Prevailing Prayer

Introduction to Prevailing Prayer in Elijah's Life

0:04 Let's turn again this evening to 1 Kings chapter 17, 1 Kings chapter 17, and we will be focusing our attention for the last time, at least in this series of studies, on the paragraph beginning with verse 17 and continuing down to the end of the chapter. And it came to pass, after these things, that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell sick, and his sickness was so sore that there was no breath left in him. And she said unto Elijah, What have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou come unto me to bring my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? And he said unto her, Give me thy son.

1:09 And he took him out of her bosom, and carried him up into the chamber where he abode, and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord, and said, O Jehovah my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow, with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? And he stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, O Jehovah my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again.

1:47 And the Lord said unto him, O Jehovah my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into And the Lord hearkened unto the voice of Elijah. And the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child, and brought him down out of the chamber into the house, and delivered him unto his mother. And Elijah said, See, thy son liveth.

2:08 And the woman said to Elijah, Now I know that thou art a man of God, and that the word of the Lord in thy mouth. And the word of the Lord in thy mouth is truth.

2:22 Let us look to God in a moment of prayer to ask his blessing upon our study of this portion of his word tonight.

2:32 Our Father, just as surely as the Holy Spirit penned these words, may he by his present and powerful operation open unto us that aspect of doctrine, correction, instruction in righteousness, which we this night should learn from this portion of your word. Speak to us, O Lord, by way of instruction, comfort, exhortation. But speak, we pray, and help us as we would intently focus our minds upon thy truth, that we may chase away every foreign thought that would come, that we will gird up the loins of our minds when they would grow weary, and help us as we give ourselves to hearing to be the recipients of the work of the Lord. Lord, the Holy Spirit, in illumination, hear us in this our prayer. We ask it through Christ our Lord. Amen.

3:39 As we continue our studies in the life and ministry of the prophet Elijah, I would remind you that the great issue before the people of God at this time, in this particular point in Israel's history, is the conflict between Baal and Jehovah, who is God. Israel as a nation has, as it were, divorced herself from Jehovah, and joined herself in a spiritually adulterous relationship with Baal and Baal worship. But because God has purposes of grace to accomplish through the nation, he's not going to accept that suing for divorce. And through the prophet he lets Ahab know that Israel is still his people, as the Lord God of Israel liveth. This was the initial pronouncement. And so all of the details of the life of the prophet, the life of the prophet, the life of the prophet, are but in one sense, either little previews of that greater vindication that will come to the name and purpose of Jehovah upon Mount Carmel, or are in some measure preparation of the prophet of God for that particular conflict upon Mount Carmel. And yet as we study them, we have been seeing that there is much that fits in perfectly with what we read in 2 Timothy 3.16, that all scripture is profitable for doctrine,

5:00 for doctrine. For correction, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness. And as we have studied for several weeks this particular paragraph, we have taken note of the domestic piety of Elijah, some of the lessons it contains concerning the dark, dark providences of life, what to do in the midst of them, what is the purpose of God in bringing them upon us. And then last week we saw in the narrative how God brings dead sinners to life.

5:29 And we saw in studying. In the course of the experience of this widow, the principles by which God brings any sinner to himself as God brought his servant Elijah into the life of this woman and through his life and ministry brought her to faith in Jehovah, the God of Israel. Now tonight, the last main lesson that we want to consider from this particular paragraph is the lesson it holds concerning the subject of prevailing prayer. That is prayer.

6:01 Prayer that attains its object. It doesn't tell us much about saying prayers or about mouthing prayers, but this paragraph has some tremendous instruction as to that kind of praying that prevails with God. It says of Elijah that he prayed in his praying in the New Testament. And here we find him praying in his praying.

The Pastor's Humility and Commitment to Preach the Word

6:26 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.

6:48 Come and join me. There are other truths when the servant of God deals with him, he's got to stand at the bottom of the mountain with the people of God and point and say, that looks like wonderful land. Let's seek to attain it together. Well.

