Pastoral Intercessory Prayer, Part 2

Introduction to Pastoral Intercessory Prayer and Hindrances

0:03 Now we come today, brethren, to our final lecture in this sixth unit of our pastoral theology course. As most of you know, God willing, next year, Units 7 and 8 will be added to the course, and the precise content of those two units is not fully established. But over the past years, this lecture has comprised the final in the six units that, up until now, have comprised the entirety of the course. And having considered the responsibility of the pastor as a public teacher of the people of God, as a leader and overseer of the people of God, we began in our last lecture to address this third major category of ministerial responsibility, namely, the pastor as an intercessor for the people of God. And in the initial study, last week, you were directed to consider, first of all, the duty of ministerial intercessory prayer, and then, relatively briefly, the dominant concerns of ministerial intercessory prayer. And I leaned heavily, as you know, upon the outline from John Owen, volume 16, and page 78. It is the most comprehensive and balanced statement.

1:29 I have ever found on the major concerns that ought to occupy us as we engage in this matter of ministerial intercession. Now, if the duty is so clearly established from the precepts and precedents of Scripture, and I trust last week's lecture convinced you of that, and if the concerns are so central to the success of the ministry, why is it so difficult to maintain, to maintain efficiency and consistency in this duty? Well, it is my concern in today's lecture, first of all, to answer that very pressing question. And so we begin, page 629, in your notes on the major hindrances to ministerial intercessory prayer. And in handling this material, we'll take up three major categories, of the hindrances, and then address several other crucial concerns under headings Roman numeral 4 and 5. And that will become very clear as you follow through in your printed notes. Now, my judgment is that the hindrances fall into three broad categories.

2:51 No doubt there is some overlapping and interpenetration between them. However, for the sake of isolating them, and discussing them, let us examine the hindrances to ministerial intercessory prayer under three headings, theological, spiritual, and practical. Now, you see, the divisions are rather artificial, and are not ironclad, because there is nothing theological that in the truest sense is not both spiritual and practical. And everything that is practical, if it is done according to the will of God, will be spiritual and will be theological in the manner in which we perform it.

Theological Hindrance 1: Defective Theology of Prayer and Divine Decree

3:36 But, again, for the sake of isolating in a practical, workable manner, I have chosen these categories. First of all, then, there are the hindrances to ministerial intercessory prayer that are fundamentally theological. And the first of these theological problems is what I have called a defective theology, of prayer in relationship to the divine purpose and will. Almost all of us can remember the time when we first came to grips with the biblical doctrine of the divine decree, or what we might call a comprehensive predestination. When we first encountered biblical determinism, we can remember the tremendous, tremendous trauma of soul focusing on the practical questions concerning why preach. If God has decreed, and will certainly save His elect, why preach? If everything to the falling of a sparrow and to the falling of every hair from our own heads is decreed, then why pray?

4:56 For many of us, our greatest struggles were not were not our greatest struggles, whether or not it was fair that God ruled His world, though we did have some struggles expressed in the language of Romans 9, but rather it was the outworking of what was so clear to us once we began to have eyes to see it in the Word of God. And I suggest that the issue arising from the biblical doctrine of a comprehensive predestination or the doctrine of the divine decree, that when wrestling with that question, its corollary, why preach, is easier to resolve because we can see more readily the relationship between preaching and the calling of God's elect. John 10, 16, Other sheep I have which are not of this fold, them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, there shall be one fold and one shepherd. And here our Lord establishes that the sheep that are His by divine sovereign election that will certainly be brought to Him are brought to Him by means of the agency of hearing His voice. And when we tie that in with Romans 10, 9 and following, we know that the voice of Christ is heard ordinarily through

6:24 the preaching of one sent to proclaim the gospel. Also, the relationship between preaching and the maturation of the saints which God has decreed, the relationship is more obvious. However, because the relationship between prayer and the activity of God is not so visible, and because prayer is the effect of our activity heavenward and not of God, God's word proclaimed manward, the resolution is more difficult. And I'm convinced that at the root of much deficiency in ministerial intercessory prayer lies in a defective theology of prayer in relationship to the divine purpose and will, or if you wish to express it more bluntly, to the divine decree. And when we've sought to think the thing through, when we've read all of the treatises, basically, brethren, it comes down to this. We must come to the place where with the mind of simple children prepared to live with that which we cannot fully comprehend, we are going to believe and act

7:52 upon the plain testimony of the word of God respecting the connection between intercessory prayer and the blessing of God upon our gospel labors. James 4.2 states it in a most crass way. You have not because you ask not, period.

8:16 And nothing is said about God's decree being that we should be impoverished, that we should be empty-handed, that we should be unblessed. There is a simple forthright statement. You have not because you ask not. From the positive side, we have the words of our Lord in Matthew 7.7.

8:38 Ask, and it shall be given you. Seek, and ye shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. We have the word of our Lord in Matthew 18.19.

8:53 If two of you shall agree on earth is touching what they ask, it shall be done of my Father who is in heaven. And in the two clearest parables of our Lord and the subject of prayer, in both of them our Lord indicates that God delights to be overcome by the importunity of the prayers of his people. Luke 11 and the parable of the friend who comes to his friend at midnight, and he gets no response at the first knocking nor the second, but our Lord says, because of his shameless insistence, he arises and gives him as much as he needs. And in that context he has been speaking of the Father's willingness to give good gifts, even the gift of the Spirit, to those who ask him. And the second parable, of course, is found in Luke 18, the parable of the importunate widow. Here's the judge who has no regard to men nor fear of God, and yet he says, I'm going to get this woman off my back, lest by her perpetual coming literally she bruise me.

10:10 And our Lord says, I say unto you, shall not God avenge his own? And then the doctrine of the divine decree is stuck in right there. His elect which cry unto him day and night, though he bear long with them. And then he asks that no searching question.

10:28 Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, shall he find faith on the earth? And so any view of prayer that is biblical is one in which our dealings with God will of necessity be intensely personal, honest, earnest, and bold. Our Lord will be our pattern in our prayers. O my Father, if it be possible, nevertheless not my will but thine be done.

