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Answered Prayer Pt. 1 · Time with God with John North

• 0:05
  Speaker 1: Good morning. I'm John North, and I'm here to start
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  Speaker 1: your day with you as we do each weekday morning,
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  Speaker 1: starting it by spending some time with God, the most
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  Speaker 1: important thing in your life, your relationship with the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: and that relationship, like any relationship, grows as you spend
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  Speaker 1: time with God.
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  Speaker 1: This week we want to look at the topic of
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  Speaker 1: answered prayer. Answered prayer.
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  Speaker 1: And I want to take us to the last great
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  Speaker 1: teaching session that Jesus had with His disciples which we
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  Speaker 1: call the farewell discourse of Jesus, John 14:16.
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  Speaker 1: And in this passage time and time again Jesus comes
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  Speaker 1: back to the theme of answered prayer.
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  Speaker 1: And really in this passage, uh, the emphasis is that.
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  Speaker 1: If we are praying rightly, we will be seeing answers
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  Speaker 1: to our prayers, answered prayer, the evidence of right prayer.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus speaks so strongly about it in this passage, and
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  Speaker 1: I am reminded of what James said in James chapter 4,
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  Speaker 1: verses 2 and 3. He says, You have not, because
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  Speaker 1: you ask not, but you ask and have not.
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  Speaker 1: Because you ask wrongly.
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  Speaker 1: And we want to see what Jesus says about the
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  Speaker 1: right way to pray, the way that brings answers to
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  Speaker 1: our prayers. So often we back off from this teaching
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  Speaker 1: because we are not experiencing answers to our prayers. And
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  Speaker 1: so we emphasise just that prayer is a blessing to us. Uh,
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  Speaker 1: it renews our minds and draws us closer to God.
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  Speaker 1: That's true, but
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  Speaker 1: The emphasis of the Bible also is that God answers prayer,
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  Speaker 1: and it's really a reflection of our spiritual state that
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  Speaker 1: we are satisfied with unanswered prayer in our lives.
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  Speaker 1: Let's look then today at John 14.
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  Speaker 1: Verses 12 to 14.
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  Speaker 1: Jesus says, Truly, truly, I say to you, speaking to
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  Speaker 1: His disciples, He who believes in me, the works that
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  Speaker 1: I do shall He do also, and greater works than
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  Speaker 1: these shall he do, because I go to the Father.
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  Speaker 1: I'm leaving and God's going to do it through you now,
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  Speaker 1: he says to the disciples.
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  Speaker 1: And whatever you ask in my name, that will I
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  Speaker 1: do that the Father may be glorified in the Son
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  Speaker 1: if you ask me anything in my name.
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  Speaker 1: I will do it.
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  Speaker 1: What a promise from the Lord Jesus.
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  Speaker 1: You notice in verse 12 that this asking is in
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  Speaker 1: relationship to ministry that we're doing. Just imagine applying this
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  Speaker 1: promise about prayer to the ministry that you're involved in
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  Speaker 1: in your church or in your life.
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  Speaker 1: Whatever you ask, if you ask me anything in my name,
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  Speaker 1: I will do it.
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  Speaker 1: There's no question that Jesus is teaching. Our ministry will
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  Speaker 1: be so deeply impacted by our prayer life and our
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  Speaker 1: walk with God.
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  Speaker 1: Are you learning to bring everything about your ministry to God?
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  Speaker 1: To turn to him, to look to him, to empower
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  Speaker 1: and work in your ministry, if not, your choosing to
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  Speaker 1: carry on your ministry in your own strength, just doing
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  Speaker 1: what you can accomplish as a person.
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  Speaker 1: When you learn to pray about your ministry and make
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  Speaker 1: that the centre point, the foundation of your ministry.
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  Speaker 1: Then you look to God to do His work through
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  Speaker 1: your ministry. I'm John North.