Ron Dunn Podcast - Principles of Answered Prayer

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

It seems useless to ask things of God and not expect an answer. It is important to understand the biblical principles behind answered prayer, in this sermon Ron shows us these principles.

I'm going to begin reading with the fifth verse and read through verse 22. The Gospel of Luke, chapter 1, and I'll begin reading with verse 5 and read through the 22nd verse. There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child, because that Elizabeth was barren, and they were both now well stricken in years. And it came to pass that while he executed the priest's office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom

of the priest's office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled, and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife Elizabeth shall bear thee a son, and thou shalt call his name John. Thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. Then let's skip to verse 18.

And Zechariah said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answering said unto him, I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, unto the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believest not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. And the people waited for Zacharias, and marveled that he tarried so long in the temple.

And when he came out, he could not speak unto them, and they perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple. For he beckoned unto them, and remained speechless." One of the most phenomenal questions found in the word of God is found in verse 18. And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? Now, it seems to me that if you have offered a prayer to God, and God especially sends an angel to personally inform you that that prayer has been answered, it seems to me that that would be enough assurance that God had answered the prayer.

And yet after an angel has been sent by God to personally inform Zacharias that his prayer has been answered, Zacharias says, How do I know it has been answered? And I submit to you that is an unbelievable question. I don't know about you, but I think the angel announcement would have been enough for me to assure me that God was going to answer that prayer. But Zacharias just couldn't believe it, and so he said, whereby shall I know that this thing is going to come to pass? And that's why the angel said, you're going to be speechless for about nine months because you do not believe the word which I have spoken. Now, why was Zacharias so slow to believe? Why was it difficult for Zacharias to believe that God had heard his prayer

and was going to give Elizabeth and Zacharias a child? Well, the reason it was so hard to believe is found really in an understanding of the language of verse 13. Verse 13 says, But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard. As you read that in the King James Version, you get the idea that Zacharias was in the temple praying that Elizabeth would have a son. Isn't that the idea that you get?

That's not at all what was happening. The tense of that verb, heard, is the past tense, and what the angel is really saying, for thy prayer was heard. He's not talking about the prayer that Zacharias was offering at the time he was burning incense in the temple. Zacharias wasn't praying for a son. He was burning incense and the altar. He had stopped praying for a son a long time ago. He had probably forgotten about all those prayers he and Elizabeth had offered to God, pleading that God would give him a son. And notice what he says in that eighteenth verse, "'Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years.'" You know, Zacharias was a diplomat.

Notice he didn't say, "'I'm an old man, and my wife's an old woman.'" Notice how delicately and diplomatically Zacharias says, "'I'm an an old man and my wife well stricken in years. What was he saying? He's saying, Angel, we have long since passed the age of having children. It is now a physical impossibility. We gave up on that prayer a long time ago. Now you begin to understand why Zacharias was so dumbfounded, why he found it so hard to believe the announcement of the angel. The angel said,

you are going to have a son. Thy prayer was heard. He was referring to a prayer that Zacharias and Elizabeth had prayed years and years ago, and they didn't think God had heard that prayer. They had stopped looking for the child that they had so desperately prayed for. But all the time, unknown to them, way back yonder, God had heard that prayer. Now there emerges from this, to me, interesting incident some of the most important principles pertaining to answered prayer you will find in Scripture. So tonight I want us to examine four vital principles to answered prayer. As far as I can ascertain, when we come to this matter of prayer, the most important

aspect is how can these prayers be answered? For it seems to me useless for me to ask things from God to pray specifically, definitely that God will move in a certain way and not expect an answer. And of course the Word of God is filled with records of God answering prayer. Many of you could stand tonight and give testimony of how God has answered prayer. But a lot more of you could stand tonight and give testimony of how God has not answered prayer. And one of the most frustrating things a Christian can ever do is to pray and not receive an

answer. So it is important for us to understand the biblical principles behind answered prayer. I want to share with you the four that I discover in this passage of Scripture. The first one is this. God sometimes delays the answer to that prayer. The prayer is often delayed as far as the answer is concerned. Now let me explain that and broaden that just a little bit. It seems to me the Scriptures indicate that when I bring a petition to God, that God hears and answers and grants that prayer immediately.

