042 Why You’re Not Seeing Answers to Prayer (Try This Instead)

"Pray specific prayers and you will get specific answers." This profound statement from George Mueller, a 19th-century pastor who documented over 50,000 answered prayers, has become a transformative principle for my family's faith journey.

This isn't about treating God like a cosmic vending machine. Scripture provides clear parameters. The goal isn't selfish gain but stewardship that honors God while building faith.

Chapters

• 0:00 Pray Specific Prayers Concept
• 1:16 Starting A Prayer Document
• 3:15 Building Family Faith Through Prayer
• 9:52 Olive Garden Celebration Story
• 12:43 Biblical Foundations For Specific Prayer
• 15:25 Lavishing Love on Your Family

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Pray specific prayers and you will get specific answers. This is a quote from George Mueller, who was a pastor and missionary who was born in Germany in the 1800s, largely spent most of his time in England, though he traveled all over the world he ran an orphanage primarily, and did a lot of other amazing things for the kingdom of God, and it's fascinating when you look at his life and you study him. In his journals, which have been meticulously studied and reviewed by a lot of people through the years, there are over 50,000 documented from this man's journals 50,000 answered prayers and a lot of them, he says, were even answered within a couple of hours or even the same day of when he prayed them answered within a couple of hours or even the same day of when he prayed them. But he would pray specific prayers and this principle of pray specific prayers and get specific answers has been something that I've really been wrestling with in my own life. My wife and I have been wrestling with it in our family, in our business, in the worship leading in our production company, and we've really, several months ago we actually started a document that I want to just kind of tell you guys about and encourage you to start one for your family, whether it's for your ministry, your business, your worship leading, whatever it is. It doesn't matter how young you are, how old you are. I want to encourage you to start this. We started ours on an Excel document and I just add so you open up an Excel doc I don't do different pages on there at all because I want to be able to see it all in one glance. I can search and search the entire document, but I want to be able to scroll back and so basically you open it up and I'll tell you. I'll tell you kind of how we lit it out here in a second.

Speaker 1: 1:39

But I add new columns to the left for every single month or week or however often we're praying these prayers. We have it mostly by month and we just kind of go down, you know. So it's like you know the month, year, and then underneath that in the columns we're putting all our prayer requests in there, and then the next month comes I open up a new column to the left so I can already scroll back. We have it. You know, several months we've been doing it and we have specific prayer requests in all these different categories of our life, and then when a prayer request has been answered, we highlight it in a nice lime green, so it stands out just kind of. You know, really, it's really potent.

Speaker 1: 2:16

And you know, for us kind of, the biblical validity of doing this is the book of Revelation. We overcome by the blood of the lamb and the word of our testimony. And, as I've been reflecting on the past several years, you know of life with all the ups and the downs and the challenges and successes that have come with that. It's really, really easy for the negative things, the challenges, to kind of rise to the surface and just forget about, like man, like the Lord provided this, or the Lord did that, or like this, this person that I know I didn't know them two years ago, now they're, like such a key elements on my life. How do I even meet that person? You know, and you might even forget like, oh, actually I prayed for the Lord to provide, you know, this type of person, whatever it is Right. And so I want to encourage you to, um, to start a prayer journal. Uh, we don't, we don't call it a prayer journal. It says the Rizzo family answered prayers. That's what we call ours A prayer journal. Just doesn't, didn't strike me, but I want to encourage you to start one of these and really watch the hand of the Lord begin to move.

Speaker 1: 3:15

And he talks about George Mueller. Vague prayers often produce vague outcomes. Now, obviously I'm not here telling you hey, if you don't pray specifically for something, the Lord's like. What does he mean? Like you know, but I think there's something to be said for, like Lord, bless my family. And I think, in the same right, it's like well, what does that mean? You know it's like are we asking for, you know, specific health requests? Are we asking for financial requests or vision requests, or you know whatever it is? And then also, along with that, you know, put specific dates and times on your prayers.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Now we're going to look at some Bible verses here, because I'm not, I'm not treating this as you know, god is your, you know your genie in a bottle and whatever you need, just ask him and he'll just, you know, provide, provide for you, you know whatever. That's not what I'm saying. So please don't hear me saying what I'm not saying here, because there are, you know, praying according to the will of God. We'll look at some different Bible verses here in a minute. But Mueller prayed specific prayers. He asked for specific sums of money, specific needs for his orphanage, specific provisions that they needed, and he saw answer after answer come and so vague prayers often produce vague outcomes.

Speaker 1: 4:26

Specific prayers reveal God's faithfulness in unmistakable ways. So I want to encourage you to track your prayers. Keep a journal or an archive, like we're doing on Excel. Record the date, so we have the month at the top, underneath that, the specific date and then the specific request when you want God to answer your prayer. Be specific instead of, like I said, god bless me or God help me. Pray, for example, god provide a thousand dollars by this date to pay this bill, whatever it is. This will build such a history of faith, overcome by the blood of the lamb, the word of our testimony. And another thing that I love about this is it's teaching my children about faith.

