Dive into an enlightening discussion led by Rick Hughes as we explore the intricate role of prayer in times of crisis. In this episode, we discuss the common misconceptions around prayer as a problem-solving tool and the essential conditions under which prayers can become truly effective. Alongside biblical references and teachings, Rick unfolds the profound power of prayer, not as a quick fix, but as a conduit to divine support and understanding.
welcome to the flatline with your host rick hughes for the next 30 minutes you’ll be inspired motivated educated but never manipulated now your host rick hughes good morning and welcome to the flatline i’m your host rick hughes and for the next few minutes please stick around it’s going to be a very critical time for you to listen to these information that i’m going to bring you today
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My job is always to give you accurate information, not some kind of useless speculation. And you have the opportunity to orient and adjust to the information that I give you. So remember, this is always about good information, changing the way you think, learning the mind of Christ, beginning to think in divine viewpoint. That’s why God gave you two ends, one of them you can sit with, one of them you can think with. And success in your life and in my life will depend on which one of those ends we use. So Let’s learn to think and think accurately. And today, in regards to that, we want to talk about prayer in a crisis. Prayer in a crisis. That’s the way we want to put it. And around the world, there’s no doubt you’re aware of this. I’m aware of this. I’m recording this in early April, but it’ll be playing later in the month. But you know as well as I do that we’re in a crisis, the COVID-19 crisis. healthcare restrictions, financial economic crisis, loss of jobs, loss of education, global supply network in chaos, readiness of all of our defense forces in the United States especially is unquestionable, and the way of life as we know it or as we have known it may in fact never return to the same. So in time of crises like this, many people will go to prayer and pray. What they don’t realize is that many prayers never make it to the throne room of God. But before we talk about that, let’s remember one key concept here, and that is that prayer is never a problem-solving device. The problem solving devices that we mentioned, rebound, the filling of the spirit, the faith thrust drill, grace orientation, doctrinal orientation, personal sense of destiny, personal love for God and personal love for all mankind, sharing the happiness of God and occupation with Christ. These are the 10 unique problem solving devices, not prayer. Prayer is never designed to solve problems. So prayer is only effective, only, I say only effective, if you are in fact a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Someone that’s not a Christian has no access to the prayer. If you’re not a Christian, you’re like a man stranded on an island by himself with no way to get off, and you face whatever storm is coming into your life. But as a Christian, We have prayer. We can go to our Heavenly Father and ask for His wisdom, for His guidance, for His support, for His strength in the time of the crises. But prayer doesn’t solve the problem. Prayer gives us the means to solve the problem. Solving the problem is the doctrine in our soul. It keeps us from worrying, keeps us from being afraid. The doctrine in our soul, it shows us the opportunity that we have to share the word of God with those who need it and to give the gospel to those that have never heard it. So prayer is only effective if you are a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. And how does that happen? The Bible simply says, whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. It’s a free gift of God, for by grace are you saved through faith. It’s a gift, a gift from God and not of works, lest anyone would brag about it. So if you’re not a Christian, you can pray all you want to. You’re not going to get past the ceiling. But if you’d like to become a Christian, you can pray one simple prayer. I’ll give it to you a little later, but in the show we’ll talk about it. But basically, it is, Lord, I believe that Jesus Christ is your anointed son and I’m willing to accept him as my savior. It’s just a simple act of faith where the Bible says, whosoever should call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Don’t look for any earth-moving, shaking events. When you pray, you simply pray and tell the Father you’re a sinner. You want to accept Christ as your Savior, and it happens. And you won’t hear a harp. You won’t see an angel. But the grace of God will intervene, and you will be saved based on what the Bible says. This is a record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has a son has life, and he who has not the Son of God has not life. Okay? Now… Another thing about prayer, excuse me, if you have a flat line on your soul, those 10 problem-solving devices, then you can have an effective prayer life because you have oriented and adjusted to the plan of God. So let’s look at a couple of biblical verses and see what I’m talking about here, starting with 2 Chronicles 7, 14. I hear a lot of people talking about this verse today. It says, and my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways and I’ll hear from heaven, I’ll forgive their sin and I’ll heal their land. I was talking to a friend the other day on the phone and they quoted that verse. This is the answer, this is the answer. Well, let’s take a look at this. This verse was written by Solomon, the son of David. Solomon was the king after David passed away. And Solomon was born to David and Bathsheba. And you remember the story about David and Bathsheba and all of that. But Solomon was one of the wisest men in the Bible. He asked God for wisdom and God gave it to him. He was the king of Israel and he rebuilt, or he built the temple, not rebuilt. He built the temple in 2 Chronicles 6, 6 through verse 11. 