Accredited; Prayer and Faith

Can you open to Matthew 17, 14 to 20?

Matthew 17, 14 to 20.

Matthew 17, 14 to 20.

Last week I said I won't be here this week, so this week I'm saying I won't be here next week.

Matthew 17, 14 to 20.

Okay, when they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him.

Lord have mercy on my son, he said. He has seizures and is suffering greatly.

He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.

One more time. When they came to the crowd, a man approached Jesus and knelt before him.

Lord have mercy on my son, he said. He has seizures and is suffering greatly.

He often falls into the fire or into the water. I brought him to your disciples, but they could not heal him.

Oh, unbelieving and perverse generation, Jesus replied,

How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy here to me.

Jesus rebuked the demon and it came out of the boy and he was healed at that moment.

Then the disciples came to Jesus in private and asked, Why couldn't we drive it out?

He replied, Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed,

If you say to this mountain, move from here to there and it will move, nothing will be impossible for you.

When they came together in Galilee, he said to them, The son of man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.

They will kill him. On the third day he will be raised to life. And the disciples were filled with grief.

Go to Luke 9, 37 to 42. Luke 9, 37 to 42. Luke 9, 37 to 42.

The next day when they came down from the mountain, a large crowd met him.

A man in the crowd called out, Teacher, I beg you to look at my son, for he is my only child.

A spirit seizes him and he suddenly screams. It throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth.

It scarcely ever leaves him and is destroying him. I begged your disciples to drive him out, but they could not.

Oh, unbelieving and perverse generation, Jesus replied, How long shall I stay with you and put up with you?

Bring your son here. Even while the boy was coming, a demon threw him to the ground in a convulsion.

But Jesus rebuked the evil spirit and healed the boy and gave him back to his father.

And they were all amazed at the greatness of God. But everyone was marveling at all that Jesus did.

He said to his disciples, Listen carefully to what I am about to tell you.

The son of man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. But they didn't understand what this meant.

It was hidden from them so that they did not grasp it. And they were afraid to ask him about it.

Let's go to Mark 9. Mark 9, verse 14. Mark 9, 14. Mark 9, 14 to 30.

Mark 9:14

When they came to the other disciples, they saw a large crowd around them and teachers of the law arguing with them.

As soon as all the people saw Jesus, they were overwhelmed with wonder and ran to greet him.

What are you arguing with them about? he asked.

A man in the crowd answered, Teacher, I brought to you my son who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech.

Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid.

I asked the disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.

Oh, unbelieving generation, Jesus replied, How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.

So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion.

He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth. Jesus asked the boy's father, How long has he been like this?

From childhood, he answered, It has often thrown him into the fire or water to kill him.

But you can do anything. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.

If you can, said Jesus, everything is possible for him who believes.

Immediately, the boy's father explained, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.

When Jesus saw that a crowd was coming to the scene, he rebuked the evil spirit.

You deaf and mute spirit, he said. I command you come out of him and never enter him again.

The spirit shrieked, convulsed him violently and came out.

The boy looked so much like a corpse that many said he's dead.

But Jesus took him by the hand and lifted him to his feet and he stood up.

After Jesus had gone indoors, his disciples asked him privately, Why couldn't we drive it out?

He replied, This kind can come out only by prayer.

They left at place and passed through Galilee. Jesus did not want anyone to know where they were because he was teaching his disciples.

He said to them, The son of man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men.

They will kill him and after three days he will rise.

But they did not understand what he meant and they were afraid to ask him about it.

Three gospels, three narratives gives you the entire picture of what's happening.

And so it's important that we read all three. Otherwise, sometimes we don't know the full story.

So guys, one of the things that we need to understand is healing and deliverance.

Healing and deliverance is part of Jesus's forever mission.

Till we get to a place where the new heavens and the new earth appear.

Healing and deliverance is the nature of Jesus's divine commission.

A divine mission when he was on earth, divine commission now that his body is on earth.

It's that way. To think of it any other way based on your own experiences or failure is to distort the nature of God.

Let that be settled. Even amongst us, even amongst us as some of you who are leaders of house churches.

