Prayer — David Ravenhill

Prayer as the Foundation of Ministry

It's a real joy to be with you this morning. This is the third Chinese conference that I've done in one month. Pretty soon I'm going to have to learn Mandarin. I just returned two weeks ago from Malaysia, where I did two conferences.

Also some pastors' gatherings. But it's a delight to be with you. This morning I want to share with you on the area of prayer. How to develop an effective prayer life. I am convinced that one of the major lacks in the body of Christ is the area of prayer.

I was privileged to be raised in a praying home. My father died when he was 87 years of age. He was a minister for over 70 years. Started preaching when he was 16. But he was a man of prayer. Even at age 87 he was still rising every night early in the morning to pray.

He would pray four, five, six hours a day. And he made a tremendous impression upon me. I also had the privilege of working with a wonderful man in New Zealand for 15 years. He too was a man of prayer.

We had one of the largest churches in New Zealand for a period of time. It grew to around 15 or 1700 people. There was always demands placed upon us. We had numerous meetings. People always coming for counsel.

And the senior pastor very seldom came to the church. He spent most of his time in the little room off his bedroom. And he would spend hours in prayer. Periodically the phone would ring down at the church.

And the secretary would say, Brother Peter is on the line. And I would pick up the phone. And he would say, David I am coming into town this afternoon. Why don't we go out for a milkshake? We had six pastors on staff.

And all of us knew what a milkshake was with Brother Peter. It meant that we were going to leave the church and find a little restaurant somewhere. Find a little table somewhere in the back. And the senior pastor was going to ask us about our personal life.

He would say, how is your marriage? How do you get along? And he had a way of sort of prying that you could not lie. If you said, oh, fine. He'd point his finger, no, I can tell something is not right.

But somewhere in that conversation, he would always ask about my prayer life. And he would say, David, I don't ever want you coming into the church office. Unless you have spent at least one hour on your face before God.

He understood that ministry flowed out of relationship. I could have literally spent all day in my prayer closet. He did not mind. As long as he knew I was praying. And so I want to talk to you again about prayer.

Prayer and the Loss of Spiritual Weapons

In the first book of Samuel, chapter 13, we have an interesting story concerning the nation of Israel. From verse 19 to the end of the chapter, we are told how the Philistines came through the nation of Israel.

And how they systematically eliminated every blacksmith shop. Now, Israel was an agricultural nation. And they were dependent upon their agricultural implements in order to till their fields and cultivate their land.

And so because there was no blacksmith shop, they were dependent then upon the Philistines. Every time one of their implements broke, they had to go to the Philistines to have it repaired. And the Philistines had a particular charge that they levied on every single broken instrument.

But that wasn't the real reason behind the Philistines eliminating the blacksmith shop. You see, the blacksmith shop was the place where the weapons of war were made. The blacksmiths made the swords and the spears.

The blacksmiths made the shields. And so the Philistines came up with this brilliant plan. That we will take over every single blacksmith shop. The Bible doesn't tell us how long it took. I don't know if it took a year or two years or three years.

But it was all part of a very brilliant strategy. It says in verse 22,. So it came about on the day of battle. That neither sword nor spear was found in the hands of any of the people. They were only found with Saul and his son Jonathan.

It's very hard for me to believe this story. I have to because it's in the word of God. But the Philistines were so successful that only the king and his son ended up with a sword or a spear. The nation of Israel was powerless.

You say, well what does that have to do with prayer? I believe there is a greater Philistine. His name is the devil. And long ago he came up with a very brilliant plan. And that was to systematically eliminate prayer from the house of God.

Not only from the house of God but from the house of God's people. You see, prayer is where we get into warfare. Prayer is the place where we use the weapons that God has given us. The Bible says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they're mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

And so the enemy knows if he can eliminate prayer from your life, either individually or corporately, that when the day of battle comes we will be powerless. I think you would agree with me that we are in the day of battle.

We are inundated with all sorts of attacks of the enemy. We now have 25 million websites devoted exclusively to pornography. The enemy has come in like a flood. And the church is largely powerless to do anything about it.

