True Prayer, True Power! - Charles Spurgeon Sermon

true prayer true power this message was first preached on August 12th in the year 1860 by charles haddon spurgeon our text for this morning comes from the book of mark mark chapter 11 verse 24 whatever you ask for in prayer believe that you have received it and it will be yours this verse has something to do with the face of miracle but I think it has far more reference to the miracle of faith we will this morning consider it in that light I believe that this text applies not only to the Apostles but also to

all those who walk in the faith of the Apostle believing in the promises of our Lord Jesus Christ the advice which Christ gave to the twelve and to his immediate followers is repeated to us in God's Word this morning may we have the grace to constantly obey it whatever you ask for in prayer believe that you have received it and it will be yours there are so many people who complain that they don't enjoy prayer they don't neglect it for they dare not but they would neglect it if they could because they don't find any

pleasure in praying and don't we all have to admit that sometimes when we pray that it is very difficult work and seems to be almost a drudgery we spend a lot of time but we rise from our knees unrefreshed like a man who has laid on his bed but is not slept so has it really recovered his strength when time comes around again conscious drives us to our knees but there is no sweet fellowship with God there is no crying out of our needs to him with a firm conviction that he will supply them after

having gone again to a certain round of customary utterances we rise from our knees perhaps more troubled in conscience and more distressed in mind than we were before there are many Christians I think who complain to this that they pray not so much because it is a blessed thing that allows them to draw near to God but because they must pray because it is their duty because they feel that if they did not they would lose one of the sure evidences of being a Christian brothers and sisters I don't condemn you but at the same

time if I may be the means of lifting you up this morning from so low a state of grace into a higher and healthier atmosphere my soul will be extremely glad if I can show you a more excellent way if from this time forward you may come to look at prayer as your natural state as one of the most delightful exercises of your life if you will come to esteem it more than your necessary food and to value it as one of heavens best luxuries surely I will have answered a great end and you will

have to thank God for a great blessing now give me your attention while I bade you first to look at the text secondly to look around you and then lastly to look above you first look at the text then look around you and then look above you first look at the text look at the text if you look at it carefully I think you will perceive the essential qualities which are necessary for any great success and power in prayer according to our saviors description of Prayer there should always be some definite objects for which we

should plead it seems them that he made the point that God's children would go to him to pray when they had something to pray for another essential qualification of Prayer is earnest desire for the master assume that when we pray we have needs and desires thus we are asking for something indeed it is not prayer it may be something like prayer the outward form or the very skeleton but it is not the living thing the all prevailing Almighty thing called prayer unless there is a complete and consuming desire observed to that faith is an essential

quality of successful prayer believe that you have received it you cannot pray so as to be heard in heaven and answer to your souls satisfaction unless you believe that God really hears and will answer you one other qualification appears here on the very surface namely that a real expectation should always accompany a firm faith believe that you have received it not merely to believe that you will but that you have received it count them as if they were received believe it as if you had it already and act as if you had it act as

if you were sure you would have it believe that you received it and you will have it now let us review these four qualifications one by one first to make prayer of any value there should be definite objects for which we are complete for to make prayer of any value there should be definite objects for which to plead for my brothers and sisters we often ramble in our prayers after this that and the other and we get nothing because in each request we do not really desire anything we chatter about many subjects but the soul

does not concentrate itself upon any one object don't you sometimes fall on your knees without thinking beforehand what you plan to ask God for you do so as a matter of habit without any action of your heart you are like a man who goes to a store doesn't know what he wants to buy he may perhaps make a good purchase while he is there but certainly it is not a wise plan to adopt and so the Christian in prayer may afterwards attain to a real desire and get what he asked for but how much better

would it be if having prepared his soul by consideration and self-examination of his true needs he came to God with specific requests if we arranged a meeting with a king or a president we should expect to be able to answer the obvious question what do you wish to see them about we would not be expected to go into the presence of royalty or a great leader and then to think of some petition after we came there it is to be the same with a child of God they should be able to answer the great question

what is your petition and what is your request and it will be yours now imagine an archer shooting with his bow and not knowing where the target is would he be likely to have success now conceive of a ship going on a voyage of discovery putting the sea without the captain having any idea of what he was looking for would you expect that he would come back heavily laden either with the discoveries of science or with the treasures of gold and everything else you have to have a plan you don't go to work without knowing

