A.W. Tozer emphasizes that true prayer is not about our goodness but about God's goodness, urging believers to abandon frantic efforts to be righteous and instead to trust in God's grace. He highlights the importance of simplicity in approaching God, advocating for a deep, personal connection through prayer that transcends mere words. Tozer encourages believers to pray until they truly connect with God, emphasizing that corporate prayer should align with the aim of restoring God's glory and delivering the Church from worldly distractions. He calls for a return to genuine worship and a focus on God's holiness, urging Christians to seek a transformative relationship with Him.

“We please God most, not by frantically trying to make ourselves good, but by throwing ourselves into His arms.” “God answers our prayers not because we are good, but because He is good.” compiled by greg gordon Contents Introduction 1. Praying Till We Pray 2. Corporate Prayer: What is the Aim? 3. Prayer of A Minor Prophet 4. Rare Prayer Recordings Introduction 
“I think that some of the greatest prayer is prayer where you don’t say one single word or ask for anything.” - A.W. Tozer “God discovers Himself to ‘babes,’” wrote Tozer, “and hides Himself in thick darkness from the wise and the prudent. We must simplify our approach to Him. We must strip down to essentials and they will be found to be blessedly few.” James L. Snyder said of Tozer: “In reading one of Tozer’s books, a person cannot help pause every so often, pick up his or her Bible and think more seriously about God.” It is my hope that as you take time to go through this book that statements will jar you and even bring you to your knees. Tozer meant business and his aim was God Himself. You cannot be much around Tozer and start to share the same passion to know Him, the loving God of the Bible. J.I. Packer says of Tozer’s writings: “Through all of Tozer's books and articles there shines a passion for God that puts our shallowness to shame, and reading him is like drinking at an oasis in the desert.” Whether you are in a desert spiritually or not, this drink of “living waters” from someone who sought God for them will benefit you. Lyle Dorsett has studied and compiled writings of Tozer and he explains some of Tozer’s prayer experience and habits: “Tozer spent incalculable hours in prayer. Most of his prolonged prayer time—with his Bible and hymnals as his only companions—took place in his church office on the back side of the second floor. He would carefully hang up his suit trousers and don his sweater and raggedy old “prayer pants” and sit for a while on his ancient office couch. After a time his spirit would drift into another realm. In time, he would abandon the couch, get on his knees, and eventually lie facedown on the floor, singing praises to the Lion of the Tribe of Judah. No one presumed to interrupt these times of intimacy between A. W. Tozer and the Lover of his soul. But occasionally one of the men closest to him would climb the steps to his office and chance to see him on the couch or floor—totally oblivious to the world. Francis Chase, Harry Verploegh, and Tozer’s assistant pastor, Ray McAfee, all saw him at one time or another in one of these postures. And more than one of them mentioned that Tozer was weeping or moaning facedown in the old carpet.” Early on in the formation of SermonIndex, Tozer was very influential in my life. Namely, his book: The Pursuit of God had a great impact. We have included 10 prayers from that book in the appendix of this volume. There also are rare recordings of A.W. Tozer praying in some audio sermons on SermonIndex that are included in this volume. Many of have prayed the Lord’s prayer verbatim as Christians. Listen to Tozer speak on this and bring us a fresh challenge to see this rightly: “How many Christians are there who pray every Sunday in church, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done” without ever realizing the spiritual implications of such intercession?  What are we praying for?  Should we edit that prayer so that it becomes a confrontation?  “My kingdom go, Lord: Let Thy kingdom come!”  Certainly, His kingdom can never be realized in my life until my own selfish kingdom is deposed. It is when I resign, when I am no longer king of my domain, that Jesus Christ will become king of my life.” This book is not just a collection of prayers or rare recordings transcribed it is a book that will challenge you to lay down your life in the sight of a Holy God. To challenge you to deny yourself and pick up the cross. To follow Jesus with a new sense of love and devotion. A.W. Tozer was ordained to ministry in the Missionary Alliance Church in West Virginia Aiden pastored two churches in West Virginia (interrupted by a brief stint in Toledo) and one in Indianapolis, before settling in a church on the south side of Chicago (in 1928) where he remained for thirty years. Here is part of his 1920 ordination prayer: “Lord Jesus, I come to Thee for spiritual preparation. Lay Thy hand upon me. Anoint me with the oil of the New Testament prophet. Forbid that I should become a religious scribe and thus lose my prophetic calling. Save me from the curse that lies dark across the modern clergy, the curse of compromise, of imitation, of professionalism. Save me from the error of judging a church by its size, its popularity or the amount of its yearly offering. Help me to remember that I am a prophet – not a promoter, not a religious manager, but a prophet. Let me never become a slave to crowds. Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity. Save me from bondage to things. Let me not waste my days puttering around the house. Lay Thy terror upon me, 0 God, and drive me to the place of prayer where I may wrestle with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Deliver me from overeating and late sleeping. Teach me self-discipline that I may be a good soldier of Jesus Christ.” Practically here is Tozer giving us an exhortation to start right away with Private Prayer. This book is not just knowledge or information but may it drive you to your knees to know this God that Tozer knew so well: “Retire from the world each day to some private spot, even if it be only the bedroom (for a while I retreated to the furnace room for want of a better place). Stay in the secret place till the surrounding noises begin to fade out of your heart heart and a sense of God’s presence envelops you. Deliberately tune out the unpleasant sounds and come out of your closet determined not to hear them. Listen for the inward Voice till you learn to recognize it. Stop trying to compete with others. Give yourself to God and then be what and who you are without regard to what others think. Reduce your interests to a few. Don’t try to know what will be of no service to you. Avoid the digest type of mind – short bits of unrelated facts, cute stories and bright sayings. Learn to pray inwardly every moment. After a while you can do this even while you work. Practice candor, childlike honesty, humility. Pray for a single eye. Read less, but read more of what is important to your inner life. Never let your mind remain scattered for very long. Call home your roving thoughts. Gaze on Christ with the eyes of your soul. Practice spiritual concentration.” 
