Men Ought Always to Pray

[00:00:00] Speaker A: I would like to turn you to the gospel of Luke, Lukes Gospel in chapter 18. And I would like to read the story from which the title for this evenings message has been taken. And Jesus spake a parable unto them to the end, that they ought always to pray and not to faint, saying, there was in a city a judge who feared not God and regarded not man. And there was a widow in the city, and she came oft unto him, saying, avenge me of mine adversary. And he would not for a while, but afterward he said within himself, though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest she wear me out by her continual coming. And the Lord said, hear what the unrighteous judge saith. And shall not God avenge his elect that cry to him day and night, and yet he is long suffering over them. I say unto you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? It's a marvelous little story, this parable. Lord Jesus spoke in my part of the world, and indeed in many parts of the world, it is no uncommon thing to have corrupt judges, that is, judges who are open to bribes. Of course, they are never called bribes. They are always gifts. But you make a gift, and in so making a gift, you get a judgment that is in your favor. The Lord Jesus told a story that would have been totally understood by everyone in his day, a corrupt judge. They would also have understood being jewish. About this little widow. She was a typical jewess. She had only one thing that she could do, and that was use her mouth. She had no money, no influence, no protector, as we call it. That is, big people in high places. But she had one thing, and she had that with a vengeance, and that was her mouth. And she visited this poor judge till she nearly brought him to the place of a nervous breakdown. When he left his home, she was there. When he went to the office, she was there. When he went out the back door, no doubt to escape her, there she was. She was everywhere. It seemed at once. Whatever new way he had of avoiding her, she was there. And in the end he said, I am not afraid of God, and I am not afraid of man, but this woman, she will wear me out, therefore I will give her what she wants. And he made a judgment in her favor. This is quite interesting as an aside, because there are people who take parables, and they make every single phrase mean something very difficult to do. So with this parable, God is not an unrighteous judge. And this brings us to the heart of the whole purpose in parables, that there is a central truth that the Lord is focusing attention upon in this particular story. It was not the character of the judge, as if God is unrighteous or open to bribery or corrupt in any way, but rather the central point of the story is perseverance. This little old lady persevered, and because she persevered, she finally got a judgment in her favor. It says in the very beginning, he spake a parable unto them to the end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. I think it is very unfortunate that in this little folder it is down here. The tape is entitled men ought always. I don't quite know what that means. It reminds me of faulty towers. Do you remember? Some of you, I shouldn't say. This is a very ungodly. Now remember Fawlty Towers, the kipper and the corpse? You remember the poor old girl who fainted and they shut her in the cupboard with the corpse. And when she came out she was all shaking and Sybil Fawlty said to her, but my dear, he's dead. She said, a man is always a man. Well, I shouldnt tell you stories like that, but when I saw in this here men ought always, I wondered what exactly it meant, and I thought to myself, I hope I dont have booklets and pamphlets written on the teaching of Pfi and my teaching in particular. But the text is men ought always to pray and not to faint. Now you will notice that our Lord Jesus said in verse eight, nevertheless, when the son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth? Thats how he summed up this story. And that brings us to an understanding of what the Lord was seeking to say to us. It isnt simply that we ought to put and not to faint. He was talking about persevering, overcoming faith, not saving faith, when he said, when the son of man comes, shall he find faith on the earth? What the Lord meant was, when the son of man comes finally, will he find men and women with the same kind of persevering faith, overcoming faith, enduring faith, going right through till they see result and consequence from their prayer? This kind of prayer can only be born of the spirit. It is the kind of prayer ministry that the Holy Spirit alone can give birth to, and the Holy Spirit alone can energize, and the Holy Spirit alone can give the persevering faith to endure until the burden is fulfilled. Now this kind of prayer we have to say is very rare. So little understanding is there of prayer, intercession, for instance, the word intercession is one of those words which sadly has been devalued in 20th century, latter 20th century Christianity. Because I hear all the time people have intercession, or this is an intercessor and someone's interceding. And when I really look into it, I discover that really it's prayer. Now, many people find prayer very boring. I'm very surprised that so many have stayed to this evening time, because so often people find anything to do with prayer boring, especially men. They seem to think that only women pray, that its womens work to pray. And its a tragedy that in the church men are not leading into prayer battle. I pray that this time may be used of the Lord to put this kind of thing as a burden on our heart. Because real prayer, there is nothing so exciting in the whole world as real prayer. When the Holy Spirit brings to birth a burden in a person or in a group of people, and then energizes them to continue in persevering faith until they see that burden realized, secured, fulfilled. There is nothing more exciting in the whole world, even more exciting than a Bible study, more exciting than outreach it can be. And yet, somehow or other, we believers have turned the prayer meeting into the most deadly dull meeting of the whole life of the church. We have done it. We hardly needed Satan. We have managed to turn the prayer meeting into something so heavy, so