that there is something that you plan to accomplish how is it that you go to God without knowing what you intend to ask for if you had some particular need you would never find prayer to be dull and heavy work I am persuaded that you would long to pray you would say I have something that I want oh that I could draw a new to my God and ask him for it I have a need and I want to have it satisfied and I long to get alone with God that I may pour out my

heart before him and ask him for this thing after which my soul so earnestly pants after you will find it more helpful to your prayers if you have some objects at which you aim and I think also if you have some persons whom you will mention do not merely plead with God for sinners in general but always mention some by name if you are a sunday-school teacher don't simply ask that your class may be blessed for pray for your children definitely by name before the Most High and if there is a mercy in your household

that you crave don't go in a roundabout way but be simple and direct in your pleadings with God when you pray to God tell him what you want if you don't have enough money if you are in poverty if you are in desperate need state the case don't be shy with God come at once to the point speak honestly to him he needs you know beautiful phrases such as men will constantly use when they don't like to say write out what they mean if you need either and earthly or spiritual mercy say so don't rummage

through the Bible to find words in which to express it express your needs in the words which naturally suggest themselves to you they will be the best words depend on it Abraham's words were the best for Abraham and yours will be the best for you you need not study all the text in scripture to pray just like Jacob and Elijah did using their expressions if you do you will not truly imitate them oh you may imitate them literally or in a forced way but you lack the soul that's suggested and animated their words pray in

your own words speak plainly to God immediately ask for what you want name person name things and be direct with the objects of your supplication and I am sure you will soon find that the weariness and dullness of which you often complain about in your prayers will disappear or at least you won't experience them very often like you did before but someone says I don't feel that I have any special things to pray about ah my dear friend I don't know who you are or where you live to not have anything to pray about for

I find that every day brings either a need or trouble and that I have everyday something to ask of my God if we still insist that we have no troubles that we have attained in such a level of grace that we have nothing to ask for then I ask do we love Christ so much that we have no need to pray that we may love him more do we have so much faith that we have ceased to cry out Lord increase my faith you will always I am sure by a little self-examination soon discover that

there are some legitimate objects for which you may knock at Mercy door and cry out give me Lord the desire of my heart and if you haven't any desire you have only to ask the first struggling Christians that you meet and he will give you something to pray for oh he will reply to you if you have nothing to ask for yourself then please pray for me asked that a sick wife may be healed pray that the Lord will graciously helped the person struggling with a discouraged heart asked that the Lord would send help to

some minister who has been laboring in vain and spending his strength for nothing when you have finished asking for yourself plead for others and if you can't find someone who can suggest a theme look on this huge Sodom this city like another Gomorrah lying before you carry it constantly in your prayers before God and cry out o God that this city may live before you that his sins may be stopped that its righteousness may be exalted that the god of the earth may draw to himself many people out of this city secondly it is equally

necessary that with the definite object for prayer that there should also be an earnest desire for its attainment it is equally necessary that with the definite object for prayer that there should also be an earnest desire for its attainment cold prayers says an old Christian asked for a denial when we come to the Lord with an attitude of indifference in our prayers we do as it were stopped his hand and restrain him from giving us a very blessing we pretend that we are seeking you when you have your object in your heart your soul must

become so possessed with the value of that object with your own excessive need for it with the danger which you will be in unless that object would be granted that you would be compelled to plead for it as a man plead for his life there was a beautiful illustration of true prayer prayer that was addressed to a man in the conduct of two noble ladies whose husbands were condemned to die and we're about to be executed these ladies came before King George and pleaded for their pardon the king rudely and cruelly rejected them King George

the first it was in his very nature to act the way that he did and they plead it again and again and again and they would not rise from their knees they had to actually be dragged out of court for they would not stop pleading until the King had granted their wish and told them that their husbands would live sadly they failed but they were noble women for their perseverance in pleading for the husband's life that is exactly the way for us to pray to God we must have such a desire for the thing we

want that we will not stop praying until we have it but always in submission to his divine will nevertheless feeling that the thing we asked for cannot be wrong and that he himself has promised it we have resolved it must be given and if not given we will plead the promise again and again until heaven's gates will shake before our pleas will see no wonder that God has not blessed us much lately because we are not fervent in prayer as we should be all those cold hearted prayers that die upon the lips those frozen supplications