But the fulfillment, the actual giving of that prayer, invisible answer, is many times delayed. Now this is what the angel is saying. Thy prayer was heard. And that little preposition for, in verse 13, the preposition F-O-R is a translation of the Greek preposition eis, which means unto or to do. And here's what the angel is literally saying. God decided to do that a long time ago. Thy prayer was heard to do a long time ago. When you offered that petition to God, when you came to the throne of grace and asked God in his mercy to give you a son, God heard it, and God granted it, and God answered it at that very moment. Just imagine, all these years, Zacharias and Elizabeth didn't know it, so they missed the joy of looking forward to the revelation of God's answer. He's saying the granting, the answering, the hearing is

immediate, but the fulfillment of it is many times delayed. Now, you'll find this in other places in the Scripture. In Daniel chapter 10, and we've already made reference to that, so we'll not read that passage of Scripture, but Daniel is praying for 21 days, praying and fasting for 21 days. I wonder if all that time that Daniel was praying, if he somehow thought God was hard of hearing. Or I wonder if he thought God was reluctant to hear. But when the angel comes,

the angel makes this revelation, from the first day you prayed, thy prayer was heard and I am sent to answer this prayer. The answer was granted immediately, but the fulfillment was delayed for 21 days. Here's another verse, Mark 11, verse 24. Jesus says, Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and you shall have them." The word receive means you've already got it. You could translate this verse, What things soever you desire, when you pray, believe that you already have them, and you will have them. R. A. Torrey said for many years he stumbled over the grammar of that verse until he forgot

about the grammar and just thanked God for its promise. By the way, the grammar there is backwards to our grammatical minds, our English-oriented minds. It just doesn't seem right. It seems that Mark must have made a slip in his pen. Jesus really couldn't say, when you pray, believe that you've already got it and you'll get it. But that's exactly what Jesus said.

When you pray, believe that you already have it, and if you believe that you already have it, then you'll get it. All right, let's read another one in 1 John 3, verse 22. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him. And that word receive is in the present tense. It means we are already receiving of him. And whatsoever we ask, we are already receiving of him. Again, in 1 John chapter 5, verse 14, and this is the confidence 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, we know that we are already having the petitions that we have desired of him. So you see, the testimony of Scripture is that when I bring my prayer to God, God answers that prayer immediately, but the fulfillment of it is many times delayed. We will be seeing a little later on why God delays the fulfillment of that answer. So listen, some of you have been praying, and you have been praying according to the will of God, and yet God seems not to answer. You need to understand that many times, and I found it in my own prayer life that more often than not, God delays the actual fulfilling of that prayer for a period of time, for some reason or another.

You say, well, what should I do then? How should I pray? Should I then just go to God and ask Him one time for it and thank Him for it and then not mention it anymore and not think about it anymore? Or if God sometimes delays the answer, then how am I to know whether God has really answered or not? You know, if God just immediately showed me the answer, then there'd be no problem as to whether or not God has heard me. But if God sometimes withholds this information from me, how am I to know? How am I to pray? Let me give you

a couple of suggestions. First of all, if you're praying about something which there is no direct revelation from the Word of God, and by that I mean the healing of a person. Now, nowhere in the Bible does it say that Mr. So-and-so is supposed to be healed from this disease. And so many times when you're asked to pray for the healing of a person, you're not certain that is according to the will of God. The Bible has not made a specific statement to that situation. Or you may be praying about a new job. Now, the Bible doesn't say that it's God's will that you have a new job. So when you're praying about some things that are not specifically mentioned in the Word of God,

here's the way you ought to pray. You ought to pray until one of three things happens. Number one, you ought to keep on praying until you get it. Keep on praying until you get it. Now, that is the significance of the persistence in in Luke 11 that we looked at last night. The man went begging for bread, and he really wasn't certain that man was going to give him the bread or not. He had no direct revelation from God that this man was going to give him the bread,

