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  LESSON OF PREVAILING PRAYER IN THE SCRIPTURES
  by Dan Biser
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Duration: 1:19:55

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Again, we just wanted to get underway. I'm going to take you through
some of the scriptures this morning. This time allotted from 9 o'clock
to 10 30 this morning.

The sessions are 90 minutes and try to give every speaker enough time to
bring the word, to lead us in prayer, share with us what the Lord was
saying to them about the need for a solemn assembly. Brother Doug did
last night why we have a solemn assembly and some prayer points. A lot
of times people say I want to pray but I really don't know what to pray.

So some of you, again, you're seasoned in this. You've been at this for
a long time. You're just praying along in agreement with us and we're
grateful for those of you that are following with the same heart and
mind.

But others are looking for something. They need some help. They need
some encouragement.

And so it's the intent of this solemn assembly, a call for solemn
assembly, that we present to the body of Christ to draw those in that
they have questions about a solemn assembly. It's not a familiar topic
in the church. It's not a popular one.

And so the prayer meeting is not a popular one. So most time when you
say prayer meeting is that the music is what their mindset is, standing
and worshiping in music. And there's never any petitions or
supplications or confession that's done.

Solemn assembly is not about any of that. Solemn assembly is about being
before the Lord, as Joel chapter one or two, and we'll keep reiterating
this. When you see these things happen, there's a judgment on the light.

There's a judgment on God's people, the church, and it's time to
respond. And so that's what the solemn assembly is all about. So it is
for us this morning, is that we're going to take our Bibles and walk
through some of the scriptures.

Again, our emphasis for this conference for this weekend is prevailing
prayer. And so we want to focus on that here this morning. I'm not going
to preach.

I'm just going to kind of share and give you some prayer points as we
walk through this that we can cry out to the Lord in agreement with. And
again, we thank you to each of you that are signing on, joining us. We
benefit from those that write and share with us where you're from.

We see numerous places and familiar names from those of you that are on.
And so welcome. Good morning to you.

Some of you, again, were stretched out across the United States and the
time zones are different. So again, for some of you, it's much, much
earlier. If the sun's even up out on the West and in the mountain
region, others of us is that we've been up for a little bit.

And so we're getting underway for our time this morning. And so good
morning to you and welcome. So let's go ahead and let's open up in
prayer.

And then we're going to dive right in because, again, time is one of the
things that I'm conscious of is that, again, we want to make the most of
our 90 minutes here this morning as we open up. Brother Bill Ellef will
be with us from 1030 to 12. He's out of Little Rock, Arkansas, so we
look forward to having Brother Bill.

And at noon, Diasop Han will be with us. As a matter of fact, this
morning while we're doing this morning conference, morning session, he's
on a conference call for intercessors. And so they're promoting and
praying as well.

So numerous, numerous speakers throughout this day, each of them with
their respective prayer ministries and prayer life that I tried to
assemble to bring on so that they can share with us their heart about
revival, spiritual awakening, which is our greatest desire. But again,
if we don't prevail, we'll never see it. So let's go ahead and we'll
open up in prayer.

Blessed Father, we thank you for this morning to enter into your
presence where two or three are gathered together via live stream,
Father. We enter in with the same desire and passion, Lord, to meet with
you, to hear from you. Lord, again, it is that you would lead us by your
Holy Spirit as we honor your word, as we bring before you, Lord, the
desires that you've placed within our minds and our hearts to advance
your kingdom, glorify your name.

And again, Father, the things that have erred and provoked, sinned
against, transgressed against, Lord, again, for a nation, for a church,
for families, for our own individual selves. Lord, we lament before you
this morning for the sins that have separated from us, from you. And
again, the judgments that are fallen, Lord, in direct response to those
sins.

And so here we are, gathered as a people, a remnant, Lord, to seek your
face, to call upon your name, to wait before you. Again, Father, not to
be denied, as that, again, call that you would answer us. Grant to us, O
Lord, that which is so needed, revival for the church, spiritual
awakening for the nation, and the fulfillment of your kingdom here on
earth to reach the nations.

All honor, glory, and praise to you, Lord, this morning as we begin.
Holy Spirit, guide and lead us in our thoughts, guide and lead us in our
responses and our actions. Open our ears.

Again, let the Holy Spirit, Lord, do your best work in the midst of us
this day. We honor you and we love you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. All
right, as we get underway from this morning, I want to start the passage
of these things, because again, it was one of the things that, in quiet
time, almost all things, again, proceed out of what the secret calls.

And so this morning, I felt like, again, just to share some of those
things about what this is that we're focused on for this weekend, that
we talk about a prevailing prayer. How do you prevail in prayer? You go
back and you see some of the great sermons that have been preached or
written with that emphasis. Probably one of the most, to me, and you
might have others, but to me, there's two that stands out in the 18, I
believe, 70s or 80s.

D.L. Moody, a great evangelist out of Chicago, wrote that sermon,
preached it, and then they wrote a book with that in it, On Prevailing
Prayer. But probably the most famous sermon that has been put out there
has been by Charles Finney. And so when you look at this, one of the
things that you see in the midst of the church, it's passages of
scripture in the Old Testament, the life of Christ, the first church,
and the book of Acts, and then for 2,000 years of history, how they
wrestled with God and how they prevailed.

And that is a lesson for us to learn. Maybe you've given time and
thought to that, studied to that, maybe you haven't. Again, how does
that happen? How does that occur? And what is it happening for? You
know, again, if people got their prayers, Ian Bounds wrote on this where
he said, if we received the prayer the first time we asked for it, would
we know what it is to wrestle? Would we know what it is to prevail?
Would we know what it is to be persistent before God? Or would we
simply, always just simply in a whim, make a request to God and expect
to be answered in that? Somebody would say that just to say, well, I get
all the prayers I ask of God.

Those are the kind of people that you want to submit everything that you
got on your heart and mind. But again, the reality is, is that we know
the truth of prayer. Is that, again, we ask for some things which are
not in accordance with God's will.

We know that we ask for some things and that we're not going to get them
overnight. It's going to be a lifetime pursuit. We hear testimonies of
that, people that prayed for 50, 60, 70 years.

And some have prayed, as I just mentioned, Ian Bounds, he prayed for his
children's salvation and never saw him, died and was buried. And in
their 90s, his children came to Christ. So long after his death, before
God answered that prayer, but he prevailed.

And that is the focus today. So whether in this lifetime or whether I'm
dead and buried, whether I ever get to see it or not, it is with that
spirit of prevailing that we want to cover this morning. By the
scriptural examples, I'm going to share a couple of personal things.

And then again, just to be able to give you some revival history of how
God answered prayers and that encouragement that it brings to us because
there are so often when I talk to brothers and sisters in Christ and for
those that are on this morning from the church families, we do this all
the time. Thursday night prayer, our prayer that I do, we do this all
the time. Are you read up? Are you prayed up? Are you serving the Lord?
And again, I'm simply asking, are you being faithful? And again, the hit
in the midst of this day is an issue for the church.

