Could we stand and read God's word together?
I'd like to thank the Lord and thank
Brother Paul and heart cry for the invitation
to be a part of this conference.
And we look to the Lord alone.
I'd like to read two specific passages of
scripture.
The first is in Colossians four.
I could not earlier today think of where
this verse was.
And then my dear brother, Chad Thompson, overheard
me and he say, oh, that's over Colossians
four.
So Colossians four, we'll read there and then
we'll go back right away to John chapter
one.
Colossians four, John one, verse 12, Brother Bill.
Referred to this in his morning message, and
the Lord had already directed my thoughts to
speak on it as a biblical example of
a praying man.
Verse 12, Epaphras, who is one of you,
a servant of Christ, salutes you.
Here was his ministry.
This is what he did.
This was his calling, laboring fervently for you
in prayers that you may stand perfect and
complete in all the will of God.
John, chapter one, one verse, verse six, sometimes
we read over these short verses.
We become so familiar with them that we
don't.
Let the impact of what they truly say.
Come freshly to us, we ought to pause
and carry long scripture, verse six says this,
what an amazing thing.
There was a man sent from God.
Whose name was John.
Father, as we are here in your presence
again, we bow our hearts to you, Lord
Jesus, you know, and I know.
And these, my brothers and sisters, they know
that in me that I can of
myself do nothing.
Lord, you've already told us that in John
15, apart from you, I can do nothing.
So, Lord, I.
Roll my heart and my burden upon thee.
And I thank you and we thank you
today that our sufficiency is of you, whether
to speak or to hear your voice.
We ask you today to hear our cry,
we ask you today to remember that promise,
Lord, where you said, though I am poor
and needy, yet you think upon me.
Remember us even this hour, father, this afternoon,
would you afresh enlarge our capacity to continue
to receive what you give, speak to those,
Lord, who need.
Through this time to hear a living word
from God, quicken, we ask our moral bodies,
those who are weary and continue.
Blessed Holy Spirit.
To be among us, our sufficiency is of
thee.
And our expectation is of God, father, through
our Lord Jesus Christ.
We pray and thank you that you hear
us and we look to you.
Amen.
Can you see that I was asked to
speak on prayer in history?
And, you know, I thought, OK.
I mean, that's kind of like being asked,
could you speak to us about cars?
Or, you know, speak to us about the
universe.
Where do you start, what do you do?
And the frustration for me is I'm not
preaching the Bible today, but I know God
can can use this.
I want to speak on the subject prayer
and praying men in particularly in British history.
And when I say prayer and praying men,
I'm going to be speaking on men.
But let me qualify this by simply saying
that God all through history has raised up
praying young ladies and praying young men and
praying women and praying men and praying elderly
ladies hidden away.
And God calls people to a life and
a vocation and a ministry of prayer, prayer
and praying men, the power of the Holy
Spirit coming through prayer in every generation.
It's true that God sovereignly zeros in on
and saves and separates and cleanses and draws
and prepares.
Praying men and praying women.
Praying young people, he raises up bands of
praying people.
One of the great revivals in 1859 in
Northern Ireland started with a group of teenage
boys praying in a haystack in a barn.
They prayed and they continued to pray.
They covenanted together to continue in prayer.
And like a match thrown on that haystack,
the spirit of God began to move in
Ireland in the 19th century.
He raises up praying bands of people.
E.M. Bounds, who wrote probably the best
books there are on prayer, said this, While
the church is looking for better methods, God
is looking for better men.
The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods,
but through men.
He does not fall upon machinery, but upon
men.
He doesn't anoint plans, but men praying men
and women.
That is God's purposes.
Now, one of the great differences between our
day, the 20th and the 21st century and
the 18th and 19th centuries, is the view
that both preachers and believers held regarding God
sending and giving the Holy Spirit in answer
to prayer.
Men of prayer.
There were giants in those days, men and
women anointed and sent of God to pray.
And that's why this phrase from John's gospel,
it was a man sent from God.
Whose name was John, he was sent to
preach, but what do you think he did
in the wilderness until the time of his
showing forth?
John prepared for 30 years to preach six
months to get his head cut off.
Anybody want to go in the ministry?
Jesus prepared 30 years to preach three years.
Men of prayer.
Well, there was a man sent from God
whose name was John, but it wasn't John
the Baptist.
His name was John Knox.
I want us to look at some praying
men in British history and see what we
can draw forth from our lives, because God
lays his hand on people, ordinary men and
women.
Not many mighty, not many noble, ordinary men
and women whose heart he's touched to draw
them and call them to a life and
calling of prayer.
John Knox, 1514 to 1572.
He certainly learned the secret of faith and
usefulness.
Was prayer real prayer?
Now, some of us know John Knox is
the great Scottish reformer who thundered forth sermons,
but we don't know the suffering that he
experienced to get there to be used of
God.
Knox learned that the secret of.
