Well now, will you turn with me to
the epistle of James, the epistle of James,
chapter 5, and we'll break in at verse
16.
James, chapter 5, and at verse 16, though
I do commend the reading of the entire
chapter to you.
James 5 and verse 16.
Contest your faults one to another, and pray
for one another that ye may be healed.
The effectual servant prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
Elias, or Elijah, was a man subject to
like passions, as we are, and he prayed
earnestly, or prayed in his prayer, that it
might not rain.
And it rained not on the earth by
the space of three years and six months.
And he prayed again, and heaven gave rain,
and the earth brought forth her fruit.
Brethren, if any one of you do err
from the truth, and one convert him, let
him know that he which converted the sinner
from the error of his way shall save
a soul from death, and shall hide a
multitude of sins.
Now our text is part of verse 16.
The effectual servant prayer of a righteous man,
of a righteous man, availeth much.
Tradition has it that James the Apostle, the
brother of our Lord, was nicknamed Camel Knee,
Camel Knee.
And we're told that when he died, friends
who prepared his body for burial discovered great
calluses on his knees.
These deformities had been produced because of the
long hours he spent on his knees in
prayer before God.
Now whether that tradition can be substantiated or
not, it's very suggestive and makes me interested
in what James has to say about prayer.
And any of you who know this epistle
will know that there's practically a message on
prayer in every chapter of this epistle.
James was indeed a man of prayer, and
from a practical standpoint.
And in this passage, he gives us a
divine proposition on prayer, and then follows it
immediately with a human illustration on prayer.
And I want to take this proposition and
break it up, expound it, and then illustrate
it with the illustration that the Holy Spirit
provides here through James.
No doctrine of Scripture is found anywhere from
Genesis to Revelation that isn't supported and illustrated
by some great example.
This is one of the unique things about
the Scripture, and helps us to understand these
two mighty laws of the seven of biblical
interpretation.
The law of full mention, here it is
in proposition.
The law of illustrative mention, Elijah, the illustration
of this principle.
So I want us to look at this
text together.
My heart is very burdened to say something
which has become increasingly heavy as I've ministered
throughout the two weeks here in Sydney.
I've been talking to some of your religious
leaders, men of God, men of prayer, men
of vision, men of great evangelistic passion.
And I have been surprised to learn that
this country, Australia, and particularly this city, Sydney,
has never known a spiritual revival, has never
known the kind of revival that swept New
York in 1857, Ireland and Scotland and part
of England in 1859, that swept Wales in
1904, that swept the Hebrides in north of
Scotland in 1951.
Australia has never known a heaven-sent revival.
You have known mighty times of evangelism, and
under the ministry of Dr. Billy Graham, especially
in his first visit, something happened in this
country that was very akin to revival.
But you have never known that sovereign, mighty
moving of the Spirit in response to anointed
prayer, which has shaken this nation and this
country for good and for the glory of
God.
I don't know if that concerns you, but
it deeply concerns me.
Because as I think of the United States
of America, where I now minister, and which
has become my adopted home, I am interested
in evangelism, and there will never be a
moment in my life so long as I
have breath and strength that I will not
devote to aggressive evangelism.
But the situation has gotten to a point
where nothing left than heaven-sent revival can
cure our ills and bring the nation back
to God.
Revival, revival.
And closely aligned to this matter of revival
is the ministry of prayer in the Holy
Ghost, as we heard read just a few
moments ago, praying with all prayer and supplication
in the city and watching thereunto with perseverance
for all things.
I'm wondering whether you, young person, and I'm
speaking to young people as well as older
ones, this is no archaic subject that I'm
bringing to bear upon you now.
It's fresh, alive, and relevant, and the only
answer to the day in which we live.
I'm just wondering what your prayer life is
like.
Whether you know what I mean when I
talk about revival prayer, or prevailing in prayer.
Let us then look at this text and
see what the Spirit of God would teach
us here tonight.
First of all, I want to speak on
what I'm calling the ministry of prevailing prayer.
The ministry of prevailing prayer, the effectual servant
prayer of a righteous man availeth much.
The effectual servant prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
We're brought right to the very heart of
this ministry in this opening verse.
The ministry of prevailing prayer is for righteous
men and women.
You only qualify for prevailing prayer when it
can be said of you, you're
a
righteous person.
James tells us, first and foremost, surprisingly enough,
that a righteous person is an ordinary person,
just an ordinary person.
For having stated the effectual servant prayer of
a righteous man availeth much, he goes right
on to say, without a break, Elijah was
a man subject to like passions as we
are.
But he prayed.
Now we can never think of Elijah without
thinking of Mount Carmel.
And we shall be going to Mount Carmel
a little later.
There he is, alone, strong, formidable, courageous, spirit
anointed, challenging an entire apostate nation, and calling
down far from heaven upon that prepared altar.
He's a character that always thrills me, always
thrills me.
It's very interesting, if I may say, by
way of an aside, that when our Lord
asked his disciples what they thought of his
ministry and what the general public thought of
his ministry, they replied, some say you are
Elijah.
Others say you are Jeremiah.
Very significant.
The man of judgment, the man of fire,
the man of fear.
