I'd like you to look with me just
for a few minutes tonight at 1 John
chapter 5.
I'm just going to extract a couple of
verses from 1 John chapter 5 and verses
14 and 15.
1 John 5 verses 14 and 15.
Now, this is the confidence that we have
in Him that if we ask anything according
to His will, He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us,
whatever we ask, we know that we have
the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Two of many verses in the Scriptures promising
that our God answers prayers.
What a wonderful privilege we have.
One of the fruits of the work of
the Lord Jesus for us on the cross
of Calvary.
I read recently that they have in the
White House a special zip code for people
who have to have instant access to the
President.
And if you write a letter and put
this zip code on the letter, and that
letter comes to the mail room there in
the White House, it goes directly to the
President without delay.
There's also a fax number that the favored
few have.
Those who are privileged to have this kind
of access to the President, you call, you
dial that fax number, and your fax goes
right on through.
There's no delay, whatever.
Dear friends, we've got something a lot better
than that.
We have access into the presence of the
great Sovereign of the universe any day, instant
access at any time of the day or
night, whereby faith, we enter into the throne
room of the universe.
We can talk to Him and call Him
Father.
I want to tell you, that's pretty wonderful.
I don't think any individual Jew in the
Old Testament is ever quoted as calling God
Father.
Yes, collectively sometimes they did call Him Father,
but no individual Jew ever called God Father.
And you know, the wonderful thing is that
one of the first words that proceeds out
of the mouth of a newborn child of
God is Father.
I don't know if you ever noticed that.
A person just gets saved, and you get
down on your knees with Him, and you're
going to speak to the Lord, and that's
the first word that comes out of Him.
I often think of that years ago in
the military, we were out in Honolulu, and
it was a black at that time, and
all the shades had to be drawn, not
a crack of light must get through for
fear of enemy planes flying near.
And one night this fellow stayed behind in
the Bible class there, and he was troubled.
He was in soul trouble.
And finally we knelt down with him, and
he prayed.
And this was his prayer.
Father, I've been in the dark out, the
dark out up till now, he said, but
now I see the light.
You know, the first word he said, Father.
Who taught him to say that?
The Holy Spirit.
The Spirit of adoption told him to say
that.
No human being told him to say it.
Well, I'd just like to go over with
you some of the wonderful things, the privilege
of prayer that we have.
And first of all, I'd like to remind
you that we never come closer to omnipotence
than when we pray in the name of
the Lord Jesus.
You and I will never share that attribute
of God of having all power.
Some of those attributes of God are His
and His alone.
We'll never be omnipotent.
We'll never be omniscient.
We'll never be omnipresent.
But I'll tell you, we never come closer
to having all power than when we pray
in the name of the Lord Jesus.
Why?
Because when you pray in His name, it's
just the same as if He were presenting
those petitions to the Father.
It's wonderful, isn't it?
Wonderful.
It's absolutely the same as if the Lord
Jesus Himself was making those petitions to the...
And I want to tell you, friends, that
power.
And we don't realize that I do believe
that one of the greatest regrets we'll get...
that we'll have when we get to heaven
is that we didn't pray more.
A young fellow visiting from Israel said to
me, How much do you pray?
I wish he hadn't asked me that question.
What could I say?
I said, I don't pray enough.
That's the honest answer to the question.
I don't pray enough.
But I know that we have within our
power this wonderful instrument that we can come
to God and present our petitions to Him,
and it's just absolutely the same as if
His beloved Son was presenting them to Him.
I like what an old English bishop said
once.
He said, When I pray, things happen.
When I don't pray, they don't.
Isn't that right?
When I pray, things happen.
When I don't pray, they don't.
And to me, that's one of the thrills
of the Christian life, is a life of
prayer where your service sparkles with the supernatural.
Where things happen that wouldn't ordinarily happen according
to the laws of chance or probability.
Where the gears really do mesh, and you're
in a sense radioactive with the Holy Spirit
because of prayer.
I really believe with all my heart that
Christians...
we don't take this in.
We don't really take it in.
Christians hold the balance of power in the
world through prayer.
We think of the mighty empires of the
world, you know.
We think of the Russian Empire, you know.
But I want to tell you, it's Christians
who hold the balance of power.
I thought of that when the Iron Curtain
came down.
Why did the Iron Curtain come down?
I believe it came down because Christians will
pray.
That's why.
And it certainly is true that we can
affect the destiny of nations as well as
of individuals through prayer.
We really can.
It's happened in history, and I believe it's
happening now.
Why resort to politics?
Politics has had centuries of opportunity to prove
its worthwhileness, and it's been an utter failure.
