In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of prayer and the need for believers to seek God's help and intervention in their lives. He highlights the example of the apostle Paul, who despite his strong faith and anointing, recognized the need for prayer and relied on the subordinate plan of God for deliverance. The speaker also addresses the dangers that Christians face, both externally and within their homes, such as ruin, separation, and divorce. He calls for a sense of desperation and a return to seeking God through prayer, rather than relying on human solutions or seeking advice from others. The sermon concludes with a reminder that prayer should not be selfish, but rather focused on the needs of others and the advancement of God's kingdom.

Please turn to 2 Corinthians, the first chapter. A message this morning, helpers in prayer. Helpers in prayer. I'm talking about a new kind of ministry that very few are aware of and probably one of the most needed in the Church of Jesus Christ in this trying time. 1 Corinthians, the first chapter, beginning to read at verse 11. Our next service is at 3 and at 6. We never announce who's speaking in this church, very seldom. Occasionally we do but very seldom because we don't want people to come for personalities but come for Christ. In fact, nobody knows when I preach or whether the carter preaches and you didn't know I was preaching this morning. And I'm not telling you who's speaking this afternoon or this evening but God's going to be here and you're going to be fed. Hallelujah. Praise the Lord. Start to read verse 8, 2 Corinthians, first chapter. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life. But we had the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves but God which raiseth the dead, who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us, ye also helping together by prayer for us. Ye also helping together by prayer for us. Helpers in prayer. Heavenly Father, we honor your word. We honor you, Jesus, and we thank you that you've honored your word above your name. Lord, I thank you for the time that you have dealt with me this past week, for the need in my own life in this matter of prayer and we pray that you will make this known to every heart in this place. But we came here not to be entertained. We came to hear your word and to give our hearts to you in worship. And we pray Holy Spirit now for a special unction and anointing of the Holy Spirit. I can't produce that in my own strength. I can't produce any way of causing people to hear and understand the word. But Holy Spirit, you're the one who opens our ears and our hearts to hear and to understand what is being presented. Lord, let it flow out of my innermost being. Let there be a river of life. Lord, we thank you, even though it be simple, that it lay hold of our hearts. We lay hold of this principle and this truth this morning so that the kingdom of God and the house of God be glorified. In Jesus' name, amen. Friends, prayer can become one of the most selfish things we do. Let me say it again. Prayer can become one of the most selfish things we do in our Christian experience because most of our praying is focused on our own needs, our own families, our own spiritual growth, our own problems, our own spiritual warfare. Occasionally, we will pray for missionaries. Occasionally, we reach beyond our narrow borders and limitations in prayer and we'll pray for someone beyond our family, a close friend or somebody. And we tell so many lies about prayer. I'll pray for you. Oh, yes, I'll pray for you. We never do it. We forget it completely. I don't do that anymore. If I see somebody and say, pray for me, I say, let's do it right now because I know I may forget it. In light of the Scriptures, lately, I've been examining my own prayer life. I've been diligently praying every day for my family. I've been praying for my children, my grandchildren. I've been praying for a number of friends. I've been praying for this church. I've been praying for certain individuals whose problems I've been made aware of. And I pray for missionaries occasionally, but I'll pray once or twice and then move on to something else. Much of my time in secret prayer has been spent in calling on the Lord for my own spiritual welfare. Now, I pray. Every demon in hell knows I'm a man of prayer. I don't boast in flesh, but in Christ. I've done it since I was a child. It's a wonderful experience to just go for hours in the presence of the Lord and just enjoy communion and just talk to Him, get to know Him and love Him. And all of that's wonderful. Jesus loves that. He loves communion because we are His bride and you can't have fellowship without that. And this is scriptural. It's wonderful. And I tell you, I do that. And maybe some of you in the congregation, well, thank God we have pastors that are studying with God and in communion with the Lord and come with a fresh anointed word from the Lord. But let me tell you, I've been convicted because if all I do as a minister of the gospel, if all you do as a believer is go to the Lord and have sweet communion, that can be a very selfish thing because there's a whole world in need. There are people around us in need that need our prayer help. And if we just focus on the communion and the fellowship and we are growing personally, we're becoming a different person. And prayer like that, communion with Christ, learning who you are in Christ, can be very, it can expand our growth. We can become strong and deep in the Lord. I know many deep Christians who walk in close fellowship with the Lord who are not intercessors, who don't carry the burden of the needs of the church and the body of Christ in their heart. And the Lord's been dealing with me on that. There's a precious man in San Diego. He's a retired postal office worker. He's retired and he's a poor man, a very simple poor man. And this man asked through a friend of ours if he could have the privilege of putting me on his prayer list. And this man goes around picking up junk on the streets that people leave out