Grapevine Ministries
Messages from the bible to uplift and encourage those that need a word from the Lord, to strengthen their faith. Ps Phillip Barker is an itinerant pastor in Perth, Western Australia.
Grapevine Ministries
From Weak Words To Bold, Answered Prayer
When prayer feels like words floating into the ceiling, it’s easy to assume God is distant. We take a different path. We slow down, turn off autopilot, and learn how to approach the Father through the Son by the Spirit with prayers that are focused, scripturally aligned, and full of expectation.
We start with a surprising claim: many of us aren’t actually praying to God; we’re performing for the room or lost in our own phrasing. Drawing on Acts 12, we show how the early church prayed earnestly and specifically for Peter and saw a jailbreak no one could engineer. We unpack what it means to pray “unto” God—before His face—with a conscious awareness of His presence. A family story brings it home: a sudden nudge to pray for protection for our son, a phone call minutes later about a car accident, and a shattered windscreen marked by two handprints. It’s a vivid reminder that prayer is partnership, not background noise.
From there, we lay out a simple, repeatable framework: pray to the Father through Jesus, rely on the Holy Spirit’s leading, align every request with Scripture, ask clearly, then thank Him in faith. We talk about why scale isn’t a problem for God—broken relationships, illness, or work disappointments are not heavy to the One who holds all things. Our confidence doesn’t rest on merit but on the finished work of Christ that gives us access to the throne of grace. When prayers feel weak and life feels heavier than your faith, James 5 points to community: invite elders and strong believers to intercede, confess, and be restored.
Elijah’s story anchors the call to pray with focus and courage. He was human like us, yet his earnest prayers stopped the rain and then opened the heavens. That’s not a formula; it’s an invitation. Next time you pray, picture the throne, name the need, believe God hears, and thank Him. If this speak to you, share it with someone who needs hope, subscribe for more faith-building talks, and leave a review to help others find the show. What breakthrough are you asking God for this week?
Good morning, good afternoon, wherever you are in the world - Welcome to Grapevine Ministries.
It has been said that most of us have much trouble praying when we are in little trouble, but little trouble praying when we are in much trouble. It sounds like perhaps it's time to change your circumstances. So today's message is about how to pray with power. Now I've dessages on praying, but I've never connected the two together. Prayer and power. And so I'm hoping that this will help you. Because so if you're someone or you know someone who is facing a tough situation in your life and you want to see God change it, then perhaps you need to listen to this podcast and even share it with someone you know that is also facing a tough, challenging situation. Now, I know I say that a lot, you need to listen to this podcast, but I mean, for some of you, um you've chosen to listen to me because you may know who I am or what I'm about, or you're looking for the answers to a situation or a problem that you have, and so therefore you're searching for answers. It's a bit like if we were talking about you know having Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. I remind people that we are made up of a spirit, soul, and a body. Now we know what the body is. The body is what we look like. Um and as we grow older it deteriorates and falls apart, and eventually it withers up and we die, right? That's that's the body. The soul is our logic reasoning, our thinking, the thing that makes us unique to everybody else, because God has given us free will so we can choose the path that we want to take. And so sometimes you find people that are overthinking things, or they just accept things for what they are too easily, as well. But more on that later. But the main thing is every single one of us living on the face of this earth, over eight billion people, we all have a spirit in our body, and that spirit is searching for its connection or its origin, and the origin is, of course, God, but we don't always find it, and we don't always look in the right place, but we are always searching. So when you become born again, your spirit connects to the spirit of God, and that changes so many things in your life. So if you're someone who's still searching and you're not really sure whether that connection is there, then maybe this may help you. Maybe you doubt that your situation can change. So perhaps you need to continue to listen to this, and maybe you say you've prayed a lot and nothing has happened. And it's true sometimes, God says no, or sometimes he says wait, but I personally believe God wants to say yes a lot more than any of us would ever dream of. Now the Bible's full of examples of this. Remember the story of the apostle Peter, he was in jail, and the night before Herod was probably going to execute him. In Acts 12, we read about how Peter was chained between two guards asleep, sentries were everywhere, and an angel appears, wakes Peter, releases the chains, and orders him