It's a struggle for Christians to maintain. But one of the old slogans
of one of my day in essence that I have in my prayer notebook from 2012,
14, something like that. I don't remember the exact date on it, but in
the unction of praying for the fullness of the Holy Spirit upon me, upon
the church, for revival, His manifest presence.

It goes with those two words that rhyme, obtain and maintain. And the
object of that is that, just to kind of say it for you, I will never
obtain unless I maintain. And if I do not maintain, I will not obtain.

Now that's just a little thing I wrote one night in prayer and I keep
that in front of me as my means. And simply just to say this, I cannot
expect to prevail in prayer. You cannot expect, the church cannot, but a
haphazard, inconsistent prayer line.

God is still sovereign. God can take the prayers of one and do it for
His own purpose and His own will. God is not restricted by that.

But the rule of thumb that we've seen in history is that there must be a
consistency. There must be a steadfastness. And these are some of the
terms that we want to look at this morning in scripture, faithful,
persevering, steadfast, maintaining, and being right there before the
Lord on a daily basis.

Now, I know that there are some that they would say, oh, you don't have
to pray every day. You can hit this. Remember the first time I was in a
prayer conference and one of the speakers said that.

You don't have to do this every day. I know my mouth hit the floor
because I believe is that one of the testimonies that we've seen in the
church, how did any backsliding ever begin? How did any falling away
ever begin? Someone dropped the ball and it was in their spiritual
disciplines. And so we want to be very careful of that.

And I want to give a word to you this morning that if you have a lazy
mindset of saying, well, if I get to it, I get to it. If I don't, I
don't. Prevailing is probably not on a high priority with you for God's
kingdom.

And in this day and age, as we expressed last night, the urgency of the
hour, we can't afford it. And I make a statement and I say it again, any
day that you begin and go throughout without prayer is that you pretty
much forfeited that day to the devil. And he takes full advantage of it.

And so therefore we must, we must prevail. Part of that prevailing is,
is the standard of priorities that we enter into our spiritual
disciplines with to be before the Lord. So let's, let's walk through
some scriptures.

I'm not going to give you all of them, of course, but again, it's some
of those things that stand out that we can write down and that you can
have. Now some, some expressed last night. And so let me just take a
moment to share with you on that.

These videos are being recorded. They're being saved. YouTube channel
and is going to be uploaded.

They're uploaded and they're there. We haven't segmented them. We won't
do that until probably the first of the week.

We'll split up each sermon and each session of each speaker for your
ease and accessibility to that and to go back and to review. Many asked
about Brother Doug's PowerPoint last night. Those things are on here and
you can contact him about that.

And we'll try to get a word. He'll be back on with us Sunday night. So I
might try to get him to answer that for some of you in that time before
we get there.

Okay. So for the notes that I want to bring to you and share with you
this morning out of scriptures, that's one of the things that we want to
cover on this issue of our topic and our emphasis on prevailing prayer.
Now, when we first started this, which again, when you do a word search
for the scriptures, prevail is found predominantly in the most
recognized passage of scripture, which is over in the book of Genesis.

Here we have one of the, what we say, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob of the
patriarchs. It began with the covenant for the children of Israel. And
so you have Jacob who, having been away for decades away from his
family, his last message from his brother that he had stole the
birthright to him and his mother had got the blessing from the father.

And he went away and he married wives and had children. And the Lord now
spoke to him and said, now go back home. And so he was supposed to leave
Laban, his father-in-law, and this didn't go over well.

And so in this conflict between him and Laban, Laban was given a voice
from God the night before he met with Jacob and said, don't, you be very
careful how you speak to my servant. And so he was protected with that.
Now that same protection that he got from Laban still was a little
fearful when he turned around because he had sent word to his brother
Esau that he was returning.

And he said, Esau heard that she was returning and he got 400 servants
of his and they are on their way to meet you. And fear grips Jacob. And
he, that night, separates the family.

He separates the mothers and the children. And then he himself goes
alone in that place where he wrestled with Gnong. And that great passage
there as he wrestled, they wrestled all night long.

And the dawning of the morning was coming and the angel said, let me go.
He said, I will not let you go till you bless me. He was determined with
that steadfastness to prevail.

And I will not let you go. It's that dogmatic definitive moment that
say, if I let you go without the blessing is that I'm incomplete. I have
not reached where God wants me to be, where I need to be.

My brother's coming to kill me. And I need, I need a blessing from the
Lord. That's desperation.

And out of desperation, people pray in such manners. And he looked at
that last line and, and the angels spoke to him and said, what is your
name? And he said, Jacob. He said, your name will no longer be called
Jacob.

Your name is Israel because you have prevailed with God and with men.
Now that is probably in the scriptures, the most definitive passage that
we have for prevailing. He wrestled with God and he prevailed.

In the prayer clause, we wrestle with God. Now, sometimes is that you
might simply worship him, which again, adoration, silent, beholding him
and just loving him. Sometimes you might be in confession, where again,
sin, your personal sins or national sins, church sins, and you're
laminating before the Lord for the conditions that has offended God.

But in this thing of prevailing, there is a notch that the adrenaline
flows, a notch where again, we go into this mode of desperation, of
urgency, of defervency. You know, Jesus wrestling, we'll look at this in
a moment. Jesus wrestled in the garden and great drops of blood poured
forth from him because of the strenuousness of what was on his soul in
that place.

And then he got up and he prevailed. It was done. And this same kind of
thing happens in a lifetime for you and I as Christian believers, that
we enter into the prayer closet and we have in our minds some kind of
what I'm going to petition, what I'm going to pray for, what I'm going
to bring before the Lord.

Maybe you have a prayer note book, as we talk about, so that you have
things wrote out that you can be reminded of, remember, and petition
before the Lord, worship, confess, and supplicate and intercede for
those kinds of things and people in the moment. But when God puts
something on your heart and mind that there is a timeline, there is the
matter of eternity, there is an issue at hand, and there's crisis,
calamity at hand, it'll put you into that place where you cannot be
denied without an answer. You will not be satisfied without an answer.

And this is where the saint goes into the closet, prevails with God, is
to say, I'll have an answer one way or another and satisfied with that.
And so again, Jacob is probably one of the foremost that we look at the
scripture and see that he prevailed. And he prevailed with God and with
men.

That's the dual standard there, that we prevail over men, the
government, the nation, the wickedness that's in this world, and that we
prevail with God because God is sovereign. He is the Lord of this world
and universe and the ruler of it. Nothing happens without God's say so.

So with the church coming before God in prayer, it is the time to
prevail. And that's one of the main thrusts of why we are doing this
call for a solemn assembly, that we might be growling, stirred, moved to
be serious about this time and not be haphazard, not be inconsistent,
and not lose our passion. Again, when you lose your passion in prayer,
you're just going through the motions, you're just saying prayers.

Saying prayers is much like when we talk about when we teach children,
now lay me down to sleep, pray the Lord my soul to keep. And they say
the word, but they're not meaning the word. God is good, God is great,
and we thank him for it.

But they're saying prayers, they're learning to say prayers. There's not
a desperation in that, and there's not really a power working there to
prevail. And so again, crisis and calamity moves us that we cannot be
satisfied with anything less than for God to hear us and to answer us.

