Helps for Your Prayer Life — Dan Biser

Helps for Your Prayer Life — Dan Biser

Pretty full. And he said, I don't see how there's any time that I'll have for you. I said, okay, appreciate your moment and sorry to bother you. And I went back on to my room. I said, told the wife, I said, well, he doesn't have any time for me.

And I said, but at least I followed through. At least I tried. You know, nothing worse than not trying, isn't there? You know, I see people that talk themselves out of just about anything and they don't even make an effort to do it.

And so next morning down in the breakfast line and he comes up behind me and grabs a hold of my arm and he says, brother, he said, I've got lunch open. Why don't you and your wife and your children come be with me and my wife and we'll have a time to talk for that hour.

And I said, well, tremendous answer prayer. Wonderful. So I spent the lunch time with them and a lot of dialogue back and forth and he gave me some direction and some words and counsel and I greatly appreciated that.

And the last words that he said to me was is that he said, he said, I'm going to put you in my prayer notebook and I'm going to pray for you. Now, many of you are sitting here. You've heard those words before.

I'm praying. I'm going to pray for you. And you knew that they never prayed for you. Good intentions. Yes. Good motive. Yes. But they never followed through with it. Judgment seat of Christ. The Ravenhill was talking about, won't it be awful when the books are open and it said, you said you was going to pray for that person.

How many times did you pray for them? Twice. Wouldn't that be awful? And the accountability. So he said that he said, I want to pray for you. And I said, oh, thank you. Thank you. And here's a man. He sees thousands of people, conferences and things like that.

And so I thought it was done. Well, four years went by and we was at the Southern Baptist Convention and he was at the book signing table with his daughter that they just wrote a book. And so I looked at my wife.

I said, let's go reintroduce ourselves because there's no possible way that he remembers us. Four years later. And so as I went up to him and my wife and children, we now had seven of the eight. So we had added a few on since that time.

And I stuck out my hand to say to him, Mr. Hunt, and he said, Dan Bizer from West Virginia. And I know my mouth hit the floor and he called my wife by name and he called the first three kids by name. I was spellbound.

I said, how did you do that? He said, do what? I said, how do you remember me? I'm up in the hills of West Virginia. I said, you know, how do you remember me when you meet thousands of people? He said, I told you.

I was going to pray for you every day and I prayed for you every day. Well, my prayer life exploded with that concept. I call it specific intentionally prayer, you know, you can call terminology what you want, but I find for most people is that they like to play, especially the church likes to pray generally.

They don't like to pray specifically and they don't like to pray intentionally about specific things. They allow for their own self-conceptions to guide, lead and direct them. I wanted to pull these verses here.

I wanted to give you that account so that you understand a little bit about where I'm going to go. I'm not going to preach so much this afternoon as I'm going to teach a little bit. And then this evening I'm going to preach.

But I wanted to share with you from that experience some of the things that God has been showing and revealing because it is, as I said this morning, is that I feel God has given me something that has benefited and blessed me.

I feel obligated to share it with you that some of you might take it. And some of these things you probably are already doing. And that's tremendous. But I want us to be very scrutinizing of our prayer lives this afternoon.

Prayerlessness and the Need for Revival

I want us to talk a little bit about where we're at and where we're going with our prayer lives, because the reason that revival really has not come is because the church hasn't prayed for it. They haven't sought the face of God.

They haven't labored in prayer. And so we read these accounts and the scriptures that tell us about things that we're supposed to be doing that we're not doing. And as Richard preached and said, the house of prayer is not the house of prayer.

And one of the things in Broken Before the Throne that we've seen and experienced over the last several years is that pastors come into those conferences in times of confession. And I'm not going to deal with confession today, but in the times of confession is that pastors are saying, I have no prayer life.

I have no Bible time. I have no alone time with God. Well, there's the answer to a lot of the problems, isn't it? And so it is, is that the pastor doesn't have a prayer life. Well, guess what the church doesn't have?

They don't have prayer life. And so the sin of prayerlessness is the root of all of this. So I want to give you some of these things today that, as I said, that it's been a blessing to me and a help to me, and I hope that it will be for you.

