F4F | Terri Savelle Foy Tries to Get God's Attention

Fighting for the Faith

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Welcome to another installment of Fighting for the Faith. My name is Chris Rosebro. I am your servant in Jesus Christ.

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This is the channel that compares what people are saying in the name of God to the Word of God. So, have you ever heard

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Ken Copeland or somebody in the Word of Faith heresy, because that's what it is, claim that, well,

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Mark 11, Jesus says, whatever you ask in my name, believing that you have received it, you know, therefore, you got to name it and claim it, and you don't ask

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God for anything. What you do is you thank God for giving the thing that you're believing for.

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You ever hear anyone talk like this? You probably have. But we're going to note there's a big problem in this theology.

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And so, what we're going to do in this installment of Fighting for the Faith, we're going to take a look at that verse, but then we're going to apply some other rules for sound biblical exegesis, which are going to include scripture interprets scripture.

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And we're going to note that nowhere in the Bible do we have an example of somebody who just blabs it and grabs it, and that, well,

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I'm believing God for an Aston Martin, and so I'm not going to ask God for an Aston Martin, I'm just going to thank you,

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Lord, that you're giving me an Aston Martin, I'm just waiting for you to email me the tracking number.

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You know, it doesn't work like that. You get the point. So let's do this.

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Let's whirl up the desktop. Yeah, so it's winter here in North Dakota, and why not?

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This is one of the photographs I took of a winter scape a few years ago at sunset.

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It's a nice desktop. But here in North Dakota, it's pretty cold.

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The overnight low tonight's going to be like two, two degrees Fahrenheit. And winter comes fast here in North Dakota and lasts forever.

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Let's just embrace it. I mean, we're coming up on Christmas, so I am dreaming of, you get the idea.

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So let me pull up my, I'm distracting myself at the moment.

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Let me pull up my web browser. Not looking forward to this. Terry Savelle Foy. So the name of this video that we're going to be reviewing a part of is, you will get

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God's attention when you do this. And boy, just that title says it all, by the way.

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Scripture is very clear that each and every one of us who are Christians, we are children of God and that God promises in scripture to hear our prayers.

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God is not distant from our petitions, although he doesn't answer everything we ask for with a yes.

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God has the right to say no, like any good father would.

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Like, you know, if I were to ask God, you know, God, you know, I really want to learn how to juggle chainsaws. You know,

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I can see God going, no, no, that ain't going to happen because we know what a bumbling klutz you are,

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Rose, bro. And just one mistake, that's all it takes while juggling chainsaws.

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So I can see God saying, no, no, no, we're not going to answer that prayer. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

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Let's, let's take a look at the intro to this particular video, and then

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I'll fast forward just a little bit, because I think the intro is important and, and then we'll, we'll do some biblical comparative work, shall we?

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Okay, here we go. Hey, I'm Terri Savelle Foy, your cheerleader of dreams.

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Today I want to talk about something that really gets God's attention. I'm. Something that really gets God's attention.

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If there's a way to speed up your dreams more than anything, this is it. Speed up my dreams.

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Like a soup without salt. What on earth, where in scripture does it talk about things that you can do to speed up your dreams?

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Answer? Nowhere. So that's the intro that I wanted you to hear.

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Let me, let me fast forward. Cause she goes on to like tell people to subscribe to the channel and stuff like that. Which, which

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I get, I'm, you know, I'm a YouTuber, but let's continue now where she gets into the content of her teaching from this video.

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But first I want to tell you a quick, but powerful story about a friend of mine and my family's and it's a precious lady named

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Dodie Osteen. The one who's responsible for bringing Joel Osteen as the curse upon the church that he is.

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Got it. This is Joel Osteen's mother. Now you may have heard the story of how Ms. Dodie was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer back in 1981 and was only given a few weeks to live.

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Well, the day she got the diagnosis. Now, listen to the details here, because even

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Terri Savelle Foy is kind of tripping up with her words. And I'll explain in a minute.

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I heard Joel tell how she lay in her bedroom floor and she didn't yell at God or cry herself to sleep or get mad at God.

