Passion For Jesus Ministries

Let's look for a moment at the Gospel of Prayer!

The Gospel of Prayer

There's nothing more challenging or life changing than living a life of prayer. I am asked the question often, "Why do you focus on prayer so much?" The answer is simple -because Jesus did\does! Let's look for a moment at several incidents from the Gospel of Luke. Luke's Gospel could easily be titled the Gospel of Prayer. One of Dr. Luke’s predominate themes is the prayer life of Jesus. The other gospel writers tell us that Jesus was in the Jordan when the Spirit descended on Him as a dove - Dr. Luke gives an added detail:

Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove…” (Luke 3:21-22)

It was while He was praying that the Spirit descended on Him. The other gospel writers tell us that Jesus chose twelve disciples - Dr. Luke gives an added detail: he tells us that after spending all night in prayer that Jesus chose His twelve disciples (Luke 6:12-16). The other gospel writers tell us that Jesus died on a cross – Dr. Luke adds the detail that even while He was dying on the Cross that Jesus was praying for those who were killing Him! (Luke23:34). The other gospel writers tell us that Jesus went on a mountain and was transfigured – Dr. Luke adds the detail that it was as He was praying that He was transfigured.

There's nothing more transfiguring than prayer (Luke 9:28-29).

The Scriptures inform us that there were times when while His disciples went to bed and slept, that Jesus stayed awake to pray - as was His custom. It was His custom to pray. Get it?

Jesus was the God-Man, the Incarnate Son of God - very God of very God. If the God-Man, Who was sinless from birth to death, the God-Man, who only ever lived to please the Father in thought, word and deed, if the God-Man found it necessary to spend large amounts of His time in prayer, do you think that maybe you and I ought to spend more time in prayer than we currently do? If Jesus, in His humanity needed to spend lots of His time praying, don't you think that you and I might need to spend lots of time praying?

I read a story once about a group of tourists who were visiting a small village. They saw an old man sitting by a fence. In a patronizing way, one of the visitors asked the old man, "Were any great men born in this village?" Without looking up the old man replied, "No, I can't recall having had any great men born in our village – all we have ever had born in our village was babies." You see, the greatest men were all once babies. The greatest saints were all once toddlers in the things of the Spirit. So it's OK to start there, it's just not OK to remain there!

C. H. Spurgeon, called the Prince of Preachers, was converted at the age of 16. He began preaching in London at the age of 19. When he was 27 his church built a tabernacle that seated 6,000 which he packed out twice on Sundays - that's 12,000 people - and once on Thursday nights. How did he accomplish such a task? I'm glad you asked. He waited on God. He was a man of prayer. He spent more time with God than he did with God’s people. He spent more time with God than he did in his preparations to serve God. He studied a lot...but he prayed more than he studied. Get it?

The Prayer of Desperation

A public service announcement: God molds all of His vessels of honor in the wilderness, or today we would say, in the lifestyle of loneliness. Would you like to know what the secret of praying is?

The Secret of Praying is Praying in Secret

“But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret…” (Matthew6:6)

I have discovered that you can't show off when the door's shut and nobody's there! You can't showcase your gifts. Beloved, you might impress others, but you will never impress God.

In I Samuel1:1-15, we read an account of the yearly trip Elkanah and his wife, Hannah, made to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the Lord. Hannah had been distressed that she was barren and had not been able to bear a son for her husband. This passage gives us a descriptive account of her time in prayer concerning her barrenness. It says that Hannah wept. She poured out her soul before the Lord. Her heart was grieving; she was bitter of soul, provoked, and had a sorrowful spirit. The key to the whole situation is that she was a praying woman. In verse 20 it says that she reaped her reward.

“And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, for she said, “I have asked for him from the Lord.” (1 Samuel 1:20)

Now I frequently tell people - and people frequently don't appreciate my telling them - that contrary to popular belief, God does not usually answer prayer. He answers desperate prayer! My friend, your prayer life is an accurate indicator of how much you depend on your own ability. The more self-confidence you have, the less you pray. The less self-confidence you have, the more you have to pray.

What does the Scripture say? It says that God chooses the low and despised things in the world. Paul says in I Corinthians 1:28 that "God takes the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in His Presence. What we need today is more "are nots".

Prayer ids the Language of the Needy

Prayer is the language of the poor, the needy. Over and over again, King David says,

"Incline your ear,O Lord, and answer me; for I am afflicted and needy" (Psalm 86:1).

And do you remember that one of the greatest psalms he wrote says,

"This poor (needy) man cried, and the Lord heard him..." (Psalm34:6).

The apostle Paul amazes me with his spirituality, his integrity and his colossal intellect. Yet he says that he's very conscious that when he's weak, he is strong. Paul was always trying to prove to himself and to others how much of a "nobody" he was.

True prayer is a two-way communication. I speak to God and God speaks to me. I don't understand how it is that the Spirit communicates with human beings - or why God "needs" me to pray -but I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that this is how it is.

"Get Up And Pray!"

I was reading recently about a conference where Dr. V. Raymond Edman of Wheaton College was speaking. He told the congregation of an experience that he had while he in Ecuador as a missionary. He had not been there long before he became ill and was told by the local doctors that he was dying. In fact, Dr. Edman was so near to death that they had already begun digging his grave. He was sweating great beads of sweat and there was a death rattle in his throat. But suddenly he sat straight up in bed and said to his wife, "Bring me my clothes!" Nobody could explain what had happened.

