Helpers in Prayer — David Wilkerson

Helpers in Prayer: The Call to Intercession

Please turn to 2nd Corinthians, the first chapter, a message this morning, helpers in prayer, helpers in prayer. I'll talk to you about a new kind of ministry that very few are aware of, and probably one of the most needed in the Church of Jesus Christ in this trying time.

1st Corinthians, the first chapter, beginning to read at verse 11. Our next service is at 3 and at 6. We never announce who's speaking in this church, very seldom, occasionally we do, but very seldom, because we don't want people to come for personalities but come for Christ.

In fact, nobody knows when I preach or whether the carter preaches, and you didn't know I was preaching this morning, and I'm not telling you who's speaking this afternoon or this evening, but God's going to be here, and you're going to be fed.

Hallelujah, praise the Lord. Start to read verse 8, 2nd Corinthians, first chapter. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of Masia, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.

But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but God which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us, ye also, helping together by prayer for us.

Ye also, helping together by prayer for us. Helpers in prayer. Heavenly Father, we honor your word. We honor you, Jesus, and we thank you that you've honored your word above your name. Lord, I thank you for the time that you have dealt with me this past week, for the need in my own life in this matter of prayer, and we pray that you will make this known to every heart in this place.

Lord, we came here not to be entertained. We came to hear your word and to give our hearts to you in worship. And we pray Holy Spirit now for a special unction and anointing of the Holy Spirit. I can't produce that in my own strength.

I can't produce any way of causing people to hear and understand the word. But Holy Spirit, you're the one who opens our ears and our hearts to hear and to understand what is being presented. Lord, let it flow out of my innermost being.

Let there be a river of life. Lord, we thank you, even though it be simple, that it lay hold of our hearts, and we lay hold of this principle and this truth this morning, so that the kingdom of God and the house of God be glorified.

In Jesus' name, amen. Friends, prayer can become one of the most selfish things we do. Let me say it again. Prayer can become one of the most selfish things we do in our Christian experience. Because most of our praying is focused on our own needs, our own families, our own spiritual growth, our own problems, our own spiritual warfare.

Occasionally, we will pray for missionaries. Occasionally, we reach beyond our narrow borders and limitations in prayer, and we'll pray for someone beyond our family, a close friend or somebody. And we tell so many lies about prayer.

I'll pray for you. Oh, yes, I'll pray for you. We never do it. We forget it completely. I don't do that anymore. If I see somebody and say, pray for me, I say, let's do it right now, because I know I may forget it.

In light of the Scriptures, lately, I've been examining my own prayer life. I've been diligently praying every day for my family. I've been praying for my children, my grandchildren. I've been praying for a number of friends.

I've been praying for this church. I've been praying for certain individuals whose problems I've been made aware of. And I pray for missionaries occasionally, but I'll pray once or twice and then move on to something else.

Much of my time in secret prayer has been spent in calling on the Lord for my own spiritual welfare. Now, I pray. Everybody, every demon in hell knows I'm a man of prayer. I don't boast in flesh, but in Christ, I've done it since I was a child.

It's a wonderful experience to just go for hours in the presence of the Lord and just enjoy communion and just talk to Him, get to know Him and love Him. And all of that's wonderful. Jesus loves that.

He loves communion because we are His bride and you can't have fellowship without that. And this is scriptural. It's wonderful. And I tell you, I do that. And maybe some of you in the congregation, well, thank God we have pastors that are sudden with God and in communion with the Lord and come with a fresh anointed word from the Lord.

But let me tell you, I've been convicted. Because if all I do is administer the gospel, if all you do as a believer is go to the Lord and have sweet communion, that can be a very selfish thing because there's a whole world in need.

There are people around us in need that need our prayer help. And if we just focus on the communion and the fellowship, and we are growing personally, we're becoming a different person. And prayer like that, communion with Christ, learning who you are in Christ, it can expand our growth, we can become strong and deep in the Lord.

I know many deep Christians who walk in close fellowship with the Lord who are not intercessors, who don't carry the burden of the needs of the church and the body of Christ in their heart. And the Lord's been dealing with me on that.

The Example of a Humble Prayer Helper

There's a precious man in San Diego, he's a retired postal office worker, he's retired, and he's a poor man, a very simple poor man. And this man asked through a friend of ours if he could have the privilege of putting me on his prayer list.