Jeremiah, the man of sorrow and weeping and
sympathy.
Two glorious characteristics blended in one mighty personality,
our Lord Jesus Christ and his humanity.
Elijah, Elijah, a mighty man.
And yet, for all that, he was an
ordinary man.
He was an ordinary man.
For you can't read his story in the
book of Kings without discovering that there came
a moment in his life when he fled
in fear from a woman, a man who
stood against all those false prophets, a man
who gambled his life alone on a mountaintop,
fled in fear from a woman, trance in
frustration from a prophet's yoke, and at the
last, sat under a juniper tree longing to
end his life.
An ordinary man.
Just an ordinary man.
My point of emphasis here is simply this,
there is no one who can go out
of this place tonight and say, I don't
qualify for a ministry of prayer.
If you do, you go out because the
message hasn't reached you.
Or perhaps because you're unregenerate and you're out
of this dimension altogether.
Or it may be because you're rebellious to
the sacrifice that God's going to make upon
you for this kind of prayer.
But there isn't a young person here, and
it's wonderful to see a crowd of young
people here, and there isn't an older person
here who doesn't come into the embracing suite
of this prayer ministry.
An ordinary man.
But supremely, he was an obedient man.
The effectual servant prayer of a righteous man.
An ordinary man, but an obedient man.
And poring over his story again this afternoon,
I was impressed, deeply impressed, with a little
recurring reframe in that story, which goes something
like this, he went and did according to
the word of the Lord, he went and
did according to the word of the Lord,
he went and did according to the word
of the Lord.
A righteous man is a man rightly related
to God, rightly related to the word of
God, rightly related to the will of God,
rightly related to the world of his day.
He was an obedient man.
He went and did according to the word
of the Lord.
He stood before the Lord.
Now, men and women, if there's one thing
I want, and which I wish to measure
tonight, is just on this.
Is your life characterized by obedience to the
word of God, to the will of God?
David says in one of his psalms, if
I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord
will not hear me.
More literally, that could be rendered, if I
look with approval on anything in my life
which is out of adjustment to the will
of God.
Out of adjustment to the will of God,
the Lord will not hear me.
The Lord will not hear me.
Are you obedient to all the will of
God?
Jesus said, you remember, if you abide in
me, and my words abide in you, he
shall ask what he will, and it shall
be done unto you.
If you abide in me, and my words
abide in you, he shall ask what he
will, and it shall be done unto you.
Christian friends, let's forget for a moment that
we're in a crowd here.
Let's face up to the solemn challenge of
these words, and bow before our Lord and
answer this question.
Lord Jesus, can I honestly say that there
is no point of disobedience in my life?
So far as the revealed will of God
through thy word to me, I've gone all
the way.
I've gone all the way.
Dr. William Fitch, pastor of Knox Presbyterian Church
in Toronto, Canada, delivered an address a few
months ago where he searched every one of
our hearts.
He made the statement from which I haven't
been able to escape.
He said, men and women understand this, that
defective disobedience constitutes total disobedience.
Defective obedience constitutes total
disobedience.
And it's no good saying I've gone all
the way with my Lord on everything he's
revealed to me.
Say this one matter, this one matter, and
so far as I'm concerned, it's an insignificant
matter.
It doesn't really, it doesn't really matter whether
or not I include this in my obedience.
Defective obedience constitutes total disobedience.
And I just wonder whether or not tonight
some of us will have to come clean
on this issue of obedience in our lives.
Let me ask you this, are you meeting
your Lord every day in the place of
daily devotion, quiet time, morning watch, whatever you
like to call it?
Did you have your quiet time this morning
before you went to school, to university, to
the bank, to the office, to the shop?
Is it your custom to open the word
of God in his holy presence every day,
and find out what he has to say
to you, and then say, Lord, I'm going
to do according to thy word?
Did you spend moments of prayer with him?
A famous and popular Christian psychiatrist in the
United States of America has made some kind
of Gallup poll or survey to discover that
the average time that Christian people spend in
the reading of the word of God and
prayer, every day or any day, is five
minutes.
Five minutes where creatures of eternity, what is
of supreme importance is that holy life of
yours, that call to obedience, that living out
of the revealed will of God by the
power of the Holy Spirit undergirded by prayer.
Five minutes.
How long is it in your life, an
obedient man, we sing, but also glibly, trust
and obey, for there's no other way to
be happy in Jesus but to trust and
obey.
But I wonder how far you've gone on
the issue of obedience.
The ministry of prevailing prayer is exclusively related
to a righteous man.
A righteous man.
An ordinary man, Elijah was, but an obedient
man.
And although he had his weaknesses and his
failures, he rose to obedience every time the
Lord laid his hand upon him.
Rose to obedience.
And I notice in the third place that
he was a man of vision.
He was a man of vision, an observant
man.
We read in the story that he went
up to a king and he faced that
king with these words, thou in thy father's
house hath forsaken the commandment of the Lord,
and hast followed after Balaam.
He was a man who was so wide
awake, so alert, because of the word of
God in his own soul, that he could
evaluate and assess the trends of the day.
He saw what was happening.
He was concerned because of the apostasy and
degeneration of his nation.
