You Can Experience the Life-Changing Power of Prayer | Best of Tony Evans Sermons

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if you’re in a crisis and God is not

moved and you’re operating by faith all

that means is the delay is tied to a

bigger point that God wants to

accomplish for his glory the the

amplification of the name of his son and

the advancement of his kingdom so you

keep praying to a crisis if you’ve not

heard no then you keep

[Music]

praying if you one intervention in

history than Jesus Christ you must be

willing to be identified with

him people ought to know that you’re a

Christian and you ought to be found

guilty of all

charges to call on his name in the day

of trouble means you have publicly

confessed him before men Romans chap 10:

9 and 10 he says if you if you confess

with your mouth that is open declaration

that I am a I’m a committed Christian I

belong to Jesus Christ open

declaration not hidden that’s right he

says those who call on me who have

confessed he says will be delivered

whatever you ask in my name that will I

do so that the father may be

glorified in the son if you ask anything

in my name I will do it in other words

anything that’s going to make me and my

daddy look

good I’mma do glorified if if you going

to make me look good by your prayer

request that’s why I want to give you a

secret give you a secret this is a

secret when you go to God and you’ve

been fully you’re fully surrendered and

you go to him in the name of Jesus

here’s here’s don’t tell nobody I told

you this but here’s what I want you to

do I want you to tell God if he answers

your request what he’ll get out of it

cuz God loves to hear His glory on

display

he loves to know he’ll be glorified in

the process his name will be great first

John says this in chapter

5 John says in verse 13 these things

I’ve written to you who believe in the

name of the son of God so that you might

know keep the word know in mind that you

have eternal life so when you place

faith alone in Christ alone he gives you

inner confidence of your salvation a

conviction that you’re his

child but now notice what he says right

after that verse

14 this is the

confidence which we have before him so

the word confidence the word know if we

ask anything according to his will he

hears us and if we know that he hears Us

in what whatever we ask we know that we

have the request that we have asked from

him oo you see how many times I’ve said

the word

no that is inner persuasion or

confidence anybody been waiting for

something for a

while okay well the first question is

are you praying in his name okay are you

surrendered okay but given that when

there is a gap of time

between a legitimate prayer in Jesus’s

name the knowing that he’s going to

answer but the lapse in time between the

answer it is for one reason and one

reason alone

preparation either God is preparing it

for you or he’s preparing you for it or

he’s preparing the two for each other it

is for

Preparation God will use whatever time

is needed for the preparation to occur

for the request to be answered and you

to be qualified to receive the request

when it comes now that’s the good news

the bad news is you can delay the time

because you can delay the

preparation you can decide I’m not going

to be surrendered you can decide I’m not

going to obey you can decide not and you

can just spend that time on so God may

have decided I’m going to it’s going to

take one year and you may be at 25 years

because he never got the surrender so

you never got the preparation so he can

never answer it should have taken Israel

about a month a month and a half to

leave Egypt and get to the promised land

they walking around in circles for 40

years because they never accepted the

preparation that the Wilderness was

designed to give he says there is a

knowing that

occurs when we are in framework with

God it’s powerful for watch this

physical and spiritual healing James

chapter 5: 13-

15 he says if you pray in the name of

the Lord the prayer will heal the sick

okay and address the sin oo oo

the prayer will heal the

sick and address the

sin now all sickness is not due to

sin but a lot of sickness

is he says the prayer of

faith he says in the name of the Lord so

he brings the name in will heal the sick

and it will deal with the sin

what God is saying is if I could ever

get to the spiritual we could do a lot

better with the

physical see most of our prayers wants

we want God to change stuff in the

physical give me more money give me

better health give me a new car give me

a new house give me nice clothes give me

know yeah we want God to do something in

the physical and and that’s not there’s

nothing wrong with that but we often

want him to do stuff in the physical

