Prayer Makes All Things Possible (Philippians 4:6-7)
Let us look at today’s scripture reading Philippians 4:6-7.
Today’s healing evangelism school message title is Prayer Makes All Things Possible. How is it that prayer can make impossible things possible? If we know this, we understand that prayer is very important. What do you think would happen if saved children do not pray? They’re not able to overcome things like spiritual problems. Prayer isn’t optional, and if you do not pray, you cannot overcome incidents that happen in the world.
The reason why Daniel prayed was not because he was lacking intelligence or any kind of skill, but it’s because he wasn’t able to overcome all of the humanism to kill him without prayer. And people who receive scars give scars to others and we cannot overcome that. This is why prayer is important. Every person in the Bible changed the world through prayer. If the gospel is true, then enjoying that as your own is prayer. If you’re not able to enjoy prayer, you cannot enjoy the gospel.
Therefore, those who set a time and place to pray will change the world. Why is it important to set a time and place to pray? Because that includes the word concentration. And the fact that you’re setting a specific time and place to pray is honestly an incredible spiritual battle. It means that you’re waging the spiritual battle. Then you’ll be bound to be victorious because the spiritual battle is already won. But what happens if you don’t do that? If you don’t do that you will not be able to overcome the problems of your field. And that’s why even after receiving salvation, you don’t have the strength so you’re deceived and you fall.
1.Scheduled Time
But what happens if you don’t do that? Then you cannot overcome the problems of your field. That’s why, even after receiving salvation, I won’t have strength, so when I face problems in the field, I’m deceived and I fall. The members of the Early Church didn’t pray because they lacked power, but they had no choice but to pray.
(1)Acts 1:14
They devoted themselves constantly in prayer, these were the people who gathered together to pray. But if you don’t understand what that means, you can be with these people. It is important for you to pray personally on your own, but if you set a time and a place, for example a time of worship and a time of prayer to pray, that is the time for the darkness in your field, and the age to be broken.
2)Daniel prayed 3 times every day, it’s not that Daniel had a goal he was praying for, and if you think that way, you’re misunderstanding prayer. He just prayed every day, facing Jerusalem, and then, as he was praying, an incident took place: Daniel faced the crisis of death and he didn’t pray to solve this, either. Just as he did before, he prayed to God in thanksgiving. What do you think he prayed for? He prayed for the Kingdom of God to be established in Babylon. Daniel was commissioned there as a spiritual ambassador. Everyone was taken as captives to Babylon, but among them, there was one who realized, “God desires to change this land and this age through me,” therefore, if you’re not able to see Babylon, you cannot have the proper prayer.
Why is your prayer discontinuous? It’s because you don’t know the goal and reason of God for why you must pray. The fact that Daniel saw Babylon means he saw it the way God saw it. If you see America while you live in America, it means you see it with God’s eyes through His plan. For people like this, just like Daniel, they can begin praying.
(2)Act 3:1
In Acts 3:1, it says Peter and John were going at the time of prayer and they changed Judea. Why must we pray? Depending on people’s different levels of faith, they will have different goals. But these people set a time and location to pray in order to change the age and the field. The Jewish people pray 3-5 times every day, however, there are people among them who pray to be witnesses to Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria until the ends of the earth.
3)Paul
Apostle Paul prayed for Macedonia, Europe, towards the whole world. He saw correctly what God wanted. For those who see America and see the 237 nations, they’re bound to pray, and God will carry out change through those people.
(1)Early Church
The Christians of the Early Church changed the whole world because the church began as they looked at the world, they began to pray while looking towards the ends of the earth, so you don’t even have to say how important prayer is. If this kind of church and believers exist, God will change the entire world. You don’t even have to speak about your family, they will change with it.
2. Why does prayer change the world?
(1)1 Chronicles 29:11-12
How is it that when we pray, we can change the world? 1 Chronicles 29:11 says, “Yours O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor,” so victory, greatness, power are all his, then if you pray, you will have the victory of the world, too. When you pray, God’s authority comes upon you. “For everything in heaven on earth is yours,” this means when you pray, the Lord fulfills everything. “Yours is the kingdom and His head is exalted over all,” because you are praying to Him, He is changing the world through His power.
