In this sermon, the preacher discusses the importance of discerning the difference between the voice of God and the voice of Satan. He shares a story about a man who would pray for the souls of men and women in a town, kneeling at a specific spot and looking over the town. The preacher emphasizes the need for prayer and seeking God's guidance in order to fulfill His purpose in our lives. He also mentions the significance of having a clean heart before God and encourages the congregation to examine their own relationship with God.

The entrance of thy words giveth light. This message is not copyrighted and is not to be bought or sold, altered or changed in any way. You are welcome to make copies in its entirety for friends and neighbors. For additional cassettes and a catalog, call 1-800-227-7902 or write to Charity Gospel Tape Ministry, 59 S. Groffdale Road, Leola, PA 17540. This afternoon, quite a number has come to ask me to give them a copy of the material on how to discern the difference between the voice of God and the voice of Satan. So we have a hundred copies here, and I really feel for the wives and the children, and I feel for the baby. But we have only a hundred copies, so if you would like to help yourself to them, then you're welcome to be able to do that. So I just mention that to you, and you can come to us afterwards. A number of you have come to me and shared how God has given you the witness of His Spirit that your life is totally in the altar for God. And I think it would be good for us, in the material that I have here, and we can't make copies of all of it, but maybe if we could just make copies of the last two pages for those of you, which deals with staying... What does it mean to maintain the fullness of God's Spirit? It's one thing for us to trust God to meet with us in a deeper way, and it's another thing for us to go on in our relationships with God. And I would love to be able to maybe give that to you before we come to the end tomorrow night in our service. And then just one little thing about these cassettes. I mentioned to you yesterday that there are three cassettes available by Duncan Campbell. The Lewis Revival, his testimony, how God dealt with him in a deeper way in his life and in the nature of revival. And then we are making one more cassette, and I'm willing to help to cover the costs of that, because a number of the men that have been coming to me and to Brother Denny and to Brother Moose and others, we think that one of the battlefields is the battlefield of the mind, of the believer. And I have a cassette that was given to Pastor at our conference center some time ago by a very dear friend of mine with the name of Richard Sipley, where he spent about an hour and a half on this whole subject of the renewing of the mind. It is a battlefield that's in the realm of your mind as a believer. So we are making 250 of those cassettes available. But now let me say this to you, if you don't put a dollar in that basket for that cassette, God will need to have mercy on your soul. And for the other three, that's what I'm doing. And I mean, I'm doing the preaching, so if I pay for them, you better dip into your pocket and do something. So, I thought I'd just... I mean, they got the message now, didn't they? You know, there's ways of getting your attention, isn't there? So, it's been wonderful for my own heart to be here these days. And I can say up to this point, by the grace of God, that I have not kept one thing back. And today, the Lord has given me such a fresh... such a fresh spirit of prayer. I said to Brother Denny when we prayed together before this service, I said, you know, I feel if we can just stay there all day long. And I said to God, Lord, I feel I can stay there until Monday morning, seeking the face of God in prayer. The Bible says that those early disciples, what did they say? They said, we will give ourselves to prayer in the ministry of the Word of God. And oh, my brother, my sister, we are in such poverty, because we haven't learned the secret of the spirit of prayer that God is able to give us. And I've been praying today and saying to God again and again, Lord, what will happen if you will come upon these men and give them a spirit of prayer, and you go back to your home and you are committed to spend time in the presence of God? I don't want you to misunderstand me, but I would just say to you that if you can spend three hours seeking God in His Word and prayer every day, you're going to spend 46 days of 1996 in the presence of God. You multiply three by 365, it comes to almost 46 days. God is saying to us that my house shall be called the house of prayer. And I said to Brother Denny, I want to go home on Monday and spend the next week in fasting and prayer and seeking God for every man we have met with God, so that that which God has worked in, that we will be able to work it out. And I can honestly say tonight that God has really made my heart one with what He is doing in your life. And I can say that if I need to stand before God tonight, that I know that my hands are clean up till this evening, and the light that I have. And I wonder if you've been going through with God. Send with me, if you will, to James chapter 5 in your Bible. We were thinking and contemplating maybe tomorrow night to spend a little bit of a service to give the men that are visiting here, not those of us who are part of the church, but those who are visiting, an opportunity to share what God has done for you this week. Sometimes people stand up to testify and say, you know, I don't know where to start. And then I jump up and say, as long as you know when to start. I think we are going to have a testimony time on Sunday afternoon. Sunday is going to be the great day of the feast. And I mean, if you can change your flight or do something to your engine, you better stay till Sunday, because if God sends revival, you're going to miss it. So, but the rest of us in the church, it's been so wonderful this week for me just to be part of this congregation. I've got a friend here tonight from a church that's outside of Washington, D.C., and I was there for a week last year. But James is singing. This is amazing, isn't it? Will you take a bit back to that Baptist church with you? And it's wonderful to come into a church and say, God, for one week, I'm part of that church, and I identify myself with Him. So, tomorrow night, those of you who are visiting men, you would like God has done something real in your heart this week. And you want to share with us, we could maybe give you an opportunity. Hello, Felicity. Right, okay. James chapter 5, and we will read from, just for the sake of our time, read from verse number 12. But above all things, my brethren, swear not, neither by heaven, neither by the earth, neither by any other oath, but let your yea be yea, and your nay, nay, lest ye fall into condemnation. If any among you afflicted, let him pray. Can you just turn this a little bit down? Thank you. If any among you afflicted, let him pray. If any merry, let him sing psalms. If any sick among you, let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick. And the Lord shall raise him up, and if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven him. Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, so that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man availeth much. Elijah was a man subject to life passions as we are, and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Brethren, if any of you do err from the truth, and want to convert him, let him know that he which converted a sinner from the error of his way shall save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of sins. Heavenly Father, as we bow this Thursday night in Thy precious and holy presence again, Lord, I have been reminded tonight, even as we were singing, Man of Sorrows, what a name. Lord, I have been reminded in my heart that we are standing on holy ground. And Father, I feel within my heart tonight that it almost seems that God is allowing us to have a glimpse in the holiest of all, the place where the High Priest is allowed to enter in once a year. And Thou art saying to us, not without blood, O God, we thank You that we are part of the redeemed. We thank You that You have said to us, Father, in Your Word, in so many wonderful ways, in so many wonderful places, that they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof, for Thou hast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by Thy blood, out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. Father, we thank You that we have not been redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from our vain conversation. But Father, we have been redeemed through the precious blood of Christ as a lamb without blemish and without spot. And God, I don't know what will happen this Thursday night, if the Lamb of God would suddenly come to stand in the midst of these people. And so we pray that we, as Your people tonight, Lord, as we bring a sacrifice to God, that, Father, that it is the sacrifice of the brokenness of our heart, we thank You for Your great love towards us. Lord, we so deeply long to see revival. We so deeply desire for God to pour out His Spirit upon us, to open the heavens above, and do something tonight in our midst that will change our lives for time and for eternity. And Father, I want to open my heart. And Father, I pray that every one of us will open our hearts, because God, we do not know if maybe this is the night. We want to set ourselves in such a way that when the wings of Thy Spirit come, that we will be able to launch out. Hush upon us again tonight, we pray. Cover us under Thy precious blood. Bless Your Word to our hearts. In Jesus' name, Amen. You know, the little epistle of James is a very interesting little epistle for a number of reasons that I'm sure you are aware of the fact that James was what we would consider as a half-brother of the Lord Jesus, but whenever he addressed, or rather whenever he introduced himself, that he did not introduce himself as a half-brother of the Lord Jesus, or a brother of the Lord Jesus for that matter, but he introduced himself as a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the word servant is a very significant word, because it is a word that really has its meaning in the 21st chapter of the book of Exodus, when the Bible is saying to us that the Hebrew slave, who was a slave of his master for something like six years, and then after these six years his master was under the obligation to allow that slave to go out free. And the Word of God is saying to us that after six years that that slave would come to his master and he would say to his master, I love my master and I do not want to go out free, and I want to stay with my master for the rest of my life. And the Bible is saying to us that that master will take that slave to the door and within the presence of two witnesses, that he would take an oar and make a hole through his ear, and that from that day on he will be called a bond slave or a love slave. In other words, he came to the place where he said, I love my master and I do not want to go out free. And whenever you come across the word servant, it is the word doulos in the Greek New Testament. And whenever you read about the writings of the Apostle Paul and he referred to himself as a servant of God, he considered himself to be a bond slave. In other words, he came to the place where he said, I love my master and I do not want to go out free, and I want to stay with my master for the rest of my life. If you study this little epistle of James, you will discover that James had a nickname, and his nickname was Camel Knees. And the early tradition is saying to us that James, when he died, that they found out that he had such amazing marks on his knees that indicated for us that he was a man of tremendous intercessory prayer. That's why in this little epistle, you will discover that he is making some tremendous statements to us about what God's perspective is when it comes to life and the ministry of intercessory prayer. Now, one of the most significant things about the word of God is that when you and I study the seven principles of what we would consider as biblical interpretation, well, you discover that within those seven principles are there what we would refer to as two wonderful laws of biblical interpretation. And one of those laws is simply this, that God, whenever He speaks to us in His Word, and He speaks to us not necessarily through rules and regulations, but He speaks to us through principles and through propositions, well, you discover that whenever God is speaking to us through a principle and a proposition, my brother and sister, that quite often does it happen that as a result of that principle and that proposition is God giving unto us an illustration. You say, why do you say that? Well, in the fifth chapter of the epistle of James, the Bible is saying to us that the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. That's the proposition. And here comes the illustration. The illustration is saying to us that Elijah was a man just like as we are. And the Bible is saying to us that Elijah prayed. And as a result of the prayer of Elijah was there a moment that God closed the heavens above and for a period of three years and six months was the heavens closed. And the Word of God is saying to us that there was no rain. The Bible is saying to us that Elijah prayed again. And as a result of the prayer of Elijah was there a moment that the heavens opened above and God sent rain. And the Word of God is saying to us that Elijah was a man just like as we are. I would like to speak to you tonight, if I may, on what we would consider as a life of prevailing and intercessory prayer. And to remember there was a time in the ministry of the Lord Jesus that He turned to those early disciples and He said to them, He said, Who do the people say that I am? And those early disciples turned to the Savior and they said to Him that there are some that are saying that thou art Elijah and there are others that are saying to us that thou art Jeremiah. My brother and my sister, I believe the reason why they said that is because they saw within the life of the ministry of the Lord Jesus a combination of those two Old Testament prophets. The life of the prophet Elijah became the life of the man of fire and the life of the prophet Jeremiah who was called the man of tears and as they looked upon the life of the Savior they saw within the life of the Lord Jesus the combination of those two Old Testament prophets. As you and I look tonight at this great concept of what it means to be open for God, to develop in our lives a ministry or a life of prevailing and prayer, I want us to look at the attitude of prevailing and prayer and I want us to look at the agony of prevailing and prayer and if time would allow us, I want us to consider the victory of prevailing in the place of prayer. I don't know if you realize this Thursday night that my brother and my sister, the problem that each and every one of us have tonight in this service when it comes to the place of intercessory prayer is the problem of an attitude. You see, we are so often convicted by the Spirit of God about wrong attitudes in our hearts towards people and maybe wrong attitudes in our hearts towards God but I wonder if you realize that so much is depending upon my attitude to the place of prayer as a believer and my attitude that is coming towards God and maybe you sit here tonight and you say to me, Gerard, maybe the fact that I have not known upon my life a spirit of intercessory prayer is simply because of the fact that I have an attitude towards prayer that I said to myself, well, I'm not sure if this is the kind of lifestyle that God wants me to live as a believer. And the first thing that I would like to mention to you this evening is that we are speaking about an attitude that is coming from the life of ordinary people. You see, our problem is first tonight in this service is simply this, that the majority of us that are sitting here and I'm referring to myself because there