This message is one of the Times Square
Pulpit series.
It was recorded in the sanctuary of Times
Square Church in Manhattan, New York City.
Other tapes are available by writing to World
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Gospel of John, chapter 17.
Page 1550 in my Bible.
I guess you don't have my Bible.
Amen.
Praying like Jesus prayed.
Hallelujah.
Let's bow in prayer.
Thank you, Jesus.
Lord, my heart is just filled tonight because
you have filled us in this house with
your presence.
And Lord, as I was worshiping, I thank
you that you just gave me such an
overwhelming sense of gratefulness that I know you,
that I'm your son, I'm your child.
Oh, thank you.
Lord, I don't understand.
I don't know why you chose me, but
I thank you that you did and that
you chose me before the foundation of the
earth.
And Lord, tonight I can say that I'm
yours.
Many who walk the streets are blind and
they're deaf spiritually, but Lord, you opened my
eyes.
You opened my ears.
And I can call you Abba Father tonight
and have that relationship with you.
Oh, Lord, I thank you.
I just thank you, Lord.
And Lord, just pour this out on everybody
in this city.
Lord, I pray also, as I, in my
heart, I said I would do today, I
thank you for a young man I saw
on 34th Street today passing out tracks.
Lord, thank you that there are people that
are out reaching others.
Thank you for young men just going up
one after another, handing out a gospel piece
of literature, and people looking at it, some
putting it in their pockets.
Lord, let your word penetrate those hearts.
And for everybody here that is witnessing, be
it in the upper room or on the
job or wherever they go, Lord, thank you.
Thank you that the gospel is going forth.
Lord, may others come to know you as
we know you tonight, that we can stand
in your presence or sit as we have
done in your presence and just say thank
you, Jesus.
Thank you, Jesus.
Hallelujah.
The name that is above every name.
And Lord, our hearts are just filled.
But now, Lord, I ask you that you
would open the word to our hearts and
to our understanding tonight.
Thank you for your precious word.
Let the Holy Spirit move and penetrate our
hearts with your word tonight, we pray in
Jesus' name.
Amen.
You know the familiar prayer which begins, our
Father which art in heaven, you know that
it is known as the Lord's Prayer.
Technically, it is not the Lord's Prayer.
It is actually the disciples' prayer given to
them by Jesus as a patterned prayer.
And here's how it happened.
In Luke 11, 1, it came to pass
that as he was praying in a certain
place, apparently the disciples were close enough to
hear him pray and when he had ceased
praying, Scripture says when he had ceased, one
of the disciples said unto him, Lord, teach
us to pray.
Now, evidently, this was the first time that
the disciples had actually heard Jesus praying and
they were in earshot.
You recall another occasion near the end of
their time with him that they could have
also heard him pray, but they didn't.
They fell asleep in the garden.
But the occasion in Luke 11 must have
been quite a moving experience for the disciples
to hear Jesus talking to his father.
And as I said, it may have been
the first time that they heard it and
it made such a deep impression on them
that they asked after he'd finished, they said,
Lord, teach us to pray like that.
Hearing Jesus pray must have brought such conviction
and such a desire in their own hearts
that they wanted to know how to begin
a prayer life and what to say and
how to address the father in praying as
they heard Jesus pouring out his own soul.
What an experience it must have been.
Have you ever heard somebody pray and you
said to yourself, oh, I'd love to be
able to pray like that?
I don't just mean praying pious or eloquent
words or to pray long or to pray
loud or to pray with a voice quivering
with emotion.
Some people think that's the anointing.
You see, God is not impressed with pious
prayers and neither should we be.
I've heard some of the most simple prayers
and prayers.
I love to hear young converts testify because
there's a freshness about their testimony at their
early stage.
You're only a baby once.
And I love to hear baby prayers.
Oh, there's just something about young people, young
converts that I love to hear.
And if you want to be motivated to
pray, stick close to somebody who knows how
to pray and loves to pray.
Like the disciples who overheard Jesus pray, if
you hear a man or God, a man
or woman of God pray, it'll awaken a
desire in your own heart to seek the
Lord.
I remember there are two individuals that crossed
my mind.
One was a man, one was a woman.
I loved to hear them pray.
One was, I've mentioned his name before, Brother
L.K. Dodge, you know, an evangelist.
I loved the man.
I loved to hear him pray.
He excited me to pray.
And I'll never forget him because we used
to have him around Thanksgiving and every Thanksgiving
time he wouldn't eat because he'd say, look,
I'm so thankful that I can't eat today.
And I can't tell you how convicted he
is when you're trying to eat turkey and
you hear him pacing back and forth in
the chapel that used to be right there
at Teen Challenge.
The dining room was one place and right
across the hall was the chapel and Brother
L.K. Dodge would be going back, just
talking to Jesus, talking to Jesus.
