John Wesley knew a thing or two about prayer. He once said, “it seems God is limited by our prayer life, that he can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks him.” Was he right? Not everything that occurs within Christendom is as ‘God wills it’. For example, Jesus told His disciples to ‘pray to the Father, that He would send laborers into the harvest” (Matt 9:38). If God’s desire in the earth, was occurring by default, there would be no need to petition Him, as such. Prayer must be biblical and above all, put into practice on a regular basis. Join Carl now for the second part of this live series…
Here is a complete transcript of the broadcast (below)…
Friends, this is part two of our session, The Keys to Answered Prayer. And in this session, I’m going to talk about the fact that God can’t do everything. He can also not do anything. People say God can do anything, right? No, there’s about 30 things he cannot do. When it comes to prayer especially, we really need to check our heart first. And you know, God’s sovereign, right? Yes, but not all things happen by default. Jesus asked to pray that the Father would bring labors into the harvest. Why would he do that? If it was happening by default, then he wouldn’t need to pray. There’s some key things going to be shared in this session, friend. I welcome you. Let’s join DHOP live in session now. We had an issue with this cable. This cable broke last week. We were in mono, not stereo. No one noticed, amen, until I just confessed it. Oh no. The point is, we said, Father, we need this lead. We need it by Wednesday. Now we’d already paid for rush shipping, but they’re like, oh, we’ll send it on Tuesday afternoon. It turned up right when I was about to leave for the service, okay? Now we prayed and said, Lord, we believe you can do this. And we actually expedited shipping through prayer, amen? Those things can happen. God can do practical stuff like that. It doesn’t always have to be grandiose or, you know, amazing or whatever. So we have to use our faith practically. It’s a progressive thing. We work up. It’s like a muscle. Faith is a muscle.
You keep using it, you become stronger in that area. You’ve got to believe the Lord for $100 before $1,000 or $10,000. It’s a progressive thing, right? You’ve got to know where you’re starting when you pray, okay? You’ve got to know where your faith is. Does that make sense? John Wesley, he said this. Now, John Wesley was a very charismatic chap. He started the Methodist movement. And he said, “it seems God is limited by our prayer life, that he can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks him.” Is that right? Yes, because the Bible says ask. God wants you to ask because he wants permission to move in your life, because he honors your free will as a moral agent on the earth. He honors you as a person, right? So he wants you to give him permission. He seeks permission because he respects our free will and authority. Now, if I have a situation at home and I’m going, I can handle this, I don’t need your help, Lord. He’s like, okay, that’s fine. That’s a choice I made. You could contend that was prideful. Heaven forbid that a pastor has even thought such a thing. But the point is, there’s some stuff he wants to do. And he’s going, I’ve totally got this covered. You just need to invite me in. I’m there. I’ll do this. Amen. If everything happens by default, then why is Jesus asking the Father to send laborers into the harvest? What a bizarre statement. Matthew 9:37, “Then saith he unto his disciples, the harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few. Pray, the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers.”
This is when Jesus was on the earth, obviously. So again, there’s this notion of asking, of seeking, of knocking, of desiring the Lord to help us. Amen. Can you see the importance of humility now? Right? Because he’s resisting the proud, right? If you think you can take care of it, it’s like, okay, we don’t want to be that. How many four-year-olds are prideful? Not many, I don’t think. Mommy, where’s my dinner? You know, I need to go poo-poo. You know, there’s not much pride there. Amen. It’s just straight out in the open. Lord, I can’t do this by myself. I’m not good enough. The number of times I’ve said that as an engineer, and the Lord has made me look pretty amazing because I just said, Lord, I can’t do this. I have no idea how to do this. And he came in and made our team look awesome. The difficulty I had was explaining how we did it. Because I didn’t always have the understanding. We got lucky. No, I tried to give glory when I could. But even on your workplace, God wants you to invite him in so he can have greater glory. Amen. So, everything does not happen by default, because Satan is the God, ruler, and prince of this world. Little g. Initially, God said, Adam, I want you to have a management position.
You’re going to tend the garden. But he ended up being a slave to sin, right? He started out with a management position, and he ended up working from the sweat of his brow. Not good, right? That was not God’s intent. That’s the truth. But for us, who are redeemed in Christ Jesus, Satan has no authority whatsoever. But we have to enforce it. I always add that caveat. We have to enforce it, right? When there is something that is confronting us, we have to confront in the name of Jesus. Because authority that is not enforced is equivalent to no authority, right? Amen. Now, we’re talking about the meat tonight. We’re getting into the nitty gritty, as they would say, right? We’re getting down to brass tacks. I’ve come here. I’ve driven for an hour. I’m listening to this guy with a funny accent. Is he going to teach me something tonight? Amen. I want to. It’s my sincere desire to do that. We have to get down to reality. We need to know what is restricting us in our prayer life. One of the things could be condemnation of the heart. Check your heart first. Beloved, if our hearts condemn us not, then we have confidence towards God. And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him. Because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. And this is his commandment that we should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. And love one another as he gave us commandment. Many times when the Lord is, he talks about prayer, as in Mark 11:23. Right after that, he tucks in an unforgiveness verse. Oh, make sure you forgive. And what does he tuck in here? And make sure you love one another.