7:01 I'm going to go to my class tonight, for I feel that experimentally I know so little of the kind of praying that is set before us here, but since I would be unfaithful to the balance of truth in the passage, if I passed over it, I must preach upon it, though I do so with a conscience that smites me that I know precious little of that which I'm about to speak tonight. 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 attainments in the area of prevailing prayer. For in one sense, to consider the domestic piety of Elijah in this paragraph and to consider how he was an instrument of God to bring this widow woman into saving faith would be to consider it all out of proportion if we severed it from the man and his prayer life, for in reality. That which made him the man of piety that he was, and that which made him the instrument of bringing life to this dead sinner, as well as life to this dead son, was his prayer life. And so we're tracing his piety and his usefulness as a witness back to its source in his life of prayer. Will you consider with me the fact that when the New Testament focuses upon the life of

The Pathway to Prevailing Prayer: Familiarity, Purity, and Selfless Love

8:26 Elijah as an example for the saints of God. Of all his virtues, the one that it focuses upon is this particular one, namely his ministry of prevailing prayer. For in James 5, James has been encouraging Christians to confess their sins one to another and pray one for another. And then he makes this statement at the end of verse 15.

8:47 He says, for the fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And then he takes as an example Elijah, unless we say, oh, but man, that guy Elijah, he was way beyond me. He starts by saying, Elias was a man of like passions. He was made of the same stuff, yet he prayed that it might not rain, and it rained not.

9:09 And he prayed again, and it rained. It's his life of prevailing prayer that is focused above all the other virtues in this mighty prophet. So in order to be true to the very drift of the scriptural emphasis, we must consider what this paragraph teaches on the subject of prevailing prayer. In the first place, consider what it teaches regarding the pathway to prevailing prayer.

9:38 If we read verses 17 to 24, and in particular, Elijah's prayer in this paragraph, beginning with verse 20 and ending with verse 21 and the results of it in verse 22 and following, if we read that paragraph in isolation, we won't understand it. I've been emphasizing it in our entire lecture. I've been emphasizing it in our entire study. We must put the life of the whole prophet together as a composite picture.

10:06 Don't come to Mount Carmel without the brook Cherith, or the brook Kirith. I'm sorry, I forgot. It's Kirith. It's the brook Kirith.

10:15 For God was doing something to prepare the prophet at Kirith that he might use him there upon Carmel. In the same way, if you try to understand the lessons of prevailing prayer by bringing your Zoom camera right in on Elijah. On Elijah walking up the stairs and put your tape recorder on and record his prayer and try to learn the lesson simply from what your camera tells you as he walked up and stretched upon the child and what your tape recorder tells you, you won't make it. There was a pathway of life and practice and experience that preceded that trip up the stairs into his bedroom.

10:54 And unless we have walked as Elijah walked, we'll never climb to the prayer closet as he climbed. And so, God gives us some very strong hints, at least, and some explicit statements concerning the pathway to prevailing prayer in the life of the prophet. And will you consider with me two things under this heading? Number one, his previous familiarity with the throne of grace.

11:21 Secondly, his purity of heart and light. And then a third thing that I'll just mention. And I can't enlarge upon it. Because it only applies in certain areas of prevailing prayer.

11:33 The presence of a principle of selfless love. His familiarity with the throne of grace. How could Elijah, in the midst of this dark providence, with this terrible accusation thrown into his teeth by this woman, so calmly say, give me thy son, walk up the stairs, stretch him upon the bed, stretch himself upon the child, and prevail with God? Well, the simple reason, this wasn't the first time he prayed.

12:07 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.

12:33 To our knowledge, namely, that a dead person is brought to life again in answer to prayer, we're looking at graduate school studies. And we've got to look at where he enrolled in kindergarten and how he came along through high school. He had a previous familiarity with the throne of grace. For from the very start of the narrative of this man, we face him as a man who lives in the presence of God.

12:59 The first thing we hear from his mouth is this, as the Lord God liveth before whom I stand. That was the posture of his life, lived before the eye of God. And then God hides him by a brook for at least a period of, or about a period of a year, secludes him from all human contact. And as we considered in our study, if he had not known vital communion with God, he would have gone crazy.

13:24 He would have come out of that experience a stark, raving man. But there he learned a familiarity with the throne of grace. That prepared him so that in the crisis it wasn't unnatural for him to pray boldly and fervently and take hold of God for blessing. For prayer, like all the other graces of the Christian life is cultivated through use.

