This is Pastor Rick Warren’s Daily Hope. If you’re new, we’re so glad you found us. And if you’re a daily, daily hoper, welcome back.
Today, we’re gonna continue with our series called 40 Days of Prayer. Such a great series, because Rick is gonna help you cultivate a powerful prayer life so you can experience breakthroughs. Breakthroughs in your relationships, breakthroughs in finances, health, and really every area of your life.
So don’t miss a day of this life changing series. Okay, let’s get started with today’s great message as Pastor Rick shares part one of a message called Praying in Five Dimensions.
The other day, if you’ll pull out your message notes, I was listening to a song, and I asked somebody, what, who did that song? I knew it was a song from the past that I really liked. And I said, who sang that song?
And they said, oh, that was the fifth dimension. Anybody remember that band, pop band, fifth dimension? I wrote down some of the songs they sang, Up, Up, and Away, remember that?
Wedding Bell Blues, last night, I didn’t get to sleep at all. Grazing in the Grass, it’s a gas. Stone Soul Picnic, one less bell to answer.
Remember that one? Aquarius, Let the Sun Shine, oh yeah. Everyone, let the sun shine.
And then your favorite of all, Working on a Groovy Thing. So anyway, I go, yeah, I remember that band, the fifth dimension. And then I thought, what in the world is the fifth dimension?
So I thought I’d go look it up. I’ll spare you a little bit of the details. It’s about mathematics.
If you have a line, if you have a dot here and a dot here and you draw a line between it, and that line, that’s called the first dimension. It’s just a line. If you add another line on it, now you got two dimensions, because you got two lines.
If you add a third line, now you got three dimensions. You got height, depth, or width and breadth and depth. Then, fourth dimension.
There’s a lot of controversy over what is the fourth dimension. A lot of people think the fourth dimension is time, that it’s length of time. The fifth dimension was first talked about back in the 1920s, where a couple of very bright German scientists came up with a theory.
I actually wrote it down. An attempt to unify the four fundamental forces in nature. Strong nuclear forces, weak nuclear forces, gravity, and electromagnetism.
And it’s a mathematical theory, the fifth dimension. It’s not directly observable, which means it has no relationship to your life. Now, I do know that sometimes you feel like you’re being pulled in many different directions.
I got an email the other day from a young woman who said, Pastor Rick, help me. I feel like I’m being pulled in every different kind of direction. Well, if you’re being pulled in a lot of different kind of directions, then you need a multi-dimensional way to pray.
One dimensional praying is boring. Two dimensional praying is boring. One dimensional praying is unbiblical.
One dimensional praying is ineffective. So, this weekend, I want us, as we are in part four of 40 Days of Prayer, I want us to look at the idea of praying in the fifth dimension. Praying in five different dimensions.
First, before we get into how to pray in five different dimensions, I need to give you a couple of really important review truths. Things that you already know, but you need to remind yourself of them. So why don’t you write these down?
These are the fundamental basis of all prayer. Number one is that God is a multi-dimensional God. He’s not one dimensional, he’s not two dimensional, he’s not three dimensional.
You can put on glasses and watch a 3D movie of God. God is a multi-dimensional God. Now I say that because the most important thing I can teach you about prayer, and that’s what we’re looking at now for weeks, the most important thing I can teach you about prayer, your fulfillment in prayer and your fruitfulness in prayer will be dependent not on how much you know about prayer, but how much you know about God.
The more you understand God, the better your prayers are going to be. The more effective they’ll be, the more fulfilled they’ll be, the more satisfying your prayer life will be. It’s not about learning all about prayer.
That’s important, but more important than that is understanding God. And it starts with the fact that God is a multi-dimensional God. Now what do you mean by that?
Well, it means that he’s not just one dimension. And you can see this in many different things. Why don’t you write these down?
First, we see this in God’s creation. Obviously, you’re looking around, and the God who created a multi-dimensional world and universe is a multi-dimensional creator. And so, there are dimensions that we know about, but there are some dimensions we don’t even know about.
