A Prayer God Always Honors #12

Hosts Dan, Terry, and Brian discuss How you can live a blessed life... just like Jabez!

They will help you live your life with purpose, change someone’s life for the better and leave a lasting impact on those around you. Everyone starts the race... but only the Fearless Finish Strong!
 
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Terry Steen: 0:03

We found out later that she was one of the prostitutes in that community. You talk about a divine appointment of having a flat tire, which normally would make you so upset. It made us late. We missed most of the service. But we were there for that lady. And she was open at that moment. We spoke the words, and God used it. And that always comes back to me when I think about divine appointments.

John Matarazzo: 0:36

Live your life with purpose, change someone's life for the better, and leave a lasting impact on those around you. Welcome to finish strong, the podcast designed to help you discover your unique purpose and develop a plan to leave a powerful legacy. In this episode, Dan, Bryan and Terry discuss how to live a blessed life God's way. Now here's Dan, to start us off.

Dan Wheeler: 0:59

Do you think you're not special? Do you think you're just ordinary? Well, I've got news for you. Ordinary Christians can decide to live extraordinary lives. And that's what today's episode of finished strong is all about. Maybe you think I'm not eloquent? I don't have all these gifts. I didn't graduate with high honors. I'm just me. Well, guess what? God created you to be special. And there was a guy in the Old Testament. He wasn't a Moses or David. But God did something amazing in his life because he asked God to do it. I'm Dan Wheeler, and I'm joined by Brian Rowland and Terry Steen and Terry, there's a guy that's kind of hidden in the Old Testament. But he prayed an extraordinary prayer.

Terry Steen: 1:45

Oh, my goodness. And he's also very hard to find probably one of the least read parts of the Bible. It's in first Chronicles. How many times have we read Chronicles, and in the first nine chapters, it's all genealogies. It covers 1000s of years and over 500 names. But as you start reading through it, when you get to the 44th name, it's kind of like, everything stops. And there's a little story that's built into the middle of those and it's the story of Jabez, Jabez was he had a lot of brothers and his mom bore him and had a lot of pain in the delivery. So she named him Jay Bez, can you imagine because Jabez means pain, or trouble or a problem. How would you like to have Oh, here comes Jabez, here comes that pain. Here comes trouble. Man, here comes that problem. And then the historian just kept on going, rattling off more of the genealogies. So it was very interesting. Brian, do you have that right there? Why don't you just read that?

Brian Roland: 3:02

I have it right here first Chronicles for nine through 10. And it's amazing because what you said it came out of Jabez, his name and what it meant, but he actually trusted God. And he says in the first now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. And his mother, who called his name Jabez saying, because I bought him in pain. And Jay Bez called them the God of Israel saying, oh, that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me. And that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain. So God granted him what he requested.

Dan Wheeler: 3:37

Yeah, that's founded first Chronicles for nine and 10. You'll be amazed how the story just pops up out of nowhere. I think the reason we don't read a lot of Chronicles, Terry is because of all the begets all the genealogies. But the point, what Brian just read is Jay Bez did not let his name stop him or define him. But it said he was more honorable than his brothers. To be more honorable means that you're honest, you're fair, you're worthy of respect, you do the right thing. You keep your word. And that's what Jabez did. And he didn't let external things define him. And we

shouldn't either. Proverbs 10: 4:18

22 says, The blessing of the Lord brings wealth and he adds no trouble to it. God's ready to bless us. And we're going to look at that, and Brian's going to talk about that a little bit later. But, you know, God really wants to bless us. But let's look at that prayer in more detail.

Brian Roland: 4:39

When Jabez is praying, oh, that you would bless me indeed. I mean, it's a blessing means to impart supernatural favor, and that's what he's asking God for. And God wants to do that for us. You know, when we're when he's praying that two is actually asking God to put his hand on him. And his hand speaks of power, and it's Touch of greatness and, and you do not become great. But God becomes great through you when you when you're praying like this, so why not ask? It's in God's nature to bless us. So why not ask now? And if for his blessing to be upon you and expand your territory?