was a day in my life when I felt exactly the same. I said to myself when God began to speak to me about the life of prayer that I began to say to myself, Gerard, the kind of lifestyle that you are thinking about is a lifestyle that belongs to a very unique group of elected people of God. And there are some of those people, and we would refer to them as the Praying Heights and the D.R. Moody's and the George Whitefields and the George Willis and those amazing people. And as you and I read their life stories, we say to ourselves, those people were so unique and they were so chosen and set apart of God. And God has poured upon their lives a spirit and a gift of prayer. And we say to ourselves, my life cannot be part of the life of those people. And yet, my brother and my sister, if you would study the Word of God, is there a sense this first night in which you would allow me to suggest to you that it seems to me that the majority of the people that you and I read about in the Word of God, who is used of God in the life of intercessory prayer, were men and women just like you and me. I think, for instance, of Hannah in 1 Samuel chapter 1, a woman of what the Word of God is saying to us that in one sense of the word was she very little known to the Scriptures. In fact, there are maybe about two chapters in God's Word that maybe make reference to the life of this woman. But my brother and my sister, she was the woman that went with her husband every year to the temple to sacrifice in the presence of God. And every year as she came into the presence of God in the temple, as she saw how the sons of Eli were living in adultery and fornication at the doorpost of the temple of God, and as she looked upon that, and as she saw that the people of God were in a back-filling state, whilst for a year that she came to the temple of God in absolute desperation, as she was the woman of tremendous perception, she recognized that the people of God were far from God, and she began to pray and she made a vow to God. And she said, God, I am a woman. I can't lead the people of Israel, but because I am a woman, I am willing to sacrifice my body. And she said, God, if you are going to give unto me a man-child, and if you are giving unto me a man-child, she said, God, I make a vow that I will bring this child back to this temple. If you will give me the privilege to win this child until he is about eleven or twelve years old, I will bring him back to this temple and he will be able to serve you for the rest of his life. And she got through to God. God gave her Samuel and he became one of the great leaders of the people of Israel. She was a very ordinary woman, you see. I think, for instance, of another woman in the opening chapters of the Gospel of Luke. Her name was Anna the prophetess. We don't know a lot about her, but what we do know is that the Word of God is saying to us that she was the widow of eighty and forty years old, and she was serving God with prayers and with fasting at the very temple of God. And she was a woman just like you and me. I will never forget, I was involved in a weekend, what we would call a convention in the Western Cape of Southern Africa. And it somehow happened so that the Friday night, these people that came to this weekend convention or camp, many of them were in trailers, and many of them were in tents that weekend, and the services was in a tent. And it happened so that the very opening night of this weekend, there were about maybe two hundred and fifty people or so, that I found out that at that camp that there were about fifty people with exactly the same last name. In fact, that very night, in my opening remarks, I said to the people, I said, Folks, I said, if we turn out the generators tonight, and there is going to be darkness in this camp, I said, if you bump into someone in the darkness of the night, I said, you can just say, I'm sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Nivot, because I mean, there were so many of those people. But while I was preaching there that weekend, I began to ask myself, How did these people come to Christ? And I found out that twenty-three years earlier on, that two of our faith mission evangelists went into the district of St. William to do a series of evangelistic services that lasted for three weeks. And they said the very first night, when we came into the little town hall, the place was absolutely packed with people, and they said they could hardly get to the pulpit, and they said, as we somehow came to the pulpit, they said, as we looked upon the faces of those people, they said there was such a presence of God that we were too afraid to open our hymn books that night in the service because of the awesomeness of the presence of God. That night, eventually, they began to preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And my brother and my sister, from the very first night of those services, the Spirit of God began to sweep into those gatherings night after night and day after day. The Spirit of God was breathing upon that district. And every day, people were converted. In about twenty-one days or so, around four hundred people were swept into the kingdom of God. Every night of those services, there was an elderly man in his early eighties who was sitting in the front with his bowed hair, his grey hair, an old beard as he was sitting there. And every night he was sitting there in the spirit of intercessory prayer. One day, one of those evangelists turned to the other and he said to him, you know, we have never in our lives been in a movement like that. It seems as if we are almost on the brink of revival. It seems as if God is breathing upon this whole area. And he said to him, maybe we should go and visit the elderly man and maybe we should go and ask him, why is it that God is working? I mean, the Spirit of God and the conviction of the Spirit of God is so relevant upon these gatherings. Maybe the old man can tell us, because every night he sat there in a spirit of intercessory prayer. They found him in his little cabin in what was called the Cedar Mountains. They knocked at the door of that cabin and the elderly man opened the door. And as they stepped into the door, it happened so that he invited them in and as they stepped in that little cabin, they looked at one another and they recognized that they were standing on holy ground. They sat down with that elderly man and they turned to him and they said to him, Sir, we know that you are a believer, you know God and you love Him. But they said, would you allow us to ask you, why is it that God is working in such a way? The elderly man became very, very quiet and he made a statement. And he said, young man, do you see this town? He said, this town is divided by a kind of a little hill. And he said, every day of the week, I walk to the other side of the town for six days of the week. And he said, every day as I walk over, he said, before I cross the hill, there is a place where I kneel. And he said, I look over this part of the town. And he said, as I look over this part of the town, he said, the burden of God will come upon me. And he said, I will begin to pray and supplicate and persevere in the presence of God. And he said, sometimes I find myself hours as I pray for the souls of men and women. Then he said, there is a moment when I cross the little hill. And he said, I look over this part of the town. And he said, there is the rock where I kneel. And he said, I pray. And he said, as I look over this part of the town, he said, sometimes my heart breaks in the presence of God. And I find myself starving in the presence of God. And I pray for the souls of men and women. One of those evangelists turned to him and said to him, Sir, would you allow me to ask you how long have you been doing this? And the old man became very, very broken up and sat there and sobbed like a child and dropped his head. Eventually the words began to trickle through. He said, if I remember correctly, he said, I have been doing this for six days of the week for the last 25 years. You see, my brother