in the street and he fixes it up and gives it to widows. He lives on one meal a day, just eats meagerly, very little money. He goes around fixing the plumbing of the widows and the poor and doing work on their houses and just giving everything. He'll polish and brass it up and fix it up and make it as a gift to the widows. And this man wants to add me to his prayer list. And he's added me. I've been on that prayer list now, I think, two years. And this humble man has a whole list, a long list, and he prays two or three times. He prays for me at least three times a day. And he prays over this whole list and he doesn't take them off until they die. I mean, he just keeps praying without ceasing. He's going to pray for me until I die or he dies. Now, folks, I thought I was a man of prayer, but this man goes around doing all these things and prays while he's doing it. He is praying constantly and naming these names before the Lord and said, Now, Lord, bless Brother David, meet his needs. Don't let the devil get to him and do things like that. And I'll tell you, when we get to heaven, that man is going to have a greater word, I think, than I will. With all the souls the Lord's allowed me to bring into the kingdom. That man, he is a helper in prayer. He fulfills this that I'm talking about in Thessalonians. I can honestly say this message, I think, is for me more than anybody in this congregation because I want to get away from that selfishness in prayer. Paul, in this text that I've just read to you, tells us emphatically that he was delivered from a near-death experience. He was in deep trouble in Asia, but he was delivered. He said he was close to death so that he even despaired of life. He was deeply distressed and pressed. And that word pressed means beyond measure, beyond ability to cope. He said, I was pressed down with troubles in my life that I was unable to cope with and I contemplated or thought that this was going to be the end. He was not thinking of suicide, but he despaired that there could be any hope of him going on in this battle that he was in. Paul understated his sufferings at all times. Remember when a snake attached itself to his hands? No theatrics, no complaining, no holding out saying, A little flip of the wrist, nonchalantly goes on. He understated his sufferings. In fact, human suffering, the physical suffering never bothered Paul. Three times shipwrecked, he just mentions it in passing, trying to make a point. This man suffered, he's beaten and robbed and goes through all kinds of things in the flesh, never complains, totally understates it. But when he says, when I was in Asia, I was pressed beyond measure, he's talking about mental anguish. I believe that with all my heart. Because in my own life, and I'm sure in yours, it's not been the physical suffering, it's not been any kind of physical pain, it's not been an accident, it's not been anything in the physical, it's been in the mental, it's been in the spiritual. It's the rejection. Those coming against you who were your friends, those who have misunderstood you. All the pain in my life, when I look back, the worst pain in my life has been mental anguish or stress caused. Paul said, the more I love, the less I'd be loved. And like David, the great distress, he said, my bones are aching and my couch is a bed of tears. He wasn't talking about battle scars. He wasn't talking about a cut in his leg. He wasn't talking about any physical pain. He was talking about those who put their feet under his own table, those who he fed, those who he ministered to, those who had turned against him and totally misunderstood his motives and everything else. And this, we get a hint of that in 2 Corinthians when he said, when we were in Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Without were fighting, within were fears. Now, what caused that? It was because Paul was preaching a strong gospel and he was afraid his own little children would turn against him and misunderstand him. And these little children, this church that he'd raised up with, would listen to other voices and not believe that he had their interest at heart. In fact, he was only comforted when Titus came to him. He said, I was comforted by the coming of Titus and by the consolation he brought when he told me of your mourning and your fervent mind toward me. He told me you still loved me, so that I rejoiced again. You see, in troubled times, Paul, and I'm sure we should all have learned some wonderful truths. I know that I've learned more in my suffering times than in the good times. I don't want to go back and endure it anymore. I look back and I tremble. But I know that that which I've learned of the Lord that's been any sense that has ministered to others, Paul said, we suffer that we may succor or comfort others. Out of our suffering, we comfort others. And in his awful troubles, Paul learned some great lessons. And the greatest lesson he learned is you can't trust your flesh. You can't trust in your own willpower. You can't trust in your own skill. You can't trust in anything in this flesh. The flesh has to die. When Paul said, I die daily, he's talking about trying to accomplish any favor with God, any righteousness in his flesh. By promises, by trying to do the will of God in his own strength, you don't have any strength against the powers of darkness. You don't have any strength in your human flesh to fight temptation. You can't conquer your lust by making promises and saying, I won't do it again. You've done that a thousand times and broken every promise. He said, we had the sentence of death in ourselves. Why? That we should not trust in our flesh. There was a song an evangelist used to sing in the old days and I couldn't understand it. He said, Lord, I've sinned, but try me one more time. At least give me another chance. Not an ounce of scripture to that. You're not on trial. Jesus was on trial. He already went to the cross. He paid the price and he came forth with covenant promises in the precious blood of Jesus Christ and sent the Holy Ghost to be our