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The Power of Prayer

Intro: I have brought several messages recently aimed at teaching us how we can “Obtain the Fullness of Power” : receiving the Fullness of the Spirit, the Power of the Word of God, the Power of the Blood of Christ, the Power of the Holy Ghost, and this morning I would like to continue this theme by speaking on the “Power of Prayer.”

“Power belongeth to God,” but all that belongs to God can be ours for the asking. God holds out His hands to us and says in Matt. 7: 7, 11, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto you. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good gifts to them that ask Him.” The powerlessness and ineffectiveness of the average Christian can be explained in the words of James 4:2, “Ye have not, because ye ask not.”

You may ask, “Why is it that I make such poor progress in my Christian life?”

God answers, “Neglect of prayer. You have not, because you ask not.”

The preacher may ask , “Why is it there is so little fruit in my ministry?”

God again answers, “Neglect of prayer. You have not, because you ask not.”

We all may ask, “Why is it that there is so little power in my life and service?”

Again God says, “Neglect of prayer. You have not, because you ask not.

God has provided for a life of power for all of His children. He has put His own infinite power at our disposal, and He has told us over and over again in a variety of ways in His Word, “Ask and ye shall receive.” Untold millions have taken God at His Word and found this to be true.

The New Testament church had power. The

first Christians were men and women of tremendous power. What power Peter, James, and John had in their lives! What power they had in their ministiries! They were faced with determined, bitter, and relentless opposition, that, in comparison, would make any opposition we might encounter appear as child’s play - but the work went right on.

Examples of This Power We constantly find statements in the book of Acts such as these:

1. Acts 2:47, “Praising God, and having favor with all people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.”

2. Acts 4:4, “Howbeit many of them which heard the Word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.”

3. Acts 5:14, “And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women.”

Secret of Their Power

The apostles themselves explain the secret of their irresistible power when they say:

1. Acts 6:4, “But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word.”

2. It was not only the leaders of the early church who had power in their lives the regular church member did.

a. Acts 8:4, “Therefore they that were scattered abroad went every where preaching the Word.”

b. Acts 11:19, 21, “Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen traveled as far as Phoenicia, and Cyprus, and Antioch, preaching the Word to

none but unto the Jews only. And the hand of the Lord was with them: and a great number believed, and turned unto the Lord.”

c. The secret to their power is found in Acts 2:42, “And they continued steadfastly in the apostle’s doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”

Our church can have this same power today. God does not change and His Word does not change so the same God to whom all power belongs is ready, willing, and able to bestow that power on us if we will ask Him to. God wants us to have power and He will give it to us.

2 Tim. 1:17, “God hath not given us the Spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” God’s power is available to each of us, but we must ask Him for it.

We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. In this modern world we have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish very little; we have many services, but few conversions. The power of God is sorely lacking in our lives and in our work. We have not, because we ask not.

Most of us do not really believe in the power of prayer. If we did we would do it more and have more respect for those prayer warriors in our church. Some people go so far as to contrast the “pray-ers” with the doers - forgetting that in the history of the church the real doers have been “pray-ers,” that the men and women who have played a vital part in the history of the church have been, without exception, men and women of prayer.

Prayer is a Mighty Weapon

Of those who do theoretically believe in the power of prayer, very few realize the extent of its power. How much time does the average Christian spend daily in prayer? 5 minutes. How much time do you spend daily in prayer? Not enough I bet.

It was a stroke of Satan’s genius to get the church to lay aside the mighty weapon of prayer. Satan does not mind if the church expands her organizations and her programs, if she will only give up prayer. He must laugh out loud when he looks at today’s church, and say under his breath, “You can have your Sunday schools, your Awana clubs, your choirs, your revivals (evangelistic campaigns), and even your Wednesday night prayer meetings, as long as you do not bring the power of Almighty God into them by earnest, persistent, and believing prayer.”

The devil is not afraid of organization; he is only afraid of God, and organization without prayer is organization without God.

