The series of our little talk is Back
to Basics, and the subject today is just
a quiet talk on prayer, and the golden
text is in 1 John chapter 5.
So if you'd turn to that please, 1
John chapter 5, verses 14 and 15.
Now this is
the confidence that we have in Him, that
if we ask anything according to His will,
He hears us.
And if we know that He hears us,
whatever we ask, we know that we have
the petitions that we have asked of Him.
I almost feel like beginning this message with
an apology.
If you want to really humble me, ask
me, how is your prayer life?
What can I say?
I have to say I don't spend as
much time in prayer as I should.
And maybe that will strike a responsive chord
in someone else's heart here today.
Somebody said, preach into your own heart, and
you'll be surprised how many hearts you hit.
And today I'm preaching into my own heart,
and I just want to share with you
some simple thoughts on the subject of prayer
that have been helpful to me.
First of all, man never comes closer to
omnipotence than when he prays in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You and I will never be omnipotent.
We will never have all power.
But we never come closer to it than
when we pray in Jesus' name.
Because when we pray in that name, it's
just the same as if the Lord Jesus
were making those requests of the Father.
And dear friends, that's power.
That really is power.
And it's a wonderful thing to be able
to come into the presence of God the
Father in the worthy name of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
An old bishop was right when he said,
when I pray, things happen.
When I don't pray, they don't happen.
When I pray, things happen.
When I don't pray, they don't happen.
I'd like to suggest to you this morning
that Christians hold the balance of power in
the world through prayer.
We can affect the destiny of nations through
prayer.
Some of us have been almost breathless in
recent months as we've watched what has happened
in Eastern Europe.
When we saw the Berlin Wall come down
and a breath of freedom blow across Eastern
Europe.
Do you know why that happened?
That happened because Christians have been praying.
That's why it happened.
I think sometimes we lose the sense of
that, that these great movements in human history
are the result of the prayers of God's
people.
When I was over there last October, I
was told that there were no, at that
time, there were no Christians in prison in
Russia as a result of their faith.
You tell me that isn't an answer to
prayer.
Christians hold the balance of power in the
world through prayer.
And we can affect the destiny of nations
through prayer.
I'm sure I've told this to you before,
some of you before, and I'm sure too
there are some that never heard it.
On the second Friday of every month, we
have a prayer meeting up there.
It's kind of a missionary prayer meeting.
And young people come from various assemblies and
other groups.
Some years ago, we gathered on that Friday
night and we did something that we had
never done before.
We opened the meeting in a time of
confession of sin, confessing the sins of the
nation, confessing the sins of the church, confessing
individual sins, but not in a lurid way.
And that time of confession went on for
quite a while.
Then we started to pray for missionaries in
various nations of the world.
And we had a letter from Dick Sanders,
who at that time was in the Chad
Republic.
And at that time, there was a wicked
ruler in the Chad.
His name was Pombobai, and he was massacring
the Christians.
Time Magazine reported that one Christian had been
buried up to his neck in sand, and
the ants finished him off.
Another Christian had been put inside a drum
and they beat on the drum till he
starved to death.
And Dick wrote us in this letter that
he said, don't feel sorry for the Christians
that have gone to heaven.
But he said, pray for those who are
still alive.
And we did.
I think it was about two o'clock
Saturday morning.
We're praying for the Chad Republic and for
the Christians there.
Just a little group of nobodies in San
Leandro, California, praying for nations of the world.
Sunday morning, I'm going to Bethany Chapel to
minister the word, and I flick on the
radio, the news station.
Newsflash.
Chad Republic.
Military coup.
Pombobai killed.
And really the result was that a military
general was elevated to power who was favorable
to the evangelical cause.
Now, do you believe that a group of
young people praying in a prayer meeting at
two o'clock on a Saturday morning could
affect the destiny of the Chad Republic?
Well, I want to tell you something.
All the young people that were there that
night believe it.
They believe that didn't happen by chance.
That marvelous converging of circumstances and the timing
and sequence of events could only be of
God.
Really, when you think of that, you say,
why don't we pray more?
And I ask myself that.
I rebuke myself.
Why don't I pray more?
Next, the best prayer comes from a strong
inward necessity.
You know this.
You know this from experience.
The best prayer comes from a strong inward
necessity.
First of all, when a person is unsaved
and he's casual about it all and he
doesn't think very much about it.