remote from reality, so alienated from something relevant, powerful and practical, that one fully understands that Satan feels he has an awful lot of supporters in the christian church. I must say in many ways that prayer is a marvelously real and practical thing. And if you and I are only prepared for the Holy Spirit to educate us and instruct us and discipline us and train us, then something can happen. All that flowery oratory that goes for prayer, all that cramming of scripture into the time from beginning to end, that paraphrasing of scripture. As I have often said, I feel as if the Lord wants to stop it for a moment, to say, my children, I wrote all this. It's such a different thing to take the word of God and to stand on it, to have the word of God as the sword of the Spirit, to have something applied to a given situation, and then as it were given to us by the Holy Spirit, so that it becomes our offensive weapon in warfare. When we are truly clad with the armor of God in Christ, then we can take the sword of the spirit and we can see the very purpose of God realized, secured, fulfilled, in our midst. But somehow or other we have destroyed prayer. Now thats what I was asked to speak to you about this evening. Men ought always to pray. Of course it means women as well. You do realize that men ought always to pray and not to faint. The first thing I want to underline this evening is the purpose of God. God's revealed purpose. The overwhelming odds that are against its fulfillment. It doesn't matter where we look now. I'm not talking about what some people's ideas are about the purpose of God. I'm talking about God's revealed purpose. What is God's revealed purpose? I fully understand the fact that there are overwhelming odds against its fulfillment. If I was Satan, I would. If I picked up anything about the end time, anything about the possible realization of the purpose of God, I would do everything in my power to make it impossible. I would load the odds one on top of the other against the fulfillment of that purpose of God. No matter what God has said, I would go out with a full propaganda machine, beaming it into every christian heart, into every believing heart, into every work of the Lord, into every assembly of God's people, somehow or other defeating them, bringing them to a place of defeatism. I said this morning that I am a Calvinist. I am. Some people have come and looked at me rather oddly during since this morning's meeting and this evening as if they are looking on something that somehow managed to live through the 16th, 17th century into the 20th century. But I didn't believe in the absolute sovereign power of God. I would give up tonight. If I did not believe that God is almighty and that he is perfectly well able to fulfill his purpose without my help, I would give up. Indeed, I would go further and say that the Lord is well able to fulfill his purpose in spite of my help. That is our problem in the church of God in helping the Lord. We get so well in his way that we complicate everything for him. My dear friends, I believe that God has a revealed purpose. Now this, this is a convention for prayer for Israel. And if I were to talk about a whole number of the things that I believe God has revealed, we'd be here till tomorrow morning. And I don't suppose the local assembly here would be too pleased. But the fact is our present national situation, humanly speaking, is hopeless. And I have to say this, that it's not only Satan who has made the whole thing loaded up overwhelming odds. God in his sovereignty has said to Satan, do your worst, make it as impossible as you can. And then only those with faith will be able to face it. Everyone else will faint. As it says in Isaiah, chapter 40, the youths shall faint, and the young men shall be utterly cast down. But they that wait for the Lord, they shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Isn't the Lord wonderful, the way he always put what he wants first and foremost at the beginning, and then it dwindles off. Do you understand? They shall mount up with wings as eagles. That's what the Lord wants. But if you can't get there, they shall run and not be weary. And if you can't get there, they shall walk and not faint. It's rather like the Lord said in another place about the seed, he said, and it shall bring forth in some a hundredfold. That's his supreme hope and desire, or sixtyfold, or thirtyfold. Now, my dear friends, our situation, as I have already said this morning, our national situation is quite hopeless. If we were surrounded by all the enemies that Satan could produce, nothing could deter the Lord or somehow or rather frustrate the purpose of God. But when you have within the very nation itself a government that doesn't believe in God, neither his words nor his purpose, not even his existence, nor his covenants, nor his messiah, nor a purpose, a destiny, then, my dear friends, one thinks what has happened. We have a trojan horse within the nation, something undoing it. And the very fact that the enemy started with Jericho, isn't that interesting? I don't think it's fanciful. For the children of Israel were led into the possession of the land promised to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob through Jericho. And Yasa Arabath was quite realistic when he said, in Jericho, the sun is rising on Palestine. It is the very undoing of the purpose of God that we have seen, realized at enormous cost in human life, in sacrifice, undoing the whole thing. I don't think it's fanciful to see that in Jericho I am not at all sure that our enemies really mean peace. I wish I could. I wish I could believe that the leopard has changed his spot. But I learned one thing from jewish history, that the leopard has never changed his spots. All the way through three millennia at least, people have thought that maybe the leopard has changed his spots. But behind the physical leopard is a spiritual power, a serpent, a dragon, venomous in his hatred. I say our situation is hopeless. Our enemies are bent on another holocaust, a final solution to the jewish problem. I say that is a hopeless situation, overwhelming odds against it. Is there a single nation in the world that understands our position? No. Neither Britain, nor Germany, nor even our good friend