Terry Steen: 5:16

Yeah, did, Jabez left it entirely up to God though that was the interesting thing. Because so many times when we ask God to bless us, we have a pre determined idea as to what we want to be blessed with. And sometimes it's really not in God's will, how we're praying or what we're asking for. But I think the key to this when when Jay Bez asked for the blessing was he left it entirely up to God to decide what it would be, because he only wanted what God wanted for him. And if we could just get that into our heads, that that would be our prayer. We only want what God wants for us. And that we would pray exactly what God desires. You know, there's a couple of great promises of Scripture and sometimes we don't think it works. And we get confused like in Matthew seven, seven, you know, a probably it says, Ask and it will be given to you seek and you'll find knock in the door will be open for everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and him who knocks the doors open. So sometimes we take that scripture, and think whatever we ask for we get, but it has to be within his Well, it can't be just anything that we want. And then James for two is another great one. You don't have because you did not ask God when you ask you did not receive because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures, and that's the problem. If we're praying and asking with the wrong motives, we can't truly expect that blessing. But look at Jabez he prayed with the right motives, asked for that blessing. And we'll see what God does.

Dan Wheeler: 7:13

And he knew where his blessing was going to come from. That's the important thing. You know, I've often heard that the power of our prayer lies not in the person praying. But in the person we're praying to the God of the universe, and Jabez believed that God could bless them that he could enlarge his territory. As you see, God's blessings are limited only by us. We put the human ceiling on his blessings. And we think we can only accomplish so much it can only go so far. But God has resources beyond our wildest imagination, and he's willing to give them so as we said, you know, Jay Bez left it up to God, what the blessing would be. And Bruce Wilkinson in his book called The prayer of Jabez, I suggest you pick it up. He said, he talks about the touch of greatness, and we're going to get into that later. But that comes from God. And this story, the story of Jabez is proof that it's not who you are, or who you think you are, or what your parents decided you were going to be. God is looking for people who want to do more for his kingdom. It's not what you were fated to be. No, God wants the very best from you what what counts is knowing who you want to be, and asking for it. And I think that's something we all have to ask ourselves. Who do I want to be? I know, I've the last few years, I've just said, I want to be a man of God. I want to be a servant. I want to be faithful and true a vessel that God can use. I don't, I don't want to miss those opportunities that appear every day that he brings my way. And we all have to look at Terry, who do you want to be?

Terry Steen: 9:06

Well, I think that's the key is it's so if we say we want to be who God wants us to be. That's really the bottom line. And once we figure it out, once we can release our own desires, and release our own selfishness and release our nature, that's when God can come in. And so when Jabez asked to be blessed, he extended it further. And he said, and I want you to enlarge my territory. Now, the first glance at that would there again, be give me more land, give me more possessions make me great. That wasn't worth I

Dan Wheeler: 9:47

think, I think of a salesman who wants a big territory, you know, a lot of

Terry Steen: 9:50

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. When you're talking about the territory Exactly. And he wasn't looking at it that way. What he wanted was to end His life to have a greater impact for God? And if the motives, right, if it's to enhance the kingdom, if it's to further the name of Christ, then you can't go too wrong. So he wasn't talking about possessions. He was wanting more influence, wouldn't it be incredible if we could have more influence on everyone we come in contact with, he wanted more responsibility. He wanted God to give him more things that he could do for the kingdom that what he was doing. He just wanted more opportunities. And then he wanted to use that area that he was given his skill set, you know, we, we guys have talked about it many a time. You know, we're all skilled in different areas, and we all have our expertises. And he just wanted God to take his expertise, and use it to further God's kingdom. So and and once that happens, you know, sometimes that's almost a scary thing to pray for, because we feel like our lives are so full already. How could I possibly have God, give me more to do give me more influence more responsibility. But as the opportunities expand, I believe that he's supernaturally going to increase our ability, increase our resources in our talent, he never gives us more than we're capable of. And he doesn't give us any responsibilities that he will give us the ability to do. And so I see that being a real key to Jay Bez his life, as we look at that he's asking for opportunities and the responsibility and then is trusting God to take care of it.