Your experience may not be healing and deliverance every time.

But it does not negate the nature of Jesus's commission or Jesus's mission.

And you should not support any other view.

You can say this is my condition, but you cannot say, you cannot theologize on it.

This is my condition. This is unfortunately my thinking. This is where I am at.

But this is not necessarily where the Bible says Jesus is at. That must be clearly spoken.

As a leader, if you say otherwise, you're doing the church and the people in the church a disservice because you're distorting the nature of God.

We are all leaders at some point in our lives because we lead one or two.

Healing and deliverance is the nature of Jesus's divine commission. And in this scene, we see a dispute happening.

Not everybody is disputing. There are disciples because only three of them went up with Jesus.

So there are at least nine of the apostles there and other disciples that followed Jesus.

There are bystanders who were always there because Jesus was in town.

And then we see the scribes or the teachers there too. And they are the ones disputing.

They're arguing because they have an axe to grind.

The scenes are the same even today. Jesus's healing and deliverance is still being disputed.

There are highly educated theologians who will still argue.

What are they arguing for? Who gave you the right to heal? Who even gave you the right to cast out this demon?

Who do you think you are? Since when do you think that it is God's will to deliver people?

They didn't say der since Isaiah 61. They didn't say der because der means something completely different in Greek.

So it was this idea of how dare you pray for healing? And what makes you think you have the right to?

This was a question they used to ask Jesus. And now with Jesus missing, they're disputing the same thing with the disciples.

That's a scene. And so many of the scenes in these three narratives are so prevalent today.

Then there's the father. The father as in the boy's father.

The father, here's what's happening. He appeals to the disciples.

Why do you think he appeals to the disciples? He appeals to the disciples because the very term disciples means

that they belong to a master and that master was Jesus.

And he appeals to these disciples because he had heard that their master heals.

And so he expects that if the master heals, the disciples will heal because the principle of discipleship,

the principle of discipleship in those days and the same applies to us today.

The principle of discipleship was that the messenger, the messenger of a man is the man himself.

The messenger of a man is the man himself. This comes from a Hebrew word shalia.

Shalia means if I sent you someone as my representative or as my disciple,

the idea was what he says is what you would say. That the messenger of the man is the man himself.

They didn't see any distinction. This kind of discipleship today is politically incorrect.

Jesus was a representative of his father. He had to be what the father is and says.

During the Gulf War, I used to laugh my head off seeing the Iraqi foreign minister come on TV.

While the US troops are running over Baghdad airport, they're asking him, so how are things in Iraq?

Everything is peaceful. Everything is calm. Everything is going well. There's nothing wrong.

Nobody has come into it. And in the background you can see the scene.

And in the scene US tanks and allied tanks are rolling onto Baghdad airport.

But this guy has no other choice. Why? Because he has to say who he represents.

We think we have leeway here. We don't. So this man comes to the disciples simply because if the master is Jesus

and he heals and delivers, surely the disciple should be able to do so too because the messenger of a man is the man himself.

This is why Jesus goes on to say, if you deal wrongly with any human being here on earth,

know that you're dealing wrongly with me. Because every human being is actually made in his image.

Salem. T-S-E-L-E-M. That's another story. Any questions on this?

This is exactly, this is why nowadays it's fashionable to distance yourself separately, sufficiently from Jesus

so that what is expected of Jesus won't be expected of you.

I'm only human. I'm just a man.

And so we distance ourselves enough from Jesus so that the expectations that people have of Jesus cannot be expected of us.

But the ancient Middle East, that was not an option.

Any questions? Where are we going with this?

We are going with this saying, if we say we are disciples of Jesus, there is a requirement

that the messenger and the man, the gap between the messenger and the man get very, very, very narrow.

The disciples though had reason to believe that they could expel this demon,

because in Mark 6-7, Jesus had commissioned them.

In Mark 6-7 it says, I give you the authority to go cast out demons.

And the disciples had tried that.

So when they went to cast out this demon, it was not, let's do some ministry.

No, they were commissioned for it. They had good values.

