In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of perseverance and standing on the promises of God. He expresses gratitude for the opportunity to be part of a great work and prays for God to bring more dedicated individuals into the movement. The speaker also highlights the need for a deep and intimate prayer life, referencing the teachings of Jesus on prayer in the New Testament. He encourages believers to continually seek and ask for the Holy Spirit, who helps in our weaknesses. The sermon concludes with a reminder to examine our own prayer lives and to truly understand the teachings of Christ on prayer.

You know, such a tremendous blessing these last few days that we have been in Last River. I don't know where they got this name from, Last River, because it's out there in the Boonies, in the sticks of Boca Boca land, and you just don't know where you're going. But it's something that was real. But this Pastor Jay that shared with you just now, I tell you the reason why God has worked the way that he did, was just simply because of the degree of preparation. He said to me, he said that, do you think, I always say to people when they get up to speak, and they say, I don't know where to start. Seven or eight years ago, revival meetings, what we call revival meetings, the thing that really troubled me is that when you do these revivals, what we would refer to as revivals here in Canada, seemed to work in those gatherings, and yet you come back six months later, or a year later, and the whole thing was a mile wide and an inch deep. It upsets my heart, and I thought, you know, there's something wrong. I'm going to say to you again tonight, and you know it better than me, that you know, if preaching in itself would have bring revival to the Church, I don't, I would say the Church tonight would have been a blaze for God. But I insisted, in preaching in itself, we had encounters. If you still want me to come and do a series of deeper life services or revival meetings, we're going to do it in a different way. And so these pastors said, what do you mean? I said, we're going to spend a lot of time in prayer. And he said, so how will we do that? I said, well, in the mornings, we will come together at nine o'clock, and we're going to wait upon God till at least 12 or 1 o'clock. And then in the afternoons, from five o'clock to seven o'clock, we're going to pray again. And when we start the evening sessions, we're going to spend some time in prayer before we will turn to the Word of God. So I gave those churches an option and said to them, listen, you have an option here. If you feel this is going to cost too much, then we're not going to do it. And I would say probably about 25% of those churches cancelled out, which was one of the best things that could have ever happened. There were about 75% that said, listen, we've never done this before, but we're willing to trust your integrity, and we're going to walk with you. And I said to them, listen, I've never done this before, but I really believe that if God is going to send revival, it's going to come through prayer. And I would say to you, Brethren and Sister, probably about five or seven years ago now, since we began to do that, God began to do something very profoundly deep in our hearts. And God began to give birth in my heart, not to see churches full of people, but to have the burden and the passion to see churches that will be full of people, that will be full of God. And this whole understanding that we are not interested in experiences that is going to be a mile wide and an inch deep, but we are going to trust God that He will plow so deep in the hearts and the lives of people. And then I began to pray, and Harold and myself, we often talked before the days when John came on the scene, often talked about this thing of a possibility of seeing this happening with Canadian Revival Fellowship. And every time when I had the privilege of coming out here into the prairies and find myself in these communities and sense the hunger for God, just this whole perception of the possibility of doing this with CRF. And you know, I'm a slow mover. The organization that I resigned in December, I've been with them for 31 years, and I'm not one of these people that blow into a place and blow up and then blow out of it and everything is over. I believe that once you are committed, you're in there for life. But the last few months since we have been with CRF, and John and myself have been talking about this for a number of years, I want to say to you tonight, it's been two of the most exciting months of my life. I spent 18, about 18, 16 days in the land of Peru. And I often say to my wife, you know, God is so wonderful, because when I left the organization that I'm with, we left with absolutely nothing. The house that we are in belong to the organization, the vehicles and everything. So God gave us a vehicle of our own. And I remember we came that the first weekend conference that Janice and myself did in January. And we came back this Sunday night. And I said, you know, this is the first weekend that I spent under the accountability and the authority and the submissiveness of Canadian Bible Fellowship. And so we came into the house Sunday night very late. And I said, you know, my darling, I said, we don't have a house. I've got my library, we've got our personal belongings. And I said, we have one another. And most of all, we've got God. And I said, the Lord gave us a vehicle. You don't say that when you launch out in faith, because the next night, next night, it was stolen. And I would never forget this. The next morning Janice came into my study, I was seeking the Lord. And she said, well, you said the other night, we've got our, you've got your library, we've got our personal belongings, we've got one another, we've got God, we've got a vehicle. And she said, it was a mistake. I said, what do you mean? And she said, come and see. Came into the garage, the vehicle was stolen. I mean, that's a pastor's vehicle, you know? I mean, in Alcalde's sack, the first vehicle ever been stolen. And I never realized that in Alcalde's sack, people so deeply cared about us by the interest that they showed when our vehicle was stolen. And then I caught onto it. I thought they didn't care about us, they were so glad it wasn't their vehicle that was stolen. That's why they show all the interest. We've had some great opportunities, but you know, it's been, it's just been tremendous. I'm one of these people, you know, my attitude as far as CRF, it's not a situation that you come in and you say, what can the organization do for you? There has been a brokenness and a sense of an awareness of inadequacy and a consciousness of our own insignificance coming into this work. Brother and sister, this organization, and