Talk on Prayer — Hans R. Waldvogel

I think we have a song, prayer changes things. Well it don't. It's God that changes things. And unless prayer brings me to God, unless prayer is coupled with devotion and sacrifice, it isn't prayer. Lots of people pray.

We had a fellow come to us from Japan and he told us how that he learned how to pray to Buddha because his grandmother promised him a yen for every thousand times he pronounced the name Buddha. And he was able to pronounce that name like I couldn't.

He learned how to say Buddha, Buddha, Buddha, Buddha, Buddha, Buddha, Buddha. Then he'd go to grandma, get another yen. Well that's the way people pray our Father, that wonderful, wonderful prayer. Well they're told to.

Somebody presented me with a rosary a few weeks ago. And so they learned to pray by the rosary. Heilige Mariamotte Gottes, bet für ins armes Linder. Jetzt in der Stunde unseres Absterben, Amen. And it's just, you might just as well hire a parrot or turn on a phonograph, but how very, very, very, very different when you find yourself submitting your will, yourself, to Jesus.

Prayer as Devotion and Sacrifice

Only Jesus Christ can teach us to pray. Lord, teach us to pray. And then he says, well, come, let me reign king of my life. Oh, is that what he is? And when I come to him, he becomes king of my life. Prayer means devotion, and it means sacrifice.

Old Testament prayer always were coupled with sacrifices, whole burnt offerings. And the whole Old Testament is saturated with blood of sacrificial animals, typifying that that's what it takes to worship God in spirit and in truth.

It requires death, sacrifice. Praise God. Oh, teach me to pray, my God. Our Father, hallowed be thy name. Why, that's the opening door into the garden of prayer. My whole life to become a sacrifice, a well-seasoned aroma, an incense ascending up from the angel's hand unto God, that the sacrifice, the offering up of the Gentiles.

Beloved, that's what the Gospel requires. A different kind of a prayer from Old Testament sacrifices that were done in the blood of bulls and of goats. Well, we sacrifice bulls and goats, too. My goodness, when you see some of those people that couple the will of an ox with the brains of a cow, God have mercy on us.

But isn't it wonderful that we can submit that whole business to the king of my life, to Jesus? Hallelujah. And that's what prayer means. It means a submission, actual, practical submission to the Holy Ghost, that wonderful fire of Jehovah.

He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. And we don't know anything about prayer until we're willing to be consumed by that fire of the Holy Ghost. Then we're brought into the holiest of all.

Then we become a living sacrifice. And then we first discover what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God that allows none of my own will to operate anymore. Oh, dear Father, I thought when we sang, King of my life, I crown thee now.

Or a while ago we sang of Jesus being our pattern in prayer. Well, that's, that's a fact. He offered himself to God for a sweet-smelling sacrifice, sweet-smelling savor. And now he says, Be ye followers of God as dear children and walk in love as Christ hath loved us and hath given himself up for us.

Oh, that's what prayer requires. A giving of myself to you, my God. That's why prayer takes a lot of time. How much time does it take? Well, at least 24 hours of every day. Oh, that's what he means when he says, Enter into your closet and shut the door.

You're a prisoner of love. Your Father's there. He rewards you openly. And how does he reward you? By communicating to you that heavenly life, that life which he spared not, but delivered him up for us all.

Prayer Meetings and the Presence of Jesus

We have a little taste of it these days. Last night we had a most marvelous prayer meeting. I don't know how many who were here discovered it. It wasn't because people prayed well. They did. They prayed under the unction of the Holy Spirit.

It was good. It is wonderful when we do that. We ought to do that all the time. But something else happened. Somewhere around nine o 'clock after we've been here an hour or an hour and a half, Jesus moved into the place.

It happened so quietly as a thief in the night that anybody who was not looking for him didn't discover it. But why don't we always look for him? Prayer is always a coming to Jesus. And it's always a coming of Jesus to me.

That's what makes prayer so perfectly marvelous. It's a spiritual exercise. It's by the Holy Ghost that we are led into all truth. And we are made to know these heavenly blessings, where with God has blessed us in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that he might gather together in one all things in Christ.

Oh, how wonderful is prayer. How much, oh, I thought prayer was talking to God or making speeches or giving God a dictation and then running away after you've said amen. No, no, no. Prayer means to be consumed by the fire of his love.