But I tell you, when the Spirit of
God comes upon him and his life is
brought to a crisis point, he knows how
to cry to God for salvation.
But even in the Christian life, too, the
best prayer comes from a strong inward necessity.
It makes you wonder why we don't live
more in dependence on the Lord.
Why we have to surround ourselves with all
the security systems, all the pillows, all the
crutches, all the support, all the superstructure, so
we really don't need God.
I'll never forget a young fellow saying to
me, young O.
Emmer, Greg Livingston.
He said, it's very hard to live a
life of faith in the United States.
He said, you have to put yourself in
a position where you have to trust God.
Where if God fails you, you're sunk.
And when you do that, there'll be a
power in your life.
And when you touch other lives, something will
happen for God.
Wow.
Can I say that again to you?
Hard to live a life of faith in
the United States.
He said, you have to put yourself in
a position where you have to trust God.
Where if God fails you, you're sunk.
And he said, if you do that, there'll
be a power in your life.
And when you touch other lives, something will
happen for God.
Remember, Lord Jesus said to the disciples, launch
out into the deep.
And I think that's what he's saying to
us too today.
We try to hug the shore as far
as a life of faith is concerned.
We feel more secure there close to the
edge.
And the Lord Jesus is saying to us
all the time, launch out into the deep.
Next, I'd like to suggest to you that
God seldom, if ever, does anything except in
answer to prayer.
It's going to be a shocker to some
of you.
God seldom, if ever, does anything except in
answer to prayer.
I got to put that statement to the
test right now.
I'm going to ask you who are saved
by the grace of God.
Okay, raise your hand if you can think
of someone who prayed for you before you
were saved.
Would you raise your hand?
I've proved my point.
God seldom, if ever, does anything except in
answer to prayer.
Spurgeon said, prayer is the forerunner of mercy.
Turn to sacred history and you'll find that
seldom ever did a great mercy come to
this world unheralded by supplication.
Prayer is always the preface of blessing.
When I meet somebody, maybe a young fellow,
and he's just come to the Lord, and
I like to say to him, who prayed
for you?
And he thinks, you know, I had a
grandmother who knew the Lord.
Something like that.
Something like that always comes out.
What a great incentive for us to pray.
God has limited certain of his activities to
responding to the prayers of his people.
Unless they pray, he will not act.
Heaven may will something to happen, but heaven
waits and encourages Earth's initiative to desire that
will, and then to will and pray that
it happens.
The will of God is not done on
Earth by an inexorable juggernaut omnipotence or ignoring
the will of man on Earth.
R.B. Matthews says this, On the contrary,
God has will that his hand be held
back while he seeks for a man, an
intercessor to plead, Thy will be done on
Earth as it is in heaven.
In other words, he bids his own work
wait on man's prayers.
Something to think about, isn't it?
God bids his own work to wait on
man's prayers.
Next, I'd like to suggest to you this
morning that prayer moves God to do things
that he wouldn't otherwise have done.
Really does.
Prayer moves God to do things that he
wouldn't otherwise have done.
I know a lot of people have the
idea that all prayer does is bring us
into cooperation with what God is going to
do anyway.
It isn't true.
Turn in your Bibles, please, to James chapter
4 and verse 2.
James chapter 4 and verse 2.
And there it says it very, very clearly.
You lust and do not have.
You murder and covet and cannot obtain.
You fight and war, yet you do not
have because you do not ask.
That's it.
You do not have because you do not
ask.
Chapter 5, verse 16.
Confess your trespasses to one another and pray
for one another that you may be healed.
The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man
avails much.
So what a wonderful thing it is to
be able to touch the throne of God
in prayer and see God doing things that
otherwise he wouldn't.
Let me tell you something this morning.
The warehouses of heaven are filled with crates
containing blessings that no one ever asked for.
It's true.
The warehouses of heaven are filled with unopened
crates containing unimaginable blessings that nobody has ever
asked for.
Something else that has helped me in a
life of prayer, such as it is, is
this.
God always answers prayer.
And he always answers it in the way
that you would answer it if you had
his wisdom, love, and power.
If you knew what God knows, and if
you loved as God loves, and if you
had the power that God has, you would
answer prayer in just exactly the same way
God answers.
I have a friend who was wrapping some
books the other night, and his little girl
came out of the bedroom.
She's five, came out of the bedroom.