to follow him into the city, and then the angel disappears. Now it's an it really is an amazing story. But here's the key. What had the church been doing while Peter was in jail? Now it says in Acts twelve, five, so Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him. See a group of believers saw an impossible situation, took prayer seriously, and gathered to pray earnestly, continuously, and specifically unto God. Okay, it may seem obvious that we need to pray unto God. Who else would we be praying to? And you might ask this, but I want to dwell on a moment on the preposition unto or to. Now I'm not the greatest at um English or the Greek and the Hebrew, but you know, I do do my research. In the original Greek, the term means before or before the face of God, it implies motioning towards having access to or nearing to something. With that in mind, I'm going to say something that may shock you. Most of the time, we don't really pray to God. Yeah, I'll say it again. Now, there'll be a lot of prayer warriors out there that disagree with this, but just be patient and persevere with me because sometimes I don't always put things in the right context sometimes. But you know, bear with me, okay? So the thing is, how can I possibly say that? After decades as a pastor and a Christian leader, it is my observation that in general, during a prayer service, in group prayer, or even privately, people focus more on their words that they're trying to say, or on other people in the room, or how they feel at the moment. One of the ones to whom they're praying, right? Now, I've seen this, and my wife talks about this a lot because you know, have you ever been in a um a prayer group or um a ministry prayer group uh when you've got a lot of um you know Christians around you, and then someone starts praying, and then it's almost like it's a competition who can throw in the most scriptures or the most amens, or they they actually get there and you know they're emphasizing to try and outdo the other person. You see, prayer on autopilot isn't really prayer, true prayer is approaching by the power of the Holy Spirit the throne of God and communicating with the creator of the universe, it's being conscious you're in the very presence of God, the focus is on the living word, not your words. Now, I've spoken about this many times on occasion, but I need to repeat it as often as the Lord prompts me to, and and that's the other thing that you've got to take into consideration. Are you being prompted by the Holy Spirit or are you being led by the Holy Spirit? You know, sometimes my wife gets there and you know, I remember this. I don't think I've told you this story before, but um one time uh my the kids were out with friends, and me and my wife we were going out on our own, which was uh this is when the teenage uh the kids were teenagers, right? Um, so we were starting to get a little bit of freedom, not having to have our children with us all the time, right? And we're driving down the road, and all of a sudden my wife puts her hand on my shoulder and she said, Um, I I feel that we have to pray for our son, James. And so I got there and I go, You you sure? Uh yeah, I just feel that you know we we need to put a hedge of protection around him. And I said, Okay, no worries. So I pulled over and uh we started praying. We prayed for James and his friend that who he was out with um and that everything would be alright, and we put a hedge of protection around him and all this. And so once we'd prayed, my wife felt better, and so off we went, right? I would say that now I'm being fairly conservative here. I'd probably say within 10 minutes of us praying, um, my phone rings. Now, I don't answer my phone when I'm driving, right? Uh, and then it's it's uh it's my son, right? And uh and I said, Oh, James is trying to ring. And um, so I can't remember whether my wife rang him or he gave up with me and rang her, right? And uh all of a sudden, she says, I need to speak to dad urgently, and so I just said, Well, urgently means right now. So I pulled over the car, we stopped, and I took the phone and I said, Okay, James, what's going on? Because he didn't want to tell his mother that he'd been involved in an accident uh in the car with uh his friend, and they were going somewhere, and I just checked everybody was okay, no worries, but they needed to be picked up and they're at a friend's place, and we went there to get there, right? And uh son said, Dad, it's the strangest thing. I mean, you know, this truck went past us, and the bonnet flew up, it couldn't have been locked down properly. And instead of you know, like smashing in the window and collapsing the roof, it sort of like hit it and glanced off, so the window shattered. Uh, and we're all okay, there's nothing wrong with us. We all were fine, and um, and so we went up there, and I still believe he's got this photo to the day. And I got there and I said, James, you're not gonna believe this. You go, what? I said, Have a look at the windscreen, right? And there was two perfect handprints around the shattered glass, one in front of where my son was sitting, and the other one um, you know, where his friend was sitting, you know, and I believe that when we prayed, it was so pivotable that an angel was manifested