Hannah Effectual Prayer — Leonard Ravenhill

Christ’s Purging of Sin and Access to God

According to the Bible, there are twelve gates to the city of God. But there's only one way to the throne of God. I love that word in Hebrews 1, I don't know what verse, about 8, where it says concerning Jesus, when he had by himself purged our sins, he didn't need the help of the Virgin Mary.

He didn't need the help of Dallas. Okay. He had by himself purged our sins. Father, we thank you tonight, it is with confidence that we now draw nigh, and Father, Abba, Father, cry. We recognize thee, Lord, as the high and lofty one, who inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy.

Prayer, Poverty, and the Holiness of God

And as that great American poet said too, we recognize before thine ever-blazing throne, we have no luster of our own. Lord, I think of David, ruling the greatest nation in the world. And then he cried, bow down thine ear and hear me, for I am poor and needy.

And again he said, this poor man cried. Lord, I pray, help us to realize more than ever tonight, that prayer is the language of the poor. And we're all poor. Even if mistakenly we think we're rich and increased in goods and have need of nothing, yet in your holy sight we're poor.

We thank you for your word tonight. We can truly say as we handle it, brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod. We recognize this book is about blood from beginning to end. We recognize, Lord, its covers are stained with blood, the blood of martyrs who died at the stake in order to get it to where it's come to us today.

We thank you it is a lamp to our feet. Lord, we pray for the idiocy of the politicians who have put out the ten commandments, the ten lights out of our schools and left the children to struggle in darkness.

Lord, we think of those areas of the world. We understand there are still a thousand languages that have no part of the word of God. Two thousand years after Jesus died. Lord, we pray this word may shine into our hearts tonight.

It's thee we seek. We welcome you, Holy Spirit of God. We thank you for those holy men of God who wrote this holy book inspired by the Holy Spirit to produce holy people. Lord, we recognize the greatest miracle that can be done on earth today is that you take an unholy man out of an unholy world, make that unholy man holy, put him back in an unholy world and keep him holy.

We thank you for the power of the blood to do that. The exceeding great and precious promises of God. And for our personal... the personal possibility that we may be vessels unto other. You've told us you do not dwell in temples made with hands, whether they're as costly as Solomon's temple or some glass cathedral or something, but you take your habitation in the hearts of men and women.

Lord, we long for this holiness. As Wesley cried, to perfect health restore my soul, to perfect holiness and love. Lord, I believe that holiness is perfect health of spirit. We bless you for the power of the blood to cleanse us from all sin.

Again, I ask you for illumination as we handle this holy word that we may not be the same as we leave this sanctuary. Lord, I pray with all my being tonight, make this meeting here, not in some capital city, in a little country town as it were, make this meeting a tragedy to the devil.

Lord, let fetters be broken in hearts tonight that shall never become bondage again. Let the dark past become light. Lord, give us a holy resolution to go out and fight the good fight of faith. We give you thanks in Jesus' name.

Pastor, I need some water, please. Thank you. Warm water. Warm, yes. I heard about one preach in a big hall, and he had a glass he kept drinking and drinking, and filled it twice while he was preaching.

And the janitor afterwards thought, well, it's strange he drank so much, and he sniffed it, and it was vodka. If you've got room, would you let those people in somewhere up there? Raise your hand if there's a fair seat.

A Shaken World and the Purpose of Christ

I believe that our place in history right now is explained in the 12th chapter of the epistle to the Hebrews, where everything that can be shaken is being shaken, that the kingdom that cannot be shaken may remain.

Arnold Toynbee, how many of you have read Arnold Toynbee? Anybody? Two intellectuals here, thank you. Arnold Toynbee is, at least I think, one of the greatest modern historians. He has to be, he's English.

But he has reminded us that 19 times, men have built what they called a permanent civilization, and that civilization has collapsed. And this is going to collapse with a bigger collapse than any other in history.

God is going to glorify his Son if he pulls the pillars of the universe down. The sole business of you and I being here, and the sole business why Jesus came, was not that we'd escape hell. As vast as that is, it's a fringe benefit.

Jesus came that we might give pleasure to his Father. Isaac Watts wrote 3 ,000 hymns. I like many of them. The best known, of course, is When I Surveyed the Wonderous Cross. But I like his... What's the other one I was thinking of there?

I told you sometimes I... I'm not losing my mind, I'm losing my memory. Anyhow, he sings about the world, and then he says, In Jesus the tribes of Adam boast more blessings than their fathers lost. You know, in the Scriptures, the wheat and the tares grow together.