And this man goes around picking up junk on the streets that people leave out on the street, and he fixes it up and gives it to widows. He lives on one meal a day, just eats meagerly, very little money.

He goes around fixing the plumbing of the widows and the poor, and doing work on their houses and just giving everything. He'll polish and brass it up and fix it up and make it as a gift to the widows.

And this man wants to add me to his prayer list. He's added me, I've been on that prayer list now I think two years. And this humble man has a whole list, a long list, and he prays two or three times.

He prays for me at least three times a day. And he prays over this whole list and he doesn't take them off until they die. I mean, he just keeps praying without ceasing. He's going to pray for me until I die or he dies.

Now folks, I thought I was a man of prayer, but this man goes around doing all these things and prays while he's doing it. He is praying constantly and naming these names before the Lord. He said, now Lord, bless Brother David, meet his needs, don't let the devil get to him, and things like that.

And I'll tell you, when we get to heaven, that man is going to have a greater word, I think, than I will. With all the souls the Lord's allowed me to bring into the kingdom. That man, he is a helper in prayer.

He fulfills this that I'm talking about in Thessalonians. I can honestly say this message, I think, is for me more than anybody in this congregation because I want to get away from that selfishness in prayer.

Paul's Suffering and Dependence on God

Paul, in this text that I've just read to you, tells us emphatically that he was delivered from a near-death experience. He was in deep trouble in Asia, but he was delivered. He said he was close to death so that he even despaired of life.

He was deeply distressed and pressed, and that word pressed means beyond measure, beyond ability to cope. He said, I was pressed down with troubles in my life that I was unable to cope with and I contemplated or thought that this was going to be the end.

He was not thinking of suicide, but he despaired that there could be any hope of him going on in this battle that he was in. Paul understated his sufferings at all times. Remember when a snake attached itself to his hands?

No theatrics, no complaining, no holding up saying, look what I've got. A little flip of the wrist, nonchalantly goes on. He understated his sufferings. In fact, the physical suffering never bothered Paul.

Three times shipwrecked, he just mentions it in passing, trying to make a point. This man suffered, he's beaten and robbed and goes through all kinds of things in the flesh, never complains, totally understates it.

But when he says, when I was in Asia, I was pressed beyond measure, he's talking about mental anguish. I believe that with all my heart, because in my own life, and I'm sure in yours, it's not been the physical suffering, it's not been any kind of physical pain, it's not been an accident, it's not been anything in the physical, it's been in the mental, it's been in the spiritual.

It's the rejection. Those coming against you who were your friends, those who have misunderstood you. All the pain in my life, when I look back, the worst pain in my life has been mental anguish or stress caused.

Paul said, the more I love, the less I'd be loved. And like David, the great distress is that my bones are aching and my bed is, my couch is a bed of tears. He wasn't talking about battle scars. He wasn't talking about a cut in his leg.

He wasn't talking about any physical pain. He was talking about those who put their feet under his own table. Those who he fed, those who he ministered to, had turned against him and totally misunderstood his motives and everything else.

And this, we get a hint of that in 2 Corinthians when he said, when we were in Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fightings and within were fears. Now what caused that?

It was because Paul was preaching a strong gospel and he was afraid his own little children would turn against him and misunderstand him. And these little children, this church that he'd raised up, would listen to other voices and not believe that he had their interest at heart.

In fact, he was only comforted when Titus came to him. He said, I was comforted by the coming of Titus and by the consolation he brought when he told me of your mourning and your fervent mind toward me.

He told me you still loved me so that I rejoiced again. You see, in troubled times, Paul, and I'm sure we should all have learned some wonderful truths. I know that I've learned more in my suffering times than in the good times.

I don't want to go back and endure it anymore. I look back and I tremble. But I know that that which I've learned of the Lord that's been in a sense that has ministered to others, Paul said we suffer that we may succor or comfort others.

Out of our suffering we comfort others. And in his awful troubles, Paul learned some great lessons. And the greatest lesson he learned is that you can't trust your flesh. You can't trust in your own willpower.

You can't trust in your own skill. You can't trust in anything in this flesh. The flesh has to die. When Paul said I die daily, he's talking about trying to accomplish any favor with God, any righteousness in his flesh.

By promises, by trying to do the will of God in his own strength. You don't have any strength against the powers of darkness. You don't have any strength in your human flesh to fight temptation. You can't conquer your lust by making promise and saying I won't do it again.