Dan Wheeler: 11:51

Boy I can relate to that, you know, I remember when I was in Chicago in the early days, and my buddy, Joel krugel, moved to the area, and he started a church. And he asked me to lead the singing, and I thought, Oh, man, I've never done that before. And all like, all I can do is play guitar. And I was used to having church with worship with a lot of instruments and everything. And then he asked me to teach the adult Sunday school class. And then he asked me to teach a class on cults, religious cults, and I just thought, Oh, man, Lord, I don't know. But I think you know, Brian, you can probably relate this to this to we're all kind of afraid that if God really does give us those opportunities, we're not going to have time to do what we want to do. Right?

Brian Roland: 12:32

Absolutely. I agree with that, because, and I look at the prayer to I see that the what the purpose of his prayer, I really believe was that he wanted to become what God wanted him to be in more and not just asking for things, he wanted to become more. And that's what happens in our life to where people, God puts them in places the process to push us to get us to that next level, because we're not going to take it of ourselves, a lot of us because of fear. But we're not going to take that ourselves. So I agree with it. And I think Joel was put in that place in that time to move you along and just get you further into where you're at today.

Dan Wheeler: 13:06

Right? Yeah. Well, Terry, you know, you talk about divine appointments, God gives us those opportunities, we got to be ready for them.

Terry Steen: 13:15

Yeah, that's part of the whole expansion of our influence. You know, if we're going to open ourselves up to be out there, we better be ready. We better be looking for him. I remember I was on a missions trip a number of years ago is quite a while ago, and we bought these Renner wrecked cars, because we were trying to save as much money as we could. And they were they look terrible, but they did run. So we had two or three vehicles that were going to this church, we were going to do an evening service for the church. And the car I was in, broke down had a flat tire. And it was right in front of a convenience store. And there was a front porch there. And there was a lady sitting on a chair there on the front porch. And we realized we had to change this tire and we had to see if we had a spare. And this this lady came walking down to us and was asking what was wrong. And we began to interact and have conversation with her. And we told her what we were doing where we were going. And we began to witness to her. And it was so neat and interesting that over the course of those few minutes. I don't know how long it took us. We were able to lead that lady to the Lord. We found out later that she was one of the prostitutes in that community. You talk about a divine appointment of having a flat tire which normally would make you so upset. It made us late. We missed most of the service. But we were there for that lady, and she was open at that moment. We spoke the words in God used it and that always comes back to me when I think about divine appointments.

Dan Wheeler: 15:05

I definitely had one in the hospital I was leaving, my kids said, Dad, you need to get out here when Beth was getting bad and it looked like things were starting to get near the end, I was under so much stress. And Kirsten said, Dad, I'm here, Kelsey is here. Sherry, one of Beth's friends is here. You need to take a break, just go to the health club, sit in Asana just get out of here for a bit. So I did and I walked in, I saw the elevator was open. I got in the elevator. And when the doors closed, nobody else was on the elevator. I just let my emotions go. I lost it. I was just weeping. I got off the elevator on the first floor. And I hear someone say, Mr. Wheeler, Mr. Wheeler, what's wrong? And I look up and here comes this guy in my book hurricane of love. I refer to him as Doctor kind. His name was Dr. O something. It was a real long name. But he was a Christian. I knew it the day I met him. And I said, Doctor, oh, I just I'm just wondering if God's hearing my prayers. That lady is everything to me up there. And he said, Oh, you're wondering Hi. He said, Well, let me tell you some of the two minutes ago, I was right here ready to get on the elevator. Something told me to go back to the cafeteria. He said, I walked back to the cafeteria. And I thought, What am I doing here, I've got 22 patients, I'm never late, I kind of get gone. Because I walked back and I saw you and I knew why I was delayed. God intersected my schedule. So I'd be here to meet you and tell you, God hears your prayers. He's going to heal your wife, either here on Earth, or ultimately, she'll be held in heaven. He loves you very much. Now I have to go and he got on the elevator. I walked out, I was blown away. I said that is a divine appointment. And I'm sure he was blessed being able to be there to bless me by that. How about you, Brian?