So let's look at a few more passages of scripture. Now we're just going
to bounce around. Let me give you the second one again that I preached
last night, Hannah, 1 Samuel 1. What a great account that is there.

She went before God and she prayed to the Lord, and God remembered her.
She got what she asked for. She went in there with burden, she went in
there brokenhearted, she went in there as the soul, but she came out,
and the confidence, I have laid my petition before God, he has heard me,
and it's in his hands.

And she had the child. And because she gave her child back, and I never
shared this last night, but again, for those of you who know scripture,
you know that Paul Harvey would say the rest of the story. She gave
Samuel to Eli to be raised in the temple, to be a servant to the Lord,
and God rewarded her for that.

And she went on to have five more children that she was able to raise
and to care for because she had lent her child to the Lord. And so
again, what a great example. But again, the need she would provoke, she
was fretting, and she went in before God determined to say, I can't go
on like this.

And so that desperation is an evidence of that once again. Now, passage
of scripture over in the book of Acts chapter 2, the day of Pentecost.
Now, this is much of what this conference is about.

I say conference, it's a prayer time, live stream, whatever you want to
speak of it towards and to. One of the things that we are up against is
the lack of power inside the Christian church in North America today.
Now again, where there are moments of outpourings for God's people,
glory to God, we rejoice in that.

But a consistent flowing of the Holy Spirit is nowhere to be found. And
so again, most Christians walk around in defeat. Most Christians walk
around with struggles against sin.

We hear this constantly in the prayer meetings, you know, I'm struggling
against this sin I can't overcome. There's not victory. Most prayer
meetings is that it's hard to find even an answer prayer that's going on
in this.

And so one of the things is that again, we want to express and share for
our prayer meeting is that one of the greatest things that brings joy
and glory is answer prayer. Let me testify what the Lord has done. Let
me talk about how his soul was in drugs.

Let me talk about how his soul was lost and how God gloriously saved
him. There's a victory that brings joy to the prayer meeting over answer
prayer. Someone prevailed and that's what we need more of.

But for the most part, Christians say prayers and they walk away from
the prayer, the prayer meeting, the prayer times, the closet, whatever,
they said the prayer and they are content without an answer. You cannot
be content without an answer. God didn't set up promises like that.

Asking it shall be given, seeking it shall be found, knocking it shall
be opened. Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do that the
Father might be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I
will do that the Father might be glorified.

I mean, these are promises that God and Christ has given to us in the
scriptures to prevail. And so in the midst of this, it is that the day
of Pentecost, the outpouring and the fullness of the Holy Spirit came
upon the church. And Jesus had instructed them over in the book of Luke,
in chapter 24, he says, now go into Jerusalem and wait until you be
endued with the power of the Holy Spirit.

Endued with power. Every revival that we can talk about and share in the
church's history for 2000 years, someone was endued with power. When I
talk about Charles Finney, is that you should know, again, part of the
second great awakening, tremendous revival lectures filled with his
experiences, filled with the Holy Spirit on the night of his salvation.

He goes out into the woods. He is again, determined that he is not going
to go back home until he prevails with God. It works this thing, he's
under great conviction.

And he went out into the woods and he threw himself down and all day
long, he sought the Lord, cried out to God, save me, save me. And he
came to terms with that. And he walked into the woods lost and he walked
out of the woods on that day, saved and born again Christian.

He went home that time. And as he sat before the fireplace in prayer,
rejoicing for his salvation, the Holy Spirit comes upon him. And he
said, and he gives the description of this.

And again, one of the advantages of watching the ocean is that he said
it was as ocean waves crashing over him, surging through him from the
top to the bottom, just literally going over him constantly. And he was
filled with the Holy Spirit. Now I share about a book called They Found
the Secret.

And there are 20 sermons in that of great saints in church history, that
the same thing, they got before God and they were endued with power for
what God was getting ready to do through them and in them for his name's
sake. Most Christians are content to be born again, to be saved, but
never to be endued with the power of the Holy Spirit. We read this in
the book of Acts, where again, that Paul comes upon some Christians who
were believers.

And he said, well, what was you saved to? And they said, well, we
understand the teachings of John the Baptist and that we accept again
for the acceptance of Christ and receiving of Christ. But he says, but
have you been filled with the Holy Spirit? And they said, we have not
even heard of this. And so he lays hands on them and they are filled
with the Holy Spirit.

Now they were saved, but they weren't filled. Most in North American
church are content to be saved and never to be filled. But that's not
the command of Christ.

The command of Christ in Luke 24, wait in Jerusalem till you be endued
with power. Over in the book of John, after his resurrection, he comes
into the disciples and while they were hiding out there and he greets
them and he says, don't be afraid. And in verse 20, chapter 20 of John,
verse 22, and it says, and he breathed on them.

And he said, receive the Holy Spirit. And then Acts chapter one, chapter
two, Fox's hollow. We're studying this.

We just got into our Bible study Sunday school hour at Fox's hall where
I'm pastor. And we're just starting the book of Acts. And so we're just
getting up to chapter two and on, on the day, the Lord's day is that
they were gathered together.

They've been there for 10 days, staying, staying there together in one
accord as one people. And they were there to prevail. They were not
going to leave Jerusalem until they were endued with power that Christ
had promised them.

And they were content to wait 10 days, a hundred days, as long as it
took because they would not walk away without the promise that was
promised to them of the comforter coming. And you shall receive power
and he, the comforter will come to you and he will teach you and bring
all things to remember to what things that I have taught you. So we see
this answer to prayer in Acts chapter two of what Christ had promised in
Luke and in John.

And again, other passages where he said, I must go away that he may
come. And so here it is, they prevail. Now, again, we are much in the
same one.

We are in an expectancy hour for the church, for our nation. And one of
the things is that again, because men and church leaders, churches and
Christians, we don't even know what it is to be filled with the Holy
Spirit, is that they are content then to continue on in their Christian
faith, their Christian pilgrimage without power. And the world looks at
the church and hell looks at the church and they laugh at us.

Because we don't have answers to prayers. We don't have victory over
sin. We don't bear a testimony or a witness to say, look what God has
done.

And so therefore it is absolutely necessary for us to reclaim this, to
get before God and to say, we can't do this in our own strength. Now,
humanism, one of the sins of the church, humanism says the opposite.
Humanism says, I got this, we can do this.

I just come up with this program. I just come up with this new
promotion. I just come up with this new means and method.

We don't need any new gadgets or gizmos. All we need is the Lord. And it
is for us to do it exactly the way that he said, be endued with power
from on high.

And again, one of the wrestlings or prevailing that we're crying out to
is for God to come upon the church in North America. Again, other
nations, Canada, we have some people from Canada, some other nations
have signed on and signed on to the channels and all that. Tremendous.

All the body of Christ is needed this worldwide for the days that are
coming. For we know what's coming, greater persecution, greater
tribulation. This is only the beginning of sorrows that we're facing.