I haven't joined CRF because we've got nothing else to do. I mean, we could have gone to many other organizations, but I have felt that God has opened this door for us. And your heart has been so broken because here is a great heritage that God has entrusted. And this afternoon when we met together, my own heart, you know, and there's just this cautious sense of optimism to see a Canadian Revival Fellowship and our involvement to see CRF in deeper ways. And not that we haven't done it because you've done that, but to see it in deeper ways, becoming a movement of prayer. I can't tell you this evening of some of the places where we have gone under the auspices of Canadian Revival Fellowship and brother and sister, where God turned up into gatherings and where God broke our hearts in such deep ways. And when the sense of the burden of God became a reality and he helped us to climb underneath that burden. And you know, I really believe that God wants to send revival. And yet, brother and sister, Jonathan Edwards said that whenever God is going to do a great work, he raised up a people to begin to pray. And the burden and the longing of my heart is, and let me just say to you this evening, you never get to the place where we really know how to pray. You never get to the place where you've got this thing of prayer together. It's a learning process of exploring the reality of lingering in the greatness of the presence of God. And the longer we followed him in this pathway of prayer, the more we realized that God don't need us, that he can do his work far better without us. And yet he gives us this immense privilege and the possibility to be involved. And I am just so honored to pour my life into what this is all about. This afternoon, when we were sharing and Pastor John and Harold, and they said, so where are you about this thing? And I said, you know, it's just going to be tremendous. There are so many little country churches out here in the prairies where there are young pastors who are so hungry for God. And I said to them, one of the great things that we will be able to do, and I want you to pray with us about it, is to bring these young pastors together and to take three or four or five days and climb underneath the burden of God and spend time with him in prayer, to see their churches becoming houses of prayer, Bible colleges and seminaries. We get tons of places that come to us and say, can we learn about prayer? And people often say, so what is it? Why are so many people coming and countries saying we want to know about prayer? And do you know what's the difference? It's this understanding that is burning in our hearts, not to come to people to tell them that they should do it, not to come to people and condemn them because they're not doing it, but to come alongside people and to say to them, we're going to learn the language of prayer, and we're going to pray together, and we're going to climb underneath the burden of God, and we're going to ask God to help us systematically praying this thing through. You say, what will it cost? Brother and sister, it costs absolutely everything. You know, it costs us more to miss the will of God, and it will cost us to find it. So what a tremendous privilege. Let's just bow for a moment of prayer, shall we? Our God and our Father, we want to thank you this evening that our hearts has been so broken. I sat there as I listened to these messages and song, and as I listened to John sharing about just the heart of God as far as this fellowship is concerned. And Lord, as I found myself just being crushed and broken by being reminded again by the way that you came and visited us this weekend. And yet, Father, you have said unto us in your word that if my people who are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin, and I will heal their land. And Lord, the reason why we are here this Tuesday night is because we want to identify with a movement that wants to be passionate about the glory of God. And we are so conscious this night, fresh and anew, that you have said unto us in your word that I will give my glory to no man. We are reminded of the Lord Jesus who stood up in the holiest of all, in the high priestly prayer, and he said, Father, I have glorified thy name. Father, glorify me with the glory which I had while I was with thee. And yet, what a tremendous possibility that you can find a people in us that we will learn that the secret of humility is that it's not just a discipline, but that it needs to become a disposition in our relationships with God. And Lord, in the 1970s, when you poured out your Spirit upon these provinces in western Canada, and you began to use the satirists, and you used men like Bob McLeod and Dick Sipley, men, Father, today who are on in years, and yet the flame is still burning. Others like Gordon Bailey, and Harold, and Charlene, and Lori, and so many of these people that have gone before us. And yet, God, in the midst of that, is it possible this evening to humble our hearts again before you, and to cry from the depths of our beings with the prophet of old, when he said, Oh, that thou would revive us again. And Father God, we pray this evening that you will give us the word, Oh, back in our prayers, and that as the burden, and the vision, and the purity, and the brokenness, and the sense of saturation, and the reality of being immersed in the intoxication of the life of Christ, we have a longing in our hearts that once more that God will show us the glimpses of His glory. And Father, thou hast said unto us in thy word that thy servant Moses, when there was a moment in his life of almost despair, and when he looked around at the people of Israel, and the degree of rebellion was so riveted, and so real, and so vivid, that there was a moment when he cried out to you, and said, Lord, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. And Father, how you put Moses in the cleft of the rock, and you said to Moses, no man can see my glory and love. And now you say to him, I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and I will give you a glimpse of the greatness of my glory. And our God and our Father, we want to say to thee this evening, we long to see the glimpse of the glory of God again. We long for you to come, and so melt us in the greatness of your presence. We so desperately long for conviction of sin. We so desperately cry to you for purity, for passion. We long, our God, that you will come to us once more, and that you will put us in the midst of an organized disorder of the greatness of the presence of God. And Father, we do not know this Tuesday night what it's going to cost for us to climb underneath this burden of God, and for you to bring us to the place where you will help us to systematically dissect this burden, and to