Brian Roland: 16:44

Yeah, you know, I'm just gonna go on the other side of this or that, where I saw God put people in places. And one was my mom, which we've talked about before, every time she'd have to go into the hospital, I'd say What's up, mom, she's going, God wants me to speak to somebody. And she'd always be there going room to room and praying with people. And just recently, real recent, my mother in law had a stroke, went into the hospital, paralyzed on her left side, she couldn't speak. She had a she had a blood clot in her brain. And they were able to get in there and dissolve it. The next day the paralysis was gone, she was speaking fine, completely healed. Before she left the hospital just in two days. She told me last night as I was talking to her, I let someone that alert hospital that she was put there for that. And her nurse, the male nurse was a Christian got on the phone with my wife and I and prayed with us, has just calmed us down and let us know everything that was going on. He was there for a reason, too. And we really believe that that was a divine appointment of the nurse being there as well. And the thing is, to get into these two situations and to be used of God This way, we have to fight through the fear of what may come if we let ourselves out like that if we're going to tell people about the Lord and about his saving grace. And that's what happens. Once we we don't do that, we start getting the fear buildup in us. And once we do that more and more than that our own nature starts talking about failure. And that's what God says, No, I'm with you. I'm gonna bless you. You got to fight through that fear to do the right things. See, God specializes in working through normal people like you and me, who believe in a supernatural God. And I think Terry said it once before and it's the perfect formula. If you take my willingness and weakness, plus God's will and supernatural power, it'll equal expanding your territory. And I think that is the formula to live by.

Dan Wheeler: 18:31

Oh, that's your hand would be with me. You're right. We need to depend on God dependence on God makes heroes of ordinary people. I can't. But God can do all things when we release God's power to accomplish His will. And we bring him glory when we do that. Second Corinthians 12, nine and 10 says My grace is sufficient for you. For my strength is made perfect in weakness. So God can give us that touch of greatness. We don't become great, he becomes great through us. Zechariah four six says not by might not by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord Almighty. And next one eight says, But ye shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And then we can be witnesses Tim and for him in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. The Bruce Wilkinson gives an example in his book of his son, when he was preschool age, they were at this big park and he and his wife were sitting on a bench watching a little boy and he got up on a small slide. There was a small a medium and a large slide. He got up, went down the small slide was having a blast. And then he started looking over at the medium slide, decided to go try that and he was a little bit fearful. And he looked over to his dad, but his dad just looked away because he wanted to see what he would do. And eventually he got up and went down. I got to the big slide and he got about a third of the way up and he just got paralyzed. He was frozen. And he all over said dead dead. And his dad said what he said will you come with me down the slide and his dad said why and he said Because it's too big for me, and his dad went over, picked him up, they marched the top, he put them between his legs, they slid down, we need to be like that with our Heavenly Father. dependence in the Christian life is just another word for power.

Terry Steen: 20:15

And I'm even reminded of a couple other verses along that line there, Dan, in first, or second Corinthians three, five and six. It says not that we're competent to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He's made us competent as ministers of the New Covenant. If we think we can do anything in ourselves, we're just kidding ourselves. Then Second Chronicles says, For the eyes of the Lord reigns throughout the earth to strengthen those who hearts are fully committed to him, he will strengthen us and how where does this strength come from? The power of the Holy Spirit. So I heard this saying it might have been Bruce saying it in his book, but it was for the Christian. He says dependence is another word for power. Once we become dependent on God, and don't think we can do it ourselves. That's when the power takes over. That's when the Holy Spirit can work through us.

Dan Wheeler: 21:17

Yeah,

Terry Steen: 21:18

to accomplish what needs to be done.

