Prayer & Intercession

As I current lead intercessory prayer on Sunday mornings, this is an ongoing interest of mine. Expect me to add interesting quotes as I find them.

Why Do We Pray?

Why? The answer is simple: so that the power of the Holy Spirit will be in what you do. R.A. Torrey's testimony on D. L. Moody suggests that one of the foremost reason's why Moody was such a successful evangelist, was prayer. “Yes, D. L. Moody certainly was a wonderful preacher; taking it all in all, the most wonderful preacher I have ever heard, and it was a great privilege to hear him preach as he alone could preach; but out of a very intimate acquaintance with him I wish to testify that he was a far greater pray-er than he was a preacher.” There are even stronger voices: “The worst sin is prayerlessness. Overt sin, or crime, or the glaring inconsistencies which often surprise us in Christian people are the effect of this, or its punishment. We are left by God for lack of seeking Him.” (P.T. Forsyth, The Soul of Prayer.)

Oswald Chambers suggests that prayer "develops the life of God in us" , nourishing the seed planted at rebirth so that it grows, flourishes and becomes fruitful. Clearly the heart of mercy develops and deepens within us as we intercede for others. I was accused of being overly harsh to a member of my community household. I took the matter to God in prayer. God told me that because I didn't have as much contact with that person, I did not pray for them, I was reacting to their externals but not to that person in depth. Those who I pray for I can touch in a special way, which nourishes not only them, but myself as well.

Much of modern theology is influenced by Kierkegaard's existentialism. Kierkegaard was reacting to the deadness of his contemporary Danish Lutheran Church, suggesting that thinking about God was failing to bring the church into relationship (existential) with God. Clearly prayer has to be the most significant factor in creating a relationship with the living God. His prayer: “God in heaven, I thank Thee that Thou hast not required it of man that he should comprehend Christianity... I thank Thee that Thou dost only require faith, and I pray Thee to increase it more and more.” (Soren Kierkegaard. The Sickness Unto Death. pg.260). Well said. I will ignore for this current discussion the subsequent tragedies resulting from existentialism in theology.

Daniel does not wait for the prophesied event, rather by his realization of the nearness of the event Daniel begins to pray fervently until he receives assurance that his prayer has been answered: “And whiles I was speaking, and praying, and confessing my sin and the sin of my people Israel, and presenting my supplication before the LORD my God for the holy mountain of my God; Yea, whiles I was speaking in prayer, even the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation.” Daniel 9:20-21. Daniel is taking responsibility for Jeremiah's vision through prayer.

God's will is determined, but, from Daniel's viewpoint, the means are not determined. Pushing the question further, what if Daniel failed to pray. “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none. Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD.” (Ezekial 22:30-31).

R.C. Ryle bluntly suggests that if you don't pray, you are not saved. “But this I do say, that not praying is a clear proof that a man is not yet a true Christian. He cannot really feel his sins. He cannot love God. He cannot feel himself a debtor to Christ, He cannot long after holiness. He cannot desire heaven. He has yet to be born again. He has yet to be made a new creature.” And again he says, “To be prayerless is to be without God, without Christ, without grace, without hope, and without heaven. It is to be on the road to hell.” (R.C. Ryles, A Call to Prayer.)

The Season of Prayer

I am not sure what to say here, except that there are times and circumstances where the appropriate Godly action is to walk away, fast. And at other times it is appropriate to go into action. And finally there are times when we are called to prayer. Only by the Holy Spirit will we be doing the right thing at the right time.

The Prayer of the Anointed

God listens to those who have clean hands and a pure heart. Those who are righteous are good intercessors. Those who are not need to pray to God for their deliverance from evil.

“The LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he prayed for his friends, and the LORD increased all that Job had twofold” (Job 42:10, NASB).

Listen to these words from E.M. Bounds: “Anointing comes not to the study but to the closet. It is heaven's answer to prayer, the sweetest exhalation of the Holy Spirit. It suffuses, softens, cuts and soothes. It carries the Word like dynamite, like salt, like sugar; it makes the Word a healer, an arraigner, a revealer, a searcher; it makes the hearer a culprit or a saint, makes him weep like a child and live like a giant.” (E.M Bounds, 1989. Pages 86-87.)

“Often earnestness is mistaken for anointing. The one who has divine anointing will be earnest in the very spiritual nature of things, but there may be great earnestness without the least bit of anointing.” (E.M Bounds, 1989. Page 86.)

“The anointing is not the gift of genius. It is not found in the halls of learning. No eloquence can woo it. No industry can win it. No hands can confer it. It is the gift of God--the royal signet given to the King's own messengers. It is heaven's knighthood offered to the chosen true and brave ones who have sought this honor through many an hour of tearful, wrestling prayer.” (E.M Bounds, 1989. Page 87.)

“In Christian terms, ‘unction’ is the anointing of the Holy Ghost, separating unto God's work and qualifying for it. This anointing is the one divine enablement by which the Christian accomplishes God's purposes. Without this anointing no true spiritual results are accomplished; the results and forces in ministry do not rise above the results of unsanctified speech and action.” (E.M Bounds, 1989. Page 91.)

The Struggle to Pray

Sometimes there is struggle in prayer because there is spiritual resistance. This can be a testing as in Jacob's struggle with the angel, or it might be demonic. It is not uncommon for a weariness, distraction or even sickness to overtake someone who is attempting to engage in consistent prayer. In my experience, prayer that does not meet resistance is probably superficial and self-serving. Some of us pray for others in a way that is window dressing for our own ‘spirituality’. This prayer may flow like a bubbling brook, or burst forth with a pharisee's trumpet sound; it never reaches heaven, and so hell is unconcerned.

On the other hand, heaven may be resisting your prayer. In his discussion on brokenness, i.e. humility before God, Watchman Nee observes: “Until our outward man is shattered, the inward simply cannot be released and come forth. Do not try to oppose and overturn this law and its effects by praying for blessings. Such prayers are vain. Praying can never change God's law.... To obey God's law is far better than saying many prayers. It is much better to stop praying and confess: ‘God, I prostrate myself before Thee.’ Yes often our prayers for blessings can actually raise up barriers. We long for God's blessings, but instead we seem to find God's mercy in our crushing experiences.” (Watchman Nee. The Release of the Spirit, 2000. Page 42).

