Decreeing & Declaring - How to Pray and How NOT to Pray

Tonight, we're going to be looking at what the Bible says about prayer, so let's open up to the

Gospel of Luke, chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, we're going to see what Jesus says about how to pray.

We'll talk about what prayer is, but we're also going to talk about what prayer isn't.

So over the past 10 years or so, I've done Bible studies and sermons on the subject of prayer, and usually it's all been pretty similar.

Always try to establish that basic principle that God answers prayer according to His will.

We know this. We don't always get an affirmative for whatever we ask. Sometimes we ask amiss, as the

Scripture says. We ask for the wrong things. We know from 1 Peter 3, verse 7, that sin and strife in our relationships can hinder our prayers.

But I've never really... So I've talked a lot, I think, over the years about prayer and what prayer is, how to pray, but I've never really talked about the wrong way to pray.

So I want to spend a little time tonight, since this is the first lesson in our discernment series.

Discernment is not just explaining the difference between right and wrong, it's explaining the difference between what's right and what's almost right.

So something can seem good, they're talking about Jesus, it's in church, they're praising the name of Jesus, but we want to look at all things, are they biblical?

So for that reason, I've noticed this new trend that has really gone mainstream.

We're going to watch a video clip in a moment, and then a few more later on. But this has gone mainstream to where people are no longer...

I mean, they're doing this too, they're praying to God and asking for things, but now it's very common to hear people making what are called declarations, or decreeing and declaring.

Who's familiar with this? You've heard people stand up in church or in a meeting and they're declaring things like this.

It's almost like they're God and they're decreeing what's going to happen. So a lot of Christians are being taught this, and here is a brief example of something that, it doesn't really seem like prayer, but it sort of is, but it's, yeah, making declarations.

So let's just watch this first clip and then I'll explain. Okay, he kind of goes on like that for a while.

Now I want to be fair. There is something to, you know, because he goes on about negative thoughts and negative...

There are some people that are very negative, they have a lot of negative thoughts and they're always speaking negative words, and yes, that can have a negative impact.

If you're always negative, other people aren't going to like that, and it's not really doing you any good.

So there is a problem with the positive only type of ministry, but yeah, okay, there is a point to be made about people who are maybe too negative.

So that I grant, but you saw the video. I declare or, you know,

I am this, I am successful, I am healthy, I am this or that. Normally Joel Osteen will end those declarations by saying, in Jesus' name, and then his congregation will say, amen, which does make it seem like it's sort of like a prayer.

Since that was the secular audience with Oprah, he doesn't do in Jesus' name, but he did mention the

Lord, right? He did say something about talking to the Lord, but instead of asking for good health, you notice he's declaring it.

He's making declarations that it is so. So if you're speaking to God and you're declaring things,

I mean, that is a form of prayer, but it's not prayer, like the

Bible says, and bring your petitions before the Lord and ask the Lord. You're making a statement, you're not really asking, you're decreeing and you're declaring.

So that's a brief example, maybe of how not to pray, more on that later. But just to prove this isn't just something you see on TV, who remembers those prayer meetings that Dennis Jacob organized over at the

Moody Center? Remember the first one, who was there at that first one where there was like 70 people?

I think 4D1G opened and then we had a prayer time afterwards. So I just remember at the end of that prayer time, a woman stood up in the back and she had a

Bible, I think she had the Passion Translation of the Scripture, and she said something like, thus saith the

Lord, and then, it's like, oh wait, that's not the Bible. She said, thus saith the

Lord, and then she was kind of giving her own words. And then she started to decree and to declare things, as if like she was talking as if she was

God, or as if she was a prophet of God. At that point, Dennis intervened, thankfully, because he knew what that was.

Dennis understands that's all part of the prosperity gospel, little gods, basically the name it and claim it movement.

Who's heard of name it and claim it? So you're not asking God, you're saying,

I declare this to be so. You name what you want, and you declare it, and the idea is if you just have enough faith, it will happen.

So this is very widespread, it's happening on television. Joel Osteen is about as mainstream as you can get.

It's happening on TV, it's happening locally. So that's why I think it's important to not just talk about how we should pray, what

Jesus says, which we're going to look at, but also this new thing that's coming into churches that we're going to talk about how not to pray.

But let's look at the Scripture first, Luke chapter 11, one through four. This is the passage where the disciples come to Jesus, and they ask

Him, Lord, teach us to pray. Okay, so this is the passage we want to go to learning how to do it.

Luke 11, one through four, says, Now it came to pass, as he was praying in a certain place, when he ceased, that one of his disciples said to him,

Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples. So Jesus said to them, when you pray, say this.