take it step by step, and to systematically persevere and prevail, agonize and wrestle this thing through to God. But Lord, if you're not going to do it, we're going to be in deep trouble. God, I don't know if we can be in deeper trouble than the church already is in this country, and yet what a blessing this Tuesday night, in our hearts to know that here is a little organization, and we are so feeble, and we look so insignificant, and the Christian world of today is looking upon this little group of people, and they are saying, can any good thing come out of Israel? And yet in the midst of our hearts, do we not dwell on what happened in 1972, but are we focused and saturated on the vision of the Christ who's able to do it in the times in which we are living? And God, we want to see it again, and I pray that you will raise up a group of men and women in this country. Father, that you will wake them up in the middle of the night, and that suddenly that the burden of God will come to rest upon them, that you will waken them up at one or two or three o'clock in the morning, and ask the burden of God will come upon them, that they will go if they can't kneel, go and sit in their living rooms, and that they will wrestle and agonize this thing through to you. We believe tonight, Lord, that you're going to do it again. Father, it maybe can take time, it's maybe going to take blood, sweat, and tears. We may be going to die of thousands of deaths on a consistent basis, but we know tonight that the promises of God has never changed. We want to stand upon those promises, and I want to thank you this evening for the immense privilege that you have given Jonathan, Monica, and myself to be able to become part of this great work, and how we long in the days to come to see God bringing young, fresh blood into this movement. Lord, regulate the traffic, keep those who are on the wrong agenda, keep them out of this work, bring those to us who are desperately hungry and thirsty for God, and raise up a band of men and women who's going to persevere until once more you will rent the heavens, and you will come to visit us. Our hearts are full of hope, God, great expectation, with a sense of longing to know that you are able to do that. Now, Lord, this meeting has gone on, and our time is virtually gone. As we take these few minutes to ponder upon the greatness of the subject of prayer, just bless us again as we ponder upon it in Jesus' name. Amen. If you have your Bible with you, why don't we change our positions and we stand. I want to read to you just a few verses from Luke chapter 11. Just a few verses from Luke chapter 11. Luke chapter 11, verse number one. It came to pass that as he was praying in a certain place when he sees that one of his disciples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as John also taught his disciples. And Jesus said unto them, When you pray, you will say, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, in earth as it is in heaven. Give us day by day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins. For we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. Lead us not to temptation, but deliver us from evil. Jesus said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves. For a friend of mine in his journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him. And he from within will answer and say, Trouble me not. The door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give it to thee. I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, and yet because of his importunity, he will rise and give him as many as he need. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given unto you. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For everyone that asks, receive. And he that seeketh, findeth. And to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give unto him a stone? Or if he shall ask a fish, will he for a fish give unto him a serpent? Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer to him a scorpion? If you then who are evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those that ask him? You may be seated. You know, it's really very interesting that when we begin to speak about prayer and the understanding of what prayer is about, and I've got this deep longing in my heart to explore this whole perception of what the Bible is saying to us about prayer. But one of the great things about prayer is simply this, that when we refer to the understanding, Brethren and Sisters, of learning the language of prayer, there are a number of observations that are so vital and so vivid for us to be able to come to grips with. Because when we refer to learning the language of prayer, are we saying it on the basis that we know that we cannot take people further spiritually than we are ourselves? I think one of the reasons, and I find it immensely across the border in the United States, one of the reasons that people do not pray today is that we simply do not believe that it's going to make a difference. And I think one of the other reasons why men and women are not committed to explore the realities of prayer is because you can't separate the answer of prayer from the dealings of God and your own relationship with God. You see, there is nothing spectacular about prayer. Brethren and Sisters, when we commit ourselves to this perception that we want to seek God, when it comes to the commitment of prayer, no one is ever going to come to us and kind of pat us on our backs and say to us, isn't it tremendous that God has given us a unique burden and He's waking you up in the middle of the night or two or three o'clock in the morning and suddenly the burden of God is going to be there. And you get underneath that burden of God and you pray because those things they are so sacred and they are so precious and they are so unique and they are so unbelievable in their impression upon our life that those things we just feel that we can't share them with the lives of men and women. The other observation is simply this, that Brethren and Sisters, when we are speaking about prayer, is it so vividly real for us to realize that we cannot move from our experiences of prayer to that which God is saying to us in His Word about prayer. You see, if we go from experience or from manifestations as it relates to prayer to that which God is saying to us in His Word about prayer, are we committing one of the most awful errors in our understanding of exegesis and the biblical theology of prayer? Because what will happen to us is that we will isolate God's Word and we will read into the Word that which the Bible is not speaking about and we will have an understanding or an expectation that we want the people to experience exactly the same. But the secret of learning the language of prayer, the secret