Your Prayers Matter | EP 141

Welcome to iRefresh, where we talk about the impact of prayer and God's Word. Welcome to another episode of iRefresh, and we have been talking on a prayer series with my friends Keri Kittinger and Veronica Scott, and I'm Cheryl Clare. And I love being with you ladies and talking about prayer, talking about God's Word. We could just go for hours and hours. Y'all have encouraged me so much. I was thinking earlier today how we can put people on a pedestal. Oh, yeah. And we think, oh, well, I'm not as prayerful as they are. I don't know the word as much as that person. I'm not as talented in this area, whatever it may be. And especially as we're growing in our faith, there's people that we think, oh, now if I need prayer, I'm going to go to that person. If I want to hear that. I've heard that. Right? Right? Like, okay. And we do want to be careful who we're asking to pray over us and that kind of thing. But we also want to remember that God is an every specter of persons. That's right. And what He does for you, He wants to do for me. And what He does for you, Cheryl, He wants to do for Veronica. And He wants those that are younger in the faith— Yes. He wants to grow that in them so that they're not dependent just on us, but that they know they can go to the Father in prayer 24-7 whenever they need be. So in the book of James, James here talks about Elijah. And he says in James 5, verse 17, he said, "'Eliah was a man, a human, just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain in the land.'" He again prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. Now, I don't think that I'm going to be praying that it won't rain, and it'll be answered for three and a half years. But I believe what James is saying, he's pulling them back to an Old Testament story that they would have known about this man, Elijah. who was a prophet and a man of prayer. And God did lead him to pray for rain. He did lead him to pray for no rain. And that was a sign and a wonder in that time. But James reminds us, don't put Elijah on a pedestal and think that he's the only one that could pray powerful prayers. That we too, our prayers are powerful. powerful and effective. That's so good. And you know, I'm thinking as you're sharing that story, why is it that our prayers are just as effective as Elijah or one of the TV people that we see? We have the same Jesus. Amen. And like you said, he led Elijah to pray that way. Elijah didn't just walk in and say, I'm going to pray this and I'm just going to make it happen. He gave credit where credit was due. Yes. And he said, the Lord has instructed me. And that's what we do in prayer is we pray as the Spirit leads us. Then we see results. And in that story of Elijah, which we don't have time to go into it fully, but when he prayed that the Lord would send rain again, he kept sending his mentoree to say, do you see a cloud? Do you say, no? Okay, let's keep praying. Do you see a rain cloud? No, let's keep praying. I think he sent him back like three times. And finally he said, there's a cloud the size of a man's hand in the sky. Now remember, it hadn't rained for three and a half years. Right. But again, it wasn't this formula, okay, now, Elijah, you pray and I'll send the rain. There was a contending in prayer. There was a partnering with this person underneath, not underneath him, a person who he was mentoring in the ways of the Lord that he was saying, okay, go and look. Is it happening yet? No, it's not. Let's keep praying then. And how much more sometimes... We lose hope or faith when it doesn't happen the minute we pray. That's right. But Elijah, he knew God had said, pray for it to rain. So he knew God would answer it. But there was a contending and a timetable. for Elijah to continue to pray for that thing to take place. Yes. And I often think in that story about the servant. You know, look at what he learned in that process of Elijah what allowed him to be part of the testimony. He got to be part of seeing God move. And can you just imagine how excited he was when he was the one that went and looked two times for nothing and a third time saw that? A cloud, just imagine just how much his faith was built and how strong in the Lord he became because he saw that firsthand. Yeah, yeah. And I love the way the Lord does that. He works on, you know, on the behalf of us. Amen. But he also teaches us. in that experience, and we grow. Yes, yes. And when he saw that cloud the size of a hand, he said, okay, now go tell. Was it Ahab or A, I can't remember who the king, now go tell the king that rain is coming. So it was like he was waiting until the right time to say, okay, now go and tell him. There's proof, there's proof in the sky here that there's a rain cloud and that God has come through and brought rain in the land. So ladies, I wanna be... Like Elijah. And I want to be a woman who doesn't just pray powerfully, but prays effectively. Doesn't just pray effectively, but prays earnestly. And that word earnestly means to be serious. There is a seriousness sometimes to prayer. And not that it's— We don't have to earn it. It doesn't just have to be work. But when God lays something on our heart, it's not flippant. Like you said, it's not like, oh, ha-ha, I'm going to pray and we're going to get rain. There was a seriousness to it because there was something going on in the kingdom of that time that God wanted to make His name known. And so there was a seriousness to this. And so when we get to participate in that... And there's a weightiness to it. There's a glory of the