The Prayers Of Paul – Part 2 Lawson Perdue

The Prayers of Paul – Part 2

In The Prayers of Paul part 2, Pastor Lawson Perdue explores some of the most powerful prayers in the Bible. These prayers are written from a position of victory understanding what Jesus Christ has done and how that changes who we are. You can pray these powerful prayers too!

The Prayers of Paul Transcript

Praise the Lord friends, and welcome to our broadcast. We’ve been teaching on the subject of prayer and I’m teaching today on “Prayers of Paul.” This is a great teaching. If you get a hold of this, I believe it will show you really how to pray and make your prayer so much more effective. So many people in the body of Christ are still praying, Old Testament prayers, and Jesus has been crucified and resurrected from the dead. He sent the Holy Spirit and we need to pray in light of what he’s done. And when you begin to pray that way you can’t pray in defeat anymore. In fact, we’re studying this week Paul’s prayers, in Paul’s prayers, there’s no sense of lack. No sense of fear, no sense of need. There’s only a sense of this is who Christ is. This is who you are. This is what God’s called you to do. And this is what God has invested in you to get the job done. And when you understand that it changes the way that you pray. So we’re gonna begin today in Ephesians 3, we were Ephesians chapter one. There’s four of these prayers of Paul. You can pray them. Ephesians chapter one, Ephesians 3, Philippians chapter one, and Colossians chapter one. And in Ephesians chapter one, Paul prayed. First of all, I want you to know him. I want you to know secondly, what he’s called you to do and what he’s invested in you to get the job done. I want you to know, thirdly, I want you to know what he’s the power that he released in Christ when he raised him from the dead. And he’s given that power to you. And when you understand that it changes the way that you pray. Now in Ephesians 3, we begin in verse 14, we’ll read through verse 21. He says “For this cause I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord, Jesus of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” God is my Father and I am in his family. He says that “He would grant you according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with Mike by his spirit in the inner man.” I want you to get strong on the inside. I want you to realize the strength of the Holy Spirit in you. That Christ may dwell in your heart by faith. This is verse 17, “That Christ may take up residents in your heart by faith that you being rooted and grounded in love, that you’d get established in the love of God may be able to comprehend with all the saints. What is the breadth and length and depth in height to come to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.” When you get to know the love of Christ, this experiential revelation of God’s love. Did you know what? You will be full of God. He says now in verse 20. “Now unto him, who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we can ask or think according to the power that works in us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages of the world without him.” So what Paul’s really praying in Ephesians 3 is that you get a revelation of God’s left. Ephesians chapter one, get to know him, amen. Get to know what he’s called you to do, what he’s invested in you to do what he’s called you to do. Ephesians 3, get established in the love of God, get a revelation of the love of God. It will change your life. Now, as we begin to look at this, the first thing as he’s going into this prayer is he talks about the position of prayer. And that is, “I bow my niece to the Father of the Lord, Jesus Christ of whom the family in heaven and earth, is named.” God is my Father and I’m in his family. Did you know what? When you know that God is your Father and you’re in his family, it changes how you pray. In fact, Jesus said, pray like this, our Father, which art in heaven, you know what? We need to know God is our Father. Jesus, that was in Luke 11:1-4. He says this in Matthew 6:7,8. He says, “Do not use vain repetition like the heathen do, your Father in heaven knows what you have need of. He says in Luke chapter 11, “If you being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much so your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” So pray from a position of power, amen, and pray in this position where you understand that God is your Father. You know what I Fathered, I have three children, three sons, and you know what? I want good things for them. God wants good things for you. When you begin to understand this, then it changes how you pray. You’re not some weak little beggar. You are a child of God. You’re a son, you’re a daughter of God. You are the King’s kid. I remember one time when one of my children had been very honorary at school. Now, usually they weren’t, I had very good boys. They really loved Jesus, but he had been in trouble at school. And so when in my house, if you were at trouble at school, you were genuinely in trouble when you got home. And so when Barbara called me, I was at the office. I said, “Listen, I am busy. I will deal with that when I get home.” And so, I got home later that evening and my son who got in trouble that day at school was sitting