing. I’m asking, God, that You promised that I’m gonna be like You, and I see these things in me that aren’t, oh God, help me, give me grace to grow. Help me to experience more of what you have given to me, what Jesus died to give me.
Do these things belong to us or don’t they? Do you suppose many times this is what the problem is? We don’t have because we don’t ask. And of course, we can do a lot of asking, that’s just basically so that we can feed natural desires, and that’s no good. But God is looking for the hearts of people who will say, God, I get it. You’ve called me outta the world. You’ve changed my entire focus, the focus of my heart and my life, and I wanna be on board with that.
But not only do I wanna be on board, I wanna be an active participant. There are things that you long to accomplish that are part of the fulfillment of this purpose that are on me in a sense. You want me to literally step into the gap and exercise myself in calling upon your name for the fulfillment of that. And that’s the missing connection, okay?
You know, one scripture that, well, let me just refer to this one. You can read in 1 John 5. This is the promise that we have of Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Okay, so we know that God has a will, God has a purpose. And if we ask anything according to that purpose, He’ll hear us, He’ll listen. So if I ask for a million dollars and a mansion, that’s probably not gonna be part of His plan. But if I ask Him to help me to find and fulfill my place in the body of Christ, and to have His mind and to know what He wants me to do, and to have faith to do it, do I have the right to ask that? Yes. Does every person here who belongs to Jesus Christ have the right to ask that? Yes. Is it His will? Yes. Yes.
So then what does He say? And if we know that that’s according to His will, We know we have it. We know that we have it. That’s right. Thank you, at least somebody’s looking up the scripture. We know that we have what we desired. If we’re asking according to His will, and we know that.
God, help us to have that sense. Lord, you do actually have a plan for my life. I’m not just somebody who sits on a pew and I’m unimportant. You matter. You and I, everyone have a place to fulfill. When God created the world, His Son filled that place all by Himself. That’s all it took. Let there be light, let there be this, let there be that, and God’s power flowed.
But there is power that God wants to release among us, through us to one another, into our individual lives, there’s things He wants to do that He has planned to do. And part of that plan is to get us to be able to go to God with faith, and with determination, and with focus, and literally bombard heaven and say, Lord, this is what You promised, and I’m not letting You go until You do this. Until You help me, until You help my brothers and sisters. Does this make any sense? Yes. Is this needed? Yes. Praise God!
Praise God, I thought of a scripture that we use so many times, and I wanna focus on one part of it that we sometimes make mention of. But I wanna look at Ephesians 6 and the armor of God. You know, we talk about the armor itself, the helmet, and the shield, and all of those things. As important as they are, it goes on down in verse 18, it doesn’t stop with that.
And actually, I think the translators of this particular translation wanted to make a paragraph out of this. So they turned praying in the spirit into an active verb instead of a participle. You know what a participle is? It continues a thought. And I think other translations will say praying in the spirit. So in other words, we fight, but there’s something that’s going on while we’re doing all of this. We’re not just doing all the right stuff, there is a source of power that’s coming in. We’re plugged in, in other words.
It’s one thing to stand there and have all these pieces of armor and fight and lift the word up, but we have to have this. If we’re not plugged in, we’re like that tool that’s out there in the other end of the yard. Nothing happens. God wants to power our lives with His spirit, okay? And so it says, And praying, I wanna translate that a little closer, “And praying in the spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests.”
Now the Lord just focused my attention on that in the Spirit. Because praying, again, is not just some kind of formula. It’s not like something where you can say, alright, how do you do this? Okay, here are the things you’re supposed to say, and if you just say this, it’s like a divine vending machine. If I do it just right and push the right button, then out will pop the blessing. There is a connection.
Did Jesus do that, do you think? Yes. Were His prayers focused on self? No. They were entirely focused on the reason why He was here. And He found out what the Father wanted Him to do. He was aligned with that purpose and He stepped out in faith, and God’s power flowed through Him to accomplish what His purpose was.
