Gaining Confidence In Prayer I

I want to start with a word of prayer and then we'll move into a little story here tonight that I think will be of interest. Test your history knowledge in just a moment. Lord, thank you again for the Word of God and for what it means to us to have this treasure in our hands tonight, and I pray for anointing, Lord, in my words and on the ears of each who have come. Lord, that we would be somehow changed. Some kernel of truth would break through and affect us tonight. In Jesus' name, amen. How many of you, don't shout the name out, how many of you think you know the name of the only United States general? Yeah, they're coming in here. If you don't get fired up, they're gonna come right in here. The name of the only United States general to be captured by enemy forces in World War Two. Just one. Became a POW. If you think you know it, shout it out. Marvelous. What is your name? You just won double Jeopardy, sir. You always need to And he was charged by Douglas MacArthur to defend Corregidor. And that's an island in the Philippines, and of course, at that point, the war was still up for grabs, and MacArthur commissioned this General Wainwright to hold the island at whatever cost. That was his mission. And so MacArthur left the island and went to Australia to try to rally the troops to a new strategy because they were losing a couple of different theaters in the war at that time. But the war was unbelievably brutal, and over the next months, Wainwright was assaulted with incredible ferocity, mercilessly bombed and then attacked. Loss of life continued to grow, and it was just a horrible thing. And so after just this continued pounding, Wainwright surrendered. And thousands of American soldiers were shipped off to POW camps all around Asia, and he was sent to a POW camp in Mongolia. And the Japanese basically had a prize, the only general to be captured. And they weren't going to let anyone know where this guy was, and they just simply were going to taunt the Americans with this victory. And he became a POW and suffered all of the things that you've read and seen on TV and so on, and his physical body deteriorated. He ended up walking with a cane through the process of his internment and deprivations, but later recounted that by far the worst torture that he suffered was his own mental anguish at having failed General MacArthur and having given up Corregidor, which he was told not to do. So just imagine the deterioration of spirit along with body, and it's a wonder that he survived at all. Then interestingly, of course, as you know, MacArthur came back as he promised he would, and Japan was totally defeated. And when Tokyo was occupied, the announcement was made all over Asia that the POWs were to take over their camps where they were interned, and that they were to take their captors captive. But in Mongolia, the word was very slow to make it, because it was so remote. And so there was a season where Japan had been defeated, the Emperor had signed the papers, our Commander-in-Chief had defeated their Commander-in-Chief, but the word had not yet gotten to Mongolia, and General Wainwright remained a prisoner for several weeks, even though he had been set free. And imagine what was going through the mind of that Japanese prison camp commander, knowing, he knew, of course, that Japan had been defeated, but the American troops had not arrived, nor had any signal gotten through for the prisoners to know that. He knew that there was a time coming, in short order, when the tables would be turned, and the one who was holding him, he was holding captive, would now hold him as captive. Imagine what that did inside of him, as he anticipated that. Should he just go ahead and kill him so he wouldn't have to face him? How merciless would he be in return for what had happened to him, and so on. Now, I'm going to tell you the end of the story a little bit later, but can you think of a biblical analogy that's somewhat similar in terms of when the ignorance of truth held someone captive? Ignorance of truth held someone captive? How do you think the Pharaoh thought about the Israeli slaves that he held in his possession? The Pharaoh, by the way, was the ruler. I mean, he didn't have a board, meaning he didn't want to make a decision. If he wanted to do something, boom, he just decided, and they did it. But interestingly, if you have your Bibles, turn to Exodus chapter 1, and I want you to see something. In Exodus chapter 1, this mighty Pharaoh who controlled the world's power and wealth, politically, militarily, and economically, look what he feared. Look, verse 9, Exodus 1, verse 9, look, he said to his people, the Israelites have become much too numerous for us. Come, we must deal shrewdly with them, or they will become even more numerous, and if war breaks out, we'll join our enemies, fight against us, and leave the country. The Pharaoh feared what might happen with these Israeli slaves if they found out the truth of their strength, and so he decided, hey, we've got to avoid this and deal with these people. He could have crushed them, but he wanted to keep control of them, so he decided to deal shrewdly, it says here in the NIV. Friends, let me