In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of drawing near to God through prayer. He references James 4:8, which encourages believers to draw near to God and promises that God will draw near to them. The speaker shares his desire to be like the great prayer warriors in the Bible who dedicated hours each day to prayer. He also discusses the trials and testings that have driven him to his knees in prayer, highlighting the need for seeking God's help in times of need. The sermon concludes with the exhortation to prevail in prayer together as the body of Christ, believing that lives will be changed, children will be converted, and churches will flourish spiritually through earnest prayer.

Lord, we just thank you that you have given us this tremendous gift that to think that created beings can talk to God. It's just an amazing thought. So Lord, as the disciples said, we ask you teach us to pray. Teach us through your word. Teach us through these men and women who have lived throughout the ages the significance of prayer. Exhort us. Give us the hunger and thirst to pray. Show us the importance of it so that we will long for it, we will need it, we will know that we cannot live without it. In Jesus name, amen. I had named this topic just prayer. I asked, just let me do prayer. I don't care if three people I want to do prayer because I want to learn more about prayer. And I guess Sandy and them named it prevailing prayer, which is really interesting because my grandmother used to prevail in prayer. And that's exactly how she'd say. She goes, I'm going to prevail in prayer. And to me, the way she said it described, you can laugh. The way she said it described what prevailing meant. She never described it to me. I'm going to describe it to you, but she just would say, we must prevail. It was just amazing. And I never forgot that. And it just came back when I read this. I thought it's prevailing prayer. Anyway, as you can see, I love that. I do not in any way consider myself to be a great woman of prayer. And I say that to my shame. Although before I did this study, I thought I was, but when I really started looking into it, I thought I am just barely whetting my appetite with prayer. And I want to give you what the Lord gave me. Raul just gave me all these books. I told him, give me a bunch of books on all the prayer warriors you could find. And he gave me Spurgeon and Luther. And I'm obsessed with Martin Luther and Tozer and E.M. Bounds has just completely blown me out of the water and on and on. And so I have a lot of quotes of theirs. And I, at first I thought, is this right for me to be quoting all these people that aren't in the Bible? Yes. It's a continuation of the book of Acts. It's people who have prayed. And I also have people in the Bible, but people who have prayed and have seen things happen and how they described it. And I just would rather hear from the people who are masters at prayer. So I long to be like them. Many that I read about, they prayed a minimum was three hours a day. Some of them were like eight hours a day. And I thought, so what else did they do? You know, they ate and they prayed. And you'll see why. Through many trials, which I've gone through and you have too, I'm sure, and long testings, some testings that have taken years. One particular testing in my life took seven years, but it started 18 years before, but it went on for seven years. Those testings have driven me to my knees to find help in time of need because no one could help me when I was going through these things. They're testings that the Lord allows and no one can help you and they're not going to end until God says it's over. And so I've learned that I had to get on my knees and it doesn't mean I'm always on my knees on my face or in the bed or wherever I am praying, sitting up. I have found that as the scripture says, I can come boldly into the throne of grace that I might obtain mercy, which means not get what I deserve and find grace and merited favor and help in time of need. And that is because of that thick curtain that used to be around the holy of holies in the old Testament. It was ripped from top to bottom when the Lord died on the cross and he opened the way so that now I can go in to that holy place and I can talk to God. And you know, we grow up, I grew up in a Christian home where, okay, let's pray. And my grandbabies are just, let's pray. It's just so normal. Girls, it is not normal to be able to go in and talk to God. It is something that God acquired for us when Jesus died on the cross. He made it possible. So it would be normal for us, but it's not a normal thing. Not anybody can go in to that holy place and talk to God, but we can. Now I can enter into that holy place and I can plead my cause and I'm good at that. I'm kind of a lawyer attitude, you know, it's, okay, this is, this is the deal, right? God, you know, I plead my case and I plead the case of others and we can do that before our loving father, before the interceding son, who is the advocate and God is the just judge and our helper, who's the holy spirit. And I've been to court with a few of my friends. And so I know what that's like to have the judge sitting there and you think, does he know anything that's going on here? Then you have the lawyer who's trying to intercede for you. And then you have, I'm always the friend, you know, that's trying to help whoever, but here we have the whole triune Godhead interceding for us and concerned and involved and what our cause is. And it could be the smallest little thing to the biggest thing. My goal today is to surrender my life more. That is my goal. I want to surrender my life more, more than I ever have each day in prevailing prayer for myself, for my loved ones, for the church, and for those who are lost without hope. And I've been doing that and, um, that praying, Lord, is there anywhere, anywhere in the world that needs for me to pray for them? And I feel like I'm praying for people that are in jail or in prison or somewhere. I want to do that. I want to make a greater mark spiritually in God's kingdom than I ever have. You know, I am on the last, the end of the road. I'm 57. I'm packing for the end here. The scriptures are packed with examples of men and women who had a magnificent obsession for our Lord and savior, Jesus Christ. And they, because of that, they prevailed in prayer in order to know him. And that's something we're going to learn today that prevailing in prayer isn't just when you're going through drama, it's to prevail in prayer to know him and that God's will will be accomplished. Isn't that what he said in the Lord's prayer, they will be done in this earth as it is in heaven. There are thousands, literally thousands, maybe millions of pages written by saints throughout the ages who have prevailed in prayer. Their prayers are even written or written of saints. They write about each other. These people, you hear one guy, well, Luther prayed like this. And then the other guy says, well, Spurgeon prayed like that. They talk about each other because they study each other, how they pray. And so I'm entering that group of people that study each other and they've led a life of prevailing prayer and they have written about it. And their prayers have been written like David, the psalmist. And we read his prayers. I have been contemplating some of these and I'm going to have a lot of quotes and I'm just going to throw them out there. You won't be able to write them, but you can get them all out of the books. In our theme