In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal story about a man named Awu, who was a natural leader in their village. The sermon emphasizes the power of prayer and recounts a moment when Awu prayed for the speaker not to get wet in a heavy rainstorm, displaying unwavering faith. The speaker encourages listeners to trust in God's provision for their problems, referencing verses from Romans and Philippians. The sermon also touches on the idea that while prayer is powerful, individuals still have their own free will and choices.

All right, this message is called The Weapon of Prayer. It starts out with the famous man that I've been talking about all over the place, the man with the bad nose, whose nose has been cut by a nose bone, and he was one of my early converts. We would walk along the trail when he became converted. Nottaway would walk with me. He was a young Christian now, and one day I was... We were just about to come upon a huge tropical downpour. You could hear the rain coming down on the tropical leaves, and it was really noisy coming towards us. And he said to one, I'm going to pray to God that you won't get wet. Well, it was obvious that this guy is going to lose his faith because it's going to really be a downpour. You can hear it coming louder over those broad leaves of the jungle. And he says, no, I said, Nottaway, don't pray that. I don't mind getting wet. I probably need a bath anyway. And he says, yes, yes, you do, but I still... He says, it must be terrible to get wet wearing clothes. He says, that must be really bad. He says, so I'm going to pray to God that your clothes won't get wet. He didn't know I had some dry ones at home. I told him that it wouldn't matter. But he starts out walking behind me in the jungle. God in heaven, this is Nottaway speaking. Good morning. We're walking here in the jungle. You can't see us because there's so many leaves overhead. But we're partway between Haibo and Hashima, and the rain is coming our way. And I'd hate to see the tuan get wet. So would you please turn the wind, turn the rain so he doesn't get his clothes wet? And I thought, oh, brother. So, you know, I don't want him to lose his faith. So I slow up, you know, to help God have some time to get the rain out. Do you ever help God out? And so I'm... And God send the wind. I said, Nottaway, you don't have to pray that. He says, I did it the other day, and I hate to bail water out of my canoe. I was on the middle of the river, and the rain was coming, and I did it. And so God is pleased to do that. So I couldn't believe this. And so a missionary should never tell the chief not to pray, but I did. But God turned that rain around, and it started going away from us. Now I slow up more so I won't catch up to it, because I want this prayer to be answered real bad so he won't lose his faith. But anyway, it never got wet, that trip. And we got to my house and sat under the porch. Now we were in a native house with a leaf roof. And that rain came down so hard as if God had stored it all up and sent it almost went through my roof. And the more it rained, the more he laughed. He sat there just laughing. He said, look at it, look at it. And I got a main, a big problem from Nottaway on prayer. And that's, you know, humbling when the natives teach you. Now the story about the bridges in Centani. Our children went to school in Centani. They flew there with MAF plane. We would visit them, and we would stay at the guest house. And that was down by the MAF strip. And then we would have to take our vehicles down the road west before we made a right turn up the mountain. Now as we went west there at the foot of the mountain, we would have to cross this mountain stream. And that would come down in torrents and would always wash out the bridge. As a matter of fact, they said now that the bridge hadn't been there for 10 years. So when the water, when it's low, we drive through the water. We had to clear all the stones out. So all our vehicles would always have, every trip they go through the water. And of course the brakes and everything on the wheels would rust out so bad. And we were so grieved because vehicles were so expensive. And so on this given Wednesday night, I was on the back of this small van, the back seat by myself, and we were going up to prayer meeting at the school there. And the usual grouching from the missionaries, when are they ever going, aren't they ever going to be able to build a bridge. And all of a sudden, we're going to a prayer meeting, and we're complaining about the bridge. And that night I resolved that I would start praying that God would give us a bridge, that God would help those people there to build a bridge. And so I prayed, God, I went back to the mission station, I said, God, would you give us a bridge by the first of September next year? I gave God a whole year. Now do you think that was right for me to give him a year, or should I have given him, you know, this is the Orient, and maybe he should have had more time. I don't know, but I prayed that. And I really prayed hard, and I told my son, who was forced to write a letter home to his parents every Sunday afternoon before they could go out and play. So I said, now write to me when you see any action on that bridge, and if they're going to build that bridge. And so he had something to write about. And lo, behold, in about six weeks' time, he said, Daddy, they're building a bridge. They got a big crane, and they got big trucks, and they're working on that bridge. And I was, can you imagine my delight down in the city, down in the town of Aboy, and God is answering a prayer which no missionary could ever have thought would ever happen, that they would build a bridge. And he said, it's going to be a real high bridge so that it won't wash out again. And I was thrilled. Now how would you have felt? I was praising God and thanking Him as if the bridge was already in place, and I was just on top of the world. And then about December, he wrote another letter. He says, Dad, they all quit. They all went home. The crane isn't even there anymore. And everybody's kind of laughing. Well, that's just like the way they do things here. They haven't got the whatever. They went on strike. I don't think they did whatever they did. And I was down in the dumps, and I said, Oh, God, it's already December, and I ask you to give us a bridge by September. And things move slow here, and God, please get them back to work. And I'm panic praying again and pleading and begging for my bridge. Whereas back in November, I'd really been rejoicing as if I already had the bridge in hand. So my emotions took a flip-flop. And then in January, February, it went again. Daddy, they're all working on the bridge again. They brought the machines back. And I was thinking, Now, I wasn't rejoicing as hard this time. You know what I mean? And then by about April, they stopped. May, they stopped again. And it went on like that. We came out in July to visit the school. And they were working on the bridge. And instead of getting a ride down, I walked all the way down the mountain there because I wanted to see them work. I wanted to pray for the guys working, try to encourage them, smile at them or something. And, oh, I got so discouraged. They worked so slow. There's two speeds over there, you know, slow and stop. And I felt like helping, but I couldn't. And I thought, I got to get out of here. I'm getting depressed watching this. They'll never get it done. And that's exactly what happened. They never got it done by 1st of September. But we were out there in November. By the 1st of November, the bridge was done. It was interesting. Everybody was amazed. Missionaries couldn't believe it. Everybody's talking. We never thought it possible. But it was two months late. And I thought, Well, it must not have been right for me to pray that way. And I prayed. I said, God, I've got