In this sermon, the speaker shares a personal story from the time of the Great Depression, highlighting the reliance on God for provision in difficult times. He emphasizes the importance of having the faith of God, rather than just having faith in God. The speaker then references the healing of a lame man at the temple gate by Peter and John, emphasizing the power of faith and belief in prayer. He concludes by emphasizing the need to align our prayers with God's purposes and intentions in order to pray effectively.

In 1972, God did come and meet with us in Akron, Ohio, and I'm not going to talk about that tonight, but he did in a wonderful way. And the most outstanding thing, as far as I'm concerned, about that time was the manifest presence of God. And if you were there, probably the most proud thing that would go through your mind is, oh, God is here. David said, when shall I come and meet before God? Now, when can I get into the presence of God? How can I come to God and know that I'm in the presence of God and know that he is there with me face to face and that I can speak to him as he did some men face to face, like you would speak to your friend. And so God puts a hunger in our hearts for him and nothing else will do. Nothing else will do. There's nothing you could give a hungry heart in the place of God. I mean, it would just be the small dust of the balance. It's so far from what it means to be face to face with God that there is no comparison and not in the same universe. And the thing about prayer is if we learn how to pray, it brings us face to face with God. And I want to take this time tonight to teach about a certain aspect of prayer, which I believe is extremely important in our day. I have been a pastor, of course, for many, many years, and then I have traveled and preached in the revival movement ever since 72. And I am too old to figure up how long that is, but it's a long time. A year and a half ago, my precious wife slipped away to be with the Lord. And it was very, very hard for me because she was bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. Maybe you can understand that. She was my partner in marriage and my partner in ministry. She loved the ministry. She loved the pastorate. She loved people. I often said they might say she can stay, but you have to go. They just, I never, there've always been people in my churches that didn't like me. You understand that, don't you? But there's never was anyone didn't like her. They all loved her. And so it was very difficult for me there. And of course, I don't expect that pain to go away until I am with the Lord, and that's all right. But then God began to speak to me in a new way and say, now I've been happy with you all these years doing what I asked you to do. Now I'm going to ask you to do something different, and you may not be too happy with it, but it's what I'm going to ask you to do. And God said, now I want you to focus on being my prophet and saying what I want you to say to the church. The disciples remembered when Jesus cleansed the temple, the disciples remembered that it was written, the zeal of God's house has consumed me. And Jesus said, my house should be called a house of prayer and you've made it a place of merchandise. That was his first trip to the temple. And then he came back and made another trip to the temple, said, you've made it a den of thieves. So I don't know if it got worse in the next two years, but Christ said, my house should be called a house of prayer. And the trouble is in the evangelical church today, it is not a house of prayer. I mean, there are exceptions, thank God. There are exceptions. And we're so thrilled that that's true. But every church, every group of believers that meet together, it ought to be a house of prayer. That ought to be the number one thing. You say, why would that be so? Because prayer brings us face to face with the living God. We can do all kinds of things and good things, wonderful things, even things God has told us to do. But like soul winning, which most evangelical churches don't do either. In fact, there are not too many things God's told us to do that they're doing. But prayer, in my mind, is where you begin. Now, of course, we take it for granted we have the word of God and it's taught and we believe it, of course, and that is our foundation under that. But prayer brings the individual and the group of God's people into God's immediate presence. And it means we can come face to face with God. We can experience God. We can know him. We can actually talk to him and he talks back. And I want to hear from him. You say, well, you have his word. Yes, we do thank God. And I was brought up in a home that loved it. And I'm thankful for that. And I'm thankful that he's helped me to put it into my heart and mind. And I'm thankful for that. But I don't want to be just a biblical technician and just a scribe or a Pharisee. I want to know God really, really, really, really. And I also want to know him in a way where he really answers prayer, where it isn't just a religious exercise. You know, the Pharisees stood on the street corners and prayed long and beautiful prayers, probably full of scripture and all kinds of wonderful things. People walked by and admired them, but their prayers didn't go anywhere. And they didn't reach God and they didn't know God. And so I don't want that. I get very tired of religion. I want reality, don't you? Huh? Yeah, sure you do. That's why you're here tonight, because that's what you want. So tonight I want to help you with that. I want to do some teaching on that subject. So I'd like you to open your Bibles to Mark chapter 11. There are a number of places in the Gospels. The first one was in John, and then the second visit to the temple is in the others. But here's the one in Mark, and I have a reason for choosing this one. Mark 11, beginning with verse 11. Jesus entered Jerusalem and went to the temple. Now he'd just come into the area from somewhere else. He'd come into the area with his disciples. He looked around at everything that is in the temple, but since it was already late, and that is late in the day, he went out to Bethany with the twelve. And Bethany, of course, was a place where he had friends and they could stay for the night. The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree and leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves. Used to be a song. Man, I haven't heard that song in a long time. Nothing but leaves. Because it was not the season for figs. Now you need to note that. Like Jesus knew there wouldn't be any fruit there. Then he said to the tree, may no one ever eat fruit from you again. And his disciples heard him say it. On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. Underline it. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, it is written, my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations. And he's quoting from the Old Testament. But you have made it a den of robbers. The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him. For they feared him because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. When evening came, they went out of the city. Going back, I presumed to Bethany again for the night. In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, Rabbi, teacher, look, the fig tree you cursed has withered. Now the next statement is the most important statement in this whole passage of Scripture. And in most Bibles, it is mistranslated. So I'm going to read it correctly. So Jesus responds, have the faith of God. Jesus answered, I tell you the truth. If anyone says to this mountain, go throw yourself into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for him. Therefore, I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, he sort of adds this as almost an afterthought, but it's very important. If you hold anything against anyone, forgive him so that your father in heaven may forgive you your sins. Now, the cursing of the fig tree sounds strangely out of character for a man like Jesus, don't you think? You don't think. It's impolite to sit and stare when someone asks you a question. Don't you think it sounds strange? It does to me. I remember for a long time, I thought, I don't even want to think about that one because it doesn't sound like Jesus. I mean, he knew it wouldn't have any figs on it. What's going on here? It sounds strange. To be understood, it must be seen in the context of the events that surround it. It is sandwiched between two visits to the temple in Jerusalem and was the occasion for some of Jesus' most important teaching on prayer. Jesus' encounter with the fig tree was merely an opportunity to use it for a graphic illustration of his encounter with the temple. Jesus knew there would be no fruit on the tree, as it was not the time. There was no problem with the tree. But Jesus also knew there would be no fruit in the temple of God in Jerusalem. But this did indicate a very serious problem. There should have been much spiritual fruit in that place. The temple should have been a house of prayer. It should have been a place where God was. It should have been a place where people could come and meet God and be face-to-face with God and find God and pray to God and get answers to their prayers. It should have been a place alive with the glory of God. And it wasn't any of that, not any of it, none of it. It had all the rituals and all the services and all the things it was supposed to have. It followed the laws of Moses meticulously and it had all the feasts and all the offerings and the sacrifices and the singers and the Levites and the whole business. It was a carefully organized and run house of God without God. You know, you can have a church that has all the trappings and even preaches the word correctly and does all things it's supposed to do, but does not have the presence of the glory of God. And the Lord whom they sought suddenly came to his temple. Even the servant of righteousness, he came. But who can abide the day of his coming and who could stand when he appeared? He was like a refiner's fire that purifies the sons of Levi. He was a burning flame. They could not stand it and they decided to try to kill him. Well, the glory had departed. The glory had left. Both the tree and the temple had lots of foliage but no fruit. And that's what Jesus was teaching. This is the form of godliness without the power. Right? That's it. Do you know any churches like that? You don't. You're not very observant. Lots of foliage, no fruit. The form without the power. But when Jesus entered the temple, the glory of God came into that temple and the people came to him in the temple and he taught them there and he healed them there and the power of God was there. And they were suddenly face to face with the living God. And we need, that's what we need, right? Oh boy, how we need it. The prayer of faith could wither a tree, move a mountain, or bring power and blessing to the people of God and the temple of God. And of course, this is not what I'm speaking about this evening, but you know that the temple of God in our day is the people of God and the individual Christian. You know that, don't you? You still are being discourteous when I ask you questions. You know that the temple of God today on earth is not a building. It is the people of God, the church, and the individual Christian. Do you know that? I knew you knew it. So, now what I want to talk about is the prayer of faith because that's what this passage is about. What is the prayer of faith? What does it look like? And what I'm going to do first is just take five things from this passage of scripture that show you what the prayer of faith is like, what it looks like. All right? Number one, he said, you could say to the mountain, be cast into the sea. Also, he just spoke to the fig tree. He said, never