The Abiding Lesson Four — E.A. Johnston

Prayer as the Master Key to Abiding

In our study today, friends, of Lesson 4 of The Abiding, we'll unlock the master key of prayer. I used to have a friend who worked as a time as a park ranger in Colorado, and he told me about a strange incident that occurred at Yellowstone Park one year.

He said that bears were dying, and the park rangers couldn't find out what was killing the bears. It was a real mystery. There were no marks on the bears or wounds like from a pack of wolves or something.

The bears just turned up dead. Then they put two and two together and realized that the bears had become so dependent upon the tourists feeding them that they had forgotten how to feed themselves, so they starved to death.

Our quiet time with God, or lack of it, will demonstrate to what degree we have power with God and man. But there is a price to be paid to have a powerful prayer life, because what costs counts, and what counts costs.

Do you, friend, have a sacrificial life of prayer? Like I said, Lesson 4 of The Abiding is on prayer, and we will now unlock the master key to prayer. I believe a hidden life of prayer is a powerful weapon in the hand of God.

Christ's Promise to Those Who Abide

Our text today is found in verse 7. Here now is the Word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His Holy Word. Do you know why I sometimes say that, friends? I once saw a Japanese pastor who, before he began to preach, he held out his Bible in his outstretched arms and very reverently he said, Here now is the Word of God.

That always impressed me, because where he came from in Japan, they don't believe in God, but this man did. Do we really believe our Bible, friends? Is God's Word sure? In my own life, I have learned that God's Word is true, and He is true to His Word.

Here now are the words of Christ Jesus. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. This principle of the abiding is our prayer life. As the old saying goes, sin will keep you from the book, and the book will keep you from sin.

Abiding, Sin, and Unhindered Prayer

So too is this true with prayer. If we are out of step with God by sin, we will be unconnected to Him in prayer. Our prayers won't rise any higher than the ceiling. If we are out of step with God, our prayer life will be dry and mere routine.

If we are not abiding, who moved? Did Christ move away, or have we moved away from Him? If our love relationship with Jesus is not glowing with hot coals and burning embers, is it because He stopped loving us, or have we stopped loving Him?

How can we have a vital life of prayer if we are not abiding in Him? All of our resources are tied to our prayer life. I am reminded of an old painting which hangs in a Spanish gallery. In the painting is a farmer who is kneeling in prayer.

He has just laid down his farm implements and set aside his team of mule. In the distance of that painting is a church steeple and a bell tower. And it's obvious that the bell has just called the village to a time of prayer.

There the farmer kneels with his straw hat beside him as he is engaged in prayer. But if you look more closely at that old painting, you will see the form of an angel who has just taken up the plow and team a mule.

And it appears the angel is making a fresh furrow in the soil. There is a brass plaque attached to the front of that old painting. And in Spanish, there are three words engraved upon it, and they read, No time lost.

What this means, friends, is when we take time to pray, all of heaven's resources are unleashed on our behalf. No time lost. A sacrificial life of prayer will pay great dividends to those who pray. In fact, it is this principle of the abiding which hinders us from receiving blessings and enjoying further usefulness because we just don't believe in prayer.

Faith, Asking, and Fervent Prayer

Now I say that because if we really did believe in prayer, then a good portion of our life would be spent engaged in prayer. Jesus says in our passage, If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

Well, let me ask you, friend, is Jesus a liar? Why would he say such a remarkable thing if it was not true? In James, it says we don't have because we don't ask, or we ask amiss. But it also states in James the following,.

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Elijah was a man subject to like passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months.

And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Like I said, I don't think we really believe in prayer. It's like the comment by Vance Havner who said, If we really believe that we serve a dynamite God, then why are so many of us living firecracker lives?

The principle of the abiding, which is the master key of prayer, will unlock the reality of God in our lives, especially our prayer lives. Do you have a special friend who is a person of prayer that you turn to in a time of need?

I had a friend who was a pastor in Africa, and this man was such a prayer warrior, he could pray heaven down. If I had a problem and needed prayer, I'd make a call to Africa to my pastor friend because I knew he was closer to God than I was.

Now we must be honest with ourselves. Would you, friend, like to become the one that people call when they need prayer because they know you can rain heaven down by your desperate life of prayer? This principle of the abiding is recognizing the power of prayer by praying in the Holy Ghost.

Praying in the Power of the Holy Spirit

In verse 20 of Jude we read,. But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. To pray in the Holy Ghost means that you first must be filled with the Holy Ghost and connected to Him in a vital life of prayer.

For to pray in the power of the Spirit means unobstructed access to the Almighty, influence to gain His attention, and a power to attain answers to our pleading petitions. For praying in the Holy Ghost storms the portals of heaven with a holy violence and makes fire fall upon the drenched altar of sacrifice.

It makes kings tremble and kingdoms shake. For a man praying in the power of the Holy Ghost has the ability to shake strong cities off their foundations and the potential to send mountains tumbling into the sea, to startle the very angels of heaven and rattle the red-hot gates of hell.

For a man full of the Spirit and anointed with the Spirit and praying in the Spirit knows no resistance, has no opposition, fears no earthly mortal, and conquers all unearthly enemies. For praying in the power of the Holy Ghost is the essence that makes prayer effectual and fervent.

It is this principle of prayer in the power of the Spirit which gives the abiding its power in prayer. To abide in Christ during hard times is to gain strength from Him in prayer. The more we abide in Him during a crisis, the more of Him we will have.

A vital prayer life is not born out of comfort and prosperity, but born through trials and adversity. In your leanness, you will learn to lean on Him. Through your rolling on stormy seas, you will learn how to effectively storm heaven's portals for deliverance.

When friends fail, disappoint, and desert you, you will abide more closely in your faithful friend Jesus. For a prayer life that grips the attention of the heavenly throne room is not built beneath sunny skies, but shaped during dark, sorrow-filled nights.

A serious life of prayer is hammered out on the anvil of pain and desperation. When hope hangs on a tattered thread and all human resources are gone, that's when the abiding gains strength. Where the power of a resurrected Christ is more than enough to hang on to until deliverance comes and the answer to prayer is attained, to become a person of prayer is to know importunity in prayer by abiding in the presence of the Spirit and praying in the power of the Spirit to such a degree that our prayers become a shrill, holy note which continually rings in the ears of angels and pounds away on the gates of glory.

Faith-Filled Abiding and the Answered Petition

This aspect, friends, of the abiding has power, but faith must be attached to our petitions. We have to believe the words of Christ Jesus who says, You shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you.

The master key of prayer that unlocks access to the Almighty is found in the words of Jesus. If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, the question we must ask ourselves is this, are we abiding in him as we should and does his word abide in us?

When we grasp this principle of the abiding, then our prayer life will take wings and soar like an eagle. It won't flare out like a firecracker, but explode with dunamis power like dynamite. Let us pray.