so he stayed at it until he got it. So you keep on praying for that thing until you get it, or second, until you get the assurance that you are going to get it. You say, what's the difference? The difference is very wonderful. The difference is that many times you are praying for something and all of a sudden there comes over you this quiet assurance, the witness of the Holy Spirit that God has heard and that you are going to receive what you have asked for. I don't know how many people I have had share this with me. They said, Preacher, we have been praying for a certain person who was lost and all

of a sudden we could no longer pray that God would save them. All we could do was thank God that he was going to save them. All we could do was praise God that he was going to do it. Many times I've been praying for a specific thing and continue to pray, and all of a sudden, the next time I go to pray, the Spirit of God just won't let me ask for it. All I can do is just thank God for it, just praise God for it. I remember one Saturday night I was a little overly concerned about the Sunday morning service, and so after everyone was in bed, I went downstairs and got on my knees, and I said, Lord, I'm going to stay here until I know what you're going to do in the service tomorrow. I need to know that we have victory in the service tomorrow. And I began

to pray, and after a while there came to me that sweet, wonderful assurance of the Spirit of God that God was going to move, that there was going to be victory. And I went to bed absolutely certain, assured of victory the next day. So pray until you get it, or pray until God gives you the assurance that you're going to have it. Or third, pray, keep on praying until God lets you know he doesn't want you to have it. Until God lets you know that it's not according to his will. You see, God is much more interested in your knowing his will than you are in knowing it. And by the way, let me suggest that you never try to find the will of God. You let the will of God find you. I don't see anywhere in the Scripture that teaches me that I am to seek and to try to

discover the will of God. You see, it is not my responsibility to try to guess what God's will is for me. It is God's responsibility to reveal that will to me. If I were to call one of my children into the house and say, All right, I have something I want you to do. And if you don't do it, I'm going to wallop the daylights out of you. And swallow real hard and say, Okay, what is it? I'm not going to tell you.

You've got to guess. You have to figure it out, and if you don't figure it out right, you've had it. And really, that's the way we think God does with his will. We think that the will of God is a big Easter egg hunt, or a big hide-and-seek game, and God says, I have a will for you, and you've got to figure out what it is, and if you miss it, boy, you've had it. It is my responsibility when I have something I want my child to do, it is my responsibility to make my will known. His responsibility is to be receptive and obedient. Now listen, if you desire to know the will of God, God is going to reveal that will to you. And you continue to pray for that thing until the Spirit of God witnesses with your spirit

that it is not according to his will. You say, how does he do that? Wouldn't it be great if you could have a referee, an umpire, a spiritual referee walking with you all the time, and every time you got out of bounds he'd blow the whistle on you? Wouldn't that be great so you wouldn't have to worry whether or not you were pleasing God? And so many of us, we wonder at the end of the day if we've obeyed God, if we've pleased God. How would it be to have a heavenly umpire with us all the time, and we begin to stray from the path, or we got outside the will of God, he'd blow the whistle and call a foul. Did you know you have an umpire just like that? I want you to listen to this verse in Colossians

3.15. He says, let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. And the Greek word translated rule means to act as umpire, to arbitrate. I believe Williams translates it this way. Let the peace of Christ act as umpire in your heart. Now, the peace of Christ is not the peace with God that we have through salvation, but it is God's peace himself that he gives us. It is a subjective thing. It is that calm assurance in your heart. You just know that you're right with God. That assurance, that witness of the Holy Spirit. And when you step out of bounds, when you foul, when you stray from the will of God,

you lose that peace. And Paul is saying, you let the peace of God do the arbitrating in your life. You let the peace of God call the decisions. You let him call the shots. And anything that threatens that peace of God in your heart, that inner assurance, that's wrong. And so many times I've been praying for something, and when I pray, I just don't feel right about it in my heart.

