Praying vs. Saying
I.
One of the main problems
with God’s people is that they don’t know/believe they have authority and
instead of exercising the authority that God has given to them they are praying
and asking Him to do stuff that they have the right and the authority to do
themselves
A. You won’t find one
occurrence in the NT where Jesus asked the Father do to anything. He found out
what the Father’s will was and then exercised his authority based on what the
Father’s will was and did what the Father wanted Him to do
1.
John
2:1-He told them to fill the water pots and take it to the governor of the
feast
2.
Luke
5:1-He told Peter to launch out for catch
3.
Luke
4:35-The demoniac in the temple Jesus said shut up and come out
4.
Luke
4:39-Peter’s mother-in-law Jesus rebuked the fever
5.
Matthew
8:1-To the leper Be thou clean
6.
Matthew
9:1-To the guy on the stretcher Arise take up your bed and go to your house
7.
John
5:1-To the guy at the pool of Bethesda Rise, take up your bed, and walk
8.
Matthew
12:9-To the man with the withered hand, “Stretch forth your hand”
9.
Matthew
8:1-The centurion’s servant, “As thou hast believed so be it done unto you.”
10.
Matthew
8:16-With his word he cast out spirits and healed the sick
11.
Luke
7:14-To the widow’s son, “Young man, I say unto you, Arise.”
12.
Matthew
8:26-He rebuked the winds and the sea
13.
Mark
5:1-The man who had and evil spirit who had been bound with chains but broke
them and dwelt among the tombs, Jesus said, “Come out of that man you unclean
spirit,” “Go”
14.
Luke
8:54-To Jairus’ daughter, “Maid arise.”
15.
Matthew
9:29-To the two blind guys, “According to your faith be it unto you.”
16.
Matthew
14:19-Feeding the multitudes, He blessed it, He gave thanks
17.
Matthew
15:21-The Syrian Phoenician woman with the sick daughter, “O woman great is
your faith, be it unto you even as you will.” “For this saying go your way the
devil is gone out of your daughter.”
18.
Mark
7:33-There was a guy who was deaf and dumb and Jesus put his fingers in his
ears, spit, touched is tongue and said, “Be opened.”
19.
Matthew
17:18, Mark 9:25-The man with the sick child Jesus rebuked the devil and said,
“Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I charge you to come out of him and enter no more
into him.
20.
Luke
17:11-The ten lepers, “Go show yourselves to the priests.”
21.
John
9-Blind guy spit in his eyes and told him to go wash in the pool of Siloam
22.
John
11-Lazurus come forth
23.
Luke
13:10-Woman with the infirmity, “Woman thou art loosed from your infirmity.”
24.
Luke
18:42-Two blind men, “Receive your sight, Your faith
has saved you.”
25.
Mark
11:12-To the fig tree, “No man eat fruit of you here after forever.”
B. Acts 3:1-The apostles get
over here and do it just like Jesus did it and then we get over here and go to
a crying and a begging and a asking
II.
Mark 4:35-When you don’t
believe you have authority you will do nothing and instead go to God and ask
him to do something he’s already given you the authority to do
A. For many Christians,
Christianity has become the practice of asking and begging God to do everything
while they do nothing and that’s not Christianity because a Christian is one
like Christ and Christ Jesus didn’t function like that
B. In these words, “Let us
pass over unto the other side,” is power and authority to get to the other side
no matter what obstacles they face; this is the authorization, the right &
the might, the authority and the power
1.
Jesus
only said what the Father told him to say, so them getting to the other side is
obviously the will of God for their lives and God authorizes them with His Word
2.
Anything
that comes to oppose the will of God for their lives they have authority to
stop
3.
Do
THEY have authority over this storm? They do through the words Jesus spoke
C. Rather than exercising their authority they accused Jesus of
not caring about them
1.
Believers
are doing the same thing today; I don’t know why God won’t do this or hasn’t
done this, accusing him of not caring rather than exercising the authority YOU
have
2.
Jesus
exercised his authority and it was second nature to him
a. He did not ask God to do
something, but rather he used his words, his mouth, his heart, his faith
D. When Jesus was facing
that storm, why didn’t he go address God or go before God?
1.
(1)
He already knew what the will of God was
2.
(2)
He knew, based on what the will of God was, that he had authority over anything
that came to oppose that will (Hebrews 13:21-We are supposed to carry out God’s
will)
3.
When
they came to Jesus to do something that he authorized them to do it was met
with a rebuke, with correction, not with “Good job boys.”
E. 2
Corinthians 5:20-I am an ambassador sent into this Earth by Heaven to represent
my king Jesus and to do Kingdom business; and all of Heaven backs what I do
here
1.
Once
the Ambassador knows that the will of the government is for the place He’s been
sent, He doesn’t call home and say do your will here. That’s why they sent Him to do their
will where he has been sent-Hebrews 13:21 (Amplified)
a. You’ve been sent to the
Earth to carry out God’s will in the Earth
b. Matthew 6:10-You’re not
asking for his will to be done you’re decreeing in authority His will be done
2.
How do you exercise
authority? You don’t pray and ask God to do something. You find out what His will is and then
you appropriate that with your faith.
Our prayer time should be more about Lord what do you want and what do I
need to do NOT Lord do something.
a. We’ve been famous for
trying to operate OT principles as NT believers who have authority that they
didn’t have in the OT and it keeps us in low place with no authority (Maybe if
we just cry out to God long enough he’ll fee sorry for us and do something)
b. 2 Chronicles 7:14-If we
throw a big enough prayer fit God will do something
3.
You can tell believers
don’t believe they have authority because many times when they are praying when
they should be saying
F. 2
Cor12-When the devil attacks it’s not time for you to ask God to do something
because God gave you authority over the devil and delegated the responsibility
of resisting him and running him of to you
1.
James 4:7-You resist the devil and he will flee from you
2.
Ephesians 4:27-You give the devil no place
III.
The moment people get a
revelation of their authority and start exercising it Satan will have somebody
there (usually somebody religious) to try to stop them from doing it because he
hates this teaching and he hates when people get a revelation of their authority
A. Then when a believer does
get revelation of their authority this religious devil will rise up in people
and say, “Well who do you think you are?” – 1 Samuel 17:26-28
1.
When
people start talking in an authoritative matter Satan worked through Babylonian
based religion and called it pride
2.
Babylonian
based religion will always call faith and authority pride
B. Matthew 21:21-23-Jesus is
teaching on authority and he’s exercising his authority and Satan had somebody
religious there to rise up and say well who do you think you are
C. Acts 4:7-Peter and John
got the guy healed who laid at the gate and Satan had religious people there to
try to get them to stop by saying who do you think you are to do this