11:05 And one of the most helpful things to me has been to remember that in the light of Psalm 2 there is an axiom, a rule that applies in the administration of the messianic kingdom to which the king himself is subject. And everyone involved in the work of that kingdom is subject to it as well. Verse 7 of Psalm 2, I will tell of the decree, The Lord said unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. And you know from the usage of this passage in the New Testament, its primary reference is to the resurrection and to the heavenly session of our Lord when he was begotten to messianic sonship.

11:50 Once he is in that posture, what is it that is decreed? Ask of me, and I will give thee the nations for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. If the messianic king, to whom is the kingdom by right, if he does not come into possession of it apart from asking, though it is decreed as the reward of his suffering, then none of his servants in any part of the work of that kingdom can expect to be exempt from this law of the messianic kingdom in its establishment. Ask, and I will give. And if we do not have, we must not look for the reasons in divine decree, but in the fact that we have not asked. And so I trust if any of you men have any defective views of the relationship between prayer and the decree of God and are somehow fearful, what if I ask something that God has not decreed? May I say, God will never slap your hand reaching out for something He has not decreed if you are reaching out for it under the light of your present understanding of the will of God and the ways of God and the promises of God.

Theological Hindrance 2: Defective Theology of Prayer and Other Ministerial Duties

13:18 But God will have a controversy with you if you are so paralyzed that you may ask contrary to His secret will that you do not ask at all. God will have a controversy with you at that point. But then secondly, under the theological hindrances, there is a defective theology of prayer in relationship to the other revealed duties of the ministry. A defective theology of prayer in relationship to the other revealed duties of the ministry.

14:00 I trust that all of us are convinced that the accurate, clear, earnest proclamation of Biblical truth is an indispensable responsibility of the Christian ministry. In other words, that 2 Timothy 2.15 and 4.4 are not optional for you or for me.

14:26 Do thine utmost to show thyself approved unto God, a workman who needs not to be ashamed, handling aright the word of truth. Preach the word. And if you ever come out of the pulpit conscious that you have not cut a straight course in the word of truth, you ought to feel shame. Shame that you have failed in your task if you have not heralded the word, but you have simply dabbled, in your own notions, you ought to feel guilt because you are guilty.

14:58 You have betrayed your ministerial task and responsibility. Furthermore, I trust we are all convinced that to give wise, loving, authoritative, patient, and impartial direction and oversight to the people of God is an indispensable aspect of ministerial duty. We do not regard Acts 20.28 as optional.

15:24 Take heed to yourselves and to all of the flock of God in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of the Lord which he purchased with his own blood. And if there is failure to exercise this wise, loving, authoritative, patient, impartial oversight, we ought to feel guilt because we have incurred guilt. We have betrayed our stewardship. Now, one of the great hindrances to pastoral intercession is that we develop a false theology that has parallels with the carnal Christian teaching.

16:09 In the carnal Christian teaching, it is established that a person cannot be saved who does not believe he is a sinner. A person cannot be saved who does not believe that salvation is to be had in the person and work of the Christ of Scripture alone. However, belief in one's sinfulness and belief in Jesus Christ, according to the carnal Christian teaching, can be consistent with a life in which holiness is desirable, commendable, and a noble ideal, but not absolutely essential. It can be dispensed with, and still one can have heaven as his destiny. Well, I'm convinced, brethren, that we can develop a kind of carnal Christian theology with regard to this aspect of our ministerial duties. Conviction that we must do our utmost to cut a straight course in the word of truth and preach biblically-based, accurate, clear, earnest sermons. If we fail there, our consciences smite us.

17:23 If the Church is in a mess because we have failed to give wise, loving, authoritative, patient, impartial government and direction, we know that that's the fruit of our own shoddiness as overseers. However, we can so easily condition our consciences to find excuses for our failures in the point of intercession and do not feel the same kind of guilt that we ought to feel if we failed at the level of preaching or of oversight. And we must condition our consciences by the word of God so that we will feel deep and valid guilt if we have patterns of failure in ministerial intercession, just as we should feel deep and valid guilt if we did not preach the word or we preached inaccurately or we did not govern or we governed with an unbiblical attitude and disposition. Remember the words of Samuel to Saul, 1 Samuel 12, 23, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord in ceasing to pray for you. And so, brethren, don't develop a defective,

18:50 defective theology of prayer in relationship to the other revealed duties of the ministry. God does not put this in a class of lesser duty. If we take the order of Acts 6, 4, it's put in the primary place. It is not fitting that we should leave the word of God to serve tables.

Spiritual Hindrance 1: Aversion of the Flesh

19:11 We will give ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word. And I trust you will seek under God to condition your conscience so that it is as sensitive to failures in the duty of ministerial intercession as it is in the other two major categories of ministerial responsibility. But then there is a second category of hindrances to ministerial intercession, and that is the category that I have described as spiritual hindrances, and under them I have listed three. First of all, the aversion of the flesh to the intense spirituality of the exercises of pastoral intercession. Galatians 5, 17, a text you hear frequently in this place, and God have mercy on us the day it ceases to be heard frequently. Galatians 5 and verse 17, for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, for these are contrary the one to the other, that you may not do the things that you would.

20:37 Strange statement, but that's how it stands. God has so ordered his salvation in its application that in this present state of that salvation being applied to us, he has decreed that there shall be an irreconcilable warfare, the flesh lusting against the spirit, the spirit lusting against the flesh, the result being that we are conscious of this warfare, particularly our inability to do the things that we would. And then, of course, the more extended commentary upon this, Romans 7, 18 through 23, and here, of course, John Owen has given us such a marvelous legacy in his treatise on indwelling sin, and he makes the point in volume 6, page 159, that the more spiritual any activity is, the more the opposition of remaining sin will be to that activity. So face it, brethren, through all of your days, the flesh will lust against the spirit, and the more spiritual the activity to which you are being prompted by the spirit and the word,

22:06 the more fierce will be the opposition of your flesh. Now, I find it almost unthinkable that we would find language like this coming from someone who in so many other areas were unworthy to unloose the latchet of his shoes. But listen to this language. How do we know whether the spirit is working in us powerfully?