1 Chr. 29:12, “Wealth and honor come from you; you are the ruler of all things. In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all,” and therefore, when you pray, you can change the world. The one who knows the meaning of prayer begins to pray and will see change because God promised to change the world. Greatness and strength all belong to the Father; there’s nothing else to argue about. The power and authority are all in the hands of the Lord so there is nothing I need to worry about. Whether I become strong or powerful is in God’s hands, therefore, when you pray to Him, He fulfills it.
So, for new believers, just tell them to pray. They’re not at the point where they can hold onto the word, but just make them pray all the time because this is the kind of person God is. Then, as they keep on praying, they will hold onto the prayer topics God wants. But if you keep arguing or bickering with someone who can’t pray, you’re preventing them from praying. Even if you have an ulterior motive, it’s better as you pray, because as you pray, the motive will go away, but if you tell people that prayer is a difficult thing, they will never want to pray.
Some people naturally pray from the beginning, people have spiritual problems are a little abnormal so I think they pray a little more, and people who are mystical will, even without being Christian, pray naturally. But the average, normal unbeliever will not pray. Only a few, strange people are the ones who pray. It’s almost normal for the saved children of God who believe in God to not be able to pray.
But what happens if you let them stay that way? They cannot overcome spiritual problems, they cannot overcome the humanism around them or the environment of the world, and they cannot overcome the many words of people, so first, pray. Who is God? He is the God of 1 Chronicles 29:11-12. You are the same, if you can’t pray, just pray, it doesn’t matter if you want your walk of faith to be like this or that, just pray at your level. As you keep on praying, you’ll realize how you’re praying incorrectly. If you don’t pray at all, though, you will never be able to overcome the spiritual problems of your family and region.
There are some people who get very upset when they hear things like, “Set a time and place,” because there are some people who just don’t like structure … don’t like going to school. But if a person like that hears you say, “Set a time and place,” they’re going to be upset. That’s the person who didn’t want to go to school when everyone else took their backpacks, and there are people who talk back against their teacher, and there are those who do the opposite of what their parents say. Honestly, most people are like that, but they just hold it in.
But when I say, “Set a time and place,” first, they don’t. Those who naturally do this will do this, but if you can’t, then do it moment by moment. Honestly speaking, it’s hard for you guys to pray in the morning. It’s honestly not something that changes overnight. It’s true, I can’t go into your head, but I have my walk of faith, and to tell you the truth, it’s hard to pray the moment you open your eyes, but according to the time schedule, the moment you open your eyes, you will pray, but most people can’t do that. Already, something else comes into their head and that’s how they begin, and that’s the reason I tell you guys to set a time and place until it becomes your nature.
If you can’t do this or that, then however you can, begin praying. Honestly, this is everything. The almighty, Triune God exists, but if you can’t pray, it means you can’t communicate with Him, so that means you have to live according to your own level, and that’s why even after receiving salvation, you’re not able to enjoy the blessings of salvation, then you cannot overcome the world. You have to change the world through evangelism, but that’s the only thing you could never do.
2) Eyes of God (Psalm 139:1-24)
Where are God’s eyes? Let’s find Psalm 139:1 in our Bibles. “O LORD, You examine my heart and know everything about me.” The LORD knows. It’s important for you to have a time where you acknowledge the LORD knows everything about you. “You know when I sit down or stand up; you perceive my thoughts from afar.” You absolutely need to have a time to reflect on yourself with these words. If you don’t have this time, you’re going to act as if God doesn’t know you. You’ll have to do everything as if the LORD doesn’t know when you sit or stand up.
Psalm 139:3-4. “You discern my going out and my lying down, you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O LORD.” These are the times you have, and David had this time. He didn’t just become king, if you don’t have this kind of time, then even if you do become king, you can’t do it well. The more you succeed, the more dangers you will face, and your circumstances will become more difficult. That’s not something you can endure with your own mental strength. It is very important for you to have a time where you communicate everything to the LORD and acknowledge He knows everything.
What happens if you don’t have that time? You cannot overcome your environment, so if you cannot pray, then nothing will work out. So, I keep telling the remnants, if you don’t make a habit to pray while you’re a remnant, the more you succeed, the more problems you’ll have, because the higher you climb up, the more competition there is and the more enemies you’ll make, so you have to have the prayer to overcome that. That’s the reason why there’s no choice but for successful people to have more spiritual problems. Other people may not realize it, but they have spiritual problems and they come to a state where they have no choice but to take drugs in secret. From the outside, people see, “They’re so successful,” but that didn’t happen from out of nowhere.