strength. Hallelujah. You see, as in Paul's life, the Lord allows his children to go through great sufferings and trials and tribulations, great temptations, to make us see how weak and helpless we are until we know that we can't defend ourselves against any onslaught of the devil in human strength. And Paul sang the sentence of death. He sentenced himself to death. He sentenced his flesh to death. He said, flesh, I will never again trust you. You have failed me. His flesh could not give him any victory. He said, but through it all I learned to trust God. In his suffering and trial he trusted God who hath delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver us and whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. He said, I learned that God delivered me in the past. I've learned that God is delivering me right now from the power of the enemy. And he has shown me if I trust him, he's going to deliver me till the very end, till the day I die. I will be living under the living power of God. Now let's talk about how he got his deliverance. We know that it was in part due to his own faith and confidence in God. We know that this was a man of prayer who spent many days and hours in prayer. He was given to prayer. We know that Paul the apostle was the one who introduced us to, he unveiled the new covenant because I believe, if you don't believe Paul wrote all of Hebrews, I do believe with all my heart he wrote from 8 to 11, the last few chapters. There's no question that is the writing of Paul. And Paul introduced the new covenant, all the provisions and promises of the new covenant. God, he said, was going to be God to us. He's going to give us a new heart, take the heart of stone out of us, give us a heart of flesh. He said, your enemies will not triumph over you. I will be your shield. I'll be your protector. I'm going to write my laws in your heart. You say the law's been done away with. Oh, it's been written here by the Holy Ghost in our hearts. Every precious law and commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ written in the hearts. He said, I'm going to be merciful to your sins. Now, you look at this man. You look at the apostle Paul. And he seems so assertive. Here's a man who's been to the third heaven. Here's a well-educated man, educated in all the Jewish ways. The mystery of the gospel had been opened to him. All the provisions and promises of the new covenant had been unveiled to his mind. A man who ministered the power and demonstration of the Holy Ghost. A man who shook nations and cities. A man who was as anointed or more anointed than any man in the New Testament other than Christ himself. You look at this man and you say, he doesn't need prayer. He doesn't need any help. He's withstood lions and devils and demons. This man has been... The devil tried three times to drown him and couldn't touch him. Snakes can't bite him. This man is invincible. He doesn't need prayer. He's so strong. He's got such faith. He's such a man of God. He doesn't need any help. Not so according to Paul. There's another important factor in his deliverance. It's what I would call the subordinate plan of God for deliverance. We know that salvation is of the Lord. We know that the covenants have been decreed from the foundation of the world. But Jesus knew the decrees of his Father. He knew all these things had been decreed from the foundation of the world yet he spent nights before God praying that those decrees become the will of God on earth now. Paul the apostle recognized his need of prayer. In fact, he pleaded for the prayers of the church and the body of Christ. A man of prayer, a man of faith, a man of miracles. And yet he pleaded with the church for their prayers. He said in verse 11, verse 11, Ye also helping together by prayer for us. He says, I prayed and God delivered me with the help of your prayers. Your praying for me brought about my deliverance. You helping me in prayer brought forth my deliverance. Paul is saying in so many words, I pray for myself and yet together helping me in prayer, God has not only delivered me in the past, he's not only delivering me now, he's going to deliver me in the future because you're praying for me. God, listen closely, God has decreed that deliverance is brought about by prayer. He's decreed it. He's commanded it. You can't separate deliverance from prayer. Impossible. Call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me. He combines deliverance with prayer. Psalm 91, 15. He shall call upon me and then I will deliver him. He will call on me. He will seek my face. He'll pray. He'll seek me. Then I'll deliver him. I will be with him in trouble. I'll deliver him and honor him. Paul said that through the prayers of the saints, he'd been delivered out of the mouth of the lion. He said, The Lord shall deliver me from every evil work and preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom. Why could he say, I've been delivered from demonic powers and I'm going to be preserved until Jesus comes? Because he said, I have the church of Jesus Christ praying for me. Let me speak to you about this ministry of helping in prayer, being a helper in prayer. And I think it's one of the greatest needs in the body of Christ today. If you and I had spiritual eyes, we would understand the danger we're in at all times as believers who are walking as remnant Christians desiring holiness and purity before the Lord. You seek him. You're in his word. You've made a commitment to go all the way. You have an uncompromised love for Jesus. And the devil knows that. And you're in danger. You're a marked person. You are literally marked by the enemy because you stepped away from the crowd and you have made up your mind to go all the way with the Lord. And you're marked. And you're in danger every time you step your foot out of your apartment or your house. Every moment you, every time you get on the subway or get in a car or walk the streets, the enemy is trying to bring some foul play against you. We're in danger, folks. In other words, we are not in danger because we're