And I tried to get him in to
eat with me so I could relieve some
of my conviction, but no, he just went
on to pray.
And I remember another sister, Sister Ruth Kogle,
that used to pray and oh, how it
awakened something in my own heart.
Psalms 42,4 says, When I remembered these
things, I poured out my soul in me.
For I had gone with a multitude, I
went with them to the house of God
with a voice of joy and praise with
a multitude that kept holy day.
In other words, I heard these people praying,
I heard them praising and it made me
want to go with them to the house
of God and into the presence of God.
Children ought to have times, frequent times when
they hear their mother, their father, their parents
pray.
When I was a kid, when I was
a young fella, we used to have some
of the, I'd have some of my neighborhood
friends come into the house, we'd run into
the house to pick up something and maybe
then to run back out of the house
and I can remember some of my friends
stopping in their track and hearing a sound
coming from upstairs and they'd say to me,
What's that?
And I'd just say nonchalantly and keep running
and I'd say, Oh, that's my dad praying.
To me, it was a common occurrence and
I used to think back then, in my
innocence, I used to think, Well, doesn't every
dad do that?
What can we learn from our Lord's prayers,
his praying?
There are frequent scriptural references to the Lord's
prayer life and some of his actual words
are recorded for us.
And from this, I'd like to share three
things about why and how Jesus prayed so
that we can have a proper understanding of
how to pray as Jesus prayed.
Now, these things that I'm going to share
are very basic, they're very simple, but when
it comes to prayer, we need constant reminders
of the basics.
You see, prayer is not that complicated.
It just needs to be done.
As one man of God said, Prayer does
not enable us to do a greater work
for God.
Prayer is a greater work for God.
And when we realize this, we'll want to
pray.
And when we pray, we want to pray
like Jesus.
And the three things that I believe prayer
meant to our Lord was first of all,
it was communion.
And I'll explain that.
Secondly, he asked, he petitioned his father.
And thirdly, we learned something about intercessory prayer.
And these are the three things I want
to share.
Now, first of all, Jesus, for Jesus prayer,
prayer was communion between a son and a
father.
It was a son talking to his father.
There is no greater or more beautiful teaching
on prayer as communion than what we read
in John chapter 17.
John chapter 17 is truly the Lord's prayer
or our Lord praying at his best.
Now, first the definition of communion, which is
what we call the Lord's supper.
But the definition of communion is to share,
to be in accord, in harmony or agreement.
And a prayer of communion then is to
enter into a time of sharing with our
father through the son.
Or simply put, communion is the time that
we spend talking to our Lord and sharing
our heart with him.
It may involve worship, it involves praise, but
it is a son talking to his father.
One of the ancients has stated that prayer
is conversation with God.
And listen to this wonderful conversation in John
17, in verse one.
It says, these things Jesus spoke and lifted
up his eyes to heaven.
And he said, or he prayed.
Now, he prayed, Father, the hour has come,
glorify thy son, that the son may glorify
thee.
Now, note that the very first word that
he speaks, he says, Father, Father, the hour
has come.
And in chapter 17, Jesus goes on to
refer to his father 39 different times, either
addressing him as father or using the words,
thee, thou, thyself, and thine.
But the word father is the most meaningful
of all the terms that he used.
Now also, if you were to study chapters
14, 15, 16, and 17, which are all
within the same framework, Jesus used the term
father approximately 45 times in those various chapters.
And so when Jesus begins his prayer in
John 17, one, with the word father, what
follows is a conversation prayer or communion between
a son and a father.
Now, listen to me.
If you want to learn anything about the
way Jesus prayed, it is this, that prayer
is more than asking.
It is more than just making requests or
presenting a want list to God.
Prayer is an intimate conversation between a son
and his father.
And what normal earthly son would not want
to spend time sharing with his father?
There is a bond between a son and
a father that is rarely broken, even when
a father is not a good father, even
in cases of divorce and separation, a son
longs, an earthly son longs to have communion,
relationship, intimacy with a father.
And if that be the case in earthly
relationships, how much more is it the case
of a spiritual son with a heavenly father?
Jesus taught this very principle when he said
in Luke 11, 13, he said, If ye
then, being evil, know how to give good
gifts to your children, how much more shall
your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to
those that ask him?
Well, you see, that is not only about
receiving the Holy Spirit, it's about a spiritual
son coming to his heavenly father in prayer
and in communion.
Hebrews 12, 9 says, Moreover, we have all
had human fathers who disciplined us and we
respected them for it.
How much more should we submit to the
father of our spirits and live?
And we will see later just how Jesus
submitted to his father.
But it is not just submission that drew
Jesus to his father.
He was drawn because of the joy of
intimacy, of communion, of sharing and simply talking
with his father.
