Study in Prayer

We have been studying about binding and loosing, the prayer of agreement and believing you receive your prayers as answered when you pray. Yesterday, we left off with the question about “what if I pray for something and it doesn’t happen immediately? Like healing or finances or getting a job or any such thing?”

Like I said, faith and prayer go hand in hand. I learned early on in my Christian walk, that faith and prayer go together. I learned that our confession and our testimony do matter in the spirit, despite what the natural looks or feels like.

I’ve had sicknesses where I felt horrible. But my confession was, “by His stripes, I was healed. And if I was healed, then I am healed. I’m not moved by what I feel, I am moved by God’s Word. And His Word says He hears my prayers and since I know He hears my prayers, I also can be assured I receive the petitions I desire of Him. Therefore, I say I AM HEALED in the Name of Jesus!” 

In the natural, I am sicker than a dog. In the natural, I may have a fever and all sorts of things going on. On the inside, I WANT to say I’m sick. I WANT to say “Oh, pity me…” But in my SPIRIT, I know NOT to do that.

So, if I see someone and they say, “You look sick!” or “You sound like your sick!” I always respond with, “I’m not moved by what I see, feel or hear. I’m moved by God’s Word and His Word says I’m healed, healthy and whole, in the Name of Jesus.” 

“Yeah, but you look sick.”

“I’m not moved by what I see, feel or hear. I’m moved by God’s Word and His Word says I’m healed, healthy and whole, in the Name of Jesus.”

“Yeah, but…”

I usually cut them off at that point and say something like, “You can yeah but me all day long. Every time you do, I’m going to speak the fact that “I’m not moved by what I see, feel or hear. I’m moved by God’s Word and His Word says I’m healed, healthy and whole, in the Name of Jesus.” Any questions?

Sometimes I’m ridiculed for it. I don’t really care one way or the other. I’m going to stand in faith – PERIOD.

“What about finances, brother Bob? Or other stuff we are believing for?”

Look, a few sessions back, I told you to base your prayers on God’s Word. Do your research. Do your Bible study time. This will NOT work if you are just picking things out of thin air to confess in prayer time. You need to outline your prayer of Faith like a lawyer preparing for a court room battle.

You need to have a list of the relevant scriptures that relate to you situation. If you need healing, you have to have a list of every single scripture you can find that relates to healing. There may be 200 of them. List them all. Yes – ALL! Praise God.

“But brother Bob, why should I do that? Won’t two or three do?”

Yes, that will do. But, if want to increase the power of your faith to believe you receive when you pray, imagine the increase of faith you will receive when you list every – single – scripture that the Word of God healed someone else…then find out that “God is not a respecter of persons. What He did for one, He will do for you!” 

Amen! Imagine how high your Faith level will be! Praise God! No devil, no sickness, no whatever will have ANY power over you! AMEN!

Let’s Pray!

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We have been studying about binding and loosing, the prayer of agreement and believing you receive your prayers as answered when you pray. We learned yesterday that the ONLY hindrance that Jesus mentioned to that happening is if we have unforgiveness in our heart.

We left of yesterday with a question of, “I don’t harbor unforgiveness in my heart, but yet, my prayers are not being answered. Why?”

Well, let’s look again at what Jesus had to say in both Matthew 21:22 and in Mark 11:24: 

Matthew 21:22 says, “And all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” 

In Mark 11:24, we see, “Therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe you receive them and you shall have them.”

Jesus said in Matthew 21:22, “And all things, whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” Well, that is the same as saying, “What things soever you desire – believe that you receive.” Amen! Do you see it?

“Well, brother Bob, what if we didn’t receive when we prayed?”

If you have not received when you prayed, according to these two verses, it is because you did not ask, BELIEVING you received.

Hey, don’t get mad at the messenger here. I’m just pointing out what the Word of God says. You’re not going to call Jesus a liar are you? I sure hope not.

Look, if your prayers are not being answered, it is your fault or Jesus fault. I pick you. Amen?

And if is your fault, ask the Lord to show the area you are failing at. Nine times out of ten, it will be right here. Not believing you received when you asked in prayer.

Someone else may ask, “But what if I asked for something that might not be God’s will for me?”

Good question… Certainly, we must ask according to God’s Word. That is, we must have scripture for whatever it is we are asking for. 

