Pineland - Part 4 — Gerhard Du Toit

Systematically Praying Through God's Word

To the scriptures in these sessions and now the Spirit of God wants to fertilize that seed and the consequences of that wants to bring forth the manifestation of the life of the Word and the only way it's going to do that is if we systematically dissect this burden of God and what He has been saying to us and systematically pray it through.

Congregational Prayer and New Testament Prayer

So one of the things I want us to do and I want to encourage you in the days to come and Wednesday night when you come to the Wednesday night prayer meeting why don't we do this, I just want us to have one or two segments of prayer and then if we have time I just want to take a few minutes and share with you one of those twelve aspects of New Testament prayer.

If time would allow us, that's what we want to do. So turn around, just find three or four people and all we're going to do is just to pray together. So would you do that, I know we don't have chairs, we want to spend some time in prayer.

If you don't know the person next to you, just introduce yourself, turn around and ask them how you can pray for them, we'll share just a moment or so and then we'll spend some time in prayer together.

Waiting Upon God and the Renewal of Strength

During the hours of this weekend from these times that we have been waiting upon you thank you so much again for the promises of your Word that has become so relevant and so riveted in our hearts as we have been exposed to the wonders of Scripture.

Thank you for the sense of reality of a God who is saying unto us that they that wait upon the Lord, they shall renew their strength and they shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall not be weary and they shall walk and they shall not faint.

Thank you this Sunday night that yesterday morning in our time together was there a moment when the Spirit of God began to break into our hearts and many of us found ourselves just deeply affected by the fact that we are precious to you and yet by the understanding that I just have this one life that I can live and only that which is done for Christ is going to last.

Humility, Intimacy, and the Presence of God

God, we are so grateful. We feel tonight like those in the Gospels that when they've done everything in their human understanding of what they were able to do that somehow they came back and they said we've done what we could and yet we feel like unprofitable servants.

Father, we are so grateful that we will never be able to come to the place where we will be able to say that we know how to pray. But we are so grateful that it is not the times that we are spending with God that becomes the dominant factor and the issue in our relationships with you, but God, it's the times that you come to spend with us.

And when you change the dynamics of the understanding of intimacy and the possibility of being immersed and saturated in the greatness of the fragrance of the life of Christ, then it changes everything and we find ourselves being caught up with a great precious reality of lingering in the presence of God.

And Father, we want to become like Mary who sat at Jesus' feet. We want you to install and imprint and infiltrate into every aspect of our lives this great biblical truth that God can take my inadequate life and can set it apart unto Himself and that He can purify and cleanse me through the efficacy of the blood and that He can come to me by His Spirit and bring into my relationship with Him a sense of humility.

What a blessing this Sunday night to recognize and to accept the fact again that the way up is always the way down and that the ministry of humbling ourselves before God, it's not just a discipline, but it needs to transform itself into a disposition in our relationships with you.

Revival, Spiritual Poverty, and Intercessory Prayer

Thank you for this morning, dear God. It was amazing at the end of this morning's service when in this Finance Baptist Church, when there was such a sense of your presence and a brokenness upon our hearts, that when we opened the altar of this church, that somehow men and women came from all over this sanctuary.

They didn't want to be counseled by people, but they just wanted to spend time alone with God. And God, we want to pray this night that the seed that has been sown in our hearts, and I'm so grateful it's not because of someone that has come from an organization or a weekend that has been planned or focused upon man, but Lord, this weekend has nothing to do with any one of us.

It has everything to do with God. And what we are so glad about this evening is that the Spirit of God would be able to take these marvelous biblical concepts and that we can say with the Puritans of all and pray with Thomas Watson and cry to you this Sunday night and say, God, we do not just want to be informed by Scripture, but we long to be inflamed.

I pray tonight that it will become part of our lives. Lord, what a tragic it will be if in the months and the years to come, these truths that we have been exposed to, that somehow that we would lose them along the pathway of a Christian life and experience.