That's what motivated Jesus in prayer.
The very first recorded words of Jesus when
he was 12 years old, his parents had
lost him for a period of time and
when they found him, he said, Not to
worry, not to worry.
I must be what about my father's business?
What was the very last words before Jesus
died on the cross?
Again, his last words were, Father, into your
hands I commend my spirit.
And from the age of 12 to that
death on the cross, Jesus had a relationship
of communion in prayer with his father, a
son talking to his father.
Oh, what sweet communion that is.
You see, prayer will take on more meaning
for us if we view it as Jesus
did, a son talking to his father.
And the kind of communion that Jesus had
with the father, he desires that you and
I, his sons, have the same thing.
And oh, you see, for a long time
or for a period of my time in
my life, I didn't understand that.
But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Look at John 17, 21.
One of the great verses.
Here is Jesus has this special, this intimate,
this unceasing.
Paul said, pray without ceasing.
And I think Paul understood this kind of
unceasing relationship that the son, that Jesus had
with his father.
And now that he is about to go,
he is praying that his own disciples would
have the same thing.
And so he says in John 17, 21,
that they may all be one.
Now, let me just stop there because that
verse is probably one of the most misunderstood
or misquoted verses in John 17, or especially
when it is often used today.
And you're gonna hear this verse more and
more in these days because this verse is
used to promote unity.
Unity in the body.
Because you see, there is a teaching in
the church today that says this.
If just all of the pastors would get
together, if all the churches would get together,
all of the denominations would get together, if
there would be a spirit of ecumenicalism, I
think that's right.
In other words, the Protestants and Catholics, we're
all gonna get together.
If we could all be one, the world
will somehow believe and be converted.
Well, listen to me, I've worked with drug
addicts for 30 years and I've never had
one drug addict, one alcoholic, one street person
ever say to me, when's a church ever
gonna get together?
When are you people ever gonna get your
act together?
Unity never cured a drug addict, a prostitute,
a homosexual, or a Wall Street businessman.
But what the world does want to know
is do I know God?
Do I know Jesus?
Am I in unity and in oneness with
the Father and with the Son?
And you see, when I'm walking with God,
when I'm in that kind of relationship of
a son to a father, then you see,
the world is gonna get the overflow of
that, that's all.
John 17, 21, Jesus is not praying for
church or ecumenical unity.
He is praying for you and me.
He's praying that his disciples, his church will
have intimacy, unity, knowledge, and fellowship with the
Father and with himself.
He says that they all may be one,
even as thou, Father, art in me and
I in thee.
In other words, Jesus is saying, oh, that
my disciples just knew how close we were.
If they would just be as close in
our circle, if they would just come into
that inner circle, if they just understood, oh,
how precious that intimacy, that fellowship is, oh,
that they would come into that, and if
they would come into that, then they'll have
power, then the world will believe, then because
Jesus will be alive in our hearts, hallelujah.
Then we'll be like this, that's what Jesus
is praying.
He said, oh, Father, I wish they were
just like you and I, just like this.
And then Jesus also prays that they also
may be in us.
You see, prayer is to be drawn into
the inner circle of the Godhead.
It's to be on intimate terms with both
the Father and the Son near the power
center.
And I believe, listen, I believe that any
child of God who understands this will view
prayer not just as a duty, but as
a delight.
Not just as a discipline, but as a
desire.
And not just something that we have to
be told over and over again to do,
but something that we look forward to doing.
Psalm 38.9 says, Lord, all my desire
is before thee.
Psalms 138.14 can be applied to prayer.
It says, this is my resting place forever.
Here will I dwell, for I have desired
it.
Now, I want to give you a little
personal testimony tonight about my own struggles in
prayer.
Over the years, in my earlier life, when
I was about 14 years of age, I
started my own prayer closet.
Having learned and heard as a youngster, my
dad, who had a walk-in closet in
his bedroom, and that's where he went to
pray, it so happened that I had a
little walk-in closet in my bedroom.
And so at the age of 14, I
went in there, and I had communion.
And I had, you know, they used to
sing when I was a little kid, just
a little talk with Jesus will make it
all right, all right.
Well, I used to have a little talk
with Jesus, but it was not little, it
was an enjoyable experience.
I looked forward to it.
And then, and by the way, I think
I had the kind of prayer life of
a son with a father.
But at the age of 17, I went
to Bible school.
And there, and you know, sometimes you can
be over-taught.
And when I went to Bible school, I
was taught over and over again, prayer is
work.
Prayer is work.
Well, there is some truth to that because
it's not natural for the natural man to
pray.
It's not natural for the natural man to
pray.
Also, the flesh hates to pray.
The only time the flesh prays is when
it wants something.
And the flesh will pray.
And the only time the unsaved will pray
is, you know, when they're in deep, deep
trouble, then they'll pray.
