Prayer Begins by Being in Christ

Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth: We’re spending the whole month of October here at Revive Our Hearts, crying out to the Lord. I think we all recognize the seriousness of the times in which we live, the urgency, and the desperate need we have to cry out to the Lord to do what only He can do in our world. In recent weeks we've prayed for our families, for our churches, for our nations. This week, our attention turns to the world at large. To lead us in prayer today, here’s Carrie Gaul who has served on the Revive Our Hearts staff for many years and who has a deep passion in her heart to see the glory of the Lord cover the earth as the waters cover the sea.

Carrie Gaul: Father, we cry out to You today in behalf of the nations. We thank You that You have promised that You will be exalted among the nations. You will be exalted in all the earth. We look forward to the day when we will stand before Your throne with people from every tribe, tongue, and nation. We will worship You; we will praise You; we will glorify the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Today, Father, the nations are in an uproar. The peoples are devising a vain thing. The kings of the earth are taking their stand against You and against the Messiah. You have told us that if we will come and ask of You, You will give the nations as our inheritance. So we come asking, Lord of the harvest, would You send forth workers. Would You raise up a testimony across the globe today.

Thank You for those who are flooding into the kingdom. Thank You for the ways that in the midst of the devastation and gloom, the anguish and suffering, the economic collapse, the political uprisings, the violence, all of what is covering the earth today, that You promise there will one day be no more gloom. Thank You the Jesus is the King, the risen Messiah who has come. That those who live in darkness would see a great light; that they would come to You; that the light would shine upon them, and that You would cause them to be glad in Your presence. Give them light and life and hope.

Oh King of the universe, would You do it across the globe today? In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Dannah Gresh: Throughout history, movements of spiritual awakening and revival have always been preceded by prayer. Here’s Stephen Kendrick.

Stephen Kendrick: Before the Great Awakenings, the Lord would stir up His Church. They would become burdened about the toxic condition of the culture, and the lukewarmness that was in the Church, and they would be so burdened that God would call them to their knees and they would begin to pray.

Dannah: God’s calling us to pray. The question is, will we respond? This is Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth, co-author of Seeking Him, for Monday, October 26, 2020. I'm Dannah Gresh.

Well, Nancy, it's movie trivia time here at Revive Our Hearts!

Nancy: Uh-oh. I concede. 

Dannah: No, no, no, don't concede so quickly. I think you might do well at this.

Can you name the first motion picture produced by Sherwood Pictures?

Nancy: Oh, wow. They produced several that I love. Alex and Stephen Kendrick, those brothers who co-produce so many movies. Help me out, which was the first one?

Dannah: The first one I think a lot of people are going to get wrong. I think a lot people are going to think Facing the Giants.

Nancy: That was certainly a great one.

Dannah: It was a great one. But there was one before that—Flywheel.

Nancy: Oh, yeah. I enjoyed that one. There have been several since then. Facing the Giants was an early one, but it was fabulous. Fireproof was just a great one on marriage. Courageous. The most recent one is one that Robert and I watched together called Overcomers. There's a powerful message in that movie as well.

Dannah: I'm so grateful because they make me laugh; they make me cry. They are well-produced. With what we have offered sometimes as movie entertainment, these are just such refreshing, well-produced, solid plot lines, great biblical content. I'm encouraged every time I see one.

Nancy: I've known the Kendrick brothers (Alex, Stephen) for a number of years (the ones who have produced these movies). There is something I've always really admired about them, it's that before they start production and all throughout the production they have a huge emphasis on prayer. They have a prayer team. They are seeking the Lord for what is the message that is needed and how can they best communicate it.

They have had so many amazing answers to prayer as they have sought the Lord and cried out in connection with producing these movies that have been so effective.

Dannah: In fact, Stephen referenced that a few years ago when he spoke at a True Woman conference. That's the message we are going to hear today. Just before Stephen got up to speak, we all watched a video that told the story of his mother, Rhonwyn Kendrick, who is also a woman of prayer. You can watch that video at ReviveOurHearts.com. It’s linked in the transcript of today’s program. Let’s listen as Stephen Kendrick shares how we can grow in crying out to the Lord.

