PRAYER The Last Days Newsletter/June 1982 By Leonard RavenhillTHE GOSPEL OF PRAYER There's nothing more transfiguring than prayer. People often say, "Whydo you insist on prayer so much?" The answer is very simple - because Jesusdid. You could change the title of the Gospel according to St. Luke to theGospel of Prayer. It's the prayer life of Jesus. The other evangelists saythat Jesus was in the Jordan and the Spirit descended on Him as a dove-Lukesays it was while He was praying that the Spirit descended on Him. Theother evangelists say that Jesus chose 12 disciples - Luke says it wasafter He spent a night in prayer that He chose 12 disciples. The otherevangelists say that Jesus died on a cross-Luke says that even when He wasdying Jesus was praying for those who persecuted Him. The otherevangelists say Jesus went on a mount and He was transfigured-Luke says itwas while He was praying that He was transfigured. There's nothing moretransfiguring than prayer. The scriptures say that the disciples went tobed, but Jesus went to pray as was the custom. It was His custom to pray. Now Jesus was the Son of God-He was definitely anointed for his ministry. If Jesus needed all that time in prayer, don't you and I need time inprayer? If Jesus needed it in every crisis, don't you and I need it inevery crisis? The story goes that a group of tourists visiting apicturesque village saw an old man sitting by a fence. In a ratherpatronizing way, one of the visitors asked, "Were any great men born inthis village?" Without looking up the old man replied, "No, only babies." The greatest men were once babies. The greatest saints were once toddlersin the things of the Spirit. C. H. Spurgeon was converted at the age of14. When he was 19 they built him a tabernacle seating 5,000 which hepacked twice a day-that's 10,000. How? He waited on God. He got alonewith God. He studied...and he prayed.DESPERATE PRAYER God makes all His best people in loneliness. Do you know what the secretof praying is? Praying in secret. "But you, when you pray, go intoyour inner room, and when you have shut your door... "(Matt. 6:6) Youcan't show off when the door's shut and nobody's there. You can't displayyour gifts. You can impress others, but you can't impress God. I Samuel 1:1-15 gives an account of the yearly trip Elkanah and his wife, Hannah, made to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the Lord. During this time, Hannah had been distressed that she was not able to bear a son for herhusband. This passage of Scripture gives quite a descriptive account ofher time in prayer concerning the barrenness of her womb. It saysthat Hannah wept. More than this, she wept until she was sore. Shepoured out her soul before the Lord. Her heart was grieving; she was bitter of soul, provoked, and of a sorrowful spirit. Now that's a pretty good list of affilictions - sorrow, hardship andeverything else that came upon this woman. But the key to thewhole situation is that she was a praying woman. In verse 20 it saysthat she reaped her reward. "Wherefore it came to pass, when the time was come about after Hannah had conceived, that she bare a son, andcalled his name Samuel, saying, "Because I have asked him of the Lord."Now I say very often-and people don't like it - that God doesn't answer prayer. He answers desperate prayer! Your prayer life denotes how much dependability you have on your own ability, and how much you really believe in your heart when you sing, "Nothing in myhands I bring, simply to Thy cross I cling ..." The more self - confidenceyou have, the less you pray. The less self - confidence you have, themore you have to pray. What does the Scripture say? It says that Godtakes the lowly, the things that are not. Paul says in I Corinthians 1:28 that God takes the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no flesh should glory in His presence. We need a bunch of "are nots" today.THE LANGUAGE OF THE POOR Prayer is the language of the poor. Over and over again David,the King of Israel, says, "Bow down thine ear, O Lord, hear me: for I am poor and needy." (Psalm 86:1) And do you remember that one of the greatest psalms he wrotesays, "This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him..." (Psalm 34:6)The apostle Paul overwhelms me with his spirituality, hispedigree, his colossal intellect. Yet he says that he's veryconscious that when he's weak, he is strong. He was alwaystrying to prove to himself and to others that he was a nobody. True prayer is a two-way communication. I speak to God and God speaks tome. I don't know how the Spirit makes communication-or why God needs me topray - but that's how God works."GET UP AND PRAY!" One day I was at a confererence with Dr. Raymond Edmond of Wheaton College,one of the greatest Christian educators in this country. He told us of anexperience he had while he was in Uruguay as a missionary. He hadn't beenthere long before he was sick and dying. He was so near death that they hadalready dug his grave. He had great beads of sweat on his brow and therewas a death rattle in his throat. But suddenly he sat straight up in bedand said to his wife, "Bring me my clothes!" Nobody knew what had happened.Many years later he was retelling the story in Boston. Afterward, a littleold lady with a small dog-eared, beaten-up book, approached him and asked,"What day did you say you were dying? What time was it in