they don't move men's hearts how should they move God's heart they don't come from our own Souls they don't well up from the deep secret springs of our inmost heart and therefore they cannot rise up to him who only hears the cry of the soul before whom hypocrisy and formality are clearly seen we must be earnest otherwise we have no right to hope that the Lord will hear our prayer and surely my brothers and we would stop all in sincerity in prayer and be constantly serious in our requests if we could comprehend the greatness of

the holy God before whom we plead well I come into your presence my lord and mock you with cold-hearted words well I'd be content to babble to a form with no soul and no heart my brothers and sisters we have no idea how many of our prayers are an abomination to the Lord it would be an abomination to you and to me to hear men ask us in the streets as if they did not want what they asked for but haven't we done the same to God haven't we taken that which is heavens greatest blessing

to us and made it a dry dead duty it was said of John Bradford that he had an unusual way to pray and when asked what his secret was he said when I know what I want I always stop and continue to present that prayer until I feel I have pleaded it with God and until God and I have had dealings with each other upon it I never go on to another petition until I have completely gone through the first sadly for some men who begin our Father in heaven Hallowed be your name and before

they have realized the adoring thought hallowed be your name they have begun to repeat the next words your kingdom come then perhaps something strikes their mind do I really wish his kingdom to come if it were to come now where would I be and while they are thinking of that their voice is going on with you will be done on earth as it is in heaven so they jumble up their prayers and run their sentences together oh stop stop at each request until you have really prayed it don't try to put two arrows on the

same bow at the same time they will both so target he that would load his gun with two charges cannot expect to be successful discharged one shot first and then load again plead with God once and prevail and then plead again get the first mercy and then go again for the second don't be satisfied with running the colors of your prayers altogether until there is no picture to look at but just a huge glob a smear of colors badly laid on look at the Lord's Prayer itself there are certain definite mercies and they do not

run into one another there it stands and as you look at the whole it is a magnificent picture not confusion but beautiful order it should be the same with your prayers stay on one need until you have prevailed with that one and then go on to the next with definite objects and with fervent desires mixed together there is the dawning of hope that you will prevail with God thirdly these two things would not be powerful and effective unless they were mixed with a still more essential and divine quality namely a firm faith and belief in

God these two things would not be powerful and effective unless unless they were mixed with a still more essential and divine quality namely a firm faith and belief in God brothers and sisters do you believe in prayer I know you pray because you're God's people but do you really believe in the power of prayer there are great many Christians that don't well they think it is a good thing and they believe that sometimes it does work wonders but they don't think that prayer real prayer is always successful they think that its effect depends upon many

other things and that it doesn't have any essential quality or power in itself now my own souls conviction is that prayer is the greatest power in the entire universe prayer is the greatest power in the entire universe that it has a more omnipotent force than electricity gravity or any of those other secret forces which men have called by name that which they do not understand prayer has as obvious as true as sure as invariable and influence over the entire universe as any of the laws of matter when a person really prays it is not a

question whether God will hear them or not he must hear them not because there is any compulsion in the prayer but there is a sweet and blessed compulsion in the promise God has promised to hear prayer and he will keep his promise since he is the most high and true God he cannot deny himself Oh to think of this that you a puny person may stand here and speak to God and all the while God is controlling the entire universe yet when your prayer is heard creation will not be disturbed though the greatest prayer is

answered Providence will not be disarranged for a single moment not a leaf will fall earlier from the tree not a star will stray from its course not one drop of water trickle more slowly from its fount all will go on the same and yet your prayer will have affected everything it will speak to the decrees and purposes of God as they are being daily fulfilled and they will all shout to your prayer and cry out you are our brother we are decrees and you are a prayer but you yourself are a decree as old as

sure as ancient as we are our prayers are God's decrees in another shape the prayers of God's people are but God's promises breathed out of living heart and those promises are the decrees only put into another form and fashion don't say how can my prayers affect the predetermined will and plan of God they cannot accept in so much that your prayers our decrees and that as they come out every prayer that is inspired of the Holy Spirit to your soul is as omnipotent and as eternal as that decree which said let there be light and