False Revival and the Decline of Discipleship

I believe we're in the midst of a false revival right now. There never have been more decisions in Christianity, and never less disciples. So there are three classes of people in the world tonight. Number one, those who are afraid.

Number two, those who don't know enough to be afraid. And number three, those who know their God. I'm not right in everything I say, I guess. Most of it, yes, but sometimes not. I had a young man in my office this week.

He was so excited. He came from California, which is, of course, another country. He said, I go to a wonderful church where I have five services Sunday morning. I said, what do you do? Oh, well, we have a service from eight to nine.

I said, what do you do? Ten minutes tonight, say, Holy Ghost, get out of here, come back in an hour? Did this miss the Holy Ghost every hour on the hour? How many services do you have Sunday? Oh, we don't have a Sunday night service.

Listen, the Sunday morning congregation will tell you how popular the church is. The Sunday night service will tell you how popular the preacher is. The prayer meeting will tell you how popular God is.

The prayer meeting is the Cinderella of the church today. Coming down the road, some fellow came past us, one of those 18-wheelers. I don't know anything about automobiles except they're too expensive to run.

This guy came flashing past us. I don't know a thing about it. I do know this, that 18-wheeler did not, N-O-T, did not have a Volkswagen motor in it. Isn't that profound? That some of you guys are trying to run an 18-wheeler church on a Volkswagen prayer meeting?

The Church’s Need for Prayer

Without power, old Bishop Montgomery wrote over a hundred years ago, Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try. Prayer, the sublimest strains that reach the majesty on high. O thou by whom we come to God, the light, the truth, the way, the path of prayer thyself hath taught, Lord, teach us how to pray.

One of the world's most famous figures came to see me. He brought one of those abominations you know called a guitar. Guitars are backslidden harps. Do you want one of my records? No, thank you, I have a stack.

Jesus sang a hymn, but the disciples never said, Lord, teach us to sing. He preached the greatest sermon ever preached by the greatest man that ever lived, the Sermon on the Mount, but he never said, Lord, teach us to preach.

They saw his authority over death, demons, every abomination, and he was Lord over them all, but they never said, Lord, teach us to do the miraculous. Supposing you had a chance of experiencing one event in the life of Jesus, what would it be?

When I ask students that, usually the most popular thing is, oh, I'd like to have seen him raise Lazarus from the dead. If I had one thing that I could share in the life of Jesus, I would have loved to hear him pray.

Particularly that masterpiece in John 17. In the first five verses he prays for his disciples, for himself if you like, and then 6 to 19 he prays for the disciples, then 20 to 25 he prays for the world.

I had one of the greatest advantages that any human being could have. I had a daddy who prayed. He was a Methodist. I was raised Methodist, that's the proper way. Not what they have now. My daddy never took me to a sports event in his life.

Never took him newspapers, but he prayed. One night when I was 14, he said to my mother, who was called Lucy, that's why I love Lucy, and he said, I'd like to take Len to the prayer meeting. Oh no, you won't be back till 3 o 'clock in the morning.

Well, we went. Two other men, my daddy, Walter Avenill, another man called Walter Dacre, and a man called Albert Barnes, not a commentator. You know, at 2 o 'clock in the morning I saw my big husky daddy take off his coat and his shirt was sticking to his back, interceding, travailing.

I never forgot that. I've thought of it a thousand times. Will any of your children remember you because of that? Or is your pastor the best softball player in the Christian League? Lord, teach us to pray.

I want to talk about a very profound aspect of prayer tonight, that's intercession. And we're going to find some points, if you want to put them that way, in the first book of Samuel. Let me say this, I want to come at least three more Tuesday nights.

One night I want to preach on a threefold vision. Another night I hope to preach on a subject I've never had preached on in my life. I've gone to meetings for 75 years. And Dr. Tolles, as we sat and talked one day, he said, Brother Len, I've been to all the conferences in America, I've never heard one sermon on worship.

So one night I want to preach on worship. One night on a threefold vision. One night possibly on a threefold prayer. So let's look now in the first book of Samuel. I'm reading from the Living Bible, King James Version.

Verse 2 says this man had two wives. Of course, you know, that was abolished in the New Testament. You can't have two wives in the New Testament, because no man can serve two masters. The name of one was Hannah, the name of the other Penina.