22:30 One test is found in the epistles of the Philippians, wherefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. God works in every Christian by and through the Holy Spirit, the fire, the power. He prompts us, he urges us, he leads us, as Paul expresses it in Romans 8, 14, as many as are led by the spirit of God, they are the sons of God. The spirit produces a kind of disturbance within us, moving, urging, prompting.

23:12 We are aware of a power dealing with us, a power other than ourselves. Another test is that the spirit always leads to life and vigor and liveliness. The truly spiritual man, the Christian filled with the spirit, is never a man who has to drag himself and force himself to do things. There is a power in him, a vigor and a liveliness, because the spirit is a life-giving spirit.

23:40 The contrast drawn in the scripture between the non-Christian and the Christian is that someone who is dead in sins and someone who is alive from the dead, who has been born again, the non-Christian is dead, is lifeless, he knows nothing about God, etc. Everyone who is a Christian, filled with the spirit, knows about this vigor, this liveliness. So he does not have to drive himself or urge himself or drag himself to God's house or to anything that he does as a Christian. The energy of the spirit is moving in him.

24:20 And the Apostle Paul makes this constantly clear. That is Dr. Lloyd-Jones, pages 276 and 277 of the Christian Warfare and Exposition of Ephesians 6-10. If I were to preach that in Trinity Church this Sunday, I would bring nine-tenths of our people into the most miserable false bondage that I know of.

24:42 It simply does not stack up with the testimony of the Apostle. Romans 7 is contrary to the classic, historic, and what I believe only responsible view of that passage. When I would do good, evil is present with me. And Owen makes the point.

Spiritual Hindrance 2: Opposition of Powers of Darkness

25:00 It is at the precise point of seeking to do good that we are most conscious of the stirring up of evil within us. And therefore, one of the fundamental reasons for failure in pastoral, ministerial, intercessory prayer is this aversion of the flesh to the intense spirituality of this exercise of intercessory prayer. But then, under the spiritual, there is also the opposition of the powers of darkness to our gaining efficiency in this exercise. There is the opposition of the powers of darkness. We are told in Ephesians 6, and it is true of all believers, that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places. All of us experiences this wrestling with the powers of darkness. And never are the powers of darkness more active than when we are making

26:29 these concentrated assaults upon the kingdom of darkness in intercessory prayer. And so we read in 2 Corinthians 10, 3 to 5, though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down or casting down of strongholds. Now if one of those great weapons is the weapon of intercessory prayer, then surely the host of darkness, when they see a man determined to go on his knees for his people and there to plead with God about their sins and their weaknesses and their doubts and their problems, from that means which they know spell death to them. And therefore we must constantly reckon upon this opposition that at times there is no explanation for if your whole frame of mind can be relatively spiritual, you can be conscious of holding heart communion with Christ, but when you set yourself to pray for that number of names in the membership list that you are committed to pray for on a given day, there can be a dullness, a distraction, a flooding of the mind with the most vicious,

27:58 wicked, evil thoughts. Your whole past life will flash before you and you'll say, what in the world is going on? Well, I'll tell you what's going on. The powers of darkness know that you're taking your 16-inch guns and you're aiming them at some of their pillboxes.

28:18 You're looking for what it is. And rather than not pray because you feel so filthy and unspiritual, it is precisely at that point that you need to press through and lay hold of God and His grace. Then the third distinctively spiritual hindrance is what I have called and you see listed in your notes as the negative influence of a grieved Holy Spirit. The negative influence of a grieved Holy Spirit.

Spiritual Hindrance 3: Grieved Holy Spirit

28:50 If the Spirit is the Spirit of grace and of supplication, and if we are commanded to pray in the Spirit, if the Spirit helps us in our infirmity of not knowing how to pray, then surely when He is grieved or quenched it will show up very quickly as we endeavor to engage in intercessory prayer. The key text, of course, Ephesians 4.30, grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. Romans 8.26, likewise the Spirit helps us in our infirmity. Ephesians 6.19, praying with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit. I'm sorry, 6.18.

29:41 And then Jude 20, in which we are told that as the people of God in resisting the tendencies that would lead to apostasy, in the Holy Spirit. Now whatever it means to have the Spirit help us in our infirmity, whatever it means to pray in the Spirit, surely it means we must at the point of our praying have an ungrieved Spirit dwelling within us and actively operating upon our human spirit as we attempt to give ourselves to prayer. And so the third fundamental spiritual reason for failure in ministerial intercessory prayer is that we attempt to engage in this sacred activity bringing to our place of prayer the negative influence of a grieved Holy Spirit. And you see brethren, this is why the discipline of commitment to a certain time and to a specific segment of prayer concerns is so vital because it will force you to face whether or not you are engaging in this endeavor with a grieved Holy Spirit. You see the practice of a man saying I'll not let any day pass without looking my wife in the eye

31:09 and telling her I love her. It forces him to keep short accounts with her. Well in the same way the discipline of saying I'm committed to so much intercession for the people of God is so important. And so you are into it and you've cried to God for help and there is no life, there is no unction in your prayers.

31:33 Well one of the questions you must ask is Lord, am I grieving your spirit? Lord search me and try me. Why is there no spirit of prayer upon my spirit this morning? And then it's amazing as David says that in the secret place in the light of his countenance our sins often come to light.

31:55 That sharp word that you spoke to your wife just an hour before before you came into the study. Or you remember that the evening before in one of the dealings with one of your children you manifested a spirit that was as carnal as a goat and in the pressure of getting out for an oversight meeting you forgot about it, you didn't deal with it, you didn't have the spirit and falls off completely from intercessory prayer then it isn't long before he falls off from the semblance of any kind of personal internal spiritual devotional exercises and he's on the high road ultimately to apostasy. But then there's a third category of hindrances to ministerial intercessory prayer and you'll see it's what I've called in your notes practical hindrances and there are three of them listed. The first is apparently conflicting ministerial duties and responsibilities. You notice I said apparently conflicting ministerial duties and responsibilities.

