Please turn to 2 Corinthians, the first chapter.
A message this morning, helpers in prayer.
Helpers in prayer.
I'm talking about a new kind of ministry
that very few are aware of and probably
one of the most needed in the Church
of Jesus Christ in this trying time.
1 Corinthians, the first chapter, beginning to read
at verse 11.
Our next service is at 3 and at
6.
We never announce who's speaking in this church,
very seldom.
Occasionally we do but very seldom because we
don't want people to come for personalities but
come for Christ.
In fact, nobody knows when I preach or
whether the carter preaches and you didn't know
I was preaching this morning.
And I'm not telling you who's speaking this
afternoon or this evening but God's going to
be here and you're going to be fed.
Hallelujah.
Praise the Lord.
Start to read verse 8, 2 Corinthians, first
chapter.
For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant
of our trouble which came to us in
Asia, that we were pressed out of measure,
above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of
life.
But we had the sentence of death in
ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves
but God which raiseth the dead, who delivered
us from so great a death, and doth
deliver, in whom we trust that he will
yet deliver us, ye also helping together by
prayer for us.
Ye also helping together by prayer for us.
Helpers in prayer.
Heavenly Father, we honor your word.
We honor you, Jesus, and we thank you
that you've honored your word above your name.
Lord, I thank you for the time that
you have dealt with me this past week,
for the need in my own life in
this matter of prayer and we pray that
you will make this known to every heart
in this place.
But we came here not to be entertained.
We came to hear your word and to
give our hearts to you in worship.
And we pray Holy Spirit now for a
special unction and anointing of the Holy Spirit.
I can't produce that in my own strength.
I can't produce any way of causing people
to hear and understand the word.
But Holy Spirit, you're the one who opens
our ears and our hearts to hear and
to understand what is being presented.
Lord, let it flow out of my innermost
being.
Let there be a river of life.
Lord, we thank you, even though it be
simple, that it lay hold of our hearts.
We lay hold of this principle and this
truth this morning so that the kingdom of
God and the house of God be glorified.
In Jesus' name, amen.
Friends, prayer can become one of the most
selfish things we do.
Let me say it again.
Prayer can become one of the most selfish
things we do in our Christian experience because
most of our praying is focused on our
own needs, our own families, our own spiritual
growth, our own problems, our own spiritual warfare.
Occasionally, we will pray for missionaries.
Occasionally, we reach beyond our narrow borders and
limitations in prayer and we'll pray for someone
beyond our family, a close friend or somebody.
And we tell so many lies about prayer.
I'll pray for you.
Oh, yes, I'll pray for you.
We never do it.
We forget it completely.
I don't do that anymore.
If I see somebody and say, pray for
me, I say, let's do it right now
because I know I may forget it.
In light of the Scriptures, lately, I've been
examining my own prayer life.
I've been diligently praying every day for my
family.
I've been praying for my children, my grandchildren.
I've been praying for a number of friends.
I've been praying for this church.
I've been praying for certain individuals whose problems
I've been made aware of.
And I pray for missionaries occasionally, but I'll
pray once or twice and then move on
to something else.
Much of my time in secret prayer has
been spent in calling on the Lord for
my own spiritual welfare.
Now, I pray.
Every demon in hell knows I'm a man
of prayer.
I don't boast in flesh, but in Christ.
I've done it since I was a child.
It's a wonderful experience to just go for
hours in the presence of the Lord and
just enjoy communion and just talk to Him,
get to know Him and love Him.
And all of that's wonderful.
Jesus loves that.
He loves communion because we are His bride
and you can't have fellowship without that.
And this is scriptural.
It's wonderful.
And I tell you, I do that.
And maybe some of you in the congregation,
well, thank God we have pastors that are
studying with God and in communion with the
Lord and come with a fresh anointed word
from the Lord.
But let me tell you, I've been convicted
because if all I do as a minister
of the gospel, if all you do as
a believer is go to the Lord and
have sweet communion, that can be a very
selfish thing because there's a whole world in
need.
There are people around us in need that
need our prayer help.
And if we just focus on the communion
and the fellowship and we are growing personally,
we're becoming a different person.
And prayer like that, communion with Christ, learning
who you are in Christ, can be very,
it can expand our growth.
We can become strong and deep in the
Lord.
I know many deep Christians who walk in
close fellowship with the Lord who are not
intercessors, who don't carry the burden of the
needs of the church and the body of
Christ in their heart.
And the Lord's been dealing with me on
that.
There's a precious man in San Diego.
He's a retired postal office worker.
He's retired and he's a poor man, a
very simple poor man.
And this man asked through a friend of
ours if he could have the privilege of
putting me on his prayer list.
And this man goes around picking up junk
on the streets that people leave out in
the street and he fixes it up and
gives it to widows.
He lives on one meal a day, just
eats meagerly, very little money.
He goes around fixing the plumbing of the
widows and the poor and doing work on
their houses and just giving everything.
He'll polish and brass it up and fix
it up and make it as a gift
to the widows.
And this man wants to add me to
his prayer list.
And he's added me.
I've been on that prayer list now, I
think, two years.
And this humble man has a whole list,
a long list, and he prays two or
three times.
He prays for me at least three times
a day.
And he prays over this whole list and
he doesn't take them off until they die.