again will anybody get fruit from you. So, the prayer of faith is praying with authority, praying with authority. Boy, our prayers are sometimes a long ways from that, aren't they? Yeah. Man, we're so careful not to say anything too strong, you know. Watch out now. Don't presume. Anyway, it's praying with authority. Number two, Jesus said he does not doubt in his heart. It's praying without inner doubts. Wow, is that hard? Praying without inner doubts. Number three, he said, believe that what you say will happen. It is honestly believing it. Wow, not easy. Number four, he says, believe that you have already received it. Wow, it's honestly believing that I have already received it. And then he said, it will be done. It will be yours. It is a prayer. Now listen, it is a prayer that is always answered. The prayer of faith is a prayer that is always answered every time. Now, when I think about that and I think of all the prayers that Christians pray and how few of them are answered, it makes it quite clear we're not praying the prayer of faith, right? Yeah. So there's something we better learn about the prayer of faith. Now, there's a passage in James 5, 14 and 15, and I'm not speaking on the healing of the body tonight or anything like that, but this particular passage presents a principle of prayer. And that's what I want to have you notice. Is anyone 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. Now, and the prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord shall raise him up. I'm not talking about healing, but I am saying here is a principle that the prayer of faith is always answered. It says, I mean, that's quite clear English, isn't it? Or whatever it was in Greek. Somebody says, I know a little Greek. He runs a restaurant down in the corner. But we do know that this is what it says. Like this is not ambiguous scripture. This isn't something we have to, you know, really struggle on. It's very simple scripture. The prayer of faith shall save the sick and the Lord, of course, shall raise him up. So here's the idea that if you pray the prayer of faith, you will get the answer. Now, that's the kind of prayer I like. How about you? Oh my. I want something to happen, right? I want God to come on the scene. I want him to move into the situation. I want to see his hand. I want God, I know this sounds funny, but I want God to show up. Like he doesn't have to show up just because I want him to. I mean, he's God almighty, but I sure do want him to. I want real things to happen. I want to see the hand of God. They said to Jesus said, you know, you're casting out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of devils. And he said, by whom do your servants cast them out? But he said, if I cast them out by the finger of God, then the spirit of God has come upon you. And I want to see God's hand. Now you say, how could anyone pray like that except Jesus himself? Well, in the Bible, obviously they did. But I will answer that really no one else but God can pray like that because what we need is the faith of God, not ours. Ours just won't cut it. Now you say, doesn't God ever answer prayer if we don't pray the prayer of faith? Oh yes, he does. He's so good and he's so magnanimous and he's so compassionate and he loves us so much that he just answers a lot of prayers where there is very little faith and the faith is not prayed. Okay. He even answers prayers for sinners. God is good beyond imagination. But what I'm talking about is Christians who really want to get to God and get things done. And so we need to learn how to have the faith of God and see that's what Jesus said. He said in verse 22, have the faith of God. And I'm going to deal with that a little bit more thoroughly later because in your Bible, it probably says have faith in God. Is that what it says in your? Yeah, wrong. But anyway, I'll deal with that in a minute. Have the faith of God. When the lame man was healed at the temple gate, a crowd gathered. Remember how Peter and John were going to our prayer? And there was a lame man who, you know, was begging so forth. And so he said, look at us. And the man looked at them expecting to receive something. And he said, silver and gold have I none, but such as I have, I give you in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, rise up and walk. And he took him by the hand. The man leaped up and was healed. And in Acts 3 verse 11, go read a short passage there. And while he was clinging to Peter and John, all the people ran together to them in the so-called portico of Solomon, full of amazement. But when Peter saw this, he replied to the people, men of Israel, why do you marvel at this? Or why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety, that is righteousness of life, we had made this man walk. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers has glorified his servant, Jesus. See, God is in the God glorifying and Christ glorifying business. He's not in the man glorifying business and he's not in the church glorifying business. He is in the business of glorifying the son of God and himself. And we need, this is very important because when we begin to pray, if we're not praying with God, if we're not praying what he wants, if we're not in his purposes and lined up with his intentions, then we're praying in futility. So it's very important to understand what this is all about. And he says he did it to glorify Jesus whom you delivered up and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he was determined to let him go. But you disowned the holy and the righteous one and asked for murder to be granted to you and put to death the Prince of life whom God raised from the dead. And we are witnesses and on the basis of faith in his name, but that's not correct. On the basis of his name faith, which is a little different on the basis of his name faith, it is the name of Jesus, which has strengthened this man. Like it's not