2 Chronicles 6, 6 through 11. You should turn there and read how he built that temple. And this was so that people could come to worship God at the temple. So when he built the temple, he had a public dedication, and he knelt down in public, and he vowed for the nation and for him to serve only the Lord God of Israel. And Solomon asked that God hear their prayers when they had need in their life. In 2 Chronicles 6, 24 through 40, this is what he said. In time of war and defeat, hear our prayers. And when people turn away from their God, listen to our prayers. In time of famine, in time of drought, forgive us and teach us not to forsake you. In time of sin and captivity, forgive us and restore us. So here is a prayer. He’s asking for the Lord. After all the celebrations, all the dedications, it was a tremendous thing that went on for days. Then God appeared to Solomon at night in a dream in 2 Chronicles 7, 12. And the Father assured him that he had accepted the temple structure as a legitimate place of worship and the institution of the Ark of the Covenant. So then he gave instructions on how to recover from divine discipline. God did. God gave instructions on how to recover from divine discipline that may come on the nation should it come. due to disobedience by the people and the leaders. This is what God said to Solomon. He said in 2 Chronicles 7, 13, if I shut up the heavens and there’s no rain, or if I command the locusts to devour the land, or if I send pestilence among my people, that’s all divine discipline, national discipline on the people of Israel. And then the solution was, but if my people who are called by my name those are the Jews, will then humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways. Then, and only then, I say, then I will hear from heaven. I will forgive their sin. I will heal their land. And that’s in response to the discipline. So there you have it. The requirement for deliverance demanded three simple things. The people needed to become humble. Now, the greatest enemy that you and I have is our own arrogance. Our own arrogance does not want to submit to the authority of the Word of God. This is why when a child is born, the first thing the parent has to teach him in Ephesians 6, 1 and 2, is to obey his parents and to honor his father and his mother. His parents have to teach him that because we are born anti-authority. And the United States of America, where this show originates, has a lot of anti-authority issues today. For example, Proverbs 3, 7 says, “‘Do not think you’re wise in your own eyes.'” Many people have doubted the Word of God. Many people have doubted that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Many people fail to adhere to the prohibitions that the Bible puts on morality at issues like this. And they think they’re wise in their own eyes. That’s arrogance. The arrogance to think that you are smarter than God. The arrogance to reject what the Word of God lays out. So how you can have a wonderful, meaningful, full life and then you reject it because you don’t believe it, and you think you’re smarter than God, that’s just pitiful. So people, if this thing is to be changed in this country, our country, let alone the rest of the countries of the world, then we need to become humble. Remember what the Bible said in Philippians 2, 5? The Lord Jesus Christ humbled himself and made himself of no reputation, took upon himself the form of a man. Humility is orientation to authority. That’s where it starts. And then it’s sacrifice and service. That’s the way it’s always going. So the people needed to become humble. And they needed to pray and seek his face. They needed to pray and seek his face. Now, for us, prayer is rebound. The Bible tells us if we confess our sins, he’s faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to purify us from all of our wrongdoing. When we pray, We can rebound. That’s our first thing. Before you do anything in prayer, always look first at yourself and say, is there sin in my life that will hinder this prayer? And these folks are being told to pray and seek his face, to turn to the Lord, to look only to the Lord, not to look to anything else. You know, the Bible says, cursed is a man that trusteth in man. As we go through this world crisis that we’re facing today, there’s no scientists that are going to solve the problem unless God gives them the solution. There’s no politicians going to deliver us from death unless God equips them to do so. The answer is always from God. That’s where it comes. If you want to get the answer, go to the Lord. Seek my face and turn away from your wicked ways. What is that? Well, turning away from the wicked ways means to get back to the first love you used to have, which was your love for the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s the first thing. Go back to where you started. Turning away from your wicked ways is beginning to obey. See, we’ve justified sin today. We’ve said now in this generation, in this country, everything that used to be evil is now okay. It’s all good. And everything that used to be good and wonderful, oh, now that’s all evil. And I could give you many illustrations of this. But the United States and this country and the world today, we’ve turned things around because we don’t believe the Bible. We don’t believe God’s Word. We don’t trust it anymore. As a whole, a lot of people, a lot of believers listening to me today that are solid, sound, fundamental Christians. So if you want to request that God deliver this nation, As a believer, well, you’ve got to be filled with the Holy Spirit because your prayer’s not gonna be effective if you don’t do that. And if you’re occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ and growing in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you got a great opportunity, a great chance to go to the throne room of God to make your request and perhaps get it answered. But failure to do this, this is what Solomon was warned, if they don’t do this, They will lose their client nation status. National discipline will come upon them, and it eventually did. The whole nation was exiled into Babylon into captivity. The temple was destroyed. You can read about it in 2 Chronicles 36, 17 through 22. All of this was God’s warning to Israel, but we can relate to the same thing today since we are now a client nation. We are a client nation. The United