Mike Bickle emphasizes the transformative power of effective prayer, sharing his personal journey from disdain to enjoyment of prayer. He highlights that prayer is not only about relationship with God but also about achieving results, as seen in the teachings of Jesus and the example of Elijah. Bickle outlines four key characteristics of effective prayer: rooted in faith, grounded in good relationships, stemming from a lifestyle of righteousness, and earnestness. He encourages believers to understand that their prayers can have lasting impacts beyond immediate results, reinforcing the idea that every believer can access God's power through sincere prayer.

One of my, the zeal I have about this course and this topic is my own story of having really disdained prayer, but having the conviction from the Bible that it was very important, but really taking a deep breath and going, oh no, this is so important and I so dislike it, I'm in trouble. And I mean, that was a very real and powerful and negative thought to me. And then over a little bit of time, I had the surprise of my life, I began to enjoy it. And I'm a satisfied customer that I want to convince people that when they start off with boring prayer, it can be enjoyable prayer before it's over. And I want to keep, give you the vision and the confidence to stay with it. Well, tonight we're going to look at characteristics of effective prayer. I mean, the fact that prayer is effective is remarkable to me, that weak and broken people can say things on the earth and the almighty God, the creator, hears it in heaven and moves on the earth at the sound of our word, because He's a Father that loves us. That is remarkable that prayer is effective. I mean, that the great majesty on high intervenes in history in big ways and very, very small ways, because we talk to Him. Tonight we're going to look at characteristics of prayer that make it effective, or the kind of prayer that actually makes a difference, the kind of prayer that accomplishes much. That's what James called it, prayer that avails much, or prayer that accomplishes much. Now, we know that prayer is first about relationship with God, but that's not all that it's about. It is about results. When you hear the teaching of Jesus, He talked about results. Things happen. He wants us to believe things will happen. It's more than just interacting with Him. That's first, but that isn't the whole relationship. He wants us to partner with Him in changing the world and releasing His resource into the earthly realm. He wants things to happen. That's part of the partnership. George Mueller, one of the great prayer warriors of history, in church history, that's celebrated. He was in the 1800s. He says it's not enough to begin to pray. We've got to stay with it, continue until we get an answer. He said praying isn't the point only. We pray and tell the answer because the Lord wants us to partner with Him in releasing His resource and His presence into the earth. Paragraph B, James chapter 5, the main passage we'll look at tonight in this session. James, the brother of Jesus, he was known in history as a great man of prayer, so his teaching on prayer is very valuable because he was well known as a man deep in prayer. Let's read what he said in verse 15 of chapter 5. The prayer of faith will save the sick. He's the one that coined the phrase the prayer of faith. It's a very important term used through church history, but he said the prayer of faith, that's a very important principle, will save or deliver the sick. The sick will be healed is the idea. The sick emotionally, the sick physically, the sick spiritually. The Lord will raise him up. Verse 16, I want you to catch two words here. The effective prayer of a righteous man. The word effective I want you to lay hold of. This is about effective prayer, not just the motions of prayer. It says it avails much. That's the second phrase. It avails much. It accomplishes much. Now the challenge is we can't always measure all that it accomplishes. We'll look at that in a few minutes. We can measure some, but not all of it. Then the premier example of effective prayer that accomplishes much, that avails much, is Elijah. But the key point about Elijah is he had a nature like ours. He was a weak and broken man like you and I. He was prone to discouragement. He struggled with fear. He was tempted like we are tempted. We have this idea that Elijah was the super prophet. And we get this romanticized ideal version of his life. And he, James says, I promise you by the Holy Spirit he's just like you. I think we'll get the shock of our life when we meet Elijah in the age to come. And we go, wow, you're kidding. If I knew that, I would have had more boldness. It's the destiny of every believer to release the power of God through prayer. The presence of God. The resource of God. Every believer, every weak and broken believer, not the super saints, because like I say over and over, there is no such category as super saints. We like to invent them. We like to change history so we end up with super saints. So that it gives us something to really have an ideal about that's out of reach. But beloved, there are no super saints. There's weak and broken people who experience the grace of God. People like you and me can do this