The church of today is characterized by man’s machinery, man’s programs, man’s promotions, and the lessening of God’s power which is sought and obtained by prayer. But when men and women arise who believe in prayer, and who pray the way the Bible teaches us to pray, prayer can accomplish as much as it ever has. Our prayer can do as much as the early church’s prayer. All the infinite resources of God are at prayers command.

Prayer is the key that unlocks the vast storehouses of divine grace and power. Christian history and biographies demonstrate the truth of the Word of God concerning prayer. All through the history of the church, men and women have arisen who believed what the Bible teaches about prayer with simple, childlike faith. They asked and received.

But what are some of the specific things prayer has the power to do?

I. Prayer Has Power to Bring Knowledge of Ourselves and Our Needs

There is nothing we need more than to know ourselves: our weakness, our sinfulness, our selfishness; how that in our flesh dwelleth no good thing.” People who had the power of God on their lives usually started with a deep sense of the utter powerlessness and worthlessness of self.

A. Isaiah

In the year that king Uzziah died, Isaiah got a vision of God, and then saw himself as he really was, and cried out, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips.” Then he had a life of power as God sent him out to do a mighty work.

B. We come face to face with God during prayer and if we pray as we should we will get a vision of God and of our helplessness without Him. This will cause us to depend on Him more and on ourselves less which means we will grow in faith.

C. If we are to have the fullness of power, we must see our sinful nature. This happens through prayer. If we sincerely pray as David did in Psalm 139:23, “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me and know my thoughts”, He will do it. But to pray this prayer once is not enough; it should be repeated daily. Then we will see ourselves as God sees us and there will be an emptying of self, making room for the incoming power of God.

II. Prayer Has the Power to Cleanse Our Hearts From Sin - Secret and Known Sin

Psalm 19:12-13, “Who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me from secret faults. Keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins;” According to Psalm 51:2, God thoroughly washed David from his iniquity and cleansed him from his sin in answer to David’s prayer.

Many people have fought for days, months, and even years against some sin that marred their life and sapped their spiritual power. David finally went to God in prayer, persisting in that prayer until God blessed him and he finally emerged from the place of prayer a victor.

This is how even sins that seem unconquerable can be laid to rest. In this way, the sin that we are unaware of which has robbed us of power can be discovered and rooted out.

III. Prayer Has the Power to Give Us Victory Over Temptation

A. Psalm 17:5, “Hold up my goings in Thy paths, that my footsteps slip not.” That is a prayer God is always ready to hear.

B. In Luke 22:40 Jesus told His disciples to “Pray that ye enter not into temptation.” The disciples did not heed the warning. They slept when they should have prayed, and when the temptation came a few short hours later, they failed. Jesus spent that same night in prayer, and the next day, when the fiercest temptation came, He was victorious.

We can be victorious over temptation also if we will prepare for it and meet it by prayer. Many of us fall into defeat and then denial because we are sleeping when we should be praying.

IV. Prayer Has the Power to Bring Wisdom

A. James 1:5, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” There could not be a more explicit, clear-cut promise than that. We can have wisdom, the wisdom of God Himself, whenever we ask for it.

B. God does not intend for His children to grope along in the dark. He puts His own infinite wisdom at our disposal. All He desires is that we ask in faith according to James 1:6-7. Many of us are stumbling along in our own foolishness, instead of

walking in God’s wisdom, simply because we do not ask.

We can all have the joy of walking in God’s way. It is His desire to make it known to us and all we must do is ask.

V. Prayer Has the Power to Reveal the Word of God

A. Psalm 119:18, “Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.” It is wonderful how the Bible opens up to those who look to God in earnest, believing prayer to interpret it for him. Prayer causes difficulties to vanish, obscure passages become clear as day, and old, familiar portions become alive with new meaning and power.

B. Prayer will do more than Seminary to help one understand the Bible. Only the man of prayer can truly understand the Bible.

VI. Prayer Has Power to Bring the Holy Spirit & His Power & Works Into Our Hearts & Lives

A. Promise

Luke 11:13, “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.”

