Finding Your Voice in Prayer | Ken Olson
Recap
This past July 4th weekend, our very own Pastor Ken Olson shared with us a message on “Finding Your Voice in Prayer.” Noting that our nation’s Declaration of Independence declares that we, as citizens, have the right to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. He further added, “There’s nothing more empowering, more enabling to pursue life, liberty, and happiness and so many other things that God has planned for our lives than a pursuit of a lifelong relationship through prayer with our Heavenly Father.” Heaven isn’t just a place. Heaven is a divine flow!
Dive Deeper
Pastor Ken introduced his sermon topic saying, “I’m excited to share on a subject that is close to my heart. Growing up on a small farm in Central Minnesota, I learned that God had in mind a relationship for me to have with Him… that I could talk to Him and He would talk back to me.”
He noted that it was the 4th of July weekend, saying that it is a time when we celebrate our freedoms and liberties as citizens of this nation. He said, “I remembered a simple line from the Declaration of Independence that says we have the ability to pursue life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness…
He noted: “There’s nothing more empowering, more enabling to pursue life, liberty, and happiness, and so many other things that God has planned for our lives than a pursuit of a lifelong relationship through prayer with our Heavenly Father.”
He declared, “Today I want to talk to you about finding your voice in prayer.” Prayer is an ancient tried-and-true practice that goes through the course of scripture as an integral part of the life to which God has called us. Prayer is an opportunity to engage in a relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Someone who could be described as a champion of prayer is the Apostle Paul. He said that his determined purpose is to know God: “…[For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him…” (Phil. 3:10).
If he wanted, Paul had much to brag about. Though Paul had planted churches and helped write possibly half of the New Testament, the only thing he “bragged” about is the fact that he was determined to know his Lord more intimately, more accurately, more clearly each and every day.
Pastor Ken talked about that in our relationship with God, there is a “flow.” He said, “Heaven isn’t just a place. Heaven is a flow. There’s a divine flow that’s intended for your life. You don’t just get saved and that’s it. And now we just need to cope and get by until Jesus comes.”
“No!” he said. God has set us up to succeed in this life. The more you follow Jesus, the more you’ll discover that things have been “rigged” in our favor. That’s not to say we won’t experience times when we must resist the enemy and go through hard places in life that we must overcome. But as far as the plan of God and His blessing, things are truly rigged in our favor!
Jesus paid a high price for us to have all the will of God and all the supply of His Spirit and kingdom.
Pastor Lynne used to say that salvation is just an introductory offer that God extends to us. If we accept that introductory offer, there are many more offers to follow… opportunities to co-labor with Him, to be part of the building of His kingdom on planet earth, and many other things.
Pastor Ken said, “Today I’m not going to drill down into the specifics of all the different kinds of prayer… such as the prayer of faith, prayer of intercession, prayer of worship, prayer of binding and loosing…”
He explained that he was going to encourage us in taking another step in our journey with God, to be inspired to get back to a place of prayer if you have, perhaps, drifted away from.
He wants to hook us up to heaven’s flow. Jesus said that out of our bellies would flow a river of living water, that that river would flow without end, supplying us with wisdom and strength to raise us out of every miry clay or whatever challenge we might be going through.
The Lord is extending His hand to us this morning saying, “I want to lift you up out of that rut. I want to lift you up out of that place of melancholy and same old, same old.”
The Holy Spirit wants to partner with us in prayer, to empower our lives to rise above the norm and what’s natural. The Holy Spirit wants to empower us to tackle and actually leverage our adversity to become stronger.
Pastor Ken said, “I want to impart some understanding regarding prayer, but I also want to bring some inspiration to help you to see that this is God’s way.”
The Early Church was described as “The Way.” Initially, they weren’t called Christians. They were called “Followers of The Way” because Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” He also said, “I’m a door,” and He invites us to step through Him.
We make our Christianity too complicated sometimes. It’s too religiously layered, and it wears us out. The Lord wants to reset us to what it’s all about. And that is an intimate, ongoing, and growing connection and relationship with our Heavenly Father.
Read About It
Phil. 3:10, “…that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death…”