thing. Paragraph C. Our prayers accomplish more than we can discern with our five senses. The Lord says our prayers avail much. They accomplish much. It's one of my favorite subjects in the scripture is the fact that our prayers accomplish more than we can read in the moment we're praying or even in the near future after the prayer. They really make a difference. When I begin to understand my prayers make a difference in the short term, that means in a few days and weeks, in the other short term, in the next few years, but in the long term, over generations and even in the age to come, your prayers will be making an effect. When I begin to understand that, prayer had a whole different feeling to me. I mean I approached it in a very different way. I begin to believe my prayers could affect much. It doesn't mean I will get the answer that I'm looking for within seven days. Sometimes I do. Sometimes, many times I don't, but the Lord answers in ways and it unfolds in ways beyond what we can measure in the short term. Paragraph D, James 5, in this passage, James highlighted four characteristics of effective prayer. Now there's more than four characteristics, but I'm going to look at those four tonight, mention a few more. I'm going to mention six more besides that. I mean they're pretty self-explanatory, the others, but I'm going to look at these four because this apostle of prayer he's called sometimes, gives us his insight on effective prayer, and this is a premier teaching in the Bible for James to teach us on effective prayer. The four characteristics, it's prayer that's rooted in faith. Number two, prayer that's in context of good relationships. Prayer from a lifestyle of righteousness, and prayer that is earnest. It's earnest prayer. Elijah was earnest in his prayer. Well, let's look at the first one, paragraph E, prayer rooted in faith. We'll look at that, a few dimensions of this. First, it's faith and confidence is interchangeable. You can use faith and confidence nearly interchangeable, in an interchangeable way, but we have confidence, it's a three-fold confidence in God. Number one, we come with confidence that the authority of Jesus is greater than sin and sickness and Satan. We come with the confidence that He has all authority and it's greater than the authority of sin and sickness and Satan. Number two, we come with confidence that the blood of Jesus qualifies weak and broken people. That no matter how weak we are or broken, the blood qualifies us to have effective prayer. We can come boldly to the presence, in the presence of God. When guilt and shame want to drive us away from the presence of God, sins we've repented of, but the sting of the shame and guilt of it continue to fill our mind and emotions. We can speak the Word of God and we can resist it and say there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. By His blood we can come boldly into His presence. The number three, it's confidence in the Father's desire to release blessing and power and presence. So Jesus has authority over all other powers. The blood qualifies weak and broken people and the Father desires to release His resource through His people into the earthly realm. The Father desires this. Top of page two, let's continue on this prayer rooted in faith. Jesus emphasized the importance of praying in faith over and over through the Gospels. We can get so accustomed to the fact that He did it that we don't, we can end up just kind of going on business as usual, not cultivating strong faith. While we go, I know about faith, but we don't actually develop it. Because faith must be developed intentionally. Faith doesn't just grow by itself. It grows by feeding our mind on the Word of God and by exercising faith. It starts out like a mustard seed, very, very small and it gets bigger and bigger. It grows as we exercise it, as we speak the Word. But I know a lot of believers that really love the Lord. They're very sincere in their walk with God, but they don't actually exercise faith much. They're not intentional about feeding their mind on the Word of God and speaking the Word of God and staying with it against all obstacles when it's a prayer in the will of God. So we read the teachings of Jesus, say, yeah, yeah, I know He was really big on faith, but beloved, we need to intentionally say that's going to be my life story, part of my life story. I'm going to grow strong and mighty in faith. It's not okay just to hear stories of history. I'm going to be one of those people who know the Lord in mature faith. You may never be famous or well known on earth, but you can be well known at the throne of God with mighty faith. That faith grows. It starts like a mustard seed and it grows through speaking the Word by staying with what God says, even in the face of obstacles and delays. Paragraph two, Jesus affirmed the need for faith over and over through the Gospels. I could give many verses. He spoke of the problem of unbelief. Unbelief was not sort of an innocent, or innocent is not the right word, not a casual kind of neutral thing. He said, no, unbelief will keep me from operating in power. He goes, I couldn't do mighty works in Nazareth because of unbelief. He didn't rebuke the apostles because of their failure. He rebuked them because of unbelief. They didn't believe what He