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Prayer to get to know our father better By Pam Davies

I'd much like to share with you on this subject of prayer, it's something that has been laid on my heart and I just, I think if nothing else, if only our hearts are stirred up to really pray as we've never prayed before, I feel that we're living in desperate days.
We're living in days where we need God to work and we need Him to come.
I feel that we've tried so many things and even believing the right things, which is most important, and yet we have to seek God to come and bless His truth and we have to seek Him for an outpouring of the Holy Spirit that perhaps we've never known before or have never experienced before.
And I also have a conviction that there is much more of God to know than we have already
experienced.
And I also have another conviction that very often we are satisfied with very little of
God.
And all that the Lord would bring us to that place where we really begin to hunger and
thirst for Him and become desperate for Him.
And all that we might know His blessing in a greater and in a fuller way than we've already
known it.
And so I often think of the hymn that we sing, All that my soul could love and praise Him
more.
And when we think about prayer, we have to think in terms of communion with our Lord
Jesus Christ.
And that is what we want, isn't it?
We want to grow in grace and in a knowledge of our Lord Jesus.
And it's as we hear His word and as we seek His faith in prayer that we can get to know
Him.
And as we obey Him too and as we trust Him, we get to know Him.
And our relationship with Him is the most important thing in the life of the Christian.
It should be.
It should be the most important thing in our lives.
We can all, if we are true believers, we can look back to the day when we first came to
know the Lord.
When we received Him and we embraced Him and we submitted to Him as our Lord and our Saviour.
And He's also our husband.
What I mean is this, that our Lord Jesus Christ is desirable as well as reliable.
We trust Him to save us from our sins.
I hope that we have all of us done that because we need Him.
Because we can't stand before God in the day of judgement unless we know Christ, unless
we know our sins have been forgiven.
And we have to know that.
And we trust Him alone, don't we?
We look to Him, we look to His cross, we see there that our sin was dealt with and we believe
that He's God's Son and that He came into this world to save sinners and that He's been
raised from the dead and that He's gone back to glory and that He's coming again and that
one day He's going to take us to heaven to be with Him.
We believe these things and we trust Him to take us safely to heaven.
We trust Him to save us from our sins and to forgive us.
And that's what we must do, we must do these things.
But not only that, we must also love Him.
And we have a relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ that has to be maintained and developed.
You know it's not enough to look back to our conversion and say, well I trusted Him then.
But we've got to go on to know Him better.
The Apostle Paul said that, oh that I might know Him and the power of His resurrection,
didn't he, and the fellowship of His sufferings that I might be made conformable to His death.
He wanted to go on, He wanted to press on to know the Lord better.
And our Lord Jesus Christ tells us that we must abide in Him.
And you see there must be communion with Him as well as union with Him.
I wonder how often we tell our Saviour that we love Him.
Let us do this, you know when we come close to Him in prayer, very often we launch into
a series of requests, don't we?
We have pressing needs maybe in our lives, we see great needs in the lives of others.
But I wonder whether we just stop and enjoy Him and tell Him how much we love Him.
Tell Him that we will be for Him and not another.
And you know, is He really the first person in our lives?
And we've got every encouragement in the Word to keep close to our Saviour.
Because I don't know if you've read the Song of Solomon, but in the Song of Solomon the
Lord tells us how much He delights in His people.
And you know the believer, there's this lovely fellowship between the believer and the Lord
Jesus Christ.
And the believer says, I sat down under His shadow with great delight and His fruit was
sweet to my taste.
Now do we really know anything about this?
Do we honestly know anything about this or are our lives so busy that we never have time
just to stop and just tell the Lord how wonderful He is and how much we love Him and how much
we enjoy being with Him?
Do we enjoy the Lord?
And the Lord says to us, the Lord says to the believer in the Song of Solomon chapter
2, if you'd like to read these verses when you go home, verses 3, 4 and 14, the Lord
says, your voice is sweet to my ears and your face is beautiful in my eyes.
So when we come near to the Lord, it pleases Him, it delights Him, it delights His heart.
I wonder do we sometimes think that, you know, when we are prayerless, we are grieving Him
because we are neglecting communion with Him and He wants communion with us.
He's our, He's our husband as well as our Saviour.
You know that Him, Jesus, my shepherd, Saviour, friend, my prophet, priest and King, my Lord,
my life, my way, my end, accept the praise I bring.