without touching the

spiritual don’t touch my sin but give me

me my

blessing don’t touch my Rebellion but

give me my blessing no he doesn’t mind

changing the physical but he wants to

address the

spiritual and that brings in a

monster Authority Kingdom Authority you

want to know Kingdom Authority here’s

the

monster the name of Jesus gives you

power over the

devil because much of what we deal with

has come from him or through him or by

him in Luke 10: 17-

19 he told his disciples he he’s having

a conversation with his disciples and he

says you have authority over the devil

in my name name you tread among the

demons you Tread On Top of the

Demons instead of the devil and the

demons walking on you you walking on

them tread means to walk on when’s the

last time you walked on the devil just

just walked on oh devil let me walk on

you yeah rather than him walking over

you he says I give you Authority he used

the word authority to tread on the devil

and his demonic scorpions why because

many of the issues we have are

demonically

exacerbated see we think the problem in

the divorce was our personalities that

wasn’t a problem the problem is the

devil got a hold of your personalities

and when the demons got a hold of your

personalities your personalities got

amped up in chapter 19 of Acts I I love

this verse 13- 17 okay Paul is casting

out

demons in Jesus’s name he’s just getting

rid of demons in Jesus’s name just just

the sick of being healed the

Supernatural is occurring regularly in

Jesus’s

name well some dudes see this

and they say wait a minute wait a minute

wait a minute Paul using his name Jesus

and stuff

happening why don’t we do

that cuz they concluded there’s magic in

his name it’s a magical name here Paul

doing all this stuff in jesus’ name so

they came to this demon possessed person

the sons of scha they came as Jesus the

person and they used the name of Jesus

they do like Chris do Jesus Jesus Jesus

Jesus in the name of Jesus

Jesus they went they they went Jesus on

them just just Jesus all over the place

just Jes come out

demon then Acts 19 says the demon spoke

up demon spoke up and the demon

says Jesus we

know Paul we know we don’t know who you

folks

are it says the demon jumped out of the

man and jumped onto the folk who was

using the name of Jesus stripped them of

their clothes and it says and they ran

out naked why because when you don’t

know how to use the name and you still

use the name you just invite the devil

to jump all over you and make things

worse on you while you call in Jesus’s

name so Jesus’s name is not a name to be

played with nor is it is it dice is it

magic you just throw out there uhuh this

is a person behind the name and if you

don’t know the person submitted to the

person intimate with the person

following the person yielding to the

person submitted to the person don’t

expect the

power power comes from a person

it’s okay to be honest in your

prayers there neither sister is

condemned because they express

disappointment with God God’s son after

she expresses her

disappointment she goes on to say in

verse

22 even now I know that whatever you ask

of God God will give to you w oh I don’t

want you to miss this Jesus verse 21 I’m

hurting cuz I needed you and you didn’t

come

but however in spite of my pain I know

my

beliefs and if you call on the father

now as bad as this situation is he will

still honor your request so she marries

watch this she marries her emotions with

her theology

so you want to always have a theological

and doctrinal Foundation when you are

emoting over your

circumstances she is emoting about her

pain but retreating to her

theology that’s why you need to learn

Doctrine she says look right now I’m

disappointed but I know what I believe

and I’m going to appeal to what I

believe in spite of how I feel right now

so you need to learn some Theology and

Doctrine cuz that’ll ground you when the

emotions are doing this and when you’re

in a crisis that’s what the emotions do

as you’ll see here in a

second Jesus says to her your brother

will rise again she says to Jesus yeah

yeah I know I learned theology went to

eschatology class on the last day he

going to rise I know I know about that

then Jesus hits her with another

theology can I talk some theology here

cuz I want to ground you I want to root

you he says I am the resurrection and

the life he who believes in me will live

even if he

dies Doctrine is critical but Doctrine

is always to lead to a

person if all you get his

Doctrine you may be heavy in the head

with information but light on the

experience you may know about the

resurrection but never experienc

one cuz he says the resurrection that’s

doctrinal is tied to a person so here is

the

