How to Win Through Prayer (Episode 118)

Prayer was never meant to be a religious exercise. But for many people who pray, it’s no more than that. Prayer is supposed to revolutionize your life. In this episode, Evangelist Frank King addresses how to win through prayer.
The devil wants your prayer life to be no more than a religious ritual. He wants you to think God does not answer prayer. Because if you ever arrive at that wrong conclusion, you will cease to be serious about prayer.
Prayer is one of the most phenomenal weapons God has given us. Think about it; what is the main thing we do when we have loved ones who are not saved and are not open to someone talking to them about the Lord? We can’t make them listen to us. But we can pray to God and believe He can reach them to open their heart. 
And parents, what do we do when we have a child a thousand miles away in college, and we can’t be there to try to keep him or her out of trouble? We can cover them in God’s divine protection through prayer.
Prayer can stay the hand of the enemy. It has the power to move mountains in our life. The devil knows the power of prayer. That’s why he so vehemently opposes those who commit themselves to a life of prayer.
Daniel's Prayer
Daniel the prophet is a good example of how to win through prayer. After praying to God, he fasted and sought the face of God for twenty-one days (Daniel 10:3). He did not stop praying until he received the answer to his prayer. One reason many people fail to receive from God is they fail to be persistent in prayer. Jesus says we must pray always and not lose heart (Luke 18:1, NASB).
When the angel arrived to answer Daniel’s prayer, he revealed that God heard his prayer the first day he prayed (Daniel 10:12). But the angel encountered opposition from one he referred to as the “prince of the kingdom of Persia” (verse 13). The angel from heaven was detained for 21 days.
This account of Daniel’s experience is priceless. It gives us a peek into the spiritual realm when we pray to God. It also gives us a model of sorts for how to win through prayer.
We must keep on believing God for what we are praying for. And we should act as if we expect God to answer our prayer. Jesus said, “All things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted you” (Mark 11:24). In other words, believe now that you receive it, and then you will.
A clear takeaway from Daniel’s experience is that the devil understands the power of prayer. That’s why he will do anything and everything he can to keep you from having an effective prayer life. But if you believe when you pray, if you diligently seek the face of God, and if you refuse to give up, you will win through prayer. 

What Loving Others Has to Do with Prayer (Episode 113)

God has not made any of us totally self-reliant. We all need His help in our life. That’s why we must know how to pray effectively. In this episode, Evangelist Frank King addresses how loving others can help us move the hand of God in our favor when we pray.
In John’s first epistle, he talks about the relationship between loving others and God answering our prayers. He says we are to love in deeds and in truth (1 John 3:18). These days, we use the word “love” too loosely. But love must be accompanied by action. Equally important, our deeds of love must be in truth. False pretenses of love, or self-serving motives behind our acts of love may impress people, but they get us nowhere with God.
When we obey God by loving others through deeds and in truth, “Whatever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep his commandments, and do the things that are pleasing in His sight” (verse 22). This is a conditional promise contingent upon us genuinely loving others.
Every one of us who has been born again has the power to genuinely love others. That’s because the Spirit of God indwells us, and God is love. But still, loving others is a choice. The Holy Spirit empowers us to love, but we can choose to disobey the Spirit.
Loving Others Will Cost You Something
One reason we may choose not to walk in love is because some people make it more costly to love them than we are willing to pay. Genuinely loving others will cost you something. For instance, you reach out to someone who really needs someone to reach out to them. You invest your time and prayer and resources in them. But they repeatedly brush you off. Or the result of your efforts is futile.
The natural tendency is to want to cut your losses when that happens. At times, that may be the right thing to do. But if you make it a habit of shunning everybody you deem as too costly to love, that will negatively affect your prayer life. The resulting dilemma is that you don’t want to pay the cost of loving others, but you need God to hear you when you pray and seek His help.
To be sure, in these last days, loving others will be increasingly more difficult. Jesus said that in the latter days, “Most people’s love will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12, NASB).
But the fact remains that we can’t go about failing to love others and expect to be right with God when we pray.  None of us can afford to allow others to drag us down to a place where we can’t get a prayer through. Having the right relationship with God is not an option but a must. And He says, if you want to be confident to receive from Me when you pray, you must genuinely love others.
 

God Uses Imperfect People in Mighty Ways (Episode 109)

If you are a Christian, your prayers, when coupled with faith, are extremely powerful. You may not feel that way when you pray. Perhaps you feel less than perfect because you are. Or you feel you don’t have it all together—because you don’t. In this episode, Frank King encourages Christians to believe more deeply in God’s ability to use imperfect people in extraordinary ways.
Reason or logic would suggest to us that God used Jesus the way He did while on earth because Jesus was perfect. And that God can’t use us in miraculous ways because we are not like Jesus was. But a goal for this episode is to dispel that notion. God has, does, and will use imperfect people in supernatural ways.
Specifically, this episode focuses on the power of the prayer of faith to minister healing in the Christian church. In his epistle, James writes, “The prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him" (James 5:15, NASB).
"Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much” (verse 16).
It’s important to note that James is talking to the entire circle of believers here. Still, some Christians may feel that this verse does not apply to them because they don’t have the gift of healing. But James is not talking about the gift of healing. He is talking about the prayer of faith. And every genuine Christian can pray the prayer of faith.
Elijah's Prayer
Based upon these verses, it was never God’s will to use only the apostles to minister healing to others—even during the apostolic age. God can and wants to use ordinary fellow Christians to pray for one another for their healing.  This is not a put down of medical doctors. God uses them to minister healing as well. But the biblical prescription for healing in the church is prayer coupled with faith.
To encourage us to believe that God can use imperfect people in extraordinary ways, James cites an experience of Elijah the prophet. “He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months” (verse 17). Elijah was not perfect. He was a fallible human being just like the rest of us. But through the prayer of faith, he shut up the windows of heaven for 3-1/2 years.
 

