Intercession: Which of You Shall Have a Friend? — Hans R. Waldvogel

Prayer as the Foundation of Christian Strength

I was very much wanting God to come to my soul, and I found out that there cannot be a strong Christian, except he be a prayerful Christian. When God says, do you want me, why Jesus says you can have him, go into your closet and shut the door, there's your father.

And he's not only there, but he is there to give you what you need. And unless you go to your father and find an audience with him and become, I was going to say chummy with him, that's not the right word to use, but you know, when a child says daddy, how sweet that sounds, when my little nephew and niece call me go-go.

I don't know where they got that word from, why that sounds so much better than when people call me reverend, they call me on the phone, is this reverend Waldpogel, I say, well, no, you got the wrong number, you got to call Virginia 679 -66.

But when they say Gaga, first they called me go-go, and now they call me Gaga. And oh, how sweet that sounds. And they're so persistent, I got to keep the door locked. Not now so much anymore, they don't live in my house now.

But when they did, if I wanted rest, I had to lock that door and be very quiet. They'd come stumbling up the stairs, they'd knock at the door, they'd say Gaga, open up. No sound. Come on, come on, I heard you cough, you're in there.

And then little Edwin would say to Grace, go there and slam that door shut, they'll come. They're bound to have me come around. And then I'm conquered, what am I going to do? Glory to God. I've learned many a lesson from them of persistence.

Receiving God Through Obedience and Prayer

And if you want God, you cannot have him unless you obey his call, as we heard a while ago. Open your heart and love him by letting him fill you with his love and his joy and his peace. But in order to receive him like that, there is that great need that the early church recognized.

They abode constantly in the apostles' doctrine and in prayer. And there's a lesson that we must learn and we need to learn. And I've never seen a Christian that is strong and victorious except one that has daily an audience with the Father.

But who wouldn't? When you pray, don't be like the hypocrite. They love to pray, they love to be heard, they love to impress people with their spirituality. But your Father, he sees in secret, he knows what's going on in your heart.

And Jesus gives us very wonderful instructions about prayer. He says, everyone that asks, just receive it. Why he, the Almighty God, says, there's a lot to receive, but God has so arranged that you must ask.

And everyone that seeketh, findeth, they that seek me early, shall find, what? They shall find me, oh, who would seek him. I was talking to someone in Virginia this week about seeking the Lord. He said, that is difficult.

He said, well, when you seek something, you're not being entertained. That's very difficult. You look here, and you look there, and you look elsewhere, and you don't find what you want, but you know you're going to find it.

He is waiting for you, he is in secret, he is waiting to reward you openly. And what a call, when they said, Lord, teach us to pray. He didn't make it easy for them, but he made it difficult. He talks about persistence in prayer.

The Friend at Midnight and Persistent Intercession

He talks about praying at midnight, when the need is so imperative, so great that there seems to be no supply, which of you shall have a friend at midnight? And I'm impressed that Jesus didn't say, which of you shall be sick at midnight, or have a headache, or a stomachache, or an empty pocketbook, or anything like that.

The question is not, how great is your need? The question is, how great is your friend? How faithful is your friend? Which of you shall have a friend at midnight? And when we enter into our weeks of prayer, we ought to say, my God, we have not chosen you, but you have chosen us to be a kingdom of peace unto God and our Father.

We've got a holy job before us. There are lots of friends that come to us at midnight, and we have nothing to set before them. I don't believe there's an honest-to-goodness Pentecostal preacher who is not constantly conscious of his nothingness, his utter inability to minister anything at all.

Jesus says, without me, ye can do nothing, and I'm so glad that he has so arranged it that we can't get away from him. You can't. It's so funny to hear people say, Jesus is wonderful. I don't know what I would do without him.

Listen to a sunbeam. Jesus wants me for a sunbeam. And listen to a sunbeam saying, well, I really don't know what I would do without the sun. Well, you silly sunbeam, what would you do if you wouldn't exist?

What would you do without Jesus? Without me, ye can do nothing. That's number one, that Jesus Christ unites me to himself through the power of the Holy Ghost. There's that tap that descends from heaven, thank God, and here that abideth not in me is cast forth as a branch and withers.

And men gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. Beloved, we have a wonderful and a holy job, and it isn't an easy job. It was not intended to be an easy job. Brother Oldfield was telling us the other day something about botany, or what do you call it?

A butterfly, a moth. I suppose you read it in the National Geographic. It tells how a moth emerges out of the cocoon, or cocoon, how do you express that? Anyway, it comes out. That's the main thing. He has been shut in there, and that shell, that prison is getting too small for him.