there was light or is that decree which chose his people and ordained their Redemption by the precious blood of Christ you have power in prayer and you stand today among the most potent ministers in the universe that God has made you have power over angels they will fly at your command you have power over fire and water and the elements of the earth you have power to make your voice heard beyond the Stars where thunders died out in silence your voice will wake the echoes of eternity the ear of God Himself will listen in the

hand of God Himself will yield to your will he commands you pray your will be done and your will will be done when you complete his promise then your will is his will doesn't it seem amazing my dear friend and awesome thing to have such power in one's hands as to be able to pray you have heard sometimes of men who pretended to have a weird and mystic power by which they could call up spirits from the dead by which they could make showers of rain or stop the Sun it was all a figment of

their imagination but even if it was true then the Christian would be a greater magician still if he has but faith in God there is nothing impossible to him he will be delivered out of the deepest waters he will be rescued out of the distressing trouble in famine he will be fed in times of great diseases he will go unscathed in the middle of calamities he will walk firm and strong in war he will always be protected and in the day of battle he will lift up his head if he can only believe the promise

and hold it up before God's eyes and plead it with the confidence of unfaltering reliant there is nothing I repeat it there is no force so tremendous no energy so marvelous as the energy with which God endowed every man and woman who like Jacob can wrestle like Israel can prevail with him in prayer but we must have faith in this we must believe prayer to be what it is or else it is not what it should be unless I believe my prayer to be effectual it will not be or it will depend to a great

extent on my faith God may be merciful and grant my request even when I don't have the faith that will be his own Sovereign Grace but he has not promised to do it but when I have faith and complete the promise with earnest desire it is no longer a probability as to whether I will get the blessing or whether my will will be done unless the eternal will swerve from his word unless the oath which he has given will be revoked and he himself will cease to be what he is we know that we have

what we asked of him and fourthly to mount one step higher together with definite objects fervent desires and strong faith in the efficacy of Prayer there should be an dome a divine grace make it so make it so with us there should be mingled a real expectation together with definite objects fervent desires and strong faith in the efficacy of prayer there should be an ohm a divine grace make it so with us there should be mingled a real expectation we should be able to count the answered prayers before we receive them believing that they are

on the road reading the other day in a sweet little book which I would command to the attention of all of you written by an American author who seems to truly and completely know the power of prayer and to whom I am indebted for many a good things a little book called the still hour in the little book I noted a reference to the passage in the Book of Daniel the test chapter I believe whereas he says the whole machinery of prayer seems to be exposed Daniel is on his knees in prayer and an angel

comes to him he talks with him and tells him as soon as Daniel set his mind to gain understanding and to humble himself before God that his words were heard and the Lord had sent him to Daniel then he tells them in the most businesslike fashion I would have been here sooner but the Prince of the Persian Kingdom resisted me nevertheless the Prince of your nation Michael the Archangel helped me and I am come to comfort and to instruct you now I want you to see that God breathed the desire into our hearts and as

soon as the desire is there before we call he begins to answer before the words make it halfway up to heaven while they are yet trembling on the lip knowing the words we mean to speak he begins to answer them sends the angel the angel comes and brings down the needed blessing why the thing is a revelation if you could see it with your eyes some people think that spiritual things are dreams that we are talking nonsense though I do believe there is as much reality in a Christians prayer as in a lightning flash and

the utility and excellency of the prayer of a Christian maybe just as sensibly known as the power of the lightning flash when it strikes the trees breaks off his branches and splits it to the very root prayer is not an imagination of fiction it is a real actual thing coercing the universe binding the laws of God themselves in Chains and constraining the high and holy one to listen to listen to the will of his poor but favorite preacher man himself we must always believe this we need an absolute assurance in prayer we must count the

answers before they are received to be sure that they are coming to act as if we have actually received them when you have asked for your daily bread and you are to no longer be concerned about it but to believe that God has heard you and will give it to you when you have taken the case of your sick child before God and believe that the child will recover or if they should not that it will be a greater blessing to you and more glory to God and so you leave it with him to be

able to say I now know that he has heard me I will stand on my watchtower I will look for my God and hear what he will say to my soul [Music] have you ever been disappointed Christian when you prayed in faith and expected the answer I bear my own testimony here this morning that I have never yet trusted him and found him to fail me I have trusted man and have been deceived but my God has never once denied the request I had made him when I had backed up the request with belief in

