Sustaining Prevailing
Prayer
First
Assembly of God, Lufkin, TX, 8/23/06
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I.
IHOP Missions Base, Kansas City, MO
A. The
International House of Prayer Missions Base began 24/7 prayer in September 19,
1999. Since that time prayer and worship has not stopped.
B. There
are over 800 people in our family including our Bible School and internships
giving themselves to prayer, serving, and going deep in the Lord.
C. I
pray on the Night Watch, the 12-6 am section of IHOP with about 100-120 staff
and interns.
1.
I serve the Night Watch as an Associate Worship Leader. My
worship leader and I lead six two-hour sets per week.
2.
I have the privilege of pouring into the lives of 60-100 young
adults in the Fire in the Night internship from all over the world who come
every three months and spend six hours a night, six nights a week in the prayer
room.
II.
A Vision for One Thing
A. I
believe David’s vision statement for His life is found in Psalm 27:4,
One thing I have
desired of the LORD, that will I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the
LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to
inquire in His temple.
B. David
wanted to be a man of deep intimacy with God and a man who gave his life to
prayer.
III.
The Need for Sustained Prayer
A. The
overwhelming need of the church today is prayer.
1.
Jesus told His disciples in Luke 24:49, “I am going to send
you what my Father has promised; but stay in the city until you have
been clothed with power from on high.” (NIV)
2.
Jesus told his disciples to stay until this promise of the
Father came.
3.
This is what Jesus has called His church to do: waiting in prayer
for the promise of the Father.
a)
However, in prayer we are doing so much more then just casually
“waiting”.
b)
We are prevailing in prayer awaiting a Kingdom that is to come
but is now here.
4.
The disciples waited in the upper room, and then from that place
of waiting, the Holy Spirit came.
a)
After waiting in the upper room in Acts 2 the Holy Spirit did
come with power and authority on the preaching of the gospel and over 3,000 people
were brought into the Kingdom on the first day.
B. Isaiah
62:6-7
On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; all day and all night they will never keep
silent. You who remind the Lord, take no rest for yourselves; and
give Him no rest until He establishes and makes Jerusalem a praise in
the earth.
1.
The Lord is raising up “watchmen” who will give me “no rest”
until the kingdom of God is established in the nations of the earth with its
seat of government in the New Jerusalem.
2.
God is asking for a continual cry to arise before His throne
filling the heavenly bowls with intercession! (see Revelation 5:8)
C. Luke
18:6-7
Then the Lord said, “Hear
what the unjust judge said. 7And shall God not avenge His own elect
who cry out day and night to Him, though He bears long with them? 8I
tell you that He will avenge them speedily.
1.
Day and night prayer brings about speedy justice.
2.
We need speedy justice in our nation, our cities, in our
churches, and in our families.
D. For
this purpose, God is orchestrating a global worship and prayer movement that
will bring about a great harvest of souls and will prepare the way for the
second coming of Jesus.
E. Luke
2 briefly tells the story of a woman named Anna.
1.
After being married for seven years, Anna became a widow.
2.
Verse 37 says that Anna “never left the temple, serving night
and day with fastings and prayers.”
3.
This woman, at the age of 84, was privileged to see with her own
eyes the answer to her 60 or so years of night and day intercession: a young
woman and man walking in to the temple carrying the hope of all the world, the
baby, Jesus Christ.
4.
Just as God called Anna before the first coming of the Lord to
pray night and day, we are also living in a time when God is raising up people
all over the world to pray before his second coming…
F.
Prayer is the Method of the Great Commission Being Fulfilled
1.
God is raising up this prayer movement for this very purpose: to
pray for laborers to fulfill the Great Commission. Jesus said, “The
harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord
of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:37, 38)
2.
This is the strategy Jesus gave to His disciples for getting
laborers to go to the mission field: prayer.
3.
Having been called of God as a teenager to be a part of
fulfilling the Great Commission, I find myself now right in the middle of God’s
strategy for actually pulling this dream off that I had as a teenager!
IV.
Prevailing in Prayer- Joining with the Son in intercession
A. Right
now, before the throne, Jesus is interceding (see Rom. 8:34, Heb. 7:25).