Faith works by love. Faith works by love,’ right? So as soon as we step out of love, Galatians 5:6, look it up. As soon as we step out of love, we’re compromising ourself. And when we step out of love, we lose confidence, right? Because our heart is condemning us. Let’s talk about the heart first. Let’s make sure you’ve relieved yourself of those issues. Get them out of the way. Confess them so that you are right with me again. And then you can have confidence. And when you have confidence, you can boldly come to the throne of grace, right? You can boldly come. Condemnation comes from Satan. Conviction comes from the Lord, right? Condemnation is you’re never good enough. You screwed up. You’re a loser. I can’t believe God forgave you again. Are you kidding me? This is a condemning attitude. It has an accusatory tone to it, right? Whenever we accuse someone, we’re doing Satan’s job because he is the accuser of their brethren. Conviction is different. Conviction is, son, I know what you said and I know what you did. It’s time to get off the mat, stand up again, and get back in the fight. That’s conviction, okay? Because it’s to bless you. It’s to restore you. The trouble with Christians is we stay on the mat for seven years. Exaggeration. But, you know, we’re like, oh, I just can’t believe it, you know, and all this stuff. And all the while, the Lord’s going, it’s time to get up again because I want to bless you. I want to move you on in your life. There’s so much I want you to do. I love you, etc. You’re the four-year-old child.
You’re on the floor being self-sufficient. And, oh, I know so much Bible. I can’t believe I did this. Okay? That’s talking to pastor again. But, I mean, I’m preaching to myself here, man. I don’t do anything I’m not doing, honestly. That’s what we’re here for, okay? I mean, we’ve lived through all of this, okay? We got to live by the same rules, amen? There’s no special rules for me, amen? What does 1 John 1:9 say? Anybody know that off the top of their heads? Let’s read it. If we confess, who is he talking to? Is he talking to unbelievers? No, he’s talking to Christians. He’s talking to believers, right? John’s epistle. That means that Christians can sin. Whoa, newsflash. Are you kidding me? Yeah, that means they can. They sure can. Even pastors can sin. Even missionaries can sin. Even evangelists can sin, okay? And thank God for 1 John 1:9 because that’s what gets us back off the mat, okay? When Satan is just pounding your face for 16 hours straight, you’re like, well, maybe I could go to 1 John 1.9, you know? And the enemy says, no, you can’t do that. I mean, God’s grace is completely exhausted at this point, right? That’s what the enemy would say. It’s another analogy I gave before. Some scholars speculate that the apostle Paul, as Saul of Tarsus, killed 5,000 people before he came to Jesus, okay? If that’s true, our God is a forgiving God, amen? Now, I’m serious. I told the prisoners that when I preached in prison, and they were like, man. I mean, the release was huge because they’re like, we really have killed people. But people were weeping on the floor and crying and stuff because the anointing of mercy came, amen? And it empowered them to move on in their lives.
Those people are on fire for Jesus because he who has been forgiven much loves much, amen? So, the first thing I do when I pray is I check, do I have a heart issue? And if you’re married, friends, your spouse can tangle your prayers up pretty quick because you weren’t nice to them. I’m serious. You can go to the Lord and he’s like, you need to resolve your wife stuff right now or your husband’s stuff or however you want to word that. I’m serious. I’ll give you scripture for that in a minute. Hebrews 4:16,”let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace.” So, mercy is I forgive you and grace is empowerment to do what I need to do. So we receive mercy first and then we’re empowered to do it, amen? But we can only come boldly if our hearts are not condemning us. Okay, give me another scripture, I will. 1st John chapter 5, verses 14 through 15. Again, that word, confidence. “This is the confidence that we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, which he does, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.” I mean, that’s so plain, isn’t it? Isn’t that so plain? I love the book of 1st John. It’s one of my favorite epistles because it’s so direct. This is the confidence we have. If we pray according to his will, so Lord, you said we could have this. Here it is. I’m praying your word. Okay, thank you very much. I heard you. He said he’d give you the desires that you’ve asked, your petition. That’s what petition means. But if your heart is going, oh man, I cussed like a sailor yesterday, man, I need to resolve that. You know, I mean, there’s some stuff. Okay, we all have flesh, right? We all have flesh. That has to be dealt with first.