And Penina had children, but Hannah had no children. And he went up to the house of God to worship yearly. Verse 4 says, when the time was come, he gave to Penina his wife and all her sons and all her daughters' potions, but unto Hannah he gave a worthy portion, or a greater portion.

But notice, the Lord had shut up her womb. I believe the true church, if I can put it out, even the evangelical church today is more barren than she's been for a couple of centuries. You know, America has had some of the greatest praying men in history.

I just wrote the foreword for a book. It's volume one of three volumes on the life of praying patron of Portland. The floor in his bedroom was like this. He had no rug. But he prayed this way, so much so that he scooped the wood out of the floor of the side of his bed.

There were grooves there. When he prepared his body for burial, his knees had great big caps on, like a camel. Praying patron of Portland. Number one volume is out. It's 600 pages for volume one, 600 volume two, 600 volume three.

They cost you $24 each. Instead of investing for your children, buy them something substantial. I doubt if these books will be printed again. There isn't the appetite for this kind of stuff. Everybody wants five easy steps to do this, and three easy steps to do something else.

You see, prayer is the most simple thing in the world, and yet it's the most profound thing in the world. Prayer is the simplest form of speech that infant lips can try. Prayer, the divinest strains that reach, the majesty on high.

In fact, prayer is so great, it strains every vocabulary. We learn a lot from this woman, at least I hope we will. Notice what it says. In verse 16, her adversary provoked her sore and made her fret, because the Lord had shut up her womb.

And as he did so year by year, when she went up to the house of the Lord, and she provoked her, notice twice this provocation, that she wept and did not eat. So she's weeping, fasting, that's provoking.

Come down from verse 7. Right, come into verse 9. Eli the priest sat upon a seat at the post of the temple of the Lord, and she, Hannah, was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord. You see, in true travail, there's only one thing wrong with this woman.

She gets more affection from her husband. She gets the best clothes. She gets the best attention. But her sister provokes her, because her sister has a bunch of children. And this woman has no children.

And it isn't something that passes like that. She goes year after year, and everybody says, well, there she is, there's Hannah again. She isn't pregnant. God's crown is on her. And this happens year after year after year.

Verse 10, she was in bitterness of soul and prayed and wept. No, it says in verse 7 she wept. It says in this verse she wept sore. She wept until she was sore. Verse 11 says, she vowed a vow unto the Lord.

So you see, there's weeping, there's bitterness, there's provocation. And then she vows a vow and says, O Lord of hosts, this vow will look on the affliction of thine handmaid. So she recognizes her barrenness as an affliction.

I'm not that much worried about Russia. I'm troubled about God. God loved Israel. He sent a priest. He sent the most amazing men in history. These towering characters. In a classification all their own.

Beyond scientists, beyond anybody else. The prophet to the most high God. There's a Jewish scholar in America years ago. He converted to Christ, a brilliant Hebrew scholar. And he said the prophet is by the very nature of his calling a tragic figure.

He has a fierce loyalty to God and he has a compassion for a broken nation. We have no prophets. There isn't a prophet in America today, I don't believe, or in England. There are men preached with prophetic urgency, but that's very different from standing in a robe that Almighty God has put on a person.

She weeps. She's in bitterness of soul. Back a minute. You get all this parade of holy power. Sometimes God uses a king on the throne. Sometimes he uses a herdsman of Tikoa. They say tremendous things by revelation.

And then you come to Malachi. Then from Malachi to Matthew you have 400 years of darkness without any prophetic light. 400 years of stillness without any prophetic voice. And then suddenly, dramatically, you find a man come on the stage.

A God made man. As I said last week, every preacher today, you don't need a vacation, you need a cave. You need to get away from everything and everybody. We're all looking for shortcuts. I skipped last week, let me put it in.

Preparation, Maturity, and the Cost of Ministry

I mentioned Moses. He has three periods of 40 years. 40 years on the backside of a desert. 40 years after eating at the king's table. Learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians according to the 7th chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.

He was a superman. He's a superintellectual. And God is going to set a little common bush ablaze to get his attention on the backside of the desert. He's there for 40 days. You see, he could never have made it from the throne of Pharaoh where everybody bowed to him, washed his feet, gave him adoration as the son of Pharaoh's daughter.

He could never have made it from there to go straight to the wilderness and meet Israel. And so God puts him on the backside of the desert. Oh, I can't afford the time. Well, Jesus, anyhow, was 30 years.

Doing what? Well, sweeping the shadings up at night. Brushing the shadings off his legs before he went to the house. He'd received the adoration of angels. And yet he's patiently there. And the Word of God says, Heal and obedience by the things he suffered.

