Bible Teaching

Calvary Temple Teaching Library

Wait on the Lord Pt.6

Let's turn to the gospel of John. We want to continue in our study here, looking into the greatest privilege we have as believers, and that is the ability to access the presence of God and the great gift of prayer that the Lord has given us that we can boldly enter into His presence by the blood of Jesus. The Scripture says that those that come to Him must believe that He is, and that He is a what? Rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. We realize that God wants to express His goodness to us and His promises to manifest in our lives, so there's the requirement that we come boldly.

That word "boldness" doesn't just talk about how brashly we might come or how aggressively we might come. It also has to do with the understanding that there's a confidence involved, a boldness because of our confidence. This is the confidence, the Scripture says, that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us and if we know that He hears us, whatsoever we ask, then we know that we have the petitions that we desire of Him. So we come to God boldly, confidently knowing that His Word is sure to a thousand generations, every promise of God in Christ Jesus is yea and amen to the glory of God by us. We understand that God wants to effect His promises in our life.

We've been talking a little bit about the warfare over the last couple of weeks, that we're involved in and the need, then, through intercession to put on the full armor of God and to go out and stand against the wiles of the devil. And we know, then, that there's a great conflict that's going on and God wants to answer our prayer to show Himself mighty and that He might be glorified in our deliverance. We saw, as one of the purposes that we pray, that God would be glorified, not just for our deliverance, or the comfort or the ease that would come to us, but for the glory of God. We can't pray that way until there's been a true transformation in our hearts. That's the reason that so many of our prayers are not effectual, and it's because, as James says, we need to learn how to pray and not pray amiss, desiring to consume these things upon our own lusts. We think of that in the extreme, many times, that we'd be praying to hit the Lotto or praying for Lear jets or mansions and all of these different things, and we think, "Well, that's praying amiss." Praying amiss is praying for your own glory, for your own purposes, for your own ease.

When we understand the humility that's necessary in accessing God boldly, the term "boldness," takes on--interesting word. It really has to do with humility, a coming with hearts that are humble. "For if my people will humble themselves and pray..." the Scripture says. We saw that that promise was made in the midst of their bondage because of their sin and God said, "I want you to humble yourself and turn from your wicked ways and then I'm going to hear and deliver you and heal your land."

It's important that we understand that praying to be effective, primarily doesn't have anything to do with technique, but relationship. We talk about technique, and some people even argue over the postures of prayer. You're not praying if your head's not bowed. You're not praying if you're not kneeling. You're not praying if you're not on your face. You're not praying if you're not somehow going through some form of calisthenics or gyrations. Some think we're not praying if we're not articulating audibly. We realize that it has nothing to do with all of that. It has to do with the relationship. Because the Scripture says, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall [do what?] ask what ye will."

That's what we want to talk about a little bit this evening: the relationship factor. We talked about the warfare aspect, and we'll be speaking toward that again a little bit as we get into the name of Jesus, but I want to talk a little bit about the privilege of prayer, or who really has a right to expect their prayers to be answered. So many people in Christendom today think that anybody who just names the name of Jesus, who professes to be a Christian, that somehow God is going to respond to their prayer. Thinking that somehow there's some magic in putting the name of Jesus on the end of our will and that's going to magically make it manifest. "Well, doesn't God just hear the prayers of everybody? I mean, He's a good God and loving God. He's merciful and He knows that we're a people that are but dust. And the Lord pities us as a Father does His children." We understand that that's all true about Father. And we talked early in the study about the need to really--for prayer to be effective--to really, really understand the fatherhood of God. God is not somebody we're trying to wrestle blessings out of. He's a father who wants to bless you. It's your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Can you say, "Praise God!" for that?

He wants to bless His children, but He doesn't want to destroy us. He doesn't want to allow us to consume all of His vast majesty, wealth and power on the world's system and on the world's treasures. He is a loving, heavenly father, but He is Father. He is the authority. We never grow out of our dependence upon Him. We never grow out of an attitude of living in subordination to His will. Every man that ever got in trouble with God went the same way that so many of us do in the natural, to where we think that we've become mature enough to be independent from God.

