A Stranger to Prayer

Stephen Olford had a ministry to ministers where he personally trained hundreds of pastors in expository preaching. He often would tell me that he had discovered that the average pastor only spent ten minutes a day in prayer. Ten minutes! And then Dr. Olford would say that a preacher was only as tall in the pulpit as he was long on his knees in prayer.

Stephen Olford was a man of prayer. He taught me how to have a daily time of prayer myself through the daily quiet time with my Lord. We would often pray together for an hour at a time.

When I study revival history I see that the men God used were men of prayer. Troll Sphinney would spend an entire afternoon in a grove of woods on his knees in prayer before he went to preach. D.L. Moody's pulpit prayers before he began his sermon were often longer and weightier than our sermons today.

A worn-out half-dead George Whitefield could always be found on his knees by his bed engaged in prayer before he retired for the evening. John Sung's daughter said of her father, that praying five hours at a time was not too much for him. But we preachers today on average spend ten minutes a day in prayer.

And because we don't spend much time in prayer we don't know how to pray. I remember a pastor whom I asked to pray for me as I was in a very deep crisis. I thought this man would spend some serious time in prayer with me because my need was so crucial, so deep, and so great.

He gave me five seconds as he casually prayed the most superficial prayer I ever heard. He said, God this man needs a Hail Mary pass. We pray you give it to him.

Amen. That's what that shallow pastor prayed. I feel sorry for his congregation to have such a pitiful shepherd who's such a stranger to prayer.

And that's the title of my message today friends, Stranger to Prayer. In Mark's gospel we get a peek into the prayer life of Jesus. In chapter 1 and verse 35 we read, And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place and there prayed.

Jesus knew the necessity of spending time alone with God the Father in prayer. But do we? We know how to spend time at a ball game. We know how to spend time on a golf course.

We know how to spend time sitting in front of a TV until our eyes grow the size of saucers and our brain the size of a pea. But do we know what it is like to spend time with God in prayer? If it's true that the average pastor only spends 10 minutes a day in prayer, then how about his congregation? A congregation will often reflect their pastor. If the pastor is a soul winner, then usually his people will be soul winners as well.

If the pastor is a man of prayer, then he will have a praying people. We don't mind spending four or five hours on a golf course, but you can't find us on our knees in one hour of prayer. But the times are so desperate in our nation, friends, that we should all be better persons of prayer.

We should be continually on our faces, crying out to God for the sins of the land. We should be engaged in desperate prayer for the salvation of our loved ones and in prayer for the lost in our community. If the carpet in the sanctuary is not wet with the tears of broken-hearted saints in prayer, then how can we even call ourselves a church? I fear many of us today are yet a stranger to prayer.

Like that pitiful example of a pastor who prayed for me about that Hail Mary pass. He gave me five seconds because I don't believe he knew how to pray longer than that. I believe prayer can change a man's ministry and transform one's entire life.

Let me share a personal story with you, friends. I want to read you part of my introduction to my biography on the life of the mightily used evangelist, Rolf Barnard, because it deals with our subject of prayer today. A word of encouragement to my preacher brethren.

The germination of this project is a result of the following story. While rereading David Wilkerson's book, The Cross and the Switchblade, I was impressed by a facet in Wilkerson's life. Early in his ministry, he was a country pastor who spent the hours of midnight to 2 a.m. watching television to unwind and relax.

One evening, God challenged Wilkerson to give that time to him. Wilkerson sold his TV and never replaced it. From that point forward, he gave God midnight to 2 a.m., and it was during this time that God called Wilkerson to New York City to minister among teen gang members, eventually starting Teen Challenge.

I realized that God did not reveal this wider ministry opportunity to Wilkerson until he chose to go deeper with God in a sacrificial daily quiet time. I had maintained a daily regular quiet time for many years, but lately my time with the Lord was missing something. There was no sacrifice attending it, and the God of the Bible delights in sacrifice, free sacrifice to his only begotten Son for sinful man.

After reading Wilkerson's story, I made a covenant with God to rise at 4.30 a.m. and give God the first hour and a half of each day, walking with him. It's amazing how God honored that time. During this period, I became familiar about Barnard.

I'd never heard of Rolf Barnard before. No man told me about Barnard, but God did. God called me to write this biography on Barnard's life and gave me great assistance in performing this almost impossible task.

This book would not be in your hands had it not been for a willingness to go deeper with God. Let me ask you a question, and please be honest. Does your daily quiet time with God have a sacrificial aroma attending it? Is your sweetheart love for Christ more passionate today than yesterday? His desire is to spend time with you.

God is looking for a man, for a woman to walk with. Those Enochs will be translated to a deeper walk and wider usefulness to him for his glory.