13:51 The art of prayer is learned and developed as it is used and, conversely, it shrivels and decays when it is neglected. God doesn't drop the gift of prayer. God is not unbounded by the grace of God. God is strong in His hands.

14:05 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 cultivated very little acquaintance with the throne of grace. Very little. For where this woman goes all to pieces, Elijah just says, give me my son. I know a place I've gone there many times where Almighty God hears my cry. I know a

15:06 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 prayer, even if it's just five minutes a day, I wouldn't embarrass you if I asked you to pray. Well, how are you going to ever get to graduate school if you don't learn your ABCs? How are you going to do calculus if you don't learn simple addition? Two plus

16:03 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 because he wanted to teach us something of how to pray. Then I also see that part of that pathway that leads to prevailing prayer is not only previous acquaintance with the throne of grace, but purity of heart and of life. Well, that comment in James 5 says that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. And though Elijah was a man of like passions, he was a man who had advanced in personal sanctification, as we

17:18 saw him here in this paragraph, in the blamelessness of his domestic piety.

17:27 It's the righteous man's prayer that is powerful in its working, and Elijah is an example of that. You cannot separate a blameless domestic life and personal piety from fervent prevailing prayer. You just can't separate the two. The man who lives well prays well, and the man who prays well lives well. The two feed each other. And I don't know which one is cause and effect and effect and cause. You just can't separate them. You just can't separate the two. John brings that principle into focus when he says in 1 John 3, 20 and 21, Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask we receive of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight. It's losing business trying to prevail in prayer with a smiting

18:20 conscience. You can say prayers and mouth prayers, but you can't have this kind of boldness.

18:27 That boldness can only grow in the mind of a righteous man. It can only grow in the soil of a blameless conscience, a conscience that is bathed continually in the blood of the Lamb, that knows no conscious controversy with God, a conscience that knows what it is to be void of offense Godward and manward. Have you thought of that passage in Psalm 24, who shall ascend into the hill of God and who shall stand in his holy place? When Elijah walked up those stairs, he wasn't just going up into an upper room. He was going to the hill of God. And who shall ascend to the hill of God? He that hath, when he comes, clean hands and a pure heart, who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. You can't separate going up to the hill of God from how you've walked down there in the valley of everyday life. And really, that's the biggest catch, probably, in why we don't learn to

19:23 pray better, is we're not willing to pay the price to live better. Isn't that it? You think so? I think so.

19:32 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 that have spoken lies and deceit and bitterness? Then don't bring those lips to me. No, no. Have them, first of all, purged from a cold from off the altar of sacrifice. Then you may prevail. And I said I would mention just the third thing. There was the presence of a principle of selfless love. Elijah didn't

20:25 have to say, give me thy son. Why was it his reflex action to say, give me thy son? It wasn't his son. He could have said, now, look, lady, I'm the prophet of God. Don't you know how to treat me that way and start falsely accusing me? I'm God's servant. God's representative. What are you casting accusations at me for? He could have gone out in the back to dig around his flower garden. But his reflex action was, give me thy son. You see, the man who prevails in prayer, now I said this is limited only to intercessory prayer, is the man who by the grace of God has some measure of the infusion of a principle of selfless affection that gladly takes place in the presence of God. That's the man who prevails in prayer.

21:12 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 heart the admonition of this morning to abound and overflow in love one to another so that the needs of my brother become as much a concern to me as though they were my own needs. Let me ask you something. Would Elijah have prayed any more boldly or fervently if this was his own son? How could you make a prayer more

22:07 bold than this? What more can God do than raise him from the dead? Except maybe raise him from the dead and make him an adult at the same time, but that would be kind of a foolish prayer. I mean, how much more bold can you get than to pray that God will raise a fellow from the dead? How much more intense can you get than to stretch yourself upon that little life as though somehow you are trying to convey the idea that my very life is poured into the life of this little fellow? You see, Elijah was just as concerned as though that were his own son. Well, that's the fruit of love. How long has it been since you've taken somebody else's need to heart?