We don't know how to wage an effective warfare. And so we have to reclaim the blacksmith shop in our lives. We need to pick up the sword and the spear again and use those weapons against the enemy. In Luke chapter 11 the disciples come to Jesus after he was praying and they ask him if he will teach them how to pray.

They said John taught his disciples to pray, you teach us to pray. You'll notice that first of all they observed him pray. And then after he finished they said teach us to do that. My father has commented on this portion of scripture.

He said this is the only time the disciples ever asked to be taught anything. We have no record of them saying teach us how to preach. There is no record teach us how to teach. There's no record teach us how to do miracles.

They said teach us how to pray. In other words, as they observed the Lord Jesus Christ praying they came to this conclusion. Everything that Jesus does is based on prayer. If we can touch the throne of God the way Jesus touches the throne of God we can do the things that he does.

We can do the miracles that he does. We can preach like he does. We can teach like he does. The secret to his success is that he prays. And so teach us how to pray. And Jesus gives them the Lord's Prayer.

In Luke's account we have the shortened version. But Luke's account adds a story that we don't have in Matthew's account. It's the story of a man who is waiting for his friend to arrive. And his friend arrives at midnight.

He's hungry. He's possibly traveled for a day or two. Maybe this man did not think he would arrive so early. Maybe he thought he will not arrive till nine or ten in the morning. By day the stores will be open.

I can go get him something to eat. By the time he gets here I can provide him with a meal. Instead he arrives early. And he is embarrassed that he has nothing to give him. As you know in this particular culture hospitality was so important.

This is his friend not his enemy. He wants to satisfy the need of his friend. But he doesn't have the means to do that. But then he remembers something. That he has another friend. And the thing he knows about this friend is this man always has an abundance.

And so even though it's midnight he begins knocking on his door. His friend initially is upset.

He says you woke me up. I've already gone to bed. The children are asleep. Don't knock so loud. But he keeps on pounding. Finally he gets up. He says what do you want?

And he explains the situation. And the Bible says he will give him as much as he needs. You see Jesus here is speaking about prayer. You and I will constantly be confronted with friends. Friends that will come to us with a need.

It may be a spiritual need. A physical need. A financial need. An emotional need. And the sooner we realize that we have nothing to give them the better. Because when we realize our own insufficiency and inadequacy then we will be driven to our greater friend.

And we will go to him and say I need what you have. You have the resources that I lack. And we will take from our greater friend. His provision. And we will give it then to our lesser friend. Jesus said that is what prayer is all about.

It is the recognition that I do not have the answer. I do not have the means to meet the needs of individuals. But I have a relationship with a greater friend. And I can go to him at any time. And he will give me as much as I need.

He is a God that does not hold back or upbraid. He gives generously. And then I can meet the need of my other friend. You see the reason most of us do not pray is that we do not recognize our own insufficiency.

We tend to rely upon our experience. Upon our training. Our education, our degrees. Well I know how to counsel. I have been through a counseling course. I know how to preach. I have been through a homiletic class.

And so seldom do we go to our greater friend. And gradually we become self-sufficient. But prayer is recognizing our total inadequacy and dependency upon God. In Luke's Gospel Chapter 18 verse 1 it says men ought always to pray and not to faint.

The Bible speaks a great deal about prayer. Notice men ought always to pray not just seldom. Not just once in a while. It should be a part of our everyday life. We should be always praying. In 1 Thessalonians the Bible says my house shall be called a house of prayer.

As you know buildings are not the house of God. We are the house of God. Hebrews says whose house we are. This house is to become a house of prayer. The Bible says we are to pray without ceasing. In other words we are constantly to be in communion and fellowship with the Lord.

The early church the Bible tells us in the book of Acts were continually devoting themselves to prayer and to the apostles' teaching. Prayer was a part of the everyday life of the early church. Yet today we pray only when we are desperate.

God the Bible says is a present help in time of trouble. Most of us only pray to him when we are in trouble. But we need to pray consistently. Now before we pray we need to realize there are obstacles to prayer.