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No, she asked God to heal her. So she asked God to heal her. She asked

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God to heal her. Had she done that, what would the, what would the language have sounded like?

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The language would have sounded like, please, God have mercy on me. Please do not let cancer take me at such a young age.

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Please, God grant me healing. It may, may, you know, things like this that, that requires you to ask, but watch what she says.

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She even grabbed a pen and paper and she wrote down December 11th, 1981. I believe

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I received my healing. I believe I receive my healing this day.

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Where in scripture do you get somebody talking like this? And watch what she goes, where she goes. This day. Which day?

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The day she prayed. She believed with everything in her, that healing came into her body on that day. Now, how could she believe like that?

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Well, she was practicing Mark 11, 24 that said. Practicing Mark 11, 24. And this is a foundational text within the word of faith heresy, foundational.

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But when you do the comparative work as to what's going on in this text, you can't practice this text the way these people are talking about and watch.

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Therefore I say unto you, what things whoever you desire, when you pray, believe you received them and you shall have them.

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She believed that when she prayed, she was healed. And I heard Joel say, she didn't look different. She didn't feel any different, but she didn't go by what she saw or felt.

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She chose to walk by faith and not by sight. You know, Joel even says that from that day on, she never prayed,

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God, please heal me. Please let me live. She never asked God again. They never heard her begging God.

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No, she actually started thanking God. The kids would hear her just walking through the house going, father, I thank you that on December 11th, when we prayed healing came into my body, her mind was made up that she was already healed.

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She was just waiting on the manifestation. Well, you've probably heard me share this part, but I love this. She covered her bathroom mirror with photos of her before she had the cancer.

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She was focusing on what can be, not what is. Now, the main thing she was focusing on, what can be not what is.

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Okay, focus on in her story is that she instantly believed when she prayed. Think about this.

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You know, Jesus said all things are possible for those who believe. And he said, believe you have received and it will be yours.

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So we can either take God at his word or we can come up with all kinds of reasons why he didn't really mean what he said.

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Which then requires us to do some biblical work here. Does it really mean, did

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Jesus really, whatever you ask, just believe that you've received it and then just praise and thank God that you have it already.

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Is that what he was talking about? Not even close. So let me explain. So here's, here's our text in question.

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Gospel of Mark chapter 11, 24. This is an ESV. Now, that makes it sound like I can ask for an

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Aston Martin, I can ask for a private jet and anything like that.

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And it'll just have to, you know, God will just have to, as long as I, well, I believe that I've received it, therefore, ergo,

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I got it already, right? No, this is where you have to take other texts and you have to ask yourself the question, which is the clearest text?

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Because already we got a problem here. And that is, is that if you just take Mark 11, 24 without checking the cross references, you're going to end up in the word of faith heresy.

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And then when God doesn't give you what you're believing for, you're going to be blamed for not having enough faith.

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Okay. But Jesus wasn't intending for you to use this text the way they're using it.

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How do I know? Next text, John 14, 13 and 14, whatever you ask in my name, this

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I will do that the father may be glorified in the son. If you ask me anything in my name,

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I will do it. Oh, so here we've got another clarifying, we've got a clarifying text.

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The whatever of Mark 11 is now whatever you ask in my name, according to the will of Christ.

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In fact, first John five says this, and this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

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You see, these terms are being used synonymously. Whatever you ask, whatever you ask in my name, according to my will, that's what it means to pray in Jesus's name.

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We know that God hears us and whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

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So, when we're praying according to God's will, according to the will of Christ or in his name, whatever we're asking for,

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God will give that to us. It's not saying just this carte blanche, blank check, whatever you ask,

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Mark 11 has to be governed by the clearer passages, John 14, 13 and 14, and first John five, 14 through 15, 14 and 15.

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You see, that's when you put those together, now it starts to make sense as to what's going on.

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But let's do a little bit more work. James, the half brother of Jesus, knows a thing or two about prayer.

