How To Pray With Results Part 3 by Pastor Philip Olubakin: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

Praying Led by the Holy Spirit

We are building on the first and second services. In John 16:14 the Spirit takes what belongs to Christ and shows it to us, and in Romans 8:26 the Spirit helps our infirmities and makes intercession according to the will of God, so when you pray in the Holy Ghost you pray according to his will. Praying in the Spirit includes, but is not limited to, praying in tongues. You can be praying in plain English and know the prayer is rising straight from your spirit, and sometimes it is prophetic; you find yourself declaring things over your life, your family, and your future that you never premeditated. In Acts 2:4 they spoke as the Spirit gave them utterance, so open your mouth and pray rather than praying only in your mind, where distraction wins.

This is how faith is built. Romans 10:8 says the word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart, and Romans 10:17 says faith comes by hearing; it is with your own mouth that you plant faith in your heart. A friend's mother was diagnosed with cancer and scheduled for surgery abroad. As we held hands and prayed, I said by the Spirit, without premeditating it, that she would not need the operation and that if she travelled it would only be a vacation. She insisted on going, and when she arrived the doctors could find nothing. There is no such thing as incurable with Jesus. That is prayer by the help of the Holy Ghost.

Right Motives

James 4:3 says you ask and do not receive because you ask with wrong motives, to spend on your own pleasures. So examine why you are asking. If you learn to tie your prayers to the kingdom and to other people, you will find that answers come. People ask how the anointing for fruitfulness came, and the honest answer is that I took another person's burden and made it my own. It began years ago praying through the night for my own siblings to have children, and God added that anyone I prayed for afterward would also receive. Ephesians 6:18 tells us to pray always with all prayer for all the saints, and there is no way to pray selflessly for saints you have never met except in the Spirit.

So beware of prayers driven by self. Some pray for a rival to stumble so they can take their place, some pray to be respected, some want a good thing like marriage only so they can show off before people. There is a way to pray for a good thing with a wrong motive. God will not do anything that only feeds pride, so before you pray, weigh your heart with three questions.

1. Am I praying for God's glory, or only for my own comfort?
2. If this prayer is answered, will it make me more like Jesus?
3. Am I willing to accept no, if God has a better plan?

Willing to Hear No

Proverbs 14:12 warns that there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is destruction, so you do not know more than God. The moment you insist that you can never hear no, that prayer is about your comfort and not his glory. I could have left this country for abroad, and God said no, and my answer was, yes Lord. When God told Abraham to offer Isaac in Genesis 22, that was his will, and it was not easy. If the blessings of Abraham are yours, then the obedience of Abraham is meant to be yours too. Sometimes God's instructions are painful, but knowing the end is good, we learn to say, yes Lord.

Nobody's Failure Is Your Success

Some believers actually pray for others to fail so they can rise, and they do it in the name of Jesus. Nobody's failure is your success. If you have failed, you have failed; another person falling will never lift you up. This is why pastors should never war against one another, hiring people to hunt for faults in a colleague's message. The heart of man is desperately wicked, and we must refuse to let that wickedness wear the name of Christ. Do not compare yourself to others, for the Bible says those who measure themselves by themselves are not wise.

Forgiveness, the Prerequisite Jesus Named

In Mark 11:24 Jesus says that whatever you desire when you pray, believe you receive it and you will have it; then in Mark 11:25 he immediately adds that when you stand praying, forgive, so that your Father may forgive you. It is striking that the single hindrance to answered prayer Jesus named here is unforgiveness. We tend to magnify the sins of the flesh and ignore the sins of the heart, but malice, envy, and pride are what he warned would shut heaven. Even in the model prayer he taught us to ask forgiveness as we forgive others, in Matthew 6:12, which means you are effectively asking God to forgive you only to the degree that you release others.

When your prayers seem unanswered, one of the first things to check is whether you are holding someone tight in your heart. You may need to write that person's name down and release them. If the word touches you, send the message and forgive, whether or not the other person even acknowledges it, because you have done your part and can move on with your life.

What Forgiveness Is Not

Many people misunderstand forgiveness, so be clear about what it is not. It is not pretending the person did not hurt you; if it hurt, it hurt. It is not reconciling or becoming friends again, and it is not making yourself vulnerable to be wounded again. You can forgive and still keep a boundary, so do not let anyone guilt-trip you back into a relationship on the grounds of forgiveness. Look at Isaac in Genesis 26: when his wells were seized, he simply moved on, and later, when they came, he made them a feast. His posture was, we are not friends, and I am not your enemy.

And when you are the one who did wrong, take the posture of the prodigal son in Luke 15, who said he was no longer worthy to be called a son and asked only to be made a servant. That is genuine sorrow; you do not immediately demand to be reinstated. Take responsibility for your part, even if it were only a fraction, and never deflect with, but you too. A person who is truly sorry focuses on their own wrong and does not put the other on trial.

What Forgiveness Is

Forgiveness is releasing the debt and letting go of the right to punish. The clearest sign of it is that you begin to pray for the one who hurt you. Jesus prayed for his executioners in Luke 23:34, Stephen did the same in Acts 7, and Jesus commands in Matthew 5:44 that we love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. Proverbs 24:17 even says do not rejoice when your enemy falls, lest the Lord be displeased, so their downfall is never your celebration.

I can speak of this from my own story. I grew up under great cruelty, lost my father in painful circumstances, and watched people who should have protected us instead work against us, yet the power of God surrounded us, for 1 John 4:4 says greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world. God still said, forgive, and one of the ways I obeyed was to pray for the very person who had wronged us, asking God to bless and not curse. If I weigh everything against the cross, nothing done to me is too much to release. Forgiveness does not deny the pain; it refuses to let the pain hold your future hostage.