Aligning Our Hearts with God's Will Through Prayer

In reality God is looking for lives through which he can work among men there are probably three basic kind of givers and of course variations within each basic type but the first man is the man that has to be sold on the project you come to him and you tell him what the project is the benefits that will accrue to the community because of this project and how he himself will stand to benefit from his contribution actually he can get his picture in the paper and it'll be good publicity and advertisement and you can sell him on the fact that he ought to contribute and he'll sit down and write out his contribution one type of Giver has to be sold the second type of giver is the man that all he has to do is to be made aware of the knee he's wanting to give he's willing to give all he has to do is be aware of the need and as soon as he becomes aware of the need he is ready to contribute now there is a third type of giver and this is the man who has a vision and a burden for a certain thing to be accomplished and he starts looking to see if there is someone who is perhaps doing the type of work that he feels ought to be done and he starts looking for a place to give he's looking for someone who is doing this kind of work. [00:57:57]

Now when we think of God's giving which of these three do you think come closest to the way God gives now there are many times we think that we've got to sell God a bill of goods and so you listen to the prayers and they're a big sales job now Lord you know if you'll only do this then Lord I can do this and I'll do this and and and Lord how can you lose on a deal like this you know make a deal now Lord and we're trying to sell God on the advantages that will accrue to him and his kingdom if he'll just give to us how much I need it what I'll do with it some people think that God is like the second giver that he just has to be aware of the need so all I have to do is make God aware of my needs I know that God is desiring to give good gifts to his children and so all I have to do is let God know what my need is but jesus said your father knows what you have need of before you ever ask him you see I don't have to make God aware of my needs he knows my needs in fact God knows what I'm gonna be needing six months from now I don't know what I'm gonna be needing six months from now but God already knows what I'm gonna be needing six months from now so prayer really isn't to inform God of my needs according to this particular scripture in second chronicles God is looking for places to invest God is looking for lives that are aligned with his purposes that are in harmony with what he is wanting to do God is looking around trying to find those whose hearts are in tune with what God is desiring in order that through them he might begin to pour his resources for the eyes of the Lord go to and fro throughout the entire earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards him God is just looking for places to work he's looking for lives to bless all that is necessary is for me to come into harmony with that which God wants. [04:03:14]

We've made a tragic mistake about prayer for we have come to think that the purpose of prayer is somehow to get my will done here on the earth and I come to God with all of my little requests like I would come to Santa Claus and this is what I want God for Christmas now and I've got my list and of all of my once and I bring them to God in prayer thinking that somehow God is the magic Genie that is just waiting to grant all of my requests and all of my wishes and somehow we've felt that prayer is that agency by which we can get God to supply all of our needs and and all of our ones but in reality the real thrust of prayer is not to fulfill my will or to get my will done on earth but the real thrust of prayer is to get God's will done here on the earth therefore prayer really begins with God the purpose of God the plan of God the desire of God God plants that desire in my heart and I then express it to God in prayer opening the door for God to do that which he is wanting and desiring to do now God has created us with the capacity of choice and with a capacity of self determination a person says I can do what I want to do well you are so right and God will let you do what you want to do God's not going to force you to do anything God does not use arm-twisting techniques God's not in the business of forcing people against their wills because it would be totally meaningless for God to give me the capacity of self determination the power of choice it would be meaningless unless God respected my choices. [07:47:66]

Now God will bring circumstances to alter or to change my will he'll allow things to take place to stop me if I'm on the wrong path he'll give me many opportunities to change my will but he will never force me against my will now I am convinced that every right thing that I have ever prayed for that God had already intended to give that to me that prayer doesn't really change the mind of God nor does it change the purposes of God in fact prayer would be a horrible thing if it did change the mind of God because here's one man praying for rain tomorrow and another man's praying for dry weather and if I could force God you see and he can force God because prayer is a thing you know they're gonna move things and all hey you have a real problem God would have a problem the purpose of prayer is not to get my will done but to get God's will done the sprayer moves in a cycle it begins with God the purpose the plan of God it comes down the first thrust of prayers the downward thrust as God places upon my heart and in my life that desire that awareness I expressed it to God as the prayer but as I'm expressing it to God as the prayer I am also opening the door that God may do what he has already purposed and desired to do without violating my will you see through my prayer it is the surrendering of my will to God allowing him to do that which he is already purposed and desiring to do now he can do it and is not violating my will I'm opening the door to allow God to do those things that he wants to do through prayer now God wants to work and he is looking for lives through which he can work God wants to bless God wants to reach this community he's looking for lives through which he can reach this community the eyes of the Lord are going to and fro throughout the entire earth to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect towards him therefore you do not have to beg God plead with God that he might use you or that he might anoint you with His Holy Spirit or that he might just give you a great in dumit of power all you have to do is just get your heart and your life in line with what God is wanting to do get your heart perfect towards him and as your heart becomes perfect towards God then God begins to pour out his spirit and his power through your life God is just looking for people to bless and to use the tragedy is that he cannot find people for the most part my heart may be partly towards God not completely I may have a heart that is leaning towards the things of God but the word perfect is complete God is looking for that man whose heart is complete towards him. [09:09:91]