You've done that a thousand times and broken every promise. He said we had the sentence of death in ourselves. Why? That we should not trust in our flesh. There was a song an evangelist used to sing in the old days.

And I couldn't understand it. He said Lord I've sinned but try me one more time. Give me another chance. Not announce the scripture to that. You're not on trial. Jesus was on trial. He already went to the cross.

He paid the price. And he came forth with covenant promises in the precious blood of Jesus Christ. And sent the Holy Ghost to be our strength. Hallelujah. You see, as in Paul's life, the Lord allows his children to go through great sufferings and trials and tribulations.

Great temptations to make us see how weak and helpless we are. Until we know that we can't defend ourselves against any onslaught of the devil in human strength. And Paul sang the sentence of death. He sentenced himself to death.

He sentenced his flesh to death. He said flesh I will never again trust you. You have failed me. His flesh could not give him any victory. He said but through it all I learned to trust God. In his suffering and trial he trusted God who hath delivered us from so great a death.

And doth deliver us. And whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. He said I learned that God delivered me in the past. I've learned that God is delivering me right now from the power of the enemy. And he has shown me if I trust him he's going to deliver me till the very end, till the day I die.

I will be living under the delivering power of God. Now let's talk about how he got his deliverance. We know that it was in part due to his own faith and confidence in God. We know that this was a man of prayer who spent many days and hours in prayer.

He was given to prayer. We know that Paul the apostle was the one who introduced us to, he unveiled the new covenant. Because I believe, if you don't believe Paul wrote all of Hebrews. I do believe with all my heart he wrote from 8 to 11.

The last few chapters, there's no question that is the writing of Paul. And Paul introduced the new covenant. All the provisions and promises of the new covenant. God, he said, was going to be God to us.

He's going to give us a new heart and take the heart of stone out of us, give us a heart of flesh. He said your enemies will not triumph over you. I will be your shield. I'll be your protector. I'm going to write my laws in your heart.

You say the law's been done away with? No, it's been written here by the Holy Ghost in our hearts. Every precious law and commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ written in the hearts. He said I'm going to be merciful to your sins.

The Subordinate Plan of God and the Need for Prayer

Now you look at this man. You look at the apostle Paul. And he seems so assertive. Here's a man who's been to the third heaven. Here's a well educated man. Educated in all the Jewish ways. The mystery of the gospel had been opened to him.

All the provisions and promises of the new covenant had been unveiled to his mind. A man who ministered the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost. A man who shook nations and cities. A man who was as anointed or more anointed than any man in the New Testament other than Christ himself.

You look at this man and you say he doesn't need prayer. He doesn't need any help. He's withstood lions and devils and demons. This man has been... The devil tried three times to drown him and couldn't touch him.

Snakes can't bite him. This man is invincible. He doesn't need prayer. He's so strong. He's got such faith. He's such a man of God. He doesn't need any help. Not so according to Paul. There's another important factor in his deliverance.

It's what I would call the subordinate plan of God for deliverance. We know that salvation is of the Lord. We know that the covenants have been decreed from the foundation of the world. But Jesus knew the decrees of his Father.

He knew all these things had been decreed from the foundation of the world. Yet he spent nights before God praying that those decrees become the will of God on earth now. Paul the apostle recognized his need of prayer.

In fact, he pleaded for the prayers of the church and the body of Christ. A man of prayer, a man of faith, a man of miracles. And yet he pleaded with the church for their prayers. He said in verse 11, Verse 11, Ye also helping together by prayer for us.

He says, I prayed and God delivered me with the help of your prayers. Your praying for me brought about my deliverance. You helping me in prayer brought forth my deliverance. Paul is saying in so many words, I pray for myself and yet together helping me in prayer, God has not only delivered me in the past, he's not only delivering me now, he's going to deliver me in the future because you're praying for me.

God, listen closely, God has decreed that deliverance is brought about by prayer. He's decreed it. He's commanded it. You can't separate deliverance from prayer. Impossible. Call upon me in the day of trouble.

I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me. He combines deliverance with prayer. Psalm 91, 15. He shall call upon me and then I will deliver him. He will call on me, he will seek my face, he'll pray, he'll seek me.

Then I'll deliver him. I will be with him in trouble. I'll deliver him and honor him. Paul said that through the prayers of the saints, he'd been delivered out of the mouth of the lion. He said the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom.