22:47 Just as deeply as though it were your own. Some of you wives with saved husbands? How long has it been since you've stretched yourself out upon the form of the unsaved husband of one of the wives in our satellite and prayed as fervently for the salvation of that husband as you would pray if your own husband were unsaved? How long has it been since some of you men, some of us men who have the joy of having Christian wives, how long has it been since in prayer we have, as it were, stretched ourselves?

23:22 How long has it been since we've stretched ourselves upon the form in our mind and concern we have become identified with that unsaved wife of some of the men in our assembly? It's disturbing to the conscience to ask questions like that, isn't it? Do you know why? Because it exposes our selfishness. We can pray up the storm for me and mine, but let somebody else bear his own burden. By God's grace, we've got to enter into more fully to what we heard this morning if we're going to prevail in prayer. Well, I see, then, that this is the pathway that leads to prevailing prayer, and we see it in the life of the prophet. Three very simple and yet profound principles. Previous

The Basis of Prevailing Prayer: Covenant Relationship with God

24:13 familiarity with the throne of grace, purity of heart and life, the presence of a principle of selfless love. Now, in the second place, consider what the passage teaches about the basis of prevailing prayer. That's the pathway. That's the man who stands at the bottom of the stairs, walks up the stairs, walks up the stairs, walks up the stairs, walks up the stairs, walks up the stairs, walks up the stairs, walks up the stairs, walks up the stairs, lays the child upon his bed, stretches himself upon him, and begins to plead with God. Now, what is the basis of his prayer? Where does he find a foundation for faith? Where does he find some stable rock upon which to stand to plead with God? I would suggest to you that in these words we are given an indication of the basis of Elijah's faith as he begins to pray. Notice verse 20,

25:01 And he cried unto Jehovah, and said, O Jehovah, my God. O Jehovah, my God. He repeats that in verse 21. And he cried unto Jehovah, and said, O Jehovah, my God. Now, is this vain repetition? Is he just, as it were, padding up his petition so that it looks like it's got an introduction, and then he'll have a body, and then a salutation? So that it has nice form? No, the Word of God is recording this, that we might, as it were, enter into the mind and spirit of the prophet and know the basis of his prevailing prayer. And this is what it was. A present awareness of God as a covenant-keeping God

25:53 and his own relationship to him within the framework of that covenant. Jehovah is the peculiar title for God. As the covenant God of his people. There are many names that he could have used for God. If you looked into the face of death, maybe you'd like the name that speaks of God as the Almighty, the All-Powerful One, or some other of the many names of God. But here he comes and makes his approach. O Jehovah, the covenant-keeping God. Not only a covenant-keeping God to your people in general, but my God.

26:35 I am in covenant with you. You're my God. I'm yours and you're mine. And he spreads, as it were, this tremendous foundation of a covenant relationship with God as the basis for his prayer. And this is precisely what our Lord said we must do when we approach our Father in prayer. When ye pray, say, Our Father relationship, who art in heaven. That's the God. To whom we come, the great, exalted, majestic, all-powerful, all-mighty God of heaven and of earth. Now, this was apparently in the mind of the prophet a conscious thing. He

27:21 just didn't come up and start praying up a storm. He first of all brought into focus who God was and his relationship to him. May I suggest that again, one of the great weaknesses of our praying is that we too often don't take time to get our minds and our spirits in such a frame that we are conscious of who God is and what our distinct relationship to him is. And we ask so meagerly and so weakly because we don't really believe God is what he says he is or that we have the relationship to him that we do. You remember when the Lord was encouraging his disciples in the whole subject of prayer? He said, I'm going to pray in prayer. He kept encouraging them to remember that they were children of a heavenly Father. Remember he said, if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him? The Lord knew

28:25 that it was our tendency to forget either the greatness of our God or our distinct and peculiar relationship to him as his blood-bought children. If you're a child of God and you have entered into a covenant relationship with God through his dear Son, then you may come and have as the basis of your prayer, the same relationship that Elijah did. Oh Jehovah, my God! And if we are to prevail in prayer, we must not only bring that thought before us as we begin to pray, but keep it before us in our praying, where we see Elijah repeated it as he repeated his petition. nononononononononononono onononononono ahhh nonononononononononononononononononononon for diving in in tears, a sighing- Video 1, Movie 1, M unboxing the New Testament, and where he isE.1". Some believe God is the God who never Jehovah, my God, you are my God. Then is it where he feeds his own faith by reminding himself, you are my God, you're Jehovah, you are Jehovah.