True usefulness, the secret of preaching, the secret
of spiritual courage and obtaining needed grace was
prayer, prayer and more prayer all the time.
He learned that the secret of enduring trials
and real persecution was daily dependent prayer.
Now, for John Knox, this came at a
hard price because in 1547 he was arrested
and spent 19 months as a slave in
a French galley ship.
Now, basically, that was a military or commercial
ship where they use slaves in the bottom
deck, the lower gallery of the ship.
They would chain them to benches in the
lower gallery as the ocean water was able
to flow freely in at their feet.
They chained them there to row the ship.
And John Knox stayed on that ship as
a slave rowing for 19 months.
You think he learned something down there of
real prayer?
Through English intervention, Knox was released within two
years and he was brought to London in
the year 1549 and he became a chaplain
in the English government.
And as a result of this deepening of
this shutting away and his developing his prayer
life in hard circumstances in a place that
he thought he was forgotten and saw no
calling and no openings and no hope of
release.
Knox was chiseled out in the place of
prayer and hardship.
And as a result, though outwardly a fear,
fearless and bold witness.
He was a humble man of prayer, first
and foremost, Knox spent seasons in prayer.
He lived in an attitude and spirit of
prayer.
Now, he only had one sermon that's ever
survived in writing.
And in that sermon, he said this about
prayer.
He said, let us humble ourselves in the
presence of God and from our hearts desire
him to assist us with the power of
the Holy Spirit.
We may yet be assured that with our
God, there is power.
And Mary, the queen, did state it was
accurately true.
I fear more the prayers of John Knox
than hearing that an enemy army is marching
against us.
When Knox was asked to explain the power
of the movement of the word of God
that began to conquer Scotland in his days,
here was his explanation that God gave his
Holy Spirit to simple men in great abundance.
That can give any of us hope.
God gave his Holy Spirit to simple men
in great abundance.
John Knox was a praying man.
And God called him to a life of
prayer in the midst of all the other
things and ministry that he was called to.
There was another man sent from God in
Knox's own life.
His name was Robert Bruce, 1555 to 1631.
Now, though Robert Bruce was 40 years younger
than Knox, their lives overlapped.
Bruce was 17 years old when John Knox
died.
And isn't this an amazing thing in the
God of Providence and the God of history?
He sends servants to serve their generation by
doing the will of God and they die
and he's brought new servants on the scene.
Knox dies and Robert Bruce shows up.
And he was like a gospel William Wallace,
John Bruce, William Bruce was he was an
amazing man.
He was one of those men of Scotland
that had in his day a fervent passion
for the glory of Christ and for reaching
perishing Scotland with the gospel, often at the
risk of his own neck, because in those
days, depending on who was ruling on the
throne and what mood they were in.
It might be illegal one week to preach
the gospel.
You might be preaching to the parliament the
next week.
Well, Bruce often was at risk of his
life.
John Livingston, a contemporary of his, who we'll
hear more of later, said this of Bruce.
No man in his time spoke with such
evidence and power of the spirit.
Many of his hearers thought that no man
since the apostles spoke with such power.
It was prayer in a large measure that
made Bruce what he was in terms of
reality and personal godliness and impact and the
spirit falling upon his simple gospel preaching.
Now, Bruce's king, King James, the king for
whom the authorized version his name was a
fickle and wicked man.
At times, King James would come to hear
Bruce preach and he would try to avoid
the conviction of sin that he would feel
under the sound of Bruce's preaching.
So he would on purpose begin to talk
to his servants out loud and others could
hear even Bruce could hear it in the
pulpit.
One occasion, Bruce deliberately paused.
He stopped preaching till the king was quiet.
But when he began preaching again, the king
started talking again.
Finally, Bruce pointedly addressed these words to the
talkers.
And I quote, It is said to have
been an expression of the wisest of kings.
When the lion roars, all the beasts of
the field are quiet.
Well, the lion of the tribe of Judah
is now roaring in his gospel.
And it becomes all kings of the earth
to be silent.
Me thinks there was silence the rest of
the sermon.
Where did such courage come from toward a
king even who could have had his head?
It was prayer.
Bruce was preaching at that memorial, memorable weekend
at the Kirk of Shots in Scotland in
June 1630.
The Presbyterians would have what they call communion
seasons.
They didn't stick on the Lord's Supper at
the end of a sermon for 10 minutes
or 30 minutes.
They would come in a communion season for
five or six days and 10 or 20
preachers would preach.
And on the last day, they would have
preaching stations and they would have five sermons
going on at once.
And the ministers and elders, the people would
come toward the end of the week and
they would be spiritually examined and exhorted.
And they would be given a token to
be able to come to the communion table
after they had examined their hearts.
And then at the end, they would all
have communion together.
Bruce was preaching there at this large communion
season.
And a young man, young John Livingston, had
been chosen to preach that final day.