Why could he say I've been delivered from demonic powers and I'm going to be preserved until Jesus comes? Because he said I have the church of Jesus Christ praying for me. Let me speak to you about this ministry of helping in prayer, being a helper in prayer.

Spiritual Danger and the Burden of Intercession

And I think it's one of the greatest needs in the body of Christ today. If you and I had spiritual eyes, we would understand the danger we're in at all times as believers who are walking as remnant Christians desiring holiness and purity before the Lord.

You seek him. You're in his word. You've made a commitment to go all the way. You have an uncompromised love for Jesus. And the devil knows that you're in danger. You're a marked person. You are literally marked by the enemy because you stepped away from the crowd and you have made up your mind to go all the way with the Lord.

And you're marked. And you're in danger every time you step your foot out of your apartment or your house. Every moment you, every time you get on the subway or get in a car or walk the streets, the enemy is trying to bring some foul play against you.

We're in danger, folks. In other words, we are not in danger because we're on fire, but the danger is lurking there at all times. If God could just open your eyes and know the danger that we're in. There's another danger that seems to be taken so nonchalantly and that's the danger in the homes of so many Christians, the danger of ruin, separation and divorce.

I didn't plan to do this when I was preparing this message, but the last two days the Holy Spirit has really taken hold of my heart and it started with a telephone call from a counselor in the south. I happened to know this person and this counselor called and said, I have to tell you, Brother Dave, that I am crushed.

I've been ministering in our church to married couples and in some parachurch ministries in this area. And she said, I'll tell you something, almost every couple in our church is either divorced, in trouble or contemplating divorce.

Everybody I know, there are no friends left. Almost every friend of my family is either divorced or talking about divorce. She said, it's a plague. What's happening, Pastor Dave? What's happening? It is all over the nation, ministers, wives and husbands writing and calling us in the ministry.

Rampan is divorced in Pentecostal ministry areas and all over the nation it's gone. It is pandemic. I hear all the reasons for this turmoil in our families. I want to talk to Times Square Church. I'm not going to even talk to, this tape will probably be heard by many, many thousands, but I'm not going to be on the walls of this church right now.

Married couples are sitting here now in the annex and overflow rooms and basement or wherever you are and here in the main auditorium. Some of you right now are contemplating divorce. Your marriage is in trouble.

You're in a mess. A real mess. And unless God gets a hold of you this morning, some of you are going to be in divorce court and some of you are going to ruin your life and your kids in the process. No wonder we have so many young girls anorexic.

They can't eat. When somebody calls me and says their daughter is pulling out her eyebrows and weighs 80 pounds at 21 years of age because of trouble in the home, because the Christian father is so mean and overbearing.

Kids dying left and right. No wonder we have rebellion. We have rebellion in Pentecostal circles and Baptist and evangelical circles. We have homes breaking up. We have pastors who can't leave with their wives and wives say, I just as soon as he goes.

Talked to a wife this past week. She said, I want him out. He used to be on my staff. I've heard all the excuses, lack of communication, loss of affection, incompatibility, infidelity. I've heard it all.

But it's much more than that. We're not recognizing what's behind all of this, folks. It's a demonic attack right out of the pits of hell. It's the devil himself. He's come as a destroyer. And I'll tell you, you can go to counselors.

I'm not against counseling, but you can go to pastor to pastor. You can go to psychology. You can go anywhere. Get any number of books you want to read and stuff your mind with this. And it's not going to help you until you realize this is demonic.

And somewhere along the line, somewhere along the line, if there's not peace in your home, you say, I'm a Christian, I believe Jesus. I love the Lord. I love my husband. I love my wife. If that is true, why aren't you asking the question the disciples asked Jesus when they couldn't cast out the demons?

Why couldn't we cast him out? Why isn't the Christians who have heard the covenant, Christians who know the Bible, who have sat under preaching for years, don't have the power and the authority over their marriages?

They've allowed some compromise to come in at some point. Some kind of bitterness has taken root. It's never been dealt with. And I'm telling you now as a pastor, with a broken heart, this morning, some of you are headed for divorce court.

And I'm angry at the devil because I know who's behind this mess. It's not been a lack of Holy Ghost preaching. If you come to this church, you have heard me, you've heard Pastor Carter, Teresa, you've heard others of the pastors for months, almost a year and a half, now preaching on the covenant, the blessings and the promises of the covenant, how God can give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you, put the fear of God in you.

