The Secret and Strength of Revival Praying — Ian Paisley

The Canaanite Woman and the Power of Faith

You'll find a copy of the Holy Scriptures in front of you in the pure, in the authorized version. Pick it up and turn with me to the first book of the New Testament, the Gospel according to Matthew, chapter 15.

Matthew's Gospel, chapter 15, reading at verse 21. And we're reading to verse 28. And we read it together, taking your time from me. Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.

And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. But he answered her, Not a word.

And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the Lord's sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered her and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith.

Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. God shall stamp his word with his own divine seal of approval. Amen and Amen. The greatest weapon that God has given to his people is the weapon of prayer.

God Answers the Prayers of His People

Everything attainable to God's people and Christ's church by prayer. God answers prayer. Take up your Bible and look with thee at three scriptures. All from the book of Psalms. Because the book of Psalms is uniquely, uniquely a prayer book.

And in Psalm 99, you will read there these words at verse 6. Moses and Aaron among his priests. Samuel among them that call upon his name. They called upon the Lord and he answered them. Turn to Psalm 118.

And there in Psalm 118, that great truth of God answering prayer is confirmed. Verse 5, Psalm 118, I called upon the Lord in distress. The Lord answered me and sent me in a large. And then turn over to Psalm 138.

And in Psalm 138, we read there in verse 3. In the day when I cried, the Lord answered me. Strengthened me with strength in my spirit. God answers prayer. When you turn to the New Testament. The first John.

The first epistle of John. At the last chapter of John's first epistle. You read there these words. First John chapter 5. And we are reading at verse 12. He that hath the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

And then at verse 14. And this is the confidence that we have in Him. That if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. And if we know that He heareth us whatsoever we ask. We know that we have the petitions that He desires of Him.

If we are going on the sucks that we are praying for. There comes in this question of faith. For without faith no prayer can be answered. Without faith no victory can be won. This is the victory that overcometh the world even.

Faith Overcomes Personal Circumstances

I want to turn your attention to Matthew chapter 15. Verses 21 to 28. You say to me it is a strange thing. When you are talking about revival praying. You turn to this miracle that the Lord wrought. And is recorded in the gospel.

But in this passage of Scripture. We have the overcoming of all the things that hinder us. From exercising faith. And how faith can be exercised. And the person lying in the gutter. Crying upon God in a time of need.

Finishes on the throne. Having whatever that person has required of the Lord. This portion of Scripture. Something that is shown nowhere else in the New Testament. The silence of Christ. A needy sinner upon Christ for mercy.

There is no other passage that reveals the divine truth. That is in this portion of Scripture. But you will notice as you read it. That faith overcomes all resistance. Overcomes all resistance to personal circumstances.

And she had no religious training in Judaism. The religion of the Jews. She was of an alien race from Canaan. A nation that was cursed. She was open to all the prejudices of her birth and nationality.

She was by education a Greek. And was therefore ignorant of the Hebrew Scriptures. But with all of those personal... Because faith can sweep away all personal resistance. And get the victory. Now when we come, we are roomed in our own personal circumstances.

They are part and parcel of our makeup. How we live and what we do. And what happens, those personal circumstances. Tell upon our thinking capacity. And they also tell upon our attitude when we come to pray.

And I might say that those personal circumstances. Are usually set up in resistance to the overcoming of difficulty by faith. And the answering of the prayers that we offer. This woman, her example condemns if we come in unbelief.

There is no greater exposure of unbelief than these few verses here in Matthew's Gospel. And there is no greater exposition of the wonder of faith. As in these few scriptures in Matthew's Gospel. So all personal resistance can be swept away by faith.

So faith overcomes, faith sweeps away the resistances of personal circumstances. And every personal circumstance may be totally against you getting what you are asking for. But if you are asking in faith, you will get it no matter what mountains and everest are erected in your way.

What did Jesus say? He said, say to this mountain, be thou cast into the sea. And God will uproot the mountain and he will cast it into the sea. And it will no longer be resisting you. So here was a woman brought up with a curse of Canaan upon her.

With a false religion, with paganism. But this woman had all of those swept away by the secret. And we are going to have those personal circumstances which rise up when we come to pray for revival. Say there will be no revival.

Heard that people have been praying for revival for years. It didn't come. Yes, people prayed for revival for years and it did come. Don't ever forget that. Evan Roberts and a handful of young people prayed of a church in 1904.