of what Muller of Bristol used to say when people ask him about his prayer life and he said, I breathe in a spirit of prayer. He said, I live in a spirit of prayer. He said, I function in a spirit of prayer. It's this perception that we must move from the exposition of Scripture or the truth of God's Word to experience. And so that when the Word of God becomes part of our relationships with God, brethren and sisters, the consequences is, as it relates to prayer, is that we don't pray when we feel like it, but we pray in simple submissiveness to the reality of what Scripture is about. You say, Gerard, why do you say that? I'm saying that because we are born with personality, but brethren and sisters, God is in the process of building up Christian character. And 75% of our growth as it relates to prayer is going to be dependent upon the degree that we allow God and His Word to become part of our relationships with God. So I want to say to you tonight, and I want to say it to the inadequacy of my own life as it relates to prayer, that the only way that you and I, as a Christian, are going to learn the language of prayer is when that which God is saying to us and His Word about prayer, when that becomes part of my relationship with God. You know, the month of December, I was able to take my wife and daughter, and we went away for about 10 or 14 days or so, and we were just able to get away from everything. And Janice said to me when we went, she said, so what do you plan to do? I said, my darling, to me this is a study break. And so I took a whole bunch of books on prayer and those kind of things. But I found myself for about 10 days plowing through the New Testament, forgetting all the books of prayer. And you know, sometimes the Scriptures throw so much light upon these books that we are reading. And my wife said to me at the end, she said, you brought this whole suitcase full of books. And she said, you know, we just about had to pay extra for it on the plane. And she said, Daddy, you're not looking at it anyway. And she said, what are you doing? I said, my darling, you don't understand. I said, I'm finding myself hours every day plowing through 23 words in the Greek New Testament as they relate to prayer. And she said, so how is that explaining itself? I said, I found those 23 words and no less than 383 places of New Testament Scripture and those 9,757 glorious verses in what the New Testament is all about. Do you know what's our problem, brother and sister? You know, we know so much about the Word of God, but the Word of God knows so little about us. And listen, folks, it's not the times that we are spending with God, it's the times that God is spending with us. So you sit here tonight, you say, so what is the Scripture saying to us about prayer? It is absolutely immense. Oh, the greatness of the Old Testament that found itself being manifested in the New Testament and revealed as it relates to prayer. Those marvelous 16 moral attributes of prayer in Old Testament Scripture that infiltrate themselves and the great concepts of what prayer is about. 11 glorious words in the Hebrew understanding of the Old Testament. And you know, if you and I would take those 11 words this evening and we would have had a board in front of us and we would have put those 11 Hebrew words down, we would have discovered that more than 800 times in the Old Testament do you find those 11 words and you can put them in those categories of what Old Testament prayer is about. And when you put all those words in their 11 different categories, brother and sister, you discover that there could be 60 to 70 other words that find themselves like little veins flowing from those 11 words as it relates to the understanding of prayer. It was so immense in the Old Testament that three times the prophets, because you see what happens when you and I study the Old Testament as it relates to prayer, or we look at those 222 recorded Old Testament prayers, or we go to those 18 classic Old Testament prayers, or we study the different kinds of prayer, and we discover the prayer life of Moses. 104 times God spoke to Moses. Moses only spoke 25 times to God. You say, what is it saying? Prayer is always initiated by God. You remember what He said about Abram? He said, Can I hide from Abram which I contemplate to do? You see, brother and sister, when we speak about this understanding of learning the language of prayer, we discover a God that answers prayer, not necessarily because we are praying, but we discover a God that answers prayer because He is a covenant-keeping God. He must stay true to His Word. So when we bring everything of the Old Testament as it relates to prayer, and you and I bring it together, you know what we discover? Every aspect of Old Testament prayer was manifested and fulfilled in the life of Christ. Brother and sister, to such a degree that when the prophets in the Old Testament would prophesy about the coming of the Messiah, they were so infatuated by the concept that Christ was the man of prayer, that three times in the Old Testament they used one of those Hebrew words, and they look upon the coming of the Messiah, and they said, He is a prayer. He was God manifested in fellowship and intimacy and communion with the greatness of the Father. And can I ask you tonight, have you ever looked upon the Son of God as a walking prayer? So what is it about His life? We will never be able to come to grips with the Christ in the New Testament if we have not seen Him walked in the Old Testament. And may I say to you tonight, brother and sister, we will never be able to come to grips with the teachings of Christ in prayer and those four Gospels, those 89 chapters of the four Gospels, those 1050 glorious verses in Matthew's Gospel and Luke and John and Mark's Gospel. And as we bring it together, you will never come to grips with the greatness of His teachings on prayer unless you discover His own prayer life. For three and a half years or so, those early disciples, they sat at His feet. Every word that came from His lips, it never neutralized people. They knew exactly where they stood with Christ. It cut into the hearts of people. Do you know what I discovered? Those early disciples never came to Jesus and asked Him how to plant a church. They never came to Christ and asked Him how to raise funds. They never came to Christ and asked Him how to teach them how to preach. But you know what they did? And the structure of the Greek language and the statement of Luke chapter 11, it's so emphatic. The only thing that they ever came to ask the Savior, brother and sister, they came to Christ. Did you remember what they said? They said, Lord, will you teach us to pray? Can I ask you a question tonight? I want to ask myself this question. Has anyone ever asked you to