Why Should I Pray? — Gerhard Du Toit

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Prayer as a Central Biblical Doctrine

I would like to speak to you tonight, if I may, on the subject of prayer. And the subject of prayer is a subject that's very close to my heart. I believe God had one Son and He made Him a man of prayer.

And I don't know if you realize this Wednesday evening that when you and I studied the subject of prayer, that what we would refer to as the doctrine of prayer in the Old and the New Testament is one of the most spoken of doctrines of the Bible.

You see, sometimes people come to me and they say, I don't think the Word of God is saying to us an awful lot about prayer. But I don't know this evening if you realize that there are more than 8 ,000 references in the Old and the New Testament that is referring to our responsibility in the place of prayer.

And the Bible makes a wonderful distinction between what prayer is about in the Old Testament and what prayer is about in the New Testament. If you study prayer in the Old Testament, and I say that for the simple reason of the work and the ministry of the Spirit of God, I often say to people when we are involved in a conference on prayer that we can't pray in the will of God without praying in the Spirit of God.

And neither is it possible for us to pray in the Spirit of God without praying in the will of God. You see, the Spirit of God always brings us back to the will and the Word of God, and the Word of God and the will of God always brings us back to the Spirit of God.

We can't separate these two from one another, as it were, when it comes to the subject of prayer. But if you and I study prayer in the Old Testament, then you will discover, my brother and my sister, that it's wonderful for us to see in the first five books of the Bible, for instance, that God is speaking to us about prayer in the context of a dialogue.

And one of the most wonderful examples of that, in fact, let me mention to you that you remember in the opening chapters of the book of Genesis when God came to speak to Adam and Eve, and the Bible is saying to us that God came to speak to Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening.

And the Hebrew word for spirit in the Old Testament is the word ruach. And that word in Genesis, when God said He came to speak to them in the cool of the evening, the word cool is the word ruach. You see, God came to have fellowship with Adam and Eve in His Spirit.

But one of the most wonderful examples to us of prayer in the book of Genesis is in Genesis chapter 18. You remember when Abram began to intercede in the presence of God for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and there is a principle in that prayer that, if I'm allowed to say that, I believe revolutionized my own prayer life.

Because you remember when Abram came into the presence of God and he began to address God, that he said to God, he said, God, if we will find 50 righteous people within these cities, will You destroy them?

And God responded by saying to Abram, if I find 50 righteous people, I will not destroy those cities. And you remember, as the dialogue and the conversation went on between Abram and the sovereign God, that there was a moment that Abram said, God, if we will find 10 righteous people within these cities, will You destroy them?

And God said to Abram, I will not do that. My brother and my sister, there is a principle there that revolutionized my own prayer life for the simple reason that when Abram came into the presence of God, that he did not address God so much on the basis of a sin that was so relevant within the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, but he addressed God more so on the basis of the righteousness of God.

I don't know this Wednesday night if you realize that when you and I turn to the subject of prayer, that my brother and my sister, God answers prayer not necessarily because we are praying as His people.

In other words, God is not obliged to answer our prayers, but my brother and sister, God answers prayer because He is a covenant-keeping God. You see, God has made a covenant with man, and the covenant that God has made with man is simply this, that if you and I as a believer have learned the secret of what it means to walk in the center of God's will for our lives, and if there is no unconfessed sin in our lives as the people of God, then God is saying to us that the normal pattern of my relationship with God as a believer is that He is in the process of answering prayer for my life.

I have seen some of the most wonderful answers to prayer since we have started these services on Sunday morning. I have seen some of the most wonderful answers to prayer as I was thinking back of last night when so many of our hearts were melted and broken in the preaches of God.

You see, my brother and sister, we can't work the power of God's Spirit up. We can't stir it up. We can't bring it down. The power of God's Spirit comes upon us as the people of God. When you and I began to seek the face of God and the place of prayer, I have seen some wonderful answers to prayer this afternoon as I heard many other men sobbing on the preaches of God as we trusted Him to cleanse us and to fill us with His Spirit in our relationship with God.

