Ron Dunn Podcast - The Life That Can Pray

Episode Date: November 27, 2024

Our request must be according to the will of God and the person making the player must be according to the will of God. You cannot seperate your prayer from your living.

Now would you open your Bibles tonight to the Gospel of John, chapter 15. The Gospel of John, chapter 15, and I'm going to read verses 1 through 7, and then the 16th verse. The Gospel of John, the 15th chapter, I'll begin reading with verse 1, and read through the 7th verse, and then read verse 16. 16 I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean or purged through the word which I have

spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered. And men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Now the sixteenth verse.

Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. Now let me read again the seventh verse, because this is the verse around which the message tonight is built. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you,

ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Now there are two things that determine the answer to any prayer. Number one, the prayer itself must be according to the will of God. It doesn't make any difference how much faith you have in that petition or how persistent you are in that prayer. If the prayer itself, if the request is not according to the will of God, God will not hear. That is the first primary condition to answered prayer. 1 John 5.14, 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, then we know that we are having the petitions that we have desired of him. The prayer must be according to the will of God. The second thing that determines the answer to any prayer is the person making the prayer must be according to the will of God. Not only must his petition be according to the will of God, but his life must also be according to the will of God. For you see, it is the life that prays. It is the life that prays. You cannot separate your praying from your living. And we offer our prayers to God from the platform of our daily living,

of our relationship to God. Now there is a spiritual principle that I hope you will learn. It is one that I consider is never violated as far as the Word of God is concerned. And that spiritual principle is simply this. The acceptability of the person determines the acceptability of the prayer. When I come to God in prayer and bring before him my petitions and offer to him my request,

the first thing God looks at is not that request, but he looks first of all at me. And the quality of the person praying determines the quality of the prayer. Now you'll find this taught throughout the Word of God. For instance, in Matthew chapter 5, Jesus says, If you come to the altar to bring your gift to the Lord, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift at the altar. First go be reconciled to thy brother, then come and offer thy gift. What is Jesus saying? Jesus is saying the giver is more important than the gift. The worshiper is more important than the act of worship. And what determines God accepting my worship or my service or my giving is the quality of my own life. And so it is the acceptability of the person praying who really determines

the acceptability of the prayer he offers to God. That simply means that if I am going to be able to pray and have God answer my prayers, then my life must be according to the will of God. It was Robert Murray McShane who said, What a man is when he prays is what he is. No man's prayer life is greater than his personal life. And your power and effectiveness in prayer is only going to be as far as your power and effectiveness in personal holiness is concerned.

It is the life that prays. And I hope that you learn that tonight. If you fail to learn anything else from this conference this week, many times Christians live their lives in neglect, live carelessly. They do not take care to make certain that they are spiritually aligned and in harmony with the will of God. And then something comes up they want to pray about, and they start to pray. They offer that petition to God, and God does not hear. It seems as though God just stuffs cotton in his ear, and the heavens seem to be made of brass,

and God doesn't hear, and they go away saying, prayer doesn't work. And they've never realized that God never divorces the person praying from the prayer he offers. You cannot separate your praying from your living, and if your living is not what it ought to be, then God will not hear your prayer. This is what David meant in Psalm 66, 18, when he said, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. And the word regard simply means if I have sympathy towards any sin in my life, if I look with sympathy upon any sin in my life, the Lord will not hear me. Now you know this week as we've talked about the tremendous power available in prayer,

Satan has stood right beside you and accused you of something in your life that keeps you from being able to pray with a clear conscience. 1 John chapter 3 says that if our hearts do not condemn us, neither does God condemn us. This is the confidence that we have towards him. And what the apostle is saying is if our heart is condemning us, then we really can't have any boldness in prayer. And some of you, each time you begin to pray, your heart condemns you. Satan is right there saying, you know that you can't really pray because what about this one thing in your life? And quite frankly, there are some of you who are going to forfeit the privilege of praying because of one or more particular things in your life.