us, it's God whom you see and know this man you see, you know, and the faith which comes through him through Jesus has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. You see, this is a great miracle, but they said don't look at us, said what this is is faith in the name of Jesus and it's given by Jesus. He gave the faith, it's his faith, it's his purpose, it's his glory, and that's why it happened. Oh man, how do we need to get this? The miracle was done by the faith of God, not the faith of Peter. Now, I grew up, my father was a pastor of his first church when I was born, so I grew up in a pastor's home. My earliest recollection is family devotions, hearing the word of God, going to church. I mean, I was totally submerged in the things of God, and I always heard about faith. I lived in a home where it was practiced, absolutely practiced. I mean, I remember one time when I was just a little guy that my mother set the table and then said quietly to dad, there isn't any food. That was the days when pastors were on free will offerings, and there was a lot of freedom without much will. Well, there wasn't much money either. It was in the depression. You talk about a depression now, it doesn't even compare. It was bad, and so there wasn't any money anyway. So he said, all right, we'd go in the living room. We went in the living room. I don't know why, we always had devotions in there. So we're in the living room, and there's four children, and mom and dad, and we all got down on our knees, and he said, now we will pray for food. You say, that's stupid. Why didn't he go to the social services? Well, that's a long time ago, and there weren't any. I mean, it was God or nothing, brother. And so we prayed, and while my father was closing in prayer, somebody knocked on the door, but he never would allow his prayer to be interrupted. And so, I mean, I wanted him to quit, and I wanted to see what was out there. But he just kept right on, and when he finished, then we got up, and he opened the door, and there was a box of groceries. So we had supper. See, that's the kind of home I grew up in. And if we were sick, we didn't call the doctor. We couldn't afford to call the doctor, so my dad came in, laid his hand on us, and prayed for us. I mean, what else? It was nothing else. Any of you remember those days? Good things to those days, but you know, I grew up in that, and I went to Bible college, and I went into the ministry and everything. I was saved when I was young, and then God called me, and I went into the ministry, but I did not understand this principle I'm preaching about and teaching about right now. God was good to me and answered a lot of my prayers, but I certainly did not understand what I'm talking about tonight. Now, I want to talk about the faith of God for a few minutes. Of course, the verse says Jesus said it was the faith of God. He said, have the faith of God. Now, a literal translation is have God faith, and there's no word in in the original text at all. Now, if the word in had been there, it would have been three Greek letters, epsilon, iota, sigma, which was pronounced ace, and that little word appears all through the New Testament continually, like it isn't as if they didn't have it. It's all over the New Testament. It means in. You know what in means, don't you? It means in. And if God had wanted to say that, he would have said have faith in God. It would be easy to put that word in there. That word is not in there, and what he really said was have the faith of God, and that is something else. There's other scriptures say the same thing. Put down Galatians 2 20. I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. Now, the old King James says of the Son of God. Every one of the new translations says I live by faith in the Son of God. I feel sorry for them. They cannot believe that you could have the faith of God. And so they translate. They mess with God's word because they can't believe it. That's tragic. They say why you couldn't have the faith of God, so then they put a word in there that's not in there. But that's what it says. The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Faith is either a gift of God or the through the Spirit, this kind of faith. Romans 12 3. God has allotted to each Christian a measure of faith. Second Thessalonians 3 2. Pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. Hebrews 12 1 and 2. Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus who is both the author and the perfecter of our faith. He gives it to us and he perfects it. Oh Jesus, I want you to give me your faith. Mine just won't cut it. I want his because his never failed. I mean you read the gospel, did it? His faith never failed, ever. So I need his. The prayer of faith is offered. Some of this you should write down now. The prayer of faith is offered when a person praying has a double witness in his heart. The double witness. First, the witness of the Word of God, of course. That is the first witness. Romans 10 17. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by word from God. Let God be true, but every man a liar. Do not think, Matthew 5 17, do not think that I have come to abolish the law of the prophets. I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass away from the law till all is accomplished. Jesus is saying the Word of God is absolute and final forever settled in heaven and you can depend on it and trust it. Amen. Amen. I have always liked Psalm 107 verses 17 to 20. It's interesting, says fools because of their rebellious way and because of their iniquities were afflicted. Their soul abhorred all kinds of food and they drew near to the gates of death. Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble. He saved them out of their distresses. He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their destruction. Caution 3 16. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace your hearts to the Lord. Then you remember the centurion, the Roman army captain who came to Jesus because he had a servant who was very ill and Jesus said, I'll come and heal him. And he said, no, I'm not worthy to have you come into my house. Just speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. So he knew if Christ should say it, that it would happen. And that's what I want. I want his word in my heart. First Peter 1 23 25. You've been born again, not of seed, which is perishable, but imperishable through the living and abiding word of God. The word of the Lord abides forever. And of course, this is the word we're giving to you. Now you say, well, when I go to pray, if I have the promises of God, isn't that enough? Well, yes and no. The promises of God are true and never fail. But you see, you can't take a promise of God and bring it to God with your problem and say, now, look, you said it, you have to do it. Now, child of God, be careful. You say, well, you're saying there's a doubt about God's word. No, I'm not. What I'm saying is there's a doubt whether you know how to use it or not. Right. You agree with me? Yes. I mean, I've heard some people try to use the promises of God in very strange ways. They were sincere, but it simply was not working. Now, therefore, we should listen carefully. We should read, study, meditate on, memorize the scriptures so we know what to believe. All right. God's word, the importance of God's word and building faith in the human heart cannot be disputed. As we read God's word, study God's word and fill our minds and hearts with God's word. God's precious living word begets faith in our hearts. Yes. The word of God is alive and powerful and sharp as a two edged sword, piercing to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow as a discerner of the thoughts and motives of the heart. Hebrews 4, 12 and 13. But to pray the prayer of faith, we need not only the witness of the word, we need the witness of the Holy Spirit. Now, we have to see this. Really, you might doubt what I'm saying, and that's your privilege. But if there isn't something wrong with the way people pray, how come that so many prayers are offered and nothing happened? And there's something wrong, right? Something. And I believe that this is what is wrong. We need the witness of the word and the witness of the Holy Spirit. But we will not take the time and the humility and the surrender in God's presence to get the witness of the Holy Spirit in the mind of God. First John 5, 7. It is the spirit who bears witness because the spirit is the truth. Romans 8, 16. The spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. You see, it's not just enough that I have the word of God. Somebody says, well, you have repented and you have prayed to receive Christ and that is what the word of God says. And that's enough. But brother, unless there comes to your heart the witness of the Holy Spirit that you're born of God, then you're probably not. Do you understand what I'm saying? This is very important. So the spirit himself bears witness. First Corinthians 2, 9 to 12. However, as it is written, I told you I'm teaching tonight. Are you okay? Are you there? Okay. However, it is written, no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him. But God has revealed it to us by his spirit. His spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? That is the man himself who's thinking the thoughts in the same way. Look at this. No one knows the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. I want to know what he's thinking. Sometimes I say it. I say, what are you thinking? I don't get it. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we may understand what God has freely given us. So what are you thinking now, Lord? What are you thinking about this? What do you think about that? There are things I want, but I'm not sure what you want. 2 Corinthians 3, 5 and 6, not that we're adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God who has also made us adequate servants of a new covenant, not of the letter. Now listen, but of the spirit for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. Do you know what I think is the most tragic thing in the evangelical church? That men are preaching without the power of the Holy Spirit and they're killing people instead of giving them life. You know you can do that? The letter kills, but the spirit gives life. The Holy Spirit takes the word of God and makes it alive and powerful and makes it to do what God meant for it to do. So we need him. You won't mind me using some illustrations from healing. If you don't believe God heals today, I'm sorry for you, and God will correct you when you get to heaven. And you might find some time that you're sick enough to need it. Anyway, for a long time, God led me many years ago to make a personal inventory for people who wanted to be prayed for who were sick, okay? And so when they come and say they want to be prayed for by the elders of the church, which it says in James 5 they should do, then we give them the personal inventory and we say take this home with much prayer, go through it, read the scriptures that are indicated here, and fill it all in and answer the questions and get prepared. Why? Because I can't heal anybody. Can you? No. What nonsense. I can't heal anybody. Can God? Oh, absolutely. So let's get right with God, huh? And maybe even we have to get right with people. You say, why is that? Because Christian people are in the body of Christ, and if we're not right with other people, we may hinder the flow of the life of Christ within the body. See? So anyway, we give them this. A lady came to me, her husband was an elder, they were godly people, and she had a terrible case of diverticulitis, very severe, severe enough it could take her life. And so she wanted to be anointed and prayed for and I gave her the personal inventory and she took it home and then she filled it all out