NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE UNTO YOU

Series: PrayerLesson #4

Prayer is the most powerful tool that God has given to His church, and yet the most neglected in the entire arsenal.

Mat. 17:20And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: (they have just failed to cast the devil out), for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.

Mat. 17:21Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting.

Lk. 18:1 And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;

That word “faint” is better translated “stop.” Do not stop until you get an answer.

I. The Scripture Said, “…And As Many As Touched Him Were Made Whole” (Mk. 6:56).

1. All of this implies a struggle. “Nothing shall be impossible unto you,” says to me that I am going to face things that are utterly impossible to me, but through faith, those things become possible.

2. In today’s theology, the struggle is played down. We have created a kind of “easy believism,” a “positive confession” attitude that says a man doesn’t have to lay hold of God, and fight his way through the darkness, all he has to do is simply quote the scripture and claim the promise.

3. This playing down of the struggle leaves the church impotent in the face of the enemy.

II. Many Were Clamoring To Be Healed.

1. In a particular incident, a great throng was pressing Jesus, pressing Him to be healed. Only those who touched Him received.

2. Believing requires an effort.

3. Like Israel and the manna, they had to gather it up.

4. The Bible speaks about a woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years. Shew had gone to the physician and spent all of her earthly wealth, and yet they had done her no good.

5. She comes to Jesus. Her testimony was, “If I can but touch the hem of His garment” (Mk. 5:28). She touched Him and was made whole.

6. You know she was weak. She was anemic from this loss of blood, yet she pressed her way in and touched Him.

III. There Is An Enemy; He Will Not Go Away Unless You And I Make Him Go Away.

1. If you touch Jesus, you will have to run over the devil.

2. The violent take it by force.

3. Daniel became desperate for an answer to the problems of the nation.

4. For twenty-one days Daniel fasted and prayed without one word from God. Nothing.

5. Then the angel came. The angel came to Daniel and said, “Oh, beloved of God, you were heard the first day” (Dan. 9:22-23).

6. What had happened? Demons had withstood the angel and kept him from getting through.

7. There was a war in the heavenlies and the message had been delayed.

IV. The Demons That Delayed The Answer To Daniel Are As Real Today As They Ever Were.

1. If the devil can discourage you, you will be discouraged.

2. The church has been victimized by “easy believism.”

3. We have preached a gospel of “name it and claim it,” and “say it is done and it is done.” But when we had said, “It is done” and it wasn’t done, we did not know what to do.

4. We have lost the inner commitment that kept us on our knees. We lost that ability to obey what Jesus said, “men ought always to pray and not faint” (Lk. 18:1). Paul said, “pray without ceasing” (1Thes. 5:17). That is, continue on in believing prayer until the answer comes.

5. The peddlers of this “easy believism” told us that if we prayed twice for the same thing, the second time was unbelief. Hell never sold a greater lie.

6. Look at Jesus and the blind man in Mark 8:22-26.

a. This blind man came to Jesus, Jesus laid His hands on him, and when He took His hands off, the man said, “I see men as trees walking.” In other words, he was not completely healed. Jesus prayed for him again.

7. At Gethsemane Jesus prayed the same prayer three times (Mat. 26:36-45). Do you accuse Jesus of praying in unbelief?

8. Look at Elijah at Carmel, after he had called the fire down from Heaven. He slew the false priests and prophets of Jezebel. Now he goes to the mountain to pray for it to rain (1Ki. 18:17-19, 41-46). All the requirements have been met. He begins to pray for rain. He prayed seven times. After six times the helper came back and said, “There is nothing out there.” The seventh time he came back and said, “I see the cloud about the size of a man’s hand.” Elijah said, “It is enough. It is going to rain.” He prayed seven times for that to happen. You say he is praying in unbelief? He is obeying Jesus’ command to pray and not stop.

In the beginning of my preaching career, I had a great sermon on Elijah’s prayer for rain. I preached on the number 7, making it almost magic to pray seven times. I almost got legalistic, leading people to believe that if they would pray seven times for anything, it would happen. I evoked the biggest shout with that message. The flesh loved that. The flesh loves a formula.

