Lon Solomon Ministries
Prayer
We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. [Applause] Well, thank you. Thanks, everybody, so much. Well, hey, it was great to have you here this morning. Let's take a Bible together and open it to the New Testament. The letter that Paul wrote to Church of Ephesus, Ephesians chapter 3. And if you didn't bring a Bible today, we've got to copy the Bible that you can borrow. It's on the back of the seat in front of you page 828, page 828 in our copy, the Bible, Ephesians 3 in your copy. Now, a little hand vote here, all right. How many of you folks here really enjoy fishing? Raise your hand. Okay, well, I don't. And I'll tell you why I don't. The reason I don't, there are three reasons why I don't. Fishing is smelly, it is messy, and it is incredibly boring. And besides, I'm Jewish. And Jewish people, we don't go fishing unless it's catered. You understand what I'm saying? So we don't do this. But I'm married into a family that really enjoys fishing. And so a few times I've been with my father-in-law and my brother-in-law, we've gone out fishing. One of their favorite places to go trout fishing is up in this little lake in Pennsylvania, Cowan's Gap State Park. And we were up there this one time, sitting on the banks. We had about 8, 10, 12 lines in, catching absolutely nothing. And then right offshore, about 50 yards offshore is this little fishing boat with two guys sitting in it, and they were catching everything. In fact, one of the guys in the boat had this incredibly annoying habit that every time he would hook a fish, he would yell, "Boom!" And so the whole lake would hear it. And then five minutes later he'd yell, "Boom!" And he was yelling, "Boom!" about every 10 minutes, and we weren't yelling, "Boom!" ever. Sitting on the shore, it was driving me crazy. So when the guy, when they finally came in, I asked the guy, I said, "What kind of bait are you guys using?" I mean, you know, whatever you're using, we're using something different. And he said, "Oh, it's not about bait. It's about the fact y'all are visitors and we're locals." Well, you know, the guy had a point. The point is, they were students of that lake. They fished that lake all the time. They knew what bait to use, what time of day to use it, where in the lake to use it, how the fish were running, when they bit, on which kind of bait, at what time of day, in what part of the lake. We didn't know anything. We just came up there, threw some lines in, and hoped something hit them. You know, it's amazing the difference when you take the time and adapt your message, your method, rather, to the habits of the fish. These people had studied the fish, studied the lake, and adapted their fishing habits to the methods of these fish. Now, friends, you know, when you look in the Bible, it's interesting that we find the word "pray" or the word "prayer" in the Bible over 500 times. So it's no secret that God wants us as followers of Jesus Christ to pray. That is not a secret. But friends, I have learned in 30 years of following Christ that praying is a lot like fishing. Meaning that, in order for our prayers to really be effective and powerful, we need to do what these fishermen did. We need to become students, not of a lake, but of Almighty God. We need to learn the ways of God and understand the terms on which God answers prayer powerfully, and then, like these fishermen, we need to adapt our methods of praying to the habits of Almighty God in terms of answering. That's how you catch a lot of fish, and that's how you get a lot of prayers answered with power. And so today is we start Part 8 of Spiritual Boot Camp. This is a series just going over the basics of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ. We want to talk about the who, what, why, when and how of praying with power as followers of Jesus Christ. So that's our plan for today. Let's begin. You know, as followers of Jesus Christ, God makes us some wonderful promises in the Bible about prayer. Jeremiah 33, verse 3. "Call unto me," God says, "and I will answer you, and I will show you great and mighty things that you don't even know." Ephesians chapter 3, where I ask you to turn. Look at verse 20. It says here that when we pray, here's what God will do. He will do exceedingly, abundantly more than we ask or than we even imagine. Now friends, I can imagine a lot. So can you. And yet the promise of God is he will exceed it. God says, "You pray, and I will move the world in response to your prayers." James chapter 5, verse 16. Elijah was a man just like us, the Bible says. But as an example of the principle that the prayer of a follower of Jesus Christ is powerful and effective, Elijah the Bible says, "Prayed earnestly that it would not reign, and yet it didn't reign in Israel for three and a half years." That's how powerful prayer can be. And oh, by the way, remember back in early September, we ask you guys to pray that we would have dry weather for this fall so that we could get our road construction done. And I heard Bob Ryan say the other night on television that this has been the driest September and October in 50 years. That's the interesting that you were praying, and God did this. God has made us promises about what he will do for us if we will pray. You know, we just got back from Israel last week. And when we were planning to go back in the spring, the guy who runs the tours for me, the tour director over in Israel called me, and he said, "You know, Lon, that lovely