Four Important Truths about Prayer (Episode 101)

Like many other major teachings in the Bible, there are misconceptions about prayer, and there are erroneous teachings about the same.  But prayer is like anything else in the Bible. It only works properly when we practice it in accordance with the written word. This episode addresses four important truths about prayer.
Sad but true, some Christians lack a relevant commitment to prayer. Perhaps one reason is because they feel that prayer is not working for them. And perhaps they feel that way because of their misconceptions about prayer. It does not matter how good a product on the market is and how rave its reviews are, if you use it incorrectly, it can’t serve you well. The same is true about prayer. The truths about prayer addressed in this episode aim to help Christians form a more biblical perspective on prayer.
Prayer is not an option for Christians. Every Christian needs to be committed to a life of prayer. You won’t be victorious; you can’t experience God like He wants you to, if you don’t commit to a life of being prayerful. That’s why this subject is relevant to every Christian. Jesus is our perfect example. During His public ministry, He modeled the importance of prayer. At times He prayed all night long. Duration 15:45

Spiritual Opposition to Prayer (Episode 72)

Have you ever thought about what happens in the spiritual realm when you pray? The truth is that forces exist that you and I can’t see. They oppose our efforts to pray and to receive from God. The devil wants you to believe that prayer does not work. This opposition has nothing to do with whether or not you are a babe in Christ or you are a mature Christian. No matter where you are on your Christian journey, whether you realize it or not, prayer invites spiritual opposition.
A good example of this spiritual opposition is recorded in the book of Daniel. He saw a vision from God (Daniel 10:1). He prayed to God for understanding of the vision. Twenty-one days after Daniel prayed, an angel appeared to answer his prayer. Though God heard Daniel's prayer the first day, the angel revealed the reason for the delay: "The prince of the kindgom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days: but, lo, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me" (Daniel 10:13, KJV).
Because of spiritual opposition, sometimes the things you seriously pray about can seem to worsen instead of improve with time. Or with regard to the person you are praying for, it may seem as if the more you pray the worse the person gets. But you can’t get distracted by that. Like Daniel, you will reap in due season if you don't give up.
 
Music Credits:
Intro Music: By Leva via Pixabay
Ending Music: By Oleksandr Savochka via Pixabay

Praying for One Another (Episode 66)

In his epistle, James writes, "Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed" (James 5:16, NASB). How committed are you to praying for others? According to Frank King, this is an area many Christians need to take much more seriously. Perhaps our failure to do so is why we have so many sick among us.
Some believers may feel inadequate to pray for others. But none of us are literally perfect. The good news is that we don’t have to be literally perfect to be effective in praying for one another. Elijah the prophet is our perfect example. God used him to shut up the rain in heaven for three and a half years, according to Elijah’s prayer. But in his epistle, James reminds us that Elijah had human weaknesses and shortcomings just like us verse 17). One time, he even told God he wanted to just quit and die.
Even though we are not literally perfect, we are righteous in the eyes of God because of our faith in Christ. That's how God sees us when we pray. And according to James, "The effective prayer of a righteous man [or woman] can accomplish much."
 
Music Credits:
Intro Music: By Leva via Pixabay
Ending Music: By Oleksandr Savochka via Pixabay

Persistence in Prayer Pays Off (Episode 9)

Prayer is vital in the life of a believer because it is the means by which we make our requests known to God and in turn how we receive from Him. In the epistle of James, he writes that we have not because we ask not (James 4:2). This post focuses on the importance of persistence in prayer. Ask anybody who prays to God, and they will tell you that His answers to prayers seldom come quickly.
It is no secret to us that in everything worthwhile persistence pays off. But persistence is not a popular thing these days. Persistence in prayer denotes one’s willingness and ability to stick with his petitions to God until the end. But if the truth be told, what we are looking for today are ways to get things more easily and more quickly so that persistence is not needed.
But when it comes to prayer, persistence is not an option but a must. God seldom answers our prayers immediately after we pray. During His public ministry, Jesus taught a parable to the intent that "men ought always to pray, and not to faint" (Luke 18:1, KJV). The main emphasis in that parable is persistence.
Over time, nothing has changed, regarding God and prayer. He says, “I am the Lord, I change not” (Malachi 3:6, KJV). What has changed are the people who are praying to God. We don’t like to wait and stick with things for any length of time. How often have we missed out on receiving from God because in prayer we gave up too soon?

The Importance of Prayer During a Test (Episode 6)

This podcast episode addresses the importance of prayer during a test in your life. Everybody has difficult times in his life at one time or another. Prayer is the means by which we invite God into the affairs of our life during adversities. Of course, that is not the only time we should pray. But that is the focus of this episode. If you don’t earnestly pray during the difficult times in your life, you are making a serious statement about what you believe or don’t believe about prayer. If a person truly believes in the power of prayer, he will earnestly pray during the trying times in his life.
Jesus is our example. He took on the form of a human servant. He modeled the importance of prayer during a test while in the Garden of Gethsemane. It was the most trying time of His entire public ministry.
As believers, we have the awesome opportunity to talk with the living God. More importantly, He hears our prayers and in due season, He answers our prayers. In this episode, Frank King stresses the need for Christians to develop the habit of prayer BEFORE difficult times come. That's because being able to faithfully pray through a test is not incidental to being a Christian. Rather, it is a discipline that we must develop.