He can be so much more to us, can't He?
We say that we know that He's all sufficient, He will meet our every need and yet again
we are so satisfied with so little.
When you look back at the lives of Christians in the past, you do see that they knew more
of the Saviour in this personal, intimate way and I love to read the life of Sarah Edwards,
the wife of the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards and because she had a very
intimate knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and she experienced many sweet manifestations
of the Saviour in her life and I think in the little booklet that you have, you needn't
look at it now but certainly you can read it when you go home because there's a little
bit that describes something of her communion with Christ and I always find it a great inspiration
to read about her life and her experience with the Lord and Jonathan Edwards writes
of his wife while she was still a teenager, she loves to be alone, he said, walking in
the fields and groves and seems to have someone invisible always conversing with her.
Are we familiar with the Lord like this, as familiar with the Lord as this?
You know, do we often talk to him?
So that's the first thing I'd like to say, we must nurture our relationship with the
Lord and the closer we are to him, the more we will desire his will to be done and the
more we shall be aware to of our sin.
Do sometimes I think that we hold ourselves back from the Lord because when we do come
close to him, he begins to put his finger on things in our lives and you know, we have
to humble ourselves before him very often and although it's sweet, communion with him
is sweet, it can be painful for the sinful self so we pull back and we miss out on so
much because of this and you know, I'd just like to clear the ground a little bit here
because when we speak of prayer, there are wrong types of prayer, there is a type of
prayer that we read of in Luke's Gospel and you're all familiar, aren't you, with Luke
chapter 18, if you just have a quick look, Luke 18 verses 9 to 14.
Now here we have the parable, the Lord tells the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector
and we are told that two men went up to the temple to pray, one was a Pharisee and the
other was a tax collector, the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank
you that I am not like other men, extortionist, unjust, adulterers or even as this tax collector,
I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I possess and the tax collector standing
far off would not so much as raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast saying, God,
be merciful to me a sinner, that's the way to pray. I tell you this man went down to
his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be abased
and he who humbles himself will be exalted. That's devastating, isn't it? So there is
a type of prayer that is full of self and as we look at this prayer, the prayer of the
Pharisee, we see that it wasn't a prayer at all, was it, because he was full of himself.
There was no place really for any sense of need, there weren't any place for any desires
in his heart because he was already full, he was full of himself and he was full of
his own good works and he despised others and using the prayer of this man, he didn't
confess one need, he didn't plead one promise, he didn't seek for mercy, he didn't mention
the need for pardon and forgiveness, he didn't mention propitiation at all, he was just full
of himself. His thanksgiving was like a formal prayer, wasn't it, and it was more the boast
of vanity than the request of humility and yet the prayer of the publican, God be merciful
to me a sinner, this was worth volumes of lip service, wasn't it, and what a prayer.
Now the point I'd like to make here is this, that prayer must be spiritual, it must be
from heart and it must be a stirring of the heart towards God. True prayer is heart prayer.
We read in Psalm 42 verses 1 to 2 as the dear longs for the water brooks, so longs my soul
after thee, O God. You see here's thirst, isn't there, and I just want to ask us this
morning, how thirsty are we really for God? Let's be absolutely honest, are we full of
other things, are our lives so full of other things, are we full of what we are doing even,
full of our evangelical activity, are we full, are we too full to have a real thirst for
God? I love a hymn written by Vernon Haim, he's a minister in South Wales in Cardiff,
and he wrote this, deep in my heart there is a sigh, do you know what it is to sigh
for God, to groan for God, deep in my heart there is a sigh, a longing Lord for thee,
to know the depths that in thee lie, the love of Calvary. You see here's a crying out for
God, all that that publican could do is to cry out, O Lord be merciful to me, and sometimes
you know I think our deepest prayers have that O in them, that O, do you know that O
