The Burden of God Brings Brokenness — Gerhard Du Toit

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold.

You are welcome to make copies for your friends and neighbors. If you would like additional messages, please go to our website for a complete listing at www .charityministries .org. If you would like a catalogue of other sermons, please call 1 -800 -227 -7902 or write to Charity Ministries, 400 West Main Street, Suite 1, EFRA, PA 17522.

These messages are offered to all without charge by the freewill offerings of God's people. A special thank you to all who support this ministry.

It may be a surprise to some of you, but God, He is such a good God. We had scheduled Brother David Smith from Brunson, Michigan to come and speak to you tonight. He has a very, very sick child that progressed ever worse and developed pneumonia and is in intensive care or was.

He called and cancelled that he could not come. On top of that, our dear Brother Gerard Dutoit from Western Canada, Vancouver, British Columbia, I'm not sure, somewhere over there, who spoke at our Leadership Seminar in 1996, that's six years or five years ago, almost six years ago until February.

And I haven't seen him since, until tonight. So it's a special joy for me to see my Brother Gerard. But Gerard called and said he was in Philadelphia area and he would have Thursday free. And thought he would come and see a little what's happening here.

Well, we asked him whether he would speak to us tonight. And he consented that he would. So tonight Brother Gerard Dutoit is with us through the marvelous hand of God that so fitted this together in our need.

And I'm sure he can express himself from there as to what God is doing in his life. Come Brother Gerard and we'll have prayer with him and for him before he takes the pulpit. Father in heaven, God, we come to you in Jesus name.

We thank you how you work in sovereign ways beyond which we can comprehend. And tonight here we are and our Brother has agreed to speak to us and we pray for a special anointing upon him by the Spirit of God.

Touch him and I know he hasn't been here all week, but I pray God that you would have already spoken to him and will tonight to say the things that we need to hear. We pray for that. We ask you and we know you're able to do that.

And we're going to trust you Lord that he will speak to our hearts. And we know if he preaches the word of God it will always be right and will always be to our hearts. And we thank you for that. And so we ask you Lord to bless the congregation, everyone that is here.

There are many needs here tonight yet, we know that. And we pray that tonight the young folks who have held out thus far would have the grace to let go. And to let God take over in their life. We pray that in Jesus Christ's name.

Amen. God bless you.

The Burden of God and the Necessity of Brokenness

I just want to say it's a wonderful joy and a tremendous privilege to be able to be with you here this evening. It was as Brother Mo said six years ago that I had the privilege of being at the Leadership Conference together.

And ever since that time I have with great interest followed that which God has been doing. In between the last six years Brother Denny and myself a few times had the privilege of spending weekends in prayer together down in Idaho.

But I often say to people you don't need to be in touch with people in order to pray for them. You just need to be in touch with God. And so it's wonderful for us to be able to pray for one another. And I'm involved in what we call prayer conferences.

You know there is this great truth that if we can't get through to God we will never be able to get through to the lives of people. And so what we do in places where I go to is that if we have a conference from a Sunday or a Saturday that goes through to the next Thursday or the Friday.

Every morning we come together for prayer. And we climb underneath the burden of God in the place of prayer. And the very first thing that always happens is that God begins to break our hearts. Because God can only use us to the degree that we have become broken before God.

And as we climb underneath the burden of God in the place of prayer. Every morning and every afternoon we trust God to help us to systematically pray through for every aspect of that which we are doing that week.

And I just finished a conference like that last night. And last night the blessing to me is that the evening sessions like this is always the outflow of a day in the presence of God. And last night God came in such a precious way and just broke into our midst and broke our hearts in His presence.

There is nothing so wonderful that you and I can bring to the God that we are serving as when we bring to Him a heart that has been absolutely and totally broken. And if you sit here tonight and you say well what will it cost me to serve God with a broken heart?

I need to tell you it will cost you absolutely everything. But it cost us more to miss the will of God for our lives than it will cost us to find the will of God for our lives. And so it is so wonderful to be able to share with you this evening.

Brother Denny has asked me to speak on brokenness. And the more I have been seeking the face of God, although we will look at some aspects of brokenness, God has been drawing my heart to this whole concept of what the scriptures is saying to us about prayer.

So if you have your Bible with you tonight, which I know you do, I want you to turn with me to two passages in the Old Testament. I am going to read from the 18th chapter of the book of Genesis. And then also just a few verses from 1 Samuel chapter 1.

Genesis chapter 18 and then also from 1 Samuel chapter 1. Genesis chapter 18, verse number 16. Bible says,. And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom. And Abram went to them to bring them on the way.