William Gurnall in his classic book “The Christian in Complete Armour” carries this further, in a sentiment echoed later by Jonathan Edwards, we cannot truly intercede before God without the groanings of the Spirit in our heart: “The Spirit must groan, and then the soul will groan. He helps us to these sighs and groans which turn the sails of prayer. He dissolves the heart and then it [i.e. prayer] bursts out of the heart by groans of the lips by heavenly rhetoric, out of the eyes as from a flood-gate with tears.” (Wm Gurnall. The Christian in Complete Armour, 1655, 1658, 1662. Page 9.). “In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul” (Psalm 138:3).

Pray for Revival

“The Welsh revival was initiated and carried by a devotion to prayer and intercession that also spread thoughout the worldwide Christian community. Much of the fire that continues in some of the great prayer movements of today could likely trace their origin to a lingering spark from the Welsh Revival. The prayer and the praise mingled together in most of the meetings. [historian]James E. Stewart wrote:
“ ‘It was praying that rent the heavens; praying that received direct answers there and then. The spirit of intercession was so mightily poured out that the whole congregation would take part simultaneously for hours! Strangers were startled to hear the young and unlettered pray with such unction and intelligence as they were swept up to the Throne of Grace by the Spirit of God. Worship and adoration was unbounded. Praise began to mingle with the petitions as answered prayer was demonstrated before their very eyes. Often when unsaved loved ones were the focus of the intercession, they would be compelled to come to the very meeting to be saved!’ ” (Rick Joyner. The World Aflame, 1993. Page 25.)

South Wales 1871: “The churches had felt the for some time a crippling deadness of soul, and about 1870, at Newport, a prayer meeting was commenced which met every Friday evening. At first this was poorly attended, and prayers for the success of the means of grace and for a general awakening were offered in the midst of much discouragement. The small band persevered, however, and the prayer meetings grew in numbers and fervency. Shortly afterwards the minister's preaching seemed to become more powerful.... Undoubtedly the leading feature of this work was the number of prayer meetings which sprang up in many Glamorgan towns.” (Eifion Evans. The Welsh Revival of 1904, 1987 (1969). Pages 11-12.)

Visitation in 1887: “...it was proposed to hold a New Year's week of prayer... A mere six persons attended the first meeting, but as the week progressed an awareness of unusual interest gripped the people, and the prayer meetings were eventually continued for nine weeks. There were no visible results at first, but a distinct turning point was felt at one of the meetings, compared to a pentecostal visitation. From that date there was a steady stream of conversions.” (Eifion Evans. 1987. Page 12.)

The Brownsville revival began in 1995. The revival began under the leadership of John Kilpatrick and Steve Hill at the Brownsville Assembly of God. Its foundation was prayer: “In 1988 Pastor Kilpatrick shifted the focus of his life to prayer. the began a special and intimate journey with God, as the Lord taught John Kilpatrick deeper and deeper lessons about the nature of prayer. He began to incorporate fasting into his prayer routine as well, further deepening the well of wisdom God was forming in his spirit.
“All through the early nineties, Kilpatrick led his church in a growing awakening into the power of prayer. By 1993 regular, systematic prayer was firmly entrenched in the congregations's worship routine.” (Marcia Ford. Charisma Reports: The Brownsville Revival, 1997. Page 112.).

“...every night, a team of intercessors meets for prayer, joined by pastors and lay people from other churches. Kilpatrick has no intention of eliminating the focus on prayer. ‘If we stopped the prayer meetings, I know this move of God would grind to a halt,’ he said.” (Marcia Ford. 1997. Pages 119-120.).

George Otis, Jr. is founder and president of The Sentinel Group which promotes community transformations based on spiritual revival. His group carefully studied revivals to isolate the responsible factors. His conclusion: “persevering leadership and fervent prayer––are present in all of our transformation case studies.” (George Otis, Jr. Informed Intercession, 1999. Page 56.).

Otis is quick to note that there is no formula to establishing a spiritual beachhead, accept that it takes devoted prayer warriors. Several revivals were begun by the prayer of a handful of believers, in some cases only two. “If numbers are not essential to successful intercessory beachheads, spiritual passion is. Believers who wish to position their community for spiritual breakthroughs must pour their hearts and souls into the effort. Unless the church is consumed with a burning desire for divine visitation, united prayer will become merely another project.” (George Otis, Jr. Informed Intercession, 1999. Page 62.).

The tool Otis offers for community transformation is spiritual mapping bringing into sharp focus the actual spiritual state of a community. The actual transformation is accomplished by the hard work of joining together and praying. “Spiritual mapping is neither quick nor magical. Demystified, it is a heavy schedule of hard, disciplined work. Those who are not up to community networking, rigorous research and long hours before God in prayer need not apply.” (George Otis, Jr. Informed Intercession, 1999. Page 114.).

Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke calls his intercessors the ‘Battering Rams of Intercession’: “the privileged evangelist is the one who has intercessors behind him. Intercessors are the munition workers providing the dynamite for our Gospel bombardment of hell. Intercessors are more than prayer partners, they are ‘Moses people’... [Moses] defended his people by pleading their cause with God.” (Reinhard Bonnke. Evangelism by Fire, 1990. Page 207.).

...the word intercession first appears in Isaiah 53:12, where the Bible speaks of Christ who ‘made intercession for the transgressors.’ The Hebrew is baga, from the root meaning ‘to impinge with violence.’ ‘Impinge’ means ‘to collide with.’ Vine's Expository Dictionary states that baga means ‘to strike up against, to be violent against, to invade, to come between, to cause to entreat, to meet with, and pray.’ ” (Reinhard Bonnke. Evangelism by Fire, 1990. Page 214.).

“Intercession changes your life's attitudes, bringing you a fulfillment so rich it is impossible to describe. Put your heart at God's disposal, not just your time alone, and you will have put your treasure where no moth can take hold.” (Reinhard Bonnke. Evangelism by Fire, 1990. Page 216.).

E. M. Bounds, Power Through Prayer

“An eminent historian has said that the accidents of personal character have more to do with the revolutions of nations than either philosophic historians or politicians will admit. This truth applies to the gospel of Christ; the character and conduct of the followers of Christ can Christianize the world, transfigure nations and individuals.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 15.)

“Real ministry is made in the closet of prayer; God's men and women are made in secret. Their lives and their profoundest convictions are born in their secret communion with God. The burdened and tearful agony of their spirits, their weightiest and sweetest messages come form time alone with God.
“The church today is weak in praying. The pride of learning is against the dependent humility of prayer. Prayer is with the church too often only official—a performance for the routine of service.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 17.)

