I believe the main reason we are not
seeing revival in our land today is a
lack of fervent prayer.
I believe that our pulpits are powerless and
without influence because there is no influential prayer
life behind them.
I believe a man is only as tall
in the pulpit as he is long on
his knees in continued prayer.
The spirit of Antichrist is in the land
and society crumbles all around us and the
church seems powerless to do anything about it.
And I believe the answer can be traced
back to the day that the American church
threw the weekly prayer meeting out the window
and replaced it with programs and entertainment.
The powerhouse of the church is the engine
of prayer and I'm afraid today that too
many of us have run out of gas.
My message today, friends, is entitled, Hell-Shaken
Prayer, for I believe in my heart that
if the people of God got on fire
for God and laid hold of Him in
nights of desperate and prevailing prayer, we could
push back the powers of darkness in our
communities and usher in a Holy Ghost revival
that would shake this nation from coast to
coast with its Hell-Shaken Prayer.
My Bible says in the book of James,
the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man
availeth much.
The key word in that sentence is righteous
man.
Too few today pursue a life of holiness
unto the Lord.
Too few today give up their sports and
entertainments and devote that time to prayer.
I was standing in line at the dry
cleaners the other day and the man ahead
of me was all excited about our local
basketball team.
And as he talked about it, he knew
all the names of all the players and
what shots they made.
And he almost leaped off his feet as
he described it with such excitement.
I bet the average church member today could
tell you all about their favorite sports team
or favorite television program, but they couldn't name
the Ten Commandments or name more than five
of the twelve disciples of Christ, much less
quote large portions of scripture to you.
Why?
We today in the church in North America
are consumed with our idols and care little
about the perishing world around us.
And the proof of this is the time
spent on indulging our pastimes and passions as
opposed to the time spent on our knees
and in our Bibles.
It's been said that your average pastor only
spends ten minutes a day in prayer.
I bet he spends more time than that
at the practice range at the golf course
working on his handicap when he should be
working on his sanctification.
But a desperate life of prayer costs something.
There is a price to be paid, and
few want to pay it.
When Jacob wrestled with the angel of God
all night, it cost him physically for the
rest of his life.
Because he walked with a limp, every step
he took made him wince in pain.
But because of that desperate night of prayer,
God changed his name, changed Jacob's name from
supplanter to prince with God.
I believe Leonard Ravenhill's heart attack was due
to a night of desperate prayer.
He even said so himself.
Listen, friends.
What cost counts and what counts costs?
If we desire to have prayer lives which
move mountains of resistance and shake the gates
of hell, then we must stay on our
knees in brokenness and importunity until the answer
is gained.
Jude speaks of praying in the Holy Ghost.
But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your
most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
To pray in the Holy Ghost means that
you first must be anointed by the Holy
Ghost, filled with the Holy Ghost, and sensitive
to the Holy Ghost.
For to pray in the power of the
Spirit means unobstructed access to the Almighty, influence
to gain His attention, and power to attain
answers to our pleading petitions.
For praying in the Holy Ghost storms the
portals of heaven with violence, shuts up the
heavens from rain, and makes fire fall upon
the drenched altar of sacrifice.
It makes kings tremble and kingdoms shake.
For a man praying in the power of
the Holy Ghost has the ability to shake
strong cities off their foundations, and the potential
to send mountains tumbling into the sea, to
startle the very angels of heaven and rattle
the red-hot gates of hell.
A man full of the Spirit and anointed
with the Spirit, and praying in the Spirit
knows no resistance, has no opposition, fears no
earthly mortal, and conquers all unearthly enemies.
For praying in the power of the Holy
Ghost is the essence that makes prayer effectual
and fervent.
As the Apostle declares, the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much.
For a righteous man to be praying with
fervency and heat in the Holy Ghost is
to have great influence upon one's generation and
avail much for eternity.
Listen to this story that a pastor shared
with me one day while I was having
lunch with him.
He was a pastor from Glasgow, Scotland, and
he told me that he and some other
pastors in his city grew concerned over the
growing evil in their community.
Drug use was on the rise, crime had
increased, and out-of-wedlock pregnancies among teenage
girls had literally skyrocketed.
He told me that there used to be
a city banner that was prominently displayed throughout
the city of Glasgow which read, Let Glasgow
Flourish in the Name of the Lord.
But some godless civic leaders decided to change
the city's model to Let Glasgow Flourish, leaving
out the name of the Lord.
They took God out of the sentence.
When that happened, the city began to fall
into a moral tailspin, and evil increased daily.
Well, this pastor and his minister friends decided
to do something about it, so they decided
to meet on a weekly basis to pray
for their city, for their city of Glasgow.
They gave up their social lives to commit
this time to prayer, pleading with God to
make a difference in their community.
