Could your prayer life use an update? Even the most mature believers struggle with distraction, discouragement and sometimes even a spiritual drought when it comes to prayer.
Dr. Bill Thrasher, a respected scholar of Bible and theology, and author of the insightful book "How to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life" talks with host Helen Todd about practical steps to develop a consistent, deep and powerful prayer life.
In this interview they explore how to pray our hearts out, lean into our need for God, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, especially when we're unsure of what to pray for.
Don't miss out on their enlightening discussion on how temptations can aid your prayer and how t the Lord's Prayer can guide your conversations with God.
Bill and Helen navigate the complex issue of unanswered prayers and reconcile the scripture's promise to ask anything in God's name.
Check out Dr. Thrashers website victoriouspraying.com to purchase his book and find more resources.
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
Could your prayer life use an update? Even the most mature believers struggle with distraction, discouragement and sometimes even a spiritual drought when it comes to prayer.
Dr. Bill Thrasher, a respected scholar of Bible and theology, and author of the insightful book "How to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life" talks with host Helen Todd about practical steps to develop a consistent, deep and powerful prayer life.
In this interview they explore how to pray our hearts out, lean into our need for God, and allow the Holy Spirit to guide us, especially when we're unsure of what to pray for.
Don't miss out on their enlightening discussion on how temptations can aid your prayer and how t the Lord's Prayer can guide your conversations with God.
Bill and Helen navigate the complex issue of unanswered prayers and reconcile the scripture's promise to ask anything in God's name.
Check out Dr. Thrashers website victoriouspraying.com to purchase his book and find more resources.
Thanks for listening! Visit our website rfwma.org and follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
Help us make more inspiring episodes: https://rfwma.org/give-support-the-podcast/
What if you had a guide who could tell you how to bridge a gap between who you are today and who you are destined to be? What if, each week, you could hear a story of someone who has tried and succeeded, or perhaps tried and failed but learned something in the process? Limitless Spirit is a weekly podcast where host Helen Todd interviews guests about topics and personal stories on defining life's purpose, pursuing personal growth and developing a deeper faith in Christ.
Speaker 2:Welcome, dear listeners, to another episode where we explore the depths and nuances of the Christian life. Today, we focus on the vital and yet often challenging aspect of prayer. We are all too familiar with the hurdles we face in cultivating a fulfilling prayer life. There are distractions, discouragement and even times of spiritual drought. As believers, how can we move beyond these barriers to truly connect with Christ in our prayers and develop a rich, consistent and powerful prayer life?
Speaker 2:My guest today is Dr Bill Thrasher, a graduate professor of Bible and theology at Moody Theological Seminary. He is also the author of the recent book how to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life. Bill will guide us on a journey to rediscover the essence of prayer through clear and practical steps that promise to deepen our connection with God. Here are some of the most pressing questions that we are going to address in this interview how do you identify a dead prayer life? How can a worried and frantic person begin to enjoy God's presence and peace? How can you reach heaven when you don't know how to pray or what to pray for? And how can your greatest struggles spur effective prayers that defeat the evil one? Join me for this important conversation with Dr Thrasher and unlock the secrets to a more fulfilling and profound prayer life. Hello Bill, welcome to the Limitless Spirit Podcast. How are you today?
Speaker 3:I'm doing just fine. It's a pleasure to be with you.
Speaker 2:I'm very excited that I stumbled upon your recent book how to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life, and the reason why is I have been sort of on a personal quest to deepen my prayer life or improve the quality of my prayer life. In fact, I picked up a wonderful book by Charles Spurgeon on prayer and spiritual warfare and have been enjoying this, and you can never go wrong with any of his books. But I don't think it's a coincidence that I came across your book, and so I think it's a very important subject, because I believe that as Christians we are only as good as our prayer life. That's really the essence of our being as a Christian, essence of our relationship with God. So I want to ask you a question you are a professor at the Moody Bible Seminary. Is this book more of an academic research or it's personal as well?
Speaker 3:It is both, and certainly my background is a seminary study, new Testament Greek in a message of theology and systematic theology, but it's in the study taught by one theology, but that's what drove me into the area of spiritual formation and discipleship. The goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart, clear conscience, sincere faith. Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 1.5. So, and certainly even the title of the book how to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life is not in any way talking down at anybody. He's really talking about my own experience, someone who believed in prayer and very much was involved in it. But after being around the church so many years and people like pray for this, pray for this, I tried to pray for it all and I found myself one morning a crisis point that I really sense that I was very involved in the activity of prayer. But I was saying, god, I think the greatest gift you give me is just take this burden off my back, because what I had sensed.
