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Six Keys to Answered Prayer

Dr. Adrian Rogers

John 14:6

Tonight I want to speak to you on a subject that I

never get tired of speaking about, a subject that you

need to always hear about and something that I need to

learn continually about and that is the matter of

prayer. Now, one of the greatest privileges that we

have is the privilege of prayer. One of the greatest

failures that we have, however, is in the area of

prayer. I want to say, dear friend, that prayer is so

powerful because prayer can do anything that God can

do and God can do anything because prayer brings God

into action. I don't have a failure in my life but

what somehow it's a prayer failure. There's not a sin

in my life but what somehow proper prayer would have

helped me to avoid it. There's not a need in my life

but what if I learned how to pray and knew how to pray

that need would be met.

Tonight I want to talk to you about what I'm going to

call six keys to answered prayer. Now, I just feel in

my heart that if you pray this way, according to the

scripture, that God is going to hear your prayer and

when God hears your prayer, your life is going to be

blessed.

Take your Bible now and turn to John chapter 14 and

let's look in verse 6. John chapter 14 and verse 6.

"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth and the

life, no man cometh unto the father, but by me." Now,

many times we assume he's talking about salvation and

I'm certain that salvation is included, but when we

come to God in prayer, we're coming to the father and

the only way we can come to the father in prayer is

through the Lord Jesus Christ. He makes that plain.

Look in verse 13 of this same chapter. "And

whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will I do that

the father may be glorified in the son. If ye ask

anything in my name I will do it." Turn to chapter 16

and look in verse 23. Jesus said, "And in that day

ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto

you, whatsoever ye shall ask the father in my name he

will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in

my name, ask, and ye shall receive that your joy may

be full."

Alright, the first key to answered prayer is to ask in

Jesus' name, to ask in Jesus' name. Clearly, plainly

it is the father that we need to reach in prayer and

the only way we can come to the father is through the

son. Jesus said, I'm the way, the truth and the life,

no one comes to the father but by me. Jesus Christ

brings us to the father.

Now if you're lost and you ask someone directions and

they'll say, Go down here three blocks and turn left

until you come to a red light. Go through that,

you'll come to a caution light, veer to your right, go

several more blocks. You'll see a white picket fence

on the left hand side, turn left there and you'll see

a circle, swing around to the right and go seven more

blocks and through an intersection. About that time

you say, Hold it, give me that again, and then maybe

they'll say, Well, listen, just follow me, I'm going

that direction anyway, just stay with me, I'll take

you there. The Lord Jesus doesn't just tell us how to

get to the father, the Lord Jesus is the way to the

father.

Now it's very clear and very plain the reason that

many people, very frankly, don't have their prayer

answered is they have never been born again and if

they're not born again, they cannot pray in Jesus'

name because if they're not born again they don't have

Christ in their heart and if they don't have Christ in

their heart, they do not have the Savior to bring them

to the father. A wonderful verse that you might put

by these verses in John 16 is Ephesians 2:18,

Ephesians 2 and verse 18. It speaks of the Lord

Jesus and it says, "For through him we both have

access by one spirit unto the father." That tells us

what prayer is all about. "Through Jesus we have

access by the spirit unto the father." By the spirit,

through Jesus, unto the father. So, to pray in

Jesus' name is not a little phrase that you tack on at

the end of the prayer, and it may surprise you to know

that I don't know of a prayer in the Bible that ends

with this statement, in Jesus' name, Amen. Do you?

Can anybody think of one? I don't know of a one.

That's not what he meant therefore when he said to

pray in Jesus' name.

To pray in his name means three things primarily.

First of all, name means authority. When a man says

to stop in the name of the law, what does he mean?

Stop in the authority of the law. Jesus has given me

the power of attorney. I can act on his behalf and I

can request of the father those things that he wants,

but for me to use his authority, the second thing name

means is approval. When you send out a purchase

order, whoever the purchasing agent is, he signs that

at the bottom and he says, I approve this purchase.

So when we pray in Jesus' name, what we're saying is

that we're praying with his authority and because we

have his authority, we also must have his approval.

Now, he is not going to give his authority for

anything he doesn't approve. But name means something

else. Name means also a claim, a claim.

For example, my Jewish friends wrote me a while back

and said, Dr. Rogers, we want you to know that we

have planted a grove of trees in Israel in your name.

