Praying the "I Don't Know" Prayer - Janet Stripling

- Hello, my name is Janet Strickling and I want to thank you for deciding to choose to listen to this today. We in Freedom of Jesus Ministries, we want you to know that we love you, we never forget you. And so we just want to come and give you an encouraging word today. So I want to talk a little bit about prayer. The I Don't Know prayer is been going around on Facebook a lot. And it says you just go off somewhere quiet and hidden and you walk right up to the heart of God and you say, I don't know. I don't know where to go from here. I don't know what is happening. I don't know how to process this. I don't know what to do with these emotions. I don't know how to handle the situations. Has anyone been in that situation before? Everyone has, so we can all be in the same club that I don't know club. But that can be a very good place to be because when we finally say, I don't know, we're giving it to God and we're saying, God, I want you to take over. I want you to take care of the situation that I'm in because I know that you'll be able to do it best because I don't know. And then with whatever sin, grain of faith you have,

you say, but you know. That's why we give it over to God because he always knows the best of what to do. So first of all, we have to realize that God wants to talk to us because you cannot believe how many people don't know that God does want to talk to them. And some of them don't even believe that God wants to talk to them, that they're not worth the time of day. So why wouldn't God want to talk to you? Because you are his creation. And I remember not long ago, my granddaughter, Hallie, she said, grandma, people look at me really funny when I tell them that God talks to me. But why wouldn't God talk to me because he's my father? And that is the truth. And Psalms 139, 13 through 16 says, "For you created my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Do you hear what has been said about yourself? I praise you because I'm fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me

were written in your book before one of them came to be. But you may stay yel right. You don't know where I am. Look and see where I am right now. But you know what? Nothing that's ever been done, ever detours God's plans for you of what he has. You might have gotten off the path. You may have gotten into some brambles along the way. You may be entangled in some brambles right now. But I want you to know that life is just tangled everything up, but God is an untangler. God knows how to untangle everything and put them back together. Besides, everything that he has written down in the book that you're going to do has not been completed yet because you are still alive. So he still has things for you to do. So the good news is, is James 4-8. It says, "Draw near to God and God will draw near to you." That is the best news that you could hear today. God wants you to draw near to him. And I want you to know he's not gone anywhere. He's not left the building. He's still there. There's a story about a little boy who was flying a kite. The wind was perfect that day and he had a lot of kite string, so he let his kite go higher and higher into the air. Eventually, he lost sight of the kite altogether. A man came along and saw the little boy

just holding onto a string. "What are you doing?" the man asked. "I'm flying my kite," the boy said. "I don't see a kite," the man said. "How do you know it is there?" The little boy squinted up at the sky and then looked at the man and said, "I know it's there because I can feel its tug." God never leaves you for safety. He is always tugging at your heart. James 4-8, "Draw near to God and he will draw near to you." So when you pray regularly, irregular things are going to happen to you because God is going to invade your space. He is going to invade the routine that you have in your life. And I've always said that God wants to put us on a spiritual inner tube and just let us flow to wherever he wants us to go. So don't try to manufacture your own miracles. Don't try to answer your own prayers. Let God do what his job is. And I know when I was trying to control situations myself, make sure the answers come out the way that I thought that they should come out because it would be the right way. I had a very good friend that said, Janet, you are not the Holy Ghost. So I would like to pass that on to you today. You are not the Holy Ghost. God has a job, Jesus has a God, Holy Spirit has a job,

and we have a job, and that is to pray. And then let God bring the outcome because we know if we let the Holy Spirit do it, the outcome will be right. Can I hear an amen? Amen. So I read in a book where the author made a hypothetical statement. Why pray when you can worry about it? Have we not learned yet that worry sabotages our faith? If Satan can steal our faith for today, he will tell you you don't have any faith for the future. John 6, 12 says, "When they had all had enough to eat," he said to his disciples. "Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted." This verse is talking about when Jesus was feeding the 12,000, and one translation says, "Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." And I want you to know that the Lord lets nothing go to waste. He lets nothing be lost. Even the trials and the situations that we go through, they are not for lost. He uses those because God is all about purpose, and he's all about plans. So for those of you who think that everything is over, that scripture is for you. Because the Lord says that he will gather up all the fragments, all the pieces that have fallen apart,