and my sister, there is a verse in the Word of God that breaks my heart. Every time when I look at that, because the Bible is saying to us, when science prevailed, she brought forth her young. There is a verse in the prophecy of Jeremiah that is saying to us, that they wanted to bring forth, but there was no power to bring them forth. And I wonder this verse tonight, if you realize in the service that I believe, within my heart of hearts, that there is the potential in the service this evening for many of our lives. And you look at yourself as I looked at myself, because there was a day when I sat in a service like this and there was a man of God who stood and he preached God's Word. And the Spirit of God spoke to my heart. And God said, you are an ordinary person, but I can set you apart to seek my face in prayer. And I believe in my heart that there are people like this this evening. Somehow it seems to me that we are not only referring to ordinary people, but my brother and my sister is also saying to me that we are referring to obedient people. You see, the Word of God is saying to us, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord says, I will not fear. And my brother and my sister, if you and I want to have an effective prayer life, if you and I want to live for the Lord Jesus, if you and I want to be separate from the wickedness of this world, God is saying to us, that He is speaking to us about the obedience of the Spirit of God. You see, the principle of obedience in God's Word is simply that God is demanding that. The Bible is saying to us that those early disciples said, we ought to obey God rather than men. And my friends, it is not only God who is demanding, but my brother and my sister, God deserves that. We have sung tonight in the opening of a service, Man of Sorrows. What a name! And I wonder this evening if you would allow me to ask you. My brother and my sister, you and I know what it means to work on the obedience of the Spirit of God in my life as a believer. There are maybe some of us that are sitting here this evening, and from the very first night that you sat in these services, has there been something that you have been struggling with? And there has been a mountain in your life, and God is saying to you, if you are not going to allow Me to deal with that mountain, you are not going to know the obedience of My Spirit. And that chapter 5 is saying unto us that He gave His Spirit to those that obey Him. You see, what does it mean to walk on the obedience of the presence of God? My brother and my sister, I simply believe tonight it means to walk with an absolute openness in your heart before God. It means that my life has become so transparent in the presence of God. It means that there is a vulnerability in my relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ as a believer. It means that there is an openness because my brother and my sister, partial obedience is disobedience in the presence of God. In fact, you remember what the Word of God is saying to us, and I wonder tonight if you would allow me to ask you, can you stand to your feet and can you say this evening there is nothing between God and my soul? Or I wonder this Thursday night if you are sitting in this meeting and the Spirit of God has been stirring some areas in your life, not necessary things that you need to be confessed, but the Spirit of God is stirring in your heart that is saying to you, listen, I want to pour out upon you a spirit of prayer. And you say, Lord Jesus, I have confessed everything that I have ever done wrong. I have asked you to come to my heart, by your Spirit. You have cleansed me in the precious blood. The Spirit of God who has been resident in my life has become president. And now God is coming and God is saying to you, my child, I've got a lifestyle in mind for you where my spirit of prayer is going to rest upon your life. And it's asking obedience. There was a man in Northern Ireland in the 1920s and his name was the Reverend Double P. Nicholson. He was a Presbyterian minister in those days. He was born of the Spirit of God. He knew God as his Savior. But he didn't live a crucified life. I mean, there are many people like that. And Nicholson was in Belfast one day and as he walked down the street, the Salvation Army in those days, they were still the Salvation Army, and they were at a service, an open air service there down in the street. And as they were having the service and they carried on and they sang and they did whatever you can think of and as Nicholson passed by, the Spirit of God spoke to him. And God said, Nicholson, I want you to join that service. And Nicholson was a very well-known Presbyterian minister. And he walked right by. He said, I'm not going to join that service because there was a little fellow and Nicholson said his name was Doug Jimmy and he said he had hardly enough brains to give him a headache. And as he passed by, God said to him, Nicholson, your problem is pride. And God said, Nicholson, I want you to join that little service, but I just don't want you to join that little service. I want you to go and kneel there and ask Doug Jimmy to pray for you. And the Spirit of God broke him. And he knelt right in the middle of the street. And little Doug Jimmy prayed for him. And that day, God met with Nicholson. And the Holy Spirit of God that was resident in his life, God in His great love came and He cleansed him. And He sent the fire of His Spirit through his life and He filled him with all the fullness of God. And Nicholson began to preach the Word of God to my brother and sister. I don't know if you realize the potential in our lives because as a result of the way that God met with Nicholson, 120,000 people in about 22 years were swept into the Kingdom of God. And one of the things that God did for Nicholson, He gave him a spirit of prayer. And I was in Northern Ireland in 1980 for about three years or so, on and off. And I remember I went to a place outside of the city of Belfast and stayed in a house with this family in the town of Newcastle. And as I came into this house, I mean, wherever you went, when you met the elderly, the older people in Northern Ireland and you say, when you were here converted, they said, under the ministry of Nicholson. And I remember I went into a house and as I came into this house, this lady was in the house and I said to her, I said, Madam, I said, did you know Mr. Nicholson? I mean, I was so taken by the life of this man and her eyes just lightened up and she said, Gerard, I knew him. I said, how did you know him? She said, I was but a young girl of about six or seven years old. And she said, Mother and Father were converted. And she said, Mr. Nicholson stayed in our house. I said, he stayed in this house? She said, he stayed in the room up there. I said, tell me about this man. She said, Gerard, it was the morning, around six o'clock in the morning when Mother and Father and myself were waking up. And as we were waking up that morning, we heard that there was something going on in the room where Mr. Nicholson was. And we thought maybe he was unwell or maybe there was something wrong. And she said, we began to climb those steps up. And as we climbed them up, we came to his door and we opened the door about six inches or so. And as we looked down on the floor, Mr. Nicholson was praying. And she said he had covered himself with a sheet of a bed and he was agonizing before God. And she said as we watched him praying, she said the Spirit of God came upon him and he was agonizing and prevailing and supplicating before God. And she said as we saw the Spirit of God supplicating for him, she said there was a moment where he tore those sheets into pieces as he wrestled with God. And I sit back and I say to myself, forget about the physical manifestation of the body responding to a spirit of prayer. But what about the deep intensity in prayer? He was the man that lived in obedience before God. And I wonder what's going to happen this Thursday night. I want to be absolutely honest with you. It's been a very great