Stephen Kendrick: Good afternoon. I praise the Lord for my mother! How many of you already love her!? (applause)

I was getting ready for this, and she said, “Stephen! You need to tell them how to vote in the next election!” (laughter)

I said, “Mom, this is not a political event.”

She said, “It’s so important that they hear it!”

I said, “I’m not going to mention any candidates or any party.”

She said, “Well, tell them to get their Bible, and go read all the party platforms, and compare them to the Scriptures, and to vote according to what God’s Word says.” (applause) 

So, in honor of my mother, I’ve told you.

I have a friend who came to me and said, “Stephen, the closer I get to the Lord, the less impressed I am with you!” (laughter) 

And I said, “Okay, I can receive that.”

He said, “You keep talking about how God can do exceedingly abundantly above all we can ask or imagine. You didn’t make that up. That’s in the Bible! I found that in the Bible.”

I said, “I never said I made that up. Where’d you get that?”

Some of the people who work with us, they come and they say, “Okay, tell us how you produce these movies.” We’ve had many filmmakers come down to Albany. They sit across the table from us, and they say, “Okay, what’s the ‘secret sauce’?”

We say, “Look, we don’t know what we’re doing, but we are trusting an Almighty God; and so, we’re praying through every aspect of the filmmaking. We’re asking the Lord to guide.”

One of my friends came and worked with us on War Room, and when he was done, he said, “They’re telling the truth. They don’t know what they’re doing, and they do pray about every decision.”

So, I want you to know that. If you were to spend a lot of time with us, the less impressed you would be with us, and the more impressed you would be with the God that we serve.” (applause)

I want to show you a picture up on the screen (it was on the video). This is of my mom and dad getting married. On the right side of the screen, my dad’s dad—my grandfather—was seven feet tall! So, I hugged his knees when I was a kid.

He was an alcoholic for a good portion of my father’s life, but he married a woman who became a praying woman—and our dad had a praying mom who had a big impact on his life. My grandfather—my mom’s mom (as you heard in the story) was a praying woman as well.

She is impacting the nations, you could say, through prayers that she prayed many years ago. Now, I want to show you a picture of my family. This is my wife Jill and I and our six kids.

I’ve got behind me a very supportive wife, who prays for me and supports me. Engraved on the inside of my wedding ring (so it’s with me everywhere I go) it says “1 Samuel 14:7: ‘You do what you’ve set in your heart to do, and I will come support you with my heart and soul.’”

So some of you, like my wife, may be in a situation where you’re thinking, I’ve got girlfriends who are out working in these jobs, and they’re making the new iPhone, and they’re making a lot of money over here, and they’re beating out the men, and they’re becoming the CEOs and presidents of companies . . . and I’m just a mom.

I want you to know, God has you exactly where He wants you. You, whether you know it or not, are likely the most influential person in your husband’s life, and your prayers for him . . . God has given women this ability to discern how the marriage is going (a whole lot better than the man), how the kids are doing (a whole lot better than the man). He reveals those things to you so you can intercede on behalf of your husband and your children like nobody else on the face of the earth. You are likely, in these formative years—if your kids are little, like my kids are—the most influential person in your kids’ lives.

John Wesley—a man who was a catalyst for one of the great awakenings—said, “My mother taught me more theology when I was little than I’ve learned in all the other books and the training that I’ve had over the years.”

I heard a story about St. Paul’s cathedral being built: A man walks up and sees these two workers working. One man is laying bricks, and he’s grumbling and complaining, and he’s working slow. Another guy is over here laying bricks, whistling. He’s working hard; he’s keeping a good attitude.

The man walks up to the man who’s complaining and asks, “What are you doing?”

The man replies, “I’m laying bricks—what does it look like I’m doing?”

He walks over to the man who has a good attitude and is whistling, and he asks, “What are you doing?”

He replies, “I’m building a great cathedral!”

Both of them were doing the same thing, but one of them saw it from a bigger perspective!