I mean, he just keeps praying without ceasing.
He's going to pray for me until I
die or he dies.
Now, folks, I thought I was a man
of prayer, but this man goes around doing
all these things and prays while he's doing
it.
He is praying constantly and naming these names
before the Lord and said, Now, Lord, bless
Brother David, meet his needs.
Don't let the devil get to him and
do things like that.
And I'll tell you, when we get to
heaven, that man is going to have a
greater word, I think, than I will.
With all the souls the Lord's allowed me
to bring into the kingdom.
That man, he is a helper in prayer.
He fulfills this that I'm talking about in
Thessalonians.
I can honestly say this message, I think,
is for me more than anybody in this
congregation because I want to get away from
that selfishness in prayer.
Paul, in this text that I've just read
to you, tells us emphatically that he was
delivered from a near-death experience.
He was in deep trouble in Asia, but
he was delivered.
He said he was close to death so
that he even despaired of life.
He was deeply distressed and pressed.
And that word pressed means beyond measure, beyond
ability to cope.
He said, I was pressed down with troubles
in my life that I was unable to
cope with and I contemplated or thought that
this was going to be the end.
He was not thinking of suicide, but he
despaired that there could be any hope of
him going on in this battle that he
was in.
Paul understated his sufferings at all times.
Remember when a snake attached itself to his
hands?
No theatrics, no complaining, no holding out saying,
A little flip of the wrist, nonchalantly goes
on.
He understated his sufferings.
In fact, human suffering, the physical suffering never
bothered Paul.
Three times shipwrecked, he just mentions it in
passing, trying to make a point.
This man suffered, he's beaten and robbed and
goes through all kinds of things in the
flesh, never complains, totally understates it.
But when he says, when I was in
Asia, I was pressed beyond measure, he's talking
about mental anguish.
I believe that with all my heart.
Because in my own life, and I'm sure
in yours, it's not been the physical suffering,
it's not been any kind of physical pain,
it's not been an accident, it's not been
anything in the physical, it's been in the
mental, it's been in the spiritual.
It's the rejection.
Those coming against you who were your friends,
those who have misunderstood you.
All the pain in my life, when I
look back, the worst pain in my life
has been mental anguish or stress caused.
Paul said, the more I love, the less
I'd be loved.
And like David, the great distress, he said,
my bones are aching and my couch is
a bed of tears.
He wasn't talking about battle scars.
He wasn't talking about a cut in his
leg.
He wasn't talking about any physical pain.
He was talking about those who put their
feet under his own table, those who he
fed, those who he ministered to, those who
had turned against him and totally misunderstood his
motives and everything else.
And this, we get a hint of that
in 2 Corinthians when he said, when we
were in Macedonia, our flesh had no rest,
but we were troubled on every side.
Without were fighting, within were fears.
Now, what caused that?
It was because Paul was preaching a strong
gospel and he was afraid his own little
children would turn against him and misunderstand him.
And these little children, this church that he'd
raised up with, would listen to other voices
and not believe that he had their interest
at heart.
In fact, he was only comforted when Titus
came to him.
He said, I was comforted by the coming
of Titus and by the consolation he brought
when he told me of your mourning and
your fervent mind toward me.
He told me you still loved me, so
that I rejoiced again.
You see, in troubled times, Paul, and I'm
sure we should all have learned some wonderful
truths.
I know that I've learned more in my
suffering times than in the good times.
I don't want to go back and endure
it anymore.
I look back and I tremble.
But I know that that which I've learned
of the Lord that's been any sense that
has ministered to others, Paul said, we suffer
that we may succor or comfort others.
Out of our suffering, we comfort others.
And in his awful troubles, Paul learned some
great lessons.
And the greatest lesson he learned is you
can't trust your flesh.
You can't trust in your own willpower.
You can't trust in your own skill.
You can't trust in anything in this flesh.
The flesh has to die.
When Paul said, I die daily, he's talking
about trying to accomplish any favor with God,
any righteousness in his flesh.
By promises, by trying to do the will
of God in his own strength, you don't
have any strength against the powers of darkness.
You don't have any strength in your human
flesh to fight temptation.
You can't conquer your lust by making promises
and saying, I won't do it again.
You've done that a thousand times and broken
every promise.
He said, we had the sentence of death
in ourselves.
Why?
That we should not trust in our flesh.
There was a song an evangelist used to
sing in the old days and I couldn't
understand it.
He said, Lord, I've sinned, but try me
one more time.
At least give me another chance.
Not an ounce of scripture to that.
You're not on trial.
Jesus was on trial.
He already went to the cross.
He paid the price and he came forth
with covenant promises in the precious blood of
Jesus Christ and sent the Holy Ghost to
be our strength.
Hallelujah.
You see, as in Paul's life, the Lord
allows his children to go through great sufferings
and trials and tribulations, great temptations, to make
us see how weak and helpless we are
until we know that we can't defend ourselves
against any onslaught of the devil in human
strength.
And Paul sang the sentence of death.
He sentenced himself to death.
He sentenced his flesh to death.
He said, flesh, I will never again trust
you.
You have failed me.
His flesh could not give him any victory.
He said, but through it all I learned
to trust God.
In his suffering and trial he trusted God
who hath delivered us from so great a
death and doth deliver us and whom we
trust that he will yet deliver us.