privilege these days to be in this meeting. I was pleasantly surprised when God broke into our midst on Tuesday night and so many of us sought his faith. And I was greatly encouraged in my soul when God came to us again last night. And many of us commit ourselves to the place of prayer. But my brother and my sister, I wonder what will happen this evening if God the Holy Spirit will come to your life and speak to you about obedience in your relationship with God. Can you see in this evening nothing between my soul and the Saviour? You see, if I would be able to say, God, my heart is open before you. And I say, God, I want to obey for whatever you want to do in my life. And my brother and my sister, when we are speaking about a ministry of prevailing in prayer, it's a life behind the scenes. I mean, someone came to me today and said, and I don't think I'm involved in a ministry of prevailing in prayer. Sometimes when I think of this life, this subject of prayer, I tell you how I feel. I feel as if I'm running into the ocean. And there are times that I feel I've run so deep into the ocean that I can't run deeper. And when I look back, the water has just come to my ankles. I tell you, I'm five minutes in the places of a man who knows to pray. And I find myself weeping. I say, God, I know so little about prayer. But my brother and my sister, God is demanding our obedience. God is demanding our obedience because every one of us, I'm 41 years old, and I'm responsible for my generation. And sometimes my wife turns to me and says, Gary, why are you so concerned about the neighbors tonight? I say, Mommy, I'm responsible for my neighbors before God. It's a life of obedience before God. Do you remember that amazing passage in 1 Samuel? In the book of 1 Samuel when the Bible is saying to us about that man Saul who became king of the people of Israel and God changed his heart. I mean, what a great example of someone being born again on the Old Testament. And here was a man and he was the king of the people of Israel. But he was a man who made a mistake in his life. And there was a moment when Samuel said to him, God wants you to go and destroy everything. And somehow King Saul came back and as he came back amongst the people of Israel and he came back in the presence of Samuel. And Samuel as he came back, Samuel said, have you obeyed the voice of the Lord? And Saul said, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. And Samuel turned and said, why is it that I hear something of the bleeding of the sheep? Samuel turned to him and he said, obedience is better than sacrifice. Oh, my brother, my sister, do you think of Isaiah chapter 1 and the God who was saying to His people? He said, I don't want you bringing more sacrifices. He said, because those sacrifices that you are bringing, Samuel in my presence, that those sacrifices makes me almost vomiting because they are coming from hearts that are not living in obedience before God. And I would go so far tonight and take responsibility for that to say to you that the only reason why God can't send revival is because we have not learned the lesson of obedience. You know the small voice of the Spirit of God upon our hearts when He speaks to us? Do you know that's something that when God comes, and one of the greatest fears in my heart, my brother and my sister, is that I can get used to the preciousness of God. It's one of the curses of the evangelical church. Oh, that men and women come in on a Sunday morning. They sit and they sing these hymns and they are exposed to the Word of God. And they sit there and they say, it's the Word of God. But they walk out of that service and He hasn't done a thing to them. And oh, I love sometimes reading the old Puritans, because you know what? I discover that there were times when those old Puritans, I mean, I think of Robert Murray McShane, that they said that there were times that he spoke, that he preached on a Sunday morning, and as he was preaching the Word of God and God's Word was going out to the people, those people sat there and they said, it seems that if you know everything that we were thinking about last week, they said these words were searching the very depths of our soul. Maybe you sit here tonight in the service of my brother and my sister. I don't want you to misunderstand me this evening. Because my brother and my sister, God has given us convictions as the people of God. But may I say, if your convictions determine your relationship with God, you are in deep trouble with God. My relationship with God determines my convictions. And I have a relationship with God, and it's a relationship that is so broken and obedient before God, and I've moved away from legalism, but I have these convictions and my heart is broken because of my relationship with God. He wants obedience. It's not only for an obedient people, but you know what I've discovered? It's for an observant people. This is the heart of the issue. I feel this is the place where virtually probably every one of us, and it starts with me, for me to draw a circle around my life and say, God, you need to have mercy. You say, Pastor, why do you say that? I'm saying that my brother and my sister for the simple, simple reason that observation affects intercession. You see, the prophet Jeremiah, what did he say? He said, my eyes has affected my heart. And there are so many of God's people, and do you know where we are? We are in a situation where we so enjoy the wonderful blessings of the presence of God. And you say, Gerard, aren't we entitled to that? Of course we are entitled to that. I mean, God wants to bestow upon us all the fullness and the blessings of His Spirit. But my brother and my sister, there are so many of us that have missed the boat, and we receive so many other wonderful blessings of God, and the blessings of God that we get so spiritually fat, and we get so set apart unto God, and we get so taken up with the doctrines of the Bible, important as they are, and we get so taken up with what we believe and what we stand for, and what is precious to us, that we've lost the vision of men and women around us who are lost. The more I find myself praying within this district, in this area, the more my heart and my eyes have been moving away from the people of God. And I began to see men and women, and they're all over the place, and there is a sense of legalism around them, and there is a sense of respect for the Word of God, and there are certain things that they stand for, but they are indeed things of bondage. And God said, I'm looking for a man, I'm looking for someone who is going to stand in the gap and somehow pray these people through. God has brought you across some of them. And I said to myself, I don't know what will happen the day when I came across an accident, where one of these horse and buggies has been struck by a truck, and the mingled body of an Amish man is lying in the grass, and he missed it. I want to see some of these Amish people, my brother and my sister, and I want to say, if she can touch it, I want to see God walking around on the body of an Amish man. And I wonder tonight if you sit here and you say, it's right, but your heart is not broken for you. You see people speak about the ministry and about the mission field, and I say to them, listen, if it doesn't work out in this little circle here, and if it doesn't work out in your relationship with your wife, and if it doesn't work out in your relationship with your children, if it doesn't work out in your relationship to your neighbor, oh, my brother and my sister, don't think of the mission field. The mission field is when you stand and you write down between your two feet. That's your mission field. And if I can't be a missionary for God there, I'm going to waste the money of God on the mission field. We just stopped out in Western Canada, a couple was working in the city or the country of Laos, and the father phoned me one day and they are friends of ours, and he said, Gerard, he said, can you help us? And I said, what can I do? He said, we are looking for a four-wheel