And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abram that thing which I do? Seeing that Abram shall surely become a great and a mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment.

That the Lord may bring upon Abram that which he has spoken of him. And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me, and if not, I will know.

And the men turned their faces from thence and went toward Sodom, but Abram stood yet before the Lord. And Abram drew near and said, Will thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? For adventure there be fifty righteous within the city.

Will thou also destroy and not spare the places for the fifty righteous that are therein? That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked. And that the righteous should be as the wicked, that it be far from thee, shall not the judge of all the earth do right?

The Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sake. And Abram answered and said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which I am but dust and ashes.

For adventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous. Will thou destroy all the city for the lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it. And he spake unto him yet again and said, For adventure there shall be forty found there.

And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. And he said unto him, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak for adventure, there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it if I find thirty there.

And he said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, for adventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake. And he said, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once.

For adventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. And the Lord went his way, and as soon as he left, communion with Abram. And Abram returned unto his place. And then if you turn to the first chapter of 1 Samuel, just a few verses from that chapter.

1 Samuel chapter 1 verse number 4, verse number 3. And this man, that was Elkanah, and this man went up out of the city yearly to worship and to sacrifice unto the Lord of hosts. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, the priests of the Lord were there.

And when the time was that Elkanah offered, he gave to Peninnah his wife, and to all her sons and their daughters portions. But unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, for he loved Hannah, but the Lord had shut up her wound.

And her adversary also provoked her sore to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up her wound. And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, so she provoked her, therefore she wept and did not eat.

Then said Elkanah her husband to her, Hannah, why weepest thou, and why eatest thou not? And why is thine heart grief, and not I better to thee than ten sons? So Hannah rose up after that, eating and strolling, and after that drunk thou Eli, the priest, sat upon a seat by a post to the temple of the Lord.

And she was in bitterness of soul, and she prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. And she vowed and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but will give unto thine handmaid a man child.

Then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life. There shall no razor come upon his head. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the Lord, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard.

Therefore Eli thought that she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, how long wilt thou be drunken? Put away thy wine from thee. Then Hannah answered and said, No, no, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit.

I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial, for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.

Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace. And the Lord God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. Now Father, as we just bow again this evening for another moment in the greatness of what the presence of God has been about this day.

Is it such a wonderful privilege for us to recognize again this first day night that the greatest desire in the heart of God is that you will bring us to a place where as your people we would be in the dust before you.

We are reminded that your word is said unto us that if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways then will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.

And our God and our Father we thank thee tonight that we are thy people. We thank thee that we have been called by thy name. This evening we want to come and we want to humble ourselves before you. And God I confess tonight in your presence that there are so many times in the inadequacy of my own life that I don't really understand the depth of what it means to sit in the dust before God.

But father this first day night to the best of our ability do we want to come and sit before you and we want to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God. We thank you this evening for that which you are able to do within our hearts and our lives.

We thank you tonight that we are serving a prayer answering God. We thank you this evening that there is absolutely nothing that you are not able to do. And father thou knowest this evening the tremendous sense of fear and tremble that has been reigning in my heart as I contemplated this evening.

Realized the responsibility of coming in as an outsider in the midst of what God is doing. And yet God I am so grateful to know that our responsibility is the tremendous ability is our response to the tremendous ability of God.

So this evening we pray that as we ponder upon your word we ask that there will be a moment in this gathering tonight that somehow that the spirit of God will come to break our hearts. And father we confess before thee that we cannot break ourselves but we acknowledge this night that when the spirit of God comes something deep within our hearts will begin to break and melt.

And we would recognize the depth of our need before thee. We ask that you would sanctify this place this night. We thank you for these beautiful young lives. Lord I walk into this meeting tonight and as I saw these young lives I felt if I could go and climb underneath a blanket somewhere for days and sought my heart out before God for the tremendous potential that is in store in every one of these precious lives.

So this evening we pray that you will come and that our lives will become intoxicated to the presence of God and that we would become saturated to the life of Christ so that we would be ablaze for the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thank you for your word that you have given unto us this evening. We submit ourselves under the authority of scripture. And father God we pray this night that we would be like those disciples of old that when you departed out of their presence on the way to Emmaus that they turned to one another and they said did not our hearts burn within us when he spoke to us on the way.

We ask tonight in Jesus name that you will give us the burning heart and as you give us the burning heart we pray that you will give us the broken heart as we submit ourselves to the blessedness of what your word is about.