The enemy wants to tell you, “You’re washing dishes . . . you’re folding another load of laundry—didn’t you just wash these clothes yesterday?” You’re changing diapers. With six kids, we’ve added it up—it’s into the tens of thousands of diapers that my wife has changed!

I’ve told her, “Sweetheart, you’re not changing diapers—you’re raising world-changers. You’re not preparing meals—you’re training up leaders of the next generation. You’re not stopping our kids from fighting and just spanking the one that’s the cause of the problem—you’re raising up people who will help take the gospel to the ends of the earth. You’re building a great cathedral!”

So I just want to affirm you. The enemy wants to step in and tell you that what you’re doing doesn’t matter. But God has strategically positioned you, wherever you are, for His glory—for such a time as this! We’re going to be looking at Nehemiah chapter 1 this afternoon. If you have your Bible, I want to encourage you to turn there.

Here’s a guy who is a layman. He’s a nobody. He’s in a foreign land. He feels like, “What am I doing here? I’m away from my people; I’m away from my country. Do I have any value? Do I have any importance?”

We’re going to talk about how Nehemiah prayed. It’s exciting for me to see what the Lord is doing through prayer around the world. If you look in Scripture, prayer is always a priority of the mighty men and women of God.

Look at the great people in the Old Testament—they were always prayer warriors. You look at Jesus’ life. In all of His busyness, He would either get up early to pray or stay up late to pray or send the crowd away to pray. You’re not busier than Jesus was, but He would make sure that prayer was a priority. It was the only thing His disciples asked Him to teach them how to do—it was to pray.

If you look at the Sermon on the Mount, He’s training them on how to pray. He’s saying, “God wants you to pray. He answers prayer. He’s commanding you to pray. Ask and you shall receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.”

The analogy, in Scripture, of prayer is not an employer to an employee, or even a master to a servant. It’s of a father to his children. Every time Jesus would talk about prayer, He would say, “I want you to think of God as your Father: a loving, good Father who cares about you and wants to give you good things.”

He says, “I want you to ask for good things, because your Father in heaven wants to give you those good things.” So Jesus is challenging His disciples, “Prioritize prayer. Pray instead of fainting.” He goes into the temple: “You’re making the temple about things other than prayer. My house shall be called ‘a house of prayer!’”

If you look in the New Testament, the church prioritized prayer. The Holy Spirit came, and Scripture says, “They devoted themselves to prayer,” as a New Testament church. As a result of prayer, everything else took on more power to it.

The preaching is powerful when there’s a praying church behind the pastor praying for him. The programs of the church are effective when there’s a praying people behind the programs. The promotional efforts . . . Everything you’re doing in your church, prayer is the wind in the sails of those things. If you can prioritize prayer—first—like the Scriptures say, everything else in your church will reap the benefits of that.

What do we see in 1 Timothy 2:1? “First of all, let there be prayers, petitions, supplication, thanksgiving for all men.” Let that be first in priority.

What did the apostles say (Acts 6)? “Okay, we have these women who are upset, complaining, over here—these widows who are being neglected. Let’s set up some people to serve them and meet their needs, but let us keep prioritizing prayer and the ministry of the Word.”

You read in Romans 12:12, spoken to us as believers, “Devote yourselves to prayer.” Colossians 4: 2, “Devote yourselves to prayer.” So it’s this constant message throughout Scripture, throughout Christian history. The greatest missionaries always devoted themselves to prayer.

Before the Great Awakenings, the Lord would stir up His Church. They would become burdened about the toxic condition of the culture, and the lukewarmness that was in the Church, and they would be so burdened that God would call them to their knees and they would begin to pray.

It wasn’t just a sermon series over a weekend. The Lord would call them to long-term devotion to prayer. He would say, “Let’s prioritize God Himself, and prayer, above any of the works of men.” I believe He’s doing that right now in our country, and I believe He’s doing that in the body of Christ all over the world!

We saw with War Room—now that the movie has gone international—we’re hearing stories of other countries. In Mexico there were twelve elderly women who went to see the movie, and then they started a twenty-four-hour prayer network in their city.