just go on and say it. Satan's greatest fear tonight is that the church would wake up and find out what the truth is about its authority. It's Satan's greatest nightmare, but this building tonight on a prayer meeting night sits largely empty, as do tens of thousands of other churches in America, because Satan has effectively been able to continue to control the power of the church by keeping them ignorant concerning our authority. His greatest fear is that one day we'll wake up and realize that 1st John 4-4 is true, that greater is he that's in us than he that's in the world. And dear ones, when we finally in this church get a hold of that truth and believe it more than just with lip service, Satan will realize that his greatest fear is coming to pass. He's afraid that one day our spiritual eyes will be open and we'll see that the war that's going on in the heavenlies is prevailing against him, and that as we enjoy that battle, we can begin to see the fruit of what's happening in the heavenly places here on earth as we pray, Lord thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Satan fears that Christians will give up the land that he currently possesses, and tonight we're going to spend some time in prayer looking at the parts of your land that Satan still has control of. How many can think of one area where Satan still has influence of land that you occupy? Maybe it's some one in your household, maybe it's your entire household, maybe it's part of your extended family, maybe it's a former spouse or relative or friend, rather, that you know that just is under the influence of the evil one. Well, the scripture is very clear that Satan has been defeated. It's as though General MacArthur has already struck the blow to the evil one, but the word hasn't gotten to us in the POW camp. So turn to Colossians 2.15, would you please? Colossians 2.15, Colossians 2. If you're a newer Christian and you're fumbling for well, where is that? I know it's from those little books, okay? It comes after Corinthians and then you go to Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, or as was it R.C. Sproul that once called it God's electric power company? Something like that. There you go, Colossians 2.15. Look at this verse of scripture if you're not familiar with it. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. You see, in God's eternal timeline, Satan has been defeated. The cross was the moment of victory. There God disarmed the principalities and powers of the air. And I'm going to be very direct with you tonight, friends. Satan continues to hold many in captivity. There are many strongholds. Next week's entire message is going to be on identifying and demolishing strongholds. Because what I have come to understand about where most people live is that they bang up against the same walls over and over and over again until they just flat accept them as being walls they'll never penetrate or and give up or they walk away discouraged and defeated. Friends, there are answers to strongholds. And we've been given weapons of our warfare that are mighty by God for the tearing down or demolishing of strongholds. We're going to look at that specifically next week. What is a stronghold? How do you identify it? And how do you destroy it? But tonight I'm just going to be up front with you. My goal tonight is to somehow motivate you to enlist you to pray to be that little piece of kindling wood. Turn to someone and say, you look like a nice piece of kindling wood. Just slender and nice and ready to be lit on fire by the Lord. All right? There's enough people in this room along with those who aren't here tonight who I know have a heart to pray that we could be we could light a fire. We could light a fire of prayer in this church. And I want to encourage you. How many of you know that your elders are meeting every Tuesday and Wednesday night for at least an hour to pray? Because we got fed up, if I may use that term, fed up with our inability to pray effectively. And we decided to do something about it. So at great personal expense, every Tuesday and Wednesday night for an hour, the elders are coming together just to pray. That should encourage you. Just to pray. We're stirred up and God's starting to work. And it's a process and it's not easy and we all anguish just a bit, but it's happening. You know, one of the things that I do as your pastor, it's sort of a privilege but it's also a pain, is I represent you to many, many different organizations in the city. Pittsburgh 2000, Pittsburgh Prayer Evangelism, I mean, Ministerium This Is and That's, Promise Keepers, whatever. When there's something corporate, I feel, if at all possible, I need to be there to represent our church. But can I tell you what I've learned after 15 years of doing this here at North Way and seven years prior to that in ministry? Every single one of these opportunities that I have, every single one of them becomes an exercise in futility. How many of you know what it's like to sit in a meeting and know that nothing got done and wonder, what am I doing here? And you do it for months and months and months at a time. And every one of those things that I do, all have valuable benefits to them. But in