I just don't have peace about it. There's just something wrong. I take that as the witness of the Holy Spirit. So that's the way to pray when you're praying for things that the Word of God does not specifically deal with. Well, what about those things that you pray for that the Word of God does specifically say He's going to give you. You bring that need to him and remind him of his promise, claim that promise, and then

thank him for it. I learned that lesson about two years ago. Like so many people, once in a while you run out of money before you run out of bills. I remember about two years ago, and a lot of you identify with this, I'm sure, we just had had it. All of a sudden we needed money, and we needed some financial assistance quick. About that same time, I got sick, not real bad sick, just enough so I couldn't work. I thought, this is of the Lord. I can lock myself up in my bedroom for a few days, and I'll just prevail against heaven,

and I'll pray down all that money. I really was going to do that. So I went in my room, got out on my knees, opened my Bible to Matthew 6, 33, where Jesus says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. Promise. What things? Well, he's talking about the physical necessities of life, the material needs of life. I said, Lord, here I am. Here's your promise. What things? Well, he's talking about the physical necessities of life, the material needs of life. I said, Lord, here I am. Here's your promise. I want you to meet my

needs. I told him exactly what I needed, how much I needed, and when I needed it. And I said, Lord, here it is. And I'd pray for a while. I'd say, Lord, meet my needs. And then I'd stop and I'd say, Lord, are you going to meet my needs? I'd say, Lord, I want you to give me some sign. I want you to give me some evidence that you're going to meet my financial needs. I'd pray for a while longer. I'd read that verse over and over and over again. I guess I was just trying to get faith by osmosis or by exposure.

I thought if I read that thing enough and read it enough and quoted it enough, somehow magic would happen and I'd believe and God would give it. God meet my needs. Lord are you going to do it? Show me some sign. Give me some evidence. All of a sudden the Lord seemed to say to me, read that verse again, and I read it again,

it said, But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you. And God said, Don't you wish your banker had said that instead of me? And all of a sudden the Spirit of God turned on the light. And I realized that if the President of the bank had written me a note and said, Ron, I don't want you to worry about your financial needs. You just seek first the kingdom of God. You just put Jesus first and go about your business of serving the Lord, and I'll take

care of all these things. Do you think I would have been there on my knees begging and pleading? Do you think that I would have been worrying and anxious and uptight about that? Not at all. I'd have gotten up off my knees if I'd received an oath from him and said, Hallelujah, praise the Lord, I'm not going to worry about my financial needs ever again because that fellow down there has told me just to do my business of serving the Lord, he'll take care of all these things. And all of a sudden I saw that I had more confidence and faith in the word of a man than I had

in the word of God. I discovered a great truth that day, that I don't have to pray that God will meet my needs, I just praise him that he is doing it. When I saw that, I stopped asking God to meet my needs. I stopped begging God to meet that particular need. I just thanked him for it, began to praise him for it. You know what? He met the need. Every time since then there has been a need, I've come to God, laid that need out, claimed it by faith, thanked him for it, praised him for it. God has never failed yet.

So when you're praying for something that God specifically mentions in the Bible, you remind him of his promise, you claim it by faith, and then you praise him for it. And every time your faith begins to waver, you praise him again for it. You choose to believe and refuse to doubt, and, you praise him again for it. You choose to believe and refuse to doubt, and you just continually praise God for it. Every time you get on your knees and that thought of that need comes to your mind, you thank God that the need is already met, and you praise him for it. Now, that's principle number one. God sometimes, many times, delays the fulfillment of that prayer. All right, the second, third, and fourth points are going to be much briefer.

The second point is this. God often delays the answer to that prayer in order to answer it better. In order to answer it better. Now, let's suppose that years ago when Zacharias and Elizabeth had prayed for a son, God had given them that son at that moment. What would they have had? Well, they would have had a son, but it would have been just another Jewish boy. Nobody would have ever preached sermons about him.

Nobody would have ever read about him in the Word of God. God delayed answering that prayer that he might answer it better. And instead of just giving them another boy, he gave them a John the Baptist. He gave them the last Old Testament prophet. He gave them the only Old Testament prophet who ever lived to see the prophecy come true. He gave them the first cousin of the Son of God. He gave them the forerunner of Jesus Christ, God's Son. God delays the answer of prayer that he might answer it better. Same thing happened in the book of Samuel when Hannah prayed for a boy. Remember how Hannah went down to the temple and she was grieved because she was barren and she prayed that

God would give her a son, God delayed in giving her that son. Why? Well, if God had given that son at the moment she prayed, Israel would have never known its greatest prophet, because God knew that years later there was going to be a crisis in the nation that would call for a mighty prophet, and so God waited. He delayed the answer of that prayer that he might answer it better. And that's just like my Lord. God always gives the best to those who leave the choice with him. I've almost gotten to the point where I'm a little bit hesitant to ask God to give me things that I want because I'm afraid I'm going to be shooting low. I've really found that out.