And to walk in strength, walk in power. And this does not come, again, I
reiterate this to you, this does not come of answer prayer and
prevailing for the Holy Spirit in a haphazard, inconsistent manner. It
will not happen.

It must be sought for and you will never obtain until you maintain a
vigilant prayer life saying, God, here I am again before you. Some
people say, well, I get tired, I get weary. And the absolute necessity
is to rest in trust in the presence of God.

And so Acts chapter two, what a wonderful prevailing that came. We know
that there were other episodes, the two chapters, Acts chapter four, and
when they were gathered together and had shared, Peter and John shared
what had happened and the place was shaken. Holy Spirit came again.

And I could fill the rest of this morning with the experiences of
revival, where God came down because somebody prevailed for the
outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Hebrides revival, I want to get into
this extremely on this. My boy's sitting here running the laptop for the
system here.

So I'm looking to him. Hebrides, the two sisters that prayed and
prevailed for the outpouring upon the Hebrides church, destitute, young
people absent from the church, nothing, nothing scattered, scattered
people sitting in the churches today without, you know, anybody being
fear of the Lord. Alcoholism was rampant, profanity on the streets,
broken homes, broken lives.

And the two sisters set themselves in front of God and said, this can't
go on. Now there's that determination. There's that dogmatic purpose.

We will not be denied. Deacon in the church starts a Friday night prayer
meeting in the barn and he prevailed and the Holy Spirit blew through
the barn because they did it exactly as the disciples did, the apostles
did, the 120 did in the upper room in Acts chapter 2. They did it the
way Christ said, wait until you be endued with power. That's prevailing.

That's where we're at brother sister. Where there is a time to pray and
there is a time to prevail. And we are in a day because of the crisis
and calamity to prevail in this.

Let's go on. Time wise, I won't make it through all of this. I mentioned
just a few moments ago, Jesus praying in the garden.

Now there's two answers to prayers here from John chapter 13, where
again, chapter 12, 13, where the last supper, the last words of Christ,
the feet washing. Judas goes out and betrays Christ to the Pharisees
that night to the Sanhedrin. And as he goes into the garden on that way
that he has this conversation with the disciples and he comes to Peter
and says, Peter, Satan has desire to sift you, to destroy you.

Now again, we know the attributes and the tactics of our enemy, or we
should. Maybe again, that's something I assume too much. The church
knows their enemy and we don't all the time.

Now Paul writes that in Corinthians where he said, we are not ignorant
of Satan's device. In other words, is that we've studied the antics of
our enemy and we know. And again, he comes to kill, to maim, to destroy.

Jesus tells us that in John. So we see. Now here's Jesus coming to
Peter, his beloved.

And he says to him, Simon, Peter, he says, Satan has desire to sift you.
And what's the words of Christ next? But I have prayed for you. Now it's
a wonderful thing where brothers and sisters, we get on here like this
and we'll say, I am praying for you.

And oh man, that's encouraging, isn't it? To know that someone's praying
for you. You know, I remember when we first started doing these prayer
conferences 15 years ago, when I was starting small groups, this church
I have an association with asked me to come in and share the burden on
my heart for prayer. My own church has said, I've done it.

And I would say, do you know three people that pray for you every day?
And again, there's that consistency. Are you praying for them? Someone
comes along and they'll say, you know, hey, I've got a test this week.
Hey, I've got a struggle.

Hey, I've got this issue. Would you pray for me? And they said, yes,
I'll pray for you. Now that need for that moment has now passed.

Are they still praying for you? You know, one of the things about
consistency is that when someone, for example, submits to me a need, and
they say, I've got this, let's just use cancer. I've got cancer, and
I've got to go through tests. My loved one's got cancer.

Would you put them on your prayer list? So I add them into the prayer
group. And as you bring those names and those requests before the Lord
day in and day out, there are times, two weeks, three weeks, a month,
six weeks, and comes back around and you send a text, you send a
message, you run into them and you say, hey, what's the update? I've
been praying for you and I wanted to get an update. Now that person
didn't realize that it wasn't just someone saying, I'm praying for you.

And they had a mental thought about it. And they went on and they never
wrote it down and they never rehearsed it before God and they never
prevailed. Versus that person that day in and day out holds them up
before the Lord and says, I'm praying for you day in and day out.

Now there is a, I'm telling you, brother, sister, there is a vast
difference in the church today between the person that does the prayer
one and done versus this great need that we're talking about for
revival, for spiritual awakening in our nation and in the church is that
this cannot be done with one and done. It must be done day in and day
out. Now some people have been praying for it for decades.

Some people have prayed for it and died and been buried and never saw.
But that till their dying breath, they was before God asking for it.
There is where I, I mentioned last night, I am not content talking about
content.

I am not content to one, to live this life without ever seeing. Now
again, I am surrendered to the will of God. I may be dead and buried and
never say it, but the blessing may come to my children, my
grandchildren, and they will see, and they will experience, and they
will say, that's because dad, that's because Pat prayed for this day in
and day out, talked about it, wept over it, rejoiced in it, longed for
it, was passionate about it, and was content with nothing less than
prevailing before God.

Christ holds Peter up at that night of great battle. Satan has desire to
sift me, but I have prayed for you. Most people do not have three people
to pray for them every day.

And again, for us to develop a prayer law that is consistent with what
is pleasing to God, is that you be consistent in praying for people that
you said that you will pray for. And we come to the second part of this,
where Jesus enters into the garden, and again, this great wrestling that
took place with him, and it was for the plan of salvation to be
introduced into the world through his death, through his horrible death.
And all that went through there, and again, to read those passages in
the Gospels, what they did to Christ during that night in which he was
betrayed after he had come out of the garden, to the time where he said
it is finished, and he gave up, and he gave up the gifts.

And to know that in the midst of this, it all happened because of what
took place in the garden where he prevailed. Because in the garden, he
was left with a choice to either walk away, Father, let this cup pass
from me, but again, prevail. Nevertheless, boy, there's a key right
there, nevertheless, God will be done.

And so he prevailed in that. So two instances in the garden of
Gethsemane that night of which Christ prevailed, where he prayed for
Peter, and Peter was delivered. Again, he did deny Christ, but again,
that was a humbling, where Peter said, oh, I'll die with you, I'm
willing to die.

He said, this night, you will deny me three times. But again, he was not
lost. He was not as the son of perdition as Judas, who could not be
redeemed, and that was because Christ prayed for him in the garden.

Let's go on and mention some others of these, because I'd like to get
through some of this before we take some moments to pray over these
phrases and these things this morning. Over in the book of Acts chapter
10, we have Cornelius. Now, Cornelius wasn't even a Christian at this
particular point, but here's Cornelius, knows about God, has learned,
he's in the Jewish state, he has learned to fear God, he's learned to
give alms, he's learned to fast, and again, and we come into chapter 10,
and the angel comes to Cornelius, and he says, Cornelius, he says, your
prayers and your alms have been received and accepted before the Lord.