Means to ascend like the angel ascended in the fire, in the flames of that sacrifice which Manoah had brought. You remember how the angel touched the rock and fire spurted forth and then the angel went up in that flame and you and I are going up in the flames of the Holy Ghost.

Our hearts, our minds, our souls, our wills are melted in the presence of God and sacred odors rise. A sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing unto God. Oh, prayer, prayer, prayer, prayer. Teach us to pray.

Christ the Intercessor and the Call to Follow Him

Oh, thou great intercessor, thou great high priest, thou son of God who took upon himself the form of the sons of Abraham, that he might offer himself without spot unto God. And he says, if any man will serve me, let him follow me.

And where I am, there shall also my servant be. And where are you going, they said. I'm going to Calvary to give my life a ransom for many. And if any man will come after me, let him take up his cross daily.

Oh, my cross. How precious, how wonderful is that cross. It brings to me the very power of his death. It brings to me that bread that comes down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. It brings to me the lamb of God that was slain, food for my soul.

Oh, the lamb was slain. I must partake of that lamb before I can leave Egypt. I've got to be united to him, identified with him. Beloved, prayer would bring all these blessings to me if I really learn how to pray.

But without giving myself to prayer, it'll never happen. Without becoming a living sacrifice, one that does not have any power of decision or any plans of his own or any power or right to assert his own will.

These wills of ours, beloved, will certainly lead us to damnation and to destruction. Even after we claim to have been saved, what is salvation? Why, these things I speak unto you that you might be saved.

The Need for Salvation Beyond Religious Experience

Salvation. Do I need salvation? What do I need? I said, after I was baptized with the Holy Ghost and became acquainted with this wonderful truth, I hadn't heard it in the Baptist church and I hadn't heard it in the Pentecostal assemblies where I came to worship at first.

Oh, they talked about how big we were, how wonderful we were, what power we had. And all the while, flesh was on the throne. My will was on the throne. But when I came into that wonderful faith home in Illinois, where God Almighty stooped to us and spoke his will, where he said, son of mine, you're not going to be judged by how much you speak in tongues and how much you shout or how much you prophesy, but how well you keep the commands of Jesus, I withered.

I said, oh God, save me. I need salvation. At the same experience in California in Huntington Park, where we met one afternoon for a meeting and some of the renowned evangelists of one of the greatest Pentecostal organizations were present.

And after Jesus had talked to us about his lovership, how that if any man loved me, he will keep my words and then my father will love him and we will come unto him and make our abode with him. And he that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings.

The evangelist came to me and he said, Brother Waldfogel, I fear I've never been saved. Oh beloved, salvation, salvation. The Lord is my light and my salvation. My soul wait thou only upon God, for my salvation cometh from him.

That's what prayer brings to me. Drawn I to God, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of this world, meaning the friendship of yourself, your own will, your own intentions, is enmity with God.

Draw nigh to God and he will draw nigh to you. He says, strengthen the knees that are lame. Lift up the hands that are lame and then and strengthen the knees. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners, and purify your hearts, ye double-minded.

Oh beloved, when I recognize that I'm not saved until Jesus Christ gets hold, until Jesus Christ takes over my will and my affections, until my very body becomes a habitation of God and every atom of this body of my humiliation.

Becomes filled with the resurrection power of Jesus Christ. When I recognize what salvation means, I'll stop trying to save myself or I'll stop calling myself saved. I will say, the Lord is my salvation.

Oh hallelujah. Namajigai burmagul ve guraghai balaza. Lajjahi, that saith, come unto me, and him that cometh unto me, I will in no wise cast out, also laments over these self-righteous Pharisees. And he says, and ye will not come to me, that you might have life.

Prayer as Coming to God in Faith

Prayer offers me life. Prayer means that I come to God with my emptiness, my utter nothingness, but I come with perfect faith, fully persuaded that what God has promised, he is able also to perform. But I abide in your presence until you've performed it, until I've given you a chance and given you time to perform this wonder of God.

When Sister Shudi talked about those people who prayed all night, well don't we do that? Don't we pray without ceasing? Isn't your first thought in the morning, prayer? Your last thought at night and when you wake at night, isn't it the thought of God?

Isn't your heart open like a vessel? Isn't your soul a channel through which the power of God flows to others? O prayer, he that believeth on me as the scripture has said. Beloved he came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

And here we go around like beggars, begging a little sympathy, begging a little help here and a little help there. And when we get into trouble, we beg help from God. But we haven't made room for him to come and dwell within us.