He was scared, scared to death.
He was about 24.
So the night before he stayed up all
night praying out in the fields and then
fear gripped him and he said, I can't
do it, I can't do it.
And he tried to run away.
But as he was going, the scriptures gripped
his heart and he came back.
And Livingston did preach to several thousand the
next day in fear.
And with the power of the spirit coming
down and history records that nearly 500 that
day had a discernible change wrought upon them,
attributing their conversion to that single sermon of
whom most proved afterward to be lively Christians
the rest of their lives.
Bruce, Robert Bruce, faced persecution.
He had to run for his life, hiding
at times.
And when he did, he gave himself to
prayer, the key to his life and his
fruitfulness.
And we ought to learn it was that
great grace came to him through ongoing, habitual
private prayer.
That's all he had.
All Bruce had was God and Christ and
the Holy Spirit and his Bible and a
sound gospel.
That's all he had.
But that's all he needed to do the
work God called him to do.
They did so much with so little and
we do so little in our day with
so much.
Some of us, if we gave time to
prayer and the reading of Scripture that we
give to the computer, well, I'm not supposed
to preach.
So great grace was on Bruce's life because
he was unable to live in the presence
of God.
He cultivated and welcomed and nourished, was his
words, the presence of the spirit of God
in his life.
Every day.
And he lived in the presence of God,
a fellow countryman of his, Robert Fleming said
of Bruce.
He was a great wrestler who had extraordinary
familiarity with his master.
What was said by John Flavel could have
been said about Bruce.
Prayer begets and maintains holy courage in evil
times.
Brethren, you think we're heading into more and
more evil times?
Evil times, Leonard Ravenhill used to say, America
will come to the place that we will
either learn to concentrate in prayer or we'll
pray in concentration camps.
Take your choice.
I used to hear him say that 20,
25 years ago.
And it didn't fully register with me, but
you look at our day and you see
God bringing our nation into a judgment mode.
And one day it could be the true
evangelicals, that large churches and visible churches will
be a thing of the past.
And the church could be underground and be
a persecuted minority, and it will be a
hate crime punishable by law to declare publicly
that Jesus Christ is the only way to
God.
In our day, that could happen.
Evil times, beloved, he said, prayer begets and
maintains holy courage in evil times.
When all things around you tend to discouragement,
it is your being with Jesus that makes
you bold.
He that is used to being before a
great God, he that is used to being
in the presence of a great God, will
not be afraid to look such little things
as men in the face.
Praying for and depending on the Holy Spirit
was central in Bruce's life.
Listen to what he prayed the first time
he was silenced and put in prison in
Edinburgh.
His prayer was this.
Oh, God, if it be your good pleasure
to exercise me with a new trial and
pull both the people and ministry from me,
if it would please thee, instead of the
king's favor and the priest's favor being toward
me, please triple thy spirit upon me.
And let me see in my heart thy
face brighter and brighter.
Many years later, in 1628, his praying was
still the same pleading for the Holy Spirit.
One day he was in a prayer meeting,
sitting at a table with some men, and
he was pleading in prayer when he unconsciously
hit the table with his fist.
And suddenly at the same time, there was
such a manifestation of God in the room
among them.
That a man exclaimed afterwards, oh, what a
strange man is this, for he knocked down
the spirit of God upon us.
What Bruce needed as a Christian, the presence
of the Holy Spirit continually, he especially needed
as a preacher.
And in one meeting to preachers, this was
his message.
We must study to entertain and say we're
so used to modern use of of our
English words that we don't even understand the
meaning, entertain, welcome, desire, long for practice, the
presence of we must study to entertain and
nourish the Holy Spirit.
Bruce preached and he said this, many begin
to teach the word, but it seems like
many flocks of the saints remain without being
built up and the kingdom is not built
because they have only the word and lack
the power of the spirit that makes the
word effectual to hearts.
An incident in the life of a young
preacher, Robert Blair, shows how seriously Bruce viewed
this, our need of the Holy Spirit continually
in life and ministry.
Robert Blair was a gifted young man from
Glasgow, Scotland.
He was a candidate for the ministry and
Bruce heard him preach one day.
Afterwards, in conversation with Bruce, Blair came to
him and Blair asked Bruce's advice on his
sermon.
Blair initially might have regretted asking the question,
he got an honest and unforgettable response.
Here's what Bruce said to him.
I found your sermon very polished, but there's
one thing I missed in it.
The spirit of God, I found not that
Blair came to admire Bruce even more because
of that.
And Blair was the one who took a
long journey to visit Bruce when he was
in prison his second time for preaching the
gospel.
Bruce knew dark days and sometimes he felt
totally deserted, as you and I feel at
times, but sometimes he felt God's sensible presence
so much because he continually sought the presence
of God.
He felt God's presence so much with him,
he couldn't contain himself in the night from
breaking out with the words, I'm the happiest
man that ever was born, happy that I
ever knew and served God.