He said, I learned that God delivered me
in the past.
I've learned that God is delivering me right
now from the power of the enemy.
And he has shown me if I trust
him, he's going to deliver me till the
very end, till the day I die.
I will be living under the living power
of God.
Now let's talk about how he got his
deliverance.
We know that it was in part due
to his own faith and confidence in God.
We know that this was a man of
prayer who spent many days and hours in
prayer.
He was given to prayer.
We know that Paul the apostle was the
one who introduced us to, he unveiled the
new covenant because I believe, if you don't
believe Paul wrote all of Hebrews, I do
believe with all my heart he wrote from
8 to 11, the last few chapters.
There's no question that is the writing of
Paul.
And Paul introduced the new covenant, all the
provisions and promises of the new covenant.
God, he said, was going to be God
to us.
He's going to give us a new heart,
take the heart of stone out of us,
give us a heart of flesh.
He said, your enemies will not triumph over
you.
I will be your shield.
I'll be your protector.
I'm going to write my laws in your
heart.
You say the law's been done away with.
Oh, it's been written here by the Holy
Ghost in our hearts.
Every precious law and commandment of the Lord
Jesus Christ written in the hearts.
He said, I'm going to be merciful to
your sins.
Now, you look at this man.
You look at the apostle Paul.
And he seems so assertive.
Here's a man who's been to the third
heaven.
Here's a well-educated man, educated in all
the Jewish ways.
The mystery of the gospel had been opened
to him.
All the provisions and promises of the new
covenant had been unveiled to his mind.
A man who ministered the power and demonstration
of the Holy Ghost.
A man who shook nations and cities.
A man who was as anointed or more
anointed than any man in the New Testament
other than Christ himself.
You look at this man and you say,
he doesn't need prayer.
He doesn't need any help.
He's withstood lions and devils and demons.
This man has been...
The devil tried three times to drown him
and couldn't touch him.
Snakes can't bite him.
This man is invincible.
He doesn't need prayer.
He's so strong.
He's got such faith.
He's such a man of God.
He doesn't need any help.
Not so according to Paul.
There's another important factor in his deliverance.
It's what I would call the subordinate plan
of God for deliverance.
We know that salvation is of the Lord.
We know that the covenants have been decreed
from the foundation of the world.
But Jesus knew the decrees of his Father.
He knew all these things had been decreed
from the foundation of the world yet he
spent nights before God praying that those decrees
become the will of God on earth now.
Paul the apostle recognized his need of prayer.
In fact, he pleaded for the prayers of
the church and the body of Christ.
A man of prayer, a man of faith,
a man of miracles.
And yet he pleaded with the church for
their prayers.
He said in verse 11, verse 11, Ye
also helping together by prayer for us.
He says, I prayed and God delivered me
with the help of your prayers.
Your praying for me brought about my deliverance.
You helping me in prayer brought forth my
deliverance.
Paul is saying in so many words, I
pray for myself and yet together helping me
in prayer, God has not only delivered me
in the past, he's not only delivering me
now, he's going to deliver me in the
future because you're praying for me.
God, listen closely, God has decreed that deliverance
is brought about by prayer.
He's decreed it.
He's commanded it.
You can't separate deliverance from prayer.
Impossible.
Call upon me in the day of trouble.
I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify
me.
He combines deliverance with prayer.
Psalm 91, 15.
He shall call upon me and then I
will deliver him.
He will call on me.
He will seek my face.
He'll pray.
He'll seek me.
Then I'll deliver him.
I will be with him in trouble.
I'll deliver him and honor him.
Paul said that through the prayers of the
saints, he'd been delivered out of the mouth
of the lion.
He said, The Lord shall deliver me from
every evil work and preserve me unto his
heavenly kingdom.
Why could he say, I've been delivered from
demonic powers and I'm going to be preserved
until Jesus comes?
Because he said, I have the church of
Jesus Christ praying for me.
Let me speak to you about this ministry
of helping in prayer, being a helper in
prayer.
And I think it's one of the greatest
needs in the body of Christ today.
If you and I had spiritual eyes, we
would understand the danger we're in at all
times as believers who are walking as remnant
Christians desiring holiness and purity before the Lord.
You seek him.
You're in his word.
You've made a commitment to go all the
way.
You have an uncompromised love for Jesus.
And the devil knows that.
And you're in danger.
You're a marked person.
You are literally marked by the enemy because
you stepped away from the crowd and you
have made up your mind to go all
the way with the Lord.
And you're marked.
And you're in danger every time you step
your foot out of your apartment or your
house.
Every moment you, every time you get on
the subway or get in a car or
walk the streets, the enemy is trying to
bring some foul play against you.
We're in danger, folks.
In other words, we are not in danger
because we're on fire, but the danger is
lurking there at all times.
If God could just open your eyes and
know the danger that we're in.
There's another danger that seems to be taken
so nonchalantly, and that's the danger in the
homes of so many Christians, the danger of
ruin, separation and divorce.
I didn't plan to do this when I
was preparing this message, but the last two
days the Holy Spirit has really taken hold
of my heart and it started with a
telephone call from a counselor in the south.
I happened to know this person and this
counselor called and said, I have to tell
you, Brother Dave, that I am crushed.