Dear friends, you and I can do more
on our knees than we can do in
the ballot box.
We really can.
That's where the power is.
Speaking to God in prayer and committing our
concerns to Him in that way, we can
change the destiny of nations and influence the
course of history.
I like to tell that story of a
group of young people praying out in Oakland
years ago.
It's in Oakland, San Leandro, years ago, all
-night prayer meeting.
And during the course of the all-night
prayer meeting, we had a letter from Dick
Sanders in Chad.
And the Christians in the Chad at that
time, they were going through terrible persecution.
Time magazine reported that one Christian was buried
up to his neck in the sand, and
the ants killed him.
Another Christian was placed in the drum, and
they beat on the drum until he starved
to death.
This was in a secular press.
And Dick Sanders wrote us, and he said,
don't feel sorry for those who've gone to
be with the Lord, but he said, pray
for the Christians who are still living.
And I remember about two or three o
'clock Saturday morning, these dear young people, they
got on their knees, and they prostrated themselves
before the Lord, and they started crying out
for the Chad Republic.
You say, come on, just a group of
young people, you know, just a group of
young people.
Nobody's praying at two or three in the
morning, you know, what's going to be accomplished?
Well, I'll tell you what's going to be
accomplished.
I was driving to Bethany Chapel the next
Sunday morning, and I just happened to flick
on the radio, and through an all-news
station, and a special report came across.
Revolution in the Chad Republic.
The ruler, the cruel ruler was killed, and
a general rose to power, and we happened
to find out that that general was favorable
to the evangelical cause.
Now I want to ask you, could a
group of young people praying in San Leandro
affect the destiny of the Chad Republic?
Yes, it did.
It did.
Resulted in the overthrow of that wicked, wicked
ruler, and it became a new day, certainly
for a while there in the Chad.
We can really influence the destiny of nations
and the history of the world.
I try to remind myself of these things
as an encouragement to prayer.
The best prayer comes from a strong inward
necessity.
Have you noticed that?
The best prayer comes from a strong inward
necessity.
What does that mean?
It means you pray best when the going
is roughest.
You know, when everything is well, and everything
is going along smoothly, and the sun is
shining, well, it's easy for your prayer life
to become dull and listless.
But when you go to the doctor, and
certain words fall out of his mouth, you
know, I tell you, you can pray.
You can really pray.
The best prayer comes from a strong inward
necessity, and that's why it's wonderful to be
cast upon the Lord.
Forget all our pillows, forget all our security,
forget all our crutches and these things that
we lean on, and really be cast upon
the Lord and see him working wonderfully.
God seldom, if ever, does anything except in
answer to prayer.
Now, that might shock you.
God seldom, if ever, does anything in answer
to prayer.
Sometimes when I meet a young fellow, and
he's just been saved, I say to him,
who prayed for you?
And it's interesting, he thinks, well, I had
a grandmother who I believe was really a
born-again Christian.
And almost invariably, something will come out like
that, that probably was the line, the prayer
line that eventually resulted in that fellow's salvation.
Somebody has said that, a Spurgeon said it,
prayer is the forerunner of mercy.
Turn to sacred history, and you will find
that seldom ever did a great mercy come
to this world unheralded by supplication.
Prayer is always the preface of blessing.
I say this to encourage us, because sometimes
we kind of become discouraged in our prayer
life.
You pray, and you pray, and you pray,
and nothing happens.
It does happen.
Somebody else said this, God has limited certain
of his activities to responding to the prayers
of his people.
Unless they pray, he will not act.
Heaven may, well, heaven may not act, heaven
may will something to happen, but heaven waits
and encourages earth's initiative to desire that will,
and then to will and pray that it
happens.
The will of God is not done on
earth by an inexorable juggernaut omnipotence out there,
overriding or ignoring the will of man on
earth.
On the contrary, God has willed that his
hand be held back while he seeks for
a man to plead, to intercede.
Thy will be done on earth, as it
is in heaven in this, or that specific
situation.
To use one man's words, he bids his
will be done on earth.
He did his own work wait on man's
prayers.
He did his own work wait on man's
prayers.
Well, the Solomon, you think of it.
Prayer moves the hand of God to do
things that he wouldn't otherwise have done.
Now, that's not popular teaching in some circumstances.
Well, you know, God has ordained everything's going
to happen anyway, and when you pray, it
just brings you into submission with God's will
and with whatever he had already planned to
do.
Is that true?
Or is it true that God, that prayer
moves God's hand to do things that he
otherwise wouldn't have done?
Yes, James chapter 4, verse 1.
Verse 2.