In Argentina, there are churches that have been meeting, and they’ve been praying. Pastors across America have been preaching on the priority of prayer. Seventy-one churches in Ohio recently met together for a prayer “boot camp,” saying, “We need to train our people in prayer.”

There’s a Texas prison that has focused in on prayer, and in this one unit in the prison . . . By the way, across America the recidivism rate for prisoners is about seventy percent. (That means that, when they get out, about seventy percent end up back in prison.)

But in this one unit in Texas, prisoners have begun to pray for one another, and the recidivism in that specific unit has dropped down to seven percent! Ninety-three percent are staying out of prison because they’re praying for one another! (applause)

E. M. Bounds said, “Prayer moves the hand that moves the world.” It can accomplish what God can accomplish. There is no greater privilege for you and I—anyone—to be able to personally talk to God—and speak into the ears of the Almighty. It’s a beautiful, mysterious, jaw-dropping opportunity that we have every day. 

Then we think of what God did to enable us to do it—that Jesus died and tore the veil from top to bottom. He opened up the way so that you and I—through His blood—can approach the Holy of Holies of God—to come before a loving, good heavenly Father who’s ready and able to meet any of our needs at any time.

I want to challenge you: Ask the Lord to make you a prayer warrior, that you would begin to pray for your children. I want to share with you a little bit about how our mom prays for us, and I want to share with you how Scripture challenges us to pray for other people.

The first thing is, prayer begins by being in Christ—definitely knowing Jesus as your Lord and Savior. Knowing Christ is the secret to answered prayer. When He said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6 ESV), He wasn’t being prideful—He was being truthful!

There is one Mediator between us and God, someone who’s equal to God and equal to man who can come between and bring us together, the Man Christ Jesus, 1 Timothy says. Ephesians 3 says we have boldness and access through faith in Him.

So if you have religion but you don’t have a relationship with God, God is not obligated to answer your prayers. In fact, Scripture communicates God is not obligated. He can answer the prayer of a lost person if He wants to, but the Bible says the unrighteous—their prayers are not pleasing to the Lord.

So lost people praying to God—if they don’t have a relationship with Him—is basically them talking to a stranger—someone who is not obligated to answer their prayers. So prayer begins with a relationship with Jesus.

When I was talking with Nancy about this conference, I asked, “How many people here are believers?” She said, “Well, I don’t know. Many of them, I believe, are believers.” But it’s been interesting to me . . . Billy Graham says a large percentage of the church is made up of people who think they’re saved, but they’re not.

We’re so many denominations, and different denominations emphasize different aspects of the gospel. But if we’re not careful, we can think that because we prayed a prayer, or we joined a church, or we’re christened as a baby, or we’re baptized at some point in our life, or we cried while we were at summer camp—that now we know Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

In the year 2000, I went through a personal crisis. I was serving in ministry. I was doing youth ministry, and the Lord took that year to humble me and “grind me to powder” in a lot of ways. Even though I’d led many people to Christ, I began to question my own salvation.

I discovered something in the Bible that just blew my mind. Did you know that God has given us a book in the Bible that can help us know and discern if we’re really saved or not? Does anybody know what that book is? There’s a book in the Bible that God has given us, and it is the litmus test for salvation.

Last week, I was meeting with a guy who is going into ministry—going into youth ministry—and we were talking about his relationship with the Lord. He struggled with pornography, and I said, “Let me ask you a question: Are you sure you’re saved?”

He said, “I think so, yeah, you know . . .”

I asked, “Do you ever doubt your salvation?”

And he said, “Actually, yes I do.”

And if you ask people, “Hey, do you know Christ? Are you a hundred percent sure?” A lot of people, we have that pat, ready answer.

Well, in the year 2000, I was ready with that pat answer, but the Lord began to open my eyes and ask me the question: “You need to put on the helmet of salvation, because you’re a hundred percent sure you’re saved.”

Romans 6 says, if you know you’re saved, then you can reckon yourself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ. If you’re going to fight the enemy, you’ve got to put on that helmet of salvation as part of the armor, and you’re standing in your identity in Christ.

