Prevailing Prayer — John R. Rice

Jacob’s Return and the Power of Prevailing Prayer

Wonderful truth here in the word of God, and we'll get in as much of it as we can. Dear Lord, open our hearts as we open the word, how we need thy blessed Spirit, for the word is the sword of the Spirit, not my sword, not any man's sword.

So blessed Spirit of God, open our hearts to the truth, and guide us into the truth, and bring to remembrance what Jesus has said, as thou hast promised. Amen. In Genesis chapter 32, we have the story of Jacob.

You remember, Jacob was a boy who had to leave home because he got into trouble. He had sinned. In the first place, he traded his brother Esau a bowl of chili for the birthright. Now, that was as big a Jew trade as you ever did see, I think.

And then later on, he went further than that, and lied and pretended to have venison, deer meat, when he had goat meat. And goat meat's just as good, maybe a little better than the deer meat, but he didn't have to lie about it.

And he pretended that he was Esau. And he couldn't change his voice, but he put goat skin over his arms, and his mother helped him deceive. Deceived the old blind father Isaac, and Isaac blessed him. And of course, Esau, the big red-headed twin, didn't like that, and never did get over it.

And so the mother said, You better get out of here before Esau kills you. So Jacob went far away from home, and for twenty-odd years, never saw his mother, never saw his father, in a strange land, and married, and had children.

And now he's coming back home. The Lord said, Come on back home. I want you to go back to your father Isaac. And Jacob said, Well, Lord, I'm willing to go, but Esau's going to kill me. He swore he'd kill me as soon as dad was dead and out of the way, and I'm afraid of him.

And he's armed and ready for me. He's held that grudge twenty years. He's not going to get over it easy. And the Lord said, You go, and I'll be with you. And so he came back. Now there's a wonderful, wonderful lesson here in prevailing prayer about this man as he goes home.

Jacob’s Prayer for Deliverance

I want to read to you first in Genesis 32, begin verse 9. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which said unto me, Return to thy country unto thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee.

I am not worthy of the least of all thy mercies, and of all the truth which thou hast shown unto thy servant. For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and I am become two bands. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau.

For I fear him, for he will come and smite me, lest he come and smite me and the mother with the children. And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the seas, which cannot be numbered for multitude.

And he lodged there that same night, and he took with that which came to his hand a present, for he saw his brother. Two hundred she-goats and twenty he-goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, thirty milk camels with their coats, forty kine, or cattle, cows, and ten bulls, twenty she-asses and ten foals.

He delivered them into the hand of his servant. They were drove by themselves, and sent unto his servant. Passed over four men, put a space betwixt, drove and drove. And he commanded the foremost saying, When Esau my brother meeteth thee, and asketh thee, saying, Whose art thou?

And whither goest thou? And whose are these before thee? Then thou shalt say, They be thy servant Jacob's. It is a present sent unto my lord Esau, and behold also he is behind me. And the drover with every drove, or herdman with every drove, was to say the same.

Now he moves over his family, moves over the brook here, and all of his family over, and then the present. And verse twenty-one, So went the present over before him, and he lodged him that night in the county.

And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the four jabbers. And he took them, and sent over them over the brook, and sent over that he had.

And Jacob was left alone. And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of Jacob's thigh, and the hollow of Jacob's thigh was out of joint as he wrestled with him.

And he said, Let me go for the day breaking. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, whereas the prince hath thy power with God, and with men, and hath prevailed.

And Jacob asked him, and said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved.

And as he passed over Peniel, Penuel the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. I don't have time to read about the meeting with Esau, but really it is not necessary. We find that Esau, with his four hundred armed men, who had come to kill, ran instead and fell on the neck of his brother and wept.

Twenty long years of passion and hate were wiped away in a moment, and those tears down his face, and then that he, Jacob, had prevailed. He prevailed first with God, and then he prevailed with men. Now I'd like to talk to you very simply on the things here.

Obedience Before Prevailing Prayer

First of all, what this man did before the prevailing prayer, for that has a part in the picture. What Jacob did before the prevailing prayer. That's interesting. The Lord said, Jacob, come on, I want you to come back to your father's house, and I'll be with you.

Well, the first thing that he did was he obeyed. He started a home. Now if anybody here wants the power of God, you say, All right, Lord, I'll do what you say. It is said about the dear Lord Jesus that when he came into the world, he said, Lord, I come to do thy will, O God.