And we are going to see some wonderful answers to prayer as God, by His Spirit, knows of us who have prayed and who have surrendered ourselves to Him, as God, by His Spirit, is going to come and confirm to us from His Word that which we have trusted Him for.

If you and I had looked at prayer and what we would consider as the historical books of the Old Testament, then you will discover that quite often does the Bible speak to us about a little phrase when the Word of God is saying to us that they cried unto the Lord or they called upon the name of the Lord.

If you look at prayer, for instance, in the Old Testament prophets and those major and those minor prophets, you will discover a very amazing thing that quite often those prophets would say, the burden of the Lord was upon me.

And we come across the little word as the Spirit of God came upon them and they supplicated and they interceded and they agonized in the preaches of God. And you come across the little word, oh, and you think something of the deepness of the brokenness and of the burden of God upon the lives of those Old Testament prophets.

Prayer in the New Testament and the Prayer Life of Jesus

I'm concerned tonight about the subject of prayer in the New Testament. And tomorrow night, God willing, I want us to look at the life and the ministry of intercessory prayer. But if you and I would study prayer, for instance, we will discover that there are about 221 actual recorded prayers in the Old and in the New Testament.

There are about 176 of those prayers in the Old Testament and there are about 45 of them in the New Testament. And if you and I will study the subject of prayer in the New Testament, you will discover that in the Greek language are there five, possibly six, wonderful words that is trying to explain to us the subject of prayer from God's perspective.

And as you and I look at those words, you will also discover that those words are found at about 360 places in those 260 chapters of the New Testament in the Word of God. But what about those prayers in the New Testament?

Well, if you look at those 45, you will discover that about 31 of those prayers were prayed in the four Gospels. You will look upon the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus and you will discover that Jesus Himself prayed about 10 times in the four Gospels and there are about 17 references to the prayer life of the Son of God.

The Son of God had a life that was saturated through prayer. In fact, my brother and my sister, what is He doing tonight? The Word of God is saying to us that He is sitting at the right hand of the Father.

And what is He doing? The Bible is saying to us that He is interceding for us. And the Word of God is saying to us that if you confess Me before... Jesus said, if you confess Me before man, He said, I will confess you before My Father which is in heaven.

And I wonder this Wednesday night in our Wednesday night service, if the Lord Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father and if we have a legitimate reason to turn to His Father and say, Father, I want to intercede for that group of people there because they are in the process of confessing My name before the lives of men.

You see, the Lord Jesus was the only one that was ever able to say, Father, I thank you that you always listen to Me. There was never ever a time in the life and the ministry of the Son of God, my brother and my sister, when He lifted His voice and His heart to His Father, that the Father didn't listen to Him.

Now, we know that there are times in the ministry of the Son of God that somehow when He prayed and it seems to us that the glory of the Father in heaven could not withhold Himself. And it seems to us that if the heavens above open and somehow the voice of God came, and the voice of God that came said, that this is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

Some time ago I was looking upon that amazing passage in the Gospel of John. You remember when the Son of God was standing in front of a grave of Lazarus. Do you remember there was a moment that He prayed and He said, Father, I thank you that you always hear of Me.

And as I was pondering upon that passage, I went into the kitchen where my wife was and I turned to her and I said to her, Mommy, I said, have you ever asked yourselves why was it that when the Lord Jesus stood in front of a grave of Lazarus, why was it that He had to say, Lazarus, come out?

And my wife turned to me and she said, Daddy, I'm not sure if I know. And I said, Janice, you know what I believe? I believe that when the Son of God stood in front of the grave of Lazarus, and as He looked upon the grave of Lazarus and He said, Lazarus, come out, I said, I believe within my heart that if He would have not said, Lazarus, come out, I said, the whole graveyard would have turned up.

You see, it was the voice of the Son of God. It was the voice of the Son of God that was able to say, Father, I thank you that you always listen to Me. All right, so we say, what about all those other people that prayed and the four Gospels?

My brother and my sister, you know what I've discovered? I've discovered that every one of those people that came to pray, and the four Gospels, they came to pray because there was a specific need within their hearts.