Practical Hindrances: Conflicting Duties, Unrealistic Goals, Failure to Stir Up

33:11 There are no real conflicts in duties and responsibilities laid upon us by God but there are times when there will appear to be these conflicting duties and responsibilities. Pressures will come upon us to crowd out not only personal devotional exercises, family prayer, prayer with our wives but this matter of intercessory prayer. And we must settle in our minds what our God-given priorities are with respect to the full spectrum of our God-given responsibilities and to put this duty of pastoral intercession in a place that is so high upon the list that it is rare that it gets bumped for anything else. Let your correspondence get bumped. Let your general reading get bumped. Let a general friendly social visit get bumped.

34:23 Let a lot of things get bumped. Once it's so easy to bump it a second time. So easy to bump it a third and before long you can bump it perpetually and say how in the world did I get in the situation where weeks passed and I haven't prayed systematically for even a handful of the people of God. And brethren, that's not theoretical.

34:53 That's the voice, the voice of the Lord. I've been sitting around watching TV. I've been sitting around picking my nose. I've been busy.

35:07 But what happened? I allowed other legitimate responsibilities to take a place of priority that God had not assigned to them but which I either assigned to them through the subtle motions of my own remaining sin or through the expectations and control of myself. Remember, the fruit of the Spirit is self-control. And the requirement for an elder, Titus 1.8, is that he is self-controlled. That means, among other things, he is able to keep himself glued to his God-given priorities and not be pushed and bullied by the tyranny of the immediate and of the apparently more desperate ministerial duty. So that's one of the practical problems you'll continually face. A second is what I have called failure to structure realistic goals.

36:06 Failure to structure realistic goals. And I mean goals with regard to ministerial intercession. First of all, with reference to time and secondly, with reference to the scope of the things you will cover in your prayers. Now this is one of the great dangers of reading biographies.

36:30 You're going to read a man of God who gave himself three hours a day to intercessory prayer. And you say, alright, I'm going to be a man of God starting Monday morning three hours. And by Wednesday you've quit. It's like the guy who says, I'm out of shape.

36:47 I've done nothing to keep in shape for years. So he goes down and buys a hundred dollar pair of jogging shoes and he goes out and says, I'm going to start today running three miles. And after a quarter of a mile he's huffing and puffing like a wheezy old horse ready for the glue factory and he says, phooey on it. And he quits.

37:07 Why? He had unrealistic goals. You've got to do like I did at age forty. You laugh at it, but it's true.

37:13 When I got determined that it was time for me to start doing something regular to keep in shape, I could no longer borrow on the capital of sports some years before, I started by jogging around my backyard a half a dozen times for the first week. Then when twenty-five loops around my backyard got ludicrous, then I started in a half a mile three times a week until the thing was built up and became a realistic goal. Alright? So with reference to the amount of time and the scope of concerns covered, I'm convinced the practical failure often comes from not realistically structuring those goals.

37:55 And I would urge you, as with anything else, we must build up spiritual stamina for this exercise. Commit yourself to a fifteen minute period of ministerial intercessory prayer in the beginning of your ministry, and say, that time is going to be marked out in order to give myself to pleading for these things that Owen mentions, Christ being formed in our people, their growing conformity to Christ, the blessing of the word in the public assemblies, etc. And I'm going to mark out that time and jealously guard it, and I'm not going to try to pour into it the full scope of every legitimate strand of ministerial prayer every time I pray. On Monday, I'm going to concentrate on praying for the heads of the households, because many of you will go into smaller works where you'll only have a handful of people. And you're going to pray for the men on Monday, going to pray for their spouses on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday you're going to pray for the conversion of their children. Friday and Saturday, going to pray for the blessing of God upon the ministry of the word. Taking little

39:07 segments that you can realistically handle, and then as God makes you stronger in intercession, you may find that the 15 minutes without you knowing it, imperceptibly grew into 20 minutes, and the 20 minutes into a half an hour. And the concerns then can begin to expand. But I have found so many times, men fail in this area because they do not realistically structure the goals for this exercise. Both with respect to time and with respect to the scope of the things covered.

39:43 Just to encourage you in this area after feeling before God that I had to do something that would get me locked into a pattern that would keep my conscience healthy before God and yet not overly scrupulous I found that the practice of on certain days, Tuesdays and Thursdays, praying for my fellow elders and Wednesdays and Fridays generally for my deacons, for the deacons on Monday to pray for the Trinity pulpit and Trinity book service and the various personnel and then taking just five of these former students and making a tick mark every time I go through those five and put a tick and then the next time a tick all the way through taking these as part of the intercession and then generally with the size of our congregation I found one page or one letter grouping has been a help and so that I wouldn't rationalize begun the fourth time with this particular directory 32289 and every time I've gone through put a tick mark by it to be sure that I'm not fooling myself but I had to establish something that was realistic and after I've prayed for 15 or 20 of the families and the conversion of the children I've about had it anything more than that becomes rosary for me so I have to find what my level is now I'm sure my dear brother over in East London who has an unusual

41:12 spirit of prayer could probably take double that amount and not even get winded but I'm not he and he is not me and each of us must in terms of our own development before God have realistic goals for this exercise and then the third practical failure is what I've listed in your notes as failure to constantly stir yourself up to greater efficiency in this exercise and I've used the term stir yourself up with these two texts in mind Isaiah 64 and verse 7 one of the most searching and humbling indictments against God's people describing the state of the nation there is none that calls upon thy name and why do they not call upon thy name that stirs up himself to take hold of thee now with all due respect if the doctor's position is true you wouldn't have to stir yourself up and the lack of stirring would be God's fault but we are responsible to stir up ourselves notice not just to say prayers I wonder if it isn't an illusion to Jacob to take hold of thee to lay

