The Rock San Diego – 8/2/09 – Bubbles – Part 6, Jesus Answers

1. Praying in Jesus name implies that you have a biblical relationship with Him.
   • In a biblical relationship with Jesus, you acknowledge that everything good about you is from Him.
2. Praying in Jesus’ name acknowledges Jesus as your only access to God.
   • You have access to God only because Jesus, the Son of God, died on the cross to forgive your sins and give you that access.
3. Praying in Jesus’ name means that you acknowledge the unique value of the Father’s wealth.
   • You go to the Father in Jesus’ name because you realize there is no where else you can go to get what you are looking for.
   • There are things that only God can give you.
4. Praying in Jesus’ name acknowledges your right to blessings assigned to you.
   • You are praying in Jesus’ name to say, “God, I am really only asking for what You have assigned to me. I would love to have this, this, and this, but in Jesus’ name, if You don’t want me to have it, that’s okay.”
   • You don’t want to walk through doors that God hasn’t prepared for you
5. Praying in Jesus’ name assumes you have credible identification.
   • To have the Lord acknowledge you, you must understand and accept who He really is, have a biblical relationship with Him, have access to Him, acknowledge His value, and accept His will for you

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.

The Rock San Diego – 6/28/09 – Bubbles – Part 2, Got Bubbles?

• God is not obligated to answer your prayers
• God has more answers to prayers than ‘yes’ or ‘no’
• God wants to answer your prayer

• God can follow your prayer, but can you?  Are you jumping all over the place, and will not recognize His answer when it comes?
• Write down whatever you feel God saying to you

• How do you know when God is speaking to you?
  • It’s a small, still voice and it’s Biblical

• Think about one big miracle in your life
  • Not self-serving, something you can’t do, and in alignment with God’s call in your life (quitting smoking, etc)

• When God answers your prayer, He glorifies Himself

• A – Admire God
  • Thank Him for everything – don’t take your blessings for granted – life, clear water, clothes, food
• W – Wait
  • Imagine you’re sitting in front of a river, calm – release thoughts like they’re floating away down the river
  • Can say “Thank you Jesus” to let go of those thoughts
• C – Confess
  • Agree with God about your sin
  • Here’s what I did, and here’s why I did it
  • God, create in me a clean heart – help me understand my sin
  • There’s stuff you need to pay for in your life – you will pay for it in one way or another
• I – Intercede
  • Pray for other people, anyone
  • Love your enemies – reveal your holiness to them, bring their life in alignment with the your Word – bless them
  • The mouth speaks from the overflow of the heart
• P – Petition
  • God wants to bless me – doesn’t mean He wants to give you want you think you want – God’s love is based on truth
  • Ask for anything – ask for a miracle
• A – Admire

• While praying, I pictured [my daughter] sitting with me at the river in the W step, with our bare feet dangling in the water, just hanging out admiring the nature around us.
• While praying at C step, I realized that lust may be a symptom of my lack of intimacy with [my wife].  I pray that God would help me build more intimacy with [my wife].
• While praying at I step, I prayed for Angelo, that God would reveal His holiness and provide His peace to him.  I realized that praying for someone who I instinctually feel has ‘more’ than me is liberating in a way, because it helps me relate to that person as human and needing Jesus.  He’s not foreign just because he’s a powerful leader.

• Prayer is work, it can be difficult – praying for others, confession, submission

The Rock San Diego – 6/21/09 – Bubbles – Part 1, What is Prayer?

• A hypocrite is someone who believes one thing and does the opposite.
• Repetition is not prayer
  • How would your dad feel if you said “Happy Fathers Day” seven times because you thought that’s how you thought you could be heard?
• He wants you to talk to Him – from your heart – every time
• He’s a person, not an object – speak to Him – He understands your pain, desires
• Be real with your emotions, fears, etc
• The Lord’s prayer is the model for prayer
• Be specific in your prayer
• There are hinderances to your prayers being answered / addressed
• God wants to bless you – and He has them waiting just for you

• Communication is the exchange of ideas or information
• God’s bubbles are waaaay better than your bubbles – we send up junk (and He wants your junk)
• Prayer is your faith reaching out to God
• God’s voice is a small still voice
• Wait for God to respond
• It is absolutely expected that prayer is two-way – it’s communication (I have been feeling lately that it was presumptuous of me to think that God would talk to me every time I prayed)
• Jacob said “I’m not letting you go until you bless me”
  • Wrestling with the Lord is prayer
  • Don’t “punk out” with God and give up your wrestle (prayer) before you are blessed by God – He delights in blessing you
  • God’s telling you “come on.. come get it”
• God may let you suffer with pain to allow the lesson to be learned (for your own good)
• God’s not in the business of making us happy – He’s in the business of making us holy