Speaker 1: 5:16

So I shared a couple episodes back about how the Lord provided for our third movie, the Eden's Twilight movie that we were 90,000 in the whole on, provided the 60,000 from our legacy conference, which is $150,000. So when we had that, actually it was long before that. It was before any debt happened in our life. It was for the $250,000 for our Eden's Twilight movie. That was the budget for that movie that we produced To get our kids on board. At the time they were like seven and five, maybe, or eight and six, I'm not really sure. But we got our kids on board because, again, we did three movies. The first one was $65,000. The next year we did $170,000. The third year we did a quarter of a million dollars, and so it's each one of those we got our kids.

Speaker 1: 5:59

How do you get your kids involved? It's like, hey, you'll be on set with me for a couple of days. Sure, that's cool, you're going to see the props and behind the scenes of making a movie. But like this is, he's on set, he's, you know, in pre-pro, whatever. So for the third movie, we, you know it's a cute little thing our kids love If you're here in the States or I think there's some international locations Olive Garden is one of our kids' favorite restaurants and they love going there. And so we told our kids for this third movie, once we get this quarter of a million dollars and we make this third movie about the Garden of Eden, we as a family, the four of us, are gonna go to Olive Garden and we're gonna get all six desserts, all of them. They're gonna bring all six desserts. You know a kid, their eyes light up and they understand that. Talk right. And we don't usually get dessert at all when we go to Olive Garden. So it's a big deal even getting dessert, let alone six desserts. And when this happened again, if you didn't hear the episode we did not get the quarter of a million dollars. We shot the movie, I took out a loan to pay for the movie, so we ended up being $150,000 in the hole for over a year well, over a year, a year and about four months I think it was. And so we're still praying every night with our kids and they know Eden is done. Eden was released, you know it had its premiere, and we're still praying every night with our kids. They know Eden is done. Eden was released, it had its premiere. We're still praying for Eden. I'm like, yeah, we still don't have the money. The Lord is going to provide it. The Lord is going to provide it. We're praying as a family. We want to go to Olive Garden.

Speaker 1: 7:26

If you didn't hear the episode, we were down south, had led worship somewhere. This person went to eat with them afterwards to Mexican and they took care of his debt. So the next day, genuinely, guys, I'm being honest with you I had forgotten that we had told our kids this because it hadn't been in my brain. I'll be honest with you, though, my faith was high at certain days. I was probably living more days with like being in that much debt for that much time. It's like it's just weighs on you, right, my payments were supposed to start in February. The same month, it was very, very early February when it all got paid off by this person. Payments were supposed to start that month. So I had more dread than faith, just being honest.

Speaker 1: 8:09

But the next day, so we're out of town, so we're staying in a hotel, whatever, as a family doing ministry worship nights and I think it was my oldest daughter who remembered it kind of, you know, kind of laissez-faire. It's like, you know, didn't we say something about like Olive Garden or whatever? And the joy that came into my heart and mind when she said that. I was like, oh, my gosh, yes. And so we found the closest Olive Garden, and what joy it was to see the look on that waiter's face when he came to the table and I said, hey, we're not eating anything no pasta, no salad, no breadsticks Although I think we did get some breadsticks, but to say we just want every single one of your desserts, sir. He's like what he's like. I've never had that before. You know, young guy, real kind, and my daughters loved the look on his face. They loved, like you know. I still have the pictures that we took. You know, if you're watching online here, there's one there on the screen of the dessert that we had. You know, all six desserts. It's like the Lord just wowed my children's hearts.

Speaker 1: 9:10

And so one of the things I love about this Rizzo Family Answered Prayer document is we can show our children. Going back, you know we only have a couple months under our belt right now. Well, actually we have a couple years, because we went back even to our first film, for $65,000. The Lord provided for it. Our second film, the Lord provided for it. The third film, the Lord provided for it, and we literally you know, like I said, we highlight it in lime green we can show our children.

Speaker 1: 9:32

This is what happens when you pray. God's not a genie in a bottle, but this is what happens when you have faith and you pray. So a couple of Bible verses I want to look at about specific prayers, because I think it is definitely important to bring some parameters to this, that God's not just a genie in a bottle, although he does love to bless his children. Matthew 7, verse 7 and 8, ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you, for everyone who asks receives, the one who seeks finds, and the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Jesus isn't speaking in vague terms in Matthew, chapter 7. He's inviting, intentional and even persistent asking.

