Encounter With God - Session 3 — Greg Frizzell

Well, I am so honored to be here because whether you know it or not, what's been happening in your church over the last few months is really unusual in a wonderful way. A lot of times you go places and very honestly, you can't say that they're on a rapid journey of going deeper with God, but you most definitely are.

The way your church has been growing in prayer, your pastors on a whole new deeper journey with God, your prayer room, the Friday night prayer movement, I'll tell you, if you're not a part of that, it'll change your life and there's nothing to be intimidated about.

That's where the power is and it'll set you free. Your mission's commitment and you know, most of all, the unity of this church. We're seeing a lot of churches today kind of struggle with the vision and no church is perfect, of course, but you know, you travel a lot like I do, it doesn't take long to sense the spirit of a church.

It really doesn't. You know, a church has a spirit and a personality just like people do and the minute I got here last night, really before that, when I was met with Doug yesterday, I really sense the love of God, the presence of God here and this is what is extremely exciting.

When we see this in a church like what we're seeing right now, I kind of know where it's going because I've seen it across the country and really the world. In all likelihood, within a year or two or three, you might not even recognize yourself.

You may have grown so much and not just in number but in depth and it's just incredible. So I want you to be excited. God finishes what He starts and He's really started something among you and it all has to do with prayer, about closeness with Jesus and going to a whole new level and the great news is it's not out of reach.

I don't care who you are, how busy you are, you can experience this great revival depth with God. Now, most aren't yet but we're about to. So I'm going to ask you to take your Bible, if you will, and turn to James chapter 5 and verse 16 and I do apologize we got out of the books and that's a good sign for you.

That means your hunger is great. We will get them here within two or three days and I love to give people something they can do because you mean well but if we don't have something in our hand to help us have that deeper prayer life, we may struggle.

So it will help you do that but there's another one we're going to send to you that'll really help you do what we're about to talk about right now. So James 5, 16, there's a lot of other scriptures we'll look at and we're talking about taking that next step, turning that corner where God is suddenly a lot more real and powerful in your life and through your life and that's what He wants to take us to.

Cleansing the Heart for Effective Prayer

So I'm going to ask that we bow our heads and hearts before God right now. There's only one voice in here that needs to be heard and it's sure not mine, it's God's. And He is in this room right now by His Holy Spirit.

And just in the quiet of this moment, would you just settle your mind on Him. He truly is looking into your heart right now. I trust He's seeing you looking at Him right now. Father, we do bow before You.

God, we confess You are God. There's none beside You. Oh God, thank You for Jesus. Thank You for Your grace. God, thank You for the Holy Spirit. Thank You, Lord, with You all things are possible. And Father, we're asking in these moments, You would take us, God, to a whole new level of knowing You and Lord, of praying in Your power and in Your will.

Father, take us to a new level of surrender that You may flood Your presence in us. God, help us to live our lives to glorify You and to know You, Lord, not just to use You to get things from You, but Father, to really to be surrendered to You.

Oh, Father, thank You there's no battle in this room that You cannot win. Lord, there's no mountain You cannot move. So, Father, we're trusting You in these moments. Take us deeper. Let it be a turning point for many in this room from teenagers to senior adults.

We ask these things in faith, knowing we're praying in Your will. So we thank You for the answers on the way. God, give me Your words. Father, help it be Your word and Your spirit, not mine. But we ask it in Jesus' mighty name.

Amen. Well, what's happened to us in our busy society today is that without meaning to, many of us have kind of stopped short of the actual mountain-moving prayer. But James 5 .16 gets at a great truth that'll revolutionize your life when we get it.

And the Word of God says this, confess your trespasses one to another and pray for one another so that you may be healed. Now, did you really hear what God said there? A lot of us need healing, both physical or emotional or relational, financial even.

We need God's touch. Areas of our life, we just, frankly, we need a miracle. Well, do you notice what has to happen before the miracle comes, before the power is released? The Word of God says, confess your trespasses one to another so that you may be healed.

Now, there's a very important principle there. A lot of us are crying out to God, do this, do that, or bring in our wish list, which He wants us to bring. But we've kind of short-circuited that first part or we've glossed over that first part, the deep cleansing.

