The Power of Prayer

Sunday Sermon on 27th October, 2019 by Pastor Rajesh Mathew, Cornerstone church

1 Chronicles 4:10- And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that Thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that Thine hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested."

This is the time of prayer. You need to pray personally, for the church, as a family. Lift up your hands and ask God for the grace to pray. Let the grace to pray come upon your life and the power of prayer be manifested in your life.

That which is rooted in prayer cannot be uprooted by the hands of men or by the devil.

• Your family, job and ministry needs to be planted, rooted and built in prayer.
• Jabez is praying to the Lord in the portion of scripture shown above,
• The meaning of Jabez is ‘pain or sorrow’. Perhaps because he was born in pain, his mother named him Jabez. But this Jabez is going to change your story.

This morning, the Holy Spirit is saying that if you pray, the Lord is going to change the stories of people who have been living their lives in pain. Their stories are going to change this morning by the Lord. Declare this- the Lord is changing my story! Don’t think that your life is going to end in sadness, pain and suffering.

All his friends called him Jabez- pain. These people only knew Jabez’s history that he was named in his mother’s pain. But Jabez had gained an understanding that God had a destiny for him. People may brand you based on what they know of your past but that there is a destiny that God has for you. The Almighty God knows your future!

The disciples saw Jesus doing miracles--raising the dead, casting out demons, healing the sick. Yet they did not ask Jesus to teach them to perform miracles but the one thing they asked is to teach them how to pray.

If anybody is asking the Lord genuinely to help them pray, God will do a great work in the lives of such people. Ask the Lord for the grace to pray. If you pray the Lord will change things in your life.

Jesus had a lifestyle of prayer. Prayer is your meeting point with God. It is your communion with God. Great victories are won on your knees. You can preach and perish but you cannot pray and perish, because n you pray transformation happens. Prayerful people are powerful people.

Mantle of intercession to pray for your family, church to come upon you.

FOUR THINGS THAT JABEZ PRAYED FOR

1. That You would be bless me indeed (verse 10) 

•  There are different levels of blessings. We have experienced blessings but you need to ask the Lord to change your level of blessing.
•  If you pray, you will win in the same places where others were defeated.
• The Lord won’t need to ask a committee if He should bless you. NO matter how many people speak against you, the Lord will still bless you.

The word bless in Hebrew is Barach which means empowered to succeed! The Holy Spirit will empower you to succeed.

2. That you would enlarge me

• Ask the Lord to expand you and to make the church expansive.
• To be enlarged mean that you are going beyond what others expected about you. You also never imagine that you will grow this much!
• Expansion means the Lord will enlarge you and take you to another level.

Prophesy: God will expand you into levels that you never imagined. Surrender your prayer life. God is going to expand you above and beyond what you thought! Bend your knees before God.

Anecdote: A man went to a friend’s place. He had a huge library with 20000 books. This visitor asked his friend if he could take one book home to read. The friend refused and said, “These are all books that I borrowed from other people’s homes!” This is not the kind of expansion that we are looking at.

• If I pray my situations will change. In the places where I thought I will be destroyed, God will expand me.In my career, in my calling, God is going to expand me.

3. The Hand of the Lord might come upon me

• If the Hand of the Lord is for you, nothing that is against you will prevail. The hand of the Lord will make you stand in the midst of your struggle. Nobody can snatch you out of the Hand of Jesus.

What does it mean to have the Hand of the Lord upon us- It means GOD WILL SUPPORT your destiny. God will expand and take your future to where it should be.

Redemption is not reduction. It is to enlarge you.

Four days in our life that are important: 

• Birth day 
• The day you were Born again 
• The day that you realise why you were born and understand your destiny in God 
• The day you die

Between the sunrise and sunset of your life, two things should happen:

1. You need to be born again and accept Jesus

2. You need to realise why you were born and what is your purpose that God intended here on earth.

If you understand this, the Lord’s hand will come upon you.  This morning, the spiritual eyes of people to come alive. Let the Holy Spirit give you the understanding of why you are here.

• Surrender that to the Lord. Let God reveal to you the purpose How does the Hand of the Lord come upon you? 1. He will send destiny supporters His Hand will come forth to help you! God will send Destiny Supporters to your life. You need destiny supporters in your life. 
• There was a need for Joseph and Mary to bring Jesus into the world. There was a need for John the Baptist to show the redeemer to the world.
• There was a need of 12 others who could show the world what Jesus did. 
• Moses had a Jethro
• Esther had a Mordechai 
• David had a person to tell Saul about him 
• There was an Elisha for the widow.

May you never lack destiny supporters in your life!

Let there be people in positions of authority who will speak for you. People in the corridors of power. God is rising people to speak for you. There may be someone to recommend for your VISA. In your work place, God will raise someone in your work place to promote you to another level.

The distance between where you are and where you need to go is a divine connection. You may not be able to speak but God will raise someone to speak on your behalf.

•  One connection is all you need to take your business to another level. 
• There were four people who were needed to bring a paralysed man to the feet of Jesus. You have been chosen for the divine destiny to bring many people to the Kingdom of God, to bring them to the feet of Jesus.
•  A connection that will change your life. The Hand of the Lord will release promoters, supporters and helpers to fulfil the call of God upon your life.

2. He will send TIMELY helpers

At the right rime God will send helpers to help you. Jesus is a crowd puller. When he came into Capernaum. People may have been tired waiting in long queues to meet Him. But these four men in timely. Just in time as soon as they heard that Jesus was in Capernaum.

3. He will send TIRELESS helpers

The four men were strong helpers, they even removed the roof tiles to bring the paralysed man down. God will release financially and spiritually strong people who will take you to the feet of Jesus. May you be a strong helper in somebody else’s life. 4. He will send UNSOLICITED helpers God will send unsolicited help. We bend our knees before God. Our asking is only with the Lord, He will send the needed help for you. Don’t walk around asking people for help. You ask the One who will send the right help for you. Jabez prayed for the hand of the lord to come upon him.

4. Keep me from evil that I may not cause pain

We are living in an evil generation.

Anecdote: I had given an altar call for those who want to live their lives for Jesus. In this age, a lot of people are lazy. They don’t want to carry this burden of serving the Lord. Especially in a country like India, ministry is not easy and there is a lot of opposition.

The devil hates those how bring souls for Jesus, Devil hates it. Lot of pastors pray that their children should walk with God, serve God but do not want them be called into the ministry that will lead to suffering. Many people who wanted to be martyrs for God are now in the US and in Europe.

• Come here to India and serve Jesus. It is one thing to speak through your mouth and another thing to live it for God.
• Even in the midst of this evil time, there is strength and grace to stand for Jesus as a true witness. No weapon fashioned against you will stand.
•  Grace to stand strong for his Name.
•  And the scripture says that Lord heard Jabez’s prayer and gave an answer.

The more you love Jesus, the more you would desire to spend time with Him. Every moment of the day spend it with Jesus. Help me to fellowship with YOU Lord.