Uruguay? Whattime would it be in Boston?" When he answered her, her wrinkled face litup. Pointing to her book, she said,"There it is, you see? At 2 a.m. Godsaid get up and pray-the devil's trying to kill Raymond Edmond in Uruguay."And she'd gotten up and prayed. Duncan Campbell told the story of hearinga farmer in his field who was praying. He was praying about Greece. Afterward, he asked him why he was praying. The man said, "I don't know. I had a burden in the spirit and God said,'You pray, there's someone inGreece that is in a bad situation.' I prayed until I got a release." Two orthree years later the farmer was in a meeting listening to a missionary.The man described a time when he was working in Greece. He had been inserious trouble. The time? Two or three years ago. The men compared notesand discovered that it was the very same day that God had burdened afarmer, on a little island off the coast of Scotland, to pray for a man inGreece whose name he didn't even know. It may seem the Lord gives youstrange things. I don't care. If the Lord tells you something, carry onwith what the Lord tells you. "WHO SHALL ASCEND TO THE HILL OF THE LORD?"There's another experience Duncan Campbell told about when he was workingin Scotland. "I couldn't preach," he said. "I couldn't get through to God.The heavens were solid. It was as though there was a 10 ft. ceiling ofsteel." So he quit trying to preach. He asked a young man named JohnCameron to pray. The boy stood up and said, "What's the use of praying ifwe're not right right with God? He quoted the 24th Psalm, "Who shall ascendto the hill of the Lord?" You can't approach God unless your hands areclean, which means your relationships with others are clean and your heartis clean. "Who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord? He that hath cleanhands and a pure heart ..." (Psalm 24:3-4) After the boy recited Psalm 24he began to pray. He prayed 10, 15, 20 minutes. Then he suddenly said,"Excuse me, Lord, while I resist the devil." He turned around and began totell the devil where to go and how to get there. He fought for all he wasworth. You talk about having on the armor of God and resisting the devil! When he finished resisting the devil, he finished his prayer. He prayed for45 minutes! When he finished praying it was just as though God had pulled alittle switch in heaven. The Spirit of God came down on that church, thatcommunity, on the dance hall at the other end of town and the tavern onthis end of town. Revival was born in that prayer! At the end of Malachiit says, "The Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly (that's the word I like,suddenly) come to his temple." (Mal. 3:1) Remember a bunch of men that hadbeen waiting in the upper room? Suddenly the Holy Spirit came on them inthat room. There's a date in history that I love very much. It wasWednesday, August 13,1737. A little group of people in Moravia were waitingin a prayer meeting. At 11:00 suddenly the Holy Spirit came. Do you knowwhat happened? The prayer meeting that began at 11:00 lasted 100 years! That's right. That prayer room was not empty for a century! It's thelongest prayer among men and women that I know of. Even children six andseven years old travailed in prayer for countries the name of which theycouldn't even spell. WHY WE DON'T HAVE REVIVAL In an old town inIreland they'll show you with reverence a place where four young men metnight after night after night praying for revival. In Wales, there's aplace in the hills where three or four young men only 18 or 19 years oldmet and prayed night after night. They wouldn't let God go; they would nottake no for an answer. As far as humanly possible they prayed a revivalinto birth. If you're thinking of revival at your church without anyinconvenience, forget it. Revival costs a lot. I can give you one simplereason why we don't have revival in America. Because we're content to livewithout it. We're not seeking God-we're seeking miracles, we're seeking bigcrusades, we're seeking blessings. In Numbers 11, Moses said to God,"You're asking me to carry a burden I can't handle. Do something or killme!" Do you think it's time we changed Patrick Henry's prayer from, Give meliberty or give me death," to "Give me revival or let me die"? In the 30thchapter of Genesis, Rachael goes to Jacob and throws herself down indespair. She says, "Give me children or I die." Are you willing to throwyourself down before God to seek the spiritual birth of spiritual childrenin our country? People say, "I'm filled with the Holy Spirit." If thecoming of the Spirit didn't revolutionize your prayer life, you'd bettercheck on it. I'm not so sure you got what God wanted you get. We've saidthat prayer changes things. No! Prayer doesn't change things. Prayerchanges people and they change things. We all want Gabriel to do the job. God says do it yourself-with My sufficiency and My strength. We need toget like this woman, Hannah. What did she do? she wept, she was grieved,she said she had a complaint, she fasted-and she prayed. Jesus, theanointed of God, made prayer His custom. Paul, with his background andintellect, depended on prayer because he said he was weak. David, theking, called himself a poor man and cried to the lord. Hannah prayed for ason and gave birth to a prophet. The prayers of a handful of young mensparked revival. There's nothing more transfiguring than prayer.