These scriptures do not say, “Ask, believing…and if you don’t get it, then it wasn’t God’s will for you to have it.” They do not say that.

Since God’s Word is God’s will, we then know if we ask according to God’s Word then we are asking according to His will – which means we can receive what we are praying for.

Jesus said so. And He is not going to lie. Amen! So if He said it, I believe it. And that settles it in my mind and in my heart. Period.

“But what if I pray for something and it doesn’t happen immediately? Like healing or finances or getting a job or any such thing?”

Great question! And we will take it up here, with that situation, tomorrow. Praise God!

Let’s pray!

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Yesterday, we studied the prayer of binding and loosing as outlined in Matthew 21. Today, I want to look at this from Mark’s perspective in Mark chapter 11 verses 12-14 and then 20-26.

Verses 12-14 say, “And on the morrow, when they were come from Bethany, he was hungry: And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if perhaps he might find anything thereon: and when he came to it, he found nothing but leaves; for the time of figs was not yet. And Jesus answered and said unto it, No man eat fruit of thee hereafter forever. And his disciples heard it.”

Then, in verses 20-26, we read, “And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter, calling to remembrance, said to him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursed, it is withered away!

 And Jesus answering, said unto them, Have faith in God. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he says. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

And, when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: (so) that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses.”

Once again, notice at the end of this passage that Jesus is telling us to FORGIVE other who might have offended us. Amen! We can see that, in the eyes of God, forgiveness MUST BE IMPORTANT! We see here that UNFORGIVENESS is the ONLY thing that can hinder our prayer that Jesus mentions. Look at it again…

And, when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: (so) that your Father also, which is in heaven, may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father, which is in heaven, forgive your trespasses.”

He is simply telling us that our prayers will not work if we have an unforgiving heart. But if we maintain a forgiving attitude, we can be assured that our prayers will be answered. Amen! Praise God! Don’t shout me down when I’m preaching good!

In these two passages of scripture, we see Jesus is talking about believing you receive WHEN YOU PRAY. In Mark 11:24, Mark is saying the same thing that Matthew records in Matthew 21:22. Sometimes, we need to see something two different ways so it adds emphasis to what is being explained. 

Matthew 21:22 says, “And all things, whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” 

In Mark 11:24, we see, “Therefore I say unto you, what things soever you desire, when you pray, believe you receive them and you shall have them.”

Jesus said in Matthew 21:22, “And all things, whatsoever you ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive.” Well, that is the same as saying, “What things soever you desire – believe that you receive.” Amen! Do you see it?

“Well, brother Bob, what if we didn’t receive when we prayed?”

I’m so glad you asked…and that is what we will cover in tomorrows session. Amen!

Let’s pray!

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Jesus said something in Matthew 18 about prayer that believers need to understand in order to have a more successful prayer life. He said, “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again I say unto you, That if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.”

Here, Jesus is talking about the prayer of agreement and the prayer of binding and loosing. We covered the prayer of agreement previously. I said back then that I would cover binding and loosing separately. And this is the point in our study of prayer, that I think we should go over it.

As I said, Jesus is bringing out the fact that Heaven will back us up in what we pray on earth – IN JESUS NAME. Amen! Remember when we covered the importance of praying in the Name of Jesus?

We have the authority, in the Name of Jesus, to loose the Power of God on this earth and to bind Satan in his operations against us. WE HAVE THE AUTHORITY in the power of agreement, to ASK for what we need, KNOWING it shall be done for us. Amen! 

I’ve already covered the importance of “believing you receive when you pray.” But in Matthew 21, Jesus said something else about prayer. We previously discussed this by looking at Mark 11:23-24, but now, let’s look at Matthew 21:18-22. 

“Now in the morning, as he returned into the city, he hungered.  And when he saw a fig tree in the way, he came to it, and found nothing thereon, but leaves only, and said unto it, Let no fruit grow on thee henceforward forever. And presently the fig tree withered away.

And when the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, How soon is the fig tree withered away!

Jesus answered and said unto them, Verily I say unto you, If ye have faith, and doubt not, ye shall not only do this which is done to the fig tree, but also if ye shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; it shall be done.

And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive.”

Jesus is talking about prayer here! Amen! He is talking about faith and prayer. You can’t very well talk about faith without talking about prayer, too. And you can’t talk about prayer without talking about faith, either! The two go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other.