You know, one of the things that worries
me more than anything else, is the lack
of intelligent observation on the part of Christian
men and women, and indeed amongst our leaders
and even our pastors.
They're completely complacent with the status quo, indifferent
about the things around us, whether it's within
our churches or the squalor and poverty and
need outside.
We're completely unconcerned about the need for pressing
the advance of evangelism.
We're unconcerned about revival.
We're not observant.
Now it goes without saying that it's only
the man who sees, who prays, it's observation
that leads to intercession.
And only the man who sees will pray.
That was true of our Lord.
That was true of the great apostle Paul.
That's been true of men and women down
through the centuries.
Jeremiah says in the book of Lamentations, mine
eye affecteth mine heart.
Mine eye affecteth mine heart.
It's because of what I see that drives
me to intercession and to prayer.
I wonder if you've ever understood the meaning
of that word we so often quote, where
there is no vision, the people perish.
That word of the Spirit through Solomon has
a tremendous New Testament connotation.
Where there is no vision, where there is
no vision, the people perish.
Vision, vision is indissolubly linked with a Spirit
-filled life.
It's when the Spirit of God is poured
forth on young men that they see vision.
They see vision.
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
Or more literally, where there is no vision,
the people throw off all moral restraint.
Where there is no vision, the people go
naked.
Where there is no vision, the people perish.
A lady came to me not so very
long ago and said, Pastor Alfred, I'm concerned
about this city.
Have you ever known in the history of
this city since you've been here these ten
years, such goings-on as are happening right
now?
And I said, it's a fearful situation.
We're having nights of prayer about it.
I don't know what's happening in your church,
but I want to tell you, my dear
friend, that city of ours is a reflection,
a reflection of the weakness of the Church.
Where to be as salt in the earth,
where to be as light in the world,
where the salt has lost its flavor, where
the light no longer exposes evil, you can
expect men to go naked.
You expect men to throw off moral restraint.
The power of the Spirit in his restraining
ministry is hindered because he's grieved and quenched
in the body of Christ.
We don't see what's happening in its right
light.
Vision leads to prayer.
What I see makes me pray.
Observation leads to intercept.
Yes, Elijah was a man
of observation.
He saw what was happening.
One of the only men who did see
what was happening.
Yes, there were prophets shot up, fearful, cowering
and cringing for fear of all that was
going on, who had not bowed their knees
to Baal.
But it appears that only one man knew
the secret and the solution.
It was Elijah.
Elijah.
Well, now, do you qualify for the ministry
of prayer?
It's for ordinary men and women, for obedient
men and women, for observant men and women.
Christian people, let us not be ignorant of
what's happening today.
When we read our papers or watch the
television or read the magazines that tell us
of the trends, let's not read them objectively
or merely in terms of academic knowledge.
Oh, to be moved as our Savior was,
as he looked out upon sheep without a
shepherd and had compassion on them.
So much, then, for the ministry of prevailing
prayer.
But our text takes us even deeper.
There is not only here the ministry of
prevailing prayer, there is the manner of prevailing
prayer.
The effectual, fervent prayer, fervent prayer of a
righteous man availeth much.
And this, I must confess, is where my
heart is searched.
This, I confess, is where I've slandered even
today.
And God knows my heart.
And all I'm doing tonight is sharing with
you a testimony.
What is this manner of praying?
I want you to notice, first of all,
that it's fervent prayer.
Fervent prayer.
We read that Elijah was a man subject
to like passions as we are, and he
prayed earnestly, or prayed in his prayer.
Alas, alas, so many of us merely say
prayers, or, to quote the children's hymn, I
often say my prayers, but do I really
pray?
We've known the cliché since we were youngsters.
We've followed our forms of prayer.
We've ate the pastor or minister, and we
know how to use the evangelical jargon.
But do we really pray?
Beloved, what God is talking about here through
his apostles is something tremendously searching and deep.
This is inward prayer.
This is praying in the Holy Ghost.
Praying with all supplication and prayer in the
city, and watching thereunto with all perseverance.
This is prayer in the Holy Ghost.
This is the kind of prayer which only
comes to a man or a woman, a
fellow or a girl, who, understanding the word,
has said, Oh God, I want this body
of mine to be the temple of the
Holy Ghost.
I want my mind, I want my heart,
I want my will, so to be yielded
to the indwelling Spirit that he prays in
me all the will of God.
Paul tells us something about that in his
Roman epistle in chapter 8 where he says,
The Spirit helpeth our infirmity, not infirmities as
the plural has it there, but as the
original has it, the infirmity, my infirmity, what
infirmity?
Without a question, the infirmity there is our
prayerlessness.
Prayer starts in heaven, and whether you pray
or not, I'll tell you someone who's always
praying, and that's Jesus Christ, the Son of
God.
He ever liveth to make intercession for us.
Prayer originates in heaven.
But in the wisdom of God, that prayer
closes the circuit by coming down into the
life, the temple life, of a man or
a woman who's given himself entirely over to
the indwelling paraclete, who in turn uses our
minds, our hearts, our wills, to echo the
prayer in heaven.
Then it returns back to heaven, and when
that circuit of prayer is closed, things happen
in the universe.
Question is, have you ever yielded that body
to the Holy Spirit for that purpose?