the end, what I have discovered, and these people who lead these organizations would all tell you the same thing, the most effective thing they ever do is pray. The best meetings they ever have are the prayer meetings. The only time that things really ever happen is when they pray. And yet somehow there's something in us all that we'd rather meet than pray. By God's grace, I think the Lord is allowing many of these organizations to get to the very end of themselves. So they're so desperate that they'll say, well, I guess we better pray. You know, it's sort of the court of last resort. I mean, if all of our ideas fail, let's just pray. And I've discovered that when we work, God just kind of waits for us to wear out. But when we pray, God works. Amazing things can happen to us. I have to tell you, this may be a little bit, sound a little defeatist to you, I don't mean it to, but I don't think that I'm able to mobilize the city of Pittsburgh to pray. If you have that capacity or that vision, then I will bless you and send you forth. I don't know that I can really even unite the pastors of the North Hills. We are, by the way, there is a group of pastors now, for the first time in my 15 years, from the North Hills that are praying. Someone say, no, no, someone say, remember that one? Amen? If you missed that night, that's, Chris said, forget the amen, just go. So there's a group of pastors praying in the North Hills. Amen, okay? It's a step. But I do believe that in this church right now, the Holy Spirit is saying, if you will pray, I will move. I believe that's what he's saying. And by his grace, I believe we can do that. You see, when the Israelites got to the very end, look how they got out of their 400-year jam. Look at Exodus 2, 23. Back to Exodus again. I'm just going to keep you moving those fingers. Exodus 2, by the time I get there, it might be gone. During that long period, the king of Egypt died. The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out. And their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God. God heard their groaning. Friends, how many of you hear passion in those words? Hello? That's not indifferent praying. They're cried out, groaning. They're impassioned. They want to be set free. Can I just say to you tonight, if we allow ourselves to sort of just casually pray, I don't think God just gets all that interested. But if just this little group tonight and the others that we influence, if we cry out, if we earnestly say, God, you've got to come through. You've got to deliver us. You've got to come through and redeem our families and save our marriages and bring our kids back from drugs and promiscuity. And you've got to move, God. Something's going to happen. The Lord's going to hear our cry. He's going to move. I believe that. The early church also believed that it took earnest prayer. Now, one more place just to turn quickly, and that's Acts chapter 4. And I've used this passage numerous times over the years to preach from, but particularly to lead prayer from because I think it captures the essence of the spirit of the early church. They were desperate. In Acts 4, 23, on their release, Peter and John went back to their own people and reported all that the chief priests and elders had said to them. And when they heard this, they raised their voices together. By the way, the word there for together, raise their voices together, is the word symphoneo in the Greek, which means as a symphony, they raised their voices. And we're going to do that tonight. We're going to have a symphony of our voices in prayer to God. And then the prayer just rings out, and they remind the Lord of all the things that he said. And look at verse 31. And after they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly. How many of you would like to say, well, you know, I went to prayer meeting tonight, and the place was shaken, and I was filled with the Holy Spirit, and I went out to pretend the word. How many of you would say, well, that was a decent prayer meeting? You know, somehow, friends, my heart's cry would be that our prayer meetings would be so vital that you'd be so enamored with the desire to pray that whatever else you had on your plate, you could put aside. You'd be so encouraged. You'd be so excited about the possibility. I believe that's what the Lord wants for us. Let me just mention these three things. You may think, man, how long is this? This will be real quick. Three keys. What is a key? Well, a key is something that opens a door. It's not the answer, but it opens the door to the answer. Three keys we've got to engage if we're going to win a victory. Number one is the key of initiative. Turn to Matthew 7, real quickly, Matthew 7. Jesus said this when it came to this matter of prayer. And verse 7. If you have an NIV, would you just, would you honor the word of God by reading it out loud with me, please? Matthew 7, verse 7. Let's read it together. 7, 7 through 11. Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. He who seeks, finds. And to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Let's just pause there. Now notice the force of those words. Ask, Jesus says, ask. Friends, to some degree, we lack confidence in prayer. We lack a sense of authority in prayer because we don't ask with any sense of continuity or any sense of passion. You've heard me say before, the way the Greek is written there is, ask and keep on asking, and it will be given. Seek and keep on seeking. I think it's the present imperfect tense. Something like that, Bruce, isn't it? It's the continuing sense in the Greek. Jesus says later on in Luke 18, flip over there and just mark this in your Bibles if you haven't already. Luke 18. I told you I was going to have you do your finger aerobics tonight. Luke 18. Great passage. Here Jesus says this to the disciples. Verse one. Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up. He said, in a certain town, there was a judge who neither feared God nor cared about men. And there was a widow in that town who kept coming to him with a plea. Excuse me? Grant me justice against my adversary. For some time he refused, but finally he said to himself, even though I don't fear God or care about men, yet because this widow keeps bothering me. Friend, I'm going to stop there. I'd love to have a church that kept bothering God. For God to look down and say, those people at North Way are still bothering me about their revenge. They're still bothering me about their family members. They're still bothering me about all the unsaved in the North. They're still bothering me about this marriage. What is it? What kind of spirit does it take to say, God, we're not going to let go until you do? Not going to let go. Not going to stop. Not going to give up until you do. The Lord said, listen to what the unjust judge says and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones? Oh, okay. Let me, let me back up. Yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will see that she gets justice so that she won't eventually wear me out with her coming. Verse seven. And will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones? He'll cry out to him day and night. Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will see that they get justice and quickly. Now some of you are thinking, well, wait a minute. I've been praying for 10 years for my husband and he's still not a Christian. That's hardly quickly, God. The places I know where the greatest answers to prayer are flowing are where people have learned the power of uniting behind specific requests. That's something about this you have to see. Here's a specific request that she just keeps coming back over and over and over again. And that's something that we'll be looking at in terms of tearing down strongholds is the power of unity behind specific things. Well, friends, number one is initiative. We've got it. We have to say God says it's up to you. Number two, the key of insight. All I want to say about that is just this one point. God's put a lot of conviction in my spirit recently about the absence of insight that I have toward the condition of people. Do you find that many people have the capacity to put on a very secure, confident, sometimes even attractive front? That, you know, really their normal response to you is something like, well, that's fine for you, but I don't need that. Or you're really pretty hyped up about this God stuff, but I have lots of other things. And I have my way of, how do they say it usually? Oh, I have my way of experiencing God. You know, he and I, I mean, I talked to him on the golf course or by North Park Lake or whatever it is. But friends, you see, God has been increasingly showing me, ask him for insight into the hearts of people when you converse with them. Ask him to bring down the veil that's covering their spiritual condition. And you know what I have found myself literally doing in recent days? I have recently found myself in conversations with people gaining insight from God about what's happening in their life and sometimes literally reaching for my handkerchief because I see the hurt or the pain or the depth of pride of their own spiritual blindness and condition. And again, I'll say this, the older I get, the more I realize this life goes so quickly and people that you and I look at and maybe have all the external accoutrements of success, or maybe they don't have any of them. The point is it all is fleeting and passing away and their eternal soul is in the balance. How many of us tonight have wept for the loss in our families, wept for the loss in our neighborhoods, wept for the loss in our workplace? Paul said, I can do nothing else. The Apostle Paul, he said, I am compelled because of what I've received. You see, I sat here with several, many of you, I saw your hands go up these last three days with Chris Bowater and said, it's so wonderful to be in the sense of the presence of the Lord. How many of you felt that? You know, we sat here and we just enjoyed worship and the purity of it, and we had revelation of how good God was. And then we walk out into that world where the majority of people don't have a clue as to what that's about. Friends, our responsibility before God is we can't go out those doors and just say, well, you know, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, I have it, you don't. Or even to say, man, I don't know, I give up, I don't know what to