Would you write this down… the single most important activity in my life is the time I spend alone with God. Did you all get that? The time I spend alone with the Lord. The time that I take to spend time with Him, seeking God. There is absolutely nothing you and I will do in the course of our lives that what God has us talking about. That's it. Flat out. And remember, when you seek God, you don't seek Him hand out. You first seek Him hands up. If you were with us last week we talked about the different postures of prayer. In the Bible the most common way to pray is standing. Many would say kneeling, maybe sitting. But the most common is standing. Whether you are on the go or you have time to get away and settle in with God. When they would often pray they would have hands up in worship to God. And when you go to God to seek Him, the kind of prayer we are talking about is prayer that seeks Him not something from Him initially. Oh, you get to that, but the priority of prayer is to seek God just for Who He is. Nothing we could talk about, nothing I could do would be as important as getting into a consistent life and practicing the privilege of prayer.
Would you put down - because of that - here's Satan's chief strategy. His chief strategy for your life and mine is to keep you off your knees. I hope you heard that tonight; he wants to keep you off your knees. For some of you here tonight this is a brand new concept. You've thought - is prayer that important? You bet it is. And the enemy knows how important it is. So Ephesians says that we wrestle not against flesh and blood. You know what I picture? I picture you and me on our knees and the devil is doing anything he can to flip us and get us off those knees. He'll do anything he can to wrestle us down. We don't wrestle against flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers, spiritual wickedness in high places. I tell you, my prayer life has just zoomed up since the early fall. God was doing things in my life, my intimacy, my love for Him, the things He was saying to me, the victory, the power, the peace, the presence - all those things that God promises was being realized in giving Him more time. Simply just giving God more time. And then what happened as the months went by, the last 4 weeks was when this sickness thing hit me. And what it did was it was a challenge that God got at least that time. Well you need to get your sleep; you need to be eating a certain diet; you shouldn't be up at 4,5 or 6 in the morning. And all of a sudden, now, wait a minute - the one essential is prayer. Now understand this, you don't have to get up and meet with God early in the morning. Now some of you folks, you don't believe in God until about 11 am. How many folks, at night you're great?! But in the morning it is don't say anything to me until the fourth cup of coffee, and a fight breaks out if you get talked to early in the morning. But for folks like that don't think you are being spiritual crawling out of bed at 4:30 in the cold. You don't like getting up anyway. You put on your robe, you struggle, drag yourself over to the side of the bed or some place to pray to God. Let me tell you, you're just going to change the place where you go to sleep. That is not spiritual. And then you get up and you start to pray and seek God, and you go "Remember what I said last night? Ditto." That's as good as you get! That is not the kind of praying we're talking about here. You need to be seeking God when you are at your best. For some of you, at night, anything but sleep. You are wired at night. That's when you need to meet with God. God has given all of us time clocks and there are certain times when you work best. That needs to be the best time you spend with Him. And you need to set that time aside. And if the enemy can keep you off your knees, he's got you. That's exactly where you need to be.
And so I had to make a purposeful decision that I was meeting with God no matter what. And God helped me get through. But there are things the world will bring into your life and the enemy will throw at you to try to get you off kilter. How many folks have sought God in new ways since we started "Take Time to Pray"? That is wonderful… probably most of the folks here. There is a certain place where God wants you to be at, to meet with Him, to begin to do those things in your life that will not happen until you make prayer a priority.