scripture, Philippians 3.12, which you heard of earlier today, I follow after that I may apprehend that for which I am apprehended by the Lord Jesus Christ. That scripture of all of the scriptures gripped me this retreat. I want to grasp the reason that he's grasped me and I don't think I've grasped that yet. And I've been in the Lord my whole life. I've been in Christian ministry my whole life, but I don't feel that I have grasped yet what I'm supposed to grasp. And I really believe that it's this. It's a life of prayer and grasping that idea that I can communicate with the Godhead and things can happen in the world. Things that I may not even know about till I get to heaven, but that I was a part with maybe somebody on the other side of the world praying for that same situation and even for world changes. With Katrina and all these disasters happening, we need to learn to pray for God to stop the rain or send the storm or not send the storm. We pray, Lord, destroy the wicked. And the Lord destroyed the wicked. He destroyed a lot of wicked people when he did that. So my first point is just what is prevailing, the word prevailing in prayer? Well, grandma said it right. She said prevailing in prayer. And I knew it was serious. It meant this is serious. What does it mean? To prevail means to win over, to be able to overcome, to endure, to have might and to have power. And we're going to have to follow after this. We're going to have to pursue this to be able to prevail in prayer because we're used to our little prayers. And there's nothing wrong with those arrow prayers, all those short little prayers. We need to be doing that all the time. But we want to win Christ as the scripture says, and that happens through prayer. Prevailing prayer is the prayer that wins favor with God against Satan and his forces. It's able to make one overcome sin and temptation and stand up against spiritual wickedness and hosts of demons. It is the prayer that endures and has might and power with God and man. Now, isn't that just enough to want to make you prevail in prayer? It is the praying that persists till it has an answer from God. Even if the answer is wait or no, you just want an answer. I always tell God, I just want to hear from you by you giving me peace over the situation or whatever. And my grandmother used to say, honey, you need to pray through. Her name was Yola, Yola Copp. You need to pray through. And she told us when we were very young at age that my grandpa Copp, her husband, who was Leroy, he came to town and he was this young redheaded preacher. And all the girls in all the churches were after him. And she was the piano player at our church. And she was proud as a peacock out of her own words. And she just determined I will be the one girl that is not after him. Well, he wrote her a 13 page love letter and described to her why the Lord showed him that she was to be his wife and companion for life. And she went storming with that letter to her dad. And she says, this guy, he just thinks every girl in town is after him. Well, I'll be the one that's not after him. And he says, Yola, you better pray through. And he sent her to her room, wouldn't let her out of the room until she had prayed through. And she said, OK, I prayed through. When she prayed through, that meant that she had prevailed with God. She was filled with divine love for grandpa and she married him. Now, think if she had not been taught to pray through and you think what how many things have we missed out on in life? And grandpa did a mighty work for the Lord. She was able to move mountains. She's gone now. But my mother is able to move mountains. She is steadfast in overcoming prayer. On many occasions I've had and my sister is too. I've had my mother and my sisters come storming through my front door. The Lord has told us, come and pray for you. And they just sit me down and they lay hands on me, anoint me. And they did. You do not get up until they're done and you've been prayed for. I've had the incredible and awesome experience. I didn't even know how to. I wrote this several times. I didn't know how to say it. I've been having Kay Smith prevail in prayer for me personally, like live one-on-one over the phone day after day when I was going through a very dark night of my soul. In particular, calling me every single morning to pray and not let me go. And I would be, I have to go now. Wait, I want you to repeat this. I wrestle not, I wrestle not against flesh and blood, against flesh and blood. And you have to know this. Say it again. Prevailing in prayer to get me through because she knew that Satan was out to destroy Raul and me and our ministry. Samuel Chadwick wrote, the one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but he trembles when we pray. Cool, huh? Jesus Christ, the King of Kings, who came in human form was strengthened after he made war or prevailed against Satan through prevailing prayer and the word of God in fastings when he was tempted for 40 days. And you can read that, but it was prevailing prayer 40 days against Satan who was trying to get him to stop and not go into his ministry. Also, Jesus overcame Satan and the wicked host that surrounded him through prevailing prayer when he offered his life up. Remember when he went to Gethsemane and he prayed, not my will, but thine be done. And he was strengthened by an angel to be mocked, to endure mocking. Here's the King of Kings, to endure being beaten, to endure being crucified. We cannot endure these things unless we have prayed. We have prevailed in prayer and we have prayed through. He prevailed that the fathers will be accomplished, the salvation of souls. Imagine if we just, when we started, there was about three women here and I said, we only need one in this class to pray for the salvation of souls or to pray for God's will to be done. He doesn't ask for everybody. He's looking for one person that will pray. And it says there in Luke 22, and when he was in the place of Gethsemane, he said to the disciples, pray that you enter not into temptation. You see the secret there. And they did. They didn't pray. They fell asleep and they were tempted. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast. And he kneeled down and he prayed saying, father, if you be willing to remove this cup from me, nevertheless, thy will be done. So, I mean, he's putting his request, but we always top it off with nevertheless, thy will be done. And that's when the sacrifices come in, when God is silent and you go, okay, you want this? I'll give it to you, but you're going to have your will and that's it. And that's how you pray. And there appeared unto him an angel from heaven, strengthening him being in agony. He prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as if it were great drops of blood falling to the ground. I can't imagine what kind of prevailing in prayer that would be to just be blood coming out of your pores. Those who prevail in prayer become a part of accomplishing God's will in this earth. Isn't that amazing? I mean, don't you want that? I do. I want that. James, the brother of our Lord, who is said to have had camel's knees from so much bending his knees in prayer, wrote of the strength found in prevailing prayer, the prevailing prayer of a Saint in James 5, 16. This is a scripture that has always just gotten my attention. The effective, fervent prayer of the righteous avails much. My mother made us memorize that when we were little. And I had no idea what any of it meant, but the effective, fervent prayer of the righteous