Principles for the Anointed Prayer Life — Gerhard Du Toit

Hello, this is Brother Denny. Welcome to Charity Ministries. Our desire is that your life would be blessed and changed by this message. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold.

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Brokenness, Humility, and Service

When I live a broken Christian life, there is a spirit of compassion about my life because I can forgive much, because I know how much I have been forgiven. I always esteem others better than myself. When I serve God with a broken heart, I have a dependent spirit and I recognize my need for others.

When I serve God with a broken life, I have learned the secret of denying myself. When my heart is broken before God, I have the motivation to serve others. I am motivated to be faithful before God and to make others a success.

When my heart is broken before God, I have a deep desire to promote other believers. I have a sense of my own unworthiness and I am so thrilled that God would use me in any kind of the ministry or any kind of the fellowship.

I am always eager for others to get the credit and when my heart is broken, I rejoice when others are lifted up and I never defend myself. When my heart is broken before God, I have a hard attitude that says I do not deserve to be part of this fellowship.

I know that I have got nothing to offer God except the life of Christ that is flowing through my broken life. And when I am broken before God, I am so humiliated about how much more I have to learn. I am not concerned about the self-life and I am willing to take risks to become vulnerable and to be close to others and to open my life to love other people.

And when I serve God with a broken heart, I always take personal responsibility and I can see where I have done wrong in any kind of a situation. And when I am broken before God, I always receive criticism with a humble and with an open spirit.

I am not concerned, I am concerned about being real and what they care about and what matters to those who are broken. It is not what others think, but it is what God knows about them. And I am willing to die to my own reputation.

And when I live a broken Christian life, I am willing to be open and transparent with others as God will direct me. And when I am broken before God, I don't care who knows or who finds out about me. I am willing to be exposed because I have nothing to lose in my relationship with God.

And so when I serve God with a broken heart, I am always quick to admit my failures and I want to seek forgiveness whenever it is necessary. When I live a broken Christian life and I am under a conviction of God's Spirit, I am able to acknowledge the specifics about my sin.

I am grieved over the cause of my sin and I am grieved over the root of my sin. And when I am broken before God, I truly and genuinely repent over my sin and the evidence in the fact is that I want to forsake that sin.

When I live a broken Christian life, I want to take the initiative to be reconciled when there has been a misunderstanding or a conflict in any kind of relationship. I want to raise to the cross. I want to see if I can get there first, no matter how wrong the other person may have been.

And when I am broken before God, I compare myself with the holiness of God. I sense the desperate need of the mercy and the grace of God. I always want to walk in the light. And when I serve God with a broken spirit, I realize that I have a need of a consistent cleansing of heart and repentance.

And when I am broken before God, I continually sense my need for a fresh encounter with God the Holy Spirit. But when there is pride in my life as a Christian, I always focus on the failures of other Christians and other fellowships.

The Spiritual Symptoms of Pride

When there is pride in my life, I've got a very self-righteous spirit. I've got a critical spirit. I have a fault-finding spirit. And I look at everyone else's faults through the microscope. But I always look at my own faults through the telescope.

And I always look down upon the lives of other people. When there is pride in my life, I have an independent and a self-sufficient spirit. I am protective of my time. I try to protect my reputation and my rights as a Christian.

And I focus on the deficiencies of other Christians. When there is pride in my life, I want to be served by other Christians. I've got a desire to be successful. I want to advance the self-life. And when there is this sin of pride in my life, I've got this drive.

I want to be appreciated. I want to be recognized. I am offended and I am wounded when other Christians are promoted. And I have been overlooked because of what I have done. When there is pride in my life, I've got this inner attitude.

And this is what I said. That this fellowship is very privileged to have me and my gifts. And all I think is what I can do for God. And when there is pride in my life, I'm confident by how much I've learned other scriptures.

And how far I have gone in my relationship with God. And when there is pride in my life, I always keep people in a distance. When there is pride in my life, I want to blame other people. When there is pride in my life, I'm unapproachable.

When there is pride in my life, I'm defensive when I'm criticized by other Christians. And when there is this sin of pride in my life, I'm so concerned to be respectable. I'm concerned about what other people think of me.

And I try to protect my image and my reputation. And when there is pride in my life, I find it very difficult to share my spiritual needs. When there is this sin of pride, I want to be sure that no one else find out that I have sinned.

And I try to cover up sin. And I have this instinct to try and not to reveal it. And when there is pride in my life, I always want to make sure that no one else finds out when I have sinned. And I try to cover it up.

