A Life of Effectual Intercessory Prayer — Gerhard Du Toit

The entrance of thy words give us light. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold altered or changed in any way. You are welcome to make copies in its entirety for friends and neighbors.

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Afternoon Quite the number has come to ask me to give him a copy of the material on how to discern The difference between the voice of God and the voice of Satan so we have a hundred copies here and I really feel for the wives and the children and I feel for the baby and So but we have only a hundred copies, so if you would like to help yourself to them then You're welcome to be able to do that.

So I just mentioned that to you and you can come to us Afterwards and a number of you have come to me and shared how God has given you the witness of his spirit that your life is totally in the altar for God and I think it will be good for us In the material that I have here and we can't make copies of all of it.

But maybe if we could just make copies of the last two pages for those of you which deals with staying What does it mean to maintain the fullness of God's spirit? It's one thing for us to trust God to meet with us in a deeper way.

And it's another thing for us to go on In our relationships of God, and I would love to be able to maybe give back to you before we come to the end Tomorrow night in our service and then just one little thing about these cassettes.

I mentioned to you Yesterday that there are three cassettes available by Duncan Campbell the Lewis revival his testimony how God dealt with him in a deeper way in his life and in the nature of revival and Then we are making one more cassette and I'm willing to help to cover the costs of that because I Number of the men that has been coming to me and to brother Denny and to the most and others.

We think that one of the battlefields is the battlefield of the mind of the believer and I have a cassette that was given to pastor at our conference center some time ago by a Very dear friend of mine with the name of Richard simply Where he spent about an hour and a half on this whole subject of the renewing of the mind.

You know the battlefield is in the realm of your mind as the believer. So we are making 250 of those cassettes Available, but now let me say this to you If you don't put a dollar in that basket for that cassette God will have need to have mercy on your soul.

And for the other three. That's what I'm doing, and I mean I'm doing the preaching so if I pay for them You better get into your pocket and do something you know so I thought I just mean I mean they got the message now.

You know there's ways of getting your attention isn't it? So it's been wonderful for my own heart to to be here these days and and I can say up to this point By the grace of God that I have not kept one thing back and today.

The Call to a Life of Prayer

The Lord has given me such a fresh Such a fresh spirit of prayer. I Said to brother Denny when we prayed together before the service. I Said you know I feel if we can stay in there Study there all day long, and I said to God Lord.

I I feel I can stay there until Monday morning. It's seeking the face of God in prayer. The Bible says that those early disciples what did they say they said we will give ourselves to prayer in the ministry of the Word of God.

And all my brother my sister we are. We are in such poverty. Because we haven't learned the secret Of a spirit of prayer that God is able to give us. Now I've been praying today and saying to God again and again Lord.

What will happen? If you will come upon these men and give them a spirit of prayer, and you go back to your home, and you are committed to spend time in the presence of God. I Don't want you to misunderstand me, but I would say to you that is if you can spend three hours Seeking God in his work and prayer every day.

You're going to spend 46 days of 1996 in the presence of God you multiply three by 365 it comes to almost 46 days. God is saying to us that my house shall be called the house of prayer, and I said to brother Denny I want to go home and Monday and spend next week and fasting and prayer and Seeking God for every man.

We have met of God. So that that which God has worked in. That we will be able to work it out, and I can honestly say tonight that God has really made my heart one With what he is doing in your life, and I can say that if I need to stand before God tonight.

That I know that my hands are clean up to this evening. And the light that I have and I wonder if you've been going through with God. Turn with me if you will to James chapter 5 in your Bible. We were thinking and contemplating maybe tomorrow night to spend a Little bit of a service to give the men that are visiting here not those of us who are part of it of it of the church, but those who are visiting an Opportunity to share what God has done for you this week.

Sometimes people stand up to testify and Say you know I don't know where to start and then I jump up and say as long as you know when to stop. No, I think we are going to have a testimony time on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday is going to be the great day of the feast and I mean if you can change your flight. Or do something to your engine you better stay till Sunday because if God sends revival you're going to miss it.

So but the rest of us in the church. It's been so wonderful this week for me just to be part of this congregation. I've got a friend here tonight from from a church that's outside of Washington DC and.

And I was there for a week last year, but James is singing. This is amazing. Isn't it you take a bit back to that Baptist Church with you? And It's wonderful to come into a church and say God for one week.

I'm part of that church. And I identify myself with him. So tomorrow night those of you who are visiting men you would like and God has done something real in your heart this week and. And you want to share with us we could maybe give you an opportunity.