Prayer as a Life Saturated by Scripture and the Spirit

In Jesus name, Amen. You know so often when we begin to ponder and contemplate the greatness of the subject of prayer in scripture do I find people coming to me and say to me Brother Gerard, the Bible is not saying to us an awful lot about prayer.

In fact if I can be absolutely honest with you whenever I hear someone saying that I stagger in the depth of my own heart. Because when you and I begin to study the subject of prayer in the Old and in the New Testament will you discover that prayer is one of the most spoken of doctrines in scripture.

And one thing that we need to realize when we begin to think about prayer is the fact that prayer is always initiated by God. God is always the instigator when it comes to a life or a ministry of intercessory prayer.

They say to us that when a baby is born in our family that sometimes it takes up to 6 months for this little bundle of life to be able to discern between different noises and voices and sounds that would come to this precious little life in our homes.

They say the first 6 months or so that child is not able to discern between the noise or the voices of brothers or sisters and to a certain degree the voice of even the mother and the father and the different noises that takes place in the house.

A dog that is barking or a cat or the sound of something in the house and that little bundle of life cannot discern the difference. And then they say to us that after a period of approximately 6 months would that baby come to the place where he or she will begin to distinguish between these different sounds and voices and the voice of what we would refer to as the primary caregiver which is the father and the mother.

And there is a word that they use to describe that and it's the word saturation. Now if we have a baby in our family and you and I would say that for the first 6 months there is not going to be any sound and after 6 months we anticipate that somehow that child will be able to recognize and discern and distinguish between our voices, it just will not happen.

But the process that is taking place and the life of that little precious God given bundle of life is a process that we refer to as saturation. And my brother and my sister when we begin to speak about prayer the only possible way that you and I would become a person, a man or a woman or a young person of prayer will simply be when that which God is saying to us in His word will become part of my life as a Christian.

And when that which God is saying in His word about prayer becomes part of my life as a Christian and I found myself being saturated saturated with that which God in His word is saying I discover that prayer becomes just a normal aspect of my relationship with God.

So you say what does the Bible say to us about prayer? Well the Old Testament is revealed for us and the New Testament and the New Testament lies hidden for us in the Old Testament. One of the most wonderful things that when you begin to study prayer in the Old Testament that somehow you will discover that the way to come to grips with prayer and I trust this Thursday night that there is an unquenchable hunger in your heart for the word of God.

But when you begin to study prayer in the Old Testament the way that we need to do that is that we need to look at the vocabulary of Old Testament scripture. And as we systematically go through the Old Testament we come to a place where we just don't look upon the words that is speaking to us about prayer.

In fact there are between 7 and 8 thousand possible passages in the Old and the New Testament when you study it in its original language that is speaking to us about this great relationship with God in prayer.

And when we look at those words those words will take us to the people that pray. And the people that pray will take us to those words that came from the depths of their hearts in the place of prayer.

And once we look upon the lives of those people and once we look upon the words that came from their lips and once we look upon the prayers that we pray we discover their understanding of God in the place of prayer.

And when we understand, come to grips with their understanding of God in prayer we discover the way that God entrusted them as He was answering prayer. And my brother and my sister, the most wonderful thing is when we study prayer and you look for prayer for instance in the first five books of the Old Testament and then you go to prayer in the historical books of the Old Testament and then you study prayer in the books of poetry in the Old Testament and then you study prayer in the prophets of the Old Testament when you bring it all together in the Old Testament you discover that in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ everything that the Old Testament was saying to us about prayer was manifested in the life of Christ.

You say, why do you say that? Because He was prophet and He was priest and He was king. In fact there are indications in Old Testament scripture that some of the prophets look upon Christ in the Hebrew text and they refer to Him as a prayer.

And you and I will never be able to understand the greatness of the teachings of Christ on prayer unless we have come to grips with His own prayer life. So you say, well brother Gerard, what about the Old Testament?

I think for instance destiny, very very first chapters of the book of Genesis do you know what the Bible is saying to us? The Bible is saying to us that God came in the cool of the evening so that He could have communion with Adam and Eve and do you know what is that word cool?

It is the Hebrew word Ruach. It is the word for spirit. You see there is no possibility that you and I as a Christian can come to the place where we discover this secret of a life of prayer this secret of a spirit of prayer resting upon my life where I live a life as a Christian where it is not just the hours that I spend in prayer but it is a lifestyle where I very seldom go through an hour without praying.

So God said it is the work of the Holy Spirit. And I would say to you tonight and these beautiful young people this evening as we sat here my young friend let me say to you that there would be no possibility that God will entrust your life and my life with what we would refer to as a spirit of prayer this longing to spend consistent time in the times and the places of God unless we have come to the place where you and I know that we are living a life in the fullness of the spirit of God.