And in the fall of 1904, God turned the principality of Wales upside down and inside out. And at the end of a few months, over 100 ,000 people had joined the churches where the revival was taking place.

Never you forget it. That no personal circumstance before believing in the Lord and in believing faith. Faith overcomes the resistance of all personal circumstances. Look again at Matthew 15. And you'll find that faith overcomes all restrictions of our Lord.

Faith Overcomes the Concealment of Christ

The Lord went here to do something. He went here to hide himself. He wanted to conceal himself. He didn't want anybody to know that he was present. He didn't want anyone to recognize him or seek him or be attracted to him.

But here is an earnest woman. I don't know how this woman found out that Jesus was there. I don't know how she found out that the mighty miracle worker, the prophet of Nazareth, was in her community. But she did.

And faith swept away the very restrictions that Christ himself had set up. There is nothing else that could do that but this wonderful thing called faith. You just think of that. That the Lord went to hide himself.

That was his intention. But he could not be hidden from faith. There is no hiding of God where faith is. I'll tell you what there is. There is a demonstration, a manifestation of God. And if we don't have faith, we don't have that manifestation.

But if we have that faith, nothing can stop the revelation. Where was Christ? We don't know. How did she recognize him? We don't know. How could she leave her daughter in such a state? Ties of love tying her to her daughter in her trouble.

And then she went out with her daughter controlled by the demons of hell. And she shut the door. What to do? To go and seek for Jesus. To go and seek for Jesus. Because faith overcomes all the restrictions.

Even the restrictions that our Lord Jesus makes. Christ sometimes hides himself. He seems to bar all access from his presence. When the heavens has been as brass. I have prayed in circumstances where I could see no future.

I have prayed where my prayers bounced to the ceiling and bounced back on my forehead. And I left the prayer meeting with a terrible head and with a sore heart. But thank God every restriction can be penetrated.

Nothing can disguise our Savior or hide him if we have faith. And if the church would only have faith today. We would see a different picture than we are seeing. We would see that this apostasy that is abroad.

This evil that is rampant. This iniquity that is soaking into our society. Will be swept away by the power of God. And when the church of God gets on its knees and claims faith. The victory will come.

But it can't come until we know this mighty faith of God. Yes, faith overcomes. Faith overcomes all resistance in our personal circumstances. But it also overcomes all restrictions of the concealment of Christ.

Faith will always see Jesus. Even if the night is as black as hell's midnight. Faith will always see the Lord. The light of the Lord will shine where faith is. Where there is no faith there will be the darkness of the shadow of death.

Faith Overcomes Christ's Reproach and the Barrier of Gentile Status

But look again. Faith overcomes the reproach of Christ. Now Christ was very sharp in speaking to this woman. And he actually told her she came from the world of the dogs. And I'm not taking the children's food and I'm not casting it to the dogs.

Because to the Jews of course the Gentile nations were as dogs. Please notice the title that this woman gave to Christ. She called him the son of David. On the very thing that the Lord was referring to.

She got over it and she made her prayer to the Son of God. If you read the Gospels you'll find nine times Christ is addressed with this title. I'm not going to tell you where they are. You wouldn't read the Gospels.

You can go and look for them yourself. Nine times and every one has a special message. And this verse has an extra special message to us. Here is a woman told by the prophet of God. Well you know that your nation is as dogs in the sight of our religion.

But that didn't stop her. She emphasized that he was the son of David. And she said, as she prayed, have mercy on me O Lord, thou son of David. Yes, I am a dog. I'm outside the peel of Judaism. But you're the son of David.

And he can make me a child. He can give me all the privileges of the kingdom. Because the privileges of the kingdom are in the gift of the sovereign of the kingdom. So Lord Jesus, you can bring me into the family.

You're the son of David. You can bring me into the family. Faith overcomes the reproof of Christ. Christ was silent. The apostles said, Caesar! Strangled by the demons of hell. But the Lord Jesus was teaching in this passage something to the disciples.

And something to us all. That woman, I'm sure, thought that when she got to Jesus and he heard her word, all would be easy. But she found when she got to Jesus, the difficulties just started. And when you start to pray for something, you'll not find it's easy when you're praying.

You'll find that the troubles will just start as you endeavor to pray through and get the petition that you want. But her faith did something. Her faith made the Lord Jesus to speak. He came to be silent.