The happy man, Robert Bruce, who was always
praying for more of the Holy Spirit, prayer
and praying men, God raises them up.
There was also a man sent from God
whose name was Thomas, Thomas Boston.
Born in 1676, Boston was a minister in
the Church of Scotland for 33 years and
two churches until his death in 1732.
There were great realities that drove Boston through
pain and suffering to have to pray.
Some of us don't pray because we're too
comfortable.
Some of us don't pray because we're not
desperate, because we have everything lined up perfectly
and we feel no sense of need.
And often God engineers pain and difficulty and
pressure and heartache and extremities to drive us
to prayer.
Thomas Boston experienced this great realities that brought
him a prayer life.
Many critics of his ministry there were.
Many critics, the death of six of his
children, he buried six of his children, the
developing mental insanity of his wife, which kept
her confined to her bedroom for years.
These things drove Boston to his knees and
gave him power with God.
His biographer, Andrew Thompson, shows how prayer was
real in Boston's life from early on.
Thompson says, see, young Boston, from the time
of his youth, we see kneeling beneath the
branches of the apple tree in his garden.
And there he found secret prayer, the element
in which his spirit lived morning and evening.
Praying was not sufficient to satisfy the cravings
of his heart for intercourse with God.
And Thompson says in every condition and situation,
Boston learned to run to the heavenly mercy
seat.
And to go there for hourly duties and
heavy ministry labors which were beyond him and
for those he hurried with his empty vessel
to the fountain of life, Boston says in
one of his sermons about prayer, God is
doing something with all of us, though for
a while he may appear to leave prayer
unanswered.
You ever feel that way?
Many servants of Christ before us have had
to learn not to tire, not to grow
weary, not to faint, not to give up.
As they awaited days of greater blessing coming
in the future, how much Boston owed for
wondrous blessing to this one habit of being
a praying man and letting nothing interfere.
With being alone with the Savior, that's where
we may often fall short, isn't it?
How often do we let things that even
seem necessary and good interfere?
Intrude.
Well, there was another man sent from God
whose name was Calder, James Calder.
You may never have heard of him.
He lived in the 18th century in Scotland,
in Scotland from 1712 when he was born
to 1775, he gave himself to prayer, he
exemplified what David said in the Psalms when
David said, but as for me, I will
give myself to prayer.
Calder gave himself to a life of prayer.
He was a pastor in two different locations
over his ministry in the north of Scotland.
And while he was pastor in Inverness, Scotland,
there occurred a remarkable revival that broke out
under his preaching about the same time that
George Whitefield and John Wesley were preaching with
real success in the south of the country,
though there's no written record of his conversion.
Calder, as early as the age of 23,
began to experience deep realities with Christ and
he began to know the ripening fruits of
deeper and deeper Christian experience.
He was one of those men who seemed
to want one thing to desperately know Jesus
Christ in all his fullness.
And he was forever crying out and petitioning
to know him more.
He cried out like David did in Psalm
42 and Psalm 63.
He called her had a soul craving that
would not be satisfied with anything less than
experiencing the presence of Christ.
Let me give you some glimpses from his
journals.
He says, I was I was enabled this
morning to say with humble boldness, Abba, Father,
and soon my bonds were loosed and my
soul was brought into a larger place where
I experienced liberty and rest.
The spirit caused the north wind to awaken
and command the bleak breezes to blow upon
my soul and the spices began to flow
out faith, love and a savor for things
above were now felt anew.
Oh, to be more humble, thankful, vigilant, tender,
spiritual, holy and devout more than ever.
Oh, God, work it in me.
I'm so far behind.
How little have I seen of Christ's glory.
How little have I yet attained to.
How little have I tasted of his love
in comparison to what there is to taste.
But blessed be his name for my little
drop.
Oh, Lord, thou that knowest all things, thou
knowest that I would not trade it for
ten thousand worlds.
Another day, he wrote these words after visiting
a sick young man, I returned to my
closet where I continued two more hours without
interruption, spinning prayer, at which time I can
say to the praise of his grace, the
Lord was pleased to shine and breathe upon
my poor soul by his word and spirit
to freshly quicken and humble and comfort and
enlarge and sanctify me in some measure.
I was helped to plead and wrestle in
an impertuning and believing way for my own
soul, for my children, for friends, for brethren
in the ministry and for others.
I put up petition after petition in the
prevailing name of Jesus.
And most of them, I believe, were received
in such a way that I had little
room to doubt, but that they would be
graciously answered.
This was the best day I had in
secret prayer for some years past.
No language can express his kindness to such
a one so undeserving.
Nine months later, he said this blessed be
his name.
I had much freedom and pouring out my
heart in prayer for each of my children
in particular and in recommending my poor feeble
lambs to the care, guidance, protection and special
grace of our adorable, tenderhearted shepherd who delights
according to his sweet promises to gather the
lambs in his bosom there.