The Bible talks about the spirit realm. We don’t know about that. We don’t see it, so we don’t engage in it.
But the Bible says this about creation, which we do see. Romans chapter one, verse 20. Since creation of the world, God’s invisible qualities, his eternal power and his divine nature, have been clearly seen in what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
People say, well, what about all the people who have never read the Bible? Well, true, they haven’t read the Bible, but you can learn a lot about God just by looking at nature. You don’t have to have the Bible for a lot of things.
For instance, we know that God likes variety. That’s obvious. Look at nature.
We know that God is organized. That’s obvious. We know that God is creative.
We know that God likes diversity. We know that God is powerful. When you look at thunder and lightning and earthquakes and storms of asteroids and all the different things in society and in the world, we know in the universe that God is creative and God is great and God is powerful.
We learn a lot about God just in nature. So the Bible says we’re without excuse. To me, it takes more faith to not believe in God than to believe in God.
If I’m walking down a hillside and I see a little stone out of place, I might think that’s an accident. But if I’m walking down a hillside and all of a sudden I see there on that field a Rolex just laying there, are you gonna believe that’s an accident? That is evidence of design.
Evidence of design. And a design must have a designer. People say, well, God, the world, the universe was created with a big bang.
That doesn’t bother me. Wherever you got a big bang, you gotta have a big banger. Somebody had to pull the trigger.
Not in a million years would you say that that watch just put itself together. And you could have trillions and trillions and gazillions of years, and a watch is not gonna form itself, and all of a sudden start ticking on its own. That takes an enormous, I don’t have enough faith to be an atheist, sorry.
My answer is just as speculative as yours is, but it’s a whole lot more reasonable than to just say it all just happened. It just happened. Well, have you ever seen the birth of a baby, and how that baby comes together from a simple single cell and a zygote and then becomes you?
There’s so many things that say that God is a god of complexity. He’s a god of complexity without even getting to the Bible. Job chapter 11, verse nine, seven to nine.
Job and God are having a conversation, and Job’s kind of complaining about what went on in his life, and God says, but wait a minute, I’m the creator, I’m in charge here, and he says, Job, let me ask you some questions. Can you fathom the limits and bounds of the greatness and power of God? The sky’s no limit for God.
You say the sky’s the limit, well, it’s not a limit for God, but it lies beyond your reach. God knows the world of the dead, but you don’t know it. In other words, there’s a whole realm, there’s a whole dimension you don’t even know about.
But God knows about it. God’s greatness is broader than the earth, and it’s wider than the sea. So we know that God is a multidimensional God because creation shows the complexity that God created.
And so we know that God had to be more complex than that. Now there’s another way we see God’s multidimensional nature, and that is in Jesus’ incarnation. In other words, when God came to earth and became a human being.
Incarnation means God became flesh, the Word became flesh. The Bible says in John chapter one, verse 14, the Word became a human being and lived among us. And we saw his glory.
And he was full of grace and truth. The fact that God can be God and God can come to earth and be a human means he’s multidimensional. He didn’t have a problem.
God had wanted to communicate to ants, he would have become an ant. If he wanted to communicate to cows, he would have become a cow. But God wanted to communicate to human beings, so he became one of us.
That’s multidimensional. The proof is in the fact of Jesus Christ. And the Bible says about Jesus, Hebrews 13, verse eight, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
You know anybody like that? Are you gonna be the same forever? You weren’t the same you were last week.
You lost a few hairs and added a few wrinkles. You’re not the same. Now, what is this saying?
Jesus is neither bound by space nor time. Why? He’s God.
He’s multidimensional. And the Bible tells us in Revelation, chapter one, grace and peace to you from him, he’s talking about Jesus, from him who is and who was and who is to come. Well, that about includes everything.
That certainly isn’t describing you. It’s not like you were, you are, and you will be. Jesus is multidimensional.
