George Verwer emphasizes the power of prayer as a vital weapon in spiritual warfare, urging believers to engage deeply in personal and communal prayer. He recounts the story of a devoted woman who prayed for 17 years for a high school, illustrating how her faith and intercession led to significant spiritual impact. Verwer stresses that prayer must be motivated by love and sincerity, warning against the dangers of seeking human recognition in prayer. He encourages listeners to cultivate a genuine prayer life, focusing on God's glory rather than personal accolades, and to recognize the urgency of prayer in fulfilling the Great Commission. Ultimately, he calls for a return to the foundational practice of prayer as the means to achieve God's purposes in the world.

Number two, the subject of this session is the solution for our weapons, prayer. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee that Thou has called us into a warfare and that Thou has given us weapons, weapons that are not carnal, but that are mighty unto God, unto the pulling down of strongholds. And we pray this morning, O God, that Thou would move in our hearts. We pray that Thou would cause us to seek Thy face, to draw nigh unto Thee, to learn of Thee. We pray, God, that You'd enable each one of us to learn how to use this tremendous weapon of prayer, that we might tear down the strongholds of the enemy and that we might move in and possess the land. Lead us now in this time together that we might be prepared for the tremendous battle that lies ahead. Yea, Lord, even the tremendous battles that we are within or engaged in right now, for we ask it in Jesus' name, amen. Now in the next three orientation sessions, we will be discussing the weapons of our warfare. We will be discussing mainly the weapons of prayer and the word. And then in our fourth session, we will have the all-important message on the motivation for using these weapons, the motivation for going forth into the war, the motivation for living for Jesus Christ, the motivation that is so important when we think of doing the various things that will be suggested to us in today's session. And the motivation, of course, is love. I mention it here because love also can be referred to as a weapon in the warfare. And one of our greatest weapons in the warfare against the powers of darkness is Calvary love. As we love one another, and there is no weapon more powerful than love. And prayer without love is nothing. And even a study of the word of God and a use of the word of God without love means relatively little. And so, let us keep that in mind as we go into the next three sessions. Today we shall look at what the word of God says on the subject of prayer in the Gospels and in the Book of Acts. Next week, we shall discuss the weapon of our warfare, the word, the Bible, how it is the word of God and how it can be used to stop the fiery onslaughts of the evil one. And then after that, we shall have another session on this great mighty weapon of prayer and look and see what the epistles teach concerning prayer. As we think on the subject of prayer, it's extremely important to remember the fact that this movement was born in prayer. For some of you who have perhaps not heard how this whole thing began, I want to just briefly tell the story. Across from Ramsey High School in Ramsey, New Jersey, there lived a dear old lady who believed in the power of prayer. She believed that God answered prayer. She believed that through prayer, territory could be won. Some people might say, how could a woman, how could an old woman ever be effective in shaking a high school or what is known in England as a grammar school for Jesus Christ? How can an old lady ever affect or ever make an impact upon the young people of this age group who are out seeking thrills and good times, who are out racing their cars up and down the highways, who are interested more than anything else in girls and money, good times, and all the rest? How can an old lady ever affect or ever make an impact upon a place such as this? But this woman believed in the power of prayer, and so she prayed. She prayed more than 17 years for that school. She prayed not only that God would save souls in that school, but she prayed that young people would be sent out from that school to the ends of the earth. She cried unto God that missionaries would be raised up out of that school. Now that's quite a radical prayer. She wasn't praying for a Bible school. She wasn't praying that missionaries might be called out of a Christian college. She was praying that out of that heathen grammar school, out of that heathen high school, God might raise up young many women and send them out to the ends of the earth. And year after year she prayed, and year after year it seemed that things got worse at the school. And sin abounded, and drunkenness abounded, and all kinds of other things that we don't want to talk about here. It was when I was 14 or 15 years old that I first entered that school. One of the first persons that made an impact on my life was the son, the young son of this woman who was living for Christ on the campus, and I couldn't understand him. His life, the way he talked, the way he walked, his vocabulary was clean. His thoughts were clean. He carried a Bible with him. This I could not understand. But at the end of my first year, this young man sent me a Gospel of John. Little did I know, little did I know that this woman was praying that God would mightily use that Gospel of John. Little did I know that she had been praying for me in other ways. She had seen me and heard about me on various occasions, and God had put me specifically on her heart to pray for me. It wasn't actually her son who sent me the Gospel of John, but it was she who sent it. And as she sent it, she prayed that God would use it for the salvation of my soul. Two and a half years passed after I received that Gospel, but I could never put it down. Her prayers seemed to push me into the Word of God. I'd come home from a nightclub at five in the morning, and I'd feel impelled to read one or two verses of Scripture. And after two and a half years of reading that little Gospel of John, I became convinced that it contained the truth. And then it was