and propped the windscreen when that accident happened, so the whole thing didn't collapse in on them and cause a major accident and a fatality. I just thought I'd mention that because you've got to understand the importance of praise, worship, and prayer. Should I say this is the foundation for entering into the presence of God without a doubt? You know, I put it this way, and I've said this many many times. When we pray, this should be the foundation of a prayer. We pray to the Father through the Son and we make sure it lines up with Scripture. We ask for something and then we thank him. Now, if you've got uh if you have trouble praying or you don't know what to pray, sometimes people get there and say, I just pray in tongues if you don't know what to pray. And but they say the um righteous prayer avails much, prayer of a righteous man avails much, right? But I think that the the key to any prayer, and and I've heard people praying for like 30 minutes and they've been waffling on about all sorts of things, but they never actually physically ask God for something. But we always pray to the Father through the Son, because Jesus stands in the gap for us, because we know that God cannot look upon sin, and all of us have sin in our lives. So you pray to the Father through the Son, and it has to line up with Scripture. If it's not the word of God, then you're hedging your bets, right? And you have to thank him for it, okay. You believe that when you pray, you receive what you pray. If you have no belief in what you're praying, then you're defeated already. But the thing is, if you believe in the prayer that you're praying and it lines up with the word of God, then you're rightfully in that right position to thank him for what he has done. And in doing that, you actually have fulfilled the five basic principles. Let me put it this way thinking of being like bringing you're bringing a$20 phone bill that is an issue in your life, and you're bringing it to a a multi, multi multi multi-billionaire, and you're asking him for$20 so that you can pay your bill, right? So it's nothing to him, right? It is just a blink of an eye, he would never even notice it missing. I heard someone say this once about um Bill Gates. If Bill Gates was walking down the road and he dropped a thousand dollar bill, he might as well keep walking and focusing on what he's doing because by the time he stopped, turned around, and went back and picked up that money, he would have made five times that money. Right? That's just putting things into perspective, right? So let's look at God then. Can God fix your broken relationship? Just like that, he can. Can he heal your body? Just like that, he can in an instant. Can he turn around disappointment at work? It's a done deal. All these problems are the same to God. A little problem as far as God is concerned, or a large problem, they don't exist. God is concerned that they are all just a prayer from his son or his daughter that needs an answer. Now I know that sounds a little bit too simple, but you know, it's not like when you're a child and you go to ask dad for something, and he says, I'll go ask your mother. And then you go to your mother, and then and then your mother says, What did your father say? Right? Because they're in unison together. Maybe you think God works this way, but only for pastors and missionaries, or spiritual giants, or prayer warriors. Let me give you some assurance. Our communication with God has nothing to do with our merit or our level of righteousness. The basis of our assurance before God's throne is the work of Christ on the cross. He went to the cross for everybody, he stands in the gap for everybody. Now remember this, Hebrews 10 19 through to 22. It says this. Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the most holy place by the blood of Jesus, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with a full assurance that faith brings having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. You see, we have access to God the Father through the Holy Spirit. Now Ephesians two seventeen says this. But it goes on to say in eighteen, for through him we both have access to the Father by one spirit. This is because of the sacrifice of the Son, our Saviour Jesus Christ. If you put things into the right perspective, they allow you to look at things from a totally different way. In the 19th century, there was an evangelist uh by the name of uh Pastor Torrey, you know, R. A. Torrey. If you can write that down, you can look him up. He wrote this we should never utter one syllable of prayer, either in public or in private, until we are definitely conscious that we have come into the presence of God and we are really speaking to him. You know, sometimes I've been in prayer and people will be praying, and I'm sitting there silently, and excuse, you didn't notice the pause, but I just stopped that so I could get a drink. Okay, where was I? Oh, yeah. See, the prayer of faith, strong faith will restore the sick and the weak. See, in James 5 15, it says this, and the power offered in faith will make the sick person well, the Lord will raise them up if they have sinned, they will be forgiven. The Lord will raise them up, and the Lord will restore, heal, and awaken. That's a promise, and that