Next Level Praying (4)
Next Level Prayer • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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THE PRAYER OF FAITH YOU CAN PRAY!
James 5:15 And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick!
James 5:16 The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much!
1 Chronicles 4:10 Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “O that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm, that it may not pain me! And God granted him what he requested!
Over the years I have found great benefit from examining powerful prayers that were prayed by powerful pray-ERS!
James tells us that the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much, and in the book of the Chronicles we are introduced to a prayer that was prayed by a man named Jabez.
As a Child of God, and as a Pastor, there are circumstances I face that challenge what I see in God’s Word and what I see in my own life!
Today, I want us to explore The Prayer of Faith You Can Pray by looking at a man who prayed a prayer of faith that God answered!
I. The INFORMATION about his FAMILY!
4:9 Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez . . .
With just a few words, he gives us a lot of information about Jabez and his family!
A. There’s a COMPARISON made to his BROTHERS!
4:9 Jabez was more honorable that his brothers!
B. There’s a REVELATION made about his MOTHER!
4:9 . . . and his mother named him Jabez, saying, “because I bore him with pain!
The Chronicler gives us revelation into two things about his mother.
1. We learn WHAT his mother named him: JABEZ!
2. We learn WHY his mother named him Jabez: Because I bore him with pain!
II. The INSPIRATION from his FAITH!
4:10 And Jabez CALLED on the God of Israel . . .
There are at least two inspirational things we learn about the faith of Jabez:
A. We learn about the DISCIPLINE of his LIFE!
4:10 And Jabez CALLED on the God of Israel!
When your Bible says and Jabez CALLED on the God of Israel it does not mean that Jabez simply whispered a silent prayer or made an unspoken prayer request toward heaven.
We learned about this word last week. The word “CALLED” is the Hebrew word (Qara) and it means TO CALL OUT LOUD to someone using their name or names!
The principle of CALLING out LOUD to someone is also found in several N.T. stories!
This is what a man in the Bible who was known as “Blind Bartimaeus” did when he HEARD that Jesus was passing by him outside the city gates of Jericho.
He cried out, Jesus, Son of David, Have mercy on me . . . He cried out so loud the disciples tried to HUSH him and told him to be quiet, that it was rude and unacceptable to cry out so loud.
Do you know what Bartimaeus did? He cried out even louder and more frequently, Jesus, Son of David, Have mercy on me . . .
When Peter was walking on water to get to Jesus . . . he began to sink and guess what Peter did? He CRIED OUT to Jesus and said LORD SAVE ME!
When the disciples were in the boat in the middle of a raging MEGA storm and they were about to die, they CRIED OUT to Jesus as He was walking by them on the water. And your Bible says that Jesus was intending to walk right on by them IF they had not CRIED OUT to Him.
When the author came to the name Jabez, one of the things that came to his mind was that Jabez was a man who knew how to CRY OUT to God!
That is the kind of praying that we embrace and try to impart at Truth Tabernacle of Praise.
We believe in the power of Crying out to God and that is what we want to teach you to do with us as part of our Most Valuable Pray-ER ministry!
The story of Jabez is such a great story, I can hardly wait to tell you the rest of it. When I think about the story of Jabez, I think about the discipline of his life, but the second thing I think of is:
B. The DESIRE of his HEART!
4:10 Oh that You would BLESS me INDEED, and Enlarge my Border, and that You would Keep me from Harm that it may not pain me!
When Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, and knew that he had the God of Israel’s attention, there were four things that Jabez cried out to God for:
1. BLESS me INDEED!
4:10 Oh that You would BLESS me INDEED!
What does it mean to ask God to Bless a person, place or thing? It means to ask God to impart supernatural FAVOR on a person, place or thing!
When a person, place or thing is Blessed by God, it becomes fertile with the Presence of God!
Exodus 33:16 How can it be known that I and these people have found FAVOR in Your sight?
Is it not by You going with me and with us. . . so that we can be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth?
The Favor of God is what I call the F.O.G. The Favor of God is the the guarantee of the Presence, the Power and the Provision of God in your daily life, family life and or church life!
The F.O.G. can and often does come upon you SUDDENLY and INSTANTLY!
And when the Favor of God comes upon you other people will begin to recognize that you are different, unique, set apart from them.
Other people will begin to want what you have and if they don’t know what IT is you have, they will often times become jealous of you.
When the favor of God comes upon you it is a guarantee that your life is not going to get easier, it is going to get harder in many ways!
But you would not trade a moment of the F.O.G. for decade of the easy life!
When you are walking in the F.O.G. beware of people who will try to Hijack the Anointing off your life!
Becoming OFFENDED or taking up someone else’s OFFENSE will HIJACK the anointing from your life, ministry, gifts and or calling!
So, as soon as the Dove has landed suddenly upon you, watch out for the one who tries to Hijack Your Anointing!
Notice the method Jabez used to receive the Blessing of God into and on his life in 4:10. Jabez used WORDS that were spoken out of his mouth to request, release and receive the Blessing of God.
The book of James says that with our tongue we bless and we curse! Beloved we need to be very careful about the words that come out of our mouth because the power of blessing and cursing as well as life and death are in the tongue!
Before I move on from this, there is one last thought I want you to notice about the request Jabez made for God to bless him.
Jabez asked God to Bless him INDEED! This word is a form of the same word BLESS and it means a DOUBLE PORTION or A WHOLE BUNCH.
According to Genesis 1:28 the first thing God did for Adam and Eve after He created them was to BLESS them! God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them; God BLESSED them . . .
When Jabez asked God to BLESS him INDEED, he was not being selfish or worldly, he was Praying a Prayer that pleased God, because God created His children to be Blessed!
The second thing Jabez CRIED OUT to God for is for God to:
2. ENLARGE my BORDER!
4:10 and Enlarge my Border!
This was a request from Jabez, asking God to bless him in such a way that he could live life larger than he had ever lived or imagined up to this point in his life.
This was much more than Jabez asking God to give him more land or more real estate. Jabez wanted more INFLUENCE and more RESPONSIBILITY and more OPPORTUNITY to make a difference in the world for the Glory of God!
Jabez understood the truth revealed in Zechariah 4:6 Not by might nor by power but by My Spirit says the Lord of Hosts!
Jabez was looking at his life and his present circumstances and he had concluded that “surely he was created for more than being known as a pain to his mother!”
He would have been saying, up to this point in my life I have been known as a pain to my mother, BUT God I am asking You to BLESS me INDEED and with the blessing, with the double portion of F.O.G.
I want You to also Enlarge my Border, give me more influence, responsibility and more opportunities than I have ever known in my life!
Jabez cried out to God and asked Him to Bless him Indeed and to Enlarge his Border but the third thing he said was:
3. Your HAND might be with ME!
4:10 and that Your Hand might be with me!
The phrase Hand of God is a term that refers to the power of God and the presence of God!
Jabez wanted the power and presence of God to go with him wherever the blessings of God took him!
Joshua 4:24 “that all peoples of the earth may know that the HAND of the LORD is mighty and that you may fear the Lord your God forever!
Isaiah 59:1 Behold, the Lord’s HAND is not so short that it cannot save!
Acts 11:21 And the HAND of the LORD was with them, and a large number who believed turned to the Lord!
Peter had been intimidated into denying He knew Jesus around a campfire by a teenage girl!
Thomas did not even believe that Jesus was God who had conquered the grave!
James had quit fishing for men and began fishing for money again!
However when they were baptized by Jesus with the Spirit of God they spoke the word of God with boldness, souls began to be born again and everyone knew that the Hand of God was UPON them!
O that you would Bless me Indeed, and O that you would Enlarge my Borders and O that Your Hand would be with Me!
I don’t know about you but that is the desire of my heart and the prayer from my lips today!
But there is a fourth thing Jabez cried out to God:
4. You would KEEP me from HARM!
4:9 And that you would keep me from harm!
One of the greatest temptations we will face after we start walking in the F.O.G. is the temptation to Forget God and try to live in our own strength and according to our own wisdom!
There have been people I know who have cried out to God for a job and God gives them a job and then we don’t see them in church anymore after they get the job!
Jabez cried out to God to be blessed but he also cried out to God to Keep him from doing Harm to the glory of God!
We have seen the Information about his Family and have received Inspiration from his Faith but how did God respond to the prayer of Jabez? In closing I want you to notice:
III. The INDICATION about his FUTURE!
4:10 And God granted him what he requested!
Your Bible says that after Jabez cried out to God that God Granted him what he requested!
Jabez cried out to God asking God to Bless him Indeed AND God granted him what he requested!
Jabez cried out to God asking Him to Enlarge his Borders AND God granted him what he requested!
Jabez cried out to God asking for His Hand to be with Him And God granted him what he requested!
Jabez cried out to God asking God to Keep him from Harm And God granted him what he requested!
How do we get God to do what we ask Him to do?
A. The REASON for his PRAYER needs to be our reason!
4:10 that it not PAIN me!
Jabez did not want to walk in the F.O.G. to end up with his life being a Pain, a Disappointment, a life without honor!
If the reason for our prayer is the same as his reason for praying it, then:
B. The RESULT of his PETITION will be the result of our petition!
4:10 and God granted him what he requested!
THE PRAYER OF FAITH YOU CAN PRAY!
James 5:15 And the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick!
James 5:16 The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much!
When we go down the list of names of people who are part of Truth Tabernacle of Praise in the months and years to come, and when we come to your name, what will we be able to say about you that happened from this point forward in your life?
Will people think of your name will they pause like the author did with Jabez and say, he or she was more honorable than their brothers and sisters?
Will people be able to say, _______________ asked God to Bless them Indeed, and to Enlarge their Border, and they asked for God’s Hand to be with them and they asked for God to Keep them from Evil AND God GRANTED THEIR REQUEST?
1) Pray this prayer daily
2) Put this prayer on your mirror, desk, refrigerator
3) Become accountable to someone for your thoughts and actions
4) Be prepared to say WELL GLORY a lot!