There is something that every once in a while comes to haunt me. It is that on the Day of Judgment when I stand in the presence of my Lord and the record of my service that he might say, you know, I had so many blessings I wanted to pour out upon you. I had so many problems I wanted to solve for you. There were so many people I wanted to save through your praying and through your witnessing, but you had one little habit you wouldn't let go of. There was one little area of unforgiveness you wouldn't make right. There was just that one preacher way back yonder when you were in his church that you still

have harbored bitterness against. You would never forgive him. You would never make reconciliation. And so often I wanted to save people and your family and work miracles through your life, but you would not let go of that one little thing. You know, maybe tonight from your viewpoint, that one thing that really keeps you from being able to pray without your heart condemning you, maybe that one thing looms large. But I say at the judgment seat of Christ,

when he puts it in the scales, and lost souls are in one side of the scale, and that one little sin is in the other side of the scale, it will not look nearly as large and nearly so important then. And I don't know about you, but I cannot think of anything tonight that to me is worth forfeiting my power in prayer. More than anything else, I want to be able to come to God with a clear conscience, with my heart not condemning me. I wish you would tell me tonight what it is

in your life that you think is worth more than being able to pray with a clear conscience. Because there will come a day when you'll need to pray. There will come a day when you will have come to the end of your rope. There will come a day when you will have come to the end of all of your own ability and your own ways out and the only place to look is up and you'll not be able to pray with a clear conscience. You'll not be able to get hold of God because your life has not been according to the will of God. And it's well and good for us night after night

to talk about the theories and the practice of praying, but if you and I do not come tonight to the place where we're willing to pay any cost in order to be able to pray, it has all been wasted and in vain. tonight to the place where we are willing to pay any cost in order to be able to pray, it has all been wasted and in vain. Are you willing tonight to pay the price of praying? Whatever the cost is that I can go to God and know that God will hear and God will answer, whatever that cost is, are you willing to pay that tonight? James 5.16 says the effectual, fervent prayer, Of a righteous man availeth much. Of a righteous man availeth much. Well, it is the life that prays. So what kind of

life do I have to live in order to be able to pray effectively? You have it right here in this seventh verse of John 15. Jesus says, If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Now Jesus mentions in this verse the two conditions of answered prayer. The two things that must be true in my life, and if these two things are true in my life, listen to the tremendous promise Jesus makes. If this is true, ye shall ask what ye will. Unlimited. Ye shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.

What are these two things? First of all, Jesus says, if ye abide in me. That's point number one. That's condition number one. If ye abide in me. Now what does it mean to abide in Jesus? Well, in this 15th chapter, Jesus is using a very familiar figure of speech, the vine and the branches.

They are on their way to the Garden of Gethsemane, and perhaps some have said they have passed by the temple, and on the front of the temple they had there the symbol of a vine, and that was the symbol of the Jewish nation. And Jesus, seeing that vine, speaks to his disciples these words, I am the true vine, and ye are the branches. If you abide in me as a branch abides in the vine, then you'll bring forth much fruit. And those first few verses, Jesus is telling us what it means to abide in him. And what it means to abide in Jesus is simply to do what

a branch does to the vine. Abiding in Jesus is living a branch kind of life. This involves two things. If you are willing tonight, first of all, to come to these two things, then you are on your way to being able to pray effectively. If you're willing tonight to become nothing more nor less than a branch and to live a branch life, then Jesus says you can ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. And living a branch life, first of all, means that I acknowledge that the only purpose I have in living is just to bear fruit. The only way I can justify my existence is by bearing fruit. Now notice what Jesus says in that second verse. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away.

