What God Can't Do: Keys to Prayer Power

By Pastor Jerry L. Lewis

God could easily run the World without us, but wants us as partners. Each effective prayer request has TWO parts: that which God is to do, and the part we will play. After God takes the first step, we often sit and "wait upon the Lord," not realizing the "ball is in our court."
The secret to eating an elephant is "one bite at a time." The secret to effective prayer is asking better questions.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pastor Jerry L. Lewis
• Release date: Jan 16, 2010
• ISBN: 9781452415963

Pastor Jerry L. Lewis

Jerry grew up in Iowa in the 50's, graduating from high school in 1963. His dismal college experience, fueled by alcohol and ADD, eventually won him a free trip to Vietnam in 1969. Returning stateside, he graduated from college and taught high school in Iowa for several years before leaving education to start a construction business.His theological training began several years later after a loss in a classic "town hooligan meets Bible-thumpers" showdown. He says, "I gave them some grief, but eventually they took me aside and helped me get my feet on a higher path; one where I experienced peace, love, and joy for the first time in my life."After several years of growth and learning, he left Iowa to become a full-time Home Missionary with Teen Challenge, and later studied and completed licensing requirements as a Local Pastor with the West Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church.The chapters in "What God Can't Do: Keys to Power Prayer," are based on original sermons and situations while actively ministering to real people.Reviewed by Alejandra Vernon "artist & illustrator" Amazon top 50 reviewer"What God Can't Do" is a superb manual for the most important communication in your life...prayer. Pastor Jerry shows us many tools we can implement in our prayer time. I really like his "Lord, please show me one thing I need to know about this situation." Just one thing. No clutter or confusion. All you need is one thing to set your feet on the right path.You can't help but like this man, and his unique and wise Jerry Theories are great. This is a slender book with a lot of spiritual meat and potatoes. It's got a nice simple layout too, with very easy-on-the-eyes large print.

Book preview

What God Can't Do: Keys to Prayer Power

Pastor Jerry L. Lewis

Smashwords Edition

What God Can't Do: Keys to Prayer Power. Copyright  2007 Pastor Jerry L. Lewis.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations used in critical articles and reviews. For further Information contact Pastor Jerry at [e-mail].

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did nor purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Introduction

Statement of Belief

Table of Contents

1 Are There Really Things God Can't Do?

2 Why God Can't Give the Right Answer to The Wrong Question

3 In the Garden

4 One Small Bite, One Long Death

5 Two Ways God Can't Love Us

6 What God Can't Take Back

7 Why God Can't Make Us Happy

8 Why God Can't Make Us Forgive Anyone, Including Him

9 Why God Can't Compare Us To Anyone Else

10 Why God Can't Say No, To Your Healing Prayer Group

11 Why God Can't Love Us Any Way Except Unconditionally

12 The One Question God Can't Forget

13 The One Word God Can't Translate Correctly

14 God Can't Put Success Ahead of Greatness

Appendix A, Healing Prayer Rules

Appendix B, Study Goals

A Word form the Author

Introduction

This Ebook is about making prayer, the act of asking God to do something, more effective by helping discover more about God, and about ourselves. Those of us already in an active church usually know most of the whys of prayer. I want to focus more on the hows, the nuts-and-bolts aspects of prayer, to help make the process more effective.

My intent is to summarize thoughts and ideas in selected topics to provide a framework, and then step out of the way so the Spirit can lead you to focus on actions you can take in your specific situation. Several chapter topics, including happiness, fear, and unconditional love, are merely highlights, and future works will provide a more in-depth study of them.

Whether you are a new believer just beginning your spiritual journey, or the oldest member in the church; whether you've been away from church for a while and thinking about coming home, or you've gone to church only a few times in your life, there is always something new and exciting to learn about God.

My hope and prayer for all reading this book is that each of us will find many new and exciting aspects in our relationship to God, and that we will then able to pray more efficiently, effectively, and joyfully than ever.

Thanks for joining me on this journey, and I pray that you all prosper and be in health.

Pastor Jerry L. Lewis

Statement of Belief

In many ways, life seems to be a mystery; a series of riddles with ever changing answers. What's right any more seems to depend more on the time and/or situation rather than on a solid moral code of ethics.

People choose to believe what they want, and having a basis in reality is not always a prerequisite for a belief system. Theories usually start somewhere in the middle and attempt to explain how things got the way they are from that point onward.

The Bible is not a book of questions; it is a book of answers. Its topics range from the eternal to the infernal. From What about forever? to What about today? Its pages hold both the secrets of the overcoming of death and the living of the Overcoming Life. It sheds light on the questions of kings and kids, and of mice and men. Its answers range from the cosmic to the commonplace, and sometimes even to the comic.

