Finish the Race With Prayer — Carter Conlon

The Call to Finish the Race With Prayer

Mark chapter 11. Please if you will I'm going to be speaking the fifth in a series of called finishing the race and The message this morning is entitled finish the race with prayer. Finish the race. With prayer now father.

I thank you Jesus for the touch of the Holy Spirit. Thank you for your anointing Lord you have to quicken this truth. You have to make it alive. There's no other way that we can receive it. We can't walk in it.

If you don't make it live within us. It's insufficient that we understand it with our natural mind. There has to be something of a spiritual quickening in us Holy Spirit of God. Quicken these words to us make them real make them alive in our hearts.

Give me the ability Lord to speak this clearly. Oh Jesus thank you overshadow my frailty. Don't let anybody miss this profound truth because of any frailty in me. Cover me Lord. Father. I bring this to you bring it to your people.

I ask only that your name be glorified that every hungry heart be fed today and I ask it in Jesus name. Mark chapter 11 verse 22 to 24. And Jesus answering Sayeth unto them have faith in God. For verily I say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and Shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass.

He shall have whatsoever. He saith. Therefore I say unto you What things soever you desire when you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have them now? It's an incredible thought. I was reading these words this week.

Faith That Moves Mountains

And the thought came to me if we believe these words now, I'm not speaking to those who don't believe. Now people who don't believe this won't pray obviously. Those who really don't want to walk with Jesus Christ are not going to take this seriously either, but I'm talking about the serious Christian.

The honest Christian the believer in Jesus Christ that says God. I want to walk with you. I want my life to count for something on the earth. I want to know your will. I want to walk in your will now.

No matter where you are on that journey if you're if you're partway along it or if you're just beginning wherever it is the honest person if we believe these words. Then why don't we pray if we believe these words if we believe just these three verses of Scripture.

That you can speak to any mountain that's before you and it will have to move now he's figuratively speaking of course and Be cast into the midst of the sea and he said and these are these are red letter words from the mouth of Jesus himself.

He said whatever things you desire when you pray believe that you receive them and you shall have them now if we believe this. Wouldn't we virtually be running every day into the prayer closet. Now by prayer closet, I mean a secret Intimate time of prayer.

Wouldn't we be running to the the church? For prayer meeting wouldn't we be calling a friend and praying if we find it hard to pray alone. Wouldn't prayer be the very Essence of our life. Wouldn't we want to pray more than breathe?

Now if you had a friend that had a billion dollars and Your friend called you and said whenever you had a need call me and it's yours. Whatever you need you think you might dial that number once in a while and yet we have the very God of the universe That says I'll move anything out of your way that hinders you.

I'll give you all that you desire. If you pray and believe it's going to be yours. Now, I don't know but you but I want to finish the race With prayer. I want to have this kind of prayer in my life and in my heart.

Why Believers Struggle to Pray

I've known it in great measure over the years, but I I don't want to ever get to the point of saying I've received enough. If God has more of his life for me if he has more Ways that he can glorify himself through me.

I would be a fool to vacate the prayer closet and To start relying on something else other than these words that come from the very heart of God. If we believe these words, why why is it so hard for many of God's people to go into this place of prayer?

This place where the impossible becomes possible where we go into the that secret personal moment of prayer and say Lord, I Can't do this in my own strength. But I believe that you can and I believe that you'll give me the power and I believe that I will come out of this victorious.

If we if we believe this Why is it so hard to pray? Now obviously the devil is against prayer. I mean you look through the scriptures and you see the moments where people have prayed you see Babies being born in barren wombs you you see the old being made strong.

You see the Wherever people have prayed the miraculous starts to happen. So obviously Satan is going to oppose you, but is it possible? There's something in our own hearts that opposes us going into this time of prayer.

Now many people can't pray because they feel condemned. I Was asking the Lord I said if these words are true, which we know they are why is it so hard to pray don't I would think that there'd be more people at the prayer meeting than in the preaching meeting.

Be wonderful to hear the Word of God, but I would think that people be flocking to the prayer meeting. Doing whatever we could to get into the prayer meeting because there is this promise of life That cannot be gotten any other way.

