“PRAYER REALLY DOES MAKE A DIFFERENCE”

By Pastor Mark Taylor

When we rely upon education, we get what education can do;  When we rely upon skill, we get what skill can do;  When we rely upon technology, we get what technology can do; When we rely upon organization, we get what organization can do;  When we rely upon prayer, we get what God can do.  Those devoted to prayer do things by prayer-they begin with prayer, not tacking prayer on as an afterthought, after decisions are made.

When we pray, we receive the gift of God Himself-Prayer is communion with God. He wants us to know Him.  If we never gain anything from prayer but the opportunity to commune with God, that should be sufficient for us.

Jesus counted on prayer as a source of strength that equipped Him to carry out a partnership with God the Father on earth.

Prayer makes a difference in receiving forgiveness for your sins.  It is a second chance that is given to you every time you go to your Heavenly Father.

Prayer makes a difference in our relationship as children of God with our Heavenly Father.  Apparently God is the kind of friend and Father who rewards friendship and relationship with Him.  No one in the Old Testament directly addressed God as “Father”, but Jesus did so 170 times and told us to also:  "When you pray say: Our Father Who is in Heaven." ( Matthew 6:8-10).

Prayer makes a difference in what we can receive from God.  “You have not because you ask not” (James 4:2)  But that asking should be as a loving child who is asking for things to make him a better person and better serve his Father.

Prayer will make a difference in how much and how effective we will be in our service for the Lord.  Prayer is more than a reflective time to consider God’s point of view.  It is also a time to find a way to accomplish God’s will in the work He calls us to do.  

After entrusting His creation of people with the gift of free choice, God invited them to act as partners, even to argue and wrestle with the One who created them.   He asks us to pray for that which He wants to do.

Prayer makes a difference in our relationship with our Heavenly Father.  I spend time with my closest friends not because of what they can do for me, but for the pleasure of their company.    In one hand I hold the truth of God’s vastness, and in the other hand I hold the truth of God’s desire for intimacy.  Prayer that is based on relationship and not transaction may be the most freedom-enhancing way of connecting to a God who’s vantage point we can never achieve and can hardly imagine.  “The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their prayer”. (I Peter 3:12)

Prayer makes a difference in feeling the presence of God in your life.  Prayer is not my way of establishing God’s presence, rather as my way of responding to God’s presence that is a fact whether or not I can detect it.  My feelings of God’s presence – or God’s absence- are not the presence or the absence.  Prayer means keeping company with God who is already present.  God has time for you.  A God unbound by our rules of time has the ability to invest in every person on earth.  God has, quite literally, all the time in the world for each one of us.  “For a thousand years in Your sight Are like yesterday when it is past, And like a watch in the night” (Psalms 90:4).  

Contact with Him is not our achievement.  It is a gift coming down to us from on high like a meteor, rather than rising up like a rocket.  God finds ways to communicate to those who truly seek God.  I need to think more about God than about myself when I am praying..

Prayer will make a difference in our lives in increasing our faith.  Before the words of prayer come to the lips, the mind must believe in God’s willingness to draw near to us, and in our ability to clear the path for His approach.  Such belief is the idea that leads us toward prayer.  “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6). The more we pray, the more faith we will have.

Prayer Really Does Make a Difference!!

IS THIS YOUR SEASON AND TIME?

VIDEO LINKS TO THIS SERMON

IS THIS YOUR SEASON AND TIME? - PART ONE

IS THIS YOUR SEASON AND TIME? - PART TWO

IS THIS YOUR SEASON AND TIME? - PART THREE

A TESTIMONY OF GOD'S HEALING POWER BY PASTOR MARK

“Is This Your Season and Time?”

by Pastor Mark Taylor

“To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:  A time to be born and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to harvest that which is planted”  

(Ecclesiastes 3:1)

There are so many demands on our time, so many good things that need to be done. We see 12 months, 52 weeks, 365 days, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, 31,536,000 seconds. And all is a gift from God. We have done nothing to deserve it, earn it, or purchased it. Like the air we breathe, time comes to us as a part of life.  Like receiving a brand new calendar, the slate is clean and ready for us to post our appointments, meetings, dates, anniversaries and celebrations. So let us pencil this in, more time for loving our families, more time to take care of ourselves, more time to do what we really want to do, more time to follow our dreams and more time with the Author of time and the Author of all things, our Lord Jesus Christ.  Will you use your time wisely this year?  This could be that year that God wants you start planting seed that will grow into a great harvest for you.

