Fervent and effective prayer!

hi I'm Brad Fiddler with the national House of Prayer we've just recently finished our series on the Book of James from the enhop canopy prayer School and just want to share one thing that's jumped at me from that series about prayer three times in his letter James speaks about prayer and directly addresses its Effectiveness or ineffectiveness in...

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hi I'm Brad Fiddler with the national House of Prayer we've just recently finished our series on the Book of James from the enhop canopy prayer School and just want to share one thing that's jumped at me from that series about prayer three times in his letter James speaks about prayer and directly addresses its Effectiveness or ineffectiveness in James 1 James is talking about if you lack wisdom let him ask of the Lord who gives generously but he goes on to say don't ask with any doubting uh because when you do you're double-minded and tossed like a ship on the Seas and he says that person shouldn't expect to receive anything from God and then in James 4 he says you

ask but you don't receive so an ineffective prayer life because you ask with wrong motives and then he goes on to explain those wrong motives comes from Desiring to be friends with the world and to be friends with God but he said it just doesn't work if you make yourself a friend of the world you put yourself at enmity with God and he calls that double-mindedness as well so twice he says double-mindedness whether doubting a divided mind or divided Loyalty The Divided heart double-mindedness and it leads to ineffective prayer but in James 5 16 the verse that we're probably all familiar with he says the fervent effective prayer of a righteous person avails much

John made a statement in First John 3 22 he said we receive what we ask for because we obey his commands and we do what pleases him there's a direct link between righteousness obeying his commands walking in in a loving obedience before him at an effective prayer life we often think prayers about the words we say or strategies we employ or things like that when a big thing God is looking for is is our hearts submitted to him is our character reflecting his are we full of the fruit of the spirit it's amazing how closely linked our character is with effective prayer James unpacks a number of things in his letter that we could Define as aspects or elements of righteousness

things like being quick to listen slow to speak and slow to get angry being impartial treating the poor and the and the downcast and the outcast the same we would a rich person who talks about adding Works to our faith or demonstrating our faith through good works and our speech being of blessing not cursing and are we walking in humility the meekness that comes from the wisdom that's from above when we walk with those sorts of things James is saying we add that to fervent persistent prayer and we see it accomplished much my prayer is that in Canada the church we would be as devoted to walking and loving obedience being doers of the word and not just hearers only

adding that to our prayer that we would see Effectiveness in our prayer lives the psalmist said when he said delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart I don't know about you but I find when I'm delighting in the Lord my desires start to line up more with his I start to want the things that he wants or I just I come with a God I want whatever you want what do you want to do I say yes to it and in that same way James is saying when our hearts when our lives when our walks start to reflect him start to take on more of his nature and character that's when we can expect to start to see results father we thank you for your church in

Canada we thank you for believers from all different denominations and streams we thank you that there are those who love you in every corner of this country and we thank you for what you're doing and saying in the different streams and Lord we ask today would you put a desire for righteousness in our hearts Lord we ask that your church would seek first your kingdom and your righteousness that you would add all these other things to us Lord we ask that our desire would be for our hearts to line up with yours and Lord we ask you for a church that not only prays but that walks like you and looks like you and talks like you and Lord we ask that as we lovingly obey

your commands that we would see you move in response to our prayers so that the father would be glorified in Canada we pray this in Jesus name amen thanks for tuning in again I'm Brad fizzle with the national House of Prayer see you next time