How to Pray

00:00 - Announcer (Announcement) Real Life presents the Jack Hibbs podcast with intention and boldness to proclaim truth, equip the saints and impact our culture. 00:09 - Jack Hibbs (Host) Have you ever known that you should be praying? But you oftentimes don't know how to pray or you kind of get just kind of balled up. Well, listen, we're going to be talking about how to pray in such a way that it shouldn't be a problem for you. Again, I mean it. So grab your Bible, let's see what happens. 00:26 - Announcer (Announcement) You can get the outlines of this podcast by going to jackhibbs.com Today. If this podcast lifts you up and encourages you to live a more fulfilled life in Christ, then make sure you leave us one of those five star ratings. To us that's like saying amen or yes. Then that rating will encourage others to listen. Now open your hearts to what God's word has to say to you. Here is Jack Hibbs. Hey, everybody. 00:55 - Jack Hibbs (Host) We're going to be talking about today on this podcast, the issue of prayer. Normally, when you hear the word prayer, most people, most people in the church, kind of pause a little bit because the first thought in their mind is uh, oh, I don't pray enough. Second thing is I don't know what to pray for. Third thing is I love prayer. I pray all the time. It's like breathing air. 01:20 A lot of people have a lot of different responses to the issue of prayer. And yet the issue of prayer, the doctrine of prayer, the practice of prayer for the believer, like Charles Spurgeon said, prayer is the lungs of the church. And so if the church can't breathe, it's because the church doesn't pray. If the church can't run, if the church is enemic, if the church is faint, it's because it's not breathing. And you've got to be able to do that. And you know this, by the way, in your physical life, that when you're under a lot of stress, your physiology goes into shock mode. When you're stressed out, when we look, I'm saying you, all of us go through this, we all have to manage levels of stress in this world. When you are very stressed out or starting to begin to be stressed out, you start to take shallow breaths, breath and you don't even realize that. You don't tell yourself I'm going to breathe shallow and get dizzy and C stars. Your body starts to panic and you're not breathing right and what happens is you're kind of like in a daze and you find yourself doing this. You wake up to the realization my gosh, I have to. I have to fill my lungs. I haven't filled up my lungs in a couple of hours because you've been going so much like this and you can't do much because you are under a great deal of pressure. Shallow breath is stealing the needed oxygen to your brain and you're really starting to strangle yourself. We do the same thing in prayer. As believers, we can get so stressed out and instead of going to our knees I say that symbolically, although I'm a big fan about praying on your knees I'll tell you why in a minute, you don't have to pray on your knees. A lot of you love praying while you're walking. That's awesome, me too. That's cool. But in Southern California, if you want to hold a prayer meeting, get on the freeway. It's insane here driving. It's crowded on the freeway but we're all driving like 90 miles an hour in the crowd. It's like a race. It's pretty spectacular actually, but you better be praying or it comes down to the quick or the dead. It's pretty amazing. 03:55 The point is this when you're under a lot of pressure, you have a tendency to get shallow breath. So does the church. The church is under a lot of pressure. When your faith is under a lot of pressure, instead of praying and filling up your lungs with what God is saying in His Word, you get shallow breathing habits or shallow word habits, and you're going to faint rather than relying upon the Lord and renewing your strength in Him. So what is this thing about prayer? 04:26 Think of prayer as a two-way conversation. Prayer is two-way. The Bible demands it, but even though rarely does the Bible even mention it that way, the structure of prayer is we cry out to God, yes, we intercede for our nation. We are a making supplications to God for our children or our husband or wife. We're pursuing God in prayer to find out what His will is for our family. It's a conversation, it's two ways and it must be this way. God will prompt you in many cases, if not all, to pray and to lead you in prayer. Now hear me out. 05:27 I'm not against having a prayer list or journal. That's really great. Okay, I need to do that more often myself. A prayer list or a prayer journal is awesome because when you have those things, you have a tendency to pray specifically, like, for example, I'm praying well, you know what? I'm praying for one of our pastors today. This is a real Z. I'm praying for one of our pastors today. He's going in for a procedure. We're concerned about the outcome, and so I can pray specifically because I know a little bit of the specifics, so I can be more specific about my prayer. And so I write that down or I make note of it so that when God answers, whatever His answer will be, I can go back and I can say, wow, I prayed this way, but God decided to answer it this way. Or I prayed this way and look what God did. He answered just like I prayed. Wow, that's cool, that's amazing. 