and she came back and she said, you know, I found the strangest thing. So we've been married all these years, but I found that I had some real bitterness in my heart against my husband. And God said, you have to take care of that. Okay? So she went to her husband, confessed it, and they discussed it and prayed together and got it all straightened out. And so she told me what they had done. I said, well, praise the Lord. And then we copied off and give a copy to all the elders. So they two are part of it. And then we came together after the service on Sunday night to anoint and pray for her. And when I saw her face, I thought, well, we'll pray for her, but I think she's healed. So anyway, we anointed her and prayed for her. And so everybody shook hands with her and they were going out. And as she was going out, God spoke to me and I said, wait a minute. And I said, do you have people coming to your house tonight for time of fellowship? And she said, yes, we do. I said, well, when you get home, you're going to need to go to the bathroom and you'll go in the bathroom and you'll dump a bunch of awful, awful looking stuff, blood, everything. And just don't be frightened. Just get cleaned up and go and wait on your guests. And so she went home and that's what happened. And she was 100% healed. See, we were too much in a hurry. We just, we don't want to, we don't want to take time with God to deal with ourselves and others and get our lives where God wants them. You see, it isn't that his word isn't true. It's just that we aren't where it can take effect or maybe somebody else. See, we don't know what God is doing, do we? I mean, he's up there doing all these wonderful things. We don't know. And so we take the word of God and try to demand something. And God says, wait, wait, I'm doing something here you don't know anything about. And so when we take our time with him, we can have him work. So what I'm trying to say tonight, and I'm going to say it a little more thoroughly in a minute. And you say, my goodness, I hoped you were finished. I'm not, but nearly. When we go to pray, I really believe that one of the main reasons we don't get answers to prayer is because we don't take time to know the mind of God. I mean, we're not running anything. You know, people say to me, the weather's bad, and they say, preacher, why don't you do something about this weather? I'd say, well, I'm not in management. I'm just in sales. I'm not in management. He is God, and he's running the world, right? So when we come to him in prayer, whatever it takes, and it will take time, it will take humility, it will take surrender, it will take giving up what we want. It will take a whole different attitude toward God and toward the things that are happening around us, but we need to be patient and take the time to get the mind of God. And I'll tell you what, when you get the mind of God and you're ready to pray in the will of God, you will have the faith of God, and it will be done. Absolutely. Absolutely. I've been helping our pastor with the prayer meetings and teaching them this and working with them, and the prayer meetings are growing. They're three times as big right now, and there are as many men almost coming as women, and it's great. I mean, we're seeing God work in power. So we were in one of these prayer meetings, and I said, now, who has, this is a morning prayer meeting, and I said, who has a very, very pressing, important need for prayer? So this young housewife spoke up, and she said, you know, my mother has moved out of the home, left my father. She's very angry at him, very bitter, and my grandfather, her father, is ungodly and an alcoholic, and he is talking to her all the time, encouraging her to leave him and divorce him. And I've tried to talk to them all, and I'm not getting anywhere, and I don't know what to do. And so I said, well, you know, we don't really know what God wants to do or where he wants to begin. So why don't we just all get quiet? Why don't we pray and say, Lord, let's bring this mess to God, say, would you please speak to us and show us where you want to start with us, what you want to do? See, we think we know what to do, don't we? Don't we? All we know is what we want. George Mueller said if he had an important thing to pray about, the first thing he had to do was get to the point where he had no will of his own. I'm talking about the great man of prayer, George Mueller. So we all bowed our heads, and we got quiet, and I'm saying to God, okay, I don't know what to do with this. Where do we begin? And then God said the strangest thing to me. He said, pray for the grandfather that every time he drinks, he'll get so sick he can't stand it. I said, well, it's not exactly what you want to talk about in a prayer meeting, but we'll see. So after a bit, I had everybody raise their heads, and I told them what I thought God said to me, and a lady, clear cross, she said, oh, that's what God said to me. And she was astounded. She couldn't believe God would say that. So we talked about it a little bit more, and I said, all right, if two of you agree, you know, that's what God said, we can get answers, we can have faith. So how many of you agree that you can pray in faith for this to happen? You really believe it'll happen? And everybody's hand went up. So we did. We prayed that every time that he would take a drink, now, don't you try this. If you don't have the mind of God, don't try it. They'll throw you out of the church. You need God's mind. So we did. We come back the next week, Tuesday morning for prayer meeting. She could hardly wait. I said, hey, wait before we do anything. I want to know what's happening to grandpa. She said, he is getting so sick, he can't stay at the table. He has to run away from the table. He is violently ill. And she said, God is answering prayer. And you know what? The last time we talked about that in prayer meeting, he is still sick. He's