“Ministry which kills is prayerless ministry. Without prayer we create death, and not life... Professional praying in the worship service will always exist, but professional praying helps the dead word do its deadly work. Professional praying chills and kills both the word and true prayer.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 29.)

“No learning can make up for the failure to pray. No earnestness, no diligence, no study will supply its lack... Talking to others for God is a great thing. But talking to God for others is greater still. We will never speak to people for God with real success until we have learned how to speak to God for people.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 36.)

“True praying engages and sets fire every high element of the Christian's being. Prayer is born out of vital oneness with Christ and the fullness of the Holy Ghost. It springs from the deep, overflowing fountains of tender compassion and concern for humanity's eternal good. True prayer is a consuming zeal for the glory of God; it involves a thorough conviction of the difficult and delicate work of the ministry and the imperative need of God's help....only ministry backed by such praying sow the seeds of eternal life in human hearts and builds others up for heaven.”
“We may excuse our spiritual poverty in many ways, but the reason will be found in the lack of urgent prayer for God's presence in the power of the Spirit.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Pages 40-41.)

“...perhaps little praying is worse than no praying. Little praying is a kind of make-believe, a salve for the conscience, a farce, and a delusion.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 42.)
“Christians who gain lasting results for God are those who have prevailed in their pleadings with God before venturing to plead with others.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 41.)

“A ministry may be a very thoughtful ministry without prayer; we may secure fame and popularity without prayer; our lives may be run with the oil of prayer or with scarcely enough to grease a single cog. But no ministry can be a spiritual one, resulting in holiness, without prayer as an evident and controlling force.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 45.)

“A prepared heart is better than a prepared teaching, for a prepared heart will result in a prepared teaching. ...we do not meditate on God and his Word and watch and fast and pray enough.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 74.)

“While the channel of ministry is the mind, its fountain is the heart.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 76.)

“Prayer is one of the primary characteristics of strong spiritual leadership. People of powerful prayer are people who mold history. Their power with God has the conquering tread.

... “A prayerless ministry is the undertaker for God's truth and for God's church. We may have the most costly casket and the most beautiful flowers, but it is a funeral nevertheless. Ages of millennial glory have been lost by prayerlessness; the coming of our Lord has been postponed indefinitely by lack of prayer, and hell has enlarged and filled its dire caves in the presence of the dead service of a prayerless church.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 100.)

“Prayer to the pastor or preacher, is not simply the duty of his profession, a privilege; it is a necessity, like air to the lungs. It is absolutely necessary for the spiritual leader to pray. And it is equally necessary that the leader be prayed for. The two propositions are wedded into a union which ought never to know any divorce: the leader must pray; the leader must be prayed for.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 103.)

“Paul, with his clear and full apprehension of spiritual dynamics, determined to make his ministry as impressive, as eternal, as irresistible as the ocean. Paul's pre-eminence in labor and results, in influence on the church and the world, is found in the fact that he was able to center himself and his ministry on the prayers of others.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Pages 104-105. See: Romans 15:30, Ephesians 6:18-19, Colosians 4:3, 1Thessalonians 5:25, 2Corinthians 1:11, 2Thessalonians 3:1-2, Phillipians 1:19, Philemon 22.)

“The praying ones are to the leader as Aaron and Hur were to Moses––they hold up the hands that decide the outcome of the battle raging around them (Exodus 17:11-13). (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 106.)

“Spiritual work is taxing work. Praying, true praying, costs an outlay of serious attention and of time, which flesh and blood do not relish. Few persons are made of such strong fiber that they willingly give their all when a surface effort will do. We can accustom ourselves to mediocre praying until it looks acceptable to us. At least it keeps up a decent form and quiets the conscience. But such a habit is a deadly opiate; we can neglect prayer and not notice the danger until the foundations are gone.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 110.)

“Our ability to stay with God in the closet measures our ability to stay with him out of the closet...
“To pray is the greatest thing we can do; and to do it well we must have calmness, time and deliberation.” (E.M.Bounds, 1989. Page 111.)

Oswald Chambers on Prayer

“How steadily all through the Old and New Testament God calls us to stand on the watch and wait for His indications, and how often God's answers to our prayers have been squandered because we do not watch and wait. Are you thoroughly perplexed over God's way? Are you unable to reconcile God's clear way as revealed in His book with the way He is leading you? Take the line of this prophet [Habakkuk], stand and watch to see what God will say – watch at the right place.” (Oswald Chambers. If You Will Ask. Page 35.) After the waiting, after the vision is written, God is revealed. Then we run. “After Pentecost came the sword and great persecution. The disciples were all scattered abroad, but nothing could stop them from preaching the word. There was a hilarious shout all through these men's lives because of the mighty baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire. There was running then! No power on earth or heaven above or hell beneath could stop the tremendous strength of the child-life of the Holy Spirit in them.” (Oswald Chambers. If You Will Ask. Pages 40-41.)

“We can always tell whether our will is in what we ask by the way we live when we are not praying.” (Oswald Chambers. If You Will Ask. Page 12).

“...but when we do pray and devote the dawns to God, His nature in us developes; there is less self-realization and more Christ-realization.” (Oswald Chambers, My Utmost Devotional Bible. Reading 91).

“If He is taking us into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, He will give us the first sign of His intimacy – silence. The devil calls it unanswered prayer. In the case of Martha and Mary, the Spirit of God called it a sign that He loved them, and because He loved them and knew they were fit to receive a bigger revelation than ever they dreamed of, He stayed where He was. God will give us the blessings we want if we won't go any further, but His silence is a sign that He is bringing us into this marvelous understanding of Himself.” (Oswald Chambers. If You Will Ask. Pages 46-47, on John 11:5-6.)

“Jesus Christ separated, or sanctified, Himself by sacrificing His holy Self to the will of His Father; He sanctified His intelligence by submitting His intelligence to the word of His Father, He sanctified His will by submitting His will to the will of His Father. As the sanctified children of God we need to bear in mind that after the experience of sanctification we have to separate our holiness to God. We are not made holy for ourselves, but for God; there is to be no insubordination about us.

“The majority of us are too indifferent, too religiously sentimental, to be caught up in the sweep of the apostle Paul's intercession. Have we a lesser idea than that God should do in us what He wants to do? Are we prepared to pray with Murray McCheyne, ‘Lord, make me as holy as Thou canst make a sinner saved by grace’?