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Okay. James chapter one, verses five through seven states this, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask

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God who gives generously to all without reproach and it will be given to him, but let him ask in faith with no doubting for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

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For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord. So, we can determine from this text that one of the things that we can pray for and know that it is

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God's will that we have it is what? Not a Lamborghini or an Aston Martin, but wisdom.

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Okay. You can be absolutely sure, Lord, I need wisdom. That is a prayer that God is going to answer.

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Okay. That's kind of the point. Now watch this. James chapter four, same epistle, just a little later.

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So, what causes quarrels and fights among you? James asked. Is it not this that your passions are at war within you?

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You desire and you don't have, so you murder. You covet, you cannot obtain, so you fight and you quarrel.

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You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

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So, you'll note that this text right here rules out the blank check theory of the word of faith here.

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It's you just believe anything that you've already received it and you got it. Blammo, right?

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No. You ask and you do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions.

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You adulterous people. Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

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And here's where I have to note that the word of faith heresy has morphed a little bit into the new apostolic reformation.

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And there are people who running around decreeing and declaring things and who refuse to ask

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God for anything. Okay. And so, if somebody comes to them and they say,

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I have cancer. I need you to pray for me. Here's what they'll do. They'll say, all right, let's pray.

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Lord, I rebuke cancer and I command cancer to come out of the body of this person.

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I decree healing and wholeness and health for sister Becky here.

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You get the idea. Have they asked God for anything? And you'll know, even here in Mark 11, therefore,

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Jesus says, I tell you, whatever you ateo, ask, whatever you ask in prayer, and we note that whatever you ask in accordance with God's will, with the will of God, okay, believe that you have received it, it will be yours.

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That means you need to know what the will of God is, right? And so, prayer is all about asking.

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Let me, let's do a little bit of work here, shall we? All right. So, we'll do some work on this.

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All right. So, Acts 12. In Acts 12, we hear the account of the apostle

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Peter being arrested by Herod. And we're going to walk through some biblical texts here as it relates to prayer, we'll do a little bit more cross -reference work in looking at some of the prayers in the

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New Testament. All right. So, about that time, Herod the king laid violent hands on some who belonged to the church.

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He killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. And when he saw that it pleased the

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Jews, he proceeded to arrest Peter also. This was during the days of unleavened bread. And when he had seized him, he put him in prison, delivering him over to four squads of soldiers to guard him, intending after the

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Passover to bring him out to the people. So, Peter was kept in prison, but earnest prayer, prosuche in Greek, and I'll show you what that means in a second, earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

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Now, here's where the biblical languages are most helpful. Prosuche, okay?

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Let's take a look at what this word means. Prosuche means petition addressed to deity.

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That's what prayer is. It's to bring petitions to God.

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In other words, they were asking, they were petitioning. There was no decreeing, no declaring.

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No one stood up and said, I decree and could declare, I command, and I am believing for Peter's release from prison.

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Nope. What were they doing? Please, God have mercy. Please help Peter. Please, Lord, help.

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Right? They were petitioning God. That's what prosuche, prayer is. Earnest prayer for him was made to God by the church.

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Now, when Herod was about to bring him out on that very night, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and centuries before the door regarding the prison.

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And behold, an angel of the Lord stood next to him and a light shone in the cell. He struck Peter on the side and woke him saying, get up quickly.

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The chains fell off his hands. The angel said to him, dress yourself and put on your sandals. And he did so.

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And he said to him, wrap your cloak around you and follow me. And he went out and followed him. He did not know what he, what was being done by the angel was real, but he thought he was seeing a vision.

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And when they had passed the first and the second guard, they came to the iron gate leading to the city. It opened for them of its own accord.

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And they went out and went along one street and immediately the angel left him. And when Peter came to himself, he said, now

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I am sure that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the

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Jewish people were expecting. And when he realized this, he went out of the house of Mary, the mother of John, whose other name was

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Mark, where many were gathered together and were, what were they doing? Prasukh Amenoi.

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They were praying. They were petitioning God. That's what the word means.