having an awful time. And the mother's attitude toward her husband is starting to change. And she's starting to think differently. And now, of course, we're praying for her and the husband and for this marriage. See, I'm talking about having the mind of God. I was just really young. And I was asked to hold a revival meeting in Biloxi, Mississippi. And it was a little church. And I'm sure the only reason I was asked, because there was nobody else that would come, probably. And I went, the pastor really tied me in knots. He had spent the whole week fasting and praying before I got there. And I hadn't. I thought, oh, my goodness. He should be preaching. Anyway, one night, people came to the altar. And I went to this lady and said, so what do you want God to do for you tonight? And she said, I have a terrible case of insomnia, and I can't sleep. I haven't had a decent night's sleep for over a month, and I'm just a wreck, and I need healing. And I tell you, I put my hand on her head, and God said, uh-uh-uh, don't you do that. Huh? I said, whoa, wait a minute. God says I can't pray for your healing, that there's something wrong in your life. And she burst into tears, and she cried and cried. And she said, I am a gossip. I am one of the worst gossips in this city. Said, I have talked about everybody. I've talked about our pastor. I have run everybody down. I have just been a terrible gossip. And so I said, well, you better get cleaned up. So, I mean, she confessed it to God, and asked his forgiveness. I said, now tomorrow, get at it, and call everybody you can think of that you've gossiped about, and ask their forgiveness. And if you can't call them, write them a note, and ask their forgiveness, and go just as far as you can go tomorrow. And she said, sure. She went home and did it. She had even gossiped about the pastor, because he was in love with his wife. I thought it was a good idea. How about you? And you know what? She came back the next night, and God healed her instantly. See, there's all kinds of things that we need to pray about. And there's all kinds of wonderful promises in the Word of God, right? But we haven't taken the time, and the carefulness, and the presence of God, and the total submission of our will, and surrender of our heart to find out how He wants us to pray about it. But if you find out how God wants you to pray about it, then suddenly you find you have the faith of God. And when you have the faith of God, like Jesus said, have the faith of God. When you have the faith of God, you can say to this mountain, be moved. And I'm standing up here. I've only been here a couple days. I know already some folks that I've gotten acquainted with that are sitting here who have mountains to be moved. So, you know, God says, why don't you take the time to find out what I want? The problem is He may want something that we don't want, right? He might. In fact, He might want something that is going to really shake us up. But that's how to pray the prayer of faith is to get the mind of God, whatever that takes. The Word of God says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes may in Him have eternal life. And of course, the situation was when they were bitten by the serpents, they had to come and look and live. There's an old gospel song, look and live, my brother live. Remember that one? Yeah, look and live, look to Jesus now and live. You know how Spurgeon got converted? He was 17 and he normally went to the Church of England, but it was a very snowy day in London and unusual and very deep. And he started out and he knew he could never, he was walking, he knew he could never get to the church he went to. And he saw a little Methodist chapel back in an alley and people going in there. So he went there. He got in there and he found there were just a handful of people. And finally, a layman came in. There was no preacher and he was all wet from the snow. And he got up there and he was supposed to preach. And he took his text from the Old Testament about looking to the serpent. And he preached for about five minutes and he said all he could think to say. And then he stopped because he didn't know what else to do. And Spurgeon was sitting back under a little balcony. And he said, young man, you look miserable. Of course, Spurgeon never had anybody do that to him in public. He didn't know what to do. The man said, you look miserable and you will be miserable in life and miserable in death if you don't look to Jesus. And then he said, young man, look to Christ, look now. And he said in that moment he looked and he was born again, converted. As he looked to Christ, God gave him faith, living faith, and he was saved. And all the great life that followed. The faith of God. Now I'm going to make, I've written these down because I'm going to say them very carefully and you may want to get some of it, I don't know. The faith of God is not something you struggle to make yourself believe. It is something you cannot doubt. That's what Jesus said, you don't doubt in your heart. This faith comes from God himself and cannot be experienced in any other way. I can't work it up. When I am convinced of the will of God from the Word of God, then I should take my cause, my problem, whatever it is, along with God's promises and wait in the presence of God with my eyes fixed on Jesus until he gives me the witness of the Holy Spirit. Then I will be able to pray without any doubt and I will receive the answer to my prayer. Now I know that as we pray together in a group we can't always do all this, but if I don't give you some instruction that will enable you to go home and learn how to pray and learn how to pray in your church, then I'm not going to help you any. But brother and sister, we have got to get to God and give up what we want and our ideas and our thinking and we need to get the mind of God and then pray it in faith and watch the miracles. We've got to do it. I