Persistent Prayer in Luke 18

I'd like to look first in Luke, chapter 18, and we read this account of the diligence of prayer. We know these verses, and as we read this here, begin reading in verse one. And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray and not to faint.

And there was in the city a judge which feared not God, neither regarded man. And there was a widow in that city, and she came unto him saying, avenge me of my adversary. But he would not for a while.

But afterwards he said within himself, though I fear not God, nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me, I will avenge her, lest by her continually coming she weary me. And the Lord said, hear what this unjust judge says, and shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them?

I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, shall he find faith on the earth? Continually coming. I ask a lot of times in conferences and the prayer times that we have, is to say personally to each of us here, what is your prayer life really like?

You know, when I come off of that experience with T .W. and one of the things that he told me, he said, get you a notebook and he said, begin to record the things that God says to you. He says, because as much as you might think that your mind is good, he said, there's no way that you're going to remember everything.

So he said, write it down and keep it. And so I thought, do you have a good prayer life? The question if somebody was to ask me at that particular time, I would have said, yes, I'm a praying man. I believe in prayer.

I practice prayer. And so let's see if the proof is in the pudding. Let's record our prayer times. Let's diligently seek for a moment as to say, how many hours, aside from the three hours that we was gathered here this morning, how many hours did you spend before you got here in the presence of the Lord?

Now, it would be nice if I would be able to say to these guys that lead musicists to say, why don't you all come lead us in sweet hour of prayer? I never sing that in our churches unless we spend a sweet hour in prayer.

First Sunday of every month, we cancel Sunday school classes out and we congregate from children right on up. The babies are in the nursery, but from the children on up, we are gathered in the sanctuary for our hour of Sunday school and we're praying and crying out to God.

A house of prayer, a time of prayer, an intentional moment of prayer. And only on those particular Sundays, because I realize and know the fact and the truth of most people's lives is that even though they'd like to pray more and know that they need to pray more, they don't pray more.

Too busy, too much on our schedules, too many other things happening, and we don't become intentional about it. And so we miss out on that opportunity. So I began to record my prayer times. I wrote down the day, I wrote down the time frame, and I began to record for a month to see how consistent I was in a 30 day period of a month.

How consistent am I really? And you know, I come up at the end of that calendar month is that I had a lot of missing days. I had a lot of inconsistency. I wasn't really crying out to God as I thought that I was and that if I was asked in honesty, I thought that I was, but in evidence on the paper there, it wasn't happening.

And so I began to change that. I mean, not just to become rigorous at it as to say I'm fulfilling my religious responsibility, but because my heart was crying after God and I knew by all the saints that I've read and shared with you over the last day and a half is to tell you is that there is no other secret in revival or prevailing with God than through prayer.

It's got to be that we're based on this is crying out to God saying, this is my heart. This is my life. And I use and I'll show it here in a few moments, but Samuel Chadwick probably said it best. He said, a prayer life is a life that prays.

And it is, is that as we're crying out for revival, is that you and I, with our hearts bent on the same purpose and desire is to have a life of prayer. Psalm 109, I give myself under prayer. And so we read this account here in Luke where he says and it was continually day and night making the petition, making the request.

And yet the saddest fact of all in North America is that the prayer movement, the prayer times have decreased and been canceled out. And it is, is that when you go into the times of families and their prayer times, they're known void.

And when you go into the pastor study and into the leadership of the church and you go into their prayer times, God blesses us. We get ready to go with this. The holiness of God does not prevail. I'd like for you to look over here at Acts chapter 12 and read this.

The Church Praying Without Ceasing

And then I'll begin with the prayer notebook. We read in this account here is that Herod, verse one, Herod the king stretched forth his hands to vex certain of the church. So he killed James, the brother of John with the sword because he saw that it pleased the Jews.

He proceeded further to take Peter also. Then were the days of unleavened bread. And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison and he delivered him to four quaterians of soldiers to keep them, to keep him intending that after Easter to bring him forth to the people.

Peter therefore was kept in the prison, but prayer was made without ceasing of the church unto God for him. And R .A. Torrey writes it that the church was stretched outedly towards God. And when Herod would have brought him forth, the same night Peter was sleeping between two soldiers bound with two chains and the keepers before the door kept the prison.