the Netherlands, nor the United States, nor Canada, nor Australia, nor New Zealand. There is not a country in the world that does not believe, as Joel says, in the redivision of our land, whether it's the United nations or whether it is any of its agencies. There is nobody who stands at all with Israel. Take, for instance, these settlers, as they are called. The media has blackened the name of these people as if they are some kind of demonized human being, fanatical, filled with hatred, arab hating. There may be a tiny minority of such hot heads, but, my dear friends, those that I know are amongst the most godly Jews I have ever met in my life. To move amongst them in a little town like Ephrat or Ariel is to hear biblical ethics and standards. The odds against the purpose of God being fulfilled are overwhelming humanly. And then the odds against the jewish people ever being saved. I think they are overwhelming. I believe that God reveals in his word, so much about this land, about its boundaries, about its national life. But even more, I think, within this book is revealed that the ultimate and greatest of all the miracles will be the redemption of the house of Israel. It will be more remarkable than dead bones scattered through a valley, all over it coming together, and sinew and flesh coming up upon it. And finally, the spirit of God being breathed into it, so it stands up vast army. The odds against this happening are enormous. The immorality in Israel, the thieving, the breakdown of honesty, the odds are overwhelming. Yet the prophet, as Zechariah said 2400 or more years ago, in that day, the spirit of grace and supplication will be poured upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And they shall look unto me whom they have pierced, and shall be in bitterness for him as for a firstborn. And he goes on to say, a little later in that day, a fountain shall be opened for sin and for uncleanness to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. But the odds against this are overwhelming. Overwhelming. It is a strange thing that a jew can be an atheist and still be recognized as a jew, and a jew can be a yoga fanatic and still recognize as a jew. And a jew can be a buddhist and still recognized as a jew. A jew can be a humanist par excellence, as we have a whole government of them, and still be recognized as Jews. That if a jew should believe in Jesus, he is no longer a jew. Isn't this interesting? I know that the christian church has done terrible things to the jewish people in the name of Jesus Christ. In the sign of the cross for the jewish people, the gospel is not good news for the jewish people. The cross is not a sign of healing, of salvation for the jewish people. The name of Jesus is not a sweet sound. For Jews, it all is synonymous with injustice, inequality, persecution, bloodshed, darkness, evil. The odds against the jewish people coming to salvation through the Lord Jesus are overwhelming. Humanly speaking. Humanly speaking, God has revealed in the book that he's going to do it, and I believe that he's going to do it. But the fact still remains that the enemy is piling up the odds against the fulfillment of this purpose. Now, I don't know if as you listen to me speaking, you don't already kind of feel that you're fainting in your spirit. You feel, oh my goodness me, if he goes on much longer, the little faith I've got has gone, I might as well withdraw any support for the PFI. I mean, does he have to so dramatically define the problem? But I have a little more to say. For it is not only to do with the jewish people, the land of Israel, the recreated jewish state, or the redemption of the house of Israel, but the true church of God. God has a revealed purpose for the redeemed on this earth. Their revealed purpose is that they should be a virgin bride for the lamb, that they should be presented to him without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. My dear friends, ladies go to the most extraordinary lengths to get rid of wrinkles. If you want to sell something, just say this is a wrinkle remover and people will queue up to buy the thing. Spots. Most men don't like spots. They will buy secretly, quietly, little things to put on spots. The boys in my home call them, by a very unpleasant word, this the very. It sounds so horrible. But the Lord says in Ephesians chapter five that he wants to present this bride to himself without spot or wrinkle or any such such faith. The odds against the purpose of God being fulfilled concerning the church are enormous. They are overwhelmed. I'm not talking about spots or wrinkles that we might just be able to get rid of with the help of the Holy Spirit. But when we have bishops telling us that God has put genes within the human being that are promiscuous and that therefore we must give ground for anyone who falls into promiscuity, isn't that amazing? Don't you think that's amazing? And when I add all the other things I've told you on previous occasions, like the Lord Jesus had a sexual relationship with Mary Magdalene, that he was gay. I mean, it's unbelievable, isn't it? One critic of this latest report on the church in the city, the city and the faith has said this is a watershed for the national church because for the first time in her history, she has made Christianity an option for its members. And he went on to say that if the national church had to choose between representing the standards of the nation or the historic faith, it would choose to represent the present standards of the nation. This is where we have come from. But my dear friends, I expect many of you will say, well, we always did think it would go that way. That's how it's all going to go. The old traditional, institutional christian denominations, they're going to go that way anyway. But my dear friends, it is just as bad in the evangelical and charismatic. A friend of mine told me the other day that an evangelical pastor, horrified by anything charismatic, told him that the song of Solomon was written by a randy author. Have you ever heard such a thing? And that ecclesiastes, I can't even use the term he used for someone who was fed up, I'll put it that way with God. What in the world has happened to the evangelical church if it has people within its ranks who are pastors and leaders