point the written word must always lead

you to the Living

Word if you see we have two extremes

some are so Orthodox with the written

word that they can quote the Bible quote

the theology quote the doctrine but

never have the experience because they

are Tethered to the written word

alone this other side wants to fall in

love with Jesus with no

Doctrine so they live on the emotion of

the experience without the in

underpinning of

theology you need the doctrine to know

what to believe you need the person to

make it experiential in your

belief if you read the Bible but you

don’t see Jesus your eyes stay closed

even though your heart burned at the

Bible

study he told he told the Pharisees he

says you you search the scriptures you

read your

Bible but you still don’t experience

me so the go goal of this church the

goal of your life is through the written

word to come into an experience of the

Living Word he says at the end of verse

26 do you believe this this is going to

be critical this is going to be this

will change your life do you believe

this she says yes I believe you are the

Christ the son of God who comes into the

world now it’s Mary’s

turn Mary not coming to Jesus she’s too

disappointed

and let’s tell the truth sometimes

you’re so disappointed with Jesus you

don’t want to talk to

him can anybody raise your hand and tell

you don’t want to pray no more okay okay

CU he not moving he came too late should

have been here

yesterday okay that kind of thing so she

don’t want to talk so Jesus calls her he

says Mary come on come on come talk to

me now he bids us

come she gets up quickly because he

invited her and then she tells him verse

32 if you would have been here my

brother would not have died now in verse

33 everybody’s crying we’ve got a

weeping time because when you’re in pain

you’re going to cry if it hurts bad

enough when you have your crisis it will

bring you to tears if it hurts bad

enough in your particular

situation but I feel much better in

verse 35 the shortest verse in the Bible

when I read Jesus web

he wasn’t too big to cry and he the Son

of God Jesus cried why because Hebrews

chapter 4 verses 14- 16 says that he

sympathizes with our

infirmities he hurts with our pain I

have good news when tears are coming

down your eyes they coming down his eyes

because the Bible says he feels your

pain he feels what you feel when you’re

in a cck

crisis so

now Jesus raises the

question where have you laid him where

is he

buried so they come to take Jesus to

where he was buried and he stirred up

verse 38 says he’s deeply moved within

he’s moved at the sin and the pain that

the world offers that creat sickness in

the first place without sin there would

be no sickness without not not personal

sin necessarily but atmospher IC sin the

germs the viruses the bacterias that

infiltrate our body the toxins all of

that is the enironmental repercussions

of sin and he was stirred up at the

crisis that they were in and the reasons

for it and so he says stay with me here

verse 39

Martha remove the

stone Martha’s

response Martha said to him

Lord by this time there will be a

stench for he has been dead 4 days you

remember that

delay by this time he

stinks Jesus said move the

stone she says Let me give you a lesson

in mortuary science

he been dead 4

days Rick a mortis has set in which

means the cells have collapsed when Rick

mortis sets in and the cells collapse it

releases a green substance when this

green substance is released because Rick

mortis has set in because the cells has

collapsed that produces a stench because

of the Decay he said remove the stone

and what what did he tell her he said

the not I say to you if you believe you

would see the glory of

God in other words here it is Faith must

always precede

sight once you put sight in front of

Faith you’ve negated faith faith is

based on what you do not see if you got

to see it first you won’t see

it no and how would she demonstrate

faith not by a feeling but by removing

the stone cuz Faith faith is not a

feeling it’s an action as you’ve heard

me say many times faith is acting like

God is telling the truth it is acting

like it is so even when it’s not so in

order that it might be so simply because

God said so so you move in faith even

when you don’t feel it sometimes you’re

gonna feel fiish got faith all over you

you just feeling it sometimes you won’t

ever feel fitish but you can know you’re

operating in faith because you moving

the stone so some of us have situations

that have not changed cuz we still have

having conversations and have not

touched the

stone the thing that God told us to do

that we refuse to do which keeps the

stone there which means there’s no faith

no matter how much Church you

[Applause]