climaxed at a Billy Graham meeting in New York City, when I realized more than ever before that I was without hope and without God, and I gave my life to Christ. And then things began to happen. Back in the high school, we had a crusade to give out Gospels of John, and young people came to Christ. We had a large evangelistic rally, when 125 young people came streaming down the aisle to make their decision for Jesus Christ. And then I went off to college, and there I met some others of like mind. There I met Dale, and God united our hearts together. And it was there, at an ungodly college, or in England what's known as a university, God began to move and to speak, and brought the vision concerning Mexico. And pretty soon we found ourselves in Mexico, and pretty soon we found stores being opened in Mexico. And the story of what God did is a miracle. The tons of pieces of literature, the seven bookstores, the radio broadcast, the national workers who've been faithful down over the years, the souls that came to Jesus Christ as we preached the Gospel from our sound truck, to hundreds of braceros, or men lined up to work in America. Dozens of them came to Jesus Christ. And the stories one could tell about Mexico, how hundreds of churches were mobilized in that country-wide crusade. It's all a miracle. And as we talk about it, and as we talk about later what God did in Spain, and then what God has done this past summer in Operation Mobilization, and as we think of the millions of souls that have been reached, as we think of the hundreds who have come to Jesus Christ, we need to stop, and we need to go back to that dear woman who interceded for 17 years for one ungodly school. We need to go back to that dear woman, bent before her bed at night in intercession, that God might shape that school and send young men and women from there to the ends of the earth. I want to ask you, did God answer her prayer? Did God hear her cries? Of course He did. And every time we move forward another mile in this work, every time we move into another land, every time we reach another million souls, every time another soul comes to Jesus Christ, the bells of heaven ring. And it's because this woman years ago believed that God wanted to ring them. Oh, might each one of us learn a lesson from the woman who was used to bring this work into being. It wasn't me. It wasn't a young man who had a lot of zeal and a lot of fire who was converted to an evangelistic meaning and then went out from there to shape the world. It was a dear saint of God who believed in the promises of the Word, who believed that God was a miracle-working God and that He would and could do the impossible, even through a weak, frail vessel as herself. Let this be a lesson to us. Let this be a warning to us that unless this movement stays as a movement of God through prayer, it will end up as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals. Now let us look into the Word of God, starting in the book of Matthew, and let's see some of the things that Jesus Christ did and said concerning prayer. Let us first of all look at Matthew, the 6th chapter and the 5th verse. Matthew 6, verse 5. Now it's impossible to cover all of the references in the Gospels concerning prayer, and we're not going to even take time to read them off. But we trust that you'll take time to look into a concordance and to copy down the verses on prayer, or better yet, to go through Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts and underline or circle or mark in your Bible each verse that talks about prayer. Now here we see in Matthew 6, verse 5, these words. And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the street, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, they have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into the closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy Father which is in secret, and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions as they need and do, for they think they shall be heard for their much speaking. And then it goes on to give us the famous Lord's Prayer, the Prayer of Jesus. It might be better named the Disciple's Prayer, for it was the prayer he told them to pray. Now here we have some very strong words. God tells us that we're not to be as the hypocrites who pray to be seen of men. Now I trust we'll get this, because if we miss this, everything else is of no value. And that is the fact that motivation in prayer is the first and the most important thing in really getting through to God. Motivation. In John 5.44, Jesus Christ tells the people why they couldn't believe. He says, How can ye believe which seek honor one of another, and not the honor that cometh from God alone? How can ye believe which seek honor one of another? And if our praying leads us into seeking the honor of men, the ear of men, the eyes of men, it will not be of faith, and therefore we will not be able to believe, and therefore the prayer will be of little value. And one of the biggest things in prayer, one of the biggest dangers in prayer is showmanship. That's why some of you pray so well when you're in a group, but your private prayer life isn't too good. And all this is a rebuke to me. Oh my, how I bend when I read these words about getting into the closet in prayer. And I believe that this is telling us in a real way that the first thing in prayer, the most important prayer is the prayer between you and God alone in your closet. I believe in group prayer. I believe in praying two by two. The word of God clearly teaches it, and we'll see that as we go through the Bible. But unless we're carrying an individual prayer life with God, unless we're meeting God daily in the closet in communion in prayer, I believe it's a proof that we've found little reality in prayer. How about it? It's all right to talk about it. It's all right to tell how God used this woman who prayed. It's all right to tell how God has wrought miracles because of the nights of prayer and because God has taught us a little bit of prayer. But who is your prayer life right now? Maybe you've heard our sessions on prayer four and five times. Maybe you've been to Mexico three times. Maybe you've been to Europe. But how much power are you seeing manifest