James chapter 4, verse 2.
And this is very significant.
It says it so clearly.
Why did we ever miss it?
It says you lust and do not have,
you murder and covet and cannot obtain, you
fight and war, you do not have because
you do not ask.
Well, that's pretty clear, isn't it?
You do not have because you do not
ask.
You ask to have.
Prayer moves the hand of God to do
things that he otherwise wouldn't have done.
Chapter 5, verse 16.
Confess your trespasses to one another and pray
for one another that you may be healed.
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
So I don't go along with that teaching
that all prayer does is bring you into
submission to the will of God through what's
going to happen anyway.
That's a certain kind of fatalism.
I don't think it's true.
I think remove the hand of God through
prayer.
And it's helpful for me to remember that
God, I believe God answers every prayer, every
prayer that's prayed in the name of the
Lord Jesus.
And he answers it in exactly the same
way I would answer it if I had
his wisdom, love and power.
Think about that for a minute.
God answers prayer.
He answers every prayer.
And he answers it in exactly the same
way that you would do it if you
had his wisdom, if you knew what he
knows.
If you had his love, you loved the
way he loved.
If you had his power, you would answer
it exactly that same way.
Quite a wonderful thing to have a God
like that, isn't it?
God of infinite wisdom, infinite love, infinite power.
A God who loves us.
A God who couldn't love us more than
he loves us at this very minute.
I tell you, that melts my heart when
I think of that.
It's true.
God couldn't, if you're a believer here in
the Lord Jesus Christ, God couldn't love you
more than he loves you right now.
You know why?
He loves you with the same love he
loves his son.
It's enough to blow you away, isn't it?
You know, the truths of the word of
God are marvelous.
It's marvelous that we can read them without
gasping.
I like an expression the young people have
today.
When something is really horrific, they say, it's
enough to blow your socks off.
Well, that's a good expression.
It says it very well.
Enough to blow your socks off.
And that's so true of a lot of
the wonderful truths of the word of God.
God nothing does.
God doesn't do anything or allow it to
be done.
But what you yourself would do if you
could see the end of all the way
he can see it.
It's absolutely true.
The more you think of it, the more
you realize it has to be true.
Has to be true.
How about when we pray for unsaved loved
ones?
How about that?
I don't say this pridefully, but you know,
I was in the Navy with a fellow
and I prayed for him for 50 years,
50 years.
And he died last February and he died
in his sins.
How do you explain that, McDonald?
Explain that one to me.
Well, I'll tell you this.
I believe when I prayed for him, God
acted on him.
God acted on his conscience.
I believe that.
God doesn't save people against their will.
God's not going to drag reluctant converts into
heaven, is he?
Huh?
Wouldn't be heaven.
Imagine a lot of people in heaven who
didn't want to be there.
It wouldn't be heaven.
God's not going to do that.
God's not willing that any should perish.
But all should come.
But all don't want to come to him.
All don't want to come to him.
And I think it's very, very helpful for
us to remember that.
When I pray for an unsaved person, I
believe God works on that unsaved person.
Some way I don't even know.
Maybe he's driving along and he sees Jesus
saves on a rock.
Maybe he sees a car with the motto,
Jesus is Lord on it, which isn't too
hard to do nowadays.
You can see a lot of them.
I had that motto on the back of
my car and one morning I went down
and both plates were gone and the frame
was gone with the words, Jesus is Lord.
Religious thief.
I hope it speaks to his heart.
I hope it pricks his conscience.
I had to go and buy a new
plate for eight dollars and that hurts a
Scot, you know.
But I do believe, I believe when I
pray for the unsaved person, God works in
some way.
I don't know.
Maybe he turns on the radio and he
hears something about the Lord on it.
Or TV.
Or somebody hands him a track.
I believe that.
And then God leaves that up to him.
Whether he wants to go to heaven or
not.
Because you have that wonderful balance in the
Word of God.
I would also like to suggest to you
tonight that the work of God is done
more in prayer than it's done in any
other way.
Prayer really is the work of God.
That's where it is accomplished.
It's the cutting work for any work of
God.
It's not some supplemental thing that you kind
of throw in for good measure.
No, that's not what it is at all.
It is the work of God.
And that's kind of, it almost seems passe
to talk like that nowadays with all the
methods of imitating the world's economies and markets
and all the rest.
The fact remains that the real work of
God is done on our knees.
Now there are, I confess to you tonight
as I'm up here speaking, there are mysteries
in connection with prayer.
There are mysteries in connection with prayer.
As there are in connection with all the
Christian life.
But I want to tell you something.