Mark it in your notes if you would, that nothing I do will ever equal the importance. Nothing you do will ever equal the importance or the effectiveness or the peace and power and need-meeting results as my time of fellowship and intimacy with God in prayer. Did you catch that? Nothing I do, nothing as effective, nothing will meet needs, bring peace, and the power of God than you taking time to grow. Not just taking time to pray for that issue that is important to you but to grow in intimacy with God. It is not whether or not you are a preacher and you want to have those 3 points and a cloud of dust; you want to have those points real clear, your intro, your conclusion. You pray that God honors that, constantly, every week there is research looking for new things. I remember several years ago one of the great treats of my life was being able to share lunch with Charles Swindoll, a tremendous pastor. Being around him was such a wonderful opportunity. But when I went to his office and we talked a little bit, we talked about the fact - he called it "the dragon" of sermon preparation. He says, you get out there and you preach the Word of God and you slay that dragon, and the dragon pops up the next day. Because there are only 6 more days till that dragon comes up again. With Chuck Swindoll it seems like every sermon is his best. But there is a secret life that that man has in prayer for his life to be as powerful as it is. It is not the polish; it isn't even the preparation. It starts on your knees. That marriage… that concern with those people… pray! Pray, is what God says. Talking to Him, not about the object, second only to first - seeking Him for Who He is. No activity in your life or my life will equal it. I want you to write down Matthew 7:7,8. The Bible says there to ask, seek and knock. Do you know that is shared in what's called the continuance sense. The Bible says ask and you will receive; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened. You know, in the original language it isn't just ask, seek and knock, as if you do it three times and that's it. It's knocking, asking, seeking, then eventually it gets opened up. I talk to folks and they say I prayed for such and such and it didn't happen. You know the first thing I ask is "How often did you pray about it?" "Oh, two or three times." Well, no wonder. You see, in scripture that you keep going back to the door, you keep talking to God about these things. And as you keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking, in God's time those things will transpire. You need to read Luke 11 & 18. I want you to take encouragement tonight because I'm sure our adversary has tried to discourage hearts in this room by you praying over something and it hasn't happened. You need to recognize that God says if you make prayer a priority, you continue coming to Me over these issues, trying to grow in Me, in God's time He'll begin to move. He'll go ahead and allow that house to open up for you, He'll allow that relationship to go from a wall to a bridge; He will allow for you to break through spiritually in ways you've never known before as you keep seeking God, and keep knocking, and keep asking. He's saying that to me as well this evening.
Notice with me for just a moment in Colossians in verse 2, "Devote yourselves to prayer…keep alert with an attitude of thanksgiving." Let's talk for a moment about what it means to devote ourselves in prayer. Write down, devotion. Here's what it simply means. It means stick with it; stay at it; persevere. Don't give up on that child, don't give up on that unsaved relative, don't give up on that dream. Devotion to prayer means you don't just say, "Well, I've done that." And go on to the next thing. The Bible makes it very clear, it is the devotion, that commitment… you don't pray always expecting instant answers. I would like it, just like you. But God doesn't promise that on everything. He doesn't say everything is going to be automatic. Wouldn't He be a great genie if everything was. Boy, we'd be praying serious stuff. All these things would be happening like a lion out of a lair. God checks our faith. He looks at our hearts. And He says, "Let me see your devotion." How serious are they about this. Because if God is working on your prayer, He is working on you. And He begins to move. So He says devote yourself, get committed to, persevere in prayer. And there is another key word - it is diligence.
Now I know as the Spirit of God moves some are saying tonight, "I need to apply this to this issue in my life." You sure do. Something you've given up on, you've prayed fervently about 2 months ago and maybe you just kind of waned. You need to get back on that prayer saddle. Diligence means to concentrate; keep your mind on it; pray until the answer comes. Praying until the answer comes - that was the attitude of the church. Would you mark in your notes, when prayer becomes a priority. Now remember, prayer is the expected, essential activity of all believers. Don't expect to grow in Christ; don't expect to see your Red Sea parted, until you start to take up the practice of regular prayer. And then watch what God will do. He promises to do it. I have an image in my mind often now that there is a great big strong arm, and this hand in heaven, and it sits there until I start to lift up prayer. When you start to pray then it starts to move - not until. And that big hand comes down and when it grabs that which you've prayed for it's warm, it's comforting, it's directing, it's soothing and it's rendered ineffective until I start praying. And then God says, 'I'll see you tomorrow. Let's have another go at it." That's what He wants. And He's waiting saying I've got all of this for you. Remember I shared with you weeks ago about the guy who went to heaven and saw a warehouse filled with all those boxes; boxes all wrapped beautifully, but left unopened and said "Never asked for." And in those boxes were all these gifts - peace, strength. All these answers were left unopened. Not given because we didn't ask. And so the Bible, when He says "Devote yourself.. get serious… persevere… don't give up… be diligent." He is speaking to this church in a very strong way, and He wants to speak to us. So when prayer is a priority, here's what God wants us to do.
Set aside a period, a time to pray. If you're serious about seeing answers in your life, about growing in God, about knowing Him in refreshing, wonderful ways, set aside a period of time to pray. You and I have instant access into God's presence when we pray. Instant access when we take the time to seek Him.