The Effectual Fervent Prayer of the Righteous

Okay James chapter 5 and we will read from this for the sake of our time. Read from verse number 12. But above all things my brethren swear not neither by heaven neither by the earth neither by any other oath.

But let your yay be yay in your nay-nay. Lest he fall into condemnation. If any among you afflicted let him pray can just turn this a little bit down. Thank you. If any among you afflicted let him pray.

If any Mary let him sing psalms. If any sick among you let him call for the elders of the church and let him pray over him anointing him with oil and the name of the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and if he hath and the Lord and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and and The Lord shall raise him up.

And if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another and pray one for another so that he may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much.

Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not in the earth by the space of three years and six months and He prayed again and the heaven gave rain.

And the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth and one convert him let him know. That he which converted the sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death and shall hide a multitude of sins.

Prayer in the Presence of God

Heavenly father as we bow this first day night in Thy precious and holy presence again. Lord I have been reminded tonight even as we were singing man of sorrows what a name. Lord I have been reminded in my heart that we are standing on holy ground.

And father I feel within my heart tonight that It almost seems if God is allow us to. It's allowing us to get to have a glimpse in the holiest of all the place where the high priest was allowed to enter in once a year and Thou art saying to us not without blood.

Oh God. We thank you that we are part of the redeemed. We thank you that You have said to us father in your word in so many wonderful ways in so many wonderful places. That they sung a new song saying thou art worthy to take the book.

And to open the seals thereof for thou has slain and has redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. Father we thank you that we have not really been redeemed with corruptible things the silver and gold from our vain conversation.

But father we have been redeemed through the precious blood of Christ as The lamb without blemish and without spot and God I don't know what will happen this first the nightly the Lamb of God Would suddenly come to stand in the midst of these people and so we pray that we as your people tonight Lord as we bring a sacrifice to God.

That father that it is the sacrifice of the brokenness of our heart. We thank you for your great love towards us Lord we so deeply long to see revival is so deeply desire for God. To pour out the spirit upon us to open The heavens above and do something tonight in our midst.

That will change our lives for time and for eternity. And father. I want to open my heart. And father I pray that every one of us will open our heart. Because God we do not know if maybe this is the night.

We want to set ourselves in such a way that when the wind of our spirit come That we would be able to launch out Hush upon us again tonight. We pray Cover us under the precious blood. And bless your word to our heart In Jesus name.

I mean, you know, the little epistle of James is a very interesting little epistle. For a number of reasons that I'm sure you are aware of the fact that James was What we would consider as a half brother of the Lord Jesus.

But whenever he addressed or rather whenever he introduced himself That he did not introduce himself as a Half brother of the Lord Jesus or a brother of the Lord Jesus for that matter but he introduced himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ and the word servant is a very significant word because it is a word that really has its meaning in the 21st chapter of the book of Exodus.

When the Bible is saying to us that the Hebrew slave Who was a slave of his master for for something like six years and then after the six year his master Was under the obligation to allow that slave to go out free.

And the Word of God is saying to us that after six years that that Slave would come to his master and and he will say to his master I I love my master and I do not want to go out free and I want to stay with my master for the rest of my life.

And the Bible is saying to us that that that master will take that slave to the door and within the presence of two witnesses that he will take an oar and make a hole through his ear and That from that day on he will be called a bond slave or a love slave.

In other words, he came to the place where he said I I love my master and I I do not want to go out free. And whenever you come across the word servant, it's the word do-loss in the Greek New Testament.

And whenever you read about the writings of the apostle Paul and he referred to himself as a servant of God. He considered himself to be a bond slave. In other words, he he came to the place where he said I love my master and I do not want to go out free.

And I want to stay with my master for for the rest of my life. If you study this little epistle of James, he will discover that that James had a nickname and his nickname was camel knees and The early tradition is saying to us that James James when he died that they found out that he had such amazing marks on his knees that Indicated for us that he was a man of tremendous intercessory prayer.

That's why in this little epistle will you discover that that is making some tremendous statements to us about? What what about what God's perspective is when it comes to life and the ministry of of? intercessory prayer.

Biblical Principles and Illustrations of Prayer

Now one of the most significant things about the Word of God is that when you and I study the seven principles of what we would consider as biblical interpretation. Will you discover that within those seven principles are there what we would?

Refer to us as two wonderful laws of biblical interpretation and One of those laws is simply this that God whenever he speaks to us in his work. And he speaks to us not necessarily through rules and regulations, but but he speaks to us through through principles and through propositions.

Will you discover that whenever God is speaking to us through a principle and a proposition my brother and sister that? Quite often does it happen that as the result of that principle and that proposition is God giving on to us in illustration.

