This message was written by my aunt, Stephanie Powers, for a fellowship of believers on campus at UT Knoxville. She delivered it at the amphitheater during the regular thursday night worship time. I personally found this message very encouraging and insightful, and I gained a great deal from it. I hope you too will take some time to hear what God had to say that night.
PRAYER is intimacy with God that births new Life. It’s like this soda. It sits contained in a 2-liter, but when I shake it up, it just creates and creates. It changes its environment, and keeps multiplying. The whole scripture tells us that God is a God of relationship and intimacy. It tells us that HE is always ready to work and create, and to partner with us…. But He is stuck. Why is He stuck? He is stuck because He has self-limited Himself to wait, until His Body moves in prayer, asking, seeking, knocking, praying according to His purpose which is outline in His Word. His precious Word that brings Life. Jesus said, I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. So if that is His essence, when we mingle with Him, we birth things of Way, Truth and Life. But how will we know what is on His heart and mind? Miracle – He puts it within us, when we are covenanted to Him and seeking Him with all our heart, mind and soul. Covenant is a powerful thing – In the days of Abraham, people made covenant for a number of reasons – love, peace after war, etc. Being under covenant with someone meant that each would give his very life for the other, closer than a brother, even exchange names… if the other party ever needed anything, he had the right to come and ask and it would be given, no matter what it was – they were as one. God has chosen to covenant with us as His people. You are His covenant partner, if you have crossed the divide by accepting His forgiveness that He offers us because of the price paid by Jesus. We could spend a whole other teaching on covenant, but let me just show you one thing here that touches my heart deeply. Remember covenant included the exchanging of names. Do you see that God exchanged names with us? Jesus was the Son of God, and we were the son of man. Yet, Jesus was called the Son of Man, and we are called sons of God. That is AWESOME – I mean, I am put in awe when I consider that. That is a whole other teaching. What I want you remember right now, is that if you have placed your life in the hands of God and accepted His forgiveness and you have given God the Lordship of your life, you are a covenant partner.
Now that you are under covenant, out of and in your love for your King, you enter His gates, to His very throne. It’s not a big palace to which you have to borrow the keys or go looking for someone that can let you in. No, you HAVE the keys to that place. God is enthroned in our very hearts! We enter His presence with confidence – not like Queen Esther who had to risk her life, hoping the king would grant her an audience. Did you know that you are a priest and king of the most High God? Don’t we kind of read in awe that Herod offered his wife even half his kingdom, and King Xerxes did the same for his beautiful wife Queen Esther? Well Jesus told his disciples not to fear, and assured them that it was the Father’s pleasure to make available the FULL Kingdom to them! How many times does He tell us to ask? Don’t believe me on any of this – take notes here and go look it up for yourself. Ask God the big and little questions, don’t get discouraged when you read something and don’t understand. Ask ask ask ask ask ask ask ask. Who had the most intimate relationship with Jesus during his ministry on earth in the flesh, according to what we read in the New Testament? He kept giving them these confusing parables, and then there were only a few that came back to ask questions. The disciples kept asking him, Lord, what did you mean by that? Jesus was drawing them in, wanting them to ask questions, to engage Him. Are you engaging Him? Acting like we know or understand something or someone, brings no life at all. We often go for the appearance of things, and having lived all over the world, and in various parts of our country, here in the south we especially have this tendency to go for the appearance of things – as long as I say the right things and go to the right meetings and go enough times etc etc, and as long as I can quote a few scriptures along the way and use spiritual words, I’m good; that’s what it means to be spiritual. NO. To be spiritual means to know God and to follow and obey His known Word and what He puts on our hearts… daily, moment by moment. To ENGAGE Him. Don’t just listen to those parables and then repeat them to others. ENGAGE HIM. ENGAGE HIM who is called the Way, the Truth and the Life. Let me put this aside just for a moment. There may be some of you here that are listening, and you have not entered a covenant relationship with God through Jesus. Maybe your heart is beating fast as I’m speaking, or your stomach has butterflies, or you feel like you’re going to cry, or you’re thinking, “I want that, I’m hungry for what that lady is talking about”. First, just start speaking to God and offer Him your heart. Ask Jesus to reveal Himself to you. Don’t believe based only on my testimony – let Jesus reveal Himself to you! Let me be blunt; we all come as broken people who need healing and forgiveness. Coming to Jesus means to repent, which means to TURN and walk away from our old self and old ways. We give ourselves up, because it’s worth it. Jesus asks us for everything – it is the most costly decision you will ever make. BUT, then He gives us back more than we ever thought possible, and so much more than we ever had. It’s a totally unfair trade and exchange. He paid the price, He made the way, and we sacrifice all we thought we had, to gain true Life – bubbling, changing, expanding, reproductive, healing, Life that lives forever in the presence of our Creator God, the only uncreated God, who formed us and made us and loves us with an everlasting love that is so far beyond our human understanding of love that we just can’t grasp it. Run to Him and place yourself at His feet. Ask Him to do what it takes to show you and the Truth and to help you follow after it. There will be folks who’d love to talk more with you after this time together.