06:30 It actually needs to be that much of a dialogue, not a monologue. There is no monologue in prayer. Okay, that would be tragic. Man, listen, if you don't know the Lord, jesus Christ, as Lord and Savior, as King of Kings and Lord of Lords, as the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ as God, the Son. Okay, then you, if you are… If you're a Mormon, or if you're a Jehovah Witness, or if you're a Jew, or if you're a Muslim, or if you are a Hindu, or if you are a Buddhist or a Shinto, or whatever you might be, listen, according to the Bible. No one's listening. So there's no dialogue. You're just praying. Let's be honest. Come on, don't be mad at me, just be honest. 07:24 I have Muslims tell me I pray, but we never get answers. In fact, listen, a lot of Muslims. I've had Muslims tell me that they know among themselves man, if you need prayer, go find a Christian and have them pray for you. I've had people tell me that in Turkey. I've had people tell me that in Jerusalem. I've had people tell me that in the West Bank. I've had Muslims tell me in America hey, we know, I mean there's something with it. We don't believe you're Jesus and what you, but we know that your prayers get answered. Listen, only the Christian understands. We pray to the father in the spirit by the son in his name Jesus. 08:08 So check this out, watch this. This is a good way to have, I think, a healthy prayer life. I mean, I'm just going to do it and then I'll hopefully remember why I'm putting it in this order. So John 15, for example, and I'm reading from the Bible I am the true vine and my father is the husbandment. That's verse one. That's deep Lord. I'm not sure what that means, but I'm asking you, in Jesus' name, that you teach me what this means. 08:45 Every branch in me that bears fruit, right, he takes and he. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes it away. And every branch in me that does bear fruit, he prunes it right so that it might bear more fruit. So, lord, you're telling me something here. Make my eyes open and my ears open and my heart open to what you're saying. He goes on to say that if you are a branch and if that branch being your life, in the word of God being in you, there is a connection, there's that dialogue where God's word is speaking into your life, he goes down. He tells you in verse five that I am the vine, you are the branches, he that abides in me. 09:41 So now I'm praying, lord Jesus, I want to make sure that I have my understanding right always that you are the source of everything and down to verse seven, which goes to the point of what we're talking about. He says if you abided me and my words abiding you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. Verse eight hearing is my father glorified that we bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples. So, wow, lord, wait a minute. Your word just said here, as I'm praying to you now, as I'm talking to you now, that if your word abides in me, I can ask what I will, what I desire, and it will be done, because the father is going to be glorified through that. Okay, god, teach me that. 10:31 What is this Now? Pause, right there you might be saying well then, pray to ruin the lotto, pray for a Ferrari, pray for a mansion, pray for it. Yeah, you know what. That's why I said earlier when you go to pray, you want to pray the word. You need to know the word to pray the word. So when Jesus says, if my word abides in you, that's the qualifier to your request. See, this is what's fun about prayer. If I know the word, then I'm gonna know how to pray. I won't be praying for a Ferrari, I will be praying according to the will of God, which is what in Psalm 34, verse 7, I think, or maybe it's 37, verse 4. 11:25 The scripture says delight yourself in the Lord and He'll grant unto you, he'll give unto you the desires of your heart. You hear the prerequisite. What's the? What's the requirement? Delight yourself in the Lord, he'll give you the desires of your heart. If my word abides in you, ask whatever you want and my father's glorified. See the connection. If the word is in me, I'm not gonna ask for selfish things, to gain things for myself, for self, self, self. If I pray, lord, only you know my heart and only you know what's right. Cause me to delight in you, lord, whatever that means in my life For me, father, cause my life. I surrender to you now that you would cause me to delight in you and I'm gonna leave the outcome to you. Or, if your word abides in my heart, god, I will know how to pray and what not to pray for and what to double down on, because I know that this is your will. When you pray the word, that is how you can pray confidently. I'm gonna give you a real life thing. 