“Some people pray and long and yearn for the experience of sanctification, but never get anywhere near it; others enter in with a sudden marvelous realization. Sanctification is an instantaneous, continuous work of grace; how long the approach to it takes depends upon ourselves, and that leads some to say sanctification is not instantaneous. The reason some do not enter in is that they have never allowed their minds to realize what sanctification means.

“When we pray to be caught up into God's purpose behind this intercession of the apostle Paul, we must see that we are willing to face the standard of these verses. Are we prepared for what sanctification will cost? It will cost an intense narrowing of all our interests on earth, and an immense broadening of our interest in God. In other words, sanctification means an intense concentration on God's point of view – every power of spirit, soul, and body chained and kept for God's purpose only.” (Oswald Chambers. If You Will Ask. Pages 60-61.)

“We think that to be without a master is the sign of a high type of life. Insurgent, impertinent human beings have no master; noble beings have. Myself is apt to be my master; I pray to myself.

“We are all Pharisees until we are willing to learn to intercede. We must go into heaven backward; that phrase means we must grow into doing some definite thing by praying, not by seeing. To learn this lesson of handling a thing by prayer properly is to enter a very severe school. A Christian's duty is not to himself or to others, but to Christ. We think of prayer as a preparation for work, or a claim after having done work, whereas prayer is the essential work.” (Oswald Chambers. If You Will Ask. Page 74.)

“When people come to the Atonement and say, ‘Now I have deliverance in the Atonement, therefore I have no business being sick,’ they make a fundamental confusion, because there is no case of healing in the Bible that did not come from a direct intervention of the sovereign touch of God. When it comes to deliverance from sin, it is not a question of going to God to ask Him to deliver us from sin, it is a question of accepting His deliverance. If we forget that, we take the Lord out of the Atonement and make it an abstract statement and instantly do the Pharisaic dodge of putting burdens on people that they cannot bear.” (Oswald Chambers. If You Will Ask. Pages 75-76.)

“Prayer is usually considered to be devotional and more or less impractical in ordinary life. Our Lord in His teaching always considered prayer work, not preparation for work... The key is not in any of our organizations; the key lies in our hand by our Lord's instruction, ‘Pray ye therefore.’ ” (Oswald Chambers. If You Will Ask. Page 81.)

“There is only one field of service that has no snares, and that is the field of intercession. All other fields have the glorious but risky snare of publicity; prayer has not. The key to all our work for God is in that one word we are apt to despise – ‘Pray.’ And prayer is ‘laborer’ work.” (Oswald Chambers. If You Will Ask. Pages 84-85.)

“‘Pray ye therefore.’ Prayer is labor, not agony, but labor on the ground of our Lord's redemption in simple confidence in Him. Prayer is simple to us because it cost Him so much to make it possible. God grant that we may work His victories for Him by taking His way about it.” (Oswald Chambers. If You Will Ask. Page 85.)

“It is a mistake to interpret prayer on the natural instead of on the spiritual line – to say that prayer is divine because it brings us peace and joy and makes us fell better. This is the mere accident or effect of prayer. There is no real God-given revelation in it. This is the God-given revelation: That when we are born again of the Spirit of God and indwelt by the Holy Spirit, He intercedes for us with a tenderness and an understanding akin to the Lord Jesus Christ and akin to God, that is, He expresses the unutterable for us.” (Oswald Chambers. If You Will Ask. Page 91.)

“When we draw on the human side of our experience only, our prayers become amazingly flippant and familiar, and we ourselves become amazingly hard and metallic. But if we rely on the Holy Spirit, we shall find that our prayers become more and more inarticulate; and when they are inarticulate, reverence grows deeper and deeper, and undue familiarity has the effect of a sudden blow on the face.” (Oswald Chambers. If You Will Ask. Page 92.)

Charles G. Finney, How to Experience Revival

“To pray effectively you must pray with submission to the will of God. Do not confuse submission with indifference. No two things are more unlike. I once knew an individual who came to a revival. He was cold and did not enter into the spirit of prayer. When he heard the brethren pray as if they could not be denied, he was shocked at their boldness. He insisted on the importance of praying with submission. Yet, it was plain that he confused submission with indifference.

“If the will of God is not known, submission without prayer is tempting God. For all you know your prayer may be the thing on which an event turns. In the case of an impenitent friend, your prayers may be the key to his being saved.

“Christians often amaze themselves when they look back on their ardent, bold prayers spoken in a moment of intense emotion. Yet, these prayers have prevailed and obtained the blessing. And many of these people are among the holiest people I know in the world.

“The temptation to have selfish motives is so strong that there is reason to fear a great many parental prayers never rise above the yearnings of parental tenderness. That is why so many prayers are not answered and why so many pious, praying parents have ungodly children. Prayer for the unsaved must be based on more than sympathy. Missionaries and others often make the mistake of praying only about those going to hell, forgetting prayer about how the unsaved also dishonor God.” (Charles Finney. How to Experience Revival. Pages 44-45.)

Discussing the conduct of the revival in Evans Mills Finney states: “The means used where simply preaching, prayer, and conference meetings, much private prayer, much personal conversation, and meetings for the instruction of earnest inquirers. These, and no other means were used for the promotion of that work.” (The Autobiography of Charles G. Finney. Pages 68-69.)

“I have said more than once that the spirit of prayer that prevailed in those revivals was a very marked feature of them. It was common for young converts to be greatly exercised in prayer. In some instances they were so burdened that they were constrained to pray whole nights, until their bodily strength was quite exhausted for the conversion of souls around them. There was a great pressure of the Holy Spirit upon the minds of Christians and they seemed to bear about with them the burden of immortal souls.
“Not only were prayer meetings greatly multiplied and fully attended, not only was there great reverence in those meetings, but there was a mighty spirit of secret prayer.” (The Autobiography of Charles G. Finney. Page 104.)

“In offering the Lord's Prayer, ‘Thy kingdom come,’ it is plain that sincerity is a condition of prevailing with God. But sincerity in offering this petition implies the thorough consecration of all that we have and all that we are to the building up of Christ's kingdom. To utter this petition in any other state of mind involves hypocrisy and is an abomination.” (The Believer's Secret of Spiritual Power. Page 127.)

