This sermon emphasizes the importance of prayer and the different levels of prayer, starting with the simple act of asking God for blessings. It shares a personal story of a miraculous healing through prayer, highlighting the power of childlike faith in asking Jesus for help. The sermon also delves into the concept of persistent prayer, using the example of George Miller's unwavering faith and dedication in praying for the salvation of his friends, even when it took years to see the answers.

And I want to emphasize today prayer. Now in one of my books, the book Mighty Prevailing Prayer, I describe what I call, not in the Bible in these exact words, but the truth is in the Bible, I call it levels of prayer. And I want us to go further and further in prayer. Now you may want to visualize in your own mind deeper and deeper, deeper and deeper in prayer. Okay, fine, praise the Lord. Or maybe in your mind you think, we'll go higher and higher and higher, praise the Lord, that's all right. Anyway, you want to think of it. But we want to go to new levels of prayer. Now what is the simple level? Anybody can pray. What did Jesus say? Ask and you will receive. Who can ask? Anyone, any Christian can ask. Children can ask. Old people can ask. New believers can ask. Preachers can ask. Congregational members can ask. Every Christian can ask. That's the essence of prayer. Asking and receiving from God blessings for the world around us and for God's people. Jesus said, ask and you'll be given. That's the level where all prayer begins. When I was a small child, my father was pastoring a church in Edwardsville, Illinois, which is just shortly outside of St. Louis on the Illinois side. And there was a disease in those days that I don't hear much about nowadays. Scarlet fever. Some of you older people know about that disease. You're nodding your head. Scarlet fever was a dangerous disease at that time. And government regulation was you had to be quarantined. Remember those words? Some of you older people? One Saturday evening, I was ill. My father called a family doctor. In those days, doctors made house calls. And he came and examined me. He turned to my father and mother. He says, Westley has scarlet fever. And I have to quarantine your house. So I'll be here the first thing in the morning and put the quarantine sign on their house. And when that sign goes up, you will not be allowed to go out. Or if you're out, you will not be allowed to come in. If you want to carry on the ministry of your church, you have to get your things outside the house right now. Anything you want to use for the next couple of weeks, he said, you take out of the house tonight. I'll be here the first thing in the morning and put the government sign on the outside of the house. My throat was sore. I had a fever. I had the breaking out all over my body, similar to smallpox. My father and mother began to get scurried around. My father took a rope out to the garage and strung a rope twine. He went and started carrying suits and shirts out and hanging them up on the rope in the garage. And they could have caught downstairs for me so I could be there with my parents. And I was a small child. I knew the name of Jesus. I mean, a scarlet fever didn't mean that much to me. But my mother was very concerned. She said, don't worry. Don't worry. Just trust Jesus. So mother took me in and prayed as she put me to sleep and asked Jesus to take care of me and touch me. And little Wesley didn't know any better. I just prayed, God, Jesus, heal me. So in the morning, when my mother got up, my father had his account out in the garage. When mother got up, all the breaking out was gone. The sore red spots and blotches inside my throat were gone. And just a little while, there was a knock on the kitchen door. It was the doctor. Well, he said, how's my little patient this morning? And he walked in and opened up my pajama. And all the breaking out was gone. He said, open your mouth little boy. Blotches, what was happening with him? He turned around and said, what's happened here? My mother was kind of jittery a little bit. She stepped up and she didn't address him. He was standing by my car. She stood by me and said, you see Wesley, it pays to trust Jesus. Why, he said, it must be wonderful to have a faith like that. She said, well, it's wonderful to have a daughter like that. Why, he said, I didn't know there was a daughter. He said, I'm agnostic. Oh yes, mother said, you know there is a God. God is real. God answers prayer. She witnessed for about one hour to that doctor. Because a little boy didn't know better than to ask Jesus to heal him. You see, God hears the prayers of even children. Another child, a little girl in my Sunday school class died. Just about that time, that year, a chicken popped out of a sperm feeder. I don't know why God healed me, except he loved me. And he loves everyone, I know that. But I asked him to believe and he healed me. Prayer asking is so simple. Children can get answers to prayer. Adults can get answers to prayer. I remember when my father was pastor in a church in Humboldt, Nebraska. And I was now in the first years, first two years of high school. Third year of high school. And we didn't