at my table eating a rib eye steak. Now he did wasn’t eating a rib eye steak because he was a good boy. He was eating a rib eye steak because he was my son, praise God. And you’ve been born into the family of God. And you know what? And you know that God is your Father. You’re gonna get some good things, even though maybe you haven’t been as good as you should. And I think we all fit that category sometimes. So don’t be condemned, amen. But God is our Father and we’re in his family and we need to pray like sons and daughters of God. And then we know that God wants to give good things to us. Now, as Jesus prayed, I’m gonna go to this prayer that Jesus was teaching the disciples, saw Jesus praying. And they said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” And I’m gonna go to two of them. Actually, we’ll go to Matthew chapter six. And after Matthew chapter six, then we’ll go to Luke chapter 11. And in Matthew six, Jesus said in verse seven, “Do not use vain repetitions like the heathen do. They think they will be heard for their much speaking? Do not be like them for your Father knows what you have needed before you ask him. Pray like this, our Father, which is in heaven.” God is my Father, I’m in his family. “Hallowed be your name.” God, we honor your name. Now, when you begin to understand the name of God, the name of God represents the character of God and the name of God in the Old Testament, who is he? He’s Jehovah Jireh our provider. He’s Jehovah Rapha our healer, he’s Jehovah Nissi our banner, he’s Jehovah Tsidkenu or Jehovah Mekadesh, our sanctification. He’s Jehovah Shalom our peace, he’s Jehovah Tsidkenu our righteousness and he’s Jehovah-Shammah, he’s the Lord who was there. Now every aspect of those redemptive name of God’s Jesus represents. So we come to the Father today in the name of Jesus. And last week we talked all about that. When I was teaching from “Praying With Power”, we were teaching all about our authority in the name of Jesus. But when we come to God in the name of Jesus, we say, hallowed be your name. We understand he’s our provider. He’s our healer, he’s our pro protector, our defender. He’s our sanctification, he’s our righteousness. He’s our peace and our provision and he is there. He will never leave us in that, good. So he said, “Pray, hallowed be thy name.” Your kingdom, come God, it’s your kingdom. This isn’t about us, this is about you. John said this in his gospel. He said, “I must decrease, but he must increase.” He says, “Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” So we pray, God, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Is there sickness in heaven? No, there’s no sickness in heaven. We know that, we know that healing abides in heaven. We know that health is in heaven. We know that, is there poverty in heaven? No, there’s no poverty in heaven. God gravels his road with gold, transparent gold. The gates of the city are of huge pearls. The foundations of the city are adjacent and onyx in Sapphire, in Ruby, all these things we think, man, pressure stone, just a little bit. God used those for the foundations of the city. Well, the Lord got in the lime of the light of that city. There’s no darkness there. There’s no sin there, there’s no poverty there, there’s no sickness there. It’s amazing. Pray, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He, he goes on and he says, “This give us this day, our daily bread.” Now don’t worry about tomorrow, but Lord, we need some stuff today. Do you know, we read about this person and he had an orphanage in Europe in the UK and he had this in the early 19 hundreds. And he recorded over 55,000 prayers. He had a prayer journal that he had answered, answers to over 55,000 prayers that he prayed. And in this orphanage, he had hundreds of children sometime. And he said he vowed that he would never ask a man for anything, he’d only ask God. And sometimes he would be sitting down and they would not have food to feed these children. And they would pray the prayer and somebody would come knock on the door and the food would be there. And you know what? They never went without a meal. What a marvelous testimony, give us this day our daily bread. And so we could pray that. Sometimes people get all worked up about tomorrow. Just the evil of today is enough to deal with today. He says, “Forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors.” You know, we wanna be forgiving. Why? Because God has forgiven us the great debt, right? The debt of sin, and do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Lord, I thank you that you are delivering us from evil. You are delivering us from every evil word and work for yours is the kingdom. It’s your kingdom, it’s your power, it’s your glory. It’s your way, amen. So this is how we pray. And when you pray, forgive, the scripture says that a number of times. So we need to learn to pray right, in this fashion, pray to our Father in heaven, pray in light of who God is and who Christ is. Pray in light of God’s will and plan pray in light of what heaven has to offer, amen. It’s not earth’s offering, this is heaven’s offering. I was thinking about we get stock offerings and different things, opportunities. Well, this is heaven’s opportunities for us today. He says the same thing in Luke chapter 11, the