If you'll seek him, you've heard promises, you've heard grace, you've heard mercy, you've heard it all. You can preach it to others. Then why is it? Why is it you don't have dominion? Why is it you're still allowing the devil to overrun you?

Why is the bitterness there? Why can't you talk to one another anymore without getting upset? You've even been thinking of an escape. If you think escaping for your marriage is going to give you something better down the line, you've got...

You are so sadly mistaken. You get out of this, you're going to get in a bigger mess than you've ever seen in your life. I'll tell you that. Jesus said there are certain satanic strongholds that cannot be removed by anything but prayer and fasting.

You tell me you love your husband and wife, you've been having problems. Let me ask you, how much time do you spend every day on your face before God? Your marriage is crumbling before your very eyes, you can't get along, you see your children nervous, wrecked anymore.

Tell me, come on now, saints, tell me in Christian love, how much time, where's the desperation? How much time have you been seeking the face of God? How many times have you shut off the television set and gone and just cried before the Lord and unburdened and unbosomed your soul to the Lord and said, God, I can't handle this, you must move on me, change my mind, change my husband, change my wife, change my family, heal us!

How many meals have you missed? How many meals have you missed? So that you can get along with Jesus and tell him all about it. Folks, we talk about the eyes of the Jews being veiled. I'm telling you, the eyes of the church of Jesus Christ are far more veiled.

The church of Jesus Christ, for the most part, is in a stupor. It's a stupor. Because when troubles and cares and difficulties family problems, financial problems, career problems come to us. We don't go to Jesus anymore.

We have abandoned the prayer closet. We pick up the phone and we call a friend, we call a counselor, we call anybody but Jesus. You know what the problem is? We've got a gospel, a damnable gospel, that's being preached around the country saying, if you ask God for something, you just take it by faith and if you pray anymore about it, it proves that you didn't believe God the first time.

That's damnable. And that's why people are not praying. They say, well, I've got a promise and I'm waiting on the promise. I'm just standing on the Word. That poor widow must have been out of her mind that kept coming back and back and back and Jesus gave that illustration.

She came back and back until she got her answer. Jesus prayed three times that the cup pass from Him. Elijah prayed seven times because you see, from the very beginning of time, men of God, you go all through your Bible, you'll find that every true man or woman of God, when they had a promise, they turned it into a prayer.

They turned it into a prayer. The Lord gave Ezekiel a wonderful promise of restoration. He said the ruins of Israel would become the Garden of Eden, that He was going to fulfill His Word and God made Ezekiel incredible promises.

But listen to what the Lord said in the very next verse after saying, I'm going to turn the ruins of Israel into a Garden of Eden. He said, but I will for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them.

God said, I've made you a promise and I'm going to ask you to go and pray it to pass. You go and pray it to pass and you seek God with all your heart until it's fulfilled. Daniel was given a prophecy that after 70 years Israel would be restored.

The 70th year had come. He could have just taken it by faith. No, he got on his face for two weeks and wept and cried and prayed until God brought it to pass. God commands also that we pray for one another.

Carrying Others Before God

In the Old Testament, the priest went into the Holy of Holies with a breastplate, with the 12 stones in the breastplate, a type of Christ going before the Father, having us in his heart and presenting our needs to the Father.

And the priest went there. And the Bible said, you and I are priests unto the Lord. Is that true? And we are to carry the burdens. We are to carry in our hearts the needs of those around us in the body of Christ.

Every time we come into the holy place, every time we go in the secret closet, we're to carry that burden. Paul was so conscious of his need of the prayer help of others, he pleaded everywhere he went.

Every church he went to, he pleaded for prayer. To the Romans he begged, I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive with me in your prayers to God for me that I may be delivered.

And that word strive there in Greek is struggle, wrestle with me in prayer. Wrestle for me. Wrestle with me. Strive and fight in prayer for me in behalf of my needs in the gospel that I preach. Brethren, pray for us.

1 Thessalonians 5 .25. He wasn't asking for a quickie prayer. He was saying, I want you to fight with me. I want you to strive for me. In the letter to the Philippians, Paul, writing from prison, was begging for prayer.

And he said, for I know that this, your prayers, shall turn to my salvation through your prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And I'm telling you now that I know this works. I know this works.