They were not going to be like, I'm going to be a Christian.

They were not going to be like, I'm going to be a Christian.

They were not going to be like, I'm going to be a Christian.

They were not going to be like, I'm going to be a Christian.

They were not going to be like, I'm going to be a Christian.

They were not going to be like, I'm going to be a Christian.

They were not going to be like, I'm going to be a Christian.

They were not going to be like, I'm going to be a Christian.

They were not going to be like, I'm going to be a Christian.

They were not going to be like, I'm going to be a Christian.

That's a topic.

And so in this case, they had a valid reason to believe they could do it.

My question to you and please, every time I say you, just include me so that I don't have to say we,

my question to you is this.

Do you even actually believe?

Do you air and believe?

actually believe? Do you, Aaron, believe that you are commissioned and have a valid reason

to go around healing and delivering people? Is that an actual deep belief?

Not in the prayer line here, but across the earth. On earth as in heaven.

These are questions I must ask and you must ask because we can avoid these questions.

The us and we helps avoid questions. The you hits home harder. You! See, it hit home a little harder, right?

Unfortunately, the disciples failed and they could not bluff their way out of it with an assurance that the boy would be okay.

That's what we do. We pray for somebody, nothing happens and we tell them, don't worry, it will be okay.

Sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways and maybe tomorrow, maybe day after, maybe a year from now, maybe there's sin in your life.

But they could not bluff themselves out of this because unfortunately Jesus' reputation was that he heals and he heals immediately.

There are only three delayed healings in Jesus' life and those three delayed healings was a matter of minutes.

This is a super high standard to set. But if he's your master, what choice do we have?

Any questions?

Yeah, reality. Reality. If the person doesn't get healed, what do we do? We go on to the next person.

But we don't say, we don't bluff our way through it.

And we'll see, because here in this story, it's an if. He did not get healed.

This is our reality.

There's nobody in this room who has Jesus' track record. We've all failed.

And some of us, the longer we live, the more you do this, the more often you fail.

Your batting average goes up the more you bat, but there is sufficient failure too.

So if is a reality in this story, it did not happen.

And they were confident because it was not their first rodeo.

They had gone before and cast out demons and Jesus said, man, look at them.

They come back and they're rejoicing. And why were they rejoicing?

Because demons had been cast out and people had been healed. So it was not like they were novices.

But here is the situation where nothing happened.

There's another problem here, guys. In Mark 9, 22, you find that their inability to heal shook the father's confidence in Jesus' ability.

Their inability to heal shook the dad's confidence in Jesus' ability to heal.

This is a reality even today.

They come and say to Jesus, the same guy who brought his son because he knew there was nowhere else to go, now says, if you can.

So my inability to heal also casts doubt in people's mind on the ability of my God to heal.

Because we are the only ones who represent him. Where else will they go for healing? Where else can they go?

To the Bible? They wouldn't know where to look. Call out to God? What if they haven't heard of him? Where else can they go?

Now we come to a place where we look at Jesus and we find him displaying exasperation,

anger, fear, veeriness, anguish, frustration.

How long shall I bear up with you? How long shall I put up with you? He's only been with them for about a year and some.

Not like 17 years with me and us. And you see the son of God who is a perfect representation of the father, experiencing or displaying all these emotions.

Exasperation, veeriness, anguish, frustration.

So is it perhaps possible that after he rose again these emotions disappeared? Nope, he's the same yesterday, today and forever.

These emotions are real for God and they are as real today as they were yesterday and day before and long ago.

Any questions?

Jacob, this is such a discouraging message. God is exasperated, weary, anguished and frustrated. Thank God he does something about it.

But please don't think that he thinks it's okay and normal when we pray for people not to get healed. He doesn't think that's normal.

Perish that thought. We are sitting here thinking it's okay if we get a 50% batting average. That ain't Jesus.

Perish that thought. That thought is what allows us to settle for less.

Guys, you're looking at a guy who bats sometimes lower than 50. So if you think I'm pointing at you and you're feeling guilty, come join the club. I'm starting one.

