Practical Prayer — Thaddeus Barnum

Almighty God and Almighty Father, how we praise you and bless you here on this Mother's Day. How we thank you for your presence with us, and how we need you in the times that we're living. Oh Lord, surround us and envelop us with your Holy Spirit today.

Continue to minister to us as we minister to you, and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Good morning. I would like to call your attention to this passage in John chapter 7 together. Sorry, John chapter 17 together.

Part of the reason I would like to focus in on this this morning is that part of the work I do during the week is I meet with pastors and Christian leaders with video conferencing really all over our diocese and all over the country.

And I get to kind of hear the pulse beat of where things are, and I actually am concerned about something that I would like to raise to your attention today. And really, quite honestly, it's found here.

Christ’s Intercession in John 17

It's found in our text. Because here in chapter 17 and verse 9, Jesus is beginning to pray to his Father. He says, I am praying for them. I am praying for them. Holy Father, righteous Father. And he begins, we see the high priestly prayer.

Jesus our Lord standing before his Father. He's in prayer. And we are, we are there observing, we're watching right here in the text, him praying. Now I say that by saying, as you go through the New Testament, you're going to find he not just prays here, but the way it's described of the high priest in Hebrew 7 is that Jesus always lives to make intercession for us.

Let me say it again from Romans 8 verse 36. Christ Jesus is he who died, yes rather who is raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for us. What does that mean to you? It means he's praying for you.

He's praying for me. He's praying for us. He is praying for his church. The way it's described of the Holy Spirit in Romans 8 26 is that when we don't know how to pray, the Spirit intercedes in us, for us, on our behalf with groans too deep for words.

The Holy Spirit is praying. Jesus is praying. My friends, do you believe in prayer? Then are you praying? See, see, this is the thing I'm finding that is a difference between what's happening with, yes, we believe it, but, but what happens when life gets bumpy and messy is we suddenly, we suddenly find ourselves not doing it.

Disappointment and the Theft of Prayer

Let me give expression of that. Here's what I'm finding. I'm seeing that what the, what the devil is doing is he's stealing something that belongs to us. He's taking from us something that belongs to us.

What do I mean by that? I mean this. I have a friend who called this week and he is done with prayer. I'll tell you why he's done. He's so disappointed. He and his wife, they've been praying for weeks, no, months, no, years for this person that they love so much, and the situation is only getting worse.

It's getting worse. The person is getting worse, and the devil whispered into their ear, you see that? You believe in prayer, but you know it doesn't work, don't you? Look at this. Look at the effect of it.

It's not working. And then he began to see the Lord through the eyes of that disappointment, the lens of that disappointment. Have you ever been disappointed by somebody? I mean, I expect a 745 to say yes, but nine o 'clock in the morning.

What happens when you get disappointed with somebody is the relationship begins to break. We stop communicating, and that's what happened. The reason prayer got affected is he began to see that devil whispering.

You see, the Lord doesn't care about that person. If he cared, he would act. He would do something. He's not doing something. He doesn't care. God is to blame here, and that sank into his heart. It's quite subtly.

It wasn't present from it just happened. How are you doing praying wise? It's quite dry these days. Well, of course it's dry. Something is sneaked into you. Something's happened to you. Disappointment rules in your heart, and I'm here to get rid of it.

That's what the devil sows inside of us. Listen to me. I don't know why certain prayers are not answered. I don't know. I am not here to answer the why behind every mystery that you and I cannot solve, but I can tell you it's not the why that matters.

It's the who that matters. He wants to be right there in the middle of it. Do you get that? He wants to be in the center of no matter what it is we're going through, and so I take off the lens of disappointment and start saying, Lord, you are unchanging.

You love this person with a with a steadfast love, and so I join in the commands of the New Testament prayers. What are the New Testament prayers? We are to pray unceasing, constant in prayer, devoted to prayer with an attitude of thanksgiving.

Listen to it this way. In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, we make our requests known to God, and the peace of God that passes understanding, he comes. I don't want this stolen from us.