Now, it may sound a little odd to you. Why did He say, confess your trespasses one to another? Don't we mainly confess our sins to God? Why would He say, confess your sins to each other? Well, of course, we do mainly confess our sins to God, and He is the one that has to forgive us.

So why did He say this other? Well, here's what He's saying. We have to get really serious about letting Him search our whole heart. You see, if I'm serious enough to let God cleanse me to say to my brother or sister, would you pray for me about my temper, or would you pray for me about some wrong thoughts I'm having?

If I don't get specific like that and get serious like that, then really I'm not doing what He said here. So what we're often doing is just kind of doing the general, God forgive my sins, but we're not moving to what He said in James 5, 16.

There's also a very important principle here, we have to humble ourself. You know, the Bible says God resists the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. And one thing's for sure this morning, there's not a one of us that really have any right to be proud because we're all a work in progress.

And the Bible says we've all blown it many ways, and we still do in some ways. And so He's saying we have to really humble ourself and just admit, I don't have it all together. And admit there's areas in my life I'm struggling, I need to grow in.

Until we get honest like that and open up like that, it's like His spirit is kind of quenched and He's not doing the mighty river of power that He wants to send. So God is saying the deep cleansing of our hearts has to be there, otherwise, a lot of times, the healing doesn't come.

Because again, we've seen it in every session, we have to come back to the understanding God is a holy God. And unconfessed things in our life really do hinder His spirit. He still loves us, but it blocks a lot of His power.

So He's saying in James 5 .16. If you and I will get really serious about letting Him have our whole heart in cleansing, then He'll get really serious about releasing His power like a mountain moving flood, but that is the principle.

Without that, it doesn't happen. And that's why a lot of people are discouraged. They prayed and prayed and not much happened. But God will fix that, He really will. Now, let me go ahead and say here about confessing sins to each other.

We don't want to do that carelessly and you do that with close friends and with discretion, but God is so merciful. Now, look at the last part of James 5 .16, it's an incredible little statement. The Word of God says it is the effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man, that'd be a woman too, it's the effective, fervent prayer.

What it means is of a clean heart that avails much or has a lot of power. Now, that's a big statement. Think about what God is saying. If some prayers are effective, that means other prayers are what?

That's right, prayer can be ineffective. You say, well, how can it be ineffective? Well, the Pharisees prayed scripture all day and God didn't hear a word. They said their hearts weren't yielded, their hearts weren't right.

So He wants our prayers to become very effective, not just casual. And fervent there, that means they're empowered prayers, they've got power behind them. They're not just saying prayers, not just doing my quiet time.

What God is saying, I want to take you to a place where your prayers are really effective. They're mountain moving, they're not average prayers anymore. He's saying, I want to take you to a place where your prayers are anointed by the Spirit of God.

They're alive, they have power about them and you know they have power. A lot of folks are kind of caught in dry prayer and, you know, it's kind of hard for them to struggle. God wants to fix that. But notice the key to that effective, fervent prayer, really, it's the last part of that verse.

It's the righteous man. Now, what does that mean? Well, it means somebody, a little bit more than somebody that's just saved, but yet they're kind of not walking close with God. It's talking about someone who understands how to have the daily cleansing, how to really let the Lord have our whole heart.

Otherwise, things are blocking the flow of God. A lot of folks are living in that category. So what we want to do for just a few moments is see how God takes us into effective prayer, into anointed prayer where God is real, He's flowing.

Faith, Doubt, and Mountain-Moving Prayer

Well, effective prayer has to involve another scripture. And let me give you this passage. If you want to turn to it or just listen to me, you can. But it's Mark 11 .22. And this is a very important principle that God is taking us to, Mark 11 .22.

And if I were to ask you this morning, how many of you think the Lord Jesus exaggerates? What would you say? He doesn't exaggerate. That's a formal line. Would you agree the Lord pretty well says what He means and means what He says?

We would agree with that. Now, remember that because this passage is so incredible. If we're not careful, we almost think, yeah, but He didn't really quite mean that. It's not quite that simple. But it really is.

Now, He wants us to have a mountain-moving prayer life. In fact, He used that phrase a lot. He loved to talk about moving mountains. Well, look what it says in Mark 11 .22. Jesus said, have faith in God.