said. They didn't, they didn't lay hold of what He said in a way that was appropriate. That's what they got rebuked for, far more than their failures. I mean, they got corrected on their pride a time or two, but not rebuked. They were rebuked because of unbelief. That's something that we don't think much about. We think about rebuke for sinning, but the Lord, the Holy Spirit say, no, I want you to actually grow in faith. Unbelief is not neutral, casual, and of no consequence. It has great consequence in our life. Let's go to paragraph G. And again, many of the notes, I'm not going to read all the verses. That's why I have, give you the notes. The next principle is prayer in context of good relationships. Now, this is James 5, 16, where James said, confess your sins to one another. Pray for one another that you may be healed. He says, confess your sins to one another. Now, when James says, confess your sins to one another, he's talking, I believe strongly, much more than just personal struggles. He's not saying, get somebody and tell them your personal struggles. I think that's a, good thing to do. But I think more than that, he's talking about, because in James chapter 4, talks about humility all through, I mean, several times through James 4, the passage just before this, it's the confession of the strife we bring into relationships. Husband and wife, friends, co-workers, people in the same neighborhood, they get in tension, they get in strife. James is saying, go bring your confession into the relationship, and you'll see healing and power will flow out of that. So it's not just, hey, I'm struggling, would you help me? But it's more like, you know what I said yesterday? I'm asking you forgiveness. I repent of that. That's the confession, I believe, that is being highlighted here. The confession of how we have brought strain and even just difficulty in relationships, even a little bit, owning our part of the relationship. In other words, this is a statement about humility more than vulnerability. Although I think vulnerability is in this, but often when people read James 5.16, they focus on the vulnerable, get a friend, tell them your struggle. And I believe that. I think that's powerful. But I think James is talking about something far more common. He's talking about owning our own failures that cause tension even in the relationship. Because I think that's the greater context of James chapter 3, chapter 4, and chapter 5. He references that right through the whole letter of James. That's one of his main themes in the book of James. And I don't think he's suddenly abandoning that theme and only talking about be vulnerable with your friends. Although he is. I'm not minimizing that. I think that's a powerful thing. But here's the bigger point I'm making right now. When James talks about confessing our sins, our contribution to the strife or the difficulty, or being vulnerable with our struggles, it is implying that there's strong relationship. Because people don't do that if they don't have a strong relationship with somebody. If they're not committed to strong relationships, they won't do that. They'll just kind of ignore the strife they've brought by their bad attitudes or by saying inappropriate things. Or they won't ever open their heart. So this implies strong relationships. We follow this exhortation far more often in context to a commitment to grow in strong relationship. Now some people are committed to grow in relationship and they're content to have a weak prayer life. I'm really into the relationships. They're content to have a weak prayer life. Other people, they want to have a strong prayer life, but they're content to have weak relationships. No, I'm really into prayer. I don't really do all that socializing stuff. The Bible sets the two values of growing in prayer and growing in relationship as complementary, not competing or contradictory. They're not competing values where you pick one. Paragraph one, a strong prayer life will eventually lead to strong relationships. Doesn't mean you'll have hundreds of them, but you'll have some quality relationships, maybe a small number of quality ones. Prayer is not about being anti-social or anti-relational. I've heard, I've just heard that over the years, you know, they go, I'm just really into prayer. I don't really do that thing with people. And I think, you know, I understand the sincere desire, but I go, no, read the whole Bible. We do both. We do both with zeal throughout our life. Prayer is about love. It's about loving God, about loving people. That's what prayer is about. People of prayer should be the most energized people in love. Matter of fact, paragraph two, God so cares about relationships. He tells the husband, if you don't honor your wife, your prayers won't work. He is so committed, the Lord is, to quality relationships. He tells the man, he goes, you can be effective. I mean, you can be eloquent in the prayer room. You can get on the prayer mic and I mean, be bold and eloquent and quote verses and wow people. Speak in eloquence in public on the prayer, in the prayer room, but speak unkindly at home to your wife. And the word of God says your prayers won't get answered. The Lord ties the effectiveness of a man's prayer life to a, to the level, the measure in which he