And behold, the angel of the Lord came upon him and a light shined in the prison. And he spoke to Peter on the side and he raised him up saying, Arise up quickly, as chains fell off from his hands. The angel said unto him, Gird thyself and bind on thy sandals.

And so he did. And he saith unto him, Cast thy garment about thee and follow me. And he went out and he followed him and he wist not that it was true which was done by the angel, but thought that he saw a vision.

When they were past the first and the second ward, they came unto the iron gate that leans unto the city, which opened to them of his own accord. And they went out. And as Peter knocked at the door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda.

And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the gate for gladness, but ran in and told how Peter stood before the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. You ever been called crazy? But she constantly affirmed that it was even so.

And then said they, It is his angel. But Peter continued knocking. And when they had opened the door and they saw him, they were astonished. But he, beckoning unto them with the hand to hold their peace, declared unto them how the Lord brought him out of the prison.

And he said, Go, show these things unto James and to the brethren. And he departed and went into another place. We see a beginning here of this with an answer to prayer. But it is that verse 5 that I read through.

Prayer was made without ceasing. I know that you would only be here on an afternoon like this because as we talk about revival coming to Victoria. Revival coming down upon the Revival Conference. Prayers have been offered up.

There are groups and there are churches and there are people that have said, Oh, remember in prayer the Revival Conference. But prayer without ceasing? Where we're laboring in prayer is saying, Oh God, as we heard some of the desperation and the tears and the prayer from the hearts this morning of those that are saying, we can't make it another six months without God.

The desperation of the hour is so intense when prayer becomes without ceasing, that there's no break. It is a continual flow. They met in the upper room for ten days and they prayed without ceasing in fellowship with that.

It was that continual yearning and longing. And God gave them what they was asking for. When they prayed for Peter's deliverance and they prayed for his being let out, they didn't pray in this manner probably, but God answered their prayers.

He fulfilled. When is the last time that you're able to record is to say, I prayed without ceasing and look at God's answer to prayer. That is one of the greatest things in all the world is to hear how God has heard and answered prayer.

The testimony of your heart is to say, I prayed and I prayed and I prayed because it's a blessing. It's one of those things is that your joy is full. Your cup runneth over. As I go through this, I have eight sections in the prayer notebook that I'm going to just show to you and explain a little bit.

There's nothing mystical about it. There's nothing fancy about it, but it's just the way that I've laid it out. And so I've been led to share. That's what I'm going to do. But one of the sections that I pray for is my immediate family.

I have a huge tribe. I have one wife and eight children. So my oldest is 17. My youngest is six. So with four teenagers in my household, much prayer is needed. And it is, is that there's always something going on.

There's always something in their life that's happening. And so it requires specific intentional prayer. I don't pray a general prayer saying, God bless my family. I've named them and I get specific with them about where they're at in their life and what God wants to do in their life.

And I want to pray for them rightly. I don't want to ask amends. But we often, as a pastor, even though I pastor two churches, is that, you know, I'm not wealthy by any means. And so Richard shared the other night is to say when he was a child is that, you know, didn't have anything growing up.

And I heard those accounts growing up. My father had seven brothers and sisters and poor family and said we had gravy three times a day and we was happy to have it. We didn't have anything in our home.

We just barely made it through. And those were days in his life that he shares about. Well, in our day and age where we're increased with goods and we have access to everything, one of the reasons that we don't have George Mueller anymore is because it's too convenient to run to Walmart.

It's too easy to go to Target. It's too easy to go to the convenience stores. And we've got money in our pockets, so we just go buy the stuff and we never bring it before God. And so one particular thing that we needed in our household, which is just as small and minute to anybody sitting here, but normally my wife would say, I'm going to go buy this and God forbid me.

He said, don't let her do that. You're going to pray about this. And so I told her, she said, now my wife is a blessed gift from God. She walks with me. She helps me. She goes along as I say, I'm going to go to a conference.

I'm going to go meet this man or that man or this woman to talk about prayer and those things. She says, go. She gives me her blessing and she takes care of the eight kids. And I know some of you ladies are going to kick me in the shin afterwards as to say that's cruel and unusual punishment.