It's not about correct methods. They received a commission and it isn't yet about receiving a commission either.

Luke 9.1 he says go, heal, cleanse, cast out demons. But it's not in Luke 9.2, sorry. It's not about receiving a commission.

There are a couple of things that he wants us to work with if he is supposed to begin to escalate in terms of how he functions.

The best way to put it is you have to be faithful and you have to be faithful.

And we have to be both to engage in divine mission.

It's odd if you read on in Mark 9 and Matthew 17 you'll find shortly after this the disciples go into arguing about who is better.

They argue about some guy who started healing and they were upset that he was healing and he was not part of the 12.

They argue about things that are so pointless that you suddenly realize that even though they walked with him for a while, they still don't have his nature.

There was a man who was healing and he was actually getting people healed. And they come to Jesus and they say he's not one among us.

Meaning he was not one of the 12, but he was healing in the name of Jesus. And they get upset that he's healing.

They just can't heal, but they're upset with people that are healing. It's almost farisical. And don't you think that we sometimes do it?

Find another church or another someone who we don't necessarily think is functioning like we are, but when they begin to do well, you begin to scratch your head.

How come they're doing this? This is exactly what the Pharisees did. How are you healing on a Sunday?

And now the disciples are doing exactly what the Pharisees used to do. That guy is healing. He's actually getting people healed, but he's not one of them.

Jesus, shall we go shut him down?

This story begins to expose so many of our present prevalent conditions. It's fascinating.

I have to be both faithful as in walk faithfully and I have to be faithful, which Jesus is going to bring up.

It is because the disciples were not faithfully walking that Jesus then goes on to Luke 9, 52 to 59, where he says,

Come follow me. And then he begins to tell them what following will look like.

And if you want to follow Jesus, but live a convenient life, if you want to follow Jesus, but live a convenient life,

then you must pack up this message and not listen to it because it is not for you.

But if Jesus is the mark that we are aiming for, then know that a faithful life is a life that causes inconvenience.

Luke 9, 52 onwards will show you how highly inconvenient, highly costly, highly demanding this life is. And that is faithful walking.

Should we read Luke 9, 52?

And a man came to Jesus and he said, Jesus, I want to follow you.

And Jesus said to him, foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head.

Do you still want to follow me? As in, are you willing to forego the conveniences, the things that people normally have to do on a daily basis?

Live the way. Are you willing to forego that?

Another man came to him and said, Jesus, I want to follow you. Jesus said, come follow me.

And the man said, let me go first bury my father and then I will come with you.

What was he trying to say? I will come and join you once my inheritance and my legacy and all the division of property and all is settled, I'll come and join you.

Jesus said, let the dead bury the dead. You come and follow me.

As in, if you're going to wait till an opportune time and all the conditions are right, you cannot be my disciple.

Another man came to him and said, Jesus, I want to follow you.

And Jesus said to him, if you set your hands to the plow and keep looking back, then you cannot be my disciple.

As in, either take a jump into this, put both hands to the plow and start walking.

If you keep looking back and are constantly doing this, wanting to go with Jesus, but also not wanting to let go, then you cannot be my disciple.

This is where he takes them to after he realizes that these guys have walked with me.

Yes, they walked in the commission, but there are these flaws in less than four or five weeks.

In less than four or five weeks, he's going to be dead.

The advantage that we have, that the disciples didn't have, is that they didn't have the Holy Spirit living in them.

So we have an advantage over them.

Now we look at Jesus' response, which you won't like.

Jesus' response is really strong.

Whenever we read it, we think he's addressing the disciples.

Now, what if he was addressing you?

Can I pick on a few of you and just say what he said?

What if he looked at the left side, the first half, till Jordan and Anne?

What if he looked at you because of your inability to heal people being demonized and people who have sicknesses and your inability?

And he looks at you and he says to you, you perverse, unbelieving, faithless generation.

This is the same loving Jesus.

Don't like it, right?

If I was on the left side, I wouldn't like it.

But this is what he's saying.

We would like to imagine that this is only addressed to the apostles and that Jesus' sins have changed.