42:39 hold of God that sense of earnest intense real engagement of God and then of course the concept of stirring up though it is with reference to certain truths is very clearly established by Peter in his second letter he says I'm telling you these things with this end in view or I'm writing these things second Peter chapter one and verse thirteen I think it right as long as I'm in this tabernacle to stir you up by putting you in remembrance and failures in ministerial intercessory prayer are often attributable to this failure to stir ourselves up to greater efficiency in this exercise and some of the ways in which we can do that I will mention under another heading well these brethren are some of the major hindrances that I have found growing primarily out of my own ongoing struggles in this area the theological the spiritual and the practical now heading number four I want to give you some specific suggestions with respect to overcoming these hindrances some specific suggestions with respect to overcoming these hindrances

Suggestions for Overcoming Hindrances

44:08 now much of the concern and even counsel has been implicit in the very treatment of the hindrances if the hindrances are theological then gain a truly biblical theology of prayer read Palmer's work theology of prayer one of the finest things I know that helps us to sort out a truly biblical perspective on prayer written by one who held as a cherished tenet of his faith the biblical doctrine of the divine decree if it's spiritual isolate the issue and go to work on it if it is at the practical level isolate it and make the adjustments but my primary focus is on this area of the practical and I have five words of counsel for you in seeking to have suggestions that are workable in overcoming hindrances in ministerial intercessory prayer number one cry to God to make you mighty in prayer here again you see we set up a false distinction if we long to be men who preach the word with accuracy with power with passion with unction with great usefulness in conversion and edification we know that those things come from God so we cry to God Lord

45:37 make me an effective preacher you know pray Lord make me eloquent make me famous and I hope when you pray make me effective that isn't what you mean in your naughty heart if it is may God curse your prayers but I trust we cry to God Lord make us mighty in the ministry of the word not famous not eloquent but may when we preach men know they hear the voice of God may sinners be converted saints edified and we cry to God knowing that the dynamics of grace must be operative to make us mighty in our pulpits well brethren we need the dynamics of grace may I say it reverently even more to make us mighty in prayer because there aren't the ancillary helps when you're preaching and you're looking into the face of hungry hearted people their very hunger ignites something in your own spirit that becomes the means of you becoming a better preacher and there are so many of those external supports and props but when you're in that lonely place called the closet not only are those props not there the sense of the powers of darkness pressing in upon you is much more intense because you're isolated and alone when you're in the sanctuary of God there's a sense in which with the mystic but real presence of Christ in his gathered people remember what casting out of the church is called

47:05 handing over to Satan it's as though he's out there not that he's not active in a Christian assembly but there's a sense in which within the walls of spiritual Zion there is a peculiar protection well we're more vulnerable in the secret place and so we've got to cry to God brethren recognizing that unless he makes us mighty in prayer we never shall be secondly allocate in your weekly schedule specific time for this exercise allocate in your weekly schedule specific time for this exercise you won't find time for intercessory prayer you're never going to find a block of time floating by your eyeballs saying please use me for intercessory prayer no you allocate a time put it in your schedule and you'll find a thousand messages being sent from without and within to shift that time to cancel that time to postpone that time but allocate it and make conscience of seeking before God just as you do with personal devotional exercises with family prayer so we must allocate specific time for this exercise you remember that those wonderful things happened there in Acts 3 as Peter and John were making their way to the temple at the appointed

48:34 hour of prayer and may God grant that this will be something you will establish early in your ministry people have often asked me with regard to my family if you could go back and do it all over again what things would you do differently then they've asked the same question with regard to my ministry if there are things you would do differently what would you do differently brethren I have to confess this is the one area above all others that I would radically change if I could go back and do it all over again I don't have a sense of what I would call weighty guilt that I preached many sermons that didn't reflect real labor and a deep desire and the price to fulfill that desire to preach accurately passionately to God's people my conscience has no great weight that there were major failures in not being responsive to the needs of the sheep being accessible and vulnerable and willing to be poured out but in this area of specific regular consistent intercessory prayer I see whole blocks of my life over which have written the word failure and I would spare you men having to be at this point in your life and to live with that I know the Lord has forgiven me but when I read a psalm such as I read this morning

50:01 in which the psalmist is crying out remember not the sins of my youth that's one of the sins of my ministerial youth that indeed haunts me though I know God has forgiven and I would spare you that pain brethren allocate time for it and jealously guard it by the grace of God and then thirdly set realistic goals I've already given you some of the suggestions this new prayer guide that will be coming out maybe something that you will want to incorporate in terms of your own ministry and the needs that you with your people can use and where you're encouraging the church families to pray for two or three names from the directory you may want to use that same guide to pray for ten names from the directory certainly your intercession for the flock should be more extensive than theirs since you are going to be set apart to labor in prayer and in the ministry of the word but set realistic goals fourthly meditate on the portions of the word of God calculated to give impetus and direction to this exercise meditate on the portions suitable is the way it is in your notes to give impetus and direction in this exercise for example when I find my prayers for the people becoming a bit rosary like nothing gives them

51:29 freshness than to turn again to some of the apostolic prayers for the believers Ephesians 1 15 and following or 3 14 and following Colossians 1 I think it's 9 no Philippians 1 9 to 11 Colossians 1 Colossians 4 12 Epaphras labors fervently for you that you would stand perfect and complete in all the will of God Colossians 1 where Paul says admonishing every man that I may present every man mature in Christ meditate on those portions suited to give impetus and direction in this exercise if you're praying for the children of your families meditate upon those portions that speak of the benefits of early piety remember thy creator in the days of thy youth before the evil days come think of the faces of those children how quickly they'll become young men and women and if they go out into the world unconverted and eventually into a lost eternity what it will be to think of their little voices as you now hear them joining the voice of that rich man who cried father Abraham have mercy meditate on portions suited to give impetus and direction to your intercessory prayer and then fifthly read books calculated to move you to pray read books calculated to