who could say such things? But take the charismatic. I mean, well, I just dare not begin on this. Hardly dare to begin on it. I spoke this morning about what George calls charismatic. Hocus pocus. I've never heard anything like tragic. I call it Hollywood style Christianity. It is so far removed from the gospel, in my estimation, that if many of the early members of the early church were to reappear today, I'm not sure they would recognize it as the church. I'm not talking about the way we dress or our culture, which were in, by the very nature of things, has changed in 1900 years. I am talking about the gospel we preach, the way we behave, the kind of meetings we have. They would recognize the power of the Holy Spirit. They would recognize the gifts of the Holy Spirit. They would recognize a baptism of the Holy Spirit. They would recognize the fire of God within human beings, that all this Hollywood style sensationalism, this methods and fashion of the world that has been brought into the very heart of the church, this they wouldn't recognize. I say the odds against the church, the purpose of God ever being fulfilled in the church, overwhelming. Now I know what you all think. I'm going to talk about. I have laughed since I was born. I'm not going to say very much about it. It is immaterial to me whether people want to laugh or not. I've laughed from the day I was born. I thank God for it. My humor got me always into a lot of trouble when I was first saved. But my dear friends, I would to God that the Holy Spirit would come upon the church and make us weep so that there was a weeping between the porch and the altar and a cry from the heart of people. The people could hardly contain that God would do something in our nations. Laughter is a wonderful thing. I always remember that old Southern Baptist preacher who used to be so funny, vance his name was. He had a lot to give too, but he couldn't help being funny. He was born way. And once someone said to him, with a very real dig, did Jesus ever laugh? And he said, no, it's not recorded. But he sure fixed me up so I can ah, my dear friends, I dont believe publicans and sinners would have ever been attracted to a man who never smiled and never laughed. That kind of person is not the kind of person that sinners and publicans somehow get attracted to. But thats by the way. The fact is, God has a purpose for the church, if only in the remnant. And somehow or other, as I see it, the odds the enemy is building up, loading up one after the other against its fulfillment, are overwhelming. Now do you begin to understand why I've talked about this so depressingly? Because, dear friends, men ought always to pray and not to faint. What we need is persevering, overcoming, enduring faith that will be expressed in prayer and intercession until God does something and realizes his purpose. And that leads me to my next point. Persevering prayer in the spirit. Such persevering prayer, I have already said, has to be born of the spirit. It has to be energized by the spirit until it is fulfilled. I find it interesting if you look at Ephesians chapter six and verse 18. Well read from verse 17 and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. God with all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the Spirit and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints and on my behalf. Now I find this very, very interesting. What does he say? He says, and take the word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the spirit? What does he mean, praying in the Spirit? Some people tell me that praying in the Spirit is to pray in a tongue. I have no problem with praying in a tongue, none whatsoever. I thank God for everyone who has a genuine gift of such articles. But to say, to equate praying in the Spirit with praying in a tongue is to devalue praying in the Spirit. For when the apostle Paul spoke about praying at all seasons in the Spirit, he meant that the dimension of anointed prayer is the Holy Spirit. Let me put it another way. It has to be born of the Spirit. It has to be energized, inspired by the Spirit. It has to be developed by the Spirit. And it is the Holy Spirit who enables us to endure until it is fulfilled, that is, praying in the spirit. It includes praying in tongue, but that is much less than what it means. In other words, real prayer, other than just requests. Now, you know that the word just means pouring out a prayer. The word in Greek just means pouring out. So in a way, you can pray. But prayer is something that's known to every religion in the world. People pour out their hearts all over the world. No doubt God hears when it's from an honest heart. But when we're talking about praying in the spirit, we're not talking about just pouring out our heart and every idea we have in our heart. This is something that is born in us by the Holy Spirit. This is another kind, this is another dimension of prayer. This is something altogether. Now I know immediately that when we start to talk about this were in the realm of cranks. There are a whole lot of cranks. Oh, years ago, I remember in the states, a poor husband came to me and said, do you think you could help me? My wife is an intercessor. Oh, I said, thats lovely. Oh, no, it isnt. He said, she shuts herself up in the broom cupboard with another lady. And he said, they scream and shout for an hour and they terrify the children and everybody else. It seems that this dear lady bleed. She was called to this ministry. Blow the housework and blow the children. She was called to prayer. One wonders why the Lord ever led her to get married in the first place. Strange, isn't it, how people's minds think that God help us? Yeah. Well, all I can say is this. As I see it, some people believe you have to be born a mystic to be an intercessor. I've never heard such nonsense in all my life. The real bane in prayer ministry are mystics, these glossy eyed folks who can't cook a meal or wash a floor or bring up children. I can't even manage to get control of a dog. The dog controls them for the most part. Some of them don't even go for dogs. They have cats that control them. No, I speak from experience. I have five cats and two dogs. So it's not as if I'm an animal hater. I am speaking. But my dear friend, the idea is that as long as