B. When
we pray we are joining with the cries of the Great Intercessor, Jesus before
the throne.
C. The
Father calls us in Isaiah 42 to look at His Servant, Jesus. Several parts of
the passage give us a picture into the intensity of Jesus. Verses 1-5:
“Behold, My Servant,
whom I uphold; My chosen one {in whom} My soul delights. I have put My Spirit
upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations… 4He will not
be disheartened or crushed until He has established justice in the
earth; And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.”
1.
Verse four says that he will not be disheartened or crushed until
He has established justice in the earth.
2.
I like the way the New Living Translation puts the last part of
this verse, “until truth and righteousness prevail throughout the
earth”.
3.
Jesus is so incredibly tenacious about seeing righteous, truth
and justice prevail in the nations of the earth.
D. Later
in verses 13-14 we see a rather violent picture of Jesus:
The LORD will go forth like a
warrior, He will arouse {His} zeal like a man of war. He will utter a
shout, yes, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail against His
enemies. “I have kept silent for a long time, I have kept still and restrained
Myself. {Now} like a woman in labor I will groan, I will both gasp and
pant.
1.
This is a violent picture! You can not get much more violent then
a woman in labor!!
2.
This is the heart of Jesus that we are to behold. In beholding we
are transformed and begin to take this very heart with us into intercession.
V.
Sustaining Prayer- Intimacy with God
A. Prayer
in essence is communion with God. In its boiled down form, it really is simply
meant to be a conversation!
B. We
find in Jesus’ life His key to sustaining ministry and prayer- intimacy with His
Father (See Matthew 3:17-4:1, Matt. 14:13/Mark 6:31 after the death of John,
Matt. 14:23/Mark 6:46, Matthew 17:1-8, 26:30-46, and John 6:15)
1.
Jesus’ depth of communion with His Father and His relentless zeal
to do nothing unless He first saw the Father doing it (see John 5:19) shows us
our need to stay “connected” with the Father through prayer.
2.
In all of this, we are blessed with the Holy Spirit who helps us
in our weakness “with groanings too deep for words” (Romans 8:26)
C. Isaiah
56:6-7
Also the foreigners who join
themselves to the LORD, To minister to Him, and to love the name of the LORD,
To be His servants, every one who keeps from profaning the sabbath And holds
fast My covenant; 7 Even those I will bring to My holy mountain And make
them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their
sacrifices will be acceptable on My altar; For My house will be called a house
of prayer for all the peoples.
1.
We find this promise that God would make us happy when we pray.
2.
Much of our prayer times just don’t seem to be this way! But, we
have this promise from the Lord of enjoyable prayer.
3.
How does this happen? How can we actually enjoy prayer?
D. I
believe the first part of Isaiah 62 which we looked at earlier gives us the
answer. Verses 1-5 lead up to the prophetic promise of verses 6 & 7 that we
looked at earlier:
For Zion's sake I will not
keep silent, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet…And you will be
called by a new name which the mouth of the LORD will designate. You will also
be a crown of beauty in the hand of the LORD, And a royal diadem in the
hand of your God. It will no longer be said to you, “Forsaken,”
Nor to your land will it any longer be said, “Desolate”; But you will be
called, “My delight is in her,” And your land, “Married”; For the
LORD delights in you, And {to Him} your land will be married. For {as} a
young man marries a virgin, {So} your sons will marry you; And {as} the
bridegroom rejoices over the bride, {So} your God will rejoice over you.
1.
It really is in this place of seeing ourselves as the cherished
bride of Jesus that prayer becomes enjoyable.
2.
You freely converse with someone who you have confidence in their
love for you. However you keep your distance from someone whom you do not. It
is the same way with Jesus. However, Hebrews 4:16 says that we are to come
before His throne with confidence.
3.
Having confidence in Jesus love and delight in us is essential to
sustaining prayer.
Power
of Your Love
Words
and Music by Geoff Bullock, ©1992 Word Music, Inc. (ASCAP) (a div. of Word
Music Group, Inc.) / Maranatha! Music (ASCAP) (Admin. by The Copyright Company)