Lord to it. And it's not something to just play with, but it's something to be serious about. That's a good point. And there's a responsibility. Yes. There's a responsibility. being led by him and following through. Obedience is a lot of it. You know, like you said, the first two times there wasn't a cloud. So it took obedience to stay the course. Yes. And to keep going back and for Elijah to stay and keep sending people. the servant or the helper back out there. Look again, look again. There was just so much that we can learn from that in our prayer life. When we don't see the answer right away, that doesn't mean that it's not coming. We just keep praying. And as you said, contending. Sometimes we do have to contend before we see an answer. And, you know, really, it's not an earning of it because we don't have to earn favor with the Lord. We have that already. But I wonder, what was God working in the heart of the king? So there was a timing to that, that maybe if that prayer had been answered, you know, the first time, the heart of the king wouldn't have been ready. for that. You know, we just don't. Or, you know, was there a desperation in the heart of the king by the time that rain finally? We don't know. But what we do know is God's never late. Yes. He's never early. He's always on time. But he's positioning, don't you think, when he is putting things in motion? Because we don't know the effects of everything he's trying to do to where he's trying. It says that he's going to draw all men to himself. Yes. Yes. And so every aspect in how we are praying in our lives is how is it that the Lord's, it's about the kingdom of God, right? It's trying for us all to come into the kingdom of God. And everything we're praying, if we really realize each of the influences we have, we've talked about, shifting, the things are shifting in the atmosphere, as Daniel was the example of things were going on in the heavenlies. And to think that we get to participate, what you've talked about, Veronica, I think that there's something that reminds us to continue to look, not at an individual, because today we can look at individuals and we've seen... people will fail and they will fall, you know, because, you know, they have a greater responsibility. Paul said that, you know, like you have a greater responsibility as a teacher, you know, Carrie, you're a teacher of the word and there's a greater responsibility you have to be able to share the gospel. And the fact that is for, for myself, I'm like, it is really difficult because when I put myself in those shoes, like, oh, what in the world? world was I thinking? That's so stressful. But it gives me also an appreciation and it helps me to know in the future of how to support you. So when I know you're going to teach somewhere, I want to be mindful to pray into that, that the Lord is guiding you because you just don't know what seeds that are going out when you're declaring the word. So when we can participate with each individual... Instead of the comparison and why not me and why am I not in that position, it is more of like, how can I celebrate and come alongside? Yes. I think that's what the Irofresh, we're all about wanting to come alongside with people, to pray them into whatever you're supposed to walk in. We want you to walk it out. When we have that mindset, we're not going to elevate people as much because I think that's the human nature of the enemy is to idolize and to look and make... I like somebody and we kind of want to look more like them. But the Lord is like, I have something special for you. Yes. And I want you to walk in this calling. Just like, Carrie, you've talked about, we all have different spiritual gifts, but there's the same one spirit. Same spirit. Amen. Amen. So earlier in this chapter, chapter five of James, it says, Is any of you in trouble? They should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray and to anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith was... will make the sick person well. And it goes on to say, confess your sins to one another. Pray for each other. I just love how just in those little nuggets of verses here, it's pray, pray, pray, pray. There's so many instances. where we can be people of prayer. If someone is sick, let's gather around them to pray. In trouble, let's gather around them to pray. I mean, I love that. If you're happy, let's sing songs of praise. And again, it's coming together to do those things. And there's more effectiveness and there's more power when we combine our efforts together, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. And what I like about that verse is it shows every person in the church, every believer can pray. It's not just for certain people. Everybody can. Not just an intercessor. That's right. Not just an intercessor, not just a teacher, not just a pastor. Yes. Everyone can pray. And we all have our own measure of prayer. Yes. Yes. And so every part of the prayer chain that we're part of, it all works. It all works together. Yeah. It's all powerful and effective. As you all were talking, I had this little picture and I was laughing. You don't see this very often, but we're going to age ourselves. But when a car would stall out and someone would have to get out of the car and push. Oh, yes. But normally, the more people you have in the car, the only one that was left in the car was the person behind the wheel. Everybody else was behind there pushing. And I feel like when we're in prayer together, it's like we've got this power to push things in prayer, to push things in