Now, we were talking about engaging God. That brings me to prayer. Prayer has many elements to it. In prayer, we go the full gamut of communication and relationship. We praise and glorify God, we acknowledge who He is, and who we are, we confess our failures and receive his forgiveness and healing and Love and joy, we intercede, meaning we ask for things according to His will that we know, and sometimes we ask for things we’re not sure are in His will, and just ask Him to clarify that for us. We ask for help. We pray for our friends and loved ones, and yes, we absolutely pray for and bless our enemies. AND WE RECEIVE FROM HIM. Sometimes we receive in silence. Sometimes he speaks in a small voice, or a gut feeling, or a thought, or goosebumps, or we cry. Sometimes he tells us many things that we can’t put into words. Sometimes we look back and realize that even though we felt nothing or sensed nothing was going on in those times, our heart was being changed. We become more like Him, reflecting Him more and more, the more we seek His face. I remember about a year before I went to Africa, I would daily sit in my bedroom after reading and pondering the Scriptures and praying, I would literally lay my hands on my head and my heart, and ask God to change it all around to be like Him – MOVE what needed to be moved, get rid of the stuff that didn’t matter, just change me. I pictured a house that needed cleaning and all the furniture renewed and changed around. That’s what I prayed. I rarely felt anything. But looking back, I would get goose-bumps, because over time, I knew something big had been happening. The Potter’s hand was welcomed, and He was forming me and giving me new things in my heart and mind, to see as He sees. I still do that now--- I’ll never completely get it this side of knowing Him in full, face to face. But I’m seeking, grappling, pouring my heart out before Him, renewing my mind through His Word that He has gifted us with.
Let’s look at the apostle Paul’s work. Paul was one of the earliest missionaries that we read about in the Old Testament, who had a vast ministry and raised up people to follow the Lord across many nations. He was imprisoned many times and persecuted, but always content and full of Love for the Lord. Isn’t it incredible to see how the church grew during that time? We read Paul’s passionate letters to those who he had visited before, and those who he couldn’t quite get to… what does he always assure them? He prays for them – He thanks God for them, remembering them always in his prayers… day and night. And he always urged the others to pray for him and to pray for their brethren. We see the fruit of that in the early church – that God did that. What did Jesus spend so much time doing – He prayed. I challenge you to go study John 14-17 which includes what God prayed for the early Church and for us (those who would come). He pleaded with God that He would make us one, as Jesus is one with the Father. What happened and is still happening today, is a direct result of those prayers. I imagine God with raised right arm in the heavenlies, ready to act, with millions of angels at attention ready for the word, and as soon as Jesus, or we pray something according to His will, his arm comes down, the flags go up, and there is a spiritual action that ignites in that moment. Angels are sent to fight the demonic forces that hold many in bondage, that hold whole nations and people groups in bondage, that hold our hearts in bondage, and they fight. You can read some great stories that demonstrate that in the book of Daniel and other places in the Bible. But for now, just know that God ACTS in response to our prayers. The Bible says that God LOOKS for those who will pray and intercede as priests – read Ezekiel…. He is looking for men and women whose hearts are right – what does that mean? Hearts that are in love with Him, entwined with His heart, – Jesus said in John 15: “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be my disciples”. So, when we pray and seek God’s face and His heart, and let Him minister to us, He gives us His heart, and answers what we ask.