is what a promise is. When you come to the point in your life where you're spiritually weak, physically sick, where you're exhausted all your resources and you feel like you've hit bottom, you've been through the suffering stage, and you've tried to pray, and now you're in that stage where you're just weak and your prayer seems to go nowhere, and you're losing the battle, and everything seems to be falling apart, and you can't get hold of it at all. Go to the spiritual strength, the elders and the leaders of your church, and let us come alongside of you and let the righteous life and the strong godly men and women intercede on your behalf, and as it were, oil you with comfort and strength and restore you. And the God Himself will answer to the prayer of faith on your behalf and will restore you, restore you and raise you up and lift up your spirits. Now I won't say that again, but that particular section there about this being a promise and needing to go to the elders of the church and have them pray for you. Christina, that is for you. I know you're going through a difficult and challenging time with loss in your life, but get like-minded Christians around you, like your sisters, your mum, okay, or the elders of the church, let them intercede on your behalf to strengthen you spiritually and emotionally. And if you notice in that last part of that verse 15, if he's committed sin, that means him or her, Bible always talks singularities, but it means both ways, they will be forgiven. If the sickness has come because of any sin, it will be forgiven. The sins that bound us, them, the sins that pull us down and cause us to be weakened. If that was the cause, then we're gone. But we know just take a look at James 5, 16. This is prayer and power, right? The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective. Listen, a righteous person praying for you has tremendous power. The energetic prayer of a man and a woman who is dealing with sin in their life and living righteously before God is very strong. Do not think that you don't fall into that category. But if you're struggling with your situation, call others around you that are strong in their faith. You know what that's telling me, don't you? There's such a thing as a weak prayer, and weak prayers come from weak people. That's why weak people have to go to strong people. Listen, brothers and sisters in Christ, I want you to remember this. We have a tremendous prayer ministry for each and every one of them. You can call on me to pray for you on your behalf, me and my family, even though we're not like in a church per se, we're itinerant, but we have a prayer meeting once a month where we gather others around from all different churches and we pray for people. And Christina, you're already on that list, but it doesn't stop you from getting others to help you as well. Okay, we have a responsibility, I believe, because as a shepherd, we're called to look after the flock. Everybody out there that is not in the five-fold as part of the flock, and pastors and leaders need prayer as well. We have a tremendous responsibility to come alongside you if you need it. To nail it down on this issue of power. You know, James gives us an illustration. This is about Elijah. This is James 5, 17 through to 18. In 17 it says this, Elijah was a human being, even as we are, he prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Now it goes on to say this in eighteen. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. Most of the Jews considered him the most adventurous Old Testament person, and everybody knew about him. Elijah was a man with a natural and a nature like us. Elijah was a man who was human, but he had a passion, and he suffered with that passion. In one king, uh I won't read these scriptures because of time, as per usual. I'm gonna run out of it. Yeah, in one kings 1711, this talks about when Elijah was hungry, right? In one Kings 193, it talks about Elijah when he was afraid, and in 1 Kings 19 3, also Elijah was tired from battle, and he was just a man, but he prayed earnestly. That means Elijah really prayed with gusto. Some people pray, but they don't really pray. They're just they talk to God as if it was a divine waiter and they were just giving him an order. Or if he was a divine secretary and they were just dictating something to him. But Elijah really prayed. You can read one. Kings 17, it's the story, but he really prayed. Now, I'm not saying that anybody's prayer is just that, but this is an illustration, and it's used to strengthen your spirit in God. James said that he prayed that it might not rain. And you know what? It didn't rain for three and a half years. He was a man like no other. He was a righteous man. He prayed and he was so fulfilled it didn't rain. He prayed again, and the skies poured rain on the earth. Next time you bow your head, turn off the autopilot and turn on your imagination. Spend time picturing the throne of heaven and the loving God to whom you're speaking about that tough challenge you need help with. He is listening. Trust me, that's all I've got time for today. But I want you to seriously focus on your prayer. And I will perhaps I'll go on with this next week, but we'll see how we go. Okay. God bless you and talk to you soon. Bye for now.