But by the hand of God and this promise of victory this promise of freedom this promise of glorifying God in the earth. So so why don't we pray? The Lord spoke these things to me. So I just want to give it to you as he gave it to me.

Freedom From Condemnation in the Prayer Closet

Many can't pray because they feel condemned now imagine how difficult it would be to visit a friend every day who magnified our faults and Criticized the shortfall of even our sincere efforts. I Don't like people like that.

I don't know about you. I find them very difficult that you you come in all happy and They just start pointing out Everything that you're not doing right you ever gone into the prayer closet when I was a young Christian I used to have such a hard time with this.

There was this voice that would always speak to me. If I prayed 58 minutes this I'd walk away and this voice would say what could you not pray with me one hour? If I prayed an hour in five minutes This voice would say is that all you can of your 24 hours of your day?

Is that all you can give to the Lord this constant condemnation? That is from my own heart obviously and from Just from things that have been imprinted into our personalities. We we have a sense if we were raised under a somewhat of a critical Voice that this is the way God is this is the way God thinks this is the way he he feels and so just like Peter in Acts 10 we go into the prayer closet the scripture says he was Went up on a rooftop to pray and and a sheet was let down as he began to pray and on that sheet were all kinds of unclean things beasts and birds and insects and whatever are on this sheet and that's what our Prayer life can be like we we go into that secret closet.

We get on our knees and We start to pray and immediately all of our failings all of our faults all of our struggles all of our shortcomings this sheet comes down anybody else experience this and All of your all of the things that you didn't do right all of the places where you might have missed it as a Christian all of the little things come back to mind as if that's all that God does and So the Lord says to Peter rise kill and eat in other words be nourished Peter be strengthened be Peter.

Strengthen yourself from this this time of revelation. That I'm giving to you. And Peter says no I I can't because there's such uncleanness here and many people can't grow in grace can't lay hold of the promises of God because There seems to be just this constant awareness of this uncleanness.

But then the Lord says something to Peter he says what God has cleansed. That call not thou common. Don't call what I've cleansed common or unclean anymore. When you go into the prayer closet You and I have to know that we have been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ.

We can't just sing about it in church on Sunday. It's somehow got to get into us that the blood of Jesus has cleansed us from all sin. The Bible says that in Christ. We are the righteousness of God. We're as clean as God is.

That's what it means in Christ. It would seem almost blasphemous if it wasn't written in the scriptures. But that is our position for those that have come to Jesus Christ when you go into the into the prayer closet.

Don't call yourself unclean anymore. We've all failed. We're we all fall short. David said God if you marked iniquities humongous could stand. What if you if you went to the cross died for our sins and went back to heaven just to point out our flaws.

When we come into your presence who could stand. None of us could stand. We live in a fallen body and we live in a fallen world. We were subject to the the passions of this this flesh, and I don't know about you.

But as I'm changing into the man that God wants me to be I thank God for that covering of the blood of Jesus Christ. I Thank God that I don't have to be strong to go into the prayer closet as a matter of fact.

The book of Hebrews tells me it's in my time of need that I should go to the throne of God. It's in my time when I need strength when I need direction when I need empowerment when I need help. That's when I should go into the and the Bible says I should go boldly there.

That means I'm invited there. I don't have to crawl in. I can walk in to the presence of God. I can go boldly. I am a son. You are a daughter. We have an invitation to our Heavenly Father. Jesus can't violate the words of his own mouth.

He is not Asking us to do what he himself is unwilling to do. He has cleansed us. He does not call us unclean. And therefore we should take ourselves off the throne in this area of our lives and stop being God and stop calling ourselves.

Unclean what God has cleansed do not call common any longer. Hallelujah to the Lamb of God. John said in 1st John 4 He said and we have known and believed the love that God has to us. God is love and he that dwells in love dwells in God and God in him.

There is no fear in love. When you and I know we are loved of God redeemed cleansed. Justified the Holy Spirit has come upon us to set us apart. It's called sanctified. We are changing Daily into the image of God.