today through prayer? How many answers to prayer have you seen this week? Has God given you a soul this week in answer to prayer? Has God given you a blessing in answer to prayer this week, this day? Not ten years ago. Let's not talk about what God did six years ago in Mexico. Let's not think about what God did this past summer. Praise Him for it. We need to rejoice over it. We need to thank Him for it. One of the big mistakes in prayer, one of the things that proves the superficiality of our prayer life, is that we pray so much for something and then when it comes we forget about it. But we need to praise and thank God as much as we pray. In fact, more. Many times for something we only need to pray once and believe and that settles it. But when it takes place we need to praise Him for all of eternity for it. And so we want to praise God for what He's done. But let's not look back at past accomplishments. Let's not talk about Mexico in 1958. Let's not talk about Europe 1963. What about 64 and 65? What about this Christmas? What about this summer? This is the real thing we need to go to prayer about now. And the fact that we've had perfect prayer meetings in the past and the fact that we have had nights of prayer in the past in which God has moved upon us, in which God has broken us and poured out His Spirit upon us, gives us no guarantee that it's going to be that way tomorrow. O mighty one of us, take the word of Jesus seriously. Let us not be as the hypocrite seeking the honor of men, but let us withdraw into our closets of prayer seeking the honor of God alone. I could speak for hours on this subject of not seeking the honor of men. It's the thing that's crippling us, this thing of status seeking, this thing of desiring to be recognized, desiring to be in the limelight, desiring for people to pat us on the back, desiring for people to recognize us as dedicated or as good preachers or as good literature distributors or whatever it is. But might we abandon it all? Might we leave it all and cling to Jesus, seeking the honor of God alone, seeking the well done of God alone, seeking recognition from God alone? Of course psychologically we need recognition. Emotionally we need love. Emotionally we need to be recognized. We need to be honored. We can't live without it. But let's get all our honor from God. Let's get all our recognition from God. Let's get all that we need psychologically and emotionally and physically, let's get it all from God. As we come to prayer seeking the honor of God, as we come to prayer seeking the glory of God, seeking to praise God, oh might we get the vision of saturating our prayer with praise. It's a praising heart that can believe God in prayer for great things. Remember that. Write it down. It's a praising heart that can believe God in prayer for great things. Read the Psalms. Oh my, when you get in your prayer meetings, make them sessions of praise. Read the Psalms together. Praise Him for His mighty acts. Praise Him for His mercy and His love. Praise Him for the creation. Praise Him for all that He is. Praise Him for His attributes. Praise Him for His works to the children of men. And as you praise Him, and as you take time out to praise Him and thank Him and worship Him, you'll find that your faith will build up, your fire will increase, and then you'll be able to believe in for great and mighty things. Better it is to spend 20 minutes of praise and 5 minutes in prayer and see something happen than spend 25 minutes in prayer only to twist our Protestant rosary chains and go through our evangelical prayer wheels. Oh might God deliver us as Jesus exhorts us here of vain repetitions. Going through the same old prayers. And it's just a form of godliness and it denies the power thereof. So when we go to prayer we need to believe that God is going to work. Oh so flippantly we get up before our classroom session. So flippantly we get up here and there and say oh let's have a word of prayer. And we bow our heads and no one's listening. Half the people are thinking about something else. And we put prayer into our life as sort of a little extra. It's sort of like a little good luck charm. You want to tag it down and hang it on the table before you eat. And you want to have it before you have your little session there in the classroom. And wherever we go we want to say well let's have a word of prayer. And we pray for 5 minutes and it means nothing half the time because it's superficial. Our heart isn't in it. We are really thankful. We are really gripped by what God has done and what he will do. We get in a classroom and we pray now Lord bless. Now Lord teach us. Now Lord do great things here. But do we really believe that he will? Do we really believe that there in that classroom where we're going to open maybe a book of the Bible to study it. Or we're going to do this or we're going to do that. Do we really believe that God is going to move? And if we don't then what's the purpose of the prayer? Prayer isn't a good luck charm. Don't we hang on the beginning and the end of everything we do in order to keep it just so. Oh my God deliver us from vain repetition. Now don't start judging people. When you see someone who doesn't seem to be praying very fervently and when you see someone pray what seems like a superficial prayer don't start judging them. There's always a danger after hearing these sessions. There's always a danger after becoming gripped with the reality of the word of God to move into the realm of judging, into the realm of criticism, into the realm of Phariseeism. Beware at your school, at your university, at your Bible college, wherever you're listening to my voice I want to warn you. Beware of Phariseeism. You can move out of Phariseeism in one realm, maybe in the realm of prayer only to walk and plunge right into it in another realm of judging other people's prayer lives. Beware, God looks at the heart. You can only see the outward appearance. What might have seemed to be a superficial prayer, what might even seem to be a non-biblical prayer might be very close to the heart of God because God sees the heart. That's why I'm thrilled when I hear a new babe in Christ stumbling along in prayer. And I hear young people at times they pray in