I leave them eternal praise to my father's
God and my God for the promises of
grace.
Now, when he was low and needy and
hurting and dry and dead, Calder would say
things like this.
This day, my soul complains of heart coldness,
estrangement and heart atheism.
Beloved, do you and I ever get that
real and that honest in prayer?
We can't impress God in the prayer closet.
Do you ever when you feel lower than
a whale's belly, when you feel deader than
a dodo bird, when you have nothing, do
you just go before God and pour out?
Lord, I'm as cold as I can be.
I am poor and needy.
I'm hurting.
I'm dry.
And you begin to wait upon him and
your heart aching and needy, though, yet longing
and desirous and hungry begins to wait.
As David said, I will wait in silence
before my God.
This is what Calder did.
He said, Alas, I still carry about within
me this plague.
This lack of heartfelt love to Christ and
complacency toward God.
He prayed, Oh, blessed spirit, may I be
helped to look up, sigh, pray and wait
for the dawning of the cheering beams of
the Son of Righteousness.
The next day in prayer, Calder said this
yesterday in prayer while I was confessing my
spiritual idolatries and shameful departures.
And I attempted to partake of the blood
and righteousness of Christ in a fresh way.
He was pleased to receive me graciously and
to manifest some tokens of his love and
his sweet countenance to my poor soul.
This was a sweet reviving indeed.
My darkness vanished, my cold heart began to
warm and my weary soul found rest as
I was blessed with some delightful experience.
With God, that for which I had been
earnestly praying for several days past, let me
hasten on after James Calder, there was another
man in Scotland.
Who was sent of God, a praying man,
John McDonald, was his name.
Many of us have never heard of him
in 1740.
And the years after that, there was a
real and extensive period of revivals that began
to occur throughout a large part of Scotland.
And they continued almost for 60 years to
the beginning of eighteen hundred.
The 19th century, not just the 18th century,
but the 19th century would see great works
of grace.
John McDonald is connected with what they call
the great the the the awakening, the great
awakening in the north of Scotland.
He was born in 1779 and in his
teenage years he got his education in mathematics
in the city of Aberdeen.
And it was during his first year in
the university in Aberdeen, while home on vacation
from school, while reading a man named Jonathan
Edwards.
That a work of conviction of sin began
suddenly in his heart and soon with all
his soul and all his heart, he turned
to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Before long, he entered the ministry in the
year 1805 at the age of twenty six.
And God launched him sovereignly and graciously into
a special preaching ministry that continued for forty
four years until his death in 1849.
At the age of thirty four, God sent
McDonald to the north of Scotland for what
would become an unusual period of blessing and
fruitfulness through his life in ministry.
But in that year, his thirty fourth year
of life, his wife Georgina died, leaving him
three small children.
That week, McDonald had been scheduled to preach
at one of those communion seasons.
A great gathering of believers and in view
of the sorrow, the elders in charge came
to him and proposed a postponement of the
communion.
McDonald declined and he said this, Let not
the death of my wife hinder the remembering
of the death of my savior.
He preached from Hosea 219, I will betroth
thee unto me forever.
Not thinking of himself, says John Kennedy, his
biographer, he gave himself up to the praise
of Christ.
He was asked to preach again in that
evening.
And he preached from Psalm 45, Oh, hearken,
daughter, consider an inclined eye near preaching to
around 10,000 people in the open air.
The congregation broke down.
Such was the weeping and the crying and
the spiritual commotion that happened.
It was a day of God's power in
sending the spirit down an answer to prayer
that began an awakening in the north of
Scotland.
That appears to have continued for an extended
time widely and.
McDonald began to be called upon to preach
far and wide, an old veteran Scottish preacher,
Lachlan McKenzie, wrote to McDonald soon urging him
to come and preach for him.
Here was McKenzie's invitation.
I wish I could do a Scottish accent.
I can't.
So I'll keep a Texas accent.
But just he said, he said, I hear
you keep a large store of Holy Ghost
powder, which you use in blasting.
I wish you to come and try your
skill in breaking the hard rocks of lock
carrying.
What an invitation to come and preach.
McDonald wrote to his brother these words.
We have great need of earnest and persevering
prayer here.
I stand in need of that which would
quicken and enliven me.
Beloved, so do we all, every one of
us.
We have great need, as great as McDonald
did, for daily quickening and enlivening by the
fresh influence of the Holy Spirit.
Four years later, McDonald was preaching in a
part of Scotland called Lock Tay.
I'm sure that's not how the Scottish say
it, but it'll do.
Around fifteen hundred people live there.
In September, he preached and the report came.
McDonald preached for over two hours from Isaiah
fifty four verse five.
Thy maker is thy husband to a congregation
of four thousand.
During the sermon, suddenly there was hardly a
dry eye anywhere.
Eagerness attended the preached word while tears flowed.