That to an image of God in us. It brings glory to his name in the earth. There's no fear in this love. But perfect love casts out fear because fear is torment and he that fears is not made. Perfect in love and in verse 19 John says we love him because he first loved us.

It wasn't our choice it was his choice to love us. Thanks God. The cross is the full expression of God's love for you. Jeremiah 31 3 he says yea, I've loved you with an everlasting love therefore with loving-kindness.

I have drawn you. We didn't find God. He's never been lost. He reached out to us and drew us unto himself. Jesus said no man can come to me unless the father draws him. Nobody can come unless God draws them.

Isaiah 49 16. He says behold I've engraved you on the palms of my hands. The cross is the expression. It's the full expression of the love of God. Luke chapter 15 God shows us his own willingness to cover us.

When we're moving towards what he's called us to be the prodigal son. Got up and decided to come back to his father. And his father covered him. Empowered him brought him into the house now the son still obviously has a lot of inner struggles, but he's covered now.

He's empowered now. He's called now and thank God for this. Covering the willingness of God to cover while we're we are moving towards what he has called us to be. Paul said I I haven't Arrived, but I leave behind those things that need to be left behind and I press forward to the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

You're covered. Did you understand that you are covered? Philippians 4 6 Paul says be careful for nothing. In other words, don't be weighed down. Don't let the enemy or your own heart condemn you but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving.

Let your requests be made known unto God with thanksgiving. Now, I don't know how you and I can come into the prayer closet with thanksgiving if we don't believe. That we are already received of God and that it's God's delight to change us.

It's God's delight to manifest the life of his son in us. It's God's delight to give us the things that we need to represent him on the earth. It's the delight of God. Praise God, that's how I can come in with thanksgiving.

Lord, I had a bad day. I lost my temper six times, but thank you Lord. It's not going to happen tomorrow. Thank you God that that you Have a fruit of the spirit called long-suffering and love and joy and these things are mine and so I speak to this mountain and Commanded in Jesus name to be moved.

Whatever this mountain is in your life to be moved and to be cast into the sea now Lord I desire love. I desire peace in my life. I desire long-suffering and gentleness. Oh God and Lord I believe I believe because these things will honor you in the earth that these things are mine.

Oh God, thank you. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you Lord. Thank you God. I can feel it already Lord. You're already touching my life. You're already changing my life. The prayer closet should be a profound place.

There should be an excitement there. You shouldn't be wringing your hands going in and wringing your hands coming out. I went to a convention one time where They had a prayer meeting in the morning and when when they They all got up to pray early in the morning and they all went in and everybody Everybody got out their handkerchiefs.

I thought that was kind of odd they weren't even crying yet, but they got out their handkerchiefs and they all got on their knees and they Unfolded their handkerchief and I'm just watching this thing wondering what kind of a prayer meeting is this and everybody starts to pray.

That's how they started. Oh I'm such a wretch. That's the uncleanness. That's a recognition that we're not clean. I fall so far short and in other words, they don't even wait for to be accused anymore.

They accuse themselves. Give the devil a holiday and and they they they cry going down they cry getting up and Then they work harder and try harder and strive harder. When when the scripture says that it's by asking that the things that you need are yours.

It's it's by coming into the presence of God with joy. It's by coming in with a thankful heart. It's by coming in with this sense that God is not marking my iniquities. He has covered me and it's his delight to strengthen me and to change me.

Prayer With Aligned Desires

Now people have a hard time to pray. Secondly because they have mixed desires. It because sometimes our desires are not the same as God's desires for us and so the mixed desires make it difficult because James said you have not because you ask not in chapter 4 verse 2 and then in verse 3 He says you ask and receive not because you ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts.

You ask for the wrong reasons. You and I are left on the earth to glorify the Son of God. To bring this heart of God that sent his son to a cross to knowledge among men. Where we are to be an embodiment of this heart of God.

We are to be doing the work of God. Christ Bought the redemption. But we're to be bringing the reality of that redemption the reality of that that empowerment of the Holy Spirit the life. That is ours.