And I find it very, very difficult to say, you know, I'm wrong. Will you please forgive me? When there is pride in my life, I'm concerned about the consequences of my sin. I'm remorseful over my sin, simply because I've been caught that I have sinned before God and sinned before man.

And when there is pride in my life, I always wait for others to come and ask for forgiveness. When there is a misunderstanding or a conflict in my relationship with God. When there is pride in my life, I try to compare myself with other Christians and other believers and other fellowships.

And I always think that I'm better than them. When there is pride in my life, I'm blind. I become blind to my own heart condition. When there is pride in my life, I don't think that there is anything that I need to repent of.

I don't think that I need revival. But oh, I'm so sure that everyone else needs revival in my relationship with God. It's time to pray, shall we? Father in heaven, we want to thank Thee this morning for the way that Thou has been dealing with us.

The way that Thou has been breaking our hearts. The way that God has been stirring us with realms and understandings of the brokenness of the presence of God. And we are so grateful that we have recognized in these days that God has come to us in new and fresh ways in our relationships with You.

And yet our God and our Father, there are some of us this Sunday morning and somehow we have not met with God. Somehow our hearts has not become broken. Somehow the Spirit of God has not broken into our relationships with You.

The Altar Call and Seeking God

My brother and my sister, as you stand here this morning, we have been exposed to the greatness of the presence of God. Both of you have not been with us in these sessions. Night after night, even before we turn to the preaching of God's Word, have we opened the altar of the church.

And have we asked people to come and spend time with God. And I am going to ask you, if you have not met with God, as we open the altar, I am going to challenge you just to come right at this moment. And say, Brother Gerard, I can't say that God has got through to me yet over this weekend.

And I want you to come and I want you to come and spend some time with Him at the altar of the church. Would you like to come right now? Come and find a spot. Say, I haven't met with God. I prayed about things and I just wait for you right here at the front.

And you come and seek His face. We just wait for you. Our beautiful young people, mothers and fathers, people that are visitors, you have not been in these sessions. You haven't met with God, we are just going to wait.

And if you have met with God, we are going to ask you to go on your knees wherever you are. But if you haven't met with God, we are going to ask you to come to the altar of the church. You just come. I challenge you.

You come and spend some time with God. We are waiting for you. Say, Brother Gerard, I haven't met with God yet. There are many of our sisters to my right and you need to come and meet with God. You haven't been out and spending time with Him, we just wait for you.

We, with our precious young women, need to be sold out to the Lord Jesus. We just wait. No room at the altar, you just come. Those of us that are standing, I am going to ask you to just slip around on your knees.

You said earlier this morning that this is a different service, so let's spend some time in prayer. You can pray out loud if you want. You can pray quietly, you just pray as God would lead you. Pray about your own relationship with God.

Let's spend some time in prayer. Whether there is someone that wants to lead us, lead out in prayer. Brother or sister, you just feel God move upon your heart to pray. We want to ask you when you pray that you lift up your head and pray out loud so that we would be able to hear you.

Whether there is anyone who wants to lead out in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we want to thank you this morning that these times of refreshing that has come from the presence of God has been times of great searching and yet times of great encouragement.

And we are so grateful that you speak to us because we are precious to God. That you speak to us because you've got a plan for our lives. That you speak to us because you want us to become more effective.

And that you speak to us because you want us to become men and women of God. And Father, so many of us have testified that you have been touching our hearts and you have been purifying us and you have been cleansing us and you have revealed yourself to us.

And we are so grateful this Sunday morning for the vision of the Lord Jesus that has been stirring our hearts. We are so grateful this Sunday morning that the future is just as bright as the promises of God.

We are so grateful this morning that the will of God will never ever be able to lead us where the peace of God is not able to keep us. We are reminded that the Old Testament said to us that the thoughts that you have towards us, those are not thoughts of destruction and thoughts of discouragement.

But O God, that they are thoughts of great encouragement. That God has a plan for our lives as His people. That you want us to find this plan. Father, that you want us to follow it. But most of all, that you want us to finish it.

And Lord, we are grateful this morning. Our hearts have been marvelously encouraged. Our lives and our souls have been stirred. And you have lifted us up and you have touched us. And you have broken through in our relationships with you.

And God, you know this day that in the own inadequacy of the expectation of my relationship with you, is there such a wonderful anticipation to see what you are going to do in charity Christian fellowship in the days to come.