you're one of those people who drifts through life totally insensitive to anything that's practical or needs to be done, you can flow through it all because somehow or other you are in one with heaven. This kind of spirit is the bane of real intercession. This is the area of cranks. Real prayer is a very practical business. Any down to earth, for one thing, prayer. Our Lord Jesus said, ye have not because ye ask not. What did he mean? Did he mean that every time you ask, you want a Cadillac? Asked for a Cadillac, you want a voltage, ask for a cold for it? Well, Amy Carmichael said thats entirely possible because the Lord can say no. But I mean that to me is not real prayer. What did the Lord mean when he said, ye have not? Because, yeah, he meant this. If you are not specific in prayer, the Lord will not be specific with you. So when you say, oh, Lord, bless china, the Lord says, now, what does that mean? Does it mean I bless Deng Xiaoping or the prime minister or the government of China? Who? What does it mean? You see what they mean? We're not specific. Most of our prayer is unspecific prayer. It's all beating around the bush. It's a kind of flowery, an exercise in flowery oratory with spiritual phrases, phraseology flung in for good measure. It doesn't get anywhere. It's hot wind for most of it, I feel. The Lord says, oh, I wish so and so would shut up. It's true. The Lord said, ye have not because ye ask not. If the Holy Spirit leads us to be specific, then the Lord will be specific in his answer. You go out in faith on something and you will find the Lord will meet you. He will either change the way you pray, change your whole concept of what youre praying for, but in the end, he will be as specific with you as you are specific with him. Why? And ill tell you why because you cannot be specific unless you have living faith. When you do not have living faith, you beat around the bush using a whole lot of words because you're afraid to be specific. Do you understand? So my dear friends, this whole question of praying in the spirit is of tremendous importance. Oh, that God would teach us how to command the government of the Holy Spirit, how to be open to the burdens conceived by the Holy Spirit, how to know the inspiration and energizing of the Holy Spirit, how to know that gifting of faith that will take us through to the fulfillment it says in Romans chapter eight in verse 26 and 27. Very comforting words. And in like manner, the Spirit also helpeth our infirmity, for we know not how to pray as we ought, but the spirit himself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God. Isnt this a marvelous verse? This means that real intercession is like an iceberg, nine tenths is out of sight. In other words, when a real burden of the Holy Spirit is conceived within your spirit, I always say it is like conception. It is like bearing a baby. Something is inside, it's growing and growing. You feel better sometimes you feel not so good other times. But the fact of the matter is, you will not be free until it's born. That is real plan, that is real intercession, for its origin is in God by the Holy Spirit. Now, I hope you understand what I'm trying to say. See, sometimes, well, I told you before, and I must curb myself from just simply saying things that are not frivolous but funny. I mean, I have often been in meetings where people have groaned. Nothing wrong in anyone groaning, but sometimes in a real prayer meeting, you hear someone groaning. I remember on one occasion I was in a place and was groaning in this prayer meeting. I could hardly hear people like this. And finally the pastor who was next to me said, is he bothered? No, I said, he said, our brother has the ministry of groaning. So I thought, I was so intrigued. I'd never heard of anybody having the ministry of groaning. At the end of the meeting, he said, would you like to be introduced to our brother who has the ministry of God? Very much, I said, because I said, I thought it was groanings which cannot be uttered. And I always tell the same story. When I was once in the states at the intercessors for America annual convention, a lady came up to me. She was in great trouble. She said, do you think I could ask you a question? Certainly, I said. She said, well, she said, you know about prayer. Yes, yes. She said, well, I'm in a prayer clinic. A prayer clinic? I said, what do you mean? Oh, I said, I know what you mean. A school of prayer. Well, she said, yes, it's like that, she said. She said, the first course I've gone through has been wonderful. She'd help me to win. But she said, I'm in the second course now. And she said, I'm really bothered about it. Well, they said, what is the second course? Oh, she said, it's on. Groaning. Groaning. I said, now, and this is not a joke. This is actual truth. This dear lady said, this is firsthand, not secondhand. This is how stupid gods people are. No wonder the Lord called us sheep. I mean, so foolish. Goats are much more intelligent. And she said. And I said to him, now, what do you mean in a. Well, she said, I'm on a course of groaning now. I said, you mean to tell me that he says, groan? And you go, no. He says, not like that. Yes, now you do it. She said, that's about it. She said, that's about it. Then suddenly the penny dropped. I said, are you paying for these courses? Oh, yes. She said, a thought, why am I not in this business? A $100. Can you believe it? A $100 for every person on the course. And all you have to do is say, now, let me hear you grow. And then you say, no, no, no. A bit more. Oh, the fraudulence amongst God's people. She told me. This was in Florida. When I said, well, Florida, California. Dear friends, what a business this is, that there is such a thing as the Holy Spirit conceiving something in a human being, man or woman, that brings such a spiritual pain, such a spiritual pressure within that it cannot escape. Every now and again you will pray, and the words you use will be the faintest audible expression of an enormous trapped burden, and you will find relief for a while until the pressure builds up again. You will not be free until you are delivered on it. This is what the apostle Paul called in galatian letter, chapter four, verse 19. My little children, of whom I am again in the agony of childbirth