Mark 11 records this same incident. In fact, it is  the only reference to prayer in the Book of Mark. Mark is saying the same thing as recorded in Matthew 21. Matthew just summarized the even in about five verses. He got straight to the point. Amen.

Tomorrow, we will look at this again, but look at it from Mark’s perspective. Amen.

Let’s pray!

Please subscribe to this podcast, leave us a quick 5 star review on Apple Podcasts to help us grow and be sure to visit our website for more information on our ministry: https://podcastersforchrist.com. And while you are at the website, download the free resource I have for you… it is free and is called, “How to Start a Christian Podcast.” It will bless you – go and download it today.

You can also WATCH these session on our Facebook Playlist at this link: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtKWeKtmv-BwgkquBTsSh-GznbmuUp_R2

Yesterday, we started off with the question some people will ask to the effect of, “If God is in control, why does He allow all the evil in the world?”  We answered that question explaining that Satan has the legal ownership of the kingdoms of this world. I’m not going to go back and explain all of that again today. But it is important that we take up our conversation from that point we left off yesterday.

It’s been said that sickness and disease is the foul offspring of it mother, sin, and it’s father, Satan. Romans 6:14 says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace.”

We could also read Romans 6:14 this way, “SATAN shall not have dominion over you because you are a believer!”  Amen! I like that!  Another way is to say that, “Sickness and disease shall not have dominion over you, because you are a believer!”  Amen!

In Colossians 1:13, we read about our Heavenly Father, “Who has delivered us from the power of darkness and has translated us into the Kingdom of His dear Son.”

This entire world, the worldly systems, the worldly governments, including here in the United States, lies in darkness. But – through Christ – we are delivered from the power of darkness, or the authority of darkness. Amen!  Yes, we still are subject to natural laws subjected to us by these rulers of the darkness. But our spirits are always free and NOT subject any other power than that of God. Amen!

God can only move here on this earth as WE, the Christians, ask Him to. He would be moving into Satan’s territory illegally if He did otherwise. But God has a people down here on this earth who have authority because we have been redeemed. Amen! Only as we ask God to move, and we do that through prayer, can God legally move in the earth and in our lives.

To tell the real truth about it, Satan can’t move in and work in a believer’s life unless that person GIVES him the authority to do so. God works through man. Satan also works through man. When believers can learn to resist the devil and yield to God (James 4:7) and let God work through them, they will see the victory that has legally been purchased for them at Calvary. 

To yield to God means to yield to His Word. And God’s Word says that we, as Christians, are to pray. God’s Word also tells us HOW to pray and for what to pray and to WHOM to pray. We’ve already covered all of that before, so I won’t go into detail here. Just let me summarize it again for you…

Matthew 9:38 says we are to pray to the “Lord of the Harvest to send laborers into the Harvest.” If God could just send forth laborers without us asking Him to do so, or if He could do some other things without us asking Him to do so, then WHY do we have to pray for these things?

If we don’t need to pray and ask God to move in our lives, then we should all just sit back and let God do something about the situations in our lives and about getting all of the sinners in the world saved. But throughout the Bible, we see God telling man to pray and to ASK. Amen!

We see God inviting man, over and over, to “call on Him.” Even in the Old Testament, we see God telling man, to “Call unto me and I will answer you and show you great and might things which you do not know.” In case you are wondering, that is in Jeremiah 33:3. Amen!

There are many, many scriptures where God in inviting us to pray. When we pray, we open the door for God to move. That’s the way God has ordained in His Word that it should be. Then Satan can’t accuse God of being unjust. God will only move in line with His Word.

God is LIMITED by the prayers of His children. Knowing that, we should be all the more diligent to pray as Jesus taught us to pray. We should pray for those who despitefully use us, abuse us and accuse us, rather than criticize and complain against them. And, we should pray more laborers to be sent forth into the Harvest, that many more might be brought into the Kingdom of God. Amen!

Let’s pray!

Please subscribe to this podcast, leave us a quick 5 star review on Apple Podcasts to help us grow and be sure to visit our website for more information on our ministry: https://podcastersforchrist.com. And while you are at the website, download the free resource I have for you… it is free and is called, “How to Start a Christian Podcast.” It will bless you – go and download it today.

You can also WATCH these session on our Facebook Playlist at this link: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtKWeKtmv-BwgkquBTsSh-GznbmuUp_R2