I want to tell some of you young people some things right now. Don't ever think you're going to grow to the place where, "I'm a man and I'm an entity to myself." The moment you take yourself out from under authority, and listen to me. Once you, in your own mind, take yourself out from the authority of a spiritual earthly father, you're putting yourself in jeopardy of your relationship with your heavenly Father, because that's the order that He's established. The moment you rebel and become independent to the place where you no longer need wisdom and counsel from a godly father, then you're only one step away from that independence from your heavenly Father. And that principle is something that you need to grab hold of, because basically, that is based upon nothing but pride, independence, self-will and it's absolutely, absolutely the spirit that will never get prayers answered, from your heavenly Father, or from your earthy father.

If you're going to have a right relationship--and that's what we're going to talk about tonight--if you're going to have a right relationship with your heavenly Father, or your earthly father, you have to understand how He relates to you. And the thing that's interesting about God is that He didn't just set up for us--so many people relate to God on the Decalogue or some of the Levitical ordinances that have been set forth and think that, "As long as I'm toeing the line, keeping the 'thou shalts' and 'thou shalt nots" then I'm in right relationship." And God does not want to relate to you through a list of Dos and Don'ts. He wants to relate to you based upon mutual love and respect, and until you come to that, you're a hireling. Until you can come to that, you're like the older son and you can't understand how he can continue to lavish his great majesty upon the younger who had blown it and squandered all that he had. And your relationship is one that's legal, but not loving.

It's important for us to establish that. Until we realize that, we might think that we're in right standing with God or that we're righteous, when in fact we are self-righteous. Nothing will hinder prayer more than self-righteousness. Nothing will hinder prayer more--listen--nothing will hinder prayer more than thinking that you deserve an answer to prayer. That you deserve what you're asking for. You might have a right to it, but what you deserve is hell. What you deserve is destruction. Once we understand the loving father that we serve and His desire to relate to us, we see that there's a powerful phrase over in 1 John that we want to look at. In 1 John, chapter three, verse 22. We were talking about the gospel of John, chapter 15, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." And we want to look over at 1 John now for just a second. In 1 John, chapter three, I want to take a look at this one phrase that's just powerful. I think we ended with this, if my memory is right, on Sunday night.

1 John, chapter three verse 22, "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments...." And so many of us stop right there and even limit the next phrase to this statement of keeping His commandments. And that's not what He's speaking toward. He's making another distinct statement altogether. He said, "...whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments..." And we're going to talk about keeping His commandments some. But then the next phrase goes on and says, "...and [what?] do those things that are pleasing in his sight."

God isn't looking for us to just robotically keep some commandments. He's looking for us to seek as many ways as possible to please Him. Think of yourself as a natural parent. You leave the list, right? How many of you remember getting the list when Mom and Dad left. Both of my parents worked and so I can remember my brother and me, and especially during the summer vacations. We'd get up in the morning. Dad would wake us up and he was getting ready to head on out. My dad was interesting. One time he got it to himself that he thought that we ought to wake up to a bugle, being a military man. And he couldn't blow that thing. We got up quickly because we did not want to hear much more than the first two attempts at Reveille. We would wait for him to open the door and be awake. We'd find some way to wake up so we didn't have to hear that thing blow. But he'd blow Reveille in the morning, time for us to get up. And then we'd get up and as they were headed out to work, summer vacation, and we were up at six thirty. Does that sound foreign in some of your homes? So we were up at six thirty and we'd go in and get the list. Whatever the list was.

Cut the lawn--we were in one of our projects, I've shared with you before, I remember. We cut down trees in our backyard, eucalyptus trees. I can still remember. One of them we measured was 42 inches in diameter. These three were probably 150 feet tall. Some good sized eucalyptus trees. He cut them down and our job was to split all that wood by hand. Part of our list was, in the evenings we always washed the dishes, my brother and I. We'd wash the dishes. One would wash; one would dry. It was always interesting; it would make for about a 30-minute fight as we were in there. We'd get the dishes washed and so we did that. And then in the morning we would get up and we would have to dust and vacuum and whatever it was we were doing on that particular day and cleaning windows. And it always came down to, in that summer especially, "And when you finish that, you can always cut wood." The list then, being left open-ended that way, never left any place for us to do more than they asked us to do, because there was no end.

And in a good relationship, a parent when you leave the list.... Wouldn't it be great to come home and have more than the list done, just because, "We appreciate you, Mom and Dad. We know you're working hard and everything you've done to bless us and we just want to do those things that please you." You can do it not only with works; you do it with an attitude. It's how you do it, not the fact of what you do. That you have a good attitude and you want to honor your father and your mother. Just thankfulness, instead of that thing that's so prevalent in our nation today, where many seem to think they have a right to all these things. It never ceases to amaze me. I like those signs that you see on rooms periodically. "Johnny's room. Stay out." If I ever saw that in my house, it would be Johnny staying out. You're looking for that kind of an attitude of thankfulness. And it's not because "I have to." "I'm so thankful for the love that my father has for me."

