When we pray from our heart with sincere motives, there is always an answer spiritually.
A prayer from the heart will never go unanswered.
God does not leave His children without direction.
Grace and peace to you all in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
It's time for us to listen to the Word of God,
to open our hearts to the Word of God, to be inspired by the Word of God.
Because as 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says,
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God
may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
But remember that hearing the Word of God is not merely with these physical ears.
It must be heard with the ears of our heart in order for it to come alive in us.
So I want us now, people of God, to ask the Holy Spirit for His help.
I want us right now to pray.
Oh Holy Spirit, arrest our hearts in Jesus’ name.
Oh Holy Spirit, capture our attention right now in the mighty name of Jesus Christ.
We surrender to You every distraction -
distraction from that pain, from that difficulty, from that problem.
We surrender it all to You.
We approach Your throne of grace with confidence and boldness,
for we know that we will find mercy and grace to help us in time of need.
Oh Holy Spirit, open the ears of our hearts.
Oh Holy Spirit, give us a hearing and obedient heart in Jesus’ mighty name.
Glory be to God.
I want you to go with me to Luke 11 and we are going to read from verses 9 to 13.
This is a very well known Bible portion and these are the words of Jesus Christ.
“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.
For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds,
and to him who knocks it will be opened.
If a son asks for bread from any father among you, will he give him a stone?
Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?
Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
Wow, what a wonderful promise!
What a call from Jesus Christ to persevere in prayer.
I know many of us have heard this promise countless times at church,
and we even quote it as we turn to God and claim His promises.
But I want to ask you a question.
What happens when we persist in prayer
but apparently what we are asking for is still not given,
what we seek is still not found,
the door we are knocking at is still not open to us?
What happens?
The winds of frustration, discouragement, fear and doubt will start blowing at us.
These winds may cause many of us to stagger in our faith or even fall in our faith.
We start asking ourselves, ‘Does God really hear my prayers?
Do I have enough faith?
Why does it seem the more I pray, the worse my situation becomes?
Why should I pray? Why should I read the Bible if nothing is changing?’
We may even think, ‘Oh, look at my neighbour.
He's not even a Christian and he's doing very well. He's doing better than me.’
As I said, these winds of frustration, discouragement, doubt
can cause us to stagger in our faith or even to fall in our faith.
But I'm here today to encourage you with a truth,
a simple but very powerful truth that is found in the Bible portion we just read,
a truth that will serve as a shield to help us to stand firm
despite these winds of frustration, disappointment and discouragement.
And that truth is - the Holy Spirit is all you need.
Yes, people of God, the Holy Spirit is all you need.
And to understand this further, let us look in more detail
at what Jesus is saying in this Scripture.
Firstly, Jesus is giving us an encouragement to persevere in prayer.
Why? Because God is pleased when we ask Him, when we seek Him,
when we knock at His door.
Prayer is one of the keys to build our relationship - Father and child -
with God, with our Creator.
No matter the situation, no matter the pain, no matter the need,
Jesus is urging us to persevere in prayer.
Because prayer is an expression of faith.
Galatians 3:26 says that we - you, wherever you are connected from and I -
are children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
So if you are a child of God, if you are a man of faith, if you are a woman of faith -
don't stop praying, don’t stop seeking, don’t stop asking, don’t stop knocking.
But take note, people of God.
Faith does not set its eyes on the immediate result after prayer,
but on the relationship built with God through prayer.
In other words, people of God, prayer is a relationship builder.
Prayer builds our relationship with God.
In this Bible portion, Jesus is also emphasising
the goodness of our Father, the goodness of God.
He said in Luke 11:13, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
How much more your heavenly Father - as good as He is, as perfect as He is -
will give good things to His children.
God is not going to give you something that is bad for you.
In 1 Peter 5, the Bible encourages us to pour all our burdens,
all our cares upon God because He cares for us,
because He's good and His mercies endure forever.
So don't fall into that trap of satan, that lie trying to paint God in a bad light -
that the more you pray, the worse things become,
that the more you pray, ask, seek, the more attacks you receive. No!
Don't allow that lie from satan in your life.
Because God is good and He cares for you.
And at this point, I want to highlight a very important thing in this Bible portion.
And I want you to pay close attention to it.
At the end of Luke 11:13, Jesus said,
“...how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”
The Bible is not saying that your heavenly Father
will give you necessarily what you are asking for.
It’s not saying that your heavenly Father will give you necessarily what you want.
The Bible is saying that your heavenly Father will give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.
So the promise of Jesus Christ is the Holy Spirit.
He is not offering you a blank cheque.
And here I'm going to that truth I was talking to you about at the beginning,
the truth that all we need is the Holy Spirit.
Jesus Christ is shifting our expectation after prayer
from the material to the spiritual.
When our expectation after prayer is based on the things we can see,
we can feel, or we can measure with our intellect or our senses.
we are blind to the truth that the Holy Spirit is all we need.