Hindrances That Block Effective Prayer

It is no use beginning to pray until we remove the hindrances. The first obstacle to prayer is selfishness. The book of James says we pray but we pray with wrong motives. In other words we need to ask ourselves why am I praying?

What is my motivation? Am I doing it to the glory of God or am I trying to get my own way? Is my motivation right? The second area that is a hindrance is sin. The psalmist said in Psalm 66 If I regard iniquity in my heart God will not hear me.

In other words if I have sin in my life God will not even listen to my prayer. Now does that mean that God does not hear the prayer of sinners? Well obviously that is not true. If we confess our sin He is faithful and just to forgive us.

We all came to Christ on the basis of being sinners. And we acknowledged our sin and asked for cleansing and forgiveness. But the key word here is if I regard iniquity. Let's say after I leave next week to go back to Texas I have a friend who is coming to Los Angeles area and I say listen if you run into my friend Michelle give her my regards.

A regard means that I esteem her I honor her that she is my friend. If I regard iniquity God will not hear me. In other words if there is a sin in my life that the Holy Spirit has been trying to draw my attention to and I am refusing to give that sin over to God then God said I will not hear you.

Then there is the area of submission It says whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments. In other words I am walking in obedience. I am walking in the light I am obeying the word of God.

And therefore God will answer my prayer.

And therefore God will hear my prayer.

And then there is the area of our relationship especially between husband and wife. In 1 Peter chapter 3 it says live with your wives in an understanding manner that your prayers be not hindered. In other words our relationship with our spouse if that relationship is wrong it will hinder our prayers being answered.

And then the last one is Satan. Satan tries to hinder prayer. We have a very classic illustration of that in the Old Testament. In the book of Daniel the 10th chapter Daniel has given himself to a period of prayer and fasting.

Three weeks have gone by and there is no answer. Finally on the 21st day an angel comes to Daniel. Daniel is afraid. The angel says, don't be afraid. He says, from the very first day that you started to pray God heard your prayer and he sent me with the answer.

So according to the angel the very first day Daniel prayed he was sent with the answer. So why did it take the angel three weeks to get to Daniel? Maybe that proves that angels are males.

Afraid to ask directions. I don't think so.

But the angel doesn't come for three weeks. And then he explains what. He says, as I was coming to you I was opposed by the prince of Persia. He talks about a principality. After all, Daniel is in Persia in Babylon or Iraq.

At that time Daniel was in the Persian region. There is a principality over that nation that wants to control what is going on in that nation. He does not want the kingdom of God to be advanced. And so he opposes what God is doing.

And so the Bible says he stood opposite me. And the angel is not able to deal with this principality. And so the angel calls in to the throne of God. Basically says, God, I need some more help. And God sends an archangel, Michael.

And when Michael shows up he starts fighting against this principality. And the angel is released to come with the answer. After he gives the revelation to Daniel he says, I'm going back because the prince of Greece has come.

It is one of the few times in the Bible we have a glimpse of spiritual warfare behind what is going on behind the heavenlies. What goes on over nations. See, just the same way this angel called in for reinforcements.

The prince of Persia does the same thing. He calls in the prince of Greece. He says, I need your help. This angel has asked for help. I need your help. And so the enemy seeks to hinder what God is wanting to do in our life.

Now, those are some of the obstacles to prayer, some of the hindrances to prayer. And then once we begin to pray we need to be convinced of three things regarding God. We need to be convinced of his passion towards us.

His power available to us. And his presence with us. If you take any of those three things away everything falls apart. Let me illustrate it this way. Let's say I'm walking in a very dangerous part of Los Angeles.

It's late at night. And I lose my way. And I end up walking down a very dark alley of some sort. And coming towards me are some men. They've been drinking. They're angry. And they're heading in my direction.

And I immediately think to myself I'm all alone. If only my friend was here. My friend loves me. My friend would lay down his life for me. My friend is incredibly strong. He could take ten men with no problem whatsoever.

The problem is my friend is not present. I look around there's nobody there, just myself. So that's one scenario. My friend is not present. Even though he is passionate. Even though he is extremely powerful.

