How do I Pray? Feat. Joshua Stewart

In the previous podcast we looked at why we would pray... So by this point we should desire nothing more than to pray, pray and pray some more! But maybe the next question you have is how do I do this? In this podcast we will take a deep dive into passion, humility, confession, persistence, discipline, love, pursuit and more as we unpack the natural and God ordained means to which we communicate with God.

Time Codes:

0:00 - Intro
1:21 - What is prayer?
3:11 - Who is prayer for?
7:31 - Why do we do prayer?
12:11 - Old Testament examples of prayer
17:37 - Passion in prayer
19:25 - Humility in prayer
22:34 - Confession in prayer
24:41 - Faith in prayer
27:32 - Discipline and persistence in prayer
29:41 - Summary
30:36 - Conclusion

Music by
Over the limits
Vernacolmusic

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro
• 1:21 What is prayer?
• 3:11 Who is prayer for?
• 7:31 Why do we do prayer?
• 12:11 Old Testament examples of prayer
• 17:37 Passion in prayer
• 19:25 Humility in prayer
• 22:34 Confession in prayer
• 24:41 Faith in prayer
• 27:32 Discipline and persistence in prayer
• 29:41 Summary
• 30:36 Conclusion

Transcript

Wildfire podcast is an extension of Wildfire, which has a focus of igniting men and women of God into a deeper discipleship with Christ, instilling people with a passion to radically and relentlessly pursue Christ wherever that leads.

That God's truth will spread like a wildfire.

Welcome to another podcast.

You joined with me, Luke Taylor, and...

Me, Joshua.

I love that.

I love that.

It's good to have you back.

I don't even know, but yeah, the world wants you, probably.

They heard you, they're like, bring him back.

Bring him back, bring him back.

And they've got you.

So, welcome back.

It's an honor.

It's an honor to be here.

I'm projecting it on you.

It's an honor to be here.

Straight up, though.

What are we talking about today?

Prayer.

Prayer again, yeah.

And anything specific as it relates to prayer?

Nothing specific.

Why pray?

How pray?

But yeah, should we just dive straight in, you know, like, why, what is prayer?

What is prayer?

Yeah, like we've talked about before on the other podcast, but prayer is communion with the Most High, and it's an invitation from the king to his servant.

Should we?

Come.

Did you want me to jump in there?

Or with what is prayer?

Yeah.

Should we do this again?

No.

Oh, we're still going.

Oh, we're still going.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

because we do conversations real and authentic and transparent.

Exactly.

Yeah.

No, seriously, prayer is communion with the Most High.

It's an invitation from the king, and it's the father saying to his child, come.

Prayer is this.

It's like there's the supernatural, and then there's the natural.

And prayer is like where the supernatural and the natural merge.

Prayer is crazy.

And it's a lifelong exploration, which is exciting.

Yeah, it is.

Do you have any thoughts on that?

On prayer, is there anything you want to add to?

Or you can move on to the next statement.

No, I think it was good.

Yeah, it's relational, participatory.

Is that a word?

That's a word.

If it's not, it should be.

It's engaging.

It's exciting.

I don't know if those words are always linked with it.

Totally.

But I think the more we understand actually the depths of what he's calling us to do in prayer, and what he's offering us in prayer, it would blow our minds.

I want my mind to be blown so much.

I just want to say that.

Sorry.

What were you going to say there?

Who's it for?

Who is prayer for?

Yeah.

It's a universal invitation, given specifically to humanity, those made in his image.

But of course, we've got to understand that we live in a fallen world, and we're sinful people, and our communion with God was broken, and so was our relationship.

But God, the father sent his son, jesus Christ, to die on a cross so that the relationship would be restored.

And that chasm, that temple curtain, that's represented in the temple curtain, is torn in two.

And so now there's no longer, what it seems, this big bridge between the supernatural and the natural.