teach them how to pray? You see, brother and sister, those of us who are children, folks, listen, God has not given us children to populate hell. He has given us children so that these children could become intoxicated and saturated with the greatness of the presence of God. And I'll come to you and say to you, will you teach me how to pray? That's what they asked for Lord Jesus. And so you see what happened? Oh, it's tremendous and it's immense, you know. When Christ began to speak to those early disciples, and I want to mention to you three things. Let me just mention to you today, I've been for weeks studying the prayer life of the Apostle Paul, the epistles of the Apostle Paul. You know, we said there's 7,957 verses in the New Testament. The epistles of the Apostle Paul contain 2,033 of those verses. Now, when Paul begins to speak about prayer, it is absolutely immense. You say, what do you say? You see, he never sat at the feet of Christ. He never heard the Lord Jesus pray. He never heard the Lord Jesus open his mouth. He was never one of the disciples. He never saw Christ at prayer. He never heard the teachings of Christ at prayer. So what happened to the Apostle Paul? When he spoke about prayer, brethren and sisters, his understanding of prayer in his epistles was based upon the fact that he was a Pharisee, and he had an understanding of Old Testament prayer that was so immense and so overwhelming, and then he had the indwelling of Christ in his heart and in his life. And when he begins to speak about prayer, he gives you a fulfillment of another aspect of New Testament prayer that did not come from the Gospels and out of the teachings of Christ. And it's precious. So what about the Lord Jesus? What about his teachings? I want to mention three things to you, and we want to dwell on one aspect of one of those three things. There are three key aspects of the teachings of Christ on prayer that is coming to the surface, and I just want to mention them to you this evening. You say, what is it? The first is what we would refer to as He gave unto them the ingredients of developing a personal and a private prayer life. So you see what happened? Matthew chapter 6. You see what happened in Matthew chapter 6? You see, brethren and sisters, the Sermon on the Mount is so precious because the Beatitude is dealing with Christian character, and the rest of the Sermon on the Mount is dealing with Christian conduct. The Beatitude is speaking about the imputed righteousness of God, and the rest of the Sermon on the Mount is dealing with the imparted righteousness of God. And in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus made three marvelous statements, and this is what He said. He said, when you fast, He said, this is not the way that you should fast. He said, when you give, He said, this is not the way that you should give. But you know what happened to Christ? He came to those early disciples, and He said to them, He said, when you pray, He said, this is the way that you're going to pray. And brethren and sisters, what you and I looked upon us, what we would refer to as the Lord's Prayer. If I may say this to you this evening, it's not really the Lord's Prayer, if I may say this with respect. In fact, I would say to you this night, it's not the prayer that He gave us that He wants us necessarily to repeat. You say, why should we not just repeat it? You know why? Because the prayer in Matthew chapter 6, brethren and sisters, it's not the same one that we find in Luke chapter 11. And it's this beautiful statement in the Greek language, when He came to Matthew chapter 6, and you remember what He said, He said, when you pray, and the Greek structure is the word utasuon, He said, when you pray, He said, pray according to these lines. And when He gave us what we call the Lord's Prayer, you know what happened? He gave unto us the ingredients of developing a personal prayer line. He spoke about the place. He said, when you pray, He said, enter into your closet. Can I ask you tonight a simple question? Have you lost the art of the secret place in the presence of God, brethren and sisters? Have you lost the art of that? It's a wonderful little statement, you know. You say, what is it? Four times in the written testament we come across this word. You say, what is it? It's a wonderful word. It speaks of two things. Now I want you to remember something. When Christ spoke in Matthew's Gospel, Matthew's Gospel was predominantly written to the Jews. And so He was coming from this Jewish perspective. And so when He was speaking to the Jews, and He made this statement, and He said to them, when you pray, enter into your closet, or your secret den, when He made that statement, brethren and sisters, in the perception of the Jew, all that He was able to think about was the holiest of all, the place where the high priest would allow to enter. Once a year, the Bible said, not without blood, and He entering. And for the Jew and his understanding, that's all that you could think about. And Jesus said, so when you pray, He said, enter into your secret den. Can I ask you tonight, do you still have a secret den? I just stay out there in the boonies and speaks of booger booger land, of lost river. And I mean, you know, there's Saskatchewan. It's not God forsaken, but it must be God loved. And I say to the man and his wife, because he is an elder of a church, and I mean, it was just a gift from God. And they, I came into the house and they said, there's two rooms where you can stay. I said, oh, that's wonderful. I said, what do you mean? They said, oh, yes, this room, you can stay in this room. I said, oh, that's wonderful. And then they said, we've got a basement. And I said, oh, they said, you want to see it? I said, sure. So we went into the basement and it became my office, you know, it was just great. But you know what is the most wonderful these days out there? It was not the meetings. It was not our times of collective praying. Oh, brother and sister, I found a spot in that basement that God came and met me. Listen here. Our effectiveness for God is determined by the last fresh encounter we have had with Christ. And if we don't know the secret of these fresh encounters with God, we have no legitimate reason to anticipate God to use us in the Christian life. Secret den, so sacred. What Jesus said four times in the Greek New Testament. He said, it's a secret den where I'm alone in the prison. But you know what he said? He said, it's a storehouse. Brother and sister, can I ask you this evening? Hey, you know what happens to us? We get used to the scriptures. May I ask you that? Is God still breaking our hearts in the scriptures? Is he still tearing our souls apart when it comes to the reality of scripture? In a moment, I want to share with you