in your heart, that groaning for God. Now I hope you are not saying it in your minds
as I'm speaking, oh she's Welsh, because remember God has revived his work in America and in
many other places of the world too, but so it's not because she's Welsh. I'm talking
about desperation in prayer, how desperate are we when we pray, really desperate, are
we desperate for God to bless us, are we desperate to know God better, are we desperate that
our lives may become more like Christ, are we desperate that God will bless his church
and honour his name, do we really want these things, do we really want God's name to be
honoured, do we want souls to be saved, do we want these things, because you know if
we haven't got them, then we must cry for them, we must say Lord, Lord I'm not the Christian
that I should be, my life is not what it should be Lord, and I want to know you better, and
I want to enjoy you, why am I not enjoying you as a Christian, why does it seem such
a drudgery and such a duty to do so many things when my life should be full of delights. Now
I know that trials and tribulations come into our lives and I'm not minimising that at all,
but all I'm saying is that in the midst of the trials of life we can know a real enjoyment
of God and a real delight in him that will lift us up and we can mount up with wings
as eagles so that we can look down on our trials and our tribulations, there is a joy
in God, an enjoyment of God that perhaps we've never ever known before, and that's what we
should be looking for, and the Lord tells us you see, if you seek me with all your hearts
you will find me, just this morning I was reading the book of Lamentations about, you
know you remember what had happened, how Jerusalem and how the people of Israel, they'd gone
into captivity and Jeremiah had been called to prophesy through this difficult time and
he'd faithfully spoken the word of God and you know they'd gone into captivity, people
didn't listen, they'd gone into captivity and here you know Jeremiah's just calling
out to God and he says Lord when I called you heard me and you said to me don't fear,
you know when we go after God, God draws us to him and he encourages us to come to him
and he says to us don't be afraid, you know remember the times he said that to the disciples,
we are not, and so often you know our fear holds us back from him doesn't it, but when
we come close to him he says to us don't be afraid and he will answer and he will hear,
but when we pray you remember we must never come trusting in ourselves or in our own merits
at all and every time we come to the Lord in prayer we must always rely upon what the
Lord Jesus Christ has done for us, you know sometimes when we come to prayer we just start
to pray don't we and yet you know as the hymn says we thank you for the precious blood that
has cleansed our sins and drawn us nigh and we should ever, I really feel that whenever
we cry to the Lord we should always thank him for the precious blood of Christ that
has been shed for us and we should always come in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How do we know that our prayer will be answered? Well it will be answered for the Lord Jesus
sake, not simply because we are praying but because the Lord Jesus Christ has died for
us and because he has brought us into the presence of the Father and so you know we
we often look at the Apostle Paul don't we and we think of the sort of man he was before
he was converted. Now Paul was a Pharisee and he would have prayed before he was saved
and yet remember when the Lord spoke to Ananias and told him to go and see Saul and Ananias
said oh my God we're going to see him, you know he's the one who's persecuting all your
people Lord and the Lord said to him Ananias you go and see Saul because he's praying and
you see the Apostle Paul had never prayed properly before he came to know Christ had
he but when he knew Christ then he prayed and so when we come to pray let us be absolutely
sure that we humbly and heartily plead the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ for
the effectiveness of prayer lies in pleading his name, his work, his merit and we plead
his righteousness not our own as we come into the presence of God. In Old Testament times
when people drew near to the Lord, you remember they used to come with their animal sacrifices
and the Lord told them the way to come and they had to come in the way that God had prescribed
and God had provided. They wouldn't be accepted if they came in any other way and in Leviticus
chapter 1 verses 3 and 4 we are told that a perfect male animal must be offered at the
door of a sacrifice before the congregation and so God has provided us only one way to
come to him, only one way, no other way at all, only through Christ and every single
time that we come near to the Lord just as those Old Testament saints had to put their
hand upon the head of the sacrifice. We've got to lay hold on the way provided by God.