 Chapter One Praying Till We Pray 
“One hundred religious persons knit into a unity by careful organizations do not constitute a church any more than eleven dead men make a football team. The first requisite is life, always.” - A.W. Tozer Dr. Moody Stuart, a great praying man of a past generation, once drew up a set of rules to guide him in his prayers. Among these rules is this one: “Pray till you pray.” The difference between praying till you quit and praying till you pray is illustrated by the American evangelist John Wesley Lee. He often likened a season of prayer to a church service, and insisted that many of us close the meeting before the service is over. He confessed that once he arose too soon from a prayer session and started down the street to take care of some pressing business. He had only gone a short distance when an inner voice reproached him. “Son,” the voice seemed to say, “did you not pronounce the benediction before the meeting was ended?” He understood, and at once hurried back to the place of prayer where he tarried till the burden lifted and the blessing came down. The Habit of Breaking Off The habit of breaking off our prayers before we have truly prayed is as common as it is unfortunate. Often the last ten minutes may mean more to us than the first half hour, because we must spend a long time getting into the proper mood to pray effectively. We may need to struggle with our thoughts to draw them in from where they have been scattered through the multitude of distractions that result from the task of living in a disordered world. Here, as elsewhere in spiritual matters, we must be sure to distinguish the ideal from the real. Ideally we should be living moment-by-moment in a state of such perfect union with God that no special preparation is necessary. Actually, there are few who can honestly say that this is their experience. Candor will compel most of us to admit that we often experience a struggle before we can escape from the emotional alienation and sense of unreality that sometimes settle over us as a sort of prevailing mood. Whatever a dreamy idealism may say, we are forced to deal with things down on the level of practical reality. If when we come to prayer our hearts feel dull and unspiritual, we should not try to argue ourselves out of it. Rather, we should admit it frankly and pray our way through. Some Christians smile at the thought of “praying through,” but something of the same idea is found in the writings of practically every great praying saint from Daniel to the present day. We cannot afford to stop praying till we have actually prayed. Chapter two Corporate Prayer: What is the Aim? 
“Pour into my soul that which will enable me to see Thee as Thou wouldst have me to see Thee.” - A.W. Tozer Corporate prayer is the body of Christ or Church praying, the people of God praying. And what should be the aim of our prayers? Whatever it is should also be the aim of our lives, so that our prayers and our lives parallel each other. We do not live one way and pray another. We should want something, and then we should live for that thing. So we must pray in harmony with our walk. A great many people are focused on numbers and are financially successful because they have strong personalities and know skillfully how to take advantage of the public’s known habits. Religious leaders learn the habits of the religious public and then play to these habits. Moreover, when they take “bold steps of faith” after praying all night, they are always careful to move in the direction that they know the public has proven they will support. I do not want anything to do with that. I began preaching on the street corner, and I suppose I can go back to it. We have to pray in harmony with high purposes, and we must work in harmony with high purposes, and we must give in harmony with high purposes. Now, what are these purposes? There are only two, and from them others may grow. But these two requests or desires should be primary. They should take priority over all other prayer requests, including even the intermittent small prayer requests that I might have about myself and my family. Restoration One of them is the restoration of the most high God’s vision for the world. This world should see a vision of the God who would strike them down, a God who would drive them dumb as he drove Daniel dumb or caused John to fall flat on his face. This kind of God is absent from the Church; He is gone not only from liberalism but from the evangelical churches as well. God’s honor has been lost to man, and the God of today’s Christianity is a very rich weakling that certain psychological laws can manipulate. That God’s glory should return is imperative; the glory should return and be seen among men. We read about it in the Psalms, but we don’t know what we’re reading. “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens; let Your glory be above all the earth” (Psalm 57:5). Then we come to the New Testament. “Do this,” said Jesus to His Father, “that men may know, and that I have manifested Your name to the men . . .” (John 17:6). He died that God’s glory might be manifested to the world, and the coming of Jesus to the world in the first place was so that the world that had lost the vision of God should regain it again. Now, the first corporate prayer of the New Testament begins with a salutation: “Our Father.” After that comes the first request: “Hallowed be Your name.” In other words, before any other request is made to God, we should want His sacred, holy name to be hallowed before mankind. If we are to follow the teachings of Jesus, then we are to follow this procedure. “Hallowed be Your name.” This is first—not second and not third, but first. The glory of God should be restored, and the vision of the most high God should once more appear to men. If this vision should ever appear to men in churches and be preached again, if the ministers of the sanctuary should go back to preaching on the perfections and attributes and character and being of God, it would soon have the effect of bringing sinners to their knees in confession. It would have the effect of making Christians separate from the world and hating themselves in their carnal ways. No project or organization knows anything valid until God’s glory is restored. And in all of our prayers, we ought to pray for this. Deliverance The second great desire is that the Church should be delivered from her Babylonian captivity. This Babylonian captivity has slowly seeped into the American church so that most people cannot differentiate between true biblical Christianity and an impostor. We are being directed away from the true God to serve a false god in all its glory. Most of Babylonian captivity adopts the current culture as the level of worship that it might give. This enslaves us and keeps us from experiencing the spiritual freedoms we have in Christ. We are in bondage, and many do not recognize their own bondage. It is like the Baal worship in the Old Testament during the time of Elijah. Standing up against this, Elijah worked by God’s grace and power to defeat this kind of worship. If my worship today is not based upon my freedom in Christ, I am still in bondage to the Baal captivity syndrome. We must pray and work that the Church may be freed, that she may come back to separation and devotion and trinity and sanctification; that she may come back again to the glory of God, not in order to be known, publicizing herself, but to