States of America is that voice of God and reason in the world today because we allow extensive evangelism within the country and throughout the world without government interference. The government doesn’t stop us from doing that. And from this evangelism can build a pivot, a core group of mature believers like Gideon’s core group of men, just a few. That’s all God needed, just a few that would trust him. and they defeated the entire Midianite army. So God’s just looking for a few. It doesn’t have to be millions. Mature believers, believers that make up the pivot. And we have a civil government based on laws of establishment, like Romans 13, 1 through 10, along with vigorous, open, accurate Bible teaching, missionary activity, as well as recognition and protection of the nation Israel. That’s what a client nation is, a nation that has evangelism, a nation that builds a pivot, a nation that has a good civil government based on the establishment laws of God, a nation that’s open and accurate Bible teaching and missionary activity and protection of the Jews. That’s us. So here’s the question. You got to answer this question to yourself. Are your prayers for these times going to be heard by God the Father in the Supreme Court of Heaven? Are your prayers going to get through to the throne room of God? Because 2 Chronicles 7.14 says, my people, that was God’s chosen race, Israel. Today, in the New Testament, it’s the body of Christ or the church. So the dilemma, when a non-Christian who is scared of financial ruin or loss of health begins to pray for help Is he heard? Listen to the Bible. Proverbs 1 24. Because I called and you would not listen. I stretched out my hand and you didn’t pay attention. You neglected all of my counsel. You did not want my reproof. then I will laugh at your calamity and I will mock you when it comes. When your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you, then you will call on me, but I won’t answer. They will seek me diligently, but they won’t find me because they hated knowledge. They hated knowledge. This is the one thing that’ll destroy a nation, being wise in your own eyes and hating the knowledge of the word of God. and they did not choose to respect the Lord. They would not accept my counsel. They spurned all of my reproof, so they will eat the fruit of their own ways and be satisfied with their own devices. For the waywardness of the naive will kill him, and the complacency of a fool will destroy him. But he who listens to me shall live securely and be at ease from the dread of evil. Wow, listen to what Isaiah 59 too says. Your iniquities have separated you from your God. Your sins have hidden his face from you and he will not hear you. And then listen to John 9, 31. Now we know that God does not hear sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, that he hears. What’s the will of God? This is the will of God that you believe in me whom he has sent, Jesus said. So the Bible teaches us that prayer is the privilege of those who have become children of God. The Psalm writer tells us the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, that’s what happens. When you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, he who knew no sin was made sin for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God through him. The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, those that have the righteousness of Christ, and his ears are attentive to their cry. The face of the Lord is against those who do evil. Psalm 34, 15, another great verse. So if you want to listen, this is very important. The famous evangelist Billy Graham said, here I’m quoting Dr. Graham now, Jesus once said, whoever comes to me, I will never drive away, John 6, 37. However, one who has never trusted in Christ as his personal savior should be reminded that if his only point in prayer is to relieve his mind of problems, and secure benefits for his family or his life, it’s extremely doubtful that such praying would gain the desired objective. The single most important prayer you could ever pray is found in Luke 18, 13 and 14. What is that one? But the tax collector standing some distance away was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat upon his breast, saying, God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Jesus said, I tell you, this man went to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted. Is there anything wrong with praying for God to have mercy on you? No. If you have never believed in Jesus Christ, that’s a legitimate prayer. Ask God for mercy because it has been extended. He who knew no sin became sin for us. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. That’s mercy. But what about the Christian? What about the Christian who prays for deliverance? Can you pray for deliverance through the crisis? I think you can legitimately ask God to deliver you through the crisis, yes. Are your prayers for deliverance being heard or will they be answered? Well, it depends because you cannot expect God to answer any prayer that’s offered while you’re out of fellowship. This means that if you have unconfessed sin in your life, your prayer will not get any higher than the ceiling. Psalm 66, 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. The reason for this disclaimer is because the Holy Spirit, the one who does the interceding for us in prayer, is quenched and grieved. In Romans 8, 26, in the same way, the Spirit helps our weaknesses, for we don’t know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words, and he who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is because he intercedes for the saints. according to the will of God. So we have been warned. We were warned in Ephesians 4.30, don’t grieve the Spirit. We were warned in 1 Thessalonians 5.19, don’t quench the Spirit. Because when you put sin in your life, you shut off the power of the Holy Spirit. And then you’re operating in the energy of the flesh, and no prayer given in the energy of the flesh will ever get to heaven, regardless of how scared you are, regardless of how sincere you are. Any believer who offers prayer to God’s throne must do so if he’s filled with the Holy Spirit. And there are a lot of promises that you can