We don't say oh I was converted so many years ago so now I can pray. That's not the way
to pray. We must ever as we come to pray lay hold on the sacrifice that God has provided
and we must also lean heavily on Christ. I wonder sometimes whether we don't pray as
we should because we don't do this when we pray because you see Satan comes against us
doesn't he and the only way that we can hold him back is by just laying hold on the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way to pray at all and you know the more conscious
we are of the attacks of Satan, the more conscious we are of sin, the more heavily we will lean
on Jesus Christ and the Old Testament saints as they came and brought their offering to
the Lord they were told to come with gladness of heart. Now why was that? Well it was because
they knew that God would accept them. They knew that because God had provided the way
and God had prescribed the way and God would accept the way. You know some of our Welsh
hymns knew this and there's one wonderful Welsh hymn that says there is a path of pardon
in the blood. There is a sure salvation in the blood and you know this has a very great
bearing on our assurance before God in prayer because when Satan tempts us to despair and
tells us of the guilt within, upward I look and I see him there who made an end of all
my sin because you know if we don't plead the precious blood of Christ as we come to
prayer we will soon be discouraged because we will so be made so aware of our sinfulness
and our worthlessness and our weakness so I'm not taking this for granted for one moment
to plead, I'm saying it again and I hope you go home with us this afternoon, I feel it's
so important, never ever forget to plead the name of Christ, the blood of Christ as we
come near to God in prayer. The other thing is that as we come near to the Lord we must
come with a humble spirit, it's no good as we've already seen this haven't we as we've
looked at the prayer of the tax collector, we are sinners saved by grace alone, that's
all we'll be throughout the whole of our Christian lives right to the very day of our death and
we come into God's presence by grace alone and so many times I've been aware of this
reading the scriptures lately that the Lord looks to those who have a humble and a contrite
heart and he looks to those who express their needs to him and you see the apostle Paul
before he was converted was proud wasn't he, he was the cat's whiskers as we say, I don't
know if you know what that expression is do you in Australia, the cat's whiskers, well
you know he was full of his own skin and I love the way that Spurgeon puts things sometimes,
Spurgeon says this about it, the Lord Jesus Christ himself must appear to Paul and bring
him to his knees, nothing but a light from heaven could show him his vileness and a person
who has been resting in himself so completely and so long must be torn up from the roots
before he can stop trusting in himself, no wonder Paul's conversion was such a violent
one, he had to be torn up from the roots and you know sometimes God brings things into
our lives doesn't he so that we really begin to humble ourselves before him and you know
we honestly know in our experience that we don't deserve anything from him and we come
to, as we come to prayer we know that the Lord deals with us in grace not because we
deserve any of his blessings and he's our good shepherd and sometimes the good shepherd
handles the sheep roughly and before they come to their senses and I wonder how many
times you've experienced this in your life that you've gone through a difficult time
and you've learned to cry, you've learned to pray as you've gone through that difficult
time, the Lord has brought you into a position of great need so that all you can do is cry,
nothing else just cry and when you have the great needs that we have we need a clean heart,
we need a right spirit, we need truth and sincerity in our hearts, we need wisdom, we
need strength, we need grace, well I don't know why we don't pray because we've got so
many needs but what I'm saying is that I'm talking all the time you see about a thirst
for God, I'm talking about coming to God with an empty soul, I'm talking about bringing
him our needs and our desires and that it's a good thing to have this thirst in our souls
but when we come we must always pray with a really thankful heart, we said earlier on
that the Old Testament states God wanted them to come with gladness of heart and you know
very often we come mourning perhaps for our sins don't we before God but you know the
Lord sometimes just pours on the oil of gladness and we find that he lifts the burden and he
makes us glad again and in Psalm 103 we read that wonderful Psalm verses 1 to 5 and it's
familiar to you I'm sure, Psalm 103 1 to 5, just the way that the Psalm speaks it always
encourages me to read this Psalm because he's so exuberant, he says bless the Lord
all my soul and all that is within me bless his holy name bless the Lord all my soul and
forget his benefits and then he can't stop, he says who forgives all your iniquities,
he heals all your diseases, he redeems your life from destruction, he crowns you with
loving kindness and tender mercies, he satisfies your mouth with good things so that your youth
is renewed like the eagles, he can't stop, he starts to think of God's blessings and
he goes over and over and you know when we start to think of this well you know as the
Sankey hymn says count your blessings, name them one by one, do you know that hymn? And
it will surprise you what the Lord has done and you know as we come into the Lord's presence
we should come with thankfulness and praise, it's a strange mixture, we come with a sense
of our sin and our great need that you know even our very need seems to somehow lift up
our souls to God and we start to praise him because we know that he is all that we are