And those hardened persons in the congregation seemed
to bend for McDonald and those he ministered
with and walked with continual conscious dependence upon
and pleading for the Holy Spirit was utmost
in their theology, in their hearts and their
prayers.
They became different men under fresh baptisms of
the Holy Spirit at different times.
They saw a direct connection between the outpouring
of the spirit and prayer, importuning prayer, pleading
the promise of the father, the sending of
the spirit, which was not just to happen
on the day of Pentecost, but was to
be the beginning of many outpourings all through
church history.
That God would do it all over again.
Thomas Chalmers of Scotland in the first half
of the 19th century said this, I'm quite
aware that talent is secondary to godliness in
ministry and that gifts in a minister are
second to grace in him.
Chalmers said this, I'm therefore all the more
thankful that many of our young preachers are
men of faith, power and prayer and have
become instruments of great and promising revivals in
our land.
What young ministers was Chalmers talking about?
Some of his own students, such as Robert
Murray McShane, Horatius and Andrew Bonar, and another
man sent from God who studied under Thomas
Chalmers named William, William Burns.
William Burns was used mildly in preaching in
Scotland, and after seeing revival, he felt a
call to go to China and to labor
the rest of his life with Hudson Taylor
in obscurity.
It reminds me of Philip in Samaria and
the great outpouring or the great outpouring of
the spirit in Jerusalem and the Holy Spirit
tells Philip what to do.
You go down to Samaria to the desert
and God sends him from a season of
revival down to talk to one man in
a chariot.
That's what William Burns did.
He went to China and he mentored Hudson
Taylor and he preached glad tidings till he
died there.
I could tell you more about Burns, but
one story, the occasion was Kilsyth, Scotland.
Burns was 24 years old.
He was preaching for McShane in McShane's church
in Dundee while McShane was in Israel.
Now, Burns had had just an ordinary ministry,
really up to that point, without any blessing
or power until the summer months of 1839,
when suddenly the more he sought God in
prayer, the more he hid himself in a
secret place.
He began to preach, people said, suddenly with
new authority and new power.
Those who knew him spoke of his preaching
being lifted to a whole new level of
power and authority.
And what happened there in Dundee, July 23rd,
was reported by several witnesses who were there.
In the morning service, Burns took as his
text Psalm 110, verse 3, thy people shall
be willing in a day of thy power.
The message was heard with silence until toward
the end, when Burns was describing the power
of the Spirit of God that's displayed in
revivals in former years.
Suddenly it became evident to him from the
faces of the people that God had come
to them in power.
And later he wrote, most were in tears
and then a scene which could hardly be
described took place.
As from that one service, a remarkable change
of heart took place and the converting influence
of the Holy Spirit was remarkably at work
in the church, and in the town, and
in the parish.
It was a day when God literally fulfilled
Burns' own text of scripture, a willing people
in a day of God's power.
Burns was transformed by that day.
Not by success, but by this, he says,
the appearance of a great part of the
people from the pulpit gave me an awfully
vivid picture of the state of the ungodly
in the judgment day of Christ that's soon
to come.
Burns was gripped with a view of the
glory of God and the advancement of the
souls of men.
He was a burning and shining light.
He was a praying man.
And there's one more man I want to
tell you about who was sent from God.
His name was Leonard, Leonard Ravenhill.
Leonard Ravenhill was born in 1907 in Leeds,
England.
Some of the brethren here in this conference
knew him.
Some here knew him well.
He was born into a godly Methodist home
to praying parents who took him the first
seven days of his life to an all
-night prayer meeting.
Hey moms, how about that?
He was converted at the age of 14
and he took up the profession in a
few years of being a tailor, making men's
clothing.
By the time he was 23 years old,
he knew he was called to the ministry.
And off he went to Cliff College there
in England where he studied under and was
trained by Samuel Chadwick at Cliff College.
It was there that Leonard Ravenhill felt he
didn't have too much of a future in
preaching.
So he decided he would give himself instead
to having a life of prayer.
He decided that his calling was to pray.
He decided he wanted the greater calling, a
calling greater than preaching, and that was prayer.
For he said, it's a great thing to
speak for God to men, but it's a
greater thing to speak to God on the
behalf of men.
So he gave himself to a life of
prayer.
He read D.M. MacIntyre's book, The Hidden
Life of Prayer.
In my opinion, the finest book there is
on prayer.
And he began to give himself to hours
of prayer.
By the 1940s, Ravenhill began an itinerant ministry
of preaching throughout Britain.
And with other young preachers and evangelistic team
that came together, he walked the length and
breadth of England more than once.
Preaching all the way.
Preaching in the open air, anywhere doors would
open, in the marketplace.
And by the late 1940s, he began making
some trips to the U.S. where he
became close friends with A.W. Tozer.
Finally in 1958, Leonard and his wife Martha
moved to the United States.
First working with Bethany Fellowship in Minneapolis.