much to learn in prayer. I wonder, why couldn't you hurry them to do it in one year? Why did it take 14 months? And because it wasn't done, I really started to search the word about prayer and trying to find out what had happened. But I was thankful. I got a hold of one of them little vans and drove across it, praising God all the way. And I had to go past the road going north to the school because there was another mission compound there. Two missions had a Bible school, and they had asked me to speak there. And so I passed the usual road that I go, and lo, behold, between that road and the school, there was another brand new bridge through another stream because there was lots of streams coming down that high mountain with all that water. And there was another stream there, and they had a new bridge too. And I couldn't believe it. I'd never prayed for the other one. I just prayed for my bridge. I mean, you know, why don't I pray for the other one? Because that's the only one I use, right? And they ought to pray for their own bridge, don't you think? But I didn't even know they needed one. But they ran their vehicles through the river too all the time. And so I was amazed, and I thought, you know, God gave us two bridges. We prayed for only one, but it took 14 months. But because I questioned that, I wondered what God was up to, and he had me do some research. I went back 20 years later, visit my people again. You know what? On the other side, east of us, there was a new bridge built too. I didn't even know that back then. And I drove over it, and I asked the people, well, it's the same time as those other two. There was three. Maybe there are more. But there was three built, and we only prayed for one. God does exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. But, you know, we're so apt to pray for our own things, right? Like two people in a church need a car, and it almost becomes a race. Who's going to pray this car down first, you know? And that's not the way it should be. James calls it praying amiss, right? In the first incident, we're not away praying for the rain. We have not because we ask not. We don't ask God to hold the rain, and so we don't get it. We don't ask for miracles, so we don't get miracles. Now, in this case, we pray amiss, that we may consume it upon our lust, James says. And so that's me praying for my bridge. Now, the two families, both praying for a car, what should they do now? It's almost a race. Who's going to get it first? Who's going to, you know? And this ought to be, we ought to put others, prefer others before ourselves. So, instead of us praying for our car, let's pray for their car and say, God, they need it more than we. We can be content without it. Give them a car. Be more concerned with the other guy, and then see how God answers prayer. As a matter of fact, you may go a step further and say, God, if you give us a car, we will give it to them because they need it more, and we want to see their needs met. And then maybe you'll meet our needs later, or something like that. And that's the idea, but not consuming prayer upon our own lust. For others, you'll get much more done in prayer. Now, I'm going to turn this on here. And here we got a transparency, how to pray. And you notice here, number one, you pray in, it says, in my name. And we're praying as if Christ himself prayed it. And then we're to pray with thanksgiving. And that is Philippians 4, 6 there, giving thanks when we pray. And that needs, you need faith for that. And then a third one is here in 1 John 3, 22. It says, whatsoever we ask in prayer, we receive, because we keep his commandments. We keep them before our eyes. And then we're really determined to obey them. And then four, we abide in Christ. And that's in John 15, 7 there. That's the relationship between Christ and us, like the branch and the vine, and so on. So we have to abide in Christ, and then we can ask what we will and shall be given to us. And then the fifth one here, to pray in the Spirit, Ephesians 6, that warfare chapter. And that means we're to be controlled or filled with the Holy Spirit. We're supposed to be the Spirit controlling us and in us and so on, filling us. And so we're supposed to have that. And then number six, you notice it gets harder when it gets further down the list. Six is believing. I guess I didn't even get the whole thing on here, did I? Okay, believing. And that is Matthew 21, 22. Whatsoever we ask in prayer, believing, you shall receive. And then the last one, we're to pray in Israel. And that's 1 John 5, 14 and 15. And that says, and this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. Now, we have a problem with this last one, don't we? We don't know what the will of God is. Let me illustrate that. We were in Ypsilanti, Michigan. Eighty of us men had prayer time every Saturday, or not every, one Saturday a month. We'd gone through revival, and that was the result of these revival meetings. And so we'd fast and pray on Saturday. And one such meeting, early in the morning, we were just ready to start, a lady came in the door. And we all wondered, and she said, Please excuse me, I'm not going to stay, but I've got such an urgent request. And the request was for her brother who had cancer. He had surgery, and they said they did surgery, and they found him so full of cancer, and it was all entwined all around his organs, and there was no way. And they just sewed him up. They said, We cannot help you, there's no way you're going to die. And she was in tears as she stood in the doorway, and said, Please pray that God will heal him. I know you men were praying, and our leader said, We will certainly pray, and she thanked us, and she went. Now, the leader said, What is your pleasure on this? How are we going to pray for this man? We ought to pray in one accord, but how are we going to pray for this man? And now there was several men that knew him, that were from his church, and they said, Well, look, one man said, I was with him last night. He is looking forward to being with the Lord. He's in a lot of pain. He's asking himself that God would quickly take him. He's ready to go to heaven, and he's made arrangements for his funeral, and the pastor's going to preach the gospel, and he's got a lot of unsaved friends and relatives, and he's praying that many will be saved at his funeral. And he sat down. And then another man stood up and said, Well, that isn't what she asked. She asked that we would pray for a miracle that God would heal him. And the other man said again, Well, this is what he wants. Shouldn't we pray what the man himself wants? And then others got into it. And finally, one man says, and he must have been a sanguine, you know. He said, Let's pray for a great big miracle so God will baffle out. Well, why not? We're here to pray. Let's do it. And many people clapped and said, Yeah, let's do it. And then another fellow says, But look, isn't it more glorifying to God if relatives and friends get saved than that one man live a little longer? He's already 60 years old. And isn't it that spiritual life is so much more important than the physical life? So let's pray that God would take this man and spiritually heal the others. Well, what could anybody say with that kind of an argument? So finally, neither one would give up. Now, these people had all been revived. They were right with God. They were sincere. But they had opposites because we didn't know what the will of God was. We didn't know what God was going to do. And so finally, in exasperation, the leader said, Well, those of you that believe or want to pray that God's going to heal them, why don't you go to the adjacent room and pray that over there and that the rest of us will stay here and pray that God will save many people when he dies? And I thought, Now, wouldn't God get all confused at this one? I mean, who is he going to listen to? And so that