place. And again, the Holy Spirit's the one directing. But we somehow... God asks us to participate. Isn't that wonderful? Yes. Yes. And there's power in that. But going uphill, you don't want the emergency brake on. There's things to put into motion to be able to help people push that car. I love it. That's so good. But sometimes just our prayers can help push somebody out of a difficult time. Absolutely. You know, and I know I've been one that's needed prayer. And so when I know someone else is in need of prayer, I'm like, absolutely. It is my honor. It is my pleasure to do that. And our prayers, I keep going back to it, are powerful. powerful and effective, no matter our age, no matter how much training we've had, no matter the degrees behind our name or the non-degrees behind our name. But if we have said yes to Jesus, His Holy Spirit takes up residence within us. And is that power within us that gives us the voice to pray and the faith to pray? And I think that, Carrie, one of the things we need to look at, too, is for people that they don't disqualify themselves. Absolutely. I think, Veronica, you've highlighted, too, is every excuse that keeps us from that place where we're not engaging in prayer. That's just a lie of the enemy. There's nothing that we cannot. And you're like, well, I don't pray like they do. I don't have the right words. I don't even know what to say. Lord, what am I supposed to say? And sometimes, you know, I don't have to say a lot. Because if I'm letting the Holy Spirit lead me, It may not be a lot. I mean, Jesus, you know, there's a few things he did sometimes. He would just look at someone and like, you know, you can be healed. Like it was so short. Sometimes the prayers are very short. Right. Because the faith's behind it. They're in faith. I'm in faith. I'm coming into agreement. And boom, it's that quick. Right. Yes. And then at other times, it's like what you were saying, Carrie, is like you will press in and you're going to contend for something and it's going to take a long time. Yeah. And both are effective. That's right. That's what's the wonderful thing is they both are effective. Okay, so we can have a crock pot or we can have the Instapot, right? They both provide nourishment at the end, but one's going to go really quick. But they call that a pressure cooker. Yes, they do. So there is a lot of pressure on that. So sometimes even those short prayers, sometimes it's in the pressure of life. Yes. That someone once said some of the most powerful prayers are, thank you, Jesus, and help me, Jesus. All right. That's so powerful right there. Absolutely. And so, again, there are times that we may not have—we might be sick, we might be exhausted, and we don't have the words or we don't have the energy, but we can say, help me, Jesus. Right. Or, Jesus, help Cheryl right now. Right. And so just even offering their name up to the Father and asking the Father to help them is powerful. We don't have to have these long, drawn-out prayers to be heard by the Father. Well, that's a good disqualifier. Some people are like, I don't have enough time. Right. But what I like about that, too, is that you don't have to know her story. Right. You can pray for her without knowing all the details. Yes. You know, sometimes I think we disqualify ourselves because we think, well, I really don't know what's going on. I just know she looks like she's having a hard time. So we can take her name before the Lord, just like you said, and ask Him to meet her need where she is. Meet her need. And then if she feels like calling you and sharing and saying, I'm really believing God in this area, we can agree in that area. But we can always lift up their name. And Cheryl, I like what you said. We really have no excuse. Like, I don't have the time for that because it doesn't have to take a lot of time. That's right. But isn't that, again, the lie of the enemy to keep us from being effective in prayer, to keep us from being powerful in prayer? Because he knows that even one word in prayer is powerful. Yes. Sometimes, I'm not a musician, but, you know, one note on the tuba is powerful. Oh, yes. I mean, sometimes just the... Just the awesomeness of one note being played can have just a powerful effect. And so we don't want to negate the fact that a one-word prayer is not powerful or a one-phrase prayer is not powerful or a 10-minute prayer or an hour prayer. But to be led of the Spirit, which is, I think, what you were saying, Veronica. And it's so powerful, too. We have the scripture. And if we pray the scripture, we're praying out God's word. We're praying his will. We have the website with iRefresh.net that has scriptures on there to pray prayer and scripture on the same sheet of paper. And they're divided by category. I love that. And that is so wonderful because sometimes we may not be particularly versed in the Bible. We may not know, I just need prayer in this area, but I don't have a scripture. So you can go on the website and find that category and start with those scriptures. And then others will come as you get into that. But it's so encouraging to know. I don't have to read the Bible from beginning to end to pray. Yes. I just have to have the conversation with Jesus. And that's prayer. It's amazing when, with babies, when there's, and I think we've talked about this before, but, you know, the one word, and we're so excited. And then they're putting phrases together. Right. And then, you know, I think someone said, one time we can't wait till they can talk and walk. And then we want them to sit down and be