So, some where, I've never seen them, I'd like to go

see if they lived or died, but they planted a grove of

trees in my name. What did they mean by "we did that

in your name?" Well, we did that for your honor.

We're trying to honor you, We're trying to give

acclaim to your name.

So you see, when I pray in Jesus' name, I say, Lord

Jesus, I'm doing this with your authority, I'm doing

this with your approval, I'm doing this for your

honor. Do you pray that way? You cannot pray for

Jesus' honor and you cannot pray with his authority

and with his approval unless you are born again. So

the very first key to answered prayer is that you must

learn to pray in the name of Jesus. That's the first

key to answered prayer - to pray in the name of Jesus.

And to pray in the name of Jesus you have to have

Christ in your heart as your Lord and Savior.

Second thing, not only pray in the name of Jesus, but

the second is that you must pray in the spirit, in the

spirit. This time turn if you will please to

Ephesians chapter 6 and verse 18. Ephesians 6 and

verse 18. Here the apostle Paul is giving us a

marvelous lesson on prayer, and he says, "Praying

always with all prayer and supplication in the

spirit," in the spirit. First of all we pray in the

name, and now we pray in the spirit. You see, the

Holy Spirit is called in the Bible the spirit of

prayer. Did you know that? In Zechariah chapter 12

and verse 10 the holy spirit is called the spirit of

grace and of supplications. So, it is so important,

therefore, that you not only be saved, but that you be

spirit filled.

Now, a person can be saved and still not be praying in

the spirit. If you just automatically pray in the

spirit when you're saved, then the Bible would not

command us to pray in the spirit. So, when the Bible

commands us to pray in the spirit of course we have to

admit the possibility that we could be a Christian and

yet not be praying in the spirit. And in the book of

Jude, there's just one chapter so I'm not going to

give you a chapter, just the verse, in Jude verse 20

the Bible says this, "But ye beloved building up

yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the

holy ghost." So the Bible tells us to pray in the

spirit.

Why is it so important to pray in the spirit, that is,

to be yielded to the holy spirit? Well, Paul makes it

clear. In Romans chapter 8 and verse 26, Paul

explains why we must pray in the spirit and this is

what he says: "Likewise the spirit also helpeth our

infirmities." Anybody here weak, anybody here infirm?

Well hallelujah, you have a helper. The spirit

helpeth our infirmities. 'For we know not what we

should pray for as we ought, but the spirit himself

maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot

be uttered." Now this verse is very interesting

because the word help has a double prefix in front of

it or in conjunction with it and it means instead of

and together with. It almost sounds contradictory,

that the holy spirit prays instead of us and then the

holy spirit prays together with us.

What does that mean? Well, it's very beautiful when

you think about it. It means that we cannot do it

without him, and it means that he will not do it

without us. It is the holy spirit that so fills us

when we pray - when we're surrendered to him, when

we're in the spirit - that he molds our prayers and

makes our prayers acceptable to the father. To help

means that he inspires our prayers, he guides our

prayers, he energizes our prayers, he sustains our

praying. We're so weak that without his help we would

not get it done.

And as a matter of fact, the Bible says that he does

it with groanings - that speaks of sounds that are

uttered at child birth, the pains of child birth is

literally what that word means, when he makes

intercession for us with groanings. Hallelujah for

the helper! I tell you dear friend, prayer is hard

work. The devil will attack you when you pray, your

mind will get clouded when you pray, and hallelujah

for the helper. Have you ever tried to pray without

the spirit? If you have you'll understand how

important it is to pray in the spirit of God.

Pray in the name, pray in the spirit. Not only

because of our weakness, but because of our ignorance.

Folks, listen, we don't know what we should pray for

as we ought. Listen to Romans 8:26 again. "Likewise

the spirit also helpeth our infirmities, for we know

not what we should pray for as we ought." We can't

pray for every possibility. Just a few moments ago,

Paul handed me a slip of paper and someone said,

Pastor, pray for this particular situation. Well,

during the song service, I bowed my head and prayed

for that particular situation, lest I forget it, but I

tell you, I cannot pray for everything. You cannot

pray for everything and I believe that the holy spirit

of God makes prayer assignments to us and I've said

before and I want to say again - for your prayer to be

effective, your prayer must be selective. You can

pray in general, God bless the world, but dear friend,

when you get down to specific praying, the Holy Spirit

of God gives you that prayer assignment and not only

does he tell you who to pray for, but he tells you how

to pray for whom you pray. Or if he doesn't tell you,

then he'll just make groanings for you, words that you

can't utter.