To say why do you say that well in the fifth chapter of the epistle of James? The Bible is saying to us that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. That's the proposition and and here comes the illustration.

The illustration is saying to us that Elijah was a man. Just like as we are. And the Bible is saying to us that Elijah prayed And as a result of the prayer of Elijah. Was there a moment that God closed the heavens above and for a period of three years and six months?

Was the heavens closed and the Word of God is saying to us that there was no rain. The Bible is saying to us that Elijah prayed again And as a result of the prayer of Elijah. Was there a moment that the heavens opened above and God sent rain?

And the Word of God is saying to us that Elijah was a man.

Just like as we are. I.

Would like to speak to you tonight if I may on what we would consider as a life of prevailing and intercessory prayer and. And to remember there was a time in the ministry of the Lord Jesus that. But he turned to those early disciples and he said to them he said who do the people say that I am.

And Those early disciples turned to the Savior and they said to him That there are some that are saying that thou art Elijah and there are there are others that are saying to us that thou art Jeremiah.

My brother my sister. I believe the reason why they said that is because They saw within the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus a combination of those two Old Testament prophets. The life of the prophet Elijah became the life of the man of fire and the life of the prophet Jeremiah Who was called the man of tears.

And as they looked upon the life of the Savior They saw within the life of the Lord Jesus the combination of those Old Testament Oh to Old Testament prophets. As you and I look tonight at this great concept of what it means to be open for God to develop in our lives a ministry or a life of prevailing and prayer.

The Attitude of Prevailing Prayer

I want us to look at the attitude of prevailing and prayer and I want us to look at the The agony of prevailing and prayer and if time would allow us I want us to consider the victory of prevailing and the place of prayer.

I Don't know if you realize this Thursday night at my brother my sister. The problem that each and every one of us have tonight in this service when it comes to the place of intercessory prayer. It's the problem of an attitude.

You see we are so often convicted by the Spirit of God about wrong attitudes in our hearts towards people. And maybe wrong attitudes in our hearts towards God. But but I wonder if you realize that so much is depending upon my attitude when to the place of prayer as a believer and My attitude that is coming towards God.

And maybe you sit here tonight. Do you say to me Gerard maybe the fact that I have not known upon my life a spirit of intercessory prayer. Simply because of the fact that I have an attitude towards prayer that I said to myself.

Well, I'm not surely this is the kind of lifestyle that that God wants me to live as a believer. And the first thing that I would like to mention to you this evening is that but we are speaking about an attitude that is coming from from the life of all the people.

You see our problem this Thursday night in the service is simply this that the majority of us that are sitting here and I'm referring to myself because there was a day in my life when when I felt exactly the same I said to myself when God began to speak to me about the life of prayer that that I began to say to myself Gerard.

The kind of lifestyle that you are thinking about it's a lifestyle that that belongs to a very unique group of elected people of God and there are some of those people we would refer to them as As the praying heights and and the D .R. Moody's and the George Whitfield's and and the George Mullis and those those amazing people and as you and I read their life stories we we say to ourselves those people were so unique and they were so chosen of set apart of God and God has poured upon their lives a spirit and a gift of prayer and and we say to ourselves My life cannot be part of the lives of those people.

And yet my brother my sister if you would study the Word of God. Is there a sense this Thursday night in which you would allow me to suggest to you that it seems to me that the majority of the people.

That you and I read about in the Word of God who is used of God and the life of intercessory prayer. Where men and women just like you and me I think for instance of Hannah and one Samuel chapter 1 a Woman of what the Word of God is saying to us that in one sense of the word.

Was she very little known to the scriptures in fact there are maybe about two chapters in God's Word. That is maybe maybe make reference to the life of of this woman, but my brother my sister. She was the woman that went of her husband every year to the temple to sacrifice in the presence of God and Every year as she came into the presence of God in the temple as she saw how the sons of Eli were living in adultery and fornication at the doorpost of the temple of God and as she looked upon that and as she Saw that the people of God was in a backslidden state.

Was there a year that she came to the temple of God in absolute desperation? As she was the woman of tremendous perception. She recognized that the people of God was far from God and and she began to pray and she made a vow to God.

She said God. I'm a woman I Can't lead the people of Israel, but but because I'm a woman I'm willing to sacrifice my body and she said God if you are going to give unto me a man child and If you are given to me a man child she said God I make a vow.

That I will bring this child back to this temple. If you will give me the privilege to win this child until he is about 11 or 12 years old I will bring him back to this temple and and you will be able to serve you for the rest of his life.

She got through to God. God gave us Samuel and he became one of the great leaders to the people of Israel. She was the very ordinary woman you see I Think for instance of another woman in the opening chapters of the girl of a look out of a gospel of Luke.