Does anybody want to win souls? The first thing about soul winning is to go after sinners. Nobody, it's tomfoolery, it's insincerity, it's hypocrisy. For anybody to pray for revival and pray for sinners, that doesn't go after sinners.

I don't want anybody coming and saying, I want you to pray for my lost daddy, unless you plan by God's grace. Home, try to win your daddy. You needn't be asking prayer for anybody unless you're going to do your part.

Sometimes we pray and say, O Lord, send the Holy Spirit over yonder and convict this sinner deeper than sin ever, that's the same. And you could say, Lord, I'm going to stay here and read my newspaper.

I'm not caught up on that, but send the Holy Spirit, like a Western Union messenger boy, Lord. Now, God isn't going to do anything of the kind. What you are, in effect, asking God is to change his whole righteous plan about soul winning.

God's plan is the Holy Spirit goes in a Christian and works through a Christian. He uses your hands and your voice and your tears and your bleeding. That's the way the Holy Spirit works. He dwells in Christians and works through Christians.

That's God's way. And so, you needn't be praying for God to send the Holy Spirit out independent and change his plan. No, sir, the blessed Holy Spirit is incarnated in men. And the Holy Spirit came and was in Jesus and upon Jesus and helped him in power and helps us the same way.

I say, if you're going to expect your prayers to get above your head, you say, I'll do the will of God. I'll set out to do the will of God. I'll do my part. The Lord said, Jacob, go home. Well, Jacob said, Lord, I'm scared.

The Lord said, Jacob, get on over here home to your father Isaac. He said, but Lord, my wives and my eleven children, my flocks, and Esau, and I've just heard about him. He's coming to meet me with four hundred armed men, and he's going to kill my folks, my mother, the mother and the children.

And the Lord says, go home. He said, okay, I'm going home. And he got up and came. He's scared, but he's obedient. Now, you just well make up your mind, if you're going to get anywhere in your prayer life, you're going to go when God says go.

You go when God says go. You do what God says. Somebody said, I wish I could leave this place with the anointing of God. I wish I could go from this place with the power of the Holy Spirit. All right, let me give you one of the two rules about the Holy Spirit.

One is, how much more shall the heaven and the Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? Another is in, that's Luke 11, 13. The other rule about the Spirit, or at least another rule about the Spirit, is in Acts 5, 32, where the Lord says, listen to it carefully now, Peter preaching.

And he said, we are witnesses of these things, and so also is the Holy Ghost whom God hath given to them that obey him. Peter says, I can tell you about this business. And bless God, the Holy Spirit that God gave me, because I'm doing right about it and doing what he told me.

The Holy Spirit will tell you about it, too, through me. Peter preached and the Holy Spirit preached. And Peter witnessed and the Holy Spirit witnessed. And Peter went after people and the Holy Spirit went after people because Peter obeyed God.

Now God gives the Holy Spirit, in this sense of soul-wetting power, to them that obey him. Now the indwelling of the Spirit God gives to those who are converted, born again. But the power of the Holy Spirit he gives to obedient Christians.

And if you don't go, why, you just out of the question. There's a lot of people praying for the Holy Spirit when they mean tongues. There's a lot of people praying for the Holy Spirit when they mean entire sanctification and the carnal nature eradicated and feel light as a feather, and good as Jesus Christ and getting better every day.

There's a lot of people that, they're praying for the Holy Spirit when they mean this or that and the other. Well, my friend, if you want God to give you the power of the Spirit, well, you better be thinking about what he's thinking about.

He's thinking about the Great Commission going to all the world. I send the promise of my Father on you, but you better get power to do it. Now, if you're thinking about power to witness for Jesus Christ, you go to working at the witnessing and keep on praying.

God gives his Spirit to them that obey him. So this man who got the power of God and prevailed in prayer, he was on good praying terms. Did you notice this thing? At first he said, all right, Lord, I'll go.

And he came up here by the brook Jabba, and they camped, and they staked out, I guess, the staked out the milk cows, or maybe they had a, if they might have had anything that kept close around, and they kept them, the camels were the foals nearby maybe, and they had the guards out to take care of things for the night.

And then it seems in the night, as they got settled down, Jacob got burdened. He said, God said, go to home. Well, go over to my father's country again, and here's the book that is the borderland. All right, he said, I'm not going to even put my folks to bed here.