have

then Jesus raised his eyes and said

father I thank you that you have heard

me oh oh oh that’s theology

there you’re praying through a crisis

you’re talking to God but here’s what

you want you want Jesus talking to God

for

you see you got to talk to him first but

what you want is Jesus to ditto the

request then not until it was an Act of

Faith Jesus says to his father I thank

you that you have heard me

oh uh oh uh uh don’t don’t see you can’t

miss Jesus does not waste words not only

does he not waste words he does not

waste tenses of

words he didn’t say I thank you that you

hear

me I thank you that you heard me which

means we’ve already discussed this

crisis that Lazarus is in when they

prayed the first time at the beginning

of chapter 11 you and our father had a

conversation so now Jesus prays I thank

you you’ve heard me I know that you

always hear me but because of the people

standing around I said it so that they

might believe that you sent me a now we

got a clue Jesus holds off on answering

the prayer because he wants to use the

crisis to bring a lot of people to

Salvation so now there is a spiritual

reason for a crisis delay in spite of a

prayer being prayed cuz there’s a bigger

Kingdom Purpose at work than just the

healing of Lazarus if you’re in a crisis

and God is not moved and you’re

operating by faith all that means is the

delay is tied to a bigger point that God

wants to accomplish for his glory the

the amplification of the name of his son

and the advancement of his kingdom so

you keep praying to a crisis if you’ve

not heard no then you keep

praying let me tell you something about

God he’s emotional

now we don’t talk a lot about the

emotions of God but we see it all in

scripture we see where God gets angry

the Bible says the joy of the Lord so he

can get joyful the Bible talks about God

being

pleased or being

pleasured loving the feeling that there

all kinds of statements about God’s

feelings you don’t just want to reach

God’s ears you want to touch God’s

heart cuz he’s a feeling kind of God and

he says I’ve heard your words but I’ve

also felt your pain yeah what the Bible

says about Jesus is he came to

sympathize with our hurts that’s a

that’s a feeling

thing that’s why when we want to just

throw stuff up to God without trying to

connect with God we want him to hear our

words but not feel our hearts you know

it is with people when they talking to

us but they ain’t feeling us they not we

we not we not connecting on this point

and they can repeat back what you said

but they don’t feel why you said it we

have that in human reactions and

Dynamics all the

time God just doesn’t want to hear you

he wants to feel you and nothing

enhances a relationship like when what

is said is also what is felt cuz when

the word words touch the

heart you got a thing going on then he

said I’ve heard your words and I’ve seen

your tears I I I feel

you what

happened he says I will heal

you on the third day you’re going to go

up to the house of the Lord meaning you

going to get your praise

on you cry in the day but I’m going give

you a reason to shout 3 days from

now I’m going to heal

you wait a

minute but it was just a couple of

verses ago and by the time Isaiah got

halfway out in the courtyard God watch

this now changed his

mind oo o did you hear that God changed

his

mind now this puts us in a theological

conundrum

we talked about this a little bit last

week but let me just go a little further

today the Bible declares that God does

not

change God says I am the Lord that

changeth

not Jesus is the same yesterday today

and

forever God cannot change he says that

over and over and over again in

scripture but we we just saw God change

he said you will die thus sayith the

Lord

couple of minutes later you will not die

thus sayith the Lord so we went from a

terminal situation to a 15-year

reprieve and I was only in the center of

a couple of minutes cuz Isaiah just

walked to the middle of the courtyard

and the only thing that happened between

what God Said the first time and what

God Said the second time was a prayer

full of emotion that’s the only thing

that’s happened

yeah how can a changeless

god his

immutability

change God’s characteristics Mercy Grace

uh truth love uh Holiness righteousness

omnipotence omnipresence

omniscience

veracity uh God has character qualities

those character

qualities are

unchangeable he will always be what he

has always

been you and I go through

changes we’re not the same today as we

used to be right we don’t look the same

we don’t act the same we don’t smell the

same there are changes that occur in our

life over time

God cannot change his essential

nature but he

changed while God cannot change his

nature he can and does change his action

let me say that again God’s nature

cannot change but his actions may

change how

then does God change his AC action

without changing his nature since his

nature cannot change but his action as

in this case does

change so God changes his

mind and he says you are going to live

you are not going to

die he leveraged influence with

God so then

please notice something

else I’m going to deliver You Verse 6

I’mma give you 15

years and when I give you 15 years and

deliver you I will deliver this city

from the hand of the king of Assyria and

defend the city for my own sake and for

the sake of my servant

David okay watch

this when you in a terminal situation

and God changes his mind and reverses

something and gives you a new lease on

life whatever that terminal scenario

is it’s not just for

you see it’s not just for you he says

when I give you this 15 years it’s not

just so you can go out and party I’m

giving you this 15 years because I want

to use you to deliver my people from the

attack of the

Assyrians in other words I I’m the only

reason I’m turning this around around is

not only to give you life cuz I know

that’s what you’re praying for but I

also want to give you purpose and I want

to give you a new opportunity to do

something for

me see most of the time when we’re in a

terminal situation it’s only about me

myself and I and I want God to do

something for me that is in my best

interest and that’s okay but it can’t be

limited to you when God gives you a new

OPP opportunity he wants you to be a

blessing not just be blessed and that’s

a problem with a lot of this blessing

stuff out here today I want to be

blessed I want to be rich I want to have

this I want to have that which in itself

is not a problem unless it’s by itself

unless it only involves you see the

prayer you need to pray is God I’m in a

terminal situation I need to affect

another part of your character I need

you to reverse this situation so that

not only can my situation should be

changed but so that I can be a conduit

to change somebody

else’s so if it’s only about you then

you missing God said I got a bigger plan

for you than just you living 15 years I

want to

deliver and I want to

deliver the whole

city from the Assyrians

[Music]