man avails much. Effective means the active, mighty, laborious. So you're going to work at this prayer. You literally have to set time aside to pray, but you're praying also. I don't want to in any way say you have to be in a certain place or you could be driving, but you're focusing on praying. You could be on your knees. You could be on your face. You could be alone, but you're active. The effective, active, mighty, laborious prayer. And then it says the fervent prayer. Effective, fervent means zealous. Zealous means godly jealousy. You're fighting with a godly jealousy for God's kingdom, for God's people, or with fervor or ardor, and that speaks of fire. You're just praying with all your heart and mind. And it says of the righteous, of the innocent, the holy, the just, that's us because we have been forgiven and our sins are washed away. We are clean. Avails. Now, I never liked that translation, avails. It's like, oh, well, it'll be kind of good. No, you know what avails means? It exercises force. Is that too cool? That our prayer exercises force. It prevails. What does that mean? It wins. It's strong. It's good. It's mighty. I mean, you can picture the father and the son, the son sitting at the right hand and the father interceding for us. And we're praying, we're crying, whatever we're doing, wimping, complaining, and we're righteous. And we're praying with this active, mighty, laborious prayer, zealous with godly jealousy. And Jesus says, wait, she's praying. What is she saying? Let's do that. Does that just give you the chills? That gives me the chills up and down my spine to think that my prayer avails much in the courts of heaven. Charles Spurgeon, I had a lot of quotes of him, but this one says prayer is the slender nerve. That's us. That moves the muscle of the omnipotence. Prayer is able to prevail with heaven and bend omnipotence to its desires, to it desires, to the desires of prayer. Remember when Abraham interceded for the city of Sodom. I mean, God's listening and he's thinking, okay, can we find these people? Where are they? Can we save these people? Martin Luther said, none can believe how powerful prayer is and what it is able to affect, but those who have learned it by experience. So now, you know, I'm reading about all these guys. Prevailing prayer and humility is one of the topics that I studied, prevailing prayer and humility. This is important. In order to come to God in prayer, we must first come in humility. James 4, 6 says, God resists the proud, but he gives a grace, unmerited favor to the humble. Ian Bound said, humility of heart, get ready to get blown out of the water. Humility of heart is that which gives the soul of man access to God in prayer. Humility is as indispensable requisite to true prayer, is an indispensable requisite of true prayer. Humility is born by looking at God and his holiness, and then looking at self and our unholiness. There is no praying without humility. We have to come to God in humility. So we have to ask him to clothe us in his humility and to cause us to see him so that we can see how wretched and lost we are. Ian Bounds also says, to be humble is to have a low estimate of oneself. I mean, if we're truthful with ourselves, do we? It's to be modest, lowly, with a disposition to seek obscurity. Now that one made me stop and really think, because I thought, okay, I'm up on the pulpit a lot. And so how are you up on the pulpit and seeking obscurity? And that's something we have to think about and bring to prayer before the Lord. We're pastors wise. We're up front. So we're not in an obscure place. We're actually in a very focal point of the church. So how do we do that? I challenge you to seek the Lord, to seek obscurity, that Christ would be magnified in me, that people would see Christ and not me. They would forget who we are, and they would go home thinking about the message and not who the messenger was. Humility retires itself from the public gaze. It does not seek publicity nor hunt for high places. Neither does it care for prominence. No politics with humility. In humility, there's a total absence of pride. Ian Bounds said that. Total absence of pride. There's no self-praise in humility. That which gives wings to prayer is lowliness of mind. So how many prayers have we said that just bounce off from heaven? Because there's no lowliness of mind. Humility flourishes in the soil of true and deep sense of our sinfulness and nothingness. We have to ask God first to show us our sinfulness. God dwells in the lowly places. He makes such lowly places, really the high places, to the praying soul. And in the scriptures, let's see, I may have lost it, but I'm just thinking of that scripture right now that says that he dwells in the high and holy place with those who are... Oh, I have it right here. I wrote it here. Isaiah 57, 5. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabits eternity. So right there, Isaiah lets us know he's high, he's lofty, he's in heaven, he's God, whose name is holy and he's holy. I dwell in the high and in that holy place with him. With who? With us. With him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. Who does he dwell with? The humble. So we can spend hours in prayer, but if we don't have a humble heart, we're wasting our time. Isaiah 66, 2. But to this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word. Psalm 34, 18. The Lord is near to them that are of a broken spirit. He saves those that have a contrite heart. Psalm 51, 17. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit. This is how he wants us to come to him. A broken or contrite heart, O Lord, you will not despise. Augustine said, God gives where he finds empty hands. In the kneeling Christian, he says, we are never so high as when we are on our knees with God, on our knees with God in prayer. This is so opposite than the way we are. We literally have to be transformed. Our mind has to be transformed to think up is down, down is up. You know, it's just opposite. God's thoughts are not our thoughts. George McDonald said he knows little of himself who does not know that he is wretched, miserable, poor, blind and naked. But until he begins at least to suspect a need, how can he pray? Robert Murray McShane, love this guy, study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, your usefulness. And we want to be useful. For your sermons last for an hour or two, but your life preaches all week. We are preaching louder with our life, aren't we? If Satan can only make a covetous minister, a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating, he has ruined your ministry. Give yourself to prayer. Get your text, your thoughts, your words from God. Luther spent his best three hours in prayer. Isn't that amazing? It's going to get better girls. Okay. Prayer is by faith, not by sight. Faith in God comes through hearing and hearing through the word of God. So as we're hearing the word of God this weekend and all the time we are being built up. And when we start losing that faith in God, that trust, when we start doubting, we need to get back into the word so he can build up our faith so we can pray. It is not only by faith that we can move into the unseen realm of communication. It's only by faith that we can move into that unseen realm of communication with God. Okay. I thought I lost my place. Prayer puts one on the same page with God. I have found that my prayers, when I go to him with a big drama, which I have plenty, I live with drama and I am drama. So we have two dramas in the house. I have found