And now we can constantly come into communion, not just once a year in the Holies of Holies, but constantly be in his presence, because we're filled with his spirit.

And so who prayer is for?

It's for all those made in his image, but we must understand that we have to accept a relationship with jesus Christ, and have that communion restored, in order to see the intimacy of prayer and why it's there.

And, but the beautiful thing is, God meets us where we're at in our sin.

And prayer is the means to which we actually accept, believe, confess that jesus is Lord in our sin.

We cry out in prayer.

So, yeah, it's for everyone made in the image of God, and it truly has a special place and an intimacy for the children of God, of course, who are coming as children into the Throne Room.

Yeah.

And it's good.

Not sinners in need, who are then desiring that communion to be restored.

Yeah.

Yeah, even that idea of communion, and, like, as we know that as Christians, that's the bread and the wine or the grape juice.

But the body and the blood, you know, like this.

There's this kind of language of, like, filling as well, in some way.

just as we were speaking there, just reminded of that Beatitudes in Matthew 5, and specifically verses 6, which says, blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.

And it feels like that's a something about prayer as well.

It's like, it's a hunger.

It's for those who are hungry.

If you couldn't care less about God, then you're not, you're not going to ask.

Like, God, I...

But there's a hunger there.

There's a, like, God, I'm hungry for you.

And there's something really exciting about that, you know, of like, exciting and costly as well.

Like, you've got to kind of rid yourself of, I don't want what the world is offering me.

It's not satisfying me.

I need what the Father has to give.

You know, and I think there's, yeah, that's what's going through my head in terms of like, who's this for?

It's for those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled, and yeah, to receive that communion in a way.

Literally and, yeah, spiritually.

Yeah, is there another?

If you're maining his image, pray, but recognize where you're at.

Are you in relationship or not?

because that will dictate the prayer.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Where it's not a genie in the bottle, like if you're not saved, it's like, okay, God, if you're there, grant me this, this, this.

No, if you're maining his image, cry out to him for that relationship to be restored and accept the call and the invitation brought by jesus.

And if you're his child, enjoy.

Yeah, yeah.

And that might be the process of becoming his child as well, of like, I am hungry.

Yeah.

I need you.

And then he's like, have a seat.

You know, like.

Yeah, I'll satisfy you.

Yeah.

So I actually paid for all this.

I paid for you to be here.

So yeah, come and sit, you know.

You weren't already here, but now you are.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

because you're hungry.

Let's go.

Come on.

Um, so why, why do we, why do we do that?

Why do we do, why do we do prayer?

Why do we pray?

One, it's a commandment.

And I know in our culture, that's a throwaway statement, and it really doesn't matter.

But jesus said, if you love me, you'll obey my commandments.

And so he, he commands us to pray.

But behind every commandment, there is a reason why the father is giving a commandment to his children.

And it's rooted in his nature, which is a nature of love.

And why pray?

That's like, prayer is this privilege.

It's this, it's this blessing.

It's like, why pray?

because I get to pray.

And why pray?

because again, we become, like, we're the clay, God's the potter.

It helps us align and conform to what the potter is doing, to what the author is writing.

And prayer, again, helps us lift our eyes from the natural and to see the supernatural, and it helps us find ourselves in this wider tapestry.

And prayer helps us open our eyes and see the things of God and His will that is playing out in our lives and in the world.

Yeah.

Yeah, that's good.

Why do you think we should pray?

Why?

Why do you pray, specifically?

Why don't I pray?

I've never been asked that question, actually.

I love that.

It's really interesting.

I've never been asked why don't I pray.

I guess there's that assumption behind it of, like, of course, maybe that's part of the reason.

Like, maybe that's why I've never really been asked that question, is I think almost as image bears, we just by being made in the image of God, we're like, like, even if you're not a Christian, you know, I've talked to people and be like, you know, I'm not a Christian, but like, there's a guy who my auntie knows, and he loves this song by U2, it's a Psalm, maybe Psalm 40, about like singing a new song.