I'd rather pray than solve all the mysteries
that there are.
I don't let myself get sidetracked by those
mysteries of prayer.
Just keep on praying.
Prayer should be a joy for us.
I like that what Paul says in Philippians
chapter 1 verse 4.
Philippians chapter 1 verse 4.
I don't know if you ever noticed it.
He says, always in every prayer of mine,
making requests for you all with joy.
Yeah, you read that and you say, well
I thought prayer was a duty.
I thought it was a command or something
like that.
And Paul says, pardon me, he says I
happen to enjoy it.
I enjoy doing it.
What's wrong with enjoying prayer?
There's nothing in the Bible against that.
I know there are times when it seems
to be a discipline, a routine, but we're
not allowed that warmth of the Spirit as
we pray, which enables it to be a
joyous activity.
There are times like that, but God wants
it to be a joy in our life.
Prayer often deals in the realm of the
impossible.
I remember when some of those young people
were having those all night readings, they'd say,
if it's possible, there's no glory for God
in it.
If it's impossible, it can be done.
That's good, isn't it?
Faith wants not grabbers of the possible, but
grabbers of the impossible.
And I think that that's something that we
should ever remember in our prayer life, to
pray big things.
Think of what prayer has accomplished.
Somebody wrote this.
Prayer makes the darkest clouds withdraw.
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw.
Gives exercise to faith and love.
Brings every blessing from above.
Restraining prayer, we cease to fight.
Prayer makes the Christian's armor bright, and Satan
trembles when he sees the weakest Christian on
his knees.
I remember Mary, Queen of Scots, said that
she feared the prayers of John Knox more
than all the armies of England.
That's good, isn't it?
That's a wonderful testimony.
Mary, Queen of Scots, feared the prayers of
John Knox more than she did of all
the armies of England.
It's fervent prayers that really reach the throne
of God.
Fervent prayers.
What does fervent mean?
Means boiling.
Means hot.
Means prayers that just come out from the
heart to God.
And those are the prayers that really reach
the throne of God.
Somebody said, cold prayers are like arrows without
heads.
As swords without edges.
As birds without wings.
They pierce not, they cut not, they fly
not up to heaven.
Cold prayers always freeze before they get to
heaven.
They do.
Fervent prayers, that's what we need.
Prayers that make, that are heard in the
sanctuary of God.
Somebody said this and I like it.
I measure my effectiveness by how many people
I pray for and how many people pray
for me.
Good.
I measure my effectiveness by how many people
I pray for and how many people pray
for me.
I tell you, one of the humbling things
in Christian life and service is for people
to come up to you and say, I
pray for you every day of life.
It really humbles me when they say that.
But I want to tell you something tonight.
I live off the prayers of other people.
I really do.
Last week I had a wonderful answer to
prayer.
For quite a while now when I'm writing
to people I say, you know, I appreciate
your prayers for the Russian translation of the
commentary.
Nothing specific.
We were meeting roadblock after roadblock and it
was obvious the enemy was hindering, hindering, hindering
all the time.
Very, very frustrating.
Including computers.
I think computers can be demons at times.
I'm good for you.
This last week I got a letter from
a dear friend in Germany, a publisher.
He said, I'll publish the commentary for you.
I think that was an answer that just
about broke my heart.
I was so moved.
Letter from that dear brother in Germany.
He said, I'll take care of the revising,
the publishing of the commentary in Russian for
you.
He's already done it in German.
He's already smuggled Bibles into, Spanish commentaries into
Cuba and they took some from him at
the border a couple of weeks ago.
But he got some and he smuggled some
in.
And since then, quite unexpectedly he got an
authorization from the Cuban government to take in
an undesignated number of commentaries and he's ordered
thousands to go in.
So God answered prayer.
I'll say he answers prayer.
I get tremendous help and encouragement from a
portion in the book of Revelation.
Revelation, would you turn to it just please
for a minute.
This really helps me.
Let's see if I can just find it
quickly.
Chapter 8 and another verse 3.
Then another angel having a golden censer came
and stood at the altar.
He was given much incense that he should
offer it with the prayers of all the
saints upon the golden altar which was before
the throne.
The smoke of the incense with the prayers
of the saints ascended before God from the
angel's hands.
Most commentaries, most evangelical commentaries agree that the
angel in verses 3 and 4 is the
angel of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ
himself.
And what a wonderful picture it is.
Here you see the prayers of the saints
and they go to the Lord Jesus on
the way to the Father.
And he was given much incense.
He offers it with the prayers of the
saints.
You know, I think the incense there is
the fragrance of his work, his person and
work.