not and we know that all our needs are satisfied in him and you know praise takes us up out
of our worries, have you ever found that? And catches us up into the purposes and the plan
of God and the person of God and the beauty of the Lord Jesus begins to dawn upon us and
we glorify God as we praise him. There's a good book by Douglas Kelly called If God Already
Knows Why Should We Pray? and he points out the beneficial effects of praise upon our
personalities and he said as we focus away from ourselves to God, to his person, to his
will then we are as God means us to be. We were made to praise and honour and enjoy God
and praising God is part of God's plan to restore balance into our personalities, a
balance of course that was disturbed by when man fell in Eden. So as we praise God and
direct our attention to him we have to use our mental and emotional faculties in the
ways for which they were originally designed and this works, this really does work because
you know it is possible to be lifted right about of ourselves and to be so taken up with
the Lord as we praise him that we find that we forget everything else that is negative
and unworthy and the chief end of man I think we're told, the chief end of man is to glorify
God, sometimes we think that to glorify God is a difficult thing to do but it's not you
know, we've been born again of the spirit so we've got new natures to be able to do
these things, the chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Let's start
to enjoy God shall we? And you know it's wonderful to know that when we praise him that self
is decentralised, you see I feel very often in our praying we're down here, we're down
here all the time, we're cataloguing, we're cataloguing so many things like you know sometimes
prayers like a shopping list and it's all to do with you know problems in different
people's lives but we really do need to lift up our prayers to God because God is able
to do more than we can ever ask or think and we must as we come to prayer we must come
with great faith and with great hope that God is going to change things in our lives,
in the lives of others and he's going to save people. You see if we don't lift up our hearts
to God all we can see is the difficult situation around us, the difficult situation in our
families and we feel oh it'll always be like this but oh if we could only just lift up
our hearts to God then we know that God, God is able to change things and even if we
have to wait for the answer one day we'll see him glorified and we'll see blessing in
our lives. Praise also routes the enemy because the devil is the most miserable creature that
you've ever met. The devil hates to hear singing and he cannot sing a note, I wrote that down
I don't know where I got it from and I love that story of Jehoshaphat, remember when Jehoshaphat
went out to battle against the Moabites came, the Edomites came, the Ammonites came, I don't
know who else came but so many people were coming together to fight against the people
of Judah and Jehoshaphat was full of fear and he prayed and Jehoshaphat was told don't
be afraid the battle is not yours it's God's. But you know it was when the people started
to sing and praise that the enemy was defeated because as they went out to battle they went
out to battle praising and seeing God, praising God and the enemy was defeated and so that's
a lesson for us anyway isn't it. Now Jonathan Edwards, to come back to Jonathan Edwards
again who is this great American theologian, he once said when there is much praise in
our home the atmosphere of heaven comes down, when there is much complaining in a home we
lose any trace of a heavenly atmosphere and a home becomes more like a hell. Oh I thought
when I heard that what a terrible thing to think that our home can be like a hell if
there's a lot of complaining and grousing and I think even that's something to remember
isn't it. But I love the hymn, one of my favourite hymns is fill thou my life O Lord my God in
every part with praise that my whole being may proclaim thy being and thy ways and the
hymn goes on not for the lip of praise alone, not even just a praising heart I ask, but
for a life made up of praise in every part and you know even when I don't feel like it
I can still praise God. I can say Lord I'm praising you even though I don't feel like
it. But yes so we should remember that we've got a glorious God and He's worthy of all
our praise and what about this whole question of persevering in prayer because I think sometimes
that we too easily give up and I love that passage that the Lord gave us in Luke 11 verses
5 to 13 it's such an encouragement when we think of praying and going on praying, 5 to
13. It's the passage about a friend who comes in the middle of the night and he knocks the
door and he wants some bread doesn't he and the Lord says verse 8 I say to you though
he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend because of his persistence he
will rise and give him as many as he needs and I say to you ask and it will be given
you seek and you will find knock and it will be opened to you and I love this because the
word persistence here is means actually shamelessness I mean you'd be ashamed to go knock at the
door a friend's door in the middle of the night wouldn't you well I would anyway and
just to ask for bread but you know here the Lord says that you'd be cross if somebody
came and knocked at your door wouldn't you just to ask for that when you were sleeping
but if the friend went on knocking and knocking and knocking you would get up wouldn't you
and answer the door because it would get on your nerves wouldn't it and so you know it's
just it's just a lesson to us isn't it that we that we shouldn't be easily embarrassed
we should go on knocking we shouldn't be embarrassed to go on knocking sometimes we