didn't ring true. Now, most of the sanguins and optimists and that kind of people would pray for the big miracle and the rest of us, pessimists and so on, would be melancholic, we would be over here. Now, I finally said, Sir, that doesn't ring true. We're supposed to pray in one accord, with one heart, with one soul. And he says, Brother Otto, why don't you come up here and lead this meeting? He wanted to get out of this thing, he didn't know what to do. I said, Well, I don't think that's necessary. But I had a situation on the mission field that came up where I questioned a thing similar to this, and I learned a big lesson. He says, Well, Brother Koenig, why don't you explain it? And that's the story I'm about to tell you. We, on the mission field there in New Guinea, in the village of Aboy, had a man named Awo. He was a big fellow. He was an outgoing fellow, smiling, and Awo, just a natural leader. He was a family chief, he was not the biggest chief in the village, but he was a lesser chief. But he took to me, and he would sit with me and tell culture and stories from their culture and from their legends and so on, which I couldn't even understand, and I got him on tape to study later on. And he taught me language, and I said to my wife, Let's pray that this man become a Christian. Let's pray that he would... Because if he becomes a Christian, he will be a church leader. And my wife has some insight. I don't know where she gets this. She says, You know, it would be just like God to pass him by and make that little crippled fellow over here the pastor of the church. And you wouldn't believe it, that that's exactly what happened. I don't know how she knows these things, but somehow... I would never think of that. I always pray for the biggest fish in the pond. You know what I mean? Why not get the big one? So I prayed for an hour, and she joined me in prayer. We prayed, and then we went home on furlough. And I had taken his picture. He didn't know what I was doing when I took his picture, but I took his picture. And I had those pictures developed. I had a whole lot of them made. I thought, Hey, you know, to get this man saved might take a lot of people praying. And after all, the more prayer, the better it's going to work, isn't it? That's what I was always told. So I got all these pictures, and I went to all the churches that whole year, American churches, Canadian churches. And I said, I would like to meet after the meeting with all the prayer warriors, those of you that have a ministry of prayer. Now, all of us pray, but some people have that ministry. And after every meeting, I'd get one or two or three or four, sometimes the elderly people, but sometimes the surprising younger people that had a ministry of prayer, that are always looking for prayer requests. And I would hand them out the picture. On the back of the picture, I had his name written. I had the village Abhoy written. I had it written so that they could read it, so God would recognize it when they prayed. And so I gave out those pictures, and they promised me that they'd pray. I did this all over the place. I thought, This is going great. I've got scores, dozens of pictures in the hands of the best prayer warriors in two countries. I mean, if there was ever a case of twisting God's arm, this was it. If there was ever a case of forcing God, wow, I had... Now, even if I wasn't right doing this, if I... They were genuine praying. They were praying for a missionary's request. And so I thought this was going on. So this went on, three quarters of the year went by. I was still giving out pictures, but this lady in Nebraska wrote me a letter. And he said, Mr. Koenig, I don't think you need to pass out any more pictures. I think God has heard us. What do you think of that? And she said, The other day I was praying, and I had such an overwhelming assurance as I was praying with this picture before me. And it seemed like the Lord said to me, Don't pray. Hey, I've heard you. It's all taken care of. Just believe me. Just trust me now. And she said, I can't go praying any longer, so don't give out any more pictures. Well, I still had some of these pictures, and I'm Dutch. We never waste anything. And so I thought, Well, I don't know about this lady, but I hadn't gotten this assurance, so I passed out the pictures and kept right on going until I went back to the mission field. So I remembered her words, and I went back to the field. And that first day back, I got Awo when we sat in his house, and I said, Awo, you've got to become a Christian now. And I expected to lead him to Christ. I really did, because of all these prayer warriors. And he just shrugged his shoulders. He wasn't any closer to wanting to become a Christian than when I left him. I couldn't believe this. I tried again. I went to him. I said, Awo, aren't you going to pray? You don't want to go to the great fire. Don't you want to go to Sordica? I said, What about it? No reaction. Just shrugged his shoulders. I can't believe this. We had all this prayer going up. The best people. I can't believe this. And I tried later on. One time, I was so enthusiastic to reach him for Christ that I actually pushed him, you know what I mean? And he prayed a little prayer, but he didn't mean it. I asked some other people, Is Awo a Christian? They said, No, Tu-An. He acts like a Christian when he's with you, but you ought to see him in the jungle. He's a wild man. Oh, man. I couldn't believe it. And then the plague came. Well, my wife was sick at the time, and I had to go to the village to see. I'm not a medical person, and I tried to figure it out, and I walked all the way back home, told the doctor on the radio, the two-way radio. He says, Well, check out these symptoms. I don't know what it is. Check. Look down their throat. Look in their eyes. And I walk all the way back to the village and looked in their eyes and came back to the radio, and he says, No, that's not it. Check this. And I'm diagnosing this way, calling them back and warring myself. Finally, he says, It's meningitis. He says, I'll have a plane right over there with the medicine you give everybody that's sick. This medicine, give them this much. And that's what happened. The plane came, and I hurried with this medicine to try to save these people. I lost my houseboy, Hobie, who was about 15, 16, a good boy. We hated to lose him. And guess who else died? Ah, oh, my man. The guy we prayed for. I was devastated. I thought, I can't believe this. He dies. And I had sat at noon before the plane came. I'd sat by him as he was laid. But he was a big guy. I thought, Well, he'll make it. He's strong enough. He's big enough. And when the sun down at about 6.30 that night, he was dead. And I didn't realize it. And I grieved. I said to Yabba, his son, How did he die? He says, Ah, Thuan, you know, he died. He screamed in fear of the demons. He put on the witchcraft and the armbands to appease them so that he could go into their presence and try to make them happy. I asked his wife, Daya. I said, Daya, how, what happened? And he said, Ah, Thuan, he's no Christian. I said, Did he die? No, he screamed in fear and terror. He shook in fear when he died. I asked Keter, who his other son and others. And they all said, No, Thuan, he's no Christian. He's gone to the fire. He was afraid of the fire when he died. I thought, Oh, man, what happened? I had all these people praying. I can't believe this. Can you waste your time praying? I don't think so. But it seemed like one giant waste of time on behalf of a whole lot of people and a waste of good pictures and so on. And this guy is lost today. And I mean, who do I pray for now? Who would you pray for now? And I have no senior pastor to talk to and get some advice from in this whole area. And I'm saying, God, I don't understand at all. There's a whole lot more I need to know about Abbo. And it went on for about three weeks