And Peter was sent forth to bring the words of eternal life to him. And
so Peter comes, and the message is shared, an angel showed up and told
me that my prayers and my alms have been received by God, and that you
were sent forth that you might bring the words of life to me. And he
speaks to them about Christ, and again, the outpouring of the Holy
Spirit, and all of his family was saved and baptized, and he was filled
with the Holy Spirit.

And again, they marveled that God had done this to the Gentiles. And so
what a testimony that a man praying day in and day out, longing, and we
go back to the words of Pilate when he said, what is truth? You know
that there are people praying today that have no understanding of the
gospel worldwide, seeking truth. What is truth? You know, we talk about
Keith Green and his passion and his manner back in the 70s before he
passed away for the church, but you know that his testimony was that he
tried every religion that there was seeking for an answer.

And there are people out there today, and we'll pray for this here in a
moment, that are seeking for answers in every way. But here's Cornelius
crying out to the Lord God every day, not knowing about Christ, not
knowing all the details of it, but crying out if there is something
needed, reveal it to me, show it to me. If I need to do something,
Keith, tell me what I'm supposed to do.

That longing and passion, and day in and day out, coming before God and
content with nothing but the absolute truth. And there are men, women,
and children today that are seeking that same thing. And again, for God
to come, thy prayers and my alms have been heard and received, and I'm
going to send one of my servants to you who's going to do that.

We see this throughout all scripture where God intervenes on the
lostness of people to send one of the saints, and God might send you to
someone today so that they might prevail for their loss to stay. Jano
was sent to Nineveh. You have the Philip who was sent down to the
Ethiopian Union down in the desert.

You have numerous examples of this where God sends his people to the
lost and gives them word and gives them warning for the saving of their
soul, someone for them. So Cornelius prevailed. What a great testimony
in the midst of this.

Also, let's just say in the book of Acts right now, and a couple
chapters after this with Cornelius, is that Peter is arrested. And we
have in the account of scripture one of the great phrases here that I
want, again, to incorporate for you. R.A. Torrey preached on this, and
this is where I picked this up from, is that Peter was arrested.

They're planning on killing him. And it says that the church gathered
themselves together. And as they gathered themselves together in an all-
night prayer meeting, now this is one of the things, again, that I
talked about.

Why are we doing this all weekend long? Again, it is the protracted
prayer meeting that is missing from most churches and most prayer
movements today that is absolutely necessary. Protracted, meaning
stretched out, a long endurance of prayer. We do, we believe in the two-
minute prayer.

You know, again, you remember when it was come out in the Christian
circle somewhere back in the 80s or 90s, and it said the one-minute
Bible reading or the one-minute devotion. You know, we've gotten in this
day and age so condensed just to hit it and go on. And there's no
longevity of being before the Lord.

Be still and know that I am God. You know, that being still takes time.
And that's the one thing that the church is not giving to the necessity
of prevailing.

It takes time. Content to come before God day in and day out. But I will
prevail.

I will not be denied in the midst of this. Come boldly before the throne
of Christ because God cannot lie and he's going to fulfill his promise.
That's the absolute perversity of a prayer that comes before God for the
need that's at hand with this.

And the church, now, there is life and death here. Peter's going to be
killed in the morning. The church gathers for a prayer meeting all night
long.

They didn't sign a petition. They didn't go before the Sanhedrin to
protest and to riot, as we see in this day and age, of people's remedies
for their issues. They didn't, you know, block traffic and all those
kind of things.

They had a prayer meeting and they prayed all night long. And the angel
came, as you know, the great miracle, and brought Peter out of shackles,
out of the prison house, through the gates, and brought him right to the
house where he knocked. And they didn't even believe it.

They were praying, but they didn't believe that God had answered their
prayer. Now, there again, it's something that we've got to be cautious
about. Don't pray and then have a spirit of unbelief in the midst of
what you're asking.

Oh, that'll never happen. Oh, this world's too wicked. We'll never see a
spiritual awakening.

Oh, the church is too far gone. We'll never see a revival. We don't need
any unbelief like that in prayer.

And if your mind and your heart is there, then repent of that, because
again, it is to have faith. God is pleased. Now, without faith, it is
impossible to please God, Hebrews 11 to 6. Have faith in God.

He is able to do exceedingly abundant above all that we could ask or
think. Believe. If you're going to pray for Peter to come out of jail
and be delivered from death, then believe.

And what you're praying for, petitioning for, believe it. And if there
be signs of unbelief, questioning, I prayed for this for so long and I
just haven't seen any change, I might as well just give up. You know, it
doesn't seem like anybody else in the church cares.

I'm carrying this burden all by myself. You know, and again, I just say
a word to that. I know some of you that are on here that you have
carried the burden long.

I've had people, prayer warriors, and it's in my own pastoral support.
You know, I can't get anybody to come to a prayer meeting. And I know
that that's discouraging and I know that's trying.

But again, that's Satan's tactics to get you to stop being with that
urgency and fervency and prevail. You stay at it. And there are others.

There is a remnant. One of the last words that T.W. Hunt ever instructed
to me over and over and over, he said, don't ever forget the remnant.
There is a remnant out there that they pray day and night.

They do not cease to cry out to God. Now here, with such circumstances,
Peter's going to be killed in the morning. There's a time for it.

You don't have weeks. You don't have time to rally and get other people
and say, hey, now next week, let's get together and have prayer. It is
an emergency.

Life and death. And it's time to pray right now. That means everything
else is clear.

All the schedules are abandoned. We get focused on what God wants us to
do. Life and death.

And you must see this, brother, sister, hear me. While I'm doing this,
why I ever do this, this is what God has stirred within me. This is that
urgency within me.

We are out of time as a nation. We are in a means, oh Lord, that again,
there is not going to be an answer. There is not going to be there's not
going to be 10 years from now, five years from now.

We are in crunch hour. And again, to get people to understand that,
because most people's mindsets are, oh, we're going to come out of this.
Next year will be better.

Next year. Who's to say we're even going to see next year as a nation?
On this current course, where we're at, what we see happening, well,
we're not going to make it to December 31st. But the way things
happening every week, every day, another episode, another event, another
protest, another shooting, another issue, we're not going to see
December 31st.

We're going to come apart. And we won't have opportunities like this. We
are, this is the reason of the urgency of doing this before the return
on September the 27th.

Prevail before we get there. And this is the part of this. Life and
death.

Souls are going to perish. Souls are perishing. The reason of the
coronavirus being such an issue, and again, I don't care about your
conspiracy theories or any of that stuff.

People are dying. People have always been dying. We know that.

But this is hastening them out faster and faster. And they are going out
of this world, 90% of them, without price. And the urgency of the hour
is that we must reach them.

Life and death. They're not going to see the sunrise in the morning. For
someone that you and I know, this is their last day.

This is that urgency of prevailing. And so Peter's life was in jeopardy.
The church prayed.

And as R.A. Torrey says, the church stretched itself out before God. And
they prayed, and God heard them, and God answered them. They prevailed.

But because they stretched themselves out, you ever do that in the
firmament of God, you're laying prostrate, you stretch your hand out
like the woman did. If I could just touch the hem of his garment, just
touch the steps, the feet up to his front. Hold my hand.