He's like, I don't pray, but like, I listen to that almost every day as a prayer.

I find it so interesting, you know, that there's this like deep image bearing, the depths of that is that our natural response, like a baby who's just born.

Oh, seriously.

Like a baby who's just born.

Baby who's just born just like cries out, you know, like, it doesn't even know sometimes what it's saying.

It's just like, obviously it doesn't have words at that point, but it's just this like cry of like, it doesn't even fully know mom or dad at that point.

Like, the knowledge is so empty, but like, it's just this cry of the heart of like, so I think fundamentally, just stripping it all back of like, here's why I'm so amazing and why I praise so much.

It's just like this internal crying of my heart, you know, as an image bearer, as his child now is that, and then the freedom there, I think that's the other layer of it is, it turns from the hunger and the crying light is always there, but then there's also this layer of like, you know, the prodigal son who receives the ring, that's this, you have freedom now to function, you have freedom to obey, you have freedom to do in my house, in my kingdom, what I want you to do, like what I'm inviting you to do that you're going to really enjoy as well.

It'll be costly, but it'll be good.

Yeah.

Why pray?

Why breathe?

Prayer is needed to have a life, spiritual life.

Yeah, it's like that little, you know, the little beep thing, the hospital monitor.

What's that called?

The beep thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's the medical term.

The beep.

Yeah.

The prayer is like the beep thing of your spiritual life.

You can sort of, you know what I mean, look at that and you'll see the spiritual life that you live.

So that's why this is the way it is.

The lifestyle is, your lifestyle is the way it is.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, it's kind of a mixture of, there's a necessity and there's a passion.

There's all this kind of mixing together.

Yeah.

It's like a full life thing.

Yeah.

Yeah.

That's awesome.

John 10 10.

John 10 10.

Fullness of life.

Fullness.

Part of that.

So, what does it look like, Old Testament, for you?

What examples stand out?

Or like, what is it that?

Yeah.

Straight up.

Straight up.

Job.

Job.

Like, sometimes we just get caught up in the narrative, but like, his life, I mean, he lost everything.

Everything.

And in this losing of everything, when he was questioning God, after losing everything, just read like chapter 38 to 41, like of Job, God's awesome.

God's awesome.

And I'm like, remember your fear and your reverence when it comes to the throne room.

I'm like, Job is dialoguing with Yahweh, the creator and sustainer of everything.

And I think Job, even if anyone has pretense to react the way Job did, it's Job.

But even in the most dire of circumstances, irreverence still wasn't acceptable.

And Job loses himself, and God reminds him of who's sovereign and who's God.

And we forget that's the prayer.

That's the prayer, like that communion, that dialoguing with Yahweh, and seeing that all unfold, it's such an amazing prayer to witness between a human and God.

That's cool.

It still looks rumbling.

Yeah, it's good.

Yeah, I guess we've already said about Abraham and the other intercessor standing in the gap.

I think though, in terms of a personal response, like David's brilliant, obviously, like the Psalms don't really need to say much else, really.

Authentic, real, transparent.

Yeah, doesn't, it's not pretty.

It's not like, hello, thine.

Sorry, I'm not mocking the language, but yeah, the formality is, the reverence is still there.

As you're saying, like, cannot let go of that, cannot let let go of the fear of the Lord.

But there's also this realness and this like authenticity of this guy's soul is really on my back, Lord, and please just like break his teeth or something.

That kind of language of like, this is doing my, like, there's a passion, there's a realness.

But then there's always this kind of, even though sometimes you can start at one point, you have like, this is just sending me through the roof.

It brings it to like, you're like, you're God, you're my God, like you're my rock, you're my savior.

You get a lot like that strand.

Shredded in the same, so.

Are you ready?

Are you ready for this?

Be real with the God who already sees you.

There ain't no hiding.

There ain't no hiding, boy.

A little southern twang there.