And I wonder tonight if you would allow me to suggest to you that if I understand the subject of prayer in the New Testament, then I need to say to you this Wednesday evening that it seems to me that the New Testament perception of prayer from God's perspective is that when God is looking upon prayer, that from God's perspective is prayer, not necessary confession in the presence of God.

Asking and Receiving in Prayer

Well, you say, Pastor, does that mean that confession must not be part of my prayer life? No, my brother and sister, it doesn't mean that. It means that confession is part of coming into the presence of God, and every day in my own prayer life as I come into God's presence, the very first thing that I do, I allow the Spirit of God to search my heart as a believer.

Also, does it mean that prayer in the New Testament is not necessarily adoration? Although adoration can be part of my prayer life, thanksgiving can be part of my prayer life, but it does not necessarily mean that thanksgiving is the dominant theme of prayer.

You say, well, what is prayer in the New Testament? I will need to say to you this Wednesday night, through all these years of studying this subject, it seems to me that about 65 of the references in the New Testament that is referring to our responsibility in prayer, my brother and my sister is saying to us tonight that from God's perspective is prayer asking and receiving.

I wonder tonight if you realize that you and I are serving a God. My brother and my sister, we are serving a God. A God whose heart is so open for us as the people of God to come to Him. A God that wants to give unto us as His children.

I think of that little verse in the little epistle of James. What is it saying to us? It is saying unto us we have not because we ask not. Do you remember for instance in 1 John 5 verse 14 where the Bible is saying unto us, and this is the confidence that we have, that if we ask anything according to His will, that God is hearing us.

And if we know that God is listening to us, then we know that we are the petitions of those things that we are asking of God. I think for instance in Philippians chapter 4 where the Word of God is saying to us, be careful of nothing but in all things by prayer and supplication.

He said, let your requests be made known unto God. Do you remember in Matthew chapter 7, what is God saying unto us? He is saying unto us, ask and it shall be given unto you. He said, seek and you shall find.

He said, not and it shall be opened unto you. My friends, do you know what the Bible is saying to us? That the structure of our things in Matthew chapter 7 is in a present imperative mood. In other words, the Lord Jesus is saying unto us, I want you to keep on asking.

He said, I want you to keep on seeking. He said, I want you to keep on knocking. And the word knocked in the Greek New Testament is not a word that is speaking about someone who is standing at the door of my house and is knocking without a sense of respect, but it is a word that is speaking about someone who is standing at the door of my house and is knocking with a sense of determination, is knocking with a sense of conviction, is knocking with a sense of knowing in his heart that as he will continue to knock, that somehow there is a moment that he is going to open that door.

I wonder this evening if you would allow me to ask you, when last have you and I come into the presence of God as a believer, when last have you and I learned the wonderful secret of coming into God's presence as a believer and realized that this God that we are serving, my brother and my sister, is a prayer-answering God.

He is a God that is listening to His people. My experience is that so many of God's people through the years that I have made in my ministry, there are so few of God's people who have learned the secret of what it means to serve a God that is answering prayer.

Stories of God Answering Prayer

I was involved in a series of lectures in my own homeland of Africa a number of years ago, and I remember one morning between these lectures, it was in a colored theological school, there are about two and a half million colored people, it's not the black folks of southern Africa or the white people, but this is a mixed race within the country, and there are some of the most wonderful Christians amongst them.

And I remember one of those mornings in one of the lectures, I came out of my lecture room and we came and we had a cup of tea around 11 o 'clock or so with the other lecturers, and one of the lecturers came and shared with us an incident of God answering prayer in the life of a very insignificant colored lady.

She had to go to the city of Cape Town on a Monday morning. She owned one of the dentists in that city about twenty South African rands, which is about ten American dollars or so, and she did not possess the money.

And she began to pray about that and said, God, I want You to supply my need, and as she prayed and she sought the face of God, she sensed in her heart that she was getting through to God, and God was listening to her prayer and the witness of God's Spirit came, that God answered prayer, and she somehow said to herself, well, I'm going to look at the mailbox and I'm sure someone is going to send the money.