for you, that Christ may be fully formed in you. Isn't that interesting? Again. So evidently he had been in the agony of childbirth for their birth. Now, this dear man was not just a teacher. He was a father in the Lord. He was in the mother as well. He was in the agony of childbirth that Christ be fully formed. If the people of God knew something of this kind of intercessory ministry, there would be spiritual growth in our assemblies and not all this shallowness. This trivializing of the divine. Dear friends, it's more than interesting to note how the apostle Paul ends his letter to the Ephesians. Here he is chained to a guard. Most of us would never have been able to be used by the Lord writing something so tremendous as the ephesian letter changed to some coarse, crude, vulgar roman soldier. He couldn't do a thing without that soldier. He was the other end, a chain about a meter and a half long. And it was one of the greatest revelations ever given of the heart and mind of God. We call it gods eternal purpose. Its in the ephesian letter, and when he comes to the end of this letter, he says, finally now. Hes already said finally once before. Paul nearly always does that. I always take comfort, but when I'm speaking, that you normally always say finally once or twice. Normally halfway through his letters, he says, finally now he says, finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might, put on the whole armor of God, that he may be able to stand against the stratagems or wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against hosts of wicked spirits in the heavenly places. My dear friends, he could have ended by saying, let us go deeper with the Lord. He didn't. It would have been right. He could have said, let us go out with tremendous outreach, it would have been good. But he didn't. He could have said, let us have great conferences for the deepening of spiritual life or instruction. It would have been absolute great. But he didn't. He ended with, if you don't learn how to pray into realization the purpose of God, you will lose everything practical. The enemy will come in and he will rob you till you become a contradiction in turn. Save without the power of your salvation. Indwelt by the Lord and no experience of his grace. Indwelt by the Holy Spirit. No food. A servant of God without service. Robbed. Dear friends, is it any wonder that the apostle Paul tells us, stand, withstand, stand. What does he mean? Why doesn't he say fight, fight. Why doesn't he say, go forward, go forward? No. He says, stand as if it is in the revealed will of God. Don't depart from it, don't go back from it, don't get out of it. Stay within what God has revealed for his as his purpose, and stand. And though all hell comes against you, withstand in the evil day and there will be evil days. Quench every fiery dart of the enemy, of the powers of darkness with the shield of faith, and take the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, with all prayer and supplication, inquiry weighing at all seasons in the spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance till it's fulfilled. My dear friends, this is God's call to the believers. The call is not to please ourselves, not just to know some release in ourselves, not to know some self fulfillment. This is not the call of God. The call of God is that you and I should lay down our lives for his sake and the gospels, so that the Holy Spirit can come upon us and enable us to be a living sacrament, holy and acceptable unto God. Dear friends, this is the way the burden that is in the heart of the intercessor at the fathers right hand, gets into the heart of the members of his body. The Holy Spirit takes the burdens that are in the heart of the Lord Jesus. And he translated, translates them, transfers them, communicates them to us by the Holy Spirit, and then they come out of our mouth in prayer. You say to me, why does the Lord need to do this? Can he not do it without us? Absolutely. Furthermore, the Lord could do it without us much more cleanly, more easily. But God, in his wisdom, and only he knows why, has chosen that he will not do it unless it is with us. Its almost as if the Lord says, I want you to be educated. I want you to grow up. Dear friends, I have to watch myself on time now. But the thing is, dont you understand? The apostle Paul said, endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. Where are the good soldiers of Jesus Christ? At the beginning of this century, ct studd got into an awful lot of trouble with the church by writing a parody on onward christian soldiers. Backward chocolate soldiers. He wrote, marching as from war. My dear friends, times have not changed. We have chocolate soldiers. A little bit of heat and they melt. Frightened to death of war. What does the word of God say? Endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. You cannot make spiritual babes into soldiers. You cannot make kindergarten children spiritual kindergarten children into soldiers. You cannot even date young adolescent spiritual adolescents. You've got to grow up to be a soldier of the Lord Jesus. Where are the soldiers? All this business in christian circles, this craving for self fulfillment, this craving just for ourselves, where is it in the book? It belongs to spiritual babyhood. Toys, dummies, rattles, loving aunts and uncles, mostly aunts, loving grandmas and nannies all around plucking, oh, how we loved it when we were a baby. Wasn't it lovely? I used to wail so much. My mother went to the doctor with me. She was convinced that I was ill. No child of hers could be such an she thought, I must tell you that when I was born and brought to my mother, my mother was convinced the babies had got switched, for she told her mother, I do not believe I could have produced so ugly a child. This was my beloved mother. And when I used to wail at the bottom, the doctor said, the boy has a strong will. Wheel him to the bottom of the garden. Now, we had a very big garden in those days and my mother, with great delight, wheeled me to the bottom of the garden and left me there where I wailed until neighbours, sweet, loving old ladies, came round and banged on the door and said, your child is crying at the bottom of the garden. And my mother used to say, well, let him