I'm going to get them up and go over the brook, and God can look down, and he'll see I'm going to do what he said if I get killed. I'm going to do what he said. So he got up and moved the whole business over the brook, and he's, and it's just as much as if to say, Lord, you see, I'm going to do what you said.

I'm going on back to Isaac and my father's house no matter what happens. Now, if you want God to bless you when you pray, be sure you listen when he talks. See, do what he says. God gives power, prevailing prayer, to those who obey him.

Contrition, Humility, and Confession

Now, here's another verse. This man, there's a wonderful thing. This man had a contrite heart, and this man was conscious of his failures. Now, we see that several ways, this attitude toward Esau, and see that in the restitution of Abe.

But it said, O God, you said go home, and I am not worthy of the least of these thy blessings. I walked over this brook with a walking stick when I came the first time. I'm going back, and I've got two bands.

I've got these stouts of head of livestock. I've got servants, and I've got a big family. I came over here with a walking stick. I'm going back with two bands. I'm not worthy, O God. I'm not worthy. You know, God has something for humble people, for people who are conscious of their needs, conscious of their sins, people who are contrite in heart.

You're in mighty good shape to get things from God when you say, Lord, this poor old sinner ought to have been in hell. Yeah, I don't know why he meant so good to me. I didn't deserve it. I need your help, Lord, but I want to confess I've been poor and faulty and frail.

This man confessing his sins and his failure and his unworthiness, that come before prevailing prayer. Did you notice that? A sense of his need. The Lord Jesus said, blessed are the poor in spirit. I wonder if you, are you poor in spirit, or are you proud and haughty?

Oh, these people that try to pray and have no tears. Oh, these people that try to pray and have no confession. Oh, these people that try to pray, and there's a glimpse, there's a glimpse. You know, I like Moses' prayer when he came to pray, and he said, O Lord, these people sinned a great sin.

They've made a golden calf and danced around it, drunk and pulled off their clothes naked. It's a terrible sin. Lord, if thou wilt forgive their sins, if thou wilt forgive their sins. And then there's a great dash in my Bible.

I think that's where Moses was crying and couldn't talk. I don't know. If thou wilt forgive their sins, but if not, then you say you've blocked them out. Block me out too! He's not talking about blocking them out of the book of life.

Those Jews, a lot of them unconverted, were not saved. That's not the point. God had planned to make a great nation Israel, from whom Christ would come. And he said, Moses, I will tell you, I'll just fill the pan out with you.

You'll be Abraham's seed. Your family, you from your, will come to Messiah. And Moses said, no, if you're going to block him out, block me out too. I'm not going to have it. And a broken and a contrite heart, God can hear when you pray.

God help us to get off our high horses. Here's the word of which you take home. The way up is down. Did you know that? The way up is down. He that humbles himself shall be exalted. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up.

So this man has a contrite heart. I'm not worthy of the least of thy favors, he said. I'm conscious of that. Grumblers, these proud people and the haughty people and grumblers and dissatisfied with what God's done, you don't get anything much from God.

Claiming the Promises of God

This man prevailed. Notice another thing about this man. Not only his contrition, but he brought the promises of God. That's a wonderful thing. He said, Lord, you said I was going to have seed as the sand of the sea.

And now my brother's about to come over here and kill all the children. He said, you said return to your father's house and I will do thee good. And the man's coming with four hundred army and the face thing.

You know, you're an awful good business when you pull God's promises out and hold them in his face. Did you know that? You're sure in good shape when you say, Lord, I got your signed check here. You're going to have to cash this.

This is what you said. Did you know that? It is said that George Muller, the great man of prayer and faith, who prayed down over seven million dollars, seven and a half million dollars, care of orphaned children in those days, there'd be many, many more millions than that now.

In the orphaned children care and sending missionaries and free literature everywhere and so on. And it is said that he'd get on the prayer and he'd say, Lord, I wouldn't let my little girl Lydia go hungry if I had it in my power to keep her from it.

Why, I said, Lord, I, my children, I wouldn't. And you said I'll be a father to the fatherless. So these orphaned children, you're their father and the only father they have. He'd say, Lord, you surely won't let them go hungry, will you?

And he'd just argue with God, bring all the scriptures up that God had said. Why, you know, it's a mighty good thing. It's a mighty good thing when you can say, now look here, Lord, you said so-and-so and you're going to have to do it.