Speaker 3:I've lost a real sense of expectancy, and so I needed to learn something else about prayer. You know, there's here, loud and clear, two things that are taught. One is prayer is very, very, very important, and I bought into that. Secondly, you need to discipline yourself to do it, and I had done that, but yet my prayer life died. I lost to expectancy, I lost to, and so DL Moody, arguably the greatest preacher of his day, said I'd rather teach one person to pray than 10 people to preach.
Speaker 3:There are five commands in relationship to the Holy Spirit Talk by the spirit, be filled with the spirit, don't breathe the spirit, don't quench the spirit, and pray in the spirit. And that's what I said. God, I want to put myself as a learner. How is it that you've given the Holy Spirit to motivate and guide and empower my prayer life? I need to learn some fresh lessons, and so it comes out of my heart, it comes out of a deep study of scripture, and I pray that God would graciously, lovingly encourage others that prayer is not just a human experience. It's something that we're not to live our Christian life by ourselves. We're to walk by the spirit, we're to pray in the spirit, and so I try to in very practical ways share how we can do that.
Speaker 2:So, before we touch on hows, let's talk about why it seems like having a vibrant prayer life is one of the biggest challenges of Christian life. In fact, I've you know, speaking from my personal experience, and I've talked to many famous pastors who confess that they really feel like their prayer life is not where they want it to be. And so why is it so difficult for us to develop a good quality prayer life?
Speaker 3:Well, I think, unquestionably it is a great spiritual battle. Here's when God wants to do something. God puts a prayer burden, a prayer concern on somebody's heart, is that person responsible for that prayer burden? That's how the work of God is set in motion. So if you as the prince of the power there, if you as the devil, if you as the adversary, the adversary of God, you obviously would get God's people so revved up and so busy and so that they can't hear God, they can't cooperate with him, because my activity is not really a threat to his kingdom, but he trembles when we pray. It is a spiritual battle, but you know God wants to come in there and help us. We don't. He is greater, greater is he than us and he is in the world. And so we can call upon an omnipotent God.
Speaker 3:And you know, when the disciples came to Jesus, had Lord, teach us to pray Luke 11, he spoke, he responded and he'll. Anyone's listening to us today? He will respond and he knows who you are, where your situation is, what your personality is, what your schedule is, what the demands on your life, and he is willing to be a patient, loving teacher. And so I just thank God for him honoring that request to teach you to pray. He will even. I thank God for the things I've unlearned about prayer. That and I thank God for every baby step of progress so you know God can revive your prayer life and I praise God that I need everything I'm telling others and I praise God for the privilege of learning from the Lord.
Speaker 2:Your answer made me think of what I would consider an inspiration or a model of a vibrant prayer life. Have you seen this movie, the War Room?
Speaker 3:Yes, I have. Yes, very good.
Speaker 2:I think that this is a great example that our prayer life is really spiritual warfare, our participation in spiritual warfare and drawing from the example of the disciples. When Jesus asks them to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane in his most challenging hour, what happens to them? They fall asleep, and so the enemy clearly recognized that their prayer would be very detrimental to his plan.
Speaker 3:And I think you know that before the Lord had announced to Peter one place that's in Mark 14, he says look, I'm going to die and you're all going to fall away. And in Peter's response and all others chimed in too you see that in Mark 14, verse 37, the following says even if I have to die with you.
Speaker 3:I will never deny you. I think he really meant that. And so when the Lord chose his three closest friends to go with him to the Garden of Gethsemane and ask him to keep watch with him and pray three times, they fell asleep, exactly like you said. But if you're convinced that, what you could never deny, why not just get a little rest? So we see, it's that spirit of self-sufficiency. God has to do something in a life, a breaking point. He can do it many, many ways. To show us that what we need prayer Now what the Lord, we see he was fulfilled three times. Peter denied the Lord, but we praise God. The story doesn't end there. We see later in Matthew, john 21, the Lord restores Peter. Peter, do you love me? Feed my sheep. Three times he questioned him, gave him an opportunity to affirm his love for the Lord.