There's no shortcut to maturity. Now, this precious woman, she's crying because she's barren. She has a reproach. They re-accuse her. They scorn her. We're in a sanctuary. So where does she go? Isn't it rather amazing?

A super character in the Old Testament is Hannah. And in the New Testament, Anna. Anna was how old? A hundred years? Poor little shriveled up woman goes every morning to the temple and she cries there at the side of a whiskery old man.

A man who's vowed to the people, I will not die until I see the salvation of God. Our nation may have gone through repeated experiences of travail and bondage to foreign people. But I'm going to live and I'm going to handle the Christ of God.

The man's nuts. He and the old woman. She prays and prays. Wouldn't it be wonderful when the rewards are given out? Just these people that we know so little about. But the point is that after all the revelation that God had given to Israel and remember as I say so often, this is not a book, it's a library.

You can't get sixty-six volumes of Shakespeare in your pocket or your handbag. You can get sixty-six volumes of God's revelation and all that's needed to revolutionize this world is here in this book.

There's one reason why we're in a mess we're in now. We prefer anything to the Prince of Peace. He's already given us the conditions that can be met. Anyhow, this woman gets worn down. She's worn, she's weeping and she says she continued weeping and in verse fifteen it says, hand of answers and said, No, my Lord.

You see, one of the great dangers today is that some of you might become more spiritual than your pastor. Boy, that's a trouble. You get more spiritual than your pastor. She comes day by day to pray and there's a big man in his flowing robe and his authority and he sees this little shriveled woman there praying and weeping and weeping and groaning.

She disturbs the place. And he sums up, Do you know why she comes? She's intoxicated. She's drunk. Let me tell you something, the church never does anything when it's sober anyhow. Didn't they say about the men who came from the upper room, they're drunk?

Nobody will ever say about our generation of preachers from Presbyterians to Pentecostal, these men are not drunk. They have no suspicion. They think we've all had Tylenol. I poured out my soul unto the Lord.

What did she do? In the middle of verse 11 it says, If thou wilt look on the affliction of thine handmaid and remember me and not forget thine handmaid, but will give thine handmaid a manchild, I will give unto the Lord as long as he shall live.

No raisins shall come upon his head. And as she continued before the Lord, only her lips moved. Prayer is so profound it exhausts vocabulary. Well, people say, I have a prayer language. Well, give me the verse for it in the Bible.

Oh, Jude talks about praying in the Holy Ghost. I don't believe it's praying in tongues, though I do believe that you can pray in tongues. I believe there's a profounder experience where you exhaust your vocabulary.

I remember a man in England, George Jeffries, one of the great leaders in England in my day, and he said, I pray in English, and then when I had exhausted my English, I prayed Welsh, which is a very dramatic language, and then when I had exhausted that, I prayed in tongues.

And then there's another area that I move into. Praying in the Holy Ghost, I believe it's praying in the wisdom of the Holy Ghost, the strength of the Holy Ghost, the love of the Holy Ghost, and the revelation of the Holy Ghost.

The thing that baffled the preacher was, this woman never said a word, but I can see there's something in her all the time. She's groaning. Let me take you back here into Exodus, chapter 32. Remember this is, Moses had gone up the mountain, and he left everything secure in the hand of the preacher.

The preacher had garments, he wore a plate on his forehead, holiness unto the Lord, and Moses thought everything was all right. And there's Moses up in the crowd, wrapped in the glory of God, and the fire of God descended.

And he comes down, and what happens? The Lord says in verse 7, The Lord said unto Moses, Go down, for thy people, which you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. Would that be true of us today?

They turned aside quickly after the way which I commanded them. They had made a molten calf, and they worshipped it. And they said, These be thy God to Israel. Leap over for a moment into the next chapter, and verse 24.

No, no, I'll go back, I'm sorry. The Lord said unto Moses, I've seen this people. Now verse 10. Listen. Some of the most awesome words in Scripture, I think. God is not speaking to an archangel. He's speaking to Moses, a commander, like he might speak to you as a pastor of a church.

Listen to what God says to Moses. Let me alone. People have often asked Billy Graham, Why did God choose you? He said, I don't know. When I see him, I'll ask him. It's a wonderful thing when God reaches down and takes a sovereign selection and gets hold of a man.

There's only one thing on earth greater than God reaching down to a man. That's when a man reaches up and gets hold of God. Let Moses in the Spirit groan, the paraphrase is. And God cries out, Let me alone.