So the reason that many people are not confident is because for 16 hours, Satan’s been pounding them in the face. That’s one reason, extreme example. Another reason is just we haven’t resolved it with the father first. Now you may have to resolve something that’s three years ago. There’s still some stuff that could be like, you still have not really dealt with it. Okay, I can’t answer that question for you. Only the Lord knows that. Yeah, this is a little heavy, but I want you to get results. That’s why it is getting heavy. God can do anything, right? No, he can’t. No, there’s 17 things he cannot do. In fact, there’s 30 things he cannot do. Okay, now how do you know that pastor? Well, it’s in the word, right? I’m going to give you Bible verses here where it says it. Okay, not just making it up. He cannot lie. He cannot break his own laws. He cannot change. He cannot violate his own word. He cannot be tempted with evil. He cannot tolerate hypocrisy. Okay, he cannot cancel any reaping for what is sown. That’s a tough one. Because even in the New Testament, we still reap, even though we’re forgiven. Ouch, didn’t want to hear that. If I’m forgiven of my sins and I go out tonight and I go to a bar and I get into fornication and, you know, there’s pregnancy, this is a consequence of my decision. Now, the Lord will forgive me. 1 John 1:9 is still there, but there could be consequences, right? See, this is where the enemy has kept us bound up as Christians.
Like, oh, there’s no consequences for sin. Really? No, that’s not true. Okay, so we have to wake up to that, right? He cannot force a man to serve him against his own will. That means that people are going to hell today. That is the truth. He cannot bless men apart from faith. He cannot curse men when they meet his terms, okay? He can’t cast demons out for us because we’re the ones who are supposed to be doing it, right? Mark chapter 16, verses 17 through 18. He that believes on me, right, shall do X, Y, and Z, including casting out demons, lay hands on the sick, etc. He’s not the author of death in this dispensation because Jesus said the devil has the power of death. He cannot turn down one soul that comes to him according to his terms, okay? He cannot judge the righteous with the wicked. He cannot fail to answer prayer when unwavering faith is exercised. Friend, that’s the end of part two of our session, and we’ll pick it up tomorrow.
https://carljosephministries.com/podcast/the-different-types-of-prayer/
https://www.scriptureway.com/uploads/1/1/7/0/117002031/the_keys_to_effective_prayer_current.pdf
Title: Keys to answered Prayer: Part 2 (LIVE)
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Six Frequently Asked Questions:
1. Is it true that God is limited by our prayer life?
Yes. John Wesley famously said, “It seems God is limited by our prayer life, that He can do nothing for humanity unless someone asks Him.” The Bible supports this by emphasizing that God honors our free will and desires us to ask Him. Prayer is the means by which we invite God to act on our behalf.
2. Why did Jesus tell His disciples to pray for laborers if God’s will always happens?
Jesus instructed His disciples to pray for laborers to be sent into the harvest (Matthew 9:38) because not everything happens automatically by God’s will. Prayer is necessary to activate God’s plan and invite His intervention in human affairs.
3. Can God do anything, or are there limits?
While God is all-powerful, the Bible states there are certain things He cannot do, such as lie, break His laws, or force a person to serve Him against their will. Prayer aligns with God’s nature and allows Him to work within these divine boundaries.
4. How important is the condition of our heart in prayer?
Very important. Condemnation, unforgiveness, or unresolved conflicts can hinder our prayers. 1 John 1:9 encourages believers to confess their sins and receive forgiveness so they can approach God with confidence and boldness.
5. What role does faith play in answered prayer?
Faith is essential. We need to pray with unwavering faith and believe that God hears us and will answer according to His will. Faith is like a muscle that grows stronger with practice, starting from smaller requests and building up to greater ones.
6. Why don’t all prayers get answered immediately or in the way we expect?
God respects our free will and the spiritual laws He established. Some prayers require us to align with His will, confess sins, forgive others, and be persistent. Also, consequences of past actions can affect outcomes, but God’s grace and mercy remain available.
Carl is an authority. He is a biblical scholar, minister, author, husband, father, and life coach. In his mid-twenties he had a powerful encounter with God and saw miraculous healings as a result. Carl is a unique researcher who investigates current affairs, societal trends, prophecy, technology, cults, and end time events, all through a biblical lens.
Carl holds a Doctorate in Theology (Th D). His Alma Mata includes: Salford University, Manchester, UK, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK, Rhema Bible Training College (Tulsa), and Southwestern Christian University (Oklahoma City).
Carl Joseph Ministries empowers believers in Christ to fulfill their God given potential. Join Carl every other Monday on the Lions Unchained Podcast, available on Spotify, iTunes and other mainstream platforms.
He currently resides in Colorado, with his lovely wife Amy, and their three children.