like that. And I was kind of devastated. And, of course, Satan gets in your mind saying, See, God's going to save who he wants to save. And there's nothing you can do about it. And he's going to do his thing just like he wants to do. And really, you know, prayer doesn't work on that because the guy himself didn't want to be saved. And, you know, a whole lot of things were going through my mind. It is true that the man himself has his own decision. Now, we had this unusual story that came out of the jungle afterwards. And I've shared that with you on one of the other tapes. And how that Surabhi, the man, remember the man that died in the jungle and sat back up and was so raised from the dead, he sat right up in this mat and all the people sat around him. And Surabhi was a man that gave evidence that some of our people were in heaven. He named names and all the people that came back, he told them all to believe the message that I was telling the truth. And the church was started in Navajo. About 20 people sat around him. Every one of them became Christians, including Surabhi's family. Now, I said to my wife, I said, this is amazing. I didn't know Surabhi was a Christian. Oh, he'd sat in my church. He heard the gospel. He would hide behind bigger people. He was a shy guy, never came forward and shook my hand or anything. He was a silent believer, I guess, like Nicodemus of old, you know. And I didn't know what to make of it. But I said to Carol, my wife, I said, did you ever pray for Surabhi to be saved? She says, no, I never prayed for him. I had never prayed for him. You can't pray for everybody. There's so many. Now, in a way, we prayed for all the people that this whole village would come to Christ. But I never prayed for him. I never sent his picture home. Never did anything. And I'm so confused. The guy nobody prays for is in heaven today. And the guy everybody prays for is in hell today. There's no doubt about it. There's evidence that one is lost and one is saved. The guy actually died with a smile on his face. The people were so amazed that they said, well, then he was a Christian. That's what the natives all said. And I said, God, I don't know who to pray for. Because the guy I pray for end up lost and the guy I don't pray for end up saved. And I said, God, I don't know what you're trying to say to me in this situation. And, you know, it was because we didn't know what God's will was. I didn't understand what to pray for. But notice, there's another scripture here. And that's the scripture in Romans 8, 26 and 27. And that is a parallel verse to that 1 John 5. 1 John 5, 14 and 15 by itself is a problem. Because we don't know the will of God so many times. But then in Romans 8 there, we have the answer, Romans 8, 26. It says, Likewise, the Spirit also helps our infirmities, for we know not what we should pray for as we ought. That deals with that subject of prayer. But the Spirit itself, should be Himself, makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And then verse 27, And he that searches the heart knows what is the mind of the Spirit, because he makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God. And there you have that same phrase, according to His will. And so, the Holy Spirit knows the will of God. We would all agree, won't we? Because the Holy Spirit is God. He knows what God's will is. And the Holy Spirit intercedes for us when we don't know how to pray right. So, the Holy Spirit intercedes for you and me. And so, the Holy Spirit hears me and all my fellow prayer warriors praying for Aul. And He says, No, that's not it. And He comes before the throne, and I can see it all now as clear as day. He comes before the throne and says, God, they all think that by much praying, Aul is going to be saved. But you and I know that Aul will never repent, that he doesn't want to repent, that he rejects the gospel. And so, the Holy Spirit says, they're all genuinely praying, God, what I'm asking, I'm interceding on their behalf. Save Sudeby instead. That's what the Holy Spirit said. Nobody had prayed for Sudeby. Now, interesting thing, who do you think Sudeby was, the guy that died in the jungle? He was Aul's brother. He was his younger brother. And so, God applied all that prayer, knowing that Aul was never going to repent, to his brother Sudeby, who was going to repent. And though none of us knew it, this man was a Christian. And so, God kind of substituted a name as He interceded for us. Now, have any of you experienced this kind of thing, where the Holy Spirit does not intercede for you exactly the way you pray? Have you ever had prayed diligently for something, and a year later you said, Oh God, I'm so glad you didn't answer my prayer last year, because what you did was far better. Has that happened to any of you? In other words, God does exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. I mean, have you, you older men, back when you were going to high school, you saw that pretty girl in your class or in that school. You prayed, Oh God, give me that pretty girl to marry, that someday I can have her for my wife. And then you went back 25 years to a class reunion, and you saw that girl, and you say, Oh God, I thank you that you didn't answer my prayer. I'm glad that you substituted another name. Isn't that right? And we've all had that kind of experience, where we have prayed, but God has overruled. The Holy Spirit intercedes. So, we don't have to worry about what the will of God is. That was so puzzling there in that Ypsilanti meeting, because the Holy Spirit knows the will of God, and He will substitute what He knows is right. See, He doesn't go along with error, now does He? Do you ever pray wrong? You consume it upon your lust, and He says, No, I don't go for that. But if you're really sincere, and you're still wrong, and you're genuine before God and right with God, and you've kept all these things and meet the qualifications, and you're still wrong, what does the Holy Spirit say? God, I'm going to twist this a little bit. Let me explain this to you. It seems like someone from the looks on some of your faces, and you're saying, Brother Koenig, this is wild. I've never heard this before. I once prayed for a car. I really needed a car. I was on the road, missionary meetings, and I said, God, why don't you make it a good car this time? A Lincoln or something like that. And I said, God, if you give me something with stereo, then I would be in the right frame of mind when I got to meetings, and I could preach better. Or I could say, I said, God, if it's got air conditioning and stuff like that, I'd be rested, and I'd be able to do a better job. So why don't you give me something good? And so now, picture yourself. Say, you're the Holy Spirit interceding for me in my car. Now, what would you say to God? God, give him a, you know, what would you do? One guy said a Volkswagen. No, it was even worse than that. I can't believe it. It was a Vega I got. Now, that was America's only disposable car. You don't repair them. Those things came with such bad steel. It was the first foreign steel that was imported, and they rusted so bad. Has anybody ever owned a Vega? Anybody ever? Oh, you lucky people. Well, anyway, the floor was so, I needed boots to wear in that thing. It was so bad. Oh, man, when you own a Vega, you need a mechanic. So I took it. Well, you need two mechanics, one to ride with you and one to go to them. I took it to my mechanic. Those brakes hang loose in there. When you push the brakes down, you hope that thing, it's going to hit the drum. It's just flopping around in there. It's never meant to be. It had an aluminum block, which always warped, and it was so warped. It was a terrible car. And my mechanic said to me, where'd you get this car? I said, a preacher. I shouldn't have said that. I said, a preacher gave it to me. He says, go give it back to him. That's what he said. Don't