that my prayers do not change God. What did God say? I am God. I change not. My prayers change the way I see the things of God. And it's so awesome. He just changes your way of thinking. Prayer opens the floodgates to divine guidance. It invigorates the mind. It loosens up your thoughts and it gives us utterances from God. I tested this yesterday. I sat in my room and I just was praying and praying and the Lord gave me a prayer. It was so amazing. I wrote it and I said, I can't believe it. I wrote a whole prayer. It was a two-page prayer and it was just really a neat prayer. Prayer is received by the Father. It's interceded by Christ and it's empowered by the Holy Spirit. And a lot of times we just think I'm just praying and praying. God's not listening. And my grandma would say, that's because you haven't traveled in prayer. Richard Halverson said, you can organize until you're exhausted. And I am the Martha in the family and Raul is the Mary. You can plan, although he's very organized, but he sits a lot in prayer. You can organize until you're exhausted. You can plan, program and subsidize all your plans. But if you fail to prayer, it's a waste of time. Prayer is not optional for us. It's mandatory. Not to pray is to disobey God. Scary stuff, huh? And bounce. Little prayer is characteristic of a backslidden age and a backslidden church. When I read that, I called Raul right away and I said, Raul, how many prayer meetings do we have going at the church? And he said, he's trying to think. And I said, are you sure we're not in a backslidden stage? He says, no, Sharon. Are you sure? Okay. Whenever there is little prayer in the pulpit or the pew, spiritual bankruptcy is imminent and inevitable. That it really did scare me. And I did call Raul and I did ask him how many prayer meetings we had going at the church. Martin Luther said, to be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing. Amazing, huh? Prayer fulfills the will of God. We're learning. First John 5, 14 says, and this is the confidence that we have in him. That if we ask anything, hasn't that scripture always bothered you? Well, I've asked all this stuff. If we ask anything according to the will of God, he hears us. Now remember Hannah, how she just prayed and prayed for a son, but then her prayer changed. It became according to the will of God. Lord, if you give him to me, I'll give him to you. And so when I pray, I go, okay, Lord, I've been praying for this for how many years now and change my prayer to be your will. Cause me to pray, not just Lord, according to your will, but to pray your will. And the Holy spirit will pray his will through us. And I've seen a lot of prayers answered that way, but they're sacrificial prayers. They're Lord, save my son. And I'll give him to you. Even if I never see him again, the rest of my life, you know, even if he's in prison, even if he gives his life, you know, whatever, just, you know, when you start praying according to God's will, you are putting it all on the altar. Chuck Smith and effective prayer life, little great little booklet. He describes very orderly prayer. And it says, prayer can be expressed in three basic forms, worship petition and intercession with variations within each form. And then he goes through the book, giving all those variations. Uh, the three is worship, which is a result. Continuing to quote him of a conscience awareness of God's presence. And that's probably the first thing we need to do when we pray as Lord, I need to be consciously aware that you are here. And a lot of times it's just a verse in scripture. Uh, I will never leave you and forsake is one of my favorite ones. You said you'll never leave me and forsake me or two or three are gathered together. You're in their midst. Well, I'm just here with the Holy spirit and Jesus is that those three and you, is that good? Cause nobody else is here. Um, just it's an, we worship when we're aware of his presence. And when you read the Psalms and I read a bunch of them today, we see that David was aware of his presence. And so he could worship him as I realized the greatness of God. I naturally respond with deep inner worship, worship from the spirit. And I'll just read Psalm 91 where it says worship. Oh, it's about worship. He that dwells in the secret place of the most high shall abide in the shadow of the almighty. I will say of the Lord, he's my refuge. He's my fortress. He's my God in him. Will I trust? Surely he will deliver me from the snare of the Fowler. So you see that worship first of God before going into a petition and then a petition is when you bring, I bring my needs before God and ask him for help in time of trouble. And that's probably where we spend most of our time until God leads us someplace else. Psalm 86 starts out, bow down thine ear. Oh Lord. And hear me for I am poor and needy. I love that Lord. I need you right now. Are you listening? Are you here? Are you hearing me? I say to the Lord a lot, Lord, I just, just give me a sign, a bird, anything, you know, something to fly by, anything to just say, I'm listening. He doesn't always do that though. But I, it's a way of saying bow down your ear. You know, I always want the, I'm the fleece woman, you know, just some little thing. Uh, somebody call me a great scripture, you know, some miraculous thing from heaven. He says, I'll never leave you. I'm, I'm inclining my ear to you. I love you when you pray to me. So we need to do it by faith. You know, intercession is when you reach out beyond yourself and we pray for others. And that's, that's the area that I want to learn more and more about as I'm getting older. Prayer is waiting on God. We must prevail to be still, you know, maybe you came to this class thinking prevailing means just like really going for it. Like the preacher that we heard last night. And I've heard many people prevail out loud in prayer and worship the Lord, but we have to prevail in prayer to be able to sit still and to wait on him. We must strive to be still and wait for God until we have established communication with him. I found that it takes a while to just sit there and, and just, or, or wherever you are to just feel like, okay, I'm in his presence. It's me that has to get in his presence. He's there, but he's saying, okay, I'm waiting for you. And so I have to prevail to be still. We must be silent and shut every other thought and distraction out that is around us. We must not talk to him, but contemplate on him and therefore draw near to him. James 4, 8, draw near to God and he will, that's a promise, draw near to you. And then it goes on to say, cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded. I remember times when I would be, okay, I'm going to pray. I'm going to pray for like an hour. But then I had my little notes because you think of all these things and I think, okay, I can't forget that. So go back to pray. Oh, I can't forget that either. And then I thought, what am I doing? I'm writing notes the whole time about doing the laundry or picking up the kids. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Don't be thinking about anything else when we're praying. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up. Gil McDonnell says disengagement means silence before God. It is a time of heavenly discussion during which we listen more than we speak and silence demands solitude. We need to be alone. We need to be quiet. We need to turn the phone, everything off. Maybe we can't be at home. Maybe we have to go out somewhere because the home distracts us. Jesus said to his disciples many times, and I just wrote down Mark 6, 31, come aside by yourselves to a deserted place and rest a while. But the multitudes were following after him. So I thought that was an interesting thing. They were following after him and he ended up feeding the 5,000 plus and taking care of all these people. And then they got on a ship and then he came, a boat, and then he came walking to them. So it was quite a while before they came alone to rest and be alone with the Lord. But he calls us. Yes, I know the multitudes are there. I know you have to take care of them, but take time out. Don't forget. We must persevere and persist and be in still before our God. That is to prevail in prayer, I have found. I remember one time, not too long ago, I was going through a very, very difficult situation. Every situation, I think this is worse than the abuse. I always think it's worse than anything I went through. And I was telling the Lord, I can't deal with it. I really could not. And I told Raul, he wanted to go motorcycle riding. I said, go. I ride a Harley with him. So I said, just go. I'm not going because I'm going to be still with the Lord. And so I was sitting there and I couldn't even be still. I could not still my heart. I was crying. I was weeping. I was saying, this isn't fair, Lord. You can't be doing this to me. You can't letting this happen to me. And I was reminding him, I already went through this. And I named all the things. And I did it great, didn't I? You were with me. We came through. Can I not go through this one? And I couldn't be still. So I called Raul. I said, Raul, come and get me. And he said, okay. He came right back. He picked me up and I got on the Harley and I thought, might as well ride because I can't be still with God. And in his spirit, he sensed it, I guess, because he took me up to this high mountain, never said a word. He got off the Harley, he parked it and we just sat down and he never said a word. He just stood there and I was just sitting there. And all of a sudden I realized I was surrounded by snow-capped mountains. It's just right here in Southern California. And the Lord just said to me, as the mountains are around Jerusalem, so the Lord is all around his people. He didn't say, I'm going to take it away. He changed my mind. He said, I am around you, totally surrounded. I am beautiful. I am white as snow. I am perfect. I am yours. And I said, Lord, if you're going to take this away from me, take it. I'll be yours and you'll be mine. And that's it. And it was great. And he didn't take it away. He gave it back to me, but it was all about letting him be first, letting, and him telling me, I am, I'm around you. Psalm 62 5, my soul waits silently for God alone. He's talking to himself, wait silently for God alone, not for anything else. For my expectation is from him and him alone. If you've heard me throughout the years, you know, I teach that over and over again. And I want to tell you something. I'm falling more in love with my husband as, as I go along. I don't focus on this crazy man that I'm married to. I focus on God and he fills me more and more with his divine love. I mean, I always loved him, but I love him more and more. So it's just my expectation for everything is from him. Psalm 46 10, be still and know that I am God. We all know that one. Psalm 25 4 and 5. Look at the, look at the prayer first. Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths, lead me in your truth and teach me for you are the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait. How long? All day long. Isn't that cool? This excites me. How are we doing with time? Psalm 27 14, wait on the Lord, be of good courage and he will strengthen your heart. Wait. I love that second. Wait, just wait. Okay. Just wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. He'll strengthen your heart. Now this is one of my favorite ones are getting better. Prayer is consecrating oneself to God. It takes a prevailing and prayer to consecrate our lives to God. Leviticus 27, eight. The Lord said to the people, sanctify yourselves therefore and be holy for I am the Lord, your God. And he also said, be holy for I am holy. Now that's impossible, isn't it? I can't be holy the way God is. I'm always having bad thoughts. I've been having bad thoughts this weekend even. I mean, you just get these little picky things and I'm just going to take them out. They're like bugs. They're like spiderwebs in my head. I don't want that unholiness in me anymore. I hate it. You know, you think, how can you still be a pastor's wife so many years and love Jesus and be in the Bible and be in prayer and have bad thoughts and you know, evil comes into my mind, little spiderwebs. Sanctify yourselves. Well, great. How do I do that? And be holy. I am the Lord, your God. And ye shall keep my statutes and do them. But then he gives you the answer. I am the Lord, which sanctifies you. He always asks us to do these impossible situations, but he does it. So then you say, okay, do it. I'll just sit here and you just watch me. And he sanctifies us. What is consecration? Check this out. You're going to walk out like this. Consecration is the voluntary dedication of oneself to God. A sacrificial offering of oneself to him made without any reservation whatsoever. And when I say that, I think of Joy Dawson. She would just say, it would be insane to not give yourself to God. It would be madness. It is the setting apart of all that we are, all that we have, all that we expect to have or ever be to God. What does all mean? Do I have to say that? Our children, our grandchildren, it's everything. Our husband, the ministry, those things that we want. It's all that we have. And if you don't know what it is, you'll know when it happens, when he says, I want that too. I didn't share last night because I was nervous trying to get my testimony done, that I took those letters, all the love letters of Raul and other boyfriends and even my girlfriends. They were just cute little letters. And I burned them. I said, you want these letters? You can have them. And I was like, and Raul, he said, I can't believe you threw away my Vietnam love letters to you. I said, oh, Raul, you weren't a Christian. You didn't even know what you were talking about. He's written me beautiful love letters since then. I keep those. It just means all. I'll never have those letters. It means all, but guess what? My mother-in-law, not too long ago, gave me a little box and it was filled with the letters I wrote to him, where I was telling him about Jesus. Isn't that amazing? He doesn't take things away that he doesn't give you back something so awesome. And I thought, wow, I was so young and I was preaching to this guy. It takes prevailing prayer to live a consecrated life into the Lord. We can't do it on our own. Romans 12, one and two. Paul says, I beseech you. I beg you therefore, sisters, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy. That means set apart for God's use. How much of you? All of you. Acceptable. That means pleasing to him, which is your reasonable service. And that means that's the only rational service because of what God has done for you. He has called you. He has set you apart. He has given you a ministry. He has given you back your children, maybe your husband. He's going to give you everything. If you haven't received it yet, it's coming girls. And don't be conformed. Don't be molded. Don't be molded into the way of dressing of today. I mean, I don't even want to get into that one. I mean, even the underwear