Real Christianity #104： Does Prayer Change God's Mind？
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Summary
When we pray, do our prayers change God's will? What does the Bible teach about prayer? And how does our prayers affect God's response to our prayers? In this episode of Real Christianity, Dale Partridge answers these questions and more.
Transcript
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Welcome to this episode of Real Christianity. My name is Dale Partridge, where each week
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I offer 15-20 minute answers to tough theological and pastoral questions. This is a 100% listener
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supported audio ministry of relearn.org. And for those who don't know, our mission
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at relearn.org is to educate and equip ordinary Christians to plant biblical, confessional,
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and missional house churches. For more information, just visit relearn.org forward slash house.
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All right, so got an important question for you guys today. When we pray, are we persuading God?
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Like, do our prayers change God's will? And what does the Bible teach about prayer? And how do our
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prayers affect God's response? Guys, these are important questions. We're going to unpack these
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in just a moment, but before we begin, I want to make just two short announcements. Number one is
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if you are interested in planting a biblical house church, let's just say that you're somebody that
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has some basic ministry experience. You know the Word of God. Maybe you are a pastor or
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have thought about being a pastor, or maybe you feel a calling of being a pastor, you've
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led some Bible studies in the past, but you feel like the Lord might be leading you to
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plant and establish a house church in your home with five to seven families that are
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gathering weekly on Sunday to worship the Lord in order, in alignment with historical
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If you want to learn more about how to do that, you just feel unequipped or not prepared
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or insecure about what it takes to actually pastor and understand the ecclesiological structure of
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a church, consider checking out stjustins.org. And this is our companion ministry for relearn.org.
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It is a one-year training program on the basics of understanding biblical house church. We go
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through ecclesiology, we go through hermeneutics and biblical theology and preaching and the
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qualifications of elders and church government and biblical counseling and discipleship and worship.
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And we talk about these things. And I would say it's a pretty rigorous program. We have a handful
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of other PhD faculty that are going to be teaching alongside me. And it's just a great program.
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And we have limited space, but if you're interested in checking it out or learning more or
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registering for a program maybe later, just again, check it out, stjustins.org to learn more about
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that. Next thing I wanted to mention real quick is if you maybe aren't that far in the journey,
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but you are interested in exploring more about House Church and what that looks like,
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we have lots of resources at relearn.org. You can read all the different articles that we have,
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and we have people that are writing and offering great content for you there. We also have great
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PDFs that you can download, the Basics of Biblical House Church. We offer a book called
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House Church that talks about the doctrines, convictions, and liturgy of a biblical house
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church. Lots of resources for you to start the discussion in your home with a few families
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about what it takes to gather biblically, but also intimately inside of a house.
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Hopefully that's helpful. Let's go to this episode's question. It comes from Alistair
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in Oxford, England. That is a very English name. I like it. He says,
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I have recently come to understand a more biblical view of the sovereignty of God.
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I also know that man cannot change or influence God's will. Isaiah 14, 27 says,
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For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who will annul it? His hand has stretched out,
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and who will turn it back? Proverbs 19.21 says, Many are the plans in the mind of a man,
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but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand. He says, If we cannot change God's mind
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or will, then what's the purpose of prayer? Okay, this is a great question, Alistair,
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and a lot of people don't get this far in their theological thinking. But we know that Jesus says
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that the first and greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart,
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with all your soul, and with all your mind. And so we're going to dive into some mental
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understanding of prayer. And so this is actually a common question for those who are new to the
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biblical doctrine of God's sovereignty. Basically, and if I'm hearing you correctly, Alistair,
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you're asking if God is sovereign and works all things according to his will, Ephesians 1.11,
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you can check that out, and is truly omniscient, meaning that he knows all things, 1 John 3.20.
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And if Matthew 6.8 is true, which reads, for your father knows what you need before you even ask him.
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If all these things are true, why should we pray?