Put your hand in the nail scarred hand. Just prostrate, but yet reaching
out to touch. Stretched out.

I will not be denied. This is the example of these prevails in
scripture. Let's go on.

Old Testament. Let's cover a couple of those. I mentioned last night in
Isaiah and in 2 Chronicles, we have this.

Two examples in 2 Chronicles chapter 32. The first one that I mentioned
last night was is that God comes to Hezekiah. Now Hezekiah was one of
those good kings who did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.

And we always love to read that. We come through 1 Kings, 2 Kings, 1
Chronicles. And they did that which was right in the sight of the Lord.

And you're like, yes. But man, for all the kings of Israel after
Rehoboam, from Jeroboam right on down to the end. And they did evil in
the sight of the Lord.

There was not one good king among the kings of Israel. Judah, they were
back and forth. But Hezekiah, he was doing it right.

Until this point. And God comes to him and says to him, he says, get
your house in order. You're going to die.

And it says is that Hezekiah was not content with that answer from the
Lord. We see, we see a couple passages in Scripture that teaches us this
is that you get a word from the Lord. And it is like, okay, that's the
will of the Lord.

And we just simply accept that. Now you read that passage in Acts where
Paul did that. Where Paul said, I have to go to Jerusalem.

I'm going to Jerusalem. The prophet Agabus had come down. They were told
this man is going to be bound.

He's going to be incarcerated. His life is going to be in jeopardy if he
goes. And people reasoned with him, Luke and the others that were with
him.

They argued with him saying, don't go down there. Don't, don't go to
Jerusalem. And he was determined.

I got to go down there. And he, they surrendered. And it says, and they
said, and the will of the Lord be done.

Now there are moments in life that you and I do not get a direct answer
from God. And as Christ said, nevertheless, Father, not my will be done,
but thy will be done. Christ had to suffer.

Christ had to die. And in life and death circumstances, God does not
bring all of them out of harm's way. God does not bring all of them out
of hazard's way.

God does not heal all. God does not raise all the dead. You read about
the resurrections of dead people, present day Washington scriptures, how
rare, how rare it was and how rare it is.

You know, Elijah raises one, Elisha raises one, Peter, Paul, just a few,
just a few. Lazarus, the power of resurrection is there, but it's not
mainly for the physical life. It's for the spiritual life.

I am the resurrection in life. And he that believeth in me, though he
were dead, yet shall he live. You and I as Christians will be alive
forevermore because of who Christ is.

Now, breaking away here, but Hezekiah turns his face to the wall upon
that news, and he does not accept the will of the Lord. He does not
accept the word of the Lord. And so he turns his face to the wall and it
says that he wept and he prayed to the Lord and he prevailed.

And he said, God, I have been righteous for you. I have been just for
you. I have loved you, served you, feared you.

I have been what you asked of me to be. Give me more time. And Isaiah
the prophet doesn't even get out of the king's palace.

He's out in the courtyard getting ready to exit out of the premises. And
God's spirit comes and speaks to him and says, go back to Hezekiah. Go
back and tell him you've got 15 more years of life.

He prevailed with God for extra time. I don't know that is, you know,
some people pray that all the time, but when you do it like Hezekiah
did, here's the lesson to learn from Hezekiah. In his extra 15 years,
what did he do? He was arrogant with the Babylonian princess that came
up.

When the word came is to say, when Isaiah came and said, who are these
people? And he said, well, these are the Babylonian princes. And he
said, and what have they seen? He said, I showed them everything. I
showed them all my riches, all my good pride.

He showed his pride. And Isaiah says, everything that they saw, they
will carry away in the Babylon in the near future. And Hezekiah's
response, which is an awful response.

It's an apathetic response. It's a lethargic response. It's a failure to
prevail.

He says, I don't care. So long as it doesn't happen to me in my
lifetime, I'm not worried about it. And if that's not the mentality for
so many churches and Christians today, if it doesn't impact me, I'm not
worried about it.

So long as I don't have to go through that, I don't care about
persecution. I don't care about the Nigerians who are losing their
lives. I don't care about the Iranian Christians being arrested and
thrown in jail and the keys thrown away.

I don't care about the butchery in North Korea. What an apathetic
statement. And it mirrored Hezekiah.

After God entrusted him with 15 extra years, he indulges himself and he
raises Manasseh, who was the most wicked king that was ever brought for
Judah. He did more things to provoke God. But even Manasseh, his
wickedness prevailed with God.

While he was taken and cast into prison down after they drove him
through the thorns and the briars, he was thrown in jail. And it says,
Manasseh prayed unto the Lord and God brought him back and restored him
as king to the throne. Even Manasseh prevailed.

Hezekiah prevails for life. Now, one of the passages there in 2
Chronicles 32 is that Hezekiah, the Assyrians have assembled and they
are the dominant force at this particular time. And they've already
ransacked and destroyed Israel.

Nation after nation is falling and toppling. And they come to Jerusalem
and they're taking the outer cities of Judah, falling left and right.
And one of the things, Benita, we'll see your comment there and you'll
address it.

And the enemy has come and they're outside the walls and they are
threatening against the Lord God and they are threatening against
Jerusalem and King Hezekiah. And Hezekiah and Isaiah go in before the
Lord and it says they fall down and they pray before God and they
beseech him for his name's sake. I mentioned this Thursday night for his
name's sake.

And they prayed for the victory, for deliverance from the king of
Assyria. And it says in that night, the angel of God went out and killed
180,000 Assyrians. Victory.

God took care of it. They prevailed. They prevailed for victory.

And they didn't amass an army. They didn't go out and fight. They didn't
protest.

They didn't sign a petition. They didn't worry about an election. They
went before God and God took care of it.

We must understand the rules of prevailing, what it is to come before
God. We must do it because of the urgency of the hour. The enemy is at
the gate.

Life and death is upon us. These circumstances that are clear and true.
Here we are in the midst of this.

So, one of the last ones that I want to give to you is over in 1 Kings.
And we have the prophet Elijah. So, I will conclude this and then we're
going to spend our last moments here as we get ready to transition here
in the next half hour.

Brother Bill, I hope you're coming on. So, I want to use my last
remaining time here for these prayer points that we go back over these
accounts in scripture. It's Elijah.

Now, again, Elijah took on Jezebel, took on Ahab, took on the prophets
of Baal. And they had this showdown on the mountain. Now, again,
remember is that over three years has gone and Elijah had been sent out
and said, there will be no rain until I say the word.

And for three years, God has been hiding him, protecting him, delivering
him from King Ahab and Jezebel looking for him to get rain. The crops
are gone. The livestock is impacted.

Water sources have dried up. Life and death, crisis, calamity, natural
disasters that bring these things on. You see the wildfires in
California.

You see the wildfires in Colorado. These things, drought, famines that
happen worldwide. These things come for a reason.

And when it comes to a culmination, a climax, is that the church gets
serious and they'll say, let's ask God for him. But the problem here is,
is that adultery has been the issue. And so, Elijah is sent back after
three years and he says, I'll go back and deal with this.

And so, Elijah says, go get the prophets of Baal together. We're going
to have a showdown. You know, or should know the account.