make God known. These are the two things that every church is under terrible binding obligation to get done. We need to pray enough and labor enough and live in line with our prayers that God’s glory should once again appear among men. Oh, that God might appear again as He did to the Moravians when God bestowed upon them a loving newness of the Savior. Instantaneously they went out, hardly knowing whether they were on earth or in heaven. This can only come to a Church that takes itself seriously; this can only come to a Church that accepts the truth and will come and yield and settle itself to pray for two things: for the glory of God to be restored and the Church to be purified. We must be different and changed and transformed by the glory and the power of God. We must take that kind of gospel to the nations. Take to the heathen world and to the dying road not only the story that God loves them, but also the story of a great God, high and lifted up, who created the heavens and the earth and before whose face the heavens and the earth will someday flee. A God who in His majesty rides across the heavens, but who also in His love gave His only begotten Son. That’s the only kind of gospel worth taking to others. It’s the only kind of preaching worth preaching. Chapter three Prayer of A Minor Prophet 
“O Wisdom, the incarnate Christ, fill my heart with desires that please Thee and show to the world around me Thy amazing grace.” - A.W. Tozer This is the prayer of a man called to be a witness to the nations. This is what he said to his Lord on the day of his ordination. After the elders and ministers had prayed and laid their hands on him he withdrew to meet his Saviour in the secret place and in the silence, farther in than his well-meaning brethren could take him. And he said: O Lord, I have heard Thy voice and was afraid. Thou hast called me to an awesome task in a grave and perilous hour. Thou are about to shake all nations and the earth and also heaven, that the things that cannot be shaken may remain. O Lord, our Lord, Thou has stopped to honor me to be Thy servant. No man takes this honor upon himself save he that is called of God as was Aaron. Thou has ordained me Thy messenger to them that are stubborn of heart and hard of hearing. They have rejected Thee, the Master, and it is not to be expected that they will receive me, the servant. God’s Responsibility My God, I shall not waste time deploring my weakness nor my unfittedness for the work. The responsibility is not mine but Thine. Thou hast said, “I knew thee—I ordained thee—I sanctified thee,” and Thou has also said, “Thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.” Who am I to argue with Thee or to call into question Thy sovereign choice? The decision is not mine but Thine. So be it, Lord. Thy will, not mine, be done. Well do I know, Thou God of the prophets and the apostles, that as long as I honor Thee Thou wilt honor me. Help me therefore to take this solemn vow to honor Thee in all my future life and labors, whether by gain or by loss, by life or by death, and then to keep that vow unbroken while I live. It is time, O God, for Thee to work, for the enemy has entered into Thy pastures and the sheep are torn and scattered. And false shepherds abound who deny the danger and laugh at the perils which surround Thy flock. The sheep are deceived by these hirelings and follow them with touching loyalty while the wolf closes in to kill and destroy. I beseech Thee, give me sharp eyes to detect the presence of the enemy; give me understanding to distinguish the false friend from the true. Give me vision to see and courage to report what I see faithfully. Make my voice so like Thine own that even the sick sheep will recognize it and follow Thee. Spiritual Preparation Lord Jesus, I come to Thee for spiritual preparation. Lay Thy hand upon me. Anoint me with the oil of the New Testament prophet. Forbid that I should become a religious scribe and thus lose my prophetic calling. Save me from the curse that lies dark across the face of the modern clergy, the curse of compromise, of imitation, of professionalism. Save me from the error of judging a church by its size, its popularity or the amount of its yearly offering. Help me to remember that I am a prophet; not a promoter, not a religious manager—but a prophet. Let me never become a slave to crowds. Heal my soul of carnal ambitions and deliver me from the itch for publicity. Save me from the bondage to things. Let me not waste my days puttering around the house. Lay Thy terror upon me, O God, and drive me to the place of prayer where I may wrestle with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world. Deliver me from overeating and late sleeping. Teach me self-discipline that I may be a good soldier of Jesus Christ. I accept hard work and small rewards in this life. I ask for no easy place. I shall try to be blind to the little ways that I could make my life easier. If others seek the smoother path I shall try to take the hard way without judging them too harshly. I shall expect opposition and try to take it quietly when it comes. Or if, as sometimes it falleth out to Thy servants, I shall have grateful gifts pressed upon me by Thy kindly people, stand by me then and save me from the blight that often follows. Teach me to use whatever I receive in such manner that it will not injure my soul nor diminish my spiritual power. And if in Thy permissive providence honor should come to me from Thy church, let me not forget in that hour that I am unworthy of the least of Thy mercies, and that if men knew me as intimately as I know myself they would withhold their honors or bestow them upon others more worthy to receive them. Final Consecration And now, O Lord of heaven and earth, I consecrate my remaining days to Thee; let them be many or few, as Thou wilt. Let me stand before the great or minister to the poor and lowly; that choice is not mine, and I would not influence it if I could. I am Thy servant to do Thy will, and that will is sweeter to me than position or riches or fame and I choose it above all things on earth or in heaven. Though I am chosen of Thee and honored by a high and holy calling, let me never forget that I am but a man of dust and ashes, a man with all the natural faults and passions that plague the race of men. I pray Thee therefore, my Lord and Redeemer, save me from myself and from all the injuries I may do myself while trying to be a blessing to others. Fill me with thy power by the Holy Spirit, and I will go in Thy strength and tell of Thy righteousness, even Thine only. I will spread abroad the message of redeeming love while my normal powers endure. Then, dear Lord, when I am old and weary and too tired to go on, have a place ready for me above, and make me to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting. Amen. Chapter four Rare Prayer Recordings 
