And the devil here may pray, let's talk about it, this edition of Key Life. Hi, I'm Mike Kellogg, and you are now listening to Key Life, where you can find honest answers to honest questions about God's Word. Now, here is Steve. Thanks Mike, and this is Friday, and it's a regular practice of ours, to have the Reverend, Dr. Peter Owlwinson, said at this table. I appreciate the difference there. Yeah, you know. Hey, I remember when you got your doctorate, I went to that party. I know. That's where we moved here. I know, you were in town. Yeah, I was, and it was kind of nice to know somebody who is that intelligent, right? Peter's my pastor, and he comes in for a lot of reasons, because he's kind, because I need help. But we do this on Key Life, he's also on our board, and we want to make a statement by doing this, that we're pro church, and we're four of the church. And we never mention our church, but I appreciate my pastor, and he's coming in more than I can possibly say. By the way, as we get to these questions, we love to get your questions, but you got to write them down. Send them to Key Life Post Office Box 5,000, Madeleine Florida, 32794, or Key Life Canada Post Office Box, 32150, Cambridge, Ontario, N3H5, N3, or you can email us. It's Steve at keylife.org. Hey, guys, you want to check out our webpage, www.keylife.org. That's great too. But don't use the 1-800 number to ask questions. You can make a contribution, get all the free stuff that I offer on the broadcast, and when I say it's free, it really is, but you got to write out the questions. Pete, why don't you lead us in prayer, and then we'll turn to some of these questions. All right. Father, we're into the new year now, and we know every day that we need you more and more and more, and we're grateful that we can come to you. Right now at the end of the week, we pause, and we thank you for how you've carried us and taught us and encouraged us. We really praise you. We honored you for your goodness, and we recognize Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. There are three persons, but only one God, and we need you. So we come to you now, and ask that you would enter our minds and our hearts in a fresh way, that you'd teach us, that you'd open us up to you. Answer our questions, Father, and help us to look ahead toward Sunday, or this weekend, at least, when more worship. And we pray for our leaders. Father, the relentless return of the Sabbath for them means that they must prepare a message every week, and we pray that you would give them grace and mercy, you'd give them wisdom, give them a message, and help us to hear it. And so, Father, bless our priests and pastors, teachers, families, and we'll give you honor. So, Father, be encouraged by our love for you. We pray that you would encourage us and teach us. I pray you'd be with Steve, give him your power, and continue to use his ministry, which is your ministry through him. We commit this time to you now as we pray in our Holy Lord's name. Amen. Pete, can the devil hear me praising, this is from California, praising and praying to God? Interesting question. And I'd say, yeah, you can hear you do all that. To me, there's from some reading item. We won't mention the author unless you want me to. Oh, okay. I've got enough trouble, bro. But there's an author out there who's been widely read by a lot of Christians for the last, I'd say five to ten years. And a lot of what he says, most of what he says is really good, but he almost makes the point and does make the point that if you admit your weaknesses, your sins, then Satan can hear them and use them to tempt you and bring you into area of weaknesses. And that means out loud. Yeah, if you're praying out loud. That's cool if you do it inside, don't you? Yeah, he almost makes it sound like you can pray internally, but not verbally, and don't write them down. Don't write your, you know, sins down on paper and the letter to anybody because he could get it and read it. I think it's a little bit taking too far the reality that, yeah, Satan is alive and well on planet earth. He can tempt us, oppress us, but he cannot control us as God's people. We are greater see who is in us than he who is in the world. That's first John 4, 4, by the way. That's right. Oh, man, aren't you a friend? Your grasp of Scripture is still alive. That's true, that's a wonderful verse. Yeah, it is. And it's one I lean on a lot. I mean, I couldn't be honest and vulnerable with you about my sins and I was afraid Satan would hear it and then tempt me in those areas. And Satan doesn't run around saying, I'm just listening because when they talk to God, I'm going to get those guys. That's right. It just doesn't do that. I mean, tell me, we're not dualists are we? Which means that we believe in power of evil on one end and good on the other and they're equal and opposite. No. God is really sovereign. God is absolutely. And Satan is God's lackey. He has his purposes. He's scary and you shouldn't take it lightly. But when you start focusing in on him, the way this question, and I know where you got it and I understand what you're saying, it's an interesting and a good question. But when you start giving Satan that power, you're giving him land that isn't his. Abs good point. He is not God. He is not on the present. He's not omniscient. He's not any of you. He's not God. That's great. And we need to remember, who watched it? I don't know who said it, but I love the statement. The dragon has been slain, collotions, but his tail still switches. That's a good statement. I might even say, I said that. I don't remember who said it. After the third or four time, I'll take credit. That's right. We said last week, last Friday, there was a questioner from British Columbia, from Canada, who had asked, is one's conscience the same thing as