We ask this morning that you will forgive us, our God and our Father, that we did not climb underneath the burden of God to pray for the ministers and for their wives and for their children in the way that you wanted us to pray.

We ask that you will forgive us that there were times that instead of committing ourselves to prayer, that we find ourselves criticizing. And that we find ourselves gossiping. And that we find ourselves slandering against aspects of the leadership, of the fellowship.

And yet, Father, last night in our half-night of prayer, and in the times of praying together, have we found ourselves crawling over to one another. And we ask for forgiveness. And we wanted to make reconciliation.

Because what we desire was for the movings of the Spirit of God and the lives of your people. And Lord, you have given unto us a burden. It's a burden not just for our own relationships with you. It's a burden not just to pray for our wives and for our children and for our young people.

But, oh, it's been a burden to pray for our husbands. It's to pray for this community. God, this morning as I was driven to, was brought to this fellowship, it just broke my heart, my heart to see so many of these horses and buggies going to different places of worship.

And, Father, we looked at the blackness of these little beautiful buggies. And yet in many of those buggies that we see, men and women who sat, they are on their way this morning to worship. And yet they have never been born of the Spirit of God.

And maybe there are some of them at this very moment who are standing somewhere at the telephone booth. And they are listening to this morning's service. And they are lost and they do not know Christ.

And they need to be born of the Spirit of God. And, Father, I pray this morning in Jesus' name that there are those who are listening over the telephone, or those who are standing in the telephone booth, that suddenly that the conviction of the Spirit of God will come upon their lives.

You said unto us in Your Word that when He, the Holy Spirit, will come, He will convince and convict of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. And I pray that in Jesus' name that You will reveal to them their lost condition, that they will recognize that You have said in Your Word that God do not have any pleasure in the death of a sinner, but that He will repent, that You have said in Your Word, Come now and let us reason together.

Say of the Lord, Though Your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. And that they will trust You for salvation at the very place where they find themselves. And that in this Sunday morning that they would be glorious born of the Spirit of God and that they would cry to God for mercy and they would ask God to forgive their sin and ask Christ to come into their lives and that You will give them the assurance of their salvation.

Lord, there is a spirit of great excitement in my heart because in the days to come You are going to lift up our elders and the ministers and the deacons and their families and You are going to unctionize these men with the Holy Spirit and You are going to set them apart unto Yourself.

And I pray, Father, this morning in Jesus' name that these leaders will not be discouraged, that they will not become despair, but that somehow that in these days to come that God the Holy Spirit will come to their hearts and that You will so deeply encourage them.

We thank You this Sunday morning for the testimony of our brother Denny Keniston. We thank You for the brokenness of his life. We thank You that he never wants to defend himself but that he longs for God.

And God, our hearts are broken this morning because You have given us leaders. You've given us these ministers. They confess that they don't have it together but they confess that they want to walk with God and we want to pray that You will give us the burden of God to pray for them in the days to come.

They are our leaders, our God. They also have faults and infirmities and weaknesses just like us we are. But, Father, we have no other leaders. And like Aaron of old who came to Moses and who lifted up the arms of Moses, so do we as a congregation and as a fellowship this Sunday morning want to lift up the arms of these men that You have called.

And we ask that You will give him the spirit of joy. We ask that You will give him the unction of the Holy Ghost. We ask that You will give him a baptism of brokenness in their relationships with You.

And, Lord, if criticism is coming to them, if it's from within the fellowship or it is from without the fellowship, we ask that You will make them flames of fire. And somehow, Lord, that they will become like ducks, that it will roll down from them like oil upon the water.

And if a criticism is from God, we ask that You will break their hearts. But, Lord, we do not want the enemy to take advantage of our leaders. We do not want him to bring condemnation and so we pray that if it is not of God, that You will put a shield around them.

God, that You will protect them, that as they serve You with brokenness, that their hearts will not be so open before God, that they will be torn in part by the opinions of men or the onslaughts of the evil one.

But, O God, that they will be men of prayer and so what we pray for our leaders this morning, we want to pray for our fellowship. God, we know that the enemy of our souls, if he is not able to keep us back, he is going to try to push us over the edge.

We pray this morning that the onslaughts that has come from the enemy of our souls upon the fellowship, God, we pray in Jesus' name that You will put a guard and a gate around the fellowship, around our families, that the enemy of our souls will not be able to distract us from the greatness of the preaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ and that You will bring the joy of the Spirit back and that Your Word is said unto us, Rejoice in the Lord always, and I say again, Rejoice!