Speaker 1: 10:12

Philippians, chapter four, verse six do not be anxious about anything. Hello, if you're a business owner, an entrepreneur, a creative stepping out in faith, right now, this is for you. Don't be anxious about anything, but in all things, all things, your family, your money, your health, your business, your ministry, your songwriting career, your artist career, whatever it is, in all things, with prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And for some of you guys listening to this, it's like that all things is going to convict you right now, because you're like man. I've actually not been surrendering my health, my family, my parents, my ministry, my you know, whatever it is, to the Lord. I've been focused on this one area, you know, kind of like laser focused in the Lord's, like no in all things. Um, let your requests be known to God, not just in a general feeling sort of way. I love this. James, chapter four, verse two and three, bring some parameters here. Um, you do not have because you do not ask, and that's a great verse. But he says this you ask and do not receive because you ask, wrongly, to spend it on your own passions. I love that framework that he brings. The issue isn't just asking, but it's how and why you are asking, and George Mueller often examined his motives carefully before he prayed his prayers to be answered.

Speaker 1: 11:28

Now again, I want to bring some context to this. I'm not a prosperity gospel guy. If you guys know my career, that is not me at all. I was on the opposite end of the spectrum. I'm a recovering poverty mentality guy. Okay, that's where I'm at, and so I am definitely swinging more to the center of prosperity gospels over here to the right. And you know, poverty stricken thought process is way over here on the left, which is where I was mostly grown up and mostly where I lived in the different places I was on staff at. I am swinging, still swinging.

Speaker 1: 11:55

I'm not quite there, but swinging back to the center of no, actually, god wants to bless my family, not just take care of my needs and make sure that you got your cup of oatmeal and your six ounces of water. That's what you technically need to survive every single day. It's something like that. Don't don't quote me on that. But, um, your little bit of water, a little bit of food, is all you need. Bro, just just stop. What are you doing? Like? You have a shirt, you have oatmeal, you have water. You should be happy. Oh God, just, you know, as long as God, the Lord, is crushing it in my life and if you have that kind of thinking, he wants to crush it in your life, the Lord, I believe this verse. James, chapter four, verse two and three.

Speaker 1: 12:39

You know some of you guys out there might be struggling to have a family vacation and like, well, I cannot foresee, or in a world in which I budget X amount of thousands of dollars for my family of six or eight or whatever it is, to go on a vacation, you know that's just bad stewardship. I would say. God has given you your wife and your children as your primary ministry and when you take them on a vacation and you, you know, splurge on them or lavish on them, you tell your wife, hey, I want you to go buy this thing or whatever it is. You know, I believe that is deeply touching the heart of the Lord and the Lord will provide massively for that. I actually have a friend who has tested the Lord in this with lavishing things on his wife, the main person of Jesus he is connected to, as he is the head of the household, as he is the one reflecting Christ to her, and he has seen massive, massive blessings come back upon. I'm not going to give specific examples, I don't want to oust my friend, but massive examples like in the form of cars and different things like that, just crazy stuff.

Speaker 1: 13:45

Your first ministry, your first stewardship, is with your wife and your children. If there's not a lavishing aspect, I'm not saying every single day of like, yeah, kid or wife, whatever you want, we'll get it at this high end store. No, I'm not saying that. I'll say there's stewardship and there's wisdom that you do. But if there's never that time where you lavish and you just let things go, I would say that there's a problem there, and I think lavishing your family with things is within the boundary lines of James four, two and three. Um, to spend it on your own passions. Taking your family on vacation is not what James is rebuking here. In my humble opinion, you can fight me on that if you want to in the comments.

Speaker 1: 14:21

Uh, mark, chapter 11, verse 24, I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe you is so important in prayer, the persistent widow being one who continually asks before the Lord. And so, again, I'm not talking about it just yet, but this next project that we're doing with our production company is way beyond what we can actually think or imagine. And I won't say where, but there's a trip that we now have our children praying for, so it's no longer just hey, we're going to go to Olive Garden and get six desserts. We've kind of one-upped it quite a bit here to say, hey, when this happens, we get this amount of money to produce this work, this film. This is where we're going as a family and it's going to be an amazing, amazing time.

Speaker 1: 15:05

So, george Mueller, I don't think his 50,000 answered prayers documented in his journal is prosperity gospel. I don't think it's treating God like a genie in a bottle to give me whatever I want. I think it's deeply biblical and it is a living demonstration of the biblical promises in action that are yours and mine today for the taking. If we would just seek, knock, steward it well. So I wanna encourage you, if you've never done this before, start an Excel document and do it like we do it.

Speaker 1: 15:36

If you want to or figure out what works for you, do it on paper. If you're a paper person, whatever, but I just love being able to scroll back. I can literally pull it up here on my computer. Right now it's a tab always open on my computer because you know what? There's a lot of prayer requests. There's a lot of things that come up in all the different things that we're doing, the businesses that we're running and the things we're pursuing with our nonprofit that we want to see the Lord move. We're seeking to steward those to the best of our ability, and keeping a Rizzo family answered prayer journal type of thing is so, so valuable and I want to encourage you to do the same you.