You think God ever cries out when you pray or your church? Or just blow you some kisses to God in praying? Do you ever get so intoxicated? Do you ever get so drunk as it were in your spirit with embarrassment?

Do people get saved in your church? Or are they drifting from other churches they're sick of? There are not many people being born again. Everybody's making decisions. They're not being miraculously born.

If a man is born, it takes the blood of Christ, it takes the love of God to adopt him, it takes the Holy Ghost to regenerate him. The greatest miracle this side of eternity is a man who's really born of the Holy Spirit of God.

He becomes a new creation. He has a new heart, a new mind, new interests. All things have passed away. But that doesn't happen anymore. For one reason, there's no birth chamber in the church. Part of the reason I came to share these nights with dear brother Bracey Greer is we miss him from our prayer meeting Friday night.

He's always had a good input there along with some other precious fellows that are here. He knows a bunch of American Indians here tonight don't run for the door. Looking at one up there who was not too long ago lying in a ditch, drunk, drunk, snow falling on him, and the Lord came and redeemed him.

I love to pray with these guys on a Friday night. Do you know why? Because they pray with tears. If your preacher doesn't weep over the pew, let the pew weep over the preacher. Let Moses in the spirit groan.

He isn't swinging wonderful vocabulary, he's groaning with groanings. Let Moses in the spirit groan and God cries out, let me alone. Go to the next chapter, verse 31. Moses returned unto the Lord and said, O these people have sinned a great sin and have made gods of gold.

Now I will forgive their sin and then you'll be dashed there. If not, block me out, I pray. Do you pray that? Did we say last week that Samson finished up better than he began and his final prayer was what?

O God, hear me just once. Even if I die, do you go on record to a holy God tonight? I would rather die the next year if there's no move of God in my church or are you looking after a job? I had a chance to preach to professors and a lot of seminary students last Sunday night and I said, you know, if the devil has a danger list, I hope I'm on it.

I don't want any honors with anybody but I like the devil to be afraid if I start moving in the power of the spirit of God. After all, that's the greatest honor. When the men tried to cast demons out, even demons have self-respect and they said to the guy that was trying to get the demons out, Jesus we know and Paul we know.

Fancy being rated with Jesus Christ. All these young preachers want to be somebody. Half the young Baptist preachers are waiting for Criswell to die so they can get his pulpit. Forget it. The greatest honor in the world is not following a good man as he is.

Are you on the devil's danger list? You remember the hymn that says Satan trembles when he sees the weakest saints upon his knees? The little boy said, well why does he let him get on his knees? He's got it wrong.

But I'm glad I've known some of the great praying men in the last generation. If thou wilt forgive, let me look at something a bit tougher than that for you. In Numbers chapter 11 and verse 11, Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore hast thou afflicted thy servant, and wherefore have I not found favour in thy sight, that thou layest the burden of this people upon me?

Come on, are your people a burden to you? Do you know anything about the burden of the Lord? Or are you just after a good church? I believe the most awesome thing on earth right now is to be a minister of the gospel.

I'm not going to pray for Pat Robinson, he's backslidden. Any man that wants to leave a ministry to be President of the United States is backslidden. Or whether he needs to be King of England. The greatest honor in the world is to stand on behalf of a holy God, a living God before a dying population.

Family Altars and the Burden of Ministry

Richard Baxter of Kiddon went to a town where in the 1500s and he said there were not three family altars. And by the time he finished his ministry, there were not three houses that did not have a family altar.

Come on now you guys, you pastors, you deacons, you Sunday school teachers. Do you have a family altar? Or do you have a Russian home? A Russian home has no altar either. We've taken the lamp out as I said in my prayer, we've taken ten lights out of every school and so the kids are stumbling around in darkness.

Is the light shining in your home? Do you get the children around your knee every day? Do you teach them? Do you instruct them? Get them to memorize Scripture. I think you do that Bill. And the children enjoy it.

One of my sons, I got three amazing sons. One of them is very, very fond and has memorized many Scriptures in Proverbs. That's a great book of wisdom anyhow. Verse 11 says, Moses said unto the Lord, Wherefore art thou afflicted thy servant?

Afflicted thy servant? Dear Lord, we're all after good health. Burden? Why take a burden when somebody else can take it? If I have not found favor in thy sight, thou lay'st the burden of this people upon me.