honors his wife in private. I don't mean just in private, but that's where it's most easy to not honor your wife. God connects the measure of our effectiveness in prayer to the measure we honor our wife. I'm talking about men that are married and men that are going to be married. Paragraph three, this verse in 1 Peter 3 is why I think one of the most, I mean, is a significant prayer for the global prayer movement. Beloved, as the prayer movement matures, honor for women in the home will increase. As the prayer movement of the earth matures, honor for the wife in the home will increase globally. The Lord connects the two together. Top of page three. Let's go to the third characteristic, prayer from a lifestyle of righteousness. This is essential. James said the effective prayer of a righteous man, that's man or woman, of a person, that's what accomplishes much. Now this biblical condition is often minimized. I've read a lot of books on prayer. I've been to prayer conferences. I don't hear that much on the requirement of commitment to a righteous lifestyle in the subject of prayer. Mostly what I hear when people preach on prayer is the authority we have in Jesus, and that's powerful. That's, I mean, that's really important to know our authority. That's what faith is about. The whole subject of the prayer of faith is the subject of knowing our authority in Christ, who we are in Christ. But when I hear on prayer, mostly when I hear teaching on prayer, read it, it's mostly emphasized the authority we have in Christ, which I think needs to be emphasized. But beloved, when you read Genesis to Revelation all through the New Testament, old and new, it emphasizes a lifestyle of righteousness. That is not a small thing. And as people involved in the prayer movement, not, I don't mean because you're at the Bible school here, an internship here on the staff here, because there's a prayer culture the Holy Spirit is raising up among a billion believers worldwide. The whole body of Christ, the Holy Spirit's bringing a prayer culture into the whole church worldwide. All the different streams and denominations, this is what He's doing. It's not the only thing He's doing, but He's doing this. And the commitment to a lifestyle of righteousness is critical for that prayer culture to be strong. Paragraph one, the righteous person, the righteous man that's being referred to here in verse 16, is not the perfectly mature believer who doesn't struggle anymore. I don't know, I've never met the guy who doesn't have any more temptations or struggle. I don't know who that guy is. So I don't believe James is talking about that man. I think he's talking about men like Elijah and women like Elijah that have a nature like us. It's the people that set their heart to obey. That's a key phrase. They set their heart to obey. Even when they fall short, they reset their heart. They fall short again. They're never casual about falling short. When they stumble into compromise, they go, this isn't good. I'm not okay with this. I'm not at peace with this. I'm declaring war on it. I'm calling sin, sin. I'm resisting it. I'm warring against it. And I'm taking a stand to obey the Lord in this area. And they may stumble again and again and again, but they're sincere about wanting to obey in that area. That's what I believe is being referred to as a righteous man. I don't think it's the person that's 50 years old in the Lord, and they don't struggle with anything anymore because they can, you know, almost walk on water nearly. No, he's talking about people like Elijah who had a nature like us. Talking about weak people prone to difficulty. The reason this is good news, paragraph two, the prayers of a righteous person, they include weak and imperfect people like us. People that are sincere. Weak, but sincere. Weak in their flesh, I mean. Well, let's go back to this subject of righteousness. I wanted to put righteousness. I'm talking about lifestyle of righteousness. This is not the gift of righteousness. We receive that as a free gift the moment we're born again. I mean, that's involved in all this. But in this passage right here in verse 16, he's talking about a lifestyle of righteousness, not just the free gift. Again, you'll never have a lifestyle of righteousness without drawing on the power and the boldness of the free gift, of course. But don't confuse this as the gift of righteousness. He's talking about the man or woman that set their heart to obey. Don't let anybody lie to you about this. There's a distorted grace message that's escalating around the earth that minimizes the heart set to obey God. And that is not the Holy Spirit. And it's not truthful to the Word of God. They magnify the grace of God in a way that's non-biblical, to where obedience doesn't really matter, because Jesus obeyed for you, so you don't need to set your heart to obey. And it is true. He obeyed for us to get us a relationship with the Father as a free gift. That is true. But Jesus obeying for us is not a substitute for us setting our heart to obey now, to be like Him, to in gratitude of love, to set our heart to obey Him, because we're so grateful for the way He loves us. We want to be near Him. We want to be like Him. We want to be in unity with His will and His heart. Look at 1 John chapter 3. It's very important. We need to have this right in the center of the prayer movement. 