“We must evaluate our prayer lives to see if we are meeting these conditions of prevailing prayer:

“1. The inspiration of the Holy Spirit. All truly prevailing prayer is inspired by the Holy Spirit. ‘For we know not what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with the groanings which cannot be uttered. And He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God’ (Romans 8:26, 27). This is the true spirit of prayer. This is being led by the Spirit in prayer. It is the only really prevailing prayer. Unless believers are taught how to pray by the intercession of the Spirit in them, they cannot prevail with God.

“2. Fervency. A prayer, to be prevailing, must be fervent. ‘Confess your faults one to another, and pray on for another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much’ (James 5:16).

“3. Perseverance or persistence in prayer. See the cases of Jacob, of Daniel, of Elijah, of the Syrophoenician woman, of the unjust judge, and the teaching of the Bible generally.

“4. Travail of soul. ‘As soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.’ ‘My little children,’ said Paul, ‘of whom I travail in birth again, till Christ be formed in you.’ This implies that he had travailed in birth for them before they were converted. Indeed, travail of soul in prayer is the only real revival prayer. If anyone does not know what this is, he does not understand the spirit of prayer. He is not in a revival state. Until he understands this agonizing prayer, he does not know the real secret of revival power.

“5. Specific prevailing prayer. It is offered for a definite object. We cannot prevail for everything at once. In all the cases recorded in the Bible in which prayer was answered, it is noteworthy that the petitioner prayed for a definite object.

“6. Meaning what we say. We make no false pretenses; in short, that we are entirely childlike and sincere, speaking out of the heart, nothing more nor less than what we mean, feel and believe.

“7. Believing the good faith of God to keep all His promises.

“8. Guarding against everything that can quench or grieve the Spirit of God in our hearts. We must watch for the answer in a state of mind that will diligently use all necessary means, at any expense, and add entreaty to entreaty.” (The Believer's Secret of Spiritual Power. Pages 138-139.)

P.T. Forsyth, The Soul of Prayer

“The worst sin is prayerlessness. Overt sin, or crime, or the glaring inconsistencies which often surprise us in Christian people are the effect of this, or its punishment. We are left by God for lack of seeking Him.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 11.)

“To be religious is to pray. Bad prayer is false religion. Not to pray is to be irreligious. ‘The battle for religion is the battle for prayer; the theory of religion is the philosophy of prayer.’ In prayer we do not think out God; we draw Him out. Prayer is where our thought of God passes into action, and becomes more certain than thought. In all thought which is not mere dreaming or brooding there is an element of will; and in earnest (which is intelligent) prayer we give this element the upper hand.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 15.)

“We can offer God nothing so great and effective as our obedient acceptance of the mind and purpose and work of Christ. It is not easy. It is harder than any idealism. But then it is very mighty. And it is a power that grows by exercise. At first it groans, at last it glides. And it comes to this, that, as there are thoughts that seem to think themselves in us, so there are prayers that pray themselves in us. And, as those are the best thoughts, these are the best prayers. For it is the Christ at prayer who lives in us, and we are conduits of the Eternal Intercession.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 16.)

“Prayer, indeed, is the great means for appropriating, out of the amalgam of illusion which means so much for our education, the pure gold of God as He wills, the Spirit as He works, and things as they are.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 19.)

“There are fervent prayers which, by making people feel good, may do no more than foster the delusion that natural vigour or robust religion, when flushed enough, can do the work of the kingdom of God. There is a certain egoist self-confidence which is increased by the more elementary forms of religion, which upholds us in much of our contact with men, and which even secures us an influence with them. But the influence is one of impression rather than permeation, it overbears rather than converts, and it inflames rather than inspires. This is a force which true and close prayer is very apt to undermine, because it saps our self-deception and its Pharisaism.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 20.)

“The intercession of Christ in heaven is the continuity and consummation of His supreme work on earth. To share it is the meaning of praying in the Spirit. And it has more effect on history than civilization has.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 23.)

“Prayer is the atmosphere of revelation, in the strict and central sense of that word. It is the climate in which God’s manifestation bursts open into inspiration. All the mediation of Nature and of things sinks here to the rear, and we are left with God in Christ as His own Mediator and His own Revealer. He is directly with us and in us. We transcend these two thousand years as if they were but one day. By His Spirit and His Spirit’s creative miracle God becomes Himself our new Nature, which is yet our own, our destined Nature; for we were made with His image for our ‘doom of greatness.’ It is no mere case of education or evolution drawing out our best. Prayer has a creative action in its answer. It does more than present us with our true, deep, latent selves. It lays hold on God, and God is not simply our magnified self. Our other self is, in prayer, our Creator still creating. Our Maker it is that is our Husband. He is Another. We feel, the more we are united with Him in true prayer, the deep, close difference, the intimate otherness in true love. Otherwise prayer becomes mere dreaming; it is spiritual extemporizing and not converse. The division runs not simply between us and Nature, but it parts us within our spiritual self where union is most close. It is a spiritual distinction, like the distinction of Father and Son in heaven. But Nature itself, our natural selves, are involved in it; because Nature for the Christian is implicated in Redemption. It ‘arrives.’ It is read in a new script. The soul’s conflict is found in a prelude in it. This may disturb our pagan joy.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Pages 30-31.)

“Prayer is the native movement of the spiritual life that receives its meaning and its soul only in Eternity, that works in the style and scale of Eternity, owns its principles, and speaks its speech. It is the will’s congenial surrender to that Redemption and Reconciliation between loving wills which is God’s Eternity acting in time. We beseech God because He first besought us.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 35.)

Praise: “Prayer is not what might be called the increased drone or boom of an unspeakable Om. God the Holy— the God not abysmal [mysterious] but revealed, in whose revelation the thoughts of many hearts are revealed also, and whose fullness makes [reveals] need almost as fast as it satisfies it.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Pages 36-37.)

Thanksgiving: “If we think most of the gift, prayer may subtly increase our egoism. We praise for a gift to us. We are tempted to treat God as an asset, and to exploit Him. But true prayer, thinking most of the Giver, quells the egoism and dissolves it in praise.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 36.)

Petition: “We do not only bring to God desires that rise apart from Him, and that we present by an act of our own; but our desires, our will, as they are inspired are also formed in God’s presence, as requests. They get shape. In thanks we spread out before Him and offer Him our past and present, but in petition it is our future.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 37.)

“Our prayer is a cry rather than a hymn. It is a quest rather than a tryst. It trembles more than it triumphs. It asks for strength rather than exerts it. How different was the prayer of Christ!... Nothing is more striking in Christ’s life than His combination of selflessness and power. His consciousness of power was equal to anything, and egoism never entered Him. His prayer was accordingly.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 41.)