Have I conceived all this people? Have I begotten them that thou shouldst send to me? Carry them in thy bosom? As a nursing father bear'st a sucking child? Is that how you carry your family? Your spiritual family?

Verse 13, Wherefore should I have flesh to give all this people? For they weep unto me and say, Give me us flesh that we may eat. I am not able to bear all this people. Come on, tell me. Do you ever hear anybody preach on this text?

The next verse? I am not able to bear all this people alone. It is too heavy for me. If thou deal'st with me, kill me I pray thee. If anybody else has to die for this congregation, I can carry this burden.

If need be I'll be killed and get out of the way if thou will release blessing. Kill me I pray thee if I have not found favor in thy sight. And let me not see their wretchedness. So let me emphasize this here.

Revival, Spiritual Travail, and the Birth of Samuel

Prayer is the simplest and yet it is the most profound thing. I have the privilege of preaching with and sometime living with and particularly praying with Duncan Campbell, the man that God used in the revival in Scotland.

And it was a profound experience. That revival in 1949 was actually birthed by an old woman, 84 years of age. You see the ministry of the pulpit isn't open to everybody. You should be glad about that.

I am going to receive a greater judgment than anybody else and so you preacher. You better watch your step. James says we should receive a greater condemnation. So here is this Highland preacher. These two old ladies were 84 and she was totally blind.

She had a younger sister. She was 82 but she was crippled, doubled up with arthritis. They called for one of the deacons of the church and they held hands and they covenanted they would not die until God sent a move.

And that's exactly what God did. The old lady said write to Duncan Campbell. He is God's agent. He wrote back and said I can't come because I am booked. So the lady that could read read to the blind lady he can't come.

He is booked. He said he can't possibly come in two weeks. The old Scots lady said that's what he says. I'll tell you what God says. God says he is coming and he is coming. And in two weeks he was there.

And he didn't know why he cancelled the other meetings. But they covenanted together. They would not die. They said our young people are dancing and smoking and sinning. They've never seen the glory of God.

You know there aren't I guarantee there aren't six people here tonight ever seen a Holy Ghost revival. You see Holy Ghost revival changes the model climate. We have million dollar crusades and they do nothing.

Revival doesn't cost a penny but broken hearts and people that refuse to live. They say Lord change my lifestyle. Change my habits. Change my sleeping. Change my lifestyle. I don't care. I don't want America to go to hell.

But when revival comes as it came there. It came with awesome power. Duncan Campbell got a man to row him across part of the sea to an island. When he got there as a boy he says laddy is that the kirk as they call it?

Yes that's the kirk. We don't use it. It hasn't been used for years. He said well who is the chief elder? He said well he's a Mr. Brown he lives in that farm. Would you go up and tell him that Duncan Campbell has arrived?

Campbell of the Argyle Revival. So this great big fella comes lumbering down the hill. Ah he says good to see you brother. Yes. He says I got on my bicycle and I went right round the island at five o 'clock this morning.

I told all the people to meet in the kirk tonight. It hasn't been used for years. But he said I told them you were coming you'll be preaching. Duncan Campbell says well how did you know I was coming? He said how did you know to come?

You know there's a telegraph system between eternity if God can get our ears he can't get them. You know a lot of the PTL and all that junk. PTL you know what that means? Pity the listeners. Do you know PTL and 700 Club have killed thousands of devotional families?

They used to sit and they laughed at the women they have coffee and they sit round and they read the word of God. They don't watch clowning. They've devastated more than they've done. You see when the glory of the Lord fills a temple you'll never have to advertise a fire either physical or spiritual.

You'll get the glory of God on this church or any other. You won't have a seat. But you've got to go through a period of testing. Let me go back a minute here. So they have a wave of blessing. Duncan goes and the church is filled.

He moves from there to another place. And he said Brother Amel the heavens were like brass and the place was crowded. The preachers were there they wear their colours backwards way. Scotland still has some of the greatest preachers in the world.

Well you see the scripture lays a condition down. You know your trouble isn't the devil. It isn't the economy. It isn't politics. The trouble is you sabotage your own prayers. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord?

He that has clean hands. That's our relationship with men. And a pure heart that's our relationship with God. So the preacher can't get going. So instead of you know saying let's all get happy and sing in all this junk we do to get our emotions stirred he called on a laddie there 16 years of age a high school boy and he says laddie would you pray?

And the boy stood up and he says Ach he says what's the good of praying when we're not great with God? And then he quoted Psalm 24 Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands and a pure heart.