======================================================================== THE FRUITS OF INDIVIDUAL PRAYER by David Wilkerson ======================================================================== Summary: This sermon emphasizes the importance of having a dedicated and intense prayer life with God, drawing examples from biblical figures like Daniel and Jesus who prioritized secret prayer. It highlights the transformative power of spending quality time alone with God, seeking His face, and being open to His revelations. The speaker shares personal experiences of how committing to prayer led to a deeper understanding of God's will and a greater impact in ministry, urging believers to set aside time for intimate communion with the Lord. Topics: "The Power of Prayer", "Intimacy with God" Scripture References: Daniel 6:10, Matthew 14:23, Luke 6:12, Zechariah 12:10, 1 John 2:6, James 5:16, Psalm 27:8, Matthew 6:6, Philippians 4:6, Jeremiah 29:13 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DESCRIPTION ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This sermon emphasizes the importance of having a dedicated and intense prayer life with God, drawing examples from biblical figures like Daniel and Jesus who prioritized secret prayer. It highlights the transformative power of spending quality time alone with God, seeking His face, and being open to His revelations. The speaker shares personal experiences of how committing to prayer led to a deeper understanding of God's will and a greater impact in ministry, urging believers to set aside time for intimate communion with the Lord. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ CONTENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------ And he's made it very clear to me that many, many of our problems could be solved if we had, we'd just take the time to get along with God and seek Him, to have a regular daily intense time of prayer with the Lord. And when you go into this book and you find every man of God in history, in the Old Testament that was used by God, was an instrument of the Lord, an anointing of God, and miracles happened through his life or her life, you will find that they were men and women of secret prayer. They had this custom of shutting the world out, separating themselves from everybody and everything and having a quality time with the Heavenly Father. Daniel went to his room and he opened the window and he prayed, but he prayed in secret and he did it three times a day. He kneeled upon his knees three times a day and prayed and gave thanks before his God. Morning, noon and evening, bow to give thanks and to worship and praise his Heavenly Father. Now, you know, Jesus set the example for private praying. Scripture is full of it. He constantly sought out private places to pray and when he prayed, he sent his disciples away because he had to get along with his Heavenly Father. Matthew 14, 23, and when he sent the multitudes away, he went up to a mountain apart to pray and when evening was come, he was there alone, alone. You find it all through the ministry of Jesus and in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, departed into a solitary place, a solitary place. Nobody's around and there he prays. Mark 6, 46, and when he had sent them away, and these were his only disciples, he departed into a mountain to pray. He sent them away. God has to have you alone to himself. He has to, if I have learned anything, I will not get direction from the Lord. I will never reach my potential in Christ. I will never have the ministry he wants me to have unless I have quality time alone. This is what Jesus is saying to us, isolated, alone in isolated place. Luke 6, 12, it came to pass in those days that he went out into a mountain to pray and continued all night in prayer to God. You say, well, Pastor Dave, he was the son of the living God. He was supernatural. There is something that he has that I could not possibly do. But the scripture says very clearly, he that saith he abideth in him ought also to walk even as he walked. It is in secret prayer that God most reveals his heart to his people. God touched Daniel when he is in secret prayer, but he also informed him. He also gave him the revelations only when he was set in with God. While I was speaking and praying, Daniel said, and confessing my sin, while I was speaking to God in prayer, Gabriel touched me and he informed me and talked with me, said, I have come to show thee for thou art greatly beloved. While in prayer, God gave Daniel the revelation that goes all the way through history by alone with him. He is a spirit of grace and supplication according to Zachariah the prophet. If you have the Holy Ghost in you, there is an urgency to pray. You take the time, you set the time. All through the Testament, all through the book here, all through the Old Testament, you find, and he set his heart to seek the Lord. He set his heart, he set his heart, he set his heart. And my father kept telling me, David, there's only 24 hours of the day. You have the same amount of hours as Elijah had. You can pray as diligently and as long and as faithfully as Elijah or any other man of God in the Old Testament. My father pounded that lovingly, reminded me constantly, David, God always makes a way for a praying person. God always makes a way. Others may not find the way. You may not get the education. You may not have all of the money and things that they have, but God always knows the man or woman who prays and God will make a way. And he has done that. I got away from that when I pastored a little church up in the hills of Pennsylvania, Phillipsburg, and there was a major blessing. But folks, there came a time I said, God, there has to be more than this. It wasn't I wanted to be somebody great, wasn't looking for some great ministry, but there was a hunger in my heart for more of the Lord. I wanted to know him and I wanted to know more of this word. And I wanted the revelation that I had a problem. I was addicted to television at night, but God spoke to me. And he said, David, think of the hours you spend watching this thing. If you get this out of your house and just give me the equal time, give me the time you spent watching television, give it to me, spend it in prayer and I'll use you. I'll turn your life around and you'll never be the same. Within a week it was gone. And I went into my little room. I shut the door. That's all right, Lord. Now it's your time. But there's something about the Holy Spirit. When you set your heart, you say, Lord, I'm tired of the way I'm living. I'm tired of the defeat. I'm tired of the lack of fruit. There was a major blessing, but I saw God. There's a whole world dying and going to hell. God, there's got to be more. There was a burning in my heart. I started going out into the woods. That little Bible about this size, sit under a tree and begin to feed on the word, begin to pray. Because when I was on my knees in those woods for months, God began to break and melt my heart. He began to show me the white fields to harvest. He began to tell me his heart, things I'd never seen or heard or known. I would come into church and try to teach my son's class and just collapse, weep and break. They thought I'd have a nervous breakdown. Folks, I'd never been saner in my life. That one day after months of prayer, I'd look out over the hills and so God said, over those hills, there's a whole world dying. I didn't know anything about drugs, alcohol. I didn't know the world was so wicked. I was in a nice little town, 1500 people. I was safe, nice little parsonage, lovely children. New York was like Hong Kong. But there was something brewing in my heart. I knew God was doing something. And when I picked up Life magazine and saw seven boys indicted for murder at a murder trial, God spoke. This is what it's all about, David. Now you're going to go. I'm going to use you now. I've been preparing you for months now. You've been on your face. I came to New York City and God raised up a ministry that's now all over the world. Folks, I still remember the first five or six trips to New York. The first one, I couldn't get 50 miles out of town. I had to stop the car and go pray. Just stop it on the side of the road, run up behind the trees and get down and seek the face of God and weep and cry. And I didn't know why. I'd go another 50 or 100 miles and stop and pray. I still go down on some of these highways and there are trees and landmarks that I still recognize that still warm my heart because that's where I met God alone. Nobody else. I met God alone. And I walked the streets and cried and I was on the subways and cried and on the Staten Island ferry boat and cried and wept because God enlarged my vision. And he wants to enlarge your vision. He won't do that unless you get along with him and seek his face. You could make a pledge, you can make a commitment right now, but all Holy Spirit come. We can't make commitments in the strength of our flesh. But Holy Spirit, you who abide, you abide in us. God, come now and help us to overcome our flesh. I am going to seek the face of God. I want to be fruitful and multiply. I want God to use my life. Spirit of the living God, come now. Oh, Holy Spirit, awaken the church of Jesus Christ to have a secret closet of prayer, to get alone with God, to seek him with all that is in him, I pray. Amen. ======================================================================== Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/Aakmzoq66lY.mp4 Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/david-wilkerson/the-fruits-of-individual-prayer/ ========================================================================