Look in the sixth verse. Jesus is saying that apart from fruitfulness, no branch has any right to exist. And if the husbandman comes out and sees a branch on the vine that is not fruitful, that is not bearing fruit, then it has no business living. And he cuts it off. For me to abide in Jesus, to live that branch life, is first of all to recognize and acknowledge, Father, the only justification I have for existing is that Jesus might bear his

fruit through me. Just to see yourself nothing more nor less than a branch, that means living a selfless life. That means burning my plans, my ambitions, my desires on the altar of his will. That means seeing myself as nothing but simply a branch, an instrument that God uses to express himself through me. And you know, it's interesting to see how Jesus uses this figure of speech because the only thing that a branch was good for was just to bear fruit. The wood of the vine was useless for anything else. It's too soft to build a chair with or to build a house with or to carve with. And even the Jewish law said that you could not use the wood of a vine in a fire for a sacrifice. That's just how useless the wood of the vine is. The only thing a vine is good for, the only thing that wood is good for, is to bear fruit.

And if it's not going to bear fruit, then it is good for nothing. You know what Jesus is saying? He's saying, Christian, if you're not going to bear fruit, you're good for nothing. And apart from your fruitfulness, you cannot justify your existence. You remember the parable that Jesus tells in the Gospel of Luke when he came to the fig tree and it didn't bear any fruit and he said, cut it down. And he said, no, Lord, give it just one more year

and I'll fertilize it and I'll cultivate it. He said, all right, but I'm going to come back and if it's still not bearing fruit, I'm going to cut it down because it's just taking up space. And you know, there are a great many people in our churches, all they're doing is taking up space. And our attendance in Sunday school may grow, but all it is many times is useless wood.

Jesus says, apart from fruitfulness, you don't have any right to exist. And so the branch is that thing that recognizes the only good that I am is just to let Jesus bear fruit through me. Well, what is fruit anyway? Most of the time we have the idea that fruit is just winning people to Jesus, and that's part of it.

But you know what fruit really is? Fruit is the outward expression of the inward nature. Fruit is the outward expression of the inward nature. Now, I can't walk through the woods and tell one tree from another. And now there are a lot of people that can. My dad can. He can look at a tree and tell you if it's an oak tree or an elm tree or a mulberry tree or a spaghetti tree or whatever it is.

But I can't. I can go to an orchard and I can't tell if that's a peach tree or an orange tree or an apple tree or what. There's only one way that I can tell what kind of tree that is. And that's when it bears fruit. Now, you can't fool me. If I see an apple hanging on a tree, I know it's an apple tree. And if I see a peach hanging on a tree, I know it's a peach tree.

What is a peach? A peach is simply the outward expression of the inward nature. What is the inward nature of the Christian? Jesus. What is fruit? Fruit is the outward expression of Jesus. It is Jesus expressing himself through my human personality. That's what fruit is. And I am simply a branch, and I say, Lord Jesus, I realize that the only value I am to you is just as a, you know what? A branch is simply a grape rack. It's just something God made to hang grapes on. The branch doesn't produce fruit. Did you see that? He said it bears fruit.

It doesn't produce fruit. It is the vine that produces the fruit. The branch simply bears it. Jesus produces the fruit. He doesn't want me trying to produce the fruit. Jesus produces the fruit. He doesn't want me trying to produce the fruit. He produces the fruit. He just wants to hang it on my life. And so I am simply a branch. I just simply recognize

that Jesus wants to use me to express His nature through. Are you willing tonight to become just a branch? That's all. Just a branch. But it not only means that, it also means that I must make myself available to God for that purpose. Have you ever noticed a branch?

Have you ever watched a branch? How it always just stays in the same place. It never gets up and moves around. It just stays in the same place, making itself available to the vine. And anytime that vine wants to flow its life through that branch, the branch is there. And for me to abide in Jesus simply means I come to the place where I make myself available to Jesus. He can do anything he wants to with me and through me. And so really, to sum up this whole point,

if I'm going to abide in Jesus, I must come to the place where unconditionally I make myself available to him. And that's all God wants from me is my availability. You know, there was a time several years ago when I used to really worry whether or not I did enough for the Lord. And I remember on different occasions I would lie awake at night and I would wonder, well, did I visit enough today? Did I pray enough today? Did I witness enough today? And there were some days when the schedule was just so crowded I didn't have time to visit, I didn't have time to witness.