Let’s look at the prophet Isaiah and how God gave him His heart. It says in Isaiah 6 that Isaiah was before the Lord and was seeing things in the heavenlies. As he was praising and worshipping God, it naturally led him to repent of his sin – he said I am a man of unclean lips and now I’m going to die because I’ve seen God. God cleansed him, and then, guess what? Isaiah heard God say something about what God needed. It says, “Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying: Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” That was the problem God was trying to solve – it’s what was on God’s heart. He had a mission to fulfill, but he didn’t know who was willing to go – “Who will I send?….” Isaiah said here am I, but oh God I need preparation. God said no problem – you need clean lips, here’s my angel with a coal of fire to cleanse your mouth. Now go. Jesus told his disciples, go go go. Don’t worry, I’ll give you My words. Those disciples were with him, walked with him, wrestled with him, asked questions to understand, ate and drank with him. Were they perfect? Oh no! They just didn’t get so many things. Toward the end there were STILL jostling for position to be the greatest, the highest, the one to sit next to Jesus, who was most loved, etc etc. But they engaged Jesus. When His spirit came upon them, then they were ready to take it to the very end – it didn’t matter the sacrifice. He dwelt in them and they were empowered with His Love and Presence. This is one of the most exciting aspects of prayer, to me. I love bringing my personal requests to God, and lifting up all my loved ones, and all of the people that God has put on my heart to pray for. I pray regularly for Osama bin Laden and his family, for Al Queda – that they may know Light and Love. But to believe and press into wanting to sense God’s heart and His mission, and what He is aiming to fulfill, first through prayer, then through action, is so so exciting to me. You may have many crushing problems in your life – a broken relationship, what seems to be hopeless situation, or a failure, or many failures! I encourage you to bring those to the Lord. And then, lift up your heart to Him and ask Him what’s on His heart… what are His purposes for you, your family, your school, your city, your nation, the nations….
If you are sitting here tonight, or you may have walked in not having planned to come here to this amphitheater, I can assure you that you are here because someone has prayed for you. A relative, a grandmother, a friend, or even someone that doesn’t know you, praying that God would meet students at UT and in the community. You have been drawn. All of us, we are moved by the prayers of someone else, that were prayed according to what was on God’s heart. God told us that even moreso than a tired man who is badgered by his neighbor for bread and finally gives in, is God eager and willing to give us what we ask Him for. The Bible says that God gives His spirit without measure to His children who ask! He is not stingy!
I have a picture in my heart that I often lean into. You know those hooks that you can hang your coat or hat on, just inside the door of a house? I picture huge hooks like that that represent the names and character of God. When I pray, its as if I grab hold of those hooks and I hang myself on them, wrestling with God, reminding Him of His covenant, and I ask for the big stuff – but I ask Him for what is according to His word and His way, and the things that He puts on my heart. Sometimes its people, sometimes it’s stuff in my own life, and sometimes it’s whole nations and people groups. My times of prayer with the Lord come from the most personal and intimate part of me. I remember almost 15 years ago, a mentor of mine told me, Stephanie, to know me most intimately, would be to know my prayer life. That made such a deep impression on me, because I realized that I had no fire or intimacy, or a real sense of relationship in my prayer life. It wasn’t very personal! I kind of had a list that I went through dryly, and there was no give and take. It was just a discipline that I struggled to do. But now I understand what he meant. It takes time and heart and commitment. It takes doing things we don’t feel like doing sometimes. It’s a sacrifice! By definition, sacrifices aren’t fun to give are they? They hurt, they cost something! Well still today there are times in my prayer life that feel dry or fruitless, but I can tell you that even in those times, God feeds me; and SUSTAINS me. He is our Shepherd. He promised us that yes, we WILL find Him if we seek Him with all our heart. It’s not enough to seek with the mind; He wants to engage our hearts, our emotions, our wants and desires, our passion. He wants us to lean into Him, cling, wrestle, negotiate as a partner. Let’s talk about that a second. God made us partners with Him. What does that mean? If you’re a partner with someone else, is it acceptable for one of the partners to make all the decisions and the other to fulfill them? No! Partnership means that things are decided together! Have you ever noticed how in Genesis, the Scripture says that God came down to see what Adam would name the animals? It says, “Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.” Adam used the God-given creativity within him, to name the animals what came to his heart and mind, and God enjoyed it!