I've been ministering in our church to married
couples and in some parachurch ministries in this
area.
And she said, I'll tell you something, almost
every couple in our church is either divorced,
in trouble or contemplating divorce.
Everybody I know, there are no friends left.
Almost every friend of my family is either
divorced or talking about divorce.
She said, it's a plague.
What's happening, Pastor Dave?
What's happening?
It is all over the nation.
Ministers, wives and husbands writing and calling us
in the ministry.
Rampan is divorced in Pentecostal ministry areas and
all over the nation.
It's gone.
It is pandemic.
I hear all the reasons for this turmoil
in our families.
I want to talk to Times Square Church.
I'm not going to even talk to them.
This tape will probably be heard by many,
many thousands, but I'm not going to be
on the walls of this church right now.
Married couples that are sitting here now in
the annex and overflow rooms and basement or
wherever you are and here in the main
auditorium, some of you right now are contemplating
divorce.
Your marriage is in trouble.
You're in a mess.
A real mess.
Unless God gets a hold of you this
morning, some of you are going to be
in divorce court and some of you are
going to ruin your life and your kids
in the process.
No wonder we have so many young girls
anorexic.
They can't eat.
When somebody calls me and says their daughter
is pulling out her eyebrows and weighs 80
pounds at 21 years of age because of
trouble in the home, because a Christian father
is so mean and overbearing.
Kids dying left and right.
No wonder we have rebellion.
We have rebellion in Pentecostal circles and Baptist
and evangelical circles.
We have homes breaking up.
We have pastors who can't live with their
wives and wives say, I just assumed he'd
go.
Talked to a wife this past week.
She said, I want him out.
He used to be on my staff.
I've heard all the excuses.
Lack of communication.
Loss of affection.
Incompatibility.
Infidelity.
I've heard it all.
But it's much more than that.
We're not recognizing what's behind all of this,
folks.
It's a demonic attack right out of the
pits of hell.
It's the devil himself.
He's come as a destroyer.
And I'll tell you, you can go to
counselors.
I'm not against counseling, but you can go
to pastor to pastor.
You can go to psychology.
You can go anywhere.
Get any number of books you want to
read and stuff your mind with this.
And it's not going to help you until
you realize this is demonic.
And somewhere along the line, somewhere along the
line, if there's not peace in your home,
you say, I'm a Christian.
I believe Jesus.
I love the Lord.
I love my husband.
I love my wife.
If that is true, why aren't you asking
the question?
The disciples asked Jesus when they couldn't cast
out the demons.
Why couldn't we cast them out?
Why isn't it Christians who have heard the
covenant, Christians who know the Bible, who've sat
under preaching for years, don't have the power
and the authority over their marriages?
They've allowed some compromise to come in at
some point.
Some kind of bitterness has taken root, has
never been dealt with.
And I'm telling you now as a pastor,
with a broken heart, this morning some of
you are headed for divorce court.
And I'm angry at the devil because I
know who's behind this mess.
It's not been a lack of Holy Ghost
preaching.
If you come to this church, you have
heard me.
You've heard Pastor Carter, Teresa.
You've heard others of the pastors for months,
almost a year and a half, preaching on
the covenant, the blessings and the promises of
the covenant, how God can give you a
new heart, put a new spirit in you,
put the fear of God in you.
If you'll seek Him, you've heard promises, you've
heard grace, you've heard mercy, you've heard it
all.
You can preach it to others.
Then why is it, why is it you
don't have dominion?
Why is it you're still allowing the devil
to overrun you?
Why is the bitterness there?
Why can't you talk to one another anymore
without getting upset?
Why you've even been thinking of an escape?
If you think escaping for your marriage is
going to give you some better down the
line, you've got, you are so sadly mistaken.
You get out of this, you're going to
get in a bigger mess than you've ever
seen in your life.
I'll tell you that.
Jesus said there are certain satanic strongholds that
cannot be removed by anything but prayer and
fasting.
You tell me you love your husband and
wife, you've been having problems.
Let me ask you, how much time do
you spend every day on your face before
God?
Your marriage is crumbling before your very eyes,
you can't get along, you see your children
nervous, wrecked anymore.
Tell me, come on now, saints, tell me
in Christian love, how much time, where's the
desperation, how much time you've been seeking the
face of God?
How many times you've shut off the television
set and gone in and just cried before
the Lord and unburdened and unbosomed your soul
to the Lord and said, God, I can't
handle this, you must move on me, change
my mind, change my husband, change my wife,
change my family, heal us.
How many meals have you missed?
So that you could get along with Jesus
and tell him all about it.
Folks, we talk about the eyes of the
Jews being veiled.
I'm telling you the eyes of the church
of Jesus Christ are far more veiled.
The church of Jesus Christ, for the most
part, is in a stupor.
It's a stupor.
Because when troubles and cares and difficulties, family
problems, financial problems, career problems come to us,
we don't go to Jesus anymore.
We have abandoned the prayer closet.
We pick up the phone and we call
a friend, we call a counselor, we call
anybody but Jesus.
You know what the problem is?
We've got a gospel, a damnable gospel, that's
being preached around the country saying, if you
ask God for something, you just take it
by faith, and if you pray anymore about
it, it proves that you didn't believe God
the first time.
That's damnable.