Dan Wheeler: 21:20

Well, we've only got a few minutes, guys. So just a warning. Let's we got to pick it up a little bit, but still want to talk about Brian?

Brian Roland: 21:28

Yep. Oh, that you would keep me from evil is what he prayed. And that's really success brings with it greater opportunities for failure. And he's to ask him God to put his protection around him to keep him from evil. So he doesn't fail, reminds me of the slide you just talked about. And he's asking God to help him when it came to the big problems there. And we can experience more texts through distractions, opposition, oppression, anything like that can come at us like flying arrows. That's why we have to pray that God would keep us from evil. Because if we're not tempted, the devil is not worried about us.

Terry Steen: 22:00

That is so true. And you know, most Christians, they typically pray for strength to endure temptation. But the reality is, God tells us to pray to keep us away from temptation. And so Jabez had the formula. You know, the Lord's Prayer,

Matthew 6: 22:17

13, lead us not into temptation. So if we could just get it right, because it's only sin sins, the only thing that can keep us from accomplishing what God wants us to,

Dan Wheeler: 22:30

Yeah, there's a lot we can learn from Jabez about living a blessed life. Think about this, how would your day unfold? If you believe that God wants your influence to grow at all times? With every person you meet? You know, we need to be thinking about that. Are we looking for those opportunities to influence someone for the Lord? Because when I have stepped out and acted at those times, God has blessed me abundantly?

Terry Steen: 22:57

And what if we had the confidence that the Holy Spirit, or as Jabez said that your hand would be with me if the Holy Spirit was constantly directing us? How much more power and strength would that give us in our daily walk?

Brian Roland: 23:11

Mm hmm. And the purpose of his prayer again, it isn't really to get what we want, but to become what God wants?

Dan Wheeler: 23:18

Yeah. Would you look at your day differently, ask God for the gods sighs the best he has for you and ask with all of your heart. While we're near the end, guys. So let's talk about our final takeaways. Terry, I'll start with you.

Terry Steen: 23:34

Well, you know, sometimes we settle in and get in a comfort zone, and don't allow God to use us the way he wants. And so when I read this story, and when I read this prayer, it just kind of rejuvenates my thinking that it is time to trust God, to expand my opportunities and to expand what he can do with me and through me. So it's it's a challenge. It's a personal challenge for me.

Brian Roland: 24:03

And I look at the prayer to is a prayer of freedom. It's like God given me the freedom to open myself up so that I can reach other people and talk to other people without having any other fear that would come upon, you know, there's sometimes they'll talk to someone and they're, they're bringing up a question or you're going to talk to them about the Lord. But they're leading you that way. You're not realizing you got to look for that opportunity, because it's there at that time. And so when when this prayer to me is that God has given him more opportunities and what give me more opportunities to expand our territory and to expand what I can do for the Lord.

Dan Wheeler: 24:35

Yeah, so remember when Jay Bez said, Oh, bless me and deed, he was asking for God to impart supernatural favor. So we need to ask God to do something that only he can do that without him. We would fail. John Matarazzo is our producer john, how can people rate our podcast today?

John Matarazzo: 24:59

Yeah. If you go to To finish strong on Apple podcast or wherever you're listening, make sure you rate it and give it five stars. And as you rate it and you write a little description that actually helps more people discover finished strong so that they can enjoy this episode as well, just like you have, make sure that you share it with a friend as well.

Dan Wheeler: 25:17

Thank you, john well, for, Terry, and Brian, I'm Dan Wheeler and I want to say don't be afraid of the biggest slide in the park. Remember, dependence on God makes heroes of ordinary people like you and me and Jay Bez God is looking for people who want to do more for his kingdom. Thanks for listening. We'll see you next time on finish strong.

John Matarazzo: 25:44

Thank you for listening to finish strong for more information about finish strong and fearless faith. Check out their website ef faith.org. Make sure that you rate and review this podcast to help more people accomplish their God given purpose so that together we can finish strong