(This podcast was previously published on November 29, 2020)
No one knows the circumstances of your problems like you know them.
James 5:16 The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
To be "effectual" that prayer must be according to the will of God "for you."
You are the one who must go to God to find out the will of God for you before you pray.
To be "fervent" that prayer must be "red hot".
Most
of us cannot be "red hot" concerning a stranger. We usually just do
not experience the torment a stranger is going through. In your need you are "red hot" over your suffering. And your faith must be in God, and not in us.
You should pray!
Philippians 4:6-7 Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.
(You pray directly to God.)
7 And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.
I John 5:14-15 And this is the confidence that we have in HIM, that, if we ask any thing according to HIS will, HE heareth us: And if we know that HE hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of HIM.
You pray directly to God!
*****
When a minister prints on his written materials, "Send me your prayer requests" usually, that minister is hoping you will put some money in the envelope with the prayer request. In such cases, requests for your prayer requests are fund raising gimmicks.
ABC
Primetime Live investigated Robert Tilton at Word of Faith Family Church
in Farmers Branch, Texas on November 21, 1991. (see Robert Tilton, ABC
PRIMETIME LIVE, Wikipedia)
Tilton printed, "Send me your prayer requests," on
his published materials and told people to send him their prayer
requests on his radio and TV shows. 80-million dollars per year was
received according to the ABC News report. After the expose aired on
ABC, offerings fell to 2-million dollars per year, still a lot of
money. Some in his church began trying to sue Tilton for his
hundredfold return doctrine. He divorced and ended up marrying 3 times.
His church property was sold to the city of Farmers Branch and was torn
down.
I had the same advertising agent as Tilton. When I refused to ask people to send prayer request, the representative from the Michael Ellison Advertising Agency told me, "Well,
you're missing a good bet by not doing this, for when they send prayer
requests, they will usually put money into the envelope along with the
prayer request." This was a fund raising scheme.
When
the envelopes arrived at Tilton's church, they were forwarded
"unopened" to a bank in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where bank employees opened the
prayer requests envelopes and removed the money, depositing that money
into Tilton's bank account, and they threw the prayer requests into the
garbage where ABC investigators found them in dumpsters.
In
my opinion, it would be impossible for ministers to adequately pray
over individual problems when they received hundreds of prayer requests
this way.
This is all very evil.
You, who send prayer requests, are somehow thinking that minister has more power with God than you have. So your faith is in the prayer of the minister rather than being in faith in God. And a minister who uses prayer this way does an evil deceptive work.
I
do not want you to send prayer requests to me. I tell you in writing on
our blog that you should pray. I have never solicited prayer requests
during the past 40+ years that I have done ministry work as an
apostle/prophet of Jesus Christ according to Ephesians 4:11-12.
You should pray directly to God.
***
A
woman in our church group once asked me to help her pick out a lighting
fixture for her dinning room. I agreed to meet her at the lighting
store. Enroute to the store, I prayed: "God, please help us to find a light fixture immediately so we will not have to go all over town looking for one."
(Philippians 4:6 "Let your requests be made known unto God.")
When
we entered the store, I saw a fixture that would work, but I wanted
this woman to find her own fixture so I just sat at the desk area and
waited as she looked at the fixtures.
When she returned to the area where I was sitting, I asked, "Well ... did you find a fixture?"
She replied, "No."
I pointed to the fixture I had noticed as we entered the store and I said, "That would work."
She examined the fixture and bought it.
When we left the store, I asked, "Did you pray before we went to that store to look for a light fixture?"
In a very coy way she said, "No ... because I knew you would."
Her faith was in me instead of being in God.
Depending on others to pray could end up costing you your faith in God and destroy you spiritually.
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