think oh I prayed that before you know I prayed it so many times and sometimes people have
to pray for as long as 30 or 40 years for things that they go on praying and I've heard
of wonderful answers to prayer after a long period of praying you see we have to be brought
to the end of ourselves so that we can learn to cast ourselves completely upon the Lord
without reserve at all and so that we say to him Lord I want an answer I want you to
hear me I want an answer so we are reminded here that one man can obtain something from
another man if he persists in asking and selfish as we are we are capable of being roused to
exertion by continual asking our youngest son John Paul is very persistent and he was
he was particularly when he was little because he used to come and ask questions and would
stand right in front of you and he would ask something and I sometimes used to say well
wait a minute I'm doing something wait just wait a minute so he would come again like
this right in front of you and I'd say to him well look John just wait will you really
you know can't you wait five minutes ma'am I want to know now and the other children
always said that he's got away with murder and he has too but you see he was persistent
and he knew that he was going to wear me down and I can remember being like that with my
mother you know I knew that I knew that if I kept on that she would weaken and well the
Lord has told us to be like this with him he said go on you know be like this with me
keep on asking me so we mustn't get discouraged and stop praying because of laziness or discouragement
or unbelief sometimes we are tempted to think oh it's no good praying about this any longer
we can't see any visible results from our praying so we can just get on just as well
without prayer and I just want to say this one thing about persistence because the time
and the way in which our prayers are answered we must leave in the Lord's hands let us layer
our concerns before the Lord again and again day after day week after week month after
month year after year I wonder are we prepared to go on praying like this and trust the Lord
for the outcome you see when we're exhorted in the Bible to pray listen to the exhortations
pray without ceasing continue in prayer and watch in the same as Thanksgiving always pray
and do not faint so sometimes we might say oh why do we have to wait so long for the answer
and Douglas Kelly in his book makes a very interesting observation he said sometimes
Satan can resist our praying for example if you look in Daniel chapter 10 we see that
evil powers hindered the answer to Daniel's prayer for Israel there was a delay but Daniel
persisted and Daniel's prayer won through and through Daniel's praying there was a great
victory won in a very very serious spiritual conflict Satan might try to hinder our prayers
but he cannot stop them from being answered in accordance with God's will and they will
be answered they will be answered our prayers will be answered and if we persevere the blessing
will or certainly can you see we can't see what's going on behind the scenes can we there
are there's a great spiritual battle going on we can't see it and maybe you know there
are things that have to be put right in us and those around us maybe the Lord has got
to do other things first so let no delay shake our faith the Lord will answer our prayers
and he will work out his purposes for our good and his glory are we going right I think
I'm coming to the end almost the other thing is that we I think if we are really serious
about these things that we have to be prepared to wrestle with God in prayer and I've been
thinking quite a lot about this because I don't think I know an awful lot about it but
sometimes I do know this that prayer can be costly and it might involve a struggle because
as we come to the Lord then he begins to deal with us and you know we find that things are
being subdued in our lives attitudes are being changed by God's grace and of course the classic
passage is Genesis 32 isn't it where we read that the Lord came and wrestled with Jacob remember
that passage and how Jacob couldn't face his brother Esau without the Lord's help I mean
you look at Jacob's life and my word he'd been a manipulator and it was stunning he tried to
Jake would try to work out so many things in his own way happening in his life but but he'd come
to the end of himself here you really had and Jacob's determination to seek to secure the Lord's
blessing meant that he himself must be broken oh what an experience he Jacob had to see himself as
he really was before he could enter into a deeper experience of God's wonderful grace and you know
that's what happened didn't it the Lord blessed Jacob there at the place of brokenness Jacob was
broken but the Lord revealed himself to Jacob in all his glory and in all his beauty and Jacob
was all able to go and face his brother Esau and and it's a it's a wonderful passage and I'm sure
that sometimes this does happen doesn't it we find that God begins to deal with us and it is God
greatest desire to bless us you see God doesn't want us to come to into prayer and just to go
away and change but he begins to put his hand upon us we find ourselves broken before him and
and it although it's it can be painful it can be wonderful too it's almost a relief sometimes to
be humbled before God because self you know the such the strivings of self are very harmful to us
but a real humility before God is like a sweet balm to our souls sweet medicine you know remember
John Bunyan's pilgrims progress and as Christian went through the valley of humiliation he said
what a sweet place it was to be in how beautiful the flowers were and he said he who is down need
fear no fall so although sometimes it can be hard you know this struggling with God in prayer it's
a blessed thing too and I just want to say one thing about intercessory prayer and and just say
