The Rock San Diego – 7/26/09 – Bubbles – Part 5, Answer Bubbles

1. No
   • Turning your ear away from hearing God will turn your prayer into an abomination to God
2. Wait
   • Don’t impose your timetable on God
   • His blessings are on His timetable
   • God speaks to us in a small still voice
   • He wants you to stop and wait – slow your life down
3. Yes, it is on its way
   • Many times the blessing is on its way, it just hasn’t arrived yet
   • The goal of prayer is not about getting God to say yes
   • The goal of prayer is for God to mold you into His image – making you holy
   • It’s about Him communicating with you, your response, and Him shaping you
4. Wrong prayer
   • It’s not about what you want, it’s about what God wants
   • When you are most dependent upon God, you are most strong
   • Surrender your intelligence to God
     • I have an idea, but what do you want?
5. Keep praying
   • How much is your prayer worth to you?
   • I wonder what miracles would happen in your life if you really spent time in prayer
   • You can’t get to know God with a minute here and a minute there
   • God wants to hang out with you, He wants you to know Him
   • Time makes a difference in prayer
   • You getting what you want is not the goal
   • How bad are you going to obey Him
   • Are you really pursuing God and what He wants?
   • How diligent do you pursue God?
6. Done
   • Already did it – past tense – you may not realize it yet
   • You’re already happy and don’t even know it – you may have an idea of happiness or what you want that isn’t real
   • Riches give you the opportunity to be more of who you really are
7. Why are you asking me that?
   • You want to be real careful that you don’t pray for something that you can’t swallow
     • Owning a business is nothing like what people think who haven’t done it
     • Owning a house
8. Get your life right
   • There is sin in your life that you need to deal with – you can’t keep living the way you’re living

The Rock San Diego – 7/12/09 – Bubbles – Part 4, Bubble Poppers

There are barriers to blessings and answered prayer

1. You have a rebellious heart
   • Most successful ventures start with a strategic and tactical plan
   • “Lord, purify my heart”
   • Proverbs 15:29
   • God is not obligated to answer
   • God’s answer to our prayers is through his grace – you never ever deserve it, and you can never ever pay it back
2. You ask with selfish motives
   • James 4:1
   • Anger and frustration come from your wants and desires within you and you’re not getting what you want
   • There are many things you may want, but you don’t need
   • You want to make sure you are desiring the right thing
   • Your wants may be irrelevant to God’s plan for you and others
3. You treat people disrespectfully
   • There’s someone in your life that you’re gossiping about
   • Other sin
   • People you have “issues” with
   • Man is supposed to sacrifice for the bride, the bride is supposed to submit to the man – the model of Christ and his church
   • Loving God is obeying God – it has nothing to do with emotion
   • What do you do in anticipation and preparation for God’s answer to your prayer – if you’re asking for a date, at least brush your teeth
   • Wisdom by definition is the correct use of knowledge

If you want God’s blessing:

1. Decide that you’re going to live by the Bible, and you’re going to learn it
2. Decide you’re going to align your relationships with the word of God
3. Start believing and put yourself in the position to receive the answers to your prayers

The Rock San Diego – 7/5/09 – Bubbles – Part 3, God Wants to Answer

My notes:

• You don’t have to do anything.  God just loves you.
• A prophet is a mouthpiece for God – “Thus sayith the Lord”
• God is glorified by answering your prayer and you giving Him the credit
• Answered prayer causes unbelievers to honor God
• Pray BIG prayers – don’t pray for a job, pray for a job that is fulfilling
  • Don’t insult God and underestimate what He is capable of or what He wants to do for you
  • Pray for stuff that only God can do
  • Use me somehow for your kingdom
• There are things that you can never do without prayer and fasting
• There are things that if you don’t pray for them, they’ll implode
• There are blessings behind a wall of doubt or lack of faith or lack of repentance
• Lord I want to remove this wall, and receive the blessings you have in store for me

The Rock’s notes:
Many parents will say that they just love to watch their children sleeping. The child isn’t doing anything, yet the parent loves him or her so deeply. Love for a child is like no other love we have ever experienced. That is how God loves you; God has an agape love for you that you can’t even fathom. Because of that great love, God wants to answer your prayers.

In today’s passage, through Elijah the prophet, the Lord instructs King Ahab to gather the Israelites and all the pagan prophets. To prove that Elijah was a true prophet of the one living God, a sacrifice is to be made and the gods are to be called to light the fire. God does answer Elijah’s prayer, miraculously proving Himself before all the people, but before this happens, the pagan prophets call out to Baal, receiving no answer. (v. 26)

So many people will claim that earthly things make them happy – money, sex, etc., but when it really comes down to it, they are not really fulfilled. Do you have a source of joy in your heart? How scared of you of life or death and the unknown? You’ve been crying out to your god, whatever it may be, but has it ever answered you? The devil cannot give you what he doesn’t have. Our souls crave for that which God created for them, and only the one true God can fulfill them.

One of the reasons God wants to answer your prayer is so that people will see the answer and He will be glorified. You have so many blessings in your life (provision, ideas, work, money, relationships, etc.), but how often do you give God the credit for those things? Answered prayer is supposed to glorify Him, not you.
One of the reasons God wants to answer your prayer is so that people will see the answer and He will be glorified.
And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. John 14:13
If you pray according to God’s will and you are obedient, your prayer will be answered with precision. God wants to prove Himself faithful and strong.