Do you know what it is to pray
with groanings that cannot be uttered?
I'm not being pious, I'm not being mystical,
I'm not being intangible, I'm not talking about
something nebulous.
I'm talking about prayer for all things.
I'm talking about the effectual, fervent prayer of
a righteous man.
I'm talking about fervent prayer, fervent prayer.
And I'm challenging a congregation in Sydney tonight
about that praying, and before this meeting is
over, you're going to answer to God as
to whether or not some of you women
whose children now have grown up, and for
the most part you have several hours a
day where you could give to prayer, to
hit the great mission fields of the world,
to pray for your pastor, your church, the
outreach of the gospel, and mainly and supremely
for revival.
Some of you young people here who ought
to be giving more time to prayer in
your quiet times, you men too, despite all
the busyness, getting a hold of God and
laying hold of God, and all of us,
all of us, bringing a new spirit of
prayer and intensity into our public prayer meetings
in our churches.
The greatest meeting of the church should be
the prayer meeting every week.
This is where the information is shared, this
is where the inspiration is gathered, and this
is where intercession is made for all men,
for all saints, for all situations.
Think of it, prayer is a means by
which in spirit realm I project myself across
continents and oceans and situations, governmental and otherwise,
to touch situations for God.
This is the greatest weapon God has ever
given to the church.
And to me, one of the greatest evidences
of satanic delusion is that we give it
such a small place in our lives and
in our churches, fervent prayer, fervent prayer.
But if my text teaches me anything, it's
not only a matter of fervent praying, but
of regular, continual, frequent praying.
Yes, Elijah was a man subject to like
passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly
that it might not rain, and it rained
not on the earth by the space of
three years and six months, and he prayed
again.
And the sense must be understood in the
context of the story of one king, sixteen
and onwards, where he prayed again and again
and again.
His prayer ministry was not intelligent, it was
not cosmotic, it was regular.
And I'm reminded of the words of our
Savior who said, men ought always to pray
and not to think.
Men ought always to pray and not to
think.
And when you're not praying, you're thinking.
That's the alternative.
When you're not praying, you're thinking.
And I'm not only talking about the attitude
of prayer, since life is a prayer, that
attitude of prayer that carries me to the
office, into the bank, into the university, into
the pulpit, the total attitude of praying.
I'm talking about the activity of praying.
Likewise, men ought always to pray and not
to think.
I think it's awfully suggestive, though we could
never build a doctrine on it, that this
man, Elijah, when he sensed the great need
for prayer, you remember, cast himself down upon
the earth and put his face between his
knees.
That's the only cure for fainting.
I want to ask you, do you know
unceasing prayer in your life?
Pray without ceasing.
Pray with all prayer and supplication.
And again, men ought always to pray and
not to think.
Beloved, we can go out of this place
tonight, stirred by the word of God and
stirred by the impact of preaching, and become
very zealous about prayer.
But I'm thinking about two weeks hence, a
month hence, six months hence.
Men ought always to pray and not to
think.
And it's only the life that's yielded to
the seed of prayer that will be brought
to remembrance and brought to the place of
prayer again and again.
The manner of praying then was fervent and
frequent, but more than that, it was focused
praying.
It was intelligent praying.
Yes, he prayed that it might not rain
and it rained not on the earth by
the space of three years and six months,
and he prayed again, and heaven gave rain
and the earth brought forth her fruits.
Why, this is tremendous.
Here is a man who believes in praying
specifically.
You see, praying isn't really praying until it
affects the object for which you pray.
He said, God shut heaven, and God shut
heaven.
He said, O God, open heaven, and God
opened heaven.
God sent the rain and bring forth fruit,
and God did precisely that.
Only a man who's prayed his way through
the word of God and knows the will
of God and prays according to the will
of God, as we've already learned from Romans
chapter eight, can say things like that to
God.
The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
It affects the very object for which you
set out to pray.
And I'm asking you, my friend, are you
receiving answers to your prayer?
Tell me, have you a prayer list of
men and women that you want to see
converted?
Have you a prayer list for special needs
in your church?
Have you a prayer list of missionaries who
are under the fire and depression of the
enemy?
Have you ever asked yourself how many missionaries
have to come home?
I cannot.
What reason is given?
Medical, spiritual, moral?
How many missionaries have come home because you
have failed to pray?
Have you a burden for revival?
Are you praying specifically for revival?
I mean, are you praying specifically for revival
in Sydney, in your church?
That, my friends, is the manner of prayer.
But the burden I have to bring to
you tonight is in my closing thoughts.
That which has made me stand to my
feet to pray and to preach and to
apply truth here tonight is my closing thoughts.
We thought of the ministry of prayer as
for ordinary obedience and observance, men and women.
The manner of praying, fervent, earnest, continual, focused.
But I want you to see here in
the third place the miracle of prevailing in
prayer.
Or the miracle of prevailing prayer.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
And this is not rhetoric.
This is not the pile-up of meaningless
words.
This is the statement, the utterance of the
Holy Spirit.
The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
And I want to pick that up and
interpret it in terms of the life of
Elijah.
Have you ever studied what was effected through
the prevailing prayer of Elijah the prophet?