Now the time has come for him to spread his wings and to fly, to be a bird. Up to that time he was a worm, as the Brooklynites say. And now it's time for him to be a bird. How is he going to get out? It's just a very tiny little opening.

And so he begins to work himself through that opening. And Brother Oldfield told us how a certain scientist, who was raising these moths, took a pair of tweezers and thought he would help that moth get out.

And he did. He made that opening larger, and presently that moth was able to crawl out, but he was never able to fly. God had so made the process difficult, so that by pressing himself through this small opening, the life-giving fluid was pressed into the tips of the wings where he needed them now.

Before that he didn't need them there. He was just crawling around as a worm. But now he needed life and strength in his wings. And what does God say? Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength.

The Difficult Path Toward the Crown

It's a hard job. Don't look for an easy job if you're destined to wear a crown, to press towards the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It isn't an easy job. God purposely made it difficult.

He says, what did that friend do at midnight? He knocked and knocked, and he was repelled. And his friend says, go away, I'm insane. I'm not going to get up now and bother about your need. But he stuck to it.

He knew his friend. He didn't give up. He kept knocking until he had all he wanted. And time and again the Lord Jesus Christ places that call before us. That's the way he prayed, for in the days of his flesh, he offered up prayer with strong crying and tears.

We don't see enough of that crying and tears. I always say we don't hear enough of that groaning without power to answer. Oh, that prayer, that mighty praying that somehow shakes all hell and makes the devil know that he is deceived.

That persistence, when Jesus says, everyone that asks must receive it, he means that you should ask until you receive. And what shall I ask? Why the things that he has purchased for me, what he has promised for me, that he will do.

Praise God, that faith. He speaks of the same truth in Luke 18, in connection with the coming of Jesus Christ. And we're right up against it. Do you wait for him every day? Are you conscious of the fact that Jesus Christ is ready for the people, waiting for a people that have prayed through to the place where the world and the flesh and the devil have been defeated?

Out of them, and they are vessels sanctified and meet for the master's use. What will it mean, child of God, to be ready for him? Oh, what will it mean to be ready for so holy a God who is going to be revealed a second time without sin unto those that are looking for him?

And it tells us that every man that has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. And in order to purify yourself, even as he is pure, you need a strong helper. You need one that is able to subdue all things unto himself.

The Holy Spirit as the Helper in Prayer

You need the Holy Ghost. And if you're going to pray through, you need the spirit of prayer. And God says we know not what to pray for as we are, but the spirit helps our infirmities. There's nothing sweeter than a saint praying in the Holy Ghost.

And I declare you can't pray through except by that help. And you don't get that help if you don't give God time. That's what Jesus is talking about, that men are always to pray and not to faint. And where are these names that pray like that?

Now that's the teaching that Jesus Christ gives us. Many years ago we had men who didn't like our times of prayer. One of them wanted to be a preacher said, it bores me. So when we had our days of prayer, he was loafing around town.

And one day somebody suggested having a banquet, sitting down at the table and drinking coffee. He said, now that makes sense. Now put on your dog collar. The Bible says, beware of dogs. God help us. Prayer is a man's job.

Elijah and the Prayer That Brings Fire

Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we. But oh, how he pled with God for a backslidden nation until God caused fire to fall from heaven and turned our hearts again to God. And God uses the light as an illustration to us how we ought to pray until fire falls.

The love in our prayer will be useless unless it's praying in the Holy Ghost. And it will not be there until we give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word. It's a sacrifice. It's a life, a life of prayer that God Almighty has destined for us.

I've chosen you for that very purpose that whatsoever he asked the Father in my name. Jesus needs Elijah upon this earth. He needs Samuel and Daniel and Elijah and Moses. He needs men and women that will persevere by faith.

Verily I say unto you, he will avenge them. Feedily who? They who cry to God day and night and who will not faint. We faint. But oh, what a joy to be chosen of Jesus for a job like that. And I love to see these young people in meetings.

I remember when as a young man, God stuck his knife through me. He took that sword of the spirit and he plunged it into my soul. I was still in my teens and God gave me that call to pray. And then I discovered the wonder.

And at that same time, somebody sent me a book through the mail. And I never found out who sent it to me. Preacher and prayer by book. And that supported all that God had spoken to me. And so I gave myself continually to prayer.