Speaker 3:You see a different man in the book of Peter, in the book of Acts. He's not asleep but he's waiting in the upper room for that coming Holy Spirit. He's in that prayer meeting. You see, in Acts 242, they were devoted to prayer. Acts 31, he went up at the hour of prayer. Acts 4, in the crisis moment they call the spirit of prayer. So you see him a different man, and so it's. It's that is the key is, what is God does something I like. Romans 1311. As they were sleeping, he says it's time he's talking to the Christians of Rome. It's time for you to awaken from sleep. The church is asleep and I put myself in it without any kind of condemnation upon anybody else, but God wants to wake us up. Wake us up. We're in a battle and we need to cry out to him to intervene.
Speaker 2:I couldn't agree more with you. So it seems like one answer or conclusion that we came to, that the obstacle in the vibrancy and quality of our prayer life is the spirit of self-sufficiency. And I was trying to do this on our own. So that would be the first step of recognizing that, I think, would move us in the right direction. So what's next?
Speaker 3:Well, I think we've come to God in prayer and confess this. This is very unflattering, so I'll say it about me. If you come to God and say, lord in and of myself, I don't care about anybody but me. What's in it for me just colors everything that is our flesh. I can't produce Christ like ferocity. I can't produce Christ like compassion, but the good news. So you come to him in need. God honors need in his infinite mercy. He sets the needy securely on high, away from affliction. The prayer of Psalm 72, 4, and 5 saved the children of the needy.
Speaker 3:I always felt like my children qualified. It says it does not lie within man to direct his path. I'm a sheep. He delivered me from my strong enemy, for they were too mighty for me. God's opposed the proudest grace to the humble.
Speaker 3:So if you come to God in need, that is the first place. You know I spent a year, number of years ago. Each year I come before the Lord just trusting him for certain things, and one year was God. Would you show me how to be used to use a raise of prayer among your people? I laid that before the Lord for a year and I'm very attentive throughout the year. But you know there was one thing God showed me that looked very, very sparse. At the end of that year I said, boy, couldn't somebody trust God for an afternoon and get a lot more than that. But you know that one principle I've had the privilege to share with thousands of people you just tell God's people how to make use of their needy moments.
Speaker 3:Prayer is helplessness plus faith. Whatever there is. It makes you sense your need for God, thinking far and don't even stumble over the faith. It's just simply coming to Jesus with that helplessness. God honors that. So that is the first place. It's that posture. And you know, if you want to know the God's strategy in keeping the person useful, he keeps a person weak. You know, that's that. You know also Paul. He gave him that thorn in the flesh. He was concerned about him when he lifted up that prayer of the Lord. But he says you know, I'm going to give you something better. I'm going to give you that weakness that allow you to experience my grace and my power. So don't despise your weakness. It's the power of your prayer life.
Speaker 2:So I think the other reason, or an obstacle, I guess, and maybe it's even from my personal experience sometimes we just don't know how to pray, what to pray for, even for ourselves, you know, and we don't want to waste the Lord's time with babbling. So we want to be clear and concise in our prayers. So how do we overcome this weakness of ours that?
Speaker 3:Well, I just said two things regarding that. Certainly, the idea of maybe three things, but certainly you always pray your heart. See, as Lewis says, the prayer that precedes all prayer is this let it be the real I who speak. Let it be the real thou I speak to. Pray your heart. If you're fearful and you're praying, you're not talking about God, about that fear. You're not praying. If you're angry and you're not allowing God to enter into you and put his healing hand upon that hurt, beneath that anger, you're not praying. So there's many, many things to get a person to spy on, and that's one of them. It almost just become an activity that you feel like you need to do to soothe your conscience and not really a heart relationship with Lord. Now you need the Spirit of God to aid you in getting in touch with your heart and praying your heart. Now, sometimes, even as you're seeking to pray, your heart is.
Speaker 3:Scripture says the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness, for we don't know how to pray as we ought. Sometimes we're weak and we don't know how to pray as we ought. The worst thing you can do there is pretend you do know how to pray as you ought because you know you're around the church long enough. Somebody asks you about something, pray about it, and we've got to pray for all occasions that we can dump on you. But sometimes we don't know how to pray as we ought and the Holy Spirit intercedes with those growing you too deep for words. Sometimes, just like I mentioned that thorn in the flesh, when Paul prayed, lord, deliver me from this thorn in the flesh, he really meant that that was a desire. But there was a deeper desire underneath Paul's heart that he wasn't in touch with at that moment. The deeper desire is God. I want to know your grace and your power in the fullest possible extent and I'm going to be the most useful believer I can be. So God did not give him his desire in order to give him a deeper desire, and though he wasn't in touch with that. But the Holy Spirit was interceding with those growing you too deep for words. So pray your heart, trust God's spirit to help you pray when you don't know how to pray.