And so when there's a decision to make or something like that, I've almost come to the place where I'm afraid to tell him what I want because I'm afraid what I want is so far less than what he wants for me, and I'd rather just leave the choice to him. Lord, thy will be done. Has God been delaying an answer in your life? And you just can't understand it and it's filled you with frustration and anxiety? Listen, the only reason God is delaying answering that prayer

is he wants to do it better. He wants to do it better. And there's so many things that I could share with you tonight how God has done this in my own life. I praise the Lord tonight for unanswered prayer. I just thank God that he didn't answer a lot of my prayers. As I look back over the inventory of my prayers, if God had answered some of the prayers I wanted him to answer, I wouldn't be the pastor of

the church that I'm pastoring in now. I would not have known the greatest joy of my life that I've known the last few years. God had something better for me. Many times when God would not answer that specific request of mine, I'd get angry with God, I'd be filled with despair, I'd be down in the dumps, I'd be filled with doubt, but I'm so glad that God delayed because he wants to answer it better. Third principle, God many times delays the answer of his prayer until the situation is humanly impossible. This just excites me to pieces. Many times God waits to bring the answer until the thing you've been praying about gets worse.

God waits and allows the situation to worsen and get beyond all human possibility before he answers. That's what he did in Zacharias and Elizabeth. God waited until the situation became humanly impossible. That's what he did in Abraham and Sarah. God came to Abraham. Abraham was 100 years old, and Sarah was well stricken in years too. One of the most amazing statements in all the Word of God is in Romans 4 where

it says, Abraham staggered not at the promise of God. Sarah didn't stagger, she just laughed. Of course, you'd laugh too if you were nearly 100 years old and your husband came in. That's in history where the husband has been the first to know. Did you ever consider that Sarah had to put up with a lot of that traveling under sealed orders? Abraham came into Sarah one day and, man, they were millionaires and they were the richest people in that part of the country and had their homes settled, just everything. Abraham said, Sarah, we're leaving. Sarah says, where are we going? I don't know.

How long will it take us to get there? I don't know. How will we know when we're there? I don't know. Now, you know, Sarah had to be quite a woman to put up with all of that. And then he comes in and says, Sarah, you're going to have a baby. I don't blame her for laughing. But the Bible says he staggered not.

But notice, he gave glory to God. God waited until it was physically, humanly impossible for them to have children. And then God got the glory. Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus, Lazarus, your friend, our brother, is seriously ill. Come at once. And the Bible says Jesus delayed.

Jesus delayed. And the disciples couldn't understand it. Why did Jesus delay? Finally, after a few days, he said, Let's go to Bethany to see Lazarus. He's asleep. The disciples said, Well, if he's sleeping, that's good. Let's not wake him up. Jesus said, No, you don't understand. He's dead. He's been dead four days. When Mary met him, when Martha met him, they met him at separate times and separate places. They both said the same thing. It was a word of rebuke. Master, if you had been here, this would not have happened. Both of them. That was the thing that was on their mind. That resentment, that recrimination, that rebuke came out the minute they saw Jesus. If you had been here, this wouldn't have happened. Jesus waited until

a situation was humanly impossible. That's the way the Lord works. Jesus said, this is for the glory of God. You know, it's a strange thing, but it happens. In our intercessory prayer ministry, I have people coming to me every week saying this. And sometimes they're bewildered. And they say, Pastor, I begin praying for my husband to be saved and he is now more antagonistic than ever.