And every morning she went to the mailbox and every morning there was nothing in the mailbox. Somehow the Monday morning came. That was the morning when she had to pay her last payment to the dentist.

And she did not understand it because God answered her prayer. And she said to herself in simple faith, I'm going to walk towards the station. And as she was walking towards the station, which was about twelve miles outside of the city of Cape Town, and as she came to the steps, there was an elderly lady who was climbing the steps towards the little ticket office, and she began to help this elderly lady who was struggling to climb those steps.

And as she was helping her, the elderly lady turned to her and said, where are you going? And in simple faith she said, well, I'm really on my way to the city of Cape Town. When they came to the little ticket office, the elderly lady, because of the goodness of her heart that she helped her up those steps, said to the man behind the little glass, I would like to add two tickets to the city of Cape Town.

And as they came into the train, she began to talk to this elderly lady and she discovered that she was a believer. And they had a wonderful time of fellowship and sharing with one another. And as the train came into the city of Cape Town, she helped her out of the train and helped her outside of the station.

And as they came outside of the station, she turned to her and she said, Madam, will you just pray with me? She said, do you see that building across the road? She said, there is a dentist in that building and I owe him twenty rand this morning and I don't possess the money and I don't want you to give it to me.

She said, God has answered my prayer and I just want you to stand here and pray with me. And right there outside of the station, they began to pray. And as they were interceding and praying in the presence of God, something happened.

The wind was blowing that morning and this little lady felt something in the back of her leg and she thought it was a little piece of paper and she grabbed it as they were praying and saying to herself, I am just going to throw it away.

And as they came to the end of their time of prayer, she opened her right hand and there was a twenty rand note. And you know what happened? She crossed the street and she walked into the dentist's office and when she came into the office, he said to the receptionist, I have just come to give you the twenty rand that I owe you.

At that moment, the dentist walked in and he turned to his receptionist and said, I don't understand this. I can't explain this. He said, earlier this morning, there was a twenty rand note lying on my desk.

My window has been opened and the wind must have blown out of my window. And this little lady just broke down and she wept like a child. This man looked at her and he said to her, What's wrong? Eventually she got herself together and she said, Sir, and she shared with him her story.

And this man who was unconverted turned to her and he said, Madam, I want you to take this money. And he turned to his receptionist and he said, I want you to cancel out this account. And he turned to this lady and he said, Take the money and buy yourself some groceries and some food.

And my brother and my sister, if you ever get into the city of Cape Town, I would be able to bring you in touch with this man because the testimony of this lady brought this man to the place where he gave his life to God.

Prayer as a Test of Spiritual Life

I wonder how many of us are sitting here this evening in this service and you sit here tonight and if you are absolutely honest with yourself, is there a sense in which your prayer life is very, very poor and bankrupt in the presence of God?

Maybe you sit here this evening and may I say to those of us who are going to this church Sunday after Sunday, my brother and my sister, listen, you cannot make an assessment where a church is by looking at the attendance on a Sunday morning.

There is a deep burden upon my heart for charity Christian fellowship because my brother and my sister, the only way that you and I know what's going on in the life of the church is to find out how many people know the secret of interceding in the presence of God.

And I wonder tonight how many of our prayer life is just like the little girl who used to pray. She said, I so often say my prayers. She said, but do I really pray? Oh, my friends, I look at the lives of those early disciples and the Gospels.

They knew what it meant to spend five minutes in the presence of the Savior. But you remember in Luke 11, verse 1, the Word of God is saying to us that they came to Jesus and they almost got hold of the Lord Jesus and the Greek text is so emphatic it almost seems that they surround Him and they almost feel that they could hug Him and say, Lord, will You teach us to pray?

You see the reason why there are so few of us this Wednesday night who are involved in a ministry of intercessory prayer is simply because of the fact that my brother and my sister, there is nothing spectacular about it.

No one is going to come to you and say, isn't it wonderful that God has given to you such a wonderful prayer life because it's a life in secret. You sit here this evening and you say, Gerard, why do you think I should pray as a believer?

