Prevailing Prayer

Driving home: However, since we're called to preach the word and not our experience, I'm going to preach what I feel is here and trust that in the very preaching of it, God will do something in my own heart to stir me up to greater at…

Martin uses the analogy of standing at the bottom of a mountain and pointing to a wonderful land to describe truths he knows little of experimentally, contrasting it with truths he has attained by grace.

As I have said on other occasions, there are some portions of scripture. Some truths of scripture concerning which the servant of God can say as it were, by the grace of God, this truth has led me to an attainment in my own life by the grace of God. This is a beautiful scene from this vantage point. It's wonderful, rarefied air.

6:26 - 6:48 Read in full sermon

Driving home: This is the graduate school of prayer. And nobody enrolls in graduate school who hasn't started somewhere down the line, at least in kindergarten, first grade, and even if he's real brilliant and skipped a few grades, he…

Martin compares Elijah's advanced prayer life to 'graduate school of prayer,' emphasizing that no one starts there but must begin with basic disciplines like kindergarten and high school.

No man prays like this the first time he prays. This is the graduate school of prayer. And nobody enrolls in graduate school who hasn't started somewhere down the line, at least in kindergarten, first grade, and even if he's real brilliant and skipped a few grades, he never started in graduate school. And when we behold the prophet being an instrument of God, to believe God for something that had never happened in the history of the human race.

12:07 - 12:33 Read in full sermon

The point: Determine to pray daily, even if only for five minutes, to cultivate the art of prevailing prayer.

Martin notes that a pastor can discern a person's prior acquaintance with the throne of grace by observing their reaction to crisis, contrasting the widow's panic with Elijah's calm recourse to prayer.

God is a mighty force. prayer out of heaven. He develops and cultivates the habit and grace of prayer through the conscious discipline and effort of his children. One of the most telling things to a pastor who is in any measure perceptive of spiritual principles is to watch people's reaction in a crisis, and it tells you worlds about whether or not they've had any previous acquaintance with the throne of grace. And when professing Christians face a crisis such as this woman faced, and they just go to pieces and run hither and yon looking for support, it tells me something, that they've cultiva...

14:05 - 15:06 Read in full sermon

The point: Determine to pray daily, even if only for five minutes, to cultivate the art of prevailing prayer.

Martin uses the analogy of learning ABCs before calculus to stress that prevailing prayer starts with basic disciplines like consistent, even short, daily prayer times.

recourse. I know a recourse. I know a recourse. You know nothing about, lady. But I know. He goes up the stairs, no fluster, no disturbance, no agitation. If you and I would prevail in prayer, we'll not start by imitating this kind of prayer in which we bring people back to life. It'll start when some of you who have no discipline in your prayer life determine that starting this year, I'm going to pray. If it's only just five minutes, I'm going to pray. It would be terribly embarrassing if I didn't pray. If I asked how many of you have it stated time to seek to cultivate the art of prevailing ...

15:06 - 16:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize that God may use difficult or isolating circumstances ('by a brook') to teach you how to pray.

Martin suggests that God sometimes isolates believers 'by a brook' (like Elijah at Cherith) or puts them 'on our back' to quiet them and teach them how to pray.

two. Three plus five. And Elijah was a man of what? Like passions. He wasn't some half angel who was dropped out of heaven, already schooled in the heart of prevailing prayer. He had to learn it just like you and I have to learn it. He had to take himself by the back of the neck and drive himself to his knees. Now, once in a while, God gave him some help to get out there by a brook all by himself. Maybe that's what God's been trying to say to some of us in the past year when he's put us by a brook, put us on our back, cut us off from the other normal pursuits of life to get us quiet enough bec...

16:03 - 17:18 Read in full sermon

The point: Be willing to pay the price to live better, as a blameless life is inseparable from prevailing prayer.

Martin uses the metaphor of 'clean hands' and 'purged lips' to illustrate that one's daily conduct and speech must be holy to prevail in prayer, connecting prayer to practical righteousness.

See, if we could somehow just separate the two, we could separate the two. We could separate the two and live carelessly and pray powerfully and get all kinds of blessing from God. Wouldn't that be wonderful? And God's not going to let us play tricks on him like that. No, he says, all right, you've come up to lift up your hands to pray. What kind of hands are they when they were down there in the marketplace? Hands that cheated? Don't lift them up in prayer to me until they've been cleansed hands. I want holy hands. What kind of lips are you going to use to frame your petitions? Are they lips ...

19:32 - 20:25 Read in full sermon

The point: Take to heart the needs of others as deeply as your own, allowing selfless love to fuel intercessory prayer.

Martin references the parable of the Levite and Pharisee passing by the beaten man to illustrate that one's reaction to others' needs reveals the presence or absence of selfless love.

That's the man who takes to heart the needs of others. What you do in the presence of need is a tremendous revelation of what you are. When Jesus told about the Levite, you know, and the Pharisee that could pass by that poor Samaritan all beaten up, I mean that man that was all beaten up, they were telling everyone else something about themselves. They could look at him and pass by the other side. They are saying, I have no love that moves me to react to this man's need. And so if you and I, if you and I, if you and I, if you and I, if you and I, if you and I would pray, well, we must take to ...

21:12 - 22:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Engage in specific, all-absorbing prayer for specific needs in a place free from distraction.

Martin uses the metaphor of a 'stretched rubber band' to describe the attitude of prayer, where the heart snaps back to heavenly things whenever free from earthly concerns.

We are to cultivate the attitude of prayer. Pray without ceasing. That is, have the attitude of heart in which your mind and spirit are like a stretched rubber band that the moment they are free from legitimate earthly concerns, they'll snap right back to heavenly things. That's the way your heart ought to be.

31:19 - 31:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Engage in specific, all-absorbing prayer for specific needs in a place free from distraction.

Martin compares prevailing prayer to preaching, stating that prayer is more demanding and draining because it involves direct 'hand-to-hand combat with the powers of hell and the darkness'.

It's the most demanding exercise that I know. It's more draining than preaching. Because in preaching there's an exhilaration that comes when you see a little light dawning in the eyes of people when you minister. And many times your conflict with the devil is more, more indirect than direct.

32:35 - 32:56 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin describes the spirit of Elijah's prayer as both intense, demanding the entire being, and intelligent, involving reasoning and 'divine argument' with God based on His…

Martin cites Abraham's intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah as a classic example of 'divine argument' in prayer, where Abraham reasoned with God based on His character.

Somewhere, for some reason. No, he's giving specific reasons why he believes God should intervene in this situation. And if you'll study carefully the prayers, the great intercessory prayers recorded in Scripture, you will find this matter of divine argument. Of course, the classic example is Abraham,

36:15 - 36:35 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And the Lord hearkened to the voice of Elijah. Isn't that a marvelous statement?

Martin uses the story of the blind beggar who cried out louder after being told to be quiet to illustrate the power of persistence in prayer, noting that Jesus stopped after the second, louder cry.

What would have happened? Well, from the human standpoint, Elijah would not have reaped, for he would have fainted. What would have happened to that blind beggar that after he got discouraged, he said, Son of David, have mercy! And they said, Ah, shut up.

42:02 - 42:14 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin emphasizes persistence as a crucial aspect of prevailing prayer, noting Elijah's three-fold stretching and crying to the Lord. He draws parallels with the blind beggar and…

Martin recounts the parable of the persistent widow who continually bothered the unjust judge until he granted her request, emphasizing the Lord's teaching on importunity in prayer.

I love the holy impudence of that fellow. Remember that widow, same way. She comes looking for mercy. The Lord says, No, I'm sorry.

43:12 - 43:22 Read in full sermon