But I kept hearing in Bible school that
prayer is hard, that prayer is work, that
prayer is a discipline, that sometimes you have
to force yourself to pray, whether you like
it or not.
And again, there is some truth to that.
However, every time I heard my teacher say
prayer is work, that bothered me because you
see, I didn't particularly like to work.
Not that I didn't work.
I worked at the age of 16.
I had my first job.
I worked my way through Bible school.
And in one of those summers, I worked
in a sweat factory, what they call a
sweat shop, literally in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in a
factory where they made ladies' coats.
I was the steam guy.
When it came around, I had to run
a steam machine in the hot summer, making
some money for Bible school, earning minimum wage
back in 1956, 1957.
Now, Sister Gwen, you'll know then because you
had a birthday today.
I asked her today, or I sent her
a little card and said, you know, I'd
like to know, will you tell me on
your birthday how old you are?
She came to me and she said, I
just want you to know that I'm not
as old as you are.
Her son was there, and he said, but
you're pretty close.
So maybe you'll know what minimum wages was
in 1956, 1957.
So when I went to Bible school, I
heard all the preachers say prayer was work.
And I thought about the sweat factory.
And so my prayer life turned into primarily
a duty, a discipline, and a fight against
the flesh.
And I realize now that I had already
understood something about precious communion.
I had understood something about it, but I
then was laid on a certain teaching, got
a hold of me, and it turned from
being a joy to a duty.
And it must have been that my teachers
and my teachings or the people who were
teaching me, that for them, prayer was work.
Prayer was duty.
Prayer was not a joyous communion between a
son and a father.
And oh yes, I say to you, and
I admit that at times, especially when the
flesh is weak and weary, that prayer is
work.
And it's a fight against the flesh.
And when you have to take yourself by
the nap of the neck and say, get
your knees down and get down before the
Lord that you don't go by feelings, or
you have to be prayed under conviction in
order to spend more time with the Lord.
Oh, but my friend, it's more than that.
And I believe to pray like Jesus prayed
is to pray motivated by delight and desire
as well as by discipline and duty and
say, oh, Father, I thank you that I
have this communion with you that I can
go and talk as a son talks to
his father and I can unburden my heart
to you or I can praise you.
I can worship you and I can enjoy
you.
Hallelujah.
I've yet to find my three kids, my
three children to rebel against my love or
against spending times of family sharing, fellowship, conversation
together.
In fact, I kid them sometimes.
I said, I think I've treated you all
too good.
I can't get rid of you.
Can't get rid of you.
You love to be around your parents.
Oh, listen.
I love to be around my father.
Hallelujah.
Oh, what sweet communion there is there.
Psalms 104, 34 says, Let my meditation be
pleasing to him.
As for me, I shall be glad in
the Lord.
Psalms of Solomon 2, 3 says, And his
fruit was sweet to my taste.
And I believe his presence is like a
fruit.
It is sweet to the taste.
Hallelujah.
And when you have that kind of relationship
with your heavenly father and with Jesus, it's
sweet.
It's sweet.
It draws you to him.
Here's another wonderful description of the prayer of
a son to the father through and to
his son.
Psalms of Solomon 2, 14, it says, Oh,
my dove, in the clefts of the rock,
in the secret place of the steep pathway.
And the steep pathway refers to our walk
with God.
And sometimes there is steep pathways and tests
and trials that we have to go through.
But he says, in the secret place of
the steep pathway, let me see your form.
Let me hear your voice for your voice
is sweet and your form is lovely.
Now you tell me a prayer and communion
with our Lord is not inviting when we
can hear his voice and we can see
his form and we can see his intervention
into our lives and we can know that
his presence is there with us.
Hallelujah.
Psalms 21, 6 describes a blessing of communion
between a son and his father.
It says, For thou hast made him most
blessed forever.
Thou hast made him exceedingly glad with thy
countenance.
Oh, hallelujah.
Hallelujah.
I know there's any child loves to be
able to look at his father and see
a smile, a countenance that is inviting.
And oh, I thank God when I can
go into the presence of the Lord.
His countenance is welcoming me and I want
to be there with him, hallelujah.
Now another way we ought to pray, like
Jesus prayed, is in seeing how and what
he asked his father in prayer.
I researched this carefully as to what did
Jesus ask for when he prayed.
It's very interesting.
It's very simple.
It's very evident in the study of Jesus'
prayer life that when it came to asking
and petitioning his father, he had one thing
that he asked for.
And it didn't relate actually to himself, but
to the father.
Jesus wanted a heart and mind to do
the father's will.
He was always asked.
That was his prayer.
Jesus used prayer as a means of keeping
himself in line with the father's work and
will for him.
And numerous times he said this or he
prayed this.