He's become nicer after the resurrection.

This is not being nice.

You faithless, perverse generation.

That's what he calls them.

It's actually you unbelieving and perverse generation.

In some, he says faithless is actually an echo from Deuteronomy 23, verse 5 and 6, where God says, I am faithful, but Israel is a stiff necked, faithless, perverse generation.

Deuteronomy 23:5

He's borrowing it from them. Why?

Because there was a time when Moses came down a mountain.

His face had been transfigured.

He comes down the mountain and he finds people below, not worshipping God, but worshipping a calf.

He was faithful, but the people below are unfaithful, even though he set them free.

And borrowing from that, now Jesus uses the same scripture in a completely different context.

He's come down from the mountain. They saw him transfigured.

He's down in the valley.

And now it happens.

And he draws from Deuteronomy 23, verse 5 and 6.

Deuteronomy 23:5

Any questions?

So the thing is, he comes down because he was disappointed with America.

Did it happen or was it obedience to what Jesus was?

Yeah. So when we go further down, he tells them why.

He explains it to them.

So the great thing about Jesus is he can call me unbelieving, perverse, and faithless.

And then after that, in private, he can begin to help me not be perverse, unbelieving, and faithless.

Because he takes them. There are two versions.

One says once they were inside the room, Jesus spoke to them.

Another one says he drew them aside privately and he spoke to them.

But he begins to address it.

Our present problem is we're not even supposed to address it.

Make everyone feel good about themselves.

Thank God Jesus used this word, not a pastor.

He also challenges the father, the boy's father.

He challenges him too.

And you see this as another tendency nowadays amongst Christians and amongst non-Christians also.

Amongst Christians, it'll be, if God will do this, I will believe him.

This is what the dad is saying.

If you can. Jesus doesn't like it at all, eh?

That wasn't a nice exchange.

This dad is saying, if you can.

And Jesus is saying, this has nothing to do with can.

He doesn't give it any oxygen.

I've seen Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, non-Christians, atheists coming and saying,

if your God will do this, then I will believe him.

And we fall for that.

We plead with God for a miracle so that the person can believe.

What if Jesus didn't do anything for you but died for you to pay a price for your life

so that you're not eternally damned?

Is that enough?

John Piper puts it this way.

We want a history maker because we have a sense of purpose.

We want a sin remover because we like feeling not guilty.

We want a pain remover because we don't like pain.

We don't like pain. We like pleasure.

But we never go to Jesus simply because of the surpassing worth of who he is and what he's done.

Paul talks about the surpassing worth of Christ and what he's done.

We play into this.

Jesus, please prove yourself to me.

And Jesus will prove himself sovereignly if he wants to.

But when this challenge comes in, it's not necessarily a God thing.

Show me one place where God does something to convince someone of something.

Yeah, agree.

I can think of a few other Old Testament examples.

But in the gospel narrative, you rarely find Jesus.

I mean, I don't know if you watch a movie, but walk over my swimming pool, Jesus will refuse.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So he takes away from the man the ability to say, if you can.

What Jesus is saying is this has nothing to do with my ability.

This has everything to do with your belief.

Ain't going to jump off no steeple for you.

Nowadays, there's a tendency to provoke God's power through a challenge.

Jesus is saying, it depends on your ability to believe, not mine to act.

It depends on your ability to believe.

It depends on your ability to believe, not mine to act.

Because I will always act. This is my nature.

I once had a person in Indonesia come to me and they brought their child with them.

And the guy who brought them, I felt like throttling him later.

And he, she, so she comes to the challenge.

She says, if your God is true, tell me what my problem is and ask your God to solve it.

So not only don't I know the problem, she wants me to find out from God what the problem is.

Then after having found out the problem, she wants me to pray to God to heal it.

And surprisingly, God did.

That is the crazy part.

This God is a kind, merciful, obliging God.

He knows when it's a test and when it's not.

He knows.

Learn the faith that bows its head before the concealed glory of God, not my line.

Learn the faith, learn the faith that bows its head to before the concealed glory of God.