on fire, but the danger is lurking there at all times. If God could just open your eyes and know the danger that we're in. There's another danger that seems to be taken so nonchalantly, and that's the danger in the homes of so many Christians, the danger of ruin, separation and divorce. I didn't plan to do this when I was preparing this message, but the last two days the Holy Spirit has really taken hold of my heart and it started with a telephone call from a counselor in the south. I happened to know this person and this counselor called and said, I have to tell you, Brother Dave, that I am crushed. I've been ministering in our church to married couples and in some parachurch ministries in this area. And she said, I'll tell you something, almost every couple in our church is either divorced, in trouble or contemplating divorce. Everybody I know, there are no friends left. Almost every friend of my family is either divorced or talking about divorce. She said, it's a plague. What's happening, Pastor Dave? What's happening? It is all over the nation. Ministers, wives and husbands writing and calling us in the ministry. Rampan is divorced in Pentecostal ministry areas and all over the nation. It's gone. It is pandemic. I hear all the reasons for this turmoil in our families. I want to talk to Times Square Church. I'm not going to even talk to them. This tape will probably be heard by many, many thousands, but I'm not going to be on the walls of this church right now. Married couples that are sitting here now in the annex and overflow rooms and basement or wherever you are and here in the main auditorium, some of you right now are contemplating divorce. Your marriage is in trouble. You're in a mess. A real mess. Unless God gets a hold of you this morning, some of you are going to be in divorce court and some of you are going to ruin your life and your kids in the process. No wonder we have so many young girls anorexic. They can't eat. When somebody calls me and says their daughter is pulling out her eyebrows and weighs 80 pounds at 21 years of age because of trouble in the home, because a Christian father is so mean and overbearing. Kids dying left and right. No wonder we have rebellion. We have rebellion in Pentecostal circles and Baptist and evangelical circles. We have homes breaking up. We have pastors who can't live with their wives and wives say, I just assumed he'd go. Talked to a wife this past week. She said, I want him out. He used to be on my staff. I've heard all the excuses. Lack of communication. Loss of affection. Incompatibility. Infidelity. I've heard it all. But it's much more than that. We're not recognizing what's behind all of this, folks. It's a demonic attack right out of the pits of hell. It's the devil himself. He's come as a destroyer. And I'll tell you, you can go to counselors. I'm not against counseling, but you can go to pastor to pastor. You can go to psychology. You can go anywhere. Get any number of books you want to read and stuff your mind with this. And it's not going to help you until you realize this is demonic. And somewhere along the line, somewhere along the line, if there's not peace in your home, you say, I'm a Christian. I believe Jesus. I love the Lord. I love my husband. I love my wife. If that is true, why aren't you asking the question? The disciples asked Jesus when they couldn't cast out the demons. Why couldn't we cast them out? Why isn't it Christians who have heard the covenant, Christians who know the Bible, who've sat under preaching for years, don't have the power and the authority over their marriages? They've allowed some compromise to come in at some point. Some kind of bitterness has taken root, has never been dealt with. And I'm telling you now as a pastor, with a broken heart, this morning some of you are headed for divorce court. And I'm angry at the devil because I know who's behind this mess. It's not been a lack of Holy Ghost preaching. If you come to this church, you have heard me. You've heard Pastor Carter, Teresa. You've heard others of the pastors for months, almost a year and a half, preaching on the covenant, the blessings and the promises of the covenant, how God can give you a new heart, put a new spirit in you, put the fear of God in you. If you'll seek Him, you've heard promises, you've heard grace, you've heard mercy, you've heard it all. You can preach it to others. Then why is it, why is it you don't have dominion? Why is it you're still allowing the devil to overrun you? Why is the bitterness there? Why can't you talk to one another anymore without getting upset? Why you've even been thinking of an escape? If you think escaping for your marriage is going to give you some better down the line, you've got, you are so sadly mistaken. You get out of this, you're going to get in a bigger mess than you've ever seen in your life. I'll tell you that. Jesus said there are certain satanic strongholds that cannot be removed by anything but prayer and fasting. You tell me you love your husband and wife, you've been having problems. Let me ask you, how much time do you spend every day on your face before God? Your marriage is crumbling before your very eyes, you can't get along, you see your children nervous, wrecked anymore. Tell me, come on now, saints, tell me in Christian love, how much time, where's the desperation, how much time you've been seeking the face of God? How many times you've shut off the television set and gone in and just cried before the Lord and unburdened and unbosomed your soul to the Lord and said, God, I can't handle this, you must move on me, change my mind, change my husband, change my wife, change my family, heal us. How many meals have you missed? How many meals have you missed? So that you could get along with Jesus and tell him all about it. Folks, we talk about the eyes of the Jews being veiled. I'm telling you the eyes of the church of Jesus Christ are far more veiled. The church of Jesus Christ, for the most part, is in a stupor. It's a stupor. Because when troubles and cares and difficulties, family