This evening beloved it is as clear as day as clear as crystal and as sure as the Holy Word of God that prayer is needed amongst many here, not just any type of prayer, not just the momentary prayer, not just the thank you Jesus kind of prayer. This evening I am talking about the earnest prayer, the type of prayer that is explained to us in our word when Jesus was in the garden praying to His heavenly Father with such earnestness and such fervency and such anticipation that His sweat was as blood drops, beloved we need that kind of a prayer life.
If I should neglect prayer but a single day, I should lose a great deal of the fire of faith.
Martin Luther
The central significance of prayer is not in the things that happen as results, but in the deepening intimacy and unhurried communion with God at His central throne of control in order to discover a "sense of God's need in order to call on God's help to meet that need".
Beloved without a prayer life within the Christian daily spiritual calories there is no survival in this Christian walk, without a prayer life there will never be a conformation, nor will there be a transformation or a molding upon your life by the hand of God, the Christian without a prayer life is just a voice Christianity but not a life of true Christianity.
We need not a prayer life that is dull and unbelieving but a prayer life that is full of faith, full of a hope in Jesus full of a confidence with the truth of knowing that we serve a mighty and awesome God, who can hear and see the heart of His praying people, beloved we need to pray knowing that whatever we pray for in the name of Jesus as it is His will it will come to pass. As a Christian I have a prayer life, I need to have a prayer life not only for me and my wife and our kids but also for you for the church. There is only one problem I need your help in prayer. I need us to understand this this evening as a church. We are an army of God, Amen! An army has ranks, Our commander and Chief we know is Jesus and from there we have the rest, let’s just say I am the war strategist I can only do but so much without soldiers that see the plan the commander has set out for His men to do. I cannot be the only one with a prayer life that has fervency, that has faith, I need your help.
Romans 15:30
30 Now I beg you, brethren, through the Lord Jesus Christ, and through the love of the Spirit, that you strive together with me in prayers to God for me,
Beloved prayer without fervor without faith without hope stakes nothing on the issue because it has nothing to stake. Prayer without faith comes with empty hands which are listless as well as empty, which have never learned a lesson of clinging to the cross.
Paul beloved possessed a fervent, hopeful and consistent spirit, see beloved his petitioning was all-consuming, centered immovably upon the object of his desire and the God who was able to meet it.
What do I mean by fervent, hopeful and faithful prayer, what are these attributes of prayer? This kind of prayer needs to be red hot on fire prayer, because coldness of spirit hinders prayer, church; prayer cannot live in a wintry atmosphere. A chilly surrounding will freeze out the petitioning and dry up the springs of supplication. Beloved this evening it takes fire to make prayers go, Warmth of soul creates an atmosphere favorable to prayer, because it is favorable to God. By flame prayer ascends to heaven, fire is not a fuss, heat beloved is intensity it is something that glows and is something that burns. God wants warmhearted servants with the fire of faith in prayer, a burning heart for the will of His own that will pray for the super natural to take place and the lost soul to be found in Him.
Beloved think of this this evening the Holy Spirit came by a fire, to dwell in us, beloved we are to be baptized with the Holy Spirit and with fire. If our faith doesn’t set us on fire it is because we have frozen hearts.
Beloved our bible tells us that we are to pray always, and in this heart of prayer we are not to grow faint. To be absorbed in God’s will, to be so greatly in earnest prayer about doing the will of God it should set our whole being in an uproar of flames as of fire, this shows the qualifying condition of a man or woman who would engage in effectual prayer, fervent and hopeful, faithful prayer.
Jesus warns of feeble praying, “Men ought always to pray”. In other words beloved we are to possess sufficient fire to carry us through the long periods and severity of pleading prayer. There is a wrong way to pray and that is without faith, which is without hope and without expectancy. Fire beloved makes one alert, one vigilant, and brings him/her off more than a conqueror.
In our scripture we have Paul the Apostle who in his chains in his condition will find it in his heart to summons those that follow Christ to pray. “I beg you”, church “I beg you”, pray. Paul urges it so closely, and begs it with the most affectionate heart, by all that is sacred and valuable.
Why pray so earnestly, "For the Lord Jesus Christ's sake. Paul declares He is my Master, I am going about his work, and his glory is interested in the success of your prayers: if you have any regard to Jesus Christ, and to his cause and kingdom, pray for me. You love Christ, and own Christ; for his sake then do me this kindness." Pray with fire, hope, faith and fervency with desire with heart and with trust.
Beloved this evening there is such an urgency for prayer within God’s people, we need not to neglect prayer, neglect calling out for that fire and faith, sometimes if we are honest we don’t have that fire, this should burden us to a place that we would pray for that flame to consume our hearts to obtain that passion for that prayer life. Beloved it was prayer that saved you it should be prayer to maintain you. Let not your faith be moved lest it be God Himself that would move you to higher degree of burning fire of a consumed heart as servant of Christ.
Pslams 42:1-2
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?
Strong desires we see here that his soul longs for the presence of the living God, this psalms is one of a man who understands the power of grace from a living God and cannot stand not being in the presence of the living God, the only way to stay in the presence of the true and living God we serve is in continuous prayer. Fiery prayer before God counts in the hour of prayer, and finds a speedy and rich reward by His hand.
Faith and desire are cheering thoughts coming from a Christian on fire. “Lord, all my desire are before thee, and my groaning is not hid from thee”. Beloved fervency is not prayer yet it derives from an earnest soul and this beloved is precious in the sight of God. God stands pledged to give us the desire of our hearts in proportion to the faith and fire of spirit we exhibit when seeking His face in prayer. Faith is the seat of the heart not the brain.
If faith and fiery of prayer is not of your character this evening it can be if we would ask God to implant it in our souls, and when He does it is to be cherished and nourished and forever more to be cultivated upon our lives that it would not become and extinction of what once was, yet still is and has been.
Prayer must be clothed with fervency, power, and strength it is the force within that is centered on God, men and women of God who are fervent, hopeful and faithful in spirit are bent on attaining to righteousness, truth and grace and other powerful graces which adorn the character of the authentic unquestioned child of God.
Beloved as I close this evening on prayer, the truth is when a Christian believer attains to faith of such magnificent proportions as these, he or she steps into a realm of implicit trust. He or she stands without a tremor on the apex of his or her spiritual outreaching. He or she have attained faith’s veritable top stone which is unswerving, unalterable, unalienable trust in the power of the living God.
