Episodes

Our joy and satisfaction come from talking about prayer. Today, we turn our hearts to focus on the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The context is again, "Success is never final; failure is never fatal, it is courage, born of faith that counts." ( a slight modification of the Churchill quote.) Our implied example, as we pray for revival in Puerto Rico, is the growth of the church. God's work is not done until every tribe and tongue knows the invitation of salvation. Our express example is ...

We are praying for revival to begin in Albania. In this example of Jesus' conversations and how we can apply them to prayer, we return to Jesus and Nicodemus. He comes in the night with a nagging question, that he doesn't even ask: How can I be right with God? We saw last time, Jesus knows truly what is on his heart, and blows His mind by saying: "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3 After adding an illustration of the wind, Nicode...

Welcome, Bulgaria, and wow! What a trout fishing sensation you are! Thank you for joining the Free Range Preacher on Prayer podcast. Today, we are back to our gratitude in God, as He has revealed Himself. Today, we look again at the traumatic holiness (otherness) of God. As we stand ten feet from the sun, we look through a prism that filters out all but the moral perfection of God. "In the year of King Uzziah's death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of Hi...

Welcome Iceland to the Free Range Preacher on Prayer podcast. We are glad to have you here, and I am blessed to say I have a dear friend who lived in your country for many memorable years of her life. Today, we are thankful for the Holiness of God. We liken Isaiah's experience in Isaiah 6, to standing 10 feet from the earth's sun and asking: "What do you believe you would notice first? Did you imagine the sun's immensity? Sheer size? How about the blinding light, the pull of gravity? What cou...

In examining the question, "What is Prayer?" We accidentally learn why we pray. Even though no Biblical person asks why we pray? Their lives reveal our anguished need for prayer. We are sinners. Until glory, we struggle with sin. Prayer is the act of faith that assures our soul. We are complex lonely beings, and prayer brings us into the arms of our heavenly Father, who knows us, holds us, and comforts us. Some of my favorite prayers: Hannah, 1 Samuel 1. Fathers calling out for their child...

Category - Devotional Humanity, one and all, are a bruised reed and smoking flax. It is not until the pain makes us desperate for mercy outside ourselves that we will call out to the only name given among men, by which we must be saved! So writes Richard Sibbes: "The bruised reed is a man that for the most part is in some misery, as those were that came to Christ for help, and by misery he is brought to see sin as the cause of it, for, whatever pretenses sin makes, they come to an end when we...

The words of Richard Baxter are earthy, moving, and convicting. He echoes the truth that we can begin to enjoy God's rest as we seek Him foremost. Baxter in "The Saints Everlasting Rest" brings us to tears, and He laments in the voice of God: "How must we offend our dear Lord when we give him cause to complain, as he did of our fellow idolaters: "My people have been lost sheep; they have forgotten their resting-place. My people can find rest in anything rather than in me. They can delight in o...

Greetings, Europe, and thank you for listening. It is a wonder at God's mercies, and my privilege, and joy that you are on board with the Free Range Preacher on Prayer, thank you: Albania, Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Monaco, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Ukraine, United Kingdom, including, Whales, Scotland, Northern Ireland. Nicodemus comes by night to Jesus in John 3 with a troubling question. But he ...

We conclude our Signature Episode in segments with the why of prayer and the difficulty of the truth, "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Our growth and consistent prayer move our prayers prayer from a task or discipline to the sweetest part of our day. The Apostle Paul will be our last example. With the insight of a life lived for the spread of the gospel, Paul describes earthly life in this way: Life is full of afflictions, crushed, perplexed, persecuted, struck down, and frustr...

We are wrapping up, or beginning to, our signature episode; in this installment, we start with David's description in Psalm 22 of the crucifixion of Jesus. Beginning with the most historic moment, both great joy for us and agony for our Savior, "My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken me?" Psalm 22:1a The spiritual separation of Jesus, his pain, and humiliation are also described in Psalm 22. What did Jesus do in anticipation of this excruciating pain? He sought the Father, gathered His frie...

Morocco has beautiful landscapes and movie sets from around the world. My favorite is Casablanca, which stars Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Bergman. Thank you, everyone in Morocco, for listening. Our impossible need: To understand prayer, we need to understand being humanity. We cry before we are able to talk, but the reasons we cry and talk are the same. We are sinners. The natural state of our sons is selfishness and self-centeredness. We are complicated and bigger on the inside. We are buil...

The Apostle Paul was distressed, buffeted by Satan. Evidently, Paul's practice of buffeting his body was insufficient to keep him humble. Paul prayed three times for relief from the thorn in his flesh, and when the answer came back, (no) My grace is sufficient for you, Paul's response was: "And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness." Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 The...