There is no hiding when it comes to God.

It's really the most foolish in anything you can possibly do is sort of act in the quiet moments.

Yeah.

A hundred percent.

If you're angry, you're angry.

If you're sad, you're sad.

If you're confused, you're confused.

He knows it.

God already knows that.

Prayer is, again, you communing with him, and prayer is affecting you, and it's helping you.

Yeah.

Prayer is not for God.

God doesn't need prayer.

Prayer is God's gift to you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

100%.

That's good.

I get, yeah.

I guess it's kind of that.

I know there's been a point, well, I can remember one story of my, I'm going to embarrass her, my sister.

When she was younger, full on tantrum, she wasn't getting orange juice before bed.

She wanted orange juice.

She was going crazy.

Hi, Georgie.

It came to this point where me and mom were just like, all right, let's just sit in the room and play with some blocks.

just have a good time.

just wait for her to calm down.

And she was going mad.

But then it did come to that point where she was like, it looks like they're having fun.

She didn't even address us.

She just came in to our presence, and was like, okay, let me just put it in the blocks.

Tears coming on still, but that is the invitation, I think, of like, all right, I know you're upset.

Come in to my presence.

Spend time with me here.

And then we'll go chat.

It's like that nice kind of, yeah, I think it's real.

You know, he's not ignoring, but he's waiting for us.

Okay, I know you're having issues here.

You're gonna bring it to me.

And then we can sort this out.

And that changes us as well.

It changes our dynamic in the relationship too, which is good.

Yeah, it just came into my head.

Sorry, Georgie, I'm actually mad.

Off script, can you hand me the technological device?

New Testament, for example, or?

I was gonna go down that until you said that.

And I think it leads into passion.

Passion.

That's gonna be the motivation.

Your love for God and knowing his love for you is gonna dictate your prayer life.

I get to spend time with God.

One of my favorite Psalms is, I think it's Psalm 41 or 42.

One of those two.

As a deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you.

I think if we ask ourselves that question, is that true of us?

Am I like a deer?

You know, whenever you're so thirsty, it's like, I'm panting after the water.

I'm going to die if I don't get this water.

It's like, prayer is my water.

It's like, if I don't spend time with God, if I'm not in prayer, communing with him, it's the place I want to be.

And it becomes like, medicine we are forced to take.

It's good for me, so I guess I will do it.

That's the way we view prayer sometimes.

And it really is medicine, and it really does help.

And so that's true, but there's something deeply wrong with the motivation there, and it's going to deeply affect the prayers that you have.

Seek first the kingdom of God, and all these things will be added on to you.

We need to position our hearts, and remember, Abba, that's what jesus said.

Whenever he says, this is how you pray, he said, Abba, dad, and that we pray in his name, in the name of jesus, is where we get our confidence.

Yeah, just to feed off what you said there.

But the next thing is humility, is so important when it comes to prayer.

If you think of, these are like, passion is so important when it comes to prayer, what we just talked about, but humility, do we come and humble ourselves before God?

In Hebrews, it talks about boldly approaching the throne room with a confidence.

And in 1st Peter 5, 6, it says, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, so he will lift you up at his own time.

And Isaiah 6, one of my favorite passages, Isaiah's in the throne room, a fear and reverence.

You just get that picture, read it.

I would like to me, that's whenever I pray, that's the image that I have when I pray.

Read Isaiah 6 and be in his throne room and get that picture.

That's sort of where you're stepping into.

And sort of remind yourself, impulse yourself, that you're not just in your room, you're in the throne room.

Do you have anything like, when it comes to humility, anything you want to add to that?

You don't have to, you may not have anything.

Yeah, I think passion and kind of what I draw from that is this seeing the passion as well of him for you, like the passion of Christ, that's I think sometimes we see passion as like this kind of almost sexual thing, or this pent up energy thing.

But it's also this suffering thing.