And that's why people are not praying.
They say, well, I've got a promise and
I'm waiting on the promise.
I'm just standing on the word.
That poor widow must have been out of
her mind that kept coming back and back
and back, and Jesus gave that illustration.
She came back and back until she got
her answer.
Jesus prayed three times that the cup pass
from him.
Elijah prayed seven times.
Because you see, from the very beginning of
time, men of God, you go all through
your Bible, you'll find that every true man
or woman of God, when they had a
promise, they turned it into a prayer.
They turned it into a prayer.
The Lord gave Ezekiel a wonderful promise of
restoration.
He said the ruins of Israel would become
the Garden of Eden, that he was going
to fulfill his word.
And God made Ezekiel incredible promises.
But listen to what the Lord said in
the very next verse, after saying, I'm going
to turn the ruins of Israel into Garden
of Eden.
He said, but I will for this be
inquired of by the house of Israel to
do it for them.
God said, I've made you a promise and
I'm going to ask you to go and
pray it to pass.
You go and pray it to pass and
you seek God with all your heart until
it's fulfilled.
Daniel was given a prophecy that after 70
years, Israel would be restored.
The 70th year had come.
He could have just taken it by faith.
No, he got on his face for two
weeks and wept and cried and prayed until
God brought it to pass.
God commands also that we pray for one
another.
In the Old Testament, the priest went into
the Holy of Holies with a breastplate, with
the 12 stones in the breastplate, a type
of Christ going before the Father, having us
in his heart and presenting our needs to
the Father.
And the priest went there.
And the Bible said, you and I are
priests unto the Lord.
Is that true?
And we are to carry the burdens.
We're to carry in our hearts the needs
of those around us in the body of
Christ.
Every time we come into the Holy Place,
every time we go in the secret closet,
we're to carry that burden.
Paul was so conscious of his need of
the prayer help of others, he pleaded everywhere
he went.
Every church he went to, he pleaded for
prayer.
To the Romans he begged, I beseech you,
brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and
for the love of the Spirit, that you
strive with me in your prayers to God
for me that I may be delivered.
And that word strive there in Greek is
struggle, wrestle with me in prayer.
Wrestle for me.
Wrestle with me.
Strive and fight in prayer for me in
behalf of my needs in the gospel that
I preach.
Brethren, pray for us.
1 Thessalonians 5.25 He wasn't asking for
a quickie prayer.
He said, I want you to fight with
me.
I want you to strive for me.
In the letter to the Philippians, Paul, writing
from prison, was begging for prayer.
And he said, for I know that this,
your prayers, shall turn to my salvation through
your prayers and the supply of the Spirit
of Jesus Christ.
And I'm telling you now that I know
this works.
I know this works.
I've stood in this pulpit and asked and
pleaded for the prayers of this body when
I went recently to a trip to Europe.
I went to France, to Croatia, and Romania,
and Poland for ministers' conferences and evening crusades.
And when I was gone, Pastor Carter would
stand here and this whole body prayed for
me and my wife.
Because, you see, you don't just pray for
the pastor.
That's where you begin the ministry of helpers
in prayer.
You begin with the pastors, because they're the
most marked man.
Remember where then the battle says, don't fight
any soldier, go to the king.
Get the king.
Go kill him.
You get the king and the troops will
scatter.
And the pastors and their wives, that's why
I told you the wife who called our
answer phone last week and said, Dear Brother
David, there are many thousands of pastors' wives
like me who are drinking to drown their
sorrow.
She said, I drink in secret because I
can't handle my pain anymore.
Thousands, she said, just like me.
She was evidently in touch with a number
of them.
And I wonder, now folks, I've taken that,
I don't know her name, but she's on
my prayer list now.
I'm her helper in prayer now because that's
been brought to my attention.
And I've been praying for her every day
now that the Lord would heal her heart
and her pain and stop her from killing
herself with alcohol.
But when I was in Europe, the first
week we were in France and we were
doing the ministers' conference.
They asked me to hold a crusade in
the city of Nice in a big auditorium.
And they said it can't be done, it
had never been done in Nice.
And there's such agnosticism and atheism and Americans
are not very well liked, especially American evangelists.
And everybody was saying no, it couldn't be
done.
And the directors of the program had a
difficult time to tell them we need more
than 50 counselors.
And they said, well, we'll get 100.
I said, no, we need more than that.
And there were a few that had faith.
But I got up.
I sat during the whole program on the
front seat and I said, Lord, there's not
a message I have in my repertoire that
I feel is right here.
I don't know what to do.
I don't know what to preach.
I am tongue-tied.
Nothing was coming.
And I turned to Claude, who was my
interpreter, and we had gone before that previously
over some notes that I had and some
ideas, and he turned to me and said,
in words, you're not changing, are you?
And I said, I don't know what I'm
going to do.
But I want you to know something, folks.
When I stood before thousands of people and
just opened my mouth, suddenly I was made
to know I was aware.
I was totally made aware by the Holy
Ghost that people were praying.
And suddenly the Spirit of God came on
me.
I don't even remember what I said.
But the Holy Ghost came on me, and
you could hear a pin drop the Spirit
of God for about 40 minutes.
It was just that.
And I just said, if you need Jesus,
get up.
And, folks, it was just an avalanche of
people came.