hotel where you like to stay right on the shores of the Sea Galilee, we love this hotel." He said, "We're not going to be able to stay there this year." And I said, "Why not?" He said, "Well, because this group has got the whole thing reserved." Then for two years, they've been planning to come this year. For two years, they've had it reserved, and there's no room for our group in the hotel. And I'm like, "No, no, no. You don't understand. That is just not acceptable. You have got to get that hotel for us. The hotel we stay in is an important part of the quality of the whole tour. No." And he said, "Lon, I'm telling you, they've had the thing reserved for two years. There's nothing I can do." And I said, "Well, you know what? This guy's not a believer now, but I don't care." I said, "You know what? I'm going to pray about this, and I'm going to trust God that they cancel." He said, "Lon, are you nuts? The people have had the reservation for two years. They're not canceling." I said, "Okay, fine. I'm going to pray about it anyway. We'll see what happens." So I did. I went to God in prayer, and I said, "God, you know what? I don't really care why they cancel. It doesn't make a bit of difference to me. For whatever reason you choose, I want these people to cancel, so our group can stay in that hotel." I did. Well, then we had a little bit of violence, and we had a little bit of unrest, and we had a little state department warning. And guess what? They canceled. Yeah, they did. Now, not only did they cancel the whole country about canceled, but they did cancel. And when we went over there, we stayed in that hotel, and I reminded the guy, my man, over there, that I had prayed this back in the spring, and I said, "Hey, look, they canceled." He said, "Lawn, the whole country didn't show up. You know, the next time would you pray, would you be just a little more specific?" One group. One group only, not the whole country. I was like, "Okay, well, fair enough." But friends, the power that God has given us in prayer is unbelievable. It is the greatest untapped power source in the entire universe. May I say that if you're here and you've never trusted Jesus Christ as your real and personal Savior, then one of the wonderful things you get when you give your life to Jesus is you don't just get a trip to heaven, you don't just get eternal life, but you also get access to the greatest power grid in the universe. Power away beyond anything Washington, DC can supply. Power away beyond anything the government can generate. Power away beyond anything you can generate, you get access to the supernatural power of Almighty God, and you get a mechanism to tap it for your individual life, a mechanism called prayer. Friends, if you need more power in your life and who doesn't, then I have a real piece of good news for you. You can have more power in your life, and it all starts to be accessed when you come into personal connectedness with Jesus Christ. I hope you'll think about that. Well, we have a very important question, those of us who are followers of Jesus Christ, that we need to ask, and this is our moment, so everybody ready? Here we go, deep breath. One, two, three. >> So what? >> Right. >> Say, Lon, so what? I hear what you say, and you know what, Lon, every single one of those verses you read about prayer, I kind of know those verses, but I'll tell you what my problem is. My problem is not that I don't know what God says about prayer in the Bible. My problem is when I pray, I don't see this kind of power coming through my prayers. I don't see God doing these great and mighty things that I know not through my prayers. I don't see the kind of power Elijah had in prayer in my prayers, and frankly, I don't see it in the prayers of most of the other Christians I know. So Lon, what's wrong? I mean, if I've got these wonderful promises, but I don't see it worked out in reality, what is wrong? Something is wrong here. Well, folks, the truth of the matter is that maybe we are just not being good fishermen. Maybe we haven't taken the time to really study and learn the habits of Almighty God and the principles upon which he answers prayer in power so that we can adapt our praying to the habits of Almighty God. And so what I want to do in the next couple of minutes as we finish up is give you four principles that God gives us in the Bible, four principles that will lead to praying with power and effectiveness. And I promise you, if you will bring your prayer life into conformity with these four things, you will see God do things through your prayers. Number one, here we go. Principle number one is to pray with power. We need to pray, first of all, with clean hands and a pure heart. Psalm 24 verse 3 says, "Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place?" Well, here's the answer, "The person who has clean hands and a pure heart." That person will receive blessing from the Lord and vindication from God, his Savior. Psalm 66 verse 18, "If I regard wrongdoing in my heart," meaning the Hebrew word means "if I cherish it, if I embrace it, if I allow it to live there, the Lord will not hear and respond to me." And what the Bible is telling us here is that if you and I, as followers of Jesus Christ, come into the presence of God in prayer, harboring in our hearts, known wrongdoing, deliberate disobedience to God. If there are things that are between our soul and the Savior, when we come into God to pray, it will hinder the power, it will hinder the effectiveness