his willingness to here and in the assurance of his promise but I hear someone say can we pray for earthly things yes you may and everything make your needs known to God it is not merely for spiritual but for everyday concern take your smallest trials before him he is a God that hears prayer he is your household God as well as the God of the sanctuary always take all that you have before God as one good man who was about to be united with this church told me of his departed wife oh he said she

was a woman that I could never get to do anything until she made it a matter of prayer whatever it was she used to say I must make it a matter of Prayer Oh for more of this sweet habit of spreading everything before the Lord just as Hezekiah did with a threatening letter from the enemy and their leaving it saying your will be done I leave it with you again say that mr. Mueller of Bristol is a bit crazy and eccentric because he will gather together 700 children and believe that God will provide for them

though there is no money or food he is only doing what ought to be the commonplace action of every Christian man and woman he is acting in accordance to a decree of God which the world will always scoff at because they do not understand it where it doesn't make sense to them because it is based on the uncommon faith in a faithful God oh that we had that uncommon faith to take God at His Word he cannot and he will not permit the person that trusts in him to be ashamed or confused now I have

as best as I could set forth before you what I conceived to be the four essentials of prevailing prayer whatever you ask for in prayer believe that you have received it and it will be yours now our second point today having best asked you to look at the text I now want you to look around you we've looked at the text now I want you to look around you look around you at our prayer meeting and look around you at the times of private prayer and judge them both by the meaning of this text first

look around you at our prayer meeting look around you at our prayer meetings I honestly believe that the prayer meetings which are usually held among us have far less of the faults which I'm about to indicate than any others I've ever attended but still they have some of the faults and I hope that what we will say will be taken to heart by every brother and sister who is in the habit of engaging publicly in prayer at prayer leaders is it not true that as soon as you enter the prayer meeting that you feel that

many of the men who pray seem to have a good memory to remember the great many texts which have always been quoted since the days of our grandfathers grandfather they are able to repeat them in a regular order the gift to do this lies in some of the churches especially in village churches and having strong lungs so as to be able to hold out without taking a breath for 25 minutes when your brief and 45 minutes when you are rather drawn out the gift lies also in being able not to ask for anything in particular

but in passing through a range of everything making the prayer not an arrow with a point but rather like a nondescript machine which has no point whatever and yet is meant to be all point which is aimed at everything and consequently strikes nothing those brethren are often the most frequently asked to pray who have those unusual and perhaps excellent gifts although I certainly must say that I cannot obey the Apostles injunction in coveting very earnestly such gifts as these now if instead of this some man is asked to pray who has never prayed before in

public suppose he rises up and says Oh Lord I feel myself such a sinner that I can scarcely speak to you lord help me to pray O Lord save my poor soul o that you would save my old friend Lord bless our minister Lord be pleased to give us a revival Oh Lord I can say no more hear me for Jesus sake amen well then you feel somehow as if you had begun to pray yourself you feel an interest in that man partly from fear lest he should stop and also because you are sure that

what he did say he meant if another should get up after that and pray in the same spirit you go out and say this is real prayer I would sooner have three minutes prayer like that than 30 minutes of the other kind because the one is praying and the other is preaching allow me to quote what an old preacher said on the subject of prayer and give it to you as a little word of advice he said this remember the Lord will not hear you because of the arithmetic of your prayers he does not count

their numbers he will not hear you because of the rhetoric of your prayers he does not care for the eloquent language in which they are conveyed he will not listen to you because of the geometry of your prayers he does not compute them by their length or by their width he will not regard you because of the music of your prayers he does not care for sweet voices nor for harmonious periods neither will he look at you because of the logic of your prayers because they are well arranged and compartmentalized but he will hear you

and he will measure the amount of the blessing he will give you according to the divinity of your prayers if you can plead the person of Christ and if the Holy Spirit inspires you with zeal and earnestness the blessings which you shall ask will surely come to you brothers and sisters I would like to burn the whole stock of our old prayers that we have been using for the past 50 years that oil that goes from vessel to vessel that mist quoted mangled text where two or three come together in my name there I am

with them and all those other quotations which have been manufactured and dislocated and copied from man to man I wish we came to speak to God just out of our own heart it would be a great thing for our prayer me it would be better attended and I'm sure they would be more fruitful if every man and woman would shake off the habit of formality and talk to God as the child talks to his father ask him for what we want and then sit down and be quiet I say this with all Christian sincerity often