Prayer Through Christ and Access to the Father

I'm going to tell you why. Listen to this. It may sound quite arrogant, and I do not mean it that way. Please hear me. Christian, if you're a Christian, nobody on this earth prays as you pray. Why do I say it like that?

I say it like that because of this. Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. What does that mean? It means that in Jesus, what happened on the cross of Calvary, is that that veil was rent between us and the Father, and he escorted us into the presence of the Father through the blood of Jesus by the Holy Spirit so that we've got access to the Father.

If you want proof of that, it's not me making it up. Ephesians 218. Read it sometime. Memorize it sometime. It is through Jesus in the Spirit that you and I have access to the Father. And when we go into that, and we become Christian, guess what happens?

We become children of God. That's what it says. As many as received him, to them he gave the right, the power to become his children. Born not of the flesh, not of the will of man, he's born of God, born from above, so that we are his children.

Praise be the Lord. Beloved, now you are children. See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called children of God, and such we are. And for this reason, we can come into the presence and say, Abba, Father.

We can come into the presence in and through the blood of Jesus, in the Holy Spirit. Jesus is Lord over this circumstance. Does that make sense to you? You and I have been invited to pray. Huge. And we're watching it straight to the New Testament.

Listen to Paul's heart for Timothy. In 2nd Timothy 1, he says, I long to see you, recalling your tears. I constantly remember you in my prayers, night and day. Oh no, this is the great privilege of the Christian.

We have access to the Father to pray. We are intercessors. This is the gift that we've been given. Can you believe this? And so what does Satan want to do to us? He wants to rob us of this privilege, rob us of this honor.

He wants to whisper into our ears and bring disappointment, and I say we've got to resist him in the name of Jesus. No, no, I don't understand why things don't happen. I don't. I know you're disappointed on certain things.

We all are. But I know this. He has not changed. And so here we come. So with these pastors who are brilliant, they've got MDs and demons, and they're brilliant people. I go back to the basic, basic training of prayer.

The Lord’s Prayer: Establishing God’s Rule

Would you do that with me? Calling me. Basic training, just really simple, basic training. I get this very simple from the Lord's Prayer. It's so simple from the Lord's Prayer. What's the first thing we do?

Right. Whatever you said was exactly right. I love that. The first thing we do is establish his name and his kingdom and his will over the situation. Whatever it is, his name, his kingdom, his will over the situation.

Asking for Provision, Guidance, and Protection

Our Father in heaven, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in this situation. Second thing. Here it comes. Ready? Provide for them. Give us this day our daily bread. Forgive us our trespasses. Provide sustenance, mind, heart, body, and soul.

Provide us relationally with all that we need today. Provide for us. Can you say provide? Third thing. Guide us. Lead us not into temptation. That's what the world, the flesh, and the devil have been doing with us, leading us into temptation.

But you lead us in the paths of righteousness. Lord, lead us. Can you say lead us? Third thing. Which is really the fourth thing. What do you expect? It's nine o 'clock in the morning. Protect us. Deliver us from evil.

Can you say protect us? Here it is. Provide for us. Guide us. Protect us. Is this difficult? Isn't difficult. We're coming into a situation of crisis. We don't know what's happening. We don't know what's going on.

I don't know what's happening. I don't know what's gonna happen in this situation. I don't know. But what I do know is right now, right this moment, Father, your name, your kingdom, and your will right here.

We're praying provision. And sometimes when the crisis is really hot, really hard, I go back to this passage. I go back to this passage of John 17. In John 17, what is he doing? He's praying, Lord, protect them from the evil one.

Lord, guard them from the evil one. While I was here, I protected them. But now you protect them. And that's sometimes I reverse the order. The Lord's prayer, provide, guide, and protect. And sometimes like the John 17, I protect in the name of Jesus.

We pronounce your name and we pray, Lord, protect from the evil one. Do you see that? See the thing, for example, in Acts 20, Paul says this of himself. In Acts 20, he's praying for the Christian leaders.

And he says, I know that my presence, I know that after my departure, savage wolves are going to come in, which means as I stand here, savage wolves can't come in. Why? Because here we are. We're Christians.