And then he gives what we call the Lord's Prayer. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

So most people agree that this, what we call the Lord's Prayer, this is a model prayer.

I think it's totally fine to say it as is, and we do that every Sunday, but really

I think it is, it's a model prayer to teach people this is the general pattern of how you should pray.

So what's the first thing we see? You address who? Yeah, you're addressing

God the Father. I don't think it's wrong necessarily to pray to Jesus, to pray to the

Holy Spirit, I don't know that that's wrong, I just, I see Jesus saying pray to the Father, so that's what

I try to do. Clearly we're praying to the Father, so he gets to decide whether and how it gets answered, right?

We don't get to determine how the prayer is answered. We're bringing it to him, God decides.

So this is where I think you need to establish, this is a key principle, if you're taking notes, write it down, 1

John 5 .14. Really this is assumed straight through the

Bible, this is assumed straight through the Old Testament, but we get this clear statement, 1

John 5 .14 says, now this is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.

So we pray to the Father, and if it's according to his will, he will do it.

Now if we pray and ask God for something that is not according to his will, what's he going to do?

He is not going to answer it in the affirmative if it's not his will.

He may answer it in a different way. So prayer obviously is not just a blank check.

We don't get to declare and decree things. God makes decrees, we don't.

I mean, the only way I can decree something is if I'm just repeating what God says, and even then, it's not me decreeing, it's still

God decreeing it, right? Now if you, I mean, push back if there's something

I'm not thinking about, if there's another argument, I'm willing to listen to it, but another thing

I'd write down, the acronym ACTS, A -C -T -S, I think this is a good thing to keep in mind.

A stands for adoration, so this is how you would pray. Start with adoration.

C stands for confession, T stands for thanksgiving, and then S, supplication, that's last.

So the last thing we do is ask God for things, because the temptation is when we pray, just to go through a list,

God, can you do this, can you do that, and prayer should be more than just asking God for things.

It's about our relationship with God. If you have a relationship with a person, you talk to them, right?

So prayer is our way of talking to God. So when we pray, we're learning in the

Lord's Prayer, this model, we start by speaking to the Father, we praise

Him, keep His name holy, we confess our sin, we ask

God to forgive us, and we thank God for what He has done. I mean, this is just a general way to do it.

So verse 2, when you pray, say, Our Father who is in heaven, hallowed be your name. So when we talk about God's name, we always want to speak of God in a reverential way, realizing

He is Lord, He is King. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

This is our hope, we want Jesus to return, we're looking forward to this, that His kingdom would be established on earth, that way

His will will be done, this is our desire. Verse 3,

Give us day by day our daily bread. I think this shows our dependence upon God.

It's also implied here that we should pray every day, right, there's that verse, pray without ceasing, that doesn't mean 24 hours a day, but you just continually, you pray every day, probably multiple times a day, and give us this day our daily bread, it also demonstrates we can pray about the little things, our daily bread.

Some people have the idea that, well, I don't want to bother God, you know, unless it's something big, wrong.

We can talk to God about anything and everything, even the small things.

Verse 4, We confess our sins, says, and forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us, so we remember who we are, who

God is, and if we bring this up, confessing our sins, seeking

God's forgiveness, that should help us to be more patient with others because we realize we need to be forgiven, so we,

Lord, help me to forgive other people, you know, we don't want to become boastful or arrogant in our prayers, we want to remember who we are and approach

God humbly, and that's very important. And then the last part, verse 5,

Do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Now does God lead us into temptation? James 1 .13,

so God never, here's the thing, God never actually leads you into temptation in the sense that God will never entice you to sin.

James 1 .13 says, Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.

So the idea when Jesus says to pray, lead us not into temptation, it's more the idea that we would avoid those situations altogether, and if not, that we would pray that the

Lord would deliver us, and if we're constantly praying, you know, think of it like filling your gas tank,

I mean, if you're driving around and you don't fill your tank, you're going to run out of gas, you're going to get stranded, I mean, if you're never praying, you're not filling your spiritual tank, so to speak, so, you know, you're going to run on empty and when temptation comes, you're going to give in because you're not praying, you don't have that spiritual strength, so the

Lord can deliver us from temptation, he can make sure we avoid it altogether, and that's, these are the things we're asking, and then the final statement, deliver us from evil, that's how we usually pray it, but here he says deliver us from the evil one, so specifically deliver us from Satan and his plans, because the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and that'll be us if we're not praying and being mindful of these things, so these are kind of the basics of how to pray,

I'll get more specific later on, because in the Psalms, you get a lot of specific prayers where David or the