Until my preacher complained and my deacons complained and my mother complained. And my own health complained. But oh, the outward man perished and the inner man. How God's eyes run to and fro throughout the whole earth to find hearts that are perfect toward him.

And should my heart not be perfect toward him who offers to reward me openly. Who says, everyone that asketh receiveth who has made Jesus Christ to be a high priest higher than the heavens. And that's why he says, let us therefore come with boldness unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy.

Prayer as Crucifixion of the Flesh

Beloved, it isn't an easy job. If you're looking for an easy job, go somewhere else. Like one of the pastors in Chicago told my sister Rose, the only unmarried sister I had. He says, go to Moody's Bible school.

You'll get a husband there. He says, four of my daughters got husbands in Bible school. Listen, don't look for an easy job. It'll be crucifixion to the flesh with its affections and lust. That kind of prayer will cause the fire of heaven to fall first of all upon you.

And almighty God to take notice of you. Isn't it wonderful that he has called us to be a kingdom of priests unto God and our father. His priest I am before him day and night within his holy place and death and life and both things dark and bright I spread before his face rejoicing with his joy yet ever still for silence is my song.

My work to do his holy blessed will all day and all night long forever holding with him convert sweet yet silent for my gladness is complete and the race of God's anointed priest shall never pass away before his holy face descends and serve him night and day though rage and rave and unbelief flows on a mighty flood there shall be to the very end these hidden priests of God.

And they're the ones of whom the Bible says they shall reign in life. Child of God, young people, it's the call of God. It isn't something you can learn but it's something you can receive. You shall think to be weary.

Waiting on the Lord for Heavenly Strength

I don't care how strong you are. I don't care how smart you are and I don't care how spiritual you think you are. You're going to fail unless you receive strength from heaven. But hey, lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created these things that bring us out their host by number he calleth them all by name by the greatness of his mighty strong in power not one faileth and he is in secret waiting to give power to the thing you don't have to think he beloved someday will be filled with remorse and with shame will be ashamed before heaven and hell.

And men if we don't wait upon our God so that he takes over he my father waited to give power to the things verily I say unto you he will avenge he deletes beloved. This is the very life and ought to be the very life of a true Pentecostal church.

I know that so much parades in the name of Pentecost which is a shame and a disgrace. But never never the less there is a real and the life of a truly Pentecostal soul is the life of God communicated moment by moment.

I feel the current moving on the line. What a privilege his priest I am his free. When the priesthood of Israel had failed God pronounced a curse upon that he that honors me I will honor and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed.

And herewith stand you a man that called upon the Lord and God answered him out of heaven. God will answer you out of heaven. Oh to pray. Oh to be a priest unto the Lord my God is my cause. I've chosen you for that purpose.

Esther's Call to Risk Everything

Jesus. Is there anybody in this meeting whom you've chosen. Why. Front. And what will happen. Oh I always think of that wonderful woman Esther. You know some of the greatest heroes of the faith were women.

You can't get by. And and when the sentence of death was pronounced upon Israel they were to be playing on a certain day Mordecai her cousin heard about it and he closed himself with sackcloth and cried.

And that didn't do any good at all. It only made the trouble worse. And Esther was full of consternation and sent him a new suit of clothes and said here put it on. He said nothing good he said. Don't you think that you've become queen just to wear a crown and live a comfortable life while your people are given to death.

If you keep your mouth shut now you've got a job to do. You must risk your life. She was the only person in all the world that had some leverage and some access to the king. And even though she had to risk her life that wonderful woman of God saw her call.

She saw that even though the king had chosen her to be the queen it was God's choice for her to be the deliverer of her people. And she had to risk her life. What a marvelous story. Strange that book of Esther doesn't have the name of God once mentioned.

And yet every word of it speaks of God. And here Esther. Esther had access to the king. And while the law could not be revoked the law of sin and death is operative. She created and forced through a law of the spirit of life that superseded that law made it weak and null and void put the sword into the hands of the jews.

Save the day. Thank God. And the very enemy that had gloated over his victory and spent so much money to destroy the people of God and had built a gallows 50 cubits high to hang Mordecai there on. He was dangling up there and the crows came and ate his eyes while Mordecai wore his crown and his ring and went forth.

Deliverance From Death Through the Spirit

Oh what an illustration of Jesus Christ who has delivered us from the power of death hallelujah. Who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. If you live in the flesh you shall die.

But if you throw the spirit mortify the deeds of the body you shall live. And that applies to prayer. Don't you think that you've received the baptism in the holy ghost just to have a good feeling and to have a name.