But we want to ask tonight in Jesus' name that everything that we have been exposed to, that God the Holy Spirit will come and that He will take those passages of Scripture and that He will build into our lives Christian character and that You will give us a life in a ministry of intercessory prayer.

And Father, that You will wake us up one or two or three o 'clock in the morning in the moment when we find ourselves being awakened, that suddenly that the burden of God will come upon us for our country, for our people, for the believers here within these provinces of Canada.

We confess tonight in Thy presence, Father God, we have never seen a coast-to-coast outpouring of the Spirit of God in revival. And yet You have said to us in Your Word, I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.

We ask that this little statement, Blessed are the poor in spirit, that You will bring unto us the spiritual poverty, that we would be able to see the power of God that is able to penetrate every single Christian life and that You will be able to pour out upon us a spirit of brokenness and a spirit of prayer and a spirit of transparency and a sense of obedience and, Father, a sense of vulnerability so that You will pour into our lives the greatness of the fullness of God.

That's the burden of our hearts. And, Father, we say to You again this Sunday night that we do not want experiences with God that is a mile wide and an inch deep. But, oh, we want God to plow deep into our hearts and we do not want a church that will just be full of people.

God, there are tons of them in North America, but, oh, we long for a church that will be full of people, that will also be saturated and full of God. And we recognize this Sunday night that if that's going to be the level of our commitment, it's going to cost us absolutely everything.

And yet we ask this evening that You, as Jonathan Edwards used to say, that we would be possessed with a conviction that we do not want to have anything less than the very best of God for our relationships with You.

Father, our time is gone this evening, and I just pray that the final few moments of our evening together just bless the wonders of Your Word. Give us again the understanding of the two disciples on the way to Emos when they turn to one another and they say, Did not our hearts burn within us when He spoke to us in the way?

Open Your Word to us in Jesus' name. Amen. We only have a few minutes left, and I'm going to ask you two things. First of all, I'm going to ask you not to look at your watch because if I see you doing that, we're going to take up an offering and you're going to lose your wife.

No, we won't do that. I said this morning in the church, I was in a place some time ago and my watch broke, and it was this wonderful yellow. But we're not going to do that. But I just want, if I may, just a few minutes.

We try to limit these sessions to 90 minutes, and I don't think we'll be able to do it tonight. So let me say to you, if you feel that you need to slip out in a few minutes, when the hour and a half is gone, you're welcome to do that because we would understand that.

I would just like to take a few minutes to share with you something. The second thing that I'm going to ask you to do, I'm going to ask you to stand. And that will help us just to kind of change our positions.

Jesus' Teaching on Private Prayer

And then open your Bible with me at Luke chapter 11 and also in Matthew chapter 6. Luke chapter 11 and then also just a few verses from Matthew chapter 6. Why don't we turn to Matthew chapter 6 first of all.

Matthew chapter 6 and then Luke chapter 11. Jesus said in Matthew chapter 6, when you pray, verse number 6, enter into your closet and when you have shut the door, pray to your Father which is in secret.

And your Father who is in secret will reward you openly. And then if you go to Luke chapter 11, just flip over into that wonderful chapter. Luke chapter 11, verse number 1. The Bible said he came to pass as Jesus was praying in a certain place that when he sees that one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples.

Verse number 5. And he said unto them, which of you shall have a friend? And will go to him at midnight and will say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me and I have nothing to say before him.

And he from within will answer and say, Trouble me not, the door is now closed and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give it to you. I say unto you, though we will not rise and give it to him, but because he is his friend and because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he needs.

And I say unto you, ask and it shall be given unto you, seek and you shall find, and knock and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asks, receive. And to him that seeks, findeth. And to him that knocks, it shall be opened.

If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give unto him a stone? Or if he shall ask a fish, will he for a fish give unto him a serpent? Or if he shall ask for an egg, will he offer to him a scorpion?

If you, then, who are evil, know how to give goodness unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give a Holy Spirit to those that ask him? You may be seated. Last night in our time together, what we did this weekend, was spend the two sessions on the Old Testament, understanding of prayer.