their prayers and our prayer meeting is something that isn't very theologically sound and you're going to have this at your prayer meetings. Someone will come forward with a prayer that maybe you don't think is very biblical. Don't let it upset you, don't let it get you all worried but commit it to God and let love, remember this in your praying, let love cover a multitude of sins. And if you think it's a serious error and you feel that someone needs to be corrected the word of God says you're to go to him alone in gentleness and meekness and long-suffering and you're to talk to him alone. This is the pattern. When you have problems there in your group, wherever you are, you're not to make a public display of them, you're not to blast them out over the campus or over the place where you're meeting but you're to go to that person individually in gentleness and meekness and love and if you can't go in love, don't go because all you'll do is cause trouble. If you can't go in meekness and lowliness of mind, don't go. This is the way we straighten out our difficulties and then with that person the first thing to do is to pray how we need to pray with one another. This will be the backbone of the coming thrusts into the Muslim world, into England, into Europe, into Mexico, meeting together in prayer and I believe meeting two by two is more important than meeting in groups just as meeting God alone is more important than meeting two by two. And so let us get together whenever we can with individuals. When the work was growing rapidly at Moody Bible Institute we used to pair off in partners and some of us used to have several partners and meet at various times for prayer and this was one of the greatest causes of unity and it was a thrill to me to be able to meet with all the different people going on the crusades individually in prayer. Find someone near you who is like-minded and get together with them in prayer. Find someone where you work and get together with them in prayer. Share what God is doing and pray together. Let's have less discussion sessions and more prayer sessions. How much better it is to get together and pray and believe God for great things than to just get together and argue over doctrinal differences and split hairs over controversial Bible verses. Oh might God cause us to put first things first in these days. Might God bring us into grips with reality that there's no time for secondary matters. We're entered into a warfare. The weapon of our warfare is prayer and we cannot lose precious fighting time in non-essentials, in secondary matters and that's the big problem with many of our lives. It's not that we're involved in doing a lot of evil things it's that many secondary matters have crept into our life and they're at school and they're at work and they're at home. Secondary issues, good things but things that no real soldier would be involved in and there's lots of good activities on your campus. There's lots of good activities wherever you are but let's beware of the good activities and let's get engaged in that best activity of worship to God, of praising God and of entering into a life of prayer and I'll tell you if you don't enter into this life if you aren't willing to enroll in this school if you aren't willing to by faith even now say God I want to enter the school of prayer I want to enter the closet of prayer I want to learn to pray. If you're not willing to do that I beg of you not to go to Mexico I beg of you not to come on Operation Mobilization I beg of you not to think about any of these crusades because it's prayerlessness that brings disunity it's prayerlessness that allows unloving spirits to come in it's prayerlessness that leads to all kinds of problems and difficulties and unless we're willing to learn the life of prayer unless we're willing to just forget about talking about it and start doing it we're not going to see victory in the coming years oh my God grant it let's turn on now our time is passing let's look at Matthew 9 many of us think about the missionary task of the world and we want to be engaged in it we want to be doing God's will to reach lost souls and some of us think it means joining a missionary society some of us think it means going here or there but I'll tell you if you want to carry out the supreme task of evangelizing the world you better obey the commission that came before the so-called great commission and this one's even greater here it is looking at the Lord Jesus in the ninth chapter of Matthew we see him going forth through every city and village verse 35 teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom and healing every sickness and every disease among the people but when he saw the multitudes he was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd then said he unto his disciples the harvest truly is plenteous but the laborers are few the situation is tragic the amount of missionaries in the world today is shocking when you realize that there's more prostitutes in Paris Amsterdam and London than there are missionaries evangelical missionaries in all the world you just realize just what the situation is when you realize that perhaps at any one time there's only around 20 to 25,000 evangelical missionaries on the field with another 10,000 or so on furlong you realize just how few there are and there's some areas in the world where there are no missionaries where there are no churches for thousands of miles the situation is pitiful do we have to talk about it again? do we have to talk again about the 50% of the world who's never even received their first gospel tract? do we have to refer to Turkey again? where there's probably less than 25 born again Turks real Turks, old as Greek Christians but among the Turks there's probably less than 25 that are born again and baptized oh might God open our eyes and might we realize the harvest is plenteous and then might we fall down as the dear lady who brought this work into being fell down and believe God and believe God for great and mighty things in sending forth laborers into the harvest maybe you can't go to Mexico maybe you can't go to Europe but you can send others you can pray for others and I haven't up to now been able to get over to the Muslim world