We could be here all night on that
one theme alone, several studies.
But I'm going to lift up three illustrations
only, three illustrations only, to show what this
man Elijah effected through prevailing prayer.
Through prevailing prayer, Elijah first of all triumphed
over the powers of darkness.
Bishop Dane in his opening prayer touched upon
that very phrase, the powers of darkness.
Elijah prevailed over the powers of darkness.
This Christian friend was when he built that
altar on Mount Carmel, and stood before that
altar, and looked up to heaven, and said,
O God, let it be known this day
that Thou art God.
And with that prayer, he overcame spiritual darkness,
principalities, and powers, and triumphed over them.
And our first concern in prayer, men and
women, is the glory of God in any
situation, in my personal life, the glory of
God in my church, the glory of God
on my mission station, the glory of God
in my crusade, the glory of God in
my country.
God indicated in the midst of the people,
let it be known this day that Thou
art God, amidst all our theologians who tell
us that God is dead, that all His
absolutes are now relatives, that now no longer
can we say Thou shalt not kill, but
rather Thou shalt not kill ordinarily.
Thou shalt not commit adultery ordinarily.
Thou shalt not bear false witness against Thy
neighbor ordinarily.
In an hour like that, O that there
might rise from the church of Jesus Christ,
men and women who can pray and say,
let it be known this day in our
age that Thou art God.
And we can never pray that way until
we carry our battle in prayer, not to
Mount Carmel, but to Mount Calvary.
And there at that foot of the cross,
on the basis of that precious blood that
was once shed, claim the victory that Jesus
Christ has already won for us.
For let me remind you, men and women,
ours is not to fight for victory, but
to fight from victory.
Ours is the glorious privilege of standing in
the place of triumph which our Savior assured
for us by reason of His death and
burial and resurrection, and on the ground of
the many promises, in the mighty name of
Jesus, with the undergirding power of the Holy
Spirit.
Claim Christ in life, in church, in situation.
Paul tells us what he means in that
glorious passage we had just now.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of
the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickednesses
in high places.
We've got to remember that it's a spiritual
warfare.
We're all concerned with the flesh and blood
down here, and our confrontation is with men
and women and things, whereas the real battle
is yonder, up there, and all to know
and to prove.
The weapons of our warfare are not carnal
but mighty through God to the pulling down
of strongholds, the casting down of imaginations, and
every high thing that exalts itself against the
knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity
to the obedience of Christ, overcoming by prayer.
There isn't any situation in which the devil
has free course that cannot be overthrown, for
this purpose was the Son of God manifested,
that he might disintegrate the works of the
devil.
The miracle of prevailing in prayer.
He triumphed over the powers of darkness, and
from north to south and east to west.
That day it was known by everyone in
Israel that God was God, and he stood
alone.
But the second illustration that moves me deeply,
and perhaps is at the center of all
I have to say to you tonight, is
the occasion, and in fact the same instance
in which, through prayer, he not only overcame
the powers of darkness, but he overcame the
powers of drought.
The powers of drought.
After that mighty victory on Mount Carmel, you
remember how he told the king to hasten
back to his palace, because the rain was
on its way?
He went to the edge of that mountain,
and he cast himself down before God and
prayed those seven times, until his servant told
him that that prayer had made its impression
upon the very heavens.
There was a cloud the size of a
man's hand.
Presently, the cloud gathered from every direction, and
the torrents began to pour down their refreshing
showers upon a very dry and thirsty land.
And, men and women, if the first illustration
helps us to understand how the glory of
God might be vindicated, the second illustration helps
us to understand how revival, how revival showers
may be poured forth upon our very dry
and thirsty land.
This is revival.
All through the scriptures, all through the scriptures,
the pouring of rain, the pouring of rain
is likened to revival.
I believe with all my heart, despite what
some of our scholars tell us today, that
our Savior is holding back that moment of
his return until he, as the great husbandman
of the fruit, waits for the harvest.
And when is that going to come?
After the latter rain.
The former rain was Pentecost.
I'm waiting for the latter rain.
And God, God has sent that rain century
by century by century.
Let me go back for a moment to
that 1857 revival in New York City.
I don't know when I've read so much
and researched so much into this matter because
I'm so burdened about it, but you know
that revival didn't start with the clergy.
You know that there was a prayer meeting
at noon every day in Philadelphia, numbering 3
,000 people.
And in Chicago, 2,000 people at the
same time at noon.
And in New York, 5,000 people.
See, Charles Finney tells the occasion when he
came into the blessing of this.
He didn't start it when he stood up
in Boston at a meeting and asked for
testimony.
And a man jumped to his feet from
Omaha in Nebraska.
Omaha, Nebraska, is 2,000 miles from Boston.
And this man stood to his feet and
said that he had come from Omaha in
Nebraska to Boston in Massachusetts, 2,000 miles,
and he'd come by road, and in every
single city at noon he found a prayer
meeting.
And at the height of that revival, ladies
and gentlemen, listen to me, at the height
of that revival, 50,000 souls were born
again, swept into the kingdom of God every
week.
50,000 souls every week.
No radio, no television, no publicizing, no great
evangelists.