If you’re doubting your salvation—if there’s still a little bit of a doubt in the back of your mind—then you’re not believing who you are in Jesus Christ, and who your Father is. If you’re doubting your salvation, you’re not going to be sharing your faith with other people.

You’re not going to be living in the joy of your salvation, and you’re going to be struggling. And so, whether it be sin in your life—and you’re a believer—that’s causing you to doubt . . . Whether it be that you made a commitment to Christ but you never followed that up with obedience in baptism . . . or you’ve never been discipled . . .I don’t know.

But I want to share with you right now. We’re just going to pause in this message for a minute, and we’re going to take just a moment. I’m going to give you a gift that God gave me in the year 2000, and that gift is, the book of 1 John.

The book of 1 John gives us seven tests of our salvation, and I’m going to give them to you this afternoon, because you’re not going to be able to pray effectively if Jesus Christ is not your Lord and Savior. And so, I want to give you this gift.

Many of you are like, “Man, I’m sure. I know where I am—I’m good. I love the Lord, this is a good thing.” I want to give you these seven things so that you can share them with other people who are struggling with their salvation.

But for some of you, as a result of this . . . When I shared this with this young man, he began to cry at the end of reading through those verses in 1 John. He said, “I’m saved! I know the Lord, and He knows me!”

I said, “It wasn’t me that revealed it to you. It wasn’t you who convinced yourself. It was the Word of God that said very clearly to you, ‘You know the Lord, and He knows you. You’ve got sin in your life, but you know the Lord, and He knows you.’”

When I discovered these passages of Scripture, it was like the lightbulb went on for me. I began to cry. I was like, “I know the Lord, and He knows me!” But I believe many people would discover that they don’t know the Lord. So, let me give you these things.

Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven.” He warned the Pharisees, “You think that you know God, but you don’t!” He said, “Many people will say to me, ‘Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, drive out demons in your name?’ and I will announce to them, ‘Depart from me; I never knew you!’” (Matthew 7:22–23).

The apostle Paul says, in 2 Corinthians 13:5, “Test yourselves to see if you’re in the faith. Examine yourselves—or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus is in you? Unless, indeed, you fail the test!”

So, if you think you’re going to heaven and you have a relationship with God because you’re a good person or you walked an aisle or you prayed a prayer or you were baptized or christened, and if your faith is in those things, then you should be very concerned, according to 1 John, because 1 John never mentions a ritual, or a summer camp, tearful—anything like that. It talks about proofs of salvation that show up when Christ changes your life. If you were to be put on trial for being a Christian, would the evidence of your life—compared to the Word of God—reveal that you know Christ . . . or you don’t?

Genuine salvation is like a wedding: it’s a commitment that results in a loving relationship. It’s like planting a vineyard—a lot of fruit shows up afterwards.

Do you remember those Polaroid cameras that we used to play with back when we were teenagers? You take the picture, and then this little white picture pops out, and if you look at it it’s just gray—there’s nothing there. You wait about sixty seconds later, and then the image that it took begins to show up.

Well, the Bible communicates that salvation. When you believe in Jesus, Ephesians 1 says, He seals you with the Holy Spirit of promise. You were dead and He makes you alive; you were buried with Christ and you’re raised with Christ. He saves you when you place your faith in Him.

Sometimes we don’t feel any different in that moment, but if it’s true salvation, the image of Christ starts showing up in your life over time. The fruit begins to be undeniable. You cannot make God your Father, and Jesus your Lord, and be indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and it not change you!

Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ, [they’re] a new creation. The old has [gone]; behold, the new has come” (ESV). So, from 1 John, I’m going to give you seven evidences of salvation—true salvation—that the Bible gives us. I want you to test your salvation with these. My hope is that for some of you, the lightbulb will go on and you will say, “I know the Lord, and He knows me! I’m never going to doubt again, and I’m going to pray within my identity in Christ. I’m going to start acting like who I am in Jesus, and I’m going to put on the helmet of salvation!”

Some of you, when you hear these things, you may say, “When I look at this, I realize I don’t know the Lord. I have religion, but not a relationship.” And I’ve got good news for you! Today is the day of your salvation. You can believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.