Speaker 3:And certainly I would say what the use of scripture. We are weak. That was a thing that ministered to me. I'm so weak that God many times has to give me the very words to articulate my heart to God, you know, go. I remember going to the Psalms one time and that's a great book of prayer and finding passages there that helped me articulate my heart to God.
Speaker 3:You could say, god, protect me. Or Psalm 17, 8, keep me as the apple of your eye, hide me in the shadow of your wings. You could say, god, encourage me. Or you could say, god, make glad the soul of your servant, for to you I lift up my soul, for now I'm good, ready to forgive abundant, loving, loving, kind of souls, to call upon you. Psalm 86, 4 and 5.
Speaker 3:So see, god's given us His word. He's given us many scriptural prayers. In an earlier book I wrote a prayer, put it in the appendix All the key references to prayer, all part of the Old Testament and every reference to prayer in regard to the New Testament. I pray through those or whatever, and that's a tremendous help. So I think those are some ways that God knows we're weak and we need help in prayer. He's given us the Holy Spirit to help us get in touch with the heart, to pray our heart, to pray our heart when we don't know how to. And he's given the Spirit, wrote His word. So never divorce the disciplines of prayer and scripture. If you're abiding me and my word's abiding, you ask whatever you will and I shall be done for you. John 15, 7. So when God's joined together, let no man separate. He's put together the disciplines of scripture and the disciplines of prayer.
Speaker 2:So can our temptations actually aid us in our prayer life.
Speaker 3:And it's one of the greatest aids. And I tell you this something helps me every day, and that's no exaggeration, no hyperbole. Every day of my life, a temptation is an appeal to meet a legitimate need in an unrighteous way, and so your temptations get you in touch with the desires of your heart. Now that it doesn't tell you, the temptation and okay it's it offers you a fix for some pain inside of you, but it's going to lead you to guilt and bondage and intensified pain. And so there you got to go back for another fix, and that's the cycle of addiction.
Speaker 3:You know one very practical thing that it's not a sin to be tempted. Jesus was tempted in all ways, yet without sin. Pat down your most persisted temptation and then ask God, god, every time I'm tempted this way, would you give me a prayer request, a prayer burden that I'm going to use this as a prompting to pray and remember the dear man that shared that with me about 40 years ago. He says let it be a prayer request that will damage Satan's kingdom, as God answers it. So here the genius of that you're using the temptation to do their own thing to become the motivation to do a godly thing, and that helps me every day of my life, you know, if he starts out just being a prayer partnership with somebody.
Speaker 3:When I'm tempted, I'm going to pray for you and you're tempted, you pray for me. But think about every time a mother or father was tempted to have an imperial thought, they prayed for the purity of their children. Every time a Christian was felt to be discouraged and in fiery dark, to discouragement, a throne at all of us you prayed for the encouragement of your Christian leaders. So the genius of that is sometimes you'll get tired of resisting something if you're not saying yes to something else. So that is a tremendous help and I beg God that everybody would hear that and put that into practice. Don't go to bed tonight without figuring out what your temptation is and how you're going to respond to that.
Speaker 2:I think this is a very, very practical advice. I never thought of it this way. I can't wait to try that. So we talked a little bit about how we pray for ourselves. Let's talk about how we pray for others, how we transition from the self-centeredness to actually and even in that temptation prayer, I'm having that praying for others.
Speaker 3:When you're tempted, what can I pray? And that is for others. That does take attention off herself, but that may not be the question you're asking now, so go ahead, but that is praying for others.
Speaker 2:So, yeah, this is a great way, because I think that the enemy's goal is to keep us focused and centered on ourselves.
Speaker 2:That's the most miserable life when your greatest needs are your own and your greatest focus is yourself. There can't be anything more miserable than that. So what is some other advice that you have for expanding your prayer life towards the needs of others, and maybe even being the vice president of a missions organization? Our focus is to engage the church into praying for the nations, praying for the people in the other parts of the world where they may have never even set foot before or have heard of that. That takes a great level of spiritual maturity to care enough. And so what would you say to people to encourage their prayer life to expand even beyond the needs of the people they know and love, to the people that they may never encounter?