There was no way that counselors could handle
it, brokenness and weeping before the Lord.
And I went back in the dressing room
and sat down.
I said, wow, oh, God, thank you for
the prayers of Times Square Church and others
that I know that have been praying, our
Bible school and others.
I felt the power of that.
And all through in Croatia and in Romania,
everywhere to suddenly when you felt dry and
say, where am I going, Lord?
And suddenly the Holy Ghost comes upon you.
And then the Holy Spirit's whispering, people are
praying, people are praying.
It's the power of prayer.
It's there.
Hallelujah.
Does it work?
Yes, it does.
Pastors that are here, you have every right
to get up in your pulpit, and I
beg you to do it.
I plead with this church, everybody that belongs
to Times Square Church, you call this home.
I need your prayers.
Our family needs your prayers.
Pastor Carter, every pastor here, we plead for
your prayers.
And pastor, you have every right to get
up, and God help you if you don't,
like Paul the apostle.
I need helpers.
I wonder how many fallen
evangelists, I wonder how many pastors who got
so discouraged they couldn't even pray anymore, loaded
down on all sides.
I wonder if they would have fallen had
they had a church or some people with
intercessors behind them holding up their hands and
fighting the devil with them.
You know, you heard Pastor Carter talk about
how his wife and her mother and father
were delivered.
Teresa's mother and father are saintly people, godly
people.
And I had told of this when Pastor
Carter left.
I was describing this.
After Pastor Carter went back after, a very
godly prayer word from this church came backstage.
And she was trembling.
She said, oh, brother Dave, I've got to
tell you something.
She said, the other night, the very night
this happened, I was meditating, and this was
about three hours before, because she was praying
in mid-afternoon, and this happened, I found
out later, about probably four or five o
'clock.
She said, the Holy Spirit came and said,
pray for Teresa Conlon and her family.
And she began to intercede and pray against
the foul play of the enemy.
God, I don't know what's going on, but
preserve her.
And she began to intercede and pray in
the Spirit.
It's called helpers in prayer, because when you
take this ministry on you, you're willing to
begin to pray and seek the face of
God.
God will wake you up at the middle
of the night.
He will put burdens on your heart.
You will marvelously be led in prayer, and
you may not hear about it.
You may and may not until you get
to heaven.
Boy, and what a time will be when
the Lord opens the books, and you see
how much danger you chased away, how many
demons you put to flight.
Paul set the example.
He became a prayer helper for others.
He said, I'm not going to ask you
for prayer unless I myself am involved in
this ministry.
Paul said to the Philippians, I thank my
God upon every remembrance of you, always in
every prayer of mine for you all, making
requests with joy, because I have you in
my heart.
Folks, I can't even begin to measure up
to that.
No way.
As a pastor, I can't.
Always in every prayer of mine for you
all, making requests with joy, because I have
you in my heart.
I can't say I don't have this congregation
in my heart.
I do.
But I can't say with Paul, I thank
my God upon every remembrance of you, every
moment I think of you, always in prayer
of mine for all of you, making requests
with joy, because I have you in my
heart.
You see, Paul wasn't asking something of others
that he wasn't willing to undertake himself.
Paul, to those in Rome, said, God is
my witness that without ceasing, I make mention
of you always in my prayer.
Without ceasing, I make mention of you.
Now, that word in Greek means, I recite
your name and your problems before the Lord.
It means recite.
It doesn't just say, Paul said, I mention
you to God.
He said, I recite your name.
I name you and I name your needs
before the Lord every day.
Oh God, help me.
Even when Peter was in jail, what did
the church do?
Oh thank God, prayer was made without ceasing
for the church and to God for him.
Prayer was made without ceasing.
I know some intercessors who have get up
early in the morning, every day, and pray
for me and my family.
Every day.
Month after month after month and year after
year.
And folks, there are times that I have
known that I could not have made it.
Miracles have happened in my family because of
intercessors.
And then letters that come in from people
say, I was on your meeting list now,
Brother Dave, for 25 years, and for 25
years I've mentioned you to the Lord every
day.
And that's one of the reasons I think
I'm standing here this morning.
Now you may not know all the names
of people, but surely you have friends around
you whose marriages are in trouble.
You have people who have terrible problems in
their life.
What do you do?
Do you just go to the neighbors, isn't
that awful?
Isn't that a shame?
They're breaking up.
And do you know whose fault it is?
And we gossip.
Why can't we become a prayer helper of
your friends, your acquaintances, and all you know
in the body of Christ who are in
trouble, and why can't you and I just
go to God quietly and name their name,
recite it before the throne of God, and
say, Lord, have mercy.
I'm doing that now.
I've begun to do that because I've been
totally wholly convicted of my narrow praying and
of my selfishness in prayer, and God wants
to bring this whole body into that.
All-night prayer meeting.
Oh, folks, if you come, write a list
if you have to.
Name them before the Lord.
Spend a little time with each one of
them.
Folks, if all you do through the day,
name their name before the Lord and whisper,
Jesus, keep them from the wicked one.
Jesus, keep them by your power.
Who delivered us from so great a death,
and he does deliver us, and he will
deliver us, you also helping together by prayer
for us.
I'm going to close with one little story,
if you don't mind.
I was sick in bed one time, real
sick.