We belong to the Lord. And we proclaim the name of the Lord over the situation. The wolves have no power here. Do you see it? And that's what's so essential. And that's what we get to do. I got a call from somebody this past week, and his life is a mess.

Intercession in Personal Crisis

And I'll tell you why. At work, he's being assaulted. His character is being assaulted. There's a politic that's gone on, and he is the focus. It is inevitable he's going to be fired. He can't sleep. He's now sick.

He's anxious. He's depressed. He doesn't know what to do. What do you do at a time like that? Christian, what do we do at a time like that when you get a call like that? It's very simple, you see. This is childlike.

I'm so sorry, but sometimes we get daft. This is very simple. Excellent. We're going to call the intercessors right now into prayer. We're going to start surrounding you. We're going to watch the kingdom of God come here.

I don't know what he's going to do, but I'm not leaving until he does it. And this is how we treat one another. I have another call from a gentleman who's actually a pastor on the West Coast, and his marriage is just done.

It is not going well. He's doing his job as a pastor. He's got the image. He's doing as good a job as he can do, and he's trying to be the good husband. He's trying to be the good father. He's trying to put all the things in, but inside he's alone.

He's got nobody, and now his marriage is breaking. Things are breaking inside of him, and the depression is getting deeper, and he's alone. I don't know the cause of all these things, but I do know this.

The one thing that the devil does is he gets us isolated and alone. So when somebody comes up and says, how can I pray for you? I'm fine. Well, well done you. Are you really? So you don't need anybody to step into your story.

Is that what you're saying? Because that's not how I read here. I read here that the lost sheep goes out from the 99 thinking he can handle life, and we cannot handle life on our own. We need people around us praying for us.

Do you understand that? And so I said to this brilliant pastor, I said, friend, your marriage is on the rocks. What's going on with you? And he tried to sort it out for me, and I went to this subject.

I went to this conversation. I said to him, I've got a question for you. In your church, do you tell the people you believe in prayer? I do. We do. We believe in prayer. We pray. I said, well, excellent.

Do you see answered prayer? Yes, we do. We see answered prayer. So, so you teach prayer, and you believe in prayer. Yes, I do. So good. That is so powerful. Are you praying with your wife? Are you praying with others?

How's your prayer time? I was on videoconferencing. So I said to him, go get your wife. Bring her into the story. It is time to bring the kingdom of God here. I don't know all the causes. This is not a quick fix conversation.

This only sets the environment for the Lord to step in. Did you get that? We're just setting the environment for the Lord to step in, but we've got to create the environment. I've got to get the devil out of the picture.

The Passover Blood and Spiritual Protection

The image I have from Old Testament to me is most powerful image, and that is this. In the Old Testament, there's a house. I love this picture. It's a house, and on that house, the blood of the Lamb is put on the doorposts.

It's called the Passover door. It's put on the lintels. It's put on the doorposts. You can see the sign of the cross right there, and what it says in Exodus 12 is the destroyer can come right up to the doorpost, but he can't cross in.

He can't cross over the blood of the Lamb. Did you get that? And so what we do is we grab people on the outside who are getting beat up, and we bring him in the house under the blood in the name of the Father where the kingdom resides, where his will is made known.

Get them inside the house. Get them inside the house. That's what we do. That's what we do. That's what I did with it, and this is what happened. It's so simple. Have you ever tried, after a good fight with a spouse, with a good fight a friend, have you ever tried to pray?

Oh, that works. Woohoo! Hey, I won this, clearly, so let's pray! Good job! No, no. The reason prayer doesn't work well is very simple. When we don't have good relationship, when there's a break in the relationship, we don't talk.

We don't communicate well. When there's a break in the relationship, we don't talk. We don't communicate well. When you're walking right, you pray right, because you talk right. Did you get that? That's what happens.

Praying Through Marital and Relational Conflict

And so we started. We started. It's so simple. Pray over your wife. Father, in your name, your kingdom come between us. Your will be done between us. Protect us from the evil one. So simple. Child can pray this.