Speaker 3:You know it's God can expand your heart. I think many times praying with others can expand your heart. I do pray for the world, I pray for the various contents of the world and I go through Operation World in regard to praying for, but you know it helps me when I'm praying for others. I remember we at our school we went one particular time we had this particular time. We had a Friday morning prayer meeting where we prayed for the revival of our own lives and also intercessions of the world. We usually bring an international student to talk to us about her country or his country. And you know, as I said, I pray for the world and I've been to some parts of the world. But I remember when this Chinese student, when they prayed for China, they wept. You know that sometimes is he praying with others and exposure to others it does expand your heart and it becomes not quite as theoretical. I know individuals that I former students that I had many years ago when I began to take trips to see them took eight trips down there to Mexico where they weren't a very dangerous part. You know that, even though I knew them and I knew about the situation, it was so different just being there. So I know everybody can't go there in it but our prayers can go where we can't go. But what I'm saying, exposure to need is a tremendous help. Praying with others who maybe have a first-hand exposure to that is a tremendous help. So certainly I love the prayers of scripture too. That can tell us how I mean I love those.
Speaker 3:One of my favorite prayers is Ephesians 1, 15 to 23. To pray hope into people's lives, hope, that precious word. You know till that devil is despair, those fiery darts he throws at every one of us. You know that. Hope that he says I pray that you know the riches of the glory of his inheritance, not just that you haven't inherited us, but that we are God's inheritance. It's a way that people will know that they are God's treasured ones. Never underestimate how cruel the devil is. He tries to put those.
Speaker 3:I remember a dear lady. She said the breakthrough in her life was when a man of God came up to her and looked her straight in the eyes and said look, I want to tell you one thing you're not just a piece of dirt. She said all her life she'd seen herself more valuable than a piece of dirt. Now God didn't put that thought in you. But the evil one is very, very cruel. And so I'm just that that Ephesians 1.15 to 23,.
Speaker 3:That's a great way to aid and guide your prayer. You said I pray. You know the power that raised Jesus from the dead, the kind of power that give you power over over over sin and death. And also the resurrection power is the power that gives victory out of a parent defeat. When Jesus was in the grave it looked like the enemies of righteousness had won, but God was winning his greatest victory. Now that's a way of God in our life. Many times before God would do something special. He will bring you low. He'll bring you low and you can despair in that moment or you can cry out to God and experience that resurrection power. So those are some of the ways you use scriptural prayers and expose yourself to need and even for people who can feel those burdens even a greater way than you feel, it's been a help.
Speaker 2:Well, and sometimes all it takes is the intention. When you were speaking about the Chinese students. I have a very good real life example from our ministry where, you know, back in the very beginning of our ministry, a friend of my husband's invited him to go to China with him, and my husband had absolutely zero desire to go to China. And so the friend said Well, I will send you a map of China. Would you pray for China?
Speaker 2:And my husband agreed with that. There was no emotion, there was no desire, but there was an intention. So he promised and therefore he prayed for China. Looking at this map, do you know that six months later he was on the airplane with his friend flying to China? Because sometimes it starts with intention and then the emotion comes. You know, and that's the power of prayer you start and then the Holy Spirit does his work and does the rest, and so sometimes you don't feel like doing that, but if you make an intention, then God does the rest.
Speaker 2:So one of the things that I, again, I think it can be an obstacle in our prayer life is the worry. Yes, when you are in a crisis, when you are facing an exceedingly difficult situation where it's just beyond your control, beyond your natural ability to confront, sometimes this worry brings our prayer life to a halt because it just takes over. So what are some practical ways to combat this?
Speaker 3:That's an excellent. Certainly we all. Like I said, it's not just to be tempted, and we're all tempted with those fire darts of anxiety, but the, you know, god tells us to be anxious for nothing. He tells us to cast all our cares upon him and we pray, even for the ones that will be listening to us. Now, anything between any of us in full obedience to that command, that God would even help us make that transition. But you know, if God only told us to be anxious for nothing, that really wouldn't help us, because now not only we know we anxious, now we know we're sinning, so that doesn't help. But he says don't be anxious for nothing.