• Jeremiah 33:3 – Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and mighty things that you do not know
• Call Him on His promise – but remember God’s ways are not our ways – He will do for you what He knows you need in His way
• You may ask Him a Yes or No question and He may give you a completely different answer
• “Lord give me wisdom about…”
• Psalms 119: 169 – Let my cry come before you Lord.  Give me understanding according to your word.”
• He will help you make decisions about your life according to the Bible.
• It’s not enough to ask for ‘happiness’ or for ‘a blessing’ – He wants you to be specific about a unique challenge, decision, issue, confession, etc
• If you tell God, He can clean out the junk in your heart

• He changes the way you think, process information, and how you feel
• He changes your desires
• Psalms 51: 10 – Create in me a clean heart, oh God.
• Your heart wants to be wicked – you don’t even realize how wicked your heart is – you want to think you’re “not that bad”
• Lord, change my heart – give me a desire to be holy
• Holy desires come from God – not you
• Romans 12:1 – … present your body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable…
• Sometimes we ask God for something that we wouldn’t ask if our heart were clean
• When you ask the questions He wants, He will bless

• Power = Ability, authority, and freedom to do, or to act
• What God can do, man cannot do, ever
• There’s no question God has power, there’s no question He loves you, there’s no question he’s telling you to pray, there’s no question He’s going to put you in a position where you need His power, so He’s going to put you in a corner where you either self-destruct or you trust Him
• He has power to make you strong – He’s looking for you to trust Him
• Get on your knees and ask for God to clean your heart
• Moses had to wait 80 years before his ministry (40 years of education, 40 years of tenderizing his heart, then 40 years of ministry)

The Rock San Diego – 3/29/09 – The Invisible Man Separates

1 – The Holy Spirit wants to separate you from yourself

Thy will be done
Proverbs 12:15 – The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But he who heeds counsel is wise

2 – He wants to separate you from the world

He sets you free from living like the world lives
He sets you free from retaliation
He sets you free to love your enemies
He sets you free from lust (lust is a strong desire to get something that doesn’t belong to you
Your flesh and your spirit are at war with each other
Your maturity as a Christian can be perceived as how quickly, how often and how faithfully you say no to your flesh and yes to God – period
It doesn’t matter how long you’ve been saved
Your ability to obey against strong desires of the flesh is a measure of faithfulness (praising God in front of strangers is different than praising God in church)
When you are called to do something, how willing are you to do it, even if it’s not the fashionable thing to do?
Fruit trees do not strain to bear fruit, they just bear them. You will too – just obey God

3 – He separates you unto himself

The Holy Spirit has something for you to do – do you want to know what it is?
His job for you is part of his will for your life
God is very coordinated, very organized, very effective, very efficient
The Holy Spirit is constantly speaking to you – you either decide to ignore him or submit to him, there’s no other way – to say ‘wait’ is a no, which is called sin

4 – He separates you from death

Even living 150 years on earth is nothing compared with eternity
The objective on earth is to do what God has designed you to do

The Rock San Diego – 3/22/09 – The Invisible Man Speaks

What does God’s voice sound like?

• He talks to you every day
• The Holy Spirit is all God – as much as the Son, as much as the Father
• He has all of the attributes of the triune God

1 – The Invisible Man sounds like a small still voice

• No matter what, if God is on your side, you have the advantage
• The fact that it’s a small and still voice forces you to be intent on listening or you just won’t get it
• Listen to your radio, your friends, or be intent on listening to Him, slow down and listen
• He sounds like your conscience
• He will come across as profound
• Pieces of wisdom
• He may not repeat things for you
• If your life is goin goin goin goin goin, you may be drowning out God
• You need time during the day to listen very carefully – He’s not going to shout
• God’s voice will not be loud

2 – The Invisible Man sounds like a groan in your heart (Romans 8:26)

• We don’t know what to pray for nor how to pray for it.  The Holy Spirit guides us
• Many times you just can’t put into words what you feel God is telling you
• You can’t put into words but you just know
• When you get this feeling, you don’t need to know why, you just need to obey
• "I don’t know why or how, I just know"
• The Holy Spirit is praying on your behalf
• Ask for the will of God

3 – The Invisible Man sounds like a child crying "Daddy" to God (Galatians 4:4)

• Always humility toward God
• You are not born a child of God, you are born a child of wrath who can then become a child of God when you accept Jesus Christ as your savior
• You cry "daddy" with dependence – can never be with attitude
• He nurtures within us a spirit of humility to cry out to "Daddy"
• God is not your peer, not your servant, not even your boss – He is almighty
• You are nothing but His child

