The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation
In a world filled with a lot of talk, we want to have meaningful, biblical conversations with those God has entrusted to us. Join Tosha Williams and the Family Disciple Me ministry for Devotion Driven Discipleship conversation starters that will encourage you to "Seek Him Speak Him" in your own life.
Family Disciple Me is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) Christian ministry dedicated to catalyzing Devotion Driven Discipleship in our own lives and homes as well as around the world.
For more information, visit familydiscipleme.org
The Family Disciple Me Podcast // Discipleship Starts With a Conversation
Facedown Forty: Continuing to Pray When Prayers Are Not Answered (Yet!)
What happens when the answers to your prayers feel like they're stuck in traffic? Join me, Tosha Williams, as we continue in this deeply personal journey of steadfast prayer against the backdrop of doubts and delays. Inspired by Moses's relentless 40-day prayer marathon, we explore the power of staying committed to intercession even when the road seems endless. Thing is, God is always listening, even when His timing doesn't match our own. What's more, Jesus Himself encouraged us to keep praying, as Scripture says, "Jesus told his disciples a parable to show them that they should always pray and not give up" (Luke 18:1).
This episode follows the initial "Facedown Forty" podcast that introduced this topic. If you haven't yet heard this challenge to pray for our people, you can listen in to that episode HERE.
Let's keep praying, friend! Our Lord God hears, is working, and will answer prayers.
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The Family Disciple Me ministry exists to catalyze devotion driven discipleship in our homes and around the world. We believe that discipleship starts with a conversation, and FDM provides free, easily-accessible, biblical resources to encourage these meaningful conversations along life's way. Sign up through our website to be "the first to know" about upcoming releases and resources (including the FDM App - coming soon!!!) You can also follow Family Disciple Me on social media.
Family Disciple Me is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit ministry, and all donations are tax deductible. More information, blogs, statement of faith and contact info can be found at familydiscipleme.org
Face down 40. If you accepted this invitation to intercessory prayer for 40 days, my question for you is how's it going? How is your prayer life increasing? How are you going deeper into the realms of intercessory prayer? I don't know about you, but for me this has been quite a journey. It hasn't been easy and I certainly haven't gotten it perfect. But here I am, about a week and a half into this journey myself. And well, there is one thing that I am persistently hearing the enemy speak into my life, and that is Tasha. You've prayed about this for years and you haven't seen any change. You haven't seen an answer. So what difference does face down 40 make? I don't know, maybe you're not hearing that, but that's what the enemy is speaking to me, and it's because of that that I think there is another truth in God's Word here from Deuteronomy 9 and 10 that is so important to look at, to study, to consider, to seek the Lord about and to be encouraged by. I would love to share this with you, so, if you'll stick with me, I'm going to cue the brief intro and then be right back to just encourage you the way the Spirit of God has been encouraging me about continuing in consistent, persistent prayer, even after all this time.
Speaker 1:Hi, my name is Tasha Williams and this is the Family Disciple Me podcast. In this particular episode, I want to share with you something that God has personally laid on my heart. The Family Disciple Me ministry also has regular podcasts that include conversation content that we encourage you to use to seek Him, speak Him in your own life. But in this particular episode, I'd like to share with you just a little bit of my journey and invite you in. Thanks for joining me During Face Down 40,.
Speaker 1:Who is it that you are praying for? What is the name of that person? Who are those people that you are willing to fall flat on your face before the Lord and intercede on their behalf? My guess is that you have been praying for this person or for these people for a long, long time. At least that's what's true about me, at least that's what's true about me. And as I consider this prayer list of these people who are at the very top of my face down 40 prayer list, I can find myself beginning to get a little bit discouraged, because I've prayed for these people for so long. I've prayed for them so many times. I have gone before the Lord and fallen on my face week in and week out, asking him to do something, to show up, to be powerful, and sometimes it feels like he's never going to answer that prayer. So where do I find the strength and courage to keep praying? Well, for me, as I continue to just meditate on this initial passage that brought me to this Face Down 40 concept, I look again at Moses's story and you know, the thing that so encourages me from this part of Moses's life is that he didn't give up on prayer. He didn't give up, he didn't stop. I don't know about you, but if I had already spent 40 days and 40 nights interceding for somebody, flat on my face in the presence of God, absolutely crying out on behalf of people, and I didn't see the answer to my prayer, I might give up, I might be tempted to give in, I might go with another tactic or just honestly decide to be selfish. But that's not who Moses was.