The Spirit of Prevailing Prayer: Intense and Intelligent

29:23 This was the basis upon which he made his approach unto his God. Well, having considered the pathway then that leads to prevailing prayer, briefly the basis of prevailing prayer, let us consider the spirit of prevailing prayer as it is set before us in this passage. In the first place, the spirit of Elijah's prayer was intense.

29:52 Listen as I emphasize certain words in reading his prayer, or even what precedes it. And he carried him up into the chamber where he abode and laid him upon his own bed. And he cried unto the Lord and said, O Lord, my God, hast thou also brought evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by sinning? Slaying her son.

30:18 And he stretched himself upon the child three times and cried unto the Lord. O Lord, my God, let this child's soul come into him again. As you read the narrative and you try to think of the thing in your mind's eye, you get the picture of a man that was engaged with every cell of his being in what he was doing.

30:46 He wasn't, as it were, saying, a few lines of prayer and looking out the window to see the bird and say, Oh yeah, I've got a dead child here. Now, Lord, please undertake for him. And then they're counting daisies. Here's a man, every cell of his being was engaged.

31:00 This is the height of intensity.

31:04 And I suggest, what little bit I know of this kind of praying, that there is nothing more demanding upon the entirety of your being, mind, spirit, and body, than prevailing prayer. Granted, we are not. We are not. We are not.

31:19 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.

31:36 Like a stretched rubber band between heaven and here. And the moment you're not legitimately occupied, your thoughts ought to be shooting back to heaven and to God. Pray without ceasing. That's right.

31:47 That's the attitude and disposition. But we're talking now about that specific engagement in prayer for specific needs in which we have specific goals before us that we want to gain in our praying. And that kind of prayer is not conducted driving down Bloomfield Avenue or in the shop or with your hands in the dishpan at home. Elijah climbed the stairs, shut the door, and was alone.

32:15 Why? Not that he was embarrassed that anyone should hear what he's going to say, but this kind of prayer is so absolutely all-absorbing that there must be no distraction to it. There is the giving of the entire being to the exercise of prayer.

32:35 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.

32:57 But when you begin this kind of praying, you're coming, as it were, into hand-to-hand combat with the powers of hell and the darkness. And I've never believed more in the devil than the few times I feel maybe I've experienced a little bit of this. And I've just opened my eyes to look around the room to see if he were there.

33:19 Prevailing prayer is intense. It demands the entire employment of our entire being. But it's not only intense, it's intelligent. And what do I mean by that?

33:30 Well, look, he doesn't just, as it were, go up into the room and open up this mouth and let this big gush of emotion come out. He wasn't just bellowing out a heated complaint to the Lord. He's reasoning with God. He's arguing with God.

33:47 He's bringing principles before God. Notice what he says. And he cried unto the Lord, verse 20, And said, O Lord my God, Hast thou also brought, Hath thou brought evil upon this widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son? What's he saying?

34:08 Well, I think this is what he's saying. I wouldn't be dogmatic, but I think this is what he's saying.

34:16 He's saying, Lord, this is a widow. And you've revealed in your word that you have special concern for widows. Lord, this doesn't seem consistent with what you revealed about yourself. Hast thou brought evil upon the widow?

34:37 Lord, I remind you of what you've revealed about yourself and your tender concern for widows. But Lord, not only that. This is the widow with whom I sojourned. She has shown kindness to me.

34:51 Lord, this doesn't seem consistent with the dispositions of your general providence. For you're the God who gives to those who give a cup of cold water to prophets. You give to such people a prophet's reward. Is this the reward of a prophet?

35:06 To slay the only son that she has?

35:11 And not only that, Lord,

35:17 what about your name and your character?

35:21 This poor widow, who's just begun to understand something of your ways, and whose words still ring in my ears as I come up the stairs, that her conscience is troubling her about sin.

35:36 What will this look like in her eyes? Hast thou, the God who revealed yourself as a God of grace and concern, in bringing, in bringing, in bringing me into her home just at the time when she was about to starve, this widow who is now providing for me and caring for me? If that's not the precise meaning of his words, at least you get the drift of it, that Elijah is intelligently bringing before God what the old writers called divine argument in prayer. He's not just opening up his mouth and letting his emotions bellow forth, Oh God, help! Oh God, help! Oh God, do something somehow!