is to show off your body. It is sick. It is disgusting. I am disgusted. I am absolutely disgusted. Do not be conformed. We might have to end up going to Walmart to buy all our clothes, girls. There's my friend in the back goes there. So I said that in front of her. Don't be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. And that comes through meditation and God's word and through asking him prevailing in prayer to change you. My parents have just gone into Lord, change me. Whatever you have to do. I don't say that so strong. It's like whatever you have to do because he's done it before. And sometimes it hurts by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what? What are you going to prove? The good, the perfect and the acceptable will of God. Isn't there anything more awesome than the good, the perfect and the acceptable will of God? Let's get out of the rut. Let's do. Let's consecrate our lives so that we can see the good and acceptable and the perfect will of God to be fully consecrated should be the highest goal of a Christian. Consecration is much more than a life of service. It's a life of personal holiness. Kay was a great preacher on holiness. She was always concerned that we live a holy life. It is God's divine standard of holy living. God's divine standard, not mine. It is not just giving of ourselves to the church and its work. It is a separation of oneself to God is devoting all that we are to God's sacred use. It is becoming a sacred utensil in God's house. Sacred. Isn't that heavy? I didn't write that girls. It is voluntary putting of oneself into God's hands to be used sacredly by with sanctifying ends and view. It is not so much to set oneself apart for sinful from sinful things. We think, well, I don't do that anymore. No, that's not it. That's sin. That's not setting my life apart for the Lord or setting apart our wicked ways. But it's a separation of self for holy use. The consecrated life separates itself from worldly, secular, and even legitimate things. Normal things, good things. Rolls letters were good things. He loved me. He thought I was fabulous. I liked reading about that, but they were coming in the way of my heavenly husband. If they come in conflict with God's plans, they have to be put on the altar. It is the devoting of oneself wholly to God. And that own specific use as we prevail in prayer and to the consecrated life, we will be led literally led by the Holy Spirit to devote ourselves and all that is precious to us to devote ourselves and all that we hold precious for holy ends for holy use in God's world and God's kingdom. Do you want to live a holy devoted life, a fully consecrated life? We must prevail in prayer for that. Prevailing in prayer makes consecrated people. Prayer is the one prominent source of the consecrated life. Isn't that amazing? Prayer is the one prominent source of the consecrated life. The effectual fervent prayer of the righteous man leads to the consecration of that man. It cannot reach any other destination. When you are praying to put your life on the altar, to be used for the Lord, he will do it in the most amazing ways. Consecration sets one apart to a life of habitual and effectual prayer. Consecration brings answers to prayer and God sends, he depends on consecrated men and women. And those are the ones he sends out to do his work. About a year ago, Raul and I were talking about this topic about just consecrating ourselves, not just living that normal pastor life of getting up and studying and teaching. We were kind of in a rut. And I told Raul, you know what, we need to start consecrating our lives more to the Lord. And he said, yeah, we do. And we thought, well, what else could we do? You know, we're praying, we're seeking the Lord, we're living our life. We were in the bedroom talking and we have these two little upholstered cubes at the foot of the bed that I just put them there because they're cute. They're really useless. You know, if you sit there, you're looking at a wall. But I said, well, why don't we just start kneeling at these cubes together and praying? And it just turned out to be the sweetest thing. We just, in the morning, we get up, we both kneel at a cube and we just pray for that day and consecrate our lives. Lord, use us today the way that you'd like. And that's just something new. It's little, but it's new. It's something different because Raul was always shy about praying in front of me. I wasn't because I grew up with everybody praying in front of everybody. But Raul was. So it's just a really special thing that now we do that little praying thing together. And God's doing amazing things in our lives and in our children's lives. And I believe that that is one, if not the main reason why he's doing it. The Bible says, 1 Corinthians 6, 19 through 20, you are not your own for you are bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in your body and spirit, which are God's. We belong to God. He breathed that spirit into this pile of dust, this flesh, and we became living souls. And when the spirit dies, we're going back to him. Our spirit does not belong to us. It belongs to him. He created us for himself. So we need to live for him. Prevailing in prayer and purity. Another topic I looked at, Psalm 66, 18, just a short thing. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened. William Carey said about this topic of purity and prevailing prayer. Prayer, secret, fervent, believing prayer lies at the root of all personal godliness. In order for us to live holy lives, we have to have that secret, fervent, believing prayer where we're asking God, show me something about myself that isn't right with you. John Bunyan, prayer will make a man cease from sin or sin will entice a man to cease from prayer. John Wesley, the neglect of prayer is a grand hindrance to holiness. Now prayer and intercession, and I know we had a class on intercession, so I'm just going to touch a little bit on that. Intercession is when you pray for others, your family, your friends, your enemies, lost souls around the world, countries, governments. You know, sometimes we pray, Lord, give me forgiveness for this person. And the Lord gives us forgiveness because he shows us that he died on the cross and he forgave them. But the Lord has taught me to go another step, to just pray for them, for their well-being, that God will bless them, that God will use them. And that's, you know, it's easier, I found, to forgive them. Okay, I forgive them because they're sinners. Jesus died on the cross. They're clans. They're sinners, but God forgave them. They're sinners. You know, there's kind of like an evil in that. But Lord, bless them and use them mightily. That's getting into intercession. We need to be praying for countries, for governments. It is to willfully stand in the gap between that person who may not be able to pray for themselves because they're a heathen or they're blinded or they're deceived. Or stand between a situation that you're in and God. You're standing between the two. And you're saying, okay, wait, God, I'm praying for this person. You're standing between the two. You're interceding. That's what it means. You're coming between. You're standing in the gap for that person. And you're prevailing in prayer for them until not your will, but God's perfect will is accomplished in their life. Intercessory prayer is powerful, but it's difficult. It doesn't seem natural to sit there and pray over and over for the same situation. It just seems like, okay, I already did it once. God is