So let's talk about this in 1 John a little bit and see what he's saying to us here. "Keeping His commandments." Now, that's an easy one. We know what the commandments of God are. We have the Decalogue; we have all of the Levitical ordinances that have been given to us. "This is my commandment, That you love one another," the Scripture says. That's one of the commandments that He's given us that's preeminent in how we relate to one another. I want to tell you something. If you want to have a successful prayer life, you've got to love one another. If you want to have a successful prayer life, you need to be as concerned about praying for brothers and sisters as you are about your own benefit, because that's the purpose of the Body of Christ. The greatest among us is the servant of all. Those are the people that can get the ear of God, those that are praying and looking for the good of the community and not their own personal gain.

"If you keep my commandments...." He makes it clear to us that if we love Him, His commandments are not grievous to us. So it's not a begrudging keeping, it's a privilege. Part of the benefit--listen to this, it's important--part of the privilege to where it's not grievous is realizing, "I couldn't keep this commandment. In fact, I wouldn't even want to keep this commandment unless I was indwelt by the spirit of God. I am so thankful that I have a desire to do the will of God, because I know that it's He that is working in me both to will and to do His good pleasure." When you see the commandment of God and have a desire to do it, it ought to cause rejoicing in your heart that you're a new creature. Amen? Because there was a time when you despised those commandments. There was a time when you despised God. There was a time when you were serving your own flesh and serving Lucifer, and Jesus has set you free, praise God! "If ye love me, keep my commandments."

The keeping of the commandments, then, which causes effective prayer, is based upon what? The degree that we love God. Answered prayer operates in direct correlation to how much we love God. It's just one of the by-products. If you love Him, you keep His commandments. If you keep His commandments, you get your prayers answered. A lot of us, where we get into trouble, is this. We analyze ourselves just from the Decalogue or some of the obvious blatant transgressions and seem to think, "Yeah, I keep His commandments." And we talked about that in closing just the other day. Like the rich young ruler. "I keep all of His commandments. I've kept all of those from my youth, but what more do I have to do?" "Well there's some more you can do. You're keeping His commandments?" "Yeah." "Are you keeping all of His commandments?" What would have to be the answer of all of us to that? "No." How many of you know how to keep all of His commandments? Does anybody here know how to keep all of God's commandments? By recognizing that you can't keep them all, and that they've been met in Jesus.

It's very simple, then. We're going to access God through the presence of saying, "Lord, I'm not worthy and I don't really know what to ask like I should. And I'm not going to presume that I'm smart enough to solve this problem." So what I'm doing is I'm coming here and saying, "I'm not worthy. I have no power, but I want to see You glorified in my life. I wouldn't presume to tell You, but I am here to state that I'm aware of the revealed will of God and what You've said is, 'You're not willing that any should perish,' and so I'm praying and I'm asking You to bring salvation into this home, into this person's life, because that is the revealed will of God and this is Your commandment. I'm here and I wouldn't presume, but I'm here, Father, and I know that the Scripture says that 'by the stripes of Jesus we're healed,' and 'the prayer of faith shall save the sick,' and so I'm here, Father, declaring what You've stated about that and I just rejoice. And if somehow I can be used in bringing glory to You, let Your Word come out of my mouth and cause Your faith to rise in my heart."

And you desire, then, to keep His commandments, to be out serving, to look for the doors of utterance to be open. All of these things that are keeping the commandments. It's not just, "Don't steal, don't lie, don't kill." We're looking, then, to get into this phrase. We're looking to do those things that are what? Pleasing in His sight. How can I serve God more? What is--even the regenerated man--what does the flesh cause many carnal Christians to do? Carnal Christians are legalists. They want to come to that place of finding how little they can do and still be right. "What's the least I can do and still get my blessings?" And we see the motive, then, is not pleasing God. It's really a motive of using God for our own gain. We want to escape Hell; we'd like to get blessed as much as we could but hold onto our own ambitions, our own appetites and God is calling us to the same death that Jesus had to experience to where we can truly be crucified with Him.