And our prayers are so failing, they're so
weak, you know.
And sometimes we commit such doctrinal absurdities in
our prayers, you know.
It's so wonderful to know that the Lord
Jesus takes those prayers and he removes all
impurities from them and he adds that incense
to them, presents them to the Father.
They're absolutely perfect.
That's a help to me.
I hope it is to you too.
When they get to the, when they get
to the Father, they're absolutely perfect.
Prayer is more important than service.
Somebody has said, God is looking, the Lord
Jesus is wooing a wife, not hiring a
servant.
The heavenly bridegroom is wooing a wife, not
hiring a servant.
Very, very good.
We honor God by the greatness of our
prayers, by the greatness.
I like that story of Alexander the Great.
You know, he used to have open court
one day when people could come to him
from the kingdom and just make any request
they wanted to.
One day a beggar came to him and
he asked, what did he ask?
He asked for a dowry for his daughter,
an education for his son.
And Alexander said, it's granted.
And some of his aides came to him
and said, why did you grant those requests
to that beggar that came to you?
Alexander said, I get tired of these people
who come asking for a gold coin.
He said, that saucy beggar treated me like
a king.
He asked big.
He treated me like a king.
He asked big.
Thou art coming to a king.
Large petitions would be great, for his love
and power of such you can never ask
too much.
If you had been living when Christ was
on earth and had met the Savior kind,
what would you have asked him to do
for you, supposing you were stone blind?
Child considered and then replied, I suppose that
without doubt I'd have asked the Lord for
a dog with a chain to lead me
daily about.
How often thus in our faithless prayers we
acknowledge with shame surprise we've only asked for
a dog with a chain when we might
have had opened eyes.
Ask big.
God loves you to come and ask big
from him.
It's wonderful the answers to prayers that are
going on every day.
I don't know whether I ever told you
this, but, you know, years ago a young
fellow came from overseas.
He'd been doing missionary work.
He came to my apartment in Oak Park,
and he shared a problem with me that
I knew the elders of an assembly should
know.
And I said to him, Greg, after you
leave here, you're going to go to this
city, and I want you to go to
the elders of this assembly, and I want
you to tell them what you told me
today.
And before he left, we prayed.
And Greg, Greg went to that city, and
then he went on to Los Angeles from
there.
And he wrote me from Los Angeles and
he said, you know, he said, he said,
I wanted to do the Lord's will, but
he said, I had meetings, I had appointments,
I had, he said, I never did get
to see those elders.
But he said, I'm still open to the
Lord's leading, you know.
Well, he had two weeks of meetings out
on Los Angeles, and it was time to
go back to Midland Park, New Jersey.
So he got, he got on a Greyhound
bus.
And when he got on, the bus was
fairly empty.
But as it worked its way through Los
Angeles, it started filling up with passengers.
And when he got to Riverside, when they
got to Riverside, there was only one empty
seat.
It was the one beside Greg.
And Greg bowed his head, and he said,
Lord Jesus, lead some young person on so
that I could witness to him for you.
And he opened his eyes, and an older
man was getting on board.
And the man came, and of course he
had to sit beside Greg because that was
the empty seat on the bus.
So Greg said, Lord, young or old, I
have my duty to do.
So he started to witness to this man.
And the man said, well, that's a funny
thing you should talk to me about, the
Lord.
He said, I happen to be a born
again Christian.
And Greg said, you are?
He said, he said, my name is, Greg
said, my name is Greg Livingston.
And this man said, my name is, he
gave the name of the elder, one of
the elders from that assembly that he was
supposed to have visited.
That elder was in the Midwest.
To be specific, was in Milwaukee.
He said, well, how could he get from
Milwaukee to a bus in Los Angeles?
Well, he and his wife got a drive
-away car in Milwaukee to go out and
visit a daughter in Phoenix.
And so he dropped his wife off in
Phoenix and went on to Riverside to deliver
the car.
The car had to be delivered in Ripside.
And then he had to go back to
Phoenix on a Greyhound bus.
And he sat beside Greg Livingston.
You know, when you think of all the
Greyhound buses in the United States, when you
think of all the cities they stopped at,
when you think of all the seats on
a bus, when you think of all the
time schedules, wasn't that quite a coincidence?
I tell you, it was remarkable.
Absolutely remarkable.
What?
God answers prayer.
And doesn't that add sparkle to your life
when you see him answering prayer?
Have you learned to move men through God
by prayer?
Well, Lord, bless his heart.
And encourage us in lives of prayer, knowing
that if I wasted every one of the
answers, just the same way you would answer
it, if you had his wisdom, love, and
power.
Thank you.