something about the life of Bula. But let me ask you tonight. Do you know the storehouse of God? I was brought up in Africa. And when I was a young fellow, young boy, we were really poor in Africa. It was in the 50s and 60s. And those were difficult days in Southern Africa. And there were days that my mother would turn to us and we say, what do you have for breakfast? And she said, bread and coffee. And we say, so what do you have for lunch? And mama would say, bread and butter and coffee. And sometimes bread and butter and coffee and jam. I mean, this is the way that we used to live those days. And when I was about 10 or 11 years old, in the school that I attended, they announced that there were two other classes that they were going to be chosen to do that will go to the big city of Johannesburg in Southern Africa. So we were out there in this little village out there in a little town. And lo and behold, my class was one of those that was allowed to go to the city of Johannesburg. And so I was all excited about this. A lot of the stuff was paid for, so we were allowed to go. And so when we were so poor, I mean, we didn't have money for nice things to eat and those kind of things. And I will never forget, we went to the city and they took us through the city on this bus tour. And as they were taking us through the city, they said to us, now we're going to see a factory. So we said, what kind of a factory? And they said, well, we're going to go to a Coca-Cola factory. And I thought, oh boy, that's going to be great. We're going to see all these, how they make Coke. And so they took us to this Coca-Cola factory. And brother and sisters, they took these two. You can have as many Cokes as you want. Oh brother, I tell you. I mean, we had the time of our lives. We spent that night in the washroom, you know. I mean, we were just enjoying it. And I mean, I was just a wee fellow with a small bladder, you know, but oh, it was great, you know. But I tell you what happened. We survived it and the next day came. And so they said, we're taking you to another factory. Oh, this is great. So we said, which factory are we going to get? And so they took us through this chocolate factory. I mean, the previous night we spent in the washroom and we went through this place and they took us into this room. And after we saw everything, the manager of this chocolate factory said, now children, now I take you into a room. And he brought us into this room. And brother and sister, guess what? It was saturated with chocolate. I mean, we didn't have money for those things. And he turned to us, his children, and he said, you can eat as much chocolate as you want. Oh brother. He said, where do you spend that night? Just about in the hospital. Oh, you sit here tonight, dear love. Let me ask you a question. What about the storehouse? Is it still washing? Study to show yourself approved unto God. A work will not need it to be ashamed, rightly divided. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word, Scripture know us. When we wake up in the morning, is it calling for us? Is it yearning for my presence, so that it can come and break my heart? He spoke about the place of prayer. He spoke about the paternity of God in prayer. He said, when you pray, you say, our Father, the Father root of God. Christ didn't use the Greek word patah. He said, what did you use, brother and sister? He used the Aramaic word, which is the word abah. He introduced the Father root of God. He said, when you pray, you say, our Father which art in heaven. He spoke about the priority of God in prayer. He said, our Father which is in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done. He spoke about the program of God. He spoke about the plan of God in prayer. He said, give us this day our daily prayer. He spoke about the provision of God in prayer. He said, forgive us our debts as we forgive others of their debts. He spoke about the pardon of God in prayer. And you know what, folks? Right through that, there are the ingredients of developing a personal prayer. So now that I speak of it, we don't have time to look at it. Let me mention to you the third one, and we're through. When you study the New Testament as it relates to prayer, brother and sister, and all I trust, you know, I said to my wife the other day, I said, you know, my darling, I had such a yearning in my heart to be able to memorize the New Testament before, by the age, by the time when I'm 75. And she turned to me and she said, Daddy, who in a mental institution would come to listen to you? And I said, well, maybe you're going to be there. But you know, when you bring all of the New Testament together in prayer, and it's immense, folks, I mean, it is immense. You come across 248 passages. And when you look at those 248 passages, you know what you discover? They divided themselves into 12 aspects of New Testament prayer. You say, why do you say just 12? Because you see, when you look at those 383 words in the Greek New Testament, and you let those words falter in under every one of those possible aspects of New Testament prayer, there could be 10 or 15 marvelous references that are speaking to us about that aspect of prayer. And you say, so what are we speaking about? Fellowship praying. How can two walk together except they agree? Worship. It's a marvelous word in the Greek New Testament, you know. You say, what is it? It means to crawl in the presence of God. It means to be prostrate in the greatness of His presence. Fellowship praying. Can I ask you this evening, do we still have these great times of just lingering in the presence of God? You say, what was the second aspect of New Testament prayer? It's eight principles that come to the surface out of the teachings of Christ. And brother and sister, they are based upon eight words in the Hebrew language that is speaking to us about waiting in the presence of God in the Old Testament. And those words aren't words that you just sit and do nothing. They are saturated with activity as it relates to aspects of what prayer is about. Fellowship praying. Do you still linger in the presence of God? I want to be honest with you, you know what? There are times in my own inadequate life, and I don't know this thing together folks, but there are times in my inadequate life that early in the early hours of the morning, I get on my knees before God and I say, Father, I feel like an old dry stick. I don't feel like praying today. And in the agony of my soul, I turn to Him and I say, God, I've got nowhere to go. If you're not going to come, it's just not going to happen. Do you know what brother and sister? Those times become some of the greatest times in the presence of God. Fellowship praying. Routine praying. You see what I said? You pray for the same things every day. You