If we are going to have intimacy with God that births a new thing, we must know Him and His purposes. I know that sounds obvious and elementary, but it often gets forgotten when we set out to do what’s on our hearts. Our hearts, as we all know, are very capable of going astray. I am constantly humbled at my heart’s tendency to stray from God and His purposes – moment by moment, act by act, word by word. I have to wage war against worthless words that tear down and complain, jealousy, envy, despising, envy, bitterness, lying, cheating, desperation, lack of faith …. We all do. Not one of us is above these things, and if we think we are, the scripture says to beware because we’re just deceiving ourselves. SO, we need God and we need him daily, like the manna in the wilderness. He gives us what we need for each moment, each day. He is looking for his people to seek Him continually. Being rooted in His word, and spending time with Him seeking His heart and letting Him plant things in us, is the only way to know Him and to have the give and take that we need to birth a new thing. Let me give you an example. Over the last several years, I’ve been praying that God would give me a hunger for the lost. First, I know that’s His will – it’s clear throughout the scriptures that God is hungry for the lost and wants not even one to perish, and that He wants us to join Him in that heart and work. But there was a time in my life when I was not. I remember about 10 years ago, I was in a small group Bible study and we were praying afterward, and a new friend of mine was crying during prayer time. I felt so much compassion for her, imagining she was struggling with a broken relationship, or had been hurt by someone. When we shared together afterward, she said she was weeping for those that do not know Jesus in our city – her heart was crying out to God, weeping with Him for sheep that were not yet with Him. I have to tell you, I grew up as a missionary kid, and quote, “reaching the lost” has been a mantra that I’ve heard a million times, but I don’t think I remembered ever seeing that passion and hunger and compassion. It shocked me. And I thought, that’s Jesus. That’s what I want. I want to be hungry for what He is hungry for; I want to see what He sees; I want to want what He wants. And I set on a journey to seek Him and know Him. Now, I look at people, and I feel compassion, and I’m hungry to see them know Life. I’m hungry for people. I’m hungry to see Christ in people. The bible says to seek him while he may be found. Friends, don’t waste a day. There are prayers you can pray within covenant with God, that are just brainless if you know what I mean. It is so hugely clear, certain things that ARE according to His will. Let me just read some examples of prayers that we know for certain are within God’s will:
1) Lord, help me to want what you want, see what you see.
2) Lord help me to honor and love my parents more.
3) Lord, make me more like you
4) Lord, make me more of a servant, and keep me humble before you
5) Lord give me your compassion, and make me merciful and long-suffering like you
6) Lord, reach the nations, every tribe and tongue, with Your love and the good news that you bring Abundant life
7) Lord, make us, your children, One as you are one. Pull us together as your Body, fully united. Lord help us to understand and live the reality that we cannot function without you and without each other.
8) Lord, be glorified in all the earth. Wherever your Name is questioned or brought low, pour out your Glory and draw people to you.
9) Lord, wherever you people are suffering from persecution, fill them with your sustaining Love and boldness, to remain faithful til the end.
10) Lord make us fruitful in your vineyard, sharing your Life, bringing new Life, investing all we are for your Kingdom, giving it all away.
11) Lord, bring all of the parentless children into homes of your making, for you’re the Father of the fatherless.
12) Lord, strengthen all the marriages in the world to be more and more a reflexion of you.
