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Northern New England Conference

Dee Casper

Keys to Unanswered Prayer

Thank you that you love us more than life itself and more than your own existence.

And I just pray that you would help us today to better understand your intention in the topic of prayer, surrender, our battle with fear and self-protection, and our battle with unforgiveness.

So God, I just pray that you would speak to us in this place.

And again, I pray, you answered us this morning when we prayed this prayer, so I'm going to ask it again.

As Moses prayed that you would show us your glory and that you would do something in this tent that none of us would soon forget.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Exodus chapter 6, the reference is on the board if I beat you there.

Then the Lord said to Moses, Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh, For with a strong hand he will let them go, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.

And God spoke to Moses and said to him, I am the Lord.

I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Almighty, but by my name Lord I was not known to them.

I have also established my covenant with them, to give them the land of Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage in which they were strangers, and I have also heard the groanings of the children of Israel whom the Egyptians keep in bondage." And again he says, I remembered my covenant.

Therefore say to the children of Israel, I am the Lord, I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, I will redeem you with an outstretched armor and with great judgments.

I will take you as my people and I will be your God and then you shall know that I am the Lord your God who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

And I will bring you into the land which I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and I will give it to you as a heritage.

I am the Lord." Then it gets to the hard part in verse 9.

First of all, those are some gorgeous promises, aren't they?

And then it says in verse 9, So Moses spoke thus to the children of Israel, but then it says, But they did not heed Moses because of anguish of spirit and cruel bondage.

God gives these absolutely gorgeous and beautiful promises of deliverance, of healing, of freedom to the nation of Israel, but they disqualified themselves from those blessings because of cruelty and hard bondage.

We can allow our pain and our wounds from our past to drown out the voice of God and to convince ourselves that we don't deserve His blessings or that they are impossible.

You ever been in a situation like that, that God is trying to give blessings to you that you feel that you don't deserve, and you just fight him and wrestle him and try to convince him, no, you don't know what you're talking about.

Let me get on the throne and tell you, mister, that you cannot do this for me because of whatever the situation may be, right?

Those are not the healthiest ways to think, but we can fall into those traps, can't we?

You know, I'm kinda reminded, I'll go ahead and do this now because I'll forget later.

Well I'll tell you what, I'll just do it now.

So there's a story, I say story, it's a true story, in the account I think it's either in Chronicles or it's in Kings, I think it's in 2nd Kings, but the story of Elisha.

And Elisha has this lady and this husband who take very good care of him every time he's around.

They eventually build an apartment onto their house for him.

Sometimes when people say they have a prophet's pad at their place, it's just like this little additional apartment next to it.

And so Elisha 1 day asked his servant, he says, what do you know about this lady?

And he says, well, she doesn't have a child.

And so he comes up to her and says, you are going to have a child a year from now.

Don't you dare play games with me." Right?

This has been the desire of my life and I have not been given this.

And she does have a kid a year from now, But I mean just imagine it's how hard it is in a culture like that especially but in any culture to long for something that you feel that God has made you for and not be able to walk in that and to receive it is hard and You get to a point that you get so acclimated and accustomed to not receiving what you want, that when someone comes up to you and offers you hope, you reject it.

Because this is what life has looked like.

And you have adjusted to that reality that you think is going to take place, and you don't want to deal with that.

Has this massive throbbing headache, and he dies.

Gehazi tries to push her away, says, no, she has a burden and a sorrow in her heart, but God won't tell me what it is.

And she says, did I not tell you not to do this?

I told you, I would rather not have hope than to be in an experience where I hope and get hurt.

Don't you dare bring hope into my experience and then have that be taken from me.

He raises the boy from the dead and she gets him for keeps.

But have you ever been in situations like this, that God shows up to you and gives a blessing to you that you feel that you don't deserve and you don't know how to handle it.

And He finally gets you to the point that you're actually willing to accept the blessing.

And it's 1 of the most excruciating experiences of my life.

I'm closer to Jesus now than I was before that happened.

Jesus used the hope of that situation to revive me and draw me closer to himself.

And then that was the first part of the growth.

The second part of the growth was when I lost.

Because I just think, why would you work so hard to convince me to accept something only to lose it?

I just it was very difficult for me because I felt like hurt.

I was afraid this could happen, and I told you don't do this to me.

And anyway, I don't know what God is up to.

I don't know if my story is over, if it's to be continued.

I have no idea, But what I do know is God is good.

And what I do know is I am closer to Jesus now than I am before that happened.

And I've learned how to pray with a sincerity and a deepness and an earnestness that I did not have before that happened.

And with a desperation that I didn't know how to pray before that happened.

Though I don't understand the process right now, I can't argue with the fruit.

But anyway, that, ever since I read that again recently, that's just kind of been haunting me because I can just, I know that lady's story so well.

That's another similar topic on this theme.

Go to Exodus chapter 14, beginning of verse 10.

And when Pharaoh drew near, the children of Israel cried out to the Lord.

Then they said to Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, have you taken us away to die in the wilderness?

Why have you so dealt with us to bring us up out of Egypt?

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Keys to Unanswered Prayer

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