4 – The Invisible Man sounds like biblical truth

• If anything contradicts the Bible, it is not God
• John 14-16
• Don’t ever let the devil get in the way of obeying God
• Don’t ever let the devil waste your time
• The Holy Spirit will testify of Jesus
• His job is to clarify who Jesus was and what Jesus did and does
• He will guide you into truth
• The truth will always be the Word
• Obeying God has nothing to do with what other people think and nothing to do with what you feel
• Your faith is most validated when you obey him when you don’t want to
• There will be times when God is prompting you to do something, and you have no idea why, but you know that it’s the right thing to do

5 – The Invisible Man wants us to speak like Him (Mark 13:11)

• Imagine your lips as God’s lips – say what He would say
• When you talk to people, are you saying words that Jesus would say?
• The Spirit wants to speak through you

The Rock San Diego – 3/15/09 – The Invisible Man Is a Person

• God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent
• What makes you a person is not your body.  What makes you a person is the image of God in you
• If you do not understand the person-hood of the Holy Spirit, you will not have a powerful relationship with the Holy Spirit
• The Holy Spirit is more of a person than anyone you know

1 – The Holy Spirit is a He (John 16:9)

• The Holy Spirit can relate to your whole heart, your whole spirit, your whole mind
• He understands you better than anyone, even more than you know yourself
• He completely knows you
• He is not an it

2 – The Holy Spirit lives in you (John 14:15)

• He’s everywhere
• He’s not ‘out there’, he’s in you and around you everywhere
• He hurts with you
• He wants to help you carry your burden

3 – He has a mind (Romans 8:26)

• You don’t need a brain to have a mind
• God gave us a physical brain to mimic His mind
• Everything you can do, you received that ability in the likeness of God

4 – He has a will (1 Corinthians 12:11)

• God’s mind toward you is greater than the sands or the sea
• You have abilities that you don’t even know you have
• Talk to Him as a person who has a mind
• One of the first things He does is give you gifts (discernment, helps, faith)
• He knows what He’s doing – He’s giving you gifts for purpose, His purpose
• His desire is to fulfill your purpose on earth
• We are compatible to relate with God
• People’s council is second-class council, unless they are talking from God, which will lead you back to Him

5 – He can be grieved (Ephesians 4)

• Grieve = Cause to suffer
• The Devil cannot create – he can only pervert.  He counterfeits
• Walking after the devil’s trickery grieves the Lord.  He has so much in store for you.
• There is something you know – let Him lead you
• Don’t call Him an it

6 – The Holy Spirit loves you (Romans 15:30)

• The only reason you can love is because God loves you
• God wants to express His love through you
• He wants to think through you
• He speaks to you and wants to speak through you

7 – The Holy Spirit speaks (John 16:13)

• He wants to tell you:
  • Who you are
  • How he made you
  • The things he created you to do
  • The talents you have that you don’t know you have
  • The destiny for your life
  • About your friends and your enemies
  • How much he loves you
  • Even though you have cursed him, he’s ready to forgive you
  • Great and mighty things (even some of which are about yourself)
• When you let him guide your life, you’ll start to see opportunities open up for you one after another and start to accelerate
• When you start tracking down God’s path, he starts opening things up for you so fast, he doesn’t want you to turn around
• Make the Holy Spirit your friend – he should be your best friend 
• Renew your vow to him
• Ask him to lead you (and never let go)

The Rock San Diego – 3/8/09

When building a building there are three groups of people involved in the process:

1.  The person with the plan / vision
2. The person who executes the contract
3. The project manager – the one who is there to ‘get it done’

The Old Testament was the plan.  The New Testament is the contract execution (Jesus) and the execution of the plan (Holy Spirit).

Trinity:

1. God the father
2. Jesus – executed the contract
3. Holy Spirit – executing the plan (doing the work)

1 – God the father establishes the plan of salvation (big picture)

2 – Jesus, the mediator, executes the plan’s contract (1 Cor 6: 19-20)

3 – The Holy Spirit, as helper, implements the plan

• The Holy Spirit is 100% qualified to radically change your life – to guide you in every moment of your life
• Your "person" is not your body.  Your "person" is unseen – the soul
• The Holy Spirit can do more than you ever think to ask, but if you don’t know what those things are, then you won’t know to ask and won’t take advantage of the power that is available to you
• You can be saved, but not know the Holy Spirit

4 – Understand that all three (God, Son, Holy Spirit) are all one God

(The Holy Spirit is God)

5 – Jesus promises to send the Holy Spirit to you.

• Names of the Holy Spirit:  The Helper, The Spirit of truth (He teaches you spiritual truth – ask for Him to help you),

6 – The Holy Spirit is omniscient (all knowing), omnipresent (everywhere all the time), and omnipotent (all powerful)

• You don’t even know what you don’t know

Imagine you had a friend that you trusted so dearly, so completely, to know the right and true answer to any and every question you could ask.  You would be talking to that person constantly!  You would never let that person out of your sight!