Power in Prayer




Read Exodus 6:1-13
"1 Then the LORD said unto Moses, Now shalt thou see what I will do to Pharaoh: for with a strong hand shall he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out of his land.
2 And God spake unto Moses, and said unto him, I am the LORD:
3 And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.
4 And I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage, wherein they were strangers.
5 And I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel, whom the Egyptians keep in bondage; and I have remembered my covenant.
6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:
7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
8 And I will bring you in unto the land, concerning the which I did swear to give it to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob; and I will give it you for an heritage: I am the LORD.
9 And Moses spake so unto the children of Israel: but they hearkened not unto Moses for anguish of spirit, and for cruel bondage.
10 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
11 Go in, speak unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, that he let the children of Israel go out of his land.
12 And Moses spake before the LORD, saying, Behold, the children of Israel have not hearkened unto me; how then shall Pharaoh hear me, who am of uncircumcised lips?
13 And the LORD spake unto Moses and unto Aaron, and gave them a charge unto the children of Israel, and unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, to bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt."
        Why do you think that God said all that he said here?
        Verse 5 is what I believe to be the major reason...
COMMENT: To experience this, we need to get serious with God concerning prayer, super-serious, dead-serious to say the least. Remember Luke 9:23...
        Verse 9 is also powerful.. Sometimes it is hard to hear the voice of God when there are problems all around you, you feel defeated, tied up by circumstances, whipped, stripped, and lied to...

YET so did Jesus and he overcame and so can we...
Phil.4:13
"13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me."

Think about Exodus 6:12,13above and what it is saying...
It's kinda like the Lord ignored Moses,
The same thing holds true when he came in the flesh...

Ck. Mark 5:21-43)
"21 And when Jesus was passed over again by ship unto the other side, much people gathered unto him: and he was nigh unto the sea.
22 And, behold, there cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet,
23 And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she may be healed; and she shall live.
24 And Jesus went with him; and much people followed him, and thronged him.
25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,
26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,
27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.
28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.
29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.
30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?
31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?
32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.
33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.
34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.
35 While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further?
36 As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.
37 And he suffered no man to follow him, save Peter, and James, and John the brother of James.
38 And he cometh to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and seeth the tumult, and them that wept and wailed greatly.
39 And when he was come in, he saith unto them, Why make ye this ado, and weep? the damsel is not dead, but sleepeth.
40 And they laughed him to scorn. But when he had put them all out, he taketh the father and the mother of the damsel, and them that were with him, and entereth in where the damsel was lying.
41 And he took the damsel by the hand, and said unto her, Talitha cumi; which is, being interpreted, Damsel, I say unto thee, arise.
42 And straightway the damsel arose, and walked; for she was of the age of twelve years. And they were astonished with a great astonishment.
43 And he charged them straitly that no man should know it; and commanded that something should be given her to eat."
        From reading these scriptures we see that when you touch Jesus in faith expecting to receive is totally different than just touching him, bumping into him, pushing him or whatever everyone else was doing at this point and time. Jesus knew within that group of people all around him that someone touched him in faith, expecting to receive and she did...
        When you get your eyes off of the problems and onto the problem solver, you don't have any problems to speak of!

Back to Moses in Exodus 6, Moses saw the probkem, poor Moses or is it us when we focus on them?!
(((Sanctified imagination-- You can almost hear the Lord saying back in Exodus 6, "Hey, as I am dealing with the Pharoah, I'll be dealing with my people, you hide and watch!")))

        Tonight, I want us to focus on one verse and see how much insight we can get from what happened here...

        "...the groaning of the children of Israel,..." NOW let's talk about prayer...
Jer. 33:3-- God said,
"3 Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not."
        Sometimes we call unto God day and night and we don't see those things happening that we expect to happen and we get more and more depressed and confused... WHHYYYY???
        So we think that prayer isn't working the way that it is supposed to and in turn we give up on praying so many times OR we decide that a certain thing wasn't God's will even though everything that we knew in the word tells us that it was and is God's will, so once again, WHHHYYY??? doesn't it come to pass?