After some months of desperate prayer by these
dedicated men, they began to see a difference
in the life of their city.
Crime decreased, drug use decreased, and out-of
-wedlock pregnancies decreased.
This little band of men laid hold of
God in such prevailing prayer that eventually they
pushed back the powers of darkness in their
community.
You see, friends, when the light of the
gospel grows dim through watered-down preaching and
lack of prayer, then a vacuum is created,
and that vacuum is soon filled with darkness.
Why can't you, in your city, in your
community, band together with some other believers and
commit to one another and God that you
will give up your social lives, your entertainments
to desperate prayer until you see God move
in a mighty way?
Listen, friends, if we can make a difference
for God in our city, and if enough
prayer warriors emerge in other cities, this entire
nation could be moved for God.
The result would be that there would be
so much hell-shaking prayer going on that
this very nation would begin to tremble under
the influence of God and His Holy Spirit.
This is the way to revival.
But, oh friends, a desperate life of prayer
is a sacrifice, and you must be prepared
for it.
God may have you in a trial right
now to turn it into a vital place
of influential prayer for Him.
You see, friends, when God allows us to
go through a trial or storm, He has
a larger purpose in view.
He often brings us to places of brokenness
where we become like the broken alabaster box,
for to be broken alabaster boxes means to
have a fragrant life pleasing to the Lord.
We become better prayer warriors through trials, and
our faith is tested and increased through these
tribulations.
For a prayer life that grips the attention
of the heavenly throne room is not built
beneath calm sunny skies, but shaped during dark
sorrow-filled nights.
A serious prayer life is hammered out on
the anvil of pain and anguish, desperation and
despair, when hope hangs on a tattered thread
and all human resources are gone.
There and only there does the answer to
the request come.
Here is where the vital prayer life commences,
which gains the cupped ear of the Almighty
as He leans over to listen more intently
to the pathetic sobs and anguished heart cries,
which in desperation reach out for His robe
of righteousness to grab hold of and not
let go till the answer is attained.
To become a person of prayer is to
be a shrill holy note which continually rings
the ears of angels and rattles the gates
of glory.
Listen friends, a true prayer life is not
born out of comforts and prosperity, but through
trials and adversity.
In your leanness, you will learn to lean
upon Him.
Through your rolling on stormy seas, you will
learn how to effectively storm heaven's portals for
deliverance.
When friends fail, disappoint, and desert you, you
will seek and find favor with your faithful
friend, Jesus.
A desperate life of prayer shakes the gates
of hell and influences our generation all for
the glory of God.
Do you believe that?
I do.
A strong prayer life will make you fear
God and not man.
John Wesley said the following, Give me one
hundred men who fear nothing but God and
hate nothing but sin, and I will shake
the gates of hell.
And he did just that.
We can do it too, friends.
Wesley was just a man and a short
one at that, but he was long on
prayer and he stood tall in the pulpit
because of his mighty prayer life.
Oh friend, I beg you to fall to
your knees and confess your lack of prayer
to God.
Be honest with Him and ask Him to
help you redeem the time in your generation
to show you the foolishness of your favorite
pastimes and the wasted time consumed on them.
It is time to put away our idols
and lay hold of God for this lost
and perishing generation of hellbound sinners and hellbound
unconverted church members.
Dear brother pastor, if you want power with
God and influence over man, go to your
knees and stay there.
Ask God to make your very bones a
fire for Him to where you can ignite
others with your holy life of prayer and
powerful preaching.
This is a call to the pulpits in
our land to take back this land for
God and for our children and our grandchildren.
Go to your knees, church.
Fall on your face.
Beg God to bow heaven and earth on
our behalf and pour water upon this dry,
thirsty land of ours today.
Let me pray.
Oh great God, you are the Ancient of
Days.
You are holy and you are worthy to
be praised.
Give us the grace, oh Lord, to seek
thy face in desperate and prevailing prayer.
Give us the power of your Holy Spirit
to pray in the Spirit so that kingdoms
will be shaken for thee.
Oh great God, forgive us for our selfish
enterprises, our wasted time spent on useless things,
things that don't matter, things that you see
as dust in light of eternity.
Help us, Lord Jesus, to be persons of
prayer, mighty persons of prayer that you empower
to perform your purpose.
Help us to shake the very gates of
hell with such power that we push back
the darkness in our communities and usher in
your presence in a Holy Ghost revival that
will grip this nation with the awful solemnity
of your presence.
Come, oh Lord, and take the field in
a great revival of religion, I pray.
Come pour your Spirit upon this dry and
wasted land.
Come save our children.
Come save our grandchildren.
Come, Lord Jesus, and once again permeate our
sanctuaries with your presence and your preeminence, I
pray in the strong name of Jesus Christ
our Lord.
Amen.