Prayer Ⅳ: Clarify your prayer life

• Pastor: Zach Gryder
• Location: Highridge Parker County

However, as it is written:

‘What no eye has seen,
what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived’—
the things God has prepared for those who love him—
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.

— 1 Corinthians 2:9-12 (NIV)

• We have access to the plans and purposes that God has for our life.
• Holy Spirit wrote the scriptures, who lives within us, who knows God.
• We CAN understand the Lord’s devine plan.
• We communicate to God and wonder if he hears us or is speaking back.
• Is it my voice or God’s voice?
• LACK OF CLARITY
• Lack of clarity in communication strains relationships.
• 87% of communication is non verbal
• Zach turns off lights, then turns off mic and keeps talking. We know he’s up there (Zach) but we really have to focus.
• Here’s what we know: Gods there, God speaks to us, we have full access.
• Something is causing a lack of clarity and it’s not God, so what’s getting in the way?
• YOU ARE.
• Pursue God and know ourselves
• Justification: Ask Jesus to be in our heart, BOOM, forgiven. Period. You’re going to heaven. Salvation, etc.
• Sanctification: Life long process of alligning our will with His.
• We have an unwillingness to admit what’s in us and getting in the way
• As we chase Him, he will reveal Himself and ourselves.
• So He can tell us how we are not aligned with Him so we can get aligned with Him.
• Stop ignoring what He’s revealing in our soul.
• Life is not about salvation it’s about sanctification

How do we create clarity in our prayer life?

Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

— Psalms 139:23-24 (NIV)

1. Invite God to search our heart (aka soul: mind, will, emotions)

• The more we grasp God’s nature, the clearer we see our own.
• “God search me for SIN.”
• We will not achieve perfection, but we will find the stuff that’s detrimental to our soul.
• Wage war against the sin. Fight it, deal with it, kill it.
• Ask God: where is the damage in my soul that’s been left over from sin?
  • From the sin I’ve done or others have done to me.
  • Pay attention to the thoughts God gives you when asking for this.
  • 3 voices in our head: Holy Spirit, mine, enemy’s. The thoughts that align with the Bible are His.
  • And that’s how you filter your thoughts.

2. Invited God to our thoughts

• Just because you know Jesus doesn’t mean you don’t have a thinking problem.
• When we sin we experience shame. When others sin against us, we experience trauma.
• They both leave damage (soul wounds) on our soul.
• Pray for God to search your soul so you can work through the damage that causes a lack of clarity in your life.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.

— James 1:22-24 (NIV)

3. Invite God to lead us in His will

• If he brings up memories write them down and process them.
• The Holy Spirit won’t heal what you won’t acknowledge