Pastor John, at the recent pastor's conference, you give a mini theology of prayer and I was

wondering if you could share that here on this episode of Ask Pastor John.

What I said at the conference that I spoke to try to encourage a pastor who had written

a question concerning losing hope, losing confidence in prayer probably because he had seen

God do less than he had hoped.

What I said was Jesus called us to pray first and foremost that his name would be hallowed

that his kingdom would come, that his will would be done and then as a support and a means

to that that we have our daily bread and that we be protected from the devil and that we

be led and passed of righteousness and so on.

And so clearly the heart of our prayer life is to be Father, cause your name in this world

to be revered and loved and praised and honored and start right here in my heart this morning.

And then advance your kingdom, oh God, and cause your will be done the way the angels do

in heaven, in other words wrap up and bring your kingdom in and do everything you need to

to get us to that goal and what I said was in the book of Revelation prayer is being gathered

into bowls, this is seen in chapter 5, it's seen in chapter 8 and those bowls have two functions,

they are sensors, they're like incense and in the presence of God that incense is really

pleasing to him. God loves the aroma of the prayers of his people which means that if you're on

your face crying out for a lost loved one or for some difficulty in your church that very act

is pleasing to God, it is not wasted quite apart from the answer that is going to come now or

10 years from now or that God's going to just answer in a way totally unexpected that the prayer

itself is precious to God, that's the first meaning of those bowls and that incense, the second

is in chapter 8, there's going to come a day when those bowls are full, in other words the

...