Let's talk about those things that are pleasing in God's sight. I think that's something that's worth taking a minute. Look over with me to the book of Proverbs for just a second. In Proverbs we find a passage that we're familiar with. Proverbs 16, verse seven. "When a man's ways please the Lord... [What happens?] ...he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him." "When a man's ways please the Lord..." To do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

Do you think that that means that God just sovereignly makes all of our enemies come to the place of saying, "Oh, man, you know I used to hate that guy, but for some reason today every time I see him, I just get this little fuzzy feeling and want to go up and hug him." It says it makes his enemies to be at what? Peace with him. Many times that peace comes about from God restraining the demonic powers that have been motivating them. Those that are our enemies are usually the enemies of God. Not just us--it's not flesh and blood--it's a conflict with the kingdom of Light. When we realize that we're part of that conflict that we were talking about Sunday, and we now are looking for ways to please God, He begins to allow us to access that power, that authority of Ephesians, when we put on the full armor of God. We pray, "Not our will but His will be done," and God sends the restraining force and restrains our enemies. It didn't say they love us, it says they're at what? Peace with us. Do you know that usually the guys that are weak, that are getting ready to get blown out, want the peace treaty? I saw a flash across the news today, "North Korea has nuclear capabilities to respond to an American attack." If we attack, there would be no response. There's a desire for peace when you're the one that's already under the authority and the recognition of those that you're in opposition with.

Listen. We have been given all power and all authority over all the power of the devil and nothing shall by any means harm us. When we've humbled ourselves and we're seeking first the kingdom of God, our enemies know they're overcome. Satan is going to look for whom? He goes about seeking whom? Those that are not in right relationship, those that don't know the power of prayer, those that have not humbled themselves, those that are not serving the body of Christ, because when he comes against the rest, God raises a standard up against him. Our prayers become effectual because we're not seeking our own.

John, chapter eight speaks toward this and doing those things that are pleasing in a fabulous revelation. In John chapter eight, verse 29. "He that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." What a powerful verse! "He that sent me is with me...." He doesn't leave me alone. Why? "Because I do always those things that [What?] please him." If God's for you, what does the Scripture say? Who can be against you?

Remember. Answered prayer is just not articulating a promise. Answered prayer is practicing what? The presence of God, God's presence. Answered prayer is abiding in God to the place where we're looking and seeking to do those things that are pleasing to Him and unbeknownst to us, God is restraining the enemy. He's pulling down principalities and powers. He has gone before us to make a way. He's guarding our back, Praise God! And our prayers are being answered. Not prayers that we've articulated specifically, "Lord, open this door, close that door. Lord, destroy that. Quench that fiery dart. Lord, I see another dart, quench that one." But we're doing those things that please Him and as we're walking, He's ordering our steps. He's gone before us and He's making a way. Prayers are being answered because prayers are not just promises that are articulated, but purposing to do the will of God. A life of prayer is one that's seeking to do the will of God.

Once we're doing that, we are prayerfully--or in the presence of God--living the Lord's Prayer. "Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven" (Matthew 6:10). We're living that. I'm stepping out and practicing in my pursuit, the Lord's Prayer. "Not my will, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. I'm here to hallow Your name. I'm here seeking first the kingdom of God and Your righteousness. I'm not seeking 'things.' I'm not seeking what I eat or drink or put on."

I've shared that with you in my own personal testimony. In all the years I've served God--in all the years I've served God, I have never asked Him for one material thing in my life. I've never prayed and asked God for one material thing. I've never prayed and said, "Lord, give me this." Or "Lord, I need a raise. Lord, we need... anything." I've never prayed and asked God for one material thing. Just been about His business. Tried to seek first the kingdom of God in sharing some of the testimony and some of the interesting things.

I was laughing as I was out in California this last month and talking with my brother. And we were laughing about a couple of different things. Back then as, it was so common for a lot of people, you didn't have a whole lot starting out. We even had less. We were talking about as we were living there in Santa Cruz--in the will of God--God called me to preach the gospel. As I was in my Fingerprint Identification class taking my final exam, I yielded to the call of God as the mantle was dropped upon me. I've shared my testimony. I spoke out loud. I was warring with that and dealing with that whole thing. "Lord, You know that You need believers in the NFL." And God needed some ministry there in the NFL. And God needed me to finish this Criminal Investigation and to get my degree in Criminology so that I could fulfill my own will and establish my own agency. And I'd got so proficient that I was actually teaching the class at a college level and helping instruct and bringing instruction in those particular areas. I can still remember it as I was sitting there taking that one final exam and the spirit of God, and I didn't realize it, it even came out audibly. I'm sitting there and I say, "Okay, I'll do it!" People looked around, "What in the world is this guy up to?" It was to that point. It was so real, I said, "I'll do it." I took that exam, went home, and Janet and I headed for Santa Cruz following the will of God, Spirit of God leading us.