problems, financial problems, career problems come to us, we don't go to Jesus anymore. We have abandoned the prayer closet. We pick up the phone and we call a friend, we call a counselor, we call anybody but Jesus. You know what the problem is? We've got a gospel, a damnable gospel, that's being preached around the country saying, if you ask God for something, you just take it by faith, and if you pray anymore about it, it proves that you didn't believe God the first time. That's damnable. And that's why people are not praying. They say, well, I've got a promise and I'm waiting on the promise. I'm just standing on the word. That poor widow must have been out of her mind that kept coming back and back and back, and Jesus gave that illustration. She came back and back until she got her answer. Jesus prayed three times that the cup pass from him. Elijah prayed seven times. Because you see, from the very beginning of time, men of God, you go all through your Bible, you'll find that every true man or woman of God, when they had a promise, they turned it into a prayer. They turned it into a prayer. The Lord gave Ezekiel a wonderful promise of restoration. He said the ruins of Israel would become the Garden of Eden, that he was going to fulfill his word. And God made Ezekiel incredible promises. But listen to what the Lord said in the very next verse, after saying, I'm going to turn the ruins of Israel into Garden of Eden. He said, but I will for this be inquired of by the house of Israel to do it for them. God said, I've made you a promise and I'm going to ask you to go and pray it to pass. You go and pray it to pass and you seek God with all your heart until it's fulfilled. Daniel was given a prophecy that after 70 years, Israel would be restored. The 70th year had come. He could have just taken it by faith. No, he got on his face for two weeks and wept and cried and prayed until God brought it to pass. God commands also that we pray for one another. In the Old Testament, the priest went into the Holy of Holies with a breastplate, with the 12 stones in the breastplate, a type of Christ going before the Father, having us in his heart and presenting our needs to the Father. And the priest went there. And the Bible said, you and I are priests unto the Lord. Is that true? And we are to carry the burdens. We're to carry in our hearts the needs of those around us in the body of Christ. Every time we come into the Holy Place, every time we go in the secret closet, we're to carry that burden. Paul was so conscious of his need of the prayer help of others, he pleaded everywhere he went. Every church he went to, he pleaded for prayer. To the Romans he begged, I beseech you, brethren, for the Lord Jesus Christ's sake, and for the love of the Spirit, that you strive with me in your prayers to God for me that I may be delivered. And that word strive there in Greek is struggle, wrestle with me in prayer. Wrestle for me. Wrestle with me. Strive and fight in prayer for me in behalf of my needs in the gospel that I preach. Brethren, pray for us. 1 Thessalonians 5.25 He wasn't asking for a quickie prayer. He said, I want you to fight with me. I want you to strive for me. In the letter to the Philippians, Paul, writing from prison, was begging for prayer. And he said, for I know that this, your prayers, shall turn to my salvation through your prayers and the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. And I'm telling you now that I know this works. I know this works. I've stood in this pulpit and asked and pleaded for the prayers of this body when I went recently to a trip to Europe. I went to France, to Croatia, and Romania, and Poland for ministers' conferences and evening crusades. And when I was gone, Pastor Carter would stand here and this whole body prayed for me and my wife. Because, you see, you don't just pray for the pastor. That's where you begin the ministry of helpers in prayer. You begin with the pastors, because they're the most marked man. Remember where then the battle says, don't fight any soldier, go to the king. Get the king. Go kill him. You get the king and the troops will scatter. And the pastors and their wives, that's why I told you the wife who called our answer phone last week and said, Dear Brother David, there are many thousands of pastors' wives like me who are drinking to drown their sorrow. She said, I drink in secret because I can't handle my pain anymore. Thousands, she said, just like me. She was evidently in touch with a number of them. And I wonder, now folks, I've taken that, I don't know her name, but she's on my prayer list now. I'm her helper in prayer now because that's been brought to my attention. And I've been praying for her every day now that the Lord would heal her heart and her pain and stop her from killing herself with alcohol. But when I was in Europe, the first week we were in France and we were doing the ministers' conference. They asked me to hold a crusade in the city of Nice in a big auditorium. And they said it can't be done, it had never been done in Nice. And there's such agnosticism and atheism and Americans are not very well liked, especially American evangelists. And everybody was saying no, it couldn't be done. And the directors of the program had a difficult time to tell them we need more than 50 counselors. And they said, well, we'll get 100. I said, no, we need more than that. And there were a few that had faith. But I got up. I sat during the whole program on the front seat and I said, Lord, there's not a message I have in my repertoire that I feel is right here. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to preach. I am tongue-tied. Nothing was coming. And I turned to Claude, who was my interpreter, and we had gone before that previously over some notes that I had and some ideas, and he turned to me and said, in words, you're not changing, are you? And I said, I don't know what I'm going to do. But I want you to know something, folks. When I stood before thousands of people and just opened my mouth, suddenly I was made to know I was aware. I was totally made aware by the Holy Ghost that people were praying. And suddenly the Spirit of God came on me. I don't even remember what I said. But the Holy Ghost came on me, and you could hear a pin drop the Spirit of God for about 40 minutes. It was just that. And I just said, if you need Jesus, get up. And, folks, it was just an avalanche of people came. There was no way that counselors could handle it, brokenness and weeping before the Lord. And I went back in the dressing room and sat down. I said, wow, oh, God, thank you for the prayers of Times Square Church and others that I know that have been praying, our Bible school and others. I felt the power of that. And all through in Croatia and in Romania, everywhere to suddenly when you felt dry and say, where am I going, Lord? And suddenly the Holy Ghost comes upon you. And then the Holy Spirit's whispering, people are praying, people are praying. It's the power of prayer. It's there. Hallelujah. Does it work? Yes, it does. Pastors that are here, you have every right to get up in your pulpit, and I beg you to do it. I plead with this church, everybody that belongs to Times Square Church, you call this home. I need your prayers. Our family needs your prayers. Pastor Carter, every pastor here, we plead for your prayers. And pastor, you have every right to get up, and God help you if you don't, like Paul the apostle. I need helpers. I wonder how many fallen evangelists, I wonder how many pastors who got so discouraged they couldn't even pray anymore, loaded down on all sides. I wonder if they would have fallen had they had a church or some people with intercessors behind them holding up their hands and fighting the devil with them. You know, you heard Pastor Carter talk about how his wife and her mother and father were delivered. Teresa's mother and father are saintly people, godly people. And I had told of this when Pastor Carter left. I was describing this. After Pastor Carter went back after, a very godly prayer word from this church came backstage. And she was trembling. She said, oh, brother Dave, I've got to tell you something. She said, the other night, the very night this happened, I was meditating, and this was about three hours before, because she was praying in mid-afternoon, and this happened, I found out later, about probably four or five o'clock. She said, the Holy Spirit came and said, pray for Teresa Conlon and her family. And she began to intercede and pray against the foul play of the enemy. God, I don't know what's going on, but preserve her. And she began to intercede and pray in the Spirit. It's called helpers in prayer, because when you take this ministry on you, you're willing to begin to pray and seek the face of God. God will wake you up at the middle of the night. He will put burdens on your heart. You will marvelously be led in prayer, and you may not hear about it. You may and may not until you get to heaven. Boy, and what a time will be when the Lord opens the books, and you see how much danger you chased away, how many demons you put to flight. Paul set the example. He became a prayer helper for others. He said, I'm not going to ask you for prayer unless I myself am involved in this ministry. Paul said to the Philippians, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy, because I have you in my heart. Folks, I can't even begin to measure up to that. No way. As a pastor, I can't. Always in every prayer of mine for you all, making requests with joy, because I have you in my heart. I can't say I don't have this congregation in my heart. I do. But I can't say with Paul, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, every moment I think of you, always in prayer of mine for all of you, making requests with joy, because I have you in my heart. You see, Paul wasn't asking something of others that he wasn't willing to undertake himself. Paul, to those in Rome, said, God is my witness that without ceasing, I make mention of you always in my prayer. Without ceasing, I make mention of you. Now, that word in Greek means, I recite your name and your problems before the Lord. It means recite. It doesn't just say, Paul said, I mention you to God. He said, I recite your name. I name you and I name your needs before the Lord every day. Oh God, help me. Even when Peter was in jail, what did the church do? Oh thank God, prayer was made without ceasing for the church and to God for him. Prayer was made without ceasing. I know some intercessors who have get up early in the morning, every day, and pray for me and my family. Every day. Month after month after month and year after year. And folks, there are times that I have known that I could not have made it. Miracles have happened in my family because of intercessors. And then letters that come in from people say, I was on your meeting list now, Brother Dave, for 25 years, and for 25 years I've mentioned you to the Lord every day. And that's one of the reasons I think I'm standing here this morning. Now you may not know all the names of people, but surely you have friends around you whose marriages are in trouble. You have people who have terrible problems in their life. What do you do? Do you just go to the neighbors, isn't that awful? Isn't that a shame? They're breaking up. And do you know whose fault it is? And we gossip. Why can't we become a prayer helper of your friends, your acquaintances, and all you know in the body of Christ who are in trouble, and why can't you and I just go to God quietly and name their name, recite it before the throne of God, and say, Lord, have mercy. I'm doing that now. I've begun to do that because I've been totally wholly convicted of my narrow praying and of my selfishness in prayer, and God wants to bring this whole body into that. All-night prayer meeting. Oh, folks, if you come, write a list if you have to. Name them before the Lord. Spend a little time with each one of them. Folks, if all you do through the day, name their name before the Lord and whisper, Jesus, keep them from the wicked one. Jesus, keep them by your power. Who