And then last night and this evening, I just want us to try and cover some of the great concepts of the New Testament as they relate to prayer. And we also said that it will not be possible for us to understand the teachings of Christ as it relates to prayer in the four Gospels unless we come together or unless we come to grips with His own prayer life.

Christ's Prayer Life as the Pattern for Prayer

And so the heart in understanding His prayer life is that statement in Mark chapter 1, when Mark said, early in the morning, deep in the night, Christ went into a secret place and there He prayed. And Dr. Campbell Morgan said it can be translated, many times early in the morning, many times deep in the night, many times He went into a secret place, and many times He prayed.

And so the life of Christ, in spite of the fact that He was God, but in the reality of His humanity and His relationship with the Father, the life of Christ was the life that was saturated by a spirit of prayer.

That's why He was able to say, when He stood at the grave of Lazarus, Father, I thank You that You always listen to me. Have you ever asked yourselves, why did He ever say, Lazarus, come out? If He wouldn't have said, Lazarus, come out, brethren and sisters, I think the whole graveyard would have turned out.

You see, it was the greatness of the voice of the Son of God. And so you will not be able to understand the teachings of Christ as they relate to prayer, if you have not come to grips with the prayer life of the Lord Jesus.

Eight Principles in Christ's Teaching on Prayer

Now, let me mention this to you. If you study the teachings of Christ in prayer, and we didn't have time to be able to explore this, but we have some material that we want to make available to you. But may I say this to you, that when you study His teachings on prayer, you will discover that there are eight principles in the four Gospels that is coming to the surface as it relates to the teachings of Christ on prayer.

And when you study those principles, you will discover because everything that the Old Testament is saying to us about prayer was fulfilled and manifested in the life and the ministry of the Lord Jesus.

And when you study those eight principles, you will discover that those eight principles, my brethren and sisters, are based upon eight words in the Hebrew understanding of prayer, or as it relates to prayer, with this key word, which is waiting upon God.

And when we speak about waiting upon God, it's not a word in the Hebrew context of the Old Testament that just seems that you sit there and you wait upon God. When you study those eight Hebrew words, and you come to grips with them, and see how they infiltrate themselves into those New Testament, those eight principles coming out of the teachings of the life of Christ, you will discover that those words of waiting upon God, they are saturated with activity.

And what those words are doing to us is that they release us from this guilt understanding where we take prayer and we separate it and isolate it, and just put it in its own category from all the other aspects of what the Christian life is all about.

And so what those eight words will do to you, it will give you the context in understanding what prayer is about, as it relates to the Scriptures, as it relates to my walk with God, as it relates to spending time with God, as it relates to the concept of worship.

The Lord's Prayer and Its Nine Ingredients

Every aspect of prayer, it finds themselves manifesting itself within those eight principles. That's the first great truth that is coming to us out of the New Testament. The next one is this, that when Christ gave us what we would refer to as the Lord's Prayer, it's not really the Lord's Prayer.

It's not a prayer that He gave us necessary to repeat, because the one in Matthew 6, it's not the same as in Luke 11. And there's this beautiful phrase that I referred to last night in the Greek language.

It's futasouan, when Jesus said, after this manner I want you to pray. And He gave us what we would refer to as the Lord's Prayer. He gave unto us the ingredients in developing a personal and a private prayer life.

He spoke about the paternity of God in prayer when He said, Our Father. He spoke about the plan of God in prayer when He said, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. He spoke about the priority of God in prayer when He said, Hallowed be Thy name.

He spoke about the plan of God in prayer when He said, On earth as it is in heaven. He spoke about the provision of God in prayer when He said, Give us this day our daily bread. He spoke about the pardon of God in prayer when He said, Forgive us our debts as we forgive others.

And He spoke about the preeminent. And so there are nine ingredients that when you and I would take those statements, my brother and sister, and we would put them down, and we would go to the New Testament, and we would discover how the New Testament infiltrated itself in this possibility of developing this personal, private prayer life.