And even when Jesus asked to receive, I
found out back in the pastor's office before,
the message that Brother Dave was preaching on
prayer on Sunday.
I'm glad I got here first.
That I'm waiting to hear the follow up
on Sunday.
But you see, even when Jesus asked to
receive glory or honor.
John 17, 1.
And he said, Father, the hour has come.
Glorify thy son that the son may glorify
thee.
Look at verse 5.
He says, And now glorify thou me together
with thyself.
Now you see, any honor, any glory or
honor that Jesus was to have was bound
up with the father.
Jesus had no prayer.
He had no desire.
He had no request.
He had no prayer apart from the father.
He said, Glorify thou me together.
That's the key word, together with thyself.
Verse 10, And all things that are mine
are thine, and thine are mine.
Now, let me show you something about this.
Because this was Jesus' attitude in prayer.
That he always had the father's will predominant.
Let me show you how God reacted to
it.
Turn with me to John chapter 12.
You see, as I said, John 17 is
really the Lord's prayer.
It's Jesus' prayer.
It's Jesus praying.
Luke 11, what we call the Lord's prayer
is really the disciples' prayer.
But there was a time when the father
was so pleased with this Lord's prayer that
the heavens literally thundered and the crowds of
people stood in awe of a supernatural phenomena.
Now, Jesus prayed this prayer.
Look at it.
In John 12, what did I say it
was?
It's John 12, 27.
He says, Now my soul has become troubled.
He's speaking now about the hour of trial.
He's talking about the cross.
He said, Now my soul has become troubled.
And what shall I say?
And this is Jesus' reaction to his trouble.
He said, Should I say, Father, save me
from this hour?
Nah, but for this purpose I came to
this hour.
Father, glorify thy name.
Glorify thy name.
And there came therefore a voice out of
heaven.
I have heard.
I have both glorified it and will glorify
it.
The multitude therefore who stood by and heard
it were saying that it had thundered.
Others were saying an angel has spoken unto
him.
Oh, you see, the father said, I hear
that prayer.
I hear that request.
Not for yourself, but for my will.
And I have honored your prayer.
And he said, I will do it now
and I will do it again.
And again refers to the same prayer prayed
in the garden of Gethsemane.
And the multitude therefore who stood by and
heard it were saying, What is it that
has thundered?
Others were saying an angel has spoken to
him.
Ah, but what was it?
It was the almighty God.
It was the father responding to that kind
of a prayer.
And listen to me.
If you want to have heaven thunder and
if you want to have an open heaven
and if you want to hear the father's
voice talking back to you, then ask that
you might lose yourself completely in the father's
will.
And when you bow down to him, you
gain an open heaven.
Hallelujah.
One fellow put it this way.
He said, Since the lines have been cleared
between the Lord and me, the telephone has
never stopped ringing.
Hallelujah.
You see, prayer will keep you in line
with the father.
It keeps you from straying off course.
And that's why Jesus was in continual contact
with the father.
Now, you see, we generally and erroneously look
upon prayer primarily as a means of getting
things for ourselves.
Whereas the Bible idea of prayer is that
God's holiness and his purposes and his will
might be brought about.
Our ordinary views about prayer and much what
is taught in the church today is not
found in the New Testament.
Very evidently, our ideas about prayer and Jesus'
ideas are not the same.
Prayer is not just a way to get
things from God, but it is first of
all that we might get to know him.
Prayer is not to be used as the
privilege of a spoiled child seeking ideal conditions
to indulge his carnal whims or wishes.
The purpose of prayer is to reveal the
presence of God and to honor him by
our will being submitted to him and his
will being manifested through us.
You know, there's an amazing thing that Jesus
said.
If you want to turn to it, it's
John 11, 42, but if you want to
trust me, I'll just give it to you.
At Lazarus' tomb, Jesus prayed one of the
most remarkable prayers.
He said his father always heard and always
answered every one of his prayers 100%
of the time.
And that just kind of blew me away.
Let me read it to you.
John 12, 41, 42.
And so they removed the stone, and Jesus
raised his eyes, and he said, Father, I
thank thee that thou hearest me, and I
know that thou hearest me always.
But because of the people standing around, I
said it, that they may believe that thou
didst send me.
And when he had said these things, he
cried out, Lazarus, come forth.
And you know the rest of the story.
You see, our Lord never once, in teaching
on prayer, referred to unanswered prayer.
It's taught elsewhere in Scripture, but Jesus did
not talk about it.
He said God always answers prayer.
Now let me say this.
I don't think we can have quite that
track record, but if our prayers are in
the name of Jesus, and they're in accordance
with his nature and his will, then the
prayers will not be in accordance with our
will or nature, but with his.
That's what it means.
Some people have this mistaken idea that praying
in Jesus' name is a little cliche.