You know, the passion is, there's kind of the passion of Christ is the suffering of Christ on the cross.

And there's something so like, motivating about that partly of like, that's the extent that he went, so that he could bring you in, so that he could bring you near.

You know, it isn't like, it wasn't just something as a byproduct that we could do.

Like, he desires that relationship.

He desires that participation so much that he would, you know, put himself on that cross.

And so that passion, I think, fuels the passion for me anyway, often.

And then, yeah, humility thinks good.

For me, what I hear in that is patience as well.

You know, that, like, you come, you make a request and keep on doing it.

Like, that's, that was his invitation in Luke 11.

But it's also this, yeah, there is also this kind of submitting to his timing and waiting on God and hoping, expecting.

Yeah, this, I'm having this move to Donegal and, like, it's been a lot of waiting, you know, for that.

But, but he's always, he's kept on asking me, like, keep on asking me, keep on seeking this, keep on trying different things.

But like, but it's going to be in my timing as well.

Like, you've got to submit to that and be humble that you're not in control in that way.

So it's good passion, patience, humility.

And next one is confession.

Confession, yeah.

Do we confess our sin?

In the Psalms, David, again, that example I brought up, he's like, if I had not confessed my sin, God would not have heard me.

Which is crazy.

It's like, wait a second, look, that's not in the script.

Whenever I pray, God will hear me.

It's like, we have this narcissism, new humility whatsoever.

It's like, God's this genie in the bottle that we pull out of our pocket anytime and anything we want, God must grant.

And when he doesn't grant, we get to shout at him for not granting it.

And it's like, whoa, that's deeply flawed.

And yeah, you have to ask yourself, are you posturing yourself correctly when you come before the throne room?

because God is our father, but he's also our king.

And yeah, he's our saviour, sustainer, and there has to be fear and reverence.

We have examples of time and time again of that, which is holy, of people taking what is sanctified by God and set apart by God, and just being sinful, just disrespecting irreverent ananiac and sapphire with the Holy Spirit, and God struck them down, and we don't think that way as it relates to God.

Fear the Lord.

Yeah, and in John 9.31, we knew that God does not listen to sinners, but He listens to those who worship.

And we know that, what's that, look in the context of the text, what that's not saying is, because we were all sinners, and if God hadn't hurt us, we'd be in trouble.

Yeah, no, no, no.

God hears the cry and the plead of a sinner.

But if you've got someone who's in active rebellion, and actively sinning against God, and then thinking that they can come before that, which is holy, and with the same lifestyle.

So it's like, okay, I'm going to sin, sin, sin, sin, sin, but God, you better give me this, this, and this.

That's what this text is.

That type of exploitation will not take place in the kingdom.

And so confession.

Yeah.

I'm going to jump on to the next one, because like, yeah, do we doubt?

Do we doubt?

Doubt is another thing.

Believe you have received it, and you have it.

James 1.6, a person who doubts is like a wave tossed around in the ocean.

Such people should not expect to get anything from God.

Whoever says, and does not doubt, will have what they say.

Yeah, there you go.

I guess it's not just a doubt of, can he do it?

Although that might be your doubt, but also, you know, does he want to?

I think that can be a big doubt as well.

Am I valued?

Am I worth this?

Like, whenever the father asks jesus, I can't remember the reference, but when the demon possessed son, the father comes to jesus and says, like, will you heal my son?

Or if you're willing, or if it's possible, will you do this?

And jesus is like, what?

Yes, it's possible.

And then the father's like, like, I believe, I'm going to believe.

And there's that kind of cry of like, I know I'm not perfect in this, but like, I know you can do this, but I need your help in it.

Like, I need you to almost like give me faith for this.

So yeah, don't allow that to put you off a request, but to remember that your father's good and that, yeah, that's the Luke 11 thing again, of the father knows that we need good things and we need things, and he's happy to give those things that we need because he's a good father.

So put your trust in his character, not in your, yeah.