bring it here. He says, he doesn't love you. So I shouldn't have said preacher. But anyway, God had me wear this. I said, God, I asked you for a car, but what is this? I couldn't believe it. Now, I was doing missionary meetings, and I had these nine-foot spears that I could never get in any car because they were too long. But you know, this Vega was so bad that I cut a hole through the back seat, the cloth of the back seat, and my wife didn't object. I mean, I couldn't do that to any other car. And I stuck the spears in the trunk right through that hole in the seat and right between the bucket seats in the front under the dash, just fit, closed the trunk. People couldn't believe how I could get to have that little short car and have those long spears fit. So that was a plus. But I remember driving a thing up, we were living there in Detroit area, and I drove, and I had a meeting in Thunder Bay. Do you know where Thunder Bay, Ontario is? I had to go all the way north of Michigan, go across the Mackinac Straits and then through the UP and then cross Sault Ste. Marie into Canada, and up that coast there around, oh, and it was February. It was cold, and it was snow, and I had all the clothes on. I thought the air was coming around, the windshield was all rusted out, and I was hoping the windshield wouldn't come out. And there was holes, so many holes that I couldn't keep warm, and I'm praying, I said, God, You gave me this car. You're going to have to help me. You know, I thought if I die, then He'll probably feel bad for giving this to me. I shouldn't say that, but I guess that's what I was thinking. And I prayed, and I almost froze to death, and I got to the bottom of a hill, and I couldn't get up either side. There was a little restaurant on the way. I said, Is there any place to sleep? I can't go any further. It was snowing so hard. And so he said, she gave me a warm meal, and she said, up the road about two miles, I said, Would you call him and tell him I'm coming, and tell him, ask him if I've arrived, and if I haven't arrived within a reasonable length of time, would you send somebody, because this car, I don't know if I can make it up these hills. And so I made it, and they gave me the room right next to the furnace. Oh, how nice, and I thanked God because He warmed me up. And I went on the next day, but this car was something else, and I couldn't believe it. Why would God give me this Vega when I asked Him for a good car? But you know, I know what the Holy Spirit's probably thinking. He's saying, God, if we give Him anything better than Vega, He's so proud already, He'll be no good to us at all. Why don't we let Him drive a Vega for a year, or at least that long, until He really learns to depend on us, and gives you the glory, and so on. That's exactly what happened. God has us drive a Vega. And then later on, I got better, because God is not stuck for cars. And so, the Holy Spirit changed my request, didn't He? You would have too, if you'd been the Holy Spirit. See, He does that. And so, our request for Awo wasn't answered. He gave us Surah B instead. So this is the story. Now, I shared there in Ypsilanti in a meeting. I said, man, we can ask whatever we want to. We should be bold asking. And that's what I encourage people to do. Ask. God can do anything. God can do the impossible. And so, ask for anything. And then, if the Holy Spirit wants to intercede and change it, to make it into the will of God, even though when we don't know, ask anyway, and the Holy Spirit will give you what you ask for, or something greater. He will never give you less. This is exceeding abundantly. So, you're going to have a miracle, or you're going to have a greater miracle. And that's exciting. Once, I needed to relocate my mission station, and I needed $10,000 to make a new airstrip, and to move the house and buildings, and so on. I asked God, God, I need $10,000. You know what? God didn't say, Awo, if you really budget, couldn't you make it go on $9,000? God isn't that way. You know what He did? He gave me $11,000. Praise His name. I should have asked for $20,000. But God will do more, exceeding abundantly, above all that you ask Him. You must believe that. That's what He said He will do. He will never say, No, I can't afford that. I'll give you $5,000, but that's about all I can manage. No, God's paving His streets with gold. He's using it like concrete, so there's no problem with that. So, we can ask big. And anyway, we found out that when you... Well, let me tell you about the Ypsilanti story first. They said, Okay, Mr. Cohen, you lead in prayer. I said, Okay, we've got to be in one accord. Do all you men believe that God can heal this man that's filled with cancer, that has no hope? And they all said, Yes. And you would have said the same thing. God can do it. I said, All right, then that's what we're going to ask. We're going to ask God to heal him completely. And before these melancholics and others start to object, I said, Now, listen, there's one more thing we're going to say. God, if you want to do something greater than healing the man, something that's more glorifying to your name and to your kingdom and to your body and to your church and your bride, whatever is the maximum glory to your name, that's what we want. So, we ask you to heal him, but if you want to do something greater, we'll gladly accept that. We're in step with you. We want what you want. And that's where you have to be in prayer, saying, God, we want what you want. We don't want what I want. We want what you want more than what we would like to have. Because God's ways are far higher than our ways. And His thoughts are far higher than our thoughts. So, He knows things much better. And once you've had experiences like when you praise Him for not answering your prayer, then you can do that. And so, I said, Men, we're going to ask for a miracle. And then we're going to say, God, if you want to do something greater, go ahead, and we'll be thrilled either way. And so, that's what we prayed. And they all said, Amen. And they got excited about it. And they were thrilled about this thing. And one man, after we prayed, said, You know, men, we're going to see a miracle. We're going to see a miracle, or we're going to see a bigger miracle. And that's exciting. And every one of our prayer meetings and our prayers ought to be like that. Let's not be afraid to ask boldly before the throne of grace and say, God, and then expect a miracle or a bigger miracle. Either one doesn't matter. Whatever is maximum glory to His name. So, learn to use that phrase in prayer. God, whatever is the maximum glory to Your name, that's what we want. That's what God gives you. Whatever is the maximum glory to His name, because He wants to glorify His own name. And so, I went back to the mission field after that meeting, and I never heard what happened to the guy. And I really wondered, you know. About four or five years later, I came back on furlough, and I met one of the men that was there, a man named Heber. I said, Heber, you know, remember last year we prayed for this man with the cancer? Whatever happened? He says, Oh, Otto, you know, in the meeting tonight, the man playing the piano in his 60s, that was him. And so, God chose to heal him and do a mighty miracle. And now I can see why God did it. Why are we so slow to catch on? Because this man's going to die again. He can get all his relatives and people saved the next time. So God could get the best of both worlds, heal him, do the great miracle, and do the rest the next time. And that's something we never thought about. We thought God didn't have an option in this thing. And so, oh, it was so neat. But then again, you know, I often thought about that lady in Nebraska. Now, she said, don't pray for him anymore, because it's already taken care of. God has heard prayer. I can only thank Him. And she was very right. God gave her