You go around and say, and in the
name of Jesus, and in the name of
Jesus.
It's kind of like a charismatic rosary.
Say three in the name of Jesus.
That's not what it's talking about.
Praying in accordance to the nature, the character
of Jesus.
And when you pray that, you will pray,
not my will, but thine be done.
You put your nature in me, so that
when I ask, it's your asking.
You're asking through me, hallelujah.
And the reason that people don't teach this,
people don't teach this, that the reason Jesus
taught his disciples to ask, seek, and to
knock, and he said it shall be opened,
is that he had already established that the
first prayer of disciples is one of communion,
of accord, of agreement with his will.
And he said unto them, when you pray,
say, Father, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom,
thy will be done.
And when we're praying like that, then he
says, you can ask what you will, and
it shall be done, because you'll be in
right relationship with me, hallelujah.
And see, when you walk right, you talk
right.
When you walk right, you pray right.
And your prayers get through, hallelujah.
Oh, hallelujah.
You see, my kids usually know when they
can ask or not.
Sometimes, once in a while, my daughter will
say, Dad, you know, I want to ask
you something, but you'll probably say no.
And I say, you're right, I'll probably say
no.
But they know me, and they know what
they can ask for, and they know what
they shouldn't ask for.
And so it is with our heavenly father.
Your father knoweth what things ye have need
of before you ask.
Well, why ask?
Because we need to find out his mind
and his will for us.
Jesus was preoccupied with this, and so ought
we be.
So, first of all, prayer is communion, and
prayer is asking, and then Jesus, finally, thirdly,
there's a prayer of intercession.
Probably the greatest thing, and I'm not going
to spend a lot of time on this,
but I believe the greatest thing, one of
the most beautiful things about his prayer, if
you read it, go home and read it.
Primarily, Jesus is interceding for his disciples, and
he shows us the importance of intercessory prayer,
standing in the gap before him on behalf
of others.
Look at verse 9.
He said, I ask on their behalf.
I do not ask on behalf of the
world, but of those whom thou hast given
me, for they are thine.
And Jesus said, and please follow me carefully,
because I'm praying that some of you will
find a ministry tonight.
You'll find a ministry tonight, a ministry of
intercessory prayer.
Jesus said one of the reasons he was
sent into the world was to form a
body of people who are filled with his
love, and over and over again in John
17, Jesus intercedes for his disciples in his
church, and he uses words like them and
us, and he prays for them, intercedes for
them.
And by doing so, he's teaching us modeling
prayer.
E.M. Bounds, who was one of the
great writers on prayer, states this.
Listen carefully.
He says, talking to men for God is
a great thing, but talking to God for
men is even greater still.
And I believe this is a place in
God that he wants all of his children
to reach, to turn our focus from ourselves
and our needs onto others, and to intercede
for others, even as Christ is at the
right hand of the Father, ever making intercession
for us.
And listen, I want to say something.
If I could hear Christ praying for me
in the next room, I would not fear
a million enemies, but I want you to
know there is no distance.
Hallelujah.
He is praying for me.
Hallelujah.
And you know what that means?
Because he's praying for me, it frees me
up to pray for other people and to
have a ministry of intercession, because I know
he's got me all taken care of.
Hallelujah.
And I've watched some of you.
I've watched the Lord change some of you,
where every time you prayed, and every time,
and some of you are still at this
place, but some of you, God's taken you
beyond that, but some of you are still
at the place.
Every altar call that's given, you respond to
it.
And that's all right.
I'd rather have you come this way than
go that way.
But I want to tell you something.
The Lord wants, the reason that he wants
to clean up your life is that he
wants you to take the focus off of
yourself and onto other people and to begin
to intercede.
And oh, I've seen some of you.
God's brought you.
You used to be all inwardly focused.
Everything you prayed for was self, not everything,
but a lot of things you prayed for
were self-centered.
But God's taken.
Now you've given yourself to him, and the
focus is coming off of yourself, and the
focus is coming onto him.
And when it comes onto him, like Jesus,
you'll want to begin to intercede for other
people.
The reason it's important to clean up your
life and to grow and mature in him
is so that you can be a giver,
not just a taker, an intercessor, not just
a petitioner, and one who stands before God
for others, not just for yourself.
And some of you, listen, there is a
little book, not a little one, but there
is a book back at the book table
called Operation World.
It has an account of every country in
the world.
I have one at home.
I happen to be in Peru right now.
I go to Peru as often as I
can during the week, interceding in prayer, because
years ago, God put it on my heart.
He gave me China one time.
He gave me Vietnam one time in a
motel room, interceding in such agony, prayer that
I had to put the pillow over my
face because the spirit of intercession had come
upon me.
And my friend, many of you are looking
for a ministry.