“It is a greater thing to pray for pain’s conversion than for its removal. It is more of grace to pray that God would make a sacrament of it. The sacrament of pain! That we partake not simply, nor perhaps chiefly, when we say, or try to say, with resignation, “Thy will be done.” It is not always easy for the sufferer, if he remain clear-eyed, to see that it is God’s will.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 42.)

“It is in prayer that our real idea of God appears, and in prayer that our real relation to God shows itself.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 44.)

“Prayer... is the effective work of a religion which hangs upon the living God, of a soul surer of God than of itself, and living not its own life, but the life of the Son of God.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 57.)

“To pray without ceasing is not, of course, to engage in prayer without break. That is an impossible literalism. True, ‘They rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who weft, and art, and art to come.’ But it is mere poverty of soul to think of this as the iteration of a doxology. It is deep calling unto deep, eternity greeting eternity. The only answer to God’s eternity is an eternal attitude of prayer. ...it means the constant bent and drift of the soul—as the Word which was from the beginning (John i. 1) was ‘prÕs ton qeÒn’[with God]. All the current of its being set towards Him.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Pages 60-61.)

“Do not say, ‘I cannot pray. I am not in the spirit.’ Pray till you are in the spirit.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 62.)

“Do not allow your practice in prayer to be arrested by scientific or philosophic considerations as to how answer is possible. ...prayer is not only a necessity, of faith, it is faith itself in action.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 64.)

“Prayer is not a frame of mind, but a great-energy. [The intercessor] must rise to conceive his work as an active function of the work of Christ;” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 79.)

“Our Prayer-book, the Bible, does not prescribe prayer, but it does more—it inspires it.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 79.)

“Prayer in Christ’s name is prayer for Christ’s object—for His Kingdom, and His promise of the Holy Ghost.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 80.)

“Remember the stress that Christ laid on importunity. Strenuous prayer will help us to recover the masculine type of religion... by importunity something else is meant than passionate dictation and stormy pertinacity— imposing our egoist will on God, and treating Him as a mysterious but manageable power that we may coerce and exploit.... Prayer with us has largely ceased to be wrestling. But is that not the dominant scriptural idea?” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Pages 81-82.)

“‘Thy will be done’ was no utterance of mere resignation; though it has mostly come to mean this in a Christianity which tends to canonize the weak instead of strengthening them. As prayer it was a piece of active cooperation with God’s will.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 83.)

“Prayer is wrestling with God. And it is better to fail thus into the hands of God than of man—even than your own. It is a resistance that God loves. It is quite foreign to a godless, selfwilled defiant resistance. In love there is a kind of resistance that enhances it. The resistance of love is a quite different thing from the resistance of hostility. The yielding to one you love is very different from capitulating to an enemy:
“Two constant lovers, being joined in one, Yielding unto each other yield to none—i.e. to no foreign force, no force foreign to the love which makes them one.
“So when God yields to prayer in the name of Christ, to the prayer of faith and love, He yields to Himself who inspired it, as He swore by Himself since none was greater.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 87.)

“Does God not will the existence of things for us to resist, to grapple with? Do we ourselves not appoint problems and make difficulties for those we teach, for the very purpose of their overcoming them? We set questions to children of which we know the answer quite well. The real answer to our will and purpose is not the solution but the grappling, the wrestling. And we may properly give a reward not for the correct answer, but’ for the hard and honest effort. That work is the prayer; and it has its reward apart from the solution.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 88.)

“Let us beware of a pietist fatalism which thins the spiritual life, saps the rigour of character, makes humility mere acquiescence, and piety only feminine, by banishing the will from prayer as much as thought has been banished from it. ‘The curse of so much religion’ (I have quoted Meredith) ‘is that men cling to God with their weakness rather than with their strength.’” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 91.)

“Cast yourself into His arms not to be caressed but to wrestle with Him. He loves that holy war. He may be too many for you, and lift you from your feet. But it will be to lift you from earth, and set you in the heavenly places which are theirs who fight the good fight and lay hold of God as their eternal Life.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916. Page 92.)

“Prayer alone prevents us receiving God’s grace in vain. Which means that it establishes the soul of a man or people, creates the moral personality day by day, spreads outward the new heart through society, and goes to make a new ethos in mankind. We come out with a courage and humanity we had not when we went in, even though our old earth remove, and our familiar hills are cast into the depths of the sea. The true Church is thus co-extensive with the community of true prayer.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916.)

“Prayer is the assimilation of a holy God’s moral strength.” (P.T. Forsyth, 1916.)

William Gurnall, The Christian in Complete Armour

“The Spirit must groan, and then the soul will groan. He helps us to these sighs and groans which turn the sails of prayer. He dissolves the heart and then it [i.e. prayer] bursts out of the heart by groans of the lips by heavenly rhetoric, out of the eyes as from a flood-gate with tears." 'In the day when I cried thou answeredst me, and strengthenedst me with strength in my soul,’ (Psalms 138:3).” (Wm. Gurnall, 1986. Pages 36-37.)

“First the Spirit stretches Himself upon the soul, as the prophet upon the child; then the soul will begin to kindle and put forth some heavenly heat in its affections. At last the Spirit melts the heart, and prayer flows from the lips of the believer as naturally as tears from the eyes. And although the saint is the speaker, the author of the Prayer is God. So we see that both the strength to pray and the prayer itself are from God.” (Wm. Gurnall, 1986. Pages 36-37.)

“When we wrestle against Satan, we wrestle for God; it follows then that our refusal to wrestle against Satan is a passive resistance against God.” (Wm. Gurnall, 1986. Page 128.)

Rees Howells on Intercession

Rees Howells was a powerful intercessor who came out of the Welsh revival of 1904. His life is documented in the book Rees Howells Intercessor written by a younger colleague after Rees's death (Grubb, Rees Howells Intercessor, 1952.)

“The church knows more about the Savior, who was only on the earth thirty-three years, than about the Holy Ghost who has been here two thousand years.” (Rees Howells quoted. Grubb, 1952. Page 35.)

“there are three things to be seen in an intercessor which are not necessarily found in ordinary prayer: identification, agony and authority.” (Grubb, 1952. Page 81.)

Identification: “This is the law of intercession on every level of life: that only so far as we have been tested and proved willing to do a thing ourselves can we intercede for others. Christ is our intercessor because He took the place of each one prayed for.” (Grubb, 1952. Page 93.)