Now what do you think God’s will is for you in this new year? Do you think He wants your mind so saturated with worries & anxieties that you can’t think spiritual thoughts? Do you think He wants your calendar so crowded that you don’t have time for the important things? What do you think God’s will is for you this year? 

This could be the year that you start that project God has put in your mind to begin months and years ago.  This could be the season when you begin to sow the seeds that will bring you accomplishments and happiness that you have been praying about.

As the Lord Jesus desires for you to have a harvest of blessings this year, your enemy, Satan wants to delay you another year.  Jesus said that Satan is a robber and a thief. (John 10:10).  One of the things he tries to rob from us is our time, because time is a very precious possession.

The two greatest enemies of time are regrets for things we did in the past, and anxiety about what will happen to us in the future. Many of us are living either in the past or in the future.

"Show me, O Lord, my life’s end and the number of my days; let me know how fleeting is my life" (Psalm 39:4).  "The length of our days is 70 years or 80, if we have the strength...they quickly pass, and we fly away" (Psalm 90:10).  

What you do with your time, with your friends, and with your attitudes will determine what will come at your harvest time.

Time is all about choices.  Every day, in every moment, you get to exercise choices that will determine whether or not you will have a good harvest, no harvest, or a bad harvest.  Is this your time and season to start making good decisions? 

The “Secret of Time” is about the little things you do each day that doesn’t look dramatic, or do not look like they matter, or make a difference.  But successful Christians do what others are not willing to do.  They read their Bible, they pray, they attend Church several times a week, they give to God, and they show their love in their actions toward others.

Many people get frustrated and quit planting good seed when they don’t see immediate results..  You have to stay in the process long enough to reap a harvest of blessings from the Lord for your good actions.  “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not”  (Galatians 6:9).

A positive philosophy of life based on Biblical principles will turn into a positive attitude, which turns into positive actions, which turns into positive results. which turns into receiving the blessings from your Heavenly Father.

A simple positive action repeated over time can cause you to have a life full of God’s blessings.

You start with a prayer today, or a kind deed, or read one chapter from a book of the Bible.  At the end of the year you will have prayed 365 prayers, done 365 kind deeds, and read 365 chapters.  There are only 260 chapters in the New Testament, so you could read it through almost twice in one year.

Are you waiting for a special day to get started.  “Some day” doesn’t exist.  There are no 

“big breaks” in your future.  Your “ship is not coming in”.  Your ship is already here, docked and waiting.  You already have everything you need to achieve everything you want.  You just can’t see it with your human eyes.  “I can do all things through Christ which gives me strength.”  (Philippians 4:13).  You have to start looking through your eyes of faith and plant the right seeds.

Planting good seeds is an act of faith.  If you make the right choices and take the right actions, over time you will have success.  If you plant the wrong seeds, your harvest will be one of disappointment and hurt to you, to those you love, and to those who love you.  You have to choose what kind of seed you want to plant.

"Be very careful, then, how you live not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is."  (Ephesians 5:15-17)

Today is a good time to start planting seeds that will bring you blessings from the God who loves you very much.    The sooner you plant your good seeds, the sooner you will start harvesting.   But He cannot help you without you helping Him.  There is a spiritual law that says: “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a person sows, that shall they also reap.” (Galatians: 6:7).  This law also involves how much you sow. “But this I say, He who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and he who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.” (2 Corinthians 9:6).

When you plant good seed you will not see the results immediately. No success is immediate, nor is any failure.  it is determined by the seeds you plant.In simple words - “Don’t quit!”

  

Some people today are reaping a harvest of difficulty and pain because of seeds planted a long time ago.  For those people it is time to change the seeds you are planting or you will continue to get the same harvest, not the harvest God wants you to have.

Don’t judge your harvest by the evidence of your eyes, you won’t see the results over night.  This is where faith comes in. “The just shall live by faith” (Romans 1:17).  You live right, you treat other people like Jesus would treat them, and wait for the harvest of good things.    

There is a time to plant, and that time is today.  Today is the time to give your heart and mind to the God that loves you.  “For He says: In an acceptable time I have heard you.  And in the day of salvation  I have helped you.  Behold, now is the accepted time, behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2).