Prayer Is Knocking — Wesley Duewel

Level one, asking. Level two, seeking. Then what did Jesus say? Knocking, knocking. Jesus said, sometimes it takes strenuous praying and it seems as though it's heaven's door. Look at his face, his forehead.

Jesus’ Agony and the Burden of the World

By the time the hour was over, they had dropped off to sleep again. But Jesus prevailed on them, agonizing. But he was really knocking. On him was the burden of the whole world. Himself, on top of the mountain, the Shekinah of God that the Old Testament knew about.

The Shekinah of God that stayed in the holy of holies right over the Ark of the Covenant for years. Invisible, I mean visible below the light, the glory. No human source, just a door that only the high priests were permitted to look at it once a year.

Moses’ Intercession After the Golden Calf

Mount Sinai, God tells Moses, come on up with Joshua. Went to Nereidatah when he left Joshua there to wait. And Moses went on, days and nights, supernaturally upheld without food and drink. You can't live that long without liquid, without food, but not without liquid.

But supernaturally sustained, Moses was up there on the mountain. And after 40 days, God gave to Moses the 10 commandments in stone. What he had proclaimed boldly to the people, he now handed Moses on the table of stone.

Days, God said, Moses, go on down. Your people have corrupted themselves. They're worshiping an idol. Idol, go on, Moses, oh no, they're not doing that. You know, they just heard your voice down there.

They were trembling before you, but they wouldn't. You told them, you shall have no other gods before me. How could they now be worshiping a god? Go down, God said, they're worshiping me. In his hand, probably put him on his shoulder, started down the mountainside.

He got to where Joshua was waiting. Joshua said, there's a sound of war in the camp. No, Moses, that's not war. He said, that's singing. Joshua turned and came following Moses down. And Moses came down.

I can't visualize, but I have been on mountains during our India days. And you don't go down a mountain just like this. You go zigzagging. Down the mountain, I can see Moses going down with the 10 commandments on his shoulder.

And Joshua was following behind him. They turned the last corner, and suddenly, he saw before him, a golden anvil of gas. He took those tablets of stone, and he smashed them to pieces. I suppose he thought the judgment of God would fall upon those people.

God just given these commandments, and here they are. And Moses went up to them. What made you do that? Oh, they said the people gave me their jewelry, and I threw them in the fire, and this is what came out.

Schoolmaster, hey, what are you doing? Tell me. He had just come down. He smashed them to pieces. How weak and wobbly, and I know he made no excuses. My people have sinned, but forgive them. You can't forgive them.

Blot my name out of your book. Blot my name out, let me go to hell with them. The Lord said, I'll not blot your name out of my book. The one who sinned is the one who I'll blot out of. One of these, Moses came down the mountain, stole the tablets and took them up the mountain, because he'd broken the ones in God's name.

And God blew on the tablets. What had Moses done? He had not. Lord, forgive him, forgive him. And if you can't prayer Moses' praise to God every day in your life, when you feel like you're at that level of prayer, you are knocking.

Martin Luther’s Desperate Prayer for Melanchthon

Chapter 26 in Mighty Forgiving Prayer. Have you ever thought what it was like when Martin Luther stood almost alone? Roman Catholic Church in power, Peter's husband getting the Bible into Jerry, with him, where could he go to get prayer help?

He had one special from each other, they lived. But one day someone came to Martin Luther and they said, did you know Philip the ninth son is dying? Dying? Dying, Philip? Philip? On a horse, I don't, in my mind, I can see Martin Luther starting to hop on his horse.

That's his prayer partner. That's his stay in hell. How's he gonna fight this battle? For God, without Philip the ninth son. What would you have done? Tied his horse outside, he went up to the door, stayed silent, laid his eyes onto sight or sound to the window of the almighty, the Lord is great figure.

Martin Luther said, I attacked him. Your prayer attacking God. Quoting from scripture, all the promises I could remember. And said that he must grant my prayer if I'm henceforth to put faith in his promises.

Never tell God that way. But this is what this desperate Martin Luther, in the balance, I could remember. I'm a wizard. Or when he heard that my son was dying. He's down by the window, all by himself, praying to God for one hour.

We don't know all, but in his own words, I attacked the almighty with a great fear. I was knocking on heaven's door. And I told him, he must answer these promises or henceforth I cannot put faith in them.

Jesus’ Teaching on Asking, Seeking, and Knocking

On his knees by the window after one hour of prevailing before God, knocking on heaven's door. He walked up and said, Philip, you're not going to die. Give me a little nourishment. I don't know what she needed.

Whether it was soup or nourishment. Give me a little nourishment. He took it from the nurse, and he tried to get it in Melanchthon's mouth. And Melanchthon softly said, dear Philip, good peace. No, no, no.

The promises were out of order. Knocked on heaven's door. Said Jesus, ask and you'll be given. Seek and you'll find. Or if you come to the knees, knock, understand the words. Knocking is not physical.

Knocking is not praying with the loudest voice you have. It might be desperation of your soul before God. If you can't, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it. That's it. To march through an unresisting time and just slaughter people, that is so evil.

