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ABC Prayer Crusade

Getting Through to God

Glenn Coon

01-Oh God, Do You Care?

02-I Have Trouble Everywhere

03-My Drowning Brother Saved

04-Sincere Sinners

05-Hallelujah 6000 Dollars

06-Then Everything Went Wrong

07-The Agony Was Great

08-Satisfying Fellowship

09-Legalism Be Gone

10-Answers Delayed, Why?

11-Jesus Disobeyed Me

12-Converted Against Her Will

13-Stake Your Claim

14-Eternal Life Now?

When I was a little boy and through many, many years, all I knew was problem-centered praying.

I didn't stop to realize that the Lord has actually commanded us to think positively, to speak positively, and to pray positively.

Philippians chapter 4 verses 7 and 8 says, whatsoever things are lovely Think on these things Whatever things are truthful think on these things Whatever things are of good report think on these things This is what God commands But friends, you know, I didn't know anything about that.

It never made an impact on my thinking whatsoever.

Now when we obey the Lord's command and we think positively and we talk positively and we pray concerning solutions instead of problems except to identify the problem, notice what happens.

In Proverbs the 23rd chapter in the seventh verse it says, as a man thinketh in his heart so is he.

So if we think solution-centered thoughts we become solution-centered.

If we think problem-centered thoughts, we're problem-centered.

And in 2nd Corinthians, the third chapter in the 18th verse, it says, by beholding we're changed in the same image so if we become solution centered we our whole lives become positive and beautiful.

If we are problem-centered in our thinking and in our speech and in our prayer, our whole lives become problems.

When I was a little boy in school, there was another boy that stammered.

And of course, you know, there's always 1 bright boy in school, and This bright boy was able to mimic this stammerer.

And of course, we boys, we just laughed to see how beautifully he had mimicked the stammerer.

Let me interrupt myself to say this, friends.

Fathers and mothers, instruct your boys and girls never, never, never to be a party to making fun of some other person who may not be just like us.

And so this boy that mimicked the stammerer, I met him a few years later.

By beholding, by talking, by mulling over this thing, he became what he talked about.

I heard sometime ago of 5, I think it was 5 psychiatrists that did a deep research on suicide And you know the report came back that every 1 of them except 1 You've guessed it Committed suicide 2nd Corinthians 318 says We beholding are changed in the same image.

What we mull over, what we talk about, even in prayer, we become like, you see.

Also when I was a little boy in school, I wanted to learn to ride a bicycle.

How many people here at this hour have ever learned to ride a bicycle?

They had just installed a telephone at our home and there just beside the road was this telephone pole and as I got on this bicycle somehow I became frightened for fear I was going to ride into that telephone pole.

I said I'm afraid I'm going to ride in that telephone pole and I glued my eyes on the telephone pole and I became so frigid.

You've guessed it, I rode right into the telephone pole.

I said, I never want to do that again, so I looked in the opposite direction and on the other side of the road was a great big maple tree, many times as big as the telephone pole.

And I looked at that maple tree and I thought if I couldn't avoid the telephone pole how in this world can I ever in this world avoid the maple tree it's so big it's so huge I'm afraid I'm going to write into it and I glued my eyes on it and I looked at it and I talked about it and I thought about it?

You've guessed it, right in the maple tree.

What we talk about, what we look at, what we meditate upon, what we pray about, we become.

Also back home, there was a wonderful, eloquent, most eloquent minister, I think, that my father and mother had ever heard.

He was as sincere as he was eloquent, beautifully sincere.

With him was a young man whom we would call nowadays an intern.

And this older minister was such a beautiful speaker.

His whole soul seemed to well up in love for the Christ of Calvary.

Oh my, the young minister just sat there and listened to his to his older minister preaching.

Oh he thought I wish I could be like him.

The older minister, however, had some injury to his hip, and he limped, limped all of his life.

The young minister was looking, watching, observing, listening to how the older minister put his words together and you know 6 months later that young minister was preaching almost like the older 1 but something almost humorous took place.

The younger minister was also limping, but there was nothing wrong with his hip.

By beholding, we're changing the same image.

You know why there are so many thousands of people praying and praying and praying and they never get through to God.

There are 15 individuals some time ago that engaged in a special program and experiment.

They believed that if they would pray every day for 1 or 2 hours a day without exception they could solve any problem.

There were others who felt that they needed to go to a psychiatrist twice a week or so.

There were others who felt there was no way they could solve problems so they went into a group therapy.

But these 15 people said we believe with all our hearts that prayer is the answer.

So they agreed to pray every day from 1 to 2 hours.

At the end of 9 months, the end of the experiment, what kind of progress do you suppose those people made?

When I was confronted with that question I said probably 90 percent, maybe 95 percent.

Because they prayed about their problems instead of praying about solutions that God has promised.

You see the Bible gives us 3, 573 promises or clusters of promises.

It can go into many more thousands and each of these promises when we claim that promise we have the right to focus our attention on the solution that's promised but they didn't do it.

1 of those men would be praying something like this, a man who got nowhere with his prayer, he said dear Lord I have a temper I have a terrible temper but Lord my dad had a temper too and My grandfather he was awful and even on my mother's side my my mother can cackle like a hen a setting hen But she got it.

She she got it from her mother and her grandmother But Lord, I wish I didn't have this temper Lord.

Oh please deliver me from this temper and you know what happens the next day?

The next day and in addition to having scolded his wife the first day, he kicks the cat the second day.

This temper is terrible Lord, it's getting me down.

I don't know how I'm ever going to be ready to meet the Lord.

And the next day he hits the dog and kicks the cat and scolds his wife.

By beholding, even in prayer, by discussing, by fixing our attention, by talking and talking and talking and mulling over problems, we become part of the problem.

I've wondered for many years why it is that so many people talk about the 7 last plagues.

It's all right to study it, but why should people keep talking and talking and talking about 7 last plagues until they become a plague?

They talk about pestilence till they become a church pest.

They talk about a time of trouble till they become troublemakers.

By beholding we're changed the same image.

The Bible presents solution-centered praying.

In the book of Genesis chapter 32, we have the story of Jacob and his night of wrestling.

And as Jacob was wrestling he claimed 2 specific promises of the Lord, solution-centered promises.

And not merely did he claim a solution, but when he was through praying he acted out the solution.

You'll find there in the 31st chapter how he actually believed that the Lord was hearing him to such an extent that all of his actions conformed to the solution-centered prayer.

In 2nd Chronicles the 20th chapter, King Jehoshaphat, the king of Judah, was confronted by many nations.

He knelt down in sackcloth and ashes and he claimed a promise that God had made a solution centered promise.

Series

Getting Through to God

02-I Have Trouble Everywhere

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Robert Rice Weekend

Word Warfare

58m

Getting Through to God

14-Eternal Life Now?

27m

A Life Changing Question

42m

ABC's of Prayer (with Video)

2 - He is Eager to Answer

48m

Amazing New Kind of Prayer

2 - Our Eager, Delightful Lord

28m

I Met God

I Met God 3

41m

I Met God

I Met God 2

32m

You Can Love Again

6 - Let’s Communicate

55m

Thoughts on 2 Peter

Thoughts on 2 Peter 1:1-4

29m

Consider My Meditation

Consider My Meditation- Part 2

38m

You Can Love Again

2 - Martha Salvages Bill

57m

Plenary

Busyness, Spirituality, and Vision

55m

Sound Doctrine