For barely, barely I say to you, whosoever, that's you, that's me, whosoever says to this mountain, that's the biggest impossibility we could ever have. Whosoever says to this mountain, be removed and cast into the sea.

But notice this little phrase. That's the key to powerful prayer. And doesn't doubt in his heart. Boy, that's important. He says He will have whatsoever things He says. That's incredible. But then He goes on to say, it's a command.

He says, when you pray, believe that you receive the things you ask for. In the Greek text, that means believe it's as good as done and you shall have whatsoever things you say. Now, what's He saying here?

Well, some people do take it a little far. Some people have a thing they call name it and claim it. And that's not bad unless it goes too far. Some people will say, oh, goody, that means, okay, Lord, I want a brand new Lexus in my driveway tomorrow afternoon, paid for in the name of Jesus.

That's it, I got it, right? You know, He might not want to give you a brand new Lexus. And He's not against that. That's not exactly what He's talking about here, but He is talking about us coming to a point in our prayer life where we really are praying in faith.

That's important. Effective prayer has got faith in it. Now, a lot of believers are caught in hope so and have not moved into this level of really praying in faith. So how do we pray in faith? He said, if you don't doubt in your heart that you'll have whatsoever things you ask.

Now, but that also means, but if you doubt in your heart, there's going to be a hindrance. Now, don't get scared. God will help you fix that. None of us have perfect faith. But I want you to think about how important this is because sometimes as Baptists or other groups, sometimes we throw the baby out with the bathwater.

We might understand that name it and claim it. Maybe it gets a little extreme, but yet sometimes we think, oh, so it doesn't matter that you really have faith. Just pray, let God do what He wants to do.

You know, that's not exactly true either. God wants us to trust Him. He wants us to be praying in faith. Most aren't. Most are just kind of throwing a request toward heaven, hoping to goodness, maybe two or three of them stick.

He wants us to get a little bit beyond that. Well, how do we get there? In fact, James 1 .5 is a very important verse. Think about what God said here. He said, if anybody lacks wisdom in James 1 .5, if anybody lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to everyone generously and He won't pick you apart.

That's a good translation of it. Aren't you glad God doesn't want to pick us apart? He really wants to hear us and love us and forgive us. But in James 1 .6, it says, but let him ask with no doubting.

Now, how much doubting is no doubting? That's no doubting. Let him ask with no doubting, because he who asks and doubts is like a wave of the sea tossed back and forth. Now think about what he's saying here.

If you're praying, but you know, you don't have any faith, you know, you're saying, I hope he answers, but I don't know if he will. I just don't know, but you're kind of back and forth. James 1 .7 gets pretty scary.

God says, let not that man think that he will receive anything from God. Now, again, does the Lord say what he means? Yeah, he does. Is he saying that faith when we pray is really important? He sure is.

That's what he says in that verse, what he said in Mark 11 .22 and about 50 other places. So it really is important that we get beyond just the asking into really believing God. But how do you get there?

Now, let me make this a lot better. Some of you might be getting scared right now. You may be thinking, well, I can't even pray then. I don't have perfect faith. That's not, he's not saying we have to have perfect faith.

You remember when the man came to Jesus and had a demon possessed son and disciples couldn't cast the demon out. It was embarrassing. And so the Lord came on the scene and I'm paraphrasing, but this is what happened.

He said, Lord, if you can do anything, please help me. You remember what the Lord said? He said, what do you mean if I can do anything? If you can believe all things are possible. That's there's a statement again.

And then the little man said what we so often feel. And he was so honest. He said, Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. What was he saying? He was saying, Lord, I do have some faith in you, but Lord, I'm struggling.

I'm doubting Lord. They couldn't do anything. And Lord, I'm just scared. Aren't you glad the Lord didn't fold his arms and frown at him and say, you come back when your faith is perfect or I won't touch you.

Aren't you glad he didn't do that? He went right ahead and met that man's need. Even though his faith wasn't perfect, he was struggling, but he just was honest with God. He said, Lord, I want to trust you, but I'm struggling.

That's all God asks of you. And so I want you to hear that God is wanting to take us into effective prayer that we're some mountains really start moving in our marriages, our children, our grandchildren, our neighbors, our own life, but many are stuck less than that.