He's not there. All right, the same situation. These men are coming towards me. And all of a sudden I look and there on the other side of the road is a man who is huge. He's got muscles. He's incredibly powerful.

And he is present. I can see him. But he doesn't know me for a matter. He doesn't want to get involved in my problem. And so even though he's very powerful and even though he's present he isn't any help to me because he has no love towards me.

Another situation. Same situation. I look across the street and there is my best friend. We grew up together. I know he would lay down his life for me. He is passionate towards me. He is present. I can see him.

But he is so tall. He has no power. And even though he's present and even though he's passionate he has no power. You see, if you take any one of those things out of it we will not get any help. We need to know that God is for us.

That he is passionate towards us. That he is our friend. The thoughts he has concerning us are not thoughts of evil but thoughts of good. We need to know that he's powerful. This is all power and all authority has been given unto me.

But we also need to know that he's present. I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. You see, it's no use having a powerful God if he doesn't love you. No use having a powerful God unless he is present with you.

And so we have to be convinced that all those three things are true about God. Then that makes prayer more meaningful. We feel now like praying. Because if God be for us, who can be against us? If God has all power, then we don't have to worry.

And if God is present with us, how wonderful. Then we have to believe again that we have access to God. In John chapter 14 Jesus told his disciples that he was going to leave them. He says, I'm going to prepare a place for you.

He said, in my father's house there are many mansions. I'm going to prepare a place for you. Now I think there are two ways of looking at this portion of Scripture. One is to put it way into the future.

Believe that Jesus is up there frantically finishing off all the mansions. Trying to get all the subdivisions finished before the rapture. Maybe there's a union strike. That's why there's a delay. I don't know.

But I think there's another reason. You see, the only father's house that the Jew understood was the temple. The temple had various rooms. It had three main areas. The outer court. The holy place. The holy of holies.

And God was in the holy of holies. And there was only one man once a year that had access into the presence of God. On the day of atonement the high priest would go in and represent the people. And so only one man out of maybe a million or two million people had access into the presence of God.

And again, only one day out of the year. But Jesus said, all that is going to change. Because I am going in to where my father is. So that you can come in also. And Hebrews says that he has entered in.

He rent the veil. So that you and I can come with boldness and confidence before the throne of God. In the New Testament now, we have access into the presence of God. Not once a year. But any time we like.

We don't come in with fear and trembling. Tradition has it that they would tie a cord around the foot of the high priest. As you know, right around the bottom of the robe there were bells and pomegranates.

And tradition tells us if something went wrong and the bells stopped tingling, they knew that the priest had died. Nobody could go in. And so they would drag him out by the cord. They were terrified of going in to the holy presence of God.

But Jesus said, I go to prepare a place for you that where I am, you also may be. And he says, in that day, you shall ask the Father. Whatever you ask the Father, he will give you. He wasn't talking about after we die.

We won't need to pray in heaven. He's talking about the fact that Jesus Christ has opened the way for you and I to come in. And so we can come with that confidence, that boldness. Now when we begin to pray, we need to understand that there are realms of prayer.

Worship as the First Movement of Prayer

I'm sharing this with those of you who do not have a consistent devotional life. Many people don't know how to pray. They don't know where to begin. They pray for 30 seconds or 3 or 4 minutes. They run out of things or ideas or needs.

Their devotional life sort of grinds to a halt. And that's the end of their prayer life. This is not meant to be a formula. But let me give you some suggestions to help you begin. The first area is worship.

We have a wonderful story in Luke chapter 17. From verse 7 to verse 10. It is the story of a master with a slave. The slave is serving his master by looking after his master's sheep. If he's not looking after his master's sheep, he's plowing the fields for his master.

And he comes in at the end of the day. He's exhausted. He's tired.

He wants to sit back and relax. Have a meal. And before he does, his master says, go clean up. Wash yourself. Change your clothes. And prepare something for me to eat. After you've taken care of my needs, then you can take care of your needs.