because I have not chosen to pray in any conventional form people have said that man is not Reverend my dear sir you are not a judge of my reverence to my own master I stand or fall I don't think that job quoted anybody I don't think that Jacob quoted his father Abraham I don't find Jesus Christ quoting scripture and prayer they did not pray in other people's words but they prayed in their own God does not want you to go gathering up those excellent but very musty spices of the old sanctuary he wants the new

oil justice filled from the fresh olive of your own soul he wants spices and frankincense not from the old chest where they have been lying around until they have lost their savour but he wants fresh incense and fresh myrrh brought from your own Souls experience make sure that you really pray don't learn the language of Prayer but speak the spirit of prayer and may God Almighty bless you and make you more mighty in your supplication I have said look around you I want you to continue to look this time look around your own prayer closet

we looked around you before at the prayer meeting now I want you to continue the looking look around your own prayer closets or brothers and sisters there is no place that some of us need to be so much ashamed so much ashamed to look at as in our own prayer closet I cannot save the hinges are rusty they do open and shut at their appointed time I cannot say that the door is locked and cobweb we do not neglect prayer itself but those walls what a tale might say town oh the wall might cry out

I have heard you when you have been in such a hurry that you could scarcely spend two minutes with your God I've heard you too when you were neither asleep nor wait and when you didn't know what you were saying then one wall might cry out I have heard you come and spend ten minutes and not ask for anything at least your heart didn't ask the lips moved but the heart did not ask the lips moved but the heart was silent how might another wall cry out oh I have heard you groan about your soul

and I have seen you go away distrustful not believing your prayer was heard quoting the promise but not believing that God would fulfill it surely the four walls of our prayer closet might come together and fall down upon us in their anger because we have so often insulted God with our unbelief and in our hurry and with all kinds of sin we have insulted him even at his mercy seat on the spot where his condescension is most fully manifested isn't this true with you must we not each confess that we are guilty see to it

then see to it then Christian brothers and sisters that a change is made and may God make you more mighty and more successful in your prayers than ever before and lastly for today our third point not to detain you the last point is look upward look above our last point today is to look upward look above look above Christian brothers and sisters and let us weep o God you have given us a mighty weapon and we have allowed it to rust you have given us that which is as mighty as yourself we have left that

power lie dormant wouldn't it be a vile crime if a man had an eye given to him which he would never open or a hand that he would never lift up or a foot that grew stiff because he would not use it what must we save ourselves when God has given us power in prayer and yet that power lie still Oh with the universe was as still as we are where would we be Oh God you give light to the Sun and it shines with it you give light even to the Stars and they twinkle

to the winds you give force and they blow and to the air you give life and it moves and Men greeted but to your people you have given a gift that is better than force better than life and better than light and yet they permit it to live still forgetful almost that they wield the power seldom exercising it though it would provide them with countless blessings weep Christian we Constantine the emperor of Rome saw that on the coins of the other emperors their images were in an erect posture triumphant however he ordered that His image

should be struck kneeling for he said that is the way in which I have triumphed we will never try up until our image is struck kneeling the reason why we have been defeated and why our banners trail in the dust is because we have not prayed go go back to your God go back with sorrow confess before him that you are armed and carried bows but you turned your backs in the day of battle go to your God and tell them that if souls are not saved it is not because he hasn't the power to

save but because you have never anguished over the perishing sinners your heart has not cried out neither has your spirit been moved wake up wake up you people of Israel wake up and be astonished you careless one you have neglected prayer you sinners that have been a tease wake yourselves up wrestle and strive with your God and then the blessing will come the early in the latter rain of His mercy and the earth will bring forth abundantly and all the nations will call him blessed look up then look up and weep once more look up

and rejoice though you have sinned against him he loves you still look up and rejoice though you have sinned against them he loves you still you have not prayed to him nor saw his face but behold he cries to you still seek my face he doesn't say to you you seek me in vain you may not have gone to the fountain but it flows as freely as before you have not drawn near to your God but he still waits to be gracious and is ready to hear all of your petitions behold he says to you