of our prayer life. The first step to praying with power friends is to go on the Internet of our hearts to enter wrongdoing or disobedience to God in that little box and then to hit the button that turns the search engine on and see what comes up. And if things come up, we've got to get those things right. We've got to confess those things and get clean of those things and get right with God on those things before we go into prayer, expecting God to do anything. You know, every year, it's almost like clockwork. Right in the holidays, my drain clogs up in my kitchen. Now, don't ask me why. We don't plan it that way. It just does. It's the most incredible thing I ever saw. Christmas Day, my drain clogs up. And if it's not Christmas, it's Thanksgiving. And so I've become very good friends with a local company called Rotorooter. I call Rotorooter up, and they come out to fix a very simple problem. And you understand the problem. The problem is that water can't flow freely through pipes that are clogged up with gunk. I mean, it's just that simple. And they come out and they rotorooter all the gunk out of there, and the water just runs fine. Thank you very much. Friends, what the Bible is telling us is that the power of God cannot flow freely through us. We are clogged up with spiritual gunk. If we've got all kinds of spiritual refuse in our pipes between us and God, the power of God cannot flow, and we need to rotorooter out our heart before we go into the presence of God and plan to see God do anything with power. Many of us, we just charge right into the presence of God, and we start praying, and we know what we want, and we never even slow down long enough to see if there's any clogs in the pipes. But that's not going to lead to powerful praying. No, no. The first thing you do is you've got to rotorooter your heart. Then you're ready to actually talk to God and not until then. Step 2. Principle number 2 is we need to pray second of all with a forgiving spirit. Mark 11, verse 25. Jesus said, "And when you stand praying, if you have anything against someone, forgive them." And this is even in the Lord's prayer for goodness sake. Forgive us our trespasses as what? As we forgive those who trust past against us. One of the most frequent hindrances and roadblocks to praying with power is that we come into God's presence with an unforgiving bitter spirit. And if you and I, as followers of Jesus Christ, want to see the power of God unlocked in our prayer lives, we have to come to God with a heart that doesn't have this kind of baggage. Malice, revenge, hard feelings, lack of forgiveness. Friends, it ain't happening if that's how you come into the presence of God. You know, a lot of people who know anything about the history of Israel think that in 70 AD, when the Romans took Jerusalem and at the end of a five-year revolt, and they burned the temple down and they destroyed most of the city, that that was the end of the Jewish revolt against Rome. Actually, it wasn't 963 people fled from there to a place called Masada down near the Dead Sea, and it took three more years for the Romans to conquer them, so people say, "Well, that was the end." Well, not actually. Because 60 years later, there was one more revolt by the Jewish people against Rome, led by a fella named Barcopha. Barcopha's name in Hebrew literally means "son of the star." He was a self-proclaimed messiah who led the Jews in another uprising against Rome, and Hadrian, who was the Roman Empire at the time, was so angry about this that he actually came to Jerusalem to came to Israel himself at the head of the Romans 10th and 12th legions to deal with this thing. He was finally able to crush Barcopha in 135, three years later, killed him, cruelly, mercilessly killed him, and then Hadrian made up his mind that once and for all, he was going to deal with this problem. He was determined that Jewish nationalism would never ever grow in Jerusalem again. So here's what he did. He made it a capital offense, punishable by death for any Jewish person to be found within the city limits or even within sight of the city of Jerusalem. He burned down and tore down every building in the city, every house, every public building. He brought in plows, and he plowed the entire city underground, and then as his final insult, he brought in salt and put a thick layer of salt over the entire city to see to it that nothing would ever grow there for decades again in that soil. And friends, nothing did grow there for centuries in that soil. And then he said, "That's it. I'm going to see to it Jewish nationalism never grows out of this place again." Well, kind of what the Bible is saying to us here is that when you and I come into the presence of God and we pray with forgiveness and grudges and malice and bitterness in our heart, it's like praying with a layer of salt all on top of our heart. The power of God can't grow there, friends. The power of God cannot survive in that kind of an environment. If you and I really want to see God move with power in our lives, we have to understand that God has a zero tolerance policy on unforgiveness, grudges, malice, bitterness, revenge when we come into prayer. And if we come with that kind of baggage in our life, then that's probably a reason why you're not seeing God do more in your prayer life. You need to get these things straight. Principle number three. Is that we need to pray in faith believing. Matthew chapter 21 verse 22. And all things Jesus said, "Whatever you ask