He came to be hid. He came to be speechless. But here was the faith that moved the tongue of the blessed Son of God. Almighty faith that can move the tongue of Jesus and open the lips of a silent Christ.

What power is in this faith that can move the very heart of the blessed Son of God? Christ's silence was a blunt refusal. It proves too much for a weak faith. And when Christ is silent, the Christian stops praying.

And there is no blessing. But when the Christian has this strong faith, the stronger the opposition and the reproof of Christ may be, the stronger will become true faith. It develops in the wilderness.

It develops in the winds and the storm. Faith is not a hothouse plant needing the assistance of man-made heat to make it thrive. Faith is the birth of God. Do you know what Jesus said to His disciples?

The faith of God. Do you know what the Apostle Paul said? He said he had the faith of Christ. God is part of his character and his attributes. And it is that faith, a partaker of the divine nature, that gives us the power to overcome the silence of Jesus.

Persistent Prayer and Faith That Refuses No

But look again. Faith overcomes the refusal of Jesus. You see, Christ refused. He refused in such a way that a person that was not determined would have hung her head and left. But this woman would not take no for an answer.

In verse 23, he answered her, not a word. And then the disciples came and said, choose her. Send her away. She cried after us. She is an embarrassment. At this time the church had a few embarrassing members who would pray so effectually to heaven that in spite of all opposition, the revival blessings would come.

People that embarrass the church are the people in the past that brought the blessings to the church and faced the great opposition to revival. She believed that the Lord who was providentially with her when she shut the door of her home and her daughter tied hand and foot by demons, when she walked all the way to where Jesus was, for she found the son of demons.

She was confident that no refusal could stop her. And so this woman, she brought her faith. And you'll notice the ingenuity of that faith. The Lord said, you can't the food. It's only for the children.

When she said, if I can't have the food, I can have the crumbs. I'm prepared just to have a crumb. I'll settle for a crumb. When the church is prepared to settle for a crumb, then it'll be a church that means business with God.

I'll settle for a crumb. Christ often seems to deny his church. But if we were like old Abraham, who against hope, believed in hope. That's the sort of faith. Who against hope, believed in hope. Decide the terms of his very purpose.

The Lord Jesus Christ was prepared to work, when faith held the scepter. Oh, the power of faith. She did not say the Lord was wrong. Please notice it. She said the Lord is speaking the truth. But to the truth she added, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs, which fall from their master's people.

You have spoke about dogs. And you have said that it's not meat, that they should get the children's bread. But I'm taking it further, Lord. I'm saying they always get the crumbs. I'm here to get one crumb from you, Lord.

For one crumb of your power, will wipe the devil's hold on my daughter out forever. What did the Lord say to her? No more silence from God. The Lord is now speaking. He's speaking freely. And the first thing he does, he praises this woman.

He says, Oh woman, great is thy faith. You have come to me, and you have been down in the gutter. But I'm going to lift you on to my throne. And you're going to do the willing. And I'm going to see that it's carried out.

Be unto thee as I will. It doesn't say that. Be unto thee even as thou wilt. I'm elevating you on to my throne. That's where faith puts the believer, on the very throne of God. We're raised, says the Ephesian epistle, to the heavenless.

We're put on God's throne. God has highly exalted every believer, and put them in the throne. He that overcometh shall sit with me in my throne. And the woman took her seat on the throne because of faith.

And what happened? The reproaches that Christ had used concerning dogs, and concerning his refusal to hear her first cry, were swept away. From that same hour, her daughter was made whole. Immediate answer to a fear that would not be silenced.

Learning the Secret of Faith and Power

This is the fear. This is the power that we need as believers when we come to pray. This is the fear that changes the darkest circumstances, overcomes the greatest obstacles, sweeps away all resistance, and causes the speechless cry.

Words of comfort, words of liberty, and words of power. I trust that these short words this morning will stir all of us up to realize that we have a responsibility. Learn the secret of faith. For in learning the secret of faith, we learn the secret of power.

And in learning the secret of power, we learn the secret of how to get what we want when we pray. May the Lord teach us how to pray. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for Thy good, holy word to our hearts, for its great encouragement.

Help us to pray ourselves out of the gutter onto the throne. Deliver us from all unbelief, and help us to believe for all to Him that believeth. May it be so, for Jesus' sake. And everybody said, Amen.

Amen.