36:15 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,

36:37 and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. Lord, if there are fifty, will you spare? All right, Abraham. Lord, how about forty?

36:43 My God got God to come to terms with me at fifty. Maybe I'm getting to come, to terms at forty. Lord, how about thirty?

36:51 And you know, God was frankly pleased with all that.

36:55 See, he wasn't asking God to get out of forging the Cadillacs.

37:00 He was asking God for living souls that they might be spared divine judgment. He wasn't praying for a raise so he could have a little more money in the bank.

37:11 You know, you see, the prayer of Elijah here, and the prayer of Abraham, and the prayer recorded of Daniel, and of Ezra, and of Nehemiah, and these great prevailing prayers, of the Bible, these people are not praying as it were to save their own hide. They're involved with the great issues of the kingdom of God, and the glory of God, and the souls of men, and judgment, and grace, and these great issues. There's nothing more abominable, I'm sure, in the nostrils of God, a stench in his nostrils, in this philosophy that if God's your God, he's a good God, then you can ask him for anything you want, no matter how selfish it is, and God will give it to you. You ought to tithe, because if you do, God will bless you.

37:54 That kind of philosophy, that's abominable.

37:58 It's as far removed from Christianity as downright paganism. No, the center of the concern here is the glory of God. And here's a man standing in the middle of the mainstream of the purpose and plan of God, pleading for the vindication of the character of God. Paul says, I will pray with the spirit, but I will pray with the understanding.

38:20 I really got a sneaking suspicion, some of us think it's unspiritual, to think when we pray.

38:30 Really, if we open up our mouths to pray and the words just don't flow out, if we have to stop and think, we think, well, that's unspiritual.

38:37 No, it isn't. You've got good company. Here's a man who's thinking while he's praying.

38:44 He's thinking while he's praying.

38:50 And prevailing prayer is not only intense, but it is intelligent. We bring before God reasons why we believe he ought to do such and such a thing, always with the recognition that we may not view the reasons rightly, always with, with the substructure of the attitude, nevertheless not my will but thine be done. But we bring reasons before God nonetheless.

39:13 This is why the apparent provision of the Lord of this building has been to many of us an encouragement because even though we seem frustrated in finding an existing building and look like we're going to have to look for land, my prayer right along has been, Lord, you've called me to preach. Not to be tracking down subcontractors and building permits and all the rest. And much of this I'd have to do. It'd have to be done during the day.

39:37 And with our men working in their own secular employment, their own places of business during the day, it would fall upon me. And I said, Lord, I'm not beyond that. In fact, my flesh loves running around, doing nothing. I mean, doing that kind of thing.

39:51 My flesh feeds on physical work. Loves it. And I said, Lord, I fear what it'd do to me spiritually, what it'd do to the congregation. Lord, even at this stage, if it please you, Lord, let us bypass that whole matter of having to buy land and construct a building.

40:07 I don't know where, Lord, but if it please you, if it please you, and intelligently seek to bring before God the reasons. That's why the apparent provision of the Lord here has brought specific rejoicing and peculiar rejoicing to my heart and the hearts of some of us. This is what I'm talking about. Using our minds as we pray and bringing before God the reasons why we are asking Him to do such and such.

The Spirit of Prevailing Prayer: Persistent

40:33 Well, I see another principle here of the spirit of prevailing prayer not only intense and intelligent, but in the third place, persistent.

40:44 He cried unto the Lord. Nothing happens.

40:50 He stretches himself upon the child and cries unto the Lord, Scripture says, three times. Or stretched himself three times in pride, the implication being he stretched himself, prayed, as it were, stood back to see what would happen. Nothing happens. Stretches himself again and prays.

41:07 Nothing happens. About that time, most of us would say, well, it's just not God's will. I'll go down. I'll go and comfort the widow.

41:17 Isn't that what most of us would have done?

41:20 Not Elijah. He stuck with it. And one of the most beautiful statements in all of Scripture, and the Lord hearkened to the voice of Elijah. Isn't that a marvelous statement?