The Upper Room and the Power of the Holy Spirit

When they when the hundred and twenty burst out of the upper room in the book of Acts. That's that's what they were bringing. They were they were bringing this this sense of. We asked for strength. And he's given it to us.

Supernatural strength sovereign strength. The mountains of fear and unbelief have been removed and here they are 120 mostly uneducated people just simply bursting into the marketplace where people still have the blood of Anger on their lips.

Towards all who follow Jesus Christ and yet here they are filled with the presence of God filled with the life of God. In the Greek it says they were speaking the Megalos of God, which means they the Anticipated outworking of the the inward life of God that was in them they were speaking about what God was going to do what he had given them the faith that was alive in their hearts and the Religious looked at this and said wow.

There's there's nothing of our religion that has ever given us anything that looks like this what was what what must we do to be saved. You ask amiss that you may consume it upon your lusts. In Genesis chapter 24 Tells us the whole chapter tells us that Abraham had a servant.

And he said to the servant swear to me that you will go to my family and find a bride. For my son now, it's it's really a type in a sense of God the Father speaking to you and I the church of Jesus Christ and that servant went out into the land of Abraham's family and in Genesis 24 verses 12 to 15 he was he was praying and he said Lord if if you prospered my journey and and if if you're going to be favorable to my master Lord you got to lead me to the bride.

For his son and the scripture says before he had done Speaking Rebecca came out with a picture upon her shoulder. Before he had done speaking He had traveled a long distance. He's in a very large place with a whole lot of people doesn't even know where Abraham's family is.

But he prays and when he prays the miraculous begins to unlock. God brings everything together. Folks, I I'd thank God that that servant wasn't a strategist. I thank God there were no phone books available.

I Thank God he couldn't tweet or text or do any of these other things in that generation. He did what men should do and he prayed and when he prayed God Sovereignly began to answer that prayer and the miraculous began to unfold and of course Rebecca was grafted into this lineage of Jesus Christ and From this came of course Jacob and the patriarchs of Israel and ultimately the Son of God Himself.

Prayer Requires Obedience to God's Leading

Jesus said in John 14 and verse 31 That the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment. Even so I do arise and let us go hence now He's talking about the cross. He's making it very clear.

He's going to the cross and He said but that the world may know that I love the Father and the Father gave me a commandment now I'm doing what the Father asked me to do and many people can't pray. Because we are unwilling to follow the pathway that may may open up before us.

We're afraid of what God may ask us and that's what why the prayer closet becomes such a difficult place for some people. We're afraid that when we go in there that God's going to ask something of us.

That we're not willing to give. Think about Philip for a moment in Acts chapter 8. He had a marvelous ministry happening. Multitudes were being saved. Devils were fleeing healings were happening. The the original Apostles had even taken notice of his ministry and Yet going into a place of prayer.

He was asked to leave what we may view as present security and success and Go into a barren place go into something. He didn't understand and Many people have a view of what our lives should be. We have a view of what is offering security.

We have a personal view of what success is and we're not willing to go into the prayer closet lest God should change it. Lest he should ask us to do something that is not on our agenda. It's not on our calendar.

That's why people there are some churches that are filled today with people who are just using Jesus Christ to further their own agenda. Not the agenda of God. Now Philip left and he went to a desert place, but in that place he experienced the miracle of a significant conversion a man of authority from Ethiopia was brought to the knowledge of Jesus Christ and then after Baptizing this Ethiopian eunuch the scripture says that Philip was was translated by the Spirit of God.

He when the Ethiopian came up out of the water Philip was gone. The Lord just took him you see this this obedience to leave what we might view as Security and success is what can actually open to us the supernatural the willingness to leave.

Now I've lived through some of this. I've lived through being called of God to pastor. I don't know what it was 17 people or so in a meeting in a little hotel actually and To leave my job a really successful career where I was advancing quite quickly.

And then of course, there's always the pension the dental plan the free medical. Those are serious considerations. To go and to pastor this little group of people the tithing was hardly anything. I was tithing most of what the tithe was in that little group and The Lord asking me to leave and I remember the numbers of voices around me Christian voices saying this is insane what you're doing think about your children and their education and what about their teeth?