Her name was Anna the prophetess. We don't do a lot about it. But what we do know is to the word of God is saying to us that she was she was the widow of 80 and 40 Years old and she was serving God with her prayers and with fastings at at the very temple of God.

As she was a woman just like you and me I Will never forget I was involved in a weekend or what we would call a convention in the Western Cape of Southern Africa. And it somehow happened so that the Friday night these people that came to this weekend convention or camp.

Many of them were in trailers and many of them were in tents that weekend and the services Was in the tent and it happened so that the very opening night of this weekend. They were about maybe 250 people or so.

Then I found out that at that camp that there were about 50 people with exactly the same last name. In fact that really night in my opening remarks. I said to the people I said folks I said if we turn our generators tonight and there is going to be darkness in this camp.

I said if you bumped into someone in the darkness of the night, I said you can just say I'm sorry Mr. And Mrs. Nebo because I mean there were so many of those people. But while I was preaching there that weekend I began to ask myself How did these people come to Christ and I found out that 23 years earlier on?

That you have our faith mission evangelist went into the district of San William to do a series of evangelistic services that lasted for three weeks and They said the very first night when we came into the little town hall.

The place was absolutely packed of people and they said They were they could hardly get to the pulpit and they said as we somehow came to the pulpit. They said as we looked upon the faces of those people.

They said there was such a precious of God that we were too afraid to open our in books that night and the service. Because of the awesomeness of the precious of God. And that night eventually they began to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ to my brother and my sister from the very first night of those services the Spirit of God began to sweep into those gatherings a night after night and day after day.

The Spirit of God was breathing upon that district and every day people were converted in about 21 days or so. Around 400 people were swept into the kingdom of God. Every night of those services there was an elderly man in his early 80s.

Who was sitting in the front with his bowed head and gray hair and old beard as he was sitting there. And and every night he was sitting there in the spirit of intercessory prayer. One day one of those evangelists turned to the other and he he said to him, you know.

We have never in our lives been in a movement like that. It seems if we are almost on the brink of revival. It seems if God is breathing upon this whole area. And he said to him why maybe we should go and visit the elderly man and Maybe we should go and ask him.

Why is it that that God is working? I mean the Spirit of God and the conviction of the Spirit of God is so relevant upon these gatherings. Maybe the old man can tell us because every night he sat there in a in a spirit of intercessory prayer.

They found him in his little cabin in what was called the Cedar Mountains. They knocked at the door of that cabin the elderly man opened the door and as they step into the door. It happened so that he invited him in and as they sit in that little cabin.

They look at one another and they recognize that they were standing on holy ground. They sat down with that elderly man and they turned to him and they said to him sir We know that you are a believer, you know God and you love him.

But they said would you allow us to ask you why is it that God is working in such a way? The elderly man became very very quiet and he made a statement. And he said young man. He said you see this town.

He said this town is divided by a kind of a little hill. And he said every day of the week. He said I walked to the other side of the town For six days of the week and he said every day as I walk over.

He said before I cross the hill there is a place where I kneel. And he said I look over the spark of the town and he said as I look over the spark of the town. He said the burden of God will come upon me and he said I will begin to pray.

And supplicate and persevere in the presence of God and he said sometimes I find myself Hours as I as I pray for the souls of men and women. Then he said there is a moment when I cross the little hill.

They said I look over this part of the town and he said Where is the rock where I kneel. And he said I pray and he said I will look over this part of the town. He said sometimes my heart breaks in the presence of God and I find myself Sobbing in the presence of God and I pray for the souls of men and women.

One of those evangelists turned to him and said to him sir Would you allow me to ask you how long have you been doing this? And the old man became very very broken up and sat there and sobbed like a child and dropped his head.

Eventually the words began to trickle through. He said if I remember correctly he said I've been doing this for six days of the week for the last 25 years. You see my brother and my sister there is a verse in the Word of God that breaks my heart.

Every time when I look at that because the Bible is saying to us when Zion prevailed she brought forth her young. There is a verse in the prophecy of Jeremiah that is saying to us that they wanted to bring forth.

But there was no power to bring them forth and I wonder this verse tonight if you realize in the service that I believe Within my heart of hearts that that there is the potential in the service this evening.

For many of our lives and you look at yourself as I looked at myself because there was a day when I sat in a service like this and there was a man of God who stood and he preached God's Word and the Spirit of God spoke to my heart and God said you are an ordinary person.

But I can set you apart to seek my faith in prayer and I believe in my heart. There are people like this this evening. Somehow it seems to me that we are not only referring to ordinary people, but but my brother and my sister.