do. Our responsibility is to go out, to go out and say, God, somehow use me, even if it means my embarrassment, even if it means that I get rejected, use me somehow. And can I say this? Even if you don't have the courage or the training or the equipping to be able to articulate a testimony yet, you can pray. Amen? Or as Mark would say, if you were standing here, you can go wherever you are and your motor can run and you can pray and you can influence what's going on in the hearts of people just by your prayers. And that's what the Lord wants us to do, insight. Notice what it says, the scripture I did put down there for you. Luke 15 is the story of the three lost things. You should never have a moment of doubt about how much Jesus loves the lost because He took a whole chapter, one of the longest chapters of the New Testament, to tell you how much He loved the lost, the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. And then look at 2 Peter 3.9. The scripture said, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish. Have no doubt, dear ones, that God wants every person that you love, everyone to come to repentance. And third thing is, flip it over, is the key of invocation. I don't know if that's the right word, but it fit. I needed an I. I was running out of time. The key of invocation. We must invoke that authority that's been clearly established in Calvary. There's that Colossians passage again. We have been given an authority. Now, here's where praying with confidence comes in. You can only pray with confidence if you know that you're the winner. And sometimes I look at situations and say, Lord, I don't know. I don't appear to be winning here. Or better said, you don't appear to be winning here, Lord. It seems like hell is prevailing. How many of you know a situation where hell seems to be prevailing right now? Or the minions of the evil one have people in blindness or in despair or depression or oppression. And when that happens, I look at that. And if I look at it with my physical eyes and say, we're losing this battle, I say, Lord, what do I do? The Lord says, see it the way I see it. I have won the victory now. Now your call is to come and enforce what I have done in Calvary. We are to become, if you'll fill in that last blank. I made this up. You may not like it. Repossessors of the kingdom. Ruth? Yeah, there you go. Repossessors of the kingdom. How many of you ever have had an experience with the repo man? Usually not a very liked individual. What does he or she do? He shows up at a time, usually when you least want him to be there, to take back something that isn't yours because you didn't pay what you owed for that particular object. Most of us think of it in terms of a car, but it can happen in terms of other items and it can even happen in terms of houses. The repo man comes and takes back what is rightfully the owner's because you don't have any legal right to have it. And friends, if you'll forgive the analogy, what I'm saying here is Satan is holding people in his grasp because of ignorance and we with the authority of the legal basis of what Jesus did on Calvary have the right to walk into situations and repossess lives. To go to people and say in the spirit, I'm taking you back. You don't belong to Satan. You don't belong to the kingdom of darkness. You belong to God. You've been redeemed by what Christ did at Calvary and in prayer to repossess what Satan has stolen from almighty God. Friends, we have that commission. I don't know why he could snap his holy fingers and say this, this, this. He could, but he has decided that you and you and you and you and that we would be the repossessors. And so what we're going to do tonight is we're going to spend the rest of the time actively moving in repossession. General Wainwright, when he discovered the truth about what had taken place, walked in to the commandant's office and said to him, I have received word that my commander in chief has defeated your commander in chief and you are now to give me all the keys to this compound and to submit to my authority. And the Japanese commandant in charge of that facility bowed his head in total defeat and went to kill himself. And the general Wainwright forbade him to do it, put him in prison, and then proceeded to release all the rest of those who'd been interned. We have been given that authority to walk into the enemy's territory and repossess lives. As we move into prayer, what I want to ask you to do is I want you just to picture yourself walking in with papers, legal papers, you know, take your out and say, I'm serving you papers because of what Christ did at Calvary. I have the authority now to set you free. Now, listen, everything in your mind may say, well, I've, you know, I've prayed, but it hasn't worked. One of the things I want you to see tonight is what helps us to understand, to gain, see faith is what makes things work. And I hope tonight somehow you're sensing the truth of God's word will set you and those that you love free. It's ignorance that has blinded so many. So what I want us to do is this. First of all, we're going to do some things corporately, but I want you to move into small groups right now of about three or