Would you mark in your notes, you don't find time to pray… you make time to pray. You don't find it. "Well, I can't find any time to pray." God expects you to make time. Those things that are important we make time for. Set it aside; write it in your Franklin; pull out your Daytimer; get out a calendar and start to click off when you are going to meet with God. But you've got to be conscious, you've got to be serious with God and make that time. People come up to me and say "Well, you know what, we don't need to get married. We've been living together for 14 years, and have stopped to say thanks." No, it's not isn't it. When you say "I do" it's a whole new deal, isn't it. It's the same thing when you say, "Oh, I think I'll pray." No, if you're serious about meeting God, what you need to do is set aside a time to pray. How much time, from last Wednesday to this Wednesday, how much time have you taken alone with your God in prayer. Now I'm not talking about praying while you're driving down to work. How much time would you say, over the past seven days, have you said, "Lord, You and I are getting alone. I can't wait. It's You and me. Here we are." You've got a Bible here, and maybe a devotional there, and you let God talk to you and you talk to Him. You know, if we knew the answer, we'd probably say is that all? It's something that we need to ask ourselves. Not the quick ones, but the one where you have set up a date, an appointment with God. When prayer becomes a priority as in Mother Theresa's life, with the schedule that she kept - 4:00 every morning. She went to bed at midnight and up before 5:00, usually at 4:00. She spent 2 hours in prayer. God hasn't called us to be like her, but He calls for all of us to be devoted to this great privilege of prayer.
Notice here, ask yourself, what other things am I putting before prayer as my priority. Very important. Set aside a period of time. We are talking about a God to move, the ability to change, the ability to transform and reengineer many things in our lives. He has the ability to do all of that. He desires to do that, and the only thing that hinders Him is my laziness. He says what are you thinking? Don't you know? What I do is set aside a period.
There's a second thing, when it becomes a priority, you set aside a place to pray. Set aside a place. If God has become important enough to you, you'll find a place. I recognize you and I can pray anywhere. That's the wonder of God. We can pray anywhere, but He also wants you to find a place. Let me tell you why. Jesus had a place - Gesthemene. Judas knew where Jesus was to be betrayed because he knew Jesus would often go there to pray. There needs to be a place.
When I was growing up in the Lord - I came to Christ in 1971 - and there was a large boulder with a small little plant there, and I used to go out there and meet with God as a teenager, with my Bible. And I used to call it "our place." I loved that, just a big boulder. We used to hook up and talk. And that little plant grew into a tree. And I used to ask God to let me grow like this bush.. 2, 3, 4, years. I went back there several months ago and it is enormous. Birds can land in that thing now. It has nests. The root system is splitting the boulder that I used to sit on. Let me ask you, "Do you have a place you can call 'our place'?" Do you know God desires to have that place with you. He's longing for that. Here's what happens. When you get a place and you say, "Okay, it's going to be the living room, over in the corner." Or, it's going to be the closet. I found out last week that there are several of you who literally make your closet your prayer closet. Now, them are some spiritual folks! Go in, lock the door, kick the lights, and there they are with God. Do you have that place where you go, "Yea, I can't wait to get there!" Do you know what happens? That's going to be intimate. People can walk by that place; they walk into the living room; they walk through and won't think a thing of it. But that has an emotional connect with you because that's where you connect with God.
And so emotionally and spiritually that place takes on a whole new nature. And here's what happens. When you walk through your house, and you walk by that place, or your eyes catch it, it automatically begins to work and you say, "That's where me and God meet. That's where we are!" And spiritually it begins to work. And you think oh boy, did we have at time there. If you knew, that, as we finish up there, and you were to get home by 9:00, God would be waiting for you at your place to say some great words to you, you'd be bookin' right now. You'd be saying, "I'm gone!" And you just can't wait to get there.. "God, I'm back." And you know what's great, when I'm with God I don't care about you all! I love you, but I could care less! Because this is my time to be me… little old me. I can weep before Him, I can laugh, I can shout, I can share and it's just me and Him. When it becomes a priority you set up time. You find a place and watch what that place will do. And so when Paul says, "Devote yourself to prayer" it's a very, very important thing.
The third thing, you need to set aside a plan to pray. There needs to be a period of time. You say, "God, nothing's going to stop me from getting up tomorrow morning." Or when I get home, nothing is going to stop me from spending time with God. If you do spend time with God in the evening, make sure it's not after a long day at work, a big dinner, 3 hours of TV, 4 bowls of ice cream, and then you drag yourself to the side of the bed to seek God. Do you know what I'm saying? Don't give God the leftovers. He's got things to say. He's got things He wants to do. And so it is essential that you go to God with your best. It's interesting to me, do you know how often we talk to people. We don't give God 1/20th of the time we give to people. We get our direction from Oprah… do you know what I'm saying? And some of these shows. You watch trash all day, we read about things that quench and grieve the spirit. And then we go and give God the leftovers, and God cannot get through.
