Impacting The Spiritual World

Currently we're in a message series called "Understanding the Spiritual World." The Bible says that the spiritual world is more important than the physical world, because the spiritual world is eternal, it's going to last forever. The physical world that we see around us will one day no longer exist. God tells us that He is going to create new heavens and a new earth. For most people, the physical world seems so much more real than the spiritual world, that most, if not all, of their time and effort is spent dealing with the physical world. The Bible teaches us that these two worlds, the physical world and spiritual world are not separate, but what happens in each world influences the other world. In other words, what you do spiritually in life will impact your physical well-being. Likewise, what you do with your physical life will impact your spiritual life.

Today, my message is entitled "Impacting the Spiritual World." I'm going to be talking about the most important thing that you can do with your life that will directly impact the spiritual world. And when you impact the spiritual world, you will impact the physical world and the lives of people in it. If you think that you're taking a beating in life, if you feel like your life is in a rut, that God must have more for you in life, than this message is for you. In the last two messages, I've talked about how you can see and hear God's plans for your life in the spiritual world. However, knowing God's plans for your life is not enough, you've got to cooperate with God in bringing them into reality in the physical world. Why is it that one person cannot even influence their own family towards God and another person can influence dozens or hundreds of people for God? Why is it that one person cannot seem to ever get their head above water financially to care for their family and another person has more than enough so that he can help others? The difference between success and failure in life is due to the power of prayer.

James 5:16b-17 (NIV) The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years.  First all, to be a success in life, you've got to be a righteous person. A righteous person is someone who is in right standing with God. Not only do they have a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, but they are living out the their commitment to Jesus as Lord of their life. If you've got blatant sin in your life, the Bible says that God won't listen to your prayers until you get rid of it. But when a righteous person prays, his prayer is powerful and effective. James gives an example of Elijah whose spiritual prayer reached heaven and the result was a dramatic impact on the physical world. For all those tempted to say that "Well, that was the prophet Elijah, and I know that I'm not a prophet" James says, Elijah was a man just like us, no different. What worked for him will work for you as well. So today, we're going to look at a story that Jesus told about prayer found in Luke 18.  

Message Audio

MP3 Download (Right-click and select Save Target As)

Message Notes Download