        I'm going to cover "the name it and claim it people, those who don't search the scriptures and claim God's promises, those who are too lazy to fight the good fight of faith, those who have sin in their lives--- verses like Ps. 66:18-
"18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:"
I John 1:9,
"9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
Prov. 28:13
"13 He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy."
        That is a few verses regarding the sin issue... We can't play with sin and walk with God too!

        Here are some verses dealing with the other issues that I will cover...
        I have talked about faith over and over again. I cannot over emphasize the importance of faith...

Heb. 11:1
"1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

Heb. 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him."

Rom. 10:17
"17 So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

And tying in
Prov. 3:5,6..
"5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
"6 In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
        The word of God tells us many things that are in contradiction to the way that we think since we have been trained up in the ways of the world. The ways of God are radically different than the ways of man. The word says, "12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death." Our ways are not his ways and his ways are not ours. We must renew our minds with the word of God as it tells us in Rom. 12:1,2.

Matt. 21:22 is an important scripture also...
"22 And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
        The only way that you can ask in faith is standing on the promises in the word of God, walkiing in the Spirit, his righteousness.

        What did Jesus say in ...
John 15:7?
"7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you."
        As I think about this my mind goes to...
Psa. 37:4,5
"4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
"5 Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass."
        Bringing these two scriptures together, I see that abiding in Jesus Christ is basically the same as delighting in the LORD. As I walk in the Spirit, submitting to the Lord then I am abiding and delighting in the the the Lord Jesus Christ and he answers my prayers.

        Reminds me of...
Ps. 91:1
"1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."

        You dwell in the secret place of the most High when you are abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ.

        By the time that I get to v.4,
"He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler."
It reminds me of Jesus in...
Matt. 23:37
"37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not!"

James 1:5-8 is another key... Ask in faith...
"5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.
"6 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
"7 For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord.
"8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."

        I hear a lot of preachers, pastors saying that you don't really have to believe, God will answer your prayers anyway. That is a completely unbiblical statement but it looks like ministers of the gospel can get by with saying anything in this Laodicean Church Age that we are living in... God says here and other places that we must believe or ask in faith to receive.

        So don't waver, stand firm--
I Cor. 15:58
"58 Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding..."

        Don't be double-minded...But how do we become single minded, "so to speak???"
Rom. 12:1,2
"1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
"2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

        We renew our minds with the word of God so we can pray in faith, believing as we are standing on his promises to us. God is not a man that he should lie. He will stand by his word to perform it.

Eph. 4:14 tells us,
"14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;"

        Let's get some more insight from
Daniel 10...
"2 In those days I Daniel was mourning three full weeks.
"3 I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all, till three whole weeks were fulfilled.
        Daniel was serious with God, he was even abstaining from food and spending more time with God to get some revelation, some insight that he needed.

Jumping down a few verses...
"7 And I Daniel alone saw the vision: for the men that were with me saw not the vision; but a great quaking fell upon them, so that they fled to hide themselves.
"8 Therefore I was left alone, and saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me: for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength.
        It seems like most of the time when we really want to hear from God, get close to him then we are usually alone. Most don't want to go "too" far with God. They might get so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good. What a joke! The more heavenly minded we get the more earthly good we are...

Jumping down a few more verses...
"11 And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling.
"12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.
"13 But the prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me; and I remained there with the kings of Persia.
"14 Now I am come to make thee understand what shall befall thy people in the latter days: for yet the vision is for many days.
"15 And when he had spoken such words unto me, I set my face toward the ground, and I became dumb.
"16 And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.
"17 For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me.
"18 Then there came again and touched me one like the appearance of a man, and he strengthened me,
"19 And said, O man greatly beloved, fear not: peace be unto thee, be strong, yea, be strong. And when he had spoken unto me, I was strengthened, and said, Let my lord speak; for thou hast strengthened me.
"20 Then said he, Knowest thou wherefore I come unto thee? and now will I return to fight with the prince of Persia: and when I am gone forth, lo, the prince of Grecia shall come.
"21 But I will show thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince."
        Here we see that Daniel received for his perserverance into the things of God. He received more revelation, insight that he could have imagined. We also see that his answer was on the way 3 weeks ago, the time that he started his fasting and prayer... Incredible! God takes back the curtain, so to speak, and shows us what was going on in the spirit realm. There was a spiritual warfare going on as I believe is happening every time we pray, seek God's face, his understanding.