have so many cars in those days like we have nowadays. Nowadays, it's not that rare for a high school student to be able to drive a car. But I didn't have that purpose very often. We were going to go, my father was going to take us one night to a revival service in a nearby town. They invited a lady, a poor lady in our church. She washed clothes to help earn her living. A Mrs. McDonald's. And she hit my mother's side of the backseat. And my father said to me, Wesley, would you like to drive tonight? Would I? And it says to drive a car was a privilege to me in those days. So I drove the car. I had no experience driving in the wintertime. The roads weren't clear where we were. But as we went down the highway, we came to a long road with several curbs and bends. And you know, we got to one place and there was a patch of ice on the road. And the car began to slide sideways. And I couldn't stay with it. I had never driven on ice before. I wasn't going exceedingly fast, but I felt the car sliding to the side. And Mrs. McDonald's in the backseat said, Jesus, help! That's all she said. And just like that, the tires gripped the road. The sliding stopped. We went right across the ice and back onto plain road again. Sliding was all over. Hallelujah. Yeah. Jesus, help! My mother was a praying woman. My mother had a real prayer life. My father was a Bible-related praying preacher. But nearly once, as far as I could, we're praying. She said, Jesus, help! And that's all she did. She prayed with God with two words. Sometimes prayer is that easy. Ask and it will be given to you. During my time in India, I had the joy of bringing some people to Christ. And I've seen Muslims, the first prayer they ever prayed, did you know they didn't ask? You don't have to know all about Christianity to ask. It's so simple. Ask and it will be given to you. There was a famous missionary in India, the Dutch Reformed Church, called Amy Carmichael. Some of you may have heard that name. She was the godmother. She said sometimes God guided her to ask for things that she didn't see. Why would I do that? But she said she would obey the Lord and she would ask. And God would supply the need. And then a little later, several weeks later, suddenly she had the need for the very thing she had asked for. Praise God. She had found on different occasions that she was meant to ask for things for which she didn't understand what the need was. And God answered her. And when the actual need arose, she was prepared. Asking is so simple. Why would I urge you? Ask and it will be given to you. Don't say, oh, I'm sort of weak. Yes, you are weak, but God is mighty. Ask and it will be given to you. But sometimes you ask and you ask again. Have you ever prayed for something a number of times? One of the famous men of God in the British Isles that had a remarkable prayer life was named George Miller. Miller. German U-E, just like my name, D-E-V-O. George Miller. And he started out as a young man and he felt led to prove God to his friends in the world by answering prayer. And he started taking in orphans. He was a single young fellow, but he started taking in orphans and provided for them. And never told a person what his need was. And by the time he died, at a good age, he was supporting more than 10,000 orphans. Plus, he was supporting about 100 missionaries. Plus, he was sending money for the printing of Bibles and liturgy. George Miller said, In my journals, I have the record of more than 50,000 prayers that were answered the first day that I asked them. What a testimony. Actually, when we kept journals, we saved dollars nowadays. More than 50,000 that were answered the day that he asked them. But, he had five unsaved friends when he was saved as a young man. And he began to pray for those unsaved young men. He prayed that day. And after three years, one of those young men was saved. 50,000 prayers were answered the day he asked them. And he prayed for the salvation of five of his friends. And it took three years of praying before one of them was saved. Yes. The most difficult kind of prayer to get answered. Or those that involve someone's will. The human will can resist the will of God. People can be stoned. Sometimes, the prayer for the salvation of someone is very, very difficult to get answered. So, George Miller, after him, he had prayed and prayed. He had one saved. And then he prayed for 13 more years. And two more were saved. Now, three of his five friends were saved. And he prayed and he kept holding on in prayer. And after 40 years, he numbered four. Except for the Lord. Praise God. And before he died, he was getting up in years. He said, one day, I have one of my friends for whose salvation I have prayed for 52 years. And he's not saved yet. But he will be. I may not live to see it. But he will be saved. And two weeks after George Miller died, he numbered five. And five came to the Lord. So, you see, it isn't always easy to get answers to prayer. Sometimes, it's so simple. Just a child can answer. That's it. And other times, someone's willpower is involved. And they may be stubborn, resisting the will of God. And George Miller had to pray for 52 years to pay one of his boyhood friends who was converted.