As we went to Bethany Bible College, because I was obedient, praise God, God sent ravens to feed us. As I was walking down the road, I'd just find twenty dollar bills lying on the sidewalk and it was just so great because all I had to do was just study and pray, seek God. It was fabulous! Supernaturally, He met every need that we had.... By allowing me to work from ten at night until six in the morning and leave the job and go to school. Forty hours, job; seventeen credits, for those of you who are suffering through your four credits living at home. Forty hours work, seventeen credits, a second job managing apartments. Married, going to church, not missing any services. Isn't it amazing how God supernaturally provides? Doing those things that are pleasing in His sight.

I shared the story about how things were tight. We'd go down to the store and get the damaged goods. That's what I was laughing at with my brother. The cans didn't have labels. You got what you got, just believing God it wasn't Alpo. Those were the days when I even ate green things. It's amazing what you'll do when there's nothing else. God's so good, and you're seeking first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. I never asked God for an increase. I never asked God for anything. I felt so privileged to be about the Father's business. What a privilege to be separated from a pagan, God-hating family and become a son of God! An heir and joint heir with Christ Jesus. An awareness of how great a debtor and what a privilege to be about His business.

I don't pray for that kind of stuff, it's not important. It doesn't concern me. Don't mistake what I'm saying. Over the years God has blessed us more than sufficiently. Most of the time it's enjoyable. Some of the time it's a pain in the neck, because the more you have, the more can go wrong. I like "more." I try to suffer through it and deal with all of those hardships that come with it. If it went away, the Lord gives and the Lord takes. If God gives it, it's a blessing and if He takes it, He's to be praised. That's the attitude--I don't want to give the wrong impression that I'm always one hundred per cent functioning in that type of an attitude because I don't. I wish I did, but I don't. But that's the attitude that gets things done in the kingdom of God.

We're not seeking the natural things. We're seeking the kingdom of God. We're seeking the eternal. And all of these other things that so many of us pray about that destroy our faith because we're praying about those things. It's not happening and we think God doesn't answer prayer. You're praying amiss. You're praying about the wrong stuff. You need to be praying about your character. You need to be praying about your lack of love and your lack of diligence. You need to be rejoicing in the goodness of God. You need to be thankful for what you have, not trying to acquire more. All of these things that are the proper things to pray about will then cause the things that you think are necessary to pray about to manifest in your life. Seeking the kingdom, His righteousness, and all of this other stuff gets added. Seeking and doing those things that are pleasing in His sight. "He's always with me," Jesus said in John, chapter eight. "...the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him." Not just periodically.

Let me ask you a question here as 1 John gives us this great promise. We look at the great promises of God, and the promise to answer our prayers is to those that keep His commandments and what? Let's insert a word here that gives us the real understanding. And habitually do those things that are pleasing in His sight. Habitually seeking His will, His glory, and His purpose. Habitually saying, "What more can I do to honor God? How can I do something more?" Not works-oriented, just thankfulness. "I'm a new creature. I'm looking to do spiritual stuff to do those things that are pleasing in His sight."

Look over at Thessalonians for just a second, chapter four. Listen to what Paul says to the church. Now, remember, this letter was sent to Thessalonica. They were under great persecution--not good times--hard times. They're under severe persecution. We know the emphasis, of course, in the epistles is of the coming of the Lord. He says in chapter four, verse one. "Furthermore then we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus, that as ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God, so ye would abound more and more." See, it's about your walk. It's about your walk, not your talk. It's about pleasing God. Pleasing God causes you to abound spiritually more and more. And the more we abound spiritually, then the more all of these other things, at God's discretion, can be added to us. Added to us. We talked about the blessings of the Lord that make rich and add no sorrow. If it doesn't come from God, if it's not a blessing, the thing ends up a curse and it's destructive, it's damning. That's why we're seeking the kingdom and that's why we're praying constantly for the will of God to be done and His kingdom to be established in our lives. It's vitally important that we seek those things that are pleasing to Him.