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Prasukh Amenoi. Let's do this. Yeah. Let's see. To petition deity, to pray.

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That's what they were doing. They were petitioning God. Okay. And so, let's see,

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I lost my phrase. They were, there we go. And John, whose other name was Mark, they were gathered together and they were praying.

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And when he knocked at the door of the gateway, a servant girl named Rhoda came to answer. Recognizing Peter's voice in her joy, she did not open the gate, but ran in, reported that Peter was standing at the gate.

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They said to her, you are out of your mind. But she kept insisting that it was so. And they kept saying, well, maybe it's his angel.

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And, but Peter continued knocking. And when they opened and saw him, they were amazed, but motioning to them with his hand to be silent.

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He described to them how the Lord had brought him out of prison. And he said, tell these things to James and to the brothers.

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And then he departed and went to another place. So, you'll note that, that earlier in the text, it says that there was earnest prayer for Peter, verse five.

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And even when Peter had already been released, what were the, what were the

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Christians doing? They were gathered together. And what were they doing? They were praying.

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No one was decreeing. No one was declaring. And no one said, well, we asked God earlier.

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And so we just need to believe that we've received it. And so we're going to thank God now that God has already released

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Peter from prison. No, when Peter arrived, they were still praying and petitioning

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God. Keep that in mind. Okay. Let me give you some examples of prayer from the

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New Testament, from the Epistles of Paul, Colossians 1, 9 to 12.

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Listen to how, how Paul prays. And so from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray, again, to petition

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God. We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, asking that you may be filled.

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And notice what he says. We have not ceased to pray for you. Paul here is making it clear that not only did he pray for the

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Christians in Colossae, asking God that they be filled with the knowledge of his will, but he kept on praying, didn't cease praying that and continuing to petition

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God. He didn't say, well, I, you know, last week on Thursday, I prayed that, you know, prayed these things for you.

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And so now I'm already thanking God that you already have them. No, Paul prayed these things and he didn't cease to pray for those things, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will and all spiritual wisdom and understanding so as to walk in a manner worthy of the

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Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work, increasing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the father who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.

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In Ephesians chapter one, we have this prayer, for this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the

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Lord Jesus and your love toward the saints, I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, plural, that the

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God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the father of glory, that he may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation and the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened so that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, that what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power towards us who believe according to the working of his great mind, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the aid in the one to come.

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And he put all things under his feet, gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

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Chapter three of Ephesians, Paul says this, for this reason, I bow my knees before the father from whom every family in heaven on earth is named so that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell.

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Note how he's asking God, petitioning God, not presuming so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith and that you being rooted and grounded in love may have strength to comprehend with all the saints.

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What is the breadth, the length, the height, the depth to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God now to him who is able far more abundantly than all we ask,

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I tell, or think according to the power at work within us to him be glory in the church, in Christ Jesus, throughout all generations forever and ever.

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Amen. And then somebody might say, by the way, I've had people ask me this question. Well, doesn't

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Jesus give us declarations to pray in the prayer that he taught us, the Lord's prayer? No.

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And if you know your Greek, you would never say that the Lord's prayer is a bunch of declarations.

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I'll show it to you in English, but then we'll take a look at the Greek as well, because the Greek is right here. And we'll talk about aorist passive imperatives.

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All right. So Jesus, he says, so don't be like the hypocrites.

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Your father knows what you need before you ask him. So when you pray, then pray like this. Our father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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And so you see the NAR folk, they were fake. Well, look right there. There's decrees and declarations.

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Your kingdom come, your will be done. They're decreeing and declaring. No, they're not.

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All right. Let's, let me show you something here. So I happen to teach New Testament Greek.

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I have a class that I'm currently teaching right now. My students are doing very well. But we're not even close to this, this chapter in Bill Mounce's book.

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The Greek grammar that I teach from is Bill Mounce's The Basics of Biblical Greek. And here's just a little snippet regarding aorist passive imperatives.

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Because you'll note, your kingdom come, eltheto, he basilea su, genetheto, ta thelema su.