Twelve Aspects of New Testament Prayer

Thirdly, there is this marvelous understanding. Those 248 possible prayer passages that you and I would find in the four Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, the General Epistles in the New Testament, and the Book of Revelation, they are the ones that divide themselves up into these 12 aspects of New Testament prayer.

Fellowship praying. We discover the beauty of the word worship. It's a wonderful word. It has nothing to do with our understanding of worship today, which to me is nothing else but styles of music. No, no, the word worship is a great word in the Greek language.

You know what it means? It means to crawl in the presence of God. It means to be prostrate in the presence of God. There is an unbelievable cost when it comes to the understanding of what worship is about.

Abraham's Worship and Sacrificial Obedience

Because when Abram turned to the servants and he said to them that, Isaac, the lad and myself are going up yonder, what was he going to do? He was going to sacrifice his only son Isaac. Why was he going to do that?

He was going to do it in submissiveness to the will and to the voice of God. And he believed that God would have raised Isaac from the dead. And he made a statement when he spoke about the worship in the Old Testament.

And he said, we are going to go up yonder. And he said, we are going to worship. What was he going to do? He was going to sacrifice his son. And then he made this prophetic statement and he said, we, in a Hebrew language which is so emphatic, he said, we are going to go worship and we are going to come back to you.

The Four Pillars of New Testament Worship

And you see, when we speak about worship, brethren and sisters, may I just mention to you this evening, the heart of understanding worship in the Old Testament is because of this sense of reality of what God said to the people of Israel.

You see, He brought them out of Egypt and He brought them through the Red Sea and He brought them to Mount Sinai. And for 11 months and 19 days, the people of Israel were at Mount Sinai and the will of God was unfolded through the law.

The way to God was appointed through the tabernacle and the walk with God was revealed through the book of Leviticus. And if you want to understand Old Testament systematic theology as it relates to worship, you will discover that the secret of worship is what God said to the people of Israel on Mount Sinai.

That was 11 months and 19 days. And then you come into the New Testament. God poured out His Spirit in the New Testament on the day of Pentecost. And what happened when the Holy Spirit was poured out?

3 ,000 people were gloriously saved. And the apostle Peter stood up and he preached his first sermon and there were 3 ,000 added unto the church. And here is the heart of New Testament worship. Listen to what the book of Acts said.

He said they came together for the apostles' doctrine, for fellowship, for breaking of bread and for prayer. And those four statements become the four pillars and the understanding of New Testament worship.

Lingering in God's Presence

And out of those four pillars flow this intimacy and this fellowship with God. And I wonder tonight if I would be allowed to ask you, do we still know the secret of lingering in the presence of God? Oh, brethren and sisters, it's a great thing when God comes to us.

I've learned through the years, you know, never to be involved in a conference without allowing God to really touch my heart on a personal basis. And yesterday and Friday night we were pouring ourselves into those times.

And early this morning in this beautiful room where I've been allowed to stay, and as I stated, early this morning, you know, it was so precious, God just came to my own heart. And I just got to a place there in that room and I grabbed the blanket from the bed and just pulled it over me and I just was there lying on my face before God and said, God, isn't it wonderful?

There are these times that You come and visit us. Can I tell you something tonight? I didn't want to come to church this morning. Do you know these times alone with God? He's not looking for slave drivers, you know.

He's a God of love. He's a God of righteousness. He hates sin, but oh, does He ever love a sinner. And He wants us to spend time with Him, you know. He's not the one that is standing there with a weapon ready just to slash at us when there is something wrong.

No, no, He's the God of compassion. He's the God that understands. He's the one that knows our weaknesses and our infirmities, our frailties. Brethren and sisters, He knows absolutely everything. But you know what He wants us to do?

He wants us to worship Him. You say, what does it mean? Fellowship praying. Twelve aspects of New Testament prayer. Routine praying. Praying within the realm of God the Holy Spirit. What does it mean to pray through?

The Scope of New Testament Prayer

What is the place of faith as it relates to the understanding of prayer? What is warfare praying when it comes to the New Testament? What does it mean to pray in the will of God? What does it mean to pray the Scriptures?