That particular understanding, in and of itself, will answer the question of how great a "liberty" you have in those disputable matters. So many of us want to always take the "disputable matter" clause. "Hey, don't put me under the law. That's a disputable matter." Possibly. Does it please God? How pleasing is it? "Well, I don't know. It's amoral. So, there really isn't anything right or wrong about it." That's not what I'm asking you. I'm not asking you if there's a commandment or a biblical declaration that says it's sin. What I'm asking you is, is it pleasing to God?

Every incident is a separate matter, isn't it? You can't make a habit--you can't make a pattern out of any of these things. We need to constantly be seeking God on every decision we make as to what's going to bring the most glory to God. Is it going to bring more glory to God for me to partake or abstain? Is it going to bring more glory to God to stay or to go? What brings the glory to God? When we become that sensitive of always seeking to do those things that are pleasing in His sight instead of always wanting to demand our rights, or stand and say, "There's nothing that forbids me from doing this. And this is what my flesh wants to do." It may be amoral, but the issue at hand is, how much has Mr. Flesh been dictating your steps lately? Are you under control? Can you really come to grips with that? The keeping of the commandments is one aspect. The doing of those things that are pleasing in His sight.

The whole issue comes back to, "Am I growing spiritually?" Am I constantly dying more to self-will and praying and being able to effectively, really come into the presence of God and say.... We always have an opinion; we always have a preference. "I don't really have a preference." Yeah, you really do. "No, I don't have a preference." What you're saying is, "I prefer them both equally." "Where do you want to eat?" "I don't have a preference." Well, they're saying that because they have a little bit of confidence in you. "Okay, do you want to go to Outback or do you want to go to...?" What's this new thing that opened over here, the carwash one? What is it? Yeah, the water one. I haven't been able to go over there yet. Somebody gave me some coupons and I'm looking forward to going over there and getting to use those and I've heard it's good. So, you get one of those and you go, "I don't have a preference." "Or Sizzler?" "Uh..." You see, it wasn't conflicting with your preferences at this time. The options were both equally satisfying and so you don't have a preference. You do have a preference.

We have to come to grips with who we are and the condition our hearts are really in and be able to say, "Not my will." And that's the most difficult thing that you and I confront on a daily basis as we walk in an attitude of prayer and practice the presence of God. Are we doing those things that are pleasing in His sight? Keeping His commandments? Jesus said, "I do always the things that are pleasing to my Father." Now, why could He say that? "Because I didn't come to do My will, but the will of Him that sent Me. I didn't come to speak My words but the words of Him that sent Me." Can I ask you something? Are you doing those things that are pleasing in His sight? That's what pleases God. Or how often do you hear yourself speaking your words? Even in prayer. For us to be candidates for the promise of God in 1 John 3:22, "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him" That phrasing is powerful! "Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him." That's powerful. Because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.

Look over to the fifth chapter of 1 John. In the fifth chapter of 1 John, as we're looking at this again, down in verse 14, we quoted earlier, "This is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will...." Let's say it another way, "If we ask anything according to His commandments." If we ask anything that correlates with our pleasing Him, "...he heareth us." Now if we don't, then the Scripture makes it very clear that He doesn't hear us.

Turn over to Psalms for just a second. Let me show you something in the Psalms that needs to become very clear in our lives if we're going to be successful in praying. Psalm 66, verse 18, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, [what?] the Lord will not hear me." This is a man who had a covenant with God. A lot of us think that because we're saved, we have a right to be heard. If you have iniquity in your heart, you do not have a right to be heard of God until you repent of your self-will, until you're cleansed by the blood of Jesus, and then God will hear you. But as long as we are regarding iniquity in our hearts, the Lord will not hear us. What does that "regard" mean? I know that I'm not doing what God wants me to do. I'm choosing to hold onto my own will and I'm trusting then that somewhere along the line, God's grace or mercy will bail me out of this thing. And God is merciful and that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about, are we doing those things that are pleasing in His sight? The man of God who's going to become a man of prayer is one who's habitually looking for the most he can do for God, not the least. Eventually, that will bring your death. But the one thing we do know here is this: There is no magic formula for praying that causes us to be heard. There isn't any magic name that we attach. And if we ask it in His name--and we're going to talk about the name of Jesus--praying in the name of Jesus, in our next session. It all has to do with our righteousness or our right standing. Or another way of saying that, our relationship with God.