in faith, believing you shall receive it." In fact, in Psalm 78, when God is laying out some of the issues that he had with the Israelites back in the days of Moses, he says that one of his big issues with them was that in their hearts, in their minds, in their spirits, here's what he says, they limited, they limited the holy one of Israel. Because of their unbelief, they limited the power of God to be displayed in their lives. And friends, this is one of the greatest obstacles to answer prayer with power on belief. And you know how it goes. A prayer played in unbelief sounds like this. Oh God, here I am. I'm asking for this or I'm asking for that. But I know you're not going to do it. And if you're not going to do it, that's okay. I, you know, I won't be upset. I'll be able to explain it to my friends while you didn't do it. And I mean, I know there's a lot of roadblocks in the way. And God, if you don't really want to deal with them, or maybe you just don't have the time, friends, that kind of prayer is an insult to Almighty God. That kind of prayer is an affront to Almighty God. And is it any wonder that God doesn't do much with a prayer like that? Man, you come into the presence of God and you pray with unbelief and it will quench the power of God in your prayer so fast it'll make your head swim. Jesus, Matthew chapter 13 verse 58. Jesus did not do many mighty miracles there in his hometown of Nazareth. Why? Because of their unbelief. Didn't say he couldn't do many mighty miracles, is that he didn't because God is never going to honor the unbelief with power and efficacy in prayer. He's never going to honor that. Now you say, well, I've got a little problem with this, this faith thing. I mean, you mean to tell me you really believe that God changed the weather patterns of the entire United States because we were praying here in McLean for dry weather? Absolutely. Don't you? You don't believe that? Of course. When I ask you to pray, I ask you to pray with the confidence that God will honor our prayers and do exactly that, friends. I pray in faith. I want you to learn to pray in faith. I mean, when I lose keys, I pray. God, you know where my keys are. I don't. Help me find them. I lost my cell phone for a week. I didn't know where it is. God, you know where my cell phone is. I found it. We pray for lost shoes. We pray for lost sweaters. We pray for lost dishes. We pray for everything. When I go into Washington, I pray for parking spaces. I do. You would not believe some of the parking spaces I find in Washington, D.C. When I go to the mall at Christmas time, we all zen the car and pray for parking space over at the mall. Friends, if your God's not big enough to give you a parking space at Tyson's Corner, God help us. God help us. And what's wrong with trusting God for the everyday affairs of life? Who told you God's not interested in the everyday affairs of life? Who convinced you that God needs to be grounded and limited in the everyday affairs of life? Who convinced you of that? Wasn't God, because God says you leave it wide open and you watch what I do in the everyday affairs of life? Come on now. You say, "Well, wait a minute. I've got a problem with this." Because doesn't the Bible say that God answers prayer according to His will? And what if I'm asking something that's not according to God's will? What if God wants to put some limits or some boundaries on my prayer? Okay, I agree with you. You have a good point. First John 514 and this is the confidence we have in approaching God that if we ask anything according to His will, we will have what we ask of Him. You're absolutely right. But let me tell you what praying and faith believing means. It means friends that we come into the presence of God and we ask for the moon. Because God is able to do the moon and exceedingly abundantly beyond the moon. We ask for the moon secure in the knowledge that no human obstacle no human roadblock is a problem for Almighty God no matter what the issue is, it's no problem with Almighty God. And then to honor the fact that we understand God answers prayer according to His will, we make it clear that God, however you choose to answer is your business, we leave the slate open for God to adjust the answer to conform to His will, but that is not an excuse for unbelief. And saying that God answers according to His will is not an excuse for you to doubt God and limit God the key is our posture has to be that the only person who should ever place limits on what God's going to do is God, not you, and not anybody else around you. Don't you come into God's presence placing limits on God with your human logic, your human wisdom, your unbelief? Don't you do that? Don't run interference for God, make excuses for God, apologize for God, give God plan B if he doesn't want to do plan A? God doesn't need your plan B friend, God doesn't need you running in interference, God doesn't need your apologies, and He doesn't need your excuses. All God needs is for you to leave it wide open for Him to be God and don't limit Him with your unbelief, that's all God needs, and He'll take it from there. I am so sad to see how many people there are who are followers of Jesus Christ who before they even pray the prayer they've already limited God with their unbelief, they've already decided what God can do and what God can't do and sometimes will even be nice enough to inform God of what He can do and what He can't do. I tell you pray like that friends ain't no reason to get