drive as you see for our children out in Laos. So my wife and myself began to spend time and looking for one, and we came across one that was nothing fancy about, and they were, this one didn't have air conditioning, it was standard driving, it was in wonderful condition, it belonged to a professor of a university, and I phoned him and I said, you know, seeing that they are missionaries, and I mean, when you're a missionary you're willing to pay the price of being out in a mission field, I said, I really think I've got what they're looking for. I said, but there is also another one, it's a six-cylinder, it's got air conditioning, it's got an automatic transmission, power windows and all those kind of things, I said, that one is also there, but I said, Lloyd, I suggest that we go for the first one, I said, it's better condition and better mileage on, and it's maybe not as fancy as the other one, but I said, you know, missionary work means to sacrifice. So he said, just hold on, he said, I'll phone my son in Laos quickly, and then I'll talk to him about it and I'll get back to you. And he phoned back about five, ten minutes later, he said, Gerard, he said, I'm sorry to say that, but they want the other one. I said, which one? He said, the one with all the fully loaded stuff. I said, Lloyd, I said, how old are they? He said, well, they're just in their early thirties. And I said, how many souls have they won for Christ the last year? He said, I don't know. I said, OK. Missionary work means sacrifice, you know. And I wonder tonight, my brother and my sister, I think of one of our workers in South Africa who went into a little village to preach the gospel and in that village was a Jew and the little Jew was not a Christian and the man with whom they stayed said, will you go and visit the bossy there in his little shop in the town? And he went to the little shop and came in and he began to talk to him about Jesus. And as he talked to him about Jesus, the Jewish man just about chased him out and said, I don't believe in the New Testament. I don't believe in Jesus Christ. I mean, get out of my shop. So he chased him out of his shop and during the time of those special services it happened so that the man, this Jewish man got sick and he was in a terrible state. And the man of the house went back to the evangelist and said, I want you to go back to that house and he said, I want you to talk to him again. He said, you know, they chased me away. He said, well, just go. Just go and ask if you can pray for him. He came to the house and as he got to the house he knocked on the door and the Jewish man's wife opened the door and he said, Madam, would you mind if I just pray for your husband? And she said, no, come in. And look at him, he was really sick. He got into the room and the Jew recognized him but didn't say much and he said, Sir, do you remember, I'm the one that you chased out of your shop the other day because I spoke to you about Jesus but I wonder if you wouldn't mind if I just pray for you. And the Jew was so sick and he didn't really mind and he said, do what you want but the Jew never closed his eyes. He watched him and the young fellow fell on his face there and he began to pray and as he prayed the burden of God came upon him for this Jew. One soul. And as the burden of God came upon him he began to weep and sob and supplicate for the soul of this one little man and he just wept and tried to pray but he just wept. And little Poboshe was lying on his bed sick as a dog. He said, I never close my eyes but he said, when I saw that I said to myself there is something in Christianity. And he was converted. For 21 years he was winning the Jews for Jesus. I think of the old William Booth of the Salvation Army who sent two of the officers to do a an evangelistic crusade and I mean they preached their hearts out they talked to people about Christ and they had their little meetings and I mean they did whatever they could and nothing happened. It was just like a brick wall. And eventually it happened so that they sent a telegram after a number of weeks to the general and they said, sir would you allow us to close this campaign? We feel it's time for us to wash the dust off our feet and to say they are not interested in listening to God. Can we leave the town? And the old William Booth pondered and prayed about it and he sent a telegram back to them and on that telegram were two simple little words and do you know what they were? Pride, Tear. Oh my brother and my sister I think one of the reasons why God can use so few of us in revival and I would like to refer to myself is because you and I don't know what it means to do proper observation. It's for observing people. The prophet said my eyes has affected my heart and I wonder tonight if you would allow me to sit in this first night service. My brother and my sister when last have your eyes affected your heart? Oh sometimes you know it's possible that we become just like the dark of the blacksmith. But when the man walk into the blacksmith shop the dark is sleeping under the table and the sparks are flying and the noise is unbelievable and the man look at the dark and he said how is this possible that this dark is sleeping and the old man just turned to him and as he turned to him he said you see my dark he said the first day he said when he was sleeping there under the table he said the first day he said I couldn't bring him I couldn't bring him into the shop. He said but I left the door open and he said every day the dark came closer and closer and closer and he said now he's sleeping under the table and he laughed he said ah this is my dark my dark has got used to the sparks it's not affecting him anymore. I remember in the war in southern Africa that I did not want to be part of incidentally. But it happened so that I was preaching to the young soldier and I don't know if you'll appreciate me saying this but sometimes when the soldiers were involved in war and combat and these communistically inspired terrorists were shot and they threw their bodies on the back of these Betha trucks and brought them into the basin and took them down to the medical lab and sometimes I was asked as a minister to stand by when the surgeons were opening the bodies of these black inspired communist terrorists and when they opened their bodies and when they opened their stomachs they were full of leaves and I would stand there and say to these surgeons what is going on here and they would turn to me and they would say well you see what is happening here they are chewing a certain leaf and as they chew that leaf that leaf is a drug and as they do that they said Gerard what is happening they are so deep in those drugs that they lose all concept of fear and they are going out there simply to be killed and I would put my hands on my head and say why are they doing that and they would say because they believe in communism and I would turn around and walk back into my study and fall on my knees before God and shout my heart out and I would say God where are the people of God as observations and oh my brother my sister I wonder tonight if you will allow me to ask you has God taken out the scales from our eyes has God revealed to us that there is someone that is living right next door to me my word I remember our neighbor out there on Crescent Beach and when she moved next door the afternoon I was coming from the service that I preached and I got out of the car and I wanted to come into her house and there she was and she just moved no concept it was Sunday and I was looking at her coming around there and she said good afternoon and I said good afternoon and she said I said welcome to the neighborhood and I turned to her and she said what are you doing and I said I'm a minister and she said which part of the B.C. government do you serve and I said oh my word I said no I'm a minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ and she looked at me she said you must be from the Baha'i faith and have a good night but my wife and myself we began to pray for Gail and I mean she