should only get tired. No. You say, why not? This is the secret of the life of Muller. Man, you need to get this, you know? People came to Muller and said, Mr. Muller, what is it about you praying? The longest he prayed for someone, I think it was 63 years. Hudson Taylor of China. People don't know this, but when Hudson Taylor of China wrote to Muller of Bristol and said, Mr. Muller, I said to the thousand missionaries, I've walked out because I want to identify with the land of China. And Muller wrote him and said, what do you need? He said, I need 75,000 pounds a year. If I remember correctly, for three years, Muller of Bristol sent Hudson Taylor 75,000 pounds. He never had a cent, never had a penny, but he prayed them all through. And once someone came to Muller and said, Mr. Muller, do you ever stop praying for people? Do you ever get tired? And George Muller said, no, I never stopped praying for people. And people say, what's the difference? And you know, you need to get into the life of Muller. I mean, I've got some of these old books about the life of Muller and I discovered the secret of routine praying and the life of Muller. Brother and sister, you know what George Muller said? He said, I don't pray for people. And then I asked God, give me promises for them. He said, no, he said, God gives me promises. And he said, these promises, they connect with the names of these people that I'm praying for. And he said, when I come into the presence of God and routine praying, he said, I don't mention the names of these people just before God. He said, I began to rivet it at myself and the greatness of the promises of God. And he said, when the promises of God begin to wash through my life and they sanctify me and they break me and they set me apart, Muller of Bristol said, the names of those people flow out of the promises of God. And he said, I never get tired. Is that great? So I wonder tonight if I could ask you, is it the promises of God that determine us to pray for people? Oh, I think of Andrew Murray of South Africa. He prayed 500 of his descendants into full-time ministry, you know. But brother and sister, he had a son that was absolutely far from God. And he and his wife, they prayed for his son. And you know what happened? Their son got killed in the war. And they said to God, God, our son died. We don't know, humanly speaking, if we have met with you. But they said, God, you've given us promises. And his name has been flowing out of the promises of God. And six months after their son died in the war in Southern Africa, Graf Rienet, he was the minister, a man knocked at the door. And he said, may I come in? And they invited him in. He said, what about our son? He said, your son died in the war. They said, we know that. And he said, I want to know about my son. And the man said, sir, I'll tell you what happened. He said, we were in the trenches. Your son was badly wounded. And he said, I was right next to your son. And he said, sir, he said, you know what happened? He said, your son fell into my arms. And he said, your son, for five minutes, was living in my arms. He was dying. And he said, sir, I need to tell you, I'm born of the Spirit of God, and I led your son to Christ. Listen, never give up. Never give up. Last thing, ask God to pray. This is precious, you know. So what are you speaking about? Listen to Luke chapter 11, and here's the heart of it. Christ gave him what we call the Lord's Prayer. And now he became emphatically practical. And you remember what he said. And one of those principles is in the same passage. You know what he said? He said, which of you shall I befriend, who will go to him at midnight and say to him, friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine in this journey has come, and I have nothing to set before him. And Christ said, and he from within will answer and say, trouble me not. The door is now shut. My children are with me in bed. I cannot rise and give it to you. And then Jesus said, he will answer, and he will say, because he is his friend, and because of his importunity, or his shameless persistence, he said, he will rise and give him as many as he need. He said, Gerard, what is the task of him to pray? Here it comes. Jesus said, ask and it shall be given unto you. He said, seek and you shall find. He said, nothing, it shall be opened. Brethren and sisters, these are three dimensions of task-oriented praying. You know, when we spend these weeks in prayer with churches, I take in the mornings, and we go into the depth of these concepts before we spend those hours in prayer. And I can't tell you how God is breaking our hearts under these understandings of prayer. Because what is happening, we're not just telling people that they should pray, but we get underneath the burden, and we are praying with them, and we systematically pray things through with them. So you say, what is the task of him to pray? Yes, the beauty of it. You take the word, ask. Ask is not the same as seeking. Seeking is not the same as knocking. And you take those three words, brethren and sisters, and you put them against the wall, and you put the word, asking. You go back to the previous verses, you discover a number of words that falls under the understanding of asking. A number of words on the understanding of seeking. A number of words on the understanding of knocking. And here it comes. He said, which of you shall have a friend number one, who will come to him at midnight and say to him, friend, friend number two. And he said, a friend of mine in his journey has come, friend number three, and I have nothing to say before him. And here comes the principle. Which of you shall have a friend? Friendship with God. Can I ask you tonight, can God entrust unto us the burden? Brethren and sisters, can I ask you this evening? Have you got a burden? Listen, if you don't have a burden, you shouldn't be a Christian. Abram, he stood before the Lord. Still God said, can I hide from Abram that which I contemplate to do? Friendship with God. Which of you shall have a friend who will come to him at midnight? Issue number two, it's impossible. It's in the middle of the night. What will he say to him? A friend of mine in his journey has come. It always has to do with others. You see, brother and sister, when God has dealt with a self-life, stinking as it is, when God has dealt with it, self-passion is for the lives of other people. I see Eugene Kelly here tonight. I just came out of the land of Peru a number of months ago. And when I was in the land of Peru, I stayed in this beautiful place where they put me. And I mean these Peruvians, you know, oh, I mean, you know, it's just an incredible country. You just lose your heart. They're just great people. But when I stayed in this place, one day I wanted to see