But, you know, I thank God for her because I prayed since I was 14 years old that God would give me the right wife. As again, as I said, as I was a pastor's kid, I had seen enough messed up marriages and enough unhappy people as to say, if that's marriage, I don't want it.

And I thought that I was going to be a Jeremiah all my days. So I pray, God, if you're going to give me a wife, then give me the right one. And I had specific things that I was praying about. God didn't give me any of those specific things that I was praying about.

He just gave me the right wife. Because he knows better than what we do. So I prayed for my wife and God answered that. But there was that particular thing in our household that I needed to get. So as I told my wife, I said, you're not allowed to buy that.

I got to pray about that. So in October of 2008, I wrote in my prayer notebook, I need 12 of these. And I wrote it out, put the date, put the specific request. And I prayed every day. Never told anybody.

My wife didn't even understand exactly what was taking place at that time. But there was nothing of anybody else that knew but me and God. Christmas of 2009, we got some packages from our family and they had given us.

And so my wife is sitting there. She's opening her presents on Christmas night. And as she tears apart the wrapping paper, and on the side of the box was not 8, it wasn't 10, it wasn't 14, it was exactly 12 of what I had been praying for.

Now, I just didn't say, oh, isn't that nice? I sat there weeping. Because my joy was full of joy. Because I knew I had prayed for over a year for this specific request. And only God knew about it. Nobody else knew.

That's God in the midst. He works in this manner. And as we are praying for revival, it is not frivolous. It's not vain to be specific with God. It is time for you to work, oh Lord. It's your time, God.

The nations have blasphemed your name and the churches are in crumbling shape. You do it. Because He desires to do it. But He bursts within you a praying heart to pray without ceasing. To cry to God as the Scripture was given this morning.

Morning, noon, and night. Lifting up a prayer to God. Now it is that, as I said, there are things that need to be specific. And so, I want us to shift gears here a little bit as I have given you these verses so that you can remember them and just think about them a little bit.

Worship as the Foundation of Prayer

And on the screen, we're going to look at this now. Some of the things that God has given to me. Because when I ask most people about their prayer life and to say, how do you pray? It's not that this is the only way or the right way.

And I pray that that would never ever come across in this. But it's just as that what God has given to me. And so, one of the things is that as you get ready to meet God, I think a lot of times as we come into a place like this is to say, how are you going to meet God today?

I listen. A lot of times I play piano at the church, so I'm playing the prelude to the opening there. But I'm listening to people's conversations as I'm playing. They're not getting ready to meet God.

It's a vain conversation. It's the sporting events. It's the weather. It's the trivial things of life. Oh, what did you do last night? Oh, we went out on a picnic and we was on this and we was that. There is no interest in God.

They're not preparing themselves to meet God. When you enter into your prayer time, how do you prepare yourself to meet God? It's like Ravenhill said, you're not going to be, hey buddy, I'm here. You don't walk into holiness like that, do you?

You prepare yourself. Now, I believe is that position is very important. I believe is that being prostrate or down in your knees is very key to approaching to God. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess.

We but it is in worship of God. How can we be, as we're talking to friends one on one, standing shoulder to shoulder when God has said, you're in my presence now. Well, God, if I'm in your presence, then let me assume the right position.

I'm going to get down to meet you. Bowed face down into the ground to say, God, here I am. Now it is that for this first one of worship here, I just mainly a lot of verses in the Bible. And again, many of you have these verses probably memorized and tucked away.

And I quoted one last night and that we kind of begin with here on the first slide that we can start. I have these things that kind of get me ready as I'm getting ready to pray. And I love some of the old saints that pray.

And so if you want to write these down, feel free and that you can mark some of this stuff. But David Brainerd, 28 years old when he passed away, served the Indians. Great prayer life. One of the first books that I was encouraged to read as a young minister was the diary, Life and Diary of David Brainerd that Edwards put together.

And I read across that thing and I read how he prayed and fervently zealous in his prayer and he prayed without ceasing. And I said, no wonder he did what he did with his prayer life. So he says in this, Blessed be God that I might pray.

You count it a blessing that you can pray. I count it a merciful gift because I know that there are a lot of people that sit in the churches today that have no desire to pray. And I am a creature just like them.