1 John 3, 22. Whatever we ask, we receive from Him. Because we keep His commandments. Because we keep His commandments, we do the things that are pleasing. We do things that are, it's called obedience. So, well John, you obviously didn't understand the grace of God, because you said whatever we receive because we keep His commands. John understands what grace teaching is about. But he's saying the grace teaching that takes root in a person's life, emboldens them and energizes them to grow in the spirit of obedience. Again, their obedience might not be at the maturity they wanted, but boy, they are not content with compromise in their life. They are warring against it whenever they see it. He says because we keep His commandments. Because we keep His commandments. If you read that out of context of the whole New Testament and even out of 1 John, because in the larger context, it's clear our relationship is by the blood of Jesus. We have a relationship with the Father. It's clear it's the love of God and the blood of Jesus in 1 John for which reason that our prayers are heard. John is not stumbling. He's made that clear throughout the whole of 1 John. But he says I don't want you to mistake. It matters that we obey. It matters. And again, the distorted grace teaching that presents it as though it doesn't matter. Some won't actually say it doesn't matter, but the complete absence of exhortation about righteousness leaves with a clear impression it does not matter. And beloved, it does matter. It really matters that we set our heart to obey. Paragraph 4, prayer is no substitute for obedience. Meaning I've met people over the years, they've got some immorality going on in their life or maybe they've had some dishonesty about their finances or some area of compromise or continuing in. I don't mean they stumble. I mean it's something that they're just embracing. They say, I'm just going to keep doing this. I'm not talking about failing and repenting. I'm talking about saying, well, you know, little this, little that. I'll tell you what, I'll pray and fast more. I'll go on, you know, a fast and I'll, you know, increase my prayer hours and maybe that will balance out. Beloved, it doesn't balance out. The Lord's not asking you to pray and fast more to balance out disobedience. That's not what's happening. Prayer's about relationship. He's not, we're not praying to earn something. We're praying because he wants dialogue. He wants interaction with our heart. He wants connection with our heart. That's what prayer's all about. So he ties the releasing of his resources into the earthly realm to us talking to him, agreeing with him. He wants us in relationship. He says in Isaiah 59, your sins have hidden his face from you. This is unrepented of continual sin. Continual sin. Sins that, again, that are not repented of, because some of you might say, oh my gosh, I've done the same thing like a hundred times. Or maybe someone says, I wish it was just a hundred. And they're saying, I'm out. No, no, no, you're not out. That's not what this verse is talking about. It's talking about unconfessed sin. And I don't mean some secret sin way back there you forgot about. And you go, oh no, no, I forgot to confess it. Wait, wait, wait. Oh Lord, when I was 14 years old, I think, I can't quite remember it. Not that kind of stuff. I've seen people do that and sometimes it gets kind of silly. Oh really? I think, come on. They say, the Lord's showing me something back when I was nine. I go, well, good for you. I wouldn't put a lot of time on that, but maybe the Lord's doing you on that, so I'll be nice about it. But some people get weird about that. He's talking about sin that's right in front of you that's obvious. That's what He's talking about. And if He wants to talk to you about what happened when you were nine and you and Him, that's between you and the Holy Spirit. But again, most of what I've heard about that over the years, I think, is just a big distraction. He's talking about what's going on in the last few weeks that we're not repenting of. If that's going on, that's what He's referring to here. He says, He won't hear you. It's not like God won't actually hear you. He means, I won't hear you. I won't approve of your prayer. Because for God to hear prayer means He approves of it. Doesn't mean that God hears the prayers of everyone. He hears the groan of everyone in the earth. But when the Bible talks about God hears prayer, it's talking about that He hears with approval. Paragraph seven. No, paragraph six. Very important. I say this like a broken record, but it needs to be said over and over. When we do sin, just acknowledge it to God. Tell Him. Confess it to Him. Don't rationalize it. Don't look for Bible verses to make it okay. Say, I sinned. Confess it to Him. Call it sin. He knows that you're not going to fake God out with a Bible verse. Repent of it. Meaning, declare war on it. Say, no. This is not okay with me. Receive the free gift of righteousness. The free forgiveness. I don't know. We already have the gift of righteousness. I mean, receive that renewing forgiveness. That renewal of your heart. That forgiveness. Then push the lead on it and stand with confidence in the presence of God. Within