You could have a little bit of an attitude, couldn't you? Sounds like a pretty hard master. After all, you've been looking after all of his things. Plowing his field. Looking after his sheep. And you've put in your full day's work.

And then he demands that before you meet your own needs, you take care of his. Now you see, there are two facets to ministry. There is evangelism. That's the plowing of the fields. Breaking up the fallow ground.

Passing out tracts. Knocking on doors. The other facet of ministry is looking after the flock. The teaching, encouraging. Exhorting God's people. And so this man is serving his master. If you like, he's a full-time worker.

And after serving God all day long, he comes home and he just wants to, you know, grab a Coke.

Sit in his lazy boy. Turn on CNN. And relax for a while. His master says no. Go get a shower. Change your clothes.

Make me something to eat. Satisfy my needs. And then you can have the rest of time off. Now you see, I believe that's what worship is. Worship is coming and meeting the needs of God. There was a famous preacher many years ago who made this statement.

He said no amount of activity in the King's service will make up for the neglect of the King himself. You see, we can become so busy serving God that we never spend time with God. And worship is spending time with God.

Not just when we gather together corporately, and we have our time of singing. But we need to do that individually before we bring God all of our needs. We need to magnify him and exalt him. We need to come into his gates with thanksgiving.

We need to thank him for all of his benefits. The Bible says he daily loads us with benefits. If we can't praise God in America, you can't praise God anywhere. We have an abundance. New every morning are his mercies and great is his faithfulness.

We need to begin to appreciate all the goodness of God. The Bible says the Father seeks those who will worship him. We need to constantly be seeking God. Spending time again ministering to him. The second area is the word of God.

Scripture, Wisdom, and Spiritual Discernment

The way that God speaks to us primarily is through his word. I know God can speak in a variety of ways through dreams and visions and prophetic words and so on. But primarily he speaks to us through his word.

His word is the light unto our feet the lamp unto our path. The psalmist when he prayed said open my eyes that I may behold wonderful things out of your law. In other words we need revelation. David said open my eyes.

He was not talking about his natural eyes. We can prove that David could see. He was not blind. It was his sight that got him into trouble. But he says open my spiritual eyes. That I may understand your word.

Give me illumination, revelation. In Luke chapter 24 one of the portions of scripture that Brother Z is dealing with it says that Jesus opened their minds to understand the scripture. The Bible says the letter kills the spirit gives life.

We need the revelation that the spirit of God brings. Too many people read this as a historical record. There is a past application obviously. But there is also a present application. There is also a prophetic application many times.

And if we read it simply as a historical record it becomes dry and boring. You can't relate to a million people wandering in the wilderness. After all you drive freeways all day long. What does my life have to do with their life?

If I get hungry I can pull into McDonald's and go through the drive-thru. I don't have to wait for burgers to drop from the sky. And so the Bible becomes sort of boring. I just turn on my faucet and I've got water.

I don't have to go down to some rock somewhere to get water. But the Bible says all those things were written for our instruction. There's all sorts of applications that the spirit of God wants to bring into our own life.

And so we need revelation. We need understanding. The next area to pray about is wisdom. The Bible says with all you're getting get wisdom. Wisdom is the principal thing or the first thing we should get.

Wisdom is what to do with knowledge. The Bible says by wisdom a house is established. By understanding the rooms are furnished. Paul referred to himself as a wise master builder concerning the house of God.

And so wisdom is imperative. We need to seek it. The Bible says if we lack wisdom ask of God. And God will give liberally. He is the source of wisdom. We need wisdom in our relationships with each other.

We need wisdom in raising our families. Again, wisdom is the principal thing. I was listening to a tape a number of years ago of a man from England. He moves in the prophetic realm. And he shared how he was praying for a group of leaders.

And as he approached one man to pray for him God gave him a picture,.

A very clear picture. He saw this man with a knife.

And he was stabbing the senior pastor in the back. And when he shared this the people sort of laughed a little bit. They thought, well, that's a very easy word to deliver. It's very clear what God is trying to say.