So Isaac said, Lord, you said to me plainly that I'm going to have still children and descendants as the sand of the sea. Now what if all my family gets killed tonight? What about that? You said come home and you'd do me well.

Well, Lord, well, what are you going to do about it? I tell you now, brother, God sure is glad to meet his bargain, and you better bring them up on him pretty often. That's right. Bring the promises of God.

Claim the promises of God. That's preliminary to prevailing prayer. Here's another thing. This man made restitution. He made restitution. Somebody said, don't you think that's Old Testament? Doing right's Old Testament, but the God who likes for people to do right in the Old Testament still likes from doing the New Testament.

Did you know that? Yes, sir. And if you've done wrong, you just well do right. I was in a citywide campaign with 40 Baptist churches, and I remember that the question came up, shall we go back and pay up the old debt made before the saved?

And the good chairman of the Baptist pastor's meeting said, yes, sir. I think for fellow saints, he's going to have to be honest and pay his debt. And I think so, too. So here's, yeah, wrongly so. I stole his birthright, and I stole the blessing, and I robbed him and cheated, and I'm sorry.

Well, what are you going to do about it? I'm going to try to make it up to him. So it took 200 sheep and 20 rams and 200 goats and 20 heat goats and 30 milk camels. And he took 40 cows and 10 bulls, and he took the camels with their coats and 20 asses with their coats, with 10 coats, and he brought them all.

And these 550 or 75 animals, livestock, he sent drove by drove. And he said to every one of his servants, he said, now when you come up here, you bow real low. He said, who are these? You say, they're from my, from thy servant Jacob to my Lord Esau.

And they are a presence to find favor in his sight. And you know, it'd be awful hard for old Esau to have a hard heart after that. But that isn't what settled it. It'd be awful hard for God to pay no attention when a fellow begins to plank down like that.

Did you know that? Anytime you really begin to reach deep down in your pocket for God and sacrifice and give up, you know, the Lord's likely to sit up and take notice and say, that fellow may mean that.

I believe he does. Don't you think so? Yes, sir. Already made restitution. Does anybody here want to see some soul saved? You go pay up back debts. You go make your honest confession. You go to making things right.

I sure like to see people giving up dirty habits. I like to see people making confession, paying up back debts. I like to see people who want revival do right. I remember in a certain revival I mentioned a bit ago.

We, one night, my advance man Bill Mann and I, and twin beds in the hotel room, and I talked through the night of good deal of burden, prayer for the meeting. And the next morning, Bill, I preached the night before on hindered prayer.

And I told how bad debts and other things like that hinder revival. And Bill Mann got up and went to the chairman of the campaign and said, you preachers going to have to get under this load. Brother Rice is breaking his heart.

He stayed awake last night, nearly all night, and prayed. And I, I was there in the room with him. And you preachers going to have to get under this burden and help pull this load and get this revival going.

And the chairman of the campaign said, you're too late, Bill. I've done done it. He got up that morning early and went to the doctor's office where he had owed for two years a bill for $300. He said he thought when the bill came, he said, that's too much.

The old crook, I'll never pay it. And he said, I didn't intend to, but last night I saw I had to be an honest man. If I'm going to have revival, I'm going to pay up my debt. And he had the check waiting.

And as soon as the doctor opened his door that morning, while there he was with his check for $300, he said, I've already done it. We're going to have revival. Three other preachers, three other preachers among those 40 Baptist pastors had bad debts that they told us about that they went and paid.

Now how many others didn't tell us about it, I don't know. But you can expect to have revival when people go making restitution for their sins. Somebody says, oh, I'll try to do better. Do you? I'll see if you will.

If you go and confess that and make right what you've done, I'll believe it. That's right. I'll believe it. A woman came to D .L. Moody and said, Mr. Moody, I have a fault. I wish you'd help me about.

I want to know how to conquer it, overcome it. And Mr. Moody said, all right, what is it? Well, she said, I exaggerate a little. Said, I, I stretch things a little bit. And I, I'm sorry about it. I, well, he, Moody said, I can help you on that.

That's fine. Said, the next time you do that, you just admit, go to the person that you talked to and just admit that you lied and you're ashamed of it. And a Christian, oh, she said, I wouldn't call it a lie.