the hour, be there with full confidence as a first-class citizen of the kingdom. The devil will be whispering in your ear or shouting, accusing you, accusing you. How can you stand with confidence what you did one hour ago? You say, by the blood of Jesus and on the basis I've repented of the sin, I can stand with full confidence in the love of God right here and the full gift of righteousness. Paragraph seven. Now, don't get into that confusion out there that obedience is about earning your prayers. When I run into somebody that wants to minimize obedience, and it's pretty obvious when you're talking to certain kind of folks, they want to minimize. They want to get rid of obedience. So, they'll say, obedience? Oh, you're trying to earn the love of God. That's the standard argument, which sometimes someone is trying to earn the love of God. And that's called legalism. They need to stop. But most of the folks I've heard that you're trying to earn the love of God, it's folks that really don't want to do the obedience thing. And it's just religious rhetoric to cover up a big problem. Don't buy into that false argument. When someone comes and says, you're earning the love of God. I mean, it might be true. You might be trying to, but more times than not, what I've watched over the last couple of decades, that's normally code for, I don't like the teaching that obedience is important. So, don't be tricked by that. It's the old trick of the enemies. Used it for 2000 years, quite successfully. Obedience is not about earning anything. Obedience is about agreeing with love. God is love. When we agree with God, we agree with love. We receive it freely. We respond in gratitude. And that agreement with God is the relational part of what he's talking about. The scripture is talking about here. Paragraph I, I say it again, because we can't say it too often in this course. Prayer is not about informing God. He already knows what you need. You're not telling him something he doesn't know. You're not persuading him. Oh God, if I really, really work myself up, you'll know I'm so sincere, you'll finally give in. He goes, I already know. I know where, I know where you're at. I don't need another argument. It's not about deserving the answer. All of that's confusion. That's just a distraction. Prayer is about the conversation. He wants us connecting with his heart, and he's so adamant about that because he is love. He connects the release of his resource into the earth realm to people talking to him. He could just wave his hand and give all his resources freely. I mean, he did that. He does that through history. It's called the sun shining every day and the rain coming. He says, I give that to the unrighteous. I give it to the wicked. But he says, I want to give more blessings related to talking to me because I love talking with you. I want the relationship. Top of page four. Prayer that is earnest. Prayer that is earnest. Look at verse 17 of James 5. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours. Nature like ours means he was weak and broken like us. Same temptations, same propensity to fear discouragement, but he prayed earnestly. Now this word earnestly is a very important word. I mean, here's one of the great examples of prayer of all of redemptive history, Elijah, and the main thing that's said about Elijah is he prayed earnestly. So whatever earnestly means, we want to get it. We want to get it because one of the great prayer examples of history, that is the main description of that prayer warrior, Elijah. He prayed earnestly. And the one example, there's many examples in the life of Elijah, and you can read the life of Elijah in 1 Kings, the Old Testament. Start in 1 Kings 17 and work your way through, you'll read all about Elijah. 1 Kings 17 on. You'll find a number of examples of his prayer life. But the example they give here is that he prayed that it would not rain, and then it didn't. Then he prayed that it would rain, and it did. But it wasn't just his faith that's being highlighted. He had faith, but it was his earnestness. Paragraph B. Now the work of the kingdom, we know, is based on who Jesus is and what He did. It's not based on how we feel. Because a lot of times we feel tired. We feel discouraged. We don't feel the presence of God. And the work of the kingdom is not based on if you feel tired or not tired. Like, I'm real tired today. I'm in a real down mood, feel discouraged, so I don't want to pray now. The work of the kingdom is not based on if you're tired, because God's not tired. It's when we pray for the sick. I can feel tired. I can feel in a negative mood. I can feel all kinds of distraction. Take your hand out of your pocket, lay it on a person, say in the name of Jesus, because God's not tired, and God's not in a bad mood about it. So it's confidence. In the nature of God. Confidence in the blood of Jesus. Confidence in the cross. Confidence in the heart that God desires to release His presence through us. The reason I say that, because if we measure earnestness in the wrong way, we'll stop praying. Now this is a big point to make, because I've had to face this over the years. If earnestness means real energetic, powerful, on the microphone, donating your tonsils to the cause, if that's what earnestness means, and everything