And God could have passed over me and said, I'm not going to give you this desire. I'm not going to give you this opportunity. I could have been born in a time and a place that they didn't fear God, they didn't love God.

My testimony matches Richard's in a great way. Two weeks old, raised in church all my life, saved at an early age, called into the ministry at 15, pastored from the time I was 18 on to the present. I've been submerged in the church also.

But God didn't have to do that. He could have put me in a place that they didn't know God or didn't fear God. But He did. And it's a blessing. And I count it as such. Blessed be God that I might pray.

We read in this account here, Nehemiah chapter 4, remember the Lord who is great and terrible. Remember, think upon God now. I'm not thinking about me. I'm not thinking about my earthly situation here.

I'm looking at God. I'm thinking about who He is. And it is a holy thing. I'm fear and trembling before Him. I'm on my knees. I'm laid out before Him. And I'm thinking about what He has done and what He is doing and what He wants to do.

And my mind is there and I'm rejoicing in who He is. And Andrew Murray comes along and he says, blessed inner chamber, that secret quiet time that he always preached and talked in his books about where he said, abide in me and I will abide in you.

Be still before the Lord there. Blessed inner chamber, where I may approach God through prayer, through the word, through Christ and come into His presence boldly with that confidence there because of what He's offered to us.

In the verse that I already gave you, Psalm 109, but I give myself unto prayer. It is a commitment. It is a surrender. I surrender all, all to Him I owe. I surrender. I'm surrendering my time. I'm surrendering my body.

I am no longer my own. If I am crucified with Christ, I gave that up. And so here I am is to say, Lord, I give myself to what You've laid on my heart. I don't know how to pray. I don't know how to pray rightly a lot of times.

But I'm giving myself unto that. And I let Him speak now. Next slide. We go here. McShane. Love Robert Murray McShane. Some people read after him and I read this. A glance of Christ will save, but it is the gazing at Christ that sanctifies.

It is the hurried prayer life that moves right on through with their wish list, their desire ease of what they're crying out to God. But McShane says, no, you've got to be in His presence and gaze at His glory.

Stay. Spend some time. We got that old hymn. We'll sing that here probably tonight. Take time to be holy. Speak off with our Lord. Spend much time in secret. So it is that these men, they did it. They found it.

Wesley gave his words of encouragement. Watch and pray. And again, for somebody that served for 53 years and traveled as many miles as he did and wrote as much as he did and preached as much as he did.

And he would say is that four o 'clock in the morning I must meet with my Lord. And if I got a full agenda, I've got to spend a couple more hours there. Now, there are great saints that I could go on praying.

John Hyde, one of my great favorites that I love to read after George Miller that we've talked about. But these are just a few. And Chadwick already gave to you. Now it is is that we look here at the Trinity and we begin to see the descriptions of who God is.

Worshiping the Triune God

We see the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit. Attributes run in the threes of them. But it is is that I kind of just break them up so that I can go down through these things and I begin to rehearse them back to God is to say, Lord, this is who you are.

And then I attribute what I've seen him do when I when I come, for example, we were singing. I may mention this morning about the power. Well, where have I seen God's power at? We sing that old song, there is power in the blood and I'm able to testify.

I've been cleansed. I've been set free. I shared the answer prayer there. That's the power of God in answering prayers there. I give him glory and praise for this. And I go down through these things and I'm making mention to him about what he is and what he's done and what he wants to do in me and through me.

Circumstances of my life, situations of other people that I'm praying for. Again, it is the power of the testimony. They give glory to God. Great things that he has done. Next. These are scriptures that tell us who God is, and I know it might be a little bit small to see some of these things, but this particular passage is the one that I quoted last night in Exodus 34, where God shows up to Moses and Moses is off to the side door and God's presence passes by.

And as he's passing by, that says the name of God is declared unto him. And I rehearsed that. Again, I may not be able to always remember a verse in specific order. And you said, well, by golly, if you memorize Psalm 119, you ought to be able to memorize a couple of these verses.

But the old mind isn't what it used to be. So it's one of those things is that I have it wrote out there so that if I miss it, then at least my eyes are seeing it and my mind's reflecting it. But I picture myself there.