I really want you, people of God, to hold onto this truth.
If you are with someone there sitting down, I want you to tell that person,
“The Holy Spirit is all you need.”
And now, say it to yourself, “The Holy Spirit is all I need.”
In John 14:26, the Bible says, and these are also the words of Jesus Christ,
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,
He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.”
And what things has Jesus said to us?
He has spoken promises of salvation, healing, deliverance, breakthrough,
the promise of eternal life.
And the Bible says that the Helper, the Holy Spirit,
is sent to remind us of those promises.
Can you see, people of God?
The Holy Spirit is all we need.
I also want you to remember what Acts 1 says.
Here Jesus asks His disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
And in Acts 1:8, Jesus told them when the Holy Spirit comes,
they would receive power, and they would be witnesses to Him
in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to all the earth.
Oh, what a promise, people of God.
Take note that the disciples were not asked to wait for miracles and wonders.
They were asked to wait for the Holy Spirit.
And when the Holy Spirit came,
after His coming, then miracles, signs and wonders followed.
So why are we basing our expectations on material provision
when what is promised to us is something spiritual?
The proof that God hears us when we pray is the presence of the Holy Spirit.
What makes us children of God is not the blessings we receive,
but to know that God hears us when we pray.
Remember what Prophet T.B. Joshua said, “Knowing that God hears us when we pray
is an even greater blessing than the blessing itself.”
That is the proof that we are children of God.
It’s the presence of the Holy Spirit.
I want to encourage you to not base your faith on the improvement after prayer.
It’s not appropriate to base your faith on the improvement of your situation after prayer.
Don't believe that God’s answer can only come
when we are granted what we are asking for.
By doing so, we will be limiting Him and His answers.
All we need is the presence of the Holy Spirit, people of God.
I want to encourage you today.
If we have not received or if we have not seen the answer to our prayers materially,
let us see beyond that.
God may have been already answering our prayers in a way
that this flesh may not comprehend.
God sometimes uses foolish things to strengthen us spiritually.
When we pray from our heart with sincere motives,
there is always an answer spiritually.
I'm telling you today, people of God, a prayer from the heart will never go unanswered.
God does not leave His children without an answer.
God does not leave His children without direction.
If you have been praying for something and you are yet to see the answer you expect,
perhaps it’s time for you to change your expectation after prayer.
Look unto the Holy Spirit.
Look unto His strength, comfort, direction and guidance because He is all we need.
What situation are you passing through this day?
You may have been praying constantly and persistently for that pain to be removed,
for that sickness to be removed,
or for that job you need, that provision you need,
that relationship with your husband, with your wife to be restored.
And you are still waiting for an answer.
You are still waiting to see those changes in your life.
But I want to encourage you.
The fact that you are connected here today is already an answered prayer.
Why? Because you have received the strength.
You have been strengthened all the way up to this point, up to today.
You have endured that difficult situation.
You have endured that pain, sickness, difficulty, tribulation up to this day.
It honours God to believe Him even while every sense contradicts Him
and God honours those who honour Him.
Remember, the first place we are to prosper is in our spiritual life.
That is the first place, the priority.
If we take care of our souls, if we take care of our relationship with God,
we may leave it for God to provide for our flesh in His time, in His way, for His glory.
And as Brother Chris said recently in one of his messages,
“Look after your relationship with God and leave Him to look after the results.”
Don't be surprised, people of God, that when you change your expectation after prayer
from the material to the spiritual,
what you are asking for will come and that miracle will manifest in Jesus’ name.
So in conclusion, people of God, as Jesus taught us, let us persevere in prayer.
Keep asking. Keep seeking. Keep knocking.
Because that situation, challenge, tribulation
is an instrument to maintain your union with God.
And it's time to shift our expectation after prayer
from the material to the spiritual, and hold onto the truth
that the Holy Spirit is all we need.
Instead of being more focused on that material provision,
on the improvement after the prayer,
we should be focused on - how do we receive the Holy Spirit?
How do we welcome Him?
How do we let Him remain in our hearts?
That should be our only concern right now.
Not that pain, debt, difficult situation or the need you are passing through.
Your only concern should be - how can I welcome the Holy Spirit?
And that's why I want to ask you this question right now.
Is your heart ready to receive the Holy Spirit?
Is your heart ready to welcome the Holy Spirit?
And as you think about this question, and if you realise that there are some hindrances
to the Holy Spirit, start freeing your heart from them -
from offence, pain of the past, bitterness, bad feelings against others, jealousy, envy.
I want to leave you with these encouraging words from David in Psalm 62:5-8.
David said, “My soul, wait silently for God alone, for my expectation is from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation; He is my defence; I shall not be moved.
In God is my salvation and my glory; the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.
Trust in Him at all times, you people;
pour out your heart before Him; God is a refuge for us.”
God bless you, people of God.