How are you standing with God right now? "Well, legally, praise God, I believe that legally I'm redeemed and bought with a price, the precious blood of Jesus and I believe that legally Jesus has been a propitiation for my sins. But I am regarding some iniquity in my heart." Then you're living solely on the grace and the mercy of God and He can justly cut you off at any moment. You're in danger, without the armor of God in place, of being destroyed by one of those fiery darts; and you need to understand that it isn't sufficient just to have the legal righteousness, but there must be a literal righteousness working in your lives.

Let's take the next couple of minutes and finish up with this. Proverbs 28, verse nine. "He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law...." If you keep my commandments and do those things that are pleasing in my sight, you can have whatsoever you ask. Whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing. Proverbs 28:9 says, "If you turn your ear from keeping His commandments...." The man who's regarding iniquity. Now, remember, when I talk about regarding iniquity, don't let your mind go to the horrendous acts of depraved man. This lady who just killed her children. The drug addict. So we have the murderers, the adulterers, the liars, and all of these. We're not talking about that, in and of itself. We're talking about the greatest of all sin, and that's independence, an independent attitude, self-will. Independence. I'm going to do what I want; I'm going to do it my way. We're not talking about big things. We're talking about a life that is habitually directing its own course, and God is not even taken into consideration. And when things oppose your will, all you do is get mad and try to destroy those that are in your way instead of seeing it as God trying to direct your steps. You don't even consider that God is trying to stop you from doing your will. You're unable to just stop and rejoice and in everything give thanks.

"He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination," the Scripture says. So those of us that are not seeking to do those things that are pleasing in His sight, our prayers are an abomination; they're a stench to the nostrils of God. You know the incense in the tabernacle, what was that symbolic of? The prayer of the saints, sweet, is coming up into the presence of God, satisfying His nostrils. Do you see how God responds to true prayer? When His children come to Him and cry out for His help and acknowledge His majesty and say, "Lord, I'm in need of Your visitation. I'm in need of Your wisdom. I'm in need of Your power to do Your will. I want You to work in me to will and to do Your good pleasure. Not my will, Your will be done." Sweet smelling savor. Self-will, an abomination, a stench in the nostrils of God. Now, stop and think, and I said to relate these things from natural to heavenly Father. It's the same thing. If you want to be a wise man and please your father and experience all the blessings of God, then keep His purposes for your life. Do those things that are pleasing and you'll understand the visitation of God.

Proverbs 15, verses eight and 29. The Scripture says that, "The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: but the prayer of the upright is his delight. The Lord is far from the wicked: but he heareth the prayer of the righteous." So, when we talk about effective praying we're really talking about righteousness aren't we? Are you righteous tonight? "Yes, I'm the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ." Yes, you are, legally. Literally, "...he that doeth righteousness is righteous," 1 John says. You see, the legal righteousness of our faith, and believing the redemptive work of Jesus is what enables us to bring about the literal, or the walking out of righteousness, or doing those things that are pleasing in God's sight.

Can I ask you a question? In heart, and also in action, are you progressing to do things that are pleasing to God? Or have you--and see, here's where the real interesting thing comes in the natural and the spiritual--or have you now "matured" enough to where you're able to live a life to yourself, an independent life? "I've matured enough that I know what to pray for as I ought. I've studied the Word of God enough that I have enough wisdom to know how to apply justice in this particular incident. I know what the will of God is." And the will of God is not you knowing His commandments, but keeping them. And the keeping of His commandments is loving them, and seeking Him, and relating to Him in every decision, not just parroting whatever He declared to be truth.

So many of us are out thinking that we're keeping His commandments just because we have a knowledge of the will of God, and we're making all these decisions on our own, and we're living in our own strength, and we're far from the presence of God, as little children. We've become "mature" Christians that don't need God anymore because we have His wisdom memorized. "I don't have to call on God anymore for His input because I was trained up and I know what He wants and I've heard it a thousand times." God doesn't want you to do that any more than you want your children to do that and cut you out. It's very important to understand that the ears of the Lord are open to the cry of the righteous.

Let's end with John nine for this evening. John, chapter nine, verse 31. "Now we know that God heareth not sinners: [the Pharisees said concerning the miracle] but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth." They were aware of the power that Jesus was manifesting--He was accused of being a sinner and these things being done by the power of Beelzebub--and these guys said, "No it doesn't work that way." For a man to be able to move in this realm, there has to be worship.