So here's the million dollar question. How do we get to greater faith? How do we get to praying in his will? And we know we're praying in his will. Well, 1 John 5, 14, again, tells us that there's a way to get there.

And listen to this verse, 1 John 5, 14, and what I want you to really get in this conference. God has such a great vision for you. God has such a great plan for you. He didn't save anybody to be an average Christian, have an average prayer life.

He really wants you to know him, be full of his presence. But in 1 John 5, 14, it says that. Listen to what God says. He says, this is the confidence we have in him. That if we ask anything, there's that word again.

He's a big God. If we ask anything, but here comes the one that scares people, anything according to his will. Now, do you know how a lot of people say that? They say, oh, well, you can ask anything, but there's a catch.

It's gotta be according to the will of God. As if the will of God is stingy and bad, and you wouldn't want it anyway. Oh no, the word of God says he's able to exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think.

It might be different, but it's gonna be better, ultimately, than we would ever even dream of asking. So that's not a downer, that's an upper. He says, if we ask anything according to his will, we think that he hears us.

No, it says we know he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, we hope we might get the request we've asked him. Is that what it says? Not at all. It says we know we have, there's that word again, past tense, in the Greek, good is done.

Is God kidding? Is he teasing us? Is he exaggerating? Is this only for a select little few? No. Then why are so many not exactly experiencing a lot of this? Why is it more like a little molehill moving every now and then instead of a mountain?

Hearing God’s Voice Through Scripture

Well, all right, there's a key here to the whole thing, and the key is this. People say, well, yeah, I could pray in faith if I knew it was the will of God, but how do I know what I'm asking might just be what I want?

How do I know it's God, and how can I really pray in faith and be praying in the middle of his will? How can I do? That's a great question, and it is a great answer. The Lord Jesus said in John 10, 27, he said, my sheep will hear my voice.

They'll know my voice, they'll follow my voice, they'll recognize my voice. Now, we're sheep, all right, all right? How often does a sheep have to, how often do we hear the Lord's voice? Well, once when we became a Christian, right?

No. If you're gonna be a sheep following a shepherd, how often do you have to hear the shepherd? Well, daily, or you'll get away from it. He's saying, I want you to live your life in a way that's close enough to me that you really are sensing me speaking to your heart a lot.

Now, he doesn't talk all the time. There are times he's silent, but for the most part, he speaks to our heart. Now, again, I say what I said last night. If you're hearing a bunch of voices in the air, I don't know if I'd tell anybody, because he doesn't normally speak that way.

But he is saying, I speak very clear to my children in their spirit by the word of God, and it becomes very real. And if that word asks you the question, well, where do you get faith? Where you're really praying in his will, and you know you are.

Where do you get that? That sounds so hard to a lot of folks. They just say, well, I could never do that. That's for only really spiritual people. That's for children that know the Lord. I mean, it's not that out of reach, but how do we get there?

Well, the Bible tells us how we get faith, greater faith, and it says, you can probably quote it for me. Faith comes by what? Isn't that interesting? It doesn't come by naming and claiming the right thing.

The right magic phrase, it comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. That means the word he speaks to your heart through scripture. It's a personal relationship. The faith comes by hearing, and hearing by that personal relationship where he's speaking to your heart, and that's the word of God.

Now, here's what he's saying to us. He's saying, I want you to be able to have your prayer life and live your life in such a way that it's not just kind of a wish list. It's not just a little tad here, there, and yonder.

It really is deep enough where the heart is clean enough, where your hearing is clear enough that he's really real, and so, therefore, your praying promises a lot that he's giving, and we don't always know exactly what to pray about everything, and he doesn't tell us everything, but there's an awful lot he'll tell us if we're listening.

You know, the Lord speaks to us. The Bible tells us very clearly what kind of voice he uses. Does God shout at us a lot? He can. Sometimes he does, but the Bible's very clear he speaks mostly with what kind of voice.

He says he speaks with a still, small voice. Now, you know, there's no accidents in the Bible. God could've said it's a still voice. He could've said it's a small voice. Why'd he put them together? He's making a very important point.