Would you protect us from this? Would you provide for us what we need? And would you guide us in the days to come? In Jesus' name, amen. And let's do this every day. Do this every day until the God of peace, the shepherd, enters the valley of the shadow of death, and suddenly we feel his rod and staff, and comfort comes, and fear is gone, and we can live no matter what we're facing.

Now that's prayer. That's power. That's what we do. Do you see how awkward this is? I have found people who say to each other, I'm praying for you. Great. Well, do it! No, no, that's so awkward. It's like, what will they think?

What will they say? What will I say? I don't feel right about this. You're sort of trained to do this. A child can do what I just said. Protect. Say it. Provide. Guide. Let's start it. It's that simple.

It's, this isn't this. So, so I'm gonna ask you this. Who has the Lord given you in your life to pray for? Are they written down? Are they written down on a piece of paper? Do you, do you have it? And do you have the urgent prayers?

The people that are urgent? I've got two people right now. They've got brain cancer. I've got a woman with breast cancer. It's gone through her body. Who's praying for her today? This is what we do. Who has the Lord given you to pray for?

You to pray for. Write it down. In the urgent times, we do that night and day. In the common times, the people who are common to us. I think you'll find when you start writing, there's too many. So on Tuesdays, pray for your friends.

On Wednesdays, pray, I don't care how you organize this. Everybody's different. But my friends, this is what we do. Why? Because we've been given access to the Father, by the Spirit, in the blood of Jesus.

We have the right to pray. We have the power to pray. We have the privilege to pray. And we've got the devil telling us it doesn't work. Well, it does. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. It does. The church in our present state is so messed up.

Prayer as the Ministry of the Body of Christ

Today, this culture, you know what it says? It wakes up and says, I wonder if I'll go to church because I wonder if I need something today for me. Well, excellent. Well done, you. Here it is. You don't live just for you.

If you're in need, yes, go to church and ask people to pray for you. But do you know something? There's people here today who actually are alone and they need somebody to look them in the eyes and say, do you need somebody to come alongside you, to go through this with you?

And I'll do that. I'm not going to pray and run. I'm going to pray and stay. Until we've seen it through. Because it's what we do. That's the body of Christ. And I say where two or three are gathered.

There, Jesus says, I'm in the midst. The kingdom has come and we're gonna walk it through. That's why he gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth. That's why he gave us the body of Christ, the people of God, the abundance of counselors to get wisdom in whatever we're facing, whatever trauma, whatever crisis, whatever medical issue, whatever addiction that we've got.

Oh, this thing with addiction is incredible. I've seen this. People in this church, ah, they're trapped in an addiction. What happens? Well, listen, let's go to CR on Thursday nights where people can surround you and pray for you.

No, no, no. I don't need that. Well, good, good. Well, then keep going with whatever you got. Just hope that New Year's resolution, just dig right in. But I promise you, the way God speaks to us has always been the same.

He speaks to us by the Word of God, in the people of God, by the Spirit of God. And that has never changed. We come together and we pray for one another. And so when you take and you put change into the bottles, there are mothers out there who need our prayers today.

There are babies out there who need our prayers today. Don't just put the change in. Don't just give. Pray in the name of Jesus that a baby be set free, that a mother come to life in Jesus. This isn't just change.

It's to change the world we're in. And so watch out grocery store when I walk in. Watch out business when I walk in. Watch out people, because ambassadors of the Lord are entering into this place and we're pronouncing the kingdom of God over our business and over our family and over the things that will be given.

Proclaiming God’s Kingdom in Every Circumstance

And I say it just so simply, Father in heaven, your name, your kingdom, your will, protect in the name of Jesus. Deliver us from the evil one. I say provide in the name of Jesus the blessing and the grace that belongs to us as Christians.

And then lead us step by step in what you've got for us, in your perfect plan. And on we'll go. That is the mission of the church, because we have been given permission and blessing to pray. Friend, has the devil stolen from you what belongs to you?

I want it back. In the name of Jesus, our Lord, equip us and bless us for this great work and empower us. Oh Lord, empower us. In Jesus name. Amen.