41:31 Jehovah, God of heaven and earth,

41:35 opened up red seas, shook mountains upon Sinai, spoke in thunder.

41:44 He listens to the voice of His servant and does exactly what He asked him to do.

41:51 Now let's speculate a little. What? What would happen if he'd gone down after the second time? See what I'm driving at?

42:02 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.

42:14 You've got no time for people like you. It says he cried the louder, saying, Son of David, have mercy! And it says Jesus stood still. Not at the first cry.

42:26 The Lord went right on his business like he never heard Him. After the first cry. But it was after that second, louder cry, it says the Lord Jesus stood still. And He said, Master calls for you.

42:38 He comes running. What would have happened if he got discouraged after the first time and quit? Well, it's speculation. He didn't, right?

42:45 He didn't. But what would have happened? From the human standpoint, you see, so often we've cried out in the given need, Lord Jesus, help! And there's been a thousand voices within and without to say, Oh, be quiet!

42:59 The Lord's not concerned! He's not going to hear you! And we said, Okay, I'll be quiet. Instead of taking those discouragements and, as it were, battling over them, Son of David, have mercy!

43:12 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.

43:22 I didn't come to you Gentiles. She didn't quit. She just kept right on going. Kept right on persisting.

43:31 Even argued with the Lord. She says, Yeah, Lord. Dogs don't eat from the top of the table, but there's lots of crumbs they can eat from underneath. Oh, woman, great is thy faith.

43:41 I'll give you what you want. Faith that persisted. When Jesus gave lessons on prayer, what aspect of prevailing prayer did the Lord focus upon more than any other? Is it not this aspect of persistence?

43:54 In Luke 11, He gives the parable of the man who goes to his friend at midnight. He knocks on his door. He says, Henry, I've got people coming here. They're coming from Chicago.

44:03 And they dropped in. They came in unexpectedly. They spoke to me every year at 6 o'clock. And we didn't think they were coming.

44:08 They showed up. It's 1 o'clock in the morning. Got some bread for me? Oh, go on home.

44:16 I'm in bed. My kids are with me. I don't want to wake them all up. The wife will be on my neck tomorrow.

44:20 The kids will be crabby. Oh, my God. Kept right on banging. And it says, Though he won't rise because he's his friend.

44:32 At that hour of the night, he forgets he's his friend. He'd like to, boom, right in the snoot. It says, Though he will not rise because he is his friend. In other words, the thing that finally gets him out of bed is not his affection for his friend.

44:43 He's lost that for a few minutes. If you don't believe it, you go banging on somebody's door at 1 o'clock in the morning and not have sense enough to go home when they tell you to go home, and your friendship will be ruptured for a time. But it says, Because of his importunity, literally his shameless insistence, he will arise and give him as much as he needed. And then Jesus said, And I ask in that way, and it should be given you.

45:10 And I ask in that way, seek, knock, and it shall be opened, and you shall find. Then in Luke 18, he talks about that widow. Oh, I love to read that story of that widow. That judge comes out of his big castle in the morning.

45:25 She's waiting right around the corner. She says, Ah, here he comes. She goes over, says, Good morning, sir. Good morning.

45:33 Starts off to catch the 829, and she grabs him by the coattail. She says, Look, some guy's done me wrong. Avenge me of mine adversary. Look, lady, I gotta catch the 821.

45:41 Leave me alone. I'll see you the next morning. Sure enough, he comes out the gate, and the next morning there she is, grabs him by the coattails again, day after day, until finally he says, I gotta get this woman off my back, lest she wear me out by her continual coming. The Greek word literally means, lest she bruise me till black and blue.

45:57 Maybe she really began to get excited. I don't know. Maybe she began to pound on his back. I don't know.

46:05 But the Greek word is strong there. Lest she bruise me by her continual coming. The Lord says, Now listen to what that unjust just said. He has no fear of God, no regard for men, yet because of her insistence.

46:17 And then he says, Shall not God, infinite justice, infinite purity, shall not God avenge his own elect, the people whom he loved from eternity, whom he saved in time? Shall not this God, who's entered into that relationship, hear the cry of his people that cry unto him day and night? And the answer's obvious. The next question is sad.