We have seen the futility of trying to manipulate God from His will through the error of Balaam. We have also seen the glory of God as He answers the particular prayer of Abraham's servant in an eerily precise way. Today, we will see God answer our prayers even as they may be vague, but He knows our hearts and grants even those imprecise prayers, even as He answers our specific prayers as He knows the deepest desires of our hearts. To His glory, He knows what we need, and although He answers d...

One correction - I mention Isaiah 66:2 in this episode. When I said it, I should have listened to myself. (Now I know what Cathy feels like.) The verse I had in mind was Isaiah 65:24 "It will also come to pass that I will answer before they call; while they are still speaking, I will hear. So think about that verse when you hear Isaiah 66:2 (which is a great verse, too.) We have also republished a companion Episode: "Personal/Powerful Prayer Lessons - God is the Same Yesterday, Today, and Fo...

Success is never final. Failure is never fatal. It is courage that counts. (We believe courage born of faith.) These words attributed to Winston Churchill are indeed Biblical and encouraging. The two Biblical principles expressed are: 1. We live until our ministry is done. 2. We are in a process of spiritual growth. These principles are illustrated through Moses, Deuteronomy chapter 34, Elijah 2 Kings 2, and Paul in 2 Timothy 4. Our So What? "Success is never final, failure is never fa...

My best days are many times sleepless nights. God has often made the most resounding impact on His hard-headed slave -me- through sleepless nights wrestling with Him. This delayed episode is just one occasion of God's work on a dull hearer. We will see how dangerous it is to believe we pray primarily to get what we want. We follow Balak and Balaam as they persist in prayer, which is clearly against God's will. Ploy 1: Everyone thinks it's a good idea. Ploy 2: Really distinguished men think...

This episode is a repeat of our episode on forgiveness. This episode was well received, and as you will hear, praying that 2023 will be a year of Jubilee and Forgiveness and revisiting just how serious God is about His children forgiving as we have been forgiven seems like a good idea. Thank You, Jesus! The host is weak, faltering, and wholly inadequate for the task, but the word of God is none of those. The call for the children of God to forgive is serious, and the Bible uses: Serious Comm...

Today, we highlight Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Glorious Lord in the Church around the world. Thank you all for listening. We are looking at the earthly conversations Jesus had, as recorded in the gospels, to see if we are able to glean anything useful for our prayer lives. Our latest segment comes from John chapter 2 and the wedding party at Cana. We find not only is He the God of t...

This episode is a repeat of our episode on forgiveness. This episode was well received, and as you will hear, praying that 2023 will be a year of Jubilee and Forgiveness and revisiting just how serious God is about His children forgiving as we have been forgiven seems like a good idea. Thank You, Jesus! The host is weak, faltering, and wholly inadequate for the task, but the word of God is none of those. The call for the children of God to forgive is serious, and the Bible uses: Serious Comm...

Our first devotional in season 7 begins with Faith. We are called to walk by Faith. In this command, I don't pretend to understand the mind of God fully. At this moment, I know that walking by Faith is essential to our Creator and Savior, and for me, that is enough to take His desire seriously. Our So What? Our communion with God on a regular basis, and as we are moved by the Holy Spirit to pray, is the ultimate act of Faith for the child of God. "Now faith is the assurance of things hoped f...

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort;" 2 Corinthians 1:3 This is a special passage for me because on a day early in my walk with the Lord, I needed comfort, and this verse was in my scheduled reading. Today's episode has taken a turn. As I prayed this morning, I prayed, "The LORD your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of ...

Finally, I get every country on a continent correctly, and the countries, Australia, that's it, that's the list! I am so pleased! (What I did get wrong is the Devotional's number!) Today, we begin a series of three devotionals, beginning with the God of all the earth, "For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth." Isaiah 54:5 We find: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the ear...

Finally, I get every country on a continent correctly, and the countries, Australia, that's it, that's the list! I am so pleased! (What I did get wrong is the Devotional's number!) Today, we begin a series of three devotionals, beginning with the God of all the earth, "For your husband is your Maker, Whose name is the LORD of hosts; And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel, Who is called the God of all the earth." Isaiah 54:5 We find: "In the beginning God created the heavens and the ear...

The episode ends at 16:50 Greetings from the paddock to the United States, Canada, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago, and Jamaica. Geography not being one of my strengths, I did not realize so many countries are considered in North America, but here they are; thank you all for listening to the podcast and sharing in the kingdom's concert of prayer. The wedding of Cana demonstrates the impossible God doing the impossible! At Mary's enigmatic request, Jesus asserts that His t...