B. Examples

1. It was after the first disciples had “continued in prayer and supplication” (Acts 1:14) that “they were all filled with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 2:4).

2. Acts 4:31, “when they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were assembled together; and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost.”

3. In Acts 8: 15,17 when Peter and John came upon a group of young

converts who had not yet experienced the fullness of the Holy Spirit’s power, “they prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Ghost ...And they received the Holy Ghost.”

4. It was in answer to prayer that Paul expected the saints in Ephesus “to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man” (Eph. 3: 14, 16), and that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory” would give them ‘the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” (Eph. 1:16, 17).

C. Prayer brings the fullness of the Spirit’s power into our hearts and our lives. One great reason why so many of us have so little of the Holy Spirit’s power in our lives and service is that we spend so little time and thought in prayer. We “have not, because we ask not.”

Every spiritual blessing in our own lives is given by our heavenly Father in response to true prayer. Prayer promotes our spiritual growth and our likeness to Christ as almost nothing else can. The more time we spend in real, earnest prayer, the more we will grow to be like Him.

One of the saintliest, and most Christ-like men who ever lived was John Welch, the son-in-law of John Knox, the Scottish reformer. Welch is said to have given 1/3 of his time to prayer, and he often spent a whole night in prayer. Someone who knew him well described him after he went home to be with the Lord as a “type of Christ.”

There are many examples we could give of men of prayer such as: praying Hyde, David

Brainerd, and ole’ camel knees himself, James.

VII. Prayer Has the Power to Bring Salvation

1 John 5:16, “If any man’s brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death.” It has the power to bring salvation to others. Prayer succeeds in attaining the salvation of others where everything else fails.

There have been countless cases where men and women, seemingly beyond all hope, have been converted in definite answer to prayer.

VIII. Prayer Has the Power to Bring Revival

All great revivals have been started, not as a result of great preaching, but of great praying. There is nothing that will bring revival like prayer. Why does revival come? Because people are focused on God and not themselves and that is what happens when we pray.

2 Chron. 7:14 has often been used as a text to teach revival for a nation, and it should, but this same verse applies just as easily to our church right here as it does to anything else. “If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”

IX. Prayer Has the Power to Strengthen Ministers

Prayer will bring wisdom and power to ministers of the Gospel. Paul was a tremendous minister, but he so deeply felt the need of the prayers of God’s people, that he asked for them from every church to which he wrote, except for the backslidden church in Galatia.

It has been seen over and over that prayer can transform a poor preacher into a good one. If you are not satisfied with your pastor, pray for him. Keep praying for him, and you will soon have a better one. If you pray for a good preacher you can make him a great preacher through your prayers. Most Christians do not realize that they can influence the powerfulness or powerlessness of their pastor’s preaching by their prayer or lack thereof.

You also can have a great impact on our missionaries by praying for them.

Conclusion: There is mighty power in prayer. It has much to do with our obtaining the fullness of power in our lives. The person who will not take the time for prayer may as well give up all hope of obtaining the fullness of the power God has for him.

It is they “that wait on the Lord” who “shall renew their strength.”

Waiting on God means more than spending a few minutes at the beginning or end of the day in a well-rehearsed five minute prayer. True prayer takes time and thought. If we are going to be people who know what it is to have the power and hand of God on our lives, we must be people of prayer.

Never Found Time

I knelt to pray, but not for long.

I had too much to do.

Must hurry off and get to work,

For bills would soon be due.

And so I said a hurried prayer,

Jumped up from off my kneess,

My Christian duties now were done,

My soul could be at ease.

All through the day I had no time

To speak a word of cheer,

No time to speak of Christ to friends,

They’d laugh at me I feared..

No time, no time, too much to do.

That was my constant cry;

No time to give to those in need-

At last was time to die.

And when before the Lord I came,

I stood with downcast eyes;

Within His hands He held a book-

It was the “Book of Life.”

God looked into His book and said,

“Your name I cannot find,

I once was going to write it down,

But never found the time.”

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