the news. I mean, everything is Spanish. Oh, brother, I tell you, I became so lonely. The only one I talked to was God who could understand me. Because they all speak Spanish. I had great times with the Lord. Thank God He understands English, you know. Because His Spanish character said to me, hey, muchacha, they call me that boy, muchacha. They say, if you want to go to him, you need to learn Spanish. I said, come on, this man said to me, you need to learn Irish, you know. So, anyway, I'll tell you what happened. I was sitting in my room and I thought, I just want to see the news and listen to something in English. And I was trying to find the news on this television set. And brother and sister, as I was trying to find it, there was something going on that was the traditional, one of the traditional sports of the Peruvian people. You say, what was it? It is bullfight. I mean, it's brutal. I was so captured by this thing, I thought, I'm going to see what they do. And so they have this huge ring, thousands of people, I think the president or the important person was there, and they were fighting this bull. And they had a horse with harnesses on, and this thing would charge this horse. And of course, he can't because of the harnesses. And so they tired this bull out, and tiring out, and they would have this thing that they show, and then the bull would charge, and all. I mean, I cheer the bull. I said, throw them over, throw them over, you know, the poor animal, you know. The other farmer said, shoot this awful thing. No, listen, I watched this whole thing taking place. And brother and sister, there was a moment when this bull came to the end of himself, no strength left, and he was finished. And this marathon with that red rag that he had, he went, and the president, whoever it was, had a white handkerchief like that. Not like mine, mine is unctionized, you know, all over. But he had a white handkerchief like that, and he waved it. And when he waved it, he gave him the sign. And I didn't know what was going to happen. And he went there, and they gave him this, about a three-feet sword or something. And then he had this red rag, and he was working with this bull. And by that time, the bull got a bit of strength back. And when he got it, when he got a bit of strength back, he was coming for him again, and he was fighting and fighting. And then there was a moment when this government official gave a sign, and this marathon, this bull was standing, and he was charging. And brother and sister, I couldn't believe it. As he was charging, this Peruvian man, this Peruvian man jumped into the air with his three-feet sword. He took this thin blade, and right behind his neck, he took that sword, and he put it right into the bull and pierced his heart. And he left again. Oh, it was awful. Now, this animal didn't realize what happened to him. So he turned around, and he came again, and he tried again. And every time when he did it, the strength was getting less and less. And eventually, this man went, and he pulled the sword out. You go to Mongolia, do you know what happened? When the family chief kills the sheep, and the family of Mongolia, they cut the throat of the sheep, and the blood was gushing out, and they all stand around the sheep. And then he does an amazing thing. He cut his side a little with a knife. He cut about a six, seven-inch slit into the side of the sheep. But do you know what he does? He takes his hand, and he puts his body, and he gets the heart of the sheep. And so when Jesus said, ask, and it shall be given. Seek, and you shall find. Knock, and it shall be opened. Express an imperative mood. Keep on seeking. Keep on asking. Keep on knocking. Different dimensions of prayer. And here comes the secret. You know what he said? If you are evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children. He said, how much more shall your heavenly Father, and express an imperative mood, how much more shall your heavenly Father keep on giving the Holy Spirit to those that keep on asking. Are you still asking God for the spirit of prayer? The time is gone. Great passage in Romans 8. Paul said, the Spirit himself helped our infirmities. So what kind of infirmities? The first 25 verses of Romans chapter 8 give you infirmity after infirmity after infirmity, and how the Spirit of God comes to help. And he said, he helped our infirmities. And Bessar, the contemporary of John Calvin, said, the picture in the classical Greek language is a man that is trying to carry a log, and he's not able to carry it, it's too heavy. And then someone else comes alongside, and he says to this person, I'm your parakletos, I'm your helper. And he lifts up this log that this man cannot pull or carry, and he said, I'm going to carry it for you. All I want you to do is to hold the balance. That's what Paul means. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities. Can I ask you tonight, Brethren and Sisters, have we made room for God, the Holy Spirit? I just came out of the land of Albania a number of months ago. 1991, Albania became independent. The revolution came, 51 years of a brutal dictatorship in Kosovo. In the spring of next year, one out of every third women in Kosovo has been raped, brutality. Albania, one of the most poverty-stricken countries, the average income is 30 Canadian dollars a month. You get a degree in engineering, you get about 200 dollars a month. And the missionaries that took me into Albania, I spoke to pastors and missionaries, they took me in and they said, Gerard, for 24 years we went to Greece and to the Adriatic Sea, and four times a year we put gospel tracts into bottles. And they said, we took those bottles and we threw them in the Adriatic Sea for 24 years. And when the revolution came in 91, and the dictator fell, and Albania became a free country, they said, we went into Albania and we went into a coastal area and we found 48 people that gloriously have come to Christ. And we said to them, how did you come to Christ? You know what they said? We walked on the beaches of Albania and we found Christ in bottles. And they brought the missionaries and the pastors together in Albania. And in the very second meeting with these missionaries and pastors, the Spirit of God broke in and broke us for four days. And God so moved upon our hearts, and including my heart. You know what's happened next year in the spring? There are 37 churches in the city of Tarana. And those 37 churches are coming together for a week of prayer. And in the mornings, they bring all the pastors and missionaries together, and we're going to spend the mornings in prayer. Have you lost the vision? Is your heart still broken? Do you have a burden? Do you still have purity? Are you still passionate about the message of revival? You see, what is it?