Be careful of nothing, but in everything by prayer and by supplication, with thanksgiving, let Your requests be made known unto God and this morning we bring this fellowship to You. Father, we are not satisfied by what You are doing, we want much more of God.

There is the sound of the abundance of rain and all we pray in Jesus' name that You will come to us as families, that our homes will become homes of prayer, that our families will become houses of prayer.

Father, we pray this morning in Jesus' name that You will pour out Your Spirit upon every household of charity Christian fellowship, upon every household of the other fellowships that are meeting this Sunday morning, those fellowships that have been planted out of charity, the other fellowship here in the community.

God, we are not different fellowships, we are part of the fellowship of God and I pray this morning that You will bring in amongst us such a great sense of oneness in the Spirit. God, that You will bring upon us such a great contriteness of heart and I pray, Father, in Jesus' name that the sense of the oneness of the Spirit of God and the love and the brokenness and the transparency will flow from this fellowship.

And Father, that our love will not be able to be denied because You say to us in Your Word, by this they shall know that You are my disciples because of Your love to one another. Lord, we need an outpouring of Your Spirit.

Oh God, we need revival, but if You are not going to send revival to us as Your people, how can we anticipate You to send revival to these dead areas where people met this morning and the language is in a language that our young people cannot understand.

And there is a deadness and there is a religiosity, but there is no life. God, if You don't break through in revival in our midst as Your people, right here where we confess to know Christ, where we are desperately needy, how can we anticipate You to break through in revival blessing in the other communities that we are surrounded?

Father in Heaven, You have planted this fellowship right in the midst of this area of Lancaster. You have saved people. This morning we lift up our hands and our hearts towards Thee and we say to Thee, our God and our Father, it is time for You to visit us again.

It is time for You to pour out Your Spirit and it is time for You to send conviction. It is time that the Spirit of God will be poured out upon this district and men and women will have sleepless nights and men and women will be in desperation and they will come down in their horse and their buggy and they will see someone who has been converted and they will stop and say, can you help me to find Christ?

And we will see someone in a bicycle cycling down the road and when they see us, the Spirit of God will say, here is a believer. Ask Him how you can be saved from your sin. This morning, our God, we cry to Thee.

Lord, we have nothing in our hands to bring. We are like this man that Brother Denny spoke about. Our lives are so withered. We are like the man with a little crippled hand who came to Jesus and said, could you heal me?

Christ turned to him and said, do you want to be healed? And then you turned to him and you said to him, stretch out your hand. This morning we stretch out our hand. Father, we can't bring revival. We cannot manufacture the presence of God.

We can't bring the power of the Spirit of God down. But God, we can humiliate ourselves. We can fast and we can pray. And you said unto us in your Word, if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and I will forgive their sin and I will heal their land.

We are thy people this morning. We have been called by thy name. We have humbled ourselves. We have confessed our sins before you. God, our Father, we want to hear from heaven. We want you to come into our midst.

And I pray this morning in thy great name that again and afresh that the seed of revival will be sown in our hearts today. That the burden of revival will give life afresh in our souls. That the spirit of prayer will be poured out upon our community.

And that you will come and visit us with a great movement of the Spirit of God. Father, reveal to us what is preventing it. If we haven't prayed this thing through to God, then beseech we thee in Jesus' name that you will pour out upon us a great spirit of prayer.

And as men and women will look upon this fellowship, that they will be able to say what Duncan Campbell said when the revival came to the island of Lewis. And he said, I never brought revival to the island of Lewis, but the island of Lewis was a community saturated with a spirit of prayer.

This morning we pray in Jesus' name that men and women will look upon these fellowships and that they will be able to say these fellowships are fellowships that are saturated with a spirit of intercessory prayer.

Lord, I was so shocked last night that nearly a handful of us, as your people, have a quiet place where we meet with you. Nearly a handful of us, as fathers and as husbands and as mothers, have a closet where we meet with God.

Father, you are not going to come to the church unless you are going to come to the husbands and the fathers. And you are not going to come to the church if you are not going to come to our mothers and our families.

And so we ask of you as we climb underneath the burden of God, we ask that you will pour out upon us this burden and that you will wake us up in the hours of the night. Lord, as you woke me up at 2 or 3 o 'clock this morning, suddenly the burden of God was there and there was no option but to respond to the greatness of the burden of God.