For example, there's a sick saint. Let's suppose that

your grandmother is eighty years of age and she's sick

and you're starting to pray. Well, what are you going

to pray? Lord God, heal her. Or Lord God, bring her

to heaven. Huh? That's kind of hard, isn't it, to

know what to pray? Well, God knows what to pray and

you know, many times it's God's will to take her to

heaven. As a matter of fact, that's the more

wonderful thing, if God takes her to heaven. Have you

ever noticed that we get in prayer meetings on

Wednesday night and so many times we spend so much

time praying for the saved who are sick than the

unsaved who are lost. We spend more time trying to

keep the saints out of heaven than the lost out of

hell. Do you ever think about it, because we are just

not burdened for the unsaved many times as much as we

are burdened for the saved.

But how do we pray? Suppose there's a troublemaker in

the church. I mean, let's just suppose that in this

church, that somebody just made up his or her mind

they were going to cause trouble in the church and we

begin to pray about it. Well, how would we pray? Many

of us might be praying Lord, remove him. As a matter

of fact, some of us might be saying, Lord, fix his

wagon. But I think about the apostle Paul when the

apostle Paul brought havoc on the church. Those early

saints prayed, I suppose some of them might have been

saying, Lord, strike him dead, but the Lord struck him

alive. The Lord just saved him and made a mighty

apostle out of old Saul who later became Paul.

Many times we don't know what to pray for, but here's

the wonderful thing about the Holy Spirit. The Holy

Spirit takes our prayers and even sometimes when we

ask for the wrong things with the right heart, then he

takes the right thing and applies it to the right

heart. He is like a transformer. That electrical

energy goes into the transformer on one side and one

cycle, one voltage, it comes out on the other side, in

another form so it can be used. If you were to drop

that power off those high tension wires into your

toaster, you'd toast more than the bread. But what

happens is this. It goes through the transformer - it

is the same power, but it is made acceptable, it is

made adaptable, it is made usable. And many times our

prayer-power, our energy, because it comes from a

heart that is right with God, the Holy Spirit says to

the Father, Now Father, this is what he thinks he

wants but this is what he needs. Have you ever

thanked God he didn't answer he prayers exactly, that

he didn't give you want you wanted? He always gave

you something better than you wanted.

Rule number one, pray in the name. Rule number two,

pray in the Spirit. Rule number three, pray in

obedience, in obedience. By the way, you learn that

all of these things were in something. First of all,

in the name, secondly, in the Spirit, thirdly, in

obedience. It is foolish to pray and to ask God to

answer your prayer if you are not obeying. Trust and

obey, for there's no other way. David knew better

than to try to pray when he was disobeying the Lord.

He says in Psalms 66 verse 18, "If I regard iniquity

in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. Now if I'm

cherishing sin in my heart, suppose I have some

unconfessed, unrepented-of sin.

Let my Bible that tells me about sin represent sin and

I've got that sin right down here in my heart and I

have regard to it. Now, the Bible doesn't say if I

have sinned the Lord will not hear me, the Bible says

if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not

hear me. Now, there's my sin right there. We

Baptists say, Well, nobody is sinlessly perfect,

everybody has his vice, this one is mine and so, we've

got some little sin down here in our heart. We have

regard for it, we love it, sweet little fellow, nice

sin, and we just have regard for that particular sin.

And then we have the audacity, the nerve to come to

God and we say now, God, here's what I want you to do

for me, precious sin, now God, here's what I want you

to do for me. Do you think God is going to hear that

prayer? If God were to hear that prayer what would God

be doing? God would be encouraging us to sin. How can

I pray to God and ask God to do something for me when

I harbor in my heart that which nailed his darling son

to the tree?

David said if I regard iniquity in my heart the Lord

will not hear me. The Bible says, "If we confess our

sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sin and

to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." David knew

better. Isaiah l knew better. Open your Bibles to

the book of Isaiah. Let me show you here. Look in

chapter 1 and begin to read with me in verse 13.

These verses are worth turning to, they are worth

marking. Isaiah is speaking to the people of his day,

he's speaking for God and God says, "Bring no more

vain oblations," that is, your foolish offerings.