I mean, I don't know that's always important. In Canada, it's just an important thing. Your teeth are important. You know, everybody has to be able to afford braces at a certain time in their life. I guess what about their teeth and what about their college and what about your car if it breaks down and I'm getting all the Whatabouts and what about and I remember saying to some people what about the call of God?

What about the fact that this I really believe this is God calling me. I don't understand where it's leading me to but I know it's God. You know the Lord just doesn't call us out of where we are and then suddenly we're aware of of the full picture.

He calls us just to take that first step of obedience. Now Phillips obedience brought the gospel. It's the first record we have of the gospel of Jesus Christ going into the northern parts of Africa. And thank God for that.

It's this first steps Where the miracle miraculous starts to happen and where we're walking and that's where we can say Lord. I need this. When we're doing the will of God when our desires are in line with the desires of God then we have the right to come into the prayer closet and say Lord I need this and We start to see the miraculous unfold.

Experiencing Provision Through Prayer

I remember one time Though we've had a lot of miracles over the years, but I remember one specific time. Our well went dry on our home. We were out in the country and the well Went bad actually not dry some iron got into the well and We didn't have any money.

I was now pastoring this little church and I took my three children and we knelt down. And I said now this is what the Word of God says if you ask for anything According to your desire you will have it.

But you were not to ask according to our lusts but to the things that we truly need and I said we need water. This is it. This is true. We need water. And so we prayed together and I said, I don't know how we're gonna pay for this.

But God is going to give us water. And so we called a company in by faith. They had them dig a new well and they hit blue clay and the water was just as clear as you can get bottled water In a store. It was marvelous.

The water was ice-cold. It was crystal clear and I hadn't yet gotten the invoice for it. I went out to the mailbox one day. Opened it up and was from my father a card and he said I I don't and he never did this ever.

He said it's just on my heart To send this to you. He said your grandmother left in inheritance and he said there's still a little bit left over of it. And he said I'd like to send you if it was a check for $1 ,000 now folks that the bill for the well came to about 960 something dollars and we went out and had pizza as a family.

You can ask you can ask we we we started out as a young Church, and we we asked for a building of our own and our first church. We bought for a dollar from the township. Second one we got it from ten Jewish lawyers for a tax receipt.

We bought a Christian school. Folks I've lived in the miraculous. I've seen the miraculous. I when we're we're doing the will of God. We're doing the work of God when when when our hearts desires in line with the desires of God.

That's where the miraculous starts to happen. But yet so many of us are still afraid of what God may ask. Think about Acts chapter 9 and Ananias a good man goes to prayer and God says to him. There's a man called Saul of Tarsus.

He's staying down in this house on straight Street. I want you to go down lay hands on him. I'm gonna heal him and fill him with the Holy Ghost. Ananias is Lord. Is this the same Saul? That's done great harm to the people your people in Jerusalem, and I have heard that he has authority from the priests to put in prison.

All who call upon your name now, you're asking me To go lay hands on this man. I Mean, that's that's talking about just going right in so here I am arrest me torture me because that's what Paul was doing.

But he reached out and In Acts 9 verse 18. It says as he prayed for Paul. Scales fell from his eyes and Paul rose up and was baptized. Received strength and it's just a verse or two later that he's already starting to go out and preach in the synagogues that Jesus is the Christ.

Thank God for this man's obedience. Think of think about Ananias if he had not obeyed God if he'd gone into the prayer closet and pushed out of his mind everything that was Detrimental to his own safety security in his future.

Folks, I can't get over the thought of the incredible explosive power. That's here just in this sanctuary today if there were people who had the courage to go in the prayer closet and just say Lord, what would you have me to do and Just have the courage to let God speak it to you.

As preposterous as it might be Philip go to the desert Paul go lay hands on this man. That's been torturing the church and putting them in jail and Then John 21 Jesus says to Peter after Jesus had risen from the dead Peter Do you love me?

And Peter tells him yes, I do love you in the last part of that chapter. He says then when you're growing old Can you stretch out your hands and let me lead you? Can you be led into a place that you don't want to go?