As I was getting ready for church one evening, my message for the service was to be, “The Seventh Prayer of Elijah,” God said to me, “I have heard enough of this foolishness.” Here is my greatest sermon going down the drain. “I’ve heard enough of that foolishness.” What do you mean? God said, “The answer had nothing to do with seven. If it had not rained Elijah would have continued praying. He knew that he has done what I told him to do, so it was time to open the heavens. He was not going to let me alone until the heavens were opened.”

V. The “Name It And Claim It” Gospel Has Left The Church Helpless In Battle.

1. When she doesn’t get an answer, she does not know what to do.

2. Our fathers of this Pentecostal movement used the terminology of “praying through.” It simply meant, if you know the will of God, don’t turn loose of God until there is an answer.

3. Everything the fathers taught about prayer was, “you can believe God.” You are a believer, hang on, and believe on, God will hear you.

4. Believing that the war is over, the believer is led to think that all that is necessary is to quote the promise.

5. Merely quoting scripture as scripture has never produced divine results.

6. We must press in until God’s thoughts actually become our thoughts.

7. The mere confession theology has sentenced millions to a life of defeat because they did not actively resist the devil in holding on in prayer.

VI. God Commands Us, “Give No Place To The Devil” (Eph. 4:27).

1. This tells you something about the devil.

2. We must know he was defeated at Calvary, but we must also know that that victory has to be enforced every time you bring that need to God.

3. Satan goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour (1Pet. 5:8). If you don’t resist him, he will devour you.

4. Faith demands that I be as fervently against evil as I am for good.

5. If you want health, you must be against sickness. You must be against what is keeping you from having health. If you want to be holy, then you must be against sin.

VII. Jesus Said Men Ought Always To Pray And Not Stop (Lk. 18:1).

1. Paul admonished us “Pray without ceasing” (1Thes. 5:17).

2. Prayer is the battleground.

3. Prayer is where we engage the enemy.

4. Faith demands that I be as fervently against evil as I am for good.

VIII.Faith In Its Truest Sense Is “Prevailing Prayer.”

Lk. 18:7 And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

Lk. 18:8 I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

1. Real faith then, according to Jesus, is the ability to hold on.

2. To hold on means the devil is not going to have that boy or that girl; it means that you are going to be healed.

I was saved when I was twenty-seven, and four years later I began to preach at the age of thirty-one. Three years later I was in the city of Edna, Texas, preaching a revival meeting. The church had been in a terrible trauma. The pastor had had an affair with the secretary. They

both had run off with the church’s treasury. Now my friend had come to pastor the church. In the midst of that scandal, the police had been brought in. The whole church was under a cloud. It was into that mess I went to preach. At the time I was having trouble with my health. I told the pastor I would preach from Sunday to Sunday. As I preached, God broke through and revival came. By Saturday night, there was standing room only in the church. The pastor prevailed on me to stay. I had said to God, “This is the end of November. If you give me enough money, I will take off and rest the month of December.” God gave me the money. It did not take much to live on in those days. By the end of the week He had given me three hundred dollars, which was a lot of money in the ‘50’s. Instead of obeying God, I stood with the pastor and agreed I would go on another week. At the end of that week, on Saturday night, I stood preaching a message I called, “Jesus The Conqueror.” A pain hit me in the middle of my chest, and ran down both arms. I became numb and fell out on the platform with what a registered nurse said was a massive heart attack. Men carried me to the parsonage, and laid me on the sofa. There I had another heart attack. The nurse felt everywhere and couldn’t find a pulse. She told the people that I was dead. Everybody believed that but my wife. She kept praying. She was praying in tongues, but I understood her in English. God raised me up, but he did not heal me. My wife took me home to the farm where her parents lived. We were there awhile trying to get a hold of God. I knew that if I went to a doctor I would die.

On the third night I awoke with another heart attack. I couldn’t awaken her. I perspired so much that the mattress became wet. When my wife woke up, she thought I was dead. She began to pray and God brought life back into me. I knew I had to touch God. I said to my wife, “I want you to take me to the hotel in town, and leave me there. I must touch God.” She did not want to do that. I told her, “If you won’t take me, I will take myself.” She agreed, and took me to the hotel. She registered me in and put me in room number nine. I told her to go back to the farm, and I would come home when I was well. I told the porter not to bother me, unless I called him. He left the room, and for nine days and nine nights I stayed on my knees. My heart was so bad; I couldn’t sleep lying down. I knew that I could touch God. I knew also that my only hope was in touching God. The word, “nothing shall be impossible unto you”(Mat. 17:20), was put to the test.