God the Father is multidimensional. And then we actually see it in the Holy Spirit. Number three, we see God is multidimensional and how the Holy Spirit moves.
So we see it in the whole Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. John chapter three, verse eight, says this.
Jesus is talking. He says, you know, the wind blows wherever it pleases. And you hear it sound, but you don’t know where the wind comes from.
You don’t know where it’s going. That’s the way it is with everybody born of the Holy Spirit. You know what he’s saying there?
He’s saying, you can’t put the Holy Spirit in a box. You can’t control him. He’s like the wind.
You don’t know where it comes from. You don’t know where it’s going. You can hear the sound.
And he says, the Holy Spirit moves in dimensions we don’t move in. You can’t see the Holy Spirit. So clearly, that’s a dimension that we’re not acquainted with.
He’s saying, the Holy Spirit is multidimensional. Job chapter nine, verse 10 and 11, he is talking about the Spirit. He does wonders that cannot be understood.
For he does so many miracles, they cannot be counted. That’s what the Holy Spirit does. When he passes me, I can’t see him.
And when he goes by me, I don’t recognize him. I don’t recognize him. So the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are all multidimensional.
Now, that’s not a big revelation to you. You understand it. But here’s the important point, number two.
because God is multidimensional, I’m never alone. I am never, never, ever alone. because he’s in every dimension at the same time.
He’s in the past, he’s in the present, he’s in the future. He’s here, he’s there. He’s in heaven, he’s on earth.
He’s in the spirit world, he’s in your and my world. God is in every dimension all the time. He’s in you, he’s above you, he’s around you, because he’s multi-dimensional.
It’s not a bunch of gods, it’s just one god. In the person of Father, Son, Holy Spirit. But because God is multi-dimensional, I’m never alone.
Here’s what David says, Psalm 139. Where could I go to escape from you? You know, he’s talking himself.
David writes this down. Where could I go to escape from you, God? Where could I ever get away from your presence?
If I went up to heaven, you’d be there. If I lay down in the world of the dead, you’d be there. If I flew way beyond the east, or lived at the farthest place to the west, you’d be there too, to lead me.
You’d be there too, to help me. I could ask the darkness to hide me, but even darkness isn’t dark to you. The night is as bright as the day.
Darkness and light are the same to you. Let me give you a little tip. Never try to play hide and seek with God.
because every place you try to hide, he’s already there. We’re talking about the omnipresence of God. He’s everywhere.
He’s in all things. He’s beginning and the end. Yesterday, today, tomorrow, God is everywhere.
So that means there’s no place you’ve been, there’s no place you are, there’s no place you’re gonna be that God’s not gonna be there. That should encourage you. because you can’t go to a place in your future where God is not.
So you’re never going to be alone. Now, what does all this have to do with prayer? Well, it has a lot to do with prayer.
because what it means is, since God is everywhere, and he’s in the past and the present and the future, and he’s in every dimension of the world, and even the dimensions we don’t even know about, there might be 10 dimensions, who knows? because he’s everywhere and in every dimension, you can talk to him about every dimension of your life, and he already understands it. I mean, I know there’s some kids who think that God doesn’t understand Google or the internet or Candy Crush, but God knew all about, oh, you know that one.
Somebody laughed at that. So let’s get practical. because God is a multi-dimensional God, you certainly don’t want to do one-dimensional praying.
I’m gonna take you to a different level today. I’m gonna talk to you about five dimensions of your life that you can pray about. Number one, first dimension.
When I pray, first, I look backwards to the cross. I look backwards to the cross. And I’m talking about in a practical way, when I start my prayers, one of the things I start to do is not with my problems today or my fears about tomorrow, but I start with what I’m grateful for that happened in the past.
It’s good to start your prayers with the cross because it starts with an attitude of gratitude. It’s a good place to start because it fills you with thanksgiving. When I think about Jesus Christ dying for me on the cross, it instantly reminds me of three things.