46:47 Nevertheless, when the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith in the earth? In other words, the number that will prevail with God with that kind of holy persistence, apparently, will always be relatively few. Those who will venture out to believe God and to prevail with him with holy persistence. So often we quit before the desired blessing comes.

47:11 And I think some of us, the reason we do, is we fear that we'll somehow impugn the sovereignty of God and penetrate into his decrees and upset things. Oh, never worry that you're going to penetrate into the realm of God's decrees and upset his purposes. You just plant your feet on his promises and you bring your arguments with God and you persist until the Lord brings new light on the situation that changes the way you're praying, until God, as it were, lifts any spirit of prayer so that you're unable to pray, or until you get the blessing. But don't just quit because it's been the first or second or third or fourth or fiftieth or a hundredth time.

The Sequel to Prevailing Prayer: Answered Prayer and God's Vindication

47:52 As long as the reasons are still there why you believe God ought to work in the light of his word, as long as the promises are there, as long as you can come in the freeness of that covenant relationship, we are to plead with him and to persist with a holy persistence. Well, the fourth thing, and this is the beautiful thing, and all of us would love to jump right here and bypass the first three. It's what I'm calling the sequel to prevailing prayer. What happens?

48:26 Verse 22, And Jehovah hearkened to the voice of Elijah, and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived. And Elijah took the child and brought him down out of the chamber and delivered him unto his mother. It's a beautiful parallel. That woman experienced birth pangs to deliver that child and brought into the world a child with physical life.

48:59 And if her husband had not died before this happened, she had the joy of presenting a man-child to her husband. Now Elijah, though a man, has the joy of presenting a man-child to his very mother, having brought it back to life again as the fruit of his own intercession. And he brings her down brings him down, gives her to the woman, and says, See, thy son liveth. It's the same boy that I took up those stairs, his lifeless form, blue death upon his cheek, now the flush of life and warmth. And the woman's response, as we saw last week, is a clear indication that she came to personal faith in the covenant God of Israel. The secret to prevailing prayer is God answering, working that which only He can work, and thus vindicating His character, demonstrating His power, and bringing a pagan heathen woman to faith in Himself. And so you see this day that we've looked at that began with brightness, the mother looking down upon her little son eating pancakes made from that barrel of meal,

50:26 that went into terrible, terrible darkness ends with a brightness brighter than that with which it began, for she at night, when she tucks that little boy in, she doesn't just tuck in her little boy as she would have tucked him in at the end of a busy day, but she tucks in a resurrected boy. And she can no longer look upon that boy without thinking, he's the same boy that I bore, but he's not the same boy. He's been through death and come back again. And she has before her, a constant reminder, long after the prophet goes, that God is the God who imparts light, the God of the living.

51:09 And so the sequel is the brightness that comes with answered prayer, the demonstration of the power and grace of God. Wouldn't you like that sequel to be repeated many times in your own life? Well, if so, you've got to prevail in prayer. And if you're going to prevail, then you've got to start like where we started tonight.

Conclusion: Call to Prevail in Prayer

51:33 You've got to begin by the grace of God to walk that pathway that enables you to ascend the hill of God, ascend those stairs to the closet of pervasion. There must be some previous acquaintance with the throne of grace. Don't go out and try to begin by raising little dead boys. Maybe you ought to start prevailing with God for some little inconsequential area of your own life that stands as a monument of the work of death and sin.

52:06 And you need to pray intensely, intelligently, persistently until you see God bring the touch of resurrection life and power for loved ones, for needs that you have personally that relate to your walk as a child of God. The ramifications of these principles are manifold and I don't want to extend my application, but let me encourage you to remember that Elijah was not half angel. When God uses his prayer language to pray, he was not half angel. When God uses his prayer language as an example, it says he's a man of like passions, made of the same stuff of which you and I are made.

52:43 But by the grace of God, he was brought into covenant relationship with God and he could then on that basis plead with God and you and I by the grace of God can do the same. Let me encourage you to be one in whose life God writes a chapter like this where the beautiful sequel to Prevailing Death will be written and rewritten in your life and my life again and again. Elias was a man of like passions. He prayed.

53:17 May God grant that we should pray and prevail in our prayer. Let us look to God and send prayer.