But he said, no. He said, God is a God of redemption. God is always redemptive in the way that he works. And so he said, I've learned when God gives me a word of knowledge to pray, how do I deliver that word of knowledge?

I need wisdom right now. And so he prayed. And the Lord said, I want you to have this man stand up. I want you to have the senior pastor stand up. I want you to put them back to back. He said, because if I give the word the way God shared it with me, that man's future is doomed.

He will never rise to the potential that God wants him to rise to. Because in the mind of his fellow workers he has been poisoned. They will never trust him. They will always remember he is a backstabber.

And they will always avoid him. So God said, I want you to put them back to back. And so when he was back to back with the senior pastor, this man said, God wants you to protect your pastor's back. And he said, all of a sudden the man began to break.

He began to weep. And he said, I knew what was going on. He said, the Holy Spirit knew what was going on. He said, this man knew what was going on. Because God was showing him he was not doing what God had called him to do.

Instead of supporting his pastor, he was trying to destroy his pastor. But when he delivered the word, God has asked you to protect your pastor's back. All of his co-workers thought, what an incredible honor.

This man has been chosen to protect our pastor. And so he was honored in the sight of his brethren. But he was broken in the sight of God. See, God is a God of redemption. God was giving him another chance.

See, that's wisdom. Wisdom is what to do with the knowledge that you have. We need wisdom. The Bible says when we pray, we are to ask for it. The next area is the area of warfare. We have mentioned just briefly spiritual warfare.

Spiritual Warfare and Intercession for the World

Whether we like it or not, we are in a war. The Bible says, your adversary, the devil, goes around seeking whom he may destroy. Don't look at the person on the left of you or the person on the right of you.

The enemy is after you. And he seeks to undermine everything God is doing in your life. He is out to destroy your walk with God. He tries to bring doubts and fears and insecurities. He tries to overwhelm you with condemnation or unbelief.

He tries to bring discouragement into your life. And he tries to destroy what God is seeking to do. And he is your adversary. And he is still alive and well. I know in America, after a while, we can begin to think that, you know, these things just happen overseas.

We're a sophisticated, educated country. You know, the devil works in places like Africa. And we forget we're in a spiritual battle. We were that way in the natural a few years ago as an American nation.

In the natural. That's the way we were a few years ago. Before 9 -11. We thought as a nation we were invincible. That nobody could touch us. And then 9 -11 happened. And all of a sudden now we have become alert.

We realize we are vulnerable. We realize at any given time somebody can come into this nation. And destroy segments of our population. And spiritually we need to be alert. Too many Christians are passive.

The Bible says we are to recognize the devices of the enemy. And so in prayer we wrestle, the Bible says. We don't wrestle flesh and blood. But we wrestle against principalities and powers. And we have to learn to use the weapons that God has given us.

God says those weapons are not natural but they're spiritual. And so there are times in our prayer life when we have to battle. Battle against again fears and doubts and condemnation. We need to know who we are in Christ.

And go to the Word of God and use the Word of God as a sword against the enemy. Another area to pray about is the world. The needs of the world. Jesus in John chapter 17 when He was praying for His disciples He said I pray also for those who will believe through their word.

Jesus said pray the Lord of the harvest that He sends forth laborers into His vineyard. We need to pray that God will raise up instruments to go out into the harvest. Now we can't pray that unless we're willing to go ourselves.

We may be the answer to our own prayer sometimes. God may say listen I've heard you pray every day now for weeks about going to China. You speak Mandarin so I think you should go. Well Lord that wasn't my idea.

But we need to pray the Lord of the harvest. God is a God that longs again to gather in the harvest. He's not willing that any should perish. The reason He said to pray for kings and all who are in authority is that we would live in a peaceable land so the word of God could go forth.

Without any hindrance or opposition. The psalmist says ask of me and I'll give you the heathen for thine inheritance. So we need to pray not just about our own needs but about the needs of others. God may burden us for a particular nation.

He may lay on our hearts a missionary that we support. And we need to pray for those individuals. In November, December we were in Cebu in East Malaysia. Michelle was there. I was speaking and she was interpreting.