Learn the faith that bows its head before the concealed glory of God.

As in, can I bow my head in faith instead of faith being something that I will only exert if you can convince me that you are able to do it.

The other thing Jesus does that is strange is he rebukes the spirit twice.

He says, get out of this boy.

And he says, never come back again.

Nowhere else in any other story does Jesus do that.

Twice he rebukes him.

Get out of this boy and never come back again.

This particular spirit was a malignant, really evil spirit because it was able to resist the disciples.

And when Jesus comes and rebukes the spirit, what immediately happens is the spirit throws this boy down.

And the boy starts convulsing, foaming.

This is unlike the other spirits that Jesus has cast out.

They leave it a word.

I don't know whether it was that that caused Jesus, but there's an anger in Jesus now against the spirit.

I've never seen him in any other narrative rebuking and saying, don't ever come back.

It was like a final class.

There's a finality to what he does with this.

And this is just a supposition.

Did the boy really die?

Because he says he fell down and he was like dead and people around him started saying, this boy is dead.

And if it was so, then Jesus raised him to life.

That's what the scriptures say.

Every time Satan is dethroned, decay and death are defeated and life arises.

We don't know whether this boy actually died.

We know that when Paul was stoned, they left him for dead.

And we know that he died and he rose and went back into the city.

What happened with this boy?

Sometimes when the girl was dead, Jairus's daughter was dead, Jesus said she was sleeping.

In this case, the boy was, in the eyes of everybody else, this boy was dead.

So there's not just a deliverance here.

Perhaps.

All righty.

So now to go to Mark's question.

In response to their questions on why they had failed, Jesus takes them aside.

And here are some of the reasons that come up.

One, guys, their faith is on and off like ours.

Their faith is on and off like yours and mine.

Is on and off.

Their faith is on and off.

So sometimes when they were in the boat and Jesus said, go on to the other side,

they had faith but it didn't manifest.

Other times when they were sent to heal the sick and cast out demons,

faith was on and they went and they came back rejoicing saying,

Jesus, even the spirits obey us.

Then there are other times where he said, you give them something to eat,

and the faith was weak because they said, how can we provide for 5,000?

And then in this situation, faith is absent.

So faith for the disciples was on and off.

And it's crazy what Jesus is asking them to do.

He's looking at a crowd that was about 100 times this crowd here,

and he's saying, you give them something to eat.

What's his expectation, man?

We have it easy, guys.

We have it so easy.

Imagine if Jill was one of the apostles.

Jill, give them something to eat.

But Jesus, what do you want?

Phoebe has two loaves and five fish.

Take it from her before Sheldon gets it.

And feed the 5,000.

The demands that are being placed on the disciples are so much harder.

And he said, where's your faith when he did that?

And so here faith is absent.

So one of the things is their faith is on and off.

And may I say to you that my faith and your faith is usually on and off.

Some days you show amazing faith.

Other days it's completely off.

Second, and this is the crux of the matter.

He says the expulsion of this kind of spirit could only happen through prayer.

As in full reliance on the unlimited power of God,

full reliance on the unlimited power of God is accessed through and expressed,

is accessed and expressed only through prayer.

And in saying that, implicit in his statement is the failure to pray.

Is the failure to pray.

Some versions may say prayer and fasting.

I just want you to know that the prayer and fasting,

the fasting part was added more than 100 years later

because there was a time 200 and 300 years after Christ's death

where fasting became a very important part of church.

And nothing wrong with that.

But people started adding notes to the original scriptures.

So you will find in your Bible that many of them leave a little asterisk there

saying this is not in the original manuscripts.

When Jesus spoke about it, he was only talking about prayer.

Prayer and fasting was added much later.

And you will find that in a few other scriptures too.

They are all later manuscripts, not the original.

Which is not to say you shouldn't fast.

It is just to say in those situations, those verses, it's not true.

Full reliance on the unlimited power of God is accessed and expressed only through prayer.

So let's go down that road.

So prayer forges, prayer forges as in shapes or fashions,

fuels as in sustains, and fragrances as in makes sweet relationship.

And therefore requires time.