I was praying for a certain situation. Had a man come to me about a financial problem, financial decision. And so he began to pray that God's will would be done in this. He came back and said, You know, it was better before I started praying about it. Since I've been praying about it, things have gotten worse. I've had dozens of people say the very same thing to me. Since I started praying about this thing, the situation has gotten worse. I ought to stop. No, God allows the situation to worsen. Sometimes it's because the devil begins to oppose that, and God allows the devil to oppose that. So listen, when you

start praying for a person to be saved, or you begin to pray for a person to get right with God, or to start coming to church to have personal revival, don't be surprised, even expect perhaps the situation to worsen. Because God often allows the situation to get humanly impossible so he can be glorified all the greater. And by the way, that's the name of the game. Jesus said, whatsoever ye shall ask, demand anything in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

God gets greater glory. The last principle is this. God answers prayer when it is linked to divine necessity. This is the most important principle of all. God answers prayer that is linked to divine necessity. Why did God finally answer, fulfill that prayer. God needed to answer that prayer. God needed a John the Baptist. God needed a forerunner of Jesus. Why did God finally answer the prayer of Hannah and give her a son? Because God needed a prophet to stand in the gap between Israel and the wrath of God. And when God solved Hannah's problem, he solved his own. When God solved Zacharias and Elizabeth's problem, he solved his own. And prayer must always be linked to divine necessity.

You analyze, you examine your prayers. Does God need to answer those prayers? Are those prayers linked to divine necessity, to divine glory? There's only one man in the Word of God that ever came to Jesus for help and was turned down. You know who that is? You read the Gospels, you will discover that practically everyone who came to Jesus for help, whether they were lepers or Samaritans, Gentile dogs, whoever they were, Jesus never

turned them away, with one exception. There's only one man in all the Gospels who ever asked Jesus to help him. And Jesus didn't even answer him. The thief on the cross. Jesus dying, crucified between two thieves. And that thief said, Lord, if thou be the Son of God, save thyself and us. Jesus didn't even answer him. Why? If Jesus had answered that man's request and spared his life, all would have been accomplished is that it would have extended his career of crime and sin. That man was not repentant. That man's prayer was not linked to divine necessity. God could not be glorified in sparing that man's life. If he had spared that man's life, it would have only lengthened his life of sin and brought shame upon the name of God.

Prayer has to be linked to divine necessity. I know some people who pray that God will give them a raise in salary, and yet they are not even honoring God with the money they are making now. You are wasting your time praying for that. If you are not glorifying God with the money you're making now, don't ask God to increase your ingathering. You say, I prayed and God answered it. The devil might have answered it.

God's not going to answer a prayer that is not linked to divine necessity. I was called to the hospital one time by a family. The father of that family was seriously ill. The doctor said, it looks like he's going to die. They said, we want you to pray. Preacher, pray that God will heal him. I went into that room and I stood beside that man and I said, I can't really pray that God will heal you.

Because I said, your whole life has been lived ignoring, neglecting, refusing God. And if God spares your life and lengthens your days, all it's going to do is give you more opportunities to sin against him. Your present life, the life you've been living, hasn't brought glory to God. I cannot in good conscience pray that God will spare your life unless you are willing to get right with God. And God will know if you really mean it when you get right. Praying must be linked to divine necessity.

I am convinced the reason God does not hear the prayer of some wives as they pray for the salvation of their lost husbands is because what that wife wants is not so much the glory of God in that husband's life, but it would just be nice to have someone to sit with her in church on Sunday morning. You need to go home and examine your prayers. Are you linking them to the glory of God, to divine necessity? This is really just another way of 1 John 5, verse 14, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And every petition that I bring to God that is linked to divine necessity and is according to his will, I know he will

hear and he will answer. And I can praise him for it. You say, What must I do? The first thing you must do is to submit yourself totally to the will of God before you know what it is. And then pray, Thy will, Lord, first, last, and always, not mine, but Thine be done. Now let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I pray tonight that your Holy Spirit would take the word of God and would bury it deep in the fertile soil of the hearts of those the Spirit of God has been dealing with tonight. I pray that you would cultivate, water that seed, and I pray in Jesus' name that there would be a rich harvest of prayers lifted from their hearts, prayers that are linked to divine necessity.

Prayers that you want to answer, because they will glorify you in the answering. Lord give us patience when you delay. Give us faith when we can't see. And give us hearts of praise for what you are going to do, and Father, for what you are doing already that we don't even know about. Thank you. In Jesus' name, amen.