He's saying, I speak so soft, so quiet, it's less than a whisper. Why does he do that? Is God trying to be hard to hear? Is God trying to be hard to find? Oh, no, but he says what I want from you is love.

What I want from you is closeness, and he's saying that means I want you to give me time and get in my presence because you love me, and that's why he said be still and know that I'm God. That's why he said shut the door and go into your closet.

It's not about making it hard. He's saying I want you just to desire closeness with me, not just to get me to do stuff for you, but to wanna hear me, and you see, when your heart gets clean, let me give you this illustration.

If you walked up on a pool of water on a really windy day, and it was just full of waves, and you leaned over and looked down in that wavy water, what would you see? Well, water, that's all you'd see.

But if you went to that same pool of water the next day, and it's dead calm, just like a mirror, and you leaned over and looked down in that water, what would you see? Well, you'd see your face just like looking in a mirror.

Ladies and gentlemen, our hearts are exactly like that. That's why he said shut the door, go in your closet. Be still and know that I'm God. Let me search your heart. Let me cleanse your heart because when you do that, your spirit becomes just like that water, and that still, small voice gets really pretty clear.

But if you and I are in a big hurry, God, I'm gonna seek you with all my heart, and we got three minutes, hurry up, your heart and mind is just kind of like that water. And especially if we hadn't let him do the cleansing, then his voice is not that clear.

And so we're praying, but we don't have much faith. We're hoping he does something, but we hadn't heard him speak to our heart. And so his presence is not that real because his spirit is grieved, but great news, this is so easy to fix.

Now, I say it's not shallow, but it's simple. A child can do this. So that's why he says, if you'll let me take you to a clean heart as a lifestyle, not perfect heart, but a yielded heart, then your spirit becomes clear.

That voice becomes clear. And then you start getting promises from God. Then you're praying in real faith. Man, he makes all the difference in the world. It is incredible the difference it makes. Well, here's the big question.

How do we get there? In our busy lives, we're struggling, we're imperfect. Some of us really live in tough situations, workplaces. How do we get there? And this is the great news. Even there are times when God doesn't move a mountain, sometimes we have to go through a mountain.

And some prayers do take years to see an answer, but he's saying, I can be so real to you. In the meantime, you got grace and peace, even in a battle. And that's what he's saying. But how do we get there?

We're busy, we struggle. How do we get there? Well, there's a principle. And a principle, it's really a foundation. And if you got this foundation, God will do the rest. But if you're gonna build a house, what's the first thing you have to do?

Put down the foundation. You try to build a house without the foundation, even if you get it built, it won't stand. There is a foundation to this effective, fervent prayer life and closeness with God.

Uninterrupted Prayer as a Love Relationship

If it's not in your life, you can go to church all your life, you can do a thousand study courses. You'll always stay kind of not too far from just a small baby Christian. So how do we grow up into mountain-moving prayer, close hearing of God, clean hearts, victory?

How do we do it? Well, here's the foundation. You must make an absolute commitment to consistently spend, and don't try to write this down, I'm gonna explain it, okay? You must make an absolute commitment to consistently spend significant time, along with God, in uninterrupted prayer as a love relationship.

Now, that's talking about a little quiet time, but not just a minute or two. Taking it deeper, it's talking about the cleansing of the heart. Now, let me stress this very important. This is not another thing you've got to do.

This is not, oh boy, another duty, another responsibility, another hoop to jump through. I always know we're in trouble when somebody comes to me and says, okay, Brother Greg, how long do I have to spend with God and let Him cleanse my heart in order to be fully right, fully filled with His blood?

How long do I have to do that? You got it wrong. It's not how long do I have to, it's how long do I get to. Because when you really understand what He's saying to us, it is not a have to, it is a get to.

It's not about legalism, it's about a love relationship. You see, we approach prayer not from just want to get something, but I want to know God, and then everything changes. So let's take this apart for just a few moments, be real practical.

How do we go from here to here in just a few weeks, okay? Let me take that foundation apart. You must make an absolute commitment to spend significant time along with God in uninterrupted prayer. That's the key for most American believers is to take it a little deeper, but what is significant time?