No no. It's to give you a job to give you a sword of the spirit and the whole armor of God and make you able to stand in the evil day. And having done all to stand praying always with all prayer. And how supplications and watching there.

Aren't you with all prayer and supplications for all saints and for me as in the Bible. Oh this wonderful call and you and I what does it say in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him like Esther where the people that have access to almighty God.

Your father waited to reward you. And how exceeding abundantly above all that we can ask or think. Well I think the work that God has given us is a fair example of it the most hopeless place that God could have picked out in all the world.

God started our work and every item had to be prayed through and was prayed through. And it was healthy. Oh how healthy when you can do nothing nothing. And when all health rises up against you beloved it's healthy.

That's what makes you strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Young people there's a marvelous future before the king is coming. Never mind he is coming and they that are with him are called.

He's calling us again tonight. And they're chosen. And where are they chosen in the prayer class where they wait upon their Lord where they pray without thinking. They know they're fully persuaded that what God has promised.

He was able also to perform. I don't know how many times I've told you the early lessons that God taught me along this line. I was working in a church in a place where they wanted to prepare the bride for for the coming of the Lord.

And they locked the door when people wanted to get in and the people kicked and they said you put on the door or everybody welcome. Then you lock the door. Well they didn't want sinners to disturb the holy ghost meeting.

I didn't like him. I prayed in the holy ghost. I locked myself into my prayer closet. And one day God gave me a prayer that now God shaped shaped his town and shaped the town hall and shaped the mayor and the chief of police and the whole gang.

I mentioned them all. God did that. Two weeks later word for word he answered that prayer strange and he shook that whole town and not only the town. The strange thing happened about two weeks later a man came in and was saved and was healed.

He was a lame man. He came with crutches and he walked out with his crutches on his back. And whereas always he went to town hall on Monday to get his relief money. Now he came to get a job and the whole gang came together.

The mayor and the chief of police and the whole gang just said what happened to you. And you know the funny thing was I didn't know anything about it. I'd seen him but I didn't know what happened to him.

Because he was a Russian he couldn't talk German or English. So when the paper came out the whole front page was full crippled healed in answer to prayer. And the strange thing was after that we had to open the church every day and every day was packed to the gun walls and I never had more liberty and a greater unction to preach that in those days.

Oh how these sinners. And if they were sinners they were the underworlds. I came in and I saw them growing white as their sheets with conviction. And another wonderful thing happened. All the papers took up the story in Chicago in New York in San Francisco.

Four months later I heard from India somebody had read it there in the paper. Now many people had been healed and not no mention was made of it in the paper. But God answered my prayer. Oh beloved. God is waiting for his sons to be safe.

Spiritual Warfare and the Whole Armor of God

He has chosen them and he doesn't give you an easy job. If you want an easy job you can find plenty easy jobs. But if you want his job he'll put on you the whole armor of God. When they drafted me the first world war I saw many that wanted nothing in the army but a uniform and buttons so they could impress the girls with but as soon as they smelled gunpowder heaven.

But Jesus Christ says no man is crowned except he strives lawfully. And we're not fighting the Germans nor the communists or the Nazis. But oh here's a whole hell full of enemies and they're already defeated in the name of Jesus Christ.

And it's for me to make my choice whom I'm going to follow. If you live in the flesh all right. It's your privilege you shall die. And it's your privilege to live in the Holy Ghost to lend yourself your body to be filled with the Holy God.

Prayer, Faith, and Revival

And how is it done by waiting in faith upon the Lord. We have never had a week of prayer but everything changes. And when we have two weeks of prayer I'm always ashamed of myself. And I say now why is it that God has to do that in order to give us himself in so wonderful a way.

He could do that all the time. If we live the life of prayer all the time but little by little. Thank God we're learning our lesson. I'm so glad that over in Germany they're doing it. That's why God is blessing greatly.

Thank God. Down in Kirchheim up in Hamburg over in Salzburg and wherever they are great blessing. They've learned a lesson. When I told them about our method they adopted it and it worked. Beloved. Let others ring the bell and wave their banners and say we're rich and increased with goods and have need of nothing.

Let us confess that we're wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked except as we have him and as he gives us himself day by day and moments. Dear Lord Jesus Christ I pray that you'll come to our infirmity at this time.

Lord we're so infirm we're so infirm. We're so weak. But thou art mighty. Oh hallelujah. Glory to God. The rain is falling. Now come let it saturate your whole being. Jesus is coming now power and grace and glory.

It was my promise.