and he's gonna bring it all together for Romans 8, 28 moment. He's gonna take all the pieces, all the entanglements, all the kite strings, everything that there can be, and he's gonna bring it all together, and he's gonna put the pieces back together in your puzzle and bring you that Romans 8, 28 moment. It's a promise from God. You can rest on it. So prayer is the way we let go and let God. Psalms 46, 10 says, "Be still and know that I am God." Now the original Hebrew root word of that be still does not mean to be quiet. It means to let go. That is a whole different meaning. Let go and know that I am God. So let go of trying to control people, let go of worry, let go of unforgiveness, let go of your past, let go of what you can't control, let go of your life, let go, let go, let go, let go, let go. Let go and let God. And then rest in the knowledge that God is going to take care of the rest. Sometimes it seems that we have stones thrown at us. We have stones thrown at us of bills that we can't pay. We have stones of addictions that can't seem to be broken. We have stones of broken relationships. We have stones of sickness. We have stones of a past that we can't shake. And these stones, they keep us in tombs. And they make it feel that they're too big for us to remove ourselves

because you know what they are. Because we can't do anything in our own strength. It takes God to remove those. But the good news is that God specializes in making the impossible possible. Can I hear another amen? God takes the impossible, makes it possible, and that He is going to move the stones for you. Whatever blocks that He will remove it. So there is no stone too large, no tomb too cold, no hall too dark that God can't move it, warm it, and light it. God will remove the stones that block you from Him because He wants to speak to you. He wants to talk to you. He wants relationship with you. So we can have hope just as the women as they went to the tomb and saw that the tomb was open and Jesus was gone and they didn't know what was going on. And they were astonished at what they saw. We can be astonished in the hope that Jesus gives us in a hopeless situation. Amen? So prayer is the way we take our hands off and let God put His hands on. Psalms 35, 1 and 2 says, "Contend, Lord, with those who contend with Me. Fight against those who fight against Me. Take up shield and armor, arise, and come to My aid." Did you hear that scripture? That is a wow scripture because David must have had a relationship with God because he's telling God what to do. He's telling God to put on His shield. He's telling God to put on His armor.

He's telling God to come to His aid and He's telling God to come fight the battle with Him. That's relationship. That is relationship and that's what I call totally letting go. So Philippians 4, 6 and 7 says, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything." Do you know what the word "everything" in Greek means? It means everything. Everything. So what in everything by prayer and petition then what does it say will happen? And the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Now I heard someone saying regards to this scripture. Many times, listen, many times when I could have gone insane from worry, I was in peace because my soul believed the truth of God's promises. So I decided to let his promises very worry before worry buried me. That is a promise, that is a word for all of us. Now the word for peace is a very, very powerful word and there's many, many reasons for it in the Greek. But in this particular translation, it means that describes tranquility experienced after the cessation of war. It conveys the idea that the conflict is over, the war is finished, victory is achieved and it's time for tranquility and rest. It's time to rest in the fact that the battle for whatever you're battling is over and the answer may not have been come to fruition yet

but you can rest in the knowledge that God is going to do the rest and that you could be able to say, mission accomplished. Now talking about fruition, I read an article about the Chinese bamboo tree, very interesting. It will blow your mind. The tree begins with a nut planted in soil and must be watered every single day for five years before it finally breaks through the ground. All that time it spreads out its roots and if any time the water of fertilizing process stops, the tree dies in the ground. But in that fifth year, the tree finally breaks through the ground and grows to nearly 90 feet tall in just six weeks. The tree must take five long years of developing a strong, deep, wide root system so it doesn't topple over when it is grown. What a tree. We get frustrated when we don't have an answer to our prayer in a day and I want you to know that it doesn't take a day for us to get in the mess that we're in so it's not gonna take a day for us to get out of it, amen? But the truth is that the process is essential. Everyone has to go through the process. I had to go through it. Stephen Canop has to go through it. Don Castleberry has to go through it. Everyone has to go through that process