Agony: “The sufferings of others became so painful to him that he was pleading for them as if for himself. That was intercession!” (Grubb, 1952. Page 86.)

Authority: “But with obedience came cleansing, until by the second week, he said, ‘I had become more used to my position, and could see the Holy Ghost binding the devil. I soon realized I was not fighting against flesh and blood, but “against wicked spirits in heavenly places.” ’
“The weeks that followed, as he ‘gave prompt obedience to the Holy Spirit in all things,’ were times of wonderful fellowship, until by the end of the sixth week the Spirit told him the abiding was complete and the victory assured. ‘I was abiding now without being called to abide, walking in the position, and the Lord told be that I could now expect to see this woman make a move.’ ”
“That very night, with a thrill in his soul, Rees saw her in the open air meeting for the first time, and he told the devil, ‘Now I know that the Holy Ghost is stronger than you; you have been brought to naught on Calvary.’ ” (Grubb, 1952. Page 65.)

Andrew Murray on Prayer

"He teaches by giving not only thoughts of what to ask or how to ask, but by breathing into us the very spirit of prayer and living within us as the Great Intercessor." (Murray, With Christ in the School of Prayer, 1981. Pages 13-14).

“Worship in spirit and in truth: In truth does not only mean in sincerity. Nor does it only signify accordance with the truth of God's Word. The expression is one of deep and Divine meaning. Jesus is ‘the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.’ ‘The law was given to Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.’ Jesus says, ‘I am the truth and the life.’ The Old Testament was all shadow and promise, Jesus brought and gives the reality, the substance of things hoped for. In Him the blessings and powers of the eternal life are our actual possession and experience.” (Murray, 1981. Page 20).

“The Atmosphere in which we breath and pray is God's Father-love, God's infinite Fatherliness. thus each thought or petition we breathe out will be in simple, hearty, and childlike trust in the Father. The Master teaches us to pray by bringing us into the Father's living presence. What we pray there must be of value. We should listen carefully to hear what the Lord has to say to us.” (Murray, 1981. Pages 24-25).

“There are two sorts of prayer: personal and intercessory. The latter ordinarily occupies the lessor part of our time and energy. This should not be. Christ has opened the school of prayer especially to train intercessors for the great work of bringing down by their faith and prayer, the blessings of His work and love to the world. There can be no deep growth in prayer unless this is our aim.” (Murray, 1981. Page 32).

“Prayer is an appeal to the friendship of God. If we are God's friends and go as friends to Him, we must prove that we are friends of the needy. God's friendship to us and ours to others go hand in hand.” (Murray, 1981. Page 61).

Commenting on prayer Jesus gives the example of man pressing his neighbor for bread in the middle of the night (Luke 11:5-8). Murray states, “The parable is a perfect storehouse of instruction regarding true intercession...” for it outlines the love for another, the need, the confidence to ask, the unexpected refusal and the perseverance which lead to a satisfactory outcome. (Murray, 1981. Page 61).

“Once the believer has accepted the will of God, as revealed through the Word and the Spirit, as his will, too, then it is the desire of God that His child use this renewed will in His service. The will is the highest power of the soul.” (Murray, 1981. Page 78. Emphasis added).

“The whatsoever is unconditional except for what is implied in the believing. Before we can believe, we must find out what God's will is. Believing is the exercise of a soul surrendered to the influence of the Word and the Spirit. Once we believe, nothing is impossible.” (Murray, 1981. Page 83. Commenting on Mark 11:24 "Whatever you ask...").

“The faith that can overcome stubborn resistance such as you have just seen in this evil spirit, Jesus tells them, is not possible except for men living in very close fellowship with God and in very special separation from the world - in prayer and fasting. And so He teaches us two lessons in regard to prayer of deep importance. The one is that faith needs a life of prayer in which to grow and keep strong. The other is that prayer needs fasting for its full and perfect development.” (Murray, 1981. Page 98. Commenting on Mathew 17:19-21 "Faith as a grain of mustard seed...").

“It is quite evident that Paul perceived himself as the member of a Body whose sympathy and cooperation he depended on. He counted on the prayers of these churches to gain for him what otherwise might not be given. The prayers of the Church were to him as real a factor in the work of the Kingdom as the power of God.” (Murray, 1981. Page 115. see: Romans 15:30; 2 Corinthians 1:11; Ephesians 6:18-19; Philippians 1:19; Colosians 4:3 and 2 Thessalonians 3:1-2).

“...beware of rejoicing in beautiful thoughts and happy feelings, while the heart, with its desire and will and love, is not wholly given up to God. In our intercourse with God, everything depends on the heart. It is with the heart man believeth and receiveth the salvation of God.” (Murray, 1996. Page 123).

“Living for the glory of God is the condition of the prayers that Jesus can answer. ...Only the presence and rule of the Lord Jesus in our hearts can cast out all self-glorification, replacing it with His own God-glorifying life and spirit.” (Murray, 1981. Page 148).

“What Gods words are to me is the test of what He Himself is to me. It shows the uprightness of my desire to meet Him in prayer.” (Murray, 1981. Page 162. see: John 15:7).

“Obedience and faith are simply two parts of one act--surrender to God and His will. As faith strengthens itself in order to be obedient, it is in turn strengthened by obedience. Faith is made perfect by works. Often our efforts to believe are unsuccessful because we don't assume the only position in which a large faith is legitimate or possible--that of entire surrender to the honor and the will of God. The man who is entirely consecrated to God and His will finds the power to claim everything that His God has promised to be for him.” (Murray, 1981. Pages 171-172. Comment on John 15:16 & James 5:16).

“We are one; we have one life and one Spirit with Him. For this reason we may proceed in His Name. Our power in using that Name, whether with God, men, or devils, depends on the measure of our spiritual life-union with Christ. Our use of His Name rests on the unity of our lives with Him.” (Murray, 1981. Page 179. Comment on John 14:13, & 15:16).

“In the teaching of our Lord on this last night (John, chapter 17), we recognize that these astonishing prayer-promises have not been given for our benefit, but in the interests of the Lord and His Kingdom.” (Murray, 1981. Pages 200-201). “Christ the Son has the right to ask whatever He chooses. Through our abiding in Him and His abiding in us, His Spirit breathes in us what He wants to ask and obtain through us. We pray in His name. The prayers are as much ours as they are His.” (Murray, 1981. Pages 222-223).