God. He heard me. I don't need to keep doing this. But God wants us to intercede. He wants us to talk to him. He wants us to go to battle for people. And sometimes we're praying for people that we cannot see or we don't know. And we can't see God either. So we're just kind of alone praying for this person that we may not even know somewhere in the world that the Lord impresses us to pray for. And we're praying to a God who we can't see. And so it really takes prevailing in prayer. Intercessory prayer, though, has no boundaries. It can go where nothing else can go. We used to say it can go behind the iron curtain, but that's over. And it did go behind the iron curtain. It can go to islands, into prisons. It can go anywhere. It cannot be stopped. It cannot be imprisoned or prevented in any way. Prayer is limitless. I started praying years ago that the Lord would use me to minister to the guerrilla. Those are the guerrilla warriors in Colombia. And I was young when I prayed that way. You know, you're fearless when you're young. Lord, I'd like to encounter some guerrilla and be able to give them the gospel. Well, I've never encountered one, although Hallie did. But the Lord, just in this last month, we got a call from a pastor in a very heavy area in Colombia where it's just, I've never even gone because it's so dangerous there. There's so many guerrilla warriors. And he has been ministering to the guerrilla. And many of them are in prison. And he's been ministering to 270 or 90 prisoners. And he just called us and told us that the homework that we wrote on the infinite God in the women's studies is going to be used to put them through Bible school. It's on the character of God to put 190 guys in a prison. They're guerrilla warriors. I'm getting to minister to them. Not only me, the women that helped us write this and who prayed, we're getting to minister to them, although we don't even know them, through those homeworks that we're sending and our offerings that we're sending to buy the homeworks so that they can have that. And it's a longer story than that. The government has now asked this pastor to not only do it in this one prison, but to do it in every major prison in Colombia. And I thought, let's get the homework down there, girls. When we write homework, we don't just think of our little group of women and they know it. We're writing with the outermost parts in view. So our homework is down there. And I was thinking, we need to update it. I start getting all nervous about things like that. But these guys are going to be trained. They're stuck. They're in prison. And prayer goes behind. They can't go anywhere, so they might as well do homework. When we pray for others, we get a special blessing for ourselves. We join the great intercessor in praying for the world's needs. That is to do spiritual warfare. The Apostle Paul teaches us to prevail in prayer and against Satan in Ephesians 6. And I'm not going to read it through because you know it, except for a few scriptures. He says, be strong in the Lord and the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the enemy. Because we're not wrestling against flesh and blood, those problems we have with our sisters and our brothers. It's not our sisters and our brothers. It's against principalities. It's against powers. It's against rulers of darkness of this age. It's against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places. I am so glad I don't have to see them face on. I mean, I just saw those little demons in the passion and that was enough for me. But you know, we don't see God, we pray by faith. But praise God, we don't see the demons. And then after he tells you how to put on that whole armor of God, and I'm not skipping over it because it's not important, but because we don't have time, but he goes into intercession. He says, praying always after you've put on the whole armor of God with all prayer and supplication in the spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance. There's those words, that persevering prayer and supplication, that travailing in prayer for all the saints, he says. And then I love this, and for me. Isn't that cute? He says for all the saints, but he says, wait a minute, if they're going to go through all this, putting on all this armor and praying always in supplication, and for me, that utterance may be given to me. And I ask you to pray that for me. I feel impressed to tell you to do that. And for me, that utterance may be given to me that I may open my mouth boldly. This is what I want you to pray and make to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I'm an ambassador in chains. And in it, that in it, I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. And you know what? I'm going to ask you to do another thing. Pray for all those prisoners. That prayer. Is that too cool? Let's start with that. Good. This is good. Okay. We're going to pray for all those prisoners. I thought of it when I read the chain part. They're in chains that they'll be able to speak the word boldly because one of the big problems that Lutro has, that's the pastor, you can pray for him, is that they want him to train all these guys in prison, but he doesn't have the manpower because the guys that are helping him are 20 guys who just went through the scriptures with him. And when they had fights in prison, they were praying while the other guys were fighting. And that's why it was because of their witness that now they want this homework done in all the prisons in Columbia. So we need to pray for these 20 little guys that God will give them, give them this boldness and teach them the mysteries of the gospel. Because he says, what if they teach something wrong? Because they have to meet with the different guys in the different cells. And I told him, just tell him not to say anything, just to do the homework and not talk till they learn. But no, I was just kidding. Because I remember when Raul first got saved, he just knew very little, but he just kept preaching and people kept getting saved. So it's going to be neat to see what happens. Billy Graham said, we have so many battles going on in America today that we should be a people of prayer. Our government needs prayer, our leaders need prayer, our schools need prayer, our youth need prayer, and our families need prayer. And I'm sure he wrote this quite a while back, but boy, is this alive today? Spiritual warfare, and we're talking about spiritual warfare. Intercessor prayer, I put it with spiritual, we're going into a little bit of spiritual warfare. Just getting into prayer is a huge battle. First of all, we war with the weaknesses of our flesh. Oh, I'm too tired. I'll do it tomorrow. Then we were with the devil who convinces us, you're just wasting your time. What you need to do is plan, organize, work, hurry, and worry. The enemy uses all his power to lead, to lead the Christians, and above all, the minister, to neglect prayer. So our biggest warfare in prevailing in prayer isn't so much the prevailing in the prayer, it's getting past our flesh and Satan. Once we can get past the flesh door and the Satan door, then we can, prevailing in prayer is really not, it's easy. Once you can just get into the presence of God, and I will not do what my flesh says, and I won't answer phone calls, and I won't write little notes, then it just gets delightful. It is awesome because you are just in there with the Lord. The enemy uses all his power to lead. I already read that. Billy Graham said, we should not pray for God to be on our