Why is it that I should sit here in a Wednesday night service? Because my brother and my sister, I wonder if you realize that if I do not spend time in prayer as a believer, that I am sinning in the presence of God, that I am living an absolute blatant sin.

Do you remember Samuel of O? How Samuel, the people of Israel, wanted the king they saw, the kings of their following nations, and as they looked upon those kings, the same desire came in their heart and they began to reject Samuel.

And he spent twenty-four hours in the presence of God. And he prayed and he prayed. And he stood in the presence of the people of Israel. And he said, if I cease to pray for you, he said, I will sin in the presence of God.

If I do not spend time in the presence of God as a believer, I am living an absolute and blatant sin. He said, why do you say that? I say that because the Word of God said so. Now my brother and my sister, this North American continent has affected so many lives of the people of God because there are so many things that you and I can do.

And we do them so well and we do them so right. But we do them without the sense of the presence of God. We have lost the art of intercession. Why should I pray? Because God says in His Word I should pray.

Because prayer is the natural response of someone that has been born of the Spirit of God. Oh, you remember in Luke chapter 18, that amazing passage of the publican and the Pharisee. And that Pharisee stood there and he was so proud of himself.

And he said, God, I thank You that I do this and I do this and I do this and I do that. But that publican, what did he do? Oh, he trembled in the presence of God. He almost smashed on his breast. And what did he say?

He said, God, be merciful to me a sinner. I mean, that publican was no fool, my brother and sister, because the word merciful in the Greek New Testament, he was referring to the mercy seat and the holiest of all.

And that was the place where reconciliation was made for the sins of the people of God. And you sit here tonight and you say, I know Him as my personal Savior and He has come into my heart and He has saved me.

How were you converted? You prayed. You got on your knees before God. Oh, maybe you sit here tonight as a visitor and you are absolutely lost in the kingdom of God. And you say to yourself by this time, Oh my word, I should have never come to this service tonight.

Listen, God has brought you here and if you are lost, God wants to save you from your sin. How did we come to Him? We asked Him to save us and we prayed. I think of a life that amazing man Saul of Tarsus and you remember what did he say when God suddenly stepped into his life?

And God said, You've gone far enough. And God asked him to smash him to the ground and he was lying on his face before God and what did he say? He said, Lord, who art Thou? And the Lord said, I am Jesus and Thou persecutest.

And you remember his second prayer. What did he say? He said, Lord, what will Thou have me to do? You remember when God said to Ananias, I want you to go to this man, Saul of Tarsus. And Ananias was frightened to death.

He said, God, you haven't heard of this man? You don't know all the things that he has done? God said to Ananias, Ananias, behold, he is praying. My brother and my sister, I would like to make a statement this evening and I take full responsibility for it.

The reason why we so many times today find people that are confessing the acts of sin and not the state of sin, and when you begin to speak to them about accountability and discipleship and the place of prayer and the Word of God, you find them running like rats.

The reason why there are so many spiritual abortions today, my brother and my sister, is simply because of the fact that the people of God have lost the art of praying through. I spoke to a group of pastors out in the West Coast of Canada a number of weeks ago.

Prayer, Revival, and the Conference Center

We had a conference center which God has given to us in a miraculous way. We prayed for five years. My wife and myself, without anyone knowing about it, that God will give us a place where we can invite people to come and seek the face of God and where they will not be entertained but have encounters of God and where they will not be amused but be affected by the presence of God.

And our house is down on Crescent Beach and a mile up the road was a church that met on seven and a half acres of property. There is sanctuary that seats around 300 people and an office block and a preschool and rooms that can facilitate for about 55 people and everything you need on seven and a half acres.

And the property goes right down to the beach. And that church ran into difficulty and people left. There were 29 people left and they called me in one night for consultation and counseling and I knew the church and quite often preached for them.

They called me in and I sat down with them and they turned to me, the leadership, and they said, Gerard, give us your vision. And I mean if you ask me what is my vision, you need to give me nine hours because my vision determines what I do with the character of God as it is revealed to my soul.

And I came in that night and I poured out my heart for a vision of people seeking the face of God. Because I've been in revival twice and I know that the only way that revival comes, it comes through prayer.