was as close as a book and then I found out that she was responsible for committing adultery with a man next door and his wife for whom we were praying and my heart became so upset and so I was so deeply hurt by that that I said to my wife how dare she do that and I said mummy I'm going to go around and I'm going to talk to her because I caught her and this man right in front of the hedge of our yard and I said I'm going to ask her how did she do that and my wife was one of those Canadians who know better she said daddy you're just going to waste your time she's going to tell you to get out of her house she said why don't you get on your knees and pray for her and I prayed for her morning after morning but I prayed and I said God oh God it's like David God you need to break her teeth I mean how dare she do that one morning I was five o'clock on my knees before God and the Holy Spirit of God said my problem is not with your neighbour my problem is with you and I said Lord aren't you upset with what she's done of course God is upset but God said I'm more concerned about you because you are praying with an attitude and you can't identify with this woman for the fact that she's lost and I must confess that about two three weeks prior to God meeting with me in the mornings when I come out and walk down the steps and walk down to the carport and she would come out on her way to work and as she would come out I would just say she would say good morning Gerard and I would say good morning Gerard that morning God met with me and said you don't know what it means to identify with this woman God said I know she said he didn't say she's a prostitute but Gerard she's lost and God broke my heart and I began to pray with a broken heart for Gail and I will never forget we came back from a conference and drove a Sunday afternoon in our carport and I came out and it was quite a number of months later and as I came out there she was and I knew there was something wrong and I walked over to her and I said good afternoon Gail I said how are you doing and she said I'm not doing too well I said why she said my mother died last night suddenly and I knew what was going on and I ran up to my wife and I said I said to my wife I said mummy this is our opportunity and my wife you know she's so precious she said don't you run across and pour the gospel down her throat now I said what do you mean she said daddy just go and weep some more there in the room because you are not ready to talk to her yet see what bugs me about my wife is that I spend a day in prayer and come up with some great insights you know and great revelations in God's word and she spent an hour in prayer and she's got twice as much and she said daddy more brokenness for Gail you're not ready and we began to identify and took some flowers across and took a little car to her and invited her for coffee and I said come and tell us about mother and first time ever she came into our house and she just poured out her heart out about her mother and I didn't see the hidden prostitute anymore but I saw a desperate soul and I will never forget we were praying and praying and praying and we didn't feel it was ready to write to share the gospel with her yet and I would never ever forget I came out one morning I was on my way to my office and asked I was on my way to my office she came out of her house and we heard her sobbing at night and oh her eyes were all swollen up and she goes to work with her sunglasses because she was weeping and wailing for her mother and I came and she came out and we were about maybe five six yards from one another I see we came at maybe about ten or so and I turned to her and I said good morning Gail and I said how are you today and she looked at me and she said well I guess I'm just hanging in there and I turned to her and I said Gail I said would you allow me to say something to you and she said what do you want to say Gerard I said Gail I want to tell you that from the first day that you moved in next to us and I was all broken up I said Gail I said Janice and myself have been praying for you and she took her glasses off like this and she looked at me and she put her glasses back and she turned around and she ran back into the house and she never got to work that day and God gave us an opportunity to share the gospel with her I don't think many of our hearts are broken for the people that surrounds us my brother and sister I mean I tried to stop one of these horse and buggies the other day I thought you know I'm a foreigner and I can stop him and say hey you know I'm just a visitor and I mean tell me about this you know and but I think they're so fed up of tourists that they look at them as terrorists and he's just gone and I said good you know but I wish I could get a lift with one of them I mean I would pray to death that we don't get crashed from the back but I wish I could get a lift with one of them just for an hour to identify myself with a need to be saved my brother and my sister can I ask you tonight have you appointed someone to Jesus Christ this last year I'm ashamed to say to you tonight that they say the average minister in North America is appointing maybe one soul to Christ every year have you heard of John Hyde of India I mean a young man that wanted to become a missionary went to Bible school and he had great visions of India and the day when he got on the boat to go to India a man handed him a little letter and as he gave him the letter he said thank you so much but he didn't know what was in the letter and when while he was on this ship on his way to India he opened the letter and he scabbered and he began to read it and the man said Mr. Hyde I appreciate that you've gone to Bible school and become a missionary but Mr. Hyde if you've never been crucified to Christ and if God has not put the sentence of death upon your self life he said Mr. Hyde you should never go to the land of India you're wasting your time and praying Hyde was so upset that he crumpled that letter in his hand and he threw it in the basket and he said to himself how dare he ask me a question like that but the Holy Spirit of God got through and before praying Hyde he said the Spirit of God God sanctified him and filled him with the Holy Spirit when he landed in India God said you're not going to become a great missionary you're going to become a man of prayer and he gave himself to prayer and do you know what happened he was in India I think for about four or five years when suddenly one day in his time of prayer God the Holy Spirit came to praying Hyde and said I want you to pray through for one soul every single soul day and praying Hyde said to himself how can I do that but he said God I'm willing and he got on his knees before God and he began to seek the face of God and he prayed and he prayed and that one soul the burden of that one soul was resting upon him and as it was resting upon him there was a moment when when he sensed he got through to God for one soul and the Holy Spirit of God said grab a bundle of tracts and now you get into the streets of the city and you give out these tracts and you speak to people about Jesus and and when you come to the one that is ready that is ready to be converted and to get clearly through to God God said I will speak to you about that person he got out in the street and for one Sabbath year my brother and my sister one soul was saved every single day 365 people were converted when he came to the end of that year he prayed about this for the next year and the Holy Spirit of God said to him I want you to pray for two souls every day and every morning in the early hours of the morning when he got up the burden of God would come upon him and he would pray and supplicate and sob in the presence of God and he prayed through for two souls every day and for one whole year two people were converted every day and then the burden of God came for three souls and three people were converted every single day and then the burden of God came for four souls and he prayed through for four souls every day sometimes they said