They go up on the mountain and all day long, they have their sacrifice
on their altar and they cut themselves and dance and scream and carry
on. But there's no voice. There's no answer to prayer.

There's no prevailing. Elijah gets up, rebuilds the altar of the Lord,
puts a sacrifice on it, calls for three barrels of water to be poured on
it, the most precious water that they needed, pour water on it, cries
out to the Lord God, show them that you're God, prevail. The fire comes
down out and it licks up the water and it licks up the altar and it
consumes the sacrifice.

And the people fall down in this prevailing that Elijah did and says,
the Lord, the Lord God, he is God. Now, that dealt with by adultery.
They prevailed there for the true God to be shown and demonstrated that
the issue is still at hand.

That's been there for three years. What is it? No rain. And so in that,
Elijah gets up and he goes to the top of the mountain.

And again, in this beautiful illustration for us, consistency, do not be
content until you prevail for what you're asking for. And it says is
that he went and he fell down and he prayed and he said to give, for God
to give rain. He's asking for God to, again, the adultery has been done.

The priests have been slain. They need rain. And he sends a servant and
says, now, good look.

Nothing. Seven times this takes place. And on the seventh time, he says,
I see the cloud the size of a man's hand.

And Elijah jumps up and he goes to the king and he says, get down
because he said the rain's coming. It's on its way. He prevailed.

Example after example through scripture. I love going down through these
because of the passages that remind us again of the faithfulness of God.
But these things do not come.

And I give you this warning again, before we start ready to pray for
these things. These things do not come by a haphazard, weak,
inconsistent, unbelieving, faithless prayer. Church, you and I as
individuals, when you enter in your secret closet, dogmatically
resolved, I will not be denied as I'm praying for his kingdom, for lost
souls, for issues at hand, life and death, eternity, victory, power of
the Holy Spirit to be demonstrated, answers to prayers.

These are the things that we must be resolved in to be faithful
Christians. And so whatever it is that's keeping you from being faithful
to the Lord in your prayer life, you will never prevail if you continue
as such. And so it's time for us again that we look, go back and look at
our prayer lines.

Lord, have I been faithful? Day in and day out, have I been faithful?
Lord, you burden me for revival. Have I brought that to you
consistently? Have I believed that you could honestly do it? Have I
stretched myself out? Have I prevailed? Now it is in this day and age
because of the crisis of our hour for our nation, for the church, is
that again, we are at the end road here of this timeline. And so again,
there's not months to go on like this.

The idea is that we must be resolved to be that much more persevering in
our steadfastness and our loyalty to the Lord to be before him. So let's
take our time now to have these prayer points in these last remaining
minutes to bring before the Lord. Now, first thing is, is that again, I
always love to begin with worship.

I always love to begin with just who God is and what God has done. His
name, his attributes, Jehovah Jireh. Lord, you are Jehovah Jireh.

You are the God that provides. The countless times that you prayed and
prevailed, God answered your prayer. Blessed be his name.

The testimony that you remember, write down, document, answer your
prayers in your life that you can go back as an encouragement when you
do get discouraged, when you do start to lose sight and lose faith and
lose hope. Go back to those moments and say, yeah, but God was faithful.
That's why I walk through these passages in the Bible this morning, is
to remind you that God is faithful.

God is a God who hears and answers prayers. He fulfills Jeremiah 33. He
fulfills Matthew 7. He fulfills John 14.

He's faithful. He's a God that hears. He's a God that answers.

He's a God that provides. Again, let's go on with worship here. Now,
shall we call his name? Jesus.

He shall save his people from their sins. Lord, you someone prayed for
me and prevailed. I don't know all the people that prayed for me in my
salvation, but God heard their prayer and answered.

They prevailed from my losses and Jesus saved me from my sins. Thank
you, Christ, that you are the ruler of the Lord, the anointed one. Thank
you, Jesus, that you cleansed me from my sin.

Thank you for your prevailing in the garden, that you surrendered to the
will of the Father saying, nevertheless, Father, not my will is done.
Thank you for that. Thank you for your willingness to pray for me as you
prayed for Peter.

Satan has desired to sift you, but Christ has prayed for us. Christ
prayed for you. Christ prayed for me.

You said, where did he pray for me? In John 17. He prayed for all the
church in John 17. And Isaiah 53, where's he at? He's at the right hand,
still making intercession for us.

Thank you, Father. Thank you, Christ, for being the great intercessor.
Thank you for the power of the Holy Spirit.

Again, be endued with power from on high. And the testimonies that we
have read of the power from on high that came upon your Christians and
your churches that advanced your kingdom, glorified your name, because
they prevailed with you and they were not content. Charles Penny,
praying John Hyde, D.L. Mooney, R.A. Torrey, right on down the line I
could go with all these saints.

They got before God and they said, stretch ourselves out and we will not
leave until we are endued with power from on high. And God answered
that. Many of you could share that testimony.

Thank God for that testimony right now of God's faithfulness to you.
Let's switch here in a moment now just to bring before him as we
recognize that there's not a problem on God's part. God is the same
yesterday, today, and forever.

And the same God that we look at in these scriptures of answer prayer is
the same God that stands before us this morning as we enter into the
throne room of grace. And there he is. He's the same.

It's us. And there are many that testify already through last night and
through today. We already know this reality.

We've not been a faithful people. We've not been a praying people. Most
churches are not houses of prayer.

So we confess before the Lord that problem is not God. The problem is
us. In our iniquities, in our sins, in our transgressions, he convicts
us about that we must be found faithful.

We must come before him and realize that, Lord, I have questioned your
will. I have not been like Hezekiah and prayed for you to change that.
I've not been as faithful for the friends of Paul who said,
nevertheless, the will of the Lord be done.

I've been fighting against your will. Forgive me for that. Unbelief.

I questioned you, God. I know what the Bible says. I know what the
promises are.

But in my mind, Satan has laid has laid traps for me. He's tried to
cause me to doubt. He's filled me with unbelief.

And I ask for forgiveness. In Mark chapter nine, the father says to
Jesus, Jesus said to him, if thou canst believe, all things are
possible. The father of the child cried out and said, Lord, I believe.

Forgive me for praying for revival, but we never expected it. We've
never been prepared for it. We never planned for it.

Nations in crisis, life and death. Oh, God, forgive us that we've been
so apathetic. We're like Hezekiah.

As long as it doesn't happen to me, I don't care. Oh, God, forgive us
for our apathy. Go into Jerusalem and wait till you be endued with
powerful wonder.

Father, forgive me. I have not claimed it before you to be endued. I got
up and dressed and went out to try to do church.

You cannot do church on the night of the Spirit. It is a blasphemy and
it is a heresy against the Lord God. Church can only be done in the
power of the Holy Spirit.

And God, forgive the humanism that is upon so many. So here we are in
the midst of this, for this hour and this day, how we need God. So
again, we're crying out to the Lord for the forgiveness of these sins,
the things that have been steadfast, haven't been loyal, haven't been
persevering.