I want to tell you, you can have
a worldwide ministry and not even leave home,
not even buy an airplane ticket.
You can go to whatever country you want,
hallelujah, on your knees before God interceding.
And I say to you, take on a
country.
Take on East Europe.
We heard about it Sunday morning.
Take it on and be an intercessor for
the Lord, hallelujah.
Well, one final word about prayer.
When we pray, we must have faith and
confidence that God the Father hears us.
There's an old evangelist a century ago, Sam
Jones.
He said this, he said, Many a fellow
is praying for rain with his tubs the
wrong side up.
Now, Jesus prayed with such confidence that he
knew his father was listening.
Matthew 6, 8, I quoted it before.
He said, But ye therefore, be ye therefore
not like unto them.
Don't be like the people who just say
in the name of Jesus and don't know
Jesus or people who pray just mere words
and they don't have faith, they don't have
confidence, they don't believe that God will hear
them.
He said, For your father knoweth what things
ye have need of before ye ask him.
Now, think of that.
It makes it a lot easier to go
to the Father when you know that he
knows what our need is, even before we
ask.
And all he is, he's waiting for us
to come before him with confidence and desire
so that he can release the answer.
And this confidence and trust in the Father
is especially important when our prayers don't seem
to be getting through and we're being tested
by things that seem to indicate that God
has forgotten about us.
You see, sometimes when I pray, the Lord
sends it federal express.
When I walked in the church tonight, I
thought maybe one of the answers was on
the way.
There was a federal express truck parked right
in front of the church.
I thought, well, Lord, maybe you're sending me
one of my answers.
But sometimes he sends it by fourth-class
U.S. mail.
Very slow.
And sometimes I think it gets lost in
the mail.
Have you ever had this happen to you?
That he got your address mixed up and
you hear somebody else give a praise report
and you say, hey, they got my letter?
They got my answer?
Jesus shows us the importance of having a
proper attitude.
And I had to close on this note
because if there's one thing the Lord's been
speaking to me about, the one thing that
I am going to share as much as
I can throughout this year, that we must
come.
That's why I heard a chorus here.
I grabbed a hold of it.
About confidence.
When you come to the Lord, you've got
to come.
Otherwise, it's vain repetition.
You've got to come faith-believing.
Turn with me one last Scripture.
One last Scripture or two Scriptures.
I want you to go to John chapter
12.
And I must share this because the Holy
Spirit put this on my heart.
He showed me something in regards to prayer.
This is John 12, 23.
And Jesus answering them saying, the hour has
come for the Son to be glorified.
Now, what an hour that was that Jesus
was referring to.
He was going to be glorified.
He was going to have the glory which
he had with the Father before the world
had begun, before the world was.
But he was going to have to suffer
rejection and suffering and pain and death before
receiving the answer to his prayer.
And look how Jesus illustrated his hour of
trial in verse 24.
He said, truly, truly, I say to you,
unless a grain of wheat falls into the
earth and dies, it remains by itself alone.
But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
And note the words that says, it remains
by itself alone.
And Jesus is referring to himself and his
ordeal in death.
That's the it.
That's the grain of wheat that he's talking
about that must remain by itself alone.
But you will note that Jesus also applies
it to you and I.
He says, truly, truly.
And whenever there's a double use of a
word, you know that that is very, that
means, it means like when brother Dave says,
look this way and give me your good
ear.
That's what it means.
It means it's very important, listen to it.
He says, truly, truly, I say unto you
and what he says is that there are
times when we are like the grain of
wheat falling into the earth and we remain
there by ourselves alone, feeling lonely, rejected, suffering
pain, waiting for the answer, waiting to be
glorified.
Now, the Lord showed me that that's what
it's like often when we enter into the
secret closet of prayer and why some people
don't pray.
Prayer in one sense is like being a
grain of wheat that falls into the ground.
It is alone.
We are alone.
And the grain has no human contact for
a period of time.
It has no natural light.
It has no natural fellowship.
It has no one to hold it.
It lies in cold dirt.
And the reason why many do not pray
is because prayer takes us out of the
realm of the natural.
It cuts us off from creature comforts.
We are not in contact with friends, with
counselors, with pastor, or with what might soothe
and comfort us.
Prayer is an aloneness.
It requires being shut off of our natural
environment.
It's like being put into dark, cold dirt
like a grain of wheat.
And you see, some people are unwilling to
accept that.
They are unwilling to go through that.
They're unwilling to remain alone.
And also, they do not have confidence in
the Father while the grain of wheat remains
alone.
They'd rather have somebody pick them up and
put them in their hand and say, Oh,
it's okay, grain.
Grain, you'll be okay.
Grain, I'll give you a little bit of
sunshine.
Grain, I'll give you a little bit of
rain.
Everything will be all right.
You'll grow, you'll get your answer.