And it says in Hebrews that without faith, it's impossible to please God because you have to believe that he exists in order to come to him.

This is like something that's just faith.

It's knowing that he's there, knowing that he's listening and that he says in his word that he wants to give to his children.

That's the faith.

But I love what you said, like that example that we have in scripture of jesus and the Psalms again, it's God creates us, God knows us.

Being a follower of Christ does not desensitize you to life.

And God knows that.

No, it's about bringing your life to God.

And God, I have faith, but I think there's just a little bit out here, I need you to help me with that, because I don't want to be that wave tossed around like a notion.

Those are the prayers, like the honesty.

And we actually have a biblical president with jesus of that happening.

It's like, if you have the question of, I have faith, but I have a little bit of doubt, like, what's that?

There it is.

There's the example of that actually happening and playing out.

Last point, be disciplined and be diligent.

That's it.

Prayer is a discipline.

Never stop praying.

Always pray.

And have a rhythm of prayer, like in the morning when you pray, in the evening when you pray, before food when you pray.

Always pray.

That's what the biblical command is.

Yeah, the way it is now, it's like an open conversation.

I open it in the morning, and I close it when I go to bed.

And yeah, there's different postures.

We've talked about that.

You can have the Isaiah 6 posture, and there's times where you're like the samus posture, and you're crying out.

But as it relates to the living of your life, like in work or in the shops, like in the conversations, like the Spirit is speaking on our behalf.

So yeah, be disciplined in your prayer, and never stop, and be diligent.

Parables you can go to, like look 16, look 18 for more, like about the widow, and jesus, yeah.

jesus is just saying, like you're the example of these in just people, or like the bad neighbor.

Like your father is not the bad neighbor, and he's not the unjust judge.

He wants to give.

So like that's like the point of reference.

If these people will give it, how much more will your father?

So be disciplined and be diligent.

And in that widow and the neighbor analogy, like they kept coming back.

And so.

And it is a natural discipline in a way.

There's, we don't have to remind ourselves to be disciplined, to speak to our parents, maybe.

Maybe you do.

But, you know, if someone's in your house, you're likely, you should probably speak to them.

It's a natural thing.

So when you're aware of them, when you're aware of, like, this is a person who I love, and I just want to chat.

Like, I want to talk to them.

I want to ask them for the things they need.

Like, a son would, a son should have that, or a daughter should have that kind of perspective towards their father as well.

Yeah.

Well, let me close.

Summarize, we did a prayer on why pray.

This year podcast could be titled what to think when you're praying.

What are sort of the things that should be going through your cogs whenever it comes to prayer.

And yeah, we talked a little bit, few preliminary points at the start, like what is prayer, who's prayer for.

But really the main focus is remember passion when it comes to prayer.

That's what you should be thinking.

Am I passionate?

Remember humility when it comes to prayer.

That should be what you're thinking.

Remember confession when it comes to prayer.

And remember discipline when it comes to prayer.

Diligence when it comes to prayer.

And faith when it comes to prayer.

These are sort of like the arenas of thought when it comes to prayer, and not just mindlessly entering his presence, but sort of being intentional about what he has already said, about what we should be thinking of doing when it comes to his presence.

And I think, and just to finish as well, maybe if there is like a, if you feel like that's a lot to take on, and you're listening, you're like, that is a burden and a half.

This is, again, this is a participation of the relationship, and it's the Spirit that's driving this in you.

He's giving you the power, the love and the self-discipline that you need in order to live this life with jesus.

So Ephesians 5, ask for the Holy Spirit to fill you, to help you in this, because that is part of his role, is to sanctify you, to make you able to overcome.

Yeah.

just want that reminder.

Yeah.

For grace and that.

Don't complicate it.

Be a child, enjoy his presence, and just ask.

Yeah, yeah.

You just, right now, you just, just pray.

just talk to God and be honest, be authentic, be real, because again, be real with the God who already sees you.