the conviction of the Holy Spirit? And we talked about that a good while, but I said, let's talk about it some more. We suggested last week that, no, it's not that the conscience is culturally informed. It may have, I see, as Lewis says, in mere Christianity. It may have a universal implication, but it's been really warped and sanded and is messed up and you shouldn't depend on your conscience. And that the conviction coming by the Holy Spirit is always in consort with God's word. You may feel guilty about something that God didn't say you ought to feel guilty about. And that's your conscience condemning you when you ought not be condemned because you're still being faithful. A good point because the reality is is that our conscience has been affected so much by sin. And I feel guilty about everything. And I remember when Charlie Morgan, who was an elder in a church that I served, his wife, Maribel Morgan, would just, I mean, he said, Steve, if it weren't for me, she'd get the house away. And that wasn't because of guilt or anything, but I'm like that. Because of guilt, I'd go out and I'd constantly be trying to make up for stuff. Some of it, he's already made up for me because it's a legitimate guilt on the cross. But when you start feeling guilty about the locust attacking a prop in a third world country, you've got a problem. You've got a problem. Any in the secular world does this a lot. They play on our conscience. Oh, they love to do that. And they guilt us and they do all kind. But the reality is that what people need is we need to have the image of God in us restored and that can only be done by the work of Christ as applied to us by the Holy Spirit. And so on an ongoing basis, it is the Holy Spirit who convicts and exhorts and encourages. Is there a way like, and I know there's no absolute way, but you know, with me, I find, if I'm living in condemnation because of guilt, it's generally my culturally informed conscience and my own issues. But if I feel that I can take it to God that I'm released and not condemned because of it, that I can work on it. It's from the Holy Spirit. Yeah. That's right. Yeah, it does. So there's not only the exhortation, but there's a sense of a way out, a way to a different reality. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. This from Pennsylvania. What does the Bible teach you about prayer? How does it work? Do we really play a part in changing God's mind? The Bible says, There's tons about prayer. And we opt to pray, and how does it work? Boy, what you're trying to determine there is how do the requests of a human being interchange with a sovereign God. Yeah. And all we know is that it does work, and that... I don't know. Like you say, all we know is that it works, but can you explain that? There's so many things. For instance, the prayer of Jbez in 1 Chronicles 4, where he says, God blessed me indeed and enlarge my territory. It's interesting that that prayer is really a prayer without boundaries. He doesn't tell God exactly how to bless him. He just asked for God's favor. And so he's really kind of setting up a radical trust factor there. God, you do in my life whatever you want. Yeah. And in 1 John 5, 14, and 15, if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know we have the request that we desire of him. So there really is a big part of praying in concert with God's will that functions to get that prayer accomplished. But also there's tons about prayer, and probably you pray, and we don't know if it's really in line with the will of the Lord. And then, yeah, and I agree with everything you said. One of the difficulties for me is dealing with those passages where Jesus clearly says prayer changes things. I mean, it makes a difference. And how do you reconcile that with a sovereign God who ordains things? And one of the ways I deal with it in my mind is that God took into account my prayers before he created the world, because he's outside of time. But that still doesn't resolve everything. You, you, maybe just have to say like you say, but he uses second causes. We know that. Yes. Right. So our prayers are second causes. That's right. With whatever that is, I agree. Second causes are just he doesn't intervene and say, I'm going to do this myself. He uses other people like go down Moses. I've seen the pain of my people. Go down Moses. Moses was second cause. Exactly. And so in his sovereign plan, he ordains not only what will come to pass, but how it will come to pass, and who he will use to bring it to pass, including our prayers. How's that? I agree with that. Yeah. You know, I know you guys would like for us to be far more certain and sure and speak from Sinai. But we honestly try to be honest on this broadcast with what the Bible teaches and not going beyond what the Bible teaches. We've got just, we may not get all of this. Well, this one kind of see, will there be marriages in heaven? No. How do you know? Jesus said it. Right on. What will our relationships be like there, including the one with our news now? You know, that's... We don't know exactly, but I want to hear your take on this. I do believe we'll know each other. I do believe we'll be able to relate together. It'll be the ultimate community. I agree. You ever... I don't know if you do, but I also feel on the outside looking in that I can't ever have... I mean, I'm stunning outside, yeah. And I think we'll all be on the inside. And there'll be such a profound intimate relationship with all God's people that we will rejoice in. You agree with that? Yeah. Ultimately, that great fellowship. Oh, that's even more important than you ever. But we get both. We got to go. Let's go. All right. Whenever you write a call, be sure and give us the call letters of this great station. And one other thing, key life is a production of key life network.