that he gives to us. But Colossians 2, 6, and 7 says, "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus's Lord, continue, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught and overflowing with thankfulness." So when you do the process, your root system, otherwise known as your faith will grow deep and wide and it won't topple over like the Chinese bamboo tree. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So every time you open your Bible and you read it, your faith grows. You want something to happen in your life, open your Bible and let faith come into your life. And I want you to know that the last 10 minutes of your faith is just as important as the first 10 minutes because if you give up in the last 10 minutes, you would have lost it. So believe it all the way. Don't get in the middle of something and then give up. But I wanna tell you something. There were storms all around this tree clear up to the fifth year, but it still grew its roots through the storm and the person taking care of the tree for the five years, watering it and providing for it, stayed faithful. So God is faithful. So stay faithful to your faith. Stay faithful to God because I want you to know there can be storms clear up to your answer.

So believe it all the way. So the devil will discuss your past. He can't discuss your future because he doesn't know anything about that. He doesn't have that information. And what good does it do to discuss your past because the only thing that comes out of that is guilt, shame and regret. And there's nothing that you can do about it because it's already over. It's already done, but there is hope for the future. Now I know nothing about organic gardening, but I heard a man talk about it. And he said an organic gardener doesn't use pesticides. He said they made their own soil by making a compost heap at the bottom of the garden. Everything that would rot went on the compost heap. In nine months, all the rot turned into the richest black soil that grew the biggest vegetables. And one day he had a pale in his hands and the smell coming up into his nose and he said the stench was so bad it just wanted him to throw up, but I want you to know that the Holy Spirit spoke to him through the stench. And the Holy Spirit said, give me your junk. Give me everything you're ashamed of. Give me everything that is rotting in your life. And I'll turn it into the richest soil of your life out of which I'll grow my fruit. That is my friends, what you call love, hope, forgiveness, peace, and restoration.

And when something is restored, it comes back better than what it was originally. So when God forgives, he restores, them into the deepest sea. And then as Mark says, he says, he puts up a sign that says, no swimming allowed. Don't go back into that past. Don't go back into the what ifs. What if I hadn't got mad? What if I hadn't said that? What if I hadn't been there? Well, I want you to know that God doesn't make junk. He gives promises and he has a lot of what ifs himself. What if you pray? What if you read my word? What if you believe? What if? What if he's got a lot of what ifs for you in the future? That's where your life is right now in the future with God. So there's a story known as the Cherokee Indian Knight of Passage. And it's when an Indian boy has to go through this process in order to become a man. A father takes his son into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone. He's required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. And once he survives the night, he is a man. The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises, wild beasts, must surely be all around him. Maybe even a human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth and shook his stump, but he said stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man. Finally, after a horrific night, the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father setting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm. Is that not an awesome story? Because sometimes I know that you may feel like that you're alone in the dark. You may see some light around you, but there's some loneliness. There's some darkness going on inside of you. But so I ask you to remove the blindfold that you have on and see God's presence around you. See that God loves you. See that God has not left the building. And I know that with Jesus, you can pass any stump of life that you may have of what this thing of life throws at you. Jesus is setting with you on that stump and he never moves. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Muhammad Ali had a daughter named Layla Ali and Layla decided to take up boxing. She boxed for a few years. Matter of fact, she had a record of 24-0. She never lost the fight. She was a boxer. In one of her matches, she had a rematch with someone she had a close fight with and in this rematch, she got a cut over her eye and a bloody nose. And it looked like halfway through the fight, she was going to lose. But she came back and won the fight by knocking the girl out. When the fight was over, they interviewed