As a matter of fact, outside of Charles
Finney, who came in towards the end of
that revival, there is no name associated with
the 1857 revival.
50,000 souls a week.
A beautiful story is told of something that
happened down on the harbor, the dock of
New York.
The North Carolina, one of New York's great
battleships, was anchored there in the harbor.
A thousand men aboard that ship.
Amongst that thousand men were four keen Christians,
an Anglican, a Presbyterian, and two Baptists.
And they began to see something of the
sin and wickedness aboard that ship.
The horrible sexual perversion, the sin and wickedness
of these men, the utter drunkenness of these
men night after night.
And so burdened were they that they asked
for a room somewhere in the ship to
pray.
And in scorn they were given a little
tiny room down below the waterline.
And night after night they began to pray.
And one night as they were praying, those
four men down there in the bowels of
the ship, God broke through to their lives,
and the release of joy and faith was
such that they burst into song.
And they sang so loudly that they were
heard on board deck, on top of the
deck.
And these men heard the singing, and in
scorn and derision they ran down and began
to mock them.
But their words were frozen in their mouths.
Instead of derision, they began to weep and
break down in big giants of men, giants
in sin, crying to God for mercy.
And hundreds of them were converted.
They had to send to the mainland to
get ministers and chaplains to come and help
counsel the thousand men.
And that ship became a sending station of
young cadets and sailors to other ships.
And revival went beyond New York unto the
seas, unto the boat.
And hundreds of thousands of naval men were
converted.
I can't read things like that.
Remember it was only a hundred years ago.
And not be burdened for New York at
this very hour.
And I don't know what you think about
Sydney.
I don't know what you think about Sydney.
Nineteen fifty-nine.
Eighteen fifty-nine.
That revival swept Ireland.
The news of what was happening in New
York reached Ireland.
And four schoolmasters, just boys really, just boys,
in a classroom in County Antrim, got down
on their knees and began to pray.
And they prayed, and they prayed, and God
broke through to that little classroom, and a
mighty thing happened such as Ireland has never
known.
Revival broke through County Antrim right throughout that
entire land of Ireland, left over to Scotland,
and even penetrated into England.
Nineteen hundred and four.
Revival swept Wales.
The greatest privilege of my life, I think,
ever in this context of revival was to
meet for one brief moment the great Evan
Roberts.
A miner, a miner, whom God rescued from
sin and then gave a burden to become
a minister.
But he hadn't even really finished his training
when the spirit of prayer came upon him
in an unusual way.
He went around the country asking people to
pray for revival, to pray for revival.
Three hundred prayer meetings were started, and then
those prayer meetings began to grow until almost
the entire Principality of Wales was one colossal
prayer meeting.
And I'm telling you, you only have to
pick up a book on the Welsh revival
to be stirred to your very foundation.
God so swept that land that meetings started
early in the morning, they went right through
the night.
Very often people didn't even go to work.
Great mountainsides became like choirs as they stood
there before they went down into the mines
singing hallelujahs to God.
Indeed, we're told that all the flumes and
bars and liquor houses were completely closed.
The theatres were abandoned.
Swearing completely went out of the country.
Even the mules in the mines stopped working
because they were unused to kindness.
Revival.
And I don't know but what Duncan Campbell
has been to this very country to share
with you the burden he shared with me.
He told me the whole story of the
revival in a little room that my friend
Bishop Gay knows about, 53 Old Deer Park
Gardens in Richmond, when he had returned from
the Hebrides to recover his voice and to
have medical help because he preached himself absolutely
hoarse in that revival.
And in a whisper he told me what
God did in those days and I had
I all night to tell you.
I'm telling you I'd move your heart if
your hearts can be moved at all by
that story of revival.
I'm telling you God started again, a dear
pastor and his deacons, yes, in a barn
of a place when one deacon one night
after months of praying got up and read
the 24 Psalms and said, who shall ascend
into the hill of the Lord?
Who shall stand in his holy place?
He that hath clean hands.
He that hath pure hearts.
He that hath not lifted up his soul
unto vanity.
He shall receive the blessing of the Lord.
Reverend, we've got to come clean with God.
And that's when the fire fell.
That's when God broke it.
Next day everybody felt the impact of it.
Churches were filled, people away out to sea,
fishing, dropped their nets and came back and
stood crying to God for mercy.
Nobody had told them about any service.
Nobody had preached a gospel sermon.
They were there waiting to be saved.
And if that's too much history, I want
to ask you men and women here in
this church tonight whether or not you're ahead
of the trends and ahead of the news
of what's been happening in Indonesia.
One of the greatest mystery statesmen I know
has just returned from Indonesia and shared hour
after hour with me the movings of the
Spirit of God.
In his judgment, nothing has happened quite like
what took place in Indonesia just a few
months ago since Pentecost itself.
God moving through village after village, island after
island, revival leaping from one place to another,
sweeping the land in the most amazing fashion.
And every one of those revivals married indissolubly
to prayer.
He overcame the power of darkness by prayer.
He overcame the power of drought by prayer.
He overcame the power of death by prayer.
And that's the instance when that great prophet
Elijah stretched himself out upon the body of
that dead boy, the widow's son, the widow's
son, a picture of a man dead in
trespasses and in sin, dead, dead in trespasses
and in sin.