the assurance that this thing was taken care of, even though it wasn't Ah-woe that was going to be saved, but the substitute is going to be saved, and that's the assurance she's got. It's all taken care of. I've heard your prayer. Now, many of us believe that God doesn't hear our prayer until He answers it. But that's not it at all. The answer may come somewhere down the line. The answer may come in another way. No, God hears you, and that's what you've got to go by, not by when the answer comes. All right? So, there seems to be a seeming contradiction in the Bible in this area of prayer. That's the way I looked at it. On the one hand, I saw scriptures in the Bible which said, you know, trust in me, believe, and you'll have it. Pray with thanksgiving. Thank Him for the answer when you're praying. And the whole area of faith, you know, trust in me. And as if, you know, I don't have to keep on praying and so on, because many times as I kept on praying, it seemed to be doubting, seemed to be like a broken record. And then the other verses I see in the Bible which say pray without ceasing, you know, keep praying, persevere, you know, and so on. And I thought, now what is... And again, this puzzled me. And we hear sermons on, you know, persevere in prayer, never quit praying, always keep on, you know, until the answer comes. And then we hear sermons about having faith in God and trusting Him and giving it to God and letting Him take care of it when we put it in a sense. And that's what I've always preached with the pineapple story. You know, give it to God. You know, give the pineapples to God and let Him take care of the problem and just trust Him to do it and let Him do it His own way. And that's what I'd always preach and so on. But now I wonder what... And then as I search this out more fully, I find that there is two different prayer requests. And there's two prayer lists. And I encourage you now to divide your prayer list into two and put on one list daily items, the things you pray for every day. And what do you pray for every day? Well, you pray for... It says, give us this day our daily bread, doesn't it? And so every day we need daily bread and we need protection and so on. And we pray daily for cleansing from sin. We pray daily for a whole lot of things. Okay, I'll put them up here. Daily cleansing, daily filling, daily strength, courage, wisdom, comfort, protection, and so on. These are things we pray for every day. Pray daily for your family, for your wife or husband, children, for your pastor, your boss, your president, missionaries, and even revive us again. We need to revive daily in the things of God. So these are daily items. So that should be, I call this page one of our prayer list. Now, on the other hand, here is the faith items. And that is to answer the question of the other verses in Scripture on prayer. Now, what are the faith items? These are not things we pray for every day. These are things that we pray for until, like that lady, until God gives us the assurance that He's heard us. And then we rejoice in Him and we praise Him. And from then on, whenever we think of that person or that prayer request, we just thank Him and praise Him that, God, you know what you're doing, go ahead. Learn to say, God, go ahead. Just do what you want to do. I give it to you. And so, that is that prayer request. You can identify the faith items by these three words, problems, decisions, and needs. And, of course, the needs of others, your own problems, your own decisions, your own needs, and specific needs of others, and so on. Okay, and the needs of others, for instance, the healing. You pray that God would heal somebody, but you don't keep on with that like you do with these daily items. All right, and then for their salvation, and that they might understand truth, that their hearts might be enlightened, that they might become Christ-like. You want your children to be committed to Him, surrendered to Him, Christ-like, complete in Him, and so on. And so, you pray for people that way, and that they might become solid Christians, and so on. So, these items you pray for until God assures... Not until the answer comes. Until God assures you that He's heard you. And the old-timers used to call this praying through. You know, they got through to God. That's what they meant. But that's the kind of thing that that lady was talking about. And you see why this is necessary. These are things that absorb a lot of our time, you see. And there was one lady that I asked for a prayer request, and it was in a meeting somewhere. And the lady, she just vehemently said, Ah, no, no, I don't want any more prayer requests. I said, Lady. She says, Look, I've got so many prayer requests now. My list is so long. I can't handle them all. I can't make it through in one day. And whenever I don't get through, I feel so bad because I've promised to pray, and I'm always breaking my promise. And my list is so long, and I'm such a failure. This dear lady prayed more than all the rest of us together, and yet she looks at her... Satan's got her believing. She's such a failure because she can't make it through the list. Now, what happens? She's always adding on and never dropping off prayer requests. So, her list over the years gets longer and longer. It's inevitable because, well, some things are getting answered, and those she drops off, but all the others, she just... she never has... she never, I don't know, been told about this assurance date that you put behind a prayer request when God says this is it, then you believe it. And so, she keeps on, and she's hurting, a dear saint of God hurting, and so on. All right, on this salvation thing. Satan has a heyday with us Christians. Have you ever heard something like this? You haven't prayed for your brother for three days. No wonder he's still lost, as much as you care. And all of us are going to forget, and we're going to give up sometimes. And then, well, no wonder he's still... I mean, you don't care. And so, he puts a big guilt trip on us, and we feel so bad about it when we love our brother, and we've prayed for him, and so on. And he hits us with that verse, his blood is on your hands, he's going to be in hell, because you don't care enough, you don't pray enough. Or he has some of us going with this way, you've got too much sin in your life, so God can't answer your prayer, and so all these people are lost. And hey, just tell Satan that your sins have been washed away, and you're as white as snow today, and that you're right standing. Just make sure you're right before God each time before you pray. But Satan has us with that kind of thing. And that's, friends, it really gets a lot of people down, and so people don't know what to do with this thing. But this is page 2 of our prayer list, our problems, and it's based on the promises of God. And that is so, so neat. We have these mighty promises, and the main one is Abraham, and I'll put that up here. I think you all agree with this first list, you pray daily, but that faith items, here are the faith items, based on God's promises, and based on Romans 4, 20 and 21. And that is Abraham. And God makes an illustration of Abraham, it says, Abraham staggered not. He did not waver, but he was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, he was able to perform. What a text that is there in Romans 4. All right, so here, in these areas, we have the problems, and we should really quote these things. For instance, when you have problems, quote Romans 8, 35 and 37, and that's the area which says, Who shall separate us from the love of God? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? And then it goes on in verse 37, Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nothing, height or depth, nothing can separate us from the love of God. No problem is too big that God cannot handle. And we should just say, God, I know that you have said this, I trust in your provision for these problems. And then in Philippians 4, 6, you all know these verses, Be anxious for nothing, don't worry about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God. And so you don't go on pleading and begging because the thing isn't done yet. You just have the peace of God, because you've given the problem to Him, and you say, God, I give it to you, I trust you with it, I'm not going to worry about it, you can handle this, and I'll leave it in your hands, and I trust you because of these promises. Now, in the area of decisions, you know, some people so panic, people spend restless nights because their indecision is so devastating to your health, and it's so bad, and say tomorrow noon that the decision has to be made. So you make sure you're right with God, and you trust Him, and He says He'll give wisdom. When you ask Him there in James 1, 5, and so you say, God, I give you this thing, tomorrow noon I'm going to make this decision, I pray that you won't let me make a mistake, I pray that you will so persuade my mind, I'm asking your Holy Spirit to fill me, to control me, and so when the decision time comes, the thought you put in my mind, and the answer you give me, I will do that, and take it as from you, and you don't fear, and you don't worry, and you don't lose any sleep over, and so on. Trusting in His promise here in James 1. And then for the needs, now, Philippians 4, 19 says, God shall supply all your needs. There's one catch here, the Philippian church had treasure in heaven. This is only when you have treasure in heaven. You notice that He doesn't say, my God shall supply all your needs to any other of the churches. That was written to the Philippian church, who always took care of the four saints in Jerusalem, took care of Paul, wherever he went. He says, once again you've met my needs, and then he goes on and says, now my God will supply all your needs. You can't have treasure in heaven, and have needs on earth. God will meet them. So, you base this on God's promises. Now, then look at the needs of others here. They're healing, and that's the anointing, where you anoint people with oil, and so on. And God says, the prayer of faith shall save the sick. But again, you pray that boldly for everyone that's sick. And then the Holy Spirit, as we said in the man's situation in Epsilani, the Holy Spirit will decide what He will do. So, let's be bold to ask. I would like us to ask for 52 miracles in a year, a big miracle every week. And then at the end of the year, have somebody take notes and keep track of it, and see what happens. Wouldn't it be nice to see some real miracles, and God do something that would want to make us come back to the place of prayer and say, let's do it again. And where there's an excitement like those men there in Epsilani, as they were excited about it. And then you pray for their understanding to be enlightened, so that they might understand truth. And that's Ephesians 1.18. So, you quote these verses, and you stand on these promises. And then for their salvation. Now, this is amazing. My wife and I looked for these verses that tell us that we should pray for people's salvation, and we could find so few. I don't know, have you ever... There are not many verses that says that you are to pray for your loved one or your friend's salvation. Yet, we do it all the time. Now, this is what I found. Let's start at the bottom here. John, of course, in the book of John, Jesus prays for all believers. Remember, He prays for all of us that would believe. Alright, and we are to pray for one another. That is very clear in Scripture. In Romans 10.1, Paul's prayer for Israel is that they might be saved. And that was in the context of a national salvation, that they would come to their salvation, that they would come to the knowledge of God. It wasn't really for individual. But this portion here, that's the closest in the Bible that we can get, that tells us that we should pray, that I should pray for my brother to be saved, or my uncle to be saved. And really, there, it's praying that we might live a peaceable life. That's what it's praying. We should pray for all men. But it's in the context of, for our leaders and our authorities, that we might live a peaceable life. Now, down in that Scripture, down a little further, it says, for He is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And that is very true. We don't want anybody to perish neither. But God loves people so much, and yet people are perishing. There's more people perishing than is coming to Christ. So, the thing is, and I believe this is left, we are to witness to people. We are to warn them. Remember that text in Ezekiel about the blood being on our hands. It's, if you don't warn the wicked, their blood will be on your hands. It didn't say if you don't pray for the wicked. Because I believe it's this way. It's just like we prayed for Awo to be saved. And Awo was never saved. But his brother Suribe was. And we don't know who will be saved. There's so many people lost. And it'd be devastating for a person to prostrate themselves and pray for a person that would never be saved. I think if we pray diligently, God will lay on our hearts who to pray for. And so on. But that's anyway, we, in all these things, we quote the promises of God and we believe in the promises. And that is the things we pray for. So these are the faith items. And when we quote these promises, especially when we pray together, if you do it together in a prayer group, you always have that assurance. Because the one in the prayer group that says, God, you've done it before, you'll do it again. I know you can do it. He lifts the faith of all the others in the prayer group and they all catch up to the guy with the highest faith. And so, you always, you can get so much more done when say three of you pray together, you get much more done than if the three of you went each to your own room and prayed individually. Because your faith is lifted by hearing the other men pray. And so you together say, well, even if God didn't hear me, or if Satan tells me I'm not right with God, I know these guys were right with God. So you still believe it. And there's still the faith. And faith moves the mountains. So you always get the assurance date when you pray together in groups. And I encourage you to do that. And you claim these promises and faith moves the mountains, and wow, you see great things done. And so on. So it's faith believing. And in this faith items, now the apostle Paul, how many times did he pray for his thorn in the flesh to be removed? That was a problem, wasn't it? And he prayed three times and then he said, God says, my grace is sufficient for you, Paul. My strength is made perfect in your weakness. And Paul answers, most gladly will I, therefore, rather glory in my infirmity that the power of Christ may rest upon me. And he didn't pray for it again. He says, God use me. Alright? And that's what God wants. And so this is surrender. This is surrendering to the will of God. And so people say to me, well what about that parable in Luke 18 about the widow woman? You know, and I answer them, you never base doctrine on a parable. Parables are one pointers. You don't base doctrine and truth on my pineapple story. Most of the stuff in there is bad. I mean, just because God is using it for good today, you don't say, well that's the way we've got to go out and do it. Mess up on a pineapple garden and so on so we'll have a real message to preach. No. You don't base doctrine of prayer on a parable. What do you then, what does that parable mean? It is a comparison between an unfaithful judge and a holy God. And it says if that crook of a guy will give justice, well you know why he came to that decision? Because she nagged him, right? She just drove him up the wall and said, man lady, what do you want? Here you got it. Get out of