And then later with David Wilkerson and Nikki
Cruz in the early days of Teen Challenge
in the 1960s.
Leonard was the staff and house Bible teacher.
And daily he would teach the Bible to
the staff and the young people.
And he would get down with them and
teach them to pray.
He was an anointed preacher and prophet.
But he was much more than that.
He was primarily a man of prayer.
The Ravenhills moved to Texas in 1975 near
San Antonio.
From which base he traveled widely preaching.
And when he was home, he would pray
all day.
And into the night.
He was preaching in Fort Worth, Texas regularly
in those years.
When I first heard him and others that
are here began to hear him and meet
him in those days.
There would be times that some of us
would have the courage to call him.
And after he had moved to East Texas,
we would call and say, Could we come
down and see you and talk to you?
He would always say the same thing.
Just immediately.
I can give you one hour.
That's all he would say.
Yes sir, that would be great.
And he would tell us when to come.
But the hour would always turn to two
or three.
And you couldn't get him to stop.
He loved to talk about the deep things
of God.
He loved to talk about prayer and praying
men.
And he preached fearlessly.
I remember one night in 1978.
My friend Al Whittingill who is here.
Al's church in Fort Worth, James Avenue Baptist.
Leonard was there for meetings.
And one night.
When the song service is over.
Leonard walked to the pulpit.
And he says this.
You boys in the back.
Since you've come in.
All you've done is laugh.
And talk.
And comb your hair.
And fool around in God's house.
How you dare do it, I don't know.
But don't you say another word while this
meeting is on.
And he took his Bible.
And he said turn with me to 1
Corinthians 13.
I'm going to preach on love.
And he did.
And the Spirit of God moved that night.
And those boys came in tears.
Broke them.
In repentance.
And asked His forgiveness.
And began to seek the Lord.
Let me mention some of his words.
Our God.
He says is a consuming fire.
He consumes pride and lust and materialism.
And all other sin.
He said there's only two kinds of people.
Those that are dead in sin.
And those that are dead to sin.
He said the only time you can truly
say that Christ is all you need.
Is when Christ is all you have.
Why do we expect to be treated better
in the world.
Or by the world than Jesus was.
He said my main ambition is to be
on the devil's most wanted list.
Jesus I know and Paul I know and
Ravenhill.
He'd say.
He said today's church wants to be raptured
from responsibility.
He said when there's something in the Bible
that church members don't like.
They call it legalism.
He said our seminaries today are turning out
dead men.
Who preach dead sermons that can never raise
the dead.
He said many preachers criticize me for taking
the gospel so seriously.
But do they really think that on the
judgment day.
Christ will say to me.
Leonard you were really too serious about some
things.
He said if Jesus had preached the same
message.
That today's preachers do.
He would never have been crucified.
He said we're tired of men in soft
raiment.
With softer speech.
Who use rivers of words with only a
spoonful of unction.
And this is one of my favorites.
Here's his definition of revival.
He said revival is when God gets so
sick.
Of being misrepresented by the church.
That he decides to show up himself.
One more quote.
He said there's a terrible vacuum in evangelical
Christianity today.
That vacuum is a missing person.
The true prophet.
The man with a terrible earnestness.
The man that's totally other worldly.
The man rejected by other men.
Even good men.
Because they consider him too radical.
Too committed.
Let him be as plain as John the
Baptist.
Let him be a voice crying in the
wilderness of modern theology.
And shallow church entity.
Let him say nothing that will draw men
to himself.
But only that which will move men to
God.
Let him come daily from the throne room
of a holy God.
Where he has received his orders for the
day.
Let him cry with a voice that his
generation has not heard.
Because he's seen a vision of God that
his generation has not seen.
God have mercy on us.
Ravenhill said.
Give us prophets.
He preached passionately.
He wrote heart stirring books.
Why?
All because he prayed passionately.
All the time.
What most people probably don't know about Leonard
Ravenhill.
Is that he would go to bed about
nine in the evening.
He would get up at eleven.
Two hours later.
He'd go to his office and he would
pray.
Until four or five in the morning.
Then he would go back to bed for
a few hours.
That was his life.
That's what made him live and labor and
preach and pray.
For eternity.
He had a framed plaque.
Hanging on the wall of his study.
It had one word on it.
Eternity.
That's all it said.
He studied in the light of eternity.
He lived in the light of eternity.
He did preach as a dying man to
dying men.
He raised his three sons in the light
of eternity.
One night Leonard walked into his young son
David's bedroom.
Late one night.
And he taped a note on the foot
of David's bed.
He had written it for David.
It said this.
Build me a son, O Lord.
Who will be strong enough to know when
he's weak.
And knows enough to face himself when he's
afraid.
Build me a son who will be unbending
in honest defeat.
And humble and gentle in victory.
Build me a son whose wishbone will not
be where his backbone should be.