52:58 move you to pray there are those sections in bridges on the Christian ministry though we would not agree with all of the statements of E.M. Bounds one thing when you read anything of E.M. Bounds is that it moves you to pray you may not embrace all of his theology of prayer but certainly he moves you to pray Palmer's book that I mentioned McIntyre's excellent little book the hidden life of prayer I hope to get that thing back in print Bethany was the last publisher to do a print of it Brooks volume one the privy key to heaven as I've been working my way through the volumes of Brooks I'm in volume five now and having to do it a few pages at a time as devotion or primer but what a blessing that privy key to heaven was and it's on the whole subject of prayer and the great privileges

53:56 that are ours well these are some of the things that I suggest and then those biographies of eminently prayerful men McShane Brainerd Whitfield one of the things reading their biographies periodically will do is to shame your present levels of intercessory prayer and move you to pray well I leave with you then those suggestions brethren that I hope you will go over periodically that there may be continuous progress in this area and then let's see I've gone for about an hour so I think this would be a good time for us to break alright brethren we now come to Roman numeral five miscellaneous concerns relative to the duty of pastoral prayer or technically what we've called ministerial intercessory prayer and I have two areas that I want to address the first of them is prayer in relationship to fasting now it is not my purpose to give a general treatment on the subject of fasting as a religious exercise for excellent material giving a broad biblical overview I commend for your reading the following at the head

Miscellaneous Concern 1: Prayer in Relationship to Fasting

55:23 of the list and thankfully I couldn't recommend this last time around but I can it's back in print Miller's little booklet on fasting by Presbyterian Heritage Publishers we have it in the book room excellent little treatise then there is a good article in the Zondervan Pictorial Bible Dictionary it's weak on the tail end so cut its tail off but the rest is good stuff and then also the article in Baker's Dictionary of Theology very good helpful material on the subject of fasting and then in Pink's exposition in the Sermon on the Mount his section on Matthew 6 16 to 18 when ye fast be not as the Pharisees very good section on fasting I've given you no page numbers because the addition you have it may differ but it's the exposition of Matthew 6 16 to 18 and then likewise in Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones exposition of that same passage in his two volumes on the Sermon on the Mount which I personally regard as the finest expression of the doctor's expository ministry in print

56:49 two volumes on the Sermon on the Mount well that material should be helpful for you if you have some interest to pursue this further or if you are concerned to preach on the subject this should give you helpful material as a broad overview but suffice it to say that when I use the term fasting in our lecture today I'm referring to the partial or the total abstinence from food and drink for the purpose of assisting us in unusual or protracted seasons of prayer and since that definition of my use of the term is not in your notes I'll give it to you again I'm referring to the partial or total abstinence from food should put the word normal food and drink normal food and drink for the purpose of assisting us in unusual or protracted seasons of prayer any thorough study of the biblical doctrine of fasting will reveal that where fasting is commended it is

58:17 almost with but very few exceptions always joined to concentrated seasons of prayer now without attempting a comprehensive treatment and with that definition before us you'll notice the first point I have made is this there is sufficient biblical warrant to assert that fasting can be and in some circumstances ought to be a handmaiden to unusual seasons of ministerial prayer when our Lord deals with the subject there are only two places of unquestionable textual certainty the first is Matthew 6 16 to 19 and here where our Lord is dealing with the external religious exercises of the sons of his kingdom he contrasts how those exercises are to be undertaken properly with the improper display and use of them by the hypocrites the scribes and the Pharisees in verses 2 to 4 almsgiving verses 5 through 15 prayer then 16 to 18 notice moreover when you fast our Lord assumes

59:45 that the sons and daughters of his kingdom will have occasions to fast he does not say if you fast but when you fast be not as the hypocrites and then he corrects the ostentatious manner of fasting which had an eye single to men and as with the other two matters he says the sons and daughters of the kingdom have their eye or have their great concern the eye of God and not the eyes of men and he does say that there is a peculiar reward from the Father who sees in secret and who beholds his fasting child and promises a recompense now we must not become de facto dispensationalists to bleed these words of their obvious meaning our Lord assumes the sons and daughters of the kingdom will fast on certain occasions they will fast in such a way not to be seen of men but to have dealings with their Father and that the Father will himself reward them and then you have the incident in conjunction with John in Matthew chapter 9 verses 15 and following why do the Pharisees fast off but your disciples do not

61:13 fast and Jesus said unto them can the sons of the bride chamber mourn as long as the bridegroom is with them but the days will come when the bridegroom shall be taken away and then will they fast now he doesn't say how frequently he doesn't say they must he simply is making a statement that fasting will be part of the epoch following the removal of the bridegroom and that brings us into this present age of redemptive history now contrast these two passages when ye fast be not as and they shall fast with the mandates to prayer which are far stronger and far more explicit for example Luke 18 and verse 1 men ought always to pray and not to faint here prayer is made a matter of oughtness a matter of standing duty among the people of God nothing approaching that is ever said regarding fasting likewise Luke 11 the passage I referred to earlier Matthew 26 41

62:41 watch and pray that you enter not into temptation and then all of the commandments to pray Matthew 7 7 and following etc we see that prayer is in a category of duty that is categorically above and beyond this matter of fasting and in the epistles there are only two references again of undisputed textual certainty 2 Corinthians 6 5 and 2 Corinthians 11 27 now that may shock you but that's a reality 2 Corinthians 6 5 where when Paul is listing the various things that characterize his ministry he says in stripes in imprisonments in tumults in labors in watchings in fastings and then chapter 11 and verse 27 where he speaks again of the things that he has suffered for the sake of Christ in labor and travail in watchings often in hunger and thirst that is externally imposed fasting hunger and thirst in fastings often that's voluntary abstinence from food and drink