And I wonder this Thursday night if I can ask you what is the crucified life? What is the life in the fullness of the spirit of God? It is a life where God has come to my life and he has put the sentence of death upon the self life.

It is a place where God has brought me where I have abandoned every aspect of myself to God. It is a place where God has brought me where I lay my life and its relationships on the altar for God where I lay my heart and its affections on the altar for God where I lay my family on the altar for God where every aspect of my life becomes at God's disposal.

I came across that great statement the other day by a man with the name of Dietrich Bonhoeffer he was that great German theologian that suffered so greatly under Hitler and Nazi Germany and he made this statement and he said Jesus Christ bids you to come to him and die.

You see my friends the Bible is saying to us unless the corn of wheat falls into the ground and die and the only way that you and I will know the secret of a life of intercessory prayer is when God brings us to this place where we come to grips with God the Holy Ghost.

And so when the spirit of God is in my life the Holy Spirit everything that I listen to I'm forcing the Holy Spirit to listen with me everything that I read I'm forcing the spirit of God to read it with me.

I can't help but think of that marvellous missionary to Africa his name was C .T. Stutt and you know when C .T. Stutt wanted to go to Africa he was a missionary in China and when he came back from the British Isles he was so sick that there was no doctor no physician in Britain that would give him permission to go to Africa and he would go from one place to the other because he wanted to become a missionary in Africa and he was so sick that they look upon him and they said to him you are nothing else than a museum of diseases and C .T. Stutt made some great statements and one of those statements that he made was this he said if Jesus Christ was the son of God then there is no sacrifice too great for me to offer.

Someone went to C .T. Stutt one day and he said to him C .T. Stutt why is it that you want to go to Africa? Why do you want to waste your life in Africa? And do you know what he said? I love it he said I want to go to Africa because I want to see God walking around in black bodies.

And what happened to C .T. Stutt he went to Africa and my brother and my sister they came back from Africa as a missionary and he was at the Kesey Convention in England and the main speaker at the Kesey Convention was a man with the name of Dr. F .E. Meyer and when they found out that this tall missionary from Africa this man that was so sold out to Jesus Christ this man that lives such a broken life in the presence of God when they found out that he was there at the Kesey Convention they asked him one night and they said C .T. Stutt will you come and take 15 minutes to speak to us about Africa.

And then F .E. Meyer is going to come and preach the word of God. And that man from Africa came and he stood there tall big missionary stood up and he began to speak about Africa and my brother and my sister because his life was so broken before God because he was so sold out to Jesus Christ because he was so set apart unto God because he was so uncionized with God the Holy Spirit because he was totally available for God.

When he began to speak those 15 minutes suddenly the Spirit of God came upon those meetings and that whole 7000 people was in disarray as the conviction of the Spirit of God settled upon them. And after he spoke that night Dr. F .E. Meyer had to get up and he had to try and preach and he could hardly open his mouth because of the depth of the presence of God.

He said brother Gerard what is the presence of God. It's that something that we sometimes can't define. But my brother and sister we always know when it is not there and F .E. Meyer said he got up to speak and he could hardly open his mouth because of the depth of the presence of God.

And when that gathering was over Dr. F .E. Meyer went to C .T. Stutt the tall missionary and he said to him what is the secret of your life. And the great C .T. Stutt the missionary turned to him and he said I've got one question for you.

And F .E. Meyer said what is it. He said have you given all the keys of your life to God. And F .E. Meyer said that night he said I went alone with God. And he said one after the other of his keys I gave the key of my future and the key of my ambitions and the key of my possessions and the key of my family.

I laid everything on the altar for God. But you know what. My brother and sister there was one key that he couldn't give you know what it was. It was the key of his reputation and his popularity. He was a very well known preacher and he couldn't give a key.

And the spirit of God came to him and said F .E. is everything or nothing. Partial obedience is disobedience. And that night he surrendered his life to God. And you know what happened. F .E. Meyer and C .T. Stutt became great friends.

And years later they began to call one another F .E. and C .T. and years later they were together at the Casey Convention again and one morning very very early C .T. Stutt woke up and F .E. Meyer woke up and there on the little camp bed next to him on his knees with a candle was C .T. Stutt the missionary and F .E. Meyer turned to him and said to him C .T. what time did you wake up.

And he said very very early. And he said have you been on your knees all these hours. And the great C .T. Stutt turned to him and said yes. And he said what have you been doing. And C .T. Stutt turned to him and said F .B. I woke up this morning early and a word came to me the Lord Jesus said if you love me.