Being the president isn’t the end, yes, it’s difficult to become the president, but things become mu9ch more difficult when you become president. Right now, because of what’s going on, they’re shaking the president. Every single policy or decision you make, your enemies will say you’re wrong, and if someone doesn’t have their vessel prepared enters into this positon, they will fade away quickly. For people who say, “I just want to live a comfortable life, to eat my food and sleep,” if they don’t care, “No matter what I do, I’m just going to live my life,” but remnants are different than that. From now on, we have to take the things the LORD has given to us and we must stand in the path that saves the successful. This is what we must prepare. That’s your time of prayer.
If you have that time, then it doesn’t matter what kind of problem or incident comes your way, because the Lord knows everything and he has power so five everything to Him, but if you don’t have that, you cannot endure. That’s why people have spiritual problems, they are scarred, and even though God has all of the answers and methods, you follow after people. You need to have a time of reflecting upon yourself in front of God, that’s how you know yourself. Everything is not right; it seems like it’s right, but it’s not. That’s just that person saying that they’re doing well by themselves, there’s a next level, the devil never leaves you alone. They themselves say it’s working out, but it’s not.
3) 1 Peter 3:8-12
Let’s look at 1 Peter 3:12. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.” If something unfair happens to us in the world, we just think something unfair is happening, but if you set a time and have a time to pray, you’ll realize thr“The Lord already knows, the Lord is attentive to me and turns away from those who do evil.” But if you don’t have this time, you’ll try to repay unfairness on your own. So, you cannot bear it. You cannot endure.
If you just want to keep wasting your life with optional things, it doesn’t matter, but if you really want to do world evangelization, of course the devil will never leave you alone; he’s your first target. If you really want to become the successful one to save the successful, Satan will always block you, and people who have this time, don’t you think Joseph was one of these people who had this time?
No one will know what happens in the future. Even with what’s going on in Afghanistan was unexpected, we’re going along an unknown path. Our goal of world evangelization is absolute, but we don’t know what’s going to happen in the interim, therefore, if you don’t have this time of prayer, you’re going to be shaken.
3. Jesus paid an amazing price and opened up the way.
It was such a big problem that God Himself had to come down to earth to die on the cross for all of our sins. Because we received this grace for free, we don’t think it’s that tremendous, but the more you understand the gravity of that sacrifice, the more you’ll realize that your problems are nothing compared to the cross. But because you don’t know the truth of the meaning of the cross, you keep arguing about whether things are correct.
1) John 14:6
“I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” This isn’t just something He said, just something to memorize about the three roles of Christ. If you don’t have Christ, you have nothing, honestly. This isn’t something you just have to memorize, “He’s the prophet, priest, and king.” Yes, of course, children do have to memorize this because they don’t know this, they can’t be completely obvious, but I’m saying that we need this. But I’m saying it goes much beyond sitting at your desk with your fan on, saying, “He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” It doesn’t mean you go out to Bible competitions where you memorize verses.
I’m saying, only He is the Way, only Jesus Christ is the Way as you live your life. Go to the One Who is the Way. But if you just memorize the three roles of Christ and say this is John 14:6, that’s a headache. It doesn’t matter how much you memorize it if you don’t apply it. He is the Way, there is no other way in your life if you keep listening to other things; only Jesus is the Truth, so the reason you fall into your problems is because you haven’t thought about what’s true. Jesus is the Way, isn’t He? Then when you face a problem, you need to hold onto the Way; why do you keep holding onto the problem? Why do you listen to the words of other people? You’ve just memorized this in an air conditioned room, it’s just knowledge you’ve gained from going to church for many years.
Only He is the Way. What happens in my future? Only He is the Way. How will we do world evangelization? Jesus is the Way. It’s that Way. You need to have a time when you are with Him. Even today, He is my Way, only He is the Truth. There’s no need to listen to anything else because Jesus is the Truth. If you hold onto anything else, that’s dead because Jesus is the Truth.
You just memorize it like a Bible verse so of course you don’t apply it. You say Jesus is the Truth, but you hold onto that’s not the life, you have to hold onto the life no pt what someone else said about you? Set a time and deeply enjoy Him. Only that can win over and change everything. You have no idea how subtly the devil creeps in to tell you things that aren’t the way, and your job is to have this time to decipher what is right and wrong. Everything sounds correct, but they’re all wrong because that’s not the way, it’s not the truth either, then what is it? It is the false path, it is a lie; even if it’s correct, it’s a lie. It’s not the way to live; that’s death. I am the Way, the Truth,a nd the Life. Yo need to have a time to confirm this, prayer is confirming this, and that’s how you gain strength through this, that’s why you go into “only” through this, everything else is futile.