And after I shared with them my vision, they said to me, are you interested to buy these facilities from us and develop it into such a place? And I said to them, we are an organization that's got a no-debt policy.

We are an organization that don't solicit for funds. It's never a question of money, it's a question, is it the will of God? And I said, I need three weeks to pray about it. And for three weeks I sought the face of God and I can take you to the little spot because my wife didn't like it because the carpet was messed up with my tears.

When I ran out of my study into the kitchen one morning, I ran into her arms and I said, God spoke to me. She said, what did God say to you? And I said, my darling, God said to me, the glory of the latter house is going to exceed the first.

And she turned to me and she said, Daddy, do you realize that the value of that property is between three and a half and four million dollars? And I said, Mommy, that's God's problem. And I went back to the leadership of that church and I got them together and I said, gentlemen, I said, I can only tell you that God spoke to me.

That's all I can tell you. And then they turned to me and they said, are you interested to just take over the mortgage and pay all the debt in this property? And because of the integrity of the organization that you stand for and the fact that we know that you are serious of God, they said, as long as you just pay all the debt, we give you this property that's about three and a half or four million dollars worth.

And I said, what is the debt? And they said, Gerard, if you could come up with 166 ,000 dollars, it's yours. And a year prior to that, our organization sold the house in the province of Ontario and it brought in about 176 ,000 dollars.

We've had people there that spent 40 days in prayer and fasting. I remember a group came in one weekend to pray and the Tuesday, my wife walked into the kitchen and she came into my office and she said, Daddy, she said, there's a bad smell of gas in the kitchen.

We got the gas man in and he walked into the kitchen and he said, he said, if anyone likes a match here, he said, we're all blown apart. And he just cancelled out his stove which was 25 years old. That was the Tuesday and he said, you can't use it.

He said, throw it out. And I got my staff together and we got on our knees and I said, we've got 60 dollars of a balance in the bank. I said, we can't buy a stove. I said, but we can pray. And we sought the face of God.

Next day, I received a phone call from a lady who was a wonderful Christian about an hour and a half away. And she said to me on the phone, she said, Gerard, she said, my husband and myself, before he died, we established a fund that we wanted to buy something for the Lord's work.

She said, I heard about your need. She said, I want you to go and look for a new stove. And I turned to her on the phone and I said, Mary, I said, it's a commercial stove. I said, they are very expensive.

She said, well, my boy, just go and look. And I covered all my bases and the cheapest one I could come up with was $4 ,360 .50. And I phoned her the next day. I said, Mary, it's bad news. She said, what is it?

I said, the cheapest stove I can get is $4 ,360 .50. And she said, well, let me go and check the fund. She came running back to the phone. She said, did you say $4 ,360 .50? I said, that's what I said.

Well, she said, in the account is $4 ,361. She said, Gerard, I need 50 cents to keep the account open. You see, my brother and sister, God is a prayer answering God. You say, why should I pray? Because God commands it in His Word.

Persistent Prayer and Fasting

You remember in Luke chapter 18, verse 1, the Bible is saying to us that men ought always to pray and not to faint. In 1 Thessalonians, chapter 5, verse 17, the Apostle Paul says, pray without ceasing.

What is he speaking about? He's speaking about the spirit of prayer. I don't want you to misunderstand me, but I've been concerned about the level of emotion in this conference. And I'm afraid that when all our emotions is going to falter out, and the joy of being together is going to falter out, my brethren, I wonder what is going to be left.

You see, what is happening these days, we are sitting under the communication of the truth of God's Word. The Word of God is coming to us. God is saying some very, very specific things to us. And the Holy Spirit of God comes, and what does He do?

He fertilizes the seed of God's Word in my life. And my brethren, my sisters, the combination between the communication of the truth of the Word of God and the fertilization of the seed of God's Word brings into my life the manifestation of the life of the Word.

And do you know what is that manifestation? That manifestation of the life of the Word. When I meet you in six months or six years from now, and you were in conferences like this, and you sat in a meeting like this, and God spoke to you about your prayer life, and God said, it's time to get serious with me.