her and said, Layla, you look like you were about to lose the fight. How were you able to come back? She said, I watched my father fight. I watched Muhammad Ali beat Joe Fraser and George Foreman and Sonny Liston. I watched him look like he was going to lose, but then I saw him come back. I watched him and then she said this, when I thought about who my daddy was. So I asked you, do you know who your daddy is? Not your earthly daddy. I'm asking you, do you know who your heavenly daddy is? He's the one that sent his son to die on the cross for you and for me. He is the one that was raised from the dead and God brought him forth and to set him right at his very right hand side of the throne. Do you know who your heavenly daddy is? He will fight for you. Exodus 14-14 says, the Lord will fight for you. You need only to be still. So that verses a message of faith spoken to the Israelites when they were getting ready to face the Pharaoh's army against the Red Sea. And he was telling them, be calm, be still, rely on me. I'm going to defend you. I'm going to fight for you. So that's one of God's specialties, making the impossible possible. Can I hear another amen? So God knows about every situation you're in, but he wants to hear your voice. He wants to hear you because he has things that he wants to tell you. He wants relationship. Hebrews 4-16 says, let us therefore come boldly under the throne of grace. Not arrogantly, but he wants you to come to him and be able to tell you exactly how he feels. If you're mad at him, telling that you're mad at him, God is big enough, big enough to handle anything that you can throw at him. But he says, come boldly into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. So this verse relates to any, any circumstance that you may have. And it's talking about help in your time of need. So I got the thinking about that phrase, time of need. Sometimes I need to go into his throne room to worship him. Sometimes I need to go into his throne room to sit at his feet. Sometimes I need to go into his throne room to listen to what He wants to tell me. Sometimes I need to go into his throne room to just be in his presence. And sometimes I need to be there just to be there because it's in his presence that relationship comes. So there's a story of a woman who every morning rocked her toddler in the rocking chair. They would pray, she would read stories

and they would just talk. And so one morning she decided she was gonna have a little bit of me time. So she got up a little bit earlier and she made herself a cup of coffee and she went and sat down in the rocking chair. And it wasn't, but just a couple of minutes that she heard pitter patter, pitter patter, pitter patter of little feet running across the floor. And she looked up and she saw her toddler and he said, "Mommy, are you waiting for me?" That is what Jesus says, "He is waiting for us." He wants us to know that he loves you, that he's not mad at you, that he wants the best for you, that he wants to talk to you. He wants a relationship. He wants you to know that he's for you and not against you. Through all of this, through all of this, what I've said today, my mind went to a beautiful song with the lyrics that says, "I just want to be where you are, dwelling daily in your presence. I don't want to worship from afar, draw me near to where you are. I just want to be where you are in your dwelling place forever. Take me to the place where you are 'cause I just want to be with you.

Oh my God, you are my strength and my song. And when I'm in your presence, though I'm weak, you're always strong. I just want to be where you are. And that is a prayer that God will surely answer. So I ask you today whether you are born again, whether you're not born again, give God a chance in your life, give Jesus a chance in your life, give the Holy Spirit a chance in your life. God works on heavenly time, not earthly time. Second Peter 3.9 says, "The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise, He's in time on time every time. The Lord is not slow in keeping His promise as some understand slowness. Instead, He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. And repentance is the key to everything that I've tried to tell you in such a fast way because of time. But repentance is the key. So I ask you, give the Lord a chance in your life. I know that there are men and women there where you are that will be able to pray with you and help lead you to the Lord because that is His will for you to come not He wants relationship with you. Not about religion, it's about relationship. So Lord, I thank You today for this word.

I thank You Lord, for every man and woman that's listening to this today. I ask You Father that You would take those blinders off their eyes and Father that they would realize and that they would know. You want relationship with them. You want to meet their need. You want to answer their prayer. So I thank You Father, lead them and guide them. Draw them to You, O God, draw them near. And we give You praise for it in Jesus' name. I just want to say thank You and God bless each and every one of you. Amen. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) [MUSIC]