Relationship forges, fuels, furnishes faith.

Faith forges, fuels, and finishes authority.

That's how it works.

Finishes as in completes.

Finishes as in completes.

Authority is never fully exerted or complete till authority and faith work together.

God has given us authority but we don't have the faith to walk in that authority or complete.

To remove the word finishes, I was just going for Fs all over the place.

So go with complete or another word.

Pardon?

Faith forges, fuels, and furnishes as well.

Finishes, finishes authority as in completes authority.

So this is how it works.

And this is something that most of us don't do because we do not have time.

Sure.

If faith is something that causes you, at what point does it become more related than faith?

Yeah.

So God gives everyone faith, but the faith is built through relationship.

So if I know God's nature, faith is easy to exert.

If I do not know God's nature, then faith is difficult to exert.

In any area in our lives where we know the nature of somebody, it is very easy to trust her.

Any area of life where you, I'm not talking about God.

In any area of life where you know the nature of someone, in that area you will trust them super easily.

You don't even need to exert faith.

It becomes almost restful.

And so God gives us faith to start with, as in, hey, I've given you the ability to trust me.

But now develop that ability through relationship.

Therefore, prayer forges our shapes or fashions, prayer fuels and prayer fragrances relationship.

And it makes the relationship rich, but it requires time because relationships require time.

And so that's the first one.

Once you have a relationship, now the relationship begins to fuel, forge and furnish you the faith you require.

Because once you know, once you're in a relationship with someone and you know their nature in an area, you are able to trust them so easily, so easily.

In any area that you are excelling in faith, it is because in that area you have a relationship with God.

In that area, more than I do.

So let's assume you have this amazing ability to trust God for money.

It is because in that area you have this amazing relationship with Him as provider.

Let's say I have an amazing ability to trust Him for healing.

Because in that area, when it comes to the nature of Jesus as healer, I'm confident of it.

All of us are different areas, guys.

Some of you are not afraid of losing your job.

Others will panic.

But you won't. Why?

Because when it comes to jobs, you are super confident that God will take care of it.

Faith then begins to shape, fashion, fuel and give strength to your authority.

Otherwise, having authority is not enough.

Authority must be mixed with faith.

Authority must be mixed with faith.

Sometimes it's all-in-all because of laziness.

Sometimes it's on and off because of a lack of time spent and therefore lack of relationship.

Yeah, it could be so many reasons for being on and off.

Sometimes I am on and off in my faith simply because I can do it without faith.

Why do I need God? I can do this on my own.

One of the greatest enemies of faith is self-reliance, not doubt. Self-reliance.

I can do this on my own.

Faith is never a measurable commodity, guys. It's always a relationship.

And so through prayer you don't get superior faith. Through prayer you get superior relationship.

Superior relationship allows you to fathom the unlimited power of God.

You can't, it's not a measurable commodity. So it's not like you can have superior faith, but you can have superior relationship.

And once you have superior relationship, you can begin to fathom the unlimited power of God.

Once you know the unlimited power of God, you can use faith to draw on it.

Once you know the unlimited power of God, different areas, you know the unlimited power of God as a healer,

you know the unlimited power of God as a healer, well then, now you have such easy ability to draw on it.

You're in pain, but you're absolutely confident that you will be healed.

You don't have money, but you're absolutely confident that you will have money.

I'm unfortunately stuck on healing and provision, but there are so many hundreds and hundreds of areas if you take Hebrews chapter 11.

Hebrews 11 · chapter mention

That's how this works guys. And Jesus is saying, guys, you need to now begin to spend more time in prayer.

Do you see now why in Acts chapter 6 verse 4, the apostles say, we cannot continue serving at these tables every day.

Acts 6:4

We need to set time aside for prayer and teaching the word.

So let me end.

In Acts chapter 2 verse 42 to 45, and the church grew. Why?

Acts 2:42–45

Because there were four things they focused on, breaking of bread, fellowship, teaching, prayers.

So let me end.

Prayer requires unusual energy. Why?

Because I have to lock my heart and mind to an invisible person.