that I feel that this is the one of the greatest one of the most important things in the church
today and that I often think of the verse that God is looking for intercessors and intercessory
prayer means pleading with God on the behalf of others and often this is connected with a turning
away of God's anger from communities or individuals there are lots of prayers like this recorded the
Bible for example Abraham pleads with God for Sodom and Gomorrah have you read that prayer I'm
always amazed to read that prayer because God says oh Lord will you will you spare the city
if there's 50 and the Lord answers Abraham and then Abraham said well will you spare the city
if there are 45 people and he goes on if there are 40 if there are 30 and he you know he goes
down and he reasons with God in prayer like this and and then Moses pleaded for the people didn't
he in the wilderness after they'd made the golden calf Isaiah prayed for the people after they'd
gone into the Babylonian captivity and what a prayer in Isaiah 64 oh that thou wouldest rend
the heavens and come down or that the mountains might flow at your presence you know that Isaiah
is calling to God for the people Daniel's prayer as we've already mentioned and I'm sure it would
be a wonderful thing if then if we would we were to pray like this in these days for the Lord's
people and I really feel that this is a priority sometimes we say oh I can do nothing now but pray
as though praying prayer was the very last thing we would think of doing and yet prayer should be
the most important thing in the life of the church I can never quite understand this you know I think
that the enemy so distracts us from praying he doesn't mind if we're busy and doing all the
right things but he does mind if we pray and I think sometimes that's why it's so difficult to
actually get down to prayer isn't it that's um well you know the Lord I'm sure I feel most
definitely that the Lord is calling us to pray like this in these days really interceding his
people do we intercede for the ministers of God you know do we intercede with God for other churches
not only our own church do we intercede with God for the church in this country are we concerned
for God's name to be honored and glorified again are we concerned with what's happening in society
because it brings dishonor to God are we concerned for the state of the church and do we feel Lord
if you came then it would all change it would all be different and do we plead with him in such a
way but we expect him to do something sometimes we think oh you know nothing can happen today
God can't visit us today as he did again as he has in the past but but he can and he will and
I was reading Evan Roberts's prayer for that for the revival of the church in Wales and you know
things were pretty bad then if you read the history of Wales at that time it was it is a
pretty depraved society but Evan Roberts pleaded with God for revival in Wales and he wouldn't miss
one prayer meeting because he was absolutely convinced that God was going to come and it's
moving to read Evan Roberts's prayer and that's in the little leaflet that that Gillian has done
for us as well read the prayer he pleads with God to break him and he pleads with God to come and
God came God came back to Wales in 1904 in a most remarkable way as a result of the prayers of his
people this is what happens when God comes his name is greatly glorified his kingdom was extended
in Wales thousands of people were converted society was changed the pubs were closed the
law courts were out of business even the even the the pit ponies couldn't understand the miners
because they'd stopped swearing and so you know this is what happens when God comes and and also
there there's the the lovely example of two simple Scottish ladies who pleaded with God to come to
Scotland many years ago and God came I'll just say that simply he came and Scotland was changed and
Scotland was turned upside down prayer releases blessing prayer assaults the devil prayer brings
revival to communities prayer can change nations prayer changes lives prayer builds up churches
prayer can have a transformative effect on society and I don't know whether I've got time to say this
now but encouragements to pray very quickly yeah the encouragements we've got many encouragements
to pray first of all we know that we have an access to God through Christ the Atonement of
Christ is our guarantee that our prayers will be heard the second is Jesus is interceding on
our half Jesus is our great high priest and he brings us into the presence of God God looks at
our looks at the Lord Jesus Christ and he sees us in him he sees our needs he gives him everything
for us and God is willing to give his Holy Spirit to us if we ask the Lord delights to bless his
people he wants us to ask and also we've got the help of the Holy Spirit because he helps us in
our weaknesses under our infirmities and when we don't know how to pray as we ought he prays he
groans doesn't he in our hearts and brings those prayers to the Father we've got the promises of
God and they yea and Amen in the Lord Jesus Christ we are to plead the promises of God in prayer
and we know from the scriptures that God does hear and answer prayer we got all the prayers
and the wonderful prayers in the Bible haven't we to it to look at and to study and that's a
help too and I'd better finish there I think but I would like to draw your attention to the prayer
J Bez we haven't got time to go into that now but it's in 1 Chronicles chapter 4 verses 9 to 10 and
I think to me it's a wonderful prayer an ordinary man called J Bez you you just read that prayer
when you go home and when when I read that prayer I think well how wonderful God does does answer
prayer I think they're a better finish thank you this recording is brought to you by the
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