all excited about your prayer because not a whole lot's going to happen but when you come to God and you leave God free to be God what did he say? He will do exceedingly, abundantly beyond what you can even think of. Don't you put limits on God? Don't you be like the Israelites? You leave God open friends and you let God be the only one that puts limits on God. Principle number four and finally is we need to pray, last of all, with the glory of God as our motive. Isaiah 42 verse 8 I am the Lord, that is my name God says and my glory I will not share with another. Friends God is jealous of his glory he is zealous about this. He refuses to share the credit for who he is and what he does with anybody which is why the Bible says John 14 13 Jesus said and whatever you ask in my name look at this for the purpose of the Father being glorified of God getting the glory that I will do. Prayer that brings the power of God to earth friends is prayer that has God's glory not man's welfare as its motive because above everything else in this world God is interested in revealing himself and revealing his power for mankind to see and mighty men and women of prayer they learn this lesson early they learn this lesson well if you look at the greatest prayers ever prayed in the Bible prayers that exploded the power of God onto this earth what you will find is that the people praying those prayers were not praying them for their own comfort for their own welfare for their own pleasure but they were asking God to do something for the glory of God. Let me show you one 1 Kings chapter 18 turned back there in the Old Testament 1 Kings 18 its page 254 if you are using our copy of the Bible page 254 in our copy 1 Kings 18 and while you're turning I'll tell you the story Elijah the prophet of God is up on Mount Carmel facing 850 prophets of Baal. Now these prophets came into the country because of the ministry of a lady she was married to King Ahab the king of the northern kingdom and she was a nasty gal her name you know her name Jezebel that's right and Jezebel was not even a Hebrew she wasn't even an Israelite she was a Phoenician princess this was a political marriage and as a result of the marriage she came to be the queen of the northern kingdom and boy this woman came with an agenda her agenda was to wipe out the worship of the one true God off the face of that northern kingdom she brought all these prophets in and her nemesis was Elijah well they're all gathered on the Mount Carmel they're going to have a showdown to see who's really God and so here's what they do Elijah says all right you prophets of Baal that's 850 of you one of me you guys will each take a bull will each cut the bull up will each put it on an altar and then whichever God answers with fire from heaven that God is the true God and all the people were standing around went hooray yeah we think that's a great idea now you need to know Baal was the God of lightning and thunder so if any but God ought to be able to make fire come out of heaven it ought to be Baal you need to know Elijah was taking Baal on right where Baal should have been the strongest well all day long the prophets of Baal they danced they cut themselves they did summer salts they did all kinds of crazy nasty stuff up there and Elijah in the middle of the day came out and he taunted him he said well maybe you're God's away maybe you're God's on a trip maybe you're God's indisposed maybe you're God's reading a book now you don't you don't laugh at that because that's Bible humor see and you don't get it but that's hysterical what he's doing here he's taunting these people he's making fun of these people and he let them go on all day like this and finally he said okay okay okay that's enough of this nonsense everybody come over here the nation of Israel gathered around him and I want you to see the prayer that he prayed verse 36 here we go and at that time Elijah the prophet stepped forward and prayed and here's what he said oh Lord God of Abraham Isaac and Israel Jacob let it be known today that you are God in Israel and that I am your servant and have done all these things that that three and a half years with no rain I've done them all at your command answer me oh Lord answer me so that everybody will bow down to me and go oh aren't you great Elijah no no no so they'll all lift me up and make me king and I can live in comfort the rest of my life oh no so I don't have to walk around eating grasshoppers anymore no no no answer me oh God look at this so that the people will know that you oh Lord are God and that you are turning their hearts back again answer me God here's why I'm praying this prayer here's my motive so people will see who you are God and friends when you pray a prayer like that and you're sincere man you better buckle your seat bill look what happened next then the fire of the Lord fell and burned up not only the sacrifice but burned up the wood of the altar the stones the soil and even lit up all the water in the trench around it that Elijah had drenched it with and when all the people saw this they fell prostrate on the ground and they cried the Lord he is God the Lord he is God I guess so after you see something like this I guess there's no doubt anymore what do you think and would you notice how the man prayed would you notice his motive had nothing to do with his comfort or his welfare what's the glory of God now friends is there anything wrong with praying for a new car a new house a new job for physical