And his prayer was, Oh Lord my God,
let this son's soul, let this lad's soul,
let this boy's soul come into him again
and the boy live.
And I want to say to pastors here
tonight, I want to say to evangelists here
tonight, I want to say to missionaries here
tonight, I want to say to church members
here tonight, you'll never see conversions in your
church, you'll never see conversions on your mission
field, you'll never see conversions in your school
or in your university, you'll never see conversions
without prayer.
Nothing ever good comes into a city without
its counterfeits.
And one of the great delusions the devil
has brought across the church of Jesus Christ
is that souls can be saved quite easily
when you get a man like Dr. Billy
Graham to come and preach in the great
oboe here or the stadium.
I've heard people actually say, My, isn't it
wonderful, he's got such a gift, all he
says is get up out of your feet
and come forward and they come by the
south.
That most unintelligent, unobservant thinking.
Has it ever occurred to you, my friend,
that never in the history of the world,
this has been said hundreds of times, but
I say it again, never in the history
of the world has any evangelist been so
undergirded by prayer as Dr. Billy Graham.
A member of our own church came back
from Russia just a little while ago during
one of Graham's crusades, and talking to a
Christian man in a Russian home where suspicion
reigned all around, they got to talking about
men of God and they talked about Dr.
Billy Graham.
This Russian said, You know, we never cease
to pray for Dr. Billy Graham, so you
know about him?
Oh, we know about him.
And then looking all around the room, lest
anybody should see him, he went over to
the wall and turned a picture over, and
on the back of that picture was the
photograph of Dr. Billy Graham taken from a
magazine.
No child is ever born into this world
physically without travail.
There are the tears, there is the pain,
there is the blood, there is the corpses.
There is no child ever born into the
kingdom of God without soul travail.
And if you've seen conversions without it costing
you anything, that's because you've been bypassed, and
some little Christian in Nepal will get the
glory and the reward.
When thy entrave is, she brought forth.
And you're never going to see evangelism break
through the frontiers and barriers that are holding
back advance in Sydney, in Australia, or anywhere
else, until you know what it is to
stretch yourself out for men and women who
are dead in trespasses and sin, and to
say, Oh God, my Lord, let this child's
soul, this boy's soul, come into him again.
The need of the church, the need of
the church is for revival praying.
A ministry restricted only to righteous men and
women.
Ordinary people made righteous by the imputation of
our Lord's righteousness through his cross and resurrection.
Made righteous by imparted righteousness through his own
indwelling nature.
Maintained righteous by a life of obedience to
all his will, through his word, by his
spirit.
People who are on the outlook and lookout.
People who are observant and intelligent about trends,
about situations today.
People who are honestly concerned about the spiritual
decadence in which we find ourselves.
The manner of praying, fervent, frequent, focused.
The miracle of praying, availing much.
I mean availing much.
Triumphing over piles of darkness, piles of drought,
piles of death.
Proving that God still answers prayer, but only
when men are ready in the day of
his power and are prepared to bow to
the terms, yes the terms, the costly terms
of prevailing in prayer.
Now you'll have to admit that I haven't
preached a popular sermon, and tried to amuse
you, and spent the time telling you anecdotes,
but I wouldn't preach anything else because I'm
concerned about the day in which I live.
I know too much about the trends.
I know too much about the sins of
the great city to which I'm committed in
the ministry.
I know too much about my own church.
I know too much about my heart.
I know too much about the subject on
which I'm going to speak on Thursday night,
the judgment seat of Christ, when I have
to give an account of my life before
my Lord, to preach anything else than the
need for revival.
For the last nine years in our church,
on the first Sunday of every month, and
the first Friday of every month, we give
ourselves entirely and completely to praying for revival.
On top of all other prayer meetings throughout
the week, and throughout our boards and organizations,
but that first Friday of every month, that
Friday in that upper room where sometimes we've
had as many as ten, and other times
we've had as many as five hundred and
had to go into the main sanctuary, we've
tasted now and again, and I believe one
of these days it's going to come, it's
going to come in a flood tide, but
we've tasted now and again heaven touching earth.
A completely new experience to most of my
people.
Many came out of curiosity to start with,
wondering what kind of a prayer meeting, a
night of prayer was, or a half night
of prayer was, what kind of meeting it
was.
And they're quick enough to get up and
pray once, yes, and twice, yes, and three
times, but they dare not get up a
fourth time and pray the same words.
And they discovered they were only saying prayers,
they weren't really praying.
And then God began to take us through
a school of prayer, and in those moments
of unhurried prayer and opening of scriptures and
searching of hearts, oh God has brought around
that ministry now.
A group will be meeting this Friday as
I fly to Saigon.
They'll be starting at seven o'clock, and
they'll be praying through to one o'clock
in the morning.
And I believe things are going to happen
not only because of prayer there, but your
prayers as well.
But I'm telling you, we've become very serious
about praying for revival.
And as I close tonight, I put it
to you.
Will you be a recruit?
You're an ordinary person, but are you prepared
to meet the terms of obedience?
Are you prepared to open your eyes wide
and see what's around you today?