2) Hebrews 4:16 Throne
Let us then have a time to approach the throne of grace with confidence so that we may receive mercy. The Throne of Grace. We use the word “throne” a lot lately, I hope you will go before the Throne of Grace. What does it mean for you to need grace? It means you need it, so this is the reason why, every morning, set a time to pray. This is the beginning of the spiritual battle.
3) 1 John 3:23-24
This is His command: to believe in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and to love one another as He commanded us, so we believe in Jesus Christ and love others. We believe in Jesus Christ, so fighting is not our goal. Do we fight because we want to fight? We have no choice but to fight and judge other people because we have our own legalism and righteousness within us, but if you realize what kind of person you are, you’ll realize you need Jesus Christ, and you’ll realize this other person needs Jesus Christ as well, and that’s why you’ll have no choice but to reveal the love of Christ. If you don’t have that, then you can live even if you’re told to. Of course, you can’t love, you just have to police your facial expressions, especially if you go to church for a long time.
American people who go to church for a long time have peculiar facial expressions where they’re always smiling, and I wonder, “Why do you have so much depression when you’re always smiling?” There are so many people who are constantly addicted to drugs while they constantly smile. Why say “thank you” so much while you have depression? It may be a difference in culture, but people are the same.
What does it mean that I need the gospel? After you’ve accepted Jesus Christ, it’s true that everything is finished, but it’s also true that you need Jesus every day, because I did not receive salvation through my own abilities. If you receive salvation through your abilities, then it’s fine because you can get rid of your own sin, then, but I didn’t receive salvation through my own abilities. On the other hand, I have the nature that has no choice but to always oppose Jesus Christ, so because I cannot be saved by my own skill, I must be saved by Christ. But my state is constantly in a way that refuses Jesus Christ.
I have been changed into a child of God by His grace but my actual state is not like that. Just think about it logically, I didn’t receive salvation because I didn’t have any sin, but because I couldn’t do it, Jesus Christ came and took the sin on my behalf, then what kind of state am I in now? Realistically, I’m constantly in need of His grace, otherwise I will turn my back against God. In other words, I will constantly return back to my self-centeredness, and this is what we’re skipping.
You’re under the misconception that, “Because I’ve received salvation, my spiritual state is at the highest place,” but we must always go before the throne of grace; we always need Christ. If I need Christ that much, then if someone else makes a mistake or creates a problem, they need Christ. What do you think it means you love someone, it means to forgive them and you deliver Christ to them, and that begins first with yourself.
It’s obvious for unbelievers, of course they need Christ, but it first begins with, “Who am I? What state was I in when I was saved? What kind of human am I?” If you really knew this, you would have no choice but to pray to Jesus every day, that’s an honest person. If you don’t need the time of prayer, you’re deceiving yourself and that’s why you can’t forgive others because you don’t think they need Christ, so you skip over them. With all people in all things, God has His plan.
Let’s say I meet an unbeliever, then God has a plan here, God’s plan is to receive the blessing of Christ through me, and God says He uses all things to fulfill His good purpose. Then, how can I skip over this person? Even when you meet someone on the elevator, that’s God’s plan, then what is it that you can do? You can pray to bless them, that’s God’s Word. But if you don’t know who you are, let’s say you meet someone with a terrible expression on the elevator or they dress so strangely, that’s what happens, but what about you? You’re even worse in other people’s eyes, so you don’t even know yourself. You just live in your own little world, thinking you’re so great, but God has a plan to bless every single person you meet.
Let’s say you live in an apartment, God has a pan for that, you have to live together for years, then God wants you to bless them. There are some people who fight everyone they meet, it’s because you don’t know who you are. I’m a little like that because the legalism is so strong in me, so my first reaction is judgment and criticism. That’s the way the world has trained me, I have to strike down everyone I meet with one blow. That’s my strength and truth, I have to strike them down with one blow. I used to think that it was very sharp and very good.
People in Korea who are my age will do the same thing, and until Jesus Christ goes into a person, they will never change. That’s why later on, they go up to some kind of mountain by themselves, because that’s what we’ve learned and received since we were young. We’ll never change, ideologies are that frightening and that never changes if Jesus doesn’t go in. They think they’re correct, it doesn’t matter what anyone else says, they think they’re true. It doesn’t matter what the nations say, they just go their own path. If anything, they criticize other people even more because their sword is so sharp.