64:09 for religious purposes and then when you turn to the gospels you find our Lord in the wilderness fasting in the book of Acts we find fasting in conjunction with ministering to the Lord and the call of Saul and Barnabas Acts 13 2 to 3 and then in chapter 14 and 23 with the setting apart of the elders that were appointed you find prayer conducted with fasting and that's it that's the New Testament data now you see for people to build a doctrine that fasting ought to be an integral and constant part of our lives I feel is going beyond the warrant and the emphasis of scripture and therefore I've worded it this way there is sufficient biblical warrant to assert that fasting can be and in some circumstances ought to be a handmaiden to unusual seasons of ministerial prayer now when we take in the whole testimony of the Old Testament along with the New it is clear that there are times when fasting was indeed mandated as a handmaiden to seasons of prayer Daniel 9 and verse 3 Daniel

65:37 set himself to seek the Lord with prayer and with fasting in Joel chapter 2 verses 12 to 17 when the nation is called upon to repent to rend their hearts and not their garments they are called upon to turn unto the Lord with fasting and with weeping and with mourning in Acts 9 and verse 9 you remember the incident of the Apostle Paul this is a historical account after the revelation of the risen Christ it is said and he was three days without sight and did neither eat nor drink a rare thing a total fast for three days and nights but it simply states it as a historical fact it's not mandated verse 11 and the Lord said arise go to the street which is called straight inquire in the house of Judas for one named Saul for behold notice he prayeth so here the fasting was in conjunction with this concentrated giving of himself to prayer and then I've already mentioned the other two passages in Acts which have to do with both the recognition and the giving apart of men for special office and function within the church of Christ and I believe it is safe

67:06 to say that if over a lengthy period of your ministerial life and if there is no physical condition making it unwise that if you do not ever fast you are either ignorant of its place in conjunction with prayer indifferent to its benefits or simply lacking in the self control and self denial necessary for its demands now beyond that I dare not go now I know that certain groups in church history such as the Methodists they picked up the Jewish custom of the twice weekly fast fasting from morning till three in the afternoon and people say what benefits came from it fine that's a nice historical fact but we don't build the doctrine of a Christian's duty in the realms of his conscience on church history we build it on a responsible handling of the word of God so I would not be prepared to go beyond that statement nor would I be prepared to stop short of it sufficient biblical warrant to assert that fasting can be and in some circumstances ought to be a handmaiden to unusual reasons of ministerial prayer and if you want a list of what those circumstances are make up your own by studying your

68:35 Bible I won't give you one alright second thing I want to say and you'll find this over on the next page there is abundant biblical warrant to condemn as abominable in God's sight fasting that is mechanical ascetic ostentatious legal judgmental or hypocritical it's interesting the materials condemning false fasting are fuller in their detail than the guidelines to say precisely when we should fast many of the references are negative in nature mechanical fasting is condemned in Isaiah 58 the people say look we fasted how come we pushed the buttons and we're not hitting the jackpot and God exposes their hypocritical motives in fasting he does the same thing in Zechariah 7 verses 3 to 5 isn't it interesting the deeper the nation went into apostasy the more it took itself up with what appeared to be the marks of great spirituality namely fasting Zechariah 7 3 to 5 speak to the priest of the house of the Lord unto the prophet saying should I weep in the fifth month separating myself as I've done these many years then came the word of the Lord to me saying speak unto all the people

70:03 of the land unto the priest saying when you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh month even all these seventy years discipline regular fasting did you at all fast unto me even to me and when you eat and when you drink do you not eat for yourselves and drink for yourselves in other words he says total self centeredness is a way of life marked your highest expressions of religious devotion and your ordinary patterns of living and he condemns their mechanical fasting ascetic fasting condemned in Colossians 2 and in 1st Timothy 4 and here again the first attacks upon the early church theologically you remember were attacks upon the true humanity of our Lord and the dignity of the humanity of the creature and so in Colossians 2 we have these people with their super spirituality coming with their man made ascetic rules verse 20 if you died with Christ from the rudiments of the world why as though living in the world do you subject yourselves to ordinances such as handle not nor taste nor touch all which things are to perish with the using after the precepts and doctrines of men

71:31 which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and severity to the body but are not of any value against the indulgence of the flesh would you believe that for years the temperance movement had as its text verse 21 handle not nor taste nor touch that's right taken totally out of its context condemning the very thing the temperance movement was trying to prove namely that total abstinence was not a voluntary and oftentimes a wise position to take but was the only right position to take and this was their text wrenched right out of its setting handle not nor taste nor touch God has spoken that settles it well what it settles is that anyone who takes that position is condemned by God for his false asceticism and then in 1 Timothy 4 interesting that the doctrine of demons comes to light in denying the legitimacy of the enjoyment of God's gifts particularly of food and of sexual intimacy in marriage verse 3 1 Timothy 4 forbidding to marry commanding to abstain from meats which God created to be received with thanksgiving by them that believe and know the truth for every creature of God is good and nothing is to be

72:58 rejected if it be received with thanksgiving for it is justified through the word of God in prayer you'll see up there in verse 1 it is called seducing spirits and doctrines of demons that produce this view of asceticism remember they called Jesus a glutton and a winebibber why because when he sat down at a feast he cleaned his plate and he emptied his glass that's the only grounds on which they could have called him a glutton and a winebibber if Jesus was so concerned that no one would ever accuse him of gluttony and of overindulgence in drink he would have simply nibbled at the corner of his plate and taken down enough in his glass to make it evident he tasted it but he cleaned his plate and he emptied his glass and he never once violated the law of God and it's demonic you see because it's an attack upon the integrity of our Lord himself whose ordinary pattern was to eat and drink as ordinary men and whose periods of fasting are underscored in the scripture as the exception and not the rule and when he taught us to pray what was one of the requests give us this day our daily bread and then of course ostentatious fasting that's condemned in Matthew 6 be not as the hypocrites