claim, a lot of promises you can stand on, promises yours to learn and use. if you like money in the bank, but that’s what they’re like. Promises are like a check account. There are over 7,000 promises in the Bible for you, yours. But the question is, what bank are they in? How can you use them if you don’t know them? And verses like, in peace, I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, do make me dwell in safety, Psalm 4, 8. In Psalm 56, 3, what time I’m afraid, I will trust you. In Jeremiah 29, 11, I know the plans I have for you, plans for welfare and not calamity, to give you a future and a hope. These are all promises from God for you. We even put them into what we call a COVID-19 crisis kit. And that’s a short list of God’s promises for mature believers to use in these trying times. We also have a book that’s free of charge. called Promises and Principles that we’d be glad to send you. And you can read through these promises of God and claim them for deliverance in your life if you are filled with the Holy Spirit and if you are a child of God. But remember, prayer doesn’t solve problems. It gives you the access to the throne room of God. It does, yes. But what solves problems is divine viewpoint thinking in your life as you learn God’s Word in advance apply the biblical principles and promises that becomes the shield in your soul that protects you protects you from being afraid protects you from being overrun with fear protects you from having anxiety protects you from reacting rather than responding you have to act on faith claiming God’s promises because if you don’t without faith it’s impossible to please God That’s Hebrews 11, 6. And so for you, that’s the faith rest drill. Problem-solving advice number three, the faith rest drill. One final thought here before we wrap it up today, and that’s the very misunderstood concept about prayer today. There has to be protocol in prayer because our Father is a God of protocol. And that simply means that a right thing must be done in a right way. And if you want your prayers heard, if you want your prayers answered by your Father, you have to follow protocol because you can be sincere, but that doesn’t carry power. And emotion has no reasoning power in prayer. But divine viewpoint from knowing and understanding the mind of Christ, Philippians 2.5, that helps us to understand how we can accurately pray and approach God’s throne and expect results. You see, God the Father is the recipient of all of our prayers. Hebrews 4, 6, let us be approaching the throne of grace with confidence that we may receive mercy and acquire grace with reference to seasonable help. What do we approach? The throne room of God. We don’t offer prayers to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 6, 9 said, after this manner, pray you, our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. In Ephesians 3, 14, Paul wrote, for this cause I bow my knee unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And in 1 Peter 1, 17, if you call on the Father, who without respecter of persons judges according to every man’s work, pass the time of your sojourning here in peace. All prayer must be to the heavenly Father, not to Jesus Christ. When you hear somebody praying to Jesus, not going to be answered. All prayers are offered in the name of Christ. Yes, John 14, 13. Whatever you shall ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified. So we pray to the Father, not to Jesus, but in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the power of the Holy Spirit. And then the Lord said, before they call, I’ll answer. And while they’re still speaking, I will hear. Your prayer is an invisible power directed toward an invisible God. And it’s your relationship with him, one of your invisible assets. And it’s most effective when used by invisible heroes like you, people that have obtained spiritual maturity. There are prayers of thanksgiving, prayers for others, prayers for yourself. But in prayer, the most important thing is you concentrate. Concentrate on what is the will of God. You know, you can effectively pray for other people too. Nothing wrong with that. And at the time in America, we need to be praying for our leaders. We need to be praying for our military. We need to be praying for a lot of things. You need to pray before you eat. Always sanctify your food. We need to pray for those in authority that they would have wisdom for the president, for the cabinet, for the military, for the firemen, for the policemen, for your pastor. Listen, the Bible says in Matthew 7, 7, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened. So what do you need to do? You need to keep asking and asking and asking. Father, come to him on a daily basis. He may say, well, you came yesterday. You want to come again? Yes. I want to ask you again, Father. I mean, how many times do your children ask ask you for the same thing over and over and over again, Canada, Canada, Canada, Canada. There’s nothing wrong with that. Keep asking, and it will be given to you. Keep seeking his will, and you will find it. You can be that invisible hero that delivers the nation in time of a crisis. Keep knocking, and the door will be opened for you. The door, Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. And behold, I stand at the door and I knock. If any man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come into him and sup with him. That’s fellowship. That’s not salvation. That’s fellowship with you through rebound in your life. There’s so much to learn about prayer, but it’s being used in the wrong way at the wrong time. If you learn the issues in prayer and execute an effective, legitimate prayer, you can tap into the invisible power, the throne room of God, and it’s yours. I hope you’re listening. I hope you’re paying attention, and I hope you’re learning. You can always get a transcript of this by contacting us, rickhughesministries.org. Until next week, thank you for listening.
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Thank you for listening to The Floodline with your host, Rick Hughes. If you’d like to contact Rick, please write to him at P.O. Box 100, Cropwell, Alabama, 35054, or online at www.rickhughesministries.org.