Speaker 3:But he says, every time you're tempted to be anxious, god is drawing you into a conversation with himself. He says talk to me. Sometimes you have to talk to him and say Lord, what is it that I'm really anxious about, as you talk to him. And then he says, as you talk to him, tell me what you want me to do about it. Let your requests be made known to God. Prayer was supplication, specific request. And then, as you talk to him, sometimes we have to go to scripture saying God, would you show me and guide me how to petition you in regard to this concern. Sometimes you need other people praying with you in regard to that. And the third thing he says is Thanksgiving. You can talk to God about your worry problem and you can petition him, and you can get more wrapped up in the problem than in God, but Thanksgiving is what lifts your heart to God. Thank you, lord, that you don't want me burdened. Thank you that your load is light, thank you that you care more about this than I do. And so if those are the practical ways that God has shown us to carry that burden, that's a big way you get to know God. That's a big way you get to know his word. When his word has shown you how to petition him, how to trust him with a particular anxiety.
Speaker 3:You understand Peter's words when he talks about the promise of God being these precious and magnificent promises. They are precious and magnificent when they've enabled you to what To live in peace. That peace that Jesus said he wanted to leave his disciples with. My peace, I give it to you, not as the world gives, the peace that sustained him, even though he woke up every day and there was a plot to kill him. We marveled that a man could exist in those circumstances. But in his humanity he could live with peace, and he wants to train you and me to live with peace. So we praise God for that, that he is a God of peace and wants to give us that peace and to guard our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.
Speaker 2:So our conversation about prayer, I don't think would be complete if we didn't talk about the Lord's prayer. So when Jesus gives us this example of how to pray, what is he teaching us through this?
Speaker 3:Well, I think you certainly see a pattern. You know, many times the way we use it is almost in tethysis of what he's just talked about. He says don't just use me as repetition. Sometimes we quoted as if it just means repetition. But he's given a pattern. And you know it's interesting when a person says teach me to pray or teach me to study the Bible, somebody's sort of they're sort of wanting, in no way, it's not as simple as that. They're sort of wanting a one, two, three, four beginning step. And I think that's what he gives them.
Speaker 3:He doesn't mean you freeze it and make it it uh wrote and lose all meaning to it. But you start with God, our Father, born in heaven. You, uh, how will be your name, lord? This is, this is about you. And to how will be your name? You come in submission by kingdom. Come, that will be done. Earth is in heaven. So you come in submission, you come in recognizing God and then, as he goes through the various petitions, forgive us our trespasses. We forgive those who trespass against us. If there's anger in your heart, do that, ask Him. You don't earn forgiveness by forgiving others, but if you help bitterness in your heart, you're not in a position to receive the cleansing that God wants to give you. Give me this day my daily prayer In His praying, not just for you, give us, it's praying, in a sense, for others as well. So you do see a beautiful pattern there in the Lord's Prayer that can be very, very helpful.
Speaker 2:I think it's not a coincidence that he puts that the kingdom come. That will be done in the very beginning, because I think it is focused to our prayers. This is where it takes the focus from us being the center of the universe and recognizing that we exist for the purpose of God's will and His kingdom, and I think this is helpful in our prayers as we come with whatever need that we're facing, that in the end, the most important thing is that it is God's will that matters.
Speaker 3:And he's the Master. We're the servant, and so we come to Him. Lord, the posture of our heart is God. What do you want me to trust you for? What do you want me to trust you for? We know that His will is ultimately our best. He makes His will look attractive because it is, it's, good, acceptable, perfect will of God. So we want His will, and so when we're struggling, we let our desires be known to God, like our precious Lord did, as he was anticipating the cross. But he said yet not my will, but that will be done. So I think that is. I would totally agree with that. That that's very important. That's the beginning of His teaching on prayer, there in the Lord's prayer.
Speaker 2:And this kind of leads me to the next question, or maybe it helps us answer the next question how do we deal with unanswered prayers and the fact that the scripture promises us? To ask whatever you wish in my name and it will be given to you, but yet not all of our prayers are answered. So what helps us reconcile this conflict?
Speaker 3:Yes, well, certainly, you know, sometimes they're not answered in the way that we're asking and certainly we have the potential of asking a miss. We want part of it. We want to look at, first of all, the idea of when I'm asking. You know he tells the people there in James 4, you don't have because you don't ask, and I know he's going to anticipate them saying don't say we're not asking, we're asking, asking, asking, not receiving. Yes, you're asking and not receiving, because what you ask, that you may spend it on your own pleasures, now that doesn't mean that what you can't ask for something if you really want it, that doesn't mean that at all. But the solution there is when you bring them down there, to verse 7 of that James 4, submit, therefore, to God. When I want something more than I want God, something's wrong. Let God be your servant. Now, lord, let me tell you what. No, I'm His servant, and so he loves us so much. He wants to give us. His will will be our very best, and so that's part of it.