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And if we choose to pray, how could our prayers have any influence in God's sovereign plan in
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the world? So this is really important stuff here. So before I answer that, I think I just
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would be helpful to briefly define prayer. About a year ago, during one of my seminary classes,
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I had to read a fascinating book titled Calling on the Name of the Lord,
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A Biblical Theology of Prayer. It's by Gary Millar and D.A. Carson. For those who don't know,
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prayer, the act of prayer, was birthed early in the Bible. In Genesis 4, 25 and 26, we read a
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passage that says, And Adam knew his wife again, and she bore a son and called his name Seth.
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for she said, quote, God has appointed for me another offspring instead of Abel, for Cain
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killed him. Verse 26, to Seth also a son was born, and he called his name Enosh. At that time,
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people began to call upon the name of the Lord. Okay, so the question we need to ask is,
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why did people begin calling upon the name of the Lord? Well, in Genesis 3.15, just a chapter
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earlier, God told Eve that through her, she would bear a son who would overcome the effects of the
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serpent and restore them back to God. This promise is called the protovangelium. It's two Greek words
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meaning proto for first and evangelion for good news. So it's the first good news if you want to
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get into the theological vernacular there. Anyways, Eve's sons, Cain and Abel, were gone,
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right? Abel was killed by Cain and Cain was banished. So no son was there to fulfill that
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promise that God gave to Eve. So it's likely that Eve thought when she was pregnant with Seth
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that Seth would be the promised serpent crusher that God spoke of. But after it became evident
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that Seth was infected with sin, just like her and Adam were, they likely looked to Enosh, right?
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Seth's son. But again, he was a sinner just like them. And so what do they do? Well, that's where
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you get the verse that says, they began calling upon the name of the Lord. And this is important
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because here we get a biblical definition of prayer. Prayer is calling upon God to fulfill
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his promises or to fulfill what he said he would do. And this is actually the theme that's carried
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throughout the scriptures. It's only later in the Bible that God introduces and approves the prayer
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of petition and supplication. But even those types of prayers are still to occur in alignment
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and I would say in submission to God's will. And this is why we have verses like 1 John 5.14 that
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says, and this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according
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to his will, he hears us. Or James 4.2-3 says, you do not have because you do not ask. And you ask
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and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. And so there's a way
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to ask to be within God's will. Now, again, I don't want to rabbit trail here off of your
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question, Alistair. I want to get to the root of the question, but I do want you to all know
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that according to the Bible, prayer is calling upon God to do what his word promises he will do.
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Prayer, according to the Bible, is calling upon God to do what his word promises he will do.
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And this is why praying that God would approve your credit card application so that you can buy that new jet ski for the summer is an unbiblical prayer.
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God's word speaks against debt, and it never promises to provide material comfort to his children in that way.
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But when you pray for, say, courage in a time of persecution or that the Lord would make a way for you to feed your family, these are valid because the scriptures speak to both courage and to meeting the basic human needs of the saints.
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But, you know, prayer that's within God's will because, you know, it's revealed in God's word typically has to do with a request of timing.
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So it's not about what, it's really about when.
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You know, you might pray that God brings justice to the situation quickly, right?
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We know that vengeance is his, but we are basically petitioning that he brings it now,
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but at the same time submitted to the timing of his perfect will.
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But again, we could rabbit trail there pretty easily.
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So prayer is much like preaching and evangelizing.
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Uh, God saves people. Humans can preach all day, but only God can generate spiritual rebirth and
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give a person a new heart. We can't give people new hearts. Um, if we could, every parent on the
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planet would give their children saved hearts, but we can't, we can't do that. Um, God has to do
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that. And this is actually why Paul says in first Corinthians three, five through seven, uh, what
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then is Apollos? And what is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned
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to each. I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So neither him or neither he who
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plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the increase. Basically, preaching
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and evangelism are the means by which God uses to accomplish his ends, which is salvation.