four, maybe five. And I want you to share just for a moment, just a smaller size is better. Three or four is best. What personal area do you sense the enemy has been holding back from you that you want to say based on the authority I've been given, I take the initiative and with my eyes open to the inside of God, I invoke now the legal authority I have to receive back from Satan, what he's stolen from me. It could be financially, it could be physically, it could be just your piece, whatever Satan is stolen. I'm taking it back. I'm repossessing it. Okay. Give me about 10 minutes. And then we're going to close with 10 minutes of corporate prayer on some very specific things. So let's all stand. And I want you to just bump into somebody near you, or if you want to move around out of your seats, go ahead and do that. And I'll call you back together with this song in 10 minutes. So move quickly now to pray together, move quickly to pray together. able to stand in the power of your spirit by the strength of your hand in the strong name of Jesus by the precious blood of the lamb once again in the strong name the strong name of Jesus by the blood of the lamb we are able to triumph we are able to stand by the strength of his hand in the strong name of Jesus by the precious blood of the lamb in the strong name of Jesus by the precious blood of the lamb hallelujah lord by the strong name of Jesus we come the strong name of Jesus I'd like you to turn outward if you will just just face the wall but not to be the back wall can be the side wall face the wall lift your hand and if you're just if this gets nervous for you close your eyes and you won't even know and I want you to declare with me now once you declare and I'm going to just speak some phrases and you declare them after me about the victor that we have in Christ hallelujah and you just lift your voice now we declare for the powers of the air in the north and the south and the east and the west and over this great city in the name of Jesus you are defeated you have been brought down you are conquered you are down and you are done in the name of Jesus we say to you tonight concerning all of the lost all of our loved ones all of our neighbors all of our friends all of our co-workers in the name of Jesus give him up and let him go I say give him up let him go I say give him up and let him go in Jesus name hallelujah yes let him go Satan let him go let him go we repossess we repossess every person that Satan has stolen and we receive them now into the kingdom of God and Lord Jesus we pray tonight that you would use us Lord in whatever way you choose to set captives free to open blind eyes to declare that today is the day of salvation with boldness and confidence and Lord Jesus we pray for healing in every marriage and every family represented here tonight that not one person that we love would stay under the enemy's influence we repossess them now in the name of Jesus hallelujah hallelujah amen let's give the Lord an applause thank you God amen yes Lord oh God praise the Lord face this way once again hallelujah in this strong name in strong name of Jesus by the blood of the lamb we are able to try we are able to stand in the power of your spirit by the strength of your hand in the strong name of Jesus by the precious blood of the lamb praise God Lord we exhausted Lord we would ask you tonight to show us now how to continue on Lord to grow in confidence Lord and I would pray that out of this one gathering Lord from the circles of prayer and from this time of invocation this time of invoking the power of Calvary Lord that we hear testimonies now in the next days Lord I pray Lord in the next days we hear stories of your delivering power Lord we're tired of the enemy prevailing we're tired of seeing him hole us in captivity Lord we know the truth the truth is that we're free in Christ the truth is that we are more than conquerors through him who loved us the truth is Lord God that you have provided all of our needs according to your glorious resources in Christ Jesus and we will not be deprived of what you have won for us and so Satan we just tell you tonight the lie is over we see the truth we stand on it now in Jesus name hallelujah and everyone said praise God praise the Lord where's Sue? Hi Sue this is your first time you're able to drive yourself tonight since February praise the Lord that's great friends remember sometimes God will move instantaneously and what what was immovable has changed and other times the Lord moves just gradually don't be discouraged believe me as one who's battled a long long time I know that there's that the tendency if it doesn't happen tomorrow if your husband doesn't just fall out of bed and say oh God save me you're going to say that didn't work I mean or if you know you don't work walk up tomorrow and you're totally healed it sometimes the Lord starts something and he progresses all right praise God just real quickly get back to your seat and I want to just give the announcements we're going to go and I do want you to go back to your seat for one moment ushers are going to come and receive any offering or gift you have tonight for the Lord here are the announcements look up on the screen.