No, no, a thousand times no.
That is not how a grain of wheat
bears much fruit.
Jesus said the hour has now come for
the Son of Man to be glorified.
Now, do you see how he stated it?
Even though he was to go into the
earth and die, and though he was to
abide alone, yet he saw beyond it.
He saw beyond it.
He saw also the hour of his glorification
and resurrection.
And let me tell you, my friend, when
you go into the ground and you abide
alone, and there's nobody but you and the
Father, you must recognize, yes, beyond that death,
the answer comes, hallelujah.
One last scripture, one last scripture.
And I do mean I'm closing with this.
Here is what happens when we pray with
confidence.
And here's what happens when the grain of
wheat has fallen into the ground and remains
by itself.
And you know, this past week, I heard
about a member of our body who was
under attack of the devil, just came out
of nowhere.
And I didn't hear all the details, but
that night I went back to my room,
and while I was praying, the Holy Spirit
gave me a sense of aloneness, the loneliness
of what that individual was going through.
And when I was feeling that loneliness, the
Holy Spirit took me to John 12, unless
the grain of wheat fall into the ground
and abideth alone.
And I read that.
And then I came here to John 16,
32.
And I said, oh, I can identify with
this.
Jesus says, Behold, my hour is coming, and
has already come for you to be scattered,
each to his own home, nobody to be
with him, nobody to watch with him, nobody
to talk with him, nobody, listen, it's all
right when you go through a trial, it's
all right to pick up the phone and
talk to somebody.
Sure, do it.
It's all right to have somebody pray for
you.
It's all right to reach out to others.
But finally, my friend, you reach the end,
and you gotta go into the ground, you
gotta go into the dirt, and you gotta
abide alone, as Jesus was alone.
But then he says, Behold, an hour is
coming, and has already come for you to
be scattered, each to his own home, and
to leave me alone.
And yet, hallelujah, I am not alone, because
the Father is with me.
Hallelujah.
That's the confidence.
That's the confidence that God wants you to
have when you're being buried, and you're waiting
for the third day.
You're alone, but you're not alone.
Hallelujah.
The Father is with you.
Glory to God.
Mark 15, 36, And one ran and filled
a sponge full of vinegar, and put it
on a reed, and gave it to him,
saying, Let alone.
Let us see whether Elias will come and
take him.
No, Elias was not there, but the Father
was.
He was alone, and yet not alone.
Hallelujah.
And the Lord will do for you.
The Lord will do for you.
When you're like a son who comes to
the Father, you abide in his will.
And many times when you do that, you're
gonna have to go into the ground.
Ah, but if it abideth alone, it'll bear
much fruit.
Shall we stand in prayer?
Hallelujah.
Thank you, Jesus.
Glory to God.
Hallelujah.
Oh, Lord.
Oh, Lord Jesus.
Thank you, Lord.
Oh, let's just give him praise for a
moment.
Hallelujah.
Alone but never alone.
Hallelujah.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Lord.
Oh, we praise you tonight, Lord.
We praise you tonight, Lord.
Thank you, Jesus.
Thank you, Lord.
Hallelujah.
Today, we come to worship you, Lord of
all.
Tonight, if you're here and you know what
I'm talking about, you experienced that aloneness.
You experience it now.
And yet your faith, your confidence in God,
has been shaken or is weak.
And you resist that.
Say, Lord, I don't know whether I can
take this aloneness or not.
The Lord's trying to quicken you tonight.
The Lord's trying to show you something tonight
through his word.
And if you're here tonight and you're experiencing
that aloneness, rejection and God has shown you
that it's that corn, that's that grain of
wheat that must fall into the ground and
abide by itself.
And you say, I was rebelling is that
I was not seeing that.
I've been a hard time accepting that.
I've been doubting God, whether he does have
everything under control or that he's been leaving
me down there too long.
Or you keep wanting to come up prayer
or you keep wanting to come up for
creature comforts rather than to be submitted to
God's will.
If God's speaking to you tonight through the
message, or if you're here tonight and you
don't even know the Lord, but I've preached
to Christians tonight.
If you're backslidden, you don't know Jesus.
You said, listen, I don't have any car.
I must admit, I don't have confidence in
God.
Well, I want to tell you, he's not
giving up on you.
You might've given up on him.
He hasn't given up on you.
If you're here tonight and you have say,
I've been cold or indifferent or I'm backslidden.
I have no confidence in God.
I, my life is not what it ought
to be.
Will you step out, get out of the
balcony down below here and come to the
altar.
Whoever you are tonight.
If God's spoken to you, come out.
This altar is open for you.
God's trying to minister to you tonight.
Oh, this is the conclusion of the tape
about captives.
Those that are held hostage victimized.
It says that for the captives, there's going
to be freedom.