There are so many powerful prayers that we know are His will. Let me tell you a secret. When we pray these things that are according to Scripture, God must fulfill them because it’s His word we are praying. Have you ever thought about that? He cannot go back on His Word, He absolutely cannot. There are so many verses that say this – it’s a whole other study. We are covenant partners, and we are holding Him to His covenant promises. In Psalm 138:2 the psalmist says, I bow before your holy Temple as I worship. I will give thanks to your name for your unfailing love and faithfulness, because your promises are backed by all the honor of your name.” We pray according to His Names, His character, His heart, and the moving in our heart. Now, when we pray according to what’s on our hearts, and it is not clear in scripture that it is His purpose, then we have to understand that sometimes we’re just not getting it right. But God knows. He is changing our hearts to be more like His, as we dwell closely with and in Him. Don’t give up. Praying for a car or a life partner, well, we just don’t exactly know what He wants. But what I do know, is that He wants us to lay those desires before Him, and engage Him about it. Invite Him to change your heart as needed and do what it takes to keep you on the right path “…and He will give you the desires of your heart”.
The last thing I want to mention here, is about the power of praying with other people. I’m still learning about this and I’m so enthralled. When Jesus was teaching the disciples to pray, He said it in terms of WE. Our Father, who art in heaven. He teaches us throughout His word the foundational nature of our intimacy with one another – an eye can’t function without a hand. Corporate prayer, prayer of many together, is a very powerful thing, that seems to do something different, or beyond what an individual prays. I’m learning about it. I want do join in prayer with others more and more and more – I’m hungry to do it together. I think that’s God putting something in my heart. I know the BCM has a prayer room now – that’s exciting. There are several groups on campus that meet regularly for group prayer. I believe a day will come when we routinely see ministries and denominations coming together more and more to pray and seek God’s face. I encourage you to commit yourself not only to prayer as an individual, but as a group.
I want us to take some time now to pray. And I want you to lay your heart before the Lord. (close your eyes). Did you know that we are living in the greatest drama ever known? We’ve got some great movies and special effects these days – I mean, things that make your heart thump and your head spin, and you think about it for days after. But that is nothing, compared to the glory of God. God created the minds that came up with those movies! If you want to enter God’s drama, He is so eager to see you step forward and press into Him. It all starts in prayer. Picture your heart rolled out like a football field. All the patchy areas, the dry areas, the watered areas, the dead areas, the pit holes. Just roll it out before Him and ask Him to fill you up and change you, to water your heart. If you are feeling like this is a bunch of hogwash, that’s OK. Then your prayer can be, God if you’re really real, I ask you to show yourself to me and I’m trying to be open to that. Wherever you’re at – take that, and that’s where you pray from. Don’t skip forward several steps to where you think you should be. Just be where you are, and bring that before your loving King. He is not at all surprised or shocked – He made you and knows you inside and out and knows you better than you know yourself; so if you pretend and just are trying to sound religious, He sees way past that. Be honest. Jesus acts in the midst of what is real, and hates pretense. He is drawing you and longs for you with a Love that is boundless! If Jesus is not yet your Lord, you can do that now. Just ask Him in, acknowledge your sin, your need, your hunger, and turn from what you were before, toward Him and His Light. He will shine on you and show you the way. If this is a decision you’ve made tonight, please, talk to someone afterward and let them give you some help with the way forward and to pray with you. But if you already are in covenant with God, come to Him now. Can you guys get on your knees? If you want to, go for it – it’s a bodily expression of our hearts as we come to God in His greatness. Only if you want to. ENGAGE Him. Ask Him to take you to the next level. Pour out your love to Him. Let me give you a minute and then I’m going to pray out loud. Be real.
Stephanie Powers grew up in Taiwan as a missionary kid. She then went to university in Tennessee. She moved to Boston for eight years. Then lived in East Africa for four years living in Tanzania and Uganda, most recently working with Favor of God Ministries in Gulu, Uganda. She is now in grad school for nursing at the Univesity of Tennessee in Knoxville. Then, if the Lord is willing, she will head to the Middle East help those who are unable to help themselves, and share the love of Christ our King with them.
"My friend Melly, she says that as she has grown in the Lord and in prayer with Him, prayer for her starts at His feet, then He invites her to crawl up into His lap and rest there, and then she climbs right into His heart. I love that." -Stephanie
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