inquire of me concerning things to come and concerning my sons and daughters command me what a blessed thing it is that the master in heaven is always ready to listen Agustin had a very beautiful thought on the parable the man who knocked at his friend's door at midnight saying this friend give me 3 loads his paraphrase of it runs something like this I knock at Mercy's door and it is the dead of night well not some of the servants of the house come and answer me no I knock but they are asleep oh you apostles

of God you glorified martyrs you are asleep you rest in your bed you cannot hear my prayer but will not the children answer are there not children who are ready to come and open the door to their brother no they are asleep my brethren that have departed but whom I took sweet counsel and who were the Companions of my heart you cannot answer me for you rest in Jesus your works follow you that you cannot work for me but while the servants are asleep and while the children cannot answer the master is awake awake at

midnight - it may be midnight with my soul but he hears me when I am saying give me three loaves he comes to the door and gives me as much as I need Christian look up then and rejoice there was always an open ear if you have an open mouth there is always a ready hand if you have a ready heart you only have to cry in the Lord here no before you call he will answer and while you are speaking he will hear hole don't be backward then in prayer go to him when you

get home no on the very way lift up your heart silently whatever your petitioner requests may be ask it in Jesus name and it will be done for you yet again look up your Christian and make changes to your prayers from this time forward look on prayer no longer as a romantic fiction or as a strenuous duty look at it as a real power and a real pleasure when philosophers discover some latent power they seem to have a delight to put it in action I believe there have been many great engineers who have designed and

constructed some of the most wonderful of human works not because they would be paid a great sum of money but simply from a love of showing their own power to accomplish wonders to show the world what skills could do and what man could accomplish they have tempted companies into speculations that could never repay them so far as I could see in order that they might have an opportunity of displaying their genius all Christian men and women will a great engineer attempt great works and display his power and will you who have a mightier power than

was ever wielded by any man apart from his God or you let that power be hidden no think of some great object straining the sinews of your supplication forth let every vein of your heart be full to the brim with the rich blood of desire and struggled and wrestled and tug and strive with God for it using the promises and pleading the attributes and see if God does not give you your heart's desire I challenge you this day to exceed in prayer so much that my master can't meet your desires I throw down the gauntlet

to you believe him to be more than he is open your mouth so wide that he cannot fill it go to him now for more faith than the promise warrants venture risk it out do the eternal if that is possible attempted or as I would rather put it take your petitions and you need and see if he does not honor you trust them to see if he will fulfill the promise and richly bless you with the anointing oil of his spirit by which you will be strong in prayer I cannot refrain from adding just these

few syllables as you go away I know there are some of you that have never prayed in all of your life you have set a form of Prayer perhaps many years but never prayed one poor soul you must be born again and until you are born again you cannot pray as I have been directing the Christian to pray but let me say this much to you does your heart long after salvation has the spirit whispered come to Jesus come to Jesus sinner he will hear you believe that whisper for he will hear you the prayer

of the awakened sinner is acceptable to God he hears the brokenhearted and he heals him take your troubles and your disappointments to God and he will answer you ah but one says I have nothing to plead well just plead as David did when he said pardon my iniquity for it is great you have that please say it for his dear sake who shed his blood and you will prevail sinner but don't go to God and ask for mercy within in your hand what would you think of the rebel who appeared before the face of his

sovereign and ask for pardon with the dagger sticking in his belt and with the declaration of his rebellion on his breast but he deserved to be pardoned he could not deserve it in any case and surely he would deserve double his doom for having thus mocked his master while he pretended to seek His mercy if a wife has forsaken her husband do you think she would have the impudence with brazen faith to come back and ask pardon while leaning on the arm of her new lover no she could not have such impudence and yet it

is so with you perhaps asking for mercy and going on in sin praying to be reconciled to God and yet harboring and indulging your lust wake up wake up and call upon your God you sleeper the boat is nearing the rocks perhaps tomorrow it may strike and be destroyed and you will sink down into the unfathomable depths of everlasting world call on your God and when you call upon him cast away your sin or he cannot hear you if you lift up your unholy hands with a lie and right hand the prayer is worthless on

your lip hole come to him say to him take away all iniquity receive us graciously love us freely and he will hear you and you will yet pray as prevailing princes and one day you will stand as more than conquerors before the starry throne of him who reigns God over all blessed for evermore amen