"Incense is an abomination unto me." They were

burning incense in the temple. God says it stinks,

it's a abominable. "The new moons and the Sabbaths,

the calling of assemblies, I cannot, away with, it is

iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and

your appointed peace my soul hateth. They are a

trouble unto me. I am weary of them," and listen to

this, "and when you spread forth your hand, I will

hide mine eyes from you. Yea, when ye make many

prayers I will not hear. Your hands are full of

blood. Wash you, make you clean, put away the evil of

your doings. From before mine eyes, cease to do evil,

cease to do evil." God says there's coming a time

when you'll spread forth your hands, you'll come to

church, you'll give your offerings, you'll go through

your programs and God says they are repugnant to me,

away with them. I don't want it. Dear friend, how we

insult Deity when we pray without obeying the dear

Lord.

Turn to the book of Isaiah, the same book rather,

chapter 59 and look with me in verses 1 and 2.

"Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened that it

cannot save, neither is his ear heavy that he cannot

hear." That means God is not palsied and God is not

deaf, "but your iniquities have separated between you

and your God and your sins have hid his face from you

that he will not hear."

As you ask God to answer your prayers, number one, you

must ask, am I in the name? Number two, am I in the

spirit? Number three, am I in obedience, am I obeying

the Lord? Ezra knew better than to try to pray

without being in obedience. He said in Ezra chapter 9

and verse 6, "Oh my God, I'm ashamed and blush to lift

up my face to thee. My God, for our iniquities are

increased over our head and our trespass is grown up

into the heavens." Ezra said, Oh God, how can I look

at you, how can I pray to you, dear God, for anything

except repentance and humiliation, dear God? I dare

not ask you anything until we get our hearts right

with you.

James knew better. James said in James chapter 5 and

verse 16, "Confess your faults one to another and pray

one for another that you may be healed. The

effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth

much." The question is if David knew better and

Isaiah knew better and Ezra knew better and James knew

better and John knows better--the apostle John says in

the book of First John chapter 3 verse 22, "Whatsoever

we ask we receive of him because we keep his

commandments and do those things which are pleasing in

his sight. I'm not saying, dear friend, that when you

obey God, you earn the answer to your prayers. It is

grace all the way, but I'm saying to you that you

cannot harbor unconfessed, unrepented-of sin in your

life and expect to have power with God in prayer.

You must pray in the name. You must pray in the

spirit. You must pray in obedience if you want your

prayers answered. Sin will keep you from praying.

Prayer, however, will keep you from sinning. Number

one, in the name. Number two, in the spirit. Number

three, in obedience. Number four, in the will of God.

Your prayer must be in the will of God. First John

chapter 5 and verse 14. Turn to it, it's worth

turning to , it is certainly worth marking if you've

not already marked it in your Bible. First John is

back near the end of the scriptures, almost to the

book of the Revelation. First John, chapter 5 and

verse 14. "And this is the confidence that we have in

him, if we ask anything according to his will he

heareth us, and if we know that he hearest whatsoever

we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we

desire of him."

Now, we must ask in the will of God. Well, how are we

going to know the will of God? Well, in order to know

the will of God, we must want the will of God. You

see, to know what God wants me to do, I must want to

do what God wants me to do. If I were to walk up to

you right now, I mean, point blank, face to face look

you right in the face and say, There's something God

wants you to do I'm absolutely certain that God wants

you to do it and you knew that I knew what God wanted

you to do and I would ask you, Will you do it. What

would you say? Well, you'd say, well, I sure would

like to hear what it is first. Huh? Now, not that

you're doubting me. Let's just suppose that you know

that I know. Now, grant it, I may not know God's

will, but this is by supposition. In this case you

know that I know and I walk up to you as God's

appointed authority and I say to you, There is

something God wants you to do. Will you do it? And I

dare say if I know a lot about Baptists, they'd say

well, tell me what it is, I'd like to hear first. Do

you know what the answer should be if you know that

God wants you to do it? Yes, I'll do it. Tell me what

it is. Amen. Yes, I'll do it. Tell me what it is.

There should be full and instantaneous obedience to

the will of God even before the will of God is known

so that when God reveals it, we will do it. You see,

we don't have to worry about his will. His will is

best. Romans chapter 12 and verse 2 says that it is

good, it is acceptable, it is perfect. Prayer is not

bending God's will to fit our will, it's not talking

God into doing something that God ordinarily doesn't

want to do. All prayer is is finding the will of God

and getting in on it. The reason that many people

pray and their prayers are not answered is they're not

praying in the will of God.