And I would lie awake at night condemning myself, accusing myself, because I just didn't do enough for the Lord that day. And then God showed me something. One day I was walking in the kitchen and I looked at my water faucet in the kitchen and I noticed that the water faucet was looking a little bit sad and down in the dumps and downcast. I stopped and I said, �Water faucet, what's the matter with you?� The water faucet said, �Well, I just feel real bad today because I failed you.� I said, �What do you mean

you failed me?� The water faucet said, � well, you know, I haven't turned on once today. And I haven't quenched your thirst a single time. And I haven't washed your hands a single time today. And I'm sorry, Master, I failed you. A couple of times, I knew I was failing you. And I tried to turn on and I squeezed out a few drops, but I just couldn't turn myself on. And Master, that's why I'm feeling sad because I just know I failed you today. And I said, you stupid water faucet. I said, I've passed by you a dozen times today and if I had wanted to turn you on,

I would have turned you on. If I had wanted to get a drink of water from you, I would have gotten it. If I had wanted to wash my hands from you, I would have turned you on. If I had wanted to get a drink of water from you, I would have gotten it. If I had wanted to wash my hands from you, I would have done it. And every time that I've passed by today, I've known that you were there, and you would have responded to my touch. Water faucet, I don't want you turning yourself on. All you'll do is waste water and make a mess. You just be there available to me. That's all I expect from you. I just want you to be available, and you've been available to me, and I've known that at any moment I wanted to come and turn you on, you would have responded

to my touch. You have been available to me. That's all I want from you. And you know, I saw it. I saw that when Jesus is my Lord and I'm just his servant, that all he wants from me is my availability. And I can come to the end of the day now and say, Lord, you know that you could have used me more if you would have wanted to. And if the Lord hasn't turned me on today, it's simply because he didn't want to turn me on today. And God has known that he could do anything he wanted to do with me. And if he hasn't done anything with me, that isn't my problem. I do not measure my faithfulness by how much I've done, but by my availability. And that's what it means to be a branch, just to be available. That is condition number one, if you abide in me. All right, now notice the second condition Jesus gives in verse 7. And my words abide in you.

My words abide in you. This means two things. First of all, it means his words control us. His words control us. His words control us. The word abide is a Greek word that means to dwell permanently, to take up permanent residence within us. Hosea, the prophet, brought God's message of accusation to the people, and here was what God had against his people.

He said, you have treated my words as a stranger. Now, a stranger in Israel had no voice in the affairs of the nation. If there was a problem, the stranger had no right to give his opinion. If there was a difficulty, the stranger had no voice in that decision. And God said, You treat my word like a stranger. The stranger lives in the land, but he doesn't have any voice in the land.

And he said, You let my words live in you. You know them, but they have no voice in your life. And he said, That's why I'm against you. And so he says, let my words dwell permanently within you. And my heart is to be a home for the word of God. To many of us, our heart is a hotel

for the word of God and checkout is 12 noon on Sundays. And we come to church and hear the word of God. And when we leave this church, then the word of God leaves us. And for the Word of God to abide in me means that Jesus' words control me. That means obedience. 1 John 3.22 says, Whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do the things that are pleasing in his sight. Now let me just ask you this question. Can you think of any command in this book tonight that you're not obeying right now? Can you think of a command in this Bible that you are willfully, knowingly, deliberately disobeying? The command that says, Speak not evil of one another,

brethren, and you have been critical of others today, and you have gossiped today, and you have spoken evil of other people today, you willfully and knowingly and deliberately violated that command of God? No wonder you can't pray. When Jesus said, If thy brother hath ought against thee, go to him and make it right, it didn't say if you have ought against him. It says if he has ought against you. You may not have anything against him. It may not be your fault. He's got something against you. Jesus said it doesn't make any difference. You go to him and first be reconciled. That's a command of God. Are you disobeying that command? The Bible is filled with commands, and Jesus said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. And you know, when we talk so much

about the Spirit-filled life and the Christ-indwelt life, we sometimes neglect the word obedience. We somehow have the idea that obedience is legalistic. But Jesus said, if you love me, you'll keep my commandments. And for his words to abide in me simply means that his words control me. Is there any command that you are willfully, knowingly, deliberately disobeying tonight? Then don't be surprised if you pray and nothing happens. But not only does it mean that his words control us, but it also means that his words cleanse us. They cleanse us.