Praying Against the Graf Spee

Unresisting passenger ships and sink them with all lives lost and steal away and let them die. That's so evil. And that's what was happening in World War II. A pocket battleship called the Graf Spee, S-P-E-E, the Graf Spee.

Remember the Graf Spee? Those were the freight ships of Europe and America and different places. And that was not side-by-side. This was in general line. And the Graf Spee, a couple of them were just like a passenger ship.

And suddenly take off the facade, and there's the torpedo turrets. It would sink one or two ships, put the facade back to break the steam off. No one would know. Or the Graf Spee, to me, that was so evil.

And I prayed day after day after day. I was a Bible student nearly a year in Oklahoma Church. Suddenly, a burden struck me, just like something good. Well, like a blanket or something came on me. No weight as it were in my heart.

I just felt such awful need. Lord, stop the Graf Spee. Stop that unnecessary loss of life. Stop that marauding. Stop that torpedoing. Stop the Graf Spee. I was praying. My wife was in bed with me asleep.

So I couldn't call out. But in my heart, I was calling out. Waving my arm around, oh, God, oh, God. I fell asleep. We turned on the radio. The Graf Spee dashed into the harbor of Montevideo. Montevideo, Montevideo, Uruguay, Uruguay was neutral during the war, just as Switzerland and Europe.

So Uruguay and South America, a little country of Uruguay. Montevideo was the capital city of Uruguay. And the Graf Spee dashed into the harbor. We don't know what for. And then he changed his mind, the captain.

As he stormed out the harbor, he commanded all the sailors on board the ship to put on life jackets. They had had explosive stove that commanded all the sailors' lifeboats. Suicide as he went down in the Graf Spee just outside the harbor of Montevideo.

He stopped the Graf Spee. Several years went by. Brazil, where we had work, there were two coordinating groups, sort of like licensing groups for evangelical missions. One is called the EFMA, Evangelical Fellowship of Missionary Agencies.

The other is the IFMA, Independent. Well, OMS is a part of the EFMA, a separate group, quite Calvinistic, beat together. And India was made president of OMS. I represent OMS at these gatherings once every three years.

There were annual meetings. I went to the annual meetings, too. But this year, as I was coming back from Brazil, it was the third year when we had a joint meeting. This year, it was in Orlando, Florida.

So I got there one day ahead of time from Brazil and stayed with a couple near Orlando. And then they took me in the morning to the hotel where the conference was going to be held, the denominational conference was offered.

Before I go in, I just bow my head and say, now, Lord, if there's someone you want me to contact today that has information that would help me, or someone you want me to contact so that they can listen to you work it all out.

And I was doing what I customarily did. I got there a little bit early. And I stood in the aisle by myself with my head down, just praying, Lord, God, if there's someone you want me to contact. Someone grabbed me around my chest and hugged me to their heart.

It was a shark. He hugged me so tight, I couldn't see what his name was on his neck. I'm here because of you. Who are you, brother? What they called AD 2000 and beyond. Various missions cooperated and tried to reach every unreached person in the world by 2000.

We didn't get it all, but we did a lot cooperating in that. He was the coordinator of the whole thing. Said, I'm Louise Bush. He said, I read and touched the world through prayer. My uncle was there on the table in my first movie.

How you prayed, and God stopped the gross faith. Oh, I said, brother, there may have been 1 ,000 other people praying, too. Yes, I prayed. Yes, God put the burden on my heart. Yes, I prevailed. And God answered prayer.

But there may have been 1 ,000 others. Who knows? He says, I don't know about the 1 ,000, but I know about you. Father-in-law was a British surgeon. Take his family to a place of safety. So he took them back to Britain.

If you remember the war days during World War II, you know that Britain was not a safe place. Hitler's planes were bombing and bombing and bombing in Britain. But he said, after some months, his daughter said, father, my fiancee, my mother was on a British passenger ship just outside the harbor of Montevideo.

And at dusk, the captain came out, and a small group of the passengers would have to be on the deck. And my mother was one of them. He said, about the gross faith. But he said, you know, wartime rumors, you can't believe most of them.

The gross faith was right there in Montevideo Harbor. And my mother's ship was just outside the entrance of the harbor. And they scuttled the gross faith, and the ship reached Brazil. And my mother rejoined her fiancee.

Brother, five minutes off, and he said to all the people there, I'm here today because of the prayers of Wesley Newell. I want him to do that. But that's what he said. I'm told he's told that story in different parts of the world, in Singapore, and I don't know where else.

He believes because of my prayer. Now, as I still say, I don't know how, God knows how many other people were praying. But I know that I have been faithfully praying every day for months. And I know that God put that burden on my heart.

And I know that I was talking not with a loud voice, I was waving my hands, I didn't dare, I was sleeping. But I know that in my heart, I was knocking on heaven's door. And that night, God answered. I've been singing, I've been praying day after day after day.

But God put a special burden on my heart that night. And that night, that's knocking on heaven's door. You don't do it every day. But if you're faithful to the Lord, God may put a prayer burden on your heart.

I'm going to talk before the day's over about prayer burden. Who knows, you may be one of them that God gives a special prayer burden to. When you feel the pressure on your soul, when you feel the burden, knock.

It will be given to you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you.