74:27 who like to appear to men to fast the Lord said when you're in a period of fasting if ever you're shaved and if you're one of these guys with a blue beard and need to shave twice a day to look clean shave and if ever you're going to shave twice a day do it while you're fasting so no one will suspect that you're fasting and put on lots of that good old spice that you get provided for you the Lord said anoint your face with oil the present counterpart would be some nice aftershave and everyone looks at you and you appear to be as someone who is living an ordinary normal life enjoying the good gifts of God your fasting is unto the Lord and then legal and judgmental fasting that's what the Pharisee did he got into the temple Luke 18 10 I thank thee I'm not as other men blah blah blah I fast twice in the week I've got brownie points in heaven fasting twice in the week and then it was judgmental in that he knew that that publican for whom he's thanking God that he's not like him did not have those brownie points and then hypocritical fasting is also dealt with in Isaiah 58 and you can read the passage at your leisure so there is abundant biblical warrant to condemn as abominable in God's sight fasting that is mechanical ascetic ostentatious

75:56 legal judgmental or hypocritical now if you ask the question why is there so much data on the negative side of fasting I think the answer is clear you begin to get hyper spiritual people in your church and this is one of the areas they're going to start doing their work they're going to start fasting regularly and feel they're more spiritual than the rest of the church members and they're going to start agitating and you better be well armed to go after them alright as the voice of not just the Bible but of experience alright so be well armed alright then thirdly there is no biblical warrant to assert that regular fasting is a Christian duty in general or a ministerial duty in particular there is no biblical warrant to assert that regular fasting is a Christian duty in general or a ministerial duty in particular self denial and self control are constant duties for every Christian as well as every Christian minister 1 Corinthians 9 I buffet my body and keep it under lest in preaching to others I myself should be abdachimos reprobate cast away so the control of our appetites is a constant duty Luke 9 23

77:22 if any man will come after me let him deny himself take up his cross daily Galatians 5 23 the fruit of the spirit is self control there is biblical warrant to assert that self denial self control even the control of our bodily appetites is our constant duty but don't let anyone bind your conscience beyond the word of God and tell you that if you don't fast once a month or once a week you're unspiritual now the flip side is don't allow a self indulgent spirit of this age keep you from a pattern of life that fits the overall teaching of the word of God and that is that when men of God are in unusual pressures in the will of God fasting often became a handmaiden to their seeking the face of God and let's not so be influenced by the spirit of the age that fasting is never a part of our spiritual exercises because we see that when Daniel was conscious of an unusual epical period in his own life in the life of God's people and set himself to seek God in something beyond his ordinary devotions he did so with fasting

78:51 and when God is calling his people back from unusual periods of backsliding he says there is to be a return to him with fasting and with mourning and with weeping and you remember when David is in the crisis of God's chastening hand for his son he fasts along with his prayers pleading that God would spare the son and then when God took him he then washed himself presented himself in the house of God and worshiped and returned to a normal pattern of life so that's what I wanted to say to you about fasting in conjunction particularly with ministerial prayer brethren there will be times when certain problems simply do not yield to the ordinary levels of intercession and you'll need perhaps to get away and get a day rate on a local motel tell your wife where you are and no one else and shut the door take with you a jar of orange juice and a few saltines and shut yourself in with God and your fasting and your refusal of your ordinary food is that you might give yourself to a more concentrated intense period of prayer to pray through as the old people used to speak and there's a lot of sense and good spiritual understanding in that terminology and lay hold of God in that unusual crisis well let me then say a word

Miscellaneous Concern 2: Prayer in Relationship to Fellow Elders and Conclusion

80:20 about pastoral prayer in relationship to one's fellow elders and all you have on your notes is prayer in its relationship to your fellow elders and I just want to say a few things about this certainly prayerfulness ought to mark your regular and extraordinary meetings with your fellow elders and if you are set apart to labor in the word and in doctrine then Acts 6 4 has an even greater application to you and those elders set apart with you when critical decisions are to be made when there's a crisis in the church life the elders as a body ought to take the lead in laboring before God on behalf of the people of God remember that very wonderfully illustrative incident in the old testament when they faced the defeated AI Joshua and the elders drew aside and sought the face of God earnestly until God said alright time to get up off your knees and deal with the issue that's brought the defeat but it came out of the matrix of intense concentrated prayer among the leaders and I'm amazed at how little there is of this among even good reformed churches where elders gather to

81:47 wait upon God the example there in Acts 13 as they were ministering to the Lord and fasting it is then that new light came for this whole new thrust of the gospel into the Roman world and certainly each regular elders meeting we have learned and the one time two times we tried to change it we said never again that prayer comes first we found that at times it was taking so much time to give intelligent information about the prayer needs we ended up discussing the concerns and then someone suggested well we could really pray more intelligently if we had our extended season of prayer on the tail end but what happened is we were taking up so much time discussing the problems we found that we had to squeeze in five ten fifteen minute prayer time I said never again as chairman I said brethren just exercise discipline I'll say as much as I feel is necessary about the concerns and we just have to follow our native inquiry and we're going to pray around and pray thoroughly through the issues and then we'll find ourselves doing the business of God much more efficiently and with the confidence that we have the help that we have sought of God and I can testify that every Thursday night now it was on Saturdays for eighteen years those are precious times when before God

83:16 we as the Lord's servants cry out confessing our own sins and needs and ignorance and weakness and lay hold of God and then to see the Lord help us cut one Gordian knot after another that prior to the elders meeting we all came saying how in the world are we going to resolve this and lo and behold God did indeed hear and answer our cry well as I summarize and conclude we come to the conclusion of our treatment of the work of the ministry and all I can say brethren from the depths of my heart is that I trust God will be pleased to make of each one of you those who walk with a wholesome understanding of your redeemed humanity in constantly nurturing the inner man developing your minds healthy in your emotions vigorous and disciplined in your physical condition and that you become mighty in the scriptures as preachers loving and wise and tender and patient but fearless as leaders and shepherds and that God will make you mighty in prayer if the Lord does that for you then all of our labors will not have been in vain and this is indeed our prayer for you and as I have bared my heart and you pray for us pray that God will help us above all else to be faithful in this duty

84:46 and as we are enabled to be faithful here I believe everything else will take its rightful place