If he was in the presence of God right now, literally in the presence, you say, well, he's here. Well, if he's here, wouldn't we act different? Wouldn't we be down on our faces before him as we will be in the throne room?

Won't we be broken, poured out, spilled out? When we hear those names, all praises name that he's long suffering, praises name that he's merciful and gracious, praises name that he's cleansing. We read down through the verses of the scriptures because this is what God said to us.

This is who he is. And we declare it next. Psalm 118, thou art my God personal. Thou art my God. I will exalt you. I will give praise to you. I will lift you up. When they when David was singing that song about in the in the angels there around the throne and they're giving praise to him and they're giving exaltation to him about who he is and what he is, when you just love to see the glimpse of that.

When you just be a love to sit, say, Lord, as John said, or Paul wrote there, and he said, I know a man caught up to the third heaven and saw sights and heard sounds and words that was beyond description, beyond pronunciation of those things.

Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a divine visitation like that where we are lifted up, raptured up into the presence of God? That's what revival does, isn't it? Takes us up to the third heaven, moves us out of this carnality, takes us out of the sin of wretchedness and puts us in his presence.

And there we abide. We exalt him. We give praise to him. And this is the key, is I pray. Do you desire to please God? Sure you do, or you wouldn't be here. Does the church desire to please God? I can't answer that one.

I believe that because you come to something like this on an afternoon is to say you desire to please God in your life, your individual life. In this Hebrews 11, 6. Now, Hebrews 11, 1 is the definition of faith.

I know you know it. Memorize this. Faith is the substance of things one person knows. Hope for it. The evidence of things not seen. He goes on with this in faith. Now, Hebrews 11, 6 tells us, but without faith it is impossible to please him.

Do you have faith to please him? I'm getting ready to pray in my prayer notebook. I'm getting ready to pray for my family. I'm getting ready to pray for my church family. I'm getting ready to pray for lost men and women.

I'm getting ready to pray for marriages that are crumbling and separating. I'm getting ready to pray for a nation that hates God. I'm getting ready to pray for the bride that doesn't care about God. I want to please him.

And I can't please him if I don't believe that he is a rewarder of them that will diligently seek him. I want to please God. You answer the question. Do you want to please him? Then you must believe that he is a rewarder of them that will diligently pray without ceasing.

Give themselves continually unto prayer. Praying day and night. Morning, noon, and night. He is a rewarder of them that will diligently seek him. Next. Isaiah 55. We go into this. Again what is God able to do?

It increases my faith. It encourages my heart. It encourages my prayer life when I remember what God has said that he will do and is able to do. But I don't put anything of my importance here as to say it's about me.

You know, I listen to people's prayers. And when we're in prayer groups and things like that, I'm listening to what pronoun they're using. How do they pray to God? And if it's me, myself, and I, their three favorite people, it's a selfish prayer.

It's not about God. And when I listen to people talk to God, they don't say, You, O Lord. They talk about God, He, third person. They're not talking to God. They're talking about God. Prayer is talking to God.

It's first person. You. And so in this he says, You. Your ways are higher than my ways. Personal pronouns. Your thoughts are higher than my thoughts. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so are your ways higher than my ways and your thoughts than my thoughts.

There's no misunderstanding in my concept in my heart where God's at. He is above me, high and lifted up. I don't want to bring Him down to my level. I want to ascend up to His level. And who shall ascend to the hill of the Lord?

Who shall go up? He that has clean hands and a pure heart. Down numbers. These verses now as we go through here is the power of God. In Jeremiah 32, verse 17, O Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heavens and the earth.

Back to my descriptions of God. He's creator of all things. He's spoken into existence back there in Genesis where He has the power to create. O Lord God, behold, thou hast made the heavens and the earth by thy great power and thy stretched out hand.

I envision in my mind for God when we're praying for revival, stretch out your hand, O God, and say, Let it be so. Let it be granted. And power proceeds out of His throne. It proceeds from Him, for He is power.

And then in Jeremiah 32, verse 27, He answers that. Behold, I, personal pronoun, I am the Lord. Is there anything too hard for me? Numbers 11, 23. Is there anything too hard for God? The prayer of intercession that Richard was preaching on this morning in Genesis 18 where Abraham was speaking.