“...we are apt to forget that the blessing of our church-going depends on our doing two things. First, praying for the preacher that he may speak ‘in the demonstration of the Spirit and of power.’ Second, praying for the congregation and for ourselves that we may receive God's Word, ‘which effectually worketh also in you that believe.’ (I Thessalonians 2:13).
“Often there is no manifestation of the Spirit because the speaking and the hearing are the work of human understanding or feeling.” (The Believer's Secret of Spiritual Power, 1987. Pages 119-120.)

Watchman Nee, The Prayer Ministry of the Church

“Prayer is the church saying to God, ‘God we want your will.’ Prayer is the church knowing what's in God's heart and opening its mouth to ask for what is in God's heart. If the church does not do this, it does not have much use on earth.”

“A prayer which is in the nature of work or ministry is one in which you stand on God's side, wanting what God wants. Brothers and sisters, if a prayer is uttered according to God's will, it is the most powerful thing.... For the church to pray means that it stands on God's side to declare that man wants what God wants.” (Watchman Nee, The Prayer Ministry of the Church, 1993. Page 13).

“If we see the church's responsibility of prayer, we will see that our prayers are not big enough; we are limiting God and frustrating His work.” (Nee, 1993. Page 22).

“The purpose of our prayer is not to inform God of something but to show Him our trust, our faith, our dependence, and our wish. Therefore, it is right that we should pray. But when we pray, our desire should exceed our words, and our faith should exceed our words.” (Nee, 1993. Page 31).

“The First Desire: ‘Your Name Be Sanctified’ When a man takes the name of God in vain, God does not show His wrath by striking him with thunder. He hides Himself, as if He did not exist.... If anyone takes God's name in vain, you will feel hurt, your desire will be even stronger, and you will pray even more earnestly: ‘Your name be sanctified’.” (Nee, 1993. Pages 32-33).

The Second Desire: ‘Your Kingdom Come’ “May the church pray like the saints of old, ‘O Jehovah bow Your heavens down and descend’ (Psa. 144:5). ‘Oh that You would rend the heavens, that You would come down .’ (Isa. 64:1).” (Nee, 1993. Page 35).

The Third Desire: ‘Your Will Be Done, As In Heaven, So Also On Earth’ “Many people have the wrong concept that the reason man prays to God is to initiate something and ask God to do something. But the Bible shows us that God first has a will and wants to do something, next He shows us His will, and then we speak out with our mouth the will that we have come to understand. This is prayer.” (Nee, 1993. Page 36).

“God's will is like a river, and our prayer is like the channel. If our prayer is big, the accomplishment will also be big. If our prayer is limited, the accomplishment of our prayer will also be limited.” (Nee, 1993. Page 37).

Personal needs: “The Lord wants us to ask God for our bread day by day because He wants us to learn to look to the Father day by day. He wants us to exercise our faith day by day.” (Nee, 1993. Page 39).

“Lastly, the Lord taught us to give praise for three things: ‘For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.’ ” (Nee, 1993. Page 43).

“The real issue is whether or not we are living before God and whether we are standing on the proper ground. If we are standing on the right ground, we see that the Lord's name is in our hand.... This is God's commitment to us.” (Nee, 1993. Pages 57-58).

“A prayer with authority has heaven as its starting point and the earth as its destination.... If a man has never learned the prayer that prays downward, he has never learned to pray with authority. In the spiritual warfare, the kind of prayer that prays downward is very important.” (Nee, 1993. Page 64).

“How can the church have... prayer with authority? It is by the church having full faith, being without doubt and being clear that what we do is fully according to God's will. Whenever we are not clear about God's will, we do not have faith.” (Nee, 1993. Page 67).

“The most important work of the overcomers is to bring the authority of the throne to earth.” (Nee, 1993. Page 67).

“If God is to have a group of overcomers, there must be warfare in prayer.” (Nee, 1993. Page 69).

“Prayer is to to seek for God, while fasting is to deny the self. We have to seek God and deny the self at the same time.” (Nee, 1993. Page 74).

“Many people are enthusiastic about attending preaching meetings, Bible study meetings, and other meetings of the church. They are interested in these meetings and make time for these meetings. But whenever there is a prayer meeting the number is amazingly low. Despite many sermons that remind us that our chief service is prayer and that if we fail in our prayer life, everything else will fail, we still neglect prayer and consider it to be something quite dispensable. Despite the facts that problems are piling up and that we acknowledge with our mouth that prayer is the only way to solve them, we talk more than we pray, and we worry and resort to methods more than we pray.” (Nee, 1993. Pages 75-76).

“Brothers and sisters, we must fight for the time to pray, and we must secure a time to pray. If we wait until we have time to pray, we will never have the opportunity to pray. We must set aside a time to pray. Andrew Murray said, ‘Those who do not have a set time to pray do not pray.’ ” (Nee, 1993. Page 79).

“One brother mentioned a story he read in the biography of Evan Roberts [leader of the Welsh Revival]. Once a few people were in his home praying for something. Halfway through one brother's prayer, Mr. Roberts went over and covered his mouth, saying, ‘Brother don't go on. You are not praying.’ The brother reading this story said within himself ‘How could Mr. Roberts do this?’ But later he realized that Mr. Roberts was right. Many words in our prayers are spoken by the flesh through the instigation of Satan. These prayers may be long, but many of them are impractical and useless.”... “Hense when we pray, we have to be watchful and not spend too much time or give too many reasons. Rather, we should speak what is in our heart to God in a sincere way.” (Nee, 1993. Page 81).

“Satan's strategy is either to hold us back so that we do not pray or push us forward while we pray so that the more we pray the more we are lost.... We have to guard ourselves from praying the prayers that are not prayers at all.” (Nee, 1993. Page 82).

“We have to pray thoroughly for people, for things, for the truth, and for our problems. Brothers and sisters, we have to realize that a hasty ‘economical’ prayer is often a careless prayer that will give ground to Satan.” (Nee, 1993. Page 84).

“...we must be watchful to fight for a time to pray, to gaurd prayer, to stop prayers that are not prayer, and to be on guard against Satan's strategy to cut off our prayer. We must remember that prayer is a service, an excellent service. We have to watch and pray, and we must practice conscientiously, so that Satan will not have the opportunity to destroy our prayer.” (Nee, 1993. Pages 86-87).

“Come as fire and burn. Come as light and reveal. Convict, convert, consecrate–until we are wholly Thine.” a prayer of the third century...

*All Bible quotes are from the King James Version unless otherwise indicated.