side. We do that, don't we? But pray that we would be on God's side, that we would understand what in the world are you doing? I want to be on your side. Amy Carmichael says, we must learn to pray far more for spiritual victory than for protection from battle wounds. That's pretty mature praying instead of, I'm being hurt. Just who cares if I'm hurt? Put a bandaid over it. The other day, I have two little granddaughters now. They're so, so cute. I won't even get into that topic, but I have the pictures with me. And the other day, the little one, two and a half, she says, Grandma, I need a bandaid. And I said, oh honey, just let me pray. No, Grandma, I need a bandaid. And I'm thinking, she wants a bandaid and not prayer? She says, no, Grandma, don't pray. First the bandaid. And I said, well, I'm going to tell you something, Skylar, as I'm putting the bandaid on her toe, which I had nothing wrong with it. I said, God is the biggest bandaid you will ever have. She just looked at me and I said, when you have an owie, you just put God over it. He's the big bandaid. And all day she kept saying, God's the big bandaid, Grandma? He is the big bandaid. God uses everything. So we must pray for spiritual victory rather than so much for protection against our wounds. We will be wounded. We will be hurt when we go to battle. That's what a true warrior is. They get wounded in battle. It's good. It's healthy because God heals us. This triumph is not deliverance from, Amy Carmichael says, from, but victory in trial and that not intermittent, but perpetual. Francis Thompson says, prayer is the sword of the saints. Love that one. Evelyn Christensen says, prayer is our means of involving the omnipotent God of the universe in our personal battle with Satan. And Ian Bounds, I've never done a study where I had so many quotes, but these are the prayer warriors. Ian Bounds said, to have prayed well is to have fought well. Isn't that awesome? What if all we did was pray? And you know, I'm starting to get into that room where I've prayed for a battle and never left the bedroom. And the battle was one where before I felt like I had to go out and talk and meet with people and work it out. And it doesn't work. Pastor Romaine told me years ago, don't talk to your enemy because you just give them more ammunition. Just talk to God. Charles Spurgeon says, prayer is the shout of the fighting believer. That's a good one. I wouldn't even think of that. The shout, let's pray. And then in closing, some who prevailed in prayer. And of course, I'm sure that, you know, being women of God who came in to hear about prayer, you know, you've already in your mind, you already have ideas and you're thinking of people of the Bible, but I just wrote some. The great moments of God have had their origin through prayer, prevailing prayer. They have been energized and shaped to the prayers of men and women. Moses, he prevailed in prayer on Mount Sinai before he could lead the children through the wilderness. Just one little guy who said, I can't even talk. Jacob wrestled with the Lord in prayer all night and was changed from Jacob's replanter to Israel, a prince who has power with God and with man. I remember thinking about that one time, how the angel grabbed his side and then he always limped. And I told the Lord, Lord, is that what it's going to take for me to become a woman of prayers? I'm going to have to have a limp. And I think we're getting there. I'm having a lot of limps. Daniel prevailed in prayer and God revealed the secrets of King Nebuchadnezzar's dream. And God shut the mouth of lions. Usually we like that part, the mouth of lions, but I mean, God used them to reveal secrets. Nehemiah prevailed in prayer and he built the walls of Jerusalem. I mean, if you've been in Jerusalem, those walls are huge. And for one little cub bear of the King to say, to just get up one day and build the walls, God can do incredible things with one little woman. And you could just be sitting in your bedroom praying and God could be moving. Hannah prevailed in prayer and received the strength to give birth to a prophet of God. Elijah was a man with nature like ours. I like that one. And he prayed earnestly that it would not rain. And it did not rain on the land for three years and six months. And he prayed again and the heaven gave rain and the earth produced fruit. James 5, 17. D.L. Moody said about Luther and his companions that they were men of mighty pleading with God. Wouldn't you love somebody to write that about you? I don't want anything ever said about me except from now on that I was a woman of prayer. Mighty pleading with God and they broke the spell of the ages, the darkness. I've been studying the life of Martin Luther. There wasn't even a Bible in sight. And he went to a library and he found this Bible chained to the library and he started reading it. And he found out that in the Bible, it said that just shall live by faith. And he was doing all this penance to the Lord, to God. He'd pray and pray, but it was, it wasn't worth anything because he was, he was doing all this penance and prayers to become good. And God had offered his son and he could live by faith in his son. And they broke the spell of the ages. Luther, one guy, one little monk and his companions. And they laid nations subdued at the foot of the cross. Wouldn't you like to do that with your women's ministry or, or your friends or your husband to break the spell of, of a country or a city or a town? John Knox grasped all of Scotland. I don't know why I'm praying for that. I don't know why I'm emotional about that, but it made me emotional. Okay. Maybe there's something spiritual involved there. God Knox grasped all of Scotland in his strong arms of faith and his prayers, terrified tyrants. Let's pray right now. I don't know why I'm sensing this. Lord, we pray for Scotland right now. Lord, I do know that there is a lot of evil prevailing in Scotland and that the pastors there have asked that people would come and help them. Lord, we pray that through the prayer of this group of women right now, you would grasp Scotland in your hands and those people would turn to you and that you would use these pastors that are pleading for people to come to turn Scotland upside down for you. We believe that you have heard our prayer and you will move because you said that the prayer of the just availeth much in Jesus name. Amen. Wow. That is cool. Whitefield, after much bold, faithful closet pleading, went to the devil's playground and took more than a thousand soul out of the paws of the lion in one day. So in conclusion, when we prevail in prayer, there is no conclusion to this. I'm happy if I teach this topic every year. I have enough books and the Bible and I need to practice praying this year. When we prevail in prayer together as the body of Christ in one accord to our father in heaven in the name of Jesus with a direction and empowerment of the Holy Spirit, our lives will begin to change. Our children will be converted and submit their lives to Jesus. Our churches will flourish spiritually. Things will change when we physically get on our faces before God in earnest prayer. And I'll close with Martin because I'm obsessed with him right now. We know that our defense lies in prayer alone. He said, we are too weak to resist the devil and his servants. Let us hold fast to the weapons of the Christian. Our enemies may mock at us, but we shall defy them in the devil as we continue steadfast in prayer. Can't you just hear him saying that? That's awesome. God bless you.