cry. There's nothing wrong with this babyhood. Oh, it's lovely. When we're babies, the whole world circulates around us. And so it is with spiritual babyhood. We think the meetings are for us, the ministers for us, the shepherds are for us, everything's for us. Everything revolves around us. We judge everything by what we get and not by what we give. This is babyhood. But to be a soldier of the Lord Jesus means we have to grow up. We have to endure hardness, discipline and much else. Dear friends, what lessons you and I need to learn if we're going to become good soldiers of Jesus Christ. The greatest need in the house of God today, in the family of God is good soldiers of Jesus Christ. There are so few. Well, I must draw this to a close, but let me say something very interesting. In my estimation about ephesians six, there are three things there. There is the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. There is prayer and there is the Holy Spirit. Take the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God, with all prayer, prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the spirit. Now, do you notice something? Here you have the word of God, the Holy Spirit, and persevering prayer. Now look at something else. The Lord Jesus said, as it is recorded in Mark's gospel, chapter 13, verse 33, watch and pray. He did not say pray and watch, but that is what most believers understand. They understand that we are to pray and watch. Very often we have our own concepts as to how things are going to happen in the last days. So we, we pray and we watch to see if its happening. But thats not what the Lord Jesus said. He said, watch and pray in other words, we have to be alert, we have to watch. What is the Lord doing? What is the enemy doing? What is the purpose of God in any given situation? Situation. And then we are to pray. God given prayer. I believe gods prophetic word is absolutely essential in such prayer. Watching and praying. We need gods prophetic words so that we can begin to understand what is happening. In other words, God takes his word and he applies it to a situation and we pray it into being. Do you remember Daniel? Do you remember in Daniel chapter nine, how in his quiet time reading through Jeremiah, he suddenly discovered, to his absolute amazement that 70 years were determined of captivity on Jerusalem? And even more remarkable, the holy spirit revealed to him when the 70 years began and he totted it up. Now, Daniel wasn't retired, he wasn't in an old age home. He was in his late seventies, by the way. But he was not. He was the supreme power under the emperor. In the greatest empire of the day, he was the busiest man. Far from being a mystic, every single thing that came on that was to be done by the government had to pass through the hands of Daniel, who took it and discussed it with the emperor and then saw the great seal on the decree, and then it went out. Busy man. If there was one man in the hall empire who could have said, I am too busy to pray, I have too much to do, I can't pray. It would have been Daniel. It is very interesting that in our jewish tradition, Daniel is taken away from the prophets put in the writings. Why? Because our rabbi said, Daniels supreme calling is to be an intercessor. And the Rabbi said, in an intercessor is a more privileged position than any other ministry given by God to man. I will put it in a new testament. You want to be an apostle, you want to be a prophet, you want to be a pastor or a teacher or an evangelist. I tell you, more important than all is the intercession. That is the highest calling that God can ever call a human being. With Daniel was such an intercessor, he understood, in his busy life, crammed from the moment he woke up to the moment he laid his tired head on the pillow, if he had a pillow, maybe he had one of those chinese porcelain ones. In those days, that's what they had in those humid conditions. But when all to the day, he was so busy that God gave him that ministry. Remember? Do you remember what he did? Three times a day he opened his windows in obedience to God's word toward Jerusalem, not the back of the house, but facing west towards Jerusalem. Because he was standing on God's word. He not only had the word of Jeremiah. Listen carefully to me. He not only had the word of Jeremiah that 70 years were determined and they were about to be completed within a few years of their completion. But he remembered the prophetic words of King Solomon. If anyone prays toward this place where I have caused my name to go, wheresoever they be in exile and humble themselves before the Lord, I will hear and will draw them back from the ends of the earth. Do you remember? Daniel was in a ministry of intercession. It seemed as if the heavens were brazen. It seemed as if nothing happened. But dear Daniel, he had faith in his heart. He had, like this little jewish widow, he had persevering, overcoming faith that God's word had to be fulfilled. Now I can imagine the devil coming to Daniel and saying, daniel, you're such a busy man, you're worn out. Don't you have migraine headaches? Don't you have aches and pains? After all, you're nearly 80. Take it easy, Daniel. There are a lot of others. Jews here in Babylon could easily put plenty, plenty of time. And anyway, Daniel, if God says that he's going to return the people to the land, he's going to return them. You don't need to pray, do you? God will do it. Rest. But Daniel understood something. I don't know what, but something in him told him, God wants me to be involved in this. And he prayed and fasted in sackcloth and ashes and prayed as if he had never read the scripture, that it was 70 years, and pleaded with God that God would do it. And the interesting thing is, Daniel lived to see it. He lived to see the decree. He lived to see the first great aliyah to the laden take place. It was an amazing thing that happened. But all the. Something happened, and Daniel didn't even know it. Wheels within wheels within wheels began to whir. Only in Daniel chapter ten and eleven do we suddenly find when that angel comes in and sort of says to Daniel, Daniel, O man greatly beloved, from the moment you start, started to pray and your prayer was heard. But I got it, and the Lord sent me down to you. But I got into a fight. I