delivered us from so great a death, and he does deliver us, and he will deliver us, you also helping together by prayer for us. I'm going to close with one little story, if you don't mind. I was sick in bed one time, real sick. I'd been in bed for about two days, and one of my grandsons walked in with holy boldness. He said, Pop, I'm going to pray for you. I said, That's nice. He laid his little hand on my head. He said, Jesus, make him all better. Then he backed away, and I just laid there. I said, Thank you. His eyes got big. He said, You're healed. Get up. I got up, and I was healed. You know what that says to me? God's not interested in a long, elaborated, deep prayer. He's interested in a prayer of faith. That you know that you bring that. You just recite that before the Lord in faith, and God is going to answer. That way, you can pray for so many people. In one hour, you can cover the whole world if you have to. Oh, hallelujah. God is faithful. Do you want this ministry to be a prayer helper? So many people want to be licensed and ordained. They want a card. They go around and say, Look at me. I am a preacher. No, no, no. That's not what God... That doesn't impress the Lord at all. I got my ordination card some day. I lost it. I don't even know where it is. That's not what God's looking for. He's looking for humble saints. They go up to the pastor and say, Hey, you can come up and love me. Put your arms around me and say I love you. Go, Pastor Carter and all the pastors. Oh, I love you. Thank God for you. You bless me. Your word's so wonderful. Clattery will do you no good. Pray for us. Say I'm going... I'd rather you come up and say, Brother, I am praying for you. And when you say it, you better mean it. And in turn, I pledge to you, God helping me and our pastors I know, do the same. Don't know your name? By now, I know where most of you sit because you sit in the same seat all the time. But we're going to pray for you. I'm going to do that right now. This is not a show. I'm going to pray for you. I'm going to ask you to sit here now and ask God to examine your heart about your own prayer life. Have you been selfish? Has this been me, my family, Uncle John, us four, no more? No, no, no, no. Lord, we begin with the pastors, the families, my family, and then all the needs, all the divorces, all of the troubled families and all of this. Lord, we bring it all to you. Will you stand? Hallelujah. Heavenly Father, I know you put this on my heart this morning and I don't know why. You knew who would be here. You knew who needed it. And folks, and Lord, this church needs... We need this whole church to become helpers in prayer, to help those that are going overseas, to help our missionaries, to be praying Lord diligently. Lord, even while I stand here, while I've been preaching, right beneath me in the prayer room, there are people pleading. All through my preaching, they've been pleading. We have elders downstairs praying. These are those who are helpers in prayer. And Lord, I have felt the power of their prayers beneath me this morning. And Lord, I'm asking that you help me. I pray for this church. And Lord, put this church in my heart that I may become one of the intercessors for this body, that the wicked one cannot come and attack anyone in this church without having to battle through the power and faith of pastors who pray and seek God's face. And then, Lord, we come to this congregation. We come to Christians who want to pray and seek your face, that they will stand behind us in prayer, that we will not turn aside, that we will come with a fresh anointing each time we come, that we'll be kept from the enticements of this world and we'll be kept by the hand of God. Lord, Nicky Cruz needs many praying for him. Lord, in his battle to reach kids in the streets and the enemy will come against him with everything in hell. God, I pray this morning that you would put his name and his wife and family in prayer that every day we could recite their name and their needs before you, that you would open doors and, God, that you send angels to protect. God, do it, I pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. I want us... Will you sing a chorus in just a moment as I find the mind of the Lord in this invitation? Please stand still. I ask you not to leave right now. Wait until we give the invitation. Just be still in the presence of the Lord for a few moments. I'm going to make a very bold invitation. If you're here, you may be a husband or wife alone. You're not with your husband or wife. You're here just here by yourself. Or your husband or wife, you're both here together. I'm going to make a very bold invitation. You say you want healing in your marriage? I want you to get out of your seat. I want you to come up here and let me agree with you. I'm going to be your helper in prayer. We're going to take authority and dominion over the enemy and the stronghold of Satan that's trying to destroy both you and your family. If you're here together, husband or wife, just squeeze your wife's hand and say, Honey, let's go. Up in the balcony, go to the stairs on either side. Now, listen to me also. If you're here now and the enemy's trying to destroy you, you know you're in a battle for your life. Some of you are backslidden. Some of you are not right with God. Somebody came in here totally. You have slipped away from the Lord. And others have never fully surrendered your life to Jesus. I'm inviting you to come with these that are coming. And in the annexes, in the main auditorium in the annex, would you go just up to the screen, if you will, or between the screens, and in all the other rooms, go beyond or stand beside the jumbotrons. We're going to have somebody up there. I'll be praying with you. And those in this auditorium, up in the balcony, go to the stairs on either side and come down any aisle. We're not going to have any mood music or anything. We're just singing this to give you time to come. But this is the time. If God dealt with you this morning by His Spirit, I want you to come. I want you to open