And in her nightie, she had gone to
bed, but she was wide awake.
And she said to him, Daddy, I'm going
home to heaven.
He said, What do you mean?
Well, she said, I'm going to go home
to heaven at midnight tonight.
And he said, What do you ever say
that for?
Well, she said, I don't want to live
here any longer.
Five years old.
I don't want to stay here.
He said, What about Daddy and Mommy?
But she said, You can come and visit
me.
Well, he said, What makes you think you're
going home to heaven?
She said, Well, I asked God and he
answers prayer, doesn't he?
And the father said, Yes, he does answer
prayer, dear.
But supposing you said to me, Daddy, I
don't want to eat anything but candy the
rest of my life.
Would you give it to me?
She said, He said, Would I give it
to you?
And she said, No.
And he said, Why wouldn't I give it
to you?
She said, Because it wouldn't be good for
me.
And she went and had a good night's
rest.
So that's right.
God answers prayer in the same way you
would answer it if you had his wisdom,
love and power.
I tell you, that gives us great confidence
in prayer, doesn't it?
Because sometimes we don't know what to ask
for.
And sometimes we make very crazy requests if
you want to know the truth.
I've done that.
But I thank God for his wisdom in
answering prayer.
God nothing does nor suffers to be done
but what you would yourself if you could
see the end of all he does as
well as he.
Which says God answers your prayers.
He knows what the end is, what the
purpose is, and he answers it.
When you say I have a problem, what
about when I pray for my unsaved relative?
Can I be sure when I pray for
my unsaved relatives that they'll get saved?
Well, let me tell you how I've resolved
that in my own mind.
I believe that when I pray for the
unsaved, God brings influences to bear on their
lives.
Maybe they flick on the radio and hear
a gospel program or the TV or maybe
somebody hands them a crack or maybe they
see Jesus saved, saved painted on the side
of a rock.
I believe with all my heart that when
I pray for an unsaved person, God brings
some influence to bear on that person's life.
I might not know about it at all.
But God doesn't drag people to heaven against
their will.
And the human will is involved in salvation,
isn't it?
So I pray God acts and then he
leaves it to the individual to make the
choice.
He doesn't force the will.
Next, the work of God is done more
in prayer than in any other way.
But I'd like to read another quote to
you in that regard.
Prayer is the cutting edge in any work
for God.
It's not a supplemental spiritual rocket to get
some well-meaning effort off the ground.
Prayer is the work and the working power
in any spiritual ministry.
It should be the central thrust.
The spiritual history of a mission or a
church is written in its prayer life.
The expression of corporate life is not measured
in statistics, but in prayer depth.
I like that.
Let me read that again.
The expression of corporate life is not measured
in statistics, but in prayer depth.
Men today judge the success of a church
by the number of people in it.
God doesn't.
The program of preaching, teaching, and serving, the
goal setting, the adoption of new 20th century
techniques, seminars on time management and administrative procedures
are all good, but effective and productive in
God's economy only as they're subject to prayer.
Next, I'd like to say this.
There are mysteries in connection with prayer.
I'm sure you face those in your own
mind.
Questions arise in regard to prayer.
I'd just like to leave this with you.
It's better to pray than to solve all
the mysteries in prayer.
Just leave the mysteries with God and just
pray and learn.
As Hudson Taylor said, learn to move men
through God by prayer.
Prayer should be a joy for us.
Not a duty, not a burden, but a
joy.
Paul says that in Philippians 1, making my
request with joy.
I think many times we think of prayer
as a duty, as a discipline, as a
routine, as a ritual.
Paul says, pardon me, I just happen to
enjoy it.
And we sing that.
Sometimes I think our hymnology is better than
our practice.
We sing, oh, the pure delight of a
single hour that before thy throne I spend.
A wonderful, wonderful thing.
Prayer often deals in the realm of the
impossible and accomplishes it.
It's true.
Prayer and faith lead us to heights that
make reason dizzy.
And if we have time, we'll try to
mention some of them.
Somebody has said that prayer has divided seas,
rolled up flowing rivers, made flinty rocks gush
into fountains, quenched flames of fire, muzzled lions,
disarmed vipers and poisons, marshaled the stars against
the wicked, stopped the course of the moon,
arrested the rapid sun in its great race,
burst open the gates, iron gates, recalled souls
from eternity, conquered the strongest devils, commanded legions
of angels down from heaven.