got waylaid on the way. We don't understand it all, but all we know is this. Daniel's prayer set in motion a whole series of events that are with us to this day. That is the amazing thing. Now, one other thing, just to encourage you. Satan was hopping mad, if I may so put it. And he put it into the heads of all the counsellors. We've got to liquidate this man. And they couldn't think how they could do it. So finally Satan put it into the head. And this is exactly what's going to happen in our day with the jewish people and the church. In the end, he put it in their heads. Let there be a decree. No prayer to any God save the emperor. Now Satan thought, I've got Daniel. They all went in the bushes in Daniel's garden, waiting for him. Is he going to open the shutters or not? Is he going to pray behind closed shutters? If he's wise, he'll be behind closed shutters. But not Daniel. He rattled open and looked down on them. And then he got on his knees and prayed toward Jerusalem. Do you remember? Then Daniel ended in the lions den. Now, the problem was not Daniel's but God's, for God wanted Daniel's fellowship. Now God thought, shall I bring Daniel home via the lion or shall I close their mouths? And then the Lord said, there are hundreds of thousands of my people I would bring home via lions, but not Daniel. Hes the only one whos understood this whole purpose of mine and fellowship in prayer, ministry and intercession. And the word was given, let living faith be gifted to him. And when Daniel saw the lions, I suppose he thought, as DL Moody said, well, its time to pray, Lord. Shut their mouths. And he got on his knees and prayed toward Jerusalem. And all the lions became like cats. Dear friends, God is teaching us that we ought always to pray and not to faint. God has a purpose for Israel. It will be fulfilled. God has a purpose for the salvation of the jewish people. It will be realized God has a purpose for his true church. It will come to pass that God is calling you and me to be prayer warriors. Prayer warriors, intercessual, dear friend, you can't become one overnight. I thank God for the people who taught me how to pray. Some very simple people, not great servants of God. They were the ones who taught me how to pray. I listened to them praying. I listened to the reality of their prayers. I listened to how practical, short, sharp to the point they were, how specific they were. And I saw the answer. And that inflamed in my heart a desire in my own life to know and have the same experience of real prayer. Real prayer is not just something stupid. It is not some mystical exercise. It is something under the government of the Holy Spirit. Intensely practical, intensely relevant. You may be the busiest person in the world and God may call you to be an intercessor. You may be a man. You never thought in your life that you would become a prayer warrior, but God may be calling you to become a prayer warrior. We need men who know how to pray in the church of God. We need men who can lead people in prayer. Our prayer groups, why are they so all over the place sometimes? Because nobody cares for them. That's why nobody thinks beforehand. What does the Lord want us to pray about? What are the matters that we should really deal with this evening? You can't just drift into a time of prayer. It's like a military operation. It has to be thought out. It has to be thought out in the presence of the Lord. Then the sharpness, us, then there is government, then there is clarity, definition, then there is anointing. May God help us. We are at a turning point in the history of Israel. And we are at a turning point in the history of the church. We need the Lord in a way that we have not needed him before. We need prayer warriors, men and women who will stand in the place of prayer and allow the Holy Spirit to do something in them and through them to his praise and to his glory. May he do it. Amen. [01:20:54] Speaker B: Your eyes closed, and I'll pray for all of us together. I urge you therefore. Therefore is because of what we've been challenged with tonight, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies, a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect, not lagging behind in diligence, fervently in spirit, serving the Lord, rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer. If that's your prayer, if that's the longing and yearning of your hearts, then you stand. And we'll ask the Lord in his grace. Because we're at this point of polarizing within the church. We want to go on with God. If you stand with that group of people, then stand now and let's make our prayer to the Lord. Father. Lord, as we stand before you as a throng, a crowd of people clothed in nothing but your grace, father, it's our need. It's our yearning, Lord. It's our desire that we go on with you. Father, we realize it's not going to be by our self effort, not just by our decisions, not by might nor by power, but by your spirit and father, we want to be amongst those who, in the days ahead, who, having done all, will stand. And, father, to stand in that evil day. Lord, hear the prayers of our many hearts tonight. Father, take us beyond the natural. Lord, we need you. Lord, we want you. Father, the church needs clothing with the spirit of God from on high. Father, we want to be finished with the toys and the playing. Father, we want your joy. We want your peace, but we need your tears. We need, Lord, to know what it is to travail in our spirit till Christ be formed not only in us, but, Lord, in our believers, our brothers and sisters in the land of Yisra'el. Hear our prayer, Lord, now and answer us, Lord, keep our families. May we be united, lord, husband and wife, father, parents and children, lord, in this call, lord, that we be not isolated, but by families. Lord, you will do this work, Lord, take us beyond even good prayer, Lord, into that realm of intercession. And, Father, may that intercession be truly as incense before you. Hear us, Lord, because we ask it, Lord, in the name of our great high priest and intercessor, that one mediator between God and man, in his name. Now, Lord, we come, that we be fervent in spirit, lord, diligent and father, persevering in prayer and through tribulation in the days ahead. Lord, for your glory's sake, we ask it. Amen.