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Those are aorist passive imperatives. And here's what Mounce says in his grammar.

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Okay. It is also used to encourage or request something to do, someone to do something.

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This is called the imperative of entreaty. You do not command

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God to do something. You entreat him, both in English and in Greek.

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So, for instance, in Luke 11, the disciples come to Jesus and they say, kuriae didaxon haemas pras uk estai.

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Lord, teach us to pray. And this is in the aorist passive imperative.

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Teach us. They're not giving an order to Jesus. This is the imperative entreaty, which should be translated as Lord, please, or let, teach us to pray.

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And it's a request. And then in the Lord's Prayer, eltheto, he basilea su, genetheto, ta thelema su, may your kingdom come, may your will be done.

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That's what the Greek is saying there in Matthew 6. The aorist passive imperative is saying, may your kingdom come, may your will be done.

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It's not a decree or a declaration. It's an entreaty. It's a petition.

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So, yeah, just a little extra here. So, may your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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Please give us this day our daily bread. These are all petitions. And if you know your

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Greek, there's just no way around it. So, there's no decreeing and declaring going on there.

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So, that being the case, we now understand how to properly understand this verse.

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Just quoting this verse by itself doesn't give us a proper understanding of what it is that we are to pray or ask or how we should be praying or what we should expect

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God to answer. So, we have to look at the cross -references. And then we also note the cross -references, whatever you ask in my name, that means according to His will.

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In fact, Jesus, when He taught us to pray, note what Jesus said, we pray, your kingdom come, what do we pray to Jesus?

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Your will be done. Your will, not mine. Yours. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

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And here's the thing, when you pray the Lord's Prayer, you should know that you're going to get the things that you're asking for in these petitions, because Jesus is the one who taught us to pray these things.

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We are praying perfectly in accordance with the will of God when we pray this prayer. Keep that in mind.

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Yeah, it is true. But let's come back to Terry Savelle Foy.

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And let me just back this up just a little bit and watch what she does. ... for those who believe.

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And he said, believe you have received and it will be yours. So, we can either take God at His word or we can come up with all kinds of reasons why he didn't really mean what he said.

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Well, actually, he didn't mean it the way you're saying it, because the cross -references in scripture make that clear.

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Well, to wrap up this story, Miss Dodie Osteen believed, and 40 plus years later, she is still alive, healthy, and going strong.

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Notice she's using somebody's experience to interpret the scripture.

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Can't do that. You always have to interpret people's experiences according to scripture, not the other way around.

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I just hung out with her in New York City a couple months ago. She had her beautiful purple dress on. We went to Yankee Stadium to hear

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Joel preach. But what was the key to her miracle? She believed. She refused to doubt. You know, you've probably heard that phrase that doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will.

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Well, I heard Victoria Osteen. Doubt kills more dreams. Talk about how people drink things to detox their body and to clean it out from all the toxins.

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Well, when you consume the word of God, you are detoxing your mind. Now, that's true.

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But note, she only quoted one verse out of context and didn't look at the cross -references. You're cleaning out all the toxins of negativity, fear, helplessness, failure, doubt.

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You know, Jesse Duplantis said people ask him. Arch heretic Jesse Duplantis.

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How he's been able to achieve so many huge, impossible dreams. You know what he said? I never learned to doubt.

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He never learned to actually rightly handle a biblical text. Jesse Duplantis is one of the arch nemesis of biblical

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Christianity. And he is one of these word of faith heretics. I think you get the idea.

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So does God expect you just, you know, just can you stand? Well, I believe that I received it.

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So whatever it is I've asked, I'm going to get. That's not what Jesus meant in Mark 11, 24. We know this from the cross -references and the cross -references are clear.

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We need to pray according to the will of God. And if we pray for things to basically fill our passions, we shouldn't expect

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God to answer those prayers at all. So hopefully you found this helpful. If so, all the information on how you can share the video is down below in the description.

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And until next time, may God richly bless you in the grace and mercy won by Jesus Christ and his vicarious death on the cross for all of your sins.