Now as God begins to work through his spirit in my life there are many different ways by which the spirit can and does work through my life and one of the first gifts or manifestations that Paul makes reference to in that listing in 1st Corinthians 12 is the gift of the word of wisdom now this is not a reservoir of wisdom it is a gift of God is that it is a special anointing of the Spirit and it comes upon me in a particular need if I have the gift of the word of wisdom it doesn't mean that God has suddenly given me the wisdom of Solomon and no matter what situation comes up at what time or in what kind of a circumstance I can just come out with pearls of wisdom it's not a reservoir that I draw from anytime I want to but it is that kind of a gift that in particular situations at certain times suddenly there comes flashing into my mind that word of wisdom that is just appropriate for the moment it's the answer it fits it it just is so appropriate now it is possible to speak a word of wisdom in in one moment by the Holy Spirit and in the next moment speak the words of a fool you see it isn't just a reservoir that I tap at will it is an anointing of the Spirit that comes and it's just the thought or the word of wisdom that comes sort of flashing into your mind now in the New Testament we find that this particular gift was manifested so many times in the life of Jesus Christ there were men who followed him around listening to every word and constantly seeking to trap him in his speech how thankful I am that you are not critical as are the far as were the Pharisees because there are so many things you could trap me in my speech and they were constantly seeking to trap Jesus just sitting around trying to figure out questions to ask him by which they could trap him one time a fella came and said Lord we know that you don't respect persons tell us is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar and he was smugly thinking I've got you now it's one of those double edgy questions if Jesus says yes it's lawful to pay taxes to Caesar then all of the Jews are gonna hate him because they all hate paying taxes to Caesar I mean they just didn't like Rome and if he says yes then he's he's gonna turn all of these they won't listen to him anymore listen to anybody says you oughta pay taxes to Caesar if he says no then they'll run right down to Caesar and they'll report hey you've got a rebel down here this guy's you know advocating not paying taxes and so forth you know and they get him arrested so yes or no he's in trouble either way good question Jesus said got a coin they handed him a coin he held it up he said whose picture is that on the coin they said it's Caesar flipped it back to me said okay give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar and unto God what belongs to God now that's the word of wisdom I mean he got right out of it and so often we find Jesus exercising the gift of the word of wisdom now he told his disciples that you're gonna be hailed before the courts you're gonna be brought into courts you're gonna stand before kings and before the judges the magistrates but don't take any forethought of what you're gonna say for in the hour in which you need it the Holy Spirit will come upon you and he will give you the words to say the Holy Spirit will give you the word of wisdom so you don't have to make up a little speech and think well I get there all you're gonna say this and that and you know you don't have to do that just wait and when the moment comes the Holy Spirit will will anoint you and and and will give you the words to say so Paul the Apostle have been arrested and the Jews were gathered together against him and they were vowing to kill him they were determined to get Paul and so Paul was given his opportunity to speak to this crowd of Jews and Paul realized that in the crowd there was a division half of them were Sadducees half of them were Pharisees the Sadducees and the Pharisees were always arguing with each other over resurrection because the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection they did not believe in angels they did not believe in the spirit whereas the Pharisees believed in resurrection believed in angels believed in the spirit and there was this constant argument between the Sadducees and Pharisees so Paul standing before the Sadducees in verse he said I believe in the resurrection of the Dead and for this cause I've been arrested well immediately the Pharisee said well there's nothing wrong believe in the resurrection well way to read Sadducees and they started fighting between themselves Paul walked out you know while these guys were going at it with each other the word of wisdom. [10:58:57]

There are many times I'm sure that you've experienced it yourself where someone asks you a question and for a moment you're stumped Wow that's a good question I wonder and as you start to answer the question suddenly the answer comes to you and as your answer you think wow that's a good answer not bad you know that makes sense I've had this happen so many times but there's an interesting thing it's usually when I start to answer the question a lot of times as I start to answer the question I don't know what I'm going to say they'll ask a question I'll say well the scripture says and I'm thinking real quick what does the scripture say you know and the Spirit will give me a scripture that's completely appropriate the Spirit will give me the word of wisdom and the answer will come now in the beginning to answer the question even though I don't know at that moment when I first start to answer the question I don't know what the answer is I don't know what I'm gonna say as I start to answer as I start to say the Spirit will then flash it the word of wisdom but in starting to answer you are in a sense stepping out in faith and all of the gifts of the Spirit are extra sized through faith and faith is not passive but active and it is as you start to step out in faith that the spirit then comes through and honors that step of faith and gives you then the word of wisdom to speak. [15:71:13]