healing additional income for issues with our children no not a thing in the world wrong with praying for those but there's a higher purpose in prayer friends there's a more exalted reason to ask God for something in prayer and that higher reason is for the glory of God to be displayed and you know sometimes the reason we don't see our prayers answered any better is because as James says in James chapter 4 verse 3 we ask with wrong motives so that we may consume what we get on our own pleasures on our own comfort now God may or may not answer those prayers friends but let me tell you something when we ask God with sincere motive do something that will put his glory on display brother you better stand back because stuff's going to happen and it's going to happen in a way that is going to shock and surprise you you have touched the heart of God when you ask for something like that you know I have pastors calling me all the time and with this we're done about what's going on here McLean Bible Church you know we have 50 acres over 50 acres now in in Tyson's corner I mean come on now with a huge building on it almost 300,000 square feet by the time we're done other land that we can build on we had a 13.1 million dollar matching gift I mean whoever heard of something like that we saw the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors go from saying this will never happen to vote and tend to nothing in our favor and on and on and on it goes and I have pastors call me and go what did you guys do how did you do this what method are you using well I have to say to them we're not using any method there's no method to this all we did is enter into this having first gotten to the place whereby God's Hill we were able to purify our motives so that we know why we're doing this we're not doing this for us we're not trying to build the biggest church in Washington we don't care about that we're not trying to brag that we got more bricks in our building than somebody else having their building we're not building Solomon's temple here I mean that's not what this is about we got to the place as a leadership team and as a church family where we began to be able to say God we want to rock this city for you we don't want to rock it for us we want to rock it for you and we need a bigger headquarters to work from that's all this is about this is about rock in this city and revealing Jesus Christ to people's lives and that's all that happened and God did the rest there's no formula to this except that when we pray for things to do with our future when we pray for things to do with this location we're able to get on our knees friends because God has taken us through the ringer and be able to say God this is not about us it's not about me it's about you God we want this city to see you and everything else just happened because God loves to answer prayer like that that's all there is to it so when you pray for your children and your grandchildren pray for them but if it ever occurred to you to pray God might do certain things in their lives not so they'll be comfortable not so life will be easy but so that by doing it their lives will become a platform on which God can show his grace and his presence man you pray a prayer like that for your children and I'm telling you you're going to see stuff happen in their lives did it ever occur to you to pray for a new car a new house a new job or financial provision not so you can be comfortable but so the people that are watching will see the power of God displayed and to be to be to be sincere in that not not to play games with God but to be sincere in that to stay on your knees till your motives have grown to be that intense on the glory of God and not yourself man I'm telling you when you pray like that you will see God work because God loves to honor prayers that show his glory let's summarize we're done how do we pray with power number one we pray with clean hands and a pure heart road a ruder before you pray number two how do we pray with power we pray with a forgiving spirit towards others a clean slate get that layer of salt off your heart before you go in to be with God number three we pray in faith believing don't put limits on God let God be free to be God friends don't you in any way limit him and number four we try to pray with the motive that has God's glory and God's honor as the reason we want God to do whatever it is that we're asking him I promise you you bring your prayer life into conformity with these four principles you learn to pray the way those guys learn to fish that is in light of the habits of the person you're praying to and you have my promise more importantly you have the promise of almighty God that you will see stuff happen in response to your prayers let's pray Lord Jesus there's not a one of us here as followers of Christ who don't know we should pray and who don't want to see more more effectiveness more power in our prayer lives so thanks for talking to us today about how that can happen thanks for talking to us today about how our prayers can access the power of God more efficiently and effectively and Lord help us to take a hard look at our lives and our prayer habits and to be good fishermen to bring our methods into conformity with what you are and how you answer prayer Lord Jesus changed the way we pray and changed the way we live because we were here and we learned from you today and we pray these things in Jesus name amen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .