The Power of Prayer and the Prayer of Power

I

THE POWER OF PRAYER

"Ye have not, because ye ask not."—JAMES 4:2.

IBRING you a message from God contained in seven short words. Six of the seven words are mono-syllables, and the remaining word has but two syllables and is one of the most familiar and most easily understood words in the English language. Yet there is so much in these seven short, simple words that they have transformed many a life and brought many an inefficient worker into a place of great power.

I spoke on these seven words some years ago at a Bible conference in Central New York. Some months after the conference I received a letter from the man who had presided at the conference, one of the best known ministers of the Gospel in America. He wrote me, I have been unable to get away from the seven words upon which you spoke at Lake Keuka, they have been with me day and night. They have transformed my ideas, transformed my methods, transformed my life, and, I think I have a right to add, transformed my ministry. The man who wrote those words has since been the pastor of what is probably the most widely-known of any evangelical church in the world. I trust that the words may sink into some of your hearts today as they did into his on that occasion, and that some of you will be able to say in future months and years, I have been unable to get away from those seven words, they have been with me day and night. They have transformed my ideas, transformed my methods, transformed my life, and transformed my service for God.

You will find these seven words in Jas. 4:2, the seven closing words of the verse, Ye have not, BECAUSE YE ASK NOT.

These seven words contain the secret of the poverty and powerlessness of the average Christian, of the average minister, and of the average Church. Why is it, many a Christian is asking, that I make such poor progress in my Christian life? Why do I have so little victory over sin? Why do I win so few souls to Christ? Why do I grow so slowly into the likeness of my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ? And God answers in the words of our text—Neglect of prayer. You have not, because you ask not.

Why is it, many a minister is asking, that I see so little fruit from my ministry? Why are there so few conversions? Why does my church grow so slowly? Why are the members of my church so little helped by my ministry, and built up so little in Christian knowledge and life? And again God replies: "Neglect of prayer. You have not, because you ask not"

Why is it, both ministers and churches are asking, that the Church of Jesus Christ is making such slow progress in the world today? Why does it make so little headway against sin, against unbelief, against error in all its forms? Why does it have so little victory over the world, the flesh, and the Devil? Why is the average Church member living on such a low plane of Christian living? Why does the Lord Jesus Christ get so little honour from the state of the Church today? And, again, God replies: "Neglect of prayer. You have not, because you ask not"

When we read the only inspired church history that was ever written, the history of the Church in the days of the Apostles as it is recorded by Luke (under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit) in the Acts of the Apostles, what do we find? We find a story of constant victory, a story of perpetual progress. We read, for example, such statements as this in Acts 2:47: "The Lord added to the church daily those that were being saved; and such statements as this in Acts 4:4: Many of them which heard the Word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand,"and such statements as this in Acts 5:14: "And believers were the more added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women."

And such statements as this in Acts 6:7: "And the Word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith"

And so we go on, chapter after chapter, through the twenty-eight chapters of the Book, and in every one of the twenty-seven chapters after the first we find the same note of victory. I once went through the Acts of the Apostles marking the note of victory in every chapter, and without one single exception the triumphant shout of victory rang out in every chapter. How different the history of the Church as here recorded is from the history of the Church of Jesus Christ today. Take for example, that first statement, "The Lord added to the Church daily (that is every day, or, as the Revised Version puts it, 'day by day ’) those that were being saved." Why, nowadays if we have a revival once a year with an accession of fifty or sixty members and spend all the rest of the year slipping back to where we were before, we think we are doing pretty well. But in those days there was a revival all the time and accessions every day of those who not only hit the trail but were (really) being saved.

Why this difference between the early Church and the Church of Jesus Christ to-day? Someone will answer, Because there is so much opposition today. Ah, but there was opposition in those days; most bitter, most determined, most relentless opposition, opposition in comparison with which that which you and I met today is but child’s play. But the early Church went right on beating down all opposition, surmounting every obstacle, conquering every foe, always victorious, right on without a setback from Jerusalem to Rome, in the face of the most firmly entrenched and most mighty heathenism and unbelief. I repeat the question—Why was it? If you will turn to the chapters from which I have already quoted, you will get your answer.

Turn, for example, to the first chapter from which I quoted, Acts 2, and read the 42d verse: "And they continued stedfastly in the Apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and the prayers." That is a picture very brief but very suggestive of the early Church. IT WAS A PRAYING CHURCH. It was a Church in which they prayed not merely occasionally, but where they all "continued stedfastly ... in the prayers." They all prayed, not a select few, but the whole membership of the Church; and all prayed continuously with stedfast determination. "They gave themselves to prayer" as the same Greek word is translated in Acts 6:4. Now turn to the last chapter from which I quoted, the sixth chapter, verse four, and you will get the rest of your answer. "We will give ourselves continually to prayer. That is a picture of the Apostolic ministry, it was a praying ministry, and a ministry that gave themselves continually to prayer, or, to translate that Greek word as it is translated in the former passage (Acts 2:42), They continued stedfastly in prayer." A PRAYING CHURCH AND A PRAYING MINISTRY! Ah, such a Church and such a ministry can achieve anything that ought to be achieved. It will go steadily on beating down all opposition, surmounting every obstacle, conquering every foe, just as much today as it did in the days of the Apostles.

There is nothing else in which the Church of today, and the ministry of today, or, to be more explicit, in which you and I, have departed more notably and more lamentably from apostolic precedent than in this matter of prayer. We do not live in a praying age. A very considerable proportion of the membership of our evangelical churches today do not believe even theoretically in prayer, that is, they do not believe in prayer as bringing anything to pass that would not have come to pass even if they had not prayed. They believe in prayer as having a beneficial reflex influence, that is, as benefiting the person who prays, a sort of lifting yourself up by your spiritual boot-straps, but as for prayer bringing anything to pass that would not have come to pass if we had not prayed, they do not believe in it and many of them frankly say so, and even some of our modern ministers say so.

And with that part of our church membership that does believe in prayer theoretically—and thank God I believe it is still the vast majority in our evangelical churches— even they do not make the use of this mighty instrument that God has put into our hands that one would naturally expect. As I said, we do not live in a praying age. We live in an age of hustle and bustle, of man’s efforts and man’s determination, of man’s confidence in himself and in his own power to achieve things, an age of human organization, and human machinery, and human push, and human scheming, and human achievement; which in the things of God means no real achievement at all. I think it would be perfectly safe to say, that the Church of Christ was never in all its history so fully and so skillfully and so thoroughly and so perfectly organized as it is today. Our machinery is wonderful, it is just perfect, but alas it is machinery without power; and when things do not go right, instead of going to the real source of our failure, our neglect to depend upon God and to look to God for power, we look around to see if there is not some new organization we can get up, some new wheel that we can add to our machinery. We have all together too many wheels already. What we need is not so much some new organization, some new wheel, but the Spirit of the living creature in the wheels we already possess.

I believe that the Devil stands and looks at the Church today and laughs in his sleeve, as he sees how its members depend upon their own scheming and powers of organization and skillfully devised machinery. Ha, ha, he laughs, you may have your Y. M. C. A.'s, and Y. W. C. A's, and your W. C. T. U.'s, and Y. P. S. C. E.'s, and B. Y. P. U.'s., and your Boy Scouts, and your costly church-edifices, and your fifty-thousand dollar church organs, and your brilliant university-bred preachers, and your high-priced choirs, and your gifted sopranos, and altos, and tenors, and basses, and your wonderful quartets, your immense Men’s Bible Classes, yes, and your Bible Conferences, and your Bible Institutes, and your special evangelistic services, all you please of them, it does not in the least trouble me, if you will only leave out of them the power of the Lord God Almighty sought and obtained by the earnest, persistent, believing prayer that will not take ' no ' for an answer. But when the Devil sees a man or woman who really believes in prayer, who knows how to pray, and who really does pray, and above all, when he sees a whole church on its face before God in prayer, he trembles as much as he ever did, for he knows that his day in that church or community is at an end.

Prayer has as much power today, when men and women are themselves on praying ground and meeting the conditions of prevailing prayer, as it ever has had. God has not changed; and His ear is just as quick to hear the voice of real prayer, and His hand is just as long and strong to save, as it ever was. Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save: neither hi9 ear heavy, that it cannot hear. But our iniquities may have separated between us and our God, and our sins may have hid his face from us, that he will not hear. (Is. 59:1, 2.) Prayer is the key that unlocks all the storehouses of God’s infinite grace and power. All that God is, and all that God has, is at the disposal of prayer. But we must use the key. Prayer can do anything that God can do, and as God can do anything, prayer is omnipotent. No one can stand against the man who knows how to pray and who meets all the conditions of prevailing prayer and who really prays. The Lord God Omnipotent works for him and works through him.

I. PRAYER WILL PROMOTE OUR PERSONAL HOLINESS AS NOTHING ELSE EXCEPT THE STUDY OF THE WORD OF GOD

But what, specifically, will prayer do? We have been dealing in generalities, let us come down to the definite and specific. The Word of God very plainly answers the question.

In the first place, prayer will promote our personal piety, our individual holiness, our individual growth into the likeness of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ as almost nothing else, as nothing else hut the study of the Word of God; and these two things, prayer and study of the Word of God, always go hand-in-hand, for there is not true prayer without study of the Word of God, and there is no true study of the Word of God without prayer.

Other things being equal, your growth and mine into the likeness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be in exact proportion to the time and to the heart we put into prayer. Please note exactly what I say: "Your growth and mine into the likeness of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be in exact proportion to the time and to the heart we put into prayer. I put it in that way because there are many who put a great deal of time into praying but they put so little heart into their praying that they do very little praying in the long time they spend at it; while there are others who perhaps may not put so much time into praying but who put so much heart into their praying, that they accomplish vastly more by their praying in a .short time than the others accomplish by their praying a long time. God Himself has told us in Jer. 29:13: And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart"

We are told in the Word of God in Eph. 1:3, that God hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ." That is to say, that Jesus Christ by His atoning death and by His resurrection and ascension to the right hand of the Father, has obtained for every believer in Jesus Christ every possible spiritual blessing. There is no spiritual blessing that any believer enjoys that may not be yours. It belongs to you now, Christ purchased it by His atoning death and God has provided it in Him. It is there for you; but it is your part to claim it, to put out your hand and take it. and God’s appointed way of claiming blessings, or putting out your hand and appropriating to yourself the blessings that are procured for you by the atoning death of Jesus Christ, is by prayer. Prayer is the hand that takes to ourselves the blessings that God has already provided in His Son.

Go through your Bible and you will find it definitely stated that every conceivable spiritual blessing is obtained by prayer. For example, it is in answer to prayer, as we learn from Psalm 139:23, 24, that God searches us and knows our hearts, tries us and knows our thoughts, brings to light the sin that there is in us and delivers us from it. It is in answer to prayer, as we learn from Psalm 19:12, 13, that we are cleansed from secret faults and God keeps us back from presumptuous sins. It is in answer to prayer, as we learn from the 14th verse of the same Psalm, that the words of our mouth and the meditations of our heart are made acceptable in God’s sight. It is in answer to prayer, as we learn from the 25th Psalm, verses 4 and 5, that God shows us His ways and teaches us His path, and guides us in His truth. It is in answer to prayer, as we learn from the prayer our Lord Himself taught us, that we are kept from temptation and delivered from the power of the wicked one. (Matt 6:13 R. V.) It is in answer to prayer, as we learn from Luke 11:13, that God gives us His Holy Spirit, and so we might go on through the whole catalogue of spiritual blessings and we would find that every one is obtained by asking for it. Indeed, our Lord Himself has said in Matt. 7:11: "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him"

One of the most instructive and suggestive passages in the entire Bible as showing the mighty power of prayer to transform us into the likeness of our Lord Jesus Himself, is found in II Cor. 3:18: "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror [The English Revision reads better 'reflecting as a mirror '] the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit. The thought is this, that the Lord is the Sun, you and I are mirrors, and just as a mischievous boy on a bright sunshiny day will catch the rays of the sun in a piece of broken looking-glass and reflect them into your eyes and mine with almost blinding power, so we as mirrors, when we commune with God, catch the rays of His moral glory and reflect them out upon the world from glory to glory, that is, each new time we commune with Him we catch something new of His glory and reflect it out upon the world. You remember the story of Moses, not folk lore as some would have us believe, but actual history, how he went up into the Mount and tarried alone for forty days with God, gazing upon that ineffable glory, and caught so much of the glory in his own face that when he came down from the Mount, though he himself knew it not, his face so shone that he had to draw a veil over it to hide the blinding glory of it from his fellow Israelites. Even so we, going up into the Mount of prayer, away from the world, alone with God, and remaining long alone with God, catch the rays of His glory so that when we come down to our fellow men not so much our faces shine (though I do believe that sometimes even our faces shine), but our characters, with the glory that we have been beholding, and we reflect out upon the world the moral glory of God from glory to glory," each new time of communion with Him catching something new of His glory to reflect out upon the world. Oh, here is the secret of becoming much like God, remaining long alone with God. If you won't stay long with Him, you won't be much like Him.

One of the most remarkable men in Scotland’s history was John Welch, son-in-law of John Knox, the great Scotch reformer; not so well known as his famous father-in-law but in some respects a far more remarkable man than John Knox himself. Most people have the idea that it was John Knox who prayed: Give me Scotland or I die. It was not, it was John Welch, his son-in-law. John Welch put it on record before he died, that he counted that day ill-spent that he did not put seven or eight hours into secret prayer; and when John Welch came to die an old Scotchman who had known him from his boyhood said of John Welch, John Welch was a type of Christ. Of course that was an inaccurate use of language, but what the old Scotchman meant was, that Jesus Christ had stamped the impress of His character upon John Welch. When had Jesus Christ done it? In those seven or eight hours of daily communion with Himself. I do not suppose that God has called many of us, if any of us, to put seven or eight hours a day into prayer, but I am confident God has called most of us, if not everyone of us, to put more time into prayer than we now do. That is one of the great secrets of holiness; indeed, the only way in which we can become really holy and continue holy.

Some years ago we often sang a hymn, Take Time to be Holy. I wish we sang it more in these days. It takes time to be holy, one cannot be holy in a hurry; and much of the time that it takes to be holy must go into secret prayer. Some people express surprise that professing Christians today are so little like their Lord, but when I stop to think how little time the average Christian today puts into secret prayer the thing that astonishes me is, not that we are so little like the Lord, but that we are as much like the Lord as we are, when we take so little time for secret prayer.

II. PRAYER WILL BRING THE POWER OF GOD INTO OUR WORK

But not only will prayer promote as almost nothing else our personal holiness, but Prayer will also bring the power of God into our work. We read in Isaiah 40:31: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk [plod right along day after day, which is far harder than running or flying], and not faint."

It is the privilege of every child of God to have the power of God in their service. And the verse just quoted tells us how to obtain it, and that is by waiting upon the Lord. Sometimes you will hear people stand up in meeting, not so frequently perhaps in these days as in former days, and say: I am trying to serve God in my poor, weak way. Well, if you are trying to serve God in your poor, weak way, quit it: your duty is to serve God in His strong triumphant way. But you say I have no natural ability; then get supernatural ability. The religion of