Psalmist is praying, he's going through one situation, so he prays this way, a different situation, he prays a different way, we can learn from the

Psalms in how to pray, so let's turn to James chapter 4, so that's the right way to pray, let's spend a few minutes on the wrong way to pray,

I know there's some pastors, their philosophy of ministry is don't tell people what's wrong, just tell them what's right, just preach the gospel, just tell them what's right, don't get into what's wrong, well, that's a good way of maybe avoiding upsetting people, that might work, but when

I read the Bible, I see the apostles pointing out what's wrong, so I've never really bought into that, so there is a wrong way to pray, for example, if I pray like I did earlier, and I say okay

Lord there's a missionary coming to town, and she needs a place to stay, and we want her time to be enjoyable, and Lord open up a situation where she's going to have a place tomorrow, like that's a good thing to pray, right,

I think that's a spiritual prayer, God forgive me for what I did, please forgive me, that's a good prayer, if I pray and ask

God for a place, give me $10 million, is that a spiritual prayer,

I don't know, I mean that might be a little indicator that I'm carnally minded maybe, possibly, so there's a wrong way, and certain things that are wrong, it's wrong to pray for certain things, if I say

Lord I need a new Ferrari, new private jet, I don't know, I'm thinking that's maybe not the best prayer, right, this is where James, you're in James 4, this is where James 4 verse 3 applies, what does he say, you ask and you do not receive, because you ask, what, you ask amiss, does anyone else have a different translation than that, what does that mean, you ask amiss, you're not asking in God's will, you're asking the wrong way for the wrong things, so he says you ask and do not receive because you ask amiss that you may spend it on your pleasures, okay, so I think asking for a new

Ferrari might fit that, you agree, okay, but then someone will say yeah but in John chapter 14,

Jesus said whatever you ask in my name, I will do it, Jesus did say that, so I would point out though,

Jesus number one, he said that to his apostles and not to me, so I don't know that that's a guarantee for me, number two, you have to compare scripture with scripture,

I admit there are some verses where Jesus makes it sound like yeah, if you pray for anything in my name,

I'll do whatever you ask, but you have to compare that with, you know, 1st John 5 14 that if you ask according to his will, he hears it, so we have to compare scripture with scripture to get that balance and then number three, this idea that we can have whatever we ask for, if we ask in faith, this is where you get into the name it and claim it doctrine, so I want to spend a little time on this because there's really an entire movement and I showed the clip of Joel Osteen who really

Joel Osteen is not as bad as some of the other people, he's fairly mild when it comes to this stuff, but this is very widespread on Christian television, like I said it's trickled down into local, so there's local churches that are teaching this, but this is all part of what is called the word faith movement, so this is a subset of the larger charismatic movement, to be fair not all charismatics are the same, there are a lot of charismatics who don't go along with this, so that's true, but many people are taught if you just speak the word, the word of faith, if you just believe hard enough, whatever you speak, it will come to pass, it's something like a guarantee, and some of the more extreme cases there will be famous preachers who say health, miracles, healings,

I mean it is a guarantee if you just do this, do this and do that, and then of course when people are not healed, when they don't get their miracle, when

Aunt Sally is not cured of cancer, what's the response? You must not have had enough faith, and I really believe that's a type of spiritual abuse, and I won't tell you what

I really think about that, but you can imagine, so let's look at some of these examples of the word of faith movement where prayer becomes less and less praising

God and asking God, they do that too, they'll praise God and they'll ask God for things, but it becomes more and more about making declarations and decreeing and declaring what will happen, so in this second clip,

I'm not just playing this to critique Joel Osteen, there's a lot of people worse than him, but Joel Osteen like I said he is about as mainstream as you can get, so I think that's why this is a good example, but let's see what he does,

I think you'll get the idea, let's just listen to this next clip. This isn't so bad.

This isn't so bad. This isn't so bad.

This isn't so bad. This isn't so bad. This isn't so bad. This isn't so bad. This isn't so bad. This isn't so bad. This isn't so bad.

This isn't so bad. I mean that was a pretty standard, it kind of annoys me how he interjects finances into like everything, but you know

I don't want to nitpick, I think that was a standard prayer you might hear in any church, so you know that would be

I think an appropriate way to pray for the most part, but and I just noticed that he had a certain outfit on in this next it's the next thing that happens.

So he does his prayer the right way, I think, but then he moves into his second part of the prayer where he does the declaration.

So it's this second part that I want you to focus on. From now on,

I'd rather us all say it together. So are you ready? Here we go. I am blessed, prosperous, redeemed, forgiven, talented, creative, secure, disciplined, focused, prepared, qualified, motivated, valuable, free, determined, equipped, empowered, anointed, accepted, and approved.

Not average, not mediocre, I am a child of the Most High God, a victor, not a victim.

I have seeds of greatness. My best days are still in front of me. I will become all

God created me to be in Jesus' name. And if you receive it, can you say amen to that?

Okay, any reactions? Yes. Marcus? You mean me?

I always got it. It does not say what? Who is he talking to?

Is he talking to the audience? Is he talking to himself? I think he's talking to himself on all these things.

He's not saying, thank you, God, for this, or please make me this way.

God's word says that we should be strong, courageous, and we're earned to be conformed to the image.

He's saying that it's happened. Is he telling God what's going on as if God doesn't know?

Well, that's the thing. That's what I'm asking. I think it reminds me of when

I've heard people say that you've heard mostly about him.

Yeah. Sounds like where Jesus had the seven I -Ns, now he's saying 17

I -Ns. Right. Yeah, so it was, you say, well, who is he talking to?

You say, well, he's talking to himself, he's talking to the audience, or he's talking to God. What he's doing, he's making declarations.

I mean, he'll say that. It's time to make our declarations, making decrees.

It was said in the form of a prayer, even though his eyes aren't closed, and he doesn't say, our

Father, and then go into it. It is in the form of a prayer because he ends it by saying, in Jesus' name, and all the people say amen.

And it was right after the first prayer time. So the first prayer time wasn't that bad, but then it moves into this.

So this is part of the way some of these word -of -faith charismatics pray.

Making declarations are part of their prayers. So, yes.

There were people, while casting out demons in his name, they were doing miracles in Jesus' name, and Jesus' response was, depart from me,

I never knew you. Yeah. I would point out, in both, there is no confession of sin.

He doesn't really do that. I don't really view this as teaching people to come humbly before God.

I think we should come before God humbly, not making decrees. Here's the thing.

Pretty sure if I stood up in front of a group of Christians and I just started with my fist in the air,

I am smart, I am successful, I am prosperous.

You'd probably think I'm arrogant and I'm boasting and bragging. I mean, that's...

But either way, these are declarations, and Osteen is mild compared to some of this stuff.

I didn't wanna play some of the more extreme clips, because someone would say, oh, that's just outlandish, and most people don't do that.

But a lot of people do do this. And it's, yeah, decreeing and declaring.

So you're not asking God to do it, you're stating, this is what's gonna happen, because I said so.

And that really turns prayer on its head. Janet. He speaks in a way that can just draw people in.

If you didn't have the training or you didn't sit on the gospel and the preaching the way you preach, you're just in power of everything, and...

He's eloquent, he's positive, he's got a great smile, he has better teeth than I do, you know, better hair.

When I witness this, and I tell him, I'm trying to always tell him one thing, to be careful who you listen to.

People are just drawn in, and if they're looking for something, this is a good example of how he can bring you in, and you don't even realize that what he's preaching is wrong.

Yeah, Peg. Well, and also, the I am, I am, if you're gonna keep repeating that, reminds me of verbatim repetitions that Jesus said not to do in Matthew 6's version of the modern prayer.

Right. The thing that bothers me the most is

I am, is, you know, Christians know this, I am is that sacred name of God given to Moses at the burning bush.

When Jesus said, I am, you know, the Jews took up stones to stone him because they knew the claim he was making,

I am the Lord. So for us to kind of take the I ams and to do that, declare as though we're

God, yeah, I mean, I don't think that's biblical, but he's gonna explain why, so this is the last clip.

He explains why he does that, and why words are so important, and why the word of faith is so powerful.

So let's hear his explanation. You are where you are today in part because of what you've been saying about yourself.

Words are like seeds. When you speak something out, you give life to what you're saying.

If you continue to say it, eventually that can become a reality. Whether you realize it or not, you are prophesying your future.

This is great when we're saying things like, I'm blessed, I'm strong, I will accomplish my dreams,

I'm coming out of death. That's not just being positive, you are prophesying victory, prophesying success, prophesying new levels.

Your life will move in the direction of your words. Okay, now, okay, maybe there's a little bit of truth to every lie, right?

Again, if someone's always negative and speak, yeah, that's not gonna do you any favors in life, and if you're more positive and you have a positive outlook, that can help in some ways, but he mentions prophecy.

You're prophesying over your life. Here's the thing, when God gave a prophecy, God could give that prophecy because God is the one who decrees and God knows what's gonna happen.

God will tell you the future. God can do that. We really don't have the ability to prophesy over our life and declare what the future is gonna.

