How to Pray: The Audacity to Ask

Some people seem to pray to God about everything and they ask God for BIG things. God moves on their behalf and answers their requests while others wonder how they even thought to pray for God to do something so amazing. Today's episode is about having the boldness to ask God for something you have never seen or known Him to do before. Join the journey with the prophet Elijah in 1 Kings 17 and see once again that when we press, prayer reaches every single situation.

***Disclaimer*** This episode is out of order and should have been before the prior two episodes, but the truth of the scriptures was too good to skip. Enjoy!

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#biblestudy 

#biblestudyforbeginners 

#biblestudyforteens 

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#pentecostal 

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#pressmovement

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Transcript

Press means to apply force. When God said press, prayer reaches every single situation. He gave us permission to apply force to every situation that we will go through.

And in this podcast, we are going to learn to apply force to what's applying pressure to us. Greetings, everybody, and welcome to the Press Podcast. Thanks for joining us again.

So glad that you came. We are now in the book of First Kings. I cannot believe this podcast is almost a year old.

God is amazing. Thank you for everybody who has been listening, but I would encourage you to share it with somebody. There are plenty of people looking for Bible studies out there and looking to learn more about the word of God.

And I've just found that in studying this, it has been such an eye-opening experience to just see the word of the Lord through the lens of prayer. Hopefully you found the same thing, and I encourage you to share it with somebody. Share this prayer journey with them.

We're in First Kings chapter 17 today, and we're meeting for the first time in this journey a man by the name of Elijah. This is Elijah with a J. He is a prophet and a very unique individual, I must say. As we meet him in First Kings chapter 17, the Lord let him know that he was not going to allow it to rain upon Israel for some years, and Elijah goes to the King Ahab and tells him that.

After Elijah does this, he is directed by the Lord how to maneuver. The Bible says in First Kings 17 and 4 that the Lord came to him saying, get thee hence and turn thee eastward and hide thyself by the brook of Cherith, that is before Jordan. And it shall be that thou shalt drink of the brook, and I have commanded the ravens to feed thee there.

So he tells them to go to Cherith and I'm going to have some birds feed you. This is just such an interesting thing to me. Most of the prophets nowadays want to be dressed well, carry a title, and have an entourage, but a lot of the Old Testament prophets, they were very eclectic would be the word.

They did some things that other people would find strange in the name of the Lord, and eating from birds, not eating birds, but eating from birds might be one of those things, but it was at the word of the Lord. Everything that he did was structured by God, and he is now leaving the presence of Ahab, who you'll find out later is definitely not a fan of Elijah, partially because of things like this, where you're prophesying against him. Your land is going to have a famine, it's going to have a drought, and so the way he follows God is amazing, but it's so unique.

It's not set up like anybody else's journey with God. So the Lord commands him, you know, go to this place, this is where you'll be saved, go and the ravens will feed you, and the Lord commands him again, because after a while, the brook that he told him to sit near where the ravens would feed him, it dried up. The land is experiencing a drought.

Your brook is dry now too. It's funny that the prophet is not exempt from seeing the judgment of the Lord, but he doesn't have to experience it the same way they did, because God is still navigating him through the judgment. I believe God still does that for his church today, where we may have to see judgment on the land, but if we'll follow God, it may look a little different, it may look a little unique, but he will navigate us through the judgment we have to witness so that it does not impact us the same way.

So the brook is dried up, and the Lord says to Elijah, go to Zarephath, which belongs to Zidon, and dwell there, and behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee. Go see some woman in Zarephath, and she's going to take care of you. And so Elijah goes to Zarephath, and when he gets to the gate of the city, there's a widow woman there gathering sticks, and he called her and said, fetch me, I pray thee, a little water in a vessel that I may drink.

And as she was going to fetch it, he called her and said, bring me, I pray thee, a morsel of bread in thine hand. And she said, it's the Lord that God liveth, I have not a cake, but a handful of meal in a barrel, a little oil in a cruise, and behold, I'm gathering two sticks that I may go in and dress it for me and my son that we may eat it and die. So basically, she's like, you're asking me for bread, you're asking me for a sandwich, I barely have a piece of bread.

I'm going home to prepare this so me and my son can die. This is all we've got. We're at the bottom of the barrel.

But Elijah says to her, fear not, go and do as thou hast said, but make me thereof a little cake first, and bring it unto me, and after make for thee and for thy son. And she listened to him. She just said, I don't have enough to go around.

This is our last meal. We're going to die on this one. And he said, feed me first, and then you can take care of yourselves.

But he also tells her, the barrel of meals shall not waste, neither shall the cruise of oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth the rain upon the earth. He let her know the Lord is saying, what you've got will be enough. What you got will get you through until the earth is replenished.

What you've got is enough. Saints, I got to pause right there because sometimes we get in positions where we have to give and it feels like in giving we won't have enough, not just money, but it can be your time. It can be of your heart, of your service, and you're giving and giving and giving.

And you may feel sometimes like, I don't even have enough to spread to my own house. But in the giving, God has blessed and will bless your house too. And what God has given you is enough to give and for your house.