What does it mean to pray in the name of the Lord Jesus? What does it mean, one of the greatest truths? Boy, I tell you, if we ever would have had time to stop at this concept of New Testament prayer, is to come to grips with the high priestly ministry of Christ in prayer.

Christ's High Priestly Intercession

Listen to the writer to the Hebrews. He said, we do not have a high priest that cannot be aware of the feeling of our infirmities, but one who was tempted in all points, just like us we are. There is no place where you can go where Christ has not been.

And then the writer to the Hebrews made a statement, and he said, let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace and mercy, so that we might receive mercy and grace in a time of need, the greatness of His ministry.

Brethren and sisters, you are not on your own, you know. Where the great high priest, what is he doing tonight in the epistle to the Hebrews, made this marvellous statement. He said, he is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God.

What is he doing? He is ever interceding for us. Here is another aspect of his ministry in 1 John 2. He said, my little children, these things I write unto you, that you do not sin, but he said, if any man sins, he said, what?

He said, we have an advocate, a parakletos, the one that has come alongside with the Father. Who is he? Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins, and not just for our sins, but for the sins of the whole world.

Listen, if you are focused upon the supremacy and the priority and the centrality of Christ as it relates to prayer, it will totally change your life. Just one of those great aspects. Let me share with you this one.

Task-Oriented Prayer and Persistent Asking

You say, what is it? Task oriented prayer. You don't have to look it up. Let me quote to you this passage. It's found in the 11th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. And here it goes. Christ made a statement and He said, Which of you shall have a friend?

And He will go to him at midnight, and He will say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in his journey has come to me. And He said, I have nothing to say before him. And then here is the reaction that came from the lips of Christ as He shared this, what some regard as a parable.

He said, He from within will answer and say, Probably not. The door is now shut, and My children are with Me in bed. He said, I cannot rise and give it to you. And then He made a statement and He said, Because of his friend and because of his infertunity and his persistence, He said He will rise and give him as many as He needs.

And then Jesus said, Ask and it shall be given unto you. Seek and you shall find. Knock and it shall be opened. Let me just take this one little passage in a moment and explain to you. You see, we are speaking about task oriented praying.

So you say, What is it Gerard? Here it comes. He said, Which of you shall have a friend? So we are speaking about friendship. Which of you shall have a friend and He will come to you at midnight? We are speaking about the impossibility of the circumstances.

He said He will come to you at midnight and He will say to you, A friend of Mine has come to Me. It has to do with someone else. You see, we are speaking about task oriented praying. Friendship with God.

Impossibility of circumstances. And it has to do with other people. He said, A friend of Mine and His journey has come. Brethren and sisters, listen. When God is dealt with us as it relates to the self-life, you know what is happening to us.

We are still passionate about our intimacy with God, but we are deeply passionate with our sense of responsibility as it comes to the lives of other people. And the responsibility is my response to the unbelievable and incredible, incredible ability of God.

He said, A friend of Mine and His journey has come. And here in task oriented praying comes the understanding of the need. He said, I have got nothing to sit before Him. He said, I have got nothing. I am so sorry if someone is ruining me and myself.

That is just an awful thing. Does anyone want a blackberry for Christmas? You can have mine. This is only the second time in my life it has happened. Will you please forgive me? This is awful. And this is a Korean pastor by the way.

So just, I get his number and you can phone him, OK? Awful. Now you know I am part of a cell group by the way. What is it? It has to do with the need of someone else. Can I ask you this evening, my brethren and sisters, using the reality of need of other people, isn't it amazing when God comes to us?

Prophetic Calling and Personal Consecration

You know what? You remember a prophet when he saw the Lord? He made this marvelous statement. He said five times in the first five chapters he said, Woe to me! Woe to me! Woe to me! Now when God revealed himself to the prophets, do you remember what happened when he saw himself and God came and purified him?