What a choice, here, of words that these men were using as they were inspired by the Holy Spirit! If a man worships God, is seeking the glory of God, the majesty of God, and does His will, he's the type of man that God hears. So when we get ready to pray, let's be aware of the need to prepare our vessels as we come into His presence. Let's be prepared to realize that it's not on a legal basis that we can just come in, pray, attach the name of Jesus, this agrees with the revealed will of God, so therefore God is obligated to respond and effect in this particular instance. God does not respond on any legal obligations. God responds upon relationships, upon the purity of your heart, upon the purposes of your heart, and most importantly, for His own glory and for His own honor. As we sang tonight. That's what makes a man or a woman effective in their prayer life.

Father, we come in the name of Jesus, and we just thank You for the privilege of coming into Your presence. We thank You, first of all, that You put within us the desire to come. No man seeks God, so the very fact that we come indicates that Your Spirit is working in us and that we are sons of God and that we have a right to be here and to access Your heart. So, we thank You for that privilege and that power that's at work. Then secondly, Father, we're humbled by the call of God on us to come into Your presence that You might send us forth as messengers to represent Your will. We're not here for our purposes or to enact our agenda. We've done it too many times, and everything that has our name on it, fails. So we come seeking the glory of Your name, Lord. We come in the power, Jesus, of Your name. Because we have no rights here separate from You. There is no exclusive account for us to draw upon. We draw only from the account of Your righteousness and Your obedience and Your holiness. We come totally dependent, privileged to be called the sons of God. We rejoice in that, and we come now, humbling ourselves, and saying, "Lord, here am I, send me. I come praying to be a servant of God. I ask to become an agent, an ambassador. I'm here in Your presence, not asking You to change things for my ease, but let me represent Your glory. Send me forth. Make me bold. Give me the ability to stand. Give me the ability to resist. Give me the ability to pray the prayer of faith. Give me the patience to endure. Thy will be done. My prayer is that I might properly represent You, Father." In Jesus' name, amen.

Let's stand before the Lord tonight. Father, as we've looked into the Word, we've seen the righteousness of God. It's the daily relationship, it's the dependence, it's the thanksgiving for all that You've called us to do for the kingdom. Cause our hearts, Father, to know the purposes of our God so that we can pray, "Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven." We don't come presuming upon abundance, so according to Your revealed Word we say, "Give us this day our daily bread." That's sufficient for us. Those that want to hold You to abundance have missed the thanksgiving of daily provision. Thank You, Father, for our daily bread. Keep us from the temptations that might destroy us. Keep us in them as we seek Your kingdom first. Deliver us from the evil one as we put on the armor of God and set out against principalities and powers, and forgive us as we forgive. When you stand praying, forgive. You can't pray if you have ought against anybody. How can you hold people debtors to you, with the debt that you owe? Forgive them, Father, they don't know what they do. "For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever. Amen."

We thank God for His working in our lives and His will that's being effected. As we sing this chorus in just a moment, allow Him to speak now into your heart, and rest in the promises of His presence to those that do such things that are pleasing in His sight. Let's sing it together and bless Him.

Your will be done, Lord. I surrender! For You are an awesome God, who is mighty. You deserve my deepest praise. Oh, Hallelujah! I surrender! We delight in You, Lord. Oh, Hallelujah! For you are an awesome God who is mighty. Thank You, Jesus. And all of my life I surrender.

As Gary prayed tonight, we're learning not to try and figure out everything that happens, but just to be able to rejoice in the goodness of God. Janet called me the other morning from the hospital. Some of you know that we took her in, an emergency on Sunday night, I think it was, or Monday morning. She called me the following morning, I guess it was Tuesday. Things run together. I woke up Sunday morning for church and I got in bed Monday night at 11:00. About 40 hours without sleep, so things kind of run together. But she called me Tuesday morning and there was a real excitement in her voice that I haven't heard for a while. And she said, "The CDs that you had left on for me." "Yeah." "I was just listening." It was part of some of these songs we sang here tonight. She said, "I've had a chance already this morning." She'd been witnessing to a whole bunch of people. She said, "One lady just came walking in, and the tape was playing, she immediately just threw her hands up and began to worship the Lord." One of the nurses. She got to minister to her and ministered to another guy for a long time. And she was really excited in the midst of all of this stupidity for the opportunity to share Jesus. It'd just been a while since she'd had an opportunity, and here in the midst of all this, just excited about another opportunity to just share the goodness of the Lord. Prayer. Seeking to honor God in our lives in the immediate circumstances, declaring His goodness, His majesty and His love for us. What a privilege to go out and represent Him on a daily basis.

Before you go, turn to somebody next to you and say, "Seek the kingdom first."

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