God communicates to us through the spirit God is a spirit they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and his Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are the sons of God now when God communicates unto me he communicates not directly to my intellect he communicates to my spirit and my spirit in turn communicates to my intellect and because God communicates to my spirit and my spirit to my intellect as God is communicating to me so many times that is coming just as a thought and impression and impulse an idea you remember when Elijah had fled from Jezebel and was down in the Sinai and he was standing in the cave there and the wind came howling through the canyon and the rocks were torn loose and rolling down and all and he said but God wasn't in the wind then there was a tremendous earthquake that shook everything and God wasn't in the earthquake and then a fire came roaring through God wasn't in the fire and he said and then there was a still small voice and God was in the still small voice you see we're looking for God in the earthquake we're looking for God in the fire we're looking for God in that hurricane but God so often speaks to us with that still small voice and because it is just a still small voice we don't recognize it as being from God because it comes so naturally it's just like well that that's an interesting idea Wow yeah that's right and you know suddenly you just get the flash the impression the thought the impulse and it's of the Spirit of God as God is leading or as God is guiding or as God is revealing to you particular things just very naturally and sometimes it's in things that you'd think that God would never be interested in I mean sometimes you're not even looking for it. [20:89:10]

God does want to communicate to us in fact God is communicating the problem isn't on the up side the problem is down here on our side Isaiah said God's hand is not short that he cannot save neither is his ear heavy that he cannot hear the problems not on God sight it's down here on our side God is communicating now quite often we're not listening our minds are so filled with so many other things that we're not tuned in clearly to the voice of God and I think that there definitely is a disadvantage of living in this advanced society we've gotten to where we almost are afraid of silence if we're home alone nobody's around we'll go turn on the TV just so there's noise or the stereo or anything get noise you know I can't stand this silence and you know they've even now got walkathons and everything else so where you can even have noise when you're jogging you just put on the earphones and take off your nan gotta you know the minds God has some kind of a noise going through it and we're so used it we're so you know we're so speed it up we're living at this kind of a pace that keep it coming and because we are even subconsciously interpreting so much stimuli all the time our brains are being so taxed the sound decibels are going up all the time year after year there are there are noises that you just sort of learned to shut out it's amazing how your brain can can learn to just sort of shut out noises though they are still there you don't hear them consciously anymore but subconsciously you're they're still coming through and they're still being interpreted we used to live just across the street from the railroad tracks and people come to our house spend the night and they sue well it's horrible you know all night long you know the trains wake us up you know never woke us up because your mind has a way of tuning out after a while you know the only time we wake up is if the train was all scheduled but your mind learns to adjust to these sounds and and yet it is still subconsciously interpreting the stimuli that we really don't have times where we just can sort of tune in to God and I think that there is sort of a tuning and process through meditation and not transcendental type but where I where I consciously just seek to open up my mind and my heart to God to hear God speak and to to really see to hear the voice of God consciously it is something that we just don't do very much and and for this reason because there were never heard the voice of God God doesn't speak to me it's just that we're not tuned in it's just that we've allowed so many other stimuli 'zed to keep our brain occupied that we're not hearing when God speaks but God is wanting to speak to you God is wanting to work through you God is wanting to use your life as his instrument God is looking throughout the world tonight to show himself strong on behalf of those whose hearts are perfect or complete towards him because there's a big job that needs to be done and God has chosen to use human instruments to do his work but he has to first of all get that human instrument tuned up and in harmony with what he is wanting to do once God can get you in harmony with what he wants to do then your life really begins to cook in a sense because now God really begins to flow through your life his power his love his wisdom his spirit and suddenly you find yourself flowing with the things of God and lies are being touched life deserve being changed. [24:49:65]

I want you this week to take time some time each day in just a quiet place if you can find such a thing where you just consciously open your heart and your mind to God bringing before him a particular need a particular question a particular problem if there be so and just holding it out to him and then saying now father what should I do and then listen give God a chance to speak you see our problem is that we are so many times just bringing the things to God and then we're up and on our way and we never give God a chance to respond and we may prayer a monologue prayer should be a dialogue and I am convinced in this dialogue with God that what he has to say to me is far more important than what I have to say to him let's practice more listening and less speaking giving God a chance to speak to us now in this it's good to have the Word of God there and just maybe be reading the Word of God because God so often would speak to you right out of his word but start training your ear to hear the voice of God because your ear can be trained to hear God's voice can be in a sense tuned like you tune the radio you get the channel and as soon as you get the channel you start picking up and God is communicating to you but you're not listening or or you're just you know there's too many other interferences there's too much static and you're not clearly hearing the voice of God but give God a chance this week to really speak to you consciously take that time and open yourself to God that he might really begin to speak to you and next Monday night as we gather together again I'm certain that many of you will be able to share some interesting experiences where God began to speak and where God began to lead or God began to guide you in in specific areas because you took the time to just open up and wait on him may God be with you and bless and keep you and made the Lord speak to your heart of the fullness of his love and grace through Jesus the Lord bless thee. [30:85:95]