Speaker 3:There may be some reasons that, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear he who does not listen to God's word. In obedience, he says what he will not. Our prayers can be at abomination, so there can be blame where they cause. There are other times that well, like we've mentioned, the idea of didn't answer us to remove the thorn in the flesh because God wanted to give them something better. God had a deeper desire in our heart. Sometimes it may be a timing thing.
Speaker 3:I remember these two individuals. They said they prayed for years that God was in revival in this particular and after about three years they sort of just felt released from that prayer burden and didn't seem like much happened. But about 20 or 30 years later they were at a pastor's conference. They were older men now and they mentioned how many got saved during those three years at petitioning God. Well, a few hands raised. How many of you were born during that time? Countless people stood up.
Speaker 3:So you know, sometimes the answer may look different. It may look different as we pray, I would say also even as we're waiting on God, for those situations that are causing us always be open to let God work in your life Are always our postures. We pray, lord, is there any adjustment you want me to make in my life? Is there any way you want me involved in the answer to this prayer. So obviously, the work he wants to do in our life is always a great priority Now, unfortunately, god works through prayer but also the priority of him letting him work in our life as well. And God give great grace and great encouragement for anybody who's listening to us, that is crying to God for a situation, and may God give them the wisdom as they wrestle with that very good question.
Speaker 2:We are going to post link to where people can purchase your book if they want to. But what would you say to our listeners if they were to read your book? What are some of the main takeaways? What should they hope to learn or resolve in their lives?
Speaker 3:Well, I want them to know how they can find motivation, encouragement and help and the power of the Spirit to help them pray. I want them to know how to pray when they are tempted and how those temptations can result in some of the most victorious intercessions they'll ever experience. I want them to know how to restore themselves to God for the glory of His name. There are many, many prayers. I take them through an adventure there At the end to believe God and as they're praying for them, they're praying for others that are trusting God for them to resurrect their prayer life. The subtitle of the book is Transforming your Prayers Into a Spirit-Enpowered, life-giving Adventure, and I believe it can be that.
Speaker 3:I pray that God would truly do something very, very special in reviving their prayer life, and I think any believer that doesn't see a need to make continued progress. There's such a thing as the ministry of prayer. Now, I wouldn't say I have the ministry of prayer. I have a tremendous burden for prayer, but like that's the Anna there in Luke 2. She never left the temple, praying, serving the Lord night and day, with fasting and prayer. That's the ministry of prayer. That's all she did. I've met a couple of people in my life that had that ministry. I'm open to that ministry. I don't have that because I do many, many other things right now in addition to that, but I pray that God would wonderfully, wonderfully work and that they could know that they could come to God, teach me to pray, and I pray that the book in some way will help hear the God's voice, the Lord's voice in teaching them to pray.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much, bill, for this conversation and for the book that you wrote. I do believe that it's much needed and I know that it's going to be a blessing to many of our listeners. Thank you, and wish you all the best.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Helen. God bless you.
Speaker 2:And there we have it, dear listeners A wealth of practical advice and insight from Dr Bill Thrasher, who challenged us to evaluate and perhaps take our prayer life to the next level. I hope today's conversation has shed some light on pathways to nurture and grow your connection with God through prayer. As we wrap this enlightening session, I encourage you to reflect on Dr Thrasher's words and explore the steps he outlined in his guide how to Resurrect a Dead Prayer Life. Check out his website, victoriasprayingcom, for this book and some more helpful resources, and remember the journey to a rich prayer life takes time and continuous growth. Thank you for joining me today. If you enjoy these podcasts, I encourage you to consider supporting the production of these episodes, which reach people in over 100 nations across the globe. By sponsoring the next episode with a donation of 10, 20, 50, or maybe even $100, you help spread the good news across the world. Thank you in advance. Until next time. I'm Helen Todd.
Speaker 1:Limitless Spirit Podcast is produced by World Missions Alliance. We believe that changed lives change lives. If you want to see your life transformed by Christ's love, or if you want to help those who are hurting and hopeless and discover your greater purpose in serving Christ through short-term missionary work, check out our website, rfwmaorg, and find out how to get involved.