What has prayer not done?
Prayer makes the darkest clouds withdraw.
Prayer climbs the ladder Jacob saw, gives exercise
to faith and love, brings every blessing from
above.
Restraining prayer, we cease to fight.
Prayer makes the Christian's armor bright.
And Satan trembles when he sees the feeblest
Christian on his knees.
Tremendous.
It's fervent prayer that reached the throne of
God.
We already read that, didn't we?
In James chapter 5, the effectual fervent prayer
of a righteous man avails much.
Cold prayers are like arrows without heads, like
swords without edges, like birds without wings.
They don't pierce.
And cold prayers don't reach the throne.
Somebody has said this and I ask you
to consider it.
I consider my effectiveness by the number of
people who pray for me and the number
I pray for.
I measure my effectiveness by the number of
people who pray for me and the number
I pray for.
I tell you, one of the greatest joys
to me and one of the greatest encouragements
in the Christian life is when somebody comes
to me and says, I pray for you
every day.
And if anything is accomplished in a ministry
like mine, it's certainly not through me, but
through the prayers of God's people.
I think it's good for us to remember
that prayers, our prayers go to the Father
through the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'd like you to turn to Revelation chapter
8, and especially this might be encouraging to
young fellows and girls.
It has been to me, I'll tell you.
Prayer goes to the Father through the Son
by the Holy Spirit.
Revelation chapter 8, verses 1 through 4.
I'm going to read them.
When he opened the seventh seal, there was
silence in heaven for about half an hour.
And I saw the seven angels who stood
before God, and to them were given seven
trumpets.
Here it is.
Then another angel, having a golden censer, came
and stood at the altar, and he was
given much incense that he should offer it
with the prayers of all the saints upon
the golden altar which was before the throne.
And the smoke of the incense with the
prayers of the saints ascended before God from
the angels' hands.
Now, what I'd like to emphasize here, and
especially to our young friends here in the
audience, is this.
Sometimes we're hesitant and timid about praying in
public.
I say, don't be.
And this is why.
When I pray, my prayers go to the
Lord Jesus.
Incidentally, most Bible students and commentators acknowledge that
the angel in this passage is the Lord
Jesus Christ.
He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our prayers go to him, the prayers of
all the saints.
And do you know what he does?
He removes all the impurities from them, and
he adds incense to them.
Incense.
What is the incense?
I think the incense is the fragrance of
his own person and work.
And that's the way my prayers get to
the Father.
Let me give you an illustration.
Here's a young fellow, and he might get
up at the breaking of bread and thank
the Father for dying on the cross of
Calvary.
Well, the Father didn't die on the cross
of Calvary.
The Son died on the cross of Calvary.
That's all right.
When it gets to the Father, it's got
to be all straightened out, that prayer.
It is.
It really is.
That's been a tremendous...
You might get up and just murder the
King's English, you know, and you...
Don't worry about it.
The Lord Jesus picks out all the weeds
out of the bouquet, and when it's presented
to the Father, it's absolutely perfect.
It's better than when it left you, and
it has the incense there, the fragrance of
his own person and work.
Now, that doesn't mean that we shouldn't grow
in our knowledge of the Word of God.
It doesn't mean that we shouldn't improve and
stop asking the Father for thanking him for
dying on the cross.
But I don't think older brethren should jump
a young brother and make him ashamed of
his testimony for Christ and quench the spirit
in him because he makes some theological impropriety
like that.
I say, praise the Lord, when it gets
to the Father, it's all going to be
absolutely perfect.
Prayer is more important to the Lord than
service.
This is a rebuke to me.
I tend to be more of a Martha
than I do a Mary.
But prayer is more important to the Lord
than service.
Somebody said, God sets more value on prayer
and communion than on labor.
The heavenly bridegroom is wooing a wife, not
hiring a servant.
The heavenly bridegroom is wooing a wife, not
hiring a servant.
Next, we honor God by the greatness of
our prayers.
We honor God by the greatness of our
prayers.
You know, Alexander the Great used to hold
open court where any of his people could
come and talk to him.
And one day, a beggar came to make
a request.
And Alexander said to him, what do you
want?
He said, well, I'd like a farm for
myself.
And he said, I'd like a dowry for
my daughter.
And he said, I'd like an education for
my son.
And Alexander said, the requests are granted.
And his aides reproached him.
Here's a saucy beggar coming and making requests
like that.
