PREVAILING PRAYER

NO time to pray! No time to commune with God! You are robbing God. “Will a man rob God?” That does not alone mean money. It means prayer, love, and service. It means also your time for Him. People who are void of prayer are void of everything that serves God. God wants us to be a praying people and to take hold of the horns of the altar and not let go till we pray through.

When Jacob had sent his family and his goods across the brook, he wrestled and prevailed with God till daybreak. His prayers went through and pierced the heavens and went beyond the stars, and touched the Throne of God; and down came the answer. The angel would have left him; but he said, “I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.” And the angel said, “As a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Genesis 32:26,28).

Have you wrestled all night? This is the kind of people God is blessing and pouring out His Spirit upon: people who will prevail; and after prevailing and wrestling, they will not let the Blesser go until they receive the answer. God honors prayer and God honors people who pray; and when they prevail till break of day, the heavens will open and they will receive the blessing.

When you go into your closet to pray, the enemy will try to make you think you ought to do something else; but if you would be a prevailer with God, you will have to go right through the test – and the Spirit will come down like honeydew on your soul. Your faith will mount up and you will feel the power of God surging through every word you say. You will reach the Throne and move God for souls.

Daniel was a man of prayer, and by faith he stopped the mouths of lions. The king called down into the den with a lamentable voice, “O Daniel, servant of the living God, is thy God, whom thou servest continually, able to deliver thee from the lions?” Then Daniel shouted back, “O king, live for ever. My God hath sent his angel, and hath shut the lions’ mouths” (Daniel 6:20-23). He knew that God would deliver him; and God will deliver you and set you free if you believe in your God.

Are the faith channels clogged when you get down to pray? It may be you have spoken against your brother or have not been faithful in the home. God wants us to have an open, clean heart before God and man. If you can bear your breast before God and know that everything is as clear as Heaven, you have access to God, your prayers are not hindered, and your testimony has the ring of authority that convicts sinners, because your life backs it up.

God wants His people to pray until they hear from Heaven. Elijah went up on the mount and began to pray, and sent his servant out to look toward the sea. And again he got down and wrestled and sent his servant the second time to look, and nothing was in sight. Did he become discouraged? No; he prayed with greater faith than ever, with his face between his knees, till the servant said, “There ariseth a little cloud out of the sea, like a man’s hand.” That was enough for the Prophet Elijah. He sent his servant to tell Ahab, the king, the rain was coming. It began to rain, and it rained and rained (I Kings 18:42-45). And when you prevail and wrestle with God, the power will begin to fall.

God wants us to be on fire, a real, holy fire out of Heaven, born from above, a responsibility for souls that will permeate our very being and send us out to win them. You must have the souls on your heart before you can pray for them. Oh, that every Christian would get a burden of prayer! And God would move you and you would move God.

We believe in prayer, prevailing prayer. The soul that is lacking in prayer is lacking in the real power of God. Jesus was our example, and He went out on the mountain and prayed all night. He set us an example of prayer. You cannot put God off with little two-minute talks. But you say that the dishes have to be washed, or business attended to. Get up an hour earlier, but don’t put off God for your work. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the greatest thing on earth, and it demands our very life.

God has not changed; He waits to answer prayer. The Day of Pentecost was preceded by ten days of prayer and praise, and three thousand souls were converted in one day. They continued in prayer till on another day five thousand souls were converted, and “a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith” (Acts, 4th and 6th chapters).

God waits to answer real prayer today, as in days of old. “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you” (Matthew 7:7). “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much” (James 5:16).

Our nation surely needs arousing. Nothing but a deep and all-pervading wave of salvation can save this nation from the fate toward which it is rapidly drifting. The tide of corruption can be held back and the storm of the Great Tribulation held back only through prayer, until souls are made ready to meet the Lord.

Infidel criticism of the Bible, the wretched new theology based on evolution, is spreading like a plague, in schools and churches, denying every fundamental fact of the Bible and salvation. It is the worst form of infidelity, one of the greatest enemies of the Cross. We are entering upon the darkness of the last days of this age. The church’s departure from holiness and truth is appallingly rapid. The chasm is widening. We are on the verge of the apostasy of Christianity under the iron rule of the man of sin, the Antichrist, that is to come.

Every child of God knows that we are in the very break of the morn of the coming of the Lord. The world is plunging lower and deeper into degradation and the worst forms of sin known since the time of the flood and the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah; and the world will surely be swept by the rule of terror and the judgments of God.