that's not that is not earnest, then that means most of your entire prayer life isn't going to be effective. Some folks get an idea of what earnest means, and they say, I can't stay with that, so then they draw back in prayer. That's why I have passion about this. You can have earnest prayer and whisper, mutter, you know, mutter means in the name of Jesus, you know, you can be in a bad mood, you could feel bad, you can be struggling with condemnation, and still have earnest prayer. It's not a style of prayer. That's not what it's talking about. And the only reason I have passion about this, because if you think it's a style of prayer, then you say, I can't do that, or maybe I can, but I don't feel like that today, so I won't. You're missing a huge reality that James is talking about, because earnest prayer can be yours even when you're feeling out of it, and tired, and down. That's the reason I have energy about this point. Paragraph C, earnest prayer comes from a heart that's engaged with God. Again, I can be praying for someone, having just a horrible time myself, and I'm tired, and distraction, but when I lay hands on them, I'm actually talking to God. I'm engaging with God. I mean, the Lord knows I might be going through A, B, C, D, but I'm going, Lord, I'm believing you to heal them now. So in earnest means engaged with God. It's the attentiveness of your heart to a real person, God the Father, through the blood of Jesus. It's a focus of our mind on the Lord while we're praying. We're not just praying into the air some kind of memorized prayer. It's okay if you have a memorized prayer. That's not my point, but it's not mindless prayer, kind of just kind of getting it over. It's actually engaged prayer. It's not the volume of the prayer. It's the engagement of the heart. D, secondly, earnest prayer is persistent. You don't quit. It's engaged, and it's persistent, and if you're whispering it, and you're praying it while you're out in the park or in the grocery store, you're whispering, you can actually be engaged in prayer earnestly. Again, it's not about working up a sweat. That's not the point, or a kind of a religious fervor, although I don't mind that, but that's not the essence of engagement, working up a fervor beyond what most are capable of working up, and some folks say, you know, some cultures, they really value that working up that religious fervor, and they go, that is what it's about, and then the 99% look at her to the 90% go, I can't ever do that, and if I could do it one day, I certainly can't do it all the time, so what do they do? They conclude that prayer is not earnest, and therefore they draw back and say, until I'm in a better frame of mind, I'm not going to pray. That's what I'm after right now. Paragraph two, or number one, Elijah refused to be denied of his prayers. Paragraph two, never stop asking, never stop thanking God for what he's promised. Tell you see it with your eyes. If it's in the will of God, never give up. That's what earnest is. Paul talked about pray with all perseverance. In other words, don't give up on a will of God prayer. Don't care how many years it takes, don't give up. That's what earnest. Stay engaged, talk to the Lord, not just speak to the air, and don't give up. That to me is the two of the important elements of earnestness. When Elijah prayed earnestly in 1 Kings 8, 18, for the rain, he was kneeling down with his head like towards the ground, and he was, I don't know what kind of noise he was making, but I don't know if anybody could hear him, or maybe they could, maybe they couldn't, I don't know, but that's the earnestness of, he was deeply connecting with the Lord, meaning the attention of his mind. I don't necessarily mean he felt great power, that's not what I mean. He was totally connected talking to a real person. Paragraph 3, Jesus taught the parable emphasizing persistence. Persistence is the essence of earnestness. He said, ask and keep on asking. Here in paragraph 3, when he said ask, it's in the continuous present tense in the Greek. Ask and keep on asking. Seek and keep on seeking. Knock and keep on knocking. That's the idea. Paragraph 4, when you highly prize something, you seek it with all of your heart. You don't give up or easy on something in the will of God that you prize. Let's go to the top of page 5. Here in paragraph E on our way over, I just talk about, there's so many that, again, you can't on the microphone, you say, I can't pray like some of those guys pray. I can't do that. Don't worry about it. Don't even think like it. Don't even try to. Talk to Jesus and stay with it in your earnest. You're passionate. Passion's not about volume. Passion's about engagement of the heart. You know, I saw an example of passion once. I was in the store years ago. I saw mom. She got little Billy in the store. I didn't hear what she said, but she said, you better stop that right now. I didn't hear anything, but that was passion. I got, I was afraid. I went in the other aisle. I said, that's serious. I go, I don't know what she, she was focused and she was staying with it. Anyway, don't imagine that when you speak the whisper of your heart, that is somehow categorized as non-passionate and non-earnest because most of your prayer life is speaking the whisper of your heart. I