And I must avoid mental drift.

This is why it requires unusual energy. It requires so much energy to pray, man. Why?

Because I have to lock my heart and mind on an invisible person.

It's easy having conversation with a person that is live.

Hey Mark, and then you begin a conversation.

You're talking to an invisible person with a cup of coffee, and you have this thing called mental drift.

Where your mind begins to think, oops, I've got to do that for Karen.

Oops, I left a towel that was wet on the floor.

Oops, didn't do this, didn't do that. So many things, mental drift, and it is so hard.

You need unusual energy for this.

This is why a crisis makes it so easy to pray.

Whenever we have a crisis, it becomes easy to pray. Why?

Because our mind and our heart immediately locks onto the problem.

That's why we get so pray-y during crises.

Because now there's a serious problem that I've got to lock my mind and heart on.

Because if I don't pray this through, things won't work out good.

So now it's like on my knees, head buried, praying.

But when everything is normal, we do not have the discipline of praying because it consumes a lot of energy.

But what we do is because it is so difficult and our mind wanders, we decide, okay, we are such a creative, charismatic church,

we'll spontaneously pray. Pray without ceasing.

Like, just have conversations with God. Just, that's what the Father wants.

Isn't that what people who are in love do? They spontaneously talk to each other.

And you think to yourself, that's good.

But that ain't enough, man.

That they were doing anyway with Jesus.

The disciples were walking up and down, talking to Jesus about everything from carpentry to fishing.

But what he was asking them to do was, can you have deliberate times of dedicated prayer?

And that was missing in their lives.

And he says, because of this, you could not cast out the demon.

Their ineffectiveness was because of a lack of prayer and a lack of faith.

Lack of prayer. Unbelieving generation. Lack of prayer.

So the spontaneous thing is not very, it's very good.

I'm glad that we can spontaneously, beautifully pray like children pray.

But there are these concentrated times of...

I mean, can you imagine walking with your dad, talking about a math problem,

and thinking that that will help you get through math in school?

It doesn't. Two plus two is four. But it's very different when you have to write an exam.

It's a little more difficult.

So just because prayerlessness is more dangerous than a wandering mind.

Prayerlessness is more dangerous than a wandering mind.

And so here's how we can fix that.

How about this week we try praying out of Psalm 143 or Psalm 139 or Psalm 23 or Ephesians 117-19 or Matthew 6, 8-15.

Why don't we try praying out of this? Learn the discipline.

So this won't take away spontaneity, but it will add to it discipline.

Choose any of these. Maybe you have more. But choose one of these.

Psalm 23, Father, you're my shepherd. I shall not want. Oh shucks, I definitely want.

So now let's start all over again.

The Lord is my shepherd. I have nothing that I want. Not true, oh God.

Start again. The Lord is my shepherd. I have my.

Eventually you might get there. Psalm 139, same thing.

Deliberate times of prayer. Just take these five.

This can last you. Some of us this can last us to the end of Christmas.

Because this has been very difficult.

Can we try this? In any language?

Because why are we saying this? Because we need this man.

There are other options besides well done, good and faithful servants.

Like, oh, unbelieving, faithless, perverse generation.

I would rather hear the other one.

Your pastor is in the same boat as you when it comes to dedicated times of prayer.

As in, very good. I'm kidding, I'm kidding.

There's nothing automatic about power, guys. There's nothing automatic about power.

The key lies in faith. The key lies in faith.

Nothing automatic about power. The key is faith.

When you say faith, Jesus says nothing will be impossible for you.

And he doesn't say great faith. He says mustered faith.

Just so you know, if you can't believe for deliverance for yourself, if you can't believe that God heals,

if you don't believe it for yourself, you can't believe that God heals.

You can't say, I believe that God heals but not for myself.

Then you really don't believe it. I believe that God provides but not for me.

Then you really don't believe it. Don't hold both those things together. You can't hold them.

Got to believe for myself first and then it can begin to spread to others.

You empower the enemy when you agree with a man-centered perspective.

You empower the enemy when you agree with a man-centered perspective. Refuse that.