“O God, Thou Eternal Wisdom, may I embrace that which You have created me for, and may out of my life flow the thanks and praise You so desire. Let me live my life by the wisdom of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.” - A.W. Tozer [These prayer recordings were recently transcribed into text form from audio sermons hosted on SermonIndex. Bringing out the prayers all into one place gives us time to appreciate the way Tozer knew God and communicated with Him.] “Father we pray: Bless thou this truth. Oh God, thy mercies are abundant. Are not thy mercies full and free, and have they not, oh God, found out me? We thank thee for thy mercies, thy many, abundant, full mercies. Now we pray that thou will help us to lean back upon thy mercy and trust, and not be afraid; heed sin and love righteousness, flee from iniquity and follow after godliness, but always know that in all that we do mercy is around us like the air; underneath us as the earth; above us as the stars, and we live in a merciful world and serve a merciful God; live and swim and move and have our being in the abundant mercies of the triune God. Graciously grant us, we pray thee, properly to understand this and to apply it to our hearts, and we give thee praise through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” “Father we pray thy blessing upon the truth. Pray thy blessing upon this service that follows. Let us, we pray thee, feed on heavenly riches: the blood, that was shed, but the blood that is still shed; the blood that is now on the altar; the sacrifice, the priest, the lamb and all that is now ours till He comes. And open before us all the riches of His will, and show us our inheritance which is ours in Christ Jesus. Graciously bless us as we wait upon thee, we ask it in Christs name. Amen.” “Lord we pray, for the afternoon, that it may not be wasted, but that it might be used in some good positive way: to know thee better; to cultivate spiritual things; to do good unto all men; to witness your saving grace to a world thats dying. And now may grace and mercy and peace from God the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost be with us.” “Our Father, we pray,.... we would repent before thee this morning Lord, rather than just pray. We would repent before thee oh Lord, for our 0:03:04.3materialistic?? minds: thinking in terms of this world, judging, weighing, measuring, valuing as men do. Father, this is wrong: forgive us. And Father, our preoccupation with earthly things also, we would repent this morning. As a people we would repent for our absorption in the things that pass away. Oh Lord forgive us, cleanse us, that our garments may be white this morning, pure, shining. We may receive as unworthy, but believing people. Break the bread of life this morning. Oh bread of life, break it; wine of the soul, spill it: heat us till we want no more. In Jesus holy name. Amen.” “Oh Son of God, most Holy God, that holy thing which shall be born of Thee shall be called the Son of God. Oh holy thing, born, crucified, risen, enthroned, we beseech Thee that Thou would rebuke all the unholiness in us that would grieve Thy Spirit from us. Rebuke, we beseech Thee, all of the flesh and of the mind that is even negative, and that thus hinders the operation of the Spirit. Oh we beseech Thee let the Shekinah be seen today. Let it hover over each habitation, showing that the Lord is nigh, we beseech Thee. May we go away from this place serious, and have sought to be holy as Thou art holy, and have tried by surrender and faith to purify our hearts unto obedience. Grant, we beseech Thee, to answer all this, through Christ our Lord. Amen.” “Oh God we pray Thy blessing upon us. Oh, Lamb of God we love Thee so, we would with Thee lifes journey go, and we pray Thou wilt help us this morning, hurt and humbled by our own unworthiness in the knowledge of, and taunting memories of sins committed in the past, but by Thy grace at the moment we have no wish to sin. We wish only to love Thee and live as we should, so please help us now for Jesus sake. The brethren will now gather while we sing.” “Father we pray Thy blessing upon this word. Now as we enter Communion service, we pray, that in utter humility, meekness and humbleness of spirit, we may be and insist upon being what Thou dost declare us to be, that we may deduce from Thy own characterizations of us, what kind of holy men and women we are to be, showing forth the praises of Him who brought us out of darkness into His marvellous light. Take away all bitterness; all resentfulness; all disquietude; all discontent, and bring us, we pray Thee, into mental and spiritual harmony as we think together of the shed blood and the broken body. In Jesus name. Amen.” “Well God bless us. Its time we wake up, and I pray with the prophet, or with the hymn writer, Awake God turn ...Almighty God turn off their eyes from all these alluring vanities, and let the thunder of Thy word awake their souls to fear the Lord. May it be so. Amen.” “We pray shut us out from the worlds clamour and the wagging tongues and the noisy booming voices, and the example that would lead us not toward Thee, but toward the world. Save us from it and shut us in with Thee, and may we think and talk and meditate on holy things today. This message now with Thy blessing may grace and mercy and peace be with us through Jesus Christ our Lord.” “Now our Father we well know that spiritual things cant be reduced to formulas, even though we struggle so hard to do it. An impulsive faith, sudden reckless daring of the soul, in its leap after God, could do more for us than all the carefully laid out sermons could ever do. But weve done all we can do: weve appealed to the intelligence, made some explanations, tried to say in our racy modern English, what has been said with great and stately dignity in our Bibles. My God now take this that has been spoken and apply it to our hearts. May we, one after the other, turn from Adams unbelieving world, with its self confidence, its self reliance, its arrogance, its pride, its mad pleasures, the love of wealth, the love of praises, love of publicity; its inordinate love of clothing and of fine things and of rich things. Turn us, we pray Thee, from it all, not only in our hearts, but in reality, and then turn us to Jesus Christ Thy Son. We need Him Lord. If we gave up the world and didnt have Him, wed be in a vacuum. Father quickly take us through that little vacuum, and take us to Jesus Christ who is the radiant source of everlasting life and peace and joy, world without end. God bless us now as we go on into the Lords Supper. We ask it in Christs name. Amen.” “Heavenly Father, we pray that Thou wilt single us out as though there werent any others, in lonely singleness, and speak to us. Lord, it isnt Thy will that we should fail in our Christian progress. Lead us Lord, Thou hast spoken this morning, of that were quite certain. Continue to speak. Save us, we pray Thee, from the result of our own foolishness. Save us from the traits of our own nature. Save us, we pray Thee, from our own laziness, and make this afternoon for some a time of crossing over. And now may grace and mercy and peace in the triune God Father, Son and Holy Ghost, be with us forever.” “Oh Lord we pray Thee help us this morning. We cant ask that we might be worthy to receive of the Communion, but we do ask that we might, in a worthy manner, receive it. Prepare our hearts, oh God, to think seriously and reverently, and with joy over Thy blood and body and righteousness, which are to be to us a glorious dress and a heavenly garb in that day. Within our minds, when considering the world, may we think only about Thee. In Christs name. Amen.” “Father we pray Thy blessing upon the Word given. We pray that Thou wilt help us, that our faith might mount up like an eagle, stretch its broad wings and soar so high that nothing can pull it down, and as the eagle can look upon the son, we pray that we may look upon Thy Holy Son at the right hand of the Majesty, and that we may be grateful to the point