mean, you'll pray on the mic every now and then, some of you, but most of your prayer life, even the people that pray on the mic, it's the whisper of your heart through the day. And that's passionate prayer. Passion means engaged. Anyway, I'm trying to free some of you to press in. That's what I'm after right now. At the top of page five, paragraph F, earnest prayer doesn't depend on how you feel. You can feel discouraged. You can feel tired, or you can feel nothing and still be earnest. Let's go all the way down. Let's go to Roman numeral three. Bottom of page five, the divine and human sides of effective prayer. A, the divine side is the work on the cross, the power of God, etc. The things we know well, the main and plain truth of the gospel, of the cross. Paragraph B, the human side is agreement. The divine side is the nature of God and the work on the cross, the release of his power. The human side is agreement. That's what he's after. Look at this, paragraph B. When you pray in faith, you agree with his authority. You say, he has more authority than the devil does. When you live in righteously, you agree with God's character. I want to live in purity and humility and meekness. You're agreeing with godly character, with God's heart. When you pray persistently, you agree with his priorities. In other words, I must stay with it because it's important to God. I'm not giving up on it because the answer is not coming now. I'm buying into God's priorities. I'm staying with it even if it's decades. I'm staying with it. Top of page six, paragraph D. Here I give ten, I give the four characteristics I looked at and a few more. So faith, strong relationships, holy life, or a commitment to righteousness, earnestness, praying in the will of God, praying in the name of Jesus. To pray in the name of Jesus means you acknowledge his leadership. It's not just a like a pray what you want. As long as you say Jesus's name, it means it's okay. It means you're praying a prayer he can endorse. Can he co-sign the check? You're acknowledging his leadership, the will of God. You're acknowledging his authority. He has more power over the obstacles. That's the name of Jesus. He has the power and he has the leadership. We're praying something he can write his name on the check and endorse it. Look at Roman numeral four. We'll end with this just two more minutes here. This is one of my favorite subjects. Our prayers remain effective forever. Beloved, your prayers don't only accomplish something in the next few weeks or the next few decades. They accomplish something in this age and the age to come. The challenge of this truth is that we're not able to measure it very well right now. Because we can't measure it, we can give up on it. But in heaven, paragraph B, there's golden bowls full of prayer. The fact that those prayer, those bowls are full, they're filling up. Even over the generations, they're filling up. It means God's not forgetting the early prayers that are in that bowl. The bowl's filling up, meaning the prayers from thousands of years ago are still effective in God's heart. When you pray in the will of God, you agree with his heart. My opinion of this is it lasts forever in God's heart. He says, I'll never forget anything you do in loving me. I won't forget it. Look at paragraph C. God is not unjust to forget any of your love, any of your labor, which you've shown in his name. Beloved, when you're praying for the saints, you're showing love to Jesus and love to the saints. He goes, if I forget any of that, charge me with injustice. I mean, he remembers the cup of cold water that you give. He remembers every prayer you pray that's in the will of God. You're praying. We've been praying over the years for North Korea. We've prayed for North Korea so many times. I mean, we need to do it more. Beloved, things are going to happen in North Korea. Powerful things are happening and more is going to happen. I mean, the saints around the earth are praying for North Korea. That's just the one example, but I believe in the age to come in the millennial kingdom, you'll have an inheritance in North Korea because you prayed for it. And some of your prayers, they'll be answered now and we'll go, wow, but then we'll be surprised. They'll be answered more fully then and we'll go, wow, wow, I thought already happened. And the Lord says it did in part. That revival in history, that did happen, but there's another revival in that same geographic area, a greater manifestation of glory in the age to come that's related to the manifestation of glory in this age. Our prayers are connected to all of it. I've been in the city 30, I think 32 years now. I've been in daily prayer meetings almost most of them, you know, except for my day off type thing for not traveling 32 years. I prayed for Kansas city in the age to come. I'm just wondering how that's going to, I mean, I'm believing for now, but no matter how glorious things happen now with thousands of prayers of thousands of believers and multitudes of ministries in this area, hundreds of churches, thousand churches plus, I'm looking forward to how God's going to answer in this age, but I believe in the age to come that I'll be shocked. I'll say, oh my goodness, how could I have known? Well, amen. Let's stand with that. Let's all stand.