said I wasn't going to preach, I'm sorry. No, I'm not. Jesus said if you abide in me and my words abide in you, you ask whatever you wish and it'll be done. What a crazy wild promise. No, it's not because if you abide in Christ and his words abide in you, you get to the point where you know what he wants and you have the mind of God and you want what he wants. And then of course you get the answer. Right? That's right. The thing above all else that we need to see is that we cannot generate living faith. We cannot work it up. We cannot manufacture it. It is imparted and infused by God himself. We cannot sit in our homes and struggle to have faith and affirm something is when it isn't. Nor can we turn our hope and desires into faith by our own power. The only place we can get it is from the Lord. The woman who had been hemorrhaging so long said if I can just get to Jesus and touch him, I'll be healed. The Lion of Artemis would not be hindered. He got through to Jesus. The Roman army captain focused on a word from Jesus. The pagan Canaanite woman, I'm going to probably preach on her tomorrow, persisted in getting an answer from Jesus. Faith as small as a grain of mustard seed, if it is God's faith, will get an answer because it will truly be the prayer of faith. Helen Smith knelt at the altar. She could hardly walk because of the tremendous pain in her leg. She was a Christian. Her husband was an elder in the church. I said to her, Helen, do you believe that God is going to heal you when I pray for you? And she said, I believe God can heal me. I said, that's not what I ask you. Everybody in this place believes that God can heal you. Right? Right? Of course. I said, again, do you believe that God is going to heal you when I pray? And she just knelt there quietly. I knelt there quietly. She looked at me. I looked back at her. We're just waiting. All at once I saw her eyes change. They just changed. And she looked at me and said, yes, I believe it. And when she said that, I believed it. God's Holy Spirit suddenly came through and bore witness. And then if I'd waited longer, I'd have prayed better. I prayed for God to heal her leg and that isn't what was wrong with her. She said, oh, when you prayed, something moved in my back and the pain's gone from my leg. God knew where she had a problem. And she got up and ran up and down the aisle. The prayer of faith is the faith of God, the faith of God that he gives us by the Holy Spirit in accord with his word. This, and I'm finished, I think. 1 John 5, 14 and 15. Now this is a confidence that we have in him that if we pray anything according to his will, we know that he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, we know that we have the petition we desired of him. Think of that. I mean, some of these promises just blow you away if we pray according to his will. In other words, if we have his mind and he's leading by the Holy Spirit and he gives us the faith of God, we're praying in his will. Then we know he hears us and we know we get the answer. That's what it says. And I, you know, for years I've heard people try to explain away all these wonderful, wonderful scriptures. We need to stop that and get humble before God and watch him do wonderful things, wonderful things. One of them is revival, not only in the church, and the church desperately needs it. And this time, yes, there was a great church revival in 71, 72, 73. It went on into four and five partly. And people in the church got right with God, but it never went on into the world, except in rare cases. Or some of us said, now we need to do what God said and God gave us souls. But now we need to believe God, not only for a, we need to believe for a revival in the church that will get stronger and stronger until the church is praying with white knuckle prayer for God to save the lost. Until the Holy Spirit falls on our civilization and brings a great spiritual awakening and millions are saved. 1957 prayer revival in New York city, people were getting saved in Manhattan at the rate of 10,000 a week in the most wicked, one of the worst cities in the world. Amen. I want that. And so we need to learn to pray. And as we learn to pray and God goes to work and we see his wonderful miracles all around us in the church and in our lives. And then we'll begin to deal thoroughly with our sin and self and all these things. And God will come on the scene and the church will be revived. And then this time I've said, Oh God, don't do it. I mean, don't take me home until you do it. And then give me one month in it. And then I'll burn out and die and go to heaven happy. But you know, Oh, we need the big one, don't we? Where God comes on the population and people start getting saved all over the place. If you want to be in one like that, just go to South Cleveland through church there where God is doing it. But we need the whole great big thing to break out, don't we? And so you say, what are we? Well, we got to start learning how to pray and learning how to get answers and how to believe God and how to get the mind of God and walk in his will and pray for what he wants us to pray for. And then as we do that, we will begin to see the power of God descend upon our churches on our lives first and on our churches and our churches will come alive. And then as they come alive, we can begin to believe God for the big spiritual awakening that must come. Let's stop and just pray for a minute. Lord, you know, I want to present this to people in a way they can really understand and accept it. And I'm sure I can't do that, but you can. Will you please help people here tonight to be able to lay hold of this, have their lives and their churches changed? We're looking to you. Lord, I am so weak and unable to do all this. I trust you to do what you wish here. These next minutes together, will you please do what you would like to do? We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.