They say if you read 2 chapters a day in the Bible, it's like reading one column in the newspaper. You say, "Well, I'm not a good reader." Man, you're busting through the sports, the funnies, the stock market, and everything else. You know what I'm saying? So, make a point, make a plan, say "Here's our spot, here's our time, here's the plan." Be careful of this, when you seek God, when you pray to God, make sure you don't just say the same thing. If I was asking, what do you say when you talk to God in your quiet place. Many would say, well I just start talking. You know what, if you just start talking, what's going to happen if you really were to examine the way you talk, I venture to say most of us would end up repeating the same thing. God wants you to come back to the throne over help over specifics, but there is a world of things God wants you to talk to him about. He wants you to adore Him (ACTS). God, you're great, you're awesome, you're wonderful, you're a joy… your mercy, your patience. He just wants you to talk to Him and He wants you to confess. This is where you dump the stuff you don't want anyone to see, but it's there. Your thought life, where your eyes have been, your attitude toward other people, the spirit that just sickens God, the pride we walk around with - which the Bible says is an abomination to Him - this is the place to say, "God, help me. I confess this stuff." You adore Him and you confess all of that. And you begin a sense of cleansing come over you. And then you begin to thank Him for things He's done in your life, yesterday, and in the last week. And then you just get specific. God wants to know what's going on this week. I know what's going on, but does it care enough to you to talk to Me about. Watch My hand move. You've got to talk to me about it. And so what you do, you have a plan for when you pray. If you don't you're going to get there and say, "I love You, Lord." And what else did the pastor say to say? No, no, no. He wants you to be real with Him. When I pray sometimes I'll do ACTS - I'll start with His nature, or I'll open up the Bible and start to pray to God, and you glance back. It talks about the character of God and then you talk to God about His character and you adore Him in that. Or you read something and go, oh, this ministers to my heart. And then you sing it as a song back to Him. Or you talk to God about His promises, and you just get as real as you can with your God; and you'll find you do this for about 5,6,7 days and it starts to become so natural that you don't have to think about it. You just can't wait to get there.
As you and I plan for what God calls for us to say, the enemy will try everything he can to keep you off your knees. Don't show up at midweek and say, well I kind of heard this prayer stuff, but you're not practicing it. We can say, "I did that and it's kind of neat." It's not a rabbit's foot; it's a lifestyle. And when it becomes a priority you start to lead and live that life that the Bible says, "abundantly, fulfilling."
Turn over your outline and we'll finish up our study. I am going to give you 10 ways that priority praying will change your life. After you get these, I am going to ask you, "Shouldn't you - shouldn't I - make prayer the ultimate priority if these 10 things are going to happen in meeting with God on a daily basis?"
Number 1: When you give God priority there is a personal, more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ that develops. It's personal, but as you and I develop more in our areas of praying it becomes far more intimate in that relationship. I don't know if you've noticed what's going on in the church, but when Wednesday nights are over, and I'm starting to see it on weekends, a lot of folks don't leave. And I'm not only talking about the ones who come up for prayer, but I'm seeing folks who just want to hang out and talk about God and what Jesus is doing in their life; how it was in their prayer closet; what God's doing in their inner life; the victories that they are seeing. Has anybody noticed that? It's been a wonderful thing, and that is because people are experiencing more intimacy with the Almighty. And so when you try that you'll find that a lot of these things that have consumed you aren't issues at all. Personal, more intimate relationship with Jesus Christ.
Number 2: What you'll see is the perspective of Who God is. The perspective of Who God is changes. You are able to look at things and experience His presence, His strength, His power; you're able to look at issues or individuals that would, in the past, trouble you. And you'll see that your flesh is not giving in to the circumstances around you. Your perspective becomes God's perspective because you're locked up with God and you are trafficking with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit in a quiet place and God is birthing things in your life that is only found in those secret changers. You're not even fully aware of it until you step out and realize "Man, I feel different about God. Man, this feels great!" And then you have situations that would have just snapped you or set you off, and you just rebuke those things and keep on going. Your perspective changes.
Also, you start to experience a positive faith - put it down - a positive faith or life attitude. All of us have a measure of faith the Bible says, that fades becomes far more positive. You are able to see God in situations that others buckle under. You are able to recognize that God is in this and it is because you have met with the Author and Finisher of our faith. You begin to trust God like never before and that is a marvelous thing.