here. Leave me alone. Get off my back. You know, and so she drove him. You don't drive God crazy. You can't. You don't push God like that. That's not what he's saying at all. That's not prayer. No, that isn't what the parable teaches. You can't just have so many people praying that God gets tired of hearing you. No, no. God wants to answer those that have faith in Him. Now what does the parable teach? It says if that wicked judge would give justice, how much more will your heavenly Father quickly avenge those that cry out to Him day and night? Not cry out to Him about the same thing. Now, people say about pray without ceasing. No, that's not the same thing. That is, what does it mean to pray without ceasing? It means to, you walk down the street and you see a man and you see his face and you see his need and you say, oh God, that man needs you. That man needs help. And you pray for that man and you go down a little further and you see a lady with the children and you say, oh God, that family needs your help. And you pray for them and you go a little further. You're praying all the time as you go about your way. You're praying without ceasing, but not for the same things. Because, friends, in the Sermon on the Mount, it forbids us to do this. It's not like the false religions where they keep pleading, we were living in Bandung and the mosque was right behind our house and five times a day, just wailing and praying and so on. That's, friends, these people go up the steps in Mecca until their knees bleed to impress God. No, no. We don't need to do that. The Bible says, use not vain repetition as the heathen do. For they think that they shall be hurt by their much praying. Be not like unto them, for your Heavenly Father knows what you have need of before you ask, even before you ask the first time. Alright? So, Paul, after three times, quit. Maybe he should have quit after once. I don't know. But maybe he got the assurance. Now, you can't get this assurance in prayer that God has heard you, that He seems to say, hey, I've heard you. It's alright now. It's in my hands. Just turn it over to me and I'll take care of it and don't worry about anything. You don't get that kind of an answer until you really spend some time with Him alone. You don't get that praying on the go, like so many of us do. We've got to spend some time, prayer and fasting and so on, or a good time with God where you can have time and we can hear Him say that to you. Then you put that assurance date on your list and you're away. Alright? So, can you see now what's going to happen in your prayer meeting? Alright? You're not going to pray for the sick week after week. The secretary of the church says, okay, we've already prayed for her. Let's just say, God, we thank you that you know what you're doing. We still believe in you. We don't know when you're going to answer our prayer. It's alright. Take as much time as you want to. You can say that to God. We believe that you know the best time. Choose the best time, which He's going to do anyway. And so you can thank Him for these things. And so you can review your list and many of these things aren't answered yet. And you say, God, thank you that you know what you're doing. I can trust you with my brother. I can trust you with this and that. And we're waiting to see the answer. We're just looking forward to the answers. And showing God that you trust Him and that you still have faith and that you know He's going to come through. He keeps records really good. You don't really have to remind God. He knows what you prayed last week and last month. Some people say, well, I've got to pray because there's so many people praying, He might forget. God's computer is bigger than any computer on earth. I believe He's got everything that you've ever prayed recorded. Everything that you've prayed, which wasn't amiss, is there. And He will answer it in His due time. And according to the maximum glory of His name. And so here we go in a church now, okay? We don't pray for the sick because we've already prayed for them and we're thanking Him. And see, what do we do in our churches? We panic pray, right? It's all defense. Satan is throwing something at us and people get sick and problems and hurts and so on. And all of a sudden we go, oh, we've got to pray. And it's all panic praying. It's all reacting to problems. It's all defense. Satan hurls some more at us and he keeps us all tied up praying for all these problems. Isn't that what's happening? And we do that so often in our lives. And we're not accomplishing the task that prayer was made for. Friends, prayer is a mighty weapon of our spiritual warfare. It's an offense weapon. It's not a defense thing. Alright, so as we do in the Message on Rights, we give our promise to God and say, God, here it is. I give you the pineapples. Now I don't have to worry about them. Now it's all over. And we give the decisions to God. Whatever you do, find God and you will take care of the future and the needs we give to you. And we know that when we have a treasure in heaven, we won't have to worry about these things and all these other requests we give to you. And so hey, you're all done. You've already covered these things. Well, there's new things come up and you give them to God and pray about them until God gives you assurance. But what are we supposed to be praying for, folks? Not defensive, not reaction to problems. We're supposed to be getting the world won to Christ. And we're supposed to be praying offense. Alright, get you a world map. Put it on your wall. There's all kinds of cities and towns and villages on that map in many, many countries where there are no churches. Alright, let's start with it. God, give us a church in that city. It's such a needy city. And so that the people of that area might see truth and might have opportunity to be saved. God, give us a church in that town. Give us a church in that place. Pray through the villages of India and China. Hey, you got so much. Let's go on the offensive in our churches to pray for these things so that the Great Commission can be completed. You know, we're not completing the Great Commission. We're not getting the churches and so on because we're stuck on ourselves. You see it? We're stuck on our own problems, on our own family, our needs, our decisions, my income, my cynical class, my church, my ministry, my thing, you know. We're all on this thing. It's totally selfish. It's not of God. God doesn't. That's praying amiss. And I would say that about the only weapon of our spiritual warfare that we really know which one it is, is prayer. And we're using it so amiss. And it's such a struggle. And we ought to be winning the world through Christ and get you this global outreach thing. My wife and I use that and several of you are. And there are all the unreached peoples of the world. And hey, let's go on the offense against Satan and pray so that the world, so we can get this Great Commission completed. And I challenge you to do this. And I encourage you, don't get your list so long that it discourages you, but drop them off the list. And that lady, when she understood this, she says, oh, I've never been so free before. Now I'm not feeling guilty anymore that I'm missing the boat. And people that have missed prayer for their loved ones, they're set free because now they're not praying anymore that they are feeling guilty when they've missed their time of prayer for them. And so on. So free up. If you don't know what this means, ask your husband or ask your wife, ask somebody else. Somebody in every family knows exactly what this is all about and others don't. So it will set you free. So I encourage you in this way. Let's get this done that Christ told us to do, right? The Great Commission. That's His last command. We've been 2,000 years. We've still got 10,000 tribes and peoples to go. So let's get at it. Alright, let's pray.