Many years later he was retelling the story in Boston. Afterward, a little old lady with a small, dog-eared, beaten-up book, approached Dr. Edman and asked, "What day did you say you were dying? What time was it in Ecuador? What time would that be in here in Boston?" When he answered her, her wrinkled face lit up. Pointing to her book, she said."There it is, you see? At 2 a.m. God woke me up and told me to get up and pray - the devil's trying to kill Raymond Edman in Ecuador." And she'd gotten up and prayed. And Dr. Edman lived because of her faithfulness.

Duncan Campbell told the story of hearing a farmer in his field who was praying. He was praying about Greece. Afterward, Campbell asked the farmer why he was praying for Greece. The man replied, "I don't know. All I know is that I had a burden in the spirit and God said to me, 'You pray; there's someone in Greece that is in a bad situation.' So I prayed until I got a release." Two or three years later the farmer was in a meeting listening to a missionary. The man described a time when he was working in Greece. He had been in serious trouble. The time? Two or three years ago. The men compared notes after the meeting and discovered that it was the very same day that God had burdened a farmer, on a little island off the coast of Scotland, to pray for a man in Greece whose name he didn't even know.

It may seem to you strange some of the things that the Lord tells you to do. But know this, if the Lord tells you to do something, that something you should do! Get it?

Who Shall Ascend to the Hill of the Lord?"

Another Duncan Campbell story that occured while he was ministering in Scotland.

"I couldn't preach," he said. "I couldn't get through to God.The heavens were solid. It was as though there was a 10 ft. ceiling of steel." So he quit trying to preach. He asked a young man named John Cameron to pray. The boy stood up and said, "What's the use of praying if we're not right with God?" He quoted the 24th Psalm, "Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?"

You can't approach God unless your hands are clean, which means your relationships with others are clean AND your heart is clean.

"Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? 4 He who has clean hands and a pure heart… (Psalm24:3-4).

After the boy recited Psalm 24 he began to pray. And oh how he prayed! He prayed 10, 15, 20 minutes. Then suddenly he said, "Excuse me, Lord, while I resist the devil." He turned around and began to tell the devil where to go and how to get there. He fought for all he was worth. You talk about having on the armor of God and resisting the devil! When he had finished resisting the devil, he finished his prayer. He prayed for 45 minutes! When he finished praying it was just as though God had flipped a switch in heaven. The Spirit of God fell on that church, on that community, on the dance hall at the other end of town, and the tavern on this end of town. Revival broke out that very night. And it was birthed as a result of that young man's prayer!

At the end of Malachi it says,

"…And the Lord, whom you seek will suddenly (that's the word I like, suddenly) come to his temple" (Malachi 3:1).

Remember what it says about the shepherds at the birth of Christ? They were watching their flocks by night when suddenly there was the sound of the heavenly host. Do you remember a bunch of men that had been waiting in the upper room? Suddenly the Holy Spirit came on them in that room.

There's a date in history that I love very much. It was Wednesday, August 13, 1737. A little group of people in Moravia were waiting in a prayer meeting. At 11:00 suddenly the Holy Spirit came. Do you know what happened?The prayer meeting that began at 11:00 lasted almost 120 years! That's right, you read it right, almost 120 years! That prayer room was not empty for over a century! It was one of the longest prayer meetings that I know of. Even the children were involved. Little boys and girls as young as six and seven years old spent hours travailing in prayer for countries the names of which they couldn't even spell.

Why We Aren't Seeing Revival

There is an old town in Ireland where four young men met night after night after night, praying for revival. In Wales, there's a place in the hills where three or four young men only 18 or 19 years old met and prayed every night. They wouldn't let God go; they would not take no for an answer. They would not be denied. They prayed a revival into being. Beloved, if you're thinking of having a revival in your heart or in your home, or at your church without any inconvenience and sacridice, forget it. Revival costs a lot. Well, that's not exactly right. It doesn't really cost a lot - it actually will cost you everything you have.

I can give you the reason that we don't have revival in America. It is because we're content to live without it. You see, in the Kingdom of God there is an foundational,  immutablel truth – whatever you can live without - you will do without. And what, in the grace of God, you refuse to live without, you will experience – in time. Today, many believers are not seeking God – they are seeking miracles – signs and wonders. They are seeking larger meetings, bigger blessings. In Numbers 11, Moses said to God, "You're asking me to carry a burden I can't handle. Do something or kill me!" Do you love America enough, do you want revival enough, that you put aside the legitimate pleasures and cares of your life to say, "God, send revival or kill me"? Do you think it's time we changed Patrick Henry's prayer from, "Give me liberty or give me death," to "Give me revival or let me die"?

You might think that is a little radical. Well, let me assure you it's not. This is revival praying 101!

 In the 30th chapter of Genesis, Rachel goes to Jacob and throws herself down in despair. She says,

"Give me children or I shall die."

Beloved, are you willing to throw yourself down before God to seek the spiritual birth of spiritual children in our country?

I hear people say all the time, "I'm filled with the Holy Spirit – I’m anointed by the Holy Spirit." But I say, if the “coming of the Spirit” didn't revolutionize your prayer life, you might oughta check on it. I'm not so sure you got what God wanted you to get!

I am sure you have heard the old adage that prayer changes things. But that is not an accurate statement! Prayer doesn't change things. Prayer changes people and people are used by God to change things. We all want Gabriel to do the job. God, however, says do it yourself - with My sufficiency and with My strength. Get it?

We need to all be more like Hannah. What did she do? She wept, she was grieved, she said she had a complaint, she fasted - and she prayed. Until the answer came!

Jesus, the holy and anointed one of God, made prayer His custom – His way of life. Paul, with his background and intellect, depended on prayer because he knew how weak he really was, and how much of God's Spirit he really needed. David, the king, called himself a needy man and he cried to the Lord. Hannah prayed for a son but gave birth to a prophet. The prayers of a handful of young men sparked revival.