quiet. Uh-huh. And I'm not saying that Jesus wants us to sit down and be quiet, but there's still those one word prayers. No, he did. Right. That's true. Be still and know that I am not. That is so true. And also he said, like, you don't have to have these flowery prayers because sometimes that we want to impress others with that. And it's not about impressing others, you know, or we want to think we're, oh, I've earned this because I've said all these things. Right. No. I think we'd love to, even as we're talking, let's summarize even some of the things we've highlighted over some of the different episodes, things that stand out about us of what's important in our own personal life of prayer. What does it do for you personally? I know that prayer is impactful. When I know that someone's even praying for me, it means so much to know that, yes, the Lord put them on their heart for prayer. something. And I'm grateful for that covering. Especially there's times where you're about to go through something and to know that someone covered you to walk through some battles and to go through things. For me, I'm like, what a gift. That in itself is knowing that someone cares enough that's praised because it takes time and we're so... it's so hard for us to release time to give to others. And so I think that the gift of prayer and that time releasing for someone else is very impactful for me just to know that. But I think, Veronica, you've told too, and I'll have each of you share, is knowing that I get to come into agreement and I get to, there's that relationship with the Lord that you get to participate and be involved in the process of heaven coming down on earth and being displayed. Right. It's so great. And when we look at it that way, I mean, what an honor. That the Lord has chosen to allow us to walk alongside him. And he gave us a part. It's just like, you know, a master play. Everybody has their part. And he says, you know what, Cheryl, I want to include you in this miracle. Mm-hmm. I want you to pray for this person because I know the miracle that they're believing for. And I want you to be blessed because I want you to walk alongside them. And I just count the privilege. Prayer is such a privilege to walk alongside the Lord, to be part of His plan. He can do it without me. But the fact that He includes me... What an honor. So beautiful. Yeah. It's just, you know, it gives it a whole new meaning because prayer shouldn't be laborious. It should not be hard. It should not be something that we dread. It should be something that gets us excited. Yes. That prayer. Oh, wow. I get to go before the Lord on behalf of these needs and believe for the answer. Yes. And then what a joy to see Him move on the things that He's laid on your heart to pray. Yes. So good. In an earlier episode, we talked about that verse that people can quote all the time, but that ask— seek and knock, and that that's a continuous asking, a continuous seeking, a continuous knocking over our lifetime. Yes. That it's not a one and done. Yes, it's a one and done when we ask the Lord to take up residence within us and for Him to be the Lord of our lives. Sure. But then, now we are in the family. Yes. And so just like when we're raising our kids, they don't ask for food on day one, and then they never get to ask for anything again. They're under our ruse for 18 or plus years. And so we get to come before the throne of grace with confidence and ask and seek and knock, knowing that verse goes on to say, he has good gifts for us. And if we, as imperfect parents, give our kids gifts, How much more does He want to give us the gift of the Spirit? And so I think even in that asking, seeking, and knocking in prayer, if our goal is relationship with Him, if our goal is His—like in the Lord's prayer for His kingdom to come on earth, He's happy to give us that. I think it's just the most incredible thing to be with friends here and just talk about Jesus and about prayer and how impactful it has been in our lives. You know, the relationships we have here is just because of Jesus. Not that we wouldn't have been friends before that, but it's really, that's what brought us together. The thing is that the relationship that Jesus wants to have with you to go deeper and closer, no matter where you're at today, He still wants to go further. And so the avenue of prayer that causes us to be able to unite with Him come into agreement, to learn, to grow, to have fellowship with the Lord, and then with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, that is just such incredible icing on the cake. And they're the communion that you can have, coming into agreement with other people and celebrating them. I don't have to compare is I'm like, oh, wow, God has done that for you. Well, he's no respecter of person. So whatever God's done for Veronica, I know it. He's going to do at least that for me. At least that, you know. And then when Carrie has a breakthrough and God's using her life, I'm like, thank you, Jesus, because you're answering my prayers. Or when you can see the fruit of what God's doing that's using each of us to just... go closer to the Lord personally, but also to reach other people for the Lord. It's the most impressive thing when you realize that God the Father is choosing to reveal things for us to pray. So we hope you're encouraged, haven't had much of a prayer life, or just want to enhance Let them know about the podcast. Share it. Subscribe. Let people know. And reach out to us. We'd love to hear your testimony of what the impact of prayer has been in your life.