disciples see Jesus praying. And when he quit, this is Luke 11:1. When he sees one of his disciples said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” As John taught his, you know what? I believe that Jesus prayer life motivated the disciples to pray. And so they said, “Lord, teach us to pray.” It wasn’t some religious dead prayer. This prayer was alive and full of life because it was prayed out of a relationship with God. And Jesus basically says, pray out of a relationship with God, our Father, who is in heaven, pray like a friend that’s going to get something from his friend, right? God is not an unjust judge. God is not holding out on you, God wants to bless you. And he wants to help you. His will is to bless you and to help you. So pray in light of that. So when we begin to pray, pray like this position, God is my Father and he is in heaven and God is my Father and I’m in his family. Now, the second thing he says, we talk about is the power of prayer. There is great power released when we pray. He said that he would grant you. Now we’re back in Ephesians 3:16, “According to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with power, with might, his mighty ability by his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith that you being established in the love of God might be able to comprehend, understand, get a grasp with all the saints on what is the breath, length, depth, and height to come to know, to come to experience the love of Christ, which passes all knowledge, all book learning that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.” That’s the power of prayer. He said, I want you to be strengthened from the inside out from the strength, by the spirit and get, understand the spirit of God is on the inside of you strengthened by his spirit. The ability of the Holy Spirit. The Bible talks about this in Jude verse 20, talking about the power of the Holy Spirit. He says, praying in the spirit, right? Building up your most holy faith, praying in the spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God. Romans 8:26. He says the spirit helps our infirmities. When we don’t know how to pray, he prays with us. He takes, hold together with us against our infirmities. And so he says, “Pray that you would be strengthened with might by his spirit, that Christ may take up residence in your heart.” We need to be ever aware of his presence in us that Christ has taken up residence in us. Listen to what John prays. Now John has a powerful prayer in John’s gospel chapter 17. In chapter 14, 15 and 16, John is preparing his disciples or Jesus is preparing his disciples for his departure. But then in chapter 17, he prays for those disciples. Then after he prays for the disciples, he prays for those who would believe on him through the words of his disciples. So, he’s prayed for us. Now, as Jesus prays for believers, listen to what he says in verse 20 to verse 23, “Neither do I pray for these alone. But those who would believe on me through their word, that they all may be one as you Father are in me and I in you, that they may be one in us that the world may believe that you have sent me and the glory that you gave me I have given them that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them and you in me that they may be complete whole or perfect in one that the world may know that you have sent me and you have loved them as you have loved me.” Isn’t this marvelous? I want them to be one that the glory you gave me that you’ve given them, that the world would know that you’ve sent me and that you’ve loved them as you’ve loved me, man, if you get a revelation to love of God, I’m telling you it’s gonna change your life. And that’s what Paul’s praying here. Get a revelation of the love, there’s only one way that you can get a revelation of the love of God, of the grace of God. And that’s of God gives you a revelation. The Bible talks about it in 2 Corinthians 3:17 says, “Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” And it says, we’re going from grace to grace and glory to glory in verse 18, “Even as by the spirit of the Lord.” You can’t go from the glory of the Lord, to the glory of the grace, without the spirit of God giving you that revelation. So thank God for the revelation of grace. God, I have tell you this story about the revelation of the love of God and the grace of God. I teach in Charis Bible College. I have great respect for Andrew Wommack but years ago we had this guy and he worked mostly in administration, but he taught a little bit and he really wasn’t a great teacher. And he really didn’t have much revelation in the love of God. Great guy, tremendous, tremendous integrity, tremendous flow of the gifts of the Holy Spirit in his life, amazing person in that area. But when he tried to teach, he just didn’t really have a gift to teach. And so he didn’t do a lot of teaching, but he tried, it was rather difficult. But anyway, one time I took him. He didn’t have a revelation of the love of God or the grace of God, really. And so I took this series that I got from a pastor in the Phoenix area, and it was called “Jesus Plus Nothing.” It’s on the book of Galatians, a phenomenal, phenomenal teaching. And I put it on his desk. And then I told Andrew Wommack. I said, “Hey, so, and so I took that series from this brother in Arizona and I put it on his desk called “Jesus Plus Nothing.” And Andrew told me this, he said, “Lawson.” He said, “Do you realize who taught that man in Phoenix, that revelation of grace of love?” And I said, “No, I don’t know.” Andrew said I did. And he said, he pastored a pretty good size church. And they kicked him out of his church when he started teaching grace, when he got a revelation to the love of God, but he started another church. And now he has like 5,000 people. So he said, I guess it was okay for him. It was a little hard for a while, but it moved him into a greater position. But he told me this, ’cause I told him I put it on this. And he knew this instructor did not have a revelation of what we’re talking about right now, a revelation of the love of God. He said, “You know, Lawson.” And he said, “I’m convinced.” He said, “I’ve taught the grace of God around the world. But I’m convinced that the only way that people really understand grace or get a revelation of grace or the love of God, is if God gives them that revelation.” And you know what, in my spirit, I said, that’s exactly right, ’cause this is what 2 Corinthians 3 says, “Where the spirit of the Lord is there is liberty.” There is freedom. And by the spirit of the Lord, we go from grace to grace, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of the Lord shows us the grace of Jesus in the word and it reflects that grace in our life. And we’re going from grace to grace, from glory to glory. And if you study 2 Corinthians 3, it’s from the glory of the law, to the glory praise even as by the spirit of the Lord, it takes the spirit of God to give you a revelation of the love of God, to give you a revelation of the grace of God. And if the spirit of God does not give you a revelation of the love and grace of God, you just will not get it. That man, when you get a revelation to the love God, do you know I was pastoring. I was saved in 1972 when I was eight years old, I started pastoring. I was baptizing the Holy Spirit in 1978 and called to preach. I didn’t start pastoring until 1988, 10 years later. And when I was baptized, when I started pastoring in 1988, I did not have a revelation of the love of God. I did not have a revelation of the things that I’m sharing about right now. And you know what? It was difficult I think for people, I remember this really good man. He still a friend, thank God he still supports me. I’ve ministered actually to four generations in his family, ministered to him, his children, his grandchildren now his great grandchildren. And so, thank God. And we still have this powerful relationship. They’re from Eastern Colorado, but I remember his name’s Jim, Jim Belichick, and he’s a really good friend of mine. But Jim was coming to my church and I had been pastoring there for a few months and he came up and he said, “I’m really struggling with condemnation.” And I thought, man, Jim is a great man. Why is he struggling with condemnation? And now I believe I know why Jim was struggling with condemnation. It is because what I was teaching because I had no revelation of grace. I taught grace, I understood grace from a mental standpoint, but I did not understand grace as a revelation. And so even though I taught grace and I knew what grace was and I could define grace, I did not really have a working revelation of it. But in 1994, after I’d been in Kit Carson pastoring for six years, I got a revelation of grace and it changed my life and changed my ministry. And the way I got this revelation of the love of God or the revelation of grace was that Andrew Wommack came and he was preaching for me. This was in 1994 in Kit Carson. When he preached for me, he said, “You know what, if you have a plate glass window and you break it, it doesn’t matter whether you shot a BB through it or you drove a Mac truck through it. The only way that you can make it perfect is you have to replace it.” And he said, that’s like, God’s law. It doesn’t matter whether you’ve broken God’s law a little bit, or you’ve broken God’s law a whole bunch. The fact is you’ve broken God’s law. And you know what? The Bible actually says that in James 2:10, that if we’ve offended the law in one point, we are guilty of it all. And so I, when he said that I got it and I realize that we are all law breakers and it doesn’t matter whether we’ve broken God’s law a little bit or a whole bunch. It is by the absolute grace of God that you can’t just fix something up. And too much of Christianity is more religion. And it’s more about works. It’s more about self-help systems than it is. And I thank God for people that have these systems because they help people and people need help. But at the same point in time, we need to make it about Jesus. And if you are not born again, you need to get born again. And without being born again, you’re not gonna make heaven. And Jesus didn’t come just to fix up an old broke down person. Jesus came to make you new. When you come into Christ, you become a new creation and your spirit is made brand new, praise God. And so when Paul is praying here in the Ephesians 3 and he’s praying that Christ may dwell in your heart by faith, that you get established in the love of God, that you come to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge. He says this, isn’t