In James chapter 4 and verse 3 the Bible says, "Ye ask

and receive not because you ask amiss, that you might

consume it upon your lust." The word amiss means that

you're asking with the wrong intent. Now, that

doesn't mean that you cannot ask for personal needs.

God's honor is fulfilled when your personal needs are

met. But you cannot ask for selfish needs. So many

people have misunderstood the Bible when the Bible

says in Psalm 37 verse 7, "Delight yourself also in

the Lord and he will give you the desires of your

heart." Does that mean you can have anything you

want? Well, yes and no. Look at it carefully. I'm

not trying to say there's fine print, but his promise

is not made to anyone except to the person who

delights himself in the Lord. And your delights

determine your desires and therefore God is safe to

make this promise. "Delight yourself in the Lord and

he will give you the desires of your heart" - not the

frivil6us things, he will give you your heart's need,

the thing that your heart desires and longs for.

That's not a pink Cadillac and a swimming pool. What

your heart desires, what your heart needs, a heart

that is in love with God is going to have its needs

met.

So many times people say, "Well, the Bible's promises

are not true." They take a promise like Matthew

chapter 7 and verse 7 where Jesus says, "Ask and ye

shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it

shall be opened unto you." They say, Well, I asked

and I didn't get it. I sought, I didn't find it. I

knocked, it wasn't open to me. So the Bible therefore

is untrue. Well, friend, any text without a context

is a pretext and if you will read Matthew chapter 7

I'm going to tell you something here that's going to

be astounding. It follows Matthew chapter 6. See,

isn't that profound? Now listen, Matthew chapter 6

is a part of this whole thing. And Jesus says in

Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33, "But seek ye first the

kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these

things shall be added unto you." And then he says,

"Ask and ye shall receive, seek and ye shall find,

knock and it shall be opened to you."

Who? That person who is seeking God first with all of

his heart. But seek ye first the kingdom of God. God

is not your heavenly bellboy, a glorified Santa Claus

to wait upon you hand and foot. But when you say to

him, Oh, God, with every inch, every ounce, every

nerve, every fiber, as much as in me is, oh God, I

want your will. I seek first your kingdom. God says,

I'm going to take care of you child. I'm going to

take care of you. God says, You put my business first

and I'm going to make it my business to take care of

you and you can come to me and ask and I'll hear you.

You can come to me and seek and you'll be found. You

can come to me and knock and I am going to open the

doors to you.

Listen to me dear friend, we must pray in the will of

God. And the way to pray in the will of God is to be

surrendered to that will, to want that will, to listen

to that will, to get in the word of God. Jesus said,

"If you abide in me and my word abides in you, then

you can ask what you will and it'll be done unto you."

Why? Because now what you will and what he wills is

the same because you are in him and he is in you and

his word is in your heart and you delight yourself in

him and you seek him first, his kingdom. And you find

yourself not talking God into doing things that he

ordinarily would not want to do, but you find yourself

receiving those blessings that God has foreordained

and planned for you to have.

So, you must pray in the will of God, that's the

fourth thing. Number one, in the name, number two, in

the spirit, number three, in obedience, number four,

in the will of God. Number five, you must pray in

fellowship, in fellowship. Take the word of God

please and turn to Mark chapter 11 with me, the gospel

of Mark chapter 11 and look if you will in verse 25.

And I am well aware that when I say in the name, in

the spirit, in obedience, many of these things overlap

and I have somewhat artificially separated them out

but I do that for a purpose so I can make individual

and singular points. Mark chapter 11 and I begin to

read now in verse 25. Alright, listen to what our

Lord has to say here about prayer. "And when ye stand

praying, forgive if ye have ought against any, that

your father also which is in heaven may forgive you

your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither

will your father which is in heaven forgive your

trespasses." Now, if you're out of fellowship with

somebody else, you're out of fellowship with the

father. That is, if you have an unforgiving spirit in

your heart. You see, you have to pray in fellowship.

You have to be in tune and so many people are

harboring grudges.

As we prayed this morning, so many people have

bitterness in their heart and an unforgiving spirit

and they wonder why their life is so barren and their

prayers are so unfruitful. Do you and your husband

argue? You and your wife argue? You're not in harmony,

you're not in not oneness, you're not in fellowship.