of cheers and tenderness, that He who was God and very God, of very God, gave Himself and hung on yonder tree. Bless us as we receive of the Lords Supper. In Christs name. Amen.” “Now Father we pray Thee bless this truth. Long ago Thy servant wrote these words: we Thy servants in this time long after hear them. Theyre as if theyd been written yesterday and delivered this morning. Oh God, we lift our eyes to Thee, to Thy Son, Jesus Christ the Lord, who is above angels, and who sitteth at Thy right hand, and we pray give to us a spiritual urgency. Give to us a longing which is more than human. Give to us, we pray Thee, the desire thats like a fire burning in our bones, that the claims of Christ, Thy Holy Son, may be so strong within us that we cannot neglect them; and we shall press on like the dayspring and rise higher and higher to this shining light and unto the perfect day. We ask it in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.” “Father, we pray Thy blessing upon these words, and upon the little commentary that weve made on them, trying to apply to them to our practical living. We pray that Thou will give consent of heart and willingness to obey, and cheerful faith to do as were told by the Spirit in the Scriptures; and bless us during the day and for the afternoon and for the evening, and may this day be a big day, a great day, not a dramatic day necessarily, that the newspapers will talk about, but a day deep in the things of the Spirit. We give Thee praise. Amen.” “Let us pray. Lord, oh Lord, we love Thy church, we love Thy Kingdom. Her walls before Thee standing there as the apple of Thine eye engraven in Thy hands. For her our tears shall flow, and for her our prayers shall rise, and for her we promise to labour and work, but oh Lord, Thy poor church is only a ragged beggar woman, when she could be a queen, when she could be a princess leaning upon the arm of her beloved. Oh Lord Jesus, we pray for Thy church. We pray for Thy people who believe Thy word, or claim to believe it, who cannot pray now, at the moment; for the liberal, for the toughest, for the false teacher we cannot, but we pray for those who believe the Bible. We pray for those who claim they're evangelical, and yet they wear rags where they should wear silks. Oh God, we pray Thee revive Thy church in the midst of the years. Revive this church oh Lord. Revive the Alliance. Revive every denomination that stands for the truth. Oh Lord, save us from fear and save us from intimidation. Weve grieved Thy Hold Spirit by neglecting Him. Weve quenched Thy Holy Spirit. Weve listened to the blandishments of men who ought to know better, and they have made us afraid to believe in the power of the Holy Ghost. We grieve for this, and we apologize to Thee for it. We pray Thee, oh God, of grace, out of infinite grace send to this church a sweet wave of power to be, a sweet wave of ability to be holy and good and faithful and tempered and joyful and right. Send, we pray Thee, such a wave. We thank Thee for the blessed Spirit, Father. Thou didst send Him to the Earth to be our advocate, our indweller, to show us the Lord Jesus, to lead us as a shepherd leads his sheep and to be in us a mentor and teacher showing the things of Christ to us. We have acted as if He didn't exist, and were sorry. We apologize and we repent for our neglect of the Spirit and our mistreatment of the Spirit. Oh Father, wash us clean and make us white in the blood of the Lamb, and then pour more oil on our heads for the poor world bleeds and dies and we have naught to help them, they starve and we have naught to give them, forgive us Lord. Breathe, oh breathe Thy breath upon us and say, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Save us, we pray Thee, our God, from logicians and men with pencils and rules and squares and levels, always guiding us away from the fountain. Lord we would put them behind us and under our feet, and rise on our dead selves for better things. Help us, we pray Lord, these evenings together. May the total result be that one after the other of us shall be filled with a new power and a new grace and a new ability to be endued, that we might show forth the excellency of Him who called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. We ask it in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.” “Let us pray. Oh our Lord Jesus, weve entered into what many call holy week, and were going to be thinking this week about Thy suffering and Thy death: the next Lords day were going to celebrate Thy resurrection. Oh blessed Lord Jesus, we thank Thee that all this has passed, and while we may commemorate it now, it doesnt repeat ..... its not repeated: Thou art not going to die Friday, nor rise Sunday, nor send the Holy Ghost 50 days later all thats history and done, and were the beneficiaries of it all if we only dared believe it. Help us to believe it oh Lord, and forgive us for doubting. We are the recipients of all that it cost Thee and all that Thou didst bring by death and suffering and tears and groans and sweat, and by resurrection and by ascension to the Fathers right hand we are the heirs of the ages. Upon us the ages have converged and we, oh Lord, are richer, richer than angels for Thou didst do this not for angels but for men. We are Thy church Lord. We are a people set aside here that are met in this corner, in this building, which Thou hast graciously provided for us. Here we are Lord, and were waiting Lord. Were expectant Lord. We need help Lord. Oh Lord, we pray Thee, put Thy arms about us and squeeze us together so tight that there be no pockets between us, no non-conducting elements that ground nor hinder the power from flowing. Let it be this week, let it be all over Easter, let it be for the days ahead we beseech Thee oh Lord, and let one after another of us we pray, oh Lord, find the secret place and there wait with our open Bible until our vessels are clean and empty, and we are waiting and believing, and then we believe that one after the other Thou wilt give power, and were looking forward Lord Jesus to that moment when there shall be a sudden nearness of the Saviour, instantaneously bestowed, lovingly bestowed upon a thirsty people. Save us, we pray Thee, from the cheap pattern of the worldly churches, and bring us back to Calvary, back to Pentecost, back to all that they meant and mean, and is now perpetuated for us. Oh blessed Lord Jesus. Amen.” “We pray Thee, oh God, for Thy work there in French Quebec, where the ... everything is stacked against the people, against the true people of God. Bless our young brother we pray. May Thine oil be upon his head in such measure that everybody there, even though they hate him for his Protestantism, may love him for the fragrance of his life, and slowly turn and see that the fragrance of a holy life comes from the same doctrines that they hate, and thus give up their opposition and turn to Thee, that mercy, we pray Thee, attend the ministry of this young man, and all of those who labour there. We ask this in Christs name, Amen.” “Let us pray. Oh look on us Thy love, Thy undying affection, a love that a few hours later would die also. That love hasnt lost of any of its content: no weaker no smaller, big as God is big and as eternal as God is eternal. Oh Lord Jesus, were Thy sheep, and the world is big, and the devil is going about like a roaring lion, and the temptations are strong, and the flesh is weak, and maybe some of us are cooling off