Well, Mr. Moody said, if you don't call it a lie, you won't quit it. You know that? You know, it's a wonderful thing about confessing your sin and facing the one you're wrong about. Brother, bless God, you sure do mortify the deeds of the flesh that way.

Did you know it? There was a fellow that fell from third-story building, a building, a brick building, and had the green mortar in the wall, fresh and old. The fellow stepped up on the brick wall and one of those bricks slipped out and it fell.

And it happened that just below, they had the great mortar box where they stirred up the lime and the mortar for the brick, you know, and it landed in that box full of mortar. And my heart scattered. Got it in his arms and heard it.

It saved his life, of course, fell from third-story up there. And he got up and he said, I never was so mortified in my life. Now listen, if you want, if you want to conquer sin in your life, why, you mortify it openly.

You take sides against it. You make use of it, go pay things back. You face the people you talk rough to and mean to. You admit that old sharp, critical tongue that sat on fire of hell. You go and say, God forgive me and you people forgive me.

Make things right and God will help you quit your sin. God will help you to clean up. Yes, sir. And some of us say, oh, I've got such a temper. Yeah, I know how to fix that. Next time you find you've done anything wrong, you go right back and say, I'm a dirty hypocrite, pretend to be a good Christian.

I love God, but haven't lived right. Forgive my sharp tongue, it's wicked, it's mean. I'm sorry. I'll make no alibis. I'll make no excuses. Forgive me, please. And you do that a while, brother, and that old tongue will begin to mind its Ps and Qs.

It'll get brighter wise. Did you know that? Yes, sir. I do not believe in the sin spirit of people that plan to do better, but don't face the past where they've been wrong. Did you know that? No, sir.

These people are going to do better, but the old bills they don't pay. These people are going to do better, but they buy things they don't pay for, or they mistreat people and don't go make it right, or they slam their people and don't ever go and apologize and straighten things out.

This man, thank God, set out to make things right. Now he's ready to pray. All right, now he comes to pray. And the angel of God, he got his family all over, and he came back and wrestled with God. And there came the angel of God, or rather, and wrestled with him.

Wrestling With God in Persistent Prayer

A good man, you think? And I am inclined to think that this is, that this is a pre-appearance of Jesus Christ. Theophanus, some people called him. That is, that Christ here appeared, the angel of the Lord.

You know, Jacob one time spoke about the angel when he went down to Egypt, and he said, the angel that always went with me, the angel that guarded me. He's talking about God. And Jesus is other times sometimes called the angel of the Lord.

So maybe it was Jesus. I don't know. If it was not, it was an angel with the power of God on him, and with wisdom from God, and instructions from God. And there came an angel and wrestled with him. And they wrestled all night long, all night long.

And the angel said, let me go. Jacob said, I'm not going to let you go. I'm not going to face Esau by myself. I'm going to have this settled. I'm not going without the blessing. You've got to bless me.

And the angel said, let me go. He said, it's getting daylight. And the angel said, good night. And the angel's not supposed to be down here wrestling in broad daylight, and everybody looking on. That's a spectacle and a scandal.

Turn me loose. I've got to get on back to heaven. And Jacob said, you're not going anywhere. You're going to stay right here and bless me. I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. And the angel touched the heart of Jacob's arm, and his thigh muscle shrank, and his leg was out of joint, his thigh joint, which I understand is the most painful thing.

And Jacob said, I don't care. And he never got over it. He left the rest of his life. But Jacob said, I don't care. You may break my leg or you kill me, but I will not let you go. I'm not going out here without victory.

I've been defeated and whipped in 20 years. I've had in the back of my mind that I was a liar and a cheat and a schemer, and I've got to have this fixed. I'm not going to meet my brother Ethel who's angry.

I wronged him, and he knows it, and he's planned to kill me. I'm not going by myself. I'll not let you go. And he prevailed with God. Now, I wish you'd learn this, Bennett. We can have everything God has if we mean business and hold on to God.

Oh, this matter of holding on to God, prevailing with God. How much there is in the Bible about. In Luke chapter 11, Jesus said, they said, Lord, teach us to pray. All right, he said, I'll teach you to pray.

Which of you shall have a friend and go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine on his journey has come to me and I have nothing to set before him. This is manifestly a picture of a Christian saying, Lord, I want the bread for sinners.

Here, Lord Jesus, you've got the bread. Father, you have the bread. Give me bread. This somebody ought to win, but I don't have anything to set before him. Lend me the bread. So he comes and knocks on his neighbor's door at midnight saying, lend me three loaves.