He said give my commandments. And he said I've been going through these commandments of Christ. And he said there are so many of them that I've never obeyed. I wonder this Thursday night my young friend if I can ask you we want to speak about prayer.

But if your life is not sold out to God you will not know a spirit of prayer. You see you don't realize this Thursday night the tremendous potential that is in store for your life. In fact your life is so precious to God that you dare not mess around to sin.

You say what is it? The spirit of heart.

The Ruach of God I say what about the prayer lives of others in the Acts and the book of Genesis. You know I just spent hours studying the prayer life of a man with the name of Enoch. Oh you say there is only 8 verses and the Bible is speaking to us about Enoch.

You know what you will discover? The Bible says Enoch walked with God. How can you walk with God and not be a man of prayer? How can you be a man of prayer and not walk with God? And then we come to the epistle to the Hebrews and listen to what the writer to the Hebrews said he made this great statement.

He said by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death because God translated him. And before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God. You know in Luke chapter 9 at the mount of transfiguration you remember Lucas the one that gave us so much information about the prayer life of Christ.

And in the mount of transfiguration Matthew chapter 17 mentioned that Mark chapter 9 mentioned that. But look in his gospel when he spoke about the mount of transfiguration you know what he said? He said Jesus was praying.

The Bible says he was translated he said here tonight there is a young beautiful Christian. He said brother Gerard how is God going to change me? You know where God changed you? God changed you in the place of prayer.

What about the life of Abram when it comes to prayer? Do you study this prayer life? A trail of alters in the book of Genesis. Do you remember in Genesis chapter 17 God came to him and what did God say to him?

God said to him walk before me and thou shalt be perfect. It's the best description in the Old Testament that we get of the New Testament perception of a life that is being sold out to God. Do you remember what happened in Genesis chapter 18?

Suddenly God came to Abram and what happened? God made a statement. And this is where the concept of prayer comes in. You know what God said? God said shall I hide from Abram that which I contemplate to do?

You say brother Gerard what was that? You see it's this concept of the intercessor. You say what is an intercessor? It's the combination of two words in the Latin. The word intercedera it means that I come alongside.

And the word cedera it means that I step in between. And God looked upon Abram. And God said because he is going to be a great nation. Because he is going to have a family life that is blessed of me. God said I need this man to let me know about this.

And you remember how Abram began to pray. And in those first five books of the Bible we look upon prayer and this great concept of a conversation and a dialogue with God. And we see it being real in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And do you remember when he began to pray? There is a wonderful principle. You know what it is? He didn't come to God on the basis of the sin that was so relevant and the cities of Solomon Gomorrah. But brother and sister listen he came to God on the basis of the righteousness of God.

You say how will God answer prayer in my life? Do you know how God will answer prayer in my life? When I live righteous in his presence. You know what's the problem when it comes to prayer? My brother and my sister you and I can sit here tonight and we can do so many things for God without being rightly related to God.

I mean we can work ourselves to pieces without being rightly related to God. But listen brother and sister you can't pray without being rightly related to God. You say what was it? He came to God on the basis of the righteousness.

You say how does prayer work? Listen brother and sister God is not obliged to answer our prayers. But you know what? God is the covenant keeping God. I look at these beautiful young people. Maybe some of you are coming out of the land of Canada this evening the God forsaken country.

Some of you sit here tonight and you've got parents, a mother and a father and they're not saved. And they do not know Christ. You say what is it? You need to come on the basis of the righteousness of God the fact that he has promised household salvation.

You need to climb underneath the burden of God for your mother and your father and your brothers and your sisters. You need to ask God to give you promises. You need to systematically pray them through to God.

You say what is it? It's prayer, it's prayer you see.

Brother and sister we can't take people further than we are ourselves. Listen. We will produce people who are just like us. If you and I don't have a hunger for God they're not going to have a hunger for God.

If we are not thirsty for Christ they are not going to be thirsty for Christ. So what about those historical books of the Old Testament. Well let me share with you some. Oh look, think of the prayer life of Moses.

Remember Moses, the man twice in his life 40 days and 40 nights spent in the presence of God. You remember when Moses came down from the mountain. Remember what the Bible says he's there to put a veil in front of his face.

Why is it? It's a witness of the presence of God. Oh my brother and my sister I wanted to know those of us who are adults those of us who are fathers. My brother can I ask you are you in the process of becoming a man of prayer?

Oh you say what about the historical books of the Old Testament. Listen to this. A wonderful little word comes to the surface. You say brother Gerard what is the word? The Bible says they cried unto the Lord.