Let me give you a scripture. First Peter chapter 3

verse 7. "Likewise, ye husbands dwell with them,"

that is, with your wife, "according to knowledge,

giving honor unto the wife as unto the weaker vessel

and as being heirs together of the grace of life that

your prayers be not hindered." Husbands and wives

whose lives are filled with bitterness and rancor and

arguing and all of these things, they stop their

prayers from being answered. We must pray in

fellowship, we must be in harmony with our brothers

and sisters in Christ. How important it is that we be

in harmony with one another.

Now the last thing I want to say and the very sixth of

these things, not only must we pray in fellowship - is

that going to make six? If not, I'll go back and get

another one. Alright, now listen, pray in faith, in

faith, in faith. And by the way, praying in faith is

the sum total of all of these other things. When

you're in the name, when you're in the spirit, when

you're in obedience, dear friend, when you're in the

will and when you're in harmony, you're going to find

ipso facto, faith, it's going to be there. You see,

faith is not something you muster up, faith is the by-

product of placing yourself where that faith can be

there in your heart.

Now listen to Matthew chapter 21 verse 22. "And all

things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing,

ye shall receive." Pray, believe, and you'll receive;

pray in doubt, you do without. Listen, in all things,

whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer believing ye shall

receive. Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 6. "But

without faith it is impossible to please him, for he

that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he

is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." No

prayer has ever been answered that was not a prayer of

faith. No prayer of faith has ever been unanswered.

Don't ever tell me that you pray in faith and God

didn't hear your prayer. I won't believe it, because,

friend, when God gives faith that's a sign he intends

to answer that prayer. And that's the reason the

Bible says, "Whatsoever things ye desire when you

pray, believe that you receive them and ye shall have

them." You must pray in faith.

Sometimes if you want an exercise that will help you

to grow in faith, read books like the biography of

George Mueller of Bristol, just read the answers to

prayer in this dear man's life. He kept a prayer log

and I was astounded to learn that he recorded over

twenty-five thousand definite answers to prayer. Many

of us will say, Yes, I remember when God answered my

prayer. When I was a little boy one time, haha,

something happened and God answered my prayer. George

Mueller of Bristol, who had a orphanage and raised

literally millions of dollars when a million, you

know, was a million dollars. And it's not a big

compliment today to say, You look like a million,

haha. When a million dollars was a million dollars,

he raised literally millions of dollars without asking

anybody. Now, it's not wrong to ask, but God just led

him a different way and God would not even let George

Mueller let his needs known as he was feeding these

little orphans. Raised millions and millions of

dollars.

Of course, who would not want to know what the secret

of prayer is in this man, this great man of faith? He

was asked to explain the secret of answered prayer.

Do you want it, are you ready for it, here it is.

George Mueller's answer, have faith in God. Oh, you

say, I was expecting something wonderful. Friend,

that's wonderful. I was expecting something

significant. That is significant. Have faith in God.

We must pray in faith.

So many times I find myself when I'm praying, begging

God, pleading with God, agonizing with God and then

finally, it comes to me, Oh God, you're waiting for me

to believe you, and I just say, Thank you Lord, and I

feel the burden gone, I feel the joy come and I feel

that if I don't have the answer in my hand, l already

have the answer in my heart. And I'm sure when George

Mueller said to have faith in God he did not put the

emphasis upon the word faith, but he put the emphasis

upon the word God. Have it in God. What's he.

saying? Oh, it is not so much a great faith in God as

it is faith in a great God. He knew how great God

was. Have faith in God.

Think about God as the one who answers, who calls upon

us to pray. Oh, dear friend, there's no sense in

praying without confidence. We must pray in

confidence to pray in faith. Abraham was the father

of the faithful. God heard his prayer and let me show

you why. Romans chapter 4, verses 19 and 20. And

this is what describes father Abraham. The Bible

says, "And being not weak in faith, he considered not

his own body now dead. When he was about an hundred

years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb,"

listen to this now, "he staggered not at the promise

of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,

giving glory to God." Did you know that faith above

all things gives glory to God. Faith honors God and

therefore God honors faith. Faith is not trying to

psyche yourself up into a positive feeling. Faith is

not working yourself into a frenzy. Faith is just

letting your heart be open to God and letting God just

dump that lump of faith there.

When you come these other five steps, and if you're

dealing in these other matters, these other keys - if

you pray in the name, if you pray in the spirit, if

you pray in obedience, if you pray in the will of God,

if you pray in fellowship with the other saints, you

will find yourself praying in faith in God. God will

answer your prayer.

Let's bow together.