For nine days God said nothing. I began reading in Genesis and read all the way to the Psalms. God said nothing. A thousand demons said, “You are going to die right here.” On the ninth day, three o’clock in the morning, I came to Psalm 9:10, “...they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.” It did not say “feel thee, see thee, touch thee, but seek thee.” Nobody could seek Him anymore than I had in those nine days. The assurance that He had not left me was born. At that moment, that scripture jumped out at me. It felt like a hand reached inside of my chest and squeezed my heart. I jumped straight up, landed in that bed, broke the slats, and ran out in the hall in my pajamas shouting and praising God. God had healed me. I had touched God. I had believed God. You can touch God!

3. We are in a war; we must be prepared to stand. Give no place to the devil; don’t be intimidated.

4. We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

5. One of the devil’s greatest tricks is to make us believe that people are our enemy.

6. When we believe our enemy is another human being, we resort to carnal weapons.

IX. Our Enemy Is Spiritual; Therefore, Our Weapons Are Spiritual.

1. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood...” (Eph. 6:12).

2. Wrestling implies hand to hand combat, and our wrestling in this combat is prayer.

3. In Oriental wrestling, the man on his feet when it is over wins.

4. God did not say we ought to wrestle. He said, “We wrestle.”

5. “Easy believism” has led men to believe that the war is over. Paul said, “I have fought the fight… I have kept the faith” (2Tim. 4:7).

X. It Is A Fight Of Faith, And Faith Is The Ability To Stand.

1. “Nevertheless will the Son of man find faith on the earth when He comes?” (Lk. 18:8).

2. Where are the intercessors? Where are those who will stand in the gap and make up of the hedge for their family, for their church?

3. No wonder divorce is rampant and our kids are hooked on drugs and the altars have been forsaken.

For three years I was in the Second World War. Four years in the service, three years in the war. I was a sergeant over a machine gun section. When we set that defense line up, then in different places we put those machine guns. We set them out in front. They were to fire crisscross, making a crossfire, through which it was almost impossible for anybody or anything to get through. If one of those guns stopped, it left a hole in the line. Those guns had to keep firing no matter what the cost.

4. That is the way it is with the intercessors. When they leave that altar, then they leave room for that enemy to come in and steal our young and destroy our families.

XI. If We Will Return To The Altar There Is No Situation That We Cannot Win.

1. Our weapons are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds (2Cor. 10:4).

2. No weapon formed against us shall prosper (Is. 54:17).

3. Paul fought the beast of Ephesus. The beast of Ephesus was a demon sent by Satan to prevent Paul from establishing the church.

4. Ephesus was a city given over to idolatry - and the devil was determined that it would not change.

5. Paul actually fought the devil for that city. He wrestled in prayer with the demons who held the city captive.

XII. If The Bible Teaches Anything, It Teaches That The Lost Are Held Captive By The Devil.

1. The lost are controlled by Satan.

2. “No man can come to God except the Father draw him” (Jn. 6:44).

3. Unless the chains are broken through the prevailing prayer of saints, the lost cannot come. But, “When Zion travails sons and daughters shall be born” (Is. 66:8).

4. Before revival could come to Ephesus, Paul had to bind the strong man.

5. The same is true of every city on earth.

XIII.The Lack Of Knowledge Has Defeated The Church.

1. Not knowing what was going on, she becomes frustrated.

2. Great plans are laid for revival. The evangelist is called and nothing happens.

3. The problem was Satan. The church must bind him.

4. The failure of God’s people to recognize Satan’s control over the lost has led to her defeat in winning them to Christ.

5. Nothing shall be impossible.

XIV. Resist The Devil, And He Will Flee From You (Jas. 4:7).

1. Turn your faith against Satan, his sickness, his fear, and you will win.

2. Become violent in your prayers. There is nothing impossible to the saint who will pray.