Speaker 1:The Bible says in Deuteronomy, chapter 9, verse 11, that Moses spent time with the Lord 40 days and 40 nights. Now, in that verse verse 11, we don't know exactly what he did. We have to look at the context of what he continued to write after those verses there in chapter nine and then into chapter 10. And what we see? He says I fell down Like the first time in the presence of the Lord, for 40 days and 40 nights. He said I was afraid of the fierce anger the Lord had directed against you because he was about to destroy you. Here's the key phrase. But again, the Lord listened to me on that occasion. Here's what I take away from that. Here's what I take away from that Moses prayed 40 days and 40 nights, face down flat on his face before the Lord, seeking him on behalf of his people. And then, when he didn't get the answer he wanted and he saw how egregious his people were, even after all that prayer, he didn't walk away from it, but he kept praying. He didn't walk away from it, but he kept praying. He fell face down again for another 40 days and another 40 nights.
Speaker 1:I don't know about you, but I haven't done face down 40 once, much less twice in a row. I haven't fasted for 40 days and 40 nights from food and water because I was so burdened by my people. I haven't scratched the surface of what it means to be an intercessory prayer and yet, and yet God isn't looking for perfect people. He's not looking for people who get it all right or know exactly how to pray, or never cease, never give up, who never get discouraged. He's looking for people who are willing to be faithful, who are willing to continue to lean into him, who are willing to continue to come to him on behalf of those that he has entrusted to us. I can do that and you can too. Moses continued writing in Deuteronomy, chapter 10, verse 10. He says I stayed on the mountain 40 days and 40 nights, like the first time.
Speaker 1:The Lord also listened to me on this occasion. When I spend time with the Lord and I think through these scriptures and I seek him and I ask him these questions God, what are you saying to me through your word, god? Why does this matter? God, how do you want me to respond to this truth? What he encourages me by the? What is this tiny little word, this tiny little phrase? The Lord also listened to me on this occasion. He also listened to me. That implies that he listened to me on the first occasion as well.
Speaker 1:What are those thousand prayers that you've prayed over and, over and over again that you feel like the Lord hasn't heard you and the enemy is reminding you, or at least trying to remind you. Oh yeah, god didn't hear you, so it's not worth continuing to pray. And yet the reality is, the truth is that God is listening to us now, just like he has been listening to us. I need to know that for my prayer journey. I need to know that he has been engaged in this prayer battle with me from the very beginning. When I stay with him, when I spend time with him, even in my broken, struggling, suffering way, when I stay close to his side and I continue to bring these prayer requests to him, when I continue to bring these people before him, I can be assured that he is listening to me now just as much as he has been listening.
Speaker 1:And here's the thing you and I can know. This is true because not only is this a story of what Moses experienced in the Old Testament, as he prayed and interceded for 40 days and 40 nights, over and over again, for his people. We can know this truth is true and is relevant for us because in the New Testament, jesus taught it as well. In Luke 18, chapter 1, jesus taught his disciples a parable, a story, to teach them to pray always and to not give up. You can read this parable yourself Luke 18, 1 through 8, in which Jesus is saying keep praying, keep praying, keep praying.
Speaker 1:And as I consider all these things for my own life in light of the prayer requests that I am leaning into during this season of Face Down 40, what I hear God say to me is don't listen to the whispers that say I'm not listening. Don't listen to the lies that I'm not answering prayers. Don't listen to the lies that say I'm not working, I'm not moving in the lives of those people. Don't listen to that. I hear God saying listen to my voice. I've called you to pray. I've called you to intercede. I've called you to fall face down for 40 days and bring those prayers before me in a new way, like never before. I am working in ways exceedingly abundantly more than you can ask or think. That's what I'm hearing the Spirit of God say to me in this season, and I encourage you with that, as you're praying for your loved ones in this season as well.
Speaker 1:I know some of you are praying for sons. I know that some of you are praying for daughters. I know some of you are praying for your grandkids. Some of you are praying for your friends. Some of you are praying for your spouses. For me, as I hear about the people you're praying for, I add them to my face down 40 list, because I know our God is listening. I know he wants us to continue to faithfully bring our prayers before Him. I know that he wants us to always pray and never give up. I know that he wants us to always pray and never give up. I know that he wants us to pray without ceasing. I know that he's going to send the enemy, the one who's seeking to discourage us and to keep us from praying. I know that he's going to be sending that one back to where he belongs and that he is a Redeemer God who is working in the lives of those that we are bringing before him.
Speaker 1:So, friend, if you're discouraged in this face down 40, if you're discouraged in prayer, then I encourage you keep leaning in, keep falling down, keep kneeling by your bedside, keep going down on your knees in your prayer closet, whatever it looks like for you, whatever time of day or night, whenever it is. That's between you and God. But don't give up, don't give in. Oh Lord, god, may you hear and answer from heaven. Our eyes are set on you In Jesus name. Amen. Now go with God friend, back to Face Down 40.