I wrote them down there for you. How deeply God loves me, how costly evil and sin is, and how completely I’m forgiven. That’s a good way to start your prayers.
How much God loves you, and even though your sins were a mess, you’re completely forgiven. So I look backwards to the cross. 1 Peter 1 says this, verse 18 and 19, God paid a ransom to save you.
God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life. God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life, and he paid for you with the precious life blood of Christ, the sinless, spotless lamb of God. If you wanna know how much something is worth, whatever anybody’s willing to pay for it.
You might have some value possession in your home and you think it’s worth this much. Let me tell you how much it’s worth. Not what your dad told you.
Not what you think. It’s worth whatever anybody’s willing to pay for it. If nobody’s willing to pay for it, what, how much you want?
It’s not worth that, no matter how much you think it is. How much are you worth? Look at the cross.
God sent his own son. He came to earth to die for you. The son of God became a son of man, so the sons of men could be sons of God.
He did what we could not do for ourselves. You couldn’t pay for all the things you’ve done wrong, neither could I. So he said, I love him, and I’ll do it.
And that shows how much you’re worth. He gave his own self, his own son, to die for you. So, when I pray, first thing I like to do is I like to think about how much Jesus loves me and how much I’m forgiven.
I look back to the cross. That’s a good way to start. And by the way, one of the things that helps me on this is music.
You say, well, I just see the cross so long ago. Get some songs about the cross. Get some songs about Jesus dying.
And in your time alone with the Lord every day, you need not only to have a prayer list, you need a playlist. Maybe you’ve never thought about that. You need not only a prayer list in your quiet time, you need a playlist.
And you can get songs, oh, I like that song about the cross. And it makes me think about what Jesus sacrificed for me. That’s a good thing.
Now, I want you to think about this. Right now, all of your sins that you’ve committed, they’re all in the past. But so is the cost.
It’s already been taken care of. And because Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and he’s multi-dimensional, all of the sins you haven’t committed yet have already been paid for. That’s a big deal.
That means I go into the future knowing that even though I don’t want to sin, I know I’m going to, but I don’t want to, but I will, they’ve already been paid for on the cross. That he took care of it all. He solved my problem before I even knew I had a problem.
So number one, I first look backwards. I look backwards to the cross. That’s one dimension.
Dimension number two, I look upward into the face of a loving father. I look upward into my father’s loving face. That’s the second thing I like to do when I pray.
I start by thinking about the cross, and then I turn from the past backwards to looking upward into my heavenly father’s face. Now, the first thing you want to focus on is that God wants you to see him, not as your dictator, not as your boss, not as your supervisor, not as your coach. When Jesus said, this is how you should pray, he said, you should call God Father.
Father. We don’t realize how radical that is, because in the Old Testament, however, nobody called God Father. Maybe one or two times, for thousands of years, God’s called Majestic, King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Creator, and a lot of other really big terms.
Only a couple people, for thousands of years, called God Father. And Jesus, one of the things he came to do is to explain what God’s really like, and he says, God wants you to call him Father. Do you call God Father in prayer?
God tells you to. How many times do you say, now Lord, now God, and what other other terms you use? I want you this next week, every prayer you pray, start with Father.
Why? It’s the term God wants to be called. You say, well, my father wasn’t a very good father.
Your God isn’t your father, and your father isn’t your God. God is a perfect father, caring, close, considerate, consistent, capable, perfect. Every other human father is imperfect, but God is the perfect, loving father, and he says, I want you to call me Father.
And when Jesus said, start every prayer with this, our Father. He’s serious about it. So this week, instead of praying, now Lord, now God, I want you to say, now Father.
I am so grateful for that message by Rick, and I hope you are too. You know, over the last couple of years, we’ve all experienced worldwide changes and events that have impacted us in profound and sometimes unimaginable ways. And for many of us, those changes will impact our lives for years to come.
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