We have not presented our bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God. When I was in Toronto to the Pentecostal Convention, I was impressed by the the theme of the convention. God's thought for this present time in Pentecost.

But I didn't hear much of it expressed. People talked all around the world. But there were not many of the speakers that really told what it was. What is God's purpose in the Pentecostal movement? I tell you we have a wonderful prophecy in John, I think the seventh chapter or the eighth chapter, one of those chapters, where the story is told of how Jesus went up into the mountain to pray while he urged his disciples to cross the lake in a boat.

Pentecost and the Coming of Jesus Christ

It is prophetic of what happened when Jesus lifted his hands to bless. And he said, I ascend to my Father and to your Father, to my God and to your God, go ye into all the world. And when the angel stood and said, the same Jesus will come again.

And so they started sailing across the turbulent waters of time. And when they got into the middle of the lake, the storm arose and they were sure they were going to drown. The case was so hopeless that they despaired of life.

And all the while the Son of God was in the mountain praying for them, working for them, watching them. And he saw that they were suffering. And at the fourth watch he came to them, walking on the waves, these turbulent waves.

And they cried from fear. They had a bad conscience. They said it's a ghost. Isn't that exactly what happened in the history of the church? What storm arose against the little flock of God? Not against the big church.

The big church has always been the persecutor, just like the Jewish nation persecuted and crucified Jesus. But, oh, these overcomers who went all the way with Jesus Christ, who were not satisfied with religion or organizations, but they wanted Him.

They were always filled with the Holy Ghost and they suffered even unto death. But one day he appeared. The Pentecostal movement lit up the whole world. And what did the people say? They said, a ghost.

They even said an evil spirit. They were scared. But those who were looking for him recognized his voice. It is I, be not afraid. That's what Pentecost means. It means nothing else but the coming of Jesus Christ and knocking at the door.

And if any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in. That's what prayer means. That's why the Holy Spirit has come to help us to pray. And we don't pray until we pray in the Holy Ghost. And we don't pray in the Holy Ghost if we expect him to anoint us once in a while, so that in public we can pray an acceptable prayer.

But when the Holy Spirit becomes master. It happened one time this week. I don't remember when. I sat on the platform and God put prostration power upon us. Now I don't know how many were abandoned to it, but I felt myself pressed to the floor.

And I remembered how in the early days of Pentecost that happened so many times. You couldn't stay on your seat. The power of the Holy Ghost was master, king of my life. Oh, do you want the king? Many people want the Savior.

They want to be saved. They don't want to go to hell. They want to live a decent Christian life. But who wants the king? Beloved, when he comes, he comes as a king. He's the Lord of glory. The great I am.

The Holy Spirit as Master of the Believer

And the Holy Spirit is today gaining an entrance into hearts and lives. And all that happens in prayer. It isn't prayer that changes things, but it's God that comes when I pray, when I draw night to God.

He, God, draws night to me. And the call to prayer is the call of God to let him come to me. Someone said to me the other day, does it make any difference whether I come to these prayer meetings or not?

Strange question. The question is, did God arrange for a week of prayer or was it man? If it was man, I'll have nothing to do with it. It won't interest me at all. Is it God who is trying to save the things that remain that are ready to die and to quicken them?

That's what it means. That's why he says, watch ye and pray always, because we're so tempted to fall asleep. And once you've gone to sleep, nobody can wake you up anymore. Once you've lost a candlestick, you'll be in darkness.

And what do people do? They race through the country and start a circus someplace. And they call that Pentecost. And they give it all kinds of names. They have a name that they live, but they're dead.

Jesus is life. There's no life outside of him. Oh, precious Lord, how often have we heard these wonderful truths and we don't understand them until we act upon them. And how do we act upon them? I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God.

Presenting the Body as a Living Sacrifice

He had just been talking about vessels of destruction. They chose destruction. They would none of his reproof. Do you take his reproof? When the Holy Ghost, if you don't, you'll soon be reproving somebody else.

Your heart will soon be hardened. You'll be crucifying the Son of God afresh. And you'll think you'll be doing God a service. That's the blindness that the devil visits the people of God with. But there are vessels of mercy.

Even us, whom he has chosen, not of the Jews only, but of the Gentiles also. Vessels of our young guy, Roger Lobo, to be filled with his grace out of his fullness have all we receive. What? All we have received, all the works of the flesh.