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Okay, I want you to pay attention to this idea here for a second. Preaching and evangelism
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are the means by which God uses to accomplish his ends in salvation. So prayer falls into the same
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theological paradigm. And let me explain. If God willed my three-year-old son to stand on a five-foot
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tall box, he would also have to will that Veronica or myself would lift him up and place him on that
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box. Essentially, God doesn't just predestine or will the ends, but he also predestines and
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wills, the means. So we would have to be a part of that accomplishment. He would use us to pick
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our son up and put him on the box. That's kind of a weird explanation, but I'm hoping that's
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helpful for you guys. So God, in a beautiful way, has integrated our prayers into his providence.
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So for example, when you pray for a woman and her child to be safe on a certain night,
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And let's say God clearly answers that prayer. He not only willed that woman and child's safety,
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but also your prayer for that child's safety or that woman and that child's safety. Now you might
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be thinking, well, if God's will is going to pass regardless, then why should I pray? Well, there's
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three reasons that I'll give you. There's probably many more. But the first is basically
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what we just discussed. God, in his grace, has allowed us to participate in his providence
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through prayer. And that in itself is just a blessing. So we need to recognize that. Second
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is that God commands that we pray. And there's well over a hundred times in the scriptures
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and the New Testament alone that are talking about just the command to pray. You know,
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Philippians 4, 6, don't be anxious for anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication
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with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. 1 Thessalonians 5, 17, pray without
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seizing. James 5, 16, therefore confess your sins to one another and pray for one another that you
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may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. So yes, number
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Number one is that we get to participate in the providence of God by being the means to
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Third, prayer is the means by which God has made us, or I should say made for us to commune
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If the Lord is spiritual food, then prayer is the fork and knife by which we consume him, okay?
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That's a weird thing to say, too, but I thought it was good when I wrote it.
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And, you know, it's the means by which our relationship is nurtured, okay?
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Prayer is this spiritual discipline by which our relationship is nurtured.
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um the the you know um the wonder of early 20th century theologian jerry bridges he once said
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prayer is the most tangible expression of trust in god john bunyan said something great he said
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prayer opens the heart to god and it's the means by which the soul though empty is filled with god
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So prayer, basically, Alistair, is a multidimensional spiritual discipline.
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And at the core, it's calling upon God to fulfill what he promised to do through his word.
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And our prayers don't change God's mind, but they are the means by which God uses to fulfill his will in the world.
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Just like preaching is the means to bring about salvation.
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Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
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We need a preacher to hear it, but we are not the ones that do it.
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The same thing with prayer is that we're a part of this journey.
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God's integrated our prayers into his providence that we are a part of God's will.
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He didn't just will that the thing happened, that the prayer was answered, but he also
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And so there's a beautiful, massive, big God theology required to understand this.
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And so again, our prayers don't change God's mind, but they're the means by which God uses
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And lastly, prayer is a command and the vehicle by which we commune with God.
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It's an important aspect that we have to be in relationship with God.
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Now, I know this is a heavy, heavy question, so I want to give you guys a couple of resources
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that you can find on the post page for this episode. You can just go to relearn.org. This
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is episode 104 titled, Does Prayer Change God's Mind? And so a couple of things. One, you can get
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the book, Calling Upon the Name of the Lord by Gary Millar. Another great resource, another great
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book. It's probably one of the greatest books written on this topic. It's titled Evangelism
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and the Sovereignty of God by J.I. Packer. And I really recommend picking up a copy of that or
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listening to it via audio. It's a heady book, but it explains this concept of means and ends
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and how we are used in God's sovereignty as the means to accomplish the ends in evangelism,
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in preaching and in prayer. So that'll be a helpful tool for you. And again, those are
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available at relearn.org. Just search for episode 104 titled, Does God or Does Prayer Change God's
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Mind? Hopefully that was helpful for you, Alistair. Guys, if you're a regular listener to the show,
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thank you. And if you guys would be so kind to just grab your phone right now and just
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for us. Those ratings, they really do help the exposure of the show. Many people find
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You don't even need to write anything, but if you do write something, I will read it.
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So thank you guys for joining us today on this episode of Real Christianity. My name is
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Thank you for listening to this episode of Real Christianity. If you're a regular listener to
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