4. God sent the Holy Spirit so that we may pray in Him and receive answers.
1) Ephesians 6:18-20
Pray in all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests, but don’t pray like a religious person or a Buddhist; pray within the Spirit. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. People who come to Early morning prayer see the names of the people of the congregation on the board and pray for them, you think that that’s irrelevant to you don’t you? but the Bible didn’t write this down for no reason. All of this is gathered together as answers, and it’s for this reason that God gives you power, it’s called intercessory prayer.
The more your faith matures, the more you pray for other people. If you can’t pray for other people, how would you pray for world evangelization? You just pray for people because you’re facing difficulties. Eph 6:19, “Pray also for me, that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the matter of the gospel.” God’s spiritual grace and power must come upon someone in order for them to receive the gospel, that’s what it means for you to pray for the evangelists. We just pray simply for the Sunday message, but the people who really pray for 24 hours a day are bound to pray for the evangelism, so that wherever they go, they may fearlessly proclaim the gospel.
5. God gives three things to those who pray.
1) The whole world (changing the world) – Acts 1:8
You don’t receive power because you ask for power, I told you earlier, you have to see what God sees. Why do you think Elijah prayed for a double portion of spirit? It’s because he saw he needed the double portion of spirit to fight against the idolatry of Aram, but someone who didn’t see that couldn’t hold onto that prayer topic. If you have seen the evangelization of America and the 237 nations, what do you think you need? You need the power of the filling of the Holy Spirit. If you don’t see that, though, what do you think you’ll pray for? I’m sure you’ll pray for something else.
Then even if you see everything else, if you don’t see this it’s not going to work out, the spiritual world controlling America, then you live your walk of faith, but your spiritually powerless. There are so many other prayer topics he could have asked for, he could have asked for something beneficial like Jericho, why did he pray persistently for the filling of the holy spirit? Because he realized that’s what he needed to fight against the idolatry and culture of darkness in Aram.
Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Who can we find who is filled with the Spirit of God like this man?” And the reason is because Joseph saw Egypt, Joseph saw the darkness seizing Egypt, and that’s why he saw it was impossible without the filling of the holy spirit. It’s the same with David and Philistia. Philistia was tormenting Israel, and the forces of darkness were controlling Philistia. So, David nurtured his strength ever since he was young. 1 Samuel 7 says the spirit of the LORD came upon David greatly.
The members of the Early Church saw the ends of the earth, the people themselves seemed powerless but they saw what God saw. Nothing else works, success is not enough. It’s not something you can do with a successful business or with your kids graduating from college. It’s not something that can work out if you meet a good person. Even if you do try all those things, you’ll be seized by Satan and destroyed anyways, that’s what they saw. They saw to the ends of the earth because the earth was seized under Satan’s authority. If you want to see that, you only need God’s power. It’s important.
2) Power (Holy Spirit) – Acts 1:8, 2-13
You guys cannot change the world, you can’t even change yourself or your children, so that’s why you pray. Only the power of God can change people. If you don’t realize that, you’ll always be disappointed and discouraged by the world because you try to do it with your strength. But if you realize it’s only possible by God’s power, you’ll end up praying, then God is going to move everything according to His time schedule.
3) People – Acts 2:9-11
Blessing of meeting with people. God opens these doors to evangelism. These are the blessings God gives to the one who prays because God allows you to meet people and God gives you power and God is the One Who changes the world. We cannot talk about anything else as evidence. “Oh, my business is successful,” but unbelievers and Buddhists can say that as well. But if we have that kind of standard, the churches will always close their doors because they don’t see the world. If you don’t see the world, it means you’re losing.
If you just have one person like that in your family, in this church, even if we have one person like that, that’s tremendous, but if everyone who’s sitting here is like that today, then everything is finished. But because we don’t have this, there are so many words we must say. Because you don’t see the world, you talk about other things. For people like that, no matter what you say, it’s just like drunken ramblings to yourself.
Prayer makes all things possible. I hope you will have the blessing of enjoying this yourself.
Prayer
God we thank You. Allow us to begin praying. We desire that You will open the doors of evangelism and missions by changing the world, by giving us Your power, and by giving us the blessing of meeting. In the name of Jesus Christ we pray, amen.