inside our hearts. Please Lord, before its too late, help us to get enough of it quick before its too late. Please Lord, dont let us harden and backsliders: people that have lost their conscience can no longer grieve because they no longer sorrow, but they dont feel sorrow. Oh we plead, look at us again today in our hearts. Were no better than Peter, but maybe Lord, some who like Peter have sleeped out of discipleship, or at least inwardly they have: look on us Lord and break our hearts. Look on us and make us weep. Give the grace of tears this morning Lord, oh Jesus a few tears. If we knew that we could have this morning $10,000 on offering plates for the Church and for missions wed be glad, but if we knew instead we would have 10,000 tears of grief and repentance and penitence and faith and hope and joy, wed lay the $10,000 away and take the tears that we might weep, because we cant weep. Oh help us this morning in Jesus name.” “So let us pray and lets believe God together. Now were going to close, and when you go to the in-sing tonight, dont sing junk. I know you dont think you do, but sing only that which warms your heart and makes Jesus Christ glorious, and then slip away home and dont waste your time telling jokes and making quips, and lose everything you got today in the House of God. Let us stand and sing.” “Have dealings with God, wont you friends, have dealings with God before you close your eyes in slumber this night? Father we want to thank Thee that in Thine infinite mercy Thou hast not let us go like cattle to the slaughter not knowing where were going because were fast asleep, imaging that were alright, when actually were being fattened for the slaughter. We thank Thee Lord that Thee brought light on this, now help us to walk in it. Bless us, every one. Take away all false hopes and all unscriptural expectations, and pull us back to the Word of the Lord. Oh Father, help as we go down the steps and onto the sidewalk tonight: mark the foreheads of them that sigh and cry. Great God, have mercy upon our America. Have mercy we pray upon our America, with dozens of gods, at least a dozen gods. Have mercy Father, and help us to turn from idols to serving Thee and to wait for Thy coming from heaven. Dismiss us now we ask in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.” “God and Father of our Lord Jesus, we thank Thee this hour: Thou hast not allowed us to wander into the serpent infested valley and left us there, but Thou hast allured us and wooed us, and even there hast placed the door: wherever we are theres a way out and a way in from that spot. Thou hast so arranged it in Thy grace, how Thy sent Thy son Jesus to die, to rise, to live, to plead, and to be for us advocate above, a saviour by the throne of love, and while Hes there and we are here. We bless Thee. We will not despair. We will not give up. We will not surrender to the chains of the enemy. We will dare to believe that with every temptation Thou wilt make a way that would turn our tin into silver, and our silver into gold, and Thou wilt give us the garments of praise for the garments of heaviness. Bless Thou the word spoken this morning. We ask it of Jesus Christ our Lord.” “Dear Lord Jesus, were unworthy to be members of Thy church, but we are not dominated by the devil into letting our unworthiness make us morbidly unbelieving. Even though were not worthy to be, were accepted in Thee, and Thou hast made us members of Thy body, and we accept it, and we leave the matter of our work with Thee, and if angels or archangels question our right to be there, we look to Thee as a sheep looks to his shepherd and say, Answer for me Lord, answer for me. I admit I am not worthy, but answer for me dear Lord, and Thou wilt answer for us for Thou didst come from high heaven to low earth, from the immortal and eternal liberty of the Godhead to the confines of the virgins womb, that we might be redeemed, and Thou didst die on the cross of shame and suffering and rise that we might be justified and forgiven, and you reunited again with the father from which we fell in the fall. God all this is true and we leave it with Thee. Now wilt Thou bless and help us to see how wonderful it is to be a member of however small a group that believes in Thee. We leave the great top-heavy Christendom to find its own way. We shall pray, oh God, for all the Church, all who call themselves Christians. We shall be tolerant and kind and charitable and loving and friendly to them all, but well only go with those that love Thy name, that trust the precious work of Christ on the cross, and that are ready to leave all and follow Him. We pray, oh God, for every Christian in Toronto. We pray for all the ministries of the truth and apparently there are many who preach the truth. Bless them all father, and grant that over these weeks that lie before us we may see a constant rising tide that shall eventuate in a flow that shall be like the river that flows out from the Throne of God, and all this we ask in Christs name. Amen. Amen.” “Alright, let us stand and well pray. Now our Father in heaven we pray for these Thy servants and children. Lord, satan is such an evil enemy and the world is everywhere about us, and the flesh is so persistent. Now I would you know that some of us are having a tough time of it. Sometimes the flesh conquers and sometimes the world gets the better of us. We want it to be reversed. We want it to be the other way around. We want always to have Thee win. We want to see Thee victorious always, as Thou were victorious through David Thy servant. Oh God we pray for these. We pray that Thou would take them through, bring them to an experience in their lives where they can truly and positively know nothing is between them and Thee: no strength, no family, no reputation, no ambition, no money, no property, nothing is between them and Thee for Thy face beams down upon us as clear as the sun on a bright day with no cloud in between. Lead we pray Thee in this, and we pray for the days that are before us. We pray that Thou wilt bless us Lord, and let there be a deposit of glory left in this city as a result of these meetings. We beseech Thee Holy Ghost in power and might from the throne above, from the heart of Jesus the Lord: come and bless this city, these friends, in the day and in the evening, and do what Thou hast planned to do sovereign Lord, do what in Thy mind is for these people, for the churches of this city, for the people who will be here, whether there be many or few. Do something Lord, we pray Thee, work it out, do it oh Lord God we pray Thee, as clearly as raising a dead man or healing a sick man or, as in olden days, when Thou didst do these physical miracles, do Thou we pray Thee within the hearts and lives of people, miracles as sharp and clear as those miracles were, that when the meetings are over, there will be those who have a deposit of power placed within their heart they didnt have when the meetings began.” “Let's pray. Oh Lord Jesus, We've just been thinking of an incident that took place in Thy earthly life, back in old Judea. Here we are Lord in another part of the world on another continent, among another kind of people, in another period of history. Human nature hasn't changed at all. Men still have two eyes and two ears, their head's still on top of their body and their feet underneath. They still grow old and die, and children are born and everything is the same. Colour, cultures, distances, they