        Another principle is in James 4:7
"7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."
        God tells us to submit to him and resist the devil then the Lord will back up our obedience to him by showing himself strong on our behalf.

        And another--I Thess. 5:17,18
"17 Pray without ceasing.
"18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you."

        How do we do that???

        By living our prayers...Check Rev. 12:11; cross with Rev. 5:8; Rev. 8:3-5
        But then again I remember Elijah in I Kings 19:8-12-18---
         All the awesome things that God has done in our lives but we tend to forget so easily OR we think that "I am the only one that he has left..." God has his people but we need to be unified...

Let's read in the New Testament what happened in Exodus 6 for a little more insight on the subject...
Going to Acts 7:22-42 CF. Romans 15:19...
"22 And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and in deeds.
23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the children of Israel.
24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him, and avenged him that was oppressed, and smote the Egyptian:
25 For he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God by his hand would deliver them: but they understood not.
26 And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove, and would have set them at one again, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
27 But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge over us?
28 Wilt thou kill me, as thou diddest the Egyptian yesterday?
29 Then fled Moses at this saying, and was a stranger in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.
30 And when forty years were expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sina an angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush.
31 When Moses saw it, he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice of the Lord came unto him,
32 Saying, I am the God of thy fathers, the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold.
33 Then said the Lord to him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet: for the place where thou standest is holy ground.
34 I have seen, I have seen the affliction of my people which is in Egypt, and I have heard their groaning, and am come down to deliver them. And now come, I will send thee into Egypt.
35 This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush.
36 He brought them out, after that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years.
37 This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear.
38 This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us:
39 To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt,
40 Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.
41 And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.
42 Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness?"

Rom. 15:19
"19 Through mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God; so that from Jerusalem, and round about unto Illyricum, I have fully preached the gospel of Christ."
        Moses was a type of Jesus Christ (deliverer). The Pharoah was a type of Satan, Egypt was a type of the world (bondage). Satan is the so-called god of this world, Pharoah is the so-called god of Egypt (the world).

        They didn't look to Moses very long just as Christians aren't looking to Jesus very long... Moses being a type of Christ led his people out of bondage to Pharoah, Christ is leading all who look to him in faith out of bondage to the world system, sin. Egypt being a type of the world... (Ck. John 2:15,16)         This reminds me of Peter when he got out of the boat and started walking on the water and then he started to sink. WHY???
(He took his eyes off of Jesus, the problem solver and focused on the problem) and the same thing will happen to us for the same reason.

Check Matt. 14:28-32
"28 And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water.
29 And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus.
30 But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid; and beginning to sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me.
31 And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and caught him, and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?
32 And when they were come into the ship, the wind ceased."

        (You might be in the boat, no problems but you are going into a deeper sleep and when the storms come then you are in trouble. So wake-up and repent, turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and he will cause a great calm in the midst of the storm if you ask him for help.
Matt. 8:23-27--
"23 And when he was entered into a ship, his disciples followed him.
24 And, behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves: but he was asleep.
25 And his disciples came to him, and awoke him, saying, Lord, save us: we perish.
26 And he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith? Then he arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm.
27 But the men marvelled, saying, What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!"         Don't forget the devils, circumstances and situations obey him too! He is God and all will bow before him.

Closing:
         One of the most powerful scriptures in the bible-
(Phil. 3:10).
"10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;"
        Remember what I said earlier, we are his body, the body of Christ. When one member hurts we all hurt (or should be if the body is in the right condition) so in turn, since we are speaking of prayer, let's act like a body that cares for every part of the body.


James 5:16
"16 Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."

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