A son who will know Thee and truly
know himself.
Leading, Lord, not in the path of ease
and comfort.
But under the stress and spur of difficulties
and challenge.
Here let him learn to stand up in
the storm.
To lean upon his God.
Here let him learn compassion for those who
fail.
Build me a son, O Lord.
Whose heart will be clear.
Whose goals will be high.
A son who will master himself before he
seeks to master other men.
Give him humility.
So that he remembers the simplicity of true
greatness.
The open mind of true wisdom.
The meekness of true strength.
Then I, his father, will dare to whisper.
I have not lived in vain.
The week Leonard Ravenhill died, the last Sunday
of November in 1994.
That son, David, wrote these words.
I knew a man who gave his life.
To see revival fire.
He prayed by day.
He prayed by night.
To birth is one desire.
He had but one obsession.
To see a glorious bride.
Arrayed in spotless purity.
Brought to her bridegroom's side.
His power while in the pulpit.
Was masked by very few.
And yet he loved the closet.
There with the God he knew.
While others strove for man's applause.
For fortune and for fame.
He had but one ambition.
To exalt his master's name.
For 87 years he lived.
Just for eternity.
A man of faith and wisdom and true
humility.
He knew one day he would have to
stand before God's judgment seat.
And so he ran to win the prize
his mission to complete.
The fortune that he left behind.
Was not in stocks or gold.
But lives transformed and challenged.
Their stories yet untold.
Life has had no greater privilege.
Than this that I have had.
Of knowing this great man of God.
And having him as dad.
Prayer and praying men.
Dear brothers and sisters.
This can be the case in our day.
God is not finished making people a prayer.
John Knox and Robert Bruce.
And William Burns and Leonard Ravenhill.
Were once unregenerate lost men.
And themselves had feet of clay.
And were men of imperfection.
And they were average people.
That God called them to a life of
prayer.
There was a young man in East Texas.
That I had the privilege of meeting and
praying with.
His name was Jerry Howe.
And in his 20's as a single man.
He heard the call of God.
To give his life to a life of
prayer.
And hidden away in East Texas.
He would preach in nursing homes.
During the week.
But his job.
His vocation.
His ministry.
His calling.
Was prayer.
And Jerry would pray.
Eight to ten hours a day.
Keith McLeod.
Brother Bill McLeod's brother.
Was a man who gave himself.
To a life of prayer.
And I wonder today.
As we think about.
The call of God.
Who hears the call to pray?
We think about it so definitively.
And so formally.
And so officially.
I'm called to preach.
I'm called to the mission field.
I'm called to work with youth.
I'm called to pastor.
Where are those that are called to pray?
Where are those who would say.
I don't care if I'm ever in public.
Or if I'm known.
I'll take the hidden place.
I'll have a hidden life of prayer.
I will have as my job.
To pray.
I'll stay hidden.
And I'll have a worldwide ministry.
That doesn't take money.
Doesn't take the internet.
Doesn't take people around.
Doesn't take the applause of men.
I'll learn to pray.
I'll ask the Lord Jesus to take my
life.
Just like I am.
And I'll ask Him to teach me to
pray.
No one takes this upon themselves.
Except the one who's called of God.
But I believe with all my heart.
Even in this conference.
God could single out and zero in.
On retired people.
Who are finding that they don't want to
spend.
The rest of their retirement years.
Driving around to Arizona or Florida.
Gathering seashells or playing golf.
They don't want to waste their life.
And they would hear the call of God.
To give themselves to a real life of
prayer.
Or the young man or the young woman.
Who hears the call of God for them
to say.
I will give myself to a life of
intercession.
Lord Jones said this.
We need less traveling and less conferences.
We need less talk.
And more kneeling in prayer.
More pleading to God to have mercy on
us.
More crying to God to arise and scatter
His enemies.
And make Himself known.
Prayer doesn't fit us for the greater work
beloved.
Prayer is the greater work.
And if we are to give the place
to prayer.
Which our calling and the seriousness of the
times require.
Other things are going to have to be
given up.
And left undone.
It will cost us to reassess our priorities.
And to concentrate on prayer.
But brethren listen.
Our hope is not in the men of
the past or the present.
Or in men at all.
It's in Him.
And in the Sovereign Spirit.
Because Knox's God and Boston's God and Ravenhill's
God is our God.
And He's still making men and women after
His own heart.
He's still shaping and forming.
Praying men and women.
Would you hear the call of God?
The call of the Father who says.
I'm in the secret place.
Come.
And hear an answer.
The call to prayer.
Let's pray.
Father I ask You to take my simple
and feeble and impure words.
And wash it all in the blood of
the Lord Jesus.
And strip away from it all that's not
of the Holy Spirit.
And I ask You to use this in
our hearts.
To do a work regarding prayer in the
lives of many.
It will account for eternity.
In the name of Jesus Christ.
Father this is our prayer.
Amen.