This morning I pray that once more that you will remember us here at this fellowship of your people and that you will come to visit us with the greatness of the movement of God. Thank you for your word this morning.

O God, we love this book and we pray that as we ponder upon it, that the Holy Ghost will come this Sunday morning and that you will breathe upon the Scriptures and so that the Scriptures will become part of our lives so that we can be called the people of God.

Thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen. I'd like you to take your seats this morning and I want you to open your Bible. I want you to open your Bible with me at Hebrews chapter 10 and just for the sake of our time and our being together, I want us just to read a few verses from that wonderful chapter, Hebrews chapter 10.

Faith, Access to God, and the Witnesses of Hebrews 10–11

And we have been on our knees and why don't we stand for the reading of the word of God. Why don't we rise to our feet and we stand for the reading of God's word, a few verses from chapter 10 and then also a few verses from chapter 11.

Hebrews chapter 10 verse number 19. Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and a living way, which ye have consecrated for us through the veil, that is to say His flesh, and having an eye-priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the profession of our faith. Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful, that is promised. Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and also unto good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another in so much the more as you will see the day approaching.

Hebrews chapter 11 verse number 1. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders obtained a good report, and through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

By faith Abel offered unto God the more excellent sacrifice than came by which he obtained witness that he was righteous God, testifying of His gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death, and he was not found because God had translated him, for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God.

But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is and that He is to be a warder of them that diligently seek Him. By faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet, out of a fear prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world, and he became the heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

By faith Abel, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whether he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of whom are the same promise.

For he looked for a city which had foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed. She was delivered of a child when she was past the age, because she judged in faithfulness who had promise.

Therefore sprang there even of one, and he was as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky, in a multitude and in the sands, which is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and they were persuaded of them, and they embraced them, and they confessed that they were strangers, and pilgrims in the earth.

For they that say such things, declare plainly that they seek a country. And truly if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned.

But now they desire a better country, that is the heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He hath prepared unto them a city. By faith Abram when he was called, when he was tried, offered up Isaac, and he that hath received the promises, offered up his only begotten son, of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also we received him in a figure.

By faith Isaac blessed Jacob, and he saw concerning the things to come. By faith Jacob when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph, and worshipped leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel, and gave commandment concerning his bones.

By faith Moses when he was born, was he three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, and to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured in seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn, should touch them.

By faith they passed through the Red Sea, as by a dry land, which the Egyptians sustained to do, they were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were composed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rhea perished, not with them that believed, not when she had received the spies with peace.

What shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon, and of Beric, and of Samson, and of Jephthah, and of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens.

Women received their death, raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection, and others a trial of cruel mockings and scorchings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment.

They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, they were slain with a sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and in goatskins, being destitute and afflicted and tormented, of whom the world was not weary.

They wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens, and in caves of the earth, and these all having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they may without us, should be made perfect.

You may be seated. A little epistle to the Hebrews is a wonderful little epistle. I often say to myself, one of the two great New Testament books that is a must for us to memorize as the people of God.

It's the 433 verses of the epistle to the Romans, and it's the 303 verses of the epistle to the Hebrews. Somehow they are speaking to us about two marvelous aspects of the New Testament. Romans is giving unto us the greatness of the life of Christ, and the epistle to the Hebrews is giving us our inheritance of what God has in store for us.

And so when you and I would study this epistle, or in fact, if we would study the New Testament epistles, and the importance of the understanding that when the Word of God becomes part of our lives, that we cannot move from our experiences to the Scriptures, but our experiences of God is always the consequences of the Scriptures in our relationships of God.

And brother and sister, when the Scriptures has become part of our lives, we come to this place where we spoke about brokenness. That we will never defend ourselves as the people of God. That we will always see people with the grace of God, and we see ourselves without the grace of God.

That we will never be guilty of slandering. That we say something behind someone's back, and we can't say it in the face of that person. That we will never become guilty of gossiping when we say something in someone's face, and we can't say it behind their back.

Because the Word of God has become part of our relationships with you. I trust this morning that you sit here in this little time that we are together, and there is still a love in your heart for the Word of God.

There is still a yearning in your soul that the Spirit of God will come, because my brother and my sister, the Holy Spirit of God has nothing else to work upon than the greatness and the efficacy of His Scriptures.

And when the seed of God's Word is sown in my life, the Holy Spirit of God comes, and He breathes over my garden, and it's the freshness of bringing me to the place where He fertilized that seed of God's Word in my life.