It is enough. So she went and did according to the saying of Elijah, and she and he and her house did eat many days, the Bible says. And it was exactly as Elijah said, the barrel wasn't wasted.

The cruise of oil did not fail until the word of the Lord, which he spake by Elijah, came to pass. But what happens is in verse 17, after these things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house fell sick and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him, her son dies. Now time has passed.

The drought is over. The Lord has done what he said, and now her son dies. And she said to Elijah, what have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? And he said unto her, give me thy son.

And he took him out of her bosom and carried him up into a loft where he abode and laid him upon his own bed. Now, mind you, she turned like, wait a minute, what's happening here? Is this because of something wrong I've ever done? She started going back down memory lanes. She is a mom.

She is not happy. She's looking, sir, you're a man of God. You came to my house.

I didn't come to yours. What's going on here? Why is this happening? She had questions. Elijah does not answer those questions, but he just says, give him to me.

And he carries him up into a loft. It shows here that Elijah had his own room at her house. She had done just what the Lord had told Elijah she would do.

She had taken care of the prophet of the Lord all throughout this famine, this drought. But now she needs the God of Elijah to do something. And Elijah lays the son upon his own bed.

And he cried and said, oh Lord, my God, has thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? So they both talking to God, God, did you do this? God, is this what you wanted? Is this what you're going to do? The Bible says Elijah stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord and said, oh Lord, my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again. Three times Elijah prays the same prayer. And it's not enough to pray.

He actually lays on top of the kid. Like I said, prophets back in the day, I don't know about today's prophets, but back in that day, they were a little different. He lays on top of this child and he's crying out, Lord, let this child's soul come into him again.

Three times. Sometimes you do have to ask God more than once. You do have to intercede.

But what I love about Elijah here is he had the audacity to ask. This is the first resurrection noted in the Bible. What made him think that God would raise this child from the dead? What gave Elijah the audacity? Audacity means a willingness to take a bold risk.

Well, here, the only risk is not that God can't, but God didn't say he would. It also means the courage or confidence, a kind that other people find shocking. What made him have the courage, the confidence, or the potency to think he could ask God to raise this baby from the dead? This had never happened before.

But Elijah boldly and with crying aloud says to God, do this please. I believe this is a good time for those who are walking with God to have the audacity to ask him to do something bigger than what you've seen. He's a big God.

And sometimes, I know I wrote about this in the book I wrote on prayer. The book is called It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer. So on Amazon, you guys can check it out at PressToPray.com. But I wrote about how I had to stop limiting God to my imagination in my prayers.

So I would ask for what I could imagine him doing. But it took a while to get to the place where I could ask for things I couldn't imagine, that I couldn't envision. I didn't know in any way, shape, or form how he could bring it to pass, but I knew that he could do it.

Elijah had the audacity to ask God for something so big that no one had ever asked him before, and to stay through three rounds of asking him the same thing while being literally attached to the dead thing. He had so much faith and so much determination, but also such a pleading in his spirit for somebody else that he was not willing to just let death be the end until God said it was so. But the Bible says, And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.

And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber into the house and delivered him into his mother. And Elijah said, See, thy son liveth. And the woman said to Elijah, Now by this I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth is true.

Again, yes, the Lord did it. And that is so exciting. Yes, she got to know God in a better way because of it.

And that is so exciting. But it really did start because Elijah walked with God, and he had the audacity to ask. Today, I encourage you to pray the big prayers to those of you who walk with God.

I'm not talking about being reckless and just asking for something. I need this. I need that.

Maybe you do, though. But to those of you who walk with God, and you know him, you know his character, you know his love, you know his judgment. Trust that.

Trust who he is. Trust who he said he would be. Trust the scriptures, what he's written of himself.

And be bold in asking. Bold is not disrespectful. The Bible lets us know that we can come boldly before the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need in Hebrews 4.16. That word boldly in the New Testament literally means all speech.

You can come talking to God, not talking crazy, not talking disrespectfully, but you don't have to hold back in the way you ask him or in what you're asking him. You don't have to try to speak or articulate a certain way. He wants you to talk to him.

He does not mind showing off that he's a big God. Does he give us everything we want? No. But what you learn in his yeses and his no's is that he is God and that he makes decisions.

And even when he says no, there's a reason. When he says yes, there's a reason. But he wants us to have the audacity to ask.

Ask him to save in your city. Ask him to move up on your church. Ask him to help your children.

Ask him to heal. Ask him. He will do what he wants.

But today I challenge us to have the audacity to ask because sometimes we have not because we ask not. So talk to God. Ask him because prayer reaches every single situation.

Join the movement. Join the community. Like, share, and subscribe to this podcast.

Visit us at PressToPray.com or find us on Instagram or Facebook. Did you know that when you are quiet, your voice is missing to God's ears? I know some of us have prayed and were wondering how long should I pray about this? Why should I pray if God already knows? How will I know God is answering? And what do I do when I feel like God's not listening? But God is listening for your voice. It's too quiet in this world for the troubles we have.

You have to raise your voice and God wants to hear from you. It's Too Quiet, a book about prayer, is designed to answer your prayer questions and build your faith. Visit PressToPray.com.