And I've been content to never prevail. Prayed for my lost loved ones,
but if they're saved, they're saved. If they're not, they're not.

I just simply accept the will of the Lord. Do you know the will of the
Lord? God's will is that I would have none to perish. I would have none
to go away from me.

That's not God's will that any should be damned. That's not his will.
And we should not be content with that.

Prevail for those lost loved ones. Someone prevail for you. You prevail
for them.

You be faithful to pray for the lost and bring them to the Lord. Let's
go down through this now. Those are the confessions that we recognize by
these passages of scripture.

Nothing doubt, nothing inconsistent, but again, a resolve. And again,
maybe this is where you just need to petition the Lord saying, Lord,
I've been discouraged. And this is honest.

Lord, I've been discouraged. I've been unfaithful in my prayer room. You
know, again, I read this morning, one of the headlines for news is that
they're ready to go back into some of these schools that have been shut
down for months and that the bacteria has grown in the water systems
because it's just live dormant.

And you go into a lot of people's secret closets and the cobwebs are
growing over because it's live dormant. And Lord, I resolve this day by
the power of the Holy Spirit. Stir me up again.

Gave me a hunger, a taste for revival, for spiritual awakening, for
prayer. And I've let it fall by the wayside. Lord, I pick this back up
again and ask you to renew me.

Pray for each other. There are brothers and sisters that are struggling.
They're in need for this hour, this day to prevail before God.

Pray, pray for them. Those churches that you say, well, we've got a
vibrant prayer meeting. All glory to God for that.

But you know that the vast majority of churches don't have any prayer
meeting. Pray for the church that they would be a praying people once
again to prevail before God for this hour. And again, back to Acts
chapter 2 that we looked at, and they came together with one body, one
accord, one mind, and they prevailed.

And God endued them with power from on high. And they changed. Here
comes these men that have turned the world upside down.

When I turn the world upside down again, it's because we prevail with
God to be endued with power from on high. And pray that that priority
would be upon the church. Not about being entertaining.

Not about having latest self-helps. Not about tickling up the ears, but
about prevailing for God. His kingdom come, His will be done.

And in a petition and prayer, I'm asking you to make for this prevailing
is that God would be God in the midst of our days. We're in a crisis
hour. We're in trials and tribulations, the beginning of sorrows.

We see these things unfolding, and you and I as the church to come
before Him is to say again, Father, show us your glory. Pour out your
spirit. Again, with the return next month, October the 6th, Plymouth,
Massachusetts, these multiple prayer gatherings and activities where
people are crying out to God because they realize the urgency of the
hour.

Not all the church gets this. Pray for the body of Christ that there
will be that urgent, fervent spirit in this hour of emergency. And
again, God's will to be done.

For me as an individual, for you as an individual, praying for our
brothers and sisters that are on with us and praying for all the body of
Christ, God will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. And you
answer the question, how is God's will done in heaven? God will be done
here on earth as His will is done perfectly in heaven. Let it be done
the same way here.

Again, we look at these, they're life and death. We talked about Peter
over in the book of Acts. We talked about Hezekiah, get your house in
order, or you're going to die.

And life was preserved. To Peter that night and to Hezekiah, God gave
time, life. In this crisis hour, I saw this morning in the Post on
social media, so-and-so needs prayer.

They're in the intensive care unit. They're facing an uphill battle.
Life is fragile.

Life is being tempered. And then are they going to survive? Are they
going to make it? Calamity has come. Tragedy has come.

And we're crying out to them, Lord, preserve them. Preserve them. You
are the giver of life.

You are the taker of life. The Lord, we're asking for life. So Lord,
again, that they may be used of you, not wasteful like Hezekiah.

Well, Hezekiah was proud, raised Manasseh, the most wicked man, wicked
king ever. Don't waste that extra time that God has given you. Many of
you would have a testimony if I was to open it up for you that you could
share.

I've been healed. I was near death and the church prayed and someone
come and anointed me and I was brought up out of the death bed. Have you
taken the time that God has entrusted in you to make the most of it? So
Lord, not just to give them life, but to have life so that it might be
used for His kingdom's sake, His name's sake.

So these prayers, again, as we walk down through the scriptures, you
know, again, about eight nine passages from here, just to bring before
the Lord where they prevailed. We stand in a nation like Elijah did and
he prevailed to the Lord. The Lord, He is God, He is God.

He prevailed on that and He prevailed for the rain. We have the natural
calamities. We pray for the wildfires.

We pray for the hurricane remnants of that which is happening. Lives
have been lost. Property has been destroyed.

People's lives have been turned upside down. Calamities, earthquakes,
right on down the line we go because of, again, the judgments that are
upon our nation. And here we as the church to prevail for them.

God, you be glorified. May people be brought back. You know, people that
have been raised, again, raise a child in the ways that they should go.

When they're old, they will not depart. Lord, my children have departed
from the faith. They've walked away.

Lord, bring them back. And if it be through a natural calamity, if it be
through a pestilence, if it be through economic turmoil, if it be
through anarchy on the streets, bring them back that they realize that
you are the Lord, the Lord God. Every prayer moment that is happening
September 26th and on October the 6th is to bring the nation back to
God.

The remnant understands the signs of the times. They understand is that
the handwriting on the wall, I want to close with this because my time's
up, but I want to close with this. One of the things that I have
expressed this morning, sharing these scriptures of those that prevail,
I want to encourage you to do a study.

Why don't you walk through the scriptures and see those who do not
prevail? I gave you Hezekiah. He turned his face to the wall and he wept
and he prevailed. God gave him 15 extra years.

But on the night that the king of Babylon, the handwriting was written
in Daniel chapter 5, the handwriting was on the wall and they brought
Daniel in and he interpreted it and he said, King, you knew what the
Lord God did for your father Nebuchadnezzar. You have still dishonored
him and blasphemed him and this night thy soul shall be requited. This
night you have been weighed in the balances and found wanting.

This night the means and the Persians are going to come in and destroy
this city and this empire. This night. No one humbled himself.

No one cried out to God, give us time. We repent. Jonah goes into
Nineveh and he says you got 40 days and they repented and they
prevailed.

But later on we read in the Old Testament that God destroyed Nineveh
because again after those years of Jonah they didn't stay there. We've
had the Great Awakening in 1700s, Great Awakening in 1800s, Great Prayer
Movement, Welsh Revival, Hebrides, Canadian Revival. On and on we could
go through in our history as a nation.

We have had multiple opportunities to see the power of God and prevail
for his glory being saved. Every time we fall back away. At this time
we've gotten worse and worse and worse.

And so here we are. Crisis hour. It is the hour of prevailing.

And so these scriptures God is faithful. The question is are we faithful
in that prayer closet? Faithful to come to him consistently steadfastly
day in and day out and say Lord use me. Here am I Lord.

Lord let my prayer life be honoring and glorifying to you. Don't let me
be found missing the mark. Keep me O God now unto him that is able to
keep me from fault and to present you faultless and blameless before his
presence.

All honor glory to you.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/D-CYud_W6Gs.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/dan-biser/lesson-of-prevailing-prayer-in-the-scriptures/
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