He says in that first and second and third verses, every branch in me that beareth fruit, my father, the husbandman, prunes it that it may bring forth more fruit. And in verse 3 he says, now are you clean or now are you pruned through the words which I have spoken unto you. It simply means that if I am going to make myself available to prayer, then God says, all right, you want to pray. There are some things I want to clip from your life. There are some things in your life that I don't care for. There's a lot of dead wood in your life that's just taking up room and drawing off the energy of the vine, and I want to

prune that so you can bring forth more fruit. And I find that when I make myself available to God, and I want to come to Him in power in prayer, that the Father, the first thing He wants to do is to do some cleaning up in my life, to prune some things out of my life. You know, this is a revelation. Any vine dresser, any vineyard keeper knows that if you want to bear more fruit, you don't add more branches, but you make the branches you already have healthier. And what God wants to do tonight to this branch is to make him healthier. He wants to cut off that useless wood

that is taking up room and drawing off energy so that more of the life of Jesus can get to that area of my life that is fruitful. And you know the reason God cannot really bear fruit through prayer in some of our lives is because we have so many branches that aren't bearing fruit. Now I'm not talking just particularly about sins. I'm talking about good things. Now I'll be honest with you, you're going to have to make some sacrifices if you are really

going to pray. And some of you don't pray because you spend all your time watching television. And there is nothing per se wrong with watching television, but the Father wants to come tonight and clip off a little bit of that so He can use you in fruitfulness in prayer. I never will forget, I was in Colorado leading a pastor's retreat, and I was bringing basically the same message on abiding in Jesus as the secret of fruitfulness. And I came to this part about pruning and cutting away some of the branches. And there was a pastor there who had been listening, and oh, he was hungry.

I'd talked with him the night before and he was really hungry to know the more of it all and all of a sudden as I was expounding this passage tears just leaped in his eyes and coursed down his cheeks and I thought to myself well brother the Lord has touched him and as we were driving away

he was driving me back to the airport and he said, you know, when you came to that place in that passage about in order for God to bear fruit, some things have to be pruned off, cut away, all of a sudden I began to think about some members in my church. And I thought, yes, sir, if the Lord would prune away old deacons so-and-so, we could really get moving for the Lord. And I thought about Sister So-and- sir, if the Lord would prune away old deacon so-and-so, we could really get moving for the Lord. I thought about sister so-and-so. If God would just cut her away from our church, if we could just get rid of her and prune her from our membership,

boy, we could really go for the Lord. All of a sudden, I realized that God was not talking about that at all. He was talking about pruning away things in my own life. Things in my own life. And that's when God broke him and convicted him. And notice who does the pruning. It's the Father. He is the husbandman. You don't have to take care of that yourself. You know, some Christians just worry themselves to death trying to prune their life and make it acceptable to God. You make yourself available, He will make you acceptable.

And if you will come tonight to that place where you're going to make yourself available to God, the Father will see to it that you're fit to pray. And He will come to you with those pruning shears of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit, and he will start clipping away some things in your life so you will have more time and more energy and more spiritual power to pray. Are you willing tonight to submit yourself to the husbandman and say, Father, I don't know whether there is anything in my life tonight that would hinder my effectiveness But I'm willing, I'm willing to submit to the husbandman, and I'm willing to let you move into my life

and prune anything and everything from my life that hinders my effective praying. Are you willing to do that? Are you willing to let his word abide in you tonight and to submit yourself to the husbandman and let him cut some things out that are holding back the Spirit's fullness in your life?