You find them in the church today. Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, covetousness, idolatry, wrath, sedition, pride, sensitiveness, hatred, vile tongues. That's Christianity today.

Instead of love that suffereth long and is kind, love that envieth not, love that bondeth not itself, that is not puffed up, that does not behave itself unseemly, that seeketh not her own, seeketh not her own, that seeketh not her own.

That must be about my father's business. Love that never faileth. Peace of God that passeth all understanding. It shows on your face. I've looked into the faces of some Christians recently and I saw the devil looking out of their eyes.

Nice Christians. They thought they were better than others. Their mouths were full of cursing and bitterness about others. I saw the devil looking out of their eyes. Why doesn't Jesus look out of their eyes?

Why doesn't the peace of God that passeth all understanding cover them up with a cloak of light? What, where did I walk? Where am I walking? Our conversation is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall change this vile body by the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself.

But he is not able if I don't submit all things to him. I do that when I pray. And beloved, do you realize how we need the Holy Ghost all the time, all the time, all the time, all the time. I don't dare walk in the flesh any longer.

I'll die if I live in the flesh. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. When I go to prayer, when I go to morning worship, when I go into the prayer closet, I need thy presence every passing hour. I need that power of Jesus, the great intercessor, to animate me.

Will he give it to me? Yes, he will. Oh, I'll be conscious of my utter nothingness. And then he'll say, my grace is sufficient for thee. Beloved, prayer would lead us to the mount of God. It would. It would lead us into the holiest place of all.

Salvation, Submission, and the Transformation of the Body

Prayer would change not us, but it would change our attitude. Prayer would bring God the Father, God the Son. Prayer. Prayer means sacrifice. It means a giving up. It means a yielding up of my being. That's why it says, I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies.

Isn't it these bodies that deceive us and that fool us? Isn't it the care of the body that takes us out of the kingdom of God? After all these things, do the heathen seek. And your heavenly Father knows that you have need of all these things before you ask him.

Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, king of my life. Oh Jesus, lead me to Calvary. That you present your bodies a living. Beloved, there's no medicine on earth that can do for you what that living life of Jesus will do for your body, your mortal body.

It'll prepare you for the rapture. It'll prepare you for that moment when you shall be clothed upon with immortality. Present your body a living sacrifice. What does that mean? Why God wants not only your heart and your soul and your spirit, but God has purchased your body.

It does not belong to you. It belongs to God. And when you submit this body to God, he'll do something. All the dark forces of death and of sin will go out of your body and the life of Jesus will take over.

It will still be a body of humiliation. It'll still be dust and ashes. But within this body, which is only a mold, there will be shaped. There will come forth a new body. Something we don't see, but you can feel it.

It's the spirit that raised Jesus from the dead. He's on the job. Thank God. Oh beloved, there are victories that God is holding for his people that we, we don't know about because they're not being taught today in the world.

They cannot be taught. We haven't learned the ABC. Oh, what is God's plan for this work? He told us what his plan was. Do you know that when God gave us that new year's text, it came right down from heaven, knowing the time that now it is high time to awake from sleep for now is our salvation nearer than when we believe.

And what is our salvation? Oh, it's the coming of Jesus Christ claiming his purchase possession. Am I ready for it? Beloved, I need to pray. I need to draw nigh to God. I need to present my body a living sacrifice.

I need to let him renew my mind by transforming it so that my mind will not be occupied and controlled by the spirit of the pit, the prince of the bottomless pit, the spirit that now workers in the children of disobedience.

As long as I hang on to my own will and my own thoughts and my own ideas and my self-love and my self-esteem, I'm already prayed to that demon of hell that works in the children of disobedience. We see him working today.

The Danger of Dead Religion

Don't you see today what Jesus means when he says the vultures will come and pounce on the carcass? Where is the carcass? Why is a dead Christianity, a dead church, dead organizations, a dead profession?

Wherever that dead profession is, the vultures come, the demons of hell come. That's why I said I saw the devil looking out of the eyes of a saint of God. He's a saint, but an unsacrificed saint. I told a Jew, he was an uncircumcised Jew, and he got mad at me.

Why, that's their pride. But we ought to be circumcised with a circumcision, not made with hands, in our hearts. And then, he says, you shall prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Will you pray then? Certainly, you'll pray. Then your prayer will be acceptable. Then before they call, I will answer. All things are ready. Then we enter into rest. And that kind of prayer is a restful prayer.

You cease from your own works.