And he from then answers and says, trouble me not. The door is now shut, my children are with me and dead. I cannot rise and give thee. But listen, he says, I say to you, though he will not rise and give him because he's his friend.

Not because he's premillennial. Not because he's separated. Not because he's quit the movies. Not because he doesn't smoke cigarettes. Not because he gives his tithe. Not because he has family altar. Not because he believes the Bible from cover to cover.

No, he'll not do it because he's his friend, but because of his importunity he'll rise and give him as many as he needed. And I'll tell you the lost secret and the lost chord, the lost note in our prayer life is that's holding on to God.

I'll not let you go. I won't quit. I'm going to have it. I'm not going to quit. I've got to have this. And so that's the secret of intercessory prayer. And by the way, that's the secret of the power of the Holy Spirit.

And that's exactly what Jesus is talking about in that passage in Luke 11. For immediately after he said, and for, 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?

Not as indwelling. That didn't come then for anybody no matter how they felt. That's a powerful testimony that had already come on many. And anybody could have it the same way can now. The Holy Spirit is power and fullness.

He said, God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him. And the word ask is in the present tense, that keep on asking. It's importunity. Keep on asking. And here again, we have this thing illustrated in the story in Luke chapter 18.

Jesus said to speak a parable to them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint. Somebody said, I think prayer is a privilege. Okay. Yeah, it's a privilege, but that isn't enough reason.

It's still your duty to pray. And whether you take it a privilege and whether you feel like it or not, God's commanded people to pray always and never give up. That's the command of God. Men ought always to pray.

Men ought always to pray. And it said there was in a city a judge which feared not God, neither a guarded man. What's that old hardhearted judge? Who does he represent? Who does he represent? And he feared not God, neither a guarded man.

There was a widow in that city, and she came to the judge and said, avenge me my adversaries. And for a time he would not. But then he said, though I fear not God, and I don't care what he'd do to me, I'm not scared of God.

And I don't care anything about widow women and orphaned children. I'm not caring about that. But lest she weary me, and the Revised Version says, lest she wear me out with a continual coming, I will avenge her.

And she's just in my hair all the time. I can't get her off my mind. She just insists and butts into the courtroom, and she follows me home, and she cries and begs. And good night, she's running me crazy.

I'll have to tend to this business to get it off my mind. And so he avenged her. And Jesus said, and shall not God avenge his own elect that cry unto him day and night? Who did that old judge, that old hard-hearted scoundrel, who'd that represent?

That represents God as he appears to be sometimes when you start praying. So do you quit? No, sir, you're not supposed to. She didn't. Sometimes you try to pray, and God seems to say, let me alone. I'm not interested.

Get away from my door. I'm not going to give you anything. Did you ever pray, and God seemed not to be around at all? Did you ever pray, and God just seemed not to pay a bit of mind in the world? Did you?

Did you ever pray, and God seemed to say, no, you want revival? God said, I don't care about revival. Or seemed to say, I want that lost man safe. God seems to say, fool me on that. I'm not interested.

Did you ever pray, and God seems not to be interested at all? Did you? So what do you do? Don't be fooled about him. Don't be fooled about him. If that woman could get that judge by just pleading and pleading and pleading and pleading, God was going to hear you too.

But he wants to see you serve him. He wants to see you serve him. You see that? And shall not God avenge his own elect? If that old wicked judge would hear, don't you know that a good God would the ones, would hear the ones he's chosen and loves, and when he doesn't feel any answer, and keeps on ringing on the telephone, oh, how Jesus is grieved when people don't insist, and insist, and pound on the door, and ring the bell again, and keep on waiting.

Don't you see? Some time ago in the night, a telephone rang, and it took me a little time to get awake, and then I got on my house shoes, and turned on the lights, and rushed to the telephone, and just as I picked up the receiver, it quit ringing.

Yet lots of times, lots of times, you rung God's telephone, and you didn't give God time to answer. You quit, and went on, when God was ready to do it. But you lost that. You lost that. Keep on praying, prevailing prayer.

The Canaanite Woman’s Persistent Faith

You remember the story of the woman of Canaan, the Canaanite woman. And there came a woman of Canaan, and cried after him, saying, Lord, have mercy on me for my daughter, for she is grievously vexed with the devil.