RUN LIKE A CHAMPION

Making Disciples – 7
Sammy Tippit: We’ve been talking about taking the Word of God into your life. I want to talk about the relationship of prayer to taking the Word of God into your life. In 1 John 5:14-15, the Bible says, “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”
Corey, one of the great, powerful things that I’ve learned about prayer is that if you pray according to God’s will rather than your will, you’re much more likely to get an answer to your prayer. This goes back to where we started: humility. It’s not about my selfish ambitions but the bigger picture, what God is up to. How do we know what God’s will is? If we pray according to God’s will, we know he hears us, and we know we have the petition. What is God’s will? How do we know God’s will?
Corey Webb: Well, we get into his Word as we were just talking about. As we read the truth of God, we begin to see his plan. We know his will. We learn his will by conversation with him, and that’s really the definition of prayer. It’s conversation with God.
Sammy: Yeah. I appreciate your bringing up that definition, because we probably ought to go back. I know that when I was talking with Dave Butts, we talked about the definition of prayer, but you and I haven’t done that. I think it’s good to be reminded that prayer is not a one-way communication. It’s a two-way communication.
Corey: Right. Yes.
Sammy: It’s our speaking to God. That’s right. That’s a major part of it. But another major part is God’s speaking to us. Now some people have a problem with the saying, “God spoke to my heart.” But does God really speak to us? How does he speak to us?
Corey: I believe he does. I believe he speaks through his Holy Spirit. I believe that as we read the Word of God, his Holy Spirit is speaking to us. I believe he’ll speak to us through life situations and life circumstances. I believe he’ll speak to us through other people. Of course, when he speaks, it never goes against the truth of his Word. That’s how we know it’s from him.
Sammy: Right. I’ve heard people say, “God told me to do this,” and it be totally contrary to the Scripture. I heard a man say, “God told me to leave my wife.” Well, I don’t believe that.
Corey: That’s right.
Sammy: Because that’s not what God’s Word teaches. The Word of God becomes kind of the standard for our knowing when he’s speaking, but it also becomes that light for us. We talked earlier about how it’s a light unto our path. It’s a lamp for us. When we pray, God speaks to us. But now let’s talk about kind of the flipside of that.
The Bible speaks to us, but when we pray as we’re reading the Bible… What are we praying for when we read the Bible? In other words, we talked about reading through John. We say, “Well, pray as you read through that.” What are we asking God for when we do that?
Corey: Well, we are listening for direction, and then we are talking with God. We are asking for direction. We’re asking for clarity, and then we’re listening. I believe that a lot of times, Sammy, prayer is simply being still and being quiet.
Sammy: Yeah. You know, I was in South Africa, and it was the first time I had ever gone to Africa. I was in Cape Town, and the place where I was staying was near the ocean. At night after I would speak, I would go out to the ocean, and there were these rocks. I’d go out there just for an hour or two and not say a word but just be still.
When we talked about memorizing the Scripture… Scripture would just come to me. I would just meditate on the Word of God and let God… Boy, just allowing God to speak to my heart was one of the richest experiences of my life.
Corey: Right. Jesus modeled that for us. That’s where we see it. He often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
Sammy: Yeah. I’ve mentioned my cancer several times. When I had cancer, people brought me DVDs and all kinds of books and things to read because I was going to have a lot of recovery time. I said, “No. I know what this is about. I know this is about God speaking to me. He wants to say something to me, so I want to get into a position to listen.”
What I did was decide two things. First of all, I needed to lie in bed and rest, but when I was lying in bed and resting, I would read the Scripture. I’d just read the Scripture. Then the doctors told me to walk, so I would put on my worship music, and I would walk and worship Jesus Christ. Then I would just listen as I would walk.
I would say, “God, speak to me from your Word, from worship. Just speak to my heart.” You know what? That was eight years ago. I was 60 years old at the time. The Lord spoke to my heart and said, “Your best years are ahead of you.” I believe what we’re doing right now is a part of what happened during those days of God speaking to my heart.
So when we read the Word, he’ll speak to us. Has there ever been a promise when you were reading the Scripture that just kind of leapt off of the pages and into your heart? I don’t know about you, but during that time of cancer, Psalm 42:1 just leapt off of those pages as I was reading. Psalm 42:1 says, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God.” I said, “Oh, God, I long for you. I long for you.” I want to tell you God met with me.
Those moments when God met with me turned into hours and days. Actually, for three months, I encountered Christ in a way I had never encountered him before. I ended up growing from that.
So prayer and the Word together… Can you give me kind of a definition or some kind of explanation of why that happens or why it’s important for prayer and the Word to be together?
Corey: Well, I look at the season I’ve just come through in my life and have learned so much from. Of course, I know there’s still so much more for me to learn, but I look in this other passage in Psalms where we hear, “Be still, and know that I am God…” When I studied that passage of Scripture in the Hebrew language, I saw that be still is translated as let go. It was, “Let go, and know that I am God.”
What I realized in my journey was that through the reading of God’s Word, through prayer, through communion with him, he was speaking to me about things I needed to let go of. He was speaking to me about things I tried to do instead of letting go. I needed to let go. I needed to be still, and then my awareness of his presence in my life and my knowing he was God and he was there to get me through this crazy season was just… It just overwhelmed me with his love.
Sammy: You know, that is such a good point you’re making about letting go. What keeps us from the Word? What keeps us from prayer? Busyness. Sometimes, like you… I know the full story. You were a pastor of a growing, great church, and you were so busy in the ministry… I’ll never forget the time you told me what was happening.
You called me, we sat down and talked, and you told me the Lord had just told you to let go. Like you said earlier, everybody (not everybody, but some people) thought you were crazy. But I knew in my heart… I mean, it resonated with me. I knew. I said, “Corey, this is good. God is going to do something with you. I don’t know how long this is going to take.” It took longer than you anticipated.
Corey: A little over a year.
Sammy: But you let go of some things, and now you’re back in full stride. I know you learned a great deal through that.
Corey: Yes, sir.
Sammy: Just share one thing with me. Just share really quickly with us about waiting on God, just waiting and not being so rushed to go through things.
Corey: Well, in my life, I’ve never done slow very well. I like to continue to run to the next thing, but God was teaching me how to go slowly. He was teaching me how to wait. I believe, as you shared… You could see this picture of why you had cancer and what God taught you through that, and sometimes I think, “Well, I like to run. I love to run marathons.” But I was a very slow learner, okay? I had to be actually taken down physically with this running injury to learn how to wait. I had to be made to sit still in order to learn how to do it.
Sammy: So I think we can close by simply saying, “Be still, and know that he is God.”