I'd been in bed for about two days,
and one of my grandsons walked in with
holy boldness.
He said, Pop, I'm going to pray for
you.
I said, That's nice.
He laid his little hand on my head.
He said, Jesus, make him all better.
Then he backed away, and I just laid
there.
I said, Thank you.
His eyes got big.
He said, You're healed.
Get up.
I got up, and I was healed.
You know what that says to me?
God's not interested in a long, elaborated, deep
prayer.
He's interested in a prayer of faith.
That you know that you bring that.
You just recite that before the Lord in
faith, and God is going to answer.
That way, you can pray for so many
people.
In one hour, you can cover the whole
world if you have to.
Oh, hallelujah.
God is faithful.
Do you want this ministry to be a
prayer helper?
So many people want to be licensed and
ordained.
They want a card.
They go around and say, Look at me.
I am a preacher.
No, no, no.
That's not what God...
That doesn't impress the Lord at all.
I got my ordination card some day.
I lost it.
I don't even know where it is.
That's not what God's looking for.
He's looking for humble saints.
They go up to the pastor and say,
Hey, you can come up and love me.
Put your arms around me and say I
love you.
Go, Pastor Carter and all the pastors.
Oh, I love you.
Thank God for you.
You bless me.
Your word's so wonderful.
Clattery will do you no good.
Pray for us.
Say I'm going...
I'd rather you come up and say, Brother,
I am praying for you.
And when you say it, you better mean
it.
And in turn, I pledge to you, God
helping me and our pastors I know, do
the same.
Don't know your name?
By now, I know where most of you
sit because you sit in the same seat
all the time.
But we're going to pray for you.
I'm going to do that right now.
This is not a show.
I'm going to pray for you.
I'm going to ask you to sit here
now and ask God to examine your heart
about your own prayer life.
Have you been selfish?
Has this been me, my family, Uncle John,
us four, no more?
No, no, no, no.
Lord, we begin with the pastors, the families,
my family, and then all the needs, all
the divorces, all of the troubled families and
all of this.
Lord, we bring it all to you.
Will you stand?
Hallelujah.
Heavenly Father, I know you put this on
my heart this morning and I don't know
why.
You knew who would be here.
You knew who needed it.
And folks, and Lord, this church needs...
We need this whole church to become helpers
in prayer, to help those that are going
overseas, to help our missionaries, to be praying
Lord diligently.
Lord, even while I stand here, while I've
been preaching, right beneath me in the prayer
room, there are people pleading.
All through my preaching, they've been pleading.
We have elders downstairs praying.
These are those who are helpers in prayer.
And Lord, I have felt the power of
their prayers beneath me this morning.
And Lord, I'm asking that you help me.
I pray for this church.
And Lord, put this church in my heart
that I may become one of the intercessors
for this body, that the wicked one cannot
come and attack anyone in this church without
having to battle through the power and faith
of pastors who pray and seek God's face.
And then, Lord, we come to this congregation.
We come to Christians who want to pray
and seek your face, that they will stand
behind us in prayer, that we will not
turn aside, that we will come with a
fresh anointing each time we come, that we'll
be kept from the enticements of this world
and we'll be kept by the hand of
God.
Lord, Nicky Cruz needs many praying for him.
Lord, in his battle to reach kids in
the streets and the enemy will come against
him with everything in hell.
God, I pray this morning that you would
put his name and his wife and family
in prayer that every day we could recite
their name and their needs before you, that
you would open doors and, God, that you
send angels to protect.
God, do it, I pray, in Jesus' name.
Amen.
I want us...
Will you sing a chorus in just a
moment as I find the mind of the
Lord in this invitation?
Please stand still.
I ask you not to leave right now.
Wait until we give the invitation.
Just be still in the presence of the
Lord for a few moments.
I'm going to make a very bold invitation.
If you're here, you may be a husband
or wife alone.
You're not with your husband or wife.
You're here just here by yourself.
Or your husband or wife, you're both here
together.
I'm going to make a very bold invitation.
You say you want healing in your marriage?
I want you to get out of your
seat.
I want you to come up here and
let me agree with you.
I'm going to be your helper in prayer.
We're going to take authority and dominion over
the enemy and the stronghold of Satan that's
trying to destroy both you and your family.
If you're here together, husband or wife, just
squeeze your wife's hand and say, Honey, let's
go.
Up in the balcony, go to the stairs
on either side.
Now, listen to me also.
If you're here now and the enemy's trying
to destroy you, you know you're in a
battle for your life.
Some of you are backslidden.
Some of you are not right with God.
Somebody came in here totally.
You have slipped away from the Lord.
And others have never fully surrendered your life
to Jesus.
I'm inviting you to come with these that
are coming.
And in the annexes, in the main auditorium
in the annex, would you go just up
to the screen, if you will, or between
the screens, and in all the other rooms,
go beyond or stand beside the jumbotrons.
We're going to have somebody up there.
I'll be praying with you.
And those in this auditorium, up in the
balcony, go to the stairs on either side
and come down any aisle.
We're not going to have any mood music
or anything.
We're just singing this to give you time
to come.
But this is the time.
If God dealt with you this morning by
His Spirit, I want you to come.
I want you to open your heart.
I am going to lay hold of God
for marriages.