And do you know what Alexander said?
He said, I get tired of these people
who come and ask me for a gold
coin.
That saucy beggar treated me like a king.
He asked big.
We ought to ask big.
We honor God by the bigness of our
prayers.
I'm sure you've heard that little ditty.
If you had been living when Christ was
on earth and had met the Savior time,
what would you have asked him to do
for you, supposing you were stone blind?
The child considered and then replied, I suppose
that without doubt, I'd have asked the Lord
for a dog with a chain to lead
me daily about.
How often thus in our faithless prayers, we
acknowledge with shame surprise.
We've only asked for a dog with a
chain when we might have had opened eyes.
May the Lord help us to ask big,
to come to the Lord.
You are coming to a king.
Great petitions with you bring for his love
and power are such we can never ask
too much.
When we get to heaven, we're all going
to wish we had prayed more.
And if you go out from this meeting
and you don't have a desire to do
more praying, this meeting has been the flop
of the conference.
Really, I mentioned earlier some of the spectacular
things that can be accomplished in prayer.
I just like to tell you, maybe as
time permits a story or two.
Year or two ago, I was down in
Bolivia and met two seasoned missionaries.
Some of you would know some of them.
One was Ned Meharg from Australia.
The other is Frank Haggerty from Scotland.
Years ago, these men were doing really rough
pioneer work in the, well, in the boondocks
of Bolivia, and their work was bathed in
prayer.
It was a dangerous work.
One day, they came to a village and
they were hungry, and they pitched camp outside
the village, but they didn't have any food.
So they went into the village and they
looked for a place that might have food,
and there was a hotel there, and there
was a restaurant in the hotel.
So they went into the restaurant, and they
said to the woman, we'd like something, and
she said, I have nothing.
She knew they were evangelicals, and she said,
I have nothing.
So they left, and they went to the
local police station, and they said, where could
we get some food?
And the policeman said, the restaurant in the
hotel.
They said, we were just there, and she
said she doesn't have anything.
He said, come with me.
He took them back to the hotel, and
he said to the woman, get these men
something to eat.
And she said, come back in 45 minutes.
They went back in 45 minutes, and she
had cooked, well, she had deep fried some
potatoes cut into chunks, and she had cooked
up a pan of lungs, lungs.
They were very, very hungry, especially Ned, and
they began to eat, and Frank, as he
ate the lungs, he said, I don't like
this.
Well, Ned said, you give me the meat,
and I'll give you my potatoes.
So they started to eat, and as Ned
ate the meat, his stomach began to burn,
burn, burn.
She had put rat poison in the meat.
He began to drink water, and he couldn't
drink enough water.
He got sicker and sicker and sicker.
Finally, they had to leave, and they went
back to the campsite, and Ned began to
lose consciousness.
Before he lost consciousness, he said to Frank,
just send my Bible back to my father
in Australia.
And then he passed out.
They had committed that day to the Lord
in prayer.
After he had sunk into unconsciousness, a tall
man appeared on the scene and said, your
friend is sick.
He said, he's not only sick, I think
he's dying.
He said, I'll be right back.
The tall man went, and he came back
with an earthenware vessel filled with goat's milk.
He said, get your friend to drink this.
How can I get him to drink it?
He said, force it down his throat.
So Frank began forcing the milk down Ned
Meharg's throat.
After a while, Ned opened his eyes.
And as soon as he opened his eyes,
Frank said, here, quick.
He said, drink some of this.
Drink as much as you can of this.
And Ned began to drink it.
And after a while, he said, the burning
is gone.
And he recovered.
They got down on their knees.
They thanked the Lord for his wonderful interposition
for them.
And they went on their way.
And sometime later, they were back in that
area.
And they thought, oh, I should tell you,
they left the earthenware pot there and put
some money under it to thank the man
for what he had done.
They came back to that area.
And they thought, we'll just look up that
man and thank him.
So they said to the nationals there about
this tall man.
They said, there are no tall men here.
Well, they said, he came to us with
an earthenware vessel filled with goat's milk.
They said, there are no goats here.
There was a man at that time serving
the Lord there named Dr. Brown, I think
from New Zealand.
And he told them the name of the
poison that she had put in the meat.
And he said, the best known antidote for
it is goat's milk.
Prayer.
But the more we're cast upon the Lord,
the more we see these wonderful interventions of
God.