12:46 All the time, as you can imagine, people will come to church services and either before or after, they're gonna ask for prayer. They have needs. And someone might come and say Pastor Jack, will you pray for my son? He was just diagnosed with leukemia or diabetes, and will you pray? Yes, of course. Oh, by the way, let me insert this I always interrupt people who are telling me the dynamics of the issue. Let me explain, especially pastors or Christian workers, you're gonna appreciate this. 13:22 When somebody comes and says will you pray for my son? He's got leukemia? Yes, of course, let's pray. Well, let me tell you. And then they start they're like a nurse, right, or they themselves are a doctor, and they start going through the details of how bad the leukemia is and this is what it's doing to the cells and the white count is two levels they've never seen before and they start painting this picture that is so huge. I don't let them do that. Friends, listen to me, learn this from an old guy. I tell them stop, stop, stop, stop. Friends, listen, stop. Do not tell me any more of the details, because the more I hear of how big and bad and ugly this is, the harder it is. It's going to be for me to pray in faith. I don't need to know the details. Frankly, you don't know the details. Dr Ding Dong doesn't know the details. Only God knows the details. So don't tell me any more. 14:18 Let's pray for him, annoying them with oil, according to the book of James, we pray for them by laying hands on them, and I pray something like this, aligning with Scripture Number one Lord, we thank you that you're good. We thank you that you are a God who has revealed to us that you are God who answers prayer. We thank you, god, that throughout your Scripture, you are a God who heals, and you've made that very clear in your words. So, father, we come now believing in your word that you are God of all power and all healing strength, that there's nothing too hard for you. And so, father, we pray, thankfully knowing that you're hearing us right now, because, frankly, god, we are obeying your word by praying for this young man right now. 15:06 So, father, we now pray in faith, believing that, lord, if it be thy will you heal this young man completely, by whatever means you so choose. You can choose to heal him now. We know from your Bible that you can choose to heal him in one hour. We know from your Bible that you can choose to heal him by tomorrow morning or three days from now. Lord, we know that you heal as you will. Lord, we also know that you heal through medicine. That is something that you've invented. So give the doctors skill or the treatment, the ability because you have provided that genius to have medication, treat the issue. And then, father, finally, we leave the results into your hands. But we praise you and thank you as we leave it all into your hands. To you be the glory. Thy will be done in Jesus' name, amen. 16:09 I've covered all the biblical basis. I believe in every single one of those 10 steps I just gave you, and we leave it in God's hands. I don't have to worry about it anymore. They don't have to worry about it anymore. They lay it down 1 Peter 5, 7. They cast all their cares upon the Lord because he cares for them and they can just proceed according to God's will, according to God's leading. 16:38 See what does that mean? Well, does the young boy have an appointment tomorrow? Go to the appointment, have them do another scan, whatever they decide to do, but let God intervene. Because you know what? How many times have we seen this, where God winds up touching somebody's life six months into a process so that this doctor and that nurse and finally that radiologist. 17:01 Here's the gospel. Oh yes, did I mention that all along the way? Because you're a Christian, you're sharing with the doctor. Doctor, my son has what? Leukemia? Well, I want you to know. In our home we're going to be praying for you, doctor, and we're going to be praying for my son. 17:19 We're believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. He died on the cross for our sins and he rose again from the dead. He's the guy. He's the guy who can heal. Listen, what do you think your son's going through, what he's going through? Are you're going through what you're going through? Are your mom's going through what they're going through? So you can go to places and share the gospel, because those people will never go through the doors of a church. God knows that he loves souls so much that he will allow sickness to be used as a vehicle to get you into places