And that is the big question. How long do you need to spend with God, and what do you need to do in that time for God to call it effective, for God to say that's a powerful prayer line, and for God to be able to fill you with His Spirit and answer your prayers?

How long does it have to be, and what do you have to do in it? Well, you know what, I could never tell you that. I could never stand here and say, it must be an hour, or it must be 30 minutes. I could never tell you any of that.

You say, why not? Bible doesn't. And I better never say anything the Bible doesn't say, because you know, it'll be different with each person. But on the other hand, I can tell you exactly how long it needs to be.

You say, well, you're contradicting yourself. You said you couldn't, now you say you can. Which is it? All right, now folks, this is an old bit of Tennessee wisdom, and I just know California people will get this.

All right, here we go. So this is how long your time with God must be to be mountain moving, where His Spirit is real, His voice is clear. It must be exactly this long, no more, no less. And here it is, are you ready?

Your time with God must be exactly as long as a dog's leg. Now, California people, no matter how, whether it's a German shepherd or a Datsun, how long is that dog's leg? I'm playing with you a little bit.

We're gonna make a real important point here. It's long enough to do what? Breach the ground, right? Okay, another way to say that, it's long enough to do the job. Now, here's the serious question. What is the main job of prayer?

Do you know how a lot of people answer that survey when they just get real honest? They say, well, it's to tell God what I need and where I'm hurting and where I need some guidance. And it's about getting something from God.

But do you know, in the Lord's prayer, He really doesn't talk a lot about that. In fact, in the Lord's prayer, the pattern He gave us, the purpose of prayer was to get in His presence by worship and to really get on His wavelength about His kingdom, praying things on His heart.

And yeah, we're gonna talk to Him about our needs, that'll be there, but it's not first. It's about letting Him really deeply cleanse our heart, especially removing any anger that comes in so fast. And then He said, it's about spiritual warfare, delivers from evil, which we need to know how to pray.

And then it ends up with worship again. So, have you ever thought about how much of the Lord's prayer is about, give me, give me, bless me, bless me? How much of the Lord's prayer is about what I need and what I want and what my problems are?

You know, it's shocking, about 15%. 80 to 90 of the Lord's prayer is about, guess who? It's about God. It's about getting focused on God. It's about worship. It's about letting Him absolutely cleanse our heart.

In fact, I think Jesus said that, didn't He? Now, let's see if I've got it right. He said, this is how you live your life. This is how you pray. This is the key to the whole thing. I think I got it right in Matthew 6.

Let's see. He said, tell me if I got it. He said, seek first to get your needs met and get blessed. Amen? That wrong? Yeah, I'm kidding. What'd He say? He said, seek first the kingdom of God. Well, what does that mean, though?

Well, that means pray mostly about eternal things, kingdom things, like people coming to Christ, marriages getting changed, relationships getting healed, church getting revived. Seek first the kingdom.

And then He said something else. And His what? And His righteousness. What does that mean? That means His name being exalted as righteous, but especially it means God cleanse every corner of my heart.

Lord, help me give you everything today. My thoughts, my attitudes, my motives. He said, isn't that amazing? He said, if you'll get focused in your prayer time about Him and about really letting Him have your whole heart.

You remember what else He said? I already know about your problems. I already know about your needs. I know about those earthly things. What He's saying is, if you'll get really focused on me and closeness, my kingdom, and the cleansing of your heart, He's saying, I'll work so many miracles you can hardly keep up with it.

Got bad news, though. Studies clearly show that most believers' prayer life in America has been reversed. It's made up about 80 to 90 of what we want, what we need, what we desire, and only a little bit about the other, but you know what is changing?

And here's the great news. This is not hard to change. You say, well, Brother Greg, I don't know how to do what you're talking about. That sounds hard to me. I just can't do that. Oh, you'll be amazed how easy it is to let God reverse it.

And then, yeah, you see a lot more miracles. You see a lot more of His power, but He's saying, significant time with me about my kingdom and about cleansing. So your time with God must be exactly this long.

It must be long enough to experience some real worship and some real cleansing of your heart and to let Him guide you just in a little prayer that's bigger than my problems and needs. And, you know, that may not take real long for you at all, and it'll be different from day to day, but it's almost certainly gonna be more than two minutes on the run with a quick prayer about my needs.