An example? How about that old question of which came first: the chicken or the egg? The answer is on the first page of the Book, and if you've read Genesis, you've read across the answer. The BCV (book, chapter, verse) answer is, of course, that the chicken came first. In Genesis, chapter 1, verses 20-22, we find that God first created the birds, next He blessed them, and then He told them to be fruitful and multiply (lay eggs).

Can you imagine the surprise of that first chicken egg being laid? Hey, Frank! Get a load of this! I'm sitting here reading and all of a sudden this thing pops out. What should we do?

Frank replies, I'm not sure God would be happy with this. Let's hide it. You sit on it for a while, and then I'll sit on it a while and I'll try to figure out what to do next. Hmmm.

Friends, something in life has to be true.

There is so much order in the Universe that astronomers can predict the position of planets hundreds of years from now. Season always follows season, and cows don't have baby sheep. Man can fly to the moon, and yet can't make one living blade of grass. It boils down to this: everyone chooses to believe something.

I have chosen to believe the Written Word of God whether it makes sense to me or not; whether I can explain it or not. When the World passes away, those who have put their trust in the world and its wisdom will perish with it.

If some have chosen to live their lives without God here and now, why wouldn't He grant their wish, and let them live without Him forever when this life is over? Regrettably, Hell will be the only place without God, and forever is a long time to spend with demons and flames.

Those of us who have put our trust in the Jesus described within the pages of the Bible will be caught up to Him and be with Him eternally. We have a few extra seats. Hurry!

CHAPTER 1 Are There Really Things God Can't Do?

If we were going to ask a favor of someone, the better we knew that person and exactly how to ask him or her, the better the likelihood of that person fulfilling our request. Yet over the years as a pastor, people have often asked me to pray for things that I knew God could not do because of His nature or will.

Love may make the world go around, but the Universe works because it is based on the concept of law.

Group members who voluntarily limit their individual powers and function within the authority of that agreement make laws. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit always agree, and their group is called God. What they agree on is called Devine Law, and God always obeys His own Law.

Without understanding it, we often ask Him do things that fall outside the scope of that law, or to make choices that are poor according to His priorities for us. When He does not respond to our request, we sometimes start thinking up all kinds of rules about getting our prayers answered. The point of this book is to encourage and guide us in developing better questions based on a more complete picture of God our relationship to Him.

When people find out I'm writing a book, they want to know what it is about. When I tell them it discusses things God can't do, they usually say, Why that's kind of silly, Jerry. God can do anything!

Where did we get the idea that God can do anything? Most of our parents, pastors, and teachers probably explained God to us as children using that description. The idea that God can do everything works well to help six-year-olds build an understanding of God, but is the cause of most of our prayers going unanswered. It is a six-year-old definition which has never grown and been updated. It's stuck somewhere in the past.

There are lots of things that God can't do because of His nature. Go ahead and think of one. He won't throw an angry bolt of lightning at you. (Hint: Can God tell a lie? Of course not! Lying is sin, and sin is not God's nature.)

Here are some of my favorites: God can't learn anything because He already knows everything. God can't get sick because sickness was part of the Curse for Adam's sin. And here is one of my all-time favorites: since God is light, He can't even cast a shadow! (I know Psalms tells about being in the shadow of God's wing, so you'll have to work that one out)

Now go ahead and think of more. Try not to stop until you have at least six things that God can't do. Once I started a contest in a children's Sunday school class. The kids came up with some very clever ideas and had an absolute blast doing it. Make lists on poster boards. And have some fun doing it, lots of fun.

(Stop and do it NOW).

1. God can't _________________________________

2. God can't _________________________________

3. God can't _________________________________

4. God can't _________________________________

5. God can't _________________________________

6. God can't _________________________________

Has your definition of God expanded at least a little bit? Well, those are some things that God can't do because of His nature. Before long we will explore things that God can't do because of His will.

Over the years I've noticed that some prayers worked better than others, and I mean lots better. The more I learned about God, it seemed the more my prayers were answered and brought to pass. Looking back, it became evident that I had accidentally learned to spend more time praying in His will, rather than in His won't.

Nobody understands everything there is to know about God, especially yours truly. It is quite a stretch of imagination to think anyone can figure Him all out, and fit this infinite sized Being into that little brain-box between our ears. God won't fit in there. He's just too big. But there are a lot of ways to learn more about Him.

There are three main parts to the process of growing in the knowledge God: reading Scripture and other Christian material, meditation, and prayer. One brief and oversimplified way of describing the difference and the interplay among these three is that prayer usually is asking God to do something, either for self or others. Its emphasis is on speaking.

Reading Scripture, studying Christian works such as this book, and listening to sermons tells us what God has done in the past and is likely to do again, perhaps in our situation. It is mostly watching & listening with our spirits.

Meditation is often like an open-ended conversation with God where we might ask a question and keep our minds and spirits open to Him while we wait for His answer. It is mostly listening. Believe me, He wants to answer more than we want to ask.

As an added benefit, learning more about God helps us understand