that those people would never turn on a Christian radio program, see, jack. 17:58 This is a little extreme, isn't it? No, not at all. I think going to the cross to get people to hear about the love of God is extreme. Everything outside of that is nominal. Are we not His? Are we not His servants? Does not our bodies belong to Him? Then can't he use us any way he wants? Yes, he can't. So when we pray, don't pray with repetition. If you have a book that tells you how to pray, put the book away. Put the book away. Unless it's the Bible, put the book away and talk to him like you would talk to anybody else. Hey, I want to wrap it up this way In the US Capitol you can go on a tour and part of the tour takes you down into the original congressional chamber. 18:59 It's downstairs and it's the original where, shortly after the Capitol was built, you have these seats and these desks. It's kind of like old school desks. Remember, the really old ones are made out of wood and they lift up like this All these senators and congressmen. They had these desks and one guy, I believe it was. It was either Noah Webster, who was the congressman Noah Webster, or Daniel Webster, but it might have been Noah Webster, but he took a knife and he would carve in his desk. You can see his desk. It's there today. He'd carve stuff in his desk and he was an amazing believer, by the way, but at break time he would go and read his Bible. 19:49 There is an account that I'm not going to say. Eye witnesses, ear witnesses, would hear Noah Webster reading his Bible out loud and they said that he read it so dramatically he had voices that he would use where God said to Noah and he would say it, and then Noah responded back to God, or Daniel said, and then Nebuchadnezzar said and Noah Webster would read his Bible like that by himself, and there would be other senators and congressmen leaning against the door listening. They were spellbound by the dramatic version of Webster reading his Bible by himself. I thought that was pretty awesome, and why do I say that? Because, again, forgive me, it was either Noah or Daniel Webster. They prayed like that too. They took that interaction in the Word of God coming into them. They turned it around and they prayed like that. I love that. It's kind of childlike, and so we'll wrap it up this way. 20:58 I want to really recommend to you a little booklet. It's called I forget Effective Prayer Life by Chuck Smith. Effective Prayer Life by Chuck Smith. It's about that thick. I recommend it for everyone. For everyone, especially young people. It's a great tool, parents, to teach your kid how to pray, and it's a great reminder for you to get back to praying like a kid, because that's so important. 21:37 Jesus said to enter the kingdom of heaven you must be like a little child. Little children are believing. Little children are filled with faith. Little children, don't doubt little children. You better watch out when you put them on a wall to jump into your arms. Don't turn your back on them. Those little stinkers. They're so trusting they'll jump like a swan, dive right into your arms. They trust you so much. God says that's how I want you to be. So pray always. 22:06 The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians, without ceasing. So how do you do that? It's a good question. Open up the dialogue, the conversation, and I want to believe this that your prayer life and my prayer life is never ending. It's not going to end until the day that we see Jesus face to face. How's that? Your prayer life is like breathing. Just keep breathing and you'll live as you're living. Keep praying and as you pray, you'll live and you'll be filled with vitality, you'll be filled with freshness and you will not grow weary and well-doing, because those that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength right. They will walk and not be weary. They will run and they will not fade, they will take, they will be born aloft on the wings of eagles. So listen, I hope that helps you. 23:05 Grab a book of the Bible, maybe start in John and start praying through, chapter by chapter, verse by verse, in your prayer life. Watch what happens Everybody. We would love for you to stay up to date and to do that with us. You would hit the subscribe button and you would share. Please share these podcasts with other people. That really helps us. On this end, it deals with the algorithm. On the other end, it keeps the woke crowd from canceling us out. It bumps us up further on that food chain. So share it if you like it. And, as always, it's time for us to live out what we believe in. It's time for real life. 23:48 - Announcer (Announcement) This Jack Hibbs podcast, as well as all the broadcast outreach opportunities, are listener supported. Will you consider partnering with us through a special gift? Go to jackhibbs.com to learn more and stay connected.