Prayer Precedes WK-3
Notes
Transcript
I believe that there are three areas in which this resistance comes, as Dr. Mark Jones so eloquently illuminated in his book “Cultivating Prayer & Intercession in the Local Church” (2002 City Christian Publishing).
Resistance To Prayer:
Resistance To Prayer:
The first area where resistance comes in the realm of prayer is resistance to prayer. Plainly put, Satan does not want you to pray. The Biblical account of chief minister and prophet Daniel gives us clear insight into the resistance of prayer on all three levels. Let’s begin by looking at Daniel chapter six.
7 “All the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions’ den.
To understand the critical nature of this verse, we need to go back to verse 1 and 2 of this chapter to get a picture at the nation’s organizational leadership.
1 It seemed good to Darius to appoint 120 satraps over the kingdom, that they would be in charge of the whole kingdom,
2 and over them three commissioners (of whom Daniel was one), that these satraps might be accountable to them, and that the king might not suffer loss.
Daniel was no novice, he was not low on the totem pole nor was he a green leader. Daniel faithfully served:
Nebuchadnezzar: Chief Prefect and ruler of Babylon — Daniel 2:48
Belshazzar: A member of the Triumvir (King, kings son, Daniel) — Daniel 5:29
Darius: Commissioner over 120 Satraps — Daniel 6:2
Cyrus: Daniel 6:28
So, in verse 7 of chapter six, we are given a leadership structure of those who have bound themselves together to present this new law to Darius, literally every imaginable level of government was represented. Except for one caveat; Daniel is one of three Commissioners who is over every level of leadership mentioned in this text, and he has clearly not been in the conversation. The reason I say all this is to show you just how hard Satan will work to keep you from praying.
Now, notice something else important. This law did not mention anything about what Daniel believed, what his religion was, what his rituals were. It only addressed prayer.
7 “All the commissioners of the kingdom, the prefects and the satraps, the high officials and the governors have consulted together that the king should establish a statute and enforce an injunction that anyone who makes a petition to any god or man besides you, O king, for thirty days, shall be cast into the lions’ den.
Because the enemy does not care what you believe, if he can stop you from praying, he can corrupt your spirit — one day, one hour, one minute at a time.
41 “Keep watching and praying that you may not enter into temptation; the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Now the tempter will whisper, “Do not pray just now; your heart is not in a fit condition for it.” My dear brother, you will not become fit for prayer by keeping away from the mercy-seat, but to lie groaning or breathing at its foot is the best preparation for pleading before the Lord. We are not to aim at a self-wrought preparation of our hearts that we may come to God aright, but “the preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, are from the Lord.” If I feel myself disinclined to pray, then is the time when I need to pray more than ever.[1]
— Charles Spurgeon
Action Step 1 — Start Before You Feel Ready
Action Step 1 — Start Before You Feel Ready
How do we overcome the resistance TO prayer? Simply put, you need to start praying before you feel ready. The enemy will give you a hundred reasons not to pray today. Don’t wait until you feel spiritual, focused, or emotionally prepared. Begin anyway. I have met hundreds of people who, when they should have prayed said; “I didn’t know what to say”. My response is simple, and this is my exhortation to you, church, today. If you will only open your mouth, begin with the words “God I pray…” He will complete your sentence. Heaven wants you to pray:
17 pray without ceasing;
8 Therefore I want the men in every place to pray, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and dissension.
15 What is the outcome then? I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the mind also; I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also.
If heaven desires you to pray, the God will enable you to pray. But God will not force you to pray! You must willingly surrender your tongue to the mighty, heavenly, spiritual work of prayer. Do not resist another day — begin, even now to let your voice be Gods instrument for Heaven to invade earth.
Resistance In Prayer:
Resistance In Prayer:
3 So I gave my attention to the Lord God to seek Him by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth and ashes.
21 while I was still speaking in prayer, then the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision previously, came to me in my extreme weariness about the time of the evening offering.
In this context, Daniel directs his concentrated focus toward God, his sovereign Master and authority, through prayer. He is demonstrating what John MacArthur called “resolute mental and spiritual orientation”.
John MacArthur explains the intensity embedded in this phrase: “He pairs this mental focus with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes—expressions that communicate deep concern and genuine brokenness. His fasting wasn’t undertaken to gain something but rather flowed from his loss of appetite due to his profound concern about sin.”
There is always resistance in prayer. Distractions, tiredness, hunger, frustration, business. Praying is not easy; our flesh naturally does not want to do it because prayer kills the flesh and brings it under submission to heaven.
Samuel Zwemer said: “Prayer is the gymnasium of the soul”
Another early church writer said: “Believe me, I think there is nothing that requires more effort than to pray to God… prayer demands combat to the last breath.”
Martin Luther said: “Prayer is indeed a continuous violent action of the spirit as it is lifted up to God. This action is comparable to a ship going against the stream.”[2]
— Daniel was imprisoned while praying Daniel 6:16
— Stephen stoned while praying Acts 7::54-56
— Paul violently persecuted 2 Corinthians 12:23-39
— John Hyde died from the weight of prayer
But each of these have gone down in heavens books as changing entire nations.