If there ever was a time when the world needed prayer it is today. We plead with every child of God to pray as never before that God will pour out His Spirit. First seek God for yourself if you need to. Then get to a place where you can pray for others, and you will receive the greatest blessing that ever came to a human heart. Then you will have God’s help in your own cares and troubles.

God must first be earnestly sought in faithful secret prayer. Jesus said: “When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly” (Matthew 6:6). His Word will never fail.

It is one of the greatest privileges in the world to pray for others. Prayer should be offered at least three times a day, for the children of God and for lost souls. Millions of souls are in darkness, millions on their way to hell. They are dying in the hospitals – everywhere – without hope and without God.

This work was cradled and nurtured in prayer. Prayer is the secret of revivals. There has been a continuous revival in this church. There have been those who prayed while others slept. There have been prevailers alone with God. When prayer is requested for the sick or unsaved, one will not hear a person pray alone but one hears many saints praying – like the sound of many waters. If you need a revival in your church, begin to pray and get others to pray with you.

There is a great need for a stirring revival over the world. God may again send a revival in answer to prayer. In many parts of the world small companies of people have begun to gather to pray. Letters tell us of the hunger of many hearts for closer communion with God and for the whole Word of God.

Only another great revival that will sweep the world can stir the sleeping church of today to make preparation for the coming of the Son of Man. God sent the wonderful outpouring of the Spirit in 1906, preceded by the great revival in Wales. It has been going on for many years, and is for the ripening of the precious fruit; “for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (James 5:7,8).

God wants a pleading, agonizing people. Then you will see souls saved. Those who do not know what a passion for souls is need to get down before God and get the “first love” back in their hearts. Let us consecrate and see mighty things wrought in days to come!

Through prayer you can have a share in the salvation of the lost, if you are faithful at the Throne. Bear the faithful workers to the Throne of Grace in earnest prayer. Pray for the extensive jail and prison work that is done throughout the land – the street, the harbour, the hospital work, and the work in the institutions where souls are dying without hope and without God, where faithful workers carry the word of comfort and cheer to those who are shut in from the world, through sickness and suffering. Pray for the distribution of papers and tracts that are bringing help and comfort to thousands of souls. And you will have a share in the reward when Jesus metes out the rewards in that great day.

God is answering prayer in a marvelous way in the spread of the Gospel, the salvation of souls, and the extension of the Kingdom of God. Requests for prayer are coming from all over the world through the reading of these papers.

God has answered prayer for thousands of people. From the letters telling of the answers to prayer it is evident that truly the GOD OF DANIEL STILL ANSWERS PRAYER. There are hundreds of requests for prayer, many of them for salvation and healing. These requests are read before the saints who pray earnestly that God will undertake in behalf of the sick and the unsaved and of those who are seeking more of the grace of God and the deeper experiences. Letters pour into the Apostolic Faith office from all parts of the globe. It is the result of the wave of prayer that is going up to God, and the conviction and heart-hunger that is coming upon people.

Prayer is the power of the church. The patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs, and men of God were mighty in prayer. Prayer is the secret of revivals. When Zion travails, she shall bring forth. Revivals are prayed down – not worked up. Only the power of God can bring conviction for sin, especially in these last days, when hearts are so hard and souls seem so far alienated from the love of the truth. Nothing but the Spirit of God can break up the fallow ground and bring repentance for sin.

In 1906 a most wonderful revival began on the Pacific Coast, the outpouring of the old-time power, that has spread to many lands. A great multitude of souls have been saved, sanctified, and baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire (Acts 2:4), witnessed by the miracle of speaking in tongues as the Spirit gave utterance, restoring the old-time faith and power. Miracles of healing have been wrought in the name of Jesus. God has restored the old -time simple faith and brought the baptism of the Holy Ghost back into the church amid great opposition.

Prayer is the secret – prevailing prayer. We are in the midst of a wonderful revival. Souls are coming to the altar every night and getting saved, and many are being sanctified and baptized with the Holy Ghost. Because a great number of people have been united in faith and prayer, a revival has been in progress over a period of fifty years.

Many have been greatly stirred on account of the prayers of God’s people. We pray that this fervency of spirit and wrestling before the Throne of Grace will spread until God’s immortal presence will be brought down and hearts everywhere will cry out to God in desperation for mercy while mercy is to be found.