The next thing, when you spend this time with God - when prayer becomes a priority - here's something else that God does to the life. He does a purifying process in my heart. A purifying process takes place in your life and your heart and you sense God changing who you are. It's like being a little plant being pulled up and planted in a bigger pot. And that little plant is in shock but it knows where it's at is a great place to be. And so it begins to purify that life. There is an inner desire for right culture . Anybody here tonight that's been trying to grow in God, walk in a way that will please Him, and you sense that more in the day to day trying to be the kind of woman or man He wants you to be? That is great! There are things many of you and I am doing today that we would not have thought of doing a year ago. And that is because of getting alone with a Holy God who loves us dearly, loves us passionately, wants to reveal His presence to us, wants to reveal His purpose in us, wants to show the power He has, and when we start to experience Him like that it changes who you are from the inside out. And there's a greater desire to walk with Him day to day. Purifying my heart.
Along with that comes something that starts to take over. It's almost a passion. It's a passion for obedience. It goes, if this is what the Word says and I haven't done this before, but if I do this it's going to please Him, something urges you on to be His woman, to be His man, and you go, "This is a great place to be." And you sense the pleasure of God in your everyday life. And that's when you begin to realize "God is so real… He's so alive! He cares for me! He's listening right now!" This is what the Bible calls walking in the Spirit. And in that time with God with prayer as a priority, there is a passion to obey Him, there is a purifying agent that comes and makes your desire to be pleasing to Him.
And then as we've shared in weeks past, the pressures in your life diminish. The wonderful thing is is that there's nothing that will come your way - there is nothing that will come my way - that will touch me or you unless it first goes through the hand of God. That is the assurance that we have. There are some individuals I know who have gone through far more in their lives than I have. And I think, Lord, how can they handle that? God knows they can or they wouldn't encountered it. In the last 2 years - you know we've kind of grown up together. A few years ago the median age of our church was about 35 - now I see us, we're all aging together. And as that happens we're kind of journeying together. Until this generation, and then "pouf," we're gone. I look at the last 2 years, and someone came to me and said this yesterday, "Boy, the things that your family has had to endure the last 2 years," and it made me reflect: lost 2 daughters to miscarriage, dear mom - here every week - put in an Alzheimer's Clinic, lost a brother a few months ago, and then this situation that just transpired. There's not one of those things that would have come this way if God said, "This is not of Me. You can't handle this." He knew that He could draw more, somewhere, out of my life through encountering these things that with Him I would be able to get through, and you would be able to get through as you go through them with God. But if he can keep you off your knees when you go through them, what in the world - it's definitely not from God. And so as Genesis 50:20 says, "The enemy means things for evil but God means them for good" as we give those things to Him. And so the pressures that would cause you to snap in the natural, with God, it becomes a supernatural victory of diminishing pressures.
The next thing, put down there are provisions for my needs. There is a reliance on God for His provision as you see those needs, you begin and I begin to see needs answered. Have you looked around, church, and realized that God is working in your life. Have you been able to look back to 1994 and see what God has done in your life by '99. Have you looked at the things you've only half thought about or dreamed about and God has accomplished, and you realize "Wait a minute, this is happening - God is doing it!" He's causing me and calling me and allowing me to overcome. And this --provision for my needs are met. "I have never seen the righteous forsaken or the children begging bread," the Bible says.
When you make prayer a priority this is the pathway to spiritual growth. Pathway to my spiritual growth. Time spent continually with Him, regularly with Him, causes growth almost immediately. You won't get it on a weekend or on a Wednesday night, but it's in the application of time with God that you begin to sense spiritual growth in your life. My prayer for all of us in this church is that it becomes a church that is growing like mad because we are an obedient body of believers. They said years ago, Marcus Aurilius was the man who went into Rome and Rome was the place of wood. He came in and conquered kingdoms and built Rome up from wood to marble. Aurilius was the one recognized for doing that. You know, I believe there was more value when Christians go from being prayerless to prayerful. When a church goes from being so-so in prayer to impassioned over prayer. There is more value in that than turning a grand city from wood into marble. And God is calling us to be that.
As you look in the Bible - not only is it the pathway to my spiritual growth - but there is power. Oh, church, there is power that is previously untapped released. Power untapped is released in our lives, is released in our church when you and I start to pray. And I gotta tell you there have been years and years - anytime you're involved in any kind of ministry leadership, those of you who are small group leaders, those of you who partner with us on the weekends or tonight - we try to get it right, don't we? We pray up, we research, we try to do it right, much more victory is won in prayer than in all that preparation. He wants us to prepare but not at the sacrifice of regular, fervent praying. And when we pray, untapped power is released in our lives.
And there is one last great thing. Productivity in my life. Your life becomes, the Bible word for it is fruitful. Productivity in my life. There is fruitfulness in your family, your career,relationships, witness, spiritual life. Now when you and I talk to God, God is the ultimate, final authority, Creator of the universe. When you and I look at these 10 things, go over them, prayer deserves to be the priority of my life.