John Hyde—known throughout Christian history as “Praying Hyde”—was a Presbyterian missionary to India whose prolonged intercession helped awaken missionaries, and fuel the Sialkot prayer movement. It was not uncommon for John Hyde to spend weeks in prayer, not visiting his ben for days because he was in prayer. And how we so often struggle to spend even an hour alone with God. If Satan cannot stop you from praying, he will stop you from praying long.
More Prayer Is Better Than Less Prayer
— Dr. Mark Jones
The effects of little prayer are prevalent in our nation. In his book “Mighty Prevailing Prayer”
Wesley Duewel says:
“Some people have to prevail over personal laziness or restlessness. They are too undisciplined to find prolonged prevailing prayer easy… Some people are so spiritually weak that they have never learned how to pray with real soul hunger for any needs except for their own personal crises… Some people are so unspiritual that not only does their physical nature shrink from prayer but their carnal nature fears prayer involvement, holds them back from earnest, prolonged praying, and finds a multitude of excuses why not to prevail. Satan takes advantage of any natural tendency to procrastinate and specially attacks prayer time.” [3]— Wesley Duewel
We cannot expect that hell will bend over at the first sound of our voice? This takes combat!
Moses spent forty days and forty nights in God’s presence, beseeching the Lord. (Exodus 34:28-35)
Elijah prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the earth for three years and six months then crouched down on the earth and put his face between his knees, sending his servant to look toward the sea seven times before the rain came.(1 Kings 18:41–45)
Hannah made a vow and continued praying before the LORD with such intensity that she was speaking in her heart, only her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard (1 Sam 1:9–20).
David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground for his sick child, unwilling to rise or eat food for seven days. (2 Sam 12:15–23)
Anna never left the temple, serving night and day with fasting and prayers (Luke 2:36–37).
Jesus spent the whole night in prayer to God before choosing the twelve apostles. (Luke 6:12)
Nehemiah sat down and wept and mourned for days, fasting and praying before God, praying day and night on behalf of Israel (Neh 1:4–11).
Action Step 2 — Stay A Little Longer
If you are going to see victory over your circumstances, you will need to develop longsuffering in prayer. I have learned through many trials that too often we give up on God too soon. This week, when you reach the point where you normally stop, remain for five more minutes. When you run out of words, pray Scripture. Sit quietly before God. Bring another person’s need before Him.
You do not develop endurance by waiting until prayer becomes easy. You develop endurance by remaining when prayer becomes difficult.
Resistance in prayer is defeated when you stay.
Resistance To Answer Prayer:
Resistance To Answer Prayer:
Lastly, there is resistance in the answer of prayer. When we look at the prayers of Daniel, we
find the struggle for an answered prayer. Beginning in Daniel 9 the angel says to Daniel:
23 “At the beginning of your supplications the command was issued, and I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed; so give heed to the message and gain understanding of the vision.
Three verses earlier we find that the angel of the Lord came to Daniel “as I was speaking…” This reveals a remarkable quick answer in prayer. But, let’s move one chapter, several years, later and look at another instance of Daniel praying.
12 Then he said to me, “Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to your words.
13 “But the prince of the kingdom of Persia was withstanding me for twenty-one days; then behold, Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I had been left there with the kings of Persia.
While in chapter nine Daniel receives a near instantaneous answer to prayer, in chapter ten Daniel has encountered 21 days of spiritual warfare.
— If Satan cannot keep you from praying, he will keep you from praying a lot.
— If Satan cannot keep you from praying a lot, He will fight until you give up
We don’t just need men and women who know how to pray, we need men and women who know how to prevail in prayer; who know how to last in prayer; who know how pray until answers are won.
God has chosen to make Himself dependent upon our prayers.
As one author put it: “While God is ever free and acts in sovereign freedom, yet He seems to have bound Himself, at least to a large degree, to our intercession.”[4]
Charles Spurgeon says:
“you should pray because you must pray, not because the set time for praying has arrived, but because your heart must cry unto your Lord.[5]
God’s cause creeps forward timidly and slowly when there are more organizers than agonizers, more workers than prevailing prayer warriors[6] — Wesley Duewel
Action Step 3 — Stand Over One Burden
Action Step 3 — Stand Over One Burden
Choose one person, one need, or one unanswered prayer and carry it before God for the next twenty-one days. Write it down. Pray over it every day. Record what God shows you, and do not interpret delay as denial. Continue until the answer comes, God changes your prayer, or He releases you from the burden.
Resistance to answered prayer is defeated when you stand.
So, to end with the famous words of a mighty giant in prayer — the Apostle Paul:
Galatians 6:9
9 Let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we will reap if we do not grow weary.
— Let us be people of prayer!
— Let us be people who pray a lot!
— Let us be people who pray until answers come!
[1]C. H. Spurgeon, “Comfort for Those Whose Prayers Are Feeble,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 54 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1908), 123.
[2]Donald G. Bloesch, The Struggle of Prayer (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1980), 132.
[3] Duewel, Wesley L. Mighty Prevailing Prayer. Grand Rapids, MI: Francis Asbury Press, 1990, 55.
[4] Ole Hallesby, Prayer (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1936), 231.
[5]C. H. Spurgeon, “Prayer, the Proof of Godliness,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 41 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1895), 520.
[6]Duewel, Wesley L. Mighty Prevailing Prayer. Grand Rapids, MI: Francis Asbury Press, 1990, 23.