change; but, oh Lord, Thou knowest, people remain the same. There are people here tonight, eager people, who would run to inquire, "how can I be saved?". Then when they find out would go the other way. There may be people who would eagerly inquire, "How can I be filled with the Holy Ghost?". When they find out, sorrowfully turn away. My Lord God, alot must be Thy heart as it grieves ours a little bit, it must grieve Thine with infinite grief. We sorrow a little, Thou must sorrow with boundless sorrow. Thou man of sorrows acquainted with grief. We hid as it were our faces from Thee, and turn our back and go away. Sorrowing we go, but go a sorrowing. Oh Lord, have mercy, have mercy upon us. Have mercy upon us, oh Lord. not to putts upon Thee to deliver man, Thou didst humble Thyself to be born of a virgin. And Thou hast overcome the sharpness of death. Thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers. We therefore pray, oh Lord, save Thy people, which Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood. Lift them up. Make them to be numbered with Thy saints in glory everlasting. Oh Lord, this night, Shepherd of Israel and ours, find that lamb. Oh, Shepherd of thy flock, find that straying sheep we pray.In the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.” “Father, We pray that Thou will be pleased to bless these words. Thou knowest how our words fly about like birds around a tree. Oh, but Jesus, take the words, and loose the text, and carry it home to our hearts. Put in us, we pray Thee, a great longing after Thee. A great object of our desire, to know Thee in living in colour, by the Holy Ghost, through the blood, until all our self-confidence is gone and we rest not. We ask these things. In the name of Jesus. Amen.” “Now our Heavenly Father, We are before Thee. We think that it's hot, and we're just slightly uncomfortable, but oh God, if we knew for a positive certainty that Thy Holy Son Jesus were coming at midnight tonight, nobody'd mention the weather. We'd be alert, and our loins would be girded and our lamps lighted, and our shoes on our feet and our staff in our hand. We would be looking and hoping; but, Lord, we pray Thee that Thou wilt help us to live now, and to think now, as if Thy coming was indeed as soon as midnight. And we pray that Thy blessing may be on us as we think together about the call of the Holy Ghost to men. Oh God, help we pray. May our minds be brought in from the busy world out there, and from the noise, and may they be centred upon holy things and holy thoughts. Thou knowest Lord it's not certain how much longer any of us will be this side of the border. So we pray Thee while we are here and opportunity's ours, to live all of it, and do what we can to make our calling and election sure. Help now tonight in the giving of this word. We pray in our Lord Jesus Christ's name. Amen.” “Now let's pray. Oh Love of God, Thou hidden Love of God, We have found Thee. We have found Thee, for Thou hast found us. While we were not looking for Thee, Thou are looking for us. We have found, and Thou hast found. And we know Thee, or rather, as Paul said, "we are known of Thee." Now thou't bless this fellowship, this group that's heard these words tonight. May we go out in amid horns and airplanes overhead and noises of every kind, may we hear this gentle, insistent, sovereign, authoritative, winsome voice, calling us to be Christians, calling Christians to be good Christians, and calling good Christians to be still better Christians, calling us to put the world away and focus our attention on eternal values 't'll be hereafter. Kingdoms have fallen and democracies have gone down in the dust. Great God, help us over these days just ahead. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.” “Let's pray. Father, We pray for these who raised their hand, we have no way of knowing what the need might be. Thou knowest about it. But the great thing is, that the heart is the determined, and the will is set, that they'll hear this voice of the blood of Jesus speaking, and breathing like a lion before a court, pleading for his client. So our advocate above, Saviour by the throne of Love pleads, and we pray that they may hear that voice, may quietly tonight, turn away from every thing, everything that could possibly slow them down. Put away every weight and everything that could keep them from being the kind of Christian they ought to be. And we pray for any who may not be Christians, who may be on the border and not sure. God, in Christ's name we pray that they may turn to Thee with all their hearts: "For if ye call upon Me with all your heart ye shall most surely find Me." Help us now Lord as we wait a little further and sing Thy praise. In Christ's name, Amen.” “Father, We pray Thy blessing on the truth. Lord Jesus, we would, we would be clean men and women. We would put away evil. We would cease to do wrong. We would amend our ways. But all this, we would do knowing that in us dwells no good thing, knowing that left to ourselves we could not possibly wash ourselves, nor make ourselves right, nor live right. We thank Thee for the Holy Spirit. We thank Thee for the power of the gospel. We thank Thee for the retreat of prayer and a hiding place of devotion. We thank Thee Lord that it's possible to live as becomes saints in an evil and adulterous generation. Grant that we may, for Christ's sake, Amen.” “Let's pray. Lord, how Thou did'st ever find us, when so many million go their way careless tonight. We'll never know. But it's grace sweet grace eternal that takes all our sins away, and David's royal fountain washes us clean. We thank Thee, pray Thee for all present this evening, pray that there might be a searching of hearts, and an exposing of our nature before Thy light, to know whether indeed we belong in heaven or in hell, whether indeed we're sons of Adam or sons of God. Oh God, save us from carelessness, here in Canada and down in the United States and many a fool other countries of the world were like this rich man. We have so much, we live sumptuous within our way, making us forget that sometime soon we're going to die, and we're going to go where the claim is laid to us, where we belong. Oh God, help this evening this hour, We pray for Christ's sake, Amen.” “If now or after the service, you want to see me, I'll be available... Let's pray. It could be that somebody would like me to offer prayer for you. Last Sunday night after service, a young man from another country, who was a Roman Catholic, came to me, said he had heard me twice, and he was concerned. I can't recall word for word; but something to the effect that he was deeply concerned about his soul and his relation to God and could I help him. I prayed with him, exhorted him, then told him to read the gospel of John prayerfully asking God for light. Maybe he's here tonight. I hope he is. He promised to keep in touch with me. Maybe you would like to have me pray for you. If you would, the simplest old fashionedest way I know, is just to raise the hands so I'll know who wants prayer. Would you raise that hand? Who would like to have me pray for them? For any need at all it might be, Ah, that might be in your life. Any need that might be in your life, put the hand up. We'll know that somebody wants prayer.” “Dear Lord Jesus, we pray tonight that Thou wilt help us to shear thy people. Oh, we thank Thee for that, that glorious Jerusalem the golden, milk and honey blessed, where dwell the spirits of