that it was about quarter to twelve at night that John Hyde with his bundle of tracts would screen the streets and walk through and find people and sometimes they said it was about ten to twelve that he found the last of those four souls and in one year four people were converted every single day and then praying Hyde of India spent seventeen days in intercessory prayer and the great Punjabi Bible came and thousands of people were swept into the kingdom of God. Can you imagine what would happen with this maybe five or six hundred people here tonight if my brother and my sister it just happens so that one God will put one soul upon your heart once a month and five hundred people will see ten or twelve people saved every year and that's that's almost more than five thousand can't we pray through for one soul a month I can't stand here tonight and say I point twelve people to Christ last year I stand here in absolute shame there were some that were converted what does it mean it simply means that we don't have broken hearts my time is virtually gone let me give you my second point and I'm through what is the agony of prevailing in prayer what is the agony servant praying frequent praying focused praying I think of that tremendous passage in Romans chapter 8 when we speak about servancy the Bible says we do not know how to pray or what to pray but the word of God is saying to us that the spirit of God comes and how does he pray he said he intercedes for us with words that cannot be uttered how does he pray he intercedes for us according to the word of God oh I think of the life of the son of God you remember how the writer to the Hebrews is saying how the Lord Jesus supplicates with tears there was a fervency oh my brother my sister what will happen God the Holy Spirit my brother and sister when God sends revival where does revival start revival starts in the lives of the people of God and when the spirit of God has swept through the lives of the people of God the spirit of God began to affect the lives of the unconverted you say why doesn't revival start with the unbeliever because my brother my sister there is nothing to revive I mean they dead my own homeland of Africa there was a Dutch reform minister and many of those men I'm thankful to say were evangelical men in his name was the reverend Wierendal and it happened so that he fell into a coma in his ministry he was in the province of the Orangery state and they moved into a hospital in the province of the Eastern Cape and the hospital where they were able to look after him and he was in his coma and eventually he came out of his coma because he wrote his life story and his testimony but this is what happened he said while I was in a hospital he said he said while I was in my coma and he said he never thought I would be able to get out of that coma and he said it just happened so that whenever someone prayed for me and they were interceding on my behalf he said suddenly I found myself that I was in the spirit he said I was aware of what was going on he said while I was in my coma he said the big Michael Duxley from Southern Africa at the senate meetings and 1700 ministers came together for these meetings in the senate hall in the city of Cape Town and he said one morning in an early morning prayer meeting he said the moderator stood up and he said now we are going to spend some time in prayer for our friend brother in the coma in the hospital in the city of East London and he said I was in this coma and he said as these men got together and he said they began to pray he said suddenly I was in the spirit and he said as they prayed and as they prayed he said suddenly in my spirit he said I saw a little room and in that little room there were about six inches of leaves and he said as these men were praying and interceding he said suddenly he said I saw that there was some movement amongst those leaves and as they prayed he said I got the message that they were praying that God would touch my eyes and he said as they were praying he said those leaves began to rise to the ceiling and they were bouncing against the ceiling and I realized that God wants to heal me and in my heart I said men will you pray through to God and he said as they were praying those leaves were bouncing and bouncing and bouncing but he said somehow they did not persevere and somehow they didn't pray through and he said they stopped short and those leaves came back and he said I didn't get out of my coma and then he made his statement he said one morning while I was in my coma he said suddenly I was in the spirit and suddenly he said I was in the spirit and I saw my parsnips in the province of the orange tree state and he said as I looked upon my parsnips he said my kitchen door opened and there was the African servant her name was Sophie she was our Basitu woman and he said as I looked at her I remember about 15 years earlier on how she sat in the kitchen and as she sat in the kitchen we were reading the scriptures and as we were reading them the spirit of God came upon her and she began to weep and cry and that morning God came from heaven and she was converted he said but I saw her coming into the kitchen door he said as I saw her coming into the kitchen door he said suddenly he said I sensed the burden of God coming upon her heart and he said she bent down and she she got on her knees and her face before God and he said she covered herself with a blanket and she began to pray for her Maruti for Reverend Twirindau that God would touch him and he said I look at that little woman and I and I said to myself oh Sophie oh Sophie he said suddenly he said I saw the little room he said I saw the leaves and they began to turn and he said as she prayed and she prayed he said those leaves began to rise to the ceiling and I said Sophie Sophie you won't be able to do it and he said as she prayed they bounced and they bounced and then I said Sophie will you hold on to God will you pray through he said there was a moment when the ceiling opened and the leaves went through you know when I read that it broke my heart because I had to bow my head in shame because that was the time when I was part of the duchess and I had to bow my head in shame and say God 1700 men couldn't do it but one insignificant little African woman almost illiterate she knew what it meant to get through to God. I wonder tonight my brother and my sister if you and I are absolutely honest with ourselves how many of us really know what it means to get through to God. We were praying this afternoon here and oh it is wonderful to be in the presence of God and pray and as I was lying there I was convicted by the spirit of God and God said to me you know you're really just talking to me and I mean it's like Abraham who was a friend of God I mean we can talk to God but I sat there and I said Lord there is such a precious spirit of prayer and it's just wonderful to have fellowship and to talk to God and I asked myself what about the burden of God? Do you ever ask God to give you a burden? A burden? Don't ask God to give you a burden my brother and sister we're not ready for it because if God is going to give you a burden you could weep for three months under the burden of God. God is changing our lives. He is changing our lives. I'm going to give an invitation tonight it's a little bit different but for every one of us in this room God is giving us an invitation tonight. He is giving us an invitation. Are you here tonight and you're not born again you do not know Christ as your Savior and Lord. You have no idea what the Christian life is all about. The invitation is open unto you tonight. You sit there and you say in your heart I have no idea what that man was talking about. I'm lost. I need help. The invitation is open to you. There's another group of people that I'd like to give an invitation to tonight. You're sitting here. You've been listening. You've been going to prayer rooms. You've been wrestling. You've been struggling. You've got some special needs. You feel like you need a counselor. Somebody to help you. You've got