If you're here, sister, and your husband's not
with you, and your marriage is in trouble,
if the Holy Spirit's leading you, come and
we'll pray and believe God.
If your husband is in the same situation,
and husbands and wives who need a miracle,
you say, Pastor David, the enemy has come
in recently.
But along with that, don't you dare, don't
dare walk out on the Holy Ghost this
morning when He's come to meet your need
in a very special way.
The power of the Lord's here this morning
to deliver you.
You say, Pastor David, the devil's been trying
to draw me away from the Lord.
He's been trying to draw me away from
the Lord.
Come and be healed.
Come and be strengthened by the Holy Spirit.
This church, this past year, the Lord has
been healing so many marriages.
Every one of our pastors are meeting people
on the streets and in the men's fellowship
and in the women's meeting, and the pastor's
wives here also.
My marriage has been healed.
A new life, new love.
God's been healing, breaking down walls.
The Word of God is finding its mark.
And God's going to do that this morning.
God is going to heal.
If you're here as a mate, your mate
is not here with you, you're the one
who has to take the spiritual authority.
You're the one who has to make a
commitment to the Lord this morning.
I'm going to be the one who prays.
I'm going to get desperate before the Lord.
You can change the heart of your mate.
You can literally change them by the power
of prayer.
You can turn them around.
They can see such a change in you
through prayer.
They'll see such a change in you that
they've got to come your way, God's way.
And others of you here this morning that
have been slipping away from the Lord, others
of you are not right with God, some
of you to be saved here for the
first time and surrender your heart to Jesus.
If you were here last Tuesday, you saw
how long it took to baptize all the
people being saved.
We have to sometimes have two nights just
to get them all baptized because the Lord
is saving and healing and changing lives.
And He's going to do that for you
right now.
I want this church to pray with me.
I want you to become helpers in prayer
now for all of these that are here
now.
And there are some of you standing here
in the audience, in the audience right now,
you didn't step forward, but you need this
prayer also for your marriage.
And others of you didn't come forward, but
you say, I want to surrender all to
Jesus right now in this service.
And in the annexes, we want to pray
with you.
We want to pray with you right now
that the Spirit of the Lord come in
power and demonstration of the Spirit and break
every chain that binds you.
I'm going to ask you right now to
make a commitment to Jesus.
Lord, I'm going to seek your face.
As of today, Holy Ghost helping me.
Ask the Holy Ghost to put it in
your heart to remind you.
It takes a discipline.
You don't have to go to anyone else
right now.
You can go to a counselor after you
get your prayer life straightened out.
Get your prayer life right.
Then if you want to go to a
counselor, he's only going to confirm what God
told you anyhow.
Heavenly Father, I come against the powers of
darkness, against every evil spirit, against principalities and
powers of the darkness of this sinful world.
And we say to you, devil, you have
no place here.
We take the authority of Jesus Christ, our
Lord and Savior, over all the powers of
darkness that have come to destroy homes.
We take your authority, Jesus, right now in
binding those spirits, those spirits of destruction, those
spirits of death, those spirits of absolute chaos
and confusion.
Go in Jesus' name.
Go.
I want you all who came forward, raise
your hands.
Just lift up your hands.
I want you to pray with me.
Jesus, I surrender all of my selfishness and
all my self-efforts, Lord Jesus, by your
Holy Ghost, call me to prayer, woo me
to prayer, put it in my heart.
Holy Spirit, I don't know how to pray.
Teach me how to pray.
I come now, Lord, for healing, healing in
my life and my home.
Oh, Jesus, cleanse me, forgive me, sanctify me,
touch me as I've never been touched in
all my life.
And let me pray for you again.
Lord Jesus, those that are in the annexes,
watching, listening, those in this auditorium, in the
balcony, Lord, I believe your word.
You said the effectual fervent prayer of a
righteous man avails much.
Lord Jesus, you have all power and authority
against every enemy that's come against these who
stand in this place.
Now, look at me, folks.
You have got, in the name of the
Lord, to lay hold of faith right now,
to believe that God's concerned, that God cares.
And if you have a heart to Him
right now, He is going to move on
you, and this is not going to dissipate.
What you are experiencing right now is not
going to just leave you when you go
out the door.
It's going to be there.
And if you will, the rest of this
day, before you go to bed tonight, if
you're together, husband and wife, pray together, begin
to pray together.
Do you pray together?
Every day?
Do you pray?
Do you just get together and say, Lord,
and if you don't, begin.
And I'm telling you, most of your problems
are going to be melted in the presence
of the Lord as you pray together.
They'll be melted in the presence of the
Lord.
Those of you that are single, Paul said,
you have more time to serve the Lord.
You should be praying more.
He said, you're not as distracted.
I'm not saying marriage is a distraction.
Paul said that can be.
It's not my words.
Amen.
That's the joy of the Lord.
If you're here together as husband and wife,
just turn to her, or him, and just
whisper something sweet in the ear.
That's all.
Just something sweet.
That's right.
Are you married?
Are you praying for your husband?
Yeah.
Something sweet.
That's all you want.
Yes.
Lord, there is a kindness, there's a sweetness
in Jesus.
You take the meanness out of us, curb
our tongues from those bitter words, and let
every word we speak to one another be
worthy of Christ.
This is the conclusion of the tape.