just men made perfect, and where Thy church will some day be. We thank Thee, oh, Lord Christ, victorious triumphant Lord Jesus. God hath made Thee both Lord and Christ, and hath set Thee head over all things to the church, made Thee heir of all things, Thou who art the shining forth of His glory, the express image of His person, in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, we love thee Lord Jesus. We want to serve Thee. We want this church to be a Christ church in deed. We repudiate the ways of worldly churches. We repudiate the psychology and philosophy of worldly churches. We insist we want to be a New Testament church. Make it so. Lord we pray Thee. Bless these dear friends, For Christ's sake, Amen. Now unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priest onto His God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion now and forever. Amen.” “But before we sing, I want to pray. Let's pray. Oh, our kind Father, we thank Thee that Thou hast not left us in our sins. Thou hast thought of a way for us. Thou hast planned it in Christ Jesus, Thy Son, our Lord. Thou hast worked it out by blood and tears and groans and death and the miracle of resurrection and wonder of ascension to the right hand of the throne. Thou hast sent the Holy Ghost to save everywhere throughout the world. 'He that believeth on Him shall not perish. Whoever calls of the name of the Lord shall be saved.’ Oh, we thank Thee heavenly Father. Time's running out. It's later than we know. Then Thou hast warned us gently and carefully to be careful what we do, to be careful what we do lest we take too much for granted, to be careful, lest the devil get the seed, lest the cares of life take the seed, lest we be Christians only in name, and have a name that we live but are dead. My God, 'twould be better that we should perish from the rich precincts of Toronto. Better that we should die pagans, than to die Canadians and Americans and Englishmen and Scottsmen who heard from their childhood this wondrous message. Better to have let it go. Oh God, how do we say to thee in that time what or second do we have. From the body naked savage men smeared with pig grease and clay, we stand up and say we never heard it. But who here can say, "oh God, we've heard it and we've heard it and we've heard it until we're bored with it." God, forgive us. Give us a new something, a new baptism of interest, a new fresh interest in the things of the gospel. Oh God, we pray that Thou will help the friends here tonight. Lord we pray for those who are well saved, that they might become so keenly concerned for others that aren't saved, that they would continue to work for their salvation hard and struggle and pray and labor until one by one they're gathered in. Grant we pray, our God, that there may be a harvest of souls that are long overdue Lord, it's long overdue. But God, we're not giving up. We expect to see it. We expect to see it Father. We expect Thee to give us a harvest. We expect to see young people brought in and older people. We expect to see the the the new faces and hear new voices and see the travail of Thy soul oh Lord. We expect it. For Thou art God and because Jesus Christ Thy Son said, "if we wanted anything, ask in his name" and You'll give it to us. And because that's why the gospel's being preached and that's why we're here. So, we expect to see it God. We don't believe that Thou doest speak to men vainly or say anything to anybody carelessly. We believe that when Thou doest make a promise, that promise is as good as gold. So, we're expecting Father. We're expecting Thee to do it. Move around the margins: our relatives, our friends, our neighbours, people all around here that are not here tonight, but they can be here. They can be brought in, and they can be won. We pray Thee oh God, fall on the churches, fall on this church, fall on our people. We pray that our... with a new affection of love for men, that we may not depend on the Word from the pulpit only, but that we might supplement that Word with earnest soul winning effort. Now come on that's, Father, we're looking for help oh God. Once more we remind Thee that we have for this church a vision of a strong Bible based morally right solid vigorous active loving church, that the people will feel when they comes in here that surely the Lord's in this place of a truth. Lord it may be slow but we believe it'll come. Now at the first, the little sprout, then the stalk, and then the ear, and then the full corn in the ear. So, put us through those stages fast Lord, because we need the corn, and we need it fast. We need it so. Great God we need it. We're trusting Thee. We pray Thee for any tonight that are not committed, that have been... the Holy Ghost has found them somewhere there among the rocks or on the wayside or among the thorns. Dear God has found them. We pray Thee that they may come out from there, and be good ground and receive the truth into honest hearts, and bring forth fruit onto patience onto perfection. We ask this in Christ's name.” “We pray Thee this night, that Thou'll help the young man who is seeking thy face, blessed Jesus. And then we pray for some who for their own reasons did not see fit to present themselves publicly. We pray for them, and ask that Thou Lord will be with them, as Thou certainly will be with them right on and keep shinning the light until they've either said the last no or said a happy yes to Thy invitation. Pray now Thy blessing upon us, and may mercy and grace attend us all the days of our lives. Dismiss us now with Thy blessing, Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.” “Oh Father, we beseech Thee for all of these. Take them through the fire and through the flood, but above all things, through the blood. And if they have to sit by the River Chebar as Ezekiel did, or be thrown down in a pit as Jeremiah was, or be surrounded by bent and fanatical foes as Elijah was, or be on the Isle of Patmos as John was, or to fall flat down in a faint as Daniel did, or whatever the cost, we pray Thee, make Christian worshippers out of these men and women. This we ask in Jesus name.” “Father, first of all, help us. First of all, Thy name should be hallowed. Hallow it, and that Thy King should come and that Thy will should be done all over the universe, down here as it is up there: that that be first. And the other things fall in line. Blessed be God and blessed be His Holy Son Jesus Christ. This we ask in Jesus name.” “Bow Please. Oh God our Father, we thank Thee, we thank Thee, we thank Thee for Jesus Christ Thy Son. We haven't done anything that we could think of but what we're ashamed. We haven't done anything but what we ought to be ashamed. We haven't done anything, our brains, out minds, our bodies, our souls, our spirits, we haven't done anything ourselves, except what Thou hast given us. What Thou hast given us we're not ashamed. We're glad for and deeply grateful, and we will go and appear and be there dressed in Thy righteousness alone, faultless we stand before the throne. And Thou will know us, and claim us, and not be ashamed, 'cause we were redeemed in Thy mercy: poor, scarred, bruised, pathetic, pale-faced, dying, Thou didst find us, save us, lift us, and renew us, and give us life, and we are Thine. Now bless this congregation and we pray for any who may not be saved, they might see what they're missing, and turn quickly Jesus Christ, say, "Lord I'm sorry for my past. From here on, I'm Thine.”