Are you prepared to say, oh God, I
want this body of mine to be a
temple of the Holy Spirit, and I want
my mind and my heart and my will
totally given over to the Holy Spirit to
pray in me and through me the will
of God.
And whether it's in my own quiet time,
or in prayer cells started in my office
at the lunchtime in my school, in my
college, or whether prayer cells in the homes
of many of you women here, and most
important of all, at your own church prayer
meeting.
Oh God, make me, make me an intercessor.
Make me a prayer warrior.
Make me a righteous man and woman whose
prayers avail much.
If you're prepared to say yes to that
challenge tonight, you tell God.
You tell God as we pray together.
Let us pray.
We're going to have a few moments of
absolute silence in which I want us to
be alone with God.
We're in a great crowd here tonight, but
let's for a moment isolate ourselves from our
wives, our husbands, our friends, the audience, and
still ourselves in the presence of our Lord.
And hear him saying with all the freshness
of his anointed word, men ought always to
pray and not to think.
I can hear him saying now in the
agony of Gethsemane, watch and pray
lest ye enter into temptation.
And again, could ye not watch with me
one hour?
Can we honestly, can we honestly claim to
be indwelt by the Savior himself in his
Spirit and by his Spirit and not have
a burden for prayer?
For just as he never ceases to intercede
in heaven, so the Holy Spirit never ceases
to intercede in us, providing he finds the
willingness and cooperation of our minds and hearts
and wills.
A Christian who isn't engaged in this kind
of praying is obviously grieving the Holy Spirit,
quenching the Holy Spirit, disobeying the Holy
Spirit.
But I sense in this service tonight a
true concern, a response to the message that's
gone forth.
And in this closing moment of silence, I
want you to tell the Lord that you're
willing to be a prayer warrior.
You're willing to give yourself to a ministry
of prayer as and when the opportunity affords
itself and as and when you make those
opportunities.
Just before I conclude in prayer, I'm going
to ask those who are saying yes to
this challenge tonight.
With all its implications, I needn't recount them.
I needn't recapitulate the terms of reference.
You've heard the message, but you're saying, yes,
Lord, I'm believing for revival and I'm going
to pray for it in my own life,
first of all, and then in the circle
in which I move.
I'm ready to be an instrument of prayer,
a temple of prayer, a life and ministry
of prayer.
I'm going to ask you to quietly stand
to your feet right now.
Let's just be still in God's presence.
This wasn't intended as an outward act of
witness.
This is to clinch by some expression of
ourselves the decision of our hearts.
This is a holy moment, a sacred moment.
Indeed, I'm prepared to say that with the
remnant of godly people who've been able to
come to this service tonight and who are
here responding to this challenge, God could rock
Sydney to its foundations for his good and
glory.
The Right Honorable Lloyd George, Prime Minister of
Britain, for many years, reflecting on the John
Wesley, George Whitefield revival, declared that the revival
under those two men changed the entire history
of the British Isles.
His expression changed the entire history of the
British Isles.
The entire history of Australia could be changed
by you men and women if you really
meant business with God.
Our Father and our God, we bring to
thee every precious life, young and old, standing
in thy presence at this moment.
In response to the message delivered tonight, this
simple exposition of thy truth concerning praying for
revival.
And we dare to believe, Lord, that this
is a response deeply meant.
We dare to believe that this is going
to be implemented by obedience, through the undergirding
of the spirit, through the teaching of thy
word.
We dare to believe, Lord, that the impact
that's going to follow such praying in Sydney
and beyond is going to be felt throughout
this country.
We believe that thou dost not mock thy
people, and every response to a call to
prayer and obedience and holiness is sealed in
heaven.
And so we dedicate these precious lives to
thee in the name of the Father and
of the Son and of the Holy Ghost.
And trust thee to work out the ramification
of what has taken place in hearts and
lives here tonight.
We ask this through Jesus Christ our Lord
and all God's people said, Amen.
Shall we be seated, please?
For Mr. O'Hara leads us in our
closing hymn, and I hand back to our
good chairman.
I just want to say one simple word
concerning procedure at this point.
I know some of you may have to
hurry home because of commitments or travel arrangements,
but if it's possible, I would like as
many as those who stood to their feet
tonight to remain just for a few moments
after the service is dismissed.
We shall have a prayer and benediction.
Then I'm going to suggest each night that
we have a few moments of absolute silence
and prayer.
Then the organ will quietly dismiss us, and
those who would like to leave and have
to leave, would you do so just quietly
and prayerfully and rejoicingly?
The rest of you just remain behind.
I would like to say a word to
you about some of the implications of this,
some help I trust that is going to
help you on this matter of planning your
prayer life, and I would like to just
say a word or two about Vietnam.
It won't keep you long.
And then I just would like to say
what our chairman has said.
Simply because I only have these next two
nights left, it would be wonderful if you
could share this ministry with your friends and
bring them along tomorrow night and Thursday night,
where we lead off from this point, having
become prayer warriors.
Now how is this going to work out
in terms of witness?
And then how is it going to work
out in terms of that final day when
we stand before the judgment seat of Christ?
Thank you for your cooperation and thank you
for your presence and love and affection and
response here tonight.