That’s what God has called us to every, single one of us. Now there isn’t a single one of us that has the same role that He does, but we all have one. We all have a place. But praying in the Spirit, that word in is a preposition that is meant to convey something. And it is kind of vague, it’s almost like that’s a place, what does that mean? But the word in the Greek also can convey the idea of agency, that is, how does it happen?
So we’re not just praying in the Spirit, we’re praying by the Spirit. In other words, I need God’s Spirit to power my prayer. Does that make sense? If I’m just doing it and it’s me, my thoughts, my efforts, my energy, and that’s all there is to it, am I really praying or am I just going through a form?
How many of us feel like we need to ask God to teach us about this? Yeah, Lord, teach me, not just how to say the right words, but what is this thing called prayer about? Because if it’s just me doing it, but even it’s like everything in the kingdom of God, I’m meant to be a vessel, a channel through which God flows.
But this is a pretty important one. What He’s saying is even prayer itself is something where I need God to anoint me to guide what I pray and to empower what I pray, so the words can actually go forth and do something. And again, you have the difference between a fireman who just stands there waving a hose and one who’s actually connected to the hydrant, and there’s really something coming out.
I want something coming out when I pray, don’t you? Are we just supposed to go through a form and somehow, you know, it’s easy to say, well, what difference does it make? But God has absolutely ordered His kingdom, so it makes a difference when we pray. And God wants there to be divine power, just as when the words came out of Jesus’ mouth, Let there be light. When He said, Rise and be healed, or whatever He said, and there was power that came out.
God wants power to come out of us. He can teach us those things to where we can be so in tune with Him and such a vessel that we can literally pray and see something happen. We could pray and power would happen, and something would happen on the other side of the world. There’s no distance, there’s no limitation in God.
But I wonder how times there’s something that God wants to do and He can’t find anybody to make that connection. Because there’s a way that God does stuff. It’s not just He’s out there somehow magically doing everything, He wants us participating, being involved.
I thought of an old hymn, I don’t think I could quote it, I looked it up a while ago, but hadn’t thought about this in decades, but, “Channels Only.” And somebody had the sense that what God has called us to be is channels. That it’s not about living for self, it’s about laying down our lives and giving them to Him. For what purpose? So that we can be a channel, we can literally be connected to Him, but not just so that we are bathed in blessing, but so that through us others can be touched and helped.
That’s God’s call upon every member of the body of Christ, every member of His kingdom. I just call upon myself, but all of us, to pray and say, God, teach us what this is about. Help us to join, to be connected to You, to be so in tune with You that we’re just not living earthly lives and trying to get You to fix our problems. We wanna see beyond that. If I have a brother and sister in need of strength and spirit, you’ve given me the power to speak words that are not just wishes that we throw out into the universe and hope God’s listening.
I’ll tell you, when we have to wrestle in prayers, not because God is unwilling, is because God wants us to exercise faith. God wants us to exercise determination, and wants us to call upon Him with all of our hearts and look to Him for His answers.
But anyway, I just pray that God will somehow burn this into my heart as I need it, probably worse than anybody here. It’s so easy just to say, oh, prayer we know all about that. Do we? Do we know much of anything about it? Do we realize that you and I, if we’re hooked up with God and He is empowering us, He’s guiding what we pray, but He’s empowering what we speak, do we not realize that those words have power, that they can literally go out, and change circumstances, destinies, they could empower someone who has a ministry, they’re just as important as the minister, that every person of the body of Christ can contribute to the health of the whole and the purpose of our reaching out and being alive, every purpose that has to do with God’s kingdom?
Every person here has the power to be connected to God and has a place that God has called you to. And He wants you and me to be His channels. Channels only, what a privilege that is. May God help us, and I believe He is, don’t you? I believe He loves us with an everlasting love. And I don’t want anything to not happen because I was just too busy messing around, assuming He’s gonna take care of it all. He wants me involved. Praise God!
Missing Link, I don’t know if that’s a good title or not. ‘cause that’s the general connotation of that, but that isn’t that bad, is it? The missing link is a people who are willing to call upon God and to do it by the power of His Spirit. We have creative power that God wants to give us. It’s not just us wishing things, it’s God carrying out His work in the earth and He wants you and me to be part of it. Praise God!