Evidence #1: Obedience. And really, it’s a lifestyle of obedience. Christians make mistakes, yes, but the direction and habits of a true believer change towards obeying Jesus. Now, obedience is not the root of salvation, but it is the fruit of salvation.

In 1 John 2:3–6, Scripture says this (listen to this): “by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says ‘I know him’ but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same [manner] in which he walked” (ESV).

Before we know Christ, we’re walking in a direction away from God. We’re living in perpetual sin, and every once in a while, we’ll stumble and we’ll do the right thing. But after we repent and we place our faith in Jesus, He doesn’t change us from rules on the outside—religion externalized. He transforms us from the inside, and He changes our nature.

So there’s this new desire to obey God that the Holy Spirit brings. Let me ask you a question. When it comes to, not any specific moment (because you can look at your life and say, “Well, I didn’t obey God there, and I didn’t obey God that time, and I didn’t obey God here”), but if you look at the 50,000 foot view of your life, after you made a decision for Christ, did you see a result in increasing obedience to the commands of God? When you hear the Word of God, is there in your heart, “I need to obey that; I want to obey that; Lord, help me to obey that”? Then you begin to see more obedience—not that you get it always right. 

James 3:2 says, “We stumble in many ways.” Believers stumble in many ways, but you have a heart that wants to obey God. That’s the first evidence Scripture gives of your salvation. A lost person does not obey the Lord; they have no desire to, really. But a believer—their nature has changed from the inside out. And 1 John says, “This is how we know him”—obedience.

Evidence #2: A confession of Jesus as God’s Son is the second evidence of salvation. Now, the world believes that Jesus is a good teacher, He’s a prophet, He’s a good example. Cults may even communicate that Jesus is a prophet or a good example, but the Bible communicates that a believer believes He’s more than just a man or a good example . . . He is God’s Son! He is God in the flesh. 

Watch this: 1 John 2:22: “Who is the liar but [the one] who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, [the one] who denies the Father and the Son. [Whoever] denies the Son [does not have] the Father. The one who confesses the Son has the Father also” (ESV). Jesus said, “Whoever confesses me before men, I will confess before the Father.”

So, who do you say Jesus is? Because if you say, “He is God in the flesh; He is the Son of God,” that is an evidence of your salvation, because it takes the Holy Spirit to reveal that truth to your heart.

Nancy: Well, we’ll catch the rest of those evidences of salvation from 1 John on tomorrow’s program. That’s Stephen Kendrick, speaking a few years ago at a True Woman conference. Stephen’s message helps all of us obey the apostle Paul’s encouragement to “examine ourselves to see if we’re in the faith.” A heart ready to cry out to God first has to be a heart that knows God and belongs to Him.

If a personal relationship with God is a foreign concept to you, if you say, "I'm not sure if I have a relationship with Him," then why don’t you pray and ask Him to show you more of Himself and what it means to know Him? And then pick up a Bible and start reading the book of Mark or John in the New Testament. These are great places to start in your quest to know Jesus better.

If you’re a child of God, if you’ve turned away from sin and placed your trust in Jesus for your only hope in this life and the next, would you stop and take a moment to thank Him for delivering and redeeming you? Would you ask Him what steps can you take to grow in your relationship with Him?

Dannah: I have one to suggest: how about a good devotional book? Specifically, I'm thinkin with Christmas just around the corner, you may enjoy spending thirty-one days in the pages of Nancy's newest Advent devotional. It’s titled Born a Child and Yet a King. In it, Nancy looks at various Christmas carols and studies the passages of the Bible that each is drawn from.

This month, as a thank you for your donation of any amount, we’ll send you Nancy's newest Advent devotional. It’s only available exclusively through Revive Our Hearts, so be sure to contact us with your donation today. Visit ReviveOurHearts.com, or call us at 1–800–569–5959.

Did you know there are things that can actually hinder our prayers? That’s something Stephen Kendrick will tell us about tomorrow. Please be back for Revive Our Hearts.

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss Wolgemuth encourages you to be a prayer warrior. The program is an outreach of Life Action Ministries.

All Scripture paraphrased unless noted.

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