We don't have the ability to do that, and he goes on in the full clip. He talks about when you speak negative words, like if you say, well, flu season's coming up, and you know me,

I just have bad luck. I always get the flu. He says, if you say that, if you're negative, guess what's gonna happen?

You're gonna get the flu, but that's really superstition. Whether or not you get the flu does not depend on whether or not you said it or not or however your mindset is.

That has no bearing on whether or not you actually get the flu. So really, it's, in a sense, superstition.

It's very similar to the New Age movement, the law of attraction, where you speak positive words out into the universe, and it's like karma.

If you speak the words out, it'll come back to you and it'll just kind of turn your life around. So I do not believe any of this is biblical, but when you say it in Jesus' name, well, oh, it's a

Christian thing to do. Well, I don't see the apostles doing that. I don't see them leading. Paul did not lead the

Corinthians in their affirmations, and I would wonder what he would say if they were practicing that, but.

I see it, these positive things, you know, that you think positively, that's gonna make it happen, but I do think, if you think negatively, and I just think of people that tell me, well,

I can't memorize. I says, yeah, for sure, you just told yourself you couldn't, so your brain thinks it doesn't have to, or why try?

So you can talk yourself out of some things. Sure, sure. But there are things that we are commanded to do.

Oh, here's a good one. Jesus said, be ye holy, or I am holy, all right?

He's told us that we should. Yeah. You say to him, well, I just, oh, I can't.

I better just. Yeah, but at the end of the day, this is not prayer.

This is not how Jesus taught his disciples to pray, to make declarations and to decree and declare, you know, the way it's gonna be, but the whole premise is that you need to do it, speak the words, and again, if you just believe hard enough, it will come to pass.

But ultimately, that's teaching people that faith is really trusting in your own faith.

It's dependent on you and you saying the right things and you believing hard enough. That's not what faith is, though.

Faith, I said it on Sunday, faith, true faith is not believing in your own unshakable faith.

Faith is putting your trust in the unshakable God. That's why we have to come humbly before God and make our petitions.

We don't tell God what's gonna happen. We don't decree it. We don't declare it.

We ask. And if God says no, Lord, give me the grace to accept the no.

Or maybe he'll surprise us and ask, or answer it a completely different way. But I just think that this decreeing and declaring stuff is just, again, it turns prayer on its head.

But one last thing before we close, let's turn to Psalm chapter nine, if you would.

Psalm chapter nine. If you want to learn to formulate prayers, like the

Lord's Prayer, we get a general pattern, how we should pray in general.

But if we want more specifics in how to formulate prayers, the

Psalms are, it's the largest book of the Bible, and they are either poems or songs or prayers that are inspired by the

Holy Spirit. So looking at the Holy Ghost -inspired prayers are very important. Before we read

Psalm nine, just a few examples, if you want to learn how to pray, go to the Psalms. Let's say you feel like God isn't there.

Maybe you feel like you pray and God isn't listening. You ever felt like that?

Well, Psalm 13, how long, O Lord, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

This is a Psalm about David or the Psalmist feeling like God isn't there, like he's not listening.

And we realize that great men of God have felt that same way. I mean, that's an encouragement in and of itself, but we can learn how to pray by looking to these prayers.

If you need to repent of something, let's say you did something, you feel terrible about it, you turn to Psalm 51, have mercy upon me,

O God, according to your loving kindness, for I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin is always before me.

Against you and you only have I sinned. So we can learn from David's prayer of repentance in Psalm 51.

One last example, if you are having a hard time understanding the

Bible and you wanna learn it better so you can explain it better, you could read

Psalm 119. Psalm 119, verse 33 says, "'Teach me, O Lord, the way of your statutes "'and

I shall keep it to the end. "'Give me understanding and I shall keep your law. "'Indeed, I shall observe it with my whole heart.

"'Make me walk in the path of your commandments, "'for I delight in it. "'Incline my heart to your testimony.'"

So no matter what you're going through, just search it out. There's a Psalm in the

Bible, probably for whatever you're going through. Marcus. Psalm 37, verse four, "'Thyself also in the

Lord, "'and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.'" That's often taken out of context.

You're starting with the desires of your heart, but if you're delighting yourself in the Lord, your heart's desires are gonna be nothing but to please him and follow him.

Sure, so I think you get the idea. So if you wanna know how to pray, not only do we have the model prayer, the

Lord's prayer, we have the book of Psalms. So I'll close with these words from Psalm 9.

I mean, this is a good way to pray. "'I will praise you, O Lord, with my whole heart.

"'I will tell of all your marvelous works. "'I will be glad and rejoice in you.

"'I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.'" That's the way