I've stood in this pulpit and asked and pleaded for the prayers of this body when I went recently to a trip to Europe. I went to France, to Croatia, and Romania, and Poland for ministers' conferences and evening crusades.

And when I was gone, Pastor Carter would stand here and this whole body prayed for me and my wife. Because you see, you don't even, you don't just pray for the pastor. That's where you begin the ministry of helpers and prayer.

You begin with the pastors because they're the most marked man. Remember within the battle, it says, don't fight any soldier. Go to the king. Get the king. Go kill him. You get the king and then you can, the troops will scatter.

And the pastors and their wives, that's why I told you the wife who called our answer phone last week and said, Dear Brother David, there are many thousands of pastors' wives like me who are drinking to drown their sorrow.

She said, I drink in secret because I can't handle my pain anymore. Thousands, she said, just like me. She was evidently in touch with a number of them. And I wonder, now folks, I've taken that, I don't know her name, but she's on my prayer list now.

I'm her helper in prayer now because that's been brought to my attention. And I've been praying for her every day now that the Lord would heal her heart and her pain and stop her from killing herself with alcohol.

Prayer Support in Ministry

But when I was in Europe, the first week we were in France and we were after the, or during the ministers' conference, they asked me to hold a crusade in the city of Nice in a big auditorium and they said it can't be done.

It had never been done in Nice. And there's such agnosticism and atheism and Americans are not very well liked, especially American evangelists. And everybody was saying, no, it couldn't be done. And the directors of the program had a difficult time to tell them we need more than 50 counselors and they said, well, we'll get 100.

They said, no, we need more than that. And there were a few that had faith. But I got up, I sat during the whole program on the front seat and I said, Lord, there's not a message I have in my repertoire that I feel is right here.

I don't know what to do. I don't know what to preach. I am tongue-tied. Nothing was coming. And I turned to Claude, who was my interpreter, and we had gone before that previously over some notes that I had and some ideas.

And he turned to me and said, in words, you're not changing, are you? And I said, I don't know what I'm going to do. But I want you to know something, folks. When I stood before thousands of people and just opened my mouth, suddenly I was made to know, I was aware.

I was totally made aware by the Holy Ghost that people were praying. And suddenly the Spirit of God came on me. I don't even remember what I said. But the Holy Ghost came on me and you could hear a pin drop.

The Spirit of God for about 40 minutes was just that. And I just said, if you need Jesus, get up. And folks, it was just an avalanche of people came. There was no way that counselors could handle it, brokenness and weeping before the Lord.

And I went back in the dressing room and sat down. I said, wow, oh God. Thank you for the prayers of Times Square Church and others that I know that have been praying, our Bible school and others. I felt the power of that.

And all through in Croatia and in Romania, everywhere to suddenly when you felt dry and say, where am I going Lord? Suddenly the Holy Ghost comes upon you. And then the Holy Spirit's whispering, people are praying, people are praying.

It's the power of prayer. It's there. Hallelujah. Does it work? Yes, it does. Pastors that are here, you have every right to get up in your pulpit and I beg you to do it. I plead with this church. Everybody that belongs to Times Square Church, you call this home.

I need your prayers. Our family needs your prayers. Pastor Carter, every pastor here, we plead for your prayers. And pastor, you have every right to get up and God help you if you don't. Like Paul the Apostle, I need helpers.

I wonder how many, I wonder how many fallen evangelists, I wonder how many pastors who got so discouraged they couldn't even pray anymore, loaded down on all sides. I wonder if they would have fallen had they had a church or some people, intercessors behind them holding up their hands and fighting the devil with them.

You know, you heard Pastor Carter talk about how his wife and her mother and father were delivered. Teresa's mother and father are saintly people, godly people. And I had told of this when Pastor Carter left.

I was describing this after Pastor Carter went back after. A very godly prayer word from this church came backstage. And she was trembling. She said, Oh, Brother Dave, I've got to tell you something. She said, The other night, the very night this happened, I was meditating.

And this was about three hours before because she was praying in mid-afternoon and this happened, I found out later, about probably four or five o 'clock. She said, the Holy Spirit come and said, pray for Teresa Conlon and her family.

And she began to intercede and pray against the foul play of the enemy. God, I don't know what's going on, but preserve her. And she began to intercede and pray in the spirit. It's called helpers in prayer because when you take this ministry on you, you're willing to begin to pray and seek the face of God.