talking about book knowledge. This is not talking about head knowledge. This is not talking about understanding the tenets of the Christian faith. This is talking about an intimate, personal revelation of who Jesus is and what he’s done for you. And when you get that, it will change your life for good. And so he says, when you get that, he says he is able, God is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask for. He says, you will be filled with the fullness of God. If you’ll get a revelation of the love of God. In other words, he says, I want you to have a life changing experience of the love of God. The Bible says that the love of God is shared abroad in our heart, by the holy ghost that’s given to us. In Romans 5:5, and when we begin to understand this, he said, you’ll be filled with the fullness of God. You’ll be filled with all the plenty of God. It’s really talking about the reality of Christ in you. You know, Paul talks about this in Colossians 1:27, and he says, “Christ in you the hope of glory.” He says, I’m preaching the mystery that has been hidden from ages and generations. He goes on to say, this it’s Christ in you, the hope of glory. In verse 29 he says, “I labor according to his working that works in me, mildly.” You see, he goes on in chapter two verse 15 and or verse 10 and says, and says in verse nine and 10, Colossians 2:9,10, “The fullness of the Godhead bodily wealth in our Lord. And you are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and authority.” In Romans 8:9 he said, “If the spirit of Christ is not in you, you’re none of his.” but he says, if Christ be in you, amen Christ is in you, praise God, how do you know that Christ, if you’re born again, Christ is in you. And he says, “If Christ be in you, the body is dead,” in verse 10, “Because of sin. But the spirit is alive because of righteousness. And if the spirit of him that raised up Christ in the dead dwell in you, he will quicken your mortal body by spirit that dwells in you.” Romans 8:9,10,11. Christ lives in you. We have the presence of the Holy Spirit, the presence of Christ in us as believers, we have the character and life of Christ. We also have the power of the Holy Spirit. He says in Acts 1:8, “You shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes on you.” So the power of prayer is released when you get a revelation of the love of God, and that revelation of the love of God releases this potential in prayer. In verse 20, he says, this Ephesians 3:20,21, “Now onto him, who’s able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that you can ask or think according to the power that’s working in us, under him, be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages of the world without end.” When he shares that, what’s he saying? He’s saying what you need to be confident, and you need to be understanding the power that’s working in you, what power is working you? The power of the resurrected Christ, the power of the living word of God. You’re born again by the incorruptible seed of the word of God that lives in abides forever. Peter says in 1 Peter 1:23, “The power of the Holy Spirit, the same spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead. We just read that in Romans 11 and the power of the love of God. And that’s what he’s really talking about here, because it’s in that context, the love of God is shed abroad in your heart by the holy ghost. When you get to know that love, he is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that can ask or think according to the power of his great love that’s working in us and unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages of the world, without end. Amen, thank God for his glory. And when we begin to move into his love and understand his love, we’ll begin to move into the glory of God. God will begin to get glory in our church, get glory in our life. And it’ll bring glory amen to Jesus in all the ages of the world, amen. And we’ll move forward in a new strength, in a new ability praying out of a relationship with God changes things on the earth, amen. I hope you’ve enjoyed this teaching. I’ve been teaching from “The Prayers of Paul.” Too many Christians are praying Old Testament prayers, and you know what? We need to learn how to pray in light of what Jesus has done. And I’ve got a special offer on both this series, “The Prayers of Paul” and “Praying With Power.” You can get either one or both for a special offering. We’d love to hear from you today. And I know if you get ahold of this teaching, It will literally transform your life, it’s transformed mine. Before we go, I wanna pray for you. Heavenly Father, I thank you for everyone that is watching today. I pray that by your spirit, they would begin to get a revelation, get an understanding of the love of God for them. And as they get this revelation of your love, they would move into your super abundant ability that was released at the death barrel and resurrection of Jesus. Thanks so much friends for staying tuned today. If you need prayer, if you’d like to send us an offering or become a partner, or if you wanna get our product, please give us a call today. We would love to hear from you. Thanks so much, and God bless you. We appreciate you. May you get a revelation of God’s great love for you. Blessings.