Can you be led into something that in the natural you'd rather not do? Can you be led there? Can I can I take you there? Can I use you there? Can your life glorify me on the earth. Remember we said there's no fear in love.

If you love me Peter, you will not be afraid of letting me lead you. If you love me, you will start to love your fellow man as I do. My life will begin to flow through yours and you will not be afraid to be taken where sinners are and Taken into places where there's even a hostility towards the name of Jesus Christ.

You'll not be afraid Peter. You'll not live your life in some religious cloister somewhere or in some in-house Prayer group that never goes out anywhere or does anything. No, you'll be stretching out your hands and saying Lord lead me.

I'm praying that prayer all the time. God lead me. God lead me. God lead my life. God lead me every day. I Want to finish in prayer. I Want to finish. I've lived many years in the supernatural. I've seen what God can do.

I've watched God do the miraculous for years now and I don't want to settle the end and Finish less than I started. I want to finish the race with prayer as a church. We need to finish the race with prayer.

Prayer Against Religious Powerlessness

We need to move into the supernatural of God. There's no fear in love and the Lord Jesus is asking Peter to stretch out his hands and be led Into places he can't go. And many people don't pray because they're unaware that the miraculous is is right within their reach.

Jesus in this verse of Scripture in Mark 11 had just cursed the fig tree. He had come to that which Type. It's a type of Israel. It's a type of religion it's a type of a relationship with God and he looked for nurture on it and there was none and the fig tree represents everything within me that has no ability to let the power and strength of Jesus be manifested through me to others.

Everything in me that hinders everything in me that would want to hide behind fig leaves. Remember it was fig leaves that Adam and Eve covered themselves with in the Garden of Eden. Everything that doesn't represent the life of God everything that falls short of the glory of God.

I have the power in Christ to curse this. I Have the power to speak to this area in my own heart and say no more. Will you govern me? You know my story. It was many many years ago as a brand-new Christian I stood after nine years of panic attacks in my living room and I stood in that living room with feeling a panic attack coming on my life again and Did this without even fully realizing the power of God that was within me.

But I did say this no more. Are you going to govern my life? I'd rather die than have this govern my life anymore. So give me all you got and I throw back at you what I now have in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Everything that has no life. Everything that would want to cause me to settle in for a form of religion without power. I Have the right and ability to curse it. You don't have to be here today playing some game.

You don't have to pretend you're free. You can be free through Jesus Christ. He said not only the fig tree. But you can say to this mountain that means everything in and around me that feeds this powerlessness.

The mountain is the soil. The mountain is what gives life and allows these things that don't represent God and don't have any life and have no nurture for anybody around me. It allows it to survive. Not only the tree Jesus said but the mountain.

Every on that mountain. I'm sure there are other fig trees. Everything that feeds this powerlessness and allows God lookalikes to flourish in my life. I Have the power to cast them into the sea. I have the power to cast them away and to expect God to replace them what with what I need to glorify him on the earth and Today I will have them.

That's got to be in your heart. If that's all of the Bible you had These three verses your life could be miraculous. That's all you had. If you were in a place where there was no Bible and somebody slipped to you if you were in a prison if you were.

If you were somewhere where there's no hope there's no life and somebody slipped this under your door have faith in God. For verily I say it to you that whosoever shall say to this mountain be removed and be cast into the sea and shall not doubt In his heart, but shall believe that those things which he says shall come to pass.

He shall have whatsoever. He saith. Therefore I say to you whatsoever things you desire when you pray believe you receive them and you shall have them today. I will have it Today, I'll be delivered from this fear that my sons and daughters are not coming home today Today my children are coming home today.

My family's coming home to God today. Today, I will have it Today. I've had it with the devil telling me my life is worth nothing in the kingdom of God. My life will go nowhere in the kingdom of God. I have nothing to offer the kingdom of God today I speak to this mountain in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And I command you in Jesus name to be cast away from me and planted in the midst of the sea Today, I will be free from drugs alcohol pornography depression suicide today Today because I'm going with God.

I'm going to serve God. My life is going to be a testimony about God.

Today hey, I will be free.