It's also saying to me that we are referring to obedient people. You see the Word of God is saying to us if I regard iniquity in my heart. The Lord said I will not hear my brother and my sister if you and I wants to have an effective prayer life.

If you and I want to live for the Lord Jesus. If you and I want to be separate from the wickedness of this world. God is saying to us that he is speaking to us about the obedience of the Spirit of God.

You see the principle of obedience in God's Word as simply this. God is demanding that. The Bible is saying to us that those early disciples said we ought to obey God rather than men. And I think it's not only God is demanding but but my brother my sister God deserves that.

We are sung tonight in the opening of a service man of sorrows. What a name. And I wonder this evening if you would allow me to ask you my brother and my sister. Do you and I know what it means to walk in the obedience of the Spirit of God in my life as a believer?

There are maybe some of us that are sitting here this evening. And from the very first night that you sat in these services. Has there been something that I've you've been struggling with and there has been a mountain in your life.

And God is saying to you if you're not going to allow me to deal with that mountain. You are not going to know the obedience of my spirit and that chapter 5 is saying unto us that he gave his spirit to those that obey.

You see what does it mean to walk in the obedience of the presence of God my brother my sister? I simply believe tonight it means to walk with an absolute openness in your heart before God. It means that my life has become so transparent in the presence of God.

It means that there is a vulnerability in my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as a believer. It means that there is an openness because my brother and my sister partial obedience is disobedience in the presence of God.

In fact you remember what the Word of God is saying to us and I wonder tonight if you would allow me to ask you. Can you stand to your feet and can you say this evening? There is nothing between God and my soul or I wonder miss.

Well first a night if you are sitting in this meeting and the Spirit of God has been stirring some areas in your life. Not necessary things that you need to be confessed. But the Spirit of God is stirring in your heart that is saying to you listen.

I want to pour out upon you a spirit of prayer and you say Lord Jesus. I have confessed everything that I've ever done wrong. I Have asked you to come to my heart by your spirit. You have cleansed me in the precious blood.

The Spirit of God who has been resident in my life has become president and now God is coming and God is saying to you my child I've got a lifestyle in mind for you where my spirit of prayer is going to rest upon your life.

And it's asking obedience. There was a man in Northern Ireland in the 1920s. And his name was the reverend double P Nicholson. He was a Presbyterian minister in those days and he was born of a spirit of God.

He knew God as his Savior but he didn't live a crucified life, I mean there are many people like that and Nicholson was in Belfast one day and as he walked down the street The Salvation Army in those days they were still the Salvation Army and they were at a service an open-air service there down in the street and as they were having the service and they carried on and they sing and they did whatever you can think of and as Nicholson passed by the Spirit of God spoke to him.

And God said Nicholson I want you to I want you to join that service. And Nicholson was a very well-known minister. And he walked right by said I'm not going to join that service because there was a little fellow.

And Nicholson said his name was Doc Jimmy. And he said he had hardly enough brains to give him a headache. And as he passed by God said to Nicholson your problem is pride and God said Nicholson I want you to join that little service, but I just don't want you to join a little service.

I want you to go and kneel there and ask Doc Jimmy to pray for you. And the Spirit of God broke him and he knelt right in the middle of the street. Little Doc Jimmy prayed for him and that day God met with Nicholson The Holy Spirit of God that was resonant in his life.

God in his great love claim and he cleansed him and he sent the fire of his spirit through his life and and he followed him of all the fullness of God and Nicholson began to preach the Word of God to my brother and sister.

I don't know if you realize the potential in our lives because as a result of the way that God made of Nicholson 120 ,000 people and about 22 years was swept into the kingdom of God. One of the things that God did for Nicholson he gave him a spirit of prayer.

And I was in Northern Ireland in 1980 for about three years or so on and off and I remember I went to a place outside of the city of Belfast and Stayed in a house of this family and the town of Newcastle and as I came into this house I mean wherever you went when you make the elderly the older people in Northern Ireland and you say When you were here to convert that they said under the ministry of Nicholson.

And I remember I went into a house and as I came into this house This lady was in the house and I I said to her I said madam. I said I said did you know? Mr. Nicholson. I mean I was so taken by the life of this man and and her eyes just lighten up and she said Gerard I knew him.

I Said how did you know when she said? She said I was but a young girl of about six or seven years old and and she said mother and father Were converted and she said she said mr. Nicholson stay in our house.

I Said he stayed in this house. She said he stayed in the room up there. I said tell me about this man. She said Gerard It was the morning around six o 'clock in the morning when when mother and father and myself were waking up and as we were waking up.