He made this statement and he said, Whom shall I send and who will go for us? You see, it is focusing now. And so when we speak about the task of independence, it has to do with the impossibility of circumstances, it has to do with friendship, it has to do with a specific need.

He said, I've got nothing to set before him. Do you know what happened? Here comes the silence of God. Andrew Murray, you know, he was an amazing man. One Sunday morning when he came into the church in the midst of the revival in 1838 in Southern Africa and as he came into the church and came to watch the pulpit and stopped to pray before he entered into the pulpit, there was a hush of the presence of God that fell upon the church and as the presence of God fell upon the church, there was such a consciousness of God and there was a little girl that was standing at the side to her mother and she began to pull in her mother's dress and people were just standing up in awe because of the greatness of God and she pulled in her mother's dress and her mother whispered and said, What is it?

And she pointed to Andrew Murray and she said, Mummy, is that the Lord Jesus Christ? And he was so full of God. But Andrew Murray made this marvelous statement when he speaks about prayer and he said, When there is the silence, when there is the silence of God, you see, the obvious reason why there is the silence of God is because there is something in our hearts that God has not yet accomplished.

Yet. You see, brother and sister, you cannot separate the answer of prayer from that which is happening in your own life. And sometimes if I may encourage you tonight, sometimes God answers prayer and you know what happens to us?

The answer is delayed because when the answer is delayed there is something that God wants to do for us because He knows that He cannot separate us from the answer of the things that He was going to do.

And there was the silence of God and yet the Bible says in Luke 11 and I love this statement, He said, He from within will answer and my children are with me in death. He said, I cannot rise and give it to you and then here comes the heart because He is His friend.

Why is there a persistence? You know why there is a persistence? Because He is His friend. And when Jesus made His statement and He said, ask and it shall be given to you, seek and you shall find and knock and incidentally if you take those are three distinctive words in the Greek language and brother and sister you know the preciousness about those three words when Jesus said ask and it shall be given, seek and you shall find and knock and incidentally those are three dimensions of task oriented praying and you know what is so precious about those statements they are in the preceding imperative mood.

In other words what Jesus said He said, keep on asking, He said, keep on seeking, He said, keep on knocking and those stages of task oriented praying those dimensions when you examine what does it mean to ask and you look at this concept of asking and you come across one of those key words in the Greek New Testament relating to the understanding which becomes the pillar in this tabernacle of prayer, what does it mean to ask?

You discover this persistence of asking and then the asking is taking us deeper now that we are asking God now He is taking us to the level of seeking somehow the burden is growing we have discovered the greatness of His will we are conscious that we are on track we have become one with the plan of God and this issue and now we are seeking and this word seeking has to do not just with asking God but now I'm seeking I'm exploring how is God going to do this what is the ingredients what are the promises what are the perimeters in which this task oriented praying is going to come into fulfillment and then it brings us to this finality you say what is it?

You know what He said? He said knock and the door shall be open you say what does it mean? It means to pray through you know so how do you know that? Because of the Greek language it's emphatic it's not the normal word in the Greek language for the word knock brother and sister that's just someone that is coming to knock at the door of my house no no this word and in the construction of the things has a sense of emphasis upon it that is so relevant that is so deep that is so majestic it's standing with this understanding that the person that is standing there and knock the reason why he's knocking is because he's conscious that all the resources of his need is going to be fulfilled if he stands there in the persistence of his knowledge.

Of the character and the nature of the person behind the door. And that's God. And so there is nothing that he's not able to do. What is the secret? It's within the realm of his will. You see what he says.

You take those three statements asking seeking knocking. And you know what you do. You put them somewhere and you look at those three statements. And you go back to those previous verses. And oh brother and sister you know what.

To discover. All those aspects. All those aspects of friendship impossibility the necessity of need the fact it has to do with someone else. The fact that we are speaking about the silence of God. They find themselves in those three dimensions of task oriented prayer.

The Cost of a Deep Prayer Life

Let me close. It's a wonderful statement you know. And we found it in Matthew chapter 6. He said how does this all take place. He said what does it cost? It costs absolutely everything. It's going to take time.