your heart. I am going to lay hold of God for marriages. If you're here, sister, and your husband's not with you, and your marriage is in trouble, if the Holy Spirit's leading you, come and we'll pray and believe God. If your husband is in the same situation, and husbands and wives who need a miracle, you say, Pastor David, the enemy has come in recently. But along with that, don't you dare, don't dare walk out on the Holy Ghost this morning when He's come to meet your need in a very special way. The power of the Lord's here this morning to deliver you. You say, Pastor David, the devil's been trying to draw me away from the Lord. He's been trying to draw me away from the Lord. Come and be healed. Come and be strengthened by the Holy Spirit. This church, this past year, the Lord has been healing so many marriages. Every one of our pastors are meeting people on the streets and in the men's fellowship and in the women's meeting, and the pastor's wives here also. My marriage has been healed. A new life, new love. God's been healing, breaking down walls. The Word of God is finding its mark. And God's going to do that this morning. God is going to heal. If you're here as a mate, your mate is not here with you, you're the one who has to take the spiritual authority. You're the one who has to make a commitment to the Lord this morning. I'm going to be the one who prays. I'm going to get desperate before the Lord. You can change the heart of your mate. You can literally change them by the power of prayer. You can turn them around. They can see such a change in you through prayer. They'll see such a change in you that they've got to come your way, God's way. And others of you here this morning that have been slipping away from the Lord, others of you are not right with God, some of you to be saved here for the first time and surrender your heart to Jesus. If you were here last Tuesday, you saw how long it took to baptize all the people being saved. We have to sometimes have two nights just to get them all baptized because the Lord is saving and healing and changing lives. And He's going to do that for you right now. I want this church to pray with me. I want you to become helpers in prayer now for all of these that are here now. And there are some of you standing here in the audience, in the audience right now, you didn't step forward, but you need this prayer also for your marriage. And others of you didn't come forward, but you say, I want to surrender all to Jesus right now in this service. And in the annexes, we want to pray with you. We want to pray with you right now that the Spirit of the Lord come in power and demonstration of the Spirit and break every chain that binds you. I'm going to ask you right now to make a commitment to Jesus. Lord, I'm going to seek your face. As of today, Holy Ghost helping me. Ask the Holy Ghost to put it in your heart to remind you. It takes a discipline. You don't have to go to anyone else right now. You can go to a counselor after you get your prayer life straightened out. Get your prayer life right. Then if you want to go to a counselor, he's only going to confirm what God told you anyhow. Heavenly Father, I come against the powers of darkness, against every evil spirit, against principalities and powers of the darkness of this sinful world. And we say to you, devil, you have no place here. We take the authority of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, over all the powers of darkness that have come to destroy homes. We take your authority, Jesus, right now in binding those spirits, those spirits of destruction, those spirits of death, those spirits of absolute chaos and confusion. Go in Jesus' name. Go. I want you all who came forward, raise your hands. Just lift up your hands. I want you to pray with me. Jesus, I surrender all of my selfishness and all my self-efforts, Lord Jesus, by your Holy Ghost, call me to prayer, woo me to prayer, put it in my heart. Holy Spirit, I don't know how to pray. Teach me how to pray. I come now, Lord, for healing, healing in my life and my home. Oh, Jesus, cleanse me, forgive me, sanctify me, touch me as I've never been touched in all my life. And let me pray for you again. Lord Jesus, those that are in the annexes, watching, listening, those in this auditorium, in the balcony, Lord, I believe your word. You said the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Lord Jesus, you have all power and authority against every enemy that's come against these who stand in this place. Now, look at me, folks. You have got, in the name of the Lord, to lay hold of faith right now, to believe that God's concerned, that God cares. And if you have a heart to Him right now, He is going to move on you, and this is not going to dissipate. What you are experiencing right now is not going to just leave you when you go out the door. It's going to be there. And if you will, the rest of this day, before you go to bed tonight, if you're together, husband and wife, pray together, begin to pray together. Do you pray together? Every day? Do you pray? Do you just get together and say, Lord, and if you don't, begin. And I'm telling you, most of your problems are going to be melted in the presence of the Lord as you pray together. They'll be melted in the presence of the Lord. Those of you that are single, Paul said, you have more time to serve the Lord. You should be praying more. He said, you're not as distracted. I'm not saying marriage is a distraction. Paul said that can be. It's not my words. Amen. That's the joy of the Lord. That's the joy of the Lord. If you're here together as husband and wife, just turn to her, or him, and just whisper something sweet in the ear. That's all. Just something sweet. That's right. Are you married? Are you praying for your husband? Yeah. Something sweet. That's all you want. Yes. Lord, there is a kindness, there's a sweetness in Jesus. You take the meanness out of us, curb our tongues from those bitter words, and let every word we speak to one another be worthy of Christ. This is the conclusion of the tape.